Many of you've probably noticed that the fish tank was partitioned into 3 areas using plastic trays. I drilled holes in them thinking this would promote circulation of O2 and keep the composition homogenous. There were a few problems. I had the bubbler in the middle on the bottom hoping it would diffuse. But, of course it just mostly went up and out like it should. This led to hypoxia in the side areas and very 'depressed' fish. Also, when the bubbler was in the middle, it would push the floating fish food flakes out to the two sides too quickly so the fish in the middle couldn't get a chance to eat. I'm letting them live together until I put them in 3 separate beakers Josh got me. That'll solve the problem. It may lead to slightly different environments - pH, ammonia etc. It should however, help isolate types of bacterial growth, so any introduced lactobacillus does not spread between fish unintentionally.
I made my MRS agar plates (encourages growth of lactobacillus while suppressing other types). It is clearly much better after one day compared with my previous lactobacillus growth on TSA which took a few days with the same species. I also tested the fish tank water in TSB and got a surprising amount of growth. Moreso than I remember getting with Encanto park water.
As for the floating fish food flakes - I need to get some floating pellets instead. I need something that I can inoculate and enrich easier (and also which floats).
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