Thursday, May 10, 2012

Bubble nest, change in temperature, swimming behavior etc...

Hey Guys! Jonah started to build a bubble nest last week. A few weeks ago I noticed already that he did that too, just as Gypsy did it, but at that stage I didn´t know what it was, because I never saw and heard about it before. Gypsy made quite a big one even without having a base, which is something in the water like a plant that is breaking the surface of the water. His bubble nest was built on the side of his jar and covert approximately a quarter of the water surface. No and the first time Jonah used the leaves that break the surface as the base of his bubble nest. But his bubble nests aren´t as big as Gypsy´s. When Jonah started to build the nest last week, I was thinking about putting Minki together with him, I actually wanted to ask you guys what you think I should do, but before I could blog his nest was getting smaller again. 2 days ago I saw that Gypsy built a nice nest again, not as big as the last time but that was probably because he wasn´t done making air bubbles with a coat of saliva, what makes the bubbles more durable. Unfortunately I had to take the jars in because I had them outside so that the water could get higher temperatures. While I was carrying his jar the nest broke through the water movement. But I still wanted to ask you guys what you think I should do the next time - "Yes, putting Minki to the male that is making a nest" or "No, i think it´s not a good idea"? Just remember that she wasn´t happy with both of them, but maybe it would be better when the males need the girl :-) would be nice if some of you share their opinion! 


As I said earlier, I put the jars out two days ago, that was the first time that i moved them to another place. But i was watching them for a couple of days and I noticed that they didn´t move as much as they usually do. I´m checking the temperature every day and while they haven´t been moving a lot it was always round about 18°C and less. So I thought I put them outside, because it was a very nice day. That was in the morning and in the afternoon when I got back from university I checked again and there was a nice increase in temperature - 24°C! No Minki, Gypsy and Jonah were more active
. That means in their case they swim more up and down, before they were only under the surface and almost didn´t move. So the result of that day was, that I could observe very good how temperature influences their behavior:
low temperatures: the fish won´t die if it´s a few degrees under the normal conditions, but they become less active. If the decrease in temperature is too high the fish will probably die, but I don´t want to test this!
temperatures between 24-28°C: That is round about the temperatures they really like - tropical conditions! They show you that they prefer those temperatures by being much more active, swimming around using all the space they have! 

In my last post I talked about the jar cleaning and about using the plant food, because of the missing clay substrate. My plants are still doing quite well! There is no loss of leafs! I wasn´t so sure if they would survive the taking out of substrate and putting back into new conditions (pepples), because i heard that if you disturb them to much they will die! But both plants are looking fine, the one has some lighter green leafs then the others, but I don´t worry about it to much yet, because it doesn’t look like dying leafs. The other plant´s leafs that reach out of the water have some brown tips, but it isn´t too bad. It isn´t  more than 10% of the leaf.

Swimming behavior in total: 
Minki is basically using the space she got to swim! She likes to swim between the leafs of the plant and sometimes it looks like that she is "chatting" with Gypsy through the glass of there jars. I don’t think that it´s aggressive behavior because Gypsy doesn´t flair and its actually to little time (Jonah and Gypsy flair at each other much longer!) Anyway, I think that Minki is swimming slightly more in the upper part of the jar, because most of the time I´m coming to the jar or walking pass the jar I see her at the top. Right now I´m watching her and she is using all the space. 
Gypsy is definitely feeling much more comfortable right under the surface! He swim around but much less than the other two! He swims to the bottom to get food that sank, but this is rare, because he usually doesn´t give the food a chance to reach the bottom! In between he decides to swim around a little bit, but gets back to the surface quite quick. What I´m observing now is that since I put the zeolite in the water he swims to the bottom more, probably because it is a change in his environment and has to be checked out. (Haha my kitten noticed the fishies for the first time, but doesn´t seem to be too interested in it!) Anyway...
Last but not least, Jonah! He was from the very beginning very active! As I stated in my first post he has an aggressive behavior, but this is not his only active side. He swims a lot around - top, middle or bottom - doesn´t matter to him, he feels good. He also doesn´t really have a favorite sleeping place. Sometimes he sleeps at the bottom, sometimes he sleeps right under the surface, other times he sleeps between a leaf and the glass or is lying halfway on a leaf and sometimes under a big leaf. While the other two prefer to sleep strictly under the surface of their jar!

Oh yeah, and since I cleaned their whole jars, Jonah is giving me some trouble again when i try to feed him. I think it might have been a little bit too stressful for him, because he seems to be kind of scared of every hectic movement. For example, I must wait again until he comes to the surface then I can put some pellets in the water, but if I move to much or too fast or too sudden. The last two days when i fed him I noticed that he is getting at least a little bit better! 

Okay coming to an end now! Good luck to everyone that is writing tests at the moment or for the exams coming soon!!!!


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