TheDukeAnumber1

@Fish Folk By softening harder foods and slowly dropping the food as the cube melts. Nano extreme and other pelletized foods are not easy for fish to eat until they have a little time to hydrate and soften up, this is especially true for smaller fish. Also we all know "slow sinking" is thrown around pretty liberally on packaging, but when the food is per-hydrated and has a cube "times release" it sinks slower and at a more consistent rate, @jkt001

Cool 🙂 , One extra step that IMO is worth it is to freeze half cubes first before I add the food and the rest of the water for a little bit of a longer feed out time.

I pre-portion out dried foods into ice cube trays, mix with water, and freeze it. A few minutes of prep work and my feeding is quick, consistent, and feeds out better for my fish.

.

There are many many different kinds of snails out there. The big three that manage to sneak into aquariums are pond/bladder snails, ramshorn snails, and MTS snails. And within those three groups they come in different color morphs. A more clear/closer photo may help identify it, but the shape from the photo above makes me think pond/bladder snail with maybe some eroded shell which turns white.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ your call. But IMO your betta and plants will be better off with snails present.

Safe in what respect? It is safe and helpful for your aquarium ecosystem, it is unsafe for fish eggs which it may or may not eat. It is probably capable of reproducing rapidly if it has access to lots of leftover fish food or algae, but won't if it doesn't.

Hard to tell but it looks somewhat like a pond or bladder snail. It probably got in hitch hiking from something else live you put in. Personally I would do nothing, snails are great for your tank, otherwise just remove it.

Assuming @Beardedbillygoat1975 is not an interstellar traveler new to earth, I bet they have experienced sunlight before, 😜 But I get what you are saying lol.

Currently it's the Butterfly Pea, I grew a couple last year and liked them so much I harvested the seeds and have a dozen growing indoors atm ready to go out.

@ispud Sharing photos can go a long way in helping others diagnose your issue.

@Anita No I love that level of information thank you so much 🙂 . I do have a heart for US natives even if they are not local natives, personally I find the "beauty" to be in natures design even if the fish is bland looking, but I also want fish on the approved list on the thought that I may......hesitant to share... but I fish a few times a year and culling some by bait fishing may happen and I want to be legal in that respect. Fun info, I have harvested Southern Redbelly Dace in IL before, maybe not native but they are down here. So do you have any thoughts on what a good hardy mosquito murderer would be on that list? My hope for the fountain is for it to oxygenate the water when the pond gets hit with direct sun. I just want to avoid cooked fish on that 90deg day in full sun. I'm not worried about the plants since atm I am planning on just maintaining some floating plants. Thanks again I have a lot to dig into now! @Fish Folk Thanks for the link, and noted, I have some reading to do now but perhaps we will have to arrange something.

@'Cory Thanks for making the time. That is good news for the brine pond, I didn't think they would overwinter like that, maybe I'll switch my mindset to finding a spot for it to stay year round.

Soon to be contended with by the val I see.