I really don't know what's going on. The last of the adult fish I had died not long ago. I'm honestly ashamed enough that I couldn't come and write about it for a while. In the ten-gallon, I've got two few-month-old fry, and an unknown number of few-week-old fry. The latter aren't too great in number.. couldn't be more than four.
The two older fry have some sort of disease at present. It seems it has maybe hurt their fins and tails. They seem happy enough for all of it... they swim alright, though not exactly normally, and they eat. They cruise around the tank and seem interested in life. I'm feeding them medicated food, sort of lackadaisically... trying to give them a chance, though I don't have much hope anymore. I refuse to treat the water, because the plecostamus in there is still in flawless health, and has come to matter more to me than those two. I don't want to risk losing the pleco. I figure... if he's going to catch whatever they have, he would have by now. So I'm just.. doing the best I can at present.
The four in the fry tank are beautiful and growing. I don't know how they thrive in that questionable-quality water, but they're the healthiest of any of my fish, and getting in the black spots of their coloring. One is almost an inch long, and has a charming little triangular marking on his head.
There's one lone fry in my five-gallon tank, Dostoevsky, who keeps the one lone frog, Kierkegaard, company. There was a Neitzsche the frog, but I think he suffered from the not-finished-cycling tank. The two in there now seem just fine, and I'm torn between adding the other four fry to that tank, and leaving them there for now.
I eventually want to try a betta with the females of the (non-diseased) bunch... if there -are- any females. Just on an experimental basis. Other possible plans of action are salt baths for the two sick babies, and giving the healthy guys full reign of the five-gallon. They're so tolerant of dodgy water so far... I figure they'd be okay. Then a betta for the little tank.
This is mostly just me venting and trying to make myself feel better. I don't know what to do with this ten-gallon, because the pleco even can't live in there forever. He'll get too big. It seems like there's something wrong with the water, but I can't for the life of me find the problem. If I can't clear it up, then I officially give up on aquariums, turn the 28-gallon into a non-aquatic habitat, and give up on the ten-gallon altogether. It really is true.. beginners should just go with tanks 20 gallons and above. Ten gallon tanks are just too mercurial.
Immediate Help
