So Long and Thanks For All the Fish

In our time together, Blake and I have been the guardians of four betta fish: Louis, Maurice, Edmund, and Friedrich. Each of them came pre-packaged with their own unique personalities. Maybe because I never had dogs or cats growing up and never saw first-hand the wonders of pet personalities, or maybe because 'til now I just hadn't used my gift of common sense in this regard, but until I started caring for fish, I didn't realize that animals actually had personalities. Anyway, let me introduce you to the distinct dispositions of our four betta fish.

Louis
Louis entered into my life before I even met Blake. He was purchased by my roommates to replace our dead goldfish, Rover 1, in the summer of 2003. (I feel the need to insert here that Rover 1 got one heck of a swell funeral, complete with a reading of the 23rd Psalm, a procession up the stairs, and ceremonious flushing; my roommate, Linda, put a paper headstone on the underside of the toilet seat to remember him by.) Anyway, though...back to Louis. He was named for the Disney TV character, Louis Stevens, of Even Stevens fame. This was, by far, my roommate's favorite show. They were dedicated viewers and demonstrated that they were by naming the lovely blue-green betta fish after him.

When we all moved on to different apartments at the end of the summer, Louis went with me (he was, after all, living in my fish bowl). Once I moved across town, his personality started becoming more apparent. In fact, he started doing tricks, my favorite of which was his trick to play dead. He'd do so by floating ever-so-still in an odd vertical position (nose down among the rocks, tail hanging limply to one side). The first few times he did this, I'd shake the bowl, fearing the worst, but after a few good shakes, he'd come to. On one occasion, a roommate or visitor (I can't remember which) noticed him playing dead and said to me, "Uh, I think your fish is dead," to which I replied, "No, he's just pretending."

One day in February 2005, Louis stopped pretending. He lived a long life, which was as fulfilling as a life within a small fish bowl can be. And though we loved him, we had no graveside services.

Maurice
Maurice was the first betta fish Blake and I purchased together. We bought him in February 2005, to fill the void Louis left. He was a beautiful red fish, and Blake named him for his favorite philosopher of the time, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, thus beginning a tradition that has continued since of naming our fish after philosophers. As pretty as he was, though, Maurice was kind of pathetic. He died after only one week. We gave up on betta fish for a while after that.

Ed
Ed's entrance into our lives marked the happy occasion of me finally finding a job. For a couple months before we bought him, Blake would beg (and plead, and beg some more) for a betta fish. It got to be dangerous to take him with me to Walmart because walking past the fish aisle would make him start to whimper. But I told him that as soon as I was able to find a job, we could get a fish. And so, in September 2005, on the very day I was offered my current job, we went to Petsmart and bought a fish. Like Louis, Ed was a beautiful blue-green betta. In continuing with the new tradition, Blake named him Edmund Fish, in honor of philosopher Edmund Husserl. We called him Ed for short. Blake took this fish under his wing, always making sure he was fed and his bowl was clean, heralding the new and very happy tradition of Blake's responsibility to clean the fish bowl.

We noticed Ed's personality from the start. He was an extremely narcissistic fish, always playing with and admiring his beautiful reflection. He was not, like many bettas are, an angry fish who desires to fight his own reflection, and we very rarely saw him flare up. He was also a slow, uninterested eater, which made dinnertime a little disappointing. As he got older, he grew less self-loving and took instead to sleeping buried underneath the rocks at the bottom of the bowl.

Ed died, I'm assuming of natural causes, in July 2006. We were sad...he'd become a member of the household and it was surprisingly difficult to let him go. We buried him in the edge of the lawn, near some bushes. His grave is unmarked.

Friedrich
Friedrich is our newest fish. We bought him, I think, the same day Ed died (Blake was adamant and quite possibly a little fish-lonely). Friedrich is a lovely deep red betta fish, much like Maurice was, only so far Friedrich is still alive. Again, Blake named this fish. His full name is Friedrich Uberfish Anderspawn, after Friedrich Nietzsche and his Uberman theory.

Friedrich is a spunky, playful fish. He is quite different from Ed. For one, he anxiously looks forward to mealtime, and he attacks his food whenever we feed him. He likes to stare at us from his spot on the shelf while we eat breakfast as if to ask, "Hey, no fair...you're eating...why can't I?" And then he'll swish his fins like a puppy happily wagging his tail. It works every time. He eats loads more than Ed ever did and if we're not careful, he'll end up getting fat.

So that's it for the fish we've had so far. Blake, though, likes to spend his free time thinking about names for future fish. For the next male betta, he'll want to name him Ludwig ("because you can cover so many people with just one name...Beethoven, Wittgenstein...everyone else."), and he's decided that if we ever get a female betta, he'll name her Ayn Rand-erson (haha! I think this one is hilarious). Blake's thesis advisor wondered once when Blake would start naming his fish after psychologists instead of philosophers, but you see, the thing about Blake is that he's a philosopher, no matter what his master's degree is in. Anyway, Friedrich's keeping us happily occupied at the present, so I don't expect we'll be announcing a new fish anytime soon, but we'll keep you posted. Until then, so long and thanks for all the fish!

***
Okay, so I know that this post is already miles long, but I just wanted to say for the three of you who may be interested in knowing, that our car is back from the doctor's -- I mean, the repair shop. We picked it up yesterday afternoon and things so far seem to be running fine (as Blake said this morning when the car started without stalling: "It started so normally...I didn't even know anything was wrong!"). Turns out, the problem wasn't the o2 sensor...back when the o2 sensor was broken, it caused other surrounding parts to be improperly overworked causing the area to get very dirty. He cleaned it well, and now things are better. I guess it just goes to show that it's a good idea to regularly bathe...or something to that effect. But if it ever does start acting up again, we might follow the advice of Blake's thesis advisor and call up Car Talk. That could be entertaining.