The aquarium is stable
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Kenny's first aquarium seems to have stabilized. I added a tiny pleco to the mix, and the thing hass settled right in.
We now have nine shrimp (not eight, I guess there were ten in the original batch after all!), five happy-go-lucky clown loaches, and the solitary pleco. The pleco's taken to cleaning the walls of the aquarium already, and the shrimp have done a remarkable job of cleaning up the algae that had plagued the plants. The plants too are doing very well, with broad green leaves on the lower variety and the taller variety both blossoming at the top and putting down roots.
I've struck on a strategy for doing the water changes that pleases me. I put tap water into the 10L cooking pot that I usually use for making chili, and add 2ml of the water-stabilizing additive that I bought for a song in China. I throw in a spare heater given to me by Jon and then let that sit for a few hours. Then I simply siphon off 8L of tank water and add the new immediately, already free of chlorine and at the right temperature.
We've decorated the tank with a variety of trinkets. An old hanko blank that my grandfather bought in China many years ago; a small (and badly made) ceramic panda that I bought in China last week; the original nicely-made ceramic pot in which came my birthday-gift bonsai tree (the tree's since been replanted); and another small ceramic pot. The plants are arranged so that the tall delicate ones are away from the water downspout, while the hardier lower variety line the back and left side. In the centre is an open area.
Kenny's favourite is the panda. He really enjoys the little aquarium and likes to stare into it both from the front and the end. He's learned to say the Japanese word for fish quite well, and seems while all of the fish and shrimp hide from him, he is quite content to exclaim happily whenever he catches a glimpse. He's named the Pleco "Buddy", thinking that it looks like a zebra.