# PG's fish chronicle



## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Keeping bettas is so much fun, I want to share updates all the time! Currently I have Piras, my handsome dragon boy, a little betta girl who doesn't have a name yet, and 6 microrasbora kubotai. Piras is doing good, he remains his flashy and active self. I accidentally fell for the microrasbora at the fish store, so I cautiously added them to Piras' 10gal home. They're all getting along so far, but I don't think Piras loves the little guys zipping around. He's gotten more used to them over the past few days, but I don't think they'll be permanent roommates.

I got a 5gal fluval chi at the pet store (which is when I also picked up the little girl) and my plan is to plant it up and put the microrasbora in there. They would probably do fine in the 10gal, but Piras seems a bit stressed out by having to share, and I don't want him to feel too crowded by the little fish. In theory the microrasbora kubotai only get to be about 2cm, but some people report them getting larger. if they stay small the 5 gal is probably okay. 

The little girl betta is super cute! I was worried when I bought her that she wouldn't make it, but after a day she's improved a lot! Now she zips around looking for food and has no problem with the current from the filter. The first day she mostly hid in the corner by the plant roots and behind the heater, but now she's out and about most of the time. She is starting to show a bit of blue and iridescence, so I think she'll be a pretty blue when she colors up more. I tried to take a few more pictures this morning, but she's so fast now they're mostly blurry.


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Do not put Kubotai in the 5 gallon. It's too small for them. I considered to get them for my 8.6 gallon and asked for opinions on this forum. RussellTheShihTzu and LittleBettaFish told me that they were very active and needed bigger tanks. They have owned them and recommended a 20 gallon tank. I ended up not getting them. You should keep them in the 10 gallon.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

That's good to know, perhaps I'll keep them in the 10 after all. I think I was probably too quick to decide it wouldn't work in the first place. They all seem to be coexisting pretty well. I think they just needed a few days to settle in. Piras doesn't really bug them and they don't really bug him. I added more plants today as well and so there is a good amount of cover.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

took some pictures. the new plants look pretty rough, my mail carrier decided to half ass the delivery yesterday and monday so most of the leaves had disintegrated. Hopefully the plants will recover since the roots still looked okay and there is a bit of life left in them.


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

poisonousgiraffe said:


> That's good to know, perhaps I'll keep them in the 10 after all. I think I was probably too quick to decide it wouldn't work in the first place. They all seem to be coexisting pretty well. I think they just needed a few days to settle in. Piras doesn't really bug them and they don't really bug him. I added more plants today as well and so there is a good amount of cover.


Good to hear that they are getting along better. I wish I could have kubotai in my tank...!


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Good news and slightly less good news this time around. The slightly less good news is that adding more plants to the tank made the mircrorasboras bolder and they zoomed around the tank, which made Piras even more stressed. He started biting his fins and hiding in his corner. It figures my fish would have social anxiety:lol: so I put the microrasboras in the five gallon for now, and they seem to be accepting their temporary accomodations. Piras is much more relaxed now and enjoying his space. He hasn't bitten his tail any more, so hopefully he'll be back to normal in a bit.

The good news is my sister has a 20 gallon long tank she was going to set up for her frogs, but never got around to it, and she's letting me use it for fish! I had to re-seal a corner, but it's in good shape otherwise. She also has some neat driftwood pieces that will make good hiding places for fish. I ordered a filter and another heater, which get here tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have the tank up and running by Sunday. 

Baby betta is doing well, she's coloring up more and growing. She'll definitely be an iridescent blue of some sort. I got her a betta hammock and she likes chilling there. I'll probably move her to the 5 gallon once I get the 20L set up and the microrasboras in there. Part of me wants to try putting her in the 20L with the other fish, but I think I'll wait a while until I do another betta + community fish experiment.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Piras is doing much better alone in his 10g, he's back to investigating, showing off, and making bubble nests in the corner. I did add a gold inca snail named Roo to help with keeping the tank clean. Piras doesn't mind the snail at all and Roo is happily scooting around the tank eating bits of old leaves and such. Piras hasn't bitten his tail since I moved the microrasboras, so it will probably heal up soon, and then I can go back to taking a million pictures 

the little girl betta is doing well too, she's growing and giving me looks whenever I walk past her tank without feeding her. It's really funny because she sees me, swims up to the top of the tank, looks at the top of the water for a few seconds, then looks at me. Clearly I'm not doing my job even though I feed her plenty. I put some IAL leaves in her tank too, some of them sank to the bottom and this morning she popped out from underneath them. She's adorable, but I'm still not sure what to name her.

I got the 20L tank set up and started cycling it. I'm getting plants in the mail tomorrow to plant it with, so it;s kind of bare right now. I got a marineland penguin filter for it, but I'm already regretting it. The output isn't adjustable as far as I can tell, so I'll probably need to diy some sort of baffle. I tried using a filter sponge to slow down the water as it came out but it was unsuccessful. I'm also worried about the intake being too strong and sucking up one of the microrasboras when I do finally put them in there. 

I also used coconut coir as the substrate underneath about an inch of sand for plant purposes. It was a lot cheaper than the planted tank substrates offered by various companies, and will probably be easier for plant roots to use. The first day the whole tank was really clear after I filled it, but by the second day I think some of the finer coconut particles seeped up into the water, because it is pretty dark now. I'm hoping a few water changes will clear the water up, plus once I have the plants in they should help keep everything in place. hopefully this works out and I don't have to drain the whole tank D':


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

a quick update because this is too funny not to share. Piras' snail buddy has been making himself at home, climbing everywhere and having a good time. But Piras has Opinions about where he is allowed to climb. There's a driftwood log in one corner of the tank, and I just watched the snail climb partway up, and then get shoved off by Piras. Afterward Piras rested briefly on the log, fins flared out dramatically because This Is Piras' Log And Only He Can Rest Here.

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of Piras' tank and the 20L that finally has plants in it (and fish!)


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Picture time!

First is Piras' tank, since I changed it around a little. I think he likes the cover on the left side, but the right side is still kind of bare. I have some spiral val that I'm hoping will grow in to cover the area more, but most of it melted so I'm not sure how it will go.

My little girl is getting all colorful finally  It's a little hard to tell because of the bad lighting, but she's kind of purple. I also came up with a name for her finally: Mercury! She loves frozen bloodworms, and always gets disappointed when I feed her flakes or pellets after getting bloodworms. 

I finally got all the plants in my 20L, and it's looking pretty good. I ended up getting a different filter and some purigen to help clear up the water after I planted everything. I added a little more sand around the plants to make sure the soil underneath isn't exposed, so hopefully that keeps the water clear. The 20L also has a new occupant, Mars the koi betta! She's a very spunky and really enjoys swimming in the filter output, even though I'm always afraid she'll tire herself out. when I first put her in I still had the penguin filter and it tumbled her around, and she kept swimming right next to the intake and getting stuck. I thought she would stress herself to death in the first day or two. after I got the new filter (the aquaclear) she's much better, but she is addicted to swimming in the output current now.

Another new addition is Jupiter! I got her from dual007 on ebay. I only planned to look at the listing, but she was so cute . . . I put her in the fluval chi after cleaning it a bit and rearranging it, and I think she likes it so far. The only problem is the light for the chi is integrated into the filter, and I think in the process of refilling the tank by pouring water on the filter I must have broken the light somehow, because now it doesn't turn off. I think there's probably water in there somewhere. I've never had a fish shipped, so I was worried the usps would lose her or drop her off a moving vehicle, but she arrived safely and warm. She's still settling in, but she swims up to the front to see me when I check on her and is eating well.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Some sad news this time, Mars passed away. I was checking the filter and one of the ceramic rings fell out and hit her in the head while she was swimming under the filter. She was very spunky and I'll miss seeing her cute face coming up to investigate. At least she got to enjoy swimming in a big tank and investigate all the little hidey holes and plants, I wish she could have enjoyed her new home for ore than a week. I feel sad that my clumsiness with the filter is what killed her, but it was one of those weird accidents that I don't think anyone could have predicted. Swim in peace kid

Everyone else is doing good though. I got Mercury an anubias and a little hamster tube to swim through so she has more to do in her tank and she seems very pleased. Piras is still patrolling his tank in usual fabulous fashion and begging for more food. I did notice a strand of string algae on the end of one of his anubias' so I'll try to turn the lights off earlier than I usually do. I moved Jupiter out of the fluval chi and into a divided 10 gallon. The lights still wont turn off (or wont stay off) and I think it was stressing her out, her fins were all clamped this morning and she was just sitting in one place. I think I might just return it tbh because It's hard to do water changes without taking it apart. Jupiter is doing much better in the divided 10 gallon. she's swimming around and not clamping her fins as much. I also got a better heater for this tank so hopefully the temp will stay at 80 degrees. I think the heater I was using in the chi was not working properly and causing huge temp fluctuations which Jupiter also did not like. I never thought I would say this, but I can't wait until it's 90 degrees in my dang house again so I don't have to use a ridiculous amount of wattage to heat the tanks. I also wish my landlord had hired an electrician who knows how to use the appropriate gauge of wire so our heater would turn on reliably. So many problems could be solved if my house wasn't 54 degrees every morning . . .


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

I'm back with many updates  
I made a video to introduce my betta girls, since I've adopted a few more. Neptune is the most recent, she's also from dual700 like Jupiter. I put Neptune in the fluval chi, and replaced the filter with an azoo mignon 60 because the fountain filter looks cool but kind of a pain to actually use. Artemis is actually from petco. I went there to get some anacharis, and planned to just look at the bettas. Artemis was swimming around in her little cup so energetically I fell in love immediately.







Artemis is in my 20L tank with some bronze and albino cories and microrasbora kubotai. The cories have sort of adopted her and she searches the sand with them sometimes, it's very cute.
Serenity and Jupiter share a divided 10 gallon, and they're getting along nicely. Serenity is energetic and curious about getting to the other side, and Jupiter prefers to chill in her plants but I think she likes having Serenity as a roommate. Serenity actually got over to Jupiter's side when I was putting in some plants, and when they came face to face their reaction was like "Oh, it's you but without a divider?" I grabbed a net and put Serenity back on her side so nothing really happened. 
Neptune is related to Jupiter, which is why they look similar. I just got Neptune this past thursday, so she's still getting used to her new house, but she is gobbling her pellets and having a good time.
Mercury is my baby girl I got from petco almost a month ago, and she is doing amazing! I moved her to a divided 10 gallon(other side is still empty) recently, and she's loving the extra space to swim and hide. She loves her pellets and always scarfs them down like I've never fed her. this morning she almost jumped out just to grab one


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Piras has finally recovered from his tail biting phase, and is back to showing off his tail as he swims around exploring. I think he also might have been tearing his fins on his driftwood, so I laid it down flat on the substrate rather than leaning against the tank, and Piras seems to enjoy the new tank layout immensely. Before he would bite his tail or tear it on something every time I added new plants. I think the plants are finally arranged to his satisfaction. the water lily bulb has started sending out leaves so that will provide some more top cover and shade too.

I filled up Serenity and Jupiter's tank too much after a water change yesterday, and found Serenity hanging out in Jupiter's side. thankfully Jupiter's side has a bunch of cabomba so she could hide, but Serenity did mess up Jupiter's face a bit. Serenity of course doesn't have a scratch on her. Jupiter seems okay despite her injury. Her color is still good, she's eating, and she still comes out to greet me for food whenever I check on her. She seems to be hiding a bit more, but I probably would too if I were her. I put some IAL into the tank, and will do another water change this evening. This time I won't over fill it. I think I'll feed Jupiter frozen blood worms and brine shrimp until she heals up too.

I moved Neptune's tank to the shelf next to Serenity and Jupiter, since she still seemed stressed being on the counter. I put a silk plant between the tanks to break up lines of sight just in case Neptune or Jupiter gets stressed by seeing each other through the tank glass. I think Neptune likes this better, but she still gets stressed easily. Hopefully she'll start to feel better now that I won't be messing with her plants or moving her anymore.

My little girl Mercury is doing so well in her new 5 gallon tank! Her color has improved so much, you can actually tell what color she is lol. her body is dark blue with a little red, and she has shiny blue iridescence all over. I want to try to get a picture, but she's real zoomy and my phone camera is not good at focusing. 

The 20L is doing great, the plants are growing like crazy. I think I might need to replant my crypts because the water lily in that tank looks like it might overtake them. Saturday I was at petco for some driftwood, and of course I left with some fish anyway. The had six galaxy rasboras, and I had been thinking of getting more rasboras so my kubotai rasboras would be a little more outgoing, so I brought the little guys home. they're so cute, and the Kubotai rasboras are a bit more adventurous. The cories are fat and happy as usual, they laid a few more eggs after I did a water change Saturday, but not as many as the first batch. I haven't seen any fry from the first batch, but if any are around they are probably very cunningly hidden. Artemis still follows the cories around as they sift, I think she realized that they sometimes trow bits of food she likes up with the sand. She also always looks well fed, so apparently this technique is working for her. Artemis will probably eat any little cory fry she can find, so I don't really expect the fry to survive to adulthood unless they can hide good enough to make it to too-big-for-Artemis'-mouth-hood.

I was clearing off my desk yesterday to make space for a 5.5 gallon, and I found the acorn I picked up in December. I left it in a ziplock with a bit of dirt and moisture to sprout it, but I forgot about it for a while. I picked up the bag thinking I probably had a bag of rotten acorn and dirt, but the acorn actually sprouted. I put it into a real pot so it can grow its root system and turn into a real tree. My plan is to turn it into a bonsai eventually. I also have two dragonfruit tree sprouts that came from some safeway fruit of all places. In several years I will have my very own supply of dragonfruit.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

I just got back last night from being out of town for a few days, and thankfully all my fish seem to have survived. I kept telling myself they would be fine, but of course there was the inevitable just-about-to-fall-asleep anxiety about all the horrible things that could happen (I'll spare everyone the details haha). I was super worried about Jupiter since she got injured by Serenity right before I had to leave, but she's doing okay. I did water changes for all the tanks when I got home, and added stresscoat for Jupiter. I wasn't able to tell when she first got injured, but her mouth is pretty badly damaged. It looks like it's healing though, so I think she'll be okay.

Neptune might have a little bit of pop eye in her right eye. Her tank needs more frequent water changes than the others since it's only 5 gallons, and the plants are still having trouble getting established. Not to mention I was messing with the plants every other day, which stressed her out, and probably made her more vulnerable to imperfect water quality Part of me wants to take down the tank and re-do all the soil/substrate and plants again, but I'm pretty sure that part of me needs to just chill. The plants will do their thing eventually, and messing with them means it will take longer and stress Neptune out more. I really do hate the gravel I used to cap the soil, but it's more important to make sure Neptune is happy and comfy than to make sure the tank aesthetics are perfect.

All the fish did have to fast for a day or so since my sister was also out of town for a day and she was the one feeding them (it was a family thing so we all had to be there). The fish all look a little thinner but still active. I counted the fish in the 20 long this morning and it looks like all the kubotai rasboras and the new galaxy rasboras are all there, as well as Artemis and the six cory cats. The cories seemed so grateful for their algae wafers last night and this morning, I'm betting they dug every last bit of edible stuff out of the sand. probably for the best since before they would always leave a few algae wafer crumbs stuck in the hair grass in ways that made siphoning up food crumbs very difficult.

Piras and his plants are doing well. I haven't set up a timer for Piras' tank light yet, so I just left the blinds in my window open for light while I was gone. The light from my window is enough to keep my houseplants happy, so I figured the aquarium plants would be fine with a few days of less light than they are used to. He has mostly low-light plants in his tank, and in the early morning there is an hour when a pretty good sunbeam hits it. Piras actually flared at me when I first turned on his tank light this morning to feed him lol

remember how my cories had eggs right before I left? I scraped a few off and put them in a medium sized krtter-keeper with some tank gravel, pothos plants, and a heater before I left. I didn't really expect any to hatch and survive since I didn't have a filter for them, and couldn't do any water changes or feed them since I was out of town, but I just saw one swimming around! I guess I won't just toss the whole thing like I was planning last night! I think the pothos plants and the two leaves/whatever of christmas moss are the only reason the water isn't absolute garbage despite having no movement/aeration. I'd better top it off with clean water right now to keep the little guy from perishing after doing his best to make it this far


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

I put the little cory fry in the 5.5 gallon planted tank I've been cycling for a week since the container he was originally in is kinda gross. I intended to gently transfer the fry, but when I lifted the net the fry was too close to the edge and fell on the table . . . I got it into the cup of water for walking to the other tank and then into the 5.5 gallon, but this poor little fry has already gone through so much I hope it makes it. At least the 5.5 gallon has a sponge filter and a lid. the fry is currently hiding somewhere, which is understandable


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

I picked up four nerite snails yesterday, and distributed them in my tanks. I ended up getting them at petco because the good fish store didn't have any. I put two of the snails in Jupiter and Serenity's tank to help deal with melting cabomba. I didn't have good enough light on that tank for a bit and the lower leaves melted. for some reason the bunch in Serenty's side melted a lot more, but I sucked most of it up with the gravel siphon when I changed the water. Hopefully with the better light and snail team the melt will get cleaned up and the healthy parts of the plant will continue to grow. I was also worried about the plant melt messing up the water quality, since I'm trying to keep it really clean to help Jupiter recover.

last time I thought Neptune had a bit of pop eye, but when I changed the water last night I couldn't see any signs of her eye being swollen/cloudy. Maybe it was just a weird reflection I saw the other day. 

the little cory fry is still hanging in there and seems to enjoy sitting on the driftwood. I got some NLS fry food yesterday, which he must be eating since he's still alive. I put one of the nerites in there as well to keep the tank clean. once the cory gets a little bigger I'll put him in the 20 long with his parents so he's not so alone.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Earlier when I went out to feed everyone, the cories were busy spawning. The males were frantically chasing one of the females around, and I got to watch her stick some eggs on the glass. Two of the cories are female, and both have been looking quite round the past few days, so I was wondering when they might start spawning. I can't decide if I want to remove these eggs and try to hatch them. this time I'm not going on a trip so I could actually monitor them, but I kind of don't want to deal with eggs and fry right now. 

The one survivor from the first spawn is doing really well, he looks like a tiny version of his parents! He's still in the 5 1/2 gallon tank though, because he's really good at hiding. I really want to move him to the big tank though, because the 5 1/2 is supposed to be the house for my new HMPK male (the first picture is of him) I named him Snoopy, and he's actually in the 5 1/2 already. so far he and his cory buddy get along, Snoopy occasionally chases him, but the little cory is too fast, and I don't think he actually wants to catch him. I really need to move the little cory though . . . maybe next water change.

Snoopy is not really a fan of pellets, he always just watches them. He does eat them, though, so he knows they're food, he's just being picky. He knows I have frozen blood worms lol. He's a bit of an oddball in other ways too. There's a clump of crypt next to one of the tank walls, and I guess it's the perfect size, because he likes to swim right into the crevice between the glass and the crypt leaves and rest there. When I first put him in the tank and he started doing that I was worried that he was using the plant to scratch himself because he had somehow gotten parasites, but now that I've had a few days to observe him, I think he just loves the crevice. He does have a little coconut cave, but he only used it the first day to hide from me.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Back again. I moved the little cory fry into the 20 long with his parents  they all look so cute together. I ended up doing a water change in Snoopy's tank, partly because of this little cory, and partly because the water is still very tannin-ey from either the driftwood or the soil I used for the plants. Snoopy seems a bit happier on his own (he has a nerite snail, but I almost never see it) right now he's swimming along the back wall, playing in the filter output. I decided to get a small HOB filter for his tank, even though he has the sponge filter. I want to use purigen to get the tannin color out of his water quicker, because otherwise I'll just have to keep doing water changes every day until it finally clears up. 

Piras seems to have fin rot. I thought it was just biting for a while, but because his tail has a black rim, it was hard to tell whether or not there was any fin rot. The edge of his tail is still black, but also on the areas he bit or that look a little smaller than the rest of his tail. The top of his tail is the worst looking, since that's where he started biting. The fin between his rays has either been claimed by fin rot, or bitten very precisely, because only his rays are there, like he's a crown tail. I gave him a bath with paraguard while I changed his water today, and added stressguard to his tank. Hopefully this will clear up quickly and his tail will heal. 

the girls are doing good. Jupiter's injury hasn't fully healed yet, but I started putting stressguard in today(she was why I ordered it in the first place). She's still eating and dancing for food, and being herself despite the injury, so I think the stressguard will help her heal faster. Before I could only find stresscoat, which was okay but not the most helpful thing.

I also finally got my last girl who is sharing the divided 10 gallon with Mercury. She's a copper dragon, and super pretty! the first time her breeder tried to ship her to me, she ended up getting returned to sender because my address had somehow gotten ripped off the box. She managed to survive that post office adventure, and was successfully shipped the second time lol. I named her Venus to keep with the planet theme


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

this is turning into a cory journal lol. I decided to take the eggs out of the main tank after all. I put them in the spare 2.5 gallon I have with a sponge filter, some sand, and some hygrophilia. If they hatch I'll move them to a large plastic bin or something to grow up a bit, since 2.5 gallons will probably get cramped pretty quickly if there's more than one of them. 

The cory fry in the main tank is still scooting around like a champ. I think he forgives me for all the trauma of netting him out of the other tank. plus there's a lot more places to hide and explore, so I think he's happy. Snoopy also seems happy he isn't sharing his tank with a buddy anymore.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

Snoopy made s first bubble nest  using the purigen worked really well, the tank water looks much better, though it's still a little tinted from the tannins. Snoopy has been in a better mood since the water started clearing up too. he still seems a bit mopey occasionally, but he's learning to beg for food and he comes out to say hello to me.

I destroyed Piras' bubble nest by accident when I was changing the water yesterday. He's had a nice one going on in his floating log for a while. He's rebuilding now, I think he's decided the floating log is a good location. It's kind of funny to watch him, because he will swim around, maybe do a little bit of flaring to show off, then return to his boudoir to see if there are any interested ladies

I think part of the reason Piras is biting his caudal is he practices wrapping in his little floating log boudoir (gotta make sure he's not gonna disappoint the ladies I guess) and his tail probably gets in the way a bit. I'm impressed by how prepared he is to smash, but it's just not going to happen lol


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

poisonousgiraffe said:


> I'm back with many updates
> I made a video to introduce my betta girls, since I've adopted a few more. Neptune is the most recent, she's also from dual700 like Jupiter. I put Neptune in the fluval chi, and replaced the filter with an azoo mignon 60 because the fountain filter looks cool but kind of a pain to actually use. Artemis is actually from petco. I went there to get some anacharis, and planned to just look at the bettas. Artemis was swimming around in her little cup so energetically I fell in love immediately.


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

well the past week has been kind of up and down as far as fish go. The bad news first: unfortunately Jupiter passed away on wednesday evening. At the beginning of this week I noticed she was a lot thinner than she was, and she seemed to be having trouble eating with her injured mouth. Before she was able to slurp up the frozen worms and shrimp, but she seemed like she was just pecking at the food, but unable to actually eat it. It seemed like the flesh around her mouth had started to heal after adding stressguard, but I think the wound must have gotten infected, or she developed something else because she was weakened by the injury. I have also been using paraguard as well, since it is a sort of general medicine for external parasites, bacteria, and fungus. I hoped the combination of stressguard and paraguard would help her wound heal and keep away any other infections or diseases. but I think her immune system was already too compromised from the injury. Maybe it would have worked if I'd had both medicines on hand when she got injured, but I had to order them so it was a week or so before I was able to start dosing the tank. On wednesday morning I took her out of her regular tank, and put her into a 1 gallon plastic shoebox bin because she was looking really bad. I wanted to move her into the 2 1/2 gallon I have, but I had to fix the leak, and the silicone was still curing. She barely tried to eat when she was in her regular tank, so I hoped being in this smaller container would help her be able to reach the surface easier and maybe try to eat. But she pretty much just rested on the bottom and didn't try to eat. Jupiter was a really cool fish, and I miss her. She had such a sweet personality, but she fought really hard to recover from being injured. Unfortunately it was a really serious injury, and it was a lot for her little fishy body to handle. I was optimistic when she was eating, because if she ate, she could get better, but I'm not sure what else I could do to help her. Swim in peace Jupiter

Serenity, who shared the divided tank with Jupiter, is healthy and in excellent condition as usual. She actually released a bunch of eggs last night and tried to put them in a bubble nest to raise them. I think maybe this whole time she thought Jupiter was a male betta?? I took the eggs out when I was doing a water change last night, since they aren't fertilized and will just end up fungusing. but I feel bad because Serenity did a pretty good job bubble nesting all those eggs, there were probably around 100. I removed the divider since Jupiter is gone, so now Serenity has full reign over the whole 10 gallons. I'm continuing the paraguard treatment I started for Jupiter, since they shared the tank. Even though Serenity has been basically glowing with health this whole time, I don't want to stop the treatment early and allow her to get sick from anything Jupiter may have caught. I think I will re-scape the plants and such so the tank looks more like one tank, rather than a different tank in each half. 

Neptune is also doing really well. After I added some pennywort to her tank, she was a lot happier, and didn't show stress stripes. Since she and Jupiter are from the same breeder, I figured Neptune might also like the forest of plants style tank, and she does! It's really hard to siphon the gravel though . . . I also started dosing Neptune's tank with paraguard, since she had been stressed for a while I figured this might be a good idea, and I think it has done some good. She's very interactive now, and loves to eat.

the fish in the 20 gallon are also doing good, though I did lose one of my neon green rasboras. I found him stuck in some water fern that was covered with a bunch of algae. At first I thought he was just stuck in the algae, but when I freed him, he just swam in circles gasping for air. I'm not sure how long he was stuck there, but I think he might have injured his swim bladder because he had trouble staying upright. I removed him to a hospital tank, but he was super stressed out and didn't make it. none of the other fish seem sick, so I think it was just that one little guy. 

Artemis' pectorals have started growing back. She bit them in the store, but now there's new growth. she definitely has the big ears genes, because her pectorals are pretty big, but I don't know if they'll grow in to be the huge dumbo ear pectorals. Her color seems pretty spot on, but she's obviously a bit of a mutt when it comes to finnage lol. Her unpaired fins have a bit of a comb tail effect going on now, so she looks a little spiky around the edges. I'm kind of interested to see what she looks like when her fins have grown in all the way. I've been reading up on betta genetics lately and it's kind of fun trying to guess at what sorts of bettas might have produced the pet store bettas I have.

Piras is finally recovering from his bout of fin biting. I actually can see new growth. I started dosing his tank with paraguard as well, since he has been fin biting, and he seemed not quite himself. He wasn't eating his pellets with as much gusto as usual, so I thought something else might be going on besides fin biting. After a week and a half he is back to inhaling his pellets and begging for more. His color is looking better too, so I think the paraguard was a good call.

Snoopy still refuses to eat pellets, he actually runs away when I try to give him some. He loves the omega one flakes though. He's also gone into bubble nest mode, and has a whole corner dedicated to a very large nest. I guess that means he's comfy in his tank now.

last but not least I want to introduce a new betta. He's a red and turquoise veil tail I got at my LFS last Saturday. I wasn't planning to get another betta, especially not a veil tail from a fish store, but he's super cute, and his colors are really pretty. He did bite his fins in the store, so his tail isn't quite as magnificent as it could be, but he's pretty active and healthy otherwise. I'm already seeing some new growth on his tail. He even flared at a pellet when I dropped it in. I put him in a ten gallon, and he seems to really enjoy the space. I don't have a name for him yet, I'm still trying to think of something that fits.

I'm too lazy to take pictures now, but I'll put some up later today


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

here's a few pictures of Snoopy and my new veil tail boy


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

It's been a while since I last updated, but a lot has been going on. I'm also getting ready to move to a house with more space (for fish . . .?) so I want to adjust some stuff about how my tanks are set up and planted. I've been watching a lot of aquascaping videos on youtube and I'm excited to try some of the techniques and apply what I've learned over the past few months of having planted tanks.

The fish are doing well, and I actually have a few new faces to introduce! I've had them for about a month actually, but I haven't been able to get very good photos so I kept holding off on introducing them. I still don't have very good pictures, but I want to share them with everyone!

First up is this beautiful fancy copper boy I found at petco. He only had black and white, and a bit of copper in the cup, and was labeled as a delta tail, but he has grown into one of my most beautiful fish. His fins have grown out quite a bit, and the black and white/clear butterfly pattern he had in the store has mostly disappeared. He also developed beautiful, bright crimson color on his dorsal and anal fins. When the red first started to come in, it was in very faint patches around his rays, and I thought it was some sort of horrible infection from being in a cup, until the color got a bit brighter and the patches spread out more. And his tail! I thought for sure he was just a delta tail like the cup said for the first week or so, but it turns out he was just clamping his tail, because nowadays he's more relaxed and shows off what looks like an almost perfect 180 degree spread. I haven't been able to get him to flare up completely though, so I'm not really sure and he might just be a super delta. Even if he is a super delta, I'm still blown away by how much he's changed, and how beautiful he is!

























Next are two plakat boys I found at my local fish store, named Dip and Dot, after the Dip n' Dot ice cream which their colors reminded me of. I think they are multicolors, though Dip might be a marble who has gone completely blue. I watched these two in the store for about three weeks before I broke down and purchased them. I thought of their names one day, and realized I couldn't not bring them home at this point. Dip was very shy at the store, and looked miserable, but he is a lot more active and feisty now, and is always exploring his five gallon. He had more white on him when I first saw him, and it was in a sort of grizzle pattern, but the blue has almost completely taken over now. He's so pretty and I love watching him!

















Dot is the more colorful boy, and also the smallest male I have. I think he's still kind of young, as he has grown a bit since I got him. Still on the little side though. I really love his colors, especially the contrast between orange and blue on his body and the rim of blue on the edges of his fins. Dot also had more white on his body when I got him, which I really liked, but I'm still super stoked about his coloring. I really like the shape of his fins too, it's kind of an asymmetric plakat look. Or maybe it's called traditional? I'm not entirely sure, but I love him. 

















I'm thinking about breeding Dot, and maybe Dip too, because I love their colors and form so much, but I'm kind of nervous since I've never bred betta fish before. I've been learning a lot about it, and I will have the space and the time this summer to try it. Plus these past few years in the bay area CA, summer temperatures (80*F and up)have lasted well into October, which will mean I won't have to worry about keeping a lot of things heated for several months. One of my favorite parts of researching breeding has been looking at people's spawn logs and seeing how they fry develop. I also really enjoyed watching Mercury, the baby betta girl I got from petco earlier this year, grow up and stuff her face with food. I think if I do decide to try breeding, the grow out process is going to be my favorite.

In non-betta news, I got a shoal of six habrosus corydoras to put in Charlie's tank. They are super cute, and Charlie seems to accept them as non-food items. They like to play in the bubbles from the sponge filter, and even Charlie seems to like watching them go about their business pushing sand around. I was worries about how Charlie would take to having tank-mates, since he even gave my thumb an investigatory nibble when I was cleaning his tank once, but after a few days of confusion he doesn't really bother them at all. He does like the omega one shrimp pellets I give the cories, though, and usually takes a few bites of those before letting the cories at them.


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