After the horrors of the period around Christmas, when so many fish died, I waited awhile before trying to build up the tanks again. And when I finally did so, there were more deaths, sometimes of the new fish, and in the case of the upright tank of three of the older ones.

For a long time that had had seven fish of what seemed infinite variety. There were four carp, a big red one and a smaller one, mottled a bit, and also two mottled ones that were predominantly white and yellow respectively. Then there was a differently shaped red fish which Kavi told me was a gold fish. Two catfish made up the group, a white one and a black one, whose mates had died soon after I put them in, several months ago, but this odd pair have survived now for months.

But when I introduced a Silver Dollar, the survivor of the pair in the pond by the dining room, though he added to the picturesque nature of the tank, the equilibrium must have changed. First the goldfish died, and then on the same day, later on in the afternoon, the two red carp. That left a bleak pond, grey and white and black, with just a touch of yellow.

So I got four new fish, two small carp which were predominantly yellow, or rather gold, and two red fish which looked similar but which Kavi assured me were goldfish. And for a few days they brought back shades of the old varied scene, red and gold added to the less vivid colours.

But then one morning I found both the goldfish dead. Kavi told me later that they are sensitive souls, and need more oxygen than a tank with a narrow opening on top can provide. But I do not think this can be the reason, since the bigger goldfish survived there for so long.

Anyway, we are thus back to seven fish, four carp though none of them red, the two catfish, and a Silver Dollar instead of the goldfish. I worry about this last because he moves so very slowly in comparison with the others, and sometimes when he stares out from a side, motionless, I wonder if he is sickening, But he has survived thus far, and his square solidity is somehow strangely satisfying in the midst of so many fish that flash past.

But I have no pictures of him there now, for one tends to take felicity for granted, and it is only by chance that i do have pictures of that tank when it had its seven colourful fish earlier. I hope, now that I am on my way back after ten days away, that I remember to record the present felicity of the fish in that tank now.