I'm sorry about your losses, SB and MS.
My last rosy red minnow died the last weekend of July. Somehow, I don't feel so busted-up about it... I think because she lived for 5 YEARS- wowza!- and her death came suddenly without her being ill for a long time. Not bad for a species that normally lives for 3-4 years, and who was originally going to be food for some other critter. Her 3 tankmates whom I adopted at the same time pre-deceased her, one by one, over quite some time, and I think she lived for two years after her last tankmate passed (I'm not sure what her gender was, but I thought of the last one as "she"). I hope she wasn't lonely; her appetite was certainly healthy, right up to the last day.