The Beta Chronicles

Part One: Felipe the Frozen
A few years ago my grandmother gave me a fish for Christmas, a little turquoise and red beta. He looked very festive, like a fiesta, so I named him Felipe, which was the first festive/fiesta-sounding name that came to mind. I had Felipe for two years, then I went out of town for Christmas, and it got very cold while I was gone. Betas are tropical fish and don’t like the cold. He was dead when I got home....

Part Two: Eliot the Infected
About a month later I bought a new fish, a dark blue one that I named Eliot after one of my favorite poets, T.S. Eliot. I’m not really sure what exactly happened to Eliot, but he got sick. One of his eyes got infected and bubbled up (it was really gross) and then his body took on this really strange contorted shape, like his spine (do fish have spines?) was crooked. He only lasted about a month....

Part Three: Iago the Starved
Fish number three was bright red. I named him Iago…not after the parrot in Disney’s Aladdin, but after the villain in Shakespeare’s Othello. I had Iago for a while, but I went out of town a lot that summer. Before I left for each trip, I dropped a food pellet into the water that was supposed to be enough food for a week, but Iago just didn’t catch on to the whole eating thing....

Part Four: Mr. Darcy the Asphyxiated
Fish number four was another turquoise one I named after my favorite Jane Austen leading man, Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. I was traveling a lot the fall that I had Mr. Darcy, so he was neglected a bit. His bowl didn’t get cleaned out as often as it probably should have. When I finally did clean it, I put too much water in it and there wasn’t enough room between the waterline and the cup holding the ivy that grew in his water. Betas actually need oxygen, and Mr. Darcy didn’t get enough....

Part Five: The Fish With No Name
I bought fish number five last weekend and I'm so happy to say he's still alive. I haven't decided on a name yet, but I’m considering Frankenstein in honor of one of my first graduate classes I’ll be taking in the fall (we'll be studying Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein). I’m also thinking about Cicero or Virgil to commemorate the Latin I’ve been taking this year. I am open to suggestions, though, if anyone has any. Let’s just hope Number Five has more luck than his predecessors.