More than a year ago my dad shows up at the house one day with a beta fish for my daughter Madelyn, his first grandchild. He sets the fishbowl on the table in front of me and says, “So you can teach her about death.” She named the fish Jack, and he is still alive today, though he leads a pretty sad and solitary life by my estimation. Norfolk, Virginia, January 21, 2014. #matteich #burndiary #norfolk #virginia #va #family #fishbowl #betafish #lifelessons #thesevencities

9 thoughts on “Jack, the Fish”

  2. Gordon Lafleur

    Jack, by necessity, requires a solitary life, given that he appears to be a Siamese fighting fish who will fight to the death with another male. Nice photo.
    Fish can live a long time. My oldest son used to be into fish big time, we inherited a small tank with the left-overs after he finally stopped being the crazy fish kid. There are a couple of catfish in there that have to be at least 12 years old. We never see them, they hide during the day. We have three 99cent goldfish to liven up the tank. They’ll be big enough to eat soon if they keep growing at this rate.

  4. andrew b.

    Nice. And Jack is a happy fish – you can tell because he is building a “bubble nest” on the edges around the top of his tank.

    I had a “Hex” tank for Siamese fighting fish at one point – it was hexagonal shape, and had glass dividers to make 6 compartments. The fish could see each other, and so would “show” (flair their fins) frequently. I was told some people with tanks like that would have fish fights, removing the dividers and then betting on which fish would win. I never did that. They will, indeed, fight another of the same sex to the death.

    Their native habitat is rice paddies and very shallow areas in asia. They are, surprisingly, quite happy when they live in a little bowl like that.

    Enjoying your week at the BurnDiary lens, Matt. Keep it up!

  5. andrew b.

    And for the bit of trivia today, can anyone name the movie in which these fish had a prominent reference? Bonus points if you can name the significance of it for the director, and a current star who was in it who has the “wrong” name in the credits….

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