Tragedy in the Fish Tank

I returned home from a weekend of celebrating to discover that something terrible had happened in the fish tank. Pruney, a black googly-eyed Moor goldfish was tangled head-down in the aquatic greenery and his beautiful dark skin had turned a shocking silvery grey. His eyelids drooped down in the saddest of expressions and his lovely veil-like tail was shredded into threads.

"What happened!?" I cried, and my mother sadly reported that the mother Molly had gone territorial the other day and commenced attacking all of the other tank residents. Poor googly-eyed Pruney had taken the worst beating having succumbed early to his injuries and laid around while she continued to abuse him. The mother Molly was immediately removed to another tank with a much larger koi goldfish neighbor that we didn't think she would attack. As I looked around the tank, I noticed the damage the other tank residents had suffered. The small red Platy fish was staying low to the ground and not swimming around much, and the other googly-eyed goldfish, Tiggy, looked depressed and tired. His top fin drooped, and he appeared to have some whitish fuzz on his body.

While the baby fish were in a separate section of the tank, they appeared to have lost some numbers too. Only 11 were left of the original 20. Algae seemed to have coated the white tank ornaments in a matter of a few days. It was clear that the tank water conditions had also deteriorated.

My brother changed the tank water, my sister added aquarium salt to treat the wounds/infections in the goldfish, and we hoped that Pruney would survive.

This morning, Tiggy had more energy but the Platy was still quite lethargic. Poor Pruney was dead.

I can hardly believe what has transpired in this little aquatic microcosm these past few days. I hope that the rest of the babies will survive and give my siblings some respite from the sadness of losing Pruney who was a favourite.