Even though it is just a fish, this koi had a lot of history with us. First it came from Toronto, surviving a 6 hour bumpy car ride in an air filled bag. I was 14/15 years old at the time, so it's been with us more than 10 years. I never gave it a name, I never do with all the fish I had, seemed meaningless. But only until I was older I started calling it Old Man because he survived through all the deaths and sickness of his companions. In recent years, he became slower and less hungry, I even saved his life a few times (salt really cures fish--no pun intended). I felt bad for him when his eye sight worsened; I would drop food strategically in his view but he had trouble getting to it. His companion would dart towards his food and eat them before he could. I learnt to separate the feeding into opposite sides. Call me crazy but I would mumble a silent support to Old Man to quickly get his food before Mr.Speedy steals it. This weekend after cleaning the tank, I noticed a red rash/streak over his bladder area, a little concern so I tried a salt bath with air bubbles treatment; Old Man seemed happier and livelier, maybe that was his "last hurrah". It's crazy and incredible how Old Man lost all his yellow and orange colour when he died; nature is incredible. I will miss his quiet Old Man nature whenever I pass by, staring at me while his friend in the background is swimming around like it has some place to go, but not Old Man, he looked wise and unfazed by the fool his friend is; almost giving me a hopeless stare. I owned a good handful of fish in my lifetime, Old Man and his late partner will be the most memorable ones.
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