Anita

ORD 💜 ↑ ↑ ↑ What she said. 😎

ORD 💜

ORD 😆

I just found this thread. OMG, I loved these planter tubs! I will need to consider lights this summer. Thanks @Bill Smith for sharing such awesome photos! 🥰

ORD 😆

Baa-aa-aa! Baa-aa-aa! (translation, "Congratulations!")

In the U.S., the two most common types of freshwater amphipods, aka scuds, are Gammarus sp and Hyalella sp. Gammarus are larger and have longer antenna than Hyalella, https://www.ndfreshwaterinverts.vcsu.edu/php/mainkey.php?id=Amphipoda1a. Like shrimp, scuds feed on detritus and other decaying matter. Many fish, including pea puffers, will eat them.

Good to hear that Leonardo is still with us! 🐟 I will defer any treatment advice to @Colu and @JamesB, since you have already been following their suggestions. 😎

To infinity, and beyond! 🤩

Or your kids? 🙄

Excellent solution! 💯

😂 😂 😂 One reaction wasn't enough!

Now that is a dedicated aquarist, culturing algae on purpose! 😁

Oops, my bad. I meant, your substrate is not the type that breaks down, isn't very deep, and doesn't look dirty. It was the end of a very long day when I typed all that! Sorry! 😵Again, a substrate problem would typically show up in your water parameters as excess nitrates, nitrites, and/or ammonia. But your water parameters look good. Even so, let's see if the gravel vacuuming helps! It seems you are doing everything you can right now. Time to let your poor little guy rest. 💗 Instead of the tweezers, you might try using a small ceramic or glass dish to feed your betta. Lots of people on the forum use these because they help keep the food from disappearing into the substrate. The food needs to sink, so floating food needs to be soaked and frozen food needs to be thawed. I would suggest trying some thawed out frozen brine shrimp. Bloodworms may be too rich right now, in your Betta's weakened state. Suck up the soggy food into a small pipette, lower the pipette into the dish, and gently squeeze the pipette bulb to deposit the food onto the dish. Don't squeeze too hard or you could "jet" the food out of the dish. I use a ceramic dish with a lip, which helps keep the food from getting pushed out. You just leave the dish in the tank.

ORD 💜 This is brilliant! 😃 How about laying the lexan flat and horizontal until the strips absorb some water? Then tip the lexan vertical for easier viewing.

ORD 🤣 He was probably surprised you remembered him at all!

Just trying to come up with some ideas about what might be happening. Seems like your tank is stable and you haven't added any weird decorations or plants. If they came from a craft store, they might have chemicals that would make your betta sick. But from Petco, I would expect them to be fish safe. And they are not new. When a fish that has been healthy for a long time gets sick, most of the time it is because of the water quality has deteriorated or you introduced a disease or chemicals. But as mentioned by others, your water parameters seem good and you haven't introduced any new "stuff" into the tank. I agree with @Colu, I would not expect filter media, sponges, or decorations to be a problem just because they are old. Where people run into problems with "old" is when they have very old substrate, which depending on the type can break down or trap excessive amounts of waste. You don't have substrate, so that's out. You have been getting good advice about bacteria, filters, and medication, so there's no need for me to add anything. FWIW, at this point, I wonder if @JamesB is right, and your betta is just getting old? As he mentioned, you do not know how old the betta was when you purchased it. Likewise, you know nothing about the quality of care it received before coming home with you. For example, I have owned dogs, cats, and birds, always as strays or from rescue shelters. Some of them have not lived as long as normal because they had such hard lives before I adopted them. Oh, one thing. Be really patient with the hand-feeding. It is not normal for a fish to recognize that your hand or tweezers are bringing food, as opposed to trying to catch and eat it. Follow @Colu advice and try not to "chase" the fish with the food. One thing you might try is to grab some food with the tweezers and wrap a rubber band around them to hold the food in the tips. Then slowly and gently try to maneuver the food end as close to the betta as possible without spooking it. Lay the tweezers down on the bottom of the tank and walk away from the tank for a couple hours. No peeking, which might spook the betta. Fish have a pretty good sense of smell. If you can get the tips of the tweezers anywhere close, it should be able to smell it. By leaving the tweezers in the tank, this lets your betta inspect it and get used to it in the tank. I cannot promise this will work, I am brainstorming a bit based on what I know about animals in general. (I have cared for all sorts of critters, for many years.) Sorry I don't have any great answers for you. Hang in there and try not to stress out. You are doing plenty of good things for your betta. And sometimes, less is better. Or in other words, you have to resist the temptation to do more, and just ride things out. 💗

Ah you give me too much credit. 🤭This explanation has been discussed elsewhere. I just summarized and added an example. Who does math in their head anymore? Not me! Hahaha!😵

@Krakens_tanks I believe something like that. Or more specifically, to give each reaction more weight and in that way make the reaction totals more meaningful. Having a limit motivates people to be more thoughtful about using their reactions. For example, what does it mean that someone received 3,145 likes compared to someone who received 2,921? The difference of 224 votes is around 7%, barely significant. So all those thousands of votes are, in a way, wasted. On the other hand, if someone received 12 likes and someone else received 2, the difference of 10 votes is comparatively quite large.

I agree! Thanks for starting this thread. 😁

There is. Although I do not know what the magic number is. You will know immediately when you have run out. 😎 I have read the counter resets every 24 hours, although no one seems to know when that happens.

This is looking wonderful! 🤩 One caution about the bookshelf. Depending on how humid your climate is, your books might develop mildew from sitting next to all that water.

I love that you wrote a letter. 😃