13-15 live molly fry in the main tank.

Don’t know what killed the molly; all readings are fine – nitrite 0, and nitrates about 5 or so.

The main male molly has rediscovered his interest in the female, now that she’s hatched her latest brood. It’s interesting – his head has gone very yellow, all of a sudden. Maybe it’s an indication of his sexual activity; who knows.

We played with the airstones and under gravel filter today. One side has basically stopped blowing bubbles. James thinks the airstones got a bit stuffed. He also took the motor apart and decided it was getting pretty worn out. He’s changed it so that both chambers of the airpump are being used. As a result, it’s now blowing an amazing amount of bubbles, which I guess is a good thing; get the UGF going, anyway.

He was just lying on the bottom, not really moving very much. He did move when I tried (gently) to catch him in the net, to see if I could see anything physically wrong… and then he went back to being listless.

He died this afternoon.

I wonder if it was thanks to whatever killed the tetra? He certainly didn’t look the same as the tetra had. His belly may have been distended – although it wasn’t dropsy – and there may have been something wrong with an eye… although this could also just me being paranoid.

I’m very sad. Ammonia and pH are fine.

I noticed the neon in the qt wasn’t looking very well yesterday: his fins have been looking ragged for a few days, and today I saw along the length of him (looking from the tail) for the first time: and he was covered in somethingNo idea what it could be; I looked on TTT and it could be velvet, but I don’t know. So this was a bit of a problem. Then, after coming home from a meeting, I looked in the qt and couldn’t see the neon – but could see a white thing on the floor of the tank, with something that looked blue attached to it. I figured it was the tetra – that Hektor had finally caught him (he’s been trying for a while), and had eaten him very quickly. I was a bit surprised, but didn’t think too much of it.

When I looked in the qt this morning, there was the neon! Still looking not very healthy, but certainly alive. So what I thought was the neon’s spine must have been plant material or something, and the light fooled me as to colours. I have no real explanation, actually. So anyway, the tetra was alive. I came home tonight, though, and there he was – dead; floating on top of the water. I looked at the body but couldn’t see anything wrong with it; he also hadn’t been nibbled at. So – he died anyway – jsut a day after he had. Poor fellow.

The rest of the qt, bar another molly babe, is fine. I wonder if Hektor will eventually kill all the babes? I do feed him, so he doesn’t have a huge incentive… I doubt if he will get the biggest one: she is the only one left from the Christmas batch, and is about half-grown I guess. I’ve been wondering whether She in the main tank will be having babies again, but she’s not looking enormous at the moment and she also doesn’t seem to be getting harassed by the males nearly so often. I still try to catch her now and then, but to no avail.

On closer inspection, it turned out to be the mostly-eaten carcass of a neon tetra! I have no idea how that can have happened. So much for my fail-safe method of always checking the filter intake, assuming bodies will always end up there. The neons are very hard to keep up with and keep track of…

He was on his way out – barely breathing, floating vertically – so I figured it was for the best.

Now I know I intended for Hektor to eat the molly babes… I just never expected that I would watch it happen… but that’s exactly what happened two days ago. It was quite weird – and a little gross, when he actually started to eat it. James keeps telling me I am not allowed to complain at all. Hektor is a beautiful fish!

The harlequins have grown stacks. They are the same length as the neons, although they have much larger stomachs.

We did some more reading, and decided that the tank should actually be ok. So we got a cobalt blue crown tail, and he is just superb (splendid, in fact). I have named him Hektor, after the glorious Trojan warrior. I put a couple of mollies in there with him. Mum (happy birthday) thinks I’m too cruel for words for doing that, but I figure I don’t want to keep them and there’s nothing else to do with them, so they should be doing something useful. He’s not all that big, though, so I think most of them are going to be too big… although he certainly seemed to be stalking the larger molly I put in there. And I’m pretty sure he took a chunk out of the smaller molly; at any rate she died, and on closer inspection she seemed to be missing her bottom fin. He hasn’t been doing much, which I know is probably him getting used to the place; it could also have to do with the water temperature – there’s no heater, so it’s around 18C; the guy at Coburg said above 15C should be fine.

Later that day

I’ve decided it’s just too cruel to keep him in a tiny and freezing tank, so I’m transferring Hektor to the qt – qt no more! Oh well… =] I think he should be much happier there – and it will be heaps easier to look after, too, rather than having to do frequent and enormous water changes on the tiny tank.

Ammonia is 0, but pH has dropped a little, to maybe 6.2 or so, maybe because of rotting plant material (the bits I’ve put in from the other tank, and haven’t fished out yet). I’ve just added some bicarb to deal with it. As well, James is convinced that some of the larger babies are eating the smaller ones – there do seem to be fewer… but I’m not convinced.

We have unfotunately decided that the small tank is too small for a betta, which makes me a bit sad, but it would probably be too cruel. James is saying we could get another 10g tank, like the qt, or just put a betta in the community tank, but I don’t think I’m going with either of those ideas.

Sick gourami is dead – but according to James, that’s happened since Thursday (this being Sunday), that being when he was last here. So they haven’t actually been alone all that long: they’ve been fed 1-2 times a week, by James. Two babies were also dead. And we came home with a 7L tank that used to have James’ danios, many moons ago… for a betta!

Have moved the sick gourami to the qt – since we’re going to be away again, it’s totally not feasible to leave the poor guy in the isolation tank. He’s not doing much better; in fact, he almost seems to be shedding, or flaking… not quite sure what to do. Haven’t got any medication. He doesn’t seem much fussed by it all – swimming around, eating a bit, etc. Sigh.

It’s odd: out of all the babies we have had, only two have been male. I wonder if this is normal? Of course, can’t completely accurately assess the latest batch yet – too small, really – but I suspect the same will hold true.

Everything looked fine; a few plants had come adrift in the main tank, but that’s no drama. There were no dead babies, which I guess is a good thing; I’m still thinking about getting a betta.

After church, however, I noticed that one of our gourami was not looking good at all. He looked to be missing some scales on both sides, and have small reddish blotches. At least one eye looks redder than normal, too. It took quite a bit of effort, but eventually I netted the poor sod and put him in the isolation tank… I wonder if I should actually put him in the qt, since we’re not fussed about the babies… someone on TTT forum has suggested this could be flex, or aeromonas; I’m not sure. I’ve read a little and it sounds like it could be a bacterial infection, furunculosis (aeromonas salmonicida bacteria, apparently). Guess I should go and get some bacterial stuff.

Having issues testing the pH. The main tank seemed to have high pH – like around 7 – which I thought was odd so I checked the tap water, and it turned almost the same colour. This was worrying, and also odd because I would have expected more fish to be affected. So I checked the qt, and its pH seemed to be perfect. So I checked the tap water again – and it turned very blue, like 7.8. Very strange. I conclude I must have done something wrong, so I will check again soon, after rinsing the test tubes thoroughly.