The Loch Loranger Monster

Up at 5:30 to finish some marking and write my last monthly column, after 28 years, for Opus. Then, when the sun came up, a favourite moment of the day — turning the aquarium lights on and feeding the fish with Leon watching me. But pooey; dead female guppy and another female guppy swimming in a peculiar way and clearly not destined to live.

I went into emergency mode and did a big water change in my mid-size tank and I did a filter cleaning as well, just to be safe. And, I added a little salt to the water. Then I did the small tank. Then, when I was restoring some seasoned water into the tank, I saw the creature below in the tank into which I had bailed it out of my tank.

It's a dragonfly larva.

I caught the larva and took it to Aquariums West to find out what it was. The egg must have been on a plant I put into the tank three months ago because I have added no plants since. From Aquariums West, I went for lunch with my friend Gilbert with whom I went to Mexico in 1974. Then I went to visit my friend Chris in Palliative Care at St. Paul's. Once back home, I finally ate and tidied up the mess from all the emergency water changing. The second guppy died and now number three is showing sings of being off. Ah well, I have a zillion babies growing in the small tank.

But I do not take these deaths lightly. I do not like to cause death of anything. I took the dragon fly to the store where it could hatch and fly. My tanks have a cover so it could not escape to fly. The deaths are distressing. I obsess on watching their progress, hoping for a miracle.