We bought a Beta fish a few years ago and we named him Elvis. We were trying to come up with a suitable name but none of them seemed to fit. Jilda pointed out that he was the color of blue suede shoes, so after that the name was obvious. Well, not that obvious to some because Carl Perkins wrote Blue Suede Shoes and also recorded the song. But it was Elvis who made the song popular so we named our Beta Elvis.
He had the big old aquarium to himself for a year or so because Beta fish are like the Pit Bulls of aquariums. If you put another fish in with a Beta..... it's usually curtains for the new fish. I learned that the male Beta won't fight with a female Beta so off to Wal-Mart I went. I bought a red female and of course we named her Priscilla.
They have lived in wetted (yes I meant to misspell it) ever since....until a day or so ago. When I fed them on Thursday, Elvis looked as if he'd eaten too many cheeseburgers. He was in the bottom corner of the aquarium and he did not look well. I took a wooden pasta spoon and encouraged him a little and he did swim around some but when I stopped prodding, he headed back for his corner.
This morning when I looked in the tank he was lying on his side. Either he had over slept or he was a gonner. When I got the wooden pasta spoon to wake him up, he drifted to the top. Priscilla was devastated and inconsolable. Jilda tried to distract her with fish food while I snatched him from the tank and whisked him off to the bathroom for a Tidy Bowl burial.
I know we'll miss him, but it's Pricella that I feel for. When I check on her a while ago she was swimming around despondently. I put on an Elvis CD to keep her company. As I walked out "Are You Lonesome Tonight" was playing the speaker....you could almost hear her weeping.
No comments:
Post a Comment