Recent content by JackBinimbul

The betta was only about a year old. He had colored up really nicely and seemed to be thriving. Even the night before he became symptomatic he was still jumping for food at mealtime. There have been no changes in his tank. No moving things around or anything like that. The only thing I...

Unfortunately, Mr. Bubbles the betta didn't make it through the night. I still don't know what caused his sudden bout of dropsy. I'll be maintaining the tank for the plants, shrimp and snails only, until I can figure out what happened.

Hey, Liberty, I'll clarify a bit. I used to do a 25% WC every week. Went to 50% every 2 weeks, then 25% every 2 weeks and for the last 4 months or so I have been doing every 2 or 3 weeks gravel/sand vacuuming and only replacing what I vacuum out and what has evaporated. So probably between...

Hey, everyone. I'm having issues with my tanks and I'm really hoping you guys could shed some insight on the problem. Tank #1 is a 20 gallon community tank with two air-driven sponge filters on a 40 gallon pump. Had 6 corydoras, 8 endler's, 3 nerite snails and a bunch of neo. shrimp. For...

Throwing chili rasbora on the "maybe" list.

Another possibility: Dwarf orange crayfish. My wife likes the idea of a crayfish and it would be a unique little addition.

Puffers are awesome, but as far as I know, even a single puffer needs heavy planting and 10 gallons. They also need live feed which would get complicated in a paludarium. Pearl danios are beautiful, but yeah, I've seen that they need a lot of plants and 10 gallons. I've never heard of...

Here he is on his first day in the tank: He's colored up really nicely since then and the turquoise has come out a lot more. I love the spots on his dorsal fin. He has one little red streak on the tip of his pelvic/anal fin that you can see in the white bit at the bottom. I thought this...

I haven't thought about otos in a while! They have the plus side of not being hearty breeders in captivity. I'll add them to the potential list.

Oof, it took me forever to update this. I got the betta about a month ago. He's a gorgeous turquoise and black rose tail. Built a bubble nest on his first day in the tank! I removed the pale driftwood since it was getting ridiculous and fouling up the tank. It seems like it was never going...

Everything is still going great. I added some pennywort and it's coming in well. The plants and animals are at a stable equilibrium and water changes are less frequent now. My nitrates stay under 40 for at least 2 weeks now! Algae is also much less of a pain and the tank walls only need a...

Awesome! Glad to hear that everything is going well. Be sure to post pictures and updates. We love seeing people's tanks!

It's also possible that they got old. Or that your fish killed them. Lots of possibilities!

Ideally, your tank should be cycling to 0 ammonia and nitrites within 24 hours before you add animals. The bacteria that turn ammonia into nitrites colonize and multiply much faster than the bacteria that turn nitrites into nitrates. Nitrite spikes can kill fish just as easily as ammonia...

If they are thread-like and all the same width from head to tail, they are probably detritus worms. Especially if you can see little segments if you look very closely. They will seem somewhat blue in the light. If you get some magnification going, they usually have cilia, that is, fine hair...