R.I.P oh Nameless One

A few days ago there was a death in the Kotyk family and I want to send my love out to a special someone who definitely influenced my life in many ways. He was my 12 year old red eye tetra fish (they are only supposed to live 4-5 years) which I got when I was in grade 10. He lived in my 10 gallon aquarium and moved 7 times with me over the years, and believe me...moving an aquarium is not an easy feat. He didn't have a name because when I got my fish there were two of them and I couldn't tell them apart so I left them nameless; although when the other one died many many years ago, I did lovingly refer to the surviving tetra as "bastard fish". This was the meanest fish that ever swam. He would bite the fins off of any other fish that I placed in that tank. To say the least, he was alpha-fish. I learned many things from this fish. Most of all, I learned the kinds of fish that are available to buy which are the most aggressive. Whenever I would go into a pet store to purchase some new fish, I would ask for the meanest fish that they had. Unfortunately these so called "aggressive fish" that they point out to me never survived the likes of Bastard Fish. He was a fighter til the end. I buried him under a shrub in the back-yard because I figured since the guy was 12 years old, flushing him down the toilet just wouldn't be a good enough send off. Dying with a little dignity was what he deserved.

Not much to report other than that. I ended up not having to babysit so we headed out to birchbank again to enjoy the hot weather. Splash was grateful to spend the day with us and get a lot of swimming done. We got a bit too much sun which was stupid and actually a bit surprising since I was covered in sunscreen. It's hard to keep up on applying it when you're out in the sun for 20 minutes, then in the water for 20 minutes, then out for 20 minutes...what's a person to do? Apply every time you get out? Then it doesn't even have enough time to be absorbed properly and ends up just washing away when you jump in the water. I dunno. Maybe I'll call Coppertone and ask for some advice.