# We're going on an Adventure!



## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

An Adventure in fishkeeping!  Hehe. I'm gonna start logging my miscellaneous (mis)adventures in fishkeeping here, I'm sure looking forward to the journey.

So, starting off as of today, I have 3 bettas, 5 otos, and 2 pygmy cories. Let's start with the otos as they happy to be my most embarrassing story to date. 










All five otos decided they needed some group therapy today. I've got all five in one ten gallon right now because it's the tank with the most algae for them to eat. I plan on spreading them around once I get a chance to plant and establish a few of my other tanks. So, the story behind why I got five to begin with is... silly.

I wanted to try out some otos, but I was hesitant about them because I've heard how horribly they're captured in the wild, how they often have health issues and die easily because of that. Well, I talked to the fish people at my local PetSmart and they kept insistent that all of their fish are captive bred and tank raised. Well, okay. I'm still hesitant to get any otos from them because, hey, it's PetSmart.

As I'm walking by the fish display one day I notice some Glofish with some really back ich. I pointed it out to one of the PetSmart associates and they knew about it already, saying they've been treating every one of the tanks because all the fish have it. In fact, the fish probably first got infected around Christmas because that's when they first started getting customer complaints. So they'd been getting in new equipment because something was broken, began treating all of their tanks, and they'd hadn't gotten a fish order in since so as not to infect any new fish, too. I looked down at the otos, because I'd still been monitoring them even if I was nervous about buying them, and they all looked health despite one of the mollies in their tank having really back ich.

The treatments continue, the fish got healthier, and those otos had been in a PetSmart tank for about a month and a half and still looked perfectly healthy, if not a little hungry. I figured I wouldn't get a better chance to buy otos who'd actually been held at a store for a while and hadn't died mysteriously, so I decided to get some.

I wanted three. There were four in the tank and PetSmart wasn't getting another fish order until the next week, so I felt bad and got all four. I go in a couple days later and the associate who caught the fish for me told me we missed one! There's a lone oto in the tank. Well, I'm going to be planting more tanks in the near future, hopefully, and now I felt guilty, so I went home with a fifth fish.

All otos are very pleased with being the only fish in the tank, at the moment.


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## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

*Jody, the spitfire crowntail*

Jody is the fish who's given the most heart attacks to date. She has no desire to relinquish that title, either.

I got her as one of those PetCo "baby bettas" and, boy, she's grown a lot.




























The latest heart attack is that I'm worried she's developing some fin rot on her caudal. She's acting and eating normally, but clamping her caudal occasionally like in the picture above. Her rays aren't as prominent as they have been, either, so I suspect they're being eaten away. So! Water changes and a tiiiiiny bit of aquarium salts, just in case!

But this heart attack is nothing compared to the other day. Jody is next to Kelpie in a divided 10 gallon tank. Last Friday, I made a slight modification to the filter in the tank, I baffled it. I then went downstairs for a few hours and when I got back upstairs, I don't see Jody coming over to greet me, as usually. Even more strange, Kelpie isn't checking me out, either. That's when I get really nervous.

This little butt somehow found a place to wiggle through to Kelpie's side of the tank. I don't know how she did it, but she might have found a tiny place where the divider wasn't flush with the aquarium wall next to the filter. Without the strong filter flow to discourage her, she wiggled through to Kelpie's side.

I find Jody with stress stripes and Kelpie annoyed at having been disturbed. The kicker? I can't find anything wrong with Jody's fins except for a small tear that doesn't look like it could have been a bite at all. Kelpie, on the other hand, has at least 3 small nips out of his caudal.

This gosh-darn little fish snuck to another fish's territory to annoy him and has the nerve to act like the damsel in distress when I find them! I was terrified I'd find a dead Jody, but maybe I should have been more worried about Kelpie, instead. *sigh*


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## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

*July*










My patriotic marble isn't as patriotic as he used to be!










Now he's a lovely dark blue with red still present in his fins.

As I tend to worry a lot about my pets, I also worry about my July. He always acts as if his fins are too big for him and is very much prone to sulking. He has a sponge filter to try and keep from getting him kicked around. As you can all see, too, he's nipped himself a few times and that one original nip he came home with has never completely healed. His one curled ventral, however, has uncurled a lot since I got him, so there's a positive!

I just hope he'll let his fins heal. I've been worried about those nipped fins developing into fin rot from day one and I don't like how the edges look on that one fin. He's getting a little bit of salt along with Jody.


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## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

*Kelpie, the Tough Guy*

My phone's camera adores Kelpie. It hates all other fish. Kelpie is its favorite. Be prepare for pictures.










Hey. Hey you. Yeah, you. You looking at me?










Yeah, that's right, keep swimming.

Like all my fish, Kelpie takes no greater joy than worrying me. I think he hurt himself, somehow, today, but I have no idea what he did or how he did it. His attitude hasn't changed in the slightest, but he scales sure don't look good. Here he was two days ago.










Here he is today. (the first two pictures in the post are from today, too)


















































I included a picture of his other side for contrast.

I don't know. It looks like something too a bite out of him or he got hit with something circular. As long as he's not acting sick, I'll probably just let him be.


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## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

*Pygmy Cory Misadventures*

These guys break my heart a little bit. I asked PetCo to order me 10, 12 got shipped, 1 died in transit, 3 died in PetCo's tanks, 1 died during acclimation to my tank, and 5 more died after that. Now I have 2 pygmy cories left and they don't look sick like the others had... yet.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get more soon so they guys don't get too stressed out. Hopefully not from PetCo, too, but options are severely limited.


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## Schmoo (Oct 3, 2014)

Kelpie is a handsome fella!


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## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

Schmoo said:


> Kelpie is a handsome fella!


And he knows it, too! It's his fault I got so into bettas, I'm sure of it. I just couldn't put his cup down when I found him at PetCo.


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## Secants (Oct 31, 2015)

Alright, we'll start with the sad news.

I ordered 20 shrimp from a seller on Aquabid. They arrived on Wednesday and they were all dead. The lady at the post office told me, when I arrived, that my package smelled really bad and wanted to know what was in it, because she was sure it was dead. Unfortunately, she was correct. The seller offered me a refund and were very fantastic about the whole experience, despite the shrimp arriving deceased, and I would probably buy from them again given the chance, but not until spring time. I've learned my lessen with shipping live animals in the winter.

Now on to the fun news!

I set up my 5 gallon as another planted tank! I think I did better this time, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Pictures will come sometimes later, when I have the time.

Hopeful news next.

I got 10 more pygmy cories from Petco yesterday. This time I used drip acclimation, but they still seemed really stressed out from all the moving. They were set up in my 8 gallon that's being used as a quarantine tank for them. It's full of my leftover silk plants, java moss, and ceramic cichlid rocks. Plus, I tossed an IAL in there a couple days before for the tannins. They're in a dark corner of my desk with no lights on and have been there all day.

Despite setting them up for success yesterday, I came home today after a full day of work expecting the worse, but all 12 of my cories are still alive! I'm SO excited and thrilled! The drip acclimation must have made a world of difference, plus the IAL, too, I bet. I'm really hoping all of them will pull through! Right now I'm watching the little guys explore in search for food and I'm just... so hopeful. Especially after all the death I've experienced between the first batch of cories and the shrimp... I really needed this win.

Everyone please keep your fingers crossed for me!


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