New Everything!

To those of you who have been checking on the blog regularly, thanks for your interest! Unfortunately my !@#%@#$&^ laptop crashed again so I haven't been updating the blog like I should have been. Since the last post, there has been lots of new additions :D and subtractions :(.
New fishes!

White Cloud Mountain minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) x 50

It is a member of the carp family (family Cyprinidae) , native to China and Vietnam. The species was discovered at white cloud mountain, hence it's name. It grows to a maximum size of 4cm. It has high resilience, which makes it good for beginners and minimum population doubling time less than 15 months.

Platys (Xiphophorus maculatus var) x4

We got these Platy's when a few of us visited Wen Jing's Uncle's fishfarm. (Thanks to the Yeo family!) It is a hardy and easy fish to take care of, but will eat its young if they are small enough. Think this explains why some of the baby endlers are missing >.<. Platys apparently breed easily so we might have a more Platys soon. sometimes a male Platy may be more dominant and chase the others away, so it's better to have ratio of 6 females to 2 male (every RH guy's dream).

Of the 4 Platys we have, the variations we have are:
1 x Sunset Tuxedo Platy (see pic)
2 x Sunset Platy (one of them only has 1 eye)
1 x Hi-fin Sunset Platy

Black Molly (Poecilia latipinna) x 3

We got these Mollies together with the Platys. Black Mollies are also hardy fish. They are a hybrid version of the Silver Molly. Black Mollies are schooling fish, and do best with 3. They are supposed to be livelier and healthier if some salt is added to the water, but the ones we have are already super active. If you've been checking out the tank you'll see that they are constantly swimming and chasing each other around.

Honey Gourami (Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna) x 2

Peaceful and cute fish! They usually swim together in our tank. The colour is really nice, with the tails and the edges of the fin red with a yellow body. It can grow up to 6cm in length. White Cloud Minnows and Corydoras are supposed to be good tank mates for them. Yet another easy fish to breed. The male will build a bubble nest among floating plants. The male has more intense colour than the female. Will have to get some floating plants if I want them to breed.

Cherry Barb (Puntius titteya) x 1

This is a donation from JJ. It's best kept in groups of 6 or more (give us more JJ!) as the male will turn bright red. The males apparently will also do a little dance, where usually the 2 largest males will erect their fins and swim in a circle like boxers. At the moment we only have 1 lone one. It can also school with other fish although not as closely. I'll most probably get more soon before it gets too lonely.

Pygmy Cory (Corydoras pygamaeus) x 4

I bought 4 more of these to keep the lone one in our tank happy. They supposedly prefer to be kept in a very large school, and enjoy playing tag with each other. However, I rarely see the ones in our tank swimming together. They grow to a maximum size of 2.5cm. They're really cute and are always going through the nooks of the tank. Sometimes they can be spotted resting on a leaf.

Leopard Cory (Corydoras trilineatus) x3

Also known as Three-lined Cory. I bought these to keep the Cory in our tank company too, but realized only later that the one in our tank was a Corydoras Sterbai (dammit). They can grow up to a max of 6.1cm and best kept in a school of 6 of more. They are supposed to have high resilience but the ones I bought died 1 by 1 :(. Think one of them fell sick and died. The other 2 fed off the sick one and died too within a week.

And may they rest in peace...

Since the beginning of the sem, quite a few fishes have died too, namely:

• 2 x Blue Platy which came with the other Platys.
• 6 (possibly more) x Cardinal Tetras. Could have died from feeding off the sick Leopard Cory after it died or because they were pretty old.
• The Kuhlii Loach!! Sadness...think it's one of the oldest fish in the tank, if i'm not wrong as it's been around since the 1st year the tank was started.
• 3 x Leopard Cory that I bought recently
• Rams. It seems that all the Rams that are added into the tank don't leave long.

Possibly other fish could have died which escaped my detection because the other fishes cleared up the bodies too quickly.

Note: Credits to various websites for most of the pictures. I couldn't get clear pictures of the all the fishes due to the limited capabilities of my handphone's camera function. Hope to get BOP's assistance soon!