The Demise of Dragon Fish

I really didn't want to be a bummer during the holiday season, but one of my pond koi died this past week. He was the biggest fish I had, my yellow matsuba koi (see photograph below). He was over 2 feet long and I had him for over 20 years. I noticed he wasn't doing well the week before last and pulled him out to see if there was anything I could do to help him out. Seeing there wasn't, I put him back to let him live out his final days. Yesterday, I took him out and he was dead. I decided not to do an autopsy. This is the first fish I have had that hasn't made it through a winter.



I have selected the following Haiku poem to honor his passing:

fish under water -
the illusion of words
we think we know