what the hell is wrong with our fish tank?

As Kimbely eloquently wrote, 2007 is starting off much better than our somewhat tumultuous '06 (ok, so it wasn't so much tumultuous as downright crappy). One of the minor inconveniences we experienced in '06 was the rapid demise of our fish tank "community." Our tank was struggling along with 2 albino cory catfish, a neon tetra or 2, a barb thing, a clown loach, a rubber lip pleco, a couple random shrimp that we got with our live plants, and Mortimer, our african-dwarf frog. And to top it off, the water was white and cloudy and we couldn't figure out why.

Needless to say, it was a little depressing.

So, it being 2007 and a new year and all, we decided to repopulate, cloudy water be damned. We went to the store; we got us 5 new neon tetras and 2 new angel fish. We came home and dutifully floated them in the tank until they were acclimated.

And then we noticed old rubber lips was missing. Not dead and floating on the top, or in a plant, or even bits of him in the filter. Just gone. A bad sign, it I ever there was one. And if there's one thing Mr Smith taught me in Latin, it's that you can't avoid an oracle (see: Oedipus Rex for example A, and the Trojan War for Exhibit B, and yes, I know those are Greek myths, but the Romans stole everything else from Greece, so).

We released the 2 angels and the tetras, and everyone is looking good. A week goes by and everyone seems to be fitting in well: the angels are taking over the top of the tank, the tetras are settling into the middle bottom, the corys take the bottom, and the loach is in the filter. Even the tank is clearing up.

Then the problems began. The angel fish were doing back flips and spins. Although these are natural movements for the Millennium Falcon or even a Metzger, this is not a natural fish swimming style. First, the white one with the black stripes went: it was sad seeing her go down the drain the same way she spent her final hours. Then the black angel, with the white tiger stripes: he went more peacefully as we slept.

We've decided we're bad fish parents and are holding off on getting anymore large fish. It's too taxing, both mentally and financially. Maybe someday we'll try again, but more than likely we'll pawn the whole community off on someone in the near future as we prepare our move. After all, there is no water in the middle.