Better Friends
To open this post, I'd like to openly criticize the ease with which blogs can be lost during composition. And now, I will have to painfully rewrite the 5 paragraphs I have just lost. G-mail has figured it out. Now it's time to catch up on the learning curve. Thanks BlogSpot.
Okay, where was I? As it turns out, it looks like the 30-gallon is just not big enough for two male drawf gouramis. One of them assumed the dominant role, and then I didn't even see the submissive one during feeding time. He became quite the hide and seek player, and it often took me several minutes before I found him tucked between some temple leaves or hiding under the plastic rock.
After consulting with my Aquamaniac friends, I decided to play it safe by returning the shy one versus buying another one to diffuse the negative attention. River City Exotics was gracious enough to welcome back their prodigal son with open arms. Getting him in the Zip-Loc bag to bring him there, was another story. With only one net at my disposal, I resorted to using my free hand to corral him. 30 minutes later, I finally managaed to scoop him up and fish him out (pardon my pun). It was suprisingly difficult to turn him over, but I think everyone is better off for this.
During all the comotion of trying to scare the gourami out of his hiding spots, I also stirred up several of the oto cats, so that I actually saw all 5 of them for the first time in as long as I can remeber (in all honesty, it had been so long, I assumed that I was down to three, just as I suspect I'm down to two kuhli loaches -- I just don't have, er, direct evidence of their demise).
I swung by the local PetsMart to pick up the lonely julii cory that I had been eyeing for the last 3 months, but of course, he was nowhere to be found. I can only hope someone had a similar idea and gave him a good home (wishful thinking, on my part, I know). I guess I'll just have to keep the spot open for another fish in need.
Speaking of which, it looks like the fish load in the 30-gallon is quite acceptable. The latest nitrate tests showed the that the 5-gallon was completely saturated (as expected, since we all know it is overstocked), but the 30-gallon was barely reading anything despite the extra gouramis and missing a weekly water change. I was pleasantly surprised. With the intensity of red increasing with increased nitrates, I think you can guess which test tube belongs to which tank.
As a side-note, I also picked up a teenie-tiny 3-gallon filter for the bucket (previously, I had bought a 10 gallon filter that turned out to be way too big), so I might add some ghost shrimp to tend to my plants.
As a side-note to my side-note, I realized it had been 4 months since the first Flourish tabs were put in, which is the longest one is supposed to wait between tab additions. So I put in a couple tabs near my amazon swords and temple plants, and then two half tabs by the rotala in the back and the star grass in the front. We'll see if this gets out of the substrate and inceases my nitrate count.
Okay, where was I? As it turns out, it looks like the 30-gallon is just not big enough for two male drawf gouramis. One of them assumed the dominant role, and then I didn't even see the submissive one during feeding time. He became quite the hide and seek player, and it often took me several minutes before I found him tucked between some temple leaves or hiding under the plastic rock.
After consulting with my Aquamaniac friends, I decided to play it safe by returning the shy one versus buying another one to diffuse the negative attention. River City Exotics was gracious enough to welcome back their prodigal son with open arms. Getting him in the Zip-Loc bag to bring him there, was another story. With only one net at my disposal, I resorted to using my free hand to corral him. 30 minutes later, I finally managaed to scoop him up and fish him out (pardon my pun). It was suprisingly difficult to turn him over, but I think everyone is better off for this.
During all the comotion of trying to scare the gourami out of his hiding spots, I also stirred up several of the oto cats, so that I actually saw all 5 of them for the first time in as long as I can remeber (in all honesty, it had been so long, I assumed that I was down to three, just as I suspect I'm down to two kuhli loaches -- I just don't have, er, direct evidence of their demise).
I swung by the local PetsMart to pick up the lonely julii cory that I had been eyeing for the last 3 months, but of course, he was nowhere to be found. I can only hope someone had a similar idea and gave him a good home (wishful thinking, on my part, I know). I guess I'll just have to keep the spot open for another fish in need.
Speaking of which, it looks like the fish load in the 30-gallon is quite acceptable. The latest nitrate tests showed the that the 5-gallon was completely saturated (as expected, since we all know it is overstocked), but the 30-gallon was barely reading anything despite the extra gouramis and missing a weekly water change. I was pleasantly surprised. With the intensity of red increasing with increased nitrates, I think you can guess which test tube belongs to which tank.As a side-note, I also picked up a teenie-tiny 3-gallon filter for the bucket (previously, I had bought a 10 gallon filter that turned out to be way too big), so I might add some ghost shrimp to tend to my plants.
As a side-note to my side-note, I realized it had been 4 months since the first Flourish tabs were put in, which is the longest one is supposed to wait between tab additions. So I put in a couple tabs near my amazon swords and temple plants, and then two half tabs by the rotala in the back and the star grass in the front. We'll see if this gets out of the substrate and inceases my nitrate count.
posted by k-maub @ 5:28 PM
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