No more Fishy :-(

Fishy was acting up last week or so.  She wasn't swimming as much. She would lay on the ornaments or just on the gravel.  It was really weird!

So of course I had to start researching on the internet as to what may be wrong with Fishy.  Based on what I found, possibly "clamped fin" as I did notice that her bottom fin was not spread open like it normally was.  And that could sometimes be caused by water being too cold.  Betta fishes actually live in tropical places so they prefer warmer waters.  We've been waking up to about 66F in the living room. Yikes!

By the way, I just realized a few days ago that our new snail Blue has tentacles!

Anyway, after a few more days and also moving the fish bowl on top of our portable heater, Fishy's behavior became more erratic and then at times really lethargic.  I have no idea what's going on!  I finally decided to order a heater and thermostat... but on that same night, it seems that Fishy decided to move on to the next world.  This became more obvious as Blue was crawling on Fishy that night:

I had prepped Graham about Fishy dying and he seemed a bit upset.  And so when I did realize that Fishy was dead, we decided to tell him that night instead of in the morning.  I wasn't sure how upset he would be during school. 

The next day, we decided to scoop Fishy out of the tank. It definitely looked dead by now. Graham said he wanted to bury her at the same spot where we put Tiger, the previous snail that died.  Unfortunately I had planted vegetables on this same spot, so I said ~ Why don't we put Fishy in the compost bin?  And Charlie chimed in and said something about how people (Native Indians?) used to put fish remains in the soil.  So, that settles that!

I left Fishy in our small bowl that is used to be taken out to our compost bin.  For such a tiny little fish, I couldn't believe the smell she was starting to give off after a few hours!

Fishy lasted 4 months and 3 days.  That's probably 4 months longer than what Bobby had predicted!  So I suppose in that sense, we did pretty well.  Ha ha! Although, I am still quite upset that Fishy had died.  I keep thinking back on what I could have done - maybe put her in a separate bowl and see if she could have recovered that way.  Not sure if the new plant is making her sick??!

Anyway, it seems that Graham has gotten over Fishy pretty well. It didn't take long for him to suggest buying another one!  I told him I'd like to figure out this whole temperature thing first.  The thermometer that I had purchased online came yesterday and after taping it to the bowl, there wasn't even a reading! Hmmm... the coldest it would register was 64F.  Could the water be that much colder than 64F??!  Well, the new heater is coming today.  I couldn't find a small heater for our fish bowl so I hope I don't mess up with this bigger sized one and cook up our snails.  That would really bad.  Wish me luck!!!