The lonely Japanese rice fish
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The lonely Japanese rice fish

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daily life

My wife had a Japanese rice fish, a tiny fish in a water tank at the entrance.

This summer, my wife kept two Japanese rice fish in a bucket where she planted arrowheads. She expected them to eat mosquito larvae. When it got cool enough for the mosquitoes to stop breeding, my wife thought to move the fish to the water tank inside the house. But one of them was missing.

Every time I pass by the tank, I check to see where the lonely fish is in the tank. When I came home yesterday, I also checked and found that there were several Japanese rice fish. I asked my wife about them. She replied, "I went to the farm where I sometimes help and brought the fish back."

I can't identify the lonely fish even though I have seen it several times before.

ひとりぼっちのメダカ

妻はメダカを1匹、玄関の水槽で飼っていた。

この夏、妻は2匹のメダカをクワイを植えたバケツの中で飼っていた。妻はボウフラを食べてくれることを期待していたのだ。蚊が繁殖しなくなるほど涼しくなったので、妻は室内の水槽にメダカを移そうと考えた。しかし、1匹は逃げて行方が分からなかった。

私は水槽のそばを通るたびに、ひとりぼっちのメダカがどこにいるか確かめていた。昨日も家に着いて、水槽を覗いたが、そこには数匹のメダカがいた。私は妻にそのことをたずねると、「時々手伝いにいっている農家からもらってきた」という返事。

何度も眺めていたのに、もう、あのひとりぼっちのメダカを見分けることはできない。

Headline image by derekleej on Unsplash

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