Bye-bye F

On the Friday morning of the 9th of April, I woke up feeling that I must clean the fish tank because I felt like I had postponed it long enough. My Mum had asked me only days earlier if I would allow her helper to clean out the fish tank for me. I politely declined. So when I found out that the duo had plans to go to the city by themselves, I jumped at the chance of a few hours of me time. I had a short list of things that I wished to tackle but the first thing was to clean the fish tank. As I went about setting things up for the job, I noticed that F looked a little weird and when the job was nearly done, I noticed that there was some white stuff on poor F’s eye and parts of its body. It was acting quite erratic but we weren’t alarmed because F had a tendency to swim around like that every now and then. M went online to see if he could find out what that white stuff was. He learnt that there could be some kind of fungi infection going on. After he left for work, I just carried on with my chores while keeping an eye on that poorly looking F. By mid-afternoon, F was becoming lethargic but every few minutes or so, it would attempt to swim as normal.

Without my own set of keys because I had lent them to my Mum and her helper, I was stuck at home and was unable to go to the pet shop for advice. I waited and waited until around 4:30 pm before the duo came home. I explained to them what was going on and left quickly to get to the pet shop fearing that it might close at around 5:00 pm. I won’t whinge about my experience at the pet shop but I did end up buying a bottle of multi-cure. On the way home, I was feeling pretty sure that F wouldn’t survive. I had knots in my tummy just like when I discovered that my Guinea Pig had passed away two years ago. As soon as I got home, I added the medicine according to the instructions and it turned the water inside the tank green. By then, F was quiet, preferring to hide under the big rock. MT (my mum’s helper) said that a change of water can sometimes affect the fish’s behaviour and my Mum suggested that I should add a bit of salt to the water because that’s what MT did whenever she cleaned my dad’s fish tank. I brushed their input aside because I thought I know best.

On the next day, MT went on a bus trip to see the ’12 Apostles” by herself and we took my Mum to Footscray. We have not been to that part of Melbourne for a long, long time. There are now Filipino and African shops at Footscray!
When we got home, poor F was still alive but it was on its side. Every time I pat the glass closest to where it was, it would try to swim. We knew the end was near and we made the decision to move it to a separate fish tank for P’s sake. This wasn’t carried out without any drama. M and I had a disagreement that led to one big argument with my Mum stuck in the middle. We were all tired and stressed out. Before I headed to our room for a nap, I checked up on F one last time and it looked sadder than ever without P by its side. After M and I got up from our naps, F was gone. It must have passed away between 3:30 – 5:00 pm.

Of the two Black Moors, F was the clown. As soon as one of us turned on the light, it would come up to the surface thinking that feeding time had arrived. F knew how to eat from the surface while P prefers to look for leftover flakes that had sunken. P is the quiet one but it would occasionally chase F around and head-butt it. LOL. When F was really sick, P hung around to keep it company. There were instances when P would nudge F a little. I have seen such behaviours in the past. So, they probably do have feelings for each other. F is buried in a flower pot on our balcony. I am looking to plant some flowers in the area above its burial spot but I haven’t decided to plant what yet. It is good to know that it is in that pot.

On the day that my Mum and her helper left Melbourne, I noticed three white dots on P. We replaced 25% of the water plus the required amount of Ager drops, and added about half a teaspoon of salt. M found out from the internet that it is indeed a common practice to add a bit of salt. The dots disappear within a week. Then last week, P acted a little weird all of a sudden. Fearing that it might die too, we replaced 25% of the water again and threw out the plant that we bought the two Black Moors for Christmas 09. It didn’t look very healthy and I think it had something to do with the position of our fish tank. P is almost back to its usual self. There are no dots on it. We are hoping that all is well. We are looking to buy another fish soon.

I have wanted to blog about F for nearly a month but refrained from doing so because I hate to look like a fool for loving my pets. I have been feeling sad about the outcome of this blog as recent as this morning but now as I write this piece, I felt like I don’t give a damn what other people do.