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?”

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.

Not Unusual To Me

This is a page from a picture book that I quite like. It is easy to assume that I am attracted to the Guinea Pig in the photo because it looks quite like our Guinea Pig but it is the text on this page and throughout the book that captivated me. I wish that the author had used ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ when referring to the cats in the book. Then the text, especially the ones printed on this page, would have been spot on about me! LOL

19 months after the passing of a beloved pet, most people would have moved onto the next pet and I should too but we are not planning to keep another little mammal until we move to a bigger home. When we do, we will keep at least two Guinea Pigs at any one time so it will always have a companion by its side at all times.

Oh, I just remember that we have moved onto our next pets. LOL. We do have a pair of Black Moors Goldfish. They behave differently from our precious little Guinea Pig and they are certainly not cuddly like him. Writing about them reminds me that we should also get them a Christmas pressie soon. I will have to make a note about it because it is so easy to forget about them even though I feed them every night and one of them likes to stare at me when I wash dishes.

A New Plant +/- a Snail

M bought a new plant and a snail for the Black Moors around a week and a half ago. Up until then there was just a rock and two plastic plants in the fish tank. I read somewhere that plastic plants can be dangerous to Black Moors because they have poor eye sight and may accidentally pierce their ‘goggles’ if they bump onto them. I wanted the plastic plants out of the tank after reading that. M wanted to replace the plastic plants with a live plant because it will increase the oxygen levels in the water. He picked one that is ‘potted’ so the fish can’t dig it up easily. M also bought a little snail but unfortunately I don’t think it is still with us. Its job was meant to be an underwater ‘vacuum cleaner’ but I personally don’t think it survived the water change. M took out some water during his turn to clean the fish tank. I suspect that when M was refilling the tank with fresh tap water, he created such a ‘whirlpool’ that the little snail didn’t stand a chance and probably died instantly of shock!

Elusive Friends

I can be a little superstitious at times and recently I was a little rocked by my Dad’s hospital admission to undergo a total knee replacement surgery. In the weeks before his surgery, M and I talked about buying ourselves a couple of black goldfish. Back in the previous century, we bought a book on Feng Shui and they recommended that black goldfish be kept as pets because they symbolize protection. The idea was to create a balance by having a minimum of three (two gold and one black) but we ended up buying two Black Moors. For those who believe in a little Feng Shui (like me), fish is like a baby dragon, creator of good luck and positive outcomes.

With my Dad’s original surgery scheduled for the 21st of March, we went to Victoria Market on the 19th. Because we were late, one pet shop was already closed. The remaining one has mostly tropical fish. I actually didn’t go into the fish department in the basement because I know the shop also sells snakes. By Friday (the 20th), we were desperate. So, while I browsed at Spotlight, M checked out the pet shop inside the South Melbourne Market. I was still at the scrapbooking section of the shop when M turned up with a plastic bag in one hand and a cheesy smile. He declared, “They had heaps and they were cheap too.” Mission accomplished.

The two friends were a little reluctant to leave the plastic bag at first. Known for their bad eye sight, the two Black Moors probably didn’t see their escape route initially. When they eventually settled into their new home, I noticed that one was dominant over the other one. They also liked to ‘wrestle’ and didn’t play ‘nice’. One fish is less dark. Depending on the lighting, its colour is more like a dark bronze at times. We named it Pepsi. The other one has a fantail and is very black. We named it Fanta because of its pretty tail. I have tried to take photos of them but found it difficult because they don’t pose for long.

I will blog more about them as time goes by. Although they are now our new pets, they do not take the place of our beloved Guinea Pig. The fish tank sits next to our little Guinea Pig’s ‘shrine’ to kind of accompany him at all times.