T. gracile

The video is about a little girl who caught this fish in her net

i get my fish (mosquito minnows) from a creek in an area that dries up & many of them end up dying. i don’t take from the creek itself. but this boy was catching some with his net & offered to give me a couple. out of kindness, i said sure & put them in with my others & added them to the pond. NONE of them had any patchy-ness or discoloration to them at this time. at least not noticeable. the last photo shows what it looks like before it turns to the green algae looking stuff.. which initially i thought that’s what it was, but it will not come off them, its like attached??
they don’t live very long once reaching that stage, ive found a few floaters now here & there, but i still have MANY many fish that are alive & unaffected… what could this be???

Red one pictured passed about an hour ago.

Back in the 2022, my GF at the time (now ex) brought home these 5 without telling me. Which is fine but she had no idea how to take care of them. So i stepped in and bought all the necessary care.

after the split 2 years later, i agreed to take them.
My love for them was like a rose that i shouldn’t have picked. i gave them a new tank, a new filter, new plants, more friends. i know now that the harder i tried, the more it would downfall. i do tend to be hard on myself because i believe they should’ve lived longer than that. nitrates were always high. and what i learned was the more energy i spent trying to get parameters adjusted, the more i was stripping the good biology out of the tank. anytime one would pass, i’d try to get them new friends to replace but they were always so aggressive and mean. even chasing the blue one out of the tank overnight and killing him.

It’s true, i do feel relief that it’s finally over. sounds very silly but i think now i can finally move on. they were also constant reminders of my past and my losses. very heavy stuff on my mind.

the only thing that is giving me comfort right now is wondering if they knew i was their fishy dad.
sure, they are instinctive. they know i will feed them and give them a routine. but i hope somewhere deep in their lil fishy brains they knew i was there to take care of them. to try and give them their best life. a life that i really had no choice in the beginning but i took care of it anyway. anytime i would feed them or they would get sick, i’d always talk to them. I’m sorry i couldn’t give you a longer life fishy. but i tried. i love you very much.

This new swordtail keeps "pecking" at my gourami. It doesn't necessarily look aggressive but I don't want it to bother my gourami. Does anyone know what is going on here???

We found a random fish baby in our tank! Absolute mystery. managed to get him into a breeder tank so the biggers don’t eat or bully him. Amazed he got to this stage without being chomped yet! Fingers crossed small fry survives!

Look how teeeeeeeny!!! Bigger fella at the back for size reference 😂 🐟