Search results

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...

Hey, all! I was incredibly lucky and managed to get my hands on an exo terra medium tall today for just 50 bucks. This is perfect for my goal of a paludarium, which I will work on bit by bit over a year or so. I'm currently mulling over how to stock the water portion. The water area holds...

Many things to update! My plants came in and all but the pennywort arrived in pristine condition. The anacharis and dwarf amazon sword I got from Plants Factory and have always been happy with them. The pennywort came from someone else and had a rough time of it. I twas delayed three days...

Are microworms good for adult betta? Or my community tank? Or, rather, would my fish pay attention to and actually eat something that small? I've only heard of them used for fry.

I'm currently feeding my community tank with frozen bloodworms, tropical fish flakes, betta pellets and sinking wafers. During cycling, I had an outbreak of detritus worms that disappeared when the endler's hit the scene. I'm certain they ate them all. I'm looking into adding low-maintenance...

Before I opted for the setup I'm building for a betta, I was looking at this one. I, personally, think that a 10g is ideal for a single betta.

Awesome, thanks for the input! We certainly have a rainy season, but for about half of the year we don't get enough rain and I've probably have to "top off" the thing every other day in the summer. The water trough is an awesome idea. I'm currently looking at some sort of HOB or little...

I'm still waiting on the petrified wood and it seems like it'll be another week, unfortunately. Until then, I can't top off the soil, can't get plants and can't flood the tank. In the meantime, I set up all of my equipment. This includes a nice backdrop to block the view to the mirror behind...

Bettas produce eggs whether they are fertilized or not. Most of the time they are reabsorbed, but sometimes they are excreted. In either case, the fish makes sure to regain the nutrients spent in producing them. Either be reabsorption or by consumption--as in your case.

I wanted to weigh in on the blasting sand. I use it in my 20G and you can see my experience with it here. I keep invertebrates and have no issues, but blasting sand does take some special considerations. I got mine at Tractor supply for 10 bucks and didn't even use 1/3 of it. Overall, I'm...

A word of warning; nerites actually prefer brackish. They never successfully breed in freshwater setups, but they likely WILL breed in brackish. Unlike other species, nerites are not hermaphrodites. Meaning there are males and there are females. The greater number of nerites you have, the...