Quiet Pets in the Corner
Things continue to go well as of the writing of this post.
Moe has continued to do well this past month and is now out consistently in the tank. Moe is more of a gold/gray color and is a bit smaller in length than the other two gray fish. So she is easily identifiable at least to me.
Coco, the formerly skinny fish, is now the same size as the other gray female (The Other Gray fish, now named TOG) in the big tank and as such is nearly indistinguishable, at least to my husband. I can still tell her apart, but only because I spent the last six months staring worriedly at her. And she at me, I'm sure. The difference is that Coco's coloring is just a bit darker gray in color than Tog's and she still has some small indentations just above her eyes from her crash diet. Impossible to notice unless, like me, you've been staring at her for hours on end.
Tog, who for months, has been the dominant fish in the big tank has now relinquished her dominant status to Coco, which I find very interesting considering that Coco was near death just a short couple months ago.
One of the white females is presently in egg laying mode. She's cleared out a spot of substrate behind one of the large gray ornaments for this purpose. She, however, isn't dominant in the tank and so has to sneak back there to move more rocks, and then moving herself when Coco comes sailing through like the Queen of Tides.
Tog isn't eating right now, and I'm thinking it's just because of the bullying going on in there due to the egg laying female. She has a couple of loose scales, but other than that and a little bit of hiding, her behavior seems normal. She stays in the corner of the tank away from everyone when the feeding starts, making her way to the middle of the tank when all the others are distracted with filling their bellies. She attempted some spirulina this morning, but spit it. Had no interest in the New Life food. We'll continue to observe for any other odd behavior.
It's been cold here lately. Cold for California, that is. It reached in the high 30's the other night. The big tank is a corner shaped tank and as such is in the corner of my living room. There are two windows in that corner, both have double-paned glass and wood shutters to act as insulation. However, I've noticed that the heater has been on a lot in that tank. The heater is on the back of the tank which has the most window exposure. I researched online regarding insulating the tank, thinking that might be part of the reason the heater's on so much. There are various ideas out there, all involving a minimum of $20, but I'm rather poor right now.
I've long said that newspaper is one of the best insulators, which is why homeless people use it. It's cheap and effective. Wouldn't you know, I have Sunday's paper sitting on the living room table and two large plastic zipper bags. Large enough to hold a few newspapers. Soooo, I zippered up some newspapers, used packing tape to secure it to the back of the tank. If I determine more newspapers are needed in the bag, I can just unzipper them and add them in.
It's been an hour and I've only seen the heater come on once. This is a major improvement. We'll see how it continues.
I continue to do 25% to 30% weekly water changes in all the fish tanks, checking the levels before the tank change with a 6-in-1 test strip, as well as a day after the water change.
Moe has continued to do well this past month and is now out consistently in the tank. Moe is more of a gold/gray color and is a bit smaller in length than the other two gray fish. So she is easily identifiable at least to me.
Coco, the formerly skinny fish, is now the same size as the other gray female (The Other Gray fish, now named TOG) in the big tank and as such is nearly indistinguishable, at least to my husband. I can still tell her apart, but only because I spent the last six months staring worriedly at her. And she at me, I'm sure. The difference is that Coco's coloring is just a bit darker gray in color than Tog's and she still has some small indentations just above her eyes from her crash diet. Impossible to notice unless, like me, you've been staring at her for hours on end.
Tog, who for months, has been the dominant fish in the big tank has now relinquished her dominant status to Coco, which I find very interesting considering that Coco was near death just a short couple months ago.
One of the white females is presently in egg laying mode. She's cleared out a spot of substrate behind one of the large gray ornaments for this purpose. She, however, isn't dominant in the tank and so has to sneak back there to move more rocks, and then moving herself when Coco comes sailing through like the Queen of Tides.
Tog isn't eating right now, and I'm thinking it's just because of the bullying going on in there due to the egg laying female. She has a couple of loose scales, but other than that and a little bit of hiding, her behavior seems normal. She stays in the corner of the tank away from everyone when the feeding starts, making her way to the middle of the tank when all the others are distracted with filling their bellies. She attempted some spirulina this morning, but spit it. Had no interest in the New Life food. We'll continue to observe for any other odd behavior.
It's been cold here lately. Cold for California, that is. It reached in the high 30's the other night. The big tank is a corner shaped tank and as such is in the corner of my living room. There are two windows in that corner, both have double-paned glass and wood shutters to act as insulation. However, I've noticed that the heater has been on a lot in that tank. The heater is on the back of the tank which has the most window exposure. I researched online regarding insulating the tank, thinking that might be part of the reason the heater's on so much. There are various ideas out there, all involving a minimum of $20, but I'm rather poor right now.
I've long said that newspaper is one of the best insulators, which is why homeless people use it. It's cheap and effective. Wouldn't you know, I have Sunday's paper sitting on the living room table and two large plastic zipper bags. Large enough to hold a few newspapers. Soooo, I zippered up some newspapers, used packing tape to secure it to the back of the tank. If I determine more newspapers are needed in the bag, I can just unzipper them and add them in.
It's been an hour and I've only seen the heater come on once. This is a major improvement. We'll see how it continues.
I continue to do 25% to 30% weekly water changes in all the fish tanks, checking the levels before the tank change with a 6-in-1 test strip, as well as a day after the water change.
posted by Jammie J. at
12/29/2008 10:12:00 PM
