(no subject)

[damselfish]

I've started taking a ridiculous amount of videos, some of them really cool, but I won't post them to youtube even if the quality is higher than some of what I see. What I really want is a good camera that can take good shots and video, which is not likely to happen any time soon. Hell, if I can stop appearing in my own pictures in the reflection of the aquarium, it'll be a plus. I'm just... shy about youtube, I guess, given the sort of nasty comments you see!

Still, I've gotten some great videos, including a fight between my rams.

That's right! After his long convalescence, boy ram got to go back into the tank yesterday.

Lady ram wasn't having ANY of it, but they seem evenly matched during a stand-off, so I'm not too worried, even though he hides and she struts around the aquarium like she owns the place. It makes me worried for Los Bebes when I introduce them, because right now I like them a lot more than the grown-ups and if there are already territoriality issues, I don't want them getting hurt since they're newcomers and smaller.

They've learned from Babyfish that begging is the meal ticket, and since they're tinies, I'll feed them 2 or 3 times a day. I walk by and they all approach, wiggling at the acrylic to beg for food. They're roughly the size of my thumbnail, and they are not afraid of the giant walking by. I can reach in and touch them and they do not care! (I do not touch them, I point at them with a finger, because touching fish is unwise, especially such teensy fish.) The adult rams will approach the glass, but if I reach out to touch the glass they'll flee. Los Bebes don't even have glass between me and them. And people say fish aren't smart: all the fish I've gotten as babies are way less timid about me. Cichlids are smart, but Babyfish is a platy and... not that smart (of course, the mollies also approach me and they're also livebearers, so maybe livebearers are just unafraid of people in general?)

But since the boy ram is now out of the 10 gallon, that leaves me with a question:

1) Buy rummy-nose tetras for the big tank, so there are smaller fish in the tank to hopefully break up aggression (dither fish) and also to give me an idea of how the angels will respond to small fish (currently the adult-ish rams are the smallest in the tank). I'm having aggression troubles between my three angels-- Coward has gone from the bullied to chasing the blue around, and occasionally the silver gets in on the action, and sometimes they threaten the ram. This means at least one week quarantine, and I'll likely buy them Wednesday since I have a project due Tuesday.

2) Put Los Bebes in the 10 gallon to grow them out, since they are quickly outgrowing the 3.5 and Babyfish shouldn't have been there to begin with.

I will probably pick #2, but I really want those tetras noooooow. /whine

Of course, I'm reaching the "too many fish" point. Not because the bioload is maxed at all, since I have mostly smaller fish, but they're all so busy it makes the tank look more crowded than it is. I used to really like communities with lots of different specimens, but now I'm seeing the appeal in limited species, especially with busy fish like angels. Right now when I approach I have: angels, mollies, swordtails, 1 ram, and two congo tetras begging-- I have never seen tetras beg for food before, it's weird, but oddly charming.

I'd like more congos since two is not a good idea for them, but since they're so big, congos plus rummies is... too much. But I want small schooling fish. I've been debating returning the mollies since they're eating some of my plants, but Pocket Healer remarked "I love those! What are they?" in video chat. It forced me to admit that the mollies do have their charm.