1.12.2008

A Fish Tale - Update #4

well, its been a while (5 days) since i last updated you on the status of the fish, so here you go.... yesterday afternoon i fed the 2 remaining red, orange and black fish of different species as usual. and as usual, they swam up to the top of the bowl to feed on foul-smelling fish flakes. i walked away and went about my day around the house. no more than 15 minutes later katy walks by and informs me that one of the fish is dead. i walk over to inspect (and shake the bowl)...sure enough, another one bites the dust! well, down to one! annoyed (and slightly humored) i walk away.

less than 10 minutes later i walk into the kitchen to grab a cookie (or about 15) to hold me over until dinner when i notice that not only is one of the fish lying motionless on its side at the bottom of the bowl, but now the other (and last) red, orange and black fish of different species has decided to join in! are you freaking kidding me! they both outlived all the other fish by nearly a week, then decide to die within minutes of each other... can someone please explain this to me? could the one fish not live without the other? did the fish not feel any sense of purpose in life anymore without its companion? do fish experience heartache? (these are rhetorical questions, obviously.)

so, that's it! all of our fish are no more. 2 weeks ago we had 8 fish and now (thanks to suicides, a possible serial killer and assumed loniless or boredom) they are all dead. i have nothing else to say on the matter...that is, until we buy more!

4 comments:

archie said...

Jeff,

I've got several theories concerning your trama relative to the fish. I have been studying a related phenomenon for years. It goes back probably 15 - 20 years and a David Letterman episode, so it obviously has credibility.

His guest brought a large paper bag on stage and hypothesized there was a national epidemic of suicide running rampant among our native animals. He proceeded to pull a series of animals, reptiles or whatever that were obvious road kills from the bag. He demonstrated in all cases the victims knew what they were doing because they all without exception were waving good bye.

Imagine a large flat dried bull frog being pulled from his bag and it waving good bye. Which brings us to the question. Did you notice if any of the fish were waving good bye. I suspect they were. Probably with their tail fins?

The only other possibility is tainted fish flakes from China. I understand they quit poisoning the kids, dogs and cats. They likely have moved to fish, knowing the previous poisoning has so tied up the food and drug administration they know they will neglect to check the fish food. Sorry if that is the case.

I will pray if I ever think about this again. Highly unlikely. Ha!

Jeff Reininger said...

archie,
thanks for that! as for the food, you stuck my curiousity, as joking as your suggestion may have been! upon further investigation, the food was actually made in melle, germany... i'm not exactly sure what qualifies a country like germany to process and manufacture tropical fish food... i mean, when i think of germany, tropical fish aren't the first thing that comes to mind!

archie said...

Likely some Biblical food for thought...

pittolive said...

Don't feel bad Jeff, I bought 12 goldfish and all but one died so I named it Not Dead Yet