Just got home Saturday from our visit to daughter Emily and family in Port Orange, Florida. We left early on February second, and got back home mid day on February eighteen. Didn't really get to fish work until the 19th, so the fish were without food for 17 full days. A male Aphyosemion bivittatum Funge died, but his mate had died just before leaving so something may have been wrong in that tank. Even the dozen or so small Aphyosemion australe Swartzflosse all seem to be alive. So the fish are hungry, but swimming.
The grindal worm cultures did not fare so well. Of the 16 coir cultures, probably eight of them show little sign of life. The best cultures are the two that were on foam. I was about to discard them before I left because they were accumulating dirt, but they still had lively worms. Took some of those worms to reseed the failed coir cultures. By day three, all of the cultures are showing signs of recovery.
The blackworm cultures that I am trying to cultivate are alive, but the worms are thinner after the long stretch without food. The good news is that I don't have to start from scratch to get colonies to work with.
About half of the daphnia cultures fared well. With some green water feedings, I think they will recover quickly. The cyclops cultures have provided food for the baby fish.
All of the blue crawfish survived the vacation. Now I have to try to fatten them up to pair some to try to get some baby crawdads.
Before I left, I checked the plants with the biv Funge trio for eggs and found a couple. Took out all of the plants, and put in new java moss and oak leaves. The plants were put into a peanut jar for the vacation, and one baby was found swimming two days ago. Checking that tank for eggs this morning, I found and removed a total of nine! Will leave the trio in the tank for another week before removing the breeders.
