you know. the dead fish. the one that has been in my freezer for a week since i have been too busy to go back to the pet store. we had to go tonight, because we only have a 14 day warranty on the fish, and the receipt expired tomorrow. and even though the fish had obviously been dead for several days, the return involves a cash-register barcode scan, and you can't get the computer to mkae an exception.

so anyway [yeah... i had coffee this morning] ... we did find a new angelfish.

there wasn't much of a choice; only 3 fish left. i hope this one lives. other than the fact that i am really tire dof removing dead fish bodies from my tank and then having to SAVE them until i can get to the fish store... it is a really pretty fish. the original angel is a black-and-white zebra stripe. pretty common angelfish coloring. the new fish is a very pretyt shimmery gold color, with a very pale tiger stripe right by its eyes. it seems to be a bit larger than the original fish as well.

so, i'm rooting for it.

i have never named a fish, but i felt a very odd urge to call this one sheila. or shelly. or susan. very strange. and, only this one, not the original. do you think that means anything?

susan is opening her fins more now. things are looking pretty good.

fish boy at the pet store said angels are just really sensitive to stress and don't do well being transported. he didn't seem surprised that of the three angels that i have purchased, two have died. this makes my fourth angel fish.

but this is why i think this fish will make it. the first one that died is probably my fault. because, it didn't look very good at the fish store. it had been hiding under a rock. not natrual behavior for a tall skinny fish. i was not going to choose that fish, but i gave into the temptation to get on black with silver stripes, adn one silver with black strips.

and... it did look pretty cool, for the whole 15 hours that the fish lived.

the second fish we really thought was going to make it. michael picked the most agressive fish in the tank. the problem was that the newest fish shipment had been delivered less than 14 hours earlier. so, the poor fish had not recovered from the stress of being shipped from who-knows-where and then we dropped it in our tank. it lived for a copule days, but never did fully extend its fins, in the fish expression of comfort.

and now this new fish. the last shipment with angels was... the very shipment that we got the last dead one from. so they have been living there for almost two weeks. plenty of time to recover from shipping trauma.

and so far, it has been in our tank for about an hour; it is looking very calm, and starting to relax its fins a bit. they are about half way to fully extended.

so.. i am very hopeful this time.