The King is Dead

Our beloved goldfish, Christian the 4th, King of Denmark, passed away last night (we called him "C4" or "Mr. Fish" for short. He was named after our favorite Danish monarch, who in addition to building most of the notable Renaissance buildings in the downton area, also had great taste in clothes, with a particular fondness for fancy silk pants. As a king, Christian was a bit of a disaster, having involved Denmark in a number of expensive and ultimately pointless wars with Sweden and Germany (the perennial favorites), which coupled with his enthusiastic urban spending program almost plunged the kingdom into bankruptcy. As a goldfish, C4 was a qualified success. He did all the things goldfish are supposed to do, including die unexpectedly, but he did manage to outlive his peer, Otto, who went belly up almost immediately.

We're still waiting on the coroner's report, but all evidence so far points to swim bladder malfunction. Incidentally, in reading up on this I also learned about performing surgery on fish. That should come in useful some day.