Okay, let's look at your fish pics category
http://www.reeftalk.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/505
The yellow fish thumbnail at the top left is the latest pic.
The red fish to the right is the previous, and so forth.
As such, viewing of filmstrip thumbs and <<images . images>> should follow the same logical pattern as the thumbs are displayed in the category (showgallery):
Image to the left is latest : image to the right is older
Now, the filmstrip fix in post #2 synchronizes with the thumbnail sequence in showgallery.
What we still need to figure out is how to switch around the next/previous links and we'll be in syncopation heaven