Rough Week

    A seriously rough week when it comes to fish people.  Here's what happened...

    Sunday my son and I went to PetLand in Russell to pick up my first dwarf ciclid, a baby German Blue Ram.  While at the store I waited, and waited, and waited.  I watched some woman purchase TWO male bettas.  I quickly informed them that if they were put into the same tank they would kill each other.  I have no idea if that's what they did, but they didn't really look like the type to care... 

    When I finally received service it was from the most inexperienced guy there who was obviously just trying to make a commission.  He bagged my beautiful little guy, and took us to the checkout.  Come to find out a bill that I wasn't expecting to go through till the next day had, and I didn't have enough money to buy him...

    My son and I came back on Monday (the next day) and actually purchased him, plus one Otocinclus.  While at the store I saw that one of the Rams from the day before was now dead, and had been partially eaten.  NOT a good sign obviously. 

    When I got them home I drip acclimated them for an hour, and put them into the display.  Upon the Ram entering the tank it was quite obvious that something was wrong.  He kind of spiraled down to the bottom, and immediately got stuck to the filter intake.  He freed himself within a few seconds, but long story short I ended up putting him down. 

    I went BACK to PetLand with the fish.  While there I spoke with someone else who notified me that there had been trouble with that tank, and that the inhabitants were actually being medicated at that time... Wish someone had told me that in the first place.  So I did not get another one.  I will be waiting on the new shipment. 

    I ended up coming home with two more Otocincluses, and one neon tetra ( to bring me to 25).  Today the neon died.... 

    Let's put it this way.  PetLand gets ONE more chance when I buy another Ram.  If it ends in the same way, then I'll no longer be shopping there. 

    On a good note the Oto's are doing very well.  They are a type of algae eater, and they have been doing a really great job!  Below are some pics. 

This is just a better picture of the tank, now that the water has cleared.

There are a total of three Oto's.  This is number 1.  Lol.

 Cleaning up my leaves for me. 

They sure are good at hanging on!

    Ahhh, but it doesn't end there.  I haven't seen Agent 47, my Assassin Snail for a few days.  Apparently this is a fairly normal occurance, but it worries me.  For some reason my betta tank has developed some sort of clear slime on everything, and Roo (the betta) is acting funky.  I've done a 50% water change for him two days in a row.  I don't know what is going on with him.  Annnd for some reason my 10g isn't cycling right.  I am currently conducting an experiment to rule out some things.  Arg...  Good things I really enjoy this or I might get a little discouraged.