Always Room for More

Two new additions today:
Herman the betta fish
Bamboo shrimp

In order to make room for Herman and refresh the shoal of rasboras in the main tank, I moved the three rasboras into the 30 gallon tank (bringing the number to 14) and let Herman have the bowl to himself. Not a lot of room, but thanks to the sponge filter, he'll have a better life than most bettas (I hope).

My Own Phosphate Experiment

After many weeks of withholding phosphate fertilization, corresponding to many weeks of withholding blog posts, I guessed that the phosphate level in my 30 gallon tank had dropped quite nearly to zero. This became obvious when I was cleaning the tank in preparation for Christmas vacation, and I noticed green spot algae on several plants for the first time in recent memory.

Some time ago, because of consistently high phosphates, I had stopped dosing it in my 30 gallon tank (but still in the 10 gallon shrimp tank), thinking that phosphates were leaking in from the tap water and/or fish food. Any time I had measured it, the level was off the chart, so I withheld it indefinitely. It looks like that policy must be suspended.

I did a small dose this evening, and I will resume the regular EI dosing every other day from here on out, I think. Ultimately, this is perfect confirmation of everything I've read about GSA and phosphates.

Fond Farewell

I lost one of the quarantined cories today. Sadly the larger, sicker one passed on to the great blue yonder. I can't say I'm terribly surprised, but I am very disappointed. I do manage to hasten death when I try to heal my fish. I'd like to think that the medication actually helps, though.

So while I am sad, I will also choose to be hopeful for the remaining QT'd cory. The downside is that there are still less-than-thriving cories still in the 30-gallon. I can only hope I figure out how to fix them before an infection takes hold.

QB = Quarantine Bowl

Well, my cories have been looking progressively worse for some time now, but one of the larger ones took the cake today. The after part of his body was looking red, and his scales/skin appeared quite unhealthy. My quarantine bowl is likely not fully cycled, but the rasboras are doing well enough, so I'll try to manage the strain on the bio-load by doing minor water changes and adding Prime daily. Again, it's not ideal treatment, but I'm just as worried about other cories getting infected as I am about the sick cories' survival.

As long as I was medicating a tank, I added a sad looking cory that was missing whiskers and pectoral fins, as well as a good-sized chunk of his tail, but didn't appear to have any disease yet. It breaks my heart that they are not doing well in the tank, but I'm really at a loss, considering none of the other species are ailing.

LifeGuard-ShmifeGuard

Sadly, the older cory cat passed on today. The LifeGuard and/or smaller tank seemed to stress him enough, that his death was probably hastened. I'll be holding out hope for the two juvies, but these corydoras cats are enigmas...