fish and sticks

Put the peeled, boiled and soaked maple sticks into my window tank. Not as the arrangement will finally be, and I haven't yet attached the java ferns to them- right now just held down with some stones to waterlog more. Later when it's time to empty the tank and move onto the stand, I'll take the trouble to fasten the plants on, as I'll have to lift them all out then anyway.

I have more plant cuttings across the back- including a few sweet potato vine now, and am making a new lid that fits better, using pieces of lexan leftover from when I made the sliding lid on the betta tank. I kind of like the lighter, orange/tan hue of the sticks in there. It makes the orange of Fabio's long fins really stand out, and the smaller little orange shape that is the baby fish-

Cherry barb fry is loose in the tank now.

Fabio doesn't make any moves to eat it- the fry is big enough now, or quick enough to move out of the way. I am not sure if the fry itself is getting enough to eat. Belly doesn't get as big as when I could target feed it three times a day. I do see it picking at stuff- but not necessarily what I try to feed it. A few times I have dropped in the powdered food near where the fry was, and watched to see if it found the bits of flake. It took bites but spit them out again. Why? I also dropped in tiny live mosquito larvae again, and watched them move herky-jerky up and down the water column for a while. The fry found one and ate it, so at least it is getting that.

For some reason it won't eat the gold pearls I bought. I got size 300-500 microns, maybe it is too big. The fry doesn't eat them. I offered them twice when it was in the mesh box, and just found the little orange dots stuck to plants later. Even after I thought they would have softened and started to disintegrate, the baby fish didn't eat them. I had to siphon it out. However it's not a total loss- when I put a tiny pinch in the main tank, the adult serpae tetras scrambled to grab all those bites. So I can feed it to them...

While talking of feeding, I've been giving my betta Samblu the NLS pellets once a day, alternating his other flake and betta micropellets for the mornings and live food (moths, mosquito larvae, caterpillars) midday too. It's pretty sad but I didn't realize all this time my betta has been slightly underweight. Viewed from the side he looks fine, always has. Viewed from above the head is quite a bit wider than body. I never thought of it. Until saw similar above-view picture on another blog and someone's comment "your slightly skinny bettas" and wondered. Then reading a high-end aquarium magazine which featured beautiful bettas, even the overhead photos were lovely, and I realized yeah, my betta is skinny compared to these. So I'm trying to feed him better, with better food, so it won't pollute the tank- and he is getting filled out now. I've also started treating him for what might be bacterial infection. On a round of kanaplex right now- still has great color and appetite- if no improvement I also have tetracycline to try- if that does nothing I will assume it's a tumor or lymphocystis and just wait it out...