RIP Chicken Hawk…

Yup. Lost one already :(

I mentioned on the last post how I felt Brody’s fish, Chicken Hawk, was a bit “off”. Last night Bret and I noticed his tail/fin seemed to be misshaped. I looked back at previous pictures and sure enough… it looks as though another one of his fishmates had been gnawing on poor Chicken Hawk’s hind end. I felt so bad and asked Bret what we should do. Bret was slightly less concerned to say the least “He’s a FISH, Heather!” We headed off to bed and when I checked on our little friend this morning he was a goner. I feel like the worst fish-mom ever :(

Today was “Opening Day” of t-ball season so I headed out super early with the quads. We didn’t mention anything to Brody before we left and the plan was for Bret to do the “replace the fish so the kid will never know” thing before meeting up with us later during the day. Bret & Blade went to the store and picked out a new orange fish and returned it to our tank. 

When we got home I called Brody over to check on the fish to see if he’d notice. It was a few minutes before he finally noticed that this orange fish was about 5 times the size of the one he had. A bit confused he said “What?! How did you do that? Is my fish DEAD?” I don’t think the thought entered his mind that we replaced his fish, rather he just KNEW this one wasn’t his. I confirmed his suspicion and told him that yes, Chicken Hawk had died. Brody wasn’t too upset. He fought a few tears but none fell. Kylee, hearing the news from across the house, came running and, as expected, was a bit concerned. Although she didn’t cry she wanted to know exactly what happened. If I had to guess, I’d say Korbin’s hormonal pregnant fish was the one who had been snacking on him. I’ve seen her just a handful of times chase a few others around the tank, but nothing crazy. Rather than throw Korbin’s fish under the bus, we told the quads’ we didn’t know exactly what happened. They all seemed fine with that answer!

Soooo while we wish a farewell to Chicken Hawk, we say hello to Brody’s new fish which he named “Goldy”.

Here’s to hoping there are no more causalities among our underwater friends for a long time!