Progress on my 20 Gallon Betta Aquarium

[OceanTruth]

Sorry to hear about the loss of that poor little guy. Sounds like you did all you could though. Hopefully the new critters do much, much better. 

 

Tank is looking great though with the added plants. Hopefully, the other plants ship soon.

[Sapere_Ceta]

I set up the QT bins and added leaf litter I collected in the fall. They should sink pretty quickly, but I can boil them if needed. They seem to work well for these setups, for supplying cover without the risk of damage to them (from any aquarium salt, medication, etc). I’m still figuring out a Quarantine plan, what order I'd like to go with. I have finally got ahold of General Cure, and I stocked up on aquarium salt and a homemade bulk of tannins (along with CopperSafe and a few other medications). There are some medications I can get if needed, but the stores near me (including their online websites) typically only carry things like Melafix, Pimafix, and the less effective Ich treatments (so typically not a good selection).

I typically do daily to nearly daily water changes on the QT setups, depending on how significant the bio-load is. I enjoy the smaller and more shallow bins, as I’ve found they seem to hold oxygen much better than a deeper bin, which is why I don’t usually have to utilize air pumps. 

[OceanTruth]

This is very awesome! I feel like you are prepared for anything. Way to stay ahead of any problems that may come in. :)

[Sapere_Ceta]

I did a small water change to remove a little bit of the fog the substrate caused. It’s a little better. I’m going to leave the rest of it alone for a while, most likely. I also might straighten up the sand a little bit as well, though it’s hard to see much when it’s so foggy, so I will let that clear up first. 
I do think that my bacteria is slowly building back up as well, adding to the fog. I was adding thawed out fruits to the quarantine tank on occasion to keep the numbers from dropping too low from all of the treatments. 

Currently, the tank is looking like this:

I’m excited to see the fog reduce and the tank settle in. The rest of today and tomorrow will be a break until the fish arrive (which I think are more likely to arrive tomorrow, rather than tonight, judging by the shipping updates).

I also forgot how enjoyable deep substrate is to look at. I know a lot don’t prefer the look, but I’d say I prefer it more than the shallow substrate look. Anytime I see aquariums with deep substrate, it feels as though that a slice of nature was cut out from the rest of the environment. It makes me feel like it’s its own little world that I can observe. 

[OceanTruth]

13 minutes ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

I also forgot how enjoyable deep substrate is to look at. I know a lot don’t prefer the look, but I’d say I prefer it more than the shallow substrate look. Anytime I see aquariums with deep substrate, it feels as though that a slice of nature was cut out from the rest of the environment. It makes me feel like it’s its own little world that I can observe. 

I'm with you. I very much enjoy a DEEP substrate look.

[Sapere_Ceta]

Afternoon, everyone! The fish and crayfish arrived today! I was notified they’d be here early, so I maybe got an hour or two of sleep (I sleep during the day typically, unless a flare up is keeping me from sleeping, so this was the opposite to when I’d normally be up). I had everything prepared over night, though I did end up boiling some of the leaves that just wouldn’t sink.

They all arrived well packaged with a working heat pack. This was when I took some of the packaging off. 

 

I got them all out to make sure everyone was okay. 

All but one Indian ricefish (an extra out of the six I actually purchased) were looking well. The outlier was pretty scrawny and swimming pretty poorly. 

I temperature acclimated them for 25 minutes, making sure they weren’t being too energetic. If they were, I’d have taken them out of the bags earlier so they weren’t expelling a lot of energy, that would be better saved for when they’re added to the QT bins. 

After the 25 minutes were up, I released them out of the bags into my net, which was under my bucket, and added them to the QT bin. The crayfish went in a separate bin, of course. I just gently picked him up from behind his large claws, and placed him in the bin. 
All but the one weaker looking Indian ricefish survived (which I’d say was to be expected). It took about 3 minutes for them all to perk up and explore, even for the betta. It was nice to see. The Indian ricefish are very active, and it’s fun watching them shoal near the top of the tank or sometimes dart around the middle. The betta is very calm so far, exploratory too. He doesn’t seem to mind the other fish. The crayfish is very shy, understandably and is a little clumsy when walking on the bottom surface of the bin, so I’m thinking I might add some mesh, though he seems to be getting the hang of it so far. 
 

I added salt 1 tbsp per three gallons, and maintain that level for two weeks. If something presents, the treatment of course would take a bit of a detour, amount wise. After that, the salt will be fully water changed out, the fish will be transferred to the 20 gallon and parasite medication will start. It would be much easier to dose in the 20 gallon, as bins are usually not exact amounts. I don’t want to risk an overdose (especially since the packets aren’t labeled with the amounts), and since nothing but them will be in the 20, treating in there should be fine (it shouldn’t affect the beneficial bacteria or plants either). For that medication, they will be treated for a week, though that amount could change for longer and more dosing if parasites are suspected or symptoms of parasitic infection are presenting. 
 

On another note, we have biofilm showing on some parts of the driftwood, and the water is slowly clearing up. I always find biofilm pretty neat looking.

[OceanTruth]

The crayfish looks so darn cool!

[Sapere_Ceta]

1 minute ago, OceanTruth said:

The crayfish looks so darn cool!

Right?! I’m seriously obsessed with him 😆

 

[Sapere_Ceta]

I upgraded the crayfish QT bin to a larger one, probably 2.5-3 times the size of the previous one. I was expecting a crayfish of 3 inches at most, since that was the average size of a young adult I was told. I’d say he’s 4 1/2 inches. 

He settled in really well, so I knew he’d tolerate an upgrade. I set it up and added my giant anubias nana, along with gravel and the previous leaf litter. Then I gently scooped him up, and waited patiently until he decided to get off and go into the new bin. 
He hid under a leaf for a little while, but he quickly started to explore after he adjusted to his new surroundings. 

I decided to name him ‘Gandr’ because his little legs remind me of staffs, making me reflect back to Gandalf from LoTR the The Hobbit, who is one of my favorite characters of the franchises. I also found it fitting because he is so exploratory, and Gandalf was the one to start everyone on their explorations, joining them as well. 

This fella also is extremely loud, and woke me up at 3:30am by yanking on the heater cord nonstop (so it was clanging against the plastic) and by later trying to climb onto the sides of the bin (he was previously successful doing so in the smaller setup). It gave me a good laugh, though I’m sure I’ll have to adjust a little to his adorable shenanigans. 

I blanched a spinach leaf today to see if he was interested in eating it, but I forgot that crayfish aren’t nearly as active until it gets darker. So I removed it after little interest was displayed. But this is him with his little spinach leaf at the time:

The fish have also all settled in well, and seem to be getting along. The betta did make two little dashes at the Indian ricefish once, but it was nothing concerning to me. He loses interest in them quickly, which I think makes him a great match. 

Edited January 22, 2021 by Sapere_Ceta

[OceanTruth]

Glad to hear Gandr is doing well. Wow, 4 1/2 inches! I thought he looked like he had some good size to him from the pics of when you first got him. Do you happen to know how big he will get full grown?

[Sapere_Ceta]

4 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

Glad to hear Gandr is doing well. Wow, 4 1/2 inches! I thought he looked like he had some good size to him from the pics of when you first got him. Do you happen to know how big he will get full grown?

Yeah! I was pretty surprised by how large he is. It seems this species typically gets 6 inches, though some apparently get to 8 inches. So over time, I’ll continue upgrading him to larger bins until my mom and I move out, and then I’ll move him to his own large aquarium. 

[OceanTruth]

1 minute ago, Sapere_Ceta said:

Yeah! I was pretty surprised by how large he is. It seems this species typically gets 6 inches, though some apparently get to 8 inches. So over time, I’ll continue upgrading him to larger bins until my mom and I move out, and then I’ll move him to his own large aquarium. 

6-8" is a nice size! Can't wait to seem him that big. He will be spectacular!!!

Forgot to mention that him waking you up by pulling the heater cord is hilarious. I'm sure he'll have you trained later to feed him everytime he pulls on the cord. Lol. 😛

[Sapere_Ceta]

1 minute ago, OceanTruth said:

6-8" is a nice size! Can't wait to seem him that big. He will be spectacular!!!

Forgot to mention that him waking you up by pulling the heater cord is hilarious. I'm sure he'll have you trained later to feed him everytime he pulls on the cord. Lol. 😛

Yeah! I’m excited to see his growth over time! I find him so cool! 

Lol! Too funny! I’m sure he will too 🤣

[Sapere_Ceta]

My mom is trying to find some iodine for me today. I haven’t been able to get the crayfish to eat (I’ve tried blanched vegetables, shrimp pellets, decaying plant matter). I woke up and he has been laying somewhat lopsided on the substrate, and he’s been waving his legs above his body. I did a water test right away to make sure the parameters were okay, and they all were. I have the sad inclination that he was going to molt before he was shipped, and the stress triggered it to go badly (given the symptoms and behavioral changes). 
I did a 75% water change after to try and ease the stress, as I heard that can sometimes help. 

I know iodine is said to help the molting process if they go badly, assuming that is the issue. So my mom offered to drive around and see if she can find some iodine, but so far she can’t find a single store that carries it (all of the pet stores around us are terrible). 

I’ve also reached out to the business I purchased the crayfish from, but it’s going to probably be a while for them to respond back. I have a terrible feeling this is going to go badly. 

[OceanTruth]

Oh no, that is terrible to hear! I'm sorry he's having issues right now. Don't get down! There is still hope and I'm sure you are doing all you possibly can.

[Sapere_Ceta]

8 minutes ago, OceanTruth said:

Oh no, that is terrible to hear! I'm sorry he's having issues right now. Don't get down! There is still hope and I'm sure you are doing all you possibly can.

My mom finally found a store that has Iodine, thank goodness. I’m hoping it will help, but I am a little worried. But I think it could maybe do the trick. I was looking online to try and find possible ways to help, and it seems like this is pretty high up on the list of recommendations. My mom has been a pretty significant help in all of this, and she kept fish even before I was born and for many years after. So I definitely am lucky to be able to go over different approaches and ideas with her. 

I feel pretty bad for not being up the later half of the day yesterday. But, I’ve been feeling very bad, symptom/health wise, and was asleep for almost all of the day and slept through the night entirely. But what matters is that action is being taken now I suppose. 

[OceanTruth]

I'm glad your mother was able to locate some iodine and is a great help to you. I hope it aids the little guy and that he pulls through all right.

[Sapere_Ceta]

1 minute ago, OceanTruth said:

I'm glad your mother was able to locate some iodine and is a great help to you. I hope it aids the little guy and that he pulls through all right.

He finally stood up for the first time for today a second ago. He still doesn’t seem to be doing well, but I think if I dose some iodine, it can help with the process. It could be that he’s struggling to loosen the shell potentially. Though I’m not entirely sure. 

[Sapere_Ceta]

Alright, I added the iodine. He’s starting to thrash and stretch his legs out. Definitely seemingly trying to loosen that shell. Hopefully this will help. I’m going to keep an eye on him, but give him his space as much as I can, in order to limit added stress. 

[OceanTruth]

I hope all goes well. Is the molting process for crayfish much more of a difficult process than shrimp? I know shrimp can have their issues as well, but your crayfish is so much larger it just got me wondering.

[Sapere_Ceta]

1 minute ago, OceanTruth said:

I hope all goes well. Is the molting process for crayfish much more of a difficult process than shrimp? I know shrimp can have their issues as well, but your crayfish is so much larger it just got me wondering.

It can be pretty stressful and difficult on them. Juveniles seem to have a slightly less difficult time, and the molting process is typically much shorter for them. For larger crayfish, it can take longer and be more difficult. Since he seems to have been preparing to molt just before he was shipped to me, that added stress can ruin the entire molting process. But iodine seems to help prevent this in both shrimp and crayfish when used previously to molting, and when used during, it sometimes can help get that bad molt unstuck or finally shed off, if the crayfish or shrimp struggle with it. 

[OceanTruth]

The timing is really unfortunate... Hopefully he struggles this one time and all future molts go swimmingly.

[Colu]

Hope it all works out

[Sapere_Ceta]

Gandr is looking a little better today. He’s still doing a lot of stretching of his limbs and body out and has been under-active, but I haven’t see that sprawled out laying so far today. I’m hopeful the iodine will help through the molting process.

The fish are all doing well through their salt treatment so far. They all sleep in the leaf litter, and it’s cute seeing them sometimes dart in and out of it. I have yet to name the betta still, but I notice he has Grey coloration on his mouth that travels to the underside of his head. I’m thinking of naming him after a Graybeard from Skyrim Elder Scrolls V (my favorite game that I used to play for seven years).

On another note, those rare plants are finally supposed to arrive today! They responded back to me and shipped them out. I just hope they weren't sitting in a box for weeks. 

[OceanTruth]

I'm glad to hear Gandr is doing better! That is great news.

Graybeard sounds like a great and fitting name for your betta.

Hope the plants come in looking great. I'm sure they will.

Quarantine can't end soon enough! Lol.