Hi everyone
it's been quite some time since I last posted so thought I'd let you know how the tank is progressing. It's been 20 months, yeah can't quite believe it, since I set up my tank. There has been good and bad along the way but overall I'm really pleased with the way things have gone.
All my original 15 Harlequins are still going strong, funny how you don't realise how big they've got till you see the size of the ones in the shops.
I lost 2 rummies fairly early on but remaining 11 are fine, lost a couple of 5 banded bards but have a health shoal of 18 I think, but really difficult to count.
You might remember the trauma with the pearl gourami's when I lost 3 in quick succession and I was worried one of the remaining two was going to bully the other too much, but they get on quite well now.
The real problem has been with the skunk corys, even cleaning the tank weekly and cleaning the sand twice a week, I've not been able to keep the wee guys alive, they all seem to go the same way with some sort of infection in their barbs and they go a kind of blackish colour and eventually die. I've tried isolating them and some meds, but apart from the first one who did return from the brink of death I'm down to only 4. I know this isn't enough but I don't really want to get any more as I've definitely got something going wrong where the're concerned
Would another type of cory be more resilient, or do I call it quits
Anyway, I've also got another small tank (but bigger than the hospital tank) which is currently housing another 5 rummies and 1 male and (I hope) 2 female gourami. They've been in there for 6 weeks and doing well, I've started mixing their water with the main tank water, as planning on moving them over to the main tank in a few days. They'll be the first new guys for about 8 months, so hoping all goes OK, although not looking forward to trying to get them out, any tips on doing this without getting into a panic more than welcome
Not to forget the plants, I'm pretty much overloaded with them and spend quite a bit of time cutting them back and scooping out handfuls of the floating plants, before they cover the whole surface! I don't really do anything more with them other than some flourish and root tabs. Probably my only complaint is it's a bit of a green jungle, and so many picture I see on this site are so much more thought through than my attempts.
Here's a couple of blurry iphone photo's, one day I'll maybe take a clear picture