A couple of months ago, we gained a family member..."Ariel" the (male) Beta. Ariel was a get-well/you-did-great gift from Auntie and Great-Gram after CiBaby's Dental Extravaganza. At first, CiBaby was really into Ariel, always wanting to watch him swim around...but he was soon forgotten. So as Mom, I took over the daily duty of feeding the fish.
Comfortable in his new home, Ariel would swim excitedly (T-Daddy can attest to this) around when we came anywhere near his bowl (which is actually a vase, but whatever) which is in the kitchen, so it's a lot. Anyway, last weekend we went away for a small trip, G-Mama and Bopa took care of Ariel and Jaz. I was a little nervous as no one was around to supervise the curious cat, nor was there a lid for the fish's abode. To our relief, all was well...until...
We arrived home Monday evening, Tuesday went well, until all of a sudden...CiBaby takes a HUGE interest in feeding the fish, by herself.
CiBaby: "Mama! I fed the fish!"
Me: "Aaah okay. How much did you feed it?"
No response.
I go over to the bowl and there are numerous pellets floating on the surface of the water. More than the fish needs, but not an insane amount. Making a mental note to clean the fish's bowl the next morning I go off to work for a late shift. During this time T-Daddy texts me, which I don't receive until after midnight...
T-Daddy: "The fish is dead! Probably over fed it."
What?! Now I know this is just a little fish and who knows how long they all live, but I felt terrible! Then I started to think about what did T-Daddy do with the fish? Did he explain to CiBaby about how animals die? Did he say anything at all? Did he flush the fish down the toilet? Did he leave it for me to do? What if the fish wasn't dead and he flushed it by accident???! This was all running through my head as I drove home from work.
When I got home I immediately walked over to where the bowl was to see a fish...swimming around! While it's belly did look slightly distended and his color was off, he was alive. At that point, I changed the water in the bowl (first step of detoxing the fish!), then went to bed. In the morning I finally responded to the text message that was sent to me the night before (which I didn't respond to because T-Daddy was asleep at that point), telling him how I was all worried about the fish and his text must have been some kind of joke.
Are you still with me? This is where it gets pretty good.
He immediately responds to me that the fish was actually floating last night and wouldn't even respond to taps on the glass and that he guessed it was a good thing that he didn't flush it like he was going to!
Good golly, Miss Molly! So the fish gorged itself to the point where it couldn't swim so it almost got flushed. Talk about one fin in the grave!
Moral of the story...if you think your fish is dead wait 4.5 hours to flush it.
