CJs Aquatics

Bettas “can” survive in small tanks, however providing them with bigger ones is perfectly fine as well, I actually think more people should so we eliminate them being kept in cups and things. I think this tank will be fine for a betta I would recommend 78 degree temps or a bit higher, as far as ph, I would acclimate your fish to your water rather then chase magic numbers unless it’s breeding. This obviously doesn’t work in every case or when dealing with extremes but if your tap is in that 6 acidic- 7 neutral -8 alkaline range I think you should be fine This is personal preference. I personally love plakats but perhaps your LFS or area has some locally bred bettas that might do better in your water, that would probably be where I sourced, rather then worrying about specific type, see what works

@nabokovfan87 this is so well said

Quarantine is highly debated as to whether or not it’s necessary/ beneficial as well as how to properly do it. With this being said I will give you my opinion based on my own research and knowledge for you to decide whether it works or not. Very simply put, I believe it to be a good practice to quarantine any new fish you receive as a preventative measure. If they display obvious signs of illness then quarantine is definitely appropriate and adjusted but as a preventative I think of it like this. If your fish are sick, and you medicate them, they may get better, if your fish aren’t sick and you medicate them, on a very basic level nothing happens. Obviously this is very vague but I didn’t want to dive too deep into it, my 2 cents is, quarantine is effective. As far as how there’s a few popular ways: 1. In a new set up tank using medications 2. put them in a new set up tank and just monitor them for a set period of time looking for signs of illness 3. using “natural” things with medicative properties I’m sure there’s more but these are the ones I run into most often. I would do exactly as the coop has suggested and does for there fish even if it’s just to learn the practice (quarantine + med trio). as far as will they be ok without a filter till tomorrow, I would assume so, perhaps set up the air you were going to hook the sponge filter up too to create some surface agitation and add oxygen to the water. Hope this helps Feeding or not feeding during quarantine is another topic of debate, short answer is it’s often recommended not to, or if you do to feed things like live baby brine or things easy to digest. Personally, I feed during quarantine and have never seen a difference or any ill effects but it’s a personal choice.

I ran into something similar with my dragon puffer, super stressful. I never found out conclusively what it was but I was able to completely reverse it. I targeted multiple strains of bacteria. I used Maracyn and ick x first. It didn’t really seem to do anything so I made a decision to switch over to kanaplex fed in food. This almost immediately cleared things up in a matter of a few days. I’m not suggesting this same course of action will work for you or is the one you should take, I just wanted to chime in with something as I know exactly how you feel. I have pictures I never posted bc they were hard to look at that could be used for reference. It’s hard but there is hope, perhaps one of the forums disease experts can weigh in…

This reminds me of what happens when you first set up a tank and it’s still in that not quite stable fluctuations phase. Typically in that same situation I’ve tried introducing beneficial bacteria from an established tank to speed up the process but being that it is a quarantine tank you most likely are trying to limit the things going in for easy monitoring I would assume. With this being said, it sounds like one of two things to me. 1. Either there is something going in or already in the tank that is causing those drastic fluctuations, or 2. it’s just not quite established and is struggling to keep up. To elaborate on the first: this could be a range of things ranging from organics like uneaten food, bio load, substrates, even potentially chemicals in your actual tap water which wouldn’t be as likely in my opinion. To elaborate on the 2nd: there isn’t enough beneficial bacteria to process the nitrites from the food/ waste/ organics properly, or a lack of maintenance could potentially cause this as well. In this case I would continue to to try to water change my way through it. You could add store bought beneficial bacteria to perhaps assist in the detoxification/ processing of the nitrite, or live plants perhaps as well. I’m guessing since it’s such a small tank it’s struggling to cycle properly. Also sometimes meds can kill beneficial bacteria and crash your already cycled tank as well, not saying that’s the case just another possibility.

@Milliardo Peacecraft I feed the fish daily, everyone eats, this particular one throws a temper tantrum and won’t. I figured ok he will when he gets hungry enough. Nope, he beat me in our chess game bc I couldn’t ever let him go very long in good conscience. Had to trick him with these lol even so still stubborn in the fact that he will only eat it if I make it look alive but it’s a start, I’ve never met a fish this stubborn lol

@AllFishNoBrakes perhaps my next experiment actually @Guppysnail thank you I appreciate it I was so excited the worms worked I had to share

Hey all, I told a forum friend @mountaintoppufferkeeper I would post this new process I’ve been playing with today so here we go. I have a fish that only eats live food. This specific fish is so stubborn he would actually probably rather starve then eat anything that isn’t alive. Makes feeding time really tough. He loves earthworms and snails however for reference he is a species of puffer, although I think this would probably work for other pickier types of fish as well perhaps some cichlids and bichirs etc. that like things live. Started to run low on worms the other day or maybe was just too lazy to feed them and had an interesting idea. I wondered if I could find worm shaped silicone molds so I could make artificial worms and perhaps ween him to other foods that way. It made sense bc it would be no different the artificial worms used for actual fishing or something of the sort so I went online and found these: Pardon any mess or not great pictures but here they are. These are silicone molds the first 2 specifically for gummy worms. I ordered them and decided to make repashy worms/ bears bc the bears are funny. Grabbed a few kinds but for the worms I used the grub pie fish, it just made sense. A few more tools for this trial and error project we’re some plastic cups, some colorful pipettes that came with the molds, a measuring spoon this one was 1TBSP and a spoon to make the mixture. Also this measuring glass, anything would work though. I used 2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup of water I heated to a boil in the microwave. I did it a little at a time bc I was using different flavors of repashy for different species of fish. I mixed it and used the pipettes to make the molds and stuck them in the freezer for later. I also used a credit card to scrape over top of the molds to remove as much excess repashy as I could after it had started to set. I had to play around with the ratio as you might see things were thicker then I wanted but will still work for there purpose. I stuck them in the freezer then moved on. the second batch I eliminated a bunch of unnecessary steps in my opinion such as the cups and the measuring spoons and it went much smoother. I just poured the powder into 1 cup of the boiling water right into the measuring glass, and mixed it in there to a more liquid consistency. Then I piped it into the molds. I left excess on top to show what I meant by using the credit card/ consistency, then just scraped it right off. (Last statement sounded good but it was actually bc I’m messy). stuck these in the freezer as well to finish setting and they will be ready to go. The point of this whole post was it worked. I fed the “repashy gummy worms” to the picky puffer and as it thaws it wiggles like a real worm. He loves them. Using it as hopefully the first step towards transitioning him to eating pellets flakes etc. The bears were just a funny bonus. If you have a picky eater that likes worms or stuff that wiggles it might be worth a shot/ an easy alternative, just thought I would share.

@Odd Duck definately a great observation, I did that a while ago I forgot to list it

@Lennie

@nabokovfan87 I’ll 2nd that

Hey all, thought it might be fun for us to post some of our fish food recipes on here, doesn’t have to specifically be repashy but it was a catchy title in my opinion. I’ll go first… simple and to the point, just got done with some repashy but I made it in a silicone gummy worm tray in hopes that one of my picky eaters who loves worms might get fooled lol sometimes I make it with some oyster shells in it for my puffers to resemble artificial snails as well. Other then that, a pinch of garlic guard or vitachem and served at room temp….

@mynameisnobody I bought and use it also

Weird thing is I’m sure I treated him when I got him, and have had him for a while, but definitely some sunken belly going on. He’s got an appetite for live but puts on no weight. I was concerned dosing the tank might negatively impact his healthy tankmates but I assume it shouldn’t

what you’ll need: a pitcher a fish net - many of you know I’ve been struggling with duckweed for a while. I’ve taken everyone’s suggestions and finally found a system that works well. step 1: went to goodwill or any thrift store and bought a pitcher for a few dollars (mine was $6 bc it’s a Brita pitcher) step 2: a fish net (using that green one you see with all in 1 tank kits) step 3: rest fish net over water in a corner of the tank using the rim or top of tank step 4: dip the pitcher in the water, duckweed, water and everything else fills up the pitcher step 5: dump the contents of the pitcher back into tank through the net. Your net catches the duckweed and everything else and your water returns to the tank step 6: repeat until desired results achieved then eighter dump contents in trash and rinse net out or discard 🤣 I actually am a big proponent of not letting anything go to waste so I feed the duckweed to my worms

Hey everybody, quick question I have a puffer fish that absolutely refuses to eat anything that’s not alive. This isn’t unusual in and of itself however the weird part is I have been pretty successful at getting them to eat a specific pellet. All of my other ones of the species except the new ones love this pellet. This particular puffer just refuses. He is extremely skinny in comparison to the other ones, noticeably more aggressive probably due to hunger. I do give him live still but I’ve been trying to introduce him to this pellet the others love as well. It occurred to me maybe it’s possible he’s still harboring parasites. Obviously this could be inaccurate and it could just be a personality thing with him (stubborn). I wanted to hear the forums thoughts on hitting the tank with a dose of paracleanse or prazi? Would it negatively effect them if they don’t have worms or parasites bc there’s a strong chance they don’t he eats live food just fine. Thoughts?

Should be fine as a treat perhaps not as a daily dietary supplement

Last question can I plant them straight away again or do I need to wait till they root (float them first)

Will the cuttings root, or just the stumps grow new plants?

I have a mess of this stuff I need to organize but it’s all growing from the stumps like that, would you just leave them in to keep propogating?

@JoeQ so in the photo above cut each individual new plant above the nodes, discard extra stem and plant roots?

What is the proper way to cut something like this into new plant starts?

Hey all, it’s late where I am but I had an interesting topic. I feel it’s talked about a lot but basically I find myself in the predicament that I put all kind of work into tanks, and breeding, aesthetics, tech, no tech, just general fish keeping and often times find myself with what I like to call RTS or restless tank syndrome. I get bored with my tanks, want to change them all the time, get bright ideas about making them more effective or aesthetically pleasing or easier to maintenance or whatever the case is, then even after the changes end up repeating this process again not long after, never quite satisfied with them. Anyone have any experience with this/ tips on enjoying them more rather then critiquing them?

@TOtrees this is amazing thank you, like a step by step guide almost, really appreciate it, you also thought of quite a few things I never would have

I was concerned also, however close inspection seems to reveal the kicked out eggs appear unfertilized as they are grey not yellow, and he is on a pile of eggs in the cave as well, new dad perhaps, I can 100% confirm they are way less prolific for me then BN im trying to dial in things regarding them