Mr Ugly - I'm really sorry to hear about your loss! Somehow I became unsubscribed to this thread and just now saw this.
Fuggly is at the 28 month mark in my tank. Unfortunately, about 4 days ago he started acting disoriented and was either pointed nose down or belly up - though still breathing. If I "righted" him, he would stay that way for a while. He wasn't breathing heavily. He'd run out of his shrimp (I feed him gut-loaded live marine white shrimp) about a week before and I've theorized that he may have done something to himself (swallowed air) trying to catch the crazy damsel that he's lived with for about 8 months. One eye seemed a little cloudy.
We got a new order of shrimp yesterday. We put all of them in with him, so I'm not sure if he ate one or not. My husband put a small one in his mouth last night, but he spit it out. He was right side up and looked better this morning...but I am not getting my hopes up yet.