Stoopid Fish

I had two penguin tetras in my tank. One is aggressive. The other one was just kind of wimpy. As they grew, the aggressive one got bigger. The wimpy one got sick. It floated about looking gaunt and was slow to get at the flakes at feeding time.

I decided to fatten it up. So I hand fed it. I dropped food right in front of it so it could get to the food before the other fish swarm in. Even then, sometimes it missed the food, it was so slow. Then I had the brilliant idea of netting it in the water and feeding it so it could take its time. After a few days, the fish looked better. It swam faster and got frisky.

So frisky that when I fed the fish today, it charged up to the food and did a flip. I felt water splash on my hand. I looked in the tank to watch the fish feed. But I couldn't see the formerly-wimpy penguin tetra. Where did it go? Then I heard little flaps on the floor. I looked down to see the stupid fish flapping about on the floor.

I tried to pick it up off the floor but couldn't hold onto its slippery tail. So I got a piece of paper, scooped it up, and flipped it back in the water. The poor thing floundered about for a while. It was in shock I was sure. Then I turned the light off to let it recover in its own time.

Only it didn't. When I looked into the tank a few hours later, the stupid fish was dead. It was a long fall to the floor from the tank. And it was out of the water for at least one minute. I hand fed that fish to make him well only to have him get flippant on me and tumble to his death.