an end, and some shuffling

Finally gave up on my second paradise fish, Laddie. He's continually pale, listless, hanging at the surface, mostly clamped fins- now also looks like fungal infection starting on his skin. 

Is it still gill flukes? I don't know. Didn't see any flashing. And the other fishes in the tank are so active, flaring and dancing around each other in spawning mood. Yesterday I turned my worm bin and fed a few red wigglers to Miss Beautiful, also one to Laddie. He was eager, but still didn't color up and right after went back to hanging still. If my guess on his age is correct, he's probably four and a half years old, maybe close to five. I had to move my tetras, so very unhappily I dug a hole under the hydrangea today, and Laddie met a brick. With his head. This is my last photo of him.

So I moved all my young white clouds into the window tank. 

The slightly larger, orangish fish among them is the mother, and the one with brighter red on fins is one of the adult males.

It is very lively now. Lots of displaying and chasing. It's nice to see them so exuberant, but not the same as having a fish that seems to recognize you, drift over waggling fins and tail, eyeing you sideways through the glass expectantly. My smaller fishes pretty much only pay attention to each other. I feel the same about the tenner- it's nice to look at, the small blue guppies are attractive, but I don't feel engaged with it the same way as when a betta lived there. 

Now the only tank with a fish in it I really care for is the 45, and my angelfish isn't at her best. Fins slowly growing back, but I saw the black skirt tetras nipping at her yesterday. I sat in the room with the angel tank longer than usual (reading) and had time to really notice what was going on in there.

Thus today I caught all my tetras and moved them into the 20H. Again, sigh. I really do like them, but I like my angelfish better- and I don't want to run a fifth tank just to keep them. Going to have to re-home once more. Unhappy about that.

They were hard to catch. No way I can net them with all the hiding spots under and around driftwood. My bottle fish trap is too small. I submerged a large plastic bag and dropped food halfway in. The guppies went in and out for hours, gorging themselves. The angelfish eyed it sideways and never approached. Tetras were wary but eventually one would go in, and then I'd net it out, wait for the rest to settle down and approach once more. Took half the day, going back and forth. I really hope my angel is okay now without them as dither fish- maybe the five female guppies can take that role. Have to find better tank companions perhaps. The last tetra of course got way more skittish and I had to lift out a lot of smaller plants on their anchors, block off part of the tank with piece of plexiglass, and deploy two nets. So stuff got rearranged a little. Miss Beautiful didn't freak out while I did all that work- I think she realized I was catching and removing the bothersome tetras.

Angelfish seems a lot more at ease now. I'm glad to see the white clouds all enjoying the 33L. And tetras will probably get re-homed (disappointingly this is a total repeat for me).