90%+ of the plants are doing fine. Aproximately 1 ou of 10 dwarf hairgrass graft didn't make it, about 1 out of 5 baby tear didn't have enough roots, so ended up becoming yellow and weak.
All ludwigias are perfect. Both red tiger lotus showing fast signs of development and Madagascar Lace Leaves might be too big for this tank, I might trade it to someone for something with less leaf volume.
Due to the deaths of baby tears and darf hairgrass, my phosphates were HIGH. Rivercats remotely rescued me and I did a 50% WC followed by another 50% WC one hour later.
Phosphates and ammonia are below 1ppm. Nitrites are zero and Nitrates between 0 and 5.
Cassius is a noce little guy, but he has some unusual habits:
- he likes to let the sponge suck on his fins: when I first saw this I freaked out, thinking he was struggling to get out. He gets out without even an effort, but iI spotted him going near the filter, waiting for his fins to be flat against the inflow and staying there for 10+ seconds. After that, he casually swims away to do something more interesting;
- he developed a relationship with the thermometer: he has 2 spots where he likes to sleep, but I spotted him about 5 times enjoying the smooth surface of the round glass thermometer. At first, I guess he was looking for some kind of scratchy surfance for skin discomnfort, but then again, if there is something more interesting, he swims away as if what he was doing wasn't necessary;
- his wrath against invasion (i.e. his own reflexion) is so deep that most of the time I show him the mirror (about twice a day) his muscles contract to the point he defecates.
- only once I saw him going to the white gravel, " deep end". He is typically enjoying the upper half of the aquarium. I can't wait for the upper part to be planted so he can enjoy a less glassy landscape. However, this really change my perspective of cruelty about Bettas in small tanks. Before, I thought anything bellow 5 gallons would be pretty bad, now I am quite OK with a nice, heated, planted and filtered 2 gallon.
I believe it is relaxing, he even stops flapping his fins for about 5 seconds or so.