fish updates!

I re-homed my black skirt tetras. My husband liked seeing fish activity in that tank, but I just found them- boring. They drift around, they eat. They flee if I come too close suddenly. They never really look at me or seem to recognize anything. So personally I got tired of having them in there. I had some responses to my listing online yesterday so in the morning propped two nets in the tank- sometimes the fish will get used to the presence of the net rather quickly- adapting to what seems to pose no harm- and then they're easier to catch. The tetras all grouped in the middle, away from the nets

while my bold amanos crawled all over them!

With two nets and the largest fake plant pulled out of the water, I caught them all in twenty minutes- but they were still panicking all over the place. I had them waiting in a plastic bag with a towel over it for darkness, and sent them off with a small chunk of sponge cut from one of the pieces that's sitting in the window tank- figured it would provide some good bacteria to alleviate ammonia buildup on the ride to their new home.

The 20H didn't stay empty long. Immediately I set the fish trap in my 45 for kuhli loaches. Angelfish were badly frightened when I put it in the water- Skye fled so hard he splashed water out of the corner and bashed his nose against the glass, has a bruise on his face again. I feel really bad for that. The trap worked very well this time. I baited it with shrimp pellet- which the fishes haven't had in a while- and the kuhlis were hungry. While I stood and watched, the bolder black ones swarmed the trap, and in five minutes six of them were in there. I lifted them out into a bag, reset the trap, went away to do something. Came back ten mintues later the seventh black kuhli was in the trap with Tiger. I propped net at the water surface and was able to slide Tiger back into the tank while catching the black kuhli to put with his buddies, they all got transferred into my 20H.

I draped a towel over the back of the 20H for the rest of the day, the black kuhlis were swimming all around, up and down the sides very active exploring. This morning when I removed the towel and looked in there, not a kuhli in sight. I fed the tank some thawed frozen brine/mysis shrimp and pretty soon they emerged from their hideout under the dragon stones. They look pretty cozy under there. It was fun to see them zig-zagging through the rotala stems, making shrimps to bounce up, startled by their barging around for the food. Amanos haven't had competition on the ground for a while.

Meanwhile, my angels wasted no time. They are spawning today- laying eggs on the same anubias they started with last time. I did feed them this morning, they paused in their work every now and them to come take the food but left a lot drifting- I kind of hope that the four remaining striped kuhlis in here will absolutely stuff themselves on the brine/mysis shrimp and not have any interest for angel wigglers. Maybe. Or I will have to set the trap again.

Pictures coming!

While I was writing this, the angels finished laying. The rows of eggs are much tidier this time, and I don't see any laid on top of others. I think there are fewer eggs- or she just did a neater job. The male is helping fan, I assume he's feeling a lot less pressure to be protective without the tetras around now. I also see him gently mouthing the eggs now and then, so looks like they might do better at keeping them clean of fungus this time.