Update 28-June-2010
Well back from holiday and as expected, I wasn't too happy with what I found. We had a different house sitter this time. While overall she did a good job, there were casulties:
The worst tank was the holding tank. I found (4) dead and the state of the tank was bad. The corpses were fuzzed over so they had been there for a spell. To make it worse, we spoke to the person on the phone yesterday while on our way home and was told that all was fine. Immediate 50% water change and stirred up the sand bed. Also had to move the huge java fern out of the way and vac'd around that area. Running (2) air stones in here at the moment to increase the O2 content since the sand was stirred up. Bad, bad, bad.
Next was the Cocama tank. While I didn't lose any of my little guys, the tank is absolutely disgusting. There is crudded up food all over the place. Way too much food fed. Have some fresh water getting ready to do a 25% wc.
Over in the Vittatus breeder, the only casulties were a Brigg and (2) tiger shrimp. Overall state of the tank was ok, but I'm sure the NH3 level was high due to the deaths. Immediate 25% water change. Running air stone currently.
Other tanks had no losses and seemed ok. Working on getting them cleaned up and water changes.
Plants in all tanks grew very well during that spell. Will have to do alot of trimming in the coming days.
On a good note, I was able to find homes for (25) little guys as well today. Wound up selling them for $4/each. They wanted more but had to hold some back to offer to fellow fishy friends out here.
New zucchini prepping now.