maintenance notes

Recently had maintenance for the fishes but forgot to post it. I recently got criticized in the comments for keeping my bettas in fishbowls, so feeling a bit guilty about that checked their water parameters again before cleaning. Both bowls had very low Ammonia (below 0.25), zero Nitrites and below 10 Nitrates. I was pleased with that.

Not pleased that Flash, to my surprised, is missing two new scales. On the right side again. Just when most of his old injuries had finally healed. He's still got a wound on the left gill cover, too. I had begun gradually reducing his dose of aquarium salt- half the previous amount, each time I changed the water- but this week kept it the same (1/8 tsp). I'm wondering again how he keeps hurting himself. It must be a rough edge on the bridge decor I didn't file down enough... Other than that, he appears fine. Bright color, active, curious whenever I approach the bowl.

Pinkie looks great like usual. Our water heater recently got fixed and it comes out of the tap at a higher temperature now. So the usual position I put the faucet on to get the water at just above room temp, put it too hot at 90°. I had already conditioned the water, so placed the bowl in the fridge for a while to cool it down a bit (sans fish, of course. He waited in his cup).

Neither betta was interested in flies today so I fed them their pellets. The Danios were only too happy to accept a feast of gnats and fruit flies.

On the main tank, parameters continue to be good. No detectable Ammonia, no Nitrites, and to my surprise no Nitrates either. I'm a bit puzzled at that, particularly as when I did the water change (couldn't in good conscience let it go more than two weeks without fresh water) there was fish waste here and there lifting off the substrate into the siphon tube. I added 15 ml of liquid plant food, just in case they aren't getting enough. I also trimmed the Watersprite- the plant was growing out of the water and looks a grand centerpiece but I don't want it to overwhelm everything. For now I've left the trimmed tops floating in the water; people keep telling me this plant does better floating anyways.

Also added a new piece of equipment- a small sponge filter. This isn't to add filtration, although that never hurts. It's to have a small filter well-established with good bacteria that I can move into the quarantine tank to introduce new (future) fish to my conditions.