xXInkedPhoenixX

Good @Guppysnail, cause I don't have a planaria problem 😆 @PineSong mentioned they did though!🤣

I love my Harlequins, they are beautiful when healthy (so many shades of silver/red/orange and black) and they did eat my tiny baby Otos....so maybe they'll eat baby shrimp. They don't pick off substrate though like my Black Neons and Guppies will- they pick off the glass and higher up places.

Was this really for me? 😄🙃

Punk is becoming more....extroverted? A lot less shy and mopey than he was when I got him. He more often comes to the front of the tank when I'm around and was very excited for Xtreme Krill flake today (though probably because they didn't get fed yesterday since I was on a 12 hr shift). I love how he blends with the colors/mood of the Angry Man tank/plants and other fish. (you can also see the bladder snails are nearly done cleaning the dirty Red Needle Leaf I put in there last week) I also got a surprise gift from a friend today....they know me so well....

Thank you @Colu you are always very helpful- don't know what this forum would do without you.

I have always seemed to find that it is discouraged to keep epsom in a tank- it sounds like your experience is going well so I can't tell you to stop doing it- as I never knew the reason putting it in tanks was discouraged. This is really a hail mary when it comes to saving a fish from dropsy. If what you are doing seems to work and makes him comfortable I cannot argue it- maybe you've come across something that works that hasn't before. Does that make sense? You are the only one in this situation seeing what you are seeing: The baths can be stressful for an already sick fish because of netting/handing and removing the fish, putting them in the salt water then back. I get it. I usually do it 1 or 2x a day depending on illness/severity and if after 2 or 3 days there is zero improvement I stop doing it. If your instinct is to stop doing it now- then go with your gut. I don't usually recommend chemical fixes for ph but if you truly think it's an issue I would try Seachems Neutral Regulator- I've used their Alkaline Buffer on occassion and it works really well. Sometimes the risk is unstable ph. The typical long term fix is adding wood and tannins to a tank. Indian Almond Leaf would really be beneficial for your Betta and/or all your fish. I've started getting regular shipments of these leaves, boiling 2 in a large stock pot and making that tea part of my regular water change regimine. But if you can get a hold of some, I would go whole hog and put a leaf or two in this little one's tank.

@Bbeausoleil what a sad, but intelligent post. Sometimes no matter how much we want to keep something that makes us happy- we have to make the decision that what's best is to let it go. But this is a wonderful forum, and it's fun to hang out and talk tanks and fish- and I'm sure you have great stories and knowledge to share. Sometimes living vicariously is a very great thing. 🙂 Welcome to the forum.

@Jennifer V I think it's because subwassertang is very hard to find in most normal channels- especially for newer hobbyists (ya gotta get creative) I've ordered it online but since per forum guidlines we can't really mention these things (as it directly competes with ACO plant sales) it's hard to bring it up.

Here is the recipe for medicated food recommended often on this site by @Colu may even add something to what I've recommended:

Perfect!! Just keep an eye on the tank and their behavior, you seem to be over the hump!

Hi, First I'd like to say, I'm very sorry you are going through this. Betta fish are VERY hard fish to keep. We have very skilled fishkeepers here and even they struggle. I have treated Dropsy in a Betta- the thing about Dropsy is once you see a symptom like pineconing it's already a sign of internal and likely irreversible damage. That's not to say that you may not have a rare case that could recover- but I'm only telling you this to hold on- this is going to be a VERY bumpy ride. When I treated my fish, I actually got the pineconing to go away- and had some "recovery" but he didn't last very long afterwards. I did 15 minute Epsom Salt baths to help the swelling. Do not put it in the aquarium. You can keep (AQUARIUM) salting the tank- though you've seen no changes this helps gill function, keeps other external bacterial infections away and can help swelling- it's not going to cure dropsy. Kanaplex is a great med- but it's the most effective when in medicated FOOD so I hope your betta is still eating. You can treat the water column but they say, especially with Dropsy, this is the nearest chance you have to a recovery. His tank water should be very clean, 0 ammonia/nitrite and lower nitrate.

I might wait another day and test one more time just to be sure we are stable, then yes absolutely add them but I'd still keep an eye on the water parameters. Any time you add something to the tank (even though they were already in there prior) can cause things to wobble a bit. Congrats on getting it under control!!

They both look like good options- the 9w has replacement bulb and does 210gph- has lots of reviews so seems like it's reliable. The other one, it has higher wattage (and bulb replacement included too)- is that an advantage in this sort of application? I think it is. also has variable GPH so if you have other/smaller tanks that could be an advantage. Less reviews tho- however I think I might lean towards the aquashine. What are you thinking?

I see all 3 of them and knew it was an Oto tail when I spotted it. All 3 of them are stupid cute. There's no id crisis here, animals just do it right and everybody gets along most of the time.

I think it would, since its bacterial in nature- some sites seem to agree. Not much saying they are for a tank as big as yours even on amazon this one has your size with "ok" reviews: https://www.amazon.com/FREESEA-Aquarium-Power-Filter-Pump/dp/B087CHRG58/ref=sr_1_33_sspa?crid=3DU609VP35ZW8&keywords=aquarium+uv+sterilizer&qid=1654454673&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=aquariu%2Cpets%2C221&sr=1-33-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFKR0tPUk0zUkQxM08mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwMzg5MDQzMDJTU0E5WTNPR0E3JmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTEwMDg2NjEyVFNSOFo0RkVSRlNJJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYnRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== This aquatop has a 7w bulb which is higher watt than most I see which is 5w doesn't mention size but gph is good: https://www.amazon.com/AquaTop-UV-Sterilizing-Pump-SP7UV/dp/B005G5DR6S/ref=sr_1_18?crid=3DU609VP35ZW8&keywords=aquarium+uv+sterilizer&qid=1654454673&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=aquariu%2Cpets%2C221&sr=1-18

They appear to be scuds

Yea water has superpowers- it will eventually wear away the best of water repellents- especially when left to it's own devices.

I would also suggest warping could happen with the weight of course but also the moisture. I would put some shelf liner down on the wood to protect it from that. Inexpensive investment!

Awww @Aquatictimes I'm so very sorry for your loss- she was GORGEOUS. I understand totally how you feel so I'm not going to tell you to not feel that way- we feel very responsible for these little lives no matter how much of an effort we put in to save them when we lose them it feels like we didn't do something right- but you did- you tried your hardest, like @Colu pointed out- there may have been more going on there than you knew.

Ughh...you really sure you can't fish them out into a QT? If they're not eating I'd still treat the water column with Kanaplex. I know that's not the best way but it has worked for me- this is a hail mary at this point.

ACCIDENTAL UPDATES: The Parent Tank and the Accidental Oto Tank The Parent Tank has no real updates as far as possible spawnings. The little brats have now totally taken to pretty much only being out at night- what is cool is that if I approach the tank at night I can see what looks like "hundreds" of Otos scattering- clearly they were all hanging out in the same spot. Very neat. During tank maintenance this week I've been having an issue with mulm and detrius collecting in an unsightly way mainly on the Ludwigia Red Needle Leaf (which never gets red in my tanks but I'm ok with that- it has an amazing "texture"). It looks terrible. So I pulled it. The Otos prefer Amazons and broader leaf plants anyway so I moved an Amazon Compacta that was sharing a pot on the very far right with another Compacta and put it on its own- it was struggling a bit where it was I think it will do better now anyway. The pot on the right of that trio pyramid has been standing empty for some time as well- I pulled Ludwigia Super Red for the same reason (detrius build up) and plan to find the right piece of long driftwood to stick in the pot and glue some java to it. Haven't found that piece yet. Anyway, here's how the Parent tank looks now: There is some Red Needle in my Angry Man tank- because of the Bladder snails it is beautifully clean as you can kind of see by a piece photobombing in the top right (well it also helps that I have no detrius from bottom feeders in that tank too) so I put the new Needles in the tank unclean to see how long it will take the Bladders to clean it up: Did a water test this week on all my tanks, this is how the Parent Tank fared: Temp: 75.2 (same as last test) ph: 7.2 (down from 7.6) ammonia: 0 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 40 as per usual kh: 3/53.7 (down a degree) gh: 143.2 (no change) Meanwhile in the Accidental Oto tank....as you may know- it still stands empty. The 2 fry that were in the tank have not been seen so presuming deceased. 3 nanny Nerites keeping the tank occupied for me- there are a few places to hide so I don't see them all every day- the other day I did: I keep the tank a little dirty just for them but funnily enough still spot cleaning detrius from when the Otos lived here- because other than sticking a slice of cucumber in which they seem to like occasionally- Nerites don't touch commercial foods so I don't put it in here. Here's how the Accidental Tank tested: Temp: 78.3 (up .6 degrees) ph: 7.2 (down from 7.6) ammonia: 0 nitrite: 0 nitrate: *sigh* still 40 kh: 3/53.7 (up a degree since last test) gh: 107.4 (no change)

@sankaz nope just an X cause it looked cool when I first started using that screen name nearly everywhere. 🙂

It was my intention when I started my 20 gallon tank to only have 1 tank. I intentionally picked 2 species (Harlequins and Otos) that were deemed peaceful and "very hard to breed". I didn't want to breed, I just wanted a pretty tank to maintain and watch the fish. Nature had other plans and Otos for whatever reason multiplied. They were a lot of work to raise- and I personally find it very hard to just let nature take its course in my house (outside I can let things be). So I caught all the ones I could and raised them best I could with no prior or even a lot of current knowledge I could find specifically on raising them. Now I have 5 tanks- but I see the line- and it's here and I'm sitting comfortably behind it. Only 2 tanks now dedicated to Otos (1 sits empty "just in case" we get more) so I can't blame them for the expansion 😉- What's funny is I've noticed I don't have a lot of time to just sit and watch my tanks which had been my intention when I started the hobby again- I spend the vast majority of my time with them hands in the water- what I didn't expect to find- that this is my favorite part. I love the maintentance. I love checking in with them every day. I can compact the time and only take about 20 minutes- or I can spend hours tinkering. During that time I don't spend 1 second thinking about negative things (unless it's tank related- but not nearly as heavy as the negativity outside my front door)- it's a meditation, a ritual- a cleansing and positive experience every day. Something to be proud of- something that can always be counted as a positive. A quote comes to mind whenever I think of my pets, "When I count my blessings, I count you twice."

Did I just see a Disc yawn!? lol! I mean sitting there just staring at a cone waiting for babies- I'd yawn a little too.

All great things. 40 or less Nitrate is great! Good to get down to 20 during water changes for some wiggle room. Just to make you feel a bit better. 4 of my tanks consistently test 40ppm nitrAtes b4 and after water changes - everyone does fine.