xXInkedPhoenixX

Yes any new fish should start a separate QT in another tank. As long as you have a way to do that then you should be good, but don't overload yourself with work 🙃

While I understand what @AndEEss was saying, I would have advised you to wait until you were done quarantining.

Target feeding the betta with tweezers helped me monitor how much they ate- of course you can only really do this when it's bloodworms or tubifex worms (freeze dried tubifex I've found are pretty great and everybody likes them). Feed the rest a good quality flake (like Fluval Bug Bites or Xtreme Krill flakes) and make sure to clean up leftovers and everbody should be good!

@Beardedbillygoat1975 haha, sorry about that. I know there are DIY ways of doing this but I'm too lazy for that (let alone I personally don't prefer the look). BUT- the people who sell them are cool and quick about getting things mailed- so I don't feel guilty about supporting the small and creative businesses. 😉

@Stormcloudferret I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm not sure what it is exactly but possible fungus. One of our other members has a green growth on an Oto. I'd previously not seen anything like it. Treatment is still in progress there, not sure if @Streetwise has started Ichx or seen any improvements yet. Here is that thread, maybe you'll see a similarity in what your poor betta had. Otocinclus Problem

Sounds to me the tank has been overfed and not properly cleaned for an extended amount of time. If I were in your shoes I'd do daily small gravel vacuuming focusing on one area at a time until I was satisfied with cleanliness. I would also toss that auto feeder.

IME Otos like Amazons a lot. Mine lay eggs on the undersides of the leaves. I've never seen them do damage to them. I also agree snails usually eat weakened plants, not healthy ones. I pulled my Otos from my tanks that have snails, they were outcompeted for food, you could try feeding them at night. You could also feed from a small plate or bowl and remove the snails when they crawl on.

I can't say exactly what happened but if your question is can too much food in a tank kill your fish and soil water quality and QUICKLY the answer is absolutely yes. Others might have more technical insight.

I just added more!!

THE ACCICENTAL OTO TANK: Nitrate Experimentation aka Fun with Plants So in the ongoing quest to lower the steady 40 ppm nitrate in 3 of my 5 tanks- it's mostly been focused on this, my 10 gallon Oto tank. I had added some Spider and Pothos plants but they are babies so it will be a while until they are soldiers in this effort. Therefore I decided to buy the bamboo holder from the same seller I got my plant holder from and sacrifice my Lucky Bamboo in my bathroom for the Otos. Bamboo holder: The Lucky Bamboo: The Bamboo was repotted a while ago in aquarium planting substrate mixed with some gravel and bead glass at the top. It was doing well but admittedly was getting a little tall for its britches. It will still be a bit tall and can only go on one side of the Oto aquarium because of how it sits under a cabinet in my kitchen. Rearranging had to be done among other things. I started with the bamboo because I didn't know what kind of roots I was going to be messing with so I pulled it from its pot and things looked pretty good. I took it out back and hosed off all the substrate and set it aside to deal with the tank. First on the agenda in the tank the larger of the 2 Amazons. Since its leaves were long and were at the surface it had grown quite the head of hair(algae) so all the long leaves and any algae covered or dying leaves got cut off. Detrius flew eveywhere and my poor Otos were frantically wondering by their skittering about (as they do) what the heck I was doing. I fiddled with placement for a while as my original plan took a bit more effort than I thought. I was a bit concerned taking the sponge filter out was going to be a problem in the future since its placement was right under where I was going to put the holder for the bamboo. In the end the old sponge filter got replaced with a new Aquarium Co-Op one that is larger and placed on the left instead of the right- where the HOB used to sit so now that's in the middle and both plant holders are on the right of it. Whew. This also meant that pots in the tank got moved and coconut houses moved (and falling) and plants moved and wood moved- this is about the time I was glad this tank was designed the way it was- so much easier to move a potted plant than one that's rooted in substrate. All of this took longer and was messier than I wanted but it got done. All with tiny Otos freaking out around me like the sky was falling (and sometimes it did a little). After this was done I put the bamboo in its holder: Almost immediately after I placed it in the tank 2 of the Tiger Otos found spots on and near it. So the tank looks pretty good despite not taking great pictures (doesn't help the light is blinding), but you get the idea!

OTOCINCLUS COCAMA (TIGER): The 2 Gallon QT Day 18 after injury and the patient was given an Epsom Soak. It still looks irritated to me and about as good as it has been for the last few days as far as swelling.. I had thought on yesterday's entry I could do a big water change today and take out the meds but I was getting ahead of myself, the Kanaplex had another 24hrs. *sigh* Oh well. Tomorrow it is.

@CalmedByFish it's probably some sort of placebo effect.

@Colu is right, my Neon made a recovery- mine appeared to have been some sort of injury to their side or maybe it was a secondary side effect- I'll never really know. I was determinded that as long as they were swimming vertically I wouldn't give up on them- so after medicating all I did was clean water and target fed them blood worms. Now I can't tell Verti from the others. My thread probably isn't too helpful but here it is: Black Neon Swimming Vertically? What I've done so far....

I was wondering about it since I recently got some and am debating on whether or not to put it in my tanks since it's prolific- though I'm not sure if it would be in my low tech tanks. You kind of have my mind working for a similar small build but using the Monte.

@gjcarew bummer on the first attempt! I'm sure you'll get it. Just curious, would a plant like Monte Carlo work on this kind of thing?

This is my favorite video about Coconut Octopus, they are among few species in the ocean that use tools and of course utilize coconuts or shells to protect themselves:

@Jeff I'm with you, that's why I love Coconut Octopus- they get max 6" stinkin cute.

You know the saying for cats: "If I fits I sits"? I think there's a similar rule for fish but with their mouth "if I can fit it in my mouth I'm probably going to eat it". Probably not an issue- could they get hurt? Yeah maybe but *shrug* not much you can do once they've eaten it. You'l probably notice soon nothing has happened. 🙂

It's so neat see so many Cephalopod fans when asked "what fish". Hehe! Octopi are my personal mascot at work, I have my chain mail Octopus "Durga" wherever I sit. She amuses me when things get stupid.

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Parent Tank Day 2 on baby watch- did not see any signs of new ones. Of course since I wake up in the afternoon due to nightshift the Harlequins have had plenty of time to do their own patrolling- but IME so far the Otos don't have a LOT of babies. Just small batches. Thankfully I'm on my weekend after tonight's shift so I'll have more time to check more often. So last time I kept the floating breeder in the Parent tank the well-meaning Mystery snails would often attach themselves to the box and would worry me about sinking it (they have before when I've contained one of their own for QT/watch). In the last attempt I made airline rings and floated them around the box making a sort of bumper system- this only worked most of the time. I got an idea when rifling through my aquarium "equipment drawer of randomness"- I saw 2 veggie clips and thought ahh this might work- as long as it can hold a Mystery snail's weight they shouldn't be able to tip it if I put it in the corner. I think it will work despite having put it up yesterday and one of the clips falling (didn't get good enough suction it shoud be good now) Both babies are in there and seemingly doing well.

OTOCINCLUS COCAMA (TIGER): The 2 Gallon QT Today was hopefully the last dose of Kanaplex- if not "forever" at least for a while. It is 17 days since our Popeye patient was pulled from the Accidental Oto tank. There was a 20 minute Epsom soak while I cleaned up the food (which did not appear touched) and dosed the tank. I have to tell you, I cannot wait to do a water change on the QT- dosing meds with no water changes drives me crazy- while the water is probably fine it looks terrible. I feel like the fish is better off with fresh water. I will get my hands on it tomorrow. No real change between today and yesterday:

@Atitagain thanks! That's pretty much the idea I'm aiming towards between that and a rolling green wave- every angle of the tree is very different- as you see it's a slow process- I mean I'm invested for 11 years so far. My inspiration is the saying that we must bend with the hard times or we will break- Something that Wayne Dyer said in a lecture: Be a Palm Tree in a Hurricane.

I love bonsai! Mine aren't "wet" but I've had my Pomegranate bonsai for 11 years and it was 4 when I got it. Repotted it this year into a new pot to give it some room and me more time between root trimmings and ultimately this will be it's final pot with me (pics are right after I did it when dormant then the spring months later)- what I found interesting is though its original pot was very small- it was not filled and not rootbound at all. Could be because of the type of tree it is or my care, I have no idea! But things like that are so much fun so hope you have good luck with your wet scape, I'll be following along! Hulk does look Incredible, Ha!

I use Hikari Sinking Wafers, (bearing in mind I don't have Assassins but Mystery, Bladder and Nerites of many types) they're small my snails and Hillstream seem to appreciate them. It does have some green stuff in it but first ingredient is fish meal, there's also silkworm pupae, yeast, fish oil, krill meal. Somtimes with snails IME it takes trial and error foods until you find what your snails gravitate towards.

I think a month is a comfortable amount of time as @Nuggets Beard said.