Bee's First Tank Adventure

[BeeGryphon]

Fed frozen bloodworms for the first time and it was an instant crowd favorite. Everyone was super excited. I did some in a worm cone and some chopped up for the little guys. Betta didn't seem very into the worm cone, honestly. He ate out of it if he had to, but preferred going after anything loose in the water, which meant when I started pouring in the chopped up worms he abandoned his cone and went after those. He's such a little piggy! I think everyone got enough, not like my little tetras need too much, but he definitely took more than his fair share of the chopped stuff and then I ended up throwing away a good amount of the stuff in the cone (and now I know about how much I need to feed them so hopefully won't need to do that again). I'll play with the process in future feeds and see what I can do to make it more efficient.

[BeeGryphon]

I had Friday off so I did some tank clean up then. I also trimmed down my lily because it had gotten insane! It was a little nerve wracking because rather than getting out of the way, my betta like to follow me around and see what I'm doing, including when "I" am some big scissors! I don't think he really got close enough he was in danger, but too close for my comfort! Once the main tank light was back and on, I noticed a lily leaf and pad had some holes in them. I'm thinking potassium deficiency. I use Easy Green but I think not often enough for how many nutrients the lily consumes. I'm going to try to remember to dose every day for a while and see. Hopefully this doesn't make the lily completely take over the tank in a week....

Today I found some hitchhikers...

They're cute.

[BeeGryphon]

Fed frozen daphnia today and the tetras and corys reacted a bit slow but ultimately acted as they usually do at dinner time (not the frantic enthusiasm of bloodworm treat tho) but betta boy seemed less than impressed. I put in a feeder ring and he swam right up into it, then I dropped in a half a block of daphnia and, mistakenly thinking it would float and melt at the surface, ran off to quickly clean up the knife and "cutting board" I used. When I came back the daphnia had sank and was mostly a sad glob in a java fern and betta boy was still poking around in the feeder ring, either being rings are fun or he was hoping for better food. I took the ring out and used tweezers to bring some of the daphnia up to the surface and stir up the rest. He wasn't interested at all in any free floating, but did kind of poke at some collected in small piles on the wood. Mostly I watched him take mouthfuls and spit them back out. He just did this over and over until the pile was gone. And any time I came up to the tank he'd immediately swim up and beg, which he has not done while he's actively got any other food before, so I'm thinking it's not a hit with him lol. This is just too bad for him because I got a whole pack. I am going to try putting it in the worm cone next time and just seeing if that will help with how it falls. If I don't like that I guess I'll just melt it all in a little jar of water first so it's broken up before I put it in. Hopefully he will learn to at least tolerate it.

[BeeGryphon]

Today I caught my betta eating the bottom wafer piece... Or at least grabbing it, sometimes shaking it around, then mostly spitting out what he got. I assume that means he's either full but still trying to eat the corys food because he's a menace, or doesn't actually like the taste but still wants to eat the corys food because he's a menace.

 

[BeeGryphon]

Last night I noticed one of betta's eyes was cloudy and looked like it had a film on it. Currently I'm not too worried, he was very energetic and didn't seem to have any other problems. I'm thinking he probably rubbed it against something and gave himself a small injury. Mostly I'm putting it in here for documentation and correct dating if I need it later. I'm planning on checking back in when I get home tonight and see if there is any change. I'm also planning on doing a bit more thorough clean of the tank than usual (typically I don't favor an overly clean looking tank but obviously if he has an injury cleaner is better) with a 30% or more water change (last night ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate were all 0, this is again more about cleanliness) and adding some fresh IAL. Hopefully this is just something small and I can just give him a little healing boost.

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:17 PM, BeeGryphon said:

When I came back the daphnia had sank and was mostly a sad glob in a java fern and betta boy was still poking around in the feeder ring, either being rings are fun or he was hoping for better food.

They have things called worm feeders that work well. It holds the food at the surface so the fish can bite through the holes in the feeder. If the food is really fine, id imagine it would be messy still but that might be something to look into.  It's fun though, you got to feed him with the tweezers. 🙂

On 4/12/2023 at 7:36 PM, BeeGryphon said:

Or at least grabbing it, sometimes shaking it around, then mostly spitting out what he got.

It could be just his way of chewing. That's just how some fish eat and chew their foods into smaller sizes.

On 4/14/2023 at 2:29 PM, BeeGryphon said:

Hopefully this is just something small and I can just give him a little healing boost.

Hopefully it clears up!

[BeeGryphon]

On 4/15/2023 at 3:11 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

They have things called worm feeders that work well. It holds the food at the surface so the fish can bite through the holes in the feeder. If the food is really fine, id imagine it would be messy still but that might be something to look into.  It's fun though, you got to feed him with the tweezers.

I did use a cone feeder after this and it worked much better!

[BeeGryphon]

I cleaned up my tank this weekend, scrubbed up some of the botanicals, trimmed the dwarf lily and the java fern, the dwarf lily because some leaves had holes and the java fern because it's started looking pretty sad. I trimmed away the worst of the leaves and took off a couple baby plants from those and shoved them into some crannies on the wood. I vacuumed up the substrate and moved stuff around. I like how I've moved the wood, feels more dynamic and like there is more bottom space. I also planted the sad little remnant of my Brazilian Pennywort that's been floating. It was doing well, grew a few leaves and I was waiting on roots, but once they grew in most of the leaves died! I think part of the problem is they get caught on the lily pads and end up under them and getting no light, so I went ahead and planted the one leaf and will hope for the best. I also realized I'm probably due for some root tabs and that's probably why my dwarf lily is going holey even as I'm increasing Easy Green dosage, so I put in some of those around the lily and by the baby Pennywort. I gotta say I really struggle getting those in. Not my favorite thing to do lol. The fish haven't gotten pretty chill with me doing tank maintenance. Maybe too chill... Almost got a cory with the siphon! But he escaped no harm done. And betta boy likes to follow me around the tank as always.

Just kind of quickly took this pic after doing maintenance since I changed things up and didn't realize it's all at an angle and everything. Oh well, I will get a better pic later.

[BeeGryphon]

Betta's eye is looking much better. I was worried for him after I did a tank cleaning and water change on Sunday because he was hiding out on the bottom of the tank under the log, could swim fine and would swim up for air but would immediately go back. That's not like him at all, especially when I'm in the room. He likes attention and will usually be out in front posing and doing aggressive little swims (I call his zigzag dance) until I pay attention to him. So having him hide and keep his fins all in tight while I was sitting in front of the tank made me very anxious. He likes to follow me around in the tank so I was worried I'd bonked him and hurt him. But after an hour or two he started coming back out and was completely back to normal by the end of the day. He did swim up to the flow when I was adding in new water so I think maybe that bothered him?

The ramshorn snails sure do love leaves! Previously the IAL I put in lasted quite a while before breaking down, but yesterday I noticed a leaf I put in last week covered in holes, and yeah the ramshorns have been all over that one. My nerites, well... I think I may have messed up. I have soft western Washington water, but my water hardness went up after a couple days when I first filled the tank. I figure something in the substrate? And I had some calcium chip samples I was using as supplements. My snails didn't seem to eat it but I guess I figured the calcium would end up in the water if they didn't eat it? I don't know. I planned to get something else after because I found the uneaten chips annoying, but figured I'd use what I had first. My nerites don't come out much during the day, so I don't see them much, but I do look for them when I do a cleaning. Only one of the snails occasionally comes out, "Pottery Snail", a tiger nerite. The other, "Black Snail", doesn't really ever come out but does move sleep spots so I know it's alive. Anyway, when I found Black Snail on Sunday I realized his shell really didn't look good. It had some much lighter bands in it. Pottery Snail looks fine and as I said seems more active, so I don't know if Black Snail needs more calcium for some reason or is getting out competed somehow? I put some cuttlebone in yesterday so hopefully everyone will be fine now. I will keep checking on Black Snail if he doesn't come out. I'll be very said if he dies because I didn't give him what he needs 😞

On a nicer note, my biggest cory is looking very plump and her tummy is SO shiny, like mother of pearl, I'm thinking she may be carrying eggs? I don't plan on actually having any surviving fry but it's still exciting!

[BeeGryphon]

Yesterday I came home to a bubble nest 🥺 Didn't think to take a pic of it and then of course kind of destroyed it when I was clipping some of the lily pads away... He did build it on the new IAL I put in and it was sunk this morning anyway. Hopefully I'll get more now that he's making them!

Today I leave for my sister's wedding and it will be the first time I'm away for more than the day since getting my fishies. My roommate is home to take care of them and I'll only be gone a few days anyway (coming home Monday night), but I'm still a little worried something will of course have to happen while I'm gone. Mostly I think everything will be fine but the background anxiety that comes up with what-ifs is definitely there.

[BeeGryphon]

I'm back and everything went well! The wedding was great and I got to see and hang out with a bunch of people I haven't seen in a long time, but I'm happy to be home. When I was gone our power went out for a couple hours (actually, the power went out where I was staying, states away, at the exact same time for the same length of time.... weird....) but everything was fine since it was only a couple hours (reminds me, I need to get a battery bank for the heater and filter before winter, since I feel we have a significant power outage once a year). I like to think my boy was dancing extra aggressively for me yesterday lol. He built a new nest under a lilypad! I'll have to remember to take a picture!

[BeeGryphon]

My corys really seem to like snail food more than bottom feeder food. Don't get me wrong they like their bottom wafers but when I put in an algae wafer or snail cookie they go crazy! I put it in shortly before bed since my snails seem to be more active at night and by the time I actually go to bed it's half gone. No idea if my snails even get any (or if they even want any, I hear nerites often don't like commercial food).

No nest pics, he didn't maintain it. Instead check out my big cory girl. I swear she's bigger every day! She's very round and usually followed by a little guy or two.

[BeeGryphon]

I had noticed my Betta's head has gotten darker but comparing the first photo I took of him I realized he's lost most of his white!

First day pic:

Yesterday pic:

(It was so hard to get a good pic of him yesterday because it was a fasting day so he was swimming so angry at me trying to get me to feed him lol)

In my icon pic you can see his white turning pink. I thought it was just the tint of the water or something but it seems he started changing color almost immediately. I miss his white and more multicolor look but color change is very cool! Interested to see where he's going with it.

Also I finally named him BeiBei! He's named after a character from one of my favorite books, because he's blue and a spoiled, demanding bratty prince (affectionate).

[BeeGryphon]

Scary!! Earlier this week I put some edamame/soybean in my tank for my snails. I'd split it apart, putting the pod (which was happily devoured by the ramshorns) in one place and then one bean somewhere else and one bean in the coconut hut Pottery Snail often inhabits. Later, I went to remove the beans. One I pulled out partially eaten, but the bean in the coconut hut was gone, and Pottery Snail was out, so I was just like "Cool, she ate it!" and didn't think anything of it. Then like just an hour ago, after I've fed and messed with the tank for the day, I notice some white specks floating in the water column and I think that's weird and look for the source. There's a huge white fluff floating hidden among the dwarf lily leaves! It's the missing bean!! Ew!!!! I picked it out and used my siphon to clean up all the white specks left behind and did a small water change, but ew ew ew!! And beyond just ew, hopefully it wasn't releasing anything horrible into the water, although the fish all seem fine for now I will definitely be keeping an eye and will do another bigger water change Saturday.

[BeeGryphon]

we had a baby?!

short story: today for the first time in a while ALL the corys came out at feeding time and there were 7. I only bought 6.

long story: well, I've been expecting eggs, as one female has been very round and I do think she's laid them but this one must have been from earlier. I never noticed any eggs or fry. All the corys have started being more scarce, but from what I read that's not unusual when getting ready to lay eggs, so I figured she's just hiding more and the shoal is following her, so I'd only see them out a couple at a time. Over the last week or two there is one cory I've noticed, who seemed extra skittish, who I've been thinking looks awfully small and short specifically, but I thought it must just be the angle through the glass or something. But today I did a water change and then a little later fed and the whole shoal came out together and I counted them. then counted again. I ended up counting probably 5 times before I said "Yeah, that's definitely one more than I used to have". I never really expected any fry to make it, as the tank isn't really densely planted, but I do have a trumpet pod I've been thinking would probably serve fry well, as they could get in it but no adult fish could, and it would provide lots of food for little mouths with biofilm, algaes, and microfauna. I assume that's how this little one made it! exciting stuff!