#sorry not photos and kinda bummer of a post I gotta run to work :x

[nyhne]

Sad fish stuff under the cut :c

I know we habitually impart human qualities on animals and while I would never argue that fish (broadly speaking) are sentient in the same way that humans are, there are times that things fish do still hits the same way. For a while now, I've been down to just two pygmy corydoras; a very large one from the first batch I had gotten and then I got a couple more last year when that batch dwindled to just one and it looked like the big corycat was going insane being alone (most fish school, so you want groups of them in a tank). Only two of them made it through quarantine and when I finally added them to the community tank, the big corycat would not leave them alone- it didn't seem in a territorial way, but it just wanted to be near them. And then it was just two of them, and they were almost always together, rummaging for food at the bottom of the tank or skirting around the glass. (Again, I wouldn't call it affection, because they stick together as a school as a protective measure. But it was cute.) And it's just been the two of them for a long while but just this week I found the smaller corycat dead and on the day I found it, I couldn't find the big one anywhere. I didn't see a second body, so I was pretty sure it was still alive, but usually it was always out and about and very active around the tank. But for nearly the entire day it was hiding and I didn't see it until much later. Not sure that I'd necessarily prescribe it as grieving...but it was something. //: