Yesterday, I learned that at least one of Les Six (Honegger, specifically) has a dreadful and mostly incurable illness called NTD, or Neon Tetra Disease. NTD, despite its name, can wreak havoc among most aquarium fish. In Neons, it causes the loss of its "neon bits," as one online acquaintance calls the teal blue stripe that runs the length of its body. It also causes internal discoloration, and later cysts, spinal deformities, and death. What's worse is that once introduced to a tank, it usually means complete contamination.

In other words, it's possible and probable that I could loose Les Six and the Justice League, plus my beautiful driftwood, about fifty dollars worth of plants and substrate, and my biofilter. That is, of course, the worst case.

Someone advised me to set up a hospital tank, put Honegger in it, and dose it up with medication. This means I had to use my new 2g tank, which I'd set aside for my Betta nano-environment. Today, I bought an expensive bottle of Maracyn Plus, an antibacterial used for combatting mouth fungus, popeye, dropsy, and ulcers. It's a cloudy white liquid that disperses its antibiotics as microscopic spheres that cling to the fish, penetrating and subsequently combatting infection. The survival rate for NTD is statistically insignificant, but apparently some fish recover.

My expectations are low. A friend wondered why I would go to so much trouble to salvage a $1.79 fish. Well, if I can't take care of a $1.79 fish, how am I ever going to feel confident when I graduate down the road to more exotic, expensive fish? I'd rather try my hand at this now rather than later, when the cost of losing an entire habitat could be disastrous.