Tiny's Tiny Life

Well, I guess we are getting better at fish-keeping. Tiny, Soren's latest Beta lasted three whole months in our house. But, alas, she has now joined Salmon Salmon in nurturing the plant life in the front flower bed.

Tiny was a cool fish. Even choosing her made me laugh. You see, I think Betas are all about the flash. Those iridescent colors, long flowing tails, voluminous fins. Betas are flashy. Well, male Betas are flashy.

When I took Soren to the pet store I told him he could choose any Beta he wanted. I was pointing out all the fish with these incredible colors. He uncovered this itsy bitsy, non-descript female Beta off in the corner. Seriously, this fish was BORING looking. I tried to point out some more interesting possibilities, but no, he was set on the dull little fish.



At first he wanted to call her Little, but soon settled on "Tiny." It was a fitting name. Tiny turned out to have a big personality. She'd swim to the side of the tank to check you out when you'd look into her tank.

But, poor Tiny had been struggling lately. She started sinking. Yeah, really. Our fish sank. You could watch her swim to the top but as soon as she stopped finning, she'd sink like a rock to the bottom. I actually Googled "sinking Beta" and found a wealth of information. The suspect was the swim bladder, and the most likely cause was constipation - too much food, or the wrong kind of food.

We fasted Tiny for three days and then fed her mashed peas which were supposedly good for swim bladder problems. But, dear Tiny kept sinking. We kind of got used to her that way. She'd either sit on the marbles or on the plant leaves in the tank.



But since Betas occasionally swim to the top to gulp air or to eat we put her in a shallower tank. And I suppose, this was her eventual undoing, sadly.

Peter was picking up the house the other day and said that he noticed something out of the corner of his eye on the living room floor. He kept cleaning and ignored it, but it kept catching his eye. When he did go to investigate he found that poor Tiny had lept out of the tank and was laying all dried out on the floor. Poor gal.

But when he picked her up she gasped, so he put her back in her tank. She sat there for the rest of the day occasionally gasping, but mostly looking sad and dried out. The next morning she was dead.



When I told Soren the next morning, just like at Salmon Salmon's death he asked if he could see her bones. This time though, I said yes. I spread newspaper all over the kitchen table, gave him the fish, and stepped far, far away while he ripped her apart.

After she was properly dissected we gave her a burial in the flower bed.

We already do have a replacement fish. The HUGEST beta you've ever seen. Still not flashy, but ginormous! His name is Sharky Shark Eat Everything. May he live a long and happy life.