fish

On the weekend I made a trip out to Petsmart for some more things for my tank.

I got three fancy Tequila Sunrise Guppies to round out my fish population. They add some nice color and I really like the mix I have now. There is one Leopard Danio, one Red Long Fin Tetra, one Albino Cory, one Otocinclus, one blue Fancy Guppy, four Black Neon Tetras, and the three Tequila Sunrise Guppies. Those and many crayfish

I also picked up a live plant for the tank. It has been a while since I had one. When I got home I planted it appropriately and while I was doing that one of the five leaves broke off. Bummer. When I came back a few minutes later, the plant was floating, so I had to replant it a little deeper this time. A little later it was floating again. This kept happening throughout the day and got very frustrating. Leaves kept breaking off too.

By the time I went to bed, there were two leaves left on the root system. When I got up this morning, the plant was floating again, and only one leaf was attached. Grrr. Now I am starting to wonder if the crayfish are doing something to the plant.

Hmm, for a long time now one of my fish (the Sunburst Wag Platy) has been acting a little lot sickly. Sometimes laying on his side in the gravel, sometimes floating aimlessly, always lethargic and slow.

The other day when I got up I noticed that I couldn't see the fish any more. Totally disappeared. I guess my crayfish had a good snack that night.

I was needing something else to add to the aquarium these days, so I though I would head out and see about picking up some schooling fish. I was thinking neon tetras since they are pretty colorful.

At PetSmart the guy I talked to mentioned that they just got their neon tetra shipment and he was still seeing a big die off. It was likely that some or all the fish I bought wouldn't make it.

Instead I got directed toward the Black Neon Tetra tank.

I watched them a few minutes and decided to get a group of five for the tank. So far I really like them. They mainly stick together, are a little smaller than the rest of the fish, but are just as active. In the store I couldn't see it, but in my tank I see that they are a really cool silver color, with a blue and a black stripe down their sides.

Last weekend I was out at PetSmart getting a few supplies for around the house, and I decided to get another fish. I only had one Cory left, and I wanted another cleaner fish so I looked through their stock a bit before I found what I was looking for.

I chose an Otocinclus. This fish attaches itself to the side of the tank and eats the algae. Occasionally it swims around to another location, but most of its time is attached to the tank.

I also cleaned the tank this week. After moving one of the decorations, I caught a glimpse of a teeny, tiny crayfish. It is still alive. Cool. Hopefully it makes it. Right now the crayfish is about a centimetre long and dark like the rocks in the tank. When it doesn't move, you can't tell it is a living creature.

Today I got out to PetSmart and picked out a couple more fish. I got a Sunburst Wag Platy, and a Red Long Fin Tetra. I'm still trying to get the crayfish too. Those are going to be awesome.

Tonight, for the first time since setting it up, I cleaned my new tank.

My new gravel siphon is awesome and did an excellent job. Strong sucking power meant none of the crud got backwashed into the tank. Of course, the bigger tank means more water to remove and to more water to add back. I didn't let the water sit overnight to off-gas like I usually do. Just to do the 30% flush I needed three buckets of water. I did add some dechlorinator though. I'll see how this water change goes, and if nothing disastrous happens, I'll likely do the same procedure next time.