DAY 47!

Hi all!

Hope your fishies and plants are doing well:-)

Monday I got X from my partner and I was shocked and amazed to see how much he has grown. His colours were rich and bright and he is indeed bigger than the last time I saw him:-)

I did a leaf count on the plant this evening and found that there are two new stems growing which means that the plant must be healthy and must have definately grown. The leaves are looking good too, I would say 98% green with 2% brown in certain places but there are no dead or dying leaves in the jar. As for the jar, I detect no signs of algae but due to the substrate being fine grained there is a bit of dust on the leaves of the plant. My partner did a water change on Friday last week and inserted the Zeolites into the jar, so the water is and looks very clean. We decided that we are going to make Fridays our water change day.

As for Xs' behaviour, I have noticed a change in his swimming patterns. Before, he was very energetic constantly swimming around in the jar, but now he's bearly moving. I'm not sure whether it's caused by the drop in temperature, due to the change of seasons, or whether he is just too big and lazy to move around. I tried using the mirror to show him his reflecton, with the hopes of getting him to move around but all he does is stare at the mirror, swims to the plant and hides behind the leaves. I'm about to do some research on what the temperature of the water should be. Then I'll take the temperature of the water in the jar compare it to the research and make adjustments to the water by adding some lukewarm water if the temperature is too low. Other than his swimming patterns, his behaviour in the jar has not changed. He still sleeps at the bottom of the jar and lies on or between the leaves. Oh yes, i forgot, he made another bubble nest:-) So I guess his not that lazy.lol...

His feeding diet has changed as his Tubiflex food is finished. My partner and I decided to buy him bloodworms as that was one of the main ingredients in the Tubiflex pellets. I went to the petshop on Saturday and asked one of the owners what food is best too feed a Siamese Fighter fish, he then told me that frozen foods are more preferable than dry foods and that I should try feeding it blood worms. He also told me that I should feed him the bloodworms in moderation as too mush can make the fish unhealthy. So yesterday I started feeding X the bloodworms,well one bloodworm. At first he ignored me when I put the worm in the jar, probably thinking it was the dried food, then I took it out and dipped it back into the jar that had the blood in it (using a tweezer) and tried again. The second time, after I was moving the worm back and forth in the jar, he suddenly came to the surface and grabbed the worm. He then remained at the surface for a few seconds, probably thinking there was going to be more blood worms, then descended to the bottom of the jar. Tonight when I fed him, there was no hesitation at all, he immediately surfaced when he saw my hand about to put the worm in the water. So it seems to me like he's really enjoying the worms:-)

I'm going to do the research now and start my own little investigation to find out why X is bearly moving in the jar. Then I'll blog my research and my results.:-)