I guess we can deal with it. It’s interesting: the males don’t seem interested in the female at the moment – they’re barely paying her any attention, which is good.

Kelly and Anton sent us some photos of the mollies in their new – 6 foot! – home; that was pretty cool.

We had better do a water change today, before we go away.

They took four of the mature female mollies, and almost all of the fry: hooray!! The remaining female got terrified and hid too effectively to be caught… hopefully Dave’s friend will want her, because I don’t really want to keep her with three males harassing her. She is still looking a bit stressed… sorry dear. There are also maybe 20 fry left; we’ll give lots of them to KB, I hope, and some to Dave’s friend. I think they’re mostly female, so we’ll tell them that if any turn out to be male, we’ll just take them back.

Now it really is time to start thinking about new fish… but I think we will do it properly and get a quarantine tank (aka ‘qt’).

While I was on the phone James took Dropsy Gourami and put him out of his misery. I think it was for the best – he was so very bloated, and had a significant number of scales missing on the left side, and no hope of recovery.

There are some people coming over tomorrow who will take at least the females, and hopefully a significant number of fry, thanks to the bulletin board. KB is keen on a few fry, as is another friend of a friend apparently, so hopefully we will pass on most of them.

We’ve been talking about what we’ll get as replacements – I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of a betta; the chances of a bad personality are too high to risk I think. James is very keen on angels again, and I think I agree. I’d also like a Bumblebee Goby, just because they’re so cute. We should probably get a qt before we add any more fish, but there’s a question of cost and where exactly to put the thing.

I think it was probably from the stress of the bad water those weeks ago. Apparently Marcus is enjoying being alone, but Kat is considering another playmate for him, even thought she’s having a pretty bad time with fish. This time she thinks she’ll go with the name Dionysus, because – apparently – Marcus claimed him in his ancestry. As you do.

I think I will euthanase Dropsy Gourami tonight. He’s lost some scales, and just isn’t going to get better.

I’ve named two of the cloaches – at least, there are two names that apply to whichever cloaches happen to be staring out from under the rock at any one time: Stadtler and Waldorf. Those were the names of the two Muppets who would sit in a box a the theatre and make rude comments about how bad everything was on the show, and that’s exactly what it looks like the cloaches are doing, when they stick their noses out and watch the rest of the tank. I wonder if it is always the same two, while the other lies snug on his ledge in the cave. No way of knowing.

Not quite as severely as last time, since it wasn’t during a water change (which means I could judge where the top of the water was accurately), but still a bit ruthlessly. I pulled up some of the old plants – ones that had tatty or no leaves for a large part of the stalk – they had quite incredible roots, some of them. The right-hand side is still a jungle because I replanted it heavily. I can now see lots of babies… and there are lots of them. I think all the females have now had a set of fry, and at least one female looks pregnant again. This is getting beyond a joke; fun as they are, we just can’t deal with it. I’ve called a number of shops, but nowhere is interested in getting them, even free. I’ve advertised them, but only had one interested person for the females, and they’re in Boronia so it’s too far for them to come and get them. I have just now gone and changed the post to say that they are free, so maybe that will get some interest. I really hope so; James is preparing himself to do away with at least the mature females, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. If we can’t give them away, that might be our only choice, though.

Did some water tests: all fine, nitrates at about 8, I think.

I will get rid of the female adult mollies and fry, keeping one or two male adult mollies and fry. I’ve posted on a bulletin board that they’re available, so I hope someone will be interested. I might call some fish shops, too, just in case. One thing this has taught me – no livebearers; at least, no co-ed schools of them. That probably means no more platies, which is sad. I think that, once we get a quarantine tank (qt), we will get some more angels, and maybe something else that is hard to breed. Maybe some cories… or I’d love a bumblebee goby… maybe a betta! It’s been fun, but I fear oodles of fish babies just isn’t my thing.

There are millions of fry – maybe forty; I think there was another lot while we were away. Ms Dalmation Molly looks like she is very pregnant too. I really am going to have to call Coburg, and maybe Northcote, to see if they will take some off my hands. I have no idea how long it will take them to grow up – a good few months, I expect, so we’ve got that time.

The only problem in the tank is Dropsy Gourami. He certainly isn’t getting better; there is a patch on one side where he’s lost some scales, too. I haven’t seen him eat much and he’s just staying in one spot, mostly. I wonder whether we should put him out of his misery, since we have no quarantine tank.