Fish tails: Part 2

Ronald the Salmon-tailed Catfish just after he was moved into his new home - not happy

Dear friends,

I thought I would give you an update on the fish following on from a story I wrote the other day.

In the previous story I told you how Ronald the salmon-tailed catfish had eaten one of the other fish, or so we believed.

I feel terrible—why, you may ask?

On Saturday I was relaxing in my armchair and something caught my eye—I noticed movement at the entrance of our very large conch shell.  I called out to my husband in what he described as a "hysterical yell"!  He came, he looked and he agreed that a fish was most certainly stuck in the shell.

It was our missing fish. No horrible acts of cannibalism had occurred at all.

Now, it was clear that Miss Fish was stuck in the shell and had been there for the entire week. Dear husband lifted up the shell and gave it a shake. Nothing happened.

He grabs a towel and hammer and we decide to break the shell.

As DH struggled to get the large shell out of the tank, Miss Fish falls out — half her size.

Miss Fish has now spent the last few days recovering, eating a little to get her strength back and remaining near the bubbles to help with oxygen and buoyancy as she was rather unstable on her “fins” for a while.

She is doing well at the moment and even coped with the move to her new home.

As for the conch shell, it’s not going into their new home. As for Ronald, he didn’t do anything wrong at all and when he saw Miss Fish he was very gentle with her — he isn’t bad at all, just mis-understood.

PS you might ask why we didn’t look inside the shell, we did, but didn't see anything and unlike dogs and cats, fish can’t bark or meow for help and no matter how much Miss Fish hit her fin against the side of the shell, no one heard her cries

Ronald and Miss Fish (the one trapped in the shell for the week)

Ronald, Roy and Miss Fish all together in their new tank - it has been a stressful afternoon for them, but I think they will relax soon.  Dear Husband will be draining the other tank and we will find someone who will come are remove it.

The fish in their new home. They seem to like it.

Dear husband is thrilled with his new hobby and loves the tank and fish. He has bought lots of chemical testing equipment, temperature gauges and is becoming quite the expert.  This should keep him busy in his retirement and something to watch when he needs breaks from writing his book.