Rest in peace, Purple-ella

Every time Jemma asks me if we can have a dog or a cat I say, "Yes - but not until we have a house." For the time being we have three beta fish: Blue Fish, Rainbow, and Purple-ella. I'd love to have more (real) pets, but our apartment's too small to have a kitty litter, and there's no way I'm scooping dog poop off the sidewalk. For now Jemma's content with the fish.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed Purple-ella motionless at the bottom of her bowl. Fish at the bottom of the bowl = dead fish. Right? Well, not exactly... Upon closer inspection I could see that Purple-ella was still 'breathing'. I've never even heard of a fish lying down before, so I figured after a couple of hours we'd have to "take her to the toilet".

But I kept checking every day, and every day she was still alive and... not exactly 'well', but she was hanging in there. So I thought, another day or two at the most...

But she's still with us. Three weeks later. She just lies on the floor most of the time, occasionally swimming to the surface to get food.

I guess she just needs some rest.