fishes
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
The aquarium's been stable for several weeks now. So we added some new fish and plants.
Thanks to the advice of Rich and Sasikumar, I found a means of containing the initial ammonium/nitrite problems that were bumping off my fish. Since that time the fish and plants have been doing very well. Well, the thick-leaved, low-lying plants have been doing well, the tall frondy one is pretty much torn to pieces and now just floats around the aquarium like garbage until I do a water change.
So on the advice of an aquarium store that Jon recommended to me, I bought some mixed plants that come contained in their own planters. These will slowly grow up and outward and will be tougher than the free-planted frondy whatsits that the loaches tore up.
And in a store closer to home, we found some new tank mates for our fish. We've now got four rummy-nose tetras in addition to the four cardinals that survived the ammonium spike. And we've got two ram cichlids that seem to be delighting in their new environment.
I've never kept cichlids before and hope it works out: the fish seem to get along with the others in the aquarium and they seem to have quite a bit more color than they had in the store. I'd asked about compatibility in temperature and between the existing species, but I've learned that aquarium store owners don't always have even the slightest hint of a clue what they're talking about so I'm going to keep an eye on everything for a while.
Aside from the new fish, I've found one thing in the tank that's a bit unnerving. The plecostamus is growing much more quickly than any of the ones I've had in the past. He's already up around the six centimeter mark, which means he's grown 50% in length and who knows how much in weight. It's just a 15L tank I don't know how much longer he'll keep growing this quickly, but I can foresee a day when we have to find a new home for the poor thing.
One other thing I've noticed—there's at least one female shrimp in the tank laden with eggs! I don't attempt to raise any new critters, so I suppose the eggs will all enter the food chain.
