My 12-year-old son has had a fish tank with two goldfish for the past four years. The large one he’s had for about 2 years; the smaller one he’s had for nearly 4 years. He’s responsible for cleaning the tank. He has been instructed and knows how to change the water and take care of the fish when cleaning time for the tank comes. In the past, there had been three or four times when the fish got very stressed by the moving required to clean the tank and looked very weak and couldn’t control their buoyancy, and looked like they would die.

In all previous cases, we moved the QGM [New Design:  CHI Palm] near the fish tank and applied (Mind) for 10-20 minutes or so right through the glass wall of the tank, in the direction of the fish. Within moments, the fish would come around and begin to swim without struggling and have immediate control of their buoyancy. By the next day, they would be totally fine (when I was his age, I remember the next day the fish would be floating on their side, dead).

This time around, late on a Sunday in late July 2001, one of the fish, the bigger one and most active of the two had an extremely bad time of it. My son brought me to see it. He was distraught and crying. He said the fish was very sick and that I had to take care of it. My heart sank when he first showed me the fish. He was barely moving, very weak. All he could do was struggle, but couldn’t control himself, and he would sink to the bottom. He was exhausting himself very rapidly and I really didn’t think he had any time left. I rushed the QGM over and began applying it as I had done other times before. I spent more than 40 minutes with it. But it didn’t improve, not even a little bit. It was now turned on its side and floating listlessly on top of the water. It’s mouth barely opening to take in water. It’s body was beginning to curl in the direction of gravity with the tip of its tail pointing downward. I then stopped.

I addressed my son and tried to comfort him. Telling him that sometimes it’s just too late, and we can’t help things when they get that bad. He wanted to know what I was doing, and why I had stopped applying the QGM!!! I told him it was too late for the fish! He asked me why!?! I said, that “it just was,” just look at it! He asked me why I had given up on the fish! He reminded me that I had always taught him that it’s never too late when it comes to helping a life. I said of course I agreed, but this fish was dead! He went to look at it, and came back. He said, “no, every now and then it wiggles its tail a little bit.” It was obvious to me that they were muscle spasms or death throes. My son couldn’t know the difference.

I told him the fish was dying and we couldn’t help it. He insisted I return to helping the fish. Just to please my son, I returned, and applied the QGM for another 60 minutes, non-stop! The fish didn’t move much; it just sank and fell nearly flat on its side. It landed near a large rock and it kept it propped halfway on its side. Its tail was facing towards us, and its face and mouth facing away so we couldn’t see it. It didn’t move, it was totally listless. I stopped at that point and told him, that was it. We couldn’t help it. He began to cry and told me I had given up on the fish! And how could I do that!

He complained bitterly to his mother and couldn’t understand how easily I had given up! I showed the fish to his mother and she agreed also that it was too late, but not to give up, just not to disappoint our son. I did another 20 minutes with the QGM, but the fish didn’t move. It was late now, close to 1 am in the morning and my son didn’t want me to give up yet. So, what I did was set the QGM up next to the fish tank, propped the transducer head up with a towel, and left it set on “low” all night long pointed toward the inert fish. The left side of the fish was resting on the rock and this was the side closest to the tank wall and closest to the QGM and the only vantage point where I could keep it.

The next morning, the fish was nearly in the same spot, but it was on the other side of the rock, still lying on its side, but this time it was on the side of the rock that left its whole flank completely exposed to the QGM. It was listless and inert. We could see its mouth. It was half-cocked and barely moving. It looked dull and in a trance. I left the QGM running when we all left for the day. When I returned in the late afternoon, my priority was to turn off and remove the QGM from the side of the fish tank. The fish was floating on its side, in the middle of the fish tank. It was listless, on its side, with its tail pointing down. Its mouth was open and didn’t appear to be moving. I quickly left it. As I expected, it was dead.

I didn’t have the heart to take the fish out of the tank. I decided to leave it until my son could witness for himself that the fish was dead. That evening I expected to hear a lot of crying. But not a peep from my son. Around 8 pm I went to look at the fish. And there it was! Swimming around, completely normal, without a struggle! Completely fluid and swimming fast! My son only told me “Of course!” It’s what he expected. I couldn’t believe it. But it occurred exactly as I’ve described it. Not only did the fish recover, but he is alive and well to this day, doing better than ever, as if the episode had never occurred; and neither fish have ever had a repeat episode of stress after changing the tank. I don’t think either fish would be alive if it weren’t for the QGM.

-Bert Rodriguez-Munnet, DC (Miami, FL)