Fish VI seemed fine when I left him on the morning of Friday, October 21. But he was behaving differently that night and the next morning. He was listless and instead of just sleeping on the bottom of his vase he looked like he was flattened. Over the next days I would check on him and find he had barely moved; in fact, I would think he had died, until he finally stirred when I tapped the glass.His water was needing cleaning but I hated to bother him. I was afraid moving him might be too much and would finally kill him off. I hated to think leaving him in dirty water would finish him off too. I finally put him in fresh water on Thursday, October 27 (when the following picture was taken). I moved him into the old cube, the original house of my first bettas. I ended up leaving him there.
And that’s how it continues to be. I keep expecting to find him dead, but he’s still showing signs of life. He’s looking worse each time though. His dorsal fin droops, his tail is curled up. In fact, it almost looks like he has back problems since his tail fin hardly moves. He lunges about more than swims. I’m also noticing him listing to the side, which is a sure sign the end is nigh. And, he’s exhibiting a mild form of the fishy dementia I’ve seen before — where, out of nowhere, they’ll suddenly burst into activity and zoom about madly — although Fish VI’s movement is obviously more limited than Fish III’s or Fish IV’s at the end.
He’s still hanging on though. It’s hard to believe Fish VI has lasted this long. It would be impressive if it weren’t so sad to watch.
