Tippy Zippy

I have a loverly little stray fish that randomly adopted my fish tank a few months back. He is small, long and sleek, with the interesting habit of zipping around the tank. He has made it through the days of the summer, moving from one floor another, times of lean flakes and times of gluttony, and lots of interesting moves from tank to tank that should have killed him. Through it all he was annoyingly hale and hearty, healthy even when SEVEN other fish died right in his home.

The other day, as I was the caring and loving owner that I am, and feeding and such, I suddenly noticed something odd.
As he swam, he was doing an odd little dance. If he slowed down or paused at all, he would fall over. Like actually tip to one side. At first I was too incapacitated by laughter to do anything about it. A few minutes later, after picking myself up off the floor and making sure no one had been seriously creeped out or worried by the laughter coming from a single room at six in the morning, I finished my morning routine and carried on with my day.
When I got back to the room after my classes, he was noticeably worse, with he buoyancy affected as well. At this point I decided it was my duty as the foster owner to do a little research, Just a very little though.

Come to find out he has some kind of infection of his swim bladder, which is like the tanks on a submarine, that actually make fish buoyant. ( I was not equipped with this at birth, but that explains why Lazy Phil floats...) It can be deadly, but usually isn't, depending on the kind of infection. 

By the end of that day he was doing odd little twirling motions and barrel rolls galore. This was the fodder for a lot more convulsive laughter bouts.

He is a little better now but still can't swim very well. Every now and then he will get tired and stop completely, coming to rest on his side at the bottom of the tank for a few seconds then starting his odd little version of swimming again. It is quite amusing, but the official owner's reaction is much funnier, and since I know what she is planning on blogging soon, I will give you the following...

CoffeeChica: Will you PLEASE just flush zippy??
me: no
CoffeeChica:: Aww
me: He deserves the chance to live
CoffeeChica: He has lived a nice long life
and he is suffering
and nasty
me: You believe in euthanasia too huh?
CoffeeChica:It's a bloody fish!

not your grandma
;)
me: It's the principle of the thing
CoffeeChica:: Whatever
I am not coming to your room... not gonna look at him again
:'(
me: He is fine
Trying out for the circus
CoffeeChica: Shutup
You're not helping!
me: :)

LadyAnne