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!?

Just to Catch you Up....

Sorry I haven't been keeping you up to date lately. The summer has kept me really busy! Pachus has literally disappeared! He's nowhere to be found. I've cleaned the tank several times since he went missing, and still no sign of him. During all of this time,  Tut has been ill. It started with his fins rotting away, and a large yellow-orange spot growing on his fin. Then he was surface resting. I tried to help him up with the net, but he would immediately sink back to the bottom. I began to fear that he would die, so I did some research. I considered various diseases that fit his symptoms, and came to the conclusion that it was a parasite. I treated him for a couple weeks and, gladly, he is swimming again! I truly hope he makes a full recovery soon! I haven't noticed any new nips from Aphrodite, but Poseidon and Sepa's fins are not growing back! I have been treating them with different medicines, and still no improvement. Well, I guess I'll just have to wait. I've made two or three water changes since my last post. During one of these changes, I accidentally bumped into Zeus with my gravel vacuum, and boy did I startle him! He leaped an inch or two out of the tank before splashing back in. It scared me! A different time, I was putting the decorations back in. I was picked up some gravel to move, and instead grabbed Xerxes for a whole three seconds! It was a shocking, yet almost delightful experience, but it doesn't seem to me that he enjoyed the experience. He totally spazzed out! I must say, it was rather amusing to watch him recover for the next five minutes. Speaking of decorations, I got   a whole box of freshwater supplies from my uncle, who is starting a saltwater aquarium. I'm covered for the next five years! He even has a large filter and gravel if I ever can afford to upgrade tanks! One of my lightbulbs burned out, so my tank is only half lit... I was about to replace it, but I decided to leave it for a week or two. I kind of like it that way. I just hope they don't turn into vampire fish!! Well, I'm about to leave on a two week vacation, so we'll see how my fish do. Don't worry we'll hire somebody to feed them. I be sure to write about it when I get back.

Be sure to check out all new pictures of the fish in the "Fish Name Photo Gallery" tab!