It's over, and I have a pit in my gut. Like his brother Tank, he didn't suffer long. So the 2 largest bros swim together now. Stripey is probably as big (he's fine). Final size 8 inches.
I know what I did to maintain the tank, it just wasn't enough apparently. What made me angry is that tonight I discovered the pre-filters were so clogged with plant debris and mulm the filters were barely runnning. So the shedding plants were covered in stuff and clogging the filters. Never saw it this bad. I took all of them out and cleaned them thoroughly. I'm not wasting any more time with those tiny prefilters. I cleaned the filters next. Later on I will do a partial water change. I also did a water column scrub with my large net and swept up a lot of loose floating debris.
The other fish are fine. I'm not. Thanks for those who tried to help and prepared me for the worst. Reminds me of the expression "always comes in threes." Not that I get what that means. I don't 'get' any damn thing right now. And the syno Cash has taken over Hulk's cave.