aquarium update

I added 3 more Endlers, so now I have 9. I think that I'll add 2-3 more, and that should be enough. I really don't want to overstock.

I've also added 2 red ramshorn snails to the tank. They add some extra colour and life, but..they also proliferate like crazy.

Ramshorn snail eggs on the glass. They almost exclusively lay
eggs on the plants, though.

This is how big the babies are, 3 weeks after I put the parents in the tank.
They sure do grow fast.

I also have small pond snails that probably came with my plants. I've started removing all the snail eggs that I can see from my tank, so I don't get a snail plague. But because I also feel bad about just throwing the eggs away, so I put them in a cup next to my window with salvina natans in it and give them small pieces of vegetable as food. I'm hoping that they will start proliferating less rapidly. If not, I'm thinking that I should get one of those cool assasin snails (Anentome helena). Would surely make things more interesting, but I'm not sure that my aquarium is big enough to keep one fed without completely destroying my population of other snails. 

The mondo grass was starting to look bad, so I took it out of my aquarium and planted it with my sanseveria's. As compensation, I added a moss ball to my aquarium. They seem pretty neat, because they are actually algae, they should prevent other algae from growing by competing with them for nutrients. I've  also read that fish sometimes nibble on it, which could help them survive the weekends, when I can't feed them.

My aquarium as it is now. Note the moss ball (right).

As floating plants, I have salvina natans, duckweed and some unknown plant. I got the latter two from the water in which my Endlers were transported. They all seem to be thriving in my aquarium and have grown quite a bit.

Top view of my aquarium

A song of ice and fire

About a month ago, I ordered a boxed set of the first 4 books of George R. R. Martin's series "A song of ice and fire" on amazon.de. I did this after watching the HBO series "A game of thrones", of which the first season is based on the first book. The TV series was very good, so I decided to give the books a try, after reading a few chapters online first.

By now, I've read the first book and I must say that George R. R. Martin writes very well. The story is very intriguing, and although I already knew what was going to happen because I watched the TV series, it was still a good read. 

Before buying the boxed set, I was pondering for weeks whether to buy it or not. Mostly, I was worried about the quality of the print. I had read some reviews saying that the cover breaks easily, the paper being too thin and the print too small. But I finally decided that it was worth the risk of paying €15 for about 3500 pages to read. (Damn, just checked and they sell it for €13 now! I feel so ripped off...)

So, I'm posting this review to help other crazy people like me decide to buy it. I really am crazy in this aspect, I looked at any review I could find, photos of every detail. These pictures were taken today, after I read the first book. I took it with me on the train, bus, on the plane to Africa and it even survived the horrible mess that was my suitcase while I stayed in the middle of the Kruger park. You can see that the edges have a bit of damage, there's also a crack in the middle of the spine. But those things are very minor and don't bother me at all. The print is fine and the paper is thin, like other reviewers said, but still it's easy enough to read. All in all, I think it's very good value for the small price that I paid for it and I'm looking forward to reading the second book.

and then there was life

I decided that it was time to add fish to my aquarium. Because my aquarium is only 37 liters (10 gallons), it's best to keep smaller fish. I was thinking of Boraras brigittae, Endler's Livebearer and Ember Tetra. After reading up about these fish a bit, Endler's Livebearers seem to be the hardiest, which makes them a good choice for me. This is my first aquarium ever, so I'll probably do a lot of things wrong. On top of that, this is a dorm aquarium, so they'll have to survive weekends without feeding and getting moved over the breaks. I already feel bad for my fish, heh. If I go for Endlers, I'd have to get all males because they breed like crazy and I don't have any idea of what to do with all the babies.

After visiting several local fish stores, I found one that sold Endlers, but they didn't look very pure. They all had different colours and patterns, so they were probably hybrids that had been crossed with guppies. And they were very expensive. So I looked at online ads, and found someone that sold Endlers. I bought 6 male Endlers from him, 5 adults and 1 juvenile. To get them to my dorm room, they had to survive a car drive to my house and then a train and bus trip to my dorm. They got there safely, and they're already happily swimming around.

This is what my aquarium looks like now, with the 6 small Endlers in it.

These fish are very lively, they are swimming around and playing with each other all the time. It's very entertaining to watch, but hard to take pictures of.

Here's a short video of my aquarium: