Back Down to Eight

One more cory bit the dust this morning. Now the one eyed one is the only one alive in the 5-gallon. He's a trooper, but his fins don't appear to be getting better. In fact, one of his pectoral fins appears to be getting worse. The dead cory was moving around normally yesterday, but I saw a little red something near his gills that had me worrried (for good reason, I guess).

I did a big trim on the 30-gallon. There were three or four baby green pad plants to take out. I tried to cut most stuff down -- I want more light to get down to the substrate (speaking of which, glosso growth appears to be accelerating). The two main victims of my trimming was the rotala indica (I always feel bad about that, because there's not really anything to give away afterwards). Also, I finally got around to cutting down the bacopa on the near right, so hopefully I can get everything there rooted again, and leave the driftwood there visible.

With all the attention paid, I noticed one of the 13 rasboras was breathing quickly and sort of pale. I moved him to the 5-gallon to try to fix him, where I've failed with the corydoras. All the other rasboras were in good shape, but it's bothersome to me that I'm seeing such a high illness rate among the 30-gallon inhabitants.

Coming up Cherries

I found out last night via USPS.com that my package had arrived yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, the office had already closed, so the shrimp were going to have to endure 18 more hours of confinement before I'd be able to put them in the tank. I decided to be a little late for work today, so that I could pick u the shrimp when the office opened at 9 AM this morning. After letting the bag temperature equiliberate for 15 minutes, I dumped them in and crossed my fingers.

I thought maybe one of the bigger ones was DOA, but as soon as he descended into the tank, he started swimming away. In fact, I didn't identify a single dead one. They arrived with a nice plant clipping in a Kordon (a division of Novalek) "Breathing Bag" that claims to exchange CO2 (and O2, I guess). It seems to have worked; I'll have to remember that next time I have to transport live specimens. Also, it came with a UniHeat heating pad to make sure the temperature didn't drop to low. Another product pobably worth remembering.

I know there were supposed to be 35; I didn't bother to count, nor could I if I had wanted to. Most of the shrimp were quite small, and shuffling around too much to keep count. When I came home, I was disappointed that I couldn't find more than 10 of them. Considering the number of nooks and crannies, and the ease with which I lost track of them, I wouldn't be surprised if all of them had survived their first hours. In fact, there was a ghost shrimp carcass, and LOTS of bubbling on the CO2 ladder, so I panicked a bit at first.

I think the water quality is sufficient; my main concern for now is susceptibility to a hungry zodiac loach. Some appear to be small enough to be eaten; as of now, it is clear that either he doesn't find them appetizing, or they can elude him. Either that, or he had already eaten his fill, and I was only finding the lucky ones.

I was pretty impressed by how red they have gotten this evening. They were quite pale this morning, having been in a dark box for the last 3-4 days.

Seeing the resiliency of everyone to the very high CO2 output (and the receptiveness of the plants to it), I decided to open up the main valve and tried to pick up the normal pace of bubbles going to both tanks (the 30-gallon isn't pearling and has been experiencing a minor thread algae problem). In order for it to matter to the 30-gallon tank, I went ahead and cleaned the spray bar pipe.

Misery Loves Company

I use the word "casualty", because there are no deaths yet, but some of the cories aren't looking too good. While I was making my nightly observations, I saw a couple cories were breathing quite heavily. They also had frayed fins. I found myself asking, what came first, the fin injuries or the breathing? Also, I thought perhaps, that O2 levels were low, as I think warmer water cannot hold as much oxygen. However, only the cories with frayed fins were breathing heavily, and a quick online search revealed that rapid breathing is usually associated with some disease or other.

Knowing that the two cories were probably sick with something, and not wanting to medicate the entire 30-gallon tank, I removed the two of them, and I placed them in the converted 5-gallon hospital tank with the other cory. I'm hoping the medication is still sufficiently strong to help, and I imagine they're all in for a second dose before I drop them back in the 30-gallon.

Just in case, I went ahead and added some aeration to the HOB filter. My thought is that the surface area of the filter is small, so I'm hoping not to displace too much CO2. It's likely unnecessary, though, as no other cories, much less other species, are showing any signs of undue stress or disease. In the back of my mind, though, I still worry about the water temperature being high, and causing collateral problems.

5-Gallon Hospital Tank

I wasn't at all happy with the recovery, or lack thereof, of the troubled cory with eroding fins. I decided it was time to medicate, but I didn't want to send him back into the lion's den of the 10-gallon with the zodiac loach. Instead, I dumped him as well as some extra hornwort into the 5-gallon, and medicated it with the standard dose of Fungus Clear. Between the medication, and the mulm I freed up by taking out the filter media, the water became quite cloudy. Hopefully after a couple doses, he'll have regenerated a good portion of his fins.

In addition to moving the cory, I cut out the foxtail and camboba that seems to keep growing at a ridiculous pace. I also had to cut out a couple red lotus leaves that were shading some lower growth. While I was taking out hornwort and rearranging bacopa, I actually found a string of glosso that I put in the substrate next to the other strand that has been establishing itself now that it is getting some light. Additionally, I took out some renekii to take to Alamo Aquatics; they are always impressed with how red the leaves are. I had to throw a large, shady water sprite in the bag.

Time for the Kids to Leave the Nest

When I left this morning, the CO2 was not bubbling at all into the 10-gallon tank (I had turned it on early to check on it). When I came home, I was dismayed to see that it was bubbling up the ladder at a very high rate; it looked like all the CO2 was going to the 10-gallon tank (and none to the 30-gallon).

Fortunately, I immediately saw an oto swimming around seemingly unbothered by the tank conditions. So I'm guessing even at that high rate, the ladder was not effective enough to push the CO2 levels into the danger zone. I found the zodiac loach alive (and well?). Nevertheless, wanting to improve conditions in case it was possibly difficult to breathe, I quickly cleaner out the filter which improve the flow rate dramtically. I thought this might have the synergistic effect of aerating and circulating the water, both of which is supposed to be preferences of the zodiac loach. In order to further accomodate him, I changed about 40% of the water later that night (it's still much too yellow for my liking). He came out during the refill and appears to have regained some of his color.


Once that would-be emergency was taken care of, I turned my attention to the breeding net that has been sitting in my tank for several months protecting my cory fry. First, I pulled all of the remaining duckweed and java moss out. Then, it took quite a while to cajole the juveniles out into the great wide open. I was tickled that when I checked in later, I found them still swimming within spitting distance of each other.

I did my best with the plant situation; hopefully the plants that had been in the shade all this time will adapt to the extra light quickly. I had to remove a couple lotus leaves, and there will have to be some trimming soon to clear out the right side like I've tried to clear out the left side.

Times are a-Changin'

I was surprised/dismayed to find a dead rasbora on the floor when I came home from soccer today. Aside from the unlikely possibility that the zodiac loach chased him up out of the tank, the only reason for his death I could think of was that the floating green lily pads could have misled him to swim more aggressively to the surface than he otherwise would.

On the other hand, I had only been counting 13 rasboras for a while now, and I was still able to count 13. So while I'd like to believe I'd have noticed a dead fish on my floor immediately, it's possible he has been dead for a while in a more inconspicuous location, and my cat recently teased hit out of hiding. Either way, I guess I'm glad that I still have 13 left. Hopefully I can keep it that way for a while.

I again set about trying to coax the zodiac loach into a trap, this time with a full sized freezer bag. I was successful in coaxing rasboras and mystery snails into the bag all day, but several blocks of frozen food later, I was not even to get the zodiac loach to emerge for a sniff.

Finally, I found his hiding spot under the largest piece of driftwood. Shining a light did not faze him enough that he left the confines of his cave, but my laser pointer proved quite effective. Once I got him into "open water", I used the net to goad him into the freezer bag. The real trick was securing the bag with him darting around trying to escape; at one point I despaired that I had lost him, but he did not quite make it out.

I took my time getting him into the 10-gallon tank; at this point I actually felt kind of bad for him, because he had lost much of his color and seemed very distressed. I continued to stress while he acclimated in his freezer bag, however my mood was tempered when I saw a baby ghost shrimp swim by! While I had seen many a ghost shrimp pregnant with eggs, and I had guessed some of the smaller shrimp were offspring, I had never seen one so tiny and so conclusively a product of breeding in my aquaria. It was a very encouraging lead-in to the impending "release" of the cory cats.


Fortunately, once the loach emerged from the bag, he found plenty of dark hiding spots in and around the new piece of hardscape I got yesterday. Here's hoping he can cope with his new surroundings.

Three's Company

I went to Fintique today looking for a small pump for a potential water garden I'm working on, as well as some driftwood to replace the fake log in the 10-gallon. No pump, but there was a nice piece of driftwood (labeled "carved stone", but I didn't think so) that I took home with lots of neat hiding places for the zodiac loach once I manage to get him in there.

I also took a few green lilies that I'll try in each tank, as well as three otos for the 10-gallon. Ideally, I'd like two in there, but they enjoy company, and there tends to be a pretty high attrition rate for them in new environs. So three it is.

Once I got back, I tried using my wits to capture the zodiac loach. Ok, not my wits; somebody on a message board recommended it to me. I slipped some frozen food into an old water bottle and set it on the bottom of the tank. The zodiac loach emerged almost immediately to check it out, but would not take the final step of swimming through the neck of the bottle to claim his prize. It didn't help that half the snails in the tank were clamoring to get to the food and congesting the entrance-way. I may try again tomorrow with a freezer bag -- then I don't have to worry about any "bottle-necking".