fish thoughts

Definitely no disease any more, of which I am very glad. The healed cherry barb is looking great, her tail fin has doubled in length. I pushed the contrast on this photo so it's visible, the clear fin edge grown out. I am very pleased, it's the first time I ever cured tail rot (they usually die from it).

The skinny platy, on the other hand, is still looking poorly (though her fin is growing out as well). I'm starting to think she's got an internal parasite, or is just an unhealthy fish.

I'm now measuring out weekly dose of plant food, past two weeks have given 5 drops in the main tank, 2 in the smaller one. Last week I also gave one root tab, broken into bits (about eights). According to the box this is very conservative- I should put ten tabs in the tank, and redose once a month! But I'm trusting that fish poo will also feed them adequately, and don't want to overdo it too soon, get more algae. The MTS are doing their job- the glass is incredibly clear. I still have some hair algae and black spots on leaves, but its diminishing. The older java fern leaves still have dark blotches, the new ones are nice clean green.

The crypts are looking lovely, nice color and texture, and the new leaves uncurl like hostas grow in springtime.

Some of the smaller aponogeton are starting to take off, lots of new nice leaves. But older leaves still dying at a steady rate on the biggest one. And my watersprite continues to fail. It might be getting eaten by the snails, or nibbled on by the fish- one morning I found the larger plant floating entirely free, pulled out of the substrate. Good news is for the first time I saw nice white roots on it- but it still looks shabby....

So I still haven't quite got it right yet. But trying to keep my hands out of the tank as it were, make adjustments a little at a time so it doesn't get all out of whack again.