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BeeGryphon

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Everything posted by BeeGryphon

  1. @Colu He's not 100% but he's looking and acting like he feels much better! Thanks so much!
  2. Hi all, and happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate! I'm hoping for some help with my Betta. He's got popeye, one eye very big with a thick white rim, the other eye is not as big but is cloudy. I've done a round of Maracyn and then a round of both Maracyn and Maracyn 2 with zero improvement. Not really sure where to go from here other than the exotic pet hospital, which I am going to call them and see about getting him in but if anyone has any cheaper options I'm all ears. 0 ammonia
  3. The room is not usually too cold to me (although I am a human furnace so maybe not the greatest gauge), and the heater is keeping the tank within the temperature range it states it should, 76-78, my concern is just that that might be too cool for a betta? Normally I keep him at 79, which I believe is the lower end of a betta temperature range. Just worried about doing him more harm than good, but hopefully it will be okay for just a few days. Thanks!
  4. Hi everyone, long time no see! My very smart boy has injured his eye and is being banished to the sick boy jail. I just grabbed a Fluval 25W heater since the hospital tank is only a 5 gallon, but I didn't pay attention to the fact that it's set to only be 76-78 F and I'm worried that will be too cool for him, especially since he's already sick and stressed. Will it be good enough? His community tank has a 50W ACO heater, which might be overkill in a 5 gallon tank, but I could set it lower, and the other fish (ember tetra and pygmy cories) should be fine at a lower heat while he recovers. Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks all!
  5. we had a baby?! short story: today for the first time in a while ALL the corys came out at feeding time and there were 7. I only bought 6. long story: well, I've been expecting eggs, as one female has been very round and I do think she's laid them but this one must have been from earlier. I never noticed any eggs or fry. All the corys have started being more scarce, but from what I read that's not unusual when getting ready to lay eggs, so I figured she's just hiding more and the shoal is following her, so I'd only see them out a couple at a time. Over the last week or two there is one cory I've noticed, who seemed extra skittish, who I've been thinking looks awfully small and short specifically, but I thought it must just be the angle through the glass or something. But today I did a water change and then a little later fed and the whole shoal came out together and I counted them. then counted again. I ended up counting probably 5 times before I said "Yeah, that's definitely one more than I used to have". I never really expected any fry to make it, as the tank isn't really densely planted, but I do have a trumpet pod I've been thinking would probably serve fry well, as they could get in it but no adult fish could, and it would provide lots of food for little mouths with biofilm, algaes, and microfauna. I assume that's how this little one made it! exciting stuff!
  6. Scary!! Earlier this week I put some edamame/soybean in my tank for my snails. I'd split it apart, putting the pod (which was happily devoured by the ramshorns) in one place and then one bean somewhere else and one bean in the coconut hut Pottery Snail often inhabits. Later, I went to remove the beans. One I pulled out partially eaten, but the bean in the coconut hut was gone, and Pottery Snail was out, so I was just like "Cool, she ate it!" and didn't think anything of it. Then like just an hour ago, after I've fed and messed with the tank for the day, I notice some white specks floating in the water column and I think that's weird and look for the source. There's a huge white fluff floating hidden among the dwarf lily leaves! It's the missing bean!! Ew!!!! I picked it out and used my siphon to clean up all the white specks left behind and did a small water change, but ew ew ew!! And beyond just ew, hopefully it wasn't releasing anything horrible into the water, although the fish all seem fine for now I will definitely be keeping an eye and will do another bigger water change Saturday.
  7. Just feed him the normal amount just before you leave. He will be fine not eating for a few days, and there are likely little critters in the tank he can hunt. Feeding more all at once can lead to an ammonia spike or digestive issues when you're gone. I like your decorations! The good news is once you put them in, if you feel it's too much you can always remove something or just move stuff around, it's not set in stone. I really like the black substrate with bright rainbow rocks, it looks so cool! You should be able to keep the anubias and java fern in the substrate if you want, but they are probably in too deep. The rhizome (kind of like a thick horizontal stem that separates the plant from the roots) should not be buried, or it can rot and your plants will die. Make sure it is resting above the substrate. Or you can pull them up and stick them to your decorations!
  8. I have pygmys so they're probably half the size of my betta and don't really try to compete with him. He's curious about veggie based foods (I think mainly knows I put food in the tank so it's theoretically something he can eat) but usually leaves it alone after an examination. Except this one snail cookie I tried he's VERY curious about. Will just sit and examine it from every angle for a long while. It has black soldier fly larvae as its one protein so I think maybe he'd really like that if I get it for him. I know corys as a whole need protein supplemented in their diet so veggie based may or may not work for you. I think most commercial veggie foods do have some protein base. For me I feed the whole tank with community flakes that are like 80% krill and there are microfaunas and stuff, so I think mine do okay with protein. Plus like I said they seem to prefer the veggie of their own volition. I still am trying sinking wafers at least some since I have them. Bettas really are great. They can be a handful tho lol. But I think that's why we love them tbh, it's that personality.
  9. That looks like it's probably my guy! Thanks!
  10. My roomie and I went to the market in Edmonds (WA) this weekend and decided to walk down to the beach. It happened to be low tide so we poked around the shallows and found some (baby?) fish. I thought it would be cool to know what they were but my Google fu was lacking, so I thought I'd post here and see if anyone knew? I'll post the picture I took but it's not very good as it was very sunny and I couldn't really see my phone screen. Characteristics: there were very many of them. some swimming around but most hiding under wood we accidentally disturbed. varying sizes all under an inch. smaller ones were black and bigger ones were dark grey. all had a white marking on the back that looked like the point of an arrow. Pictures:
  11. Good to know! I didn't realize I could just thaw frozen veggies.
  12. I have the exact same problem with my betta. My tetras compete with him just fine for flakes, but he loves bottom wafers. He's not aggressive about it, but my pygmy cories don't really want to stick around while he's eating. He'll pick up the wafer and shake it to take a bite. I thought it was cute the first time. Second time he ended up eating so much of it he was concerningly fat for a couple of days... I'm still working on the best way to make sure the cories get what they need and he doesn't make himself sick. So far I have two things. First, the cories honestly seem to prefer a couple of different primarily veggie/algae based food I've tried for snails over the bottom wafers and betta doesn't want them of course. Second, I break the bottom wafer into smaller pieces and drop them in first, then distract betta with water tests (he loves following the stick around while I dip them), feeding, and might try further play as well so the cories can eat as much as possible. Once betta has started his wafer feast I pull it out and toss the rest. This is still evolving has he's only within the last few feedings realized that's food he can eat. Breeding box looks smart if it doesn't stress her out too much! Naughty fish get put in the no food box to atone for their greedy crimes 🤣
  13. Thanks @Guppysnail @AllFishNoBrakes! Yeah I don't have RO water although this did remind me that I do always have a supply of distilled water that I probably could have just used without worrying lol.
  14. I suspect this is a silly question considering I've never seen anyone mention it, but to be safe: when blanching veggies for snails, is regular water okay, or does it need to be dechlorinated? Does the boiling take care of any chlorine, or is the amount in just a little veggie too negligible to matter?
  15. You've given this prize fish such a beautiful tank to live and explore in, he's so lucky!
  16. I had a dream I somehow took my entire tank with all inhabitants to visit my family in TX (flying from WA). Once I was getting ready to go back I became super stressed trying to figure out how to get it back. I even remember at some point thinking "I just need to do whatever I did to get it here" but I couldn't remember how I did it.
  17. I had noticed my Betta's head has gotten darker but comparing the first photo I took of him I realized he's lost most of his white! First day pic: Yesterday pic: (It was so hard to get a good pic of him yesterday because it was a fasting day so he was swimming so angry at me trying to get me to feed him lol) In my icon pic you can see his white turning pink. I thought it was just the tint of the water or something but it seems he started changing color almost immediately. I miss his white and more multicolor look but color change is very cool! Interested to see where he's going with it. Also I finally named him BeiBei! He's named after a character from one of my favorite books, because he's blue and a spoiled, demanding bratty prince (affectionate).
  18. My corys really seem to like snail food more than bottom feeder food. Don't get me wrong they like their bottom wafers but when I put in an algae wafer or snail cookie they go crazy! I put it in shortly before bed since my snails seem to be more active at night and by the time I actually go to bed it's half gone. No idea if my snails even get any (or if they even want any, I hear nerites often don't like commercial food). No nest pics, he didn't maintain it. Instead check out my big cory girl. I swear she's bigger every day! She's very round and usually followed by a little guy or two.
  19. I'm back and everything went well! The wedding was great and I got to see and hang out with a bunch of people I haven't seen in a long time, but I'm happy to be home. When I was gone our power went out for a couple hours (actually, the power went out where I was staying, states away, at the exact same time for the same length of time.... weird....) but everything was fine since it was only a couple hours (reminds me, I need to get a battery bank for the heater and filter before winter, since I feel we have a significant power outage once a year). I like to think my boy was dancing extra aggressively for me yesterday lol. He built a new nest under a lilypad! I'll have to remember to take a picture!
  20. Yesterday I came home to a bubble nest 🥺 Didn't think to take a pic of it and then of course kind of destroyed it when I was clipping some of the lily pads away... He did build it on the new IAL I put in and it was sunk this morning anyway. Hopefully I'll get more now that he's making them! Today I leave for my sister's wedding and it will be the first time I'm away for more than the day since getting my fishies. My roommate is home to take care of them and I'll only be gone a few days anyway (coming home Monday night), but I'm still a little worried something will of course have to happen while I'm gone. Mostly I think everything will be fine but the background anxiety that comes up with what-ifs is definitely there.
  21. It's been beautiful and warm and sunny the last couple days here in PNW. Ate out at a restaurant patio last night. And today I'm (hopefully) flying to Texas for a wedding and it's of course supposed to be crazy thunderstorms. Just keeping my fingers crossed!
  22. That's a lot of light. I think 12 hours is the absolute max recommended and most people do less than that. Try cutting back a few hours and see if that helps with the algae growth.
  23. Betta's eye is looking much better. I was worried for him after I did a tank cleaning and water change on Sunday because he was hiding out on the bottom of the tank under the log, could swim fine and would swim up for air but would immediately go back. That's not like him at all, especially when I'm in the room. He likes attention and will usually be out in front posing and doing aggressive little swims (I call his zigzag dance) until I pay attention to him. So having him hide and keep his fins all in tight while I was sitting in front of the tank made me very anxious. He likes to follow me around in the tank so I was worried I'd bonked him and hurt him. But after an hour or two he started coming back out and was completely back to normal by the end of the day. He did swim up to the flow when I was adding in new water so I think maybe that bothered him? The ramshorn snails sure do love leaves! Previously the IAL I put in lasted quite a while before breaking down, but yesterday I noticed a leaf I put in last week covered in holes, and yeah the ramshorns have been all over that one. My nerites, well... I think I may have messed up. I have soft western Washington water, but my water hardness went up after a couple days when I first filled the tank. I figure something in the substrate? And I had some calcium chip samples I was using as supplements. My snails didn't seem to eat it but I guess I figured the calcium would end up in the water if they didn't eat it? I don't know. I planned to get something else after because I found the uneaten chips annoying, but figured I'd use what I had first. My nerites don't come out much during the day, so I don't see them much, but I do look for them when I do a cleaning. Only one of the snails occasionally comes out, "Pottery Snail", a tiger nerite. The other, "Black Snail", doesn't really ever come out but does move sleep spots so I know it's alive. Anyway, when I found Black Snail on Sunday I realized his shell really didn't look good. It had some much lighter bands in it. Pottery Snail looks fine and as I said seems more active, so I don't know if Black Snail needs more calcium for some reason or is getting out competed somehow? I put some cuttlebone in yesterday so hopefully everyone will be fine now. I will keep checking on Black Snail if he doesn't come out. I'll be very said if he dies because I didn't give him what he needs 😞 On a nicer note, my biggest cory is looking very plump and her tummy is SO shiny, like mother of pearl, I'm thinking she may be carrying eggs? I don't plan on actually having any surviving fry but it's still exciting!
  24. They have such cool markings! The first one looks like some fancy glazed ceramic.
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