Tragic Loss

I arrived back home yesterday evening--that was very exciting! The girls were VERY happy to see me again and of course, I was just as thrilled. The girls told me all about their fun weekend with Daddy while we ate our dinner.

Niah told me that Martin's Tank (Martin is her Beta fish) was all murky. I figured that something got put in the water that shouldn't be there, and so we decided to clean out his tank. Niah wanted to do it herself and I was still busy unpacking, so I told her that was fine.

She got his tank all cleaned out, filled it up with clean water, and arranged all his furnishings. Martin wasn't too happy in his small cup, so I told Niah that she could put him back in his home. She did and within 2 minutes she was screaming, "SOMETHING"S WRONG WITH MARTIN!" I had been taking a bath, but I jumped out and ran to his tank. Martin was belly up. TJ noticed the tank was warm and that's when we realized that the water in his tank was hot. I rushed Martin's tank to the sink and immediately began putting cool water in it, but it didn't seem to help. I watched Martin really closely for almost an hour--hoping that he would come back to life. TJ thought that he saw his gills moving (30 minutes after no activity) and when I went back in to look, he did jump. I wasn't sure if that was really life or just the nerve reactions. We watched for another 3o minutes before pronouncing the news...Martin would no longer be with us.

Of course, the girls are devastated. Niah and Aliya haven't stopped crying. I feel horrible because normally I check to make sure everything is done correctly before we put Martin back in the tank. Niah had the water hot because normally we put hot water in the tank and then let it cool down to room temperature. I just assumed that she had put cool water in since we were going to be putting Martin back in quickly, and she assumed I knew it was still hot. It was pure accident, but that doesn't make it better.

The girls decided they wanted to take Martin to the park pond, so TJ went with Niah and Aliya down to the stream. They put Martin in the water and said their good-byes.

The girls had a hard time going to sleep last night, and Niah even woke up in the middle of the night crying. Several times today, Aliya came up to me and told me that she missed Martin.

We decided that we would go ahead and get another fish, but we didn't have a chance today. We are going to go first thing tomorrow morning. Martin has been a part of our lives for over a year now, and he has been through a lot! He finally had grown back all his tail and fins from his accident with Aliya--they were even starting to get the color back into them.

Martin will not be forgotten. He is missed and will be missed forever. Goodbye, Martin. We love you!

--Heidi