Fish Food

A week ago, Thun bought a turtle from the local temple. I'm not sure that religious institutions should be in the business of peddling wildlife, but at least the price was right: 20 baht (about 65 cents).

I wanted to go to the pet store to buy a proper turtle-quarium (it's an aquatic turtle), but Thun said "No." He wanted to keep it in a beer cooler.

At first, Thun loved the turtle. He stared at it morning, noon and night. We didn't know what to feed it, so we researched turtle-food on the internet, and discovered they are omnivorous. So we fed it shrimp, and the turtle liked it!

We also read that many pet turtles die of neglect--starving in unchanged water, poisoned by their own urine and feces.

"Don't let that happen to your turtle, Thun!" I warned.

"Of course not! I love my turtle."

About four days later I was going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I tripped over the beer cooler, and there was the motionless turtle floating in dirty water littered with black specks.

I was mad--obviously the turtle had died, strangulated by its own feces, but it was the middle of the night, so I went back to bed.

The next day I screamed at Thun: "you let the turtle die!! You didn't change the water and it suffocated in its own turtle shit!"

"No!" said Thun, "the turtle is alive!" He shook the beer cooler and the turtle rose out of its slumber and perked up its little head.

"What about all that black stuff?" I demanded. "Change the water! That turtle will die in its own shit!"

"No!" protested Thun. "It's not turtle shit! It's fish food!"