this fish is smarter than me

I will never understand this. Yesterday I cleaned my daughter's fish tank. I caught all the fish in a small net to put them in a baggie while I siphoned out a third of the tank, cleaned all the algae off the glass, and put in new water with a couple chemicals. Simple.

Not simple.

One fish eluded the net. This one.

"OK," I thought as I came back to the tank. "Fine.  Be too quick for me. I'll just clean the tank with you in it."


But when I returned from putting the other fish in the bathroom, he was nowhere to be found.It's a small tank. With glass sides.  Multi-colored rocks, a bubbler, a shell and a fake coral-looking thing on the bottom. That's it. As you can see, this fish is the color of an emergency crew jacket. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I even looked on the floor.

Gone.

I was totally confused for the entire 45 minutes it took me to clean the tank, replace the filter, change the water, and wait for the chemicals to filter through. Then I put the other fish back in.

And had my mind blown.

The fish was back in the tank.

Sure, I could joke about fish magic, or that dimension where the other sock sometimes goes, or Hamlet's will-puzzling undiscovered country, but this is for real. 

I don't know how he did it.

Thank goodness I had a witness or this would all sound nuts.  Ms. H was in the house and saw the mystery for herself.  He was really gone, and then he was really back.

That is one smart - or otherworldly - fish.