xXInkedPhoenixX

@Odd Duck thanks for that, I always pull my wood prior to gluing- figured that would work but glad to find someone I trust has done it with success- The water always seems to cure it faster which is nice.

Dumb but adorable. 🥰

Here's the link to the information on the contest I'm running for Nerm Week 2022! Get started early! ULTIMATE DESIGN CONTEST***Upcoming for Nerm Week 2022 (July 10-16)

Welcome to the forum. It's a safe and knowledgeable place to ask your questions!

It is "possible" but you'll be likely pulling it in time- Amazons are huge and are good for bigger and/or taller tanks. There ARE smaller species Amazon Compacta that won't take over your 10. I have one of them in my 10 gallon grow out tank right now in a pot (as it is a bare bottom tank) - this will give you an idea (It is a standard Aqueon 10 gallon): I have one full sized Amazon in my 20 gallon tall. I trim leaves from the base of the plant all the time. This cuts down on the amount of leaves but not the tallness of them so trimming for size isn't like with say Bacopa, or Hornwort or other standard aquarium plants that you can trim the tallness- cutting a leaf halfway down just doesn't look good. They are beautiful plants- but very big- the leaves on a full grown plant are anywhere from 2" to 3"+ wide. It takes time to mature to this size- the plant in the tank below is over a year old almost 2 and you can see in my 20 tall leaves are curled coming from the top of the tank (it is currently behind some Narrow leaf Java): :

😄 @Guppysnail if only I could build it, but alas I am not a Gates or Jobs or Musk @Torrey looking forward to it! - as to viewing- tbh I thought about that electric glass that would shade up when you really wanted privacy or darkness but one way viewing would be cool- HOWEVER as thick as it would be not sure what you would be seeing from the courtyard or if it would even matter since I personally would rarely have a guest! So anti-social I am 😀

Halo fellow NERM and forum members! In less than a month we will hold the annual Nerm week and I've volunteered to run the ULTIMATE fish room/fantasy design contest. This contest is just for fun there are no prizes BUT your fellow forum members will vote on designs and there will be a design winner. Since I'm running this thing (bwaahahaaaa) I've decided too that four of our emojis will count as votes and they will be different points! Blue Heart Emoji = 2 points Laughing Emoji = 3 points Love Emoji = 4 points Trophy Emoji = 5 points I wanted to put this out there early because the contest starts July 10th- this is when I will start an OFFICIAL thread to post your entry on (so no posting ENTRIES here, just questions, comments or interest in this particular event please so I can see if we will go ahead with it- cause why if there is no interest? 🙂). This entry can be on paper, a list, a drawing, a computer drafted drawing, made out of building blocks, a video- anything goes! It can be a fish room, a wall of a room a room or building related to just fish, or as you will see below my example a WHOLE house based on the aquarium hobby. Each person who wants to participate only gets ONE entry and ONE official entry post. You can add pictures, graphics etc. Be as creative as you wanna be! For an example and to illustrate (literally in my case) a potential entry (I won't be officially participating)- and hopefully to inspire you! Here is how an entry would look: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ THIS is my "dream house" Ulitmate Design Challenge Entry! (not entry): This house is an open courtyard house, meaning it has no front/back or side yards but the house wraps around an outdoor area! The ENTIRE inside wall is a one story public aquarium style tank (gallons? I didn't count the thing is HUGE)- could be salt OR fresh water- and like most public aquariums the flow of the aquarium will simulate a constantly moving body of water. Each room has a wall view from the inside! The inner OUTDOOR courtyard features a Zen Garden "Island" surrounded by seating/viewing area accessed by Japanese style bridges from one of 2 Archway Openings with aquarium view above your head and below your feet! under the bridge and around the Zen Garden is a freshwater/Koi river. Here are some key features of this home: 4 car garage with carriage door opening (fully motorized) Mechanic/Shop Area Fish Equipment/Maintenance room Large Entryway and seating areas throughout GIGANTIC Kitchen and Dining area (Kitchen island, restaurant grade stove/fridge etc, plenty of seating) Huge Entertainment area (big screen, soundsystem, pool table (because- water theme ha!), air hockey (cause I like it) NO GYM!!!! (fantasy right?!) Guest Bedroom- even gets its own view with the luxury bathroom down the private hall so you don't have to be seen in pjs My favorite part- beside the GIANT aquarium in full view? DUAL MASTER SUITES with giant closets, HUGE spa bathroom WITH as spa, giant shower, dual sinks and a big lounge area with glass doors that open onto the spa bathroom.

Ha! Great inspiration you all! I have had this lovely piece of Spiderwood just waiting for me to figure out what to use for "leaves". Personally I think I'm gonna go for Java Windelov, but love all the little "trees" here!

Glad you decided to hope in and join us, love all the tanks!

I like it- @Hobbit I'm sure fish keepers have over-engineered something from time to time!

Thank you for sharing @FishPlanet, continuing to show animals don't have to have fur or feathers to leave deep impressions on us. I'm sorry for your loss. 😞 Sounds to me Madison had a very caring fishkeeper looking after her- she had a life she would never have had elsewhere.

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Parent Tank WELL folks! Heeeerrrrreeeee we go again! This morning I have seen SEVERAL baby Otos some more new than others- as per usual hanging out around the top half of the tank. I've seen maybe 8-10 caught 6. If past experience is anything to go by I will be catching more in the coming days.... Here are the 1st two, one is clearly younger than the other: Here are two similar to the older one above- the phone wouldn't focus, but I think I caught at least 1 of those: I have been floating a breeder in the Accidental Oto Tank to get some good algae/biofilm growing in case of this exact instance. That is now in the Parent tank with the 6 Oto babies and I've floated another bigger breeder in the Accidental tank for future use. The breeder in the Parent tank has all sorts of gunky goodness: So gunky and good one of the resident Nerites has already found it (been in there for no more than 30 mins) :

What are we going to make the dates of the festivities? Bastille day is July 14 (a thurs) are we doing days before or just from to? I would like to put out the design contest I'll run in the next day or so since it might take someone time to decide and design something. Deadlines are always somethin nice to be able to post.

Firstly, I like the Supernatural reference 😇 😈 Secondly I think they both look absolutely fine. Gabriel's belly looks just like my far passed favorite Betta when he was healthy and eating well- but Bettas can be overfed so watch that. I'd also bump Crowley up a degree. 80-82 ideal for optimal Betta health. You are understandably overconcerned for your Bettas- they are sadly sickly fish so keeping an eye on them for any changes is a very good thing for a Betta fish keeper to have. You've pointed out no behavioral signs of illness- and their coloring as you mentioned can change. Have any Indian Almond leaf on hand? I'd add a leaf or make a leaf "tea" and add that to your Betta tanks- it's naturally anti-bacterial and very good for them.

Very interesting friend! I've not seen my boys doing this as of yet (doesn't mean they don't just haven't witnessed anything but the typical displays with no actual body contact). My tank is so much smaller than yours too. I do worry a little bit about it but thus far have not seen any injuries or had any losses (that I'm aware of as I only see a few of my CPDs at a time).

Then my friend you won't go wrong- you can always expand out later- as you said this is new for you but there is nothing like starting with something easy for you to gain more confidence and knowledge about how aquatic plants react to their environment. They are super, super low maintenance and for the most part you may not even need fertilizers- I might consider Easy Green if your plants don't get enough from a low bioload of fish. 80 degrees won't be too warm for all of those plants. It's a fun world and you'll enjoy taking care of the plants just as much as your fish friends.

Hi @The Shark Tank, welcome to the forum! Does the poop look like a string of sausages to you? If so I think it's fine- the red and brown there- that sounds like the colors of the food you're feeding them (red = bloodworms brown = most everything else out there). You could always treat with Paracleanse as a precautionary treament as the Aquarium Coop does with their med trio- but it appears IMO not to be an issue. I do not keep Angelfish but I have lots of fish and poop sometimes looks like this. I'd keep an eye out for other physical or behavioral signs of illness just to be safe- but that looks like a beautiful and healthy fish to me. Sometimes it's just a case of poop stickin' to our rears. Happens to the best of us.

Very cool @saphbettas! Welcome to the world of plants. I'm sure you've probably posted it elsewhere but can you tell us a little about your set up? Gallons, temperature, filtration, what kind of maintenance would you prefer to avoid? Most of the plants you have listed with the exception of monte carlo- are easy grow plants (also slow growers which to me is a benefit but a consideration for all). If you're keeping your betta in the ideal temps of 80-82 those plants will do fine. What I can tell you- with my easy grows- I've opted to buy the tube plants you can buy at the big box stores- why? Well because they are pest-free. I don't have to worry about sanitizing (though you can for other things)- just pull them out and plop them in. This is because they are grown out of water (emersed)- you can also sometimes use clippings from things like Bacopa (which I recommend as easy grow) or Moneywort which can also be planted in substrate (I float it in the tank till it grows roots- just easier. I don't use ferts or heaters (because my fish don't require heaters but I would use one if I had a Betta)- pretty much everything I have is on the easy grow list you can take a peek at my link below (solid facts) and scroll to the bottom to see what I can grow in my set up. My planted tanks are virtually maintenance free. Monte Carlo I've tried with no real success- so I pulled it.

@Deadbrain firstly, welcome to the forum. Maybe this is the first step in rekindling your relationship with the hobby- I know for me it sparks my interest and I enjoy interacting with other enthusiatic fish keepers. Tell us a little bit about what you keep, how many tanks, what kind of tanks and we can help you troubleshoot or spark the aquatic fires again! I know @Atitagain has posted about some burn out/overload- and lots of the experienced aquarists here can relate. There are several of us here that even don't have tanks but enjoy interacting and sharing past experience.

Thanks @Torrey,this is a very good post. I lovingly refer to animals like shrimp (especially allll of their crustacean counterparts that come from the sea which I will NOT eat) as "Sea Bugs" because logically they are- animals with outer skeletons that eat....well we'll just call it the leftovers for the most part. So I'm not surprised by the lack of research in their care and treatment as most of the time humans are trying to kill "bugs" and not save them. I used to be extremely frustrated with the pocket pet "industry" for lack of skill and knowledge of our smaller pets, hamsters, chinchillas and ESPECIALLY rats. I mean c'mon- rats are responsible for a huge chunk of human medical science breakthroughs. So I literally had to go through a university lab- they had more information on how to diagnose and treat my rats than my own (very capable) Veterinarian. All that to say, it's nice to have a place like this to share information and be able to id and treat whenever possible.

The concern with most snails is the Betta picking at them- so you are right on one end. On the other- Nerite snails don't have as much "foot" and body exposed for the Betta to be able to pick at it. Their antenae are so small that Bettas would rarely bother. Horned Nerites are even more well equipped to handle a Betta tankmate- the issue though is that Bettas should be in ideal temps of 80-82 for optimal health and Nerites do far better in temps 72-78. Personally, I would just add Bladder snails- they are pretty awesome tank cleaners- it's ok if the Betta eats a few small ones (free live food) and they can better live in the higher tank temps.

1/2 TBSP per gallon my friend (I only say this because you mention juvenile- as a rule with adult fish 1 TBSP per gallon- dropsy is severe so you can either start at 1/2 and work your way up or start with 1 TBSP)

Congrats Hannah- I totally understand- so hard to walk by them in the big box stores- I have to literally tell myself "don't look, don't look, don't look" as I walk by. Their merchandisers are clever- you can't miss them. I hope this one is a lucky one to last!

@Chris2022 1 should be fine- even 2- they are small and not big on bioload. Shrimp tanks usually run cooler too (Hills like lower temps) so that's mutually beneficial. Seriously one of my most favorite water pets. I couldn't recommend them more.

I agree @Chris2022, I love my Otos but they are more dificult fish and I wouldn't recommend any less than 6. While they are low on the bio load that can still be an issue in a shrimp tank as they could potentially compete for similar foods.