Sarina

Let my flagfish eat it.

Thank you! I’m curious to see if his color changes much as he grows.

Yeah we try to do right by the fish 😊

Those are always the best finds!

Thankfully my store usually only orders enough to put into actual tanks, but we ended up with 4 in overstock for a little while and Jack was one of them. We rarely lose bettas due to cups, so I wasn’t going to let him be one of the few.

Wow that is one stunning fish! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like him, either.

Flagfish eat hair algae like crazy, and every other kind of algae, too. Females are peaceful, males are aggressive, so make sure you get a female. Look for the black spot on the back of the dorsal fin, males will have a mostly red dorsal with no spot. Hair algae likes to keep coming back, so getting a fish that likes to eat it is incredibly helpful. I have a team of female flagfish that I regularly use to clean up extra stubborn types of algae. They'll even eat staghorn!

PLA is highly biodegradable, which makes it great for experimental printing, not so great for our aquariums. PETG and ABS will both hold up just fine under water, but I recommend using PETG because it’s easier to print with in general and doesn’t have as many delamination issues.

This might be controversial, but my favorite bettas are the wild hybrids and alien types. However I just got a plain old veiltail that I’m absolutely enamored with!

To be fair, he was nearly white and super skinny and sickly in the cup. I put him in one of our plant bays at work and fed him frozen mysis, bloodworms, and baby brine for a week and now he’s gorgeous! I haven’t had a betta that wasn’t a rescue or surrender since I was a child, but I’m now remembering why they’re such incredible fish. I put him in the 11 gallon aio cube because we were having trouble sourcing a pea puffer for it, so now I’ll have to create a new scape for our future pea puffer ohhh noooooo 😂 Anyway, here’s Jack Frost, he’s a stunner even though he’s just a veiltail. Here’s a short video that shows off the beautiful icy blue shimmer over his golden fins. I had just fed him some white worms in the above photo, so he’s got a nice full belly. I’m a firm believer in bettas having full bellies, it’s what gives them the strength to haul around their large finnage. Anyway, I’m really proud of the progress this little dude has made and I look forward to seeing how he grows and changes over time. He has such great personality! Who else has a betta that had a gorgeous transformation? I’d love to see. I wish I had before photos of Jack, but I didn’t think I’d get so attached to him, so I didn’t bother 🤦‍♀️ Silly me.

If it's at temperature, dose some ferts and put a root tab under the bulb, that should help!

What's the temp of your tank? Lily plants in general like it warmer (I find they thrive around 74-78°f) and can go dormant or grow very slowly in cooler temperatures.

It took 2 months for my AR to settle in and start looking decent, so yours may bounce back. They just don't like lots of change or low lighting 🤷🏻‍♀️ lighting appropriate for plants like AR is usually a shorter, brighter cycle, which thankfully works for most other plants, as well. You don't necessarily have to sacrifice the health of your other plants to keep higher care requirement or "higher tech" plants, and you don't really learn a lot by just giving up if you fail the first time.

Try 6 hours to start, then bump it up as long as you aren't getting algae.

Okay so I think your main issue is lighting. In my experience, AR likes higher light and shorter photo period, and will tend to stretch for light if they've got the available nutrients. Using the 24 hour mode isn't really recommended for higher light demand plants, so maybe consider doing a custom setting where you're doing like 6 hours of full brightness and very short ramp up and down periods. Make sure you do full dark at night, that blue light setting can actually encourage algae growth. High nitrates will also cause algae growth, so try to keep your nitrates between 10 and 30 with regular water changes until the plants are mature enough to consume the amount of nitrates your fish produce.

Okay, what do you have for lighting?

Okay so yeah just start by water changing to decrease nitrates a bit. How long has the tank been set up? How long have these plants been in your tank? What light is on it?

Actually I think you probably need to back off the easy green and do some more water changes to decrease nitrates, first. Is your tap water pretty soft?

AR is what I call the "whiny brat" of aquarium plants. Once they're established, they are actually pretty hardy, but they like consistency and well established systems and they hate being uprooted or disturbed. They also like higher lighting if you've got high macronutrients. Yours look like they're micronutrient deficient and stretching for light. You have two options, increase lighting and micronutrients, or decrease the nitrates and other macronutrients to create a more balanced environment. Keep in mind, increasing lighting and micros may create a demand for co2. It's always about creating balance, ya know? Micro to macro, co2 to lighting, all that good stuff.

@Fish Folk yes my male is in the pond for a reason lol. His entire purpose is to make more babies - ideally female babies. The males do have the benefit of being able to hold their own against cichlids of certain types, though. @ARMYVET if I have some extra fry from this batch I'll let you know! I already have a list of people who want pond hardy females, mostly my coworkers lol.

Well they're breeding like rabbits in my outdoor pond right now, so I'm guessing they're pretty easy lol

That's so strange, they are cheap and super common here in Texas. We carry them at the store I work at.

Yeah the males get larger, sometimes up to 2.5" or so, but still a pretty small fish.

My girls are basically full grown at 1.5" so they stay pretty small. Think about the size of an adult platy.

Yes! And they are so versatile! They will tolerate just about any water parameters and a huge range of temperatures, too. They aren't prone to diseases, either. Keep them with goldfish, keep them with discus, they'll be happy in both places.