Vicki

There was no ~cringe~ response emoticon, so here… 😬

Ooooo, interesting!!!

I wonder if the pumpkins on my porch are healthy for the squirrels eating them. And why the damn raccoons skip by the healthy and accessable pumpkins and go for the trash bins that they can’t get in to?

You kinda made me cry. So much crisis and tragedy surrounding me and in the world right now; my Betta is sick; my dog is only half groomed and we’re having professional pictures made tomorrow; sooo many errands and chores to get finished before the two holidays coming up; and I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed with the people and animals around me that I have to help. Then I read this. Something I wrote two weeks ago. You remembered me and felt drawn to say something. It’s an amazing feeling to be remembered. So thanks. Thank you. From my overwhelmed heart to yours - you just made my day!

I decided that I’d rather just leave the male separate from the females. The ladies are doing well with their tank mates and I’d rather not mess with the community thats working out well. The new tank is 4 gallons and it’ll have no other fish in it - just Rambo. Who may be renamed Lonely Romeo. We’ll see, haha! Thanks for the recommendation on the tetra heater, I’ll check into it. I just needed a place to start. And yes - the little tank has a filter that was up and running in the store. I filled it up with distilled water (it probably holds 5+ gallons because it wasn’t empty when he carried it in and it took 4 gallons) and heated it up enough to not send a fish into shock, then plopped that little fella in there. He’s checking out the pagoda and fall landscape as we speak.

Do you ever have thoughts that are just kind of random and you’d kind of like to get them out of your head? Things that you sometimes wonder about? They can be related to fish or not related to fish. And maybe you wonder about something that someone actually knows the answer to! Anyway, share your wonderings, or your wanderings! Let’s see what comes out! I’ll start. This is my wonder… sometimes I wonder, as I read others’ posts, whether or not I’m actually still smart enough to have an aquarium. I feel like I’m getting so much wrong, I wonder if I’m actually cut out for GH and KH and Iron and CO2 and testing the water for all these things to make plants grow. I have no idea how many things I’m supposed to be tracking and if I did know, I’d have no idea how they played in with one another. I could look it up but I’d forget what I read by tomorrow. I’m doing good to feed the fish, get their water changed, plant plants, plant their vitamin seeds, pump in their vitamin juice, pull out the dead ones, trim back the overgrown ones, and vacuum up all the cr… detritus and algae that accumulates EVERYWHERE, then do it all again the next day. I used to be smart and could learn this stuff. I’m just not sure I can anymore. Head injuries suck, folks. I also wonder if we’re going to have Trick-or-Treaters this year. 👻🤠🥸🤡🤖👹👽👩‍🍳🧑‍🚀👨‍✈️😚🥷👩‍🚒🧟‍♂️💃👳‍♀️🧌🧛‍♀️

So, my husband and I had a little squabble last night. And today he came home with a little 4 gal cube tank he knows I’ve been eyeing, and a beautiful Betta male to live in it. The problems are: 1) I’ve no idea how to take care of this tank (I wasn’t there to get instructions for this tank that was set up and running at the store, (sigh)) But I’ll figure that part out. The second problem is 2) It doesn’t come with a heater, which I absolutely need in my house. Does anyone have any recommendations for an inconspicuous heater? This tank is lovely, I’d like to keep it that way to the extent possible. 3) In keeping my Betta (Rambo) warm, I’ve had him bagged and floating in my ToN, where of course, he’s showing off his fins to keep everyone else away. But all it’s doing is luring Reba in his direction (Reba is the lovely Betta female I have living in there. And yes, I name my unique fish. Sue me.) I guess my question is can a male and female live together or will they get tired of each other? I don’t care if they make babies, and I don’t care if the babies live, I just care about Rambo and Reba. If I’m going to end up separating them, I’d rather just not put them together to start with.

What do you mean by compatibility is the issue? Compatibility with what, each other? The other fish? I tried to do quite a bit of research before selecting the fish to go into this tank to make sure it was a community that would live well together. The only thin limb I walked out on was with the betta girls. And I watched the tank they were in for almost an hour to try and pick two ladies who were fairly calm/peaceful. So far it seems to have worked out that way. The only fish they bothered were my platys. The bettas and my molly teamed up and tortured the platys on the day they moved in, but since then, the tank has been peaceful (I sit and watch it all day - almost every day. 🫤) I do have a tank I can move my bettas to if I need to. And if it comes to it, I can take the angels back to the LFS where I got them. I’m just not yet sure why I would need to - but it it come down to the welfare of my fish, I’m absolutely willing to do whatever is necessary. I’m cleaning the HOB twice a week. I’m wanting two smaller spongies mainly because they’ll be less intrusive in my aquascape. I just want to make sure that they’ll do enough filtration in the 55 gallon. And do I need to keep the HOB? I mean, I probably will, largely because the fish seem to like the current over in that area - especially my molly. Right now I’m using some disposable (fine floss from ACO) combined with some reusable - the coarse sponge and some bio rings. As for the scaping looking like a jungle - yes, I know it does right now. I mentioned above that that’s on my agenda for today. I’m taking out some of the octopus plants, trimming back some of the others and planting some of the new background plants I’ve got (the ones floating on the right in the picture.)

Oh my word, I’m SO HAPPY to find that there’s someone else in the world who can’t get friggin Java Fern to grow! If saving the world from aliens depended on me growing Java Fern, we’d all go up in spaceships. Sorry folks.

It’s become the most relaxing place in my home, but the name has stuck! What can I say? Anyway, I have a few questions, being still new at this hobby. First, I need your advice. I’m hoping to get rid of the super huge sponge filter I have in the tank and replace it with two small ones (or even three, if I need to). I just need y’all’s advice about whether two small Spongies will work in my 55g. I also have a hob, but I’ve given up on it doing much of anything. I have to change the filters in there 2-3 times/week to keep them clean - this tank is still exhausting. If I didn’t love it so much… Now - next question. I think I’ve overstocked it. (Shocking, I know.) What do I need to do to make sure I take care of my fish? It’s so gorgeous, I’d probably do it again - it’s going to be worth all the work I have to put into it. Anyway, the livestock list: 2 female betta, 2 skunk Cory cats (I need more for their little group to be comfortable) - I’m also considering moving them to my tetra tank. They don’t seem to be doing well in the ToN. 6 reticulated Cory cats 2 Angle fish 10 neon tetras 6 Platys 2 Blue Rams 1 bristlenose pleco 1 clown pleco So, you see? Over stocked. I just need to know how to take the best care of them now. I’ve attached a picture. This is from this morning - I’ll be working on the scaping today. The octopus plants are overgrown and I’ve got some new plants that need to be planted. I keep planting hoping it will help cut back on the green algae that keeps trying to overtake my tank - so far no luck, but I keep trying. Anyway, thanks for your help!

As someone with grandkids and dogs, I buy bags of syringes periodically. I like them far better than pipettes. I haven’t tested my pump, but I’ll be doing that later today and will edit this post with the results. It should be interesting. I’ve had my bottle a LONG time.

Ohhh, I’m interested in knowing your rock guy in CO! I’ve been trying to find a good place to buy good stone! You can message me if you don’t want to monopolize Oaken’s thread, haha! Thank you!

Hey! Welcome! I’m Vicki, a floundering newbie with two tanks that are finally (knock on wood) both keeping fish alive and (mostly) growing the plants I put in them. It’s nice to meet another Denver area coop member! I’m in Aurora, so we’re not too far apart. I will say that my tanks are nowhere as pretty as yours, and neither are looking the way I want them to right now - so no pictures. We’ll get there, though. Anyway, it’s great to have you in the forum. You’ll find it’s a great group!

I had to look up UPS too, and I’m not *that* old. We don’t have nearly enough backups for anything. My husband just denies the need for it - saying that we’ll just live without it. We recently had a blackout in our neighborhood lasting 22 hours - no reason we could identify - and we had actually made an online purchase of a generator when our power came back on… and my hubs cancelled the purchase. My fish weathered the outage fairly well. We had the ACO air pump in my Tank of Nightmares (55g) that I switched to the 30 sec on and 30 sec off, and it was going strong the whole time. For the future (and when more pumps are available) I’d like to get one with another line so I can have two pumps in that tank. I normally have a HOB and a sponge, but if the power goes out, wouldn’t it be better to have two sponges in a bigger tank? In my 20 gallon, I’d just happened to put in a small sponge the day before to seed it for a Q tank since I’m planning on buying more stock for my ToN, so all I had to do was switch that small sponge to a battery and it was good to go. Now I’m planning to buy a few more sponges to keep in both my tanks (and the Betta tank I’m planning that nobody knows about yet). Now. To figure out how to plan for heat maintenance…

I’d have never thought to do that! but seriously, that *was* JUST in the nick of time!!! Even more than how I felt about getting my battery air machines installed in both my tanks the day before the power went out for 24 hours - when the power hasn’t been out for more than an hour at our house in oh, probably close to 10 years!!! Wow. Your fish was in dust! Wow! Good save!!!