more cherry barb

I should not have been happy so soon about the new little Otocinclus. It died the first night. Looked great all afternoon and at last look in the evening, gone by morning. All the other fishes fine. Tilda destined to be a loner now, I'm not going to keep buying these fish that die so easily. So I went back to the shop for a refund / replacement- they had no more Otos. I got another Cherry Barb.

And figured while I was there, might as well buy the rest to finish off the school I'm forming; my QT tank has finally cycled and stabilized. Save me another trip to the shop, and see how well the fish do in both methods of introduction. So I put one female straight into the home tank, with the preventative dose of melafix, no-lights and no-feeding to keep the fishes calm for the first day or so. The other two new fish (male and female) went into the QT. They seem ok. A bit shy- hiding under the decor and in the tunnel- and this morning the female clamped fins until I did a partial wc, better this afternoon.

It's nice to see a good number of fish in the home tank now.

The biggest Cherry male is the boldest; he comes out first for food, and swims into all corners of the tank.

The females and smaller male keep to one corner, behind the Java Fern log and just in front of it center to the feeding spot. They never venture over to the other side where the Anubias are.

They are all eating better; I fed flakes (released underwater again) and minced cooked pea today. Not all the fish came forward to get the food but later I could see them picking through the gravel after bits that fell; soon after when looked in I could not see any debris leftover at all. I had been thinking to get some bottom-feeders like cory catfish or a loach but now don't think that's really necessary, if the barbs clean up this well.

My Snail seems to be failing, though. It is still alive, when I look into the aquarium every now and then it has moved position, but I never see it actively crawling around like used to. It stays still in one place for a very long time. Maybe it's getting old? I have found a small clear blob on the back of a driftwood piece; I think this is snail eggs. I've seen it before and scraped off but this time let it be; if the snail is getting old and dies I'd like to have some progeny.