Freebie, the One-Eyed Fish
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 
1:29 pm ()
Yesterday I got to thinking about fish. I needed to clean Chunk’s tank, and I was thinking how he looked lonely. I thought maybe I’d get him a friend. Of course, Chunk is huge. He possibly might have eaten one of my fish before who went missing. Also, he’s in a 10 gallon tank by himself. If I got him a friend, I’d probably need a 20 gallon tank. Then I was thinking how I wanted another betta fish. While in the swimming pool with Colin, I decided I wanted to go to the pet store.
I actually went to Wal-Mart first. Apparently, they don’t sell fish there anymore (not here anyway), which is good because last time I looked at fish at Wal-Mart, every single fish in every single tank was belly-up dead. Terrible. I went to our small, local pet store E&L Pets to see what they had. I found a nice 20 gallon tank with stand for about $140.00. I don’t think I really need to spend that much money on fish right now. So, I decided I probably wouldn’t be getting a friend for Chunk or a bigger tank. I looked at the betta fish, but none of them really jumped out at me.
I came home empty-handed. I did some looking online to see about finding a good gravel cleaner to use on Chunk’s tank. I came across this one that looked really good at PetSmart. Unfortunately, the closest PetSmart is in Evansville, Indiana. After agonizing over what to do, I decided at 6:30 I wanted to go to PetSmart. Colin hates fish. He wasn’t too happy about my decisions, but we went with me anyway.
When we got to PetSmart, we looked for the gravel cleaner thing, but all they had was a 50 foot one. I had wanted the 25 foot one. We got some cat food, cat litter, the 50 foot monster, and then I started looking at fish. I looked through all the betta fish (and there was a lot). I finally found a tiny female I liked that was kind of iridescent blue. She also has a sort of rainbowy patch by her face. I looked around at the other fish too, and found some Calico Telescope fish that caught my eye. The biggest one in the tank is the one I noticed first. It was a pretty fish. And then I noticed… the fish only had one eye.
A one-eyed fish? I had to have it. I decided at that instant I wanted that fish. I decided I’d put him in the 5 gallon tank and not get a betta fish. I asked the lady if something was wrong with the fish. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t sick or something. I thought maybe an eye was missing because another fish ate it off or something barbaric like that. I noticed there was a smaller one in the tank with only one eye too. She went to ask her manager about it. I waited for what seemed like forever. When she finally came back, she said nothing was wrong with the fish. He just has one eye. She also said PetSmart couldn’t sell me the fish because they can’t sell animals with missing body parts or ones with extra body parts. 
But… she said they could adopt him out to me and let me have him for free. 
So of course, I snatched him up.
Colin reminded me that I have several small betta tanks I could use if I still wanted to get a betta fish too. Duh! So, I grabbed the female I had been looking at and we headed to the check-out lines.
While standing in line, the girl in front of me told me how pretty Mr. One-Eye was. I think she was curious why it said “free” on his bag. I told her why he was free and that I wanted him because I have a one-eyed cat. She told her mom, so then the mom had to look at it. Then the cashier girl had to show it to another girl who works there and tell her how I am getting a one-eyed fish because I have a one-eyed cat. Yes, it seemed everyone was interested in my slightly handicapped pet choices. The total came to like $100.00. Once outside I looked at my receipt. They had charged me too much for the gravel cleaner. I went back inside to check, and suddenly there were 25 foot cleaners on the shelf. So, I exchanged the 50 foot one for the 25 foot one and got $32 back. 
We got home at around 10:00. Colin read the directions for the gravel pump. We couldn’t hook it to the kitchen sink, so we had to hook it to the bathroom one. It wasn’t working like it was supposed to. We finally got it to work, then it stopped working. It was very frustrating. Water was everywhere. The bathroom sink was filling up and not draining fast enough. Colin began pulling wads of hair out of it. Hair that wasn’t ours. :sick: It was pretty rough for awhile. We were both tired and getting frustrated. Finally, we gave up. Colin went to Kroger and bought more water, and I started cleaning the gravel like I always do which takes forever. I think we finally got all 3 fish settled into their own tanks at around 1:30-ish in the morning (Chunk, Dazzle the betta, and Freebie. We were tired and hungry so… we went to McDonald’s and got Happy Meals.
17 comments
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Filed in: Family, Pets, Random ()
17 Comments so far
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superstealthy scribbled this note on June 27th, 2007: [ Quote ]
you’re such a nice person to be taking in the slightly less than perfect animals!! and the one eyed fish really does sound fascinating. and omg i used to love happy meals.
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Interesting! A One Eyed fish! I hope it’s not in a tank with a piranha or it’d get torn apart!
You’re interesting lol -
The Wal-Mart here still sells fish. The tanks are in the worst condition… I don’t know why they haven’t been reported >:)
Isn’t it neat that we got betta fish at the same time?? hehe
Do you have a pic of your betta? If not, be sure to get one and post it!
I could never get my gravel pump to work
I just always put new gravel in. My tank stays really clean, though. I hardly ever change the water — and my fish don’t seem to mind!P.S. – Freebie is cutie
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I love fancy goldfish! Yours are so pretty even if missing an eye. :content:
Just for future purchases: Petsmart will price match stuff from online stores. You may only save $5 here and there, but it adds up.
And the comment about not selling animals with missing or extra parts… I can see missing something, but an extra something? That’s just weird…
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I have a betta fish. It’s a male, his name is Noche, but I always call him Zippy because that was the name of my old betta fish that died.
Our first bull terrier (dog) was really beat up and stuff, but I wanted to get him because no one else would want him. One eyed fish and a one eyed cat? That’s pretty nifty. -
All I can think of is the three-eyed fish from the Simpsons… Blinky.
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I’d love to get new fish for my 60 gallon but since it’s a floor cylinder, it’s being turned into a salt water tank as we speak and I just bought a 120 gallon for my freshwater. But in the freshwater I have 5 white clouds, 2 gouramis, one is a blue powder, the other a sunset, a 10 inch pleco, a tinfoil, 5 tetras, 4 are blue backs and one is golden, a fish i have no idea what it is, lol, and one yellow cichlid that has behaved for the last 3 years, thankfully. One of my white clouds is missing half it’s back fin but it gets around ok…
You really ought to take pics of all your fish. I’d love to see what you carry! And that’s a good fact I just learned, possible free fish if a part is missing or umm… ‘wearing’ an extra part, lol.
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my Dad is crazy about fish as you are.
and your fishy is huge! holy crap. :l but that’s cute about the one-eye’d cat & now getting a one-eye’d fishy. i’d love a handicapped fish! that’d be interesting. -
That’s too cute that you now have a 1-eyed fish to go with your 1-eyed cat! hehe. And yay, for getting the fish for free thanks to Petsmart’s policy. Hope the little guy is happy in his new home. =)
By the way, thanks for your comment on my QVC trip! I know that’s like forever ago now, but I’m slow. lol. And I totally recommend Bare Escentuals. It’s so pretty on and fun to play with! Props to your Mom for being a Q fan as well!
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I actually didn’t noticed he didn’t have an eye until you mentioned it and the pic of him looking up lol! Love the new layout btw, its very lovely
I also have a betta named Rainbow.. coincidence? -
I’ve never seen a one-eyed fish before. Thanks for sharing that! You’re a nice person to adopt handicapped animals! :star:
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Thanks for all the nice comments about Freebie.
He’s a spunky little guy. I got Dazzle a bigger tank, so she’s pretty happy too.Mallory: I heard that PetSmart would price match things of their website (because some things are more expensive on their website than in the store), but I didn’t think about matching prices from other stores.
Arien: Yeah, it is a good tip. I’m going to be looking for one-eyed fish from now on.
I have a few photos on my Flickr of Chunk mostly. I took some of Dazzle that I’ll get up soon. And wow, you have a lot of fish!!!Bubs: Yes, Wal-Mart selling fish is bad. The tanks used to always be so crowded and full of dead fish. Not very attractive. Chunk is a Wal-Mart fish though. I’ve had him for almost 2 years now. I’m glad I saved him. It is so cool we both got bettas!
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I just bought a one-eyed Betta today!!! His name is Xerxus… I love him very much!
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I love goldfish!
I wanted one with only one eye once but the store wouldn’t sell me it because it had one eye, lucky for you that they adopted it out to you though… That’s cool! -
I saw this one-eyed fighter fish in a pet shop. Worrying they might try to get rid of him by killing him, I bought him and named him Rene Descartes. I’ve never loved any pet this much.He is soooo cute, so active and smart! I love him and wonder whether there are others who feel blessed by the same experience by adopting a fish born with a defect. That’s why I found this webpage.
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[...] Freebie is no longer with us. It’s a miracle he lasted through the ice storm. He was not happy with [...]
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I left a comment here in Oct 08. A few months later, René Descartes my betta fish was dying from a painful death, but I just couldn’t put him down. It was unbearable; I was watching my child die but there was absolutely nothing I could do to bring him relief. I never did that before. It was 4am, and I woke up to check on my fish which just died. guess God understood the friendship between a human and her fish, and thus allowed me to see him one last time before He took him from me. I placed him in a jewelry box which his small, pink body fit in perfectly. It’s been a while since I buried him under the tree before our house. Have I grown numb, or did time really heal? Neither. I’ve marked his nameless tomb with a white pebble; he’s never far from me. Yet I’m afraid of what I might see if I exhume him. With my wishful thinking of reunion, he’ll remain buried indefinitely.
Destinee scribbled this note on August 18th, 2007: 
Chia-Hui Jacquelyn Hsu scribbled this note on October 27th, 2008: 
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