Well I got turned on to another tank by a co-worker. A neighbor of his was looking to get rid of his fish tank so I got it. Twenty bucks for a corner tank with a penguin filter. The filter itself is worth twenty bucks. The tank and stand I dunno but a heck of a lot more than 20. No I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Yes, I won't be eating much for lunch for a long while as I save up the cash to get it wet and eventually put in fish. I may use it as a betta/cory tank.
Any ideas?
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
QT Update
I decided not to wait till the end of the outage to get my sepaes. Angela pointed out that I didn't really have guppies or platys in my plan so stick to the plan. Well sticking to the plan means serpaes in the QT to begin with. Dang, I'm so broken up over that. Anyways, I got things set up. I got a big metal plate to help support the bottom and set my container on there. In went gravel, caves and then water. The water all came from my main tank, siphoned off intentionally to help the QT start off as close to my main tank as I could. Add in filter, a few el-cheapo plants, and the heater and I'm ready to go. Now for the fish...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Bad Fishy Daddy
I really have been. Working 12 hours a day for three weeks straight with four more weeks to go has left me without much free time. What free time I do have has been taken up playing with and bathing small children, fixing dinner (some nights), and keeping up with a honey do list. Not a whole lot of time to deal with my tank.
Big mistake. I got it in my head that I could let things slip for a while until I got a good night to do it. After all I can't make nitrates in this tank if I wanted to. Even after 12 days without attention my nitrates were still only about 10 ppm. What was the problem then? In a word, detritus. In non fishkeeper lingo that's a combination of fish poo, uneaten food, and gunk. My sand was literally covered in it. This is partly because when I vacuumed my tank out there was literally nothing in it but water, fish, and sand. So I know lots this had been in there a while hiding where I couldn't vacuum, but a good bit was because I hadn't cleaned in almost two weeks. I learned my lesson, the tank gets a cleaning every Saturday come hell or high water.
Why was everything out? I'm sick of the algae. I know I know, it's part of a new tank but it's freaking ugly. It's not even a mild brown, its sickly blackish nasty brown. So I started Friday night by removing "half" of the decorations and plants from my tank. I say half in quotes because it turned out to be no where close to half. Anyways, in the sink I mixed up about a 7 to 10% solution of bleach to water. I took the plants and such and got ready to scrub. I took a plant, swirled it in the water and pulled it out to wipe down and... it was clean. I kid you not, ten seconds of swishing in that solution killed the algae and sloughed it right off. Made things go pretty quick actually. I dunked everything in the bleach then rinsed it till the slimy feel and stink of the bleach was gone then I let them air dry. Saturday night I pulled the rest of the decor and waged chemical warfare on the remaining algae. After that I cleaned and redecorated, sort of. I only put the stuff in I washed off on Friday night. Sunday night I put the stuff back in I washed Saturday night.
So the tank got cleaned and redecorated. I moved the hygrophalia around to provide more of a divider in the tank. I'm looking to break up sightlines across the entire tank, from a fish perspective. Some caves got moved. My vine is not on the right wall instead of the right side of the back wall. Gets it away from the filter flow a bit more. I like it over all, I think it'll be good for the serpaes.
Big mistake. I got it in my head that I could let things slip for a while until I got a good night to do it. After all I can't make nitrates in this tank if I wanted to. Even after 12 days without attention my nitrates were still only about 10 ppm. What was the problem then? In a word, detritus. In non fishkeeper lingo that's a combination of fish poo, uneaten food, and gunk. My sand was literally covered in it. This is partly because when I vacuumed my tank out there was literally nothing in it but water, fish, and sand. So I know lots this had been in there a while hiding where I couldn't vacuum, but a good bit was because I hadn't cleaned in almost two weeks. I learned my lesson, the tank gets a cleaning every Saturday come hell or high water.
Why was everything out? I'm sick of the algae. I know I know, it's part of a new tank but it's freaking ugly. It's not even a mild brown, its sickly blackish nasty brown. So I started Friday night by removing "half" of the decorations and plants from my tank. I say half in quotes because it turned out to be no where close to half. Anyways, in the sink I mixed up about a 7 to 10% solution of bleach to water. I took the plants and such and got ready to scrub. I took a plant, swirled it in the water and pulled it out to wipe down and... it was clean. I kid you not, ten seconds of swishing in that solution killed the algae and sloughed it right off. Made things go pretty quick actually. I dunked everything in the bleach then rinsed it till the slimy feel and stink of the bleach was gone then I let them air dry. Saturday night I pulled the rest of the decor and waged chemical warfare on the remaining algae. After that I cleaned and redecorated, sort of. I only put the stuff in I washed off on Friday night. Sunday night I put the stuff back in I washed Saturday night.
So the tank got cleaned and redecorated. I moved the hygrophalia around to provide more of a divider in the tank. I'm looking to break up sightlines across the entire tank, from a fish perspective. Some caves got moved. My vine is not on the right wall instead of the right side of the back wall. Gets it away from the filter flow a bit more. I like it over all, I think it'll be good for the serpaes.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Another Update
First off, the fry are doing well. The best we can count now there's five fry still going strong. One in particular is getting BIG. No evidence of color or sex yet, I'm going to separate boys from girls the moment I can though. I don't mind some fry once in a while but until I've got some more fish in the tank I don't think I'm going to let them breed. I can deal with one or two surviving from each drop but 5+ is dangerous.
In QT/Hospital tank news I've got all the pieces together, now its just a matter of waiting for my sponge filter to marinate and then I can set it up. I've got about another week to go on the sponge filter before I put everything together.
To keep it cycled while I wait on the serpaes at the end of the outage I may buy a couple more neons and a platy or two... don't tell my wife. It's goofy but I really love the neons. Their bright blue and red colors, the way they school together, they're just great looking fish. I've found a lot of varities of platy I'd love to see in my tank.
In QT/Hospital tank news I've got all the pieces together, now its just a matter of waiting for my sponge filter to marinate and then I can set it up. I've got about another week to go on the sponge filter before I put everything together.
To keep it cycled while I wait on the serpaes at the end of the outage I may buy a couple more neons and a platy or two... don't tell my wife. It's goofy but I really love the neons. Their bright blue and red colors, the way they school together, they're just great looking fish. I've found a lot of varities of platy I'd love to see in my tank.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Late September Update
Well things are still just going on. Sadly I lost Thing 1 a few days ago. Maybe the stress of giving birth got to her, I honestly don't know. She had been acting perfectly normal the day before, eating, swimming, with her full color. The next day she's stuck near the airstone upside down and dead. There's nothing wrong with the water, I had tested it two days earlier at the water change and ammonia and nitrites were both zero with nitrates under 10ppm. After Thing 1 died the same. pH was stable at 7.5. She had no signs of anything wrong with her at all. The kicker is that all the fry are still present and accounted for, all seven of them. I have to believe that anything wrong in the tank bad enough to kill momma would have wiped out the babies as well.
Everyone else is doing well, my pandas are coming out more during the day. The neons are all still cruising around in their school and brightly colored. The stooges are still being the stooges. The brown algae is still present but not nearly as aggressive. It's supposed to be a symptom of new tanks and go away eventually, hopefully I'm on the downside of it.
I got the money saved up to purchase some additional plants from a fishforum.com member. About half the plants are ones I want for the main tank and the rest are going into the QT tank. I hope to hear from her soon so I can get the stuff.
In other news of the QT I tested its water-tightness and everything was fine. I also cleaned the gravel that came with the original tank. Finally I drilled the lid with a bunch of 1/4" air holes. That's really all I can do until I get the filter. Thankfully I should have the filter in three weeks, that gives me two weeks to let it marinate in the main tank, then with one week to go on my outage I'll set up the QT tank with the filter, the ceramic rings from my filter and toss in two or three of the young guppies and let it roll for a week. Then I put the guppies back into the main tank and get my serpaes.
I've also lucked into a few freebies. A co-worker hooked me up with some odds and ends from a 20 gallon tank, including the rock below that's going in the QT. He also knows of someone with a 30 gallon tank looking to get rid of it. I told him if they just want to be rid of it I'll take it but I can't afford to pay for it. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.
Everyone else is doing well, my pandas are coming out more during the day. The neons are all still cruising around in their school and brightly colored. The stooges are still being the stooges. The brown algae is still present but not nearly as aggressive. It's supposed to be a symptom of new tanks and go away eventually, hopefully I'm on the downside of it.
I got the money saved up to purchase some additional plants from a fishforum.com member. About half the plants are ones I want for the main tank and the rest are going into the QT tank. I hope to hear from her soon so I can get the stuff.
In other news of the QT I tested its water-tightness and everything was fine. I also cleaned the gravel that came with the original tank. Finally I drilled the lid with a bunch of 1/4" air holes. That's really all I can do until I get the filter. Thankfully I should have the filter in three weeks, that gives me two weeks to let it marinate in the main tank, then with one week to go on my outage I'll set up the QT tank with the filter, the ceramic rings from my filter and toss in two or three of the young guppies and let it roll for a week. Then I put the guppies back into the main tank and get my serpaes.
I've also lucked into a few freebies. A co-worker hooked me up with some odds and ends from a 20 gallon tank, including the rock below that's going in the QT. He also knows of someone with a 30 gallon tank looking to get rid of it. I told him if they just want to be rid of it I'll take it but I can't afford to pay for it. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Growing Up
Well our guppy fry look to be doing quite well. At their peak there looked to be at least seven of the little guys swimming in the tank. I haven't been able to see that many recently but I think we've got at least five little guys hanging on. They aren't so little any more though. What were originally black dots with skinny tails have grown into guppies. They're small but very recognizable as guppies. The other fish in the tank seem to ignore them but I did catch one of my neons running one of the fry off during feeding time. Bully.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Babies!
First, the bad news. One of my neons died. I have no idea why. They were all looking good and doing fine. The next day I count only nine and a quick survey of the tank finds number ten pale, dead, and sucked up against the back side of the filter intake. Shoot. 
In other news that's neither good nor bad I'm seriously considering setting up a quarantine tank. Between the pandas and Thing 2's untimely demise I've started to worry. What if the next fish that dies doesn't die because they're a wuss or a bad fungus. What if a fish drags in some bacteria or a parasite? I don't have a huge amount of money invested in my fish just yet, but it's racking up. So I'm thinking before I lay out for a big school of serpaes or more pandas or something like that maybe I should get a quarantine set up. 
Thing 2 also passed away. At some point for some reason she got a small wound on the top of her head and a very large wound near her caudal fin. I didn't see the wounds and she almost immediately caught a fungal infection. The infection was extremely aggressive, going from a tiny fleck of white to a huge growth in less than 24 hours. She didn't make it.
Finally, I am learning to hate pandas. Ten pandas in my tank and I'm down to three. My water quality has been perfect, zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and my nitrates haven't even gotten over 10 ppm. They just kept turning up dead. I even lost one of the older ones. I've decided that I'm not replacing the pandas anytime soon. I know 3 isn't a great number for a social fish like a cory but I can't keep replacing them at $6 a pop. I want to get my other fish in at some point and replacing pandas is a drain. Aquaria Studios has some Sterbai cories...
Ok, the good news, Thing 1 finally dropped her fry! We got home from the grocery store on Sunday and when I walked by the tank I saw one of the neons dart after something small and white that shot into the plants. Well I don't have anything small and white in my tank... WHAT THE HECK IS IN MY TANK!? So I stop what I'm doing and make like an idiot pressing my nose against the tank to figure out what weird thing is invading my tank and... I spot a guppy fry hiding in the hygrophalia! I call out to Angela and she comes over to look. Sure enough there was a guppy fry hiding in the plants. For the rest of the day we'd check on Thing 1 and the tank looking for more fry. So far we've seen five at the most. I don't know if any of the little guys will make it to adulthood but I'm hopeful.
In other news that's neither good nor bad I'm seriously considering setting up a quarantine tank. Between the pandas and Thing 2's untimely demise I've started to worry. What if the next fish that dies doesn't die because they're a wuss or a bad fungus. What if a fish drags in some bacteria or a parasite? I don't have a huge amount of money invested in my fish just yet, but it's racking up. So I'm thinking before I lay out for a big school of serpaes or more pandas or something like that maybe I should get a quarantine set up. What I need is:
1) Container - A real ten or twenty gallon tank would be nice but something food safe that holds about ten or fifteen gallons of water would do just fine.
2) Filter - A simple sponge filter sized for a 20 gallon tank would do the trick. Alternately I could do a big water change daily. I don't really like the idea of doing that on a 15 gallon tank/bin because that means a lot more work. Siphon water from the Q tank and toss. Siphon water from the main tank into the Q tank. Replace new water into the main tank. I'd be doing daily 5 to 10 gallon changes though... not so much fun, and a lot of tap water conditioner. Given that a small sponge filter costs about what a bottle of Prime costs and I already have an air pump I think a sponge filter is a better idea.
3) Heater - My computer room isn't that cold. It's probably a steady 75 degrees in there. My current heaters don't have to pull that hard to keep it up to 79 degrees. I might be able to pull the 50W heater from my main tank and add it to my Q tank. It's probably too much for the small volume, but it won't have to run that much anyways. I could always wrap a towel around most of the Q tank to help insulate it.
4) Decorations - I don't need substrate, or at most just a very thin layer. I got a 5 gallon tub worth of light colored gravel with my tank but I'm not wild about the stuff, its sharp and light colored. Dark and round would be better. I've gotten a weird looking but functional rock... thing, from a co-worker I could add in, and I've still got left over slate. Throw in a few of the fake plants I'm going to get from someone I know, but don't really want in my main tank, and I should have enough stuff to keep the Q fish happy.
5) Light - Probably don't need to bother, a subdued lighting might help anyways. If I do need one though I've still got one of the 24" fixtures left over from the box of parts I got with the tank.
So what do I really need for a Q set up? A 10 to 20 gallon Rubbermaid container like this:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/
Fifteen gallons, no wheels or penetrations down low. Clear so I can see inside and I can drill holes in the top for air. Gravel I have, sort of. I could use the stuff that came with the tank but I'd rather get some dark colored stuff so figure $5 for a bag of it from petsmart or the LFS. A sponge filter, hopefully I can pick something up for under $10 along with some fittings for the lines.
All told I figure for $30 or less I can get a quarantine tank set up. I'm loathe to put off buying more fish for even longer, but I'm just as unwilling to watch the ones I already have die.
Friday, August 29, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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?
Also, I need names for the new girls, any suggestions?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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.
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