A Heartfelt Obituary for Freckles

**ekfishlover2011** · 09-25-2011, 02:13 AM

3/20/2011-9/23/2011

These are the Birth and Death Dates of Freckles the Molly, daughter of Spotz and Polly. Freckles came from a large litter of 16. She is survived by 3 sisters; Flounder, Flow, and Marbles; 2 brothers Blackie (previously Pepper), and Jersey. Also she has 5 other siblings who moved out to a pet store and were later adopted by a coworker of mine. I didnt know their sexes, and i dont even know if all 5 are still alive.

Freckles was a friendly loving Dalmation Lyretail Molly. She loved all of her siblings as well as every other fish in the tank. Her favorite pasttime was helping her brothers steal food from the big mean pleco, knowing they were risking their lives doing so, but not caring because they loved the adrenaline rush they got from it, and they really loved food. She really hated the gravel vac, as it always tried to suck her up, probably because she loved food and would chase yummy morsels into the mouth of the vac to try to grab them before it did (much to the disdain of the person operating it, as it was a manual-start siphon and she had to stop it everytime). Her brother Jersey is the smallest living sibling, and she was the second smallest. She had to watch in horror one day as the biggest brother ripped her beloved brother Jersey's tail right off one day in a fight over her. She wasnt even ready to breed yet, and she never understood this act of violence.

Freckles was glad when Pepper (now Blackie) was traded to my mother for her beloved sister Marbles. Her last three weeks of life were relaxing, except for the sharp pain in her gut. She didnt know what i was, but it hurt so bad. Since little Jersey is the only male left in the tank she was in, she had one less fish to bug her, and Marbles attracted much of Jersey's attention anyway, as she had no pain to slow her down. If only this pain would go away she would feel so much better...

...At roughly 3:00pm on Friday September 23, 2011, i came home from work to find Jersey following Marbles around, the tetras schooling, the guppy trying to mate with the tetras (sigh) and something odd. Freckles had something sticking out of her. Lets get out of these wet clothes and then investigate. 3:15pm i come back to investigate. Its either her colon or her uterus, and its definitely not where it belongs. Its a hernia. Will she be able to survive like that? If its her uterus she might, but probably ot if colon... I dont have my specimen tank back yet, my mom was borrowing it and my stepdad threw it out. Shes swimming fine, so she should be able to last til later when i change the tank. Ill find something to put her in then. So we left to go get some pizza, because i was starving.

*The following section may be innapropriate for young viewers or those with weak stomachs, so read no further if you wont be able to take it, but i feel it is necessary for her obituary to tell as much about her death as possible, so anybody who ever has this problem can learn from my mistakes. Her death shall not be in vain, she will be an educational experience.*

7:15pm Friday September 23, 2011. Just got back, we stopped to get some stuff while we were out, time to change the tank. Lets find our injured fish and get her out. Ill put her in this tupperware container i found in my cabinet. Where is she? Dead. Freshly dead, sometime in the last 20mins im estimating. Poor Freckles must have snagged the hanging entrails on something like a plant, or another fish may have grabbed it. Im not sure, all i know is she was empty, and a greedy shrimp had a large piece of her entrails in his little claws as he walked away. But thats how the animal kingdom works, i cant really blame a healthy fish for killing and/or eating an unhealthy dying one.

So learn from my mistakes, if you ever see a fish with what looks like a hernia, seek medical attention if not so severe, or euthanize immediately if severe or to cheap to pay all that money for. Dont procrastinate. This fish's death sounds horribly painful, and maybe if i would have tended to my injured fish she would have either lived or i could have given her a much faster death. Nothing deserves to die like this, and i am ashamed that i was so worried about my own needs to allow this suffering to take place for 3 hours. And who knows how long this was going on inside of her. I never suspected anything, because even that morning at 7am i fed them before i left, and she ate and was fine like everyone else. Once it gets this bad, the slightest tug from anything can rip it all out, so place in a tank with no decorations or fish of any kind.

You can read again from here to the end.

RIP Freckles. Loved by all (except maybe Steve the Pleco) and missed by many. I hope you are now reunited with your parents and other siblings, and can be forever pain-free.

Sincerely, EK :'(

**Honey Badger 1** · 09-25-2011, 03:13 AM

**Aeonflame** · 09-25-2011, 03:22 AM

**ekfishlover2011** · 09-25-2011, 03:42 AM

Thanks guys. Also to add to my learn from me thing:

Dont go to the store and buy a male and a female from the same tank to breed, they are probably siblings. Breeding these siblings is how you get the deformities. I never knew that before. If i had known that i wouldnt have ever saved Freckles and her siblings from being eaten. They were all destined to be prone to these things due to their parents most likely being related. Somebody told me this on another forum. So if i want to breed again i should be fine using Jersey and my new female i now have to buy, because i got Spotz and Polly a year ago, so most likely the ones at store right now arent related to Jersey anymore. Otherwise to prevent deaths like Freckles, any offspring of Jersey and Marbles will be left to be eaten at birth and therefore never experience enough life to worry about anything. Ill also warn my mom not to save any of Blackie and his sisters' offspring either.