CanadaquaBetween Pond and Tanks

Baby?

I’d seen my peppered cories lay a very few eggs after the last heat wave subsided, but as the tetras are eating them as fast as they come, I didn’t think anything of it. This morning as I was making sure everyone shows up for feeding, I saw a tiny movement at the mouth of the cave out of the corner of my eye, and sure enough, a teensy tiny cory baby is down there munching happily along the rocks. My very first fish baby. I must confess, I’m pretty excited.

Unfortunately it’s way to quick for me to catch it on camera. I’ll keep trying, though.

Disappearance

I’ve been counting only nine neons for the last 2 or three days, even at feeding. Didn’t find any bodies, but it is odd, to say the least.

Finally! New pics!!!

The pinks are in full bloom, the daylilies bushy and the berm’s filling up.

We recently added 10 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, very tiny. They get chased by the goldfish quite a bit. I hope they don’t get eaten. They won’t be able to overwinter outside, but will have to come inside when it gets cold.

Neons

Picked up 2 more peppered cories today, roughly the same size as the four I already have. And I finally got my neons; ten little guys:

I drip acclimated them for two hours and so far they seem ok. I guess the next couple of days will show how they weathered the transition. From what I heard from other aquarists, they can react quite badly to changes in their water parameters, so I’m a bit wary. I guess time will tell.

The cories were adopted into the tribe almost immediately. At first it was easy to tell them apart, because they were so much lighter in color, but they’re adapting to their darker surroundings quite nicely, and pretty soon I won’t know who’s the newbie anymore.

Things growing

The reeds and rushes are coming back nicely, the daylilies are a good 10 inches high, and I started planting the berm. There’s a new bleeding heart (alba) and two nice ferns. Alas, alas, I can’t take any pics, cause the camera broke.

Still no neons

I wanted to divide the large java fern on the side, so took out half of the water to get at it, cut it up and restick it plus some seven or eight new little plantlets. First time I did a 50% water change since set-up. I hope the fish will be ok with this, and all the java fern divisions will survive. Unfortunately, I can’t take any pictures ’cause the camera broke. *sniff*

Even though I treat the new water with Blackwater Extract, the color of the tank water has cleared up dramatically with this. I can actually see that the rocks on the back wall print are gray rather than brown. Not sure I like it that much, but I guess I’ll get used to it, and the water will get a little more yellow again, too.

Spring news

It’s a wonderful feeling to see all three of the goldfish back? They even grew a bit, I think (about finger length), but they’re certainly ravenous. We had a bunch of algae in the pond, and even though we took some out, they did quite a job in getting rid of the rest. I started feeding them again two days ago. One of them, unfortunately came through the winter with a bit of tail rot, but he seems perky otherwise, and I’m only treating with Mela- and Pimafix. Hope it gets better.

Still no neons

Added 7 more glowlight tetras today, bringing their total number up to 10. It suddenly looks a lot more lively in that tank. I have the feeling the three old ones are a tad territorial, but it’s not easy to tell them apart. Looks like mere bickering, though, I’m not really concerned.

Everyone is peachy

… and the little pleco doesn’t look like he took any damage. I hope I caught it in time, and that the weeks he spent at the LFS were enough of a quarantine.

I still don’t know why the QT suddenly crashed like that, but I guess that small a system w/out any plants is always vulnerable. I might also change the filter material. I don’t trust those all in one pads that came with it. When you change one (though I hadn’t, so that wasn’t it), all the nitrifying bacteria come out with it. That can’t be good.

The mystery Ranger Pleco btw. seems to be a Pterygoplichthys weberi.

QT crash

Had a heart attack this morning. Went to check the ammonia in the QT as I did every second day, and it was through the roof. Did an immediate 75% water change w/ Prime and Stability, and the pleco, who’d been just hovering on the bottom immediately picked up a bit, but ammo was still not in any comfortable range. I did small 1 quart water changes every fifteen minutes for a few hours, w/out bringing it down any further.
Around 4p.m. I finally gave up on it, netted the pleco, checked him over for any signs of burns, but didn’t see any, and moved him into the main tank.