Dear Goldfish Collector,
 I want to share with you a true story about a kind woman, by the name of
Edith and her amazing pet, Mr. Fish. I first heard from Edith around
Christmas, two years ago. It was one of those URGENT E-mails, HELP!!!! The
E-mail started with "My 25 year old Mr. Fish is sick, can you help me" Yes,
that got my attention, and kept it for the past 2 years!!

Today, I asked Edith to tell me more about Mr. Fish. 

Dear Rick,
Thank you for inquiring about Mr. Fish life story to date.

Mr. Fish:

Rescued Mr. Fish from an abandoned  drying out fish pond April l976 with 4
other goldfish.  They were all about two to three inches long.

He is bright orange with single long tail  almost clear near the ends.
Very long and graceful tail. He is approximately  6 inches from head to end
of tail  Seems to me that he is still growing some.

Brought him home and bought a 30 gallon dark brown plastic garbage can.
Filled it put in de-chlorinator and put goldfish in.  Did put in air stone and
that was all.  Would do partial water changes every 2 months or so and once
a year total water change and cleaned his tank (garbage can).......I would
not say they had the best of care.........

Three goldfish started dying very suddenly, after approximately 10 years so
we put Mr. Fish and other survivor immediately into different water to save
them.  They survived.  We did more frequent water changes other
than that nothing different.  The other goldfish lived to 20 when he died.
He seemed to have a large tumor by his eye.  That was seven years ago.  We
though Mr. Fish would be lonely and would soon follow.

Well, we were wrong and  he is thriving.  Almost lost him at Christmas time
2000.  Had a fish doctor do a "house call" from fish store to take a look at
him to see what could be done.  He took one look at him and said that he had
"dropsy" and it was fatal and there was nothing we could do.  The kindest
thing we could do for him was to "ice" him and put him out of his misery.

I was obviously disturbed by this news. I was not quite ready yet to give up
on him  especially since he was still willing to eat.  The only thing that
got him started eating again after one week of not eating and just sitting
on bottom of his tank were some live brine shrimp.  He went after those to
my amazement.............but he was far from  well...........I spent  2
intensive weeks caring for him before he rallied.  I spent many hours on his
care, feeding, medicines, observing him, etc.

He had still not recovered when I fortunately discovered Goldfish
Connection on the Internet.  I wrote to Rick and told him of my plight with
Mr. Fish.  He indicated that there might be a chance to save him if his
scales were only raised near tail which was the case. Rick  did not want me
to get my hopes up.......So he said I should get some antibiotics into him.
I got some Medi-Gold  pellets and fed that to him as prescribed.  Rick also
gave me a lot of useful advice on how to get him well............

He has fully recovered from that illness and except for three or four
HELP! letters to Goldfish Connection he is doing real well.  I have added a
filter to his water now and he loves the bubbles and the current it creates.

He is now starting his 27th year with us.  We have gotten him a fancier
plastic 20 gallon "round" container. ( He is used to round)  Not a fish
tank.  He has never been in a regular fish tank.  Also no sand/gravel for
him ever.

He knows when it's  feeding time and will get all excited when he hears my
footsteps.

So that is the story of Mr. Fish.  When I rescued him 27 years ago,  I had
no idea I would still have him today.  He still lives in our dining  room.
Have never changed his location in 27 years.  Except one time when we had to
have our house Tented for Termite eradication. We put him into a 3 gallon
bucket and took him to Motel  where he spent two
nights with us. He handled  that one just fine.  His only
vacation..........

Hope this is not too long........Thank you for your interest and all the
help you have given me with Mr. Fish over the years.  Did change his diet
from flakes to a sinking pellet form which he loves  couple years ago.

Thank You again for being so kind and prompt when I bring up that "Help"
E-mail.

  A grateful Edith and Mr. Fish