45 relocated

Here's my angel tank in it's new spot, main floor living room. To the right is the fireplace (not in use, television is in front of it) and to the left, sliding glass door out to the deck- forward, just out of the picture frame. Some of my houseplants around it- dracanea to the left, asparagus fern to the right.

Closer photo, just as the tank light was coming on

Stepping back a bit- realized when moved the tv out of this corner, and had ten-year-old dracanea on the floor (it used to sit on a low table) the plant is over five feet tall! Perhaps I ought to find it a larger container.

Yesterday morning was kind of frustrating, catching the striped kuhli loaches. They are not as bold as my black ones, took several hours for Tiger to finally go into the trap (baited with one of their favorites- shrimp pellet- after two days no feeding).

The angels seemed to ignore what was going on until Tiger was in there eating, then M Beautiful came and tried to bite at the food. Her color looks great here- except you can see some scrapes on the stripes.

After Tiger, two other striped kuhlis entered, and then it took forever for the last one, Sassy, to approach. Finally crept up to the entrance, stuck its head in, backed out again. I actually yelled "nooo!" It crept up again, slid halfway through the entrance, with head and pectoral fins hanging down into the trap, and just rested there for long minutes! My husband was watching with me and we just laughed. But then as I lifted the trap and slid a net over it, somehow Sassy escaped again. I put the first three kuhlis into the 20H with the others, and just left Sassy until the tank was completely empty- even of leaf litter- then caught it again with a net. The kuhlis have settled in well, all in the other tank now.

Angels took longer to calm down from their ordeal. I re-introduced them to the tank when all was re-planted and temperature back to normal, then left the lights off rest of the day. All next morning- even with the lighting low the female was pale and nervous-

Male has sustained some injury. Mouth is messed up- from his previous collisions with the tank wall- and now he's lost both caudal extensions. My largest fish net is not quite big enough to handle the angels anymore- I tried to be gentle but when finally acclimated and released them into the 45 again, saw that Skye's caudal fin extensions were broken. They just fell off later in the day.

M Beautiful lost hers months ago when they were fighting- her lower one is just starting to grow back.

I've reset the light timer, to come on in late afternoon through the evening, 6.5 hr photoperiod with an hour ramp up/down. When it first comes on, there's still ambient daylight so the background looks gray-

When it goes dark outside, the tank looks great.

I tried to arrange everything just the same as before, so the fishes would not find it unfamiliar. I did switch places with the heater and the pothos roots- because of outlet location for the heater cord. And moved the crypt balansae into corner, switched places with filter. It's much easier to get short end tank shots now-

Here's the other side. I tried to move the planter baskets a bit forward, so the fishes can slide between them and the back wall, and hide completely. Which they do.

Female appears to be more nervous than the male- she's often washed out. They both hide frequently. But not once since moving the tank have I seen them bash into the walls in panic!

And- again to my surprise- it is seven days since they lost their last batch of eggs and they went through a ton of stress just now with the tank move- they are in breeding mood again. The male has golden color showing on his forehead, they are cleaning leaves and other surfaces (male keeps going at the heater, and the tallest balansae leaf) and if I look close I see both their breeding tubes showing.

I am feeling dubious about letting them breed. I still don't know if the male's bent dorsal and the female's deformed gill plate are caused by mistakes I made raising them, or if it's genetic. If the latter, would be a bad idea to have offspring . . . I certainly don't have plans to get another large tank just to raise fry, and I know how much work that is- and I don't have any idea where I would distribute them after. It is super exciting to see them take care of the eggs and I was so thrilled that one time they got to wiggler stage. I don't mind that most of the eggs appear to die of fungus (or predation- we'll see now that the kuhlis are all out)- because I had a notion if they only managed to get twenty or so fry, maybe that small number could grow up in the home tank ok? I mainly want to see if my pair would tend to their fry, knowing that a lot of angels have lost the instincts to care for their young . . . If it turns out they're bad parents, or the fry have lots of defects (though not at all sure I could detect that) I'll probably get bottom-dwellers in the tank again (maybe brochis splendens instead of kuhli loaches) for some population control.