R-I-P Angel

I'd like to introduce you to an angel of ours.

When we got her, she was only a few weeks, maybe a few months old. She was only 3cm from top of fin to bottom. We started with 6 Angels.

This little angel crept into our hearts as she was "different" from the rest. We eventually named her ret@rd because she would get up to antics and get herself stuck in very wierd and wonderful positions.

On closer inspection, we noticed that her fins that came out the side, just behind her gills were not like the rest. They were slightly shorter, and pointed upwards, and not sideways.

This resulted in her very acrobatic swimming techniques. She would be swimming straight, aiming for some goal, and suddenly loose her direction and do a complete summersault. Thereafter she would have this dof look on her face and not know where she was going.

She often got herself caught in plants, behind filters, or in funny places, that due to her deformed side fins, she couldn't backtrack out of. Usually a burst of energy and deterimnation resulted in her using a tail fin and she got out of most situations.

She was still a typical angel, greedy like the rest... but her nature resulted in her never being picked on by any of the other tank makes. Even when our angel pair spawned, they would leave her to her own devices, but would show a lot of aggression towards our other angels.

Sadly, my wife and I came home last night after a long day out for our anniversary, and found that she had somehow got herself caught under some rocks. I moved the rocks and rescued her, but I noticed that a lot of her scales were missing. I believe that it was either from her rubbing against the rocks, OR the snail I found attached to her body in the rocks had something to do with it.

This morning we found her "swimming" face up, with her mouth sticking out the water. It didn't look like she had any movement in her tail fins, and her side fins were barely keeping her up. It also appeared that where the scales were missing, a fungus had potentially started.

I knew what had to be done, but I couldn't bring myself to do it to my wife's favourite fish. When my wife finally asked me if it would be better if we cull her, I knew it was time. I walked my wife to her car this morning, kissed her goodbye as she went off to work, and proceeded to go back up to the flat with a sad heart.

So as a tribute to her memory, I posted her story here on Tasa so as never to forget that a small angel can creep into your heart.

(And all the non-fishy people said- "IDIOT...")

 

Sorry to read, at some time or other we all feel like this when loosing a special fish.

 

It is sad that the weirdest and funniest fish can do that to us get in our harts
Sorry to here about your loss

 

Sorry to hear about your loss Zoom

 

Sorry to hear this It really is sad.

 

Sorry for your loss, but happy anniversary!

 

Sorry to hear that. The non-fishy people can get stuffed, that is a sad and special story, sorry for your and your wife's loss, zoom

 

I'm really sorry, she sounded like quite a character. I have recently moved from my goldies to tropical, and had to give away the goldies but couldnt give away Merlin, he is a little Black moor who like Nemo has a dinky fin. And despite it he is a really determined little fish, full of character. So I understand how attached we can get to our fish, something that non fishy people obviously do not understand So sorry for your loss