Grim Fish

I gave Grim a burial at pond today in near by John Crompton Park. He died of an infection that started in his left eye, but eventually began spreading elsewhere. I remember I got him my second day back at TAMUG for my sophomore fall semester; I bought him at Walmart and when I brought him home to his 10 gallon tank and turned on the light he sank right to the bottom and leaned against the glass mortified. I was sure he was going to die the first couple of days I had him, which lead me to naming him Grim. He slowly over the course of the week (mostly during which his tank light was kept off) he got more active and lively. It wasn't long before he grew to needing a larger tank. When I did my awesome semester of Calculus I where I got an A after getting Ds in PreCal and the first time I took Cal 1, he floated around his tank on my desk and intently watched me do homework. Oscar fish are always said to be somewhat smarter than other fish and are renowned for having personalities; I don't know about fish intelligence, but Grim definitely had personality. I had to move him home once and he jumped out of the tank while I was changing water. I scooped him up off the floor to put him back in the tank and he bit me with his big boney, toothless fish jaws. He never tried to jump out of the tank ever again. After I left Galveston I moved him to College Station, first in an apartment, then we lived alone for a while, then we moved through another apartment before settling in the current one. He got so big that fish nets and bags were no longer possible modes of transportation, I had to carry him in a bucket. I took a lot of pride in how large and healthy Grim grew up to be, so it was really difficult for me when he got sick because of me and slowly but surely died over the course of 2 weeks. Some days he looked so much better and some days he looked so much worse. All together he lived a good 5 years and I'd like to think that most of the time he was a happy fish. The apartment feels a lot more lonely without him.