Laura Dern’s goldfish has died. It was 14 years old.
Dern – who recently spoke to her Little Women co-star Saoirse Ronan in a conversation with Dazed – announced the death of her fish on Instagram yesterday. “RIP to our amazing goldfish we loved so much,” she wrote. “14 YEARS!!!!!!!!”
The average life expectancy of a goldfish is between five and ten years at home (in the wild, they can live as long as 25 years or more). As The Nest writes, “prolonging the life of your fish depends on proper care and tank environment”. At 14, Dern’s goldfish (the actor did not disclose its name, for reasons that remain unclear) must have been cared for very well.
As People points out, Dern has discussed fish before in interviews, in reference to her frequent colalborator David Lynch, who is very fond of his ‘catching the big fish’ metaphor.
“He says ideas are like fish – if you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water,” Dern told W in October. “But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve gotta go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure, they’re huge and abstract, and very beautiful.”
See Dern’s Instagram post – which depicts a loving photo of the goldfish in happier times, and also a scone – below.