The family fish, a comet goldfish, died last night/early morning. Spent all of yesterday trying to save him. We're talking from about 10am one morning to past 3am the next. He was on his last legs around 3 but we didn't know what else to do and we needed sleep. He was dead when I next checked on him. :C Stratforde will be missed.
I'm partially posting this to have a little memorial of sorts for him, and to see if anyone else has "my beloved fish" stories they'd like to share.
Also, I'll be looking for dragons to keep as/breed a dragon version of him as an additional memorial. I'd been chewing on the idea of making a Stratforde dragon for a while now. If you have fodder or auction dragons, boy or girl, that look a bit like how I described him please don't hesitate to ping me.
Stratforde's Story
Stratforde was about 12 years old, and we won him at a carnival through one of those little kid games with three other fish. We had no idea we had comet goldfish and that they are big brain fish who can live from 5 to 14 years, we just though they were "feeder fish". But my little sister was having none of this "they're just gonna die honey" attitude so we bought a tank and filter and everything.
For the first five years everything was fine but then two died and we learned we needed to get them a bigger tank. Three years later the other one died and we learned we still weren't taking care of them properly. We made changes, got an even bigger tank since the last one had grown a lot, and he seemed happy. Sometime last year he got dropsy and I spent a whole day researching what might be wrong and if I could save him. I learned a lot, especially that we still didn't know what we were doing, and my mother let me buy about over 300 dollars worth of upgrades and replacement decor so we could keep him as healthy as possible.
He was jubilant, obviously very happy with the changes. We started paying closer attention to him and realized he could tell the difference between us and strangers, mostly because he would only be kinda interested in strangers but wiggle like a happy puppy whenever he saw us. He had always been called Big Scaredy because he was twice the size of the second largest fish, yet the most skiddish as a youngster. We decided he deserved a proper name, and after some suggestions we landed on Stratforde. It means bridge over the water.
Stratford was mostly pearly white with a touch of gold on his fins, the size of an average adult hand, had a 55 gallon, lovingly decorated tank all to himself, and would great us with happy wiggles every morning. His tank is visible from its place in the living room from the hallway connecting our bedrooms, so we got to see him whenever we left our rooms.
While he was sick he would try to follow me around the tank, but he could only move in quick spurts and them lay sideways. Once it was time to just wait and see we started watching tv, and when I turned to check on him he was right at the front of the class as close to me as he could get, nose touching it, looking at me, lying on his side gasping. It's making me cry to right that. Still, it was touching, and it let me know he loved me in whatever way a fish can love. It's also a consolation to know he died old, rather than young like the other ones. We messed up a lot but we figured it out in time to give him a good life and the attention he deserved.
Stratforde Dragon will go here.
The family fish, a comet goldfish, died last night/early morning. Spent all of yesterday trying to save him. We're talking from about 10am one morning to past 3am the next. He was on his last legs around 3 but we didn't know what else to do and we needed sleep. He was dead when I next checked on him. :C Stratforde will be missed.
I'm partially posting this to have a little memorial of sorts for him, and to see if anyone else has "my beloved fish" stories they'd like to share.
Also, I'll be looking for dragons to keep as/breed a dragon version of him as an additional memorial. I'd been chewing on the idea of making a Stratforde dragon for a while now. If you have fodder or auction dragons, boy or girl, that look a bit like how I described him please don't hesitate to ping me.
Stratforde's Story
Stratforde was about 12 years old, and we won him at a carnival through one of those little kid games with three other fish. We had no idea we had comet goldfish and that they are big brain fish who can live from 5 to 14 years, we just though they were "feeder fish". But my little sister was having none of this "they're just gonna die honey" attitude so we bought a tank and filter and everything.
For the first five years everything was fine but then two died and we learned we needed to get them a bigger tank. Three years later the other one died and we learned we still weren't taking care of them properly. We made changes, got an even bigger tank since the last one had grown a lot, and he seemed happy. Sometime last year he got dropsy and I spent a whole day researching what might be wrong and if I could save him. I learned a lot, especially that we still didn't know what we were doing, and my mother let me buy about over 300 dollars worth of upgrades and replacement decor so we could keep him as healthy as possible.
He was jubilant, obviously very happy with the changes. We started paying closer attention to him and realized he could tell the difference between us and strangers, mostly because he would only be kinda interested in strangers but wiggle like a happy puppy whenever he saw us. He had always been called Big Scaredy because he was twice the size of the second largest fish, yet the most skiddish as a youngster. We decided he deserved a proper name, and after some suggestions we landed on Stratforde. It means bridge over the water.
Stratford was mostly pearly white with a touch of gold on his fins, the size of an average adult hand, had a 55 gallon, lovingly decorated tank all to himself, and would great us with happy wiggles every morning. His tank is visible from its place in the living room from the hallway connecting our bedrooms, so we got to see him whenever we left our rooms.
While he was sick he would try to follow me around the tank, but he could only move in quick spurts and them lay sideways. Once it was time to just wait and see we started watching tv, and when I turned to check on him he was right at the front of the class as close to me as he could get, nose touching it, looking at me, lying on his side gasping. It's making me cry to right that. Still, it was touching, and it let me know he loved me in whatever way a fish can love. It's also a consolation to know he died old, rather than young like the other ones. We messed up a lot but we figured it out in time to give him a good life and the attention he deserved.
Stratforde Dragon will go here.
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FelGoldwyn
I didn't think I could be so moved by a goldfish.
I'm terribly sorry to hear this, as I too have been through a few deaths with fish and involved. It's not fun at all when you have to retrieve their bodies from their tanks.. I'm pretty sure that Stratforde loved you and your family very much and appreciated you taking care of him, and mostly, he won't forget it. I hope that you are able to find a dragon perfect for a memorial.
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FelGoldwyn
I didn't think I could be so moved by a goldfish.
I'm terribly sorry to hear this, as I too have been through a few deaths with fish and involved. It's not fun at all when you have to retrieve their bodies from their tanks.. I'm pretty sure that Stratforde loved you and your family very much and appreciated you taking care of him, and mostly, he won't forget it. I hope that you are able to find a dragon perfect for a memorial.
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Sandwichcats
Actually, we just did the whole "ok easy now, into the baggy - oops we dropped him" routine about an hour ago and I had to choose between being upset or laughing. Fortunately, I was able to laugh. We probably did look pretty silly to the neighbors (we have a huge living room window) since we have to use two big cooking spoons. We couldn't find tongs and are now wondering where the heck they went. If life has taught me anything, it's to find the humor wherever and whenever you can because it helps you heal much faster.
And thank-you, your kind words help a lot. I've been thinking about making his dragon self a spirit character, kind of like how foxes turn into kitsune under certain conditions but with goldfish so it'l be like he's always with me.
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Sandwichcats
Actually, we just did the whole "ok easy now, into the baggy - oops we dropped him" routine about an hour ago and I had to choose between being upset or laughing. Fortunately, I was able to laugh. We probably did look pretty silly to the neighbors (we have a huge living room window) since we have to use two big cooking spoons. We couldn't find tongs and are now wondering where the heck they went. If life has taught me anything, it's to find the humor wherever and whenever you can because it helps you heal much faster.
And thank-you, your kind words help a lot. I've been thinking about making his dragon self a spirit character, kind of like how foxes turn into kitsune under certain conditions but with goldfish so it'l be like he's always with me.
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Sandwichcats
We have a few things in common them. We've always tened towards burrying fish rather than flushing, and we've moved a lot so there are many of our pets in other people's backyards. I buried my rabbit on a hill with only two other houses on it at the time, and we'll be moving from this house as soon as we can but it's too long a wait to hold off burying Stratforde. I might just dig him up on the sly and take him with us though. Dirt in box doesn't seem suspicious, right? (Jokes aside, I'm seriously considering this. I'm tired of leaving pet graves behind.)
Oh I'll definitely be adding his story, though with a few twists to make it fit my clan lore. He'll have been the pet of my dragon self, Nara, who has yet to be bred/bought. She's a sorcerer so that'll probably tie into how he becomes a spirit. And thank you, I'll definitely let you know if I need help.
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Sandwichcats
We have a few things in common them. We've always tened towards burrying fish rather than flushing, and we've moved a lot so there are many of our pets in other people's backyards. I buried my rabbit on a hill with only two other houses on it at the time, and we'll be moving from this house as soon as we can but it's too long a wait to hold off burying Stratforde. I might just dig him up on the sly and take him with us though. Dirt in box doesn't seem suspicious, right? (Jokes aside, I'm seriously considering this. I'm tired of leaving pet graves behind.)
Oh I'll definitely be adding his story, though with a few twists to make it fit my clan lore. He'll have been the pet of my dragon self, Nara, who has yet to be bred/bought. She's a sorcerer so that'll probably tie into how he becomes a spirit. And thank you, I'll definitely let you know if I need help.
And I thought I was silly for crying over loosing the angelfish I had for ~5 years. I ended up flushing him because he got water mold and was laying on the bottom of the tank, wounds all over his body, and he was struggling to breathe and I couldn't bare to watch him suffer anymore. The other two I'd found dead sometime before then, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that he got it too. I should have looked up how to kill water mold, but I was maybe 12 years old and that never occured to me. But I'd had that fish a long time, well longer than any other fish I'd had. And flushing him down the toilet, nearly dead but not quite... he was so large I had to use a plunger and god I hope flushing him killed him faster than the mold would have. I cried so hard over that fish.
But it never occured to me that something like a goldfish could actually develop emotions for its owner. That is heartbreaking. Poor boy. T.T At least he lived a long, happy life. Goldfish so often get the short end of the stick because of their reputation as starter fish and it always makes me happy to hear of one that lives a few years, let alone its full lifespan. I'm sorry you had to loose him. It's funny how we get ourselves so attached to things, but then again, he got himself attached to you. Good luck finding a memorial dragon. He sounds like he was a beautiful fish.
And I thought I was silly for crying over loosing the angelfish I had for ~5 years. I ended up flushing him because he got water mold and was laying on the bottom of the tank, wounds all over his body, and he was struggling to breathe and I couldn't bare to watch him suffer anymore. The other two I'd found dead sometime before then, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that he got it too. I should have looked up how to kill water mold, but I was maybe 12 years old and that never occured to me. But I'd had that fish a long time, well longer than any other fish I'd had. And flushing him down the toilet, nearly dead but not quite... he was so large I had to use a plunger and god I hope flushing him killed him faster than the mold would have. I cried so hard over that fish.
But it never occured to me that something like a goldfish could actually develop emotions for its owner. That is heartbreaking. Poor boy. T.T At least he lived a long, happy life. Goldfish so often get the short end of the stick because of their reputation as starter fish and it always makes me happy to hear of one that lives a few years, let alone its full lifespan. I'm sorry you had to loose him. It's funny how we get ourselves so attached to things, but then again, he got himself attached to you. Good luck finding a memorial dragon. He sounds like he was a beautiful fish.
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Hawktalon
!! :O You poor thing that must have been awful. We tend to carry around that guilt for a while, huh? (I've had similar experiences.) I'm sure it was faster, considering how long I've seem fish last with illnesses, so you did the right thing.
Yeah, people can easily assume fish don't have emotions since we're so different form them, but I think they do on at least on a basic level. They have brains and instincts, so why not? I'm grateful to Stratforde for teaching me that. He was plain by breeding standards but we thought he looked gorgeous. I'm thinking of going with an imp but I'm not sure yet.
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Hawktalon
!! :O You poor thing that must have been awful. We tend to carry around that guilt for a while, huh? (I've had similar experiences.) I'm sure it was faster, considering how long I've seem fish last with illnesses, so you did the right thing.
Yeah, people can easily assume fish don't have emotions since we're so different form them, but I think they do on at least on a basic level. They have brains and instincts, so why not? I'm grateful to Stratforde for teaching me that. He was plain by breeding standards but we thought he looked gorgeous. I'm thinking of going with an imp but I'm not sure yet.