not so great

It hasn't been the best week for my fishes. I lost another guppy- yesterday, after tank maintenance. When I dose liquid vitamins, the small fishes always dart around gobbling up the granules. I never thought this would harm them, but later in the day found one blue guppy expired on the substrate, looking bloated. I will start stirring that into a cup of tank water to dissolve first, from now on. Six guppies now. 

Last week one white cloud got caught by the siphon hose. I netted it and returned to the tank. I think it's the one that's been looking paler and thinner than the others- can't do anything but wait to see if it recovers. But they seemed fewer when they were feeding, past few days. I made an effort to count closely, and there's only ten. I don't know if one is unwell and hiding, or if it's died. There is a minnow that seems to stay apart from the rest- on one side of the tank by himself, but it's hard to tell if it's sick or just been ousted. Earlier in the week lots of displaying and chasing again. It was really amusing to see three males rising through the water column, furiously vibrating their fins at each other in parallel. Most of them look bold, and bright fins.

My angelfish has startled again. A few times mildly this week, then once very badly yesterday. I don't know what caused it as I approached the tank not holding anything or moving suddenly (which often seems to trigger her fear). She bolted away into the corner, crashed into the wall behind the heater and was there head down absolutely still for a minute or so, stunned. I really thought she'd died this time. Then she jolted out of the corner- has scraped off some scales on her head, and one pectoral fin is injured- held clamped tight to her side. When she started moving it a bit hours later (very stiffly and only partly extended) I saw it's torn and there's a bloody streak. I feel so bad for her. I don't know why she keeps getting scared. Maybe too alone now, without the tetras. I don't know how to solve this. Maybe a different fish as dithers? 

I think I did figure out why she startles so much, though. From when she was very small, and the tank used to be down in the dark hallway. My husband would go through there to his office, often holding his silver laptop and one day he wondered if light reflecting off the laptop frightened the young angelfishes- maybe it looked like a much bigger fish to them. So he stood there in the dark hallway and tipped the laptop to bounce the light off it- and the baby angels bolted into the corner. After that he tried to be more careful and hold it differently so it didn't flash at them, but I don't know how long this was going on. He told me about it much later. My best guess is that Miss Beautiful was simply traumatized by that, and I don't know if she will ever get over it.

She didn't want her picture taken (understandably)

Meanwhile, I still have nine black skirt tetras living in the 20H. Most of them they look perfectly fine and they eat eagerly, though one is usually pale. 

Probably stressed. I do a large water change every week, rinsing one or the other of the filter sponges, and have been testing the parameters to make sure nitrates don't get too high. Also dropping in every hornwort trimming from the other tank, so they have plenty of plant mass to give some natural filtration. They like it dim- I noticed when I put a row of coleus pots on the table in front of their tank, they started coming out of the corner and hanging around in the open space more. But I know it's too crowded in there. It's been a month and nobody has even asked, where I posted to re-home them. 

The only ones doing great? My little bowl of shrimps. Nothing bothers those guys! Well, and the kuhli loaches in my angelfish tank. The few glimpses I catch of them, all four look fat and content.