No, not THAT Brangelina – my Brangelina. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you remember that I’ve been referring to my "very pregnant" fish as "Brangelina."

Sadly, my Brangelina was belly-up between two pond plants Friday night after I got home from work. I guess she wasn’t pregnant afterall. She was one of my original pond fish, purchased five years ago from Caccoosing Creek Ponds and Landscaping on the other side of Sinking Spring. She was also one of my bigger fish measuring well over 10 inches from nose to tail. A mostly white "red comet," she had become severely bloated towards her tail over the last month (suggesting that she was going to lay eggs).

For the past two weeks, she hovered along the bottom of the pond, lethargic to say the least. We thought this was part of the normal process before a fish lays eggs. Maybe she was pregnant and something happened for the worse. Anyway, I like to think she had a good life. As best as we could make it anyway.

We’ve been very fortunate with our fish, she was only the third we’ve lost so far. And since everyone else seems healthy, we hope that she didn’t die from anything contagious.

Yes, I know, it’s only a fish, and although we enjoy our pond and it’s wildlife very much, it’s not the same as losing a dog, cat or other beloved pet. But the fish have come to be part of our lives too. We feed them, clean the filter, sometimes add a little ice to the water when the temp gets too warm. We even cut up oranges last year and threw them into the pond for a treat that they seemed to enjoy.

There are too many to name, but some have characteristics and/or colors that have separated them from the rest
of the school. Our biggest fish is a huge white "whale" of a goldfish with a little red spot on its nose – hence the name "Moby." Then there’s "Red" the biggest of our Red Comets, almost as big as Moby. Copper, a beautiful mostly black Shebunkin, gets its name from the copper coloring splashed across its body.

Also, Nemo, the first baby ever to survive in our pond. Nemo, who’ll be two years old this summer, is almost seven inches from nose to tail and white with orange/gold spritzes throughout. Frosty, the tiny baby fish (only about 1 ½ inches) who was born, surprisingly, sometime over the winter, is all white and still teeny. And our newest "named" fish is one of last year’s babies – a completely black/grey fish who we can hardly ever see, accept when it comes to the top to get food – the Phantom.

A quick check of www.aquariumfish.com states that the average life span of pond goldfish is well over 10 years, assuring us that, pending any unfortunate disease, we should have our fish for quite a while to come. And if this year’s anything like last summer, we’ll have plenty more. Yikes!


Coming this week I’ll tell you all about those Earth Boxes, the Perennial of the Year, the Bubbler and the truth about Solar Lights.