DarthRevan
-
Posts
75 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Feedback
0%
Content Type
Forums
Downloads
Store
Events
Blogs
Gallery
Profiles
Posts posted by DarthRevan
-
-
On 9/15/2021 at 12:40 PM, Zenzo said:
Maracyn is safe for inverts, and helps with bacterial infections that cause fin rot. Many of the people on the forum use Maracyn. I have used it on all of my fish, and it has been safe for my snails an Amanos as well.
Here is the link: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/mardel-maracyn?_pos=1&_psq=maracyn&_ss=e&_v=1.0
Thank you so much I will check it out! 🙌
-
1
-
-
Hey everyone, recently I’ve noticed my betta’s fins looking a little ragged. At first I thought maybe one of the platies had been nipping him (they’ve been really aggressive, one is pregnant and the males fight a lot because I don’t have a good male to female ratio: fixing that ASAP) but now I think it’s fin rot. I did a fish-in cycle so I think he may just have a weakened immune system and that’s what started it.
The tank is fully cycled as of last week, but I can’t tell if his fins are healing or not. Should I give it time before I start treatment? Also, I’m having a hard time finding info online about treatments. I have rams horn snails and I’m getting some amano shrimp in a couple of weeks, and I want to make sure if I do have to treat it that the treatment is safe for inverts. I see BettaFix pop up a lot as a recommendation, and on the API website it says it may harm snails but it doesn’t say anything about shrimp (I assume anything that’ll harm snails will harm shrimp but I’m not sure) or if it’s like copper where if you use it once it’ll basically ruin your tank for inverts forever.
I don’t have money right now to set up a quarantine tank for the betta, hopefully here in the future I can.
Water Parameters (measured with API test kit):
Ammonia- slightly above 0ppm
Nitirite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 20-25ppm
Ph- about 7.6
Hardness- between 200-300 on the Aquarium Coop test strips (we have very hard water in Phoenix AZ)
Tank is heavily planted and has floating plants
-
That’s true I forgot most fish you get at stores are juveniles and likely to develop new colors as they mature lol.
I was also thinking the same, especially since other fish don’t have anything on them, I just wanted to be extra sure since I’m brand new at all this. The color is definitely concentrated around the head and on the side fins and I don’t think it’s spreading it’s just becoming more pronounced. Thank you for the help and peace of mind!!
-
I hope these are a little bit easier to see, I took screenshots from a video instead lol. It’s definitely a gold color, not silver or white (unless lighter colors look gold/browinsh because of the black scales).
-
So about 3 weeks ago I set up a brand new aquarium (heavily planted 40 gal breeder). I’m doing a fish in cycle (by necessity not choice). I’ll post a picture of my tap water parameters below for reference, I do keep my tank between 77 and 78 (it usually sits right at 77.5). The water parameters are what I measured from an API test kit. Nitrites and ammonia are currently at about .25 ppm each, I’ve been dosing a capful of Seachem Prime every 24-48 hours to keep it nontoxic while the tank cycles.
I know fish in cycles can be rough on fish. I can’t tell if this Molly has ich or not. It’s hard to tell from the photos but the spots and patches on the fish are very clearly gold, not white. I hadn’t noticed it before but my roommate says that the Molly had gold on her the day I bought her, and I haven’t really seen it get worse but it’s a little hard for me to tell. Does anyone else have black swordtail mollies that have gold coloration on them? Also, none of my other fish have any spots on them and it’s been 3 weeks so I would assume if it was ich it would’ve spread by now.
Also, behavior wise the Molly seems fine. She eats normally, swims all around, doesn’t rub her sides on any of the plants or aquarium walls. Sometimes I’ve noticed her shimmying on the bottom but that only lasts like 30 seconds then she’s off exploring again, and that doesn’t happen often (maybe a couple times a week). I’m by my tank 10.5 hours a day while I work so I have a pretty good idea of changes to the norm in my tank.
Also sorry for the terrible photo quality it’s harder than I thought to photograph fish 😂
-
On 8/20/2021 at 12:55 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
I would dose easy green, just use at 1/4 dose.
What is your substrate?
I’ll try that!
Substrate is a 1:1:1 mix of sand, gravel, and Fluval Stratum capped with more sand (Caribsea Super Naturals). And in the middle I have a kind of river splitting up both sides with just some regular Petco brand coarse sand.
On 8/21/2021 at 4:08 PM, Bev C said:Hi i went through allot of the same problem as you i had red and green algae i had to lower my light time to 6 -7 hours a day a break.in the middle 3 hours day 3-4hours at night and plus i have A Finnex 24/7/ ALC planted light .. i had to reduce light intensity allot i had to reduce mine down 30-40 % for low light plants i using 30 percent used 30 red 30 white i am not sure of of the Finnex Stinray but along lowering your time i would lower the intensity to keep lowering it till you see a difference .. Java moss and anubias and java fern hates me still but that helped me allot
here is my algae problem thread ( link below) my last post is what worked for me best wishes
https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/7031-plants-have-algae/?tab=comments#comment-127005
I will check out the thread, thanks! I don’t have control over intensity with a Stingray 2.0 unfortunately so I just have to limit the time the light is on.
-
On 8/20/2021 at 12:05 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
Drop light duration to 8 hours. What is your ammonia testing?
Yep I updated my light schedule yesterday! Ammonia is still sitting between .25 and .5 as of this morning, 0 nitrite, nitrates are around 10ppm naturally in our tap water here. It’s slowly creeping towards .5ppm ammonia based on the last few days, I just set the tank up Saturday and have been dosing Prime. I also dosed Easy Green a few days ago which I will not be doing again until it’s cycled lol
-
So this is definitely some kind of red algae clump. I was trimming some plants and I tried getting it off thinking it was some krill flakes but it’s solidly attached to the the plants. I cut my light from 10 to 8 hours a day and I’m gonna hold off on dosing Easy Green unless my plants really start looking terrible. I’m still not sure what it is but based on Google I’m pretty sure it’s a red variant of black beard/brush algae.
So far my otos and platies won’t touch it, so after my tank is cycled and stable I’m gonna get some amano shrimp.
-
On 8/18/2021 at 6:59 PM, Guppysnail said:
I have poor eyesight so if I’m way off base I apologize. I feed red flakes and if a piece gets missed and sits a day it looks like that.
I thought that at first too but the only flakes I feed are Xtreme Community and the red flakes I’ve seen sitting at the bottom were washed out. But it’s possible there’s like a clearer algae that attached itself to the flakes that got caught in the moss making it look like the whole blob is an algae mass lol. I may also just be overreacting because so far everything that can go wrong has gone wrong with this setup 😂
-
Hey everyone, I just got a 40 breeder set up and it is my first tank. I set it up this Saturday 8/14 and I’m starting to see some red clumps of algae in my Java moss.
This tank is not fully cycled, it’s a long story but I’m basically doing a fish in cycle by necessity (I’ll try to link my other post on that if I can figure it out).
I started with a few plants and now have a ton. I added some easy green but I’m not sure that was the right thing to do right away, I was just worried about losing plants. Now I'm starting to see these red clumps all over my Java moss directly under the lights. I have a Finnex Stingray 2.0 and run it on a timer for 10 hours a day (I have scarlet temple and Monte Carlo so I wanted as much light as possible). My main concern is I’ve never seen or heard of this type of algae, and I'm hoping it’s not toxic. My otos either haven’t noticed it yet or won’t eat it. From my Google research I found it may be a form of black beard algae (Rhy something species) but I just want to make sure it’s not going to be a huge problem. Once my tank is established and cycled I’m getting some amano shrimp in addition to the otos so hopefully they can keep it in check.
-
1
-
-
On 8/17/2021 at 8:01 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:
Firstly I love your handle, one of my favorite characters in the novelizations. I’m sorry the LFS folks led you astray. I’m glad you’re here and are trying to educate yourself. That article from Fish Lab is great.
I think continuing a regular water change regimen of every other day or so will be needed. Testing every day and dosing prime as needed for any detectable ammonia. Dosing beneficial bacteria from the bottle will help. Between that and the fish food and poop you’ll be cycled in the coming weeks.Your plants will be helpful. I would consider utilizing a floating plant either something like water lettuce, red root floaters or frog bit vs guppy grass or hornwort- they will suck up all the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. they can be used during this transitional period to aide your cycle and protect your fish.
Good luck and feel free to ask lots of questions. A ton of experience and nice folks on here.
Knights of the Old Republic is one of my favorite games so I had to incorporate it haha!
And yeah this is the first place I go to when I have questions or issues! There’s a great community here 😄
That was pretty much my plan, except the Prime but I’m glad several people brought that up because it will definitely make it easier and save some fish!
I actually was getting some mini water lettuce from OfferUp, but the person ran out so now I’m trying to find people or LFS that would sell any floating plants (besides duckweed, it grows too fast for my tastes). Especially because my light seems pretty bright (it’s a Stingray 2.0 and most people say it’s “low light,” but it is still pretty bright) and my betta will probably appreciate the shade. I’m just hoping it doesn’t overshadow my Monte Carlo or scarlet temple too much because I know they need as much light as possible. I’ve seen some people use airline tubing so I may try that method to keep some areas clear.
-
So after the water change yesterday and finally getting a heater installed, I think the tank is relatively stable now. No one died last night and everyone seems happy. The ottos are stuck to some hair algae growing on my moss bonsai tree, the platys aren’t gasping anymore, and the betta is active and eating. I think the issue was mainly the major temperature swings over the last couple of days.
I’m still testing for ammonia it seems to be sitting steady between .25 and .50, if it spikes I’ll dose some Prime.
Thanks again for the help and advice everyone!
-
1
-
-
On 8/16/2021 at 9:02 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
@DarthRevan do what I do, put your water change water out the day before. I actually use empty 1 gallon water bottles, leave them in the room overnight (treated) and then use them the next day- but I only have 20 gallon tanks that only require up to 5 gallon water changes in an emergency but I keep 9 gallons. I always have those bottles at the ready. You might have to go the 5 gallon bucket (or 5 gallon water bottles) route because of the 40, but if this situation is temporary it will be helpful if temperature has been a problem for you, it will at least help you rule that out.
That is an excellent idea, I will try that! Plus it will make less of a mess dealing with my Aqueon water changer that I had to rig up to extend an extra 25ft lol. It would be so much easier to just drain it with the water changer then just dump in water from a bucket/jug. Thank you!
And thank you to everyone else who helped me today, you guys are great and I’m glad we have this resource!
-
1
-
-
On 8/16/2021 at 8:12 PM, Chad said:
I started my 20 gallon long with a seeded filter, plants, substrate, fritz turbo 700, and too many fish (guppies). The ammonia levels never got above .5 ppm but it stayed there for weeks. I used prime to ensure the ammonia and nitrites were detoxed. Maybe that added to the cycling period, no idea. All I can say is the process was more stressful and took far longer than I thought it would. My advice, test often (I did every day), research how to do a fish in cycle with prime and keep cool. It will all work out, but again, it took longer than I thought it would.
Yeah that’s what I’m running into as well. I’ve watched so many videos from Aquarium Coop, Prime Time Aquatics, Girl Talks Fish, etc I should’ve known better than to believe I could just throw a bottle of bacteria in and have an instantly cycled tank. That’s basically what two of my local fish stores (not Petco/Petsmart, actual mom and pop stores) told me.
I have been testing every day and I will definitely continue that. I’m getting a bottle of Prime tomorrow, and now that I have my heater in the tank I’m hoping it’ll stay around 78 so I don’t keep having massive temperature swings.
Also, does anyone know a good way to make sure your tap water stays cool? I thought maybe my hot and cold knobs were flipped but no, my tap just runs at 80 or higher during the summer (again I live in Phoenix, AZ it’s 100+ here 24/7 until November/December). I don’t want to get a chiller but I’m thinking that may be what I have to do to keep the water temp stable when I do water changes.
-
Welp, bad news. Just lost another Otto. I know for sure this was due to temp. My tank went from 76 to 82 in like an hour due to my tap water coming out hot. It’s cooled back down to 80 though and it’s holding steady. Hopefully I don’t lose anymore, but it seems like I should’ve gotten plecos or waited until my tank was established 😞
Thank you for the article @TankofFish I will follow that guide!!
@quikv6 that is perfect. I’m getting some tomorrow before work! Fingers crossed.
-
On 8/16/2021 at 11:46 AM, quikv6 said:
A couple of thoughts:
1) The tank went from zero to 14 fish instantly. That is a big increase in bioload all at once. I do think the bottled bacteria works, but usually is better paired with a very slow, incremental increase in bioload. Nothing to beat yourself over, and thankfully it's a relatively large volume of water which helps. I think a daily "dose" of bottled bacteria will help as well. Sometimes one-and-done just isn't enough.
2) As mentioned, Prime would be a great dechlorinator for you, as it can "detoxify" any ammonia you may get for 24-48 hours. There are folks who literally rely solely on Prime to get through the full cycle.
3) Another possible culprit of the fish deaths could be osmotic shock. Usually this can occur if your water is significantly different (PH/GH) than the water they came from, without proper acclimation to the new water.
I am curious what your PH/GH/KH values are, and if they are close to the store's water.
I also wanted to welcome you to the hobby. Just the fact that you are here on this forum is a great sign that you will be a great fishkeeper. Mistakes will happen...don't beat yourself up over them. We are always learning, and that means we will always improve, which also up's the enjoyment and satisfaction!
That is true I didn’t think of it that way. I was like “oh it’s only ‘half’ stocked so it’ll be fine.” I just did about a 40-50% water change, added another dose of API dechlorinator and another 1oz of Fritz.
For the Prime, do the bacteria still eat the detoxified ammonia to continue the cycle? I saw it and I was worried after reading it I’d have a bacteria die off because I’m removing all the ammonia.
Now that I think about it it could’ve been temperature. I live in Phoenix, AZ and our water is very hard. Our KH is 161ppm and GH is well over 200, not sure by how much though. But the LFS near me all raise their fish in our tap water. In fact I had a few fish I had bought and left at the store for a week die, and I was told it’s because they were raised in RO water. But I didn’t have a heater, so the tank got down to 76, but it started at 90 before I added them because our tap water comes out hot no matter what. So they sat in a bag for about 5 hours until I could get the temp down. Then it dropped overnight. So that may have been it.
I just did a water change and it raised the tank temp up to 82 before I saw the thermometer and now another otto is struggling. I’m not sure what to do about that because I use the cold tap and it comes out hot anyway.
The good news though is that the rest of them are fine, the tank is clean now, water parameters are holding steady (temp is slowly dropping, it’s at 80 now and my heater is in the tank set to 78 since it just came in). I also just got my shipment from the Coop and got all the plants planted. So I’ll see how it goes over the next couple of days now that everything should hold steady.
-
So I wasn’t too sure about the bacteria in a bottle thing either, but long story short I was talked into buying some fish before my tank was even set up, and he said he’d hold them. A lot of items got delayed from Amazon and he basically said you need to come get your fish (after about 2 weeks). So I was in a hurry and him and another store said the Fritz would be fine. I also thought it would be ok since the tank was about half stocked (if you follow the 1 inch of fish/gallon rule).
They did say I would get slight ammonia spikes, then nitrite, then eventually I would just have nitrates like a normal cycle, just over about a week instead of weeks. Also Fritz is refrigerated so it was recommended more highly than the other bacteria products. But I think I should still do a 30% water change at least since the ammonia is getting up there. But you guys are right I don’t think doing an accelerated cycle is a great idea. Lesson learned I guess lol.
I have plants on the way from Aquarium Coop, they are supposed to be delivered this afternoon so I will be planting the tank more heavily. At the moment I have a few bunches of Java moss, 3 Mexican oak leaf stems, 2 Anubias coffefolia, and two crypts.
As for feeding my betta, he is starting to interact with me more but my glass is reflective so he’s spending a lot of time chasing himself. He doesn’t flare at all, just swims back and forth. Not sure if that’s normal or if it’s aggressive/stressed behavior. This morning I waited until I could get his attention and he did eat a few bites. At the moment I’m feeding Hikari vibra bites in the morning (a small pinch) and Xtreme community flakes at night. I also just checked on my remaining ottos and they all seem to have full bellies. They’ve been stuck on the wood most of the time so I’m not sure what they’re eating cause I know the glass and rocks don’t have any algae yet.
-
On 8/16/2021 at 9:11 AM, Griznatch said:
It's going to be a rough start for the fish, until the tank is cycled. Doing water changes will help, Add as many plants as you can, the more the better. If you use city water then also use something to take care of the chlorine when you do your water changes.
Go light on feeding, however your otos are most likely going to need something. They are typically wild caught and are almost starving by the time you get them. Blanched spinach or zuchini might help.
Oh yeah I have API water conditioner whenever I put new water in the tank (which I’ve only done once when I filled it). I’ll try the vegetables, hopefully they will eat it and not get outcompeted by the platys.
I’ve been trying to go light on the fish food, but my betta hasn’t been getting any, by the time he realizes there’s food it’s mostly gone. And the platys usually pick up any leftovers on the substrate
-
Hey everyone,
I finally got my very first tank started on Saturday! Everything seemed to be going fine yesterday, but today I woke up and had two deaths. I have a 40 breeder, 6 platys, 7 ottos, and a betta. I lost one platy and one otto so far.
The tank is brand new and was not fully cycled, I was told by two LFS that I could just add some Fritz Turbostart 700 to get it going. I have a Seachem Tidal 55 filter packed with sponges, and a few plants/moss bunches (getting many more today).
I tested the water yesterday with an API master test kit because I was worried I was over feeding cause I have no idea how to feed a community tank. I tried the 2 minute rule but not all the fish got food, especially my betta. After the test, the ammonia test was a pale yellow so I’m thinking the ammonia is between 0-.25. Nitrites were 0, I didn’t test for nitrates.
This morning I immediately tested after removing the bodies, and ammonia was between .25-.50. Nitrites are 0 and Nitrates were between 10-20.
I’m not 100% sure the issue is water quality cause the rest of the fish seem fine, not gasping or anything and moving around like normal. One platy is very aggressive and almost constantly chases the females and my betta. I’m removing him ASAP, but I’m not sure if that’s why one of the platys died. As for the ottos, they’ve been sucking on the wood I have in there, but I haven’t been able to feed them cause I know there’s no algae in my tank yet besides on the wood from soaking it. I bought some Hikari algae wafers but they have fish/krill in them and the ottos wouldn’t touch it, and the platys were attacking it so they couldn’t get some anyway.
So I’m not sure if it’s water, harassment/stress, or starvation. I know the level of ammonia is toxic right now, I’m going to be doing a water change ASAP but I would expect the other fish to not be doing well if it was water quality.
After the water change I’m adding another 1oz of Fritz Turbostart and keeping an eye on everything for the day. Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions/theories?
-
Update: finally got everything set up. Used Fritz turbo start to jumpstart the cycle, this betta seems a little aggressive and some of the platies have chased him off a couple times, but he was by himself the whole time in the store so he may just need to get used to tank mates. I also saw him chase a couple of ottos but he gave up when he realized he couldn’t catch them. I don’t think I’ll be getting shrimp with this guy.
I’m getting more plants from the Co-op Monday, these were just the best that my LFS had today.
Does anyone know of any good algae wafers for the ottos? I got Hikari ones but they seem to be more for plecos because there’s fishmeal and krill in them. I put it in for like an hour but only the platies would eat it. Maybe they only eat at night? I couldn’t find any info on that online.
-
1
-
-
On 7/13/2021 at 6:26 PM, NanoNano said:
So a couple more thoughts for you:
* I don't think you've talked about hardscape (wood, stone, etc.). Not sure what you've considered here, but probably good to think about that well as different material/ textures/ help create depth and height variations that really make plants visually pop and are part of making an effective tank biome.
* There's a design principle called The Rule of Thirds (often referred to in photography, but the rule traces back to the 1700's). The rectangular shape of a tank follows the same constraint as a painting or photo, so following the rule works really well with aquarium design too. Rules are made to be broken however so it's not an absolute 🙂 .
* Your current selection of plants is pretty uniformly green. Plant supply is still pretty constrained, so there's a degree of "take what you can get", but things like Crypts and Val do come in several different shades (bronze, green, red, pink, etc.). You may want to think about getting a "feature" plant in a bold color to break things up. Take a close look at other tanks here as using color needs to be done a little deliberately. You usually need to either get a single plant of a single color as a "pop" or dedicate an area of your tank to multiple plants of the same color as a focus area. Spreading too many plants of color and too many different colors around can make things look like a bowl of Froot Loops.
* Trimming requires some skill and experience- good trimming tools are worth their cost.
* The goal of aeration is to break the surface tension of the water so that gas can exchange with it. If you have a filter that already does this, an airstone may not be necessary. In a 40 gallon, there's enough room for a Betta to stay away from the bubbles and current if it bothers them, so adding one if you don't have something already breaking the surface would work well.
* Veiltail Bettas were one of the original strain bred to be "Fighting Fish" and my experience is that *in general* they tend to have aggressive personalities. Not impossible to keep with shrimp, but you definitely should weigh (chill) personality as heavy as looks when picking one out.
Good luck!
I will definitely have hardscape lol I just haven’t talked about it because I already know what I’m doing for it. I’m going to have Malaysian driftwood and probably seiryu stone or something similar that’s dark/gray. I was just more worried about possibly killing plants and fish 😅
I have seen a lot of aquascapers reference that rule and I definitely plan to use it as a starting point 😁
I do plan on adding more colors as well, my LFS has plants that Aquarium Coop doesn't offer at the moment, I just wanted to get a good green background going before figuring out where I need the extra pop of reds and bronze lol.
I definitely got the curved scissors in my cart from Aquarium Coop lol, I see everyone use them and they seem to make things way easier once you get the hang of it!
Ah ok I wasn’t sure how that worked, I thought the bubbles were actually adding O2 to the water 😂 I’m going to have a Seachem Tidal 55 HOB, I went with that one because it’s bigger than I need and it has an adjustable flow so I’m not blowing my poor betta around lol.
And I did not know that, thank you for the heads up. I was told bigger finned bettas are slower and have a harder time catching things, so they’re more recommended in a community setting, but if they’re generally more aggressive then that would defeat the purpose! I’ll be shopping around more once my LFS gets a new betta shipment in 😁
-
On 7/13/2021 at 5:47 PM, SWilson said:
I admit my betta was a bit of an impulse purchase...heh...I had been looking at wild-types, plakats, and I really love the look of alien bettas. The story of my ridiculous store trip ending up with the betta (and some other new friends) along with a photo and video of the 40 (the 40 is the first picture, second pic is just a pleco in quarantine) is here:
Things have grown in a bit more since then, particularly the crypts. They are steadily becoming my new favorite plants. They do so well and are so easy to propagate and spread. I just rewatched the video I posted and the dwarf lilies are HUGE now in comparison lol. I better get back to work (always procrasti-posting over here hah), but maybe I'll post an update on that thread later.
We (my partner and I) are actually really starting to get into mollies! I never realized how cute they are before. I really like the dalmatian mollies, and recently I saw white and orange spotted ones at a store. They were so cool looking! We've never kept them before though. Another fish I suprised myself with really liking is plecos. The bristlenose plecos are really cool, and among the types we have (clown pleco and green phantom pleco) they are the most outgoing and visible.
I think what I'll ultimately do with the 40b is move as many of the endlers into a 55gallon as I can catch (I've started doing this and its turning into a community tank with endlers, amazon puffers, and the green phantom pleco). And then get more of the same species of corydoras. I might add something else at the top level eventually, but I really want to see if I can colony breed the salt and peppers. They're currently not getting a lot food because of the endlers and mystery snails, and if they are laying eggs, the eggs are probably getting eaten.
Mr. betta is soon gonna go solo into a 15 gallon my partner just broke down (we're consolidating our tanks because it turns out fish were a gateway drug into the reptile hobby for my partner lol). Not that it's for me to say, but you really know your stuff and have done your homework, having thought of a plan B tank.
Anyway, can't wait to see pics of your tank as you get it set up!
I freaking LOVE that tank setup! I bet it looks even more amazing all grown in now. I can only hope to be anywhere close to that 😂 Alien bettas are really cool too I agree but there’s nowhere I can get them here and I’m hesitant to order fish online lol
I also love crypts, they just add such a unique look to the foreground and break up the stems lol.
They are really cute I love to watch them just swim around looking for food at my LFS haha. They breed a lot as well though so be careful 😂 Plecos are really cool and they hold their own in a community I feel like lol. I may get some of those instead of Ottos.
Hahaha I feel like sometimes fish and reptiles do go hand in hand. But I’m sure the betta will appreciate not having so much action going on all the time if it was getting stressed before lol. My partner wants a bearded dragon in a bioactive terrarium but I was like that’s all on you I chose fish for my hobby 😂
But thank you for the advice and encouragement, I will definitely be posting updates. I’d love to see updates on your various tanks too once you get them sorted! Back to work for both of us I guess 🤣
-
On 7/13/2021 at 4:49 PM, SWilson said:
Congrats and this is so very exciting! Keep us posted on your tank setting up and journey!
I have a very similar array plants that you had in your cart in my 40 gal breeder except the monte carlo. The crypts were actually propogated from another tank (I think I originally 3-4 small bunches of crypt wenditii, and that is now my foreground "cover" plant in the 40 gal). It's always possible to go light with plants at first and then propogate/expand later, but it's much more satisfying to have a heavily planted tank right from the get go.
For whateer reason, sword plants for me have not been getting huge, but lilies (red liily bulb and tiger lotus bulb) always do. I love the easy red color that they add. I do not use CO2 in this tank.
I had endlers, salt and pepper corydoras, mystery snails, ramshorns, and a betta in there. My water pH is in the high 7s-8, and hard like yours. (the betta has since been moved out of the 40 gal because I noticed he was getting fin rot, which may have to do with a variety of factors, but I suspected that one of them was that there was too much action in the 40 gal, but also could be water quality due to stocking density. Could also be that the water parameters aren't ideal.)
I love the endlers, in my experience they live up to their reputation as bullet proof fish and I would recommend them to anyone. They did really breed out of control (hence my hobby has expanded from one 16 gallon with 3 endlers to 7 tanks with probably 50+ endlers...and I would have more like 100 endlers if I didn't start feeding the babies to my puffers - which is a long story and was very hard for me to ultimately do 😬) I don't really have an outlet for selling them like I thought I would, I had to go to a different city to buy them, and my LFS does not want the extras I have, not even the males because my local market is much more into salt water than fresh. If I could go back, I would've just gotten males. now that I have so many I have a few 'bachelor' tanks, and those are quite fun.
My betta is doing ok in my water (the water at the store I got him from is above 8 pH, but soft water). I acclimated him for about an hour. I found that he didn't harm any of the other fish, but he chased the female endlers more than the male endlers (which was a surprise to me, because I thought the colors of the males would set him off more). He is a veil tail, and not fast enough to eat baby endlers to help with population control. The other centerpiece fish I was considering was a single gourami (would've loved to do a pair of apistogramma, but I heard they need soft water).
Betta nips so much at snails that I don't really want to try him with shrimp. But I think your plan to just try a few is a good one. Every betta is different. I keep shrimp (yellow neocaridina) in a separate tank with similar water parameters, and they do well. I've only had them for about 5 months, and they're definitely reproducing, but not as prolifically as I would have hoped or what the youtubers make it sound like. They are in the tank with some large female endlers, who are great at controlling planeria, but might also be picking off baby shrimp. In addition to catappa/indian almond leaves, I also use cholla wood and rock piles to give the shrimp/baby shrimp places to hide.
Sorry this got so long, I hope it's helpful. I think I've posted pics of my 40b elsewhere on the forum, I could try to find them and link if you want (not that it's really special or anything lol, but just since we have similar plant selections).
This was super helpful, thank you! I love hearing stuff like this because it gives me other perspectives than just the 4 or 5 people I watch on YouTube lol.
I’m really hoping I don’t get an overly aggressive betta who wants to eat snails and shrimp lol, but my backup plan is to have a 10 gallon set up for it if it becomes a problem. I’m still debating on whether I want a veil tail or a plakat. I love the showiness of the veil tails but I also love the streamlined predator look of the plakats lol. But I know they also are able to catch more shrimp/fry so I’m not sure 😂 and thanks for the advice with the cholla wood I had not thought of that before, I was hoping a lot of plant cover would do it lol.
I hope if I get Endlers they don’t reproduce that much, but I was also looking at some mollies because they’re fun to watch and a little bigger.
If you have pictures that would be great for inspiration! I’ll see if I can find your posts lol
-
1
-
-
On 7/13/2021 at 4:39 PM, Patrick_G said:
I’d recommend the Coop Wisteria. apparently they now have it in submerged growth form. That means you won’t have to go through the sometimes frustrating period when it’s converting from air grown to submerged form.
I love the way that looks! It’ll add a lot of texture to the tank.
I just checked though and it’s sold out 😭 Hopefully it comes back in by the time I’m ready to order lol
-
1
-
Invert Safe Fin Rot Treatments?
in Diseases
Posted
So update, I got Maracyn Oxy on accident instead of the packets but it still was doing ok for a while.
It says on the bottle not to use it for more than 5 days. After day 1, the cottony growth on my bettas fins went away. I dosed it the full 5 days to be sure, but now the growth is coming back on the backside of the fin and he’s still losing his dorsal fin pretty fast. Should I switch to a different treatment, or do a massive water change and continue dosing Oxy?
The bottle I’m using is pictured below, and I’ll try to grab a photo of my betta (he never sits still so it’s hard lol)
