Scum

Something has been bugging me about the tank for a while now. When viewed end on the water has looked hazy. I've blown it off to be just the water being a little cloudy, after all I was looking through 4 feet of water, a little stuff in it is to be expected.

Well it's not haze, its algae. Its not concentrated like the brown stuff that's popping up all over but its a general scum coating every square inch of the glass. Tomorrow on the way home from Sea World I'm picking up a scrapper. I'm also going to pick up some Prime. My tetra water conditioner is running out and I need some more and everyone seems to rave about Prime.

Guppy Love

I forgot to mention that the remaining first female guppy is already pregnant. Since she's already showing its unlikely its happened in my tank, she was probably knocked up when I bought her. Thanks to guppy biology it'll be six weeks before any fry she or her new friend produce can be sure to be Panzer's. It doesn't that much in the grand scheme of things since I'm rooting for nature to win and the rest of the fish to eat the fry. If they don't though I'd love to see the fry and know they are a result of the fish in my tank. I specifically picked the two girls out to go well with Panzer and I hope they'll make nice looking fish.

Also, I need names for the new girls, any suggestions?

Cory Death Watch Day 9

Nine corys in my tank, six out and in the trash. I've not only lost most of the babies but I've also lost two of my older pandas as well. I'm down to just one baby and two adults in my tank. I don't know why they are having these problems but I know I'm done with these devil fish for the moment. Instead of wasting money on pandas I'm just going to save it for serpaes. I'm going to proceed with the rest of the tank residents and finish things up before I revisit the corys. I might forget the pandas entirely and go with something like a sterbai or something. If I wait a loooong time I can get wild caught pandas after I add CO2 and driftwood to my tank and lower the pH.

On to something happier. I was at the fish store today and looking around. I was about to leave and I stopped by the guppy tank to see if any of the girls looked good enough to replace my lost one. Well as it turned out just as I was about to give up and head off I spotted her, a gorgeous female guppy who would go perfectly with Panzer and the other girl.

You can see the new girl on the left, along with Panzer showing the goods to the girls.The stooges had to get in on talking to the new girl, Panzer was not amused.


And a new shot of Panzer solo.

Disappointment

There's no other word for what I feel right now. Thursday morning the red female guppy died. I attribute it to her being dropped and my ham fisted attempt to pick her up and put her in. Later on the same day on of the baby panda corys died. So far I'm losing 50% of the baby pandas. This morning I saw something I really didn't expect. One of my larger older pandas died. I saw nothing on him that would indicate why. Right now I've got three baby pandas and two older ones left and I'm not buying any more for a long while. At least until I get a quarantine tank set up. In fact if any more die I'm seriously thinking about writing off pandas and instead going with another kind of cory like a sterbai or something. Or maybe just some wild caught pandas.

So in addition to all the death lately my tank is undergoing an outbreak of brown algae. This is normal for a new tank and should clear up eventually but right now it's just making my tank ugly which when combined with the fish losses just depresses the crap out of me.

Silly Guppies

Some updates. On Tuesday Angela called me at work to tell me that two of my new pandas were dead. To put it simply I was bummed. I know pandas are delicate for corys so I should have been ready for it but the new guys seemed to be doing well in the tank. When I got home I tested my water and everything was fine, zero ammonia, nitrites, and not even 5 ppm of nitrates. Well I knew that pandas were delicate, still stings to lose them.

In other news Panzer, my guppy, turns out to be a bit of a jerk. Since he went into the tank he's chased the Stooges around relentlessly. The sight of it is ridiculous as anyone of the platys is easily twice to three times Panzer's size.

So on Monday night I decided to go to my LFS (Aquaria Studio) and see about getting some female guppies in the hope they'd keep Panzer occupied. Yes, I know, they'll breed like rabbits. I know, I'll have fry all over the dang place. Panzer is just too good looking and Angela likes him too much to be rid of him. My only hope is that the lack of good tight cover will let the rest of the fish pick off the fry before they grow.

Well as you might know Tuesday was hurricane day around here and AS was closed. I guess they figured not many people would be looking to buy fish mid-hurricane. So I went back and checked today and the store was open, not that Fay had gone anywhere. Anyways I picked up two female guppies, in the process probably driving the guy helping me nuts as I tried to coach him onto exactly which two I wanted out of the swirling mass of fifty in the tank and sent him back again and again to try and get the ones I wanted. Well while we were talking I asked him if they'd lost a lot of the pandas and he said yes. I told him about the two I'd lost and low and behold, even though I was long beyond the 24 hour guarantee my coming back to the shop over and over and waiting patiently while other customers were helped paid off and he offered to replace them for free. So I left the shop with my two guppies and two replacement pandas.

First the guppies. One of them has a snakeskin tail not too unlike Panzer's. The other is an orange and red guppy that was as close to the one in the book that Charles liked as I could swing. The snakeskin female is more lively than the other by a long shot, probably because the orange girl was dropped outside the tank when I tried to introduce her. Long story, don't wanna get into it, suffice it to say that I am going to keep an eye on her as her entry was way more stressful than it should have been.


And then there's the pandas. Both of the new guys are looking good and so are the other five that were in the tank to begin with. In fact the whole panda crew is getting more lively by the day. That's not saying a whole lot but seeing them out on the sand snuffling around from time to time is nice.

Plateau

My tank reached a plateau of sorts today. My wonderful, loving, beautiful wife let me splurge today on fish. After church and shopping we headed to the fish store where we picked up a quartet of panda cory catfish, two more neons, and a lone guppy. What that means is that I'm considering my school of neons and my shoal of panda corys complete at ten and seven respectively. With those two schools finished up I've got to move on to other species and I'm content with what's in my tank, no pressing need to bulk up the schools. That's a good thing because the next fish I'm getting are the sepaes and I'll need to get all eight at once. I've got to save up the fiftyish bucks I need for them and until then I'm happy to leave my tank be.

Speaking of my tank the fish count is twenty one right now. Ten neon tetras, seven panda cory catfish, three mickey mouse platys, and one guppy.

The neons are doing well. The two new guys regained their color, going from nearly white back to rich blue and red, in less than thirty minutes and immediately started to school with the eight that were in there to begin with. The new guys are more small ones but I don't mind, it'll be nice to see them grow up in my tank.

The panda corys I bought were young ones maybe a half inch long tops. The new guys showed more guts than the old guys, hiding initially but quickly moving out and starting to root in the sand. The young guys located the older guys pretty quickly and encouraged the older ones to come on out.


The stooges continue to do well but todays additions seemed to have stressed them out a bit. They're chasing each other around a bit more than normal.



The lone guppy I got is a gorgeous red snakeskin. He surprised me because when he hit the water he immediately started to push the platys around which is probably leading to their stress. For a top swimmer he's also spent a lot of time cruising the mid and low levels.



Charles got a kick out of watching the new fish swim.

Meow-Fish

Fish day came early this week, on Friday. I picked up three new additions for the aquarium, panda cory catfish. So far everyone is looking to be doing well in their new home. They're still a little shy and staying hidden behind my stump and under the vine. That spot seems to be very popular with some of the neons and now the catfish. Of course I did it intentionally, I figured that much cover would let the fish have a good spot it they got nervous and it works. I'm hopeful that over the course of the week the catfish will get settled and come out more. When they get another member of their shoal on Saturday maybe that will help even more. I'd also like them to figure out the sinking pellets I'm putting in because everyone else has and swarms on them long before the catfish wander over.

Everyone else is doing good. The stooges are still being themselves and my neons are no where near as skittish as they used to be. Even the one that was making me nervous has got his color back and is prowling around with all the other ones.

Day two of lettuce was a failure. I didn't even see anyone sniff it. I'm going to try and get them to eat it by offering them nothing else tomorrow. Maybe if they've got no other options they'll give it a shot. In the mean time I'll see if there are some other options for vegetables for them.

Update and Lettuce

Not much to report really, and I'm happy about it. Everyone is doing well and getting along. By my reckoning Fe, the sole survivor of my pH crash has been in the tank for about six weeks. The stooges have been in for four. Fe's buddies, my other neons have been in for two and my last group of four neons have been in for almost a week.

There is one neon that's giving me some pause. He's looking scrawny and for most of this weak his colors have been pale. Normally this means something is wrong but my water tests out fine. This also looks a little bit like it could be neon tetra disease. NTD is a nasty parasite that causes neons to loose their color, waste away, swim erratically and deform into a humped shape. It's eventually fatal and there is no treatment. It's not contagious in the water but it can be contagious if another fish eats the dead carcass. Naturally I'm nervous about the little guy. In the last 24 hours he's perked up in color and is more active. I'm hopeful it wasn't NTD and he was just under the weather.

Yesterday I tried to give my fish some lettuce.


The ingrates didn't touch it.

Fish Pictures

Today I brought home several new additions to the tank, four more neon tetras. After weekly maintenance I got the new guys acclimated to the tank and put them in. They immediately joined up with the neons already in the tank and schooled together. The stooges introduced themselves as well in their own special way.

"DURR! Who are you!?"

Blundering through the school like bulls in a china shop. In spite of this all four perked up in a hurry and filled in their color in not even two hours. I busted out the camera and decided to get some pictures of everyone in their new home.