38 status

My three serpae tetra in here are still doing well- as far as behaving themselves goes. They are actually quite shy. I don't see them eat much- when they cherry barbs go crazy at food offerings, the serpaes hide from the ruckus and then slowly drift out of the plant cover as if to see what's going on- so I reserve a bit of food and when they start to emerge I dip my fingers in the tank with a pinch and release some. They never come to the surface for it. Of course with the second pinch of food the barbs come swarming, so I only ever see the tetras getting little nibbles. Kuhlis however are getting fat with the extra offerings- if I try two or three times to make sure the tetras get some- all except one, Sassy, who is starting to look alarmingly thin. Still eats but loosing weight... so I am going to treat this tank for parasites again. Sassy is one of the newer striped kuhlis I got several months ago; didn't go through the round of parasite treatment I did when lost Snaky Fish.

I want to start with a dose of General Cure but don't have enough on hand- my pkg is almost done and I could not find any at the local stores. I went to both looking- at PSmart the label was on the empty shelf so I asked when more would come in? a supply truck was arriving that night, I was told. Went back a day later, still nothing. I asked an associate if any might be in the back and he tried to sell me some liquid that regulates pH. My pH is fine- it's 7.6- and this is probably parasites- how will that help? He insisted that the pH adjustor would "fix everything." I left without buying anything. At the other store- they didn't have it either I asked anyway. They tried to sell me an immune booster but admitted don't really sell medications anymore- just these natural type cures like melafix. It was disappointing, now I have to order online and wait another day. I know I used to find this kind of stuff at the shops- why have they quit carrying it?

Anyway, I got two new serpae tetras yesterday. They are in the Window Tank with the swordtails for now. It's kind of going to be a QT for tetras- if need some treatment I'd rather do it in there than in the main tank. Want to get their numbers up to make the serpaes feel secure- but not exactly sure how many I can add before it is pushing the stocking level... I've plugged stuff into AqAdvisor but I don't know how much to account for trumpet snails as there must be hundreds in here...