lost another

Zebra Danio. Yesterday I noticed this one fish wasn't swimming around much, kind of just hovering in the water, the tail would start to float up slightly, then drift back down. It came eagerly to eat as normal, but this morning was skimming under the water surface.

I tested parameters and was about to do a partial water change - all levels normal, but I thought it might be oxygen deprivation? and a quick wc would add some oxygen to the water while I figured out what to do. But just then timer switched the light on and the fish flipped out. Literally. It was suddenly rolling over and over, couldn't swim straight. Alarmed, I scooped it out of the tank in a plastic cup, thought to put it in my QT with the Otos, but no chance. It jerked its mouth, bugged the eyes out and died right there in the cup, floating on its side.

Now I'm down to four.

I think I've done something wrong in my tank. I baffled the filter recently because the current seemed too strong- the fish were struggling against it, but now the surface isn't agitated as much, so maybe the oxygen is too low, especially during the night? And today has been overcast, so there wasn't much ambient daylight coming into the room, I guess the plants hadn't started photosynthesizing yet and the fish got oxygen deprived. The rest of them look okay, though... I'd run the sponge filter in there again, but its in the QT tank. I do have another airline, and an airstone, need a second air pump I think. Want to prevent this from happening again! It was so fast.

newbies

I've got some Otocinclus! Three little fellows. Bought them yesterday. A bit anxious for them, as Otos are notorious for failing to thrive. Apparently (says my online reading) they get easily stressed during capture and shipment, don't eat, the bacteria in their stomach dies off and then when they do start to eat again, they can't digest and slowly starve. Poor things. But these guys have been at the local pet store for over two months, I've been looking at them every time I go in for a while. So I hope they are survivors.

I think they will be happy in my main tank, it has lots of hiding places and plenty of green and brown algae, which they love to eat. But the last time we brought fish home from the pet store it turned out they had disease, so to safeguard I've got the Otos in my small makeshift QT tank for now. It's set up with a heater, sponge filter, some rocks and bridge piece from the home tank, old broken castle decor in the corner to hide behind, for security. The bridge has plenty of green algae on it, but I'm not sure if it's enough and they haven't discovered it yet. I put the bridge up against the side of the tank side, in hopes that when they move up and down along the side they'll find it.  Also a small piece of driftwood, I read that they like to rasp on wood.

Further reading informed me that they prefer cooler temperatures and high oxygen content. (They also like softer, alkaline water but I can't help that. Plus everyone in my area has hard water from the local supply, so if they've already adjusted to that at the pet store, I think they'll be ok here w/the pH). I turned the temp down to 74° and moved in the floating Watersprite plants from the home tank. I don't know if the Watersprite will thrive here- there's no light fixture on the tank, but in the evenings when I use my desk lamp I intend to remove the container lid and turn the lamp on the tank for a good number of hours. Even if the Watersprite fails to grow, I can always replenish it with cuttings off the plants in the home tank, they periodically grow up out of the water surface and need to be trimmed back. And when I use this as hospital tank, I won't want live plants in there anyway.

So. The fish came in yesterday late afternoon. They were awfully pale, could hardly see the horizonal stripe or markings at all, and very pink underside the head. Maybe from stress; this morning their color is much better, the rosy hue dissipated, the stripes showing bolder. They are still mostly hiding in the corner so it's hard to get any pictures. You can just see one here under the castle, and two on the wall behind it.

I'm concerned if they will eat or not. I put in an algae wafer and a few halves of cooked, flattened peas. They haven't found that yet either. This morning noticed the tank had a very foul odor. I could smell it before entering the room. I siphoned out all the waste I could find on the tank bottom, trimmed off all the browning necrotic parts of the plants, and did a 25% water change. The smell is a little better- now I don't notice it unless I'm actually in the room, and it's tolerable. I figure with this small a tank the biological system won't be quite stable and I'll need to do wc at least a few times a week. It might be the algae wafer decaying that smells bad? or the bit of driftwood? If it keeps stinking I'll take out the wood and see if that resolves the problem.

new thing

I didn't know Coleus would flower, but it looks like these two cuttings are making buds, not new leaf pairs.

I looked them up, the flowers grow on a thin stalk above the plant, like basil plant does.

goner?

I think the injured Danio died in the night. I can't find him anywhere. Not stuck to the intake tube. Five remaining fish swim around like normal. Snaily Snaily was suspiciously absent all morning- couldn't find him anywhere either. I highly suspect the snail was in a corner having a meal of recently deceased fish, but can't be certain... bummer. Maybe I should have pulled him out, but the QT/hospital tank wasn't ready yet- had it set up but needed to run and stabilize the temperature.

problems

I lost another Danio, and a third is injured.

I found the second dead one stuck around the filter intake, and guess that the hurt one got stuck there too, but broke free. He has a wide scrape on his left side, and a smaller injury near the tail on the right side. He's not doing well, but not terrible either. Appears to not be eating much- he looks quite thin, holds his fins a bit clamped, but flares and keeps other fish off when the dart at him. I don't see any signs of fungus or infection yet, but he could have internal injuries, so not sure if he'll make it.

I put a baffle over the filter outflow (plastic cut from the side of a water bottle). Just to see if it would help any- thought perhaps when the fish are resting at night, they get caught unawares in the current in that corner, and pulled down to the intake? It did gentle the current considerably, diverting to the sides where it comes into the tank. Whether this keeps them from getting stuck again or not, they definitely look more comfortable. They don't struggle in that corner anymore, but swim evenly around the aquarium, calmer than before. I'm getting a pre-filter sponge to cover the intake as well.

The hurt one hovers in the floating plants, holds himself still. I'm doing more frequent water changes in the meantime, hoping it helps him. I'd add salt but it will hurt the plants. I'd put him in the extra tank but have it set as QT for newcomers- update coming soon!

The other Danios seems just fine. Spunky as always. Showing off their colors

and I finally caught a photo of one flaring his fins. Their bellies are fat here from just eating a meal of fruit flies.

violets

I think this is the best it's ever flowered. They just keep coming.

seven

A fish has disappeared. I count every day when they gather at the surface to feed, but they dart in and out so quick, around each other and through the floating plants, sometimes it's hard to be sure. The last few days I was uncertain of the count, so during tank maintenance yesterday briefly netted the fish out.

Definitely one missing. I searched through the aquarium- under driftwood, in corners, through the plants, nothing. I'm baffled how it could have vanished so quickly- perhaps the other fish ate it? and also concerned because I don't know why it died. If it was sick, the others show no signs that I recognize. Needless to say, I'm not getting the otocinclus I was planning for. Must wait awhile and be sure I don't have some disease in there that would kill off more fish... I checked water parameters again and all is fine- Ammonia and Nitrites 0, Nitrates less than 5, pH 8.2. That was high again, but it dropped after I changed the water. I don't like that the pH has been rising again, but again don't know the cause.

The fish look so much smaller viewed from above.

croton

This plant seems to have come through the dryness of winter pretty well. It has new leaves just as big as the older ones, now- brighter green here. They still do have some yellow spots, but the signs of mites are long gone. I have made it a habit to either mist the plant every day, or give it humidity time in the bathroom. Soon it will need a new growing container!

germination!

It seems very early, the ground is still frozen (and the bases of my jug greenhouses) but I have a few little seedlings sprouting. Romaine Lettuce.

cyclamen

I have been waiting impatiently for my Cyclamen to grow back, and slowly it is doing so.

beauty

Coleus is still my favorite plant right now. It is just so stunning, and it grows so fast. The cuttings in jars have nice threads of roots now, I could plant them as soon as I get some more potting soil.

And since I pinched off the tops and side stems to create those cuttings, the main plant has sprouted tiny pairs of leaves wherever a main leaf joins the stem (I'm sure there's a botanical term for that part of a plant, but I don't know it). The baby leaves seem to have more color than I remember new leaves having before.

wigglers

Took a look at my worms again, when I fed them. I'm giving them less food that I did at first- skipping some of the days the little bucket fills up and stashing that in the freezer for later. Until there are more worms. Which there might be, because I noticed this time that many of them have a thickened collar near the head end, which I believe means they are maturing.

Other notes- the worms seem to be more evenly distributed, I find them easily crawling in all parts of the bin. The material is still loose enough, not too packed and crumbly, seems to be breaking down faster. Feels a bit like dirt at the bottom, although there is still a lot of newspaper bedding in there. But things are definitely progressing!

more red!

from the Poinsettia, doing its own gorgeous thing

just because they are pretty

took a series of photos of Coleus leaf as they grow from small emergent

to large, beautiful, more intricate pattern

cuttings

I've cut off the Coleus stems that were drooping down and looping back up, to start more plants with.

Sitting in water jars:

ferns

on the balcony: the Autumn ferns lived up to their reputation and stayed more or less green all winter.

The others are in sad shape but at least they still appear to be alive

mini geranium

growing back already, from its recent trim

spring is coming

I spent some time cleaning up my balcony, sweeping out the corners and rearranging the pots, away from shelter of the apartment wall to the edge where they can receive the sunshine that's beginning to come out more. Some things are growing back already! The Green Onion pot has small new shoots

the Sage some tiny new leaves

and the Dogwood tree red-tipped buds.

I am not sure at all if my miniature Rose

or Rosemary will recover (they both look terrible)

but have more hope for the Geraniums.

worms

I examined the depths of my worm bin. Just wanted to know what was going on down there. Pleasantly surprised that it appears more or less fine. The bin stills seems too full so I removed the top layer of bedding- which had very few worms in it- they were all in the lower layer. Put the loose bedding from the top in the second, empty bin. Then fluffed up and mixed around the lower layer of stuff. It wasn't as gross as I'd expected. Most items unrecognizable, not much mold, just a few fruit flies, even the smell was tolerable. It appears to be damp enough- the worms all had glistening moist skins- and no pools of water in the bottom of the bin. But it was a bit compacted down there so I fluffed it all up thoroughly, using some old utensils that have been set aside as garden tools. After mixing it all up the existing bedding + food waste + worms filled the bin 2/3 again so I didn't put the old bedding back on top. Just recovered with cardboard sheets. Will save that top bedding for when I need it later. (On the left here is the fluffed bedding, on the right the reserved bedding off the top layer).

I did carefully sift through that several times to find the worms that were in it- found a dozen or so- and transferred them back over to the home bin. My two-year-old wanted to help find the worms and insisted on holding each one before it went back in the bin.

I am not sure how big they are supposed to get, but they appear healthy enough.

There only seems to be the same amount of worms that I started with- or less? - I saw no signs of baby worms or cocoons. I added some eggshell, ground into as fine a powder as I could. Kid helped with that too, she liked sprinkling stuff in for the worms.