fish report 2

In the 20 gallon, still ich. I hope I have caught it soon enough- the temp is now 86° I will try to raise it to 88° in the evening. Fishes are handling this ok- many of the barbs hang in the water with fins clamped, but not gasping. One looks injured- anal fin bitten off? I feared at first Pinkie had turned aggressive, but instead it looks like one of the new platies is nipping at her. Some of the barbs have ich spots, I saw fishes of all species flashing today- Pinkie, a danio, several barbs, one platy. Bummer.

At least the kuhli loaches look alright. I hadn't seen them in a day or two, so slowly lifted edge of the driftwood when cleaning. One scurried out, then back in. The snails are out in force- counted over a dozen baby trumpet snails today- it is funny to see the tiny ones wedging their way through the gravel, moving bits of stone many times their own size when they tunnel down against the glass. I suppose it's because I have been doing gravel vac every day now to clear the ich- so there is not as much food in the substrate for them?

I do see them crawling on plants- I hope they are just eating the algae although I see tiny scrape marks on the crypt leaves too.

My kids and I play a game now: who can spot the most baby snails? I see four in this picture, probably there are more.

So there's obviously a population boom but I'm not too worried- I want the snails after all, and I'm told they will self-regulate and adjust their numbers to how much available food there is. Right now it's algae. Bonus pic: a fish face up against the glass. You can see the green algae spots.

Doing a light gravel vac of as much of the bed as I can reach- what's not covered in wood or plants- takes out at least five gallons. It seems like too much to do that large a water change every day, but evidence seems to show that more frequent water change is beneficial for the fishes, as long as you don't do it so suddenly that they get a pH or temperature shock. I hope it will be okay. Pinkie has been lying around on the bottom more than usual, I'm worried about him.