r.i.p. sharkie

sharkie passed away last night sometime between 8pm and 7am this morning. we found him stuck to the underside of his water pump. luke has no idea. he went over to his tank this morning and said "oh, no! sharkie's stuck again!" and proceed to try and free him with a spoon. sharkie then started spinning and twirling around in the tank because of the pump and luke said "look! sharkie doing tricks! where sharkie learn all those tricks?" luke thought it was pretty funny and enjoyed the entertainment. thank goodness my kid is not the most observant.

rest in peace, dear sharkie.

we love you and will never forget you. i'm sorry i didn't clean out your tank more often and i'm sorry you got fin rot (still not sure what happened there). you will be missed.

mommy

now off to buy another "sharkie". i wonder if i can buy one with fin rot so luke doesn't notice. what am i saying, i could probably put a turtle in there and he would just think it's another trick sharkie is playing.

sharkie has fin rot!

i was telling nick that sharkie didn't look too good today. he has been swimming kind of sideways. so being the super observant person i am, i totally did not notice that his tail fin has completely come off! nick was like, what happened to his tail? so i googled it and apparently it's pretty bad. the fin rot will continue up their tail to their body and they die a slow, painful death. poor, poor sharkie. i am so sad. nick just said 'well, i guess it's time to get a new sharkie'. but i don't want a new sharkie, i want this sharkie. i am the worst goldfish mommy ever!

okay, so drama aside, there is hope for sharkie. well, if the fin rot has not reached his body. i am going tomorrow to get antibiotics to start treating him. yes, you heard me right, i will do everything in my power to save this little member of our family. so what if he only cost 23 cents. we love him.

tonight i am doing a total water change and tank scrub down. i think the culprit is this cute little shark that luke found at walmart that he wanted to put in sharkie's tank to keep him company. it had some weird fuzzy stuff growing on it. i may put a call into walmart as well to let them know they are selling contaminated, fin rot infested goldfish tank decor and need to put a recall in place immediately. kidding...kind of.

and now a note to sharkie, in case he does not make it through the night.

dearest sharkie,

although it was not immediate, i have come to love you. i love how you wiggle/wiggled your little tail back and forth and looked at me every morning as i poured my coffee.

i love how quiet you are and how, even despite the fact that you have a flesh eating bacterial disease slowing killing you, you don't complain. you just keep on wiggling that little tail fin nub with a smile in your eyes.

i will help you through this dark time. sorry about the fake shark from walmart. we had no idea.

love,
mommy