Your story does not surprise me ...... I had at one time a tank and spent a lot of money each month keeping the fish in my tank. Many times either the fish died and their remains got eaten up by their tank mates or when I had just bought some smaller fish and put them in the tank they got guzzled up by the bigger tank mates. I remember this one time when a friend of mine had baby gold fish in this really smallbowl. There were like hundreds of them with parents in this small tank. So as I had a big tank, and I must say I was still very new at the business of caring for fish, I offered to take about 40 of them to restock my tank. So when I got home I put them in the tank. My daughter who was very small at that time and I looked at how they were doing. Within like half an hour they had all been eaten by the remaining few fish in the tank. It was gross to see. A real "dinner party" for the residents.

Since then I noticed that other fish ,specially when they were smaller, would dissappear....well actually I realized they were fish food for the others. It cost me a lot of money to keep on restocking the tank. Ofcourse in the fish shop they told me that it was ok to put them together...but dont believe them. I am sure that they have no idea at all about which fish goes with which. I recommend you check them on the net to know exactly which is which and how they "live" together.

Regarding turtles, well I remember when my daughter was small I wanted to buy her one. But a friend of mine who had a zoo and with whom I discussed this matter made me promise never ever to buy a turtle, cos according to him they are very vicious beasts that are even capable of biting off the finger of a child. What they do is they catch these baby turtles which grow up into really nasty big mama's.

So this is my experience with tanks. I have the tank sitting unused sinec a couple of years in the service quarters and anybody who wants to start a tank and spend lots of money is free to come and get it.  However my recommendation is to get a small fish bowl with 2 goldfish in it. You will have a more Long Lasting relationship with them and a lot cheaper.

Aisha-Taweela