quite a sensitive subject...

[Bottomfeeder2]

Okay, so I'm a dude, and i cry. call me a wuss, but i love all of my pets, no matter what size or shape they come in. 2 recent events come to mind.

First the happy story:
Last week my wife was getting ready for work (4:30 am! geesh!) and she noticed something brown on the rug in my office. thinking that the dog had pooped in the carpet she walked in and turned on the light. she screamed loud enough to wake me upstairs. i ran downstairs (thinking rightly that something was really wrong, i was right). Lying on the floor was our Pl*co, which we have had for 4 years. Angie was crying and yelling "is he okay?" over and over. he was till a little damp, so i picked him up and rinsed him off in a bowl of tank water (i have no "Q" tank... well i do now!) i placed him back in the tank... and floated head down in the middle of the tank. my wife began to cry hysterically,and i teared up. all of a sudden, he righted himself and slowly swam to his normal hiding place. we both let out a sigh and really started crying! he jumped out probably because of lack of oxygen, i had WAY too many fish in a 10 gal and my wife was going to buy me a bigger tank for Christmas. We promptly went out and bought it early. the Pl*co now has a new name; Harry Houdini!!!

Now the sad stuff..

I had a snail i picked up at walmart (bought at the same time as harry the Pl*co) when i was first starting out in the hobby. no matter what things i did wrong to the tank (and god knows i went thru enough neon tetras) Wong foo (funny name, i know, he was a hermaphroditic snail.. i never found out wht kind he was) never seemed to mind my abuse. I had that snail for almost 4 years, and through him, my wife also learned a love of our wet friends. being a herm, he of course spawned babies, (thousands it seems... none of my friends are without one of his kids!)
Well he died this summer, and as i buried him under the cherry tree in the back yard, my wife and i looked at one another and asked each other if it was silly to cry over a stupid old slimy snail. it isnt silly, it shows that that creature meant a lot to you, and in turn you had to have meant a lot to it. maybe not in the same way, but love isint always cerebral, care=love. Fourtunatly, we have all of wong foo's babies to remind us of him/her.

I gotta go. im getting misty, seriously.

Bryan :sad

i give you credit man. but for fish sakes...its PLECO:lipssealedsmilie:
i have 2 and i will always say Pleco
ive lost 1 so far...out of the 3 ive ever owned and that one was attacked by my Shrimp (Ottocinclus, BTW, yes theyre Plecos )

 

[Deanthoreu]

my brother...is 6' 3" tall he weighs in aorund 265 pounds football player ...long beard huge guy.....lifts weights all that stuff......well he has been a fish keeper since he was around 5 or 6.
he has giant pleco's and oscars' and jacks' and african cichlids and some of those things u are no longer permitted to purchase.....and the smallest tank in his house is about 125g.
One day, storm came up and blew roof of house...etc etc etc...2 days later he was able to finally get into his house (what was left of it)

When he got to the fish rooms (yes rooms) he started to cry....one tank had broken and this pleco and oscar he had in it....were ummm not there....
He sat down....and cried inconsluabley (sp) over his oscar and pleco (they were botha obut 5 or 6 years old)

He didnt care about the house, the cars, the living room or anything else "insurance will replace that; but these r my fish"

I actually saw a gentle side to my brother i had never seen before.

my 2 cents

 

[savi]

In high school, I had a tiger oscar named Cheech. I had him for like 4 years and in the beginning we went from a 10 gallon tank to a 65 gallon long with metal frame. I worked all summer to be able to upgrade his tank while he was a juvie. I bought him at walmart for like 6 bucks and found out quick what he needed. He taught me the value of having a python. He was a fun fish, very interactive and gorgeous. When I came home on the weekends during my first 2 years at college I would do his massive water changes. My mom enjoyed feeding him for me when I wasn't home. Then we had a big ice storm one year and lost power for like a week. When he died, I cried, wishing I could have saved my Cheech. My dad buried him for me in the back yard, he was too big for anything other then a proper burial. I had other fish tanks then too but he was the one I cried for. I ended up getting rid of all my fish and tanks for a good while because I couldn't bear to start over. Of course I couldn't stay away from the hobby forever and now I have tanks again that are my pride and joy. No more oscars for me though, I tried getting one once and ended up returning him to the store, just wasn't the same I guess. I am quite fond of my blood parrots now though and I am in love with guppies so who would've thought

 

[deeleywoman]

my brother...is 6' 3" tall he weighs in aorund 265 pounds football player ...long beard huge guy.....lifts weights all that stuff......well he has been a fish keeper since he was around 5 or 6.
he has giant pleco's and oscars' and jacks' and african cichlids and some of those things u are no longer permitted to purchase.....and the smallest tank in his house is about 125g.
One day, storm came up and blew roof of house...etc etc etc...2 days later he was able to finally get into his house (what was left of it)

When he got to the fish rooms (yes rooms) he started to cry....one tank had broken and this pleco and oscar he had in it....were ummm not there....
He sat down....and cried inconsluabley (sp) over his oscar and pleco (they were botha obut 5 or 6 years old)

He didnt care about the house, the cars, the living room or anything else "insurance will replace that; but these r my fish"

I actually saw a gentle side to my brother i had never seen before.

my 2 cents

ok, that one made me tear up.

 

[excuzzzeme]

As an outdoor sportsman I do not kill wantonly. I feel bad for the fish or game I might take and I make sure their death is not wasteful. When it comes to my animals, I have to say I have a strong attachment to them as well. I cried over the passing of my 18year old dog and was not embarrassed by it. I also feel bad when I lose any of my fish and take it personal. I assure you, you are quite normal.

 

[Fish-Addict]

I always get upset over a dead fish. It upsets me to take them oyut of the water and have a look at their body out of the water . My mate actually thinks its funny when a fish of his dies, he just gets some more. Such a shame

 

[Thedaniokeeper]

I can keep a dry eye when a danio dies, but when my pleco passes away, I know for a fact I will cry.

 

[Lexi_D]

I usually don't cry when one of my fish dies, but my 4 year old betta was special. When I first started fishkeeping, the guy at petsmart said i shouldnt put a betta in with my other fish, and i was really upset b/c i wanted one so bad...so my best Hannukah present EVER was a fish bowl and Fred. I took such good care of him.. after i started to know a little more about fish I made upgrades to his bowl like adding plants and stuff for him, and eventually I upgraded him to a 2.5 gallon tank. The first time he got sick (columnaris) I had panicked 'cause i didn't want to lose him (at the time he was 2 or 3). I made my dad rush out at 8:30pm to get the meds. He always ate very well; got a taste of what the fish in the main tank were having, like bloodworms or live brine shrimp. He got sick a few more times with a tail fungus, and i made sure to treat him carefully each time. He recognized my entire family... he'd beg for food from my dad when he got home from work, he knew either my mom or I would feed him in the mornings... But I still don't know what killed him... he was swimming funny in the morning and by the time I got home from school he was laying on the bottom of the tank.. he died soon after. I took him out to my garden and buried him. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy, standing out there in the rain sobbing.

Alright, I need to stop now, I'm tearing up. Just thought I'd add that in.

 

[jenazen69]

I cried when I had to take my white tailed rainbow shark back to my LFS. I was moving, and had no idea how long it would be until I could set the tank back up. My husband has been known to tear up when he thinks of the dwarf green pike cichlid pair he had to return to the LFS at the same time.I think he gets teary because they were his most favorite fish, and I can't seem to find any to replace them. I also cried when my dwarf sunset honey gourami's died. I think I cried that time because I knew I would never be able to replace them. They are rarely available at my LFS. I didn't cry when I lost my first german Blue Ram, but since then I have grown much more attached to the rest. They swim right into my palm when I put my hand in the tank. They also give fishy kisses. I will probably bawl me eyes out when they die. The fact that you cry just shows how great your capacity for love is. Some people can't become attached to animals to the point of loving them. I feel bad for people who are unable to experience this depth of caring. Just remember that the amount of sorrow is usually smaller than the total of the joy you received in caring for them.

 

[kalabreeze]

This thread was started in 2004