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A Fish Blog, Yet No One Died
Aug. 13th, 2009 12:29 pmShawn and I had been noticing that the java moss in the ten gallon fish tank (with Bob[3] and the three white mountain minnows) was turning yellow. I tried adding some aquatic plant food, but it didn't seem to do much good. I was feeling like a complete failure because, jeepers, java moss is supposed to be fairly indestructiable. If I couldn't aqua garden java moss, what hope was there for a lushly planted tank upstairs (which is my dream)?
Today, when I was cleaning their tank I discovered the problem. The java moss had grown so thick that it was competing with itself for the available minerals and food. I pulled out three huge handfuls of the densely packed stuff, which not only made more room for the plants but for the fish as well.
Now the two male white mountain minnows are battling it out for squating rights of the cool new space I opened up under the filter.
It's actually kind of fun to watch. They flair out their tiny red, black and silver fins and dart and dash at each other. So far no nipping that I can detect, so that's all right. The female is just sort of cruising around near the top half of the water (their preferred cruising altitude) like she's saying, "Sigh. When will those boys decided who goes where, so we can get back to normal?" (Which for her is chosing a mate every other week, it seems, and then laying eggs for the goldfish to devour.)
Anyway, I kicked up a lot of gunk while removing the excess moss, so I'm waiting for it to settle a bit to see if I need to do another gallon or so water change. We're headed out of town tonight -- up to our friend's cabin again -- and so I like to make sure I change all the tanks before I leave (and, anyway, today *is* Thursday, fish cleaning day.)
I did have a classic Lyda/fish moment, though. At one point, before the gunk had settled and the fistfulls of moss were in the garbage, I could only detect two minnows. I thought, "Oh crap. The moss was so dense, I picked up a fish with it and didn't even notice." Luckily, before I started frantically digging through the garbage, the female (the missing one) came out from around the corner. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. How embarrassing would it be to have thrown out a fish!?
Today, when I was cleaning their tank I discovered the problem. The java moss had grown so thick that it was competing with itself for the available minerals and food. I pulled out three huge handfuls of the densely packed stuff, which not only made more room for the plants but for the fish as well.
Now the two male white mountain minnows are battling it out for squating rights of the cool new space I opened up under the filter.
It's actually kind of fun to watch. They flair out their tiny red, black and silver fins and dart and dash at each other. So far no nipping that I can detect, so that's all right. The female is just sort of cruising around near the top half of the water (their preferred cruising altitude) like she's saying, "Sigh. When will those boys decided who goes where, so we can get back to normal?" (Which for her is chosing a mate every other week, it seems, and then laying eggs for the goldfish to devour.)
Anyway, I kicked up a lot of gunk while removing the excess moss, so I'm waiting for it to settle a bit to see if I need to do another gallon or so water change. We're headed out of town tonight -- up to our friend's cabin again -- and so I like to make sure I change all the tanks before I leave (and, anyway, today *is* Thursday, fish cleaning day.)
I did have a classic Lyda/fish moment, though. At one point, before the gunk had settled and the fistfulls of moss were in the garbage, I could only detect two minnows. I thought, "Oh crap. The moss was so dense, I picked up a fish with it and didn't even notice." Luckily, before I started frantically digging through the garbage, the female (the missing one) came out from around the corner. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. How embarrassing would it be to have thrown out a fish!?