Chick-in-of-TheSea journal

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I was able to kinda recreate the floating log with my sinking log. Geppetto doesn’t like to go to the bottom much, I noticed, so the log wasn’t getting much use there. I bought suction cups from big box (on sale for 50 cents! Got 2 packs), and they had those C-shaped attachments for heaters. I used the C like a claw to hold the log.  
 

I think this log has more ways in and out than the floating one, and it seems he likes to change up his route. Hopefully the suction cup lasts for awhile. You guys know how suction cups are. Also I put coarse sponge in the little opening so he doesn’t get stuck in there.

Edited November 18, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

I wonder if you can suction cup a pleco cave type of thing.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/17/2022 at 9:13 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I wonder if you can suction cup a pleco cave type of thing.

I don’t know; it’s a good thought. I wasn’t sure how well silicone would hold a suction cup onto an item. There is a bit of weight to decor. There are lots of things on Etsy for bettas, but I felt a lot of it was overpriced and would accomplish the same thing as what I’ve done here. Theirs are lower profile though.

[Guppysnail]

I think your DIY floating log is fabulous. It’s one thing to buy them a toy and another to put the love into one you made work yourself 🥰

[TheSwissAquarist]

I’ve been debating wether to make a “log” for my guppies out of corks and aquarium silicone…just to test how stupid they are 😏.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/17/2022 at 6:21 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I don’t know; it’s a good thought. I wasn’t sure how well silicone would hold a suction cup onto an item. There is a bit of weight to decor. There are lots of things on Etsy for bettas, but I felt a lot of it was overpriced and would accomplish the same thing as what I’ve done here. Theirs are lower profile though.

Yeah.  They have coconut huts and stuff like that, they have a lot of ceramics designs which might lend to the shape for a betta.  I think you can drill it?  The only thing I can think is that the crazy / insanely strong ziss suction cups would hold it on there.  Just a question of how to get them to fit.

BUT, you're right.  Trying to glue what amounts to a brick to the side of the tank probably isn't the best idea in a glass box. LOL

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/18/2022 at 2:12 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yeah.  They have coconut huts and stuff like that, they have a lot of ceramics designs which might lend to the shape for a betta.  I think you can drill it?  The only thing I can think is that the crazy / insanely strong ziss suction cups would hold it on there.  Just a question of how to get them to fit.

BUT, you're right.  Trying to glue what amounts to a brick to the side of the tank probably isn't the best idea in a glass box. LOL

I’m not confident my log will stay there either because suction cups always fail at some point.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I used the flashlight to try to capture Geppetto’s true colors.

 

Tank light only:

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[TheSwissAquarist]

Lovely iridescence 😍😍😍!!

[nabokovfan87]

I wonder why the big difference?

What light is on that tank? Any way to turn down the blue and turn up red/green?

Why do I feel like calibrating monitors and TVs now. 😂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/21/2022 at 1:56 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I wonder why the big difference?

What light is on that tank? Any way to turn down the blue and turn up red/green?

Why do I feel like calibrating monitors and TVs now. 😂

I played with different light settings. I think the light has to be shining directly on his side to see the greens. Or it may relate to light diffusion. 

Night diving is similar. Different colors disappear at different depths in the daytime but since divers are using only a flashlight at night, we see the true colors of the fish and corals. One fun part of advanced training was taking a color card and watching it as I descended to see how it changed. Red is first to go. It completely disappears off the card. Some Other colors stayed but were muted.

On 11/21/2022 at 1:56 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What light is on that tank

Hygger

Edited November 21, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/21/2022 at 11:26 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Hygger

I'll have to make a video for you to show you the same tank with two lights.  Interesting how crazy different my two tanks look and the only real difference is LED part numbers (and dirty glass and cloudy water, but besides that.... LOL

On 11/21/2022 at 11:26 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I played with different light settings. I think the light has to be shining directly on his side to see the greens. Or it may relate to light diffusion. 

Night diving is similar. Different colors disappear at different depths in the daytime but since divers are using only a flashlight at night, we see the true colors of the fish and corals. One fun part of advanced training was taking a color card and watching it as I descended to see how it changed. Red is first to go. It completely disappears off the card. Some Other colors stayed but were muted.

Very very interesting!  I equate it towards the "true color" type of monitors or displays used for editing video and photos compared to the normal ones.  Sometimes accuracy is just slightly more expensive and sometimes that trade is worth it or not. 

Maybe the diving thing has to do with density of the water (pressure or something) and the wavelength of the light in question traveling through that water?

Well I'm on a bender now reading about lighting articles and science stuff. 😂
https://hubblesite.org/contents/articles/spectroscopy-reading-the-rainbow

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/21/2022 at 3:22 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Maybe the diving thing has to do with density of the water (pressure or something) and the wavelength of the light in question traveling through that water?

I believe in the training they called it diffusion of the sunlight; greater diffusion occurs as depth increases.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/21/2022 at 12:33 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I believe in the training they called it diffusion of the sunlight; greater diffusion occurs as depth increases.

Yeah.  I am thinking back to high school or college when we were using prisms and mirrors at different distances to measure wavelength.  That's the image in my mind trying to puzzle it out.  🙂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I don’t believe pressure plays a factor. Hence our flashlights operated properly.

There is a shallow spring run I dive in and the sun casts a bunch of rainbows through the surface of the water and onto the plants and sand below. It’s a cool dive. Lots of alligator gar; the occasional manatee will show up if the weather is cool.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/21/2022 at 12:35 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I don’t believe pressure plays a factor. Hence our flashlights operated properly.

There is a shallow spring run I dive in and the sun casts a bunch of rainbows through the surface of the water and onto the plants and sand below. It’s a cool dive. Lots of alligator gar; the occasional manatee will show up if the weather is cool.

Totally makes sense.  That's awesome. 

Alright.  Editing video for you now! 🙂 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/21/2022 at 3:35 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I don’t believe pressure plays a factor. Hence our flashlights operated properly.

There is a shallow spring run I dive in and the sun casts a bunch of rainbows through the surface of the water and onto the plants and sand below. It’s a cool dive. Lots of alligator gar; the occasional manatee will show up if the weather is cool.

This is the first part of the dive. This area/crevice is called the headspring. Some free divers took this video. Trust me, it’s a real challenge at the bottom, as the current coming out of the vent is so strong that I had to hold my mask on my face with my hand. They got some nice footage here. Also if divers look hard enough, there are fossils to be seen in the walls. 

It was here in the head spring that I completed the color card drills, as well as my deep cert, which is part of Advanced Open Water.

@nabokovfan87

Advanced has 4 parts: Deep, Search & Recovery, Underwater photography, and Peak Performance Buoyancy. At least those are the parts I took. There are others than can be selected by students. They get to pick from a list.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/21/2022 at 12:53 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Advanced has 4 parts: Deep, Search & Recovery, Underwater photography, and Peak Performance Buoyancy.

That's awesome.  Do you know any divers with asthma?

Very cool bit at the end hearing them talk about the process of trying to film that.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/21/2022 at 4:08 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

That's awesome.  Do you know any divers with asthma?

Very cool bit at the end hearing them talk about the process of trying to film that.

 

No, I don’t believe so. Plenty with seasickness though!

This video was taken by my friend Patty. The latter part of the video shows the light diffusion I was referring to where sometimes rainbows can be seen.

3:25 light diffusion

3:35 school of mullet

3:43 alligator gar

3:58 manatees (not an every day occurrence, by the way)

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Did my water change on Geppetto’s tank today, still using the “tea water”. This is all that’s left of the crinum, back by the sponge filter. Man, was it glorious when it first went in the tank. I gave it a tug and it seems to have rooted itself so that’s promising. I wonder if it minds being so close to the heater?

Geppetto remains involved in the water change and plant trimming process. I have to be careful if I’m using the scissors. He’s so curious about what’s going on in his domain.

Also I kicked up a detritus worm and it started squiggling and free swimming like crazy. Geppetto stalked it, charged at it, and CHOMP! And that was the end of that. It was EPIC! 

Sorry the photos are hazy. The dust hasn’t settled yet.

 

I replaced his leaf with a floating one to see if he will bubble nest again.

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

My Betta Koianu has been doing a good job of keeping the worms off the glass and bottom of the Accidental Oto tank- there used to be a TON of them in there from an IMO bad plant order. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

 

Geppetto uses his front bottom fins as kickstands when he settles on the bottom. ☺️ Do all bettas do that? 

[redfish]

I’ve noticed the changes in color based on the light also.  I’ve never seen our boy make a bubble nest 😏

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/22/2022 at 10:15 AM, redfish said:

I’ve noticed the changes in color based on the light also.  I’ve never seen our boy make a bubble nest 😏

Do you have anything floating? Leaves or plants?  I noticed @TheSwissAquarist had a betta that also made a nest in plant leaves that were laying on the surface.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/22/2022 at 5:45 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Do you have anything floating? Leaves or plants?  I noticed @TheSwissAquarist had a betta that also made a nest in plant leaves that were laying on the surface.

All bettas do, apart from the overbred ones who’ve lost the natural instinct…