Minor Update

It has been a while since I have updated, but I've started a new job and time has gotten the better of me.

The festivus in the 150 continue to spawn regularly, but the fry do not survive for very long after the free swimming stage. The parents are extremely stressed when they have babies, and I wonder if they don't just eat the babies at some point to relieve their anxiety over the huge job of constant surveillance of so many fry with so many predators. They do a pretty good job of keeping the other fish over to the opposite side of the tank, but I plan to move the pair out as soon as I move the last of Frank and Agnes' juvies out of the 37-gallon.

The angel juvies are ready to go and I have a buyer (about 30-35 remaining) but I have not had time to bag them up and tote them over to the LFS. What I plan to do at this point is to empty the 37 of juvies and place the festivus pair in that tank, and leave Frank and Agnes to do their thing in the 40. If I get babies, I get babies. If I don't, I don't. F&A have a good track record of rearing their own, so I don't have to worry about them, but the festivus pair are not proven and I have to see what happens when they are alone in their own tank.

I don't have the time or inclination at this point to hand-rear fry, so they will have to do it on their own. They do need to be removed from the 150, though, because it is a stress to have them in there. That said, I have to admit it is not as bad as I thought. The other fish have grown accustomed to the cyclical spawning aggression of the pair, and I am sure I could keep things status quo for a while without too much trouble, but it is upsetting the dynamic, and it is not ideal.

I must get photos of everything and post them soon. The fry of Agnes and Frank are just stunning - they truly look wild, save the occasional solid gold morph - and I'd be proud to keep them, but no space. I am enjoying watching the single juvie of theirs grow in the 150, however, and admire this fish a lot. He gets along just great with the wild leopoldi and he resembles them slightly, aside from his nose being upturned, and theirs "downgoing," as Heiko Bleher describes them.

Otis, the figure-8 puffer, is fabulous as ever. He's just the best and I'm so glad to have him set up in the 10-gallon. All of the Anubias sp. plants I have in there have circular holes in them, but no matter - he can do what he wants. He has grown and has a steady diet of snails of all description, plus the very small cocktail shrimps - raw and thawed from frozen. You can hear the noise of his teeth on shells when he eats, so I feel good that his teeth are being kept ground down.

One reason I am posting today is that I learned someone is actually reading this blog! I had no idea anyone was still following this, and it prompted me to post an update. Thanks for the poke!