We got back after lights-out last night, so we turned the light on briefly, and most of the babies seemed to be still there! We gave them a little food and turned the light off, as they all looked a little sleepy.

This morning, when I looked at the tank properly, I saw that there were zillions of babies! Well, maybe about 30 – they are hard to count, being so small and because the plants have grown into a veritable forest. The lily pads cover amonst the entire surface of the tank, which is possibly a significant factor in why the babies have survived – it’s almost like they havbe a hatchery up there, No Adults Allowed because it’s too hard to get to. I’ve actually cut a bit of the lily pad because it was restricting the surface and swimming area a fair bit.

However, it’s not all happiness. One of the cloaches looked to be stuck between the filter intake and the glass, but when we moved the intake and the glass, but when we moved the intake he swam away, rather affronted that we had disturbed his sleep. So that wasn’t sad, but there is a gourami who looks like a balloon (and consequently looks white, because his scales are sticking out), and another who looks like may have ahd a nick taken from above one eye (at least, I hope that’s what the white spot is – I’ll be very distressed if it is ich, as will all the fish). I think the gourami have been getting into fisticuffs while we were away – I wonder if that could be because they didn’t get as much food as normal? Really not sure what to do with Dropsy Gourami. No sign of any bubble nest, either.

This morning we also had a heavy-brathing, upside-down tetra. I actually can’t see him at the moment, though, so that’s odd. He didn’t look like he was going to survive, but maybe it was just a phase…

The fliter intake is incredibly clogged, mostly with hornwort. Much as I love it, to fish do too, which means that there are always free-floating bits to get sucked up by the filter. The fish have turned their hunger pangs on the plants; there are a couple that look distinctly worse for wear.

Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates somewhere between 10 and 20, pH maybe 6.8 (I think).

When we were in Adelaide, we rescued my sister’s goldfish. The water was incredibly cloudy, even after a water change; it stank dreadfully; and Cleo and Marcus were spending most of their time gasping for air. Upon inquiry, we discovered that they hadn’t rinsed the gravel before putting it in, so we figured that was the main problem. I wonder now whether the smell was mostly rotting food because the fish were too distressed to eat. Anyway, we put the fish in a bucket, with the snails and some water, and then rinsed the tank and gravel as thoroughly as possible, with salt in the tank and very hot water. That stopped it smelling, and when we put water in it was crystal clear straight off, so that was great. The fish seemed appreciative. The snails half-tempted me to get one or two for my tank – they would do wonders for the algae on the glass, I think, and they are rather fun to watch, with their horns and occasional free-swimming efforts. This is a change from before, but I think there is a difference between expected and unexpected snails! They would have to be fairly big from the start, though, for the cloaches not to eat them. Another thing is that I looked at the goldfish food, and the instructions say feed several times a day, for how much they can eat in several minutes! Talk about ridiculous – those fish would definitely be fine on one feed a day. So I recommended to Mum that she feed small amounts – they certainly hadn’t been following the instructions, but may still have been overfeeding a little.

A little bit later…

Found the sick tetra – it had morphed into a dead tetra, at the top of the tank, among the plants. We’re going away again until Wednesday, but I’m a lot happier about the survival of the fry this time. They got into the frozen brine shrimp as much as possible with the hungry adults around, and I’ve placed a freeze-dried tablet on a lily-pad, just in the water, so that hopefully only they can reach it. Upon looking now, though it has fallen off into the cloach cave, but I know some of them had a go at it before it fell. I’ve also seen them nibble at a leaf and at algae. Such fun.