FIN

Something peculiar's going on in our aquarium of late. The little fish have been disappearing. Not simply dying and floating or dying and lying at the bottom--but DISAPPEARING completely. One of our biggest fish--Kodos the gurami--looked listless and fin-locked this morning, so I dosed the tank with parasite meds.

A while ago I went to give them their afternoon feeding and the water was murky and half the fish were floating. Polly the big orange parrot was upside-down and completely white. In a frenzied hour I changed 80% of the water but for two-thirds of the tank inhabitants it was too late. Polly is now orange again and looks fine, and Kodos is still around, and Mishak and Abednego are still ok. Jelly Bean, the parrot fish we've had for four years, is down the loo, along with four tiger barbs, a catfish, two red-tailed sharks, two angel-fin tetras, and a red tetra. RIP everybody. The plecos look ok, which surprises me. Usually if some disease is killing fish they croak first.

I'm going to wait a couple days before buying new fish. Nothing like this catastrophe has happened in the five years we've had aquariums. If more die I may just hang up the hobby.