notes on the tanks

Earlier this week we had power outages. I was on the verge of plugging in the noisy battery-operated air pumps to run the aquariums when it kicked back on again, so all was okay. I did extra water changes on most of the tanks. My angel has ragged fins again- especially the dorsal. It's not from the tanks being sans filter for hours- they were starting to look a little tatty before then. Sigh. She doesn't turn pale or flee and run into the walls anymore, so I do think that having tetra companions helped her feel secure in the tank. She even circles back and approaches the front to watch me during maintenance, where before she'd hide in a corner until after I was done. But now I'm starting to wonder if the black skirt tetras are nipping her fins after all. 

Today I felt like doing stuff to the window tank, so I did. Trimmed and replanted a bunch of hornwort stems, multiplying them again. 

Trimmed and replanted top of a submerged piece parrot's feather. Took out and threw in the compost all the unhappy-looking bits of windelov java  on rocks. They never do great in here, plenty other plants doing well now, so why am I keeping them. Used the rocks to prop up either end of the driftwood bolbitis fern is growing on. 

So now the arch clears the substrate more, and I can admire the fern better.

Laddie looks great. But yesterday I saw him suddenly jerk about and flash against the uplift tube. I dread the thought he has gill flukes again. Hope it was just a momentary irritant of some other kind. He's super eager to eat and lively, inspecting things all levels of the tank, seems to feel fine. Going to feed him garlic tomorrow.

Started pegging down hornwort trimmings from the angel tank in the 20H. For more plant mass. 

The white cloud minnows are almost three months old, and I've started to see flirty behavior- some of them flaring, waggling the pectorals and diving into the subwassertang. Pretty sure those are the males. They're supposed to be mature at six months, so can't actually be breeding already? I need to start sorting out those I want to keep . . . 

Earlier this week I netted out ten that have truncated dorsal fins- as if someone cut off the back half. 

I kept them in the mesh box that's still been sitting in the 20H, and fed two a day to the angelfish. It's a very quick end for them. My youngest would be unhappy if she knew I'm feeding the unwanted fry to my angelfish. I won't tell- I doubt she'll notice there's fewer white clouds in the 20H anyway. My friend who was going to take some of the white cloud fry had to downsize his tanks, so now I'm not sure if I will be able to re-home. Uneasy to have strangers come to the house during time of covid. All the ones that don't move into my window tank, might just become angel food . . .