thirtyeight: leaf effect

My main tank got some leaf litter, too. 1/2 loquat, 1/2 jackfruit, one each of catappa and guava. I can tell the shrimp and kuhlis really like this addition: every time I glance in the tank there are one or two shrimp methodically picking over a leaf surface.

And the kuhlis have immediately taken up hiding under them- perfect space. It's cute when two or more wiggle under together and just their little faces poking out. They seem to like sliding across the smooth top surfaces too.

Sassy is now hanging out in that area of the tank, often against the front glass- that's Tiger behind.

Here's Albert, under a leaf of echinodorus. Funny, mottled kuhli. He's got almost no stripes now.

There is a subtle difference in the behavior of some other inhabitants: my nerite snails appear to be more active.

Biggest thing I noticed is that today all my serpae tetras are out and about.

Usually it's just one, two or three in the foreground and the rest are hanging still in corners or behind plants during the day. I never thought I'd get a photo like this, with all seven together in the open!

Maybe I'm imagining things, but it really does seem as if they also feel better with the addition of the leaves. I didn't even think any of them were sick! Why hadn't I got leaves sooner.

I took all these photos with ease- the fish didn't run and hide, or if they did dart away from camera motion, it wasn't for long. Even the oldest, shy one Spark is in the center of this picture:

and facing the viewer here:

Last week I added root tabs to the tank- it had been a while. Echinodorus had some fading leaves, windelov fern and elodea looked poorly too. This week everything looks to be in good health, and for the first time in this tank, the windelov has baby plants on its leaf tip:

I have two aponogetons sending up flower stalks now! I wonder if this makes it more likely to get baby plants?

The second one came up a day later, and is just poking above the water surface here: