# Fish sitting. It died. Do/should I replace it? (Poll) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 30, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679 "2007-07-30T14:27:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/21 "2007-07-30T22:47:48Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I might decide not to taint the memory of the vacation or instill anxiety about leaving my fish if this is totally out of the blue. [/QUOTE] It’s a fish. Fish die. Fish get flushed away. _Anxiety?_ ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/22 "2007-07-30T22:57:52Z")
[QUOTE=Canadiangirl] Thank you all for your input. I was honestly expecting more people to say “just replace the fish”. Also, something I may have not made clear, I do not know this kid or parents. It’s my neighbour’s neighbour whom I don’t know at all. [/QUOTE] In that case pretend they never left the fish with you. That is one of the other reasons I say don’t buy a fish. They need to know there are consequences for tagging a long, before they stow away in the landing gear of a jet headed to Hawaii to stay with CairoCarol. > **[Help me keep my damn fool mouth shut (long whine)](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=430194)** > > Knowing that my fellow Dopers will help me to behave graciously, I present you all with this situation: I still keep in touch with my old college roommate “Jennifer” (we graduated in 1980), although she is not much of a correspondant and we have... > **[My damn fool mouth pt 2, or now I've gone and done it](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=430657)** > > If you must know the gory details, you can check \[thread=430194\]this\[/thread\] thread, but the short version is that my old college roommate has come for a 9-night visit with 6 other people , none of whom I’d met before (roommate, 3 of roommate’s... ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/23 "2007-07-30T23:00:30Z")
I vote for replacing Arnie, but _not with a beta._ See if the kid notices. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/24 "2007-07-30T23:22:05Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] We had a ferret die on us while on vacation once, but we knew before leaving she wasn’t long for this world. It was sort of a relief, actually, not having to deal with the disposal of the remains myself - our pet sitters gave her (Loki) a “Viking Burial” out on Lake Michigan in a little cardboard boat! Or at least said they did; really I don’t care, but it was a nice story for my 8 year old. [/QUOTE] OK, so how does one go about giving a _fish_ a Viking Funeral? ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/25 "2007-07-30T23:32:14Z")
When I was a child–well probably a teen or at minimum a pre-teen, we left a pair of goldfish with our neighbors when we went on vacation. When we came back, Mrs. Neighbor handed us a bag of mail, a bag of newspapers, and said “We’ll bring the fish back later”. Needless to say, this aroused our curiousity. Her four year old had hugged our goldfish. The goldfish did not survive. I’m not sure that actually replacing the goldfish would have been a high priority on anyone’s part, but we let the neighbors get us two new goldfish, and we kept them for the rest of their natural lives. It made the neighbors feel better about letting the four-year-old near the goldfish. So, I’d also vote for consult the parents, offer to replace the fish, but you don’t need to replace the fish before the owners return home. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/26 "2007-07-30T23:45:25Z")
[QUOTE=Omniscient] OK, so how does one go about giving a _fish_ a Viking Funeral? [/QUOTE] Got any magnesium lying around? What else burns under water? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/27 "2007-07-31T00:29:47Z")
I was thinking more like freeze it in a large ice cube. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/28 "2007-07-31T01:54:39Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] I was thinking more like freeze it in a large ice cube. [/QUOTE] I knew some arty types once who, when one of their aquarium fish would die, would immediately chuck it in the freezer, so they could cast it in epoxy. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/29 "2007-07-31T01:57:22Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] I was thinking more like freeze it in a large ice cube. [/QUOTE] that’s an Eskimo funeral. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/30 "2007-07-31T03:39:06Z")
[QUOTE=11811] that’s an Eskimo funeral. 🙂 [/QUOTE] It’s a quiescently frozen treat. The word quiescently means in a restful state. It doesn’t get more restful than that. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/31 "2007-07-31T08:27:34Z")
So I was backing out of my garage and the SO was off to the side and I heard, “crunch” and thought I backed over a plastic cup. I looked at SO’s face and he looked down and I could tell it wasn’t a plastic cup. Our neighbor’s backyard turtle somehow managed to escape its back yard and go for a very slow walk through the neighborhood. The tour ended badly. I called the neighbor and she was more than slightly distraught, but decided against a funeral for her kids and told me to dispose of the remains using Silver State Disposal in a plastic bag. She bought a new turtle and, less than a week later, they have never seen that turtle again. It may or may not still be in their backyard, but the point of the story is - tell the parents and let them decide what to do. As far as I was concerned, it was a horrible accident, but not my fault. The same goes for you. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/32 "2007-07-31T10:26:08Z")
I checked with my neighborhood expert on these things, and he said that fish which die of disease do not make good sushi. He did say the others ones could be better, but not very filling. Oh well, that’s what you get for asking the samarai sushi chief. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679/33 "2007-07-31T10:40:47Z")
[QUOTE=Omniscient] OK, so how does one go about giving a _fish_ a Viking Funeral? [/QUOTE] _Flambee_ it with brandy and serve it with a nice fruity merlot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-sitting-it-died-do-should-i-replace-it-poll/413679.md?page=1)