yah, it's a cycle

in both the QT tanks; that wasn't just an ammonia spike the other day. I thought with the media, plants and handfuls of substrate transfered, and since I had nitrate readings, they had an 'instant cycle.' Nope. This morning I was happy to have a clear zero ammonia reading on both tanks, but then tested for nitrite- both high right now. Water changes in progress. I should not have been so impatient to get the fishes. They show no signs of distress, I just hope the cycle is over quickly and they will not suffer too much harm.

There was something of a scrum in my main tank this morning. I fed small caterpillars to the serpae tetras in hopes of keeping them busy while I dropped in sinking wafers for the kuhlis on the other end of the tank. It did not keep them busy long enough. The tetras were dashing around grabbing at wafers and every now and then someone would manage to carry one off a little ways before dropping it- in the process breaking them apart a little so I hope the kuhlis did get their share. Meanwhile the two largest amano shrimp each grabbed a wafer for itself, which still makes me laugh. A smaller amano tried to carry one away too, but it wasn't big enough to drag it far before a serpae nipped at it and the shrimp dropped its prize and scurried off, but not far before it came back- man those shrimp are bold!

There has been more scuffling lately among the fish. Truck and Lino both have torn fins, and Spark has a nip out of the dorsal, too. Diamond remains top of the pack. Of the three in QT, (which I have named, but not yet got individual pictures) 'Nito and Wedge appear to be dominant- Smudge has a bit of torn fins now. I hope when I get these three into the main tank the numbers in the school will be high enough the aggression will level out.