[A floating plant that's not messy?]

Water Lettuce, Salvinia, Red Root Floaters and Amazon Frogbit all have much larger leaves than something like duckweed and are much easier to remove when needed. 

If you're looking for something more similar to Hornwort, I'd recommend Guppy Grass or Water Sprite. I've also seen people throw in a few stems of pearlweed and it becomes a giant mat! Personally I think it looks epic. And it'd be easy to maintain if you don't want a crazy amount.

Hope this helps a bit. 🙂

[AllFishNoBrakes’ Journal]

Can’t wait to see all the Chili Rasboras hangin out together! It’s awesome to see a huge school of them.

[First selection of plants for a beginner tank.]

If you’re looking for something else to add you could also try Vallisneria! It grows really tall for a nice background plant and then when it gets established will start popping out runners. I can’t grow anything and my Val is starting to take off. 
Different plants do well in different tanks, so the best advice I can give is just to try any of the plants that are available to you and that you can afford 🙂

[MTS ID.]

Not going to lie, when you said MTS my mind went to Multiple Tank Syndrome and I was like… you need help identifying this highly contagious disease?😂😂

[Continual Fin Rot in Betta]

yes he mostly just sits on the bottom when the light is on (so midday) but he’ll usually still move around on the bottom. And then in the morning and evening he’s pretty active because he’s waiting to get fed😂

Im no so concerned about his lethargy as I am about his fin rot. I think he really is just getting up there in age and is slowing down a bit. But that’s okay 🙂 

[Continual Fin Rot in Betta]

Thank you very much @Colu. I’ve got one IAL in there but I’ll drop in a few more and dose Maracyn2 as suggested 🙂

[Which of these three if any?]

Has dwarf sag been a fairly easy plant in your opinion? I am wanting similar to Cinnebuns in the sense that I want a dense carpet of it. I have low light but I don’t mind if it gets tall, I just want it to GROW😂

[foreground plant recommendations - dwarf crypts? water clover?]

Crypt parva! You’ll need a lot but it looks excellent!!

and Pearlweed if you’re willing to trim it pretty often 🙂

[I bought Shrimp]

Good to hear! After seeing the Ocean Blues in Cory’s video I was in love. Currently not in the budget but I’d LOVE to keep and breed them someday.

[Continual Fin Rot in Betta]

That’s great to hear! I’ve done a course of Maracyn before and it didn’t seem to do much. Aquarium salt usually does the trick but I don’t think the Val and the Crypts appreciate it 😞😂

I’ll try upping the temp to 80. Thanks!

[Continual Fin Rot in Betta]

Fins continue to look crappy. 

Wondering if I should do a low dose of salt again. Or try kanaplex? I’ve heard good things about it for fin rot but never personally tried it.

[nano tank no filter shrimp tank advice]

On 5/1/2024 at 9:53 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

This is just natural sunlight from the window behind the tank. 

That sunlight makes it look awesome, like a freshly mowed Pearlweed lawn😂

 

I definitely agree about the nerites. The most common cause of death for these guys seems to be starvation. They struggle to find enough food, so unless you’ve got insane amounts of algae I would definitely cap it at two.

[Continual Fin Rot in Betta]

I feed him Xtreme betta pellets and vibra bites with the occasional freeze dried bloodworm. 
I haven’t tried him with a mirror or really any other enrichment. Do you think that would help?

I figured he was getting a little old but wasn’t sure if most “elderly” bettas fins look like his. He just looks so raggedy😂

[Continual Fin Rot in Betta]

Hello all

I’ve posted once before about my Betta having fin rot, but it’s been off and on for the past little while.

I’ve had this betta for almost a year and a half now. He’s from a big chain store so I assume has around 2 years old ish.

His fin rot recently came back and it’s worse than before. He still is eating fine but has been acting a little more lethargic than normal. He spends a lot of time hanging out on the gravel and especially under the big fake wood “cave” decoration I have in there. 
The fin rot shouldn’t be a water quality issue bc this tank is consistently 0ppm Ammonia and Nitrite and under 20ppm Nitrate. He shouldn’t have any stress factors besides the nerite snail living with him that he occasionally flares at. 
Basically I am just stumped as to what is causing this continual fin rot. His fins just don’t look as full and nice to me as they used to. There’s currently a catappa leaf in there as well.

Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks guys!

please ignore the hair algae and Cyanobacteria. Currently in the middle of a massive hair algae battle🙈

Here is a full tank shot. It’s a 10g, heated to 78F, filtered with a co-op sponge filter.

[Floating plant recommendations]

Salvinia and Dwarf Water Lettuce have been the two bulletproof floaters in my tank. RRF and Frogbit fizzled out and died which I was disappointed about🥲

Ive heard good things about Guppy Grass as a floater as well.

[Slime on new driftwood?]

If you have shrimp or snails, that is pretty much their favorite treat!! They’ll gobble it right up haha

[Just for laughs]

nerite man hanging onto the weekend😂

me too buddy, me too…

[Is my tank overstocked?]

I think your stocking is great for the moment. It will take a minute for your guppy population to explode, but when it does it sounds like you have a good local store to send the fry to 🙂

Aquadvisor is a great tool but I personally find it to be pretty conservative (which is helpful) but it also doesn’t take into account plant load and how much of the work plants do lol. A lot of times I don’t think a tank is “maxed out” until it’s about 115%ish on there. Assuming the tank is pretty planted up.

[Semi-budget 40g Breeder Aquascape Journal]

You really do have such a stunning tank! Where on earth do you acquire so many different plant types?!😂

And what light are you using? I think you mentioned it’s one of the hyggers? Seems to be doing you pretty well lol

[Do snails need to be quarantined?]

I’ve also never quarantined snails. I’ve never really heard of them bringing diseases to fish or anything so I don’t see why it would be necessary. Of course there’s always a risk but in this case it is slim to none😂

[Discussion: do you like to use dirt in your tanks?]

On 4/23/2024 at 6:43 PM, clownbaby said:

Sorry for rambling, nature stuff is my passion and special interest lol!! I hope it helped!

Not at all, I super appreciate it! You are very knowledgeable on this topic and that is awesome! 

On 4/23/2024 at 6:43 PM, clownbaby said:

Also, if you want to try it out or "dip your toes", I recommend a little ecosphere!

This is honestly a great idea! Literally having a little enclosed jar of plants and dirt would make me happy. Lol, this hobby is so weird😂

[First Betta ever: Fish-in cycling question]

I would for sure keep on top of doing water changes because even a slight amount of ammonia and nitrite can set a fish off.

[Discussion: do you like to use dirt in your tanks?]

I am really curious - how long does it really take for the soil to essentially “run out of nutrients”?
What are the pros and cons to using actual dirt soil versus something like fluval stratum? I’m tempted to dip my toes into dirted tanks but I think I would start with a nutrient rich substrate. I’m still scared after watching Girl Talks Fish video on her experience with it and a bunch of her shrimp dying?!😂

[How do you scrub algae off a bowfront tank?]

The co op algae sponges have always gotten stubborn GSA off my glass. Just put in a little elbow grease and you’re good to go, and you know they won’t scratch your tank 🙂

[Discussion: do you like to use dirt in your tanks?]

I’ve always been curious about dirted tanks, but I’m definitely too scared to try it😂

The convenience of never having to plug in root tabs sounds reeeeeeal nice, but eventually you’d have to redo the entire tank which I don’t love.
The thing that I don’t like the most is the thought of disturbing the dirt whenever I try to stick plants in it or uproot anything. Releasing that into the water column is not a nice thought for me😂

If I was going to do it, I’d do it in a nano tank and I’d probably use Fluval stratum (versus actual soil) and cap it with gravel. That’s the other problem, I feel like people like to cap theirs with sand to hold it in better, but personally I don’t like using sand. 

I think I’m just paranoid, but for me I’m fine to plug in root tabs every once in a while and target feed my heavy root feeders lol. Maybe someday I’ll try a dirted nano scape!