xXInkedPhoenixX

Anybody try this on a Marimo Ball? I'm guessing since it's actually not moss this might have an adverse effect? (sorry if I missed someone's post if they have)

Personally I've found it to be more gender than type- Females have been IME less aggressive than the males. This isn't always true- but the vast majority of the time I've had luck with that.

Good luck @2022jlv! Hope you have success!

Tank maintenance. Took some time to check in with the residents. Never as much as I would like though! In the Parent Tank with all my Otos are a smattering of Nerites- this one I don't see all the time, this is Knock- they are at work on a piece of spiderwood today, you can see some decent darker shell growth since they've been in here... Then I moved over to the Accidental Oto tank (the grow out) with resident Betta Koianu. Does it look to you like he can see his reflection? It does to me. I mean if I were that pretty I'd look at myself all the time too. 🙂 In Ember House (Fluval Flex9) resident Nerite BFG (the only Nerite I have big enough she can't escape) was scraping the glass for me (and decorating as per usual): The Ember Tetras were shy today but I got snapshots of the never shy male Endlers, this is Torchlight and Phoenix: And this is Drogon and NEL (Never Ending Light- the all silver): Last but not least is the Angry Man tank, Punk the Bolivian Ram is the reigning King of the tank. He rules the bottom half of it anyway- runs off the Black Neons or Harlequins (but mostly the Neons they're more apt to wander off on their own and not stick with the others) when they get out of line. He pretty much likes to lurk in dark corners as you see here, but don't let that fool you he loves to come up to the front of the tank and pace during morning feedings! These are those Harlequin Rasboras and Black Neons. The Harlequins I got at the same time as my first Otos (of which there is only 1- as 6 of my original 7 died. So they are my oldest fish- I love them so much- they are so pretty and they nearly always face the same direction together unless they're changing direction. I wish I had a longer tank so they could do that more- hopefully someday! The Black Neons are doing well with the Harlequins who were the original residents of this tank until the Harlies had to move from the Parent Tank for all the Otos to move in and so they wouldn't eat Oto babies. All of them get along and do very well together. Usually people like to get fish that stand out from their decor (like a red fish on a green background) but I actually really enjoy that Punk and all of his friends nearly blend in with the colors of this tank- it's so peaceful...

Clean water and the IAL and Salt will do them wonders. If your "friend" just handed you to them in a bowl it probably wasn't "cycled" likely they were kept in other tanks. I would (like me on my other thread) do either daily or every other day water changes since their bowls are small, feed them high quality food (just a little, their stomachs are the size of their eyeball) and when you redose salt you only dose as much as would have been lost in the water (because concentration does not go down) So lets say they're in a gallon bowl and you put in a half tablespoon of salt, if you do a 50% water change you only put a QUARTER tablespoon back in. (just an example). You are very nice to do this for them- with time, clean water and the other things you've mentioned they could recover very well.

Hi @Lily, Welcome to the forum, sorry you've come her in an emergency type situation. I currently feel your pain, but in a different way. I'm taking care of 4 sick Betta I took from the pet store. As @TheSwissAquaristsaid you can take a look here for some ideas: A COLOSSAL IDIOT walks into a pet store....(an illustrated tail - intentional misspelling- of woe) Also members like @Matilyn who recently joined is willing to help out other Betta owners

Looks lovely @Matilyn, I love me a Java fern (all of them)

I hadn't planned on updating this again so soon but just wanted to share, in addition to a few pieces of daphnia everyone got a chance to eat a pellet or two and everyone took to it well. I use a particular small floating pellet that most of my picky bettas in the past wouldn't refuse: Anyway what I wanted to share is that Crowntail may have had a small swim forward! He was off the sides this evening during the feeding and moving around "OK"- if he stopped concentrating (I have no other word for it) on the swimming he still floats up to one side as you can see in the right side pic, but he was upright as in the pic (sorry about the reflection, they are right under my chandelier in the kitchen) on the left for most of the time! I was very pleased to see this! As I type this I'm waiting on a block of bloodworms to thaw, I'm going to mix some focus and metroplex as @Odd Duck suggested and I'm going to refreeze it as a block (reusing the plastic form it came out of) and cut pieces off of it daily- feed him the small pieces that thaw. I think this will work best. Never tried it this way before so I thought I would give it a try.

I think they'd rather go after the brine, but when in doubt fast them a couple/few days before you feed them a new food for the first time. When I'm a bit peckish there are things I would eat that I wouldn't normally if it were the only food available...now where did I put those condiment packets..... 😄

@zbb welcome to the forum!

@Odd Duck thanks very much for the treatment plan- I will start this with my next water change I think. He eats fine thankfully so I don't believe it will be a problem soaking some bloodworms in it- and I have Focus. He definitely needs to be target fed since he can't hunt the food right now.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea yes, with a peek window here and there maybe but the holes will make great places to put java and other such plants.

Those are nice @Chick-In-Of-TheSea but I have used and prefer these, they're super clear and easy fit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HYRTZ46/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The ones you suggested say they don't recommend using them for permanent homes but for temporary dividers- might be because some have complained their bettas jumped them- the ones I've used, they can't.

@gardenmanthe best cage I had for my four female rats was the size of a commercial refrigerator. IF your average person who walks into a pet store actually knew what an animal ACTUALLY needs they'd probably never get those pets- so the industry is rather sneaky.

Thanks! I would do this for any fish I brought home sick, just happy the Betta are responding to it. Red is going to take some time. It's only been almost 2 weeks- he'll probably be a couple of months or 3 before we know where he'll baseline to. That's my estimate at this point. I'm patient enough to wait it out- if he wants to stick around I'll just keep working at it. I do get attached, but I did used to work in shelter rescue so sometimes you have to prepare to let go. Part of this for these little ones is I'm not naming them- they will remain their "designations" until they land in permanent positions. I honestly don't want anymore tanks- but I knew that if I took all 4 I would have to leave that as a possibility. I was looking for a decent divided tank as a possibility but I was struck by how crappy the options are out there- so if I was keeping 2 I'd just get a typical rimmed tank and buy the divider- put lots of plants along the divider wall so it's more like 2 tanks and they'd rarely get a glimpse of each other for stress reduction. OR I'll end up buying a couple of Aquatop cubes and put them on the same shelf near each other. I have not yet decided. These are just thoughts that roll around in my head. Despite opinion that dosing in food is better (and I'm sure it probably is) I've found Kanaplex and Metroplex have worked fine for me in the water column. Of course I have the things necessary to dose in food if I need to change tactics.

@TheSwissAquarist imperfect fish don't always get the attention they deserve- but also a lot of people don't yet have the skill to make a sick fish better. As a more experienced fish keeper I'm willing to try. One eyed fish would be something I'd probably take on- I'm a sucker for a handicapped animal. Clearly a perfect use for a Popeye/Pirate themed tank with the one eye thing going on. Where's my ship.... I'm a decent time span away from deciding what happens with the four of them. Some of it is going to depend on what happens with Crowntail as everyone else seems to be on the way out of whatever illness they've been suffereing from. At least one will definitely stay with me in my Flex9- they will have to play nice with the Guppies and Endlers. One is absolutely going to my Mum's tank, she had 2 ADF and one has passed. She's added my nephew's remnants from his tank which is 2 Neons and 2 Guppies. It's a nice tank and whoever goes there would be a happy fish- again they'd have to play nice. My nephew made his tank into a snail tank but he might be tempted to take one of them- it's ok if he doesn't. So basically what happens with 2 of them is on the iffy side- I have local forums I can try and rehome them on as well. "Worst" case scenario is I end up with another tank. Time will tell.

Alllll about the fishes! So last night I got home after shift to the task of water changes and redosing meds on my four patients. We'll start with the girls: Purple Dumbo girl- she's golden- ate her evening daphnia. Still super friendly, rolls up to the front of the tank to see what's going on. She totally reminds me of Falcor the Luck Dragon the way her dumbo fins move and how she swims through the water. She is SUPER fast. She got her 50% water change and a dose of Kanaplex and some aquarium salt. I've pulled the IAL piece from all the tanks to lighten the water up some so I can start to see their coloring better- the water changes will still have the tea- it just won't be as dark. GloBetta girl also doing well. She is so casual about her movements in the tank- very calculated. She eats so much better now- ate her daphnia off the surface fine. I did her 50% water change, dosed the Kanaplex and salt and I threw in some floating plants from my Aquatop- her guppy grass was looking pretty sad and it's a very small piece. White Twintail Halfmoon is improving little by little- I'm not seeing anymore listing to one side. Now I say this but I don't have a lot of time to observe so he could still be doing it occassionally but during the evening and this morning's feeding I did not observe anything bad at all- he's seemingly swimming totally normal. His fins are SO huge every time he stops they kind of just fold over- I feel bad for the little guy- seems like they hold him back some. Anyway, he eats very well- got his 50% water change with his dose of Kanaplex and Metroplex and salt. Red Crowntail still not out of the woods. Poor little guy. He does still eat well (even a bit violently). I've seen him scoot fast across the tank (especially during a water change when it's moving him about)- so he can get around- but he still lists to one side and floats up if he's not got the benefit of sitting in the corner of the tank. I've yet to see him come off the top surface. 😞 He got his 50% water change, doses of Kanaplex and Metroplex. Today during bloodworm breakfast he didn't come to the front corner as he usually does but he still ate fine. I'm hoping lightening the water will give me more insight as to what is going on with Crowntail- and help me to observe the others a little better. As I said though, from this point their water will still have IAL tea in it, just won't be as dark as when I put pieces of the leaf in the water. If I have to re-up the leaf I will but I just want to try and see them all a little better.

Welcome to the forum! Loving the tank!

If it's rimless, I really like this light, it's on my 4.2 gallon Aquatop https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09J2LVG75/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@A3M0N you're right though- I believe those are the ones that were competing with GloFish and that's what I heard and even saw evidence of that in the pet stores when those fish were available- you could see even then the colors were not nearly as bright as the GloFish brand and could see weird patterns and fading. There was a clear difference between the 2. I'm pretty sure they're not trying that anymore because it's probably been over a decade since I've seen them. And yes, they didn't choose their state- so I always side with them.

Yea, Punk is super fun- I love the little guy- I'm glad I have him- has made that tank so much more interesting. I had done a whole lot of research and didn't pull the trigger until I saw a post on a local forum where the guy was selling his. I guess that's sometimes the only motivation you need- someone needs a home. 🙂 I'm not sure your friend is entirely correct, my understanding is they come from the Amazon River Basin (hence Bolivian Ram). I thought maybe your friend meant German Blue Rams but I googled that and it says South America. Maybe they can clarify for us. 🙂 Well that's the tough part of having any Cory or in my case Otos- they are bottom feeders and often eat when they please- this leaves room for the bladders to encroach. I'm glad I have nothing but Nerites in my Oto tank! It's got to be a delicate balance for you!! Well. Mostly because I was very interested in low tech tanks- tanks with no need for heaters, self sustaining really- thoughh I do use sponge and HOB filters with lights. I didn't want to have to worry about my tanks if say I went broke and couldn't afford certain things, or had to go away for some time and the tank is super used to something higher tech or chemicals that needed to be added on the regular- this is also why I didn't do saltwater. This does limit me some when it comes to plants and some species of fish- but honestly I could probably go weeks without touching my tanks, other than feeding even occassionally) and they'd be fine!

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea oh yes, I love those plastic things, I have a few, the GloBetta girl has one in her tank and she was using it. The guppy grass has actually helped the other Bettas when they want to relax. The Crowntail floats so as of right now he doesn't need one (unfortunately). I only have a few so I'm just waiting for a need for now.

I usually avoid discussions like this especially on sites like this- like everything else with fish keeping- everyone has an opinion on how to keep aquariums all the way up to fish ethics (how to keep, breed, wild caught or tank bred, cull and etc). I understand that some on this site don't really like (and this is TOTALLY OK) the GloFish brand (meaning there is a company that oversees them- and as far as I know there are no others)- but the fact of the matter is the brand has been in existence since 2003- that's 19 years. I bring this up because it's not likely to go away- and clearly enough people like it that they haven't stopped- only expanded to other species. I too at first had a negative opinion of the brand- one because neon colored fish aren't really my thing- but also because I'd heard rumblings when they first started about "color injection" which apparently did happen in some instances (with start-ups that were trying to copy GloFish) but I haven't looked much into that. What I can say is when I rescued my first GloBetta, Spark not all that long ago, I had her at the counter at the box store and even the employee turned up her nose- well I wondered- what is the deal REALLY? So I did some research. Fact of the matter is- these fish now have a gene where they are BORN in neon colors. Yes they used bio-luminescence from jelly fish- and it was originally a scientific experiment to try and find a way fish can react to water polution with color (which to me is a useful even noble purpose). It was actually pretty interesting. So this accidental discovery became a copyrighted fish- that the public is not supposed to breed or try to reproduce. You can still like or hate that- that's ok- we are all entitled to our opinions- BUT- ....The fact of the matter is, these are living creatures- however they came to be created by human beings they deserve care, and proper homes- and being an animal lover I will never turn down an animal I can help and if in the future I come across any other GloFish that need my help and I can- I will. Just think of it this way- this is no different than French Bulldogs, or Persian cats, (Bloodparrots and types of goldfish are also a little controversial- but GloFish are only bright colors and have no deformities or other genetic issues I can see beyond that) or other kinds of pets that humans have bred for their own reasons, pleasure and aesthetics. I have found GloBettas to be just as enjoyable as the "regular" (also very overbred) kinds of Bettas you find out in the world. In fact I can say IME they have so far been more interactive, intelligent and fun than some other Betta fish I have kept. Anyway, this thread isn't really about all that- it's only about animals in need.

I'm kinda wondering if they are baby scuds? I've never had any so I don't know what they look like in person.

Welcome to the forum, as has been said you are in good company Dani. Pics! Pics! Pics! 🙃