Darth Mollusk

Sorry, work has been a nightmare! And thanks for asking! The Snursery isn't really a Snursery anymore, so much as just a tank full of snails! I started finding empty shells for all the smaller ones for the first time. But the bigger ones are doing great--all jade.

It's true, everyone loves a log! Pumpkin loves log--he went into it immediately. I think they're best friends.

Pumpkin now does this thing where he goes up to the top where his pellets are, swishes his fins around to make them sink, then chases them down. I'll take it. 😆 Fin looks better than yesterday, so that's good.

always happy to oblige on that front 😆

Aww! 😍I just added a betta to a 29 gallon tank of corys too! Small world 😆

Not worry?? How 😜 Thanks for the reassurance, I'll keep on with the current plan!

Most look jade (I believe that's what gold shell with blue foot is?) and there are a few blue looking ones. But some are still too small to really say for certain. And I mean, the bitty ones are still getting around and eating, they're just slow I guess?

I am not an expert, but in terms of phraseology I can see the concern: given the use of "fish" and other more specific words for squid, krill, etc, I would assume "animal protein of marine origin" to mean "non-fish animal of marine origin." But, looking into it, I assume the difference in phrasing is a specific product patent issue, and that ingredient has been labeled and patented as such specifically. In which case it would be a shorthand for a particular combination of ingredients. Here is a patent for "Hydrolysates of animal proteins of marine origin" that may not be the exact same thing, but here's its breakdown: "These hydrolysates are prepared from a protein source selected from mackerel, salmon, green crab and white fish, and at least 70% (preferentially at least 80%) of the total weight of peptides of these hydrolysates correspond to peptides having a molecular weight of less than 1000 Da." Whether shark or other questionable ingredients are included in the food you're looking at, I couldn't say. A company not emailing back, though, is not comforting.

It's log playtime for somebody, we'll find out who 😆. I hope he likes it!

My chunky pumpkin of a betta has shunned floating pellets (fluval bugbites, northfin betta) and seems to struggle with flakes, too. He much prefers to head downward to eat the repashy the corys and snails get. He does go for the floating food. He just seems to sort of hit it with his face more than anything. Sometimes he'll go for it once it's sunk. But the fact that he's not really eating the betta-specific food, now I'm rethinking my feeding schedule. I'm always paranoid about bloat etc with bettas (though it's been over a decade since I've kept one, RIP). Here's what I'm thinking now, and if anyone has any thoughts, I am all eyes. Sunday - Fast Monday - Repashy Tuesday - Frozen baby brine shrimp Wednesday - Fast Thursday - Repashy Friday - Repashy Saturday - Frozen baby brine shrimp The repashy is a mix of Soilent Green, Community Plus, and calcium carbonate. The shrimp get shrimp king, and I add algae wafers for the snails as needed. I wonder if splitting up each day into two feeding would be best? Should I only feed repashy at night and try to coax him into eating the betta food? It's just so much harder to regulate how much the betta eats in a community tank. Especially one this food determined 😆. I was so worried about curbing aggression (which is nonexistent), I wasn't prepared for this particular challenge.

Day after fin-rip-ageddon. I ordered some API Stress Guard and Indian almond leaves. And one of those little floating logs. I don't expect Pumpkin to use it, because he seems to prefer being on the bottom, but I figure the shrimp might appreciate it 🤷‍♂️😂. I'm only changing water every other day, bc the bio-load is pretty light and I've got double filtration. He is currently chasing down frozen BBS and looking very content. Look at that chubby muffin face! Now, I'm wondering about optimum feeding schedule...🧐

@Guppysnail the Forum decided to merge my reply to you and my update 🤷‍♂️. My tanks are too high up for a bucket seat, but I am certainly easy to locate 😆 Edit: This wasn't even the right heckin journal, never mind! 🤦‍♂️🤣🤣🤣

Same. Having it in the office is both soothing and distracting 😆

*cue Lord of the Rings theme* Buhhh buhhhh buh buh buhhhh! I could watch these snaibies scale the drift wood all day--I feel accomplished by proxy 😆

@Guppysnail Thank you so much! Meds make me so nervous. 🙈 He experienced his first water change today and was very curious about the whole process. "What is this tube? Is it food? No? How about this thing, is that food?" 🤣 The bio-load in the tank is fairly low for a 29 gallon (one adult mystery, five adult corys) and lots of filtration, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to keep things clean. I'm not so worried about the look of the tear, so long as he's healthy and happy. He'll get extra frozen BBS this week as consolation 😆

@Hannah Parker Oh, good to know! Thank you again. Water change protocols, activate! ✨💪✨ (it's his first one, and he was very curious about the whole thing 😆) Whoops I do not have stress guard. I have stress zyme Whoops I do not have stress guard. I have stress zyme

@Hannah Parker Thank you so much! It doesn't look like fin rot to me, it's just one tear straight up the middle of one fin. He doesn't appear stressed and the corys don't bother him (or he them). He always looks pretty chill in the tank. He does have a tendency to go scrounging around for cory/snail food. I assume that is how it happened. And I have a sponge filter with air stone, plus a HOB on the lowest flow with a sponge to baffle it. I have a lot of floating plants, including red root floaters and lily pads that have reached the top. There's two rings of airline tubing cordoning off the HOB filter output on one side, and an area of still water for feeding/easy air access on the other. He often goes there for a gulp of air, but he doesn't like eating from there. He might think he's a cory, I'm not sure. I was reluctant to go full throttle into Meds, too. I'm glad to have the second, confirming opinion from someone with more betta experience than me. I may actually have some Stress Guard on hand, and will look into the almond leaves. Daily water changes are absolutely doable for me. I'll do an inspection to see if there's anything obvious in the tank that might have done it, but as you said, he's a dumbo and it happens. If he was nipping, I'd expect it to be his tail? And given it is one tear straight up the middle, I doubt it. Though, who's to say he won't start nipping it, since I'm sure he is uncomfortable. Thank you again for the thoughtful response, I really appreciate it. And I'm sure my betta is very grateful for the frozen BBS suggestion, as he loves them 😆

My little guy ripped his right fin this morning. At least with the white fins, it's easy to spot. He's a half-moon dumbo, and I know they're prone to this. It's why I'd been planning on a female originally, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I've never dealt with this and I'm worried. I don't know what to do to help him. I was worried about him scoping around the tank bottom for food bc I thought he'd get bloat from over-eating or something. But now here we are with a whole other issue. It's always so hard when an animal in our care is hurt...I feel like I failed him.

Help! My new betta has ripped his right fin and I have never dealt with something like this before. 😱 He has white fins, so I can see what looks like blood, and even as I watched him over the last ten minutes he's started having a hard time using it and is mostly holding it against his body. This is absolutely a new tear, as I've been watching him very closely. He is in a 29 g community tank with nerite and mystery snails, blue velvet and amano shrimp, and albino and panda corys. Since I've had him (about a week) he won't eat from the top and is much more interested in the repashy the snails and corys eat (and gets pretty adventurous searching for it) He's a dumbo half-moon male, and originally I'd been planning on a female in part to avoid something like this, but fell in love with this guy Here's the parameters as per ACO test strips: (ammonia zero; nitrates were 0-10 range before I dosed with EZ Green). Temp 77. There's a sponge filter with air stone and a HOB on lowest flow with the output sort of buffered by a sponge. I'd really appreciate some help here for next steps. I'm very worried for him. I have the quarantine trio Cory recommends on hand, but with the baby snails and everybody else in there I'm reluctant to use it. I don't have a separate med tank (the original quarantine tank turned into a nursery when everybody started breeding 🤦‍♂️)

This is my 20 long Hobbit Snursery that has bred oodles of mystery snails and is now host to baby panda cory cats (the blue velvet shrimp has since berried, so I guess there's something going right in here 😆) Hardscape is a moss-covered resin hobbit house, river rocks (some moss-covered), and mopani driftwood. Substrate is gravel and crushed coral. The breeder box for the mystery snails has just been removed and the snaibies moved to the tank itself, but here's mom inspecting it. Here's a baby cory hiding under a mossy rock. Plants are assorted mosses, java fern, anubias, Cryptocoryne undulata,and Amazon swords. I've got a HOB and a large sponge filter and heater to keep everybody happy and comfy. This is a baby cory and baby snail eating repashy off the driftwood. Thanks for looking!

@FlyingFishKeeper Oh! Then I guess I'll stick my Hobbit Snursery over there tomorrow morning when the lights come back up....? And every single person on this forum has been there. Typos unite us all 😆

This looks fun! But I was surprised to see that the Beeding Set-up category was outdoors only. My set-up is indoors so I don't qualify, but I'm still super curious as to why that is. I guess there's something about fish breeding I don't know (to add to the lots of other stuff I don't know 🤣)

29 G Betta Community Tank Detail Photos 1. Fish exploring rocks and wood (right) 2. Betta swimming through red root floaters 3. Detail of background "Snart" (snail trail art in algae) Hardscape: driftwood and found rocks Aquatic Plants: amazon sword, cardinal plant, dwarf four leaf clover, Cryptocoryne wendtii, Cryptocoryne undulata, Ludwigia peruensis, red root floaters, crested java fern, duckweed, red dwarf lily Emersed plants: peace lily, polka-dot plant, purple knight, pothos Animals: mystery snails, nerite snails, panda cory cats, albino cory cats, blue velvet shrimp, amano shrimp, half-moon dumbo betta Miscellaneous/Hardware: sand and scattered gravel over eco-complete and soil, two emersed planters (shower soap racks), hygger full spectrum light, sponge filter, HOB, heater, plain black background with algae

@GuppysnailThank you so much for alleviating my anxiety about this! I'd been planning on ordering some of the repashy spawn food anyway, because my panda corys have been breeding in the other tank, and I've got three little guys (that I've confirmed so far...there is a lot of cover and they hide a lot so it's hard to catch a glimpse of them all at once). In the betta tank I've got three albino corys and a pair of pandas, and the albinos have been getting a little frisky lately, too. So, we'll see how he feels about repashy spawn. Probably great. 😂 Thanks again!

@GuppysnailOh hey! That's what I feed the corys and snails in the tank, and he loves it, I just worry he will eat too much and get bloated or something? (Years ago, when I didn't know nearly as much, I lost a betta to bloat...not that I even knew what repashy was back then 😆) So I'd been considering feeding the repashy at night so he'd be less likely to go for it. The corys clean it up pretty quick. I mix community plus with soylent green and a sprinkle of calcium carbonate for the snails. Would that be okay for him? I wonder if I shouldn't get him a higher protein version? (*worried dad mode engaged* 🤣) I'm likely being over worried bc I love my chonky baby, but he really, really loves to eat. He's like a hobbit. It's all he cares about. The tank also gets frozen BBS once a week, and he LOVES chasing those down. So, I suppose his coordination and vision is probably fine? (Unlike ours 😜, right?) Ugh. He's going for an algae wafer as we speak...🤦‍♂️😂 @Guppysnail Also, I do fast them once a week. Maybe if I fasted two days a week I could calm down about the bloat issue for ten minutes? 😜😂 (The betta would call the ASPCA, but that's another issue)