Today started out at 5 degrees and my titanium knee is letting me know it is not happy so I didn't feel like doing anything. I took a ride to a LFS just to see if I could waste some money and they didn't have anything that peaked my interest. I figured I was there anyway and I saw a couple of striped cardinals. They were swimming around and looked fine so I told the guy, I will take those.
He caught the pair and brought them up to the counter.
As he was putting the plastic bag into a paper bag I noticed one of them was swimming funny. The guy saw it too so we both looked closer. He was not swimming funny, he was not swimming at all. He croaked in the 20' from the tank to the counter.
I never saw a fish croak so fast. I mean my tank is good, but the fish has to at least be alive when I throw it in.
This is not him, but one I had a few years ago.