fishy status update

[serenissima]

I got some new fish last Sunday: three black neon tetras. All three seem to be doing fine. They're quite active, and what's more, the five cardinal tetras I already had seem to be more active since I added the black neons. Either that, or I just never paid enough attention before to notice how much they usually move around. When I approach the tank, all the fish hide. If I stand still for half a minute, they come back out, but until the addition of the new fish, I usually saw them moving at a more leisurely pace, except at feeding time.

My power filter, a Penguin Mini, conked out about a month ago -- I'm pretty sure it's some kind of electrical problem -- so I bought a new one from Petsmart, their proprietary store brand, a Top Fin 20. It's quieter than the Penguin was, and I like that the intake tube is transparent instead of black, but the tube didn't come with an extension and it's shorter than I would like. More importantly, the new filter does not have a biowheel, and it didn't seem to be filtering adequately: the water surface seemed to get a layer of dust accumulating on it. Cleaning the filter helped, and I added a Tetra Whisper 20, which looks very much like the Top Fin model except for the logo on the housing. Hmm... so that's who manufactures Petsmart's aquarium products. I was reassured to find that the Whisper has an extra piece of foam inside to provide a substrate for the bacterial colony. The Top Fin's throughput has slowed down again, while the Whisper's has not, but I'm keeping both on the tank: I figure it can't hurt to have extra filtration.

I plan on having 8 each of the cardinals and black neons, plus a betta or a dwarf gourami as a "centerpiece fish." Or maybe slightly larger schools and no centerpiece. I'm also thinking of getting a couple of ghost shrimp, because they look funny and I'd like to have a cleanup crew. I have a slight problem with brown algae (diatoms), which I read is common in new tank setups; otocinclus cats are supposed to be able to help with that, but I also read that they're kind of sensitive, and I would need to feed them vegetables as well as plain old flakes. An option to consider.

Comments

[breimh.livejournal.com]

Just to let you know, the first two links come up with html text only.

Sounds like a nice plan for your tank. I was thinking that if I ever got another fish tank, I'd load it with mini-neon tetras, and black sand to go with a nice blacklight, to make them stand out even more sharply.

[rhynyx.livejournal.com]

Otos are pretty sensitive, although they can work out well. If you feed them algae pellets, that works too, although I hear they *love* zucchini. If you do decide to get both a betta and ghost shrimp, just be aware you may have to replace the shrimp on a semi-regular basis, 'cause some bettas are rather fond of the occasional *ahem* coctail now and then.