Sapere_Ceta

For baby tears, it usually is tolerable of being moved. Dwarf baby tears can be trickier, because it can be difficult to establish good growth, and moving it might damage the roots and impact that growth. For micro sword, be gentle when moving and replanting them, as their root systems are very delicate and take time to establish. I don’t think it would impact the plant too negatively, but it could definitely damage the roots. Give them time to establish again. For dwarf chain swords, there could be a slight melt back potentially, but they’re usually pretty durable. For crypt wendtii, like most crypts, there’s a good chance of having a melt back. But they’ll usually come back strong as ever.

Though I also wonder if there’s just been too much done to try and sort out the issue, that it’s unintentionally caused more stress. I think it would be better to give the medications a break for now until otherwise showing clear signs of anything parasitic, fungal, bacterial, etc. Keeping the tank clean, tannins, and a little salt doesn’t tend to hurt, in conjunction with troubleshooting some of the options listed the comment section here from everyone. I would keep the light on the lower end the plants can tolerate as well, since bettas do enjoy lower light. That would help keep some of the stress down a little. I think doing that all and remaining patient with his recovery will slowly do the trick.

It doesn’t look like fin rot to me either, more so actual damage to the find than anything. A few other random possibilities to throw out there come to mind, could it be the filter (either the intake too strong and sucking up the fins, an outflow he’s sneaking onto or too strong for him to handle at times), or tail biting behavior perhaps? If he acts erratically in conjunction, it could be some sort of illness making him damage his fins from the erratic behavior. I do agree temperature maybe could have something to do with it if it gets too low. Perhaps it’s preventing a full recovery from the fish after all of the fin rot that occurred previously, since being in less suitable temperatures can lower the immune system, cause a build up of stress, and prevent good healing.

I would test the water and see how much ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate could be present. You could definitely have an ammonia spike from these deaths. A large volume water change would be good to do afterwards. If there is an issue with any of those parameters, test again maybe 10 minutes after the water change. If not, I’d start checking other parameters to see if they’re okay, checking equipment to make sure nothing is malfunctioning, start observing the tank for signs of illness, and so on. Think of it like a “what could it be” list, and go down the line until you might have a couple options that seem probable, after the others have been checked off. I agree that they were probably picked at by snails, or even possibly by the remaining fish in the tank as well. I wouldn’t worry about that, particularly. Body degradation in fish can occur at a faster rate, and especially so when other fish or inverts are present to pick at it.

My advice would be to not expect it all to go smoothly. We can prepare and add as many preventative measures as we want, but there will always be something we never expected to occur or an outcome that avoided what we thought would prevent it. Alongside this, know that frustration is okay to have sometimes. But, let that frustration push you deeper into learning how to problem solve and address situations that are proving tough to you. If something feels too tough, it’s often because it’s foreign to you and you’re unequipped to address it adequately enough. You need to take a step back, maybe take a break to ease your stress, do some research if possible, and take problem solving one by one. Sometimes you may also have a mindset causing frustration when there really shouldn’t be, and if that occurs, my best advice is to take a break and get back to it later. Do something fun or relaxing, maybe turn on something enjoyable to listen to the next time you’re addressing the issue, whatever helps your mind think more clearly and helps you feel a little more fit to tackle the scenario. I also suggest not to give up until you really have to. Push yourself as far as you can until you know you have exhausted all of your options. A lot of hobbyists out there give up when they shouldn’t have to, and it’s up to you to figure out where that line should be drawn, when it really is okay to give up and ask yourself, truly, if that’s the only option. If you do have to give up, know that it’s okay. It’s likely that you’ll be able to come back.

I think it is Rhabdocoela, as they have a wider and rounder head and a much rounded end. Although unsightly, they are harmless and clean up waste in the substrate. You could see if cleaning the substrate more often could deplete it’s food source, therefor killing it eventually. Some chemical means are used to eradicate them, but it might not be the best route to go. You could also use a siphon to suck it up possibly and then kill it. You could also take a plastic container and put it over them and wait [very] patiently until they go to the back of it. Then gently slide it along the glass and lift it out of the water when you’re able to.

These snails are definitely trying to reproduce. Since these look like Mystery snails, they are actually a sexually dimorphic species. The males will have a... well, you know. It’s not always visible, but can appear at times. Female mystery snails can be fertile for a long time as well. So be prepared to see multiple clutches laid over some time if they are successful.

I think rehoming the red eye tetras would be a better option, as they are somewhat sizable tetras and do best in a school of five to six or more. These tetras also tend to be on the active side as well. The size of the tank would be an issue for them. Unless you planned on upgrading in the future maybe. I think a smaller tetra could be better for your setup.

I agree that it definitely could be the frogs snacking on them. Some bettas can pick on tetras until they die and then eat them, though I think you’d have seen signs of nipping and aggression from them by now, most likely. Dwarf frogs have bad eyesight and kind of bonk into their prey until they scent it enough to know it’s food. I wonder if they’re doing this at nighttime when the neon tetras are sleeping relatively still. Since tetras are usually sleeping at nighttime anyone up that is predatory could make an easy meal out of them by catching them off guard. So personally, I wouldn’t add any more tetras because it’s likely the numbers won’t matter and they’ll be devoured. For the remaining, some pet stores will even take them in, or you could set up a small tank or even a small food grade bin set up as a tank, if you wanted to keep them.

The Copper Safe seems to be doing the trick! I haven’t seen flashing or twitching through my observation today, though it always could start back up. I noticed it was far more prominent around this time though. Lethargy continues, though its occasional, and he’s been a little more exploratory like his typical self. A small amount of bloating presented yesterday, so I’m fasting him until it goes down, which it seems to have reduced a bit. It definitely worried me at first, as I always feed light and make sure I feed a high quality variety (plus I soak what I’ll feed prior to adding it). But I think today is looking promising! The plants seem to be okay so far. I can’t say I’ve seen a difference, but the dose has been administered for three days, so that could definitely change. I do think I caught whatever it is a bit on the earlier side, which might be helping me out.

I do have the light dim since adding him. I also have tannins in the tank in conjunction. I appreciate that. Thank you.

I think that would be the safest approach too maybe. I was hoping to get Paracleanse but it’s not available anywhere near me. I also cannot drive, so I am limited on what I can order if I don’t want to wait a week or more for the medication to ship. Copper Safe was one of the options that checked all of the boxes, and I made sure to take a lot of notes and write up a plan, calculate all of the dosing, and so on. As long as you don’t have fish sensitive to copper or inverts, it most likely won’t cause any noticeably negative side effects, as long as you aren’t overdosing. As long as you maintain the therapeutic level of total or chelated copper, it should be effective without harming the fish you’re using it on. With plants, it can definitely make them feel a little unhappy. Though there seem to be no consensus of how damaging to them it could be. Something that seems like it would help is to not fertilize anymore during medication, to avoid excess copper. I also plan on doing some small water changes throughout the week, replacing the dose equal to the replaced amount of water periodically. I’ve only seen a slightly better response to any treatments in general, whether it be natural or not, with small water changes during them. I also have purchased a copper test kit to make sure the level of copper is only in the therapeutic level. I tend to be a little obsessive about checking parameters, and this is definitely something I’d check daily on. That way everything is monitored enough so the fish is safe from anything that could be linked to the ppm of copper.

He’s been wedging himself really roughly into plants and has been knocking into the bottom of the tank after his twitching episodes. It seems like today is worse potentially..

Yeah, it’s a food grade bin. I made sure to check prior to using it (I’ve always used bins in the past as holding/temporary “tanks” and occasionally for breeding or holding fry). He was in a bin previously as well when I was QTing him, but it was smaller sized (food grade bin as well). This morning, he’s continued to swim erratically and keeps staying directly where the filter flow is running (the flow itself has never been an issue, though I keep a sponge to the out-take and the flow backing against the wall anyways just to be safe). He will seem fine for a while and suddenly start his behavior. I thought about using salt treatment, but he had a salt treatment until he was out of QT, and I don’t want it to not be as effective if it is parasites and I use it again. If it also came from this new tank, whatever it is was able to be alive for many weeks without a host somehow, which concerns me that it could potentially be tougher to get rid of and capable of living a longer time than typical parasites. I guess it could have also been on him all of this time, but this behavior was never displayed once. I guess they would have been able to live through the salt treatments as well, since that was occurring consecutively during QT.

I’ve spent the night figuring out a plan, calculating the dosage, how long to treat for, how many water changes and re-additions of Copper Safe to add, etc. I have a feeling the plants will struggle, but they are most likely what was contaminated for a long time in the first place, since he’s only acted this way after adding him to this tank a few days ago. The plants would have to have carried something for weeks.. which is confusing to me, as I’m not sure what could survive that long without a host. Samphan during his entire quarantine (since December 18th) had never acted this way once until now.. Samphan’s erratic behavior hasn’t been too prominent since the first occurrence. But recently he almost threw himself out of the tank again, and has only twitched once after that. He keeps staying at the front of the the tank, nonstop, the entire day, and he hasn’t rested on the bare bottom or a leaf or plant or anything.. which is extremely unlike him. He never used to act this way in his other holding tank, granted, it was half the size of this one, so perhaps this is normal. It just seems really strange. I used to catch him sleeping and resting every now and then, especially until 4:30am, which is when he would get up, and when I would go to sleep. But he hasn’t seemed to have rested at all, and I’m watching him very frequently.

I just saw him flash for the first time, so it’s definitely something parasitic. I’m going to try and order some CopperSafe to use. I don’t think salt will cut it, and it would be even more damaging to the plants. I’d rather get rid of it if it’s in the whole tank anyways. I’m speculating it’s gill flukes perhaps, but I suppose it could be an early stage of velvet or ich maybe as well. In the meantime, I’ll thinking about potentially reading the water temperature in the meantime. Should be able to get a medication by tomorrow or the next day.

To start off: PH: 7.4 Nitrates: 0ppm (the live plants have always kept the amount very low to showing up as nonexistent lately) Hardness: Unable to test for Nitrite: 0ppm Ammonia: 0ppm KH/Buffer: Unable to test for Water Temperature: 79F Here is a photo of my betta that I took yesterday; nothing external seems out of the ordinary. I also ran a flashlight over him today and saw nothing as well. Some background information to possibly help: I got Samphan on December 18th from a breeder, that is when he arrived. He was placed in a quarantine tank with botanicals, tannins, and salt. I saw no signs of illness and no strange behavior at any point (I am always home, so I’m always consistently observing him). The only thing I ever found slightly odd was how he turns, but that was never concerning, as nothing else showed up in conjunction. Two days ago, I upgraded him to a seven gallon holding tank (he’s going to be transferred into a 20 gallon all to himself once it’s complete) that has been fully cycled since December 22nd. The only thing different about this setup would be the type of bin it is, and that it has many live plants and a light. I test this tank every few days, and tested many days in a row prior to adding Samphan to assure all was well with water parameters. He was drip acclimated to this tank, even though the parameters appeared to be the same. Yesterday, I saw nothing concerning. Today, I woke up maybe a few hours ago at most, and noticed he will occasionally do fast jerky movements, so much so that he even almost threw himself out of the water. He seems to have a voracious appetite today, as he’s been continuously nibbling at plants (though this could be completely normal, especially since this is a new tank for him to experience). There’s NO rubbing/flashing occurring, NO lethargy, nothing externally wrong looking (even with a flashlight). I have a few theories, but I’m curious on what the consensus of others may be. My theories are: Could it be a reflection the bin is producing (as this is a new bin with a thicker plastic)? Perhaps a very early sign of velvet (maybe the plants were still contaminated after they were cleaned long ago)? Maybe even gill flukes I’m unable to see? My last theory is a neurological issue, since he’s always turned a little odd as well. But I don’t think that one would be nearly as probable as the others. What do you all think? Edit: The biological media is in a new filter (it was transferred from the original so the flow was safe for a betta). This filter originally was very loud and sounded broken, even after it was troubleshooted for a few hours. I let it run and it’s improved significantly, making a little noise every now and then. I reached out to the third party seller, but haven’t been responded to. My mom made a comment asking if that could be it, though I’m admittedly not sure. Could this somehow be electrical, perhaps it’s shorting out or malfunctioning and bothering the fish?

I constructed a quick and affordable lid today, using black egg crate and some cable ties. I wouldn’t be able to break down that portion of driftwood sticking out, so I cut around it. I’ll eventually cut a section out for the filter as well! On another note, one shipment of my plants will be arriving early today! I’m excited to get them!

I’ve been working on the driftwood. I decided I wanted to go for a more root-like look, maybe something you’d see in a shallow area by a bank of vegetation.. something like that I guess. I’ve superglued it all together, so it’s currently drying. I’m really enjoying the deep substrate, and I think the driftwood helped take up some of the height the twenty gallon high offers. Most of them were way too big, so I broke them down into small twigs and individual pieces, added the base pieces first, and then glued the small pieces on to those. I can’t wait til they are waterlogged and darken in coloration. The next step is waiting for the remaining plants to arrive and add them all afterwards. The goal is to make it really plant heavy, and I am pretty confident that I’ll be adding tannins and possibly leaf litter to the scape, since I adore the look. Also, here is a photo I took of Samphan tonight.

The driftwood and more sand arrived yesterday! Depending on how this day goes, I’ll try and add both later on. Yesterday, I upgraded Samphan’s holding tank to the around seven gallon plant tank, where I was originally cycling all of my media. It has been fully cycled for a while, but I waited on transferring him to it, since I had to take everything down, swap to a less intense filter (though the media in it is the same), move it up onto a table tray, and set it all back up again. The work on the aquarium has been keeping things really flared up, and this definitely added to it. So, I’m going to try and rest consistently, and hope that everything will lessen, since all of the rock structures, spray painting, and stand building is complete. The new filter turned out to have some issues, and I will contact the third party seller to try and replace it, if possible. It makes about five terribly loud noises nonstop, and troubleshooting for hours resulted in nothing successful. But I have it running regardless until I can hopefully get another one, since it does seem to at least work as it should, minus all of the somewhat scary noises. I’ve slowly been adding tannins to his holding tank. On a cool note, I have a lot of plants arriving soon: Bucephalandra Biblis, Bucephalandra Dark Skeleton King, Bucephalandra Red Mini, Java Fern Trident Leaf, Cryptocoryne Crispatula Tokinensis, Pearl Moss, Cryptocoryne Nurii, Cryptocoryne Undulatus ‘Red’, Anubias Nana Pinto, Red Root Floater, and Cryptocoryne Spiralis ‘Red’. I wanted to invest the remaining of what I had saved for a long time into some really exciting, and some rare, plants. I sleep in the living room and don’t have much room for house plants, so aquarium plants are a great compromise to this problem. I also never was able to complete the aquascapes I was in the process of setting up and finishing on the previous aquariums I had, so this will hopefully fulfill those lost experiences. I’ll post an update on the 20 gallon aquarium when I hopefully feel a little better and get around to working back on it (hopefully a little bit throughout the day if possible).

Happy New Year, everyone! Most of the day, I spent resting, as this aquarium project has been flaring up a lot of my symptoms. But, earlier tonight, I washed the fluorite dark substrate. I had originally intended to add dirt along with it, but I decided that one substrate was enough (and probably less potential work in the future). While washing it, it flared up a lot of my vertigo and head pain and pressure, so I had to stop early, and waited a couple hours until it didn’t feel as overwhelmingly apparent. I finished up after my break, and washed the majority of the substrate. Adding the substrate took some additional deliberation, because I have so many plants that I want to include. Although I do enjoy really clean and designed aquascapes, I’ve never wanted it to look exactly that way. I enjoy a lot of plants, especially when they can tower over the hardscape in the aquarium. I plan on making the right sloped portion very dominant with substantially sized plants, with some red coloration in addition. There will be plants nearly everywhere around the tank, but probably not as emphasized. I’m still waiting on the driftwood, understandably from what’s been going on as of late, shipping wise. I also have more sand arriving soon; Luckily I ordered more, since the front of the tank required so much. The cap is pretty thin, that way the plants don’t have significant trouble from it. I will do the back once the sand arrives. Here is what the aquarium is looking like so far: The substrate is a lot less yellow in person, especially when it’s dampened. But, I’m enjoying how it’s turning out. Its larger looking in person as well, but I’ve never been able to capture the size of it better on my phone’s camera.

I decided to dedicate a journal to my new twenty gallon high! I’m excited to post updates as it progresses in the future! The past few days have been pretty tedious, with a lot of cumbersome lifting, back and forth spray painting, and plenty of adjustments.. with some occasional amounts of frustration and tons of determination in addition. Most of the work lately has entailed building up the rock structure. I originally had it set lower, but realized that the height needed to be increased; I used mesh bags full of rock to add to it. Unfortunately, that had offset the half of the structure I had built (the right side was almost completely bare at the time). So, I spent well over four hours trying to get it all back into place, which finally resulted in the placement I was looking for. Afterwards, I added the rest of the structure and stabilized it all into large sections with spray foam. Following that, once the spray foam had dried, I had to remove the sections to take them up to the attic to spray paint them. It was a little frustrating at times, and a mesh bag was stuck to some foam and pulled off a small section before I could remove it in time. But, it was a small error, and I moved on to spray painting them all as thoroughly as I could before calling it a night on the brunt of the work. Though, I did clean the glass to try and remove all of the gunk and dried spray foam aftermath. There are some spots I still might need to touch up on, but a vinegar and water mix seems to be taking care of most of it. Today, I was mostly spray painting everything every few hours, rotating all of the rocks every time I did so. I did leave the bottommost structure in the aquarium to try and keep the placement of the other structures more consistent, as they all have to fit in place. In order to spray paint that one, I tore up some old newspaper and used that to block the glass on the sides and bottom, then I applied the spray paint. To try and minimize the fumes, since I sleep in the living room and right next to the tank (and my betta fish, Samphan, is in a holding tank on the table tray close by), I covered the top of the aquarium with a blanket and a pillow from off of the couch. It seemed to do the trick well, but I made sure to monitor my fish just in case, as well as fan out the area by him with a magazine, since the ceiling fan doesn’t work and it was too cold and snowy to open a window. I spent a couple hours over half the day on it all, and once the spray paint was up to my liking and the touch ups were completed, I took all of the rock structures back down and added them back into the tank. I made the mistake of adding them out of order and managed to offset everything, so it was maybe two hours of adjusting them all back into how they were originally placed, though not completely the same. The friction from the adjustments chipped a little paint away, so I added the newspaper back in and touched up the spots. A paper moved without me noticing, and some spray paint got on the glass. But it shouldn’t be too difficult to remove. This is the resulting product, and I’m pretty satisfied with it. This is my first attempt at a hardscape, and I made my own sketch of how I would maybe envision the scape to be prior to doing this all. So, that is what I would go back and forth referencing at. The rocks were collected years ago from Oklahoma when I visited family and spent a few hours in the insanely hot weather collecting rocks and driving a car for the first time, although that was the only time I was ever able to drive. I remember seeing a lot of scorpions, snakes, and frogs while collecting them all. They were much bigger than this, and filled the entire space of the trunk, but my mom and I hammered them down to make some interesting, but decently sized, pieces for this tank. Here is the rough sketch of the hardscape, although the driftwood is included on it, it has yet to arrive. So, I will add it later on to the aquarium. I really enjoy sharp angles and curves, so I tried to implement some of that into my original concept. I didn’t reference any photos, so it probably isn’t accurate to nature, but this is what I had fun coming up with. I tried to pick rocks that matched this, and I’ll add some smaller ones to the bottom once I add all of the substrate (I plan on using organic potting soil and Seachem fluorite dark, capping it all in black sand). I like heavy contrast and black is a great color for it, especially when mixed with plants and a brightly colored betta, so that is the color I chose for the rocks, though they were originally a rusty orange color. The spray paint hopefully will prevent the rocks from eroding much in the tank, as it has a primer in it as well, and I applied a lot of layers (though the spray paint is aquarium safe). I think it worked out well, and I’m surprised I was able to match it pretty close to my concept sketch, though I did change some things, like bulking out the left side, and bringing the other down a little lower. It is definitely a little more sizable in person though. The next steps are to add substrate, and hopefully the driftwood, once it arrives. All of the mesh bags and spray foam will be covered, and I’ll have to add smaller rocks in some spots afterwards. Following that, I will add my plants. I do plan on purchasing more tomorrow, as I have a case of ‘Plant Collectoritis’, which I’m thinking will be some tissue cultured and sustainable Bucephalandra, Bolbitis (I’m thinking maybe Bolbitis heudelotii or maybe something smaller), Java Fern Trident Leaf, potentially something else. I have a holding tank full of plants that will also be apart of this scape, and I will try to implement the majority, as I enjoy a bit of a jungle.

Today, I’ve been finishing up my hardscape. I have spider wood arriving in a few days, that I’ll eventually add. There’s a lot of spray foam I need to cut away, after it dries. I have a lovely eyesore at the front of the tank, my super glue gel, holding some rocks in place until the spray foam around them completely dries. The next steps on my agenda are to cut parts of the foam away, take out the sections of rock (the spray foam is keeping them together run large sections for ease of dismantling), spray paint them all black while touching up some others once more, and cleaning the tank while the rocks are drying. I had to redo the structure a few times because it was too low for my liking. I still wish it were taller, but the sections were having trouble fitting back into place after I raised them all, and I don’t think they will be stable enough if I raised them again, as everything would be completely offset from the added bags of pea gravel. I spent well over 4 hours and was up til nearly 5am struggling to piece it all back together, and I’m content with not repeating that event 😅 I set up an old LED to minimize the glare, though it definitely showcases the mess on the glass haha.

Yesterday and today (it’s 2:41am for me) was filled with a lot of lifting, errors, and humor! My mom helped me move my spray painted cinder blocks down from the attic all the way to the living room, along with two black shelves. Lugging them down the stairs was too much for me to do, but my mom handled it like a freaking boss; Lifting all of them, one by one, down and not even getting out of breath! I’ve been really struggling to think today and have been in a lot of pain, and kept reversing the way the cinder blocks were meant to go, messing up the way the stand should be, and being an utter goof with how many times I had to start over. I didn’t mind though. After the stand was compiled, my mom added the tank on top and got it situated. It overhangs on each side about a centimeter because of the tank’s rim, but it does the trick! I couldn’t find a leveler, so I borrowed an old, surfing penguin toy from my grandpa, filled with water, to use as one. No twisting should occur, as it’s diagonally level. The side of the tank and the front were as level as they should be, which is hard to find in my super lopsided house. My next endeavor, the one keeping me up til almost 3am, has been setting up rock placement for the hardscape of the tank, and applying spray foam to some of them to (hopefully) keep them connected. I’m not a fan of orange, so I plan on using my spray paint (it’s aquarium safe in my experience) to make them black. The wishful goal is that the spray foam keeps the small rocks stuck to the larger rocks, though I’ll see how well that works tomorrow morning. Temporary, I’m at a standstill because I don’t want to do anything else until I see how well the spray foam works. But for now they’re being held in place by extra bags of pea gravel. If it works well, the plan will be to take them out in sections and spray paint them in the attic. Hopefully in the morning I’ll be able to take better photos haha. It’s too dark and the glare is pretty apparent, partly because of it.

Today I water tested my cycling tank and preformed a water change on a holding tank I prepared for a betta fish that was arriving today. Added some extra tannins, leaves, and a tad amount of salt. Few hours later, he’s arrived and is all well! I took photos of him in his little bag, and acclimated him afterwards. He was released into his holding tank, adjusted to the remaining parameters, and has been exploring and nibbling leaves since then 🥰