zucchini craze

I fed my fishes zucchini again. Sliced up half an organic squash, put it in the freezer. Rinsed a bit to start thawing out again, and tried to peg it down into the substrate with a wooden skewer.

This will be good for the kuhlis- I don't know why I wasn't doing it more often before.

I thought the barbs would go for it too, but after trying and unable to get bites when I first put it in, they mostly wandered off. Only the biggest male Sangre kept at it.

The kuhlis were so excited about this. Black ones swarming all over it immediately. I don't know why they always want to go under it and feed upside down from the bottom, but it's really funny to watch.

Here on the left is the black one that started getting skinny- Moe.

After a while the striped ones joined in. Very skittish- any sudden movement by a barb trying to get a bite and Albert scurried off for cover.

Compared to all the others Snaky Fish looks so thin I think he will die, but his behavior says maybe not. He came out for the food much sooner than I expected, and was doing that little kuhli wiggle-hop-and-glide across the bottom. I even saw him climbing in a plant. Haven't seen him do those kind of behaviors in a long time.

I'm going to make another feeding station. The one out of a cup didn't really work. It's going to be like a bottle trap but with another kuhli-sized opening at the far end so they can exit when they want to.

I was hoping the snails would benefit from this- zucchini has calcium content- but I didn't see a single snail on it, even though I left the slice in all night and half the next day. I guess it didn't break down enough to smell appetizing to them? There were a few small trumpet snails feeding on it, but no nerites.