MEET MOONLIGHT

Meet Moonlight.

Born/Bought May 24th

(into the Schubert family)

Died a peaceful death, June 9th

This is Calli's fish Moonlight, a female Beta fish that shares (shared) a divided bowl with Colson's male fish with no name. Yesterday Colson decided he would clean out their bowl and put fresh water in it. A very thoughtful gesture if it wasn't coming from a 4 year old BOY! He comes into the bathroom where I am getting ready and tells me of his plans. I think 'that's harmless, those fish are really hard to kill' and ask him to walk me through what he was going to do. The 10 minute explanation that followed was very animated, thorough and sounded successful.

As I enter the kitchen a few minutes later he is sitting on the counter next to the sink and his fish is lying next to him (on the counter). I frantically question why his fish is not in the bowl and he looks at me and very non chalantly shrugs his shoulders, puts his hands up and says "He's dead". I race to pick him up telling him that he can't be dead these things are impossible to kill.

Colson reassures me again "Yea, he's dead".

So, I pick up the fish and put him in his bowl and he begins to swim. (sigh)

I then look at Calli's fish who is already in the bowl and not moving. "What's wrong with Calli's fish?" I question Colson.

"Uuuuhhhhhh....the water is kinda hot" he says.

"Hot?" I say as I stick my finger in there. While it is not scalding, it is on the warm side. I immediatly take both fish out and put in clean, room temperature water but unfortunatly it was too late for Moonlight (Calli's fish).

Now whether Moonlight was dead before Colson decided to play pet shop or whether Moonlight couldn't handle the water temperature shock and died, we'll never know. What IS known is that Moonlight lived a short life in the Schubert household where his owner had become attached (?!?!) and used the moment to grieve in typical little girl manner (DRAMA!)

Needless to say, next time Colson wants to clean the bowl out, I think I'll supervise.
Moonlight...may you rest in peace :)