Just thought I'd share the story of Ben my Angelfish. Out of every fish I've had, Ben is the toughest. Not in attitude or size but in wanting to live. I got him and another very friendly koi angel in September 2012. Last winter the other angel (my favorite fish I've ever owned) died from an unknown cause over the course of 2 days and I eventually had to euthanize him sadly. A few months after, Ben started loosing his graceful finage. He lost quite a bit of every fin on his body and I thought he was going to die since he could barely move. Eventually he recovered a bit and somewhat grew his fins back. Then shortly after he lost his fins again, this time even worse. By the time they stopped getting shorter he looked like a living coin and he had stumps for dorsal and anal fins, almost no caudal fin, no pelvic fins, and absolutely no pectoral fins at all. I was certain he was going to die and I almost euthanized him but he started growing them back a tiny bit after a while to the point where he looked like an anchor. He couldn't move very well and he ran into everything, especially the substrate. They stopped coming back after he looked like an anchor so I thought I'd just have a crippled angelfish. Well no it got worse. Only it wasn't his fins this time, I went to feed his tank in the morning and noticed he was missing his right eye. So now he had incredibly short or missing fins and was half blind. He stayed like this up until a few days ago and was still feeding and swimming through it all. So a few minutes ago I sit down next to his tank and notice his dorsal and anal fins are near full finage once more and he needs only to grow back the filament, his pelvic fins are also growing back slowly, and finally for the first time in months he has pectoral fins again! This is the best recovery I've seen from him to date and hopefully soon his fins will be back completely! He'll never grow his eye back but he's still feeding and behaving normally so that shouldn't much matter in terms of health. Just seeing those stumps on his sides turn back into fins today was truly inspiring.
This just further proves the point that fish aren't novelty pets but they're living things who have personalities and the will to live no matter what!
While all fish have the desire to stay alive I can't name a fish out there who's been through more than Ben. And through this whole thing he's always greeted me with a smile whenever I walk up to the tank.
This just further proves the point that fish aren't novelty pets but they're living things who have personalities and the will to live no matter what!
While all fish have the desire to stay alive I can't name a fish out there who's been through more than Ben. And through this whole thing he's always greeted me with a smile whenever I walk up to the tank.
