One nice thing about this cold weather...

It has brought the temperature in my main tank down to the low 60's. The guys and gals are perking up.

My rainbow darters are showing more color. The bluebreasts are looking a bit blue. My southern no-so-redbelly dace are turning red. The speckled darters definitely have a bit more gold in their speckles. And everyone seems to be moving around with a bit more snap.

Okay, okay, I'll try to get a chiller.

If only those chillers were a bit cheaper. And, well, my experiment didn't go so well with the homemade one...though I still say the theory would work. I'd love to get my water temp down to around 50-55 for a few months.

I notice, usually early in the morning, that my red-belly daces have a bit more red on their belly's. However, usually by the time I get home they are white again. I wish so so so much that they would show the color they had when we caught them. I think that was the single most spectacular thing I've seen since I dove into this hobby. I told my wife that she'll have to go back with me in the spring to see those fish with that color in the wild....amazing, I can't believe we didn't have a camera.