Getting ready for the holiday

Done a water change today and cleaned the filters ready for the holiday. Although a late evening water test still showed the nitrates as between 10 & 20ppm - so still too high for my liking.

Cleaned both filters - not touched them for 2 weeks, which is a good indicator. The small one was dirty, but not really toobad. Especially considering it had been put in with used filter pads. But the large one was basically clean. About 20% of each pad was dirty, the rest spotless. They should last the holiday!

I've set up the old tank for the huge number of danio fry and added a couple of algae covered rocks from our local store. Will set up an airline before too long as well. Need to try to keep this lot alive longer than the previous lot! They lasted 2 weeks after spawning, well this lot need to last at least 3 weeks to be alive when I get back from holiday!

Maintenance - 20% water change; nitrates still high teens ppm after change; set up tank for baby danios; both filters rinsed; 1 foam and 1 polyester pad changed in fluval 2+.

Guppy Fry Growing.

There's been a bit more bullying in the breeding net, and one of the Guppy Fry was laying on the bottom, being bitten by the others. But the moment food was available she was up to the top and feeding and seemed to recover. I think that maybe all of my comings and goings over the last few days have meant I've not been about to feed them enough, and there isn't much extra food floating in the breeding trap.

So tonight we set all of the female Guppy Fry free to the main tank. A worrying moment - would someone come along and eat them? They seem happy enough. Probelm is that I won't be able to feed them as heavily, but then if I'm not about, I can't do that anyway. And from Tuesday I'm away for 2 weeks so they will only be fed every 2 or 3 days. So they need to be out to scavange.

Hopefully they will be OK. They are starting to show different tail colours and some are showing body colouration. My daughter is planning which to keep and which she'll allow to go...

Also, bought another 6 bunches of plants, so the tank is once more looking nicely planted.

Danio Fry Galore

Noticed last night that the danio eggs had started to hatch - one of the two I'd caught had hatched. Then managed to catch another 20 or so fry throughout the day - all have joined their sibling in the glass jar.

Another fish goes missing

Got back from our trip to London and all of the fish were ready for a feed! Some where quite quiet, but picked up once the food hit the water. But the male Guppy has disappeared - he's nowhere to be found. Not even a dead body!

Danios at it again...

2 of the female zebra danios are being pursued by up to 4 leopard danios and I've recovered at least one egg, although no idea what to do with it at the moment! Only 8 days until I go on holiday.

Also, a records with the shrimps - one has carried the eggs for 14 days - hoping they hatch and some survive...

Off for a break away, so that's about it for today & tomorrow - more desertion of the Guppy babies!

The Panda Hasn't Made It

Sadly, the Panda Cory was dead in the tank this morning. Also, one of the female Guppy fry (when are they no longer fry???) has also died overnight.

Because of this, when I got back from The Open, switched the lights on late and fed them well - was worried that they have been a bit neglected the last few days - the golf has meant the babies haven't been having so many feeds each day...

Very quiet day!

Maintenance - 20% water change.

AWOL Danio

The female Panda Cory that I noticed wasn't well a week ago might actually be making a recovery. She's been out a little more this afternoon and the marks on her side seem to have subsided. Likewise, the male Guppy is a little more active.

But what is strange is that the Danio who has been misbehaving - swimming vertically at one point - is missing. He's nowhere to be found there's not even a dead body. I've ripped out most of the plants and ornaments in turn to see if he is about, but I just cannot find him. I wouldn't have thought that the snails would have eaten the entire fish - bones included! In the past the most I've witnessed is the fish stripped to a skeleton, and that was a small Neon.

Maintenance - 20% water change; old filter running in tandom with new filter.

The troubles plod on...

Neith of the 'sick' fish are showing any signs of their 'conditions' improving, although the female Panda Cory did appear twice - around feed times, although I hadn't added food - and hunt for food. The male Guppy continues to hide away.

And now there's a leopard Danio that's acting strangely! His colour, I've noticed this evening, has paled off and he doesn't seem to be able to hover without sinking. Maybe some infection that is affecting his swim bladder and mucus?

On a brighter note, 2 shrimps are now bearing eggs. Maybe one can go to term and produce some baby shrimps - which will probably be food for the rest of the tank!

Double Tragegdy!

A double tragedy - and neither of the 2 fish that we were expecting!

First, I noticed a Bloodfin Tetra stuck, and very dead, in the base of the Java Fern. Removed that and then saw a Neon Tetra stuck, and also dead, between the breeding traps!

The Neon - well, I'm not sure if he died and then floated there or swam there and became stuck. It hurts, either way. The Bloodfins I have seen one attacking the other - I think we had 2 males. So now he's alone and attacking his reflection.

We had decided only this morning, before returning home from our trip away, not to get any more occupants until after our main holiday. We go in just over 2 weeks and I didn't want to risk introducing whitespot etc into the tank next week. That would only leave me a week to treat it. With the baby Guppies growing, there's enough load on the tank anyway.

So when we come back we have to decide whether to get more Bloodfins (I really liked them!) and Neons, or Cardinals.

The female Panda Cory is still very quiet - I've not been able to find her, she's moved from her hiding spot of an hour ago. And also the male Guppy is still very much hiding. But I did knock a load of food off plants yesterday as I moved them about, maybe he's eaten too much of the loose food.

Maintenance -

New filter

Peformed a 20% water change and fitted the new filter. Apart from that, the male Guppy continues to hide and the female Panda Cory isn't moving much, but I'm away for most of the day, so not able to watch them! The first time I've left the tank with fish in it!

The new filter is so powerful we've resited it slightly and angled the outlet well away from the babies, but I'm wondering if I can get away without the air curtain now - at least when I'm at home! Maybe just save it for when I'm not there to watch what is happening. I'll switch it off on Monday and monitor the levels.

Maintenance - 20% water change; new filter.

Splitting out the Guppies

The female Panda Cory continues to plod on. She was eating today, but she is still very thin and worryingly so. Chucked in another load of bloodworm this morning. The Corys are loving this new daily diet!

The male Guppy was also looking quiet, but later on did perk up. There wer probably 2 danios spawning today - I think all 4 females have spawned this week, they are all looking thinner and not about to burst. But the result was that not many fish, apart from the Corys, wanted feeding this morning. Full of fresh eggs, I suppose. I'll keep my eye out for babies hanging around next week!

I've also removed 13 female Guppies to the second breeding net. I found one near dead and another small one with most of its tail bitten away. The near dead one died at lunch time. I dropped it into the main tank as feed, but the larger fish tried to eat it and spat it out. So I suppose the larger males, and much larger females, are probably safe from the hungry mouths.

With nearly all of the females removed - there are a few smaller ones that seemed to know to hide with the males, it should be less stressful for the males. More space for them all, and 2 nets for the danios to hide behind.

The nitrate readings are back up to 20ppm. A bit disappointing, since I changed water mid week. I do need a few decent bunches of plants as areas are looking thin, but apparently the plane bringing the plants in on Wednesday didn't turn up, so we are without new plants in the whole area!

I have bought the Fluval 3 Plus filter. Almost twice the capacity of the Fluval 2 Plus, so should keep the water cleaner. Although I've not plugged it in yet! I'm changing the water tomorrow so I'll need to move a few bits about. The only space where there new filter could fit in (it's a lot longer) is right over the air curtain. I was concerned that the filter would suck in the air bubbles and produce micro bubbles if positioned there...

Maintenance - nitrate 20ppm; 13 female Guppies into separate breeding net.

100 posts...

100 posts and going strong...

The female Panda Cory is still quiet. She seemed to be trying to find food this morning, just not the energy to look for long. And she is extremely thin and a lot smaller than the male. I did gently use a net to guide her into a margarine tub, which I floated at the top of the tank for 30 minutes. I added plenty of variety of food and let her eat in peace. When I returned her to the tank I dropped in a block of frozen bloodworm, which I squirted directly around her. The other Corys loved that and I think she got some. I'll repeat the margarine trick tomorrow, if she's still with us. It is making it easier for her to find food.

Was also talking to the aquatics manager at a local garden centre and he said he uses the Fluval Roma 90 at home (same as me). He agreed that the filter isn't enough if it is heavily planted / stocked and said he ran two Tluval Two Plus filters in his tank. He recommended anything stronger than the basic Two Plus that's supplied with the tank.

Other than that, it's just keeping fingers crossed for the Panda Cory.

I'm worrying again...

I'm worrying again. When does this become a peaceful hobby? I suppose when everything settles in (I thought they had done) and I'm not so attached to the fish.

Well, the Danio Fry that was released into the main tank seems to have survived the night unscathed. He seems to be swimming around happily. But someone has taken the biggest nip yet out of our male Guppy's tail. A good portion of the top has gone.

But what I am worried about is the female Panda Cory - she's suddenly very quiet and looks like she has a couple of marks on her side. Just like the Albino Cory did when it started its demise. And that lasted for 5 days!

So I've done a 20% water change and cleaned the filter and removed the last 'fern'. Kicked up plenty of dirt doing that! Also, I'd not added salt for a couple of changes, so in case they are wounds on the Panda Cory I added ½ teaspoon of salt to bring the salt levels back up. I worked out that 20% would have been lost in the change at the weekend, and then a further 20% of the remaining 80% with this water change, bringing it down to 64%. (Wonderful maths!). So ½ teaspoon seemed a little conservative, but I didn't want to overdose them!

Maintenance - 20% water change; filter cleaned; ½ teaspoon salt added.

Never the twain shall meet...

The Guppy fry seem to have separated into 2 groups, except when I'm feeding them. I'd noticed a few days ago that there was a large variation in sizes and now we have half the fry at the bottom of the net and the larger fry swimming at the top. It only became noticeable because I moved the direction of the outflow of the filter, which meant that the fry were not getting as strong a blast as they had been.

It does look like most or all of the larger fry have gravid spots, whilst the smaller fry do seem to have the modified fin of the males. But it's funny to see the way they have separated themselves, but I suspect that I'm going to have to work out how to separate them shortly, else I'm going to be coming home to a dozen or more pregnant Guppies after my holiday (three weeks until I go...).

The sensible thing to do would be to get a small tank for the females and put those I'm not keeping in there - but I know what my wife would say... The fish are developing their colours well, and all seem to have their mother's eyes - totally, black, no white. They also have her black flecks on their tails, which are yellow (her's was red), which has probably come from my yellow tailed male.

It's a pity the other female lost her fry. They would have looked great as she is just a pale colour and should have taken his yellow well.

Also, we've finally let the Danio Fry loose into the main tank. He seemed to latch onto the Glass Bloodfin Tetras for some reason, and they didn't appreciate that. We darkened the room to give him plenty of time to settle in, but the lights were long since off, so hopefully he'll be OK on his first night in the full tank.

Maintenance - 'MadAlec' released to the main tank!

Amazing Gymnastics???

I managed to quietly catch the female Guppy I was talking about yesterday and placed her in the ice-cream tub. But I could see although the move had been easy and quiet - the net had only been used to guide her into the tub, she wasn't settled.

I checked on her 10 minutes later and she was quiet and with the lights off I thought she would settle for the night. An hour later, on my way to bed, I checked in and the tub was empty - jus the fake plant I'd included for cover floating in it. After 5 minutes' searching I saw her swimming around the back of the tank, possibly without the gravid spot.

This morning she is definitely thinner and not such a gravid spot, so either she had the drop or miscarried as she performed her gymnastics. Whichever way, there's no sign of any fry in the tank, even when I searched before the lights came on. So it looks like we have missed our chance there. Probably good in the long term - it would have been hard in 3 weeks tonight releasing small fry into the tank and probably watching some being eaten - the night before our holiday!

On a more positive note, the younger shrimp is carrying eggs again. I saw a female sized case floating around the tank, so I presume the other female has just molted. But what's the chance of being able to do anything with these babies - when they could be hatching just a week before our holiday? I suppose it would make a learning exercise to try to get them to hatch. Better to try now and lose them part way down the line and then get further with the next batch.

Maintenance -

Is other Guppy about to have a drop?

The other (and only surviving) female Guppy is looking very rounded and her belly is flattening off. The gravid spot is huge and she does seem to be hiding, although took her food well this morning.

Her dorsal fin is down and she's swimming a lot, but just holding position. Maybe later I'll catch her and either try the ice cream tub trick, or put her in the 2nd breeding net and remove the Danio - best done at night. Give the Danio the best chance to adjust to the full tank whilst she will be close to having them (if the drop is tonight) whilst not confined too long. It's a reasonable size net, so not too much of a restriction for her. Hopefully the drop will be sooner rather than later, as any babies would need releasing 3 weeks tomorrow - the night before we go on holiday. And the current babies, which are 5 weeks old, are only just of a size at which I think they would survive (from 8 mm to 15mm).

Some of the fry are showing lovely colours from their parents - yellow tails from their (presumed) father and the black patterns on the tail from their mother. They should look nice! Of course, if the other Guppy does have fry and they can survive, it will be hard knowing which to keep and which to take away. And how full will the tank be when that happens?

Also, if there's a drop tonight, will it be 4 or 6 weeks until the next one? 4 weeks and we'll be away, 6 weeks and we'll have been back for a week. I expect we'll be able to work it out before we go.

The nitrate is a little higher than I'd like after a 20% water change yesterday, but the colour almost matches the 10ppm mark - so I shouldn't complain!

Also this weekend I've noticed the male halfbeak is finally starting to show some colour. Possibly a bit of black coming back and there's some pale blue on his tail and dorsal fin. Maybe finally he'll colour up and look the attraction he's supposed to be!

Maintenance - nitrate circa 12ppm.

Plants falling apart.

I'm noticing that the filter is clogging up with plant debris every week - it really needs stripping out and cleaning at least weekly. This isn't going to be good when I go away for a fortnight in a few weeks - there's no-one about to do that for me then.

Most of the debris comes from 3 plants - the oxygenating weed, which has been all but removed (there's a few strands left that are well routed and no longer dropping leaves); some un-named plant with tiny, very thin leaves, which I've had trouble with before and has been virtually removed this week; and the fern like plant (not Java Fern), that seems to be dieing and responsible for most of the rotting vegitation in the tank.

There are other odd leaves about, not too much. But looking closely at the fern type plants they are browning and falling apart. Sarah at the shop seemed to think I had too much light, but in non-aquatic plants I'd say they looked too shaded. Especially as they seemed to suffer mainly once I put the fry in the ice cream tub - which was stuck above them and put 2 of the worst contenders for falling apart into its shade.

So I'll give the new plants time to start growing, then the ferns will come out in a day or two and I'll have a move around.

Maintenance - 20% water change; a few new plants added...

The last fry dies...

The last of the fry from the eggs that were spawned 2 weeks ago today has died. It looked quiet this morning, but was still moving. This afternoon it was dead. I disturbed the water near to it and it just floated around and sunk to the bottom. As I can't find any fry in the other container, it looks like all 16 have passed away.

It's amazing - get one fry and it survives; get 16 fry and they all die. A lot to be learnt - give them plenty of oxygen and it looks like I'll need to sort them some better food supplies. I suspect that first time around there was plenty of algae for the fish and maybe a few other bits and bobs. Maybe this time there was nothing - especially in the sterile tub that this one finished his days off in. Maybe I'll need to look at hatching some baby brine shrimp or seeing if I can get some very fine food - the food I had just looked too big for his little mouth.

Never mind - that's the way of life in the fish world, I suppose. Hundreds of eggs laid, no survivors. I just need to keep an eye on the fish and hope they spawn again and start to spawn regularly. Hopefully there will be a routine established when I get back from holiday - I'm impatient, but that is 5½ weeks away!

Maintenance -

Just the one fry now...

We seem to be down to just one danio fry, or the other one is hiding extremely well. TO hasten its growth (before our holiday), I caught it and placed it in a small tub in the main tank. I'm hoping that the extra heat and plenty of light plus the smaller container (easier to find the food???) should help it grow quicker - in just over 3 weeks it will be tipped out into the main tank!

The plan is to get the baby up to a size that it cannot escape from the breeding net and then swap it over. Hopefully, that will ensure maximum growth and that equals maximum chance of surviving the mouths of the fish in the main tank.

Fed the main tank some frozen daphnia today. I'm trying to work out what made them spawn 2 weeks ago that hasn't happened since. The other 3 female Danios look ready to burst and the one that did spawn is getting there again. I was hoping something as simple as extra protein from thee frozen food might help. Although, if they do spawn then at the earliest the hatching would be Monday - giving only 3 weeks' growth before tipping them out!

The next batch of eggs I collect will be kept in the tub in the main tank to keep them warm throughout - and easier to look after. I'm hoping that helps the survival rate. If they do spawn before we go away, unless the hatching would be after we leave, it would be worth trying our best just as a learning exercise. And if it protects a few eggs or fry for a couple of days, then it might just allow one to survive. I suppose even dumping eggs in an empty breeding net and letting them swim out when they hatch might help some.

Maintenance - Moved new baby danio to tub in main tank

Shrimps mating and a danio fry has survived

It looks like adding salt may just have done the trick for the shrimps! I should know for certain in a few days, but I've seen the older shrimps swimming around with him mounted on top of her. Quite a bizarre act to observe!

Last time around it was three days after witnessing the potential shrimp mating that I noticed her carrying eggs, so I'll have to watch carefully from Thursday to see if anything has happened.

It's just a shame that if anything hatches this time around it will only be 12 days before my holiday! I can always move her to the small tank after a week and take that to my in-laws for them to keep feeding!

Speaking of the small tank, we have found at least one Danio fry swimming in there, possibly 2. We're planning to release the existing fry to the expance of the main tank some time this week, so his breeding net will be freed up for anything in the tank to be moved to - if we are moving the shrimp in... Not sure then what killed the others off - could have been low oxygen or high wastes if moving them and adding some water saved this one or two.

Sods law is that if it's going to work it will be this time - just before we go away. I expect the Guppy will also decide to drop some fry soon! I have been watching her tummy changes for 25 days...

Quiet day, after the various upsets! The Danio fry is doing well - it must be reaching 2cm, the size of some of the small fish that have been put in, so I'm expecting that we'll be able to release him / her to swim with the older fish later in the week. The last few days have seen a lot of growth there since it's been on it's own.

Likewise the Guppy Fry have also grown well since the Danio was removed to its own breeding net on Thursday. They must be around 8mm - 12mm each. I think at least one has a gravid spot showing and some have been showing black flecks for a few days and one is also possibly showing some yellow behind the black on its tail.

Aside from that, the Danio Fry in the spare tank seem to have died off completely. Next time I collect eggs, I'll have to put them straight into the tank, or at least move them over quicker. I'm guessing that they all died in virtually the same 24 hours because of water quality - too many small fish in the one small volume of water. If it had been lack of oxygen, the fry that were alive when I moved them should have survived as that would have aerated the water. Either that, or there wasn't enough food in the water?

It's a hard learning curve - but I'm sure with experience I'll get there.

Another departure...

Not a good day! Blackie, the paralysed Guppy, was ddead when I looked in this morning. No idea what has happened there - nothing on the other fish. Then I did a good clean with a 20% water change. This had been planned for morning, but got delayed until evening.

I forgot to aerate the bottle the baby Danios are in and it was planned that they would come out of there today - I was intending to use the water taken from the main tank to set up the small tank. When I got around to that nearly all looked dead. There are maybe one or two that are swimming about.

Also, the shrimps haven't carried eggs for a while. Was pondering that and researching what could have got Blackie when I found a few diseases for which the treatment is salt. I've had salt in the tank occasionally, not often. I first added it when the female halfbeak had a strange growth - so the 26 April. 15 May I noticed the shrimp carrying the eggs.

She lost them after a large water change (and low oxygen) and at some point recently I added salt again, and I'm sure it was after that both shrimps carried eggs. Then the last few weeks I've done quite a few water changes.

Maybe, just maybe, the shrimps will only carry eggs when there is salt in the water? I'll hve to watch for that.

Maintenance - O2 normal; nitrate approaching 20ppm; 20% water change; 2 teaspoons tonic salts added; baby danios to spare tank.

Paralysed Guppy?

Not much recently, except today I noticed that the Guppy 'Blackie' seems to be paralysed from the waist down. She's swimming using just her pectoral fins, which doesn't look good. Her back has suddenly arched and she's lost her 'pregnant' look and her colouring has gone slightly.

It's all come on very sharply - I suppose it doesn't look too good.

Nitrate reading down, Danios hatching

The nitrate reading is down more to where I like them to be - although normally after a 25% change I would expect them to be even lower. But they have dropped significantly, so I'm happy. The high nitrate readings could have been caused by many factors - the oxygenating weed dieing & rotting on mass; the filter getting blocked because the shrimps were molting in the bracket etc.

Not convinced the food rotting in the oxygenating weed that was released into the water could have done it, but removing it from the water will have helped stop the problem from getting any worse.

We've been desperately trying to measure the length of the babies - no luck yet! I'm going to have to photograph them again, I think!

I've seen the first sign of hatched Danios today in the bottle of water. I did count 16 eggs in there last week and can now see 3 fry at the bottom of the bottle, each about 4mm long. But they are so little that it's easy to miss them swimming around and as I move the bottle they swim off. Still, 3 wouldn't be a bad start - especially if they do spawn weekly.

Also, I've found 5 or 6 fry swimming around in the tank - hiding behind the breeding net. Not the way I expected it to save their lives, but great! So I syringed them up and also put them into the bottle - I'm sure there are too many hungry mouths in the main tank.

It does show that once a few are spawning a couple of survivors should make it to a good size...

Maintenance - nitrate 10ppm; O2 8mg/l+.

The shortest lived residents...

With yesterday's higher than I'd like nitrate readings and the whitespot in the tank, I did a 25% water change this morning.

Sadly, all 3 Cardinals died overnight - the smallest - the one very heavily infected with white spot - had died by the time I went to bed and the other 2 died during the night. No idea, of course, whether it was because of the whitespot, the treatment or being in a small treatment tank. It's highly likely I overdosed the treatment given the small amount of water being treated. In hindsite, I'd have prepared an easier to measure amount in a large volume of water and just used some of that to treat the tank. Trying to guess 2/90 of a ml isn't easy! I should have measured, for example, ½ ml of treatment, made it up to 10ml and just used ½ml of the solution. I think that's roughly the right maths!

Gave the main tank their weekend treat of a block of bloodworm and a couple of them got into the breeding net - funny sight for a while of a Guppy Fry swimming around trying to eat the bloodworm. The bloodworm isn't in the net now - so he either succeeded or gave it up to someone else.

Maintenance - 25% water change; removed nearly all remaining oxygenating weed; ½ml whitespot treatment; heater to 26 celsius.

First high nitrate reading

After yesterday's cleaning of the filter, the tank filled with bits blasted off the plants and the current is much better around the tank. But I've just done the tests and the nitrates are the highest I have ever seen in that tank.

It probably isn't helped by the fact that when I moved the fry into the breeding trap I had to pour out their water into the main tank. I suspect that added a bit of waste - but the relative proportions of the water should mean it wasn't that much damage. I suppose maybe the spawning has added to the waste load as well?

The new cardinals also seem to have developed whitespot over night... Now Alan thinks that all fish carry whitespot and it shows after stress. Well, it did take 30 minutes to drive them home (instead of the usual 10) and a badly timed (very long...) phone call that would go away meant their introduction to the tank was slowed, so maybe that's stressed them. I can't believe the tank in the shop would have that much white spot - Sarah's too good to not notice.

Maintenance - Nitrate - 40ppm; small water change (all prepared water) and water prepared for 25% tomorrow.

The party's over...

Finally, I found a spot when the shrimps weren't partying in the filter bracket! Threee were still on the outside of the filter, but these did eventually move as I lifted it out to clean it. But it was a worrying time as they held their ground and I was concerned they might jump!

Then, when I was putting the filter back in, three shrimp were back in place cleaning the bracket... Had to shift them first! But once the power was back on the difference was obvious! Bits of dead plants were suddenly blasted away and trapped food (they weren't fed yesterday at all after the spawning) sent flying everywhere. The water is a right state, but moving well!

No spawning today, even though three Zebra Danios are still very plump. Maybe they aren't quite ready to start. I think I've got at least a dozen eggs collected, so will have to watch that for now. Should know more in a day or two.

Also, this afternoon we bought a breeding net - so the fry are in that. I'm hoping that by being in the same water as the main tank the wastes in the water are cleared away. Hopefully, cleaner water and better oxygenated water will encourage growth. Then in a week or so, there might be more baby Danios to join them.

Also, since our fish expert said there was plenty more space in the tank, we've added a female Peppered Cory as company to the male (?) Peppered Cory and a trio of Cardinal Tetras. It's getting to be a busy tank!

Maintenance - cleaned filter pads; bought breeding net and added 1 Danio fry and ??? Guppy Fry.

Danios Spawning

It's been a quiet week in the tank - just developing nicely! I was sitting with my wife's uncle watching the tank a few days back and he said he thought a few of the danios were ready to spawn. I tried to catch the fattest one last night to move her into a tank I'd prepared for her, but failed...

But this morning, another Danio, which my daughter calls 'Wavy', was being chased by 2 male Zebra Danios and 2 male Leopard Danios. I was watching them for 2 hours! I think they have just about finished and my oxygenating weeds, which were falling apart and ready to be replaced anyway, are battered by the amount of high speed swimming they have been doing.

I've never seen anything like it from them. All the fish are obviously snacking and I did see some eggs at one point, which were eaten within seconds by 'Blackie', the female guppy.

After a lot of effort I have removed some water, with eggs, so I think I have at least a dozen eggs safely put aside. Next Wednesday I'll remove the same fish into the tank I have ready prepared and see if she'll spawn if I add a couple of males.

The tank should be better settled in by then - the water aging a little... Although I have used tank water and odds and ends of plants to start it off. Plus I've placed some chicken wire across the bottom. It's carefully laid so that there are no sharp edges for the fish to catch, whilst I'm hoping that the mesh it too tight for them to swim through. But it should allow plenty of space for eggs to drop down through and be hidden below.

'Wavy' is looking a lot thinner now - a remarkable difference. Just leaves 'Patcho' and 'Ziggy' still fat. I thought maybe I was missing them spawning and the shrinkage was very little. Obviously not!

Is there a party somewhere???

No idea what's going on in the tank at the moment, but I'm desperate to get the filter out and give it a clean. But, for the last 3 or 4 days there's been at least 3 shrimps constantly on it, probably cleaning it. And they aren't just on the filter - they are also hiding down the bracket at the back, so if I moved it I could crush them.

There also seems to be a cory party right now as well - they are all in a corner feeding on something, even though I never put food there.

On another night, by wife's uncle, a very well experienced fish breeder, has recommended getting a pair of dwarf cichlids after sitting with us and watching the tank for 90 minutes. He agrees that the tank is no way near fully populated yet and can take a lot more fish!

The eggs have gone...

Just a quick one to note that the eggs seem to have gone from the shrimp, again. Didn't quite reach 2 weeks, so I doubt that they have hatched.No idea what has happened this time, when she carried them for so long. Even if they have hatched then it's likely that someone in the tank will eat them before too long.

Next time...

How do you measure fish fry???

How do you measure your new fry to see if they really are growing??? I've read reports by people where they give detailed measurements as the fry grow each millimeter. No way do my quick guess measurements come up to that standard!

So, today I tried a new trick. A digitial photo of the fish with a scale held at water level. And for most accuracy - I'd just fed the fish to bring them to the surface!

The results - well the Danio (???) comes in at 12 - 13mm long - he / she had their tail bent, so it's still hard to be accurate (large fry, dead centre of the picture). Body width is much easier to measure at 2mm...

The Guppies - well they are all roughly the same, so only measured a couple and they are around 7mm long and just under 2mm wide. They are 10 days old and have increased by almost 50%. Not a bad growth rate, I suppose. Especially as there was no sign of growth for the first few days.

Eggs are still there...

The danios are still hungry, but not really slimming down. Hopefully they haven't got bloat or anything!

The shrimp continues to carry some eggs - not as many as there were, but still enough to keep our hopes going. Still another 4 days before the 2 weeks of carrying the eggs is up - so more days of waiting and hoping the eggs aren't lost, like she has already done on the first batch and the other female did on her first batch last week. This one managed to get to 12 days last time - so still not got to that position. But losing her eggs did coincide with messing about with the air flow, so must keep the tank well oxygenated and not move her into somewhere that might be short of oxygen - not sure how I'll preserve these babies if they get to the point of hatching!

The whitespot returns...

The whitespot has returned to the halfbeak - what a nuiscance! Was talking to the lady in the shop yesterday and she noticed as I was talking to her that the whitespot had returned to her halfbeak. I don't know what it is about this infection, but even when I'm treating it (I put a dose of medication into the tank only yesterday) it can still reappear. I seem to have been dosing the tank alternate days for ages now.

The fat fish do seem to have shrunk a little, so the top feeders are on part rations for the next few days to sort that out. It's so easy to feed too much when I'm sat by the tank most working hours of the day. They can easily be over fed!

When we fed them this afternoon the water boiled - they were that keen to get to the food. But still continuing to feed the babies their full rations - maybe even sneaking an extra clean and feed in to keep them going.

More Corys

We've added a pair of Panda Corys finally today - it's taken ages for them to turn up in the shop - we've been pestering the lady for weeks! Hopefully she picked out a male and female for us - my daughter is absolutely desperate to get breeding more inhabitants!

The Albino Cory spends a lot of time swimming up and down frantically. Aparently, that can be the sign of a female looking for a mate - I already thought it was a female, so that backs it up. So it looks like I'll need to arrange a large albino male partner for her - no juveniles for her, that won't do the business!

The shrimp is still carrying the eggs and the tiny Guppies are continuing to survive, and might even have grown slightly - width if not length. They definitely are far more interested in feeding - I spent 5 minutes tonight dipping food into their tub after removing the waste from the bottom.

Also did a 10% water change today - although the nitrate reading last night was only 10ppm, 12 after the last water change. But I did notice the male Guppy looking like a barrel - and so are a few of the Zebra Dabios. I'm assuming / hoping that it's just too much food, so no evening feed for anyone tonight.

Another quiet day...

Nothing much has happened today - the Guppy fry continue to grow at an impossibly slow rate - will they really reach a decent size by 4 - 6 weeks as I have read? If I'm optimisitic, they might be a whole 6mm long now. The Danio fry does seem to be growing - maybe 10mm long. But it's hard to work out the size of any of them - they are all so active.

The best way of feeding the Guppy fry seems to involve gently chasing them around the tank by moving the floating plants. Once they are woken up properly they are really eager to feed. Or maybe it's just their age - they are more willing to feed.

Still the older shrimp carrying eggs. Sometimes I think the other might have a few eggs, but I think it's just her keeping her balance.

Apart from that, I've not noticed the dreaded whitespot for a few days. Hopefully, the cycle has finally broken. Now I need to work out why the halfbeak has lost his colour and get him back on form.

Are the babies growing?

Little sign of growth on the Guppies - but I am wondering if they are going wider. On a couple of the feeds, ones when I cleaned out their tub first, but didn't add water, a lot of the fry did come to the top of the water to feed. Maybe they are getting wider, before they grow longer.

No sign of growth for the baby danio and there's still one of the shrimps carrying eggs. I also noticed in the water removed from the tank over a week ago something swimming in the waste water. There are usually some little tiny insect type blobs swimming around, but I also saw some longer blobs in 2 of the waste water bottles. Maybe if I moved them upstairs to a window, where they would be warmer and more light to create algae, then there might be some growth.

Watching the second female carefully, her tummy has also flattened out slightly and she's hiding around. So I think she's going into a container for the night...

The local shop had an arrival of Panda Corys yesterday - a pair of the cuties are reserved for us. Was tempted for a trio, but apparently they aren't easy breeders. Save the space for some Corys that might breed.

The babies continue...

I'm continuing to change small amounts of water for the Guppy fry and feeding them regularly, but at most they have grown 1mm to 6mm - but it's hard to measure any of the fry in the tub. They are only 48 hours old, but I'm impatient! I wasn't sure whether they actually fed for the first 48 hours or not, but with the Danio fry also in the tub, some feeding was required.

I am a little disappointed that the eother Guppy doesn't look heavily pregnant, but reading up on how many fry are usually in a drop, it looks like this wasn't Blackie's first drop - there are still about 30 survivors - and I don't know if she ate any of them.

But I was looking carefully at her today and wondering if she is carrying a small number of fry - reading up last night, a first drop can be 8 - 25 fry. So watching her carefully as her gravid spot is speckled slightly, like Blackie's on Saturday. So I'll watch her behaviour tomorrow and see if her tummy flattens at all.

It's also a shame about the shrimps - the newer female, that was carrying plenty of eggs, has lost most of her eggs. There are still a few there and she's fanning them with her swimmerets, so there is still a chance of babies. Pity, my plan was to watch for when the eggs were hatching on the older shrimp and then to move the younger shrimp into a separate tank, expecting her eggs to hatch the day after the older shrimp's eggs. That plan is out of the window...

The Guppy fry survive their first night

All but one of the fry survived the first 24 hours - the one that didn't looked a bit deformed, or that could just have been the way it died. We had noticed one had an interesting colouration on top - too much black on one side. It was either that one that died, or the black patch has cleared up.

I dropped the dead fry back into the main tank and in the blink of an eye it was eaten - the little fry wouldn't stand a chance in there alone! They are still around 5mm long, but do seem to be trying to take some of the food off the surface. I expect that once they start eating, then as long as the water stays fresh etc, hopefully they will put on some decent growth.

It is fascinating watching them. They all hide at the back when I open the tank, but if I stand still and watch them they make their way to the top to find food. The Danio (???) fry is about 8mm long - possibly grown ever so slightly. Really need him to make some progress so he can be put into the main tank. It's almost a month since I recorded him as 5mm - 6mm in length. Mind you, I thought there were 3 of them then, but only found one the next day.

Come on little fishies - do some growing!

Last Monday is was the death of the favourite resident, today it's a birth. Well, births to be precise - 25 to 30 of them! The female Guppy, Blackie, whom I managed to catch late last night did indeed drop her fry this morning.

She was sitting quietly at the back of the ice cream tub, with most of the fry swimming around the other side of the tub. I was amazed that it happened so easily, that I guessed the right night (first time!) that they would be born and how big the fry are! I would guess that they are each 5mm long and actively swimming around.

The other baby we have - the possible Danio, isn't gowing that quickly, although it is growing. So since we now have a tub in the top of the tank setup for growing on (if only for a week...) we're in the process of moving him over as well. It means only 1 baby tank to care for but the benefit for him is that the water in that tank is far warmer - heated by the water around it and the lights overhead in the daytime.

I read that Guppies do show growth spurts when a water change takes place, and the danio fry has been in the same water with only small amounts changed. Given the position etc of the tub I'll be changing water from it quite frequently. I'm not sure how long they are in the tub before they get to a size at which they can be released to the main tank. I did read that they are mature at 1 month - so it can't take too long.

And the other good news is that I'm sure we have not one but two shrimps carrying eggs. I saw the second one for certain yesterday, without eggs, so she's only laid them overnight. Looks like one is making the other maternal. I suppose it's nature's way of producing more baby shrimps at the same time and thus increasing the chances of some surviving.

So the cold baby tank might have 2 shrimps in it soon enough!

Guppy Drop Update....

After quite a few attempts, I finally persuaded Blackie to swim to the front of the tank and then, with the lights long since off in the tank, gently netted her.

If only it could be as easy as it sounds... The male Guppy was also caught and I hadn't prepared a container to put her in. So I left them both in the net and whilst keeping it perfectly still with one hand, managed to move off the tank covers with the other hand and then lower a cleaned out 1 litre ice cream tub into the tank with the other. A bit of twisting and I released the male (I'd left him in to make her more calm) and then slowly raised the net up the tank, whilst still pressed against the glass.

This was the nearest to disturbed Blackie looked in the process - I don't think she felt properly netted in the dark. I was able to twist the net into the ice cream tub and almost fill it with water, so that it floated just below the lights.

With the addition of a few loose strands of plant and an artifical plant to provide plenty of cover, she looks quite calm and relaxed. I've also thrown the switch on the lights so that they don't come on in the morning - I should be well up by then, by it is the last day of the school holidays, so I might just get a late lie in...

I'll check on her first thing and I think if there's no sign of fry then I'll release her (rather than baking her under the lights once they come on) and try to catch her again tomorrow after lights off... I'm assuming / hoping that the fry will be born over night or early morning.

She definitely looked slightly more relaxed in the tub. But I'm too worried that I'll not be able to have the lights on or that the waste levels will get too high or the oxygen levels too low... I'm a worrier about my fish!

Guppy closer to dropping

The Guppy, Blackie, must be getting very close to dropping her fry. Her tummy is starting to square off, the gravid spot is black, with other colours there and she's spending most of the time hiding in the corners.

We did try to net her, but she wasn't having any of it. I'vertried a few times, but she always hides behind plants (there are loads) or decorations - and it's not easy to net her in a cave... Although now that the lights are off she keeps swimming out into the open - until I put the net in...

Also, the older female shrimp is once more covered in eggs, so maybe that was the shrimps mating that I witnessed a few days ago. I'm pretty sure I saw her yesterday, without eggs, so today is day 1. Must keep the oxygen levels up this time and see if we can raise any. Quite a fast turn around since the first batch of eggs were lost - less than a week ago. It must be a good sign - they at least are happy in the water.

I was also watching the Corys for half an hour this afternoon. Fascinating little fish, just watching them and the shrimp feeding on the algae pellets and a few flakes that had drifted to the bottom of the tank. The Corys really struggle to find the food then take little nibbles, whereas the shrimp appear from nowhere, steal a whole pellet and swim off to eat it in peace. The large shrimp even 'fought' off the loach - which is about 8cm long! The shrimps then sit in a plant and eat away at the pellet, although loads of it does drift off in the process - messey little eaters.

When the loach finds a pellet there's a load crscking sound - almost a pistol shot sound, as he is biting bits off. Sometimes he takes several bites before losing it, other times he can't find it after his first bite. Then he swims around until he smells out another pellet.

The bottom feeders are surprisinlgy interesting to watch. Not like the top feeders that charge at the food and then it's gone. Much more fun than I thought they would be.

Is the Guppy about to drop?

The larger female Guppy, named 'Blackie' because her eyes are totally black, including the 'white' is looking bigger by the day and now the black Gravid spot at the back is showing a variation in colouring, instead of being totally black. And it's a huge spot!

Reading up and most people say that the tummy will actually square off as she gets ready to drop, but she's swimming normally, round as a barrel and feeding well. SO I don't think the drop is imminent. Not much else to report in the tank for today.

A new Bristles

After the sad demise of Bristles, the Bristlenose Catfish, last week, we've replaced him with Bristly, a cousin from the same breeder and also added to our cory collection with a Peppered Cory. So we now have the original Albino Cory, a Bronze Cory, a Julii Cory and now the Peppered Cory.

I know some (all???) other people would look down upon someone adding fish to the tank when there is still a reoccurence of white spot, but I look at it that adding the fish is risking further whitespot (the Peppered Cory came out of the tank that still had the remaining halfbeaks in it - which brought in the infection). If any of them bring in whitespot, either actively or passively by the infection catching on the net, then the treatment starts again. Looking at it the cautious way, I'd be adding white spot treatment as a precaution with every new fish, so where's the difference?

The white spot doesn't seem to be spreading much this time, so hopefully this will be the last round of treatment. I'm just waiting for a few more types of Cory to arrive into the shop (we've been waiting for weeks for the Panda Cory to arrive, if Sarah can ever got some off the supplier...), and she's ordered an assortment of Cories for next week - should be something for us to choose from then.

Finally, a peaceful day...

After the traumas of the last week I'm happy to say that so far it's been a quiet day. One white spot has appeared on the Halfbeak - a day longer to reproduce than normal, but a dose of the medication was going in anyway.

The water is beautifully clear now that I've removed the venturi from the Fluval 2plus - it was making so many tiny bubbles that the water wasn't as clear as I wanted it to be. Now with that just filtering and a separate air supply, the tank water is clear. I've got the air turned right down as the air curtain is too small for the powerful Tetratec APS50, even though that is underpowered for my 90 litre tank! Will pick up a longer air curtain tomorrow to try it out.

Having said that, I've also got an O2 kit and that's reading around 8mg/l with the new air pump. Just before I switched the pumps over it read 5mb/l - gone from bottom of the desired range to top of the range. Any higher and I'd need to add more occupants to use more oxygen!

Speaking of which, I did see the original male shrimp had mounted the original female shrimp - who has now lost her eggs. I'm not sure whether that is the normal breeding behaviour of shrimps, but it certainly looked like that was his intention. Maybe in a few days / weeks she'll me carrying eggs again. Hopefully the reason she lost the eggs earlier this week was just the reduction in oxygen levels and the next batch will go on to produce some babies. Even better if one could survive to adult-hood!

A new air pump

Went out for a lunchtime run and passed the LFS in order to pop in and get myself a new pump. Sarah recommended a Tetratec APS50 - supposed to be for aquariums 10 - 60l. Looking on the side of the box I should really have got an APS 100 - for tanls of 50 - 100l - but this thing is blasting out so much air I think that would have been overkill!

Also got an O2 test kit to check the disolved oxygen in the tank. Got carried away and tested all 3 tanks (tropical, coldwater and the one with the baby fish). The latter 2 are fine, but the tropical was on the low end of the OK scale before the new pump went in. Tested it a while later and it was at the high end of the OK range.

Only problem now is that the air curtain is too small and being blasted. I did swap in an air stone, but that couldn't cope with the air blast either and looked like a tyre blowing out underwater! I'm going to have to go back (once my wife is home, with the car - not running there again) and get a longer air curtain. The air stone rattled horribly against the glass so it couldn't stay.

It is supposed to be a quiet setup, but I think it's because the air blast is so strong there's a lot of noise from within the tank - can't hear the pump, the air bubbles are too loud. Maybe I should put on the regulator to slow down the flow of air...

Recovering from low oxygen

Increasing the air input yesterday seems to have helped the tank to regain it's balance. I did the water quality tests just before a 20% water change and the Nitrite was back to zero. I can only assume that lowering the air input lowered the oxygen (hence the shrimps at the top of the tank with the Guppies and the Danios being a lot quieter) and this affected the bacteria also. Makes sense, I suppose.

Unfortunately, the shrimp is no longer carrying eggs. Even I am not optimisitic enough to hope they all hatched and are hiding - I think that she was removing them yesterday as I was trying to recover the oxygen levels. Maybe as the Oxygen dropped the levels got too low for the eggs and they died - just days before they should have been ready to hatch.

Unfortunately, it also looks lile the white spot is back! The halfbeak seems clear - he usually shows new spots on Wednesdays though so we'll see tomorrow. This time two of the Neons seem to have tiny whitespots. Will I ever get the tanks sorted and running happily?

RIP Bristles...

Whatever was wrong with the Bristlenose Catfish he's not suffering any more. After posting last night about him, I altered the pump and then 3 hours later found him dead underneath it. No real further clues as to what was wrong - an air embolism in his stomach seems to have killed him.

But also this morning I noticed the Guppies at the top of the tank, a cory swimming diagonally and the Danios didn't react to being fed. Instantly the air pump was switched back on, the pump raised so that it disturbed the water surface more and the temperature knocked back down to 24 Celsius.

We went to the fish shop to replace the Bristlenose and took a water sample, which she tested and said the Nitrites were up! Got home and checked for myself (to make sure I'm reading the tests properly...) and now I know I'm reading them correctly. The Nitrites aren't worryingly high, but it's a puzzle as to why they are reading. I'm guessing that maybe reducing the air supply has also affected the nitrifying bacteria, and they have not had enough oxygen to process the waste. I'm guessing, from O level Chemistry quite a few years ago, that the equation goes something like...

NH4 + 2O2 = NO2 + 2H20 (ph < 7 here, so it's ammonium - NH4, instead of ammonia, NH3)

2NO2 + 02 = 2NO3

So every 2 molecules of ammonium need 3 molecules of oxygen to be converted to nitrate... Probably wrong, I failed O Level Chemistry first time around.

Bristlenose - the jury is out!

Everything I read points to gas bubble disease for the bristlenose catfish, but it seems that a lot of the experts haven't heard of it and sometimes don't have any clue on the symptoms.

I visited a couple more aquatics shops today. One did sort of agree, but said the pump would not be at fault (maybe because I'd mentioned that I'd bought the tank and gear from them - not as a threat, just so that they might help me!). He suggested lancing the bubbles - but that wouldn't help the stomach, which is the main concern.

Over the road, they suggested the catfish had been eating pebbles or was simply fat or had kidney failure or an extremely fast growing tumour (which has now stopped growing...).

Discounted the pebbles - it's perfectly round, not lumpy.

Discounted dropsy (also hinted at) - no scales sticking out.

Discounted kidney failure and tumour - they admitted overnight was too rapid!

So nothing they suggested helped. So I'm continuing along the gas bubble disease route - it is described as highly unusual! Treatment is to stop the bubbles being created and get rid of what's there. Although the first shop did agree that an airstone would help, there were still a few small bubbles floating around the tank, so I disconnected that. One view I read today said that no air supplies are needed at all - just the movement of the filter is enough - especially with all my plants.

I've not removed the venturi nozzle - just the air inlet. Maybe I should, just to make sure it's not affecting the water. I'll pop up and do that once I'ce finished this entry.

I've measure his swelling! He's 6cm long and now 21mm wide and 15mm tall - with about half that height being the swelling below his stomach. He was hiding again today and has been moving about more. Some sites report that it can take a few days to start to recover - we'll just have to see. Off to remove that venturi completely now, just in case it's doing something it shouldn't.

Bristlenose still no better

The inflated Bristlenose still isn't any better yet - he's still a worry. But more evidence as to what it could be when he finally came out of hiding in the cave (I was surprised he could fit his stomach in!).

I noticed that behind his lateral fins and further back on his body there are a few tiny air bubbles. Well, not so tiny given his size. I searched these on Google and came up with 'gas bubble disease'. Basically, it's the fishy version of the divers' bends.

It's rare (typical) and caused by tiny bubbles in great numbers in the tank. Unlikely in most tanks - unless they are over oxygenated. Now that could be my problem - with so many plants, including 5 bunches of oxygenating weed, plus I was using the venturi air feed into the tank. The effect was air bubbles shooting across the surface and a constant stream of tiny air bubbles rising up the front of the tank - where the bristlenose catfish likes to feed... Every time I move a plant a stream of tiny bubbles rise to the water surface.

Instantly the venturi air inlet was removed and an air stone put into the tank. Went to see Sarah at the shop and she said she's had similar problems when pumps in marine tanks were allowed to become exposed because of a drop in water height (not sure how that works!). She said that remove the problem and he should be showing signs of improvement by the evening, and fully better by tomorrow.

Needless to say, by evening he's no different. Hopefully a few days will sort him...

Poor Bristlenose...

Not looking good for the Bristlenose Catfish following him starting to swell up yesterday. Yesterday his stomach looked like there was an algae pellet or small pebble in it. today he is even more swollen and looks like he's been pumped up with a bicycle pump.

He's spent nearly all of the day unmoving and hiding underneath the bogwood - floating upside down. I went to my local fish shop and she wasn't open - I was there 15 minutes after opening time, so was surprised... Went to the large garden centre down the road with an aquatics department and their expert said it sounded like the fish would be dead within an hour or so...

Well I gave the fish an hour then went back to my favourite shop and she was open, talking to a rep. They both agreed it's likely that the bristnose catfish is constipated, and suggested defrosting some bloodworm and dropping in some cucumber as close to him as possible. So on the way home I bought half a cucumber and dropped it in as near to him as possible, and that was the first time he moved all day - he swam away from the cucumber.

I followed this by dropping half of the block of bloodworm over him - by injecting it into the tank at high speed with a syringe! Must have covered him, then distracted the other fish by squirting more into the front of the tank.

But it wasn't until the evening that I finally saw him move!

Strange Activities

No idea what is happening in the tank at the moment - all of the shrimps are out for a change and the locah is hiding, whilst the Cory is still rapidly swimming around the tank. At the same time, one of the female Guppies is defending a space around the bottom of the tank - keeping all comers away from her.

And the Bristlenose catfish is stuck on the glass, head down and a stomach like a barrel! No idea what he's been eating - but it's a lot.

Maybe it's something to do with removing all of the oxygenating weed this morning and rebunching them.

Whednesday white spots...

Well it's Wednesday again, so time to report that once more the white spots have gone, again! It's becoming a weekly occurrence. Looking back over the blog, it's both of the last 2 Wednesdays that I've said this, so it looks like there's a pattern - let's hope this time it stays away!

The remaining Albino Cory is also going mad - since loosing it's companion it has been swimming around the front of the tank relentlessly. Everyone else is quiet in the tank.

The end of the Cory

After being convinced that the Cory was just settling into the tank and becoming a lot quieter, the one that I've been watching for the last five days was dead at the bottom of the tank this morning.

I actually didn't notice it at first. It was only that I could see through to the filter and I knew that the last few days it had been hidden by plants. Then I noticed some had broken free from their lead weight overnight and floated off slightly. I was moving these about and there was the dead Cory, underneath them.

Went to the shop to see about replacing it so that the other one isn't alone, but Sarah wasn't there. And when I saw the Albino Cories in the tank at the shop all but one were a lot quieter than when we first saw them. So I decided to give them a miss for a few days - there also seemed to be a lot less of them. Should have counted them - I think there were 6. If they are still OK in a few days I'll get another one, but also thinking of getting a Bronze Cory as a replacement - add a bit of variety to the tank!

Another quiet day...

Not much to report on the tank today - probably because I've been out since early morning and not been watching it. I'm a bit more confident that the sick Cory is actually just going more to a normal, quiet Cory, as both were feeding together. It's only 8 days since they both went into the tank and at first they swam everywhere together. Now they have grown up and hide away a lot of the time. The complete opposite of other fish who hide then come out, except for the upsidedown catfish, who has never come out.

I think I did see a flick of his fin yesterday, so I assume the upsidedown catfish is fine. I hope he's not outgrown his cave entrance!

The egg carrying shrimp continues to carry the eggs and is probably the most active off all of the shrimps. If there's anyone about, she's one of them. And the Guppy continues to grow as though hopefully she's pregnant.

Enjoying the tank

I'm really enjoying the tank, and watching everything grow. Even if there are a few traumas, such as watching the possibly sick cory. It's still skulking around the tank, although I think I have seen it eating. But it's hard to know whether I'm watching just one, or if they are taking it in turns to lay low.

But Bristles, the Bristlenose Catfish is growing well. I measured him at 45mm a few weeks ago and today he was stretched out cleaning the glass, and he's now 60mm in length. Not bad for a little fish that arrived 2 months ago and was a tiny 15mm long!

My other concern is the upside down catfish. He was larger when he went into the tank and we never see him. I think I've just seen a flash of fin from within his cave, so he's still alive. But if he's growing well, there's a chance he'll outgrow the cave door. He's not been out (that I've seen) for 10 days and it was a squeeze then to return to the cave. I suppose give it another week and lift up the cave and turn him out! The gap at the bottom should be big enough once the cave is lifted.

The local shop I use did have some catfish caves. Maybe one of them could be used. I suppose point it to the back / side of the tank where the entrance is quiet, but where we can peek into it when we want to.

The shrimp continues to carry her eggs and the new shrimps are finally starting to venture out - both took algae pellets today and hid away with them. So, apart from why aren't the Neons coming up to feed - though even when they had the tank to themselves they hardly fed - I think the tank is quiet & relaxing.

A quiet day...

Well the shrimp continues to carry her eggs (day 2???), the little baby danio (??) doesn't grow and the albino cory doesn't move, although I do wonder whether the two danios are winding me up my taking it in turns to settle on the gravel. I'm sure I witnessed them swapping over yesterday between quiet and active fish, and the quiet one does move around the bottom of the tank.

Apart from that, I mananged to shoot off a load of photos, now that some batteries are charged. Not loaded them to the computer yet, so haven't seen what they are like. Hopefully there's a few there of the egg bearing shrimp.

The end...and the beginning?

One of the Albino Corys appears to be unwell - it's sat around at the front of the tank all day, only moving when another fish has shifted it out of the way. Even dumping bloodworm pellets around it didn't arouse any interest, although the arrival of the other fish caused it to hide.

But on a positive note, I saw the largest shrimp at the back of the tank fanning it's swimmerets. I tried to convince myself there were little white dots on them, and even called my wife in, but she wasn't convinced.

But then the addition of a couple of algae pellets brought it out for the first time in a while. All of the shrimps have been hiding together around the bogwood since the addition of the new shrimps. Totally unsocial!

But this one came out for a favoured feed and then took a small piece up to a nearby plant and I had an excellent opportunity to admire the light green eggs covering the swimmerets. I did try to take a photo, but after 10 mintues I gave up looking for charged batteries.

But it does look like the shrimp is carrying eggs, so hopefully in a couple of weeks we should have a load of baby shrimps - although if I don't intervene, it will be a load of baby shrimps as fish food!

White spots off, again...

It looks like the white spots have dropped off the halfbeak and the loach, so another 5% water change and the addition of some medication should be nicely timed to zap the little parasites as they swim off into the water. And I'll be keeping the routine going to hopefully get any I miss as they continue their lifecycle to find their next victim.

The whitebeak seems to have a few whitespot scars, but I'm sure they will heal in a day or two. Then apart from the strange 'baby fish' in the second tank, which doesn't seem to be growing but has been joined at the surface by a swimming blob. I'm stirring the water a couple of times a day and continuing to add a few bits of baby food, but there's no obvious growth or changes. Maybe it's building up strength, but at this rate I could just be nuturing a little insect.

Whtie spot decreasing

I'm still watching the whitespot and it does seem to be on the way out, again. The loach seems to have lost all of his spots and the halfbeak is down to less than yesterday's 6 - I think only about half that are there.

It's time for another water change and top up of the medication tomorrow and that will continue until at least next Monday. Only wish I'd done it properly the first time! I'd followed the instructions, but somehow some got through.

Not much movement on the baby Danios - the main one is still there but there seems to be less dots darting about. In fact, the main one doesn't seem to be gorwing - I just hope I.m not nuturing some weird insect in it's own tank!

Monitoring the whitespot

The halfbeak definitely has more whitespots - there are 5 on his tail and 1 on his dorsal fin. All tiny - if that makes any difference? There are a few on the Loach, but the rest of the tank looks to be clear.

But I also slipped into the tank a couple of Albino Corys over the weekend and it looks lake the halfbeak has taken a nip out of the tail of one of them. The male Guppy also had the same shape nippied out of his dorsal fin too on his first night in the tank. It's a long, narrow shape - only the Halfbeak has that shaped mouth! Maybe it's his welcome to other males arriving in his teritory - the nice lady in the shop told my daughter that she thought we had a male and female cory.

We were intending to also add a pair of Panda Corys to the tank, but that stock didn't arrive last week. Might get some in a week or two, or might instead get something else. But the tank is getting rather full!

Still doing the alternate days 5% water change & addition of white spot treatment. But when I measured the nitrate over the weekend the level was between 5 & 10 ppm - so really low. Should mean that we can safely add a fish or two more.

More White Spots!

It's not just the halfbeak that has some more whitespots on it now, the Loach has also got a afew new tiny white spots.

It does make me worried that it's another phase, rather than the ongoing phase. But it is only 7 days since I started treatment, so it's not unrealistic that it might be the same infestation. In the original infection, from when the fish were brought into the tank, the 1 white spot dropped off on the 12th April, but it wasn't until 13 days later that I saw the white spot on the (late) female halfbeak and 9 days later before anyone else had it.

From this, I suppose that means the cycle is taking 9 to 13 days at my temperatures. I didn't complete the treatment the second time as the infected fish died and was removed. But it was removed 48 hours after the treatment was given - so another dose was due and I failed to give it.

I've not noticed any white spots on the other occupants for the last few days. So hopefully another week of treatment, with regular water changes, and the white spot should be gone.

On a positive note, the possible baby Danio is still about, although not noticeably larger and there are still a few random movements in the separate tank. I need to research the growth rate of Danios next!

White Spot

I continue the treatment for white spot, but am getting worried as the halfbeak, which had lost all of his spots, now has a few new (tiny) white spots on his tail and other fins. I can't see any spots on the other fish, but then they are all so active I could just have missed a neon.

I know it can take 2 weeks to clear white spot and these could be spots that were actually on him before I started treatment on Sunday, just 6 days ago. But it's depressing to see more spots appearing when I thought they were going. Let's just hope it's not a short lifecycle going very well - in the current weather the tank is reaching 26 / 27 celsius in the daytime (set to 24) so that will be shortening the life cycle a lot.

I read that the life cycle of the white spot is as follows:

The mature parasite (trophont) leaves the fish and settles on the bottom of the pond where it secretes a gelatinous cyst (tomont). Inside the cyst the cell reproduces by division to produce around 1000 tomites. The cyst ruptures to release the free-swimming, ciliated tomites which must find a fish host within 24 - 48 hours to survive. The tomites, also known as vagrant bodies, penetrate the skin of their hosts where they mature into trophonts. The whole cycle takes 2 - 14 days depending on water temperature.

It just depends how long the stage on the fish lasts. No water change today - after Thursday's 20% change. To worried about removing baby danios!

Growing On Tank

In the hope that I do have a few Baby Danios, I've moved the bottle of water, with it's one 'fish' and many moving blobs, to an old tank. I've also added some water recently taken from the tank as those bottles too also seemed to have some random movements.

It's hard to know whether this is right or not. It's not cycled, but there's about 8 litres of water and only a handful of microscopic fish. I've also added a stem from an 'oxygenating weed' to the tank for shelter and the beneficial properties that will hopefully take.

As I said yesterday, if only 1 of the babies grows up to be worth transferring to the main tank then I'll consider it a success. There are so many little blobs that hopefully that will be the case!

Quiet day in the tank really. Only point of note being that for the first time since Monday I'm certain we still have all 4 shrimps - for about 30 seconds all of them were visible in different areas of the tank. So the babies haven't been easten by the loach!

Baby Danios?

Just over a week ago I put some water aside thinking that the Danios had spawned, but what with the fighting and the fish I thought had spawned being returned to the shop as the ring leader (with all weight returned in hours of seeing her 'slimmer') and then the white spot, which meant a 20% water change this morning, I forgot all about the bottle of water until yesterday afternoon.

I was actually meaning to empty it out, but something made me look at the bottom of it and it was then that a tiny movement caught my eye. I'd picked up the bottle, so all of the gunk in the bottom was moving, but this movement wasn't a steady movement, it was random zigzags. But it was a tiny dot of a thinh, maybe 1 to 2 mm at most and not recognisable. Then I saw more, and more and more.

Getting quite excited about it I was using a torch and then spotted 2 or maybe even three shapes moving at the top of the bottle - but these were 5 to 6mm long and most certainly fish shaped. And careful late night inspection of the main tank with a torch in the dark revealed another of these tiny shapes.

So at lunch time it was back to my favourite fish shop, where I bought some "TetraMin Baby" food ground flakes. I'm adding a bit of that to the bottle and tank and will need to keep an eye on what's happening.

Having said that, out of the 2 or 3 larger shapes I saw last night I can now only see 1. It could be the same one all of the time or different ones. There's no way of knowing. But with dozens of little dots also swimming around the bottom of the bottle, there's a good chance of at least one or two surviving. The owner of the shop said she would expect it to take about 12 weeks before they are a 'decent size'. I'll leave them where they are now - I'll lose too many if I try to move them. But once they are bigger (hopefully...) then I'll move them into an old tank. OK, it won't be cycled, but I can start it with water from the main tank and its size realtive to the size, and potential waste output, of a few baby danios should mean that it's not too much of a problem. After all, they are surviving in an old lemonade bottle at the moment.

I expect this means that now I have to keep my eye on my waste water to make sure I'm not throwing out baby fish!

White Spot Are Off

Looking around the fish and it appears that most of the white spots have dropped off all of the fish once more. So I expect that means that the first opportunity to finish off the white spot is now, if not already passed. I'll keep dosing up for a while (instructions say just another 48 hours after last white spot) to make sure I get any that have survived in the next stage of the life cycle - when they try to reattach to the fish.

Plus there's going to be a good clean of the tank tomorrow morning. Somewhere between 15% - 20% water change - slowly for the sake of the shrimps. Hopefully that will also remove some of the white spot that are resting in the gravel.

Treating for white spot

Continuing the treatment for white spot with a 10% water change and more treatment. I did notice as the Loach was resting at the front of the tank a few spots on him, but two of the spots on the Danio have fallen off. So now's the time to be treating. Not sure whether the spots are starting to fall from the Neons as well.

Also noticed that the Loach kicked up a bit of dirt as it hid under its log, so will need to remove most decorations at the next water change and do a good change then.

Only seen 1 of the new shrimps today, although that could be both, just at separate times. And managed a sneaky glimpse of the Upsidedown Catfish - he had crept out of his cave ever so slightly! Maybe at the next clean I'll refresh his cave as well!

More Shrimps

The shrimps are doing well and with the reduction of the snails (I don't think there are more than 1 or 2 left!) the bottom of the tan hasn't been so tidy as it was, so I've added a couple of new shrimps.

At the moment, they are keeping themselves to themselves and hiding together under the bogwood. I expect the cave where the other pair hide is to scary for them - it's shared by the 2 catfish and the loach! They are only about 2cm long - so over what the loach will count as a mouthful when fully grown, but they look so small compared to the other 2 shrimps, which are actually only 2.5cm & 4cm each. But the narrower body shape makes them look a lot smaller.

Hoping they will thrive and maybe we're starting to form a community - who knows, get enough and they might breed...

White Spot Is Back

I thought last week that the white spot was back, but the victim died before I could treat her.

But I've now noticed the remaining (male) halfbeak and 2 of the neons have tiny white spots on them and the Polka Dot Loach is flashing it's right side onto the gravel and possibly the bristlenose is flashing (slightly) as well. Although, especially for the Bristlenose, I'm not convinced.

Whatever the situation with the larger fish, the smaller ones definitely have an infection, so in goes yet more treatment. This time, I'll not stop treatment 48 hours after the spots drop off - as per the bottle's instructions, but run the treatment a little longer. I expect that for the next 2 weeks (plus ???) it will be a 10% water change and adding treatment every other day. Need to get it cleared.

I done wonder if the ill loach was her hitting herself into the sides of the tank, or was the white in her mouth was also white spot?

Almost full...

The water tests this week have shown no nitrite and next to no nitrate, so we've added a few more fish, although we must be close to capacity.

2 Bloodfin Tetras and 3 Guppies (2 females & 1 male) have been added to the tank. The male halfbeak seems to be taking a lot of interest in the female Guppies - his fins are raised and he's showing some colour - what a combination that babies would be!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these additions are far more peaceful than last week's additions and don't start in fighting. Who knows - maybe they'll start breeding before too long!

A Bullying Danio

After the death of a second Danio yesterday and a third hovering at the top of the water, I went back to the shop to see if she had any ideas. She looked at both and didn't think there was anything particularly wrong with them - apart form not being well! The rest of the fish in her tank that they came from were also fine.

So she exchanged both Zebra Danios for a pair of Leopard Danios in case there was anything wrong with the Zebras. Got them in the water and left them for a while.

Then whilst I was eating my lunch I noticed that the big Leopard Danio that I thought had laid eggs was back to being fat again - in around 5 hours... Something was wrong there also. So I watched it for a few minutes and whilst I was doing that it started to attack all the other fish. Most of the attacks were aimed at the Zebras, but it would also attack the Leopard Danios, Neons and even the remaining Halfbeak if they were passing by. But the attacks were none stop and it was chasing the Zebra Danios around the tank. One of them does appear to have an injury.

So I dropped in some food and half the Danios came to the surface. Big fatty ate most of it and when it wasn't eating it was bullying the rest of the fish to chase them from the surface.

So it was bagged up, returned to the shop and exchanged for, hopefully, a quieter Leopard Danio.

Once he was out of the tank the entire shoal did become more peaceful. I'm not saying there's no in fighting, there's still plenty, but it's now a few of them involved in much less violent occasional attacks, instead of one attacking everything in sight constantly.

And I thought they would be peaceful!

Another Fatality

After losing the 2 fish on Sunday, we went back to the shop with the dead fish and a water sample to see if she had any ideas. She confirmed the water was "perfect". Very generously, considering we'd had the Danio 3 days and the Halfbeak 3 weeks, she offered to replace both.

After consideration, we all agreed the Halfbeak had probably died because of the attentions of the male, whilst a bit of in fighting in the Danios could mean there were too many males. So I asked for a couple of Danios instead. To replace the 2 fish, she gave us 6 Danios! She also tried to give us females.

Now one of the Danios passed away last night - I daren't take it back in case I come back with more. It was swimming on it's own at the top of the tank yesterday, and now another is doing the same! Maybe there's a fault in her batch of zebra danios?

On a positive note, one of the Leopard Danios has gone form being extremely fat and about to burst to only slightly fat - so we're hoping she has laid eggs. I've hovered up some of the exposed gravel and kept the water to see if I can collect and save some eggs. Who knows?

Double Fatalities

First thing we noticed that the white spot infected halfbeak was lying dead at the bottom of the tank. She had been behaving strangely the last few days and we'd seen nothing of her really.

Then when I was feeding the tank some live bloodwormm, there were only 5 danios at the top. A quick search revealed a dead one in the plants. Not sure if it's severely rotted overnight or been mauled by the snail that was crawling away.

Again, this fish had been causing us some concern - it wasn't shoaling or feeding yesterday.

The trials and tribulations of a tropical tank!

Well, it looks like the dreaded white spot is back. This time the female halfbeak has a tiny spot on her tail fin.

Again, it's only the one spot and it's much smaller than last time. I suppose it only needs one to have got away and reinfected a fish. She's been quiet the last couple of days, but I put that down to the introduction of the shoal of 6 Danios yesterday and their zooming around the tank.

I brought forward the weekly water change to this evening and changed 15% of the water, instead of 10%. Added half a dose of treatment, because of the loach, catfish, snails and shrimps! I need to keep my eye on it and see when it breaks off. This time, although the instructions recommend keeping the dosing going for 48 hours after it drops off, I'll keep it going for longer. Will also give the tank more lights off time and I'm not increasing the temperature this time. Didn't do any good last time!

Danios

Added a few Dannios today. A bit earlier than I usually would, but with a busy weekend ahead and my daughter off school for the teacher's strike today, it was a good opportunity.

And they are mad! 3 each of the Leopard and Zebra Danios. The Leopards are slightly larger then the Zebras - presumably older stock. When they were floating in their bags they were obviously keen to get into the water. And once there the 6 of them darted around in a tight shoal, exploring the tank.

The female Halfbeak hid herself down in the bottom corner, where they weren't exploring. She has now ventured back out and is suffering the usualy flirtations of her male.

The Danios are great feeders. They are the first fish to really shoal and attack the food put into the tank. I was surprised at how much they could eat in 2 minutes. I fed what I thought would be enough and it was gone in seconds. It was really nice to slowly feed them more bits of food over a couple of minutes.

Not the most exciting coloured fish, but the way they move and feed they are going to be fun. If they let the other fish have a quiet moment. Just a pity the upsidedown catfish doesn't do much!

The loach becomes braver

The loach has started showing itself more and is a lot braver now than when it entered the tank 4 days ago.

It's no longer spending the day hidden away and it's not darting away the instant there's a movement in the room. It's even starting to put up with me quietly drifting over and watching it, although when it sees me watching it, it does tend to swim off to hide.

It is getting interesting to watch and the snail population is not what it was. So here's hoping for a happy occupant!

RIP The Snails

The Loach has definitely masacared the snails - gone are the brief snails galore days! Every so often he rattles one against the stones. There's a definite reduction in the number of adults, although a load of babies have hatched today for him to work through next!

Best of luck to him - although we are considering moving some snails and / or eggs to a separate tank to keep a constant supply of snails for him!

The loach ventures out

Started to see a lot more of the loach today, but every time there is movement in the room it hides. It's OK if the movement doesn't cause vibration, but if anyone walks by heavily it swims to hide.

But I have to congratulate it - the snail population certainly seems to have been devastated! There are still plenty about, but it's already down to a reasonable amount, rather than a plague. But I keep getting a fright when I hear a knocking on the glass as the loach bangs a large snail against the glass. It's amazingly loud! Not sure whether it's an attack on the snail, or an accident as it tries to get a snail off the side of the tank higher up, which then slips down and it's trying to catch again.

And I've caught a brief glimpse of the upsidedown catfish hiding under a ledge on the outside of the cave. It's well covered by plants, so difficult to spot.

Also managed to get some pictures of various occupants today - I think everyone but the upsidedown catfish. So will start loading some pictures to this to make it more interesting.

Frozen Daphnia

Just dropped in (for the first time) a block of frozen daphnia. I use these every week for the goldfish, but not before for the tropical tank.

It span around the top for a few cicruits, breaking up at the back corner a little each time. The female halfbeak happened to be waiting for it on the first cicuit and managed a few good mouthfuls of daphnia as it went past.

Problem was it kept getting caught in a back current just at the point where it broke up, then finally dropped in that corner. Next time I try it, will not have the jet from the filter going straight down the back - that seems to give the most water movement.

Also, although the fish did enjoy it, mainly because it caught and settled, a lot finally sank to the bottom. Neither of the new occupants are anywhere to be seen - hopefully they will come out later for their feed to clear up. But a whole block might be best keeping for when there are more mid water fish - 2 halfbeaks and 5 neons aren't going to catch much! The shrimps, snails & catfish will enjoy the rest!

New Inhabitants

Well we now have 2 more new inhabitants.

First, there's polky - the polka dot loach that the shop owner assures me won't grow much more than about an inch longer than current size but will eat baby snails like they are going out of fashion. A bit jump and hides when you arrive into the room, but settles and appears soon.

Then Turvey - the upsidedown catfish. Nice little creature - although only seen 1 flash of 'him' since he went into the tank. It was hard to find any in the display tank - I expect it will be harder to find him in our tank.

Getting ready for the next occupants

I went into the shop as I was running passed to see if they still had the halfbeaks, but the ones in the tank are still covered in white spot. So won't be trying to control the frisky halfbeak that way, just yet!

On a positive note, my white spot hasn't yet returned - been clear for 7 days now. So hopefully that trauma is over. But the snail population continues to grow so we're looking at getting an upsidedown catfish tomorrow, and maybe a small loach that she's recommended.

All of the tanks have their own water supply, so white spot in one isn't a problem. Will also get some bogwood for the bristlenose catfish. That's recommended for their digestion, plus for other fish, but not seen any real bogwood before elsewhere. £4.50 for a huge piece - I'll probably chop it into at least 2 to fit it into the tank. Not really sure yet where I'll fit it in! Each piece must be at least 15 inches long!

Snails Galore!!!

More mini snails are appearing - the breeding cycle has started again! The catfish can't be eating enough eggs! But we've got an upsidedown catfish on the wish list and I've read they eat snails - so that's what's being added at the weekend!

Halfbeaks getting (too???) frisky

Might need to return to the shop that we got the halfbeaks from as the male is becoming over attentive to the female. Every time she breaks from cover he's inches behind her. Even when she's trying to eat he's there, getting in her way.

No idea whether they will have any females left and I need to check if the whitespot has definitely been cleared from the tank. But I'm going on the theory that Guppies and Mollies are kept on the ratio of 2 : 1 for the same reason, so it should work with these little guys.

Still can't decide what else to put into the tank - that decision changes by the hour!

A quiet day

A fairly quiet day today - so far! No sign of the white spot - hopefully everything was killed and there are no more growing on the fish.

For the first time since I put the plants in place the 2 malaysian trumpets were on show - I thought we'd lost one! No doubt those 2 will start breeding at some point.

The rest of the unintentional snail population is growing exponentially - I need something that will take an interest in the snails and their eggs! I could hand pick them out and other similar methods, but there's just something about controlling the population 'natures way' and providing them as feed to a fish. I suppose it's the knowledge that snails could get in again and any control method I use now is not going to eradicate them all, so an ongoing snail eating fish control could be interesting.

I've still got to decide what to get, so why not?

Bloodworm for the halfbeaks

Dropped the temperature to 24c as there's still no more signs of the white spot, although working in that room so the tank was well above that all day!

Looking at the halfbeaks and the female is definitely growing a large bump. I'm hoping that it's not a tumour or cyst and if I'm lucky she's pregnant. The male is still very attentive, but she doesn't want to know.

Tried them all on frozen bloodworm this morning. Dropped half a defrosted block into the outflow of the pump and the bloodworm shot across the tank, giving the half beaks just seconds to grab what they wanted. Then the neons had more than their fair share as the blodworm sank and got caught onto the plants, which are growing well and I had to cut back yesterday.