We held a funeral today. Ranita's Betta, Sharky, died. I have now watched two fish pass away, and I have to say it is a painful experience. Unlike my dog and horse, both of whom were euthanized with me holding them, fish deaths are long, drawn-out sufferings.
The timing could also have been better. Need I say more?
But, like the practical farm stock we are, we all faced it head-on. We found the box for my Mother's Day present of earrings (from my mom!), lined it with a "blanket" cut from one of my heel-less white socks, and wrapped him up in style. (How many Bettas are buried in a box with a "crystal" on it?!)
Then we went outside. My red Kalmia is in bloom, so I picked a couple flowers (one for each child), and we proceeded to the burial site. My son--it was his fish, after all--chose the walkway beside the pasture where "I can walk on him and say hello when we're fixing fence." I dug the hole. He helped.
We laid the box in the bottom, the kids put their flowers on top, I recited "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, from dust we were made, to dust we will return," and we prayed, thanking God for our time together. The kids brushed the dirt over him, I replaced the sod, and Sharky was no more.
Of course, the next step was to get in the car and--what else?--buy another Betta. I was a little nervous at this proposition. What if we bought a dud? What if my son had to grieve ANOTHER loss? But I do not come from a line of faint hearts, so off we went.
My problem was that I wasn't really sure what had killed Sharky. When he went off his feed last week, I immediately Googled "how long can a Betta fish go without eating." There I read someone who said they could hang around 1-3 weeks, though it wasn't recommended. "Don't panic."
I should have panicked.
This morning, about an hour before he expired, I saw white splotches on his face. I went back to Google. Ahh, fungus! I wished I had read that a week ago! The only problem is that they equated fungus with dirty tanks, extreme stress, etc. That didn't really make sense because Sharky and PT got the exact same treatment. One is dead. The other most definitely is not.
PT is happy, hungry, active, and clean. (And so pretty with his blue base and red highlights!) Sharky used to be all of those things except clean. From the very beginning his water looked like it needed changing as soon as I finished changing it. (And I do a partial water change at least 2-3 times a week with a "clean the tank" cleaning once a week.) I know it sounds crazy, but I really was trying to avoid this very scenario!
So when we got to Critter Hut, I decided to talk to the expert. I explained the situation and wanted to know how to avoid it. He asked about the container. Oh, yeah, my vase. The tank we bought to house them got dropped and cracked and leaked as soon as we filled it the first time, so to give them a home I pulled out 2 vases and hot water rinsed them a half dozen times. He proclaimed the problem soap residue.
Again, I washed them both the same . . . but the vases aren't the same. One is long and virtually straight inside. The other has a crevice at the bottom that is really hard to rinse out. The diagnosis made sense. I felt guilty. But less guilty than I would have if it had been I who dropped the original tank . . .
There was nothing for it but to buy a new tank, a round, gallon-sized, never-been-soaped one that looks like Figaro's in Pinocchio. And more water conditioner . . . you can't overdose on it, you know!
Then we had to pick the fish. My kids were more interested in the big goldfish, so I picked a blue one with less red than Sharky, but a little splash if you look carefully. The salesman pronounced him a fine specimen, and we were out the door.
As I write this, PT is languidly cruising, as he always does, and Sharky II is zipping around like a maniac . . . which apparently is what he does! I have some plants around the tank to give him the illusion of shelter because, naturally, it wasn't until I got home that I seriously considered the tank's decor. Was I honestly going to risk the health of the new fish by introducing a sunken ship that may have been contaminated with soap residue?!?
Not on your life.
Tomorrow I will go out and find something pristine to go in the tank. Sharky II will have a place to hide when the frenetic pace of our house gets to be too much, and my African violet, blooming beautifully, will come back to my desk.
Whatever else the day has in store only God knows . . . and I am perfectly content to leave it that way!
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