Beckybettas

rock collecting, pickle ball and struggling with cello

How big is your aquarium? Is it planted? Kuhli loaches are bottom feeders but mine are not a good clean up crew. Ramshorn snails are much better. They will quickly eat almost anything. Their down side is that they rapidly multiply and their numbers can quickly get out of controll especially if you are over feeding. When you do water changes do you vacumm your gravel? oops sorry I just realized you already said.

I found black mold growing inside the lid of a 1 gallon bottle of Fritzyme and just want to give every body a heads up. I figured this was not a good thing and tossed the bottle out. The bottle had only been open for a month so not really that long but how long does it last for other people? Should it be kept in the fridg ? Thanks

That is good info to know, thankyou. I dont have RO water, there is no room here for an RO system. I use tap water. I added the crushed coral about a year ago to stabilize ph. which has been stable at 7.2 . It was dropping from 7 ish down to 6 over night. Fortunately there were no fish in the aquarium during that time.

Could be, I thought a scud would be smaller and I didnt realize they were scavengers. but this a major relief. Thankyou! So perhaps my unexpected fish fry could eventually eat them? That would be great. I will check, thankyou.

thankyou, Yes, you are right the ammonia level is concerning and its been a chronic problem in all my aquariums since I started keeping fish again, almost a year ago. My tap water does indeed have ammonia, its increased from .25 to .5 so when I do a water change Im just replacing amonia with more ammonia. Its been a balancing act trying to have enough food available for the kuhlis, mystery snail and shrimp (which were all out competed by an explosion of ramshorn snails) and not over feeding.. Adding an assasssin snail has helped with snail controll. Any way Ive tried lots of differnt things to lower the ammonia, nothing made any difference. Ive been just using sponge filters but recently added a HOB filter (was able to find one that fit the Fluval lid) containing carbon and ammonia filters which helped somewhat. Then I tried removing the carbon filter and replacing it with another peice of ammonia filter and my ammonia level dropped to 0. So I stopped using the ammonia filters for a week to see if really still needed to continue to use them and the answer is yes, so this has been my experiment. Ive continued to use old sponge filter so I dont think my cycle crashed.

This morning I woke up to a dead kuhli loach and a mystery snail. Help The snail has been lethargic and flipping onto her back for a couple of days, Ive turned her over several times but would find her on her back again. Ive had her for 7 months. She has laid several clutches but I removed them. I rescued last clutch that was floating and it looked like some had hatched so I gently crumbled the eggs and now have about 15 of her babies in a snail nursery and so far they are active and growing. Hazelnut was quite large so dont think one assassin snail could kill her but I could be wrong. I havent noticed any changes with the kuhlis but found a dead one this morning. Ive had them for about 8 months. The dead kuhli had a tiny white almost shrimp like thing attached to its belly plus some tiny blobs on her head that I think were baby rh snails. Am wondering if this is a parasite? What do you all think? The aquarium is planted 32 G, has been set up for about 10 months. Occupants are 5 kuhli, ramshorn snails, 1 assassin snail, 7 dwarf neon rainbow fish and 5 amano shrimp. 4 of the rainbow fish were added a week ago . I treated this aquarium late may and early June with Expel P and then Para cleanse after I had fish with dropsy, pop eye and wasting. The survivors seemed better so I added some new fish last week. The new guys might be rubbing against plants but they are so fast its hard for me to be sure. Temp 78-80, ph 7.2, ammonia .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 5. I did a 40% water change 3 days ago and the parameters were the same as todays. I did add ammonia filter back to HOB then also. I was experimenting to see if new filter made a difference and it did.

That has helped me immensly. I have a new favorite web site. Thankyou.

I have plakats and an alien in 10G and 15G tanks. They are all over their tanks and have no trouble swimming. I admit long finned bettas are gorgeous but I think breeders have gone too far. I dont want a fish that is unable to swim freely or has to resort to self mutilation in order to move off the bottom of its tank. Plakats are every bit as colorful and have a variety of fin types also. I had a giant plakat in 32G with amanos but I never saw them so I thought he had an expensive snack. After he passed I suddenly started seeing all 7 shrimp every where.. The betta seemed pretty chill but apparently he intimidated them and they were always hiding. Your tank looks lovely. My only concern is that the peice on the right looks like it has some sharp edges which could tear betta fins.

Ive recently become more interested in shrimp. I was wanting to replace a deceased giant betta with small gouramis but also wanted to try something different. Im enjoying my goofy amano shrimp and they seem to be doing well so was thinking shrimp but maybe larger and Ive been doing some research but theres a lot of conflicting info. Anyway I unexpectedly found an unlabeled singapore wood shrimp with vampire shrimp so brought her home. So far she has just hung out on the front or underneath the HOB filter but Im hoping she will be more outgoing eventually. I know its a filter feeeder so Ive been dropping a small pinch of fry food in front of the filter 1 or 2 times a day. Is this necessary? One site says they dont feeding, they can live off of plant fragments ect in the water column? If this goes well I may add a another one in a few weeks or maybe a vampire shrimp. Some sites say vampire shrimp grow to 4 inches others say six +, so not sure if I have enough room? I dont want to overstock. Its a 32 G, 34"x 15"x 16". I slightly turned up the HOB and sponge filters. Sorry the pic is upside down, I dont know how to fix it. tank mates are: 1 mystery snail, ramshorn snails, 1 assasin snail, 6 kuhli loches, 7 dwarf neon rainbow fish Do you think this will work? Any tips or info is appreciated

I always have ammonia in my tap water. 0,5 , so not as high as yours., but my aquariums always tested at .5 to 1 ammonia. Ive tried all kinds of things that didnt work. I added 2 peices of co ops ammonia filter to a new HOB filter about 2 weeks ago and tonight it tested 0 for first time in 9 months! I dont have room for a RO system so can't reccomend one. Hope you find something that works for you.

Are you using tap water? Have you tested it for ammonia?

I think I know which ones.....they are lovely.....how exciting! Good luck with them!

@Lavender which ones are you getting?