# Of Fish and Fin...



## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Only a silly 3 months ago, I brought home a 5.5gallon starter kit from Petsmart.

The next day, I bought home a gorgeous satiny red Halfmoon named Finn. He sat in a poor empty tank with one single sad looking Amazon Sword until all the other things I bought for him arrived from Amazon.com. 

Now? I have (2) 20Longs, a 10gallon, (2) 5.5 gallon, and a 3gallon. But, still only 2 fish.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Finn has been quite the adventure for me. I made SO MANY MISTAKES, even tho I researched for nearly a month before bringing him home. I knew I wanted more than just a pet fish or a petty hobby... but I didn't know my love for all things aquatic would hit so hard so fast. 

I started out with black sand, a few plants, Marimo, and a teal geode. Slowly, his tank evolved, and the geode was removed because the color just didn't work for me anymore.

A few other decorations went in, but none ever lasted long. Turns out, I really loved the plants and natural look, so soon pottery bits were replaced with Cholla wood, and the Cholla was replaces with mopani, and my 3-4 plants turned into about 15... and I basically killed them all...


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Then I realized, "Oh, yeah, Duh Kari. Your water is softened and filtered. There is nothing in this water for your plants to live on!!"

That's when I went from Flourish, Flourish Trace, and Flourish Excel, and added basically the entire rest of the Flourish line, from Equilibrium to replace what the softener/filtration system took out, to dosing with iron and potassium and nitrogen and phosphorus too. 

Now my plants thrive more than i thought Possible... which is good... because I had added a second tank and another 20something plants... which I had almost killed off at that point.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

For Easter, I got my second tank. Another 5.5 Gallon starter kit, given to me lovingly by my BF and his mother. I was excited to have it. 

More excitingly, I decided I wanted to order a fish online. I wanted to find the PERFECT fish, instead of one I had to settle with at my local pet store. 

I found this amazing yellow and metallic blue marble on white.. He was perfect, and I loved him instantly. And he was a disaster. Since I wasn't ordering from overseas, just from Canada (I'm in the US), and wasn't using a transhipper or anything like that, I called around to the Border and Customs, Fish and Wildlife, UPS in both Canada and the US to make sure it was something I was allowed to do.

I had named the fish Sully, and he was a birthday present to myself. Unfortunately, he was returned to sender, ON my birthday, and I didn't have the money to try shipping him again. I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason, tho. So I tried to smile even tho I was so very, very upset.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

The next morning, I had running around to do with my BF, so we hit the pet stores in search for the best baby for me. It took the first store before McKinley stole my heart. Silver bodied, iridescent to pale aqua and pink, with soft yellow fins rimmed in smoke. He was so mellow compared to my Finn, and opened a whole new world of fish to me. I finally got to really, really see the differences in personalities.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Once I had my 2 tanks officially set up... all artificial decorations removed, all naturally planted... I was so happy with them. I spent so much time every day with my tanks. I had so much happiness.

I knew I wanted to upgrade eventually... Somehow petty hobbyist wasn't good enough anymore. Neither was weekend hobbyist. Nope. I wanted to dive into the whole world head first, even with the "timid" encouragement from my BF... He had understandable reservations...

But I was thinking 10 gallon tanks. Then upgrade from there later. Then my friend offered me her 55gallon. And the world of possibilities opened up to me. I didn't really want a tank that big. Not at all... But, I became intrigued. Her set up wasn't anything like what i wanted, so I wasn't interested too much in hers. 

But suddenly I was surfing Craigslist, daily, for anything and everything aquatic. And then Boom. DEAL of the CENTURY. Some lady was getting rid of everything "fish" she owned.

I struck. Hard. I gave her an (reasonable, but lowball) offer. 

She accepted. In nearly a heartbeat. 

Before I knew it, the next day I was driving home from South Anchorage with my ****SUV***** packed full of fish stuff. For $120. 

Ok ok ok.. it's a CUV, and its wasn't PACKED, but it was def. full of stuff.

I got home that night and instantly set up one of the 20longs for my boys. Today? Has been cleaning and taking inventory of everything that came with my package deal. My 2 5.5 gallon tank set ups are sitting empty, now. Which makes me a little sad. I think, one might become a guppy tank in my bedroom. 

In my little package deal, so far the inventory is up to:

20 Long with Tetra Whisper 20-40 internal filter, glass canopy, Aqueon Full Spectrum fluorescent light, 100W mini preset heater, substrate.

20 Long with Tetra Whisper 20-40 Internal filter, Full Aqueon Full Spectrum fluorescent hood, 100W mini preset heater, substrate.

10 Gallon, Tetra whisper 10-30 Internal Filter, Glass Canopy, Aqueon Full Spectrum Fluorescent hood, 50W Preset mini heater, Substrate.

3 Gallon acrylic tank, with built in Daylight/moonlight, filter, 25W heater, Substrate. (This one might actually be a 4 gallon, since I think THIS is the actual tank...)

4 pieces of Mopani Wood

2 decorations

A TON of very health plants

At least a pound if not more of breeders moss

2 air pumps, airline tubing, a few air stones, and other air pump accessories.

A TON of different foods and algae wafers

A few plug in timers, some nets, tongs, aquatic planting tools, extra biobags for the filters, and I haven't gotten any further than that, but there is at least 10-15 more small items.

Everything held fish until about 3 hours until I picked it all up, and she didn't have time to finish cleaning everything, and she was slightly disabled so even tho her tanks were VERY well taken care of, there was plenty of algae and snail shells scattered thru everything. I'm cleaning everything within an inch of its life today, since most of the equipment is going to be stashed in the garage for now, and I don't want my garage smelling like a rotten swamp.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Wow! That is a ton of supplies, awesome deal! So many possibilities, good luck with it.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I know! I have so many possiblities.. Haven't decided exactly what I wanna do yet.. I can't do much until I actually have a PLACE to put everything lol


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

So, Today was a cleaning day. The first thing I did was clean the old 5.5 tanks. Emptied the substrate out and strained out the crushed shell pieces that had gotten mixed in. Got it extra clean (so it won't stink since its still wet), and into a bucket. Then I cleaned the filters from those and the filter from the other 20 gallon. That alone was a 2-3 hour project!! 

Next, was the substrate from the 10 gallon tank in a bucket... she hadn't rinsed it or anything and it smelled HORRIBLE. (It is what it is... aquarium sand doesn't always smell great, and she went from posting it on craigslist to me walking away with everything in 24 hours, and in that time, she had to remove the fish, get them to the store so they could take them in, drain water, remove plants, all while in a walker. She did amazing. I hate saying "it was dirty" and making it sound like she didn't take care of anything, she really did.)

So I spend a TON of time just rinsing in HOT water, some time with vinegar, and pulling out what must have been 300 snail shells... When I FINALLY had it CLEANED, I then knew i wanted to add it to the 20gallon I have the boys in right now. She used a minimal amount of substrate, which I like to have a little more in my tanks. So, since it was a matching substrate, i knew that I wanted to add it to the 20 gallon.

So then, after just over an hour and a half cleaning this bucked of sand, I then removed the boys from their tank. Removed all the plants, siphoned some water, cleaned up things in the water. I then added the extra substrate, and then redid the divider.. Making EXTRA SURE the boys can't jump ship, since they spent all day today switching sides of the tank....

Replanted, added the boys back in. Cleaned up the kitchen cause I made a MESS of it all. And now it'll 11pm.. and I still need to clean up the other 20 Gallon before it stinks up my garage somethig fierce... I might actually just fill it with a few inches of water, and throw a clean filter in there for the night... Mostly because I'm just too tired to scrape all the algae off, and clean more and more and more...

The 3(possibly 4?) gallon tank was clean when she handed it over, so that doesn't need anything, and the 10 was emptied and cleaned too... so all that is left is the other 20long...


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I'm not sure what I want to do with all my new tanks. I have a .5 gallon that was originally going to be my Hospital tank when I had the 2 5.5 gallons, but at this point I think I can just throw that puppy away. 

I want to take one 5.5 gallon and turn it into a plant only tank... so I can keep growing my own jungles...

And I dunno if I want to make the "3" gallon into my new hospital tank... or If i want to use the other 5.5 gallon for the hospital tank... But I'm thinking I'll use the 3 gallon for that, with its built in lights and filter, just add the heater. It has a little bit of white substrate, I'll add a leaf hammock and whatnot, and leave it under the cabinet, and keep it ready for fishie emergencies.

And I totally want the 10 gallon to be set up, probably in my bedroom, as a guppy tank... Some adorable bright colored Endlers, or maybe even some tetras, or some corys... I dunno. Something different than the Bettas. I've done guppies and tetras and goldfish before, tho... Never done Gouramis, tho... maybe I'll do some pearl gouramis?? I dunno. Something small for the bedroom. No real plants, tho. Not for the bedroom. My bedroom is SUPER colorful and I want the tank to match lol. 

That still leaves a 5.5 gallon tank left that I have NO plans for... and a 20 gallon I don't have ROOM for, and I don't know if i want to do 2 divided 20longs and have myself 4 awesome bettas..... or if I wanna give my 2 boys each a 20 gallon jungle of awesome...

I HAVE SO MANY POSSIBILITIES MY HEAD IS SPINNING!!!! THAT ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY DOLLARS HAS OPENED UP PANDORAS BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

OOOOOOHHHHHHHH.... I was joking around with my BF earlier about making a red dessert landscaped tank and calling it Fury Road and getting a Betta named Max, Nux, and a female named Furiosa...

BUT THIS IS WHAT I WANNA DO WITH MY 10 GALLON NOW!!!! Reddish Substrate, red stone rocks, and some little shrub fake plants and fill it up with all my "War Pups".... Muahahaha... yessssss..... I will have my Mad Max tank!!!!


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## artemis35 (Jul 11, 2014)

So glad you started a journal about your massive haul!!!




> I HAVE SO MANY POSSIBILITIES MY HEAD IS SPINNING!!!! THAT ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY DOLLARS HAS OPENED UP PANDORAS BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I know, and isn't it _*wonderful*_ 

I am dying to know what kinds of plants you got. Can't wait for pictures.


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## artemis35 (Jul 11, 2014)

As far as tanks go, I would definitely keep the 3 gallon to use as a hospital tank. Easier (than a 5.5G or larger) to do daily water changes, and would use less medication, too.

I don't think you will need to use the 5.5 G to grow more plants for your 20Ls. IME, it isn't long before the opposite occurs; you need extra tanks to handle the excess growth from the original tanks :lol:

Maybe get a small CO2 system and use a 5.5 or 10G to grow more fussy, "harder" type plants that won't do as well in the bigger tanks?

A "dream" type tank for me has always been a super heavily planted divided (5 or 6 ways) 20L with a different colored shrimp species in each section. Unfortunately, my source water has ammonia (~1 ppm) in it, and is insanely soft (~1 gH and kH), so shrimp are a no-go for me.

I'll keep dreaming for you....


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Thanks! I have no idea what all the plants were... I had some REALLY long grass-like plants with a narrow leaf at the end... I mean 20 inches high at least, Finn loves to rest in the floating leaves part.

Then there are some taller red plants, some Tropical Ferns, the breeders moss, a small bit of that spirally wide blade grass stuff that I don't even know...

There was at least 3 assorted anubias plants, a couple more smaller plants that I'm totally lost on what they could be, and a few small chunks of something resembling pygmy chain but is not pygmy chain. Lol


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Oh! And the 3 gallon is officially the 4 gallon I linked too. I found the manual for it, lol.

So. It's a 4 gallon acrylic, with biowheel filter, 9bright white LEDS, 3 blue LEDS, and I out the 50w mini preset heater in it, have it clean and drained under the cabinet for hospitals and QT


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

My water is softened and filtered, so my GH was literally 0. My KH was about 150, but the GH was non existent. I use the Seachem equilibrium to restore my GH and they have the alkaline buffer to restore the KH... 

If you REALLY wanted shrimps... Get filtered water, treat with the Alkaline Buffer and Equilibrium. You could make it happen!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I freaked out over my haul... and called it my "Pandora's Box"....

So. Meet Pandora!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Today I went to the store to price out premade tank dividers... I was not happy with anything available, as there seems to only be one, and it is essentially the craft mesh that everyone uses anyways, with some godawful place holders that were ugly as sin...

No wonder everyone just makes their own! I really wanted something more aesthetically pleasing than just the craft mesh, but I also want something that'll allow water flow between the two sides and its a little more sturdy. There was one post on here not long ago someone made about a company that makes some AMAZING dividers for sale on E-bay that looked just straight up awesome. I might have to get one of those, but I love being crafty and I wanna figure something out that no one has done before...

I thought about maybe getting some cholla wood and weaving some fishing line inbetween them and putting them up like a little wooden picket fence, but it would be too hard to really avoid gaps, even tho that would look amazing planted... Maybe that can be a future project??

In the mean time, I think I might wind up getting some craft mesh and going what seems to be the classic way. If so many people do it, its got to eb good, right??

Right now, I have my new boy, Pandora, in the 4 gallon.. I was a little upset to find that the filter that came attached to it didn't want to suck in water. I finally decided that was OK, I wanted to use the smaller internal filter I was given anyways, since I can direct that flow a little better and it'll be better when I have that used as a hospital tank. The only problem, was removing the filter, meant the lights weren't able to be plugged in.

No problem for Kari MacGuyver! I spliced the lights from the hood onto a switch from a light I wasn't using anymore from my original 5.5 gallon black lid, and boom. Lights work on the 4 gallon! It's a little sparsly planted but it looks good for now and I thought it would be a good transition for him. He's already a MASTER at hiding in his tank, and when you walk away he ZOOOOOOMS around the tank super active and looking around the tank. He's approached me a few times when I came to the tank, but he's still a little timid. I think he'll be a lot like McKinley.

Finn is going great in his new diggs too.. he's really loving all the extra space tho he seems to be pouting that he can't get to the other side anymore. He's more active than i've ever seen him, and really seems to have blossomed in his new space. I also haven't seen a single bit of fin on the bottom of his tank, so either he's not gnawing on his tail anymore, or he's found an awesome hiding place...

McKinley is quite happy in his side too. He seems to really really love hanging out in the moss where the filter outtake is. It's almost like he's taking a shower and using the moss as a scrubbie lol.. He's adorable. He's active as always and ALWAYS comes to say hi to me. 

I think the boys are happy with all their plants and room to play... I'm so happy for them!

But now it's time to decide what I'm going to do with Pandora long term.. do I want to move him to the 10 gallon? Or set up the other 20L, divided, and give him half? I still need a place to put the second one.. I'm out of room! lol


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Oh, My! I need to update!!
SO! Pandora is now in one half of the other 20Long, as I moved some furniture around and set up the other 20 Gallon. I made a decent looking craft mesh divider, so I'm OK with it for now.

Monday, I'll be replacing the full good with a glass canopy, when i get paid, and I'll be filling the second half of the tank with another Betta!!

I promised my BF he could pick out the fish this time. He's actually kinda excited about picking out his own little boy to be in the tanks. I'm going to drive out to Anchorage, with my Half Gallon holding tank, filled with water from the tank he's headed to, along with a heater. Its an hour drive to Anchorage, where he lives (we commute  ) so, I'm going to set it up in his kitchen for now, with the heater. Then when he gets off work, we'll go find his boy, bring him home, and acclimate him into the half gallon... then he won't have to sit in his cup while William and I have dinner and watch a movie and spend time with each other, then the nearly hour drive home. The half gallon will have much better water quality, warmth, and a little extra space for the boy. 

I'll have pictures posted of the new set up here very soon! I promise! But I'm having some problems with dying plants, so I need to replace some, and get some fertilizer caps for those poor Sword plants I love so much... lol.

Once my tanks don't look as brown and sad, I'll take new and awesome pictures!!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Yesterday, I completely rearranged the fish area, so they're all more visible. Cleaned up the tanks a little bit.

Today, I went out and got 2 new fish.. whoops.

Meet Oberon (my BF's fish...) DoubleTail Halfmoon
Aaaand.. Paisley?? Haven't completely decided on it yet... Crowntail!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Paisley is now officially known as Lazarus. The more I called him Paisley, the less I liked it. Got a big ol' huge clean of Finn and McKinley's tank done just now, replaced the filter with the new ones, put in the better divider, moved things around, fertilized the substrate, replanted. Took out some driftwood, added to Lazarus's tank. Divided up the giant pile of moss so everyone gets some. Got Finn to take a MASSIVE poop, which is good cause he needed it. He was in a breeder box in Lazarus's tank with McKinley while I was cleaning up their tank. Letting them all flare at one another and exercise a little...

Lazarus is FEISTY... like WOW. he's a little flaring machine! Finally got McKinley to flare a little too, he's usually pretty mellow.


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

I didn't realize that you have a journal! *stalks*


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

It started recently and I just linked it to my signature like, 36 hours ago?? lol


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I Need to Update!!!

My 5 Betta's are now a HM, HMDT, SDeT, DeT, and a CT.... I now need a PK and a VT to round out the collection, and a female too.... I'm just a little addicted, me thinks... 

All the boys are doing great, and the new boys are settling in nicely too. Lazarus flares at EVERYTHING that gets near his tank.. I'm so very happy that he's already so protective of his new home, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Cause I'm like, "I Saved You." And man, that feels SO GOOD. 

Oberon already has some fin regrowth coming in... I've hot his tank up a little warmer than usual tanks, along with some Stress Guard and it's really helping him. Tho I have noticed that some of the "bites" seem REALLY evenly spaced.. is it possible that he's a Double Tail Halfmoon Combtail??? I suppose I won't know til he's more healed...??


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Dont forget HMPK!  I've currently got a HM, 2 HMPK, 1 veiltail, 2 crowntail, 1 PK, and one I'm not sure of. I need a DT, Delta, and Super delta, lol. 

Glad to hear the boys are all doing well! It'll be interesting to see what Oberon turns out to be like.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I'm going to group HMPK and PK together, even tho they're not, simply because if I don't, then I'll need a round tail and a spade tail and a non half-moon double tail and a double veil tail and a comb tail and a rose tail and a feather tail and a half sun.... -dies because she'll never afford all of those... -


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

And a double crowntail, too.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Dthmpk?


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I'll be perfectly preserved in death.... Because I'll be 90% ramen noodle preservatives.... The only difference will be that my skin will be permanently stained Kraft mac n cheese orange....


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Lol!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Oh! And I totally noticed when looking at my boys earlier... That WOW has McKinley grown!! He was so small when I brought him home... About half the size of Finn... Now he's catching up!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I did find the most gorgeous PK I think I've ever seen this evening. I posted him on the aquabid thread, along with a the biggest pectoral fins ive ever seen and the most adorablest koi girl ever


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Oh, My! I need to update!!

Today was tank cleaning day!! Finn and McKinley's tank was nice and clean still, so I sucked up waste on the gravel with a turkey baster, then did a 30% water change. 

Then I took care of Pandora and Oberon's tank. That one needed a little extra work, as some of the plants had some seriously yucky brown algae on them, so i took the plants out and washed it off. I also moved a few plants around, and then suctioned up waste while the plants were out, drained about 70% of the water, then refilled. Put Pandora back in his side, then left Oberon in the holding tank, and put Lazarus in Oberon's side.

Then cleaned up the 10gallon, which I had to do a 100% change on, because i moved some plants in, some plants out, rearranged the heaters and driftwood. I kept it fairly sparse in his tank, mostly because Will wants to give Oberon a castle.... I found it for him and he loved it... So he's going to buy them, and I'm going to turn the 10gallon into Oberon's Kingdom.. I have plans that will make William squeal...

First, that tank WAS going to be the one I switched to soil.... but, the castles are going to take up half of the floor space on the tank... so I might bring in one of the 5.5Gallon tanks to experiment with Soil... ANYWAY!! Allow me to blow your mind with my plans!!

First, these are the 2 castles that are going in:









The highest point of that first castle will be basically from bottom of the tank to the top of the tank, with barely enough room for the canopy to close. It'll leave about 4-5 inches on the right side of the tank that goes from front to back (where the filter will go), and it leaves the front half of the tank to be planted a little bit... Then, I'm going to replace the black backgroung with blue sky and clouds, and then use multi colored blue stones to make a "moat" around his castle... with just enough sand to be the ground and plant some pygmy chain sword and other foreground plants... Then on the right side, to hide the filter, I'll plant some taller live plants, with some plants behind the castle, too. It's going to look AWESOME!!! It will take up a good portion of his swimming space, but the castles are empty so he'll have those areas to hide, and a good amount of space in the front to swim around too...


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Today was a good day... ish.

Got 2 new awesome bits of Mopani wood that's currently soaking in a bucket.

Then got the boys all some Frozen Bloodworms for treats. They have Mysis and Brine shrimps already, but Mmmmmm bloodworms.

Then Pandora, Lazarus and Oberon all got betta hammock leaves. And got another 2 internal filters, one for Oberon's tank and a backup. Ordered little corner filters to fill with Matrix so my air pumps will be doing double duty.

Made it into and out of 6 pet shops without walking out with a fish, tho there was one GORGEOUS all white guy at the Petzoo with one itty bitty spot of black on his tail.... and I'm like OOOOOOHHHHJHJIJUIJUNIBHBSXNSWEOINFTWEJ the possibilities of marbling!!!! And there was an amazing super dark pineapple too... but, my heart is still pining for the little dude on AquaBid that I can't get. 

Replaced the hood on Pan and Laz's tank with a glass canopy, but the handle was broken, so right now there's a suction cup on there lol. Also picked up the CaribSea Eco-Complete to see how I like that. I figure, I really wanna try soil based but this was quicker and easier and a good stepping stone... I only grabbed one bag... and I can either try it in the 10 gallon and have it thicker like it suggests, or put it in Finn and McKinley's tank like I wanted to do... and Mix it with some of the sand in there... Dunno. I'm feeling too blech to do it right now anyway... Plus I want to get more plants tomorrow, since its the day that my petco gets its plants.


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

Hmm eyes castle suspiciously.....

Love your tanks!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Are you trying to steal my castles...??? or do they look dangerous??? lol


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

Oh no, you said the plastic plant was causing the fin biting. I have a small castle/hid that is the only thing that's decorative. Besides many silk plants of course. Maybe it's contaminating the water and causing my betta to bite as well. Hmm. 

I do love your castles though.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I've never used plastic plants... so that wouldn't have been me who said it....?


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

So sorry, I had 2 threads mixed up. Oops.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

LOL... it's ok. I'm like, uuuhhhh... I don't remember that?? LOL


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

Um it was a test to see what you would say.... Lol. I blame trying to follow multiple things on my phone. 

You have lovely fish and tanks. Which is why I had subbed here in the first place.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Thank you!! 

And I can't count how many times ive posted to the wrong thread lol


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I wanna put this in one of my tanks...


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

How is Lazarus doing? What's going on with him? I hope he's alright!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

WOW!! I totally forgot about my Journal!!! LOL!!

Lazarus is improving, I think. At least, he's stopped getting worse. The color loss/lesions grew FAST, then grew less fast, and now they're either not growing or just going extra extra slow. The fin deterioration has slowed too, but his pectorals are in bad shape... edges are in shambles and there are holes all thru them. His other fins, the webbing has been reduced by at least half. He's already a crowntail, but now he's a porqupine. There's tears in the middle of the webbing too where the white spots had attacked...

He's still acting fairly normal, tho you can tell moving his pectorals kinda hurt him because he's def moving those WAY slower now that they're ragged... poor guy is a trooper tho.


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Aw, poor buddy. I'm glad he's doing better, though.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I have some serious fingers crossed for him. I've never dealt with any poor fish this sick before. I've dealt with ich, I've dealt with cloudy eye, and a few other small things. I've never dealt with Columnaris... and it's def throwing me for a loop. 

As I was reading up, somewhere said bettas are more susceptible because of low immune systems... but I still feel like I let him down and maybe its all my fault. He was supposed to be my rescue story!! Rescued from deplorable conditions in murky orange water... he made it a month before his gill cover started to stick out, and it took two WEEKS to figure out it was columnaris becasue he had NO other symptoms until I peeked into his tank and went OMG YOU LOOK LIKE JEANS GONE THRU THE WASH WITH BLEACH!! All splotchy and terrible and I swear I hadn't seen him looking like that in the morning (tho the lights weren't on at that time...) and I just feel like maybe if I hadn't given up on figuring out the gill cover originally, he would have recovered before getting this bad. But after over a week of treating gently... and a few paraguard dips it got a little better but not much so I just gave up and put him back in his tank... and then like 4 days later BOOM... super sick.

I refuse to give up on him this time.


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

At least you figured it out, right? My poor Celeborn had it, and had visible symptoms of it when I got him, but I didn't even realize he was sick till he got super bad, and then I still didn't get it figured out till after he was gone. 

It sounds like you're doing everything you can, me and my bettas are rooting for you two!


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Means a lot to me and ALL the boys!!
I'm just glad that Pandora doesn't show any symptoms, so if he picked it up too he's being treated SUPER early lol.

He's got a LOT of people rooting for him... so no matter the income, at least he's loved and cared about!! That's more than most Betta's get.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Well Dang...

I think Lazarus has been "acting strong for Mommy"... without trying to anthropomorphize... he knows me being by the tank means food. I was making dinner and looked over, and he was laying across a piece of his driftwood and i could see him breathing hard and i was like OH NO!! So I run over to the tank and he's like MOMMY!!! And starts acting normal... he probably hasn't been acting completely normal, just while I'm around the tank.... Grrrrr


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Awwww, that's so sweet. Poor little buddy.


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

Poor baby. I hope he gets better soon!


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## Innerbeauty (Jul 31, 2014)

FinnDublynn said:


> Well Dang...
> 
> I think Lazarus has been "acting strong for Mommy"... without trying to anthropomorphize... he knows me being by the tank means food. I was making dinner and looked over, and he was laying across a piece of his driftwood and i could see him breathing hard and i was like OH NO!! So I run over to the tank and he's like MOMMY!!! And starts acting normal... he probably hasn't been acting completely normal, just while I'm around the tank.... Grrrrr


Awww.... don't you just hate it when pets do that. They need to complain, dadgum it! So sorry for your fishie struggles.


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