Elodie Rose

New batches of fry in the Violet Mosaic and Tequila Sunrise tanks! Delightful. Really wanted some shrimp in with the Least Killis, but since the Fishroom is on lockdown, I got a few at the club auction this weekend instead. Instead of just having an extra set of tools for the hospital tank, I’m leaving a net and pipette, gallon jugs, (and anything else I have duplicates of) at each tank. I’ll get to decorate the buckets and pitchers with fish and fish vendor stickers. 😄 Sometimes its the little things. But the duplicate tools create clutter, and it took a week to figure out where and how they should be stored/labeled. Doses of Expel P given to some tanks tonight. It seems the new package that I ordered is misplaced, so I’ll have to get another one tomorrow to treat the rest of the tanks. The Mosquito fish/Spixi tank needs to be excluded, and the Platinum Redtail/Wizard snail tank needs to be excluded. But I put a Mystery Snail into several tanks this weekend, so. May the odds be ever in their favor. I’m betting on the little guys, though. These meds are supposed to be invert safe. The more serious treatment is Levamisol. Which I had also gotten, and is now also lost, and has to be replaced. Setbacks happen. This isn’t my first go-round, but boy, I had forgotten this feeling. The big cichlid tanks were so difficult to treat, and I don’t even remember what we used. Whatever the pet store sold us at the time, I suppose, it was the late 90s/early 00s. And then later, with the Orandas, which I am still a sucker for. Particularly Chocolate Orandas. Only Blue Rams are prettier, but the swim bladder problems were endless. The epsom salt and smashed peas, and an attempt at live plants that ended up as expensive fish food. They were like puppies though, and utterly adorable with unique personalities. Whole different world though, and I wish I’d been able to find the resources then that the Interwebs have put me in touch with now. This time, the need for separate tools became apparent. I’m glad I had already set up the fish log, I’ve been able to track the meds better than just using the glass pens/crayons. But it has been handy to be able to write on them, the sticky notes don’t stay. But the dates of the first batches of fry are all in this journal. Trying to think of where I’ve put plants. That might be a concern. But after the damselfly larvae in the Hornwort this summer and the spider mites on the Frogbit/dwarf water lettuce/salvinia in the pond tubs, I’ve been a lot more careful with live plants coming into the Fishroom. Reverse respiration happened with the Frogbit from the auction, but I’m still waiting to see whether it recovers. And now I have a bucket of red root floaters to treat. But I’m excited to have them! Some tanks have benefitted from the lack of floating plants, but not the ones without guppy fry. I still want to set up 3x daily auto feeders on a few of them. And I did get a light timer this weekend! The CCY raffles away these great Aquarium Co-op bags full of useful things, like a bright green bag of holding. There was a timer, a few packets of different foods, gummy fish which were immediately devoured, small bottles of water conditioner, and Microbe-lift. I’m going to have to take a picture. I was thrilled. All kinds of new and fun things to try. I accidentally won 2 of the CCY raffles, but luckily they gave the other prize to someone else. In that case, rules lawyering is not welcome, but silly. Of course one person shouldn’t win two prizes and keep them both, in a club full of other people who also want to win a leprechaun’s treasure in a kelly green bag. It was such fun! There’s going to be a coupon at That Fish Place next weekend, and now I have some great ideas of little gift-bags I might be able to put together for the November/December fish club swaps. If I can’t take fish, there are some other ways to contribute. I can imagine how handy a “hospital tank” gift-bag could be. Or maybe I could start baking things again. Might be time to break out the dragon bundt cake pan, unless its too nerdy for the fish folks. Who are nerdy for fish, but not necessarily for d&d and the like. 😆

The lump is almost gone from River’s cheek. What a little fighter she is! If we continue, this would be a 2nd round of antibiotics, for another week. I’m not sure whether to continue medicating for a 2nd week, or if I should just let her be and give her the space to heal. Spixi snails! I am going to start breeding them, I’m terribly excited. There are no egg layers or shrimp in the Mosquito fish tank, so they went into there. It won’t be hard to add extra ramshorns or bladder snails if needed. I’ll need to remove the eggs to a breeder box so that as man survive as possible. And piano snails! They and the wizard snails are staging a comeback. But their tank is overrun with tiny ramshorn snails, which I’m going to use cucumber to remove as many as possible. Ironic. Maybe I could empty their tank and start it over again, and try to get a tank that is free of anything but trapdoor snails. At the CCY meeting yesterday I bought some red root floaters, and GuppySnail gave me a big bag of hornwort. I’m going to try with those plants, since it was probably by grabbing plants from another tank that I brought the ramshorns over. Also at the meeting, I bought some magenta mystery snails. A LOT of magenta mystery snails. So every tank upstairs got a mystery snail, except the Mosquito fish and the Trapdoor snail tanks. Didn’t put them in the Least killis or Tiger teddies tanks either, but there were 15 mystery snails. The group of 5 went into the bathroom tanks, and the group of 10 went into the living room and bedroom tanks. One of the groups was male, and the other group was female, but I was flustered and didn’t write down which was which. A second trio of Tequila Sunrise guppies joined the first trio!! I was prepared to spend $50 on them, and I got them for $5!!! STEAL of the century. No more big guppies can go in that tank, but I am super happy with a breeding group of 2 males and 4 females. And although I did remove 1 dead ghost shrimp last week, there are at least a dozen still in that tank, invisible as ever. I need to make sure I get them enough food, shrimp eat more than I thought. The airline on their pump keeps popping off, I’m about to super glue it, which is a terrible solution. Every tank will get another round of Expel-P today, except River’s, and then I’ll need to turn the lights off. So I may do that a little later in the day, so I can spend some time with the tanks this morning and see how everyone is doing. Daphnia… are… existing, I guess? In the green water jug I gave them. I need to watch some how-to videos today I guess, I feel kind of clueless about whether to harvest them or not, or what to do. I did some research on it, but don’t feel comfortable yet, and will probably need to add a page to the fish log. A bullet journal has become the fish log, a physical notebook where I intend to keep the details of where the various fish were obtained, what their needs are, and a log of whether they were ever ill/medicated. While I’m sick this morning I may work on that for a while. Mama Amano has been removed to a small freshwater container. I don’t think she released the zoe yet, but boy is this new. I’ve changed her water, given her more plants, and we’ll see. I wouldn’t be the first one to fail, but it’s my first try, so I’m gonna try. A breeder box might have been better than a separate container. I’m starting to see places where those can be extremely helpful. There’s usually a coupon at That Fish Place where the ACLC swap is, maybe I can pick up one or two at the store with that coupon. Three teeny little horned zebra nerite snails joined the menagerie last week, and are in a low-end brackish tank, getting it started for the zoes, if there are any. They have almond leaves and java moss at the moment. I’ve looked up other plants that can tolerate brackish conditions: Java fern, Java moss, Red mangrove tree sprout, Moneywort, Crypt lutea, Anubias, and Crypt ‘beckett’ (sp?). Grindal worms are doing great! But getting dry. Added a ton of water yesterday. The air holes might be too big, I’ll try covering half of it this week with tape. But the soil isn’t holding moisture very well at all. I’m struggling with whether or not it will be safe to take any fish to the Nov 12 meeting. They will have been medicated twice with Expel-P. I haven’t actually seen anything in any tank but the Green Dragons. And yet. It might be too soon to “open the Fishroom” again. I’ll have to ask for advice, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The lump is almost gone from River’s cheek. What a little fighter she is! If we continue, this would be a 2nd round of antibiotics, for another week. I’m not sure whether to continue medicating for a 2nd week, or if I should just let her be and give her the space to heal. What do you think?

Starting day 4 of treating with Maracyn 2. Seems to have eaten grindal worms overnight. She’ll get more this morning, in a feeding dish, so they don’t disappear into the substrate.

She let me take a few pictures of her this morning, and the grindal worms disappeared overnight, so I assume she ate them. (They were in a feeding dish.) there was also a tiny block of green repashy, and I can’t tell if she ate that or not. Still treating with Maracyn 2 per the directions. Did a 50% water change yesterday, will probably do another today. But she’s hanging in there, and has more grindals for breakfast.

BISCUITS. There are nitrites in the Green Dragon tank. Did a 50% water change and gravel vac’d again. The water came out dark as sweet tea, so the almond leaves are doing their work. I do need to be able to see the fish, though.

River is still active, and still very ill. She’s in a 5 gal hospital tank with Maracyn 2, and has gotten a few water changes due to ammonia. I’m not sure the green water was a good idea, I think the meds might be affecting it. The new residents are settling in. Dansfish sent me a new pair of Platinum Dumbo-ear Redtail guppies, which was super nice of them. Trios of Blue Dragons and Green Moscows. They seem young, and not as elaborately gorgeous and colored up as the previous guppies, and I hope that they are young, and that I’ll get to see them grow into their tails, and have them for a couple years. It breaks my heart to lose them. Esmerelda and Darling are sorely missed. But they were very large females when they were sent to me, which isn’t necessarily ideal. Beautiful, oh my, yes. But my goal is a little colony tank. One I can add pairs to every few months, to make sure I don’t inbreed them into oblivion, but just a little 10 gallon tank of pretty guppies. It’s good to have a goal to work towards! Gives me a solid direction for those tanks, and a standard to measure things by. If it isn’t good for the guppies and fry, then it shouldn’t be in the tank. And the Goodeid tanks are the same way, though I’m treating them with the “GBR protocol,” which is still developing, but gets more and more careful, thoughtful, and stringent. Some of the tanks are treated very casually. Those fish need to be hardy enough to handle slightly irregular feeding times, temperature swings of a few degrees, a day or two without outside food, things that would actually happen in a fish’s natural environment. Weather patterns, food patterns, seasonal shifts. The Blue-golds are treated this way, they are a casual tank, with nothing but Kuhli loaches for company. Tons of fry. Redundant colony in the GBR tank, just blue-gold culls (that are lovely) that have also had fry in that tank as well. The GBR tanks are more hands-off. Nothing goes into those tanks without intention and research, no new plants, no new creatures from outside the house. Very rarely I’ve added inverts from other healthy tanks, or a particular guppy. I’ve removed a few guppy females when they start getting enormous, that’s not a breeding tank, after all. The GBR are considered first. Seems sensible. Another fishy goal: doing things in the Fishroom intentionally, instead of haphazardly “because that’s what I heard somewhere/read on FB/saw on YT/etc.” I set up a few tanks very hastily this summer, and now I’m reconsidering whether or not to take them into the winter. Some of them are doing fantastic and actually need a little thinning. Others, not so much. I don’t know how to figure out the equilibrium of a livebearer colony yet. It’s very exciting to be breeding fish, to see the generations of fry in the tank and watch them grow up. The summer tubs were great for producing tons of fish, and they were very colorful, but I didn’t get to spend time with them. I didn’t even really get to see them much, cause the dwarf water lettuce took over. It’s good at that, I’ve noticed. Something to think about for next year’s tubs. Speaking of tubs, the last one got put in the utility room yesterday. Got very very cold last night, and I was worried the heater wasn’t enough. I’d like to figure out how to make a little pond that I actually enjoy. With the koi guppies, preferably, because OMG prolific. I thought I rehomed the majority of the colony, along with the original trio. How do I still have an entire colony of koi guppies?? They left enough fry in the tank for a pond tub by themselves. The Panda Lady, however, chased around some fry last evening for a while. I thinned the floating plants and she seized that opportunity… to go hunting? Yikes, Panda Lady. The yellow shrimp never did catch on in that tank, I wonder if she ate them. When I have a spare tank (LOLOL why am I like this) I could try moving some of the fry into it to grow up more safely. Marigold is the Tank Boss, and I am Here. For. It. She’s doing great, and there have been a couple small batches of fry in that tank. One of them significantly smaller than any others I’ve seen from them, more like guppy fry, so they’re possibly from a younger female, or they need a rest. It’s time to lower the temperature anyway, I’ll check it today and probably lower it a degree. There are quite a few juveniles and fry in there though, which is lovely to see. Also in that tank, the dwarf aquarium lily has some disintegrating leaves. I put a plant weight on the bacopa, now that it’s long enough to reach from the substrate to the surface. Lemon Blue-Eyed Bristlenose babies. I visit the Violet Mosaics often to check on them, and the guppies are looooving the extra attention. There aren’t enough fry in that tank, it needs more plants and more regular food. Which it is now getting, so the lemon babies, Lee and Kaywinnet, are benefitting the guppies. They don’t seem to hang out together much. I haven’t had a pleco in 20 years, lol, and those were in my Monster Cichlid tanks. These are teeny little aliens, with completely unfamiliar and strange patterns and movements. Utterly darling ones, that I have to resist sitting to gaze at in wonder. I never had babies, back in the Monster Cichlid days. They’re getting microwaved green beans, and last night I made some green repashy, which will be shared amongst the tanks as well. The entire Fishroom is gonna love those babies, lol. Maybe I’ll even get a picture of them soon. They’re shy, and I haven’t wanted to frighten them by ‘hunting’ them with direct and focused attention following them, I want them to feel safe and settle in. Like the difference between a boss-stare with a dog and a soft-stare. Not as subtle, but still, the principle applies. GuppySnail has me thinking about the psychology of fish quite a bit! It’s fascinating. I believe in the subtle energies and emotions within these tanks, I spend hours with them every day. My job gets done, certainly, but the tanks get a lot of time as I move throughout the house during the day. There is the Guppy Room, which is the bedroom. The Goodeid room, which is the office. The “lab” which is the front of the house, because that’s where the direct sunlight comes into the windows. And the GBR room, which is the living room (and now has the least killifish and the tiger teddies, too). I like that each tank is starting to become a decorated, planted, individual little ecosystem. Even if it’s only the very beginning, with just fish, plants, and snails. Snails!! I am becoming more and more obsessed with snails. Piano Snaaaaaails. I only have FOUR. Well, I can only find 4, in the 20 gallon which is full of hiding spaces for catfish and shrimp. But still. Heartbreaking. They did not thrive there, like I expected, instead they were outcompeted. An important lesson for me. I tried to target feed them, but it didn’t seem to work, so I need better methods before I try that in the future. Now they’re in Snailhaven, and there wouldn’t be any fish in there at all, if I hadn’t needed a place for Darling and Dearborn 2.0. No. More. Tanks. If something comes in, something’s gotta go out. Equilibrium of some kind has to be a goal, too. OMG. Omg. There’s a baby in the Tiger Teddies tank. Oh, my heart, it’s so teeny. I love, love, love this hobby. My heart feels so full in these moments, even when desperately worried about them, too.

I’m not sure, the info that I can find is contradictory. I’m very curious about them.

I just received a 4-pack of these.

The Green Dragon tank has Camellanus worms, and has gotten 2 doses of Expel-P. No other tanks have it, but I may treat all tanks as a precaution, just in case. I haven’t seen any others, but I’m watching for them. Esmerelda has passed, and the female Longfin neon that was in there. I don’t want to give up on any of my tanks, but I’m wondering if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. I’m about to set up a 40 breeder, it’s been 13 years since I’ve had a large tank running, that one was a 75. But it will house a pair of gorgeous, precious little lemon blue-eyed bristlenose. Named Lee and Kaywinnet, proooobably. They are in with the Violet Mosaics. Tanks that have TONS of fry: Endlers, Redtail Splitfins, Marigold Milleri, Blue-gold doublesword. Tanks that do NOT have tons of fry, and SHOULD: Green Dragon (there are lots of juveniles though), Violet Mosaic(several juveniles), Yellow Metal Mosaic (several juveniles), Mosquito fish - none. None! Panda guppies are kind of in-between. The Ameca Splendens haven’t had any fry, but they have a 2 month gestation, I think, so I’m not surprised. The Blue Dragons, Platinum Dumbo Redtail, and Green Moscow will arrive this week. Biting. Chew. Oof.

Omg congrats!! They really needed just the environment you gave them! Those babies are the cutest 🥰.

She’s active this morning and looking for breakfast. I’ll probably feed grindal worms midmorning. I’m looking for Maracyn 2. Update: House of Tropicals has it, I’ll be making a trip there at lunch.

She has been moved, she has not been medicated. I’m going to see if I can go pick up Maracyn 2 tomorrow. Her hospital tank is the 5 gallon that is beside the GBR tank, which has green water in it. It’s had 4 endlers in it for a week or so (they were removed a few days ago), it has half substrate from another tank and half new, a tablespoon of API aquarium salt, a heater at 82, green water, a new sponge filter, an existing piece of sponge from the GBR tank, and a tight lid with no gaps. I’ll have to light it from the side. It also has her favorite cave, some of the fake plants, and some of the hornwort. My priority tomorrow morning will be finding the Maracyn 2. I don’t understand about the gram positive and the other terms you used in that paragraph, I will look them up. If there’s a resource you could point me to, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for all your help!

That makes sense. I’m waiting for the water to come to temp. Thanks so much for your help. I’ll look for kanaplex. The regular Maracyn won’t work? I do have that one.

I’m making preparations to move her to a Qt tank asap.

I’m asking in an attempt to genuinely understand the ramifications of the decision to medicate the tank, rather than pull her out. But it doesn’t look like Maracyn 2 is one of the medicines I have on hand. I’ll have to check the LFS tomorrow at lunch. In the meantime I’ll learn to use my new salinity meter. I don’t think I’ve added salt to that tank, but I’m having trouble remembering.

I do have an empty 5 gallon of green water next to their tank, I could raise the temp to 82. But I thought it would stress her more to be out of her familiar environment, which I just added a bunch of new caves to. I’ve only started seeing her since adding those caves, I think she felt too exposed before. Will it hurt the other fish in the tank to medicate the tank? I can dose pond bacteria, or microbe lift, to help it along. Or Fritz Zyme 7, I’m sure I have at least one of those on hand.

This is one of the daily foods, or food mixes. It is made up of vibra bites, algae wafers, spiraling flakes, krill flakes, some sinking blackworm pellets, possibly the end of some other type of fish food. Very small pinch of this is one of the things they often get at some point during the day. It’s in several little cups that are near the tanks. Other frequently fed foods include frozen freshwater food, frozen baby brine shrimp, spirulina flakes alone, spirulina flakes alone, bug bites. Very small pinches, several times throughout the day. Just added grindal worms back into the daily routine, and will probably be adding daphnia. I have a very small white worm culture that I am nursing along and trying to feed up into an actual colony. The white worms are eating the same dogfood as the grindal worms at the moment, and are not being harvested, just fed. Currently there are 6 grindal worm colonies, generously given to me by @Guppysnail. I’m starting to grok them again. Very glad. Vita-Chem has been added to some of the frozen food water, and to the water that the dogfood soaks in after its microwaved. 30-40 seconds dry, then i splash in some tank water. As its cooling, a couple drops into the water that the crunchies are absorbing. Gotta have a few extra for the pupper.

Not a very good photo, I’m sorry. I’m trying to get a better one, but I did a water change with distilled water and she’s skittish.

Yellow metal mosaics

This has developed very recently. I made a bonehead mistake with the water I bought and none of my efforts to lower the ph were successful. At all. She is active, eating, chasing the smaller male ram around. I lost her original mate during a week away in September. I don’t know if he had any lumps develop, but none when I left. I regard this pair as wet pets, and really feel like I let them down by not lowering the ph. Is this curable? What can I do? 10 gal tank has been set up about a year, had gravel substrate until 2 weeks ago when I covered it in 10 lbs of black sand. Temp 82 now, was at 85 over the summer. Plants include hornwort, bacopa, salvinia, Frogbit, duckweed. Almond leaves always present. There is wood in the tank. ph 7.9, nitrate 20-40, ammonia 0, KH 80-120, GH 300. Those are the consistent readings, I’ve been trying to lower the ph for approx 2 months. Water changes 10% twice per week for the past 4 weeks. Tankmates are Japan blue-gold guppies. All bred by me, and ‘culls’ from their main colony. There are also 2-3 Amano shrimp, and a mixture of snails.

The bamboo arrived this week! GuppySnail had given me some lovely little glass bulb plant holders, and now every single one of them is in a tank, holding one or two stalks of bamboo. They’re pretty short now, but I have hopes! They are so, so pretty in her tanks. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or so they say! Lol. Thank you @Guppysnail, for being such an inspiration and such a generous friend.

This week I’ve been working on these 10 gallons of fancy guppies. Tanks have been moved and reconfigured, but no occupants have been changed. Esmerelda and Emeric are still the largest and most beautiful of the Green Dragons. Some of their babies are starting to show green coloration, which is very exciting. There’s a small group of panda cories in this tank, but they’re very shy. The have good long barbels though. Louie, Jo, and Jan are the Tequila Sunrise trio, and I’m astonished by them on a daily basis. Just, wow. The ghost shrimp in their tank are still doing well, or at least I think so, I haven’t seen any pink bodies littering the bottom, as with my previous attempts with ghost shrimp. I can even see them, and find half a dozen or more when I really, really look. Fascinating little guys, I’ve made sure they get sinking wafers and calcium chips. Louie is actually iridescent green/teal. Just, how. Violetta is the reigning Queen of the Violet Mosaic tank. Victor and Victoria are doing well, though I miss the Blue Ivory trio. Have to give up on the Blue Ivory strain with all those gorgeous lavender-purple shades, and stay with the Small Aquatics strain of Violet Mosaics, which may hopefully show some of Alba, Cyan, and Albion’s characteristics. I miss them. The trios from overseas, even when bolstered by the excellent care at Dansfish, aren’t always successful. I have a lot of hope for the F1s though, who have yet to grow into their colors and tails yet. That tank needs some cories. Still haven’t found any more habrosus cories. I did see some elegans, which were lovely. Blue-Gold tank has been moved from beneath the window to the end of Fancy Guppy Row. I couldn’t ever get reasonable photos of them under the window, even though the indirect light was great. Some of the boys are starting to show the longer tail ribbons. I’ve culled some oranges, I really want them to stay blue-gold, rather than blue-red. But the blue-reds in the Mutt Guppy tank are very pretty! I’m enjoying them a lot, maybe I should stop separating them out and just see what happens with them over the winter. But if the orange is so strong, I’m afraid the blue-gold will disappear. This is the first strain that I’m trying to learn to maintain, so probably I will keep removing oranges to the Mutt Guppy tank or to their own tank. Lovely boys, but I’m trying to learn how this is done. The tank beneath the window is a new 5 gallon, which holds the mixed mosses and environment from the Garden of Eder pickle jar. There isn’t a copepod in sight, but it’s got lots of nice vegetation and bacteria and mulm that’ve built up over the past months, while I’ve tried to give that strain of copepods a chance. Now it has the piano snails and wizard snails, temporarily while I’m collecting them from Jacaranda (the former home of the wizard snails) and the 20 (the former home of the piano snails). Poor lil guys, its hard to be moved. One of the piano snails isn’t reacting well, and despite myself, I’ve been hovering near them for a day and a half, hoping they come out of their shell a bit more. There are blackworms in that tank, which is an interesting surprise. I thought the pickle jars were too warm for them. The rest of the White Clouds were removed from the 20, and put in with the Black-bar Endlers in Jacaranda. There are 6 or so. Gorgeous with the cherry shrimp, wow. And very peaceful with the endlers. Such gorgeous fish. I hope the breeding attempt works this time. Glitter Limia have been put in the 20, the temp was raised a bit, and I’ve removed all the endler boys and all the rainbow shiners (the shiners went back into the pond tub where they belong). There are still a dozen bronze cories, and 6-10 Paleatus cories in it, and one of the bronze cities has a white growth on its side. Will be looking at that later today to determine the best course of action. Wish I’d seen that *before* I added the limia. But it might be the result of stress from me removing the white clouds, shiners, and endlers over the past couple weeks, unsure. That is a very tough tank to catch fish out of. No more messing around with that tank, they need some peace, and probably some kind of medicine. I’d add salt, but the piano snails were in there, so I don’t add salt to that tank. Or that has been the policy to date, until I’m certain I haven’t missed any babies. I love ramshorn snails, but I’m hating on them in that tank pretty hard, them and the pond snails, for taking over and out competing these larger, slower snails. Grr. The Banded Cuban Limia, which are MUCH thicker bodied and larger than I expected, went into the Redroom 10, and will definitely need to be rehomed or upgraded to a pond tub or a 20. They are not a 10 gallon fish. Bob went with them. He’s the same size as them. Not sure if I should let him stay with them, or give him to the LFS, or take him to a fish club meeting and give him away. There are still 2 green neon tetras in that tank!! The QT tank/tub. Gotta get them with their other buddies. So those 4 green neons from HoT actually did great. They’re just champion hiders in the QT tank. So lots of work on tanks, getting situations settled for long term success. The blue shrimp from Neighbor DG were added to the colony in the kitchen tank, and seem to be doing well. I did spread a layer of white sand over the top of that, so I could see them better. His yellow shrimp were added to the Yellow Metal Mosaic tank. I don’t see them, but I also don’t see any bodies, so. I guess they’re okay, and using all the hiding places I put in that tank for them. Disconcerting, though. Tiger Teddies are doing fantastic! Omg the color! Wow. Tiny lil beauties. No more nitrites in that tank, and the shrimp are doing well in it, too. They are just as big as the TTs. Neoheterandria elegans. The next CCY meeting is about the Latin names of fish, it’s going to be fun to learn why on earth their names are the way they are. The Least Killis seem to be doing well too, no shrimp in that tank yet. Very unhappy with the green water 5 gallon, which is currently housing the Tiger Endler pairs. Probably going to drain it entirely and take it up to GuppySnail today or tomorrow. That tank needs to be redone entirely. It was a pickle jar, it had two of the mosquito fish males in it for a while, and I just didn’t expect it to be green water. The mosquito fish, all of them, are in a 5 gallon together, which was the first attempt at a ghost shrimp tank. Seem to be doing very well, not nearly as skittish now, I see them a lot. They come up to eat flakes now. Seems like the males really do help the females come out to eat, by being their lovely brainless selves and taking risks to get the food. Not a single fry from them yet, boy do I hope their new furniture helps them feel safer. Would love to get some scuds in there for them to hunt. Soon.

Visited a neighborhood fish keeper today, and picked up 20 yellow Neocardinas, and some blue ones to add to the existing colony. I’m hoping that because he’s only 30 minutes away, that the stress/adjustment will be minimal. What a lovely Fishroom! He’s very intense with Angelfish, but has a deep love for Endlers, and in fact was the first person to offer me Endlers last year when I started fish keeping again. Great endlers, too, black-bar. I still have them, and recently added several pairs from the wonderful Adrian HD to bolster the genetics. They’re fantastic, and gorgeous. And bred prolifically over the summer in outdoor tubs. Very, very prolifically. A couple of my largest Endler females might even be the ones the Neighbor gave me. Very generous, professional fish keeper, and would be great to have time to talk to him about his angelfish. I’m not able to keep them, but I’m incredibly curious about them. Learning about them would be great. Tried again with the yellow shrimp from his Fishroom, and added them to the Yellow Metal Mosaic tank. Unfinished.