nabokovfan87

That's awesome. Congratulations. If the betta bug gets you, considering your setup, I might have to beg you to try out a cool version. The world needs more of them and they are very endangered/threatened.

Stared at the tanks and trying to just check on things. So far everyone is doing well and seems happy. They want substrate in the QT tank, but fish are good. I checked the Garden-in-progress and the new rotala species is growing! I have the ludwigia that got frozen in the shipping and it looks like it might be growing as well. Exciting to see the new growth (I think) and it's going to be amazing to watch it the next few days/weeks.

Hm. The shrinkage could be a sign of fin deterioration / fin rot. Do you see any sort of white edges on the end of the fins?

There is some cool videos and setup details regarding the fish in question. I would love to keep them! They seem really interesting. I would lean for the shallow tank, more floor space.

I've had a 55 and a 75 with anywhere from 4-8 otos and then a ton of corydoras, amano shrimp, as well as 3-4 different pleco species. I wouldn't be concerned at all with adding 1-3 plecos. In my tank I had a pitbull/rubberlip pleco, I had a bristlenose, and I had 2 types of clown plecos. They inhabit different parts of the tanks. Otos will go to different spots as well where the bigger plecos cannot get to. As far as the 1 inch per gallon rule, check out AQAdvisor as a place to start. That rule really doesn't apply these days and you're better off just sort of finding a mentor or using more modern tools to estimate what is the correct level of stocking. In a 55G, you can easily have 2-3 schools of nano fish without much fuss. When I say schools, I'm talking like... 8-20 fish per school. Hopefully that helps.

Can you take a photo or video of the setup and what you're seeing? You might have a loose part or there might be a setup issue/method issue for what you're experiencing.

Nice work.

I see a few things here that I wanted to mention for the sake of helping you off on the right foot with your start in the hobby. A lot of plastic plants can be pretty sharp. Just based on this photo and not really understanding the full setup, I would try to remove a good amount of those plants so that the fish has more swimming room. They have large, broad leaved plants that they sell as "betta hammocks" that might be good to help give the fish a place to rest. There are silk plants that can be a lot softer on delicate fish as well. There is also a plant called anubias that would be a good one to try as well. It's very easy to care for and would also give the fish some place to rest/cover. Essentially, the friction/rubbing on those plants can lead towards something like an abrasion and the betta fins could get irritated, torn, or damaged which would lead to open woulds or infection setting in. A far too high amount of bettas sold in the stores have fin rot issues from the start and so it's probably a good idea to treat for it regardless whenever you do purchase one. For fin rot you want to have 2-3 things on hand: Aquarium salt, botanicals (like indian almond leaves or catappa leaves), as well as a med for gram negative bacterial issues. This could be either maracyn 2 or kanaplex. Either one of those in addition to the salt would be the treatment materials. I mention them now for the sake of, if you need to order something in, you can. (regarding water tests) Your results look like my tap water as well. KH and GH are right there. As mentioned, raise temp just a little bit and keep up with water changes to keep the tank parameters stable. Welcome to the forums. I am very sorry for the initial struggles you're having.

That's amazing. I've never seen it before. Congratulations!

It's very difficult to see much given the lighting and blur on the photos. I would look into fin rot and compare that to what you see in person.

With a Betta it might be a temp or light thing. It could be where the fish feels safe as well as where the heater is located in the tank. Most fish have a territory they cover and that's his spot. 🙂

Your question regarding stems. Basically what you would do is called "topping". You cut off the healthy part with the leaves and plunge the base of that into the substrate. You can then remove the section that bare and let the new plants root into that section of the tank. You can also leave the segments that have rooted already and just cut off the bare stalks. (No leaves, and see if they grow). It should, and having that root base will help feed the plant to grow new leaves quickly.

I believe it was a tazawa tanks video, but there is a very easy and straightforward method that I tend to use. I think it's like everything in the hobby and it's a skill you have to tune in. In my case, I have bottom dwellers and shrimp, so they can take hours to eat their food. Let's say I feed my tank and it has catfish (corydoras, plecos, etc.) and I have food left over after 5+ hours. It's very likely to assume that I overfed the tank. Cut that amount in half and try it again. The other question is about how often. Specifically, let's say you're feeding more often, then you might want to split that across the day to get the right feeding behavior and not have unhealthy/bloated fish. Here's the real technique I use and what I had heard from in various videos on YouTube (either Irene or Zenzo had this tidbit).... If you're feeding fish that are mid water or top of the water column, then when you feed you'd want to see all of the food gone after about 10-15 minutes. After that point, if you see a food leftover then you likely have too much food going into the tank. When I feed I turn off the equipment and give the fish 20-30 minutes to eat. This lets some food mix around, some stick on the surface, and some fall towards the bottom. Some food will say "feed enough for the fish to eat in 2-3 minutes", but I have some shy fish and they take a little bit of time to eat that food. Anywhere around 5 minutes I would expect to see some of the stragglers getting their morsels. In that 10-15 minute range most everyone is done eating and there might be younger fish getting their food in after it's broken down into smaller or softer pieces. I use time, and let's just say there's food leftover, then you cut back and try it again. I feed once a day or I'll feed smaller amounts, twice a day. Yep!!!! If you want to talk specific species then maybe more people can chime in on how they feed those particular fish. Feeding just as the lights come on or as they go out tends to be best for that situation and you can still see their feeding response. Same thing applies, you want to see them eat and check for how much food is leftover after a little bit of time has passed. Might be checking after an hour. It might be checking after several hours given the nocturnal nature.

I would think there was either some sort of contamination or dechlorination wasn't used. 😞 There was a youtube video that matches exactly what you experienced and the guy realized after he forgot dechlorinator. I can't find the video because of search algorithm recommendation issues, but yeah.... I would recommend using dechlorinator. My condolences.

It might be bacteria. What is the filtration you're running and how is it setup?

I just got some of these. So very underrated at how interesting they can be to watch and enjoy. That color is so intense! 1000%

Cc @Chick-In-Of-TheSea @xXInkedPhoenixX The behavior you're seeing is very normal and actually can be healthy for the betta. It's a behavior where they exercise muscles that they need to for the sake of being healthy long term. The issue comes in when they don't stop flairing and they overexert themselves to the point of malnourishment. (This basically applies to male Bettas, but I would think that female Bettas can do it as well) A few common techniques would be to relocate the tank itself if there is a long term glare issue causing too much stress. You can also try something like a white or black vinyl film on the side of the tank to cover up some of those reflections and make it harder for the fish to see itself. Beyond that I think add in some more decor / hard scape to keep the fish interesting. Maybe a good rock or a piece of would could be helpful to give the fish more "things to do" and explore.

I believe there's a lot of species, but the main distinction is spotted vs. lines.

Awesome to see the detailed breakdown and thank you for taking the time to show it off! Shrimp are just so much fun, have been a learning curve, but have been so fun and easy once you get that method down.

I see at least 2! 🙂 I recently got into keeping neocaridina shrimp as well and it's been an adjustment. I've just gone past the one year mark. There's a few things that I try to do in my own setups based on my own intuition and my own experiences keeping amano shrimp for a longer time. I cherish my shrimp. I adore them and I have definitely had my own struggles as well, especially when first getting started. @Shadow is undergoing similar experiences as I've been and it's great to have the plethora of shrimp keepers we have on the forums because there is such a range of care and such a difference in what we are seeing. Some lines like different water than others. Shrimp can be regional, certain colors can be more temperamental, but the bottom line is always going to be that base care and understanding exactly what works well. @Minanora has a journal for orange shrimp and I think it would be a great one for you to check out and enjoy. I believe that yellow and orange lines are extremely similar and it might give you an interesting perspective on strengthening a line over time to your care and your water/habitat. My best piece of advice I can give you is to understand the method of care and to focus on that method. Everything else is based on that one notion. I have read things saying that if you have a GH over 6 it's cruelty and that I needed to sell my animals and get rid of my tank. There's all kinds of mindsets out there and there is a ton of bizarre information that seems to get repeated often. My one source of video information has been youtube's infamous shrimp keeper.... Mark's Shrimp Tanks. I also love the content by Chris Lukhaup (aka shrimp king, yep... the guys who made that food), but he does not make content as often as others. My other source of information has been looking at research articles and studies about the shrimp in nature. Trying to understand their care and contrast that against what I know/experience with my amano shrimp. I know amano shrimp come from cooler rivers and that is the setup I tried to follow for my neocaridina shrimp. That was my start. There's always going to be someone saying that you must do things this way or you run into issues and there's going to be that extra effort as a beginner shrimper to try to find perfection. Alright.... so, the thing here to keep in mind is that mantra of "good food takes time" and that sometimes you have to just let the shrimp do their thing. You will likely lose some shrimp (sometimes a lot of shrimp) at first or in the first couple of months, but understanding what is really going on can be key... back to that care technique and how they function. The most common misconception with shrimp is about water changes, molting issues, and specifically with what you're seeing in the tank and what that means. When you first add shrimp to the tank they are adapting and acclimating to a very different environment. It might be an older shrimp that couldn't handle the stress and that caused a death (it's just that basic and simple) or it could be a shrimp that wasn't getting enough food before they were in your care. But, let's just try to keep things very, very simple and understand the rhythm of the shrimp. They need nutrients in order to molt properly, they expend that energy when they molt, and then they have to repeat that process. For female shrimp it's a bit more complicated because they have to handle molting as well as raising the shrimplets. They molt, need to get energy to recover from molting as well as store energy for their next hatching cycle, then they have to generate the eggs, deposit them on their swimmerets, and then carry those eggs to term over ~28 days. In that time it is the mother shrimp's nature to try to hold off as long as possible and prohibit the molting process. They will and can often exhaust themselves for the sake of raising those eggs to term. These are some of my oldest amanos and they go through that cycle of raising their zoes (amano babies). That sort of brownish color, almost mahogany at times is their shell getting thicket and thicker and harder and harder. The longer they wait to molt, means that it might get to a point of them not being able to escape their shell and they will die from that stress. So... if we expand back to that base theme of trying to understand the method of care, then we focus purely on giving the shrimp every advantage to be able to molt on rhythm and to be able to keep their energy levels consistent through those various stages. What this means is that as soon as there is any change at all, stress happens. Consistency being the key, but that is why you're not seeing those shrimp. They are acclimating to the new environment, trying to map out where things are and find food. They are trying to find their favorite spaces, hide from predators, find the flow spots they like, and several other things. They might molt right away or in the first week. That cycle starts and the key being to just make sure they are eating and make sure they have what they need. One of the best ways you can "check on them" is to use a feeding dish. This lets you see them every other day or every few days and it gives you the ability to see how they are handling that food. If there's a lot of food leftover, then you might be feeding too much, or you might have an issue where they can't break down the food too! I added 12-13 amano shrimp to my tank on wednesday and I've seen 2-3 in that entire time span. I was sitting there watching the tank for a few hours a day and trying hard to find them, I couldn't. I checked at night and I still couldn't see them. I think I did finally find them hiding behind the moss wall on the back of the tank cleaning behind it. As long as you are seeing them, just give them time. I wouldn't worry too much and I would just try to be patient and test water as you see fit. I'm willing to bet they love the wood surfaces too, not just the plants. Before feeding. A few minutes After:

Fun! 😂 Very good and interesting point. Moss is that way too. Very good because it attracts things and the shrimp can "brush it off".

She also heats the room. Bags also can be acclimated to temp that way. But... Severe issue and she had no choice to get the fish out of the bag asap. The changes happen when you open the bag or if there is a leak in the bag. During travel oxygen is used and co2 is released. When you open the bag, things change. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/how-to-acclimate-new-aquarium-fish When the pH is low, ammonia turns into ammonium. When that pH immediately jumps up it's very toxic. That is exactly why people "plop and drop"..... after temp acclimating.

1. You're not opening the bag and you're supposed to float the bags to match temp. 2. You're supposed to do so with the lights out. Above is a video and it goes into one method for acclimating fish. There's a lot of methods and advice out there and it changes based on circumstance. I'd be interested to know where the advice came from if you feel like sharing via DM or something. Interesting stuff.

As long as it's growing I don't think I would adjust light. S. Repens needs a good amount of light and once you have enough it starts to take off. The algae you're talking about is green dust algae or green spot algae. Basically, the common advice is going to be that it's either.... -excess nutrients -lack of balance -too much/not enough phosphate -not enough CO2 -excess/not enough light I know it's confusing and it leaves a lot of room for second guessing if you're making the right change. It feels a bit like a game of whack a mole or sometimed. The thing that makes sense for me in my tanks is to step back, double check all the parameters I can and go from there. If I just changed light intensity up and that algae is forming, then I would lean towards that being a main cause. If I just upped dosing, then I would go that route. If nitrates were very high then I would focus on water changes. I hope that as the plant grows you're able to get things dialed in. It's absolutely a process. Small changes are key though and give them time to show an impact on the plants.

I think it's all plastic. Basically it's similar material to what you see onions and potatoes shipped in sometimes.