Mick’s comment about yesterday’s post on Red Devil Cichlid got me thinking about fish. When my sons were young, we enjoyed keeping tropical fish: angelfish, neon tetra, red-tailed swordfish and more.
Recently, we went to the beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast and encountered Red Tide for the first time. It’s a naturally occurring single-celled plant called algae. The algae or phytoplankton produces neurotoxins that are transfered through the food chain and can kill fish, birds, marine mammals, and humans that eat something in the affected food chain.
When the algae is prevelant, the fish die and the beach becomes littered with dead sea life. You can smell the odor while still in the car approaching the beach. Nobody was swimming or sunbathing. Nobody was even walking. We only stayed long enough to photograph. Very surprised to find cowfish in these waters. 
