Mr Fluffypants is sadly MIA. He had been looking increasingly sluggish the last few days – and I was worried he might be on his last legs (or whatever the appropriate fishy version of that metaphor is). Seems my concerns were valid, unfortunately. So, that’s two piscine vanishings in the last year, not including the one who had a prolonged vacation in the sump a while back. We still have Lucky with us, so we are back to four fish, which is probably doing OK. I’d hate to get a reputation as a fish killer. I had a friend years ago who was desperate to have fish in her flat. She bought a fish bowl and two goldfish, I can’t remember their names – probably “temporary” and “impermanent” because they certainly didn’t hang around for long. She replaced them with two more fish, but they departed soon after. In fact she worked her way through quite a few, with their names steadily getting tougher and tougher to try and give them the right stuff to last longer: Harley, Axel, Brutus, Magnar, Maximus, Rex – it was all very sad. I think in retrospect she didn’t know that you had to remove the chlorine out of the tap water when filling the bowl. Or maybe she just wasn’t feeding them. Anyway you’ll be pleased to know she is an excellent mother. No fish though.
