Meet Dreamcicle

This is Dreamcicle.  She was one of the first fish we put in the Buddha Pond in the Spring of 2000.  I don't know exactly what kind of fish she is.  We were very new at this.  She was sold to us as a Koi.  She is not a Koi, but I don't know what she is.

We call her a "she" because she was very round when we got her, and the salesperson called her a she because it was presumed she was pregnant, but we've had her for 7 years now and she's always been very round.

Also, we named her Dreamcicle because when we first got her she was a very deep orange color, except for about half of her head.  So she reminded me of one of those ice cream bars that is half ice cream and half orange sherbet.  But she started losing that orange color about three years ago, and by last year she had lost all but a very slight, almost translucent orange tint.

Dreamcicle is my favorite because she's a real survivor and trooper and all those sorts of things.  We got four other fish the same year we first got her.  She's the very orange fish in this early picture, along with Mandingo (a lucky Black Koi), Coolio, White Star and C3PO.  We had them all for three years, and they were all about the same size (small) when we got them, but the real Koi soon started growing and it was clear that Dreamcicle was going to be the runt of the bunch.

Sadly, the others all died after an extremely severe storm in May of 2003 knocked out our power for nearly 36 hours.  We couldn't keep the pump running in the pond and the oxygen was quickly depleted.  We soon had a bucket full of dead fish.  All except for Dreamcicle.

I know it's dangerously deceiving to attribute anthropomorphic values and emotions on "dumb animals," but Dreamcicle was obviously freaked out, and I don't hesitate to say she was bummed out, as well.   For nearly three days she swam in circles around the pond.  It seemed pretty obvious to us that she was desperately searching for all of her old pals.  Then that just plum wore her out.

For the next day or two after that she just stayed in one "corner" of the pond.  Not moving at all.  Not good.  Even though the pump was running and everything else was back in order, Dreamcicle looked like she was dying.  We started gently poking at her with a net, just to get her moving.  That kept her alive, but she was clearly distressed.

So eventually we got more fish, and I'll tell you about them later.  They were all small when introduced to the pond, so Dreamcicle was -- briefly -- the big fish.

But now we've had her for 7 years and she is most definitely the queen of the pond, even though she is, once again, the runt.  She's nearly fearless.  She'll swim right to the surface when one of us walks near the pond, and when I went out there recently with my camera she practically came right up and posed for me.

So, if you like fish and you'd like to have a nice big desktop picture of Dreamcicle, go ahead and grab it.