Fish Fight! A Travelogue for Undefeated – May 2023 – a Column by Lis Dunckle

The travelogue of Undefeated, a rock/metal band from northern New York. This is about a fish fight.

Hey, what’s up?! Undefeated again. Did you miss us? I sure did!

Kidding, we’re siblings and we live with each other!

Meredith just turned 21 a couple months ago, and for her birthday she decided to buy a fish. She’s wanted one for awhile. She bought food, a tank, a filter, some fake plants, and other fun things to put into the tank – and to make it look pretty, because, come on! Who wants a boring tank? Not me, and certainly not Meredith. (Have you seen the way she dresses?! Like she played chicken with a rainbow. And lost. Kidding –

(Meredith you have an amazing style and I aspire to be you.)

Anyway, Meredith finally got her fish. Plus two more. She was elated, bouncing all over the place, couldn’t stop grinning and reminding everyone every minute.

I have to admit though, the three fish were beautiful. The first one was a boy named Fsh Bane. He was a blind cave tetra. He had no eyes! That’s why Meredith named him Fsh. (Get it?)

The second one was a girl gourami named Zaphnath-Paaneah. (This woman needs to find some normal names. She’s like the lady down the street who names her human child Windy or Panda or Arphaxad.)

Lastly, to round out the school – a baby betta, smaller than a tadpole. Meredith named her Sara, but we always referred to her as “Lil Baby Sara”.

Sara was so tiny, she had to be put into a net separated from the other fishes so she wouldn’t get eaten. Fsh and Zaph bonded right away, zipping all around the tank.

They would play hide and seek, which I didn’t know fish even knew how to do.

Then a couple days later – tragedy struck. Zaph started biting Fsh, ripping apart his tail. Meredith put Fsh into a different bowl outside the tank to let him heal. A day later, he died. We had a deeply touching funeral and buried him in our backyard. It was a very sad day.

A day or two later – Sara was swimming around one evening. The next morning she was still and curled into a corner of her net. Sometime during the night she had passed. We buried her next to Fsh. We ignored Zaph for a while -because friends don’t eat friends?! You’re not supposed to eat your friends! She needed to learn her lesson. Zaph’s countenance literally started to change – she began to be depressed. Swimming around the tank very slowly, hiding for hours at a time. We figured our not-kind words had gotten to her. So, we started being kind because we wanted her to live. Within two days she was swimming around all happy-like. How interesting.

Two losses in one week. Hope you enjoyed your birthday present Meredith!