crammed under a rock

I inadvertently created the most hilarious situation in my fish tank last night. I have been trying to sink foods to get extra to the kuhli loaches, Albert still looks too thin. An hour after dark the blue "moonlights" come on, I can see into the tank but supposedly the fishes can't see. Approaching quietly, all looks still- the barbs are resting near the substrate, drifting quietly. Trying not to alert the cherry barbs, I dropped a shrimp pellet in the back of the tank, through a gap in the skirt that admits the airline. Didn't even lift the lid. It landed near a black kuhli loach and immediately he started zinging around seeking the food. When he found it he began shoving it alongside the tank wall. A second kuhli joined him, a few barbs of course scented it and came over too, but then the first kuhli pushed the food pellet into the front corner and it went under the flat rock that was a little kuhli cave. And then all four black kuhlis were trying to jam their bodies under that rock.

Mostly succeeding. They looked so squished.

Tails in the air at right angles to the glass, heads and whiskery barbels poking around then disappearing into the crush again.

The barbs kept trying, very determined, thrashing their tails into a blur, shoving their noses at all the gaps but they just didn't fit. I could see their mouths questing, questing against the sides of the kuhli bodies in the way.

At one point all four black loaches were under that rock, looked so tight they couldn't even move, I was afraid some of them would suffocate or scrape themselves, but every now and then one would shove a new way out through the gravel, or wiggle backwards.

The shy striped loaches stayed back at first, but eventually Snakey Fish came in and got under there too,

and then Albert the skinniest one- you can see his narrow belly in a curve here on the right under a black loach, how much smaller it is.

I couldn't stop laughing at their desperate antics to reach the food. Figured out how to get my camera setting to capture some photos in the dark, but of course it was all blue under the "moonlight" that's hard for the eye to interpret so I made these pictures monotone to show.

Really must fashion some kind of kuhli enclosure only they can enter, to target feeding. I have a plan involving the bottom of a water bottle... I'm glad that the smaller, striped guys got under there and hopefully got their share this time.

~ I checked on them an hour and a half later, just to reassure myself no-one had gotten stuck under the rock. Only one black kuhli remained poking around under there, with lots of room to maneuver now. I could tell they really stuffed themselves, because this morning when I dropped in fish food for the barbs, the kuhlis did not start scrambling around as usual. Just casually poked about, in no hurry at all to find errant flakes.

aloe babies

one in the windowsill from my now-gone monster mother plant

and little one in C's pot are nearly the same size now.

Both seem to be doing fine! The one with its parent is growing quickly.

buddies

The two little otos in Oliver's tank have started hanging out together. It's so cute to watch them follow each other up and down the tank sides, resting and feeding as a pair. I wonder if they are different otocinclus species (or subspecies?) one has a mottled gray back and spotty/broken midline stripe- the other is a more even gray, its stripe a clean line.

The single oto still looks okay in the forty gallon- his fins are clear and even, his skin nice texture, his belly round- but not too happy. I think he's lonely.

I put a zucchini slice in each tank yesterday. The barbs nibbled bites off for part of the morning, then lost interest. The black kuhlis were all over it, they liked to slide underneath, lie on their backs and eat from the underside upside down. It took a while for the striped kuhlis to discover it, they came over for a little while but not as enthusiastic as their bigger cousins. I left it in all day hoping that after dark the lonely oto might find it, but he never did. (My two striped kuhlis are looking a bit better- one is still too thin, but both seem to be growing their barbels out again. Albert's were so short it looked like worn off completely, I was concerned. Some folks online say its sharp substrate edges that cause the barbels to disappear, others that its just poor water quality...)

In Oliver's tank it took half the day for the smooth-striped oto to find the zucchini. Oliver himself saw it right away and kept slowly circling it, inspecting, taking curious nips but never wrenching off bites to eat like Pinkie used to do. When one of the otos finally found it and started nibbling away (yay!) Oliver glided over and the oto abruptly moved off. He hasn't gone back to it. But I did see him eating, so I plan to keep offering zucchini and other greens a few times a week, to supplement their diet and know what I can feed them if the algae runs out.

rescue

Glad I often pause to watch the fish. Noticed today I'd only seen one otocinclus busy around Oliver's tank- the smooth-striped one has been all over the fake skull today. Nibbling even on the insides of it, upside down on the cave ceiling of an empty cranium. Where was the other. Then I saw him headfirst down the output tube for the little sponge filter. Just his tail sticking out. He must have been feeding down the airline, or went in after the green algae that I can never completely rub out of the inside of the tube- pretty determined against the pressure of water flowing out! I left him alone a short while to see if he'd try to come out, not sure how long he'd been in there.

I jiggled the filter a little- he wiggled his tail but didn't budge. I turned off the air flow, he wiggled his tail more but still couldn't (or wouldn't) come out. So I lifted the filter up near the surface, turned it horizontal, was trying to gently pull the pieces apart when he wiggled again and slid out. Seemed a bit distressed- he sat in a lower corner against the glass not moving for a long time. Now out and about the tank again, so far he hasn't approached the filter I hope he doesn't repeat the maneuver and get himself stuck again!

terrible

whatever afflicted some of the plants, seems to be killing my poinsettia

round and green

geranium seems happy enough outside. It's put out a plenty new growth since last week.

plants greener

or at least, so I imagine. Main aponogeton definitely keeps cranking out new leaves, the smaller plants flanking it appear greener and a bit bigger now too- feeding the plants on standard schedule has helped! Must not think I'm experienced enough to tinker with it yet

The vallisneria is growing a lot, every time I take a picture I swear its doubled in height.

I still have to rub a lot of brown/black algae off the crypt leaves, but the lower, new foliage doesn't feel as soft/slimy and the bigger leaves seem to be keeping their green, algae growth on them between fridays doesn't seem quite as pronounced.

Rotala is becoming a presence in the back corner, the wall of it I cut down is sprouting new tiny leaves but just barely there, not big enough to photograph yet.

Java ferns on the fake root are finally sprouting the tiniest leaves-

I marked them in a pic below- and one has a fuzzy root hair growing into the water column (bottom left)

the little anubias in here is putting up a new shoot too!

so I think the plants are gradually improving, in the tenner also- java on the skull there has another fiddlehead uncurling

and the anubias lanceolata, which I haven't seen do anything in forever, has a new leaf that looks just perfect

I did add a very small amount of magnesium with the ferts last week (1/32 tsp of epsom salt) and looks like it helped- veins are no longer darker than the rest of the leaf.

improving?

There was less algae to clean off during maintenance work this recent friday.

I put a makeshift cardboard backdrop on, it instantly looks better- no more glaring edges and maybe the extra light from the windows in those corners was causing some of the algae.

The first pic is a little hazy because I did something to the filter- added stuff. This filter sponge/fiber media I bought online. Tired of the cut-off filter media pads from the standard pieces I had in there, they flop all around. This will fill the space and I think has more surface area with the sponge pore texture. Plus I really like that it came in two densities- coarse and fine. I can put one in front of the other to filter out the particles better. But for now just have the coarse one in, and the media I intend to remove some cut off, most of it folded and crammed into corners around the new- I'll take more bits out each week as I let the bacteria culture the new media, then put the finer sponge in...

the translation of instructions on the back is a bit amusing and far more informative than anything you get on packages made/sold around here:

I just wonder what a "waterweeds" tank is. Dutch aquarium?

sun spot

There's one good spot of direct sun in the house, by the sliding glass door. My big jade looks happy here- it's in a larger pot now and sits floor level.

Also potted up C's aloe vera that was a pathetic octopus-looking thing with half-collapsed leaves earlier. It has responded to the space, sun and food (fish waste water) with a huge growth spurt

and a baby plant!

Potted up my geranium too, and gave it a severe trim at the same time (one of the kids saw me clipping it outside and started yelling "she's killing that plant!")

green beans

Have crawled all the way up to the top of the deck, and are sending tendrils out across the railings looking for more things to hang on to.

I've actually picked some beans, needed a ladder to reach them! But very few, either they aren't getting pollinated or aren't healthy. Lots of leaves have dark withered edges

or mottled patches-

or insect damage-

I've seen japanese beetles but don't have the time/energy to battle them right now. Awesome how the pole beans have grown entirely up the posts

but the lower leaves yellowed and died on many...

ferns

are doing well back here

I don't even water them. A month ago I shredded bags of leaves off the yard (from last year) and gave them a bed of mulch several inches thick, that's about it.

My favorite is this one with very different shaped foliage- it's only one that hasn't grown as much