TheCzarista

I think we figured out what caused the issue.... a rookie mistake on our part. We HAD been using distilled water, and recently switched to tap water, after testing it to make sure it was within parameters. But I forgot to let it sit and get to room temp after I got it from the sink. I am pretty sure it was a temperature shock that made Fred act like that. I swear, we are constantly learning things and figuring things out. One of these days, maybe we can know what we are doing 🤣

Your tank is what, as far as I am concerned, is the perfect mix of plants and open spaces. It is very grown looking, but not so full that it looks like fish would have trouble in there. Beautiful!

Can't wait to see the final product. That is going to be one spoiled betta 🙂

Question for the experts: We have the Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum buffering substrate. We are in the process right now of cycling the tank, and the water parameters are starting to come into line. One of the things I understand about this substrate is that it makes water softer, and buffers the PH, causing a lower PH. We usually do water changes with our tap water, which is very hard water. Would it be better to water change this tank with a bottled water? If we use the hard water from the tap are we wearing out the substrate, and fluctuating our parameters too much? We have some tangerine tigers coming in soon, and I wanted some clarification before we had to do our first water change.

It was part of a series of event I am calling "Fred blowing his nose". We did a water change today, and immediately after, Fred started acting really, really strange. I was really worried about him. He went to the top of the tank and extended his air siphon, which as we mentioned, we have never seen him do before. Then he retracted that, and went to the bottom of the tank, and grabbed on to one of the river rocks we have as substrate. The rocks are of a decent size, and one was big enough for him to wrap his entire foot around. He was upside down in the substrate, looking like he was trying to come out of his shell, and stretched really thin and really tightly around that rock. That went on for about 10 min. Then he righted himself, let go of the rock, climbed to the top again, extended the siphon once more, and took a deep breath. Like, we could visibly see him inflating. Then suddenly, he released several large bubbles of air, and then suddenly, as quickly as it all started, things were back to normal. He has been crawling around the tank as usual since then, no sign of the siphon, he has eaten, he is acting normal (well, normal for Fred anyhow!) My theory is that when we stirred up the substrate during the water change, maybe he got a hold of something, and all of these things were him trying to expel whatever it was. Gonna be honest, he had me really scared. No matter how many other fish we have, Fred is still our showpiece. Anyhow, I thought I would document the behavior in case anyone else sees something like this.

Scared me to death lol. We have had him for several months and I have never seen it. I thought something was seriously wrong.

Welcome! Glad you joined us!

Welcome! That is an amazing tank!

My suggestion is this.... add the betta last. If you add them early on, and then others, the bettas see that (often) as invasion of their territory. If you add the others first, and then the betta last, they (often) see it as "these fish came with the territory" and it can help with them not being AS aggressive

That is PERFECT! Thank you

We have a 5 gallon with green neon tetras and one mystery snail. The current substrate is river rocks, but we are running into a problem with keeping the tank clean. Food and poop falls down between the stones, and when we vac, we have to stir up all the stones to get to the nasty, which really fouls up the water. We would like to replace the substrate, but are not sure what would be good. We want something that would be good for (or at least not detrimental to) our snail, Fred. We want small size particles. We also have a anubias coffefolia, a windelov java fern, and some java moss growing on some chollo wood Anyone have any suggestions?

I second the request for a picture!

Meet Fred. He is a mutant I swear. He grew super fast, you can see all the darker shell where he got his new growth all at once. The second picture is when he realized that we transplanted water spangles into his tank, and he assumed we installed a salad bar just for him.

Thanks everyone ☺ I think we have decided just to do our own cleanup because of tank size and because Blue is so happy right now, and we don't want to upset that and stress him out again. Thanks for the suggestions!

That is a beautiful tank, no doubt.

Our halfmoon betta, El Diablo Azul (Blue for short), is LOVING life in his 2.5 gallon bachelor pad. We had him in a 5 gallon with mystery snails, and he did not play well with others. Not only was he attacking them, but he was stressing himself out and his fins were getting damaged. Ever since we moved him to his own place, he has been so happy. The problem is, we are starting to have algae, and it could become a problem. We would like to get an algae eater, but don't know what to get. Suggestions? To sum up: 2.5 gallon one betta does not play well with mystery snails

East actually, near Louisiana

Welcome from Texas!

You are SO lucky. Ours would be in Houston, about 2 hours away, I think

I was gonna say, most places give you 30 days to return, even if they don't live. So I would say keep loving him, keep caring for him, and if the worst happens, you have that for a backup plan. But I am really hoping he comes around!

I am 100% sure there are others that don't have a LFS handy. All we have is Petco, Petsmart, and what we can get off the internet. I really wish we had a place that we could go to just fish gaze. Oh, and our Petco is one of the bad ones. The tanks are dirty, they often have dead fish floating in them, with other fish eating them, and the bettas in their cups act almost comatose, barely moving at all. Here's hoping we can get a LFS soon!

I am going to have nightmares about this now lol

He does indeed. It is his bachelor pad lol. He is incredibly spoiled, and he knows it

Breather bags have microscopic holes that are big enough to let carbon dioxide out, and oxygen in to replenish the supply in the water for the fish. However, this relies on having breathable air outside the bag to pull the oxygen gas in through those holes. When you float the bag, you basically are cutting off the breathable air, and because these bags are filled completely full with no air in the bag, it is cutting off the oxygen to your fish in the bag.