Tonight when Mac and I got home from an after-school bowling birthday party, I noticed that our remaining pet fish was hovering over the rocks. He didn't appear to be laying on the rocks like his deceased fish-brother so I wasn't totally convinced that he was dead. Tapping on the tank did nothing to stir young Nick v.2. So I grabbed a lightstick that Mac had from the concert last weekend and stuck it in the tank to nudge him. Well that was all it took. That little fish started swimming like his life depended on it.
If I can be honest, I wouldn't have been devastated had the fish been dead. I know, for you pet lovers out there, this is heresy. Quite frankly, I'm over this experiment with having a pet that nobody helps me take care of.
I will also tell you that I feel bad because I might have/sort of/possibly broken off some of the fish's fins the other day when I changed his water.
But it wasn't entirely my fault. Nick #2 has been acting very skittish since he killed his fish-brother. Even Ruth has noticed that he's acting guilty.
So when it was time to clean his tank the other day, he would not let me scoop him up in the net. I dumped most of the water out and was able to catch him but then when I put him in the reserved water, he would not get out of the net. In a bit of a panic, I might have had to forcibly remove him from the net because he was going to die if I didn't. When I put him and his reserved water back in the big tank, I noticed a little bit of fin on the bottom of the reserve container. And when I checked him, Nick #2 was definitely missing the midsection of his fin area.
He was a little sluggish after the mauling, but he's rebounded these last few days until he decided to play dead tonight. He's lucky he didn't go the way of his fish-brother and meet the inside of the trash can.
For not murdering Nick #2 right in front of my child, I am truly thankful. I just saved myself lots of money paying for Mac's therapy to get over watching his mother throw out his living pet.
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