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[captaincritical]

Aww, a sleepy little lady.

 

[captaincritical]

Mr. Pleco is mowing down on half a slice of zucchini. It's so cute how he shimmies around with it! I'd take pictures but I killed my back today somehow and I'm in no mood for contorting enough to get a good shot.

 

[tommyk]

Good morning.

This is the best pic I've managed to get of my shy Pleco and it's a terrible pic.
I'm gonna make it my mission to get a decent photo this evening. I'd love to know if he is male or female and I'm hoping he is a small breed. According to the LFS he is!!!
He never comes out of that little cave when I'm around. But time for a serious stalking mission I think.

 

[tommyk]

He must be coming out at night though. The cucumber I put in last night before bed had disappeared this morning and I've never had much algae

 

[fishyfriends3]

Why don't you remove the cave for the photo shoot, then replace it afterwards ?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[tommyk]

Why don't you remove the cave for the photo shoot, then replace it afterwards ?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

God I'm a dork.

Must be lack of sleep!!!

 

[captaincritical]

Sorry to interrupt the pleco discussion, but I've got a bit of a dilemma. I seriously injured my back yesterday and now I'm having muscle spasms. Standing is okay but any sort of shoulder movement results in extreme pain.

The problem is that my ammonia is sitting at 0.50ppm and I believe that means it's time for a large-ish water change. I honestly don't think I'm physically capable of that at the moment. Even just testing the water was painful.

I've been dosing daily with Prime to prevent any serious damage from the ammonia. Do you guys think it would be okay if I left it until tomorrow?

 

[jwh0818]

Yes it will. Prime is safe dosed 5x the normal ammount. Just dose the full tank no more the 5x and your safe. It last 24h. Sorry to hear tour hurt. Hope you fell better soon

 

[Brookster123]

How's it going capy? Sorry to hear about your discomfort

 

[threnjen]

It will be ok. We preach very conservatively here on ammonia levels. .5 TAN is really nothing to be concerned about especially if you dose with Prime. Your fishies will be fine

 

[tommyk]

I hope your back gets better soon captain

 

[fishyfriends3]

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[captaincritical]

You're all so sweet, thank you! I'm fine so long as I keep up on the painkillers and don't try to move my arms. Or my legs, or my head. Or my spine... Okay, admittedly I've been better.

But the fish are good! I rescued a ragged, half-eaten piece of zucchini skin from the tank this morning. I can't believe how much of it got eaten! Mr. Pleco is like a tiny vacuum.

 

[Brookster123]

Hang in there! Considering I beat the crap out of my body for a living I'm no stranger to the "if I cough the wrong way in afraid I'll die pain" I meant to mention that removing the skin before hand will save you some work I just cut up lil cubes.

 

[captaincritical]

My mother surprised me with a visit to town today, and we ended up perusing both of the LFSs in the city. Naturally, I came home with new fish!

My stocking is looking like this now:
5 Blushing Tetras
5 Bleeding Heart Tetras
6 Diamond Tetras
1 ABN Pleco
2 Assassin Snails

Eventually I'll finish out both the Blushing Tetra and Bleeding Heart Tetra schools, but the store only had 5 of the latter in stock, and one of my original 6 Blushing Tetras didn't make it. I need new lighting too, since the fluorescent one I have in there doesn't do any of them justice.

Didn't have much success catching any of them sitting still enough to take a picture. Have some crummy photos anyway!

One of the Diamond Tetras swimming away from me:

Three of the Bleeding Heart Tetras hanging out and looking a little dull (hopefully they'll colour up soon):

One of the Assassin Snails doing what snails do:

We'll see what this does to my mysterious and questionable ammonia level...

 

[Brookster123]

Sweet! So you added 11 fish today?

 

[captaincritical]

Yessum. And 2 snails! They're so neat and so active already. I hope it's not a bad sign that they both high-tailed it to the top of the tank...

 

[Brookster123]

Nope, that's fine, they hunt mts up there, mts go to the top to release eggies or young( not sure which) . Keep an eye on your water parameters, that's a lot of fish to add at once, you may have a mini cycle but not to worry, just be ready to change water! How are you feeling?

 

[captaincritical]

I'm always ready to change my water with the way my ammonia's been reading recently. Bring on a mini-cycle if it'll get my bacteria doing their job finally.

I did pay for one of those Ammonia Alert suction cuppy things today. Supposedly Prime doesn't mess up their readings. They're ordering it in for me at the LFS. I should be able to pick it up on Friday. Hopefully it'll shed some light on the situation.

 

[captaincritical]

Oh and I'm doing much better, thank you!