J has finally realised that the cloach’s name is Cuban Pete. Why? Because that’s the song that Jim Carrey sings in The Mask, and he thinks that the cloach looks like he’s dancing when he shimmies at the front of the tank. You can find the song on the net, but I’m not going to link to it… that’s, like, immoral and stuff.

It also reminds me that whenever I spell something ending with Y I want to say “Whhhyyyy? cos I gotta!” thanks to the same movie (P-A-R-T- Why…).

How interesting. I was looking back over some old posts and realised that I hadn’t actually accounted for some fish that I had mentioned, way back in about April I think it was. Well… it said then that we bought three cloaches, and one of them died. The one that I moved to the main tank survived, and is now cruising about the tank very happily; the other one, that was already looking a bit sickly in the qt, died. So did the two new bristlenoses; I wonder whether they too ought to have straight to the main tank. Sigh. We moved some of the neons to the main tank, and the glowlights too. So the main tank now has:
2 Monster Angels
1 normal angel
1 cloach
7 or so Colombian tetras
8 or so widows
8 or so glowlight tetras
7 or so neon tetras
8 or so harlequin rasboras
1 bristlenose catfish (Fido)
2 Siamese Algae Eaters

And the qt has a few neons and the Last of the Babies (mollies, that is).

Well, penguin tetras, anyway. Actually, to be precise, they are long-finned penguin tetras; apparently their dorsal fin will eventually stream past their tails. I’ll wait and see. We got them about two weeks ago (mm, slack me); they transferred into the main tank yesterday. I think my tank is now officially Full. It certainly looks it, particularly with my two Monster Angels. And the Colombians are no dwarves, either.

We also got some plant called Red Pogo. It is red – the old bits, anyway; new growth is green. I know this because it seems to be growing well, in the two weeks we’ve had it. And it’s sent out lots of roots.

And the lily-pad plant is still going berko. Lots of bits actually outside of the tank. Have I mentioned that? It flowers, when outside of the tank.

I looked in my fish tank this morning, before I went to work (erk; first day back) – this is not something I always do. Anyway, I noticed the biggest silver angel seemed to have something in its mouth, and was busy trying to swallow it. I thought it was a bit of plant. Turns out, after I looked at it again from a different angle, that it was the tail of a tetra. I knew it was a tetra because there was a little bit of red poking out of its mouth, and then the tail flukes sticking out. Cannibal! Carnivore! I know angels prey on tetras in the wild, but it doesn’t mean I have to feel good about it. 😦

The tank does look very nice, though; the lily plant is taking over one side of the tank again, so I will have to hack it on the weekend. There are still a lot of tetras mooching around, too.

Well, it’s a bit sad, but somehow I feel the grinding wheels of inevitability have just turned once more. The runt angel fish died yesterday – spent most of the day moping near one the filters, and ended up against it with nary a fin movement. I don’t know whether he got picked on to death or what, but he is gone. Sigh.

On the up side, ten days of neglect don’t seem to have harmed the tank in the slightest. The plants all look good and there were no deaths (that we can see). The fish were awfully happy to be fed when we got home though.

So this is J playing with his new camera. He did this when he first got it, too, and had some excellent opportunities with angels and even Fido posing for him, but because he wasn’t using a tripod the pics apparently weren’t that good.

I think the fish got annoyed with him and decided to move a lot just as he pressed the button, in this one.

I pruned today. A lot. There is now actually light on the right-hand side; that’s an amzing thing.

Well, it has been a while…

It must have been a few weeks ago now that I got them, because 8 rainbow widows (a type of tetra) are now in the main tank; the 10 glowlight tetras could also be in there, but I’ve left them in the qt. I like the widows a lot; I think they’re quite a pretty pink. A couple are a bit runty, so I hope they come through all right.

On the weekend, we decided to get some more; it was exciting… the tank is still a bit bare, I feel. Got two itty-bitty bristlenoses, who are really cute; 10 more neons, because J is obsessed; and three expensive little cloaches, again because J is a bit obsessed. However… tonight, all of a sudden, there seems to be a dying cloach, which is a bit tragic. We wonder now whether the cloaches should have gone straight into the main tank, as being much more mature than the qt; too late to second guess ourselves now, although I have moved one of the healthier cloaches over tonight. The only reason I haven’t moved the other one is that I can’t actually find it when I want to! Weird. And slightly disturbing.

Here’s hoping that I have two cloaches left tomorrow, and that they last a long time.

Oh, and one of the black and white angels died – that was sad, and unexpected… I just couldn’t find it one day, and discovered it dead under a rock.

Sigh.

So… since I last posted, a few things have happened in the aquarium world. While we were away, the plants exploded in a riot of foliage. I pruned when we came home in between the two sections of our trip, but two weeks later it was almost as ridiculous again. Pretty cool actually.

Since we’ve come home, we’ve set up the quarantine tank again – we turned everything off before we went because it got disgusting. Still not sure why that was – too much sun or what – but the algae was mad. We put the little filter from there into the main tank to get the filter pads going again. A couple of days ago I bought 20 neon tetras, to help the tank cycle. A couple have died, but the rest seem to be going well, which is good.

The other interesting thing that happened with the qt is that I put lots of the left-over bits of plants in there, and the snails – I think there were two at the start of the holidays – have gone forth and multiplied. Now, though, there are no plants left… they all died a bit… I’m not sure what’s going to happen to them.

I’m looking forward to buying more fish, too – more rasboras, and maybe some widows too, because they’re really pretty.