The Story of Wanda Rouge

This is Wanda Rouge.


Wanda Rouge

Wanda, despite the girly name, is actually a boy fish. We know this, of course, because all of the pretty Beta fish are boys; the girls are much more plain. Wanda use to have a brother, a Beta colored rich indigo and named, appropriately, Wanda Bleu.

Rouge and Bleu belong(ed) to my mother, who likes to display them in unusual and highly effective ways. She'll put them in wide shallow bowls with rocks,or in tall skinny bowls with plants, or in just about any glass container that will hold water. It's always a suprise to find out where the fish are when you visit with her. But you don't have to wait to visit my mother to see the fish, no. My mother travels a great deal, whether to visit friends in Florida or family in Texas. Wherever she goes, though, she takes the fish with her. Transporting them is a bit of a comical experience. She'll put them in whatever container is handy for transportation, which many times is a cup of some sort, which she then places in the car cup holder. Have fish, will travel.

As I said, Wanda Rouge USE to have a brother. Bleu died a few months ago. It was a tragic event, and the family mourned. But Rouge lives on. It's somewhat suprising that, of the two, Rouge would be the one still alive. After all, Rouge is the one that always lived dangerously. One day my mother came back to the living room to find Rouge on the floor. He had apparently watched Finding Nemo one too many times and now yearned for freedom. He had literally jumped out of the water, over the lip of the container, and plummetted to the ground - knocking himself silly in the process. I don't remember if my mother said he was flopping or not... probably not, because I do remember that he was "stunned." Not dead, however; just mostly dead. Mom picked him up and put him back in the container, and then proceeded to tend to him for the next hour or two. Betas don't obtain oxygen through gills like most fish, but rather gulp air from the surface. Well, poor Rouge was too stunned from his fall to swim properly; rather he would just kind of lay on the bottom of the the container, motionless. So, to help him recover, Mom used the net or some other reaching utensil to gently lift Wanda Rouge to the surface every 10-15 mins so he could breath. She did this until he finally started moving on his own. My mother says Rouge has never quite been the same since; you have to help him find his food, for example.

Anyway, that's the story of Wanda Rouge, his brother Wanda Bleu, and my mother, patron saint of the fishbowl. And though it is kind of comical, my mother and these fish, it's also touching. Cheers, Mom.

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