Fish Sticks: The Beginning of the End

My roommate Amanda received a female beta fish from the biology department last year after the freshman sequence had finished using the fish for behavioral studies on male fish aggression.  A month later she moved home to Boston for the summer and left me with Fish Sticks.  After a little under of year of being under my primary care (even when Amanda came back to Colorado and Fish Sticks took up residence in her room I still fed her and cleaned her bowl), Fish Sticks went funky.  She looked like she couldn't swim properly.  Amanda said we should flush her and I said we should give her some time.  I wasn't ready to flush this delicate little creature that appeared so much more humble, content, and optimistic than her male counterpart, my Felipe.

So Fish Sticks moved into my room.  Every morning I looked into her bowl and gave her an encouraging little quip for the day, sometimes placed her next to the window to enjoy a little sunlight, and fed her on feeding days.  She lasted almost two months with this funky fish gimp and I felt it was time to move her back to Amanda's room.  Less than a week later she turned for the worst.  Now, this is absolutely not supposed to negatively denote Amanda and I am no crazy fish lady, but I am sure that the positive energy I was sending Fish Sticks kept her healthy for so much longer than is usually normal for fish with the funk.  

Below are a few photos of her gimp days.  She still was a beautiful subject to photograph.  I like these pictures because they show how emotional investment on the photographer's part in their subjects can enhance an image.