fish report

Temp to 84° this morning. If the fishes still look ok by evening I will bump it to 86°. Water change this morning- 30% (with a half dose of liquid plant food added back in) as I tried to do a thorough gravel vac- not too deep though but over all the surface. Removed airline from one sponge filter, so now just the second one bubbles. While I was in there with lower water level, trimmed a few dying leaves from java fern, crypt and stems off the aponogeton. Moved the baby crypts a short distance from the second plant, and pulled that one closer to the edge of the "cave" formed by the driftwood- it was looking crowded, maybe that's why not growing as well. I was pleased to see the little crypts- there's three- have nice, long white roots. So at least one kind of plant in there is happy!

The watesprite on the other hand, is dying back a lot but at the same time new foliage coming up on every plant. I've seen the small snails on the browning foliage at night, eating the dead parts. One piece broke loose from the gravel and I just let it float. Maybe this one will do better floating, it does for some aquarists. I have the better light for it now. Incidentally, that's Marvin on the glass- you can see his mouth. My nine-year-old insisted on naming the nerite snails. The one in my smaller tank is Mavis. Some people call these tomato snails.

The fishes- well, none have died yet. The barbs are kind of hanging in the water, not as active. I didn't see any platies flash today, a few spots visible on the barbs and to my dismay Pinkie has quite a few as well- three or four on his side, two on the tail.

I have added a low dose of aquarium salt- just 5 tsp into the 20 gallons- will keep an eye on the loaches and if they seem okay tomorrow, I'll add another fraction.