Cronos the fish
The late Cronos
Cronos started out looking pretty good.  He stood up against some periodic bullying by Chloe II and he eventually became very comfortable in the tank.  By Tuesday morning, Chloe II had become strangely lethargic but Cronos was still doing exceptionally well in his new surroundings.  Tuesday night, I decided to take Chloe II out of the tank and put her in a fishbowl for a bit.  I had read that when new fish are introduced into a tank, they may be carrying ich and consequently, the other fish in the tank mich contract the illness.  So I treated the main tank for ich and I also treated Chloe II while she was in the fishbowl.  After about 30 minutes in the bowl, Chloe II seemed to be thriving again.  Instead of sitting at the bottom of the bowl (as she had been doing in the tank), she was swimming all around and she seemed very comfortable.  I added her back to the main tank before going to bed.  At that point, Cronos still looked as if he was doing very well and I started to think that both fish would be all right for a while.

Chloe II
Chloe II
By Wednesday morning, Cronos had taken a surprising turn for the worse.  He was hiding behind plants and sitting on the gravel at the bottom of the tank.  He did not swim up to eat in the morning.  When I arrived home from work in the evening, he had passed away.  One flush of the toilet later, Chloe II was all alone again.

Chloe II is lethargic again, but I have not given up on her just yet.  The pH in the tank appears to be just fine and the continued demise of fish after fish has become a very frustrating conundrum.  There is a chance that the whole problem might be that two fish simply cannot survive in our small aquarium, so we’ll see how things progress with one fish from here on out.