pink propagation

Just as this plant starts to look beautiful again, the lower leaves always turn pale and eventually fall off. Then new baby foliage appears branching at the point where the petioles fell. I want more of these again, so I cut off their heads and stuck the stems in water to get them to root once more.

Before and after the trim:

Cuttings in the jars:

dracanea

My "dragon tree" was concerning me. It had quite a few leaves yellowing and falling off, all in the middle level of the stem. I thought perhaps it needs more light now that summer is here. It has been feeling the stimulation of warm days, but not getting the increased light I realize. So just to see, I moved it into the corner kitchen were the indirect light is much brighter. Responded well, I think: no more yellow foliage.

tickle plant

Also called "sensitive plant" but I know it's in the mimosa family, wish I knew the exact name of this one. It likes the shade and apparently can be grown as a houseplant? but the seedling I brought inside died. So did all the others that remained outside, just this one survived.

It definitely responds to touch. Photo above you can see the upper left set of leaves starting to fold shut because I merely bumped the pot; then I touched each leaf group one by one and within a minute or two it was all closed:

purple!

Three of my african violet "children" are starting to bloom! So far they all look like they will be purple; the one that has started to open (above) definitely is.

I haven't had purple violets for over a year- so this is nice to see them again. Took these plants a year to mature enough to flower. I'm looking forward to more upcoming; have five more that aren't showing buds yet.

cleaning

Gave a rather thorough cleaning to my smaller aquarium with the routine water change today. I think it finally had good result. I wanted to get as much of the brown debris out as possible.

So first I carefully lifted the planted driftwood pieces out, just eased them off the surface to avoid stirring up the substrate. Put each in a fish bucket with a few inches of conditioned water. Gently rinsed out the sponge of the filter in same bucket. Then did some serious gravel vac, which was quick enough work as the gravel bed is not very deep in this tank. Renewed the tank with 4 gallons fresh conditioned water, and let the filter run to clear the water while I scrubbed off the broad anubias leaves with a toothbrush (new) in the buckets- I was surprised at how much came clean. I think a lot of that stuff on them was algae; tough enough I couldn't just rub it off with my fingers, but it gave in to the toothbrush. Then I vigorously scrubbed the driftwood with toothbrush as much as I could, in the buckets- the water went dark brown with debris quickly. I didn't put back them into the aquarium for at least an hour, after the filter had cleared the water. I didn't want sediment to settle on them again. Once it looked pretty clear, I rinsed the pieces, put the driftwood and plants back in. Gently rinsed the filter sponge out once more- it was covered in fine brown stuff again- not squeezing it much this time, just swishing it in the water.

Kept an eye on it all throughout the day. In spite of the relatively large water change, the fishes show no signs of stress, and the plants still look nice, fairly clear of the brown stuff that was all over them before. I'm pleased.

I also bought a new bulb for the lamp- this tank doesn't have a hood but I turn my desk lamp onto it for at least six hours a night, sometimes more. Noted that some of the narrower anubias leaves are starting to yellow. Gave liquid plant food again today, and replaced the bulb with a daylight-spectrum one.

Oliver by the way, is doing great so far. He gobbled down cooked pea on his second day, took and spit out a number of times betta bits on his third, but finally ate those too. Has also eaten regular flakes, cumbled up shrimp pellets and once a fruit fly I had caught a moment before. I think he likes his new home!

I'm still wondering why the driftwood has recently shed so much debris. Perhaps because during the weeks of high heat to treat ich, it decayed faster? Or maybe just that there's no miniature catfish or friendly algae eaters in there to scrape at the wood. I assume it is part of the reason this tank has a lower pH.

snails!

They are all in there. I looked into the tank after it was dark, saw not only the three adult malaysian trumpet snails, but two or three baby ones as well- the size of a hangnail. So little! Much to small to even try for a photo yet. Could have avoided all that gravel vacuuming, but it probably did no harm.

plant woes (again)

Took some more photos of the aquarium plants, their sorry state. This is my largest, nicest aponogeton- the biggest one from my first purchase. It's been melting- the edges of leaves turning brown and translucent, then ragged into nothing. Other leaves growing with algae, several kinds it looks like.

My crypt wendtii look okay at first glance, but they have the dark algae spots encroaching as well, are starting to curl, have white splotches forming, which I now think are a sign of deficiency (of something) see the right lower leaf

The java ferns all have black spots, which aren't growing babies like they did at first, and they start to yellow, blanch white and then I cut them off. Still put out new leaves but those are smaller and fewer than used to be.

The rotala I thought was doing fine until I looked at photos of when I first brought it home, how nice it was then! Its leaves are seriously stunted, far too small, beginning to curl. The small leaves are from lack of proper light, I wonder now if leaf curl is from the overly high pH?

I've only got one regular amazon sword in there, now. The smallest one was just rotting away. Other (air-living) plants aren't doing so great, either. My chocolate mint looks gorgeous from afar, 

even up close it's hard to see, but it has those pale scabby-looking speckles spreading

and I know soon it will look like this one- the regular mint plant- which I threw in the dumpster today.

Looks like the same pest or disease has also got onto my ginger, the pot of oregano as well. But we ate some fresh parsley today!

trying to find balance

for my aquariums still. The plants are doing poorly. Getting black spots, hair algae again, some leaves turning yellow then bleaching to white, the beautiful aponogeton melting away. I thought it might be because I have lost so many fish lately- without the fish to give off CO2 and nitrates in their waste, the plants suffer. I gave some liquid plant food. They still look awful. I adjusted the hours on light timer- no better. Then there was a stink and I feared a dead snail- I've seen two of the trumpet snails out and about, but never three at the same time, so I don't know if the third one is still alive. I vacuumed out half the tank- on the side that smelled bad- searching for dead snail- how else do you find a deceased snail that buries itself? Only found one, and he was alive. In the search removed half the water and loads of nitrates from the waste down there, so worried I replaced too much water today. Gave another dose of liquid plant food (the prior dose was a week ago).

Then did some more reading online and finally found a description that seemed to match my aquarium symptoms. Not the right light for the plants, I think. It says the bulbs marked "plant life" are actually not so good, better are the "full spectrum" or "daylight" bulbs. I remember when I first set up the tank I had changed the bulb I had to a "plant" labeled one. Still have it so I went and looked- it is a full spectrum bulb. So I took the "plant" one out and put the full spectrum one in. It has lower wattage so I think I need to get a new one soon with the full wattage, but hope this improves things. Plus I need more fish- that sounds silly- but there are only ten fish in there now, I could easily have four or five more, to support the plants. And I like my plants better than my fishes right now. Except for Pinkie. I'm fond of him.

It looks very different with the altered light spectrum. And takes much better photos- no yellowing effect:

(The smell is gone now. Turns out the stink was my worm box- it had too much moisture last week, was dripping into the tray- I had cleaned that up and aerated the worms' home, added shredded paper to soak up the excess moisture too- but forgot the bricks that hold it off the platform are porous- and they got smelly. I scrubbed them with soap and an old toothbrush today, let dry out in the sun for half the day. Much better now. Worms still look happy. Lots of them squirming around.)

Funny thing, in my smaller tank I also have a problem with drifts of brown debris all over still, and the java fern not growing well. But the anubias has new leaves galore. This is supposed to be a slow-growing plant but I watched a new leaf unfold within a week,

and right after that another one started emerging. So something's right for that plant, at least.

I have been reading up on keeping angelfish. I don't want to get them until I know I won't inadvertently kill them. Apparently they need very clean water- regular water changes very important- and like soft water as well. Certain plants are recommended for angelfish tanks because they have the same water quality requirements- including ruffled amazon sword (aponogeton), java fern and watersprite! which I already have. So if I could get my water softer, not only would the fishes be at ease, but my plants might do better too. After the ich treatment was all done, I tested the pH of my 10gal right before a water change. And happy to find that for once, it was lower- 7.4. So I guess there's still something in the large tank itself, maybe in the filter? (I bought it used) that's keeping the pH higher than I want it.

one nice plant

More of my balcony plants are showing disease; to my dismay this includes both pots of mint. Most of the nicotiana are tall and leggy, leaning through the railings. Two have different, darker foliage with a hint of blue in the broad leaves,

 also with stouter proportions. They've taken longer to flower as well. This one is white.

I moved it over to the brick wall for a better picture. If all the nicotiana plants looked like this, I'd be pleased. Maybe I should try and save its seed for next year, although I prefer colored flowers. I don't know if its genetics or growing conditions that gave it a different look.

Oliver

My new fish for the 10gal is a "half moon double tail" plakat betta. I've never seen another fish quite like him. I see many long-finned bettas with double tails (the usual variety) but this was the first short-finned betta with a double I'd noticed. Also the dark coloring is very distinctive. I've had my eye on this fish for quite some time, and when I started thinking of him as Oliver just gave in and brought him home.

He seems a very tough fish. All the others living in bare plastic tubs (this store keeps bettas in individual containers the size of a butter tub) looked depressed or ill, fins drooping, laying on the bottom. This dark plakat was always alert, moving in slow, leisurely curves around his tiny enclosure. I figure if he's done well for so long in the confinement (I've seen him in that store for months) surely he can survive my ineptitude, maybe even thrive. Pinkie has been with me for just a year now; most places you look estimate a betta will live two to three years, five if very healthy and well-cared-for. Fish guy at the shop said university studies have given the fish a lifespan of six to eight years. I'll hope for three to five!

His color is so striking- a dark russet brown -almost purplish- base color, with the scales outlined in black and the fins and eye area black. Fin rays in the tail have some bold blue streaks, some paler blue on the gill covers and his eyes look blue in certain lighting.

The double tail gives him quite a different look in profile than other bettas I've kept. He has a distinct wedge shape, and I keep thinking of him as Black Flag, his fins waving in the water like a pennant. The other name that springs to mind is something to do with his dark coloring: Smokey or Shadow or Dusk... but Oliver already feels assigned.

Oliver seems to have settled in well; never showed signs of fear or stress when introduced to the aquarium. He did try to nip the nerite snail's feelers a few times but doesn't seem to mind the cherry barbs. I left the lights out and did not feed yesterday to let him settle in. Today gave a few betta flakes, which the barbs ate eagerly. Oliver bit them and then spit out again; maybe its different from what he was fed in the shop. Have a variety of other fish foods to try on him.

zucchini craze

My camera is alive again, so I'm able to catch up a little bit here. A week or so ago I gave a zucchini slice to the fishes, intending to feed the SAEs. The barbs always swarm it first, and the algae eaters would approach a little later.

To my surprise this time Pinkie came up and did more than just look. He started darting quick jabs at the zucchini, twisting his body sharply to wrench bits off. They were large bits- for him. I was worried at one point he was going to choke himself. Either he's really hungry, or has just discovered he likes zucchini!

I would dice it up finely and feed to them in bites, but it's one of the few foods my danios won't gobble down- they never look for food at substrate level. At other feedings the danios grab food faster than any other fish, and end up with fat bellies while I'm trying to make sure the rest get sufficient to eat. If I feed a zucchini slice, the danios ignore it and the others get their fill. Not the best food for a betta- but it's okay one or two days a week I think.

I miss my algae eaters. Already the hair algae is growing back on some plant leaves, since their absence. I saw a half dozen in the pet shop yesterday (labeled as "flying fox"), but didn't get any because quite a few tanks had fish with split or degrading fins, some with ich spots. I've had enough of ich lately!  But I did buy a fish who was living in isolation; post on him upcoming.

goners

I haven't seen Caleb in two days. I thought he was hiding, nervous in the new environment. He didn't seem stressed when acclimating to the water but when released into the 10gal immediately darted away behind log in the corner. I thought he was hiding. Left the lights off for a day. Then something started to stink. It was water-change day and I was afraid he might be dead. I lifted out the planted driftwood. Nothing. I did find empty trumpet snail shell on the floor nearby- maybe that was the stink. But how did it get there? Must have fallen off a plant/wood piece when I lifted it out? I don't know how long the snail was dead- I hadn't seen it in a long time but always assumed it was under the gravel or just coming out of hiding at night. It is strange that I couldn't find the algae eater's body anywhere. A slender fish, but to disappear so fast? maybe the nerite ate him.

So I'm back to basics again- just a few danios, one betta and the tough guys- my cherry barbs.

Caleb

I have moved my lonely siamese algae eater into the 10gal. The larger tank is crystal clear, just some dark green algae I can't scrape or rub off the leaves of plants. Caleb seems hungry, or maybe is just maturing- he comes to the surface to grab flakes and other food with the rest of the fishes. I put in zucchini for him the other day, but the barbs swarmed it, even Pinkie tried to wrench bites off, and Caleb didn't get much. My 10gal on the other hand, is full of driftwood detritus, and I remember how industriously the algae eaters and catfish scraped the wood clean in the 20gal. So I thought if I put Caleb in the 10gal, maybe he can clean it up for me. I know he'll grow too big, but there's only two small barbs in there (I wonder if those cherry barbs are immature still, or have stunted growth? They're half the others) and I will probably move him back later.

No pictures for a while; my camera is in a bag of rice. I jumped into a glacial lake with my kids last week and forgot the camera was in my pocket. Hoping it will dry out and I can recover some photos!

ich records

I kept track of what was going on in my aquariums with the ich outbreak, jotting down notes every day. It might help if I have to deal with this again in the future. Mostly for my own record, here's the notes:

20 gallon aquarium:
7/7 -  Larger SAE (Caleb) had ich spots on fins. Did a 25% water change.
7/9 -  Caleb 1 spot, Temp raised to 80°, 20% wc
7/10- Pinkie flashing, Temp to 84°, 20% wc
7/11- Caleb flashing, Temp to 86°, 25% wc
7/14- Caleb, Zippy, Pinkie ich spots, Buster glancing, Temp at 86°, carbon removed from filter, 4 tsp Ick Attack
7/15- Buster 2 spots, Temp 85-86°, 25% wc w/gravel vac, 5 tsp IA
7/16- 3 fem barb ich spots, Noodle and one Danio flashing, Temp 84°? raised to 86°, 25% wc
7/17- 2 fem barb ich spots, Temp 85-86°, 20% wc, 5 tsp IA
7/18-  Caleb 2 spots, all fem barb 2-3 spots, 1 fem barb flashing, Temp 86°, 20% wc, 5 tsp IA
7/19- Caleb, 1 fem barb 1 spot, Sangre flashing, Temp 85-86°, 4 tsp IA
7/20- fem barbs, SAE ich spots, Pinkie dashing about, 20% wc, 5tsp IA, 10 tsp aquarium salt (1/2 per gal) fishes stressed? SAE loose color, barbs hover, Pinkie inactive
7/21- fem barbs and Caleb numerous spots, Temp 86-87°, no wc, 4tsp IA (salt remains)
7/22- both SAE, 1 fem barb spots, Tilda spots? danio, male barb flashing, Temp 86-87°, no wc, 4 tsp IA (salt remains)
7/23- Caleb spots, 1 barb spot, Temp 85-86°, 4 tsp IA (salt remains)
          later in the day Tilda DIED, 25% wc w/gravel vac, replaced 1 tsp IA, 1/4 tsp salt per gallon replacement
7/24- both SAE spots, 1 fem barb split dorsal fin, largest fem barb flashing, Temp 87-88°, 4 tsp IA (salt remains)
7/25- SAE many spots, barbs and Pinkie none, Temp 86-87°, added sponge filter, raised water level, fishes active! SAE colored up again
7/26- Caleb spots, Noodle DIED, barbs ok, Temp 86-87°, 4 tsp IA
7/27- Caleb spots, other fishes ok, Temp 86°, 20% wc w/gravel vac, no salt in replacement, 2 tsp IA last dose (ran out)

10 gallon tank:
7/13- fem cherry barb flashing, Temp to 80°
7/14- both cherry barb flashing, Temp to 84°, 2 tsp IA
7/15- overnight from 85° to 90°! water level lowered, heater off until at 86°, 2 tsp IA
7/16- no flashing, no spots, Temp 86°, 20% wc, 2 tsp IA
7/17- Flash glancing, lowered water level, Temp 86°, 2 tsp IA
7/18- Flash crashed, male barb 1 spot dorsal? Temp 86°, 10% wc, 2 tsp IA
7/19- Flash crashed, barbs ok, Temp 86°, 2 tsp IA
7/20- Removed Flash DIED, 20% wc, no dose
7/21 - 7/26- barbs ok, Tempo 86°, no dose
7/27- barbs ok, 25% water change, Temp to 84°

The temperature on the 10gal is now a consistent 78°. I kept the 20gal at 86° for another full week, have brought it down to 84° and will lower a bit further each day until it's back just under 80°. Wasn't too bad. I only lost three fish, and one of those had been half-dead already. A bit upset that the two I lost in the 20gal were among my favorites, but I guess they were the more delicate fishes as well.

My treatment was not exactly consistent, because I kept trying to figure out what would be most effective. High temperature, salt and medicine are the usual methods- but most meds are bad for live plants and snails. The Ich Attack you can double the dose, or dose twice per day for bad infestations. It's supposed to be 1 tsp per 10 gallons, so in the small tank I was doing normal dose, in the larger tank a higher dose. Temperature of 85° is supposed to make the ich organism incapable of reproducing, but if you set your heater at 85°, it doesn't get triggered to turn on and warm the water until it drops a degree to 84°, so that's why I had it set at 86°- or tried to. A few times over or under-adjusted and it got too warm or cool again.

Side note- I found that there are pros and cons to the two different styles of aquarium heaters. My 20gal has an older heater, it hangs vertical on the back of the tank, with a knob to adjust temperature on the top- very generally, twisting one way goes higher, the other direction lowers. The 10gal has a newer one which is submerged. It also has a knob on the top, which has degrees marked around the dial. The vertical heater is easy to adjust- you just reach over and turn the knob every so slightly, then keep an eye on the thermometer and adjust again accordingly after an hour or so. But it's not as good at keeping the temperature stable. There have been times when the ambient room temperature dropped at lot at night- I don't always run heat at night in winter- and I'd get up in the morning to find the tank had lost several degrees of heat. The small tank is much trickier to adjust- the knob on the submerged heater sticks, so just turning it with one hand will make the entire heater rotate in its housing. I have to lower the water level so I can reach in with two hands (without flooding over), or use the aquarium claw to hold the heater still and adjust with other hand. Also, the numbers marked on the lever never match up with the actual temperature- right now the knob says 78 but the water is really at 82°. So it's a pain to adjust and I often turn it too far- it goes much warmer than I want to - have to go back and adjust it again- but once I do get it to where it's supposed to be, it's very good at keeping the temperature stable.

The other nice thing about it is that I don't have to worry about the water level dropping too low from evaporation in my small tank -this is a plus with the sponge filter too (working great so far!). Whereas in the big tank, if the water drops below a certain mark on the vertical heater, the heating element can crack and the heater break and maybe electrocute the fishes in the water or something. Read the fishkeeping forums, heater disasters are pretty common. Also in the big tank if the water level drops even farther my filter would stop running, (but it only gets that low when I remove more than five gallons of water).

So- some other observations. I thought salt was bad for the plants and snails, but further reading many sources said a very low dose (1/2 tsp per gallon) is safe enough. Catfishes are sensitive too- I don't know if it was the salt or the ich that killed my catfish. Noticed that at one point the siamese algae eaters were very pale, and the barbs not very active, kind of just hanging and drifting in the water. When I added the sponge filter, the higher oxygen levels really energized them, and the algae eaters' color came back immediately. I guess lowering the water level to agitate the surface and deliver more oxygen just wasn't enough, before. Also early on I wasn't doing gravel vac because now had the trumpet snails to do cleanup below, but then found out that the ich multiplies on the substrate, so important to gravel vac with every water change. But also it seemed my small tank recovered faster- I don't know if the barbs in there were just better able to fight it off? or because the medication level built up in the water, since I wasn't removing any water later on? Flash was doomed anyway- he had been ill for a long time. I noticed that most of the fishes would be flashing one day, then show spots the next- when they couldn't rub the irritation off their skins, I guessed that the ich spot would manifest the following day. Having not seen anybody new flashing in a while, nor any more spots, I'm hopeful it is finally gone.

That's it.

spider plants

The tall cupboard in the corner of my kitchen, between two windows, is their spot now. The one on the left has been there far longer, one on the right was on top of the fridge and as you can see, it didn't get enough light there. Hope it's happier now.