# Planted Tenner (betta) now guppy tank



## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Sept 2014-*
I liked being able to move the java ferns around, on their little stones, but they never grew much bigger than this.








Realized my lone kuhli (Sam) in here would be better off in the other tank with companions and more room...








*11/14/14-*
I had a few blue platyfish in my other tank that were getting attacked by my betta in the larger community tank (he was also blue) so I tried switching fish- moved the cherry barb pair to the bigger tank, brought the platies over here into the tenner:








I thought at first Oliver would leave them alone, he followed them around but I never saw him flare at them, or actively chase.
















Incidentally, my anubias lanceolata looked its best ever, at that time.








*11/18/14-* It took several tries but I finally caught my kuhli Sammy and moved him into the bigger tank.








*12/19/14-*
I got a picture of the nerite snail's teeth!








The blue platies were not safe in here, either. Even though I never saw Oliver actively attacking them, found fish in the morning with their tails bitten. I put them in hospital tank and tried to treat, but they didn't make it. I gave the last uninjured one to the pet store.
















*12/22/14-*
Put up a mirror for a few min, got pictures of Oliver flaring for the first time.
















*Jan 2015-*
I put a potted spider plant on the cover glass over anubias, to shade it more








The _barteri_ seemed to appreciate that.








For a while I grew trimmings of the java moss in jars, kept on top of the tank they stayed just warm enough.








*Feb 2015-*








*March 2015-* Oliver still reigns alone with the snails.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Added STS*

*May 2015-*
I realized to be a proper low-tech tank, I need substrate holding nutrients for the plants. I started out by just adding some into the smaller tank. I bought fired montmorillonite clay, safe-t-sorb. It's really dusty and lightweight, floats up easy if disturbed. (This turned out not to be a problem, the trumpet snails turn substrate over so much, after the first week I hardly saw any safe-t-sorb at all, most was turned under the gravel). It sucks carbonates out of the water and until reached capacity will lower pH. That might be good, except then the pH will be unstable every time I replace water? I soaked it w/baking soda as well as ferts.

First I sifted the entire 40lb bag through a window screen, removing about a fifth of the volume in dust and fine particles. Then screened just a few pounds through an old plastic collander, removing half again of smaller particles so what's left is more even sized, larger bits.








Then I tried "charging" it. It soaks up a lot of stuff immediately (that's why sold for spill cleanups) so you soak it in a bucket of water with fertilizers, and then the clay holds them for your plants. The science on this is not precise, I read how some people did it- the important part seems to be keeping the fert ratios the same as when you normally dose the tank. I dissolved four EI doses of dry ferts and liquid micros into a gallon of water, then soaked the STS in that. For just over an hour while I did regular tank maintenance. I think now this wasn't long enough. Most people soak it for an entire day, or a week. Yeah, it's _really_ dirty.








I used the old tank water to rinse out the STS. Even after the two siftings I'd done, it still took about twenty rinses before the water was relatively clear. And then when I sprinkled it into the tank, it was still cloudy for about half an hour.








I wasn't sure if this would benefit the plants. I had all epiphytes in this tank. They do have little runners that go down into the substrate, do those grab nutrients? or do they only feed from the water column. But it can't hurt and this tank didn't have deep enough substrate anyway. It did make the pH drop. I dissolved into the tank some baking soda, pH stabilized after 2 more tsp of that.


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

Nice tank. I am interested in sts as substrate for my 10 gallon as well. So, you did about 20 rinses and how much baking soda altogether? Can you load it too much with ferts?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I'm not sure if you can overload it w/ferts. It was totally an experiment for me. I thought if I put a good amount in, it would hold that and continually soak up more nutrients from fish poo and I'd be good. Turns out it didn't quite work like that- I still have to dose ferts each week or my plants suffer. Maybe I did not put enough in during the initial soaking. But I think it is helping by holding nutrients in the tank longer, between doses. 

I sifted the safe-t-sorb to remove dust and really fine particles initially, to avoid having to rinse so much. It was still a lot of rinsing. I ended up putting about a third of a 40lb bag into a five-gallon bucket, covered it with 3 gallons of water, dissolved four weeks' worth of ferts doses into that. You can see the water bubbling crazy at first as the clay soaks stuff in. I could even _hear_ it. I didn't want the pH bouncing around so I put in baking soda, tested the bucket water, and kept doing it until I didn't see a sudden drop in pH. I figured once the safe-t-sorb had reached its capacity to absorb carbonates, it would stop absorbing so much so sharply w/each addition. It was 5 TB in the initial soaking. Tested tank water after it went into the aquarium, and added small doses of baking soda when I saw pH swings, until they stopped. It was 2 tsp more to get it stabilized (added in 1/4 tsp increments).

I was prepping the safe-t-sorb for my 20 gallon tank as well, that's why I did so much quantity. The ten gallon only got a few handfuls of it initially, to test it out. I added another layer later on.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Found a few more early pictures- of things I don't have anymore*

*Feb 2015*
I really did like the platyfish- they were cute and I love blue color. Sorry that I couldn't keep them, but the betta rules. This was the last one I had that was given up at the petstore.








I didn't realize it at the time, but now I think their blotchy appearance was due to stress, from their aggressive tankmate.








This was my favorite picture of that last one.








I took the java moss out. It wasn't doing anything for me. After all that time tied down, this was the best I got for moss clinging by itself:








I tied the java fern onto the skull instead. I don't like fake decor anymore, but it is my betta's favorite hideout so I am reluctant to remove it. Trying to naturalize and soften its appearance by having a plant grow over it.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*6/8/15*

I took the blue background off my tank. Wanted a brighter, cleaner look. 








Sometime mid 2015 I started doing EI ferts. I used the recommended EI dosing amount but for low light/low tech only give it once a week- 1/16 tsp KNO3, 1/32 tsp K2SO4 and half again that of KH2PO4. I have tiny fractions of teaspoons to measure but the smallest one is 1/32 (smidgen). To get half of that I dissolve 1/32 tsp into 10ml of tank water and dosed 5ml of that into the aquarium. Here finally started to see some improvement in my java fern-








I like taking overhead shots occasionally. (Plants on the right against the back wall are still fake plastic).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*My betta fish had his moving day!*

*6/10/15-*
In the summer moved to a new house- only a five minute drive from my old apartment so I transported the plants, driftwood, and snails in a clean five-gallon bucket w/some tank water, just two-thirds full so it wouldn't spill over (should have covered the top with plastic wrap or something, but I didn't think of it)








I brought Oliver in another bucket with his skull cave for some security. I think that was a good idea- he did keep hiding in it.
















I set it all up again in the new place, returned to the tank water from the plant bucket. Replaced the driftwood and plants. Then started running filter and filled the tank with new water. It was very cloudy at first. 








After half an hour still cloudy so I lightly rinsed out the sponge filter- it was overloaded with silt.








It wasn't really clear again until the next morning. I kept the lights off for a full day to reduce stress for the fish.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*New lighting*

*6/16/15-*
Bought a new LED light for my tenner. Finnex Stingray. It just goes on/off, none of the sophisticated programming options. I didn't want that because those seem too strong for my low-tech with low-light plants. Even so it's a _lot _brighter than the cfl bulb I had. Makes me notice all kinds of little flaws in the glass, specks of things. 








And I saw for the first time that Oliver's eye was cloudy. I tested the water quality- no ammonia, no nitrite, pH at 7.6, nitrates 20 (to be expected, I dosed ferts the day before). So the water is clean and biofilter working fine, I guess its just stress from the move. I started doing small partial wc (half gallon) every other day, siphoning off some settled debris on the broad leaves. Fed him some garlic-soaked food too. His eyes seem a little clearer next day (but of course he's camera-shy and I can't get good focus on it).








*6/19/15-*
One thing I soon disliked about the new LED was the glare across the top of the tank, and the visible blue, red, white spots. Annoying.








Also really noticeable how much of a shadow the black plastic hinge casts across the tank. I happened across this idea on the forum and tried it- use silicone sealant to make a colorless hinge.








Mine's not quite even, and the surface I worked on wasn't completely flat like I thought, so the glass panes do not lie exactly level. But this is not noticebale when on top of the tank, and it is very strong. Downside is that the hinge was fairly stiff, it wouldn't prop open by itself and I had to hold the back panel down with one finger when lifting open the front.








For a few days while the silicone was curing I kept the tank covered with a sheet of plastic wrap. I did notice that this gave an overall softer look to things. Less glare off the sides and not so annoying the spots of color lights above the tank either. Hm. Makes me think that if it turns out this light is too much for my low tech setup, I could reduce it down a notch by replacing the glass with polycarbonate... (been reading about this on the forums too- it cuts the light down by 20 or 30%, I might actually need to because I don't want to get driven into using c02 to keep up w/the higher light...) It's a subtle difference, hard to get a photo showing that but you can kind of see it compared here:
















I know that sounds counterproductive- I redid the hinge off because I wanted more light, and now might switch to plastic because I want less light? Really its that I want an even spread of light- not a strip of shadow across.

*6/28/15-*
It didn't take long to realize the Finnex Stingray was too much light for this plant. In just a week or two my anubias went from looking like this








to getting a coat of brown algae-








But other plants seemed to be doing better- for the first time ever, the java ferns in this tank had little fiddleheads coming up! They were responding either to the safe-t-sorb or the new light, not sure which but I'm definitely pleased. I tried shading just the anubias by putting plastic wrap over the glass lid on the one side, to see if it helped.


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## Melika (Feb 7, 2013)

Been enjoying looking at all your pictures. 

I saw this vid (the idea originally came from this forum somewhere) for a DIY sliding glass lid (no hinge) using an existing top. Perhaps that would work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ6Xzi51Sqs


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yes- As you might have noticed, these updates are all from last year, I'm gradually catching up to myself. I did make a sliding lid following a DIY tutorial on here, and one of the upcoming posts will show that. I REALLY like it.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Thanks for doing this. Most tank journals take awhile to get exciting since you start at day one and have to wait. This is like binge watching TV shows on Netflix.

Oliver is super cute. I love the pictures of him following the Mollies. Too bad he was snacking on their fins. I have Rasboras in with my Bettas. The boys chase them, but usually can't catch them. Except that one time... I still don't know if Finn found an already dead one or if he actually managed to catch it, but it made a hefty tummy ache inducing meal for him (he was a teenager at the time and a Rasbora was larger in comparison to young Finn than now older Finn).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Varmint said:


> Thanks for doing this.


You're welcome! I'm glad it's appreciated. I have a gardening/aquarium blog elsewhere that I post a lot more often on- and keep track of all my mishaps and mistakes. But most of the pictures on there -for my own reference- are plain embarrassing now, so I wanted to just show some highlights from the last year and a half of its progress.

And maybe get some pointers/feedback, too.

Bump:


Varmint said:


> I still don't know if Finn found an already dead one or if he actually managed to catch it, but it made a hefty tummy ache inducing meal for him


Yikes. How awful to find a fish eating the other. Especially if you're fond of them both. Once I had a smaller fish crash in my tank- I was keeping a close eye on it because couldn't bear to euthanize but I knew it wasn't going to make it- and the moment it rolled over dead on its side the other fishes moved in- probably to eat it. My betta Pinkie was first to get there. We were having dinner at the table near the tank and I jumped up to scoop the dead fish out before the kids realized what was happening. I think they would have been horrified (not to mention put off their own meal).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*July 2015*

*7/12/15-*
I was bothered over black algae marks- on anubias leaves and plastic plants in particular. I took a few measures against that- raised the tank light a quarter of an inch (on stacked popsicle sticks, temporary means)








and lowered the biggest anubias plant itself by retying further down on the driftwood log. This moved it about two inches further from the light source.








Java fern still plugging along. It was looking poorly for a while. I dosed a tiny amount of epsom salts for magnesium. Read that Mg deficiency can cause the veins to look darker than the rest of a leaf. A few days later, the color on the leaves seems to have evened out. Now the trick is to get the light level balanced just so- low enough not to prompt algae all over the anubias, but high enough to grow the java fern.








Not terribly happy with the look of the tank now- it's all too even in height. I think I need more plants in there....








*7/13/15-*
I have had poor success with otocinclus in the past. But I took a chance with these because they looked so good in the store- alert fins and round little tummies. Thumbprint mark of stomach against the glass. I brought five home yesterday. Some went in the other tank. They're _so_ little! I put them right into the tank- two here with Oliver, who didn't flare or bite but has been following them around curiously. I didn't quarantine because never could keep otos well-fed in QT. I actually saw them eating off surfaces and one of them pooped, so I am more hopeful that these will make it. Eating and digesting is a good sign!









*7/14/15-*
Next day otos still looked perky








and were feeding off the big anubias leaves








Oliver doesn't seem to mind them. He sometimes cruises close enough to disturb one off its perch but doesn't actually threaten or chase. Seems more curious than anything.

*7/19/15-*
I added a small amount of magnesium with the ferts last week, 1/32 tsp of epsom salt. Looks like it helped my anubias lanceolata- veins are no longer darker than the rest of the leaf. You can see the affected leaf on the left, new leaf grown out in center looks better.









*7/20/15-*
Glad I often pause to watch the fish. Noticed this day I'd only seen one otocinclus busy around Oliver's tank- where was the other. Then I saw him headfirst down the output tube for the sponge filter. Just his tail sticking out. He must have been feeding down the airline, or went in after the green algae inside of the tube- pretty determined against the pressure of air flowing out! I jiggled the filter a little- he wiggled his tail but didn't budge. I turned off the air flow, he wiggled his tail more but still couldn't get free. I lifted the filter up near the surface, turned it horizontal, was trying to gently pull the pieces apart when he wiggled again and slid out. Seemed a bit distressed- he sat on the substrate in a corner not moving for a long time after. Didn't appear to get any injuries. Now he's moving about the tank once more, so far he hasn't approached the filter- I hope he doesn't repeat the maneuver and get himself stuck again! 

(Every time I look at this tank now I check where the otos are. They do go up and down the airline tubing but I've never seen one in the outtake tube again. I think the fish remembers the mishap and stays clear)

*7/21/15-*
Really enjoy watching the little otos. Always busy!
















It's so cute to see them follow each other up and down the tank sides, resting and feeding together. I wonder if they are different otocinclus species (or subspecies)? one has a mottled gray back and spotty/broken midline stripe- the other is a more even gray, its stripe a clean line.








Oliver still seems okay with their presence, but I'm keeping a close eye on him.








I put a zucchini slice in the tank. It took half the day for an oto to find it. Oliver himself saw it right away and kept slowly circling it, inspecting, taking curious nips. When one of the otos finally started nibbling away Oliver glided over and the oto abruptly moved off. He hasn't gone back to it. But I did see him eating, so I plan to keep offering zucchini a few times a week, to supplement their diet.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*August 2015*

*8/10/15-*
This was my one-year anniversary for Oliver.








I was glad to note I can't remember ever having any serious concerns about his health- aside from the cloudy eye issue after we moved. He's always looked well and had a good appetite. Inspects anything new in his little environment. Continues to appear accepting of the otocinclus. But I was still unable to feed the otos zucchini because although Oliver doesn't eat it himself (I had another betta who would), he keeps hanging around it and keeps the otos off. He used to ignore gnats or fruit flies I catch and drop into the tank, but now he responds to the opening of the lid by coming to see what's offered, and eats the flies readily. (Not anymore- now he ignores gnats and only goes for the larger fruit flies).

*8/13/15-*
Two nerites feeding near each other on the glass. I used to think tomato nerites were so striking, until I found the horned nerites and I like them even better. My four-year-old named the tomato snail Mavis and the smaller horned one is Bumblebee Snail. I just saw a pic somewhere of these pale gold horned snails, they were called sun thorn nerites. Is that a common name for this shell shape and color? I like that: sun thorn.








*8/29/15-*
Oliver showing the red and blue highlights in his fins:








My anubias barteri is growing new leaves that look cleaner, but the older ones still have ugly black algae marks on them. I've been gradually cutting off the oldest, most ragged leaves- just one at a time, every other week or so.








I bought a grassy-looking plant from the pet store, I didn't know what it was but think I identified it later as _cyperus helferi_? Too demanding a plant for my experience or light level! It was deteriorating in my bigger tank, I put a piece in here behind the anubias and to my surprise it did better for a while.








Also planted a bit of rotala and some water wisteria to see if it would grow, because I'd rather have live plants in the back than the plastic ones. Not big enough to get a picture of yet. I've been finding some long strands of java moss here and there in the tank, that I missed before. The java fern is grown, and it holds on by itself now. So that's something.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Sept 2015*

*9/4/15-*
Tank is a good two months old now (well, since setup after the move). I had a setback in august when I was gone on vacation for two weeks. Leaving the fish alone and unfed is fine, but I didn't know how to leave a planted tank which gets dosed with nutrients weekly, and mine always suffers at any deficiency. I finally decided to bump _up_ the light period, because my worst fear was that the otocinclus would starve- if the trumpet snails being hungry without food to scavenge became competitors for algae. I put the photoperiod at ten hours. Came back and to my surprise it's doing relatively fine. (Gradually cut the hours back, now it's at 7.5 hrs). The broad anubias leaves do have more black marks, but newest leaf seem unaffected and I hope to get it looking good again soon.








I cleaned the inside of the glass, makes for much better pictures. Plenty of biofilm left on the back wall, lower edges and all the plant surfaces and decor items for the otos. I figure if they didn't eat it sparkling clean in the few weeks I was gone, they're not going to deplete their sources and starve anytime soon.
























*9/5/15-*
Here's how my tenner looked early Sept:








I took out a plastic plant. It was getting ugly with black stuff on it- algae I thought, but it was very hard to get off. I soaked it in a bleach solution to kill whatever it was and rubbed and scraped but still didn't come all the way clean and I broke off some of the plastic leaves. Didn't know they were so brittle. Water wisteria is in its place.








As for the other newer plants in here, rotala indica stem is doing absolutely nothing (but at least it's still alive) and cyperus helferi the outer leaves are rotting but inner leaves still green.








I like the short end view.








*9/7/15-*
The day I put duckweed in my tank. Not intentionally at first. I brought home from the pet store two new nerites and another cherry barb for my other tank, and one more oto for the tenner. This one looked alert the entire time it was being transported and acclimated, and colored up right away once in the tank, not pale with stress.








It did look a bit thin to me, but I saw it feeding on surfaces and pooping already. The others have been with me nearly two months now so perhaps finally I will have some success keeping otos.








And in the bag with the fish I had a surprise freebie- this tiny green floating plant








It's duckweed








I know a lot of people don't want this plant (just like they don't want malaysian trumpet snails). It's invasive. It multiplies like crazy. It looks cute, but I've heard it is awfully hard to get rid of. Well, I've been warned and I'm trying it anyways. I took a chance when I found it, and let it float in my tank. I'm not worried about it clogging filter intakes because my sponge filter sits on the bottom- so the only annoyance would be it clinging to my own hands, tools I put in the tank, etc. I don't think it will be too much trouble to just scoop some out each week to keep it in check, plus I want shade for my anubias. Looking close, I see that the lower anubias leaves which are shaded by upper ones, don't have the algae marks. Some leaves are half clean and half blotched with algae, a dividing line _exactly_ where the light hits. So I'd been thinking about getting some floaters- azolla caroliniana or frogbit or well, duckweed. If the mild current in Oliver's tank keeps it more or less on one side, maybe I could get it to stay over the spot where the anubias grows...

Oliver keeps grabbing the little plant and spitting it out again, to see if its edible I guess. If it survives that and this one tiny bit turns into numerous plants, hey that would be impressive.

*9/10/15-*
Third day in and the new oto still looks alert and active. But pale, compared next to the others. 








One of the older ones, resting upside-down on a driftwood twig!








*9/12/15-*
It follows reason that if there is an imbalance with the nutrients in my fish tank, that the water I take out and give to houseplants will have the same imbalance. I noticed recently that the anubias lanceolata has pale leaves with darker veins, and it looked like the java fern was starting to develop that, too. So I dosed magnesium in that tank again.








And now just a few days after doing water changes and watering houseplants with the tank wastewater (as usual) the younger, lower leaves on my avocado plant show similar symptoms:








Older leaves aren't as affected. Maybe I should be dosing the magnesium once a month, or once every other month.








*9/18/15-*
Late Sept tank shot. I trimmed off some roots on the side of the biggest anubias barteri that were getting all messy-looking. It's gripping very solid on the driftwood, has some thick roots that have gone down conforming tight to the wood all the way. Read that these hairy, thinner side roots aren't really essential to the plant.








Cyperus helferi isn't looking so good. I trimmed a lot of dying material out. Put a few handfuls more of gravel around this one and the wisteria, and gave them each a piece of root tab.








Still have the bit of duckweed, but it hasn't multiplied yet.

*9/20/15-*
I made a new lid for my aquarium, out of clear panels of lexan (polycarbonate) that I got cut to fit at the hardware store. Even though it's not perfect (the cut was not right so I cut again at home with fine-tooth saw and tried to get it smooth with sandpaper but it has scratches on the edge now) I'm pretty happy with it. I followed examples found here. Basically it's two panes (most people use glass) that fit into this plastic piece meant to edge tile. One sits in the channel, the other rests on top, and to open you just slide one back. The op recommended having the bottom pane slide to open but after a few weeks of using this I found I prefer to slide the top pane, from the front. It sticks less.








My only issue is that contrary to what I read online, the lexan _does_ start to sag in the middle. So I cut a piece of wire from a coat hanger for a center brace, and flip the panes each week to re-correct. I'm using a lot of coat hangers. I hate wire coat hangers for clothes, so those left around the house I've been cutting up for this brace. Three pieces out of each hanger. Every few weeks I replace it because it starts to rust a little on the ends. Someday I'll find something else to use.








I was going to glue a handle on, then thought of drilling a hole just big enough to put a finger into (or drop food through) but in the end I just left it as-is. It's easy to slide open with a push of fingernail, and nudge close from the other side. I like this a lot better than the hinged lid because I don't have to hold the lid open with one hand while I'm doing something. Also, I colored the top side of the plastic edging black, for appearances. I simply used a permanent marker. Not on the side that comes in contact with condensation- just in case it could get something toxic in the water.








Also since it's not glass, will probably cut out a little more light.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Fall 2015*

*10/6/15-*
Since I put a root tab under it, the watersprite has quit looking like it wanted to die and staying green instead.








The anubias seems to be proving my assumption that it got black algae marks from too much light. Newer leaves show none. Third oldest leaf has the pale marks of Mg deficiency, I think that's corrected now as long as I do the epsom salts once a month.
















Finally some duckweed multiplying - very slowly though, which suits me just fine. There are now three little clusters of tiny leaves, instead of just one.








Java fern is really improving in here. Smaller plants I tied on the month before have new leaves emerging now, too.








*11/6/15-*
Transferred over some little windelov java fern pieces from the bigger tank. 








Still two small clumps of cyperus helferi in here, barely hanging on, I don't think will last much longer. I should just pull it out and call that one a goner.








Water wisteria in the corner has grown. Some smaller bits were floating and I'm trying to anchor them down to root. The leaf shape is different.








I am not worried about the java fern in here anymore. (See that tiny plant behind it, just in front of the sponge filter? That's one little rotala indica cutting. It hasn't grown at all).








Duckweed seems to be doubling itself every week now.








I do want more plants in here. If the windelov fern does well, I'd like to put in more of that. Maybe vallisneria in the corner where cyperus helferi is dying, ludwigia across the back (replacing the plastic plant) and little stems of rotala in front corners... For now it looks like this:








*11/18/15-*
I've been "farming algae" on rocks in a sunny window for the otos. Put this one in and took a picture in the morning (before tank lights were on). The otos quickly congregated on it.








Before mid afternoon they had eaten almost all of it! Quick work.








I don't have enough jars of rocks to give this to them every day, or even once a week- have to wait for more rocks to grow the algae and bio-film. It's more just a treat for them, once every other week or so.








*11/19/15*
Replanted some stuff into my tenner (out of the other tank). I threw away that last bit of cyperus helferi that was dying in the corner, and transplanted some vals there instead.








A few in the front corner on the same side, but it probably gets too much shade from anubias barteri and the substrate is very shallow there so not sure how they'll do.








I put some small trimmings of rotala indica around the fake skull. That one tiny bit of rotala in the background of this tank has not grown noticeably in _months_. I thought if something in these tank conditions keeps the rotala stunted, perhaps I could simply use that as an advantage and put it around the foreground. 








Java fern is not doing well in my bigger tank for some reason. When bits come loose off the driftwood in there, I tie them down to the fake skull in here. They're doing better now.








More bits of windelov fern got moved over, too.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Dec 2015*

*12/08/15*
Duckweed continues to multiply, and so far is no trouble to maintain. Last week I noticed there were some pale, disintegrating leaves and I simply scooped those out when changing the water. Baby trumpet snails move up to the surface film and cluster in the duckweed floaters. 







I like seeing how Oliver swims up from below the scattered cover of plants, to look for his food offering.
















*12/11/15*
Vallisneria I planted seems to be doing well.








Pieces in the front tend to get uprooted, though.








I've stuck more rotala trimmings in here. They tend to come loose as well, I just leave in the ones that manage to hold on.








Looks better from the short end.








A few weeks ago I took a sheet of scrap plastic (off toy packaging) and laid it over the sliding top on the left side of the tank, blocking a bit more light above the main anubias. It seems to have helped, this plant is looking better. No more impulse to trim out algae-blackened leaves.








*12/19/15*
Went to the pet store. Found a pretty little horned nerite snail. A softer, golden brown color not the bold bumblebee black-and-yellow like most I see. And a ramshorn which I got for free.
















*12/20/15*
I scraped spot algae off the inside of the glass on friday. I hadn't realized how much there was, and it's really _hard_ stuff. So maybe the light is too strong still. I'd hoped the duckweed would screen some light out, but it's not growing that fast.








My water tested fine, but one of the otots didn't look so good after I cleaned the glass. The speckled gray one. He seemed to have a pale patch in front of the dorsal fin on one side. And tail fin seemed a bit degraded on the edge too.








I started doing extra water changes, taking care to siphon the bottom. Oliver's clouded eye came back. Crap.








He seems to like hanging out below the broad anubias leaves, lately.








And in terms of plants- I was so pleased the wisteria has doubled in height, even put out a few side shoots near the base. And the itty bitty windelov ferns seem to be getting a hold on the driftwood.








*12/23/15*
I was looking back on old photos and remembering how much better my tank looked, when there was less light- how nice and clean the anubias used to be. And the skull never had black smudges of algae all over it before, and the glass didn't used to get so gritty with BSA. Such nice healthy greens, just before the move and the new LED. I decided to cut the light coming into my tenner. I took that extra plastic panel off the sliding top and used it to block some light from side end, instead. (The tank is flanked on both sides by windows).








Nicer to have the sliding lid unobstructed again. I cut some plastic (recycled packaging from some item) into narrow strips just wider than the LED panel and taped them over it, with an extra layer or two on the left side above the anubias. I also put a sheet of white cardboard on the back of the tank.








Doesn't look very different, but I do hope it will improve things. I'm still dosing dry ferts (macros) and liquid micros on this tank; it usually has very low nitrates as so little goes in via fish food- I feed Oliver lightly and the snails and otocinclus eat what's naturally growing in there. I wonder about Oliver's overall health, now. He's always eaten great, looked fine, fairly active. Aside from occasional cloudy eye, he's never been sick or had any fin rot. But he's also never made a bubble nest... So is he content as I've always thought? Is he stressed at sharing a tank, in ways I can't discern? Or maybe he's just not interested in nest-building, never felt the urge. But his face is turning gray now, loosing color under the chin. My best guess he's probably two years old now. 

The gray mottled oto looks better this morning after another partial water change- the pale patches on him gone (I think it was fungus) tail still a little ragged but I hope that heals up quickly. 

*12/26/15*
My gray spotted oto died. I thought it was doing better. I was doing 20-25% water changes every day. The pale patches seemed to be gone. But it suddenly looked very skinny the day before yesterday, and then crashed on the tank bottom. Gone. Trying to think why that oto got fungus (or whatever it was). It seemed to happen after the last time I put an algae rock in the tank. I do rinse those windowsill jars out once a week and put new tank water in. I didn't think it was that scummy, but maybe something on there made the oto sick...?

I still have two, and they look fine. 








I took a stone with windelov fern bits out of the bigger tank, moved it in here to the front corner that had vallisneria (put that in the back corner with the other vals).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Jan 2016*

*1/10/16-*
Got some plants from the pet store (in pots). In the betta tank I put some ludwigia and bacopa stems in the background. They looked disheveled at planting time, but already today are standing up straighter and have nice color.








Seen from above-








I planted rotala rotundifolia, also called dwarf rotala. This one out of a gel packet. It's very small, the foliage is incredibly fine, and it was really hard to handle! 
















Lots of little stems in the front, now.








I also switched positions of the heater and sponge filter. I like the heater position better now- it's more hidden- but moving the sponge filter didn't have the effect I wanted. I thought its current would push the duckweed over to shade my anubias barteri, but its not really doing that.

*1/11/16*
I do enjoy overhead views, but it's really hard to get a good photo of it all. My patching job in photoshop is not so great- and here I took the pic of the right side at a different angle (to avoid a glare from window, even with the curtains drawn) so couldn't make it line up right.








Closeup of the left side- I'm really happy how my anubias barteri is looking. Shading its side really helped this plant.








On the right, I swear the fake skull is looking a bit whiter, maybe that nasty black algae on it is dying off now.








*1/14/16-*
Dwarf rotala in the tenner is not doing so great. A few pieces are holding on and their leaf size is increasing- but every day I find more floating on the surface. I thought it was caused by these guys (funny oto perching just past vertical on a bacopa caroliniana stem)








but saw something else- the little trumpet snails are elbowing their way down to eat the rotting bits off the dwarf rotala stems, and setting them loose from the substrate! They look a mess now. rotala indica on the other hand, is holding on and grown quite a bit.








I didn't expect it to become a favorite plant, but I keep admiring the little windelov ferns in here. Seen backlit with ambient light, their little fingers fairly glow








I took another full tank shot- it's kind of a mess right now and will look different tomorrow when I add more plants (a package coming soon!








*1/16/15-*
Received a plant package (did a swap) and put a sampling of each kind in here to see how they do. Creeping jenny (very small delicate stems)








Ludwigia repens- beside the other ludwigia that came from the store- did the commercial growers stuff that plant with hormones or is the new one just really _really_ different growing conditions? so much smaller and narrow leaves.








Bacopa monnieri. I kind of ran out of room for new stuff in here so put this one in a midground area. Probably not the right spot, my guess is I'll have to move it later. In foreground is a bit more of that staurogyne repens (which I don't expect much of- I think it needs more intense light than what I've got)








Fissidens on the driftwood! This bare vertical end of the log is just where I've always pictured moss growing. I can already see keeping it clean might be an issue- I don't have shrimps to pick through it. I will probably have to keep it trimmed short and siphon the area clear of fine debris each time.








P. helferi downoi








Monte carlo. I did a terrible job of planting this. Root hairs sticking up all over. This morning bits of it floating loose. I can't get it to stay in the substrate. Not sure how much will take (or if I even want it, really).








I'd much rather keep the pennywort (I think it's hydrocotyle tripartita) if I can get it to take hold. I've seen pics of it flourishing in others' aquariums, and it's so pretty. You can barely see the runner stem here, which I've tried to weigh down with pebbles.








Bit of subwassertang on a rock.








Can't see much of them yet because most of the new plants are just little pieces still...








I had to move some plants to make room for the new ones. In particular, took out all the rotala indica from the front (since now I have species actually _meant_ to be carpeting foreground plants) and put it behind the skull. It was a shame to pull up those indica stems because they had really taken hold! Lovely white roots on each one. I should have gotten a picture of that nice growth but couldn't stop in the middle of things to dry my hands for the camera.








The dwarf rotundifolia went back there, too. Discarded half of it and only replanted the best stems. So here you can see arranged behind the skull from left to right there's rotala rotundifolia (dwarf), rotala indica and creeping jenny.








End view:








*Other notes*- I removed the scuffed and dingy plastic panel from the other short end of the tank (blocking ambient window light) and replaced with a thinner plastic sheet that's more transparent. I hope it will continue to cut just enough to avoid the GSA coming back. I like being able to see clearly into that end of the tank again.








Ludwigias seem characterized by their aerial roots. Funny, I went to move a piece of this in the background, and found that some of those side roots coming out of the stem, were burrowing into the sponge of the little filter!








A little bit of windelov fern had come loose from the driftwood so I fastened it to the stone in the corner. Now there's three bits on there making a neat little cluster.








Anubias barteria is sending out a new leaf. Already it has 'walked' its rhizome nearly all the way off the driftwood moorings. Soon I will have to trim and retie it to keep in place.








I have found a good tool for cleaning hard GSA off the glass- promotional credit/membership cards, the fakes that come in mailers. They scrape nicely and are a bit flexible, easier to reach into corners and alongside plants than with the algae scrubber pad. Just have to be sure there are no infant snails on the glass- I accidentally made a scratch already. But my four-year-old noticed the difference after I'd cleaned some hard algae off: "Mommy, the tank looks so clean!"


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Up to Date*

*1/20/16-*
Every morning now I've had to get into the tank with tweezers to replant what come unmoored again. I kind of expected to have carpeting plants float loose easily- the staurogyne repens and monte carlo. More frustrated that creeping jenny keeps coming up- its lower foliage quickly melting, new tiny leaves emerging at tips but not enough hold yet. I want that one to hold. (Not a single rotala stem has dislodged- their little roots are strong enough!) 

Yesterday it was at the point that whatever I found floating was pretty much too decayed to try and put back. So picking out plant debris to discard. 

Meanwhile took a few pics of other stuff that's doing better. Such as the anubias barteri unfurling its newest leaf.








Oliver came over to see what I was doing








Java fern busting out some real growth








Windelov fingers translucent to the light








*1/23/16-*
I got a few more buces- thanks to Ebi! -and there were enough I could try a few here in the tenner. Bucephalandra 'Isabelle' went onto the driftwood piece, sharing space with anubias barteria (who sacrificed a few older leaves to avoid shading her too much).








Small segment of buce 'selena' tied to a rock.








Even smaller bits of rhizome that were a long, trailing piece. Not sure which species. I think more 'selena'. Hello, trumpet snail!








A bunch of little 'blue bell' bits tied onto a rock.








Now this tank journal is current.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Already I see response in the plants that went into my tenner a week ago. Some good, some not. Staurogyne repens and monte carlo gone (I'm not surprised). There are still a few little bits of plants in front of the skull, but I think they're stems of dwarf rotala that I missed when I moved stuff.








The pennywort is still here, and it even grew two new tiny leaves.








Bacopa monnieri came loose too. One piece too far gone to keep, the other two I replanted in a different corner.








Creeping jenny I am not sure if this one will make it. Bottoms of stems melting away and most go too quickly. By the time I get my hands back in the tank to replant loose stems, there's nothing substantial enough to grasp. I only have a few stems of it left.








Downoi also might be a goner- the stem broke off 








Pegged it down with a lead strip, but I had to set it pretty deep in the substrate.








I _am_ pleased with the ludwigias- a lot of the bigger pieces I bought as potted plant even still have their red top color. I wasn't expecting them to hold on to that.








The tiny repens one -here just under the oto- is growing new leaves and they are rounder than the original ones.








When I made the driftwood log in the thirty-eight all buces, plucked off the remaining java ferns (which don't seem to do well in that tank for some reason) and tied them onto the skull here. Some in the front over the teeth, some in the back.








After just a week the thread started disintegrating, so I had to refasten with rubber bands instead.








Quite a few of the little buces came loose again, too. 








Went back to using rubber bands for those as well.








I don't want to keep shifting plants around, need to keep my hands out and just leave things alone now. But the ludwigias keep sending their aerial roots into the sponge filter, and I can't see bacopa caroliniana or watersprite for the jumbled mess they are with each other. So I moved one stem of ludwigia, moved most of the bacopa over against and behind it, and put the sponge filter further into the corner, between the wisteria and bacopa. Looks distinctive now and hopefully that keeps the roots out of the sponge.








Current full tank shot-








There are lots of tiny roundish snails in here now. Some look like pond snails, others I viewed under the microscope and they're definitely ramshorns. I took out the mother ramshorn. Because for some reason suddenly when I started seeing tiny baby snails everywhere I didn't want them. Trumpet snails are okay, but I don't want loads of pond snails or ramshorns too, and I didn't realize that until I _saw_ them in there. I've scraped out two more ramshorn egg cases, gradually plucking out all the baby snails I find, and will bait with lettuce too.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Thanks for documenting all of this! And all the useful pics (hard to believe all this pics are coming from a 10 gallon! if only I had a half decent camera ).

Surprised no one has offered feedback. Probably just one of those "Too Long Didn't Read" (TLDR) reasons as there are a bunch of pics (I only just skimmed over it myself). Asking in a shorter separate thread should round up some responses.

Well I'm no plant nutrition expert, but could definitely tell there was severe deficiencies going on (older pics). Glad you got them figured out though.

Didn't even see, but are you injected co2? If you aren't, how is the Downoi (Pogostemon helferi) doing now?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

WaterLife said:


> Thanks for documenting all of this! And all the useful pics (hard to believe all this pics are coming from a 10 gallon! if only I had a half decent camera ).


Sure! I just happen to like taking photos. I have tons more I don't even share here.


> Surprised no one has offered feedback. Probably just one of those "Too Long Didn't Read" (TLDR) reasons as there are a bunch of pics (I only just skimmed over it myself). Asking in a shorter separate thread should round up some responses.


I do sometimes ask in an individual thread if I have a pressing question. Am still just mostly learning things as I go.


> Well I'm no plant nutrition expert, but could definitely tell there was severe deficiencies going on (older pics). Glad you got them figured out though.


Yes, well I'm one of those people who started out with just plain gravel & fake plants, then tried to add live plants later. Didn't know what I was doing. If it wasn't for this site, they'd all be dead! I think things are going better now, this tank certainly is doing a lot better than my other one.


> Didn't even see, but are you injected co2? If you aren't, how is the Downoi (Pogostemon helferi) doing now?


No I don't add c02. Somebody gave it to me, so I just tried it out. I'm not really expecting it to do well long-term, but as long as it's alive I'll leave it in there.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I'm no longer loosing plants in here from melt or snails uprooting them, but have something else to figure out... why are some of the leaves wavy on the margins (anubias here)








and new growth looking distorted? It's happening to my ludwigia, alternanthera reineckii (if I have that one i.d. correct, not sure) and wisteria. 








Lower wisteria leaves have holes too- I've caught some pond snails (not the nerite pictured) munching on them- not sure if they _made_ the holes or just took advantage of a dying leaf.








Top part of this plant is okay








My first guess was too much micros, I cut back on the dose of that this week, to see what happens. My next guess would be an imbalance of mg and calcium- I think I need another test kit.

On a positive note I am really happy to report that the buces have new growth emerging in here- there are two visible new shoots on 'selena', I can see new roots growing and tiny new shoots on 'blue bell' and 'isabelle' as well (but can't manage decent pictures of them all).
















The one plant I expected to loose this week was downoi- but it's still here and I swear it has a few more leaves than last time I took a pic.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

That may have been it- the micros. Noticed already that while last week's leaves still have their oddly twisted form, ones that emerged since friday, when I halved the micro dose, are straight. 

I'm thinking now that maybe my tank water isn't deficient in mg after all- the other tank has same water source and I've never noticed the same leaf issues. Maybe this too, could be attributed to micros...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Lots of growth now. New leaves on all the buces- 'selena' leading the way. I can see the emerging on other types too, but too small for a photo. 








Watersprite is really filling up the back corner, seems to be growing wider rather than taller right now.








Hydrocotyle finally has some more leaves! So very small still.








I trimmed one of the ludwigia stems for the first time- might have to do the others next week. No more creeping jenny in here, the last little bits came loose- no roots had grown. Still some warped growth on that one ludwigia stem, and the anubias lanceolata has some pale leaves. Gave a bit less micros again this week- only 4ml.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I think I may have actually got rid of all the ramshorn and pond snails in here. I had been picking them out regularly, now realize I haven't seen any for some time. 

Gave some to my kid- she _really_ wanted to try keeping snails in a fishbowl. I set it up for her with some substrate, elodea and hornwort trimmings, watersprite and that mondo grass I pulled from my thirty-eight. This was several weeks ago. She has it near a window. The bowl has no filter or heater, so it does drop to 60° at night, and so far she hasn't been doing water changes. I top it off with a bit of water from one of the tanks each friday. To my surprise most of the plants are still green, and although the trumpet snails seem to die off regularly (I give her ones I pick out of the aquariums every week) she has one ramshorn that's doubled in size.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Last week I trimmed a lot of the stem plants in here- ludwigias and watersprite. I cut down entirely that one ludwigia stem that always had twisted growth on the new leaves. Trimming all those stem plants really changed the appearance of the tank. It went from this:








to this:








Side view even more dramatic. I cut and replanted some stems off the wisteria, so now I can see the little cluster of rotala behind the skull again.
















See the fluffy bunch of subwassertang on the left in that pic above? I trimmed that, and fastened some of it to sticks (boiled twigs of sycamore soaked for two weeks) to see if it would work as something in the foreground.








Other end of the tank. I'm still puzzled what that small stem plant is, right in front of the driftwood. I thought it was a rotala because the leaves so much smaller than the ludwigia next to it- but the undersides are faintly purple like a ludwigia repens.








I thought I had got rid of all the pond snails in here, but found one more. Crushed it for Oliver. Here's a bonus pic of him cruising in the background, thorny sun nerite in the fore.








Other stuff of note: fissidens is taking hold! I like this pic because can see it in the center. Need to trim and spread more of it, right now have to look very close and hard to see the patches of it. Funny to see a bit of duckweed trapped under anubias leaf there on the right.








The duckweed pretty much covers all the water surface in here now. I actually scoop all of it out into a small bucket every maintenance day, so it's not sticking to my hands or tools while I work in the tank. Then at the end I dip it back out of the bucket and pour it all back in. It's funny to watch the little bits swirl down into the water and float up again like tiny parachutes. Quite a few get trapped under broad leaves on their way back up to the surface. I guess at some point I'll get tired of this plant, but not yet.

I took out the downoi plant. It came loose again and I saw there was only one tiny root hair, and no new leaf growth. I replanted it in the other tank, where the downoi are growing new leaves so must be better conditions for them in there.

This tank is so much more stable than my thirty-eight. Last week I put in a few root tabs, which bumped up my nitrates to 40. So this week I cut back on the ferts dose. Nothing seems too affected by this. The anubias lanceolata has paler outer edges of the leaves again, and the buce selena looks like it might be getting that symptom too. I'm not sure if it's because I skimped on the ferts dose, or maybe I need to give mg again, or it could be because I cut back too far on the micros- only gave 3ml this time, the week before it was 4ml- so maybe I've found the dose limit there. My bigger tank, on the other hand, suffers algae whenever I change something.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Drip*

I woke up this morning and looked over at my tank- there was a large drop of water creeping down the _outside_ front corner. I jumped up to check- no moisture on the support surface, or under the tank so I don't think it was seeping very long. I dried the outer edge and looked in from below- hadn't noticed yesterday I filled the tank a bit too much and it was touching the edge of the rim on that corner. Siphoned out a bit of water until it was clear of the rim plastic, and dried off that corner. I could just slide a bit of toilet tissue up under the outer edge of the rim- I did this until it no longer soaked out water. It was a small thing, but a momentary _yikes_ feeling.


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## irishspy (Oct 22, 2007)

Tank leaks: the nightmare scenario of every fish-keeper...

I enjoyed reading this thread! You've done a fine job with the tank and are a good servant to Oliver. I hope he gives you a raise. :wink:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My tenner looks so different with the snip of just one stem. 








Cut the tallest ludwigia stem to match height of the others, and now suddenly that bunch has a nice shape. I can't keep wisteria from spreading out of its corner and blocking light/view of the rotala indica, so I moved it behind the driftwood log. The potted wendtii switched places with it, but that's not a permanent thing. I don't think I want to actually plant that crypt in here, it would get too large for this tank. Thinking what to put in that corner instead... I've taken out all the subwasser that was on wood pieces, it didn't look good. Moved the clump on a stone to central spot, and repositioned the individual rotala rotundifolia stems into that right front corner.








For the first time, duckweed is something of a pain. It got thick enough that was piling up on itself, and I think some of it was starting to die from that- I found tons of fine, thin white hairlike bits floating all around the tank. Looks like this is detached duckweed roots? (I guessed before that it was decaying tissue from where I trimmed an anubias petiole, but now I think I was wrong about that). As my usual routine, I scoop out most of the duckweed with the first two gallons of a water change, to get it out of the way. This time instead of replacing most of it, I just put a few handfuls back in. Nice and scattered once more.








I want to put a different floater in here- I've read that giant duckweed is more easily managed, and I'd like the appearance of it on the surface to be a bit more pronounced- visually- but not as much dangling as say, water lettuce seems to do. But I'm confused as to the difference between giant duckweed and salvinia minima- which has little toothed hairs on the leaves- some people seem to use their names interchangeably or call what I think is salvinia a duckweed? Need to be sure I get the plant I'm really thinking of...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My tenner continues to do much better than the main tank. This morning I even saw a range of bubbles scattered across the surface in one corner. The only thing I can think of is that Oliver might finally be building a bubble nest!

There's a lot of duckweed now. It makes a strong green cast to everything. 








I pull out half of it every week now- and it grows back just as quickly. In spite of this, I'm still glad I have this plant. Maybe it's the reason this tank stays algae-free for me!








Discards piled up in the cup:








The smaller java ferns now cling on their own to the fake skull, I've removed all the rubber bands except one.








I like the subwassertang on a rock, but I keep moving it around because I can't figure out a spot where it _looks_ nice.








I can't understand why the buces do so nicely in here, compared to those in my thirty-eight. They're like little plant jewels. Maybe it's a matter of light intensity... 








The newer leaves on buce 'selena' are getting bigger and bigger!








I like the look of wisteria in its new spot behind the anubias log, but it needs time to recover and bush out.








Funny thing happened with my smaller windelov fern bunch (not a good picture of it). I started taking the old rubber bands off- one half of the rhizomes were obviously clinging on their own. But when I lifted the other rubber band, the other part of the plant came up with it. Somehow the rhizome had run over and along the rubber band, was clinging to that instead of the rock! I'll have to wait for it to grow out enough to grab the rock surface on either side of the rubber band, so I can cut the ends off. Or fasten it down with a new one...








Ludwigia I am not sure about in here, anymore. The lower leaves die at a pretty fast rate, it seems every other day I'm finding orangish leaves floating loose. So it ends up with naked, dark stems the lower half. Which would be okay if I kept it trimmed back to promote side shoots, or had something in front to hide the stems. But it also still has kind of warped leaves, and the bacopa behind it looks so much more attractive. Maybe I will scrap it and just keep bacopa and rotalas in here.








Also starting to think I might take out the big anubias, and plant buces all across the top of the driftwood. It would fit more with the scale in here. I'm only loathe to do so because I like large foliage, and this individual plant I've had the longest (over two years). And because Oliver seems to really enjoy the plant lately- he drifts slowly under its leaves as if hoping to ambush someone, and rests on top of them sometimes, too.

Most of all I'm glad here to see the fissidens taking off. It's a reputedly a slow grower, but I've been able to see the difference week by week, and that's satisfying. Here's some on the top edge of an elbow of driftwood-
















For the first time I've trimmed it and refastened a bit on another part of the wood.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I don't have any pics this time around, but there are some changes. A little while back I took out all the duckweed and replaced with giant duckweed- Spirodela Polyrhiza. To remove the smaller duckweed I scooped out as much as I could one day with a cup. Waited a few hours for the remnants to congregate again, then scooped all of that out. Wiped down the glass under the top rim to get any that were stuck there- lots. Repeated it the next day- scooping out bits I found still floating, wiped off under the rim. Third day I didn't see any. I might still get some growing back if I missed a tiny bit, but as long as the majority in the tank is spirodela polyrhiza I don't mind.

I always wondered why the stems of the rotala indica in here bent over at the tops, leaning sideways. Figured it out when I had the tank on blackout for three days- _then_ they stood up straight to the lightstrip. So the ambient window light from the side is probably making them bend. I blocked the end of the tank with a sheet of dark paper and now they are straightening again. But now Oliver can make out his reflection and he hangs out on that end of the tank dashing up and down the side displaying. When he gets too excitable he lashed out at the oto. The other morning, when there was no lights on and no reflection visible, I still saw him chase the oto deliberately several times. Not just following, but lunging at him and chasing him around corners of the tank. 

I am not sure how to resolve the reflection issue while keeping the light blocked from the side, so I moved the otocinclus out of this tank and into my thirty-eight. More algae for him there anyways.

Now Oliver is alone with the snails. He probably likes it better that way.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Not much has been happening. The plants grow steadily, if slow. Bacopa and ludwigias across the back recently got a trim with tops replanted to increase the stems, so they aren't any taller.








I'm still pleased with spirodela polyrhiza (giant duckweed).








It doesn't grow too fast- if I scoop out and discard two or three handfuls each week during maintenance, that keeps it nicely in check with enough open space at surface for Oliver to reach his food and breathe easily.








I switched positions of the subwassertang clump with the windelov fern on a rock. I like the subwasser better in this corner, not sure about placement of the windelov yet.









Removed a few rubber bands as most of the plants are holding on firmly now- no more bands for the windelov on mopani wood,








or java fern on fake skull. 








This little cluster of bucephalandra only has one piece that needs holding down still.








I was really surprised to see that some leaves are finally sprouting from these bits of buce stem I tied on another stone. I never took them out of the tank because they simply didn't rot yet, and they are finally growing!








And here's buce selena, still going strong. I'd love to move some of the buces (or cuttings of them) from the thirty-eight into here, but afraid of spreading thread algae or BBA....








Did a little experiment with my mid-sized anubias plant. I know to divide the plant you can cut off a segment of rhizome at least an inch or two long, and it should grow new foliage. I cut the rhizome in half just behind the main set of leaves, but left it in place. To see if I could get more leaves growing. It took two weeks, but there is finally a sprout. Tiny, spade-shaped leaf just below left of center in this picture.








Not to be outdone, my big anubias barteri is sprouting a new leaf too. (I put in root tabs last week, so it got a good boost). I'm thinking of cutting in half and removing part of this one soon, it really overtakes its corner of the tank. Have been thinking of removing it altogether, because it really changes the scale of everything else in here. But I'm reluctant to get rid of it- this is the one plant I've had the longest, since the days of betta bowls.... And I'd still love to have an anubias coffefolia someday but I think that one is just as large!








Rotala in this tank still looks best from the short end, where I think it holds its leaves broadside to the ambient window light. I've also been thinking lately of removing one layer of plastic sheeting from the light strip. Maybe with the duckweed in place I can now increase the light level a bit. Could be better for the stem plants. But I'm afraid to throw things out of balance, since it has all been doing nicely for so long.








Oliver himself seems to be feeling his age (he must be at least two-and-a-half, maybe close to three years old by now). He spends more time just resting on the barteri leaves now, or hanging out quietly in a upper corner of the tank. But when evening comes if the tank light against dark room shows him his own reflection, he still flares and displays all up and down the glass. Spunky!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Part of Oliver's face lost color. There's no fuzziness so I don't think it's a fungus, and it doesn't quite look like a scrape or injury- I wonder if he is just getting old? A few days now after water change, the pale mark looks smaller, so I hope it's healing, whatever it was.








Here's the buce 'emerald' cutting I moved in here from the thirty-eight, to the left of buce 'selena'.








Subwassertang looks significantly bigger- I realize I took pictures of mostly the same plants this week as last- I suppose because I like them best right now!








I tried taking some low-angle shots of the windelov fern in here. It kind of flattens itself out, holding the widest part of the fronds horizontal. So it's hard to get a good view of it.


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## Ssid (Jul 1, 2013)

This is a honest, down-to-earth, and a totally awesome journal, I felt like I was there through all your trials and tribulations..very well documented, sir..
Thanks for sharing.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Hey, thanks! The only way I can learn from my mistakes is by making a note of them.... I'm actually embarrassed by many of the early photos from when I started my tanks- but it's nice to look back on it and see how far things have come.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

There are tiny roundish clear things showing up on the glass. They don't have the right shape for baby MTS and look like very tiny translucent blobs with a dark center- which is a hard bit when I scrape them off w/my finger. 

I thought maybe just-hatched pond/bladder snails? A few weeks ago I did find another pond snail in here (thought I'd got them all, guess not). I squished it, but maybe it managed to lay eggs first, or I missed another one. I wanted to clean the front glass this week, so picked all these tiny things off with fingernails (tedious job) and put some under the microscope. But I must have crushed them when removing, it's a mess of tissue and a bit of blood and I have no idea what they are. There is a hard, shell part or carapace- I can see bits of it, so must be a snail I think.

So my next thought was- snail egg cases? that hadn't hatched yet? Maybe the dark hard bit in centre was a shell forming on an unhatched snail. But the egg cases I've seen from ramshorns and pond snails in the past had multiple eggs forming in one blob. This looks like just one thing. So I guess it's another organism altogether. It's too small for me to get a picture of. I couldn't find my husband's loop to get a better look at it when in the tank. It's wider and more transparent than a nerite egg.

Any ideas??


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Might be a freshwater limpet of some kind...kind of like a cross between a clam and a snail


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks- I think that's it! Pictures of tiny ones online match pretty close what I'm seeing. I guess they're not harmful- I think they showed up when I got higher nitrates than normal from adding root tabs...


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

JJ09 said:


> Part of Oliver's face lost color. There's no fuzziness so I don't think it's a fungus, and it doesn't quite look like a scrape or injury- I wonder if he is just getting old? A few days now after water change, the pale mark looks smaller, so I hope it's healing, whatever it was.


How is Oliver's head doing? I had something like that on Buster's head a few days ago. Under magnification, it looked a little fungusy. I did three 25% water changes over the course of three days, adding stress coat each time and it cleared up on its own.

The tank is shaping up nicely. I love your choice of plants.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It's looking better. The pale area has reduced down to a spot- it actually looks like an ich spot now but he doesn't have any other spots on the body and isn't flashing in irritation. I'm keeping an eye on it.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

JJ09 said:


> It's looking better. The pale area has reduced down to a spot- it actually looks like an ich spot now but he doesn't have any other spots on the body and isn't flashing in irritation. I'm keeping an eye on it.


I'm glad to hear it is healing. He is such a cutie!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*change of scenery-*

I probably did more to Oliver's tank yesterday than I ought to have. 








First pulled off a dead java fern leaf and cut out some of their long root hairs that were getting in the way. They were pointing up and tangling in the foliage, having been snagged with the siphon a few times. Then plucked out a few yellowing spirodela polyrhiza. I took four handfuls of this out last week, and I think it was too much. It hasn't multiplied enough to entirely cover the surface again yet, and for some reason stays clear of the area just above the big anubias. One anubias leaf had a lot of brown algae accumulating. Easy enough to wipe off, but I want to prevent that.

I cut the big anubias rhizome into three pieces. Put the largest two on suction cups on the back wall. Looks very different this way.








The smaller part with just two leaves I put low on the wall in corner, as a backdrop to rotala stems. I'm sure it will look different again in a week or two after the leaves reorientate themselves to the light. (Even shorter segment, which had no leaves, I fastened back onto part of the driftwood, in the rear. Just to see if it grows again)








Now that the barteri is moved, the smallest anubias in here, positioned in front on the wood, is becoming a focal point.








I also moved a few of the buce isabella- they were on top of that little peak of the mopani wood on the right, looking awkward. When I took its rubber band off (hadn't rooted), noticed it was bent in an odd way so I cut it in half.








The water wisteria doesn't seem happy that I moved it. Taking a long time to recover. One stem came loose and I replanted it.








Trimmed quite a bit of fissidens- very tedious work. To avoid loosing the bits of moss all over the tank, I held each individual stem with tweezers while snipping with scissors in the other hand. Tied all these down to another side of the driftwood. While doing that, I nudged the wood up a few times by accident and some large bubbles came up, with a very foul smell. I've noticed in the past few weeks that lots of black stuff is decaying off the driftwood. I focus on using the siphon around the base of it because a ton of black mulm collects there each week, and it smells sulfurous. I hope it won't harm my fish. He seems okay (and the white mark on his head is gone). Don't know why another layer of the wood is breaking down now, after more than a year in the tank. When I first put it in, I boiled and soaked it and peeled bark off with a pocketknife. I thought I had scraped all the bark off but I guess this was another deep layer. The other half of this driftwood is in the thirty-eight, and it isn't doing this. That I can tell.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I went to the tank today wanting to get a picture of something I forgot yesterday- growth of the new leaves on anubias I cut in half:








And then focused to take a pic of buce 'selena' in the corner, in ambient light:








Then since I was being camera-happy, made a painstaking setup to get some overhead shots, which I haven't done in a long time. Pics upcoming.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Overhead shot of my tenner:*

Overhead shot:








This is what it took: I put towels on the floor and bed, got a two-gallon bucket and dipped out most of the duckweed w/a bit of water. Lifted off the light strip and laid the panes of the lid aside. Blocked window light- that took some doing. Just pulling the curtains was no good- still had glare on each end of the tank. I tried several things, ended up taping black trash bags over the top half of the window and leaning huge sheets of cardboard over the bottom half. Got up on a stepstool to get all the tank in the frame. Tried several different settings on the camera to find the one with the best color and light balance. Messed around with desktop lamps to get the lighting right- I ended up putting one on each side of the tank, slightly overhead.

All this with the filter turned off so the water wouldn't be moving- the current is very slight, but even so it makes a blurry image. Oliver hid the entire time, so I didn't want to distress him too much. I only worked as long as it took to get two or three decent pictures, then plugged the filter back in and put everything back in place. As soon as I was done returning the duckweed ceiling, Oliver came drifting up out of his hidey-hole.

I want to do this with the thirty-eight as well, it's so different now. But I don't feel like it yet- maybe tomorrow.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

Neat picture! I love reading your tank journals by the way.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It felt kind of odd to only do maintenance on one tank yesterday, but treatment has changed the schedule on my other tank. So I took my time with Oliver. I'm trying this new brace for the lid- it's a piece of thick wire I found, I think from a cooling rack. Going to seal the ends w/silicone but obviously if it rusts I will throw it out. Need something plastic instead but I haven't found the right thing yet... This pic shows how much the spirodela polyrhiza has filled in, though. 








I've figured out its growth rate, to keep it in check but not diminish its quantity too much between maintenance days. I remove just one handful per week, or if I'm feeling anal, pick out every single yellowing/disintegrating leaf cluster I find.

I noticed that some of the anubias leaves (on smaller plants) were looking peaky again. Checked the dates and it had been almost a month since the last time I put in root tabs, and much longer since I'd dosed mg (epsom salts). Did both this time. But I'm ready to quit guessing with that- if it's needed or not. Ordered a kit to test for gh/kh so I can actually _know_ if I have an imbalance between mg and calcium.

Bacopa is not doing too well in here. It drops lower leaves at a much faster rate than the ludwigias, and holds itself kind of droopy overall. Looks much better in my other tank- but I don't want to remove it from here just yet. I don't have enough ludwigia cuttings to take its place... As it is, I cut back a few stems of each and replanted, since they were almost touching the ceiling again.

Younger leaves on the anubia I cut in half are really visible now.









I think the buce 'isabelle' looks particularly nice in front of the darker anubia leaf.









Decided to pull out the lead strip that was holding a buce cutting down. Read some articles about how toxic lead can be for fish- in spite of all the suppliers' claims that it is harmless. Better not risk it. Instead I tried to weigh it down with a tiny stone on top, that didn't work. Had to tie it to the pebble (it's the plant on the right).









I cut a bit of windelov rhizome that was crawling off its stone, and re-tied it on at a different spot. Accidentally broke off a leaf. Bummer.









I don't really care for the appearance of this short end, anymore- something about the anubias placement looks awkward to me. So I don't mind shielding it with a sheet of plastic again, to see if I can coax rotalas to hold themselves more upright.









Wisteria is still not doing anything- it _really_ didn't like getting moved. Smaller piece of it has come loose twice. I only have one holding into the substrate now. It's between the log and ludwigia stem at back, here. Hope it does better after getting a root tab this week.









The picture is better with a fish in it.








I think I've been feeding him too much. I want to clean the inside of the front glass, but there's still all these tiny little critters on there- limpets?- they haven't got any bigger than a pinhead but are still numerous. I think they showed up a few weeks ago when for some reason I decided that since Oliver was well over two years old now, he deserved a few extra goodies. I wasn't giving him much more- a few more flakes, three or four micropellets per feeding instead of just two, an extra bloodworm here and there- but I guess it might have been enough to make a difference. I cut back down to his prior rations now, will see if that makes those things go away.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

Tank looks good! Oliver looks happy despite possibly eating too much.

What about a piece of plastic clothes hanger to brace the lid? Then it would be just a matter of finding a way to attach it. 

I've been eyeballing buces. I always want to call them 'bruces'. :icon_roll The sayan-1 black, brownie brown and copi susu keep catching my eye, but I've read they need CO2 and I cringe at the idea of spending lots of cash on a plant that I don't know if it will make it or not.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It wasn't enough to make him fat- I think he liked the extra food but I definitely don't like these things on the glass...

I've tried using plastic coat hanger pieces. It's either too thick, or too flexible and doesn't give the support I want. I even tried sawing a thick one in half lengthwise, but then it was too flexible again.

Bump: I'm starting to love buces. I don't use C02 and they are doing fine in this tank- but they certainly grow _very_ slowly. They do much better for me in here than in my other tank- I think because the higher light is too much for them in my thirty-eight. The only thing keeping me from getting more is the expense. I paid $30 for one of my nicest ones- including shipping but yeah, a lot for one plant. I can see why the cost, though- it takes a long time to grow them, and they sure are striking. I wish they were more common...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Very routine on the tenner this week. Just picking out the yellowing and disintegrating spirodela polyrhiza is not enough, it turns out. It had filled in the surface completely, started to pile up in corners and Oliver was having to search for a gap to take a breath. Will have to remember to take out a good handful or two each week.

I love watching fiddleheads of ferns uncurl- whether it's terrestrial or here, under the water.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Nothing much to report on Oliver's tank today. Params the same, as they have been for a while. Nitrates 20-30ppm, fert dose remains steady. Very little plant trimming to do- only a few dying leaves, and duckweed to thin out. One rotala stem getting close to the surface, I cut it in half and replanted. Subwassertang looks real nice in this tank. It has no signs of algae, perfectly healthy. I will probably have to trim it next week to keep in shape- it's grown all out of proportion to its stone anchor and will start grabbing substrate particles soon.








I do think the phoenix moss has begun naturalizing on this knobby end of driftwood. There's three or four tiny bits there, front and below the main clump, that I don't remember tying down.








The real thing of note is bucephalandra. My 'emerald green' cutting has drifted up against the 'selena' one. I let it be, for now. This pic in ambient light- you can see the 'emerald green' has a root going down, and two new shoots coming up.








Here's from the other side:








The little buce plantlets growing from stem pieces tied to a rock are getting bigger! Looks like a tiny bit of fissidens stuck among them, too.








There are still tiny things on the glass. Limpets or not, sure are annoying me. I picked about a dozen off the front pane with my fingernails today, and even so missed a few which made some fine scratches when I cleaned the glass with algae scrubber. Bah.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I trimmed the subwassertang today, accidentally taking off more than I wanted to. The scissors don't cut it easily for some reason, and I end up tearing and too much comes free. I think I need smaller, very sharp scissors for this job. If I want to do precise trims.

Also trimmed some bacopa. It's still not doing as well in this tank as in the main one, but I looked close and realized the stems with most dieoff were close to the big anubias, I bet it shades them. I trimmed the stems at substrate and replanted on the other side. I was going to pull the root ends out but that kicks lots of mulm into the water column, and a few of them do regrow new leaves, so I left them. If they don't regrow, they eventually decay enough to float free and get plucked out. Now it's pretty bare around the anubias, will have to think what else could go there...

Anubias leaves have repositioned themselves and are pretty much horizontal now. Oliver regularly uses them to rest on, I often see him motionless on a big anubais leaf in the corner early mornings. So I'm glad I moved this plant, for his sake if nothing else.

I had a fright with my heater earlier this week. Swear I saw a few bubbles inside it. There was a tiny gleam where I don't usually notice it (center of the pic just above the blue thing). Looked like three small but definite bubbles, bigger than condensation drops. I had just read a bunch of horror stories on the forum about heaters exploding, so I unplugged it. Didn't do anything about it for a while, and found that room temps are warm enough the tank stayed at 78º as-is. Today I removed that heater and put in a newer one that I had bought for my QT a while back. The older one doesn't look too bad- there's no blackened glass or cracks, but I'm not taking any chances. I installed the newer one, but haven't plugged it in yet, as there's no need.








Oliver's behavior was a little different today. He wasn't as nervous when I worked in the tank. He was cruising around inspecting things even when I was refilling. I'm glad of it, but a bit puzzled what made the difference.


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Thanks for the update....any full tank shots?


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

How are the limpets doing now that you put Oliver on a diet? My Bettas eat anything they can fit in their mouths. I'm betting he has been preying on them now that he is probably a little hungrier.

I was looking closer at Oliver. Except for the tail and fins, he looks a lot like my Betta Buster. They have the same coloring.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

ScubaSteve- haven't done a full tank shot in a while. It all looks like less now, because I trimmed some bacopa when I moved it, and trimmed back the subwassertang. I'll do another one soon when there's more growth.

Varmint- I still have limpets. Maybe their reproduction slowed down, but I can't tell. Some of them are bigger. Oliver doesn't eat them. I picked as many as I could out by hand the other day, and fed them to the cherry barbs in the other tank.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

JJ09 said:


> ScubaSteve- haven't done a full tank shot in a while. It all looks like less now, because I trimmed some bacopa when I moved it, and trimmed back the subwassertang. I'll do another one soon when there's more growth.
> 
> Varmint- I still have limpets. Maybe their reproduction slowed down, but I can't tell. Some of them are bigger. Oliver doesn't eat them. I picked as many as I could out by hand the other day, and fed them to the cherry barbs in the other tank.


I had a huge infestation of limpets in my Fluval Edge at one point. I never saw the fish pick at them, so I don't know what caused them to disappear. Hopefully yours will just magically go away too.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Java fern is happy- the biggest leaf is producing spores- or whatever those spots on the underside are called, that will form little baby plants!








And look at that, the piece of anubias root I tied down is sprouting a leaf. I will have to think what to do with it when it grows fullsized foliage. It would shade the other plants around it too much, here.








I had to re-level the tank this week. Noticed that the cardboard sheet it sits on was crushed nearly flat across the front, there was a definite angle from the back. I got out the level and verified that. I figure the weight of the furniture it's sitting on must have slowly compressed the carpet, and now it is tilting slightly forwards. When the tank was half-empty during water change, I carefully lifted the front edge of the furniture up with my knee- just enough to slide another shim under each corner, and check with the level again until I had them in the right position. It still bugs me to see the angle in the cardboard under the tank, but I can't change that out unless I empty the whole tank.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Oliver is still hanging out in the hospital tank (see other thread) he seems to be getting comfortable in there. Likes resting near the surface on watersprite sprigs. I hope he'll be back in this tank within a week. A few more days of treatment with Prazipro (so far no change- white spot is still on his side, he hasn't got any more though) and then I will have to decide what to do next. I have bought clove oil and a few airstones so I can try sedating him to look at the the thing closer, or pull it off with tweezers. Don't know why I'm so nervous at the idea of anesthetizing my fish...

Meanwhile, his home tank is getting a little rescape. While he's in QT I started moving a few things around and discovered his main driftwood piece is rotting. (Another thread about that too). Today I got a new piece of mopani- it's longer than the current driftwood piece so I will have to rearrange things. I am getting eager to move the plants onto it and create a new look, but for now the wood is boiling on the stove. Three times already today I've poured off tannin-soaked water, it's still coming away deep red! Might take some time to get it relatively clean.

When I get the plants removed from the old wood I'm going to scrape it down as much as I can and see if there's a harder core. Maybe I can still salvage some of it, or cut it into smaller pieces to anchor other plants on...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*a new look*

I redid Oliver's tank today (he's still not in it). First removed all the driftwood pieces and rocks with plants on them.








Tank looked very empty without them.








Added a new piece of driftwood I've been boiling all week to remove tannins, and tied onto it some of the plants off the old driftwood log (which stinks).








Biggest difference is that I have hidden the skull behind the new log. Plan to get some subwassertang growing on that end of the driftwood to soften and obscure view of its edge.








I thought that all my rotalas in here looked poorly the way their tops hang down, but once I trimmed some of that off (and replanted elsewhere) looks decent in the corner.








On the other end I've turned around the piece that had smaller anubias on it- looks quite different this way. Windelov fern is like green tongues of flame. Wedged a bit of mopani wood in there too with some subwassertang on it. In the very front corner is one small plant left of some unidentified stem that I thought had all died. Still not sure what it is...








The most striking plants in here are the buces. I don't know if it's just the contrast against the dark mopani wood, but suddenly they seem to glow and look very blue. I love it.








Also tried to get a quick overhead shot, just because it is so different from the last time I did one. But I did it in a hurry and it's not well-lit. 








I'm happy with how it turned out- but was surprised at how much dark, fine mulm came up when I was gently trying to move plants and hardscape around. And it stank. I siphoned out water twice and refilled fresh, because it got so cloudy couldn't see anything. The snails seem okay with it all. But I am not putting Oliver back in for a while- and will test parameters make sure there isn't a huge ammonia spike or high nitrates.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

This whole time Oliver has been out of his tank I have had no heater on it. Temp is at 74 now. The snails and plants are all fine. And irritatingly, the limpets are doing great. Lots of them have got bigger, I can see the peaked shape of their shells, they're not just blots anymore (although there are plenty of new baby ones that look like tiny pale blobs). having no fish/less food for a month did nothing to diminish their numbers. In fact, last week I tested the tank water before dosing ferts and for the first time ever it was below 5 nitrates, I'd never seen it that low so dosed a bit higher on kn03 than I usually do when the fish is in the tank and plants are good- a few had yellowing leaves with holes, either from being moved or being hungry or both, but now they look ok and new growth again.

Just got a new heater- I decided to throw away the old glass aqueon one that I suspected had a leak (saw some air bubbles in it). New one is titanium. I have it installed and am taking a day to adjust the temp back up to 78, make sure it is stable before I move Oliver back in. plan is to do that tomorrow. he has been out of his home tank just over a month now. I miss seeing him in this planted tank upstairs in my bedroom, but have kind of got used to having him in the qt tank. Since it cycled and his treatment was over, it doesn't feel like any more work having him in a third setup. Feed him twice a day, check the temp, water change once a week that's it. He looks at home- has his hiding spots, rests on arrowhead roots, comes immediately topside for food if I lift the lid. 

I still haven't got a new picture of him. If I walk up to the tank in ambient light, he comes to the glass and mildly flares his gills at me. But if I approach with the camera lens or shine a light over the tank, he hides. I hope when I get him back in the home tank tomorrow, I can get a good closeup while he is checking out the new arrangements.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*I have not had time to post in a while-*

*from 10/12/16*
I was so happy when Oliver moved back into his home tank end of September. Tried to get a closeup of the clean scales on his side, but this was the best I could do- in the baggie ready to float. Water spots and smudges on the plastic obscure it, but yes his scales were clean of parasite.








Oliver in the rescaped tank.








Can see here that one of my anubias did not like getting moved around- the one I think is 'lanceolata' variety. It's got pale areas and holes appearing on the edges. None of the other plants reacted to the rescape like this, so I think it's because I detached it from its driftwood and tied down to a new piece. Hopefully will be okay once it recovers from the shock. Just behind it to the left, can see the water wisteria. That one is growing more since it got moved again- I think it prefers the center spot.








The buces are doing well. I even found one I thought I had lost. After rescaping I looked in the tank a few days later and realized a buce was missing- one that had grown back from a broken rhizome on the old log- and I hadn't seen it since... I finally saw it, when looking for a snail. It was snagged among some small rotala cuttings I had replanted behind the new log. I wedged it into a crevice here on the end of the log.









on *10/14/16* Oliver became unwell again. I have been really busy of late and not paying much attention to the fishes besides checking filter flow and temp, feeding them each day. Oliver started spitting out his food. Two days it was like this, I had to coax him to eat. Then he started just eyeing it, not taking any at all. And hanging still in corners, not cruising up and down the tank glass flaring at his reflection like he usually does. I moved the light around to get a good look at him- looked like he had fungus patches.

So I did a partial water change. Went and got API Fungus Cure (malachite green). I set up a quick ten-gallon hospital tank again- plastic plants, threw in some sacrificial duckweed floaters. When I first put in the dose of meds Oliver seemed to feel better- he was swimming around actively. Then lay on the bottom for long periods of time... I am not sure how he got the fungus. Maybe it happened when I fed him a moth larvae and didn't realize he had spit it out after I left the room. I found it the next morning in his tank- I bet it fouled the water. Although I tested it and there was only a slight bit of ammonia 0.05, no nitrites, nitrates 5ppm.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*from 10/19/16*

Oliver got two doses (forty-eight hours apart) of Fungus Cure. He looked okay, even better the first few days- swimming around, picking curiously at stuff on the bare bottom, ate a few fruit flies I caught. Third day in started hanging still in the plants. Fourth day, laying on the bottom. Then appeared bloated, colors very washed out. Hard to tell because his stress colors are gray, but I think the fungus at least was gone. Looked like either he was constipated- which doesn't make much sense as he hadn't eaten in nearly a week (aside from two fruit flies)- or was getting dropsy. 

As far as I can tell from reading stuff, this is not curable. It is internal buildup of fluids caused by organ failure. Kidney failure.

After the meds dose was over I did several partial wc to remove the malachite green. He did not look better from that. Sruggled to swim. Listing on his side, sometimes on his back. More bloated and pale. I gave him an epsom salt bath to try and relieve some of the bloat (he was not at all interested in eating peas). I was able to get a closer look while he was in the bath (lying on his side the whole time, but still breathing). It did look like he was starting to pinecone.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*from 10/20/19￼*

Oliver did not make it through the night. He is now at rest under the rhubarb.
Here is an earlier picture of him, under anubias leaf. It was taken about a month ago, when I had first noticed the parasite on his side.








Showing off his good side, when I was trying to get a closeup of the spot.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*so for now it is just snails*

It is strange having a tank with no fish in it. I keep glancing over there expecting any minute to see Oliver glide up out from behind a plant, looking for an offering... Of course there are still snails to watch crawling around- two nerites and plenty of trumpet snails. I am not certain, but it seems the limpet numbers are finally slowing down. I don't see as many on the glass.








I have changed a few small things. I took off one layer of plastic that covered the LEDs on the left side. Rotalas are definitely bending the other way now, they must be seeking light. Hoping this will straighten them out, and not cause algae on the anubias or buces.

Noticed the filter flow on hospital tank was stronger than in the tenner. I switched air pumps. But this one is noisy. So I suspended it. Looks ridiculous, but much quieter now.
￼








Definitely more flow- some of the plants move gently, and the floaters drift around in slow circles. Which is kind of nice to watch. This is the best short end of the tank right now. There's a small anubias nana petite I added in the back right corner there.
￼








Other end of the tank is not really attractive, although the ludwigia is growing well.
￼








Much more interesting the green fingers of windelov java fern.
￼








I need to do another overhead tank shot soon- here's a quick one of windelov and anubias, blurred on the edges because I didn't turn off the flow.
￼








By far my favorite plants in the tank are the buces. They're all doing well. Lovely colors, sparkling specks on the leaves. These look so great I am tempted to bring over the buces out of the thirty-eight, which struggle to fend off algae.
￼








But I'm afraid to introduce BBA into this tank. Maybe I could pull the buces, do a dip or a three-day blackout in a container... Here's the 'Selena', still looking lovely and wow it has grown a lot.
￼








Doing cleanup was sad. I sprayed everything down with diluted bleach, rinse in tapwater. Filter sponge, pebbles and small plastic items get boiled for five minutes. Tank lightly bleached and rinsed out with boiling-hot water. Dry it all in the sun. Afterwards I ask my older daughter or husband to do a sniff test- if they detect the faintest hint of bleach I rinse again and again. My youngest said "why are you smelling things? does it smell like a dead fish? because Oliver just died in there."￼


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

I'm so sorry you lost Oliver.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks. It's silly, but I still miss him.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

It's not silly. We still miss Waldo. These little fish are like having a dog or a cat. They become part of the family.


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## irishspy (Oct 22, 2007)

R.I.P. Oliver. 

On the other hand, you have a nice home ready for a betta that needs one.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yes- but it might be some time before I find one I like again. I'm fond of plakats (especially dragonscales) but don't see them often in the pet stores here. And for some reason I'm leery of buying a fish online- one that has so much individuality as a betta, I want to see it in person.

Meanwhile the snails will hold down the fort.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*new betta*

Last week I got a new betta fish for my tenner.








He is a bright blue double tail plakat, with a dark face. He has gorgeous color, but not the best form. I noticed this when I first saw him in the shop a month ago- although he looked healthy, always alert with fins open- his caudal peduncle seemed blunt, too short.








In fact when I got him home and have a better look (not distorted by curved cup sides) it looks bent- like he has a deformity or old injury- on one side there is a bulge








and on the other side a corresponding dent- which you can see in this dim, blurry picture. Also the red color in his tail and anal fin is uneven, splotchy- although his pectorals are a bright, vibrant red. The scales on his sides look a bit spotted- lots of them have darker centers. He is not a young fish anymore- getting grey under the chin and my guess is he has already lived half his life in a little cup. I feel kinda bad for that- maybe that's why his tail is bent- from cramped conditions?








Personality is different from my last two bettas. He is not shy at all! Doesn't flee from the camera, comes up close to the glass when a person is near. Learned quickly that the lid sliding open meant food, and so far he has eaten everything I offer- betta flake, micropellets, fresh fruit flies, garlic-soaked bloodworms. He flared his beard a bit at the nerites but so far has left them alone. He picks at stuff on the hardscape- I hope he is eating some limpets. Keeps cramming himself into corners and getting stuck in the plants- so when I replant the stems that come loose I leave a little gap there.








My five-year-old looked close once when he was drifting just under the surface, his dorsal fin brushing the little roots of polyrhiza- "what's the fishy doing, mommy? It looks like he's blowing bubbles!" Yeah, he was making a bubble nest already. I think a happy fish.

I haven't decided on a name yet... I was thinking of calling him Sappho, because of the brilliant blue color, but that name has other connotations and although my kids are unaware of it, other folks might laugh...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*a few new plants*

Here's a recent quick overhead shot of my tenner. Just because I like doing them. 








Buces from the overhead angle:








They are doing pretty nicely in here- 'emerald green' has a new leaf








and the little lost one I tucked onto the driftwood almost came loose but is holding on by a few root hairs, so I left it alone.








A few new additions in here: marsilea hirsuta








and a bit of crypt parva








It's kind of untidy looking right now. And bummed that the bacopa in this tank continually looks sad. The leaves angle a bit downwards in my other tank too, but not as much as in here. And anubias leaves seem to curl down more, too. 








I'm still confused about mg and ca in my tank. I tested it a while back and seems my gh and kh are plenty enough- and there's always hard water deposits of crusty white stuff on things. So why do my snails continue to suffer, and do my plants need mg? because I read in a few places that the leaves hooking down means mg deficiency. I worried I shouldn't be adding mg in there, so I quit for a while.

However, now I've read another post that suggests the safe-t-sorb may _still _be absorbing the mg and ca- keeping it from the plants (and snails). If that's the case, no wonder I have to keep on dosing everything, even though I seen tons of mulm piled up against the glass below the substrate. Is the substrate sucking it all up? at what point does it release it for the plants? I still don't really understand this...

but I am going to try dosing a bit of mg again this week and see if anything improves. Or maybe I will decide bacopa just doesn't work in this tank, and put something else in that back corner. Watersprite or move the wisteria, perhaps...


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

The tank looks great. I think you should resist the urge to keep redecorating and see how it fills in. If you have to get rid of the bacopa, try to find something colorful that grows fast. I have a plant that was mislabeled at the LFS, but I think it is a ludwigia. I love it. I have it in most of my tanks, it gives just a nice hint of reddish brown against all the green in the tanks.

The new Betta is adorable. His faults make him that much more cute. I think you should give him a curmudgeon name like Oscar or Louie. Even from the pictures, you can tell he has tons of personality.


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## irishspy (Oct 22, 2007)

Really niceand a great home for a betta. I envy you the marsilea: mine was doing fine and spreading, then almost wholly died off for some reason. Even the rhizomes turned black.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Varmint said:


> The tank looks great. I think you should resist the urge to keep redecorating and see how it fills in......


Hey, thanks. Yes, I think I'm going to leave it alone for a while. 



Varmint said:


> The new Betta is adorable. His faults make him that much more cute. I think you should give him a curmudgeon name like Oscar or Louie. Even from the pictures, you can tell he has tons of personality.


My kids love him already. They say we should name him "Puppy" because he is like one. I have never had a betta so inquisitive or friendly- my prior two would hide in corners or under the skull when I did work in the tank- this fish doesn't even seem to realize he has a cave. He bumps into my hand when I am cleaning the tank, swims around in front of tools and gets pushed by the new water I am (gently) pouring in. 

We put a mirror up to see his full colors today- he has very diluted reds in his tail fin as well. He opened his beard and danced around in front of the mirror fins flared but not as vehemently or aggressively as Oliver used to. Seems a more mellow fish for sure.

I first though of naming him Cranky. Or Sammie. Hubert. Murph. Charles.
I just don't know- nothing seems to fit yet.

Bump:


irishspy said:


> Really niceand a great home for a betta. I envy you the marsilea: mine was doing fine and spreading, then almost wholly died off for some reason. Even the rhizomes turned black.


Well, I have only had it a week so I'm not sure if it will thrive for me. But I do hope so. I have a little bit of hydrocotyle tripartita in here and it has just been barely hanging on forever, not growing. They look similar to me- are the two species related..?


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## Butterfly Bettas (Aug 19, 2016)

It's most likely a breeding defect with your betta. Double-tails can have especially short bodies, too, which could contribute. He doesn't seem to be slowed down any.  He has beautiful color, and quite a palatial home to live his out his life in.


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## LuckyBetta (Nov 13, 2016)

I just want to say that I found this blog last night, and I spent about an hour reading everything and looking at your photos! It's brilliant, thank you for keeping it up!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Pretty little marsilea hirsuta has kept its lobed leaf shape. I was really expecting that the new growth would have single-lobed leaves, but they don't. Look like tiny green hands reaching up. New white roots below. Recovering faster in my tenner (those shown here) but the ones in the big tank have some new growth, too.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I trimmed and replanted bacopa yesterday, nearly doubling the quantity of stems. Starting to wonder why it is unhappy in this tank- the leaves always drooping down. It does this a little in my other tank, but not so much... It's starting to feel like anubias overhwlems the back left corner of the tank, and ludwigia there are struggling for light. And I like the ludwigia. I cut the barteri rhizome in half, and wedged one part of it down lower behind the skull. Don't like how everything is level height now, but things will grow up soon enough.








Took a picture overhead of the windelov java fern intertwining through anubias leaves, just because I thought it looked cool- and realized they are looking peaky again. It's been awhile since I dosed mg so I did that today with the ferts.








There is not much else to note about this tank this week. Except that I am still puzzled why there is always so much fine debris here. I'm starting to think it's not because my driftwood rotted faster than normal, or my snails poop too much, but just that the sponge filter doesn't pick stuff up very well....

The fish is named Sam. He's funny. He swims with a quick, energetic tail- my other bettas would move smoothly and glide- this fish rushes across the tank, then pauses still with just his pectorals working energetically, tail end drifting up a little (makes me worry he's going to have swim bladder problems- I learned recently that doubletails tend to have shorter bodies and get swd more commonly). He always seems to be in a hurry somewhere when he notices something. His eyes are circled in white, so he always looks very intent on things, _hm_, what's that? Always getting in the photo. My kids really like him.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*I have only put a few new plants in here*

Small pieces of anubias congensis and anubias afzelii I broke off the main rhizomes. At first I had them midground in the tank- but then remembered they may get to be 10" or more so I moved them into the back, just behind the fake skull (where anubias barteri came out- difference is these hold the leaves vertical and barteri was really horizonal felt like took too much space). Won't see them again now for a while.








Here's my blue betta cruising past some new plants- the rotalas are holding themselves a lot straighter since I added a bit of Mg (epsom salt).








I also planted three small pieces of the hygro pinnatifida. 








I like the flame moss in here, but not what I've attached it too. Looks too artificial. However I'm waiting to see how the moss I fastened to plastic mesh does in my other tank before doing that in here.








Betta checking out the buce garden. At least, it looks like that's what he's doing. He's probably looking for limpets- I've seen him trying to nip them off the glass.








I think of him as Sam 'Blue' so just started calling him Samblu.


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Looking good!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*new fish for one day*

For a long time I have wanted to try keeping pygmy catfish in my ten-gallon tank. I've heard they can be okay with a betta because they are drab in color and stay at the substrate level, under plants, rather inconspicuous. I specifically wanted _corydoras pygmaeus_ but I think I actually got _corydoras hasbrosus_. I had asked about them several times at the pet store and they said they don't see them often and it might take months before any came in. So I was happily surprised when yesterday I got a call. I went straight over and picked them up. Five itty bitty fishes, only half an inch in length.








This was the only decent picture I got of them. They are _so_ tiny, and so cute. I love the way their little eyes gleam a gold ring like buttons. And they settled in nicely- exploring around- nobody looking pale or distressed. But my betta Samblu took umbrage to their presence. Or he thought they were for hunting practice. He shadowed them. He sat in corners waiting while one little cory zipped up to the surface and wiggled around near him, then he would swing his head sideways with a slow, menacing motion to regard the cory, and bite like a snake. The cory darted away, Samblu turned to flare his beard aggressively at an innocent nerite nearby, then abruptly cruised off and started poking in and out of the plants, searching for the cories.

Even though none of them actually got hurt yet, I've seen this before when I tried to keep platties with a betta.... I wasn't going to wait until cories started dying or got their fins ripped off. I threw together my old plastic bin QT with an airstone, heater and some hardscape with plants on them pulled out of Sam's tank. Plus most of the duckweed floaters. I guess I'm getting better at setting up temporary tanks. Or the little cories are tough. One was pale after being caught (gently as I could with a clear plastic cup) but in the morning they all looked fine, and ate some crumbs of shrimp pellet. I took them back to the store. My kids said they'd rather I return _Sam_ and try a different betta fish, but I know that would be just as likely to fail.

Samblu has relaxed now the pygmies are gone, and he ignores the snails again. I'm sorely disappointed it didn't work out.


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## irishspy (Oct 22, 2007)

JJ09 said:


> Samblu has relaxed now the pygmies are gone, and he ignores the snails again. I'm sorely disappointed it didn't work out.


That's a shame. It really depends on the individual betta: Some are fine with tankmates, others put on little goalie masks and change their name to "Jason." :icon_eek:

I want to get c. habrosus for my 20-long (neons and platys): I think they'd be perfect in there.


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## ArchimedesTheDog (Apr 9, 2012)

JJ09 said:


> Samblu has relaxed now the pygmies are gone, and he ignores the snails again. I'm sorely disappointed it didn't work out.


I had a similar problem with my Betta and Cories at first but he ignores them now, thankfully. Hoping he's going to start ignoring the Harlequin Rasborae, too... Too bad it didn't work out for you.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yesterday I took apart my vase of buces. They look pretty good- very little noticeable algae. I removed older leaves that were yellowing and still had algae, and a few newer leaves that looked weak and had been shredded by the shrimps- I think lacking enough nutrients. They all have at least four leaves left, and nearly every single one has a new pinkish leaf uncurling.








I put the larger ones on/near the substrate, and stuck the smaller ones onto the driftwood in Sam's tank. Becoming a fan of superglue- it sticks immediately when wet and if I do it carefully, can't even see it. But got some blobs and it shows white- maybe I can scrape that off later when the buces have taken hold.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I have been looking closer at the plants in the this tank, and at some charts that show symptoms of nutrient deficiencies in freshwater plants. My java ferns and windelovs have spots of necrosis which are gradually spreading. It looks like it might be a zinc, boron, iron or phosphate deficiency? so perhaps I cut back too severely on the micros, or need to look more carefully at how much KH2P04 I'm dosing. . . . I'm going to up the micros a bit this week and see what happens. Realize I'm doing proportionally half the amount of micros I dose on my bigger tank- which I thought was okay because this one has less light so needs less nutrients? but maybe I went _too_ far going lean.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I put a new background on this tank- dark gray felt.








Everything seems okay in here, except I notice a few things. Last week, and the week before (the day I dosed Mg) the plants were pearling. This week, none of that. I'm wondering if I need to add a _tiny_ bit of Mg each week? I have found the water report that lists Ca and Mg from our local water source, and I'm surprised how much it varies per month tested- the ratio Ca:Mg was sometimes 4:1 other times roughly 3:1. I wonder if the plants feel the lack of Mg in months when it is lower... Still somewhat confused on this point, what I should do.
Because I notice that although this anubias looks relatively fine








the other one has hooked tips. (I do think that anubias on the larger wood piece is going to 'walk' all the way off of it and span the gap. It will be like an anubias bridge. I'm very curious to see how it grows!)








Yet its scion (smaller plant right next to it with the new shoot coming up) doesn't. And the baby plant's leaves are rounder, why is that?








On the other end of the tank, the remaining piece of anubias barteri, still very small, has rounder leaves as well. (It's on the top left of the log, just above the buces). Maybe they just grow more oblong as they mature?








Also this week for the first time my buces in this tank have poor color. Not the new ones I added, or the mature 'selena' on the substrate level, but the 'isabella' ones on the log and the darker one on the stone, have yellowing of the leaf body with darker veins, same symptom my anubias often shows. I am trying to think what I did different the past week, or what is lacking. Could it be iron deficiency? it has been a while since I used root tabs in this tank. Or is it (more likely) that upping the micros dose last week was the wrong move.
















Most everything else in here is looking fine, or just not showing symptoms yet... Lower leaves of ludwigia yellowing and some dropping off, but I always kind of expect that. Although you see some hygro pinnatifida leaves in these pics, they were taken a week ago- that plant is all gone now. It melted to absolutely nothing.

The flame moss has grown so much I trimmed it. Reduced the height by half and this is what's left- it still looks nice enough. It was easy to lift out the upturned basket and use scissors on it in a small clear container of water. I used the trimmings to start a new 'moss stone' in my other tank- look for that post.


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

Did you have CO2 running? I believe hygrophilias do much better with CO2. I have found almost all my plants (pennywort, water wisteria, etc) will develop pin holes and die except ones in the tank with a huge collection of humus and mulm/little water changes/mostly distilled water since decaying things give off more co2. You could try any number of these. Humus also gives off a lot of ammonia, which is not good for fish, so upping co2 or adding might be better.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Nope, I don't use C02. I knew it was a long shot, to have hygro pinnatifida grow for me, but I saw a few other folks had managed it in a low tech tank, so I wanted to try... I'm not really surprised at my failure.


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

Not a failure. Most people are too afraid to try stuff, so at least you are experimenting to see how things work by your own eyes.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Well, thanks! Yeah, I am always trying new stuff to see what I can keep, or get to grow- and a lot of it just doesn't work out. Part of the fun of it all, to see what I can make thrive.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Minor fert adjustment again. I am back to dosing 5ml per week of the micros, and I am also taking care to leave a longer time gap between dosing the macros and the micros, in case it helps with uptake of iron and . Also dosed a very tiny amount of Mg- literally four grains of epsom salt.








Because I saw that this week (and last) things are better again, in a subtle way. There were no spirodela polyrhiza leaves with yellowing, or black spots. Now they all look glaringly healthy such a vivid green.








Week before last I had also picked out some common duckweed that showed up. And I can't see any of those narrower small oval pairs now. Might show up again but seems cleared out for the time being.








Ludwigia did drop some more lower leaves, but it might be discarding old foliage in favor of growing new- because the tops look great. And no more buces seem poorly. The only plant that really looks sad in here now is wisteria. It never seems to have recovered from being moved... Bacopa has larger leaves- almost as nice as those in the bigger tank, which I notice just now when comparing this week's full tank shot to last.

I trimmed a small amount of flame moss again. More on that very soon! (in my other tank journal, because that's where I'm using it)


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*the buces deserve their own post*

I have other writeup about the rest of the plants from maintenance yesterday coming up... 

This is one of my favorite buces, a thin-leaved blue one that I have on a stone. It's grown enough I'm thinking of taking a cutting from the tallest stem.








Another one that's grown significantly- this bright green one (on the right) is the tiny bit that grew off a dead-looking rhizome fragment.








'Selena' is another one of my favorites- but I'm not sure why some of its leaves are looking brown. Maybe too much mulm settled on them and blocked light? or just an older leaf the plant will drop.








Happiest, these two among the marsilea hirsuta, are from the group I pulled out of the thirty-eight and treated for BBA with amano shrimp in a vase. It worked. They have stayed algae-free and are growing out new roots and leaves in here.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I trimmed back my subwassertang clump on the driftwood for the first time. Did it very carefully with the tiny stainless steel sewing scissors- just enough so it's not hitting the wall of the tank or encroaching on the anubias nearby. Samblu likes to swim low around the corners so now he won't feel stuck and thrash around.








I fastened a loose bit of windelov fern (single leaf on a tiny piece of rhizome) to a pebble and placed on the driftwood log where there's a little ledge on the backside, just in front of the skull. I was hiding the fake skull behind the log but it looks kind of cool in dim ambient light- with the fangs looming out of the shadows under a crown of java fern greenery.








Yep, marsilea hirsuta is going to have plain, round leaves. New ones coming up among the 'hand' shaped ones are single-lobed.








Quite some time ago I planted rotala rotundifolia out of a packet. Most of it died but I tried to keep the few stems left in a group separate area of the tank from rotala indica, so I could tell them apart. This is from that small bunch, they've got decent height now.








And here's rotala indica stem in the same tank. They look almost exactly alike to me.








Mirror shot: if the glass were a bit cleaner, I think this would be a cool picture.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

The other day I saw a video about making moss trees (something I've never really wanted to do in my tank but they do look cool). The way the guy bulked up the 'tree' top with foam before gluing on moss to get an instant visual effect gave me this idea.

There's a spot where the log in my tenner has a little elbow ledge that sticks out at the base. I wanted to grow some subwassertang there, but don't have a stone that will fit nicely in the narrow spot. Tried before and it just fell off. Don't want to tie the subwasser on, because it would be nice to lift it out for trimming.

Instead I took a piece of sponge and cut it to fit in the area. Made slits in the sponge and wedged some pebbles in there to make it sink.








Superglued subwassertang bits on top.
























Voíla!








It's not staying in place, though. Keeps falling off the ledge- I guess the mass of plant material on it changes the bouyancy or shape enough it won't stay in the spot. I'll try adding a few more pebbles into the sponge or reshaping it a bit...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*All the buces in here are looking better than ever!*

For the first time ever, I have been able to propagate my bucephalandra 'Selena' via a cutting. It's in the center here, the one with the young pale leaf. The plant on the stone was getting taller, and I noticed long roots coming down from the stem, but there were four or five nice leaves below that- so I thought why not cut it...








Soon I will do the same thing with the taller buce 'blue bell' on this stone








This small creeping one on the log has busted out a bunch of new leaves (top right of image at an awkward angle).








Can see here it isn't actually grabbing onto anything- I'll have to tie that one down.








Fissidens moss is filling in nice thick tufts on top of the log-








And I can just glimpse the anubias afzelii behind the log and skull, here. I hope it grows big enough soon that I can divide it and put more of it back in the main tank!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*overhead shot*

I cleared off the duckweed and took the trouble to set up lights for an overhead picture.








Samblu wants to know if there's food involved in this operation.








Windelov fern is encroaching on the anubias and bacopa in its corner. I cut off a piece of rhizome that was growing off the log, added it to a stone in the main tank.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Windelov fern is getting kind of unruly in here.
















I cut and trimmed tallest ludwigia and bacopa in here recently. Feeling rather dissatisfied with their appearance lately. Not sure I want ludwigia to be the main background plant, anymore.








Not sure if I like rotalas in the foreground anymore, either. Thinking about bringing over here some of those green crypts out of my main tank- they seem to be staying smaller than the crypt wendtii...








Subwassertang on the sponge fell off its spot. A few pieces stuck to the knob of driftwood there, so maybe I will just wait and see how that little bit grows out by itself.








Doing much better in the other corner- just touching the glass so this week I will have to trim again.








I don't know if marsilea hirsuta is going to make it long-term in this tank. It is adjusting very slowly. Some clumps of it have come loose from the substrate, and as they didn't have any nice white roots (only black decaying mess) I discarded them.








I'm not sure if something is wrong with my tiny baby anubias barteri in here. The leaves have been getting some diatoms or brown algae on them- I rub it off. And the rhizome piece is yellowing.








Flame moss strands on the end of the driftwood log have gotten nice and tall. These I had never trimmed yet- and they are quite a bit thicker than the flame moss in other areas I had trimmed regularly. Perhaps because I left them alone so long, had time to grow thicker? I trimmed them this week and used on stones in the other tank.








Curious thing, looking at a different angle through the middle of the tank (where you can see the wisteria plant appears to finally be recovering) if you focus closely, the java fern roots are visible in the skull cave. Looks like three thick ones, or clusters of thinner roots, going straight down into the substrate. Feeder roots, apparently. I never knew they could get so thick.








Looking back at other pics realize I like the look of this tank better with a light background. So I took off the cloth backdrop and put back on a plain white one...


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## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Looking very nice!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*full tank shot*









I brought over two of those unnamed crypts into the tenner, putting flame moss into the opposite corner and taking out some rotala stems. Just to see how it does in here, if I'm right and it won't get any bigger (both groups of these crypts in the thirty-eight are throwing babies so I think they're mature at this size). A lot of bacopa in here was too tall and got a big trim, too- so the back is all uneven again.

I trimmed up the subwassertang in the right corner, pulled out the fallen sponge piece on the other side. Thinned out quite a bit of windelov this week- cut rhizomes where they were starting to crawl off the wood, and one that was growing all over and through the anubias.

Samblu is kind of a dorky fish. I don't know why he's always swimming down into corners of the tank and then thrashing around to get out as if he feels stuck. When I approach the tank to feed him (or take a picture) he gets so excited darts back and forth against the glass and won't even see the food fall in. I have to wait until he calms down enough to turn his head and see it. Harder to feed him if it's late in the day and the room is darker than the tank, then he sees his reflection and gets even more excited.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Tank maintenance was yesterday.*

I cleaned out some yellowing leaves on the base of transplanted green crypts- otherwise they seem to be doing well.








Buces looking decent- the creeping ones on the log seem to have improved.








Java fern dropped a few leaves, but it has one newer leaf without black spots like the rest, so maybe it is doing better since I changed my fert routine.








I trimmed and replanted a few rotala stems.








Since thinning out the windelov on that chunk of driftwood, the anubias on it seems much happier. It has new leaves and the older ones are staying evenly green.








I don't know what's up with this bit of the old anubias barteri, though (lower left). One leaf went entirely brown and I cut it off this week. It is sprouting new foliage, though. I think something was out of balance in the tank last week- the ludwigias don't look so great either.








I'm considering taking out the flame moss patch in here- it just keeps accumulating mulm. I could start another stone in the main tank... Thinned out the spirodela polyrhiza as usual (and threw the culls into the window tank). Lifted out the sponge filter for a rinse and saw that the bio-cubes I have in its base were quite brown. Maybe clogged and no longer very functional, or impeding flow? I took over half of them out, discarded and replaced with some of the ceramic bio-balls out of the main tank's canister.

And here's some pics of Samblu.








Looking sideways at me-








Doing his thing going around a low corner. Funny fish.


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## NickAu (Feb 24, 2017)

Too many plant Photos not enough photos of your Betta. I have 2 girls the same color


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*well here's a few fish pics!*

If you look close, can see the scattering of blue scales across his black face. One of these days I'll have to get a photo of him flaring at the mirror- he's got a nice large streak of red in his fins.








Deformity in his back end really visible in this pic. 








This one tallest stem of bacopa in the tenner, the leaf changed shape at the water surface. It's much rounder (compare to second picture). I never saw that before. Is it going to flower?
















Most of the bacopa I trimmed and replanted in here- leaves on the lower half of the stems melted severely this week. Replanted them in a denser clump, and added a few rotala stems trimmed out of the main tank- and checked my sponge filter again. It seems to be doing a better job, it seems there is less mulm to siphon out now. I threw out the last few brown/clogged bio-cubes and replaced with a some pebbles for weight. Samblu struggles against the mild current of it if he gets too close- but he goes back there repeatedly. Is he dumb, or does he like swimming through it?


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

its growing to emersed form.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Well, it won't get too far. Not much headspace.


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## NickAu (Feb 24, 2017)

> Samblu struggles against the mild current of it if he gets too close- but he goes back there repeatedly. Is he dumb, or does he like swimming through it?


Some Betta's especially short tailed one love swimming in current like that, and a little current in the tank isnt a bad thing as long as the Betta can hover in 1 spot without being pushed around its fine.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Most of the tank he can hover still- it's right next to where the bubbles flow out that he gets pushed by the filter. I've always kept short-tailed plakats but this is the first betta I've had who deliberately swam through the filter flow! They really are such different individuals.


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## NickAu (Feb 24, 2017)

> Most of the tank he can hover still- it's right next to where the bubbles flow out that he gets pushed by the filter.


Thats fine then.

My girls love to chase each other around the filter outlet.


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## Pat24601 (Mar 4, 2017)

Great pics in this thread! Great looking tank!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Tank stayed cleaner this week. Definitely less mulm to siphon out, and it didn't stink as has for so long. Instead a clay sort of odor. I am trying to be more diligent about (gently) rinsing out the sponge filter at least every other week, even though it doesn't collect much debris. Have removed all of the clogged bio-cubes from the filter base, now it just has gravel to weigh it down, and a few of those sintered glass balls I took out of the 38's canister the week before.

Crypt I moved in here is sprouting a few new leaves, that's good to see. Have to get a picture of it soon.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It seems that crypt parva is slowly taking hold in this tank, but the marsilea hirsuta is not. Every week I pull out another clump that is dying off. I don't think that plant is going to make it in here, long-term. My java fern is slowly replacing its old leaves with new, bright ones that look perfect. No marring of dark spots anymore. Only other thing of note this week is that the rhizome piece a baby anubias barteri is growing out of, is all turning yellow. But the little anubias itself looks fine, and has more stout roots growing. Wondering if I should break off that old rhizome bit...

Samblu is doing great. I turned up the flow on his filter a bit, still not happy with the mulm situation but at least it is not getting worse. Maybe I should take out more snails. 

I saw a video a while back of somebody's breeding facility- in all the bare bottom tanks he had cories, to stir stuff up so the filters would keep the tanks super clean. He'd stopped keeping cories for a while and noticed tanks weren't as clean, put them back and it was cleaner again. Said he keeps cories in all his tanks for that reason- they are so busy all over the bottom keep stuff kicked up off the floor. More valuable to him for that than the eating of food debris. I keep thinking of that when I look in this tank and know I can't put small bottom-dwelling fishes in here, remembering how Sam was stalking the cute little pygmy cories and I had to take them back. Wish it wasn't so.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I'm starting to feel a little frustrated with my betta tank. 








It still has this continual accumulation of mulm- looks like snail poo all over the place, coating the leaves. I have tried feeding the fish less, increasing the airflow on the filter, vacuuming over the substrate more diligently. Started pulling out the biggest trumpet snails. Maybe I should remove the last horned nerite in here, if it is creating that much waste. Even replaced the driftwood log a while back, because I thought the old one had deteriorated and was breaking down. There are still tons of limpets, too.

Yesterday I tried making a smaller gravel vac. The one I have is too large- it doesn't get into corners very well maybe that's the problem, I haven't been able to do a very thorough cleaning. I have a plastic syringe use to measure out Prime and liquid ferts- the numbers are wearing off (though I marked the measurements use the most scratch with a knife) and the rubber piece sticks so it was getting difficult to do drops evenly. I got a new syringe for that and took this one apart- put a piece of airline on and now it's a tiny gravel vac. It works- I got clouds and clouds of mulm out of the tank this time- but very very slow. I guess that's a plus right now, it allows me to adequately clean the whole tank before I'd sometimes just use the hose w/out any fittings, to get into corners, but that sucked up the water too fast and before I had done all the areas, enough water was out for the wc. So I really need something in between these two sizes!








Regarding the plants- marsilea hirsuta definitely not going to make it in here.








Java fern on the skull about a third of it is new leaves now- and they look so much nicer than the old ones. Bacopa (behind it on the right) looks crappy. Maybe it is time for a root tab dose in here. Or maybe it is time to take that plant out...








Windelov fern is also growing out lots of new leaves that look better. Anubias no longer has the paler foliage with dark veins, so that's good. Subwassertang is clinging by itself on wood now- on this corner piece it's even holding on to the top side of that little peak.








And here behind the crypt. Which is kind of funny, because in my other tanks I never got it to hold onto anything, only works on the baskets.








Best of all in this tank is still the bucephalandra- on the log the two bunches of 'isabella' are like muted flowers.








The tiny creeping ones are slowly increasing in mass.








This one on the substrate has a bright new leaf.








I took a cutting off of the 'selena' again, it had a root above some lower leaves so I was able to plant that. I like how this bunch of them is starting to look in the front of the tank. Unfortunately the different types are getting mixed up and I'm not sure if I remember which is what anymore.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*a little better*

I like my betta tank better this week than the last few. Using the tiny siphon vacuum I made is really helping to keep the tank cleaner- there is a lot less visible mulm, the plants don't have brown stuff settling on their leaves and the wastewater doesn't have a sour smell anymore. Nitrates level is same as ever, but I bet TDS is lower. Don't have a way to measure that, though.








Buces are looking nice once again.
























Crappy, quick pic of the rotala and ludwigia on this short end- healthier now too.








Samblu is his same old self. But it seems a scattering of scales on his side have turned darker blue- so he looks like scales are mosaic tiles... He likes to hide in the plants. It's cute to see him lurking, then zoom out as if to surprise someone.


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## NickAu (Feb 24, 2017)

I must be a bad fish keeper as I never vacuum the substrate, but then I always have lots of Malaysian Trumpet snails.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

All my tanks have trumpet snails. The other tanks I never really vacuum- just kind of hover over the substrate to pick up dead leaves and other occasional debris. This is the only tank has a problem with mulm, and it's only been in the last few months... but come to think of it, I haven't _seen_ many trumpet snails in here lately. Even when I deliberately went to pick some out for another member, couldn't find many in this tank. I got two really big ones, but none medium or small-size. I wonder if they stopped reproducing or died off for some reason?


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## NickAu (Feb 24, 2017)

I hardly ever see mine while the lights are on, and they are hard to kill, MTS are heavy burrowers especially when there's plenty of food in the substrate. Check your glass late at night or early in the morning you might find you have a few. Before my 2 foot tank was destroyed in the floods we had I once counted over 200 MTS on the glass at 5 am.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

If at any point you find the siphon you made isn't quite getting the job done as you'd like, head off to the Dollar Store or some other Dollar Store-type place and get a turkey baster. Gently squeezing the bulb pushes the stuff out from hiding places that a siphon cannot get to. Doing this right before a water change means the stuff cannot resettle back to where it was. 

In bigger tanks, a person can get the gunk out and vac it out at the same time.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

NickAu said:


> Check your glass late at night or early in the morning you might find you have a few. Before my 2 foot tank was destroyed in the floods we had I once counted over 200 MTS on the glass at 5 am.


Good idea. I did check around midnight, 1am to pick out snails, didn't find them. I do recall a few times have woken up at 3 or 4am and a glance at the tank there were many on the glass. Should check at that kind of hour again.



Smooch said:


> If at any point you find the siphon you made isn't quite getting the job done as you'd like, head off to the Dollar Store or some other Dollar Store-type place and get a turkey baster. Gently squeezing the bulb pushes the stuff out from hiding places that a siphon cannot get to. Doing this right before a water change means the stuff cannot resettle back to where it was.


It gets the job done, it's just so _very slow_. But gentle enough I can vac my fissidens and get mulm out of there without tearing the moss off the driftwood. I do have a turkey baster thing for fish tank use- but that is even more tedious to suck stuff out with. Never thought to push stuff out of tight corners with it- I'll give that a try next time, thanks.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My betta tank continues to slowly improve. I moved some rotala stems from the front corner (now crypt is mostly focal point of that spot) to space across the back. Bacopa still kind of faltering, more dying stems than thriving. I'm considering taking that plant out of here entirely. Have started slowly pulling out the dying marislea hirsuta. Only one clump today, because things were already a bit disturbed. (Not as if the fish cared. Samblu was so close to my hand while working, I didn't see him and accidentally he got sucked into the cup I was using to scoop out floaters- by the pressure of backwash. I noticed when he thrashed in the still-partly-submerged cup) Because of moving the rotalas, there was more mulm kicking into the water column than I could get out with my tiny siphon, and some of it settled back on the foliage afterwards, but I know what was the cause this time and still think it's doing better since I started vacuuming more thoroughly. One nice thing about how gentle the tiny vacuum is, I can put it right over a clump of fissidens and get fine debris out without dislodging the moss.

I am really wondering about those malaysian trumpet snails. I have not seen any in quite some time now- seems like a few weeks or more. The other night I happened to wake up at 3am and looked in the tank w/light of cell phone screen. Not a single snail on the walls. Hm.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I made a feeding ring for Samblu. 








It's ridiculous but he's an annoying betta to feed. The spirodela polyrhiza kind of gets in the way, he doesn't seem to see the food unless there's a good amount of free space around it, and especially if the tank light is on he gets so distracted by his reflection if a food item falls behind him, he'll chase its reflection down the front of the glass and miss. So I've been in the habit of _blowing_ on the surface to clear a space in the floaters, and get his attention so he'll come look in the right place for food. Getting a bit tiresome. Today I took a piece of airline tubing, softened one end in hot water and forced it wider with needlenose pliers wedged inside, then fitted one end into the other to make a small ring. I put that on the surface to hold the floaters aside and it is so much easier. He notices the ring, and I don't have to keep pushing plants aside but can just drop the food in. I wish I'd made one sooner!


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## kyle3 (May 26, 2005)

JJ09 said:


> I am really wondering about those malaysian trumpet snails. I have not seen any in quite some time now- seems like a few weeks or more. The other night I happened to wake up at 3am and looked in the tank w/light of cell phone screen. Not a single snail on the walls. Hm.


Do you think Samblu might have developed a taste for the tiny snail babies? 

What you're describing with your snail population sounds a lot like a tank I had some years ago after I added a school of botia sidmunki. They were small enough loaches they couldn't eat the big MTS. The once frequent hatchings stopped supplementing the population, over time all the large adult snails passed away and snails in that tank were no more.

P.S. love the journal, thanks for sharing it all here!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

kyle3 said:


> Do you think Samblu might have developed a taste for the tiny snail babies?


I suppose he might have. I've seen him bite at the limpets on the walls- but he never got those. If he bit at baby trumpet snails, probably figured out to eat them. On the other hand, the glass is pretty clean now so maybe the snails never climb the walls after non-existent algae and thus I don't see them? Other possibility is that my water hardness or something is off- on the one hand it doesn't make sense because I have pH of 7.6 in here- but on the other hand, my one horned nerite has a seriously degraded shell, which I never figured out the reason for sure. So if the mts suffered from degraded shells, maybe it was enough to kill them.


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## kyle3 (May 26, 2005)

JJ09 said:


> I suppose he might have. I've seen him bite at the limpets on the walls- but he never got those. If he bit at baby trumpet snails, probably figured out to eat them. On the other hand, the glass is pretty clean now so maybe the snails never climb the walls after non-existent algae and thus I don't see them? Other possibility is that my water hardness or something is off- on the one hand it doesn't make sense because I have pH of 7.6 in here- but on the other hand, my one horned nerite has a seriously degraded shell, which I never figured out the reason for sure. So if the mts suffered from degraded shells, maybe it was enough to kill them.




Those sounds like pretty compelling coincidences. I bet you're on to something. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I found more benefit to this plastic circle of tubing than just not having the blow floaters aside. It keeps the food in one spot, so if Sam misses, it doesn't drift off among the plants and go unnoticed. Also, he's learning quickly what it's for. Now instead of dashing up and down wiggling against the glass when I approach the tank, he hurries over to his feeding ring!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Samblu loves his bugs. My youngest likes to catch moths for him in the house... The other day during tank cleaning I went to pick up the feeding ring (wipe a bit of biofilm scum off it regularly) and there was a blue crescent shape just under the surface- Samblu, looking for an offering.








I found a surprise in this front corner- the crypt I moved in here a while back has sprouted a baby off a runner- behind, against the driftwood.








The two different kinds of anubias I have on larger and smaller driftwoods, are grown out enough to look like one clump of plant.








Their roots are reaching together








My little 'buce garden'








'selena', 'emerald green' and I think the last one is another bit of 'blue bell'.








my favorite is still this 'blue bell' on a rock.








I thought I had thinned this windelov fern out well, and plucked off all the babies and older, dying leaves. But every time I do a cleaning and riffle my fingers through the plant mass, more baby plants pop off. One or two floating around the tank right now.








That corner seen from a higher angle- more plants visible








Tank seen from a lower angle (Sam is hiding)


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It's interesting to see how things have changed a bit in my tank when it goes two weeks between a wc and fert dose. I had to keep my hands out for a while because healing from a minor surgery on my finger. I was feeding 1/3 the normal amount. Yesterday able to do maintenance again- even though there is a ton of mulm buildup (just bought a mini siphon gravel vac, so going to get a lot of that out) I'm pleased to see the nitrates tested at only 5ppm and Samblu looks quite content- he even made a bubble nest for the first time! Maybe I should keep doing the ever-other-day feeding. 

Some of the plants suffered. Spirodela polyrhiza lots of browning leaves, and it was piling up in one corner because I hadn't culled. Only one leaf off the bigger crypt died, a few of _parva_ and two java leaves. _Half_ the windelov was seriously degraded and dying. I pulled all the brown leaves out. There were lots of babies, though- put them in the window tank. What's left looks really healthy; I wonder if those dying leaves were on their way out anyway (plant adjusting to changes I made a while back). Rotalas look better than ever, but bacopa was melting like crazy. I removed all those remnants- a little of it that is salvageable might go into my 38. 

All the other plants look unaffected, I even took a few buce trimmings to try out in my window tank. To my surprise found one tiny sprig of marisela hirsuta is still alive, and even though my anubias look a little peaky, there was a new leaf sprouting. So overall it did fine going lean for 2 weeks. Bacopa had never grown well in here, anyway.

Funny, when I was done I put the feeding ring back in a different corner. Samblu remembers the location, not the object. When I opened the lid later on to give him a moth, he hurried to the old spot and started looking up expectantly.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

For whatever it is worth, I keep my 10 gallon between the 5-10 ppm range with nitrates. 

Recently I did have a bout with lots of plant die off, but that was caused by something toxic in the water. The tank has since fully recovered after using carbon to absorb the toxin and water changes. I even bought new fish who are happy and thriving. I tend to think of crypts as the canary in the coal mine. If there is a problem, they are usually the first to respond to it. 

If the die-off trend continues, try using some carbon for a few days. It won't strip the water completely, but will remove anything that shouldn't be in there.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yeah, I think this tank will do better with low nitrates. In fact I'm wondering if it would do okay without me dosing nitrate at all... as for the die-off, I don't expect it to continue- a month or two ago I changed how I was dosing the ferts and noticed the windelov was growing new leaves that looked way better than the old ones, but I didn't trim the old growth off as it was shifting to new growth so slowly. I think the two weeks of lean times just accelerated that gradual die off, maybe the plant gave up on holding onto those leaves and just ditched them, fast, when it felt itself in a pinch so to speak.

I don't have carbon but I have some poly-filter could use if need be.

No sign of any trumpet snails still, btw. I really do think they are all dead and gone. Unless living under the driftwood perhaps.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

You could try not dosing, but the problem is you won't know if it is working or not until the plants use up whatever reserves they have. I dose based on what my test results are before a water change. If nitrates are lower than 5ppm, I'll dose. I don't go crazy with it as I prefer lean dosing. It is easier to fed the plants more if they need it instead of wasting cash by literally sending ferts down the drain.

I use both of the Tropica ferts. The green one has nitrates, the orange doesn't. Both of them contain micros and other things, so the plants are not being deprived of the other things they need. To dose the 10 gallon is literally a single squirt of either one. The only other thing I keep close tabs on is KH. The 10 gallon chews through KH faster than the 40 for some strange reason. If I find the pH is getting to low, I will give the tank a drop or two of Carbonate. 

As for the trumpet snails, is it possible that you've been doing a mass removal with vacuuming?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I don't think so - about the snails. I don't vacuum very deep, and I don't get any shells in the bucket (a bit of substrate, yes). I think there is something about this tank unsuitable for them, or my betta has eaten them, or they stopped reproducing and slowly died out. None of which I understand, really...


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

If they don't have a food source, they do die off eventually.

I'm not a snail person. The only snails I like are nerites and I gave up on them. My old LFS didn't mineralize their RO water enough, so the snails' shells were always a mess with lots of pits and cracks. My new LFS sells them. They look good, but I have zero interest in buying any right now. I am the clean up crew for both of my tanks which I'm okay with.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*sleeping fish*

Walking past my betta tank late last night, saw a bit of blue among plants in a corner-








I looked around the corner and there was Sam, right in the subwassertang. Motionless.








As if he tucked himself in, to rest. Moment of alarm because I never saw him before with the chin and belly so white, but then he woke up and moved off. I guess he's pale when sleeping?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I got really concerned about the state of my betta tank. Not just mulm anymore- tiny black fuzzy crap started showing up all over the driftwood and rhizomes. I think it was staghorn algae. Ugh. I fear it's really going downhill. I decided to remove Samblu for a day, take all the hardscape out and give it a good scrub with a toothbrush, look for snail carcasses, vacuum the substrate deeply, give it a reset as it were. 

*7/07* I went ahead with it. Deep-cleaned the substrate with gravel vac and did a bit of rescape on the left side, where I removed the driftwood. It was nasty. Clouds and clouds of black mulm came out, the substrate had an ugly grey look, and I found guess what, tons of broken bits of trumpet snail shells. So yeah, they are all dead. Maybe they slowly starved? After all, this tank has not had much algae for a long time (until they grey staghorn showed up recently) and Sam rarely misses a bite I offer him. So what was left for the snails? I never thought to feed them. Good news is my sun thorn nerite showed up again, and it's alive. 








I saved the buces off the driftwood, they're now planted in the substrate. Also the small baby anubias barteri is now on a stone- the original rhizome piece it had grown from rotted away to mush. Fissidens a loss- all brown and black with algae I couldn't save it. Underside of the wood had thick areas of white fungus and strings of black mold, ugh. Probably from the dead snails...

I had to refill the tank twice and siphon out to get it clean enough, and then did two or three fifty percent wc. Ammonia spiked to 2ppm. After the extra wcs still too high. Samblu and the nerite snail spent the day in one of my plastic bins, with a handful of substrate (rinsed well in tank water) the sponge filter running and a fake plant into the bin to give the betta some shelter. He had all the spirodela polyrhiza floaters on top, too. He didn't seem too stressed, ate a small katydid and two leafhoppers I caught outside (the yard plants got lots of fish water that day!)

But at nightfall I tested water parameters again- the tank very lean on nitrates (less than 5ppm) but still high ammonia. The bin had 0.5 ammonia so I decided to leave Samblu in there overnight, where he is getting less poison. Worried a bit because no circulation or heater but it is very warm here at least 74 maybe 75 degrees in the upstairs of our house. And I remind myself that Sam has the bacteria on the ceiling and floor of his temporary digs to help keep ammonia in check. I refrained from feeding him again. He looked fine in the morning. Next day both the tank and the bin had 0.25 ammonia. I kept Sam in the bin and put the nerite back in the tank. Figured if the bacteria colony could deal with the output of the snail, it was done with the mini-cycle. Third day the tank was below 0.25 ammonia and the bin higher at 0.25 so I did a small water change on the tank, redosed the ferts for the plants put the fish back in. He was in his tank like normal for just over a week.

*Today 07/17* I deep-cleaned the second half of substrate. The job went a bit easier this time- I still had to siphon out over 20 gallons of water to get it clean enough, then did two nearly-nintey-percent water changes to remove ammonia- in all refilling the tank three times. Samblu is in the temporary bin again. With a proper sponge filter this time that I squeezed in some of the dirty water- so that he will have the good bacteria to keep the bin parameters relatively steady for the short term I hope. It all seems to have gone smoothly. Afterwards the tank only has 0.5ppm ammonia, and the bin itself 0.25. That's better than last time. So I think Sam might be above to move back into his home tomorrow, or the day after.

The tank looks the same; I didn't really rescape just put plants and harscape back where it was. Tuft of algae on java fern leaf tip is staghorn. It's the same gray fuzzy stuff was on the driftwood I threw away. I don't see any more. I hope my tank will stay in better condition, now. Would like to introduce a few trumpet snails again, but not sure if they will survive.


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## puriance (Feb 19, 2017)

JJ09 said:


> I made a feeding ring for Samblu.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Literally about to go home and do the same thing. I was going to buy one, but I have about 8 inches of tubing sitting on my desk. This makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Beautiful tank I can't believe it's low tech. What ever you are doing, you certainly have it figured out


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thank you!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*I think Sam is going to have a short life*









He has been developing these lumps on his left side. Here's the good side, to compare.








At first it just looked like his scales were ruffled, but now I can definitely make out two bumps:








Also there appears to be a lump behind his pectoral fin or gill on this side as well- you can kind of see here how the gill plate is lifted








and from above, visible is a lump where his fin joins the body, and it looks white behind it.
















I think it is lymphocystis, gah. Or possibly an internal bacterial infection? The only thing I know to do is try tetracycline if it's an infection, keep his water clean and wait to see if it goes away if lymphocystis; if some kind of tumor there is no cure.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I've started giving Samblu NLS pellets once a day, alternating his other flake and betta micropellets for the mornings and live food (little moths and caterpillars, live mosquito larvae) midday too. It's pretty sad but I didn't realize _all this time_ my betta has been slightly underweight. Viewed from the side he looks fine, always has. Viewed from above the head is quite a bit wider than body. I never thought of it. Until saw similar above-view picture on another blog and someone's comment "your slightly skinny bettas" and wondered. Then reading a high-end aquarium magazine which featured beautiful bettas, even the overhead photos were lovely, and I realized yeah, my betta is skinny compared to these. So I'm trying to feed him better, with better food, so it won't dirty the tank- and he is getting filled out now. 

I've also started treating him for what might be bacterial infection. On a round of kanaplex right now- still has great color and appetite- if no improvement I also have tetracycline to try- if that does nothing I will assume it's a tumor or lymphocystis and just wait it out...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Finished his first round of kanaplex two days ago. I can't tell if he's any better or not. It looks as if the lump by pectoral fin is a _bit_ smaller? Lumps on his side are the same, now he's got some cloudy eye too.
















I'm starting a second round of treatment, this time dissolving the meds in tank water before pouring in, and doing small wc before each repeated dose. Last time the surface got a film on it and the floaters started looking peaky. Other plants look great though, rotala has never been better in here...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Samblu finished his second treatment of kanaplex. He is filling out with the extra feedings (same portion amount but three times a day now). He doesn't lie on the bottom resting as much so I guess is feeling better? But the lumps are all still the same- the one behind his fin looks bigger. I am debating what, if anything, to try next.








I changed the background to white again.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

On thur- a day ahead of schedule- Sam's tank got a water change. He was looking poorly. I honestly expect him to die soon- he has been getting listless, sometimes the current pushes him. Lump behind his gill and fin is larger. I prepared the kids for possibility of loosing him.

Well, at least the plants in his tank are healthy- I did clean out more staghorn algae and some leaves that had BBA on them- but when done it didn't look like much on the discard plate. I hope they were just still adjusting from recent move (when I deep-cleaned the substrate). A bit surprised to find high nitrates (maybe because I fed the fish more)- so I didn't dose ferts this week.

The buces look great after removal of those old leaves:








Here they are from another angle (ambient light)- these are mostly 'selena' with 'blue bell' on the far right and 'emerald green' is the rounder one front left.








This one (buce 'isabelle') is probably sprouting a new leaf- but it looks suspiciously like a flower spathe to me








Anubias has a new leaf sprouting








I added a few leaves to the tank- Sam got half a jackfruit and one catappa (india almond) leaf. Placed behind the driftwood.








And I swear next morning there was a difference. Water test shows no noticeable change in pH and the water isn't tinted. But the fish- suddenly he is sprightly and alert again, coming to the glass to greet me, looking for food, not so weak and disinterested. Is it just the recent wc? or did the leaves really make a difference? (I don't think he will heal, but I can tell he feels better).








Only plant really doing poorly are the floaters. Either the frequent water changes during treatment was hard on it (lack of nutrients) or the medicine itself harmed the plant- spirodela polyrhiza bleached out. However it looks like one leaf of every pair is okay, so I think they will all recover. Hesitant to try another med too soon, but I do want to dose with tetracycline and see if that helps poor Sam.








I cleaned out the patch of rotala this week. Half the stems had small, stunted leaves and ratty looking growth; some of them only on the lower half, I bet the upper portion grew better when tank conditions improved. I cut those all down to the substrate and replanted only the nice tops. Looks better already.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*poor sam*

Started tetracycline treatment. Asking advice on a particular betta forum. I don't know if what he has is curable. At least his cloudy eye is improving and he's a bit more alert and active, but the lump under fin is even worse. Like white stuff bulging out now. Looks like lymphocystis? He sleeps either in one lower corner under the heater or behind this chunk of wood and plants-








where I also tucked his almond leaves (I added another one). It's kind of cute, he has a little cave back there under the driftwood ledge.








from this angle you can see how his good side really is smooth-scaled, and the kink in his tail is pretty visible here.


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## lisals (Jun 21, 2017)

Poor lil betta. Hope you can figure out something to help him. Or at least give him a great life and a beautiful tank to live in


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ugh, I just got home from a meeting and in that hour while I was gone the lump on his side and one under the fin got larger and burst open. He swam up so eagerly to greet me and ate his pellet, but it makes me feel like crying to look at him. It looks really painful? I think if he were hurting wouldn't he be lying on the bottom all clamped up... so I have to think there is still small hope.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

He looks worse. Hole in his side, and tho you can't see it well in these pics, the lump under fin also has burst open. He holds the fin a bit stiffly now.








Odd thing is, the two weeks around which he was getting kanaplex treatment, he was rather listless and didn't notice if I was in the room or not- I only got his attention if I actually slid the lid open. Now in spite of _looking_ terrible, he is more alert, right at the front of the tank first thing in the morning, immediately comes up to the glass when I'm nearby, like he used to. So does that mean he's feeling better? maybe the kanaplex was too hard on him. My best guess is still cancer, I'm reluctant to use any more medication... just let him live it out.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*don't look at this misery*

Yesterday he deteriorated rapidly. Open sore on his side larger, gray necrotic-looking tissue. Under the fin it was reddish. He quit eating, was having trouble swimming, struggled to breathe. Hid under the leaves most of the time. It really looked like he was suffering and I have never seen photos of a fish this bad with story of it recovering....








I euthanized him last night with clove oil. Under the anesthetic his eye slumped down.








I took a few last pictures because I have a bad feeling maybe this was TB? I would like if someone can tell me. I noticed once he was in the container that he had become emaciated again. Do the sores look like ulcers or cysts.








I really hope (an awful thing to hope) this was a tumor and not something contagious I might have spread to my other livestock. Very unhappy day.


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## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

I had a betta fish once that suffered a similar condition. It was sad to see him die slowly.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My daughter is already asking if I will get another betta- I don't know. I can't let his tank sit empty though- I put a dozen malaysian trumpet snails in the tank. I'm feeding them one flake every other day. Wonder if they will actually stay alive this time.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*rescape- again*

I find I don't have a lot of motivation to take care of a tank that doesn't have fish in it... This one was two days past its regular maintenance and ferts dosing for the plants. Which is important- I _do _care about my plants. To help myself take more interest in it, I did a bit of rescape today. It seems kind of perverse that now the betta is gone, the plants are thriving again- but that's probably because the frequent wc for sake of the fish were depleting nutrients...

I made it into a kind of 'island' scape. The photo is dim because lights were not on and lots of stuff got kicked into the water column, of course. I will get a better pic when things have settled.








Basically I moved my two pieces of hardscape to be together in the center, wood piece overlapping and hiding most of the fake skull:








Funny surprise I found when I had the piece out of the tank- one java fern rhizome instead of growing across the gap of the skull's nasal hole, went down through it and the new leaf came out the mouth.








It's like the skull creature has a tongue, haha.








So in the tank I moved all the rotala stems to be a row across the background again- I haven't seen them look so healthy since I had some in my old 20L, to be honest. Some have rosy tops now- they are happy about something.








My baby anubias barteri- it has grown quite a bit, but is still very small! Now in a front corner.








Here's a quick overhead shot.








I shifted the crypt further back into the corner, moved a few buces forwards, and replanted the anubias afzelii on the other side, middle ground off the end of the skull. I really like how the afzelii, buce 'selena' and anubias laceolata (behind the afzelii group) echo each other's leaf shapes. The only thing I _don't_ like about the new arrangment is the placement of baby anubias barteri and that other anubia in the back corner- they are too straight in a line, maybe. And all the subwassertang is now on the back side of the driftwood piece, so I can't really see it (until it grows crazy out of control).

The floaters are still looking bad. I scooped them all into a small bucket and picked out with tweezers the worst of them- lots have black or brown spots of decay. I am still hoping it's just because they were so starved of ferts, and will recover.








Snails still look fine in here, btw. In fact, the trumpet snails that I pick out of my window tank seem healthier than those in the other two- they don't have as eroded, whitened shell tips. I wonder if because that tank has less safe-t-sorb in the substrate? Hm. Here they are piled in a corner where I gave them half a cooked pea yesterday. (They don't seem too interested in the flake of fish food I dropped in once in a while).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ok, it's like this- I flipped the switch on the light early, just a brief moment for a photo


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

It's sad losing a betta. Last time I lost one, I did not get another until 3 years after. They seem to always be sick or get sick. 

I like your new Island scape. Looking at your journal makes me want anubias in my tank. Also, my duckweed looks bad too in mu aquarium. It loves really dirty water though! I had some in a pond paludarium and it was nearly flawless. Tons of dirt in that tank.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks. Yeah, I just can't get another one right away... it felt like I was still not over loosing Oliver, and then Sam went so quick. 

I think I'm going to tighten up the scape some- move those anubias afzelii closer to the skull, so there's more open space around it.... If I could get that crypt parva to grow better, I could spread it to the right side as well- but it really just kinda sits there...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I moved those few plants in closer to the 'island', like I was thinking of yesterday. If rotalas keep their health, pretty soon this will look different with a curtain of them across the back.








I am not sure if I like it yet- does it look nice, or is it just a heap of plants?








This is my favorite area of it- except for that large blank area front right. Crypt parva does okay on the other side of the foreground- at least it has not all died- but I don't expect it to multiply soon enough that I could pull plants and spread them out. Better to buy myself another lot of them. Or maybe I should spread the buces around. There's a few of those grown tall enough I could take a cutting... Thinking about it.








Here's the new look of the short end-








and the other- yeah, really blank








I do really love the fingers of windelov fern. Wonder if they will change orientation and stand more upright with the shift in location and light.








I found that the strip of plastic I taped over the LEDs has got burnt smudges from the heat of the lights. I threw that away and taped two new strips of plastic sheeting over, instead. It's the same kind of plastic I'm using on my LED on the main tank. But probably blocks a slightly different amount of light, than the piece I threw away. So have to keep a close eye on the plants and see if they need less, or more of that.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Still no fish... I actually saw a betta I liked last time I was at the pet store, but I was looking very close at him- another double-tail plakat and he had a bend in the tail just like my old Sam- not as severe but it was there- and also the edges of his scales were slightly lifted- like the beginning of dropsy. I did not want to bring home a sick fish... so I left him there.








The tank is still doing good- snails are still thriving. I slacked off on water changes and let it go almost two weeks without fert dosing- until I saw some of the anubias and crypts were looking a bit peaky. Rotalas and buces still look better than ever. Gave it ferts today. Wondering if I should try some other kind of nano fish in here...

Floaters still look awful. I wonder if replacing the plastic over my light strip has made a difference. Might just replace the duckweed with some from the QT or the little pond, start it over in here.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I guess it is a good thing I didn't get a new fish for the this tank, yet. If my paradise fish in QT turns out to be aggressive to the catfishes (in the window tank), I can use this as an emergency home for them... 

I'm kind of baffled how to manage this tank, now. It's the only one without fish, and it's the best-looking at the moment. Today tested at over 40ppm nitrates, but there hasn't been any fish food going in, so... ? why haven't the plants used up all the ferts I dosed last week... snails are still looking well, but they aren't cleaning algae off the glass, probably because they seem to like eating the leaf litter better. Almond leaves are decaying fast into a webbing of nothing. I will have to replenish soon. The other types of leaves last longer, for sure.

So today in this tank I did just 30%wc, and no ferts. I'm wondering if I should leave it alone, do bi-weekly 50%wc and fert dosing? or keep up with the weekly wc, but scale back on the ferts. Not at all sure- things really seem to have changed in here. But: the plants look great! I have more rotala rotundifolia stems than I'd realized, among the rotala indica. I keep staring at the buces, they are so lovely. Can't wait to take more cuttings of them. Only thing appearing sickly is the spirodela polyrhiza floaters. I'm tired of seeing the black, moldy-looking algae marks all over them, even though most of the clusters seem to have at least one nice green leaf. I scooped it all out today and replaced with healthier floaters out of Perry's QT. Which still look nice vivid green, although they've dropped all the root hairs. Will they grow back? or just generate new plantlets. Have to see.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Well my ten-gallon has one fish in it now-








This week it was getting too cold at night; I moved over the little otocinclus. Here he is- at an angle against the wall. His fins are perky, but he's not very active. I don't know if because there's not quite enough algae, or is he lonely... I bumped the temp back up a little and now he moves around more. Put a new catappa leaf in there, too. He's been nibbling over that.








I swear my rotalas haven't looked so healthy since I had the old 20L. And replacing the floaters worked- the new lot of spirodela polyrhiza in here is slowly multiplying, and growing out healthy roots.








But my favorite plant is still the blue buce 'selena'.








I'm trying to spread out the crypt parva, since from a distance and certain angle it looks like a green cover across the substrate- but the one I ordered was smaller quantity than I thought. So I pulled a few that were kind of not-well-rooted on the left of the tank, and replanted them here on the right.








(Even the short rotalas in the background look nice compared to what they were before).








And wisteria is finally regrowing- I thought that one was a goner, again.








Java fern 'tongue' in the skull-








I went back to doing the usual 50%wc and EI ferts once a week- plants all seem better for it.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Well I finally have a few fish in here-*

I drove around to all the pet stores in reasonable distance this week. Looking for another betta, but I can't find one I really like... However I felt disappointed to drive all that way and go home empty-handed..... so kind of on a whim I picked up two more serpaes for my main tank. Right now they are in the tenner. My oto is no longer alone.








Of course they all had bitten fins, those should grow back, but I don't know if they are really healthy... I _know_ I wasn't going to buy fish from chain stores anymore, I probably shouldn't have. One keeps going very pale and then the eyes look red-rimmed.








I'm going to keep them in here a full month, or longer, to be sure... maybe even longer if I still don't find a betta.








I shouldn't name them yet, but already I think of the darker one as Ziggy (its shoulder marking is wavy in the middle)








and the paler, small one- usually the aggressor of the two- Spit. It's a little spitfire.








Nice to see fish movement in the tank again. And my oto seems to appreciate having some company. More active since I introduced the two tetras. Not fleeing from them, just out and about.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

now two weeks with my newer pair of serpae tetras, QT'd in the tenner. They still have healthy, vivid color and the fins are almost entirely grown back








I've added a darker backdrop again- I think it is making the fish calmer. Spit doesn't look quite so pale when the light is on. They are starting to act aggressive over food- Spit tries to drive Ziggy away. Another week or two in here and then if all looks good I'll move them into the main tank.








I also added a bit more leaf litter- catappa (IAL), jackfruit and guava (one of each). Instead of placing them on the substrate I slid each leaf down between the back tank wall and the rotala stems. I'm collecting some oak leaves from my yard to use, too.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I moved the tetras out- see latest post on the 38gal.

And moved my four peppered cories out of the window tank, into here. My poor otocinclus in here has been looking listless and thin. I think it was lonely. Over the past week since I introduced the cories, the oto has plumped up a bit again, looking perky and active once more. I wonder if it remembers the cories as individuals, recognizes them? or is just glad of company.








Oto is hanging out regularly with the cories- nibbles alongside them on algae wafers again, even when they are feeding on shrimp pellets or catfish wafers, the oto is often nearby on a leaf.








It's really hard to get a photo of the cories. They are pretty skittish in here- look content and alert but if I approach closely with camera, they flee and hide. Here's a quick photo from the day I introduced them (lights out).








Them seem a lot happier in here. They are out and about frequently, not seclusive as in the window tank (so I think Perry _was_ harassing them to some degree)- only hide at the camera (someone mentioned on fish forum that the dark camera lens must look to a fish like an open mouth approaching!)








Here's one in the front corner. It's nice to see activity in this tank again- their tails waving about as they seek food on the bottom. It's fun to see them flock out of the skull cave together. The other day I saw them spawning. They are definitely getting more to eat on a regular basis now. I _know_ the tank is too small, and their numbers too few, for long-term success in here, but it's better than where they were and I will have to figure out to get new digs for them, or re-home at some point.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

The smallest of my four cories doesn't look well. He's been a bit less active than the others since the move, yesterday I noticed looked rather listless and frequently going to the surface for air. I thought his barbels looked a bit shorter, too. The fish looks skinny, holds its tail kind of bent and is swimming aimlessly around in the middle of the water column. I don't know what's wrong with it. The other three look fat and happy, alert, nice long whiskers... maybe this one just never overcame the shock of moving?

I tested water- zero ammonia, but nitrates are a bit higher than usual, about 35ppm. I usually don't worry unless they're over 40... but since the fish looks unwell I did a 30% wc midweek. Water is no longer cloudy, but when the light was on I was looking closely for a fish and saw that behind the driftwood the subwassertang and other surfaces are still sprinkled with fert particles (I tried dosing with a new kind of root tab the other day, and too much of it dissolved into the water column. I did a forty percent wc the next morning, to clear it out).

Three of the cories look well, they're very perky, out and about. They must have spawned after the second wc- this morning I found five round eggs on the front glass. If babies hatch I have no room for them to grow up in here! I did not see the smaller cory then- it was hidden so long I feared it had died. This morning I saw it after I dropped in two shrimp pellets, pretty soon three cories came out of hiding to feed, tails wagging about eagerly. The fourth one was soon out as well- but not feeding with the others. Swimming back and forth in the center level of the tank again. I see its barbels aren't eroded at all- it's just holding them close to the underside of head, and a few other fins held close as well, so looks listless and pinched. It's obviously unhappy or sick, but I don't know why... unless I can identify the issue, just going to keep up with extra wc for now.

Sigh.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Plants doing good in here. Rotalas bright in the back corner, which is nice and cheerful since everything outside now bitter cold and barren. Java fern leaves have spores lining their undersides. Wisteria plant doubled in height. The anubias lanceolata is starting to grow off its wood support, and dropped enough older leaves that half the rhizome is bare. I snipped it, to make it sprout new leaves on the bare part.
















The sickly cory died. Looked like it was trying to eat again, but still limped around the tank with odd aimless swimming and clamped fins... Well, the three remaining ones still look robust, and I saw them spawning for a second time. The male quivering while female nosed him making the T-shape. Later I saw a few eggs on the glass, not so many as before. Don't really expect any fry.

Oto continues to look better now with companions. Hangs out with the cories a lot, and nibbles on the same food. It's getting plump again. I had really thought it was wasting away when it was alone, but now I think as long as it has cory friends, will be okay. I know it's not ideal. Unfortunately I don't want to get any more otos.
















My cories are still shy of the camera so no good pictures yet.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*peppered cory fry!*

Have seen spawning several times now, and periodically I see catfish eggs on the glass. Wrote this up yesterday:








Three days ago I found one fry in the tank. I saw something move just above the substrate that wiggled more than a snail shifting- thought is there a pest in there? peered close and startled to see a_ tiny_ peppered cory. It's about the size of one substrate grain.








Closer. This is the best picture I got, and it took a lot of patience.








Here's some more- in the windelov java fern:








Resting just under the buce root hairs:








On a buce leaf:








The adults are still very shy. One was up close, under the shelter of windelov and buce, -look close- the baby fish is to the right of the adult, behind root hair -but the moment I slowly focused the camera,
















momma cory fled to the back (against the brown leaf between rotala stem and base of crypt). I would dearly love to get a photo of the fy next to an adult for scale- right now it's about the size of an adult's pectoral fin- but it's impossible.








~~~ Today:
I don't know how old the baby fish is, since I don't know when it hatched- but it's the third day since I noticed it so that's how I'm counting. I feel slightly anxious every morning now when I look in the tank, until I see it:








Often have to walk away and come back later to look again. So many places it can hide.








The adults were spawning again yesterday. I saw the shimmy and t-formation between two fish. Female in the morning light:








Found that two of my photos were taken from almost exactly the same spot- one with an adult among the plants, second with the cory fry on the right in foreground (under red stem part of the buce 'selena'). I patched them together so you can see size of fry to parent. And taking another look at the picture realized there's an egg in there. I went back to the tank and count five more on the glass in different spots.








I held some in my fingers a few days before seeing the fry, actually. I'd always heard they are tough and can be removed from a spawning mop by hand, but it's something else to handle them - I did so by accident. I had lifted out the sponge filter for a rinse and saw two or three tiny semi-translucent globes on the airline just above the sponge. It wasn't until I plucked them off that realized they were cory eggs. Mother had put them in a perfect spot for oxygenation! I dropped them back in the tank.

I've noticed the baby fish has a dark line from the eye to its nose. It blends in so perfectly with the substrate I usually notice it by seeing a smooth motion or wiggle of the tail fin. Or I see the stripe across its eye.

If I keep getting live fry, will have to figure out how to re-home some of the fish. Already feel a bit nervous about doing the next water change, don't want to accidentally siphon out the baby cory. Will put a netting over the end of the hose and go slower than usual...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Out of the five or six eggs I saw the other day, only two are now visible. I thought- did they already hatch? then some reading informed me: peppered cats often eat their eggs and fry. So this one avoided that fate. I think it's _just_ large enough to be safe. Trying to figure out the age- maybe it is already a week or two old? It's very good at hiding in the windelov thicket:
















I think I will name it Lucky.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*baby fish picture overload*

I can't help it, every day I want to take photos of the cory fry. Here's the best pics from the last three days. From 01/18:
















From 01/19:
















Fry perched in windelov fern with adult nearby:








First time I saw the fry feeding alongside the adults (it's to the right, behind crypt stem):








From yesterday, 01/20. Lucky got a lot bolder, was perching out in the open on the highest crypt leaf:








on top of anubias








I love this picture- it's like the tiny cat wants to be above everything-








This one I think is cool (even though a java root thread intersects it) because can really see the fry's spine.








In a little group of buce 'isabelle' and 'blue bell'








Yesterday was the first time I saw it swimming in the open, and once it went up to the surface for a gulp of air like the adults do sometimes.








It seems to be growing quickly. About the size of a medium trumpet snail, now.








Not all in focus, but I got a picture of the fry on buce 'selena', with Momma nearby.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Catfish fry Lucky.








Here in the same spot, with Momma nosing the substrate alongside.








This pic really shows Lucky's size. Momma is about to run over the fry. It's the little gray blob right in front of her nose- fry is facing forward.








I fed the cories gold pearls, but concerned the fry wasn't getting much. It kept searching back and forth against the tank wall, whereas the food was getting pulled slightly further into the tank by the filter current. Adults rooting around so avidly after the food I worried they would find all of it before Lucky got enough. However, a close look a little later showed me Lucky had a tummy full with the color of the food.








I had a bit more of a worry with the filter, my own mistake again. After rinsing it out the day before yesterday, I'd replaced the fine poly media (its just a little strip) in a different position- just under the sponge but outside the ballast housing. I thought this would reduce the bubbles getting caught under the poly and making a _blub-blub_ noise. It did, but I think it also diverted flow from actually going through the main sponge- it was probably going readily thru the gap between layers instead. Because next day I noticed there was a lot more fine debris in the water column moving around in stronger current than usual, the fry held its tail pinched and sat around listlessly, and the oto was in one spot breathing hard. I took the filter out and put the poly back inside the chamber. Tried to work the air out, but didn't get it all. There's a _blub-blub_ again. Flow is normalized, stuff is obviously getting trapped on the sponge again, and the fishes feel better. Oto perked up immediately, and the fry recovered soon after.

I think it's better for the others, too- since I did the more thorough cleaning and bigger water change. Felix still has rounded ends to his barbels, but I _think_ I see them grown more already. I was trying to get a photo to compare but he shies away from the camera like usual. Momma stared at camera eye a fraction of a second longer before darting under the shelter of windelov driftwood after him. Oto is just visible on the top of skull, there.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Fry are fun. I wish my cories would spawn. I either need to feed them better, or drop the temp more on water changes or something. I've only seen them lay eggs twice, and there are a dozen of them.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*ready for a photo dump?*

My tank had a really good day last maintenance (sat)- I just didn't post these pics until now because I was so tickled to show the baby catfish. 








Things were looking- slightly off, earlier last week. I thought: they lack something. Going leaner with ferts and lighter on wc since travels in dec, probably wasn't a good idea. Midweek I gave a half dose of ferts, and started to worry about one of the cory cat's barbels. Saturday I spent a good three hours on the tank. Cleaned out some melting windelov fronds, some anubias and buce leaves that were attracting algae, some crypt parva root hairs that were going all over the place, dug up by mts (I think). All of a sudden it looks much tidier. I did a very meticulous cleaning and rearranged some plants. Very slowly to avoid harming the fry. Fifty percent wc at the end of it, plus a gentle filter rinse. First off, I cut out the java skull's tongue. It was just starting to obstruct the view.








The ferns themselves look remarkably better today. I clipped out a few fronds that were looking anemic, trimmed one piece and refastened it to the front. Going to clip the rhizome in center too.








Here's the full short end. I don't show up to the surface because I trimmed and replanted lots of the rotalas, so they are all mid-height right now. Can't really see it, but that narrower anubias lanceolata on a small piece of wood, I cut and re-fastened part of that too. It got its rhizome cut two weeks ago, and a new sprout is showing. Trimmed the end that was growing off the wood, and re-tied on the other side. Now it has three pieces on there.








It has a new leaf coming up, center here behind the anubias and buce. One of the main things I did was moving and cleaning up the buces. I trimmed off ugly leaves, divided some, cut back straggly roots, and replanted deeper (hoping they won't get uprooted again). Moved most of them to the sides, 'Selena' on this end- and anubias in the corner-
















Ones with rounder leaves and slightly darker color, lined up now on the other short side (and taller buce 'isabelle' behind). I can't remember what they're called. I don't think it's the same as 'selena'.








They could just have a different growth habit from being in a different part of the tank? This one looked so delicate compared to the other 'selena' I thought it was another variety. But it was growing in deeper shade under the windelov fern for a long time, so maybe that made it narrower in leaf? 








My current favorites, the 'blue belle' and 'isabelle' varieties, are regrouped in front of the skull cave








Photo of the other short side.








Since I moved most of the buces from where they crowded in front of the driftwood piece, it's created a kind of tunnel under the fronds.








I was hoping the cories would still feel sheltered under there and use it as a passage, where I can see them easily. Without having to fight thru thickets of buce foliage and roots like the mess it was before. I did leave a few buces there, moved up snug against the glass.








I've moved most of the leaf litter to sit below the driftwood/windelov overhang. Cory in there.








From above- the main anubias on the driftwood is now in several pieces, too. Its younger scion long enough that got its rhizome clipped, and the main piece has walked completely off the hardscape and is headed towards the skull. I cut its rhizome just where it leaves the wood- but didn't move any pieces. The free piece of anubias is still standing like that, held up by its roots that go all the way down into substrate. Too bad I can't show you that effect, its on the other side.








Last but not least, I still have subwassertang in here. It's healthier than the subwasser in my other tanks. I pick up loose bits of it to move into Perry's domain. You can barely see it here, growing on the ridge backside of driftwood, between the crypt stems and the windelov fronds








I dosed dry ferts, but only potassium and phosphate. Nitrates were high enough I didn't feel the need to add any of that. Micros got dosed the next morning. At the end of it all, my plants (especially the windelov fern) were pearling like crazy. I hadn't seen that effect in quite some time! I don't know how much difference this has made, but I am keeping the sponge filter rinsed weekly, because there's more fish in here now. It makes a bit more surface agitation. I wonder if that helps with oxygen and C02 levels.

PS: I fiddled with the little filter again, made it stop going _blub-blub_. Realized the noise wasn't only annoyed, it was probably reducing filter efficacy, because an air bubble stuck in the ballast layer, meant some of the media wasn't getting flow. I remember this issue from my window tank's box filter.... so the remedy was to open up the filter housing _under_ the water and work out the air pockets, before putting it back together. It's very nice and quiet now, and the fishes look livelier. I think they really feel the difference, and I feel bad for -again!- making an error with filtration. Hope it's all good now.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

vanish said:


> Fry are fun. I wish my cories would spawn. I either need to feed them better, or drop the temp more on water changes or something. I've only seen them lay eggs twice, and there are a dozen of them.


Mine spawn very frequently- at least once a week or so- and I never really planned for that, but there's a few things I've done that I _think_ encouraged them to? Adding leaf litter to the tank. Doing large water changes, with cooler water. Feeding live food. In the summer I gave them mosquito larvae, now they occasionally get gold pearls (substitute for newly-hatched brine shrimp).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Fry pics from 01/23.
















Felix (left) and Momma under windelov edge. I look very closely comparing to a photo from three days ago and yes, I do think his barbels are growing back out. _Slightly_ longer.








From 01/24. Lucky under the rotala stems:








Parent fish under windelov ledge:








In the same frame:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

At what point do you call a young fish 'juvenile' instead of 'fry'? 

My little Lucky is really growing. It seems especially eager to eat the gold pearls; I'm trying to feed those- but a smaller pinch due to having to cull snails (I took over 50 MTS out of the tank last week) once a day. Other feedings alternate between shrimp pellets, hikari loach wafers, betta flake, tropical fish flake, NLS pellet, algae wafers. I'm feeding twice a day regularly (used to often just offer once a day) and sometimes three times a day, if the portions are smaller. So far the fry appears ok with this- as far as I can tell. I'm not crushing the food up- it still seems to feed a lot off leaf surfaces, poking among the windelov fern-








and all the foods except perhaps NLS pellets, soon soften with the adults breaking it up and scattering little bits around.

Here's a few more photos, in sequence from the past few days. Sun 01/28:








Mon 01/29:








Tue 01/30. I notice the gold ring of its eyes more, now.








I still often try to get a clear photo of Lucky next to an adult, to see how its size progresses. It's not as shy of their company, anymore. When an adult swims up to it- seeming oblivious to its presence- the fry sits still until the last moment and then pops up and glides ahead- a little skip motion. Sometimes I don't even see it on the substrate until it skips up ahead of the moving adult, it is so well camouflaged against the background. In fact, all the peppered cories blend in so well you'd look at this tank and often think it's just plants, until something moves. It's like my tank holds a secret.

Lucky near the leaf litter:








Adult moving through behind it- the fry tucked itself under crypt parva leaves.








Fry with Momma nearby-


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*cories still propagating*

Ha, I'm probably boring you with all my baby catfish pictures. 

My cories were especially energetic this morning. Momma going around sticking eggs on the glass, on plants, even on the underside of leaf litter. There's one egg on the front glass that is still there after three days. I peek at it with the loop now and then, but won't be surprised if someone eats it before it hatches. Here she's carrying one egg in the fins under her belly.








The fry is getting even bolder at staying out in open areas to feed among the adults. From a short distance away watching the tank, I can see it easily now instead of having to peer close and look for its small wiggling motions. Here overhead view of it in the windelov fronds.








You can really tell how much it's grown if compare this picture to earlier ones where it was also in windelov.








Or these photos I just took, to some from 12 days ago when it was also perched on biggest anubias leaves.








Grow, Lucky, grow!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*alarmed*

I think my fish have a parasite- gill flukes? They have been swimming with sudden jerks. I thought it was just spawning excitement, but yesterday I thought I saw the fry suddenly dart up from the bottom when no other fish was near to displace it, and it looked pale. Just now I definitely saw it flashing, rolling in quick jerks, and the other fish are swimming with sudden starts, too. The oto is breathing fast. Felix' barbels no longer have bulbous tips and are definitely growing out, but this fish didn't come out to eat in the evening. Maybe they are sick. I don't see spots on the fins. Or perhaps something in the substrate just irritates their skin? I do have leaf litter added from the yard- no pesticides, and I boiled the leaves 10-20 minutes in tapwater, then did a twenty four hour soak in dechlorinated water with carbon, with several rinses before adding to the tank. I hoped that was sufficient to kill off anything harmful, but always a little doubt: did I introduce something to the tank?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I saw the fry's eye winking the other day for the first time, which was cool. But also, the pupil looks a very small pinpoint- like the light is too bright for it? It looks like it feels shocked, to me








He seemed pale yesterday after the water change, and later in the day had pinched tail fin. Laying around very still for long periods of time, letting current push him.








I thought perhaps something disturbed from the substrate was bothering them, so waited a day to do anything. Today the adults look better but the oto is still breathing fast and the fry very listless. I dosed the tank with Prazipro.

I also made a mistake- I fasted the tank as usual on wc day. It wasn't until evening I realized I had barely seen the fry all day, and it had never yet gone without two or three good meals a day (since I started feeding extra on purpose)- probably I weakened it by skipping the food. I dropped some in right away and eventually it came out to eat, but wasn't moving as energetically as usual. I could kick myself.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*better*

Last night I peeked in the dim tank, a few hours after dosing the medication. Fry much more active- and it was twitching a lot less frequently. This morning I got a better look at it. Acting normal again- I haven't seen it flash once today, and it has good color. Still a bit pinched, though. Adults look great. I don't see them twitching, and guess what they are spawning again. I suppose they were a bit pale before, too- because today I notice their color looks much better. So I hope they all do good by prazi.








I am not sure how my oto is doing. It seems to sit listlessly breathing hard sometimes - hopefully the meds will hope if it has parasite too I guess- and other times dashes around the tank as if frantic, from spot to spot can't sit still. Yet it looks plump and the fins are usually perky.
















I thought it would feed off the micro organisms on leaf litter, but I can't tell if it does. Or cleaned it off quickly and needs more?








It usually comes to substrate when the cories are feeding, now. Even when it is food I don't think appropriate for an oto. Today it was moving around as if feeding when I gave the cories betta flake, and the other day did this with hikari loach wafers. I hope it's not going to get sick from eating the wrong kind of food. If it's actually eating it.








How about some happy plant stuff? Largest anubias has new leaf emerging- pointing at that pale java leaf I'm probably going to cut out. (Why is my java fern in here slightly unhappy when all the other plants look really good? I think it's going thru another adjustment period)








Leaf on medium-sized anubias congensis is all the way open now, and there's another new leaf on plant to the right.








You have to look very careful to see it, but the anubias lanceolata I cut, the bare rhizome piece is definitely growing new foliage out now. Tiny sprout of green. And rotalas I trimmed have young leaves coming in with lovely reddish stem color.








The brightness of rotalas in a corner still makes me feel cheerful.








Full tank shot, hadn't done one in a little while. (Reflections in side walls make tank look longer than it really is). Thinking of taking the trouble to get full overheads again soon.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Looks like my little Lucky is going to be okay. No more flashing, and it's active again. So active in fact, I had a hard time getting a photo. I notice the spotting pattern looks very much like the adults' now, and I can see a faint blue/green sheen on its side behind the operculum. I can see its pelvic fins clearly, they are small and finely pointed. It's a male. Not as skittish of the adults, it will just move slightly sideways or stay in place when they come up to it now (and they don't run it over anymore but just go close by). 

It's more shy of _me_, though. Darts away from camera approach. Is it learning that from the adults, or just more aware?


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

I'm enjoying the photos for sure


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thank you!


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## lisals (Jun 21, 2017)

Oh my gosh... cory fry are just the cutest and yay for little Lucky pulling through


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I have realized a mistake. I _thought_ my tank was high in nitrates the past few weeks, from feeding more frequently to make sure the fry is growing well. My nitrate test was reading 40+ ppm end of week, so I was doing large water changes and dosing very lean on the ferts. Noticed yesterday the java ferns, new leaves on buces and windelov are starting to look pale and yellow, in my tank. Scratched my head. Decided to toss the nitrate test bottles- they're not actually expired but have been opened a long time and are nearly empty. I thought maybe the stuff left in bottom of bottle was diff concentration- even though I _think_ I shake it up hard enough each time. Opened a new bottle, did a new test this morning. Nitrates are barely 20ppm. Maint day is tomorrow. Definitely I am dosing full ferts this week. I think my test kit was off!

And here I'd been thinking I did wrong to slightly overfeed the tank, that if more fry hatch out, I ought to put them in the mesh breeder box and feed in small area I can clean up. Two eggs have been left alone on the glass nearly a week now, I think because the adults are so pigged on the extra food they don't care to make the effort to scrape the eggs off. Yesterday I'd dropped in three hikari wafers instead of two in the morning, and the adults were sitting around propped up on their pelvic fins, looking a bit fat. Momma had herself positioned almost vertically in the windelov fern, and I swear she rolled her eyes at me when I peered in. They looked like my kuhlis do, when uncomfortably full after gorging on sinking loach wafers.

_So_- I'm breathing a little sigh of relief, if it wasn't my tank getting polluted after all. And I don't want more fry, even though it's exciting to watch Lucy grow up. More than five six cories in here will be too crowded. I hope soon I can cut back on the feeding, if the cories aren't so well-fed maybe they won't spawn as often.

How big does the fry need to get, before I can reduce to twice or once a day feeding, and less nutrient-dense food? (Right now I make sure it gets Hikari loach wafers and Gold Pearls -brine shrimp substitute- every day, and alternate other foods for the third feeding). Am I overdoing it? I read so much about people who raise cories on purpose, how important it is they have good nutrition and grow well, so they aren't stunted or unhealthy when mature. I don't want the fry to grow poorly if I just left it to eat the regular adults' fare and get what it could find in the tank. Sometimes it seems to take it a long time, working over the substrate, to find the food because it's such a little fish. Expending too much energy to find the food, maybe....


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*fry update*

I'm not sure how my fry Lucky is doing. A few days ago I did the weekly water change, and the little fish looked distressed afterwards. In fact, they all did. A day before the dose of prazipro was done, everyone looked better especially the oto wasn't breathing hard anymore. But I saw a few of the adult cories flash once again, so just to be sure I did a second dose of prazi after the water change. I also dosed the usual ferts. Came to look in the tank half an hour later, and the fish all looked poorly. Momma was lying on her side under some buces panting,








Leo so lethargic he didn't even move away when I got close with the camera-








you can see from this side view his tail was a bit pinched too.








I'd never really seen them sit so still. The fry looked worst of all, quite pinched:








And I don't know what's up with its eyes. It seems to have a white mark through the bottom of the eye- is this normal?








I was alarmed when a little later I put in a tiny bit of food to see their reaction. Nobody really moved. The only thing I could think was- did I accidentally put a drop too many of Prime? or did the ferts and medication interact and reduce oxygen content? I did a partial water change.

The fry perked up a little bit, but still acted weak and let itself drift into corners. At which point I got a closer look at it, and the tail fin looks a bit ragged. Sigh.








A day later and the adult fishes act totally normal. They're spawning again. Momma stuck a bunch of eggs under the heater this time.








Fry seems a bit better. It's definitely _grown_- the belly no longer looks transparent but has white solid color like the adults' now.








It seems to increase noticeably in size every day- these pics on leaf litter a few days apart:
















And here in the windelov fern:








on anubias:
















But I'm still a bit worried about it. This morning the tail looked pinched again, and even though it was going after the food I sprinkled in, it seemed to have trouble swimming. Wriggling around in the plants and sometimes tumbling as if it couldn't swim straight. Because the tail fin is clamped? did it somehow get neurological damage? I don't know if I'm doing right to feed the tank a bit extra, maybe the water is not kept clean enough or it isn't getting the right density of nutrition.

If another one hatches out, I think I will either: feed the tank normal and let it take the chances (of starving). Or put the fry in mesh breeder box or separately in a tote to raise it where I can feed extra just for the baby fish.... This one, I don't know how it will turn out.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*updates from February*

*from 02/18*-
Estimated my fry Lucky to be about a month and a half old at this point. Starting to look like a proper little catfish! After the week's water change (removing the last of prazipro medication) he was looking a lot more perky, although still pale sometimes. 








Looked back at previous photos and seems he's always had that white line/marking under the eye. I wonder if it will disappear into the pattern in time?
















Hides from me a lot now. Under the buces:








Not a fish pic: one of my buce 'blue belle' has a new leaf sprouting and I admire its fresh, paler green and ruffled edges.









*02/20*-
I was looking closely at a cory egg on the glass, and took the opportunity for a closeup photo of my otocinclus, on wisteria leaf.









*02/23*-
Cut back to feeding the cories only twice a day. I feel like the tank is getting too heavy a bioload, the filter can't keep up with it- I have to vacuum the substrate regularly and I just lightly rinsed the sponge filter midweek as well, and still there is fine debris in the water column. Maybe cutting back on feeding will help (or fewer fish would)

I think Lucky is okay with it (less food) because the young fish is bigger than I thought! I eyeballed a buce leaf against the glass that was the same length as the little catfish, and then used a ruler. He's one inch long now.








Not yet socializing with the adults, but joins them at feeding time and doesn't let himself get pushed aside anymore.








He still occasionally looks pale and I still don't know what's up with the white speck under the eyes.









*02/25*-
I doubled up my filtration. Added a second sponge- on the same airline, so it's not really more flow (further disruption of the surface I think could lower C02 levels for the plants). I used a splitter and put a valve on one line, to adjust the amount of air going to each small filter.








I don't really like the look of two rows of bubbles going in the background, but oh well. (One of the uplift tubes is white because I boiled it to sterilize after use in QT tank once).








The water column is a lot clearer now, and the plants are doing better too, especially since I went back to my regular fert schedule (note to self: don't change things!!) Java ferns had been getting very pale, especially later in the day. Now they seem to have recovered, without going through much leaf drop.








That new leaf on the 'blue belle' in background is full size now-








Water wisteria stem grew a lot taller. Looks better than ever. It's so bright, feels out of place but I don't know where else to put it...








Funny thing, if you look at the base, its stem isn't actually in the substrate. Some of the lower end decayed but as long as the roots continue to hold it down, I don't care.









*02/28*-
Lucky on the windelov fern








perched above the adults


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*updates from March*

*03/08-* 
This is the last photo of my last otocinclus. I took him to a new home.









*03/13-*
Lucky looks like a proper young catfish now









Near the mother









several days later- I swear the fish grows every time he sleeps!









in the Windelov

















on anubias









seen from above









*03/14-*
I moved my Malaya shrimps in here, from the main tank.









Caught one after the others and couldn't acclimate him to this tank right away, so I propped the net just under rim of lid and put a piece of lexan over it to prevent jumping out, while waiting.









Floating in the bag








They all hid for a day.

*03/16*- 
I saw something move on substrate that wasn't the tiny heaving of trumpet snails. It was the tiny wriggle of a fry. So very small- a face with a tadpole tail- it must have just hatched.









With the loop I could see its tiny mouth move, its pectoral fins waving. But I haven't seen it since. I bet an adult fish or shrimp ate it...









*03/16-*
I found another Malaya shrimp in the main tank, and moved it. I'd forgotten I had four.









One of them got bold enough to crawl out onto the filter

















and under shelter of buces









*03/18-* 
Malaya shrimps as newcomers in here must have been alarmed by the boisterous activity of the cories (especially when spawning). I don't see the shrimps much.









it was several days before they started to come out a bit more into the open, their orange bold against the greenery.









I managed to get a few closeups of this one walking across the substrate near glass









And near the little crypt parva


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

I'm not cnvinced your water wisteria is in fact water wisteria. It resembles the emmersed form, but it should have transitioned by now. The submerged form has very different looking leaves, like a more intense windelov java fern.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

vanish said:


> I'm not cnvinced your water wisteria is in fact water wisteria. It resembles the emmersed form, but it should have transitioned by now. The submerged form has very different looking leaves, like a more intense windelov java fern.


I'd be curious to know what it actually is, then. One of those plants I got from petsmart. Maybe it was mislabeled? It had a more toothy appearance when I first got it (three years ago) and then gradually transitioned to having smoother leaf margins:








growth since:
















Then I moved it and it melted and the leaves grew back like this:
























I don't know why it changed so much. I always thought it had the simpler leaves due to the low light conditions? And its just a single stem, never grew crazy like the watersprite I used to have. Doesn't make fiddleheads when the new foliage emerges, either. Maybe it's some other kind of hygro?


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Your original plant looks like the water wisteria I know. Hmm.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*still catching up here-*

*from 03/22-*
Not such a marvel anymore, looking into the tank and seeing the youngest catfish- as you can tell, because I'm no longer obsessed with taking daily pictures of Lucky









He's following the adults around more, now- not just at feeding times









I always feel like I'm finally doing something right by my plants, when I see them pearling after a ferts dose-









effect in my tank is usually subtle, but its there









Here's a recent short side view









other end-









full tank shot-









*from 03/25-* 
Foolish: I moved some plants in here, on a day that wasn't water change. Just a few loose crypt parva back into place-









moved this tiny crypt willisii over to front center-









tied a few errant buce onto a stone








and wriggled them back down into substrate. I forgot I ought to do this only when siphoning out some of the mess. It didn't seem to kick up much mulm, but the cories looked distressed and were flashing. I did a small water change the next day and reminded myself to be more careful next time.

*from 03/26-*
amused how rotala rotundifolia twined itself up the wisteria(?) stem









little trumpet snail above some buce









the cluster of buce isabelle in front of skull cave always gets shifted around by cories rooting after food. I've started tying down onto stones the ones that end up floating.









more new buce leaves unfurling!









buces on one side are slowly getting grown over by a small anubias barteri that is creeping out of the back corner









center here can just see the new leaves sprouting where I cut the anubias lanceolata rhizome









buce blue bell on the rock in center is growing taller than I expected!









*from 03/31-*
I got this lovely anubias lanceolata in a plant swap, it's quite a bit larger than my others. I thought by the red stem it was another anubias afzelii? but he tells me they are maybe the same plant, with various names. Well, I like it.









It's replacing the crypt lutea that was back there. I was beginning to dislike its appearance, how the foliage spread sideways and tangled into the rotalas, so happy to swap it.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*nearly caught up now*

*from 04/14-*
There's a gap in the front row of buce. I took out the largest, the 'emerald green'- it didn't really fit in the space well anymore- and moved one of the narrow-leaved blue ones into its place. Unfortunately I once again forgot to run a tiny siphon while pulling the plant. I didn't see a _lot_ of mulm kicked into the water, but the next day noticed my young cory Lucky has shortened barbels and a bit of cloudy eye. Kicking myself for that. (The barbels on Felix are full length with nice slender points again, so now I have a hard time telling the two grown males apart!) Done a water change with some thorough (slow and careful) gravel vac use.

You can also see I'm missing the company of my oto- large anubias leaves are collecting brown algae once more. However I just added two small bumblebee nerites, now the band of algae around bottom glass is completely cleaned off. They're busy!









New bucephalandra- 'brownie ghost' on a rock in front of the skull cave.









Buce 'green' on another rock- most of them already have new leaves!









From above. Anubias congensis is kinda taking over the space.









More, thicker buce 'green' on a rock on the other side.









Easier to see from above angle-









In the back center there, just in front of the rotalas, is the java fern I took from Perry's tank.









This 'blue belle' buce on the side is grown so thick and tall.









Crypt parva in the front is finally staying put.









Short end one side-









and the other









full tank shot- but I missed an end









from above angle- my usual viewpoint


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## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

Tank looks great. What are you using to attach the buces to the rocks? Looks like a clear rubber band...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

sdwindansea said:


> Tank looks great. What are you using to attach the buces to the rocks? Looks like a clear rubber band...


Thanks. Yes, tiny clear rubber bands. Except they don't stay clear long, after being in the water they turn white. I'd rather use black but I ran out.


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## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

Thanks @JJ09. How long do they last in the water before cracking/breaking/disintegrating? In many cases seems way easier than the fishing line I've been using.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Hm, depends. Seems some of them break after just a few weeks if I've over-stretched them. The black ones last longer- some are in there literally for months. I think the clear kind I bought (diff brand) break more easy. I've already had to re-tie some of my buces down that came off. But usually they stay on long enough for the plant to grab hold.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Last month I did a local plant swap- the details are in my main thread- and found the larger bits of duckweed I picked out from the mix of floaters, were slightly larger than my spirodela polyrhiza. The leaves look rounder, too. I discarded all the tiny common duckweed, but kept the larger ones and put them in this tank. Here new among the old:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*sooo- I got a new betta*

*on 4/19-* a halfmoon plakat from the local chain pet store








blue with hints of violet, and the red in his fins is a pinkish-orange hue








I've named him Ruby








He has a few paler scales on his flanks, and a notch out of both the caudal and anal fins- I hope that's genetics and not injury. Also hope the dark edge on his tail isn't sign of ammonia burn or fin rot- but I will keep careful check on his water quality and he does have some almond leaf in there. The QT is temporary of course, while I find a home for the peppered cories that are in the tenner (or move them into my new tank after it's cycled).

What a spunky personality already. Not shy at all. He moves around lively and graceful, interested in everything in the tank- did nip at ramshorns and the apple snail, but not persistently. I tried to get more pictures but he startled away from the camera in a quick, fluid dash. It looks like his pelvic fins have double tips- or are split. It's very distinctive when he flares at his reflection in the glass.

Speaking of that, I swear he saw his reflection in the glass of the heater. Several times I saw him underneath it, stop suddenly, roll his eyes upwards and then slowly tilt himself so he was entirely perpendicular, eyeing the heater glass the whole time and spreading his fins in jerks of display. (The heater body in the tenner is black, so that won't be an issue once he moves over). It sure is funny to see. If he got himself hurt by brushing against the heater while it was on, he probably thought the fish-reflection bit him.

*from 4/24-*
The bare bottom in QT poses minor issues for my new betta. He is preoccupied with displaying at himself all over the bottom of the tank. Really seems convinced there's another fish lurking under all the leaves and drifting subwassertang, ha. He'll turn himself broadside to the bottom glass, spread his gills, fan his tail with hefty strokes. It's beautiful to watch but I hope not too stressful. I put a paler color background on the tank after a few days, because with a black backdrop he was flaring to himself on the back wall, too.








I saw a bit of white fuzz on the upper edge of his caudal peduncle, thought it might be beginnings of fungal infection. As initial measure I started doing daily small water changes- two or three gallons- yesterday the white smudge was definitely smaller and today I can barely see it. I figured out quickly that with the bare bottom tank it's easier to clean without an actual siphon, just using the hose piece. I fitted a bit of plastic mesh over the end with a rubber band, so it only picks up fine particles of waste, not the scattered gravel and plant bits. Good practice for my future tank maintenance (new 45 is going to be bare-bottom under leaf litter).









*today-* 
Swapping him and the cories between tanks (earlier in the week) was quite a day. It was easy to catch Ruby- as soon as I open the tank lid he approaches curious and I just gently scoop him up in the cup. He stayed in that cup for several hours- with a cloth draped over to keep him calm- while I tried to collect the peppered cories out of the tenner. Set the trap with their favorite food. The youngest, Lucky, went in first. He looked really stressed to be moved out- breathing hard and pale. It took a while but few hours later Momma and one of the males went into the reset trap. But the last one would not go in. With fewer cories rummaging around and food smells about, the malaya shrimps came out and started crawling around. I finally couldn't wait longer so removed all the hardscape items and plants-tied-to-rocks, caught the cory with a plastic box. While the stuff was out, I did a large water change and gravel-vacc'd the areas usually under the driftwood and skull- some dark mulm but not as bad as I've seen before. Very low nitrates after, but I feared the tank had ammonia from that disturbance- because Ruby now has cloudy eye and I think I see faint hint of stress stripe.








I've been doing partial wc daily in hopes it will clear up... today tested again there's 0 ammonia and nitrates are 10ppm but his eye only looks slightly better. I wonder if stress is making him prone to illness- he was constantly flashing up and down one end of the tank when I first put him in. Not on the back wall- that's why I have it white background now- but on the short ends.








I was trying different camera settings to see which would work best with the white backdrop, and every one caught Ruby in this pose:
























I tried putting blinkers on the tank- dimming the sides- it helped a little. Or he is gradually getting used to the new space- he's a bit calmer yesterday and today- not flaring as much but still going up and down, back and forth one wall, almost all day. Especially when the light is on.








I hope he calms down soon. Good news is he doesn't bother the snails at all. (I saw one crawling on the feeding ring, that was funny).








He isn't as food-motivated as any other betta I've had- there's no problem if I sprinkle in a few crushed flakes that some will be left over for the malaya shrimps. Who only come out at night, now. I don't think Ruby would bother them either, but they seem apprehensive of his incessant activity- hiding well during the day now I have to look in close after dark to see them.


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## Fisherking (Feb 27, 2012)

JJ09,

I read this entire thread! I like your eye for detail as your tank progressed and enjoyed all the action in the lives of your Bettas and Lucky the Cory fry. Watching the skull sink into the plants until it was mostly a mysterious set of teeth was especially cool.

What's next? Did Ruby go for the shrimp yet? I hope you keep the journal going, and thanks for it.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks, @Fisherking. 








Well, here's a bit of an update: I took the entire backdrop off the tenner. Light seems a bit softer when its not bouncing off the white panel. Ruby is starting to relax. His eye finally looks better- the smudge of cloudiness in this recent photo has gone away now. 








Just doesn't seem to have a lot of personality. He's calmed down- not as frantic about mock-attacking his reflection anymore- but he still spends a lot of time "glass surfing" and eyeing his supposed opponent. I've tried changing the lighting around the tank, putting dark or light panels against the sides- it doesn't seem to make a difference. He mostly only does it when the tank light is on, 6 hours each day. It's more enjoyable to watch the tank morning or late evening with room light on, when Ruby is scouting around the plants and appears curious about stuff in his environment, rather than himself in the glass...

I emptied the tank a week ago to shift it over just a few inches- couldn't lift off the stand otherwise- because of fitting a new set of small bookshelves in the room. It was funny to see the malaya shrimps scuttling around in the last half inch of water as I moved the tank (Ruby waited in a five-gallon bucket with half his tank water, the large decor pieces with plants on them, and his filter running). 

Still have all four malaya shrimps. They are usually hiding in the plants, but I do see them creep out to pick up food that Ruby misses. He misses a lot. He doesn't seem to ever_ see_ me, or at least doesn't pay attention to my presence like Pinkie, Oliver and Sam did. He doesn't realize he's getting fed until the item actually drops in front of his face, and then he snaps quick at it like a wild thing. Really the only thing going for him, is I think he's very pretty. But it doesn't seem like a good reason to keep a fish- I don't want one that's just ornamental. My paradise fish is far more engaging.

So- I've been finding myself gradually loosing interest in this tank. Never thought it would happen. I decided to experiment on it. Instead of dosing out the individual plant nutrients in powders and micro mix, I'm using Thrive. I actually bought a bottle of it months ago, but hadn't tried it yet, because I was afraid a change would mess things up. That happens so often for me. But for the last two weeks now I've been only dosing Thrive in this tank. Guess what- it's so _easy_. And the plants look fine, if anything they seem better. Java ferns and windelov are greener, rotala has larger, more uniformly shaped leaves, duckweed multiplied so quickly it was piling up around the flow of the sponge filter. I had to scoop out a few more handfuls than usual. I'm continuing the experiment. If it goes well long-term, I might switch to using Thrive on my other tank, as well.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My tenner has shown some improvement, everything is glowing with health in here. Well, the plants are. I'm definitely continuing to use Thrive. I know it's cheaper to dose the dry ferts, but this is *so* much easier, and seems to provide something my measurements lacked. Awkward side view (there's now a shelf up against the tank's short end).








Skull cave has sprouted a java fern tongue again.








Buces are a gorgeous blue again, with that little sparkle, and lots of new leaf unfurling.








Really happy with crypt becketti in here so far.








And my betta Ruby has mellowed out. He doesn't chase his reflection as much, he seems to notice when I approach the tank, and if he sees he's getting fed or tastes something extra-yummy, he pedals his pectoral fins double-speed, it's cute.








I like the spangles of lighter blue scales across his back.








But- he seems to suffer very quickly from cloudy eye if I'm just one day late on tank maintenance. And I wonder if he has a problem with his mouth? The crease between the lips and the face, it always looks a bit inflamed. I never see him stretch his mouth out, and sometimes he seems to have trouble grabbing his micro betta bites. I don't know if he has some deformity, injury or infection there?








Whatever he misses, the shrimps grab. He shares the tank with _nine_ shrimp now- the four malayas plus five amanos from the dismantled 38.








I don't think it's too many- in fact maybe the plants are happier with lots of little shrimp poops fertilizer. But those bigger amanos are bold! Once the betta missed a bite of flake and followed it down to the substrate level- where a large amano jumped *at* him (and hogged the flake). I don't know if it nipped with its little pincer hands or not, but poor Ruby darted away to the top level of the tank.








My malayas are bolder now, too, in the company of the amanos. I'm surprised to see that my older amanos have grown larger than the malayas. Who come out readily now when food is given, not hiding in the plants until dark. I don't know if I'll keep these shrimps in here... maybe when the 20H with tetras has stabilized, I'll transfer them back. I don't want Ruby stressed about the shrimps, and maybe retaliating. He seems chill now, but might suddenly go on a shrimp rampage. I plugged my stocking list into AqAdvisor and while the numbers are fine, I got screaming red warnings about the shrimps! and the nerite snails! being poor choices to live with a betta. I'll probably move them back soon. I like my shrimps... I'd hate for them to all get eaten (which they would, living with angels or paradise fish!) 

Tanks in choice of fish rule out shrimps (sigh)


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

A few weeks ago I moved the amano shrimps back into the 20H with the serpae tetras (but this one in the pic is a malaya that wandered into the net I baited).








I was finally able to take rubber bands off all the stones anchoring buces- here's a little one behind crypt becketti.








Buces in the front row:
















My favorite corner of the tank, full of buces-








skull java fern tongue- it keeps growing back!








full tank shot-








Ruby








You know, I think he's doing better. A few weeks ago I started feeding him a half-dozen brine shrimp or mysis shrimp, if there was leftover after the angelfish had their frozen food. Ruby's sore mouth seems to have healed up- it doesn't look reddish anymore and he misses his food less often. Remembering how poorly my prior bettas lasted on strict rations- I have fed Ruby generously- he gets five to eight mini pellets in the morning, a good pinch of flake food in the evening. Every other evening he gets some of the frozen food, and once or twice a week live mosquito larvae. He's kept his full shape- from top view nicely rounded, no sunken in area behind the head. I wonder if my other bettas were unwell because I was overly careful not to overfeed them and underfed...


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## jfish043 (Jan 13, 2017)

Nice!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*I decided to take pictures of plants today*

short end w/buces and crypt becketti








opposite end, awkward angle because of the bookshelf next to it








I'm starting to be pleased with the look of the rotalas, although still few








and pleasantly surprised the wisteria didn't die back last time I moved it








low angle picture of the java fern windelov








buce thicket is growing- thinking of trimming the tallest ones and taking cuttings for the 45








full tank shot- I've moved the light strip back, the rotalas are more brightly lit now- gives the tank a different look


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*goner*

yesterday I saw one of my malaya shrimp lying on its side, and looking very red. Legs twitching every now and then








later in the day it got upright again, but not moving much. It was in the same spot all day. End of the day I nudged it a bit and it didn't dart away but just crawled slowly. I removed it from the tank.








I was able to see the other three malayas, and they look normal








I've had them two years, so not surprised- it's natural end of their lifespan. I guess I should expect the others to go soon, too.
~
Looking back on prior photos this morning, I notice some plants in my tank _aren't_ doing so great, pretty much since I took the cories out. Rotalas are poorly, windelov and java ferns look pale. I am not sure if they're missing the extra nutrients from the higher fish load- or if I ought to back to dosing dry ferts...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I took most of the rotala rotundifolia out of this corner, and planted more stems of wisteria. The one on right (center of pic) is the older stem, can see the new plant was already transitioning to emersed growth in the pet store tank- its leaves top left are also smooth-edged. Well, they have tiny teeth on the margins if you look close, but not deeply notched.








Here it is from the short end.








I saw another beautiful betta at the store when I was there getting plants. I look every time, and one had colors and form in a gorgeous combination. A metallic silver-blue-gray with lavender finnage- one of those giant bettas the chain store calls a 'king'- its nose and tail nearly touched each side of the cup. I felt bad to leave him there, I thought of bringing him home, setting up my 10g QT in the basement for him- and I'd call him Lav.

But no, I have Ruby. And I'm starting to like him, now that he doesn't go crazy after his reflection all the time. He doesn't bother my snails- these are the nicest-looking horned nerites I've ever kept.
















He's such a good betta








doesn't bother any shrimps, either. I should appreciate what I've got. That lavender king might well have enjoyed tearing shrimps apart. The 'king' was so pretty (my seven-year-old would have _loved_ his pastel colors) I'm sure someone else will take him home soon. And I am trying to keep fewer tanks, not more!








Side note: one more of my malaya shrimps is looking pinkish today. I'm keeping an eye on it, tweezers sitting by the tank- in case it needs a lift out to the compost pile soon...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I bought a larger filter for my betta tank. This gray one is the Hydro I- the older sponge filter I was using is just behind it- you can see the difference in size! and they're both rated for a ten gallon tank. I think the smaller sponge I had just wasn't doing the job








but I felt it was a _bit_ large for the tank. I thought it was the smallest size of Hydro sponges, then found out there's a mini size too. Looking at replacement sponges online- they all fit onto the same housing piece- I found the mini sponge also works for a prefilter. Which I have- I used it before on the intake in my 38gal. So I pulled out that old prefilter sponge- it's been cleaned- and yes, it fit.








Looks much tidier and is still double or triple the size of the prior sponge- at first I had it sitting on top of the new sponge- can see it a bit in this angle pic-








and then I just set it underneath- will leave it in for a few weeks, let the bacteria transfer. Or just leave it in the background premanently, can always pull it out later to have a seeded sponge ready for a small QT bin if I need it








full tank shot with the new sponge (behind windelov fern driftwood, on left)








Shrimps have suddenly become more active- I'd noticed they were lethargic in the past month, but thought they were just getting old. Maybe they were feeling lack of flow and oxygen.








To my surprise the subwassertang in here is suddenly flourishing- it grew








But java ferns don't look so great. I suppose whatever is better in my tank now for the rotalas- I've been cutting and replanting the nicest stems, gradually cutting and removing the ones doing poorly- and great for my buces- they positively glow- isn't as good conditions for my java ferns. I removed them all from the skull, then took cuttings of my tallest buce 'isabella' and 'blue belle' and tied them in place








back in the tank








now the buce corner is all one level again- when some of them grow taller again I'll take cuttings for the 45 (that's where the java ferns moved to)








Not surprisingly, my windelov ferns are looking pale, also some of the anubias. But I like so much seeing the buces and rotalas healthier again, I won't mind if I have to move out other plants that are outcompeted in these conditions- or whatever the cause is. I guess it's the different ferts I use now. More nitrogen, maybe not as much iron?








my horned nerite snails are showing wear on their shells, but they're still the first horned nerites I've had, that grew and kept nice spikes








Incidentally, I hardly see limpets in here at all now. I suppose since I moved out the cories, there's not as much food leftovers for inverts. I rarely see a trumpet snail either, although I know there's still a few around.


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## Olivesocrates (Feb 10, 2018)

I've loved seeing the evolution of this tank and reading your authentic entries voicing your concerns, questions, possible solutions.. Truly, it's been a fantastically enjoyable read (I just spent a good chunk of my evening starting from Page 1 lol). I'm glad I found it and will be an active watcher to see how it further transforms over time! 🙂


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## markalot (Apr 8, 2007)

I made it to page 2, reading everything. Jumped to the end to make sure this was still going. Saying hi, then back to page 2.  Best journal on here hands down, excellent work, loving every second. Thanks so much for taking the time to document all of this.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Hey, thanks guys. I appreciate the compliments! I just took some more photos this past week, due for another update very soon. It's always going through a few changes... . . .


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Here's Ruby- I looked back on early photos when I first got him- five months ago!- and notice the pale blue scales across his back are increasing in number.








His tank had a few changes recently. I pulled off the oldest anubias from the driftwood- leaving an empty-feeling space in the middle of the tank-








There's left tucked among the windelov fern, smaller anubias leaves from where I once cut the rhizome to encourage more growth








It also looks emptier because I trimmed off a large portion of the subwassertang- wow, it's healthy now! nice, rounded shapes not small and dense like in the unheated tank.








I'm not entirely happy with the water wisteria I planted in here- seems out-of-scale with the rest of the plants. It looks scruffy. It doesn't keep the nicely fingered ferny-looking leaves, but hasn't converted to smooth-edged leaves entirely, either. Something in between. But I'm waiting to see if it is actually done changing form. Ruby likes to rest on its horizontal leaves, making me reluctant to take it out. 








I pulled out the crypt lutea that was in this corner, and kept just the becketti. The crypt parva are slowly filling in. I moved some stones with small, round buces on them from the side wall- where they were hard to see under the wisteria- put them under edge of windelov ferns








Here's the front row. Still wondering if my windelov in here is doing poorly overall, or just needs time to adjust still.








The anubias on the driftwood was looking unwell, but these on the right side of the tank are fine. Perhaps because the new filter pushes all the floaters to the front and right of the tank- so the driftwood spot is no longer shaded.








I'm eagerly waiting for the buce 'Selena's to get tall enough I can take cuttings again








Tooth of a horned nerite. That's a buce root reaching out under the snail into a glass corner


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Move a few plants around yesterday. I pulled wisteria out of here and planted it in the tetra tank. In that now-empty corner put two sprigs of ludwigia trimmed from the 33.








I did miss a few pieces of wisteria- not wanting to stir up a lot of mulm, the ones that didn't come up easy I just cut at substrate level. Might pull them later when I have a siphon in the tank.








Unless the ludwigia does really well in here and takes off fast, it will take some time for that space to fill back in.








Also added a few more crypt willisii into the tenner, so in front of the skull there's now a small group, not just two 
(these also came out of the 20H).


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My betta tank looks different because last week I cut back the windelov fern, planted more crypt willisii and pulled a few buces.








The ludwigia (or whatever it is) has started to straighten up in the corner.








Biggest change is that I moved all the amano shrimps back in- since I'm pretty sure the angels or paradise fishes would eat them, and so far Ruby has been mellow about it. They're kind of a bother, though. When I drop in food they swarm all around near where Ruby is eating, darting randomly through the water and bouncing off his body! which looks annoying. I added some leaf litter for them to pick over, and the largest amano tries to shove the other shrimps away from it. Funny.








I only have two malaya shrimps, now. Week before I saw the betta biting at something in a corner of the tank, and one of the shrimps creeping in to get at it. Looked like a bit of white, torn up organic matter. I could only think it was the remains of a malaya, especially when I only saw two in the tank after. I really think it died of old age first.
















Closeup of Ruby, one of the best I've ever taken. Seems to have a few more pale blue spangles.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My tenner got another trim of rotalas this week. I cut back a few of the rotala indica and replanted tops, pulled more of the smaller-leaved rotala rotundifolia. Most of those I moved to the far left rear corner, around the heater- some went into the 20H. Ruby is still ignoring the shrimps, but he flares at the nerites now when cruising past them. I wonder if it is redirected aggression. My seven-year-old was watching him and said "wow, how does he do that? I never saw him puff out his face like that before!" she was really impressed at the show when Ruby flared his operculum and beard.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I'm down to one malaya shrimp in here. Because I found the largest amano eating the other one- which had probably finally died of old age.
















Here's the last one, on the filter sponge. It's looking pretty red.
















Soon it will just be amanos in here. If I ever find malayas available, I'll get some again. I like them.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My last malaya shrimp is gone. I noticed this past week it was sitting very still for long periods of time, barely moving, then creeping to another spot and sitting still again. It was over two years old. I knew for sure it was gone when I saw the largest amano um, consuming it.








This one must have had some, too- very red in its innards, which I observed the last time a malaya got eaten.








Small white oak leaf out of the yard. This one I didn't boil, just dropped it in and let it float. Pretty soon the amanos started crusing around the tank looking for the new thing, it was funny to watch them crawl around upside-down on the leaf. With one of the larger amanos hanging on, the leaf would slowly sink in the water, if the shrimp dropped off it floated up again. For a few days. Now it's sunk.








I'm adding a new leaf or two weekly, to make sure the amanos have enough to eat. They sure go crazy when I feed Ruby (and he still hasn't retaliated). Some of the windelov fronds are now picked apart down to the leaf veins- I think this was the shrimps eating unhealthy leaf tissue.
















I do put a bit of extra food in when I feed the betta, so the shrimps have something, but not every day because I don't want to overdo it. It's biofilm off leaves, algae (none visible anymore) and smidge of extra fish food for them. I'd be sad if the windelov gets all eaten away, but it is doing well in my 45 now, so at least I'll still have some around...


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## Saxtonhill (Dec 28, 2012)

What a great read!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Hey, thanks! :grin2:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*some recent pics*

Bunch of java fern 'windelov' on the driftwood- subwassertang is creeping through it. Anubias barteria growing out looks fine now- so I think the older piece I cut off was just dying back from adjustment.








a few older leaves on buces have ominous dark algae on leaf margins- but otherwise look fantastic. I need to get in there with small scissors and trim out the damaged leaves. And feed the shrimps_ less_.








buce 'isabelle' and 'blue belle' on the skull








amano shrimp walking across more buces








crypt becketti is still among my favorites








short end- crypt becketti, buce 'selena', ludwigia whatever-it-is- grown a lot straighter now








other short end- at an angle


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I'm wondering if my tenner is not doing so well on this all-in-one fertilizer I switched to using. The downhill trend has been so gradual I haven't paid much attention to it. Maybe it's a change I did to the lights a while back and then failed to watch the plant response closely? Whichever, my windelov fern is definitely struggling- even though it keeps sending out new fiddleheads








the leaves continue to look pale and are disintegrating faster than they grow. Not sure if the light is too much, if it can't compete with other plants for the ferts, or if it's not absorbing the kind of iron in Thrive??








My buces, I keep thinking they look great- but all the new leaves are getting picked at by the shrimps I guess. Some leaves on the little crypt willisii also getting picked apart.








These buce look fine until you look close- the lower leaves have ominous black edges (onset of BBA?)








My buces on top of the skull look better because last week I cut off some of the lower leaves that were starting to show algae. Anbias has some black algae spots on a few leaves, too. Rotalas in the background suddenly look unwell- I feel like this is since I rinsed the filter sponge out the week before.








These stems I moved in from the defunct 38 are doing okay so far- and there to the right w/narrow leaves is the ludwigia arcuata. Maybe it was changing the filter sponge that made things falter. Or that I didn't replace leaf litter when it all finally disappeared, so the hungry shrimps are tearing up young leaves? I put more leaf litter in yesterday.








Also it looks like my tank seams are disintegrating. I don't remember ever scraping or gouging the silicone, but there's been black marks on it for a long time and the shrimps pick at it now. Are they slowly picking it away? in some areas it's very thin with these degraded areas. It's only four and a half years old (the tank)- I bought it brand new so would think the seams to last longer than this.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Moved all the shrimps out of the betta tank. They're in my 20H now. I can't tell yet if Ruby is relieved, or misses the activity. Certainly feeding time will be calmer for him now!








I kept thinking about how I saw the plants pearling the other day, and suddenly realized I've been doing maintenance and fert dosing usually an hour or two _before_ the lights turn on. Perhaps the windelov and stems suffer because the lag is too long- they need to utilize ferts immediately? Just to see, I shifted my photoperiod to start at 2pm- the time I'm usually just finishing up with water change on this tank every friday. They did pearl a ton yesterday and today, when I dosed right as the light came on!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Woke up this morning, looked over at the tank. Used to be I would notice the activity of the shrimps, betta motionless in a corner- still sleeping I thought. Today Ruby was active already- going here, going there, flaring at a snail, looking at his reflection, nipping at something on the filter sponge. I really do think the shrimps had been bugging him- I was starting to wonder last week if he was feeling ill, because I often saw him sitting still in an upper corner- tank params were fine- but now I guess he'd been keeping away from all those little pinching shrimps. He's such a sweetie- never once retaliated at them. And he got to eat his breakfast in total peace this morning- no more jumping away from a shrimp barging in after the food. 

Those amanos really are brash! Maybe I will put the largest few in the 45, so they can keep leaf surfaces clean, see how long they last against the angelfish haha.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Looking back on photos, I miss how healthy and lush my tenner used to look. It wasn't that long ago, so where did it go wrong? I lined up the pictures in order and went through them backwards, noting the changes I've made in the past weeks, months. First thing I realized was I uncovered the back of the tank to calm the fish, without thinking how it would affect light levels. Maybe too much ambient window light has been getting in? Now I put a paper background up again.








Also, I haven't used my mini gravel vac in a long time. Did today- wow, a ton of black mulm came up. Have to stay on top of that! Noticed I could rub a lot of the black specks off the flat anubias leaves- and that the coarse sponge on my filter doesn't hold stuff in- it all looks like shrimp waste- yet they were moved out weeks ago! I switched back to a finer filter sponge, but left the old one (lightly rinsed out) propped on top so bacteria can transfer. I hope that's the last change I make to the filter.








As last week, dosed half the amount recommended on the bottle of Thrive, and made sure to wait until the light switched on. I do think these measures are helping- some of the rotalas are bouncing back (or responding to the root tab I broke up and fed them last week)








and it seems death is slowing down on the windelov fern, several leaves that actually look green again (left, against the sponge) but I'm not sure








I removed all the leaf litter in here, trying to avoid excess organics until I get the spot algae that's cropping up in check, and the plants all looking well again. Buces are pretty much unfazed; it's nice to see that their new leaves grow out untouched, now the shrimps are gone. But there are more black edges on lower leaves ugh.
















Betta is happier. He pokes around the tank actively again, sliding in and out of plants, resting between anubias leaves. Looks like he enjoys himself, and can relax. (Those amano shrimps really were little pests!)


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It was just five days ago I made changes in my betta tank, and already things are looking better! Anubias has far less black specks on it- I do think the finer sponge is keeping things cleaner.








New growth on the rotalas looks great. Compare to the older stems in the back- they all have new leaves on top but I haven't cut and replanted yet.








Windelov fern definitely has some leaves keeping their good color. And new fiddleheads under. I am no longer worried this one is going to die.








I think some of my plants can't utilize the iron in Thrive? So on saturday, day after the regular all-in-one fert, I dosed the tank lightly with Leaf Zone (iron and potassium). That's when I saw the windelov start to improve. Maybe I'll have to go back to using multiple ferts after all.


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## tredford (Jun 29, 2018)

Glad to see the changes you made have been having a positive impact relatively quickly.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Continuing to improve! although looking sparse-








because I took an extra twenty minutes to cut and replant tops of all the rotala stems. They are nice bright green!








Cut out a lot of blackening leaves on windelov fern. I see more nice green ones. Also cut out more buce leaves that had black algae edges. Subwassertang is doing great in here, there's a large bunch of it under the edge of the windelov driftwood, and more tucked between the skull and wood on the opposite side.








This is the buce top I cut and replanted, it's bottom half went into my angelfish tank.








the one behind it will be next- it's on the right, against the wall- where the stem is getting elongated I will cut just below where roots are growing out of the stem above the lowest leaf pair, that gives me a new plant and the bottom half grows a new crown








quick photo short end with the blue buces








other side with the stems and crypt becketti- next week I'll take out the surplus sponge


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*my betta tank just busted a seam*

After the last water change there was a bit of a drip at one corner- I thought I'd refilled a bit too high and it was wicking out under the tank rim (has happened before) so wiped up the drips and lowered the water level a bit, laid paper towels down they were getting a bit wet- I thought it was just wicking water out where it had dripped into the lower tank rim.

Then this evening SO GLAD I went upstairs- the towel was soaked. The panel under the tank was wet in that corner. I looked closely and the seam had lines of separation all up and down that corner- white streaks and air bubbles in rows, where I never saw them before. I grabbed my spare 10g (newer, in much better shape) and several buckets, immediately scooped out most of the water, all the plants on hardscape and floaters, Ruby the betta. The heater and filter. The light and sliding lid. Hauled it all downstairs- where there's space on a table in the basement- and put it all in the spare tank. So basically Ruby has everything but the substrate. I was going to leave all the stems, crypts and rooted buces in the substrate because I can't deal with this properly for a few days but then I went to move the leaking tank and realized it was worse than I'd thought, I really narrowly avoided disaster I think.

The panel that was under my tank- half of it is soaked through. Luckily the end table it's been sitting on was just barely damp. I felt really dubious the tank would hold the last inch of water until I could take care of it- and nowhere to put it- except in the bath, with plastic wrap over to keep in the humidity but then I thought crap there's no heat or light the plants will start to be dead in four days probably- we have familiy stuff going on for end of the spring break and I just can't deal.

So I pulled up all the stems and crypts with tweezers, rinsed off their roots and dropped them in the betta's 10g to just float. Ruby looks fine. He's exploring around and looks relaxed. It's all a jumble, but I think I saved most everything. Nerites moved over on the plants, trumpet snails will survive in the substrate layer meanwhile. 

That was a stressful hour just now SIGH. I have to find a stand- don't want to put it back on that end table, in fact don't want to put it back in my bedroom (I already miss seeing the betta and the plants in here but wow it sure is nice and QUIET now) and then I can move the substrate out of the leaky tank into the good one, replant and rescape everything. Crossing fingers there isn't much of a cycle, going to skip feeding a few days. Blarg.


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## Thelongsnail (Dec 2, 2015)

Wow, I'm glad you got to it before disaster struck! Hopefully your cycle and plants will pull through - if so, it's an excuse to mess about and have a bit of a re-scape should you wish


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*well the betta is fine-*

I checked his tank parameters- there was no cycle, or it happened so quick I didn't catch it when doing water tests. He's living in what was my ten-gallon spare/quarantine tank, on a table in the basement. 
















the buces settled to the bottom- enough substrate particles clinging to them they weighed down, but all the stems and crypts and others not tied to hardscape are a floating jumble. I had to bump the heater up a notch, the basement is cooler and it wasn't keeping the tank warm enough on the prior setting.








Ruby doesn't seem to mind the move now, he's settled right in. He'll have another day of upheaval when I do get a stand and can rinse and put back in the substrate . . . . Kind of got stalled doing all that, though. I really want to put the tank on a proper stand (not a small table or other furniture) so it looks nice in my front room by the paradise fish tank, but first I have to move out the 20H. Going to rehome those fishes, move the plants into other tanks . . . maybe keep the 20H around (empty) as a spare in case I ever need to separate or treat an angelfish. I really do want to just be running the three tanks I love.


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## tredford (Jun 29, 2018)

Ruby and the plants are looking great! I especially like all the buce.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Ruby is still in the basement*









He seems fine and most of the plants are still alive and green- buces look particularly happy- but I am tired already of having him down there. Don't get to enjoy his tank much at all, forget to keep an eye on it. I'm looking for a particular kind of stand, then will move him upstairs to the main floor.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ruby's tank was in the basement for over two months, all scattered plants and ignored. I did the water changes regularly, fed the plants and fish, peeked in there once in a while to make sure he was still alive. He swam around the tank looking curious about stuff like usual. The buces did really well. Other plants kind of languished, anubias started to get black spots of algae, windelov fern had some dieoff.








Spriodela polyrhiza floaters were thriving, but all the other plants floating became a jumble and grew in contorted ways- the stems turning on themselves, the echinodorus sprouting roots between the leaves. Ruby seemed to like the plant mass at surface.
















Then last week I took the bulk of a morning and moved him upstairs, put the ten gallon tank on my now-empty stand where the 20H used to sit. Rinsed the old substrate four or five times, then replanted everything. Lots of the stems are all bent oddly, especially the rotalas but I hope they grow straight again soon. Will update with new photos soon as I can.

I thought the tank was doing well, I only saw a bit of ammonia on testing for the first few days, but then it went into a full cycle. Ammonia zeroed out quickly, but there's been high nitrites for a week now, it just can't seem to finish cycling. Probably doesn't help that I'm doing wc every morning- two or three gal- to save the fish from toxicity, and he's not eating well, so there's not a lot of nutrient input to make the waste to feed the bacteria. Sigh. Ruby now spends a lot of time lying on the tank floor, under plants or hidden in the skull cave. It distresses me to see that.

Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my bumblebee horned nerite snails. I took a photo of this one a week ago when the tank was still downstairs, it looked fine. I often saw one or the other crawling around so didn't worry about them. But now after the tank move, I've only found one empty nerite shell in here. I don't know what happened to them all- too much shock with change in water parameters? were they old and just succumbed to the small ammonia spike the day after the tank move? Did I accidentally bury one that was clinging to the underside of a hardscape piece? I don't know.








At the LFS next town over yesterday, I bought three new little horned nerites- one yellow and black like all the others I've had. Two are more golden brown with black stripes, and one has a neat stippling pattern that makes it look as if it has scales. I'll try and get a photo soon.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Here's a photo I got of the two brownish horned nerites, when they were acclimating








and a new bunch of rotala colorata in the corner- trimmings I got from a club member the other day








I'm feeling terrible for Ruby because the tank still has high nitrites, but what can I do other than keep up the water changes (which stalls the cycle longer, I'm sure) because I simply have no other place to put him. Any other container I'd use, wouldn't be cycled either. I've dropped in more malaysian trumpet snails from the other tanks, I'm feeding them as Ruby hardly eats.








He's definitely lethargic and I'm starting to wonder if he's starting to get popeye. I have replacement sponges coming for Laddie's tank soon- I'm going to swap out one new for old, cut the old in half, drop one piece in here, the other in my QT that's also stuck in cycle. Hope that gives them a boost.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Day before yesterday nitrites started to drop in here, and it finally completed cycling yesterday, I did a large water change this morning.








Relieved it's all leveled out now- I could tell right away things were improving because Ruby quit looking crashed all the time and started swimming around the tank again.








Plants are mostly looking ok. Not thrilled with how I arranged them, but I'll wait for some stuff to grow back before I move things around again.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ruby has popeye, one side is getting very swollen. I gave him several epsom salt baths, no change. I increased water changes on his tank, and was more careful about cleaning out food he didn't eat (instead of leaving it for the snails to find). His appetite has come back and he is not as lethargic, but still spends lots of time resting in a sheltered spot under edge of windelov driftwood, or hiding behind the anubias. I don't know if he will ever recover from the damage of going through the tank cycle, sigh.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Appears to have trouble seeing his food, now. I have to feed him slowly, and make sure the food falls right in front of him, or he misses it entirely.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ruby's left eye is very swollen, with the ominous white ring. I've started treatment with kanaplex.








He's a little more alert, though still having trouble eating- doesn't see well. He won't eat flake at all anymore, but still eats the micropellets, 'bug bites' and thawed frozen mysis/brine shrimp. _If_ I manage to drop them right in front of his face. It's nice that his plants are growing better though. 








And I've read that if a betta doesn't die from popeye within a week, it's probably not going to die from the infection anytime soon. I'm going through what meds I have that indicate can treat the condition, before I go buy something else.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ruby isn't eating well. I dropped in a few micropellets for him last night, looked in later and saw them gone, thought he'd eaten. Found them later floating around the tank growing fuzzy, had to remove it. I don't know if he's going to get better. It's the last day of kanaplex treatment and I see no improvement.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Gave him a break for a week, started new treatment with erythromycin. Halfway through. Took this photo day of first dose, to try and track if there's any progress, but Ruby was very skittish, I couldn't get a picture that wasn't blurry:








I can't quite tell if the swelling has gone down or not yet-








But suddenly today, after the second dose, I feel like Ruby actually_ looks_ at me again. The eye is still swollen with that gross white ring, but the lens appears clear not hazy or cloudy anymore. Maybe there's hope. Also, in spite of the illness and stressors, Ruby has never once lost color or clamped his fins. I try to take that as a good sign. Had him just over a year now . . .








while I had the camera out, took a photo of these pieces of anubias rhizome in the corner. Starting to sprout a few leaves:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

It doesn't look so good now. He's struggling with equilibrium- listing sideways.


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## zmartin (May 1, 2018)

That’s a shame


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Well he's still hanging in there this morning, but twitches in surprise when I walk past the tank. I'm giving him another small wc and some soaked food, ordering the vitachem too. Dunno, I seem to have poor success with bettas, in spite of mine living in a 10gal filtered heated planted tank, I've never had one live for more than two years. Could be just because I get mine at local chain store, but I've read of folks who also got a petco betta and had theirs five, six, seven years!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ruby looks the same . . . 








Sadly, I'm able to get close camera shots now because he doesn't shy away from the lens as much. Doesn't see it I assume.








Color is still good as ever (backlit):








Even closer:








I'm still failing at getting him to eat from tweezers. He smells the food, sometimes hangs out just floating at surface in his feeding ring. But always lunges for a bite off to the side, misses more times than not now. I tried giving garlic-soaked pellets, but once soaked they sink- too quickly for him to even notice, much less grab it. I siphoned the food off the tank floor, tried to drop right in front of him, he just fled from the acrylic tube. I'm trying to figure out another method here. Maybe I can put the food in some kind of net shelf? so it won't fall to the tank floor where he can't find it.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I bought vitachem (water-soluble fish vitamins), dosed the tank with it because Ruby still isn't eating much. Can't tell if it helped. Certainly he still has some energy and color, got a bit twitchy though. I thought for a moment from this photo that the ring around his eye was less swollen,








but another photo from slightly diff angle, he looks just as miserable








I made this thing. I stretched and sewed a piece of pantyhose over airline tubing bent in a circle, fastened it to the tank wall below Ruby's feeding ring. The idea was that when he misses his food, it will fall onto the nylon and he can find it again there- he always gives up if it falls to the tank floor.








It's not really working. Ruby definitely has some appetite, comes to his feeding spot and I put in way extra food, in the hopes he would get _some_ of it. He's been sitting there so close to surface his dorsal fin drags into the air, then striking _hard_ at the food items- but always off to the side. It's as if he thinks more effort will make up for his lack of precision. I think I saw him get a few flakes, but when I fed soaked pellets, he didn't get any at all.
















The nylon net does catch the food, but Ruby doesn't look for it there. I end up siphoning it off and feeding to my shrimps in the jar next door.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*goodbye Ruby-*

Two days ago he crashed. I quit putting food in the ring, as he was always on the substrate. Would skitter away through the plants if startled, looked like he was struggling to swim. Long hours most of the day he did not move at all. Did not come to the surface. I no longer saw any hope of recovery. 








I put him in this container to dose with clove oil- following the usual method- shaking three or four drops in a small jar, then adding slowly to the container with the fish, waiting for it to go immobile, then add more drops until stops breathing. Except, he didn't go to sleep and it wasn't gentle. It's not the first time this has happened to me- the fish thrashes around, tries to jump out, looks panicked. I can't stand to watch that. I got a damp paper towel, netted him out, stepped outside, lifted the edge of a flower pot, set the fish in towel under, dropped it. Over in a few seconds. I don't think I will use clove oil again, unless I can figure out why it's not going easy for them. Maybe I need to use a larger container for the waiting fish? perhaps the oil was too concentrated at first. I don't know.

I had him almost a year and a half. No improvement on the record, how long my bettas stay alive and well. I'm feeling glum about that.

I did find it real curious how his colors changed- over time his scales got darker and more vivid, with more pale blue scales appearing across his back. Photo from 4/19/18, right after I got him:








and from 10/20/18


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## zmartin (May 1, 2018)

Sorry to hear. 

For the Clive oil I use a jar with 10 ml of warm water and shake until it is dissolved. Then use a 10 ml syringe to slowly dose the mix with. I found it is better if put the syringe under the surface of the water. 

Not ideal. 

Sounds like the new approach is less mucking around.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

The guppies live in here now. Little blue male is quite pretty:
















Still looks rather empty without a betta. Needs plants with more height- I'm hoping the rotalas will grow enough I can trim and replant again soon. Have thought about getting guppy grass... The females are both getting very fat and squarish, little blue male flirts with them constantly. Haven't seen any actual mating, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.








Left side- I added a few more oak leaves in the back and buce 'isabella' is starting to leaf out again on the skull-








More round leaves sprouting from that anubias rhizome in front corner-








Buce I moved in from the angel tank is definitely looking paler than the others-








I cut some older leaves out of the windelov fern:








Subwassertang filling in- has its best shape in this tank








Right side. Snails keep uprooting the tiny plants in front corner. That pale stem leaning diagonally is a piece of elodea that sank- I'm waiting to see if it grows more or not.I dropped it in there because there was thread or hair algae. To see if the guppies ate it. They sure did- and pooped bright green for days.








Crypt grows, but slowly








These stems are nice, but slow too-








Rotalas-
















Short end view- not nearly as nice with the buce 'isabella' cut back-








I think I take too many pictures of plants.


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## aquanerd13 (Jun 22, 2019)

I assume Oliver is no more?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yeah, long gone. I've had several other bettas in succession since Oliver, the latest one being Ruby.


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## chicken.nublet (Mar 29, 2018)

JJ09 said:


> Yeah, long gone. I've had several other bettas in succession since Oliver, the latest one being Ruby.


A little late but I'm sorry to hear about Ruby.

When my honey gourami started to pinecone and lose all its colour I also decided to euthanise it with clove oil in a manner similar to what you described. It worked well for me before which other smaller fish. Unfortunately I also experienced the same thing as you, my poor gourami started to thrash about and jump out of the water until it eventually went under. It was incredibly distressing to watch.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*I have guppy fry!*

They appeared in the tank on monday, so four or five days old now. Saw the adult guppies snapping at the babies in the tenner, my kid tearfully begged me to "save them!" so I set up the mesh box. This time I folded a piece of hose around the rim instead of using the clips. So it just floats. Put in a few oak leaves, a few small ramshorn snails, subwassertang, salvinia floaters and a piece of parrot's feather.








Using a shrimp net and medicine cup, caught fifteen fry. Have searched the tank with my eyes every day since, that appears to be it for now.








Little male is already flirting and chasing the females again. I think I actually saw the mating this time- they spin in a circle sides tight close together for just a few seconds. It's cute when the male flares all his fins, waggles them like crazy and does a little backwards shimmy in front of the female: look at me, look at _me_!








Fry are all the little white specks in there. I'm feeding them four or five times a day- first bites, gold pearls, smushed cooked pea, crushed powder of flake foods and drips of the soupy water from when I thaw frozen foods. Can't even see the food particles in that, but I do see the babies eating it.








So far, once a day I siphon out the bottom of the box with an airline. They seem to be doing fine.








I was honest with my kid. I told her we'll take care of them all until I can tell them apart- I'm guessing at three or four weeks old the anal fin differences will be apparent- and then sort them. Keep the males for pets and the females will um, probably get fed to the angelfish or paradise fish. She protested and said nooo, can't you sell them? I told her we probably can't even _give_ them away, this is natural, it will be over quick, and showed her a calculation of how quickly the tank would fill with masses of guppies if I kept all the girls (especially since they're already breeding again!) Well, that ended the protest but she is still sad about it. I'm sorry to be tough.

Overhead pics of the fry box:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I was thinking it would be nice to have some actual live food to give my baby guppies, then I went to clean out the square windowsill jar that had subwassertang in it (now all in the fry box). There's a few tiny bits of subwassertang I'd missed, and some tiny ramshorn snails which I plucked out and put in the other glass box next door (with baby java ferns). Then I saw the nearly-empty box has tiny moving specks in it- I think copepods or seed shrimp. I fished a bunch out with a straw into a tiny medicine cup and dumped in the fry box. Yep- the guppy fry eagerly ate them! It's kinda weird to keep a glass box of water that looks empty on the sill, just for copepods, so maybe I'll stick another piece of plant back in there and keep it going for a while.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

The baby guppies no longer look like tadpoles, just eyes and a wriggly tail. They look like tiny tiny fish now- still with hugely cute all-eyes-and-stomach appearance, but against the light if I look close can see the fan shape of their tails, dorsal and pelvic fins as well. They are definitely a bit bigger each day.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

As prolifically as Guppies and Endlers breed, I still love them.

Thank you for sharing photos throughout the process.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

*Guppy fry 1 week old-*

tried so hard to get some photos showing the tiny baby fish fins-


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

The little guppies are week and a half old now. I'm starting to see slight size differences, and squabbling, among them. I'm feeding them two or three times a day now, as admittedly haven't done as well with the cleaning schedule as I wanted to. Only actually siphoning out the box once every other day. Realized I ought to do a better job at that so I removed the leaf litter which makes it simpler. One of the adult females looks ready to pop out more fry again.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

This morning for the first time I can start to see color appearing on some of the guppy fry- streaks of black on pectoral and dorsal fin. I can finally start separating them by gender now.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I've got ten young male guppies in here with their dad, now- most of them the fins look dark and the biggest have gleam of blue on their sides. On two I can see the gonopodium clearly now. Father guppy is happy to have some company, although it's odd he does his little fin spread/shimmy flexing next to a fry sometimes. Are the younger ones not old enough he can tell they're males yet? or maybe he would just display that way to any other guppy, I don't know. 

I took salvinia out of the fry box and swapped it with duckweed in this tank. It's started to spread and looks healthy again








After a recent water change, air bubbles were clinging to the root hairs, looking very pretty like jewels sparkling.








Male panda guppy- daddy to all the fry- darting past. No longer has spots. That's one of his older fry on the left, tail facing the viewer.









All the duckweed is now in my 20H with the rest of the baby guppies and the two adult females. The salvinia has slightly longer roots and its color is actually more blue-green than shows in my photo- I like it better in here. For the first time I'm thinking of phasing out duckweed . . .


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

I love the photo of the air bubbles on the roots of the salvinia- so cool. 
Your attention to detail is always refreshing for me-- something I need to develop in myself. 
Thanks for sharing.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Hey, thank you. I'm flattered. Attention to detail or = being anal. My dad once said this hobby was perfect for me- he's so right!


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

JJ09 said:


> Hey, thank you. I'm flattered. Attention to detail or = being anal. My dad once said this hobby was perfect for me- he's so right!


 We need both types in this world- those that pay attention to detail and those that see larger patterns. Without both, nothing would come together. 
I rarely see individuals with a bit of both.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yeah I'm definitely bad at things like long-term planning . . .


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

If you saw my window tank thread, well this tank also got camallanus worms. I started treatment with levamisole yesterday. Half dose in this tank and the 20H w/the baby guppies. This morning- 24 hrs after dose- checked on the fishes. Guppies were all hiding timid under plants at substrate level. They did come up to eat hesitantly when I sprinkled in bug bites, and I was pleasantly surprised to see I haven't lost any fry yet- at least their numbers don't look diminished- I never did an exact count. Maybe one guppy in here is gone, I only counted nine but the other could be hiding. However the tank has a slight bad smell- I found one horned nerite closed up unresponsive, wonder if it's dying. Or if the other nerite or missing guppy died and I haven't been able to find it. When I do the big wc at end of treatment (tuesday) will lift some things out to look more thoroughly.

One small thing of cheer- in the dim light (tanks are covered while on medication) I saw that one of my buce is flowering:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

All fishes fine. Turns out I'm not missing any- counted ten guppies. I got the diagnosis right- can see worms extruding from the vents of five or six guppies in the tenner. Some of them look emaciated so I don't know if they'll make it... They ate peas today. This tank will be the hardest to clean tomorrow- I'll have to find my tiny home-made vacuum siphon to gravel vac between all the plants.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Urg, so it's been 72 hours and I started by thoroughly cleaning the guppy tank with tiny gravel vac. Got it down to just two inches of water. Refilled and then checking on the fishes saw to my dismay some of the guppies still had red worms hanging from their vents. I didn't want those worms to drop into the substrate I just cleaned, but I don't want to have to do a big wc/gravel vac _again_ tomorrow... so I put the guppies in a plastic box floated it in their tank (so they don't get cold) with an airstone on splitter. I've siphoned out shed worms with a straw several times since then. Fingers crossed they drop all the worms by afternoon tomorrow then I can release them in the tank and hope it's good. Keeping them confined like that is probably stressful though.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

It typically takes two treatments of levamisole to clear all the nematodes. 
You will get the adults with the first treatment. And, its normal that the fish continue to shed these adults for a few days after treatment. 
Then, 3 weeks later, you will treat for the worms again with levamisole, this time killing the eggs that were in gut and not harmed by the medication. This time, the nematodes will be developed enough to be affected by the medication. 

Juveniles take nematode infection much harder than adults, primarily from loss of nutrition from the parasite. 
Here is a really good article on the use of levamisole:
https://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1

Actually, I misspoke- it is 3 treatments. please read the treatment schedule in link at bottom of page.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thank you, @Discusluv. So I shouldn't worry about seeing the worms shed into the tank- those ones are dead now anyway? Some of my smaller guppies do look very thin and lethargic, I am expecting to loose some. Am surprised that the fry in the other tank- they are only a week old today- look fine so far. 

I marked my calendar to be sure and not forget the second round of treatment, this time.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

JJ09 said:


> Thank you, @*Discusluv*. So I shouldn't worry about seeing the worms shed into the tank- those ones are dead now anyway? Some of my smaller guppies do look very thin and lethargic, I am expecting to loose some. Am surprised that the fry in the other tank- they are only a week old today- look fine so far.
> 
> I marked my calendar to be sure and not forget the second round of treatment, this time.


 Ill take a short quote from the article I linked you to explain why you do need to vacuum when worms are eliminated, unfortunately>


Quote:

_"How does Levamisole HCl work as an antiparasitic agent?_

_Levamisole HCl is absorbed through the gut, can also be absorbed through the skin and is distributed throughout the body. It affects the neurotransmitters within the parasite and paralyzes the worm (spastic paralysis). The fish then passes the inactive worms. Good gravel vacuuming is advised after treatment to remove the paralyzed worms. It is not ovicidal, which means it will not affect eggs already present, but it will affect the larval stage of the worm. To ensure complete eradication of the parasite treat again after remaining eggs have hatched."_


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yesterday I fed the fishes garlic-soaked betta pellets. The guppies ate, most of them rather listlessly. I siphoned out the bottom of tanks, have done the huge water changes, and spent several hours sterilizing all the tools (sprayed bleach solution, let it sit fifteen minutes, rinsed with hot water numerous times until odor gone).

Today fed them mini veggie pellets. Guppies ate eagerly, and pooped a ton. Half their waste looks normal. They're active again- one or two had been sitting on the floor yesterday but now up and about. Fry look fine, adult females look fine, although one of them still has white and colorless feces.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

JJ09 said:


> Yesterday I fed the fishes garlic-soaked betta pellets. The guppies ate, most of them rather listlessly. I siphoned out the bottom of tanks, have done the huge water changes, and spent several hours sterilizing all the tools (sprayed bleach solution, let it sit fifteen minutes, rinsed with hot water numerous times until odor gone).
> 
> Today fed them mini veggie pellets. Guppies ate eagerly, and pooped a ton. Half their waste looks normal. They're active again- one or two had been sitting on the floor yesterday but now up and about. Fry look fine, adult females look fine, although one of them still has white and colorless feces.


 That goes to show you just how much this parasite takes from the vitality of the fish. It causes nutritional deficiencies> weakness/lethargy from these deficiencies> eventual death - if not treated- as fish stops eating and organs shut down. 

Now, since medicating and eliminating worms every bit of food eating goes toward restoring strength.


Garlic ( along with increasing appetite) is excellent at healing gut of fish. These nematodes make channels in the gut of fish, causing irritation, and the stomach reacts by trying to "slough" off the parasite by creating mucus. The mucus - the white stringy feces you see- is the stomach lining, that is the guts reaction in ridding the parasite.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Guppies in my tenner all seem to be pooping normal and the two that were looking so emaciated I considered euthanizing them a few days ago, are now starting to gain their weight back. Fry in the 20H and the two adult females look fine but the mums are still expelling white feces that break up into little chunks all around the tank floor (I'm siphoning with a pipette and doing small partial wc daily). Of course the other fishes could have this too and I just don't see it on the substrate. How long they will go on shedding intestinal lining like that? does it means the infection is worse than I realized? Next levamisole dose is wed (day after tomorrow).

Snail on top of the fake skull- he's not dying after all.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Fishes all look fine after their second round of levamisole. There's more normal (instead of white) waste on the bottom of the fry tank, and the guppies in here swarmed the front glass when I came near. I had the light strip propped up sideways unplugged the past few days and when reconnected it switched on with the timer before I put it up top again. The lighting from the side was neat so I started taking photos.








Most of the plants look better than ever, probably because near nil light for 72 hours (twice now) has done away with some algae. Only the stems and windelov fern appear to have suffered. Crypt lutea:








Anubias has a new shoot!








Tiny new windelov ferns below that:








Buces 'isabelle' are growing back visibly on the skull:








'Wavy' and 'Selena' below:








They're getting kinda overgrown by the subwassertang, but so far I think the mingling looks nice:








and _finally_ I got a decent photo of a guppy:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My guppies got their third treatment but when I got out the meds I ran short of levamisole so used prazipro this time not sure if that's good enough but it's all I can do right now- problems with the house and I can't really be there much (see my window tank thread). The guppies all look fine and are eating well. I did a fifty percent wc with gravel vac after the prazipro treatment. Next week when things are better I will be able to observe them more closely and see if the problem is finally gone- fingers crossed?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

My tenner with the guppies is one of the nicer-looking tanks now. Lush with green. All the plants -except windelov fern maybe- seem happy with just fish waste in here- I haven't dosed ferts in months. Probably if I went back to keeping a single betta, would have to dose again.








All the young males have their blue color now, though some are still not fullsize. Turns out a few were females, so to avoid more breeding I moved those into the window tank.








The two moms are still in the 20H alone now. Haven't seen any babies for quite some time. I would tear this tank down, except I keep hoping to someday soon get more white clouds for the window tank, so I wanted to keep this one cycled meanwhile (to use as QT).








Might be a long while yet, though.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Looked in the 20H this morning and actually yelled in surprise: hey, more baby guppies! Two new fry. Didn't expect that. Counted on my fingers- it's been just about six months, so this should _really_ be the last lot they're able to have. Seeing the fry prompted me to (carefully) do a tank cleaning, and move the babies into the mesh box (which has been empty for a while, but still in the tank).


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## Thelongsnail (Dec 2, 2015)

Really beautiful guppies!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

This tank is doing so well for me now, I hardly think about it. Feed the little guppies once a day, give it a water change and dose some vitamins once a week, done. Haven't used ferts in a long time. Only thing I don't like about it is how all the plants are similar height in the tank now- nothing reaches above midlevel- but buces are starting to grow atop the skull again so maybe that will help break up the evenness. Left side:








Right:








Someday soon I'll get a full tank shot again. I'd also like to keep a _betta_ in here again (thus I haven't changed the title of the journal yet)- after the guppies live out their little lives, maybe.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Corner shot, from across the room. 








Guppies still doing grand. A few weeks ago I unplugged the heater during a water change and then forgot to plug it back in- for um, several days. Everything looks fine, though. I'm running the AC less this summer (two degrees warmer than I used to, at 74°). I thought it would be hard on the plants, to have a temperature drop- the tank is usually now between 72 and 74°, but it looks even better than before. The few rotala stems are greener, and the crypts are growing in thicker. So I think I will just keep as is (unheated) until fall when it cools off enough to quit using the AC. Or bump my heater setting down so it doesn't click on as much... . . .


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

At some point in the last week or so I lost a guppy? 








I hadn't counted them in a while. Watching them yesterday while feeding I idly counted- and came up short. Counted again- yeah, now there's only eight. Don't know what happened- it's possible one got siphoned out while I was cleaning- but I always check the bucket afterwards for that. I suppose it died of something else and the snails cleaned up . . . 

Ah well, I'm not very attached to these fish- their color is pretty but they're _so_ small I don't discern individuals and never gave them names. 








Here's a full tank shot from angle:


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

Nice. With the plants being so low, the tank looks bigger in the pictures.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks, @Econde. Yeah, I'm glad that darker crypt in the back corner started growing taller to kinda break up the horizontal evenness of it. Would like to have floaters with roots that hang down, but none have worked out for me yet- frogbit died on me, the salvinia minima they stay short . . .


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

Dwarf Watter Lettuce! When it starts to get bigger, it starts to root and root some more. It's so bright in the picture but Those are definitely Dwarf water lettuce on top with long roots draped inside the tank.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Tried that one too, once. Died on me just like the frogbit. I even put little circles of airline around them, because somebody told me they don't like being jostled by the current. It didn't seem to help.


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

JJ09 said:


> Tried that one too, once. Died on me just like the frogbit. I even put little circles of airline around them, because somebody told me they don't like being jostled by the current. It didn't seem to help.


Awe man. Yea from my experience floaters do best in low flow setups. Or at least diverted flow. I had my canister filter turned way down. Sorry it didn't work out for you.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yep, I have sponge filters running on airlines in all my tanks. So there's a decent amount of surface agitation. Hornwort does great (but I not my favorite how it looks), salvinia and duckweed struggle, frogbit and water lettuce just outright died. I haven't tried watersprite in a long time- used to grow that rooted. Maybe it would work? Hm.


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

JJ09 said:


> Yep, I have sponge filters running on airlines in all my tanks. So there's a decent amount of surface agitation. Hornwort does great (but I not my favorite how it looks), salvinia and duckweed struggle, frogbit and water lettuce just outright died. I haven't tried watersprite in a long time- used to grow that rooted. Maybe it would work? Hm.


Might be worth a try. Sucks when plants that everyone else grows doesn't work out for us. Ah well. Such is our hobby .


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ha, no kidding. You know what I can't grow, that's supposed to be easy? Java fern. And moss, I've tried several kinds, they all falter and die. My crypts and buces do great, though!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

A few days ago I noticed one of my guppies wasn't feeding, but just hanging around at surface. Then was always in the corner by the heater- 








and closer look saw it's very bloated. I fasted the tank two days and fed cooked pea bits after, but this one fish never ate any. 








I moved it to a container with plants, because I didn't want the others to pick at it, if it's contagious? I thought about giving epsom salt bath, but then the fish lost eqilibrium, and the end was not long after.








So now only seven little blue guppies.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I lost another guppy, earlier in the week after tank maintenance. When I dose liquid vitamins, the small fishes always dart around gobbling up the granules. I never thought this would harm them, but later in the day found one blue guppy expired on the substrate, looking bloated. I will start stirring that into a cup of tank water to dissolve first, from now on. Six guppies now.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I moved two shrimps in here, out of the 1.5 gal jar. 








They've already done a good job cleaning hair/thread algae off the filter sponge.
















Incidentally, might notice from the first pic- my rotala stems are suddenly doing a lot better. I'm thinking what's different- there's fewer fishes (though so small is that really much difference?) I shifted the light strip further back on the tank, there's more plants- I added vals a while back- and I've been doing smaller water changes, 2 or 3 gallons instead of 5 per week. I'm guessing it's the last- as it leaves more nutrients in the water, or having moved the light. Whichever, I'm glad as the tank looks nicer with that bright corner.

Bonus pic: some buces flowering


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Wow this thread is long overdue for some updates. Which I've been keeping on my garden blog elsewhere- here's the highlights:
-5/03/21- Added some twisty vals (not sure what exact species) somebody gave me.








Cleaned up more lower leaves off buces (algae spots), and planted one bit of buce 'isabella' on the driftwood- you can just see it in the back there. Removed a lot of windelov fern from the wood because it's just not doing great in here








Most of a full tank shot: 








I now only have three blue male panda guppies in here, and two females. More baby guppies again. (Feeding them to the angelfish). 









- 5/17/21- Added a bit of creeping jenny in the corner. Short end view. Look how nice my crypts have grown!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I think I lost another male guppy. It hasn't showed up for feeding, yesterday or today. I've had them all for just about two years now, so not surprised. I did look at bettas when I was at the LFS recently- only one caught my eye and it had those thicker 'dragon scales' which are striking but I've read so many stories of them going blind from scales growing over the eyes. . . so I didn't get one, sigh.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Just saw that one of my remaining blue guppies has a white lump behind pectoral fin joint. As if bursting out of the skin. Just like what had showed up on my betta Samblu (who died soon after). I never knew for sure what it was- a tumor, or lymphocystis (my best guess)- nor if this is the same thing. But I suspect this guppy doesn't have long.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Rotalas are getting real nice and one has started to trail across the surface. I was going to trim and replant to multiply it, but kind of like having it across the top, so I left it alone.








One blue buce is flowering.








I found some of the crypt parva were getting overshadowed a lot by crypt becketti, so I shifted them all into a front corner- but I need to add some substrate. I do have more safe-t-sorb in a bag, just need to sift out the dust, and soak it . . . 








There's more baby guppies, _again._


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Gave away all the guppies. Here some photos from a few weeks ago (before the guppies were out). Full tank shot:








Overhead, with the crypt lutea. I planted a few more creeping jenny stems in that corner.








Really liking now, how the rotala trails across the surface. 








Crypt parva, front corner. I swear I still only have four plants, in _years_ it's never grown more.


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

😂😂 parva's lack of growth is kind of what I love most about it. It's like placing fake plants. They never grow but they never die 😂😂


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Plinkploop said:


> 😂😂 parva's lack of growth is kind of what I love most about it. It's like placing fake plants. They never grow but they never die 😂😂


Ha ha, yeah. I find it frustrating, though. Would love to have this all across the foreground- but when I got it as tissue-culture pkg, most didn't survive for me. I'd have to buy a _lot_.


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

You'd have to wait a while for it to grow in too 😅


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## ytro (Dec 19, 2011)

I just read your entire journal - A wonderfully written, incredibly engaging story of this tank! So sorry about the passing of Oliver and Samblu. You did a great job trying to recover them from their sickness. Very neat watching Lucky grow up and seeing the progression with your plant growth. Thank you for sharing and please keep posting your updates! 👍


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

ytro said:


> I just read your entire journal - A wonderfully written, incredibly engaging story of this tank! So sorry about the passing of Oliver and Samblu. You did a great job trying to recover them from their sickness. Very neat watching Lucky grow up and seeing the progression with your plant growth. Thank you for sharing and please keep posting your updates! 👍


Thanks so much. I do enjoy writing about it- in excessive detail sometimes, probably. Nice to know it's appreciated!


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