Goodbye Bomber

He was a good fish, as far as fish go. I mean, he didn’t make me work too hard to catch him with the net when I needed to clean his bowl.

He was aware of when Alyssa was pointing at food and was quick to make his way to the surface of the water to gobble up whatever food was given to him.

He also very much enjoyed flaring out at anyone who dared to look at him through the glass of his bowl. Like I said, he was a good, funny fish.

According to my very lazy internet search, the average Betta fish lives about two years.

Bomber was five.

Yesterday, we found him at the bottom of his bowl on his side.

Tom saw five bits of food at the bottom of the bowl so we think he probably died the day before.

There were no tears over this loss.

I mean, come on, he lived three years, over twice as long, as his average kinsmen. That and well, he was a fish.

After losing Orville, I think Alyssa has been preparing herself for this day. We’ve noticed over the past couple of months that Bomber had slowed down. There were days when he’d be at the bottom of the bowl and one of us would ask, “Do you think he’d dead?”
Then he’d twitch and move and blow a bubble, letting us know that nope, not dead yet.

But perhaps the close watch we kept on him kept Alyssa’s emotions at bay, let her start to grieve for him even a little before he was actually gone.

And honestly, it’s not like a fish is cuddly. Ick, no.

But he was funny and amusing and sure, okay, also disgusting. We’ll miss him even though we’re not actually crying over him.

Goodbye Bomber. I hope you had a good life with us. We certainly tried to make it so, you know, with the regular feedings and water changes/bowl cleanings.