dangerflower

I think the mirror is a great idea to give him some mental stimulation. I wouldn't leave it in the tank as seeing the reflection constantly can stress them, but you can give him a minute or two of mirror time daily. There are lots of products you can buy that will provide resting spots near the surface. There are little plastic flat leaves that suction cup to the side of the tank, and plastic hollow betta tubes - you can find them on etsy easily. What are you feeding him? Feeding a variety of foods can be more interesting for them and helps maintain nutritional balance. Trying a live or frozen food might entice him.

This is my first time hearing about this species. They're so cool! Congrats on the new tiny guy.

Pygmy corys are the best fit for a 10 gallon but they aren't a great fit to house with a betta. They can be skittish and shy (mine are, at least) and they prefer cooler temps and stronger flow than bettas. Same for most corys. Sterbai corys are happy at warmer temps and they're super cute! But too big for a 10 gallon, I think. Another issue with bettas in community tanks is that they love to steal food. I recently had a betta get sick and pass away after gorging herself on cory pellets 😞 Maybe you could also set up a dedicated 5 gallon for a betta and do your small community set up in the 10 gallon? 😁

Welcome! I'd love to see pictures of your goldfish 😁 I think micro rasboras, like chili rasboras, can make good tank mates as long as your betta isn't too aggressive, because they're very peaceful and tiny enough that you can fit a decent group comfortably in a 10 gallon. But a betta's compatibility with tank mates is always going to come down to the individual's personality, so it's a good idea to have a backup plan.

Thank you @Colu. Unfortunately when I woke up this morning, Teeth had already passed 😞 I will make sure I have those meds on hand for future incidents. Is it possible that overeating could have lead to organ damage that caused the dropsy? It just seems like it had to be related since there was such a direct correlation. I suppose she may have also been stressed by living in the community tank and had a weakened immune system, although I didn't observe any signs of stress. The other tank inhabitants all seem fine but I will definitely double check my parameters.

I don't have a lot of hope for this poor fishy making it through the night unfortunately, but I'm trying to gain some insight into what happened in case I encounter something like this again. I have a betta, named Teeth, who I was trying out housing in my 20 long community tank with sterbai corries and emerald eye rasboras. She's been living in there for maybe two months. She had definitely been snacking on the other fishes' food, which I was concerned about, but I hadn't noticed any weight gain or issues. I typically fast the tank once a week and also feed frozen foods at least once a week. About a week ago, I fed the tank in the evening, including dropping some bottom feeder wafers for the corries, which Teeth does love to steal. The next morning, Teeth was very bloated from apparently gorging herself on cory food. This has happened before, but I've never seen her that bad. Her belly was very round and I noticed a slight pineconing of the scales on her underbelly. Proceeded to begin several days of fasting the tank except for small amounts of frozen daphnia to try to help her system clear out. She did not improve, but was swimming and behaving normally, not showing any signs of lethargy. The pineconing increased, and by yesterday she was fully pineconed all over. I did an Epsom salt dip yesterday and saw no improvement. Today I came home from work and found her lethargic at the bottom of the tank, barely able to move. Still bloated, still pineconed. Tried another Epsom dip. I've got her isolated in a breeder box in the tank for comfort. I have a hospital tank ready but I fear she's too far gone for meds 😞 What happened here? Obviously it looks like a case of dropsy but there was such an obvious connection with her overeating the cory pellets. Can gastrointestinal distress lead to dropsy? Is there anything I should try to do for this fish at this point? Thanks, I appreciate y'all ❤️

The rimless tanks are so nice! Are they only going to be available locally?

I recently got a group of one of my wish list fish - sterbai corys - and I love them so much! I would love to try keeping rams someday, especially electric blue rams. I also want to keep some sort of wild betta eventually. Betta hendra seem really cool, and they're endangered in the wild so breeding them in captivity is beneficial to keeping the species going. I also really want a nice big school of green neon tetras at some point. I was going to get them for my 20 long but my lfs was out of stock and I went with a different schooling fish. My biggest fish dream, if I ever have a yard, is to build a goldfish pond.

That looks so good! I love this style of stand, so simple and sturdy. The way you finished it looks really nice.

I usually rinse them to remove any debris, then boil for 20 minutes, discard that water, and rinse again. Then depending on how much control I want over the tint, I'll either steep them in some warm dechlorinated water for a bit (to release some tannins, and then I can decide how much of that tinted water to add), or just toss them right into the tank.

So sorry you're going through this 😞 how long has the tank been running and how long have you had the fish? my first thought was that there could have been anaerobic bacteria in your substrate that released toxins when you moved that driftwood. Have you noticed any bad smells coming from the tank?

Oh wow, I did not realize that cory barbels could get that big 😍 they're so cute! Good to hear about your experience with BDBS. I have a bag that I got a while back that I've been afraid to use.

The danio / pygmy cory tank is looking so good and lush! I'm working on setting up a 10 gallon pygmy tank as well and I'm pretty excited for it.

I love sparkling gouramis so much! I have a small group in my 20 gallon long and I really wish they were doing better. In the year that I've had them, two have died from what seemed to be digestive issues / bloat, I think from stress 😕 I wound up with mostly males and they do get territorial with each other. I'm actually thinking of shuffling some fish around and moving mine into an established 10 gallon tank and keeping them in a species only situation. The smaller tank size is maybe not ideal but that tank is more densely planted so might be more comfortable for them. I have a school of emerald eye rasboras living with them in the 20 long and those guys are too boisterous for the gouramis. Before the one female of the group died, mine were almost constantly spawning! But I didn't have any luck keeping the fry alive. They're very tiny and don't go for powdered fry food. I did have two randomly survive on their own in the tank though, and now I have two adolescent sparklers who are very adorable.

I've been away from the forum for a but, trying to get back into the habit of checking and posting again. Unfortunately I have some sad news to share, belatedly. I haven't really had the heart to post about it until now. Sweet Doctor Sparkles passed away on April 21st. His health declined suddenly and unexpectedly -- he was fine in the morning, and when I came home from work that afternoon, he was on the bottom of the tank, barely alive, unable to swim at all. I'm really not sure what happened, and it was definitely a shock. I had just recently finished re-scaping his tank and was excited to share it with you all. He only got about a month in the new set up before he passed. I hope the stress of the change didn't cause his health to fail, but he seemed comfortable in the new tank. I learned a lot because of this little fish. I wish I had posted about him more here, but I'm grateful to you all on this forum for sharing these snippets of his life. This is the last photo I ever took of him, hanging out in his new betta tube that he absolutely loved. And here's him checking out the new tank set up. Swim in peace, little buddy. 💔