sankaz

Hi Marcell, as others have commented bettas have widely different personalities. I had to ultimately remove any fish that swim at mid- or top- water level. He's still a little shy and startles easily. So the point is be prepared for him to love his community buddies or want to hide out all the time. Welcome to this group of kind and knowledgeable people. Enjoy your mini world!

I never knew that snails are attracted to foul smells! It makes sense upon thinking about it. Another reason to keep my tanks clean. And yes, The slots on the sided are big enough for snails to get in there. I haven't confessed that I tried adjusting the pH and almost killed all the fish. I realized fairly quickly that I'd really made a dumb mistake. But not fast enough to save all the snails. But yeah, they had to be in there already, hm.

Following @knee's advise I contacted ACO customer support about cleaning my heater. Candi in her lightning fast response assured me that using white vinegar can safely clean it. Love the products AND the customer service as well as my ACO cohort! Browsing youtube and catching my first Cory video has literally changed my life! I have five tanks between home and work now and life is twice as interesting. Thanks to all the Aquarium Co op people and to all the others who are interested and supportive to this wonderful hobby.

Thanks @knee, I didn't even think about contacting ACO for advice. DOH!

I'm glad you are both safe. My thoughts are with your friends and families.

I just heard about the massive earthquake in your country. Are you and Lennie okay? I hope you and your families are safe.

Merhaba! (I cheated and looked up how to say hello) 😃 Your tall plants are gorgeous! I like how they look from above. I agree with Lennie your 'boy' is beautiful. Are you using tap water or purified water, your tank is pristine!

Yes, that's what I was thinking. So I know now to keep an eye on that. Do you think it might be better not to try to clean it? I don't want to ruin the heater. And as for the smell from it, I could only smell it after I took it out of the tank. So maybe just leave it, huh?

I've put this small gravel in a 10g and I like the color and how it looks. It's big chain product but it doesn't affect the water, not coated with anything and claims to be kiln dried. The 20 lb bag is 24.99 at PetSmart, Aqua Natural Aquarium Gravel - Midnight Pearl. I don't like to promote the chain store stuff but this gravel has been safe for me and looks good.

Hi. I've had my Aquarium Co op heaters for about 5 months now. They are great, I don't worry about the temperature because I can easily see it and/or change the temp with control. I recently had a weird experince for me - I took the heater out of pone because it didn't seem to be keeping the tank as warm as my setting. When I removed it (after unplugging) I found the inside packed with snail shells and an awful smell. After carefully crushing the shells and flushing them out I put it back in ad it's working perfectly again. Has anyone else had this happen? And does anyone know how to clean the glass covering the heating coils? I was't happy to put something so smelly back in.

Hi Barb! I was like you, I'd bought great stuff from Aquarium Co op and watched a ton of videos. I've had lots of people here offer help and encouragement from many of the expert fish keepers in this forum as well as fellow new hobbists. Welcome to a great resource!

Welcome! This is a great forum with generous and knowledgeable people!

I agree with all of the above, beautiful boy and a nice tank. My Grizm is a blue grizzle and I love him lots. I have him in a 10 gallon and find it's much easier to maintain the tank with just him and some otocinclus with a LOT of pink ramshorn and pond snails. As you have experienced this is a great place to get information specific to your tank to go with all the great knowledge from Cory and the other AOC presenters. Welcome to this fishy/snaily loving group!

I'm so sad that this has been happening. I hadn't kept up reading for months so didn't know. I also love my otos. I hope whatever was happening has stopped.

Hi, I thought I'd update on Grizm. He now has only otos in his tank and a ton of snails. I saw him flare for the first time ever! And now a few times. He flares at the larger pink rams in the tank. Removing the minnows was key. I was focused on whether the other fish were fin nippers but not on the personality of my betta. Grizm is happiest when he has no challenge to his space. It was his shy personality that drew me to him in the first place so I could have listened to my impression of him and saved him some angst. Anyway he is super happy and so am I. Thanks again to all to commented, and especially for the feeding advice from @Odd Duck.

I like looking at the tank while brushing my teeth, and putting in my contacts. They get visited often during the day when I'm home. 🙃 m

Thank goodness that I have access to fish meds. Grizm is perking up so much. His left pectoral isn't clamped anymore and I can see that it has a severe tear! Day three of Maracyn and he's recovering well. I also think he prefers having the Gold White Cloud Minnows living elsewhere, he's much happier. The pygmy cories don't seem to have a problem with the minnows. Is it weird to have a fish tank in my bathroom? Oh well, I like it so I don't care. 😁

Grizm is a little more active. But two days ago I saw him swim into a tight space next to the cholla wood that's in there for the otos. Now his left pectoral fin is clamped to his side. I started maracyn yesterday to prevent infection. He's still not eating much. The cholla wood is out of there now. I've tried Xtreme Betta Pellets and even the Gold White Cloud Minnows turn up their noses at them. Next I'll try some frozen brine shrimp. My GoodGirl (GG) is on Science Diet too. She's still frisky at 11 years old.

Super fun videos, and Geppetto is interesting to watch. He's really interactive with his territory! I had a small HOB filter but took that out a month or so ago. All along I've had a sponge filter and a small box filter. I bought a white perforated tunnel with a suction cup but he stays away from it. I'll try the floating tunnel, with 10g there should be room. I tried plastic leaves with suction cups but he avoided those too. He enjoyed the almond leaves while they floated. Grizm tolerates the otocinclus but I have noticed that he's a little edgy with the minnows. I'll move them to another 10g. Fortunately they are very healthy and swim around in their pack of 6 all the time. My observation has been that he occasionally will face them when they get close to the food he's eating, I put some by him and some elsewhere in the tank. I work in a fruit fly lab, can he have larvae do you think? Probably only a few a week because they're grown on rich medium. Your videos are a huge help. I realize that I've maybe expected more vigorous activity from him than reasonable. Maybe he's more of a couch potato like me! Thanks for spending time to help.

Grizm is in a 10 gallon tank. Anubias plants, a banana plant, amazon frogbit and duckweed #!&^$. Thanks @Hally M. for the names of foods to try.

I'm used to dogs needing their diet to be stable! And never thought about the caloric/fat content of fish food. I'll try frozen daphnia (thanks @dangerflower). And I'll read @COT and @xXLinkedPhoenixX (thanks @Guppysnail).

This is my first and only betta, Grizm. He's been hiding more and not always eating when I offer food. I changed two things in the last month or six weeks. One was a plant light for the above-the-rim plants that was super bright. I've removed that because I thought he might not like how bright it was. And I added six gold white cloud minnows. I've had him three months or so, before all the above I bought him a betta mirror that scared him so bad he hid for hours. I'm so afraid he's depressed. I really love him, I visited him for weeks at my LFS and couldn't stand seeing him in a one liter tank with a plant so even though he was expensive I had to get him out of there. I probably sound like a nutjob but he isn't just a fish to me. Any advice? Will he be happier alone? I'm feeding him Vibrabites and freeze dried bloodworms. SanKaz Temp 78.9, pH 7.6, Nitrate 10, Nitrite 0, GH 300, KH 40, Chlorine 0

YAY!! It's so much fun to see the few that make it through. Congrats new fish-papa!

Thank you for all of your advice. Right now I'm just leaving them as is, I've had an explosion of molly and platy babies so I'm letting the community monitor itself. Eventually I do want to keep some eggs and fry from my corys. I'm just so excited to have created a system that makes my fish feel that they can have babies.