This poor fish has gone through hell and back. A boy in my brother’s class was doing a project on marine biology, and decided that for the required experiment to go along with the presentation, he would put two male bettas in the same cup and see how long it took for them to kill each other. Since both fish were in miserable shape, they did not fight, but this fish was then left in his absolutely disgusting cup full of rotten food overnight until my brother got back into the class the next day. (The other fish was taken home with the student as a pet for his sister. Hopefully she will take better care of him than her brother did!)
Alec brought him home, and while he’s lethargic, he’s not showing any other signs of illness. Here’s to hope for a long life for Vortex!

Also, dear students, NEVER PUT ANIMALS IN YOUR EXPERIMENTS, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE INTENDING TO INJURE THEM. THEY ARE LIVING CREATURES WHO ARE DEPENDENT ON YOU TO KEEP THEM ALIVE. DO NOT BETRAY THEIR TRUST, OR I WILL TAKE THEM AWAY FROM YOU.