Photo Update

After a nice 95% water change last night, I took some photos of the fishies!  Here’s the 75 gallon tank (85 gallon capacity with sump). 

Clover (male red/white ryukin)

Luca (male white butterfly telescope)

Felix (male red/white butterfly telescope)

Now for a little update about them… Clover has been an occasional bottom sitter for a long time now, whichis sometimes common in older and larger fish like him, so I don’t worrytoo much about it. Ever since Clover was tiny he’s been prone to fin congestion (redblotches) in his tail fin despite good water quality, and I wonder if that’s related in some way to the bottom sitting.  A goldfish breeder on Goldfish Keepers Forum saidfish with longer fins can sometimes have chronic fin congestion whichleads to bottom sitting later in their lives.  So that could explain his bottom sitting habit.  Anyways, I’m getting a little off topic here!  Last week I noticed him upside down a quite abit too.  Not floaty, just resting upside down near the bottom of the tank.  It was so discouraging to see, especially after recentlyhaving to euthanize Callisto for her chronic swim bladder problems.  Clover’sabdomen is nice and firm, like it should be, so that’s good.  I’m notsure why he would be going upside down, but I decided to fast him for awhile to see if that would help.  And it did; after a couple days offasting, he always remained upright.  Then I started feeding him a small amount of Saki-Hikari pellets, and again, he was back upsidedown occasionally.  So I guess maybe he just can’t handle those pelletsanymore.  Now I’ve switched him to only Repashy gel food (plus bloodworms a few times a week), and he’s doing better.  Maybe only Luca and Felixcan have the Saki pellets from now on, and that’s fine.  It just makesfeeding them a hassle, because I have to isolate Clover in a colanderwhile the other guys eat.  Speaking of those two, they’re doing greatand growing fast!  They love to root through the sand in search of food, especially Felix!  I’ve been hand-feeding all of them a lot lately, and even shy Clover has been much more outgoing and friendly than usual.

I usually do 90% water changes, but last night I did a 95% change.  I had to remove the fish to a big bucket to drain the tank that much, and I kept them in the bucket for about 45 minutes after refilling the tank to let everything settle before putting them back in.  I think they actually liked that better than being in the tank while it was filling, so maybe I’ll always do that from now on.  In other news, I’m still trying to teach them their names, but I don’t think they’ve caught on yet.  That’s all for now!