three fishes to calm the waters
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Our new aquarium has been cursed by a problem: fin-eating.
We picked up the aquarium from an old friend about three weeks ago, and I've spent the intervening time essentially changing as little as I could. I've bought a new heater to replace the one that wasn't keeping up with the volume of water, but other than that it's been no new fishes and no new ornaments for the aquarium—I've even kept the food the same. So why the fin-nipping?
It's the clown loach and the siamese algae eater that are literally tearing apart the fins of the angle fish. I suspected that the primary cause was lack of adequate food for the former, so I've added some sinking pellets to the mix. I noticed that these did in fact reach the intended fish, but that the angle's fins weren't yet starting to heal. So it occurred to me to wonder why the loach in particular would be being such a pain (literally) when they're usually pretty easy-going fish. It dawned on me that the poor thing's been alone for a very long time. A clown loach is a gregarious animal; it wants like fish with which to swim. Without any friends, perhaps the fish was going a little nuts.
So today we pedaled out to a pet store on Parliament Street and talked with a fellow about getting more clown loaches. They had tiny ~3cm fish in stock, and had a special for three for $18. I wasn't wild about nearly doubling the number of fish in the tank at one time, but with these tiny beasts I didn't think it would matter too terribly. Nor did I think that a total of seven fish in a 25g tank (96L) would be entirely out of line.
So we brought them home. I'm happy to report that the thirteen-year-old loach immediately took to the new little loaches, and that all four are swimming about peacefully together. I'm also pleased to note that the loach is no longer leading the charge after the angle fish, and that without the loach doing that the SAE is also leaving the angle alone.
Hooray! First problem solved; now I'll have to see if I'm overstocking the aquarium....