Something Fishy.

Lightened for detail.

The kids and I went through a phase two years ago. We decided to each buy a Beta as a pet. betas are colorful fish that require very little maintenance. Feed them once every other day and change their water once every couple of weeks and they are generally happy. In the wild, these fish basically live in puddles, so even in a Styrofoam cup these fish can survive.

The average life span of a Beta is approximately four years. That is, as long as they don't live with me. The first three Betas we put in large crystal goblets. The goblets were large enough to accommodate a bottle of wine each. My daughters decided they wanted to put the fish closer together. Generally only male fish are sold and if put in a bowl together will literally kill each other. To resolve this problem, special beta bowls with dividers can hold more than one beta.

The first three Betas were named, based on their coloring. Lizzy's was America because it was Red, light silver and blue. My fish, fireball, because he was bright orange and yellow. Emily's fish (I think the name was Rusty) we'll call Dead. We buy a special little beta tank that will hold all three and prep the water. First section, America as we drop him out of the net, he immediately starts exploring his new home. In the center, we put Fireball, true to his name, he zips to the side that America is on and the two fish are flaring at each other. Now it's time to put Dead into the last section. Dead, just kinda looks around as if he thinks he is in a full parking lot. Fireball catches Dead out of the corner of his eye and darts to challenge him. Well Dead is not very swift, so after a few seconds, he slowly turns and here is the funny part, is so startled by Fireball, he rolls over and poops. He literally has the poop scared out of him. The kids and I are in tears laughing about that fact. Dead struggles to understand that there is a pane of plastic between fireball and him, so is constantly darting to the side of the enclosure. Well, as you would guess, several days later America and Fireball were doing great and ironically enough, Dead lived (or died) up to his current nickname.

The empty section of the beta tank looked silly, so we decided to buy Emily a replacement for Dead. A few months later, not only did Dead II die, but soon after Fireball. Lizzy's fish America, seemed to be holding his own. Of course I could not be kind to the fish in the pet store, so I bought two more replacements. Next, it was America's time to go. I figured, rather then make an endangered species out of the Beta, the kids and I would only buy one more beta. and whatever happened, happened. We decided we had run out of names, so we simply called the new fish, Fishy. It wasn't long before Fishy was the sole survivor.

Now almost two years later, Fishy is swimming in my home in his crystal vase. He watches people walking in the room and listens to all their conversations. He is very attractive to watch float through the water like a guild navigator floating through spice and I wonder if we are entertaining him more than he is entertaining us.

Last weekend while Emily and I were having him follow our fingers on the top of the vase, he lept out of the water and bit me. Not that it hurt, because he doesn't have any real teeth. He has always attacked his food, but now whenever anything goes into the opening of the vase he leaps at it, so now Fishy is also an attack fish.