xXInkedPhoenixX

Maintenance day. Today I removed a whole lot of Salvinia Minima from the Angry Man. In the only couple of weeks it's been there it took over the top. Someone on my local forum put up a plea for floating plants and I offered up - so they got what I scooped off the top of the tank and they wanted a little Dwarf Water Lettuce - I gave them some of that as well. Made 10 bucks. Not getting rich but I'd rather that than toss it! Top looks good though, the snails and fish seem to appreciate it: I have one really fat Black Neon. Babies in my future? Maybe! (kind of center of the above pic). I can't mention the Angry Man Tank without a gratuitous picture(s) of Punk: After I went and did that transaction I went over to the LFS. I was going to get a new fish for the Medival Tank. Have not had good luck here folks. Lost ALL of my Grass Guppies. I suspect either an infection nobody else got (doubtful) or maybe even soft water - which for my area is UNUSUAL however I tested the tank and it tested soft soooooo. Anyway, all I had left was the lone white Platinum Guppy, the 5 Ember Tetras I pulled from the flex and Valere the Betta. My aim at the LFS was a new type of fish and maybe I'd move the Lone Guppy to the Flex - but as luck (or un-luck) would have it- they had Platinum Guppies!! I got 6. CAN YOU BELIEVE ONE ***ALREADY*** DIED?! Ugh. This was 30 minutes into QT. I'll spare you the picture. So Med Trio went into the tank (well, I was out of Maracyn so I used Kanaplex - not quite the true med trio but it serves a similar purpose). If they all die like my original batch I'm done with Guppies, I'm telling you. I was half tempted to buy Kubotai Rasboras (cause they had those too). That may still happen at this rate. *Palm to Face!* Anyway, the 5 are alive: Since we're talking the future of the Medieval Tank. I have a small bacterial bloom or particle storm in the tank right now. Prior to it happening - I had to pull nearly all of the Salvinia Minima as it was weirdly dying off (thinking the light is actually too bright). I've also had to reattach Java moss with thread to the tree as the Nerites have run roughshod over it. It's ok though still looks decent (no pics right now due to cloudy water). I also have a green hair algae outbreak but that's been ongoing since the beginning. I'm going to be doing some reverse respiration on some of the plants. I manually pulled as much as I could today. I also bought new clip on lights today online. It's too difficult to work with the light that sits on the tank anyway and like I said I think it might be the culprit with some algae and plant issues. Even if not it will be nice to have the light out of the way in order to work with the tank. Lone White Guppy seems to be ok though: The 5 Embers just hang in the dark corner by the Arch most of the time, look a formation of a 5 point star!: Valere still the king of the Medieval Tank. - and yes the sword is still in the works.... Koianu has a baby Otocinclus friend somewhere in his side of the tank. I saw it earlier in the week. Hopefully it's escaping any wrath he might have. He's a good boy but the way he's flared at the other side of the tank makes me think he might not like roommates. The Flex aka Fish Mountain still doing good. Intrepid Partner has said before that this is the least favorite tank of theirs - and I get it - it's not a peaceful tank. It's action packed so you can't really SEE the tiny furious fish who are CONSTANTLY on the move. So much so you can never get a great pic. Except for Serket the GloBetta or Kirby the Hillstream when they show up. Nearly every picture I take is a blur o fish! Then of course we have Dragon House and Invictus the Crowntail. He's doing SO good. Today I spent a good 45 minutes plucking every single Salvinia Minima I could find so that I only had Dwarf Water Lettuce and a few Red Root Floaters left in the tank. Thankfully his tank is small so it wasn't that hard. I decided the Minima grew too fast for this tank, and I'd like more light for the AR plant in the front right corner (red plant, more light!!). Invictus seems so much happier! He was strutting his stuff all around the tank this afternoon.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea yes it also helps in my small 3 gallon QT tanks if I'm going to be gone for a few days and unable to do water changes. People use it when shipping fish sometimes (found it while watching a Rachel O'Leary YouTube, quite a while back, she would pop a small square of the stuff in a shipping bag).

@TJfm1990 @TheSwissAquarist was just tagging Colu who is our resident medication helper :-)

Here is the pack I buy, comes in a 3pk, you don't use the whole thing, i just cut a small square or strip and hang it in the tank with a veggie clip. you can float it or whatever you like. Check this out! https://a.co/d/iRF7JRZ

Ugggh @Clo, so sorry. Here's a reality. These Betta with super loooonnnnggg fins are an issue. He may always have them. You've done a lot of what any of us would do. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea has also had similar issues with her Gepetto so maybe you can read up on that journal as well. I have one very long finned Betta. So far, knock on wood, he's been fine even when I first got him as a neglected Betta from the big box and nursed him back to health his fins were gladly the least of his issues. But I can see where in his lifetime they are something I will need to watch very closely. Keep doing what you're doing. Treat when you find it necessary. Keep his water super clean. You say you use botanicals do you plop a Catappa leaf in or? I don't like to keep decaying things in my tank much (though the shrimp would like it). I make Catappa leaf tea instead. Boiling water with the leaf and using that with water changes when the temp comes back to room. Just one thought in case you weren't already doing it. In some of my problem tanks I've used Polyfilter, an absorbent that changes color, tells you what is going on in the tank and what it's soaking in. Now sadly it will also soak in "organics" and you can't use it while medicating (great for taking meds out of water) but it will absorb ammonia and other harmful things. I just keep it handy when needed.

Hi @Beanbo7, welcome to the forum. Hobbies like ours do have impact on those who live with us so including them in the conversation ESPECIALLY when it's an S.O., spouse, lover and etc is very important. It sounds like your S.O. isn't ENTIRELY against it since weirdly they don't mind talk about baby fish (personally if I was hesitant about tanks the ones with fish that reproduce I'd be dead set against, but that's just me and tells me that your S.O. isn't entirely resistant). I would ask what specifically S.O. is hesitant about with adding just one more tank. Listen to their potential issue(s) and come up with a solution. Ask if you can make a space for potential tank and see if they are amenable for that area to have it. Both of you look online at what you would like the tank to look like- try to include them to whatever level they would like to be included. It's a hobby that you want to enjoy. If it becomes a point of contention between you and S.O. this is the opposite effect you would like to have, but also make sure S.O. understands that your hobby is something you really enjoy and makes you happy. An S.O. should never be against that but they also have to be happy so finding that balance can be tricky. If you're both reasonable about it in the end, you will BOTH enjoy the tank.

Morning feeding today and I just always seem to notice that Sergeant and Little Red are almost ALWAYS together in the Accidental Tank. Here's Little Red as usual following his friend around: In Dragon House with Invictus the floating plants are really taking off. I'm taking rather large scoops of Salvinia Minima out every week, so much that I've filled the top of the Angry Man tank with it as well. I decided to do this to try and reduce a bit of hair algae in there. I'm most happy about the Dwarf Water Lettuce a floater I've wanted for a while but couldn't get locally so I bought some online. Didn't think it would do well since the Red Root Floaters have pretty much all died - but they're doing well and I really like the effect they're having on the Dragon Tank. Invictus however may not like them quite as much as I do because the floaters are covering the top of the tank he has less space to come up for air. So I put a tall feeder ring in. I find him hanging out there often and of course this is where I end up feeding him: Meanwhile the Flex/Fish Mountain is much better since its remodel. With Serket, BFG the Nerite, Kirby the Hillstream and 5 male Endlers (Drogon, Torchlight, Phoenix, Flare and NEL) it's a very active tank, moreso now there are less visual breaks since I removed all the stem plants. I'm checking on them daily to make sure there's no detrimental harassment is going on. I've seen Serket very briefly chase or follow another fish but never anything outright aggressive, it's more Endler on Endler violence I look for as they are very obnoxious to each other. Anyway, much happier with this tank now. Then there's little Punk in the Angry Man tank. Just pluggin along and doing things...

My Mum's ADF has Neons in it. I actually encouraged her NOT to put fish in the tank BECAUSE medicating would become VERY tricky (yes no salt and fish meds may not mix well with them depending) if either needed treatment. A tank full of ADF is a fun thing to see/have. The fish otherwise are no danger to the ADF physically.

@jwcarlson oh no worries there, clearly I'm in the minority about his writing style since he's always a best seller. However I'm with you I'm character driven but found authors that for ME do a better job and allow me imaginative freedom (because I have a very, very active imagination). King doesn't give the same freedom but his characters are super specific and don't really allow for that- which makes him a great writer for most people. BUT THEN they make a Tower movie and the clearly painted picture of the characters is totally changed?? With King's approval? I say what's the point then! Anyway. To each their own of course :-) That's why there's so much great reading out there!

I think I absolutely agree with @Zenzo. I think theres another way to fix it too if indeed you have all sand there. I would make "holes" in your substrate, moving the sand aside where you want the plants to be, replace it with plant substrate or some sort of substrate that will allow the roots nutrients. You can cap plant substrate with sand if you want but I tend to like the look of breaks in the substrate with other kinds. It will more easily take root tabs if you go that direction but if you go with fluval stratum and cap the nutrients will be there for longer and plants could recover. The other thing you can do in the meantime to make sure this theory is true is pull the plants and just float them a while. If the substrate really is killing them they'll come back and you can decide what to do from there.

100% but I felt like the ending to the Tower was actually perfect. A modern day Sisyphus. It may be unpopular for me to say but I dislike King's work though I've tried several times to like it. I feel for me he is far too wordy and his work would be much better if he cut his stories down by half- I find myself skipping page after page of pointless details. He takes the reader's ability to imagine things for themselves away by over describing- adding 100s of pages needlessly to what would otherwise be a good story. I do agree with this, story went totally off the rails when he even added himself to the story. I no longer read his works.

I was going to say.....whaaaaaaat??????? SK is far more "satanic" than any of the other writers you mentioned IF we're going to measure that possibility. I read the Dark Tower series and was sorely disappointed by it by the end. Not to say I'm one of those who didn't like the ending, I actually did like it but felt that the first 3 books were great however it seemed via the writiing SK was tired of the series and just dragging it on after that. His best fantasy BY FAR is Through the Eyes of the Dragon, which I've found most people have not read. I have yet to get through LOTR, too many flashbacks of being an English major.

Wild types may be among the best options if you can find them and are probably genetically less prone to issues most splendens have. You are correct IMO shorter fins seem to equal less of a problem with fins but also correct in that they do swim faster. Some suggest going with a female you will have less chance for aggression I find that not to be totally true. After having rescued 4 splendens of different types, 1 female and 1 male are ok with tankmates (the male only because his fins are soooo long he can't catch the faster fish, the female with short fins is just a sweetheart). 1 female got kicked out of her community tank and put in her own for harrassing EVERYONE and suspected of killing the Nerites, 1 male I just have the feeling he probably wouldn't be great in a community tank but I haven't tried it. Nerites too are typically fine and the easiest snail to keep with aggressive or curious tankmates - but there are always exceptions. I'd also encourage you to keep the temp of the tank around 79, top end for the cory but important for the Betta. With Betta, it's really in the end PERSONALITY and they are all different. Even when mellow in the store they can be more aggressive in a tank. I'd just be prepared to put them in their own tank or if that's not possible ask whomever you buy it from if you can exchange if Betta 1 doesn't work. The tankmates you've picked are good ones, Embers are fast and Cory can easily get out of the way Always introduce the Betta last, as @knee said they may chase at first but that can diminish. By adding them last you take less of a chance they'll be territorial.

@Harpy I've made the same "mistake" with ghost shrimp myself. My tank when I tried them was also pretty new. When I say well established you might need the tank up and running 6 months or more to be really successful (IMO). 2months is a baby tank. But you know what, Nerites are super forgiving of a lot of things and are great little pets, bonus, they keep the tank pretty darn clean! So while you're waiting you have a lovely little snail companion. I'm very glad you've gotten Bob to eat!! That's great!

Welcome to the forum and the hobby!! That's a small but lovely tank you have. Honestly not big enough for much but a nice way to start and figure out how this all works. My nephew keeps a snail only tank. Bob is great to be on his own or maybe one other but then you'd definitely have to supplement food which is hard for nerites as they take a while to accept commercial foods or veggies but I'd start trying now and see what Bob likes to eat! You could try shrimp again but they do require a very well established tank. How long has your tank been running?

It may be time before you know. Enjoy the little one! I really like seeing them grow up, any changes in appearance post a pic! (Crushing flake food small works well)

For the past couple of months the Flex9 aka Fish Mountain has been frustrating me. I'd given it more attention lately because I've been trying to catch out all the Ember Tetras to add to the Medieval tank - caught four but one of the five was eluding me. Because I was spending so much time looking at the tank trying to catch the last fish and hating the way the Flex was looking- knowing the mild bacterial bloom I couldn't get rid of was more than likely because the pump in the back of my only all in one tank needed changing - not to mention some of the mulm build up I couldn't get to that was stirred up beause I was in there constantly. It was time. So this is what Fish Mountain kind of looked like before (picture the plants on the right grown all the way to the top and the Anubias to the left that has grown exponentially). I hadn't taken a before picture or a recent pic because it was ugly to me. So I caught everyone out and tore it down! I thought I'd have the hardest time with Kirby the Hillstream but they ended up being the easiest and scariest - I pulled "fish mountain" the sculpture in the middle and not knowing Kirby came out with it. Thankfully I KNOW Kirby is VERY camoflauged on this sculpture so I looked and there they were! Using my finger I plopped them in the QT tank with the others. Whew! I emptied the tank of all the water AND substrate. Cleaned out the back sponges and etc, changed out the pump to a new one I had on standby, changed the ACO nano sponge to a Hygger Nano (I prefer that it is attached to the wall of the tank and off the floor) so that when power goes out there's still a battery backed sponge filter going. I put in planting substrate and black sand capped it. I thought I'd put some stem plants in but in the end I only put one. Everything else was glued Java Fern and Anubias (including the large Anubias formerly from the left, now right). Pics of this tank are impossible since it's curved but here we are: Front (you can see Kirby attached to front bottom right glass): Left side, and actually the side of the tank I see most from a chair nearby: All of the fish, including little Serket seem to be much happier with this set up now- because there is less substrate and the plants are now under control they have much more room to move about the cabin so to speak. I also moved my terrarium back onto my fish desk with the Hiro platform light.

@Matt B and I originally found it on Etsy

Well and look at it this way, clutches when caught early are just fertilized eggs, so similar to chicken eggs get them out of the hatching environment and you're not killing anything. Would be worse if you're not ready and baby snails die IMO. I also prefer this act to culling.

Well thing is you don't have to let the eggs hatch if you're not ready. I pulled many clutches when I had my snails because I didn't have the room for the bioload. They hatch hundreds. So you might want to pull clutches until you're ready.

Yeah sounds like your boy was just ready to go!

Yes that's mating. They can be like that for minutes up to several hours. I've had my females move around the tank with male attached too.

@Ohad yeah baby Otos don't really free swim, I'd say they zip (to me teleport) from one place to another or just scoot along glass. So yes, likely you just have a hitchhiker.

Hmmm. Not the right shape...but was it free swimming or stuck to the side of the tank? This is a baby Oto (a few days old though, they are typically translucent for the first few days of life):

@KittenFishMom I think it might take over a 23 gallon outdoor pond BUT I would still try it- The plant gets 1-2ft wide and likes full sun. Sites also say it has to overwinter inside in a "well-lit aquarium"