New Plants

After having to remove some plants that were past their prime, L and I went to the shop to buy some replacement plants.

Enchinodorus red flame - This is an ideal plant to be used in the background of the tank. Has lovely reddish / brown leaves.

Anubias Heterophylla - This plant is also ideal for the background, but as it is a slow growing plant that likes shade, I will be positioning it more in the middle of the tank until such time that it becomes too big.

Problematic Pump

After the last clean we did, both L and I noticed that the tank was a bit murky. I just thought it was bits that had been stirred up from the clean and thought it would settle after a few days as it normally does. A week later and the water was still looking murky, so I decided I had better investigate. To my horror I discovered that the pump had stopped working, which meant no filtering was happening and none of the heated water was being circulated around the tank.

After dismantling the pump I found that some dirt had got clogged around the propeller base, preventing it from turning. Once cleaned it started working again, but not at its full capacity. The tank is up and running again. I am going to give it 2 days running to clear out the murkiness and then we will do another water change.

What I have learnt from this is that if you see something out of the ordinary in the tank, you should investigate as soon as possible to prevent any disaster. I have also realised that even though the tank is full of fish, the amount of water in the tank is enough for them to survive without a pump running, which is good to know in case there is a power failure or the pump breaks again.  

Elvis is in the house

This afternoon we went and bought another Siamese Fighter to replace the one that died last year before Christmas. We also need something to try and keep the baby fish population under control as both the Mollies and Platties are breeding excessively.

He is red in colour with a touch of blue towards his back. Photos to follow later. When L saw him, she fell in love with him and named him Elvis. We hope he will supply us with lots of enjoyment.

Major Clean

Today we did a major clean of the tank. Took over two hours to do. It involved an hour's work just pruning the plants and removing the algae. The rest of the time was spent siphoning the water and cleaning the filter, which was way overdue a clean. Tank is looking much better, though the water is a bit murky. Of course the fish had to have their fun by getting into the filter while I was cleaning it, so ended up spending time fishing (excuse the pun) them out.

Sailfin Molly No More

Yesterday I discovered that the Sailfin Molly had gone to the big fish tank in the sky. Over the last week his swimming had been getting worse and we noticed that his body was starting to bend. I think he might have been suffering from old age and like humans who become hunch backed, so do fish. I have noticed this with a few fish that I have had.

An interesting thing I have noticed about the tank is that the female fish live longer than males. Most of the deaths we have had were males, not sure why that is. Could be that the males were older when we got them or that they have short live spans. Or by going on the number of baby Mollies we have, they just wear themselves out.

Unhappy Male

Today L noticed that our male Sailfin Molly was acting strangely. He does not seem to be able to swim properly and is struggling to right himself. Will keep an eye on him.

Nursery Plant

A good plant to rear young fish, especially those from a live bearer is Bacopa australis. We have noticed that most of the very small babies live amongst the leaves and stems of the plant and survive long enough to become a size that will make it more difficult to be eaten. Because the survival rate is so high, this will lead to the tank becoming more populate at a higher rate.

Dietary Changes

Before Christmas I ran out of granules and when we went to buy some more, they did not have the same brand as before. So I bought Aquarian as a replacement and found it to be better than TetraPrima. The granules are rounder, work better in the automatic feeder and the fish love it.

I also bought TetraTabimin, which is a tablet for the bottom feeders. With each feed I drop one in while the flakes are been eaten, to ensure that the bottom feeders get a chance to eat before the rest of the fish find it. This has also become one of the fishes' favourite food.

Platy Fact Sheet

Here is a fact sheet of the Platy

Scientific Name	Xiphophorus maculatus
Family	Poeciliidae
Common Names	Platy, Moonfish
Origin	Central America
Adult Size	5 - 8 cm
Social	Peaceful, suitable for community tanks
Lifespan	3 years
Diet	Omnivore, eats most foods
Breeding	Live bearers
pH	7 - 8.3
Hardness	12 - 18 dGH
Temperature	20 - 26 C

Automatic Feeder

When I bought my tank, I got with it an automatic feeder. As I like to watch my fish when feeding and use the time to see if all are present and well, the automatic feeder got assigned to the cupboard. But when we decided to go on holiday, I realised this could be very useful tool to feed the fish. So a week before we went on holiday I set it up to feed the fish every 12 hours, so that they could get used to it.

The automatic feeder consists of two parts, one that controls the motor and the timings of when to feed the fish; and the other is a compartment where the food goes into. This compartment has an adjustable gap where the food falls out of when the motor rotates the compartment. Getting the right size of the gap took some time as too big and the fish get overfed and too small and the food does not come out. After a bit of trial and error, I found that the granules worked best for feeding, as the flakes kept getting stuck when a bit of moisture got into the compartment.

The first time we went on holiday, the feeder worked fine and the fish looked well fed on our return. But just before we went on our second holiday, the baby Mollies arrived and this meant that the feeder would only feed adult fish and not the babies as they were in the breeding trap. So for that holiday I had to get external help to come and feed both the adult and baby fish. I have since used it again with success and unless I need babies to be fed, I will use this when going on a holiday.

Box the Juwel automatic feeder came in

Automatic feeder installed on the lid of the tank

Abundance Of Fish

We are back from a lovely cold holiday. The fish have survived again using the automatic feeder, so it is a worthy investment for feeding your fish when you are not around. The tank is doing well, too well in fact. A few posts ago I mentioned that we had a 7 babies in the tank. Well that number has gone up a bit, to about 20. I say about as they are difficult to count because they keep moving around and hiding amongst the plants and bogwood. Still not sure which fish species it was that dropped them, hoping to know when the fish are a bit bigger.