Sunday 6/9/2015: Return to Blogging, All is Well

          Wow. A week and a half between posts. School just happened. Sorry! I have a lot to cover and it may not all be exactly in chronological order, but i'll do my best. Let's see, I seem to have left off just after the catfish died, when we got the Angelfish. It seems so long ago...
          Starting from the top, my fish tank is doing great. Although the Red Ludwigia wasn't doing super great, it is settling down now, and my Anacharis is shooting up. In my last cleaning, I disturbed some of the Anacharis, and now it is floating tangled in the Ludwigia and I am too lazy to put it back properly. Grouch and Lurker are spending a lot more time wandering around the tank now, and my Danios are doing as great as ever. I think my ultimate plan is to help my sister get a 10-15 gal tank, and move my current fish over, replacing them with a school of neon tetras that will stay with my Betta. That way, I can realize my ultimate tank dream, while also getting to see my old fish. I think my sister will end up with a school of Danios, maybe more Glowlights, and some guppies in her tank. My parents haven't yet let us go back to the fish stores, but once we go back, I plan to try and find a mini heater for my brother's 5 gal, possibly a ghost shrimp or two for his tank, and also some proper betta food to replace the Cichlid food we currently feed his Betta.
          Speaking of my brother's Betta, he is doing fantastic. Last week his filter got left off for a day, and he built 2 impressive looking bubble nests!

 This is a picture I took of the biggest one, which he built right near the filter. Once we turned the circulation back on, his nests quickly dispersed, but I think we might occasionally leave it off again, so he can get practice. Here are some of the pictures I took of him. The bright blue backlight ruined most of the photos, but some are OK;

 Here is the photo I took right after the one up top. They both nicely show the Betta, and although this one is better quality, I didn't put it up top because the other gives a nicer view. The streaks are some water that spilled out and dried on the glass, which I'll have to clean up.

 I really like these pictures I took using Flash, they really bring out the Betta's blues and greens, although normally you can see the redwashing that would scare away any Betta breeder. This one shows his beautiful tail,

One of the issues with the Flash is that it has a pretty substantial delay between when the button is pressed and when the picture is actually taken. Here you can see the Betta's tail and fins all spread out, albeit from behind.

And in this picture you can see him and his reflection. I am pretty sure that, as this was taken through perpendicular glass, we can see much more of his reflection than he can, but it makes for a nice image.

          A week after getting the Betta, we named him Connor, because he likes to sleep and rest in the corner near the filter, but my brother and I rarely use that term, mostly just calling him your/my Betta, and today we decided that his name was only to be used on formal occasions. I think this might have happened because it was too human a name, and fish and human names just don't seem to work out very well. two weeks in, he is still thriving, and I love to watch him swim around and beg for food. He has mastered the finger-nipping, and is getting quite proficient at following a finger across the glass. My little brother loves him, and I do too.

          So far as the downstairs tank goes, all is surprisingly well. No one has died since the Pleco, and while one of the silver dollar fish seems to be doing badly, the rest are doing fine. The above picture shows many of the fish in that tank, and also a freakishly modified angelfish face in the curved corner. This picture comes from before the Pleco's death, as I haven't remembered to take pictures since then. In my last cleaning this last Saturday, I took out the small barrel and put in one of the original plastic plants in it's place, and also put in some medium sized white pebbles that we bought because the substrate seems a little thin. We are still waiting for a new bulb to come for the tank in the mail, and in the mean time have given up on my elaborate lamp with tilted shade technique and are currently using a small lamp next to the tank to give light. One happy thing is that it has always been my mom's dream to have angelfish, and we are finally able to fulfill it, as the angelfish, though they do peck at each other regularly, have very large appetites and are doing great.
          All in all, my family's fish situation is going well. No fish have died yet, and the Betta and my fish especially are having the time of their lives. I am excited to see what the future will bring, and hopefully I will be able to work everything out. Hopefully I can get into a more regular schedule again, but with school as crazy as it is, I have my doubts.
p.s. I write dated d/m/yr because it just makes more sense. This post is in September.