Personal Narrative Essay: Rainbow Fish

I used to love fish. Ever since I was a toddler I loved everything fish themed! ‘Rainbow Fish’, by Marcus Pfister, was one of my favorite children’s books and I even had a lot of Rainbow fish themed stuffed animals and toys. “Mom, can you read me Rainbow Fish again?” I said while I layed on my stomach with my face down on the pillow. “Ok Sweetie.”, My mom said with a smile on her face, probably for the 5th time that night. One of my favorite movies as a child was Finding Nemo. I had to have sat down on the couch at least once a week to watch Finding Nemo, and take in the beauty of the ocean and all the cute little animated fishies. I had an ocean themed bathroom. I was too careless as a child to really care about the decor, as I picked my tooth

brush from the toothbrush holder which happened to be a fish, and I still have it today! And one of my favorite computer games was a game called ‘Insaniquarium’, where the goal was to feed fish, collect coins and shells they drop, and shoot evil aliens that try to eat your fish!

“Dad I’m scared. Can you watch me?” I was actually scared of the aliens you were supposed to shoot. My dad came to watch me sometimes, and when he didn’t I had to learn not to be scared of the evil aliens trying to eat my fish. By the time I was 5 years old, I was pretty convinced I wanted to be a marine biologist. I did projects about fish in Elementary School, and I always knew the difference between the “Dorsal fin.” and the “Claudal fin.”. Needless to say, I used to have a pretty big fascination with marine life. Not as much anymore, now that I’m older, but fish still have a place in my heart, especially the 20 fish I used to have as pets when I was about 6 years

old.
I was at my next door neighbor’s house swimming with my friend in the pool.

“Kyle, I have a surprise for you at home! It’s your very early birthday present.” She sure did excite me because I ran home, and there it was on a table in my room - A fishtank! It was a pretty large tank, about 2 ½ feet wide, but it was empty. “Let’s go to the pet store to pick out some fish, Kyle” My mom sure did make that day great. The pet store was called ‘Critters’, in Rio Rancho, and it was one of my favorite places to go and just look at the different animals they had from time to time. This time, however, I was actually able to buy some! This was my first pet, so you can probably imagine my excitement. We decided to get some tropical fish that could survive in salt water, because I thought they looked “cooler and more exotic!”. Looking back, I didn’t realize how difficult it was to keep saltwater fish alive and healthy for a long time, but I still enjoyed the year that I did have them, my first

pets.
We had to start with 3 “acclimator fish” to test the saltwater and see how they managed in the tank. I don’t remember what kind of fish they were, but I remember what they looked like and the names I gave them. They were three tiny fish, a little larger than a quarter,and the first of them was a tiny blue fish I named Blooby. Blooby was my favorite, but I would never tell the others. The second was a pink fish I named Pinky, I think, and the third was a black and white striped fish I named Sam. After 3 days, the liveliness of my 3 fish determined that the tank was fit for more fish! My mom took me back to Critters, and I was able to pick all kinds of cool fish. I wanted a variety of fish; my own personal coral reef: I chose a large Clownfish who I named Billy. He was stupid and endearing; A Royal Dottyback, who was half yellow and half pink. She was very pretty, and I named her Cassie; A Chocolate Chip starfish, who I probably named something generic like Chocolate chip, or just Chocolate. He was cool as hell but not very social. A Cleaner Shrimp who I named Shrimpy, and he was so good at cleaning! I wish he was bigger and could also clean houses. I also had 3 saltwater snails, who I named Gary, Snellie, and Larry. They also helped with cleaning the glass on the tank. And finally, 10 baby hermit crabs who were simply too indistinguishable to be named.
The tank was looking great, and I loved them all. I talked to my fish everyday as if they were real people, and I fed them marine algae every 3 days from a tray we had to keep in the freezer. Billy was a little piggy, and ate a lot. Cassie might have been self conscious because she didn’t seem to eat a lot. Fish may not seem like the most outgoing of pets in the world, and it’s true, they are very quiet, but at least they are fun to look at. Having a fish tank was fun!
The fun didn’t last for too long, however, and all good things must come to an end. Keeping the tank clean was easy enough, but not enough to keep them alive. I think the first to die was Sam, and I don’t know why, maybe Billy stole his food, or he just gave up on life. Blooby died as well, and we replaced him with another blue fish who looked exactly the same. I named him Blooby 2.0. Shortly after Sam died, Pinky got stuck in the filter of the fish tank and died a horrible death. Maybe Pinky’s death particles were scattered through the water or something, because for some reason the other fish seemed to get sick one by one. Chocolate murdered Cassie by jumping on top of her and slowly eating her, that mean old starfish. All of my hermit crabs disappeared one by one and I never found out where they went. My dad probably threw them away after they died, and none of my fish were ever flushed. I preferred my fish to be packed into blocks and smashed into plastic water bottles and stuff like that!
The one who survived the longest was Blooby 2.0, he was a trooper and truly my favorite. I really believe Blooby 2.0 was the reincarnation of the original Blooby, because he was exactly the same, and he always liked to look at me. May the souls of my fish rest in peace. They only lasted about a year.
I suppose the biggest takeaway from this experience is that, saltwater fish don’t usually last very long. They are very pretty and expensive fish. It’s probably more worth it to just stick with freshwater fish, but all fish deserve love. This experience was a good one, and it never caused my love for fish to falter. I’m not sure what happened, but as I grew older, the love for fish slowly dimmed, and today it isn’t something I think about too often. I used to love fish, and now I just love to eat fish. Just kidding, I still love fish for the beautiful creatures that they are!