all the fishes

My angels have spawned, and been fighting, again. A day after they laid eggs it was due for tank maintenance, and a filter cleaning. I worked very slow and methodical, and lifted the filter sponge out as smoothly as possible. The female threatened me, but didn't actually try to strike. And to my surprise, this time they kept carefully tending the eggs afterwards- I really thought they would eat them all. So it looked well.

Then my youngest had some friends over- they were very careful not to tap the tank (they have guppies at home) but did crowd around to ooo and ahhh and point at my angels- and maybe that stressed the fish out. Next day they had cleared the leaf, and were fighting- striking so hard at each other I could hear it through the glass. M Beautiful has red bruises under her skin, and was breathing hard. I also saw them lip-locking, first time observing that.

On a good note, some new plants in here- I anchored individual stems of elodea to glass beads, they haven't even melted.

The dwarf water lettuce I added a while back is doing okay- growing slowly, and showing new roots. (In the 20H, water lettuce all died) I was away on vacation four days a week ago, and I guess the lack of nutrients (fish not eating = no poop) was too much for the java fern. Most of the leaves severely died off- but the new fiddleheads look alright still. Perhaps it was also the lack of leaf litter- has disintegrated again, I'm prepping more oak leaves to put in.

My paradise fish Lady is really a male. I've found evidence of bubble-nest building, Lady flares at reflections in a mirror I hold up, and tail is growing larger, brighter colors. So the wall will never come down, dang. I've changed the name to Laddie. Tried to get photos, but of course the fish never flared when I snapped the camera shutter.

Laid down, eyeing me sideways and refusing to move after a while. If it's just me staring near the glass, they wriggle with excitement and dash up and down. If I hold the camera up, they hide or cower.

Compare length of Perry's tail: it's nearly the same now

The paradise fish tank has a few stems of elodea now, too. It looks better in person than photo:

Hill of bolbitis fern:

And . . .  Ruby is still in the basement. He seems fine and most of the plants are still alive, green- buces look particularly happy- but I am tired already of having him down there. Don't get to enjoy his tank much at all, forget to keep an eye on it. I'm looking for a particular kind of stand, then will move him upstairs to the main floor.