Something is Fishy

Joelle said at some point on April 21, 2008 while listening to illasounds - 101: From the Vault #1- The Jazz Rock Years

So… as you may have deduced, Hashbrown is no more.  Well, I don’t know if he’s dead; I hope not!  On Saturday morning, he was lying on his side at the bottom of the bowl, looking all pale and I really, really, really didn’t want him to die, so I took him into Petco (where I bought him) to see if they could do anything.

After testing the water for ammonia, trying a few different kinds of food, changing the water and the finally trying frozen blood worms, the tech looked at me and said, “Well… we can keep him here for observation if you want, but he doesn’t look good. If he shows no interest in food, that’s not a good sign.” After a few laps around the store and some hemming and hawing, I told him that it was better if he kept Hashbrown and got him well for a new family instead of me taking him home and potentially guaranteeing him The Big Flush. 

While he ran off to find the paperwork, I perused the Wall o’ Fish and decided on a big deep red one with black-tipped fins.  It was the first one that caught my eye, much like NPH did, so despite there being others that were equally as beautiful, I decided to go with the red one.  In honor of Hashbrown, I’ve named him Flapjack… another word I love to say and also a breakfast food.

In a weird twist of events, it turned out that Hashbrown was some fancy-ass Halfmoon Betta (I thought it was a Delta-Tail) which I guess I paid like $12.99 for when I bought him. I didn’t even notice!  I figured he was $3.50 like the rest. So when I got Flapjack, they gave me change back, even though I bought some other items… I was totally confused until I saw my receipt. So it’s even better that Hashbrown get the care he needs. He’s clearly a high-maintenance fish. 

Flapjack is totally nesting in Hashbrown’s old bowl, blowing bubbles and swimming all around.  But I replaced the marbles and put in a little zen pagoda thingie.  The orange marbles made his red color stand out more.  They’ve both eating feasting like kings on blood worms because apparently, my fish are food snobs and they spit out the betta pellets. That’s fine with me — those things stink up the bowl and make it all murky anyway.

I kind of want another one, but let’s keep these alive first, shall we?