window tank

is chilly now. My thermostat is set to seventy, it falls to sixty-nine before turns on. But thermometer in the window tank reads 64 or 65° in the morning and stays that low most of the day. Even though I've put folded cloths across the windowsill to block drafts. The fishes don't seem to mind. Perry comes over to see what's for breakfast as usual, the moment I walk down the stairs. The tank was looking dim so I trimmed back the sweet potato vine. It wasn't a lot brighter but Perry hid under driftwood for a day. Fish prefers it dim, I think.

I'm still having trouble with the feeding. I got a few of those small wire shrimp bait cages. (Listing on the site I bought it from as 'Stainless Steel Fishing Bait Cage Trap Basket Feeder Holder'). Thought I could use one to feed the cories, and the other to feed kuhli loaches in the main tank, keeping bigger fish at bay.

It didn't really work. The largest food pieces I use that paradise fish or tetra will carry away entire, still slid through the gaps in the bait holder. If I lay the shrimp pellet or wafer across the wires of the basket, it stayed in for a while. The cories nibbled and came back, interested but not aggressive about it. Perry a different matter. That fish really wanted the food, and was determined to figure out how. I should have known. I could see Perry tipping his head side to side, trying to solve it. When the bait basket was laying down, which made it easier for the cories to nibble through the rungs, Perry tried to slide in sideways through gaps in the top. Almost could fit but didn't push through and damage self. Backed off. Smart fish. But kept circling and nudging the basket until pieces fell through anyway- and when I sat it upright to put the larger gaps against substrate, the cories couldn't reach the food easy, lost interest and wandered away. Perry was darting at them.

I left for a few minutes and when I came back it was obvious Perry had pigged on the food. Stomach bulging, looked like a little whale. Saw my paradise fish in the back of the tank, head up, throat distended, gagging on an entire shrimp pellet. It's just how Pinkie died. Quick I grabbed a fertilizer stick (never used it for inserting ferts to the substrate but it's the longest tool I have so often put to other purpose) and chased Perry around the tank- fish dropped the pellet but was still gorged regardless. So two days no feeding after that. I sprinkled in some gold pearls late at night for the cories. It's getting more difficult to make sure they eat enough. I may just have to move them out of this tank. Sigh.