Trouble in Paradise
I don't know if I just simply don't remember how they used to act in the 5-gallon, but the black skirt tetras seem to be overly aggressive toward each other in their new digs. Either I was used to their more moderate temperaments in their spacier 30-gallon home, and they had always had skirmishes in the 5-gallon, or they are not adjusting so well after getting to spread their fins in the bigger tank.
Either way, I thought I had lost one on Thursday. I fed them in the morning and only two bothered to come up to feed. I looked everywhere for the third (I thought he was a little too big for his carcass to hide from me), and finally found him wedged between the piece of driftwood and the side of the tank. I fetched my net, ready to fish out his carcass, but when I moved the driftwood, he swam away, relieved to be free.
Unfortunately, when I spied him Friday morning, his left flank and left eye were both visibly damaged. Combined with some questionable scales on the other two (are they harassing each other that vigorously?!), I added a half tab of Fungus Clear to help ward of infection and give them a chance to heal.
(For my own sanity, I tested for ammonia and nitrites, and both came back zero)
The plan now is to remove the driftwood and add that wendtii that's been hiding in the back corner of my 30-gallon tank under low-light conditions for quite some time. It's nice and tall by now, so I hope to use it to obscure the heater and add some cover in the back of the tank.
As an aside, though it's very difficult for me to get a good picture of it with my current photography equipment, the bamboo shrimp continues to fascinate me. I saw him filtering the filter output this morning, so I stirred about a food pellet I had left in the box a couple of day ago, and I got to see him capture some of the particulates. It was something else to watch his fan hands accumulate food, disappear to his mouth, and reemerge completely clean and ready to go to work again. He's a little redder these days, so I'm guessing he's getting comfortable in his new skin, er, exoskeleton.
Either way, I thought I had lost one on Thursday. I fed them in the morning and only two bothered to come up to feed. I looked everywhere for the third (I thought he was a little too big for his carcass to hide from me), and finally found him wedged between the piece of driftwood and the side of the tank. I fetched my net, ready to fish out his carcass, but when I moved the driftwood, he swam away, relieved to be free.
Unfortunately, when I spied him Friday morning, his left flank and left eye were both visibly damaged. Combined with some questionable scales on the other two (are they harassing each other that vigorously?!), I added a half tab of Fungus Clear to help ward of infection and give them a chance to heal.
(For my own sanity, I tested for ammonia and nitrites, and both came back zero)
The plan now is to remove the driftwood and add that wendtii that's been hiding in the back corner of my 30-gallon tank under low-light conditions for quite some time. It's nice and tall by now, so I hope to use it to obscure the heater and add some cover in the back of the tank.
As an aside, though it's very difficult for me to get a good picture of it with my current photography equipment, the bamboo shrimp continues to fascinate me. I saw him filtering the filter output this morning, so I stirred about a food pellet I had left in the box a couple of day ago, and I got to see him capture some of the particulates. It was something else to watch his fan hands accumulate food, disappear to his mouth, and reemerge completely clean and ready to go to work again. He's a little redder these days, so I'm guessing he's getting comfortable in his new skin, er, exoskeleton.
posted by k-maub @ 9:13 AM
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