Ahh... that is where I left off. Be prepared for a wall o' text.
I did managed to get rid of the Blue green Algae, unfortunately it also killed off all the BB. Yeah Cycling again?
My husband and I went to Petsmart to do... something. I think it was get more Prime (I am forever getting more Prime), and he fell madly totally in love with an African Featherfin Catfish. IN LOVE. So we got that and 6 platys. 2 sunburst, 2 red and 2 blue wags. I double checked all the figures and the tank is not over stocked due to the size of the current fish. I did inform him come hell or high water we are getting the 55 in august so it can be ready by October for everyone.
I did a sex check on the platys 5 males and 1 female who is pregnant. darn. I looked into it and realized I couldn't stand the idea of the platy fry not have any chance in the tank. even if it is an infinitesimal chance, I wanted them to have it. SOOO back to the pet store (more prime was in order) I got some wisteria because it was the only thing I could float in stock, and since they were having a sale 6 mollies, 2 black, 2 silver, 2 dalmatian, none of them lyre tails. I got them all set and into the 30. Did another check on numbers (All Hail Aqaadvisor!) and it is still telling me I am under stocked and have good filtration. I can not for the life of me see putting any more fish in that tank.
Then one of the Platys (red wag) died. It was one of the males. I did a quick check on PH and it was 6 so one hasty water change (Prime for everyone!) latter everyone is fine again. the Mollies turned out to be 5 female and 1 male. One of the Dalmatians was pregnant but aborted, either do to the tank change of the PH issue I am not sure.
The Female platy that is showing we have had for two and half weeks and I am eyeing her heavily, waiting. I am almost as tired of her being pregnant as I am sure the poor thing is of being pregnant.
The Angels themselves besides having a heavy air of "Why do you hate us?" from having tank mates, are fine. the biggest Aramas is 2 inches and the others are at 1.5. I am currently doing daily 6 gallon water changes on the 30 since it is back to cycling, and vacuuming every day because Man that is allot of poop and I have bottom dwellers!
Oh, the African cat fish is named Herbert because he hoovered the tank clean of all brown algae in about a day. He is fine and the undisputed king of the tank. there was a small bit of debating over that matter, which he solved by chasing the angelfish to the other side of the tank and waggling his feelers at them until they let him alone. so as it stands, it is Aramas tank because Herbert says so. Herbert hangs out upside down under the ruins most of the day, and the corries tend to hang out under him. at least until he noticed. he has claimed the Ruins as HIS and Woe be it to any fish who forgets.
The Angels have started dividing the 30 into territories. poor Aramas has Herbert in his territory but as long as they ignore each other it is fine, and they do tend to ignore each other.
Their Fins are growing out odd, I am not sure If I am going to have to cut them back or not. I really hope not because the idea turns my stomach, but if I have too, then I have too.
Once the Angels and Herbert are safely ensconced into the 55, I am going to use the 30 for MY community tank. Mollies, Corries and a Gourami. The Platys will probably be divided up between the 30 and new 55. My Husband like the platys but we still haven't named them. We did however name the Mollies. Yin and Yang (dalmatians), Cloak and Dagger (black), Pillow and Puff (white). Yang is the only Male which I didn't know when we named him. One of my friends insists that Yang is actually named Cow because he is mostly white with black dots. She keeps telling me I spell Cow wrong. Lol!
Ah... On to the Betta Drama;
So... We almost lost Saki when we brought him home and in the past few weeks he has been hiding in the back, not very active and full of Meh. I was starting to get worried about him. so I talked to my sweet, and we deiced the best idea was to get him away from sharing a tank with Fritz. I figure that would help significantly on the destressing. We have an extra 10 from a petco sale tank sale (LOVES!!!!). I checked online and saw that there was a 5.5 start up kit on sale. I crunched numbers and to my surpise it turned out getting the 5.5 and setting it up was cheaper than setting up the 10. It mostly came down to Gravel and plants needed. (Oh! remind me to give an update on Plants in the tank)
So I got the 5.5 and set up on my desk right by my computer. Now I always knew I would end up with a computer fish, I just assumed it would be a 10, the 5.5 fit wonderfully. Since Saki was the most delicate he went into the more established tank, Myr's old 10. He is doing fine and dandy. He has a pagoda now!
Fritz got his 10 all to himself which I rescaped and I am not happy with the results but in a few months will probably be amazing. Waiting for plants to grow is the hardest part! Fritz has a blue coffee cup that is his.
Myr got the 5.5. I am feeling a bit guilty about this, but i always wanted Myr as my computer fish. I adore the little barbarian and he is my favorite. Myr's 5.5 is planted, and other than "where is my room?" he seems to be doing well. He has his floating Log.
I also when I was undertaking this venture to go ahead and get some ghost shrimp to see if they could clean up some algae before becoming a snack. I got 4. 1 in the Saki's tank (which died), 2 into Fritz tank (1 died, 1 surprised me by stilling being around about 2 days after I swore Fritz ate him) and 1 in Myr's new 5.5. about a day after I got everyone set up I noticed that the shrimp in Myr's tank had eggs. tons of them. Remember way back at the beginning the whole feeling bad about Platy fry? Apparently I feel the same way about ANY fry. I had an old 1 gallon from when I first got Maxx and just set it up, put a algae covered jar in there and dropped the shrimp in. It has a light an a tiny filter without any cartridge so pretty much just some water movement.
Yeah, that's about where I am. Tanks back to Cycling, everyone in the 30 is fine, Myr is grumpy, a pregnant Shrimp and a pregnant Platy.
Oh! Plants! Sorry Sorry, I will wrap it up after this I promise!
So in the 30 there are Swords, Crypts, Wisteria and a moss ball. In Fritz's tank there is a sword cutting to see if it will grow, a spring of wisteria and 4 of my beloved Crypts. one is a propagation off of a parent plant so I find that pretty neat. Myr's tank has 5 crypts ( I added one that was already mostly grown so Myr could have some cover) and 1 sprig of Wisteria to see what happens. In Saki's tank is 3 Massive Crypts and again that 1 sprig of Wisteria. I bought one package and it had all that and enough for 3 bits to go into the 30. I think in about 6 months all the tanks will be looking fabulous. i just have to wait for the plants to grow.
That's it. That is my update. Man I am gonna try to keep up with this a bit more. Yesterday I sat down and updated my fishy log and that took a good half hour. I will try to get pics today and upload them into the albums.
as usual any advice or comments welcome!