Fish Stories

Well the fish still have ick despite my religious garlicky food feedings twice daily (sometimes thrice on weekends). I'm sure this isn't helping my algae issues any.  I think the NP biopellets are kicking in as the cyano has changed its appearance from a dark red and lush (think a red field of wheat in the breeze) to light rusty brown and stringy, I think its slowly being starved to death and I for one am enjoying watching it.  The green slime algae is very tenacious though. It seems to like my grey/pink blastomussa the best, smothering it weekly. No doubt all the extra feedings aren't helping. I turkey baste once weekly and siphon once weekly to clean off all the really badly affected areas. Its a really good time, you should try it :P

The fish are doing well, all are fat from the extra feedings. The orange shoulder tang is settling in nicely and there are no fights or chases anymore. That first couple of weeks is always the most nervewracking.  A couple of weeks ago, actually just after my last post I noticed a number of dark grey/blackish "scratches" on the orange shoulder tang that seemed to be increasing in number as time went on. I did some reading on "black ick" or Paravortex, a turbellarian ectoparasite and while I couldn't identify exactly what it was on the fish (he's a damned fast swimmer), I treated the tank with Prazipro and after about 7 days most of them were gone.  I wish it had worked that well on the ick.