My little terds

[Matteus]

So I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday, thinking that my poly would eat the other kel, not thinking I would be able to catch it again with everything in the big tank. Went through all kinds of scenarios of what I should do. Assuming I would not be able to catch it unscathed.

Then finally after about 45 min of laying awake in bed last night , my wife had an idea that we could move the divider over a wee bit and chase the kel through the crack and hope the big ocel didn’t attack it. I went to go chase after it and I swear it practically swam into the net. Aha Bing pot!! (Brooklyn 99 reference)

So long story short I put the kel back in the 70 gal until further notice. Trying to figure out a way to not have to get rid of the poly and I’m not getting rid of the bass!

My current thought is the big ocel looks too big for the ornate mouth as it is. So I might keep over feeding them for another week, then introduce the big ocel to the bichir side of the tank and bring the kel up with the smaller ocel since they are closer in size.

If anyone has any helpful thoughts, ideas, suggestions I am open right now. I’m here to learn and hope to kill less fish in future.

 

[cigars]

Sounds like you have the right approach, it always worries me when I move fish I tend to continue to wait and by the time I move them they’re almost the same size as the larger fish

 

[Matteus]

I feel like I was misled by the bichir not attacking any other fish and having all the loaches swimming around it.

 

[Matteus]

Ok. So today I saw the bichir yawn and the smaller of the 2 ocels is bigger than his mouth. I’m tempted to take the divider out. Another option is to just let the big one over to the side where the bichir is and test that out before I let both go. I will also be introducing some more large raph cats that have made it through their qt. Might mess up the rock set up to confuse the bicher a bit.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Matteus]

So I moved the bigger one over to the side with the bichir. I am keeping the lights on tonight to hopefully keep the bichir activity to minimum. Will check in the morning to see if this plan works. Mean while I can target feed the smaller one more so it can bulk up and catch up a bit. Tomorrow I will try to bring the kel up to live with the smaller ocel.

 

[TheWolfman]

Sounds like a good plan. Keep power feeding your bass they will catch up in no time.

 

[Matteus]

Sounds like a good plan. Keep power feeding your bass they will catch up in no time.

So the big one is smart. I would drop a few in one side to distract the big one then drop a bunch in the other side in front of the small one. He would fake to the first batch, double back and eat the big pile then go back to the first few. What a hooligan!!! He would eat like 15 to the others 3-4. Then to make matters worse he eats anything I put in there now, but the other one is still fussy as $&!+. Now they are separated from each other I get a death glare if I feed the little one more than the big. And they definitely know the difference between the carnivore vs. The omega one pellets. So he knows if he is getting ripped off. Can’t believe how smart already.

 

[Matteus]

So night 1 with the bichir was a success. Tonight I will turn out the light and try my luck. I think it should be fine at this size point.

 

[Matteus]

So I finally got my new LED light hooked up. Took out the fake plant and replaced it with live sword plant. Now I just have to get that stupid pvc overflow out of there.

I have brought the ocels up big enough now that the poly isn’t bothering them. The kel is still in my 70 gal. A bit frustrated with its growth rate. I try to target feed it but it’s so timid it hardly eats compared to the bigger ones. Do kels typically grow slow because they are smaller? I thought I read somewhere they grow fast...

 

[Matteus]

Learning how to take photos in the new lighting set up.