Because of redecorating elsewhere in the house, the fish were vacated from a 55 and a 40-gallon tank. Those fish are in a 40 gallon rubber maid storage container and a 32 gallon trash barrel (long ago dedicated to fishy things). The barrel of rainbows also has it's own powerhead and sponge filter. The residents seem happy and hungry at 68 degrees F/ 20C.

If there were guppies being held in a container like that, it would be placed on styrofoam for insulation and an Ebo-Jaeger submersible heater would be installed. I would rather not take them below 75-6 F/ 24 C.

Those two containers, in the middle of the floor, sure alter the foot traffic pattern. Try tippy-toeing around them while holding a 1/3 full, graveled ten-gallon tank. ;)

Rainbows need space, lots of oxygen and current and they, none too soon, got plunked into a ten-gallon tank. The schnoodle and I will run out this morning for one of those small submerged canister filters (essentially an enclosed sponge filter with a current) for their tank. Have an extra powerhead, but that would be too much for a 10-gal/40 L tank. We want rainbows in a current, not flying fish. :)

One of them is a bit clamped with a little fin damage. Maybe, for the first time, will try Melafix (as per Maggie's recommendations). If it is a bacterial problem, it can be healed. If it is fish TB, that will be trouble. (Goodbye! Goodbye!)

The killifish were wonderfully robust and had been very well fed at the LFS. That has been a part of the problem. Even after two water changes, they kept regurgitating food and/or passing it through their digestive tract. The water keeps getting really funky.

I'm not even pretending that the bowls are cycled. Either daily or every second day, they are getting roughly a 95% water change. The water is decanted so as much as possible can be poured into a "out" bucket without losing the fish. About 70% of that new water is from my "start up tank," the rest from the 50 gallon (food quality) "seasoning" barrel.

Because the frequently changed water is all from the same sources, acclimation for chemical differences is not an issue. (I know a couple big time breeders who run daily 95% water changes on their tanks. The water comes heated, run through a carbon-block filter, to the tanks. One can only make changes on that scale if they are consistent. If water changes are missed for a couple of days, then they must back the changes down to 25-45% or mess up the fish.

Those fish have not been fed this week and will not be, until Sunday night or Monday AM. (We may return through one of those famous snowstorms blowing off of the Great Lakes and will feel like doing nothing else.) So long as they are not in a breeding situation, that fast should not be a problem.

In a sense, the nitrogen cycle is being imported with the water. By fasting the fish, the water is hopefully not dirtied too badly. Essentially those bowls, usually on a warm, often somewhat shaded shelf, are for observation and, in one case, medication. If dosage is pro-rated for a small container (1/20 of a ten-gallon dosage) without a lot of gravel or plants, application is easier and cheaper.

Have committed to a killifish show this weekend in Elkhart, Indiana. From the standpoint of fellowship, passing out flyers for the Chicago April 9-10 show, keeping up as a judge (which sounds more impressive than it is) and staying in touch, it is important to attend. That doesn't do the fish here much good. It will be nearly impossible to buy anything new because there simply isn't much room to quarantine anybody new.

Oh ... well there is that one vacated, clean ten-gallon tank, full of seasoned water with the biologically active gravel. ;)

Also used one of your tricks for one bowl Miskairal. It is on the glass top of my only heated tank. It is holding at 75 degrees F, a tad cool for lineatus, but at least it is not fluctuating.

If there was something "suspicious" in either a drum bowl or a large-mouthed gallon pickle jar (which seem unlimited in supply), after the fish were in them, they are emptied down the toilet or laundry sink and parked upside down for the winter in an out of the way corner of the patio. Hopefully the cold will kill any "germs". The bleach bucket, in the spring, will finish the cleaning job. By then, there can be quite a fleet, out there in "dry dock".