Meet Tommy

Tommy is a fantail goldfish with a powerful love of food and a permanently damaged swim bladder. A year ago he developed a problem with his swim bladder that would have him floating up to the top of the tank on and off. He was fed fresh peas and blood worms and treated with medications to help heal him. It worked at first, but one day Tommy floated belly up and he has been upside down ever since. He is still treated with medications and fed fresh and frozen fish foods, but the damage to his swim bladder (the organ that regulates the depth and balance of a fish) is believed to be permanent. For over a year now he has seen his world in an entirely different way. He still loves food, he's still the lazy fat goldfish he always was, but now he lives upside down.

I am writing a children's book about Tommy. He's just too interesting and too fun not to write about. December was his year long anniversary of living life upside down. That fish just loves food too much to let a permanently damaged swim bladder get him down...pun intended...because his damaged swim bladder makes him float...so he can't get down...ahem, anyway. I am seriously so amazed by his resilience and his will to live. That little handicap fish is both the most pathetic and the most amazing thing I've witnessed in a goldfish. I hope he lives his upside down life for years to come because he has brought so much joy to my life and I am not sure what the other fish would do without him.

This is my most recent picture of Tommy taken with my Nikon D5100. It's hard to get pictures of him because he never sits still when I'm standing near the tank...he just wants me to put my camera down and feed him.

This is an older picture taken with my iPhone, the fish Below him is Meggie, she survived a Tumor that appeared a couple of years after she injured herself swimming by a tank decoration too quickly. She is a survivor too. :)

Another iPhone picture...he kind of looks like he's burping in this one...how appropriate.