Maddi died...

I have no clue why... she was acting strangely... but I have no clue why, and now she's dead. She was totally my best fish - total brat, but definitely had the most personality out of the bunch. I knew it was too much of a risk to put her in the sorority. I don't think she got killed by the others - she was the alpha - internal parasites, maybe? That's what I'm treating the tank for for now. None of the others are clamped or acting strangely yet, which were the only symptoms she showed.

So... ya... I think I'm going to carve her a little tomb stone decoration that'll go in my sorority tank. She deserves it. It's not like I haven't lost other fish before, and I do get upset over the others... but this was Maddi! I don't think I'll ever find another like her...

Anyways, using Jungle medicated fish food and aquarisol on the tank right now, going to try and find some Maracyn later...

Update

I was so preoccupied with bad news and features that I forgot to say everything else I had to say! So now that I'm done those water changes, I'm posting again.

I moved Maddi to the 12 gallon by herself for now. She has always had a chronic case of fin rot in the .5 gallon, even when I change her water every day, so hopefully she'll do better in there. When the other five females come, I'll take her out temporarily before putting all eight females in together. Don't have to worry about her claiming territory because there are only a couple decorations in there right now, and I'm going to be adding tons of plants before putting all the girls in, so she won't recognize it. I have a couple live plants and tons of silk ones on the way, so by the time I get the fish and quarantine them for a week I should be all set.

I should be (finally) getting those five other females in the next week. I'm getting to be less and less of a fan of winter. I don't normally mind it all that much... but it's keeping me away from my fishies.

Also, I'm moving Sky to the 2.5 gallon. Alpha's not happy to give up his tank... but Sky is so jittery about everything, I don't want to freak him out with water changes every second day.

And... I joined Technorati. So if you've got an account, there's a link to fave this blog on the left.

Fin Rot

With all the holidays happening around here (Valentines for real on the 14th, then Valentines with me and my bf on the 17th, then his birthday today) I've been exhausted most of the time and busy the rest. The result being me falling behind on water changes... and the result of that being fin rot for Maddi. She tends to be prone to it... and I figured she'd be fine until I get her and the others in the sorority tank. But this morning she had fin rot again. So I stuck her in the 12 gallon by herself for now because I didn't have time to do anything else. She seems to be improving already, though. I might leave her in there until the other fish come (next week hopefully) and then take her out, add the decorations and put all of them in.

Um... ya, just an update. Not really any useful info there for you guys. Open to questions as always, though.

Alpha and his bubble nest

Alright, so I keep on saying I'll add photos of Alpha... and here he is. He's much happier since I moved him to the 2.5 gallon - he's much bigger than any of my other fish, so he needs the extra space. In the 1 gallon he just kinda... sat there... But now he's happy and I had fun taking pictures. He even flared at the camera! Unfortunately I wasn't focused properly and that photo's just kinda a blur... so it's not here. I'll try and get another one sometime.

And yes that's a beer bottle, even though beer is disgusting... I needed to put something in the tank and the bottle was there XP If you're going to use that idea, make sure you clean out the bottle really well and fill it part way with gravel or something, especially if you don't have any ground cover, and fill it with water.

And today I came home and went to feed him and there was a bubble nest! It's not a very big one, but I've never seen one in person before... so I was really excited. I'm going to try breeding him... with Maddi, I think... when I have the space and time. Also have to wait for a little tear in one of Maddi's fins to heal - think it was a bit of an ammonia burn, I didn't have time to do any cleaning on the day I normally would have cleaned all the tanks out so I had to leave it an extra day.

Post!

I realize I've been neglecting the blog... sorry... so busy...

Anyways. Maddi has recovered from ich, constipation and fin rot. It was wierd... I did a water change and didn't have time to put the decorations back in, and she's suddenly fine. I think it was the marbles I was using as ground cover. Either way, she's fine now. The constipation and fin rot went away on their own and ich went away with salt and darkness.

Just got some fish shipped to me from someone in Winnipeg. Four fish and only one survived. I think it was because there was only one heat pack and it's winter up here. If there had been two and they were attached to the bottom rather than the top (heat rises), all four might have lived. The one that survived is currently floating in my heated 2.5 gallon to try and get him to perk up a little.

Also, I bought a 12gallon tank, along with a heater and a filter and some other miscellaneous stuff off of a friend for $40. Such a good deal. Once I have a chance to clean and decorate it, it'll be my new sorority tank.