back to plan B

Skye spent six days in a five-gallon bucket with a tiny sponge filter, some bits of hardscape and plants pulled out of the tank and a 50 watt heater on its lowest setting- which kept the temperature at 78°. I'm sure it was stressful for him, he quit eating and went pale but at least he was alive and not killed by M Beautiful (which I really feared would happen if I left them together longer). I posted in several forums and the club online, someone came and picked him up yesterday. A guy who breeds angels as a hobby, so I feel relieved he has a good home now.

Meanwhile M Beautiful in the 45 looked washed out, and crashed into walls of the tank again, startled when I approached with the hose to clean the tank the other day. Bruised her face again. Even though I was careful not to make sudden movements. Sigh.

I transferred all the stuff from Skye's bucket into my eight gallon tote, went to LFS next town over, and the chain that's out there too (they usually have healthier-looking fish and cleaner tanks than chain store B near me). Brought home one full-grown black skirt tetra from LFS, and six small ones from the chain store. The larger tetra went straight into the angel tank, after being acclimated. I took the chance. All the fish at that place looked great- I did not see a single sick fish- and I'm worried about M Beautiful being alone and jittery. (I stopped at local chain B, too, but came home empty-handed because there were fish with obvious ich and fin rot in other tanks nearby). The tetra was lying low the first few hours after release, but sat around calmly center of tank later in the evening, and this morning when realized I was feeding- first a bit of bug bites, then some crushed cooked pea- which the angel tried and spat out- it darted around quick to grab the food, that's good to see. M Beautiful has colored up nicely again and doesn't startle as much now.

The six smaller tetras in the bin- I'm going to put them through a full week or two of quarantine- were very pale when I first introduced them- but in spite of the bin cycling a bit- I checked parameters and did a partial wc this morning- they had colored up by morning and fed eagerly today. One is still a bit pale. I started a second bin which holds five gallons, on another airline splitter off Laddie's second pump for the filter- and pulled a large piece of hardscape out of the angel tank that has only one little buce on it- in hopes of boosting the beneficial bacteria load. Going to the other decent chain store out in Tysons Corner for a few more tetras this morning. Then I hope to soon be able to introduce a whole school of ten to the angel tank, and things will be settled.