Child’s first fish(es)
Discussion
Well...that’s a bit odd. The plant life, which had been doing so well, has decided it’s had enough of being rooted in the gravel and has just sort of shed all its stems, leaving them floating.
Weird. Everything else is still fine.
Had a quick rake through the gravel to see what’s left of the roots and there’s just a few apparently dead bits.
Annihilated by the shrimp?
The floating bits that are left appear healthy and have sprung a few tiny new roots under some of the leaves in the last few days before breaking free so I wonder is it a natural cycle of whatever plant it is?
(Please don’t ask. I’m only just getting to grips with the fish...)
Weird. Everything else is still fine.
Had a quick rake through the gravel to see what’s left of the roots and there’s just a few apparently dead bits.
Annihilated by the shrimp?
The floating bits that are left appear healthy and have sprung a few tiny new roots under some of the leaves in the last few days before breaking free so I wonder is it a natural cycle of whatever plant it is?
(Please don’t ask. I’m only just getting to grips with the fish...)
designforlife said:
That's interesting, I never had any issues with Platys eating the cherry shrimp... they can be sensitive to water parameters though so you might have something going on there..
A pair of the original shrimp batch (of six) are still around and have grown to a huge size...maybe a couple of cm long, but would they be more hardy to water issues due to metabolic size?I did watch the fish preying on the tiny shrimp so they were definitely taking them. Think it might just be a numbers game and the shrimp lost.
) plus numerous plants.So it’s been a while.....
Did a full empty-tank yearly clean a couple of months ago.
Saved 50% of the water, and used the remainder to flush the gravel and filter elements.
Took a couple of days to re-establish a settled environment but it’s staying cleaner for longer at the moment, and for some reason living plants just won’t take hold at the moment, where previously they were so successful I had to prune them back.
The population was getting out of hand though. We had nearly 30 fish at one stage, and despite best efforts to find new homes were left with no choice but to have a cull.
That took us down to around ten (some were just too small to spot in Round 1) and then with the clean I halved that number again.
We’ve lost another two in recent weeks (with no obvious external symptoms...one got maybe a little bit bloated?) so we’re back down to the original population of just three.
It’s been genuinely interesting to see how things balance out and how it all started to slowly unravel when the numbers went up and how it’s returned to normal now we’re back to three. I guess that must be the prime number for the size tank we’ve got.
The shrimp population, which had all but vanished, is returning too although I have no idea how. Can they stay dormant for months?
Anyhow, all good overall.
Did a full empty-tank yearly clean a couple of months ago.
Saved 50% of the water, and used the remainder to flush the gravel and filter elements.
Took a couple of days to re-establish a settled environment but it’s staying cleaner for longer at the moment, and for some reason living plants just won’t take hold at the moment, where previously they were so successful I had to prune them back.
The population was getting out of hand though. We had nearly 30 fish at one stage, and despite best efforts to find new homes were left with no choice but to have a cull.
That took us down to around ten (some were just too small to spot in Round 1) and then with the clean I halved that number again.
We’ve lost another two in recent weeks (with no obvious external symptoms...one got maybe a little bit bloated?) so we’re back down to the original population of just three.
It’s been genuinely interesting to see how things balance out and how it all started to slowly unravel when the numbers went up and how it’s returned to normal now we’re back to three. I guess that must be the prime number for the size tank we’ve got.
The shrimp population, which had all but vanished, is returning too although I have no idea how. Can they stay dormant for months?
Anyhow, all good overall.
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