Eulogy of a Goldfish

He was just a fair fish. It was several years ago when I first met Ginto/Goucho. At the time he was simply a cousin of mine, but a little under 2 years ago I adopted him (and his sister Tamira) as my own.

He came with me to college Junior year where, the two of them were the talk of many laughter filled roommate conversations. Over Christmas break of 2009 Ginto/Goucho was attacked by a freshwater lobster and suffered from resulting ailments ever since.

Thanks to Google and Wikipedia we determined he must have had a swim bladder condition which impaired his ability to control his movement in the water. Yes I had a handicapped fish. He would break into random spits of flipping and twirling around the tank. Usually around feeding time, but also on random occasions.

There were several occasions where we had thought he wasn't going to make it. Especially last year when he was floating upside down. And this past fall when he didn't move off the bottom of the tank for several days. However, he was a trooper. A real fighter. He persevered through it all and we (my roommates and I) were convinced he was going to live nearly forever (Goldfish can live up to 25 years...thanks again Google).

Sadly on January 19th 2011 Ginto/Goucho said goodbye to this world. We found him stuck to the filter..and somberly flushed him to his watery grave.

Just a few short days later, in her mournful state Tamira attempted to escape from the tank too. (Maybe it was because she had been exposed to several hours of consecutive Prison Break episode for the past two days...that might have given her some ideas). As I was watching Prision Break I heard a noise from the tank and turned to see a gold body wiggle up through a small hole in the lid of the tank near the filter. Seconds later it dropped to the floor. I began my rescue mission which sucessfully returned Tamira from her position behind the couch to the life giving waters of the tank. She is currently in recovery and still seems a little under the weather, but is doing fine.