Methuselah's Mateys

Close to three years ago, the girls at Friday Night Bible Study gave out fish to the guys on Valentine's Day. Eric named his Methuselah in hopes that he would live long. Apparently it worked, for Methuselah is still alive and thriving, months-years, perhaps?-after all of the others died. When we first got him, he lived in a little fishbowl, and he could fit in a baby food jar, so he was about an inch long.

He steadily grew larger, and seemed to be intending on living, even surviving Kristen filling his bowl with orange peels and two near-death experiences, unlike our typical fair fish; one year we got three, and named them, Died (he was dead before we left the fair), Freebie Dead (they were all free, of course), and Dead (the last two weren't dead yet, but we correctly predicted they would subsequently be).

Hence, the name Methuselah.

Methuselah, January 2010

He gave us two scares. Once, when we'd all been gone for the weekend, he was belly-up the next morning. His water was dirty. I quickly changed it, and he took big gulps of water. Slowly, after an agonizing few moments, he turned around.

The second time, we were watching The Cross and the Switchblade pretty late at night. Mom noticed the fish. He was belly-up again. I got him new water quickly, and he gulped it in as before, but this time he didn't flip over for a long time. When he did, we were happy, thinking he had recovered. But, slowly, as he beat his fins, he flipped over again. This happened for a long time; I'd help him reorient himself; he'd once more turn upside down. He tried to keep himself upright, but he couldn't. In an effort to do so, he'd try to swim down, but once again, the effort was too much and he'd go belly-up once more. I think it was an hour or more before he finally stayed upright.

We'd talked about getting a companion for Methuselah, and of course we'd name him Mahalalel, the third oldest person recorded. I wanted to get one for Christmas. But, not at the risk of Methuselah. I did not want to be responsible for anything happening to our fish. So, I called a pet shop to see if introducing another fish to a big, almost-three-year-old fish would be okay. They assured me it was fine.

We went to a pet store, and the girl said it wasn't a good idea. If we got little ones, he'd eat them. We should get a big one, she said, and after they fought it out, they'd probably be fine, though they might have some scars.

Yikes. I did not want to see Methuselah in a fight. I have seen a cock fight, which was bloody and interesting (that was when we had Griffin in addition to Roman-we thought Griffin was going to die, but he was fine, and after that he gave Roman his space), but I had no desire to scar Methuselah.

We left the shop and thought about it. "Well," I said, "she seemed to think that the only problem with getting a little fish was that he might eat it." I'd much rather lose a new fish than risk losing the one we have-my family would not be happy. It was only 13 cents for a little goldfish, so we decided to go ahead and got three.

I hid them on top of the bookshelf in the downstairs bathroom and waited for Christmas.

We decided to try one fish out. Methuselah didn't seem pleased, but he ignored the fish, so we added the other two.

Suddenly, Methuselah looked enormous next to these adorably tiny fish. They aren't even as long as he is tall.

We knew we were going to name one Mahalalel and Melchizedek, but we had to search for another. We found one: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz is the orange fish with black edging. (His name is pronounced MA-hair-shall-ALL-hash-baz. It's fun to say fast.) Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz is the son of Isaiah, and his name means speed the spoil, hasten the booty (Isaiah 2 or 3, I think).

The white one is Melchizedek.

Mahalalel is the orange one.

I think they've already grown since I got them a week ago. Amy and I measured them yesterday, and to the best of my memory, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz is just over one inch, Melchizedek is just under, and Mahalalel is 3/4ths of an inch, and Methuselah over 6".

Taking pictures in a fish tank is fun if you have enough light.

Despite the appearance of this picture, Methuselah was not trying to eat Mahalalel. They were scared of him at first, but now they live "in perfect peace and harmony" (Fiddler on the Roof quote, for those who don't remember-or skipped the songs). We always knew Methuselah was a nice fish.