Well so far we've lost five of our original eight fish (all four cardinal tetras and one bronze cory) but have replaced them with four others (three albino pristella tetras and one regular pristella tetra). Possibly pick up another two cories tonight. Chalk it up to poor research when we first started cause cardinal tetras are definitely not the type of fish you'd want to cycle a tank with. And I'm somewhat surprised that we lost the bigger cory. Not too surprised since it had been acting a bit sedate for the past day or so especially when compared to the smaller one that spends a good amount of time zipping around all over the tank. But I think we've got a good batch now that should be able to handle the vigors of a new tank since the new tetras already have an appetite whereas the cardinals would not eat. Just gotta do daily water changes and hope the bacteria start kicking in soon.
But so far watching the fish has been quite mesmerizing for me for the past few days. Fish behavior can be pretty interesting. Seems like our larger male gold barb is a bit nippy even though they're not supposed to be. I think he stressed some of the cardinals to death with all the nipping and the bastard was even bold enough to go after the four new tetras when we first brought them in even though the new guys are like twice his size. So Erin segregated him at the top of the tank with our net for awhile. At which time it seemed to us that our barbs are a couple because the smaller female one would routinely swim to the top of the tank to visit the incarcerated nipper. And then both would try to bite through the netting. =p
Feeding time turned out to be a different matter however. The regular pristella acted like it was starved out of its mind or something cause it was zipping around all over the place whenever a flake would start floating down. The three albinos were a bit more skittish and didn't get to eat as much unless the flake happened to pass by them without being detected by the regular or the gold barbs. And then the regular pristella started chasing after everyone except for the two cories. So our gold nipper finally got a taste of his own medicine.
The cories are fun lil' critters. They don't mess with any other fish and the other fish don't mess with them. The smaller one, whom I've labeled "Jr.", has been pretty active for the most part. Wiggling all around the tank, up-down-left-right constantly and then falling motionless wherever they happen to be for awhile. But it's tough to tell when one actually dies cause they don't go belly up like a regular fish. I had to poke at the big one this morning with a chopstick to determine whether or not it was still alive. They're rather cute in an ugly sort of way which is why Jr's currently our favorite fish. Not the prettiest of fish but fun to watch.
Anyway, I've been trying to talk Erin into getting a six-gallon tank cause I think the current one is waaaay too crowded for the fish that we have but she feels we've already spent more than enough on fish stuff this month so I guess maybe later on we'll do the move. In the meantime, if we can keep the remaining fish alive till then, I'll be pretty darn happy.
Comments (2)
I take it you guys saw Finding NEMO? =)
Jelly Bean Ginny also had a big tank at her office and Taipei and was killing off her fish too for awhile (and puppy). She actually got really depressed once because she thought she couldn't keep anything alive, but then eventually she learned what she was doing wrong. Funny...
Posted by Christine | July 3, 2004 8:51 PM
Posted on July 3, 2004 20:51
She killed off a puppy??? ;-p
But yeah, raising fish seems to take a lot more effort and planning than originally thought. Should be worth it though. =)
Posted by Ben | July 3, 2004 9:52 PM
Posted on July 3, 2004 21:52