Schuyler

I pulled the plants out and then four of them were obviously visible. It took forever but I caught one. Then I realized the tank was full of tiny scuds and other tiny critters. So I changed plans. The parents were moved to the but tank. That way they have more space and the fry can eat the small critters. I picked the mops and found three more eggs. That will be the last time using mops for a while. I'm going to stick with colony breeding for now.

Some good advice here already. One thing I'll add is to have more tanks available than you think you'll need. It's really tempting to just get another species and set them up in that extra tank but haven't extra tanks can be super helpful for: Having a separate tank to put a pair into to spawn then pull the adults. Pulling faster grown fry before they eat smaller siblings. Raising multiple batches of fry.

Two of the eggs seen to have melted away but the two remaining haven't turned blue so I'm guessing that means they are viable. I had a bit of a mishap. I put all of the fry in a deli cup so that I could feed them easier. They were floating in a 10 gallon tank but tonight when I went to check on them the cup has tipped slightly and they were all about to escape. The good news is that the tank doesn't have any fish that will eat them. The bad news is that they are going to be almost impossible to find without tearing apart the tank. Tomorrow is water change day, I'll look for them then.

I'm going to second the fasting and daphnia suggestion. Lots of people one suggest peas but bettas are insectivores. The crude fiber that they normally get in their diet comes from chiton (the material bugs use for their exoskeleton). Daphnia have fairly thick shells. To me, based on the pictures, he doesn't look to fat or bloated but I'm not a betta expert. That said, a fast won't hurt. Their digestive systems are actually designed to go through periods of no food. What temperature is your tank at?

No Easy Iron needed for you lol Have you considered aging your water before doing a water change? Hydrogen peroxide isn't very stable so if you put some water in a bucket with an airstone (and maybe a light) overnight it should all be gone.

Dr. Anthony Mazeroll came and spoke at the Portland Aquarium Society. He was talking about water chemistry. One of his big points was that as long as you're just looking to keep fish and not necessarily breed them, then you can get almost any fish to live in your water as long as it's been acclimated. His example was that he keeps discus in hard water with a pH of 8. Now, he is a professor of biology with decades of experience so maybe not everyone could pull off discus like that. But the point is that with good husbandry you can make it work. Your water isn't crazy hard. You could probably do most fish easily (outside of black water fish). If you can get locally bred fish then you'll have nothing to worry about at all.

That's really interesting. Like a more substantial alternative to egg crate

Well they spawned! My wife and I picked 4 eggs from the mops. It seems like they have a preference towards bottom mops. Three of the eggs were on the sinking mop and the one on the other mop was in the section near the bottom. I put them in a cup of water with a bit of methylene blue to see if they're viable

Thanks for the detailed response! That seems roughly what the prices are here. Seriyu Stone is about $4 / lb which would be roughly €9 / kilo. That is super vague. Most platforms here don't allow you to sell live animals (maybe it's one of those things where the EU made a law and companies applied it to the whole platform). There are still people who try to be sneaky about it. A ban makes some sense though, there are a lot of people who try to sell things that are invasive/illegal. That seems to be a recurring theme. People just don't understand how to keep fish or just see them as decorations. This is one thing I'm jealous of. It seems like more varieties of killifish are available in the EU. At least on Aquabid there are a lot more European sellers

Welcome! Something I like to ask people outside the US: based on what you've seen in videos, how is the hobby different where you live vs the US? What's an aquascape lease?

Welcome to the forum! Don't worry, you'll get the hang of things. It can be a bit tricky doing quotes and stuff if you're on mobile. Something I've found is if you refresh and start with a comment there will be an option to clear your saved comment. Sometimes I have to do that to get rid of certain stuff like the quote boxes.

She is doing much better now so I decided to move the male back in and add spawning mops. While pulling the moss out I noticed a fry dart out. So I grabbed the turkey baster but as I looked for that fry I had seen I noticed two more in a different place. In all there were six fry of various sizes: I fed them a little bit of grindal worms and micro worms. Here is a video of one of them attempting to hunt for a small ostracod or something: One all the fry were collected I moved all the moss out so that they would use the spawning mops. As soon as I put him back in she was attempting to spawn but he was completely ignoring her:

Today a coworker randomly tagged me on a Facebook picture. Turns out they took my advice and got their betta a heater. Now he's acting happier.

There's no risk of cannibalism is there? I did this with killis and the big ones grew really fast but the small ones disappeared. Also, where did you buy the trays? I tried looking once and they were all too big

The other thing will be later when you cut and replant you'll want to make sure you don't feed near the plants or they'll get knocked loose. At least that's been my experience

I've heard that neon tetras will fin nip long fin bettas. I don't have personal expense with this though so take that with a grain of salt. I've used uns contrasoil and fluval stratum. Both of those were pretty light and easy for fish to kick around. Corys may uproot newly planted stem plants (before they develop new roots). Neither of those are the end of the world but just a heads up.

The male has been moved to an empty tank to give her some space. While cleaning this little one popped out: They actually spawned! So it probably was spawning aggression that injured her mouth. I had ruled that out because they didn't really seem like they were spawning. I'm not sure how many there are, it could be just the one. Now the question is if the fry should be left alone it separated. Just when I was feeling like a complete failure.

Squish looks so proud of himself. At first I just say a picture of a happy round fish so I liked it but then I read that he's a murder machine and now I'm conflicted. Do you plan to move the corys out? Are any even left?

Got a good look at her today and she's not looking great. The red color was from a lid I put on top of the tank to sink the lights for her. My next move will be to separate her for a bit and clean out the aquarium some more.

Well if you do end up joining they are having a meeting this weekend and I'm sure someone could spare a few snails lol

I'm not super familiar with these other fishes' diets but the corys and shrimp may benefit from some veggie in their diet. One risk could be too much fat. Daphnia are a good source of fiber so it's good that you have that mixed in.

Do you have a local aquarium club? I think there is a club finder on aquarium Co-op's website. I would reach out and see if there's anyone local who can share some seasoned media. That would be way better than any bottled bacteria.

How does that compare to Fluval Bug bites?

Every time I see your killi's it makes me really tempted to get some Striatum... They are so good looking and it's really cool that they get along well

Welcome fellow Washingtonian! I'm just down in the Olympia area but grew up in Kitsap. There are quite a few of us on here from the general Puget Sounds area. If you're getting back into the hobby you should consider joining the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society (GSAS). To me that thing in your tank looks like a strand of hair algae. Does it feel like a long piece of hair or spider web?