Deaths

Over the last week L and I have not been home much. Unfortunately in that time period we have had two deaths, both while we were away. The first to check out of the hotel earlier this week was the black male molly, who died after suffering from Dropsy. I found his body under the filter and had to fish him out (excuse the pun) with my hand, as nothing else could really get under there. We both enjoyed having him in the tank and he will be replaced as soon as we get a chance. Over the weekend we lost a Leopard Danio who was looking old. Both will be much missed.

Cleaning Crew

I have noticed an increase in algae growth on the bogwood over the last two weeks and decided I had better do something about it. After a bit of research I discovered that Mollies (Poecilia sphenops) like to eat algae as part of their diet, so I bought four today to help keep the algae growth down in the tank. Of course doing regular water changes helps reduce the amount of algae growth, but having a cleaning crew helps as well.

We bought four different coloured ones, total black male, white and with black spots female, total white female and a total orange female. The white and orange ones are settling in and have already started eating some of the algae. The other two are currently a bit skittish and are hiding below the filter or amongst the plants.

I also decided to get two female guppies to keep the remaining male happy. He appears to be happy and is already chasing them around the tank.

Messy Tank

The tank is currently looking very messy. I have just removed some Cabomba that was not looking too great and suddenly the whole tank is full of Cabomba pieces. Generally there are always a few pieces of Cabomba floating around or stuck on the filter grid, but now it is everywhere. I have been thinking of removing the plant for a few weeks now as it has been looking very sparse and unhealthy compared to the others. Little did I know that when I did remove it, it would get revenge and shed a load of leaves into the tank Not wanting to throw it away, I have put it into the fish pond outside to see what will happen. Maybe it will recover and I might put it back into the tank again.

And They Call Him Houdini

L and I have just had a big shock. We just sat down to eat dinner and looked over to the tank and I noticed that the Siamese Fighter was missing. Oh, we thought, he is just hiding somewhere beneath the bogwood or amongst the plants. 5 minutes later and still no sign of him, we started to panic. Our dinner got pushed to the side and we started hunting high and low for him. Could not find him anywhere, I even checked the cross beams, thinking he might have tried to jump out of the tank and landed on one of them. Still no Siamese Fighter. L suggested that maybe he could be in the filter box. I opened the lid and looked in and could not see him, and then low and behold, there he swam into view. One quick net catch later and he was back into the tank.

Now the interesting bit, I am not sure how he got in there! There are no large holes into the filter for him to swim through. The only place we can think of is the gap between the pipe that creates the current and the filter wall. We will have to keep a close eye him to make sure that this does not become a regular occurrence, else I will have to look at ways of bocking the gap.

This is the back between the pipe and the wall. In the time it took me to write the above bit, he went and did it again and got himself into the filter. So I had to come up with a quick solution to stop him getting in again. I took an old plastic plant container that I had kept and cut the bottom off and wedged it over the pipe, blocking the gap. I hope this will work, though it looks awful. Let see if Houdini can get inside now.