Heseemed to have red splodges on his upper underside. This afternoon I noticed the remaining black widow tetra seemed to be covered in something like velvet… I’ve caught him and put him in the qt. In the process I moved the cloaches’ rock and found the last one – baby cloach – dead. I don’t know how long he has been dead, can only be a couple of days – I had assumed he was just sulking in the hole in the cave. When I fished him out, I disturbed a lot of white gunk off his body; once more, whether this is what killed him or it accrued post mortem, I don’t know.

There are four mollies and one SAE left in the main tank, and three molly babies plus the tetra in the qt.

We noticed yesterday that it was lying on the filter outlet (which sits under the water, with several holes for the water to come out), which is not unusualy as they’ve done this before; except that he was a bit sideways, and breathing quickly. Looking at him closely, there appeared to be something behind his dorsal fin – whether loose scales or something growing there, I don’t know; his tail also seemed to have something on it, making it a bit opaque, but whether that was real/unusual or I was paranoid, I don’t know. Anyway, we moved him to the qt, in an effort to save the others really, and he died a few hours later. I think the others are okay still.

As well, two of the mollies seem to have black lips! I’m not sure whether to worry or if it’s a result of their eating the black alagae on the tank walls. It looks pretty funny. [Later note: it was from the algae.]

They were breathing very quickly and barely moving; one was next to the fliter intake, the other was at the front of the tank. They certainly hadn’t been like that the night before. When I got home from watching the tennis, James had removed the one next to the filter; it was dead. This morning, another was dead. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with that one; the one James fished out apparently had a red face, and not-smooth-looking skin. Actually, now I think about it. the one I got out also had a sort of velvety-llok; whether that was a disease, or if it was a post mortem thing, I don’t know. Tonight, one of the of the black widows tetras looks very unhappy; he almost looks bent, isn’t swimming well, and has tattered fins – I haven’t noticed that before. Baby cloach is the one that’s left, so it could be that the other two were old + bad summer experience + bad time when we first got them (way too early, we found out way too late…), and it all finally got too much. Poor things.

Many of the plants are currently growing very well – new shoots on bare stalks.

This is rather odd, considering how obvious it appeared the other day. Still doesn’t look overly happy: tail is a bit shredded (although I haven’t seen anyone picking on him), and also seems almost bent in the middle – maybe that’s just how he’s swimming. The canisters with the media etc in them are currntly sitting in the tank, in the hope that some of the bacteria will survive to be moved to the new filter.

|[Later note: I have now discovered that this is a bad idea, and a fan is a far better idea.] I got up this morning to discover the water level in the tank down by quite a bit… and then found it was all on the carpet. Thankfully it’s not a very large area – under the tank and a bit to one side. Lounge room is a shambles, as a result, because the stereo has been moved so we can reach said carpet; good thing it was resting on phone books. Lots of fun… towels all wet (and clothes dryer not working)… and a not-hot day, so no help there. No more dead fish, but I’m guessing the dropsy molly won’t last too long.

We’re going to get an Eheim filter, which I think we should have got in the first place rather than the Fluval. Given we will be moving soon, I think the procedure will be something like: new filter; cycle tank – possibly moving the fish to the qt while that happens, I think, either that or move them jsut before the move… drain the main tank and move it, fill it etc at the new place and then move the qt after transferring fish. Oh goody. This is one thing I really haven’t been looking forward to.

He looks like a pine cone. His tail is also a bit shredded, which I think had started just before we went to Tasmania. One of the black widow tetras is definitely on his way out; he’s spending all of his time at the top looking frenetic. I just caught him in the net, and he too is looking mildly pine cone-ish.

We bought some more hornwort (I think that’s what it is) about six or eight weeks ago. It hasn’t done very well this time. Not sure whether it’s being eaten, which is possible, or whether it’s just not very happy. There’s still some left – just bits and pieces – maybe it will regrow from this point.

I have been very slack and not motivated lately. I write now to record a very sad happening, and because I figure I should get back to this. All of our gouramis died in December – two got sick, separately, then the last remaining one just died overnight, I think from grief. The platies are also dead; one jumped out (accident with the lid…) and the other just died.

In December, we went to Tasmania for ten days. On getting home, we discovered most of the plants eaten away – serves us right for not setting up the feeder, I guess – and one molly, the not-quite-alpha male, disappeared. Then, a week later, we went away for Christmas. We got home today. The light was off (the timer often gets stuck); the water was about 34C (the room gets hot, there were a lot of very hot days while we were away and no way to cool down), and the pump wasn’t working (no idea why; James put a lot of effort in and it is now working again). As a consequence, I have thee SAEs, three cloaches, two black widow tetras and four mollies left. I am very, very sad.

The qt is fine. The last batch of babies died over a month or so; there are five in there now. As well, there should be a snail. I have absolutely no idea how he got there; I just discovered him there after doing a water change one day! Very strange. At first I was very annoyed, because he was there without my permission, but now I think he’s fine. It still freaks me out about how he could have got there though.

This seems like not much of a story for four months, but it’s all I can think of.