The first post for this series in the current year was on a positive note, as was what I showed last week. I was exulting in the two new ponds, the second very new and doing well it seemed, the first having recovered from its earlier bleak situation with the arrival of new fish which Janaki’s brother Dharshana gave me, to add to the large pink gourami there, plus four catfish.

But there was disaster last week. I went up one morning to find the larger pink gourami not glued to the edge of the tank, where he waited to be fed, devouring everything that came his way so that I had to drop in food all over the rest of the tank to give the fish a chance. In time he came up as did the rest, but they were desultory, and I worried, and I should have worried more.

But I went away that day and next morning Janaki called to say he seemed very ill, and though she took him out, he died shortly afterwards. And one of the silver dollars followed. I told Kavi then to empty the tank, for perhaps the mud had turned noxious. Kithsiri had indeed advised me to do this a few days earlier, for there was no need for it since the lotuses had not thrived, and even the basin I put in, after the blossom the plant came with died, lost its leaves when another bud had just emerged from the water.

I delayed, and this seems to have been fatal. Kavi moved the fish as instructed to the waterfall pond, but though the four catfish did well there the silver dollar was attacked there and in the ehala tree pond by the malawi, and he ended up on the pond by the garage, though I have not seen him there yet.

The pond above is now clear, and the other gourami, who seemed weak when I got back, has now improved, and appears at the age of the tank in the mornings and eats, if not quite as voraciously as his mate. It breaks my heart though to see him all alone there, but I am not quite sure what to do. I suggested to Kavi that the bereaved Silver Dollar should be put back, and I hope he will try. The catfish unfortunately, who seem able to survive anywhere, lurk at the bottom of the waterfall pond and I do not think it will be easy to get hold of them again.

The first picture is of the two gourami together in the pond, and the next shows them with one of the Silver Dollars just below, and a couple of catfish down below. The next one shows all the types, a gourami and a Silver Dollar on the left and both black and white catfish down below.

But then you see the two dead fish, and then the lone gourami, with only a statue for company.