# The Office Desk Tank- 7g cube



## Asu1776 (Mar 5, 2013)

Awesome! Your betta looks very nice! He's definitely going to enjoy that jungle. Might have your betta been in the movie 300?


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## jmf3460 (Aug 21, 2013)

300 the movie


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Asu1776 said:


> Awesome! Your betta looks very nice! He's definitely going to enjoy that jungle. Might have your betta been in the movie 300?





jmf3460 said:


> 300 the movie




Nope, nope, but good guess, I do like that movie.. actually want to watch it again now that you two brought it up haha *grabs popcorn*

I'll give a second hint: The name idea came from something seen on tv but would NOT be shown in a movie theater.


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## Aplomado (Feb 20, 2013)

Looks really good!

I'd be afraid of him jumping though. Maybe a ton of floaters would make that less likely, or you should get a lid.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Aplomado said:


> Looks really good!
> 
> I'd be afraid of him jumping though. Maybe a ton of floaters would make that less likely, or you should get a lid.


Thank you! I am hoping to add driftwood that will reach out of the tank and make something of a canopy with the stems as they grow out of the water and around the branches ... if that made sence?
I have floaters in my 20g long which also has had a betta for over a month without a lid. I only have 1/2 the tank conver with floaters, corralled off to keep them from being pushed under and against the intake foam cover. He prefers the shaded side since there is less water movement and has not tried jumping yet.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*new additions!*

So starting to see diatoms.. decided to get something to deal with that:

Added them Monday, photo from yesterday. They are finally colored up normal like my other 3 otos (different tank). Amusingly when I added these guys Xerxes decided to be very flare-y (not around them just in general) and build a bubble nest.. hes back to normal non flare mode now.
Now I have the fun task of trying to train them to each blanched veggies and/or algae wafers like the others.
On another note, here's an update on the dwarf lily plant:


More than double (nearly triple) leaf count and nicer color now, also got some good roots going. I've sniped off a few of the old leaves and one attmepting to shoot for the surface so it stays semi compact.

Aside from that, the Staurogyne Repen is melting, and the hygro tiger is showing some potassium deficiency (holes) so upping that fert dose but otherwise that plant is growing quite nicely. I got a bit snip happy with the golden and regular creeping jenny and am not happy wit the look of the tank at the moment so have to wait for it to grow back. The hydro sp japan is doing well and needs a trim to fill in some more open areas in the substrate.

I was going to try to cram a school of pygmy cories into this tank but I can't find a lfs that will get/order them, and don't want to pay the shipping expenses for any just yet... I might just skip them all together. Don't know if -with the otos- I have room for any other nano fish in here.. any suggestions? I'd love a dither fish school but I don't think 11.8" cube is enough swim space for such..


No ones tried guessing again at where my betta's name idea came from (not "300").. might try making a RAOK some time with that as the 'theme' to win once the tank is over grown and I don't have room to replant anything from it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Xerxes*

He finally holds still long enough for me to get non blurred photos of him... You can see the baren upper corner I made from my over trimming earlier


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Photos*

Quick photo update

Dwarf lily is turning into a beast, will have to re-scape soon to give other plants a chance at more light. Diatoms are all over the glass *glares at lazy otos* I think I'll have to get 1 more oto to help clean but don't have a quarantine atm for a new fish and won't roll the dice on another sick batch. Stuffed some ludwigia p. in the tank at the front corners (Xerxes likes to spaz at the substrate in the corners for some reason and makes it impossible to get 'carpet' plants to root so using a big stem to deter him until he curbs that habit and I can plant the corners. Jenny and Rotala have reached the surface and need a trim, the other two ludwiga species have also been recently snipped and replanted. Hygro is doing awesome, so is hydro, staurogyne .. still melted but seeing some new leaves form, one didn't completely melt.. yet because it was lodge between some stem plants after Xerxes kicked it loose.. of course as soon as I put it back by the others it starts melting *sigh*.
Anyways added a spray bar wit a valve at the end (used in airline tubing) that's kept open and have holes aimed at closest tank walls. It creates enough water movement to prevent bio-film but is not too strong for Xerxes.
He had a bubble nest going for a few days but the most recent activity in the tank wrecked it.. and i think he pouts about that and doesn't try to build a new one immediately... .. he's also very odd and likes to swim in between narrow spaces in the ground cover plants by the substrate.. "you're suppose to be an upper water column fish not a bottom dweller.. wierdo..."

[edit]
And we'll add a top tank shot, really love how this looks from above

Camera doesn't pick up colors exactly.. the lily and ludwigia are more red hue than shown here (first photo is more color accurate).

Man I really want some clear inflow/out flow pips (with a way to control outflow for the betta) so sick of looking at fugly green plastic....


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*some more photos*

O forgot to add, husband put the DIY inline heater together this past weekend so no more fugly large heater blocking up the view in this tank (yay). Had to tweak the temp setting down to i think 72F to make it stay 78F in tank, it heats very efficiently ^^ Its strapped to the table leg with wire ties now.


Also sneak peak at the 12g that I'll make a journal for eventually (pardon the water stains).


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## leemacnyc (Dec 28, 2005)

hi little puffer!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

leemacnyc said:


> hi little puffer!


^^ He(she?) was the first one to finally hold still long enough for me to get a non blurred photo, there are 2 others and they are all constantly foraging (tank is stocked with mts, periodic pond and ramshorn snails, and has black worms in the substrate). They're fat little [censor]s from all the food but it seems to reduces aggression.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*MUST RE-SCAPE! + aquarium visit*





These ae the last photos of the tank before it gets redone.
The dwarf lily is just dominating this tank, I'm going to have to remove it and re-arrange the new ludwigia in its spot, also need to trim and replant a lot of stuff in there, getting a bit over grown. The lily will go into my 20g riparium setup. It sucks because I really love the hue of the lily leaves *sigh* need to find another simple plant I can keep red.. the ludwigia palustris is coming in green with its new growth, but its got a decent bit of growth at least. 
Thinking of getting 2 more otos instead of just 1 for the tank, not sure how that will do for bioload though. I still haven't managed to get the new ones to learn that zuchini is food yet... Half tempted to put my older otos from the 12g in the tank with them for a week to teach them to clean better and what is food (that I put in).


On another note, my parents visited for the weekend and we went to the aquarium at Camden (Baltimore was too far of a drive)... gotta say it was rather depressing.. First tank I walked up to has a huge Arapaima, some medium small plecos at the botom (too murky to make out specific breeds) and some piranha. I felt so bad for the Arapaima, it didn't even have enough room in the tank (width) to turn around, and length was rather pathetic considering its size. It literally just coasted to a corner and stopped, leaning against the wall, it looked depressed.. I'd be too in such a tiny tank. Next tank had a few differnt rainbow fish but rather than species name the labels just had [lake name] rainbow fish, and some turtles with creepy long necks. In the salt water section thier "schooling fish" tank was a cylinder that forces a tight circular swim.. was nauseating to watch. The 'touch a shark' tank had one shark (very pretty) that swam with is head/mouth constantly above water.. was not trying to take fingers.. it looked like it was gasping for air  In the hippo section they had a ton of african cichlids.. and of course no staff knew what actually breeds they had just "african cichlids".. that the tanks filtration was horrible. There was also a tank with 5 large wolf eels who had no swim room and were simply laying on the bottom bored.. one was yawning.. seems like a [censored] life in there to be so bored. Anywyas for all that non awesome tank viewing it cost about $26 per person (and this is just general admissions no add ons), big disappointment and waste of money.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Dwarf Lilly departure*

So the dwarf lily got so monstrous in the cube and smothering the other plants out that it was removed last week and put it in the 20g riparium, really like how it's doing in that tank. 
Did a rescale this past Sunday and removed a lot of stems I have for sale in the sales forum along with some dwarf baby tears I stupidly bought on impulse.
I'll post updated tank photos tomorrow.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Rescape photo update*

So not too happy with house this looks right now, need the stems to grow so I can trim and fill this in better.. but Xerxes and the still unnamed oto (thinking of naming it "Auto" since that's how I say "oto".. too corny?) seem to be doing fine. I found out one of my 2 otos in the 7g disappeared, completely gutted the tank to rescape, and only the one oto and betta remained.. Guessing the other jumped in the night and a cat ate it (can't find a corpse). Unfortunately my husband's 12g long also had a jumper recently, sadly it was his favorite dwarf puffer. SO this weekend we will hopefully be making lids for our two office tanks with Lexan polycarbonate.. 
As for plants, the Hygro sp Tiger, Ludwigia arcuata x repens, Ludwigia palustris, and Rotala Rotundifolia are all liking the beter light now with teh dwarf lily out (all have some pink/red-ening on upper growth. The Creeping Jenny i left in grows to the surface quick.. and though I originally planted to let some grow out emersed, with a lid plan I'll have to trim it back.. also have to cut the Ludwigia arcuata x repens again, this stuff grows awesomely fast. I'll get around to updating the plant list sometime this week hopefully.
I doubt anyone's really reading this anyways.. so here's some photos.. and no that's not algae its a day old very thin zucchini slice.. since the oto isn't smart enough to eat the diatoms on the glass and still is thin I have to throw him veggies more often that I'd prefer to.. Thinking of getting anotehr oto and a nerite snail once I have a lid...
*FTS*

*
My perspective*


*Top View*


*Xerxes*


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## 75ona76 (May 20, 2014)

Very nice tank. Sorry to hear about your oto.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

75ona76 said:


> Very nice tank. Sorry to hear about your oto.


Thank you, and it's alright, I feel bad for the remaining oto though, since they generally are more comfortable in groups. But hope to rectify that soon.


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## Nuthatch (Jun 18, 2014)

Xerxes is a beautiful boy. Really beautiful! Did you name him for a character from Xena: Warrior Princess?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Nuthatch said:


> Xerxes is a beautiful boy. Really beautiful! Did you name him for a character from Xena: Warrior Princess?


Thank you! I'm a little bummed that his blues are growing over the yellow in his fins, hope he stays mustard and does turn into a blue betta on me. And no, not from Xena but nice guess. I miss that show, use to watch it and with my parents when I was young along with the Hercules series .. Remember the movie/episodes they did together and the two side-kicks hooked up (or it was at least implied that they did)?

I think if I gave one more clue for his name it would make it too easy to guess where it came from >.>


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## seandelevan (Sep 24, 2006)

Hey great tank! I've been looking at doing the same FOREVER. But every time I order a cubed tank it arrives to my house shattered in a million pieces. For some reason California is only place that sells these and by the time they show up in VA they are destroyed. I never ordered from AquaTop but obviously yours arrived all in one piece. Do they package and ship well?


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## Jennalyn (Jun 26, 2014)

Xerxes is such an insanely handsome fish. I'm in love with the mustard gas coloration and falling harder and harder for halfmoon plakat tails. Stunning!

...he wouldn't happen to be named after the familiar of one Mozenrath, would he...? >.>


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

seandelevan said:


> Hey great tank! I've been looking at doing the same FOREVER. But every time I order a cubed tank it arrives to my house shattered in a million pieces. For some reason California is only place that sells these and by the time they show up in VA they are destroyed. I never ordered from AquaTop but obviously yours arrived all in one piece. Do they package and ship well?


Oh yeh tons of bubble wrap and foam peanuts, boxed marked with the typical "glass" "fragile" stuff. I'd try the Aquatop defiantly! If i didn't already have too many tanks to take care of I'd get another for the other side of my desk.. but gotta curb my MTS a bit..



Jennalyn said:


> Xerxes is such an insanely handsome fish. I'm in love with the mustard gas coloration and falling harder and harder for halfmoon plakat tails. Stunning!
> 
> ...he wouldn't happen to be named after the familiar of one Mozenrath, would he...? >.>


Thank you! I never liked the long veil-tail style betta that had been bred with huge fins, they look too droopy when no flared, but the plakats small fins make it look fine 'relaxed', its also probably the closest to its original wild breeds. Unfortunately Xerxes blue in the caudal (tail) and doral fins is overtaking the yellow more and more.. but the anal fin still has a decent bit of yellow.

Nope didn't name him after that flying eel of oddness, its form something more recent and not shown in theaters.. was that movie even in theaters? can't recall, might have been a straight to vhs aladdin...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Just a minor photo update with a few close ups (because the fts photos came out blurry :/)


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

I love your Betta. He looks like a three year old after eating a chocolate ice cream cone!


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

Is the Betta named after a character from Aladdin?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Varmint said:


> I love your Betta. He looks like a three year old after eating a chocolate ice cream cone!


Haha,, he does get hyper and dart around the tank, especially near feeding time, he knows what the betta pellet bag looks like and starts getting 'mouthy' (opening his mouth like hes trying to chomp at the glass) when I pick it up.



Raith said:


> Is the Betta named after a character from Aladdin?


Nope not after that flying eel from Aladin, someone else had asked if it was after that one recently.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*vent*

So aside from my 55g's canister going to [censor] I've not been happy with this tank since I re-did it and moved out the lily. Loved the lily though it hogged up all the light, and the stems that are left aren't going well with my lighting. About 1/2 to bottom 1/3 of leaves are dieing/melting from not enough light, but if I lower/increase intensity I'll have an algae nightmare (already have a lot more diatoms than I want to deal with and a lazy oto not getting obese on them like he should). The only think I like in the tank is the hygro tiger, hydro japan, and rotala rotundifolia since its small leaves don't see to be dieing off near the bottom like the ludwigias and jennys are.
I want to gut and re-scape (if i could only decide on a layout), but don't like to put stress on the fish moving them out or removing and replanting everything with them in... meh...


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## BTuesdays (Jul 12, 2014)

I'm loving the growth in this cube - everything looks great!

And Xerxes wouldn't happened to be named after Peter's falcon, would he?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

BTuesdays said:


> I'm loving the growth in this cube - everything looks great!
> 
> And Xerxes wouldn't happened to be named after Peter's falcon, would he?


*WE HAVE A WINNER!*
Embarrassing enough he was named from Family Guy in the episode when he had a falcon, not 300 or other more epic theme.
And thank you, it does looks nice from the top, just not when you look into it from frontal view.. Damn dead leaves..


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## BTuesdays (Jul 12, 2014)

AquaAurora said:


> *WE HAVE A WINNER!*
> Embarrassing enough he was named from Family Guy in the episode when he had a falcon, not 300 or other more epic theme.
> And thank you, it does looks nice from the top, just not when you look into it from frontal view.. Damn dead leaves..


But Xerxes was so epic! He stole a motorcycle and then rode in it. So does he have any tank mates?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

BTuesdays said:


> But Xerxes was so epic! He stole a motorcycle and then rode in it. So does he have any tank mates?


Currently just Auto the oto (so original) + misc pond, ramshorn, and Malaysian trumpet snails. Want to get a nerite snail and another oto so he/she's not alone.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Rescape!*

So I got sick of the old look, especially since all the stems had melted off leaves at the bottom 1/3-1/4 SO when I did a water change yesterday I removed most of them and dumped them in my over flow plant 10g. All that's left is Rotala Rotundifolia, Hygrophilia sp. tiger , Hydro sp Japan, and a hidden single Staurogyne Repen (the others completely dissolved). Pardon the lettuce and dirty glass.. need to get back in there and clean that up..



And I've never shown the lid so thought I'd toss a pic in, its 2 pieces, one around the pipes and another that's easily removed/pushed back a little for feeding and cleaning. Made from Lexan polycarbonate with my husbands handy help cutting it to fit


If I could get my hands on some nice inert and non jagad rock(s) to avoid Xerxes shredding himself on, I'd love to make a scape with rocks near the back, rotala behind it on back wall, and hydro japan all around the tank as a thick blob (got a large floating wad of it in the 10g). I'd use locally found rose quarts but the other betta I had (20g) managed to wreck his fins on it.. though Arist'oto' was a delta with long fins.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Filter Fix and Oto Out...*

So yesterday I found my tank was missing about 1g of water.. it has a lid so no cat could get at it.. found that my dog (who has developed an unfortunately fear of thunder which has progressed into a fear of rainy days thanks to stupid brat nieces screaming at thunder booms a few years ago when they visited...) had been under the desk (where canisters are) and apparently pushed up against them and messed up the threading of the outflow of the eheim to my tank (where it screws into the bottom).
Had to turn off and unhook the filer, confirmed it was the leak source at the sink and removed all media, put into tank water in bins and spent a good half hour ripping the house apart looking for tephlon tape with my husband.. couldn't find any so had o go grab some from a hardware store. When i got home I remembered to throw prime into the tank to bind any possible ammonia build up during the "off time". Taped the threadings of the outflow, gave it a new "o" ring and screwed it back together (with help of hubby). After passing a quick water test aka no leaks put media back in and hooked it back up. BY now the tank was about 4-5g full instead of 7 (from taking water to keep media wet). And of course turning the filer back on I got the obligatory mess of loose mulm and such shooting out.. so got to do a water change. Unfortunate the inline heater temp rose a bit from being in stagnate water (and then heating only about 1/2 the regular water volume) and got up to about 82F (usually barely 80). It went back down after the water change/top off (which I had to wait 1-2 hours to do to heat the bucket water with another heater to avoid dropping temp and stressing anyone).

Well unfortunately my oto Auto just passed about a half hour ago.. I have no idea why exactly.. I tested ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and all were in perfect parameters (0,0,10) done right after Auto passed. I'm assuming it died from 1 of 3 things:
Temp raise yesterday, though gradual and only 2 degrees.
Ammonia buildup during the first hour the filter was offline, though it would not be much.. I'd expect the plants could have handled it.
Those nasty air pockets (what are they called again?) escaping sand when siphoning, but I have MTS in there to till the sand and prevent that..
Soo nothing conclusive but now poor Xerxes is alone (except for all the MTS in the sand and itty-bitty ramshorns). I dosed Melafix and will for 3 or 7 days just in case it was a disease of some sort.. though Auto never showed any signs of sickness (no discoloring, had a decently filed belly (he was never fat), nothing abnormal sticking out of him, no weird behavior except the minute before he died).. Hoping it was nothing nasty that will take out my betta boy.. Will try adding 2 new otos to the tank after they finish quarantine (have 8 in right now) in about a week.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

SO I decided to pull my newest batch of otos (8) from quarantine after a week instead of waiting 10 days and put them in their respective tanks. 2 went into the 7g and they seem to be doing well. Tank glass it looking a little better but they still have a bit of work to do. I'm not sure what Xerxes thinks about them joining the tank, he seemed happy solo (built a bubble nest again after having stopped for a few weeks), but he's not pestering/pecking or flaring at them so I guess he doesn't have a "GTFO!" attitude thankfully. Not too worried about these guys getting out since I have a lit, though there is a small gap for the filter pipes, they'd need some real good aim to get out... More worried the otos in the 20g (5) will decide to go carpet surfing from lights on/off startling them before they settle in. The last oto from the batch of 8 went into the 12g with the 3 pre-exsisting otos.

*[added]*
Took some photos.. .. the otos are cutely hanging out right now but they're still a little skittish of the betta ..he does not charge/flare but when he swims near them they sometimes dart away).
Xerxes decided to photo bomb my oto shoot.. "pay attention to meeeeee"


Then look all innocent after"... what??"


Also added a little salvia minima floaters to grow out and give more plant matter for Xerxes to bubble nest in or just hide from the light as it gets to be a wider mass.


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## AutumnSun (Jun 28, 2014)

It's funny that your betta is photo-bombing you, meanwhile, I can't get a clear shot of mine unless he's distracted by the plants(and by 'distracted', I mean half hidden by them while he investigates, lol.)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

AutumnSun said:


> It's funny that your betta is photo-bombing you, meanwhile, I can't get a clear shot of mine unless he's distracted by the plants(and by 'distracted', I mean half hidden by them while he investigates, lol.)


Lol Well I can never get an in-focused, non blured side view (profile) shot of him.. sometimes front.. but mostly he's out of focus or moving around too fast to get a shot... but tahts when teh camera is out, when nothings in my hands he periodically stops to check something out in the tank (I think he hunts the baby snails).
No advice for snails, nerite maybe? but they leave infertile eggs all over the place from what I hear (eggs won't hatch without salt or brackish water?) never tried one myself but I'd like to.. not sure if Xerxes would eat off its antenas... uh there are apple snails and rabbit snails but have no knowledge of them and if they clean well and are plant friendly or not..


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## taquitos (Jun 20, 2014)

Sorry about your Oto 

Xerxes is such a cutie! Pretty sure bettas are one of my favorite fish of all time


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

taquitos said:


> Sorry about your Oto
> 
> Xerxes is such a cutie! Pretty sure bettas are one of my favorite fish of all time


Me too, but, got new ones ^^
Thank you ^^ I love his look though he's changed a lot from his original photo when sold to me (he use to have a lot more yellow in his fins but the blue is creeping over it). I can't say what my favorite fish is yet.. still so many more I want to try..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

He finally let me get a decent side profile shot.. he's stretching his head up to see if I'm going to pop the lid and feed him... his pose reminds me of some odd modeling photo shoot pose or a loose yoga "cobra" pose  This is also the closest to a "flare" pose I've managed to photo graph.. he doesn't fall for the mirror trick.. just looks at himself like "damn I'm sexy!"

Anyways you can see the yellow in his fins is getting gobbled up by the blues.. hes also come some red spots but only on the anal fin. His ventral fins are a peach-ish-red with another few red dots.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I have a desperit itch to rescape this tank, but a dickens of a time settling on the particulars.
One thing I do want is either a frosted glass look or black background, I'm sick of looking at the Eheim pipes (also may paint eheim inlet/outlet black for tank if I go that route for background).
For plant layout and hardscaping options.. so many ideas...
First one being the use of large smooth river rocks with at least one large and 2-4 smaller ones about center in the tank (or slightly back from center), with the area in front of it covered in hydro japan and have some of the ;clover' growing up the rocks or in the crevices between them. Hygro tiger around the sides and just peaking over the top of the rocks, and rotala along the back wall.
A slight variation would be to not use smooth river rock but some local found rocks (still need to soak and test them to see if they effect ph or harness).
Yet another idea is to use all the floating riccia i have in a tupperware bin and tie it to small broken bits of slate to make a carpet on the substrate and wedge some in between the rocks (whichever is chosen to be used), with a bit of hydro japan growing out of it (not too much though).. or have the hydro elsewhere in the tank but the hygro and rotala in the same general areas. And either have the whole bottom coverd in riccia or make an island of green on the black 'sand' (in which case everything would be shoved tot eh back right side by the intake to hide the pipe).

A whole 'nother idea is to scrap the rock and go with driftwood.. no idea what I'd do for scaping details until I got a hold of the wood though.

I know as soon as I settle on one scape plan, something awesome will appear that I could have used instead. I'm not too worried about messing in the tank with Xerxes in, but otos seem so delicate I worry about stressing them with a rescape or trying to net them out temporarily for a rescape...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*My tank is full of wierdness*

Xerxes is weird, he seems to have decided to become a bottom dweller and has made a 'cave' under some of the hygro tiger staging on of the side walls, right against the substrate.. So much for upper water column fish! The surface has a good bit of salvia minima growing now so he has decent shaded spots, and some thicker clumps of rotala... but the odd ball just seems to have an affinity for getting into odd places (below plants against substrate).. I think that's actually his 'bed' as I couldn't find him this morning before lights turned on and didn't want to turn on lights prematurely and startle him away.. thought I saw a bloob on that side wall in the hygro... yep my little wierdo.
Also the otos in with him are freaking stubborn or stupid. They never seem interested in the blanched veggies I put in. Well I didbust one of them on a zucchini slice once, and resting on the spinach, but not eating it... I think most of the oto food ends up in the snails stomachs instead...

In other news the rotala is growing nicely, I've been trimming the tops and replanting them to cover the whole back wall of the tank rather than just the corner. The hydro japan is about ready for a trim and replanting too as its growing taller than the hygro tiger, which loves to pretend to be a foreground non stem plant. Also the hygro has some nice orange on the ends, possibly from the extra light or ferts I've been dosing (started adding iron and slightly increased potassium)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ok so I'm sick of the scape enough now to redo it. My wonderful hubby went rock hunting with me by the creek the past few weeks, he fond a nice rock, doesn't wack out pH or hardness like some others.

Photo taken after rock was water tested, bleach cleaned, washed, and put into over de-cholirnated water again (where it is now). Unfortunately the otehr side has some permanent green-ness to it (I think from algae) that I can't get off so it limits positioning options.

Going to move the tank to the opposite side of the desk tomorrow (its giving a hair algae problem to my hubbys tank), and rescape it. Not sure what I'm going to do about the fish (leave them in or put them in a bucket).. otos can be so sensitive..
Will posts new pics tomorrow or next weeks after scaping.. sadly I'm too lazy to mess with riccia and mesh on stones so it'll be hydro, hygro, and rotala.. plus the salvia.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Life likes to screw up my plans...*

Had an incident with the 20g on Monday and got to spend all day dealing with that instead of rescaping the 7g like I wanted.. Will have to try again this Sunday. Short version of the story: I hadn't cleaned out the hob filter sponges in 4-5 months, filter was not happy x.x


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*So.. tired...*

So I spent yesterday gutting and redoing the 3g bubble bowl (removing plants and manually removing hair algae from them, dipping plants, rinsing, taking all substrate out of bowl, cleaning bowl, sifting new soil, added new sand, replanting.. then did the same today (except substrate stayed) for my husbands 12g long, removing his fish to a bucket so i could clean plants and replant the tank with excess from the bubble bowl.. 
After all that I'm suppose to rescape this 7g tomorrow.. uhg too tired.. just going to 2/3 drain and move to opposite end of desk to reduce light going into my husband's tank from my light.. will rescape it next weekend...
Anyways too tried to do much now so went looking at aquabid for bettas on a lark, forgot my browser auto fills in frequently viewed links, it gave me the link to Xerxes auction! So you can see how much he's changed: 
then:








now:







I've never been able to get him to flare like the seller photo, but then I don't try too hard ^^'' Don't particularly know why that seller listed him as "green" but whatever


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Raoking some floaters*

So the saliva minima is growing like mad and making it hard to get the surface cleared enough at the designated feeding spot to give Xerxes his food. SO I've decided to raok off 2-3 small ziplock bags of the stuff. Since this is from a betta tank, I wnated to first try to raok on a betta forum: bettafish.com. If you are a member there (or want to join the site real quick to hop onto the raok) the thread for it is* [here]*. That sites is not so planted tank oriented as this one (hell its the whole theme of this site) so I'm not sure if anyone will join over there... if not then once the raok deadline passes I'll re-open in the wtb/raok section of this forum and update here with another post.

In other news I still haven't re-scaped this tank yet (I really really need to get off my butt and do that!) but I'm still getting stuff together for the 55g setup (moving 20g plants/riparium/fish to 55g) which I'm _hoping _will happen this weekend... so maybe the weekend after that I'll get the 7g done. Rotala needs a trim again as its trailing on the surface, love this stem plant! It and hygro tiger which I trained to grow like a carpeting plant (good hygro *pets*) it only grows upwards when it runs into the glass (runs out of room)
.
Xerxes still doesn't know I have 2 other betta boys, he's never seen them.. I wonder how he'd react if I brought one over in the small cube for a quick visit (not put into the tank just get to see eachother through the glass).. Xerxes would probably get indignant, not flare, and just swim away..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Why must you tease me?!*

I swear Xerxes can read what i type, after complain that I have no clue what his beard color is he did a few full flares at the otos last night after lights out when the room is fairly dark. Of course he did this with his back to me so I couldn't actually see the beard color. If I leaned to see him from the side wall he stopped flaring and turned to look at me like "what? i didn't do anything .." You damn tease!
The otos are still retards about vegetables... I put cucumber in yesterday.. its become a mts meal instead of oto.. the otos in the other tanks get it.. these two just seem slow.

edit:
OK Xerxes must have taught the otos to read too, came down with lunch to find one oto on the cucumber...of course I'm late on feeding Xerxes so he's crashing through said oto trying to photo bomb and get my attention to say "HEY! Hey you! Feed me NOW!"


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*7g Re-scape! Xerxes is Oblivious to Change...*

Last photo of the old scape before I being 



Xerxes view of the top of the tank,.. oh damn I just noticed he started a bubble nest on the right front side before the re-scpae, surprised he managed to get an open enough spot for it.



Starting to drain, look at all that salvia minimia!



All the plants out 


A look at the rock dry (best detail of its color/texture/grooves)


Hardscape in, sadly camera does not capture it well, it looks much nicer/more detailed



Rotala replanted, after a bit of trimming



Aaand everything else in, one last water change to remove sediment




Photo from today after replanting some stubborn stems





Sadly I had not seen one of my 2 otos in this tank for a few days leading up to the scape. On the day of re-scpaing (before starting) my visible oto seemed to notice the absence of the other and was pale from nervousness of being alone (he was vigorously eating cucumber in the morning).
The oto and Xerxes were moved to a bucket of tank water and put someplace dark while I redid the tank. Went through a lot of water changes to get all the sediment out after removing plants. New rock is a local stream find (sadly could not find any others like it) it passed a pH and hardness test so in it went! Rescaping killed my hand, the tension on the tongs/planting tweezers gave me bad carpel tunnel!
I dripped Xerxes and his oto back into the tank one it was done..But not before a (failed) attempt to introduce him to one of my other bettas.. Xerxes was completely oblivious to the tank and betta inside it I was putting him next to. He just swam against the opposite wall of the small cube (aiming towards the room his tank is in “hurry up and put me back in my tank!”). The other betta, Magnus, saw Xerxes and was curious but no flaring). 
After dripping and putting the fish back in I found it amusing that Xerxes didn't even explore the tank, he was just at the front trying to mooch for more food. The oto explored the new rock for a bit then went back to its favorite tank wall to rest.. it was still pale and scared of being alone so I netted him out and dripped him into my 20g community tank which has 4 other otos. Poor little thing got stuck to the net (my bad forgot I should use a cup not net with catfish species) and had to pull him off. He swam away fine once he was loose but I've not tried to take tabs on oto count since putting the new guy in. They're impossible to find in there seeing as how I thought I only had 3 for several months and turns out the 4th was just always hanging out in the plant mass... Might get to see if all 5 are still there when I move the rest of the fish and plants over to the 55g. 
Xerxes doesn't seem to mind/notice the otos being gone and just does his thing.. I notice he tends to like to surf the wall I have the spraybar of the filter against , guess he's playing in the current (or reading what I type since that wall views my monitor so he can do something I type “he never does __” again probably!).
Turns out one of my Staurogyne Repen stems survived being melted, I found it when replanting and thought it was a hygro tiger baby at first (they look similar though repen grows its leaves closer together). I'm still not terribly happy with the scape but I'm not in the mood to re-do it... if riccia wasn't such a pain in the [censor] to maintain tied down I'd have used it in the foreground and let the hydro be behind the rock... oh well.. always an excuse to re-scape again some day.


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## falcooo (Sep 30, 2011)

New scape looks awesome! I like how the Hydro Sp. Japan fills in. How does that plant differ from Marsilea Minuta?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Thank you
Hygro sp japan keeps the clover look growing under water and grows like a stem: upwards. You have to trip or push it into the substrate to make it more carpet like (lot more work).
From what I recall marsilea minuta will be a one lobed leaf (not clover looking) when aquatic grown, and grows with runners outwards no upwards. Like this: (not my photo. don't actually own this plant)








so marsilea minuta grows more like micro sword but with little round tips at the top of the leaf.


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## falcooo (Sep 30, 2011)

Thanks for the answer, I am about to order "Dwarf Four Leaf Clover". I hope it is marsilea based on what you just told me.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Xerxes scales of many blues + other stuff*

cookie to you i you get the title reference.

ANyways few week old photos of Xerxes showing how he looks from an above and through water views.





I love how he's not just one hue of blue for his scales, and that they look green from above water.


Also Xerxes has been flaring at me a lot more lately, he had a tiny bubble nest going for a while after I ripped out a good chunk of the salvia minimia. This is the best photo I've captures of it yet, usually if he starts flaring at my figure and I whip the phone camera out he stops :x

Its hard to tell but its a semi translucent red with some red spots.


In other news I confiscated my niece' marimo balls recently after they sat in an unmaintained tank with just ramshorn snails for untold moths after her last failed attempt at keeping a betta... Anyways slapped something together real quick with together stuff I got for free a while ago: her used 'betta cube' and some odd shiny shell like substrate + a rock from the local stream.


I wanted to peal the urethane off the failed rock coating attempt but gave up on that after I nearly passed out from gas fumes (gasoline is great for breaking down polyurethane but damn that smell won't go away!) and use that with black diamond buuuut yeah gave up on it.. Don't really care for the red/pink hue. Anyways its currently on my desk but shielded from the other 2 tank's lights (husbands 12g and my 7g) with birthday and Valentine cards from him ^^ 
BUT that will be removed soon as I was bad and treated myself to anotehr tank... I was listing off trueaqua tanks and equipemnt for someone on the bettaforum, showing them they could save a lot of money and still get high quality stuff (they wanted to buy a $90 fluval chi.. pfft) anywyasI realized I could get a TruAqua blowfront 6.1g for $28, an adjustable 100 watt heater, and sponge filter for a total under 55$... wtf I'm grabbing some!! Have a spare air pump so setting up this new tank on my desk where the 7g use to be (left of monitor). Going to get anubias, some smooth river rock, and possibly fissidens. I'd like to think I'll do a shrimp tank or some nano fish.. but likely I'll end up with another betta (if I find one I love). Will cycle sponge filter in 20g since I'm still dosing pure ammonia in there (no fauna except snails), and use one of the spare 6500g cfl bulbs in a desk lamp or clamp on work lamp for the tank's light.
Still waiting for TruAqua (keep wanting to type "TrueAquau.. too many letters there...") to update my order status to shipped so I can stock the tracking page for the few days it takes to get here.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Anticipation (sorry no photos)*

Excited for my new tank to get here! I've collected several anubias for multiple people and quarantined them between several tanks as a precaution after my last anubias disaster. I have nana, petite, gold, hastifolia (which is too [censor] big for the tank so its in the 55g till I can find someone to sell the beast to), barterie (that I suspect was mislabled.. not sure what it is), and micro. I _was_ going to grab stardest from someone selling for cheap (won't list their name as the forum is clear about blacklisting :/) but the seller was very pushy for the sale and couldn't be bothered to take a CLEAR photo of the rhizome so I dind't end up with a diseased plant (was so out of focus I couldn't tell where the rhizome was!) so [censor] them! Would rather pay 3x as much for the plant and know I am getting something healthy than risk my collection again because they're loo lazy to wait the 3 second for their camera to come into focus on the plant.
Anyways going to go rock hunting this weekend with some vinigar and a nylon stocking (as I might put another betta in the tank.. though not 100% sure yet).. I'm sure I'll look quite ridiculous to anyone that seems me with these items inspecting a rock but no point in hauling something home that I end up not being able to use again (have a few unsafe rocks that fail the pH, hardness altering tests done at home).
Once tank, equipment, and rocks are in I can plant what I have (that I'm sure isn't diseased.. a few plants I'm if-y about so they stay in qt for a month) and figure out if I can fit more then go buy from a good seller.

[EDIT]
Just opened up some petites I bout from pt member CharRamsey, and holy hell these have to be the healthiest anubias I've ever gotten (and at the best price)! Wish he had more to sell, I'd buy him out for petites (and any other anubias sp) any day! I almost didn't get to buy them but fortunately the person who pmed him before me never got back to him (yay for me!!)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*ugh FML*

... Well even after taking the precaution to only buy anubias that I've been shown photos of the rhizome and roots to try to rule out getting any with rhizome rot, the whole batch i got from a pt member that's no longer on this forum (sells gold and micro) which is all the anubias except petites is showing sighs of the disease, one already completely dissolved yesterday. Yay! =.= I'm so pissed and depressed having to go through this again... another $100+ wasted.. [censor] you! Half tempted to just throw all the anubias (including the other $100 worth i bought from others) out and not wait for the rest to show signs just let it all rot in the dumpster...[censor]! Why do I have such [censor] bad luck getting non diseased anubias?!


*[edit:11/2] *photos to show the fungus that grows on the rhizome when its starting to rot.. see the little semi white threads?


Really sucks because the anubias with red pigment are suppose to have a stronger immunity to the disease because of the chemical that makes up that red color.. guess its not a 100% protection though :/


and I figured I'd take a shot of these before they rot too (from having contact with infected plants... damn i should have qt-ed each plant to its own bowl... if only i had enough containers)
petites from charramsey:


petites from Bartohog


I'm really hoping I separated them soon enough not to get infected from the hastifolia and other anubias (kinda worried once the disease is visible, it already spread to other anubias in the tank...)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*new tank... and fish ^^''*

I'm terrible at remembering to update lately...
Recent photos of Xerxes + some more flare shots.. getting a little better at getting him closer to in focus...



New 6g bowfront from AquaTop came in and went through leak test + heater test last week


Although its rimless I've very disappointed in the black trim..but I'm hoping I'll not notice it once i add black diamond 'sand' and a black background. Still good price for a nice quality tank though.

Going on my desk on the left side of the monitor (Xerxes is on the right), but its too long to fit completely because of my monitor, so 2-3" will be on my husband's desk which is pushed up against mine (makes an "L" shape, i sit at the right side and him at the bottom of this "L"). His desk is about 1/2" higher than mine and that discrepancy can mess up a tank full of water so he's going to plane a piece of wood to set on both desks and give a level surface for the tank. I've also asked him to stain it to the desk color and urethane it to avoid mold or warping of the wood. 

I've gone rock hunting at my local stream and sadly the few that matched my shape requirements looks to have harmful metals in them... also popped by a local garden center that had kepper stones (or something like that for a name).. 2d right shape.. 3d (width) too thin and won't stand on their own (would need propped up).. worried they'd fall and break the tank so scratched that idea.. going to hunt at landscaping or rockyards for river rock.

I also was bad and impulse bought a dumbo betta (juvie male)from petco today.. i told myself not to buy anything until I got the tank cycled but I felt so bad for him, he's been there 3 weeks and no one bought him.. at first i thought he might be a female because of stress stripes (had not heard of it on males) but could not find an egg spot. I kinda wanted a female more than male as I don't know how Xerxes is going to like another betta on the desk (I don't think he knows about the deltas upstairs (shhh don't tell him).

10/30


11/4


Today


Was very happy to see him have an appetite. While he was being drip acclimates it was lunch time and today was brine shrimp, he ate 3.. Each one faster than the last once he figured out it was food. After acclimating the new fella in he was put in the 10g quarantine with the sponge filter and heater destined for his 6g bowfront. I put some media from the 20gs cycled filter in by the sponge filter to help cycle it. Also added homemade betta tube (he's been in it half of the times I've popped in to check on him) and 3 new healthy anubias petites tied to a suction cup to keep them down. Only filled the tank to 7-8g and put a black clothing the backside to keep it dark while the planted tank next to it has the light on.
Poor little thing was terrified when he went into the tank, I don't think he'd ever had so much free space and never encountered a filter before. He stayed at the opposite end for the first half hour before summoning some courage to explore. Now he likes hanging out in the fax cave of the sponge filter and aged filter media by the wall/corner. Hope he'll be less shy over the next few days.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I've been terrible bout updating sorry

New boy is now called Aristocoles and is finally in his new home. Quick slap up of photos, will add more photos and details later.
*[11/14]*




River rocks for scaping, ended up with a ton more than I could fit in the tank.. was hard to choose out just a few.


*[11/20]*


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[11/21]*
6g bow front prep with home made tank mini stand (tank spreads over 2 table,s one is higher than the other, this makes it level) that was cut stained and urethaned by my husband! Photo below is the felt put under it to keep it from sliding on the wood table.



And egg crates (plastic light diffuser) from Home depot being cut to hold and elevate stones for the scape.. wasn't sure if I wnated that tall rock in the last photo.. I liked the visual esthetics of it, but it was very unstable and I feared bumping the table would make it fall and break the glass. Let the hardscape layout sit for over a week to decide if I liked it.







*[11/25]*

Aristocoles has some fin growth going and did some flaring (won't hold still long enough to get into focus)






Acrylic sheet marked for cutting and the Kyrlon Fusion it will be coated with, plus shot of the home made tank prop up on the desk (husband intentionally left ta small portion unstained to show which side is 'up', it will be hidden by the tank.





*[11/29]*
Tank lid cut bu husband, asked for excess hanging past tank edge to make it easy to grab... in mightiness I should have gotten Lexan instead of acrylic lid.. this [censor[ is more bowed in 4 days than my 6 month old Lexan lids.. very disappointed about that...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*And finally tank set up photos + Love for Xerxes*

*[12/3]*























A panoramic from my desk chair of the tanks in the office that surround me.

The panoramic distorts it, the 6g is farthest from me when takig the photo. 


Here is a photo of just my desk.






*And finally some love for Xerxes!!*

Collage-o-fish


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## 75ona76 (May 20, 2014)

That is an amazing tropical oasis of a desk. I would never get any "work" done though.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

75ona76 said:


> That is an amazing tropical oasis of a desk. I would never get any "work" done though.


Fortuantely I mostly game, research aquatic stuff, and roam forums here (this is my home, not a work office). I love how bright and green it is when lights are one, but it feels bleak/extra dark during the lights off time.. can't keep on constantly or I get a hair algae nightmare.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*I need to remember to update more often...*

*12/8/14*
So I found my blue pen and was wiggling it in front of the boys at my desk (Aristocoles and Xerxes) both flared at it, but never let me get a photo with their beards down *huf*. Anyways I noticed after Xerxes flared a bit at the pen he went to the back right corner of the tank and wouldn't come front and center again.. he seemed to be gulping air.. then I stand up and find he's nest building! Did he think the pen was a sexy dark blue female to court "Oh my, didn't expect such lovely company! Just let me make a nest real quick and you can come in!" (equivalent to "let me clean up real quick" as men desperately try to hide dirty clothing and trash from take out meals that were strewn all over an apartment). He's still at it while I type this haha 

Anyways his 'sexy female betta' 


and the very beginnings of a nest


I feel kinda bad for him now, he's not going to get any bong-chicka-wow-wow, poor boy.
.
.
.
.
.
Ok few minutes after taking first photo.. my finger got the "STAY AWAY!" flare and I got some shots of him building.. nothing very cool.. but he busted me watching him and got grump.





*12/11/14*
Aristocoles (you can see the blue bleeding into his pectorals)



Xerxes


*
12/17-18/14*
Ghostshrimp from QT went into betta tanks.. sadly only 2 survived (I blame dosing Seachem Nitrate as 3 died after dosing). I had one clear and one opaque white/yellow survivor, so they went into the desk tanks with Aristocoles and Xerxes. Both are still alive. The clear one with Aristocoles has no problem swimming around all over and is actually surfing the front glass right now for food (going to add a bit of shrimp food later). The opaque one with Xerxes has been hiding on the bottom in the plants since he went in.. not sure if its just a skittish shrimp or if Xerxes went after him. I didn't get a shot of it as it happened after lights out but the EE boy did notice the ghost shrimp once last night. The shrimp was against the front left corner/seam and Aristocoles was laying on the substrate in a way that 'blocked his escape' (at long as the shrimp didn't just swim up and over him) looking at it "...  what ARE you?" that lasted about a minute then he went back to normal and don't pay the shrimp any mind.
I wanted to get more ghost shrimp to quarantine and have ready by the holidays for Magnus and Alastor, but when i dosed Ammonia for the qt filters BB (beneficial bacteria) yesterday and tested today.. its not as strong as I thought I'd be (still getting ammonia and nitrite readings) so get to mini-cycle before next batch goes through qt.





Can you see the shrimp?

Xerxes wasn't in the mood to be photogenic



I also decided to make a cute collage the other day... its the snack that smiles back!



And some mostly in focus flares from Aristocoles
"GRRRRR"

"Oh hai!"



Xerxes keeps making small bubble nests but it never gets much bigger than this


Also a cute shot of him scrutinizing a bladder snail



I'd like to give a big ol' middle finger to China.. and to Aquaon for letting their products be poorly produced there. Heaven forbid I try to put on and take off the siphon from the tubing to clean and dry it... I mean its not like its _designed _to let you.. Oh wait it is! But wait again! Its from China!!! So it's gonna break =,=



And in other news here are some shots of a mini Aristocoles and ghost shrimp encounter.. not very eventful.. but he sees him.
[cue horror movie tension building music as shrimp nibbles food]

And here comes Aristocoles to see why I'm not paying attention to HIM (and shrimp drops food)

He sees him!

.. and then looses interest immediately

He swam away after that shot (was all blur photos)

As a side note DAMN Aristocoles' fins are getting long!


*12/27/14*
Hope everyone that celibates had a nice holiday. We had family visit.. usually they come on the 25th but this year our option was getting up at 5am to have them pop by quickly or do our thing on the 24th... no way in hell me and my hubby were getting up that early!

On Christmas eve my husband and I went to petsmart to get our (spoiled) dog a gift (cats get nothing they just meow annoyingly at 3am with new toys in their mouth.. so only catnip for them!), I had to peek at bettas.. my husband pointed out a little multi colored crowntail female (wasn't my type- speckled/slashed colors), and a "dragon scale" labeled crowntail male.. who was most certainly not dragon scale (very muddied colors-couldn't even remotely pretend he was 'white' or 'platinum' bodied). I looked around and found a pretty delta mustard in the back I felt sorry would probably die there (or in some idiots 0.25 cube) from neglect. My husband also looked at the other fish and was interested in a dwarf gourami but when he walked up to its tank, he says it swim to the back with great haste, crashing through 3 fish in the process. I don't need another betta.... yet, and when I was there did not have a tank for one (fixed that after a few hours ^^ ). So no one was bought.. instead we left with a rawhide our dog loves for 'car bone' entertainment that he'd not had in several months (they don't sell the large ones in muli packs anymore :c) and some chicken liver treats. Well he loved the bone.. the treat not so much :/

After the petstore run I made 40 cupcakes (20 chocolate (green frosting) and 20 white-funfetti (red frosting)) for mass consumption. Husband: cooked shrimp, did home made cocktail sauce (which was all consumed (I don't eat sea food, but was told it was very good)), lil' smokies and bbq sauce, also had assorted cheeses and Ritz crackers, as well as some other spicy chip that got eat very fast. Sorry didn't take photos of the rest of the food, it was kept in the fridge/in crock pot 'till everyone got here... cupcakes were fine to leave out for a few hours.


The tree and presents (to and from family (opened after eating)) and the betta tanks. The betta lights provide the main light in this room where we did gift hand out/opening so I kinda had to push for gift giving to get it done before lights out (refuse to leave them on longer and have another hair algae nightmare like my mother caused =,=), got 'em done with a bit of time to spare so yay! Had animal planets too cute on in the background, anyone else see it? Was a non vocal episode just holiday music and adorable puppies and kittens of many breeds being "awww".


All that's left of the cupcakes the day after.. from 40 to 8... *grabs one*.. erm 7, they were good! By the 26th they were all gone :3


I got a a lot of great gifts this year.. but gotta say...OMG YES!! Lantern candle vase aka next pico tank! Thinking another dirted planted tank like the bubble bowl.... need to figure out plants.. and find a place to put it though >.>''


Xerxes is doing well.. still a huge food mooch.. watched him flare fervently at a MTS crawling up the glass today (he stopped when i whipped out the camera though.. so here are some other shots.



A big old bladder snail in Xerxes' tank.. it fell from the floating salvia minimia and Xerxes tried pecking at 'em to eat but it just got up and kept on chuggin' so the plakat gave up and went to his feeding spot to try to convince me that I _forgot _to give him lunch...nice try.


I've not been happy with the growth in Xerxes' tank.. I'm tempted to scrap the plants and grab all the needle leaf and narrow leaf java fern from the 55g, and Philippine and threadfin fern from the 20g to rescape his tank (and add some regular java fern just to have some thick ones)... but still mulling that idea over..


Finally got several photos of Aristocoles resting on the thermometer, this was the most in-focus. He just swims around like a spaz then STOP thermometer time! ("hammer time" reference for you young'ins)



Size reference for him and the ghost shrimp (semi translucent tan-orange blur going over the thermometer.. I can't get any of them both holding still that are in focus ugh. The ghostshrimp is ad long as Aristocoles' body (excluding fins)


New fissidens in the 6g bow front, both fish and shrimp love it (or rest and forage in)


Not the best of shots but I love how his caudal fin looks


"you can't seeeee meeeee"


FTS



For Christmas the fish didn't get anything super special but I did thawed brine shrimp which everyone enjoyed, I also gave blanched cucumber to the otos. 

*12/31/14-1/1/15*

Ever hear the saying "Measure twice, cut once."? This is what happened when you only measure once (and forget to take into account the egg crate under the substrate....Its a good 0.5" above the tank top. Using black electrical tape to keep it against the glass all.
I will probably ask my husband to help by cutting it to size later, but when I put it in I wasn't in the mood to remove it to cut immediately.



Sadly Aristocoles decided the ghostshrimp was food... found him pecking the last of the life out of it around lunch today. Aristocoles was literally guarding his kill, kept by it and with arc his body around it, almost as if to hide it from me.. its in the front of the tank boy.. I can see it.. Bit bummed as I wanted the shrimp to clean the fissedens :c
Sadly the photos of what I described came out blurry but have a few for those who want to see
[Warning dead shrimp photos, do not click if you are uncomfortable with that subject matter]
[Dead shrimp]
[Guarding the kill1]
[Guarding the kill2]
[Going in for a bite]

Got a few photos of Aristocoles flaring. Not sure if he has a short beard or just doesn't push it down all the way.


Also grabbed a low wide bowl at Michel's' yesterday to plant my terrestrial moss in (may also use some leftover river rock). Will probably do that this weekend. It was only $8.99, with coupon total after tax was about $4.75, so not bad... I'm resisting the urge to instead use to for the fissedens as a submerged moss bowl.. must.resist.temptation. It was sold as a 10" wide bowl.. can't find a measuring tape to confirm it though >.<


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Updates*

So rescaped Aristocoles' tank a little, removed the large rock on the back right and stuffed in 3 more petites. I ended up doing 10+ water cahnges (with the betta and plants removed) trying to get rid of the damn white film this tank's silicone produces.. seriously wtf.. never buying a bowfront from aquatop again.... Anyways husband trimmed down the painted side pannel and a back panel that popped out (because of heater suction cups not wanting to let go grrr) which wouldn't properly re-seat as sand got under it. THe boy is back in and exploring a little but he doesn't seem to notice too much change. I'm pretty sure I said before but if not, his ghost shrimp died a while back.. I've been trying to get another but petco hasn't re-stcoked (or some [censor] keeps buying them all before I get there each week), the one time I caught petsmart with a fresh stock (still in shipping bag) there were too many dead ones to want to risk it. Hopefully I can get a new ghostshrimp someday to clean the fissendens (which is doing well btw.. aside from the white film specks getting on it).







Xerxes has become a bit of a douche about the camera and don't like to pose for me, but instead zip to the back of the tank to protect his non existent bubble nest with semi flares and posturing behind the plants =.= I've not been happy with this tank for a while and am tempted to take all the java fern from the 55g and stuff it in here.. but then I'd need new plants for the 55..



(back of the tank shot) "WTF are you doing back here?!"


I love how blue he looks in this shot


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Another update.. well at least its been less than a month since the last one.... >.>
I got sick of Xerxes tank as it pretty much went to [censor].. I didn't constantly tend the rotala and it grew fast but the bottoms were loose leaves and eventually most of the stems came loose. The hydro japan didn't ever really grow so I suspect I have lighting more on the "low" than "medium" end so the front kinda looked like crap.. the hygro tiger was either growing upright with pinhole issues (potassium hog) or along the substrate again (seemed to have less pinholes being lower from the light). 
Unfortunately for me the temps here have been single digit to teen range mostly... far too cold for plant shipping arg. I wanted to gut all the fern from the 55g to redo Xerxes tank with but when I started pulling it out.. I realized how few crypts were left and was certain the fish would not be happy with the extreme reduction in hiding places. I was going to wait but decided to tear out about 1/4-1/3 of the fern and take the dwarf lily to put in the 7g. I removed Xerxes and gutted the tank, bleached the rock to remove some algae and after many water changes to remove mts poop, re-planted. 
The tank now how a mix of ferns (needle leaf, narrow leaf, philipne, and thread fin java ferns), the anubias micro is styaing in the tank for now untill I can determine if it is disease free (I'm suspicious of 1-2 of them), I rotated the rock and put the lily behind it, and the hygro tiger in front as a ground cover again. I stuffed a few root tabs in for the potassium monsters of the tank and now get to wait several months for everything to fill in. I hope the dwarf lily takes off again like it use to be way back when I first had it in this tank, I may buy another just to get more leaves. Xerxes build one of his (very small) bubble nests by the leaf at the surface after the first night. I'm hoping my husband ill cut and paint some more lexan or acrylic to stuff into Xerxes tank to remove his reflection and make it all black. I wish I had spare inlet/outlet pipes as I'd love to paint the pipes black too. In spring I think I'll buy some regualr java fern and hopefully fill out the tank (and possibly remove the hygro), we'll see.
The blue in Xeres' fins is slowly exanding (soon his tail will loose its orange hue), and the red of the armegedon trait grows a bit wide but nothing too huge. I notice he's also losing some of the blue on the side of his head and body.. it looks like its getting more black. Also his pelvic fins which sue to be more red/pink are getting orange. I wonder if he'll pull a major marble color swing like Varmit experienced with Waldo. He still build pitifully small nets and will flare at me with his orange and red spotted beard but never with the camera out (unless he charges then swims away quickly so I can't get him in focus ugh). The scales seem to be progressing over his eyes but he's still seeing.. fairly well... some days he has no problem snatching food.. others it seems lie he's just binding lunging at the surface for pieces.






As for Aristocoles, he only ahd a minor update as I put the golden and micro anubias that had been quarentines in another tank into his.. after they were put in my husband's tank for an oto and shrimp cleaning as they were covered in diatoms... then a bleach dip to remove any algae. Not happy with thier placement right now so may tweak that. I also removed the fissendens as it was a magnet for the white stuff that comes off the tank silicone, and I have no shrimp to clean it.. I tried 2 large amano shrimp but I'm pretty sure Aristocoles scared them into crawling out the first night.. I've not seen them in a week (even when doing a water change)... $8 down the drain.. I guess Aristocoles is in no mood for tank mates.. He's still loves resting on the thermometer and it semi tolerant to me petting him now though he tends to turn around so he can see my finger. He's very flare-y and gives full beard now (my lil' boy's growing up aww) and the beard is actually a dark wine red instead of black. Of course as soon as the camera comes out he's not in the mood to flare at my finger or any other object.
My husband loves to call Aristocoles "Jazz Hands" instead of his proper name because of his big constantly wiggling pectorals ^^ Its amsuing as even when all tank lights are off and his tank is very dark you can still see the white/light blue pectoral wiggles as he swims around... he's actually having fun wedging himself under/through the anubias petites in there as I type this.. silly boy. Oh I also psoted a bubble nest from him (just before destroying it with a water change) agianst the thermometer.. it was tinier than Xerxes' but maybe he'll get better at making bigger ones with time.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*2/21*
I got sick of Xerxes tank as it pretty much went to [censor].. I didn't constantly tend the rotala and it grew fast but the bottoms were loose leaves and eventually most of the stems came loose. The hydro japan didn't ever really grow so I suspect I have lighting more on the "low" than "medium" end so the front kinda looked like crap.. the hygro tiger was either growing upright with pinhole issues (potassium hog) or along the substrate again (seemed to have less pinholes being lower from the light). 
Unfortunately for me the temps here have been single digit to teen range mostly... far too cold for plant shipping arg. I wanted to gut all the fern from the 55g to redo Xerxes tank with but when I started pulling it out.. I realized how few crypts were left and was certain the fish would not be happy with the extreme reduction in hiding places. I was going to wait but decided to tear out about 1/4-1/3 of the fern and take the dwarf lily to put in the 7g. I removed Xerxes and gutted the tank, bleached the rock to remove some algae and after many water changes to remove mts poop, re-planted. 
The tank now how a mix of ferns (needle leaf, narrow leaf, Philippine, and thread fin java ferns), the anubias micro is staying in the tank for now until I can determine if it is disease free (I'm suspicious of 1-2 of them), I rotated the rock and put the lily behind it, and the hygro tiger in front as a ground cover again. I stuffed a few root tabs in for the potassium monsters of the tank and now get to wait several months for everything to fill in. I hope the dwarf lily takes off again like it use to be way back when I first had it in this tank, I may buy another just to get more leaves. Xerxes build one of his (very small) bubble nests by the leaf at the surface after the first night. I'm hoping my husband ill cut and paint some more lexan or acrylic to stuff into Xerxes tank to remove his reflection and make it all black. I wish I had spare inlet/outlet pipes as I'd love to paint the pipes black too. In spring I think I'll buy some regular java fern and hopefully fill out the tank (and possibly remove the hygro), we'll see.
The blue in Xerxes' fins is slowly expanding (soon his tail will loose its orange hue), and the red of the Armageddon trait grows a bit wide but nothing too huge. I notice he's also losing some of the blue on the side of his head and body.. it looks like its getting more black. Also his pelvic fins which sue to be more red/pink are getting orange. I wonder if he'll pull a major marble color swing like Varmit experienced with Waldo. He still build pitifully small nets and will flare at me with his orange and red spotted beard but never with the camera out (unless he charges then swims away quickly so I can't get him in focus ugh). The scales seem to be progressing over his eyes but he's still seeing.. fairly well... some days he has no problem snatching food.. others it seems lie he's just binding lunging at the surface for pieces.






As for Aristocoles, he only had a minor update as I put the golden and micro anubias that had been quarantines in another tank into his.. after they were put in my husband's tank for an oto and shrimp cleaning as they were covered in diatoms... then a bleach dip to remove any algae. Not happy with their placement right now so may tweak that. I also removed the fissendens as it was a magnet for the white stuff that comes off the tank silicone, and I have no shrimp to clean it.. I tried 2 large amano shrimp but I'm pretty sure Aristocoles scared them into crawling out the first night.. I've not seen them in a week (even when doing a water change)... $8 down the drain.. I guess Aristocoles is in no mood for tank mates.. He's still loves resting on the thermometer and it semi tolerant to me petting him now though he tends to turn around so he can see my finger. He's very flare-y and gives full beard now (my lil' boy's growing up aww) and the beard is actually a dark wine red instead of black. Of course as soon as the camera comes out he's not in the mood to flare at my finger or any other object.
My husband loves to call Aristocoles "Jazz Hands" instead of his proper name because of his big constantly wiggling pectorals ^^ Its amusing as even when all tank lights are off and his tank is very dark you can still see the white/light blue pectoral wiggles as he swims around... he's actually having fun wedging himself under/through the anubias petites in there as I type this.. silly boy. Oh I also spotted a bubble nest from him (just before destroying it with a water change) against the thermometer.. it was tinier than Xerxes' but maybe he'll get better at making bigger ones with time.



*3/1*
Aristocoles' largest bubble nest yet.. still pretty small.. I ended up thinning out the floaters after this so he could build his next somewhere else instead of his feeding spot where it could get easily damaged.


*3/11*



and a spam of Xerxes shots..


*sigh* never in focus... for the flare


Xerxes vs. tablet pan


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## nawilson89 (Nov 17, 2014)

Did we ever find out why Xerxes' name is Xerxes?

Using the hint I thought it would mean Full Metal Alchemist (thats the only thing i could think of where Xerxes is a name, but its not a movie).

I kinda want to know!


Aquariums are gorgeous though. My goodness.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

AquaAurora said:


> BTuesdays said:
> 
> 
> > I'm loving the growth in this cube - everything looks great!
> ...





nawilson89 said:


> Did we ever find out why Xerxes' name is Xerxes?
> 
> Using the hint I thought it would mean Full Metal Alchemist (thats the only thing i could think of where Xerxes is a name, but its not a movie).
> 
> ...


Quoted above, from page 2. And thank you!


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## nawilson89 (Nov 17, 2014)

AquaAurora said:


> Quoted above, from page 2. And thank you!


Ohhhhh. Woops didn't even see that post!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

nawilson89 said:


> Ohhhhh. Woops didn't even see that post!


No worries ^^


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

I love the roots of floating plants. So interesting to me! Are they RRF?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Freemananana said:


> I love the roots of floating plants. So interesting to me! Are they RRF?


No it's actually salvia minima. I have a TON of it! I end up throwing out about 1/3 the tank surface worth each week at water changes (have in all the betta tanks). I love it as it grows very fast but is easy to get rid of (unlike duckweed which takes many passes to get rid of) and short roots unlike frog it and many other floaters. 
Once it warms up and stays above 40F or more I'll start selling the excess again, but right now it's too cold.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Updates*

I've very tempted to buy some new plants and redo Xerxes tank as I'm still not happy with it.. trouble is what I want to do will cost about $100 after shipping x.x ugh..
I keep fighting diatoms in Aristocoles' tank and have to clean rocks and plants at water changes now.. thinking about putting him in the breeder basket for a few days and releasing some otos in there from my 55g. I feel Aristocoles likes to maneuver the anubias bunches behind the rocks around as they keep getting shifted to the right of where I want them. I'm almost ready to call the anubias in Xerxes' tank safe as its also been growing new leaves quickly and I've not seen anything remotely suspicious (rhizome rot symptoms) since I last rescaped. Xerxes is slowly having a harder time with aiming to grab food has a really bad day then an ok one...

Aristocoles and his tank


He flares constantly.. until the camera comes out then he's a douche.. only decent flare shot I could get


Xerxes and his tank


Got a flare shot!! with the tablet pen blocking the view >.<

Nest tending

Angled shot to show his new issues.. he has what I think are cysts? 1 is at the base of his visible pectoral, the other on his head between his eyes. I put in another pellet and he let this one go then ate both.

He did a bit better aiming for his food today but this one he caught odd and didn't want to let go to catch properly to swallow.. you can see the scales growing over his eyes and the new lumps on his head and pectoral again




Did I mention yet how much I hate iphone's auto re-focus for taking photos? i can NEVER get a shot of Xerxes flaring.. try to but the 'smart' phone likes to be a dumb [censor] and [censor] it up... but got a nice side view semi flare and an amusing shot of a ramshorn baby on the lily stem between Xerxes and me *que tension music as the snail is stared down*


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Xerxes Re-scape*

*[4/24/15/]* 
Xerxes' 7g cube re-scape. Since he's going blind I've wanted to get rid of the rock and redo the tank to be denser but blind fish safe. So after finishing the 2g lantern (will post on in the 2g,3g thread soon) I gutted Xerxes' tank and put him and the plant in a bucket, did a lot of water changing, then added new plants I'd bought online. The Java fern is awesome but sadly the new dwarf lily bulb i ordered came dead (this is the 2nd time the seller has sent me a dud bulb NOT happy....). I kept the several varieties of fern that were in the tank before, its old lily, and the anubias but removed the salvia minimia (selling it off) and hygro sp. tiger (planted in emersed setup). 
Pretty happy with the re-scape but I might grab some more needle leaf/narrow leaf fern from the 55g to stuff in a few places.

Last tank shots before re-scape




And after




I need to find a reputable seller for dwarf lily bulbs that won't arrive dead (symptoms: the day after you put them in water they have a white slime cover ans smell worse than garbage)... Want some red/orange contrast and the lily has been an easy plant to get that with.. I could try tiger lotus but supposedly thats a much larger nutrient absorber than the lily.


*[4/29/15]*
Aristocoles are amusingly child like, he usually is doing 1 of two things when I'm not looking at him:
1: wiggling back and forth fervently at the front right corner of his tank (closest to me), feels like a little child screaming "MOM MOMMY LOK AT ME LOOOK AT MEEEE MOM MAH MOOMMY!!!". When I finally look at him he'll hold completely still for a moment then swim off or wiggle some more.
2: sulk at the bottm of the tank from lack of attention until he sees I'm looking at him, at which point he gets up and swims around happily. Pictured below is the latter.

Aritocoles*sulking* "she doesn't wuv me" :c


*gasp* "Oh are you looking at me? You do wuv me!" (not pictured-happy dance! camera can't get in focus for that fast wiggle butt action)



I was hoping he's be blind enough by now that he wouldn't be chasing his reflection.. may as my hubby to cut and paint some more acrylic to stuff in like Aristocoles' tank.
Xerxes WHOOOOOOSSSSHHHH "gtf away from my tank, my tank!! *chases reflection back and forth* "*I'll [censor] kill you*(reflection)!!!"


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Quick touch ups*

Had to do some emergency work on the 55g so I took the remaining needle/narrow leaf java fern and put in Xerxes' tank, and moved the anubias nana petite and micro from Xerxes' tank to Aristolcoes'.
originally stuffed in:




little refining


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Been a while since I put in a update photo os Xerxes tank, happy to say lilies are doing good.. with 3ml potassium a day. He was stalking a snail as it climbed the glass (hiding in the shadows of the dwarf lily leaves all suspicious and stalker like) then spotted me watching him with the camera


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## Islandgaliam (May 24, 2014)

AquaAurora said:


> Been a while since I put in a update photo os Xerxes tank, happy to say lilies are doing good.. with 3ml potassium a day. He was stalking a snail as it climbed the glass (hiding in the shadows of the dwarf lily leaves all suspicious and stalker like) then spotted me watching him with the camera



MTS is a good thing  Love this tank...I bet that is one happy betta!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Islandgaliam said:


> MTS is a good thing  Love this tank...I bet that is one happy betta!


I like to think he is ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Arostocoles and his anubias*

quick tank photo of the 6g bow front.. Aristocoles likes to wiggle under the anubias and make them lift up so they aren't nicely anchored with roots hidden in the substrate =.= Added a few ramshorns after the pond snails disbarred (assuming into his stomach) to clean the anubias leaves.. they seem to prefer hiding from him so I can to find and place them on the diatom covered leaves to get a cleaning...


And a shot of him resting on his thermometer, hes my only betta that does this.. anyone else have a betta (or other fish) that likes to rest between the thermometer and tank wall?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Did I mention I really love how Xerxes' tank scape looks? ^^ Aristocoles' is nice too but he keeps uprooting the anubias so roots look messy going all over the place...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Snails*

So I actually like my snails, currently have some ramshorns snails in Xerxes tank that have done a great job cleaning up and been fun to watch-their lil mouths are so cute. Took several photos of them.. those with the white banding and chunks missing have calcium diffidence-the person I bought them from did not have enough calcium in the water. 
Pardon the water stains on the glass >.>''

Xerxes photo bombing..



One guy getting ready to go (surface) water walking


And Xerxes having an intense moment with a ramshorn too close to his (lacking) bubble nest (no harm came to the snail.. just a hard stare down) also one of the few times Xerxes hold still long enough for me to get in focus shot
que jaws music





And a couple other close ups



A 'lil leopard spotted one-love these


And one of two "blue" ramshorns that came in with the batch-they're more of a pale blue-grey hue... miss my blue leopard ramshorns those were the sexy-est!!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*photo dump*

So have some photos of Aristocoles being.... himself and a little bit of Xerxes and shredded Dijon too.
*hovering at feeding spot*


"Oh there you are! Feed me?"


"Oo a finger!"


"Bah no food on it *swims away*"


He oddly held this pose for several seconds, gave me time to get a nice shot



"I'm just uh.. gonna go back here for a bit.."


*que intermission music (similar to elevator music)* 
While we Wait for Aristocoles to come back here are some shots from the other side of the desk.

An odd lily leaf in Xerxes' tank its deformed not chewed on.. kinda looks like a puzzle piece ^^


Xerxes' favorite leaf to bubble nest under or hand out under, it looks kinda crappy since it has plantlets growing off it so the leaf is dieing slowly.


GTFO!


*ahem* ok since Xerxes is don't with photo time let take a look at Dijon's shredded-ness.
Pretty much a contiguous "feed me feed me" can be heard from this quarantine tank.



And we're back with more Aristocoles.. 
Aristocoles? WE can see you "No you can't! I'm invsabul"


Yes we can just come out ".. oh ok fine.... Ooo finger ggrrrr!"






"I want some food.".... "Hey are you listening to me?!"



"I'll just go be fabulous over here for a moment"


He puffed and froze glaring at this upside down ramshorn for several seconds then lunged at it!..Yup definitely not good with tank mates....



Lookin' purple



And looking for that snail.. "there he is..."*stare down*



and a day after
Xerxes'7g dwarf lily is spitting up a ton of leaves now!


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## tfmcder (Jan 9, 2011)

Your tanks are looking good. I like the look of Xerxes tank. The wild, full look looks perfect for him.

I must confess I think Aristocoles is the prettier fish though. He also seems to have more personality.

Good Luck and keep updating.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

tfmcder said:


> Your tanks are looking good. I like the look of Xerxes tank. The wild, full look looks perfect for him.
> 
> I must confess I think Aristocoles is the prettier fish though. He also seems to have more personality.
> 
> Good Luck and keep updating.


Thank you ^^ 



Aristocoles holding perfectly still as he pouts for attention


and Xerxes' many cysts.. poor baby..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Quick update photos


Xerxes love using the trimmed lily leaves for bubble nesting to I leave the cut ones floating for a few days ^^




Dijon is slowly healing.. I may rename him Shredduski. No his head is not getting white thats calcium deposits on the glass


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*7g lily love*

Xerxes chilling under his bubble nest resting on a dwarf lily leaf with a clipped leaf above for shade ^^


I hate that all the original java fern is going to pot but its spitting out an insane amount of babies. Letting the platnlets grow until they pop off naturally then pulling dead leaves out. For some reason narrow/needle-leaf fern as well as Philippine and threadfin never gave me this "omg new parameters! let me make babies and die k thx bye" [censor]...



Hard to get a good photo with the glare from the light but the dwarf lily has gotten REALLY red from the iron dosing in the 7g.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*D-d-d-diatoms*

*7G

7/15/15
*
Xerxes has a bubble nest under 1 clipped lily leaf and it trying to start another when I come in with a camera and he tells me to bugger off. You can see his cysts pretty easily in that shot. man I need to stick a ramshorn in the tank again, glass is getting diatom-y.




*7/17/15
*Diatoms on the glass are getting out of control so I tossed a ramshorn snail in to clean (had removed the previous batch after they finished cleaning and I busted them nibbling on my dwarf lily plant leaves.. after wearing they don't eat live plants those 4 had to go prove me wrong...) you can see the snail 'tracks' in the diatoms from it eating



*Today*
Not completely clean yet but coming along nicely


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Aristocoles just because ^^
 


I tried putting my zebra nerite male in the 7g but he did not do well..the nerite it dead and oh dear [censor] does it smell when its dead! Can't get the stench off my hand!  Well back to ramshorn cleaning crew I guess.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Ahh to be clean again!*

I'd let the diatoms build up really bad on the 7g, and the 6g needed a quick clean too. I also put a chain the the 6gs lights so its properly centered over the tank now. And I stuffed the anubias down so its not breaching the surface but Arterioles loves to get under it and get them loosened/floating up.. Both tanks look much better with the tiny bit of work.. I wish my camera would properly capture just how red the dwarf lilies are! they're so lovely! Just waiting on all the new java fern plantlets to grow up so I can cut off the dieing mother plant leaves and anchor the new plants.
7g cube




some shots showing the outflow just because.. this is gentle enough for the betta but keep the surface agitated enough to prevent biofilm.




6g bowfront


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*8/15*
I'd say the new filter media and pipe cleaning helped!
before photos in above 

After:


Was too strong a flow after cleaning so I had to aim the outflow back at the ball its suction cupped to.. had it too high at first ad water went over the tank side and onto the desk (oops) fixed that.
Xerxes peaking through the compressed plants, love how varied his scale hues are. Had to do a 3g water cahnge to get up all the loose mulm that shot out of the filter (happens whenever filter is turned off then back on). Poo boy freaked out when I had the sandwich over the surface to add water back in, he couldn't get at the surface to gulp were he wanted (being mostly blind I don't think he can see the bag is there like the other bettas). I removed the bag for a few minutes and let him breath and relax before finishing the tank refill.




*
8/18*
Got Aristocoles to flare with the camera in focus and holding still for once! He was under his anubias until he noticed me watching and came charging out to flare, photo is as he just starts tucking his beard away.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

7g cube needs de-diatomed again, and I'm about ready to do the major java fern replanting. Dwarf lilies are much more orange-red than photo shows.




6g bowfront has its new smaller light on it, we'll see how the anubias do with this LED, most concerned about lower leaves and those at the edges of the tank not getting enough light. Aristocoles was the most photogentic fish when taking shots for journal updates.






EDIT: Ooo forgot to mention I am prepping to set up another 2 tanks on my desk (and then I'll have no room left).
*9/11-12*

10g temp tank for big bubble bowl plants.. wow the N. Taiwan is growing fast! so is the Water sprite. I also have some hydro japan floating in there I need to sell at some point. The bubble bowl should be here tomorrow.


And a sneak peak at the 2.5g vase (measured via bucket marked at gallon 1-5 volume) with plants from jdaquatics: overgrown dgh (planter pot? what planter pot?) and some anubias coffeefolia. I'd prefer larger anubias but for the price I'm quite happy with this order! I notice one of the dhg pots has different leaf shape.. possible a different sp? Ah well will add a little variety to the grassy tank Now I just need the driftwood, fun part will be getting wood that fits in the 5" diameter opening... only downside to these not straight glass tanks-limited opening for hardscape to fit in through.




Flame moss came in, its 2 days late and some is browned but its long moss not little tiny clippings like most moss sales so I'm happy! Just need to get the wood to attach it to. Bubble bowl also arrived today. First photo shows moss, vase and vases plants, some hydro japan (for wood seller), and a bit of the 10g dump tank adn the bubble bowl. 2nd photo shows bubble bowl by the 10g (10g is 12" wide), bubble bowl is 14x16" outter 13.5x15.5" (height x diameter) internal dimensions. Last photo shows 100ml prime bottle in bowl for scale. Have not filled bowl yet to verify volume, but I've read its 8-10g with nothing else in it... maybe I'll add pygmy cory >.>





*9/15*
since I've not been able to properly set up the spherical tanks yet the new bettas will have to be temp housed in the 2.5 and 10g rectangle tanks.. Id decided to splurge and buy some silk plants for them (also needed to buy another sponge filter and some more algae wafers), which should be here Friday.. figure no point stressing in a barren quarantine. 

I shuffled the plants for the bubble bowl into the bowl (no official planting) to clean out the 10g, and moved my snails to a tupperware to clean out the 2.5.

What else..I decided to fill the bowl yesterday to figure out its volume, its just a little under 8 gallons with nothing else in it, so 6-7 with substrate, wood, equipment.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

De-diatomed the 7g
"Omg I can see you now!.. Now Feed Me!!!"


Threw plants in their intended new curved tanks but not officially planed yet (trying to deal with driftwood first to tie moss and anubias to).
8g bubble bowl:


2.5g vase:


The new fish for the new tanks... male I think was photshopped by seller as he has a lot of black marks/imperfections on his body that are not in the seller's photos....





Female is bigger than the male and a bit eggy, she's more yellow than the photos show.. also ovaries are very noticeable in person though not in photos






QT tanks for female and male:



And another photo of Xerxes.. the one I took just a second later his mouth was open and he looked _horrified _but alas it was out of focus..so you get this one instead


And Aristocoles just because:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I love how bright my desk is during "lights on" time for tanks now, but it makes it feel that much darker when they're off... might have to get inventive and have different light times for the tanks (but still line up for feeding schedule). Have 4 tanks crammed on my desk now, got them situated Sat. 
The tanks + desk panoramic view. The new tanks aren't officially planted yet.. still need to boil the wood I fished out some more then figure out which pieces I'm using and sand them down as needed. I'm really hoping going overkill with this wood boiling will get rid of the possibility of fungus... When I dump out the water its still freaking tea colored :/ Nearly 24 hours worth of boiling (spread over several days) wonder how much more it will take.









After a few prototypes my husband made a fairly minimalist stand for the monitor that rests on the 6g bowfront (we tried a raised shelf but it was too high and hurt my neck, which is a shame as it turned out very lovely with the stain and wax finish). I had to rescape the tank to move the anubias to the back of the tank since the front would have light blocked by the monitor's stand frame. I had to net Aristocoles out to give the tank a good clean and re-arrange rocks and plants.. unfortunately he decided to dart through the net as I tried to catch him and instead of pinning him in the net's square frame (where a fish should be)... he shot through lost most of his tail T_T My poor beautiful finned baby looks awful now as I'm forced to wait several months for hopefully a decent grow back of 2/3rds of his tail fin (which pretty much ripped off at the base) >.<

Last photo of him a week before the accident..


And now... 


I had to remove over half of my anubias.. most of the micro (only kept 1 in the tank) and a lot of the petite.. I'm debating about selling them or tossing them in one of the qt tanks with a light (and keep them in after fish it out) to grow and sell. Not a lot of anubias micro sellers out there....
Photo of all that I removed, enough to fill a 7x7" Marina betta cube.


all the removed micro


all the removed petite


Close up of the two species to show leaf size difference



In other news the new fish are doing well, the blue boys black markings on the body are going away so it looks like damage that's healing. Both recognize I =food already ad have taken all offerd foods well. Now that I've stripped all the emersed plants from the 40g breeder (holy [censor] I didn't realize just HOW MUCH was in there..should have charged more for those) I think I'll drain and store it away and move the qt tanks off the floor and onto the table the 40g was on.
I have a decent size list of name ideas for the two new hmpks I need to mull over and whittle down..


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## RcScRs (Oct 22, 2009)

That's a lot of water to be on a desk, I would be worried ._.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

RcScRs said:


> That's a lot of water to be on a desk, I would be worried ._.


The tank glass is thick enough and silicone work well done so I'm not worries abut bursting glass/busting seams, as long as I don't do anything stupid like swing a large sharp metal objects around the glass there's no real issue. The desk is made of real wood not not that particle board junk that swells and breaks down if it gets wet so no worries about if the desk can support the weight.


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## Tihsho (Oct 10, 2007)

Ooo, I'd be interested in some of that Micro soon enough  Tanks/vases look great!


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Is this a home office? I think my coworkers would be giving me looks if I had this many planted tanks on my desk.

Also, not too sure how I'd feel about having that much water around a computer.

Anyway, cool setup!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I need to update this thread too! Maybe sometime this week >.>'




Tihsho said:


> Ooo, I'd be interested in some of that Micro soon enough  Tanks/vases look great!


Thanks



bereninga said:


> Is this a home office? I think my coworkers would be giving me looks if I had this many planted tanks on my desk.
> 
> Also, not too sure how I'd feel about having that much water around a computer.
> 
> Anyway, cool setup!


Home. We're careful around the tanks so we don't have any disasters or worries of disasters. And thanks.
Btw if you don't think people would go plant/tank crazy at work check out jbrady (granted more potted plants than tanks but still!):
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/2...obs-updated-again-cleaning-6.html#post6577185


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So partial update. Everyone is doing well on my desk, Aristocoles' tail has been heeling nicely, it's between 1/3 and 1/2 grown back ^^ Xerxes is the old man of the munch and poor thing is getting more lumps/cysts but he still manages to move around and eat just fine. 
I ended up gutting the hair grass from the 2.5 (yes it was planted.. for a few weeks...) as I didn't like it and replaced it with water sprite clippings from the 8g.. its been several weeks and I had to trim both tank's water sprite today (had enough to sell so slapped it into my for sale thread.. which I annoyingly cannot edit title or tags on grrr if anyone is interested I'll point you at the link). Flame moss is growing crazy in the 8g too-almost to the surface already!! Need to trim it soon, may use in my husband's betta tank.

Photos of the 8g bubble bowl and 2.5g vase post water sprite trim (6 and 7g and the 2 other bettas will be photographed .. eventually ^^''')




Ajax holding still for a moment(only partially in focus).. sadly he's developing diamond eye-where scales grow over the eyes and lead to partial or full blindness.. was hoping he'd not have this issue already have to deal with diamond eye being sever on Xerxes >.< Btw he's a much lovelier/more vibrant blue color but the camera makes him look duller



And a mostly non blurred photo of Freya. Have I mentioned she does not like her thermometer? She'll peck it (assuming she sees her reflection in it and attacks that.. maybe she doesn't like how her reflection looks fat form the glass distortion ^^)


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## Ziggy953 (Feb 1, 2013)

Amazing tanks/bowls(?) and beautiful photography!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ziggy953 said:


> Amazing tanks/bowls(?) and beautiful photography!


Thank you ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Pulled the water sprite from Freya's tank and stuck it in the back of the 7g, put some of the narrow, needle, and Philippine java fern in her tank. Also she has frogbit with long roots. 



Aristocoles' tank needed a clean for a while now. The way the monitor is over the tank it blocks light in the front and some floating plants died from lack of light and decomposed making a bit of a mess. So I took the monitor off and did several water changes as well as trim some of the old anubias gold leaves. The salvinia was in crappy shape so I took it all out and put some in from Alastor's tank to refill. 
I also did a lid mod with the help of my husband.. I didn't take photos so I'l get them another time. Basically I took some leftover lexan strips (less than 1" high) and sanded the bottoms smooth then duct taped it to the inside of the lid to make a clean barrier by the surface to keep floating plants in the light. I then slapped some duct tape on the lid to make a dark shaded area on the other side of the new barricade. It only goes down below the surface a tiny bit. Tape doesn't touch water and water isn't spraying enough to be an issue. We'll see how it lats. Worst case it fails and my husband' silicones on the pieces.
Anyways photos
first my favorite shots from today



fts


And some of Aristocoles..
color accurate but blurry 


Caudal healing coming along nicely (love how the light makes him look purple here)


Flare time! (que blur!)



And the only other shot where his fins aren't a flurry blur, hanging in the newly shaded area



Aristocoles floater/shade lid mod Ducttape ftw!! Btw its held up well on the underside even with condensation so far (week+). Need to sand one of the pieces I put it on backwards so rough side in in the water (whoops).




A peek though the lid opening I feed at, Aristocoles' bubble nest! I don't know if he build them that much (I've not seen one before, but with the monitor hiding the tank's top I don't know.. anyways we had very bad weather that started pretty soon after I took this photo.


Ajax's nest.. not taht impressive but he's pretty blind from the diamond eye so with that in mind..


Ajax's tank is completely over grown mess. I've been meaning to gut and redo it for weeks now but I've been getting sick, having back problems, or other issues.. but its gotta happen soon! I may move Ajax into my 10g riparium that's only 1/2 full.. I'd either move Antaeus into this tank or be be and buy another betta 9probably a 'king' aka half giant for the 8g... we'll see..


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## touch of sky (Nov 1, 2011)

Beautiful tanks and fish. They must make it a pleasure for you to work at your desk!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

touch of sky said:


> Beautiful tanks and fish. They must make it a pleasure for you to work at your desk!


Thank you ^^ Yes I tend to zone out staring at my fish tanks alot ^^


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## touch of sky (Nov 1, 2011)

I know that feeling. I put my little 10 gallon shrimp tank right next to my desk for just that reason.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*update, new addition, some tank rescapes.*

*8g bubble bowl.*
Lot happened here.. it turned into a real jungle mess, the not getting enough light so had to pull everything out, hack it down and replant. I moved Ajax who's now very nearly completely bland from Diamond eye (cannot see above or in font of him, only below) to a 10g bookshelf tank that's 1/2 full as a riparium. My husband expressed interest in getting a giant betta, after a bit of searching at several stores.
[3/15]
First store we went to was a bit out of the way (lot of twisty back grounds to get to) and not a chain store... sadly their betta selection was lacking (didn't even spend 2 minutes by it) but they had quite a few interesting things including a 360g tank with giant gourami, freshwater stingray, and ornate bichir (along with various 10" range common plecos, and what I think were adult tin foil barbs). The giant gourami was like a dog, kept following us around the tank and wanted attention. I didn't think I'd like the giant as they tend to look a bit.. derpy but he was personable (don't worry he didn't follow me home.. waaay to big for me, needs 100g+ tank). There was also another tank probably 100-125g with a full grown knife fish.. [censor] that thing was huge! But the poor thing looked bored to death, did not swim around, just hovered in one place. Also there was a young fire eel but s/he was hiding. There were also a lot of tanks with various interesting fish, some common like live bearers and some I'd not seen before like an unknown cichlid that was solid black with small white spots.. no clue on species but it was lovely. I didn't take any photos to share sadly, but it was an interesting and fun trip even if we did not find what we wanted. 

Nest we went to a semi close big city petco and they had a much better tank selection than my local one.. was hard to resist buying some 'extra tanks'. They had 2.5 and 5g for under $15 (mine doesn't), as well as a petco 'essential' that was 6.6 and similar in dimensions to mr aqua 6g long, but i was frustrated I could not find anything on the outer packaging giving actual dimensions or something as simple as "is it glass?".. there was also the new fluval III (black packaging, much better light, and a spray bar outflow) but at $70 and no par info on the new light I did not buy it, also the petco arc which I'd considered several months ago but its sump/filtration system has some flaws... The store also oddly had a lot of aquatic plants but not in an underwater display.. lot of tube and bagged plants and the mystery bulb plants... amusingly they ah a good light for these plants but none of them were actually under the light to take advantage of it.. so minor fail..hard a hard time resisting some anubias but not being able to see the rhizome I left it behind. As small of a thing as it might seem they actually had healthy marimo! I know sounds silly but my store manages to ill it somehow =.=. Their regular fish selection was.. meh but they had a decent betta selection and they were much healthier than my usual store, only 1 sideways fish, no dead ones. There were 3 giants there, 2 wild type colorations, and one that was an almost cellophane but really just a marble that hadn't colored up yet (flesh tone body-frosty/irid fins, minor coloring at the back of the body, and light blue eyes). The middle one (wild type) had an eye infection or symptom showing other issues (cloudy eye) so he was quickly rules out. The wild type and marble on either side of him we debated for for a while. Picking up and examining both several times... My husband and I both thought the hooter one was interested in the wild type color but we were both actually more interested n the pale marble. Eventually we settled on the marble who had a few fin rips but would heal fast enough in a clean tank. My husband has a good eye for measuring and determined the light colored one was the larger one (measured when he got home at 2.75"), we're hoping he'll grow some more. My husband had hinted at getting the 6.6gallon (20+" long) tank and grabbing the other wildtype but I saw what looked like a parasitic worm clinging to one of its pectoral fins (might have just been some damaged fin dangling bu I didn't want to chance it). 
Less than 5 minutes into the drive my husband was calling the new betta Captain Ahab for a Moby Dick reference but by the time we got home we was leaning more towards André, the giant from Princes Bride (if you've not seen that movie you should!). I personally prefer to wait at east a week before naming fish in case of death (if they brought something nasty home with them like columnaris or other disease/parasite), but hubby is already names him so yeh he's André now.
When we got home my husband showed the giant to the other office fish. apparently (wasn't in room to see) Xerxes shot tot eh front of the tank and BOOM instant flare when the new fish walked in. The others checked him out without flaring but did have interest (including the rainbows in the 12g long). He acclimated smoothly (got some live black worms while dripping) and went into the jumbo bubble bowl, lights turned off in tank and left off until fish dinner time. He ate pellets fine thought took a bit to get the que to come to the surface for food (he's learning quick now).
The name suits him s he's fairly mellow and easy going (not loud/fast/aggressive) like the character from the movie. He's so mellow I was able to pet him within the first 24 hours! He's already starting to marble a little, getting faint blues in his back end, we'll have to see what he turns into. 
The bubble bowl sits at the corner of my desk so my husband can see into it, and André enjoys getting attention from him, as well as looking at my hubby's female, Chiyome, his 'neighbor'. He still is exploring the tank a lot but stops to hang out/look at me as he passes by the front.
Anyways enough excessive babbling! Have some photos:
Acclimating:



Next day:

[3/16]
SO took some shots yesterday of André, you can already see him coloring up. First shot he's looking at my hubby, second he spotted me (after I leaned in a bit more) ^^


[3/22]
He has feeding down pat, I'm now feeding him 9 pellets 2x a day, he gets 2x as many worms on frozen food day, and he gets s middle meal of live black worms around 3 pm (speaking of which its time to feed him)


[3/23]
You've seen plenty of pictures of the new big resident now, so here's a fts. I threw in a few snails to eat diatoms but notice there's still a lot of work to do.. I poked a snail that was floating at the surface the other day, it fell onto the driftwood below. André was most adorable, he followed it down and poked it with his 'nose' (did not peck/eat it) then swam away.




*6g Bowfront*
Aristocoles is doing well, caudal fin is healing nicely. Salvinia minima needs thinned again as I can barely push it out of the way enough to feed him now (he's at the feeding hole in the close up shot hoping for another lunch). need to get some snails in there to munch diatoms before he snacks on them..





*7g cube*
Still haven't sold the java fern I put in the marketplace.. if no one takes it I may just throw it out.. don't feel like maintaining a plant holding tank for it. I got some new plants in there now i bought from a forum member here, but have to wait for a 1 month quarantine as one of the anubias came in with rhizome rot. I cut the infected part and put it in a vase by the window.. hopefully it doesn't show up in any of these plants now... I got anubias 'diamond' and 'broadleaf' (which i honestly don't think is braodleaf-its not elongated enough). I also got Echinodorus parviflorus from a member on another forum, E. hadi red and E. aflame from same anubias seller... Plan to add my taller e. Argentinian after quarantine. For now I have some water sprite stems tossed in by the surface for Xerxes to rest on. His riccia mat has gotten huge not eh surface. I had to drape it over the filter outflow to keep in n place so it didn't shade the new sword plants too much, its bigger than my hand!









*2.5g vase*
I love Freya, she's like me-doesn't like waking up in the mornings. Every morning when I come down, before tank lights turn on she gives me a semi flare (gill out but no beard), like a grumpy "uhg, I don't want to wake up yet". I can relate girl. Various species of java fern (needle, narrow, theadleaf, and Philippine) and frogbit is doing well.. need to thin frogbit out again.


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

I'm going to show my age here, but I find it funny that you refer to Andre the Giant as the "giant from Princess Bride" rather than from wrestling! Anyway, I recently picked up your Andre's exact opposite at Petco. Not the best iPhone pic but here he is. (I'm recovering from a heart attack so please excuse the messy tank).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

RWaters said:


> I'm going to show my age here, but I find it funny that you refer to Andre the Giant as the "giant from Princess Bride" rather than from wrestling! Anyway, I recently picked up your Andre's exact opposite at Petco. Not the best iPhone pic but here he is. (I'm recovering from a heart attack so please excuse the messy tank).


I Refereed to him in the Princes Bride as I'm not into wrestling, and I liked his charter's personality in that movie. Nice dark giant betta! Do you name yours?


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

AquaAurora said:


> I Refereed to him in the Princes Bride as I'm not into wrestling, and I liked his charter's personality in that movie.


That makes sense. It was a fun movie to watch!



AquaAurora said:


> Nice dark giant betta! Do you name yours?


I don't typically name them, but you (and/or your husband) can name him for me if you like!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*8g Bubble Bowl*
So André has bubble nesting against the thermometer. He's been trying his darnedest to make a good nest, wonder if its for Chiyome? (husband's female plakat-they can see eachother) ^.~ Not too impressive for a giant but I'm guess its his first one and water's aren't perfectly still (using sponge filter) so its a challenge. The plants are starting to take off again, I had planned to hack down and replant the water sprite to make it a thick mass again but its being used to buffer water for the bubble nest so leaving it be for a bit.
I ruined his bubble nest when feeding (sorry boy!) He was stubborn about holding still for marbling progress photos after





And some above view photos after feeding blackworms






RWaters said:


> That makes sense. It was a fun movie to watch!
> 
> 
> 
> I don't typically name them, but you (and/or your husband) can name him for me if you like!


Hmm not sure what I'd name him.. maybe Orion or Typhon
from greek mythological figures wiki:


> Orion (Ὠρίων), a giant huntsman whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion





> Typhon (Τυφῶν), a monstrous immortal storm-giant who attempted to launch an attack on Mt. Olympus but was defeated by the Olympians and imprisoned in the pits of Tartarus


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

AquaAurora said:


> Hmm not sure what I'd name him.. maybe Orion or Typhon from greek mythological figures wiki:


Orion - I like it! My younger son used to constantly point out the Orion constellation. We had a planetarium in our middle school (years ago). Thanks for a cool name for my newest betta. I'll have to try to get a better picture of him.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Sooo Sunday night after much him-hawing (and ever enabling husband saying "do what you want") I bought a 3g picotope tank. There was a 25% discount on drfostersmith.. I'm sure I'll have buyers remorse as it was still $53 after tax and shipping cost and I don't be using its stock light (seems to be better for saltwater coral growth) I could have gotten a 2.5 or 5g standard for 1/4 that at the farther away petco...buuuut its nice glass with curved corners and no trim. I could not find the bloody tape measure to check if it will fit on my desk so will just wait and see.. I was thinking of moving Freya into it and either storing her 2.5g vase of upgrading Antaeus' 2g lantern vase to her's for a little more water volume.
.
.
.
Of cores after buying the picotope from fostermsih I find one for cheaper on ebay >.< and I can't get at order details to cancel the drfostersmith order grrrr. Yup buyers remorse in full swing an the [censor] thing isn't even shipped yet...

Side note: ebay has been broken for me..ever since I bought the anubias form there my shopping cart always says I have 8 items.. click cart and its empty, and the icon at the top says its empty.. go to another page on ebay and it says there's 8 again =,= its getting a little annoying. 

But anyways here are some photos.. 
André marbling progress + semi flare shot





Freya has been doing her semi flare at me more and more often, but of course I can never get an in focus shot... her black is slowly spreading but not as fast as Chiyome's has.

of course its completely out of focus =.=





And Xerxes came over to semi flare at me too... I really want to redo his tank soo but still waiting out the 1 month minimum from anubias dd in before getting anything else (as rhizome rot-sadly too common in anubias) can effect swords).

His riccia mat has gotten huge


Will get Aristocles photos later on this week.




RWaters said:


> Orion - I like it! My younger son used to constantly point out the Orion constellation. We had a planetarium in our middle school (years ago). Thanks for a cool name for my newest betta. I'll have to try to get a better picture of him.


Cool ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[7g]*
Sadly Xerxes is going downhill fast. The past week he's been getting slightly paler, and resting a LOT more. The past two days hes not wanted to get up to eat, but eventually would come to the surface. This morning I thought was the end, as he laid on his side at the bottom and looked up at me through the leaves of the swords. It looked like a death bed "good bye" but he managed to get a burst of energy and shot to the surface!.. then sunk back down.. I used tongs and fed him where he rested. Water params are good, I don't think its illness as he's pretty old, and having all the cysts he does I'm surprised he managed to last *this *long.
I will probably put him down in the next day or two. Not sure what I'll do after that... I may move Freya into his tank and take hers down, or get a new fish for either the 7g or the 3g.. or maybe get something completely different for the 7g.. 
I know I put down Alastor recently but I want to cling onto Xerxes, he was my first real 'serious' betta and my longest lived. He's been on my desk for over 2.5 years and gone though many scapes. I don't want to say good bye but its time...









Obligatory Mystery snail shots



















*[3g picotope]*
I need to update the title as I have a 3g not a 2.5g now >.> Anyways Freya photos-Her black is slowly spreading but nothing drastic. She's still a flare happy gal.


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## Ssid (Jul 1, 2013)

Aww. Poor Xerxes.. I have rooted for him since the beginning of this journal. He is a fighter. And he lived a good life with you.. Would not have been that lucky with another parent. Sending a lot of fishy love his way...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

(Prepare for Xerxes Photo bombing.)

Xerxes was my first serious betta purchase. He arrived a day early from the transshipper (the same day plants came) so I had to rush to stuff everything in his tank and get him acclimated. It was chaotic but he had no issue with it. He'd marbled drastically from the seller photo to the he arrived home, at first I thought I was sent the wrong fish but close examination of the caudal fin showed it was indeed my boy. Xerxes was named not for the villain in 300, but because of a Family Guy episode where Peter had a hawk named Xerxes that was a total bad [censor]. I loved the name and decided I'd name my next fish that (Xerxes was bought some time after seeing the show).
I found him to be quite the odd fellow over the years with plenty of unique quirts. He loved to burrow under the plant tanks and make little independent 'dens' in the substrate under them, even when there was plenty of mid and upper water column plant cover. He was a pro snail eater and could even could get mts out of their shells (struck fast before they got the trap door closed). He went through a lot of re-scapes and a few tank mates. He never harmed them but would often flare at the otos I kept with him for a short while, mostly when tank lights were off. He wasn't too happy when he got a nerite room mate and killed it. After that he was kept alone (except for 'pest snails') for a long time. Sadly he developed diamond eye and was mostly blind the majority of his life but he did fine until the last few months with regards to getting food. Xerxes was a master of the flare and wiggle technique, making it near impossible to get an in focus non blurred photo of him flaring. I have 1 not so great shot in the 2+ years I've had him. He also passed on this technique to my female plakat in a tank next to his-Freya. She's quite the flare happy wiggle gal now, so a bit of him lives on in her.
Xerxes loved have lily plans or large floating riccia mats in his tank to be shaded under and build bubbles nests around. He built quite a few over the years but never liked me taking photos of him building the nests, if I was busted he's flare then dart away and glare at me from the bake of the tank for a time. I caught Xerxes flaring at a few pest snails that dared to get too close to his nests, or get right up in their faces trying to intimidate the snail away, when that failed he's eat them or peck them so they'd fall to the lower levels of the tank. He changes quite a bit over the years as he was a marble. Mostly the blue bled over the yellow in his fins. His scales took on a variations of blue to nearly white hues and he's look more teal/green at the surface than below water. Xerxes hated when I took the lid off to take photos of him, he always expected, nay demanded food in such instances. He became a bit calmer in his last year and started to enjoy being pet after meals each day. My plakat boy had plenty of misc. objects shown to him for enrichment over the years (mirror exercises or showing photos/videos of other bettas never worked on him). He's inspect and sometimes flare as a few of them, but my short blue metallic pen he started trying to court and build a bubble nest right after seeing. For a long time I think he believed he was the only betta in the home, as he never saw the new fish that came home and got their own tanks, until Freya's tank was placed by him that is. He didn't hate having her there but he didn't try to court her either.
As Xerxes got older he developed cysts and eventually lost part of his dorsal and a whole pectoral fin when the cysts burst. He was a trooper though and kept on going for many months after that before really slowing down. I noticed as he got older his scales all got a little lighter in hue and more of them turned white, like an old man's beard going white with age.



























As you might guess from the above memorial, I put Xerxes down last week, and it's been sad looking at the 'empty' tank on my desk. Very Berry the mystery snail is still chugging along fine and enjoyed a cucumber over the weekend, but it feels too still without a fish in there. 
My husband and I went betta hunting on Saturday at our local petsmart and petco. I didn't take photos, or bring anyone home. There was a nice light steel blue and white grizzle crowntail male I liked at petsmart.. but I'm not a huge fan of cts.. Also a marble white dragon scale 'hm' (looked dt) that has startled to marble blue and black at the base of the caudal. At petco there was a 99.9% white double tail plakat male but he has the tiniest specks of blue in his anal in and what looked like a bronze/orange on a few body scales. There was also a steel blue hm but he had red ventrals and not a great dorsal. All the ones I posted on the "one who got away" thread in betta chat forum were still there. There was also a red and platinum dragon scale veil tail male (not seen that before) but looked to no be true platinum as I saw a blue spot on the scales so he's marble to blue and red in time. I didn't feel like I connected with any of them, and for that tank I need someone I really like (also ideally a plakat as I use a canister filter on it).

Oh I also forgot to post photos of André 's bubble nest from last week, he maintained it for quite a long while. Sadly the lily it was under was decomposing so I removed it today. I also did a small water change and stuffed root tabs into the substrate.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[10/14/16]*
*'Cuse me while I scream!*








*HE MADE IT!!!!*

A day late, but I noticed he showed up at my post office this morning from tracking info. I called and ask them to hold him. I was told it would be an hour before the mailman was done sorting his parcels. 1 hour later tracking info updates to 'out for delivery' I call and ask if its really going out to the house or if it was held for me as I'd asked. Got a different (useless) employee who just looked up the tracking info.. ye I'm looking at it too. I asked your place to hold it, did you hold it? "Uuuhh... its out for delivery." =.= So wait on mailman. He comes.. and goes without ringing the doorbell (for package drop off). No package. So I go to the post office and after trying to explain I wanted a 'deliver' package 'held' to a woman that didn't speak English well another female employee piped up, confirmed my name and handed me my box! Get back to the car and nervously opened the box. No heat pack, no foam, my heart sinks, "he must be dead". I pull out a firm blob wrapped in news paper and undo the tape hiding the contents to find a wiggly non pale betta boy staring me down! I was so happy!! But omg was his tiny bag of water cold! I cranked the car heat and headed home with him back in the box (was worried about keeping him agaisnt me to warm up). Acclimated and now floating him to get up to temp before releasing ^^ He didn't get pale at all. Tried feeding him, he ate 1 pellet then spit out the next. Maybe he'll want some at dinner time.

He's steel blue, no visible signs of diamond eye*knock on all available wood*, has hawkeye markings (i think that's the term for the darker spots?) on his fins, and white tipped ventrals.

Look how sexy he is!

























Mstery snail chose an odd spot to rest, right by drip line.. maybe talking to the betta through ti like a phone like ^^









few more shots


















*[10/20/16][/]b
Newest pk boy is doing well, he's already flared at me! Beard is black and steel blue. Still working on a name, not sure if I want to go with a sky theme or a metal working theme for his 'steel' blue hue. He managed a bubble nest even with the stronger flow in his tank. He's getting along well with the mystery snail.

















Aristocles just because










[11/10/16]
Cirrus








André and his tank


















Freya has had a tank re-scape, new downi is still a melt-y [censor] so no photos still it stops looking fugly.. Also got some fissidens and a new chunck of driftwood.*


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Need to get back into updating here, bit has changed. First up 8g got new plants, same betta.


*8g jumbo bubble bowl*
flora: unknown crypts, broad leaf and regular sag
fauna: mini ramshorn snails #?, 1 half giant halfmoon plakat betta male-Andre
filter: tetra whisper 10 air pump run sponge filter
heater: hydro theo 50 watt adjustable heater
lighter: clamp on work lamp with 13 watt 6500k cfl placed right on lid
substrate: black diamond 'sand'
ferts: osmocote+ root tabs and maybe once a week iron dosing for sag if I remember.








Still have a few floating sag I need to replant once roots re-grow (had some die off) but otherwise happy with this tank, can't wait for the sag to spread all around with runners. My lid is giving me grief with condensation forming then dripping down the side of the tank causing lowered water levels like I had not lid + wet table...need to fix that. 

Andre is marbling up-he's a piebald now (light head-dark body), and the black/blue is creeping over the top of his head.He's fairly mellow and not an enthusiastic eater as most people describe giants/half giants as being. He'll eat but isn't as eager to grab pellets/live/frozen food as my other bettas. 

























This is what he looked like march 2016 when he first came home:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*6g*
flora: salvinia minima, anubias nana petite, anubias nana golden, anubias nana micro
fauna: 1 yellow 'koi' hmpk female
filter: tetra whisper 10 air pump+sponge filter
heater: aqua top heater 100watt
light: finnex 12".. don't remember which model
substrate: black diamond 'sand'
ferts: weekly flourish, daily excel


































Use to have a nerite in here but ti cleaned up the place so I moved it to my goldfish tank (tons of diatoms-its very happy). Freya is doing well, she had a nasty infection-like a monster pimple on her lower jaw that exploded and lost a good chunk of meat. A methalene blue dip and some water changes healed her up nicely though, can't even tell it happened now... was worried I was going to loose her when it was an open sore though. She's such a sas-flares at me so often I'd almost think she was male. Took

photo from 10-/14/15


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Awesome tanks and beautiful Bettas... how are your plants so perfect?? What lighting are you using? Dosing? C02 or metricide?? Each one looks tremendous... better than the plants in my much larger tanks that I spend several hours working on each week and get at least DIY C02 and metricide...
I have been looking for a mustard gas / copper crowntail for a very long time now. I'm just not comfortable spending $50 and hoping he makes it... it seems so hit and miss with which fish make it and which dont... I actually gave the tank to a dwarf Gourami for now... which he shares with some sort of puffer that I haven't seen move since i brought him home a couple days ago..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

The Dude1 said:


> Awesome tanks and beautiful Bettas... how are your plants so perfect?? What lighting are you using? Dosing? C02 or metricide?? Each one looks tremendous... better than the plants in my much larger tanks that I spend several hours working on each week and get at least DIY C02 and metricide...
> I have been looking for a mustard gas / copper crowntail for a very long time now. I'm just not comfortable spending $50 and hoping he makes it... it seems so hit and miss with which fish make it and which dont... I actually gave the tank to a dwarf Gourami for now... which he shares with some sort of puffer that I haven't seen move since i brought him home a couple days ago..


I don't put out any real effort. No co2, ferts used listed with 2 newest tank posts-seachem excel and flourish (sometimes pottasium). 8g also has root tabs. *[edit] I don't put work into trimming or other weekly maintenance for these tanks. When ever I get around to water changes (maybe once every few weeks-month) I'll pull out dead plant matter/cut dieing leaves but that's about it.[/edit]*

Check your local petsmart/co often I've found some real gems there including copper hm, platinum gold vt, and platinum black dragon scale hmpk.

I've not been happy health wise with the fish I've bought online-all have had some sort of genetic issue like diamond eye (scales growing over eyes-common on platinum/dargon/metalic scaled bettas), and tumors/cysts, also one had cataracts. Cost of shipping makes it not worth it unless you're getting several imo so sticking to local from now on.

Dunno how well a gourami and dwarf puffer will doo.. have heard horror stories about puffers with bettas-one always gets killed by the other, they're too aggressive to keep together.

Had a dwarf gourami before I got into bettas in a 10g, loved him, very personable but he was clearly the boss in there. 

Not moving for a few days sounds bad they're very active-Dwarf puffers are often wild caught and come in starved and infested with internal parasites/worms. If you haven't done a quarantine on the puffer you may want to set up a qt tank and move 'em over for a while. They love snails go to your local petsmart/co and just ask for some pest snails from the display tanks/plant tanks-they'll usually give you a dozen or so free (my does at least), or you can buy a big grouping of rams horn, bladder/pond, or mts from the forums-lot of people have them and are happy to unload a bag.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[1/11/19]*
Reviving thread. Sorry many photos are dead, after photobucket arse [censored] people with their new fees I deleted my accounts (yes plural) there. But using imgur now so new photos can work.

Been a long while tanks been through some rescapes. Finally decided to make them nice for a betta again.. or maybe something small lie cherry shrimp instead. Just the original 7g cube and the jumbo 8g bubble bowl now.

*[7g cube]*
*[flora]* various anubias including 2 golden, small hastifolia (i think-will have to move as it grows), 2 unknown, and 4-5 anubias lancolata (I think, some may be minimas 1 has a marble/variegated leaf )-all bought local unlabeled. Also some water sprite in back that will fill in and some small leafed lily plant (not dwarf lily or n. taiwan -i wish i could get my hands on those again!!!). oh forgot also salvinia minima
*[fauna]* nothing yet
*[equipment]* sponge nano sponge filter/small whisper air pump, hydro theo 25 watt heater.
*[substrate]* ancient gravel i have from 2014 or earlier
*[hardscape]* mopani driftwood 3 large, 2 small

















*[8g jumbo bubble bowl]*
*[flora]* large anubias wavey leaf, water sprite, salvinina minima, duckweed (giant and regular)
*[fauna]* nothing yet
*[equipment]* *[equipment]* sponge nano sponge filter/small whisper air pump, hydro theo 25 watt heater.
*substrate* crappy new gravel (store selection is crap now-a-days)
*[hardscape* giant piece of mopani driftwood


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

side note: some anubias lansolatas may be minimas.. not sure have to let them grow in a bit.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[1/12-13/19]*
So on Saturday my husband and i went to a Petco, not our closest one as its fish care is [censor]. Went with the intention of getting 1 betta for my 7g cube, and if my husband wanted one, another for the 8g jumbo bubble bowl (that he could move to his 10g half moon after its current resident passes-she's getting very old).
I was inspecting every fish in the betta section for a long while. One of the early finds was a copper (with red and white metallic fins) half giant (king betta) with sbd (swim bladder disease/disorder), he didn't react much to me but when my husband held his cup he was more responsive. Guy was so massive he couldn't even move in that tiny container! Just lay on his side and wait to die.. There was another half giant, healthier but the more common 'wild' coloration blue/black/red that looked similar to a half giant my husband got a few years ago and lived in a heated/filtered/planted pond pot.
I found they had 6 elephant ear (dumbo) betta females. I've owned 2 EEs in the past, love their 'jazz hands' as my husband calls them pectoral fins. Wanted a female with all the driftwood a longer finned male might get more fin damage. The girls were so tiny and it was hard to choose but I finally went with the palest one (stress) who would zoom around her cup when I picked it up.
Had a woman working the fish section transfer my chosen betta girls to a bag with her original water to make taking home easier. We looked at dog toys then started towards checkout when I reminded my husband he could put a betta in my 8g if he wanted one. We ended up going back for the copper boy that was more interactive with my hubby. Had him (separately) bagged, got through checkout and tucked them both inside my husband's winter jacket to keep warm for the drive home.

Did a 70% water change on both of their tanks then started acclimating them. The size difference is so ridiculous the half giant could eat (though probably chock on) the tiny female EE. Anyways the half giant was happy for some warm clean water with the drip acclimation and stayed near the dripper, his finned unclamped while acclimating too.









After a long drip and a bag float to make sure they were at temp they were released into their respective tanks. The little girl just diapered in the large wood and anubias. The half giant was very thrashy and nearly broke loose from my hands when transferred from bag to tank, nearly lost him. He spent all of Saturday and Sunday resting at the bottom of the tank-he'd move but I'd never see him swim, just in a new spot. The little EE girl explored er tank and colored up by late Sunday.

More photos to come!!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[1/13-14/19]*
Was worried about the half giant over the weekend but on Monday i saw him swim around. he still has some sbd but he's moving around and doing well. Going to feed dafphnia tomorrow to purge any lingering blockage (you should not feed peas to bettas, they cannot process vegetation-they're carnivores).
Little EE girl got her first meal monday, blood worms and she loved them-learned really quick to come over where I wanted here in just 1 feeding, and not shy about my finger after food ^^


I'm calling my little EE girl Willow. And unofficially calling the half giant Titan (techincally my husband's fish).


photo dump time, excuse the diatoms in Titan's tank.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[1/31/19]
7g Cube*
The love-hate relationship with anubias...















You may notice some empty spots in here from the last update.. because I never seem to have luck finding anubias that doesn't melt to nothing (i'm talking total rhizome destruction!). Its quite frustrating.. I lost the 2 lovely anubias goldens and 2 unidentified anubias. What's left *looks* healthy for the time being.. but it takes a month of no rot to know its all gone.
Willow is doing well, she's always exploding and pretty bold. Fastest betta ever to learn feeding ques/where to go for food. She still gets spooked by my finger sometimes but other times she chases. She may not be as 'flashy' as some bettas but I'm glad I chose her.











Will post update on the 8g later.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*1/30/19]
8g jumbo bubble bowl*
Had to cut the 2 anubias rhizomes as they were too long to let new growth have some room (new leaves were smushed against glass). Titan is doing well, hasn't flared yet but I've not really tried to make him flare.
FTS








side/Back of the tank-my husband's view from his desk. Curved glass make its impossible to show whole thing but it reminded him of a plague mask.

















He does not like to hold still for photos.. best is the middle one-he was being leery of my wacom tablet pen.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[2/9/19]
7g cube*
Just a quick shot after a water change-oxygen filed salvinia roots, and Willow.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[11/27/19]*
Haven't updated in forever.
Anubias melted, no suprise-junk in a platic bottle at petco for who knows how long.. Tried a dirted tank with various small leafed lilles and tiger lotus. Didn't add enough sand cap to soil so soil kept expanding and coming on top of the sand-always messy. Plants didn't take off the way I wanted sooo we were here a few weeks ago:









Plants were sold off and I went minimalist-putting back in the 2 pieces of wood that were in during the unseen scape. These woods have fissidens growing from the wood grain (I never introduced fissidens to these woods, and they've been boiled several times, ). I also added some anubias from my 3g bubble bowl that was way to crowded and needed things out. Tank now has 1 large nana, 2 small coffeefolia, and 2 petite. Tossed some salvinia minima back in too. And willow was happy to have a cleaner environment (less nitrates without that messy soil)









Some time ago Willow thought it's be a good idea to go up the siphon tube =.= she's alive but lost some scales-the white around her head is from that (it should be brown).
She's a spunky little [censor], she flares me more than some of my previous males did.

















Don't mind the particles in the water-just did a water change.

Bump: *[11/27/19]*
Haven't updated in forever.
Anubias melted, no suprise-junk in a platic bottle at petco for who knows how long.. Tried a dirted tank with various small leafed lilles and tiger lotus. Didn't add enough sand cap to soil so soil kept expanding and coming on top of the sand-always messy. Plants didn't take off the way I wanted sooo we were here a few weeks ago:









Plants were sold off and I went minimalist-putting back in the 2 pieces of wood that were in during the unseen scape. These woods have fissidens growing from the wood grain (I never introduced fissidens to these woods, and they've been boiled several times, ). I also added some anubias from my 3g bubble bowl that was way to crowded and needed things out. Tank now has 1 large nana, 2 small coffeefolia, and 2 petite. Tossed some salvinia minima back in too. And willow was happy to have a cleaner environment (less nitrates without that messy soil)









Some time ago Willow thought it's be a good idea to go up the siphon tube =.= she's alive but lost some scales-the white around her head is from that (it should be brown).
She's a spunky little [censor], she flares me more than some of my previous males did.

















Don't mind the particles in the water-just did a water change.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Thought I'd toss up a photo of Willow's sassy self wishing a painful end upon my finger near her tank... seriously she's more aggressive than many of the male's I've kept!
Look at that angry face!!!








Crappy glare and diatom covered anubias in the background but sssshh we'll just ignore that.

'Fun' side note... cyanobacteria (aka blue green slime algae) is back and on the fissidens (ugh). So starting chemiclean treatment again.
I also get rampant diatoms on the anubias which I tried to put a ramshorn snail in to nom but surprise surprise.. Willow doesn't want a roommate... I think it's taken to hind in the wood now, after Willows several attempts to eat it.. Soo wet paper towel and gentle rub down to clean it is...

[edit]
I don't think I actually stated it earlier, but the 8g bubble bowl in in storage, the big boy Titan passed.. I've been told giants (and half giants) tend to get more health issues and live shorter lives.. so yeh. The anubias was sold a while ago soo. Driftwood also in storage.. I'm tempted to pull them out and set up again for a shrimp tank if I an find a good blue neocaridina breeder (non rilli but otherwise don't care about which blue color type) so if you know any US breeders with blue neos please tell me so I can increase my tank count... again >.>
[/end edit]


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