Sapere_Ceta

Right?! It was so funny! Haha, thanks! I am really happy with it. I’m hoping he will like it as time goes on and he adjusts. I’d love to wake up someday and see him on the land portion, finding a little cozy spot to sit on. lol.

I drilled holes into the land portion above the filter, and then into the back of the enclosure. When the holes were drilled, I cut them out to allow the ends of the cords and tubing to fit. I strung them all through and attached them to one another so the aeration part of the filter would work properly, while looking less noticeable. I then cleaned up any excess foam and cut pieces of mesh to fill in the gaps. The mesh was then siliconed into place, and then another layer of silicone with substrate was added over it. I waited for plants to arrive in the meantime. When they did, I of course inspected them for any pests or issues. I went ahead and removed all of the soil, washed them off (I rubbed the roots, leaves, and stems off too in the process, made sure to get into the crevices of the plant as well), soaked them for 15 minutes in warm dechlorinated water, shook and dried away any excess water after the soaking, and went ahead with planting them. I separated staples apart from each other and used that to attach the vines and mosses until they take hold. The mosses have sphagnum moss behind them for added moisture retention. The bromeliads are double-wired into place with sphagnum moss around the base of the plant. This was after the initial planting, but I did adjust it a small amount. I drained down Gandr’s temporary setup by 75%. I took out the heater and filter, knowing I’d be able to move this enclosure into place and get it set up pretty quickly. I had to move Gandr’s setup to a table tray, which was a little scary for him. But he got to watch me struggle to pick up and move this big thing into place behind the couch to where his old setup was sitting, which he seemed thoroughly entertained by. I swapped the lighting afterwards to my old 48” Finnex light I had leftover from one of my old 50 gallon tanks years ago. I slid this into place, and it sits on both this setup and my empty 20 gallon high aquarium next to it. I plan on programming it eventually, and dropping the 24/7 mode when I decide to someday work on the 20 gallon high. I added the heater, and strung the cord inside the above portion where the light is, wired it into place so it didn’t obstruct the view, and pulled the cord out of the slot the light fixture fits into. I then filled up and dechlorinated the underwater portion of the enclosure, and I scooped out any excess substrate floating around. A little does fall from time to time in places I missed fully vacuuming in. But, it’s barely any and only happened once so far. I turned both the heater and the filter on, though I already temperature matched the water precious to this, and added a bottle of beneficial bacteria. I also added giant duckweed, though I don’t think it will hold up with the current, but it seems to have found the low flow spots, and seems to be pretty good. When all was set, I added him in. He didn’t appreciate being picked up very much, but was pretty calm about it. I placed him into the water slowly, and let him go when he was ready. The filter caught him off guard, and he was very dramatic about it, thrashing around and worrying me. But less than a minute later, he was perfectly fine and casually walking around and exploring, even in the areas with more current. Haha, what a drama Queen. There are two hidden caves behind the rocks sticking out on the left side, the furthest one to the left has a large cave I can easily fit my hand into and still have room, while the other is more tight fitting, in case he prefers that more. He chose the largest cave, and has been there often, but he’ll come out from time to time to explore. It was around 4am when the enclosure was finished, hence the lighting. I went to sleep and woke up a few hours later to find Gandr decided that walking across the carpet, going into the hallway and getting covered in lint, and trying to walk into my mom’s room was much cooler than this setup. I approached him, and he was completely fine, walking around and still trying to explore, even when he saw me. I picked him up gently, cleaned him off, and placed him back. He has been a little escape artist twice before, but I didn’t imagine he would do it only a few hours after placing him in the setup. So I will have to work on a temporary barrier or some type of screen tonight so I can sleep without him going on a wild journey. He still hasn’t figured out he has a land portion yet, but he’ll get there. This was the setup in the early afternoon: And this was a few hours after, with a light watering and a misting: I also photographed a bromeliad I thought looked really cool, when it was misted.

I added a large internal filter into the back. Crayfish are very messy, somewhat reminiscent of turtles. Personally, I’ve found this to not be a problem at all. He’s always been simple to care for, though I will say that he can be pretty messy. He will likely get to around 8”, but I’ll be ready to tackle the mess haha. I enjoy this filter because the current is great, but never overly strong. I also enjoy that it has the ability to add bubbles for added oxygenation. Although crayfish can do well in low oxygenated environments, I didn’t want to limit him to that, when I could easily just upgrade to a nice filter with that bonus. He likely would destroy sponge filters, so this was a better option for me. I did have to remove a rock, but I had no issue with doing so. After I got the filter situated, I added silicone to areas where the foam around the rocks were exposed, and I carried that down onto some of the yoga mat, for a smooth transition. Once applied, I added sand and patted it into place. I waited for it to fully dry, and added sand all across the bottom. I have a rock somewhat blockading the intake of the filter, but allowing easy access for debris, so that way the sand is unable to get into the intake, even if Gandr tries to dig or when he thrashed around.

I waited a couple of days after the spray paint dried until any sticky residue was gone, as well as the smell, before putting the setup on its back. It scared me a little, but it all held up. I was genuinely surprised that a cardboard and duck tape base came out so strong. Afterwards, I added a layer of silicone. Let it dry, and then I added another layer with substrate added on top. I would add a large amount and continue to pat it into place, this way it all stuck well. I didn’t know how fast it would dry, so I went in sections. I vacuumed out the first section I did, in order to see the spots I missed and how it all held up. It ended up working out really well. I realized I could get away with doing larger sections, so I started to really work on as much as I could each time between drying and vacuuming them out. The was the final layer before fully vacuuming it all out. This was after the final vacuuming, and then it was ready for the underwater portion to be worked on.

I started to create shelving, using boards of styrofoam I cut. I was unsure of this would work well for plants, but continued until I could see if that was the best option. I then realized that I was a complete goof, because it was then apparent to me that this wouldn’t work, and that I was going to use extra plastic pots I had in the first place to make these. So I cut them away and started to add pots instead. Here you can also see that I started to carve away foam on the left side. I’ve found that Loctite spray foam works significantly better than Great Stuff Spray foam, expansion and carving wise. I would have to wait hours to a day or more for drying in between foaming. I at first filled in the back completely with Great Stuff spray foam, ran out, and then swapped to Loctite spray foam, after it all dried. I covered all of the pots and the remaining back areas that were exposed. While doing this, I was changing rocks for other ones. I waited a while until the spray foam expanded well, but was still tacky enough to add the rocks. Then I would add more spray foam over it, to seal it all into place. Once the foam dried, I started carving out the back. But, I then realized I didn’t wait long enough, as some pockets of foam weren’t dry. You can also see some of the back exposed, that eventually was sealed and a pot was going to be placed there. So, I would have to periodically wait for some areas to dry, and later get back to them. But it really began to take shape at this point. Once I fully carved everything out, I started placing rocks down in the underwater portion to figure out where they would go. After settling on a look I enjoyed, I spray foamed them into place. This is them expanding, being pretty close to dry and this point. I carved that foam as well, and then I spray painted all of the pots, rock, yoga mat, and the walls of the underwater portion black.

This is Gandr, a male bronze turmeric crayfish. Currently, he is coming close to 5” in length, excluding his antennae. Some of you may be familiar with him, as some of his rather interesting behavior would cause me constant worry. But, I’ve come to the conclusion after having him since this January, that it’s all just a part of who he is, his big personality. He enjoys thrashing around on his side for no apparent reason, staring at walls while swaying, throwing leaves over his molts and watching them for hours at a time, running backwards with my thermometer, looking at plants, trying to work over my siphon, tapping the front of his enclosure furiously when he wants attention, and getting what I call ‘glass pets’. He is terrified of carrots and will only eat foods prepared with bottled water; he dislikes food prepared with dechlorinated tap water. He arrived to me pretty traumatized from shipping. I kept him in a filtered and heated quarantine bin with gravel and leaf litter as a temporary setup. It wasn’t meant to last as long as it did, but he was extremely traumatized for almost a month, and I later had a lot of complications relating to my health conditions occur. His behavior of constant swaying, thrashing sideways as if he were molting, and refusing to eat for very long periods of time resulted in me trying to seek help from many people experienced in crayfish, as well as who I had gotten him from. The conclusion was that he must have some extremely rare or undocumented disease, and it was speculated that he would die very early. However, I’m doubtful that is the case. Together, we worked on confidence building and limiting his stress, and socializing him to things he’d see on a pretty regular basis. Socializing him has been a work in progress, but it’s definitely been helping. He understands that one finger means that food is being prepared for him, tapping lightly four times means I’m going to add food, a thumbs up means that I am finished with what I am doing in his setup (I particularly use this for when I am done closing the lid he previously had or when I’d have to adjust something), and that the orange bucket means I am going to do a water change (I’ve helped to encourage him to go under a particular leaf just before I water change, because he used to freeze in terror and panic anytime I would try, though now he likes to be out and mess with my siphon). He also understands that when I wave to him, it’s a common interaction and not to be interpreted as a threat. I would slowly implement waving over time to help him understand that hands aren’t always scary. He likes to sway his claw at me when I wave, and I’m not sure why, but I find it adorable because it looks like he’s waving back. He then will usually come up to the front, and I will pet the glass with my finger. He often stretches himself on the glass while I do this and moves his antennas up and down and wiggles them. To help his confidence, anytime he was scared of me in the beginning, I would act scared and back up. This would encourage him to step forward and snap out of his fright; it also seemingly helped him get the idea that his territory was his own, that any deemed threats would rather flee than bother him. After a lot of daily practice, he started eating regularly, being active and even social. He even will be in the front of his enclosure to interact with me every morning when I wake up, before he goes to sleep. Sometimes we will sleep at the same time, and he will sleep in the corner by me. So far, he is a little scared about any ceramic dish ware and forks (he doesn’t mind spoons though), but we’ll eventually work on this more. The only thing I have never made progress on his very intense fear of carrots, and I decided to not continue trying because carrots aren’t a necessity to him, and he would never see them any other time. He has always been extremely afraid of carrots since the beginning. Because I will eventually have to move to a new location, I didn’t want to get him a very large aquarium yet (I would love to make a large 75-90+ gallon aquarium into a paludarium for him in the future). I got the idea one night to break down and cut away various cardboard boxes and construct a setup for him, along with using a large but shallow food grade bin for the water portion. I was doubtful this would actually work, but I was curious that if I then applied foam, sealed it with silicone, layered more silicone and then substrate, if it would work well and repel water. Somehow, this actually worked after testing multiple times throughout the process. I started out by washing and cutting down an old yoga mat to size. I used a pen with easily removable ink to draw around parts of the bin that stick out into the inside of the bin. I then trimmed along the lines of where I marked with the pen. The yoga mat was spray painted black, and I originally tried a setup that I disliked and then deconstructed, so you’ll later see green patches because of spots that were removed. Why a yoga mat, you ask. Gandr has difficulty walking on slippery surfaces, and enjoys to dig. Any spots he digs away won’t be slippery. Next I built the area the bin would sit in out of cardboard and duck tape. I used an old light to figure out the size of box I would need to make around it. I left portions of the top open to assure the light would cool down enough, and so I could get to it easily if there were any issues. It can slide out easily though the sides as well. This wasn’t the full setup, as I later connected the bottom, and tweaked the top and some of the sides. After that, I began cutting away leftover foam boxes and worked on building up the portion of land he would later have, along with starting to spray foam the background. I added rocks throughout doing this, but changed some of the rocks, which you’ll see in later photos.

Thanks, I really appreciate all of the advice. You’re a great help. That’s true, there’s a lot of variables that can impact the outcome, down to even a bacteria’s make-up. and it’s something that you just have to try your best in, seek help from others for at times, and hope the outcome is a positive one.

Yeah, it really was strange, and of course concerning. I appreciate that. I’m hoping to get it up and running again eventually. I didn’t expect it all to go so badly, especially, after I lost my first betta. I was hoping this time around, it would be okay. It’s been a little exhausting and overly stressful, and in turn, it’s been setting off more and more flare ups, in combination with the other things going on. I’m a little sad I have to redo everything, and I invested so much into it. But, I’m just going to take it at a pace my body and mind is able to handle.

Last night the eye of my ricefish ruptured very severely. They worsened quickly after that, spinning around and swimming erratically into the aquarium glass. The ricefish with the lump and dropsy was still looking really bad, barely swimming well at this point. I decided to pull the two of them out and euthanize them. I went to sleep, woke up and the two other ricefish had scales raised, with one that had multiple small lumps now presenting. My betta fish, who had been seemingly asymptomatic up until this point, producing white stool. I decided to take all of the fish out and euthanize them. The tank is now being completely deconstructed. I got rid of the plants, the biological media, and the substrate. I have disinfected the aquarium with a combination of things, including 91% isopropyl alcohol. I will disinfect the rocks and driftwood, filter, heater, and anything I ever used for the tank as well. I don’t want to risk this happening again, especially since I have no idea what it was, and it freaked me out after seeing my fish’s eye explode, and how they were developing these growing weird internal lumps. I’m considering trying to get a UV Sterilizer in the future to try add to prevention if I ever want to try this again. I appreciate all of your comments, everyone. I also did take a look at the API Furan 2, though I didn’t see the message very long ago. I definitely will hang onto that for future reference. Hypothetically if the fish weren’t euthanized, the earliest shipping date I found was late April early May, due to delayed shipping in my area, and I don’t think they could have held out for that long.

Well unfortunately, the fish are looking much worse today. The eye issue on the ricefish is getting worse. The skin around the eye is continuing to swell, and it’s extremely red. It looks like a combination of severe inflammation with more vibrant red speckling. The fish is starting to have impaired swimming ability, like the others were getting. The ricefish with the lump looks close to death. The scales are raising more today, and the lump they have has doubled in size. It looks like it’s genuinely about to rupture, whatever it is. They’re looking thinner today, and the wobbling is worsened and they’re pointed with their head at an almost constant upright position. The stool of the other fish looks much worse. It’s not whole anymore and still very white. They are becoming pretty lethargic, hiding in the dark a lot more, even though the light is dim. Nobody still will eat anything around the tank (I haven’t been feeding them since medication started, but one by one they stopped wanting food days before adding the medication), though the ones who had an appetite left haven’t been going after the copepods in the tank now, which is extremely unlike them. I’m debating euthanizing them sooner, because of this. But I’m not sure. They’re looking really terrible, and I feel extremely bad. Part of me wants to give them more time and see if they can pull around, but I’m not feeling much hope now, with how they’re worsening. I’m also extremely worried because whatever it is has been really knocking them out, and I don’t know if it’s going to stay in the tank or not, even if I did have to euthanize the fish.

I appreciate that. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. That’s definitely something to consider for sure. I tend to hyper-analyze these guys, as I’m always next to them, and it doesn’t help too much when they’ve been having a lot of problems, because I tend to tunnel-vision into the possibilities, scientific reports, what have you lol. It doesn’t help that I have been so eager to have fish, and now that I have them again, I’m extremely attached and always checking to see if I ever need to adjust anything or what have you. Yeah, the nitrates are always so low. I usually dose fertilizers to raise them, but haven’t in while because of all of the outside factors that have been occurring. And I didn’t want to add anything besides medication in the tank once they really started presenting symptoms, because I don’t want to possible further any stress. My plants aren’t too happy about it, but they can always hang in there for the time being. So 10 ppm without fertilizers is the highest it’s been haha. I think that could be a good idea. I have really been hoping these guys could push through. I had a betta before them that ended up shipping with a serious case of gill flukes, nothing I tried worked and it was too late and he died. I ended up getting these guys long down the road. The betta seems fine, at least asymptomatic. The ricefish have all been having problems, and I’ve been feeling really bad for them. I’m hoping medication will do the trick, but I definitely am accepting that there’s a chance they might not survive, given what’s occurring.

That’s definitely true. I’m hoping it starts to help. I really love the little guys, and this is the first aquarium I’ve been able to have again in years. I’m hoping they can make a comeback.

The second picture looks like what the ricefish I euthanized was developing. He started getting slanted near the lower half of his body, underweight, and struggled to swim and was pointed with his head upwards. I thought about waiting before euthanasia, but it looked like it was going to get worse and just cause pain. I haven’t seen an damage to the muscle tissue, but I have noticed a lot of inflammation in some spots (the eye on the one fish and it looks like maybe around the vent starting too). I think you definitely could be correct, though in the back of my mind I’m wondering if it might be a chance it’s TB. I was reading back into reports on pop-eye and noticed it can happen from TB when they looked at it in a lab, though that’s rare. But I noticed the common trend of wasting away fish, white stool, the slanted look my one fish was getting, skin issues (though I've only seen inflammation and the lump so far, but I have seen ulcers sometimes form as a lump before rupturing, so I’m wondering if that might be what will occur), dropsy (which is just starting today), and issues with swimming. I’ve tried to read through other types of bacterial infections, but I haven’t found much, however I think it could just be something I haven’t come across yet or is manifesting in a different way. Unfortunately, you can’t know unless the body is examined or tested to know what internally is going on. So it’s a bit of a guessing game. So I’m thinking that if I get to a point where no improvement is shown after maybe 7-10 days or more, depending on how bad their symptoms are by then, I might opt for euthanasia and taking the whole tank down.

Well, It’s day four of the kanaplex, yesterday I added a second dose of it, tomorrow I will add a third dose. I haven’t seen any improvement, and two of the ricefish are looking worse today. The one with the eye bulging with inflammation surrounding the skin around the eye (though the eye itself is completely clear) is having worse swelling on the skin surrounding the eye. Another ricefish, a smaller one who has been looking thinner the past few days now seems to have a dark lump protruding from the inside of their isthmus. They also are now presenting with slightly raised scales and wobbly swimming (early stage of dropsy). I am worried this could still be fish tuberculosis, especially with how weird the symptoms are now getting, though I know not all diseases are recorded so it could just be something I haven’t come across yet. What do you all think? Has anyone had this happen?

Awesome, will do. Thanks for the help! Fingers crossed

I ended up ordering kanaplex. I appreciate it. I think it definitely could be bacterial, though how the ricefish were dying, symptom wise, had me somewhat perplexed. I’m hoping this does the trick.

Ph- 7.4 Nitrates- 10 ppm currently (usually lower but cannot do maintenance due to recent surgery) dKH- 10.0 dGH- 8.4 Nitrite- 0 ppm Ammonia- 0 ppm Water Temperature- 79F Due to significant issues with health, and problems with the aquarium and the livestock within it I’ve been having for months now, I have debated multiple times taking this aquarium down. But I have missed having an aquarium for many years, and I want to give this another go with possible solutions when I am able to. HERE IS A TIMELINE OF WHAT’S BEEN OCCURRING: (I’ve gone back and tracked everything up to when I got they shipped to me) DISCLAIMER: Not all of this could be connected to the same issue, treatments are severely limited based on what I can get, and this is just a log of everything I have noticed and have done since having them. JAN 21- Livestock arrived via shipping, 7 ricefish and 1 male betta splendens - Death of 1 ricefish minutes after acclimation - Decided to QT with salt for 2 weeks to start and dewormed with Fenbendazole FEB 1- Noticed a ricefish flash on gills, started API General Cure for 2 weeks -never observed more flashing after this moment FEB 11- Had Hydra (completely not an issue) and dosed Fenbendazole at a very low dose FEB 12- Second very low dose of Fenbendazole to eradicate Hydra FEB 13- Water changed out all medications FEB 16- Death of 1 ricefish after noticing isolation from other fish and some lethargy in the morning -started to swim more in the afternoon and died within minutes after -examined outside of body, possible minor bloating, but nothing else FEB 24- Eye issue on 1 ricefish, significant inflammation -also noticed flashing shortly after from 1 other ricefish -did large volume water change and then dosed API General Cure (decided to treat for parasites first, also got sick and couldn’t do anything to the aquarium at this time) MARCH 13- all issues from FEB 24 went away, and large volume water change was preformed to remove medications (went back to weekly water changes while I was recovering) MARCH 26- 1 ricefish excreting white waste (no more were observed) -did not medicate because no other symptoms were observed, digestive issue was speculated APRIL 1- surgery and rest of period of time is during recovery (cannot do much of anything during the rest of this time) APRIL 7- 1 ricefish euthanized after extreme lethargy, swimming pointed upwards, and escalating struggling was observed - eye issue in 1 other ricefish, suspected inflammation around the eye, more so the top, eye itself is completely clear -decided to give salt bath for 45 minutes to ricefish with eye issue (monitored every 15 minutes carefully, and released back into aquarium) APRIL 8- all issues from APRIL 7 continue, and 1 other ricefish shows significant reduction in appetite I cannot set up a quarantine tank for fish currently having issues due to my recent surgery. I am not sure what the issue is, but if more issues continue to persist after possible future treatments (based on the advice I get), I likely will speculate that it could Fish Tuberculosis, if the same symptoms persist. Due to my health issues, future needed invasive surgeries, and current recovery from my recent surgery, I am very limited in what I can do. I am very limited on what I can get, and what I can afford, due to recent medical bills. Any ideas on what could be going on is highly appreciated.

Hey everyone, I’ve had a pretty chaotic time lately, health related and somewhat aquarium related. I likely won’t be talking much still, but I felt like hopping on today to give a short update, and later ask a question in a different location about the aquarium problems I’ve been having. February 21st I displayed symptoms of the notorious illness going around and affecting the world, my grandpa unfortunately had it at the time, never took it seriously, and refused to quarantine around me (I live in the living room of the same house so this was obviously going to be an issue, even when I was practicing the proper courses of precaution and avoidance). I got the results the 24th and I did have it as well. It was 28 days until my symptoms finally started decreasing, and it was pretty terrible for me. I did recover, thankfully, though I do have some leftover effects that still won’t go away. I hope everyone stays has been and will stay safe. Because of this, my surgery was understandably moved to a later date of April 1st. It went well, but was disappointing. I do not know the full results because I haven’t been able to discuss them or see my doctor, but will April 16th. But what I know is that I am 0.1% of people with a Unicornuate Uterus (only having half of a fully formed uterus, however in my case the other half tried to form and instead formed into a sharp knotted mass, even with an ovary somehow, and has permanently been digging into my body and causing extreme amounts of problems). I will need more unfortunately invasive surgeries likely soon, and that’s what the April 16th appointment will discuss. I am still in recovery, and I’m in severe pain because my issue has been aggravated, because they could only examine it, but couldn’t do anything else. So the endometriosis was a misdiagnosis, though I’ll be grateful I don’t have that issue. I haven’t been able to do much, aquarium wise because of my symptoms, being sick, and having surgery. During all of this, my aquarium has been somewhat problematic, I’ve had casualties unfortunately, and I’ve considered taking it down multiple times. But I’m going to give it one more full-hearted attempt when I can, seek advice from others here soon, and see how I should approach this all when possible. In the period of time before my surgery and after I recovered from being sick, I was working on Gandr’s future setup and it’s been going very well. I’m very excited and hopeful about it. Gandr has been being his amazing, goofy self, and I am happy to say that he successfully had his first molt March 23rd. He refused to eat his molt, and buried it with leaves, and would stare at it for the multiple days I had it in there. It was creepy both me and possibly him out, so I removed it. It was perfectly intact, so I decided to position it and let it harden as a little keepsake. Here you can see his extremely weird behavior where he decided to tear and pile leaves onto his molt, and sat there for hours (it was 3am at the time of this photo) staring at it, each day it was in there. I hid behind a pillow to take the photo. Nothing at all was seemingly normal about this situation 🙃 Here is Gandr’s molt, and his tail to his claws (minus the antennae) is around 4.5 inches.

Hello, everyone! You all are so sweet, haha. I haven’t been doing much, as I’ve been dealing with some pretty terrible flare ups. I had a doctor’s appointment today, and got some nice news that I will be able to get exploratory and corrective surgeries done for my endometriosis. I’ve been waiting since early last May, when I started getting ER visits because of it to hopefully get the OK for surgeries. I actually just got the call from scheduling while typing this, and have the surgery now set for March 11th! On another note, some cool things are occurring in the aquarium. One of my Indian ricefish is carrying an adorable clutch of eggs. I also, have found a small army of Hydra, which makes sense why there’s so many, because there has been much so much bacteria, biofilm, and copepods in the tank. I’m waiting on some Panacur C to arrive, so I can eradicate them. Here is Wulfgar attempting to eat one. The Indian ricefish will buddy up and try to munch on them as well. The Hydra seemingly have not anticipated that this, and have clustered their army up more and more to raise their defenses, seemingly to some avail. I also have some other shots of Wulfgar, just doing his little thing. He investigates everything, but usually prefers to live in the shadows, like the brooding betta he is.. a true Greybeard haha. Here are some photos of the other fish as well, just chilling. I also have a big ramshorn snail, who I will remove from the tank when I dose the Panacur C. He and the fish have been eating the yucky remains of my biofilm and a little bit of algae that started to build up, but hasn’t shown any new growth. You can see how much it’s been decreasing too, so far. For Gandr, I’m thinking about making a separate thread about his weirdness. But to summarize, I’ve talk to experts at this point, as well the place that I’ve gotten him from, and a whole lot of people on forums with experience in crayfish. The behavior he's been demonstrating has seemingly been never documented before, and it definitely could be some rare disease or condition that is extremely rare or never even seen before. So, my little guy is a lot more work than I had hoped, and I am going to attempt to make a setup that will hopefully mitigate his symptoms depending on if it gets worse, or if he passes. But regardless, I definitely don’t think that he is suffering right now, so I will keep him comfortable and try to offer him the best life that I can. But any specifics is just going to be put on a different thread eventually, because I don’t want it to take up a lot of space here, and I think a thread on documenting what’s occurring with him, and his future setup, seeing how things go, deserves its own spot.

Thanks! I’m really happy to see them in the aquarium. They seem to already enjoy it, as the males were sparring with each other! The betta is cutely antisocial, and I got a quick photo of him before he zoomed off from me haha.

Hello, everyone! Today I added the Indian Ricefish and Wulfgar the betta. I’ve toned down the light a bit, so that’s why it’s a little more dark, as I’ve gotten a little bit of algae, and I don’t want it to increase after doing some more maintenance on everything today. I had to do some extra maintenance today because I accidentally spilled the old filter into the tank when I was trying to take it out, so everything yucky spilled out and back onto everything. I replaced it with the new filter, using the same media of course. I also added the small heater in, swapping the bigger heater to Gandr’s setup. But I also touched everything up as well, which is why the water isn’t too clean currently. I’m also going to dose the main tank with parasite medication, as it is much easier to dose in the main tank, rather than risking an overdose on the small tank, since the packet is per 10 gallons.

The behavior decreased on day eight, and he finally ate. He was being very active and like himself again. But, he hasn’t eaten since and has started the behavior again today. It started with tail curling, and now he’s back on his side. I’m hoping he makes progress this time. This was him earlier though. Only the spot between his tail and carapace is slightly divided still. I’m hoping to see his the crevice show up on his head. Maybe he has enough energy to continue now that he ate. I’m wondering if this is just his very long way to prepare, or if he’s stuck. I just wish this would go by faster. I’m new to having large crayfish, and this species, but from other testimonies of people with more experience than I have, it seems like this is going weirdly slow.

True! I’m pretty happy to see that. I sadly eradicated all of my snails at one point having while treating my previous betta for gill flukes, though they kept progressing through everything I tried and by then, it became too late. I went through and disinfected everything and never saw a snail after that. So seeing a baby snail definitely cheers me up that they hopefully blossom in the main aquarium now.

Oh, that’s really cool! Exciting as well, because I haven’t had snails in a long time. Thanks for the identification. I could understand why. They are pretty great! Cute as well haha.

Found this cool little guy on my glass. It moves like a snail, but has no shell. It also has a clear jelly-like substance encasing it. I’m curious if anyone knows what it could be. It’s very large compared to the copepods also present in this tank.