When we moved into our current apartment 3 years ago there was a "no pets" agreement. A year later I really missed having a little creature to look after so I decided that a fish would be ok.
I got a beautiful blue betta and put him in the goldfish bowl Em bought me years ago.
After a while I felt guilty for keeping him in such a small bowl with a plastic plant so I bought him a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter, live plants and a little house to hang out in. He would come up to me and puff up when he was hungry. Fishy loved his new home and did great for over 2 years.
When we came home from the hospital with our new baby I noticed A white, moldy looking spot and a tear in his fin. We got medicine right away, but he soon developed white spots all over his body that look like salt. It's a parasite called "ich" that is very itchy. We found him floating lifelessly like the picture below and thought that he was dead. When I went to remove him from the tank he sprung to life. It turns out the ich also make them very lethargic.
I bought new medicine specifically for ich and spent the next 5 days changing his water every day and treating him, but fishy died anyways. I felt so guilty that I couldn't heal him.
I didn't want to replace fishy right away but I had live plants that I didn't want to die also. For a week I was constantly reminded by looking at the tank, wondering if I had fed the fish yet. I decided to go ahead and get a new one, a beautiful silvery purple guy that flutters his fins when he swims. I got him a very active snail friend too. RIP my sweet little blue boy. You are missed.
