lydy | Fish heads, fish head, roly poly fish heads

Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum.

I never did know what that song was about. Dr. Dimento used to play it. At any rate, I don't eat fish heads, just in case you were wondering.

My blood parrot, Julian, appears to have adopted an upside down lifestyle. He's not really been right since before Thanksgiving, and it's gotten worse over time. Last month or so, he's either been standing on his head in a corner (the rear, right corner, as it happens), or resting upside down in the pipe. It doesn't look like a very exciting life.

The last two weeks, or so, Jasper, one of the other parrots in the tank, has become a terrible bully. He's now larger than Julian, and he's been hounding Julian all over the tank. Julian can't swim very well at all, and Jasper would peck at him from one end of the tank to the other. When Julian came to rest in his corner, Jasper would come around and nip at Julian's tail until Julian was finally forced to leave, at which point Jasper would chase him. Grand fun...for Jasper. Julian's tail has become extremely ragged. It makes me sad. When Julian was in his prime, he had perfect fins, show quality fins.

I called the vet today to ask if she'd consider doing a swim bladder aspiration. She said that she was familiar with the procedure, but that she no longer did it because it seemed to offer only very slight respite if any, and was risky. It's a blind procedure; stick a needle in the fish where the swim bladder ought to be, and then attempt to withdraw air. Fish don't much like needles, just in case you were wondering. Dr. Kiser (wonderful woman) said that often it's only helped for an hour or so. Not much point to that, then.

I went out and bought a tank divider. Now Julian's in about one-third of the tank (along with Sylvester, that was an accident) and everybody else is in the other half. Poor Clinton! Clinton is my huge silver dollar, and he's as stupid as he is large. He's never been entirely clear on the concept of glass, and when he gets startled he tends to run straight into it. This divider thing is very, very confusing to him. Jasper doesn't really seem to understand it, either, but he has this patient look, like he's sure that sooner or later his victim will return to him for more bullying. Julian...Julian looks more cheerful than I've seen him in a while. At least, that's how I'm interpreting his swimming around his reduced space. He seems to be investigating, rather than just looking for a relatively calm place to stand on his head.

(And now, as a complete non-sequitur, I am reminded of what Mom said to me on Saturday when I was talking about my fish. She was quoting from Alice in Wonderland

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head -
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

End of foolish digression.)

Dividing up the tank like this has made everything very crowded. I'm contemplating options. I may move Julian to the 20 long in the dining room.If I do that, I might move one or two of the fish from the dining room down to the 20 long, as well, as that tank is clearly over-stocked. (It didn't used to be, but then they grew.)