Anjum

Cool wild bettas! That's awesome!

Huh, I wonder if this is what's wrong with one of my tanks. I have a 20 long I bought used. I asked the seller if they had used any medications in it & they said no. But I've never had snails thrive in that tank, where they thrive in all my others. It's not for lack of food, that tank has livebearers & I feed heavily. Plus it's got lots of algae. I cleaned the tank pretty well when I got it, bleach & hot water. It's been up about a year now & lately it seems like the snails have been surviving longer. Could past medications stick around that much in the silicone or something? ETA: The HOB came with the tank too. I put all new filter media in it, but couldn't clean it as thoroughly as the tank. Maybe that's another source of contamination??

Same 😅 Glad to hear you're doing well 🙂 I myself have just been extraordinarily busy. Between work & yardwork & life, I can see how the hobby takes a backseat for a lot of people in the summer. But I've been itching to get some things going. I have 4 tanks I bought in April still sitting empty. Soon, soon.. I was at the co-op a couple weeks ago & got some new shrimp & plants. And I just made another plant order, so that should spur me into action. I've had some ups & downs with my tanks. Thankfully 2 of them are very stable & running on autopilot. The other 2 are in a window & I've been battling cyanobacteria. I thought they'd be fine, they've been there since last August. But I now realize, that the light intensity was steadily decreasing when I set them up, and when spring rolled around this year & the light steadily increased, problems started. One of them is a 5 gal w/ no animals in it anymore, which I'll be tearing down. But the other has fish in it which I'll be moving once I set up one of those aforementioned tanks... For now, I've mostly blacked it out & the cyanobacteria isn't spreading. One thing at a time... sometimes I shoot myself in the foot by having too many options. 🤷‍♀️

I'm glad your Honey is settling in! I had a similar experience - I added a solo Honey to a community tank & at 1st he seemed lonely. But after a couple days, he started exploring the tank & interacting w/ the other fish. More plants is a great idea, mine loves weaving in & out of the plants. Another thing you might try: mine has learned that food comes from tweezers & when I stick the tweezers in the water, he swims right up & will eat from them. I feed frozen (thawed) bloodworms & repashy from tweezers, but probably any kind of food you could pick up in tweezers would work. Swish them around in the water a bit, then let the food go. Pretty soon he'll catch on. 🙂

Yep! Some roosters are real jerks! Mine is, I have to carry a stick with me when I go in the chicken yard. Here's the start of my new flock: 3 Lavender Orpingtons, 3 Cream Legbars & 3 Buckeyes. They're from a sexed batch, so there's only a 10% chance of any being roosters. I'm gonna be real choosy about my next rooster!

Sounds like a good course of action. Bettas are like that, sometimes too rambunctious for their own good. Maybe keep the lights low for a bit too, just try & keep him calm.

Is there anything jagged, sharp or rough in the tank he could be tearing his fins on? It could just be standard wear & tear though. Another thing you can do as a preventative good measure is add Indian almond leaves/ catappa leaves. The tannins they release have anti-fungal properties. It might not be enough to treat an existing infection but it can help things from setting in.

Confirmed sighting of 6 Goodeid fry today. I'm glad to know my creation of hides & addition of dense vegetation worked. For a while, I didn't see more than one at a time & I feared they were either picked off or not getting enough to eat. But they're putting on size & swimming more freely. They're approaching a cm in length, maybe about 8 mm.

Legend goes..... Cory coined the term during a Livestream. It's a mash up of the words aquarium & nerd, definition being a person who is otherwise normal but nerds out to aquariums. I'm not sure if he intentionally mashed up the words or if it was a slip of the tongue.

See, the thing is, I've read SO MUCH conflicting info & anecdotes about SAE, that I think it's one of those things where they're just highly variable in their temperaments, and a lot has to do with their environment, tank mates, etc. They can definitely get up to 6"; I've seen them full grown in large tanks (on yt & stuff). But maybe they don't get that large in a smaller tank??? And no, you'll never get them to leave the flake food alone. Or any other food for that matter 😅

This was basically my experience as well. Mine were already sizable when I got them, about 2.5". By the time I rehomed them, they were approaching 4" & voracious eaters. And a caveat to this.. I put 2 in too small of a tank & it was not good. One would chase the other relentlessly & never let it eat. The "bully" got fat & the other got skinny. I separated them into 2 community tanks & they lived out their time with me happily. When the bullied one got comfortable in his new tank, he became a food-hog & put on weight quickly. After observing mine for quite some time, I learned their way of feeding was to watch the other fish in the tank & when they ate, go join them (and occasionally chase them away). They were never aggressive per se to other types of fish, but they were assertive eaters. Again, mine were relatively large when I got them. I've seen them for sale in the store much smaller than I ever had; they may act differently when they're smaller. Mine also never ate much algae, but again, I've heard they tend to eat more algae when they're smaller. I've since learned (read on the internet; YMMV), they're the type of fish you want to keep singly or in a larger group. But they can ultimately get to 6", so you'd need a large tank for a group.

Best of luck! I waited so long to get neos because I was so scared of killing them. But I finally got some from the co-op a few weeks ago & I now have at least 2, possibly 3 berried females. So I am quite relieved! I got 12 shrimp initially, but I haven't seen more than 8 at a time. There's a mass of PSO & other plants in there though so it's entirely possible there's a few hiding at any given time. I think you'll do just fine!

Pulled 6 Cory eggs & put them in the shrimp tank this morning. Now we wait...

Not that big, 5cm (almost 2") for females. 3cm (1") for males.