It’s kind of a bummer day. Speedy, one of a pair of Betta Splendens that my wife and son bought for me over a year ago has gone to that great fishtank in the sky. I noticed that he wasn’t eating very much in the last few days, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but I still get bummed when I see one of these guys on the bottom of his tank.

His tankmate Pokey seems to be doing pretty well though. I’ll probably remove the divider in their tank and give him free reign.

As a tribute to Speedy, here’s a brief MPEG of both of them. Speedy is the one on the left, while Pokey is the angrier looking one on the right.

I named them after observing them in the first few days I had them, Speedy seemed quite fast, and Pokey quite slow. Ironically, once they were adjusted to their new environment, they seemed to reverse roles, and Pokey became the more active one. Their names of course are drawn from the classic arcade game PacMan, although they are also reminiscent of the stories my dad used to write for us when I was very little about Speedy the rabbit and Slowpoke the Turtle.