AJ's Fishkeeping Diary

May 22 2023

Since I started this and immediately forgot about it until now, I'll give y'all an update. The tank ran pretty good for a while. The big ivory mystery snail got sick/stressed (I'm not exactly sure what happened) and passed away. The ramshorns got to her even while she was alive and I didn't know what to do at that point other than try separating her and she wouldn't eat. The babies hatched about a week before we moved into our new apartment! We had about 15 babies that I could count at once (hard to tell exactly) and lots of dark footed ones. I had high hopes for some jades. The second baby corey disappeared one day and I never found him. His sibling is doing good though! Living it up with Tumbles The Bean and the shrimp, getting bigger and bigger. We discovered in the move that the big jade snail had also passed away. It's very possible that he was just old, he was a good golf-ball size.

As for the bettas, they're doing fine and enjoying their space. The hierarchy has changed a bit, Astrid seems to be the dominant one now, and I think it happened in order to compensate for the injuries she sustained in the move. I scooped her with the net to be packed up in the tub and she freaked out and thrashed herself right into the driftwood, causing my net to then get stuck on it and when I got it free, she was having trouble getting herself out of the net (I usually stay away from using nets on them but the driftwood was kind of in the way for a cup). Upon closer inspection she was holding her left fin close and had a scale or two sticking up from her body. All 3 of the girls tore their fins from stress while moving, but they healed very very quickly and Astrid has made a full recovery. I think they ate my last couple shrimp I couldn't catch out of the 20 gal.

Unfortunately, I only have 3 baby mystery snails left. I left very very specific careful instructions to the person who was taking care of them over the week (they were even PAID) and they did not follow them. They didn't give any specific updates (only "they're fine"), failed to notify me that the filter cover I was using in my 10gal (to keep the shrimp and baby from being sucked up) was LITERALLY disintegrating, and they basically hot boxed my baby snails with ammonia by PILING UP THE FOOD in the breeder's box which I specifically said not to give any more until it was completely gone (they had only just started eating actual food and not the shells - it was actually insane I was crying so hard). Only ONE of the babies I actually hatched made it out of that freakshow. The 2 bigger baby snails I had are also okay. But omg I'm still so angry. I would've had someone else do it, but said person wasn't comfortable with someone else coming over to the house and decided to do it themselves (they were the previous tenant). So. Just the one baby ivory left and the 2 big siblings. There was a 2nd baby that was alive when I got there but passed not long after. This person is now my neighbor and I've put off meeting them because I cannot guarantee I'd be very nice.

I suppose there's not much else to say. I picked up some meds while I was home and some prime (which thank god I had on hand when I found that massacre). Nova, my cat, is doing well. She's made the transition from barn cat to indoor cat very well, except for that she has separation anxiety and the carpet near the door to the office/cat room is starting to fray from her scratching. But no other issues, she's an absolute lovebug and loves looking out windows (she's sleeping under my desk as I'm writing this). My laptop decided to die randomly so I can't play my games right now, but I'm writing on my girlfriend's old computer that she booted up for me so I can keep looking for jobs.

The plan for the tanks now is to retrieve my betta log from the biology office on campus, get some more shrimp, and look for young/adult panda cories so the baby can shoal. I guess I'll update this next time I remember - and like always let me know if there's anything I should talk about in the comments! See ya~