Fish

The fish was resting on the flat part of the top of its head, upside down and at an awkward angle in the bottom left corner of the large tank. When I had first entered the room I saw  it make a slight movement , trying to right itself but then it slipped back into the prone position. This may simply have been an instinctive panic movement as a reaction to my shadow as it cast across the face of the thick glass. I edged closer not wanting to startle the obviously distressed creature by presenting a grotesquely distorted image in front of its rather milky tinctured left eye. The gills were moving slightly and every 20 seconds or so its mouth gasped. The other occupants of the tank, some of the same species, were completely disinterested in the drama unfolding in the far reaches of their small, rectangular world. They were busy shuffling around in their role as bottom feeders or cruising around at a slightly higher level in a rather hauty manner pretending to own the territory between the petrified log and the water filter. I felt quite helpless in not knowing what action to take. The heavy wooden lid to the tank could be moved with some effort but what then? Could I prod the stricken fish with something or would that really finish it off? I crept up to the corner of the tank and tried to make visual contact with the madly staring right eye in order to give moral encouragement but to no avail. I feared the worst and sadly turned away not able to do anything to relieve or resolve the situation. I was only in the house helping out some friends who were away for the weekend. They would be back within a couple of hours and hopefully would be able to act quickly and decisively to save the fish from further suffering.  My duty on this occasion was confined to feeding the cat, and as I opened the door to the kitchen I was grateful to see it fit, well, alive, purring in anticipation, strongly standing on all four paws and not resting upside down on the flat part of the top of its head. I would not have been able to cope with another such discovery of death and mayhem in the animal world.