Pearl

I love "pest" snails! I think everyone should keep them! They can be a good indicator of how well you're feeding your fish, or how much detritus is in the tank. I have pond, bladder, ramshorn and malaysian trumpet snails in my tanks. The ramshorns are the most rapid breeders by far. I think it has something to do with the fact that they are much more tolerant of soft water than most other snail species, and living in Seattle my water is very soft. Even if the snails are a surprise, there is something to be said for biodiversity in aquariums. I think it creates a more stable mini-ecosystem, making tanks easier to care for. I also have copepods, a couple different types of detritus worms intentionally seeded, and I have allowed hydra to live in my tanks (tbh they eventually die out before they get big, and not in tanks they can cause harm). Its why i've switched to dirted tanks, to better feed the plants and for more microorganisms. It's worked for me. I only need to do water changes when I see signs of mineral deficiencies, and I top off with r/o water the rest of the time. I have done one actual water change this year, for a tank that is almost two years old now. It takes some research, but it's rewarding!

I've never heard of plants causing hypoxic conditions. They'll technically contribute at night, sure. But your going to need other factors, like some combination of high water temp, low circulation, terrible lighting, or lots of rotting detritus to be present for oxygen to be reduced enough to kill your animals I'd think. Co2 isn't going to help.

I've had quite a few Bettas over the years and honestly, their levels of aggression vary. Finnage can have a strong influence though, the longer the fins the less capable of violence the fish is. I had a veil tail years ago that lived most of his life with shrimp with no incident, he was uninterested in the shrimp and too slow to catch them anyway. Now, my plakat I have is terrifying and harasses all the snails in his tank, I would never put any shrimp in there. They wouldn't last 15 minutes. Do you know what type of betta you're getting? If its a longer fin variety you probably have less to worry about.

I also keep dirted tanks and would second that more plants is a good idea. IIRC Walstad recommends at least 75% coverage with plants that are primarily root feeders. My mom has high PH well water as well, she ended up switching to r/o for her tanks after having issue after issue seem to compound over time. There are inexpensive R/O units out there, I think hers was $60? You would need to add back some of the lost minerals for animal and plant health. I dont use R/O water except for topping off tanks, but maybe someone else can chip in with the additives they use if that seems appealing? It has worked for her.

This sounds exactly like something I had in my dirted 55 gal for the first few months. Never figured out exactly what it was, best guess was that it was the fruiting body of some aquatic fungus. It slowly went away over time and didn't seem to cause any harm, it actually was a great food source for my snails.

How have I not seen that documentary before?! Thank you for posting it! Bettas are primarily from Thailand, which has incredibly diverse aquatic ecosystems so you have a lot of options! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3964724/ Here is a list of many currently documented Thailand native aquatic plant species. There are quite a few recognizable ones used in aquaria. How I understand it, wild bettas prefer shallow waters water with little movement and a moderate amount of emergent plants. Emergent plants help define territories and provide a place for the males to affix bubble nests, so they are a must.

Hmm! That's really head scratchingly frustrating! I wouldn't blame you for taking a break. Remembered I saw this a while ago and did a quick google. You are right, cherries were bred directly from wild types, while most of the blues are 3-4 iterations of selective breeding away from the wild type. Also, sorry for jumping in your thread with unsolicited advice and not actually really responding to what you were asking for. I've not had a lot of luck with neos in general, and I really like the look of blue shrimp too. If I try again with neos I will probably get blue pearls myself. From what I've read they are just as hardy as cherries, they are just a little bit smaller and their breeding cycle is slower than cherries. Best of luck with the current batch!

I asked a shrimp breeder a similar question once, and they told me that the more selectively bred a variety of shrimp is the less tolerant they are of different or changing conditions, and that adult shrimp in general can have a harder time acclimating to new parameters than juvies. Maybe their failure to thrive could have been some combination of genetics, the shrimps possibly being older, and your water parameters being too different from what they were raised in? That would be my guess at least. Maybe try to find a seller who raises their blue neos in similar parameters to your tanks.

Hope it works out (worked out?) for you! Let me know if you need any ideas on how to rig it if its causing you trouble. It can be a bit tricky to get the post-filter sponge to stay on some of the weirder shaped HOBs.

I'm sorry to hear about your fishes. Especially about your rasboras, at least they got to have a good life with you for 3 years. As per the tank, most live plants do not do well with much salt, anything more than one teaspoon per 10 gallons is going to probably start hurting them soon. I would do a water change to get the salinity down and then crank up the heat for a few days. Do some research and put the temp as high as would be tolerable for all the plant species to try to kill whatever's in there, IIRC keeping the tank above 85 for a few days will likely kill anything bad left in there. I try to avoid meds if possible, so I would probably leave it empty for a month just to be safe, but you could also nuke it with meds instead of waiting and it would probably be fine. Adding a little bit of food a day will stop all the bacteria from starving if there's nothing else decaying in the tank.

As I understand it, the cloudiness that can be caused by sand is from silica dust. Diatoms love the stuff and the new substrate might cause a diatom (brown algae) outbreak in your tank. Diatoms are unsightly, but harmless. I find it kind of hard to get all the silica dust rinsed out, so I usually have at least a small diatom outbreak with new sand. It does go away eventually, so dont worry about it too much if you notice brown algae after switching to sand.

I think your instincts were right, in my experience most floater plants aren't that sensitive to water quality, so if the anubias is surviving just fine I would think floaters would be okay too. I would bet flow and light are your bigger problems here. Personally, I've never had success with floaters in a high flow tank. I have a tank that is arguably perfect for floaters besides the high surface agitation. The parameters are good, the lights are strong and yet duckweed and every other floater still dies or refuses to grow in that tank. If high flow is a problem in my tanks with a HOB I usually put a square of coarse sponge in front of the output/overflow bit (I'm forgetting the proper term) to diffuse the water. Sometimes it can be tricky to get the sponge to stay, so what I usually do is cut a large piece that easily "blocks" the overflow, notch the sponge about a cm down from each corner with a razor blade, and with 100% polyester thread (natural fibers will rot away quickly) loop the thread around the hob once and sponge twice, in a sort of figure 8 while making sure the thread is in the notches. Then tape down the thread to the sides of the HOB if it doesn't feel secure enough. Not the prettiest but It works! I think lighting will help with growth for sure, though I think you will have much more success if you reduce the water flow as well!

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I've been busy with the holidays! But thank you all for the complements!

Hi there fish friends! Im Pearl, I'm a Seattle native. I've been keeping aquaria on and off for the last 20 years or so, though for the last 8 years I've been keeping bettas consistently. This year I've been branching out and have started keeping shrimp and some cool water species. Im excited to learn more with y'all and maybe help some newer folks too! Here's a candid shot of my newish dirted subtropical 55 gal, with 3 dojo loaches, 8 gold barbs as well as a variety of snails. I made a riparium planter out of egg crate diffuser you can kinda see in this shot on the top left of the tank, thats full of happy pothos and a monstera that refuses to grow.

Does she have room for a larger tank? A larger tank would be more stable parameter wise and need cleaning less often. Like, monthly or less water changes with a planted 10 gal if it only has one fish. The betta will likely be happier and live longer too! No snails eat poop as far as I'm aware. Snails will help by eating most algaes on any surface and any dead stuff/leftover food in the tank. I've kept ramshorns and malaysian trumpet snails successfully with bettas. Ramshorn tolerate the low ph that bettas like better than most snails, plus they breed a lot and those babies make for good betta snacks. MTS aerate the substrate by burrowing into it, which helps prevent anaerobic bacteria growth.