21st March

I just had a couple things I wanted to note.
Firstly the plants are flourishing. I was looking at the photo in the post I first got these plants, and looking at them now... Well, the vallis has grown so that parts of it stretch across the entire top of the tank, and the millfoil now reaches the top.

Before

After

Note that this growth is within 2 weeks. Also, below is a picture taken from under the tank of the roots of some of the millfoil.

Now for someone that has never successfully grown more than a few beans for a high school science project, this is exciting stuff. I'm sitting here watching grass grow and ENJOYING it! Amazing!

Anyway second thing is less good. Poor little Gus has a little problem.

See if you can spot the problem.

That's right, he has a chunk of his tail missing! I noticed it yesterday while changing the water. It hasn't seemed to worsen overnight and hopefully I'll be able to get to a pet shop tomorrow to ask their opinion and get some medication if need be.
From what I understand this is either a case of serious bullying, or an outbreak of the notorious 'finrot', a necrotic fungus bad thing. The whitish around the 'wound' support the latter I'm led to understand.

I managed to get a photo that I'd been waiting to get for a long time. This is THE reason I bought a sucker catfish.

NOM NOM! Also you can see the start of the bristles here.

Last thing before I post this, I have just now noticed that the split that developed in Bruce's tail a while back has stitched itself together apparently. You can see the split in the old photo up the top.

New Fishies!

Yup, I got some.
Drove down to the local fish supplier after uni and stood there deliberating over exactly what fish I wanted for half an hour while an attendant grew steadily more impatient with me (probably).
Anyway, I felt I needed a small school of something in my tank to give a boost to the tank population and liveliness. But not too small a species as they might be bullied by some of the larger fish in the tank. So I settled on a school of penguin tetras, or hocky-stick tetras depending on whose naming them. I got 10 which I think proved a good idea in giving them security and not looking like a piddly attempt at a 'school'.

The school of Penguin Tetras

Those things are amazingly hard to capture in a photo without blurring...
Next on my list was a feature fish of some kind. Unfortunately I didn't feel a discus was a good idea in my size tank, as well as requiring differing water quality. After looking around at the shop I decided I quite liked this adorable 'royal whiptail' catfish. Which I have just now dubbed Budgie.

Budgie the Royal Whiptail Catfish

Upon introducing these newcomers into the tank, the tetras found each other and all huddled close but managed to explore the tank quickly, while Budge sat in one place nibbling on a pebble. Alan started non-nonchalantly pretending to eat algae that 'just happened' to be in the immediate locale of Budgie in order to sus out this new bottom feeder. Gus decided it'd be funny to chase the tetras, in a similar manner to a child chasing seagulls, no hope of catching them, but fun anyway. Bob and Will looked a bit wary of the newcomers and Bruce was apathetic as usual.
Exciting stuff really.

Pretty sure no one actually reads this...

... However I care not!

I was gonna wait till the weekend, but in a show of recklessness I put Bruce into the big tank to test the waters. Though after testing the waters and they looked fine enough. I planned on leaving him in there alone for a day.

It's Bruce!

Though a couple of hours later my recklessness reared it's ugly head once more and I put the rest of the fish in there as well.
Ah well...

All but Alan are visible.

Alan immediately took to the dark log and Bruce staked out the caves at the back. Bob and Will hung around each other peering at everything but not moving and Gus has some shading and isn't just a black silhouette.

Anyway, basically the tank is more alive and it looks neat. Also Alan has some bristles just starting to bud. Therefore Alan = male.

Progress!

Progress report on 150L tank.
I purchased a backdrop for it, similar to the smaller tank's back drop. It has been cycling (with little activity in terms of nitrogen) for a week today and I decided I might get some LIVE plants. This involved buying some lights and plant food too, but after setting it up with the new plants I don't ever want to go back to plastic ones.
It's amazing.

Light!

From left to right my plants are as follows; vallis x2, hairgrass, lothario sword, millfoil x2, and another hairgrass.
They just look so much better than plastic.
Anyway, should be putting fish in, maybe just 1 or 2 this weekend maybe. Till next time.