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Where did his fin go?


We had done our first real water change with an aquarium vacuum.

That was a dramatic event in itself. We will get to that another time.

Our routine started to be,

Wake up, get coffee, 

Turn on the tank lights,

Say “Hi” to the fish.

This morning I noticed, 

Yellow Fish didn't have a back fin!

I look closer!

“It looks cut off.” I thought 

“Oh My Gosh”

It came to me 

I cut his tail off with the vacuum. 

You know what I did next.

Yup.. you're right..

I texted Shane.

“I think I cut Yellow Fish's tail off with the vacuum.”

He replies

“I don't think that could have happened, the current is not strong enough to hurt them.”

“Well.. Why does he have no fin?”

“It's seriously gone!” 

I sat and watched him swim for a bit.

Trying to decide how this could have happened.

“This fish keeping business isn't getting easier.” I thought 

“Everything is going wrong!”

He struggled to swim.

He would get some momentum, 

Then, flip around.

He would swim on his side, trying to get his balance back.

This was stressful to watch.

It made me want to hug him.

I needed to know if he could die without a tail.

Open my phone,

Open chatGPT,

And ask,

“Will my fish die without a tail?”

“The answer was pretty reassuring”

If it was only the tail and not the body. Fish can grow their fins back.

That was a relief. 

What a cool fact to know about fish.

I then looked closer.

Trying to determine if I got his body or just his fin.

I didn’t think at this point that I got his body, just his tail. 

“Okay.. I could breathe.” I thought. 

“He can grow it back!”

No big deal.

So. I decided.

I will just keep a good eye on him.

But..

Soon I learned I had not cut his tail off.

Something else was wrong.




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