Bye-bye P

No more Black Moors. Our second and last pet fish died around 1:00 am on the 6^th of July. Mighty P did put up a big fight but after nearly 50 hours of pain and suffering, it sunk to the back of the tank and died alone. It was on its left side and I could clearly see its bloodshot right eye. It was heartbreaking to see P fighting for its life.

On the 24^th of June, I noticed that P was hanging around the back of the pump near the water surface too much. I thought it must have been feeling a bit cold. (This clearly shows how little I know about fish.) To make sure that the water is perfect, I removed and replaced about 750mls of the tank water on the Friday and Saturday. P responded well by behaving as normal again. I also tested the water and the ph level seemed ok. I had planned to remove and replace another litre of the tank water on Wednesday (30^th of June) but P was once again behaving a little abnormal on Tuesday. So, I did it one day earlier than planned. This time I also popped in the neutralizer block after another ph level test.

When I fed P on the 1^st of July, I noticed two white dots on its right eye and its left eye looked a little blurred. I was convinced that it would fight off those bugs like last time. I told M that if they were still there the next day, I would immediately start the multi-cure treatment whether he liked it or not. In the past, M never liked the use of that medicine. I did just that and bought another lot of fish food thinking that P might prefer the type of flakes that we gave both of them when they first arrived. We thought that P responded well to the treatment. It was swimming around gracefully and ate as normal. Unlike F, P never swam up to the surface to eat the flakes. It preferred to look for soggy flakes that had sunken to the bottom.

Seeing that P was fine, I went willingly with M to watch a tearjerker at Hoyts on the 3^rd of July. It was Toy Story 3. I don’t like going to cinemas these days but this movie was worth it even though I had to put on glasses that made me look like Roy Orbison. When we walked into the pigeon hole, we were greeted by a P that appeared to be swimming around happily. We were happy, thinking that P had pulled through again. What a super fish we thought. Shortly before I went to sleep, I went to feed P as normal. It was around 11:00 pm and that was when I first observed its erratic swimming. It was swimming all over the place like F on the day before it died. When I got up on Sunday morning, I dashed to the tank to see how P was and it was still swimming all over the place. With the light coming through the window nearby, I could see that the white dots on its eye were bigger and tiny white dots on one of its fins. It didn’t look good at all. Not knowing what else to do, I carried out a water change in the hope that I could remove at least some of the bad invisible bugs in the water to even things out. The multi-cure treatment was also readministered. After that, I didn’t want to stay at home. So, we went to Victoria Gardens. We had wanted to buy something at Kmart but it was out of stock – there is something fishy about the much advertised toy sale. I had also wanted to buy something from IKEA but they too weren’t at the shop and the meatballs didn’t taste quite the same because I was missing P.

P’s condition never improved. We found out from the internet that it was swimming around like this because it was trying to shake the bugs off. P was in agony. I was tempted to remove the white stuff for her. By Monday, I had given up hope. I just wanted it to go. This wasn’t because I didn’t love it no more. P didn’t deserve to be in so much pain. She should join its friend F. We went to the new Big W store at South Yarra – would you believe it that there is one in that part Melbourne? Again we came away without the thing we were after because they too were out of stock – there really is something fishy about their toy sale too it seems and it wasn’t P.

48 hours after the erratic swimming began, P was becoming lethargic. Just like F, it would attempt to swim as normal. Every time I stroked the side of the tank nearest to it, P would flap around. I fed it as normal and sat on the couch nearby waiting. I knew the inevitable was about to happen. M headed off to bed just before 1:00 am. He said goodbye to P. I was very sleepy all of a sudden. It was like that early morning when my Guinea Pig was very sick. For a little over half an hour, I asked myself a few times to go over to the tank to check on P but I was reluctant for some reason. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to see P flapping its fins like someone waving their hands calling out for help. Eventually, I dragged myself over to the tank shortly before 1:40 am and P was gone. I felt sadness and relief all at once. We buried P in the same flower pot as F. Unlike my poor Guinea Pig, it is good to know that they are there together. We are waiting for Spring to come before we plant something in it.

P was unisex in our minds. LOL. I usually use female pronouns when referring to it while M had always used male pronouns. We never knew the gender of the two Black Moors but I assumed that P was female simply because it didn’t have a pretty fantail like F. I am pretty sure that I am wrong. Before we relocated the fish tank, P would sometimes stare at me like F as I prepare food or cleaning up in the kitchen. I often wondered what it was thinking. Does it know something about me? “Do you like me, P?” I would often ask. If it swam away, I would often ask, “Would you like to join the other queue? The queue is extending as far as Kew. Can you swim all the way to Kew, P?”