Well, it looks like we’ve lost one of our platy. Sadly, Fishstick is no more. There were no obvious signs of injury or illness and the water parameters are all fine, so it’s a mystery for now. On a positive note, the kids took the loss rather well: “Does this mean that we can get another fish?”
#AmateurAquarist 
The kids were fascinated by the shrimp moult this morning. #fishofmastodon #petsofmastodon #AmateurAquarist
Tonight was water test & change night for my #aquarium and there’s something not quite right. After several weeks of being rock-solid stable, the water parameters are off. Small amounts of ammonia, pH 8.0, nitrites 1ppm, & nitrates at 40ppm. Nothing has changed as far as I can see. Fish seem happy enough, but there’s lots of algae and diatoms.
Anyway, I did a 50% water change and will retest in a week. Let’s see what happens.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell
Water parameters weren’t massively concerning — Nitrite was at 2ppm, but my pH is 7.6, so it’s just about tolerable. Nitrates were on the high-side though at 80ppm. Ammonia was undetectable. Slime mould has dissipated. #AmateurAquarist #fish #shrimp
However, my last water parameter test was fine & the consensus seems to be that its presence does not indicate a problem. In any case, slime moulds are not harmful to aquatic life &, I believe that, shrimp like to eat them, so I think that I’ll just leave it be.
Myxogastria feed on bacteria, moulds, fungi, & particles of organic matter. I’m in the process of trying to establish a #shrimp colony & my guess is that it either came in with the shrimp &/or was already present in its mononuclear/spore phase & developed after one of the shrimp died.
There seems to be some debate as to whether the presence of slime mould in an aquarium indicates that there is something wrong.
Today on #AmateurAquarist, I found this weird thing. It’s kinda hard to see, so you’ll have to zoom in. At first I thought it was fungi, but it’s actually Myxogastria (slime mould). These are fascinating organisms can exist as individual cells with single nuclei, or band together in a plasmodium (still a single cell, but multiple nuclei). They can even move towards food & produce fruiting bodies (like fungi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxogastria.
#pets #petsofmastodon #fish
