mtnmonster

I've gave up on keeping bettas. I kept a small female I got when she was really small. She lived 2 years and randomly died a couple months ago. She was the longest lasting bettas I've ever had. They seem to average just over a year and either just die or develop a disease. Funny thing is I know of some bettas (not mine) that lived about 5 years in a vase with just a peace lily that are barely fed and hardly water changes and I provide planted tanks with nearly perfect conditions and I can't keep them alive. As much as I enjoy them I just won't risk another just for my enjoyment.

My betta died a couple months ago. So I have a planted 10 gallon waiting for some permanent inhabitants. Currently I have a few snails and a couple of male platys I had to separate to slow down the breeding in my platy tank. I'm giving them to my nephew for his 20 gallon community I set up for him. I was at my lfs and the guy had a suggestion that sounded good but I'm afraid I may be a bit overstocked if I did it. 6 cherry barbs and 4-5 panda corydoras. I asked him why not pygmy corydoras and he said he's had trouble getting healthy batches and that panda corys are the next smallest and I just won't have as many. Right now I've got a sponge filter and I was thinking I could maybe do a hob for extra filtration but I want one with adjustable flow any suggestions for that too? I've never kept cherry barbs or panda corys but they seem like they would be a fun combo to have. Would the 6 barbs and 4 to 5 panda corys be too much for a 10 gallon or is this a good reason to justify another larger tank? I'm open to other suggestions as well.

I got her to come out for food and was able to get a picture. Also I just realized this should be in the disease forum. Sorry

She decided to go into hiding again the day after being pretty active. I came home from work today and caught a glimpse of her and something was different. I grabbed a flashlight to see into her dark corner and her left eye has popped out. A large white ball behind he eye. Unfortunately I cannot get a good picture due to the angle and darkness or her hiding spot. The other eye looks completely normal. I went ahead and dosed her 10gallon with maracyn. Is there anything else I should do?

Update: I reduced the lighting brightness and duration. She's starting to come out more but still very skittish. She's become most active as soon as the room is dark. The last couple days she has been out with the lights on. Her body and color seems to be just fine, but she looks like her nose is rounding or developing a lump. I do know when she started getting really skittish about mid April she freaked out and tried to get behind the driftwood and had a little gash on her nose. I'm wondering if this might be some scar tissue or something from that. I'm still not able to get good pictures because she won't stay out long but I was able to get a couple while she was chasing a little worm. She does have a small discolored spot that looks like dead skin on the lump but it doesn't show in the pictures. Any suggestions on what to do or what could be going on?

I've had the light since December and have used this setting few times and cut it back due to hair algae but now that is balanced out I am trying it again. She is a young veiltail. The tank gets no outside light. Only thing that could possibly leak an electrical current would be the heater nothing else electrical in contact with water. Temps are consistently 78*F +/- a degree The light just went to the moonlight setting and she has finally came out. Maybe it's just the duration of the bright light. I'm going to try setting it to the 12 hour at 50% tomorrow and see if that helps.

My female betta is acting weird for the 2nd time in a couple weeks. The first time she seemed terrified of everything. I kept her lights off the couple days to help calm her down and she went back to normal.. a couple weeks have passed and now she will not leave a hiding spot she found under a piece of driftwood. From what I can see of her she looks healthy. I've had her since November and she has never been like this before. Everything water parameter wise has been consistent and no signs of ammonia, nitrites or illness. I'm assuming something is stressing her out, but I'm not sure what. Nothing has changed. Well I did start using the 24/7 setting on my hygger light because the plants love it. Could it just be too much for her?

These fish were placed in an already established and healthy aquarium after I moved the previous inhabitants. I didn't start the med trio because there was no signs of disease in the lfs tanks nor mine. 5 days into keeping these fish in quarantine I had a guppy disappear I found him dead being eaten by snails. I immediately checked the other fish and sure enough found one of the platy with white lips. I immediately added a dose of parallels, maracyn, and ich x. Water parameters are: 79F Nitrate 20ppm Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 GH 150ppm Kh 180ppm PH 8.0 Here's a picture of the only fish showing signs of disease. None of them showed any signs yesterday.

I have an already established 10 gallon that I moved some platys to my main 20 gallon tank. Currently the only inhabitants are 2 mystery snails and a handful of bladder snails. I stopped by the lfs and got 2 male guppies and 2 blue platys. Instead of setting up a quarantine tank can I use this cycled 10 gal? I'm using the quarantine trio so it doesn't hurt the snails and plants. My plans are to keep the guppies in this 10 and move the platys to the 20 gal after quarantine.

I have some 2 month old and 1 month old platy fry. The 2 month old fry are just over half an inch and starting to show a little color. I'm giving them away to some local fish keepers. When are they big enough to move?

I will up my supplemental feeding and see if that helps. I will also try to observe my plants a little closer to check for nutrient deficiencies. I suspected that maybe they weren't getting enough to eat, Thanks

I occasionally read a good fiction book, I tend to lead more into history, self improvement, educational stuff. Besides devotional Bible reading, I'm currently reading From Paycheck to Purpose by Ken Coleman. So far I'm enjoying it. Really making me do some deep thoughts and reflections about my career.

As the title says something has to be consuming my plants. I'm noticing healthy new growth then a day or two later its gone. In one tank it's regular and windelov java ferns, another is pogostemon sellatus octopus, and the 3rd tanks it's the s. repens and windelov java ferns. Only thing these tanks have in common are bettas, mystery snails and bladder snails. Plants seem to be healthy and growing, but it seems like part of or the whole leaf will just vanish and it always seems to be healthy growth? Could the snails be the culprits?

Well tank light came on about 30 minutes ago. She had her babies. I counted around 12-15 fry maybe about 3/16 of an inch long. From what I've seen so far was the mother and the resident betta aren't paying any attention to them. They seem to blend into the white gravel very well and stay close to the plants and decor. I separated the male when I first posted. I began to think she was just fat, seemed like she was pregnant for over a month. I'm thinking about Isolating the betta for about a week in a breeder box just to give them at least a week to grow. I thought about putting them in the box but I don't think I could catch them without disturbing my tank. I'm sure not all will survive, but if too many do I plan on giving them away on a local facebook group page. What is a good thing to feed them? I gave a pinch of crushed flakes just to hopefully curb the appetites of the mother and betta.

Shortly after Thanksgiving all my neon tetras mysteriously died. About 3 weeks later I decided to replace them with a few platys. I thought I got all male, but soon found out I had a female. Well I think she will be having her babies soon. For some reason the betta living in the tank hated the 2 black and orange platys (both male) and ended up killing one but gets along perfectly fine with the 2 solid orange ones (male and female). I removed the remaining bullied platy and he has healed up and thriving in my other tank with a very calm betta. I know most, if not all the fry, will unfortunately become food for the 2 platys and betta. I'd like to see if I can at least get a survivor or two. This is my first experience with platys/livebearers. So I'm not sure what to expect or do to aid in possible fry survival. I don't have any other tanks that would be more suitable. Now the tank that has just a betta, 2 mystery snails, and the single platy has more dense plants for fry to maybe hide in. I was thinking of maybe catching a few and transferring to see how it works out. Any advice?

I tested the water today after changing things in my 5 gallon betta tank. Sunday I did a about a 20 % water change and afterwards I had 10ppm nitrates. Today's test showed 5 ppm. I'm assuming the plants are using the nitrates. The only plant growth I've seen is the 2 anubias nana petite have put out a few new leaves. The 3 anubias nanas i got from petsmart i don't think have transitioned to submersed yet. And I just added the 2 little windelov java ferns yesterday. I know the dwarf sag and cryptocoryne are root feeders so I don't think they're doing much for the water. My question is when should I start using easy green? Should I wait for signs of deficiencies?

Right now I'm seeing how the crypt and dwarf sag is going to do in this tank. They're doing well in my other tank so I've got high hopes. Right now I'm not adding any ferts or tabs until I see some deficiency or nitrates staying low. Right now its barely 10ppm nitrate. I want to see how long it will take to get to 20ppm. I'm writing down my weekly water testing and anything I notice different in the tank. I like the idea of adding leaves. I will probably try that once the driftwood tannins start to fade

I will definitely check that out. This lights looks better in pictures but in person, let's just say I've seen candles give off more light. I don't think my anubias nana petite are complaining since they're showing some new growth already.

I didn't like what I had before so I made a few changes to my 5 gallon betta tank. I wanted to mostly do epiphyte plants and slow growers. I still have a baby green crypt wendtii and a dwarf sag. I want to possibly add some moss in the future. I added a cool piece of driftwood and placed 3 anubias nana, the other small driftwood has 2 anubias nana petite. I have a windlov java fern that should be delivered this week and will go in front of the filter and heater. so far this betta seems to live it now that there's alot more hiding places and some tannins. I think when everything starts to really grown in it will look much better. I changed background color and now I can see the betta. I would like to upgrade lid and light. I know these are low light plants but I want a better light for viewing plus the light I have i don't feel is enough. My other tank is in a room with much more natural light. I plan on just letting everything do it's thing and see what happens. Any light suggestions? Before Now

Thanks for the responses everyone. I tested the water again this morning and all seems to be well. The remaining fish are acting healthy and active. The snails and tiny baby clown pleco seem to be actively munching on some algae. I'm beginning to wonder if my cloudy water might be a bit of an algae bloom as well. I'm going to keep monitoring for changes. I do remember a little over a week ago I did detect a small nitrite spike prior to a small water change. It resolved without issue and could probably be why my nitrates were higher than usual this time. I also did keep the lights on longer than usual a couple days. So I'm thinking extra nutrients + extra lights = extra algae. Sometimes less is more and I won't do as much next time. I am going to add another nano size sponge filter just for a little more filtration and plus I need to have an extra cycle filter for emergency use. I'm glad I've found this forum because it has been very helpful. You guys make it that way thanks!

This tank usually get 40% every 7 to 10 days depending on how much I feed. I was at 10 days this time and since I moved the driftwood and relocated a couple plants I vacuumed the gravel where I couldn't get to before and ended up removing more than I planned. I'm thinking I just did too much too fast. I'm just trying to figure out what happened and fix/prevent it before I replace them. Now that they're not in there, is there a chance my betta could turn aggressive if I replace them?

I did add some well rinsed gravel in a few areas other than that noting else. I had them for about two months. Now that I think about it I did notice some strange behavior from them before I did the water change. They were staying away from each other and when one would get close they'd chase. Usually they stayed pretty close and never scattered like they was this morning. I checked the water and nitrates were up to 50 that's why I did a water change.

Yes I've always used API stress coat for that. Never an issue and I tested for chlorine and chloramines soon after and wasn't detecting any.

Came home tonight and discovered all 5 neons I had were dead. I immediately checked ammonia and other parameters. Everything was good. All other fish and snails seem to be fine. I did do 60% water change, moved driftwood, added well rinsed gravel and replanted a few plants. I used API stresscoat for water conditioning and added a squirt of easy green. Nothing different than usual. I usually do a 40% change but I noticed the water a little cloudy and I am temporarily slightly over stocked but the tank has handled the extra bioload very well. Not sure what has happened. All equipment is functioning normally. But the water is still a little hazy. I'm going to do another water change and keep an eye on parameters. Before I left today everything was fine except the kuhli loaches were freaking out because I moved things but they are acting fine now. Any ideas as to what happened or what I should do next? My tap water tested normal as well so I doubt its that.

I want to add some more gravel in parts of my tank to give rooted plants more depth for roots. Will it affect my cycle?