# Rambling about my boys



## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Rather then keep on rambling in threads I start asking for help I figure I'd ramble here. 

My boys are Monet, Pinkerton, and Mercury.

Monet is the oldest of the three, I got him in March from PetSense when my first boy Lucky passed away. He's a blue and red partial draonscale rosetail, with a sweet nature. Unfortunately the past 2 weeks he's been acting lethargic and does not want to eat, for the life of me I can't figure out what might be wrong with him, today he hid in his cave when I went to feed him. Speaking of which I need to do a water change on his tank due to the uneaten food in it. His tank is a 2.5 gal with mainly artificial silk plants and 1 live coin anubia. 

Pinkerton I got 5 weeks ago from PetSmart. He's supposed to be a pastel butterfly halfmoon or delta betta but I think he's aiming to be a plakat. He's a feisty guy who insist on leaping for his food despite my efforts to get him to not, he also regularly bites my finger when I feed him LOL. Unfortunately he's a tail biter and so far is winning in the battle to get him to stop. Next up to try is shrinking his tank with some craft mesh and hopefully de-ramshorning some anacharis and putting it in for more cover. If anyone can tell me where I can buy a betta sized cone of shame I'd be eternally grateful!

Mercury I got around 3 days after Pinkerton. I got him from WalMart and he's a copper crowntail that was in a cup labeled veiltail. He was really pale when I got him and I figured people would keep passing him up for prettier fish so I bought him, he's colored up beautifully! He's pretty laid back and loves to swim over and say hello or beg for good. Out of the 3 he's giving me the least amount of trouble health wise. 

Here's some pictures of the boys Monet's is from a week ago, and Pinkerton and Mercuy are from today.


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## Aldo (Jan 22, 2018)

They are lovely<3 Are all of them in the same tank?


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Aldo said:


> They are lovely<3 Are all of them in the same tank?


Thank you!

They're in different tanks. 

Pinkerton is in a 5 gal tank, it's why I'm wondering if he'd do better in a smaller one and stop the fin bitting. Mercury is in a 3 gal tank, and Monet is in a 2.5 gal one.

I've considered swapping tanks again, and putting Pinkerton into the 3 gal and Mercury in the 5 gal, but Mercury is doing excellent where he is and I'd hate for him to also develop a problem.


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## LeviTheFish (Dec 19, 2017)

All your boys are so pretty.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

A couple days ago I tried floating a piece of craft mesh in Pinkertons tank to see if he'd consider it top cover, I'm not sure if he does or not, but he has decided that it makes a really nice place to blow a bubble nest. I need to do a bit more research about how to do an Alum dip on plants and if anacharis will survive a dip. If will then I'll be able to move some of the anacharis from Mercury's tank into Pinkerton's. Which should hopefully solve the top cover problem.

For the past few days I've left the light off in Monet's tank, that seems to help a bit with his hiding, but unfortunately he's still very lethargic, and while he's eating a bit more he's still not eating like he used to. I really wish I knew what was wrong with him, no external problems that I can see, just the lethargy and lack of appetite. Once again I tested the ammonia and nitrite levels and both are fine.

Mercury is as cute and active as every. He's such a sweet boy and loves to come to the side of the tank to see what I"m up to.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Water change day, aka fiddle with the tanks day, and I'm a day late doing it. 

In addition to the water changes Pinkerton had his craft mesh removed, looks like the thrill was gone with it as no additional bubble nest were built. I floated some fake plants in the tank. I still need to get the anacharis ready, just been really tired lately and haven't wanted to fool with it. At the rate I'm going I'm lucky I got myself to do the water change. Pinkerton's tail is no better but no worse lately, and I'm still dosing with the Stress Guard. He's such a busy body and had to check out everything I did with the tank. Here's hoping he approved! 

Mercury got a new Aquatop IF-201 Internal Filter, I'm not sure if I like it as it's loud due to the spray bar. I'm thinking about submersing the spray bar and seeing if that helps. The illustration shows the spray bar above the water but I'm not sure if that's necessary or not. The box, in numerous places says it has an adjustable flow rate but I think I'm either blind or they lie. I see no way to adjust the flow rate and the instructions says the adjustable flow rate is on the 203 and 204 series.... Mercury seems to find it a fun filter and looks to enjoy swimming under the spray bar and having it push him to the bottom. I watched for awhile to make sure he could get out of the corners around it (Spray bar is facing the tank wall).

Monet continues to concern me. He's still lethargic, spends most of his day either hiding or hanging around the bottom, and while he now comes up to be fed he looses interest fast. At least he's no worse, and is a bit better so I'll count that as a plus.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

The aquarium sealant finally got here, alright it got here around 4 or 5 days ago, so when I did a water change on Mercury's tank I pulled out his bridge so I could officially block the holes in it's railing, I glued them to the outside and it doesn't look to bad, I'll post some pictures in a couple days when I put it back in the tank. Mercury's doing great but I do believe the brat is still eating the antenna off the ramshorns. 

Pinkerton is as feisty as ever, we've started a new game where he chases my finger around the tank then I chase him. He seems to enjoy the interaction. I also discovered that he'd rather chase his food as it falls to the bottom of the tank rather then pick it up off of his betta leaf. Discovered that one when the suction cup on the leaf decided to stop working. I think that maybe he's stopped biting his tail but it might be wishful thinking on my part.

Monet continues to worry me, while he's out and about more his tail really seems to be dragging him down, when he goes to the top and stops swimming he's nearly vertical in the tank. He's also barely eating poor boy. The more I think about it the more I wonder if he picked up a parasite from Sunny my old betta. I suspect that Sunny had parasites and the tank was Sunny's before I switched his and Monet's tank. While the tank he passed away in had been treated with General Cure I never did treat his old tank. Tonight after I did a water change on Monet's tank I put in 1/8 tsp of Prazipro. Hopefully it'll help and won't hurt.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Yet another water change, yet another one done 3 days late. Ugh, I can't seem to hit the week mark no matter how hard I try. I do believe I'm going to start doing water changes every 4 days, then maybe I'll actually do them once a week. 

On to updates about the boys.

Mercury is such a sweet boy but seems to be on the shy side. He'll run and hide if something startles him whereas Pinkerton comes to see what might have happened (unless it's really scary) and Monet just does not seem to care. Tonight he got his bridge back and he seemed happy with it, swimming around it and exploring underneath. I'm going to post some before and after pictures to show how the bridge turned out.

Pinkerton is seems happier now that I've been interacting with him more, he's biting his tail a bit less and I can see some new growth coming in. I need to get some new pictures of him to see how much better it is. He's built two bubble nest this past week so hopefully I'm right and he's a bit more content (he's not built one in all the time I've had him) although I do know that sick / dying betta will still build nest.

Monet, ahh my problem betta LOL. Appetite and energy wise he's about the same as he was last week. I used Tetra water conditioner for the water change, normally I use Prime, and redosed the PraziPro so I'll be seeing if that helps. The reason for the Tetra is that the manufacturer of PraziPro says it's best to not use Prime as it makes the medicine less effective. I turned a tank light on the tank, I've been keeping it off to lessen stress, and noticed that his fins are getting really tattered, I'm not sure if he's ripping them laying against the intake of the filter or if he's started biting after all this time. I covered the intake with fish net on the chance that it's the former and not the later.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well Monet seems more active this morning and is staying at the top of his tank like he used to, is a bit more interactive when he spots me, and was more eager for hes breakfast then he has been in awhile. He ate more and didn't spit out the food, but still didn't eat as much as he used to. Overall though he's doing better then he has in a month or two.

If anyone decides to try PraziPro don't use Prime when you do a water change before adding it to the tank, I did it both way. The first time, 10 days ago, with Prime, and yesterday with a different conditioner, and not using Prime seems to have helped. The first time I honestly forgot to switch conditioners, and didn't remember until after I had dosed the tank, so I just let it be rather then having to run carbon which I don't have on hand, or doing a 100% water change, and stressing Monet out by removing him from the tank. 

Hikari (maker of Prazipro) does not recommend using it with Prime, but the only reason I can find is that they both contain reducing agents. I'll have to call them to see why they are saying to not combine them.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Whelp, that didn't work out like I though it would! 

I've been looking into getting some other small fish to put in with Pinkerton and keep him occupied. Well yesterday I finally got to PetSmart and picked the boys up a new container of food, and I went and looked at the fish. The tanks at that PetSmart look great, crystal clear water, no algae, and the fish all look very healthy. I knew better then to get any tetra since I couldn't remember which were docile enough to go with a betta. Then I spotted some danio and though they would be great. I remembered reading that they could be housed with betta, and the tank requirements on the description of the fish indicated that they could be housed in my 5 gal tank. I knew that they were schooling fish so I bought 6 of them. I got them home and decided to look them up....... 

I have come to realize that whomever said a little knowledge is dangerous, is correct. You see I have now learned that there are different types of danio and the zebra danio, the ones I bought, are extremely active, should be housed in a 20 gal tank, are likely to nip the fins of a betta, and are a bit to active for a bettas liking.... Some said that they had success keeping them with a betta, Pinkerton is an active little busy body so my brain went..."Try it!" Into the tank the insane fish posse went. 

Pinkerton was very interested in his new tank mates and spent some time trying to chase them, but had no overt acts of aggression like flaring so after an hour I decided it would likely be alright and went off to join my friends for our Fri night game night. I got home 2AM and with the wisdom known to the over tired decided to research 10 gal tanks, and metal storage shelves to put it on, because I figured with more space would make everyone happy. I called it quits at 3:30 AM and noticed that Pinkerson was hiding behind the Ammonia Alert, something he's never done, so I abruptly with the wisdom know only to the exhausted set up my spare 2.5 gal tank. Did anyone else know that you can set up a tank in 10 min when you have to? Then proceeded to try and catch Zebra Danio, and get them into the newly set up tank..... Yeah that's easier said then done.... Zebra Danio are like a bunch of hornets amped up on Red Bull and 5 Hour Energy..... It took my around 45 min to catch 4 of them, at which point I gave up. So 4 are in the 2.5 gal, 2 are still in the 5 gal.

I feel sick today, sore throat, exhaustion, and headache will do that. I still have 2 Danio to try and net, a filter to put on the 2.5 gal, a neighbor to contact to see if she want to own the insane fish posse, and no energy to accompish any of it.

Folks learn from my mistakes, thoroughly research the exact type of fish you think you might want to get, and if you have any doubt do not, repeat, do not, put the fish in your tank if they are extremely active ones like the Danio are because they are a pain in the neck to get back out again!


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Thinking, thinking, thinking.... I could get the metal storage shelves, and a 10 gal tank. Leave Pinkerton in the 5 gal, and set the 10 gal up for the insane fish posse. I know it's not ideal, and the last thing I want is 4 tanks, but the Danios shouldn't have to pay because I messed up. If I give them away I'm pretty sure they'd be kept in a tank no bigger then a 5 gal, most likely a 2.5, and I can't get back to PetSmart to return them.

I just hate having to try and move the 5 gal.


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

@Rainbo....

Try catching 3... I think it was 335 baby Blue Zebra Danios. Yep, that's right. Somewhere over the 300 mark. Had to catch all of them once every two weeks to do W/Cs, count them, and cull if needed. I still have 150 or so in tubs in the garage. They're all super tiny, but I don't have the heart to cull 150 of them. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them lol.

If you could, I would get a 36" metal shelf (They sell heavy duty ones, 5 tier, for like $40) and set up a 20G long and a couple of 5.5s. You could divide the 20 into a 15G and 5G section, and then have the other two Betta in the 5.5 while still giving both the Danios and Bettas adequate space.

(Or, you could get a 40GB which fits perfectly on 36" shelving and then do a massive community... *wink*)


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Oh my, I couldn't imagine trying to catch that many! It must start out easy then quickly move into a headache.

I'll admit to having thoughts on flushing the little things if I caught them, but I'd never do that it's not there fault that I brought them home and I don't have the heart to kill them. Still trying to convince myself to go catch the last two but I still feel horrid and am dreading it. Never again though! I'm creative making mistakes but rarely make the same one twice.

I'm looking for 3 tier shelves, 5 tier is going to be too tall for my tiny living room. Trying to find ones that are 24" or longer and do not have adjustable shelves is a pain though. I'd love the adjustable shelves if I weren't so terrified of the plastic pieces that hold the shelves failing. It's one thing when 100 lbs of cans fall, and quite another when 100lbs of water, gravel, and glass falls.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

ThatFishThough said:


> @*Rainbo* ....
> If you could, I would get a 36" metal shelf (They sell heavy duty ones, 5 tier, for like $40) and set up a 20G long and a couple of 5.5s. You could divide the 20 into a 15G and 5G section, and then have the other two Betta in the 5.5 while still giving both the Danios and Bettas adequate space.



I've toyed with getting a 20G but don't have the money for all the equipment I'd be needing to buy right away. The filters I have are rated up to 10 gal and the spare heater is 25 watt. The plan is to get a 10gal aquarium for $14, a 50 watt heater, and a stand, then upgrade stuff as I get the money. 

Luckily I can leave Mercury and Monet, in the tanks that they are in now and shouldn't have to move them. If I put them in the 5 gal they'd have less space since their current tanks are wide rather then tall.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well all the posse are in the 2.5 gallon, hopefully I'll be able to get to WalMart and get a 10 gal and something to put it on for them in the next few days, just have to feel better then round up a ride there. I think Pinkerton is glad to have his tank to himself again, those danio are certainly active little fish. 

Here's a picture of the little guys in their temporary tank.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well just as soon as the stand for the tanks get here I'll be setting up the Zebra Danio's new 10 gallon tank. 

I went with the Aqua Culture 55 gal stand, more expensive but I'm paranoid about a stand failure and 15 gal of water, substrate, and fish all over my floor. Also the metal storage shelf stands I found were nearly $50 and I'd still need to buy plywood to put on them, so I'd be up near what I paid for the Aqua Culture stand. I've also got a Fluval heater coming around the same time as the stand, maybe a day later, and some live anacharis, and anubia coin coming in around a week. I still need to get a tank cover but Drs Foster and Smith were out of the one I want and there was no way I was paying $18 more on Amazon for the same cover. The zebra danio were a rather expensive mistake....... 

Pinkerton seems to be happier now that the posse is out of his tank and he ought to be even happier because most of the anacharis is for him.

Mercury remains his same sweet, cautious, self. He likes to watch me but darts away if I try to play with hm like I play with Pinkerton.

Monet, poor boy, I do not know what's wrong with him, he remains lethargic, barely eats, and now seems to be losing his color, I don't know what to do to help him. I've tested his water and while the cycle in that tank seems to have crashed (I didn't realize I had turned the filter down so much it was barely running), the ammonia and nitrite were at 0. I've treated him for parasites, but that's the only thing I've treated him for. I wish I knew what to do for my poor boy.

The Insane Fish Posse (Zebra Danio) seem to be doing alright in the 2.5 gal, 5 like to swim together while the 6h seems to have staked out the bottom back part of the tank as his and hangs out back there. They are eating well and have no signs of disease despite the stress the poor things were put through.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Last ditch effort to do something to help poor Monet I'm going to switch out the gravel. I was reading reviews on the brand of gravel I got, but a different color then the one I had, and it seems that the color will flake off and leach into the water, some people reported that there fish were acting sick due to it. I just have to wait for the new gravel to arrive, probably 2 days from now. I may move poor Monet to a hospital tank in the mean time just to see if the poor boy perks up.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well on Tuesday afternoon I took Monet out of his 2.5 gal tank and put him in a hospital tank along with one of his silk plants, his live Anubia Coin, and his heater. By that afternoon he was more interested in food then he had been for quite awhile. The next morning he was doing a bit better and he ate well, honestly it's the best I had seen him doing for probably a month. Later that morning he scared the heck out of me by being on the bottom of his tank bent double like the letter n. What the.... I think the might have been looking for dropped food, or preparing to attack his tail which he did a short time later. 

In the meantime his new gravel arrived. I stripped his tank, threw out all the old gravel, cleaned the tank with vinegar and rinsed it well. Rinsed everything in it in hot water, cleaned the filter with vinegar, and rinsed the filter sponges in clean, treated, water. Then put the whole thing back together minus one of the silk plants. I let the filter run for an hour, put the heater back in and let it calibrate for an hour, then let the whole thing run for another hour before putting Monet back in. 

Today Monet is more active then I've seen him in months, he's swimming around checking everything out, laying in his plant, inspecting the gravel, he actually went after his food this morning.

It's making sense though. He'd seem to be doing a little better after a water change despite the levels always being good. I was taking the toxic water out, replacing it with fresh water, only to have the toxins build back up within a day or two. Those water changes likely saved his life. It's also probably why the PraziPro seemed to work at first, I followed the directions and did a large 75% water change before using it. Now I just wonder if whatever chemical in the gravel was causing the problem did lasting damage :-(

Oh he's definitely tail biting and I'm not sure if he's marbling or his blue color loss is from something else...

Here's some pictures. The first is his old tank set-up, second is new tank set-up, third is how he used to look, and forth how he looks today.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

*Mutter* Whelp, not a happy day today. I woke up this morning and noticed that the 10 gal with the 6 zebras was looking pretty quiet and bare. I took a closer look and noticed one zebra belly up, and one swimming. I started really looking and spotted another belly up, spotted finally spotted a 4th hiding in the back of the tank. found the 5th belly up in the anacharis, and the 6th finally put in an appearance. So I've got 2 frightened zebras, a third that looks to be barely hanging on, and no idea if it's the stress of the past couple weeks or something else that killed them. They were fine yesterday schooling to the side of the tank I was on to be fed, and acting fine. The only thing that changed was the plants I ordered arrived yesterday evening and I put the anubia and 2 pieces of anacharis in the tank the bulk of the anacharis is in the 5 gal with Pinkerton and Pinkerton is acting fine.

I don't want to get more Zebras until I know that the 3 remaining are healthy, but I know they need 6 or more to help reduce stress and feel secure so I really don't know what to do. I was planning on getting a 20 gal long for them in a couple months.... 

On the betta front... 

Mercury remains his sweet, shy, self. I swiped two of his ramshorn snails and stuck them in the 10 gal since the remaining zebra's seem to not be eating right. That and it gives the ramshorns a break from Mr. Mercury eating their antenna. 

Pinkerton seems to have laid off biting his tail for the time being, I'm seeing new, clear, growth coming in. He seems to love that anacharis and is spending some time hanging out in it.

Monet is doing better, but not yet fully recovered, I'm not sure if he'll ever be but I just take what I can get. His color is so different then it's been in the past, it's like the blue faded and the vibrant red of his tail is now dull. I spotted a white spot on his back that I'm keeping an eye on I'm not sure if it's more color change or something else.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Lost another zebra overnight, now there is one. I expect he'll likely pass away sometime before tomorrow morning as he's spent the day hiding. I just hate that I lost them like that, hard lesson to learn and it doubly sucks when living critters paid for my mistake. 

I think I'll let the tank cycle with the 2 ramshorns I put in it for a month and maybe move one of the boys into it, probably Mercury and he's most likely to do good in it, but first I want to get a lot more top cover and plants in it since he's used to living in an anacharis jungle. If I don't move him I'll rescue another betta. Time will tell. I do have a Java Fern on driftwood coming for it, and have an anubia coin, and two sprigs of anacharis in it, along with a host of plastic and silk plants.

On a happier note Mr. Pinkerton seems to have finally stopped styling his tail! I spotted new, clear, growth on it tonight. It just took floating 2 anubia coins, around 3 pieces of soft, plastic, bushy, plants, and as of Monday a bunch of live floating anacharis to accomplish it. 

Here's some pictures, the first is at most a week after I got him before he started on his tail styling project. second is the last one I took of what he managed to accomplish in his styling project, and the third is from tonight and you can see the new growth.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Water change day... Yay.... 

That one zebra, oh that one zebra. Ever really hope that you'll lose a fish, while simultaneously hoping that you don't because your rooting for him? The reason you hope that he won't is because you bough him and his buddies thinking you could properly house them but found out you couldn't in the tank you had. You lost 5 of them apparently from stressing them out by playing tank hopping, he's the only one left and if he passes away you won't have to upgrade everything, and as bad as he is doing you fully expect he won't make it.. I'm that person. Only thing is that after spending 2 days hiding in a cave barely moving, my expecting to wake up to him being gone by the next day and getting a betta to go in the tank the zebra is in, zebra boy has rallied. He's got a name now, his name is Marty. I bought artificial plants to give the betta some top cover and as I was placing the plants, I noticed that Marty was out of hiding. He's been out of hiding every since, and he was very eager this morning. Me this morning, "Yep he's still swimming around darn it... Aww I'm going to make sure to include the smallest pellets I can find and soak them so he doesn't have trouble eating them, here baby he's some broken off pieces of brine shrimp." Looks like I'm going to need to get a 20 gal long, and 6 or so more zebras. What I'm not sure about is if I should wait to get the zebras, Ive done enough rushing in and really do not want to rock the boat since Marty and the betta seem to be co cohabiting peacefully so far.

New betta's name is Cinnabar, he's a lovely red veiltail with a blue wash (at least I think it's a blue wash) that makes his body look purple when the light shines on it. His occupation today seems to be glass surfing the back of the tank, I'm not sure why but am hoping that he looses interest in doing that. 

Pinkerton is really enjoying his anacharis, crypt, and anubia, jungle. He's a bit more active and is still leaving his tail alone. Yay for small successes.

Mercury is still doing well, he seems to be the most cautious of the 4 betta, and while he'll eagerly beg for food he ducks away if I try and get him to follow my finger as I trail it along the glass.

Poor Monet. He's still not doing well, better then he was but not well. His behavior is still totally different then what it was before he got sick. He's still coming up for food, but is very lethargic, and no longer comes out to greet me like he used to. The vibrant blue on his body is now a dull wash over the red, and I don't know if he has the marble gene or if it's in indication that somethings wrong.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

SIP my beautiful boy. Monet I wish I could have solved the puzzle of what was making you sick. I wish I could have saved you. I'll miss you and will always love you. Goodbye baby, SIP


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

I'm so sorry for the loss  
SIP Monet


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well I haven't updated since I lost Monet. I still miss the little guy and hate seeing his empty tank. I'm not sure what I want to do with the tank, but I lean most towards tear it down. I'm letting it sit empty for a month at so that any bacteria, fungus, or parasites die off due to lack of host, before I make a final decision. If I decide to keep it set up, I'll still tear it down and do a complete cleaning before setting it back up. 4 tanks were a bit much for me to keep up with , but then it might have just been partially due to the stress of his being sick and my not knowing what to do to help him. 

Mercury remains the shyest of the 3 I now have. He's a sweet boy, but if I try and get him to follow anything he goes and hides among the anacharis rather then come and investigate. He always comes out for food though and will swim to where I feed him whenever he spots me.

Pinkerton seems to have started styling his tail again, dunno why but I do know I've done everything I know to do to get him to stop. He's my jumper, and if I do not put his food in the water he will jump to try and get it. I need to start playing with him more, I got busy and slacked off on doing that. It seemed like he bit his tail less when I played with him.

Cinnabar, is doing well. He's not glass surfing anymore and seems to be content patrolling the tank. He decided to try and snack on my fingers when I cleaned his tank this week, before giving up, silly boy. His tankmates also seem to be doing well. Marty the Zebra Danio is a confirmed pig and given his speed he has an amazing ability to gobble up the pellets before anyone else has a chance to eat. There's also the bronze cories, in there. They've finally settled down and are no longer zooming around like a bunch of 3 year olds on a sugar high set loose in Disney World. Unfortunately Marty and Cinnabar seem to have paired up and decided that the corys should starve, I've had to get creative to feed the corys and not overfeed the other two.

Upcoming plan is to switch out the gravel in Cinnabars tank and replace it with sand. I think the corys will be happier with that. I'm also wanting to replace the filter on that tank because I've read multiple reviews of how the one I have tends to malfunction and empty the tanks water onto the floor, and I want to get a glass canopy and get rid of the makeshift lid I have on the tank. In the future I hope to get either a 20 gallon long, or a 29 gallon and move everyone into that.


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## triple (Jan 13, 2018)

Mercury is a goregous boy! So very pretty. Then again, I've got a soft spot for crowntail bettas <3


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Did a water change yesterday, and today the new filter or the 10 gal came in. Perfect timing! Hopefully the filter will fit in the space available behind the tank otherwise I'm going to have to wait till the sand come in for the tank and I empty it, it's way to heavy for me to move while it's full of water. The sinking pellet food for the cory cats also came in, so problem solved with how to feed them, so far the pig Marty the zebra fish does not recognize it as food although he did check it out. 

While doing the water change yesterday Cinnabar seemed fascinated by the gravel vac. He swam over and stared at it watching the stuff go up the tube. I was extra careful to make sure that he did not accidentally get sucked up.

Both Pinkerton and Mercury continue to do well. 

Here's a picture of one of the Corys hiding under the leaf, he stayed while the other 5 scattered when I sat by the tank with the camera. Shy little guys.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Drs Foster & Smith lost a sale. I've waited for over a month for them to get the Versa Top. Amusingly they put the top on sale without ever having the top in, all last month they claimed the top was expected in 4-3-18, I tried to order it today and now it's expected in on 4-11-18. So if I waited another week to get it and they did have it in on that date (not holding my breath), I would not get the top until the following week. Along with the top I was going to get sand for the cory cats. The sand is the reason I'm not willing to wait another week on the off chance that they top would finally be in. 

So Thursday the top, sand, and slate to build a cave should arrive. Can't wait to get the cory's on sand and see how the tank turns out. 

Oh fair warning to anyone thinking about getting java fern on driftwood from Green Pro on amazon. While the plant is beautiful and doing well, it came with a free order of either pond or bladder snails. I've pulled 3 out of the tank since I put it in there. I'm just trying to decide if I should pull my ramshorns out of the tank and get an assasin snail to take care of any more pond snails, or hope that I don't have anymore in their. If I put in an assassin I guess I'll have to wait to put in MTS... Not happy about the hitchhikers, not happy at all.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

The sand, slate, and versa top came in, so I redid the tank.

The sand, oh the sand... The sand was supposed to be wet, and supposed to contain beneficial bacteria. When I brought the box that it was delivered in I noticed a highly suspicious noise coming from the box. When I put it down I noticed sand pooling at the side of the box.... Opening the box revealed a pile of loose sand and another, smaller, box. Opening that revealed the Caribsea bag of sand and still more loose sand in that box. The sand in the bag was bone dry and the bag was open at the seam on the side. Last I checked the beneficial bacteria needed to remain wet in order to live, at least all but a pound of the sand remained in the bag so I was able to fill the tank and still have enough left over for what I want to do with the 5 gal.

The fish did not appreciate being moved from their palace into a cardboard box aka 2.5 gal holding tank, and Cinnabar and Marty are not sure that the new substrate was worth the hassle of being moved, they're slowly exploring the rearranged plants, but the cory's seem to be supper happy about the sand. They're busily shoving there little faces in the sand before swimming a bit and doing it again. I can imagine them saying, "Sand!!! Oh, lovely, soft, silky, SAND!" Hopefully Cinnabar and Marty settle back in quickly.


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## KendraPM (Feb 13, 2018)

Rainbo said:


> That one zebra, oh that one zebra*. Ever really hope that you'll lose a fish, while simultaneously hoping that you don't because your rooting for him? *


I have been there. I bought 12 shrimp to clean my betta's tank, and over a two week period lost all but one of them. I waited for him to die, figuring shrimp just weren't for me, and even went out and got a snail. It's been a few months now and I finally broke down, bought him three girlfriends, and named him Conan. He's a proud warrior, last of his people, survivor of impossible odds, mighty defender against Loki (he rears up every time my betta get's near him), and proud (step) daddy of 12. I've grown quite attached to the little guy.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

KendraPM said:


> I have been there. I bought 12 shrimp to clean my betta's tank, and over a two week period lost all but one of them. I waited for him to die, figuring shrimp just weren't for me, and even went out and got a snail. It's been a few months now and I finally broke down, bought him three girlfriends, and named him Conan. He's a proud warrior, last of his people, survivor of impossible odds, mighty defender against Loki (he rears up every time my betta get's near him), and proud (step) daddy of 12. I've grown quite attached to the little guy.



Aww I'm glad that Conan made it! Amazing how we fall in love with them when they are so spunky and refuse to give up. I got so worried about Marty when I changed the substrate in the 10 gal. When I put him back in the tank he took to laying on the bottom refusing to move for awhile and I about panicked. He's fine though, back to his piggy self trying to gobble up all the food.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Been meaning to update for the past few days, but got busy and put it off. 

Updates, and a picture dump.

10 gal it's still a work in progress but I'm getting there. The substrate is now sand, and the plants somewhat rearranged. I took out the artificial rock ornament, and put in a homemade slate cave. I'm not entirely happy with the way the cave turned out but I did the best I could with the materials I had. Marty the zebra danio remains a food hog and Cinnabar the red veiltail betta has taken to snacking on the cory's food. Looks like I'm going to have to figure out a creative way to feed the corys. Speaking of corys, they are loving the sand substrate, so I'm happy that I got it for them, it was worth the cost and hassle of doing the substrate change. 

5 gal~ Sometime this week I want to change out the substrate under the crypts and see if that helps them grow a bit better, they were a lot thicker and prettier back when I had soil in that tank. Pinkerton is as spunky as ever and isn't tail biting quite as bad. He's getting a bit more red in his tail.

3 gal~ I'm thinking I might need to trim some of the anacharis back in that tank, it's getting really thick. Mercury is a sweet boy but very timid. I put a mirror up to his tank to see if I could get a picture of him flaring but he swam to the other side of the tank. So instead of flaring pictures I have some of his hanging out around his bridge LOL.

The 2.5 gal remains empty, I want to run it another week before moving the new betta into it. Right now it's the home of snails I was pulling out of the 10 gal that had hitchhiked in on the javafern, I took to euthanizing the snails once I figured out just how many had hitchhiked. 

Did I mention new betta? Yep got another one about 23 hours ago. I stopped on the aisle where they keep the bett at Wal - Mart to see if they had any I couldn't live without and found one that would likely die if someone, who knew how to treat severe fin rot didn't get him out of there. So he came home with me. He's in a heated 2.5 gal hospital tank with a bubbler to keep the water mixed (learned the hard way not to run a heater without something stir the water a bit) and currently being treated with Kanaplex, IAL, and StressGuard. I'm trying to figure out if he has velvet or not, I spotted gold on the base of his anal fin, and on his caudal fin. I'm really hoping that it's not velvet as I do not have anything on hand to treat it. Until I know for sure he's in strict quarantine! No name yet either..

Picture time! 1st pictures are before and after of the 10 gal tank. next up are the slate cave, after that a picture of Cinnabar, he's gotten so pretty. Then an updated picture of Pinkerton, I'm loving the extra red in his caudal, following that one of Mercury and his beloved bridge. Bringing up the rear some of the new boy, first in his cup, I'm at a loss as to what the fluffy grey stuff in the bottom of it was, and another to show just how tattered he looks and the gold dusting his fins. Please don't let it be velvet.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Update on the new boy. Looks like he did not have velvet and the gold on his fins is just his coloring. He finished dose 3 of the Kanaplex last evening and he's done very well through all of it. His fins are looking better, I see no new growth yet, but they are now unclamped and just looking healthier overall. He'll be moving to my 2.5 gal long tomorrow, it has more swimming room. He also has a name, it's Bruiser. He's named after his black and blue coloring, and because he is such a little fighter. He survived fin rot in his Wal-Mart cup and never once acted like he was giving up the fight.

Lesson that I have learned... If you ever find a small pond snail in your tank that stowedaway in a plant that you ordered. Do not have mercy on it and put the dang thing in a tank that you have any intention of using again for a betta unless you want lotsa pond snails in that tank. I made the tragic mistake, around a month ago, and put a pond snail in my 2.5 gal long. MISTAKE! I have now learned that pond snails are incredibly messy, they produce a ton of waste, and apparently they are ready to mate when they are born because today, while getting the 2.5 gal ready for Bruiser I spotted multiple baby pond snails. I just hope that the cleaning I gave the tank took care of them. the pond snail is now in a 1 gal tank because I still don't have the heart to kill the little pest. Mutter.....

I'll get some pictures of Bruiser in the new tank tomorrow, and post them.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I should have known! I should have known that any fish crazy enough to fight the filter would not want to stay in the tank. I had been sitting here and heard a splash or two and thought that I had better put the mesh cover back on his tank. I heard another splash and got up to cover the tank, noticed some water on the tank stand, looked down and was Bruiser laying on the ground. I scooped him up, put him back in the tank, threw in some IAL and redosed the tank with StressGuard. So far he's swimming around like nothing happened. He's lucky that I didn't step on him or my dog didn't snack on him. I just hope the boy is alright.

Here's those pictures I promised. No idea how he'll end up looking after his adventure, but this is how he looked Friday.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Bruiser..... That boy.... I don't think feisty quite covers it. 6 days ago I moved him into his tank and a little while after the move I caught him trying to fight the filter outflow. He flared at it, swam at it only to be pushed back by the flow, and bit the side of it (when the tanks filled the edge of the outflow is in the water) he finally gave up. The next day was the day he decided to explore the living room and jumped out of his tank. Today I put a light on the tank, it hangs on the side of the tank and the lip of it is in the inside of the tank. Mr. Bruiser decided that it was a threat and tried flaring at it. Such a lot of attitude in that itty, bitty, body! Not sure how he's going to react to my moving the heater and light when I do water changes in a little while. At least he's feeling good.

Pinkerton's tank, the 5 gal, got redone, I took out the gravel under the crypt and ruffled swords and put sand under them. Hopefully they do a bit better. The anubia coin got separated and now one is on either side of the tank, and I took out the yellowed part of the anacharis. I'm not sure why anacharis does not like that tank but for whatever reason it doesn't. The portion I put in the 10 gal looks great... Overall it looks a lot less cluttered in the tank and Pinkerton still has plenty of top cover. Oh I thought I lost Bert and Ernie, the nerite snails, when I did the change. I emptied the water out of the tank after moving Pinkerton, and completely forgot about the snails. Pulled the plants out, messed with the substrate, added the plants back in, and was refilling the tank when I remembered Bert and Ernie. I looked in all the containers I had been using and couldn't find them. About an hour after the tank was completely filled I glanced at the tank and there they both were crawling around on the side of the tank. I still don't know where they might have been hiding.

Cinnabar, and Mercury are both doing good, as are Marty the Zebra fish and the cory cats. 

Here's before and after pictures of the 5 gal.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Confessions of a bad fish keeper.

Last month was a bad one for me and I was really, really bad about doing water changes. I think I did one at the beginning of May, one around mid May, and I just got finished doing one today, yep averaging 2 to 3 weeks. Thank God I have plants in all my tanks that's all I have to say.

I tested the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels on all 4 tanks before doing water changes and all four had 0 ammonia and nitrite. The nitrate level varied, 10 gal had the highest level at 80, tomorrow I'll be doing another water change on it. The 5 and 2.5 gal were around 40, I'm planning on testing the water in those tanks on Friday. The 3 gal was perfect with the nitrite level at around 5 to 10. The 3 gal sits by a window, has a bunch of ramshorn snails in it, along with Mercury the betta, and it's loaded with fast growing anacharist. All I can think is the anacharist uses most of the nitrates. I'm pretty sure I have been overfeeding the crew in the 10 gal, and I'm planning on cutting back on that, maybe it'll help the nitrate lv. The 5 gal I've been fighting with the ruffled amazons in it, they want to float and I've gotten rid of 2 more that had little to no roots, I'm not sure what's causing the nitrates in that tank. The 2.5 had the anacharis partially melt before it grew, that's likely the cause for the nitrates in the tank, I'm planning on doing another water change on it to further get rid of some of the mess made by the melting plants, hopefully that'll take care of the problem.

All 4 boys are doing well, no change with them, Mercury remains shy, Bruiser is still feisty as ever, Pinkerton seems a bit more laid back now that he has more plants, Cinnabar is a pig disguised as a betta, he's the largest of the boys and lives in the 10 gal.

Marty the zebra fish seems to have decided to join up with the cory cats and hangs around with them on the bottom of the tank, I guess he's decided they are his school, he's extremely fat but I do not know how to keep him from eating the bottom feeder pellets, I live in expectation of seeing him pop. 

Oh if anyone has a light that clips onto the edge of the tank do NOT fill the tank over the piece that hangs on the inside of that tank, I did that, and had been doing that with the Pico light I have on the 2.5 gal and never had a problem till a week or two ago. All day I had been noticing a sparkling drop falling down the back of the 2.5 but never got up to investigate, that evening I noticed a puddle around the side and back of the tank and about panicked thinking the tank had broke. Nope the thank hadn't the water was leaching up the lights clip and over the side of the tank.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I'm beginning to wonder if a tank can be cursed. Every fish I put in my 5 gal seems to abruptly get lethargic and then it's downhill from there. The latest is poor Pinkerton, I noticed for the past month or two that he's not been as active as he used to be, but spends most of his time laying in the crypts at the bottom of the tank. I wasn't too worried figuring maybe he likes it down there because it's shadier and has more cover. The anacharis is finally filling in and offering more top cover along with the anubia coin that I leave floating, and he's still spending more and more time laying around at the bottom of the tank. I'm beginning to question whether he sees very well as he seems to miss food falling right in front of him and today was the worst I've seen him miss. Right after eating this morning he laid on the anubia coin for a few minutes completely not moving. Aside from fin biting I don't see anything physically wrong with him. He's the smallest of my bettas but other then that looks healthy. The water in the tank is fine, I tested thinking maybe an ammonia spike or something but it's 0 ammonia and nitrite, 10 to 20 nitrate.... Why does this keep happening to betta in that tank???

The other 3 boys are doing very good. Cinnabar parols his tank stealing the cory cats and Monty the fat zebra fish's food. Bruiser is very active and still likes to fight the filter after a water change and play in it's current. Mercury is still the shiest of the 4 but comes out to see me when I go by his tank. As far as I can tell he still likes trimming the ramshorns antenna, naughty boy..


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I'm hoping and praying that I'm wrong, that I'm simply paranoid and being a hypochondriac where it comes to him, but I think Pinkerton has the beginnings of pineconing. Really, really, really hope that I'm wrong because if it's that I've no idea what could be causing it besides organ failure. I know I could treat him with some epsom salt but I'm not sure what good it would do or if I even want to put him through the stress of the treatment. My poor boy! I miss his spunky attitude, he used to jump when I fed him so eager to get his food, now while he still eats it seems to exhaust him to try and get the food, and he hasn't jumped in over a week. I just wish I knew what was wrong and could help him :-( 



On a side note I raised the light on his tank up off the glass and it seems to have made him a bit more comfortable, he's laying on his anubia coin at the top of the tank rather then among the crypt at the bottom.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

My poor Pinkerton remains much the same. He hasn't pineconed more, but doesn't look any less either. It's just a slight pineconing, and I have to view him from above and shine a flashlight on him, to really see it, looking at him from the side it's not noticeable. He still has an appetite but it seems that the activity needed to get his food tires him quickly and he's stop, midway through and become motionless. I wish I knew something that would help, but aside from the dropsy, and his chronic fin biting, I can't see anything physically wrong with him. I'm going to switch him to frozen food and see if it helps, and do a water change today. If nothing else it'll hopefully make him a bit more comfortable. He's not old at all, I got him and Mercury back in Dec.

Know what's strange? Out of the 4 betta that I currently have he seemed to be the healthiest when I got him. Mercury was completely pale and pretty listless. Cinnabar had some fin clamping going on. My poor Bruisers caudal fin was half rotted off and his anal fin was also rotting. Yet it's Pinkerton who's sick, I just don't get it. I swear that 5 gal tank is cursed!


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Pinkerton is still hanging on, no better, but not sure if he's worse or not. He seems a bit more swollen, and this morning he was hiding in the cave in his tank. In my experience that is not a good sign as all my other betta have only done that when they were really not doing well. Hopefully I was wrong about where he was. He's still eating well and I've switched him to an all frozen diet. Aside from mild pineconing, and him biting his fins more then he normally does, I just don't see anything wrong with him, wish I knew how to help him.

Cinnabar remains king of the 10 gal, he patrols the tank, steals the cory cats, and Marty the Zebra Fish's food, and a couple days ago decided to try and attract some ladies by building a bubble nest.

Mercury remains my shy guy, he's a little piggy and loves his food, still harasses the ramshorns in his tank (none of them have antenna courtesy of him), and is also trying to attract the ladies, his bubble nest is not nearly as impressive as Cinnabar's but it'll do!

Bruiser remains fiesty as ever, I put Indian Almond Leaves in all 4 tanks and he's choosen to build a nest under one and guard it. I still can't believe how beautiful he turned out from when I first found him at Wal-Mart and have never regretted getting him out of there! Love that boy's attitude.

Here's some pictures of the boys, First one is for referrence of how swollen Pinkerton is. Red veiltail is Cinnabar. Grey Crowntail is Mercury, Pink supposed to be Delta Tail is Pinkerton, and Black and Blue bi-color veiltail is Bruiser.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

*Sigh*

I've been putting off updating this hoping that Pinkerton was actually getting better since he's quit pineconing and is no longer bloating. He had still been really lethargic, even though he was eating his frozen food well.

I don't know what the heck happen the last two days. Yesterday I went to feed him and while he had come to the top to eat, he ate one bite, darted to the other side of the tank and hid in his anubia he would not come back out. The rest of the day he spent hiding out in the crypt. Today he didn't come to the top like he usually does when I turn on the tank light (I feed them their breakfast when I do that), he did finally come up but went right back down when I tried feeding him, that was 3 hours ago and since then he's been laying around the same place on the bottom of the tank. My poor boy is not doing well at all, and I just don't know how to help him. I know I could throw medicine at him but which to try?


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I think I may have poisoned Pinkerton and I'm so mad and disgusted at myself!

Saturday night I got to thinking about what I had changed in Pinkerton's tank, and when it was that he had first started acting lethargic, hoping that maybe I could pinpoint what could be going on with him.

The only thing I've changed besides adding some plants and I figured that it couldn't be that since I added the same plants to the 10 gal, was adding sand to his tank, the same sand that I had added to the 10 gal. The difference is that I rinsed the sand before putting it into the 5 gal and I didn't rinse it before putting it into the 10 gal. I believe rinsing the sand was the problem because I used the old, community, hose that anyone in the apartment complex can use. I should have never used that hose! I don't know what could have been on it and it didn't even dawn on me that it might not be a good idea to use it. I'm thinking that some sort of toxin was on the outside of the hose and it got into the sand. If I'm right, my poor boy is paying an awful heavy price for my carelessness! The only thing that has me stumped is that none of the snails in that tank have been adversely effected. The reason I think it may be the sand is the lethargy started within days of my adding the sand to the tank, I found that out by reading back in this journal. 

I have new sand and a new hose rated for drinking coming tomorrow. The plan is to break down Pinkerton's tank, scrub all the hard scape, the filter, and the heater with vinegar, rinse it all well and then put in new filter medium. I'm not sure what to do about the plants, I'm leaning towards rinsing them well in tap water, then again in water treated with Prime, and putting them back in that tank, but still waiting to see if anyone chimes in with some suggestions. There's between 50 and 100 dollars worth of live plants in that tank and I'd hate to lose them, but I'd hate to lose or sicken another fish if toxins are on the plants.

Pinkerton is currently in a hospital tank and doing a bit better, but not much. He did eat this morning but is still spending 99% of the time laying around motionless.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Pinkerton is still hanging on. He can swim but any activity seems to exhaust him. He did eat a bit yesterday and the day before, but would not eat this morning. I'm just leaving him in peace and checking on him throughout the day. I do have to do a water change on the hospital tank today, and I dread having to disturb him to do so. I remember how he used to be, so feisty and interactive, and seeing him like he is now is heartbreaking. 

Yesterday I broke down the 5 gal tank that he was in completely emptied it, got rid of all the old substrate, cleaned the tank with vinegar, rinsed the plants in tap water then soaked them in treated water, fished out as many snails as possible, put them in fresh treated water, cleaned the cave with more vinegar. 

I then moved Bruiser out of the 2.5 gal I had him in and into a holding container (I wanted to put the 5 gal there) drained that tank, and set up the 5 gal. I used the 2.5 gal heater and filter (same sized equipment that I had in the 5) in the 5 gal tank, rinsed the snails in some more fresh treated water and put them in the tank and put Bruiser in there. So far Bruiser is doing very well and seems thrilled with the larger space and all the plants. He's already gotten comfortable enough to build him a bubble nest. 

The reason I switched filters is I figured that it was a good way to get some beneficial bacteria in the tank. I switched heaters because Trahana, a BF member, pointed out that Cobalt heaters had failed in the past and mine could have done so and been leaking toxins into the tank, I'd rather err on the side of caution. I'd be heartbroken to lose another boy when I could have prevented it.

Here's some pictures. The first is what Bruiser looked like when I bought him, the second is how he looks now, the third is him in the newly set up 5 gal tank.


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## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

The tank looks great :thumbsup: I hope Pinkerton pulls through.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Sadly, last night, Pinkerton passed away. S.I.P little buddy, enjoy swimming free in that big rice paddy, I'll miss you more then I can say.

My other boys are doing well.

Mercury remains my shy little man and spooks easily. This morning something startled him as I was feeding him so he swam and hid in his plants. I'm thinking about overhauling the plants in his tank as it's been invaded by green hair algae and I'm getting tired of battling it. 

Cinnabar loves hanging out in his betta log, he'll swim out, patrol the tank, then go back in. I need to replace his IAL leaves, he likes using them to build a bubble nest around and the ones I have in there have all sank.

Bruiser is really loving the 5 gal tank. he swims among the plants checking everything out, playing in the filter current, and waiting for the ladies to show up. He's got a very fluffy bubble nest built for the ladies. The one problem I've noticed is his laying against the filter intake tube, the little boy has got the bottom part of his caudal fin ripped off from doing that, looks like I'm going to have to tie some mesh netting around the tube to stop his tail from getting sucked in and ripped.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I do not think Mercury is happy with me right now, nope, not happy at all. I got tired of battling the green hair algae that infested his anacharis jungle and clear cut the whole lot of it. Deforestation at it's worse. I did replant the tank but it's not nearly as densely planted as it used to be. He now has a different type of anacharis, some water wisteria, and java fern but as I just put it in the tank it needs to grow and fill out. Hopefully he'll be happier with the arrangement in a few weeks.

Here's a before and after of the tank, and one of him hiding under his beloved bridge. If he gets too stressed I have some artificial plants I can put in the tank till the live ones fill out.


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## bettatanksalot (Mar 6, 2018)

It’s hard to let go of the things we love and he loved his plants lol a hard lesson in minimalism! It’s interesting some bettas are so skittish while others want to be where the action is! Some days I think I want live plants but don’t know I could keep up with maintenance.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

*Grumble, gripe, groan, beats head against the wall!!!!!!*

The curse of the 5 gal continues.... 1 week, Bruiser has been in the tank 1 week. I noticed he ripped his caudal fin on day 2 and today I noticed that his tail is half gone. It looks like some maniac came and cut his tail off with some scissors, the edge is not ragged like he bit it, it's not ripped, it looks like it was cut. The only thing that could do something like that in his tank is the filter intake tube, but I don't see how it would look like that, usually that turns the edges of the tail into a ragged mess. 

I wonder if he could have fin rot again. Would being stressed from being moved, then ripping his tail, have left him vulnerable to it even though the water is clean.... I'm going to try water changes, IAL, and StressGuard. If it looks worse in a day or two I'll treat him with Kanaplex.....

I'm about ready to take a hammer to that 5 gal tank and end the curse of it once and for all!


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Been really busy lately and haven't had the chance to fool with Bruiser and his tank. He's paid back my lack of care by having half his dorsal fin gone this morning. He's down to one long piece by the caudal and a nice little triangle piece, that looks like a sharks fin, by his head. Teach me to put off fooling with his tank and taking care of anything I even remotely suspect might be the cause of the problem! I'll get some before and after pictures later today, and the tank is going to be fooled with even if I have to stay up till 4am to get it done! Luckily he's acting fine, is very active, had a great appetite, at least I know it's not fin rot that he has. Suspect that filter intake, or that he's trying to squeeze under his cave.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Hmmm, I never provided pictures of my Betta Shark. I'll add them tonight.

Thankfully Bruiser has been doing well since his little mishap, he's been busily building bubble nest and waiting for the ladies to show up. I feel bad that they'll never reward his efforts by visiting his tank! I covered his filters intake tube with craft mesh and he's had no new damage to any of his fins, the fins are growing back beautifully. I will say that if anyone decides to make a cylinder with craft mesh and uses superglue gel to try and glue the ends into place I hope they have better success then I did! I ended up having glue on all 10 of my fingers and craft mesh that never stayed together. I resorted to sewing the ends together. 

Cinnabar is doing great, he loves his betta log and periodically builds bubble nest at the entrance. He continues to do good with the cory cats and Marty the Zebra Danio. One fine day I will figure out how to feed the snails in that tank their snello without it being eaten by the cory cats before they have a chance to get any. I've tried feeding them after I turn the tank lights out and the lights have been off for awhile but the cory cats still get the food. Last time I fed them I turned all the lights in the room off for a good 30min before dropping in the snello and the cory cats still got the food...... The struggle continues!

Mercury has adjusted to having less plants in his tank, he seems to swim around a bit more then he used to but he's still very shy. The new plants are growing nicely so he'll have his jungle motif back soon.

Here's the pictures of Bruiser, first is him the day he ripped off the dorsal fin, second is him today 11 days later.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I'm a glutten for punishment, or a sucker for a sick betta in need of rescue....

I bought a new betta, at PetSense, yesterday that I got because he is in very bad condition after informing them that he was sick, not swimming right, and likely dying I asked for a discount and was told it was a hard policy that they did not do that, and the employees at the shop tried telling me that he's always been like that, that he simply likes to be on the bottom of the cup, that every day they check on him and he's still alive. It wasn't the fact that they would not discount him that upset me so much but the fact that they were either completely ignorant about betta, or were blatantly lying in order to sell one. I'm now looking for either an email or a phone number so that I can inform them that they've lost a customer, and the reason I'll no longer be shopping there. 

For now new boy doesn't have a name, but I might call him Trouble. I have him in my 2.5 gal with a heater but no filter yet. Last night when I set up his tank I used the soft plastic plant decoration that's half tall grass and half flower, I've used that decoration numerous times for betta and never had a problem. A couple hours after I put him in the tank he decided to lay on top of the grass, which was safe for him to do. I went out for the evening and checked on him when i got home, he had moved to the flower part and wedged himself, face down, between the stalk and leaves, and wasn't moving, but luckily was still alive. I made him move, and replaced the decoration with a cave and different plant. 




This morning he looked worse and I honestly wasn't sure he'd survive. I added some Kanaplex to the Indian Almond Leaves and StressGuard that I put in the tank last night figuring there's nothing to lose at this point and hopefully it'd help. He's doing a little better this afternoon, but still not really eating and seems very weak. 




Here's pictures of the poor boy, if nothing else at least he has a chance now. First is after I put him in the tank, by morning he was nearly laying flat under the heater Second is so you can see how small he the thing next to him is a Tetra 50 watt heater, I'll have to get a better heater if he lives. Third is this afternoon nearly 24 hours after being put in the tank, he had gone to the bottom of the tank because he chased a pellet before losing interest or getting exhaused. The betta that "is a bottom dweller" according to the PetSense employee now prefers the top of the tank....


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well as of tonight the new boy is still hanging on. I've been keeping up with dosing the tank with Prime and StressGuard and tomorrow I'll put the second dose of Kanaplex in the tank. 

He doesn't seem to be quite as weak as he was yesterday, he doesn't swim much and he mostly just hangs around the tank occasionally changing location, but today he hasn't been laying partially flat on the bottom of the tank like he was when I got him Saturday and at least some of the time yesterday.

I switched to feeding him bloodworms partly because he was having trouble getting to the pellets before they sank to the bottom of the tank and partly to just tempt him to eat since he's really thin. I'm feeding him 2 to 3 times a day, and have taken to holding the worms in tweezers and dangling them right in front of him wiggling them around a bit. Doing that I've managed to tempt him to eat 1 worm per feeding. He won't eat a second worm no matter how long I try and tempt him. 

He still needs a name, I'm leaning towards Tiny Tim, but I'm not sure.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Poor Tiny Tim lost his fight and passed away Saturday. I wish I would have found him a week sooner, maybe then he would not have been too far gone to save. I take comfort in knowing that he passed away in a warm, clean, tank. S.I.P baby boy, know you were loved during your last week.

Word of advice about putting off water changes. Sooner or later it comes back to bite you on the leg, at least it did me. My 10 gal tanks nitrates shot up to around 80ppm because of my laziness. It took multiple water changes, with multiple rinsing of the filter medium to get it back down. Fun, fun, fun, yeah don't want to do it once a week so I end up doing it 3 days in a row. No wonder poor Cinnabar was looking so stressed! Not satisfied with stressing him and the cory cats out with the water changes I decided to get a new heater so that hopefully the tip would stop getting buried in the sand. The heater's a Eheim 75 watt heater, and I got it because I figure I can use it in the 20 gal long tank that I plan on getting in Nov. I went to feed Cinnabar and the rest of the fish and the water was very warm, put a thermometer in the tank (I have bad luck with thermometers and out of the 3 new ones I had bought only 1 was working and it was in a different tank) and it showed the temp to be over 85 degrees. No matter how I try and calibrate the dang thermometer it would not work right. So I ended up putting the Fluval 50 watt thermometer back in the tank and I sank a little glass bowl down in the substrate under the thermometer to hopefully keep the sand away from the heater. So far so good, the temp has been staying at 80!

Brat boy Bruiser, oh how I love him, but he frustrates me so much, continues to manage to mess up his tail and now I have no idea if he's biting, or ripping it on something. I lean more towards ripping it but I have no idea how! Tonight, I shoved some filter sponge in the bottom of the craft mesh tube that I have over the filter intake tube incase that is where he's ripping it. the only other place I can think that he might be doing it is by squeezing behind the heater. If he is I have no idea how to stop him without messing up the heater. He acts fine though, defends his tank against all comers, builds bubble nest, and swims all around patrolling the tank.

Mercury remains my sweet boy, well sweet unless you are a ramshorn snail. He still likes to snack on their antenna and he's managed to kill a few of them with the constant trims. Everyone needs a hobby and I guess that's his.

Opps I did it again, went to PetSmart and was seeing if anyone needed rescuing ASAP, they all looked pretty healthy for the most part and no one caught my eye. I was double checking them when I spotted one I had missed the first go round. Except for some fin damage he was healthy but he was mainly pearly white, with a mostly cellophane tail and black spots on the body, with a piebald face, and he's a twin tail.... I suspect I have found my Eleanor, my unicorn, a marble betta! I had to buy him and he's now in the 2.5 tank. So far he's doing good, he's active and eating well. I can't wait to see how he looks in the coming months. Someone suggested the name Picasso, and I think that fits him pretty well so I might stick with it.

Here's a picture of the new boy taken yesterday the day I got him.


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## Wiki (Aug 10, 2018)

omg that video is hilarious hahaha I love Bruiser and I haven't even met the feisty little guy.

and yes.. Neptune flares at his filter every.. single.. day... I'll have to document him for you lol.

and yes.. I hope! I caught Neptune taking a chunk out of his tail today, after he had made so much progress. I have some plants on the way that I ordered, hoping to fill out his tank some more.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Wiki said:


> omg that video is hilarious hahaha I love Bruiser and I haven't even met the feisty little guy.
> 
> and yes.. Neptune flares at his filter every.. single.. day... I'll have to document him for you lol.
> 
> and yes.. I hope! I caught Neptune taking a chunk out of his tail today, after he had made so much progress. I have some plants on the way that I ordered, hoping to fill out his tank some more.


LOL, when I first heard the little splashes that he was making in the tank I glanced over and thought that he was fighting his reflection, then I saw him bite the filter:surprise: I'm glad that I managed to video his fight because I think people don't believe me when I say he fought his filter. You'll have to catch Neptune trying to scare off his filter, I'd love to see his crazy self doing it!

I'm sorry to hear that he is tail biting, and hope that you can figure out a way to get him to stop. When I had my chronic fin biter I started dreaming about an itty, bitty, cone of shame to put around his neck to keep him from reaching his fins.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

The drama in the 10 gal continues, today when I went to feed Cinnabar, Marty the zebra fish, and the cory cat posse, I noticed that Marty was no where to be seen. I had noticed that he was acting off for the past few days and it seems that between the sky high nitrates, malfunctioning heater, and the stress of being without a school, it was too much for the poor boy. I was really hoping to still have him in Nov. when I finally get my 20 gal long and would have the room to get him some zebra fish friends. I guess it wasn't meant to be. My snail clean up crew is incredibly efficient and there will not be a funeral for Marty... On a happier note Cinnabar is back to his content self, it did take a bit of doing since he was stressed by the new light on the tank, but providing him with a corner of shade (I laid some craft mesh over the corner of the glass canopy, seems to have settled him down. He's back to building his bubble nest. 

Bruiser, oh that boy. Just gotta love him. He seems determined to attract some ladies to his tank by building the biggest, fluffiest, bubble nest that he can possibly build. He works on it throughout the day. At the moment he seems to be leaving his tail alone, and it's slowly healing, we'll see how long that last!

Mercury, he seems to be a confirmed bachelor. No bubble nest from that guy, he rarely builds any, I think he's just too lazy to do so. I have spotted a white spot on his side that I'm a bit concerned about but am just keeping an eye on. I'm not sure what it could be, and am praying that it's nothing.

Picasso, he is slowly turning black! It's so fun to check on him every morning and see how much he's changed. He's a sweet, curious, little guy and will swim to the front of the tank to check me out whenever I stand by his tank. I'm a bit worried about his fins and will be changing out his soft plastic plants for silk and live ones next month. I'd buy him some now, but have already over spent on my tanks this month.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I continue to play the will the new equipment that I get for my tanks work right game. The latest is a Nicrew 12 to 16" full spectrum light, I'd already gotten the 36" light for my 10 gal and it is great. I got the largest one because I will be upgrading to a 20L and wanted it to fit that. I figured that the smaller version would be just as good as the larger one, I was disappointed big time. The light is dim, by running it with the slowly dying Finnex that it's meant to replace I achieve enough light to grow medium light plants.. 

I bought some Seachem Flourish and Excel and the plants are loving the fertilizer and growing so much better, I just wish I had gotten it sooner. I"ve been dosing the Flourish at 2 drops per gal, the Excel at 1 drop per gal, and dosing every 3 days. I'm still playing with the schedule I dont want to over do it and grow algae.

The drama in the 10 gal is settling down. I think I may have discovered a way to feed the cory cats and keep Cinnabar the FAT betta from eating the food. I feed the cory cats at night, so far it's working and hopefully Cinnabar will slim back down, he's already looking a bit less bloated, and his color is better. After months of having the low, slate, cave in the tank he's discovered it and been using it, I don't know how he manages to fit under it but he does.

The plants in the 5 gal are looking a lot better since I've been using the liquid plant food in it, now to take care of the green algae that's in the tank, it started before the plant food so I know that's not the problem. Bruiser is as feisty as every, and loves to swim around flairing at whatever catches his attention. He's looking good and is allowing his tail to grow back, I see a lot of new growth on it and I really hope he does not rip it off again or take to biting. He's the resident bubble nest builder and seems to put a heck of a lot of effort into his nest.

All the plants in the 3.5 gal are growing well, I'm going to have to thin them out soon before they overtake the tank. The java fern I put in there is finally starting to grow. Mercury is still his sweet shy self. He's the spookiest of the 4 boys and startles easier. I'm a bit worried about a white spot on his left side and am keeping an eye on it. Fingers crossed that it's not a tumor or cyst!

I've put more plants in the 2.5 gal and taken out more of the artificial ones. The anubia coin that I ordered for it came in and looked great, I"m so glad that I discovered them on Amazon! Out of the 6 I ordered from them 5 were beautiful and they replaced the bad one without any issues. I put some anacharis from the 10 gal into the tank, and Picasso seems to approve of it, and the small piece of water wisteria I put in when I set up the tank is finally getting leaves on it. Best of all the water test I did on the tank showed 0 ammonia and nitrite and 5ppm nitrate so the tank is just about finished cycling! Picasso is doing well, he's an active little boy and seems to like exploring his tank. He's not interested in flaring at his reflection but instead just stays and looks at himself. He's not really changing color anymore except to develop a bit of red on his dorsal fin. Maybe he'll remain my Dalmatian Betta.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I have given up ever accomplishing water changes in anything less then 2 hours. It seems that something extra needs to be done during each change. With this weeks water change I ended up having the 10 gals filter not want to restart so I dismantled it and gave it a good cleaning. It was filled with sludge. It's now working better then ever. I'm also never going to play with super glue again. The java fern in the driftwood was dying off and I got the bright idea to pull the whole thing from the tank, get rid of all the pieces that were dying off and glue the babies onto the wood... Well I ended up with super glue all over my hands, and didn't realize it since my hands were damp, I also got some on the plants leaves and not satisfied with that I ended up, later on that night, discovering that I had smeared some in my hair. Yay me, no doing anything half way! Hopefully the java fern remains glued to the wood! The whole thing looks a mess at the moment. I also spent some time trying to get some algae off the front glass of the 5 gallon, the light coming in from the window and hitting the tank (it only happens for around one month out the year) seems to have triggered the algae growth. 

All the boys are doing well. Bruiser still busily builds his bubble nest, and his tail was growing back beautifully but from the looks of it today he decided to trim it a bit. He is such a brat! Cinnabar is not amused that his java fern is half of what it was, but he's coping alright and decided to build a bubble nest again. He's lost a bit of weight since I started feeding his cory cat tank mates at night and is now active again his color is also better. Mercury, I'm trying not to be a hypochondriac where he is concerned. He's as active as he usually is and has a decent appetite, I still worry about that white spot on his side and today I was looking at an older picture of him and it looks like he used to have a lot more red in his fins but maybe that was a trick of the camera angle. In 3 days I'll have had him for 10 months and lately I can't get a betta to live past a year, so yep, I'm panicky where he's concerned. Picasso is getting so much more color in his tail, but he's not marbled like I though he would. Oh well, I still love him and am glad I got him. He's finally built a little bubble nest and flaired at himself in a mirror for all of 2 seconds. 

The 6 nerite snails I ordered over the weekend have shipped and I hope they get here this week! 3 are going in the 5 gal to help with the algae, I'll probably put divide the other 3 between my other tanks. Hopefully they will all live.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I've been wanting a 20 gal long for over a year now, been dreaming about it, been slowly getting the equipment for it, and have almost gotten everything that I need for it. Now that I'm a couple of months away from getting it the thought of it is filling me with dread! 

I've got a reason, a good reason for the dread.. If I get one I'm going to have to break down the 10 gallon, and the 2 gal because they are where the 20L has to go. I then have to break down the 3 gallon because that's where i"m going to have to put the 10 gallon. Once I have all the tanks taken down, and the fish taken care of, I need to set back up the 10 gal, and divide it for 2 of the betta, then I have to set up the 20 gal. The sheer amount of work and stress that all of that is going to entail has me wanting to hide. 

The other thing I can do is get a second 10 gal. Doing that I only have to take down the 2.5 and put up the 10 gal. That's the easy route and seems a heck of a lot more doable. The problem is that I'd need to get a filter, and the heater I bought is a bit too long for a 10 gal, it's 75 watts.... Decisions Decision...


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Keep fish they said. It's a relaxing hobby they said... They LIED!!!! 

I made the tragic mistake of deciding that the substrate for me is sand and that I wanted to get a 20 gal long, get rid of my 2.5 and 3 gal tanks, and split my 10 gal tank. So, since I was a bozo and did not wash the sand that I have in the 10 gal I decided to just get all new sand. Yay me.... It took me a good hour and 45 minutes to wash all 50 lbs of the sand, my back now hates me, and I still need to break down 3 tanks, put up the 20 gal and re-put up the 10 gal. I've decided that I'll do water changes on all the tanks tomorrow, and start working on breaking down and putting up the tanks Monday. No way I could do it tonight, I'd end up screaming in pain!

Cinnabar and Picasso are both doing well. Picasso is getting more and more black on him, the change is amazing.

Mercury is confusing me. Earlier this week his swim bladder acted up out of the blue, he was fine in the morning and then a couple hours after breakfast he wasn't. No bloating or anything, he just could not stay submerged at the bottom of the tank. Next day he seemed fine. I fed him bloodworms for 2 days, bug bites on the third, then today I feed him his Omega One mini pellets again and his swim bladder once again acted up. I've no idea why the pellets are now causing him problems, when they never have in the past and I'm doing nothing different. I did order new frozen food from Drs Foster & Smith for him, but for reasons known only to them over night shipping means we'll ship it when we feel like it. I ordered it on Tuesday around 10pm, today I called them to ask where the order was, and was told it won't ship til Monday -,- I am NOT amused, they should have had on the frozen food page that due to the holidays they would not be shipping orders past Tuesday.

I'm not sure what's going on with Mercury's tail. He has a pale silver streak through it from the body to the tips of it, and 2 weeks ago he started acting really lethargic. I treated him with 2 rounds of ParaGuard, and 1 round of Kanaplex, his behavior is better, his appetite is good, but the streak is no better nor do I see new growth. The last dose of Kanaplex was on Monday I think... I'm now doing the wait and see approach, but he's also the reason I'm not doing the tanks till Monday, him and Picasso are the two I want to put in the 10 gal when I split it.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Moving right along at the speed of a speeding slug! I managed to move the 2.5 gal, have 2 of the anubias in it in a separate container and am treating them for black hair algae (using peroxide). Now i just have to talk myself into doing 50% water changes on the 10, 5, and 3 gallons. Tomorrow I'll take down the 10 gal and put up the 20 gal L in it's place. Time will tell if I can convince myself to take down the 2.5 and 3 gal and put the 10 in their place, or if my back will start shouting at me and I'll have to stop.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well I finished the water changes on the 3 tanks so that's one thing off my list. Around an hour ago I remembered that I should do a leak test on the 20 before actually putting it up in the living room. Darn it I thought I was finished with the tanks for the night LOL. Oh well! I got it as level as I possibly could in the shower ( the apartment does not have a tub) which means it isn't level but I did the best I could and it's currently sitting there, on some cardboard for ease of noticing leaks, and I'll empty it tomorrow morning.

There's a genius at work with putting it in the shower, now I have to so something with it, or go beg my friend to let me shower at her apartment...


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## Shifa (Nov 15, 2018)

I don't know who came up with the "fish keeping is a relaxing hobby/easy" thing... probably pet stores tbh

I love doing it, but it's not a simple thing to maintain a "closed" environment and ecosystem. 

I know the whole rinsing thing is a royal pain... I swear I spent a good hour rinsing my fluorite substrate.... never want to use it again, and still have most of the bag...

Good luck with the 20 gal ^^ and Mercury <3


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been over a month since I updated, I've been meaning to and kept putting it off.

I did get the 20 gal up and running and it turned out very well. After Cinnabar and the Cory Cats got over their shock at being in such a larger environment they settled in and seem to enjoy their larger home. Back when all the plants were in the old tank I had been battling hair algae on them. I took out all the plants that I spotted hair algae on and dosed them with hydrogen peroxide, thought I had won the battle and moved the plants into the 20 gal. A couple weeks ago I spotted more hair algae on a couple of plants but didn't have any peroxide to dose the tank with and kept forgetting to pick some up.. Mistake, huge mistake. The hair algae took over all the plants in the tank, I think maybe 2 did not have any visible on them. I decided to go full out with the peroxide and dosed the tank at 3ml per gal of water. Well the hair algae is now dead, that's the good news. The bad news is that I strongly suspect that I killed my zebra nerite, and Bert my 2 year old nerite. Both must have been hiding in the java fern when I squirted the peroxide on them. They have not moved since Monday when I dosed the tank :'-( Everything else in the tank seems fine.

The 10 gal, oh my goodness that tank liked to have driven me crazy! The first divider I got for it did not fit, so I decided I'd widen the grooves in the supports by whittling then deeper using scissors. Let's just say I sliced up my fingers pretty good and never did get the dang divider to fit! I ended up ordering a different brand one and that one works great. Both Picasso and Mercury adjusted to the tank without any problems and do not seem to know that they are sharing a tank even though the divider is perforated. Picasso continues to change colors he went from having me think he was going to be completely black with red highlights on his dorsal fin to now slowly changing back to white although his fins remain dark. He's an active boy and can get into some crazy positions, like going head down by the anubia driftwood in his tank. Mercury is doing pretty well, his appetite is great and he's still really laid back, I still have no idea what's up with his fins though.

Ugh, I just realized I made a mistake in an earlier post. It was Bruiser's swim bladder that was acting up and not Mercury's! Since I stopped feeding him the Omega One pellets his swim bladder has not acted up since. If he'd quit trimming his tail every time it grows back he'd be doing great. He remains a fiesty boy and a few weeks back got upset that one of the nerites in his tank dared to go by his bubble nest.

Fair warning to anyone thinking of using peroxide to kill off hair algae. If you have alot of algae in your tank be prepared to do water changes every couple of days as that hair algae dies off. I did a 50% water change Monday before dosing the tank, Tuesday evening I noticed the tank smelled bad and was slightly cloudy, none of my tanks have ever smelled like that. I tested the water and the ammonia was slightly elevated but it might have been from the Prime. Today I just did another 50% water change and will likely have to do a couple more as the algae continues to disintegrate. I know, why don't I simply pull the algae out the tank? Well it is adhered to the plants and will not come off. Nothing to do but keep up with the water changes and wait for it to melt.


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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

I think we need a pic *big grin*

As for the snails... get ‘em out of the water, and sniff them. You will know IMMEDIATELY if one or both have died, and if they have, you want to get that decay out of the tank...


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

bluesamphire said:


> I think we need a pic *big grin*
> 
> As for the snails... get ‘em out of the water, and sniff them. You will know IMMEDIATELY if one or both have died, and if they have, you want to get that decay out of the tank...


I did try posting pics but it gave me a weird message, I decided to try later. It's been a bit so I'll try now, if I'm still getting the message I'll have to investigate why I may be getting it.

Trust me I've been doing the sniff test on them, so far they smell alright so I just put them back in the tank. I'll check again tomorrow if they are not moving.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Here's some pictures of my 20 gal .


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Here's some of Cinnabar, apparently I'm not allowed by his beloved log if I have the camera. The grey crowntail is Mercury, he does not like to pose when I have the camera and usually hides so that picture is the best new one I could get.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Next up is Mr. Bruiser, his tail is growing back in nicely so I live in anticipation of him biting it off again. I'm also including a picture of the 10 gal split tank, Mercury and Picasso live in it. Bruiser has a 5 gal all to his self.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Last but not least Picasso.
The first is what he looked like when I got him around 4 months ago, second is what he looked like last month, and third is him now.


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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

Fab pics!
And I LOVE the hamster tunnel mountain.
BRILLIANT idea.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

bluesamphire said:


> Fab pics!
> And I LOVE the hamster tunnel mountain.
> BRILLIANT idea.


Thanks! I stole the hamster tunnel idea from someone else LOL. Picasso does like swimming through it and the nice thing is that it can be taken out and redone onto a different layout.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Been awhile since I updated the journal. 

Let's see, another fish followed me home. There was 3 left at the store and while all of them seemed lethargic, there was one that just seemed to have given up, and resigned himself to his fate in that cup. So he came home with me and I set him up in my 3 gallon tank. That was on Jan 8th. His name is Lagniappe, and been doing very well since then, but someway, somehow, this past week he's been mangling his fins. I'm not sure what's going on but tonight I overhauled the tank, he's not got sand substrate, the bases of the artificial silk plants are buried, I got him 2 anubias and some teleanthera cardinalis yesterday so that's in there. I also found some sharp plastic points on one of his new artificial plants and those were cut off. Fingers crossed that the mutilation will discontinue!

Bruiser, my problem boy has given himself another fin trim. He's determined to be a plakat! I figured he would since his fins were about finished growing back in. He's a determined bubble nest builder and likes to patrol his tank flaring at anything he considers a threat... Usually his reflection and occasionally a snail.

Cinnabar is getting FAT, yep a FAT betta.... The brat has learned that I feed the cory cats at night and patiently waits for the tank top to be opened so that he can catch the food as it drifts to the bottom of the tank. So he's getting a bunch of food at night, in addition to his morning feeding. I'm cutting back on the morning food so hopefully that will get him to lose some weight. Congratulate me! I finally found some decent bronze cory cats at PetSmart, they're babies and sooo cute! I forgot how little they can be. That brings my number from 5 to 8, and I've got a decent shoal.

Picasso continues to morph into a new betta, he's back to being more white then black. He's a goofy little thing and loves to eat but seems to have a bit of difficulty aiming right to get the food. He likes to lunge for it but then misses. The food then drifts to the bottom of the tank.... 

Then there's Mercury. I'm really worried about him. The past week or so he's been laying on the bottom of the tank more and more, but I tried not to worry about that too much and just kept an eye on him. Today when I went to feed him he didn't go to the top of the tank like he usually does when I turn the light on in his and Picasso's tank. He did finally swim to the top when I filled their feeding bowl with a bit of tank water but then went back down. He stayed down there when I started feeding him, but swam and got the food as it drifted down, after a time or two of that he finally came and finished eating at the top of the tank. The rest of the day he's stayed on the bottom of the tank not moving much and seems to get exhausted easily. He's never been very active, and has always been timid, but this isn't like him. I did a water change and tested the tank's water parameters before it, they were perfect, 0 ammonia and nitrite, and 10 to 20 nitrate. I could use another round of ParaGuard in the tank, it's seemed to help in the past, but the problem is that in a month or two he goes back downhill. I'm never sure if it's the ParaGuard helping or if he'd have rallied on his own.... My poor boy I've only had him for a year and a month so I'd guess he's anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 years old, really not that old for a betta :-(


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Finished the water changes on my tanks today. Yay me. The cory's were not too impressed with the change, and neither was Cinnabar. They've gotten over it though and since tank light out the cory's are zooming all over the tank waiting for feeding time.

Mercury continues to puzzle the heck out of me. I've not medicated the tank or did anything to treat whatever may be wrong with him, what do I use when I don't know what's wrong, yet today he's doing better, he seems to have more energy, and was laying around on the bottom of the tank less. 

Here's a picture of Lagniappe's tank, and another one of the 20 gal. I love how the plants in the 20 have filled in. Oops! I almost forgot I never posted a picture of Lagniappe! I'll add one of those too.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Oh my poor, poor, poor Mercury. His health has concerned me for around 6 months now, starting with the discoloration on his caudal fin. All I've managed to do is keep him from being too lethargic, and his appetite staying good. I never did get that discoloration to go away despite using more then one medicine over the months. I've used Indian Almond Leaves, StressGuard, Kanaplex, and ParaGuard, but nothing cleared up the discoloration. Over the months is color got duller, and his fins started looking worse and worse. If only it stopped there!

He's always held his dorsal fin in such a way that getting a good look at his caudal fin is difficult to say the least. He holds his fins down rather then spreads them, and he likes to stay laying around the tank rather then patrolling it. I do try to get a look at his fins though, and today, to my everlasting horror, I noticed that the ray and webbing on the top of his caudal fin is rotted away all the way to the base of his tail, and the next ray and web is black! I dunno how I did not see it before it got that bad! I know his fins are a hot mess but I didn't think that rot had set in, just something that I never could properly diagnose to treat, so I had stopped all treatment after the last round a ParaGuard a few months back.....

I checked the parameters and they are perfect 0 ammonia and nitrite, and 5 nitrate, I did a 50% water change anyway and added Furan2 which is an antibiotic I hadn't tried, StressGuard, and Indian Almond Leaf. Hopefully this does the trick because I'm running out of medicines to try. 

Posting a picture of my boy back when he was healthy, and the last two from today. Sometimes it helps to see exactly how much they have changed.

The other boys are doing great. Cinnabar continues to rule over his 20 gal kingdom. Bruiser continues his fin biting ways and is still building bubble nest and waiting for the ladies to show up. Picasso continues to change his pattern (he has a marble gene) and this morning had built a bubble nest. Lagniappe is a brat but has become gorgeous. He is another bubble nest builder but, unlike Bruiser, he will flare at my finger when I feed him if I get too close to his bubble nest LOL.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well, today is 25% water change and dose #3 of 4 on Mercury and Picasso's tank. So far they are both doing well with the treatment, but I"m not sure if any of the snails are going to make it. I moved Sir Poops A Lot the zebra nerite snail into the 20 gal, but the ramshorns and the MTS I'm not able to find to move. Sir Poops A Lot is going to remain in the 20 gal, the little guy makes way, way, way, to much of a mess to remain in the split 10 gal. 

My order of 6 horned zebra nerites came in today, and I'm very happy with the purchase. They sent me 8 and all 8 are alive and kicking. Bruiser has 3 in his tank, 1 went in the 20 gal, and 4 are in the 3 gal that was getting over run with algae due to the new fertilizer I've been using. Once treatment in the 10 gal is over 2 of ones in the 4 gal will be moved there.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well, Furan2 by itself doesn't seem to have helped. I'm moving Mercury to a hospital tank and am going to treat him with both Kanaplex and Furan2 together. If this doesn't help I don't know what to do.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

*Day 1: Use recommended dosage for both KanaPlex & Furan-2
Day 2: Use recommended dosage for Furan-2 only
Day 3: 25% Water change and use recommended dosage for both KanaPlex & Furan-2
Day 4: Use recommended dosage for Furan-2 only
Day 5: 25% Water change and use recommended dosage for both KanaPlex & Furan-2
DONE*


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well, I've successfully put off writing in here for nearly a month. I guess because I hate writing about sad stuff. 

The Kanaplex x Furan2 did not work on my poor Mercury, just keeping him in extra clean water with Indian Almond Leaves and StressGuard for 2 weeks also did not work. I put him through a round of Maracyn2 and it did nothing. The rot slowly continues to spread as does the pale grey. I purchased clove oil around a week ago and have since been dragging my feet on putting him to sleep. He's still eating just fine, he's still willing to swim to greet me, and I keep hoping for a last second miracle. I know he's slowly getting worse though.... Tomorrow I'm putting him to sleep, but I don't want to. If he was acting really sick this would be a heck of a lot easier. I took the divider out the 10 gal (he lived in one side of it but has been in the hospital tank) as a sign to me that this needs to be done, no more putting it off, but running through my head is give him one more day....

A couple days ago someone said she was sure it was Myco bacteria, God I hope not! It's incurable, contagious, and the way this started, and how long it's been going on, that would mean all 4 of my tanks have it, because I didn't know what I was seeing at first, just a pale grey place on him and him acting just fine. The problem is the way I feed them from my finger.... Bruiser has some grey on his anal fin, but Cinnabar, who I got 3 months after Mercury, is just fine, I got Bruiser a month later.... Mercury tends to be a chronic tail biter, so there's no telling what may be up with him. You can see the spot of grey on Bruiser's tail in the picture.


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## bluesamphire (Nov 20, 2018)

Oh myco bacteria would be bad news. Very.

I had to look it up, but now I have, I am rooting very hard for it NOT being that.

Sorry you are going through this. And especially sorry for Mercury.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

bluesamphire said:


> Oh myco bacteria would be bad news. Very.
> 
> I had to look it up, but now I have, I am rooting very hard for it NOT being that.
> 
> Sorry you are going through this. And especially sorry for Mercury.


Thanks.

I'm guessing time will tell if it's Myco:frown2:. Fingers crossed that it's anything but that. I still lean more towards some type of cancer, but I just don't know, and there isn't a fish vet anywhere near me, nor do I have the money to ship him and have him tested by a biology lab. I can't figure out where he would even have come into contact with Myco, unless he came with it.

He's still with me, did I mention I'm dragging my feet.... Maybe if I wait long enough someone will come put him to sleep for me. Yeah right...:frown2:

On a brighter note, all my other boys seem to be doing just fine. Cinnaber is ruling over his cory cat minions, thank goodness he's a benevolent ruler. Bruiser is working on his bubble nest and waiting for the ladies to show up. Picasso is enjoying having the divider taken out of the 10 gal and is happily exploring the whole tank. Lagniappe is another bubble nest builder and is waiting on the ladies. His tank is on the kitchen counter and he enjoys watching me work in the kitchen.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

My boy Mercury has crossed the bridge. If I never again have to put down one of my betta while he's still eating, still swimming, like Mercury was it's going to be too soon! I know I could have left him be, but I didn't want him to start suffering, his caudal was nearly gone from the unstoppable rot.

Mercury, I'm gonna miss you. You'll always be my little betta troll under the bridge.


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## blubird101 (Jan 25, 2019)

I'm so sorry for your loss. Hopefully he's in a better place now, thank you for having the courage not to let him suffer. <3


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well, most of the boys are doing very well. 

Cinnabar is continuing to gorge himself on the cory cats food so he remains fat, I'm trying to figure out a way to contain him while the cories eat without spooking the cories and causing them to go into hiding and so not eating besides stressing the little things out. There's got to be a way and I'm not not seeing it!

Lagniappe has turned into a real beauty and is full of personality. He's been voted most likely to bite my finger off if only he was bigger!

Picasso is still changing colors and loves having the 10 gal all to himself. His main problem is he was badly bred and seems to have trouble swimming, not to worry though his tank is loaded with plants. I'm thinking of treating him for parasites and see if that helps him gain weight.

Bruiser has me a bit worried, a while back I noticed a grey patch on his tail, and have been keeping an eye on it. It scares the heck out of me because that's exactly how poor Mercury's trouble started. The patch is only on one side of the anal fin and it seems to be growing every so slowly. He also split that fin awhile back and it's not healed at all :'-(. I should also mention that there's what looks like streaks of grey on the other side of his fin. Other then that he's very active, builds bubble nest, has a great appetite, basically he's the same as ever. Knowing better then to jack around with medicine given they did not help Mercury at all, I"m going to try UV sterilization. I read an article where someone is saying that it's what saved his fish from a Myco outbreak. I figure it's worth a shot. Apparently the UV kills off the Myco in the water and gives the fish a chance to fight off the Myco attacking them. This is the unit that I have coming on Monday https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051C62IQ 

Here's the article I read Mycobacteriosis, the Stealth Disease | Details | Articles | TFH Magazine®


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## blubird101 (Jan 25, 2019)

Odd question, with the tank that has Cinnabar in it, do you feed the corys with the lights on? Or do you have a blue light or something you turn on at night?

Bettas hunt by light, so if you have the lights off in the room they are in as well as in the tank, he shouldn't be able to find the corys food. I'm not 100% sure how corys hunt, but I know they are more active at night and when I drop a piece of food on the other side of the tank, they seem to "smell" it out.

My betta also loves to pick at the corys sinking pellets haha, but if I feed when all the lights are dark, he doesn't seem to notice it.

Just a thought, in case you haven't tried that.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

blubird101 said:


> Odd question, with the tank that has Cinnabar in it, do you feed the corys with the lights on? Or do you have a blue light or something you turn on at night?
> 
> Bettas hunt by light, so if you have the lights off in the room they are in as well as in the tank, he shouldn't be able to find the corys food. I'm not 100% sure how corys hunt, but I know they are more active at night and when I drop a piece of food on the other side of the tank, they seem to "smell" it out.
> 
> ...


Yep, I've tried feeding them at night. I shut the tank lights off around 7 or 8 PM, and then shut the room lights off so that the only light in the room is from other adjacent rooms. I would then feed the cory cats and if I came back a couple min later and shined a flash light into the tank, there was Cinnabar at the bottom of the then eating the cory cats food.


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## blubird101 (Jan 25, 2019)

Darn, I'm curious, what food to you use for the corys? Maybe its the same as mine and maybe its just super yummy to them haha.

I'm not sure how skittish your corys are, but for me, it helps to feed the betta at the same time on one side of the tank (especially if its something like dropping in a bunch of bloodworms) and then feeding the corys at the same time on the other side. Might help distract the betta haha.

Besides that, if its really an issue, you could either fashion a divider you can put in before feeding them and take out in the morning after, or you could try to net your betta during feeding or put him in a floating hospital tank or something in the main tank. *shrug* that might stress out the betta unnecessarily though.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

blubird101 said:


> Darn, I'm curious, what food to you use for the corys? Maybe its the same as mine and maybe its just super yummy to them haha.
> 
> I'm not sure how skittish your corys are, but for me, it helps to feed the betta at the same time on one side of the tank (especially if its something like dropping in a bunch of bloodworms) and then feeding the corys at the same time on the other side. Might help distract the betta haha.
> 
> Besides that, if its really an issue, you could either fashion a divider you can put in before feeding them and take out in the morning after, or you could try to net your betta during feeding or put him in a floating hospital tank or something in the main tank. *shrug* that might stress out the betta unnecessarily though.


LOL I tried the feed on the other side of the tank trick. The problem is that the brat has learned that when the cory cats congregate and start searching for food he should search for it to! He's a pig I tell ya  I'd feed him, he'd finish his food, then go down to where the cory cats were and start getting their food. The cory cats don't mind him too much, they stay back a bit from him but don't swim off. I've never seen Cinnabar bother them.

I feed the Cories the same thing I feed Cinnabar. They get Fluval bug bites, frozen bloodworms, and frozen brine shrimp. I rotate between the food


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well the UV sterilizer got here yesterday, and is installed. Hopefully if it's pathogens in the water column that are causing the grey patches on Bruiser's fins it'll kill them off. Then maybe Bruiser's immune system will have a chance to kill off the ones that are in him since he won't be constantly reinfected. At least that's what the guy in the TFH article thinks happened with his tank. I guess time will tell if it works.

I know that technically I should probably put him down because there's a high chance that it's Mycos, but I cannot even get myself to rationally consider it. He's so active and other then the grey patch seems perfectly healthy. 

The first picture is Mercury 2 months after the grey patch first appeared on him. The second one is Bruiser and was taken yesterday, the grey patch appeared around a month ago. The similarity is why I'm so worried that whatever took Mercury from me is infecting Bruiser....


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Update on Corky. It's been a week since I rescued him and so far I have not seen much improvement. He is extremely skittish, he'll dart away if I try to finger feed him or if I move to much while watching him. I feed him by dropping the food on his betta hammock it's not a perfect system but at least he eats a bit before sweeping the food to the bottom of the tank. Once on the bottom the food usually remains uneaten. He still has lots of difficulty swimming, but does seem to be able to maintain an upright position a bit easier. Today I cupped him and rinsed his hospital tank out, rinsed off the artificial plant, anacharis, heater, and betta hammock, and gave him 75% new water (I saved 25% of the old water), added PraziPro to the tank, and put him back in. He was not happy being cupped, nope not at all. 

I'm wondering if a parasite is the reason for the continued SBD, which is the reason for the PraziPro. A week of clean, warm, water (he gets daily 50% water changes) did not work, so I figure I'll start trying other cures, one by one.

Below is a picture of him, his color depends on what the lighting is.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I'll start with Corky, so far no change except that at least now I can get him to eat a bit more it just takes a ton of patients and a willingness to have him miss a bunch of the food. No harm done though, he gets daily water changes and the bottom of the tank gets vacuumed during them. So far I've tried Prazipro without any results, and the past two days I've tried Epsom Salt baths again no results. I'm currently giving him a 1 week break from treatment and will try an antibiotic next. If that does not work then I'm just going to leave him live in peace. The cup said he was a halfmoon, I recently got a really good look at the caudal and he's a double tail. His body shape now makes sense and so does the SBD. With that body shape the SBD may well be a congenital defect and permanent.

Ohh I see I did not mention that I nuked all the anacharis in Bruiser's 5 gal tank! Yep, yep, yep, nothing is fool proof for a sufficiently talented fool! I decided to use hydrogen peroxide to kill off the green algae infesting the glass in that tank. As soon as I put in the H2O2 I remembered that anacharis hates it..... So the anacharis died and the algae survived, yay me. I ordered more plants for the tank a few more anubia, more anacharis, and some octopus plants, along with some drift wood. It didn't come out too bad, but I need to add more sand to the tank. The driftwood was larger then I thought it would be and I had to uproot some of the crypts in the tank which left the roots of some of the others exposed. I am NOT looking forward to washing the new sand (it came in today) nope not at all. 

Bruiser looks much the same, no improvement on the grey spot on his anal fin, but he's very active, and does not seem sick. I'm not sure if the UV sterilizer is helping at all.

Cinnabar puzzles me. He does not seem to want to eat as much, weight wise this is not a bad thing, but still patrols his tank and such. I'm not sure if I should be worried about his not wanting as much food or not. 

Picasso, my original double tail, has decided not to marble any more and is staying a black. 

Lagniappe still rules his 3 gal kingdom and seems very happy to be back on the counter where he can see everything that goes on in there. 

Some pictures of the crew. Corky is the blue boy laying sideways. Bruiser is the blue veiltail, Lagniappe is the yellow boy, Picasso is the black one, and Cinnabar is the reddish boy.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well since I last posted it hasn't been all roses. I lost Cinnabar at the end of Sept. to bloat, nothing I tried reduced the bloat and my poor boy eventually succumbed to it. Around a week later I noticed that Bruiser, my favorite out of all my boys has developed a rather large lump on one side of his body. I know it's either a cyst or tumor, but which it is I have no idea, I do know there's nothing I can do to help him but keep him as comfortable as possible. He used to maintain a rather large bubble nest but now he only halfheartedly does so, he's also not nearly as active as he used to be. 

On to happier news! Corky has fully recovered from his SBD and for the past couple months been swimming around fine. When I first got him he'd hide from me but now swims to the side of the tank to see me. He eats really well, and is doing great!

Last Sunday, Lagniappe developed a mild case of fin rot after I forgot to plug in his heater after a water change. I plugged back in the heater, added some StressGuard, and Indian Almond leaf, to the tank and crossed my fingers. Within a day he was acting better, and a couple days after that his fin looked completely better. He's also back to his feisty self and has decided to build a nest under the IAL and defend that nest from my finger if I put it near it LOL. 

Picasso is doing good, and is as sweet as ever. He has not really changed color since he turned black, and is holding true to what marble betta tend to do.

I got a new betta after Cinnabar passed. This time I decided to go with a breeder and have one shipped to me since I want one that has the best start possible. His name is RuPaul and he's a plakat. I'm not sure how to describe his color. When I got him he had a pale face and red lips, hence the name RuPaul. His body is a copper color, but his caudal has white in it, his anal fins look like they were brushed with red, and he now has a red patch on his head, and what looks like a white saddle. He was only around 3 or 4 months old when I got him and I'm having fun watching him grow and change.

After months of looking at PetSmart and never seeing them, I finally found Harlequin Rasboras there! So guess what came home with me tonight? Yep 8 of them. Hopefully they all do well and enjoy the heavily planted tank they will be going into. 

I'll post pictures later.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I haven't updated in awhile, I think I've been a bit sad about 2 of my boys and haven't felt like updating with bad news.

First the good...

Lagniappe is doing well, he's so feisty and defensive about his tank. If I put anything near his tank after I feed him he'll dash our from under his floating IAL in full flair to chase off the intruder. He does not seem to have any idea just how small he is LOL. He's also been known to bite and latch onto my finger when when I feed him, it's probably a good thing he's so small or I'd have no skin left on my finger.

Corky continues to do well, with no sign of a return of the SBD. He's a sweet boy but much more laid back then Lagniappe. I'm trying to decide if I can justify upgrading him from a 2.5 to a 3 gal tank. The tank I want is on the expensive side and I'm not sure I can justify the cost. I did rescape his tank, he now has all live plants and a I added more sand to the bottom of his tank. I also got a Finnex clip on light for his tank. Next up a better heater... or a new tank.

RuPaul did not keep his lipstick! His pale head has completely turned black, I thought he'd change a bit but never thought that it'd be quite as much as he did. He rules his 20 gal tank and is very active. His latest hobby is glass surfing the left side wall of his tank for reasons known only to him. Maybe he sees his reflection? The rasbora that I put in with him and the cory cats have done very well, and after a little chasing RuPaul has decided to leave them alone. I decided to pull the castle out of that tank since it seemed to be a place that harbored the staghorn / black beard algae that I've been battling. The fish seem to enjoy the extra space with the castle gone, but they or the snails managed to get rid of the plants that I put in the vacated space. I just cannot figure out where the plants went. Lady Poops a Lot, the Zebra Nerite continues to do well and lives up to her name.

The Bad

Around a month ago, Picasso developed some type of protrusion on his body where the caudal and anal fins meet. I cannot figure out what it could be, and I have no idea what to do to treat it. I suspect it's either a cyst or some type of tumor but I just don't know. He's still active and wants to eat but he seems to be getting more lethargic this past week. He's always been quiet and laid back, but not this much. 

Bruiser, my crazy, silly Bruiser who stole my heart by fighting his filter on more then one occasion, has developed a tumor on his body. I noticed it around a month and a half ago and it's been slowly growing ever since. It's now large enough that it's causing a lump on the right side :'-( He's not nearly as active as he used to be but is still really eager for his food. He still builds his bubble nest but they are not as large and fluffy as they used to be. I ended up taking the dang driftwood out of his tank all it was doing was causing an ungodly amount of mulm to form on the bottom of the tank and it was impossible to keep up with it. Other then that I'm trying to not do much in his tank since the last thing I want to do is stress him. 

Here's some pictures of the boys and their tanks. 

The first and second is the 20 gal tank and RuPaul. Please excuse the less then good quality of RuPaul's picture he would not hold still!

Third and Fourth is the 10 gal and Lagniappe.


Fifth and sixth is the 5 gal and Bruiser.

7th and 8th is the 3 gal and Lagniappe

9th and 10th is the 2.5 gal and Corky. Corky's picture is a bit older and taken before I redid the tank.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I just realized I never posted a picture of RuPaul from when I first got him in Sept. Here's one, it's amazing how much he changed. I really thought his head would have turned red as he aged but nope LOL.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Some days I wonder why I keep betta, today is one of them. Picasso appears to be on his last fins. The past two days hasn't been good ones for him. He's gotten extremely lethargic, and today wasn't all that interested in eating. I'm testing his water on the off chance that that is the problem, but so am down too two vials, yep I managed to break 2 of them, so I have to wait to do the Nitrate test. The ammonia and nitrite are at 0 unless they changed in the 4 min that has passed since I've been waiting for the test to develop. I'm guessing that whatever caused that protrusion on him is finally catching up. 

Bruiser isn't getting any better either, the tumor continues to grow but so far my boy is holding his own. He's slowing down but is still active and loves his food.

I then look at my 2 that I managed to save, Lagniappe and Corky. Both are doing great, although Corky is on the lazy side and loves to lay on his heater. They have done amazing since I got them and nursed them back to health. Lagniappe is a real character and will bit the heck out of my finger when I try and feed him, and then when it isn't feeding time he is such a curious boy and loves to watch me in the kitchen. He will also flair and try to scare me away if I hold my finger up to his tank. 

RuPaul, my boy that I got from a breeder, is also doing well. He rules his 20 gallon tank. When I did his water change, a couple days ago, I was pouring the water into his floating betta log and he insisted on hanging around and getting in the way. He finally managed to ride the current into the log and I had to stop using it to break up the stream of water. Little brat LOL.

I guess when we keep betta we have to accept our losses, and remember the good we do when we can give them a great life. I just wish they'd start breeding for health, along with color and fin type..


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## pnwbetta (Dec 6, 2019)

We keep Bettas, like any companion, because they bring us something we need and we, hopefully, can offer them a better situation to live out their, albeit always too short, lives. And when we go out in to the world having refilled our empty internal 'tanks' with good finnage, or furry, (or even feathered) companions and can give more and be more when and where it's needed. 

In spite of the utter destruction the loss of any animal can cause, I am a better, kinder person because of my time with them. And I'm sure you know that feeling too.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Well Picasso is still with me, and I've no idea how or why. 

He's very lethargic and has taken to wedging himself into tight spaces. One day I found him wedged between his vase cave and one of the rocks it perches on, today I found him under the vase. He had squeezed into the small space that is between it and the sand substrate. I'd not have thought he could fit into such a small space but he did.

His fins are now looking bad. I don't know if he's tearing them when he jams himself into the tight spaces, he has fin rot, or a combo of both. On top of it the protrusion is now around the circumference of a pea, the only "good" thing is it is flat.

He's incredibly thin. I now feed him small meals 2x a day, and feed him slow so that he hopefully does not spit the food up. I'm no longer feeding him the NLS or bug bites as he spit them up 9x out of 10. I feed him frozen blood worms and brine shrimp on a rotating basis. So far he's really interested in the food and will willingly eat, but he no longer comes to the top when I turn his light on in the morning before feeding him. I generally use my planting tweezers to dangle the food in front of wherever he is hiding. 

Yesterday I started using Paraguard to at least help with his fins. Today was the second dose of it. He seems to be handling it well, but it's way to early to tell if it's helping at all. 


For added fun last month I noticed a small lump at the base of RuPaul's tail, yesterday I noticed that it appears to be a little bigger. I've no idea if it's related to what's going on with Picasso or not. I see no signs of any lumps, well aside from Bruiser's rather impressive tumor, on my other 3 betta, 8 rasbora, or 8 cory cats. 

Here's 2 pictures of Picasso.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Yesterday was fast day, so aside from Picasso's tank I did not turn on the tank lights. This morning, when I turned on Corky's light, he did not swim over to eat. He was laying on the bottom of the tank between his sponge filter and drift wood. I managed to get him to eat a couple of blood worms, by holding them in front of him using my second pair of plant tweezers, but he swam away after that and showed no interest in eating more, since then he's been laying about on the bottom of the tank. I've no idea what is going on with him, or how to help him. I've checked the parameters and they are perfect with 0 ammonia, 0 nitirite, and around 5 or 10 nitrate. His water is 8 degrees. The tank is fully planted; Rosie the ramshorn, and Nelly the nerite are both acting fine. Just glanced over at Corky and he's out and swimming around, but then went back down to the bottom to hide... Fingers crossed that he's just having a bad day for whatever reason, but I'm concerned about him.

Picasso survived the night but his health continues to slowly decline. 

Bruiser, although the tumor is sill slowly growing, is active and his appetite is good. Yes, he's not as active as he used to be before all of this, but overall he seems to be doing good.

RuPaul is doing well, but that bump at the base of his tail worries me. He patrols his whole tank, and likes exploring his plants. 

Lagniappe has dethroned Bruiser as the reigning brat fish. He bit the heck out of me this morning when I went to feed him, and loves to flair at anything held up to his tank. He's my kitchen counter betta and enjoys swimming over to watch whatever I'm doing in the kitchen.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Please excuse me while I go visit crazy town, because that's where Corky is going to take me.

After all the worry that boy caused me yesterday, from the time I turned on his light till I went to bed last night, this morning he's up and about patrolling his tank like yesterday never happened! Don't get me wrong I was extremely happy to see him doing well, but I still can't figure out what happened. 

Picasso on the other hand is still going downhill and this morning he ate less then he had been, but he did swim up to the top when I started to feed him.

I'm going to be researching proper feeding tweezers so that I can use them to feed my boys rather then using my fingers like I have been doing. Using feeding tweezers / tongs will take away the only way my tanks are becoming cross contaminated. Other then the way I've been feeding I have separate equipment for all my tanks.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Oops, I did it again. I accidentally, on purpose, not my fault he begged me, got another betta. 

I was at the pet store yesterday and spotted him, but resisted bringing him home, see I have will power! Then today I went with a friend to the strip mall that the pet shop is in, well I went back to the pet shop to grab some dog food and the betta was still there. I fought the urge to get him but ended up talking myself into it. Poor Picasso isn't going to make it and I figure I'll have an empty 10 gal tank the new boy can live in. I'll wait at least 6 weeks before putting him in it, first to quarantine him, but second because I don't know what it is Picasso has and I want to give it a chance to die off if it's contagious. 

Yeah, I know I need professional help for this addiction of mine.

Here's a couple of pictures of him. In good light, the 1.5 gal holding / hospital tank's light sucks, he almost looks like he has a lavender body and sky blue fins. Oh the dang cup he was in really is as small as it appears to be, it's slightly less then 1 cup of water.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Poor Picasso is not doing well at all, and I've come to believe he's simply existing, and not really living. He's rail thin despite my feeding him. His appetite isn't that good, but he does still want to eat. He spends 99% of his time laying either on the bottom of the tank, or on his plants at the top. I keep dancing around euthanizing him, and I know I should, but I'm having trouble getting myself to do so. 1. I've done it once before and it broke my heart, and 2. I think I keep hoping for a 9th inning miracle. My current decision is to give him till Saturday and if I see no improvement just go ahead and do it.

On a happier note. Bruiser is still doing good. Yes his tumor is growing but so far he's holding his own. He explores his tank, hunts down any food that may have dropped to the bottom, and loves to come watch me when I'm by his tank. About the main changes in him is he's s bit slower, and no longer builds bubble nest.

RuPaul is also doing well, whatever it was that was at the base of his tail is gone. He patrols his 20 gal tank and keeps the rasbora's and cory cats in line, he also likes to see what I'm up to when I stand near his tank.

Corky hasn't had a relapse of whatever had him so lethargic that one day, he's pretty laid back and lazy, but I think that's because of his twin tail. He does well though, has a good appetite, and while he's on the shy side he does seem to enjoy watching me.

Lagniappe, continues to be a brat! He'll flair his little heart out if I hold my finger in front of his tank. He's my kitchen counter betta and is always interested in what I'm doing. He also maintains a bubble nest.

I've named the new boy Hendrix, and he seems to be doing really good. Near as I can tell he's healthy and active. He eats well, is interested in what I may be doing when I'm by his tank, and this morning built a bubble nest. Unlike Lagniappe, he has not decided to bite the heck out of my finger yet, nor has he decided to flair.

I have a new API Master Kit, and some more IAL, coming tomorrow. I ordered plastic feeding tongs but they won't be here till the 23.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I just fed Picasso and he repeated what he did this morning. He'll eat a couple bites then he rapidly darts away like something scared him or hurt him, I'm not sure what's up with that. I decided to put a dose of Prazipro in the tank to see if it helps, but I doubt that it will. I figure I'll give him every chance I can think of, even if it's a long shot.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Yesterday I did the first water change on Hendrix's tank, I had meant to do it the day before but was feeling lousy so I put it off. I decided to test the water before doing the change so that I'd know if I should do changes every other day or 2x a week. The ammonia was a bit high so I know I need to do changes every other day. Then I tested the Nitrite lv.... The test turned a lovely shade of deep purple. It seems to be somewhere between 4 or 5ppm. No there's no way on God's green earth that that test should have registered that high UNLESS the tap water containes Nitrite. When I tested the tap, yep it matches what my tank did. Lovely, just lovely, not only am I poisoning my fish when I do water changes, but I'm also poisoning myself and my dog because we drink that tap water! I get to call the water company on Monday, since they are closed today. Thank God I use Prime as my water conditioner since it neutralizes the nitrite. Also that God that all but Hendrix tank is fully cycled. I also did water changes on Lagniappe, and Corky's tank last night, this morning when I tested Lagniappe's water the nitrite reading was already down to .25ppm, so the cycle is taking care of the nitrite. 

Until the water company quits trying to poison us with nitrite I'll be dosing my tanks with Prime the day after a water change, and poor Hendrix will get his tank dosed with Prime every day! 

I also tested the taps Nitrate level and that was at around 5PPM. 

I've decided to give Picasso one more dose of PraziPro to see if it does any good, that means I'll be putting off euthanizing him so that it has a chance to work, if it's going to. I'm not hopeful as he seems to be ever so slowly declining in health, but he's still really interested in food, and has once again started coming to the top when he knows it's feeding time. Fingers crossed.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Goodbye Picasso. I wish that I could have made you better. I wish that I knew what it was that we couldn't fight off. I'll miss you my marble boy, SIP in that big river in the sky.

I've learned to loath the smell of clove oil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I know I'm going to have to put Bruiser down in the next day or so. The tumor is finally getting the best of him, he's having a lot of difficulty swimming, is mainly just laying in his plants at the top of his tank, no longer reacts to me, and tonight I noticed he seems to be having more trouble breathing. Even though he does still have a good appetite it's just not fair to him to let him suffer because I hate the idea of putting him down. If he were one of my dogs I know I'd call it quits at this time so how can I do less for him. I love that boy though, and I'm dreading having to get out the clove oil...

On a happier note all the other boys are doing well.

RuPaul seems to be getting more grey in his tail, and he rules his 20 gal.

Lagniappe, is just as feisty as ever, he checks out whatever I'm doing on the kitchen counter, and there's also a pretty good chance he'll flair at me if I put my finger up to the glass. 

Corky is my sweet boy and the most laid back and timid. He has a bit of trouble swimming but seems to do well in his 2.5 gal kingdom.

Hendrix seems to really want more room and says he's ready to go in the 10 gal get him out of the 1.5 gal already! I'm still not sure how in the world he ripped his caudal, but he seems to be alright anyway. The 10 gal should be ready for him tomorrow, I've overhauled the tank and think it should be safe for him to go in. 

I hate an empty tank, have I ever mentioned that? Knowing the 5 gal will be empty with Bruiser gone and knowing that seeing it empty will just make his loss all the harder I managed to have another betta come home with me. The little guy is going to have some very large fins to fill, but hopefully having him in the 5 gal will make the loss of Bruiser a little easier to bear. God I hate thinking of loosing Bruiser..... Anway, here's a picture of the new guy, I still have to come up with a name for him


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Bruiser ~ Gotcha date 4-07-18, SIP 3-1-20

Today I finally forced myself to end poor Bruiser's suffering, and I dang near backed out of it, but I know 1 day too soon, is better then 1 day too late. I know in my heart he was starting to really suffer. The tumor was taking over more and more every day. It still broke my heart to do it, and I miss the little guy. God, I hate the smell of clove oil. I sincerely hope it's a long, long, long, time before I have to put another fish down.

Goodbye my sweet boy. You won my heart with your spunky attitude, that you somehow managed to pair with a sweet, curious, friendly side. I'll never forget you fighting that bad, ol' filter, or how for the longest time you were so determined to keep your caudal short. Swim free in the River boy, build the biggest bubble nest imaginable, just like you used to, maybe now the "ladies" will finally show up. 

First picture, the day I got him.
Second, after his fins had started to grow back.
Third after he found the one blasted thing in the tank to rip his fins on (his filter intake tube)
Fourth after he finally decided to let his fins grow out
I'm not posting a picture of him with the tumor. I prefer to remember him how he was.


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## Mr Grumpy (Feb 28, 2020)

Hi



> I'll be dosing my tanks with Prime the day after a water change,



Prime will bind ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for 24-48 hours. At which point, if they are still present, will be released back into the water column.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Mr Grumpy said:


> Hi
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, I know. 

My tap water has over 5ppms of Nitrite in it according to the API Master Test. My towns water company is insisting the water only has around .85ppm of nitrite. I had the local lab that the water company use do a professional test, and their results show that the water has .85ppm of nitirte, BUT I suspect that they are wrong for a variety of reasons. As soon as I can get to the next town over I'm going to get another test done at the lab there. 

My tanks are cycled, but using the water from the 20 gal to do water changes on my 1.5 gal quarantine tank has driven up the Nitrates in the 20 gal because I made the mistake of topping it back up with nitrite laden tap water. I'm now topping it up with Spring water BUT I"m still struggling to get the nitrate level back down. It's sort of a vicious cycle. My 10, 5, 3, and 2.5 gal tanks all have good levels, it's just the 20 and 1.5 that I'm fighting with. 

When I do a water changes on my tanks I've been dosing the whole tank, not just the new water, with Prime, and on the 20 gal I dose the next day, then every 48 hours.


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## Mr Grumpy (Feb 28, 2020)

Hi


Thats fine, a lot of people are not aware that it only binds temporarily.


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