DREWspective

I’d made the most amazing discovery on Sunday morning, when I peered into my big fish tank for no apparent reason. Hovering right at the bottom, near a piece of bogwood, was a single chilli rasbora: probably the last one out of the original ten that I bought.

The rasboras were almost invisible in the tank anyway, as they tended to grace the bottom of the tank like the catfish. Apparently they’re a lot more visible in schools of 30-40, particularly as they’re so small. However, I originally thought they’d all perished at the hands of the dragonfly nymphs and the bad water quality in the other, now decommissioned tank.

I began a frantic search online to find a[nother] stockist of chilli rasboras, with an aim to get as many as I could. This lone rasbora was obviously doing very well, because of its bright red colour.

Unfortunately not many places seem to have them, given an online search, and those that do have very little stock. Certainly not the 30-odd fish I was planning on getting.

In other fishkeeping news, I had decided to head to my local Maidenhead Aquatics yesterday with the aim of purchasing more bottom-dwellers (i.e. some catfish and ideally shrimp). Having finally cleaned my tank last week, it became apparent that there was nothing taking care of all the dead foliage.

I didn’t purchase any fish in the end, primarily because I would have felt really bad doing so. For one, the range of fish in the store wasn’t as exciting as it used to be, probably since I’ve been there so often!
More importantly, I’d noticed many of the fish and tanks were in bad condition. Of note, one of the large puffer fish - they’ve started putting puffer fish in tanks with other kinds of fish - was lying in a corner, clearly on its last legs. Another tank had a blue fighter fish with most of its fins eroded or just out of use. One of the staff was going around fishing dead fish out of tanks, though there weren’t that many.

The prices seemed a little off as well; both the catfish and the shrimp seemed somewhat expensive, though I don’t know what the going rates actually are.

For the time being, I’m considering using one mail order services for the shrimp and catfish, and hopefully they’ll have chilli rasboras as well.

The bad news first:

One more Black Emperor Tetra died, due to unknown causes. I’d found it floating on top of the aquarium as I was getting ready to administer some ich medicine.
The only thing I could think of that would have killed it was the level of CO2 in the tank; though it was allegedly high, none of the other fish were affected.
The remaining Chilli Rasboras are pronounced MIA, and are probably dead; they’re far too small to spot. It was a mistake to buy them for that tank, in such a small number, but if I hadn’t I might have kicked myself.

But now the good news. I decided to take a chance and purchase some more fish to complete the set, at the risk of overcrowding the tank again. So far there have been no more deaths, and no nasties hiding in the tank to my knowledge, and I’m not planning on getting any more fish.

So here’s the line-up:

3 x Silver Hatchets
8 x Neon Yellow Rasbora
5 x Black Emperor Tetra
3 x Pygmy Rasbora
4 x Assassin Snails
6 x Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish
2 x Peppered Catfish

On a smaller note, I have designs on getting a separate, far smaller tank to house a betta fish on its own - but we’ll see about that.

I had been planning on adding some more fish to my aquarium, especially since I’d suffered a heavy loss last week; three rainbowfish, four Black Emperor Tetras, two Albino Catfish and several rasboras.
Most died because of dragonfly nymphs in the tank, which have been dealt with accordingly. One rainbowfish had an incurable case of fin rot and fungus, and just yesterday the last catfish died from unknown causes.

Unfortunately for me, I did my maths just yesterday, and figured out that the 20 gallon tank was overstocked from the beginning, and is still overstocked now.

Here’s what I have left:

3 x Silver Hatchets
8 x Neon Yellow Rasbora (estimated)
6 x Black Emperor Tetra
2 x Chilli Rasbora (estimated)
3 x Pygmy Rasbora (estimated - not Two Spot Rabsoras as I’d first thought)
4 x Assassin Snails
3 x Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish

That comes to 84cm of fish at their maximum adult size. If you go by the one inch of fish per gallon rule, theoretically the 20 gallon tank can hold 50cm.

Ideally I would purchase a much bigger tank - say a 40 gallon tank - but there would be too much of a cost involved.

These were the final set of fish I was going to add to the mix:

1 x Opaline Gourami
3 x Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish
4 x Amano Shrimp or 2 x Albino Catfish + 2 x Peppered Catfish

Only time will tell what will happen. Maybe I’ll upgrade to a bigger tank, or perhaps I’ll give up fishkeeping entirely.

Last night I came home to even more dead fish in the tank. I was still upset about it, though a little less than the previous night, when the first losses occurred.

At first I thought the fish had gotten violent with each other, which didn’t make sense in the beginning as all the fish in the tank are known to be peaceful. I did see one rainbowfish nuzzle (or even nip) at another, however.

So I began to do a water change, and I came across a disgusting bug-like creature at the bottom of the tank:

WARNING: large picture of a bug

It turns out that this bug was a dragonfly nymph: a nasty creature that gets into tanks through eggs left on plants, or in bags of live food. It’s nasty because it kills small fish, while camouflaging itself and acting like a coward. The problem is, they grow to the stage where they can kill fish rather fast, and then graduate to harmless dragonflies slowly.

The first thing I did was suck it up through the gravel cleaner. As evil creatures always do, it put up a fight.
For whatever reason I’d flushed it down the toilet, along with its remaining victims and the dead foliage. I wish I’d stomped on it, set it on fire or let it suffocate in a sea of corrosive fluid, like it deserved.

The sad thing is that I’d seen this creature in the tank several days ago, and did nothing about it. I genuinely thought it was dead, not thinking about how it got there.

The good news is that the remaining fish are lively, with none looking like they’ll die any time soon. I hope there’s no dead ones waiting for me tonight, particularly none of the hatchets. Hopefully, there was just that one evil nymph lurking in the tank.

The really amazing thing, however, was the lack of information online about how to remove (or more to the point, destroy) dragonfly nymphs.
There was all the usual info about what they do to fish and how they get in the tank in the first place, but there are no products for treating them. In fact, there was far more information on their life cycles, and even people talking in message boards about keeping them as pets.

It reminded me of a certain person at my university that I’ve had (and continue to have) issues with. I knew just how evil, vindictive and malicious they were, yet far more people actually like them and think they’re the best thing since sliced bread. It’s kinda disturbing how that happens.

The moral of the story is to make sure you wash your plants before adding them to your fish tank, no matter where you get them from. Even Maidenhead Aquatics, as much as I respect them, have a habit of giving me snails in my tank - and more recently, a dragonfly egg or few.

Also, check any bags of live food for “additions”. Once there was a harmless red worm in a bag of daphnia I bought, but also what turned out to be a mosquito larva. Both are safe for fish, but there could easily be something more deadly in there.

I haven’t written for a while, so I’ll update you readers on my progress.

Though I’ve talked about lapsing not being “such a big issue”, there are problems I had overlooked. Particularly as I’d done it considerably last week, I found myself with less energy than I usually had. It was as if the pounds I’d lost in the last few weeks were creeping back on, just as quickly.

The issue also showed up in last week’s weigh-in. Even I was shocked when I discovered I’d lost only 1¾ lbs. My ketosis was very low, even though I’d been regularly drinking water and taking the food packs. More importantly, I still haven’t lost three stones yet - I’m just over 1 lb away.

So this week I’ve been taking the diet more seriously, vowing to go at least one more full week without caving in. So far, so good.

On Friday (day 50), I had to wait for three hours in a hospital, for a weight-loss consultation appointment that was supposed to have been made a month earlier. Nobody acknowledged that the GP in charge of sending the referral letter had screwed up, but they were all too happy to suggest there was “nothing they could do”, because I was so far into the diet anyway. You can imagine my reaction.
Also on Friday, I’d decided to go to my local dentist. For whatever reason they decided to treat me like a criminal: first because I’d initially left my wallet at home, secondly because they got rough with my teeth (taking some kind of drill and “cleaning” my teeth, pushing hard between each tooth right next to the gums), and thirdly having the cheek to stretch out their hand, demanding money.
Both parties will be getting a colourful letter of complaint from me, and I will be looking for both a new GP and dentist.

More unfortunate events occured just yesterday (day 53), when I’d lost at least six of my tropical fish at once: two tetras, a rainbowfish, at least two rasboras and at least one catfish. It was probably my doing, as I’d deliberately overstocked the tank with new fish. Still, it was very distressing to have to fish them out. Sometimes, I wish I’d stuck with the goldfish; I knew where I stood.

Also of note: I’d bought myself a very cheap and effective blender from Asda, though the same model exists in Woolworths at a similar price.
If you ever go on the LighterLife diet or equivalent, know that mixing your shakes in a blender makes a world of difference. For best results, use 200 ml of water and a few ice cubes.