All the Fish, they Lived Through Christmas!

Unlike last year (link), all the fish that were alive stayed alive over Christmas. I wasn't mourning on Christmas morning trying to make happy when I only felt like crying. I'm still very sad that Mr. Blue isn't alive. I still miss him.

I see his traits in his son, Mr. White. But Mr. White doesn't seem to be very successful in wooing the ladies. Although he's very successful in herding the ladies to their respective corners of the tank and then being all alone down at the bottom and moving rocks around. Then when he herds the female that is in heat out, she successfully avoids him.

One of the white females got pretty beat up. Her tail fin, the pretty part, got eaten off and then one morning I came downstairs and saw someone (I'm not naming names, but he's the only male in the tank) had taken a chunk out of her between her dorsal and tail fin. I put my net in and scooped her into an isolation cell (still in the same tank), just like that. No fight or avoidance on her part, which tells me she was pretty beat up. She's doing better now, is eating and swimming around in the little cell. Whenever Mr. White gets near her, she goes to the opposite side of her little cell.

We'll see if they can figure out this breeding stuff.

How's Stuff in the Tanks.

The white fish tank has settled down some. Mr. White is no longer frantically herding the females, nor is he moving rocks. The grey female is no longer hiding or swimming frantically.

Last week at some point, each fish (even Mr. White) had a loose scale, so I guess they ALL got into a big fight with someone. They've all healed now.

But still no babies.

In the 36 gallon tank, all the females are doing fine. They're still cycling with laying eggs and holding them for a couple days and then releasing. I changed the filter again, I can't believe it was already time again, I just changed it after Thanksgiving. But it was filthy. I was irritated because I normally put another filter in front of the water spout, which keeps a lot of the crap from getting into the water. That didn't work this time, it slipped.

Have to admit that it was funny, all the stuff in the water roused the algae eater fish. He was going nuts trying to get the best of the crap.

The White Tank.

The grey female that I put in with Mr. White and the three white females is in her 2nd cycle. It's weird, but it's like there's some sort of fish racism going on in that tank. I'm not sure if the grey fish is just keeping to herself or if the white fish are isolating her, but she spends a lot of time hanging out in the corner of the tank.

Since she's gone into her 2nd cycle (I can see her egg canal is swollen again), Mr. White has taken to pestering her, trying to show off.

He's moved all the rocks around in the bottom of the tank, not as much as Mr. Blue used to, but enough to notice. He's staked out a corner of the tank as his "territory" and chases everyone else out of there. He herds the grey female out to the middle of the tank and circles her, but she acts like he has bad body odor or something and can't get away from him fast enough.

So, yeah, the breeding thing is not going so well.