RIP Salty and Seaweed

Our fish tank has been like a house of death the last few days.

It started Saturday morning, when Darrell noticed that he couldn't find Salty (Sam's fish) anywhere. We suspected that he was dead and stuck in one of the houses, but we waited until the kids left with Rita and Darrell to check it out. Sure enough, Salty was dead and stuck in the driftwood. So we flushed him and also noted that Seaweed, who always had such a brightly colored tail, was looking very pale.

When the kids came back from Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday, we broke it to them that Salty had died. Sam was serious about it, but was more interested in why he died than mourning the loss of his beloved fish. No tears, just serious contemplation for about five minutes. Then it was forgotten.

This afternoon we had to deal with Seaweed, who had gone missing earlier today (Rita and Darrell stayed with the kids while we had a work day at school and noticed the problem). Not only is Seaweed dead, but we can't find him. One theory is that maybe Melanie ate him. She is supposed to be compatible with the guppies, but we don't think Seaweed could have disintegrated into nothing so quickly. And there does seem to be a lot of floaties in the tank.

Unfortunately, Seaweed's passing was more difficult for Maria. I felt bad for her, but I'm sure she'll get over it soon.

So now the question is, why are the fish dying? Should we get more soon (which would make the kids happy), or should we wait to see if it's a problem in the tank? And if we wait, how long is long enough? At least these fish aren't expensive!