the paradise fish tank

Came down in the morning and saw Perry resting in the vallisneria. I wanted to get a photo of her among the plants, but she moved up to the glass as soon as she saw me, of course. It wasn't as fun giving her the worms yesterday, as I'd anticipated. I gave her the largest of the small worms and she snapped them up quick, no struggle at all. The serpae tetras, on the other hand- the worms I'd selected were just a bit too big for some of them. I had to get involved- chase a fish who stubbornly wouldn't give up its worm, snip them into pieces so the fish could actually eat it. It was kind of funny. They were very excited. Loaches loved it, too- and the cories in the tenner ate theirs too, once they were done spawning.

Did cleaning and water change on the window tank today. I redid the back strip of the lid. The sweet potato vine has been dying. Looking very anemic and loosing foliage. Periodically I've been finding tiny white bugs on the undersides, pinch them when I can. Finally got tired of the unhappy-looking plant. Removed all the stems and while the support strip of lexan was empty of plants, I took from the tank and cleaned off the hard-water scale. The few pothos stems on there got trimmed back, from the bottom up- the roots were starting to look unhealthy and lower edge of stems blackened. Cut them back to good tissue and replaced the missing sweet potato with new pothos cuttings off my houseplants.

Here's the sad remnants of sweet potato vine. It's pathetic. I dunked them in soapy water for twenty minutes. If that gets rid of the bugs and these revive, I can start over with one of the prettiest plants. I think part of its trouble was lack of sun in that location.

In the tank, looks as if windelov fern is doing okay after all. Appears that the dieoff is finished, and the remaining younger leaves appear green enough.

The clump on the biggest stone is much reduced, though. I snipped the rhizome in half where it is bare, to make it sprout more leaves.

Perry did not like all the disturbance when I removed her screen of pothos and sweet potato roots. I know they'll grow back; in the meantime he is hiding often under driftwood sticks. Loss of nitrate uptake while they regenerate their roots, but I hope the vallisneria will make up for that. To avoid too much upset, I'm not rinsing out his filter until next week.

Subwassertang in here doesn't look very good. It's all ratty on the ends. I think it doesn't like the cold. This tank is down to just 60° some mornings now. 

I'm not surprised that some of the random stem pieces I got in that recent batch of plants have died already. Bits of windelov, anacharis and watersprite are still fine. Moss tangle in the cage is still green. To my surprise, although it is melting leaves, the stem piece I thought looked like bacopa isn't dying yet. It sprouted two new leaves- you can see left and above in the first windelov picture. I think if it does survive in here, it will look leggy and unattractive, but am waiting to see.