I'm down 4 otos out of my 5 new ones now, the first two had that nasty white infection, but the second two have had no marks on them, I think maybe it's that classic thing where they were starved for too long, poor babies. I forgot to ask the shop how long they'd had them in for cos I was tired, won't make that mistake again. Not sure if the last one will survive, I guess we'll see. So far no other fish or bigger otos seem ill, but I'm still going to wait a good month before adding any other fish to make sure.
I keep forgetting to take a photo, this si with the light on a bit low in the evening in the ramp down.
On the upside all the moving around of filters and upping the co2 has made a big improvement in the tank - there is no longer any melting!! And along with that, all plants are putting out new leaves finally, and there's a lot more pearling. There is still a lot of hair algae (see photo below) but it's growing much more slowly now. I'm planning on doing a blackout this weekend to give it a shock, this worked well for me in my lowtechs and I've heard in hightechs it works even better. I really hate how bits get stuck in the algae andthere's just loads of crap floating about the tank, urghhhh.
I'm planning to add 10 wild cardinals so I have a nice school of 20 total (once the month of waiting is over with no fish problems). I'm going to get them before I decide if I should have a school of some sort of fancy small rainbow, I think maybe with the tetras it might feel full enough. When I started this tank I kept imagining all the lovely new fish I could get and how exciting that would be, but I'm really happy with the fish I already have acting more naturally and confidently, so it's still just about adding a few more of what I have so I can get the most interesting behaviours. I used to think that acting responsibly with stocking would make for a more boring tank, but I am really enamoured by the behaviour of the fish I have now, and how much more confidently they act when I add some more. The pygmy corydoras are still bundles of joy, and seeing the kuhlis more is GREAT.
I do want to add a second female macmasteri apisto. Originally I thought I could maybe keep another pair of apistos in there but clearly that's rolling the dice and things are very nice right now, I don't want to upset that balance, or keep another tank if things go very wrong (not yet at least 👀). Apparently macmasteri are harem fish who don't form strong pair bonding so it should be ok with a second female, and I'd like one that isn't related to mix the genetics up a bit. I suppose I will get some mroe otos again at some point, but not until I know some really good ones are in stock which have been at the shop for a month minimum.
Eventually I'd also quite like some bamboo shrimp, as the flow is high and right in the direction of the big wood, so I think they'd do well, and it's easy to feed that area. Would vampire shrimp work as well as bamboo shrimp? They look amazing but can they climb a lot? I think this is a creature for when the planting and everything is going really well though, a final stocking for in a few months. Maybe a Christmas present to myself
Finaly, I wanted to show off this amazing little lotus I bought from World of Water, it's put out two new leaves and I'm so glad I fixed the co2 so it didn't melt. I wasn't planning on adding any lotus to this tank, but I simply couldn't resist, this is my favourite plant from Christel's book! Hopefully once the tnak is more balanced and growing really well with less algae I can slowly raise the light and get it to put out some floating leaves (baby plantlets come out of floating leaves apparently!).
