JE47

This is what I did when a tank of mine cracked in an irreparable way

Okay its been a minute but I am going to give a little update. Both Oz and Ozma are doing great! They are still separated and I am not going to attempt to breed them together anymore. I have decided to buy another female Betta Mandor which just arrived today. I hope that with her I will be able to attempt a successful breeding pair. If the male is as ruthless to her as Ozma I will assume the male is the issue and hopefully be able to purchase a new male. However I am going to take this process one step at a time starting with acclimating the new female to the tank without the male and going from there.

Has the fish been eating? Have you observed any unusual behavior patterns?

I agree it is important to know what kind of seed you bought. Because there are sellers who sell "aquatic" plant seeds which melt away when submerged and create a mess. And there are also integral sellers that will sell seeds that can be submerged.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea This sounds like a really rough day. I am sure that tomorrow will be much better. Rest in peace fish and snail

A ph of 7.5 is really not that high if it was like at 9 let's say that would be high. You plants seem to be doing alright as mentioned before a liquid fertilizer would be beneficial. Your stocking seems fine just keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite levels. Someone already said this but neon tetras are known to have weak genetics making them very sustainable to illness and sudden death. Cardinal tetras and green neon tetras are similar in color to neons if that is the look you are going for.

You are using African Cichlid substrate which I did look at a product that seemed similar to what you have in the tank and it said that it shouldn't raise the ph or hardness of the water. I would question this though because it is a product for African Cichlid's which enjoy harder water and the product has things in it to recreate this environment of harder water. Do I think this is the issue no not really. I think knowing what your water parameters are would be helpful. And what you current stocking is how long you have had this stocking and what you plan to stock the tank with in the future.

So true faced this when my tank was originally setting up. I was so annoyed 🤣 Eventually everything balanced out

It's been a minute since I have posted anything here so I will do a quick update. Ozma is doing well her fins healed up within a few days no infections or anything for which I am super grateful. I still want to breed these bettas but I think I will order a different female to for the second attempt. For whatever reason these two are unwilling to pair unfortunate but it happens and I don't want to keep putting them together if they are unwilling to pair up. I am leaving today for a vacation so I won't be able to do much in the breeding department until I get home in a few weeks. Other than that they are both alive and healthy the favorite foods are live daphnia, live bbs, and they have begun to accept frozen bbs. Ozma was quicker at discovering that the pink cloud meant food. 😂

I would agree just bought seven and my wallet said ouch. But if you have the money to afford them they are my favorite corys. I love watching them hover in the midwater like underwater birds. My female betta whose housed with them sometimes does what I would call bird watching she finds her favorite perch in the tank and just watches them fly around.

Centerpiece: A Gourami of some sort Schooling 1: White Cloud Mountain Minnows they are not tight schoolers and they like water on the cooler so maybe not compatible with what your final stocking decision is.

Well I am sad to say this has been a failure I went in to check on them both and I found Ozma wedged in a corner thought she was dead. Thankfully she wasn't but Oz had shredded her tail fin so I immediately pulled her out of the tank she is not currently sitting in a breeder box in the main tank I have that is dedicated just to her I will monitor her fins making sure the heal properly. Unsure exactly what happened here I think Ozma is and was unwilling to mate with Oz and well he didn't take no as an answer.

That is very cool thanks for sharing! 😀

Well I decided that I couldn't wait much longer and put the male and female together for an attempt at breeding. I know I said I wouldn't do this but well I guess I don't really have an excuse for not waiting. I hope I am successful in this first attempt but I am not sure I will be I have heard they can be difficult to breed but then there are like four accounts of people breeding them and some are at least a decade old so I think that this claim could be disputed. Anyways the female prior to being placed in the tank was conditioned for a week with live baby brine shrimp, live daphnia, and frozen bloodworms. I first put the female in a breeder box in the male's tank and let them interact for about 15-20 minutes before releasing her into the tank. I should mention that with in seconds of the female being put in the breeding box the male began to deepen his coloring and after a minute or two they both had developed beautiful breeding colors. The bars on their cheeks also developed deeper coloring and a metallic like quality. I have a video and pictures the quality of both is not great so I apologize in advance. A few photos of the female alone Also I am going to give my bettas some names because I am getting tired of just calling them male and female. I am a fan of the Wizard of Oz and all the books L. Frank Baum wrote about Oz so I am going to call the male Oz and the female I will called Ozma after the princess of Oz. That's all for now I will hopefully have some news about the project tomorrow.

Aquarium Co-Op sells lights for plants. I use hyggers 24 hr. aquarium light and it has grown rotala rotundifolia well for me as well as dwarf sag. Like others have said this can depend on what you want to stock it with. If you want to you could check Aquadvisor which is a great place to get a rough estimate of how stocked your tank will be. This shouldn't be an issue I would use substrate I personally love using sand in my aquariums. Let us know what you decide.

If you really wanted a potent amount of tannins released I would suggest alder cones

That's a great idea thanks 😄

Thank you the male is truly stunning! I love having both of them they are very cute especially when they yawn 😄

There is nothing super exciting to report for the fish right now except that I continue to feed them frozen bloodworms, live daphnia, and soon live bbs. I bought the co-op's brine shrimp hatchery but needed an airpump which should hopefully arrive by Thursday. Then I probably hatch some and get a feeding video or something.

Yes, the goal would be to breed them but I will attempt that in about a month. I am taking a two week trip soon and as much as I love my family I don't want them to have the task of feeding and ensuring the fry survival if I am succesful.

I did forget to mention that my male loves to play in bubble stream comes up from my sponge filters. My female won't go near the bubble stream but he likes to dive into the stream get carried up and then come back down. It's quite amusing to watch 😂

Well in the end both male and female needed separation from each other thankfully I had another tank available for such a case. Most available articles state you can keep male and female together however I have not found this to be true. Even after adding several handfuls of java moss I have been growing out and four new caves creating many hiding spots which the female did use I realized keeping them together would not be an option. The front part of my tank has an open swimming area which the male would constantly swim in and when the female tried to use the same space he would chase her until she vanished into a hiding spot. Until all the female did was hide not even at feeding time he would chase her away from the food. I felt that I need to help her and step in. After separating them the female has started to make regular appearances to the front of the tank and seems much more relaxed not to mention able to eat with out being chased. I don't know if the male appreciates it or not but it wasn't for his sake the the separation had to happen. I will put them back together for breeding purposes but not in a permanent housing setting. I will say that though the male chased the female constantly he did not nip her fins or cause her any physical harm. I would give this warning to other people wanting to keep this species that while you can put male and female together keep an eye on them and have an extra tank handy that you can separate them into. Now for the fun part some photos I was able to snap yesterday.

I would have to agree putting a betta with any fish is a gamble that you need to have a backup plan for

Nano tank suggestions for fish -Chili Rasboras -Pygmy Corydoras are a great option -Green neon tetras -Celestial Pearl Danios - a betta

I do have floating plants in there they are taking a second to fill in. Yes, the light is a little bright for them I have since turned it down to the lowest it can go and added more hiding spots. I had to order more decor for them to hide under and in but the package took its sweet time in getting to me. Thanks for the advice! 😀