golden sisters

I didn't write about this before, because it just made me too sad. A few weeks ago, my favorite angelfish Miss Beautiful died. I hadn't even noticed she was unwell but that morning she was hiding low in plants when I fed the tank, didn't come out. I saw her down there looking as if struggling to swim, but going nowhere. Crashed. Looked closer saw her fins were ragged too. I tested the water- nitrates between ten and twenty. Did a partial water change. But that night she died. It happened when we were watching television in the same room. I looked in during a break, and she was unmoving. Lifted her out into a paper towel and buried under a hydrangea. 

I don't think I could have saved her. She'd been unhealthy for so long, these last few weeks of neglect were just the end. Now only the two gold angels in there, and three kuhli loaches still. I'm feeling very despondent about the tank. Some of my plants are doing poorly too (but the hornwort is really thriving!)

I am undecided what to do about the other fishes. In the past three months, my maintenance has slid to water changes once every other week, or once every ten, twelve days at best. It's not enough. I do ask for help but the response is "do we have to do that today?" or "can't it wait until the weekend" and then it ends up being two weeks again. I just got re-evaluated by the doctor and have to take it easy, do physical therapy for the next six weeks, for my ankle. I want to keep up with tank care like my usual standard, but I have a feeling of dread that in spite of best intentions, I simply won't be able to.

The white clouds in my window tank seem to be much tougher- they're even still breeding and there's two half-grown fry, one much smaller a few weeks old now, and several more just little specks with tails in there. I am sure Tucker my paradise fish is suffering from the lack of steady water changes, too- his color is fading again and tail fin lost its filament.

But I feel worse to see the angelfishes suffer. My gold sisters both have missing filments now, too- Shirley has a small fungal patch on her caudal fin and maybe some white showing on the lips. One of them has ragged edges on the pectoral fins- and they both have that ominous flush of inflammation near the spine behind dorsal which makes me think they're ill the same way Miss Beautiful was. (Also makes me think now that Miss Beautiful's broken pectoral fins weren't from crashing into tank walls after all - I've never seen these golden angels dash across the tank in fright like she used to- but probably from bad condition)

I was thinking to just sell the tank and re-home the fishes, hoping someone else can give them better care- but I feel guilty to dump my problem on someone else. Now considering to transfer the two angels in my spare 20H, strip and disinfect the 55. The 20 is a lot smaller, but will be easier for me to keep up on the water changes, maybe I can get them back into good enough health to re-home confidently.

Crazy thing is that, even though they look ill to me, they've finally settled their differences (there was lots of angry rushes at each other lately) and are in breeding mood. Just yesterday Shirley was laying eggs (and Precious eating them immediately). So I tell myself- they can't be doing too badly?

Kuhlis look just fine. Fat and active as ever. And I still think some of the plants are beautiful.