gone

Lost two otocinclus in the forty gallon. Showed no symptoms, just found dead in the morning. There was an ammonia spike that day, I did a 25% water change. Next day when the second one died, no ammonia spike. The otos in the tenner look great, bright and alert, and the tank is sparkling clean on the glass now. It had been looking hazy the week before I worried first about water quality but then realized it was just algae film on the glass.The little otocinclus in there look like such perfect tiny fish.

They've cleaned the java fern well enough that I no longer feel like cutting off the algae-darkened leaves

will let them deteriorate on their own (as new ones grow in)

Pretty soon they'll have eaten all the algae off surfaces and I'll have to transition them to other foods or maybe move them into the forty which really needs them, but I'm concerned now if that tank isn't as stable and that's why the others died so soon. Or was it just bad luck the weaker/sick ones were put in there.

Oliver doesn't seem to mind their presence in his tank. He follows them around a bit sometimes, as if curious but hasn't made any threats or displays since the first day.

I was momentarily alarmed this morning I saw a black kuhli draped over the filter intake tube where it makes a bend- he was breathing but looked collapsed. I nudged him gently with a long-handled pruning tool and he darted off, so I guess he was just relaxing. I've noticed one of the black kuhlis is a bit shorter than the others. They are all busy busy, only Albert tends to hide behind the root piece now. I think he has a tunnel back there. Snakey Fish looks awful skinny is he wasting away. They root around after enough stuff- the others look thick and strong, why is he so thin? I'm trying to give sinking foods every other day, and make sure some flakes get released under water so there's plenty falling to the bottom, but the barbs pick around through the gravel too. Might have to make a hideyhole that only the kuhlis will enter, to feed them solo and make sure they get enough.

When I stand near the tall fish tank in the mornings, the established gang of barbs comes flocking top and center, expectantly swimming loops up and down the glass. The newcomers drift around in the background. One has noticed and hesitantly approaches the activity, as if wondering what are you guys all so excited about? They haven't figured out yet that it's regular feeding time.