R.I.P., Portia

So my former roommate visiting for the weekend, Erik, was looking at my aquarium and said, "Where's Portia?" I said, "She was there yesterday; is she not there? She's usually all over the place." After some searching, I found her. On her side beneath the rocks, ghostly pale, beset upon by the brittle star which was attempting to digest and ingest her slowly (sea stars digest first, ingest after, which really seems it would kill the flavor, but that's beside the point). Gruesome.

You see, my 29-gallon saltwater aquarium contain...ed *frown* a gold-stripe maroon clown (Boris), a pacific blue tang (Ellen), and--until yesterday--a yellow tang (Portia). Boris is highly aggressive and defends the anemones with devilish vigor, and I fear the stress, combined with somewhat poor water quality, was too much for Portia. Now Ellen may bear the brunt of Boris's tenacity, but Ellen's a spunky little thing, so I have hopes. I just feel bad for Ellen being alone with the obnoxious Boris. She needs a companion. Maybe a six-line wrasse or something. But it just won't be the same without Portia.

Well, at least the brittle star was well fed this week. *sigh*