Looking over the past few posts, you'd think my fish are sick or dropping dead on a regular basis.

One of my SAEs -- Loki -- bit it about three nights ago. I found him so soon after he had died that he looked still alive...just, um, crooked. His nose had tipped to the substrate while his tail fin continued to float. It was quite disappointing, as the SAEs struck me as pretty hardy, although annoyingly shy.

So, Asgard, which only recently had three shrimp and two SAEs now has just one shrimp and one SAE. I take such meticulous care of that tank, I'm not sure what's going on. My Tetras are so hardy and hale that I forget not all aquatic life is.

And then there's the law of proportion. I now have 11 Tetras. Originally, I had 14. The loss of those 3 doesn't seem so bad because so many are left and thriving.

But when half your SAE population and two thirds of your shrimp population bite it, it feels catastrophic. But it isn't. I'll just have to start again. Two or three more shrimp and perhaps two or three Otocinclus. First the shrimp. I want to see how Thor does before I bring in more vertebrate fish.