Kind of Blue

[Hades]

Hi all!

I'm starting this album pretty late since this tank has been running little over a year now...
About time to start a journal i guess...

Hardware
- 100cm long/50 cm wide/35 cm high, open top
- Opti white glass, 8mm
- I tried to be as realistic as possible about the water content of the tank.
Next you will witness the disappearing of what i call 'virtual content' 😀:
175 liter (gross content, based on outside measurements)
157 liter (gross content, based on inside measurements/actual waterheight, so the tank "holds +/- 18 liter of glass")
140 liter water (157 liter + 9 liter(external filters)=166 liter-26 liter (soil and (estimated) stones) = 140L)
So i try to think of it in terms of a 140 liter tank instead of a 175 liter.... 🙄
- Lights: Daytime Matrix 100.5 (3UBRW + 2UW), hanging from ceiling
(TC420, 7,5 hours, 50% intensity)
- Filtration: Eheim professionel3-250 (950l/u) + Eheim classic 2217 (1.000l/u)
- JBL Volcano
- ADA Amazonia (powder and normal)
- Seiryu stones
- CO2 with JBL inline diffuser

Ferts
From the start i used 3 separate solutions (traces+Fe, PO4 and NO3) premixed by a fellow aquarist and at depletion i recently switched to drysalts.

Plants (still evolving)
-Salvinia natans, Pistia stratiotes
-Cryptocoryne parva (wow, that's slow!)
-Cryptocoryne wendtii brown
-Hemianthus callitrichoides
-Micranthemum monte carlo
-Blyxa japonica
-Marsilea hirsuta
-Staurogene brown
-Hygrophilla pinnatifida
-Bucephalandra sp.
-Althernanthera reineckii mini
-mosses: fissidens fox, Monosolenium tenerum, Fontinalis antipyretica en "bucephalandra" moss (real name is a mystery but it's a lovely moss)

Lifestock
It might sound a little odd but i didn't add any animals (except two clithon snails) the first year. 😳
But!!!
I did add a few Amano's last week, after a full year of cycling i was confident enough to add them even without testing for NO2/NH3!!! 🙄

I named the tank "Kind of Blue" in dedication to the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (and John Coltrane!!!). I can only hope to create a glimpse of the atmosphere and the beauty of this album in my tank. It's a great record and perfect for tankwatching imho!
😉
Time for some pictures of the starting period.

The blanc canvas

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Shortly after first planting, the right side of the scape is not final yet.

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The stone with the flowering buce on top was there only for a few weeks and then was moved to another tank. Love the buce but i felt the stone didn't really fit in the scape as it blocked the big stone behind it too much)

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A few adjustments were made on the right side

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3 weeks later, final version of the hardscape (as said above except the 'buce on stone' in the left centre of the tank, it won't be there on the next pictures...).
From then on the plants can grow without me doing small hardscape changes every week.

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I will update with pics of the following months next time...
So this is it for now,
I do hope it was to your liking 😀
And i do thank you for watching/reading... 😉

I will update with pics of the following months next time...

 

[alto]

will update with pics of the following months next time...

 

[Hades]

Hello again!

An update of the second month.
All pictures are made with a, rather shaggy, smartphone so i am sorry for the bad quality...

(Note for the extra observant readers 🙂:
at that moment the second filter was still to be installed so only one filter (one set of piping) is in the pictures... 😉, the visible spraybar will be replaced with a glass lily pipe later on. The heater is mounted horizontal on the right side btw, beneath the spraybar)

Bucephalandra Elegant Blue flowering during it's last days in this tank. Since it's roots were firmly attached to the stone (which didn't really fit in) i decided to remove it as can be seen in the other pictures...

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Full tank shot
5/5/2017, exactely one year and one week ago today...
(floating breeding tank on the left holds some plants to be planted)

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Left side
With loads of gorgeous bucephalandra sp. at that time

Makes me sad, but i have to add: their presence in the tank wont last very long... 🙁
What can i say: sometimes you win, sometimes you loose And as a future update probably will tell:
when on a losing streak it's essential to come to accept your loss in order to change the odds.
Adequate damage control is key, as we will see... 😀

Anyhow: one year ago all was well and full of joy!
So for now: Birds were singing, plants were green and blue, carpets were growing and sharpened scissors were eagerly awaiting their upcoming deflowering of this tank.
In short: Blue skies all the way...😛 Happy days!!
We all know them: the ones that tend to pass almost unnoticed, underestimated at their moment.
😉
One year later i merely have some shaggy pictures to remind me of this moment in time and space.
Digital pictures that are mumbling, like little, virtual member berries:

"Member those Buces?".... "Oh yeah, i member!!" .... "Aah, Member them colors?" ....
"Yeah, I member, I love them colors!!!"... "Oooh, hmmmmm, yes i member them!"...

(Sorry for that! Just ignore that bit if it sounds crazy to you... Southpark fans might catch my drift tho 😛. When in doubt just click the link to meet the berries 😀)
Anyhoe
Time for the pic...

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Kind of Blue 😉

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That's it for now.
Thanks for watching.
I do apologize once more for the member berry-freestyle (or "-free-from-style" if you wish ) and such but it was stronger than me...
Anyhow, no harm done. I am merely polluting my own album, reckon i won't really mind that much.
Anyone who does mind please feel free to ignore (or block) me 'cause it might happen again.

grtz

 

[alto]

I do apologize once more for the member berry-freestyle (or "-free-from-style" if you wish ) and such but it was stronger than me...

Not at all - makes for an engaging read 😀

You've likely missed this one from REDSTEVEO
The Full Monty

 

[Hades]

You've likely missed this one from REDSTEVEO
The Full Monty

Hehe, thanks for the tip! Just saw the first pages for now but i already like the writing.
Pretty long journal (31pages!) so i will have to take some time for it.
But it's going to be a fun read i expect so once i start the read it will go fast probably.
Cheers again!

I'll try to update this album with some pics this weekend (i hope) so no worries, people!!

But i have to admit that there are no real signs of anyone worrying so far actually...
Sheer update-anticipation is not causing any sleep being lost by the looks of things. 😀
So everything is A-OK, no (need to) stress.

 

[Hades]

You've likely missed this one from REDSTEVEO
The Full Monty

Not completed the read yet but am getting there!
Hehe, nice journal, good stuff!


Maybe a quick update with some pictures.
Again smartphone quality so do not expect to be blown away by pixels, details, sharpness or any photography-heroics. I don't have the gear nor the skills to impress through pictures...
Maybe, hopefully, one day i'll get the good stuff and develop some skills but for now:

To those expecting quality pics, i have to say:
"Forget abou-it, get outta hee"
For the rest of you, so to those willing to forgive and forget all picture flaws:

Today we go back in time, back one year so we'll cover June 2017!
The tank was planted around 15 march 2017 so attached pictures were taken in week 10 or 11 after planting.
Lights at 45% for 7 hours ATMITAS*.

*ATMITAS: At That Moment In Time And Space
Abrv. created by yours truly, right here and now, on the spot! Even googled it: doesn't compute!!
Well hellooooo! Amazing stuff!:
"It's new, it's catchy, it's handy and it's really way shorter than the original!!!"
We got a sure winner!!! So come on, let's make this work, spread it, like good butter!!!

This post will be known as the official birthplace of ATMITAS!!! EPIC!!
So much time will be saved on a global scale and typing will change for eternity!!
Worth a shot i guess: three likes to the first ten people using it with a link to this post!!
Nono, 5 likes!! At least!
😀😛😀
Probably hard to believe but i really tried hard to avoid going off topic like this, again...
But somehow deepdown i knew resistance was futile...
Again it just happened, in the blink of an eye... My fingers typed this before i read it...
Sorry for that, i'll grab control again now, no worries!
Here we go!

5/6/2017
Carpet is growing nicely!
Still tweaking the planting on the right side. ATMITAS 🙂D) i was starting to fall in love with Blyxa japonica.
Initialy i didn't even plan on using any Blyxa in this scape.
But while starting up this tank i also restyled two tanks from a friend.
And at that moment another aquarist offered me "some" Blyxa cuttings for those 2 tanks.
The Blyxa came from a well established tank, looked really nice and healthy and i really received loads of it.
Since it actually looked that nice i kept some for my tank and added them from the start (left side).
Gradually it grew on me 😀
I love the way it waves in the current, the way it grows (getting really bushy and rather massive without invading the whole tank with runners everywhere) and i also liked the low maintenance aspect of it.
Doesn't need pruning/trimming like some of the other plants but just gets more and more bushy. Eventually you need to uproot, seperate and replant it once and a while. And only when you take it out you'll see how massive it actually is. Other from that it just grows for some months without work or hassle!!! Great plant!

Anyhooo: as the bush grew more thick and got higher my blyxa-adoration grew and grew to a next level!: "More, gimme more!"
I decided to add some tiny cuttings behind the right stone to evaluate how it looked with blyxa in both corners, possibly even a big bunch to replace the anubias on wood on the righthandside corner which didn't really fit imo.

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Top view

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Left side

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I planted some Althernanthera Reineckii mini against the front glass to evaluate the spread of the led unit. I wasn't sure if one lightfixture was going to be sufficient (rather thin unit: 7cm wide) to cover the 50cm wide tank from front to back so i used this plant as indicator. It grew compact, upright and had a good red color so my confidence in the light grew as fast as this plant!

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Right side

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That's it for now, thank you for reading and watching!
Spread the ATMITAS word! 😉

grtz

 

[Hades]

Time for an update.
Last time i stopped mid june 2017 so today we go back exactely one year to cover end june-mid july.
I'll make it short this time before i get known as:
"That ranting guy, you know who i mean!"
"Who that?"
"Well, that fishless 'plants only' tank dude! Now and then he starts those to long to read monologues.."
"Ah, you mean that euh, was he dutch? No, not dutch but something like that... Anyhoo, i know the one you mean, with his almost-jokes..."
"Isn't he also the official ATMITAS (Registered Trademark)-founder?"
"Yeah, that's right!"
...
So to avoid this scenario i will keep the wordcount low this time and the joke-count even lower.
😉

A few essential words to go with the pictures:

-ATMITAS tank is running 3 months give or take. 🙂

-Reineckii mini left the tank... Did it's job and was never the intention to keep it long term. It was on this spot to evaluate the light unit coverage but the placement in tank was far from ideal.
I liked the plant but do think the tank looks better without. Hardscape is better visible and allround look seems more coherent to me. Few pics with and some pics without to compare...

-Moved some blyxa cuttings to the right side. The Anubias (far right corner) has to go so i want to gradually fill this side with more blyxa.

-Marsilea hirsuta slowly getting overgrown...

-H. pinnatifida is growing ok but from the start i had mixed feelings:
i like the plant but the tank is not really ideal for it. The hardscape isn't very compatible with leafsize and shape, no wood to grow it on, the tank and scape are quite low and the pinnatifida tends to grow too tall and roots under/in the carpet...
Still, i kept the plant for some more months in there, obviously i waited -eyes wide shut- 'till it completely got out of hand and started taking over the tank. Then i acted surprized (as if it grew overnight) and decided to remove it completely...

This will be the subject of a future update!
This one needs a low wordcount so time for pictures!

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That's it for this time!
Grtz

 

[Hades]

A long overdue update on this tank.
It got a little out of hand as i skipped some trimming (whilst still doing the WC and ferts dosing and such).
Anyhooo...
Slowly but surely the plants were taking over!
Blyxa went crazy and formed two huge bushes in the back corners.
The thin carpet became a long haired rug,
the Pinnatifida transformed more into pinn-intifada 😉 (as in taking control over the tank)
The marsilea was going berserk along the right side glass.

Oh lawd, It looked like somewhere along the line some kind of green bombexplosion hit the tank...
😱
...
Now, I do believe in TLC (love rules and all) but that ship had sailed (and the boat was way out of sight!!)...
So some good old TLC was not going to cut this cookie...
Rather serious handling was needed. This asked for a step by step working plan since i didn't have the time to tackle all this in one go and also wanted to avoid an overall shock by too much altering simultaneously.
So i started off with decimating the Blyxa.
Even though i kinda liked the big bushes i had to admit: too much of a good thing is great ... but it's still too much. 😉
And since the two blyxa-mountains started to affect the flow they just had to go!

I also gave the HC a "courtesy trim" hoping that this would help in keeping my recurring "flying carpet-nightmares" at bay.
More then once i feared coming home to a tank holding a free floating HC-canopy above a soil desert-scape....
"Stay down, that's it! Good carpet, stay now!" i whispered whilst i gently caressed it, in a downworth fashion!
🙄
Since it seem to listen i kept saying this plantprayer, every morning and night...
Why change a winning team, right?!

Some pictures of the tank, before and after this first step to regain control once again!

Growing:






All grown up now
(FTS mid oktober 2017, so one year ago more or less)



Directely after first trim. Nevermind the floating debris, nor the picture quality



First step in the reclaiming control strategy was taken, more to follow obviously!
Cheers!

 

[Hades]

I'm slowly adding some color to the tank.

Rotala rotundifolia "Orange Juice".
Took a while but since a few days the submersed growth is getting on track and starting to show color.




And the second one i recently bought as Myriophyllum mattogrossense but i guess it's more likely M. tuberculatum.
Not the easiest plant apparently but i'll give it a go...
For now she seems pretty happy.
Wish me luck... 😉

Anyone out there that can confirm the exact species?
Cheerz!

 

[Hades]

Newyear tends to make me a bit melancholic.
One could say it makes me feel

-Kind of Blue-

Aha!
This calls for some quick snaps...

🙂







A view through the eye of the beholder

 

[Hades]

This tank has been running for exactely two years so i figured the tank should be cycled enough to hold some fish... 🙄

I recently ran into some Pseudomugil Paskai "Red neon" and i was instantly fan of those little buggers!
Decided to buy a big group so i have 15 of them in my tank atm.
No pictures yet: bad camera(-skills) and very fast moving fish give a bad combination..

I've had them for a couple of weeks now and they are really showing stunning colors!
They went from a pale brown-yellow to a deep brown-orange body. With a great blue "airstrip-lights"-line on the back, vibrant blue eyes, beautiful red cheecks and gorgeous outlines on the scales! Truely very beautiful little fish. 😉
And they have amazing behaviour, the males are constantly sparring and showing off to the ladies!
The guys float around buzzing their yellow tipped pectoral fins so they look like little floating hummingbirds.
They flare their black spotted orange dorsal fins when they spar or spawn!
Stunning and mesmerizing to watch.

They probably show the best and most entertaining behaviour i have ever seen in one of my own tanks:
Exploring every inch of the bottom in small groups and when they find something they hang vertical in the water biting and digging down the HC or other plants.
At the same time the males are constantly luring females in the "bushes" and they really go the extra mile to convince the target of their beauty and quality! 😛
When another male passes they instantly start sparring, turning around eachother, swimming sideways with open fins!
They are spawning daily and I managed to extract a few eggs now and then.

Almost perfect fish, almost because unfortunately they are a bit jumpy (especially at night-times). 🙁
I saw one jumping out the other day because i ran a cloth along the side glas (whilst being dark in the tank). I heard a little splash and luckily i checked the floor and managed to throw the fish back in the tank...

Anyhooo, that made me decide to install some kind of cover on the tank.
Not really my first choise, i prefer an open top tank... but i don't want to find 'stickie fish' on the floor so it has to be done...

For now i made some temporary plexi covers but i will order two custom glass covers to make it more 'clean'.

But i do wonder if the tank has to be completely covered, maybe a cover on both sides/corners will be enough?
Leaving some open water in the middle?
I guess the jumping mainly happens in corners or along the sideglass (because they ran into a 'barrier' during flight)?
But i might be wrong....
Full cover or two smaller covers, one on each side, with some space between them??
That is the question...

Any idea anyone?Or another suggestion to cover maybe?

 

[Hades]

"Sad to say,
things have gone astray..."

🙁🙁

About a month ago i bought a group of 9 Otocinclus to complete the tank.
A few days later i noticed one oto had a rather big, white spot. Further inspection showed he also had a "popeye".
Little later i found one Paskai with popeye and a second oto with a white spot.
On a few occasions i noticed a few Red neons that seemed to loose conscience for a few seconds, being sucked up by the lilypipe and twirling like a dead leave in the flow before regaining control...
🙁
When i lost 2 Paskai and 2 oto's i decided that intervention was necessary...
I asked some advice and the conclusion was that i probably brought a bacterial infection in the tank introducing the new fish.
Took some rather drastic action and medicated with Bactopur direct.
To have the best results it's adviced to turn off the lights (photosensitive active ingredients), turn off CO2 and stop fertz during medication...

Since the infection seemed pretty bad a 10 day treatment was advised...!

10 days.... to completely exterminate every bacteria (good or bad) in the tank.
10 days.... to save the fish
10 days.... to kill the filters and starve the plants!
10 days.... to crash the tank

My first reaction was:
"Oh how nice! That just sounds great!
Can't wait! Let's do it now!"


So that's what i did:
brought the lights down to 4%, stopped co2, stopped fertz and threw in the meds!
The Bactopur tablets made the water turn fluo green so at least everything looked greenish! 😛
That helped to ease the pain during the 10 day blackout!!




In the end i lost 4 out of 9 otocinclus, two before and two during treatment. 🙁
All remaining Paskai recovered, they kept on spawning during medication..

Two weeks ago i rebooted the tank:
Added different bacterial starters (aquapure Bactobals, Tetra bactozym and ADA Bacter100) to the filters,
Switched on the lights and gas
restarted fertz.
Did extra waterchanges

Initially the plants looked okay-ish...
but gradually the damage is starting to show.

ATMITAS the tank looks at his worst:
lot of plant decay,
hairalgae in the HC carpet,
poor plant health/colour.


Luckily the fish seem to do great now, that's all that matters in the long run.
It won't be easy to get things straightened out again but it's a challenge!

Lesson learned: Quarantaine new fish next time.
But for now i don't think i will be buying new fish any time soon.
I would have preferred a larger group of oto's (5 is really minimal) but fear has entered my mind for the time being...

Gotta love those little blue eyed red cheeky buggers though!



Two males sparring!
Note the blurry spot in front of the fish: that is the other male twirling around in sheer excitement!
All eyes on the price!



They love screening the carpet.
Like little scavengers they examinate every square inch of the bottom...

 

[zozo]

Sorry to read about the Oto's.. But that also is a welcome to the Oto world.. These fish are known to be very stress susceptible and sensitive to changes.
It rather can be considered a rarety if all survive a move and addapt to a to another new invirionment. It's this stress susceptibility that shocks them, they can stop eating and simply get sick and die.

It is often recomended to ask the LFS when they arrived in the shop. And hope for an honnest answer.. Than wait at least 6 weeks to come back and buy the ones that are still alive. These are the strong ones with the best changes of survival. If they are in the shop only for a short time, then they are already in shock, than the 2nd move again to another invironment will shock them even more and often prooves fatal to a number of them. 🙁

 

[Hades]

Sorry to read about the Oto's.. But that also is a welcome to the Oto world.. These fish are known to be very stress susceptible and sensitive to changes.
It rather can be considered a rarety if all survive a move and addapt to a to another new invirionment. It's this stress susceptibility that shocks them, they can stop eating and simply get sick and die.

Yeah, i know...
That is one of the reasons i never had them before.
The shop owner actually ensured me they were there allready a couple of weeks and accepted food/were all eating.
I reserved them one week and "prepared" my tank somehow by upping the light in order to have some algae. My tank was very ripe (after two years 😉) so i hoped that there was enough for them to feed on.

Just because of their reputation and because i dislike the way they are caught/massive die-off.
So I had the ambition to avoid any fallout...
That went wrong somehow... 🙁

Things looked promising initially: they were eating straight away so i hoped for the best.
But i do beleive there was something wrong with them.
There was the popeye (which spread to the paskai), the 4 oto's that died all developped the same whitish marks.
The Paskai (no pic) that passed got "double" popeyes and died within a day.
Others started to faint and fish began to swim oddly.

I've been wondering what went wrong so i've backtracked the events.
One of the Oto's did hide the first days, i guessed it was stress. But when he eventually showed himself i saw the white mark. (See pic)
Thinking about a cause i remembered the shop owner did drop one on the floor behind my back, i just caught him picking it up/throwing it in the bag.
I thought that caused the wound.

But then i noticed the popeye.
And a second oto with a mark, and a third...
Then the paskai started eye-popping so i decided to medicate.
Hope i made the right decision (considering the consequences on plants, beneficial bacteria) but at least the fish seem to be doing better since the medication.

No more fainting, twirling (except when sparring) or other strange things in the tank so i think and hope things will settle down for the better..

Popeye-victim




White mark (and also visible popeye)

 

[zozo]

Poor thing, yu can clearly see the red infection behind its eye.. Pop eye cause is difficult to determinate, it can have a number of causes. From physical damage to the eye, nitrite poisening or bad water quality in general, bacterial or fungal and or parasitic infection.

That also makes treatment a best guess and hope for the best. In some cases a saltbath can be effective, in others a antibiotic treatment. I believe regarding antibiotics it is no longer readily available in shops in the entire EU.. Only via official vet subscription.. That leaves with products like Esha 2000 only, which is a broad scale antiseptic.

It is not uncommon that about every aqaurium contains some latently pressent parasites, fungus spores and or bacterias. It can come with food and plants etc. It comes down to general health of the fish itself, they fight it off with natural resistance if they are healthy. With Oto's it's always a big question mark since they are so stress susceptible. It is what you see is what you get.. Even if they are eating and look playfull doesn't say much about overall condition. What els can they do.. In the animal kingdom they don't whine about not feeling very well..If an animal acts sick you can be pretty sure it is realy sick already for a longer periode than it showed.. For 99% of the fish, if they show its already to late..

 

[Hades]

Poor thing, yu can clearly see the red infection behind its eye..

Yeh, it was very sad to see.

op eye cause is difficult to determinate, it can have a number of causes. From physical damage to the eye, nitrite poisening or bad water quality in general, bacterial or fungal and or parasitic infection.

It is not uncommon that about every aqaurium contains some latently pressent parasites, fungus spores and or bacterias. It can come with food and plants etc. It comes down to general health of the fish itself, they fight it off with natural resistance if they are healthy. With Oto's it's always a big question mark since they are so stress susceptible. It is what you see is what you get.. Even if they are eating and look playfull doesn't say much about overall condition. What els can they do.. In the animal kingdom they don't whine about not feeling very well..If an animal acts sick you can be pretty sure it is realy sick already for a longer periode than it showed.. For 99% of the fish, if they show its already to late..

Indeed, difficult to be sure about the diagnosis.
And also true that every tank contains pathogenes that a healthy fish should be able to fight off.
At first i tried to add Voogle in the hope that they would be able to fight it off easier but when i saw it spreading (first to other oto's showing the same white marks and then also to the Paskai (=popeyes)) i could not really ignore the fact that something "fishy" was going on.

And since i only have small fish i knew that any disease can cause a rampage very fast. Like you say: when they show signs of sickness they are really sick and such small fish seem to die very short after the first symptoms show.

I believe regarding antibiotics it is no longer readily available in shops in the entire EU.. Only via official vet subscription.. That leaves with products like Esha 2000 only, which is a broad scale antiseptic.

I don't have a lot of confidence in Esha 2000, i read a lot that it no longer works effective due to resistance...
Bactopur Direct is quite heavy and i was told it is more effective, especially with bacterial infection.
Just before adding it to the tank i noticed a couple of Paskai hanging about at the surface, quite lethargic in their movement.
On day two of the treatment they rejoined the pack witch was encouraging.
For now they are all back to their inquisitive selves: constantly scavanging like a bunch of chicken!

As long as i don't see any more strange swimming or fainting fish i am hopefull!

 

[Hades]

Happy to say that the Bactopur treatment did the trick!
All fish back in full force!

They spot everything and when they do they swarm like little orange bee's!
As usual: All eyes on the price!
Gotta love them!