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Not great news. Though the critters seem to like frozen bloodworms and shrimp pellets, they are slow to eat and don't consume a whole lot. At this point I'm going to attribute that to their recent move and young age, so hopefully they'll shape up. Tank temperature is about 77 F, soon to go up a bit, so I'm expecting them to grow fairly quickly.

I lost one fish though. I believe it was the one that stayed in the corner most of the time and didn't eat. The rest seem to be okay so far.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

After that terrific demonstration of my laziness, I'll give an update. The tank went through a horrible green water problem soon after I bought the fish, and I put off doing anything about it for several weeks. Then for one week I turned off the lights and did several water changes, so the water is now almost completely clear. I've added a rock pile to one corner of the tank and bought some Malaysian driftwood, which is now soaking.

And for the fish- another cory died, but the remaining eight have been pretty active. They hate me, however, and flee whenever I go anywhere near them. I get that all the time.

Yesterday I decided I was bored with a tank of just cories, and went with the original Plan B- Apistos. I found a nearby-ish store which actually doesn't suck, and picked up three Apistogramma macmasteri. They're very small right now, *maybe* an inch, but are already eating and coloring up. I tried to get two females and a male, but I think one of the "females" is looking more and more masculine. I'll exchange him for another one later this week. Overall I'm pretty happy with the progress of this tank, and I like it more than my first one. The twenty-nine gallon was pretty randomly thrown together.

I'm going to do a lot of thinking about where I'll go with the water. Our tap water is hard, pH about 7.7 or so. I may end up slowly refilling this tank with partial or all RO water, reconstituted with some blackwater mix. We shall see.

Anyhoo, pictures:


The rock stack. I'm very proud of it.


The dominant male Apisto. He's already getting some color.



The female. She's quite healthy and plump.



The suspected male. He's starting to look different than he was at the store.


Corydoras alive and well, but hateful.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I was wondering if you were going to continue with this thread Sirbooks. The apisto's are looking nice and should help to give a variety to the tank and hopefully spawn for you.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

The dominant male started chasing around the other one today, so it's good that I returned him. I picked up what was apparently the only female left in the store, and she was in bad shape. She has a torn tail fin and a wound in the middle of the forehead. I took a gamble buying her, but with luck things will work out. She was upset about the move and sat on the sand after I dripped her, but went up to the water's surface to eat flake food later. I think she'll do okay.

Added the driftwood and rearranged the planting a little. I also ordered some Purigen, hopefully this and the cleanliness (nitrates 5 ppm) will be enough for the critters. The Purigen should clear up the water, so full tank shots will be coming in about a week or so once the product arrives. I'm pretty hopeful about the future of this tank and the fish.

EDIT: I'm fairly sure the injuries on the new female were caused by the males she was housed with, not a disease. I'll keep a close watch on her just the same.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Just keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't develop an infection/fungus in her wounds. It might even be beneficial to possibly go ahead and treat her just to make sure.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Looks like the right eye is popped out too. I hate to treat the tank for seemingly mild problems on just one fish, so I'll just have to do a few extra water changes. I wish I had a quarantine tank because of cases like this. I'd hate to lose the little girl, she's getting along pretty well.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

A small plastic container or tub would suffice for a temporary hospital or treatment tank. You could siphon off say 50% of your water from the tank into it and use a small sponge filter for filtration. If you feed lightly you should be able to accomplish without much of a cycle problem.


Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Another green algae bloom has turned my tank back into the Hudson River. Update when things clear out.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Sorry to hear about the most recent setback on this setup.

It seems like you just can't get things to go along smoothly on this one. Have you figured out what may be causing the algae blooms?

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Maybe having a two bulb flourescent light on for eight hours a day, just for growing a couple of moss balls. I have a one bulb fixture in my closet, I guess I'll switch the two out.

The one Apisto was looking a lot better, but went way downhill a couple days ago. It's just hiding in the rock pile, barely breathing. Poor fish.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."