I can’t believe I am finally up to date, and that I am making this up as I go along rather than copying what I have already written. I must say, it was a bit traumatic to read back over what has happened since we got the tank; we were truly clueless when we first got it, although I think we learnt fairly quickly (read a couple of months). I cringe to think how fish-happy we were at first, buying them whenever we wanted and chucking them in. Anyway… gotta learn somehow I suppose… I am looking forward to basically starting again and having a really good go. For today, we have started on the Moving House project fairly drastically: we moved all the fish and the filter over to the qt, and it has never looked so exciting and clean in its entire existence. The main tank now has nothing in it except a bit of gravel down the bottom – vacuuming out the water was one of the more gross things we have ever done, I think, because there was just so much poo…

So from here: we move the main tank and stand to the new house (settlement is Monday!), fill it up with water and put the heater on… Then we move the fish over in a bucket, and viola! the tank begins anew. Then we move the rest of the house on the weekend, but that is another story entirely and one I am really, really not looking forward to. Urgh. Anwyay. James is still trying to tell me that upgrading to a new, bigger tank when we move is a good idea, but I am not convinced yet at all. He’s proposing to use either the current main tank or the qt as the filter for an enormous tank. This is really just part of his whole grand scheme, which also includes a webcam, automatic water changes and automatic pH and ammonia monitoring. Originally the webcam was going to be a roving submersible, but that has been negated as impractical (what a surprise). I will believe all of this when it is actually attached to my tank.

The idea that the bristlenose cats would totally clean up the tank in a couple of days was, as suspected, a lie; however, they have done a very good jon indeed. I am quite happy with them, and very glad we got them; they’re cute, and apparently liable to mate some time, as long as we’ve got a male and female; not really sure what I think about this proposition.

And it’s my brother’s birthday.

We decided that for the sakeof our plants we should get at least one SAE to eat some algae. Most of the plants have algae on them now, such that leaves are dying. We’ve also cut the light-on time to about 10 hours, thanks to a recommendation on TTT that since the tank also gets sunlight it doesn’t need as much artificial light. Anyway, Coburg had no SAEs – they had Flying Foxes, with the stripe through the tail that I thought was the way of telling the two species apart and meant that they were SAE, not FF, but we decided not to risk it (since have heard that FF don’t eat much algae and can be a bit annoying to others). Asking one of the sales people, he said bristlenose catfish were the best fish for algae – agreeing with someone else at TTT suggested. So, because they are quite smalle at this stage, we bought two. They should grow to maybe 5 inches, which is something to keep in mind when we finally re-stock the tank. And to keep James happy, I agreed to let him him buy one gold angel (which is actually mostly silver, of course). So now the tank is slightly more interesting – I must admit it is wonderful to have an angel again. Impressively, the sales person actually checked whether we had any small fish like neons when we asked for the angel. He also said the cats would clean up the algae in two days: this I do not believe. Currently they hang around the heater or on the main rock; there is quite an obvious clean patch on the rock.

James is starting to push for a discus tank when we move – make the qt a molly tank or something… or simply buy a new, bigger tank: he saw a 4x2x2 foot tank at Coburg for $300.

He had some red on his belly, and he had not looked happy for a couple of days. The last few days I have noticed a huge amount of algae growing on plant leaves, so clearly the SAEs were actually doing their job.

I have just noticed that the beautiful alpha molly looks a bit dropsy-ish around the middle, and might also be red around the mouth. Perhaps I am just paranoid.

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.