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fatblonde

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Posts posted by fatblonde

    Backgrounds Yay or Nay?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Skepticarcher said:

    My bettas seem to hate having a backgrounds on  their tanks. I’ve tried solid black and one with an image printed on it and both made them flare like crazy. They seem to be able to see their reflection no matter what, but the background made it 10 times worse. I have a 10 and a 5 gallon each with a betta. Anyone else experience this? Or do you have thoughts on backgrounds in general?

    How long have you had them? Mine did it for a bit till they got all settled in. Some flaring is good exercise. 

    I think, Irene from Girl talks fish, recommends the black matte background. 

    Eventually I just got more plants and they have to go around plants in order to see their reflection (somewhat heavily planted tank) because I didn't seem to have any luck with various things I tried (with the exception of plants). 

    I put Anubias in a suction cup look and stuck it on the wall of the tank. It solves a few issues. It gives a resting spot on the leaves towards the top of the tank and gives me somewhere to drop food and be able to *fish* it back out when they're done eating. 

    • Like 2

    Adding Meds to Aquarium

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by fatblonde

    3 hours ago, MaxM said:

    Eyeless Potato - thank you for your input. That's a point I hadn't considered. 🙂

    I agree with @Eyeless Potato Treating a fish is already difficult and it's correct that continued use of antibiotics when they are not needed is harmful to nearly everything involved. They are able to develop resistance to antibiotics and when you *do* need them, the medication won't work. It's along the same lines of once you start treating with antibiotics you should always complete the entire treatment. Kind of like MRSA in people. 

    It's one thing if you have just gotten them and you're treating in a QT tank and are observing and treating. If you've already had them in your tank for 6+ months just doing a round of antibiotics every 6 months can cause your cycle to crash, the bacteria to become resistant etc. Medications will stress your fish and if they're not stressed now you might be creating more issues than if you hadn't treated at all. 

    Depending on what kind of fish you keep there are natural things that you can do to help keep them healthy and low/no stress such as Indian Almond Leaves with have antibacterial properties and antifungal properties. I believe they contain tannis,  fluvic acid, etc but I'm not quite sure. 

     

    *edited* I should say though, using antibiotics is different than other treatment meds that aren't necessarily antibiotics. 

    However, they are your fish and you can do what you think is best for them

    Local Leaf Litter Use/Experience

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, matt_r said:

    We’re from Northern Michigan too.  Beech is a good easy to find option.

    Besides Beech, so far we’ve collected and used Magnolia (my favorite), Walnut and Mulberry.  Our shrimp devoured the Mulberry once if softened up a bit.  
     

    I usually boil for ~10 min.  They can take a day or so to sink.
     

    The leaves get a nice biofilm that is grazed on by our snails, shrimp, guppies and ricefish.  We also use them to make a leaf litter bed for a pair of wild type Betta hendra.

    B7CC2689-98D7-4D30-8F9E-D7F1DF08C173.jpeg

    B4861196-F3EB-4151-876A-6C284C09A215.jpeg

    That is a local collection? It looks really pretty 

    Stuff you bought and recommend (not fish related)

    in Off Topic General

    Posted

    On 9/9/2020 at 3:39 PM, Daniel said:

    I am almost embarrassed to admit this but I am loving 'Hello Fresh' the meal-kit provider.

    My wife and have a big garden and she is a good cook, so when son suggested we try, I was very, very skeptical.

    I was wrong. The meals are very good, don't take a lot of time to prepare, and reasonably priced. We get 6 meals a week for 2 people (12 meals total) for $118/week delivered. That's $10 a meal. It's seems like it would be less expensive just to do the same thing from the grocery store, but for some reason our normal grocery expenses run $250 - $350 a week (unless I go on a condiment spree and then it can be much more).

    We often add a vegetable side dish (like a caprese salad) from our garden but there is plenty of food even without our additions.

    Overall, I like:

    • Variety, constantly changing menu
    • Saves oodles of time
    • Reasonably priced
    • Plain old just tastes good
    • No commitment, you can make whatever weekly adjustments in menu or meal number you need, it is very flexible

    I might get tired of this one day, but I like this concept and after 3 months into it I am looking forward to the next 3 months

    I second this!

    It literally has gotten everyone into the kitchen. I love that the recipes can be altered at home to fit everyone's needs. The convenience of having everything ready to go without having to hunt and peck for supplies is also a time saver.  When the pandemic first started I had a hard time finding meat at the butcher shop and grocery store, and they came through each time for the week. And their customer service is impeccable. 

    • Like 2

    How many water changes before salt is removed

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm new here so take my advice like a grain of salt😁. I *think* salt doesn't evaporate so once you've totaled 100% in water changes you'll be fine. For example, today you change 25%, then in 6 hours you do another 25%,  your total would be at 50%. 

    How much did you add, and what is your tank size? I've treated one of my tanks with salt but it was minimal at 1tsp for 5 gallons and I had no adverse reactions on the plants. 

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