Once again, I have been negligent to post to this blog even though stuff has happened. Claudius disappeared, and Messala died, just to keep things simple. My tank now has an emptiness that I hope to fix in the coming days/weeks. Messala's death was very drawn out and painful to watch. He started swimming on his side (see picture below) and seemed unable to swim right-side up. He looked like he was suffering a lot. I almost wanted him to die, so he'd be put out of his misery. He was like this about 3-4 days before he passed away. Messala was another one of those fish that spent a lot of time in my tank (8 months to be specific) and I am more attached to than others. He was a wonderful fish and I'll miss him a lot. Now there's just the 5 Pachi, Aphrodite, Persephone, and Socrates.

A chalk memorial to Messala

(No, he's not dead.) Messala swimming on his side.

Oh Claudius, where art thou!?

All Sorts of Madness

A lot has happened recently in the Underwater Empire. Sadly, we have had a death. It came as a shock since we haven't had one in a while. RIP Trajan.

The rest is all to do with the snails. First of all, (as I have mentioned before...) both of them seem to have this magic superpower of floating. They'll be happily sliding across the bottom and then BLOOP! Air comes out of their shells and all of the sudden they go flying to the top. They float around for a while and then drop back down.... yeah... I know... weird, right? 

(Sorry for the lights reflecting on the glass..)

Secondly (Concerning snails...) It seems we have a rather scandalous situation on our hands....  Hippocrates has been somehow (I have absolutely no idea how he does it...) finding a way in the Aphrodite's separator. I take him out, but the next time I see him he's right back in! I haven't the slightest idea how he does it or how to deal with it. (Help in the comments??)  Are they in love or does Hippocrates just like the safety of the separator? 

(Well, if they are in love, Aphrodite doesn't seem to like Hippocrates much. She is always in the opposite corner with her regular shocked face.)

And lastly I would just like to quickly point out how much Hippocrates has grown since I got him.

WOW!

Here We Go Again...

Once again,I come to you with horrible, terrible, depressing, negative news... A couple days ago, I noticed that I hadn't seen Tiberious in a while, which started to worry me. And, as you can guess, when a fish goes missing, they're probably dead. I wish I could tell you I found him hiding somewhere, but instead I found him lifeless, floating in the water. So yes, the adorable Tiberious is dead. I regret having to make so many sad announcements, and hope to deliver better news to you in the future. We'll miss his (or I guess 'her') sweet spirit.

I plugged in the new filter, and everything else is going great!

Last picture ever taken of Tiberious (one day before he disappeared, three days before he was found)

We've Lost Another One :(

Last night we lost another fish- this time it was Akhenaten. We shall miss him dearly. Zeus has found a new home in the colluseum.

Not Again!

I realize it's probably about time that I inform the world that the beautiful Nefertiti has died. He died on Friday, Feb 15, 2013. It is my greatest fear that this is the next wave of the plague I spoke of earlier, for he died as Constantine did: slow, miserable, paralysis. Likewise, it hurt to watch him suffer. For the short time that he was mine, he was a great fish. His brethren will greatly miss him. Speaking of his brethren, they are as happy as can be! (or at least that's what it looks like) In fact, happiest I've seen my tank in ages! I hope it will stay that way and this plague will disappear for good.

Yet another tragedy

Even after all this happy news, yet another tragedy has come. The morning after I got my fish, I discovered one of my new guppy's dead body. I didn't even have time to name him! Anyways, Petco will replace him and test my water for free, so I'll be doing that tomorrow. Maybe he was just too stressed out or was sick when I got him. Who knows? Anyways, the good news is I have finally decided on a name for my other guppy: Constantine. The two new baby Pachuses are doing fine, still, every time I see them, I'm shocked at their smallness.

What a Trickster!

Twice now Socrates has tricked me into thinking he was dead. The first time, I came home only to see a shell floating around in the water. Being my first snail, I didn't know what a dead yellow apple snail looked like, so I began researching what a dead one looks like. I picked him up out of the water and tried moving him back on to the glass, but he never responded. I learned that a dead snail stinks terribly, as I looked up at my tank, I saw him blissfully cruising up the glass as if nothing had ever happened. As you can imagine, I was overjoyed to see this and glad I didn't bury him alive, but also upset that he would play such a cruel joke. The next instance, I noticed that he had not moved at all since that morning. I kept an eye on him, and he still failed to move around. I had to go to a family event, and hoped to see him active when I returned. And what do ya know... when I got back a few hours later,  he was cruising along as usual! I don't know what it is with snails, they just love playing possum!

Dreadful news.... Again

It seems all I can give you these days is bad news :(. Yet another fish has passed--- our dear Hades. I hope he goes to heaven... Contrary to what his name suggests. He was a great fish and a great buddy to Athena. And now the worst news: the weather is so excessively snowy that the fish cemetery is buried under snow. So I have wrapped him up in tissues and am storing him in the freezer until spring. ( I know, I know, this is very gruesome indeed.) I just hope nobody opens that bag mistakenly while going through the freezer. I've decided to hold off on getting any fish until after New Years to give my tank time to stabilize. Rest in peace, Hades.

Hades

His "Coffin" (Sorry, I know it's upside-down)

The buried graveyard

Grave news

Two new headstones have been added to my graveyard of dead fish. The first was one of the Pachuses, he looked as if he was attacked and was hardly recognizable. He was found on September 27, 2012. He will be missed. The second death was devastating, for it was my newest fish, Apollo. Athena guarded Apollo's body until I found her. She died on October 4th, 2012 and was finally buried today (10/6/12). Both of these deaths have effected the Aquatic Kingdom forever. May they rest in Peace.

The good news and the bad news.....

Athena

The Orange Athena

In loving Memory of Tut

May he rest in Peace.

Best Friends Forever.

The Startling remains of My dear Posiden

Life in the ancient fish tank has been crazy since my last post. I have terrible terrible TERRIBLE news and some fantastic news. I suppose I'll go in chronological order. So I guess I'm starting with some good news. I finally named the new guy!!! I just started calling him Tiberious because it just felt right. He has been growing but is still much smaller than Xerxes. He adds so much to the tank. Next comes some dreadful and painful news. I have been avoiding posting for a whole week because my mind hasn't healed quite yet. There has been a death. I never thought it would happen...... Tutankhamen has passed. He has always been the everlasting life of the tank and now he is gone. I discovered him in the late hours of Sunday, July 29th and he was thereafter buried early the next morning. He will be missed deeply. My cousin and I had a beautiful funeral and burial service for him. Two days later I left for camp, leaving the maintenance/feeding to them for four days. I returned on Friday and everything was fine.... or so I thought. I noticed that Posiden was nowhere to be seen. I dismissed it, thinking he must have been hiding in a corner or something. Later that day, I noticed something floating around in the water. At first, it looked like a piece of algae or something. But as I looked closer I realized something very appalling. It was not algae, it was the remains of my dear Posiden. How could I tell? His bones were still visible. It was a truly horrid sight and with forever haunt my memory. I buried the small  chewed-up carcass next to his buddy, Tut. Over the next day, I noticed how lonely Eiosepa appeared without his chums. He kept trying to befriend the Pachus' and Ahmen-Ra, but he didn't really "fit in". This made me even more upset, so I brought him home a new friend! Introducing....... Athena: Goddess of wisdom and war! They were instant buddies! I was about to buy another one that was red, blue, orange, and yellow and then name it Hatchepsut, but I decided it was too soon. During all this time Aphrodite had been patiently waiting in her cage. I decided she had served enough "jail time" and let her free. She was very glad! Her "cell" was also filthy. Well, that's all I can fit in one post, so please enjoy my pictures! It was very stressful to photograph Athena. I finally got a perfect picute of her, but she turned orange!!! I just added most of my attempts (orange included).

What a scare!!!

The other night, I was making my way up to my room, as I looked into my fish tank, I noticed that two fish were missing: Tutankhamen and Eiosepa. I frantically looked around until I noticed two limp brown bodies atop the Pantheon's roof. I immediately fell to the ground and started crying. So many had died! As my mom heard me crying, she came up into my room. I told her what happened through my sobs. She looked inside. "I don't see any dead fish...", I replied "They're there. Look on the roof," "There are no dead fish on the roof." "What???". I sat up and to my amazement saw both Eiosepa and Tut swimming happily around the tank as if nothing had happened. "They're alive? They're ALIVE!!!"I don't no if I was just really tired, or they came back to life... but what a miracle!!!