mtnmonster

Yes. They still do but not as much from what I've observed. They kind of dig out little hiding spaces under hardscape and the sponge filter. Since I fully planted the tank they spend their time exploring the plants. I think as long as you have plenty of hiding places and shadows they won't dig as much.

I put a nerite in a 5 gallon betta tank to help with some algae and at first the snail was active but after a few days I notthe algae getting worse and the snail was really not doing much but still alive. Water parameters were identical to the tank he came from but something just didn't seem right. I noticed a few stones I had for decoration had some green coloring to it and some metal flake. I took them out, took a water sample and did a water change. I took the stones and the water sample to a geologist I know and he ran some tests. Sure enough it was copper ore and there was copper in the water. The snail is much better now. Took a couple days but its back to normal. I found those stones years ago in a creek while hiking. I've had them with fish in the past and never had trouble so I thought it would be OK. Moral of the story: becareful of what you use as decorations especially if you are unsure of the composition. Hope this helps someone.

Thanks for the ideas. I'm trying to talk her into a bigger tank for more options. I never thought about platies. I've never had luck with guppies, but I've successfully kept swordtails and platies before so I could help her better with them.

My nerites and mystery snails don't escape but try to. My bladder snails are just small enough to occasionally get out. They use the sponge filter air line to escape.

They were very shy until I added a bunch of plants and some driftwood. They're still timid but come out throughout the day much more. They keep near the cover and shadows.

For me it's neon tetras and khuli loaches. I always saw neon as boring fish until I added them to my community tank. They're actually fun to watch and the kulhis are just cool and way more active than I have seen in other tanks.

So after this 10 gallon crashed and none of the fish survived I determined there were several factors that lead to it. Sadly the betta was recovering and when everything was looking up I found him dead. It was the betta I was taking care of for my mother. Now I'm looking to replace it and actually set the tank up at her home. Now she wants a community tank with lots of color and she seems pretty set on a honey gourami. I know 10 gallons is probably fine for one but is there anything else that would do well as a community? She likes how I have my betta, neons, khuli and snail tank. She wants something different but similar. I have been trying to educate her how live plants have helped me keep my tank very active, peaceful, and so far healthy. So I let her pick a few plants and she wanted pogostemon stellatus octopus and anubias coffeefolia. She is also taking one of my crypts wendtii. So she's covered for that. I'm just trying to see what I can do for a 10 gallon honey gourami community tank.

I placed them close but tried to aim the rhizome towards the ends of the wood. Still working on the placement. Added a nano sponge filter and will be removing the internal filter once bacteria has a chance to build up. Just some patience now and see where it goes. This is my 2nd planted tank. I've learned alot so far here, youtube, and from my other tank. My planted 10 gallon is thriving and actually handing the temporary overstocked with ease. Hopefully this one and my other will follow suit. Here's the 5 gallon so far. The crypt and dwarf sag is really taking well so far. I will be upgrading the light soon so the dwarf sag will stay shorter and hopefully carpet that side of the tank. The female betta is camera shy so she's hiding in the picture

Thanks for the replies. I think I will use some string to see where I want to exactly place them and the put a dab of glue when I figure that out. With anubias being a slow grower should I space them out for room for the rhizomes to grow along the driftwood? They're anubias nana petite and going on a 7 inch piece of driftwood in a 5 gallon. I assume like most rhizomes plants they creep along sending leaves upward and the rhizome just gets longer. Is that true for anubias in general?

My new plants arrived today. Will I be able to attach my anubias to drift wood that is already wet with gel super glue or should I use string?

This is a different tank. That tank is doing great and crypts only had a couple leaves melt. This one is another I had doing a fishless cycle and I put in the betta and a snail. Everything was fine and no spikes. Then I added some baby 2 khuli loaches a week later and then another week everything was still showing cycled I added 3 guppies and it crashed overnight. Plants weren't melting and were actually showing growth until that point. I'm not sure what triggered it. Tank was cycled fishless for about 6 weeks and 0 ammonia 0nitirte and 20nitriate before I added betta and snail. Then it didn't change. When I added the kulhis it still didn't change. I figured it was good after no spikes within 2 weeks of fish in. The plants were in there about a week before any fish. I've been removing dead plant matter to keep the ammonia down and there's just not much left. I'm just wondering if I should just leave them or pull them and start over.

After the really bad ammonia spike one of my tanks had I've lost all but one fish. My plants are also dying back. I've been doing 50-60% water changes and now getting 0 ammonia an 1 ppm nitirtes and 30ppm nitrates. water sprite is turning black and the sag and crypt are just melting. I did trim off the healthy branches of the water sprite to attempt to save and those are floating in a well established tank and seem to just slightly be discoloring. Will the dwarf sag, water sprite, and crypt rebound or should I just plan on replanting once the tank stabilizes?

This guy likes to show offShe's camera shy and this is the best picture I have of herthis guy isn't looking well right now. He's had a rough week. This is the best one I've got of him. His fin tips are a light blue/silver color

I think bettas grow faster. I've never bred bettas, but I have bred blue gouramis and it seemed like forever to get them big enough for my lfs to buy them. It wasn't worth it in my experience. I didn't even break even. Maybe I just got ripped off, but after getting rid of them I didn't care. I was a teenager and had much better things to do at the time lol

Thanks for the replies. Things are improving in the tank betta is looking better and the missing kulhi was found acting completely fine. The other is a little lethargic still. I've not detected anymore ammonia and just nitrites. Still doing 50%water changes every 12 hours. But the last test nitrites were much lower. All plants have suffered pretty bad. Almost all completely melted. I'm trimming and removing a dead plant matter. The betta is eating but still very aggressive. I had to temporarily move the mystery snail to another tank because the betta was relentlessly attacking it. Not sure what is going on with him just very angry lately. Its like when he first seen the guppies a switch flipped. He don't like the kulhis either but they're able to hide pretty well. I guess he's going to get his own tank soon.

I can't get pictures without chasing fish out of hiding spots, but they're obviously very stressed. Lethargic, hiding, not eating, the betta seems like his slime coat may be coming off his face. No visible injuries. So far I've been doing water changes every 13 hours and I think the cycle crashed when I added some new fish. I lost the 3 new guppies. They had a stressful ride home from the lfs. I had car trouble and they was in the bags for 2 hours. I kept them as warm as possible and when I got home I let them acclimate to the quarantine tank before releasing them. I realized my quarantine tank had a crack and was leaking very badly so I decided to move them to the tank since all it had was a healthy betta. But when I started putting the bags in the tank to float I noticed water felt cooler than normal. Heater stopped working. All petstores were closed and I bought one from Walmart and it slowly brought the tank up to 79F. The kulhis and the guppies seemed fine but the betta didn't like the bags. After I released them the kulhis immediately hid, like normal and the guppies were acting fine. The betta, who lived peacefully with guppies before decided to attack the guppies. I placed him in a small breeder box until I could figure something out in the morning. Before I left for work I checked them. Everything seemed fine. Used a test strip and water seemed good. When I got home I checked and one guppy had died. Check water and it was fine but everything seemed off. I tested for ammonia and nothing. I just figured it was stress so I kept lights off and waited. A couple hours later the 2 remains guppies passed. I checked water again everything was fine but a massive ammonia spike happened. I immediately change 60% of the water. A few hours later changed 50% and now detecting no ammonia but nitrites are .5 Betta was in his little box and I let him go since the guppies were no longer in there. He swam a bit and now is hiding. No signs of 1 the kulhis and the other has been laying under a pebble just breathing for about 24hrs now. I don't want to really dig around the gravel to find them and disturb the water anymore for now. I'm not sure what else to do except keep checking water and changing as needed. Would a little aquarium salt help? I've used it for stressed fish before but not with bettas, kulhi loach or mystery snail. The snail seems to be the only one not ill

I was went to petsmart to get some ideas about stocking my 20 long when its ready. I walked by the bettas and they all were very sad looking except this little female. I've been wanting a koi plakat but this little female caught my eye. She's very feisty and I think she has a little bit more aggression than any male betta I've ever had. Even the employee told me they had her for a few weeks and nobody seems to want her. For $3.99 I picked her up. Stopped at Walmart and got another 5 gallon and got her set up. Pulled a few propagating plants from my other tank and bought one of the anubias nana petsmart had. She really has an attitude. Once I had her acclimated and in the tank I put a couple root tabs I forgot to add for the dwarf sag and the crypt. She tried to attack my hand. Never had any betta do that before. She blows bubbles and attacks them too. Very active fish and really seems to like her new home. She also one of the more colorful females I've ever seen. she was labeled as a veiltail but I never really pay much attention to they different types. I usually pick my appearance and health.

Thanks. I've been doing a lot of research and a lot of overthinking. Finally I realized that keeping fish is just an experiment. I wanted to go as natural as possible and still keep it simple. In nature ecosystems are always changing. I figure the more natural I can make it the better. It will find a balance on its own but with me monitoring may be able to help counter any negative changes.

I've completely removed and replaced all the fake plants in my 10 gallon. This is my first experience with planted tank. Its a work in progress. So far it's going well and the fish seem to being enjoying it. I plan on removing some plants and a couple animals once I get my 20 gallon cycled. So far the plants are Anubias Nana, Windelov Java Fern, Dwarf Sagittaria, Cryptocoryne Wendtii green, a random Amazon sword species and a small floating water sprite. I've seen growth from everything so far but the dwarf sag is really starting to take off. Minimal melting so far for any of them. Been using easy green and root tabs. The inhabitants are a betta, 5 neon tetras, a kulhi loach, a handful of bladder snails, 2 nerites, and a baby clown pleco. One of the nerites and the clown pleco will move to the new tank. Something was missing so I picked up a piece of mopani drift wood at petsmart when I got the nerites. The fish seem much more active and natural. The betta is especially entertaining as he hunts and explores everything. He really seems to love the dwarf sag. The kulhi is much more active during daylight too

So I pay really close attention to my tank probably closer than I should. I've noticed all kinds of different and weird stuff. Now I've spotted these little dark specks and they're moving all over this rock. I don't see them anywhere else. I have a couple bladder snails are they newly hatched snails? This is the best picture I could get. They're just under 1mm long and move kind of quickly

I don't think my water is good for plants. Even garden and houseplants do not grow well without ferts for me. I've tried java ferns and other plants in the past and never could get them to live more than a few months. Since I've been using easy green tabs and liquid I have seen some progress. This is the first time I've really put effort into growing aquatic plants so maybe once I get it figured out I may try going without and see how it goes.

As long as you stay busy im sure it wouldn't be that bad. I guess it comes down to perspective, my MOS kept me constantly going somewhere and doing something different on post every day. And really our only mundane and boring times were traveling but I guess when sailors are underway traveling is their job for the most part so I guess that would be different. You would think the military stays busy, but truth is there is a lot going on and a lot not going on at the same time. Hurry up and wait. Everyone who has served has probably experienced this lol

I'm glad I went Army. I couldn't handle being at sea for any extended amount of time. I think I'd go stir crazy.

I'm transitioning from fake plants to live plants in my 10 gallon. I got several types of plants and I'm seeing what grows best in my water and lights. Some sort of Amazon Sword, crypt wendtii green, windelov java fern, anubias nana, dwarf sagittaria, a floating piece of water sprite, and a regular java fern I'm seeing if I can bring back to life. (I know some of these will potentially get too big and will be moving them or cull them) I added one root tab for each of the root feeders and been using Easy green liquid for the water column plants. So far I'm seeing growth from the crypt and the anubias. Everything else seems to be too early to tell. All water parameters are good. As I predicted I am barely detecting a slight nitrite spike after adding a fish, but I expected that. Nitrates are way up today So I did a water change and its much better. Can the addition of 4 root tabs cause the nitrate spike? Since nitrates jumped from 20ppm yesterday to 60ppm after adding a few plants, should I hold off on the Easy Green Liquid? I assume that some nutrients from the easy green tabs may leach through the gravel into the water column so I figured I'd hold off for now. All fish seem to be reacting well to the plants and higher levels, but I noticed my khuli loach had some redness around his gills that's what led me to check the levels. He seems to be ok now.

So to save a little time because my work schedule changed this week. I asked my mother to stop by the fish store for my today to pick up a couple nerite snails to help control algae in the 10 gallon I keep for my nephew. I get a text from her saying they're out of snails but had a betta she wanted and said I could call it her Christmas gift if I helped her set the tank up. I thought that would be fine and told her to get it if thats what she wanted. She showed up at my house with a 5 gallon walmart tank kit, some gravel, some type of plant, the betta, and a clown pleco. I asked her why she got the pleco and she told me the fish store employee said it was just as good as the snails. Then I asked why she brought the betta to me if we have to set it up at her house...the she dropped the "I don't have time to take care of it so I will keep it here and you can take care of it for me since you already have the stuff to do it". Now I have a fish I didn't want and a tank I wasn't planning on having. I planned on my next tank being a 20 gallon for me, but apparently I'm the family fish keeper now. The heater she bought was a tetra 100w reptile heater for turtles because apparently all stores nearby were sold out of 5 gallon heaters and the Walmart guy told her it would work because it shuts off at 78F. I know it will work for now and have already ordered a proper heater. I'm a little frustrated over the whole situation, but at least the betta she dumped on me is a pretty one. Also anyone know what kind of plant this is? And what should I do with the clown pleco? I put im in the 10 gallon for now and will probably move it to my 20 when I get it. Is there any special I should get for it?