A Connection Gone

 It's a bit ... bittersweet to lose a connection. 

Like a connection to a plance. To a person. To a memory.

Yesterday I lost a bit of a connection to my Mother Dearest. 

In that one of my fish died.

How is a fish connected to my mom?

Well. 

She had a glofish tank before she passed. 

And one of those glofish was a blue glo rainbow shark. 

It was in with other fish as well. Tiger barbs and other glofish my Mother Dearest enjoyed as well.

And that fish survived so much.

Like Daddoo at one point ended up moving it into a tiny 1 gallon tank because it was killing all his other fish and it survived.

It survived when multiple tanks got sickness that killed most of the fish.

Including when he eventually gave the shark to me to have in my 125 gallon tank when he finally decided to stop keeping a fish tank for good. 

That fish has lived for like...at least a decade by this point.

Which is a good nice long lifespan for a fish.

Especially the glofish because with the genetic modifications to make them glo...I honestly don't quite know how similar their live spans are to normal fish of the same breed.

So the fact that this fish lived at least a decade?

Impressive.

But the last month or so I've noticed him slowing down.

Becoming less aggressive in the tank.

Less likely to chase around his favorite fish to chase around.

More likely to just sit in a cave that I got for the tank and chill.

And the sitting became more common. The swimming became less common.

So I could tell that his time was coming. 

And it's been bittersweet.

Because like my Daddoo called this fish "bad boy" for a reason and I've had to be careful in what type of fish I put in my tank with him because I'm pretty certain he would kill some of the fish he decided he didn't like. 

So like. I'm glad he's finally out of my tank so I can have a bit more freedom in what fish I do want to put tin my tank.

But also like ... this was one of the last fish my mom had before she passed.

It's a small connection to her ... that I don't have anymore. 

I'll look in the tank when I feed the fish and won't see the gloshark anymore. Won't see that little reminder of my Mother Dearest. 

And while one solution would be to 'get another shark of the same color' to kinda make it like the fish never left....

It does also feel like a chapter that has been closed. A time for a new chapter to be written.

But yah.

It's been kinda bittersweet. 

Goodbye Bad Boy. You'll be missed. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi