2 years ago I got a beautiful blue and purple betta fish, named him Bolt
and he’s been very happy (also did research so got the heater and filter and big tank and live plants)Is it weird to mourn a fish?
Not at all wierd.
I will say though that sometimes we experience deferred mourning, so all the losses to date end up focusing on one seemingly small loss. Especially if some of the earlier losses were complex or you had to soldier through or there were awful family dynamics.
My daughter has a beta. He was upstairs and by himself much of the day. (Grand daughters bedroom). They noticed when they would come in the room, he would come up to the edge of the tank and watch them. They felt he was lonely and bored. So moved him downstairs where there is more family activity. I think mourning any sentinel bring is perfectly normal. Lots of people probably think he’s “just a fish”. But we will never know what he thought. I’m sure he enjoyed your company as much as you enjoyed his.
Not weird.
I had aquariums for years, starting as a child with guppies and neon tetras, then mollies, gouraimi, angelfish, betas, etc., then cichlids, working up eventually to Oscars in a large tank. Very intelligent, affectionate, playful, relatively long-lived fish.
Loved my Oscars, raised from babies - they were named, they knew me, and liked to interact. For instance, when I put my hand in the aquarium, they would swim back and forth, sliding along my hand to be petted. Or I would take a short piece of dowel, lower it into their tank, and we’d have a game of tug o’ war.
But when they eventually grew old, and began passing on, it saddened me so that I finally got out of aquarium fish altogether. I’ve thought of someday getting back in the hobby, but don’t know that I will.
Betas are beautiful.
[quote=“whitehouse1988, post:3, topic:788366, full:true”] I think mourning any sentinel bring is perfectly normal.
[/quote]
Autocorrected “sentient being”?
Maybe
I always hate, when people have loss, that others see fit to trivialize their connection, passion or caring for what it is they lost.
The lost of a friendly fish or any other connected creature is indeed, worth feeling sadness. It reconnects us to our own lack of permanence and reminds us what it is to be compassionate.
And @Scribbler is correct. Sometimes a loss of pet is the trigger connection to other losses and defeats. It is a time to reflect and find your peace.
Nope.
I kept “Goldtrout” - 25¢ feeders that GREW , starting in a half barrel, brought in to a 20gal aquarium each Winter. Then in a 65gal stock tank
when the aquarium got crowded, with a floating de-icer for over 10yrs.
Largest was near a foot when I lost them all in a week. Friend gifted me a new 160,gal stock tank & I transferred them.
Something must have leached from the new tank, one by one they went belly up.
I was sad (& felt guilty), but replaced them & now 3yrs later, have 6 new Goldtrout nearing epic size.
They do have personalities & you bond with them as with anything you care for.
Not a bit! I had an aquarium for about 10 years, slowly over the years the fish passed on and I was left with one fish, he was a plecto-something and I had him for 7 of those years, he grew huge and was active in the evenings, I enjoyed his company. One day he was fine and the next he was gone 
. I still catch myself sometimes looking towards the spot where his tank was and it’s been about 5 years since he swam under the rainbow bridge.
It’s not weird to mourn any creature whose company we enjoyed.
Not weird.
And I am sorry for your loss.
Death is never fun regardless of the size of the pet.
It is not weird to mourn anything from a dog to a horse to a fish to a car.
Generally the smaller something is you get over it quicker, so we don’t usually care about insects as much as a cat. A cat as much as a horse.
How much time you spend caring for them counts. So a dog who is fed every day and taken for walks every day hurts
It hurts so much to lose a horse, I would hate to get attached to an elephant.
It is not at all weird to mourn a fish.
I mourned my betta fish when he died. His name was Swims Like a Fish (“Sasha”). He was a good companion and he helped feed my houseplants.
Not true. A cat spends more time with you. You get to know a cat more intimately than a horse. A cat sleeps with you, in your lap and in bed with you. Size has nothing to do with it.
What a lovely way to say it. I smiled a teary smile picturing his journey. And my Sasha’s.
And Oscar’s.
Yes if you read on I mentioned how much time you take caring.
For us the cat was outside not inside and I spent every morning feeding and rugging the horse and riding every afternoon. I had him for over 20 years.
I am so sorry for your loss.
Losing something we care about is always hard.
My condolences for your loss.
Not strange at all, I still remember our last betta Flag and he’s been gone nearly 20 years. Bolt was beautiful and you took good care of him! I’m sorry you had to say goodbye to him 
I mourned all of my betta fish. They were kept in a heated Critter Keeper and I believe that maybe the plastic was leaching something into the water; all my water tests were fine, but my fish would all just fade away no matter what age.
I had rescued two "baby bettas, which were actually very young females. Pixie and Dixie were slowly acclimated to clean warm water but Dixie didn’t make it. So I watched Pixie grow up and she had such a personality. I would feed her defrosted food from a tweezer and she would grab it and shake it—she was so strong it was a bit scary. But even she faded away and died too soon. After her I think I bought one more betta.
All of mine were buried under a tree and I did cry for each one. They are such fun little fish. Every time I rearranged the tank or changed the backdrop, they would always notice it and check everything out.
So not, it’s not weird to mourn a fish.
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