Credit Card Uses

I have lately been struggling to get rid of some hard algae from the tank glass. Using the algae magnet only removes the soft algae, so after doing some research on the Internet, I discovered that using a hard plastic object, like a credit card, should remove most of the algae. So with nothing to loose, I found an old card and gave it a go. Worked really well and got rid of most of the algae.

Plant Growth

The Broad-leaf Amazon Sword has had some plant growth in the last few weeks and has started to loose some of its older leaves. The Cardinal Tetras still love to hang around the plant regardless of its state. Must remind them of home, as both the plant and the fish come from the Amazon river.

Beginning of plant growth with all adult leaves

Young leaves growing well, but adult leaves turning brown

Close up of brown leaves and new leaves

Bigger Babies

Since my last post, the babies have grown considerably. Some are bigger than others. Not sure if this indicates sex, as I have noticed that the female adults are bigger than the males, or the bigger ones are those that are just quicker at getting the food. I am thinking of releasing the babies into the tank in a week or two, as the breeding trap is starting to get a bit crowded and the baby Mollies are nearly as big as the smallest Cardinal Tetra.

7 of the 8 wanting their food

Siamese Fighter watching his meal get bigger

Mom sucking the babies food through the gaps

Babies Update

The 8 Molly babies are coming along well. In the last few weeks they have grown quite a bit, over 1.5 cm now and have started to show the colours they will be when they fully grown. 7 of them are white with a few black spots, but 1 is a dark grey with white/yellow spots. It is still a bit small to totally make out how it will look, so something to look forward to later when it is a bit bigger.

Trying to take photos of the babies has become a bit difficult and the camera only focuses on none white colours and as most of the babies are white, I end up getting blurred shots. Below are the best I could get.

Fish Stock

Below is a list of fish I currently have in the tank.

Fish	Quantity
Cardinal Tetras	18
Cories	2
Danio	1
Guppy	1
Mollies	12*
Siamese Fighter	1
Kuhli Loach	4
Platties	5
Ghost Shrimps	2
Total	46*

* = includes 8 baby Mollies

New Arrivals

Yesterday L and I went and bought 6 more Cardinal Tetras. We felt that we needed more of them to fill the middle layer of the tank as it was looking a bit sparse. I was surprised to see that the extra 6 did not make much of a difference to the group, as they have blended in with the rest and are a bit smaller than the current ones. Instead of them all swimming around in one big group, the group now occasionally breaks into 2 smaller groups in different parts of the tank. I think increasing the numbers even further will improve the different group sizes and the overall appearance of the tank.