-1 grey female

One of my grey females died tonight. I have no idea why.

I fed them earlier tonight and they were all eating and fine. A couple hours later, the tank went dark for the night and I happened to glance over there, which I never do after it goes dark, and I noticed one of them pointed downwards, with just her nose poked into a corner of a rock. I thought she was just sleeping, these fish do that.

I had an odd feeling about it, so I walked over there to get a better look and couldn't really tell. I went over to get a flashlight and debated whether I should get a net. My gut told me that I was going to have to net her out of there.

The flashlight revealed what I didn't want to see, she was upside down, with her nose barely poked into a rock. Last hope, I put the net in the tank and hoped she would swim away and show that she was fine. But no. The swirling water dislodged her nose and she floated free to the middle of the tank, revealing that she was, indeed, dead. I think she got lodged in the rock after she died, because if she'd become stuck in there and THEN died, she would have been right-side-up.

I have no idea what killed her. I examined her mouth, thinking maybe she'd managed to get a rock stuck in there or something. One of her gills is red, but I didn't notice anything amiss on any of them earlier, so that may be a post-mortem thing, I don't know.

The other fish appear to be fine, they hadn't even noticed that she was dead. Because the big tank is so big, I really don't worry too much about them. I clean the tank and change the filters somewhat regularly. They really are pretty maintenance free. Mostly, if I worry about any of them at all these days, I worry about Mr. White because he just seems to generally be a bit more sensitive. But then, his tank is smaller, too, at 12 gallons vs. 36 gallons.

I just don't know.

I'm so sad.

Now in the big tank we have 3 white, 5 grey, 1 algae eater.

The Lost One.

Seven grey, three white. That's how many females should be in the 36 gallon tank. I've provided them with ample hiding spaces, several large rock formations and limbo rocks -- you know, rocks that have an arch and they can go real low underneath them -- doing the fish limbo.

For the last month, right around the time I moved the white fish in there, I've been randomly counting them when they eat. Six grey, three white. I did the math a couple times -- 4 original females, 3 of their babies. That would make 7 grey females. Yet I only counted 6. Then they would move around and I would recount them. Wait, did that one come out from behind somewhere, exchanging spots with another one? I just wasn't sure.

I finally decided to pull out rocks and count the fish once and for all, with no obstacles hindering my vision and while I was at it, to clean the stuff off.

I pulled the first two items out, a hollow rock that I normally stand on its side so the algae eater can hang out in it and an artificial plant that the girls like to hang out in when the others get really aggressive.

I filled the hollow rock with water and swished it around, dumped it and repeated the rinsing. Something pink came out along with all the fish poop. Great. I rinsed, swished and dumped. More pink. I got suspicious. Rinsed, swished and dumped. More pink. I peered inside and found the missing fish. She had decayed pretty badly in the hollow rock, not much of her was left.

I guess she'd swum in there and was unable to turn around and get out, and so she had expired in there. (sigh) I feel like a bad fish owner for not checking sooner, or for not knowing that they could get stuck in there. I guess I didn't figure they could actually fit inside of it. I'm suspicious that it was Baby #3. She always liked the hidden spots -- I mean, she used to swim inside the coral until she was too big and often had to wriggle free. I don't know, it's hard to tell them apart nowadays.

But I lost one of them and that just sucks.