The Edge Of Madness

Frigging books.

About 6 months ago algae was starting to become a bit of a problem in my tank. One of the books I had recommended a Chinese Algae Eater. According to my book, it's aggresive towards members of it's own species, peaceful with all others. Wrong. On Friday I was doing some research and found out this guy likes to latch onto bigger fish and suck them dry.

Marvin, the Siamese fighter, died. I was uncertain what caused it, but he had a wound on his right side. I found a picture of similar damage caused by one of these guys.

I was all for taking the guy out and chopping his head off. Lana wouldn't let me. She went down to the local fish store to see if they would take him off our hands. They wouldn't. I set about trying to catch him. The yellow bastard was way too fast for me, and after 15 minutes of trying to catch him, I gave up.

He hasn't harmed any of the other fish, so he can stay (or I can't catch him, whichever one you want to belive). Means we can't get another Siamese Fighter, but so be it.

Anyhow I've got a little problem with beard algae in the fish tank. So I went down to Slippery Little Suckers over in Kingsford to talk to them. He suggested Siamese Algae Eaters. Now these little fish are what the damn book actually meant. I got 3 of these, and 2 marble angels. Which are pretty damn cool fish. The neon tetras are way too big to get eaten, so it should all be cool.

I've got a fish tank full of tropical fish.

It's about 1 metre by half a metre by half a metre. Holds 180 litres of water. Before the move I had in the tank:

* 1 Upside down catfish
* 1 Golden Chinese Algae Eater
* 1 Royal Whiptail
* 3 Clown Loaches
* 9 Neon Tetras (with 3 gone missing, eaten perhaps)
* 3 Rummy Nosed Tetras
* 4 Bristlenosed catfish

The move is a fairly big job, you have to take most of the water with you (a tank takes up to 6 weeks with fresh water before it's ready for fish). So I got up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to start draining the tank into some containers.

The plan was to catch the fish, put them into these containers then we could safely toss around the tank. I only managed to catch 2 of the loaches, 2 of the neons, the whiptail and one of the catfish.

Thankfully Nick gave me a hand moving this tank. The thing was damn heavy though, especially since the new home was up 2 flights of stairs (or exactly 30 steps). Anyhow with Lana's help we managed to move the tank. Of course forgetting to bring a few critical items with us (net and lid covers).

The damage aftermath is as follows:

2 rummy nosed tetras dead ( I can't see the last one).
Haven't confirmed the existence of 2 of the catfish.

The rummy nosed tetras are a delicate species, so they're deaths, while tragic, wasn't totally unexpected.

Going to give it a month then intend to get 3 small angels, and a siamese fighter.

Major thanks to Nick and Lana for their assistance in moving the tank. And Nick, you forgot to take your jumper with you again.