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.