fish report 4

Everyone is doing well now except the one female barb. The growth (?) on her side is gone, but she definitely has fungus and split fins. Fungal treatment I have is not good for the scaleless fish (kuhli loaches) plus I think fungus is better treated at lower water temperature, not high. So I took her out and put in the small QT tank. Moved over the sponge filter that had been sitting longest in the main tank, 2 gallons tank water from there, 2 gallons new (dipped out, not pulled off the bottom with siphon, in case there's still ich tomonts). Started dosing the QT with primafix. She looks okay this morning- less fungus I think. Hides under the bridge mostly.

In the main tank I have not seen ich spots for six days now, and thought none of the fish were flashing anymore but saw one female barb do it this morning. So still looking carefully for more spots. I am keeping up the daily wc with gravel vac to remove ich, although this is a bit tedious and I worry it's hard on my plants, having the nitrates pulled out every day. Put a few drops of liquid plant food back in each time, just in case. Yesterday saw the two kuhli loaches- one his gills looked irritated? I am slowly reducing the salt concentration- with the replacement water just 1/4 tsp of aquarium salt now.

So my morning routine goes like this: check water temperature and make sure all the fishes are still alive. Feed them- let settle in again a bit. Wash the dishes so my sink is clear, water balcony plants with dishwater. Water indoor plants with old fish water (from the 10 gallon tank, I don't want to give salt to my houseplants so all water from the twenty is going down the drain right now). Wash my hands well, get out all the supplies. Use baster to pull waste and maybe ich tomonts off bottom of QT tank (just in case this fish still had parasites on her too). Condition and dissolve salt dose into the replacement water- lots of stirring. Re-dose the QT with primafix. Observe the fish for reactions- she looks okay. Rinse the baster in scalding hot water, wash hands and rinse well again.

Set aside the light strip and cover glass from the main aquarium, turn off the power strip. Prime the siphon over five-gallon bucket (I do this by partly filling the hose and lifting it over my head until a continual water column -plugged with thumb on the other end- not sucking on the hose end like I used to!) and carefully siphon half the gravel bed- so as not to distrub too much. I do the other half the next day. This pulls out three to four gallons of water. While the water is low I check on the plants and remove dead stuff- clipped off four leaves from the largest crypt that were yellowing and deteriorating fast, plus a leaf each off two aponogeton (including the largest, nicest one). Replace water with the gallon clean-water "fish" pitcher- conditioner and salt dose stirred in. Watch the temperature- it's steady at 88° now. Dry off any water drips. Turn the power strip back on. Replace the cover glass and light strip. Dump the fish water down the drain, rinse the siphon in scalding hot water, wash hands well. Observe the fishes- everyone looks spunky.

If I don't see any more spots by friday I will feel safe to stop doing the gravel vac every day and reduce the temperature to 86°; if there's still no sign of ich for another week bring it down again to the normal 78°. I think I didn't get it all last time because didn't keep the temperature up long enough.

Quite a few plants have dying leaves, but others- the java fern in particular- are growing lots of new fresh ones. I swear my rotala looks greener too- maybe the little trumpet snails are doing their job and cleaning off all that algae. Or maybe it's my new light bulb.

You can see here the biggest aponogeton has a new green leaf on the left, a dying leaf on the right. Once I get rid of the ich, my next goal will be to figure out what makes these plants keep growing, instead of always dying parts too.