This blog is not for the light-hearted or easily offended. If either one of those descriptions applies to you, i would suggest you start drinking before you read this blog. A sense of humor is suggested. If you don't have one that sucks for you … find one and get a life!
Last night, right before bedtime, I went into my office to plug in my iPad. I glanced over at the fish tank and it was so beautiful because I had just changed the water. I could see Gilgamesh swimming all around but I didn’t see Hercules.
I went closer and Herc was just there in the water, on the bottom. He was completely parked, not moving, and not blinking. (Do fish blink? I have no clue) I looked at him and even his fins were perfectly still.
“Is he dead?” I thought. “If he’s dead wouldn’t he be floating?” I then realized that all I knew about fish I learned from Ruthless People, the movie. In Ruthless people the two fish, named Crockett and Tubbs were “floating” therefore indicating that they were dead.
I said “Herc” loudly and still he didn’t move. “Uh oh” I thought but then I did what any normal person would do in this circumstance, I fed them. Sure enough, within moments Herc had come back to life and was eating.
I went into the bedroom and told Kevin who was practically asleep:
Me: do you think fish sleep?
Kevin: I’m trying to
Me: I wonder if they blink
Kevin: why do you ask?
Me: I thought Herc was dead because he was just so still
Kevin: I suppose it depends if there’s air in their lungs?
Me: do fish have lungs? I know they have gills
Kevin: I’m trying to sleep
Me: do you realize that all I know about dying fish is from the movies?
Kevin: movies?
Me: yeah, like Crockett and Tubbs (best names ever) were floating in Ruthless People
Kevin: leave me alone
Me: also in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen they were floating
Kevin: I’m seriously trying to sleep
Me: I wonder if they exhaled first if they would sink
Kevin: good grief
Me: well, I will have to check this all out now
Kevin: can you do that another time and leave me alone
So now I have to figure all this out or how will I ever know if my fish die? Also, I don’t want to feed them if they’re sleeping because do fish sleep? I have no idea. What do you guys think?
I’m afraid of landing in your spam comments if I drop in a bunch of links, but just head to Amazon and put “do fish sleep” in the search bar. The first two hits are really cool books that have saved my ass from my son’s rather ruthless questions, which go about like yours do, and which require ANSWERS MOMMY before sleep/breakfast/car rides can be achieved.
i actually DID google it and fish don’t sleep per se but go into a sort of fugue state which is on the bottom of the tank just chilling. But thanks
I predict a Fish Fact Friday in the near future . . .
Hahaha… Maybe