definately something in the water

not had time to do much blogging on the fish tank activities, but thats not to say that there has not been much going on. quite the contrary! :-) so here is a quick update on both fishtanks. :-)

70 litre

two of the butterfly cichilds (rams) have definately paired up. it started with me first of all finding a dead bronze cory catfish. :-( then, a couple of days later, i find one of the rams dead, in the same spot. :-(. prior to this all the fish had seemed to be living in harmony with no noticable signs of fighting or stress but, i had also noticed the flirtacious behaviour of two of the rams. just to be on the cautious side, i did a slightly larger than normal water change a couple of days later, even though the water parameters read well, as usual.

the next day i get back from work and go and look at the tank and the rams had spawned on the wood on the left side (closest to the window!?) =) and they were both closely guarding the eggs. the next morning, all the eggs were gone, eaten by the parents at a guess. i read that they often do this a few times before finally getting it right and raising their young so i wasn't too dismayed.

180 litre

tonight i have just noticed that there are at least another three halfbeak fry =). the first batch i moved to the smaller tank but i think i might leave these ones down here and see how they get on. i don't think they are under too much threat from being eaten by their parents as they are about the same size as the threadfins and there are plenty of hiding places in the form of floating plants for them to hide in.