# lilnaugrim's Betta Fish Journal



## lilnaugrim

Hey all, so I figured why not just start a journal since someone *coughmarcoughcough* has been bugging me for one ;-)

And I just needed a place to dump the one thousand and four photos I take of my fish in a day! Haha, so this will be a log about everyone except for my babies which have their own journal set up and running ;-) but occasionally I throw in a picture here and there of everyone!

So as of today, this journal is officially working and started up! woohoooooo!

Ugg oh yeah and I'll probably complain about this horrible summer weather we're having! "Who said it was alright for Summer to come in?" it's a whooping 96 degree's today although it's cooling off now and the humidity is still up at *65%*! What even is that! Tomorrow we're getting to 70%! Lol almost typed 700 there, mind as well be 700% though! It definitely feels like it!! Ug!!!!

Next post will be a dump of pictures ;-) stay tuned!


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## Mar

lmao thanks for that discreet mention lololol

Yayaayaya! Finally get to see all your pretty bettas! CoughcoughJarviscough.
Can't wait to see the pics!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, Picture time!!!!!

Here's the lovely Emma Frost doing things that Emma Frost likes to do....yep









I say she and her two sisters (Jewel and Lady Deathstrike) were bred very well except for the spotty Dragon Scaling.









Mystique being blurry, Jewel and Maddie in the back.









This is back when Lady and the still Unnamed AB girl were not yet in the tank but they are both in the tank now and doing well. Although the Unnamed AB girl has been fighting with Mystique for Alpha but Mystique is still holding strong.









Picture of the whole tank about a week ago before I re-scaped it









Aurora









Jewel









Oh a terrible trio!! Mystique, Phoenix and Cherry!









Finally named Lady Deathstrike after three weeks ^_^ Lady for short since she's certainly become a Lady now. She and her sisters apparently have settled their vendetta and get along just fine! I'm glad my time out session worked with her!









Jewel was interested in her sister Lady. Pineapple being a ninja.









And still the unnamed beautiful AB girl. She's doing so well now although still picking with Mystique but that's fine, no one is seriously hurt!









Here's how the tank looks now, took off some of the teenage water sprite plants and planted them at the edges, moved some of the crypts around and moved the Rotala to the back right corner. Also moved the piece of driftwood with the giant java fern on it from the back right corner to just below the filter intake in the back. You can see the leaves peaking out behind the sword and the water sprite. Lol that time when you forget you have a third Amazon Sword in the back XD









The first thing I love about this photo is the unnamed girl's tail can be seen very nicely and her spread, she's not flaring but it's darn close! And then if you look in the middle you see Little Blue and Maddie staring at you haha, I cracked up at that! Then Stardust, Lady and Jewel in the back.









Another terrible trio! With a side kick hiding in the back (Maddie) lol Lady, Unnamed and Little Blue.









Cherry and Unnamed









Shows off Cherry's color very well.









And even better!! This is what she looks like in real life ;-)









Emma and Unnamed


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## Mar

Your ab girl is gorgeous.... Wow. Beautiful fins. I love Emma too!!!
And your tank is amazing, how many gallons?


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## lilnaugrim

And now for some Boys!

Here's Jarvis's full tank shot:









And the 10 gallon split 3 times, from left to right; Ditto, Aero and Mercury although Ditto was in QT at that time for fin rot which he's managed to get away from so he's back now recuperating his fins since I got a new boy!
I know it doesn't look like much but I finally got a piece of driftwood in there so this picture isn't up to day, but with the tannins and the piece it will soften the water making my plants grow much better after!









And it seemed the Full Super Moon effected my boys as well! They immediately began bubble nest building, even the ones who normally don't do one!
Here's Ditto's:









And Rembrandt's! Jarvis made one too but I didn't get a picture of it.









And Aero's nest! His first one! Small, but cute and there ;-)









And Aero being cute, so I think he's going to marble to a proper Green Betta! He's starting to get this green stripe down his right side which you can kind of see here but it was much more prominent today! I thought it might have been algae at first but it's a perfectly straight line so I cannot think that it'd been anything other than him changing colors. Also in his tail the middle of it is becoming a little more clear and the edges are becoming very solid like a clean butterfly! Hopefully he does marble, I think it would be really neat to track his progress!









Also his anal fin is becoming green as well and it's not laying on top of the fin, it's the literal pigmentation of his fin. He's also filling in his mask, losing the "arrows" he'd been partly named after haha.









And for this next image you're probably going to be like "WTF??" So I have to give a little back story.

Okay so Jarvis, he's my DT Rosetail boy who has beautiful colors but unfortunately he's got some bowel movement issues. So I've usually kept him in a therapeutic dosage of Epsom salt to help his bowels move but it never really seemed to help. So I aborted it and when I did my water change, it was just fresh clean water. So in the two months that I've had him, he's pooped all of twice, so you think this is really weird! Well he actually excretes a lot of his waste out through his gills so I think he's just had a problem with literally not being able to push the poop out his "bum" so I decided Sunday that I should give him more than just the 2-3 pellets of NLS that I normally give and I dared to give him 5. WELL LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE POOPED!!!!!!!!!!!! It's HUGE too! Oh my gosh, i can't tell you how excited I was over this!!!! So here, Have a lovely poop picture haha!









And apparently I have a soft spot for Betta's with this type of coloring; close to wild type but with more red on their fins. This boy was at Petsense, he'd been there for about 3-4 weeks so I had to take him home. In that time he lost that middle section to his anal and has really bad fin rot at the edges of his tail so he's currently in some salty water.

Funny story, I was acclimating him to the warmth (because they had the a/c on and the Betta's aren't heated of course so their cups were at a lovely 58 degree's) and of course to the salt and I went to pour more water in and he jumped out into the tank >.< so I was like "Fine, you did that to yourself, you can stay there!" and he was perfectly fine so I'm not going to worry about him too much ;-) But here he is!









And for reference here is my 33 way back in February! There was practically nothing in it! lol


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## lilnaugrim

Mar said:


> Your ab girl is gorgeous.... Wow. Beautiful fins. I love Emma too!!!
> And your tank is amazing, how many gallons?


Thank you! The sorority is 33 gallons, it's a flat back hexagon ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

And because my cat was being silly. MC (named Mischievous Cat) likes to drink out of the buckets when I do water changes so I guess it's just Fish flavored haha. But I found out why he did this though:










He got his entire front paws wet just to take a drink because someone (my stinky old grandfather) threw a piece of leftover BACON INTO THE CAT WATER DISH! Grrrrr, this is partly why I don't like him and I have other legitimate reasons but he's got no respect whatsoever. So he tries to feed the cats like dogs and they never eat it and he keeps throwing it in the water bowl obviously not seeing there's water in there. So I don't blame MC for drinking the fish water and getting his paws soaked. But it was too adorable not to take a picture of and I didn't have my camera so crappy cell pics will have to do.

Here's another, he's just so cute ^_^


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## Mar

Awwwwww.
Your plants are amazing! Is that water sprite at the top of your sorority?
LOL Jarvis poop pictures, they're going to be a hit.

All your males are so adorable <3 

And now that I look at it, Jarvis and Athena look alike! They're both DTs and have the same colouration. So cute.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mar! Yeah I'm sure poop pictures will be a hit, totally going to take a picture whenever he poops just to log it in XD

That's not even all my males, not pictured fully is Mercury, Rembrandt and Ditto then the two baby boys.

And yes that's my 3 foot long Mother Water Sprite plant there!
Here it is, and those scissors are adult scissors there:


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## Mar

Holy crap that's huge. Wow. I want one like that one day lmao. How big was it when you first got it?


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## lilnaugrim

It was about a foot and a half when I bought it from my LFS for 7.99 lol so yeah, I'm very pleased with that purchase!!


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## Rosencrantz32

My cat drinks from the water change buckets too! And I know he has access to two clean water bowls upstairs... maybe they do like the fishy water taste? lol


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## Mar

Rosencrantz32 said:


> My cat drinks from the water change buckets too! And I know he has access to two clean water bowls upstairs... maybe they do like the fishy water taste? lol


My cat tries to get into the tanks! When I take the lid off to feed them/water change, she'll jump up, push me aside, and try to get a couple licks. They like the smell/taste of fish water I guess


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## lilnaugrim

Lol I guess so! That's too funny! Yeah I don't blame MC for wanting to drink the fish water when my grandfather threw that bacon into the water and it rotted, ugg it smelled horrible! He just see's "Oh bowl" bowl must mean throw old food into it! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

On another note! Jarvis has fin rot >.> I was comparing picture of him from when I first got him and now...sigh, yep my fears were true. So after the new boy get's his treatment done, Jarvis will be the next one to go in although I'm worried about his constipation issues and if they are still present, the AQ salt won't help him at all :/ Can't do it in his tank because it's planted. Here's a comparison:

Before:


After:



Yay, FIN ROT ERWHRERE! lol Ditto just got over it, new boy has it and Jarvis has had it all along, I should have treated it when I got him, I should know better at this point! In any case, I wonder what length his tail is normally!


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## Mar

Nooo Jarvis!!
What're you gonna use/do to heal the finrot?

Also, no offence, but your grandfather should know better!


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## lilnaugrim

My grandfather is a dimwit and I have no respect left for him whatsoever. He's a nasty, dirty old man that I want to throw out on the streets. Yes, we're living rent free with him (we do buy all the food though and he eats insanely) but he should have respect for others living in the house and not be half naked in the darn living room doin a nasty with himself with a dude on skype chat! Sorry for the visual but that's what I come home to half the time and I'm damn stick of it and I know this isn't the place to be saying this stuff because it is crud and this is a family site but I HAD to say something, it just kind of bubbles all up at some points >< >< >< ><

Anyway, he's half blind (well he is 75), can barely walk, sits on the computer all day long or in his chair, he was just complaining that we had the a/c on with the front door open.....well if you just close the darn door there wouldn't be a problem! Oh sorry, I forgot that you have nearly no veins left in your body to keep you warm but we're freaking pouring and dripping sweat over here! My fish tanks were all at 86 today! I dread to think of what they will get to when we reach into the 100's with 100% humidity. We're hitting 94% humidity right now. Ug, why do I live here?!

Anyway....I'll be using 2 tsp of AQ salt per gallon for Jarvis since it is a more advanced stage of fin rot at this point, I'll start off with 1 tsp/gal for the first 3 days, then up it to 1.5 and then 2, then keep it like that for a week then lower it again to 0 to make a full 14 day run with it. He should be fine at that point, if he needs more I'll give him 4 days rest and start again, shouldn't be too bad with 100% water changes a day. And then continue using Stress Coat to heal the fins out as well.


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## Mar

Sounds like a good plan for Jarvis.

And I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes you gotta just live with that certain relative until you can go off on your own. Don't worry it's only temporary!


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## lilnaugrim

We've been here since '07 :/ my dad's been looking for houses but he's not financially set at all. I ask maybe once every other month if that if we can go out to dinner or if he can loan me 20 bucks for gas and he's always like "I don't have any money, I'm broke," and I'm just like...it's Friday, you were just paid, how do you not have money!?!!? He's terrible at saving it yet so am I, great I've those side of the family's genes >< ugggg anyway, I don't foresee us moving anytime soon :/

And yeah I hope Jarvis responds well to the salt


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## Mar

I am terrible at saving money LOL. So is my dad. But he has quite a good job so I guess he can afford to spend it on every single little things (trailers, saunas, stupid things we never use) 
Kinda does make me mad, since the money could be going towards better things, but who am I to say how he spends the money he works for? :/

Hopefully things will improve soon! Living in that place for 6 years must've been really crappy!
And if you lived here I'd definitely take you out to dinner !


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## logisticsguy

Oh my lilnaugrim! You poor girl having to live like that. yikes.


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, Thank you Mar! You know, I kind of wish that most of us could all convene at one place just for a day or so to talk, hang out, get some food w/e. I think it would just be so cool to meet everyone and have a good time!

Yeah, it hasn't been fun living here but thankfully I do have my mom's house. I go back and forth still (even though I'm 20 lol) but I love to see both my parents so I spend Sunday-Wednesday at mom's and the rest at dad's (I get home wed. afternoon though) so it's enough to keep me sane but I wish I could just stay at mom's all the time with all my fish but she doesn't need to added electricity bill. She's a single mom taking care of a 2 story house, 5 acre's, two kids (technically), and working 2 jobs with occasional gig on the side. So she's got enough to handle, but it does stink :/

Anyway I did water changes for the two 3's, the 2.5, the 5.5 and the 10 today! And then Saturday will be all changes. I do all the tanks twice a week even if the 10 doesn't necessarily need it, it does need to be clean with Ditto's still impending Fin Rot status so twice weekly!

Oh my god, the humidity today was up at 95%!!!! and it still is!!! This is why we need a/c by the unmentionable horrible disgusting being that lives in the living room >.> likes the heat and suffocating humidity! Doesn't help that my dad has asthma, I've got severe allergies and I used to have bronchial asthma so we're stuck trying to breathe but find we can't with how heavy the air is! Yayaya (can't you just feel my sarcasm!??)

lol at least my fish all seem very content, the rescue boy actually built a small bubble nest last night! I'll get up pictures in a second!


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## lilnaugrim

Yes....yes this is Jarvis's poop lol, I was proud of him!!!! You can't blame me! haha









Rescue boy:


















And his Bubble Nest!



























Cherry being a darling and posing for me! She's so content right now it wasn't even funny ^_^









Mercury:









Mercury again!









So, I'm going to go ahead and say that Mercury's fins have grown since I've had him haha, here's a picture the day I got him:


And here's a comparison of Aero! I've had Aero for about a month now and he's turning green, like proper green, not just iridescence! Looks like he's always had it but it just wasn't as prominent. Here are two pictures the day I got him:


 

He's also seemed to have corrected his spoon headed-ness, deepened in color and he's filling in his mask as well! When he flares all his fins meet but I can't seem to get a picture of him flaring. One day I will set up a real photobooth to take photos!

Most noticable is the green at his anal fin, it's a perfect line underneath him and it seems to be getting longer every other day so we'll see! He's also got a perfect green line on the other side of his body in the middle of his scales.


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## Mar

Your rescue boy is beautiful.

Holy crap I LOVE the white tips on Mercury. Gorgeous.

I wish there was too! It'd be so much fun to meet all the other betta owners  
One day, the internet will be that advanced ahahah.

It's good that you do get to spend some time at your mom's house! Must be sorta like a safe haven  but it Sucks that you can't stay with her. I completely admire her though! Single mom, taking on a house with 2 kids. That's crazy!

Asthma sucks! Used to have it as a child, but it receded. Humidity does trigger it though, I feel so bad for you!!! :'(!!!
Ugh he's so selfish! Both of you are having problems breathing but he makes you deal with it just so he can have a sauna-like environment.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, he's literally insensitive to all people though, he has no idea what it means to communicate. He's literally in his own world and is a super introvert which is ironic when you come to think of it and his daily doings. He's old and grouchy, that part I don't mind but it's just ridiculous is all. 

And you know, I might actually treat him like a grandfather if he treated us like grandchildren, I don't mean like spoiling us and stuff but you know, actually taking a liking to us. he doesn't even really like his own children, he only got married and had kids because it was the "thing" to do and his best<--scratch that, ONLY friend was also marrying at the same time so therefore, he must do it!

Uggh, it just infuriates me how much he just doesn't care at all, on the same token he hasn't (lol I kept writing Tolkein and was wondering why it was telling me I spelled "token" wrong haha) noticed my 33 yet lol although I did catch him sneaking into my room >.> I don't want to know what is going through his head at that time :-(

Mom's is nice but I wish I could have my fish and my cats there. I love my girl, Ieli she's my baby girl and I couldn't just leave her or MC or Siberian here. Not when food is being thrown to rot in their water bowl all the time! I can't believe how infuriated that makes me!!!! Like, can you not seriously see that made a splash when you threw it down? And NO just because the cat is staring at you, that doesn't mean you should throw a chicken leg on the floor for him to eat! he doesn't even eat it, he just wants the attention! And NO, they DON'T want to go out all the time so stop trying to make them! (They're indoor/outdoor and they do go in and out a lot but he makes a huge deal about it "oh poor me, I have to get up and let the cat out" no you don't, the cat will be fine if you just ignore him)


GAHHHHA okay it's time for me to sleep this off lol, tomorrow's a new day and I'm sure it will be fantastic!

night all!


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## Haleigh

lilnaugrim, you have gorgeous fish! Your sorority is absolutely amazing. Best of luck treating Jarvis' fin rot. I look forward to seeing updates on your bettas.


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## Viva

I love your sorority tank  How many gallons is it? And what type of light do you use for the plants? I'm debating on getting a regular t8 fixture but my tank is 18 inches deep and I'm afraid the one t8 won't cut it. I am looking for a single bulb t5 ho fixture but so far no luck


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## LebronTheBetta

All your fish are so pretty! And I wish I had more plants like you do. ^.^'


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks everyone!! I do love my plants ^_^ I'm almost as addicted to plants as I am bettas! haha

And Viva, it's a 33 gallon flat back hexagon (yeah that's a mouthful), I use a light fixture that came with it that I hate, it's a 20W T8 and no idea passed that because it wasn't my light. I want to switch it out with something else because it's red and it really looks awful. So I'm debating just getting a different T8 bulb, preferably one that's around 6,500K or higher (I'm pretty sure they don't go higher for T8's though) or maybe just two of those clamp on lights from Home Depot or something. It would probably give me more light.

But I do have a second light, it's a MarineLand Single Brite LED lighting system which lights up the tank well enough but doesn't do much for plants, it's actually a low light system I found out which kind of is...bleh At least it makes the red tank look prettier and not so red since it's white/blue XD

As far as depth, my T8 lights up all 16 inches just fine and actually reaches the bottom whereas the LED doesn't. So a T8 would be great for an 18 inch tank if you could find one that's closer to 6,500K instead of lower  But even if it is lower it doesn't mean that it's not going to reach the bottom of the tank. K is just the coloration of the lighting, red is on the lower end of the spectrum and blue is on the higher end and 6,500K is closest to the sun on a clear mid-afternoon day. So anywho, yeah I'm looking for different lights but so far they've grown my plants just fine over the passed 6 months!

I also used to use just API LeafZone, nothing else. I've since switched to SeaChem's Flourish and holy cow the difference! I get a little more algae on my 10 but I really couldn't care less! lol I've also started to use root tabs for my swords because they were getting a bit....floppy XD


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## Mar

;o
so much care lmao.

Headed to various pet stores now to look at their bettas. Hopefully there's a good one!


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## lilnaugrim

Sweet! Good luck Mar!

I'm actually donating my little BN Pleco to my LFS where I got most of my girls. I like the pleco but she's a little too vicious and I can't keep up on feeding her cucumbers all the time. I was finally able to go a slice of cucumber, I put it in on Wednesday after tank cleanings and by this morning there was nothing but a rhine left of it haha so I'm happy at least she ate well in her last few days here.

Now I just have to catch her....I hope this won't be as bad as the Neons!!

Oh and two of my Dainties died :-( I know now that they aren't in a good environment for them since they are colder water species as most Cory's are. Also their pH should be from 6.0-7.2 or so and mine is up at 7.6, I know as long as they're acclimated it's better than nothing but at the same time I know it's not ideal!

So in fact at my mom's house we'll be setting up a 30 gallon after we get rid of the piano and I'm very interested in Killifish so I want to have some A. Australe Orange and then about 9-10 Dainty Cory's since the environment is much more suited for them. So once we set that up, the four remaining will move there provided that they aren't dead.

I know they didn't die from any other diseases because I inspected each body and they seemed to die very quickly, bodies were still "warm" so to say when I found them, still very flexible and fresh. So I know there could be other things at work here but I'm willing to bet that it was the environment and me not doing my research before hand. So S.I.P. little two Avengers!

Okay I'm off to catch that little pain in the cookies Pleco! lol I want to see if they'll trade me some plants or another female if they have one I like! :-D

Shadowcat will be entering the sorority soon! Almost time :-D Actually I think she could go in now, pretty sure it's been 2 weeks but I'll wait another anyway just because I can ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Woohoo! Caught her on the second try! Alrighty, off to the LFS now!


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## lilnaugrim

Alrighty so I went and traded her for a cute Anubias Nana plant. I know my LFS is totally overpriced on everything (they wanted 10 dollars for ONE Orange Neo Shrimp.....yeah not buying shrimp there) but the plant was so cute and looked like it was doing well so now I've got that in my tank and found a cute little white snail that hitchhiked! I kind of actually hope my girls don't eat it and that it can either grow or multiply but I have a feeling they'll take care of it since they readily took care of my snail infestation before ><

Anyway! I'll get some pictures up soon! Off to my dad's gf's house for movie night! She's making corn chowder just for me since I'm allergic to all seafood! lol she's so sweet ;-) and we're watching Despicable Me! I love that movie!!!!


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## logisticsguy

Oh I love Despicable Me and cant wait for the new one. Im 50 and like *kids movies* the most. I need some grandchildren soon so I have somebody to go to my movies with. My kids are "grown up" and like different kinds of movies than I do lol. Yes Im very immature in some ways. Ive never had corn chowder, let us know if it was good.


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## lilnaugrim

OH...MY....GOD! The corn chowder was AMAZING! I mean, it was like cream of potato soup with bacon and corn in it lol, but it was really good! Of course I can't have real chowder--sorry, need to say it in my RI accent; Chowda lol anyway since I'm allergic to seafood but no biggie for me ^_^

So anyway I've been so busy! Had a wedding to perform at and they didn't pay us as in the three people in the choir >.> laaaaaaaaaaaaame and then went shopping with dad and now I'm here, hopefully will get some commissions done because I'm a tad behind. I've been so overwhelmed with everything that it seems I can't get anything done!

Anyway though I did do water changes on both 3's, the 2.5, 5.5 and the 33 today. Only one I didn't do was the 10 but I did that on Wednesday so it will be fine til next Wednesday. I decided that Jarvis needed to start his fin rot treatment now rather than wait for the new boy to be done so I got one of my Petsmart cups out and when I mixed up the water for the 2.5 I acclimated both Jarvis and Matisse to the new salt water. Yeah, Matisse is my little bicolor black/yellow girl, she's got something that looks a bit like columnaris on her lip and a slime just above her eye so into the salt she goes!

Shadowcat is still in QT as well and will be until next Wednesday most likely. Mystique and the AB girl were still duking it out over Alpha spot but Mystique ain't going no-where it seems haha, so I'll wait till that settles down to introduce Shadowcat since she seems to want to challenge as well and Mystique needs a break. Poor girl's got torn fins all over, so does the AB girl but I want them to heal before another is introduced, so for now water changes every other day 

I think that's it for now, super sleepy but I hope at least I can get some of the commissions done and then get the pictures I got up here since I was supposed to do that Friday >.<

Oh! yes! Despicable Me 2! I can't wait!!!!! I love that movie so much and I'm sure number 2 is going to be great too!! I love Gru, he's so awesome and such a sweet villain haha I love the song too "I'm having a bad, bad day, it's about time that I get my way. Steam rollin' whatever I see, huh Despicable Me!" anywhoooo yeah, I'll hopefully be back with pictures later ^_^


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## Mar

Corn chowder is so good <3 

i LOVED the soundtrack for Despicable Me. It really differed from these usual ones you see in cartoons. Realyl nice  
Looking forward to Despicable Me 2


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## lilnaugrim

Okay need help with this, does this look like Ich or Columnaris? I've got my bet on Ich but I could be wrong I think. Anyway I've up the temp to 85-86 anyway.










and here's a small one on Jewel under her dorsal and she's got one on the other side as well.









Oh and I QT'd Matisse because she seemed to have some columaris on her mouth and some slime between her "nose" and above her eye. So I fed her some Omega One pellets today along with everyone one else, today is the second day in 2 tsp/gal salted water. And she literally vomited all the pellets. Like normally I know they can spit out pellets but she injested them and then about 3 minutes later she started to cough them up, it was really weird....so after I changed her water I gave her two NLS and she kept them down. But here's kind of a time line of pictures of her, she also had stingy poop so I'm like great, internal parasites too or has she just not been eating then if she doesn't keep down the pellets??


















More pics from where she after started to vomit all the pellets, all the white stuff is the pellets and you can see her poo from the day before.


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## lilnaugrim

And now for a random photo dump mostly of the girls! Because I take too many pictures! lol First up is my little rescue boy!
































































And now for girls!

Pineapple!









Stardust was jumping and she kind of landed face first into the water sprite haha









Emma wriggled her way through the Frog-bit to see me!









Lady peeking out









Jewel after she jumped and landed on the water sprite lol









Stardust and her blue pectorals!


















Little Blue









Aurora









Oh yeah and the little Anubias Nana I traded for!









And my girls at the poor little cute snail that came with it :-( darn girls, can't have anything nice!


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## kvw1988

Your girls are all so cute! Now I want one lol, just one though, I think a sorority would make me a nervous wreck lol


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## LebronTheBetta

Emma is so pretty! Is her head actually out of water? And you _do_ have a lot of plants! 0-o


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## lilnaugrim

Lol yes her head was actually out of the water, Jewel was out of the water too XD little stinkers they are!

I know I have lots of plants but I'm always looking for more >< no idea why since it's basically a forest anyway! lol but...yeah....

Thanks all! Sororities actually aren't as bad as you first think when you go to do one, I was nervous at first too but now I'm like "pssh, they're fine" it's kind of like when you've got kids, at first you get all nervous and then after a while you're insensitive to everything XD lol


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## Viva

Omg they're so gorgeous! I love the purple


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## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Omg they're so gorgeous! I love the purple


I have a purple?!?! Where?!

Oh! You mean Stardust? The one with the tail end peaking out when she jumped? lol, she's actually blue grizzle but it's super hard to get her true colors. i guess she does look purpley huh? Helps that I have a red fluorescent light >< ugg I hate that thing.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Why don't you name her "Absolutely Beautiful" or "A.B." for short?


----------



## Viva

Yes I was referring to Stardust...she definitely has some lavender in there somewhere! I can see it I tell ya!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah Stardust has a pink/white under color with the blue grizzle on top making her a purple color which is nice since her twin Aurora is just white with the blue/red fins ^_^

Lol, thank you for the suggestion Russell, I think I will stick with my theme though. I just haven't looked at names yet since I'm so busy with everything else!

I had 27 threads to read through this morning!!! uggggg, so much! oh and plus 9 PM's and 1 profile notification lol

On a good note I'm almost done with my dad's cover art and then I can relax a bit with my commission since they're a heck of a lot easier to do!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well did water changes for Jarvis's 3 gallon, new boy's 2.5 and the babies 5.5

I did the 10 and Rembrandt's 3 on Wednesday and so tomorrow will be the 33 for a good 50% change that it's due for. Ugg this weather is killing me and my fish though :-(

The girl's tank was up at 90 yesterday! I went "Yikes!" and went to grab a few baggies of ice to melt to bring it down. Thankfully after it was down to about 85, it stayed there and today it's settling at 83-84. Guess I won't have to worry about Ich, right? lol

Oh and Mystique mysterious white bumps have gone, I think it might have been a half bitten off scale. The AB girl had a scale that was coming off yesterday and it did fall off. I had put in the Wal-mart girl; Shadowcat on Wednesday. She's quite aggressive and territorial, if by a month comes and she's still like this, I'll be putting her up for adoption because my sorority does need this bull lol

Mystique is still fighting for alpha with Shadowcat, AB girl has stepped down to accept Beta for her position which she seems to be doing well in. She's still very excitable but not in a good way. I had come over to clean the 5.5 which is underneath it and she was breathing very heavy and erratically swimming. After a few she did calm down but she'll do this throughout the day but I find no illness in her.

The rescue boy is doing great! I can see his anal fin is regrowing it's lost ray and the fin rot is slowly disappearing! It was weird though, I had cleaned and put in 5 dried Oak Leaves (two of which are in different tanks now) and the tannins were fine, that's what I wanted but he had this weird mucus coming from what seems to be a nostril or what I've come to know as a face vent. But it was almost like shedding slime coat, but it was clearly coming from those holes! They did fall off and since I've taken him off salt it seems to be better. So I don't really know what's up with that but he seems completely fine and unbothered by it! He also flares at the siphon XD It's so cute, he literally hates that thing!

Jarvis still has fin rot bad, I used a cup and salted him for 3 days but he wasn't doing well so back into clean water he goes and I'm just going to try and do daily if not every other day cleanings on his tank :/ It's difficult because it's an MarineLand Eclipse 3 that I found and the stupid thing has this plastic bar running across the top so I can only technically siphon one time and then have to pick it up quickly to siphon the other. Oh and all my plants kind of get in the way...whoops but either way, fresh good water came today for him!

He's still bloated and I tried an experiment where I soaked a BW in .25 tsp of ES water in a cup. He took the first one no problem and ate it down, that was Wednesday. He still hasn't pooped, still feeding him though. And then yesterday I tried .5 tsp of ES and he wouldn't eat the worm so I had to take it out. But again, he doesn't seem bothered by it so we'll see what happens :/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! So I've come up with some possible names for my AB girl! They are as follows; Solarr, Lynx, and Lionheart. I'm leaning towards the first two, mostly Lynx though for some odd reason. All three are Marvel characters in origin so it fits either way ^_^ I usually pick names based on colors that the characters wear most often or sometimes it just fits.

And you know what's funny? I named Aero, Mercury, Stardust and Aurora after different things like color and space-y stuff and come to find out they are also Marvel Character names (not that they don't have a boat-load or anything) but I thought that was hilarious! So I unknowingly kept my Marvel theme with my names! The only ones who aren't Marvel related now would be Ditto, Cherry, Little Blue, Pineapple, Matisse and Jewel. lol too funny!

Anyway, thought I'd take you through a tour of my tanks.

First up is the 10 gallon! Split three ways for, and are in order of; Aero, Ditto and Mercury. 









I had Ditto in the leftmost section but he was freaked out by the small internal filter I had there so I switched him to the middle and look what he made me!
A very beautiful bubble nest indeed! First one he's really made before!









Next to the 10 is Jarvis's 3 gallon a Marineland Eclipse 3 that was given to me 









And Rembrandt's 3 gallon next to my bed on the side table.









And all three of those:
Oh and the draw with the cloth sticking out of it is my "fish" drawer lol









Rescue boy's 2.5 although this is with the LED lights on it because I was taking pictures of him. It normally has it's hood on with the icky incandescent light ><









The 33 gallon sorority:









The 33 and the 5.5 underneath









All three of them together, excuse the mess of stuff lol









So just random pictures now of most everyone 

Here's Mercury









Aero has been interesting lately, his cheeks have gotten lighter blue while the rest is darkening and the green on his anal fin is becoming more prominent. I also found he's got blue irid on his pectorals! Can't see it in this picture but believe me you that it's there ^_^









And rescue boy:









His anal fin is getting better!









Debating the names Daken, Gambit and Falcon for him









Girls! Jewel, Pineapple, Emma, Mystique and Cherry









Aurora in the center, Stardust to the right of her, Cherry and Jewel behind her and Mystique towards the front









Matisse is still in the cup doing better and holding her food down now. Emma next to her, Phoenix and Pineapple









And Lady being herself XD haha









I also bought two Nerite snails today because I NEVER see them around here! They're in my 33 right now but I'm worried they're going to climb out :-( my 33 and the 10 don't have lids or hoods. The 10 will eventually have something but the 33 is going to be extremely hard to find for. I figure I'll get some plexi-glass and have home depot cut it to shape or something since it's a flat-back hexagon. leave it to me to find something so odd shaped!

Anyway, just because the name struck me (don't know why or anything since my dad has a motorcycle that I passed on the way in with them :roll 

This is Harley!









And that's Davidson lmao









I'm not to blame for their names XD I usually don't name inverts or anything like that but considering it's just a pair, I figured why not! lol I'm crazy I know XD


----------



## BettaLover1313

Your fish are simply stunning! And love the names of the snails!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Your fish are simply stunning! And love the names of the snails!


Lol thank you very much! Yeah I grew up with Harley's as my dad has almost always had one and I walked by it as I went in the house and I was just like "Lightbulb!" lol


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## Viva

Awesome tanks...so jealous! The 33 looks like it has a hood on it..it doesn't? I really love all the plants you have. I especially love Rembrandt's terracotta pot with the plants growing on it...what is it?


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## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Awesome tanks...so jealous! The 33 looks like it has a hood on it..it doesn't? I really love all the plants you have. I especially love Rembrandt's terracotta pot with the plants growing on it...what is it?


Nope the 33 just has two lighting systems. The first came with it, it's a fluorescent light stripe with the plastic strip underneath and then an LED lighting system up front that is sort of just chilling there lol

And the plant on the terracotta pot is actually Java Moss. I'm not sure how well it will do, but so far it hasn't died XD But he likes to pick at it and lay on it, so I count it as a win ^_^


----------



## Viva

Nice! I hope yours fairs better than mine ;( Mine lasted a while but then for some reason it just died once I put it in my smaller tank. I think it was a little warmer in that tank than the other one. I still have some left on some driftwood but its literally like a few strands and that's it lol. I also can't keep hornwort alive which makes no sense to me


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks! Yeah so far it's doing fine, it's been in there for two weeks now-ish. I have more in my 5.5 if I need haha and in the 33. I have a bunch tied to driftwood, and then I have some in Jarvis's tank that isn't doing well. it was tied to a rock but it wouldn't attach so it's kind of just floating now which is fine.

Yeah I found that most mosses do better in cooler tanks but I can't help that much in the summer time. My 33 got up to 90 the other day! I was liek Yikes!!! but all good now ^_^


----------



## TheOnlyCanvas

Your sorority tank is so awesome! I love all of your girls! How many have you got in there?

Maybe some day I'll have the resources to set one up. I'd love to have a big sorority.


----------



## lilnaugrim

TOC, I've got 14 in right now and 5 on the way ^_^ Maybe I'll round off to 20 since 19 is a weird number haha. Thank you!


----------



## AltheaGlyndwr

So you know how I have that one girl I was calling pearlie colored? Well I named her Layla and looking through your girls I find that she and Aurora look extrememly similar and their colors and patterns almost match. What coloration/"style" is she if you know what I mean?


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## lilnaugrim

AltheaGlyndwr said:


> So you know how I have that one girl I was calling pearlie colored? Well I named her Layla and looking through your girls I find that she and Aurora look extrememly similar and their colors and patterns almost match. What coloration/"style" is she if you know what I mean?


Ah yes ^_^ That's a cute name!

They would be considered tri-color, no real pattern. The pearly color is a light blue/white iridescence placed over the initial white/yellow-ish scales on bottom :-D but yeah, just a tri-color red, white and blue ;-)


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## AltheaGlyndwr

Score~ I feel better actually knowing what to call her XD color type and name. I really love your girls, I can't wait until I can get a bigger tank to make a bigger sorority. But at least I know that I can easily almost instantly set a cycle up in a new tank to make it very quickly habitable by the girls  Just use some set up from my 10g and add plenty of live plants!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Exactly! ^


----------



## lilnaugrim

AGHGHGHG I just typed this WHOOOLLLE thing about lights and upgrades and the darn internet closed out my tab but when I reopened it, it didn't save my writing :-( sometimes it does so that's why I tried but I guess I'll tell you all about my upgrades later. Too infuriated to write that much again lol


----------



## Viva

Omg I hate when that happens


----------



## lilnaugrim

So frustrating!! Anyway what I was saying is about my lights. I recently went to Wal-Mart and Home Depot down the road to get a small 5.5 clamp on light, two straight CFL's at 10W and 6,500K and one T12 20W 6,500K for the 33. The clamp on and one CFL are replacing Remmy's LED lights which were so dim now that I replaced his light! I'm actually afraid I'm going to make him go blind  I need more floaters! lol

Then the tube went to the 33, doesn't make it as bright as I'd like it to but that kind of happens when you've got a ginormous water sprite floating on top! But all plants are doing very well right now! Swords have perked up since the root tabs, microswords are sort of growing (they're actually growing in my 10 which I find weird but awesome! since it's a dinky LED light) anyway, so since I didn't know how old that last tube was, I figured I'd replace it anyway since it wasn't great anyway!

The thing I find awesome about the light strip that came with the 33 is that it was "Tested by Deanna" which is my named spelled wrong lol for all that want to know, my name is De'Anna and isn't pronounced like normal Deanna ;-) anyway, fun facts of the day XD

So then the last 10W CFL went on the 5.5 and holy mackerel! I can see my babies!!!! lol I'm very pleased with how it lights up the whole tank :-D

Then I'm on the hunt for a T5 9inch tube for Jarvis's 3 gallon because only God knows how old that bulb is! I've had it for 8 months and it was given to me by my mom who found it at a yardsale used so...yeah I'm sure it's old enough.

And I've been looking into DIY lighting strips for my 10 gallon and so I want to actually build one for that along with a glass lid of some sort. I'd buy the canopies but they're so expensive :-(

Same with the 33, looking to build a lid for that as well since it's so oddly shaped. I've tried looking for 33 gallon flat back hexagon lids but they don't come up with much and most of them aren't being made any more >< ugggg the pains of getting an awesome tank free lol I kid, I kid!

So that was my update for the day, also Steve one of the babies is totally dwarfing Tony at the moment....Tony needs to catch up and grow darn it! ;-)


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## Viva

Dang it must suck having to find a hood for that tank  Canopies are waaay expensive, I'm thinking about building one for my new tank but not sure yet. I'm waiting for my new lights that I ordered online too. Your name is so pretty...is it pronounced "Day-Ah-na"? And lol at the names Steve and Tony! Where did you come up with those lol?


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## lilnaugrim

Seriously! Like, why is a piece of glass that sits on top of your tank so expensive?? It makes no sense!!! >.<

And thank you! My parents are Trekkie's and so they named me after Deanna Troi and therefore I am inheritantly a Trekkie haha. It's actually more like De-On-ah, it's not the regular Anna but takes on more of an "on" sound lol if that makes sense. So the De part is still De or D and then just the last part is pronounced differently.

Annnd....can't tell if being facetious at Steve and Tony's names or really asking lol


----------



## Viva

No I was serious lol. I love when fish are named after people's names.


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## lilnaugrim

Oooh okay lol Actually they're named after Steve Rogers and Tony Stark because I'm that nerd ;-) you know it's super funny too because they act so much like their namesake characters! Steve is now twice the size of Tony and seems to metabolize his food twice as quick as well. Tony had issues with SBD when he was younger so I don't think that helped in his growth. I've also labeled them as boyfriends lol

When they were younger I had them in a split 1 gallon critter keeper for the time being and they seemed to enjoy it, Tony couldn't enjoy much because of his SBD. But then one week I tried to separate them and both of them lost all their color and moped around the tank, I'd never seen a fish be so depressed like that before! So I quickly got them into the split 3 gallon together and wow what a difference! They both colored up instantly when they saw each other so I decided then they were boyfriends and couldn't stand to be away from each other! ;-)

Besides I'm a regular Stony shipper anyway, of course you'd only understand what that means if you've delved into the world of tumblr haha I'm one of those crazy people ;-) eh, besides it's truth! In one of Marvel's alternate universes they had Tony as Natasha Stark, a woman and they ended up getting married! So there, all other points are invalid lol

But anyway, their personalities really match as well, Steve doesn't like to sit still, grew much faster, already taking pellets, he's also blue and red, he's only missing white lol

Tony is black with red fins and blue irid on them so far, he's also very prissy and can eat pellets but doesn't seem to like the way they taste so he still takes the crushed flakes.

Here's Steve:









And Tony









And them flaring ^_^


















They've actually grown quite a bit since these photos so I'm going to have to sit down and take some more photos now that they have a decent light!!


----------



## TheOnlyCanvas

If I'm not mistaken... Steve and Tony from the Avengers, right?


----------



## lilnaugrim

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> If I'm not mistaken... Steve and Tony from the Avengers, right?


Just answered, yup!


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## lilnaugrim

Actually all/most of my Betta names are from Marvel, the only ones who aren't are; Rembrandt, Ditto, Cherry, Little Blue, Pineapple, Jewel and Matisse. But all the others are from Marvel!


----------



## Viva

Oh yeah I remember you mentioned that lol. My bad. It just reminded me of the episode in Family Guy where Mayor West was shooting his "cat gun" and one was named Paul. He made a big deal about it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Oh yeah I remember you mentioned that lol. My bad. It just reminded me of the episode in Family Guy where Mayor West was shooting his "cat gun" and one was named Paul. He made a big deal about it.


lol, I think I remember watching that one XD too funny


----------



## TheOnlyCanvas

Tumblr is the best! 

And that is the cutest thing I've ever heard. It's always nice when bettas actually seem to like each other ;-) 

Most of my fish have names associated with fantasy - Arthur, Merlin, Pheonix. The only one that doesn't fit right now is Mara, and she's named after a character from Tron: Uprising because of her colors :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> Tumblr is the best!
> 
> And that is the cutest thing I've ever heard. It's always nice when bettas actually seem to like each other ;-)
> 
> Most of my fish have names associated with fantasy - Arthur, Merlin, Pheonix. The only one that doesn't fit right now is Mara, and she's named after a character from Tron: Uprising because of her colors :-D


Aahha, yes! Love those names ;-) Mara sounds adorbs!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! So busy last few days!!

Upgraded lights on the 33, I just changed out the old red fluorescent for a T12 20W 6,500K tube:









Just a nice picture of Jarvis's 3, really nothing added except I moved the Rotala to his tank to grow better and it's already sprouting more leaves!









Oh and my microsword is actually growing in there as well! I've watched this little green sprout sprout up in the last few days!! I'm so excited so I had to share :-D I hope it spreads out a lot!









And Rembrandt's 3 with upgraded lights!! He's now got a 9 watt mini CFL spiral 5,000K in a 5.5 clamp on light. The 6,500K CFL I had in there before was a little too bright so I moved that to Gambit's 2.5 since it won't be directly pointing down at him like it was in Remmy's tank.









And the boy himself!









He wouldn't flare for me today so I got stuck with these pics lol









Love his blue lips ^_^


















Maddie is doing better as far as her fins go! Yay, exciting!









She's still got some sort of slime-ish maybe fungus thing on her face though, treating her at the moment  hope she get's better with it.









You can see the slime better here but I just love this picture lol, the three of them being nuts XD Matisse, Jewel and Mystique ;-)









Stardust being curious of Maddie's cup









Lady and her sister Emma









Shadowcat, who's doing much better now and has been finally put into her place. She's become very meek and shy which is fine by me but she still socializes with the girls









Stardust









Emma and Shadowcat









Aurora









I love my Frog-bit so much! It's so healthy now and puts out new leaves almost every day it seems! Here's a lovely bud coming out :-D









Jewel playing with me, she was the only one who really wanted to play yesterday!


















Mystique trying to jump over some Water Sprite just below the surface









And Jewel jumping the other way lol



























More to come in the next post ;-)


----------



## lovefordebbie

beautiful bettas


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay so I've been pet-sitting all week for my aunt's husband's sister lol and she's got two fish tanks, one that is somewhere at 45-55 gallons and another that I think is 22 gallons which is a hexagon. She gave me permission to clean them finally!

So...before I show pics of my progress thus far, let me just say that she has not done a gravel cleaning since she's had the tank which has been about a year....it's got a undergravel filter system and a HOB filter as well thankfully enough. She's done water changes with a hose and just hooks it to the faucet after and fills it back up without water conditioner. Thankfully she's got well water so no chlorine but there could still be heavy metals :-(

The water temp stays at 72 degree's and she's got three Danios, one is a long finned golden danio another is a regular and the third is a mix of the two. She has two GloFish which are two white skirts, one has cataracts in it's right eye. And then she's got a big 6 inch Pleco which I have no idea of the type but he likes to hide quite a bit and then a regular Common Goldfish who I've named Ruku, no idea why but it fits him! lol

So...thankfully she doesn't have many fish but I have to say....the gravel, it's disgusting.

So 4 hours later, lots of trips with my 3 gallon bucket and I'm almost close to half done. That was yesterday, I had to leave for a bit to go to dinner with my mom and her boyfriend. So these are from yesterday and my partial progress. I hope to finish the rest today or at least get most of that sh*t out and rescape it for her; all with her permission of course.

First, these are her two boxer dogs; Roxsy is looking up and Polly was going by:









Both pure female boxers, Roxsy is brown with white paws and chest and Polly is a Brindle coat. They also have a Yorkie Terrier who isn't shown yet ;-)
Roxsy yawning;









So here's the tank set up, I took off the lighting system already and had taken a few buckets out already;









Here's what all the buckets that came out looked like....gross man!









Just taking a look at the gravel and the icky stuff that's on the glass from it. You can see where I had cleaned and where I hadn't cleaned yet....









Making progress!


















And here's how I left it last night, I really hope I can finish the rest today or at least by tomorrow. I'll be at her house until Saturday anyway


----------



## lovefordebbie

i love pet sitting!


----------



## Viva

So jealous of the plants in your 33 gallon. Mine is still quite bare of plants but I just ordered some from plantedaquariumscentral.com because I heard a lot of good things about them. I got some plants that require medium - high light so I hope my new dual T5 fixture, DIY CO2 and Seachem ferts are good enough to help them survive and grow 

I wish I knew people with dogs so I could petsit for them


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## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> So jealous of the plants in your 33 gallon. Mine is still quite bare of plants but I just ordered some from plantedaquariumscentral.com because I heard a lot of good things about them. I got some plants that require medium - high light so I hope my new dual T5 fixture, DIY CO2 and Seachem ferts are good enough to help them survive and grow
> 
> I wish I knew people with dogs so I could petsit for them


lol, Thanks! They are an accumulation of plants over the last 6 months really. I've ordered from ThatpetPlace.com with good results, they started my love of water sprite haha and then I've gotten plants from ebay and mostly now from my LFS down the road.

I only have SeaChem Flourish Comprehensive and API Root Tabs split in half. I meant to do a DIY CO2 system but I'm not sure if I can keep up well with the weekly mixtures of the yeast and sugar and then keeping up with the water changes. Already, I've gone two weeks without taking water out of the 33 :-( I'm a bad owner >< but I've put new water in when it evaporated....counts for something right? lol

I plan on changing the water soon, probably Friday or Saturday since I'll be tackling the monster at the house I'm pet-sitting for. As much as I love pet-sitting, I CANNOT stand the dogs licking me and Junior (the terrier) licking and grooming himself at night since he has to sleep with me....arrggg drives me insane!

Oh and they woke me up at 5 this morning to go outside >.> they think that when I move (I move a lot in my sleep) that I must be getting up so that means time to whine and whimper and bark to let them out! I got up as quick as I could, hopped the fence with Junior and got them outside and then promptly got hiccups....I had the hiccups for two hours this morning for no apparent reason! Well not that hiccups come on for reasons lol, but I literally woke up with them....my diaphragm must not have been happy I guess! lol

But by the time 7 rolled around and I had fallen asleep again, they were gone. Then I got up and got ready for work and left at 7:50 and now I'm at work. Only half an hour left! yayayayay! Then I get to do more water changes on the 45-55 gallon tank and break my back! lol :roll: :lol: got to love it XD well at least water changes will be easier on that tank after this is all done!

I'm really debating taking the fish out to take up the undergravel filter to really wash it out.....but I don't know if that's a good idea or not since I literally only have a 3 gallon bucket and that's a lot of water to be replacing it all. I have the time I'm sure, even if I stay up late tonight but I'll be there.

Idk, you guys think it's a good idea? I'd be worried about chasing those darn danio's down though :-/ and then accidentally hurting the Pleco too :-( he's huge! but I don't want them to be in there when I take it out, pretty sure it wouldn't be possible either lol well, just not easy I guess...


----------



## Viva

Yeah I know what you mean I hate doing water changes with my 4 gallon bucket. Filling up the 28 gallon was a pain lol. Lots of spilled water too  ...do you need more water changes with a CO2 system? I might not use it and just use Seachem Excel since I have a bottle already.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Yeah I know what you mean I hate doing water changes with my 4 gallon bucket. Filling up the 28 gallon was a pain lol. Lots of spilled water too  ...do you need more water changes with a CO2 system? I might not use it and just use Seachem Excel since I have a bottle already.


Not that I know of, but you have to refill the CO2 every week on a DIY if you mix your own solution. If you use the CO2 canisters well you need to replace them when they run out  but water change schedule is just the same.

I was just talking about how I'm not keeping up with the weekly changes on the 33 right now, so how would I keep up with the weekly mixtures of CO2 that's needed? that's all.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Doggies!!!

So this is Junior the little Yorkie Terrier.









Roxsy stole his cushion lol









Here's Polly! She's got a kind of funky eye but otherwise is very spunky, she's a year younger than Roxsy but they both share the same parents, just one litter apart 









Posing for me ;-)









Roxsy being a doll









She was watching the fish tank in the big tank which is next to me.





















So this was the fish tank as it was before, complete with crummy, icky, disgusting blech on the bottom and in the gravel :-(









And this is how it is now! It's not exactly how I wanted it since the HOB filter kind of was in the way of what I really wanted to do which was build up more gravel on the left side of the tank which is closest to the TV which means that from the couch on the right side of the tank, you can see more of the actual tank. But I wanted to build it up more so that the driftwood with the anubias on it was higher than the other three. Then hold it in with the extra slate pieces she's got in there. I've got one out front that's hold the front in and then behind it is a smaller piece of brown slate with a smaller anubias growing on it.

I wanted to make more of a diagonal effect from the back left corner to the right but since all the pieces of driftwood are on flat pieces of slate....I couldn't move it much more >.> I really hate those things and all the driftwood is falling apart now, not sure what to do about that. I'd like to upgrade some of the driftwood but for now, if she gives me permission to continue scaping for her, I want to get some Jungle Val in the back for starters and see if DHG will work out front in the right corner to start with. This beautiful tank deserves more!!

So front view, this is how it looked this morning after four more hours of work last night. Now it's all settled and looking much better.









From the left side, you can see the hex tank across the room lol









And from the right side









So my question to you all, does it look any better? And anything I can move slightly to make it look a little more...lively? It looks better and more full in real life than the pictures make it to be, but oh well


----------



## Viva

Looks great, what do you mean by icky blech at the bottom lol? I think it looked fine before too. I can't wait til I get a good job so I can afford a house or bigger apartment where I have a yard so I can get a big dog. I want a Dobbie


----------



## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Looks great, what do you mean by icky blech at the bottom lol? I think it looked fine before too.


I was talking about the mulm and detritus at the bottom of the tank. if you look at the pictures from the other day, you see where the glass had tainted from the poop in the gravel. You could see where it was clear where I had changed and cleaned it and the rest was still icky.

That tank hadn't had a gravel cleaning in over a year, it took me 8 hours of gravel siphoning to clean it and honestly it could use another 4 hours but I'm done lifting water over my head >.< at least for this week.

Idk, before it looked boring. Perhaps it's because I've seen it like that for over 3 months now and I know they've never touched it and I'm partial to hills/not flat substrates so that's why I built it up in the corner on the left side. When it's left flat like it was before, it just looks so boring and plain to me. I'm sure there are places out in the wild where it is flat on the bottom, but for the most part you're going to come across ridges and rolls in the substrate and I like the wild look personally.


----------



## Viva

Oh I didn't really notice the poo lol. I actually just siphoned my 10 gallon planted tank and took the corydoras out to put them in the new 29 gallon and all my crypt plants melted away  I think I may have over cleaned it. Also I heard if you disturb the mulm too much at once some of the fish and stuff can get sick and die...pretty sure I lost a few Amano shrimp because I had 7 and now only can find 5 

I'm annoyed by my flat bottomed tanks too so I created a little hill on top of a larger cichlid cave for the corydoras in the new 29 gallon. The betta girls like it too, but only the brave ones because its PITCH BLACK in there.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah I know, that's why I didn't move as much as I wanted to. I also siphoned with the least amount of disturbance as I could and only did 4 hours at a time. I'd like to do another cleaning today but I don't think my body can take the abuse anymore lol

Either way, that tank is a hell of a lot healthier than it was for those fish before! The only one who seemed to be effected by it was the Pleco who was just angry that I took the cave away from him for a while but now he's happy and hiding again. The two plant masses on the side also help him out in letting him hide different places. The owner was annoyed at the pleco because it never came out during the day. Well I don't blame that pleco! There were literally no places for him to hide before and all plecos love to hide. But anyway....


----------



## BettaLover1313

Your tank looks very nice! Glad to hear that your Pleco is happy that he can hide all he wants!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Love the pictures of your dogs btw! They're all very cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover, they aren't my dogs and that's not my tank either. It's just a lady that I'm pet-sitting for but I'll tell her that you like them ;-)

I would never own a dog. ever. I find that I really can't stand them and these guys are NOT trained whatsoever so I get jumped on, licked on, and ran over by them. I like my cats, cats are where it's at lol but hey, it's money so I'll deal with the dogs ;-)


----------



## BettaLover1313

My bad, I thought they were yours ^^'

Not trained dogs definitely aren't fun to deal with, especially when they're someone else's. Cats are nice, especially when they're lying in your lap!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> My bad, I thought they were yours ^^'
> 
> Not trained dogs definitely aren't fun to deal with, especially when they're someone else's. Cats are nice, especially when they're lying in your lap!


Np 

Yep! I mean, they're good and all but they just don't quite get the word 'no' lol


----------



## Viva

Dogs are quite annoying. I got my first dog when I was 16 when he was a puppy and he was the most high energy dog in the world. He was a chronic jumper and practically tore off your clothes every time you were with him. He destroyed 2 couches, 2 love seats and about a million other things. Worst dog ever. I'd rather have 200 cats than one annoying puppy.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Dogs are quite annoying. I got my first dog when I was 16 when he was a puppy and he was the most high energy dog in the world. He was a chronic jumper and practically tore off your clothes every time you were with him. He destroyed 2 couches, 2 love seats and about a million other things. Worst dog ever. I'd rather have 200 cats than one annoying puppy.


AGREED! 'Nuff said! lol

Yeah these girls have torn their couch completely apart and they chewed the keychain that I accidentally left on the couch...whoops, I really hope that wasn't going on someone's keychain when they came back :shock:


----------



## Mar

Those dogs are adorable! I want to petsit but no one would ever trust me  
Great job with the tanks! She should pay you extra!

Maybe I accidentally skipped over it, but what type of fish live in those tanks?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mar said:


> Those dogs are adorable! I want to petsit but no one would ever trust me
> Great job with the tanks! She should pay you extra!
> 
> Maybe I accidentally skipped over it, but what type of fish live in those tanks?


Thanks! I really hope that she can at least have me over monthly to do maintinence, bi-weekly would be better for the fish's health but I know not everyone's a money tree.

There is one 6 inch pleco, not sure of the type but he's pretty big and it's not a common, that I know. 3 Zebra Danios (one golden long fin, one regular and one that's a mix of both. Sort of long fins and sort of golden but not either or), 2 GloFish (the color enhanced white skirt tetras who've lost their colors), and 1 common goldfish whom I've dubbed Ruku lol


----------



## Mar

You're right. Orrrr maybe she could take care of her fish herself! Lol there's a crazy idea. But ya, I'm sure she's a really nice lady, but I understand how much of a chore it is to keep up with tank maintenance and water changes, so the least she could do is get you to help out with a little incentive . <- Wow run-on sentence!

I've never seen the appeal of a goldfish lol, they kinda creep me out.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mar said:


> You're right. Orrrr maybe she could take care of her fish herself! Lol there's a crazy idea. But ya, I'm sure she's a really nice lady, but I understand how much of a chore it is to keep up with tank maintenance and water changes, so the least she could do is get you to help out with a little incentive . <- Wow run-on sentence!
> 
> I've never seen the appeal of a goldfish lol, they kinda creep me out.


She used to! She didn't quite know what she was doing which is fine, we all start off roughly. But life kind of got in the way and she wasn't able to keep up with in. So I'll be asking if I can at least care for the tank, perhaps stock some more plants and get more fish >< after we rehome the goldfish to a proper tank or pond.

Ruku is actually adorable.

Here's Ruku and the two white skirts although he's lost more of his brown as he get's older and will fully turn golden soon. Now those white skirts freak me out lol, look at their weird spines!!


----------



## Mar

The tanks are really pretty! How big are they?
They'd be even prettier if you were allowed to care for them and stock em up!

And do you have any pics of the hex? Or did I just miss out on those? lol, I flip through so much, it's such a bad habit.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mar said:


> The tanks are really pretty! How big are they?
> They'd be even prettier if you were allowed to care for them and stock em up!
> 
> And do you have any pics of the hex? Or did I just miss out on those? lol, I flip through so much, it's such a bad habit.


Agreed! lol

I actually don't know, the big one I think is around 45-55 gallons but I don't have any measurements yet, if I could find a ruler I'll measure it out! but it's huge!

The Hex I'm pretty certain is a 22 hex but not sure about that either. I don't have pics but I can easily take some since I'm sitting right next to it on the couch lol, I just took some more pictures of the big one that may or may not be a little more interesting so I'll upload some more in a little bit.


I /reeeaaaalllllyyyy/ hope that she'll let me take care of it for some money of course. I'd offer a bit of a discount since I already pet-sit for her and have done so three times in the last two months which has to count for something, but still. 8 hours total to clean most, but not all of the big tank? yeah that's a lot of work! I haven't even touched the hex yet and I'm afraid to! lol

I might work on the hex tomorrow though, not sure.

I really wish I could dig up those stupid undergravel filters though, they don't even work anymore so what's the point!?


----------



## Mar

lol!
So wait.
Both the 22gallon and the 45-ish gallon tanks don't have working filters?
That's a nightmare!!!

Hopefully she'll let you take care of her tanks! Maybe if you clean them up really nicely, she'll notice the difference and let you help her.


----------



## lilnaugrim

First here are two new pics of the bigger tank, just looks nice when you take them like this haha



















And here's Ruku









Blurry but you get the point. He's too cute, he get's so excited when he see's me! But you can see where he's losing his brown color.









I actually realized that you can see the hex in the dog pictures of Polly and Roxsy when they are sitting at the edge of the couch, it's behind them so at least you can compare them for size!

Here's side 1









Side 2









Side 3









One of the Anubias in there from Side 1









Normal view:









View from behind the couch









Took a picture from Side 3 and noticed something....









It's a little pleco! I knew he was in there but didn't see him at first lol


















And the only other tank mates in there are 3 regular white skirt tetras, I really wish she'd rehome them or get more because the poor things are constantly frightened because they don't have enough numbers in there! The other two enhanced ones in the 55 are fine because there are other fish too so it isn't too bad.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mar said:


> lol!
> So wait.
> Both the 22gallon and the 45-ish gallon tanks don't have working filters?
> That's a nightmare!!!
> 
> Hopefully she'll let you take care of her tanks! Maybe if you clean them up really nicely, she'll notice the difference and let you help her.


No, no, no! They both have HOB filters too thankfully but the undergravel ones just don't work or at least don't work well anymore.


----------



## Mar

Oh ok, lmao good about the filters!

Both tanks look really good, but they could be even better with a couple more plants here and there.
Good to see the plants are super healthy though! 

Ruku is kinda cute ;p


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah the plants mostly look really good, she's got Anubias Bateri and Phillippine Java fern in the big one. Then in the hex there is Anubias Bateri and Nana in there. All the plants are doing pretty well but they're also the two most (IMHO) hardiest plants in the business!

You have no idea how badly I want to get huge Jungle Val in the big tank in the left corner! Well maybe you do since I've mentioned it three times lol And then in the Hex I want to get a bunch of Giant Hairgrass to put in the back and frame around the driftwood in the center and then have it angled down to the front where there'd be DHG :-D I've got this all planned out already XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

EEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My new girl came in today!!!!!!! She's the orange DSHM girl that aemaki09 helped me out with and I've never been so grateful! Well that's a lie, I'm pretty darn grateful to Catw0man as well! lol but anyway,I'm not home now, still pet-sitting but I grabbed pictures after I acclimated her/cleaned out the 3 gallons, changed around some plants and fed everyone frozen BW's for the first time!

All I can say about Frozen BW's is...wow, that's just weird....lol

Anyway! Pictures to come when I sort everything out! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! Picture time!

Snagged a picture of Gambit to show his progress as well :-D he's getting there!









Cute picture of Lynx :-D









Awkward picture if you don't see that there are five different fish here. When I first looked at it, it looked like one really long Betta and then I realized that Shadowcat was under Mystique and I was like "oooh okay" lol and then Jewel with Raven under her and Cherry further down. They were waiting for "offerings" to shower down upon them XD 









And please welcome Amara! Named for the mutant in Marvel, Amara Aquilla a.k.a. Magma http://marvel.com/universe/Magma_(Amara_Aquilla) but I didn't want to call her Magma since that doesn't sound "pretty" and I like the name Amara, so Amara it is!
When she first arrived:









Acclimating









I lol'd at her reflection









Acclimated and floating in the sorority! Shadowcat wanted in on the photos lol









Everyone's curious


















Really starting to color up here! I hope she turns just as orange as her original picture showed! But either way she's gorgeous!









I also rescaped Jarvis's 3 gallon, here's before:









And here's after:









And here JARVIS POOPED AGAIN!!!!! I'm sorry but I /HAD/ to share! Twice in one month! He's getting better! lol it looks better than the last one too









And the "new" scape of Rembrandt's tank. I got some new plants in and also got a new piece of driftwood.


















10 gallon!









'Tis the season for brown algae fa la la la la, la la, la, la... {Mercury's side}









Can't believe it's diatoms fa la la la la, la la, la la...{Ditto is in the middle now}









Too bad I do not have an all--llll--gaaaeee scrubber! --Okay I'll stop! lol Here's Aero's side









And if you want to see my babies in the 5.5 to see how they're doing! Follow this thread here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=167010


----------



## BettaLover1313

Your new girl is so beautiful! Love the re-scaped tanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Your new girl is so beautiful! Love the re-scaped tanks!


Thank you! Can't wait till everything grows in :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the girls killed Davidson the snail :-( poor little fella!

I'm not sure where Harley went but last time I found her in my filter so I think she likes to be in there which is fine by me as long as she's eating the slime and whatnot in there, I couldn't care less. I just hope she at least makes it. Poor Davidson, geez, can't have anything else in that tank >.>

Why is it that I seem to like species only tanks?!?! Betta Fish, Killifish, Sarlet Badis (Dario Dario or Dario Badis) gahhhh.

However! My mom is pretty gunghoe about setting up the 30 gallon at her house!!! Me thinks I want to do about 15 Rummynose Tetra (true rummynose) with a lovely Dwarf Gourami for a centerpiece fish. I had thought about other fish but I like the looks of one big school better than multiple fish and Rummynose will actually school while the DG will just kind of mosey on around which is fine by me :-D

I had thought about maybe putting a Plakat in there with the Rummynose instead of the DG but I don't feel like dealing with dead fishies in that case :-/ so DG it is! And my mom likes the regular blue/red ones so I'd like to please her as well since it is at her house in the first room you walk into; the living room. So I want it to look nice!

It will definitely be planted as well, I was thinking Eco-Complete as a substrate although I'm confused on if you can gravel vac it like you do with gravel? I'm thinking not because it's kind of like half sand-ish and half soft gravel? If anyone can chime in on that, it'd be great.

And then I want to get two AquaClear 30's and use two sponges in each and one Carbon pack in each. But no floating plants in this tank! I'm done with floating plants! I want to be able to grow a nice carpet of Dwarf Sag _at least!_ if not regular dwarf hairgrass which is my fave! So I was thinking lovely carpet up front with some nice Vallisneria in the back, probably Italian. And then the rest will just sort of pop up when I think of them :-D but I love the look of "grassy" tanks ^_^


----------



## Mar

Lol omg, you should be one of those amazing asian aquascapers when you grow up xD
Of course it'll be quite hard to convert to Asian ahah 

But yeah, love Jarvis' rescaped tank, and yay 2 poops in 1 month! Progress!

LOL Nooo Davidson  RIP.

As for other fish, asides from bettas, I have no clue, so best of luck towards your Rummynose xD

If you can get a grassy tank achieved, please show!! I really want one, but seriously no room in my Spec and my Chi's lighting sucks. Maybe in a 10gallon....


----------



## lilnaugrim

LMAO!! Thank you Mar, I just had a great laugh at that!!! lol Converting to Asian has commenced, please stand by. haha

I will definitely show when it's all set, won't be for a while but I will do it!!!

I actually want to rescape Rembrandt's tank once my dwarf sag arrives. I want to move my Rosette Swords and the water sprite out to start a sort of carpet of the dwarf sag. At least in the front and in the back I'll let it grow taller with the Quillwort I have back there. I'm debating what I should do with the Java Fern's I have in there though. They are doing so well! I have one regular small one and then a Windelov as well. Oh actually I have two sprigs of the regular fern since I forgot I split it...I guess I'll tie one to the driftwood and then I'll have the move the others but...where?!?! lol


----------



## Mar

LOL start a new tank!!! Woo!

Please let me know once your Asian conversion has been completed  ahaha. Careful though, you may get stuck halfway and become a halfie like me XD


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## lilnaugrim

Oh geez XD lol I'll be sure to let you know what it's complete XD Oh man, if I was stuck half way I'd be a contradiction like you see in those starburst commertials if you had them. The scottish asian guy on a bus playing bagpipes XD I'm Scotch Irish so that's definitely be interesting!!!! :shock:

lol yeah, start a new tank JUST for plants >< I had actually wanted to do that before but then the girls came along XD

Sometimes I look at all my fish stuff and I'm like "How the hell did I get here?!" lol it's crazy how many you can accumulate in just 8 months :shock: crazy I tell ya!


----------



## lilnaugrim

OMG so my shrimp jumped out at me today :-( I nearly had a heart attack! Okay so that prompts a story then >.<

So I decided that Jarvis needed to be treated with a little more than daily water changes for his fin rot so I moved him from his 3 to my 1 gallon to start treating him, so far he's okay. So I thought; hey good opportunity to let the Amano that was in with Tony in Ditto's spot to do some algae cleaning since I've got quite a bit in there! So I moved Ditto over to Jarvis's 3 for the time being and went to scoop the shrimp out with the net and he jumped out onto my carpet! :shock:

Omg, just thinking about it freaks me out! He kept jumping and I was trying to keep him down with the net while I fished out a cup to scoop him up and into the critter keeper I was using to transfer him. It took more jumping and then suddenly he was up on his feet and actually crawled into the cup. OMG like I literally freaked out and quickly placed the cup in the water to let him in there!! :shock2: I really can't explain this but gugggfuuuughhhh <--that is how I feel :-(

But he's in there now with no harm to him apparently >.> stupid shrimp. I like shrimp but I'm a pansy when it comes to netting them :-(

But Ditto is loving the 3 gallon! If I could give each of my males their own 3 gallon tank I totally would but then I remembered I don't have enough surface space :-(

Anyway, more pictures to come from today!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I think Jarvis approved of the new aqua-scape lol, well, before I moved him at least ><









And holy cow! Look at this! My Rotala is _already_ growing out red! It used to be in my 33 where it would grow fine but the lighting just wasn't enough so I had moved it to Jarvis's (Ditto's temporary) 3 gallon.









And Mercury puffing up all big and bad ;-)









Flaring at Jarvis after I took the divider away, Jarvis doesn't flare though :-(









He thought he was hiding from me so he could flare at Jarvis in peace XD









Metallic lips! I really do like Betta's with lipstick lol!









A sucky picture of Aero but I thought his dorsal looked so cool here!









Gambit!


















You can see just how large his pecs are! Not EE but they're still cool.


















*Girls!*

Aurora, Emma, Shadowcat









Cherry, Raven, Jewel, Phoenix, Lady









I'm pretty sure that Aurora and Stardust are actually PK girls, their tails look too much like PK and not VT









Why is it that when I get an Orange girl (Amara) Pineapple suddenly looks more orange than her yellow before?!?!? lol got to love colors and their relations >< Color Theory FTW!



























The sass-ball herself! Lady Deathstrike









It's like movie magic or something, all the girls are blurry except Amara in the distance lol thought it was a neat picture!









Stardust









Mystique, Phoenix and Jewel in focus









Phoenix









Cherry and Jewel









So it turns out that Shadowcat is actually purple!









Jewel









Amara is coloring up very well!









Little Blue, Mystique and Amara


----------



## BettaLover1313

All your bettas look amazing!


----------



## Mar

I have never ever seen a starburst commercial lol 

As for the new plant tank, you never know ;o maybe add a betta in there if you ever decide to impulse buy XD

I don't buy shrimp anymore. Ever since I lost a huge ghost shrimp, and found him dead and dry on my carpet, they just creep me out. Like one day they'll crawl into my bed or something. I know exactly how you feel. They're cute sometimes, but mostly creepy in my opinion lol


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Your bettas are stunning!

What plants do you have with Mercury and his gravel? And as for turning Asian, you'll end up like me someday! xD I don't think I have the aqua scaping mastery down, though. hehe


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh gosh no I can't take care of another tank!!!! I don't have any more outlet's!!!

And thank you everyone! I do love my fishies!!!

@Lebron, in Mercury's side? I've got a plethora of just random stuff including Water Sprite floating, Cabomda, Bacopa, Rosette Sword, Microsword, Java Fern and Java Moss as well as a small Marimo.


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Amara is so beautiful!  And yes, the plants; thanks! I might buy those too.


----------



## Mar

LebronTheBetta said:


> And as for turning Asian, you'll end up like me someday! xD I don't think I have the aqua scaping mastery down, though. hehe


Come on! Live up to the Asian expectation xD 
Haha but no, I suck at aquascaping, but I have an excuse.


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Haha xD I eat rice everyday, if that helps any. (Being stereotypical, even if I am Asian myself. haha) :lol:

But I wish I was. Even my anarachis are dying. :-(


----------



## Mar

Noo anarchis 
I want some of that but no stores sell it here!
Rice is delicious ok, everyone eats it.


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Heyyyy, at least my moss balls are alright! But they're turning into ovals now. :sob:

And everyone does eat it? I thought other races eat like... Other stuff. I don't exactly know.. lol


----------



## Mar

LOL sorry Lilnaugrim  we're turning your journal into an asian debate omg. xD

How the heck did you achieve oval-shaped moss balls? I want one lol

I'm half white, half asian so I can safely say white people eat rice  I think my dad eats it more than anyone, actually lmao


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Yes, sorry Lilnaugrim for the weirdest subject change ever!

I never turned it. The underside isn't browning which is weird, I might get an actual living off of this! lol
I guess you can call it MOSS EGGS! No? No? Oh everyone's a critic.. 

So everyone eats rice. Alrighty then! :-D


----------



## Mar

I would buy the moss eggs.


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol np guys, I actually lol'd at all of this XD

Actually I really don't eat rice often, maybe once every 2 months if that XD

You can shape your Marimo's to make them ovular and whatever you want really. Just roll it around in your hand when you take it out for a bath and voila, oval shape XD Mine are just all in the actual ball shape haha


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for the crooked picture, I was sitting on the floor with my cat lol
But I thinned out the water sprite a bit on top and planted it, I'll have to sell some off soon 









And here's Jarvis hating on me because he was downgraded :-( poor boy, but he's got to be treated!









Ugg, you can just see all the rot :-( I feel really terrible for letting it get this far. I know that it's not my fault or anything but I wish I had just compared pictures sooner since I know there was a possibility of him having fin rot when I got him since I thought the black was kind of weird.









Ditto fitting very well in the 3 gallon....I don't know....he might have to stay here! lol since Jarvis never flares, he might be a good candidate for the 10 gallon instead since he won't blow out his fins like Ditto did.









Poor guy is still recovering, still some rot but he's getting better and I think being in the 3 gallon where the water is changed twice a week will totally help him. I'll try to be doing more changes since my work load is slowing down a bit.









Blurry but you can see his beautiful iridescence. I can't wait for him to be all healed up and pretty again! When I first got him, his lobes were extremely uneven but he's grown up so much since then and grew them out!! :-D I'm so proud of my little trooper!









He thought he was hiding the little stinker ;-)









Gambit is still doing pretty well!









He's been eating really well lately! He still spits out the Omega One when I give it to him so he's going steady on NLS for now ^_^ and the frozen BW's that I finally was able to find!









Lovely pic of Stardust, Shadowcat, Lynx and Little Blue. Matisse is behind still in her cup and Cherry is at the bottom.









Amara colored up!!









I'll most likely release her Wednesday or Thursday when I'm around! Since she had been in the care of another member here for a little while I'm confident that she's disease free and I already know she's a very laid back girl so that's fine with me. The older girls have been flaring a little bit, mostly Aurora actually and Phoenix but that's it. I have a feeling she'll just sort of mosey on about in the tank and not cause trouble which is totally acceptable ;-) :-D


----------



## Viva

lilnaugrim said:


> OMG so my shrimp jumped out at me today :-( I nearly had a heart attack! Okay so that prompts a story then >.<
> 
> So I decided that Jarvis needed to be treated with a little more than daily water changes for his fin rot so I moved him from his 3 to my 1 gallon to start treating him, so far he's okay. So I thought; hey good opportunity to let the Amano that was in with Tony in Ditto's spot to do some algae cleaning since I've got quite a bit in there! So I moved Ditto over to Jarvis's 3 for the time being and went to scoop the shrimp out with the net and he jumped out onto my carpet! :shock:
> 
> Omg, just thinking about it freaks me out! He kept jumping and I was trying to keep him down with the net while I fished out a cup to scoop him up and into the critter keeper I was using to transfer him. It took more jumping and then suddenly he was up on his feet and actually crawled into the cup. OMG like I literally freaked out and quickly placed the cup in the water to let him in there!! :shock2: I really can't explain this but gugggfuuuughhhh <--that is how I feel :-(
> 
> But he's in there now with no harm to him apparently >.> stupid shrimp. I like shrimp but I'm a pansy when it comes to netting them :-(
> 
> But Ditto is loving the 3 gallon! If I could give each of my males their own 3 gallon tank I totally would but then I remembered I don't have enough surface space :-(
> 
> Anyway, more pictures to come from today!


Omg LOL! My amanos have never jumped out and I really never want to experience it...it would be so freaky to see a shrimp running around on the floor. I'd probably scream because it'd look like a centipede or something and I HATE those. You know the really huge grey house centipedes? EWWWW


----------



## Mar

Sorority tank is gorgeous as always!

Ditto's really pretty, love his iridescence!
I hope Jarvis heals up all right


----------



## lilnaugrim

Uggg Viva, no don't tell me that >< I HATE house centipedes! I ran into one the first time at the lady's house I pet-sit for. I had never seen one before and it was so gross! I tried to get the dogs to eat it lol but it was too fast for them :-(

And thanks Mar! Yeah Jarvis, Ditto and Gambit should heal up just fine in a few weeks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sigh, came home to a dead shrimp in the 10 gallon, looks like he might have eaten plenty of algae though so that's good. I still have TONS of brown algae in my 10 gallon and then regular algae in the 3 gallon where Ditto is and getting algae in the 5.5 with the babies.....I guess I should cut down on the light? They're at 12 hours right now, 8am to 8pm....

It's so hot here that I really....really don't want to do water changes but I need to. Darn grandfather >.> came home and he's like "oh I kept the door open to let the cool air in." Are you freaking kidding me?!?!? It's friggin 95 degree's out there with humidity through the roof! Even all the other old people are saying it's a hot one out! Get with the freaking program man!


Ghahhh, I really hate it here, seriously lost my sanity. Okay, going to go clean tanks and will be back with pictures later and hopefully feeling better >.>


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Sorry about your shrimp! How about a nerite for the algae? Otos? They'll love the plants you have. 

And haha You're grandfather is probably "trying to help".  No AC? Have fun cleaning! T.T


----------



## lilnaugrim

LebronTheBetta said:


> Sorry about your shrimp! How about a nerite for the algae? Otos? They'll love the plants you have.
> 
> And haha You're grandfather is probably "trying to help".  No AC? Have fun cleaning! T.T


Otos in a split 10 gallon? I don't think that's a good idea. I'll have to try to find Harley to see if she's still alive and move her over to the 10 in that case! It doesn't have a lid though so she could get anywhere! I actually just ordered a glass canopy so I hope it will work!

lol my grandfather doesn't care about us or trying to help anyone but himself. He yells at us when we try to put the a/c on and all the windows and doors are closed except for the living room door which is where he is most of the time on his computer. >.> I wish I could just pack up and bring all my fish to my moms :-(


----------



## lilnaugrim

Gosh darnit! Lost Harley now >.> figured she crawled out of the water and now I'm certainly not going to be able to find her! I actually took the filter apart to clean and she wasn't in there unless she's in one of the tubes which I have no idea how she'd get in there in the first place but I know they're like acrobatic snails so who knows.....


----------



## LebronTheBetta

It's split? Oh, I didn't know. hehe They'll do better in a full 10G. And elders are elders.. They need their own time. lol You named your shrimp Harley?


----------



## lilnaugrim

No, no, no silly. If you go back a few pages, I had gotten two Nerite snails, Harley and Davidson lol Davidson died from presuably being pecked to death from the girls and I have no idea where Harley went. No, didn't name the shrimp and I don't normally name inverts/schools of fish individually unless you know like one of them is gimpy so I'll call it Gimpy lol but for the most part, just the Betta's or loner fish get names.

Took a break from cleaning because my grandfather is in the kitchen.....I don't like to be around him at all. And yeah, Elders do as Elders will but he is not a cute old little man, no he's a lot of words that I can't say on this forum. He's a disgusting pig and completely has no resppect for anyone else so why should we respect him back? He complains about everything and while yes, he's letting us live here, he's not exactly letting us thrive. Sure we don't need the a/c on all the time but to cool down the house every now and then when it hits 98 with 100% humidity? Yeah, that'd be nice. He told me today he's "running out of money" which he can't really since he's got a reverse mortgage and still is technically working online. We supply all his food (which is nearly 300-400 dollars each week!) and we keep the house clean (try to) and make all (most) of his food for him.

In ways, yeah I can't complain either; I'm running 6.5 fish tanks (Jarvis's QT only has a light) and not paying for the electricity but as my dad says so rightly; "We pay with our sanity" he literally drives us insane. I really can't even express how disgusted I am of him and how much I try to avoid him and stuff. A person shouldn't have to want to avoid her grandfather....../rant

oh he's out of the kitchen! Back to work! So far I've done the 33, 5.5, 2.5, 1, and the 10 I'm working on now and then just have the two 3's left!


----------



## LebronTheBetta

Oh, I see. My bad. ^^" Sorry about Mr. Davidson. :\

And I can see why you would want to complain! That's just horrific. I guess you'll get used to it soon. I can see why you want to move back. 

On a brighter note, I'm still surprised on how well you manage your tanks.


----------



## lilnaugrim

LebronTheBetta said:


> Oh, I see. My bad. ^^" Sorry about Mr. Davidson. :\
> 
> And I can see why you would want to complain! That's just horrific. I guess you'll get used to it soon. I can see why you want to move back.
> 
> On a brighter note, I'm still surprised on how well you manage your tanks.


Np

We've been living here since 2007 which means we just hit our 6th year anniversary here July 7th......I go back and forth between my mom and dad's house but still, the three days that I stay here, I literally go insane!

Oh thanks! Just finished them all! So what was that, 3 hours? For 7 tanks, yup that's about right.

the 33 got a 25% change because I really can't lug that much water around without killing my back. I'll do another on Saturday.

The 2.5 got a 90%

1 gallon got a 100%

The 5.5 got a 50%

10 gallon got a 50%

And both 3 gallons got 80%

Phew! now I can sort of relax....have to make dinner though...guess I'll have to find something! lol I'll take pictures soon and update everyone ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

I found Harley today!!!! She was sitting on one of the driftwood pieces and now I can't find her again >< well at least I know she's actually in the tank and not sitting somewhere around my room rotting :shock:

pictures to come! I got lucky today when I went to my LFS!! Story to come!


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## LebronTheBetta

Yes!  And shrimp just disappear and then appear again.. Mine always do that. -.-

I wonder what happened... Another betta perhaps? ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

LebronTheBetta said:


> Yes!  And shrimp just disappear and then appear again.. Mine always do that. -.-


Nooo Harley is a Nerite snail XD GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! lol, sorry XD


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## LebronTheBetta

Omg, I'm SO SORRY! Whenever you say "He got stuck under the filter again," I always think shrimp. xD 

About your story? lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

So this first part is from Wednesday when I came home. Originally I had put Matisse into QT for what I thought might have been columnaris but turns out it's just bites from the girls since she's very low on the totem pole. So I came home expecting to see Amara and Matisse in their cups and what I see made me burst out laughing!









Turns out that the cup sank somehow and Matisse got out while three other girls went in, inspecting the cup and seemingly not minding it! lol
I kept the cup down since I had pulled it back with the intent to get the girls out but then I decided to grab my camera lol and as you can see Aurora got curious too!


















Shadowcat kept peeking out of the cup like a freaking eel or something and I wish she wasn't so dark that my picture would come out but it didn't. But she kept poking her head out and going back in like a cichlid or something XD and then Lynx was freaking out! wow

It was like, "how many girls can we shove in here?" lol I ended up with Aurora, Shadowcat, Lynx and Raven. Here's a crappy pic of them:









After everyone was settled I decided to let Amara out as well since everyone want to become escape artists anyway lol but here's Pineapple, Lynx and Emma in the back









Amara and Little Blue









Close up of Gambit's healing anal fin! He's doing well!


















Jarvis and his rot


















So that's all the pictures from Yesterday, I'll upload and tell my story in my next post!


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## LebronTheBetta

Beautiful~

My girls used to be curious, too! I tried what you did, and all 6 went in. I was like "Whoa, where'd they go??" xD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay so story time!

So I went into one of my LFS's Critter Hut and I took some time looking at the planted tanks they've got and trying to decide if I had enough money for two Fire Shrimp and maybe a plant. Found out that I had just enough at the end after I scrounged for some quarters but I decided on two Fire Shrimp (a.k.a. just really intense RCS) and one bundle of Elodea Densa which looked nice so I found one of the owner's daughter (family run) and she ended up getting Kelsey for me who I went to high school with so that was nice.

She got the specimen container and scooped out some water to get the plant and in the process scooped up a young male Endler but she didn't seem to notice and I wasn't really going to say anything lol. She grabbed the plant and put it all in the bag.

Then she went to get the Shrimp and while scooping out water got another young male Endler and she's like "whoops, sorry didn't mean to scoop him out" and so I'm all like, "oh I don't mind, he'll probably become a Betta snack anyway," and chuckled and she goes, "well if you don't mind then it's alright," and continued on getting my two shrimp, grabbing a third Endler but this one was a fry which I didn't see until I got home!

So now I have 3 young male Endler/Guppy mix most likely in the middle part of the 10 gallon with the two shrimp lol. I mean, I really don't know what to do with them but at least she didn't charge me for them! So for me; free fish is freaking awesome! lol

So that's my fun story of the day and then when I got home my drsfosterandsmith.com package came in! I got Vita-Chem, KanaPlex just because, two Hydor Theo's 25W and a glass canopy for the 10 gallon so there's not so much freaking evaporation! I have sooo much evap with my 33 so at some point, I'll need to figure out how to get a glass/plesxi-glass cap on there and upgrade my lighting too, probably to two clamp on 8.5 inch clamp lights with probably two 15W 6,500K CFL's :-D

Anywho! Pictures!

Oh! And to top it! One of the shrimp is berried! :-D!!!

Shrimp:



























Two young males:









One young one and to the right of it you can almost make out the fry lol









Look at those eyes!! I can't just say no to THAT!!!




































Getting to work already!









Cleaning the Water Sprite


















At the top right you can see the fry, pretty sure it's an Endler but might be a Guppy too, not sure!









Shadowcat!









Phoenix









Jewel, Raven and Amara









Amara









The sorority 33 as it looks today:









Jarvis today, he's pretty perky today so we'll see how well he responds. I added Vita-Chem to all their water today so I hope to see improvement by next week at least!


















Ditto seems to be really loving the 3 gallon and I don't want to move in back to the split 10









Still some left over rot that we're treating.









Aero!









Alrighty, all the pictures I have of everyone else for now! Going over to update Steve and Tony now!! :-D


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## LebronTheBetta

Amazing as usual! <33 

I wish my shrimp were as red as that; what does berried mean? Like, pregnant? haha


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah berried shrimp is the term for a pregnant shrimp because they hold their egg's under them so it kind of looks like berries I figure lol

Yeah these are specifically Fire Red Shrimp so they aren't the regular RCS but from the same family is all which is why I figured it was acceptable to spend 5.99 on them each :shock: see I would have gone on AB or ebay or wherever to get 20 for 20.00 but I don't need 20 fish so therefore I have to spend more at my LFS which is okay, just kind of sucks is all.


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## LebronTheBetta

*sigh* I have 1 male and 2 females, both are scientifically virgins. T.T I don't know if they were or whatnot; I wish they were pregnant! 

Dr. Foster and Smith seem to be very popular in the aquaria stream now a days. 0.o Might as well buy some additives to make my fish "stronger" and more "colorful" than they already are. haha xD Wonder where Mar is? Eastern times must be different up in the north. ^^


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## lilnaugrim

Mar is two hours behind us so it's only 4:45 up there.

Yeah there's a few sites that I like and order from frequently including ThatFishPlace.com and then this is the first time I've ordered from Dr. Foster and Smith but they're having a summer sale so all the items i got were on sale! And actually where I work at our Life sciences and Bio-Tech on campus, I deliver packages to the labs and there's a few people who regularly order from them so that's pretty cool ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Because I can, I took more pictures XD

Mostly Aero

Aero vs. the shrimp! lol









Thought this was a nice picture where you can see his shimmer! I believe he's classes as a Steel Blue Dragon









One of those rarely seen sides of Aero! His backside!-ish...lol he was too preoccupied with the shrimp on the other side of the divider to give a hoot that there was a camera outside the tank XD









Aero vs. the Shrimp again! You can see his lovely green on the anal fin and the black-ish wash on his caudal and dorsal.









Rembrandt playing in his Quilwort and Crypts









And then we leave with Mercury being his beautiful self!


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## BettaLover1313

Your boys are so beautiful! I love the pictures of Aero vs. the Shrimp!


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks BettaLover! I thought they came out pretty good myself ^_^


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## LebronTheBetta

Why have you not shown me Aero?? He's my favorite!! <3333333333333

I love his sheery blue scales. Omg, I think I'm in love! If I find a HMPK/PK like that... I'm seriously going to hug it!! lol


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## lilnaugrim

LebronTheBetta said:


> Why have you not shown me Aero?? He's my favorite!! <3333333333333
> 
> I love his sheery blue scales. Omg, I think I'm in love! If I find a HMPK/PK like that... I'm seriously going to hug it!! lol


lol he's been in the log before!! You obviously didn't look through all 16 pages! :evil: lol

Also all my Betta's have their profile pics in my two albums on my profile. The only girl I'm missing is Amara. But all the boy's are up there including the babies


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## lilnaugrim

Oh, forgot to mention that I'm really hating Aero right now >.>

HE FREAKING KILLED BOTH MY SHRIMP!!!!! :evil::evil::evil: gahhhhhh I hope my LFS has some sort of life guarantee on them >.>


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## lilnaugrim

So I doubled up on the mesh so that Aero can't get to the new shrimp that I will be getting. I called my LFS and asked if I could return dead shrimp and they said yes as long as I brought samples of my water so they can test and make sure it was nothing of water quality. Since that tank has been cycled for roughly 5 months, I'm not worried about it at all! I actually tested it all this morning anyway and everything came up 0 even Nitrates and my pH in that tank is sitting lovely at 6.0 as it has been for the past 8 months ^_^

Winning! lol


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## Viva

OMG those shrimp are so cute! I've been thinking about what I'm going to do with my spare 10 and 5.5 gallons...maybe an RCS tank  The girls all going into the cups is hilarious, I had the same experience last night but it was kinda annoying. Oceania, one of the little ones I just picked up, is still floating in the sorority tank in her cup. When I dipped her cup to get her some new water she swam out and like 3 other fish swam in. Hahaha. I don't know what was harder, catching Oceania again in the big tank with all the new plants around or getting the other girls from going into the cup all the time lol.


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## LebronTheBetta

Sorry! xD I even start journals.. I just forget it. o.0 

Sorry about your shrimp; they must be tasty. Like the ones we humans eat. lol


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## Viva

Mmmmm shrimp cocktail. And the red ones already have the cocktail sauce built in!!!


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## Mar

Oh Gosh so much to read lol xD

Your sorority story was SO funny! Exact same thing happened to me! I was floating 2 bettas (Artemis and Theia) in jars, next to each other. The jars werent even submerged, but when I came back, Artemis had jumped into Theia's jar. So cute, but luckily they didn't hurt each other 

Oh my gosh this picture of Rembrandt is gorgeous!!










I'm just wow. He's beautiful. Great angle to get him in!


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## TheOnlyCanvas

I had an issue with fish ending up where they weren't supposed to be today, too! I went to feed the girls (a grown female CT and a baby female, not sure of the type) who are in a divided 5 gallon, and found the CT on the wrong side of the divider swimming with the baby! I was horrified, but they were perfectly fine and relaxed and swimming around each other like they were best buds. I have no idea how long they'd been like that and the divider was secure, so I think she jumped it. 

Definitely had a heart attack, though.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks everyone! lol Viva, that's hilarious!

So I had gone to exchange the shrimp and they girl went back to test the water and she came back and said "well everything else is really good but your pH is really low..." and I was about to say "oh yeah 6.0 it's because of--" and she continued "it's at 5.5" and I just stopped and was like, "what?!?!" sooooo yeah, I have a feeling it was from the piece of oak leaf and the driftwood I had in there so now I've taken out the driftwood and the oak leaf. Leaf is in the trash and driftwood moved to the 33 since it's still at 7.6 anyway so I don't think it will hurt it.

But 5.5?!?! Like how the heck does that even happen?? lol Aero and Mercury seem to be loving it though so that's good!

I had to take out one of the endler's today though, the one I call Orange Spot. Blue Spot is the biggest out of them and has a blue spot on him lol and then there's Orange spot because he's just orange and then Baby Spot who I think is a female if I'm not mistaken.

So Orange Spot is now being slowly acclimated to the 5.5 water since I know that is at 6.5 at least.

So no new shrimp because one of the son's of the owner was like, yeah you'd need an inbetween tank to get them into the 10 gallon. He seemed to really believe that it was the pH that killed them and not Aero. I was able to teach him about Betta's and Shrimp because he seemed to think that most Betta's won't touch shrimp or small fish and I'm like...lol nope! So he was happy at least to talk about Betta's for a little bit with me which was nice.

I've been in there frequently but never really had a problem like that before so they don't know how much I know and all that jazz. So I have a feeling that next week I should take in another sample to be tested at least for pH so that I can see if it's gone up or not since my pH test only goes to 6.0

But everyone else is doing well....I'm not though. :-(

So two days ago my dad came home and I had just come out of my room to use the bathroom down the hall and I stopped when I was in there and listened to my grandfather talking to my dad. Basically my grandfather asked when we were moving out and if Dad had gotten a house yet.....he started to complain that the water bill went from 35 dollars up to 145.....because apparently we use the shower too much and wash our clothes too much and use the dish washer too much.

So now he wants us out and this really upset my dad because I mean we've been living here since July 7th, 2007 (it's written on my wall the day we moved in lol) and so that's what, 6 years? In that time we've done nothing but fix all the broken pipes, refurbish the downstairs (not that he goes down there because he can't walk well), replaced the dishwasher once, fixed it just two weeks ago, fixed the washing machine and fixed the toilet multiple times. We keep the house clean (mostly, hard to do that when I'm the only female here) and buy the food which we always get what gramps wants and it's all the namebrand stuff so my dad is spending literally 200 dollars on food each week!

And you know, I'm really grateful for him letting us stay here but he has absolutely no graditude towards us, doesn't treat us like grandkids, doesn't even care about us. He's a selfish, dirty, disgusting old man and I'm really sorry to rant about this but I mean, there's not many things in life that have made my dad cry but this is one of them and I'm severely pissed off at my "grandfather" right now.

So my dad tells me yesterday that when we move out I can only take the sorority tank and one small one :-( So now like I'm WTF....how the heck can I freaking choose between them all?! They're my babies!!

But this is still all tentative and technically I could at least bring my 10 gallon over to my mom's in the invent that this does happen. She's offered him a place to stay with us while we sort this all out. I'm really happy that my mom and dad had a "good" divorce and are still friends for the most part, they still argue but they know that they share us still and wouldn't either give us up for the world.

But I was just trying to sort through who the heck I'd ever give up and I came out with a hierarchy list of my boy's:

Rembrandt
Ditto
Tony
Steve
Mercury
Aero
Jarvis
Gambit

so If I can plan this right, Rembrandt and Ditto will share the 5.5 under the 33 when we move and then if I can, I'll get another 5.5 or just move the 10 gallon if my mom will let me to her house and keep it divided just once for Tony and Steve, or maybe flip flop, not sure yet.

So that would leave Mercury, Aero, Jarvis and Gambit up for homes. Please don't jump at me saying you'll take them, not right now at least. I'm just rambling and still hurting over this stupid event and seriously hating on Gramps but I think that's a good plan so far :-(

So that's my ramble for the day....pictures to come later when I feel like uploading them.


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## TheOnlyCanvas

Oh hun  I'm so sorry. What a horrible mess. It's sad that anyone can treat their own family like that, especially after all you've done for them. 

If you need anything at all just let me know okay? I'll help in any way I can. Seriously. *hug*


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## LebronTheBetta

Oh, no!  I hope you get all of this figured out, you have my support.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Canvas and Lebron :-(

I mean, we've always wanted to move out anyway just because he literally drives us nuts as you can see from my obnixiously lengthy post but for him to be so pushy and literally tell us that the sooner we get out the better for him is just ridiculous. We're not exactly in a good financial place to be buying a house or even renting for that matter!

My poor dad was already talking about selling his Harley which he only got a few years ago and then his truck which he just leased as well since he traded that in for the Cadillac. The Caddy had too many problems so in a way it was a good deal but now we spend more on diesel. So yeah....don't know what we're going to do!

There might be a chance that one of my friends can take one of my boy's for a home away from home deal while we figure everything out. But for now everyone is sticking with me.


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## TheOnlyCanvas

Yeah, that is pretty cruddy. Having to sell things that you love or need is always hard and just shouldn't have to happen 
I hope you can keep everybody!


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## lilnaugrim

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> Yeah, that is pretty cruddy. Having to sell things that you love or need is always hard and just shouldn't have to happen
> I hope you can keep everybody!


Thanks, yeah it does suck :-(

Even if we go to my mom's house, I really don't think mom will let me have 6 tanks there, she's fine with one big one that we had planned to set up in a month or so but 6 tanks? I don't think I have room in my real room since I've got other stuff and we're in the middle of redoing my walls; puddy all the holes, sand, prime and repaint so that's a big job in an of itself and we can't have the fish in there while we do that and there's really no where else where they could go.

The small 3's and 2.5 could sit in the bathroom, one downstairs and two upstairs but still leaves the 10, 5.5 and the 33. Assumingly then, the 33 would go in the living room with the 5.5 underneath still because that's all that fits down there, well that and smaller tanks. And then still the 10 gallon which I wouldn't mind in the kitchen island but I'm sure my mom wouldn't like that. Well she's secretly enjoy the fish but she still wouldn't like all the cords and stuff :-/


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## TheOnlyCanvas

That's a lot of tanks! Wow! I'm having a hard enough time just figuring out where I'm going to put the two that I have when I move in a few weeks.

Maybe try being super sweet and sucking up and mentioning how beautiful the tank would look on the island?

Gosh. What happens if you can't find any room?


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## Haleigh

Lil, I'm so sorry to hear that! If you ever need anything, let me know! Don't ever feel badly about ranting either; we're here to support you!


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## lilnaugrim

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> That's a lot of tanks! Wow! I'm having a hard enough time just figuring out where I'm going to put the two that I have when I move in a few weeks.
> 
> Maybe try being super sweet and sucking up and mentioning how beautiful the tank would look on the island?
> 
> Gosh. What happens if you can't find any room?


Yeah....I might be too addicted but I never thought we'd really be moving! And of course not be able to take all my tanks!!

If in the event that I can't find room for everyone, I am willing to put up adoption to people that I know here and know they will take care of my boys, the ones that I would be rehoming would be Mercury, Aero, Jarvis and Gambit since I'm not _as_ attached as I am my babies, Ditto, and Rembrandt. But they would definnitely have to go to people I knew on here and trust because I still love them no matter what!



Haleigh said:


> Lil, I'm so sorry to hear that! If you ever need anything, let me know! Don't ever feel badly about ranting either; we're here to support you!


Thank you Haleigh  I don't mind the ranting so much as I know I write novels every time I do and even for me, it's a lot to read lol. But thank you very much


----------



## Viva

Dang that sucks  I hope your grandfather comes around. He sounds like my dad who just LOVES to complain about the littlest things...like how long we shower for and how long we open the fridge and look into it, and how long the bathroom lights are on -_- I realize these things cost money but like...is it worth all the added stress and tension to complain about? Probably not. Anyways, hope your situation gets better for you so you're not all stressed out


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## lilnaugrim

Oh ouch that sucks about your dad viva :-(

But no, my grandfather has ALWAYS been like this. If it were up to him he would have never gotten married and had kids, he's a legitimate introvert. He only got married because his one and only best friend got married so it was "the thing to do" and then his friend had kids so he had kids and then grammy died about 8-9 years ago from a severe case of Alzheimer's. She was 64 when she died and it set on for four years so started when she was 60 and it just completely deteriorated her until she was 64 and then she was gone.

It was a sad event but I was never really that close to them to begin with because I always hated coming here to visit because it was disgusting and never really clean so it just felt....blech. Still does even with us cleaning nearly every day because SOMEONE makes a freaking mess everywhere!

Anyway, I'm about to go through my pictures and sort through to upload! be back soon!!


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## Viva

Yeah my dad's been like that always too. He used to tell me that "He never should have had kids because they're too much work." Now I never want to have kids of my own, lol. It's like he gets way too stressed out over little things >_< Anyways, UPLOAD SOME MORE PICS FOR US! Hehe =p


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## lilnaugrim

Getting there! Had to update the baby log first!! lol but that's done now, check out what's up with Tony and Steve here!: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=167010&page=11


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## TheOnlyCanvas

Viva, I feel ya. I don't know that I want kids either because of my parents and the way my sisters are (both severely bipolar).
Ugh. Family.
I can't wait to see pictures! That's always the best part


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## lilnaugrim

So let's start with the Endler's! I've got two males although Orange Spot is not pictured but he's not doing well with the pH changes :-( I tried to find him just now and I can't so we'll see what happens. So I did something I never thought I'd do but I broke up Steve and Tony! Steve is now in the middle slot of the 10 gallon and then I took the divider out of the 5.5 and Tony's got it all and is getting along really well with the Endlers in there after I acclimated them for 2 hours since my 10 gallon was at 5.5 and the 5.5 is at 6.5-ish.

So here's the one that's doing the best! Blue Spot! I'm not formally naming them, just identifying by blue spot, orange spot or baby lol









Blue Spot!









Baby Spot was trying to hide on me lol, she's so cute









Camera was having a really hard time focusing on her since she's so small! She can't be more than .3 inches! It's like a baby Betta all over again!









I don't see anything that would really look like ovaries to me but her anal fin is really rounded so I assume then it would be a girl.









Random pictures of the girls:

Stardust









Pineapple









Jewel and Lynx









Lynx and a blurred Shadowcat









Jewel and Phoenix









Lady and Amara









Another picture of Rembrandt for you Mar ;-)









Gambit!









Classic Betta picture lol









Ooooh Jarvis pooped again today!!! Exciting!
I think he's responding well to the treatment for his Fin Rot too, hard to tell of course but looks less black to me at least. I'll have to do a comparison:

Before, approx. a few weeks ago


Today:



























I'm starting to think that he has natural black butterfly pattern but then he had the fin rot on top of it. I'll have to take a super close look to his caudal to see if there's still a super dark edging to it or not.

Cute picture


















Ditto! He's such a cutie with his left fin a little gimpy. Hard to tell from that picture but he had fin damage that never quite healed properly.









I love his irid!









It's like those hair glitter strands that were big last year, the hair feathers, except for Betta's haha



























So Ditto did something that I haven't seen him do in a while! He flared at my finger! He must be content because he hasn't done this in a LONG time! So proud of my little boy!


















So Aero decided to be photogenic today!









So I've decided he's a Black Dragon but with turquoise scaling :-D









Skunk stripe is still filling in slowly.


















He's got a faint butterfly pattern but it's not defined enough to be considered so.









So Steve went into the big boy tank today! So here's Aero for comparison with him!









Aero being a butt and flaring lol









Aero also went between the two mesh sheets there and scared the crap out of me because he came from the back so I thought he got through the divider to hurt Steve! Scared me so bad!






















































He's actually got extremely good form! Caudal hits 180 degree spread, 2 ray Trad PK, Dorsal almost meet's Caudal, Anal has a minor slant which isn't too bad, Ventral's aren't split. The only faults I find in him is that he has web reduction so somewhere up his genetic pike there was most likely a CT or someone carrying the CT gene to make the web reduced. Also he's a tad bit spoon-headed but not terribly!


















And if you want to check out how Tony and Steve are doing go here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=167010&page=11 they've certainly had a busy day!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Video of Aero and Steve!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2OFSFLQkSo


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## TheOnlyCanvas

I didn't realize you had a girl named Phoenix! How funny!

They're all so lovely. I love Aero's scaling, and Ditto's colors are just gorgeous. Ahhh you have such a good group


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## lilnaugrim

TheOnlyCanvas said:


> I didn't realize you had a girl named Phoenix! How funny!
> 
> They're all so lovely. I love Aero's scaling, and Ditto's colors are just gorgeous. Ahhh you have such a good group


Hehe yup! Yeah I chuckled when you named your baby Phoenix! I think I might have mentioned it but I really can't remember haha

But thank you! I do love my boys and girls ^_^ weird to think this is all one type of fish minus my 3 Endler's and 3 Cory's although I think my Endler's went down to 2 because I can't find Orange Spot at all. But Blue Spot and Baby Spot are doing really well which is great news for me! ^_^ I'm thinking about actually buying another juvie male for the 5.5 from the same place just to make it 3, I like 3's and most livebearers if not all like to be with their own kind so I think 3 is a good solid number and males don't get as big as females so there's still enough room for Tony 

Aero has definitely amped up the standards for my boys! He was so dull and drab looking when I first got him, he wasn't even black underneath. he was almost skin colored! And still had his skunk stripe but now that's filling in too but it's rather cute ^_^

Ditto has grown up quite a bit as well!

This was from the second or third day that I had him a while back!



He had his iridescence but it was definitely not as prominent as it is now! That's for sure!!!

And here's Aero the first day I brought him home




So they both did lots of growing up lol


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## TheOnlyCanvas

Oh wow! I love watching them grow up.

What are endlers, exactly?


----------



## Viva

Aero is sooo pretty! He looks so huge and powerful in that video with Steve, hahahahahha. Steve just swims over all cute and innocent, and Aero's like a shark trying to get at him. Steve's just like O_O I had no idea what an Endler was until I Googled it today, lol. Also that red DT boy looks like he just has a natural black outline on his fins like you said. He's gorgeous!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks!

So Endler's have been debated immensely if they are a subspecies of Guppy or some relative of them and neither has been proven yet. But they're small Livebearers and very colorful. Basically just like Guppies but usually they don't have the immense tail that Guppies have. To me they look more like mini Killifish :-D

Yeah Viva, I had different music to the video before, a song called "He's Looking At Me" and it timed perfectly where when Steve showed up it was like super-scary-here's-the-monster music lmao, it was too precious but I couldn't use it just because I didn't want to scare people who randomly look at my video's XD It was so perfect though! I can also do a different one to have that music as well to show you what I mean because it was awesome scary like haha.


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## Viva

Yes you definitely should, hahahaha! That sounds hilarious


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## lilnaugrim

Here's a timeline for Jarvis. I had gotten him only two and a half months ago and I assume he's older than your average store bought betta because he's bigger. Hasn't grown much in body length so he's probably not a Giant either.

First day I brought him home, very little black and nipped fins from being in a tank with two other male PK's.



A few weeks later, tail still long but black has moved in more:


And from a few weeks ago you can see that the tail has shortened up quite a bit and the black has moved in a little more


And now taking a look at today's pictures. Black is definitely receding and looks like fins are growing out again.


















So verdicts? Fin rot or no? I say fin rot and possible slight black edging to the tail naturally but a tail receding that quickly has to be fin rot.


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## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Yes you definitely should, hahahaha! That sounds hilarious


Video is editing now so it will be up in a few minutes. As I rewatched it to make sure that it fit, I died laughing again XD If you think of Aero as the scared girl in the film and Steve as the impending monster, oh man, it's so funny! Ending doesn't quite make it but that's okay XD


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## lilnaugrim

Here it is!! oh my goodness, I still die when I watch this!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcqTuSB8k3E&edit=vd


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## Viva

LOLOLOL! Wowww that sso perfect.


----------



## Rosencrantz32

HAHAHAH!! Oh goodness that was hilarious!!! Thanks for posting that! I'm so gonna have to show it to some friends


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## BettaLover1313

lol that was an awesome video!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah anyone can show it, I don't mind!

See what I mean though? Just so perfect XD even my mom laughed at it! lol


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## Viva

I was watching it and my boyfriend was like, "Omg really, this music to a betta video?" And then the other betta appeared and the music got scary and he LOL'd.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> I was watching it and my boyfriend was like, "Omg really, this music to a betta video?" And then the other betta appeared and the music got scary and he LOL'd.


lol!! That's great!!


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## TheOnlyCanvas

Oh my gosh that was hilarious!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks all, yeah I still get a kick from it every time I watch it XD It's so great!

Anywho, so yesterday I was royally pissed off! I went to look for my frozen Bloodworms and I couldn't find them!!!!!!!!!!! Turns out my Granfather apparently thought it was chocolate, took it out from the BOTTOM shelf where NO ONE uses and when he read it, he threw it in a different place.....I didn't see it at first and had to leave so I texted my dad asking if he threw them away and he didn't even know I had them so that was the beginning of me being extremely ticked off.

I figured that Gramps just picked up and threw it away to be that a-hole that he is! It wouldn't be the first time he's rumaged through my brother's and I's stuff looking for goodies the b-stard!

Anyway! my dad texted me at 9 at night and told me they were in a different spot in the way back so while I was relieved, I was still pissed off because why the hell does he have to touch my stuff?!?! I put it in the BOTTOM drawer of the DOOR which NO ONE ever freaking uses and why would he touch it now?!? He hates bending over because of his stupid back. GAHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh



as you can tell, I'm still pretty heated. Anyway onto pictures! I bought a new Endler after Orange Spot died so now we have Blue Spot, Baby Spot and White Stripe (<---lol like the band) White Stripe in the store was the most picked on and he stayed by me when everyone else swam away when I put my finger to the glass and he was the only one with a sort of stripe on him! So I had to have him and for only 3 bucks?? sure!! So with him I bought more Elodea Densa and put that in the 5.5 as well.

Tony's been really skittish of the camera lately and I'm wondering if he doesn't feel secure without his boyfriend in the tank with him :-( I hate splitting them up but I really had to, more room for Tony to grow and not be stunted and Steve get's some extra exercise with Aero 

Oh and so one of my best friends that I've converted to the dark side of the fish world (MUHAHAHAA!:twisted she absolutely loves Jarvis and Mercury! So I've decided that I needed to cut back on tanks anyway and I'm giving both of them to her. She's also one of the people who took a kitten from us and Fionna is living extremely happily at her house! And her house is only 12 minutes from mine so I can come visit Jarvis and Mercury whenever I want! Oh along with Fionna too haha

So with my direction, she's getting a 5-5.5 gallon tank, we're going to split it with the DIY divider's here (report binder things and slit the plastic mesh inside) and then going to furnish it with some nice gravel and plants. I've already taught her how to feed the fish since she's been over the house a few times and loves all my fish haha and I've started teaching her about cycling and water changes and all the good stuff!

I wanted to give the fish to her because she also knows just how important food quality is. She has two Shilo Shepard's, both who are champion dogs and in top health because of the family. And then she's got an older cat; Romeo and then another kitten along with Fionna, Juliet who is a freaking crazy cat! They all don't like her much but secretly love her. But you just can't love Juliet like you do Fionna, she's just too spastic! So they all automatically love me because we gave the better kitten XD lol

Anyway! Totally side tracked myself, but I'll put pictures in the next post so it isn't too long. But I wanted to share the bit about Jarvis and Mercury, that way it's easier on me because I know where they are, who they're with and I know they'll be taken the best care of and if anything ever happens; I'm 12 minutes down the road and can rush over to help with my expansive fish medicine cabinet


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! Introduction to White Stripe!

First brought home after being acclimated 45 minutes with drip:









Better picture, you can see his white stripe and it's outlined with two small black stripes either side.









Baby Spot is growing a bit!! Oh there's a chance that she's actually a Rice Fish, not an Endler so we'll see what happens when she's grows up!









Baby Spot introducing the two boys, Blue Spot is behind White Stripe


















The boy's displaying for Baby Spot









Sorting out a hierarchy:









I also got a snail that came with the Elodea! Once about 4-5 day's pass, he'll go into the 10 gallon to help with the algae. I didn't want him to die in the pH of 5.5 since most snails like higher pH levels >.< but the store had informed me that if I had a Half-Way tank then I could introduce them to the new lower pH in about a week's time. So that's where the snail will be going.









And this is how the 5.5 gallon looks as of right now:









So my Vallisneria came in lol and Shadowcat has finally claimed her territory XD She freaking loves the plants! She wouldn't leave her spot, not even for food! She's crazy.









Lovely picture of Jewel! Her scales have grown in a little more, she's not so spotty.









Emma being all cutsie!









She's pretty photogenic when she wants to be and when she doesn't have bright lights on her because then she just comes up as a shiny white blob on the camera, she's too shiny XD Oh and there's Cherry below her.









Emma and her pretty blue eyes, Cherry and then Little Blue wanted to join the fun!









L'Oreal! Because she's worth it! lol









Lynx! poor girl's been getting beat up pretty bad. Her fins are in rough shape but they're growing back again.









The right side of the tank where you can see I added the Val and where you see Shadowcat is still sitting there haha









More about Jarvis's tail









The Anal and Caudal looks better but the Dorsal still looks black, at least there's no extremely black lines that I can see that look like rot but I still didn't want to risk it so for now he's staying in the 1 gallon until he goes to Marissa's house.









So Aero's looking a bit worse for wear. I think he keeps going between the mesh trying to get at Steve and so he's rubbing against the algae which then get's stuck on his scales resulting in this:


















And that's all of those pictures for now, going to go update the Baby Log now


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## BettaLover1313

White Stripe is really cool! Glad that you can visit Mercury and Jarvis whenever you like and that you know they're in good hands! All of your fish are beautiful, as always!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> White Stripe is really cool! Glad that you can visit Mercury and Jarvis whenever you like and that you know they're in good hands! All of your fish are beautiful, as always!


Thanks BettaLover! Yeah, it's already difficult enough that I still have to give away two more boy's eventually but at least these two I can still visit when I want  I hope the other two will be just as fortunate as they will be!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh and I'm still having difficulties whether I want to keep Ditto or Aero....Aero has grown up so much and I love his colors and he was my first Dragon PK! But Ditto has grown up a lot too, we've been through plenty and.....gah, these decisions are too damn hard!

So the list as it stands right now:
Rembrandt (a given)
Tony
Steve
Aero/Ditto
Mercury + Jarvis being rehomed
Gambit will be rehomed as well once he's fully healed of fin rot and his anal fin patched up.


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## LebronTheBetta

I know this is hard. 

I think you should go with Aero, you said you raised him from fryhood?


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## BettaLover1313

I know it's hard to give up any of your boys, and all the harder to pick between them. I'm sure you'll make the right decision though.


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## lilnaugrim

LebronTheBetta said:


> I know this is hard.
> 
> I think you should go with Aero, you said you raised him from fryhood?


No, the ones raised from Fryhood are Tony and Steve, those two are definitely staying. Aero was just a young Dragon I found, well Ditto was young when I found him too though.

We still have time, there haven't been any other talks from my gramps yet so we're still holding out for now but I just wanted to have a plan for if and when the time does come, I'll be ready.

Just thinking about it kind of makes me dizzy....I'll have to completely take down the 33 to move it......all those plants and my fish and my cycle :-( hopefully I can keep the cycle going by keeping my filter wet as well as any other ornaments/plants/driftwood I have in there so I don't have to start all over again. Because with 20 girls in there (which I project I will have by the time we move. I'll be going to get some girls from Catw0man so that's 5-6 more, can't remember the number) and a snail and 3 cory cat's although they may not survive till then, not sure yet.

I had plans set for hurricanes and blizzards and natural disasters but not for moving lol seems so silly.


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## Viva

Sucks that your grandpa likes to rummage around through your stuff and then basically hide it on you >_< Your fish are all so cuuuuute. I swear my betta Cinder got really depressed once I took out his 4 corydora tank mates. Then I had to go pick up some more to put in there for him and he's back to his old self again! The plants also are doing a little better...before they all died once I took the corydoras out and cleaned the gravel thoroughly. NEVER doing that again in my planted tanks! It's awesome that you got your friend to join the "dark side" of fish keeping, lol! One of my friends just makes fun of me and my fish, it's kinda sad.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah I think I remember you talking about that person Viva, it really is sad :-( thankfully none of my friends make fun of me, but that does suck!

Yeah, Tony and Steve's split are temporary, once we move they will be going into the same tank together again  split of course!! But I definitely have to keep those two together at least and then it's Rembrandt and....well maybe it's just Remmy. Maybe I should rehome Aero, Ditto and Gambit as well. I mean, my mom and I will be setting up a larger fish tank (large as in 30 gallons) so I'll have that to take care of as well....

If I find someone who I know would give them a good home, I think I'd rehome both of them, as much as it pains me but I'm in for a crazy next few semesters of college and I don't think I should keep so many that's not in one tank. The sorority is one thing but even having split tanks are a bit much. This way I can just keep the 3 gallon Remmy is in and then the 5.5 under the 33. That makes sense I think.


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## Viva

Sounds like a good plan to me! Yeah too many tanks is a lot of work. 3 or 4 is probably the max I can handle for water changes and such.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah 3-4 is a good number.

Half of the other problem is that I'm helping out that other lady I helped out before, the one I was pet sitting for. She's paying me though which is nice and then I'm helping out the three tanks we have at college since I work in the Center for Biotech Life Sciences or CBLS. And then planning trip to Canada to get some girls! woot woot and then planning the tank at my mom's house.

Which I'm still undecided about, she wants flashy fish so I'm at either an Angelfish (preferably a red marbled koi) or a Dwarf Gourami for a centerpiece fish. I've had the Gourami before but Angel's are new. I've been researching plenty so that's fine and dandy but still uncertain of which I should do. Tank is assumingly a 30 gallon, haven't properly measured it yet so if it turns out to be smaller than 30, I'm not doing the Angel at all.

Anyway, they were right when they said you can get burnt out easily in this hobby! I'll never quit though ^_^


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## Viva

Hehe wow, thats a lot of tanks! Imagine working at a huge Aquarium place though O_O Like huge tanks with 3000 gallons of water in them, lol. That'd be so cool! But soooo much work!


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## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Hehe wow, thats a lot of tanks! Imagine working at a huge Aquarium place though O_O Like huge tanks with 3000 gallons of water in them, lol. That'd be so cool! But soooo much work!


Yeah but I'd probably have an auto change to do most of the work! It's not the taking out the water that kills me, it's the time and the effort it takes to lift a 3 gallon bucket full of water and refill the tanks, that's the hardest part! But if I had an auto changer, my life would be complete haha The thing is that I've got too small of tanks so the auto-changer wouldn't really benefit me at all. I could invest in a water pump but the only ones I've seen go rather slow and I run on time schedules most of the time so therefore, lifting buckets; although sucky, is the easiest and quickest way to changing water.

Of course it'd help if my tanks weren't all at weird heights like on the floor nearly or above my shoulders.....yeah the 10 and Ditto's 3 are killers right now! lol

But the good thing about the tank at school is it's at a very comfortable level 

The huge one I did for the lady I pet-sit, I had to stand on a chair to reach the bottom haha


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## Viva

Wow that's crazy. You'd have to like lift the bucket or use a cup to slowly put it in. I have a 4 gallon bucket but I can fit just about 5 gallons in it. Once I slipped and fell on the wooden floor while carrying it while it was FULL...it wasn't fun.


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## lilnaugrim

Viva said:


> Wow that's crazy. You'd have to like lift the bucket or use a cup to slowly put it in. I have a 4 gallon bucket but I can fit just about 5 gallons in it. Once I slipped and fell on the wooden floor while carrying it while it was FULL...it wasn't fun.


Wait....a 4 gallon bucket that carries 5 gallons?? That seems a little fishy to me! lol

Ouch, that sucks about falling :-( I pray that never happens to me! I already injured my back once because of falling, I don't need to do it again!

Yeah in the smaller tanks sometimes I do use a cup to scoop out water and pour it into the tank, it's just easier than trying to carefully pour the water in sometimes


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## Viva

Well the bucket is labeled to 4 but its like still 3 inches from the top of the bucket so I fill it more than 4 gallons I know that. I also fell last week by slipping on a cloth while carrying two plates of cornbread that I had just baked. Needless to say the cornbread went flying all over the place, lol!


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## lilnaugrim

OMG Viva, we need to put you in a bubble or something XD lol it's a funny picture though haha

No what I meant was you said it was a 4 gallon bucket, so how can you fit an extra gallon in there when it's only a 4 gallon bucket? :shocked: you must be Wonder Woman or something haha


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## lilnaugrim

So fun story time!!!

So yesterday I went to my LFS, the Sea Horse Pet Shop as I do nearly every week or every other week. I hadn't been in two weeks so I figured I'd stop by and look at the pretty fishies and get a plant or two because why not get a plant? lol So I talked with one of the brother's there, Chuck and was telling him my woe's about my grandfather and having to move.

The problem was there was this amazing double tail Betta boy there, he was blue with a white face; Monster, and it was the prettiest shade of steel blue I've seen (besides Aero but he's more turquoise) and he gave me those eyes. I kept coming back to him as I talked with Chuck and tried to figure out stocking idea's for my tank at my mom's house that we'll be setting up when we get rid of the piano. I have the tank already since it was free from my aunt and uncles house but I haven't measured it yet.

I'm pretty sure the tank is a 30 gallon; 36x18x16 but not sure yet. So the thing is, I really want an angel or a paired angel and they have these beautiful pair of angels there. The boy is a beautiful black marbled veiltail and the female is a regular silver but man, they are gorgeous together! They even had eggs on the tank! I'm pretty sure that all the other angels they have are from that pair because they've had them for a while!

So anyway, my dilemma is that either we get an angel or a pair OR we get one of the larger Gourami's like Opaline although I've heard they're more obnoxious and boistrous, or a Gold or a Blue. All of which are at this pet shop as well. The guy was like, why not have a pair and a small gourami? You could do that. lol, I was like, you're NOT helping me! haha

Basically my stocking idea is to have either one angel or a pair and then 10 Rummy Nose Tetra (also at this shop) and about 6 Diamond Tetra's, or I could just get one big school of Rummynose and get 15 of them and knock out the Diamond's but I just love the way Diamond's look but then I like the look of one big school so now I'm torn between two lists >< why are planning tanks so difficult!?! lol

So anyway, we were talking and he brought me over to some of the "female" Betta's. They have been getting in long finned girls that were sold to them as males so I often go in to help them sex their Betta's and figure out who's who. So I helped out and the long finned girls were all girls that I could tell, there was only one who stumped me and of course being a blue girl/boy, it was opaque so I couldn't see ovaries or anything but there was a egg spot but it looked young. So I reserved judgment on that one till the end and I did figure out it was a girl, so he was happy about that and then he showed me this tank where there was one girl in the tank and then boy's in the specimen containers on the inside to keep warm.

There was a beautiful Black coppery CT boy there, on the small side but he was gorgeous! So then I got a look at the "girl" in question, she had an egg spot but she look either extremely eggy (which was to be expected, she's kind of surrounded by males!) or bloated/constipated. He then told me that they had mosquito larvae in there and that s/he ate them all and I had to laugh at that, but they figured s/he was constipated as well.

So turns out that they offered me to have him/her for free! They didn't want to risk her being sick or anything and knew that I take the best of care and I'm basically and awesome patron (lol) so I'd make up the price in other purchases basically since I virtually buy something there every week or so or at least chat with them and help out. So I said yes of course and found a very nice almost fake looking plant to take home as well which they also gave me a discount on haha.

So I took the girl in question home along with the plant, got her situated and acclimated to the tank water and let her float in the 33 to see all the reactions! So here's some pictures of him/her:

Look at this fatso lol









Look, a Flare! Wonderful looking VT, good form other than the slanted anal.









Looks like her tail still has some growing left to do as well!









Cute little flare ^_^









Basically she looks like an overgrown version of Cherry. Even though this girl is small, she still dwarfs Cherry. I still love you Cherry and I'm not replacing you with this girl I swear! haha









Bloated or Eggy?



























And now for the fun twist to the story!!!! I woke up this morning to see weird things in her cup, I quickly realized she'd dropped eggs! They're the first time I'd seen Betta eggs in person and was so excited so I had to take a picture but the lights weren't on so I had to use the flash ^_^ So it's been settled, she is officially a little lady ^_^ I expect more eggs when I get home from work, funny thing was that she wasn't eating them the whole twenty minutes I observed her. She was just trying to fend off the other girls who were trying to get at them through the cup XD silly girls









So still looking for a name for her but so far my ideas are: Asteroth or Marvel as in Ms. Marvel ;-)

Onto other exciting pictures in the next post!


----------



## LebronTheBetta

She's beautiful! And she had eggs. xD Names... Nope, can't help you with that.

How about Toph? It was from my favorite TV show, and the character was a tomboy. lol Toph also sounds like tough. ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

A Harley sighting! she's been coming out more during the day lately so I think she finally got comfortable! I want to get another Horned Nerite, probably from Ebay or AB, I was looking at the bubblebee ones and thought they'd make a nice pair with Harley and then I'd name the new one Quinn, get it; Harley Quinn? lol too many references fitting together XD Of course that being DC would clash with my Marvel theme XD lol!!! :lol:









Sorry for picture overload with Jewel and Emma but they are the only ones who pose for me so I take the opportunity to take pictures of them! Here's Jewel and an impatient Amara









Emma and her frosty blue eyes ;-)









See?? She does things like this and it just makes me HAVE to take a picture! lol









And here's Mystique looking a bit worse for wear. I'm not sure why she went all stripy but she did, only for a few minutes though. I think she's getting tired of being Alpha and being challenged all the time, poor girl. That black spot near her caudal also worried me but I think it's just pigment because after she colored up, it was gone so I don't know!









Little Blue looking tired as well.









Baby Spot! She's growing a bit and taking a look at Endler/Guppy/livebearer fry, she's looking more like a Guppy if anything. Endler fry look different so I'm not quite sure yet. If she turns out to be Guppy though, I'll be giving/selling her away somewhere, probably the pet shop since they love me 









I got Gambit a new hide anyway since he was missing the barrel thing that's in with Jarvis at the moment. So I took 6 dollars and bought him this stump thing with the plants attached. It actually looks pretty good I think which is nice! and he seems to like it which is the important part. I'll be taking that Java moss out soon since it's dying already which is rather expected.









Aero looking smug and kind of beat up. He prides himself in attacking the mesh apparently, even when Steve's not near him XD silly boy









Caught him just starting to flare at Steve, you can see the new plant behind him.









Okay so, now here's the new plant I got. We think it's some type of Hygrophila or perhaps some of the larger Rotala maybe but it almost looks fake or like dye was injected but that wouldn't work i think without turning the water colors too. So it probably is real, just doesn't quite look it lol.


















And then I got new lighting for the 10 gallon! I bought two more 5.5 inch clamp lights with each having 1 CFL 5,000K bulb in it and just sitting atop the glass canopy there. Tank already looks ten-fold better!









Here's the whole sort of set up. So my thing is that these lights will help the low light plants like the Cabomda actually grow and therefore help keep the algae down. With those LED light strips, not even my Water Sprite was growing! :shock: they look nice for lighting up a tank but suck for growing plants :-/









Beautiful picture of Mercury, the lights bring out his rosy color more as well









Finally caught Remmy flaring but he wasn't flaring his fins the butt!


















Blue lipstick! And orange dots!









Flaring with fins out sort of lol









But then he saw me and stopped flaring to look at me like "wut??" lol









And that's all I have for now!


----------



## lilnaugrim

LebronTheBetta said:


> She's beautiful! And she had eggs. xD Names... Nope, can't help you with that.
> 
> How about Toph? It was from my favorite TV show, and the character was a tomboy. lol Toph also sounds like tough. ;-)


Thanks! Yeah, sticking with my Marvel theme anyway since I've come this far! lol but thanks ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

I love you new girl! She's so cute! Why not call her Jean? You have Phoenix (or am I confusing this journal with a different one...? *frets*), so why not her other personality? 

Your boys are so cute! Got to love when they flare, and Rembrandt is just adorable!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> I love you new girl! She's so cute! Why not call her Jean? You have Phoenix (or am I confusing this journal with a different one...? *frets*), so why not her other personality?
> 
> Your boys are so cute! Got to love when they flare, and Rembrandt is just adorable!


I do have Phoenix! Yeah, when in doubt just look at my signature lol, they're all there ^_^ Jean is a good name too, I'll have to try them out when I'm at home! It's either going to be Jean or Asteroth. I have a dear relationship with Asteroth since one of my own characters was based of a version of Asteroth, basically just a spawn of hell as it always goes and she wore red armor similar in color to my new girl.

I also have another red girl coming in as well. I'll attach her picture but I have a feeling she should be named Jean and this one named Asteroth since she's extremely feisty!


----------



## Viva

OMG! I've never seen betta eggs before either...what a little fatty! She's so cute though, haha! The tanks look awesome with the new lighting! Remmy is so friggin cute, I can't handle it. I just looove his colors!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah! I love the new lights for sure, so much better and then knowing my plants will be able to grow now is even better! I love it! I love the plant too, it's so weird and unusual to see XD

Yeah, for some reason I was expecting the eggs to be bigger but they're so tiny! It makes sense though but it's amazing to see, that's for sure!!

Hehe, I love Remmy soooo so so so so much! He is a little ball of cuteness! He's been flaring so much at his tank lately, not so much flaring with his fins but just flipping his beard out for a few seconds like he's flipping off the wall of the tank XD lol kind of funny. I know with the higher light there's more issues with reflection, I think I'm going to put some white paper on the back side and the right side of the tank where no one looks through anyway, hopefully that will help him not flare so much and get exhausted! He's so adorable ^_^


----------



## Viva

The new plant is gorgeous, it looks kind of like this one: *http://www.shop.plantedaquariumscen...kii-roseafolia-colorful-plant-reineckii10.htm


*


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## lilnaugrim

It does! my only issue is that the plant you mention has two leaves growing on one node opposite each other where the plant I have only has one leaf growing from each node. It could just be that the other fell off and so I'll inspect it further when I get home, it could also just be a different version of that plant. Great to know it's an easy grower though! I'm glad I got it! Maybe I should go back and get another for the sorority tank Or Rembrandt's tank!


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## BettaLover1313

I should have just looked at your signature XD!

Ooh! I really like the sound of the name you have in mind for her or your other girl that you've got coming!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> I should have just looked at your signature XD!
> 
> Ooh! I really like the sound of the name you have in mind for her or your other girl that you've got coming!


lol, that's okay! Now you know for future and it will help for not getting messed up or anything at least ^_^ Yeah, I think Asteroth fits this girl here and Jean will be the other red girl coming in! :-D I do believe it's settled then! Thanks for the suggestion of Jean though! I never really think about her since I already had Phoenix, you know? ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> lol, that's okay! Now you know for future and it will help for not getting messed up or anything at least ^_^ Yeah, I think Asteroth fits this girl here and Jean will be the other red girl coming in! :-D I do believe it's settled then! Thanks for the suggestion of Jean though! I never really think about her since I already had Phoenix, you know? ^_^


I know! I just watched X-Men: The Last Stand last night, which is why it was fresh in my mind, otherwise I probably wouldn't have thought of it either lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, that's awesome though! Not my favorite of the triology since it doesn't go with the comics at all, but still a decent movie and good effects! Besides we get to see Hugh Jackman's lovely torso haha


----------



## Mar

Lol sorry for the late reply! your new longfinned girl is gorgeous!

Exact same thing happened to me! I was feeding my girls before turning off their lights, and just before I switched it off, I saw Themis explode with eggs! All the girls descended upon them and just ate them right up. Gone in seconds.


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## lilnaugrim

lol that's funny Mar. Yeah Asteroth didn't really touch them, I know she at some because she was pooping white for a little while but now that she's eaten pellets she's pooping normally ^_^ quite often which is good too, she's slimmed down quite a bit!

Ohhhh....turns out that the Red Star one that I was going to name Jean, jumped from her cup and wasn't found in time :-( but I'm still getting other girls! And I'm sure there will be another red girl like her down the line on AquaBid! So it's kind of funny that I got Asteroth the say day the "Jean" died, but all is well and even though it's sad, it happens.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm playing "Rearrange the Fish" today! lol

Since I can't stand Tony and Steve being split and both constantly having stripes, I'm putting Steve where Aero is, Tony where Steve is and Aero is going into the 5.5. And then White Stripe is going in with Rembrandt since I don't want him to kill Baby Spot and then Baby Spot and Blue Spot will go in with Tony as well since he's my only boy who won't kill them. So i think that's all lol

Just did 80% changes on both 3 gallons, have to go fold laundry as dad has implored me to do and then I'll work on the 5.5, get everyone else in cups and then clean the 10 since it's pretty dirty >.< and then switch the boy's. Then do 100%'s on Gambit's 2.5 and Jarvis's 1 and then do a long series of changes for the 33.


So I bid on this girl today and I hope I win her!: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1375027959
and I'm seriously debating bidding on a Breeding Pair of German Blue Ram's to go into the sorority. For some reason I bid and won 12 Red Rili Shrimp (they're best for my water parameters in that tank) and so I'm getting rid of the last 3 cory's I have since they're obviously not doing well in that tank as 3 have died. So I want to give them a better home.

So Shrimp replacing cories, and I'm getting 5 females in to make a total of 21 and I've checked this over so I have room for a pair of ram's that I've always wanted and had planned to get in the original stock of this tank! And if it turns out later that I need more room for females (which I shouldn't be buying any more after this) I will have my mom's tank set up by then and the Rams can go in there.

So idk, should I go for the rams? The pair is only 13.38 and bidding ends in two hours!


----------



## LebronTheBetta

I've seen rams before, they're simply divine. lol That girl is a beauty! <3 Wish I can breed her, actually. And that's few years away. -.-

Do rams even get along with bettas?  That's a good price for a pair. 

You have a lot of work to do.


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## lilnaugrim

Yep, Ram's are one of the most peaceful Dwarf Cichlids. They require very stable conditions and basically just an older cycled tank like mine. They like the higher pH and soft water, exactly what I have and the same temps as Betta's. Like most other fish excluding Betta's, they keep to their own and sort of meander around the bottom of the tank to middle,happily swimming where they please. They also eat the same types of foods.

So I think I'm going to go for it! I was going to get a pair at my LFS were I get most of my girls but it's not guaranteed to be a pair and I'd like a pair that's already bonded like these two are that I'm bidding on! Plus at my LFS they're selling them 12 (for me, normally 15) for just ONE not even a mated pair!!!!! So I'll be bidding on these guys I think! lol Shipping is only 15 as well :-D And the fry that they do have will be food for my girls XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just bid on the Rams!!! Holding out for 45 more minutes!!

So I've put White Stripe in with Rembrandt and White Stripe is the one freaking out, Rembrandt looks at him and goes "Meh..." he'll only threaten to chase if Stripe is right in front of him and even then, it's a half kind of like "I'd get you if I realllly wanted to....tomorrow maybe...." lol

I've seen MAJOR improvement with Tony and Steve! Both of them instantly colored up when they saw each other and danced for each other, it was the cutest thing ever! Baby Spot is fine but Blue Spot is kind of all over the place being a butt while Steve tries to get at him through the divider lol

Aero is loving the 5.5 except he doesn't seem to like being so far from me! But that's okay, he'll get used to it 

And then Mercury is just like...."Hi...I'm still here....*sigh*" lol poor depressed fishie. Jarvis pooped again two days ago, woot woot! He's currently acclimating to a 100% water change, next up is Gambit and his 2.5. I'll be taking out his Java Moss because it's dying stupidly enough and then just rinsing the tank out because there's scud on the walls, so he's been due for a 100%.

So onto more water changes I go and then checking my bid in between to make sure no one else bids! lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Eeeeee!!! 8 minutes until the bid closes! I'm so excited!!!!! :-D OMG I've wanted a pair of Rams for liek...EVA!!!! Actually only a few months since I was introduced to them lol but STILL, it feels like Forever!!!! lol I'm wayyyy to excited about this XD


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## lilnaugrim

I WON!!!!!!!!!!! EEE :-D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SoOOOOSOOSOSOSO Excited!!!!!!

Here's a picture of the two! First is female and second is male, they're soooo pretty!


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## LebronTheBetta

They're gorgeous!  You must be so excited you're biting your nails, lol. jk 

They'll make beautiful babies! If only you actually wanted them. xD


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## lilnaugrim

Well I do want the babies but I don't have technically room to raise them in but if any fry do happen to live, I'll be happy to sell them to people around here! Just like if Baby Spot is actually a female Endler and the two of them breed, I'll sell the babies for sure! But I think she's more Guppy than Endler which makes me sad but I think both males have Guppy in them anyway since they do interbreed.

Well now that the suspense is over I'm going back to water changes, I've got an hour before lights out, so cleaning time for the 33! Wish me luck >.< lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm an idiot........


Those rams I bid on....they had a BIN price >< The guy was nice enough to send me an email an hour before the auction ended but I didn't get it till after and he offered to take down the auction because it had a BIN and I failed to see it lol but I still got them for a good price, came to 28.98 with shipping all together! Not cheaper than my LFS would have been (12+12=24) but these guys I know are a mated pair and aren't going to tear each other to pieces! So I'm happy to spend an extra four dollars to get these guys, they're so cute!

I did some tank trimming in the 33 today, rearranged some of the wood and plants which is nice but I only did the left side....which means come Tuesday or Wednesday I need to do more water changes and continue my rescape of the tank which I think is going to look really nice and a little more organised than before which I like. 

I've got dwarf Sagittaria coming in on Wednesday which I'm excited about! That will go in Rembrandt's 3 and in the 10 gallon and the rest will go into the 33 for a nice foreground plant! And then I also have the 12 Red Rili Shrimp coming in either Tuesday/Wednesday so that's partly why I'm doing the rescape to make them more hiding places so the girls won't kill them off instantly! I do hope some survive though :-(

And then the Rams should be in about Wednesday as well, whew that day is going to be busy! I should definitely do the re-scape and water changes on Tuesday then. Sorry, just me planning out loud. If I say it on here, I'll most likely actually do it then haha

I've got pictures from today and yesterday so those will be up as soon as I sort through them!!! :-D

Stay Tuned ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

I won this girl! She's so cute! I'm thinking about naming her after the artist Janet Fish after a chat with 10asartin lol I've already got Rembrandt and Matisse so at least it's still within a theme, unless I find a better name in the Marvel world for her, I think she'll be Janet ^_^

So this week I have coming in the dwarf Sag on Wednesday, I believe the shrimp will be here Tuesday and then the Ram's will be here either Thursday or Friday! I'm super excited so I've got quite the busy week ahead of me with aqua scaping and all!

I realize that none of my plants are really...tall, water sprite only get's so big, my amazon swords haven't grown much because they're sort of crowded and then what I think is some sort of Sagittaria in the back hasn't grown much either so idk what's up! Water sprite is blooming crazy and I can't wait for the Elodea Densa to grow up more too and make more babies for me to plant!

But my plan is eventually to get rid of the floating water sprite and just have some tall plants as well as the smaller ones. My goal is for that Amazon Sword I have towards the middle to be nice and tall and big so we'll see how that goes. But that's why I bought the Vallisneria, needed some taller faster growing plants and now i have them ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Okay...I swear I uploaded those pictures from last night.....am I blind or did they just disappear???


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## Huffle Puffles

I've never heard of Rams before but they've got some gorgeous coloring and adorable little faces! Speaking of adorable, so is that new little girl you've got coming!! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Huffle! Yeah it was the smaller picture, she has those eyes >.> won me right over! lol it will be a while until I can get her (August 24th) but she'll be worth the wait for sure! :-D


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## Rosencrantz32

Congrats on winning that girl! She's beautiful!
That look would have won me over too. It's the same look my boy Xerxes gives me when he wants more pellets lol


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks!

Yeah that look is how I ended up with 22 Betta's!! lol


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## BettaLover1313

Sorry to hear about the one red girl, but glad to hear you got those Rams and the new female!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Sorry to hear about the one red girl, but glad to hear you got those Rams and the new female!


Thanks, yeah, it was sad but I'm happy with the "replacement" girl that I got in her stead ^_^ and then of course the rams!!! They'll be here Thursday or Friday, they will be shipped out today, sooooo excited!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, well since those pictures never came up, I'm going to assume it was too late at night and I never hit the "Submit" button >< so I guess I'll have to redo them all over again...sigh, such a hard life lol

So I found this cutie at my LFS and decided to get him! He's much smaller than Harley but big enough that the girls only pecked him once each and left him alone after  He immediately went to work on the algae that's been growing!

So here is the lovely Quinn!









Harley vs. Quinn









And Quinn towards the night time, he'd immediately eaten a ton of algae and bio-film which was starting to grow again since the Pleco has been gone. He's got an enormously long poop here lol, it curls all the way around him XD









Emma being her photogenic self! So I'm finding little orange dots on her! The most notable is on her dorsal fin at the tips. I'd seen those before but they were a dark grey almost black before but now they've colored up to be a red/orange color! I see a small spot or two on her caudal as well!









Asteroth looking a little better after she dropped her eggs are started to slim down ^_^ she ate some NLS as well and is pooping normally now so I know all the eggs are out of her stomach at least since she ate many of them XD









Pineapple has grown quite a bit! She's now comparable to Mystique in size and finnage! You can see at the end it's cellophane and some ray's stick out so she probably has CT buried in her VT genes as well ;-)









Shadowcat and a stripey Mystique.









Jewel, sibling like sibling lol. Both her and Emma are just too cute and photogenic for their own good!









Emma posing for me and Asteroth.









So I did a bit of scaping to the tank on the left side, moved this around, cut the water wisteria down to size and replanted the cuttings  I've also tried to make a rock wall on the center right side lol, I need to redo it because so far it sucks XD I was figuring though shrimp can hide in the little spaces so that fish can't eat them, so that's a good thing  I'm mostly worried I don't have enough hiding spaces for them when they molt and all.









Left corner of the tank, you can see the Java Fern I have there behind the water wisteria in the front. That thing feels so delicate! I have no idea what kind of Java Fern it is, but it's gorgeous and I'm so happy I got it all those months ago!









Left side of the tank.









And for the main event! Rembrandt was flaring at his reflection and I actually got decent pictures!!!!!! So hence my new avatar!









I'm so used to getting this:









That I'm so happy to get this! My beautiful HM boy! His dorsal is still growing out after a battle with columnaris that when i look back now, I'm surprised he survived! But he's doing well and seems to be pretty damn content! :-D


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## BettaLover1313

The girls are gorgeous as always and Rembrandt is simply stunning when he flares!!!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> The girls are gorgeous as always and Rembrandt is simply stunning when he flares!!!


Thank you ^_^

And yes, WHEN being the key term there and IF I have a camera in hand XD The little bugger always stops flaring when I point the camera at him! It's like he knnnowwws! lol He's a party pooper!


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## Mar

Rembrandt is quickly becoming my 2nd favourite after Jarvis xD
Gorgeous!


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## lilnaugrim

lol Mar, yeah I love my beautiful boy!

I actually put Jarvis in a cup today and floated him in the sorority tank to see what he'd do since he never flares at any of the males! It took him a few moments to realize what the heck they were but he did eventually flare at the females and they flared back! It was so cute and then I put him in with Gambit and he wouldn't flare XD Silly boy. I also noticed he still has an egg spot lol, silly feminine boy XD

Anyway, pictures will be up later today when I'm not so distracted lol we're watching the Hobbit!!


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## Huffle Puffles

Simply gorgeous pictures you captured of Rembrandt!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Huffle!! It's been a long time since he's allowed me to get a good picture!!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay lots of stuff today!

First off, Shadowcat has Dropsy and I don't think she'll make it :-( poor dear. I saw her on Saturday with a few scales sticking up a bit but I figured it was probably from eating too much food since I had just fed them so I thought nothing of it. Yesterday I dropped by to clean out the rest of the 33 (did a needed 40% change along with trimmings) and I couldn't find her. I thought she might have already died and I was kind of sad but these things happen and sometimes you just can't help them. of course, if I had been smart enough, I should have started her on an Epsom treatment right away Saturday but I didn't :-(

So after my first bucket of water, I came back and found her swimming around!! But she was plumper than a ripe peach :-( I quickly scooped her out, got the critter keeper and made a 2 tsp/gal solution and let her acclimate to it. She was still swimming fine and even ate a pellet! So I'm really not sure if she will make it or not. We'll see what happens when I get home today. If she's still alive I'm going to bump the solution up to 3 tsp/gal since it's needed!























































On a brighter note Quinn is still alive and doing extremely well! I see him more on the glass than Harley is! She was on the driftwood today so I'm sure she's munching on the tasty bio-film there!! lol


















Uggg, how to aqua-scape tank?!?! What even is?! It looks so bare! lol but here's how the tank is now. I still have to glue together the rocks to make the rock wall, I'll do that today and then move things around a bit in front since I don't like how the rocks are placed or anything.









And Asteroth is now out of her cup and into the tank. I did it after the first bucket of water because I know I was changing things around so why not do it then so no one has territories? So far so good! Mystique looks better too


















Jewel looks like she's going to rough someone up and is happy about it lol









Jewel and Phoenix









Lynx just wanted to cuddle! lol









Pineapple is big now! She's comparable to Mystique!









Jewel and Pineapple, Jewel wasn't too far behind her.









Emma and Phoenix. Lol it seems that Phoenix wanted to get with all three sisters because I had a picture of her with Lady as well but it didn't come out too well haha









Look at them gorgeous eyes!!!!









Mystique looking better although someone decided to bite her scale; that's what that grey patch is, just a missing scale.









If only that stupid plant part wasn't there!! Gah, well here's Amara and Emma









Two sisters; Emma and Jewel, only Lady is missing here.









Emma and Asteroth from the top view. Asteroth is still chubby but she's still slimming down as well.









I love looking down at Jewel, she's so pretty and I'm so happy that I got her and her sisters!









Emma playing hide and seek with me ;-)









This is totally going to be Amara's profile pic! poor Shadowcat is in the back :-(









And Emma's new profile pic as well. The red on her dorsal and caudal are growing too! Perhaps she's a marble as well! We'll have to see!









Random shot of Mercury being Mercury lol









And Aero is now in the 5.5, you can see him peeking out from being the thermometer. But he seems to be loving it and hasn't been zooming all of the place like normal! So I take that as a good sign he likes his new condo ;-)









The pretty boy himself









Showing off for me!









If the stupid leaf wasn't in the way, this would be his new profile pic since the other one is older!









So I put Jarvis in with the ladies to see what he'd do, in a cup of course. And he really didn't flare much XD silly boy! Just spread his fins and swim around in the cup while the ladies flared at him.









Still doesn't quite get it XD









And here's what the 10 gallon looks like right now with two of those unknown plants now in there. I think they look really good!!









And that's mostly it for this log for now, may update later because I'm supposed to get my Dwarf Sagittaria in today! Which I forgot about lol and I think my Doctor Foster and Smith order is supposed to come in today or tomorrow but I hope today! It will give me something to do since my Shrimp are supposed to arrive tomorrow and then the GBR's will either be here thursday or friday. So yeah! Busy week!!!


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## Viva

Emma is so cute! Your fish all seem so happy and content  Rembrandt is stunning as usual, and I am really in love with Aero. He looks like he LOVES his new tank!

I am sad to hear about Shadowcat, though  Sadly I lost my first girl a few days ago when she got stuck in a piece of mopani driftwood -_- Very sad and traumatic  I hope Shadowcat pulls through!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Viva!! Yeah, Shadowcat is still alive at the moment and I've started her on a regimen of KanaPlex and 1 tsp/gal Epsom salt right now. I've also started Gambit on the same thing because his fin rot is still there even after a month of every other day water changes, I used tiny doses of MelaFix and before that was AQ salt and oak leaves.

But silly Gambit somehow bit his anal fin towards the front of it, no idea how that happened and he bit his ventrals......no idea what's going on with him or how the heck he did that....Anyway, he's got a small case of pop-eye as well.

Once he's fixed up, I will be giving him away if anyone is interested in him, he's good fish all around and this is the first time he bit his fins.


----------



## Mar

Nooo :'c
I hope Shadowcat gets better! That's really too bad.

Emma's adorable as always.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks, I hope so! She's still alive right now and sleeping so we'll see what happens. Her ventral fins are also ripped to shreds and nearly stubs at her body, I assume with the nip in her tail that the girls were picking on her because they know she's not healthy. So we'll see what happens, tomorrow is resting day and then Friday is another dosage of KanaPlex/Epsom salts.


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## lilnaugrim

Shadowcat didn't make it through the night. I feel bad but not sad since she's no longer suffering. But I feel bad for not starting her on Saturday when I noticed some raised scales but I was too stubborn. So, I'm sorry to Shadowcat, she was a good Wal-Mart girl! And I'm happy to have been able to give her a good life for two months but it was still too short. The poor dear, but she's swimming under the rainbow bridge now, happily by herself without other stressors  and for that I am happy.


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## Huffle Puffles

I'm sorry that Shadowcat didn't make it, but you're right at least she's no longer suffering and at peace. You gave her a great life away from the Walmart cup and I'm sure she's very grateful for that!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah  I'm glad I did save her though, she was a great girl :-D

Well I've got six more girls coming anyway so I think my tank will be pretty set when I get them lol

One is a fancy orange, different from Amara but I forgot to save her picture, whoops.
Glowing White Dragon









Black Fancy DT









MG girl









And then this girl whom I'm naming Janet Fish after a lovely artist! It will be more pronounced as Jenet rather than the longer Janet if that makes any sense lol.









And lastly my breeder girl! Black Copper CT! Mmm she is gorgeous! Beautiful web reduction, quite a lovely spread, nice heavy irids and a great topline! 









She will eventually be bred with this boy that my friend bought:








His topline isn't the best but at least it's smooth so she'll correct that. He's got a better spread than she does, same heavy irid but he's got white butterfly patterning! So we'll see how they come out! Both are two ray CT's so they ought to make beautiful babies if they take!! :-D I'm excited!


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## Mar

Oh my God.
Your white dragon and copper CT girls are GORGEOUS. 

Send them to me if you ever get bored with them xD


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## Viva

Sorry to hear about Shadowcat  Your new girls coming are so gorgeous though! I'm just in love with that black CT girl!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks!! lol Mar, I haven't even gotten them yet, how can I be bored with me?!?! lmao

Yeah, I'm super excited about that black CT girl! Literally those two were meant to be!

Soooo! My Ram's came in today and I got a free female as well!! And then my Drsfosterandsmith.com stuff came in as well so that's awesome and then the shrimp came in today as well which I'm severely disappointed with. They were advertised as 1-1.5 inches......none of them even reach .8 inches!!!! I'm like, where the HECK am I going to put them so they don't get eaten before the grow uP!?!?! So I think I'm either going to have to keep them in with Tony (I feel bad for him) or keep them in my 1 gallon kritter keeper without a heater.....maybe just floating in the sorority....sigh....I don't know what to do with them!!! but there's a lot more than just 10 in there so in that way I'm pleased.

Hopefully pictures to come tonight of everyone!


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## lilnaugrim

So the Shrimp Slaughter wasn't half as bad as I expected it to be. Tony got one and is trying to eat it but it's not going so well lol poor shrimp was still living even after being tortured and shaken and bitten by Tony. Steve accidentally has three in his side but one is between the dividers (smart one) and he chansed the other two, both went into the gravel and now Steve can't get them lol but they're still alive. I figured I'd get pictures now while they're still living.

There are two bigger ones so I'm hoping at least those live to go into the sorority tank but I have a feeling none of this will really work, good thing they weren't too expensive! But so far the other shrimp are doing fine.

Ram's seem to be loving the tank! Girls don't even care about them any more which is great! :-D Pictures to follow sometime tonight most likely.


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## BettaLover1313

I'm sorry to hear about Shadowcat, you gave her a great life away from that Wal-Mart cup.

Your new girls are gorgeous! Definitely want to see any fry from those two Black CTs!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BettaLover 

Yeah! I can't wait to see how the fry come out!!! So exciting!! 

I can't wait to get my girls too! We'll be going to get them August 23-24 so hopefully all will go well!! ^_^ I'll be getting pictures up soon, they're sorted through and uploaded, now I just need to make the post lol


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## lilnaugrim

So up first are the boy's.

Gambit some how bit his anal fin and his ventral fins!! How the heck did his manage this!?!?! I have NO idea!









Also, I don't know if this is much a difference but his irid has stayed blue now instead of green, he's seemed to really colored up with the KanaPlex I'm using on him. Today is the second day and will be dosing again as per instructions ^_^ Hopefully it will help his tail and his anal fin. Silly boy!
Look at him! He's like "Wut? I didn't do nuthin!" lol









Got to say though, gives him quite the look! Lol it's like his own little hair cut XD Styled and everything!


















And comparing to just a few weeks ago, his anal fin is definitely getting better minus the bites but we'll see what happens lol









Aero being a royal pain in the butt that he normally is haha









He's such a beautiful boy 









He's so stuck up! hahah such beautiful colors too. He's beautiful and he knows it!









Just Mercury being his beautiful Copper self! I love the contrast between his greenish body scales and the rosy fin colors! Even his pectorals are rosy and tipped with green colors!









Ram's when I first got them, the poor dears were so stripey!









Male is the bigger one in front, and his two females.









Getting used to the tank:









The Male









They've already eaten some pellets and frozen BW's so that's a good start!









The male and his breeder female


















Emma seemed protective of her Ram's since they were mostly in her territory lol She's claimed the Vallisneria since Shadowcat passed.


















Cherry came up to inspect lol









And this is the tank as it is now! I was worried that I might not have enough space to plant 30 Dwarf Sagittaria.....I think i did just fine XD And I put some of the fake plants I got in the back as well, they look really good in the tank and really fill it out!! I'm very pleased with them!









A Harley spotting!! She's been coming out more often lately, I think she's finally settled in and happy. She's also grown quite a bit as well!! Here she is hard at work!









Cherry is very protective of her lovely pet snails lol, such a cutie!









I'm going to save the Shrimp Slaughter story for the PetCo baby journal so I actually have something to post there lol so if you want to read about it you can go over there ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

Gambit has such a unique coloring, and of course Aero is very handsome! Love your new Rams and the pictures of your girls! Particularly the last one with Cherry and the snail!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks :-D yeah the Ram's were much more colorful this morning when I peeked in! So hopefully I can get more pictures of them tonight/tomorrow and see how they're doing! But so far they seem to really like the tank so I'm happy ^_^

Yeah, Gambit definitely caught my eye with his vibrant colors! He will be up for adoption when he's a little better lol 

I love Aero, he's just so purty! I'm glad I picked up that drab looking boy in the store! He's turned out to be quite the stunner! His mask is still filling in, not as quickly but still filling in. I have a feeling he will also have scaling over his eye when he's older which is unfortunate but that's how Dragon Scales go :-(

And Cherry, my lovely darling! When I saw that I was like, No way! This is too perfect! And she sat still long enough for me to get two pictures and then zoomed off to face the Ram's lol but it looked like she was hugging Harley, way too cute to pass up!! lol And this is why she's my favorite ^_^


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## Mar

Sorry about Shadowcat  You put her in a great sorority and she lived a very happy life.


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## Huffle Puffles

Beautiful pictures of all your fishies. I really like the picture of Cherry too, it's too cuuute how's she's leaning on him like "This is MY buddy!"


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mar and Huffle! Yeah, Cherry is just too cute!! :-D


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## Viva

Lol Cherry is so cute! I love that picture. My all white female gets mesmerized by the snails in there...especially the tiger nerite. She will stare at it if it's moving at all. It's pretty hilarious. I need to get a pic of that some day, haha!


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## lilnaugrim

lol that does sound cute Viva!!!

I think mostly Cherry was resting against Harley because she was mostly in the current of the filter which is pretty strong, rated for 45 gallons lol but it still made for an adorable picture!! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Ophf....headache >.< although it's really not a bad hangover it was worth it lol. Last night we all went over my dad's girlfriends house for game night! Which it's all us adults and I wasn't driving because we were all sleeping over so I was allowed to drink (only 20, yeah I know it's not good and no I'm not promoting this to you younging's ) so pretty much everyone was doing what we've been calling Jameson Parfait's which I learned has a different name elsewhere....it's half Bailey's and half Jameson with whipped cream on the top. 

So anyway, I don't like them much so Katie (dad's gf) and I did Apple Pie shots, I had two and one shot of Jameson that I couldn't actually finish. It really didn't taste great and I tend to like the fruity stuff...oh well. So I was fine just drinking a soda after that and then Katie came up with a Straw-ber-ita....basically Strawberry Margarita made by Budweiser and man are those things good! lol I had three....plush she made us Chocolate Almond Milk and Kahlua, that was really good too lol.

But anyway, not the point, we were playing Apples to Apples and what a game that was!! lol there was 10 of us playing and I ended up winning first with 5 green cards but then we kept going and the last round the winner was my Aunt with 14 green cards lol

It was a really fun night with family and friends and a good game. My brother and I and my dad all slept over by my dad went in for work for O.T. so Katie made bobby and I breakfast and mmmm it was soooo good! She made mini pancakes, bacon, eggs both scrambled and fried and toast. I made pancake sandwiches and use two pancakes for "bread", fried egg and bacon topped with syrup and whew! That stuff was good!! lol

We stayed for quite a while, right to 3 o'clock actually. But we played Black Ops 3 with the three of us and lol it was so funny because Katie and I didn't really know how to play but we figured it out and just shot the zombies XD we played the survival mode. Then we switched to Mario something Party 5 and wow that was super fun! Silly games but our comments were hilarious XD

There was one point where we played one of the mini games and Katie was losing the last two games and we had four players one was a CPU which was Boo for those who know Mario. And so there was that one game and Katie came in third and quite sincerely I said "It's okay Katie, at least you came in third!" and she just looked at me and burst out laughing since we were all pretty silly still anyway. She then says "Yeah, THIRD out of THREE" and we just couldn't stop laughing at the silliness haha

So needless to say it was a really good last 24 hours, just good old fashion fun that I haven't had in a while!

So I may or may not get pictures up today, I might just do it tomorrow so that it gives me something to do tomorrow haha.


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## lilnaugrim

Well...today's been freaking fantastic >.<

So yesterday, Sunday, left from my dad's to my mom's early in the morning so we could hit breakfast before going to church. I noticed my passenger tire was getting really low on air. Now this tire was originally on my drivers side but the one that was originally on my passenger's side had a bent rim; causing the steering to shake. So we took that off and made it the spare, took the spare filled it and put it on the driver's side and kept the one losing air on the passenger's side.

I noticed that my trips to the gas station to fill the tire were getting more and more frequent and knew the leak was getting worse so it was only a matter of time. So yesterday, got to mom's and we used the compressor at home to fill it up. My mom's bf ended up filling it up to 42 psi >.< which is a lot, normal psi is supposed to be 30-32, 32 being optimal. So I think that just blew my rim out and this morning when I went to go to work, the entire tire was flat. Completely done for.

I tried using the compressor and it would even take air!!! So called mom up since we work in the same building now (I'm a student help and she's a full time janitor so I go to school tuition free ;-)) and we finally got to calling my Memere (grandmother) and she was able to pick me up and bring me to work. Made it to work with 10 minutes to spare.

Now the only bad thing is that I didn't get breakfast or coffee :-( normally I hit up Dunkin to at least get my medium Iced Mocha cream only lol, but alas no coffee for me today! The good thing about coffee is that it's a hunger suppressant so normally I take my breakfast and eat it for a mid-morning snack but we didn't even have breakfast foods today :-( so no coffee and no breakfast! At least mom brought us lunch, left over dinner from last night.

So after our work (she get's out 1:15 and I at 2, so she's going to stay with me the extra 45) we have to go back to home, get the tire size because I can't remember and then go get a new tire and have them mount it....sigh....there goes all my money I was saving...well it's not going to be expensive but that money was my gas money for the next week lol.....soooo no coffee's for me the next two weeks. 

Not that it's a total loss since I've been having a bad skin reaction to too much caffeine, basically we've had this Lipton Iced tea which is more caffeine. Normally I just have my one coffee and that's pretty much it for my caffeine intake and then we started to get Brisk Iced Tea which is more just flavored water which was fine and then we switched to the Lipton which actually is iced tea, not flavored water. So that's like 3x the amount of caffeine that was taking in.

So I've got hives on my arm's and stomach and they go through spurts of being itchy so it just sucks. So hopefully with less caffeine intake, they'll start to go away. 

So that's my lovely rant of the day. Going to try to see if I can get the pictures up, last night the stupid SD card wasn't working so we'll see if it works today >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Yay I got the pictures to work! But I realized they were all of my babies, so go here to check out how Steve and Tony are doing as well as the shrimp I have left! http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?p=2727313#post2727313


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## TiffanyP

So I just found your journal and I skipped through a few pages, but I did read your very first entry complaining about the humidity and I just had to laugh  In Iowa 60% humidity is a good day! We regularly sit at 80% and higher, and during the summer its not unusual for it to be around 90%-100%. I remember in Colorado Springs once we were at a Y showering, and I overheard some guy saying to his buddy, "I was going to go to my cycling class last night, but it was just too humid!" and it was 15% humidity at the time lol

On a more on-topic note haha I love all of your fishies - they've got a good home and a good fish mom


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## lilnaugrim

lol I had to look back to what my first post was XD Yeah it's been up at 100% for the last three weeks but finally dropped down to like 20% or something like that which is our normal around here and then right down to 0 during the other three seasons ^_^

Today is super gorgeous out right now! It's a lovely 76 degree's, 35% humidity and wind at 12mph, gorgeous! It's getting down to 58 tonight, yeehaw! Mhmm, 60-70 is my perfect temp! I must be some sort of goldfish haha

Speaking of goldfish! We have some common goldfish in my mom's natural "man" made pond. I say "Man" because we already had the underground water system running through there so basically my grandfather dug a hole about 40 feet across and 13-15 feet deep. And then it just filled up with the water that was already there, so technically we just dug a hole but nature did the rest lol. But we started out with three goldfish, one black one orange and one white. Now we've got a bunch of koi colored goldfish and we have these baby black ones. The black ones never get big so we assume they get eaten off easier so my mom and I took three babies out and put them in my 1 gallon vase that I had been using plants for to grow to eventually possibly use in my aquarium if they did well.

So observing them right now, they don't seem to be doing so well so they'll be back in the pond soon as my mom get's home. We really just wanted to look at them because in the pond they almost looked like baby perch so we weren't sure what the heck they were! Although, none of my fish stuff is here and I wished I could have tested the water at least for nitrite/nitrate because I have a bad feeling that because I have dirt and then sand on top that there are a lot of nitrates. I basically just did a 200% change because I changed the water twice to put more plants in so that could help but I still feel really bad for subjecting them to this now :-( I only wanted to get one when we went down but mom ended up picking up three >.< They're cute as all heck but I'll also be happy when they're back in their natural environment.

If it were a bigger tank and I knew my parameter's, that would be different but it's not  they seem to be doing okay right now though, two of them are pooping well and one is swimming around like he couldn't give a care in the world lol so that's cool at least! I just don't want them to die while they're in here but I want mom to see since they just went out shopping before I got them in the vase >.< sooo I'll have to wait till they get back.


Oooh and so my grandfather, the good one on my mom's side, not the one I've been complaining about, surprised us today! So my Memere took me into work and then I went home early with my mom and Grandpa called and told mom that he'd already taken off my flat, replaced it with the spare (not knowing the actual spare was on my driver's side and the one that was the "spare" was with the bent rim) but he took the tire to our local shop and had it fixed up for us! Only 5 dollars to find the only plug (which was what was wrong), take it out and re-plug it :-D So now my mom's bf and I just have to put it back on the truck ^_^ I'm very grateful and thankful of my good Grandparents. Since I don't get to experience them all, it's nice having ones that actually care about you and think about you :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So yeah we ended up putting the goldfish back, the poor babies were just not doing well and I feel really bad :-( I should know better....

But pictures of my little setup to come once they finish uploading! Also some pretty flower pictures I took because I can lol and my two girl cat's Ieli and Misha! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So we were pretty sure that these are goldfish fry, they look to be about 3-4 weeks old I would guess although the small one only looked maybe 2 weeks old and quite malnourished. I bought mom and 7.02 oz of goldfish flakes so we'll be set for a while for feeding! We don't feed them often as they do have plenty of live foods to be eating but they haven't been coming up very much, the pond is super low. Like the middle is probably only 5-7 feet deep as opposed to the 13-15 that it is normally but that's what happens during the summer.

So anyway I think the fish were afraid because we have a Heron that comes around and eats the fish sometimes as well as raccoon's and other wild life that will love to eat fish. But after mom's foot tap that she normally calls them up with, they finally came out to eat so that was exciting! I also tried to feed the babies when they were inside but the small one didn't want to eat and the bigger two ate some flakes but not much. All three pooped very well which is great :-D but I have a feeling they didn't last much longer in the pond when I put them back in.....at least we have enough babies and enough adults >.<

Anyway, here's the biggest baby we caught which was about an inch in length excluding tail.









Sorry, I realized that the two I uploaded were both of the same fish seemingly gasping at the top >.< they were actually swimming around though.









And here's the 1 gallon vase now as it stands, mom loved it with the light on it so I'm hoping that I can keep it there since it does look super nice on the counter rather than the window sill :-D I want to put something in it but I'm afraid shrimp will die since it's not an "established" aquarium and then I don't know about snails, there isn't enough to eat algae wise so it'd have to be a flake/pellet eater for the most part. I was thinking 1-2 Ghost shrimp if I get a heater in there with a thermometer and just do that but still not sure. Obviously I have to test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate because if the goldfish can't even tolerate it then how the heck will shrimp?! so, we'll see what happens to it! It originally started as a project quarantine for the plants so that I could use them in my aquariums but being that they came from our pond, who know's what's lurking in them. So the original plants had been QT'd for about 2 months but the grassy one eventually died and the other one was too tiny, it grew fast and was a good stem plant but it was much bigger out in the pond. Now I've got the grassy ones and a new plant that reminds me of some type of rotala but I know it's not.









And because I can here's some pictures of our flowers around the yard. The first one is off our blue Hydrangea.









Water droplet's, I want to formally print these one day and frame them ^_^ good thing Art student's get a discount on large printing ;-)









Sun setting on a White Butterfly Bush









And the Purple Butterfly Bush.









Annnnd Cat's! I'm a kitty cats and I dance, dance, dance and I dance, dance, dance! Well normally, right now I'm sleepy haha. This is my first girl Ieli, she's a Tabby/Maine **** Mix.









And here's our stray cat Misha ^_^ I love her huge ear tufts!


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## BettaLover1313

Aw! Your cats are so cute!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you!!! I do love both of my girls ^_^ each are at different houses, Ieli is at my dad's with her brother's MC and Siberian (MC is blood related Siberian isn't) and then Misha is at mom's house being terrorized by the feral kitties we now have running around >.< oi but she does well enough! Comes when she's called and eat's when she's hungry.

They're all great cat's really! Although Siberian is having his allergic reaction again, can't figure out what the heck it is! We switched him to a good food around January/February (well better than the last at least) and then he got better. Then dad accidentally bought the wrong food without me knowing and so we were feeding that for 2 months. He relapsed and now he's been back on his other food for 2 months now and he still hasn't gotten better, if anything it's worse!

I'm starting to wonder if the larger red flea looking things are some sort of parasite as my mom suggested. They look like super flea's and that's what I call them, super flea's. They also looked like squirrel flea's but I can't be too sure. The poor boy :-( they're only on him though! Not Ieli or MC which is strange because they all hang together so that makes me think it's not regular flea's which would attack all three and us humans....idk :-/


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## BettaLover1313

Poor kitty  Hopefully you can figure out what he has soon and get it treated.


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## TiffanyP

I'm a cat lover too  and I think I have a thing for male animals haha an 11 year old boy kitty and 2 boy fishies. And if I ever get an italian greyhound like I want, it's going to be a boy too  I love Misha's color, I love grey kitties... and black kitties... and orange kitties... and just all kitties haha


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## lilnaugrim

Even if we do figure out what it is BettaLover, my dad won't spend the money to get him what he needs. We're already trying to buy a house and so cat's are the last on our minds since my grandfather is kicking us out. Sad but it's not effecting him to the point of life or death. It's just itchy is all but I got a flea comb and so hopefully I can at least try to kill some of the stupid suckers.

I just find it weird they don't bite me even when he sleeps on my bed. Like I find them crawling around but they don't bite. They also don't jump very high either or at least they don't feel like it. They just look like big lazy flea's and so yeah...idk!

And Tiffany, idk, most of my girls have all the personalities lol whether it's on the b*tchy side or the nice side XD I love them all though equally ^_^


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## TheOnlyCanvas

Ugh, fleas are a pain in the ass.
As far as your earlier post about baby goldfish being black, I used to have a backyard goldfish pond too, and the babies always started off black and would slowly turn orange as they got older. So maybe you're not actually losing them, they're just changing color!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah that's what I thought! I knew often when they're younger they have the black/brown/gold colors and look more calico and when they get older they turn gold  But in the pond they literally look so black, but in the pictures you can see they have a cute little irid to them and look more brown/deep orange so it's just the pond tricking us haha

I'd love to be able to catch a few of the bigger ones and put it in an observation tank for a few minutes to get some pictures and show everyone because they are cute! I believe they are regular commons since they don't have the flowy tails, longer and slimmer from the top looking and they're mostly orange/red and many are koi colored orange/red and white, too cute! One of my favorites in there is all orange with white cheek patches so we call him Patches ^_^ he's so cute!

Unfortunately I can't really get good pics since the pond is rather glary >.< that happens when you know...there's water...and there's a sun...and...yeah. lol


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## lilnaugrim

Whew! Hot Damn! I just hit 5,007 posts on here! with an average of 37 posts a day!.....I need to get a new addiction.....lol

And just a mini update on my little vase project here. This is just without all the darn bubbles, my mom likes the bubbles though lol









And this is more a straight on view so you can see how the sand lay's, I rather like it like this! But there is dirt on the bottom layer with an inch of sand on top of it :-D My own little NPT! I'm sure the Nitrite/Nitrate levels are through the roof but that's okay, there's no fish in there haha









And because I'm stupid I bought another female. In the store she looked extremely yellow, like lemon yellow but upon getting her home she's an exact replica of Pineapple. I believe I have a home for her already but I'll just post her pictures here anyway since she is cute  She's half the size of Pineapple, quite a young girl. She's yellow with a tad of white irid and some black Pineappling on some of her scales near her gills/head. She's a regular VT and she's even got the same green/blue eyes as Pineapple. Most likely from the same breeder as well.









I was trying to get her to flare with Gambit but she wouldn't take any of it lol she really just wanted to get out and explore but he was circling like a shark! haha









She's also slighting more pale than Pineapple is, more on the yellow side where Pineapple has colored to be more on the orangish side.


















Best picture ever lol you can see some of her little black freckles here 









That's Stardust right there next to her for a bit of size comparison.









Bad picture but you can see she's more pale in a good light.









The iridescence there, kind of cute really.









In other new's my Ram's are doing extremely well! I thought that the male was bonded with the bigger of the two females, turns out he's got it on with the smallest one, she's nearly half his size!!!! lol But she's got quite a pink belly going on so I'm wondering if they're going to breed soon. He keeps trying to lure her and it's rather funny really because she's off hanging with the Betta's XD She swims with them and chills with them and they don't care! The other female kind of hides a lot though and I don't blame her, the male chases her quite a bit and I'm wondering if I should just sell her, I don't want her getting hurt but I know the ratio is best as 1:2 M:F...so idk. I'm going to give it a few more weeks to see what happens. But here's the male in all his lovely glory!









He was having fun poking at the Amazon Sword lol









And I got my Dwarf Hairgrass in the other day!! So that went right into Ditto's tank! I was quite excited! I got more than I expected which was great so some of it went into the 10 as well, not sure how it will do but we'll see! I have to upgrade the light on Ditto's tank since I think it's only a 5,000K and I want a 6,500K on that for sure. It's difficult to find a T5 in 6,500K though lol At least in places like Home Depot, I can get them online though.









I added API Root Tabs, 3 halves are distributed in that tank.









And the 10 gallon, I don't think much changed other than me pushing the terracotta pot down and adding some hairgrass up front to it. Also has some root tabs here as well and I dose SeaChem Flourish. I think I'm going to try some Excel though with some further research at least 









And that's all for tonight. I be tired so night night folks!


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## Huffle Puffles

lol, the picture with her mouth puckered is adorable! Your little ram boy is so cute, seriously love their coloring. Your tanks came out lovely, I especially like whatever that green and red/pink plant is in the 10g!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Huffle! lol yeah, i wonder if she's part blow-fish or something haha

Yeah no idea what that plant is. I think it might be some sort of Alternanthera Reineckii but I really don't know since the Alt. Reineckii has two leaves coming from one node opposite each other but my plant has one leaf from a node and they alternate sides....so I really don't know! But it is a gorgeous plant!! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So I'm pet-sitting for my aunt this weekend, the one that one of our kitten's went to! So this is the first time I get to see Coconut in a little over a month now!! Actually almost two months! I can't wait to see how big she's gotten and I'm taking lots of pictures tonight so y'all can see! Actually I'm going to take pictures of all three; Midnight, Snickers if she comes around and Coconut ^_^ Can't wait! So I should be able to get those up this weekend :-D quite excited!

And I did all my water changes on Wednesday, Rembrandt has something that looks fungus based, might be a small bit of columnaris coming back since he's had it before. I'm treating with AQ salt for the moment and if it doesn't go away over the weekend I'm breaking out the Furan-2 since Matisse can use it as well. I don't know what's up with that girl, her fins look bad and she's had slimy patches on her and I've used both AQ salt on her as well as PimaFix and nothing worked for her. So I'm going to have to take her out and see what's up.

Annnd.....guess who's getting another Baby Betta! That's right...this girl....unwanted but my friend can no longer care for him properly so...she asked if I can take him and I can't say now to his cute little face so I'll be picking him up next week and thankfully I've got extra heater's and my 1 gallon critter keeper but....idk. I'm already having trouble keeping up with all the water changes because of work and then pet-sitting and doing things on the weekend. But I cleaned everyone out except the 33 on Wednesday so that should be good. This weekend I'm all busy with Pet-sitting and going up to the north end of the state for a meeting with my Fraternity. 

That's right, I'm in a frat and I'm a girl lol, it's a co-ed frat and we're a Service/Honorary Fraternity. What we do is actually service the college and university bands programs and help out the music department. We're not the normal social frat/sororities so that's why I joined three years ago. I am the Sister Liaison which means that I attend our Sister sorority meetings and help them out and relay information between the two of us since we both work together for the bands and music dept. I'm in Kappa Kappa Psi (KKY or KKPsi) which is the frat and the sorority is Tau Beta Sigma (TBS). But I love it and I love both organizations, I may rant about them during the semester lol but I still love them 

Anywho, got some pictures so here they are:

So I really like how Aero's 5.5 is growing out. The Java Moss is extremely healthy and always growing. I like the look it makes, almost like a street or a path in the woods ^_^









Gambit is doing well, keeping his brilliant blue color! His fins are growing well so that's great ^_^









He's such a snarky little butt lol. His pectorals are amazingly huge too! Not enough for EE but I think he has the potential to start an EEVT line, wouldn't that be cool! I'd love to see someone try to work on that! But I think I'm going to start looking for a home for him soon. His wounds are healed up enough that really just clean, warm water will continue to help him. There's nothing immediately pending his doom lol so he should be fine to ship out.









And the sorority tank! So with the awesome help and generosity of Lucillia on here, she works at PetCo and we both bought two filter's together and my new ornament! We used her discount card so that was really awesome! I got a brand new AquaClear 30 for the tank to help with the bio-load and she got her AquaClear 20 so I think it really worked out well.
My tank looks really good with the ornament/hide I think! And the girls seem to love it! I've got pictures to prove it haha.









So Aurora _immediately_ went in to check it out and wouldn't come out afterwards lol, she loved it too much XD she eventually did come out but she really liked it haha









Protecting it. Also found out that Amara is a dalmation! You can see her cute little spots!! I love her partial dragon scaling which is filling in a bit more too, so cute.









Cherry: Can I come in?
Aurora: No! Find your own hide!
lol









Mystique is looking quite a bit better! So that's awesome ^_^ fins all healed up, proud of my girl!









RAM! Here's the cute little female that's bonded with the male. If you compare to his picture from the last picture post, you can see just how small she is by looking at the dwarf sag plants.









Even the cories liked the new ornament! I'm fairly sure these two are male/female, they are always together and the third is just kind of hanging out. The bigger of the two would be the female.









Pineapple thought she was hiding lol









Emma was being cute and she's now claimed the Valisneria where Shadowcat once ruled.









She was warning me to get out of her territory lol









She literally glows









Here's the proof lol her brown/red spots have gotten slightly bigger too, I love the contrast though!









And these two pictures I love so much! Amara and the new yellow girl which has found a home :-D Kind of funny that they're both looking at just a piece of gravel XD









"It's MY rock!" "No it's MYYY rock!" "No it's--"
You can really see the yellow girl's pineappling here, I think she'll grow into it as she get's older. It won't be very dark or anything but I foresee her getting a little more as she get's older. She's definitely more yellow than Pineapple but still just too similar and besides I'm stupid to get another female when I have like 8 on the way now >.< how does that even happen? lol


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## Huffle Puffles

Aero's tank is great, then again so is the girls. I actually just ordered that vase too, couldn't pass it up with the 20% sale going on. :grin: LOL! The last two pictures are toooo cute. I love how intrigued they can be with something so ordinary. :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

Very true! I just find it so funny that it's two pieces of gravel XD like it's not even food XD I'm sure they think it is lol but it was just too cute!

Yeah I think I want to get another "roman" ornament, probably one of the smaller vases to put on the other side for a hide for Aero. And then move the plants to make an actual "street" in there  I think that'd be cool! ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

Wow! Gambit's fins are about the same size as Merlins! O.O I thought it was just a VT thing!

Your girls are so adorable!


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## lilnaugrim

Do you mean the pectorals being bigger? That's a breeding thing, whoever bred Gambit seemed to want to get the bigger pectorals because all the VT's they had there had the same pec's and all seemingly from the same spawn. But most VT's don't have pecs like that.


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Do you mean the pectorals being bigger? That's a breeding thing, whoever bred Gambit seemed to want to get the bigger pectorals because all the VT's they had there had the same pec's and all seemingly from the same spawn. But most VT's don't have pecs like that.


Yeah I meant the pecs XD. I noticed Merlin's seemed much larger, especially when I compared his pecs to Dragoon's, and seeing Gambit was like looking at Merlin with the size of his pecs!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh wow so I've almost hit 5,100 posts.....I think I need a new hobby! lol no XD

So I'm super excited to be posting these pictures. Coconut has grown up so much! She's now twice the size she was as when she left my house and came to my aunt's house! Here she is when she was only a month and a half old, back when we though she was still a he:



And here she is now!









Looking much more like her mom now stature wise









Look at those beautiful blue eyes!









Tail got long too 









"We are Siamese if you please, we are Siamese if you don't please," lol









She's got giant ear's compared to her mother so that's obviously father side related.









Someone looked into the Tardis! And that's Snicker's in the back.



























STREEEEEEETCH









"Shush, I am being cat-like and trying to ignore you! Stop pokin--hey! Stop it!" lol









Rolled over. Hot damn! Her tail is literally the same length as her body!









And here's Snicker's, she's a bit shy but eventually warms up to me when she realizes that I'm not going to hurt her  she was a rescue kitty when she was young.









She's grown up quite a bit since she first came to my aunt's as well! All their kitties they got when they were about 2.5-4 months old, Coconut is the exception 









And here's Midnight, they're all pretty much named for obvious reasons lol









User used Flash, it was effective.









And the cutest picture ever lol









So interesting fact's about these kitties. Midnight loves hair ties, especially when they're in your hair. Loves to be held but likes to sit on your shoulders instead even though he weighs like 15 pounds. And he likes to groom your hair and occasionally bite it lol.

Snickers is skittish but brings you plastic bags during the night so you wake up and you crinkle.

And Coconut remembers me! She instantly started to purr up a storm after she smelled me and my backpack and hasn't left my side since! Purrs every time I touch her, even if it's to poke her haha. She's so cute!!!

I got to say, my cat puts out some pretty amazing babies! lol


----------



## Huffle Puffles

oh. my. goodness. I am going to just eat coconuts little face right up!! Snickers has beautiful coloring! And Midnight is one handsome boy!


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## BettaLover1313

So many cute kitties!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Huffle: that's basically what I have been doing haha I cup her face, give her a kiss and pet her and voila; Insta-Purr!! lol she's so adorable XD She slept with me for most of the night last night, too cute.

And yeah, Snickers is adorable, she's gotten more comfortable around me now which is nice. I do love her colors as well, when she was a kitten she was more orange and then got more black as she grew up and the orange faded to tan but she's still so beautiful. And Midnight I'm sure is part Maine ****, the way he holds himself. He's so adorable as well though and a very good kitty, I woke up to himtrying to eat my hair though ahah XD lol silly kitties!


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## Viva

lilnaugrim said:


>


One day I will own this cat. >=)


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## lilnaugrim

Lol good luck prying her from my aunt's fingers then Viva! Or mine for that matter XD haha

So....I feel bad because I lied to the forum about Misha being fixed....she's not. And now she's pregnant again, mom was supposed to be making the appointment but with work and all my other stuff going on, I failed to even ask her. It's a joint fail and I'm really sorry for Misha, I know there are complications in both her having kittens and if we were to get her an abortion. I know it's stupid and I'm sorry, but she should be dropping them in the next two weeks I think.

That bad part is that mom won't let her inside to have the kitten's, we're "fixing" up the shed so she can have them there >.> except there's no guarantee that she will use that again, my mom even told me this so I'm like >.> then let her inside!!! If all goes well and we end up with kittens, I rather they be inside and we get a few fleas than freaking adding to our feral cat colony! I'm torn every which way I go and...grr I don't know!

So Viva, there's another chance for you to get a white kitty if she has some more and all goes well as I pray.

You aren't too far....lol

So yeah...just thought everyone should know and sorry for lieing about it but I was plum sick of people telling me to get her fixed, YES I KNOW ALREADY. It's a difficult situation as it is with other factors involved, not just the cat. But yes I am concerned for her saftey if you'd like to ask and yes I know I should have just gone and paid for the fixing myself but things happen and so I'm sorry.


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## Mar

Oh my Gosh. It's so rare for cats to have kittens here, seriously. Everyone spays/neuters their kittens so I'm super jealous of you lmao. I know that Misha having another litter is _not good_ but you can always just ship them to me xD 

My manager's cat had kittens and I'm stealing 2 of them, so I guess I'll be satisfied with just them, but I don't mind stealing yours as well xD Cat colony much.


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## lilnaugrim

lol Mar, we've got the opposite problem where we have too many feral colonies and crazy cat ladies  so yeah.....want to take a road trip in a few months? lol

That is, if the kittens even stick around and all goes well--omg Coconut is behind my screen right now and just bit the top of it lol, kind of funny XD she was sitting on my chest earlier XD Guess I make a great pillow for her ;-) ug, I can't get over how much she's grown now! She looks amazing, extremely long tail and all! lol

Anyway, yeah there's still the issues of mom not allowing the kittens to come in which means I can't give them away without not promising they'll be there when the people show up and then if they run off...voila insta-feral cat colony >.> gahhh, this is frustrating me just as much as it's frustrating other's my cat isn't fixed. I really hope mom comes around, a few fleas around the house is worth it compared to a freaking cat colony where we'll have to trap/neuter/release all of them and that's more costly than giving them some food in the house and then bombing it later.....$5 dollars a can per so many feet AIN"T THAT BAD.....grr, can you tell how frustrate I am?

Sigh...I'll go back to playing my game now and eating an early dinner, my how the day flies.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Hopefully you can bring Misha inside. You didn't lie, just didn't know that the appointment hadn't been made. Keep us updated on how things go!


----------



## lilnaugrim

No, in my other thread about the kittens way back when I had said she was fixed so yes, yes I did lie. It just sucks is all :-/ there were a few people who were hounding me that she wasn't fixed but I'm not Wonder Woman, I don't make much money and what I do make goes for my gas and people kept telling us to do the TNR thing but the thing is, they only take cats that are completely feral, and even still it's 60 dollars and that doesn't include meds if there needs to be.

But Misha is definitely not a feral, she's just a drop-off, a stray that wandered into our yard and decided that our shed looked real nice and had her kittens :-/ so yeah, idk. I was able to call the Chariho Animal Rescue League which helps the people out in my area for fixing animals and helping animals find homes; if they aren't already full. Currently they are full of animals since we do have such a problem with feral colonies and stray's and people just dropping off their cat's wherever the heck they please. But with their help we can get her fixed for 50 dollars and then first shots are free so that should cover it I think, but there's still the issue of her being pregnant. If she's not too far along, we can get an abortion done but there are complications and medications with that as well costing money but then there runs a risk of her queening the kittens and hopefully she's healthy enough that nothing bad will happen but there's a chance either way.


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## Mar

Yea, let us know if you can convince your mom! I know all about about moms lmao:roll:

I wish I could just take all the unwanted kittens around the world.

All the cats I've had don't seem so lovey dovey :'c They only cuddle up with me during the nighttime, and even then, I've only had one that slept one me. Twice though. 
We need to import more kittys here xD


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> No, in my other thread about the kittens way back when I had said she was fixed so yes, yes I did lie. It just sucks is all :-/ there were a few people who were hounding me that she wasn't fixed but I'm not Wonder Woman, I don't make much money and what I do make goes for my gas and people kept telling us to do the TNR thing but the thing is, they only take cats that are completely feral, and even still it's 60 dollars and that doesn't include meds if there needs to be.
> 
> But Misha is definitely not a feral, she's just a drop-off, a stray that wandered into our yard and decided that our shed looked real nice and had her kittens :-/ so yeah, idk. I was able to call the Chariho Animal Rescue League which helps the people out in my area for fixing animals and helping animals find homes; if they aren't already full. Currently they are full of animals since we do have such a problem with feral colonies and stray's and people just dropping off their cat's wherever the heck they please. But with their help we can get her fixed for 50 dollars and then first shots are free so that should cover it I think, but there's still the issue of her being pregnant. If she's not too far along, we can get an abortion done but there are complications and medications with that as well costing money but then there runs a risk of her queening the kittens and hopefully she's healthy enough that nothing bad will happen but there's a chance either way.


You'll figure something out that's best for Misha. I understand the money issue completely. It's why I panic whenever my betta boys or Lucky looks under the weather, since they fall under my care, and even if my mom does help, she's not making a lot of money either :/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank's for the support guys  Sorry if I seem touchy or defensive about the subject, I've just been harped on by too many people on the forum here about it, weird thinking that people would actually support me haha. I'm going to see if I can convince my mom sometime this week, do some chores around the house or something and then offer to buy all the Bombs we need for after the kittens are all gone.

I'm already buying the food (26 dollars down the tube :shock since Misha has a grain allergy we've (I have) been feeding her Before Grain by Merrick and I'm not sure if the food is helping or her hormones are balancing out again after her last litter but her fur is finally growing back and she's quite happy! So I'm really glad that she's on that good food. So then the issue would be buying wet food for the kittens once that comes time, guess my fish will all have to suffer nothing new for a few more months unless I start miraculously making 1,000 dollars a week >.> already tough enough that I get paid every two weeks instead...sigh. so yeah, that's that fun times XD

But hopefully if all goes well, we'll get Misha in, have the kittens, help them grow up, buy wet food, buy another bag of dry food for everyone and then get the kittens to some good homes. Thankfully I know enough people that giving them away for free should be something easy and then get Misha spayed two weeks or so after she has the kittens. Once they start eating wet food she'll be fine to spay since she'll be drugged up for a day or so, don't want to poor kittens to starve of her milk lol so yup, that's my plan. Oh yeah, and to win the lottery...that's a good plan too haha :lol:

But yes, I'll keep everyone updated on how things go and the progress with my mom and all...she's up in Maine right now on a mini VaCa so I won't talk to her till Tuesday at work then.


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## Mar

Sounds like you've got it all planned out. Financial issues really suck, I wish everyone could just have unlimited money when it comes to pets. LOL imagine how crazy this forum would be xD 

Hahah I second winning the lottery !!


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, unlimited money....oh the things I would get, the tanks I'd invest in! All of my Betta's would be in no less then 10 gallons each! Ugg, it would be too pretty for it's own good lol

I'm grateful at least for our Animal Rescue League because they are helpful and stuff, it's just that my truck regularly takes 50 dollars to fill a week and if I only get 100 dollars a week....that's 50 for gas and then if the truck breaks or my phone bill comes up or I have to pay a debt like my last phone payment to my sister-in-law, or my dad begs for money....ugg, I can't deal with it >.< oh yeah and then the 30 for cat food....it's too much to think about I think.

But yeah, it's been a good summer but also not a good summer :-/

One good thing is that our trip to Toronto is coming up! Which means Betta's!!! Lucillia (forum member) and I are going up to Toronto to pick up some Betta's, those girls that I showed a few pages back and then 5 boy's for Luci, 1 boy for Feng and 1 other boy for Luci's friend so we're going to have a car full of Betta's lol. Hopefully we don't get spontaneously searched while crossing the border :-( boxes will be my friend and then our stuff on top of those boxes


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## Mar

Woo Toronto! You'll love Canada  

Border security is really tight, but you should be okay. I remember when I crossed the border into Canada, they searched everything. It was shortly after 9/11 (RIP) so security was crazy. 

There're a bunch of programs in Canada that will spay/neuter cats/kittens for free (or really cheap) depending on family income. Do you have any of those programs in the states?


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## lilnaugrim

I hope we don't get searched :shock: if that is the case there could be a chance that we lose the fish, or pay a hefty fine for them. The states I guess are more strict when it comes to letting fish over the borders, mostly for disease prevention and control....sigh. I hope my luck holds out because I have none for free programs like that. Even the feral cats you have to pay for, that's probably why we have so many issues with colonies and you guys don't! The Animal Rescue League is literally the cheapest way to go :-/

I'm going to move to Canada one day lol


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## Mar

Your plan sounds pretty good, it's very doubtful they'll search that hard xD.
Uuugh, come to Canada xDD No bias here at all 
And I guess there are not many feral kitty colonies here partly because of where I live. I'm positive that in other parts of Canada, there are tons of stray kitties


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, I could breed pretty fishies there and sell them lol I really wish you could breed Marine, he's just too darn gorgeous for his own good!! haha

But yeah, hope it all goes well, there's been lots of money that will be put into that trip. Oh I had meant to say in my last post that I was saving for that or trying to lol but that doesn't help either XD I've got the hotel which is 67.98 or something like that and asked mom if she could put in 30, we'll see what happens. Originally it was going to be her, her boyfriend John and I going up to get the fish but then turns out that neither had their passports and they both conveniently expired this year....like a few months ago.

But originally she offered me a free trip, I'd only have to help out for gas, now I'm paying for everything and asked her to help and she sort of flipped. Well honestly she thought that I had asked her to pay the whole thing but I quickly explained I would never do that and she asked how much and I said 30 and she just sort of looked at me like "ohh...." lol so I think that she will help out, but there's still gas and food, so hopefully it will be good. Thankfully I get a paycheck that Friday so that will be a good chunk of change in my pocket ^_^ and then the week after I'll have to suffer without coffee's or anything lol oh the woe's of driving to Canada to get fish for my hobby, it's such a terrible thing! /sarcasm haha


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## Mar

It sucks that their passports expired only a couple months ago! It would've been a nice road trip.
You're only staying there for one night right? It'll be lots of fun! You get the whole night to look at the fish 

As for Marine, I think I have all the supplies needed to breed him, except live food cultures, but what I really need is time. And a worthy girl lmao. Homes is not much of a big deal to me since a lot of them would probably die since it would e my first time :x but if they all miraculously survived (pft) I'd be clueless xD


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## BettaLover1313

Sounds like you have a good plan going for Misha! I third winning the lottery! 

Ooh! Have fun in Canada! Hopefully you won't get searched (that'd be my luck >.<) and you can bring all the bettas back with you without any fines.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you!!! Yeah, we're actually going up Friday the 23th, sleeping on the US side to avoid currency issues and then crossing over, looking at the falls since Luci has never seen them and it's been ages since I've gone! And then picking up the fish and driving home! It's going to be pretty late when we get home since it's about an 8 hour drive each way but it will be worth it!!


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## lilnaugrim

And because I got to spend three day's at my Aunt's, I've got some more pictures of the kitty kats! lol, so Coconut right now is trying to destroy the plant on the window sill....I've scooled her multiple times to no avail, she's a strong will cat just like her mama! Finally had to pick her up off the sill and put her down on the floor, she listened after that lol spoiled brat XD

Midnight still has his strange fetish with hair....pretty sure he chewed on it through the night lol and Snicker's is adorable! Onto the pictures!

Coconut and Midnight eating together









Snickers being playful and then Coconut found out.









"I want to play too!" "Nope!"









"I didn't do nothing...I just wanted to play but you ran away!" :-(









Lovely picture of Snickers


















Long cat is long!









lol, I find this picture adorably sassy!









Playing with the camera string









"What? I'm a box, so what!"









"Is it so unusual to be in a box? Why aren't YOU in a box?"









"I fit's anywhere, why don't YOU fit's anywhere too?" :lol:









"I'm sleepy now, this is my sleepy face, go away,"









"Now I'm on the stairs...don't know why, don't care,"









If she weren't on the garbage bag, these would have been perfect almost professional shots! These were taken last night in the setting sun ^_^









Classic shot









Love 'em!









And then earlier she was romping around the kitchen while I was playin on my laptop and after a while I was like...."It's quiet...why is it quiet?" lol and then I realized I had an Imp at my feet ;-)


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## BettaLover1313

So cute!!!


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## Mar

Oh my gosh, my kitten shots wouldn't even compare x'D
She's adorable.


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## lilnaugrim

lol thanks Mar! I got quite a few out of like 100 I took over the whole weekend! Better odds than my fish XD haha


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## Huffle Puffles

eeeee! I'm totally allergic to cats, but I would more than willingly have a sneezing fit if I could just snuggle the heck outta Coconut! :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, Huffle I'm allergic too but I take meds nightly (or I'm supposed to lol) and it helps but doesn't cure of course. But she is just too adorable not to snuggle that's for sure! lol, apparently my aunt said that Joshua (the youngest, Coconut is his kitty. Snicker's is Lillie's who middle and then Midnight's is Jordan's who is the eldest) was worried and thought that I was going to take his kitten back! oh lol, he's so adorable for a three year old!

Anywho, I took pictures yesterday when I went to my dad's to feed my fish since they hadn't been fed since Friday morning the poor dears! I realized that I should have had my brother feed them at least on Saturday :-( oh well.

So Tony killed and presumably ate my two Endlers; Blue Spot and Baby Spot, he also killed two snails and the remaining shrimp. Steve also killed his snail and Rembrandt's snail just died....Remmy is in a cup being treated atm so idk how that happened!

And I'm finding that I'm probably going to have to get rid of my driftwood since it's making my pH levels go down to 5.5 instead of being at 6.0 or 6.5...pH out of the tap is 6.5 so it's quite a difference. But I'd like to at least be able to have a pond snail in each tank to help with algae because apparently I don't have enough plants XD so....yeah, anyone want driftwood? Malaysian is the ones I'm getting rid of and roughly each are 9 inches long about, I have two. I'll get pictures up when I take them out Wednesday/Thursday. I'd like to ask 8 dollars for each since I did pay pretty pennies for them and then just about 6 dollars in shipping I believe it is. I'll have to double check that.

Anywho, I've got pictures!
Gambit is going to have to go soon as well, I can't care for them all as I used to. He's healing up really well though!



























He was flaring at my finger lol, such a cutie!


















My beautiful Aero!









God he's so beautiful, I don't want to give him up! :-(









He's got beautiful form though, other than being spoon-headed and slightly skinny ventral's. All his fins meet when he flares, caudal get's up to HM status and he's only a Trad PK.









Mercury being a doll and showing me his beautifully colored pectorals!









You know I've debated whether or not he'd be classed as a broken Dragon or not, those scales look pretty thick to me....
Oh so here he pressed his pecs right up on the glass and just sat there for me to take pictures! He's such a good boy!









"Look ma! Look, they're awesome right?!" :-D He's like a little of everything! He reaches HM status, he's a DT, he's got spiky fins like CT, has EE, Dragon scaling, and he could be long finned but maybe some PK in there as well. It's like someone took every fish genetics they had and threw them in a bowl and went "Here, here's a fish!" lol









And I didn't get too much of the sorority except for plants. My Amazon Sword and the large Java Fern that are near the outflow of the bigger filter are both getting these red/brown fuzzy almost dust algae on them except I have no idea what it is. Do you think maybe it's from the filter? 









Also, anyone know why my Java Fern leaves have holes and are turning brown? I have healthy leaves coming out still, this one has been attached to driftwood for about 5-6 months now and I never had issues before. I only have two nerite snails and then all female Betta's, a Trio of German Blue Ram's and still a trio of Corydoras Habrosus so nothing is detrimental to plants....I have no pond snails or anything else in the tank, the girls would eat them so idk! Frustrating though :-/









And I got these awesome plants in free with my dwarf hairgrass, I think they might be some type of red Ludwigia but I have no idea. Look, new growth and it's amazingly red! I have two sprigs in my 33 pictured here and three in Rembrandt's 3 gallon.









Oh also all my Alternanthera in my 33 died except one sprig and also all of my Elodea Densa died as well and got sucked in by the filter.....I guess I can't have plants in front of or near that stupid filters....it's only rated for 45 gallons on a 33 gallon tank, it really shouldn't be an issue like this!

However the Alter. in the 10 gallon is still doing well and has sent out quite a few roots, albeit losing leaves but that's to be expected. And the Elodea that I have in Aero's 5.5 is growing like weeds! So....what the heck is up with my 33? I have root tabs and I dose Seachem Flourish Comprehensive 1 drop/gal once a week.....too much or too little? I have no issues with algae, perhaps should I use Flourish Excel for a CO2 supplement? Am I losing too much CO2?

And bonus shots of the fields while I was driving! yes, you heard me...I was driving and taking these pictures lol. I do a thing where I don't look at the camera while I drive but I just snap pictures and then look at them when I'm home on the computer lol, some come out really nicely!









One of my faves from this round.









Second fave


----------



## MattsBettas

I just heard your Grandpa's kicking you out and you're going to have to give up some fish, and that really sucks. I'm sorry.

Pics look great though!


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## BettaLover1313

It's a shame that Aero and Gambit have to leave you, but I know that you'll find amazing homes for them! The pictures look awesome! I'm glad I'm not the only one that takes pictures while driving!


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## lilnaugrim

It's...okay. I mean, I'd happily move all my fish to my mom's house but she doesn't want to electricity bill and I honestly don't blame her, plus I'd then have to either lug water upstairs or downstairs....my back won't be taking that. Thanks Matt though  it means a lot to me knowing that SOME people care >.> unlike they're lame grandfather's.

And BettaLover, it's not just Gambit and Aero...it's also Ditto, Mercury and Jarvis. Thankfully Mercury and Jarvis will be hopefully...going to my friends house once I teach her about cycling tanks and all and how to properly feed them lol She helped me feed them once and in Remmy's tank she just took a pinch and dropped it....I cringed...so we'll work on that.

Rembrandt I'm definitely keeping, he's been with me for 9 months now and there's no way I could give him up and I cannot for the live of me split up Steve and Tony so they're also staying with me somehow. Knowing that they're just so attached to each other, they'll never be in separate tanks again so that's a thing.

So that leaves homes for Ditto, Gambit and Aero...I'm not ready yet to give up Ditto and Aero though. Gambit can go as I'm not attached to him as much and his weird butt eating thing is kind of annoying me. he HAS to have one ONE pellet at a time because otherwise if he eats too many too fast, he spits them all back up and won't eat them >.> spoiled brat he is! At least Steve and Tony eat the bloodworms I offer lol

So yeah, that's the fun times we're going through now!

And BettaLover, lol I am also glad I'm not the only one who does that! I can come out with some pretty darn awesome pictures! And besides, I'm not going to stand in the middle of the road to take pictures....that would be awkward XD So I do the Drive-by instead haha :lol:


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## Huffle Puffles

Great pics! I've got some betta envy going on for Aero! ;-) Gambit sounds like Ramses, I have to put in one pellet, line it up perfectly so I know it'll fall down in front of his face and then tap it so it sinks, he'll only eat it if he can catch it while it's sinking. Although, he chases and will eat the blood worms if I take it in tweezers and make it wriggle up the outside of the tank before dropping it on the surface. :shake:


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Huffle! lol its kind of funny since I do suffer from chronic Betta envy so it's funny to see someone else suffer from it as well XD I never think in my head that other's would be envious of my Betta's but I guess that can happen and just did XD I am glad I got Aero though, he was such a little, scared boy back then all alone in his PetSmart cup! And then I took him home along with another Wal-Mart girl I had gotten who was a black CT girl but she didn't make it to the next day. She had fungus out the whazoo! Poor girl :-( But I'm really glad I have Aero and I'd keep him if I could....sigh.


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## BettaLover1313

At least you can visit Mercury & Jarvis once they do go to your friend! I agree with you and Huffle Puffles! I have betta envy as well! You both have some interesting bettas! I'm really jealous of Aero & Rembrandt (so pretty!) and Huffle Puffles, you have several that I would have gotten in a heart beat if I wasn't limited on tank size ;3. *Goes to reassure Merlin & Dragoon that they're loved* lol.


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## Mar

I'm really sorry to hear about this D': 
But at least you don't ever have to see him again, right?

It's good that you're already finding good homes for your bettas. 
I kinda know what you're going through. It's not as bad as you, but I'm
still pretty bummed.
Once I get my sorority tank, I'll have to give away my Chi and betta, because it'll just be too much for me to care for. 
I know it sounds super stupid and irresponsible, but I rather give it to a loving owner, than neglect it when school starts, because in between classes and volleyball, I'll be way too busy!

Nooo, Jarvis </3 wish I could take him lol :'c


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah sorry Mar, if you lived in the US I would have given Jarvis to you :-(

But yeah, this has what I've been ranting about for the last month or so haha so if you were ever confused, that's what I've been talking about. My grandfather = bad words I can't say on here.

Anyway here are some pictures from my visit today!
A rarely seen view of Mercury! lol silly boy.









"*GASP!* You mean to tell me this ISN'T another Betta?!?"









So what say you all? Dragon scale or heavy irid?









Okay so I have a problem with my Ram's as well, so found out that the extra ram they sent me is a boy and he's been seriously bullied by the older ram and the female just doesn't care either way. So the poor boy hides behind the driftwood all the time and behind the bubble curtain and I have to specifically make sure he's fed so I feel really bad and I want him to get food. So here's my dilemma, do I leave him in the 33 and possibly get beat up half the time or do I move him in with Aero if Aero will tolerate it? Or do I do the Betta Shuffle? Here he is near his "domain" which is in the back there in the shadowed area lol









And Asteroth who had a huge chunk taken out of her tail but look! new growth already! I may be giving her away, not sure yet though since she is basically an exact replica of Cherry just bigger fins.









And the rest is for my Baby Betta log! :-D


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## BettaLover1313

I'd say Mercury is a DS, but then again, I'm not an expert on bettas in anyway, his scales just look a lot like Dragoon's.


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## lilnaugrim

Yup okay, it's settled then. Mercury's genes were thrown in a bowl and mixed around until done, then baked for 30 minutes and here you go! Fishy fishy! lol My Little Mutt XD

So Copper Dragonscale Double Tail Dumbo.....wow that's a lot....someone's got some breeding explaining to do XD although he's not full EE, just larger than normal pec's that are colored beautifully if I do say so myself.


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## lilnaugrim

Sigh....I should have called this the Stupid Life of Lilnaugrim >.<

So I just found out I literally only hired for the summer hours for my work....I was banking on being employed during the freaking semester as well >.> so I'm rather freaking frustrated at the moment....like....COULDN'T HAVE FREAKING TOLD ME WHEN I WAS HIRED?!?! assbutt....

So on top of this, my boss is male chauvinistic of course he just made me move 30 or so chairs because "oh, my back hurts, here can you handle this?"....you know normally I don't mind heavy lifting, I can live 348 pounds when I want to but then he just....grr, he just goes and sits in his little office chair and calls people. I'm starting to be with everyone else who works here "Yeah okay, so your title is Building Manager but _what_ do you even do?!?! I do all the damn work for you!"


I really shouldn't be complaining about this. I really am grateful for this job, don't get me wrong but there are just times where I kind of feel like punching a hole in the wall and I'm not even a guy. Lol sorry, my brother did that when his gf broke up with him so I had to take him to the hospital because he broke his hand the idiot, he's my idiot though 

idk, I'm just frustrated that he won't allow me to work during the semester because I don't have a full 5 hour period open for him during the school year...SORRY THAT MY EDUCATION GET'S IN THE WAY OF WORK >.> I was told that he would work with me and I get first pick in the school yeah, at least that's what he did with the guy I replaced; Ryan who is now working upstairs. But then my boss told me that he would find someone to work the full 5 hour shift first and then see if he can squeeze me in.....and now I'm informed that he think's that Colleen (HR person) put me in for the full 13-14 year and that I was supposed to only work summer....I freaking wish he would have told me this earlier! What a buttmunch >.<

Sorry for ranting but I needed to get that off somewhere that wasn't FB or anything else he might see not that I'm friends with him anyway but I don't feel like "Fishing for comments" on there....

See this is why I should be around my fish more, they calm me and make me happy as do my kitty cat's but I don't get to see them until later.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Sorry to hear about your boss, that really does stink :/. I don't like people like that that just assume they can sit around because they're in a higher position then everyone else.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well he doesn't really sit all that often, that was me being exaggerative basically. He often runs around the building, doing what? I don't know but I usually answer the phone for him when he's out, I take all the packages, log them in and bring them to the lab's here and take out the boxes, flatten them and throw them in the recycling. And then of course I do odd jobs like filling the printer papers, lugging up the boxes of printer papers. Now he's got me watering a plant in hopes to revive it lol, the plant actually looks really nice and I'm glad at least I can take care of it.

So that means I'm watering the plant daily/every other day and then feeding Linda (a professor/researcher)'s fish every day as well lol. I'd been feeding Chris's Killifish if I had the nerve to ask if he needed help since he's out often as well as his Cichlid tank downstairs too although I think that has an automatic feeder...not sure though. The cichlids are so cute though, every time they see me they beg for food even though I'm not even the one who feeds them, I just look at them often  they're so cute!


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## BettaLover1313

You do a lot for him! I can see why you're frustrated!

Those Cichlids sound adorable!


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## Mar

I know what you mean. I have a pretty crappy manager too. I've contemplated quitting lots of times, but the pay is good!


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## lilnaugrim

My pay is okay, better than Wal-Mart that's for sure and I do half the work lol but I think the thing that kills me is I'm pretty sure he doesn't even realize half the time that he's being chauvinistic or anything like that. He's a good guy all around, just....annoying lol but that's pretty much half the bosses right? The other half are mean buttfaces XD


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## Mar

Well said XD
Idk, my bosses/managers feel like they've earned the right to be lazy, it's so annoying


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## BettaLover1313

I guess I've been lucky that my bosses have actually been pretty nice (except for one who is clueless as to what we do!) I'm waiting for the day though, since my luck rarely holds out on such things.


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## lilnaugrim

Good for you BettaLover! <---not meant to be sarcastic!! I'm actually happy that good bosses exist out there though! That means that there's probably a 1 in 3 chances that my next boss will be good! haha


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## BettaLover1313

I wouldn't have taken it as sarcasm ;3 Hopefully you'll find a good boss that appreciates you more!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank's BettaLover!! ^_^ it's much appreciated!


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## lilnaugrim

And I'm playing the Betta shuffle! Moving Jarvis from the 1 gallon QT to Rembrandt's 3 gallon and moving Rembrandt into the 1 gallon QT because he's got some sort of fungal thing on his head. So i'll be treating that shortly, going to try PimaFix first and if that doesn't help I'm moving to Furan-2. Also getting Matisse into QT since she has not really recovered yet either, no idea what's up with her though. It looks like body slime so I'm going to treat her with PimaFix first as well to see if that helps.


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## Mar

UGh, hope all your bettas get better!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mar! I hope so too! Remmy is my baby! He's really not that bad looking, just a spot on his head but I want it fixed now so into QT he goes!


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## Mar

Have any pics of the spot? I kinda wanna know what it looks like
and if any of my fish have it D:
How's Matisse doing


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## lilnaugrim

I'll get pics up after I go make dinner for everyone lol

Matisse has it around one of her nose vent's, Rembrandt's is more above his eye but it's still a face vent. Fish have many vent's in their face's but the main one's are the ones that you can really see, between their eye and mouth.

Anyway, I'll get pics up later or at least take them and upload them in the morning at work so it gives me something to do haha.


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## Mar

Lol, sure your boss wouldn't mind?  
And okay, thanks! I'm off to PetSmart to 
look at the bettas xD


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## lilnaugrim

lol, half the time I do just sit there and wait for packages to come in. We're not in view of each other at our desks, not even in the same room so he doesn't care.  which is great on my part! I get most of my commissions done there :-D

yayay fishies! I've restrained myself from going to Petco/Petsmart and I almost went to my LFS today because I was feeling depressed about everything but I resisted! Yay me haha


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## Mar

I always restrain myself too! Haven't gone in like a month or so. Last time was when I bought Marine.

But now I can splurge xD Getting the new sorority tank tomorrow and gonna go look for females to fill her up! 

Also, I can buy 1 male betta. I gave Red away to a friend with a 2.5gal and my chi's empty.  This feeling is great xD


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## BettaLover1313

Hope Rembrandt and Matisse get better soon!

I must resist the temptation to purchase another betta as well, though there's a voice in my head constantly saying "You can have a 10 gallon tank at college >" then reason luckily takes over XD.


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## lilnaugrim

lol that's exciting Mar!! I really wish I could just splurge in general but it's difficult when you don't make too much money and most of it goes to gas in the truck >.< And lol BettaLover, I'm on fourth year of college, however I commute so I get to have all my tanks at home which isn't good >.< that's how I ended up with so many! lol

Dinner's done and eaten, we had mashed potatoes, corn and terriyaki sauced chicken! I say I did pretty darn good ;-)

So sleepy, going to upload pics off the camera to the laptop and sort through and maybe I'll actually post them tonight ^_^ we shall see!

I got to say though, Jarvis seems pretty supped up about being in the 3 gallon with the way it's planted right now. He keeps swimming through the dwarf hairgrass which is doing amazing btw, and going in the terracotta pot, he's such a doll haha.


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## BettaLover1313

lol, I couldn't get another tank/lots of tanks if I wanted since my mom would kill me (she thought Merlin was cute, Dragoon was inevitable, third betta-at least right now-is pushing it). Plus, it would be very difficult to clean a ten gallon in the bathroom sink at my dorm lol. Only reason I can resist the urge to get a third betta and a larger tank!

Oooh! That does sound delicious! 

Jarvis sounds really happy at the moment about his new tank!


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, I think Jarvis is confused by the hairgrass...he just went face first into it XD and now he's trying to get over the little gap in the driftwood--oh he made it lol, he's so silly! He's literally exploring every little nook and cranny in this tank XD I wish I could get another 3 gallon Tetra Cube, I really like these tanks. They look pretty darn good after I'm done with them ;-)

I like the shape of the Marineland Eclipse 3 gallon, but I hate how the feeding flap is in the back and since I never used the bio-wheel filter that came with it, I know that that flap was mostly obscured by the filter so you literally had to take the hood up to feed the fish which I think is stupid. But I like the longer shape of it, but the other issue is the frame that the hood sits on, it's got a bar running through the middle of the tank which means I have to pick up the siphon to get the other side so it's just a pain the tushie!

I like the 5.5 since it's glass, how can you go wrong with glass? And it fits nicely under the 33 so in all that set-up just looks great! The 2.5 is okay, I'd prefer the longer glass ones you can get just the tank but the Mini-bow does fine for it's purposes and the 1 gallon...well it's a 1 gallon lol And the 10 is a 10, nothing too fancy there.

I have this horrible love/hate relation ship with the 33, I looove it's shape but hate it because I can't find a hood for it if I wanted to so that one stay's open top! However I might be able to rig something together with plexi-glass if I needed to. But so far nothing has arisen the need for it. I still want to get the bigger clamp lights for that tank. I should take two of my 5.5 clamp lights and test them out on the tank to see if I just need the 5.5 lights or the 8.5 ones which are obviously bigger.

Anyway, pictures are sorted through but I'm sleepy so I'll upload them in the morning with some witty captions or something XD

Niiiight all!


----------



## Mar

Hahah! Good night.

My trip to PetSmart was HORRIBLE. 

Don't wanna spam your journal and put sad pictures in them, so 
off I go to mine xD 

Dw Lil, one day, when we get our own apartments/houses we're gonna have fish tanks in every room


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## lilnaugrim

Okay! Pictures of the sickly ones first! haha, it really isn't that bad though.

So this is Rembrandt's spot, sorry the photo looks funny because it's the edge of the Mini-Bow 1 so the curved tank doesn't make him look great XD But the spot is on our left side, his right. It's between his mouth and his eye and when you see it in life, you can actually see the hole in the middle which is his face vent that it formed around. Currently treating with PimaFix in the 1 gallon, heated.









Figure's is both of my darker fish so it's hard to tell! But here's Mattie, her spot is on her left side, our right side looking at her. And she also has something on her mouth that actually looks like she was bit and someone tore a little piece from her mouth which I honestly wouldn't be surprised since she is the bottom of the pack, even lower than Asteroth or the new yellow girl, so that's interesting!









And she's got spots on her back where she hit something, most likely an ornament or rock or something, it happens quite often but she heals up quickly so I don't know if she's just klutzy or if someone is chasing her into them which, both could happen haha.









Aero: "Hi-Fin bro!" lol









LOOK LOOK LOOK!!!! The Dwarf Hairgrass is growing!!! like A LOT!!!









It's growing really well in Ditto's 3! I ordered a new light for his tank since his is most likely quite old, I bought a 6,500K T5 Fluorescent so I hope it's not too bright for him, he seems quite sensitive to lighting and to water changes. Whenever I do a change it freaks him out so I just have to be careful is all.









And his tank as of right now. I hope to pretty much let the DHG take over and I'll leave the back high and trim the front down eventually. I'm really excited that it's actually growing! I'm using API root tabs and 1 drop/gal of SeaChem Flourish.









Ditto himself ;-)









I love his little yellow splashed eye's! he's so cute ^_^ 









And it's hard to tell and hard for me to get a picture of it, but his left pectoral fin is smaller than his right one. I believe he must have gotten into an accident or someone ripped off his pec when he was younger and grew back a little clumped and ragged. So he's my Nemo fish but he does just as well! You can see in this pic if you compare his right fin (our left), you can see it just looks wider and then when you look at his left fin, it's just smaller all around.









And Gambit's anal fin and ventral fins are growing back reasonably well! Nothing but clean water and Stress Coat for him! :-D









Classic Jewel picture of course, every post needs one! haha









Lynx looking as ragged as ever, she's healing up though. Her caudal looked a lot worse before.









And Amara being Amara haha









And Asteroth. You can't see it in this picture but her tail is growing back really well! It's all clear growth so far which doesn't show up on the picture well but it's there 









And Lady being Lady! I love how metallic her scales are, almost like aluminium foil XD haha









Emma blinding every one again as per usual. And I'm fairly certain that Amara is not the girl that was in the auction picture but maybe a sibling.









Regardless of color you can see clearly the picture has more dragon scaling than Amara does and I've had her in all sorts of light, she doesn't have scaling on the bottom portion of her body like this. Also this picture's girl's anal fin is longer, this girl is an HM where Amara is only a Super DeT and Amara doesn't have the scaling on the cheeks like this picture. Regardless, I do love Amara but I fell in love with that blue dragon scaling with the orange under color and that's why I wanted her.








Amara









Lynx, Emma and Lady









Emma blinding and Mattie sad in her little cup again lol I swear that girl needs to be in a cup more than she needs to be in a rice paddie up in Thailand >.<









And that's all those pictures I have for now. Onto the Baby Betta Journal!


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## Huffle Puffles

Aww, I hope your fishies heal up really fast. :-(
*gives Aero a hi5!* That's an adorable photo. 
All your pictures are beautiful. I love Ditto's tank, wanna come do mine for me? :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

lol as long as you order the plants Huffle! Sure I'll come scape it :-D haha

I hope my DHG spreads out really nice and fast! It's been doing so well so far so I'm really excited to have grassy tanks!!


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## BettaLover1313

Hope that Rembrandt & Matisse heal up quick! I love your sorority girls so much! They're just gorgeous!


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## lilnaugrim

Aww thank you BettaLover!! I love looking over to my sorority and goin; I made that ^_^ it's definitely a good feeling!!


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## Viva

Amara is stunning! I really need a orange betta one day, I went for the solid yellow female instead though when I did my big AB order! She does look a little different from the pic but still amazing looking none-the-less. My girl Spark seems to have some scrapes/missing scales on the top of her body too but they do heal very quickly...still not sure what is causing it. It seems to have gotten a lot better ever since I took the weird shaped Mopani driftwood piece out which my dragonscale girl Harlequin got literally trapped in and died  It was horrific -_- ANYWAYS she is also near the bottom of the pecking order along with Cleo who unfortunately always had some nips and tears which is sad because I LOVE her solid copper color  I hope your fishies heal up quickly for you! Emma is looking shiny as usual, she's so cute!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Viva! Yeah I think her scrapes are due to the vase ornament I put in since I didn't do anything to it except rinse off before it went into the tank but those kinds of wounds heal up super quick so I'm really not worried about it  Both Matisse and Rembrandt are on their second dose of PimaFix today and Remmy is doing wonderful my little trooper! But Matisse has done lots of hanging around, I wonder if she's bored because when I come over she brightens up and starts swimming around. The PimaFix might be affecting her as well, I'm going to do another water change for her tonight to see if more water will help her out. She's sitting in a cup right now since I really don't want to float the 1 gallon :-/ the daily water changes on the cup is easier for me.

lol and yes, Emma is quite shiny as per usual XD She's got such a STUNNING personality, she's quite BRIGHT for her age as well haha....see what I did there?? XD I just ate so I'm happy and kind of silly XD


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## Mar

Your girls are all lovely <3
Once again, your plants are as gorgeous as ever!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mar ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So....I just bid on this girl: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1376780926 she's in the US and one of those girls that I've been looking for for a long time!!!! My girls are going to kill me


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## lilnaugrim

Picture time!!!!!

So I decided to give Rembrandt a Sun bath today since the sun was already coming in and looked beautifully nice! So sun bath it was for my little cutie!

Here he is coming out of his hide for the first time today lol, looks like he just woke up! And here you can see his spot on his nose as well.









Looking beautiful in the sun!









This is why I love my beautiful boy!









I absolutely love this picture! A blur of fins!









"Make like a Cichlid, and hide!"









Just soakin' up some ray's!









And then I happened to be on the other side taking pics of the other boy's and I look over to see this!



























Jarvis! Not too many good pics right now since the tank is being all glary with the sun so probably some more to come later on 









Gambit being all flary! Look! His anal fin is almost all healed up! Ventral fins are growing well and fast too!









And Aero being his grumpy self!









And I just realized that these two pics are basically the same lol, sorry but he just doesn't sit still well! So this is what you get!









Okay girls to come in the next post! Right now though I have to go check the mail and change Rembrandt's water and Gambit's at least. Then I'll try to take a break and upload the girl's pictures. Then on to finish cleaning the 10 gallon, do Ditto's 3, Aero's 5.5 and hopefully get to the 33 this week.


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## BettaLover1313

*blinks* That female looks like my Dragoon!!!

Rembrandt is just...wow! Especially those pictures of him with the sun behind him!


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## Mar

Oh my God Rembrandt is gorgeous! 
Sooo beautiful.
I also give my bettas sunbaths xD Guilty pleasure :s


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## lilnaugrim

BL! Is Dragoon the one in your avatar? I have a feeling that female is more red in real life, so I'm rather excited for that! And yes she's copper too lol, THEY'D MAKE BEAUTIFUL BABIES!!!! How I wish I could breed them lol. The female actually has a really nice form too! yay :-D I wish that seller took better pictures though, all his pictures are so blurry :-( I know it's not easy getting Betta pictures and I'm sure they're time crunched and all but still :-/ oh well!

I can't believe just how beautiful Rembrandt has gotten over the year! He just seems to grow more and more every day and it's just amazing! He definitely is my baby and I don't know what I'll do if I ever lose him! I pray that day doesn't come any time soon!

Thank you!! ^_^ Remmy thanks you as well :-D

Yeah that was the first time I've ever given anyone a sunbath before! I'll definitely be doing it again, he just seemed so happy with the sun! I know you can do it for just about 15 minutes which is great because the sun has already moved out of my window by that point so I don't have to worry much ^_^ Remmy's over there flaring around his tank right now actually XD


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> BL! Is Dragoon the one in your avatar? I have a feeling that female is more red in real life, so I'm rather excited for that! And yes she's copper too lol, THEY'D MAKE BEAUTIFUL BABIES!!!! How I wish I could breed them lol. The female actually has a really nice form too! yay :-D I wish that seller took better pictures though, all his pictures are so blurry :-( I know it's not easy getting Betta pictures and I'm sure they're time crunched and all but still :-/ oh well!
> 
> I can't believe just how beautiful Rembrandt has gotten over the year! He just seems to grow more and more every day and it's just amazing! He definitely is my baby and I don't know what I'll do if I ever lose him! I pray that day doesn't come any time soon!
> 
> Thank you!! ^_^ Remmy thanks you as well :-D
> 
> Yeah that was the first time I've ever given anyone a sunbath before! I'll definitely be doing it again, he just seemed so happy with the sun! I know you can do it for just about 15 minutes which is great because the sun has already moved out of my window by that point so I don't have to worry much ^_^ Remmy's over there flaring around his tank right now actually XD


Yep, Dragoon is in my avatar, your female definitely has more red than him, but from the picture, she has the same shade of blue iridescent scales as Dragoon.

Glad to hear Rembrandt enjoyed his sunbath!


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## Mar

Any before and after Pics of Rembrandt?!%
My favourite lmao


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yes! I just found some of his oldest and first pictures actually!!

Here's him in his 2.5 gallon only about a week after I got him!


He was so tiny! Oh hey and look, I still have that Java Fern too haha, it's in with Jarvis in Remmy's 3 gallon.


And then him again about a month later, this was beginning of January.


And then of course, him now!




































I acquired Rembrandt December 3rd, 2012 from PetSense. I came into the store, I don't remember why but I knew I wanted to check it out since it was still fairly new to the town! I had lost Stony my older DT who only lasted a week before the heater shorted and that was in October so he froze :-( but I went in and I got there as they just finished getting their new shipment up and there he was, right in front. I picked him up and inspected him; he was two of my favorite colors and which happens to be my favorite color combination as well; Blue and Orange. I knew he was mine, he looked at me and he told me I was his lol so that's when I took him home!

He was originally in the 1 gallon which he's in now and then was upgraded to the 2.5 a week or so after I got him. I had the filter and heater and life was good! Then mom said she had a tank downstairs that I could use if I wanted, went down and took me a while but I finally dug it up and took it to my dads; it was the MarineLand Eclipse 3, my first 3 gallon. Remmy spent most of his time in that tank, I then acquired the 10 gallon and those two tanks have been side by side now for 8 months. After that, it's pretty much a jumble, Remmy spent some time divided in the 10 gallon with Ditto. Then it was split into 3 and he was back in the 2.5 on my side table. Then I found the Tetra Cube 3 on sale for 21 dollars so I grabbed it, then Remmy was in the 5.5 with the Platy fry. Then Piebald jumped and Aero came into the 3 gallon. And then the Betta shuffle happened again and Remmy has spent the last month and a half or so in the Tetra 3 gallon :-D and now he's back in the 1 gallon lol, funny how it all turns around like that!

So that's Rembrandt's who history right there! :-D


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## Mar

Crazy how you can sum up their life story in a couple paragraphs when it's so much more.
He's gorgeous <3


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well of course! it is just a summary after all! haha, there's much more about the diseases he's faced, tail bitting issues which have since resolved and how he's so in love with his reflection! lol

Speaking of which, that's all Jarvis has been doing in the 3 gallon; staring at his reflection! Kind of cute honestly!


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## Mar

Oh Jarvis, what a cutie!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm slacking so guess what that means! That's right! Picture time!

So Stardust has taken a liking to that terracotta pot piece you see there and flares at anyone if they try to go in with her lol, kind of cute really.
Cherry, Stardust, Pineapple and part of Raven









I love Cherry ^_^









Mystique got Stardust to come out of the pot lol and then proceeded to look like a shark here as usual XD









So Stardust found a new hide.
Stardust and Lady









Okay overload of twins in this picture!
Pineapple to the yellow girl, Cherry to Asteroth and Stardust to Aurora (and then there's Lady, Phoenix and Little Blue)









Look at the female Ram! She's so tiny!









Stardust was NOT giving up her hide! lol On another note, Pineapple is now my biggest girl followed by a three way tie of Mystique, Aurora and Stardust.









My sweet little Cherry pie! She's so vibrant! And no setting's except flash were used on her. Also I thought that they'd killed Quinn there who's next to her but he was just on his side, thankfully still alive. He's crawling on the glass now! Thank the lord!









Emma! Someone has been eating at my pretty girls >.>









Jewel here is also beaten up and her anal torn right to her body...I'll be watching her for the next few days.









Mystique and the Loner Ram stole Stardust's hide lol









Also, can you find the ninja here?


















And then my Boss Ram came in, Stardust went back to her Terracotta hide.









Boss Ram, Aurora, Asteroth and Amara in the back there.









This picture kind of sucks but I wanted a good picture to tell you guys the differences between Stardust and Aurora lol. Stardust left with blue grizzle over reddish body (better form all around) and Aurora has just blue irid on her body and shorter blue fins.


















Lone Ram and Boss Ram facing off.









Stardust's ventral's are turning blue too!!









I couldn't get better pics of her ventral's but she was kind enough to let me get some nice close-ups of her though! She's got some gorgeous eyes as well!









You can really see her lavender irid here









And last picture:


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## BettaLover1313

Love your girls! Stardust is just so cute, and love little Cherry! The Rams are looking good too!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank's BL! Yeah Cherry is definitely my favorite out of my girls :-D she's so quiet and doesn't get into trouble like the others! haha

Yeah, Ram's have really colored up so that's nice! Weird though, the Boss Ram doesn't have his black spot like the other two do....I wonder if he's hybridized from Blue Ram's and German Blue's.....or if he's just too young, weird because the female is how they're supposed to look....idk!


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## Huffle Puffles

Awesome! I love picture days! lol. Those rams are so tiny and cute! I don't know why but I thought they were a lot bigger. This just adds to their adorableness!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I hate when I'm at my mom's sometimes because I want to just take pictures all the time and I don't have fishies to take pictures of! lol

Yep! Ram's are Dwarf Cichlids and only reach about 3 inches unless they're Balloon ram's. So my ram's are still babies basically and the more I look the more Boss Ram looks like he's half German Blue and half German Gold >.< kind of annoying since I bought "German BLUE Ram's" not gold :-/ oh well, he's still cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

OMG I have the best story for y'all!

Okay so my mom is 48 now and so she's losing her eyesight a little, basically just need reader glasses. So she makes me read all the fine print and so tonight she just gave me a bottle to read telling me it was expensive and wondered what it was. The product is Koleston; Perfect which apparently is some sort of hair creme.

So there's a few different directions all in different languages so I turned it to find the english side and started to read, I read through all the directions and went to go onto the Warning's and then she started to laugh and I was like "Yeah, it's hair creme, what's so funny?"

and she answers "No, it's not you, I was looking at the other side (we had two bottles) and I was wondering why you were reading so fast!" she was apparently looking at the French side and being amazed that I could translate so fast and we both just started laughing because I realized what she was laughing about.

"I didn't even study French!" I laughed and we had a good laugh out of it all. I just thought it was so funny so I had to share with you all XD


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## Huffle Puffles

LOL, that's too funny. Sounds like something my mom and I would do! I'm always teasing her because she gets words/sayings wrong (she's originally from Germany).


----------



## lilnaugrim

oh that's awesome Huffle! ^_^ my mom get's things wrong and she grew up here >.< in fact our family has been living in this town now for 5-6 generations, well 7 with the new baby! So that's pretty exciting!


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## Huffle Puffles

That's really cool!


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## Mar

Beautiful pics! I hope
the girls will heal up soon


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## BettaLover1313

lol that is funny with your mom! Mine's the same way, I joking tell her she's blind (Freaky Friday movie reference ;3) it's funny though when I have to read things to her though, or when she holds things far away just so she doesn't have to use her cheater glasses.


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, cheater glasses that's a good way of putting it XD

So I won the bid on this girl:









I think she'll be here Wednesday! I'm so excited!!! And then today after work I'm sending out Asteroth and the Little Yellow girl to Phantom_Miria! I'm nervous but I'm sure it will be fine! I've never actually sent something out from a post office before, I've picked up mail and gotten mail from there but that's different lol. Now I just need to find my packing tape and we'll be all set! They've been fasting in Saturday night so those two should be right fine in their cozy little confines lol

And the tomorrow! I'm finally getting that baby Betta from my friend! I can't wait to get it in clean water and feed some bloodworms providing he's big enough! I've gotten a 3 gallon critter keeper with the help from Lucillia here and I gave her my two remaining Dainty Cories. Unfortunately the third of their little group died Sunday, mysterious causes but the girls were pecking at him the poor boy :-( So the remaining two went off to Luci and so far I'm told they're doing great! So I'm really happy about that.

And Friday will be Canadian trip day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so excited, can you tell?? lol So these are the pretty girls who I'll be getting!

My little Marble girl!









MG









Fancy Black Marble DT!









Fancy White Marble Dragon









Black Copper CT breeder girl!









And then from logisticsguy I'm getting Tora here:









And Angel!









And then one more Fancy Orange Dragon girl from Catw0man that I don't have a picture for.

I just want to thank Catw0man and logisticsguy, both of them are amazing people and Canada is blessed to have such beautiful people!!

Oh and I'll definitely be taking pics of the baby when I get him tomorrow! Kind of hoping it's a girl so I can put it in the sorority...it would make my life easier >.< Anywho, tootles for now! Off of work soon!


----------



## BettaLover1313

So many beautiful females! Glad that you won the bid on that lovely DS girl!


----------



## MattsBettas

Tora looks exactly ike the girl I picked up from him yesterday, same marbelling and everything lol! There's a pic of her in my journal.


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah I did see that Matt! I secretly--well not any more but I usually stalk your journal XD When I saw that picture I was like.....did CJ give away Tora?? lol but I'm sure they're just twinsies! We've got some good lookin' fish! lol

Thanks ^_^ I'm super excited to get that DS girl, I know she's going to look much better under my lighting!

Oh which reminds me, I upgraded to two 8.5 inch Clamp lights with two 6,500K 9 watt CFL's and ugg, the tank looks sooooo much better! I need to get rid of some dead plant matter and it will look ***** and span again ^_^

Right now I'm learning how to double crochet, taught myself to crochet last night and almost finished a hand warmer thing, still little left to do and now I just learned the double crochet lol usually I'm a knitter so this is a whole different world for me!


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## MattsBettas

Yea probably, CJs spawns usually have matching fish. I think it's awesome that we will have twin fish hahaha!


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Yea probably, CJs spawns usually have matching fish. I think it's awesome that we will have twin fish hahaha!


Yeah definitely! How many people can say that? lol


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## lilnaugrim

So I thought of something rather depressing today. it needs some backstory telling though.

So I live in an area where we have three small towns and for schooling those three are combined to make up Chariho (Cha-Charlestown, ri-Richmond and ho-Hopkinton) so our school is Chariho Middle and Chariho High school. Now the place that I work in right now is on our URI (University of Rhode Island) campus called CBLS (or for our mature college kid humor; CBalls) which stands for Center for Bio-technology and Life Sciences yeah long name. So I found out only a month ago that there are three of us Chariho kids working here.....and we're working in jobs that fit our Classes.

Meaning, Cameron is working the computer help desk here on the fourth (top) floor and Katie is secretary to our Dean's Assistant which is also fourth floor, and I'm working in the loading dock delivering packages....from the basement of the building....

So it still goes today that us lower class people get the crummy jobs while the high and mighty stay up in their lofty cloud palaces drinking wine and eating cheese all day. sigh....I know things can change and I'm happy to have a job (for now) but it just get me sort of depressed thinking about how much our "Class" still effects everything and how we live our lives.

Katie is nice and a sweet girl but Cameron is stuck up and will say hi to me when we chance to meet but it's one of those "Oh, it's you, I'll say hi to seem polite but I really don't want to be seen with the dirty low-life like you," kind of person. Even the professors, although grateful I deliver packages to their labs, are very unforgiving and think they're higher than those of us who pick up after them and work below them. It just sucks when you think about it, you know?

Anyway, that's my little Debbie Downer story for the day.

On the upside we'll be in Canada on Friday!


----------



## lilnaugrim

YES! Getting that poor baby Betta today at 5!! I'm super excited to be able to help this poor baby out!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh sorry, and I have to comment here:

*400 POSTS TO MY JOURNAL!*

Love you all ;-)


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## BettaLover1313

I know how you feel, on campus I clean toilets and vacuum my own residence hall, and I'm always amazed at how many people sneer at me and my co-workers as we work. I'm just like, "Seriously? Without us, you'd be sitting on dirty toilets & showering in filth, not to mention you wouldn't be able to flounce down the hallway without tripping over a clump of mud! Just because you got that extra money to flaunt from your parents and I didn't..." Sorry, got a bit off topic on that  but you get the idea. 

For the record, I don't mind people having their parents or relatives pay for their schooling, it's when they feel that they're more entitled to things because of it/look down on people who aren't as lucky that I don't like. Not trying to offend anyone!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah that's basically how I feel as well!!

I mean I've got free tuition since my mom is a janitor in the same building I work in so I know I'm extremely lucky and that not many have the chance to say that. But it still doesn't give me that higher "class" standing basically if that makes sense. And I don't go around "oh look at me, I don't have to pay tuition blah, blah, blah" I say it jokingly sometimes because people complain about their loans and stuff lol

But these people literally think that they are better than us and you're completely right! Without janitors--sorry 'house keepers' lol, nothing would be functioning because it'd all be clogged and nasty and gross! I sure wouldn't want to be there!


----------



## Huffle Puffles

If you find the little Fancy White Marble Dragon girl missing, uhh, just ignore my tanks. ;-)

Congrats on 400+ comments!!

Can't wait to see new pics of the baby!

Like I heard on one of my favorite tv shows, Devious Maids, ha. A job_ "is what you do — not who you are". _And not judging someone by that makes you guys steps above those rich kids that are. :-D


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## Elsewhere

Oh my goodness gracious, I need a life. Lil, if you were wondering how long it would take a person to read your entire journal word for word and oggle all of the pictures, you will be glad to know I can answer with approximately four hours. I have no words for all the crap you put up with among many other things, mainly because I would need to re-read all 41 pages and quote more things than necessary for my rage and complete delight at the things that go on in your life. 

If you need a place for Aero, I could totally take him  And hey, you're coming to Canada anyways! LOL!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh gosh Elsewhere! I lol'd when I read your post! Wow, you literally read the whole thing/!?!!? You've earned a Trophy for that my friend! haha

Yeah, it's been an interesting ride this summer that's for sure!!! And thank you Huffle! That does make me feel better  And uhh ahem...that white dragon marble fancy girl is the FIRST AB girl I bought MYSELF so she'd better not go missing!!! lol

Okay, so I got the baby boy! He's bigger than I expected so that will make my job easier to help him grow! He's actually bigger than Tony but smaller than Steve lol so right in a happy medium there ^_^ He's a blue VT boy but he's a darker blue than Steve, but lighter than Tony and covers more of his body than Tony. He also has a red wash which I'm thinking might be red loss when he get's older, we'll have to see. Right now he's about 3.5-4 months old but he's still only barely an inch so we'll have to work on that!

Pictures to come as soon as I load them and Lucillia stops skyping me XD


----------



## Elsewhere

Yes. The whole. Entire. Thing. It was quite interesting, actually! What breeder are you going to in Toronto? We have a visit up there soon... Mwuahaha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, not going to breeder, we're going to Niagara Falls to meet up with Catw0man to get the fish


----------



## Elsewhere

Ah, makes sense! Haha! Just thought that perhaps you found a breeder close-ish to me, so that I could casually sneak more fish into the house XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol sorry Elsewhere, but alas I have not. Try asking in a thread on the forums though, they might be able to point you to other people!


----------



## logisticsguy

MattsBettas said:


> Yea probably, CJs spawns usually have matching fish. I think it's awesome that we will have twin fish hahaha!


I have no idea why so many sets of twins in this line. Sometimes the twins are male and female too. Im going to try and breed 1 pair of twins and see what happens. Tora is going to stay here for a bit until I figure out my problem. I only had 1 set of the burnt orange marble females. Matts other one (the cello girl) has a twin as well.


----------



## Elsewhere

I'd love for a set of your twins, LG! If only shipping wasn't too expensive!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! So I got the baby today! He's originally called Mr. Fish but....yeah I'm changing that and so far the toss up is between Hawkeye and Ricochet. So tell me what y'all think! Here are some pictures!

Here's is poor, bare, lonely little tank and yes it's on my floor which is a disgusting yellow rug lol









And here he is! I'm pretty sure it's a boy, no ovary outline that I can see but if you can point one out, please do!


















Poor boy is quite stressed out but can't wait to see what a night of darkness and heat will do for him!









"Who you lookin at?"


















Currently editing a video of him so you can see him in action, he's a little cutie for sure! I also have a video of Gambit and the girls coming up soon! Oh and the updates for the little fishie will be over in my PetCo baby thread since he is a PetCo baby so you'll see these pictures of him over there as well.

And Gambit, he's up for adoption now, not quite fully healed but he's well on his way. If anyone wants him all I ask is to pay shipping, I'd prefer to do 2 Day which is roughly 35 dollars but if you want to risk to do the 3 day (and I will package very well) then it's only about 6.95 anywhere in the US only. He's from PetSense and I've had him now for three months, he's most likely about 9-12 months old now. He's very active which you'll see in the video, he eats mostly NLS pellets and LOOOOOVES Frozen BW's. He attacks them like he's starving! lol But he has to be fed one-two pellets at a time because if he eats too many at once, he'll spit them all back up like he's choking which he might be since he's a little vacuum.









And Aero (sorry Elsewhere) will hopefully be staying with me if I can help it! We still don't know what's going on so I'm hoping there's a chance I can at least get another 5.5 and set it up at my mom's if I have to and divide it for the two, although I hope Remmy's fins won't blow out >.<









He was waiting for food lol


















And Matisse definitely has Columnaris, so I'll be mixing up a batch of Furan-2 tomorrow if I can find a tub big enough at least for 5 gallons to split the dosage and then both Mattie and Rembrandt will be treated for that.









Poor Emma has been beaten up....I'm wondering if the Ram's did it.....if they did, I think they're going to have to go :-( or at least one will, probably Boss Ram since they both seem to get along with the female. Lone Ram will swim besides Lady Ram more though when he can sneak the chance before Boss Ram intervenes and fights him away.









And a beautiful picture of a beautiful girl; Amara









And then...this happened >.< lol









I love how focused this is on Mystique's eye here, at least I'm pretty sure that's Mystique lol.









Okay off to update the Baby Betta Thread and I'll be back with the video's once they finish editing! Enjoy!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And because my girl kittie is just so adorable, have some pictures of her!

Misha mad at me because I kicked her off my lap lol









And BEST picture ever! I caught her mid-yawn lol!









"What? I'm tired, I was hunting all night...leave me alone..."









And a cute picture of her on my lap ^_^









And this is from our purple Butterfly Bush, pretty neat!









And this bus I have no idea what it is but we grew it from a tiny thing and now it's about 3-4 feet tall! And these are it's pretty flowers, they're tiny!


----------



## Viva

Misha is so wild-looking, she reminds me of a bobcat! She's gorgeous!!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! Yeah no idea what kind of breed she is yet, probably some mix of ragdoll, maybe some siamese, something longer haired, probably some American Curl...who knows lol. She's such a doll though! She's tiny too! Probably only weighs about 7-8 pounds!


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## BettaLover1313

Hope Matisse is all right along with Rembrandt.

NO! Don't tell me about Gambit XD (resists the temptation to say I'll take him).

Misha is adorable! I love the one of her in mid yawn! You have very lovely plants as well!


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## lilnaugrim

He doesn't need much BL1313, he's happy in his little 2.5 ;-) lol I just want him to go to a good home where his fins can continue to heal with every other day water changes about or every 3 and will cater to his food preferences >.<

Oh and here's Gambit's video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXuqlsLqlB4

And here's the sorority at feeding time or so they thought. I had just fed them but they thought they were getting more >.< I apologize if you look at it and the music isn't on it yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWhwffG_Rb4


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## lilnaugrim

So I don't know who did it...but someone ate Quinn the Snail >.> So now I'm down to Harley again and she'll be the only one forever. Can't deal with the girls or rams eating everything >.<

I did a big 50% water change on the 33 today though, well needed and well appreciated by all! Moved a few things around to try to break up territories for the Ram's since they're still sparing so much! Lady Ram is just like...whatever, you boy's do what you want but keep me out of it! lol But I saw Lone Ram chasing Aurora and Stardust.....he may have to go if he's going to be nipping my girls! As much as I love them, my girls are my first priority!

And I did a 50% change on the 5.5, divided it up and put Mercury in there for the Betta Shuffle! Baby went into Mercury's place in the 10 so now it's a baby tank! It will be easier to care for them at least. And then Rembrandt got the 3 gallon for QT tank.

Then did a 50% on Gambit's tank as well, he's been a little monster lately! He must be feeling good because he zooms all over, I took about 20 pictures of him today and got 1 >.< and even that 1 still sucks lol

Tomorrow the Red Dragon girl should be here with the extra girl so I'll be able to care for them and start acclimating them to the sorority for their 2 week QT period. Can't wait to see them!!!!!

Also today I got in my box of English Ivy I ordered for 2.53 or something like that with free shipping....the ad said 3 and I got 6 XD I have no idea what to do with all these fake plants!! lol At least my hospital tanks won't look so bare now!! :-D 
Now I don't know if it was a fluke or something because when I look at the ad now I see this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0078H6ZPC/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Case of 6 it says and for much more expensive! I noticed the original price when I bought it for under 3 dollars and was like....whattt???? So that and the free shipping is why I bought it. Although they don't really look like the picture, they look like the bouquet ones you get from wal-mart or craft stores. So it has metal in the lower parts but towards the ends and all the leaves don't have metal so I'll be using those parts!

And I split up the dosage of Furan-2:

















Definitely the start of my crack dealing day's lmao! So I got them split into baggies so I can dose Rembrandt and Matisse properly. Figures, the two fish I name after artists! Not naming any other's after artists haha. But they are both now sitting in their tanks with the proper dosages! So we'll see how they do with it :-D

Oh and I think, not certain, but I think baby Betta is a girl! The shape looks like she might have ovaries growing. If this is the case I'll be super happy! All the baby Betta's we have around here are all boys, so rare to find a girl baby!! So s/he's in the 10 gallon with Steve and Tony atm and acting very skittish so no good photos of her today. I think she had a bad reaction with the stress coat that was in the 3 gallon since I ran out of regular stuff. She had mucus coming from her face vent quite bad so that's when I decided to switch her to the 10 gallon and after a while it all went away so for that I am quite happy!

Tomorrow will be; get girls, clean out the 10 gallon and the two 3 gallons, dose Remmy and Mattie, clean out Gambit's 2.5 again another 50%. Pack for Canada, do a double check, go to sleep early! ;-0


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## lilnaugrim

I'll get the other pictures up in the morning, I'm too sleepy right now!


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## BettaLover1313

I'd have to get a new tank (10 gallon) so he could come with me to college though  and right now I definitely can't get a new tank. I really hope you find a good home for him though


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## lilnaugrim

Thats okay BL1313


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## MattsBettas

Hahaha... The first thing I thought when I saw the first pic on post 418 was definitely not about fish... Lol.


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## lilnaugrim

lol! Exactly, it's just my inner crack dealer coming out is all. NBD!


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## MattsBettas

:BIGwinky:


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## lilnaugrim

Oh....well I've got some time, I can at least post pictures of MC since he was being too damn adorable!

Stretching out on the carpet! Yes I have a yellow 70's rug and I hate it but it's my grandfather's house that was built in 67 and nothing's been changed except for every leaky pipe we've had....









Looking at the fish









Fluffy tummy! This is what I call ninja pose!









"Oh this episode of Cat's Gone Wild!..."









"...He's been seen with that Queen lately, when will he ever get out of his addition??..."









So this is an interesting picture. If you think of my bed as the ground and the yellow rug as a wall or something, it looks pretty darn neat!


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## lilnaugrim

So funny story; I couldn't find Amara's ovaries. So I sort of panicked and tried to find them, she must have either really small ovaries or they're transparent because she acts female and flares female but I just don't see the ovaries and she's mostly see through with the new lights! So I scooped her up anyway and put her in a cup to float in Aero's tank to see if she'd flare. But she didn't, just acted all Female and completely ignored him while he danced around her cup lol.

So I got a good picture of Aero at least:









And this picture of Stardust is hilarious I think! Just that look she's giving, boy is she grumpy!









Look at how well the grass is doing!!!! I'm so excited!!!!! I love my new lights for sure!









Ditto's tank is growing super well! Look at it!









And my sickly child lol, He was wondering why there were bright green/yellow powders floating in his tank XD He tried to eat it this morning until I shooed him away >.< silly boy! But he's been upgraded to the 3 gallon, now QT tank! hooray! i don't have to worry so much about his one poop contaminating the whole tank! lol









Gambit being a butt and not letting me take good pictures of him! He's such a beautiful blue now! And his pectorals are gaining color so that's quite neat! So I won't be able to send him out next week but the week after should be fine, I'd like to ship on Monday's if anyone wants to pay me shipping for him!









But here's pictures from about a month ago if not 5 weeks:

















And divided the 5.5 again for Mercury and Aero, funny enough they are my two most aggressive males so they were flaring constantly. Well flaring, okay let's take a break, okay flaring, take a break lol they're too cute.









I can never get good pictures of Raven since she's so...well, black! Black against a black substrate doesn't exactly work XD But I thought this picture was just too cute, they stood like that for a whole four pictures but this one was the best to come out :-D









And how the heck does my tank go from this:









A lovely-mostly-dense forest to being so bare looking??









Pretty much all the water sprite that I planted died or rotted some how so I took that all out which made a big difference in the "jungly" look. So I need to get some more stem plants when I have money!


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## lilnaugrim

She's herrrreeeee!!! And her sister too! I came home to find the Red Dragon and her unknown sister waiting for me on the porch! I quickly took them in and opened them up to find two small Betta girls! My red dragon and her sister who is a sort of false cambodian! She's got the traits but she's got blue in her fins but she's absolutely adorable! 

I'm thinking about naming the red dragon Firestar, Fire for short and the cambo girl Asaria, it just fits :-D 

When they first arrived:
She looks like a little wild here!









Well you can already see the size difference with Lady right there!









Those beautiful eyes!









"I'm in a cup!"









Asaria and Stardust


















Starting to color up!









Red pectorals!









This would literally be THE perfect picture if that stupid duckweed weren't there >.>









You can see the blue on her caudal here









Her eyes are so big!









Not fully colored up yet but most of the way there!









And Aurora for size difference...yep









Hiiiiiiiiiieeee









"Sup?"









Jewel in her little cup being treated for that nasty bite in her tail. There's some regrowth today but you can't see it much in the picture. Oh and what I realized today was that those things that look like holes in her dragon scaling aren't holes at all; they're very dark green scales!









And here's Lady, she's also got some regrowth so that's great!









Ditto being gorgeous as ever! He will also be going up for adoption since I just can't take care of everyone the same.









Jarvis and his temporary 3 gallon palace! I did a cleaning on it today and pulled out the rotting pieces of dwarf sag and it looks a lot better today. The grass on the far right side is throwing out like a million shoots! This is so awesome! I planned for this tank to be grassy eventually and now I can actually achieve it! This is so awesome!









The boy himself looking very...smug lol









And that's all I have today for this log! The rest is for the babies.

Also if anyone is interested in adopting Gambit or Ditto let me know through a PM. I won't be able to ship for another two weeks but at least I'll know


----------



## Elsewhere

Wow! Everyone looks absolutely stunning! Ugh, I would love to take Gambit AND Ditto, but of course the Canadian border poses problems :/


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah....sorry Elsewhere, besides, you don't have room ;-)

But thank you! I'm loving the new 6,500K lights on the sorority! Really makes it look like day time! haha


----------



## BettaLover1313

That Red Dragon is much redder than that original photo, but she's still gorgeous! Love her sister too!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> That Red Dragon is much redder than that original photo, but she's still gorgeous! Love her sister too!


Yup! I knew she was going to be like that's, that's why I got her! :-D I am very pleased with how she looks in real life! As the night roams on she just keeps on deepening in color, she's still vibrant but her body has taken on more red now with the dragon scaling looking like stars on a night sky or something :-D Yeah I think Firestar is a good name for her ^_^


----------



## Elsewhere

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah....sorry Elsewhere, besides, you don't have room ;-)


Darn my limited space! One day, I shall win the lottery and have a hundred fish tanks! *Is kidding, that's waaay too much work!*


----------



## BettaLTE

I am now following your thread! I hope to setup a female Betta tank one day, but am unsure about the possibility of aggression.

Your fish look great!


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## Phantom Miria

Wow Ditto is really, really pretty!! Jewel has quite the bite taken out of her tail, I've never seen one like that


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLTE said:


> I am now following your thread! I hope to setup a female Betta tank one day, but am unsure about the possibility of aggression.
> 
> Your fish look great!


Thanks! Glad you enjoy my thread! Feel free to PM me whenever you like if you've got questions or anything ^_^



Phantom Miria said:


> Wow Ditto is really, really pretty!! Jewel has quite the bite taken out of her tail, I've never seen one like that


Yeah, he is a beautiful boy! He was second after Rembrandt and he's grow so much! His tail has nearly doubled in length I think!

And yeah, I'm wondering if those Ram's have been taking bites because all three sisters; Jewel, Lady and Emma have the same looking bites and they don't look like normal Betta bites which look fairly smooth and even where these ones look rougher :-/ I've been watching the ram's chase the girls though, the bigger ones oddly enough are the ones that swim fastest away and don't get bit but the smaller ones like the three sisters don't seem to be getting the hint >.<

I think I'll be removing Lone Ram and giving him to a good home since he's sparing wayyyyy too much with Boss Ram. Although I did find Lady Ram chasing Aurora and I was like >.> you little poop! Of course I didn't use that word lol

But these kinds of bites don't normally happen with just the girls so you won't have much to worry about Phantom ^_^ Asteroth was an exception because I added her in too early from the QT so the girls were aggressive right away; they didn't have much time to fight through the cup which is usually where they get all their aggression out and then after their done flaring and showing off, they calm down and are like "oh...it's you..." and swim off.


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## Lucillia

BABIESS!!!!!!!!!!! That red dragon is beautiful!!!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> BABIESS!!!!!!!!!!! That red dragon is beautiful!!!!!


:-D I'm very glad that I got her! She's different enough from Lady that I can't count her as a twin which is great lol Can't wait to get better pictures of them fully colored up :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Canada Today!!!!


----------



## dramaqueen

If you won the lottery you could hire someone to help you with all your tanks.


----------



## Rosencrantz32

Have fun on your trip!! I hope everything goes well


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Rosencrantz! And yes DQ, I'd have to hire someone who I'd trust with my fish but yep...I'd hire some help! lol

So!!!!! WE HAVE FISH!

It was quite the trip and I know both Lucillia and I are exhausted although she probably more than me since she did all the driving and stuff. I just paid for mostly everything >.< ugg there goes my money! But we drove out from Rhode Island around 3pm Friday afternoon and our GPS kind of took us a really strange way so we added another hour to our trip basically, fun times.

One thing that I have to say though is: I now HATE route I-90 in New York! That road is a blessing but a terrible terrible thing! We drove on it just about 300 miles EACH WAY :shock: omg, I've never been so sick of a highway like that before!! I've taken some long trips but that was just ridiculous! And we were practically hallucinating the entire highway >.< I was never so happy to get off a highway before!

So we reached North Tonawanda in NY about I think midnight? Or somewhere around there, I honestly can't remember we were both so tired. Got to the cute little motel, checked in and found out that my debit card wasn't working.....Thankfully Lucillia had hers and so we were able to split it at least with the cash my mom gave me and I just paid her back later. But that was basically the start of our _wonderful_ Saturday...../sarcasm.

So off to sleep not to wake, well for me, at 8 in the morning, apparently Luci couldn't sleep so she was up earlier. So up at 8, showers taken, hair did and packing the car up to check out. Checked out and went to find breakfast. Breakfast was interesting....McDonalds was the cheapest thing and also apparently the greasiest....I'm not eating McDonalds for at least a year if not more now....my stomach is still mad at me!

And finally it was time to cross the border! Got our passports ready and got into line over the Rainbow Bridge! Getting across the bridge seemed to take forever and I was getting sunburnt...whoops. Finally up to the guy, asked a few questions and we were off! We immediately drove down to the falls to find a decent parking spot. After driving through the mist four times we settled on the lot that was 5 dollars per hour, figuring we were going to be there not long, we went in.

Down to the falls we walked, taking pictures along the way. I awkwardly asked a stranger to take our picture in front of the falls and she sort of pointed the camera up instead of like...at us and at the falls....So it's us, just a really weird angle...we ended up taking better selfies with Luci's phone haha. 

So we walked through the mist and got soaked, it was awesome and went back to the car to chill for a while until we realized how bad of traffic that Catw0man hit! So we drove out, paid our 10 dollars for the two hours and went to find a Burger King or something...we found a McDonalds lol. So we got our lunch there and waited around for a bit until we went back to the falls to meet Catw0man and get our fish! She's so adorable and super nice! Her two daughters are absolutely adorable as well! So unfortunately we couldn't stay long because by this point it was about 2pm and Luci and I needed to get back to RI since I was supposed to have a busy day today and she was supposed to work today, the morning shift no less.

So off to look for the Rainbow Bridge again! And this is probably the most interesting part of the story, not the border crossing itself but getting into the darn line. So we went down a road that pointed; USA Bridge so we're like yay okay! We got down the road and found that the line was super long up another road and we were going to have to merge in. The only issue is that NO ONE would let us in! And there were people behind us since that was also a road to get to the falls, stupidly enough. So in addition to get yelled at, told off, flipped off and nearly run over, a guy hit her mirror with his and left a good scuff mark.

How the heck do people not have so much respect for their cars??? Like yeah that guy's van wasn't great at all but there was a beautiful black, mostly new SUV that nearly took us out! So we finally drove down the road, did an illegal U turn and got into the line on the otherside were we were both STEAMING and absolutely furious about what had just happened! It's like yeah, we know you've been waiting a while but we couldn't turn around on a ONE WAY road and there was seemingly no way to get into that line since we didn't know where it even came from!

So the kicker of the whole thing was that when we turned around and got into line, we got across the bridge before all those rude people did lol We just could NOT believe how unbelievably rude they were! There's aboslutely no cause for this and we weren't the only ones confused on how to get in, there were like five other cars trying to merge and no one would let them in!

So it took us like twenty minutes to get across the bridge, passports out, a few questions ask "Okay, have a great day!" "Thanks, you too!" and off we drove with our 16 Betta's! lol 

Oh another reason I hate I-90 is the toll to get off costs us 15.30 dollars >.< there goes 30 dollars that I'll never see again :-( And then another toll but that one was free thankfully! But we got home around 1 in the morning to my house at least and then Luci accidentally locked her key's in her car >.< so thankfully her bf came down with the spare and they went home around 2:20 and that's when I went to bed.

Went to dad's this morning and acclimated my girls to the water and fed them, they all ate like monsters! lol But then I realized that I left my camera in Luci's car >.< so no real pictures today and maybe not even this week because this week starts Band Camp for our Marching Band which I am a part of. So I'm getting my camera back tomorrow but might not have the pictures up for another week or so. After this week then it's our annual Labor Day party on Sunday and then college starts....so it's going to be really busy.

So here are some crappy cell pics for you of the girls...sort of!
This one is just showing you that I can fit 9 cups in my tank plus floating a 1 gallon QT lol









And here are sort of the girls in their cups after I acclimated them to the water and put them in clean water and fed them!
From top row left to right: Black DT, Majcha's Glowing Dragon, Orange Fancy
Bottom row left to right: My marble girl! MG girl, Black and orange girl, and my Black copper CT!









And here's Aurora putting the MG girl "in her place"...through the cup lol









That MG girl and the Black/Orange girl are HUUUUGGE! They're almost as big as Aurora and Stardust! Bigger fins of course but holy mackerel! And unfortunately both of them have what seems to be columnaris and the MG girl looks like she might be getting a case of Popeye, so once Mattie is out of QT, one of them will go into QT for that.

Mattie is doing better but still not there yet, she'll need a few rounds of treatment. Same with Rembrandt.

Also I'm seriously debating taking that floating water sprite, duckweed (most of it) and frog-bit out of my tank and just getting some more Val and water wisteria to fill up the space since it's inhibiting my light just too much! Besides half of the water sprite seems to be dying....after spending a good 5-6 months in my tank it's just like "nope!" I'm wondering if the duckweed is choking it out sort of. I love the frog-bit but I can't stand getting it all on my arms when I clean the tank out and it's just such a pain in the butt!

So along with Ditto and Gambit, duckweed can go out and frog-bit. I'm not sure about shipping the water sprite since it's still so on the edge, I think I just need to "weed" it again to take out all the dead stuff. Also the GBR pair can go as well but I want to keep Lone Ram since he doesn't pick on anyone, at least not right now. The two males are sparing and biting up my girls WAAAYYY too much! They can be shipped out in Kordon breather bags. Let me know if you want anything, the duckweed and frog-bit I'd at least like to sell since I have grown quite a bit of it on my own.

Gambit I'll just take shipping but Ditto I'd like at least 5 bucks for since he's worth quite a bit more both sentimentally and for his tail type. Rams will have to be at least 10 dollars plus shipping.


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## BettaLover1313

Wow! You had quite the adventure! Glad to see that you made it back safe and with some beautiful girls no less!


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## Elsewhere

Whew! Sounds like a good time! LOL Glad you made it home safe with all of your new babies


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks all! Yeah, quite a trip, lots of adventures and my head is KILLING me right now so I'll be going to bed soon :-/

So Band Camp starts tomorrow and just want to let you all know that I won't be around much for this week or possibly next week since it is the start of college. Senior year!! Well..I've got another year after lol but NBD! I love college and can't wait to have classes and all, yeah I'm that weird child that likes school haha.


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## Haleigh

Congrats on your new girls, lil! I can't wait to see more pictures!

Have fun at band camp! You're not the only one to be excited about school; I had a countdown going this summer!


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## Huffle Puffles

Nice to see you made it back across the border with the girls with no trouble! Can't wait to see more pics so I can continue to be jealous of that tank! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Well, Haleigh, I'm not excited about the stupid college fee's I still have to pay lol but the classes themselves should be pretty awesome this year except Psych 103....I dread going to that class although I've heard it's easy enough. After that class I'll be done with Gen-ed's I'm pretty certain! I'll have to check over again, I might be missing a writing class or something but I can't wait to just be able to have ALL art classes! That will be the time of my life haha

And Huffle, thanks!! Yeah we're super relieved and glad we made it over too although the people before us didn't make it any less stressful!

But right now for some reason my plants aren't doing well, the ones on the right are fine like the swords and val but my crypt's kind of disappeared, all the planted watersprite is dying and the duckweed is blooming....so I guess it's time to get rid of that and just go with all taller plants at the bottom.

There's Elodea Densa in Aero's former 5.5 (He was being a butt with Mercury so I swapped Aero and Jarvis) so I want to take a piece out and see how it will do in the 33, away from the current  hopefully it will do well and propagate!! I need it!

But yes, camera will be coming later today and then pictures.....at some point...not sure when!


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## Viva

Omg the new girls are so little and cute! I love them!!


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## jadaBlu

My sorority is up and running now. It's going well so far. One girl went into time out for ridiculous chasing last night. Overall it's going well. Thanks for the advice I think it has helped things go smoother. I will probably do a journal for them.


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## lilnaugrim

Yay Jada! Definitely start a journal! Always nice to track the progress, even for your own sake!

So I'm kind of running and posting at the same time lol. Well I'm eating breakfast and have to leave in 15 minutes but I have pictures from Tuesday night so I'll just post a few of the girls that I got, won't have many captions though.

So the Machja glowing dragon girl got into the tank when her cup fell in >.< she's healthy and only has a few nips so I'm going to leave her in to see what happens. I woke up my girls so that's why they look so sleepy lol

Sleepy girl sleeping with sleepy Rams









Her eyes are beautiful!


















And then the boy Ram's where sleeping together like this, although you can see Boss Ram waking up a little more.


















And Lady Ram by herself lol









This girl is absolutely adorable and gorgeous!









Lynx is looking a little better these days









Black CT girl who is actually pretty darn big!









My beautiful marble girl!









True MG girl and Asaria in the back.



























Okay that's all I have time for right now. Today is the last day of Band Camp, yay and nae so I'll be partially dead tomorrow but I've got all my water changes and I should be able to get more pictures up tomorrow because I do have some. So for now all, I bid you a farewell and hopefully I won't be too dead tomorrow!!!! <3's to all!


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## jadaBlu

I want to do a live stream with skype (sound off) of my sorority tank. Feeding time is a delight. Fish hopping around on pond lillies and other plants. It's one big gathering. Another funny thing I saw was two fish side by side looking at me through the tank another fish. Another fish swam and I guess one of the fish didn't care to be so close to that fish so she jumped horizontally to the side of the other fish. It was like a horizontal leap frog. The tail slapping is funny to watch too. The girl that is in time out is always in flare and she often charges fish that come up to the net. I kind of doubt she will be able to rejoin the rest of the fish. I have extra tanks so it will be ok if that happens. I still have two more fish that I didn't drop because they looked like they were getting fin rot. I was very good about changing the water so I am not sure why they got it. I am thinking about giving them away once their fins repair rather than disrupt the harmony in that I see right now.


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## lilnaugrim

The aggressive girl should be fine to join the others, just keep an eye on her and if she get's aggressive again, put her back in time out for a few days. I had Lady Deathstrike in QT/Time Out for an extra 2 weeks because it seemed she wanted to kill her two sisters; Jewel and Emma. But after the two weeks she was as calm as could be when I let her out and immediately went submissive against the others. The three sisters have yet to nip each other and it's been a good 4 months now!

As for the rot, it won't matter sometimes how clean the water is; if they are stressed out, they are vulnerable to anything and more susceptible to it. So once they calm down and realize that they won't be in any danger, they'll start to heal up with clean water daily again


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## lilnaugrim

So the rest of the pictures from Tuesday

Cherry after just being woken up:









Aurora wondering why the light was on at 10 at night lol









And...now I know who's been digging in the sand....









Yeah that's a piece of sand on your head Pineapple...silly girl!









She apparently doesn't think she's guilty even with the evidence lol









And Amara being a grump face


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## Haleigh

Beautiful girls, lil!


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## Phantom Miria

LOL!! That first picture of Pineapple shes like  IT WASN'T ME! xD! Great looking girls!


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## lilnaugrim

Hehe, thanks guys!! Hopefully I won't be too pooped after this so I can take some pictures.

I'm taking out all the floating plants, Frog-bit went into a bucket for the mean time after I washed the duckweed from it. Then the bigger, healthier bits of Water Sprite got planted and I'm in the process of getting rid of most of the duckweed right now. I know I'll never truely get rid of it but, I can at least get rid of most of it for the time being since it's choking out all the plants on the bottom >.>

Also bought some more corkscrew vallisneria today and going to put that on the otherside of the tank since the other val is doing great! I want to take out one of the stems of Elodea from Mercury/Jarvis's 5.5 and see how that does in the 33 since it's booming in the 5.5!!

I wish I could baffle the Whisper EX45 though.....maybe I'll attempt that today.....


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## BettaLover1313

Love Pineapple's picture with the sand on her head, gave me a good laugh.


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## lilnaugrim

I quite literally said that to her as well! lol I didn't know who had been playing in the sand and churning it over, thought it was the Ram's....guess not lol

Pictures to be up soon! I revamped the tank a bit, can't wait for my Amazon Swords to grow some more >.<


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## lilnaugrim

So I was just looking through some of the Band Camp photos and figured I'd share some with you all and THEN upload my fish photos lol because I'm cool like that XD

Oh, well this one is from Lucillia and I's trip to Niagara! This is after we walked through the mist twice or so lol so we're a little wet here XD I'm the one with the darker hair ;-)









And this one is from Band Camp. We were in our recital hall before Drum Line came in and so we were just going over the music with our AMAZING band director. I know we all say we have the best band director but Brian is our God, he is amazing! Back in 2002 when he came to URI and became the Athletic Band Director, the Marching Band was at a mere 50 memebers. As of this week we now have 135 members exactly! He revived our band and love for band and pulled us through the hard times! He got us new Mellophones, Sousaphones, drums AND uniforms! He quite literally saved us!









Me and my awesome Section Leader! He's a year younger than me but I passed up the position to focus on another position I have in our Fraternity (co-ed Music Honorary organization). We were memorizing music here that I already had memorized from playing in Pep-band lol.









And now just a few moments from LAST YEAR:

This is a normal sectional for the Tenor Saxophones lol, Keith our Section Leader now Drum Major is the one standing XD









Our Section Theme Picture was making a flower around Keith XD And then Alberto was sailing on him.....lol As you can tell, we laid down or sit down quite frequently









And now to go WAAAAAY back! This was Sophomore year in High School I think....not sure about that one. Ugg, look at the outdated uniforms they STILL have!
And the girl in front to the left is my long time no-longer-best friend; Katie.









I played Alto back then >.< ugg the shrill....I hate alto now haha, Tenor all the way!









Fast forward two years to Senior Year, I now played Trumpet lol Katie dyed her hair blonder and then Em is on the right there.









Last year both Katie and I at URI on Game Day right before our Half Time Show









Funny seeing how things play out ;-) 

And now our entire Band as of last night! WHO'RE WE? THE PRIDE!

I'm sitting next to our band director in the front second row left end. You can tell the Tenor's/Alto's. It was Section Theme day which meant that each section makes up their own theme since we do theme day's like Fandom Day or Throw Back Day. Tenors were Dastardly Villains: we wore black, capes, dark sunglasses and hats. We saran wrapped our tower and Keith (DM)'s car lol and then the Alto's were Friday the 13th since there were 13 of them.


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## lilnaugrim

OKAY! Now onto the Betta's!

Aero was just being a cutie:


















Beautiful deep brown eyes!









Still loves the thermometer, good pic of his ventral's as well









I feel so pretty, oh so pretty, and witty and--









Steve and Tony are gay...not me <.< >.>.....and Jarvis too....









And Feng's boy which is in my care for the moment, he'll be sent out soon though!









Gambit is looking for a home still! His tail is doing great, he's pushing the black part right out and off and his anal fin is growing out amazingly fast! Ventral's will take a while but that's normal.









Taken with flash:









So...who want's to tell Pineapple that's she's NOT a cichlid?

















And I still can't find Amara's ovaries......quite literally are non-existant unless they're amazingly translucent.....

















Lady is definitely in my little circle of second favorites lol









Black Copper CT girl!









My marble girl! I've got to call her something along the lines of Princess or Queen, she looks at me expectantly and is angry with me unless I change her water or give her food constantly....little bugger she is!









Flash









I wanted to call her Halloween but I don't want to steal Viva's girls's names lol









She's so beautiful though!









Black DT girl who is easily scared, no idea for names yet. I haven't really looked for names though.









Boss Ram bossing rams around ;-)









Lone Ram ramming alone









White Dragon girl with Asaria.









White Dragon girl was teasing Firestar and Asaria because she got out of her cup first....she's a little butt for sure!









She liked posing for the camera









Can't wait to see how she'll marble and color up!


















So moved things around in the tank, got rid of everything floating because I'm just sick of it. So if anyone wants Frog-bit, I've got lots of it you can buy ;-) Duckweed is mostly gone, still some left so soon I'll work on cleaning the rest of it out as much as I can. I know it will always be there but I can at least mostly get rid of it and keep it at bay most I can. Also moved a Sword to make more room and got four more Corkscrew Vallisneria from my LFS which is in the back left.









Now I just need things to grow UP!









Also Mattie looks worse.....columnaris I think but I'm not sure? She currently soaking in 3 tsp salt/gal right now since the Furan-2 wasn't working obviously.









She's in good spirits though so idk what the heck is with her. Her anal fin is nearly deteriorated and if it goes further I think I might have to euthanize her but I'll let her decide. If she's going to keep fighting then I'll fight along with her to see if we can get this at bay and gone forever!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, spamming my own journal but this picture came up and I'm so glad it was taken. I was dying while this was happening but we saran wrapped our Section Leader Spencer yesterday during Section theme day XD this was at the last rehearsal before it started and he was having fun hopping around with his pretty headband of saranwrap as well XD


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## Phantom Miria

Psst, want some of my tanks growth? ! But seriously I like how organized you're tank looks.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh YES PLEASE! Can you like...bottle it and send it through the mail? haha

It looks organized?? :shock: well cool! It always looks like a big jumbled mess to me XD I mostly need more stem plants and for them not to die on me would be nice. I want to get more water wisteria, the kind we get from PetCo not the actual Hygrophila Difformis. And some Anacharis or Elodea would be nice too. I want more of the jungle look, it looks too open to me right now. Of course I did just get rid of a whole top layer lol so I guess that's bound to happen.


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## lilnaugrim

So we had our Labor Day party last night slash my 21st and my little brother's 18th birthday part. My mom got me my first wine glass which is blue and awesome and in it she got me a small bottle of Vincent Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka!!!!! I can't wait to try it! I think I'll save it for my actual birthday day just because it sounds and looks amazing and besides, it's Van Gogh! My favorite painter of all time!!! Well...one of them lol

The rain held off right until we just finished packing everything up at 1 in the morning and when we were all inside and ready to go to bed, DOWNPOUR! It's been on and off all day now, just had a mini flash flood and the backyard is sort of flooded but the grass seems to be liking it and soaked it up pretty quickly after it stopped raining. There's some awesome thunder and lightning going on right now, so pretty! I love thunder storms, rain storms suck but thunder? heck yes!

Oh and also my best friend got me a fish thermos! It's got goldfish and bubbles in it!!!!! I was super excited for that!! And then mom got me real half carat diamond earring studs since I generally wear the cheap ones from Wal-mart and they sort of stain my ears and cause infections >.> not fun and so I've never had real diamond earrings before so I'm super happy about that! I'm kind of scared for putting them in because what if I lose one? :-( I'd be super sad  but I think I kind of have to wear them lol I just am lazy and don't feel like changing earrings all the time so that's why I just wear studs and leave them be. :roll: oh well.

So in all it's been a great last 24 hours! Muggy as heck yesterday but now it's cooling off with the rain so for that I am happy :-D


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## dramaqueen

It sounds like you had quite a celebration and got some cool stuff.


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## lilnaugrim

That it was!

Sometimes it's nice having a divorced family that get's along since we both get two parties but at the same time my dad made the excuse of: Oh I'm not feeling well....so he didn't go >.> but he's throwing me and my cousin who I'm two day's older than, a party on the 21st as I am the 18th and he's the 20th. Dad's telling me to "be ready to get wasted!" should I tell him that I don't get drunk easy? lol wasn't even tipsy Sunday after 5 vodka/sodas (mostly vodka, whoops), a Pina Colada cooler and a Mikes Hard Lemonade....oh well. At least there were no hangover's in the morning! I felt great! lol My mom on the other hand....well yeah haha

It was a good party though and I'm glad the people could come! For the first time in years I had an actual friend, like one of MY friends come to the party! There's been issues where people constantly cancel on me the day of the party after being invited. Obivously I excuse those whom are working but it's been years since a friend showed up to my party! And although she was slightly ill, she came and stayed for an hour and a half and I'm so excited! Definitely a keeper ;-)

On another note, I just finished cleaning ALL the tanks and the cups...whew! 5 hours later!

Pictures to come soon-ish! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So time for pictures 

Aero get's very focused on my finger when I had it on the tank to stabilize the camera lol









Silly boy, you already had your meal today!









Jarvis watching his neighbor....he's an interesting fish....he's never once flared at another boy fish....









While Mercury flares at everything that moves









They have a very interesting relationship for sure.









Mercury flares and Jarvis just sits there and watches lol









These next pictures completely explain their relationship:









































Gambit is still looking for a home! It's only like 6 dollars something to ship!









And Mattie isn't doing so well but she's the most spirited, spunky, snarky sick fish I've ever met :shock: Furan-2 wasn't helping as you see so I'm switching her to MelaFix which helped Rembrandt.









































Did a 95% water change on Rembrandt today and started him on MelaFix again since it kept the stuff at bay before but I wasn't using full strength. He hates me right now since I did the water change but he'll get over it lol.









This girl has Velvet BAD.... >.< I'll be throwing a towel over her soon

















And the True MG girl has some pop-eye still but otherwise seems to be okay









I decided to put Lynx in a cup with some extra Stress Coat to help heal up her fins since she's been a wreck lately









And the Marble girl has been taunting the girls in the cups >.> bugger









Little Blue is angry with me too since I QT'd her as well. But you can see why:

























My Marble girl hates her cup but she'll just have to get over it because I'm not putting them all in at the same time, no way, way too much chaos! First goes in Firestar and then Asaria and then we'll talk about who goes in from Canada lol

















Our Black Copper girl is a sass bucket lol

















Jewel has seemed to be depressed lately









Emma's fins are finally starting to grow back!









Stardust liked how I rearranged the driftwood









She also loves the vase lol









I think Amara is turning into a boy, see my post here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?p=2944554#post2944554

























Phoenix has been pretty content









Lady was trying to dance with the Marble girl









And then Lady was being pretty as usual









Okay the rest will be in another post because apparently I have 56 images and they only allow 50 per post lol whoops.


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## lilnaugrim

Firestar is beautiful and she knows it ;-)

















Cherry was getting curious about my finger on the glass

































Close up!









Aurora is huge now!









Firestar again









And Mystique being Mystique as she's surrounded by all three of the Rams lol









And redid the tank again!


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## BettaLover1313

Hope all of the sick or injured fish get better soon! 

Lovely pictures of the tank & the girls! Mercury & Jarvis remind me of Merlin & Dragoon lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank's BL1313! I hope so to, I just hope I don't have to euthanize anyone :-( I really hope the MelaFix will actually work and at least Remmy needs to live. I love Mattie too but she's always been one issue after another and doesn't stay out of QT long :-/

I think Little Blue has just scales missing, at least that's what I hope so she's in salt right now and Raven is in MelaFix as well since she's got the body slime thing going on as well. I blame it all on Mattie anyway since she came with the Body Slime infection which I thought I cured way back when but I guess some was still lurking around :-/


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## Huffle Puffles

What beautiful pictures and fishies! Love Jarvis's coloring, it looks like fire. The pic of the marble girl poking her head between the cups is adorable! Hope all your sick fishies get better super quick. Still love your tank! Glad to see I'm not the only one forever changing theirs. XD


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## lilnaugrim

Hehe yeah....I'll probably keep this set up for a while minus taking out the fake plants when I get real plants again. I like how the driftwood is set up here and so do the girls so I think I'll keep that at least :-D

So....Stardust jumped last night :-( well, she jumped right into my water changing bucket >.< she's fine but she definitely went into a little bit of shock. I got her in a cup and she's floating in that right now, when I checked on her this morning she was alive and fine; albeit a little clamped and there was a little chunk missing from her tail. I just hope she didn't injure something internally.

Matisse has more of her anal deteriorating....I have no idea what to do for her! She's gotten more pale in area's and was clamping her right pectoral last night, now both her ventrals are nearly missing as well. But otherwise she's still as active as can be, bright in color where the illness hasn't effected her....I need to make a new thread for her to see if there's anything I can do :-( So far I've tried AQ salt up to 3 tsp/gal, Furan-2 for 5 day's and MelaFix *note* not all at once. I think I want to try KanaPlex as well since it's definitely external, it's not parasites but seems to be more bacterial so an antibiotic should help...as long as she's not too far gone already. Sorry to babble, things click when I talk.

Remmy is still mad at me for being in the QT tank, Lynx is not ticked off beyond measure that she's in a cup again, Raven couldn't care and Little Blue is annoyed to the high heavens! She looks a little bit better though. I want to take her off salts and just use MelaFix to heal up her anal fin and hopefully those chunks taken off her scales as well.

False MG girl still has velvet but I haven't really paid mind to her and I feel terrible about it :-( I don't have any anti-parasitic meds for her except for AQ salt but that won't hardly work. I'll have to see if I can find some copper-based meds today at the shop. And True MG girl seems to be a bit better. What I thought was columnaris was just a stupid bunch of scales on her that are different colors than the rest, it's that way in her auction picture too so I guess it's just a little deformity or something, it's kind of weird. But her eye's look a little better.

Aero loves the 3 gallon on my sidetable. Mercury is still flaring at Jarvis and Jarvis doesn't seem to be getting the message lol or maybe he is and just doesn't care XD Gambit is fine but seemingly lonely since I can't spend as much time with all these sick fishies around! >.< So he'll need to go to his new home soon once I find one. I'll put an ad up for him and Ditto soon although I hate saying goodbye


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## Viva

Omg Stardust you naughty girl! All my girls jump around at feeding time and I'm always afraid one will jump out...particularly Cleo the solid copper girl. I put a pinch of food in and then shut the cover quickly before they can jump out, haha. I hope she's okay! I hope Matisse and the girl with velvet make a full recovery. I'd give you some of the extra meds I have but unfortunately teleportation doesn't exist yet and it'd be faster just to go and get some at the shop =p


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## lilnaugrim

I'm just going to crawl up in a ball now and cry.


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## Elsewhere

Aw, Lil, I'm sorry you're dealing with all these sick fishes  I hope they get better soon!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Elsewhere.....So I just found out that I may or may not have a strain of Columnaris that is bacteria resistant. Also.....Amara has Callamamus worms which is why her ovaries basically disappeared....I hope the other's aren't infected. I can't deal with this right now.

I nearly had a mental breakdown when I learned that the two things that could help my fish were Triple Sulfa which I'm highly allergic to and then Hydrogen Peroxide, I won't be able to treat them till Saturday...maybe :-( Matisse isn't looking so hot right now, Rembrandt has gone lethargic, Raven's spot looks like it's sort of drying up but looks better. None of my fish were handling MelaFix well so took them all off that. I bought Cupramine for the false MG girl and her velvet so she's currently in a 1 gallon under a blanket.

And I'm pretty sure I'm hallucinating but I thought I saw a spot of the columnaris come up on the black CT girl we're breeding and I'm just like NOOOOOOO....why the hell do these things happen?

Thank god for my cat MC who immediately came up, sat in front of me (I was sitting on my bed), reached out his paw to sit it on my knee and then pressed his head into my hand to make me pet him. He kept that up for a good ten minutes before he hopped up on the bed to lay next to me, paw still on my leg. He's such a good kitty cat.


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## lilnaugrim

OH! And I forgot to mention that the orange Marble Girl, yeah the one that I really wanted? Yeah, she died. FOR NO APPARENT REASON!

I checked parameters in her cup, ammonia was up a bit as expected since she was in a CUP. Room is warm so everything is at a comfy 78-80. No signs of Velvet, Ich, Internal Parasites, other external parasites or nothing! The only thing was the day before she was clamped but when I came around she was excited for food.....why....why does this happen :-(


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## Elsewhere

Aw, Lil, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. I hope it works out in the end


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## lilnaugrim

Today was the cherry topper on the lovely ice cream cone >.> I found out that my "grandfather" has been going into my room after I leave for school to turn off my clamp lights. At first I thought they just weren't turning on since the other tank lights with regular hoods were still on. I realized today that it's because he doesn't know how to turn those off but the clamp lights are easy. I tested out the electrical stripes and sure enough they came on when it turned on.

I was topping off my 33 earlier before I realized what he'd been doing and he came by to go to his room and stopped his stupid shuffle walk and said to me "You're going to have to get rid of your tanks, I can't afford it" Grow some effing cahones and just ask me to help pay the bill. But nooooooo, that's too simple and too human like for a stupid introverted person like him. What a complete words-I-can't-say-on-here!

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHA I'm so friggin' frustrated! As if going to college wasn't hard enough! I actually do work in my major, it's not ALL fun and games!

On some lighter news everyone else is doing well. Raven and Firestar escaped their cups after they sank >.< Firestar was unscathed except one loose scale but otherwise only a few nips to her anal fin. It's been two weeks as of today, actually two weeks and a day and they've always floated in the tank so the girls were pretty used to them and didn't really care about either. So they are in there happy now.

Right now the only cup I'm floating is my marble girl who I've decided to call Princess Mononoke lol, she's got the perfect colors and all! But she's definitely more like a royal princess rather than a princess of wolves but that's okay! I like the name and the colors match so I'm happy. The other ten million cups are sitting under a blanket with the false MG girl's 1 gallon QT treating her velvet with Cupramine. Yesterday was first dose and tomorrow morning I will add in another drop and do a water change at night.

So Raven, Matisse, Little Blue, Lynx, True MG girl and Rembrandt are all being treated with KanaPlex now. Rembrandt has perked up quite a bit and I'm sure I'm just seeing things but it looks like he's a little better. Mattie still looks pitaful but she's still alive and kicking; eating like a pig. Little Blue, Raven and Lynx hate the cups but oh well, they'll just have to deal! MG girl is fine either way.

I was hallucinating when I thought I saw a spot of the columnaris on the Black CT girl and nearly flipped out yesterday since I had enough.

Black DT girl is still happy although she hates her cup but she's healthy and that's all that matters. Amara still has worms but I can't do anything about them since I don't have any dog dewormers so hopefully I can find some to treat her with, I really don't want to lose her too :-( Orange is my favorite color.


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## BettaLover1313

I hope everyone gets better! Sorry to hear about what your grandfather's been doing/saying; he's really unbelievable with all that he does and says to you.


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## Huffle Puffles

Geeeez! Sorry you're having to deal with not only sick fishies but a pain in the bum relative. Also, really sorry to read that your orange marble girl died.  Keep your chin up, hopefully everything smooths out quickly!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Huffle and BL1313, it does mean a lot to hear things like that. I'm just so done with all of this. I just broke down in front of my dad and I hate crying in front of him, I'm sure we all do but I just don't deal well with things like that. I can't wait to get out of here. I'm debating telling mom that I'm just going to bring all my fish tanks over, or at least buy a 20 gallon long to keep in the basement, divide for Steve, Tony, Hawkeye, Aero and Rembrandt; hoping that Ditto and Gambit can find homes soon. And then just have my sorority and the 5.5 under the 33 if it's needed and then just pay her electricity bill since she will actually ask me and work with me and I like my mom. I hate my grandfather, I've never dispised anyone this bad before but I do, he's not my grandfather and I am not related to him. I'd really like to disown him from the family.

I had to lol a little bit there because all I could hear was Mushu from Mulan going: Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow, dishonor on your family! lol

Everyone is still alive right now so for that I am happy. Rembrandt has perked up much more, he seems to like the KanaPlex. Tony and Steve are flaring at each other, Hawkeye has grown like tenfold. Ditto and Aero are just being Ditto and Aero lol. The girls are good, Asaria and Firestar were accepted into the sorority no issues so far. Stardust's fins are growing back after her jump. Plants are doing okay even though they've spent almost all their day's without light....I'd REALLY like to NOT lose my Dwarf Hairgrass again :-/ >.>

So we had our first football game today, woot woot! Surprise we lost /sarcasm. We always lose but THE BAND ALWAYS WINS! lol We had a visiting band actually, they were nice! Not all visiting bands are nice so that was a great change up. We did really well with our Pre-game, Half time and Post game shows! Right now Halftime and Post game is the same show but once we learn another show, our first show will be Post game and half time will be the new show so that everyone can enjoy it all.

Anyway, got to run to CVS because I tweeked my ankle again while marching down so I need a good brace!


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## dramaqueen

I'm sorry for the trouble you've been having with your fish. And your 'grandfather ' should have discussed his concerns about the electricity before now so you could have arranged a payment of some sort. My SIL showed us the water bill while we were staying there. It was only $15 more and er tried go pay her but she wouldn't accept it. Why show it if you don't want payment?


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## lilnaugrim

dramaqueen said:


> I'm sorry for the trouble you've been having with your fish. And your 'grandfather ' should have discussed his concerns about the electricity before now so you could have arranged a payment of some sort. My SIL showed us the water bill while we were staying there. It was only $15 more and er tried go pay her but she wouldn't accept it. Why show it if you don't want payment?


My 'grandfather' is a legitimate introvert and hates confrontation. The thing is, my dad offered to pick up the slack on the electricity and stuff when we first moved in in 2007, the offer was denied but was arranged that we could just supply the food and fix whatever breaks. And so we have been.

It's not about the money for him, well at least not the most of it. It's the fact of the matter that he hates us being there because he wants everything to himself. He's such a greedy, selfish, buttface. He literally cannot even speak to us and when he does, it's extremely awkward. It doesn't help that he's extremely hard of hearing but refuses to get hearing aids because of his pride and that's exactly what he told the traveling nurse.

So it's just purely the fact of the matter but even still, it extremely upsets me. I know why he does this and I know it's hard for most people to understand. I do understand him but I also can't stand him lol. It's a difficult and complicated situation. On one hand I feel bad for him, on another I don't at all because he can move, he can get up and do things but he just doesn't. He's extremely lazy and arrogant. I haven't hugged him since I think I was about 7 and refused to do so afterwards; I loved grammy though, she was the best. Well I do have to take sides and say that my Memeire is the best haha, but if Grammy were still here it might be a little more equal. Miss you grammy 

So I've decided to invest in a 20 gallon long that I will be setting up at my mom's house in my room. I've already talked to my mom, we've worked everything out and it's all set to go! See...that wasn't so hard >.> But anywho, Lucillia is helping me get the tank and then I want to divide it for Steve, Tony, Hawkeye, Rembrandt and Aero. For the moment I still have Mercury and Jarvis, not sure when they'll be actually going to their new home. But I just got a person interested in Ditto, ugg this is so difficult. I've never had to say goodbye like this before; at least purposely sending him away! I've had pet deaths and family deaths and friend deaths but this is so completely different! :-( I don't like it.

Anyway, tank will be split into 5 so they each get 4 gallons, it's an upgrade for all of them! I want 40 pounds of Eco-Complete substrate, black of course. All my plants will be going into that tank (not the plants in the 33 of course) and then will keep the 5-15 filter on one end and probably get another 5-15 for the other end since I don't really need that much filtration but the aeration is nice to get the water in the middle moving. Might also do the 5-15 in the middle, baffled with two Marineland i25's on each end, right now I already have one so that will only be one filter that needs to be bought. I'd use my ten million Tetra Whisper 3i's but I don't want to deal with the airpump, just such a pain in the tushie.

Then my lovely clamp lights, might try to find a way to rig them so I can hang them ;-) that'd be cool! So that's my plan of attack for right now, hopefully it works 

Pictures will be up later when I find the time and finish sorting through.


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## Elsewhere

Ooh, exciting news, Lil! Can't wait to see pics


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## lilnaugrim

Okay finally getting pictures up since it's been the last four days of hell apparently! So these are from the last four day's or so, might be since Thursday, not sure.

Phoenix









Lynx wasn't really happy but oh well.









My marble girl whom I've dubbed Princess Mononoke! Duly suits her lol

















Stardust wasn't doing well, but she looks much better today.









Pineapple and the Black DT girl who actually has a red dot on her back lol









Gambit, nearly there!









Firestar, Asaria and Mononoke are all in the tank now.









Mononoke when she was still in her cup









She's got black lining on her mouth but it's only one side, so one side she looks grumpy and the other happy, or at least just not grumpy lol

















Stardust getting better



























Cherry being Cherry

















Okay maybe it looks like she's actually happy here haha









K, these I know are from *Today*

Gambit still needs a home!









This is his flare by the way haha









*Le gasp!* You are not real!









Mononoke happily in the tank and so far no issues.









Asaria trying to challenge Mystique, oh what a fatal mistake haha









She looks all cute and sweet...

















And then!









You turn your back!









Asaria challenging my Secret Alpha; aka Cherry.









And Cherry dishing it right back!









Other Marble girl, I love her light blue! So pretty

















Mononoke

















I do believe this is Boss Ram









Group shot!









And last but not least we get Ditto's tail because he's a butt and didn't want to turn around for a good picture.


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## Elsewhere

Don't mind me, just drooling over all of these pictures... So gorgeous!


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## lilnaugrim

hehe, thanks Elsewhere ^_^ I'm glad my camera worked itself out and I found my Macro setting! that was the biggest improvement and now I have amazing light in the sorority tank that my pictures come out well at the bottom of the tank! Whereas before it was difficult to get Little Blue in her natural habitat on the bottom of the tank XD lol


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## BettaLover1313

Gambit looks wonderful! *glares at Merlin* He's healed up nicely! Love all the pictures of the girls! It's good that you were able to work something out with your mom so that you don't have to worry about your grandfather doing things to your tanks.


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Gambit looks wonderful! *glares at Merlin* He's healed up nicely! Love all the pictures of the girls! It's good that you were able to work something out with your mom so that you don't have to worry about your grandfather doing things to your tanks.


He's still up for adoption hint, hint! lol I'm sure Merlin and Dragoon would kill you though XD But thanks! His tail still needs some work but it's working itself out on it's own, eventually it will push off all the black edges and grow out like new so I'm just waiting for that to happen now 

Yeah, I had sort of planned to do this a while ago but I didn't want to burden my mom but I fear the next thing that he's going to do is shut off my electrical strip and screw my entire eco-system over! It's bad enough I've had plenty of plant die off! For some ungodly reason one of my Java Fern's died! Like wtf? It was a more fancy java fern, not lacy but almost felt like it but one by one the leaves all rotted.....wut? so I'm sort of frustrated with that. But right now I've got an order in with plantedaquariumscentral.com and I'll be getting: 1 Green Cabomda bunch, 1 Purple Cabomda bunch (now that I have high lighting), 1 Bacopa Carolina, more Alternanthera to see how it does, more Water Wisteria, Hygrophila Corymbosa and 1 dwarf lily bulb which I want in with Tony since he has nearly nothing in his tank, poor boy!


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## Huffle Puffles

Yay! I love picture days. Everyone looks wonderful, even Ditto being a fussy bum XD


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## lilnaugrim

He is a fussy butt! But that's what makes him amazing ^_^ He's actually found a new home with a user on here who lives in PA so not too far! I'm super sad and heartbroken to see him go but I just can't keep up with everything anymore, especially with school....sigh, oh yeah and my fraternity >.< I love my frat (we're co-ed, honorary service fraternity, not social) but it can be a bit hectic at times. We're actually colonizing a new chapter out in Mass! I believe it's North Eastern? So we have to worry about them and also bringing in a new class of our own, it's a super big task but I think we can do it! That and trying to work closer with our sister organization as well since we've had issues in the past trying to work together and figure everything out.

So....I've been on the look out for a partial EE salamander for a while......I found her.....and I bought her: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Live-Betta-...L3xCdrqb5Bc2SAfrRA6Zc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc only 21 dollars! if I could save the picture, I would but I can't so hoping the link works well! She's so cute! Looks to be DT geno in her as well, great form over all. I wanted her sister who had darker colors but she also had a bent spine and I wasn't really happy with that so I took this girl instead! She's in the US so for that I am happy. No more for me though, unless someone else wants to die >.> But I just wanted....idk, not exactly replace the orange marble I lost but I really have been on the look out for a salamander partial EE like her for a long time now so I thought it was the right time.

Mattie is still holding on, her wounds have opened up a little to an under coat, but there's some new fin growth on her anal fin....like what? Get rid of the columnaris FIRST and then heal your fins you silly girl! lol She still eats and stuff so that's seems good. I think she can pull through with the effort on both of our parts here, it's just going to be a long road for her. Well it's been a long road for her this entire time, she was sick when I bought her so she's never really been up to par so to say. And when she wasn't sick, she was picked on and her fins were always a mess. The girls know when someone is weak and sick, well all animals know except maybe Humans since we're mostly ignorant to others...not all of us, just most >.< unfortunately.

I've got so much to do today! Working at the moment, got all the van's out for the day, tomorrow's vans don't go out until late so I can do them in the morning. Then I have Concert Choir at 12-1 which is an auditioned choir that I've been in for 6 semesters now! Woot woot! We're planning an Italy trip this coming Spring semester! I hope I can raise enough money to go! Spain was amazing May of '12!

And then I have Print Making I at 2-(4:45) although I only stay till 4 since I have marching band which starts at 4 and runs till 6. Then after that I have to go drive to the Bay Campus to know where the heck I'm driving people tomorrow and then I think I should go back to my dad's to do the swab/bath for Mattie and possibly Rembrandt since his fuzz hasn't gotten much better, however he's being sassy as all hell! And then back to mom's for sleep time >.< I still need to wash my clothes....sigh.....this will be a loooonnnngggg day....lots of running around as well.

Good news is that I've just accepted my student loans so that means money in the next few day's!!! Yay, full tank of gas here I come! That and buying 40 lbs of Eco-Complete if I can find it for the 20 long. I have the silicone already, I want to do these for real: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/diy-aquarium/diy-aquarium-tank-dividers-21866/ and silicone them in so I don't have to worry about knocking them over all the darn time! I also need to find a stand for the 20, so if anyone knows of anything good! Please tell me!

Sorry that my posts are so long! I'd rant and stuff on Facebook but there are people on there that I don't feel like talking to or would feel embarrassed to make certain remarks about. Like I'm "friends" with my "grandfather" although he's not on much and then I have some actual adult friends who we all attend the Scottish Festivals so I'd be embarrassed to swear or anything on FB in fear of them seeing it. I'm quite reserved I think, well to people I want to be; to my best friends I'm not though haha. I think many people are like that as well though.


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## Viva

Sorry to hear about all the problems with your fishies, I hope they all recover fast! So strange that the orange girl died suddenly and without an obvious cause of death  Your girls are so beautiful, I love the new marble!


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## lilnaugrim

Mononoke? Yeah, she was my first AquaBid fish I bought on my "own"! well I bid and then Lucillia helped me out when I realized I had insufficient funds  and then we bought our Black Copper CT pair together ;-) so it worked out well! and then I paid her back for both girls.

Yeah, I'm super sad about the orange marble girl :-( like, I know things sometimes just happen for no reason but with Fish there's almost ALWAYS a reason! Whether it was new water parameters or whatever, there is still almost always a sign at least like burnt gills, labored breathing before death. Clamping was the only thing she had and she still ate like a pig so I just found it extremely disappointing, disheartening and sad. Mostly I was frustrated since I couldn't find any sort of reason.

But just found Mononoke's auction picture, she hasn't changed too much!
She added the black under her belly and on her mouth but that's about it


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## Viva

Yes I was referring to Mononoke, she is so gorgeous! She does have a darker belly now, love it! Maybe you can get another orange girl? I've actually never owned an orange betta, they are so pretty! I got a yellow because I couldn't find an orange female I liked on AquaBid


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## BettaLover1313

I would take Gambit if I thought I could handle a 10 gallon in my dorm (since that's the limit) but my 5.5 barely fits where I have it, so sadly, I cannot, though I'd still really love to since he's such a handsome little guy! 

That new salamander girl looks very pretty!


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## Quinn

Just got caught up on your journal. So sorry to hear of your recent losses, and struggles to battle this illness. I really hope the rest of your crew pulls through with no issues! 
And I completely understand your troubles with your grandfather. I have similar issues with my grandmother (she gave away my rats while I was on vacation once - I got them back and moved out, but still super messed up) so if you ever want someone to chat with/ rant to feel free to PM me. It's really shitty to have to deal with family members who behave in such ways *sigh*


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks a bunch Quinn! It really does suck and you can never really escape it either, well...not always easily. I'm glad that I have my mom's house at least.

So I stopped by my dad's to take care of Mattie and the other's who are still in cups. Of the healthy girls that are left to go in are just the Black DT girl and the black Copper CT girl. True MG girl could go in but I want to fully heal the minor pop-eye she has first. False MG girl is recovering from Velvet extremely well! I took a peek today.

I also did a Hydrogen Peroxide bath for Mattie, Lynx, Little Blue and Jewel. Jewel was only in for about 10 minutes but tomorrow I plan to do the bath for all of those plus Emma and Rembrandt to hopefully help rid me of this columnaris! Lynx has some open sores on her too now....I just can't win can I? But they've all been in KanaPlex as well so it should help this all out.

I'm trying to decide if I want to dose the tank or not....

Oh! I got my order in from planted aquariums central! What amazing plants! I only ordered one of each but she gave me an extra bundle of wisteria and green cabomda! I am VERY pleased! Also the service was super fast and she's so polite and responds very quickly! I will definitely do business there in the future if I need plants again! So my tank looks nice again :-D I'll try to get pics tomorrow.


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## Elsewhere

Aw, Lil, that sucks about the diseases :/ But awesome about your plants! The Cabomba will grow FAST. Mine tripled in size in a month, and then gave me more to look after!


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## lilnaugrim

My last Cabomda grew for a while but it was slow growth, even with 6,500K lights and SeaChem flourish and the few little stems I have left haven't grown at all. So we'll see how the new stuff does! It's still all wrapped up for the moment but I wanted to let it have a chance to get used to my water before I played with it more. So far everything is still alive! The Dwarf Lily bulb is doing great already!

Mattie isn't looking better but I can't tell if she's looking worse either. I grabbed a video of her today, I'll upload everything later or tomorrow morning during work since I'm exhausted right now!

And whoops, just won this girl: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/closed.cgi?view_closed_item&fwbettashm1378852899 I've actually seen her pop up for like a month and a half now! So I had to grab her while I could. She'll be my last though for right now since she'll put me at 23 assuming that Mattie survives this.

Oh I also started to dose the tank with KanaPlex as well since it doesn't harm plants if used properly so I'm just going to use it and hope that it helps. Jewel and Emma seem to be effected as well so I hope I can keep them in the tank and treat them that way. I didn't do any bath's on anyone today but I think tomorrow if I'm not dead by the end of our Marching band practice lol I think the every other day might be good though so I don't stress them so much. But all the girls are sitting at a lovely 77-78 except the girl who's battling and seemingly winning over Velvet so I hope she continues to heal up well. I'm using Cupramine on her so it should work very well.


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## BettaLover1313

Congrats on the plants and new female! I hope everyone gets better!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313! I sure do hope so as well. I still have some hope left for Matisse but it's growing thin. She wasn't clamped today though so that's good! I didn't really check on the others though.


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## Catw0man

Can't believe you're going through so much with all your fishies! Well, I can believe it cuz I've been there at times! Sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong at once. Sorry to hear that the orange girl died!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Catw0man said:


> Can't believe you're going through so much with all your fishies! Well, I can believe it cuz I've been there at times! Sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong at once. Sorry to hear that the orange girl died!!!


Yeah, its been one rough week! I was super sad that the orange girl died though since I really wanted her :-( if you see another like her on aquabid or anything, can you let me know? Im totally willing to spend my entire bank account to get her! Well actually, I'll have my student loan very shortly lol.

It always sucks still though and I definitely know you know as well. It really all does happen all at once! Never really thought I'd be in this position before, subconsciously though I knew it was just a matter of time but no one wants to think that way


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## lilnaugrim

This is what Mattie looks like as of last night

























And here's how the sorority tank looks as of right now with more plants again! Yay! It's not definitive where the plants are going right now, I mostly just set them in with their weights so that they could get used to the water first and then plant them after they've had a few day's. They've been in since Monday and I think I'll let them simmer till Saturday 









Cherry my lovely girl!









Mystique was loving the dwarf hairgrass and was digging herself a little "nest" here in front of it lol, silly girl!









And Lady









All I have right now but I should be able to get more pictures tonight while I'm changing cups and doing Hydrogen Peroxide bath's for all the sick girls and hope that I can just stop this stupid disease!


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## Viva

This columnaris you're battling is making me super paranoid about my girls! Every little missing scale I see is now like a super crazy disease in my mind, lol. I would hate to have to battle such a scary, contagious disease. You are doing all you can and I know your girls will be fine! Matisse looks like she is still fighting to live, don't give up on her! Where did you get the directions on doing the Hydrogen Peroxide baths? I would just like to know for future reference, always like to learn along the way.


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## lilnaugrim

It was my own fault that columnaris got in in the first place. I knew Matisse had something funky going on with her mouth a long time ago but I was ignorant that disease would get in and eventually with enough stress the columnaris attacked and worsened her already existing case. Columnaris is one of those diseases that's already in the water column and it waits for fish to get stressed out and then attacks. But with proper QT time and taking someone out the moment you see anything to address it, you shouldn't have an issue.

Also Rembrandt has had this patch on his face for a long time as well and the same thing happened; I was ignorant although I tried to treat with AQ salt for a few day's and it did nothing except make him miserable. Although he's been super sassy to me lately in his 3 gallon QT tank and the kanaplex lol.

Oh my partial EE girl came in today! She's super adorable!!! In love already!

And Viva, I'll PM you the links since they're to a different forum, that goes for anyone who wants links to the bath's as well.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh I just realized that I'm over 500 comments now :-D thank's all!

So I put in the Black DT girl today after being floated in the tank for 3 day's and all is well! Although she keeps going into Pineapple's terracotta pot and well...it is PINEAPPLE'S pot and she keeps chasing her out but she keeps going back in >.< oh she'll learn one of these day's lol However Aurora is following her around and chasing off other females who try to nip at the DT girl lol, it's too cute! They totally play favorites ;-)

So did water changes for all the girls, did one for Rembrandt as well and in the process of doing one for Gambit however the kitchen is since occupied by my "grandfather" so I'm not going out there till he's done is all.

The girl who's battling velvet is doing amazing! She's showing absolutely no signs of velvet but I'm continuing the course of the treatment for the full 14 day's since I know how persistent this disease can be!

Mattie and Little Blue are in the H2O2 bath at the moment, Mattie is mad and LB is absolutely furious lol. BUT all of LB's open sores are now healed up! She's working on her fins now so I hope she also makes it through!

I've found a tentative home for Gambit and real home for Ditto who will be shipped out next Tuesday hopefully. Mercury and Jarvis are hanging tight until my friend get's her tank set up but I have a feeling it might be a while, so I got to text her to remind her is all. I've explained cycling but she didn't quite grasp it and I don't expect people to on the first go around since it is difficult to grasp at first but once you realize and it clicks, it really clicks! So I'm sure it will click for her soon 

And my partial EE girl came in today! She's so cute! And fiesty! They're all feisty when they come in though, she'll tone down eventually. But just going to start her on KanaPlex as well with everyone else since it can't hurt her, well it can but not at the dose I'm dosing at lol. I'd rather not risk anything anyway.


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## Huffle Puffles

Congrats on all the comments! Your journal is not only entertaining but very informative as well! 

That's is VERY cute that Aurora has made a new friend. ^_^

I'm very glad to hear that everyone is starting to get better!


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## lilnaugrim

Not everyone but some are getting better. Matisse is still deteriorating but I'm doing my best right now and she knows it, she's not happy about it but she knows and she's trying to keep up as well. 

I'm glad it's informative! Yeah if you guys ever have questions, feel free to ask! I like to converse and stuff ^_^ PM'ing or here is fine by me :-D

I don't know if I'll get pictures tonight because basically after my water changes, I'm headin' straight for the hay so maybe tomorrow.


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## BettaLover1313

I love reading your journal for the humor and the information! I'd eventually like to start a sorority and have planted tanks (may try a planted tank over the summer and may upgrade to a 10 gallon too...still debating on that part). I definitely know who to ask for help!


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## lilnaugrim

:-D yay, glad you all like my journal! That makes it all worth it ^_^

I do love my sorority, as frustrating as it can be sometimes I wouldn't trade them for the world! And I'm so very glad that Lucillia got me into fish only just over a year now! July of 2012 was my first fish; Gallifrey a red CT! And then Scotch, Stony and then a bit of a break and Rembrandt came in December! And after that my learning curve took off and I've been steadily learning new things nearly each week and love to help other's how the best I can. I'm happy to say that I can help as well! I might be a bit of a bonehead sometimes haha but hey, at least I try ;-)

Alright, sleepy time for this tuckered out and ill girl! New meds + stress of fish = sick >.> I've been getting chills and cold sweat's all day....sigh


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## Lucillia

Haha! We mention each other way too much. I was just casually reading through and wanted to see how your journal was. XD I feel so incompetent about fish now. Granted I've learned a lot more now that I have successful tanks finally. But still XD YAY FISH!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> Haha! We mention each other way too much. I was just casually reading through and wanted to see how your journal was. XD I feel so incompetent about fish now. Granted I've learned a lot more now that I have successful tanks finally. But still XD YAY FISH!!!


lol, true facts! It's usually either you or Marissa I'm talking about XD and others are mentioned by name generally.

It's okay!! Remember, you made this! *points to self* and in return I can help you :-D I'm still learning too, every week there's something different and I tend to be a sponge when it's things I like and hence I learned so quickly after December last year! I remember when we were looking at video's of spawning Betta's and found the Mustard Gas and I never knew what Remmy's colors were called until we saw that video! I think that was January? I remember I was helping you write some sort of paper thing and then we started to talk about spawning lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! Before I post any pics or anything, I've got to tell you about my dream from last night! So a little prequel, normally how I sleep is I sleep well right up until midnight and then after midnight or around there I wake up every half hour to an hour. I don't stay up long, a few seconds up to a minute sometimes and then fall back asleep but this causes me to constantly go in and out of REM sleep and you dream just a few minutes before you wake up usually out of REM sleep. So my dreams tend to be very lengthy, detailed and colorful.

So this dream started out on a beach which is weird because I just don't go to beaches, well at least not during the day; we love to go at evening/night time though! Plus free parking! Anyway! I was on a beach and it was our local town beach called Misquamicut down in Westerly, and I was just laying out on the sand on my towel trying to get a little tan since I had bad tan lines from spending 20 minutes on a bridge trying to cross from Canada back to the States (<- that part actually happened) and so in the dream I was trying to tan and we had a beach house there. It was my birthday so we were having a party!

I accidentally fell asleep in the blaring sun, it actually hurt my eyes while I slept! And when I woke up I had awful tan lines with the top of myself being brown and the underside being pale as sh*t lol, a bit over dramatized but it was a dream after all. So I woke up from the beach and it was nice, I could hear the seagulls yelling and the waves lapping but I noticed a big storm cloud off the distance and was like "well crap, that ruins my party" and got up.

I walked up a couple feet from the beach to our beach house which was huge and wicked nice! My dad was grilling there for the party and he was super excited for me and told me, "Oh yeah! I invited Thor and Tony Stark over as well," nonchalantly.

"Oh sweet! Thank's dad, you're the best!" I was very happy, apparently these two were like my best friends or something. So then the dark cloud got closer and everything was starting to turn super dark and stormy and it started to downpour. Dad was like "crap! Get inside!" and I just turned around to look out at the ocean and was like...."What's that light on the horizon?" the blinding white light got closer and closer until I could see it was Jesus....what Jesus was doing in my dream...not really sure.

So He was levitating over the water of course and was coming closer, the rain had stopped as he neared and the thunder started to roll away (I think it might have actually been thundering outside at night) He circled around still over the water and as if he was a stiff doll, like a barbie doll or something he was tipped up and over and his head was dunked in the ocean as if being baptized and then he was upright again and floating off into the distance, the clouds and storm going with him.....yeah...weird I know and rather comical.

So storm was done and we continued on getting ready for the party. Thor showed up in swimshorts and a towel over his shoulder and I was happy he was there. People started to show up randomly but I apparently wasn't really paying attention as I went inside the mansion to get ready to celebrate. My older brother and his wife were there and I accidentally saw part of my gift which was a jar of Red Pepper Cider Jam; BEST stuff in the WORLD! and I was like awww, I already bought myself a jar, well I guess I'll have two jars!

So we were starting to congregate in the living room and Tony Stark was sitting in there already and I went and sat on the arm of his chair, casually leaning on my elbow against his shoulder like NBD and he was all like happy birthday! You're finally 21 hooray and all that jazz and we started to talk nuclear dynamics....what? I don't even understand that stuff but apparently my subconscious does! And then the party suddenly started and next thing I knew I was sitting before a table and someone had given me a chocolate fork so I was munching on that while looking at a gigantic spoon...like human sized....

So party continued and I don't remember what Tony or Thor gave me but it was normal lol. And then I looked over to my dad and he was holding a napkin with what looked to be a knocked out red marble PK male Betta in it but he was trying to hide it apparently and sort of freaked out when I asked him what it was.
"Damn it, that was supposed to be your birthday gift!" and I was like...."I don't even have room for any more males,"

And that's when they rolled in the long tanks that was like a 40 long but dimensions were 12 high and 12 wide like a 20 long and then just doubled in length to make 40 gallons. And then next thing I knew I had like 20 cups of fish before me all mixed with different females and males all from AquaBid....there were some gorgeous females in there and I'm like, I still only have 33 gallons and I already have 23 females! I can't fit too many more!! Such an internal conflict! Holy mackerel! But that's basically when I woke up....yeah, hope you enjoyed a look into my brain XD


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## MattsBettas

Jeseus, Tony Stark, and fish in one dream... Dreams make no sense. Lol.


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Jeseus, Tony Stark, and fish in one dream... Dreams make no sense. Lol.


Can't forget Thor and a chocolate fork! lol

My dreams hardly ever make sense, like yeah sometimes I can see where I get the ideas from like obviously fish because I've been so caught up in them the last week, birthday because my 21st is the 18th of this month, storm most likely because it was storming out, beach house well we live near the beach at least. Jesus? not sure. Although I did read a funny image yesterday about when people ask if it's raining out when you come in soaked and instead just say "No, it's National Baptism Day," so that might have triggered him dunking his head in the ocean >.< lol

So there are plenty of sources but my brain just puts them together in a weird but sort of coherent fashion.


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## lilnaugrim

Okay I lied again about getting pics up tonight lol. Going to bed, tomorrows a busy day of water changes and medications so night night all!


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## BettaLover1313

Definitely a weird dream, but I think we've all had some like that that are just plain weird


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## lilnaugrim

That's my type of dreams on a daily basis though and I remember almost every single dream that I've ever had....yeah it get's a bit crowded up there sometimes >.<

OH! I forgot about the donut cake that I had as well since I don't like regular cake! I ate part of that with my chocolate fork as the fork was melting >.<

Anyway, NOW I'm off to bed, had to do my nightly rounds of the interwebs haha.


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures because I'm being lazy!

Ditto and Gambit will both be leaving me on Tuesday! I'm sad but at the same time I'm happy since they're having the most issues with fin rot and I'd hate to see them get worse or anything! Especially Ditto, I just feel so bad I can't take care of them like I used to :-(

























Gambit still pushing off that rotted piece on his tail, overall though he's looking much better! Anal fin is doing great!









I love how vibrant he is!









Silly boy, he thought he was hiding on me!









I FINALLY got a flare pic of him!!!! This is as much as he'll flare lol









So this is basically what I come home to every day I'm at my dads, FISH EREWHERE!









































I got a new hide for everyone yesterday as well when I had to pick up some more conditioner!









Pineapple INSTANTLY started to use it lol









Lady Ram photobombed









Lone Ram has started to become less Lone lol









Phoenix wasn't going to miss out either!









So this is what the tank looks like as of right now but I will be taking the weights off the plants today to spread them around and plant them since whatever melted already melted and I can plant them easier now.









Left side:









Right side









Before I put the ornament in, Pineapple here









Mystique really likes that spot









Aurora









Aurora and Asaria, Asaria and Firestar have grown since they went in the tank last week! They used to be tiny against Aurora, Pineapple and Stardust my three giant girls who aren't actually giants.









Jewel is looking a little better but still has fin loss









Emma isn't too happy









Boss Ram there in the middle









Amara looks so nice and vibrant but she's still got worms :-(









Black CT girl looking gorgeous as ever!

















Little Blue's body is getting better but fins are worse.

























And!!! *drumroll please!* dun dun dun duuuuunn! My new girl! She's gorgeous!









Staring down the CT girl










































And that's all I have for right now ^_^


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## Elsewhere

Oh my goodness, Lil, you new girl looks EXACTLY like Artemis! They could be twins!


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## lilnaugrim

lol I had to look back at your pictures to see which one Artemis was XD whoops. But yeah! The only differences I can see is that my girl has white between her ray's on her tail and she's not the deeper blue that Artemis is; she's more turquoise/green but I know it's hard to tell with there's not much light  And then of course my girl only has partially colored pectorals, not even larger than normal so she's not really an EE at all but that's okay with me


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## Elsewhere

Oh yes, looking back they're a little different  But still close enough that I find it a bit funny! Haha!


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## lilnaugrim

Very true! Well with only a limited amount of colors we're all bound to have some similar looking girls ;-) however they are VERY good looking girls haha


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## Elsewhere

True that! She certainly is a beaut, though! I like the turquoise on her! Oh, and I have a question for you- can I plant the leaf clippings from my Wisteria, or will they just die off? I have no clue about plants, haha!


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## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> Oh, and I have a question for you- can I plant the leaf clippings from my Wisteria, or will they just die off? I have no clue about plants, haha!


With wisteria and practically all stem plants, yes you can cut the tops off and replant ^_^ if you see roots growing from a certain node it's best to cut off like an inch below that if you have room, that way it's already got roots going on and doesn't have to grow them as well when it's replanted. All Hygrophila plants are that way as well as all Anacharis/Elodea plants and then Ludwigia and Rotala as well. I don't really think there isn't a stem plant that you can just cut and replant. Although Cabomda might not like it much, usually you can break off the new plant that grows on it's side or if you do cut the top off then when you replant the top sometimes that part dies but a new shoot will grow from it.

However not all plants regenerate, Anacharis/Elodea will not continue to grow from the place you cut off, like Cabomda it will grow a side shoot near the cut. Water Wisteria however will usually continue to grow out from the place you cut it from, occasionally it will grow just a regular side shoot instead but normally it will regenerate itself :-D


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## Elsewhere

Awesome! Thanks so much! I'm always so glad to have you here to tell me all about plants and fish!


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## lilnaugrim

:-D! Happy to help!! I'm just glad I know so much about all the plants and whatnot, makes my life and my Betta's lives so much easier ^_^

So I'm about to turn Aero's 3 gallon (originally Rembrandt's) into a sort of NPT right now! I've got some Miracle Grow Potting Mix that I've sifted through to get mostly just the dirt. I only want a small layer of the dirt since I've got gravel here in this tank which is about an inch think so it will make a nice 1.5 inch thick layer of substrate.

Reason is the dwarf haigrass although growing, isn't growing well. The Quilwort has slowed down on it's growth but the Crypt Parva is doing amazing! So I don't want to have to worry about root tabs in this tank at least anymore and it's not a super permenant set-up since all my boy's will be going to my mom's in the 20 long gallon that Lucillia is helping me get. So I just want to try my hand at it for now since I do sort of want to make a nice Nano planted tank either in my 10 gallon or the 5.5 and I've been researching practically all day and watching videos and stuff. But I think mostly I just want shrimp really and then I'm trying to decided between a small school of sundadanio axelrodi or 1-2 Male Guppies and then a small shoal of Corydoras Habrosus most likely since I really like them although I might take them out since I didn't like how they were dying off in my sorority tank purely because the water is hotter than they like it :-/ so that was an issue.

So anywho, getting off the interwebs soon to change out this tank quickly!


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## lilnaugrim

OMG! I just realized that tomorrow is my little brother's 18th birthday!!! wahhh! And wednesday is my 21st! Holy crap that came fast! I need to find a tiara I can wear all day :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So I think Aero is very confused as to why he's in a cup floating in his tank lol. I switched his 3 gallon over to a NPT today but am using gravel as a cap since I don't have any extra sand but that's fine since this isn't very long term anyway, more of an experiment. Since my boy's will be going to my mom's I figure now's a good time to try out NPT and see if it's for me or not  But Aero keeps looking around like....whaaattt? he's not mad just very confused lol.

Here's pics of the process, well most of the process; I didn't take pics of me shaking dirt into a bucket to separate the potting mix XD lol

Just filled with water after patting down my soil on the bottom and then patting the gravel into it! I'm using a filter for now to help get rid of excess debris and whatnot.









Got the plants in!

















Light back on, thermometer in, heater and filter going!

















lilnaugrim used Confusion!
Confusion is effective!
Aero has been defeated!









Look at that beautiful face!









I love how he's got different colored scales :-D









Partially blue pectorals!









His skunk stripe continues to fill in. By a year's time I think he's going to be completely blind as well.









Although his "eyelids" really haven't grown much so that's good! There's always a chance they won't scale over.


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## MattsBettas

Yay for NPTs! I think they are the way to go. I would add more floaters and fast growing stem plants like wisteria or hornwort to suck up the nutrients.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, the only things I don't like about NPT is that I can't move things around much. Not that I move plants much after they're planted but I'm not one for having an aquascape very long and actually this 3 gallon was the longest I had left a scape and it was only like 2 or 3 months I think lol. So that's why I want Eco-Complete for my 20 long for the boy's, this way I don't have to worry about cap's and ruining everything and I still won't have to worry much about root tabs :-D

I have my pennywort floating in there but that's actually the last floating plant I have. I sucessfully got rid of my Duckweed after some extensive daily netting and cleaning. As much as I liked it, it was choking out my other plants including my Frog-bit which was a No-No for me! I'll have to pull out some wisteria from the 33 though and throw it in, hopefully it won't melt and die from different water chemistry.

Oh and found out that I can absolutely NOT grow Alternanthera :-( it's such a beautiful plant! But this was the third time I got it, this time from a different source; plantedaquariumscentral.com and it melted and completely rotted....I had gone back to my LFS a few weeks ago and talked to them about the plant since that's where I first got it and it lasted longer than this new stuff. But they said the same thing happened to their's as well; looks great, was growing new roots and then suddenly leaves went all brown and it just up and died. We think we have too hard of water here since it's all city water where they are, but at home we have a well. Unfortunately it's a shallow well which means hard water. At mom's we have a very deep well and it's very soft water there.

But the thing is, my sorority has very soft water from the 5-6 pieces of driftwood I have in there so the Altern. shouldn't have had a issue with this. Or perhaps it likes really hard water? idk...all I know is that it was frustrating. On another note my Dwarf Lily looks amazing!!


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## MattsBettas

Maybe there's actual compounds in your water it doesn't like? Idk. 

You actually can move things around pretty easily in NPTs, any dirt I kick up settles down pretty quickly. I don't know if I would do a major rescape though... More trouble then it's worth I guess. That and I kinda like the look of those old, established, dense planted tanks.


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## Huffle Puffles

That tank looks good! And Aero, ahh, he's just so pretty!! I adore his blue.


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## Elsewhere

Wow, Lil, the tank looks amazing! And Aero, as usual, looks just fabulous!


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## lilnaugrim

Haha thanks guys! I haven't checked any of the parameter's today since I'm now at my mom's house. But the only thing that showed up yesterday after I tested that tank was .25 ammonia which I think is really good considering the dirt I've got in there! I hope it will settle really quickly, I think the filter being in there with some BB left over as well as on the gravel and driftwood helps get it re-established and all.

@Matt, I totally love the look of the established, jungle, overgrown tanks but apparently I don't have the patience or something and I just like to unconsciously move things around. I've wanted to move my Valisneria in my 33 so badly but I know I'll just disturb everything and if they've got offshoots growing then it's just going to be a pain in the butt. So I've been good with that, but we'll see how long this tank lasts me ^_^ I also think it's because I love to continually add new plants, Although I think this 3 gallon looks really nice right now since I've always wanted a grassy tank which is what this will eventually be. The entire aqua-scape in and of itself isn't want I actually want, the things that I would want would include dried bamboo with some Elodea or Anacharis between that and then some frog-bit over top and in the foreground/middle would just be grassy. So almost like the edge of a forest.

I have all this aqua-scaping idea's but it's a bit hard to accomplish right now with tighter budgets and not many available resources. Anyone know where I could get dried bamboo sticks? lol I'd probably have to cut something up to make it fit though and then eventually get rid of that piece of driftwood and put it somewhere else.

I think I want to do a NPT 10 gallon with shrimp eventually and maybe a male Guppy or a nice shoal of Sundadanio Axelrodi since those look pretty nice and would nicely compliment the Red Rili's that I'd want to get. Once I get all the boy's at my mom's into the 20 long I'll have a lovely open space on the bottom of the rack which I think I'd outfit with a nice sturdy board (or rather get my mom's bf to do it haha) and then put my 10 gallon there to do that.

That way I'd just have the 20 long, 10 gallon and the 33, much more managable for me during the school year. Water changes during the summer weren't bad since all I did was work five hours a day, five day's a week but the weekends were generally free and I was home early enough that I wasn't exhausted. During school; 12 hour day's >.< I get there at 7 in the morning since I'm a commuter and that's the best time to get a good spot (there aren't many!) and then work at 9 but I'm usually in the studio till then working on commissions or classwork. Work til 12, Concert Choir from 12-1, lunch and more classwork, Printmaking from 2-4:45 technically but Marching band starts at 4 so she lets me go early and have Band from 4-6 and then sometimes I'll go home after that and get home 6:30-45 depending on traffic and day or I'll just keep working in the studio till like 10 at night >.<

Anywho, It's my little brother's birthday today!!!! He's 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 what even is and how did time go by so fast??? I still feel like I'm only 18 somtimes >.< Wednesday I'll be 21, hooray! I can stay with my mom now on Thursday nights when she DJ's Karaoke and not get kicked out of the bar at 10 haha. Not that I'll drink much since I drive but I can at least continue to sing and all ;-)

So yeah, birthday party today and then I have a Fraternity meeting tonight and all day I've been working on my room at my mom's to get it ready for the fish. I've wanted to move it around for a long time and finally am able to do it! Issue is that I also want to paint my room and get rid of all the pin holes and scratches in pain and black marks and who knows what else. First and last time this room was painted was 11 years ago when I moved into this room and was 10 lol sooooo....yeah it's due.

But issues is; start working on at least hammering the pin holes in to puddy it today (there are A LOT of holes, teenagers = posters) and maybe Prime it sometime this week....or wait....I still have to get rid of a lot of stuff like my Notebooks...ugg why can't I get rid of these things?! It's basically like all the stories I used to write and I know I should just chuck them or burn them but...it's difficult letting go of things that I've had since High School and have had lots of history. I've tried going through them and writing them out on the laptop here but it's just too much to go through so I should just throw them all in a dumpster somewhere and just be rid of them!

And reason why I'm on the internet right now and not cleaning is because I ran out of boxes >.< I'd continue to get rid of stuff buuuut....yeah, need boxes....anyway. Just an update of my life haha ttyl!


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## lilnaugrim

Great....it's worse than I thought. Basement Betta's has told me that I most likely have Mycobacteria not a bacteria resistant strain of columnaris. This just can't get any better can it, worse of all; Rembrandt is infected. I just can't, I can't do this.

Specifically I think it's M. Triplex


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## dramaqueen

I'm so sorry about Rembrandt.


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## lilnaugrim

So Gambit and Ditto were sent out today regardless of issues, I warned both parties and both accepted. So for now Aero is put into the 2.5 gallon since the 3 is still spiking in ammonia and was around 5ppm today if I compared colors correctly lol, I was in a rush to get to my doctor appointment!

So....tomorrow is my 21st birthday!!! woot woot! Unfortunately I could not find a 21st tiara to wear, soooooo I made one! That's right! I made one out of an old headband and some aluminium foil! Here it is!









Hope you enjoy it ;-) So I'll be wearing that all day tomorrow ^_^ except for maybe during marching band lol

So I'm still learning about Mycobacteria and all and I'm pretty convinced I've got it. Little Blue was eaten today and Jewel jumped some time a few day's ago presumably Sunday since she was really dried up passed the point of recognition really, had to identify her by process of elimination. So those two were bagged and thrown after I almost vomited at the sight of Little Blue. At first I thought it was Jewel but upon trying to get her out of the tank while the girls kept picking at her, I found it was indeed LB :-(

I think I might euthanize Lynx and Emma since they are the next worse and then go from there to see what happens. The Ram's seem fine but I'm sure it's just a matter of time :-(


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## Elsewhere

Wow, you look so pretty Lil! ^.^ Congrats on 21! 

Aw, I'm sorry. And sorry for saying sorry so much. And sorry for being so Canadian. DARN IT! Is my Canadian humour helping? Sorry if it isn't. Eh. Oot and aboot. Anything? No? Matt is ashamed of me, he being a fellow Canadian? Nah. But still, I am really sorry you have to go through all this fish crap. It really really sucks, and I wish we could all just make it go away.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks for making me laugh Elsewhere! Definitely needed it ^_^ yes, got to love the Canadian sense of humor ;-) and thanks so much! I'm happy that I get to wear a tiara finally! and it's more special since I made it myself!


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## Huffle Puffles

Oh my gosh, I really am so sad for all your losses and sicknesses you are having lately. I know it can't be easy. I just hope that it all takes a turn for the better sometime soon. 
I also hope that you have a very happy 21st birthday!! Cute tiara! :blueyay::redyay: :greenyay: (closest emotes to balloons I could come up with :lol


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## MattsBettas

Lol. Canada isn't that different from the US. 

I would want a necropsy showing granulomas before you jump to myco since it still could be resistant columnaris... Especially is it was responding to treatment, no matter how little or slowly.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah I won't be doing anything about euthanizing or anything. I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything. I know I say it but I don't really mean it much. I'll have to get pictures of Lynx to show you when I get home either tonight or tomorrow night.

Happy birthday to me I guess! :-/ thanks Huffle though, I do think it will be a good day ^_^ already wearing my tiara and sitting in the fine arts center lol I'm a commuter so I like to get the best parking spot and I don't mind waking up at 5:30-6 in the morning ;-)


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## RowdyBetta

Happy birthday! ^.^ 
http://i.imgur.com/VoaZDox.jpg
(Not my pic, but I thought it was cute x3)


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## lilnaugrim

OMG! Thank you Rowdy! Thats amazing!!! Absolutely love it!!! :-D


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## Quinn

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a fantastic day despite your fishy issues! My 21st was the most uneventful day, and I didn't even get carded, what a disappointment :lol: I did not however have a fancy tinfoil tiara, so maybe that is the key!

So sorry to hear you lost more girls. I can't imagine how stressful the whole thing is for you. Hang in there.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Quinn! haha yes, this aluminum foil tiara must be the key to all! I should totally make these for a living and sell them with magical properties XD haha

Even though I am sad about my fish, I've gotten passed the other four stages (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Depression) and I hit Acceptance yesterday. For the sake of the health of my family, me and my cat's I am willing to do whatever it is that I need to do. I want to hold off for a while at least until I can be sure about everything but I am ready if I need to do anything.

Thanks anyway though!!!


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## BettaLover1313

Sorry to hear about the problems with illness you've been happy, and very sorry to hear about Little Blue.

A fancy tin foil tiara is brilliant! Your 21st birthday is complete with a tiara!!! Make sure to have fun today!


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## logisticsguy

Oh Im so sorry your having some troubles Lil. I agree with Matt that without a positive necropsy it would be too early to say m triplex. There are a whole lot of other bacteria and other things out there that it could be. 

Happy Birthday young lady!


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## lilnaugrim

I had a great day, thank you all!!!

Yeah, I want to get direction on a necropsy if I can from either Matt or Sakura to really identify what this all is. Mattie is still hanging in there but now she's got velvet I think or something similar. So....she's had a good run though and I'm honestly surprised that she's come this far still! So I think if she goes, she's at least in QT so I don't have to worry about girls eating her >.> I could perform the necropsy on her to find out since she was the first.

Can't get pics tonight since I'm super exhausted, we ran our show like 10 million times in Marching Band today so I'm just like dead lol. But had my first drink as a legal citizen but it wasn't very good....it was coke and rum which I've had before but it was literally like...99% Bacardi and I was like....uhhh I would actually like some coke in this >.< lol but I did end up getting another half glass of coke and poured half into that and drank that half but didn't drink too much more of the other one. Just too strong for me, I have many acquired tastes but nearly pure alcohol isn't one of them but that can be a good thing 

Tomorrow is my short day and I need to be home to get my new girl that's coming in. I had bought her before all this went down so I actually have a now spare tank from my mom which has been since cleaned out and disinfected so none of my equipment has touched it and I'm going to keep it that way. She won't even be in one of the cups, Once she's in I'm actually moving her to my mom's house with her own heater that has not been in any of my tanks before and kept there while I figure out what the heck to do.

I'm still moving the boy's to my mom's house and splitting a 20 long into 5 sections for Rembrandt, Aero, Hawkeye (who made a rather large bubble nest today!) Steve and Tony. So they can sit there and be infected >.> I'll have two sets of equipment there for the 10 which I want to set up underneath the 20 and make an NPT and I haven't decided on what to put in it yet. I want to do microfish basically and have been looking at the Least Killifish (Heterandria formosa) which is absolutely adorable and I could keep Red Rili shrimp with them, at least the adults. I don't mind if babies are occasionally picked off, it's natural and a good way to keep population down. And my LFS would take babies if I happen to get too many.

I want a nice center piece fish in there as well or a pair of something. I was looking into more native Killifish but I think most of them like to be in groups as well. I was specifically looking at the Rainwater Killifish; Lucania Parva which can actually be found in our water's here and will do fine in salt to freshwater! They're extremely hardy and of course a colder water fish like the Least Killi as well.

But then I was thinking about other more colorful Killifish, so many out there and many of them are small as well but then the issues come up with having shrimp with them since they will kill them. So either shrimp or no shrimp :-/ I probably won't do shrimp I guess so I do want some sort of center piece fish whether it's a male guppy or a male Killifish with some micro fish like the Least Killi or Sundadanio Axelrodi is nice as well.....idk yet!!


----------



## MattsBettas

Want me to shoot you a pm with instructions? I have them all on my computer already...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yes please Matt, was going to PM but it's been rather busy around here ^_^ thanks in advance!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I got my new girl in that I bought before all this happened. She looks like a fat harbor seal to me XD I'm thinking of calling her Selkie


























I don't know if her spine is bent like that from poor breeding which seems to be a thing in Jim Xiong's fish.

























She does straighten out though when she wants to


















She's so cute though!

































So I put the Black Copper girl in Ditto's old 3 gallon since I really didn't want her going into the sorority in case that it's not Myco's and a chance that she's actually not infected and can still breed her. She really likes it though and loves her neighbor; Hawkeye

























Mononoke has been marbling up as I expected, I love how bold her colors are though ^_^









I think this marble girl has stopped marbling for now since she hasn't gained any more blue on her body, I've got to come up with something that's half and half. I wanted to name her Denim inspired by another member on here with a similar dragon named Denim but I couldn't steal the name. So I'll just think of something else.









And this is Boss Ram 









And that's all I have that aren't sick fishies, going to update my PetCo baby thread now ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

Selkie is so cute (both the betta and the intended name)!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I love Selkies in general and since she looks like a fat harbor seal, I think it fits fantastically ^_^ she's quite spirited as well and was half flaring at me and my camera although I didn't get any good shots of it XD silly girl! Hopefully she can stay disease free and go to my mom's. I need to get at least a turkey baster for her and I'll probably keep her in that tank for now and keep it bare bottomed or get some oak leaves for her. Not sure what to do yet though. I just hope the heater will keep her water warm enough at my mom's house since my room is very cold during the winter unless I'm home.

We don't have central air there so we just have our own heaters but I can't keep it on all the time so bigger tank = better.


----------



## Elsewhere

Wow, Lil, Selkie's so stunning! Who did you get your black CT from? Maybe she and my AB fish are sisters


----------



## lilnaugrim

I got her from Phusit and Chaba for our Black copper CT boy I believe...might have been switched though. Too many things have happened since then haha. It is possible though.

So noticed today that Mystique has some start of that white stuff on her anal fin, the part where it deteriorates....guess that 4th dose of KanaPlex didn't do anything....sigh...


----------



## Elsewhere

I've ordered AB girl from Chaba... Always a possibility!

Awe, that sucks so much, Lil. Stupid fish need to get better! *Apologizes to fish for calling it stupid, I'm sure she's quite smart*


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol yes, they are stupid fish right now for being sick XD haha

And on that note, I'm sort of sick too :-( I've got post-nasal drip I think, my lungs hurt so much along with deep in my throat. Not the back of it, but more just where the neck meet's head and a very dry cough....le sigh. Yesterday I took two naps, TWO! One at 11:15 to 12:45 just in time to wake up for the USPS man to come a knocking at our door and pick up Selkie. Then again from 3:20 to 5:40.....yeah I slept a long time. Then went to bed at 9 because I was still tired.

I woke up somewhere around midnight I think to a horrible dream but that was because my dreams were telling me to WAKE THE EFF UP YOU'RE NOT BREATHING! Yeah...I've got sleep apnea as well, a minor form of it at least. But that was the first time something like that happened and the part that woke me was horrible and I can't repeat it here because it's actually rather gore-y. But I woke up and instantly my lungs hurt from not breathing and I was like taking in quick breaths trying to get myself fully awake and breathing right again and trying to come out of the scared mindset that my dream put me into :-( But I was finally able to go back to sleep.

Today has just been lungs hurting and a dry cough although I think it's all just from post-nasal drip really.


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## lilnaugrim

"Red solo cup, I fill you up! Let's have a party, let's have a party!"

lol yeah today's my 21st bday party, woot woot!! Thankfully the weekend and not during the middle of the week >.<

All fish are still alive! Selkie is happily swimming around her tank as is the black CT girl, she really loves the dwarf hairgrass and swimming through it ^_^ it's super cute! Haven't looked at Rembrandt under the light yet but I should do that soon. Aero is chilling in the 2.5 gallon until I can get the 3 gallon stabilized although I think I'll just throw Remmy in there and sterilize his 3 gallon QT to put Aero in there for more space until I can get the 20 gallon long up and running at mom's house.

Baby boy's are doing fine, Hawkeye is still building his bubble nest and oogling in the black CT girl besides him.

Mattie is still alive, girl that was battling velvet is doing well. Sorority girls are fine, Mystique's anal is starting to decrease with the disease. Ram's seem unaffected and other girls seem happy.

Mercury and Jarvis are still going at it, Mercury flares and Jarvis just get's his fins bit through the divider....going to have to double that up eventually.

Ditto and Gambit arrived safely and soundly at their new homes! Both did not fin bite and are already adjusting extremely well to their new homes! I'm very glad for that and the fact that I packed them so well and tightly. I think not being jostled around so much and staying more warm than when they get shipped to a store really helped out and all. So yay for me and my excellent shipping skills haha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I've got some pictures of Selkie now in her new home well just new place lol same tank. I've moved her to my mom's house so there's no worry about cross contamination from shared equipment or anything! SHE WILL REMAIN HEALTHY DARN IT ALL! lol So anyway just got some pictures of her for you.

Look at the fat little face!









Oh whoops, think I offended her...









Really though it's such a--Oh! Whoops....that's not Selkie...that's a fat spotted Harbor seal! haha









lol I couldn't resist, sorry-not-sorry!

Her extremely bare tank....sorry! I'll get decor soon I promise!









And located in the living room! Mom wanted to keep her down here after she basically fell in love with her XD She was playing with her and stuff and even fed her a pellet XD lol too cute, I just hope she doesn't get overfed. Mom's good with that stuff though and will follow my direction even though she really wants to feed her every second of the day XD But I hid the food so she can't haha.









And just a cool shot from above from my sorority this morning before i left ^_^ Marble girl and Firestar.


----------



## Mo

HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY!!!!!

I love those females that you have! They are soo pretty. Dragons are my favorites! Nice pics BTW!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks Mo! Yeah I do love my dragon girls  I like Firestar though, she's the red with partial dragonscaling. I think I tend to prefer partial DS'ing over full sometimes depending on colors even if it does make the scales weaker, I still think it looks beautiful! :-D


----------



## Huffle Puffles

Selkie is so cuuuuute, omg sooooo cute


----------



## Mo

Yeah, Some of those black dragons with partial dragon scaling are amazing. I hope I get some of those too out of my Black/Blue dragon spawn.


----------



## tilli94

> I think this marble girl has stopped marbling for now since she hasn't gained any more blue on her body, I've got to come up with something that's half and half. I wanted to name her Denim inspired by another member on here with a similar dragon named Denim but I couldn't steal the name. So I'll just think of something else.












You could call her Levi!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ooh, didn't think about jean brands! I did remember though that my childhood friend had a dog named Levi...I don't think I could name a fish after being with that dog...he was a good dog just not treated well and I'd feel bad :-(

I don't know if I want to name any of the newer girls though since there's still a chance that I'd be euthanizing them all anyway, you know? I'm pretty content right now just calling them "girly, girl, little lady, ladies, etc." but that is a great idea, thank you tilli! :-D ^_^ if names just come to me like Selkie's did then that's one thing but actively thinking about a name lol, that's too much work XD


----------



## Quinn

OMG I WANT SELKIE! SHE IS SO FAT AND CUTE!!!!

Kdone.


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## lilnaugrim

lol, I bought her from Jim Xiong on Aquabid! He may have some more up there like her, I think she had a twin a while ago but yes, she's so fat and cute and eggy and very personable! I think she's got more black on her now but I like the molted look she's got! Too cute!

Oh by the way, if you don't know what a Selkie is in Mythology, go look it up!

So....I got sick today :-( I'd been taking ADHD meds and originally these ones I have to take two but two kept making me ill or at least we thought it was so we went down to one after consulting the doctor and he told me to just build back up to two again. So it was a week that I was on one and we found out that it was actually my annual fall Post-Nasal drip that was making me ill since I don't take my meds on the weekend and I was still getting the sick effects.

So today I thought it'd be a good idea to try the two again after being on one for a week. So took the pills, ate my breakfast and arrived at school promptly at 7:00 am for my good parking spot! Around 7:15 I started to feel woozy and had to use the bathroom but thankfully nothing came out. Eventually I started to sweat and get dizzy so I made the executive decision to go home but I couldn't tell my boss I was leaving since I knew if I spoke, I wouldn't be able to do my sickness back >.< And guess where I blew my cookies....yeah, in my truck on the way home around 7:30 >.> thankfully I had like ten million napkins couresty of Dunkin Donuts and I had spare clothes. So not only did I pull over to finish it, I used all my napkins AND I changed my clothes on a main road....I waited until cars weren't driving by lol. So needless to say I'm home right now, took a nice hot shower, clothes are in the wash and I've emailed all my teachers and I did get to call my boss after I was finished and could talk again.

Normally after vomiting you feel a little better but I'm not at all so the immediate threat has been demolished but the impending doom is towering over me >.< so I'm going to go take a nap after I drink some water and hopefully I feel better :-( Selkie is next to me trying to play with me and get my attention lol silly girl, she knows


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## lilnaugrim

So it's been one heck of a week with me being sick sort of with Post-Nasal drip >.< I wake up and just feel like hell. Really can't wait for this to all dry up >.<

In other news, I furnished Selkie's tank a little bit more! Added some old rocks from way back when, when Rembrandt had the old 1 gallon so I know they are disease free ^_^ And then added some leaves from the ivy vines that I bought so these ones have not been in any other tanks. She loves them now and really was interested when I first put them in lol









Chillin in the leaves. I also bought her her own turkey baster so I can clean her tank well enough now and she's got her own cup/bowl thingy to use for water changes and conditioner, food, heater, the whole works :-D









The tank as taken pictures of from Tuesday, yeah it was a tad cloudy in there but it's settled by now 









On sadder notes, Emma Frost died of Dropsy last night, Pineapple is pineconing right now or at least was fine when I left home but I don't know if she'll make it through the day. Sigh...oh well. Lynx is pretty bad too, her whole back half has rotted now so I took her out of the sorority for now until she also passes. Pineapple has given up on life but Lynx is still full of it so we'll see what happens. Mattie is still alive as well, along with Amara who still has those worms. I can't afford the dewormer stuff for now so I think it's best if I just euthanize her anyway since she's also been in the sorority water and is contaminated.

Here's some pics from last night:

My boy MC being King of the 5.5 gallon tank box XD he loves that thing, of course he loves all cardboard but this way he's up enough that he can watch all the fish at all once as well! He adores it.









The Marineland 3 gallon as of now, plants are growing well!









And it's inhabitant:

























Rembrandt's 3 is coming along nicely! I just did a 60% water change yesterday to bring the ammonia down so I'll have to check it when I get home tonight.

























And the Dwarf Lily has been growing like crazy! It's already got a pad at the top! This picture was from Tuesday so he's grown even more since then!









And yes the false MG girl is still alive and doing well! She's over her case of velvet and doing absolutely wonderful!









And this beautiful soul is doing very well, feisty as ever of course!









Mystique and her groupies ;-)









Stardust and the photobombing Mononoke!









And Aero being the most beautiful boy ever!


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## Chachi

Great pics!


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## lilnaugrim

Chachi said:


> Great pics!


Thanks!


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## Quinn

Your fish need to stop dying! It makes me so sad to read, I can't imagine how sad you are. Boo 
However as always love your pics, you capture some great fishy expressions. And the tanks look lovely.
I always get sick aroud September with allergy like symptoms but allergy meds don't help. No idea what it is, one year in elementary school my throat closed up so badly I missed the first two weeks. So I feel ya on the drippyness and illness. It's so draining. Hope you can kick it to the curb quickly.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it's my allergies acting up and just being in a stuffy school doesn't help lol. I generally get Post-Nasal drip around this time of year as well so it's not unexpected totally but the reaction with my other meds (not allergy meds) to it was just unexpected and horrible :-( so I actually haven't been taking them the last two day's and I can still feel it, the drippyness and the stomach ache but I don't think it's as bad. I'm also watching more of what I eat which helped I think.

But yeah, fishies are going to die. I'm past the sadness though, I mean yes it's still sad but I'm at the point where I just want everything to be done and I can just clean everything out, throw out the stuff I don't need and get on with it. After the sorority goes I'm planning on doing something like 10 dainty cory cats, 15 Glowlight tetra's and 1 Marigold Dwarf Gourami (it's a dwarf, just different colors) or, I really like Diamond tetra's and really wanted to give them a try but wanted a bigger fish for a center piece fish so I was thinking maybe just a regular Golden Gourami for that, 8 Diamond's and then still the 10 corydoras habrosus


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## PetMania

It's so nice to see such happy bettas. You are doing awesome! It warms my heart to see proper fish care.
Yet, Im so sorry that your fish are dying.


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## Elsewhere

Oooh, go for a gold gourami, maybe Soleil can have an Internet boyfriend, LOL. Though I wish you didn't need to consider it :/ I'd much rather your girls be okay


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you, both of you ^_^ PetMania, that really made me feel good to hear that  I do try to give my best and I know sometimes it's just not enough or you goof up on something which is what I did in this case and I know sometimes it just can't be helped.  But I do appreciate that much!

Oh so change of plans, sort of. Instead of getting a 55 to go in my mom's living room, I'm actually bringing the 33 to her house since where we're moving with my dad you have to sort of pay for the water, it's town water instead of well water and with my dad already in a stressed position, having a 33 gallon fish tank in the house isn't going to help. So I've decided that Rembrandt will go in the 3 gallon NPT which is almost done stabilizing! And he will go to my dad's, then at mom's I will have the 33 in the living room. Then in my room upstairs I'll have my 20 long for the boy's and then since I have 3 girls that have not been in the actual sorority yet, I'll make a mini sorority. So I'm looking for at least two more girls to start it to make 5 and then eventually I want at least 6 or 7 total and that's it.

I want to make it in the 10 gallon where the PetCo babies currently reside and that will be under the 20 long in my room. I want it to have Eco-Complete bottom so I can grow my plants well and nicely but I think I'll get an actual hood for the tank. I want to throw out both filters and get one new one, preferably an AquaClear 20 and put that in there, hood for both lights so I don't need two plugs and then my new heater which I got from my LFS.

So...yeah that's the plan ^_^

Oh and Pineapple didn't make it through the day, organ failure got her too. It's got to be Mycobacteria, Columnaris wouldn't do this but that could be a secondary infection since Lynx's back half has rotted more :-/ poor girl, I feel bad for her.

Cherry and Mystique are the next to go, possibly Raven as well my only CT girl in there


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## MattsBettas

Sorry to hear of all the losses . It always seems to happen to the people who do everything for their pets, while there's lazy butts who keep their bettas in cold vases alive for seven years :roll:.

You can't diagnose mycobacteria with certainty without a necropsy...


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> Thank you, both of you ^_^ PetMania, that really made me feel good to hear that  I do try to give my best and I know sometimes it's just not enough or you goof up on something which is what I did in this case and I know sometimes it just can't be helped.  But I do appreciate that much!


You're welcome! We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves up.


----------



## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> You can't diagnose mycobacteria with certainty without a necropsy...


I know, I know I can't :-/ it just seems like all there is but I know there's so much more to it.

On a good note however, all my boy's except Rembrandt seem to be uneffected as with the girls who haven't actually gone into the sorority yet. So that seems to be good at least.


----------



## Phantom Miria

I'm so sorry to hear about Emma And Pineapple  I really liked Pineapple. On a positive note I love you're greyish CT!

And don't be fooled by the dwarf lily, they look great at first but take over you're tank >:l


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## lilnaugrim

Phantom Miria said:


> I'm so sorry to hear about Emma And Pineapple  I really liked Pineapple. On a positive note I love you're greyish CT!
> 
> And don't be fooled by the dwarf lily, they look great at first but take over you're tank >:l


Thanks. The grey-ish CT? You mean the Black Copper CT girl? She was the one we were going to breed but that might be off if Myco's comes out positive, I'd rather not infect other fish if I can help it.

And yeah, now the dwarf lily has TWO pads coming up! I'm just going to let it do it's thing though since the tank will be torn down anyway and presumably everything thrown out except heater, AquaClear filter body, thermometer and lights of course. Everything else is going. But thanks! ;-)


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## Phantom Miria

Lol excuse me I meant to say her*


lilnaugrim said:


>


You know I always love CT's


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## PetMania

That fish is beautiful. The black with the silver shine/hue. :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! both of you again ^_^ yeah, she's a beauty! She was supposed to be bred with the male that my friend got since they were basically twins but from two different sellers. 

Uploaded with ImageShack.com


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## PetMania

Ooooo! :-D That would be a beautiful spawn. That would be a pretty good crown there.


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## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> Ooooo! :-D That would be a beautiful spawn. That would be a pretty good crown there.


Yeah it would be beautiful but I'm not sure if we can do it yet since there's still a slight possibility that my fish all have Myco's at the moment and I don't want that to pass to Luci's fish and then to fry of course and then spreading to whoever buys the fish, that would be extremely unthoughtful of me and just plain bad breeding! But yes, they compliment each other so well, I loved her web reduction since more often than not I see CT girls with only some ray's sticking out of lots of webbing when there is supposed to be only 1/3 webbing! And he's also got some nice web reduction!

Form overall could have some fixing but colors look great, I love the fact he's a butterfly as well with the white :-D but we'll see!


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## PetMania

Yeah. You might want to fix that before considering breeding. Nothing worse than having 200+ sick bettas.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah exactly, hence I'm calling off breeding for right now


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## lilnaugrim

Ilovemyjobilovemyjobilovemyjobiwanttothrowmybossofaneffingcliffilovemyjobilovemyjobilovemyjob.

If he freaking yells at me one more time or tries to take over my laptop I WILL throw him off the Green Roof and I WILL make it look like an accident!! GAHHHH I'm going INSANE sitting here!!! Stop touching my laptop and telling me it's broken because you don't understand my shortcuts! OMFG I have such a terrible stress headache right now that I want to shoot myself, never mind throwing him off the darn roof >.>

And then he'll come around and be like "oh, how are your classes going, are you stressed?" and I'll be figuratively sitting there teeth clenched while clutching a stress ball squeezing that as hard as I can and generally looking extremely ticked off. "Do.I.Look.Stressed.TO.YOU?!?!" God I feel like screaming at him it's so infuriating!! And that's why I do it here so I don't have to lose my job............

K....think I'm done....maybe....I still have half an hour left at work so things could go for the worst.......oh yeah I have packages to be delivering right now. >.>


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## lilnaugrim

Oh boy what a day!

After my lovely episode this morning I ended up with a Stress headache that was part Sinus headache as well meaning light hurt like a MoFo and could barely keep my eyes open, sounds were amplified, people annoyed me except for this cute boy in my Printing class that we talked about both being sick last week; we had the same exact symptoms lol, and my head felt like it was going to explode. I kind of wanted to just curl up on the floor and die >.<

And it get's better....INDOOR marching band practice....basically we just went over music but....we sit....right in front....of the freaking Bass Drums! Better than Snares, Cymbols or Quad's but still....ugg my head is still spinning and hurting. But thankfully my meds kicked in rather quick and I feel like ten MILLIOONJNNN times better!

On an awesome note, I've not only bid on this guy: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1380719700 but I also decided to bid on this girl! http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1380719952 same breeder/seller so I only have to pay the one 5 dollar transshipping fee and then shipping. And THEN I found out my phone bill was due this week >.> Soooooo had to get dad and mom to help pitch in some money for the phone lol they agreed though since I don't often ask for money and my tuition waiver still hasn't gone through yet which I'm pretty ticked off about, I want my refund darn it!

ugggg anywho, going to go watch my favorite show atm; Psych! Catching up on Netflix! woot woot


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## PetMania

Both of those cuties are stunning. Let us know how the bidding goes  
BTW, if you do get them, are you going to breed them?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks PetMania!! I'm not sure about breeding, I think that would rather mess up their colors more :-/ I'm super in love with his translucent organ and black edging as well as the shape of his fins, so if I do breed him I'd like a female with a bigger spread first off, preferably some sort of Mustard Gas (my faves obviously). Her red would interfere with his blues and yellows so I wouldn't want to mix that up lol but he would probably have amazing fry and perhaps one day, maybe next summer I will breed him if I find his perfect mate! :-D

Bidding ends early Wednesday morning so I hope all goes well!! I've been in love with fish before and I'm completely smothered by this boy! I love the girl as well, she isn't like my super top choice but she'll be a great addition to the newer sorority!


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## PetMania

Cool! Let me know if you do


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## lilnaugrim

Sure ^_^ as I said it might be a while since I'm still in college and taking care of fry daily would be a bit of an issue since I'm usually at college for 7-9 hour day's >.< but yes, winter and summer are probably good times! Originally we were going to do our Black Copper Butterfly CT spawn over Winter VaCa but since the possible infections with my fish, not sure how that will work out and I will be working 8 hour day's between Christmas and New Year's since my boss will be out.....sigh. good money at least. But we'll have to devise something!


----------



## PetMania

Yep. Good money  . Does time of year have anything to do with how a spawn goes. As you can tell, I am a newbie to breeds.


----------



## Elsewhere

I may or may not breed next summer >.> Don't tell my mom! She was thinking of getting me a 20 gallon long for Christmas, to only have two tanks (divide 3 3.3 sections for the boys, 1 10g for the girls) and I would then have 2 10's and a 5 leftover. MWUAHAHA.


----------



## PetMania

I ain't tellin' my momma when I be breedin' *cough country accent


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm not sure if time of year specifically has any impact on breeding but I know that storms during the summer are great for spawning. There's something about the barometric pressure that causes fish to go crazy spawning mode, the males usually will build big bubble nests if you noticed during storms, I know mine do! So it could be good to plan around a big upcoming storm if you know you'll have one soon, so summer is good for that.

Also in the summer if you live in a warmer climate you can actually have your spawn tank outside for the fry to grow up in, again I don't know all the nitty gritty details but I have read about it somewhere. I'm not sure I'd ever do that just because we're not that warm up here in New England even if it get's to 90 during the day it easily drops to 70 and sometimes 60 in the summer soooo not super great for fry. However I did read elsewhere that temperature swings, like gradual during the day to night help the fry be healthier so like get down to 70 at night and sometimes up to 90 during the day so that would work with the outdoor thing as well. I don't think I'd really try that but hey, it's something interesting ^_^


----------



## PetMania

True, I might do that. My betta prob wont take care of the fry he just wants to...well....you know


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## lilnaugrim

lol, do the dirty? yep, they all do, they're men! haha no offence to any men on the site ;-)


----------



## PetMania

Yep! They do.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Aurora's tail is split perfectly right down to the body....whoever is nipping this bad has to go and I'm thinking it's the German Blue Rams >.> Since this kind of nipping didn't happen until they came in....darn fish....but since they are the least effected by this disease that I have, I'll most likely just keep them in the tank after the girls go, I kind of want to see them in action without the sorority to bug them.

Also in this pic you can see Cherry also has some nasty bites to her, she's getting the same stringy look to her bitten fins as well. Hard to explain, it's not cottony but looks like a string hanging from the fin where the ray's would be.....idk, they all had it before they died. Which made me think of Mycobacteria after seeing other pictures of the disease. But yes I know I still have to do the necropsy to be sure.









I also thinking Aurora might be getting the start of Dropsy, she's looking a little larger than normal. However this was after a feeding so that's sort of to be expected.









Asaria has grown quite a bit! She's now bigger than Lady, Cherry, Firestar and the black DT girl! two of which are also pictured.









And Aero because he was in a cup and I was changing his water lol, this is him acclimating after. But I just love his blue, he's so beautiful!









And this one is also on my PetCo baby thread but I just love how Aero looks in this with his flare, he's so handsome! Also that's Steve, one of my babies who's half grown by now.









That's pretty much all I have for the moment, have to walk down to my work now so I'll be back with some other update stuff, don't have other pictures for now though since my camera died last night before I could take more pictures.


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## Quinn

Love that handsome Aero pic! What a stunner


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! I'm so glad I picked up this nasty little cup with this poor miserable clamped up barely blue Betta at Petsmart ^_^ he's grown up so much on me that's for sure! My beautiful Blue Dragon Boy :-D him and Rembrandt are definitely some of my favorites!

Ohhhh!!!!!! I won the auctions for Piple tails, I seriously think that has to be his name; Piple Tails....and call him Pip for short XD What was the seller even trying to get? Ripple? his tail definitely doesn't ripple....idk, their English man...just yeah.....and I got the girl too! So she'll go into my sorority once things get rolling.

My tank stand should be here today (wow fast delivery for 5-9 day's....took only 3 ) and we might be able to paint my room this coming Sunday after we sand the puddy down. Then I can set up my tanks for the 20 long and the 10 and start to get them cycled. Although the 10 I'm sure will be a regular NPT Walstad style and then the 20 will be Eco-Complete.

It will be a while before either of them will be cycled and able to get the boy's in there but at least the ball is rolling so for that I'm happy. But I do feel bad, the two new girl and boy will have to chill out in some extra containers laying around. The girl will be able to go in a larger tupperware container I have and the male will most likely chill out in a cup since i have nothing else until Rembrandt can get into his 3 gallon and then I can let his old QT container out in the sun for at least a week with some alcohol rubbings daily or so. And then he can go into it and wait for the 20 to be set up at mom's.

So I think my plan is coming together rather well, it's just going to take some time and between paychecks as well :-/ I had to ask mom and dad to help me with my phone bill this month since I wasn't counting that in my budget for the two weeks since I forgot about it >.< So that was a bit of a surprise when my phone texted me telling me that I had three day's to pay or the plan would be up >.< so they each pitched in 15, well dad pitched 20 which was nice and so I'll be able to pay my bill, pay for the fish for their auction, the transshipping fee if he charges me and the shipping fee from the transshippers. And I bought a full tank of gas, well it was at half way and took 45 to fill up. I have an 18 gallon tank in my tiny little truck lol so it lasts a good week for half a tank with traveling 12-15 miles to school (12 from mom's and 15 from dad's) and then the same going back every single day. So that adds up to just about 135 miles for just school and then I do some extra traveling between houses which is roughly 7-8 miles between so I probably do on average roughly 143 miles each week....that's quite a bit for a college student.

My truck just his 161,000 miles >.< granted it's not that much, but I've racked up about 70,000 miles since I've had the truck for four years! crazy! Anywhoo...yep.


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## lilnaugrim

Lynx has passed on, no signs of Dropsy for her, just whatever it was eating away at her body and I think it finally entered into her organs and just killed her. :-/ I feel bad but honestly, it's one less cup for me to take care of so I'm not going to cry over it.

Oh an up note, my mom, mom's boyfriend, me and my little brother are going up to New Hampshire this weekend to see Castle in the Clouds and Cathedral in the Sky, so that should be a great trip! I can't wait to see all the beautiful foliage as well! I mean, I get to see plenty of it in little RI but NH has always had it better than us when it came to the tree foliage and autumn!

So that's happening, also it seems that my friend might not be able to take Mercury and Jarvis so....I might be putting them up for adoption. We'll see, I still have to talk to her about it since she's afraid her mom might flush them while she's not there :-( I gave her some info to scare her mom away from flushing though so hopefully that will work. That's something; NEVER flush fish down the toilet no matter how small!!!!!!! You could potentially infect the wildlife around the area if that fish is sick and now is out in the ground. Also never bury a fish unless it's in like a plastic baggie, in a box or something, and never give it a "river burial". You can either cremate your fish with fire of course which would be a very honorable funeral or you can bag it up and throw it in the garbage like I do. You don't want to risk hurting the environment with a dead fishie :-(


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## BettaLover1313

Sorry to hear about Lynx passing.

Aero is one handsome betta! 

Also, great info about the harms that flushing/burying a dead fish can do to the environment.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! And you're welcome!

I feel bad because I haven't been feeding them as much as I should. I didn't feed them all Wednesday which means they went 3 day's and a half without food....ehhhh, sorry guys :-( But they have been getting twice a day feedings when I am there though so that works I think and then Saturday they get lots of food and then I try to feed as much as I can in the morning before we go off for church.


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## lilnaugrim

So turns out that my friend can't take the fish; Mercury and Jarvis :-( so she gave me her 5.5 so I guess that's a win for me lol. But if anyone knows or wants those two, go give me a PM and we can discuss  Same rules apply to them as Ditto and Gambit; must have at least 2.5 gallon tank or more, heater, filtered is preferred unless NPT. Neither are good with tank mates, Jarvis has digestive issues and usually only poops maybe once every two weeks, once a week if I'm lucky. I feed him 4 NLS daily generally with the two day fasting. Mercury has no issues. Just need to pay shipping which as the weather get's colder, I prefer if we go 2 day priority but we can try the 3 day and I'll just pack it as well and as tightly as I can.


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## lilnaugrim

Woohoo, so NH was pretty awesome! Had fun at Lucknow castle on top of Mount Ossipee! Also know as Castle in the Clouds since it was saved by the Castle of something foundation, I don't remember the organization lol but it was pretty awesome anyhow! I got to see a beautiful horse stables! I wanted to go out on a ride and mom did to but not for 50 dollars a person!! There were unfortunately only four horses in the stables still since the rest were out on a ride but still, they were so adorable!

Butch was the official greeter of the stables, a beautiful Clydesdale draft horse. He was such a ham lol. The second was Pete, an older Morgan who I didn't get any pictures of unfortunately. And then there was Bumble Bee who was sooo adorable, she was a bit ornery but cute nonetheless!
Here she is!

















She was itching herself lol

















And their pride and joy of the stables! Meet Zeus the largest draft horse in the US currently! He is 10 year's old and 22 hands high! Unfortunately he's lame and has issues with sugars accumulating in his muscles I believe which makes it hard for him to get up from laying down and walking longer distances so he stays comfortable in his very large stable which is the size of like a medium-large living room!









He's as much of a ham as Butch is who looks just like him except smaller of course.









That lady is just slightly taller than me....I'm 5'4" lol

























So I have other pictures from the trip but they aren't as interesting as animals XD So I give you pictures of my driveway on the way to my mom's house since it was pretty lol. I did change the colors on my camera, well just made it more vivid so you could see the colors but I wasn't expecting what the pictures came out to be! So here's some interesting pictures! I hope you enjoy the tour of my road and driveway!

Crud, pictures came out wayyyy too big, will reupload them later along with fish updates.


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## Elsewhere

Wow, what a horse! I want to pet it, lol!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah! I did get to pet him! Soooo soft! OMG and to hear him eating!! He was only eating hay but it was just like CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH! lol, crazy loud crunching! he's so cute though!


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## PetMania

He's so big! The largest horse I have seen is one of those carridge horses from SeaWorld. 
He's also handsom!


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## Elsewhere

I cannot even begin to imagine how much that guy eats! Lil, you should take a look at my journal, I've spammed like 2 pages with pics of Catw0man's fish LOL


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## PetMania

^
Elsewhere, lol. That guy must eat at least 78.937583739 lbs of hay, and drink 5.3782 gallons of water a day!


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## Elsewhere

More gallons than that, LOL. I swear, I must drink 5 gallons of water daily XD


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## PetMania

I probably drink a whole lake of water after I run the mile in PE class :roll:. 
Don't get me started on how many pounds of food I eat


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## Elsewhere

I just snorted water out of my nose, LOL. I am totally there with you on the PE class! So glad I only had to take it once. I get enough exercise walking my dogs every night! (Separate 1 hour walks are GREAT) Gah, sorry Lil, taking over your journal here!


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## PetMania

My sister asked my yesterday how bettas drink water.......:rofl:


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## RowdyBetta

PetMania said:


> My sister asked my yesterday how bettas drink water.......:rofl:


ROFL! How old is your sister?
We have a "Silly Things nonBird people say" thread over on talkcockatiels. X3 We should starte a silly things nonfish people say thread here. :-D


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## lilnaugrim

oh lol guys, no worries, I have a blast reading everything. And Elsewhere, I did see the girls and at first I thought they caught Velvet but I realized it was just bubbles, nearly had a heartattack when I saw them! But congrats on the girls! They're beautiful! Did you take the Red Marble PK boy as well? I wanted him so bad but at the time had no more room for males :-(

And on the note of silly things asked, my older cousin who has her ditsy moments (but when don't we all have a few?), asked me if I had to water the plants in my aquarium lol. Well actually she said "Oh do you have to water--" and stopped when she realized what she was going to ask, we still laugh about it today, it's hilarious. So yes, I think you should start a thread about the silly things non-fish people say!


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## PetMania

RowdyBetta said:


> ROFL! How old is your sister?
> We have a "Silly Things nonBird people say" thread over on talkcockatiels. X3 We should starte a silly things nonfish people say thread here. :-D


 totally! My sis is only 9. I rescued Hercules from her. 9-yr-ols might not be the best choice for the first betta. She came up with so many sill things like, "Do I have to scoop up his poop like a cat?'', "When does he have to go to bed?" 
:rofl:


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## Huffle Puffles

Oh my gosh, Zeus must have been quite the handsome site to behold in person, wow! Kinda jealous everyone gets to be around horses! Love the pic of the girl itching her nose through the gate!


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## BettaLover1313

*wants to pet Zeus* So cute!!! Feel bad about him having all those health issues though *now wants to hug Zeus*.


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## Elsewhere

lilnaugrim said:


> oh lol guys, no worries, I have a blast reading everything. And Elsewhere, I did see the girls and at first I thought they caught Velvet but I realized it was just bubbles, nearly had a heartattack when I saw them! But congrats on the girls! They're beautiful! Did you take the Red Marble PK boy as well? I wanted him so bad but at the time had no more room for males :-(


LOL, I was wondering if you might've thought that for a second after uploading! Yes, I did, he's just beautiful! I named him Wilt, haha!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, Zeus was ornery as all heck but who would be with atrophying muscles? but he was sooooo soft ^_^ I mean, there aren't many horses that aren't soft haha but still, he's huuuuuuggggeee!


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## PetMania

Does he weigh 2 tons?


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## lilnaugrim

dug up some facts about Zeus from their webpage! Here it is copy and pasted!
Zeus Facts:
10 Years Old
21 Hands Tall (7 feet) at the shoulder
Approximately 3000 lbs
Breed - Belgian Draft Horse

My story: My family purchased me when I was 4 years old in Whitneys Point NY. The reason they bought me was to pull sleighs at Nestlenook with Fred, another Belgian who weighed 2500 lbs. When I was 4 yrs old I was 20 hands and 2400 lbs. In one year I grew 1 hand (4 inches) and 300 lbs. I am broke for riding but no equipment fits me so sometimes my family hops on me bareback but I mostly hang out and visit with guests.

Zeus Vet/Health Fund: My diet used to consist of 40 lbs of grain a day and all the hay & grass I could eat. That all has changed since I have recently been diagnosed with Type 1 PSSM. It's a muscle disease which means sugar is stored in my muscles which makes me sore & lame. I have a hard time getting up when I lay down to rest. I spent 2 weeks at the hospital & now my diet has changed. I am on a hight fat, low sugar pellet feed but I still can have all the hay that I can eat. The pills and meds are expensive and my family will need to buy me a pulley with a sling so when I can't get up they will be able to help me to get up without a struggle. We started a 'Go Fund Me' page where my friends can make donations.

and here's the webpage if you want to check it out  http://www.ridingintheclouds.com/meet_zeus.html


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## BettaLover1313

I just realized that Zeus is larger than Big Jake, who I saw at the Midwest Horse Fair two years ago, and who, at the time, was the tallest horse.


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## lilnaugrim

Wow! It seriously amazes me with these animals being so huge! I mean, I know horses are generally big, but just to see them up close, hug them, pet them, love them lol, it's something else for sure. I can see why people want to raise them and have a horse farm. I really want to loose weight so I can go horse back riding again! We used to go every year for my birthday but then I got fatter and nearly broke my tailbone and hip....sooooo yeah, that's been an issue. But just going back to see and be around horses (granted I'm high allergic so I can't be around all the time but I could still ride twice a year or something!) really made me want to lose weight and remember to do my stupid back exercises >.< I'm so bad with remembering!

I'm in a mess right now with being sick because I keep forgetting to take my allergic pill or I remember but I'm already in bed and I'm too lazy to go get it from my backpack....I really need to think of some sort of system to remember things. I tried the cell alarm thing and it worked for a while when I was on a good schedule and then I just started to forget and the alarm meant nothing to me. It's rather frustrating sometimes though.

Anyway, here are some other pictures from Sunday when I went to check on my fish and change some water. Oh and Mattie died, I believe over last night or yesterday night late. She wasn't completely covered in the slimy stuff and she wasn't completely stiff either which makes me think she died during this last night. She lived quite a while though with that sickness and was a super trooper for sure! I'm proud of her and while she'll be missed, I'm kind of happy so I don't have to change any more 1 gallons three times a week >.<

Anywho, lily pads!









And, anyone know what this stuff is? It's just in my 33 I believe.









Jarvis! Sorry, the glass is really dirty >.< stupid snails are spending all their time in the sand! And then my one Ramshorn in there or at least I thought there was one, looks like it's making babies! There was a little glob on the glass with what looked like to be a baby snail in it!

















He's such a little cutie but Mercury needs to stop biting him through the divider >.> Jarvis often looks like the obedient husband as Mercury 'yells' at him through flaring obscenely through the divider and Jarvis just sits there and looks, confused on what's happening.









And my 3 gallon on my side table!

















Whew! Look at that growth! I feel bad for the DHG since it has to go through the gravel >.< but I didn't have any sand for it and the gravel is sort of small enough....eh! it won't be like that forever anyway.









And look who's in the 3 gallon now! he's happy to be back in his domain.

















He's still got that stuff on his head but otherwise seems to be uneffected so I'll just let him live out his life whether it's long or short, he can decide.









"Muwah! You gives me a kiss!"









"Oh noes, I is too bashful for a kiss!" (Note his pectorals, they look so cool! It's only an optical effect but cool nonetheless, he looks like Pinwheels! If anyone here remember's Pinwheels, kudos to you!)









"Oh thermometer, how I've missed you! I will gives you a kiss, yes!" lol We should write a book; The Love Story of a Betta and a Thermometer! New York Best Seller's three years in a row! haha









And some girls, unfortunately these are of the girls who are more sick since I couldn't get good pictures of them before for my other thread. But they also contain mostly healthy fishes too!


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## lilnaugrim

And more pictures of Rembrandt from today!

He was just chilling there with his fins spread out...silly boy!









I don't know if his fins will ever heal but that's okay, he's gorgeous all the same!


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## PetMania

Your fish are gorgeous!! I'm so jelly


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## BettaLover1313

Yay! Rembrandt!!! (Sorry, but I absolutely love his coloring and name!) The girls don't look bad at all (though that's to my untrained eye). I'm very sorry to hear about Matisse, but at least she isn't suffering anymore. 

I feel like Rembrandt & Merlin have been talking to each other about their tails. I don't think Merlin's will ever look nice and neat...just so long as he doesn't do anything to make it short again I'll be happy.


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## lilnaugrim

Yes! I love Remmy, he's my beautiful boy! Also also my favorite Artist and my favorite coloration type ^_^ so two things I love in one, best thing ever!

Yeah, seriously, his tail used to be pretty nice but then some of my silk plants actually cut it again because he was being a goof and swimming through them >.> his anal has always looked like poop but now it's just worse. His dorsal is finally getting to a good place after being ripped off by a small bout of fungus way back in February/March. 

Let it be known that Dorsal's are the last fin to appear after birth and take the longest to heal >.<


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## PetMania

Remmy and his blue lips. He does look like he's saying, "kiss me"


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## dramaqueen

Rembrandt is beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks DQ!

Yeah, I seem to like fish with lipstick ;-) Rembrandt has it, Steve has it, Tony has a little; most likely from kissing Steve ;-) haha. Hawkeye doesn't and Aero doesn't exactly, he just has scaling, almost a Full Mask now. Then Jarvis doesn't but Mercury does lol so that's four out of seven, not bad! A few girls have some lipstick as well, Mononoke has half lipstick, Selkie has some as well lol. My fish are such player's ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

And I just spent the last half hour trying to vomit my brains out in the bathroom :-( yay go me.

Ugg, I feel terribly weak right now and horrible but I can't skip today, not again. I think I know what's been up with me. This allergy season has been horrible, I haven't been taking my Zyrtec which doesn't help of course. So I've had worse Post-Nasal drip than ever before. On top of that I take ADHD meds and these are relatively new, only a month and a half that I've been on them. I like them because they do help me focus but not only that, I've been paying more attention to my time management which I've perviously sucked at, so I'm trying to learn how to best manage my time.

However, with these meds I've now learned that if I drink coffee with them right away, I end up sick. Two weeks ago when I was sick on Monday, I had taken two and had coffee. Today I took two and also had coffee, it's the only thing that's contingent between the two so it has to be it. Other day's when I take my meds without coffee I've been fine, a little bit of an upset stomach but mostly I've been fine. So yay....no coffee for me anymore :-(


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## lilnaugrim

So nothing I do is good enough for my boss, this is the third time I've "Screwed up" as he so lightly puts it and I'm effing tired of hearing that phrase.

Okay so we've got five vans with the licence plates; 1942, 1956, 1369, 1138 and 1727. Now I'm in charge of these van's and putting out the key's and approving people's request for them for field trips for the building and their classes. They're also used for labs for when they need to go out and collect samples. Occasionally we have the people who don't return their key's after they go out, they come in the next day or so. Now the issue with that is that I need to use these key's for the next person who needs them. Each van has two set's of key's so usually that's not too much an issue.

Now my biggest thing was this past weekend one of our guy's took the two van's out: 1727 and apparently 1138 however I did not fill out the envelopes, my boss Nasir did. It was also not on the calendar so how am I to know that these key's went out? So yesterday I had taken all the envelopes in from Monday and start to prepare to put the new ones out for Tuesday. How I do it is I take out all the key's and put them back in their binder's first to see if anyone is missing. And then I take out the trip tickets which is just a little paper where you write the mileage or are supposed to, half the people don't do it which pisses me off. And then I put them back in the folder to take out the new ones for the new day.

Yesterday I noticed two key's were out, 1727 and I swear it was 1369, I absolutely swear it because these two are the least used so I notice when they're out because it's not normal. So I wrote a note to my boss since I don't technically work on Tuesday and he doesn't get in till 9. I told him the two key's were missing if this person from the weekend hadn't turned in their key's yet which they've been known to do in the past.

So wrote him a note and came in today and he starts off by saying "So...what's going on?" and that always mean's that I've "screwed up" so I'm like....what the hell did I do now? So he continues to ask about the note I wrote and why I saw 1727 and 1369. Apparently he looked out in the lockbox where the key's go out and said he saw the key there....now he won't even let me get a word in when I try to tell him that I saw the key missing before I even put any other key's out and that Sidio had brought the key's back last night so I had both 1727 and 1369. He told me that Sidio had used 1727 and 1138 which he was right, so which leads me to say that me, being dyslexic and ADHD, had switched around the numbers. But I swear that 1369 was also missing and this is before I even sent out the new keys. I looked to see who had it last and the last person was Friday, the key's had not been used and we were returned so how the hell was 1369 missing if no one used it and it suddenly pops up?

He starts to give me this spiel about how it's important to pay attention and that I should be taking more care in which I agree but I haven't told him about my disability, he has no idea although he's gotten quite the taste of it. So question, how the hell do I tell him that I've actually been sick lately, the meds are making me so sick in the morning that it's a struggle for me to eat breakfast. Normally I down breakfast like there's no tomorrow, it's my favorite meal after all and I CANNOT skip it! Two Monday's ago I was sick and didn't even come into work after calling him and today sick again but I came back in.

So how the heck do I tell him I've been sick without looking like a fool because I know I don't look sick, I hardly ever do even after I've thrown up in the girls bathroom...and then of course when I'm feeling anxious, or moody or depressed, I can never stay that way. I'm always smiling and cheery so people never believe me when I say I'm actually depressed and it's infuriating. I hate crying in front of people (who does, seriously) and I know that if I start to talk to him I'm just going to burst out in tears from weeks of building up all this pressure.

I'm sorry to vent on you guys but obviously I needed to talk to someone. Facebook seriously isn't the place to do it and I'd vent to my best friend but normally it's the other way around and I'm not there when she's there and visaversa so it's hard to see her :-( I really need to just talk to someone other than my mother though and just give a good cry.

On a good note I just got permission to use the microscopes at school! Linda is the best  she even showed me where the alcohol is placed so I can sanitize the place after I use it. And because next week is Columbus day, apparently all labs are out for the week which means I can use any darn microscope I want to at any time! So I think next week I'll euthanize one of my girls, one of the more worse ones and take her in to examine her. It's between Mystique, Cherry and Raven since they're the worse of the bunch but neither are bad enough to die :-/

I'm thinking just to do it with Mystique since she's the biggest which will make it easier to cut and look around, Cherry is tiny and literally all bone so I don't think I could ever do it on her just because she's so small, same with Raven actually. Sorry if I gross anyone out by talking about it. Anyway, trying to get commissions done :-/


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## lilnaugrim

So I switched around Selkie's tank when I did her water change ^_^ I like it now :-D I think she does as well.









And she still looks like a fat harbor seal lol


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## Huffle Puffles

Eeeee Rembrandt is just so handsome. I freaking love the little "fat harbor seal" <333, she's so adorable. 

I can understand how you feel with your boss. I have a horribly bad memory so whenever I do something, if someone second guesses what I did, I really start to second guess if what I thought I did was actually done. Then I drive myself crazy analyzing it all. It can get quite frustrating. As for telling your boss you're sick, can you get some sorta doctor's note? I feel when it comes to telling school/work that you're sick when it's something that isn't so physically seen or if it's side effects from medicine, that a doctor's note does the trick. It's cut and dry and leaves out you having to be emotionally involved with explaining.


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## BettaLover1313

I'm sorry about all the trouble you're having with your boss . Selkie is so cute though!


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## lilnaugrim

Apparently Selkie ate out of my mom's hand! Err...finger but still! She was so afraid of fingers before but my training with her finally paid off ^_^ my mom was super excited and texted me all about it lol. She's so funny, she doesn't want to take care of anything but if it just happens to be there, she's totally all over it XD

Yeah, I have another doctor's appt. next Thursday, so next week. I'll see about getting a note from my doctor. I feel like my doctor doesn't believe me either though >.> if I just had a learning disability rather than full onset ADHD, why would he prescribe me meds? It's kind of scary how willing they are to just get you meds and get done with it....when I first went to him I wanted to be tested not just get meds. I wanted to find out what was really up but he wouldn't listen.

Gee, I seem to have this theme with guys and not listening to me....sigh....Thanks guys though, I'm glad to have your support for sure.

Oh and I got my 20 gallon long stand in last week, that's now at mom's. AND the seller selling me Piple Tails and that female finally got back to me on Tuesday, geeze like a whole week away! And they're being shipped to Linda on October 14th and then I should have them like a week after or so! I'm super excited to see him! I have the 3 gallon QT tank ready for him to chill in while I finish getting the 20 gallon long tank with the help of Lucillia and then I have to get Eco-Complete and then plants to plant it with and eventually move everyone over ^_^ it's going to be quite the change over for them, that's for sure! But it should be good


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## Quinn

Can't get over her! She's too cute! 

Really bites about your boss and your illness/med troubles. I don't have any advice, but Drs note sounds good. And if your doctor doesn't listen to you I would press you to find a new doctor, if that's possible. It's so essential to have a doctor who listens and actually checks out your concerns. I've realized how important it is after dealing with jerky doctors, and actually more so after realizing how much I push for people to be advocates for their pets in medical situations and research, that I was never doing it myself!
Anyway I hope you can get all your ails under control soon and stop feeling crappy!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Quinn! This doctor is fairly new, I've been seeing him since just about the beginning of June so I thought I'd give him at least six months. He's a great guy but I know that doesn't matter much if he's not a good doctor. But yes, thank you much!


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## dramaqueen

I have a friend who has all kinds of health issues, chronic fatigue and fibromyslgia being the main ones and she went to some kind of psychologist, I forget the title, to have her memory tested. He told her that her health problems were psychosomatic!


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## lilnaugrim

That kind of makes sense :-/ I know that us younger people of this age are much more stressed than the older generation growing up since we live in such a faster paced world now. I was listening to a study about it and how my generation and ages around me are much more forgetful because of this stress that we're under, not saying that older people aren't, but it was just something interesting. So I can see where my "ADHD" would be more psychosomatic rather than full on ADHD. I know I don't have full on ADHD, I do know that I have some sort of learning disability where I have issues focusing and with dyslexia.

My little brother is full on ADHD and I know that I'm much more relaxed than he and not hyper it's just my attention span sucks.

Yeah I think I need a new doctor since I'm a little intimidated to speak to him since he kind of rushed me into all this. I mean, I did ask to be tested and he asked why and I answered but I didn't expect to be put on meds for it...it's like he's not a doctor at all and I'm playing doctor for him >.> I know that's many people's issue in this world; they just want the medications because they think it's an almighty cure so their doctor just say 'yeah, here you go, have fun!' and let's them run off....that's not how it should be operating >.<

So...how to find a good doctor?

Oh wow, Rembrandt has been flaring like crazy! He's sitting there, looking at me and flaring...I tried to reduce the reflection by putting the light directly on the tank but obviously that didn't help...before it was clamped on the back so it was sort of shining in but also shining a spotlight on my bed >.< So I like the lamp placed directly on the tank but I don't think he does..... hmmmm

All other fishies are well!


----------



## PetMania

I had a history teacher who had ADHD. Least to say, we never gave him chocolate for Teacher's Day. So I bought him a Subway card ;-)

At night, when I turn the fish tank lights off, my bettas go crazy and flare for an hour.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah he's fine when the tank lights go out, it's just when lights are on because of the reflection, it's happened to every Betta who's been in that tank for longer than a week but he should be fine. He hasn't blown out his fins in over seven months or so, so I think he'll survive flaring. I am wondering though if he's doing it when I'm not home or just when I am home.

Oh crud....I just forgot some frozen brine shrimp I had left to thaw about two hours ago....I wonder if it's still good....whoops...


----------



## lilnaugrim

So today's been interesting! Came home to mom's after we had a hayride and dinner at my grandpa's (the good one ^_^) and found out that my little brother (18) had tried to feed Selkie, well he just wanted to hear her eat since they're all fascinated with hearing her crunch....well he kind of just tipped the container in and I found about 25-30 leftover pellets on the bottom and who knows how many she ate. So there go my efforts on making her not look like a fat harbor seal again, she's bigger than she was last time but this time it's all in the stomach, not the ovaries >.< she's also in the process of reabsorbing her egg's so she's extremely lethargic right now and fat. Just did a 100% change on the tank to make sure I got all the pellets out and told him not to do that. Also told everyone not to feed her tomorrow.

That's the issue with having a pet in the common area of the house >.< I can't control everything that goes on! Sigh...oh well, they know now.

I also went to my LFS to chat with the guy's there and I needed something more for this horrible algae issue I've been having and they have baby pleco bushy-nose there! So I got a yellow one (not albino, has yellow eyes not red) for 2.99, eh, could have been 1.99 but w/e I know they're good fish. They're babies from one of the brother's mated pair of bushy nose, he's also apparently got a pair of yellow's with blue eyes! I would love to see them for sure!

So the baby pleco went into Tony's part of the divided tank and I'm hoping that Tony won't kill him >.< they're basically the same size but Tony also took down a shrimp twice his size as well as an Endler soooo I really hope the baby will be okay. I'm going to go check tomorrow after I hit a yard sale that has a bunch of old tanks and equipment/decor for sale! I hope they have some good stuff left!

But after Tony's side is partially cleaned or I get the snails from bambijarvis, I'll move the pleco to Steve and then Hawkeye's side and eventually she'll go into the 33 to clean that out and it depends on what's happening in that tank if I keep her or give her back to my LFS.

Jarvis has found (will be shipped out Tuesday) a home with PetMania ^_^ and Mercury is still looking for a home! He'd be a beautiful DT to breed for sure! He's less than a year I'm sure, or just getting to around a year. He's partially EE, larger than normal pecs that are fully colored. He doesn't have any spinal issues or issues that normal DT's have, his first few ray's are nice a long. The only down side is that he has spiky fins but that could be balanced out with the right girl! He's Copper Dragonscale DT partial EE lol

He also makes a wonderful pet, bad to house with other fish though, very territorial. He's very interactive though and loves to watch everyone and everything. So just need to pay shipping which is 10 bucks!


----------



## Elsewhere

That's awesome about Jarvis! And get me a 20 long at that yard sale ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

I just had a wonderful amazingly awesome idea!!

Sooooo I still have a 29 gallon down in my basement right now that I keep forgetting about! I have to test it to make sure it can hold water but I'm pretty sure it can, just a little bit of the edge glass is chipped in places but not terrible! Soooo, I was thinking about how I was going to do my mini sorority and house my males. The tank stand I have holds both 20 long and 29 soo....that means I have have two!

So now I'm thinking, I'll divide the 20 long for the 5 males and place that on the bottom shelf and then I want to split the 29 so that I have roughly 10 gallons of space and then the rest of the 19 gallons, I can do either a nice shrimp tank with some nano fish or do something else, not sure what else yet. I definitely want that to be straight up NPT though and the 20 long will be Eco-Complete.

I really like Red Rili shrimp and they will do best in my water parameter's here so I'm thinking those and some sort of Nano fish. I really like Bumblebee Gobies and maybe I'll get one or two because my LFS has them! And then get some Chili Rasbora or something so that will keep the shrimp population down for the most part but they won't eat the adult shrimp. I plan on this being a fully planted and stable tank before that all goes down though.

I might give the girls actually 12 gallons roughly just to make sure and all that they have enough horizontal space as well as vertical space.

What do y'all think about that? Or is it too much?

My other plan would be to have the 20 long on top and then fit the bottom with a board and just have a 10 gallon for the sorority and my old 5.5 for a nano tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> That's awesome about Jarvis! And get me a 20 long at that yard sale ;-)


If they have one, I'm TOTALLY grabbing it! lol, If I could ship to Canada, I would ;-)


----------



## Elsewhere

How is Spunds even a word? What even arm brace? XD SOUNDS like a great plan! And it would save a bunch of room if it did work :-D I need someone around here to sell a cheap 20, LOL!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, at first I was like, Spunds? what the heck is she talking about? arm brace? Ooooohhhh! lol got it ^_^ yeah, I've worn wrist braces before and I know doing anything, let alone typing is difficult enough! lol but yeah, I'm hoping that yard sale has a nice cheap twenty long so I don't have to spend 34 dollars to get a new one :-( I'm perfectly happy with used tanks! In fact most of my tanks are used! The 33 is used, 29 is used, my Marineland 3 gallon is used, the 1.5 gallon Selkie is in right now is used!

The only things new are the two 5.5's which one was given to me anyway, my 10, the Tetra cube 3 and then just the KK 3 and 1. The Aqueon 2.5 and 1 which I'm throwing out soon since I accidentally ruined it with bleach...whoops. And then I just have some plasticware laying around for QT stuffs ^_^


----------



## Elsewhere

Really, 34 bucks? Here the tank itself is like 25 and then a lid or a light is around 60, which is stupid and expensive!


----------



## PetMania

Yay! Thanks lil. I can't wait to see him. I'll post a picture when I get him into his tank.


----------



## dramaqueen

Jarvis is going to have a wonderful home with PetMania.


----------



## PetMania

Thanks, DQ. I'll give him the best


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I ended up moving the baby (which is albino ^_^) from Tony's section of the 10 and acclimated him to the 33 where he instantly started to suck on the walls happily without fish buggering him. Although the Ram did try to eat him a few times >.> but the Pleco whacked them away and they haven't touched him since!

I wish I could breed Rembrandt, he's just so perfect! His body could use some lengthening but his fin form is really good, nice fat ventral fin's, all fins meet with caudal just a tad longer. No rounded edges to his tail, just straight ray's and his dorsal only has one short ray, the rest are all nice and long. But alas, since he's sick....obviously that's not good to be breeding!
"Dis is my good side!"









My pretty blue eyes to match my pretty blue lips and pretty blue scales!









And a pretty blue tail!









Caught him just finishing a flare lol









And Rembrandt's tank's progression^_^ grass is growing really well! You can actually see the ammonia test tube next to my glass of drink there lol, ammonia is still testing zero, yipee!









And look who's finally making an appearance! I still don't know what to name her since she's never been in sorority or sorority water. She's what I've been calling the false MG. But since Jarvis will be going out on Tuesday, I figured I'd switch things up and put Jarvis in the heated 1 gallon and her in his place in the divided 5.5g. And boy let me tell you, Mercury looooooves his new tankmate ;-) haha

































And the busy boy himself! Who still needs a home! hint hint!









And the busy boy's bubble nest! which went from this when I got home:









To this only about an hour later lol









And apparently my plants like to grow out of the water in this tank lol, most or all of my java moss will be shipped out to bambijarvis this Tuesday as well since we're trading plants for snails.









Aero being the pretty boy that he is! I think his tail grew!

























And the other unnamed girl

















Happy Ram is Happy!

















Mystique isn't feeling well, I have a feeling that I won't need to euthanize anyone any time soon to do my necropsy :-/

























And you can see how Aurora is feeling.









Princess Mononoke and her marbled self!









Lady Ram scouting the wisteria for fallen food!









And yes, baby BN Pleco is actually albino. I thought he had yellow eyes but turns out they are red, either way I don't care since I'll be able to find him easier than the chocolate ones lol









I feel like he's already grown since last night! He's definitely got a full tummy though! That's Lone Ram and Firestar near him


----------



## PetMania

All of your fish are very pretty. A suggestion for the first female would be Venus


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks PetMania ^_^ I'm going to stick with my Marvel theme for now though


----------



## Phantom Miria

Aww that un-named girl has frosted tips on her tails, its adorable! Name her Snowflake or something ;D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay this is what I've got going so far with possible names.

For this girl:
Dragonfly, Angel Dust or possibly Catseye









This is a better picture for what she actually looks like:
I could do Snowbird, Gosamyr is another









And this girl who I haven't gotten yet but will be part of the new sorority. I won't decide on a name just yet in case she dies in transit or something.









And this boy I'm just going to name Piple since he's just so damn cute and Pip works for him I think :-D


----------



## BettaLover1313

Gorgeous fish! Love the albino Pleco!!! I hope your sick fish get better soon.


----------



## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks PetMania ^_^ I'm going to stick with my Marvel theme for now though


If she was all black, I would say Black Widow


----------



## Quinn

Ooooh Piple and the new girl <3
The other gals are gorgeous too, I like Catseye for the first girl for some reason it seems to fit...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Quinn ^_^ I'm excited to get Pip!

If I name the false MG girl Catseye then I'm also considering the girl beneath her as Dragonfly as well so it'd be either Dragonfly or Snowbird I think.


----------



## PetMania

O.O Dragonfly sounds really pretty.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Somehow I missed the one with name considerations XD

False MG Girl-I also like Catseye

For the other Girl-I like Snowbird, it just seems to fit with her in my mind.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks! And no worries, I know thread's can move fast sometimes! :shock:

Yeah, I think mostly because the gem Catseye is yellow/amber which is what she is so I think that fits as well ^_^

I'll have to try out Dragonfly and Snowbird, I think it probably will come down to Snowbird but I've got to test them out first ;-)


----------



## PetMania

I might have to use those names  

Q: how'd you come up with Jarvis's name? I figured that you were an Iron Man fan :3


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, Jarvis was just from Marvel as well; Iron Man ^_^ I've always loved Jarvis and when I first got him it was a toss up between Feron and Jarvis, well you see that Jarvis won out ^_^ Most of the time I just pick from a group of names and then test them out. I usually go by color and sometimes personality like one of my former girls; Emma Frost, she was white and had a queen of the world attitude lol. With Jarvis the fish, he has a beautiful blue when he's settled in that reminded me of what I think of when I hear 'Jarvis'. I tend to think of digital stuff as a light blue/green colors so yup, that's where that came in ^_^


----------



## PetMania

This may be silly: I now imagine Jarvis actually talking like his Marvel character. That would be so cool. Ok weird mode off. 
I tend to watch Iron Man at least 5 times a month.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Totally not silly! I love Jarvis in the movies! He's so snarky and awesome! Quite literally one of my favorite character's! :-D My Jarvis seems so much like him as well, he mostly will just sit there and observe and I could practically hear him commentating on things XD lol


----------



## PetMania

On youtube, there is a channel called HISHE. They make a lot of marvel videos. One of them has Jarvis controlling the Iron man 3 suit (#45) and singing. It is halarious.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh that's hilarious! When I find time and finish my other shows, I'll have to look that up lol


----------



## PetMania

I think they have one for every Iron Man movie, The Avengers, and Thor. Spiderman, as well.  

Did you find out who bit off Aurora's tail?


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## lilnaugrim

No but I just assume it's the Ram's since none of my other girls would ever do that, or at least I'm pretty darn sure they aren't capable of that. Betta bites are small and U shaped, this is just an entire fin ripped off which I don't think they can cause that much damage in literally two seconds and it's much more rough than Betta bites are which causes me to think of the Ram's. I'm kind of giving up on it and just letting them go one by one so I can just start fresh and start right.


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## PetMania

Ahh. Well, I hope everything works out in the end.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks


----------



## lilnaugrim

So we had a fire tonight! And I took pictures because fire is awesome! We also had hot chocolate by the fire which was totally awesome! So here are some pretty cool pics!

Out of focus fire is cool!









Blue flames









They look like they were painted


















Ashes and the moon!

















Firepit









We found a symbol on one of the boards


























Coolest picture, I think ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Damnit...went to check on fish and feed them today....little Pleco died :-( I think the Ram's probably buggered him to death :-( Stupid Ram's, definitely a mistake getting them. I love them but not if they keep killing everything I put into the tank....hopefully the snails I'm getting will last longer than a day >.> anyone want some Ram's? lol


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## PetMania

Aww, sorry about your pleco. 

I wish I could take the Ram's but a)no room b)they are starting to scare me lol. 

Are rams a sub-species of cichlid?


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## lilnaugrim

They aren't a subspecies but they are a species of cichlid. They are one of the dwarf cichlids which include both Ram (blue, gold, german, and various others) and Apistogramma's which there are wayyyy too many to name! They're normally a very peaceful fish but I think my Ram's just get too excited about things and think that everything I put in the tank is food for them to eat :roll: they're silly though. They are still uneffected by the disease that's in my tank so I think once my girls go (Mystique was looking worse for wear today) I'll keep them in the tank for a little while and see if I can get them to breed or something just for the fun of it  otherwise, they'll just go to a different home if I find out what my mystery disease is. I'd hate to contaminate someone else's tanks!


----------



## PetMania

Yeah. I don't know much about cichlids. 
I hope that you do find out what the disease is. I had a similar case a year ago with my platys. All of a sudden, they drop dead. I couldn't find out what it was. They were all from the same store, so I figured that was the case.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, cichlids are great normally, I think if I had just one ram in the tank it'd be fine but with the three, it get's a little rambunctious.

And thanks, no idea what it is yet other than maybe a antibiotic resistant form of columnaris maybe...idk!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Aw no! Not the adorable pleco!  

I hope you can figure out whatever disease is in your tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313  I'm thinking about going back to my LFS to get a bigger Pleco they have there. They have "teenage" BN pleco's there that I can get. If I do, then I'm going to acclimate for an hour since I know our water is so different even being one town over but they're on city water and we're on well water. Anyway, I will also release the fish in lights out so hopefully the Ram's don't bugger him/her all day >.> stupid ram's.

But anyway, they have some nice looking albino larger BN pleco's as well. I actually don't like albino things, even like albino rabbits and cat's freak me out. I think it's the red eye's really. But I'm hoping they have a yellow/orange one that doesn't have red eyes I can get. Most likely I'll just have an Albino or I could just get another chocolate and just not be able to find it as well lol...idk, what do you guy's vote? Baby Chocolate or Albino or teenage chocolate or albino?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Any opinions on whether I should get an albino or a chocolate? Or should I just not get one for now and see if these new snails I get will hold up against the Rams?


----------



## MattsBettas

I like the albinos, but get whatever you prefer. I wouldn't get any new fish for that tank at the moment though...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well snails will be going in regardless, so I just hope the Ram's don't kill them >.>

I really need a fish to die so I can dissect it already....Mystique's anal fin seemed to be crumpling up if that makes sense, deteriorating and curling. It's much shorter than it used to be.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sent out Jarvis today to PetMania! And a crap ton of Java moss to bambijarvis! I didn't realize just how much moss I had in my 5.5 :shock: ....it was growing veeeeerrrrryyyy well lol Mercury seems happier with more swimming room though lol.

I made the executive decision today to euthanize Amara, the girl with the Callamamus worms. Obviously if I haven't been even able to get KanaPlex for the sorority, there was no way that I was getting meds soley for her for the worms. She was looking worse for wear though, her fins had started to clump together, melting but turning red most likely from ammonia. She was producing almost five times more ammonia than any normal fish and so therefore suffered from ammonia burns since I couldn't change her water daily. I assume it was from the worms, she also would poop obnoxious amount of poop even though I'd feed her maybe 3 pellets every other day while Snowbird who was in a similar container and on the same feeding schedule did not poop hardly as much (Snowbird is normal).

I couldn't deal with the added stress and made the decision, she passed peacefully though.

School has been a rough ride lately, I finally just got my Zinc Plate for etching in my Printmaking studio. Until recently I had borrowed one plate from a friend in class and one from the teacher with the intent to return the plate once I was able to get my own. But since the school has yet to approve my tuition waiver, I don't have money to spare. My check is nice but it's bi-monthly and it is very difficult to budget for two weeks. I generally spend 40-60 dollars in gas a week so that's a good chunk of my check and then usually 30-40 in repairs or something for the truck. This week it's tire's since we just found out that my passenger front has a crack right down to the core...yeah that's an issue.

School itself has been okay, love History of Animation and Printmaking, hate Psychology 103 though, it's called Toward's Self Understanding and it's as boring as it sounds. The exam's aren't on any of the material we cover so I practically bombed the first exam, thankfully we've got three of them and some extra credit stuff that I actually have to do. I have no ambition for that class though....it's my second to last gen-ed so I really can't fail it. Sigh....

Work mostly is just the biggest thing taking over my life though, I mean, you guys have read or skimmed my rantings so I don't need to repeat myself. It's just frustrating. Trying to balance work, school, fish and KKPsi stuff (fraternity) we're taking on a new class as usual this semester but we're also helping to colonize another chapter in another college in Mass. so that's extremely stressful on us as well. Doesn't help that no one answers emails practically, I have my day's as well but if it's an important one, it's imperative that everyone replies and I find it's mostly the older members with a few younger ones replying but it's only like 30% of the chapter.....which is a big issue. We've gotten better over the last five-six years but we still have a long way to go until we're good enough we don't have to worry so much.

Anyway, I'm going to go slack off and watch some Psych! Love that show! :-D


----------



## PetMania

Sorry to hear about work. But it's nice to know that you enjoy school  Amara is in a good place.


----------



## BettaLover1313

S.I.P Amara 

I think you should get whatever Pleco you like best! 

Love Psych! Best show!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Totally just watched like four episodes, on my fifth now lol. Netflix will be the death of me XD we just got it so I'm super....wait for itttttttttt--Psyched! lol I've been watching this show to much but James Roday is just amazingly good looking, got to be that hair ;-) anyway, I'll stop fangirling now haha


----------



## PetMania

^ lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hey, what can I say? I'm attracted to guy's who have great hair just like me lol


----------



## MattsBettas

Have you watched breaking bad yet?


----------



## PetMania

:lol: I got a thing for guys with a cute smile. Hey, we all have our interests;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nope, haven't watched Breaking Bad either but that one my friends are also obsessed with. I'm still trying to catch up on Doctor Who but the rest of season 7 isn't on Netflix yet and I don't have a Mac like some of my friends so I can't just go on random websites to watch it unfortunately. :-(

But I'm sure eventually I'll have watched everything lol


----------



## MattsBettas

You _have_ to watch it. It's awesome and there fine little details to pick up along the storyline. Highly recommended.


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, well I guess I can add it to my list of shows to watch then ^_^

And because I was bored, here, have a horse! Poor anatomy but w/e, just a sketch to make me sleepy enough for bed time


----------



## PetMania

Ooooooooo pretty :-D


----------



## BettaLover1313

Lovely horsie! 

Psych is VERY addictive...I actually need to catch up still >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks ^_^ I mostly just like the head/neck/chest area, one of my favorite places to draw since there is so much fur detail whereas on the stomach, well there's only so much shading you can do 

Woohoo, today is Wednesday which means I go to dad's tonight  I plan to attempt to do a water change for the babies in their 10 and check Rembrandt's parameter's to make sure nothing funky is going on and then feed everyone some brine shrimp :-D mainly the babies since Tony needs to get his gear's moving and grow already >.>


----------



## Quinn

Well with the proportions you didn't draw a horse, you drew a fat little pony! But a good one at that! I SO wanted to be able to draw horses well when I was little. I took a few drawing lessons and I was ALWAYS drawing them. Didn't end up that good 

When do you get to move everyone to your moms?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Actually, if it were a pony the leg's would be much shorter and the stomach rounded, head larger compared to neck and chest. The horse I was drawing was in mid-gallop so all feet were off the ground so that's why it looks a little funny. I was actually drawing a Palamino ^_^ I did draw the head a little fatter than I was supposed to but pretty much everything else was spot on, I just moved the back left leg out a little bit too much and the front left leg was positioned lower in the picture ^_^

I've drawn horses since I was literally born, one of my favorite animals of all time that I can't even touch because I'm so allergic to them :-( tis a sad thing.

I'm not sure when everyone get's moved yet. We still have to sand down the puddy in my room which is my job, which I should have been doing yesterday while I was watching Netflix instead. And then we get to paint the room, let that dry and then I can start setting up my 29, making sure it holds water first and I don't have to re-silcone it. And then divide that, get some new bags of Miracle Gro Organic's Choice Potting Soil and lay that down, get some new sand, lay that, fill it, fill with plants, watch plants grow, add fish, done. lol so I suspect another month to two months things should be ready.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's so weird, I look at threads nearly all day long and sometimes I'm pretty sure that I comment on them but when they show up in the New Post category with a new reply, I'm like, why aren't I subbed on that one? Pretty sure I replied lol. But turns out I didn't and I just think of a reply in my head instead of actually writing it down....I think I have issues >.<

Half hour till I'm out of work and on to Concert Choir! Woot woot, love that class! It can be a bit of a pain but I love the stuff we're singing right now, which includes our normal German stuff but we're also doing Swahili this semester! It's so fun! Our director; Mark Conley had gone to Africa over the summer with some program and taught there as a choir master (which he is) and came back with some new insight! It's a great program and we're all so happy he could have gone! So our concert is November 2nd which is about two weeks away now so we're gearing up to sing our first Swahili songs :-D totally awesome!

And then after Concert Choir, I have an hour break to get lunch and then run back for Printmaking 1 class where I have to finish my second plate and get that printed and also print my first one in color. Then have to leave that class early for Marching Band at 4 which we have practice till 6. Got a busy day ahead of me! I also haven't been to Marching Band in almost three weeks  either because we have Pep Band practice instead or because I was on vacation (1 day) or sick (3 day's), it will be weird going back for sure!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg...I laid down and now I don't want to get back up to finish taking pictures....my battery was dying so I had to put it in the charger which disrupted my flow of picture taking lol. I guess I should take pics though.....sigh...

Mystique is looking worse today, very lethargic, anal fin nearly all deteriorated, rot on her mouth and grey patch is getting bigger.

Rembrandt is fine, all snarky in his little tank. He flares so much with the reflection on the wall but there's only so much I can do with that.

Cherry is looking tinier if that's possible. She's clamped and could barely get at her food.

Raven continues to look fine, although more of her anal fin is missing.

Aurora has now started to get lethargic and the disease is setting into her as well.

It's almost like the ones that get bit are the ones that deteriorate and then die. All the fish that died/dying were bit by the Ram's at some point except for Mystique. It's kind of like Zombies I guess or Werewolves! The only one that's survived a bite to the fins and lived is Lady Deathstrike ironically enough lol she's fine and dandy! It's so weird.


----------



## PetMania

I'm sorry, lil. I hope that you can figure out this disease


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh wow, just looked and I've got 77 friends on here lol

And thanks Pet, btw got the letter today! Love the drawing ^_^ thank you :-D

This is what the tank looks like as of right now. I've had issues with the right light and it was turning off during the day because the light bulb was just a tad bit loose. But I think I fixed it now. Anyway, tank looks bare again and horrible :-( I hope the plants stay alive enough for the girls to have cover until they all pass.









Took 167 pictures today and actually got quite a few good ones! This one of Firestar included!









This girl is such a ham!









































Probably the best picture I've gotten of her ^_^









"Whatchu lookin' at?!"









Cherry is looking worse although she remains spiteful

















Cherry and one of the possible culprits









"Shhhhh, I is hunting Raabbbiiitt--I mean Betta!"









Stardust doesn't look much better than her twin.

















That yellow spot is actually from when she jumped a month or so back.

















Aurora









Phoenix the Alpha









Mystique looks tired.

















Finally got a good picture of the Black DT girl! So hard to get against a black substrate >.<









Lady looking pretty as ever!

















She was actually posing for me which is what Emma used to do! Lady's filling in her spot now that she's gone 









I like this pic since it shows how bright her fins actually are.









Snowbird enjoying her heated 1 gallon ^_^









Light from the 5.5 was shining through and I thought it looked cool :-D apparently so did Snowbird!









So I took a LOT of moss out of my 5.5 and sent it over to bambijarvis! Mercury has actually been a grump ever since! I think it's partly because Catseye has no interest in him whatsoever lol, he gave up on his bubble nest too! haha oh well.









Mercury is still up for adoption as well! I'll make a thread about it soon in the classified's.









Lovely close up to his adorably handsome face and that amazing lipstick job! haha









Unfortunately I only got one good one of Catseye, she moves way too much when the camera is around >.<









Rembrandt's 3 is growing very well!


----------



## PetMania

Even with the disease, your fish are beautiful. I feel bad that this mystery illness has fallen upon you. 

I hoped that you would like the drawing  I would have done one of your fish. Can't wait for Jarvis' arrival! He gets a special spot in my room. Now I get to wake up to see a pretty betta.


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## lilnaugrim

Actually it almost looks like the boy that I had driven down from Canada for Feng on here when we went up to get the fish from Catw0man. He was a blue dalmatian so he was white with the blue spots, he was my fish for a week so that sort of counts haha. But yes, love it ^_^

Yeah Rembrandt is on my side table and I love waking up to him staring at me, as creepy as that sounds. He's just so adorable! And then he goes up to the top to beg for food that he won't get lol. But thank you! I really like how this round of photo's came out and I didn't even do anything different XD just took pictures! The girls seemed to be calmed down for the most part though and I think it helped since it was after technically lights out should have been at 8pm but I kept the lights on to take pics. So they were like...we should be sleeping, why is the sun still on? lol


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## dramaqueen

I love the one with the bright fins.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks DQ ^_^ that's Lady, the only survivor of her two sisters (Jewel and Emma). She's the only one who's been bitten by the rams and survived it, her tail is still growing back and it's taking a long time but she's getting there!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I do lots of thinking about future stocking idea's quite literally all day long lol. So I was just fooling around on AquaBid and AQadvisor just to see if anything struck my fancy. Well I looked at the Banjo catfish which I find extremely weird and a little creepy but it's like a cute creepy. Kind of like when a kitten stares you down....lol Anyway, noticed the seller had a website up so I followed it to: http://www.gunpowderaquatics.net/ turns out their in Florida which is awesome because most other sites are either from Arizona with rediculous shipping prices or out in Cali. So FL is nice ^_^

I've been looking at Bumblebee gobies since they are just so darn adorable! I know they're brackish/fresh but my LFS has them in freshwater and that's how they were raised, still doing well too! So I want to get one ^_^ I know there are two types, a schooling one and the regular one and I think these are the regular one but I wish I could have found the schooling ones.

Anywho, so 10 gallons or 12 will be sectioned off for the girls, planted nice and heavy. Then the remaining 18-19 gallons will house Red Rili Shrimp because I'm still in love with them. 1 Bumblebee Goby and I think I want to do 12-15 Ember Tetra's since they're nice and small, won't bother the adult shrimp too much. I'll have to very densely planted so I don't have to worry about the Tetra's or Goby hunting down the shrimp.

I also want to make the back portion of it terraced with some stone slabs and build up a little part of it. I think I'll draw it out just to show you guys since the idea in my head just looks so awesome lol. I want dwarf hairgrass for sure and possibly giant hairgrass for the back part near the divider to help block out views. I know there will be some sort of moss, most likely Christmas Moss for the shrimp to hide in. I also want to complete my idea for a underwater rock wall. I have the rocks, just need to silicone them together. I want to make little openings and have it mostly hollow in the middle so that shrimplet's can get in and not be bothered by the fish as well.

How's this idea sounding?


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## lilnaugrim

My babies came in today! And by babies I mean imports! That was extremely fast and unexpected! I wasn't expecting them until next week! So I'm glad I came home earlier than I would have, almost stayed to work in the studio!

Both are very stressed but the girl especially has lost almost all color, I hope she get's back the red/black that I bought her for! Right now she's only showing the blue/white dragon scale and then her fins are clear with stress. The boy; Pip is quite pale white and blue but he's eating well! Already ate five pellets the little monster ^_^ he's very content now but she's kind of freaking out, I always find that females tend to freak out more than males....guess that's normal throughout the animal kingdom lol.

These are the fish I'm referring to:









He is also very skinny but getting fatter as I feed him ^_^ He's also more orangy in the fins which I'm totally not complaining about :-D


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## PetMania

I hope they settle in well. Jarvis is doing well, he's enjoying the new plants I put in for him.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks PetMania! And glad to hear about Jarvis ^_^ feel free to upload pics of him here if you want! I totally don't mind :-D

Took pictures, they'll be up a little later


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## lilnaugrim

Also, Cherry died. Or at least I assume she did, most likely eaten however I can't find any remains anywhere. No bodies on the floor either so idk where she is. Mystique is getting very lethargic and I'm thinking to just take her out so the girls won't eat her and I can do my necropsy.

Surprisingly enough, Phoenix is getting the disease now. I thought she was my alpha but I guess not! She's now got a hole in her anal fin and some stringy stuff from her body much like Lynx had.









Yeah Mystique is just not feeling it :-/ She's not bloating yet, that's just what she normally looks like but without fin's it makes her look twice as big. No pineconing yet.

















Stardust has been starting to clamp up more often than not.









Aurora is just being Aurora lol. Got a nice picture of the MG girl too although her eyes freak me out since they're so big but it's not pop-eye. Her scales are messed up too and sometimes I still think she is a guy....

















I mean, look at those eyes! They're freaky! Asaria on the other hand is adorable ^_^


















The Fierce Three! lol









Girls









It's funny since I was taking a picture of the new water wisteria I have growing there and looks like a Ram and two girls snuck in ;-) I find it even funnier that Aurora and Asaria are nearly in the same position as well.









Aero wasn't feeling photogenic today lol









And Pip! Going from very pale to more colored up.









































He's got beautiful blue eyes! They look green in this photo from the lighting.

























And the girlie, as I said, practically colorless! But now that she's in a tank shared with Pip, she's much happier. I used my old breeding net to put it in the 3 gallon with Pip and propped it up so she can't jump to get out since it's right up against the cover of the KK. Probably doesn't make sense when I explain it lol.


----------



## Elsewhere

Aw, I'm so sorry about Cherry :-(


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## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry to hear about Cherry 

Pip looks good! Hope your new girl settles down soon for you!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! Yeah both Pip and the girl are much brighter this morning and flaring at each other. Pip is now bright white with a nice deeper blue and of course his orange fins :-D She did gain her red back once she was put in the tank...she jumped out of my hand and onto the floor...whoops....but she's fine! Happy to be able to swim more than an inch each way! I'd get pictures but I actually have a football game today, yay Band! lol so I'll talk to you all later today. I'll be home around 5:30, ug, hate late football games :-/ game starts at 1.


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## lilnaugrim

Mystique has been hiding for the latter part of the day, she was when I came home after the game (We won! Woot woot! 12 to 10! Tough game and the other team ended up forfeiting at 1:09 and we're like..really? Well if you insist!) and Phoenix's hole has gotten a little bigger to :-/

I don't think Mystique will last another two day's honestly. I think I'm going to separate her and hope she lasts till Monday so I can do my necropsy on her in the morning before classes start.

The two imports are doing well! Flaring at each other quite a bit lol but they don't seem to be over-exhausting themselves so I'm not worried.

Look at him! He's such a ham!

























I know it's through the netting and I'm sorry but you can still see her! Her red fully came in last night ^_^ she's so cute and pretty! Very feisty!

















And used Aero's light to actually show Snowbird's colors, she's turned more purpley rather than blue/green, meh, she's still pretty.


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## dramaqueen

I'm sorry about Cherry. Your imports are beautiful.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks DQ. at this point it's just, life goes on you know? but thank you 

And yes! The imports thank you too! haha. Pip is doing well, I need to add him to my signature! :-D


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## DerangedUnicorn

So, I didn't read this journal as meticulously as I did your baby journal, but I did skim through all 73 pages. I really wish I could take Mercury off your hands, but I don't have an extra tank/heater or the money to obtain them. I would be feeding Omega pellets & frozen blood worms though! lol. I usually think DTs at ugly & awkward looking, but Mercury is a pretty copper & his fins actually aren't as awkward to me as most DTs. 

I love Aero too! & your sorority is amazing. I want to start a sorority one day! It's so colorful looking! I'm sorry it's not going well for you right now. You're doing your best though. 

I also love the pictures of all the other animals in your life. If I'm not on this website, I'm looking at something animal related and the only channels I watch are Animal Planet and Nat Geo Wild. I'm a animal freak! I know more about animals than I do about my college major! It's sad.

Sorry about your grandfather. I have someone in my life that ruins everything too. I completely understand. Thankfully, I don't live in that house anymore. This person is the bane of my existence, so I definitely get it. I wouldn't want to wish this sort of curse on anyone else. 

Anyways, good luck with all your fishies! I am subscribing!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Unicorn! Yeah, 73 pages is a lot to read lol. When I read journals that I didn't sub to in the beginning I tend to just look at the pretty pictures and sort of read the text if it looks interesting haha. Soooo kudos to you as well for reading more than I would!

Yeah, I really do blame my grandfather for the downfall of my sorority or at least most of it. If he didn't turn off my lights, inadvertently killing off my plants, the girls wouldn't have been so stressed out but with stress comes disease and that's why you have to be really careful with sororities. I definitely suggest NPT with sorority so you have more stable plantlife, root tabs can only get you so far. It's fine if you've got like, water wisteria and java fern but for other plants, NPT is certainly the way to go! And always QT no matter, absolutely NO MATTER what you think! I also learned that the hard way, thinking I was smart and being completely ignorant to what I was doing.

But yeah I'm pretty much there with you, I know so much more about my fish than I do for Art History (not that that particularly is my major, I just am Art) so yeah, sad lol. But hey, that's a hobby! And this is a darn good hobby! and a profession if you can get into it more :-D

So today was a busy day, had breakfast with mom, mom's bf and little bro. Went to church, came home and had to go back to dad's so that my friend could pick me up to attend Smoker. So I'm in the music Fraternity and we have rush events to get new people to join, Smoker is our formal event where we all dress up nicely and we have (usually, this year was a bit different where we had lunch) breakfast or brunch and basically we really get to know each other, talk, laugh and have a good time. We split into groups and the PM's (potential members) are also split into groups of 2 or 3, this year each group was of 2 since we had 6. Then they go around to each "station" of active members and we do a mini meet and greet, get to know them better on a more personal level for 15-20 minutes. Generally questions are like, what's your major, what's something that no one knows about you/fun fact and why are you interested in KKPsi? So that was all good and fun, lasted about three hours since we didn't have the food prepared on time so we were cooking the first hour lol.

Then the PM's would go back to their dorms/houses and the brothers (us) would discuss and meet. So that went for another solid three hours as usual. Regular meetings usually only last like an hour, at least for us :-D

So went home, Pip and the new girl are doing well although still very much flaring at each other and pecking through the mesh. I just hope they don't try to kill each other >.> Mystique is losing strength but I didn't want to separate her yet but I also don't want her eaten so I'm not sure what to do about that yet. I just hope she lasts until like Tuesday or something so I can properly take her in to dissect. But everyone else seems to be good, babies are still growing well, Rembrandt split his ventral fin but healing well. He's flaring at the tank walls quite a bit and I'm a little concerned for him but he's not blowing out his fins so I think he'll be fine.

Selkie is doing well, she's sitting next to me begging for attention lol. She's slimmed down a little since the food incident >.< hoping she'll continue to slim, I hate Betta's who are overly fat all the time because then it's hard to tell if they've got issues or not and they're just fat.....so yeah, hoping she slims down more.


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## jadaBlu

You could could get a quart food container and float it in the sorority to keep Mystique in sight of the sorority. These sites are sometimes helpful in figuring out what's making fish sick and the treatment:

http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2006/11/betta-with-dropsy.html

http://www.gbasonline.org/disease_chart.htm

http://www.nationalfishpharm.com/fish_diseases/physical_changes.html

You can try talking to the fish vet at this pharmacy. Bear in mind while they treat other fish they seem to have a focus on goldfish. So they might steer you in the right direction but you will want to research further to be sure the treatment is betta appropriate.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I have larger food containers for QT stuff but I guess I'm just lazy which obviously isn't a good thing. But thanks for the links anyway.

Chart was cute, I like they added "Plant's Die" among other, sort of silly things lol. Made me giggle at least since I really don't consider that to be a disease or illness.

And considering I've used KanaPlex before with minimal results, I know it's some form of bacteria, most likely a columnaris strain but either way, it didn't eliminate my issue. I've been recommended other medications but currently I'm struggling with money. I still have to buy my art suppplies for school! My professors are about ready to kill me since we're more than half way through the semester and I still don't have my stuff.

I finally figured out why I wasn't getting my tuition waiver though, apparently there's some stupid new law and form that my mom and I have to get Notarized....not even just sign but full fledged notarized! So we did that yesterday, today going back to enrollment services to make them accept my waiver so I can hopefully get money by the end of this week! Also have to get my dental plan stamped by the school because apparently I'm not covered unless I'm going to school which is weird because I'm pretty sure that all insurances stop covering when I'm 24, I still have three more years before that hits.


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## lilnaugrim

So today was pretty relaxing which is nice, my usual work in the morning with the van's and then just my two classes. Came home, mom gave me 10 dollars to go get my tires mounted. So I just went and turns out that (we bought the tires from the same place) that one of the tires we bought had a broken bead which you can't use to drive on. So he gave me a refund of 20 dollars for the tire but since I was getting two mounted anyway (took off the old one and put it back on, so technically is still mounted and it's still work so I wasn't going to stiff him out of that. Besides it's a family run business) which costs 10 dollars, he gave me back a 10 so I actually came home with 20 dollars rather than zero which feels pretty darn good! lol

I kind of hope mom will let me keep the twenty so I can put it in for gas but we'll see, her and John (her bf) are taking a nap right now so I'm not going to disturb them 

Not much fish related today, Selkie is doing well and still looks like a fat harbor seal lol. I can't wait to set up that 29 so I can get the new sorority going and let the old one peter out I'm hoping that the Ram's stay uneffected so that I could potentially give them away if they are uneffected by the disease. I know they can still carry it though, at least I'm sure of it. But columnaris lurks in the water column either way, they're either effected by it or not, usually depending heavily upon stress levels. Since the Ram's aren't stressed (obviously) they do not carry the disease, assuming again that this is columnaris.

Oh yeah, and I buggered Financial Affairs about my tuition waiver, turns out the lady isn't here today but will be here tomorrow and so we wrote a note and hopefully she can start processing it tomorrow and I should have it at least by next week at the latest! THANK THE FREAKING LORD! I need money! I am thankful though, for my job because otherwise I would not be attending school and that can't happen!


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## lilnaugrim

OMG, I just ran my toe over with the pallet jack....FML FML FMLFMLFML! My toe is going to be bruised for a month! Holy crap it hurts so bad!

On a good note my boss came back today after being on vacation which was actually just, he was home but his brother and his family came to visit from Holland so Nasir took the time to be with him. He told me all about it today how they went to the Providence Place Mall and then went to the Mystic Aquarium the next day and it was so much fun lol.

But he thanked me for being a big help today and that he appreciated me! I'll keep that tucked away and hold on to that comment for a day when he's not so happy and I'll have to remind myself that he does appreciate me, just doesn't always show it  It's a good day, other than stubbing my darn toe!


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## BettaLover1313

Ouch!!! I can't imagine how bad that must have hurt! Glad to hear that your boss showed his appreciation


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## dramaqueen

Ouchhhhh!!!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, didn't hurt as long as I thought it was going to lol. Didn't bruise either so that's nice seeing how I have to march a football game this Saturday.....I've already done it on a nearly broken ankle so I would like to NOT repeat that haha. But yeah, toe is feeling much better today ;-)

Oh and Mystique is still alive! Kind of surprising actually, she doesn't look good though.


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## lilnaugrim

Did a nice 30% water change on the 33 yesterday when I had the time. Did all my other tanks except for the 5.5 and the black ct's 3 gallon but I'll get to them on Saturday after my football game. Mystique is still alive but her mouth is rotting more and she just looks horrible. I think I'll separate her today and let her float in a container until she passes or I deem fit.

I also changed the tank around a little, got rid of some dead/dying plants and trimmed up the lily, took out one piece of driftwood as well and will let that sun dry so I can eventually sell it :-D It was just too crowded with all that driftwood lol. I like how the tank is now.

When I get home we're going grocery shopping but I'll see if I can get pictures, I've been slacking on those lately, haven't I?!

Oh Pip and his gf are doing great as well, fully colored up and with a healthy appetite to boot!

Mercury still needs a loving home!!!!!!


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## MattsBettas

That sounds great! I'm glad Mystique is still hanging in there.

When you sell the driftwood, make sure you let the buyer know that it came from a tank with disease...


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## lilnaugrim

Will do, thanks Matt. Yeah, she's still there, not eating I know unless she mysteriously finds a rogue pellet which is highly doubted but she's there. Phoenix's anal fin as deteriorated more, where it was just a hole before, that whole back part up to the hole is gone now which is how Mystique started as well. Raven still has spots on her that grow with each week, they look a little more painful now, her fins are still a mess too.

Aurora, Phoenix and Stardust are in constant state of bloat and I saw one of them poop white so I was thinking possible internal parasites but I can't tell for sure if it's just some early organ failure or something else. Anywho, got to head to class, talk to y'all later.


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## PetMania

I really hope that everything works out, lil. Jarvis is doing fine *hehe I'm watching Iron Man while typing this *. he has adjusted well and has got quite the personality.


----------



## dramaqueen

That's like my new guy from Mo, Pablo. He's such a showoff. Lol


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## lilnaugrim

I'm glad he's doing well Pet! He's such a quirky little guy but so amusing ^_^ I'm really glad you like him :-D

Oh and Matt, even if I let the driftwood sit out in the sun until like Spring/Summer next year? I know it doesn't kill EVERYTHING but that should kill the possible Myco's, correct? I know it's courtesy of course but leaving it in the sun for the UV ray's to kill it should make it safe for other aquariums, yes? Or no? If not then I won't sell it, don't want to infect other tanks!

Raven has started to get lethargic, both her and Mystique are the ones in rough shape right now. I'm still conflicted about Mystique and whether or not to cup her since she seems to be doing better. I know she's not getting better but she's not as lethargic as she was before but she looks terrible. Now Raven is entering the lethargic stage.

The added sunlight to Rembrandt's tank doesn't seem to be helping his external issues with that grey patch so I'm going to keep the blinds shut again since it's not worth it to grow so much algae >.<


----------



## PetMania

So, yeah. I am making room for 5 new bettas. And I am starting my first sorority. 
Is it okay if I get Jarvis a 3 gallon tank? Or should I still buy him a 5 gallon? I can split a 5 to save room, but I don't want Jarvis to live in too small of quarters.


----------



## MattsBettas

The uv would definitely kill the mycos on the surface, but my main concern is that it is porous so mycos are living in the wood where the light wouldn't touch it.


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## lilnaugrim

That makes sense Matt, so I shouldn't even bother trying to sell it then huh. I can always use it for firewood after it's dried out XD great use of aquarium wood lol :sarcastic:

And Pet; Jarvis is totally fine sharing a 5 with a girl if you need to, he's quite chill around the ladies in fact. He'll just sit there and stare and not know what to do with himself, occasionally he'll flare if he's got enough stimulus but generally he doesn't flare at all. But I've had him in all sorts; 1's, 2.5's, 3's. He's comfy wherever he is really  I mean, I don't really care what you do as long as you take care of him which I know you will. Even if he's in a 1, if he's given proper care, I see no issue at all ^_^

I had to put Raven down, she was listlessly laying against the sand or plants. I netted her, she didn't fight and actually swam into it. Cupped her and since I had just taken water, it was still swirling; she didn't even fight the swirl of the cup. That's when I decided she needed to be put to sleep, she looked horrible and ragged, worse than Mystique actually. Mystique refuses to eat as well, I put some brine shrimp right in front of her and she backed away as quickly as she could, I tried multiple times and let the shrimp float in the water and she swam away from them :-/ I think she'll be going soon as well.

On other good news though, everyone is happily fed with their shrimp meal today  Pictures up tomorrow since I'm exhausted from today's game. We lost 36 to 13 lol but the Band always Wins! :-D


----------



## MattsBettas

Does that mean necropsy soon? 

I think at a certain temperature mycos die, so you could bake it... I could be wrong though. I'll get back to you on that.


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## PetMania

Sorry about Raven. 

Can I put a baby next to him? All of my girls will be in the sorority. I won't risk putting a male next to him. If the baby turns out to be a boy, I'll move him out, but it is likely that s/he will be adopted out by the time it reaches his size ;-)


----------



## Elsfish

*You poor thing!*

I hate losing fish! It just breaks me  
Enjoy your new fish!


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## Viva

Gah your troubles with this illness are literally almost mirroring mine  I really hope some of your afflicted girls pull through =/


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Does that mean necropsy soon?
> 
> I think at a certain temperature mycos die, so you could bake it... I could be wrong though. I'll get back to you on that.


Raven is too small, I'm waiting on Mystique since she's nice and big, it will be easier to perform on her. Her slime coat was building up this morning. Going back tonight to bring my little brother home and check on my fish as well.



PetMania said:


> Sorry about Raven.
> 
> Can I put a baby next to him? All of my girls will be in the sorority. I won't risk putting a male next to him. If the baby turns out to be a boy, I'll move him out, but it is likely that s/he will be adopted out by the time it reaches his size ;-)


Oh he'll be fine with any fish, boy/girl/baby, doesn't make a difference to him. As I said, he's very passive and almost takes out his aggression in a passive aggressive way lol It's kind of funny really. Just double up the mesh/divider so it makes it harder for them to bite through, that will happen with any gender of fish so don't worry about that.



Elsfish said:


> I hate losing fish! It just breaks me
> Enjoy your new fish!


Thank you 



Viva said:


> Gah your troubles with this illness are literally almost mirroring mine  I really hope some of your afflicted girls pull through =/


I actually feel the opposite, I just want to take this tank down and completely restart. There's no way that I'm putting these fish in other tanks even if they do survive, most likely the disease will follow since it's internalized by now. But I'm sorry about your girls as well :-( I know it's not fun, especially in the beginning stages/middle stages.


----------



## PetMania

Okay. The dividers I use have small enough holes that they can't bite through, but have terrible ventilation, so I'll have to make them bigger. Anyways, he will probably be sharing a divided tank with my very mellow male, Zeus.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I sometimes double up on plastic mesh/plastic canvas. It makes it so that it still has the nice big holes for the circulation but makes it thicker so they have a harder time sticking their mouths/fins through the holes to bite and whatnot ^_^

Uploading pics from yesterday today. I was way too tuckered out after the game yesterday of which we lost: 36 to 13 lol but oh well. I think I mentioned that already but meh, w/e...I'm sleepy.

Mystique came to my mom's with me tonight because she's already pineconing and that's my sign to get the ball rolling, she'll be euthanized in the morning and I'll be getting to school earlier to do my necropsy. Classes start at 8am in the particular room in which I'll be doing this so I hope it goes quick enough. Watching her right now she's having issues with her swim bladder and staying down or swimming in generally really. Doesn't help that her pectoral fins are deteriorated soooo she basically doesn't have much to propel herself, poor girl :-( she hated the ride over, that's for sure.


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## lilnaugrim

OMG, I was literally just going to hit reply with all my pictures and I accidentally hit another window and lost everything..ggaaaaaaahhhhhh I give up! Posting pcitures tomorrow because I'm freaking exhausted and now aggrivated. Night all.


----------



## PetMania

Well, it looks like Jarvis won't be sharing a tank with anyone afterall. Well, at least for now.


----------



## lilnaugrim

That's fine Pet, yeah I saw your post about not getting the females :-/

So Aurora, her twin Stardust and Phoenix which are the last of my original group, have been very bloated lately, almost like organ failure but they don't seem effected by it at all. I've seen them poop and it's been fine, same brown curly kind so idk what's up with them but I try not to feed often, the whole tank only eat's maybe 3-4 day's in the week which I kind of feel bad about but at the same time, since they're all sick it doesn't seem to matter anyway.

Anywho, pictures of Aurora

















Her scales are also raised in some places like by her tail where the end of her swim bladder would be and right behind her pectorals.

















Phoenix before eating :-/









Stardust, her wounds from jumping have not healed either, her fins did but not the scales, they've turned yellow.

































What Mystique looked like before euthanizing.

















*Note* Mystique's scales look super pretty under the microscope.









Asaria seems to be happy lately

















Mononoke is terrible at taking pictures, she's always so darn blurry!









She's such a bully but not really, she doesn't nip but she will plow fish over if they're in her way lol, she doesn't hurt though. But I love her blue! It's a real blue!









And this is the tank as of right now....it looks so....barren :-/

































Black CT girl's 3 gallon, grass is growing nicely 









And Rembrandt's tank which is nice and GREEN lol, but the grass is growing VERY well here!!

























And the monster himself ;-)









LOOK AT ME I'M PRETTY!









Keep looking I'm still PRETTY!









*Pant* oh man, being pretty is hard work!









You can't see me!!!









Catseye is doing well, she's got a pretty blue sheen over her scales. Unfortunately she seems to be developing cataracts in both eye's, definitely in her left eye (one pictured here) but I think also in her right eye as well.








http://imageshack.com/a/img407/9977/5ppb.jpg[/IMG

Annnnd, yeah I need to trim her side of the java moss :-/ it's got this horrible algae on it that my snails won't eat apparently, I have one Ramshorn and many MTS.
[IMG]http://imageshack.com/a/img407/9977/5ppb.jpg

Aero's got a boo-boo on his head but otherwise is still super feisty and silly!









His tank as of right now, I switch it around at each water change basically.









So those are all the pics I've got for today  well minus some of Raven who was half dead but I didn't feel the need :-(


----------



## Chachi

Great pics!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Chachi ^_^


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## MattsBettas

So did you do the necropsy?


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> So did you do the necropsy?


I posted about that in my other thread: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=262458&page=8


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## lilnaugrim

Whew, there's a lot on my mind right now, let's write it all down to see if I can even comprehend what I'm even thinking >.<

1. Concert Choir performance this Saturday, we're singing Norwegian, Swahili, German, and thankfully one English piece!
2. Open House to perform that morning as well (Saturday)
3. Fish, all the fish
4. Trying to figure out what is ailing my cat Siberian
5. Art classes, I was supposed to take Sophomore Review (I'm a Junior with Senior standing) this semester but I forgot to fill out the forms again (third time in a row....) so I guess next semester!
6. work :-(
7. TUITION WAIVER!!! Why won't they friggin process it so I can pay all the things!?!?!
8. Phone bill! Ahhh
9. 500 dollar deposit due this Friday if I want to go to Italy with Concert Choir next May, ahhhh where the heck am I getting this money?!
10. Food? Oh yeah, I should eat.
11. Money!?!?
12. I'm screwed
13. Commissions (still open by the way)
14. Get truck fixed (with what money?)
15. Paint room so I can finally put everything back and get fish tank set up.
16. Fish
17. I'm freezing.
18. Fraternity stuff, I'm now a Grand Big! That mean's that my Little now has a Little and will be going through the process to become a brother!
19. I'm now apparently Awards Chair for the fraternity which means I get to come up with Awards like Brother of the Year, B.L.O.W. M.E. Award (Better Leadership, Organized Work, Made Easy, basically it's who did a bunch of extra work without being asked to do so?), and then the silly ones like last year I got "Most Likely to End up Crazy Cat Woman with 27.5 cats" which we made "Cat's/Fish" lol and we made sure that half a cat was actually a kitten, not a legit half a cat :shock:
20. First Degree is this Sunday! That's when the MC's (Membership Candidate's) get their Gig Books and Pins which say's they're now rushing the fraternity and will start learning about our history and what we do through their classes! Woot Woot!
21. Holy mackerel the freight elevator smells horribly of garbage juice! I mean it's not terrible but it reeks for sure. Especially since that elevator goes so slow, you spend lots of unintentional time in there >.<

Okay....I think that's it....ho boy


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## PetMania

11= my life


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## lilnaugrim

Happy Halloween!!! Oh and this is my 7,000 post! Woot woot!

Have a picture of me from today, which I actually didn't do myself. My friend took the photo haha and then my other friend enhanced it. The only thing that's really enhanced is just the contrast is bumped up and eyes are slightly made a little more yellowy.


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## ao

oh my congratulations!* throws confetti* that's a lot of posts!!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks aokashi! *rolls in confetti* haha! Yeah, crazy to think I talk so much >.< but I believe it!

OH!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY DAY! I FINALLY got my tuition waiver processed today! They finally finished it and now I can sign up for classes and most importantly I received my student loan money!!!!! Oh my gosh I am so excited to finally have money and not have to be so darn stressed all the time!

I congratulated myself by buying candy since i'm not doing anything tonight lol I'm so happy and excited and relieved that it almost hurts haha

Happy Halloween Everyone!


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## dramaqueen

1000 posts a month! Lol


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## lilnaugrim

Almost! I know there was a month during the summer where I almost had 40 posts per day on average :shock2: yeah, crazy! Lately it's been about 25-30 posts a day ^_^ lol


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## ao

Ur a master poster! Happy halloweeeennnnnnnn! Did you costume up today?


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## lilnaugrim

Haha thanks again aokashi ;-) 

I did sort of! Since I knew I wasn't going to be going out; friends and I didn't plan trick-or-treating this year and I was originally going to have no money to spend on little things like going to the theaters to see some scary movies with friends or go to parties. So it was a last minute thing but I dressed in all black, nice black pants and a black button up, wore my white high top converse and my black pea-coat and went as a sort of Monster Hunter. I did my "knife wound" with paint as my picture shows a few posts up from here!

I ended up scaring this poor little lady in the Wal-Mart bathroom when I went. She started to freak out asking if I was okay and all that, I swear she was going to call the cops to help out but I convinced her it wasn't real. She was fine after that lol, gave her a little jump was all. I kind of feel bad but at the same time "Mission Accomplished!" lol

I then proceeded to scare more customer's as I walked through the store. I also gave my friends heart attack's this morning when they saw me, even though I've done this type of thing before, granted it was 3 years ago lol but still. It was also much less extreme lol Here's from three year's ago with my best friend who is Lucillia on here! Yikes I still had my blonde hair >.<
Uploaded with ImageShack.com

And then this is actually the Re-edited photo that I did of myself for this year, this is more of what I was aiming for. I couldn't achieve the red eye of course, I could if I wore contacts but I've never had glasses/contacts so I don't see that faring very well for me :-/
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Also, I'm feeling very sick right now :-( And it's not because it's nearly midnight and I'm still awake but Tony, one of my babies is dying. He's lying listless in his cup right now, he's floating in his 10 gallon and Steve hasn't left his side since being in the cup :-( I don't know what happened, he was fine and eating yesterday and today I come home to find him lethargic on the bottom of the tank, he wanted to come up and say hello but he didn't seem to have much strength. I cupped him and floated him, moved him to Steve's side to see if perhaps Steve could encourage him to move and eat but it didn't help. I even offered frozen brine shrimp! His favorite! He took it and immediately spat it out and hasn't moved since. I just looked and his gills are still moving and Steve is sleeping by him but he won't move and I just feel absolutely horrible right now. Tony is nearly equal on the hierarchy of my "babies" for my fish with Rembrandt! Tony's my little boy :-( he can't die! He's not even half grown yet!

I think that might be partly why I'm still awake, I don't want to wake up in the morning to find him dead while I was asleep :-( but what use am I if I'm still awake? There's no physical signs ailing him, he's not even clamped! Not pale at all but simply just laying there, breathing a little heavy but that's it! No other signs whatsoever! Why is it always the favorites?


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## BettaLover1313

I'm so sorry to hear about Tony! I really hope he pulls through!


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## lilnaugrim

:-( he's still alive this morning but more on his side and still breathing but looking like it was difficult. It wasn't labored but just looked difficult, Steve refused to eat as well :-(


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## Viva

LOVE the costumes and the pics!

And omg...NOT TONY AND STEVE! What could be wrong with them!? Are any other fish getting sick? I hope they aren't catching what the sorority girls had....gah this is too depressing -_-


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## lilnaugrim

No, I don't think they have what the sorority girls have. Tony is completely not clamped at all, if anything he's sort of relaxed but his fins are spread. He's not dull at all, he's fully colored up and did bar up when he first saw Steve but after that he just stayed normal. Otherwise he's looking completely fine other than laying there and not moving and not eating :-( I seriously have no idea.

I have an inkling that it might be because he's so stunted that it's catching up to him, Steve does eat I think he was just depressed at seeing his friend sick like that. Geeze, I've never seen two fish so enamored with each other before, other than mated pairs but seriously. But I've PM'd logisticsguy to see if he has any insight on how badly a fish being stunted can lead to death. I know it leads to death but at what point does it seriously shorten their lives?

I'm so depressed with all of it :-( I won't ever give up the fish hobby but certainly slowing down will help. But the babies...I just...I can't :-( I don't think I should breed fish, like ever, I'd be so horrible at it  can't even keep PetCo babies alive.


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## ao

I've had a fish who was in a similar situation... full colors, fins all spread out... he looked completely fine if it weren't for the fact he was floating in the tank like a dead leaf  all the best to your little one... I do hope you can figure out what it is D:


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you aokashi, did you ever find out what was wrong or did he pass? Tony isn't floating like he normally would if it was his swim bladder bothering him but he's laying on the bottom of the cup. Of course, I'm not home so it's hard to say what's going on now. Sigh....I really don't think he's got a lot of time left, I hope Steve isn't too devastated when Tony does pass if he does.


----------



## ao

Never did  I think a lot of it was from the shock of overheating... he was a rescue fish from a LFS which burnt down


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## logisticsguy

Ive sent you a pm. I feel so bad for you right now because I know how much he means to you. Why stuff always happens to our favorites is a mystery but it always is that way for some reason.


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## Quinn

Don't get down on yourself! You (from my experience on this forum) are an awesome caretaker to your finned friends. You have a wealth of information and have helped so many other people as well. You've done so well with your fish, and it may seem ****ty with so much illness around your place, but I think it's just chance, and not necessarily human error. Your other boys are doing great, Tony clearly always was not the ideal fishy specimen, and maybe it wasn't just stunted growth maybe it was some internal deformations/bad genetic hand he was dealt. 
You are a good mama


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Quinn.

I know the PetCo babies aren't up to par and usually are culls and I knew they generally have relatively short life spans compared to other, healthier fish but it's one of those things where I see it happen to other's and never think it will happen to me; ignorance. I know some parts it is human error, there was a time where I was only doing once weekly changes and they were in the 5.5 gallon then which was worse than the 10! That was around the time he stopped growing and I know that part is my fault but I do know he was culled for a reason.

I think the hardest part of this is knowing that it was all something I did though, there were a few girls that I didn't QT for the two week duration and let them in early since they didn't seem to be exhibiting signs of illness and I think that's what triggered the Columnaris/Myco, whatever the heck this stupid disease is. And then I didn't keep up with water changes as diligently as I should have when school first started, that was my fault.

And then the whole not changing water that frequently on the babies, I knew better but I didn't care at that point. I knew better than to trust only one account that I had read before that said the babies will eventually grow up, twice weekly water changes is all they needed. I knew better than to follow that but I did anyway since I'm lazy.

Yes it's probably chance that the disease I got where the ones that I got but the fact remains that it was still human error that started it in the first place. But it's all a terrible learning experience, horrible and welcomed at the same time. I'll probably still make some of the same mistakes in the future but at least I know what to expect when I do. And now I'm just rambling, sorry.

Wow today is flying by. It also sucks because I only got four hours of sleep last night because I was worried about Tony and all, and the worst part of it is that I feel the exact same as I do when I get 8-10 hours of sleep on a normal night which means I barely sleep. Which I knew that before, just sucks proving that I do have sleep apnea which causes my insane dreams and causes me to wake up every hour to half hour after a nice 3 hour period of full REM sleep and them from there on out it's like a heart monitor or a wave where I'm constantly going in and out of REM sleep. Dad wants me to get tested for sleep apnea but I feel like my doctor will just be like "Oh you're like every other American who wants all the drugs because they think that's the cure for everything!" I don't fully believe that he believes I have ADHD, which I do, but I just don't know the exact extent of it.

Gahh, it's all frustrating.


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## Viva

Quinn said:


> Don't get down on yourself! You (from my experience on this forum) are an awesome caretaker to your finned friends. You have a wealth of information and have helped so many other people as well. You've done so well with your fish, and it may seem ****ty with so much illness around your place, but I think it's just chance, and not necessarily human error. Your other boys are doing great, Tony clearly always was not the ideal fishy specimen, and maybe it wasn't just stunted growth maybe it was some internal deformations/bad genetic hand he was dealt.
> You are a good mama


AGREED!

We all have the best intentions when caring for our fish, and I know you especially do, and you put a lot of time, energy and money into it. I hope Tony and Steve will be okay...maybe the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates are out of whack in their tank? I hope it isn't something serious D=


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## lilnaugrim

Aww thank you you guys, I really do appreciate it.

I did check the levels and they were all normal, I had a small ammonia spike last week but that was dealt with, with a water change. I had taken out the smaller filter which apparently held more of the bacteria than the HOB did so taking that out took a lot of bacteria with it. I did use my Start Zyme or Stress Zyme, whatever it is and that did help a little. But other than that there has been nothing else different about that tank.

I did add some snails from bambijarvis, Tony killed his right away >.> Steve's ended up living but not sure where it is now and Hawkeye also killed his....sigh....why are my fish expert-everything-killer's? >.< kind of frustrating.


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## Viva

Omg wow...I've yet to have a betta that would kill snails, besides Spark when she was a baby...she would hunt down small pond snails and devour them. But she's good with the nerite and trumpets in the sorority, heh. Your bettas are little hunters, hahahaa. Maybe Tony is just depressed or something


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah....my boy's have issues with other...things in their tanks. Tony first started with the Endler's that he killed then he started on snails and hasn't been kind with them since, this was my third try with him >.> Steve doesn't mind that much but he'll still kill them without issue.

My girls will eat up baby snails like it's their job but they've been okay with the larger Ramshorn that are a little more than half an inch big. Thankfully.

But the issue is that I have so much algae in the 10 gallon and I'd really like to get rid of it but if the darn babies keep eating the snails....idk what I'm to do! Can't put Oto's in there for time being either because they eat them as well, shrimp, forget about it!

And I've seen Tony depressed before, he looses all color and does become lethargic, but he still swims around. This time he seems to have absolutely no energy and still is colored up. He legit looks totally fine other than laying on the bottom of his tank and laying on his side :-/


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## Chachi

How long have you had Tony? So sorry he is not doing well.


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## lilnaugrim

I've had both Tony and Steve since the last week of April this year: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=167010

I miss Tony already :-( I got home and the lights had just gone off so I turned them back on again to feed everyone and he flipped over, he was still alive but he was fighting to right himself and kept stopping in weird positions like the L shape, S shape and so on. I decided that he shouldn't have to suffer like that, he'd already give up on himself so there was't much of anything I could do. He's in the freezer right now :-( I really miss him a lot actually and didn't think I was going to miss him this much, him and Rembrandt are my baby boy's, granted Tony was actually a baby. Steve and Aero easily tie second as well :-(

I went to PetCo and PetSmart today just so I could price some things like the Eco-Complete/FloraMax for my tank set ups at my moms. I bought some Frozen Daphnia to also feed the girls and boy's since I've wanted that one for a while. So now I have Frozen Daphniarttttttttgfy, sorry, that was my cat, daphnia, brine shrimp, and bloodworms so i'm happy.


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## PetMania

So sorry to hear about Tony. To try to cheer you up; Jarvis is doing awesome. He loves his tank and food, though I am raising money to give him the whole nine yards. 
He is so beautiful, and I was wondering, where did you find this beauty?


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## lilnaugrim

I'm so glad Jarvis is doing well! I actually found him in a LFS of mine called Safari Pet Shop, they aren't very good with their Betta's and they had gone out of business for a few months this year and had to relocate, it kind of sucked. But I had gone back when they opened in a new place and found Jarvis in a cold tank (they hadn't gotten heater's yet....) with two other male PK's whom the owner didn't know they were males. I did educate her though and she happily removed them from each other's company, but all her Betta's are 4 dollars (at least they are for me) and so I had 4 dollars left and knew I could split a tank so home he went with me on a dark and thunder storming day!

That place is also where I got Ditto from.


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## PetMania

Ah. Well, you got quite the deal. $4???? Wow. He would have cost me $20 at PetCo or PetSmart. 
Is he a RT or a FT?


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## Viva

R.I.P. Tony


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## lilnaugrim

He's a FTHMDT  and yeah, quite the find for sure!

And yes, S.I.P. Little Tony, you were so personable and adorable, always making me laugh at your stupid little antics!


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## PetMania

Okay, just wanted to make sure.


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## BettaLover1313

I'm so sorry to hear about Tony! He was a very silly and adorable betta who will be sorely missed


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you BL1313, Steve seems to be faring well, hopefully he'll keep that way with the stimulation from Hawkeye who is more interested in the little black ct at his side rather than Steve lol. Hawkeye's bubblenest takes up the entirety of his side of the tank, even where there is floating water sprite! He's crazy!


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## dramaqueen

Aww, I'm sorry about Tony. He'll be missed.


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## Huffle Puffles

Just wanted to say I'm really sorry to hear about Tony.  I'll miss reading about his antics and seeing the pictures of him and Steve "pestering" eachother. S.I.P.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank's guys 

I was bad.....remember I said I went to Petsmart and petCo to price things? Well I ultimately did and found out that FloraMax is actually cheaper than I though it was, we don't carry Eco-Complete which kind of bums me but FloraMax should be just as good, I think I'll mix it with some PetCo sand since their's is nice and soft unlike the Black Tahitian Moon Sand which is soft, just not as soft is all.

Anyway, as I was saying....well I got Steve a girlfriend....she's not a baby, well she is but she's from PetSmart so she's "full grown" but honestly, she's the same size as Hawkeye. I'm calling her Tony's KitKat, but KitKat for short of course. She's a black copper/red bi-color double CT girl and she's the cutest thing ever! She actually kind of looks like Tony....maybe that's why I was drawn to her.....-headdesk- I know, I know, I shouldn't have had any more! sigh....I honestly didn't want more but she was right up front and damnit, she gave me those eyes and flashed at me and wiggled and I don't even think I stood a chance.

But since she's in where Tony formally was, she will be talked about in the PetCo baby log since I do consider her to be only half grown. She looks maybe 2.5, maybe 3 months if that. I have to update that too, but I think everyone who follows that one also follows this one so there won't be too much shock when I announce it over there.

I probably won't have pictures of her until next week, this week has been crazy busy that I haven't been able to take pictures of anyone. We just had our last Open House this morning for marching band and then just got home from Concert Choir's concert! We did awesome if I do say so myself, everyone had fun though. I had friends who came and that was super since my parents don't care for the concert's or have "pre-commitments" psshhh, they just don't want to be mean and say they don't want to go.

I also missed the due date yesterday for Italy trip :-/ I'm super on the fence about it, first it's Italy and I want to go so bad but at the same time, it's going to be about 3,600 with spending money included, the trip is only about 2,999 for the plane tickets/hotel's (they are super fancy holtels too)/vender's/tour guides and more. So in all it's a great price but just thinking about it and all the stuff I could potentially get for my fish....it's been a tough descision. I know I can contact the tour people and be like 'hey, I had financial issues but I'm okay now, I can pay when you need' and they'd be all like 'great! send it in!' and I'd be 'great!' and yeah.....but....FISH WHY YOU TAKE OVER MY LIFE?!?L!


sigh....Church tomorrow, yay, and then First Degree for our new class in my fraternity, that's where they learn their new Big Brother's and then it's a little ceremony, I can't go into detail since it's technically secret ;-) but then we go out and have good times at our local tavern and eat dinner :-D so that's cool.


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## lilnaugrim

So the weekend was a pretty good success, Concert went awesome and First Degree went pretty smoothly! I am officially a Grand-Big! I'm so excited! Here's my family as is; Dynasty II! It's just the three of us that are active; me in the back, Kim is my little next down and then the newest addition to the family; Michelina!









And because I have it, have a picture of me in my uniform! We were in the Tunnel which the football team run's through as we play our fight song. This was from our last game, it was so effing windy! We kept calling it the Barren Tundra lol, I ended up sort of sick from it as did many other's, I feel so bad for Colorguard since they're uniforms aren't as insulated as our's are, although it's nice for them when it's hotter out and then bad for us. But I'm happy to be in the uniform!


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## logisticsguy

Congrats on the new girl and grand big. I just want to say sorry you lost Tony he was a cutie. Ive seen some people say betta are not social but imo they can be really social and develop friendships with other fish. Steve and Tony had a special relationship going on that was very cool.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks CJ! I think people more thing of social as in shoaling or schooling, not interacting with another fish. But yes, I completely agree that they are very social and interactive, not with other fish but with all animals and I think that's really what makes them so good and so beautiful (besides they're amazing coloration's)! But just not social as in a need to be social like cories or schooler's 

Steve seems to be doing okay though, the new girl; Kit-Kat has been keeping him on his toes and it's hilarious to watch them interact, she's very much like Tony and I think that's really probably why I got her, besides can't stand having a space with no fish! I totally should have just took out the third and divided in half but as goes impulse buys and trips to stores!

But hey! I've been good for the past few months with not getting more Betta's, well that's sort of a lie....good for having not gone to my PetCo/PetSmart since like May or something! Mostly it was lack of money at first and then lack of space and then threats to move and still are but I'm slowly moving things over.

I bought my sand/FloraMax today! uggg, 80 dollars later >.< I bought two 20 pound bags of PetCo regular black sand and three 12 pound bags of FloraMax but I think I'll need one more to mix in for the 29. I know two bags of the FloraMax and one 20 will be fine for the 20 long at least. But they only had three FloraMax bags left of the black lol soooo I'll just get it another day when I don't feel so guilty about buying things....sigh....

I also bought two Nerite snails which I didn't know PetSmart carried! But all the fish were healthy so snails should be fine as well, one is a Red Tiger and the other is a Yellow Zebra I believe, not the Zoro one. Red Tiger went in with Black Ct girly in her 3 gallon because it's algae galore and the darn MTS isn't doing anything >.> My MTS are really weird....they don't move for like a week and then one day they move and eat some algae and then don't move for another week....I assume that's not normal :-/ any suggestions to those guys?

Well Red Tiger doesn't much like the tank but Yellow Zebra instantly got to work after they were acclimated and added to the tank, I put him in Steve's compartment first since that's the worst at the moment, it's all cloudy but not actually cloudy; it's just algae fogging the glass >.> it's rather annoying really. So I hope the snails can help with that! And I really hope Steve doesn't kill it, he's already poked at it and bit a small piece of shell...well what I think is shell, off the end of the Nerite so I hope that doesn't continue. Hopefully Kit-Kat will distract him enough!

Whew, sorry long post guys! Lots happened today! School went fine, we watched some creepy animated films in History of Animation today. If you want to look, they're really great films! "Down to the Cellar", and "Pendulum, the Pit of Hope" both by Jan Svankmajer, I believe they're on youtube somewhere. I can look if anyone wants me to link them to it!

And then as I was leaving, met up with my best friend and we're going to see the premiere of Thor 2 on Thursday! I haven't seen a movie since Iron Man 3! I'm glad I get to see Thor though, and with my friends best of all!

So I did take some pictures but there won't be as many for this journal as there is for my Baby one so check that one out after or if you already checked it out then cool! Good for you! haha

Piple here has been doing great! As is his little girlfriend! Both eat like starving animals although they clearly aren't lol

















You can actually see the girl through the mesh lol









Snowbird has been doing very well too! She's all spunky! She looks so tiny against the heater! That's just a Hydor Theo 25W!









Stardust doesn't look great, either her or her sister; Aurora will be the next Necropsy. I'm thinking Thursday morning since the labs don't have classes in them and I have my x-acto knife this time as well!









Fat!









Her eye isn't cloudy, it's scratches on the glass. Her anal just started to deteriorate as well.









Aero!









Rembrandt's tank has seen some amazing growth too! Mostly in the Water Sprite which has quadrupled in size! :shock2: I need to get it out before it chokes out my water wisteria which it is covering at the moment >.<









You can see the lazy MTS here >.> although Rembrandt also might have eaten it because he was looking a little more chubby than usual today...God I can't win!









I'm also getting this horrible green...slime over the top of my water and on the DHG....no idea what it is! It's not algae but it sticks to the tweezers when I put it in there and then I can sort of just pick it up like a sludge almost. :-/ I put the filter back in since I know it needs some water movement. I had just cleaned out most of the slime on Saturday and it's back already :-(

















And that's it for this journal. I always laugh when I see posts that say *Pic Heavy!* and then it's like maybe six pictures.....I'm like..ever seen one of my picture posts? Yeah....this is one of my short ones! haha


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## PetMania

Hmm. Never have I seen 'slime' before. Do you think it has to do with the ratio of plants to the amount of water?


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## lilnaugrim

No, I think it's more likely due to the fact there was very little to no water movement in his tank and the fact that it's still technically getting natural sunlight, although weak light in the late afternoon time which contributes to more algae as well, mostly on the driftwood. I hope the snails hurry up and do their job! Lazy MTS >.>


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## PetMania

Hehe. I got a greyish layer at the top of my 1.5gal. There isn't a lot of movement, but also not a lot of natural light. Hmmm


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## ao

is it a protein film layer? I find pond snails are great at cleaning those up 


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## lilnaugrim

No it's not protein at all, I know what that looks like along with the oily film that comes from too much conditioner or Stress Coat. It literally looks like green slime and get's all over everything :-/ If I've accumulated enough by tomorrow I'll take some pictures to show you guys.

I think I need to get an Nerite in Rembrandt's tank and hope to god he doesn't kill him too, I'm pretty sure he killed my two little MTS >.> I can't catch a break with these guys!


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## PetMania

Well, I hope "Slimy" goes away. What snail do you recommend for uncontrollable algae?


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## lilnaugrim

Usually Nerite's because they don't make such a mess, they generally eat more kinds of algae and don't breed, at least not in freshwater.

I would get a small fish like an Oto or a Rainbow Goby (PetCo has them and they look super healthy, but I'm afraid they'll ruin my tank with their digging habits >.>) or something but I'm very sure that Rembrandt will kill them, he killed the head strong Endler I had >.> little punk!


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## PetMania

Okay, thanks. Does PetSmart sell netrites?


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## lilnaugrim

My Petsmart now does! My PetCo doesn't though. It's a new thing that my Petsmart is doing and I was thankful about! But they're all different so I don't know about yours!

Oh yeah, thanks all for helping me reach over 800 posts to this journal! Woot woot, I'm popular! haha actually I just talk to myself a lot XD


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## PetMania

Hehe, lol! And...........80+ pages, too!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Hot damn! Woohoo! lol A whole bunch of milestone's this past week! 7,000+ posts all together, just hit 80 friends on here and 80+ pages to my journal along with 800+ posts! That's a lot of 8! lol, would be funnier if my posts were at 8,000 too! Hold on a sec while I got post another 9,89 posts XD haha

Fish are all fine today, didn't do a water change on my 10 like I told myself I needed to. I will do it tomorrow though since my second class is canceled so I get to go home at 10:45! wooohoo! Although I have to stop by Home Depot and get some more Clamp lamps since I think the ones on my 10 just burnt out....not sure why. I switched the bulbs around and the plugs around in the light strip and they still didn't work :-/ maybe I should just run up to PetSmart to get a new light strip since this one sucks. Two out of four of the timed plugs don't exactly work properly so I'm constantly fixing it! Better than one of my other ones though which doesn't time at all so I use that for mostly filter's/heater's. :-/ sigh, I only have one out of three that actually fully works properly.


----------



## PetMania

Yay for milestones! Congrats! 

I get off at 12:02 tomorrow due to budget cuts, so yay!


----------



## lilnaugrim

12:02? That's a really weird time lol

Ugg, so rainy here today! It's like a heavy mist, so it's not really raining but it soaks you right to the bone! Oh well, glad I only have one class today!! woot woot!

I'm going back up to PetSmart to get another timer strip for the 10 gallon and two 3's. Either way I need a new one for it, that one is only 10 months old now which kind of sucks but I guess it's a good run...never worked well in the first place though >.> figure if I buy it from the store, I can at least return it myself to get my money back and/or exchange. 

I'm thinking about getting two more Nerite's if they have them still, one for Rembrandt's tank and hope to God he doesn't kill them and another for either Kit-Kat's side or in with Mercury.

I'm seriously debating selling Mercury since no one here has shown interest in him or has the space. I'm also thinking about selling the girls who have not been in the sorority yet and just keep the Black CT girl for breeding purposes and Kit-Kat and probably Selkie because my mom is in love with her. I just don't think I should ever do another sorority even though I want to :-/

So this makes my tank plans now at moms:
20 gallon long; divided 5 way's for Black CT, Kit-Kat, Steve, Hawkeye and Aero.
29 gallon; community with Red Rili shrimp, 1 Bumblebee Goby and 15+ Ember Tetra's; heavily planted.
33 gallon; community with most likely a Paradise Fish from my LFS maybe and some sort of schooler fish like Rummynose Tetra. Not sure yet.
5.5 for Selkie under the 33.

and at dads:
5.5 gallon for Rembrandt.


----------



## Elsewhere

Sounds like a good plan, Lil!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh....My Lanta!

So we just watched Thor 2 and OMG Loki feels everywhere and Chris Evan's and his cameo! Sorry, slipped into Tumblr speak there >.< but we all practically ripped out our hearts on this one and then laughed it back together! Holy crap! It's sooo good!!! My best friend and her little brother are going to see it again, most likely in 3D, I'm super excited!

I just have to say that Chris Evan's is purely amazing though! I won't give any spoilers but, wow!

The feesh are fine, Aurora and Stardust are coming in with me to do a necropsy tomorrow morning and this time I've made sure that they are completely dead >.< I don't want a repeat of Mystique :-( I will also be taking photo's for some research but no worries, I won't post them here. But if anyone is interested in what it all looks like, I can certainly link you to where I will be posting them.

Oh and our toilet is broken >.< and I really have to go pee right now...as I sit in my room with...8 tanks and 2 QT bowls....yeah....not going well. I'm hoping I can slip into sleep quickly and just forget about it all >.>

Anywho, night all! Updates in the morning most likely!


----------



## Quinn

If you ever do sell Selkie I call dibs!!!
You are vet strong to do the necropsy, I would be too squeamish I think. I can handle wounds and such on animals, but I can't do the cutting myself. Even back in middle school I couldn't cut the frog to dissect it, and I think it would only be harder with an animal I was attached to. But it's such a necessity in diagnosing the illness. Things like this make me shy away from sorority ownership, too. So stressful what you've had to go through. Fish are so delicate!


----------



## MattsBettas

You disconnect and treat the fish as a body rather then a pet. 

I would try clove oil this time, lil.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I couldn't find clove oil Matt, freezer again but this time they spent a good hour in there so I know that they're dead.

I do have to remember to breathe while doing the necropsy >.< I think I almost passed out. I can stand the smell no problems, it was the sort of gooey organs that got me :-/ But again, I see no signs of granulomas to the naked eye as well as under the microscope! Of course, I don't know exactly how tiny or large they will be on a Betta fish. I could only dissect Stardust, couldn't stomach Aurora as well. Stardust was pretty eggy though! No idea why since there's no males around them :-/ maybe they were confusing their reflection or something. And now I'm finishing the rest of my breakfast! lol

And sorry Quinn but Selkie is staying, mom loves her too much lol. It's really hard to try to get mom NOT to feed her >.< I thought I was going to have the opposite issue lol. Funny how mom will love any pet that my brother and I take care of.

But Selkie, Kit-Kat, Princess Mononoke, Lady and the Black CT are staying for now. Mercury is going and the rest of the boy's are staying. Although Steve, Tony's brother, has not been doing so well :-/ he won't accept any flake or pellet that I try to give him. He only takes frozen stuff and I'm not sure I should be feeding that to him all the time. I think he may have some internal parasites going on :-/ I'm thinking I should just dose the entire 10 gallon with ES to hopefully flush it out of them. But he's been in a depressive state since Tony died, Kit-Kat helped the first few day's but now he's disinterested in her *sigh* I feared this would happen :-/

EDIT: Oh yeah, and forgot to say that my stupid male GBR's killed and presumably ate the female ram >.> She's not seen anywhere and I looked under decorations and all and no where to be found.....sigh, never going with that again. If I do Ram's it will be 1:2 M:F as it should have been.


----------



## annyann

Hi lilnaugrim, I haven't read through your entire journal, just bits of it.. Very cool fish you have had!
Im sorry that you ran into such trouble with your sorority. How long had it been up and going?


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## annyann

Sorry double post, had to edit =/


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## lilnaugrim

Sorority was begun in March of this year and has ended today.

With the euthanization of Aurora, Stardust and Phoenix (all the most bloated and worst of them all) came a bloodbath in my tank. I've come home to find that all my remaining girls have died, looks due to some sort of fight. Whether it was between themselves or with the Ram's who have been getting more and more aggressive each day, I don't know. Also the pygmy cories I had finally introduced after their QT, yeah they became Ram snacks. I will never own Ram's in pairs again, they are not shy at all on their own. They've killed their own female, all my cories, and the girl's.

Princess Mononoke is the only one still alive but she's on her last string. As I type this, she's gently floating down to the bottom of the sand to lay there, twitch and try to swim again and lay back down. What a day.

On brighter new's homes have been found for Snowbird, Unnamed AB girl and Mercury and possibly Catseye. Aero has build a large bubble nest in lieu of the storm we had yesterday as did Steve, his first nest! But alas, he's still not eating. Kit-Kat is well and a hungry little thing, Hawkeye is still growing fast. Black CT girl is fine, Remmy is his usual sassy self and Pip was hungry.


----------



## MattsBettas

Sorry you're going through all of this... It's pretty awful. At least they don't have to suffer through disease anymore, though. 

What are you going to do with the tank?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt, yeah I'm trying to look at the bright side of that. And also I don't have to stress so much, maybe I'll get through this semester after all.

For now the tank is staying up until I can make sure the Ram's are healthy enough to go to a new home; most likely my LFS where they can QT them safely and do with them what they please. Unless you think this is still a really bad idea, in which case I don't know what to do with them!

But I'll let the plants continue to grow until we're ready to take it down and sent it to mom's. I'll most likely leave it out for a good month or so to bake in the sun just in case. However, I was just wondering; are UV ray's less strong in the winter time as opposed to the summer time at all? Or is it always just the same all around?


----------



## PetMania

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for your loss.


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## lilnaugrim

On a different topic, I can hear my brother watching Avenger's and he didn't invite me! lol I can hear Tony Stark's repulsor beam's ^_^ I'm such a nerd!

And thanks Pet. I'll just have to focus on what I do have instead of what I don't. Remmy's sass should be able to get me through though haha, he's flaring at me right now, silly boy.


----------



## PetMania

Lol. I'm the same way with Transformers. I hear the music...and I'm there within seconds :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah ^_^

Well dad is taking us to the new Italian restaurant that's come to town so I'll see y'all later.


----------



## MattsBettas

You can check your uv index on the weather network or whatever (I think). You can just use rubbing alcohol if you don't want to risk relying on the sun.


----------



## Elsewhere

Aw, Lil, I'm so sorry. Such a crappy way for it to end. Hopefully the Rams will pull through and go to a new home.


----------



## Quinn

Yikes! Sorry it went down like that  Very naughty Rams!
I hope it does prove a huge stress relief for you at least.


----------



## PetMania

At least they aren't suffering through the disease. We all have to go someday =)


----------



## annyann

Oh my gosh! Im so sorry your sorority ended like that, thats just awful.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys, there will always be something to stress about but that definitely took the cake, I don't even stress over College or work that much and I complain about work a lot! lol, well not in person, just on the internet which my boss doesn't know how to use ;-) He got so confused when I started to use keyboard shortcuts and kept telling me I was wrong but he did the same exact thing lol.

I have a feeling that Lone Ram would have been fine if he was actually alone or with Lady Ram but Boss Ram is just one mean sucker. We live we learn though, right? I just wish it wasn't at such a high cost. Oh and my cat is such a stinker!

Sorry but this new's interupts all! So Siberian, my Court Jester as I call him, the newer cat is such a stinker. Last night he slept in the shower.....scared the crap out of me when I went in around midnight to get me some cortirzone for my itchy legs and he rustled the curtain's but I didn't see him. Then I hear a kitty meow and he's rubbing against my legs XD apparently he scared my dad as well. Anyway, he's on my bed right now and he was at my side when I was petting him (I'm laying on my stomach typing here) and as soon as I set my arms up to start typing he jumps right into the cradle of my arms to curl up >.< in this position I can type but if I want to move my cursor with the pad..well it's going to be difficult lol. Oh geeze....now he's licking his butt >.> ugg, yeah he's a stinker all right!

I normally don't let him in the cradle of my arm's because, well he licks excessively and his breath stinks and then I can't type/scroll/click when he's like this >.< but he's so damn cute at the same time lol. He knows when I need comforting for sure, well all my cat's do but he's the only one with me right now ^_^ love my little clumsy court jester!


----------



## PetMania

Cats are quite the character


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## Viva

Wow, that really blows. Cats always make things better though. Unless they decide to break through the glass top of your sorority tank....fml.

What are you doing with the tank now? There's just one ram in it?


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## lilnaugrim

No, I have two ram's; Lone Ram and Boss Ram are still alive but they killed Lady Ram.

I do also have a pregnant Guppy in there which I felt bad about. She was accidentally in the male tank at Petsmart and the lady was fishing her out and I said that I'd take her. The poor girl only has one pectoral fin but she get's around fine, she's the new ringleader of the Ram's though, she bullies them around :-/

I'll keep the tank running until she gives birth and then hopefully the Ram's will be out by then so I can just raise the fry and sell them to my LFS or online somewhere and then be rid of everything.

I'll give it a good spray with the alcohol and let it sit out in the sun either way to get the effects of both since it can't hurt anything  Besides, we still have to get rid of the piano at mom's house.

Matt, what's your opinion on the Ram's and possibly rehoming, is this fine to do or is it just a really bad and stupid idea? They show absolutely no signs of sickness and never had, the female was just bullied to death the poor girl.


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## twolovers101

I'm pretty sure UVs are the same no matter the time of year (you can still get sunburns in the winter) the temperature is just colder but that's because of the way the Earth rotates around the sun...

This link *clicky!* will explain it better than I can. But the basics of it is that the sun emits UV radiation constantly no matter the time of year. Amount of UV radiation depends on your latitude on the Earth's surface. The more "direct" the sunlight you recieve is directionally proportional to the amount of UV radiation you'll experience. For example, I live in Texas, so my latitude lines up with the sun's rays a lot more directly than say, the north pole (or Rhode Island lol)

So in short, yes, the sun thing should still work, but it might be best to chemically disinfect as well 

Yay! Nerd moments!


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## MattsBettas

There is a possibility the rams could carry it or have it latent or something... If you don't want to let them live out their lives with you I would try giving them away with the disclaimer that they may carry disease or something. 

Or they could just be 100% clean, but still...


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## PetMania

I agree with Matts. Send a warning that they may carry a fatal (?) disease. Maybe someone can just take the two of them, who knows?

Hey, i might need a cichlid to help keep the platy population down, lol.


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## Mo

Lol. I wouldn't mind taking them either but I don't have moolah


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## PetMania

Don't cichlids need 30gals? Yep don't have room for that. But cichlids are on my bucket list of fish =)


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## MattsBettas

Some cichlids need bigger tanks (Like oscars), some are fine in smaller. 

Despite the fact that I have pretty much perfect water for african cichlids I have never had any interest in them. Of course.


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## lilnaugrim

I wouldn't sell them per se if people on here wanted them. They're too much trouble for me to keep them and honestly no point. There's no female now so they just keep stressing each other out. Oh and now I KNOW they killed the girls because they killed the Guppy that was bossing them around >.> So I effectively only have the two male ram's in the tank and I DO NOT suggest that they go together in a tank that is less than 50 gallons.

A lone Ram though will do just fine in a 20 gallon or bigger. Ideally you want to have a pair (I did but....yeah, we all see how that went) and generally the male won't harass the female to death but since I've got TWO males, that was an issue. So they should be fine in a community with the proper fish although I wouldn't trust Boss Ram unless it was a community of Ram's which yes, you can have and it's usually recommended like the more Ram's the better. 

So Mo, if you did want one or both of them, shipping and handling would be around 20 I think if you were doing two since i'd need a bigger box, but just one would be 10.


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## lilnaugrim

Actually, scratch part of my last post. I'm willing to pay shipping and everything to get these two boy's out of here! So first come first serve here, two lovely Ram's! lol


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## PetMania

SO...tempting. I hope they find new homes =) 

I don't have any experience with them. But, if the Lone Ram would be okay alone in a sorority, then maybe I can take him.


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## lilnaugrim

I wouldn't chance it.


----------



## PetMania

Yep. Sorry.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So....I'm seriously debating a change of setup in my tentative 29 gallon. Whereas before I wanted the shrimp, bumblebee goby and Ember Tetra's.....there's a friggin' adorable 8 inch axolotl at my PetCo right now. He's been there just over a month I believe and the Aquatics Specialist is actually taking great care of him, I talked with her a few times now and she says I'm the only one who actually knows anything about them which is awesome. I helped her out a bit, she thought that they would come out of the water so he's in only half water and has some rocks sticking out so he could climb. She didn't realize they were one of the few "salamader's" that are fully aquatic.

So I'm seriously debating getting him, I know this is a serious commitment as they can live up to 10 year's but ever since I saw someone, I don't remember whose, journal with the baby axolotl's, I've wanted one! They are just the cutest things ever! And I'd totally name him Toothless just because he looks like him!

I still have lots of research to be doing if I do decide this but I know he's there, I'm the only one she said that has put serious thought into getting him. People always think he's cute but then they look at his price tag (only 20.98 which isn't terrible at all!) and they shy away. So if he's still there by the time I have everything set up....I'm seriously debating it!


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## PetMania

I would get him =) I've wanted one of those for awhile. Too bad my stores don't sell them. Anyways, they are really awesome. So, my vote goes for axolotl.


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## lilnaugrim

lol thanks. Yeah, if he's still there, I'll try to get him! It changes my planting idea a little but I can still do something that I've wanted to do ^_^ I'll have to see if I can photoshop something together to show you guys what I want to do :-D


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## PetMania

Ooo, pulling out the blueprints, lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, yep!


----------



## PetMania

How's the weather over there?


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## lilnaugrim

Today's actually pretty warm! We hit 60 again! Yesterday our high was 45 I think, I was Marching a football game. Oh yeah, we lost bad but it was against Villanova which we haven't won against in like 15 years or so, so the 0-45 really wasn't all that much of a shocker lol. But it was Senior day! So myself and all my college senior friends were recognized at halftime and then we all cried afterwards, well I didn't since I'm not even leaving lol but I almost did when my best friend broke down!

Anyway's weather yeah....last Monday our high was 30 lol and we were marching out in that for two hours!!!! We had to get our Le Mis show ready for this weekend which came out really well!!! :-D


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## PetMania

Wow, such different weather. But here in the 'desert', when it gets cold, it gets COLD! In 2008, on Jan. 8th, the high was 18*.
For teh next few months, the day starts out at 30-40* and can get up to 70-90*.


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## lilnaugrim

lol......18 is like summer time in the winter! We've gotten down to -20 before ^_^ although usually we sit around 0-15 with a wind chill that makes it feel like it's in the negatives! lol you people and your warm weather!


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## PetMania

I, honestly, would rather live in the colder weather. Heat strokes and sweat, urgh. I don't really like living in increasing-temp.-throughout-the-day weather.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, that's why I like New England. We've got a saying: "If you don't like the weather now, wait around a few more minutes; it will change." lol


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## PetMania

Hehe, that's a good line. I guess that fits over here, too. We don't really have a mutual saying. We just pop a bottle of lemonade and go to the beach, well not me. I'm allergic to hot weather, lol, jk. 

I hate pollen season.


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## lilnaugrim

Uggg pollen...yeah don't come here then! This was our worst year for pollen! Might have been partially why I got the flu, that, stressing over girls and financial issues with the university, not resting like I was told to do...yeah...fun times! lol


----------



## PetMania

I sneeze so much in October and November here. Pollen alerts everywhere.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, we get 3/4 seasons with allergy alerts lol, every season except winter ^_^ although I still have other allergies that get bad in the winter as well so it's a no-win for me, but that's okay. That's why they make anti-histamines! :-D lol

Ugg....it's 11:15...why am I still awake and addicted to this site???


----------



## PetMania

It's 8:30 here, so I'll probably be on for awhile. But, my cousin and her kids are coming over tomorrow /) so I might have to go to bed early. Ugh...why? I thought I was supposed to get Monday off to myself (away from school). They'll be here all day.


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## MattsBettas

Haha, 18? Try -40!


----------



## PetMania

Let me guess, in Alberta, it can get down to -40?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Got that right pet lol. Yeah, as nice as Canada is, I do prefer our weather here much more!

I do get most of Monday to myself which is awesome! Love holiday's! Unfortunately though I do have a meeting at 6:30 for the Fraternity, normally our meetings are every other Sunday but since with the Holiday and people going home for a little while, we pushed it to tomorrow. But I'm happy i get to sleep in! Unless mom wants to go to breakfast for 8 >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh it was a lovely 50 degree's today! Beautiful! My favorite type of weather!!!!

Pictures!

Rembrandt approves. His head stuff doesn't look so raised or puffy so I take that as a good sign.









I also took out the large thing of Water Sprite and put it in the 33 because it was choking out my water wisteria! So I left a little sprig still to now take over the tank >.<









33 as it looks right now. I sort of did the Betta shuffle and so Pip is now in the breeder net for now, in the 33. He really likes the flow of the water and likes to flare at the Ram's who flare back.









Snowbird looking grumpy! She'll be headed off to PetMania soon to live in a happy home!

























Doesn't even look like the same fish in half the photos! lol









Unnamed AB girl who will be going to Feng as well. This is what she looks like when she's stressed out.

















And almost fully colored up. She stayed like this for a good seven-eight pictures! lol, such a poser! ;-)

















Mercury being the silly fish he is, tried to get under his rocks....earning him some good scrapes on him! >.< He'll be going to hollyk along with Catseye.









And um....ahem......introducing....King Charles aka Charlie the King Betta.....gee, I can feel everyone rolling their eye's already! >.< I didn't chose him, he chose me!

























Halloween the Bumblebee Goby

















Boss Ram.


----------



## twolovers101

Aww the goby! So cute! (has a soft spot for gobies)


----------



## PetMania

Wow, Snowbird is so adorable!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Love Rembrandt's picture! The Goby is adorable as is your new betta!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! Yeah, Halloween has been super adorable. For the first few day's he wouldn't eat but now he gobbles up the daphnia and whatever other frozen treats like it's no bodies business haha.

Charlie is doing super well too! He was wicked shy at first but now he comes up, looking at the top of the water and then me, expecting food haha. He's so big! He at 15 pellets the first day! And he didn't even look fat!! :shock: crazy!


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

I'm confused. What tank is the goby in? & is Pip going to be ok in that tank? Is whatever killed your girls gonna kill him? & lastly, Mercury & Snowbird must be jealous! You're getting rid of them just to replace them with King Charles? For shame. Lol. But he is pretty. Is Remmy's tank an NPT or just planted? What about your 33?


----------



## lilnaugrim

DerangedUnicorn said:


> I'm confused. What tank is the goby in? & is Pip going to be ok in that tank? Is whatever killed your girls gonna kill him? & lastly, Mercury & Snowbird must be jealous! You're getting rid of them just to replace them with King Charles? For shame. Lol. But he is pretty. Is Remmy's tank an NPT or just planted? What about your 33?


Oh lots of questions! I like ^_^

Halloween the goby has been in the 33 for a little while now same with the Ram's and my snails who have cleared up almost all my algae now! yay snails! And yes Pip is also floating in the tank. What killed the girl's was an opportunistic disease, that's what Columnaris is. It's always in the water no matter what so you can't actually get rid of it but you can get rid of the physical signs on the fish, however my girls were too stressed out with the Ram's constantly chasing them/plant death from my lights being out because of my grandfather (that's what mostly started it) and my newb move of not QT'ing a few girls as long as they should have been.

So Pip will be fine in the tank.

Mercury and Snowbird aren't the only ones going, Catseye and an Unnamed AB girl will be going as well. Mostly I'm just getting rid of the girl's because the original plan was to start over another sorority on a smaller scale but I've fully decided against that and so they're all going. Mercury was going in the first place, he was supposed to go to one of my best friends but her mom ended up threatening to flush them and she didn't want that to happen so she told me no and to just offer them up to the forum of which I did.

And yes, Remmy's tank is an NPT. I used Miracle Gro Potting Soil (the regular one, not as good as Organics Choice) and his regular gravel as a cap. That's been going well for two months now I think, might be 3 months now....hmm I'll have to look back in my journal to see when I started that up again as NPT ^^

And my 33 is just planted.

So the plan is as follows since my "grandfather" has told us to move out, I need to move some things around. I'm moving my stuff to my mom's because she's agreed (and she loves my fish as long as she doesn't have to take care of them lol) as long as her bf is living with us, I don't have to pay electricity, however I am prepared to do so in the event it's needed.

So I currently have an open 29 gallon tank sitting in my basement which was originally going to be used for breeding Betta's. I have to test it still to make sure it holds water, it's quite old by now (almost 20 years I think) but still looks to be in good shape! No visible serious cracks or scrapes and just the corners are chipped a little, but my 33 is chipped more and scratched and it's held up just fine for the last 9 months now.

So, if all checks out:

*29 gallon* split with a 10 gallon section (Charlie) and a 19 gallon section for Red Rili Shrimp colony and Halloween the goby.
*20 gallon long* beneath it on the stand, split for five: Pip, Aero, Kit-Kat, Steve (if he's still alive, if not I'll keep it at four) and Hawkeye.

^so that will be in my room upstairs. Downstairs will be the 33 in the living room where I'll have a regular community tank, most likely Ember Tetra's or something very peaceful and a centerpiece fish.

And then Rembrandt will be staying at my dad's when we move and he'll get a 5.5 gallon since in Westerly we'll have to pay for water >.< city water sucks. But I'll have it a NPT and then when I have to do water changes, I can bring gallon jugs from my mom's house, much less of a hassle really 

So yeah...that's the plan right there, sorry for the loooonnnngggg reply XD

EDIT: Oh! I forgot Selkie! She'll be housed in a 5.5 gallon under the 33 gallon as well since mom loves her so much haha.


----------



## Elsewhere

I cannot handle the cuteness of Charlie! Ugh, I want a giant! No one around here sells them, though. I also have zero room left >.> Glad to hear everything is going to great now, Lil!


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Ok. Now I understand. One more question. Have you found out where the rams are going? And your snails? 

Ok. That was two questions kinda. Oops.


----------



## Elsewhere

DerangedUnicorn said:


> Ok. Now I understand. One more question. Have you found out where the rams are going? And your snails?
> 
> Ok. That was two questions kinda. Oops.


This has nothing to do with your post, but I LOVE your name! :-D


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Elsewhere said:


> This has nothing to do with your post, but I LOVE your name! :-D


HAHA! Thank you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank's Elsewhere! I'm not going to say everything's going great yet, holding out until it actually does feel good. I still don't have a good feeling about Steve, he ate three frozen bloodworms today but still refused pellets and everything and was swimming like an Endler, kind of wobbly like :-/

But thanks all! Charlie is super cute and very much like a dog almost.

And @Deranged, the Ram's just found a home but I have two people fighting over them >.< ugg. I wanted to send one Ram to each person but the first person wants both of them but I don't want them to go together unless they'll be in a whole shoal of Ram's not just by themselves. Lone Ram isn't going to take Boss Ram's crap for much longer.

and the Snails I'm totally keeping, they were never leaving. When I move they'll move to various tanks since they're only in my 33 right now. I do have a larger one in my 5.5 as well that survived.


----------



## MattsBettas

Nice plan!

By the way, despite the fact that columnaris is pretty much always in the water, antibiotic resistant columnaris is not. I would recommend doing a through sterilization of the tank, especially before you start breeding... Last thing anybody needs is a spawn wiped out or carriers of antibiotic resistant columnaris being spread all over the country...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh god yeah, I would never breed in that tank or have any spawns in there! It WILL be sanitized no matter what happens.

My 20 long will be new so I won't have to worry about that one, and the 29 long has been sitting in a garage for 18 years or so now and I assume it's clean but I should probably let it sit out as well and do an alcohol rub just to be certain.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Another pic of Halloween  he's much more confident now.









Aero!

















He's almost completely Full Mask now! The black spot towards his dorsal is actually a wound from scraping against an ornament that I've since taken out so he only really has that spot to fill on his nose and he'll be Full Mask ^_^









And Aero being himself ;-)


----------



## PetMania

Aww, so adorable


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Pet!

Aero has really grown amazing since I've had him! Can't believe it's almost been seven months! I've had him since April! I had to look back in my posts to see when I got him lol

Also! For anyone who wants a taste of Rhode Island and just see the silly things that have happened over the past few years! I've seen most of these actually or at least saw them on the news the day after ;-) Have fun laughing at us! lol http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikerose/the-24-most-rhode-island-things-to-ever-happen

And for anyone who wants to know why we call "water fountains" Bubbler's, just ask and I'll tell you. There's a legitimate reason we call them that instead of water fountains!!!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Halloween & Aero look great!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mercury and Catseye have just been sent out in the mail today! Off to Nebraska they go! I've got homes lined up for the Unnamed AB girl, Snowbird and the Ram's as well now so they'll be shipped out on Tuesday  And now somehow I've adopted a yellow Kuhli Loach.....what am I doing??? One of my friends from high school actually, I've taught her a lot about fish and she's had a 55 gallon with three goldfish, a Kuhli Loach and a Common Pleco for a while now and since the goldfish died (from being stunted since all three were in a 10 gallon for a loooonnng time) and the Pleco was rehomed, she only has the loach left and she asked me to take him, knowing I have tanks >.<

I figure I'll just take him, check him out and make sure he's healthy before I drop him off at my LFS since I don't want a group of them and he'd be cared for better at my LFS than me since I'm not very fond of loaches anyway. I'm sure he's cute but if I get any other bottom dweller's, it's gonna be Dainty Cories!! So yeah >.<

But! I'm also getting her old 10 gallon, gravel/ornaments and whatever else she doesn't want! So that's cool! I'll clean up what I can and if anything good comes up that I don't need, I'll make sure it's been sanitized and disinfected three times before asking if anyone wants it here ^_^

Just did some water changes though, Rembrandt's 3 was looking a bit nasty so I did his water change today. I still have that horrible algae growth! I feel like it's something I'd see in a pond :-/ it's gross and get's on everything! Right now it's inhibiting my dwarf hairgrass >.> I'm NOT a fan. These were like from two weeks ago when I first mentioned it. Perhaps you guys can help me figure it out!
From the top, it's actually green but the light makes it look grey-ish.









Wrapped up my tweezers!









Just so you can get the color and see it better without the light glaring >.<

















So yeah, no idea's what it is! I tried to net most of it out but I still have some floaters and it's driving me insane!

Pip so far is fine still floating in the 33, Halloween stuffed his face with some Brine Shrimp today as did the Ram's. Charlie was happy to see me, Aero was pacing as per normal. Rembrandt is being flare-y, Black CT girl was happy I cleaned her algae off, Hawkeye was hungry as usual, Steve is mopey and losing strength it seems or what he makes me believe, Kit-Kat is her usual sassy self. Snowbird was begging for food, and Unnamed AB girl is happy in her new 1 gallon with a heater now.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Boss Ram 









"You can't seee meeeee!!!!"









All fat from eating, little piggy!









Unnamed AB girl is liking her 1 gallon VERY much! It's just the little corner tank from Wal-mart, 10 dollars well spent ^_^

















I love how broad her dorsal is.









Charlie colored up really well!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Y'all have no idea how much fun I'm having listening to Christmas music right now haha the Nutcracker, Ballet, Op. 71 by Tchaikovsky is playing right now and I may or may not be dancing around my room...well I was before haha. And singing to my fish XD


----------



## Rosencrantz32

LOL I've been listening to Christmas music all week!! Glad to know I'm not alone 

I really love Charlie by the way. He's the coolest king betta I've seen


----------



## logisticsguy

lilnaugrim said:


> Y'all have no idea how much fun I'm having listening to Christmas music right now haha the Nutcracker, Ballet, Op. 71 by Tchaikovsky is playing right now and I may or may not be dancing around my room...well I was before haha. And singing to my fish XD


Oh good Im not the only one who dances around in front of the fish. My fish love seeing the big fat guy get a groove on. They are quite the audience wagging their tails and surfing away to the beat. Just don't get caught by family members like me. The family thinks Im nuts anyways. Its very therapeutic for the fish and myself.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Rosencrantz32 said:


> LOL I've been listening to Christmas music all week!! Glad to know I'm not alone
> 
> I really love Charlie by the way. He's the coolest king betta I've seen


Thanks! Yeah Charlie was the only King they had that wasn't the typical wild type coloration. I didn't even realize he was King until I picked him up and saw "King Betta" and was like "wwhhhaaat? cool! I'll carry him around the store and pretend I own him and then put him back for another lucky customer!" and yeah, well that failed XD

The radio station I listen to started their Christmas music last Friday so I've been listening for a whole week now! Love it! The things I wish they did though, the station played one Christmas song every four hours or so during last week and then Friday they fully switched over. I wish they mixed in the regular music though for a week so it's not completely Christmas and then come this Monday, they could switch to full Christmas. That would make sense and not get people so mad I think.

Also I really wish they'd play Christmas music right up until New Year's but they stop right after Christmas day and I'm like, I still want to listen you know! Christmas cheer hasn't ended yet damn it! lol



logisticsguy said:


> Oh good Im not the only one who dances around in front of the fish. My fish love seeing the big fat guy get a groove on. They are quite the audience wagging their tails and surfing away to the beat. Just don't get caught by family members like me. The family thinks Im nuts anyways. Its very therapeutic for the fish and myself.


Ahaha! Love it! I totally do the same thing and heck, if my dad or brother catches me I really don't care. My dad would join in with me and my little brother would just raise an eyebrow, looking skeptical and then leave me alone XD haha


----------



## Rosencrantz32

There's a new station here that plays Christmas music all year apparently!! lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Rosencrantz32 said:


> There's a new station here that plays Christmas music all year apparently!! lol


Interesting! I'm not sure I could handle _all_ year long but that's pretty awesome!


----------



## Rosencrantz32

I'm pretty sure I've got some friends that started listening to it in September... so I guess that was amazing for them  I've really been enjoying it this past week. 

Maybe I should decorate my fish tanks for Christmas.... hmmmm


----------



## lilnaugrim

Rosencrantz32 said:


> I'm pretty sure I've got some friends that started listening to it in September... so I guess that was amazing for them  I've really been enjoying it this past week.
> 
> Maybe I should decorate my fish tanks for Christmas.... hmmmm


Yeah, I'll listen occasionally during the summer when I'm trying to get cold after being too hot lol.

I've seen a few aqua-scaped tanks for Christmas! Most notable was this one!


----------



## Rosencrantz32

O.O holy geez.... That's incredible! I wish I was creative enough to think of something like that lol. 
Do you think they just tied moss to sticks to make the trees? The sand/snow effect is genius!
I was probably going to just put a garland around the outside of the tank or something... lol >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yup, they used Christmas moss and tied it to the trees but I know they let this grow out for a while to actually give it the Christmas tree look and then sprinkled the sand on top to make snow ^_^


----------



## Fenghuang

Woah, I would never have the patience for that... Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I just love going out and seeing all the decorations up and the music playing. 

And the unnamed AB girl looks incredible. I can't wait for her to come!


----------



## Bethany

King Charles is a beautiful boy. How big is he now and about how old or how long have you had him? My King was almost 4in long and a inch wide and lived to be almost 6yrs old. I loved having a king they are so much fun.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Bethany said:


> King Charles is a beautiful boy. How big is he now and about how old or how long have you had him? My King was almost 4in long and a inch wide and lived to be almost 6yrs old. I loved having a king they are so much fun.


Thanks, I just got him though. He's just about two and a third inches long. When measure Betta's you only measure the body (nose to peduncle which is start of their tail) you can't include the tail size sine there are so many varying tail types. So I doubt he's actually 4 inches, but sorry about your loss, I know you loved him lots from your other post


----------



## Bethany

Actually without his tail he was almost 4in long like I said (3.76" to be precise) and right at an inch wide. He was a big beautiful dark blue boy with a long VT. Thank you again for your condolences.


----------



## Huffle Puffles

Awws, King Charles has the sweetest...little...face!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Huffle, yeah he's so adorable, he's very sweet whereas Aero is a meany, Rembrandt stay's sassy and Hawkeye is just pushy XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I put the mesh tube thing that was in with Pip, into the actual tank to see if the Ram's would like it and Halloween the Goby has been swimming in and out of it nonstop and then sitting in it, resting since I put it in! He's such a little cutie! lol So I'd say it's a hit with Bumblebee Gobies too!

And onto the subject of babies, Steve has not been doing well all day. He's stayed at the gravel, face dug into the gravel sometimes just shallowly breathing and he's not terribly pale but this morning when I poked at him he had submission stripes which I thought was kind of weird. And then he went back to normal colors. He's bitten off a little more of his tail now and flat out refused the Brine Shrimp I tried to give him today, in fact he's sitting on it right now >.> I don't think he's got a lot of time left.

But pictures of everyone else  or mostly of just Rembrandt 
"I'm hiding! You can't see me!"









"Oh hey, you found me! How'd you do that?!"









You were just flaring...go back to flaring so I can take a pretty picture of you!
"Nope"









"Excuse my raggedy fins"









"Darn it, you found me again! How DO you do that?!?!"









Charlie wanted some photo's too! He's so adorbs









So....I realized that while looking at his photo's....it looks like he's making that stupid duck face girls do! I laughed so hard when I realized that. King Charles and his Duck Face ladies and gentlemen!









And some great growth on the Marineland 3 gallon which the Black CT girl is in now. The grass is going well, Anubias has some algae on it unfortunately but there's something with my water that just instantly kills snails once they're in it.....I acclimate them and all! But it doesn't seem to be enough! Any tips on snail keeping anyone?


----------



## Phantom Miria

King Charles is adorable! LOL when you said duck face I thought of this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOerUMBBQZQ


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh my god! That video is hilarious and accurate! lol


----------



## Phantom Miria

xD His face kind of reminds me of that English accent 'I say! This tank is very clean.'


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## lilnaugrim

Phantom Miria said:


> xD His face kind of reminds me of that English accent 'I say! This tank is very clean.'


You have no idea how hard I just laughed at that! I can totally picture him saying that! Oh god. :rofl:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh my gosh! I just saw this thing while looking through algae types to see if I could identify what the heck is in Rembrandt's tank, so far just coming up with some sort of slime but no one knows what it is >.< But I saw this picture of the Earth and it said: "Green Hair Algae, Why Me?" lol....grass....it's like green hair algae to the Earth XD haha, I seriously lol'd as well.


----------



## PetMania

Pretty! Naugrim, I am so sorry that I haven't been able to get the payment for Snowbird, I will send it out Monday. I have been falling on hard times, but I am figuring it out now. I'm so sorry for the delay.


----------



## Phantom Miria

lilnaugrim said:


> Yep!


LOLED irl HARD XD!!!! Nailed it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> Pretty! Naugrim, I am so sorry that I haven't been able to get the payment for Snowbird, I will send it out Monday. I have been falling on hard times, but I am figuring it out now. I'm so sorry for the delay.


Thanks! And no worries, I'm flexible  she won't be sent until Tuesday anyway but I trust you to get it out :-D

Oh and Boss Ram is still up for grabs! Two people wanted to but one hasn't replied and Setsuna didn't want him to destroy his Galaxy Rasboras which I don't blame him! So if the other person doesn't contact me, anyone can take him! That person also hasn't contacted me since Tuesday so....yeah.


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## PetMania

Thank you so much!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I let Pip into the 33 and he was fine, he flared at the Ram's and they left him alone for the most part. But Boss Ram was getting more aggressive by the time night came last night so I scooped him up and put him into the breeder net instead, he looked up at me like a sad puppy and Lone Ram was a little confused on where his partner had gone but Pip was super happy as was Halloween who roams the tank more often than just sitting somewhere.

Boss Ram is still in there and I saw Lone Ram picking at him through the divider, they were both flaring then and Lone Ram had his courage back but only when Boss Ram was behind something lol. But Lone Ram completely left Pip alone and they were even sleeping together, Pip never flared at him either which was cool. So I know for a fact that it's just Boss Ram who is the meany and destroyed everything, Lone Ram is very peaceful and I'm happy he's going to a good home ^_^

Everyone was fed this morning. Steve is still lethargic and didn't move all night, still breathing though. Kit-Kat and Hawkeye were up begging for food the moment they saw me get up. Rembrandt was playing with his algae slime film there lol Charlie was looking at Feng's girl through his tank and Snowbird was grumpy since I didn't feed her. Aero was obnoxious and could almost be heard yelling at me through his tank because I only fed him half of what I normally feed him, he's getting a little chubby! All are doing well! :-D


----------



## MattsBettas

Hopefully Steve hangs on. You put another betta in the 33?


----------



## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Hopefully Steve hangs on. You put another betta in the 33?


Pip was already in there, in the breeder net, I just switched him out. Yeah I know, stupid but I had no where else to put him.


----------



## MattsBettas

Oh well if he was already exposed, having more room is better. Hopefully he's able to fight whatever it is off...


----------



## lilnaugrim

None of the other fish have shown any symptoms and I'm keeping a very close eye on him. He's been in there overall for almost a week now and nothing. I'm very positive that what my fish had stemmed from the Ram's biting them and possibly body slamming them because Boss Ram does that to all fish, not just Lone Ram.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well it's a rainy, windy, kind of warm actually, Monday morning and I'm exhausted. I can't sleep ever and it's driving me insane. I have my animation to work on but I'm so sick of it that I don't even want to do it. I've got just about under a month to finish it....I really hope I do. I just have no gumption at the moment, well not for that anyway. I really just want to keep writing my stories, I do that when I'm bored.

Anyway's, most of my fish will be going out tomorrow!
PetMania -> Snowbird
Feng -> Unnamed AB girl
Zombieattack -> Lone Ram

and I think that's it, Mercury and Catseye have already gone out and arrived safely at their new home! I was nervous for that since it was the first time shipping with a heat pack. I hate these temps we've been having because it makes it difficult to determine whether or not to use heat packs >.< Although on the contrary, it's nice and warm outside, a lovely 60 degree's!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fish are shipped! And when I said Zombieattack I meant zombieaddict haha oh well. It was sent to the right person either way ;-)

Steve bit the dust today, well looked like it was yesterday. S.I.P. my little friend, at least you and Tony are back together again and for that I am happy.

I played the Betta Shuffle and moved Aero from his former 2.5 and moved him into Steve's compartment and then moved Pip into Aero's former 2.5 so I could let Boss Ram out of the breeder net. The poor fish was getting stressed out so I wanted to let him swim now that Lone Ram is gone so it's just Halloween in there and my snails from before. Some of those Ramshorn are getting big! How big do Ramshorn get?

I finally sanded my room at my mom's so I think we just need another coat of Primer and then we can paint! And then I can rearrange my things, get things out of boxes and set up my shelf. Then I can set up the stands and start to cycle the tanks! So I think by Christmas I should be able to have them ready to move my fish! I have finals coming up and while I don't have any legit finals, I have two major critique's that I'm working my butt off for right now.

I also want to make a beanie hat for my brother, crocheting for Christmas and possibly an infinity scarf for my mom since she likes those. I need to finish my own arm warmers but that's just personal and not timed. And then I need to finish sewing a pillow for my friend for her Little since she can't sew well and I sewed her other pillow and she loved it lol. And then I have all my fish projects and my room to finish. So yeah, I've got a lot going right now!


----------



## Fenghuang

SIP Steve. He was a cute little guy and I secretly stalked his adventures with Tony.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Feng  I'm going to add another little BettaFeesh to my sig to commemorate Steve as well as Tony, I think that's a nice memorial  I've got to make Tony's tail look brighter though, it lost a little contrast when I shrunk it >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

A little bit of Selkie love! Mom is obsessed with her but I have to scold her when she tries to feed her more >.< Selkie is fat enough! I think she also has been tail biting, the ends are ragged but not really little U shapes.

Half a flare. You can see her cute little mustache here too haha









Lovely gill plate irid!


----------



## PetMania

Sorry about Steve....SIP 

Snowbirds tank is ready, BTW


----------



## lilnaugrim

Good to hear! She's sent out today ^_^ so she should be there late Thursday/Early Friday most likely.


----------



## PetMania

Okay, the payment went out and should get to you by this weekend (don't know the rates). I made sure to order a lot of plants for the sorority, but as stated before, she will recieve her own tank if it doesn't work out. She is so beautiful that I may not risk putting her in.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, no worries on the payment or her! As I said, floating her in the tank for two weeks seriously does them all good  there should be very minimal nipping when she does go in the tank. But she's your fish now and you do whatever you like with her ^_^


----------



## PetMania

She's going to be the biggest girl so I don't have too many worries. Oh, and Jarvis is doing awesome. If I had good picture quality, I could send you a decent pic, lol.


----------



## Huffle Puffles

I'm very sorry to hear about Steve, but I'm sure Tony was there waiting for him in the great pond beyond <3 SIP. 

Happier note, Selkie is SO freaking CUTE!


----------



## PetMania

Yeah, Selkie is beautiful!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, thanks guys. Yeah I was explaining to my mom that we'll need a little 5.5 gallon under the 33 in the living room since I did't want Selkie in the big tank in case she get's nipped or killed or something and mom was like "Yeah, you're not killing my little girl!" lol, I thought that was hilarious.

We tried to feed her a fly that we zapped last night and she almost did but I think the fly was a little too armored for her to eat so she just sort of played with it and then left it alone so I took it out and threw it away. We have sooo many house flies for some reason! Apparently 'tis the season!


----------



## Quinn

Ugh, I'm obsessed with her too. She's got the cutest friggin fishy face I have ever seen. And I'm pretty passionate about animal health and body condition but...she's so cute all fat and round :lol:

Steve and Tony together again... SIP happily boys. :angel:


----------



## lilnaugrim

I don't think she's fat but there's something else going on. Her ventrals have been getting smaller and she's gotten pretty square but there's absolutely no stimulation for her to be eggy so I think there's something else going on. I don't feed her, my mom does and I always scold her for feeding more than 6 a day since she needs to be on a diet but mom said she ends up feeding her like 10 a day or so >.< I should hide the food on her!

I want to put her in some Epsom salt to see if that helps.


----------



## Quinn

Bad grandma spoiling the children with too much candy! 

When I was still living at home there were times where I had to hide treats/foods/various other things from family members who were not properly following guidelines for pets. And recently, despite my CLEARLY WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS and the LABEL ON THE BOTTLE, a family member messed up antibiotic regimen for treating one of the dogs skin infections, and now she's probably resistant and I have to bring her back to the vet (Because I pretty much oversee care for ALL the animals in my family).

Anyway, sorry for my rant. But yes, you just may have to hide the food, can't have mama killing her with kindness


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol no worries! I like to read things anyway ^_^

Yeah, I may just keep a portion of the food for like one day in a baggie and put it out in the day and be like "this is all she get's today, make it sparring!" lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I had ordered Mystery snails because I needed sore help with my algae in the 10 and the Nerites kept dying so I figured I'd try a bigger snail to see if my fish would leave them alone. I ordered 5 since that was the smallest number and I could use them for sure.

Four of them were DOA >.> The one survive was acclimated to the 33 though since I need to get rid of the Epsom Salt in the 10 first. He's happily cleaning the sides already though but I emailed the person since there is a Live Guarantee thankfully with either replacements or refund, I'm going for the replacements if it's an option still ^_^ I really do want these snails!!!

Also, anyone know what will eat BGA? Cuz I've got TONS! I think I saw my little Ramshorn eating it off the water sprite in the 5.5 but he could have been eating anything! Also, how big do Ramshorn get? I feel like not very big.

Also the slime/fluffy algae in Rembrandt's tank is NOT going away and it's really starting to annoy me now!! I can't do anything with that stupid tank! Is it because of the soil? Too much light? It's only on for 10 hours (10am-8pm). My 3 gallon with the Black Copper girl also had a light film of it today. It's purely green though, not grey like a protein film would be soooooo what the heck??

I tried looking for what it might me in algae identification but it doesn't match anything! Any idea's anyone????


----------



## MattsBettas

You used the miricle gro with ferts, right?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, just the regular Miracle Gro Potting Mix. I figured it would be different since we talked about it, but I didn't know it was going to produce this....stuff.


----------



## MattsBettas

My theory is that the chems in it are causing some sort of unbalance that lets the algae or whatever it is thrive.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Right, that does make sense. I still get sunlight on that tank since my blinds don't close well, I'm going to re-position them to see if it helps. They also get stuck so it's hard to pull them down or up...sigh, my room is falling apart lol. That's what happens when everything is from 1967!

I saw something about algae being able to grow in the protein film though, heard that one before?


----------



## lilnaugrim

"Peppermint" snail!

















Ram: what IS that?!?! It looks different than my other things that crawl on the glass! Hmm...weird....*swims away*









"My shell could use some calcium!"









"I look angry here! Grrrr!"









"Up, up and away!"









Well my dwarf lily looks great!









Ugg look at all that BGA! My larger Ramshorn, I've had this one for about four months now! Only about 3/4 the size of the Mystery though.

























Dead snails :-(

















That Ram is a camera hog too! Poor Halloween lol, Ram doesn't bug him though so that's great!
http://imageshack.com/a/img202/1023/mezi.jpg[/IMG

"I do not approve of all this algae!"
[IMG]http://imageshack.com/a/img196/1637/er8z.jpg

"Look at my beautiful face, it's filling in!" Yeah, over your eye too >.> looks like much later in his life it might grow over his eyes.









He takes good pictures usually 









Beautiful blues with a teeny bit of red on his anal.


----------



## Phantom Miria

Wow, you're dwarf lily does look great! Also what kind of snail is that? I don't know snails well but he/she is really pretty!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Aero is looking very handsome!


----------



## Huffle Puffles

Your new snail friend is so cute! Aero is handsome as ever, I love how with the flecks of red and tealish color his fins almost have a tie-dye quality.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks all! The Peppermint snail is a Mystery snail, bred from a Magenta and Ivory colored shell is all. The seller is sending me 5 more actually, just had to pay shipping so it was only 8 dollars so I didn't mind. I really wanted these snails! So hopefully the other's will survive, we concluded that whoever was delivering them had put them on a heater and it just got too hot in the box. When I opened the box it was like a heatwave escaping, it was so bad! So we'll try again.

Yeah, Aero is interesting. That red only shows up in certain ways that he moves, otherwise he looks like a solid Turquoise with darker blue edging his fins. He almost has a yellowish wash in a butterfly pattern but the red ruins it and I wish he didn't have it. I liked him better as a solid Turq, but oh well. He's still handsome.

Speaking of handsome, Hawkeye built a huuuuuge bubble nest! He's got Kit-Kat on one side who isn't sexually mature but he's attracted to her still and then Aero on the other for competition so he's building it as fast as he can lol. Kind of funny really.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I swear my "grandfather" KNOWS when I'm doing water changes and I need to get new water because he's almost always out in the kitchen >.> I still avoid him like the plague!

So just did a water change on Rembrandt's tank and took out the driftwood even though that seemed to be his favorite place but I like the look without it. I want to build up my wisteria background because I only have one stem that looks actually good and the othre three are sort of partially rotted. Hydrocottle is coming back well though.

And now that the tank walls are clean Remmy can see his reflection in all of them and is currently going nuts with it >.< geez, he's going to be the death of me I swear! Water is cloudy now but once it clears up I can take some pics o show you guys. I also trimmed the grass to make it all mostly the same length and get rid of most of that awful algae growth. It was mostly in the grass and on the surface, not in the wisteria though.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I moved Charlie to the 5.5 finally, had to do some other things first but he loves it! Warmer than the 3 gallon he was in before and I can't wait to finish off my room and get those tanks set up so he can have 10 gallons!! woot woot!

Remmy is being a grump since I took out his driftwood but oh well! he can suffer! muhahaha! lol that's mean.

Aero and Hawkeye are competing with bubble nests and Aero is loosing badly in the height department but his spreads much further than Hawkeye's who mostly goes up straight, it's huge 1 inch mound of bubbles!!!! Kit-Kat is just confused haha.

Algae growth has been rediculous in all my tanks except the 33 so I think I'm going to do a 3 day blackout for this Sunday-Wednesday since I'm sick of the BGA in the 5.5 and in the 10. Marineland 3 has regular diatoms still and green algae and then Remmy's 3 has just fluffy stuff which I have a nice picture of. I did clean it yesterday so there's no film yet but I can already see the growth of it in the grass O.O

Pip in the 2.5! Yeah, excuse the algae and poop, that was before I cleaned it lol.

























"Oh flora how I love thee!"









He's colored up tremendously since he's been home! Also his tail is still growing so I think he's a young giant!

















Only issue now is that the light washes him out >.<









Shhh I'm hiding!









Aero being the handsome devil he is!

































Remmy's tank now

















That little stick part isn't part of the algae, that was a dead piece of grass it was growing on.


----------



## lilnaugrim

O.O My pictures are SMALL :shock: what the.....image shack has been messing with their things lately >.> so I apologize, I'll try to figure it out.

EDIT: forget it, I'm too tired :-/


----------



## PetMania

Snowbird arrived yesterday! Thank you so much! She was alert and well. 

Here's a pic of her in her new tank, 
http://www.bettafish.com/album.php?albumid=14530&pictureid=95378


----------



## Fenghuang

Just wanted to know lil' Miss Unnamed arrived today too (well, yesterday since it's almost 2 am xD). She's a little faded from shipping, but otherwise completely fine. She is absolutely adorable. Thank you!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yay!!! I'm happy they arrived! Sorry for the larger boxes, my wal-mart was out of the small ones and I wasn't expecting my USPS boxes to arrive that day right after I packaged them up >.>


----------



## lilnaugrim

Gonna try something here since ImageShack as decided they want to resize my pictures for me >.> Tried setting my camera back to a higher resolution to see if they will resize that as well.

So my 33 is currently getting a sun bath ^_^ I hope to grow more algae :-D Okay, so this one should be small....









And if this one isn't re-sized, it's gonna be super big









EDIT: AHALKSJFAHDSHAHDA >.> I hate Image shack now, completely.....DE RUIN EVERYTHING!!!  I'll have to find another image hosting site....sigh....they were so good :-(


----------



## PetMania

At least we can see them. Every photo I post, no one can see them, urgh.


----------



## Elsewhere

Try photobucket, it works great for me and keeps the images at a decent size


----------



## lilnaugrim

I was using Photobucket but then I ran out of room.....I upload too many pictures it seems. So I would need to make a different email if I want to use another photobucket account >.< 

Pet, love your new avatar! Snowbird looks so happy! :-D


----------



## PetMania

Thanks. yeah, she is quite the explorer. She is a camera hog! I pull out my phone and she poses. So cute! So does Jarvis


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hehehe, I've trained them well! ;-)

Okay, now time to starve myself of outside contact! I have a large 1:50 animation to complete! 3,520 frames and I'm currently at 255  I'm gonna die over this most likely. Hoping to bang most of it out today if I can and pray that I did that math wrong and I don't need that many! *whimpers and goes to cry in a corner while drawing*

If I don't answer anyone in the next 32 hours, that is why. I plan to stay up as long as I can to do this. Even if it's sloppy, I can fix it over this week as it's due December 3rd......:shock: yep, gonna die. Kbye!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm so bad at this "cutting away from outside contact" thing >.< I had to take a break though because I was starting to get frustrated and it's not good to work when you're frustrated and tired!


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

lilnaugrim said:


> I was using Photobucket but then I ran out of room.....I upload too many pictures it seems. So I would need to make a different email if I want to use another photobucket account >.<
> 
> Pet, love your new avatar! Snowbird looks so happy! :-D


You can't just plug your camera into the computer & transfer the pics to your computer, the. Upload them on here? That's what I do. Well, I do it with my phone, but same concept.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh that part is fine, I organize them all by date in a "Photography" folder on my desktop but I like to integrate my photo's into my text here and you can't do that if you just simply attach them to the reply since I usually like to talk about each picture and I personally hate when I have to read, scroll down to see pic, scroll back up to read, scroll and so on. So I use an image hosting site like Photobucket, Imageshack and whatnot and then I can put them right in the text box ^_^


----------



## MattsBettas

No offence... But you're about as good at cutting off outside contact as me! XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol I totally know! I was online while the stupid program would load, then had to load 255 pics so that took a while so I'd surf.

But I decided to completely stop my animation and go painting instead. I figure that it's really not feasible for me to make 3,520 frames for next Tuesday when I'm seriously just sitting at 255.....so instead of making the full thing, I'm doing like 15 paintings (much more reasonable for me) of varying sizes and doing fragments. As long as I convey motion and animation, I'm good to go! I'm still playing off the idea that I was doing for the animation so it's not like I'm thinking of something entirely new.

So I just painted up five of the canvases, these ones are smaller and will be at the beginning of the series and then tomorrow I'm going to spend a long time in the studio at school. It will be nice to actually get back in there though. I like the physical painting much more. I love digital works but it's more of the hobby of the hobby and painting is much more tangible and I like to be able to touch my work. So I'm much more happy and much less stressed than I was doing the animation. Seriously, I was like nearly jumping out of my seat this morning at our frat meeting. I was like jittery and so freaking stressed it wasn't funny. But I'm much better now  I'm glad I switched and although I wished I did it earlier, I still have a good week and two day's to get this done!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm much happier with the project change! I'm already half way done with the song and I've got eight canvases painted! Granted two of them are 5x3, four are 8x10, two are 11x14 and one is 12x16 so far. I have two more 11x14's, one more 12x16 and four 16x20's. I think I'm only going to use one of the 16x20's though but that's cool!

Oh, so this video is so cool! It's my sort-of-home town, it's my dad's home town and we live in Charlestown, but we're only 1/2 mile to Westerly haha. Also Taylor Swift lives in Watch Hill which is part of Westerly which you can see in this video! I'll name some things for you to watch for if you want to watch.

http://vimeo.com/80072598
Starts off in Down Town Westerly, Pawcatuck River.
:20 is the Wilcox Library, our town Library! It's the yellow building with red accent.
1:20-ish he starts to fly over Wilcox Park
1:33 a look out of the park and to the developments
1:43 the Westerly High School (I didn't go to this one, they were my rivals lol)
1:50 the Westerly Marina of course.
1:56 the start of Watch Hill
2:04 Watch Hill Lighthouse!
2:20 Down town Watch Hill
2:28 Misquamicut State Beach! My favorite RI beach :-D I'm also biased though since I live 10 minutes from it!
3:03 is Winnapaug Pond next to Weekapaug lol, it's right across the road from Misquamicut and the ocean. Yeah, sorry, us and our Indian names!
3:15 Rocky Beach! Many good childhood memories there!

Hope you enjoyed the view of my next to-almost-hometown! lol And if you didn't watch, well boo to you! okay back to work I go!


----------



## MattsBettas

That was very well done. Your sort-of-home town looks beautiful.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks! In the beginning you can see one of the area's that one of my LFS's is in lol, it's behind the Micheli Furniture building haha. Can't see it, but still fun. It's my good LFS but it's better than PetCo or PetSmart.

So my body says "You've been in the studio for 8 hours painting....please stop or I will force your arm to fall off."

where my mind says: "Pssssh, it hasn't been EIGHT hours! I can totally keep going and finish the last two-three paintings!"

ugggg....I'm a little exhausted right now lol but it's a good feeling to get this project out of the way so I can work on commissions again and get money!!! :-D


----------



## Rosencrantz32

Wow you live in such a beautiful place!
My poor desert mind was confused. "Wow, look at all the green!!" and "Look at all that water!!!" were a couple of the thoughts I had lol
It's amazing to me that people live so close to a beach. I've been to a beach... maybe... 4 or 5 times in my life. The vastness of it still amazes me. Living so close to one must be awesome! I'm jealous lol


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh that part is fine, I organize them all by date in a "Photography" folder on my desktop but I like to integrate my photo's into my text here and you can't do that if you just simply attach them to the reply since I usually like to talk about each picture and I personally hate when I have to read, scroll down to see pic, scroll back up to read, scroll and so on. So I use an image hosting site like Photobucket, Imageshack and whatnot and then I can put them right in the text box ^_^


Instead of just attaching them, you can click on the little paper clip once you upload them & insert the pictures anywhere in the reply. In my journal, you can see that mine aren't all at the bottom even though I upload from my computer. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## lilnaugrim

Rosencrantz32 said:


> Wow you live in such a beautiful place!
> My poor desert mind was confused. "Wow, look at all the green!!" and "Look at all that water!!!" were a couple of the thoughts I had lol
> It's amazing to me that people live so close to a beach. I've been to a beach... maybe... 4 or 5 times in my life. The vastness of it still amazes me. Living so close to one must be awesome! I'm jealous lol


Thanks!!! It's always funny because I know I take the beach for granted, living near it my entire life but I really couldn't imagine not living near some sort of large body of water. Granted, I don't go swimming in the ocean as much as I used to, but I love going to the beach towards 5-6 in the evening in the Summer because A) no one is there, B) sunset's are gorgeous C) the beach is amazing and D) I don't get burned >.< I burn super easy with my Irish/Scottish skin sooo yeah....beach during the day is bad for me. I don't tan either, I just get red lol.

One day I will be able to sponsor a trip for all the BF members that want to come up to RI and we can chill at the beach and go find Taylor Swifts house and do a whole bunch of Rhode Island things haha. It will be a good time!



DerangedUnicorn said:


> Instead of just attaching them, you can click on the little paper clip once you upload them & insert the pictures anywhere in the reply. In my journal, you can see that mine aren't all at the bottom even though I upload from my computer.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Interesting, I will have to check that out, thanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay let's try this, I think I'm doing it right.....lol

Charlie!








Charlie and his new Peppermint Mystery snail lol the poor snail was holding on for dear life, although he stayed like that the rest of the day. Earlier the Mystery was sitting side by side with the Ramshorn, almost seemingly talking over a nice lunch of algae lol








Another great picture of Aero!


----------



## Mo

Beautiful fish!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ty ty!! Aero really has grown into a gorgeous fish! I wish he didn't have that red wash but he's still beautiful! Still quite spunky too!


----------



## Mo

Yeah, I miss my HMPK's they seemed to be more active than my HM's  Aero kinda reminds me of my old blue HM dragon, blue


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they are because they don't have all those fins weighing them down! lol


----------



## Mo

Lol, they don't get tired of wearing blankets!


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

lilnaugrim, have you ever read the children's book "The Rainbow Fish"? Aero reminds me of the fish with all his different colored scales. If you haven't seen it, google it! Lol. Google is wonderful. 

& yay! You inserted the pictures right! Looks good. Charles looks cute in his picture. How big is he, exactly?


----------



## PetMania

I have never owned an HMPK before Snowbird. She is way more active than my other bettas.


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## BettaLover1313

Aero & Charlie are looking great!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks all!

Oh my gosh! Yes! The Rainbow Fish, I used to read that literally ALL the time! Such a good fishy giving all his scales away to more boring fish lol.

I haven't measured Charlie quite yet but from the looks of it his body is just over 2 and a quarter inches, he might be 2.5 but I'll have to put him in a baggie to be certain!


----------



## Lucillia

I love your fish. XD and remmy's lips. Charlie is going to beat R in size!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Luci....and yeah I would think that Charlie would beat Ragnarok since he's an actual Giant and R is just older lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

omg, I'm in such pain today it's not even funny :-( I've had this horrible headache all day. I can't tell if I'm getting a sinus infection (wouldn't be surprised with all the stress I've been under) or just from sleeping funny and putting my back out :-/

Anyway, in some amazing news, went to bingo this morning at the casino with my two Aunt's (Lucy and Sara), my cousin Catherine and my Aunt Sara's mother-in-law who is awesome and I ended up winning a 100$ door prize!!!! OMG, I've never won anything before so I'm like, "what do I say, what do I say?!" and they're like "just yell Bingo!" so I did and I got $100!!!! To say the least it was a good day over all.

Except for when I got home at dad's to check on the fish and put in the new plants I ordered. Got some Anacharis and more Water Wisteria to hopefully help out with algae issues. So I got home and realized that the Black CT girl had pulled both snails out of their shells and had eaten the organs of one and left the other to float. Same thing happened with the snail in Pip's 2.5g. Remmy's was still intact but I don't know if it's alive or not, I'll check tomorrow. And couldn't check Charlie's since he's in a blackout right now in hopes to help the algae >.<

So I'm pretty mad at that, so potentially I only have two of the Mystery snails left.....that sucks. So literally all my fish are snail killer's, shrimp killers, and other fish killers >.> I'm really sick of that.

But before I went to my LFS to see what they had in stock and see if they were having any Black Friday sales, that was a negative but it's worth a shot. They aren't big enough to support big sales and I totally get that. But they had a new shipment of Betta's in and holy crap, they had gorgeous White Dragon Scale CT boy's! Three of them. Here's one. The female in the back was in a different tank behind lol








They also had some really adorable red Dragon's and yellow Dragon's, totally adorable! I wish I could have more but alas I cannot.

Oh and apparently PetCo is having a sale on Black Friday for the Aqueon 13 gallon tank kit and it's 60% off so I'm totally going for them if it's cheap enough!

And here's what Remmy's tank looks like now. Sorry for crappy cell pics.


----------



## PetMania

Cool! I see you got the male you were talking about. Seriously, I have never seen any of those EVER! He is so pretty.


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## lilnaugrim

Huh? Which male?


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## PetMania

The white DSCT


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh no, I didn't get him. I was just showing him was all.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Wow! Definitely smitten with that guy!


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## lilnaugrim

If anyone want's him, I'd be happy to go back and get him ;-)


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## BettaLover1313

No room XD otherwise I'd say yes lol.


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## lilnaugrim

lol I know  He was quite beautiful though, as were his brother's.

Uggg rain today! But I'd rather it be rain than snow! We've got 60 MPH winds right now lol. As I was walking down to my building some wind picked up and practically threw a puddle on me >.> my entire backside is soaked and I'm trying to use my little space heater to dry myself lol. So far it's working alright XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh geez, my boss doesn't understand sewing XD Not that I expect him too but this was funny today. So since I don't have Concert Choir, I'm working an extra two hours(woot woot) until 2 and then my Printmaking class. So he went off to get lunch but before he did he stopped to stare at the pillow I'm hand sewing, he looked very intriqued.

"What are you doing? You are sewing in the same spot!" he goes, which is his way of asking if I'm sewing in the same spot and then he looks closer and goes "Oh! You are sewing to the right!"
I laughed and nodded, "Yeah, I don't have a sewing machine, too expensive but I might get one for Christmas."
"Oh, that is good! What is it?"
"A pillow for a friend. She doesn't know how to sew so I'm sewing it for her."
"Oh you are good lady then!" he chuckles as he walks a little bit away.
"Only because she's my best friend. I don't just sew for anyone, not without money," I laughed which made him laugh too. lol, good times with my boss XD

It's gotten better around here once I've started to be able to translate what he really means, like when he states something like that "You are sewing in the same place!" he means it more as a question rather than a statement. And not knowing that before was what confused be and made me angry. He's still not the nicest of guy's but understanding each other really helps since I'm such a Rhode Islander and he's not, we have very different way's of speaking. It shows more in my grammar rather than my accent if I were to go to some place like Canada or the West Coast 

Anywho, my Drs. Foster and Smith order should be in today, I totally forget what I ordered >.< I remember the veggie clip.....hmm...yeah that's about all I remember--oh! I ordered two of the azoo HOB filter's, one for Rembrandt's tank, I hope it's a little more powerful than the dinky Whisper 3i. That one will most likely continue with Remmy when I switch him to the 5.5 when we move. And going to put the other on Pip's 2.5 if I can.

Oh god, Pip's tank has like TON's algae.....stupid 6,500K light haha. It's not even planted, but I threw in some anacharis to hopefully help with that. I need to take it apart and do a full 100% change on it anyway, wash the fake plants off of algae as well and hopefully that will help.

There was some other things I ordered too and I can't remember at all lol I'll know tonight when I get it! I love getting packages in the mail no matter how small XD


----------



## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> If anyone want's him, I'd be happy to go back and get him ;-)


If I find you an MG girl maybe we can trade, lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, sure Pet! I wouldn't mind ^_^ I think he's going to be 20 though, but no worries, we can count it for Christmas ;-)


----------



## PetMania

Ok. The Hm females at PetCo are usually $10 or so. Is he from an LPS?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, np. Yeah he's from the Sea Horse shop, my favorite place ^_^ that's not the place I got Jarvis though, he was from the other LFS, the smaller not so good one lol. Better than petCo or PetSmart but still not as good as the Sea Horse one!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a busy week!

So Remmy's tank now has the more plants which are looking great and he's got a little Oto now! I bought three which they will be together at some point, but currently I needed severe help with this algae and keeping it under control. They've all got fat little bellies now from just one nice of munching! lol But the other two are in the Black CT girl's 3 gallon and she kind of bugger's them but she hasn't killed them like she killed the snails so for that I'm happy.

Oh and my Drs Foster and Smith package did come in ^_^ I got a veggie clip, was mostly for the snails but since they're mostly dead.....>.> I'll use it for the oto's. And then I got two Azoo HOB mini filters! Ones for Remmy's tank, hopefully it gets water moving better than the dinky 3i Whisper. And the other is either for Pip's 2.5 if it fits or the Marineland Eclipse 3, not sure yet.

I also got a breeder nursery for guppies, yeah I ended up getting that trio that I was talking about over in my PetCo baby thread lol. --damn, I think the Ram just jumped...let me go check on him >.< okay no, it was just the nursery thing coming unsuctioned >.< Ram did try to jump out this morning though. Can't wait till he's gone!

And I think that's all I've got for now. Everyone's looking good, Hawkeye is just about the size of Pip now which is just slightly smaller than Aero! Kit-Kat is catching up pretty quick! I think I'm going to switch her and the Black CT girl though so she doesn't have to compete with Hawkeye, not that she does physically but mentally he might be stunting her. There was a fascinating article on another forum about the growth stunting hormone and what it actually might be, since we don't know what it truly is! If anyone wants it, I can link it to them :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

OMG, these Azoo mini filter's are the best things ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I have one set up in Remmy's tank right now and finally, we have flow! lol those stupid 3i's don't do anything! I'm totally recommending this filter every where I go! It also comes with a sponge over lay thing for the filter intake, so Remmy won't kill his fin's! yay!! lol speaking of Remmy, he doesn't like it much but he'll get over it because I love it! lol Hopefully this keeps some algae at bay as well since it will keep the water moving now :-D

The Oto is so full the poor thing, he definitely had a good Thanksgiving meal ;-) he's chilling on one of the Crypt Parva leaves right now in the flow, he seems to enjoy it ^_^ I'm very happy! It's like a mini AquaClear! Has an adjustment as well! Can you tell I'm excited?!! lol


----------



## dramaqueen

Lol A happy Thanksgiving fir the otos. Lol I'm glad the filters are working sell for you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks DQ! Before I left one of the oto's in the Eclipse there was on it's side breathing quickly! :-( I don't think he'll last long, it was the runt one and I think the Black CT girl was picking on him too much. I knew I should have switched her out with Kit-Kat before I left :-(

well on to the next Thanksgiving soon!


----------



## Lucillia

Hah! Our girl is so fiesty! I'm a bit worried on how big she is though, the boy hasn't seemed to have gotten much bigger.


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Post 1000! Sorry, I just had to do that. I read your journal & I was keeping track of the posts for some reason, so I decided to steal the 1000th post. Haha.

Anyways, sorry about your oto. How's he doing? Still hanging on? & I just got a mystery snail, but he's just floating in a cup in the tank because my fish won't leave him alone. I don't know what to do! Any advice?


----------



## Mo

OMG I missed it!!! 1,000 reply!!! ;-)

:-( sorry to here about your oto.. Your girls are crazy, lol.. Hurt snails hurt eachother, hurt otos.. :-(


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, the Black CT girl hasn't grown too much so it should be okay.

And awesome!!!! 1002 posts!! woot woot! Totally awesome!!

I don't know since I'm not home currently, I'll be home tomorrow after 5 when I get home after work. So...I really hope it's still alive but it wasn't looking too good when I left....the other two were looking great though so I think it might be okay, idk yet. ANywho, I'm super tired and just hopped on to check out ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So....yep...sitting here in my boss's office because he's out today so I get the full 8.5 hour shift with no lunch break lol. Well I can eat the entire time I'm here but I don't have that hour between so I get paid to eat, it's awesome. But I've been up since roughly 3-3:30 ish and we got out at 4 and went shopping but I could only get to Target and then had to leave to get to PetCo at 7 and then come to work for 8:30. I'm pretty pooped.

But I'm psyched because I got a Christmas present for my best friend and two things for my little brother (hope he likes the Minecraft shirt) he's been into more plaid button up's lately so I feel like it's almost a lost cause but I'll keep the receipt so we can take it back if he doesn't like it. 

So I'm currently sipping on an Iced Eggnog Latte and it was quite wonderful while it lasted but I'm getting to the end and now I look at it and pout and wonder where the rest went haha.

I can't wait for Cyber Monday!! Black Friday for online stores!!!!!! I'm seriously going to go bankrupt hahaha, but I have no more room for more tanks now so I'll be limited on what I can actually get lol. It will most likely be more presents and clothing really ^_^


----------



## Elsewhere

3am?! I could barely manage 9 this morning, LOL! At least you got some presents, though!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, I have a really strong will power when it comes to getting up the morning, something I can't say my entire family has haha. I'm used to getting up at 5:30 or 6 every morning so a few hours earlier wasn't too bad. I did feel a little sick this morning but that was most likely because I was overheated under the blanket but it was too cold to kick it off so that didn't help at all. But much better now!

I love and hate being at work right now, there's so much better things I could be doing right now like going home to see if my little Oto is still alive but at the same time, I'm getting paid to sit here and talk on the interwebs or sleep if I really wanted XD


----------



## Elsewhere

LOL, stay there! Haha! And as for the Oto, I don't think he'll have made it, sadly. They're wild caught, and I've heard from just about everyone that the weakest usually dies within the first week :/ It's just so stressful for them.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah I know, I knew they were very sensitive. I drip acclimated them for an hour but it still doesn't always help anyway's. I could always take it back to PetCo and get another one, I feel like that's just....idk, I always feel weird about trading fish in. It's like, oh my dog died, let me just give it back to the adoption center and get a new one.....it's just weird lol


----------



## Elsewhere

I know how you feel on that one. When Themis died and I got Boreas I felt so bad, but I was like "But he's so pretty!" And it would probably be good for you to get another Oto, if only because they like 3 or more in a group. You don't even have to bring the other guy in- you could just get a new one.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, exactly. Well if I bring him in, I would get a free one; save money, that's good lol. And then I could get another to make it a nice group of 4. Eventually they will be together for sure, I know they like each other lol. I'm thinking about taking Aero out and putting him in the empty 3 right now, or the 5.5 not sure. And then taking out one divider to keep it like 7 and 3 gallons divided so the Oto's can have a blast in there, cleaning all the algae!

Oh and I just realized that when I clicked refresh, both Mo's and I's thread's were at _,007 so mine was at 1,007 posts and his was 2,007 posts lol found that funny.


----------



## Elsewhere

Yes, saving money is fun! I need to get more Otos, but I have nowhere to QT them >.< Why? Why did that 5 have to break? COME ON! With Artemis, I'll just cup her for 2 weeks (which she'll hate) then add the other fish, lol. Which tanks will the Otos go in eventually?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Eventually.....the 29 when I get it set up at mom's lol so it's going to be awhile but that's okay they'll have fun in 7 gallons in the 10 XD It can easily support the fish and the amount of algae that tank produces, it will take them at least a week...well okay, maybe 3 day's to clean it all haha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

3 more hours....I can make it! uggg I'm so tired but happy at the same time since I'm not actually doing anything lmao.

When I get home, it will be nap time after I feed the babies and then I will hopefully take pictures later! ^_^ I know I've been lacking in the picture department here lately! I do apologize, but finals, holiday's and work, yeah...not a lot of time in between. Or at least not a lot of time home ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh my god, it's just been awful since I've gotten home! Ram was out on my floor, dead and dried up like a prune! And then I look over to find the dead Oto and found that Black CT girl has this awful fungus stuff on her. I've never seen it before so I don't even know if it's fungus! Uploading pics momentarily! I literally have no idea what to do for her, it's a lime green/yellow stuff and it looks like her mouth/head was dipped in it and then her eye's are completely cloudy like a dead fish but she's still moving. She keeps going up to the top of the cup and sticks her mouth out like she wants to jump out but she can't. Going to test the water as well to see if there's anything out of the norm.

Both other Oto's are extremely fat and resting now, each moving when they feel like it. They've done a heck of a job on the algae though and still has a way's to go but I can at least see in the tank now for the most part.

































































What the HECK is going on?!?!?!? Everyone else looks fine, no weird behaviors, everyone's eating well. I haven't tried to feed her yet because I freaked and took her out of the tank to take pictures.


----------



## MattsBettas

That's bizarre... The only things I can think of are acute columnaris or myco that's shutting down the head instead of the fins like it usually does... Grasping at strings...Idk.


----------



## PetMania

I'm so sorry. I-I don't know what to tell you. I have never seen this before. Um, maybe give her a salt treatment and keep her in 82* water?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Very bizzare! She seems to be okay for the most part, she sits at the bottom of her cup but doesn't seem too freaked out. She does have a little trouble seeing though. Let me go see if I can try to feed her and if she can get it. I've never seen anything like this before.

Even if it were Myco and shutting down the head, why on Earth would it turn green/yellow?? It looks like she was literally dipped in paint! She's got some mucus/slime coat coming from her gills on one side as well and it looked like her gills were sort of sticky.


----------



## logisticsguy

Im not 100% sure but it looks like flexibacter columnaris to me. Maracyn and Maracyn2 combo is what is often recommended for it.


----------



## MattsBettas

What pH is your water? I'm pretty sure the maracyns stop working at anything over 7.2.

The other thing that might work is a methylene blue dip or bath, especially if it is fungus...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Awesome, the meds I don't have >.< and my pH is like 5.5 in her tank because of the driftwood. Comes out at 6.2-4 from the tap but I have very hard water. She did see the pellet at first but didn't feel like eating so she ignored it even when I pushed it under and it fell right in front of her face.

So Columnaris....we meet again, actually we never left each other's company from the moment Remmy got it way back in March apparently..yippee kiyay.


----------



## logisticsguy

This page ahas some good info on this often called cotton wool disease. They yellow stuff around the mouth leads me to believe its flexibacteria. Check this page and see if it lines up with what your seeing.

http://nippyfish.net/sick-betta/cotton-wool-disease-flex/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nothing on her is fluffy, it's like....idk, really hard to explain. Whatever it is, she's now losing a scale from around her mouth and one of her eye's, like the actual eye is turning white from the front back. It's progressive very quickly. I'm going to try to do some more research to see if I can find something. I need to eat badly though so I'll be back in a little bit unless something else drastic happens and I need to report on it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Her eye is looking like it's sunken in, the one that's turning white under the cloudiness. She's got some sort of slime coming off her pectorals and is exhibiting very minor scale raising on her gill plates and behind the pectorals. The scales look like they have white between them but it's not at all fluffy, it's not a film and not like the Myco picture's I've seen but almost like cracked skin. And then that part of her mouth is falling off. It's lime green, some patches are white, but again not fluffy, not raised, it looks almost like pigment but she's black...soo yeah, weird. Looks like some of her crowns on her anal fin have been bitten off but I don't think she can reach them soooo idk about that either.

She seems to be weak right now, she is displaying though (she's near Remmy's tank on my side table). She's still going up to the top occasionally to get some air but looks like she's trying to push herself out but can't. The rest of her body looks incredibly healthy.


----------



## Lucillia

o.o Dear god. I wish I hadn't seen the pictures now. I had been thinking maybe she snuffled her face into algae. NOPE. Now I really see why you are freaked out.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah and it came on so sudden too :-( I don't know what the heck happened! Parameter's checked out find and the little Oto is still working away. I'm sure the Oto's introduced it or she had it all along, unknowing insider her somewhere and then it's finally come out as she's shutting down. She's staying more at the top now, I think her belly is a little swollen now but hard to tell with the cup.


----------



## Elsewhere

Oh God... Salts, maybe? Jeeze, I really don't have a clue! Maybe Sakura8 would have an idea...?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Since she's doing pineconing already, I really don't want to put salts in there. I think the Maracyn & Maracyn II would be the best but I can't get that until tomorrow. But thanks anyway.


----------



## Elsewhere

Oh, I didn't realize... Must've missed that. So sorry this crap keeps happening, Lil. Hopefully she'll pull through!


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Well, that sucks. I don't know what to do about your girl, all I can do is hope for her recovery. Also, sorry about Ram. Maybe he heard you say you couldn't wait until he was gone, so he took it upon himself.  How did he get out of the tank? Isn't it covered? Anyways, again, I'm sorry. Must be stressful. I think you should give the black CT a name now, just in case she dies, it would be a nice thing to do for her.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well see the Black CT girl was supposed to be the mate to one of Lucillia's boy's so we were going to have like a theme for them. It's okay if she's nameless, I've had many a fish die nameless. Names aren't super important to me but they are nice 

And the 33 is open top because it's a freaking Flat Back Hexagon...yeah, you find me a hood for that thing and I'll love you forever! So I've been sort of using a light strip piece of glass to cover part of it and it's kept them at bay for a while but it was off for last night since it blocks the light sort of. So I didn't think he'd actually jump but yeah, off he went. He was supposed to go out this Tuesday but...guess that isn't happening.


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Maybe you could find a big enough piece of plastic mesh, like used for dividers you could cut it to fit the tank & set in on the rim. But yeah, I'm sure it's hard to find a lid for that. Good luck with your girl.


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## lilnaugrim

I'd have to sew together like four pieces of it lol and then if I wanted a feeding flap, it'd be more XD I mean, I could do it, it would just bee a loooot of work is all. It's 36 inches long and then 16 deep and 18 high or something like that. But yeah, it will be coming down as soon as we get rid of our Piano anyway.

Thanks, she's not looking great. Her right side is poofed out, gills and all which is weird because her eye is sunken into her body now. And she keeps sitting on her tail and then stops moving so it looks like she's died >.< Her behavior is so bizarre and weird. I've never seen anything like this. The little piece of her mouth came off after I poked her >.< she's not exactly pine coning but she looks poofed out....i really don't know. The green almost looks crusty, that's what I was looking for before, it's like a layer of crust on top. So it's not slimy, not fluffy or fuzzy at all, not really raised, if anything it's sunken in. Like a layer of scales came off and dead scales with cracks and crusties are underneath. Sorry for the nasty visual >.< just grossed myself out lol

She keeps taking in big gulps, I think she's having issues with her gills sealing shut so she's trying to keep them open so she can breathe. She goes up for air about every half a minute. I can't tell but I think she's had some fin reduction as well through this....might just be my imagination though.

Well this sucks. I'm seriously contemplating killing everything except Remmy and Charlie (Charlie hasn't been subject to anything yet) and then just get rid of all the tanks, break them up and throw them away so they can't be used again so nothing else can ever be infected again because I'm just down right sick of this. I thought I was out of the lions den for the most part, I know Remmy still has his issues but they haven't grown or shrunk in the last three months so whatever he has....idk, it's just....I'm really frustrated with all of this.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, I've had a long day. Picking out our Christmas tree tomorrow after breakfast (yay....I have to get up at 7...../sarcasm) and I should have the rest of the day free. If Black CT girl is still alive in the morning I'll run out and get Maracyn and Maracyn II so I at least have them and can possibly treat her. She hasn't lots her will yet, she's weak but not giving up yet.

Anywho, night night all.


----------



## MattsBettas

It sounds like she's drying out in the water. 

Methylene blue might help her breath easier, I'm pretty sure the reason it works for ammonia and nitrite poisoning is because it helps the cells get oxygen or something. It would also help kill the pathogens. 

Don't kill everything... At least give the healthy fish a chance. Or ship them out to people who know they could have been exposed.


----------



## Lucillia

Methylene blue helps with the transformation in blood. From one enzyme to plasma etc. So in a sense yes, it helps when there's a deficiency.
I know it works for reptiles, what about iodine? We use it to sanitize and treat wounds on them.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Really? Drying out in the water? That's a new one for sure. Well woke up and she was gone, she actually looks better than when she was alive, which is not normal either except for that one time with the Orange Marble I got from Catw0man. I'll take pictures just in case you guys want to see, but the cracks in her head are no longer there really, just a little film and her eye's are completely white now. This is so weird....

I am however going to take down the Marineland Eclipse I think, I don't want to put another fishy in it, so if it's not set up and cycled then I won't be tempted to do so. I could then move Pip's 2.5 back up there next to the 10 gallon which would make things easier for me since it's still currently on my piano bench at the moment (not that I use my keyboard since discovering fish)

The oto's are fat and happy it seems, still happily eating all the algae. Rembrandt has torn his fins on something and I think it's the sponge over the filter intake >.> seriously, that boy is going to be the death of me lol. He's swimming around all proud like now going "See!?? Look what I did!! I cleaned some algae too!" lol he'll sometimes bite strings of algae and pull it off the plant, it's adorable and I wish I could get a picture of him doing it! The algae doesn't come out so well on the camera though.

Still lots of that fluffy algae, it gets sort of stringy too. I just cleaned some of it out with a water change last night.

Anywho, off to pick up our tree, ttyl!


----------



## Lucillia

:< poor baby... I would say when you want to use it again bleach it out. Let it just sit for a good while and disinfect the whole thing. And hey you have your new 13 gallons coming soon! They're a little thin but I think they should be good.


----------



## MattsBettas

Lil, you know how I'm not one to suggest salt for everything, but it might help restore an osmotic balance in this case...


----------



## lilnaugrim

That is true Matt, I just want to know what it is before treating though. I don't like to treat unless I know what it is, but then again when no one knows what the heck it is, mind as well start somewhere, right? But it doesn't matter so much anymore unless someone else decides to come down with this. It was just so weird, all in 24 hours which makes me thing more to the Myco sides of things but none of the pictures as I said, matched up. Could be something new, oh god, don't let it be something new >.<

Anyway, oh and Luci, with things like this bleach won't do much for. You'd want to use Rubbing alcohol, I've got 91% because I figure the more alcohol the better. I'll probably keep the tank but I'll chuck the plants (it's going to kill me >.<) and sand and wood, definitely chucking the filter since it's just a dinky whisper 3i anyway, not worth it.

Although I could do a dip on the Anubias since they're nice and hardy but the other plants; Crypt Parva, Dwarf Hairgrass, Red Rotala, Quillwort, Bacopa Carolina and Anacharis can be gone since they won't survive a dip for the most part and I just don't even want to chance it. Why chance it when I've got plenty other plants in the tanks? An wtf....Remmy just spazzed out.....he's gotten weird....he was just picking at the algae wafer I put in for the Snail, just in case and he flipped out after a piece floated up and touched him....he's....weird.....anywho.

I wonder if I can dip the driftwood in alcohol, then boil like 10 milliion times, bake it, boil it again and let it dry out in the sun. Boil it once more, would it be safe you think? Or best just to throw it in a fire somewhere? Is it okay to burn a piece of wood that's been in an infected tank? Or is it safe to burn driftwood at all? I've often wondered that.

Oh and I'll be keeping the thermometer too after a good alcohol spray. But filter isn't worth it and nor are the sand and plants, but driftwood I'm not sure about it. OMG, he's trying to eat it again and he just shoved his face in the grass....geez, I should livestream him just so you guys could see his stupid antics lol he's so silly. At least it amuses me XD He's split his dorsal and caudal again >.>

Oto's have slowed down their algae eating since they're literally fat, they look like they'll explode lol


----------



## Elsewhere

Aw, I'm sorry about the black CT. Hopefully it wan't something new >.< I'd just toss the driftwood if I were you- it'd probably be easier to just get a new piece.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Elsewhere, yeah I'd like to know about the driftwood still though. I'll have to do some research on it later on because I am curious still.

So Remmy snacked on the algae wafer and the snail ran away from it :roll: I've got some weird fish/inverts... Remmy has done so well with the Oto though! Hasn't pecked him or chased him once! Most likely because it's stuck to the wall half the time so Remmy probably thinks it's a moving wall decoration or something haha. But both Oto's are seriously fat to my delight, they've been breaking for most of the dead since they seemed to be stuffed XD lol I love it though.

I did a 100% on Pip's tank and I had siliconed up the hole in two tiny Terracotta pots and have planted it with soil and some left over sand. looks interesting to say the least lol. Pip is angry because I took away all his algae, the tank has been getting sun through the blinds because of the angle of the Earth right now so it was green and brown to say the least XD It literally grows over night!

Charlie keeps splashing in his tank and idk what the heck is up with him. I keep hearing the splashing and look over to make sure no one's jumped out. I figured out it was him because I was laying on my floor and saw the water splash up from the 5.5 and not the 33 so I'm like....da hell you doin feesh?! I haven't caught him in the act yet but he keeps doing it and when I check he's behind the filter outflow and it looks cool to see him through the rippling water lol. He's darkened up quite a bit too! I've got pictures to sort through and post soon ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay some pictures!

Oto in Remmy's tank this morning.


And later today lol I think she got fatter.




And Mister Mystery, I think Remmy might have bitten off the antennae but I could be wrong, looks like he's keeping it tucked in to be safe maybe? I'm really no expert on snails lol.


[/URL

Remmy being Remmy in the sunlight
[URL=http://imageshack.com/i/gisyjij]


I love this picture just because of the colors and shapes.





I have more but dad just came in saying we could go get Chinese food and then go see Frozen!!!!! I'm super excited!!! See y'all later!!


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## Elsewhere

Yep, he bit the antennas off. Pigg did the same thing! So cute, I can't even handle his lipstick XD And that Oto looks huge! Good job, haha!


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## BettaLover1313

Very sorry to hear about the CT girl.

Remmy, the Oto, and the snail all look good though!


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## lilnaugrim

No wonder the poor snail ran away from him! Darn you Remmy!

OMG, Frozen was amazing! If you get the chance to see it and like Disney movies, it's awesome! I also want to see Catching Fire and I can't wait for the Hobbit!!!! Two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is my (user)namesake after all!! But omg, my dad and I laughed the entire way home! And when I got home....I realized my shirt was inside out....not that it's printed or anything and the only way you can tell is by the tag sticking out....but still lol. It was hilarious, I sat there in the bathroom laughing at myself in the mirror when I saw it XD

Sooo, Charlie's changed quite a bit! He's darkened up!












I love this progression even though it's a tad blurry, I saw him, took a pic and took a few more between these but it's hilarious, he saw me and swam right up!






I changed Pip's tank, cleaned it out and added some plants! He's not very happy with me lol










My cat is currently staring me down because I'm eating my rest of the Chinese food (we had to practically order and run but that's okay!) and so I'm eating it while I wait for pictures to load and he's like ready to pounce on me lol

Aero will grace you with his beauty now lol he's such a little stinker, still flaring at Hawkeye. I don't think Aero will ever stop flaring at any fish no mater the length of time spent with them. It's okay though, he doesn't hurt himself and does give himself breaks.










And Remmy's tank. Did a water change to it last night since the algae was getting overbearing. I think I'm going to need to put that second Oto in this tank too. Although I'm not sure what to do about that since that Oto is in the Black CT's Eclipse 3....should I use it as like a QT time and give it two weeks or what? I thought about just throwing him in there after acclimation since whatever the Oto in Remmy's tank has, the other one will have the same thing. but then I though if the girl was already diseased and it just now showed, then the other Oto is now infected with something he didn't have before so that would introduce it to Remmy's tank.....so what do I do?


----------



## Lucillia

Okay do you like the otos? I can't control my algae and I'm going insane scrubbing my tanks. 

Also would you like some wysteria? The hygrophelia isn't really getting any bigger right now, I think the algae is stunting it. The snails are great for the sand, but they don't seem to get the plants or the walls. 

I love Remmy. I also love Aero. And Charlie... You know what? I love all your fish. That's easier. XD


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## BettaLover1313

Charlie looks amazing and Aero, just wow! I love his coloring!


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## lilnaugrim

Lmao Luci. And yes! I love the Oto's! I was afraid I wasn't going to have enough algae but...yeah, I proved myself wrong ^_^ the poor Oto's seem to be overwhelmed with the amount of algae lol, they're still fat as all hell XD The snails been lazy though! Although I don't blame him with Rembrandt stalking the tank >.>

And Aero thanks you all! lol, well actually he'd probably just flare at you but it's all the same ^_^

So I wasn't expecting Charlie to take that color change! I figured he was a minor marble but that's just fascinating! lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I've been listening to this song: http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=5KsNlZ11fQc on repeat and I've listened to it 41 times from today and yesterday lol It's from Frozen of course and it's an amazing song! One of Disney's best "original" songs for sure! I want to go see the movie again so I'm going to try to drag one of my friends along!

Anyway, it's Cyber Monday and I haven't found any good deals online today :-( all the stuff on sale just doesn't seem....good eh...the API Testing Master Kit on Drsfosterandsmith is still 15.99 as it was last week so that's cool but I don't need it. I need to find a low pH testing kit since my tanks are more like 5.5-6.0 usually for the driftwood in them. 

I've got to go write a short paper now so....yeah, ttyl.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's really difficult to write a short essay when you could literally say all you want to say in 1 paragraph >.< writing short essay's are definitely an art that I haven't mastered! She wanted 1,250 words but I only got 1,091 and I really don't care that much lol, close enough! She doesn't normally take off points for not getting exactly at 1,250 words so that's fine. I can't wait to present my project tomorrow though! I still have to put in movie form to show you all, it's what I was working on in the studio for 9 hours the other Sunday. I'm super proud of it and have shown other's and they say's it works super well so I'm happy 

I wish I had fish related things to update, I almost hate being at my mom's since I can't take pics of pretty fishes! Well I have selkie but her light sucks so it's hard to get good pics of her without blinding her with flash. I did however order a Mini SolarFlare 6,500K daylight LED light to use since I'm sick of the stupid light she's got so, can't wait for that to come in


----------



## lilnaugrim

OMG, so it's friggin scary when one of our van's (I was driving to deliver it, mind you this is an 11 person van, it's huge) doesn't want to go into Park or Reverse!

I pulled into the loading dock and went to park behind another van as I was told to do and it was so hard to put it into park, like it just didn't want to go and it didn't go into park. I let off the brake thinking it was in park but it started to roll forward, slammed the brake as I freaked out and had to super force the van into Reverse. But I was afraid to press the gas in fear that it wasn't in reverse and I was going to rear end the van in front of me. Thankfully it was in Reverse and I moved back to re-position and then had to super force it into Park, it does that stupid thing that automatics do and sort of rolls forward a tiny bit after being in Park. Me driving stardards all the time, I don't have to worry about that because once I put my e-brake on, it doesn't move. So of course I was sort of freaking out until I eased off the brake and found it was thankfully in Park. But man, that was so freaking scary!

My muscles are all hurting now because I was so tense >.< not cool, not cool!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm pretty sure that Selkie released some eggs and put them up in a tiny bubble nest! I went in to feed her since mom forgot (yay, she's still too fat!) and there were tiny eggs floating in bubbles, at least I'm fairly certain they were eggs. I've seen eggs before when Asteroth dropped hers but these looked a little more white. She was eating them though so I didn't feed her much even though mom wanted me too >.<


----------



## Fenghuang

Bettas will eat until they explode if we let 'em. Silly little creatures.

We have introduced the unnamed AB girl to our sorority. The others seem to be accepting her just fine.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Bettas will eat until they explode if we let 'em. Silly little creatures.
> 
> We have introduced the unnamed AB girl to our sorority. The others seem to be accepting her just fine.


Well they won't explode lol, they will eventually stop because they can't fit anything else down there. It's extremely rare for them to "explode" though, that I do know ;-)

I'm glad the girl is doing so well!! She's a good girl ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I've been thinking on my stocking plans for my 33 when it get's moved to my mom's house (we still have to get rid of the piano). I realized I never really thought about it, I was focusing more on the 29 really. So I was just playing with a few things.

I know I definitely want to do NPT although probably will be enhance substrate mixed with sand rather than soil+sand for ease of planting and moving when I want to. I want driftwood sticks with moss on them for sure, just need to find the right ones  And I've really wanted Ember Tetra's since the first time I learned about them way back in like February so I'm thinking about 20 Ember's, 6-8 Oto's (Vittatus) and 1 Honey Gourami from my LFS who has a few different color morphs. It will look something like this for stocking: http://aqadvisor.com/AquStockImage....200909300065:,1:200909300098:,6:200909300153:

I think that will be nice since I'm done with meticulous stocking, the simple schooler's and centerpiece fish along with some algae cleaners will be great I think  and their red/orange will look amazing with lush green plants! Where the tank is going to be it's not going to get any sunlight at all so algae won't be too much of an issue. We almost always have fresh veggies here so the Oto's will get fed well and the Gourami and Tetra's will most likely pick at veggies too so all is well!

Now the tanks that will be in room will get dying evening sunlight, around 4-5 they will get about an hour and a half of direct light, nothing that will make the temp fluctuate but I foresee lots of algae. I'll have to get some black-out curtains I think so I can help control it. I still want to have Red Rili shrimp in part of the 29 with 10 gallons going for Charlie. It will look like:

| Charlie | Shrimp and possibly some CPD|

| Aero | Pip | Hawkeye | Kit-Kat |

And then I have two 13 gallons that I can now have fun with! So I might make one soley for shrimp and then split the 29 in half for Charlie and Aero since they're the most active and Charlie just needs space. I still need a shelf to put the 13's on but I should be able to find something. I have a floating shelf from Ikea that I originally wanted to be stood upright as normal, it will be in front of my door making a sort of walk in feel and then behind it will be the tank's. But if I lay it on it's side, it's only 5 feet but that's a lot for my room which is only twelve feet long I think and then I have a queen sized bed >.< So that's five feet by six feet, pretty darn big! I love it but at the same time....it takes up like half of my room! Anywho, if I lay the shelf on it's side I can put the two tanks up there which would look nice too.

Lots of deciding to do!


----------



## ao

bwahaha I love the pic of Charlie sticking his head out from the plants!


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, it was hilarious when he actually did it, I couldn't take more pictures because I was laughing. He just came up and was like "food?" lol he's such a little stinker sometimes ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Oh OH oHo ohoh!!!!! Yesterday was Rembrandt's birthday!!!!!!! I got him December 3rd 2012! He's officially a year old with me but in reality he's more like a year and four-five months old :-D He's getting bloodworms for a lovely dinner tonight to celebrate ^_^ lol I'm crazy I know.


----------



## Rosencrantz32

Congratulations on a full year with your beautiful boy!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you!!! Hopefully I won't be too tired to get some good pictures of everyone tonight ^_^


----------



## Elsewhere

OH HO HO. I see _someone_ is stealing my Ember Tetra idea! LOL, good luck with them! I won't be getting mine for a while (terrible roads) so I'll learn from your experiences XD


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## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, I've wanted Ember's since before I met YOU! ;-) lol they're so cute though! And I can get them easily so that's a plus! Good luck with your's! I'm sure you'll be fine with them  they're very easy going Tetra's so that will be nice


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh OH oHo ohoh!!!!! Yesterday was Rembrandt's birthday!!!!!!! I got him December 3rd 2012! He's officially a year old with me but in reality he's more like a year and four-five months old :-D He's getting bloodworms for a lovely dinner tonight to celebrate ^_^ lol I'm crazy I know.


Remmy & I share the same birthday! Happy birthday, Remmy! & congrats on having him for a year & hopefully many more! :-D


----------



## Elsewhere

LOL, I know, haha! They are just adorable! Yeah, I need to drive for like 2 hours to get mine, so you're super lucky!


----------



## lilnaugrim

DerangedUnicorn said:


> Remmy & I share the same birthday! Happy birthday, Remmy! & congrats on having him for a year & hopefully many more! :-D


Happy Birthday to you!!! :-D And thanks :redyay:


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Thanks! 

I'm so confused with all your tanks & fish. You have too many! It's hard to keep up with your plans. 


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## BettaLover1313

Congrats on having Rembrandt for a year!


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## lilnaugrim

DerangedUnicorn said:


> Thanks!
> 
> I'm so confused with all your tanks & fish. You have too many! It's hard to keep up with your plans.


lol, well the new plans will be the only fish tanks I'll have besides the 5.5 which Remmy will be going into at my dad's house once things are settled. It's much less fish than I had before though! That's for sure! I nearly cut my fish keeping in fourths in just under two months! :-( but it's okay because who I have left are good fish and I love them all 



BettaLover1313 said:


> Congrats on having Rembrandt for a year!


Thank you!!!! It feels so weird, I've never had a fish for an entire year before. Even as a kid we had a 20 gallon and of course we just threw whatever into it, not knowing or researching anything because we didn't know. Soooo they usually died after a few months. The longest ones I had were Rainbow Sharks, I had a cute little shoal of four but they ended up dying because the heater broke, rightfully so it was almost ten or more years old. The tank was my great grandfather's before he couldn't take care of it any more.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So went home last night, got home around 9:40 and was like nope going to bed lol. We had a dress rehearsal last night for our Holiday Concert this Saturday so that was fun, just took an hour >.< but before that I spent from 2-7:30 printmaking in the printing lab, that's a looooong time to be printing lol. I banged out four Monotypes (one of a kind prints) and was able to finish off my last plate which I just need to print now to see if it works without cutting the paper.

All my plates this semester are fish themed so once I'm able to, I'll get pictures of the plates and the prints so you all can see, Remmy shows up in every single one of my plates except the second one but I've got four plates and one tiny practice plate which doesn't count much. But I love printmaking so much so I'm pretty excited for all this!

Anywho, got home and Charlie has marbled more! His back half looks like almost a wild type coloration and he's almost piebald up front but he's got his little 'stache going on so I'll have to take pics of him! He's so darn cute! Pip is still angry with me and I have to do a partial on him when I get home to make sure ammonia isn't terrible. My 33 gallon plants have grown like crazy.....I haven't done a water change in over a month now, almost two months but I only have like one fish in there right now sooooo yeah, I just top it off nearly twice a week since it's pretty humid in my room.

10 gallon is crazy with algae but Aero, Hawkeye and Kit-Kat are doing great. Hawkeye has grown more and is almost the size of Aero in body size, his fins are much bigger of course. Remmy was being his usual sass-ball self to me last night, Oto is doing well. She's cleaned most of the tank but there's still lots of algae, she's fat but not as fat as she was lol. The snail has finally pitched in with algae cleaning and was cleaning some of the grass last night which makes me happy since I really didn't want the algae to choke that out. I don't mind algae on the glass or whatever, but I like my plants nice and healthy! I think the addition of more water wisteria has helped slow the algae growth as well.

Interestingly enough, the Oto in the Marineland 3 died but it wasn't intact....the head was sitting up on top of the driftwood and the body was detached below on the ground and was almost disintegrating. There's no doubt I'm taking that tank down. I hope whatever disease that is that it's just in the tank and not came in with the Oto's, the girl Oto looks very healthy in Remmy's tank though. So that makes me believe it something in the Eclipse 3.

Is it normal for a Oto's body and head to separate like that when they die? The little one I had before didn't.....

I will do my best to get pictures today!


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## lilnaugrim

Holy shnikes! This loach is effing huge! I'm gestimating between 4.5-5 inches! I thought Kuhli loaches stay small? I'm....not sure what to do with him....oh and on top of it, she gave me her frigging goldfish too >.> I told her I didn't want the goldfish but I guess she didn't hear me >.<

I'm wondering if my plants will even survive the goldfish...it's a common and about four-five inches as well....holy crap....what did I get into?

They're acclimating right now and I guess I'll be putting them in today....I really don't want them though but I don't know how my LFS will react if I bring them in and be like; here you go! have fun! they already have lots of goldfish :-/

I could put the goldfish into my pond but I can't guarantee it will live, when I mentioned that to her she was kind of like....eeehhhh. I know the fish was her pet but all the same.....I received it without warning so I might just have to do that if my LFS doesn't want it and I have a feeling they won't.

Took the Marineland Eclipse down today, saved the thermometer, driftwood, large rock and two anubias plants since they're nice and hardy. I'm wondering if I can give them an alcohol spray-n-rinse or if that will just plain kill them? And then the tank itself will be sprayed and left to dry.

I tried to give Aero a guppy fry to eat but he hasn't eaten it yet >.> he's too darn pre-occupied with Hawkeye at his side :roll: sigh. Anywho, going to go to my LFS to talk with them and see if they'll take the fish and then to wal-mart to get a better spray bottle.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sooo found out that he's not a Kuhli but he's a Dojo.......he's cute as all heck but I don't have a 55 gallon to put him in and get buddies too >.< So my LFS is going to take them! Both of them! I'm so happy ^_^ I just hope my friend doesn't mind....I don't see her very often if at all so I can sort of....lie....I feel bad but at the same time she thrust her goldfish on me too >.> Oh and she did have them in her 55 gallon which she offered to me for 200 but I was like....ehhhh I can find one cheaper on craigslist--I didn't say that but I sure thought it as I turned it down lol.

So that's fun...got three more Oto's. These are from my LFS and he said that they had them for nearly five months or so, they were on a tank on the top shelf so no one knew they were in there unless asked upon of which I did. So I know they're nice and healthy, they look good too, a little small but once introduced to my plethora of algae, they won't be anymore! lol For now I'm going to put 1 more in with Remmy to make 2 and then two are going in the 10 with Kit-Kat if she will allow them. If not I may just stick them all in with Remmy. I know that's a lot for his tank but I'll be keeping a close watch on it. If all fails I can break out another mesh divider and just move everyone around when they finish off a section.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Geez, I just lay on my bed and I feel exhausted! what gives man?! Anywho, some pictures!

Charlie has changed so much! He's so darn cute!






"My face looks dirty but it's just the tank since lilnaugrim has been lazy!"


"Hello!"


Jeepers, now you look like you've got lipstick! lol


Aero is gorgeous as ever.






Remmy is so silly sometimes XD


"Grrr, what's that?!"


"Oh, it's me ^_^"


"Come at me bro!"


Fat girl!


Here's the new guy who's actually cleared almost an entire corner already!


And the Dojo Loach, he's adorable, just not for me.


Remmy's tank. You can see the snail tracks, Oto's do a much better job in cleaning!






And then comparison between Hawkeye and Aero


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## lilnaugrim

Clearly. my tank is not set up for a goldfish of this size....














I'll take this time to show how big my Dwarf lily has gotten! lol


The loach has made himself at home lol


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## BettaLover1313

Good to know that Remmy does the same thing Merlin does lol. Though Merlin was just a silly fish that liked doing silly things!

Charlie & Aero look amazing & OMG Hawkeye!!! What a handsome betta he's turned into!

The loach and goldfish are adorable, but I can definitely understand that they're too big.


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## DatBetta

Remmy looks beautiful! Also I was confused when I checker earlier do you have a spawn? It sounded like it but I wasn't 100% sure.


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## lilnaugrim

No, I don't DatBetta. I would like to but not with sick fish running rampant. Still cleaning up after my sorority disaster. I had PetCo babies, Hawkeye is the last of them and then Kit-Kat is a Petsmart girl but she's not even mature so I count her as a baby.

I've got to say, it's the weirdest thing turning around to look at my 33 and seeing this giant golden fish swimming around...bumping into plants every which way he turns lol. I figured out it is a boy, and he's super pretty but I just can't deal with that! So I'm really happy that my LFS is going to take both of them, I can't see keeping fish that I don't even have the right set up for....well I've done it in the past and I've learned my lesson on that >.<

Hawkeye is huugge now! I'm so happy at least ONE of the babies grew up! Even if it had to be Hawkeye. In a way I'm glad though because if one of Steve or Tony had survived, they would have been miserable without their partner. As proof Steve went downhill right after Tony died so it just wouldn't have been good and I wouldn't have been able to live with that heartbreak either. Especially experiencing it for the second time.

When I was kid we had two cat's; Rocky and Poopy-doo (my dad named him, idk >.<) but Poopy-doo was my baby boy, he was adopted from a crazy cat lady when I was only being thought about. Rocky had a sibling brother but he ended up being in an accident (he was inside the engine of a vehicle before it turned on....I'm sure you can guess the rest) So we got Poopy-doo, they lived until I was 14 so they were also 14-15 years old and become brother's for sure. Rocky got congested heart failure and withered away within only three months, Poopy-doo died in his sleep four months later of heart break. He'd always been a fat cat but when Rocky died he refused to eat and didn't ever want to go outside. He looked horrible but I still loved him. The day before he died he actually caught a flying squirrel in our basement where he spent most of his time, it was his final gift to me 

So seeing another duo get broken up really has a different effect on me. I'm sure there are others out there with similar situations so I know it's not just me but yeah....I wouldn't have dealt well and didn't for those two weeks that Steve was withering away.

So anywho! Hawkeye is beautiful now, Kit-Kat is filling out well and Aero seems smaller....probably because Hawkeye is bigger than him now lol

And yes, Remmy is so silly. He does things like that all the time XD


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## lilnaugrim

So Mr. Goldie was happy to eat some NLS flakes this morning. It was too cute watching the pair of them eat. It's nice to have a little switch from tiny fish to what I would consider as large fish, at least for me. Of course in my 33...they look huge! But I'll be glad that they can and will be able to actually move around a tank when they go to my LFS. It's so cute, they like to snuggle together while they sleep. I like the Loach likes friends of it's own kind so I think he'll be much happier when he finds that he has friends that are like him tomorrow when they leave.

I can tell they're friends, I know they've been together for almost two years as well so I kind of feel bad separating them but it will be healthy for both of them. I also found out that my friend had taken down her 55 and put these two in her spare 10 gallon for a few months >.> grrrr. No wonder the poor fish haven't grown, I feel like they've grown from just being in my tank lol probably not but still.

Anywho, it was just cute watching them eat this morning so I though I'd share with y'all. I always liked to go down to our pond to feed our goldfish there but they're more wild and not tame like this one. Mr. Goldie comes up to my face now, yesterday he was plum scared of me and rightfully so! He'd traveled quite the distance from her house, to my truck to sit there for two hours until my class was done and then drove to my house to acclimate for two hours and then get thrown into this foreign tank with a few female guppies (yes yes, shush) who are terrified of this large fish. lol it's all pretty funny. So once they go I'll be moving the guppies out as well and then going to take that tank down as well. I plan on taking all tanks down that I don't need.

I'm not sure what to do with the Marineland Eclipse. I will be sanitizing it well, two rounds of alcohol after sitting in a window with sun for a good portion of the day. But I don't know if I should keep it or give it to someone....I could ship it out to someone on here if they wanted it. It would just be the tank, hood and light (which is all together). It's a 6,500K 9 inch fluorescent bi-pin light and it's a good little 3 gallon but I probably shouldn't keep it. I'll be too tempted.

Although I've been good with not setting up the extra 5.5 that I have....lol yeah, that's been laying around for a while. For a while MC (my cat) had claimed it as his own but now he likes to sleep on my bed again rather than the box which is fine to me haha. So anywho, if anyone wants the tank, I can come up with a price. It's not going to be outrageous, mostly just shipping and a little extra for the tank/hood/light since I did pay for the lights and all.


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## dramaqueen

Mr Goldie is very pretty.


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## Lucillia

He's so cute!!!! I love that first pic of him!!! Also no luck finding females still. 

 will we ever have beautiful babies? Over the break I will try to work on our tank.


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## lilnaugrim

He is pretty! I do wish I could keep them, they're just so dang adorable but the 33 isn't enough to support them long term and I can see Mr. Dojo getting irritated, I'd rather he be with his own kind. I have more pictures to go through of them today lol

Luci, we'll have beautiful babies one day!!!! Just...not today  I've given up looking for females for Remmy, I just can't risk him being actually sick since we don't know what the heck is on his head still. I'm still sort of looking but not actively, I am, however still looking for a girly for our boy there. There have been some on AB but I want to find a girl with good form, better than our girl so we can balance out the dip on the boy's head (spoon-headed). His form is decent over all but I want a girl who can actually get up to HM status with her crowns with the lovely web reduction like our girl had. So I'll keep my eye's pealed.


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## lilnaugrim

Also I want to share this picture of Siberian, it was unintentional and came out soooo good!


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## lilnaugrim

"Oh this looks yummy"




"Yoooou can't see me!"


"Plant roots? My favorite!" lol






So my Ramshorn is getting big!! How big do they get anyway?


"Excuse me! My face is _not_ dirty! They're just fishy freckles!"




*Le gasp!*




Pip looks like a sad puppy and I can't figure out why....is it seriously because I took away his algae?? Param's are normal at 0....sigh...he wouldn't eat either. Trying a water change after this to see if it helps.


My Rainbow fishy!










"Hiiiii!"


"No, go away, I don't want you! I changed my mind!"


Also added some wisteria to Aero and Hawkeye's side as well. Kit-Kat's side is normal lol she don't get any presents today XD


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## PetMania

All of these guys are looking beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Pet!


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## PetMania

I really need to catch up. I log on now and find that you have a goldie and a loach, lol! Who's the new betta with the white-ish face?


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## lilnaugrim

Lmao, well as you read you'll find that they're leaving to the LFS tomorrow. I was taking them on from a friend because she's moving and didn't want them anymore. I thought it was a Kuhli Loach and a small goldie from her description but I had originally turned the goldfish down and when she gave them to me, I then found out that I got the goldfish too >.> So off to the LFS they go!

And that's Pip, he's not new, well not that new at least. He's just stressed out right now since he's now got live plants and a mini NPT in the terracotta pots.


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## PetMania

OHH, he just looks different, lol. Yeah, that loach looks like a khuli.


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## lilnaugrim

It's actually a Dojo loach, he's six inches long....he's just got a marbled coat but I researched for a while and nothing matches being a Kuhli except the molted look but he doesn't have the normal black stripe at the peduncle which is found on Kuhli's.


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## PetMania

Oh.. I have a dojo. He's only 2.5-3'' long, but he is a pig and quite the clown. Lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah I know lol I actually thought of you when I found out he's a Dojo XD He's cute as all heck but he's seriously unhappy whereas the goldie was happy to get quality food today lol I had thrown a bunch of flakes in, not expecting my tank to be clean. The freaking goldie went around and nearly vacuumed my sand of all flakes XD My sand looks black now as it should be! haha kind of funny really since they do poop a lot normally.


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## PetMania

Yep, they do. Well, I feed mine shrimp pellets and he is really savage when eating them. He's 2.5'' long and about 10mm wide... and he can eat one in a minute, lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Well the loach wasn't happy with anything I put in, pellets and bottom feeder tablet's included. He just wasn't happy. It was the goldie that was going nuts for the flakes and cleaning the substrate lol

EDIT: btw, where the hell do fish go when they hide??? I've been looking for my older Oto in Remmy's tank almost all day now and I can't find her! She was there when I got home but now I've been trying to find her for the last five hours and I can't. The newer boy is right out there cleaning no issues....can't have gone up the filter since it's got a foam pad over the intake and saran wrap in front of the outflow. Literally can't find her >.<


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## DatBetta

He's probly under the sand or something but that goldfish is a mess xD. So funny.


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## lilnaugrim

No it was the Oto, Oto's don't bury and it would be hard because she's in a 3 gallon NPT with gravel....sooo that's a negative...I actually did find her last night...on her side :-/ floating on top. She's actually still alive right now, I've placed her in a cup next to the tank and I expected her to be dead but she's still alive and I have no idea what to do with her. She doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, still on her side, breathing normally just kind of chilling there....I guess I'll see what the day holds then. She was the last PetSmart Oto and my LFS Oto's are doing much better. I think because the transition from their water to mine isn't very different, that helped them acclimate. But the water is extremely different from where the PetSmart is compared to my house (we have very hard water where up in Warwick where PetSmart is, it's pretty soft water).

So today's the day the goldie and the loach get their new "home" at my LFS lol. I really do sort of feel bad for taking them there but what the heck else am I going to do with them? >.< so at least they can enjoy bigger tanks with their own kind. I can't wait to see the brother's looks on their faces when I bring them in. I told them roughly how big they were but I don't think they believed me that they were bigger than that >.< I think the loach is actually more like seven inches, his short little tail included. With the goldie I was just measuring body size, his tail is another three-three and a half inches too sooooo yeah.

Oh man there was this gorgeous almost solid red PK boy at the LFS, he had very minor dragon scaling but it was green. He almost looked like a wild but clearly he wasn't. He almost looked like a Brownorum sort of, I think it's mostly the color and he did have a patch of green scaling on his face but it's really hard to see in the picture.








And then I went to my other LFS just to look around because I like to do that. I ended up getting the wisteria there because it looked real good and my other one didn't have it in stock for now. But I saw this cute little guy there too! He's a light lavender butterfly elephant ear, cutest thing ever. He swam right up to me to say hello and look for food. he was obviously new because the ones they've had there for a while are really skinny and malnourished :-/ but there's not much I can do for them. All their other fish are well taken care of and at any sign of disease they immediately put up a QT sticker so no one can buy them and start to treat them so that's pretty cool. Anywho, here's the little dude if anyone's interested I don't mind picking up and shipping!


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## PetMania

Aww, so tempting, lol. I already have two EEs, ;-). And I am looking for red dragons and MGs now. But he is gorgeous.


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## lilnaugrim

lol I know, his ear's were really nice too. And the color to me is fairly clean minus his anal but he's young so he could fill out more. He was just so cute though, looked very docile. Aero and Hawkeye have started the bubble nest making contest again, Aero is winning by far right now but Hawkeye has been distracted by the Oto that keeps swimming into him lol. These Oto's are the one's from my LFS I got...Thursday was it? Yeah, and they're literally crazy...swimming eradically and kind of freaking me out but they're healthy otherwise. One of the oto keeps chasing a male guppy I have in there....it's really weird. Kit-Kat is fine with the guppy which is cool, I just didn't want him with the females so that worked out well.

Anywho, so yeah the Brother's at the pet shop were pretty surprised at the length of the two fish lol. And then they were surprised at the thickness of one of the bags XD I laughed at that, it was left over from shipments received. I always keep the bags for shipping and times like this so it works out well. Although those were my two biggest bags haha but they were happy to take them. They were super happy about the Dojo and his markings since that's seemed to be really rare in the Dojo's. I just gave them to them though, no trading since I don't need anything right now and they're always good to me so I don't want to mooch of them or anything!


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## PetMania

That's really nice of you naugrim. The marbleing in the dojo is rare. They usually are just speckled brown or golden.


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## lilnaugrim

Yup! So, hopefully they'll get a pretty penny off him  They give me discounts on things all the time so mind as well keep the friendship strong for when I really need something! ;-)


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## PetMania

Good system you got going there ;-) 

At the my nearest PetCo, they know me as the "Fish Teenager", lol.


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## lilnaugrim

lol that's funny. Yeah, I don't think they know my name but they refer to me as a Betta lady ^_^ I think they know my name now though since I had put my name down for when they got more C. Habrosus in (Lucillia was looking for some) and so that helps but yeah, it's good ^_^


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## Lucillia

I want that ee!!!!! :O~ and thank you lil! That makes it easier. Is it pet safari or the other one I can't remember right now...? 
Also I still want a remmy and the butterfly baby.  and kit kat babies!


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## lilnaugrim

We can have Kit-Kat babies! She's healthy as a horse! She's still small and has some growing to do but her and your boy there would be a perfect match! Although I have to inspect their form a little more since they completely match in color, I want to make sure that form will be great as well!

And yeah Sea Horse is the one with the C. Habrosus, Critter Hut has the Oto's which I might bump my numbers up next week since the PetSmart one did die today. The little Sea Horse Oto's I have (they were almost half the size of the PetSmart ones) are doing fantastically! Not as fat as the other one had gotten but that's fine, they're making short work of the algae and I'm happy! I cut a hole in the divider between Kit-Kat and Hawkeye so they can pass through but the two can't. I'm just worried that they'd find it and stick their head's through, possibly get stuck and bite each other :-/ Plants are in front of the holes but still.

And that EE is at Critter Hut! He's only like 10.99 or something like that. He's just so darn adorable!


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## PetMania

10.99???? I paid $22 for Dumbo.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they're cheap because they don't normally carry them so I don't think they really know lol.


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## PetMania

I see. If I had money left, lol.


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## Mo

The dumbos at my LFS are 20 dollars.. Lol, and they aren't even very nice. Kept with the tetras so have ratty fins sadly :-(


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## PetMania

Dumbo had just gotten to the store the day before, so I got lucky. The other ones were blue and salmon for some reason. There colors were nice, but their fins were terrible.


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## Elsewhere

The EEs at my pet stores are 3-6 bucks! They don't really are about the "ears", just the tails.


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## MattsBettas

The last time I saw one in a store here it was 30$ and covered in ich. But I breed them now so they're free lol.


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## PetMania

That's how I see it. Yeah, they are $30, but I am breeding them and getting a ton of free ones! Lol


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah normal stores like my good LFS there sell them for 20 but the other good store just doesn't know I guess lol.

Phew, spent an entire day with one of my good friends who is rushing the Band Sorority (I'm in the Fraternity) so I spent the day helping him make gifts for people in his "family". Both the fraternity and sorority, we work together on a lot of things so we're like one big family, it's awesome ^_^ Picked him up at 11:30 this morning and I just dropped him off at 10 so we spent quite a bit of time together! It was totally cool though and we had a blast making everything. Except for the stupid clay that kept not wanting to cooperate!

Anywho, last night the Oto in Remmy's tank kept trying to get into the filter and succeeded twice in getting into the outflow part of it....is that normal Oto behavior or what? It was like he was exploring but at the same time trying to get out :shock: I was confused by this and annoyed because I kept having to get up to turn the light on and push him out of the filter so he didn't actually go in >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Well it's been a while! It's been a busy weekend filled with friends and baking clay and holding my cat's, but it's been good. Well all except last night but I won't delve into Fraternity matter's, the interwebs is no place for that but nor is talking behind other's backs...>.> Anyway!

So fishes are all doing well, just got my two 13 gallons from Lucillia last night ^_^ not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them but I have a feeling it will probably be just for my guppies on the side. The females are done giving birth I think, I ended up with 12-14-ish fry I think. i still have to actually count them and now sex them to keep them apart. Kit-Kat hasn't minded the four males on her side which is cool, she's more interested in getting at Hawkeye who i think bit her through the divider >.> only bad thing about craft mesh...sigh. I'll be doubling it up in the new tanks.

So all I need to get now is the 20 gallon long, waiting for PetCo's sale on that. Check the 29 to make sure it holds water and get more substrate for the other tanks. Also to get rid of the piano.

I currently have:
the 20/29 gallon tank stand for two tanks
3 12 pound bags of FloraMax
2 twenty pounds of black petCo sand
the 29 gallon
Two 13 Gallon kits

So seems like a good plan.

I feel bad for Selkie though, we've since moved her into the guest room because Christmas and all and we have lots of parties. It would be really bad if someone accidentally spilled wine or a piece of sausage in her tank! So she's been sitting in there and is miserable with no company! I try to go in as often as I can to talk with her and just chillax but it's hard when I'm at school for around 12-15 hours a day! So I just hope she'll be fine. Got to change her water today too.


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## lilnaugrim

Ug, feeling sick again today :-/ stupid medicines. I like the focus they give me and I can actually understand things when I'm on them but at the price of getting sick....that's no good. It hasn't happened in a while though so I can't figure out what triggers it! I didn't have caffeine this morning unless Orange Juice has caffeine in it >.> but I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Then I just fried an egg with some melted cheddar on it and grilled an english muffin to make a sandwich out of it. I then had a small piece off coconut custard to take my meds since I forgot for breakfast.

I have to keep sipping a drink I have to keep the sickness at bay....this really sucks. I'm hot but cold and super tired too. grrrrr, I'm just really sick of this >.>

Anywho, tonight I should be going to my dad's so I can update on my actual fish rather than me >.< tomorrow is the start of exams, I only have a critique on Friday and I'm done, woot woot! But I'm now going to be working full part time at the loading dock, 5 hours a day, 5 day's a week! Not terrible but considering it's freezing in here....it kind of sucks too lol and the noises, there are high pitched squeals all over the place which drive me insane, probably contributes to my sick feeling too or at least it doesn't help...sigh....

anywho, I'll be around today, PM me if you want idk and idc


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## lilnaugrim

Feeling better now, phew! It took like an hour or so to get over that sick feeling, not cool man, not cool!

So this past Sunday I spent almost 11 hours with one of my new found awesome friends! He just became a sister in the sibling organization to my Fraternity! Funny how that works sometimes lol. But he's awesome, so we spent the day together making things and we'll finish them today once I get out of work. But in the sorority they do this thing called Secret Snowflake instead of Secret Santa since there are a few Jewish people so Secret Snowflake. The person he got loooooooves Loki and Thor so we decided at Wal-Mart that we were going to make her one. At first we were looking for a hedgehog and an owl since those are her two favorite animals but I ended up picking up a light colored hedgehog while he picked up a dark colored one and I was like "Oh my god, it's Thor and Loki, this is awesome!"

Funny enough they're dog toys and they do squeak lol but we brought them home and started to make their outfits! I already had red and gold fabric so we cut out capes for them and then took sticks from outside, tied two together to do Thor's hammer and used one for Loki's scepter. Then I made Thor's Helmet with over sized wings lol and he made Loki's adorable helmet! They came out perfectly! Also he drew on angry eyebrow's for Loki and it's just so perfect lol


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## BettaLover1313

Those are adorable!


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## EvaJupiterSkies

Those are brilliant!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks!! We had a lot of fun making them!! :-D


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## dramaqueen

Cool idea!!


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## Lucillia

That was hilarious when she opened that present! 

De you do a lot of work for the sisters... I hope they say thank youu!!! XD


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## lilnaugrim

I wish I could have seen it! I know she was super happy though :-D I like to help out but apparently not all see it as helping out *sigh* stupid fraternity stuffs, I can't help it that I like to help and is super friendly >.>

Soooo I'm at my dad's now and fish are doing super well! Well Pip still hates me but I'll be doing another water change after I test his ammonia to make sure he's not hurting or anything. Rembrandt has been playing in his floating Anacharis literally allllll freaking day, it's hilariously cute! Now he's flaring at himself XD too funny he is! Oto has been doing a great job at cleaning the tank walls, just needs to get on that fluffy stuff on the bottom! I got to do another water change for that, probably Saturday morning if I don't get to it today.

Kit-Kat is doing well with her little guppy friends, they don't bother her and she doesn't bother them. She's more interested in Hawkeye anyway. He's bitten a few of her crowns through the divider but nothing serious has ensued, so for that I'm happy. I want to cut another hole in the divider between Aero and Hawkeye but that requires it being taken out....it was a pain in the tushy getting that thing in...nevermind out >.< but the algae is getting too unbearable on the plants on Aero's side, so I really need something in there other than snails. I have three tiny snails in there right now, 1 pond snail and 2 teeny MTS. I can see their trails through the algae lol but they haven't done any serious cleaning yet.


----------



## Huffle Puffles

There's nothing better than a thoughtful/homemade gift. Those came out adorable!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Couldn't agree more! And thanks!! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

:-( Pip just died on me....like he was fine when I came home earlier, he looked stressed but I figured it was just because of the tank cycling and all. Did my water change as usual, conditioned the water, made sure it was the normal temp and added it in like I do. That was over four and a half hours ago and I looked at him, he was still swimming, next thing I know he's floating around his tank being pushed by the current. :/ 

I netted him to make sure he wasn't just sick or something and that he actually was dead. His gills were half flared out and he wasn't breathing at all. He hadn't been eating all this week but again I just pushed it off to be because the tank was cycling and it was helping anyway to not add the extra ammonia to the tank. Well I just tested the tank....not even .25ppm like it wasn't yellow but it wasn't the nice yellow-green that .25 is, so it's somewhere like .15 or so. 0 Nitrite and 0 Nitrate, pH 6.5 as it comes out of the tap too. Seriously.

S.I.P. little boy, I'm sorry you died so young :-( sigh....


----------



## PetMania

NOOOO! omg, I'm so sorry!


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

Omg! I'm so sorry. He was so pretty! Very strange. Dang. You're just not having any luck lately, are you? Sorry, lil. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry to hear about Pip!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, the first boy I bought on AquaBid! Sigh...well I guess I'll be dismantling his tank too lol. From 32 right down to five in the matter of two months is just insane! I'm happy with my five though and I just hope they keep on living! Remmy has trooped through everything so I don't see him dying soon unless I do something stupid which I do nearly every day it seems. Aero's been right behind him, Hawkeye made it through Steve and Tony and Kit-Kat is just making her way through the Guppies lol. Which there are two boy's that I will be ready to sell soon, cheap since they aren't much quality of anything but they are cute  They've only been in the 10 gallon, no cross contamination from the 33 at all. So if they're diseased, it's from the seller but I've had them for almost three weeks now and they're very healthy  I can get pictures upon request.


----------



## Elsewhere

No, not Pip! I'm so sorry Lil!


----------



## dramaqueen

Aww, I'm sorry about Pip.


----------



## lilnaugrim

sigh...it's okay. Thanks guys. I think what I'll do is disinfect the 2.5 and the 3 together along with some of my equipment and then move Aero back to the 2.5 where he was happy and then just either keep the 10 gallon divided or I could keep it in 3 and use one side for guppies instead. Not sure yet. Most likely though I'll just divide it in half, take out the larger divider since that thing is a PITA! for sure.

I got more oto's today though, I want to move the other two little ones from the 10 into Remmy's tank since I'm still having major issues. It's been better but there's still a lot to clean up. And they're smaller, the ones I got from my other LFS are much bigger....I don't think they're either Vittatus or Vestitus :-/ I'll have to see if I can try to identify them!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Busy day! We're currently getting a Nor'easter, woot woot! It's all going to melt by tomorrow anyway. Down by the coast where I am we're only getting like 3 inches if that, we still haven't even hit an inch and it's been snowing since 9 this morning. It's a little slippery but nothing serious, then again, no one knows how to drive in snow except for my family it seems >.>

Anywho! So I disinfected the 2.5, Eclipse 3, three of my nets, a thermometer and a heater. But I decided against using the 3 or 2.5 gallon for Aero since I wanted to move him out and into his own tank. So I decided to set up my spare 5.5 that's been laying around for a while! I went to my LFS, picked up some Laterite and new gravel since I have none and also picked up two new java fern's and a little bundle of Anacharis.

I set it up and once everything was set and I was sure of it, SeaChem Stability dosed already, double dose of conditioner for safety, I acclimated Aero to it. He was so anxious to get of his little cup and soon as he was out he was busy exploring. Once he finished exploring, he quickly clamped up and basically told me how he didn't like it >.> well he's gonna have to get used to it! I think it's just lack of many plants, I also threw some water wisteria and Green Crypts in there to make it look pretty. Aero still doesn't like it >.> he's a butt. The tank looks nice too! It's been a while since I was able to set up a new tank and play with it and all :-D

I moved the two oto's from the 10 into Rembrandt's 3 so they could be together so there's a group of three in there and they've been chasing each other since they got in there! I can't tell if it's aggression or playing...:shock: and I'm annoyed because the stupid green film is back, it accummulates more when plants are touching the surface as expected, but it just sucks.

Oh, snow plow went by plowing lol

Pics to be up shortly after I upload them!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Dwarf Lily is not so dwarf! lol


New Oto in the 10 gallon, I got four of them.


"I want hugs too!"


"Look, my fins are still growing!" :-D


"Yup, I'm a pretty awesome fish if I do say so myself!"


"Peek-a-boo! Ahem--I mean, I am resting here in my throne of Water Wisteria!"


I found me a fast little pond snail!


I find him interesting because only part of his shell has the regular spots where the other half is almost clear-ish colored. Not quite white, opaque!


Charlie's Ramshorn is getting biiiig too! Almost bigger than the Mystery that's still in there thankfully!


Charlie's tank now that I've cleaned out the overgrown water sprite and water horn. Got him some wisteria (easily my favorite plant) and just ignore the cuddlebone up front lol it's now moved back so it's not so painfully obvious. You can also see the Ramshorn in the back while the pond snail is on the front of the glass at the top. The Mystery is behind the heater, you can just make out the back of the shell if you look hard enough XD


This was from earlier when I found Rembrandt was following his snail and then shoving his face into plants around the snail XD This was him in the grass.


And when he realized I was taking photo's he was like 'ooooohhhh!' lol


And his snail


Aero didn't like the cup either haha


I don't look forward to the day he becomes blind.


Mr. Grump himself! He's got such pretty deep brown eyes though.


His new 5.5!! This is the first time I've never used black in a tank! I rather like it ^_^


Excuse the cloudiness. Java Fern 'Windlov' on the driftwood and water wisteria in back there.


Green Crypts


And regular java fern with Anacharis in the back


And the 10 gallon as it is now  Hawkeye on the left there and Kit-Kat with her Guppy Groupies on the right.


----------



## PetMania

Very pretty! 

Why would Aero become blind?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks!

Because of his scaling. Eventually it's going to grow over his eye's, it doesn't happen with all Dragons but with bad breeding it does. Here's Aero the day I got him, the poor thing looked ragged!


And with the pics from today, notice how the blue is covering a little more of his eye and he also has a dot of scaling already starting to cover at the very top of his eyes.


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## PetMania

That won't hurt him, right? That explains why a lot of the blind bettas I see are dragons.


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## lilnaugrim

No it won't hurt him, it will just be very inconvenient lol. It may not happen in his life time since it is a slow (thankfully) growth. That growth of the scale there has only appeared in the last four-five months so he could easily live to be 5 and it might just start to be getting covered.


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## Lucillia

Aero is so handsome!! Its amazing how much he has changed!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you!!! Yeah, it's so crazy! Him and his spoon-head which I hate in Betta's. But since his scales grew in, he's no longer so Spoon-headed which I'm thankful for!

So Aero has officially given me the thumbs up in his new 5.5 lol. Which I'm super happy about, he just didn't like it the first day he was in. I have the bag of Bio-Max from the 33's filter in there to help cycle and also have been using SeaChem Stability (brand new bottle) daily. I have to check parameter's today. His temp unfortunately is down at 70 because I realized that I broke my spare Hydor Theo 25W >.< When Pip was in the 2.5 I had accidentally plugged in the Hydor instead of the little Marineland I had which meant the Hydor was out of water and heating >.< So I broke the element on that, my little Aqueon no longer works and the Marineland was in alcohol disinfecting. I have a little XinLong from China lol but the cord is only friggin 90 cm's which is like 2 feet I think so it's not going to reach the outlet. And then I had a larger VisiTherm from my older LFS which was only 10 dollars, it's a 75 watt but I'm finding it's not working >.> So I've got to buy another heater today to keep him warm. It's a good thing I'm at work...sigh.

I thought I was sleeping in today because what I had thought was my co-worker was going home on this Thursday and he was working his normal Tuesday/Thursday shift. Apparently not though, my boss called me at 8:53 this morning and asked if I was coming in and I'm like...what?? And he explained that apparently we talked and agreed that I was working the entire week and I was like...oh...well I'll be there in an hour! lol so this just means I'm closer to one of my other LFS's to get the heater at is all. Otherwise I would have to drive all the way up here just for the LFS and then back home.

Oh it's snowing again too, we had a "blizzard" on Saturday which we barely got two inches lol, everyone freaked out. It melted the next day, it did freeze over which sucked but it's not terrible. I don't know how much we're getting today though, I hope it's not much!!

So anywho, everything is going well, guppy finally gave birth, I think all three girls are done now. I have about 14-15 fry I think. I have to split up the older fry so I don't get more babies since I don't want to get more babies yet!! But the fry are actually growing really well which I'm really happy about. But I think mama ate most of her newest fry since I only have like four from her but that's okay since she was pre-hit anyway. No more guppy fry for me until I sell off all these little ones, I don't want much for them, maybe like a dollar a trio if people really want them. They should be grown up by end of January or so I have other fry that are much older and two males are soon to be ready to go if Lucillia doesn't want them 

OMG, at the LFS I'm going to today (Critter Hutt, Sea Horse is the main one, this is the other good one), they have Bumblebee Guppies! Like Black and yellow! I've figured out that I love all things black and yellow like Bumblebee Gobies, Platies, Guppies, and Betta's and whatever other black and yellow fish there are!!!! I also love the look of White Clownfish and Black Clownfish! I wonder if they're all compatible, if they are I totally want pairs of each if I ever have a saltwater tank!!!

Anyway, I think I've rambled on enough and I know my posts can get really long of which I apologize for!! I just love to talk too much >.< The Gift of Gab as my mum puts it, or the curse whichever end you're on haha.


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## lilnaugrim

Okay I have too many freaking pictures lol.
Kitty! This is Siberian, he was just too cute so I had to include him in!


Mr. Blue Lips being fat because he ate the veggie tablet that was for the otos >.>


"I did not!" You did too, if you didn't, where is it? "uhhh, the Oto's ate it!" Mhmm...


He was staring at my Legolas Vinyl Pop that my best friend got me for Christmas! lol


"I shall nom the leftovers of this wonderful veggie wafer!"


Changed the tank around! Moved the filter/heater/light to the right of where they were before. This way the light isn't shining directly on me and blinding me all the darn time. And it just looks nicer, trimmed up the water wisteria and tried to get rid of most of that stupid slimy algae. It's still on the hairgrass though :-/




Look at that beautiful Ramshorn shiny shell!! I've grown this one from a baby and super proud of it! lol you can tell since I've added calcium to the water, it's nice and shiny and thick now :-D


And I think the Mystery was eating the BGA today :shock:...there is less than there was before!


My Ramshorn also decided he wanted to bury himself....is this normal????



Charlie! Wow he's changed so much!


He likes to show me his face but not his body XD


I also gave him the Anubias that I had chilling on top of Rembrandt's tank, it wasn't fully in the water, just the roots were to keep it alive. Charlie was already hiding behind it in the ruins there so I think that's going to be his new favorite place lol


I also gave Aero's tank a Anubias Nana Petite! He also now has a Fluval Elite 25W heater that is working well! The only thing i don't like about it is that it is a HOB heater and the water level has to stay up pretty high :-/ It was only 10 dollars though which kind of shocked me.


This has been his new favorite place to chill out. His ammonia was up at .25ppm today so I did a small water change in hopes to help out but he's seemed to be miserable a lot today. I hope he makes it through, I mean I have seeded material in there, plants and am using Stability, there should be no ammonia :-/ 


Kit-Kat being fat as all heck because she keeps hogging all the food! I'm going to have to cup her for feeding time so the guppies get their share as well >.<


Also some of her ray's split again making her a four rayed CT! They're tiny but they are there! I hope that if I breed her, she'll make some four rayed CT babies! So far her form isn't terrible; her body is what I like best about her (;-)) since she's not spoon-headed or anything. I wish her webbing was reduced more and her spread larger but that something that can be easily worked on.


Hawkeye is officially grown up! I can officially talk about him here lol I was trying to keep the babies in my Baby thread but obviously it all bleeds together. But I think I will stop updating my Baby thread and just continue with them here since they are both sexually matured now.




He's still growing his fins too lol


Oto nomming on a blanched carrot I had in there! They now have a blanched cucumber since I finally bought one :-D But I read they eat carrots too. Remmy's snail also nommed on it for a while too.



Annnnnd snail eggs! Presumably pond snails lol


Also is it normal to have all female Guppy spawns???? I have a feeling that the mothers ate the boy's but left the girls because all of the fry I see are females...not one boy! Even in the new fry which are only two day's old! I found three more as well making it like 15-18 or so, I didn't actually count. Here are some pics


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## PetMania

Hmm, maybe one of them will turn out a boy? 


Also, I just wanted to let you know that Jarvis died...


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## lilnaugrim

Awww poor boy :-( may I ask how?

As for the guppies, I don't mind if they're all girls, I just found it extremely weird lol


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## DerangedUnicorn

Does the temperature of the water determine the sex of the fry for guppies? I know for some reptiles it does. Like cooler temps makes girls & warmer temps make boys or vice versa. Idk. Just a guess. I love all your pictures.


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## lilnaugrim

I know it does effect it for Betta fry as well so I would be assuming so. However Guppies thrive well in any 70-84 degree water or lower even, I don't remember the exact numbers but my tank is steady at 78 degree's so theoretically, they would then produce more boys since they were in the tank long enough that the babies developed in the tank if that makes sense there. So the only other plausible explanation would be that they ate the boys and left the girls for some weird reason XD lol, my guppies are sexist!

And thanks! I really enjoy taking pictures too ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg I feel exhausted today and I haven't even done anything! Aero was looking much better today and I think he was just cold was all. His heater is now keeping it a lovely 80 degree's in his tank and when I woke up he was already swimming around so I'm happy ^_^

Oto's are happily cleaning away and munching on blanched cucumbers that I put in last night. Everyone seems pretty happy


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> Awww poor boy :-( may I ask how?
> 
> As for the guppies, I don't mind if they're all girls, I just found it extremely weird lol


He was lying peacefully on the gravel. He was not killed by my other fish as they are mellow and he did not have any marks or indications of being attacked. 



DerangedUnicorn said:


> Does the temperature of the water determine the sex of the fry for guppies? I know for some reptiles it does. Like cooler temps makes girls & warmer temps make boys or vice versa. Idk. Just a guess. I love all your pictures.


In some mammals, the temperature does affect the sex ratio. Happens with reptiles, birds, fish, and most egg-layers. When the egg is in developement, the temperature affects which gender the new born/ hatchling/ baby will have. 

Cooler temp. - more girls
warmer temp. - more boys. 

It could also be a luck-of-the-draw thing ;-)


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## MattsBettas

Actually, mammals and birds are genotypic and have their sex determined by chromosomes, while some reptiles and fish are tsd and have their sex determined by temperature, thought here is starting to be some evidence that chromosomes and temperature can both play a role. 

Cooler temps do not alway mean more girls and warmer temps do not alway mean more boys... Alligators(at least I think its alligators), for example, have more females when eggs are either hot or cold, and males when they are somewhere in between.

Sorry for your loss, pet and lil


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## lilnaugrim

Aww well at least he went peacefully presumably. He lived a good life, although short  I really wish there was a "gentle" smiley face where the mouth isn't open >.>

Well either way, it does turn out that I have all girls out of like 20 fry soooo idk what happened! Either I have very sexist fish or this is one very weird spawn lol I fed the fry frozen daphnia today and the older ones went nuts over it! They gobbled them up faster than I could blink! I tried giving it to the younger ones since I separated the ages, they tried but they're still a little too small to be eating it yet. The adults went nuts over that and Brine Shrimp as well which I mostly fed the Betta's but I tried it and they were ecstatic to eat it so I was like..okay! lol

Rembrandt has been annoyed all day. He doesn't like the new set up because it allows for more filter flow which means he get's pushed around. Sorry bud but I've got to keep this algae at bay somehow! Also the Oto's are getting lazy >.> the walls are filled with algae again and they've just been sucking on the filter intake baffle sponge there. I know they're alive because they move but still, they don't move much unless scared. The snail has actually been eating the algae in the grass (THANK GOD) and has slowly started to get rid of it. You would think I'm starving them but seriously I'm not, I watched Remmy's snail eat part of the cucumber last night before I took it out today to put it in Charlie's 5.5 for his two snails both of which have nommed on it!

I split Aero's 5.5 and put Hawkeye in with him to allow Kit-Kat and the Oto's/Guppies all of the tank. It's been a looooong time since I've seen that 10 without a divider in it of some sort! I think it's been since this past January or something! Crazy lol


----------



## dramaqueen

I'm so sorry about Jarvis.


----------



## lilnaugrim

My very large Oto's. Pics are from last night but I was too tired to upload them. These Oto's are almost double the size of the little ones in Remmy's tank....are these just more adults do you think?


This poor baby got into the side with Hawkeye and well Hawkeye doesn't like intruders so he took a chunk for the Guppy's tail >.> that is also why Hawkeye has been since moved. This one has the most vivid colors out of the three juvie Guppies.


10 gallon as it looks right now, kind of looks....boring IMHO lol at least to me. My plan is to cut the water wisteria in halves and then place it in a forest type area in the back left of the tank to create a triangle of wisteria "forest". And then from there I haven't decided yet lol. My Corymbosa Hygrophila is just recovering from it's algae black out and melting so I can't wait for that to grow. It seems to be a medium-slow grower which I find weird since Wisteria is such a fast grower, I thought all Hygrophila's were fast-medium growers. Perhaps it's just from the algae since one of the stems has grown 4-5 leaves in just a week lol


And the 5.5, doubled divider since it doesn't go far past the water line because I have to keep it up for the stupid heater. So hopefully they don't want to jump over it or if they do, they get caught in the middle until I get home :-/


Aero is not amused either



The Ramshorn noming the cucumber lol


And more snail eggs! These are in Charlie's 5.5, I believe they're just Pond Snail egg's, yeah?


And Charlie, my Christmas colored Betta! I love his deep burgundy and teal/turquoise colors. Although the turquoise technically is a nice deep blue when he's in proper lighting. His lights tend to wash him out more in the pictures than he actually looks.


----------



## Elsewhere

I love how Charlie's colours have changed! He looks so great!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Elsewhere! So, are you not going to school today? lol Oh wait...time change, it's only like 8 where you are, right?

Day I brought him home:


Coloring up


And a little more


And BOOM! three day's later he's changed


His head was still filling in though


And finally filled in more


And then just last night


----------



## Elsewhere

No, it's like 11:30, we have the same time zone XD Just not going to school, it's the last day and I have nothing going on. He's had such a transformation!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh I'm a derp, I thought you were more in the western part XD 

Yeah! He did change quite a bit and I kind of hope he just keeps changing, it will be so fascinating to watch! I do like his colors now and happy that he's more reddish rather than black, I love all the colors but the deep red is just much more interesting :-D


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## Elsewhere

Haha, nope, I'm in Ontario XD Oooh, red would be really cool on him!


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## lilnaugrim

He is red lol, it's just a deep red. I wonder if his face will fully fill in with color too. It's looking more orangey rather than flesh toned like when I first got him so there's a possibility I guess!

Oh that's right, you weren't far from Catw0man, right right right. Wow I forget things waaay too easily lol >.<


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## Elsewhere

I'm just blind LOL. I thought he was brown-y-greenish XD Shows what I know!

Yep, she's an hour or so away from me


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## lilnaugrim

Well he could technically be called brown but I see it as more of a burgundy color since it's more on the red side. But being an Art Major and all around Color Theorist, I see colors different and am more picky when it comes down to it. So yes, he is green but I think that might just be the lights because when he's in a more shaded area of the tank he's actually like a steel blue, it's rather interesting but hard to get on camera because he likes the camera and so thus is always in the light XD lol


----------



## Elsewhere

...I don't draw LOL All I know is red, dark red, light red and burgundy XD My friends are artsy fartsy, but not me haha! He's gorgeous nonetheless!


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## lilnaugrim

lol, that's okay! I don't mind ^^ But I totally agree, he's absolutely beautiful and I'm so thankful I picked him up when I did! 

Did like an 76% water change on the 10 today lol only because I did three separate small water changes to get all the darn guppy poop out! I swear these guy's....ugg they poop sooo much! It's the only thing I hate about ALL livebearers >.> But I did my Aquascape and I realized that I have a...ahem, poop ton of Java Fern in that tank! I didn't realize just how much I had!!!! Literally, it's like 10 pieces of regular Tropica with 4-5 of them being pretty large and then two very large pieces of Windlov along with a small Anubias too. I still have more to do with the grass since I want to separate it out and get it to grow better since I know I can  But so far so good! I'll have pictures up soon!

I also have a bunch of things to sell, almost all of it is brand new, never been opened or they're like air pumps and things that have not gone into the tank. There are a few things that have been in my tanks but not since January-February so a loooong time!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I have a crazy amount of GSA on Remmy's tank right now and if I recall correctly, nothing eats that either :-/ Also remember that filmy spot that used to be on Remmy's head? It's sort of receeded now and just looks like little scars...interesting! Perhaps the sunlight does help! I know it won't do anything internally but it puts me at peace for externally.


And the 10 gallon's new scape!




Look at this crazy amount of Java Fern!!!!!


----------



## PetMania

Cool! What fish are in the 10gal?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just Kit-Kat, four male guppies (three are siblings) and four Oto's who are rather large and I'm rethinking the Oto's species in Remmy's tank since they are incredibly tiny! They are literally half their size from the 10 gallon Oto's....it's so weird! But they both look like Vittatus.....not really sure....

Oh! And I was able to finally sex my two Mystery snails, both are girls lol I don't know if I'll actually name them or not, not really into naming inverts just singular fish normally.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Everyone seems to love the 10's new rescape, Kit-Kat was busy playing through the water wisteria and the Oto's were playing tag this morning while the guppies picked at the Java Ferns. Gave the oto's another cucumber slice except this time not blanched, I think they like the crunchier ones better, I know my pleco did before. I have to take the other cucumber out of Charlie's tank but the snails were still munching on it lol but I don't want it to get too nasty in there!

Guppy fry feasted upon frozen daphnia once more, they seriously go nuts for that stuff! As do the adult girls, the boy's and Kit-Kat didn't seem to care much at all >.> but I think I will try to feed them daphnia at least once a day for dinner for the fry, not adults so they grow up nice and strong :-D they like the flakes but they seriously race around attacking the daphnia, it's the cutest thing ever! I should take a video of it tonight lol

The guppy fry still seem to be all girls, haven't found a boy in the bunch yet which is sort of depressing. But these aren't the fry that I wanted anyway, these were from the girls already been pre-hit from the store so I expect a bunch of different looking girls. They had some other platinum's along with some sunburst looking ones, multis, snakeskin, cobra, literally all types. Kind of made me mad though that they just kept them all together and didn't sort them out like PetCo and PetSmart does, but oh well.

Aero and Hawkeye seem miserable but who wouldn't in a cycling tank? I've been using Stablity daily to keep the bacteria colony up, but I also have the Bio-Max bag in there that is seeding along with all the plants so I should have more than enough bacteria to have this cycled by next week. Stability will be used up until Saturday when it's dose is done.

Oh oh oh! I also finally made my own filter media! I had some filter pad that I bought like a long time ago that I wanted to use to make my own filter media, so I finally was able to sew two together and put Carbon in it to make my own bags. I stuffed one in the 10 because that filter media has been in there since like....I want to say April? Yeah, it's had it's time for sure! So once that new bag hopefully get's seeded in two weeks I can switch them out to throw that away. I also made one for the 33 for the Tetra Whisper EX45. I just threw out the old sponge and in with the new bag once it was rinsed since I have the two filters, there's more than enough bacteria to sustain it. I also just used some Stability in there to keep them strong ^_^ I'm a happy fish keeper.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh geez....this is why I don't associate much with my father's side extended family over in Pennsylvania, actually this one lives in Texas >.< They are usually dumb as all heck and freeloaders to the max....one of my "cousins" screwed my mom over pretty bad with rent that he was supposed to pay her when he stayed with us for his college here. But one of the people put up this "rant" on FB and I laughed, at least one of her kids was smart enough to retort:

"Ok. rant #2......On the "color of Santa. He can be whatever color is envisioned. He is a visible symbol of the CHRISTIAN Holy day commorating not only the birth of the Christ child, but the spirit of giving, traditions, compassion, and peace. Deal with it!"

Thankfully Aaron her son I believe posted this:

"No he isnt! Hes based on an actual person that brought toys to children in neighboring villeges hundreds of years ago! He has nothing to do with god! . . . Your point is invalid!"

And I continued on with the point that the tradition of Santa came well before the actual Saint Nicholas who was indeed Christian and loved to give away presents and gifts but he wasn't the first Santa to come about. Of course there are many other versions as well as Father Christmas, and then some references to Odin even. In Germany, Norway and up there they celebrate the Yuletide and have a figure known as both Jólnir and Langbarðr, meaning Yule Figure and Longbeard respectively. 

Grrr, just irks me when people are stupid and so sensitive to offending other's. Get off your high horse and get over it. Is Canada like this because if it isn't, I'm moving up there >.> 

But the same goes for Jesus, right, he's not the stark white of us European peoples because he's a Nazarene, he's darker skinned like all the people there but he's not black either like African's. Is this so hard to conceptualize??


----------



## lilnaugrim

Kind of surprised no one commented about the whole Santa thing, guess no one cares huh? lol

So came home to find like ten more fry in the tank >.< these girls need to stop pushing out babies! There isn't even a male in the tank lol. I checked the new fry and they seem to all be female as well. Unless the gonopodium grows out as they get older, they all have rounded anal fins!

Guppy fry!



Some of the new ones are blue-ish!




And I have one very Purple fry! I can pick her out anywhere lol, the rest are more blue/white-ish while the older ones are yellow/black variations


Two of the mama's. There is a third but she's much more shy, she's also bigger and fatter, I expect her fry by Monday or so. I think the more clear one on the right here is the one that gave birth. The other has been slim for quite a while now.


Four Oto's swimming!


The older male on the left which is who I bought the females with. I was so mad because he got older and added yellow to his colors >.> I want full black guppies with electric blue tails or splotches, not too picky about the pattern but I definitely don't want yellow or orange in them. The younger one on the right is from a breeder I bought from, he gave me three females and three males. The females look exactly like their mother, half black with blue tails! But the males are all sorts of mixed up. Two are more Endler colored while this one is like the older boy here but with orange and other blue >.> soooo I won't be using them for breeding either.


These guys are so hard to get pictures of, even when eating >.< this boy is the one Hawkeye took a chunk from. You can't see it here but his tail is already healing up well!


New leaf on the Anubias!


Ramshorn! I'm really happy with how healthy his shell is becoming!


Charlie today!


Remmy's snail



OMNOMNOMNOM!


And the Oto's are still in Remmy's tank but they just chill out all day >.> I think Remmy has been harassing them....sigh..


----------



## PetMania

Sorry about not responding to the Santa thing...last time I responded to something like that, I got reprimanded. 

Anyways, I LOVE the colors on the mama guppies! Will you be selling some babies on BF? 'Cause I might want some ;-)


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## Elsewhere

Everyone looks great! And the females will probably just keep popping them out XD

I agree with you on the Santa thing- I hate it when people turn it into a big religious thing about him. Christmas has become much more than a Christian holiday, and I always felt that Santa was a whole other situation than the celebration of Christ. At this point in my life, all I really care about with Christmas is seeing my family. And I agree with the Jesus thing- I'm always like "dude, he would be tan skinned, not white!" I'm an Atheist, so I don't really do religious stuff at Christmas or anytime, but I've watched numerous documentaries on both the Bible and world history throughout my life and I always wondered why he was portrayed as white skinned. And people always make a huge deal about how he was crucified, but the Romans crucified thousands of people, Jesus is just the only one people remembered.

Gah, sorry, I'll stop ranting; I hate getting into that stuff. Usually backfires and starts arguments.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh I don't really care. I thought it was funny really, but my relatives are just pain ignorant and stupid most of the time, I would say sometime but I'd be lying. She just put up another status saying "I know about St. Nicholas, I was talking about SANTA CLAUS!" and someone commented below "some people just get so uptight about things" and I commented back: "All the same, Santa Claus originated from European countries so therefore he's white." and just left it lol. It's like trying to say that Befana, the Italian version of Santa ISN'T Italian....that makes no sense! lol

Anyway, yeah! If any of the fry actually like like her, sure! These fry are just from the girl's being pre-hit so it's going to be a grab bag of fry but I'll definitely let anyone here have them!


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## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> Everyone looks great! And the females will probably just keep popping them out XD
> 
> I agree with you on the Santa thing- I hate it when people turn it into a big religious thing about him. Christmas has become much more than a Christian holiday, and I always felt that Santa was a whole other situation than the celebration of Christ. At this point in my life, all I really care about with Christmas is seeing my family. And I agree with the Jesus thing- I'm always like "dude, he would be tan skinned, not white!" I'm an Atheist, so I don't really do religious stuff at Christmas or anytime, but I've watched numerous documentaries on both the Bible and world history throughout my life and I always wondered why he was portrayed as white skinned. And people always make a huge deal about how he was crucified, but the Romans crucified thousands of people, Jesus is just the only one people remembered.
> 
> Gah, sorry, I'll stop ranting; I hate getting into that stuff. Usually backfires and starts arguments.


I totally don't mind! I agree as well. The only reason it was turned to be more associated with Christianity is because of Saint Nicholas, that's literally it.

As for Jesus, I think it's mostly because Christianity is made up of _mostly_ white people/caucasians but I know there's still a vast amount of non white people as well, but we tend to dominate things no matter which way you look at it. So the more white people dominate (as they have for a looooong time) the more we turn images around and make them more relatable to 'us' if that makes sense.


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## Elsewhere

Yeah, I agree on the Christianity thing. We're partly German in my family, so I like to tell my friends about the "German Santa Claus" that's like Santa's horrible brother. He eats the bad kids before Christmas. Ah, German legends! Gotta love 'em!

Again, I agree. It was mostly the Europeans that did all that jazz (sorry if I seem sloppy, I took a cold pill and am all over the place XD) so we've just mimicked him to be in our image over the years. A documentary show you might like is "Man Kind: The History of all of us" OR "Man Kind: The History of us all" Can't remember which one was the title. It caused a complete uproar, because they claimed (through scientific fact) that humans originated in Africa. People DID NOT like that, haha. It was still a really great show, though, and discusses a lot of religious factors and how they began.


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh I don't really care. I thought it was funny really, but my relatives are just pain ignorant and stupid most of the time, I would say sometime but I'd be lying. She just put up another status saying "I know about St. Nicholas, I was talking about SANTA CLAUS!" and someone commented below "some people just get so uptight about things" and I commented back: "All the same, Santa Claus originated from European countries so therefore he's white." and just left it lol. It's like trying to say that Befana, the Italian version of Santa ISN'T Italian....that makes no sense! lol
> 
> Anyway, yeah! If any of the fry actually like like her, sure! These fry are just from the girl's being pre-hit so it's going to be a grab bag of fry but I'll definitely let anyone here have them!


My family can have their stupid moments as well, lol. 

I don't know why people have to go into the little details. 

True, my platy is pregnant from the store (she is a rainbow platy), and she could have fry that are all white or orange.


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## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> Yeah, I agree on the Christianity thing. We're partly German in my family, so I like to tell my friends about the "German Santa Claus" that's like Santa's horrible brother. He eats the bad kids before Christmas. Ah, German legends! Gotta love 'em!
> 
> Again, I agree. It was mostly the Europeans that did all that jazz (sorry if I seem sloppy, I took a cold pill and am all over the place XD) so we've just mimicked him to be in our image over the years. A documentary show you might like is "Man Kind: The History of all of us" OR "Man Kind: The History of us all" Can't remember which one was the title. It caused a complete uproar, because they claimed (through scientific fact) that humans originated in Africa. People DID NOT like that, haha. It was still a really great show, though, and discusses a lot of religious factors and how they began.


Human's DO originate from Africa lol It's all in the genealogy! My dad had done a lot with our genealogy and we come from a line that came from Scotland but instead of coming from the Netherlands where most Scots come from, our line came around Europe and through the Mediteranian and from Africa lol 

And you gave me two of the same titles for that documentary XD lol I'll see if I can find it though, it does sound interesting! I'm all for the little details and history of things!


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## Elsewhere

AHA! SEE! I WAS RIGHT! People just get really mad when I try and explain it XD I don't even try with our genealogy- there's too many people in my family.

Wh- no! Look! Look closely! Slightly different titles! See, not as crazy as I thought I was!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh....lol I see it now XD I'm not good at looking for subtle differences XD lol


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## Elsewhere

Me neither XD Man, we are super on topic! Fish and whatnot. Oh, bubbles! Bettas! Yes! I shouldn't have taken meds. At least my throat isn't on fire.


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## PetMania

I feel like I took a lot of meds. I had a LOT of candy canes today... and I feel really funny. Sugar rush! Now I am waiting for the crash, lol.


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## lilnaugrim

lmao! eh, topic or on topic, I don't really care much. I feel like journals are good places to chitchat about anything really as long as the OP doesn't mind and I certainly don't!

Well Remmy's Mystery snail is still noming on algae although she's sitting at the top of the waterline at some bubbles. Her top part of her foot isn't on the wall, looks like she's grabbing the bubbles but not doing anything with them....is that normal?

Also I never got an answer to my Ramshorn burying himself....I mean, he came back out but that was kind of weird.


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## Elsewhere

Haha, good to hear that OP approves!

Mysteries will try and grab anything they can. When small enough, they can actually walk across the waterline. Mine once tried to climb a bubblenest- not a good choice, haha! Almost cracked her shell, the little stinker.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah I've seen my pond snails do that! the first time I saw it, I was seriously mesmerized and was like 'what the heck is it doing? It's a Jesus snail!!!" lmao

Okay, so she is actually eating the bubbles XD They have algae on them so I guess she's pretty hungry. Also my Oto just freaked out for no apparent reason....


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## Elsewhere

OH MY GOD I CALL THEM JESUS SNAILS TOO. This is beautiful XD

Ah, that would explain it too! Snails are so weird and fascinating! Otos are weird too. Mine leave Sunday to a good home with lots of algae, so I'll miss their crazy antics!


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## lilnaugrim

AH! That's totally awesome!! lmao it's so true too! holy mackerel XD

Okay one Oto is out and chilling at the corner but he's breathing fast and the tail is slightly closed. I can see they aren't comfortable but there's nothing I can do until the plants grow again. There are no other tanks I have that have enough algae or plants to cover them and I'm not sure how they would take being put in the 10 with the larger Oto's. I'm sure they'd be fine but...I just don't know! If I do, I would then move Charlie's Mystery into Remmy's tank as well since they are both girls.


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## Elsewhere

Only the holiest of mackerels for the majestic Jesus Snail XD

I don't know what to tell you, I've never had that dilemma :/ Are there more than one in the tank, or is it alone? If it's alone, that might be problem, since they need buddies to chill with.


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## lilnaugrim

Nah, there are three in there. They all huddle together under the filter while Remmy chills on the heater to sleep since his plants aren't tall enough to sleep on any more...whoops, sorry bud >.<

They are so tiny though, like they're only an inch, maybe a little bit over. The other oto's in the 10 are well 2 inches each.


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## Elsewhere

Oh, well that's odd then. I really have no idea what to suggest for you about his spazziness.


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## lilnaugrim

Me neither. They hide all day long and I just figured because they like to come out more at the night time or there just isn't enough plant coverage for them now but they were like that before. Two of them are on the other side of the filter intake now so I can see them but they aren't doing much as far as cleaning >.> Although I know they don't like GSA much, at least I'm pretty sure. Oh one is sucking! Yay, that's an improvement. Their bellies are pretty full looking so they have been eating, just not when I'm looking apparently.

Omgosh, Remmy just kicked the leaf that was in his heater spot out of his way so he could properly lay there XD omg this fish is going to be the death of me lol he's so damn adorable!


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## Elsewhere

Oh that's good! They tend to be evil and not do much when you look, but under the cover of darkness they clean like nuts XD

Remmy is too adorable. You should have a late night photoshoot!


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## lilnaugrim

I don't think my camera will cooperate with only a little light since he's in the darkness, poor guy, I'm cutting into his sleeping hours the longer I stay awake lol. Oh well!

Mystery is still eating algae bubbles! lol reminds me of Finding Nemo. 

And I totally rock, I just made him a Betta hammock out of a "English Ivy" fake leaf, twisty tie and suction cup! Pictures to come


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## Elsewhere

Pfft, who needs sleep!

LOL, yes, BUBBLES! I love yellow tangs, SO PRETTY.

Yes, you do rock. I have no creativity, so I don't make my Bettas things XP


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## lilnaugrim

well I'm artsy fartsy, remember? lol Of course now he's ignoring it and sleeping back on the heater >.>


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## lilnaugrim

"Ooh! Look, a leaf!"


"Meh...I don't know about this position..."


"You're so considerate ma! Right next to my heater!"


"This?"


"Yes, this I like!"


Oh...her eyes look like they're glowing...that's weird.


Jesus snail!!!!




She didn't get far off but she keeps trying and falling, good thing there is nice soft grass for her to land on. Oooooh! Remmy is in the leaf now!!! yay!!! That makes me feel good ^_^


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## Elsewhere

Yes, you ARE artsy fartsy! I do clay things, though, like these:

http://hkr1.deviantart.com/art/Auntie-Kim-s-Penguin-345382133
http://hkr1.deviantart.com/art/Judi-s-British-Guard-336469251
http://hkr1.deviantart.com/art/Hamster-Clay-323193389
http://hkr1.deviantart.com/art/Close-Up-Finished-Martha-Finds-Out-Johnny-s-Missin-301996587
http://hkr1.deviantart.com/art/Rosalie-With-David-s-Kitten-s-Finished-301996064

Ah, sorry, I got carried away XDXDXD I need sleep!


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## Elsewhere

Great pics! Love them! The snail is priceless XD


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## lilnaugrim

I love your clay stuff!! I don't work well with 3D objects or at least I haven't learned to so that's one up on me lol. I just like the 2D stuff :-D


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## Elsewhere

Thanks! I made a dragon out of wet clay, and it was awesome, and then the horns fell off. I fixed it, painted it, the paint peeled off and the horns fell off AGAIN. It now sits in the corner of shame XD

I suck at 2D. I can only draw when I use those Internet instruction things XP


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## lilnaugrim

Awww poor dragon!!!

Ah yeah, tutorials? I use them too honestly, it's how you learn! It's like having a master artist teach you in an intern without you paying for it or anything lol WIN! anywho I'm off to bed soon!


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## Elsewhere

That was so accurate it hurts. No, don't go to sleep! Stay up all night and talk about fish and other stuff!


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## lilnaugrim

lmao, oh nice new avvie! ;-) I wish I could stay up all night but I'm a working girl and I don't get much sleep often so I really should get more sleep today to make up for it >.< although I know I'll probably just get up around 7 or so which is my normal time >.< sigh....!


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## Elsewhere

Ha, thanks! I had the 30g, but then I saw the snail and I decided to use that one instead. Needed a change LOL Ah yes, I understand, but I don't have to get up, so I'll be googling shtuff for a while yet


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## lilnaugrim

Yep! I love googling things in my spare time XD especially fishy things! my dad say's I'm obsessed....naaawwww! haha


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## Elsewhere

Heehee, so am I, it's okay! We can be obsessed together! I'm mostly looking up caring for fantails and RCS, so I'm being a responsible owner, is all! I have horror movies playing right now, and I'm not really watching them, so the sounds are just great XD


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## lilnaugrim

lol I never really watched horror movies, still don't. I think the only classic one I've seen was Hellriser or something like that. We watched it two Halloween's ago at a friends house after we went to Wal-Mart to get some candy/chocolate lol.


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## Elsewhere

Hellraiser. Good movie! I haven't seen it in forever, though.


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## lilnaugrim

Oooh you were comment number 1200! coolio! Okay this time for reals I'm going to bed. Night night!!!!


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## Elsewhere

Night, Lil! And congrats to me! Woohoo!


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## BettaLover1313

Remmy looks very happy with his new leaf hammock and your snail is awesome!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313!!

I'm so mad at myself right now and at Charlie the blithering idiot! First mistake was to put two fish in a cycling tank, I know better than that but I wanted to give the Oto's more room so I figured with all the plants in the 5.5 it would be okay! WRONG apparently! Hawkeye is suffering so much right now and I feel absolutely terrible. I knew better than this and I should have listened to myself on Wednesday to take it out. 

I have a feeling my SeaChem Stability is probably a dead bottle bit even if it was, I have the bio-max bag which is seeded material along with the plants!!! I shouldn't be reading ammonia like this!!! Yesterday it was up at .5ppm and I haven't checked today, busy running around with my dad getting new tires and such. But Hawkeye was on his side breathing heavily and that's when I decided that I should just throw the two of them into Charlie's tank. I got my three divider's (doubled up on Aero/Hawkeye's side because Aero normally likes to bite through the divider) but I should have doubled up on Charlie/Aero.

Charlie freaking jumped the divider, or he muscled his way over, I'm not entirely sure. Aero isn't too badly beat up but he's got a big chunk of his tail missing along with parts of his anal fin. I feel so bad for him the poor boy was thrown into a cycling tank and then thrown in with a Half Giant, yeah, great idea lilnaugrim!

So instead of taking them out to further stress them, I took Charlie out and since I don't have any spare heater's at the moment I did the next best thing I could do. I took one of my 1 gallons and filled it in the 33 and it's floating currently, acclimated Charlie quickly and threw him in. He seems to like it actually being able to see the guppies but I'm still pretty mad at him. Sure I know it's their nature and all but seriously, beating on a sick fish? you suck lol.

I just feel like a failed fish owner, I know I'm not but seriously what the heck is going on with that 5.5?? I have plenty of plants to suffice eating up the ammonia, I have Anacharis AND water wisteria, they alone should eat up all the ammonia but apparently not. I'm just so....so--grrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'm going to go off and aggressively eat my salad while I pray that Hawkeye makes it through the night. He's currently sitting in a cup floating in the 5.5 so he can get to the air better. Lights are off for now....sigh...


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## Elsewhere

Don't fish suck?  I'm hoping Aero gets better, poor little dude! And Charlie needs a time out! Don't take your anger out on your salad, it doesn't deserve it! No? Not a time for bad jokes? Okay.

Feel better Lil, hopefully Aero will be just fine :/


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## lilnaugrim

Ahaha, that did make me laugh actually, thanks. I don't stay mad for long really, I'm more mad at the fact that those stupid plants aren't soaking up all the ammonia or at least most of it! Even with just two fish, they don't produce enough ammonia for it to be like this! what the heck gives??? >.> grrrr

I just looked over and Hawkeye is sitting upright in his cup now so I take that as a good sign. I'll have to go over and check on Aero later as well, I think those were the only wounds he sustained, otherwise he looked fine. I think if I hadn't gone over to the tank at that point, Charlie would have mutilated him more. Charlie swam right up to me and was like "Look ma! Look what I did!" and then I screamed at him lol


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## Elsewhere

Yeah, it's weird. Are there any Otos in the 5.5? If there are, they'd cause a crap ton of ammonia. Or even snails do. They poop like cray-cray. Yes, I just typed cray-cray.

Bettas are proud of everything they do. When Pigg had the Glowlights in his tank, he murdered them all and was like "Are you proud mummy?" and I was like NO YOUNG MAN YOU GO TO YOUR BETTA LOG.


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## lilnaugrim

Nope, this was the new 5.5 I was setting up specifically for Aero and then decided that it was going to house Hawkeye too. It's been set up officially a week now and I know it's cycling of course but the fact that it was two BETTAS, plants, a bio-max seeded bag and the correct dosages of Stability daily makes me furious that there is still so much ammonia. I have the male guppy in there right now to continue the cycle, at this point I don't care if he lives or dies. He'll probably be fine but my Betta's come first.

Okay just checked and Aero was swimming around, he looks tired but who wouldn't be? Added some Vita-Chem to everyone's water to help them along. Hawkeye's breathing is more shallow, at least he doesn't look like he's on his deathbed!

Oto's are munching on a veggie wafer in the 10, little boy guppies in there are trying to eat the vita-Chem cloud lol Remmy is staring at me wondering why I'm not feeding him and trying to tell me to get rid of the filter.

Guppy girls are rejoicing with some food, Charlie is mad I'm not giving him any yet and the fry are absolutely adorable. I want to name that Purple fry something cute, I was thinking something like Lila would be cute (Ly-luh), probably something flowery since she's purple lol


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## Elsewhere

Glad to hear he's calmed a little. I don't have an answer about the ammonia, though- that's just weird.

Oooh, you could name her Violet or Violette (Vee-O-lay) or Lily


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## lilnaugrim

Violet is cute too, I'll have to see what sticks. For some reason I want to call her Maria or something but I don't even like that name so I'll be disregarding my feelings lol.

THIS FISH IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME!! Remember when I said Remmy was gonna be the death of me? yeah I was wrong. Charlie jumped out of his friggin 1 gallon and into the 33. Fine, if there are still diseases in there let him contract them! See if I care then!

He's not touching the girls so I'm just like forget it, he's gonna stay there for now. If he eats the fry (mostly what I was concerned about) well....oh well. Not like I don't have enough anyway. But I swear, if he lays one bite on either of my three small girls or my three big girls or the three random diamond tetra's I have in there (don't ask), I WILL put him back in the 1 gallon without a heater on the floor and maybe punt him for good measure >.> SRSLY THIS FISH.


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## Elsewhere

Ahahaha! I mean, oh, sadness, bad Charlie! At least he has spunk! Hopefully he leaves everyone alone, the little meaner!


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## lilnaugrim

lol. He is following some of the girls and tetras around but he's not doing any serious chasing yet. I think he's too preoccupied finding what's good in the tank lol Hopefully it will stay that way, little bugger!

Now hopefully he doesn't jump out of the tank either >.>


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## Elsewhere

Oi, didn't think of that >.< Hopefully he keeps his adorable butt in place!


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## lilnaugrim

I hope so too! This stupid tank doesn't have a hood obviously because of it's lame shape >.> I do have a glass strip that was used with the light strip I had but obviously it doesn't cover everything. I'll put that in place tonight and pray to God he doesn't jump into the breeder net and kill my babies! The baby babies, including little purple fry, I think I will call her Lila, seems to suit her and it's easier to say IMHO lol, are in the livebearer breeder box thing and it's got a lid so he can't get at those! :-D


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## Elsewhere

Yay, Lila! Super cute! Charlie! I am speaking to you! Stay away! Stay awaaaaaaaaaaaay! XD Hopefully he heard me! I always wonder how things that are incredibly adorable are usually vicious.


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## PetMania

Oh, don't even start me on tank jumpers. Jerome (my weather loach) is an Olympic Medalist. Geez! I'll feed you your shrimp pellets, so calm down. I just can't wait until he turns into a 10 inch monster :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

lol, it's so true! Like that awesome peacock mantis shrimp and good god it sounds like my "grandfather" is dying in the other room >.> he's like coughing up a lung and it's gross as all heck, it's because he eats too fast and then chokes on it. He'll be fine but it sounds absolutely gross, I feel like vomiting myself! >.< no good, no good!

Aero is swimming around more, yay! Hawkeye is still chilling but he's still alive thankfully. Charlie is terrorizing one of the guppies already but then he just goes off to do his thing and then comes back. He doesn't chase but he follows menacingly like a shark :evil:


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## Elsewhere

Yay for Aero! Glad that he's doing a little better! Mean nasty Charles!


----------



## lilnaugrim

OMG, he's seriously only going after one guppy, or just following and then the guppy's sister (the one I got a pretty pic of) is just following nonchalantly lmao. I fear for them but this is kind of funny too.


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## Elsewhere

Charlie- murderer AND comedian!


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## lilnaugrim

Seriously! I mean, he doesn't look to be harming them, he looks like he's curious but also trying to claim the entire tank as his territory. Not really sure what to think about him. He looks like he's going to ram them but then stops an inch or two from them and just stares. I know that as him trying to threaten them/push them away but then he just stares at them lol


----------



## PetMania

He needs a chill pill, dear god.


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## Elsewhere

I don't know if I'd trust him with them, but hey, whatever works out XD


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## lilnaugrim

I don't trust him but there's like literally nothing else I can do, I don't want him in the cycling 5.5 and I fear that if I divide the 10 again he'll jump over and get at Kit-Kat. There are no nips yet to be had though. I mean, he could sit in the 1 gallon cold for a week or so while the 5.5 finishes cycling but I'd rather him stay warm and I don't have to care for another small tank, done with small tanks.


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## Elsewhere

Could you put a lid on the 1g???


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah but it's super awkward if I do, and I'm afraid that if it goes under by some paranormal disturbance, he'll get stuck and won't be able to reach the surface to breathe. I can try some mesh though and just pin it between the tank and the cross bar thingy on the 33.

EDIT: oh and I've been playing a game called Fishdom 3, super addicting but the little fish are absolutely adorbs, I can't get over it! I bought the full version (only 6 dollars) and the graphics are like 10 million times better. But if you don't hear from me for a while, that's probs what I'm doing lol


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## Elsewhere

Ah yes, sinking lids are NOT fun! And I shall look up Fishdom 3!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, he's in now with the craft mesh. There is a spot he could jump out of if he really really really wanted to but I don't think he will, but then again I've doubted him before >.> when I looked back up at him I saw a guppy girl behind him and I almost thought that she was in the tank with him and I was like HOW?!?!?! and then I realized she was just behind him lol


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## Elsewhere

LOL, I'm hoping he's on the not so smart side and decides NOT to jump out of the mesh XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, i'm hoping so as well. I mean, he shouldn't but there's always a chance, especially with him as I'm finding out >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, he tried to escape once but I think he's since settled down in his little 1 gallon floating.

Oh and the thing I love about this game is that they actually have real things like they have plants; Bacopa Carolina, Corkscrew Valisneria, it's amazing! I'm super happy with it, although I swear I'm going to get Tennis Elbow and Carpal Tunnel from playing it >.<


----------



## Elsewhere

Yay for trapped Charlie's! Ooooh, I need to find that game now!


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's a puzzle game as well so if you don't like puzzles, it's basically like Bejeweled or I think Candy Crush Saga as well, but if you don't like puzzles then you won't like it. The full version is so much better but I feel like it's a lot harder too lol it's still fun. And omg the fish are friggin adorable! I have two tanks right now so I switch back and forth. This is what happened when I switched from my second (2 fish) to my first tank (5 fish):

"Is it true that our tank is the most special? You keep coming back to us!" Gil the Angel said to me lol. And then when I went to leave the game:

"But who's going to feed us while you're away??"
"I feel like I'm already getting hungry :-("

They are the cutest things ever!!


----------



## Elsewhere

LOL, I'm googling it now!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Glad that you got Charlie confined, and I hope Hawkeye and Aero start to feel better! 

That game sounds like fun!


----------



## Lucillia

I enjoy this fish game more than I should..... WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!??!


----------



## lilnaugrim

LMAO! Seriously! I'm addicted!

Okay so I went home last night to feed the babies before they don't get fed until Wednesday night, maybe tonight I'll pop in since I forgot to buy the gift I meant to get for my mom's bf. I'm super excited for Christmas and all the gifts I got my parents and little bro! Although I was so in denial with my little brother because I got him a Minecraft shirt and they were out of Large which I was pretty sure he was, so I picked up the Medium and was like...hmm he could fit into it! I was so wrong.....looking at him again I'm like...doood why you have like chest muscles and stuff?? You're not little any more?? What happened?:? lmao so I wish I had gotten him an XL but me being in denial about him yeah....didn't work so well. So I'm hoping that I can exchange it for an XL after Christmas and give it to him then. 

Anyway, so I went home last night to find that Charlie has made a rather large bubble nest in his 1 gallon and he was flirting with the guppies and they were flirting back :shock: I was just like...you silly fish! I wish I had my camera with me! But Aero is much happier now and I already see new growth on his tail! yay! Hawkeye is still weak but he was able to swim around more since i let him out of his cup yesterday morning before I left. 

I have crazy fish for sure!

But guppies were happy, Lila was so cute and her little purple self! Everyone looked pretty happy, especially all three cats on my bed XD and then Siberian went to sit in a box, he was veeeery happy with that. I think for Christmas I should get my cat's boxes lol

So I got my dad a 70 dollar bottle of Glen Livet, it's a wonderful scotch whisky that he loves, aged 16 years. I wanted to get him the 18 year one but it was 99.99 and I was like....eeeehhhh nope! And then I got my mom two sets of icicle lights, they're like real icicles and the lights light up in like a drip motion downward, so cool! We saw them yesterday while mom and I were out shopping and she was like "oh god! So expensive!" so she quickly put them back, I made a mental note ;-) They were 30 dollars and only 5 icicles in them but also had other LED lights attached too so it was a 9 foot strand I think so I got her two of them and a candle because she likes candles ^_^ I'm also attempting to finish a painting for her since she's under the impression she's not getting it until after Christmas, I really hope I can finish it today! I have 8 hours of work time plus tomorrow if I need to so hopefully I can do it if I'm not interrupted to much today at work lol


----------



## PetMania

Minecraft! Sorry, I just love playing that. 

Wow, your fish have extremely interesting personalities.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they seriously do!!

Oh, I forgot to say that that guppy died :-/ I woke up and he was gone. I didn't think it was going to kill him!! :-( now I just feel really bad. I'm just gonna let the tank do it's think and throw some fish food in there for it's ammonia source. because I'm just like....what the heck is going on?? >.< I will check ammonia today when I stop by to feed the fishes since I don't want the babies to starve!


----------



## ao

What happened with the guppies? trying to backread but failing XD


Sent from Petguide.com App


----------



## PetMania

Sorry about the guppy :/ 


How many fry do you have currently? Are your females pregnant again?


----------



## lilnaugrim

aokashi said:


> What happened with the guppies? trying to backread but failing XD
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App


It was just one male. I have my new-ish 5.5 cycling and I had it heavily planted, bio-max bag for seeded material and was using SeaChem Stability to cycle the tank with one Betta in it; Aero. Then I decided that I needed to move Hawkeye so that the four oto's could have the entire 10 to eat algae in. So Hawkeye went in with Aero and I figured it wouldn't effect them or the cycle much since they don't create that much ammonia.

I think the bottled bacteria I was using was bad and with that it just added more ammonia to my tank thus making too much ammonia. Hawkeye ended up with ammonia poisoning and Aero wasn't doing much better so I moved the two of them over to Charlie's 5.5g. I split it in half and then a half in half so the smaller halves were for Aero/Hawkeye since they weren't moving much and since Charlie's a half giant, he needed more room. Anywho, Charlie ended up jumping the barrier to take a big chunk out of Aero's tail so I kind of freaked and threw (after acclimation of course) into the 33 in a 1 gallon floating. He jumped out and started to follow the girls around, curious. I was finally able to keep him in the 1 gallon with some mesh over the top pinned between the tank and the cross bar thingy on the 33.

So I wanted to keep the cycle going in the 5.5 so I figured I'd just throw in one of my male guppies, turns out apparently I had too much ammonia. I didn't check because I was still in denial that there was that much ammonia in there because the plants were growing and stuff. Guppy was dead by morning.



PetMania said:


> Sorry about the guppy :/
> 
> 
> How many fry do you have currently? Are your females pregnant again?


There are no males in the 33, males are all in the 10 since I didn't want them pregger's again. But one does still have a large dark gravid spot so I don't think she's given birth yet or it's just stored sperm. I know it takes roughly 3 months until they use up all the excess sperm so I'm waiting for that to start my line. I think I'm going to get a Moscow black male to male with the three large girls since that would enhance their black and I want the grassy look of that one female and I really don't want yellow in my lines which the other male had.

And I have roughly 30 fry I think, I haven't tried to count because they're too quick. I do know I have 11 fry in the breeder net, they are the older ones. And then 3 females I got along with 3 males, they are siblings from a ebay breeder which I figured I could introduce new blood with eventually. But all six of them will be sold since two of the males ended up with Endler markings which I definitely do NOT want in my lines lol They are all growing super well though! The males are coloring up fantastically! Females were fat with food today lol


----------



## PetMania

Yeah, guppies, mollies, platys and swordtails can all store sperm for months. Glad to hear that the fry are doing well. It seems you have a good plan going for your breeding operation ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah I know it's all livebearer's, I did my research ;-)

Pictures up soon, just have to sort them first.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aero was not staying still for me at all lol





Hawkeye is thankfully feeling much better! He ate today! So proud of him and his recovery from my stupid mistakes!


Oh and I had come home to find only the rind left of the cucumber in the 10 where the oto's are lol I guess they were hungry. So I put a new one in and two of them were already eating their dinner!


Two of the juvie males. One on the right has a bitten tail from Hawkeye but it's growing back very well!


This one has developed some tiger stripes! he's got two more on his other side! I also love his cute little dorsal fin ^_^


Rembrandt


And his Mystery girl snail


Babies! You can see Lila the blurred guppy up front lol right in front of the dark green java leaf





My Dwarf lily looks amazing right now! 


Selkie tank update! Got her a new 6,700K LED light and it's now on a timer, yay! Also brought over an Anubias for her on some driftwood.




The girl herself, still like a fat harbor seal! 






And Charlie the Mischievous!


I have a video of him uploading at the moment, I'll show you guys in the morning. For now I'm exhausted! After spending most of my day painting this at work for my mom and then wrapping lots of presents, I'm plum tuckered out. Night all. Oh and painting isn't finished yet. That will be a 1931 Model A Ford that my grandpa owns down in that bottom but of course it's not done. Hoping to finish tomorrow for Christmas! She's under the impression she's not getting it for Christmas!


----------



## Huffle Puffles

Holy cow that painting is gorgeous! Hope you post a pic when it is finished too


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Huffle! And I will! I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow but we'll see! Hope I just don't get as many interruptions as I did today was all but I spent a good 6.5 hours painting it! :-D I'm pretty happy with it so far, I seem to paint well under pressure lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

And IT'S FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1


The snowmen are representations of my older brother (Michael), me in the middle and my younger brother (Bobby) on the right there.


Replica of my grandfather's own 1931 Model A Ford! It's beautiful in real life and riding in it is amazing!


The barn entrance. The shape of the barn is also modeled after my grandfather's barn but it's wood color and mom wanted red, so I mixed the two ^_^


And detail of the side here. I like the icicles, another one of my mom's favorite things.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Gorgeous painting!


----------



## Elsewhere

Absolutely beautiful, Lil! She'll love it for sure!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you everyone! My mom absolutely loved it, she's been giving me hugs all day lol

Merry Christmas everyone! Typing this from my new android tablet!!!!!


----------



## Elsewhere

Nice! I too got a tablet! Window's, though


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> Nice! I too got a tablet! Window's, though


Lol I saw! I was like, we got similar things lol. Yeah I wish mine was windows but dad said it was too pricey which I agree, but I'm really happy with what I got. I also got a well wanted sewing machine and case, a doctor who clock, doctor who string lights, a new peacoat, some well needed alcohol lol and some other amazing stuff! I'm so happy with everything.


----------



## Elsewhere

I have no idea about prices, LOL. My mum got it on Black Friday XD I love it! It's great for school stuff, I started my essay today WHILE visiting with family! So much Doctor Who! Lucky duck! Have a great dinner tonight!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I know! I'm so excited with the DW stuff! But yeah, we do Christmas Brunch. We wake up around 7 ish and then open all our presents, then around 8-8:30 we start cooking breakfast. 10 o'clock everyone comes over and we all exchange gifts and eat and be all around merry! It's an awesome tradition!

Oh so I checked my levels in my 5.5 today and results are as follows:
pH: 6.0 or lower
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm

I found it interesting that it had both Ammonia and Nitrate. I feel like there's something wrong here and I can't see it. Anyone got any input of why this might have Nitrate and no Nitrite? Or Ammonia and not Nitrite already. I feel like with all the additives and stuff that I shouldn't be seeing ammonia any more and just should see Nitrite and Nitrate but....idk! Oh and this is the first time I've seen Nitrate readings on my tanks, yay! Usually all my tanks read zero so for a time I thought my test kit was off so I brought some water in to my LFS and they said it all read zero as well so idk! weird stuff.


----------



## Huffle Puffles

The painting really came out gorgeous! I love the addition of the snow-peoples. Great job, really. Happy holidays!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg today sucks. I woke up with some major Post-Nasal drip which caused my throat to be extremely irritated, ears are slightly blocked, nose has been stuffed all day and head aches every time I move too quickly. I'm extremely tired too, took a 20 minute nap at work today and debating on taking another one since I'm just plum tuckered out. I've been crocheting my mom's birthday gift, her birthday is March 27th so I'd better get started now lol. I'm making her a blanket, or attempting to.

So now that I'm mental exhausted from counting fours for the stupid blanket, I'm also physically exhausted from just being sick. Couldn't hold my breakfast down this morning, thank god I was near a bathroom! I almost fell asleep in the stall while trying to make myself feel better. Wasn't sure I was gonna make it either, I debated even sitting on the floor to just wait it out but thankfully I didn't have to. I think I have my meds to blame for the vomiting though since it was the same feeling I get from them if I don't take them with the right foods. My body hates all greasy, chocolaty, fatty, sweet foods right now so I'm sort of stuck. I could eat some bread I guess but I don't feel like I could hold it down honestly. But I'm so hungry :-( I think I'm going to the walk-in clinic later after works gets out.

I think it's a sinus infection but I'm not terribly certain, could just be a really bad bout of Post Nasal Drip as well since I get that pretty bad every year, twice sometimes three times depending on the seasons and how bad the pollen index is and stuff. Of course I haven't been taking my antihistamines for my allergies so that doesn't help either >.<

So needless to say, fish won't be getting much today, fed the babies this morning, all are still alive, yay. I will feed them once more when I get home and then probably pass out until tomorrow since I'm just sooooo tired, Like I can't even write right now. I keep making mistakes and having to go back and fix them >.< grrrr.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Hope you find out what's wrong and feel better soon!


----------



## rosetyler

*New to the betta community world*

check out my tank any and all pionters welcome!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Hope you find out what's wrong and feel better soon!


Thanks! Yeah, we found out it's just a bad cold. I went to bed at 5:30 last night even while my tank lights were on, Siberian crawled under the cover's with me a few times lol he's such a good kitty kat! Got up around 7:30 to make some toast since I was super hungry finally after not eating all day. Ate the toast, had some water and went to bed.

Dad got home at 10, woke me up and I had a slight fever so he gave me some Tylenol and water and I was out like a light until 7 in the morning when my alarm woke me up. I'm now taking Dayquil equivalent store brand and I can definitely feel myself getting better. My throat isn't as sore, nose is clear, head still feels funny and ears are still slightly blocked but it's like in the way back of the ear near throat so there's nothing I can do about it. I'm able to eat and keep it down (although that was the doing of my ADHD meds and what I stupidly had for breakfast). So yeah, much better today. I still feel exhausted though, and I know I will for a while as my body focuses on healing itself. 



rosetyler said:


> check out my tank any and all pionters welcome!


Hi, you can make a new thread by clicking on a subforum on the main page like Betta Care. There will be a button on the left above the lists where you click "+newthread" and you can ask questions to the members and they will answer you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Woooow I'm being so forgetful today! I was waiting for my main FedEx guy to come in, the Express guy but the Ground guy came and we chatted a bit. There's some construction going on in the loading dock this week, they've been making a mini parking lot for the janitor's so that's cool. But the guy was like "oh yeah, thank god I didn't have loads of stuff to bring in today!" since no one can get passed the tractors lol. So I was like "oh yeah, that is good. Oh yeah and it's just a cold, nothing bad," since he almost ran away yesterday when I was like waking up from a nap when he came in.

Anywho, so he left and I was like....hmmm the Express guy usually comes in before the Ground guy does....that's weird. I looked at the log and saw there was a package that came in from FedEx this morning and I was like...that wasn't the Express guy was it?? I can't remember! I think.....oooh yeah, it was! lol And then I was like...oh! I never updated my log and then I came on and was like...oh...yes I did >.< whoops! Silly me! I chalk it up to having a bad cold though lol I just thought it was funny and should share lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

What q crazy past few days! First started with this cold that I think k is actually a sinus infection, I'm exhausted and hopped up on dayquil and nyquil lol so sorry if my posts end up weird, I'm also on my tablet right now And I don't feel like proof reading much.


So after the cold comes Friday night. I figured my older guppy fry were big enough to be out in the tank now...they are a month and a week I think...not totally sure of the exact date but around that time. So they're over quarter inch, almost half so I thought they would be fine. So I let them out and most swam out, the guppy mamas were fine with them but I didn't count on the tetras...I look down to see a fry wriggling out of one of the diamonds mouths!!!!! I feak out and try to get as many babies back into the net as I can. I only could fine five out of eleven soon turned ten with the one being eaten. 

So I couldn't find the rest so I just went to bed figuring if they were gonna get eaten, they were gonna get eaten. Got up and found the rest of the turn so only the one was eaten! But then found that my stupid other live bearer breeder box, the suction cups had fallen which meant the less the. Week olds to two week old fry had gotten out! Major sad face, oh and one of the mamas had my fry last night but I'm pretty sure some of the oldest ones were eaten when they got out since they were younger. I also couldn't find lila but I didn't look forever since my dad was taking us to see the hobbit 2, my second time but this time in 3D, honestly wasn't that much different. But still good nonetheless. 

So I found all the fry I could and put them back and got the three diamonds out which took me almost two full hours....never get diamonds unless you fully mean to keep them. So I knew some fry were still in other so I fished more out when I got home and this morning.

Also after the hobbit movie we went tro my dads recent ex, Katie who we're still great friends with. Well dad had told one of her daughters, katrina, that he would get her cartilage pierced for her bday. I asked if I could get mine done and he said yes! So I now have an awesome cartilage piercing, its just a ring right now but I want to put a regular diamond stud in there once it heals, nothing fancy or gaudy but just a nice stud. It didn't even hurt honestly, well the guy knew what he was doing, he's Ben in business since 82....ten years before I was born so I trusted him lol and he was amazing! Will definitely go back to him if I ever need anything you even though its just about an hour from my house in Connecticut lol.

Any who I'm exhausted so off to bed for me soon. Sorry I didn't post pics this week! Too crazy with all the holidays. Hope everyone is enjoying their breaks and holidays all around!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, so I've got some stuff for sale that I want to offer to you guys first, I am selling it, not giving it away though, sorry. But it's all for cheap and most of it is stuff I haven't used before and won't use, or it hasn't been in my tanks since last January.....so they'll be fine for use.

I have:
$3 each: 3 Tetra airpumps (the kind that comes with the Tetra 3i Whisper) (one of these goes with an actual 3i below)
$5 for a Fusion Air pump (small, same size as Tetra)








$1 Unopened Green TopFin net, I believe 3 inches for net size








$5 TopFin rated 5.5 HOB filter with media, unopened.








$10 Unopened Tetra 3i includes pipe and 1 media, and air pump, no air tubing. Also includes 1 unopened package of 2 medias. (only 10 because it includes the extra media)








$1 Opened package of Wardley Algae Discs, not much has been used, almost still a full package. 








$3 Tetra whisper 10i, no media but has carbon floss








$1 AquaClear 20 basket replacement








$4 for this decoration, it's resin and a little rough, needs some sanding if you want it in with bettas. Otherwise good to go.





















$4 for this decoration, plastic and rough, would not be good with long finned Bettas. It's large too, around 8 inches I believe.














$4 for this heater, works great but the cord is sooooo short. It's only 90 cm's which is 2 feet I believe. So if you have a tank next to an outlet or your power strip is right behind it, it's great. Otherwise, not so much. When I bought it, I didn't realize that the cord was so short. Oh well, lesson learned.
I believe I have two of these, I'll have to look again.














.50 cents opened container of Tetra BettaMin if you're really desperate. Still more than 3/4 of the container left.








$2 for approx. 1 pound of river gravel made by Stoney River. It's what is in Aero's 5.5














.75 cents Unopened TopFin Freeze-Dried Bloodworms.








$8 for this piece of driftwood, makes great tree's and that was the reason I bought it but it was a little too large for my tanks other than the 33 of course, fit in the 10 fine as well but didn't want it there. It's approx. a foot tall. This would have to be shipped in a different box so it isn't damaged. Shipping should only be a few dollars though.





















Shipping can obviously be combined if you want a lot of the stuff. Price will be determined at that time, shipping will be through USPS unless you want something different. All items can be combined except the driftwood. This is a first come first serve. I believe I can also ship to Canada as well if someone needs it.


----------



## MattsBettas

90cm=3 feet. I have two of that same heater, I opened it and was pretty surprised. The price was right though and I have my power bar right beside the jar one of them is in and I still need to figure out where the other one's going. 

How quiet are the air pumps?


----------



## lilnaugrim

lover bar? and yeah, I didn't realize they were so short, otherwise they would have been great and they are great. I am using one in Selkie's little 1.5 tank and that's been great so far, I just don't do well with short cords with the way my room is set up and where the plugs are is all. 

As for the pumps, the Tetra ones aren't really that quiet, they are quieter than some pumps I've heard but not that quiet. The Fusion one is fairly quiet, I'll have to test it again to hear though since it's been almost a year since I've used it lol. But if I remember correctly, that one was quieter than the Tetra ones and didn't vibrate like they did because it had better grippy feet.


----------



## MattsBettas

Power bar! And ok, thanks. Let me know if you think it would be fine in a bedroom and I might be interested.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, that's quite the typo XD I was staring at it trying to figure out if it was really something or if it was a typo lmao. Either way, gave me a laugh there. And sure, I'll test it to see how it is. All my tanks are in my bedroom so I don't normally like sounds, hate hearing filters and stuff so most of my stuff is pretty quiet. 

And I still can't think/type normally so I apologize. This cold thing is seriously kicking my butt!


----------



## Lucillia

I may grab that aqua clear basket. Knowing my luck I'll break one of mine the next time I try to stuff it back into the filters. Oh and maybe blood worms. Since Nicky decided to put mine into the ten gallon and give them a good soak.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol Luci, oh that's right, forgot you had the twenty! We'll have to make another play date ;-) 

Oh and for everyone else I forgot to mention that things won't be shipped till after the holidays of course. With my work schedule for this week I won't be able to get to the post office until Saturday, and then I should be fine for whenever after this week and my boss comes back...yay/sarcasm. I've been enjoying my alone time lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Exhausted and still sick...yaya....just took some Nyquil so I'll be knocked out soon.

Fish are all well, released the older fry properly this time. Diamond's are gone so it's just guppies, oto's and a rainbow goby in there now. The older fry are a month and two weeks old now so they're getting just over half an inch and are growing rapidly! My older, older fry of which I bought are two and a half months I think, or just hitting three months of age are now looking like half grown adults, the three girls are over an inch as well as the three boy's but they're bigger for some reason. 

Oh and Lila the purple fry is gone :-/ I should have taken her out of the tank but I had no good place to put her where she wouldn't get eaten by a Betta or other guppies soooo....oh well....

So my 5.5 is being weird, tested again today and had:
ammonia: .50ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm

I did a water change for the ammonia and tested again an hour and a half later after I had dinner.
Ammonia: less than .25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm

whaaaattt? How did it go from 10ppm UP to 40?? I checked my tap and it's got around 10ppm of Nitrate....I'm so very confused still though since it shouldn't have gone up like that still. Checked my 33 and it registered at around 40ppm so I know I need to do a water change on that soon, like a real one not just topping off every few days lol. But seriously, this 5.5.....I don't know what I'm going to do with it! I just threw in some Tetra SafeStart and have been using fish food as it's ammonia source. I did throw Charlie in there for a few moments with the idea I was going to cycle with him and the TSS but he was breathing too hard, he was active and otherwise acted fine but I didn't want to lose him so I just put him back in the 1 floating in the 33.

I have pictures but as I said I'm exhausted still so I'm going to bed now.

Ooooh forgot to mention I also have some crushed coral for sale as well if anyone wants it, it's a 20 pound bag but I can split it up of course if you only want some. I was using it as a water buffer since my tanks with driftwood were getting too soft for snails and such, I'm also using calcium. But anywho, if anyone wants that, they're welcome to it, not sure what I'll sell it for though.

I also have two Marineland Single Brite LED lights, one is 24-36 inches and the other is 36-40something inches, basically I used the smaller one for my 10 and the larger for my 33. Asking 20 for the small one and 40 for the larger one, both come with their cords, just have to find the one for the small one; it's around somewhere. I also have a smaller LED light set that came with my Tetra Cube 3 gallon, 10 dollars if you want it, comes with the cord. No good for plants but it still works fine.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh yeah, still have to test that airpump.

It's been a busy--well not busy, but just a weird day is all. I forgot to bring any sort of lunch or snacks this morning, still slightly sick but getting better. My cat is sitting on my butt right now, cleaning himself. Yeah I usually lay on my bed on my stomach, not the greatest for my back I know but my cat likes to lay with me or...on me, particularly my butt lol. But anywho, left work early by an hour because literally nothing was happening. Then went to Walmart to see if I could find things and didn't find them but got my long awaited lunch and sat in the parking lot to eat it. I look over since I parked next to one of the little grass median things with a tree and I see a dead, half frozen seagull.....I sat there and looked at it like....whatt? lol did I move my truck since it was still running? Nope, just kept on eating didn't look at it lol. Not that it bothers me but it was just sort of weird lol.

Spent most of my day though watching Eureka, I love that show and since I have Netflix now, I get to watch all five seasons!! woot, woot! Okay, going back to that now....I'll upload those pictures eventually....


----------



## PetMania

Eureka! Man, I loved that show!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah! I used to watch it when my "grandfather" would have it on, of course we'd watch from the kitchen rather than go in with him to watch it so kind of sucked when he changed the channel and we couldn't really say anything about it. Nathan Stark man....oh man, I won't start fangirling on here lol but wooohoo! Love Ed Quinn and of course he's a singer which is right up my alley ;-) haha too bad he's one year less than my dad >.> why does that always happen? Robert Downey Jr., Ed Quinn....all are my parent's age >.<


----------



## PetMania

That's what my mom said! That Robert Downey Jr. could be my dad, lol. Hey, I wouldn't mind having Iron Man as a dad, but still....lol! 

Why did they stop making Eureka? It was such an awesome show.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm not sure! I want to watch all five seasons but don't want it to end! lol I hate that about shows, this is why I like Doctor Who, 50 years and still running! I know it will probably be done sometime but not right now! Anywho, I'm exhausted, cat is sleeping on my arm now curled up between my arm, laptop, pillow propped under me and then my shoulder so it's like a nest for him lol. But my arm is falling asleep and making it hard to type >.< So goodnight all and maybe I'll get those pics up in the morning lol


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## lilnaugrim

Hey all! You should enter into the Christmas Rewrite-A-Song Contest that's being hosted by the Mods! Who doesn't love a cash/gift card prize??? Seriously, who? You've got today and tomorrow at midnight to finish and enter it, the deadline has been extended and we wanted to spread the word around! So for those who haven't decided yet, you really should!!!! 

Oh yeah, and pictures...suppose I should upload them for you guys...lol
Kit-Kat has actually grown I've realized since I visited PetSmart the other day and saw how tiny the females are....Kit-Kat is actually huge...she's pretty much the same size as Hawkeye now lol


Also her fins are really long now, espeically the anal fin and it just sort of makes me laugh when I see it. I love the reduction on the anal fin though, caudal needs some help but overall, her form isn't half bad considering she came from PetSmart and who knows her actual background. I can only speculate.


My 10's water has been awful cloudy lately, I think it's just a bacteria bloom since I've decrease the number of oto's technically (moved the 4 larger into 33 and moved the 3 smaller ones in here from Remmy's tank) and removed a guppy by accident (one that died in the 5.5 overnight). And I just switched out media after two weeks of allowing the bacteria to grow on it. It's the first time in a year it's been changed out....soooo yeah.....
Ignore the stupid floating cucumber, the oto's wouldn't eat it and it slipped up.


The three Guppy boy's! If anyone wants them, they're yours! I call one of them Tiger for his tiger stripes on his side and looking like "wild type spots" on his dorsal. The other Spot for his spot on his side and then the half black boy.


This one is Spot, black is in the back.


And one of the Oto's who so bravely sought food out in the open!


Remmy's tank as a loooooot of GSA right now but I added a new ornament that mom got me for Christmas! She found it a Saver's actually, a large consignment shop basically for those who don't know what it is. I love it and so does Remmy!




And the Thranduil of Betta Fish himself!
"I'm fabulous!..."


"...you can't deny it!"


Oh yeah and Legolas is guarding his tank lol


Remmy enjoying his new mountainous cave!


"I am not Thranduil in fact, I am King Under the Mountain!"


Oh yeah and my crypt parva is doing woooooonderful! One of it's leaves has just turned a nice red gold color, the one with it's back to us actually. It's gotten more red from that picture as well, didn't know Parva was supposed to turn red....it probably doesn't, just my luck it does haha. W/e, still looks gorgeous to me! It's got a lot of babies too but the hairgrass is competing for turf I think.


Guppy babies! these are the babies that I let out and the Tetra ate one of them. Well now that the tetra's aren't here, I let them out and they're all doing fine! Still have all ten of those babies, might have been nine but I never had a solid count in the beginning anyway so it doesn't matter to me!

I call the yellow tailed ones Neon Fry lol because they are so much brighter than their halfblack sisters.




And another one of the mom's, the pretty jewel girl I got a nice picture of is on her left. This mom was the most recent to give birth, she's black with electric blue in her tail, hard to see in this pic though.


Aero wouldn't stay still so...whatever. I need to put him in some salt baths I think, he doesn't have rot yet but the edges where he is growing is red as in his color, not rot. I see growth at the end so it's definitely not rot but I want to keep the wounds clear of infection anyway.


Also Hawkeye and Aero are competing in bubble nest buildery lol. I think Hawkeye is winning so far with height, Aero has covered more ground.
Hawkeye's, wow it's totally blurry, I didn't realize that sorry.


And Aero's


Lovely bright new leaf on the coffefolia Anubias!


I also found some lovely MTS in the tank finally! I knew they were there but hadn't seen them in a while! With the calcium added to the tank, their shell growths are much healthier. I've seen three surface in the last few day's, this is one of them but I know there's probably much more in there as well lol


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## PetMania

Are all those guppies, except the moms, the ones you bred/raised? They look absolutely gorgeous!


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## BettaLover1313

Kit-kat looks great and so does Rembrandt!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks! Yeah the only ones are the there mamas of which are huge so you can definitely tell the differences lol. But the three males and their three sisters who are the next largest females not pictured are ones I bought so I could introduce new blood when the time came but since they have orange in them, I'm not going to use them. But all the babies including the neon ones are my babies but they are just from the females being prehit is all, so I haven't done much as far as breeding technically with my line but we're getting there!

Oh and the stupid suctioned cup breeder box that was holding most of the younger gupies fell out of suction so they all escapes so I said forget it since they're all female anyway. The most I was really worried about was the females getting preggers again by young males, not me trying to save them, but since they seem to be all female anyway, I said heck with it!


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## PetMania

Lol, the all females.  Still I am amazed that that happened. 

Still, all of those guppies are stunning and much better than what I see at PetSmart or PetCo


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## PetMania

How much are the guppies?


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## ao

I think female/male birth ratio is can be greatly affected by water temperature  
They're gorgeously colored fish! I love the black blue gradient 

I need a female! *steals*


Sent from Petguide.com App


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## PetMania

+1! 

Warmer water- more boys
Cooler water- more girls
------------------
or
------------------
You got really lucky that you don't have more males :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah but we've already ruled that out since my water is sitting stubbornly at 78 degrees which is actually high for guppies anyway. So it literally can't be that and it's not possible that they had all females unless they were genetically engineered to do so and I highly doubt that. But ones these babies grow up some more I'd be more than happy to send out yo forum members if they wanted them! These will be super cheap since they aren't the strain I want anyway. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on their progress!


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## PetMania

Cool! For some reason, I call the half-black half-white guppies either tuxedo or dancer. I'm weird, lol :3


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## lilnaugrim

Well tuxedo makes sense because you call a mostly black cat with some white on it a tuxedo color. But the half black fish are simply called half black lol


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## MattsBettas

I went over temperature dependent sex determination earlier in this thread but I guess no one listened to me lol.

I think it was just a bizarre coincidence. Or you have something in your water.


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## lilnaugrim

I agree Matt, I remember reading something else you and I think hallyx was talking about about the temperature possibly effecting the outcome but I don't know think it has THAT much an effect on the outcome. It could possibly be something in the water but I still doubt it. I think it's just a huge coinincidence honestly but I don't care much lol I'm honestly happy because that means I'm not pressured to separate the babies so they dont reimprergnant the mamas or their sisters!


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> Well tuxedo makes sense because you call a mostly black cat with some white on it a tuxedo color. But the half black fish are simply called half black lol


Oh yeah! Isn't that also why Boston Terriers are called Tuxedo dogs? Because they have more black? SOrry, a bit OT.


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## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> Oh yeah! Isn't that also why Boston Terriers are called Tuxedo dogs? Because they have more black? SOrry, a bit OT.


Yeah I have no idea about dogs but tuxedo is just a coloration. So that would apply to anything really, cats, dogs and fish


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## lilnaugrim

Ug my mind has been so scattered lately and is absolutely frustrating, of course I haven't been taking my ADHD meds but I didn't want to mix that with a Sinus Infection of which I still have...sigh....it's been an interesting week. On New Year's last Wednesday I got a Parking Violation Ticket outside my aunt's house because I wasn't far enough off the road but there isn't exactly good places to park there. We figured out it was their nasty neighbors that call it in because I was there overnight and left around 3 in the afternoon. My aunt was maaaaaddddd but it's only 15 dollars and won't effect my insurance or anything so it's okay. I have to mail it in today.

Then yesterday was my older brother's 30th birthday party which was pretty fun! But before the party I actually got either red food coloring or an eyelash stuck in my eye, could have been both because i know something physical was in there but it also stung like heck and felt like a chemical. Spent thirty minutes over the sink trying to flush it out and then had to run to take out my Red Velvet Brownies lmao. Was NOT fun. Had party, was great, watched the last episode of Season 2 of Eureka and went to bed to sleep for 12 hours and I'm still exhausted. This sleep apnea stuff needs to stop because I can't keep feeling exhausted like this :-/

Anywho, fish are seemingly fine; I let all the baby guppies out of their nets, if they get eaten they get eaten. So far though the mama's and older siblings are co-existing just fine. I also feed them like....a lot so that probably helps keep their appetite for fresh fry down lol Charlie is still floating in the 33, no ill effects thus far, he gets mad at the guppies when they swim by teasingly though lol.

5.5 is still cycling, used Tetra Safe Start and have been feeding it fish food every other day for an ammonia source, I hope that cycles it fine. Charlie will be headed into that tank when it's done since he doesn't play nicely with others which brings me to another point.

At moms when I set up the 29 and 20 long which I finally got with the help of Lucillia! Thanks!!!!! So I have a few options with Charlie....I can split the 20 into four or three for Aero | Kit-Kat | Hawkeye or I can split into four to add Charlie but I'm worried he's going to jump again since I don't plan on having lids since it's cheaper to buy just the lamps not the whole hood. Or I can throw him in the 29 and still split for 10 gallons approx. for him and give the other to my other fish, still undecided. Now I could seal it with plexsi glass or just use craft mesh, not sure which yet.

So my question to you all; what would you do with Charlie?

My two 13 gallons will be used for the guppies and continuing the line since I plan to have no boy's by then and once I get a father I can stick him in with Kit-Kat since she really doesn't care lol I'm very happy that she likes her guppy and oto mates, and very fortunate really.


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## lilnaugrim

So...I didn't know this could happen in a regular tank but....I have a Diamond Tetra fry! I was looking at my fry and saw one that looked nothing like the other's and definitely not guppy-ish. It had two pointed lobes on the tail which was my first hint of a tetra and then I see the red mark on the eyes which tells me it's definitely a Diamond! There's only one that I saw but now it makes sense as to why that Tetra was just sitting on the sand all the time, I mean, not ill like but she would just sit there for a while while the males were being all rambunctious up top and would occasionally come down to visit her!

I'm not holding my breath that she'll live but that would really be interesting if it did lol it's got plenty of food around with the flakes I throw in every 3 hours when I'm home XD It's gonna be like hell doing a water change though >.< I tried to get pictures but they were too small.

Other pictures to come up soon as I sort them.

Oh yeah, have I commented about the weather yet? Don't think so; yeah so Thursday we had a mini-blizzard with half a foot of snow, then Sunday it's 9 degree's and raining, freezing rain. Then today it's up at 60 degree's all day so everything melts and gets soggy and tomorrow it's going to be freezing again. Yay ice! /sarcasm :sarcastic:


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## lilnaugrim

Charles, hasn't really changed much! Still beautiful though :-D



One of my "dotted" fry, they're fry with yellow tails and black dots lol.


Here's another
 

Older guppy that I bought from the breeder. She's the prettiest female since she has the brightest blue, I'm still not going to use her for breeding but looks like she's already been hit by her brother's even though they haven't been together since I brought them home two months ago.....so yeah..nvm that's not possible lol


I love this pic lol, just makes me laugh. This is the third of the mama's but she won't allow me to get a good pic of her body since she's more shy, but we're working on it! She comes up to my face now :-D


My Water wisteria forest is actually becoming a Water Wisteria Forest! Oh and that ornament down there I got for Christmas as well! I don't like it as much as the other one but it's cute and the Oto's like to hide in it 


Java Ferns are growing well. There's the halfblack male with orange spots >.< Tiger is the blurry one there.


The clearest photo I have of the three >.< Halfblack on the top right, Tiger top left and Spot bottom left there.


Hawkeye is all grow'd up now ;-)




Aero's tail is also growing out nicely ^_^


I've always loved his ventral fins, I know they aren't "right" with show standards but I always thought they looked cool. I like Rembrandt's better though since they are huge and full like they should be! lol


You can see growth at the end


I love these two pictures, mostly because you can really see his eye color and it's super pretty.




And that's it, I do have some fuzzy photo's of the diamond fry if you want to see them and try to pick her out lol


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## lilnaugrim

Lol okay today its nine degrees but wit this blistering cold it feels like negative twenty >.<

So I'm snee!zing like crazy today and have a worse cough and my boss comes out and goes "is everything okay out here?" And for a moment I didn't know what he was talking about until I sneezed again and was like...oh, yeah, I'm fine lol 

So mom moved selkie back out into the dinning room area again since the majority of our parties are done now so the fear of her getting knocked over is gone  mom complains that the light is too bright for her, she has the 6,700K mini led light from solarflare and yeah, its pretty strong for a three watt led but the anubias in there is happy! So her and her boyfriend, john, who we all love, keeps moving the light off the tank mostly so we had to compromise so the light is shining on the half where the plant is lol they're silly. Mom asked me why she needed the light when she had regular sunkight (not direct) and our ceiling lights, had to tell her its keeping the plant alive and she didn't argue. She still thinks she knows more about tanks than I do sometimes lol, silly mother. I know we had tanks when I was younger but nothing like I've gotten myself into. 

Uggggg I'm on a creativity burst which means that I want to do all my projects at the same time; making my moms blanket, writing, painting, drawing my dad's next book cover, write other stories, and crochet other projects like scarves and such. It gets frustrating because I can't do them all at once so I end up just sitting here on bf or fb annoyed because I cant do what i want to do or I can't at least settle on one thing to do. Grrrrr


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## BettaLover1313

Hawkeye is huge! Probably just the angle, but when you show him next to Aero he looks massive! Aero is so handsome, and he has lovely eyes!



lilnaugrim said:


> Uggggg I'm on a creativity burst which means that I want to do all my projects at the same time; making my moms blanket, writing, painting, drawing my dad's next book cover, write other stories, and crochet other projects like scarves and such. It gets frustrating because I can't do them all at once so I end up just sitting here on bf or fb annoyed because I cant do what i want to do or I can't at least settle on one thing to do. Grrrrr


I know how that goes! I've had that a lot lately, and it drives me insane, since I'll want to do something (really all of them) but I can't settle on one thing!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, Hawkeye is huge! He's almost larger than aero, they could be the same size though and Hawkeye's fins just make up for it. I'll have to measure them out!

Ug yeah, its horrible! Honestly I'm happy I'm not the only one who goes through that though, makes me feel more normal! Lol then again, normal is boring ;-) I did decide to work on the blanket though since its freezing in here and so it sort of keeps me warm. Then was multitasking and looking at cars on craigslist. I've got there more rows done on the blank but its about four feet long so one row takes around d fifteen minutes of pure concentration lol which I don't have...oh well!


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## lilnaugrim

Woohoo, 7 degree's today! Not so much wind thank the lord, but still freezing!

So today I learned that the battery in my truck was new when my dad gave it to me.....that means it's five years old......that's really old for a battery. I'm so surprised that my truck is even starting in this weather although it puts up a fight and temper tantrum before it does start lmao. I was talking to my mom's boyfriend this morning and he was like "oh yeah, could be time for a new one, probably like two years old maybe, that's normal for batteries," since he knows his car stuff as does my dad, totally trust both of them. So I asked my dad when was the last time my battery was changed and he told me it was new when he gave it to me and I literally started to laugh out loud at work. I just can't believe I'm driving around with a five year old battery in this thing XD

Oh I feel so bad for this truck sometimes. I tend to abuse it without knowing it >.< ugg got to check the oil soon too, yeah...supposed to do that like every two weeks....more like every two-three months for me. I don't burn oil as much as I used to so that's a good thing.

So my best friends fish died last night. She's on the forum, the one I talk about; Lucillia. Ragnarok was an amazing solid red VT with red colored pectorals and so since I can't give her an actual hug right now, I drew her a tribute of R.

Ragnarok
February 2013-January 2014

​


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## Quinn

That is a lovely drawing. RIP Ragnarok, and hugs to Lucilla.

And ugh yeah, SO over this weather! I work in pet care industry so I spend lengths of time outside. Yesterday, I was pretty sure I was dead. That was brutal!


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## Aus

Gosh, what a lovely journal. beautiful tanks (I very much like that wisteria forest!) and you are a very talented artist! Well done, indeed.


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## lilnaugrim

Aus said:


> Gosh, what a lovely journal. beautiful tanks (I very much like that wisteria forest!) and you are a very talented artist! Well done, indeed.


Thank you much Aus! Much appreciated coming from you ^_^ Yeah, I'm super happy with my wisteria forest, although I'm going to have to trim it today or tomorrow if I don't want my forest to reach out of my tank haha. I've actually be dosing daily ferts of Seachem Flourish Comprehensive, just a dash each day and I'm finding that's actually working a heck of a lot better than anything I've done before. Granted I have more plants in there as well to soak up all the nutrients so I'm sure that helps.


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## lilnaugrim

So all the pictures I took last night are blurry and not good :-/ darn guppy fry are hard to photograph! I don't ever want to hear anyone complaining about their Betta moving too fast for them to take pictures of lol So I finally uploaded properly the video of Charlie flirting/trying to destroy the guppy mama's from his confinement tank. There are some guest appearances at the end as well! Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhtF8cYTajw

Oh and you get to see that last Guppy mama which I've been trying to take photo's of but she doesn't let me. And I'm uploading my guppy video in which you CAN see the guppy fry! Oh and I found Lila the Purple Guppy! She's still alive! Got a little black on her tail now but still as purple as ever! Also the Diamond Tetra fry is still alive, there might be two of them now but i'm not sure. I'll post it when it's done uploading.

Oh and I'm pretty sure that I'm getting a car today! It's a Volkswagen Passat, 2000 and green; looks good. Going to test drive it today and I'm rather nervous about that since I haven't actually driven other standard vehicles. I did try Lucillia's car once but her gears were much further apart than mine and it was very high powered where my truck is practically dull in comparison lol so I was having a hard time feeling it, I hope the Passat drives similar to my truck and I don't make a fool of myself! Apparently five other people wanted to buy the car but they didn't know how to drive standard! lol, silly people.


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## Lucillia

Charlie is just like... FEED ME. OR I WILL EAT YOU! and you! 

Aero is so handsome!!! Hawkeye is like... I DONT CARE.  

Good luck on the new car too!!! I hope you get it! And I still giggle about when you tried to drive my car... That was funny. XD Is it a light colored green or a dark green?


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## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, Charlie is a little bugger! He's calmed down since that video but he still tries to jump out of the tank to get at the guppies >.< and now there are more to taunt him lol. Pretty sure that the last female started to drop yesterday, hard to tell though since I have so many!

And it's a dark green! It's this car:


And my guppy video finished! Guest appearances by Mr. Rainbow Goby hiding in his home and Charlie the Giant PK. Also the guppy mama around 1:52 always cracks me up lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dl9vvXmlzU


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## lilnaugrim

I'm getting the car!!!!! First car in my name!!! Super psyched!

Also the 5.5 finished cycling yesterday so Charlie is now in there as I did another fifty percent water change and finally got my nitrate levels down! Yesterday they were through the roof! Clocking in at 160ppm,the highest the test would go lol. Did a water change yesterday and they went down to around 60ppm. Clocked in at around the same today, so I did another 50% and they went down to 10ppm, huge difference. Ammonia and nitrite also came in as flat Oppm so I'm happy.

Did water change for the ten and remmy's three. It is a PITA to scrub off green spot algea....grrr and now I'm getting it in the ten >.< not a happy camper with that.

Saw the diamond tetra fry again today, she's looking fatter and healthier. Maybe I'll just keep her if she lives. Also saw Lila again as well! Good day, good day!


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## lilnaugrim

I am now the proud owner of that 2000 Volkswagen Passat!!! I'm stupid excited, its the first car that's in my name, my real first car. It feels like I'm just borrowing my dads Cadillac actually, its so surreal and I'm loving it lol.

In fishland, I changed Selkie's water yesterday morning, my mom was confused but the algea growing on the anubias lol, there was some nice fuzzy algea growing already! I'm happy. Although I can't wait to finally move everything to my moms house. My dad is looking at houses in Connecticut now :-( this means its out of state and an hour from my moms house and a hour and a half from college :-( which also means I won't be able to live there part time as I'm doing now, at least not ethically. I could visit on weekends but its not the same. And then of course my kitty Kat's!!!!! I can't live without them! At least not the whole week! I'm waaaay too attached and so is Siberian who is actually my brothers cat but wit all animals, they kind of just attract to me....Siberian has gotten intro the habit of sleeping on my hip at night now lol

Ugh I'm just super torn because while its financially a great idea, I can't stand then being so far away :-( but I guess I'll learn to live....sigh


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## lilnaugrim

What a week, what a week!!! A whole slue of amazing things have happened to me and I'm just so happy, this kind of high I've never experienced, at least not in a long time. No I don't mean smoking, that crap is blech and nasty, I would never! It's just because I'm so happy :-D I think I deserve it after those horrible three months during last semester with the whole sorority thing and all, I mean, there are still reminants of it but it's been very good this winter break.

Started off with getting those two boring weeks of full time pay so my check is just about 400 dollars after taxes! That's enough right there to make me happy lol. Then I found my Band Banquet dress for half off so I got it for 38 instead of 76, or 86+shipping online! Band Banquet is the annual celebratory dinner/dance we have for our Marching Band after our season is done. It's always the first Friday of Spring Semester when we get our CD's of all the songs we've played during the season to listen and remember it by. It's pretty darn awesome! So got the dress and funny thing was is that I went to Saver's to just look around since I was in the area and found these gorgeous flats, they're black and have like a little "belt" going over the toe to "buckle" (more like just sewn into place and I say "belt" because it's more like material taken from the inside and bunched together over the toe to the belt "buckle" on the outside, it's made of rhinestones). Anywho, they go _perfectly_ with my dress!! I didn't even think about that when I bought them, then I just decided on a whim to go into Dressbarn and thus found out my dress was half off and got it. Got home and realized the shoes were perfect for that dress! So I'm super excited.

And then the whole finding Lila again, she's not dead yet! lol and the Diamond Tetra fry which I'm still completely baffled about! The mother must have laid the eggs in the vase ornament because that's the only way it wouldn't have been effected much by the light since all Tetra eggs are highly photosensitive.

Then I bought my car! Yesterday I tested the 29 gallon and it holds water!!!!! I also set up one of the 13 gallons after getting my Ikea floating shelf in there. It's not made out of particle board, it's real wood so it will hold. I also laid on the shelf after it was on it's side and it holds me extremely well so it will hold the two 13's just fine! But one of my 13's, I opened it up and one side panel was completely smashed, like not the corner's as if it were dropped but the middle of the panel which tells me that something either hit it dead center or it hit something else like a metal pipe or something large. Anywho, gonna hopefully take that back today if they have more in stock. But I started the other 13's cycle with fish food, it's currently completely empty minus the filter and heater and water lol the LED's look nice though and almost the right color, I'm sure they'll hold up low light plants just fine. I'll most likely replace the hood later with some clamp lights or something but for now they seem to be just fine and bright, but my experience with LED's is that they normal dim pretty fast, at least the cheap ones do and these are definitely cheap. But for now, they look nice!

As for the 29, I'm still uncertain whether I want to split it or not, it would look so nice not split :-/ But if I then split the 20 for four fish that only gives them 5 gallons so Charlie the giant would be in 5 gallons. While that's far from bad, most of the people with giants say 10 gallons is much better. But seeing him in the 5.5, he really doesn't look bad. He does look small for a giant, he's still definitely 2 inches but he likes to lounge a lot, pretty chill when he's not provoked by neighbors. So anyway, I want to double up on all mesh and also make it so it protrudes from the top of the tank. There won't be a lid unless I find a cheap 20Long one in which case I will have to form the dividers to the lid but that shouldn't be too bad. 

But then there is the question of Rembrandt, if dad is really moving to New London, CT, I'm not going to be able to be there with him and Remmy is a social guy, he doesn't like to be left alone although now that he has his snail he likes to interact with her. But I couldn't leave him for five day's at a time just to visit him on the weekends....I don't know what to do with him, Selkie will be downstairs under the 33 in a 5.5 so I think this will be my max amount of tanks really. I guess I could divide a tank for him but he's still got that stuff on his nose, it's dimished quite a bit and looks more like a scar now but I'm still worried about transfering it to other fish :-/ I don't know what to do. I won't have enough room on my nightstand to put another tank, if he's going to be in a tank it needs to be cycled and preferably planted, I'm not going to deal with uncycled tanks again, it's ridiculous to do so. So I don't know what to do.

Okay so I have the 29 which will most likely hold Red Rili shrimp and either Ember Tetra's or Celestial Pearl Danios, I don't know what to do with that yet. Remmy isn't kind enough to share in a community tank, Kit-Kat is but I'd be worried about shrimplet's more with her than the other small fish. There will be plenty of hiding spaces for them but I'd rather keep a steady colony rather than let them die at the hand of a Betta lol. Or I could nix the whole shrimp thing, do the CPD's and her and that's it...that would free up a space for Remmy in the 20 but still the issue of transferring a disease. I mean, if he did have something infectious, they'd all be with it now anyway since before I wasn't sanitizing my equipment, I am now but I know even the smallest of molecules can make a huge difference. So maybe it's just not worth it to keep him isolated and just throw him in there with the rest. Idk......

Oh and Matt, I tested that air pump and honestly, it'd be a little annoying in a bedroom I think. It's not super loud or anything, just the vibrating. If you reinforced the feet with some more rubber it could potentially make it quieter, so it's your call on what you want to do with it or not.

EDIT: Oh god....sorry for the excruciatingly long post!


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## lilnaugrim

Am I boring you guys with all my long posts? lol

Took some pics today, have to go through them still. Ugg I'm in such an urge to aquascape a new tank but I don't have the tools/funds to do so! I have the 13 to start at mom's but I need to buy more FloraMax in red and to get more River Gravel the same as Charlie's 5.5 since I really like that stuff, so I think that would be nice in that tank. The 29 and 20 are getting black though. I have my aquascape for the 29 and I so badly want to create it but....I need slate and I don't have that! Once I get paid on Friday I should be able to get all the hard scape stuff I need and then just need to get everything ready.

I think I've decided to not divide the 29, Charlie is perfectly content in 5 gallons so that's where he will stay. So it will be: Charlie|Aero|Hawkeye|Kit-Kat in the 20.

I guess I could keep Remmy in his 3 gallon and have him on my nightstand at mom's, I'd rather not but if I have to then I have to. For now he will stay at dad's though until we actually move.


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## lilnaugrim

Most of these are of Aero and Hawkeye since they deemed themselves worthy of pictures tonight lol



Aero's tail is growing back exceptionally well!
 




Love this picture of him since it's so unique to all his normal pictures.


His scales are showing his age. He's just over a year now. I will have had him a year in mid-March.


I like this picture because you can see the tail growth.


Hawkeye decided to not be photogentic >.<



So they're roughly the same size now.


I think he's been biting, that or Aero bit him through the divider, it's one of Aero's favorite past times after all. This is why all dividers will be doubled.


He's fabulous and you know it!




Also his snail grew like tenfold since last week :shock: or at least it seems this way...she seems soooo much bigger than before...perhaps it's the added calcium in the water?


Aero's side of the bachelor pad


And Hawkeye's. Wisteria from the 33 was just thrown in there to make room so all that isn't normally in there but he loves it so w/e.


Blurry but you can see Spot and his tail has grown back wonderfully! Colored up finally as well.


Here's Tiger. Tiger and Spot are constantly sparring, Black doesn't seem to care though.


Better pic of Tiger's dorsal 


Good pic of Black, Spot's in front there.


"A Tiger in the shadow of the Jungle"


Oto! I'm pretty sure these guy's aren't Vittatus like my other four, they are half the size, caudal is much different and lines are different as well. They are finally coming out into the open as well.


Kit-Kat's caudal. Decent web reduction, her crowns are black and they almost split to make a 4 rayed CT! You can see she does split to make 3 ray's which is sort of awkward lol but it looks nice all the same. She's fat because she eats everything.


The 10 currently, sorry for the over exposure. I forgot to set my camera back to the fluorescent setting to take more accurate pictures.


Uncle Rainbow hates to babysit the guppies but the babies love to hang around him and his little home.


LOOK! I caught the Tetra!! The three other blurs are guppies her age as well lol


And again!


Two of the oldest girl's besides the mamas. These two were two of five (six came) I had bought. Siblings of the males. And look! Little Lila a purple blur at the bottom right.


2 1/2 week old guppies...roughly lol


Annnnnd got Lila too! She's sort of white/blue/purple


And the Mama we never see as well. I expect her to drop soon, most likely her last spawn too, of this batch I mean. Her gravid spot has been dark and heavy for a few weeks though.


And an Oto from the 33


lol, the 33 looks so bare in pictures, it looks a lot more full in real life though. Again, sorry for the colors.


LOOOOOTS of floating water sprite.


Again, colors aren't accurate so he's not that red on his head. He's also got a little bit of cloud-eye going on, nothing some water changes wont' help though.


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## lilnaugrim

And got a video of Kit-Kat and the boy's. I had to add the music, it went perfectly! It almost does look like they're dancing lol, I love it too much XD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzq5tXU1h_U enjoy! I'm uploading a video of the Tetra fry as we speak.


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## MattsBettas

Very nice. The guy at 0:25 is moving right on time with the music haha.


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## lilnaugrim

I know! I laughed practically the whole way through, even Kit-Kat's timing is pretty decent! lol I mostly love her entrance at 1:18. Oh and did you see my update about the air pump? It may or may not be sort of loud for a bedroom. It's your call.

Here's the Tetra fry! Sorry the video kind of sucks but what's there to be done when you're trying to film a .35 inch fry? lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuDXp9rM3BQ


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## lilnaugrim

Here, have some silly pictures of Siberian in his box! He was sooooo happy when I put that box down for him to sit in lol silly boy!


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## BettaLover1313

Love the pictures of everybody! Siberian is so cute in his box!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks! lol, he fit perfectly until he decided he wanted to chew on it XD


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## logisticsguy

I just want to stop in and tell you that I love your journal.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you CJ! I really appreciate that!  I know I complain a lot but I hope also to keep people entertained with the pictures and all haha. Who doesn't love a good cat in the box? ;-)


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## logisticsguy

Oh I forgot to tell you. Remember that female you bought from me but I didn't ship her because I was unsure what was going on with my tanks re disease. Well she grew up and just became a mommy. She was bred to a giant HM with EE and there are about 40 2 week old fry.


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## logisticsguy

Her name is Pumpkin and this is a pic of her and a giant female named Cookie. Pumpkin is normal size and Cookie is a very big girl.


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## lilnaugrim

Aww yay!

Yeah, I adore Cookie, I lurk on your giant journal haha. Congrats to Pumpkin as well!! You bred her to Jupiter, right?


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## Huffle Puffles

Siberian looks almost unreal in the face, like a painting, what a GORGEOUS cat!!!


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## Lucillia

Halo!!! And babies! !!


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## logisticsguy

lilnaugrim said:


> Aww yay!
> 
> Yeah, I adore Cookie, I lurk on your giant journal haha. Congrats to Pumpkin as well!! You bred her to Jupiter, right?


She was bred to Saturn. He is Jupiters brother. Jupiter cant or wont build a nest and ignores females 2 minutes after they go in the spawn tank. Can a fish be gay? :| asexual? Its ok with me if he is it just makes breeding the big lug harder. that was an almost serious question hehe. I lurk your journal often.


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## lilnaugrim

Huffle Puffles said:


> Siberian looks almost unreal in the face, like a painting, what a GORGEOUS cat!!!


Yeah! He makes some pretty awesome pictures sometimes lol. Only when he feels like posing though as all cat's feel ^_^ And thanks! Love my crazy little (not so little) boy! Even if he does have all the allergies in the world and loses his fur for half the year! >.<



Lucillia said:


> Halo!!! And babies! !!


Ha! I was listening to the soundtrack on Pandora because I adore the Halo soundtrack, love to play too but haven't in forever. I was going to change the audio but then I listened and it came out decent so I decided to keep the awesome music! :-D



logisticsguy said:


> She was bred to Saturn. He is Jupiters brother. Jupiter cant or wont build a nest and ignores females 2 minutes after they go in the spawn tank. Can a fish be gay? :| asexual? Its ok with me if he is it just makes breeding the big lug harder. that was an almost serious question hehe. I lurk your journal often.


It is possible, maybe not gay in the sense that we think but they can certainly be uninterested. If anyone remembers Jarvis, the DT boy I had, he was also asexual and just didn't care at all for females. He liked to look at the males though, never flared, just liked to look and admire from a distance lol. Also LittleBettaFish's wilds, she had two boys that were both wrapping each other, one would stun and then they'd do it all over again. Homosexuality exists in so many species so I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jupiter just didn't care. But then it kind of sucks when you really want to breed them lol. Good luck with him in any case!


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## lilnaugrim

So! Went to my LFS before my doctor's appointment yesterday and found out that they'll be getting in Black Moscow guppies by Sunday so Chuck said he'd call me Monday if they got in a boy for me. So I may have a Guppy father by Monday if all goes well! I'm excited to continue that one females line, the lace one. I really don't know what color to class her as, she's not a Grass but she's close. The thing with her tail is that all the patterns I see on AquaBid and Ebay seem to be fairly random. Her tail is in straight lines and dots...I don't know!

So there is that, yesterday I did 50% changes on the two 5.5's. The guppy fry and mama's are happy, Mr. Rainbow Goby was happy as well. Saw the Tetra fry and Lila again. Kit-Kat is fat because she keeps stealing everyone else's food but the male guppies are still sparring. Anyone want them? They are like 50 cents per male with shipping if you want them. I'm not really looking to make big bucks on them since I just raised them, I didn't breed them. I have heat packs so if you really want to ship, I can't guarantee no DOA's so it's up to you guys.

My little Red Truck is officially gone to my little brother which does make me sad but I have my new car to make up for it! It's just sad to see the truck I've been driving for five years be handed off to a little less than capable hands. I trust my brother for the most part but he's still a boy and thankfully the truck will not allow him to really hit the gas and peel out but I still worry for both boy and truck. He's still got to get used to standard, I let him drive once before but he wasn't that great at actually driving yet so now that he can drive fine, it's just the test of getting to know stick shift cars. So fun times!

Took some pics of Rembrandt last night, not sure if they showed up but he was sort of showing off. He does this thing where it's only half a flare; he will flare out his beard completely but doesn't fan out his tail and fins which kind of frustrates me since I can't get good pictures of him. I need to get a small tank to take pictures in! I'll have to try consignment shops for that since I don't feel like paying 10 bucks for one >.<

In other news....hmmm, nothing really interesting has gone on. Siberian has claimed a nest in the laundry basket that Bobby (my little bro) had put his blanket over. So now he doesn't sleep with me, or hasn't this week. He finally went into my room last night to get some water but otherwise he sticks to the kitchen where our laundry is lol. Yeah the house is set up more for old people like my "grandfather" so the washer/dryer are in the kitchen, but w/e.

Yeah nothing else exciting has gone on. I'll see if those pics came out and upload them later.


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## lilnaugrim

Okay I need help deciding on what to do with the 29, stocking wise. I want something that isn't normal, I mean if I'm going to go with shrimp and tetra's I'll do Red Rili Shrimp and Ember Tetra's or Glowlight Tetras. But I was thinking, idk, I want something more unusual and fun to look at I guess. Anyone got anything exciting to share for me?

EDIT: or Red Pencil fish for the top level and the Red Rili shrimp.

EDIT2: OR! lol sorry, or I could get Boraras Brigittae since they won't eat shrimp as fast as the Tetras will. I don't mind getting fish shipped in since it probably wont be for another month or two. I want to get it planted and set up first. Gosh, I'm terrible at this waiting thing.


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> It is possible, maybe not gay in the sense that we think but they can certainly be uninterested. If anyone remembers Jarvis, the DT boy I had, he was also asexual and just didn't care at all for females. He liked to look at the males though, never flared, just liked to look and admire from a distance lol. Also LittleBettaFish's wilds, she had two boys that were both wrapping each other, one would stun and then they'd do it all over again. Homosexuality exists in so many species so I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jupiter just didn't care. But then it kind of sucks when you really want to breed them lol. Good luck with him in any case!


Yes! I put Jarvis' tank next to my female, Jing Jang, and he never looked or flared at her and I thought that was weird.


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## lilnaugrim

Sorry I haven't been updating, I've been busy and then procrastinating because I was on my tablet which is harder to type on than a laptop for me but here I am! Lots have happened in the past few days!

The last mama guppy finally dropped her fry and half are purple fry and half are golden! So all who wanted a Purple Fry! You'll be able to get one lol I got around 30 fry from that drop, of course I've never been there when they were actually having babies but I got to see her drop a few as I caught them to put them in the breeder net since they are teeny tiny. But that happened on Saturday.

Sunday Lucillia kidnapped me to bring me around to her LFS's in her area lol. That was fun! And I know I definitely want CPD's for the 29! I never realized how tiny they were! We went to on of her LFS's that had them there in a tank with also Badis Badis, some Endlers and either it was Danio Tinwini (Gold Ring Danio) or Danio Nigrofasciatus (Spotted Danio) which gets a little bigger than the former. I saw the Gold Ring Danio on AB and was figuring if I could get 10 of those, 10 CPD's, 10 Corydoras Habrosus, I'd be pretty happy! Maybe experiment with some Red Rili Shrimp too since I know they won't kill the adults at least.

But anywho, we were able to get me a new 13 gallon since the other one I had had a large cracked panel. Turned out the new one I traded for also had a cracked panel, something must have poked right through the box and through the glass on that one though. But we were finally able to figure everything out, her 13 had all the stuff except the hood missing in it so we traded tanks and she got a gift card for the exact price of the tank to get a new one. So that was a fun and interesting day for sure!

Today I finished setting up the two 13's except I didn't wash the substrate on the second one so it's kind of cloudy right now....lol like it's a mud pit almost XD well not really, just very dirt filled since I'm using FloraMax. Nothing a few water changes won't change though! Brought some plants over to plant the first one and put our new girl in it after acclimation!

That was something else we bought on Sunday, we weren't expecting to get one but I picked her up and was like...hmm, she looks nice...great topline, decent web reduction, spread looks not too bad either! So we welcomed home Isis for her Osiris that we originally intended to breed but my black Copper CT girl got that fungus stuff and died. This Isis is younger, much better form all around so I really think this will work! She's not Black Copper but she is a really nice dark Copper and not with super red wash in the fins like you see most of the times on the regular coppers. I have pics of her once I upload and sort through them lol. Still have those pictures of Remmy as well.

So I was thinking more about the set up, I'm going to do:
First 13
Isis/Mama Guppies and babies

Second 13
Kit-Kat and males

Then:

20 Gal Long
Rembrandt | Aero | Hawkeye | Charlie

29 Gallon
CPD's, Gold Ring, Habrosus, Shrimp​
I think that looks like it will work? I could also find some plexsi glass to keep Remmy separated from the other ones which I forgot about.


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## lilnaugrim

Only one pic came out good of Remmy >.< I caught him at the end of one of his half-flares where he only flares out his beard not his tail. You can see he bit himself, most likely out of boredom but he doesn't do it all the time.


The first 13, it's so funny since I took one of the swords and didn't realize it had a baby so now I ended up with two XD So I separated them and planted both. Took some Java Moss, Amazon Sword, Wisteria, Water Sprite at top and Valisneria.



Lol and this is the clouded tank. I laugh at it every time I look over to it, it's not like there's anything in there but it would be nice if it cleared up soon. I'm swishing the filter out like twice a day, did a 20% water change as well but I purposely stirred up more dust as well.


And now introducing Isis! "Fine, I guess I'll give a grumpy hello...."


"Can you go away already? I'm attempting to trim my wisteria here!"


Please excuse her stress stripes, it's her first day being home and all. But look at that beautiful topline! Her spread is better than what she's showing us, she can get up to around 160 degree's so it's not terrible by any means for a PetCo CT girlie! But my favorite thing is her even web reduction, it could be reduced more but that's just something we can work on as well as the spread since Osiris has almost or is a 180 spread CT, can't remember.


Her anal fin isn't terribly long like Kit-Kat's either so that's nice as well. Wish her dorsal was slightly larger but that's extremely minor in comparison I feel!


Checking out her new digs!


Stealing Lucillia's pictures here to show you guys lol. This is what Isis looked like last night, much better ^_^


She was actually flaring at my finger last night as well lol


And here is Osiris, yep he does have the full 180 so I think they will balance each other well!


We showed them to each other last night when we were at her house too. They were both flaring at each other and it was absolutely adorable! Hopefully they will be good to each other when we do breed more towards the summer!


She was barring up real bad too haha, she's absolutely adorable and feisty!


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## BettaLover1313

Isis is too cute!


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## Huffle Puffles

Love the names. Isis is adorable! Can't wait to see more of her and the antics I'm sure she'll get into!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks to the both of you! Luci came up with the names and Isis was originally supposed to be for the original Black Copper CT girl I had but I think Isis fits this girl much better ^_^ She's definitely a wild one! I hope her stress stripes go away soon enough though, I'll try to get some more pictures tomorrow or tonight if she's not stressed


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## lilnaugrim

:-( Isis jumped from her tank last night, found her dried up on the floor this morning....I'm not having very good luck with this stuff :-/ We're looking for another copper or black copper girl right now to claim her name as Isis and hopefully this time, live. First one was that fungus stuff and second jumped....what a wonderful day already >.<

Actually the day isn't bad, just interesting is all. Parking Services is back in full swim already with school starting tomorrow so I couldn't park in my usual faculty spot since I don't even have a student sticker lol, I park in an area that isn't owned by the university so therefore it's free parking. So I parked at top of campus today and walked in the blistering cold down to my building. We're getting a Coastal Blizzard today, well "blizzard" going to be super bad winds, still above zero though and will be around 10*. Getting between 6-10 inches of snow which is in no way a blizzard, it will just feel like it with the wind chill going to make it feel like -30, already feels like 0 out there and the storm hasn't even started yet! I hope the power doesn't go out :-(

Guppies are doing fine, checked them yesterday and fed them, they were happy. I think I'm going to move Kit-Kat and the boy's over the 13 gallon today or tomorrow to help the cycle along. I've planted it and am using SafeStart, except like the dummy I am, I left the bottle in my car on Sunday and overnight to Monday in freezing temps so I think I inadvertently killed the bacteria >.< But I used it anyway in hopes that some were still alive. Also transfered the 10's filter media to the 13 so I can seed the tank as well and then eventually seed the other 13, the 20L and the 29.


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## BettaLover1313

Very sorry to hear about Isis


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313! Luci actually just found what we think is Isis's twin sister so she picked her up and see how that goes. She looks extremely similar, her ray's look smaller so I'm not sure how that will come out but her spread isn't terrible so far, topline looks great and anal isn't too long. Also I'm getting a picture of a black copper CTPK from a breeder, she also may be a candidate for breeding. She apparently is the twin to this boy, so long body but that will counter Osiris's body which would be good I believe. As long as her web reduction isn't bad I think I'll get her to at least be a backup fish. But I think with some patience and good breeding we could move away from the PK side and make the fins long again, I know that will take a few generations and we'll get some weird fins the first go around but I think they would counter each other well at least. And I'm fonder of the longer bodied Betta's but this boy is a little too long for my taste lol, but as I said, she would be able to counteract Osiris's shorter body.









And here is the new Isis as of right now:


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## Huffle Puffles

Geez, sorry to hear about Isis, but Isis 2.0 is an adorable little one as well


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, thanks Huffle. Technically she's Isis 3.0 >.< or could be 2.5 since the original one that was Isis was the black copper CT I had that fell to that fungus stuff and then this Isis would be 2.0 and then this newest one would be like 2.5 since she's almost the second Isis's twin lol. It's gets confusing when you name the fish the same thing >.< oh well! But yeah, she's adorbs and apparently already settling in at Luci's for now.

I know my water level was too high for that 13 and I need to find a plexsi-glass cover so I can have my LED lights over top instead of a hood. I think eventually I will invest in some high tech LED lights like the Finnex Fugeray, it's pretty expensive for me but it will be worth it really when we save money and stuff. I still need to look around though, I'm loving the SolarFlare Mini 3 Watt 6,700K LED I got for Selkie's tank! That would be enough to power half the 20 so I could get another to power the other half lol


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## PetMania

So sorry about Isis.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Pet.

Oh and I now have OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! posts lol. I talk too much >.<

Here is better pictures of Isis 3.0, if you want to see more go visit Lucillia's journal; Stormborn Logs





And here is potentially Isis 4.0 lol she is a CTPK but otherwise seems more perfect for Osiris in terms of color, better spread than Isis 3.0. I'm asking breeders now but I think it's easier to get back to long finned Betta's than it is to fix spread and color. I know with PK we'll get varying fin lengths of the offspring but I think she's worth it. Breeder is offering her to me for $15.
She honestly looks better than her brother too lol



And some guppy pictures from last night! I moved Kit-Kat and her male crew over to mom's house last night and into the 13 gallon, I also lowered the waterline so it would be difficult for them to jump out. But the 10 is also uncovered and none, including Kit-Kat have tried to jump before so I feel they will be fine but I'll be getting a plexsi-glass cover soon enough.

Two of the older brothers, it's interesting, the orange is completely taking over the blue tails.


The green one in the way back right is my favorite lol


One of the better pictures I could get, they were way too excited to be exploring the new tank.


One of the boy's who I'm pretty sure will end up looking like the Lace mama


Cutie



Interesting to watch their color change as they get older!


And the cutest picture of Kit-Kat I've ever taken!


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## Lucillia

If she's only 15 then its not that bad... I was worried it was going to be like over 9,000. She is gorgeous. Though I don't know what we'll do with the girl in my 10. >.< I should've waited to get her.


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## lilnaugrim

Well Kiara suggested we breed both, see what we get and if we like them we can cross the half-siblings and continue the line. And yeah, no I don't normally buy Betta's over 20 unless it's like extremely rare and perfect all around, nope lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Lol and as soon as I put up pictures of the guppies I had Guppy D-Day. I came home to find two of three mama's dead, 1 Oto dead and around 4-5 fry dead of all age ranges. I decided to basically bomb the tank, all the occupants euthanized, plants thrown away (as much as it pained me) and working on the sand next. I've poured bleach into the tank and running it through the filters as well, there are no media; I've thrown that away as well.

Tomorrow I will finish with the sand hopefully and finish off with an alcohol scrub down. I'm done with diseases, I'm done with all of that. Next will be the male guppies at mom's and I'm thinking Kit-Kat has to go too since she was subject to the tank technically along with Charlie. Charlie seems fine right now though, Kit-Kat seems to have some sort of gill flukes that I've been attempting to treat with PraziPro, so far no luck. Sucks because I just put new plants in there as well and now I have to throw it all away along with new substrate, good thing I bought extra. I will bleach that 13 as well and then rub down with alcohol.

On some better news, I'm getting that CTPK girl, breeder hasn't contacted me back yet though. Also Luci and I are getting these amazing guppy pair, it's like a white platinum Snakeskin, I'm taking the boy and she's getting the girl to start breeding.

And I think I've figured out how I'm going to keep all these fish provided Kit-Kat get's better and I don't euthanize Charlie as well.

in the 20 gallon long:
Rembrandt|Small 10 gallon Sorority|Hawkeye

*Rembrandt and Hawkeye will have their own sections sealed off with plexsi-glass or regular glass as soon as I find some.

29 will be the regular community of CPD and Gold Ring Danio which I just found out my LFS carries now!!!!

First 13 will be mama guppy and her fry
Second 13 will be split 7/5 for male guppies and Aero

Charlie will be downstairs under the 33 in a 5.5

*Sorority will be Isis 3.0, new CTPK girl and Selkie (Kit-Kat)

phew, that's a lot of copper! Isis is regular copper, then black copper and Selkie is a black copper marble lol


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## PetMania

Sorry about your tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Honestly I'm kind of thankful it's all said and done (minus the males and Kit-Kat at moms) but I knew I should have done that earlier and I feel bad for subjecting the guppies to my stupid mistakes...again. Some people never learn I guess. But as I said, I'm happy it's said and done, I can move forward from here rather than backwards...again.

But thanks Pet, it does mean a lot to me


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## lilnaugrim

Sigh, I'm not sure what to do about Charlie, he's been subjected to the same water that the guppies and Kit-Kat were in. I know there is disease in the males so...do I euthanize him or not. Part of me wants to be rid of this impossible disease completely, start afresh, everything except Rembrandt of course, he's my special boy. I can keep one fish in complete solitary and QT forever, but potentially five? (Rem, Aero, Hawk, Charlie and Kit-Kat), that's a lot of fish no matter which way you look at it.

So pro's and cons

Cons first:
Killing my fish would suck
There are no replacements for these kinds of fish

Pros:
This would entirely let me start afresh
I would have more room to do what I want with the 20Long and not have to scramble for extra tank space of which I DO NOT have.

For me, it's almost an even weight. I have limited space at moms and with the breeding we might be doing it in our basement if mom ever comes to her senses >.< She thinks the fish will be too warm down there, granted we do have a woodstove but that just mean's heated fish room! lol so idk, I know you guy's can't really help me decided one way or anything and most people I know would tell me to suck it up and keep the fish while they're still alive and healthy. I just don't want to risk everything, not for the third time. :/ idk

Here's some pictures:
10 gallon forrest


I've had a huge population bloom of bladder snails >.< Can you find Charlie hiding?


Also, found out that Charlie has a birth defect, his jaw is crooked and one side of his face doesn't flare out well when he flares, looks like part of it may have been bitten off but I'm sure it's just a defect.


He's also easily offended lol



It's weird to see the 33 like this again. It's been almost a year.


And Remmy has been McFlare Mister today lol of course at this point in time I hadn't cleaned the wall of algae >.> oh well, you get the point though!



His tail looks so impressive here. But you see the piece on his tail which the orange is dark and it looks folded over? I think that membrane fused together so that's why he can't open his tail all the way up any more, he does try sometimes and you can see at the caudal he does have the straight up and down lines, just the piece is sticking together, not allowing him to stretch out to his full OHM spread.


Here you can see it better.


He's got the most impressive beard I've ever seen though, I think it's turned more orange with age as well!


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## PetMania

Remmy is so pretty!

About your other fish...is it eminent that they will get the disease as well? If so, it may be humane to euthanize them. Euthanizing a pet does suck, I know how you feel. Yeah, they aren't truly replaceable, but at least you saved them the journey.


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## lilnaugrim

There is a chance, it's not for certain but since Kit-Kat has been with the guppies she's gotten this thing about her gills, I was pretty sure it was gill flukes and I know they are a PAIN to get rid of but I'm really not 100% sure since I've never dealt with them before. The chance of them infected is higher if subjected to the infected water and/or fish as Charlie has now been in their infected water. Of course I put him in there before I really realized both the situation and what I was doing. At the time it seemed like a good idea to upsize his tank, now, not so much.

Hawkeye and Aero should be okay, the only thing they've been in contact with has been sanitized nets and siphons so they should be okay but there's always a chance no matter what I do since they were exposed back last semester with the whole sorority fiasco, before I knew more about the importance of sanitizing.

Also I have more flare pictures of Remmy and possibly a new profile pic! :-D


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> There is a chance, it's not for certain but since Kit-Kat has been with the guppies she's gotten this thing about her gills, I was pretty sure it was gill flukes and I know they are a PAIN to get rid of but I'm really not 100% sure since I've never dealt with them before. The chance of them infected is higher if subjected to the infected water and/or fish as Charlie has now been in their infected water. Of course I put him in there before I really realized both the situation and what I was doing. At the time it seemed like a good idea to upsize his tank, now, not so much.
> 
> Hawkeye and Aero should be okay, the only thing they've been in contact with has been sanitized nets and siphons so they should be okay but there's always a chance no matter what I do since they were exposed back last semester with the whole sorority fiasco, before I knew more about the importance of sanitizing.
> 
> Also I have more flare pictures of Remmy and possibly a new profile pic! :-D


 Hmm, whatever you thinks is best for your fish is what you should do.


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## lilnaugrim

Well I guess it's a decision for another time.

I'm super excited though because justmel finally came back with the money for her commission so now I can finally publicize her tattoo design to you all! Here it is! All of the fish are her's, most she intended to breed. However Rembrandt has snuck in there, with her permission of course! But I'm thinking about getting him like this as a tattoo for me since I did a pretty good job on him I feel!


This is Remmy


EDIT: I'll just tag onto this post all of my pictures of Remmy lol.

First his tank after getting most of the algae off the sides


Pretty colors!




And he was getting up to 180 spread for me!



"No camera's please!"


And this is the one, if I can enhance it to be clearer, I want to make it for my new profile pic I think!


And these are his real colors, the other side of the tank makes him too bright.


----------



## PetMania

Beautiful!


----------



## MattsBettas

I love Rembrandt. His color is awesome, and his tail looks huge- a trait that I usually hate, but Remmy holds it well and is nice and balanced. 

Petmania (and lil), euthanizing fish you _suspect_ may have a disease is not humane. It may be convenient, the easy decision, and in some situations the best way out (I think that's what you're mainly deciding on), but really, it isn't humane. They aren't suffering and you really don't even know if they are infected. Fish that are diseased (with a more complicated disease, like what you have) are a different story. 

How did the fish in the guppy tank go? Were there any actual symptoms of disease that could not be attributed to an environmental factor? 'Cuz with sudden, mass fish deaths it's usually an environmental issue- pH swing, heater malfunction, ammonia, toxins, etc. 

I hope I don't sound too harsh but this is really the reason I (with rare, non-betta exceptions) quit buying petstore fish and stopped keeping so many fish that I don't need.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I agree Matt, hence it's such a difficult decision. I know I shouldn't euthanize them but then the whole, getting out the easy way just seems appealing at this point but I know I shouldn't. Kit-Kat may be a different story if she doesn't clear up with medicating, we're on day 4 of KanaPlex and PraziPro and no improvement thus far. She breathes heavy but otherwise eats fine and swims around fine, just heavy gill movement and a slime sticking out from her gills on both sides. It looks like extra slime coat but it's been there around a week and a half, it it were slime coat it would have already been gone.

I did take some pictures of the two guppy mama's if you want to see them. The newest of the three mama's had a red blotch where her liver would be, almost as if it exploded but it could have been internal hemorrhaging as well. They were extremely pale, almost white which is odd because they were black. Also their mouths were stuck open which I found just weird anyway. No bloating or any swelling in anyone though.

No changes in pH, ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. Everything has remained steady; 6.0, 0, 0, and 20ppm. Heater was consistent unless the thermometer on the other side of the tank was broken which it isn't, glass mercury ones. No new occupants (besides birthed babies of course) or plants or decor. No buffers added, no bad rainstorms here to effect the water system. Conditioner always added although not technically needed since I have a well. All the Betta's are fine though, I mean, minus Remmy's normal scars on his head from that fungus-y stuff. Charlie has been seemingly uncomfortable in the 10 gallon though, had a bladder snail outbreak in that tank but the original snails have been in there for a long time now. Oto's in there are also fine and eating well on cucumbers and algae when it comes about.

I really think it was whatever killed the girls, the last mama's tail was ripped up and she was extremely lethargic before death, didn't even fight for me to net her which is when I know they've given up hope.

EDIT: Thanks for the compliments to Remmy! I know his tail is huge and when I got him it was less than 1/3 the size it is now! He was tiny back then. His tail exceeds his body length and he does have quite a hard time swimming around but he doesn't complain too much, he's one Betta that I don't mind either having the excessive fins, he does pull it off. He's sleeping in the water wisteria right now at the top, he's adorable because it looks like he's lounging on a day bed couch, his fins are bunched but hanging off the plant while his body and head rest on the leaves. It's too cute.


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## lilnaugrim

Gave all the boy's a lovely bloodworm dinner! Remmy is thanking me by flaring ;-) lol, I know that's not true but he's so darn cute! Even with all the algae on the wall, he's still seeing his reflection apparently >.< Oh well.

Aero was super excited for the bloodworms, they are his favorite even over brine shrimp and daphnia. Hawkeye was confused at first since I haven't fed BW's since he was muuuch younger, like still baby younger. But once he ate one he was begging for more.

Charlie was interesting, I realized he's never eaten frozen foods since he's been with me, I was too preoccupied with the guppies and all. He didn't know what to make of the first BW, he took it but spit it out and looked at it. Once he tasted it he was like "gimmie dat!" and swam back after it to gobble it up lol. He happily ate about 10 more worms before he was starting to look stuffed, he's sure has a Giant's appetite!

I don't remember if I said this or not but I'm too lazy to look back anyway. But the 10's had an explosion of bladder snails >.< like literally EVERYWHERE! Good God, if I threw an assassin snail in there he'd be stuffed for months! And of course the cucumber trick doesn't work well since the Oto's eat it first. Oh well....


----------



## lilnaugrim

Rembrandt is the silliest fish ever, I swear! There have been those little white worms that show in the tank every now and then, I don't remember the names of them. But a few of them have been pretty long like 1/4 an inch or so and I happened to look over and it was getting flung about by the filter and Remmy chased it down and gobbled it right up. He was so proud of himself. Then later after the BW dinner, so only a few minutes ago now, oh I guess it was more half an hour ago. I spotted another free swimming worm and Remmy was hiding behind the plants so I quickly got his attention and made him swim up to the worm, he saw it gobbled it down! He then proceeded to flare at his reflection lol

So now every time he see's something floating, he's been trying to eat it. It's been like little bits of hair algae floating around that he's trying to eat, he's so silly! I swear, this fish!

Also his snail is cleaning off Rem's leaf right now, he is NOT liking it. He keeps going over to rest but the snail is there eating and he starts to back up like..oh no! It's the cleaning lady! Run! lol. He's settled down now and is sitting next to her as she eats but at first that was pretty funny. He's funnier than a comedy show sometimes!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So male guppies in the 13 with Kit-Kat are still flashing dispite both KanaPlex and PraziPro 3 doses each....what else do I do? Do I just keep up with it and hope one day they'll stop flashing? Kit-Kat still has what appears to be some sort of slime at the edge of her gill plates, kind of like extra slime coat but it's been there for over a week or two now I can't remember. I was thinking Gill Flukes but PraziPro takes care of that or it should at least.

And with the 20 I think I've decided what to do:
|Mini Sorority|Aero|Hawkeye|Charlie|

Each boy will get roughly 3.33 gallons as if they were in the 10 split and the sorority girls will get 10 gallons. Or I could give each boy 4 gallons and give the girls 8. Since I only plan of having Selkie, possibly Kit-Kat if she gets better and the new breeder girl, that should be enough. I may get one more to just balance things out. Also it's going to be so stuffed with plants the girls won't even be able to move....although maybe that's counter intuitive....

Does that even sound like a good idea? Remmy would then be downstairs in his own 5.5

I also need to re silicone the 33...any tips on that?


----------



## PetMania

I love your new avatar ;-)


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Just because it seems like you have tried a number of things without success and are most likely desperate at this point, have you thought of using something like Waterlife Sterazin? 

The description is:



> STERAZIN is used or the control of gill and body parasites which cause fish to flick when no symptoms are visible to the unaided eye.


I have used their Protozin in the past with success, and I know what it is like to feel like you have thrown everything at your fish and nothing seems to be working.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Pet.

LBF, I've never even heard of that med before. Granted I've never had to battle any sort of flukes before and it's from the UK lol. Thanks though, that's what I was looking for. I was going to open a new thread today to see what other fluke medications there might be. I want to save these boy's and kit-kat, at least the boy's I can sell, I do have some pretty ones!

Of course now I'm getting issues of people not shipping internationally. I'll have to call the waterlife people later to do a phone order. I really hate calling but I know I've got to suck it up.

Can you think of anything else it could be? I haven't tried regular Epsom Salt yet to just possibly flush the parasites out, Kit-Kat isn't flashing, it's just the guppies which makes me feel like the guppies have some sort of internal parasite although their poop is normal colored and solid. They aren't breathing heavy or having issues other than flashing occasionally. It's lessened since moving to my mom's house but it's still there. Kit-Kat does not flash but breathes a little heavy and has the little grey area at the edge of her gill. It's on the beard itself, you know how sometimes a little part of the black sticks out when they breathe? I can see it then and it's like a little grey edging around her right gill area. It's not big, it's not stringy and I don't see any worms coming off it or anything. So....yeah I'm not sure.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday was an interesting day....noon time came and I was eating a lunch of some pizza with friends during the break in my 3 hour long art class (second class technically but we were sort of not doing much yet) so I was eating my Buffa-Q Pizza crust which are not really that hard, like a medium soft if you ask me (Buffa-Q is Buffalo drizzled with BBQ sauce drizzled in with it on chicken and cheese). So I was eating my crust and I just happened to bite down really hard on my right side and guess what.....I cracked a tooth right in half.....

Thankfully my tooth is the one that's a root canal so I actually can't feel it but it's cracked right in half, filling of the tooth and all. It was cracked a little on the sides before and we knew it was just a matter of time....I just didn't realize it was going to be a year and five months later that I cracked it on a piece of pizza crust >.> So and the kicker was my dentist wasn't open yesterday so it's really sore right now and I've been attempting to slowly eat my breakfast over the passed forty minutes.. It's been going fine, just is sore and I can feel the crack clearly with my tongue now. It's not coming out which is cool but that also means it's cracked all the way down the entire tooth.....I'll probably have to have it surgically removed >.< I hope it doesn't cost too much is all. 

So over all, I'm thankful it's my root canal one and it doesn't hurt much, just awkward and a bit sore.

I started to aquascape my 29! My mom's bf got me some slate pieces so I was able to build the terrace I wanted! It's like five-six inches deep on that side though so I'm definitely going to have to poke the substrate every now and then. But I plan on taking over some of my MTS and if they die, Lucillia has a butt ton I could take haha. So they can take care of that well. I'm using half FloraMax black substrate (which is smaller than the original, just slightly bigger than sand which I found weird but I love it!) and PetCo regular black sand which I barely even had to wash! It was amazing and it's soft, I love it. So I mixed the two in there and it was sort of clear this morning but not really >.< But anywho, I'm excited to work on that and hopefully silicone my 20 as well to make the dividers. I'll be using the same substrate in that and most likely the 33 downstairs as well when it's moved.

Finally got the 33 all cleaned out, just have to move the sand out now....dad suggested I just throw it in the woods....does that sound...okay? We live round 10 minutes from the ocean but I don't think we're on any water systems or anything for it to infect if it ever did. But I'd like some input from you guys, specifically Matt, CJ if you're reading and LBF if you'd care to share. Thanks guys.


----------



## Quinn

Ugh sorry about your tooth! I'm currently dealing with a giant root canal/half missing tooth causing me horrid pain, and some other work I need done. And of course my dental sucks and wont cover it, and I have an extreme needle phobia, so I have to be sedated and now have to figure out where the hell I'm getting thousands of dollars. I did one half of my mouth last year and still trying to pay that off. So hopefully I can figure it out and they can fit me in next week so I can my be in pain and not take hours to eat a simple meal! I'm such a slow eater to begin with, with having to chew carefully with only one side of my mouth... Oy. Haha!
Awesome that your starting to set up. Can't wait to see pics  Good luck


----------



## MattsBettas

I'm sorry about your tooth, that must be awful.

I'm always reading, just don't post all the time haha. I would still play it safe with the sand and run bleach and alcohol through it (separately) for 15 minutes, then rinse well and let dry before dumping. I think you could also bake it, but I'm not sure what temperature is required to kill myco or columnaris... I'll have to look it up. I know how much of a PITA it is but it's just a risk that I wouldn't take, especially if it was myco- then it could infect marine fish.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Quinn said:


> Ugh sorry about your tooth! I'm currently dealing with a giant root canal/half missing tooth causing me horrid pain, and some other work I need done. And of course my dental sucks and wont cover it, and I have an extreme needle phobia, so I have to be sedated and now have to figure out where the hell I'm getting thousands of dollars. I did one half of my mouth last year and still trying to pay that off. So hopefully I can figure it out and they can fit me in next week so I can my be in pain and not take hours to eat a simple meal! I'm such a slow eater to begin with, with having to chew carefully with only one side of my mouth... Oy. Haha!
> Awesome that your starting to set up. Can't wait to see pics  Good luck


Eating slow is good for you though! It takes your brain twenty minutes to realize that you're full and if you don't eat slowly, you end up overeating! So it's good that you eat slow and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!!

I actually don't mind the needles and stuff so I'd just be happy to get it out of my head since it's been begging to get out since I was a kid and had cavities in it. My old dentist worked on it around three times and it became like a crater basically so my top tooth came down to fit in properly so I could never have the crown on the top of the root canal so that's half the reason it only took a year to split.



MattsBettas said:


> I'm sorry about your tooth, that must be awful.
> 
> I'm always reading, just don't post all the time haha. I would still play it safe with the sand and run bleach and alcohol through it (separately) for 15 minutes, then rinse well and let dry before dumping. I think you could also bake it, but I'm not sure what temperature is required to kill myco or columnaris... I'll have to look it up. I know how much of a PITA it is but it's just a risk that I wouldn't take, especially if it was myco- then it could infect marine fish.


I figured as much lol I was more talking about LBF and if she was reading. But thanks! I've done the bleach already, let it run through the filters with no media to just get the filters clean too and had that run for around 24 hours or so. And then let it sit in the tank a day or two when I was too lazy to drain it that day. So the sand should be well bleached, just need to do alcohol then and the rinse. I think I'd rather not bake it just in case, I'm sure it won't explode on me or anything but I'd just rather let do the alcohol and the rinse lol seems simpler and less dangerous.


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## lilnaugrim

Well finally got into the dentists this morning, new person since my regular dentist is on vacation still!!! insert super duper sad face!

Tooth is cracked right down to the roots basically, had five x-ray's down on it and getting it extracted in three hours at 3:15....I can't lie, I'm definitely nervous but I have a feeling it's going to be nothing like getting the root canal done. I know it's going to be uncomfortable and awkward but there's no pain since I don't even have roots in that tooth to be pulling on so it should be an easy surgery.

Found out it's going to be around 3,000 USD to get a fake tooth put in but I need to do it. Since I'm only 21, going that long without a tooth there is just going to make the top tooth come down more (which was who was responsible for breaking my tooth in the first place, not the pizza crust) and then the two on each side will come in and angle towards each other which is no good! They said my teeth are too pretty not to get the fake one haha. I agree, but 3 thousand dollars is a lot to be asking of my parents and I can chip in but not that much, maybe one thousand once my full refund comes in. Thankfully I have to wait 4-5 months until the gums heal before we can put the fake one in.

In fish news, I was finally able to get my Black Moscow pair today! The female is already prego so that works out! They are the blackest black fish I've ever seen! I've never seen Moscows in real life so this is amazing to really see them! And I got the pair for 10 dollars instead of the 12 they were charging others ^_^ they love me! Helps I'm giving them half the babies anyway so it's a fair trade! that way I don't have to find as many homes for all of them too.


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## lilnaugrim

Well it's done! It didn't hurt at all during the actual procedure, I know it's going to hurt later though once the novacaine wears off. Oh yeah and I'm on an all liquid diet for a week >.> Got another appointment next Thursday to check back and make sure it's all well. The gauze in my mouth right now sucks. Yeah...thank god for pain killers is all I can say. Also got some antibiotics for the now-absent-tooth.

Fish are good, Remmy was just flaring like mad as he does at this time every day. Charles is being good and not minding his Oto friends. He doesn't mind fish that don't swim on the upper levels. Although he's having issues getting around because that tank has now literally turned into a jungle lol. For some reason with the explosion of bladder snails (most will be removed on Saturday and sent to WildBetta) the water sprite and water wisteria have also exploded in growth. It's now all growing OUT of the tank although being burned by the lights since they are so close but holy mackerel!

Aero is being a good boy to his new guppy neighbors who happily feasted on some flakes a little while ago. Hawkeye is being lazy as usual without any stimulus he just kind of mopes around. His Ramshorn snail came out! For some reason, that snail likes to burrow itself and stay there for a week or so....I wonder if he's hanging with the MTS or something.....idk! Both snail shells look healthy!

Okay so I'll soon be ordering plants for the new 29 and 20 gallon, I'm not taking over any plants just to be safe. All plants will also get a QT for a week in double dose of PP from Clear Water by Jungle to rid any snails and possible disease. Although...wait, does PP kill snails? I forget. So anyway, help aquascaping? I think I might want HM (regular baby tears) at the edge of the terrace in the 29, of course I'll have to show you guys pictures and all. And then I was thinking some staurogyne repens for a mid cover next to the slate wall kind of like hedging but not to high you can't see the wall since I worked hard to position them just right! So yeah....any ideas or plants you guy's would like to see! I'd be happy for the help :-D


----------



## Huffle Puffles

I wish you a speedy recovery!!  Don't know if you're allowed crushed ice for your liquid diet, but it really helped me break up the monotony when I was on mine to have Italian ice cups or slushies, just to get a little texture here and there.


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## lilnaugrim

Huffle Puffles said:


> I wish you a speedy recovery!!  Don't know if you're allowed crushed ice for your liquid diet, but it really helped me break up the monotony when I was on mine to have Italian ice cups or slushies, just to get a little texture here and there.


For the first week or so im not allowed to have anything with small pieces, ice included, like rice because it can get stuck in the hole lol....yeah, no good. I'm going to make a fruit smoothie without ice in the morning for breakfast, probably some coffee too and not sure what I'll do for lunch, maybe make extra smoothie and have it for that too. We've got protein mix so I'll add that in as well. But thank you!


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## lilnaugrim

So Lucillia and I got this beautiful Platinum Snakeskin pair in on Monday, I haven't uploaded my pics since then with the whole being preoccupied with teeth breaking and all. So finally got around to uploading them. If I don't make sense in part of the post, I'm really sorry, these medication is hitting me hard and I shouldn't have even come in to school/work today but I'm stubborn and an idiot so there you have it.

Anyway, once the female drops her first batch which should be in about two and a half weeks now, she came prehit but didn't look very preggo. But once she drops, she'll be sent off to Lucillia to breed with her yellow/black SS male.


I love his high dorsal


They still have quite a bit of growing to do though.


"Let's cuddle in the corner and maybe she won't see us!"




The female has pretty decent form all around as well, but as I said, they've both still got some growing to do.


Kissing fishies!


I added some wisteria to their tank as it floats and I get rid of the rest of the dust in this 13. He's saying hiiiii ^_^


And the Moscows from yesterday. They are both bigger than the Platinum SS pair but they also still have some growing to do. I love the female's form, thick but balanced all around


I mostly got shots of her since she was the only one cooperating with me.


I thought the male had a hole in his fin, turned out it's a streak of platinum...I want to cross the lines eventually and hoping to make more of a Black/Platinum SS or Lace, I like the more finely patterned tails.


His tail is also bitten, he doesn't have a top sword there. It should grow back soon.


I think they are a good looking pair together though. They were the largest and blackest of the pairs they had. Originally I was just going to get a male but figured I could use both now that I'm starting more or less fresh.


Lol, silly female was trying to eat the wet spot under the tank there. The male was just like "I don't know her!" and swam away XD


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## Lucillia

They are so beautiful! !!!!


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## Quinn

Glad you got your teeth all fixed up! I'm hoping they can save my tooth rather than have to extract it so I don't need an implant. Doesn't it seem criminal how expensive health care is?!?! 
I made an appt for next Thursday (soonest they could fit me they said since I need an extra long appt) but then I was up and down all night in pain that the meds they gave me were not helping. So I called this morning asking for better meds and the receptionist said they can't prescribe anything stronger. Agh! So she set me up with an appt on Monday, but it's short and I relay don't know if they'll even be able to do anything, not sure she really understood the situation. But REALLY, you can't give me anything stronger then high dose ibuprofen and Tylenol with codeine? I seem to have high drug tolerances and this is really not cuttin' it!

Anyway congrats on the new breeding pairs! I hope you get many pretty guppybabes.


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## BettaLover1313

Lovely breeding pairs!


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## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> They are so beautiful! !!!!


I KNOW!!! I'm super excited for them! The moscows are doing and eating well already.



BettaLover1313 said:


> Lovely breeding pairs!


Thank you, thank you!!



Quinn said:


> Glad you got your teeth all fixed up! I'm hoping they can save my tooth rather than have to extract it so I don't need an implant. Doesn't it seem criminal how expensive health care is?!?!
> I made an appt for next Thursday (soonest they could fit me they said since I need an extra long appt) but then I was up and down all night in pain that the meds they gave me were not helping. So I called this morning asking for better meds and the receptionist said they can't prescribe anything stronger. Agh! So she set me up with an appt on Monday, but it's short and I relay don't know if they'll even be able to do anything, not sure she really understood the situation. But REALLY, you can't give me anything stronger then high dose ibuprofen and Tylenol with codeine? I seem to have high drug tolerances and this is really not cuttin' it!
> 
> Anyway congrats on the new breeding pairs! I hope you get many pretty guppybabes.


God I know! Well found out it won't be 3 grand for the implant, something like 1900 or so but that's still ridiculous for a tooth I need!

Ugggood luck with your teeth too! I'm glad I'm not in THAT much pain, just sore really. Funny, I've got my check up this Thursday too ^_^ dentist buddies!! Haha I really can't wait for this implant though regardless of what its going to cost, I just want this all done.

Oh and yeah, I got some pretty strong meds, they gave me hydrocodone acetaminophen 5-535, so that's 5 grams the first stuff and 535 of the second lol. I took three last night not realizing the side effects....yeah this morning was fun when I took another two to stave off the pain, I shouldn't have been driving, that's for sure! But I made it to college safely at least. But I wonder if that would help you out at all.


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## lilnaugrim

Ug, I don't know if you guys notice these things but ever notice how people come in waves on here and they're always about fin rot or at one time it was all columnaris or whatever. Is it just me that gets annoyed when people don't read other threads to help their own fish? Probably just me lol. I know I didn't do crap for research when I first started but still, it annoys me at times. Of course real life doesn't help either at the moment, oh well.

But I'm just really sick of answering Fin Rot things and then when I say it's not fin rot, they get all angry because they totally believe it's fin rot >.< anyway, I'll stop ranting now.

Fish are well but I hope our power doesn't go out with this super bad blizzard storm on it's way tonight. Supposed to be around an inch an hour or so getting up to around 12 inches in most areas and 14 in others....fun times! I've got a lot of pretty pictures from last night since it was snowing yesterday too so I like to take pics while I drive lol. I don't focus on the pics, just snap while I drive and some come out amazing! I'll post them later since I'm supposed to be paying attention in class right now...whoops XD it's an easy class though.


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## LittleBettaFish

I understand what you mean Lilnaugrim. It's like the questions that get asked about food and sororities even when sometimes the same question has been asked and answered on that same page. 

I find tail biting tends to get written off as fin rot a lot. Then the poor fish is made to suffer through endless treatments and medications, which the owner doesn't realise isn't going to make any difference.


----------



## lilnaugrim

LittleBettaFish said:


> I understand what you mean Lilnaugrim. It's like the questions that get asked about food and sororities even when sometimes the same question has been asked and answered on that same page.
> 
> I find tail biting tends to get written off as fin rot a lot. Then the poor fish is made to suffer through endless treatments and medications, which the owner doesn't realise isn't going to make any difference.


I completely agree. While I understand it's difficult at first to really figure out what it is and all, people are still learning and whatnot; it's still frustrating lol. I wish I could just copy and paste everything except each of my answers are different enough that it's not worth copy and pasting. I think we need a sticky on the difference between fin biting and TRUE fin rot >.> OH and coloration of just black fins too.


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## lilnaugrim

Also, has anyone bought from interbettas? I was supposed to get that Black Copper CTPK girl and have paid for her but Sonya hasn't answered me back on if the girl was sent out or not. I've contacted Linda as well who the girl is supposed to go to but she hasn't answered yet either. Just wondering if this is normal, they were good at communication in the beginning but now...it's been 8 day's >.< I WANT MY GIRL! or at least my money back >.<

Okay! Pretty pictures I took on the way home last night!

I know it's blurry but it makes such an interesting artistic effect, I almost want to print it out and frame it lol. Just some random house on the way home XD




Love the frame of the trees and lights too






Love the little light circles ^_^





Ghostly trees!



I love this one, looks like firelight through the woods or something, it's soft and inviting 


This one looks like horses jumping! I love the way light plays!


Oh and this is what my 29 looks like right now, I can't wait for my Finnex Planted Plus lights to come in soon and I can get plants and plant it!


And I got two Bumblebee Shrimp! I'm a super sucker for anything and everything black and yellow, I've been eyeing them at my LFS for quite a while now and figured I'd give them a try in Kit-Kat's 13. I wasn't going to feel too bad if they became an expensive snack for Kit-Kat but I'm thoroughly surprised that she didn't even bother! She'll occasionally give a little nip to the guppies if they get in her way but otherwise she couldn't give a care in the world! Love this little girl. So here's one of the little guys who have been happy in the tank for just about a week now....I think...geez I'm losing track of time soo bad >.< oh well!
The other one is more defined bumblebee lines but this was the only good picture I got of them.


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## Lucillia

ITS SO CUTE I WANT ONE!!!!!  I want a shrimpy so bad.


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## lilnaugrim

Hehe, I think they are both he's. I was hoping for the large female they had but the boy had issues catching the shrimp haha I didn't mind though. I got them from Critter Hut

Oh! Just checked my email and Sanya got back to me! Luci, our fishy was sent out yesterday so we should get her as soon as Linda gets back to me!! yayayayayayay


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## lilnaugrim

And a video of the guppies and I think Kit-Kat is in there too, I didn't rewatch it through again since I took it. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tAa2AR-Fk4


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## Lucillia

Kit kat has huge fins!!! You weren't kidding!! !HOLY POOP! They're gorgeous though! I really like them!


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## lilnaugrim

I told you so! lol hence my questioning but you can see her blatantly obvious ovipositer as well even fake egg spots on males aren't usually that big. Oh and that guppy boy who comes in around 0:33 is my favorite! He looks just like his mama and he's filling in his pectorals to be black just like his papa! He's got a twin as well who is a little bigger than him too.

Anyone see anyone they'd like to have for the boy's? I think I may keep that boy who comes in at 0:33 just because I can, he's so darn adorable! The others though will be sold. I do love that fully golden boy that comes after kit-kat too, he'd be a nice breeder boy with his overall form. So yeah...that's all so far in the guppy world!


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## LittleBettaFish

I've purchased from Interbettas before. The two male HMs I got from him were the most stunning HMs I have ever owned.

Hopefully your female got sent. It's hard when there's a language barrier (sometimes I used to have no idea if my fish had been sent or not) and then no one answers your emails.


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## lilnaugrim

LittleBettaFish said:


> I've purchased from Interbettas before. The two male HMs I got from him were the most stunning HMs I have ever owned.
> 
> Hopefully your female got sent. It's hard when there's a language barrier (sometimes I used to have no idea if my fish had been sent or not) and then no one answers your emails.


Yeah, they've got some amazing stock for sure! I'm excited to breed the female, she should definitely throw an amazing spawn! Interbettas did get back to me and said the female was sent, so now I'm just waiting on Linda which will probably be tomorrow she emails back....hopefully. I know Linda's gotten a lot of business since Jennifer quit the business so I don't mind a day or so, it's when it gets passed three days it's like....really? Do you not what my money? lol

I'm super excited!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay so the more I think about it the more I have a dilemma....I need help deciding something:

So I have two options, well two decent ones at least. I can either split the 20 long for five fish: Selkie | New Isis | Aero | Hawkeye | Charlie | and then I leave Kit-Kat with the male guppies since she just doesn't care.

OR

I can split the 20 for the 8-10 gallon portion for a mini sorority of Selkie, Isis, Kit-Kat and most likely at least one or two others to balance it out and put Aero, Hawkeye, and Charlie in the split up portions.

What seems to be the better course of action here? I figure if I split it for all fish then there is no chance, or less a chance for injury and more stress, harder to clean though usually. If I split with a small sorority, there may be a chance for more stress but I plan of having a fully stable planted jungle environment. This time with no one to turn my lights off and destroy my closed environment >.> but I could get one or two other fishes, most likely from my LFS. The poor girls there have been stuck there for over three months now and theres a cute yellow Pineapple DT girl that I've been eyeing for a while now. I know I shouldn't get her, especially not yet.

So what are your thoughts on this? The tank will be divided with mesh so if one gets sick, they're all going to get sick anyway. I feel much more confident in the sorority course this time after the crash and burn test. The only issue I see with the sorority is when comes time for breeding, I would be taking out one or two of these girls so hence the extra girls to hopefully keep them from killing each other. At that point I could get a few more breeder nets just to keep them separated for the time the others are in breeding is all.


----------



## PetMania

Honestly, I would split it up for all of the fish just to reduce chance of stress  

I wanted to update you on Snowbird. She is doing great and is fiesty as ever.


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## lilnaugrim

Glad to hear it Pet!

Yeah....that would give 4 gallons to each fish which isn't bad, Kit-Kat would stay with the males since she's good with that. Hopefully I measure out the dividers correctly! I'm going to go find how to split it now so I don't screw it up. I plan to silicone them next Sunday or Monday and hopefully let it cure for a week completely and then I get to sand/FloraMax it and my lights should definitely be in by then and I can start planting! I want to get the plants mostly stable before I put the fish in, also will get the sponge filters and get them up and running as well. Can't wait!

My Finnex Fugeray Planted+ lights are supposed to be in the 10th!! I'm sooooo excited to try these guys! I got two, one for the 20 and one for the 29. I still need to get glass tops, I think I might just get the MarineLand glass canopies instead of trying to find plexsi-glass and do it myself. It will probably cost the same honestly to get it all done and I don't feel like going through the hassle tbh.

But came home to dads to find out that the Black Moscow Guppy girl somehow got onto Aero's side of the divider.....he tore her to shreds and killed her >.> stupid fish.....but the male is fine and is warming up to me. When I bought the pair there was only two females, I'm going to go back tomorrow and see if the last female is there. If she is I will replace them then so I can continue on the Black Moscow at least for a few generations for my LFS so I can either get store credit or money :-D! Exciting!

Remmy's tank has a ton of snail tracks on it lol I see tracks from the Mystery girl and then a smaller one of a bladder snail who snuck into there >.> but the tank has so much algae that I can just see through the snail tracks....sigh. It's just regular green algae I can wipe off but holy mackerel!

Charles is a snooty Englishman for sure! He was happy to eat though.

Aero is content with himself after killing the girl >.>

Hawkeye is just like....what's going on? Did I miss all the fun? lol


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## PetMania

Your fish are quite interesting.


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## BettaLover1313

Sorry to hear about your Black Moscow girl. Glad to hear that Charles, Remmy, & Hawkeye are doing well!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah....my fish are weird and sometimes annoying but I love them XD lol

Aero is still all proud of himself >.>

I need to do all the water changes tonight since tomorrow I'll be headed up to Syracuse, NY for a convention for my fraternity all Saturday. It's a six hour drive from here so....fun fun >.< But Hawkeye's Mystery snail has been floating since yesterday. She's alive but not apparently liking her tank. I'm thinking about switching her to Aero's tank as long as he doesn't kill her. OR move Aero from his tank and switch with Hawkeye so Hawkeye most likely won't kill the guppies even though they are divided and I could see him better against the river gravel versus the black sand lol he is dark purple so it's super hard to get a look at him when I want to. I think I might do that.

I feel bad for Hawkeye since his filter died, I haven't monitored his levels since I haven't been home so that's probably why the snail is angry at me, the nitrates are probably high. So hence I need to do a water change. Not sure what I'm going to do about the filter though, maybe I'll just leave it and hope the bacteria continue to live there and not cause a crash or anything....I do however have some extra sponges, an air stone and an air pump.....I think I could make a mini sponge filter for him if I can figure out how to make a center tube....I wonder if craft mesh would work......


----------



## lilnaugrim

My god, what a crazy weekend :shock:

Friday afternoon, four other Brother's and I headed up to Syracuse for our Precinct Convention of this year (this is for my fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi). Stayed at a hotel and went to convention on Saturday, it was awesome and we met a lot of great people which I'm not facebook friends with haha. And then we had to drive home that night, all seven hours and then of course, me being the only commuter of the bunch had to drive home as well on top of it. But all was well.

Sunday morning came and I opted out of church in the favor of recuperating from walking up and down stairs in -1*F weather with a wind chill around -30*F or so. It was freezing! So I slept in around till 10 which was great! Got up, we went out for brunch and I decided to go to my moms house after that. Now...my moms house is on a hill, we live in Hope Valley and yes it is actually a valley. So we live on the side of that hill basically, quarter of the way down-ish. So our driveway is rather steep and annoying. I was driving my dad's diesel pick-up Ford 250 4x4 truck.....I got stuck.....

We have a horseshoe shaped drive and I got stuck on the lower part of it and almost slid down the side hill going to our even lower driveway part that we almost never use but maybe once or twice a year. I tried every tactic I knew, even was able to put it into 4WD but I didn't realize it was 4High. There were four options on the lever (Kronk! Pull the level! Wrong leeeeveeerrr!!! Ugg, why do we even _have_ that lever!), 2H, 4H, N and 4L. I put it into 4H and was told later that was 4 wheel drive high so it might have done the job but 4 wheel drive Low would have been better since it literally will crawl out of anything.

So dad gets to my mom's house with my "grandfather's" toyota carolla and parks fine in the driveway. First issue is that he didn't realize that the E-brake was on....whoops, I should have told him but I didn't think anything of it until I saw the back tires weren't moving. By then he was already in the lowest part of the driveway having basically driven over the grass to get down there. Then he backed out onto the road which is a privately owned road by us. He got stuck on the other side of the road on a small tree stump.....bent the frame a little....

So we got AAA to come and long story short, we were able to pull the truck out of the stump after cutting it with a chain saw (my idea and dad was like...duhh, why didn't I think of that before??), we almost pulled the AAA truck down with us too since it's a huge truck! Dad backed down to our neighbors since it's a dead end street and we waited for the AAA truck to get out of the way. He was stuck....so we called another AAA truck to come pull him out from the top of the steep little hill we have there.

So two AAA trucks and 4 and a half hours later, we were both out with both the truck and the little car.....I missed my meeting lol that's not a big deal, but both cars are okay with minimum damage and I am almost defrosted from this entire weekend lol.

I was able to at least get the Moscows over to my mom's house though so the two blacks are there now. Both females are happy with each other in one 13 with Selkie who has been behaving herself and the males are happy little buggers with Kit-Kat.

I played the Betta Shuffle and am in the process of taking down Remmy's 3, he was originally split in the 10 with Hawkeye but he bit up his fins so bad that.....I don't even know....he took off almost an entire ventral fin and has done some bad damage to his caudal. He's now in the 5.5 under the 33 and have done a water change on him yesterday. Put Aero and Hawkeye in the 10 and Charlie is in the other 5.5g.

The new Isis black copper CTPK girl will be arriving in a few days! Linda finally got back to me about everything, apparently Sanya from Interbettasfarm has been lax in putting customer information on the bags for Linda >.< but all is well and she should be arriving around Thursday! I'm so excited to finally meet her!

Sorry about the long post, it's been a long weekend and I have a feeling it's going to be a long week as well.....


----------



## BettaLover1313

Your weekend was very eventful! Glad everything worked out well though! Poor Remmy  hope his fins heal up nicely!


----------



## summersea

Phew! Crazy weekend! Glad everything ended up well! This winter has been a crazy one! The school district I work for has had 19 snow days already. I just keep hoping spring gets here soon!

Yay for the new girl getting there soon! I can't wait to see pics!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Your weekend was very eventful! Glad everything worked out well though! Poor Remmy  hope his fins heal up nicely!


Yeah! Minus the dings and slightly bent frame of my dad's truck >.< But I'm getting car back today so I'm excited to NOT drive something that I have to fill up on diesel every time I drive to school >.> And Remmy's fins are already healing! He's always been a great healer for the most part, ragged and rugged but healed at least. For some reason I get waaay too excited watching fins heal.....like Aero is almost completely healed up! He's working on the very edges of his fins right now while he flares his beard off at Hawkeye lol But Remmy's ventral has already got a little clear parts on it! It looks so nice, I love "fresh" fins haha.



summersea said:


> Phew! Crazy weekend! Glad everything ended up well! This winter has been a crazy one! The school district I work for has had 19 snow days already. I just keep hoping spring gets here soon!
> 
> Yay for the new girl getting there soon! I can't wait to see pics!


19 day's?!?!? Holy crap! Yeah, we're getting a blizzard tomorrow up here....this is what it's gonna look like:








RI is mostly in red except for the islands and the entire coast (which is where I live) is all black.....yikes.....they make it look much worse than it is lol. Don't they normally use like purple for mix, green for rain and white/blue for snow? haha

I seriously can't wait for spring! It's going to be one hell of a mud pit here but that's alright! I will take mud over glare ice! At least mud they can pull you out for the most part easier. This isn't going to be good with my little, short car though.....ugggg whhhhhy do I live in New England???


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## summersea

Yikes!! That does not look good! We got lucky and it is only hitting the southeastern counties here in Kentucky. We had snow day #20 yesterday so I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy this one did head north west. Stay safe!


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks. Yeah it really shouldn't be that bad, we've handled worse before. Last year at this same time we had Blizzard "Nemo" where we had no power for five days which is normal for like a regular Hurricane not a blizzard lol I was just getting into fish then for reals, I had Remmy only along with my 10 gallon with a Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami and 6 Silver Tetras >.< I hhhhhhaaaate Silver Tetras, NEVER get them!

Oh! Isis came in today! She looks absolutely fantastic and beautiful and perfect! I'll get pics of her tomorrow when she's had time to settle in and get comfy in her little warmed 1 gallon :-D She's a little bloated I think from being at Lindas for around two weeks and so I'm sure she fed her whatever she had, at least I'm hoping that's all it is. If it hasn't gone down much in 24 hours I'll get her on Epsom Salt to help relieve a little of the fluid buildup or constipation.

Got my car back today too! 848 dollars later >.< although dad did help me and put 400 on his card and the rest is on me. I don't know how I'm going to make it through this semester, still need to buy my art supplies but also need to get my tooth implant which the titanium screw part is going to be 1900 in an of itself, no ideas about the tooth and stuff. I've been told around 3,000......uggg what is my life??


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## Quinn

I'M SO DONE WITH THIS WEATHER! Come oooonnnnn spring.
And ugh so sorry about the financial crap! I'm right there in the same boat with ya, due to unforseen pet health issues and other expenses I didn't save my fed. taxes away for the past year, without thinking it through, since I run my own biz and now I'm having to come up with all the money so I can file, and then all my dental issues which was sat to run 4000, and now I've had complications which keep racking on cost. Plus my student debt I'm still paying off... Frack.
Glad you finally got your girl! Hopefully the bloating is no issue, is she is looking great in no time!


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## lilnaugrim

Seriously! I mean, what we got today wasn't half as bad as what they were saying but it's going to freeze over tonight and it's going to be a hell of a drive to school/work tomorrow! That's for sure!

Oh and I just learned last night after I picked up my car (total was actually 889 but that's fine) that my car does not have a new battery.....we were told at the dealership they put a new battery in it....no they just gave me a USED battery! Like seriously?! Who does that??? So we had to jump it today and I ran it for an hour to charge it completely and if it dies tomorrow morning then I have to spend ANOTHER 100 dollars to get a new battery too >.> sooo....let me see....589+100+3000 is too much money to count :shock:

On some good fish related news! Isis is doing exceptionally well and very active! She's working off her bloat very well, she wasn't bloated though she's just eggy so I didn't feed her today and she seems much thinner than she was last night. I think one more fasting day before I give her a few pellets to start. I did give her one last night to help keep her occupied and she gobbled it up so I'm excited! She currently pacing her tank but it's more like the begging me for food pace lol Aero does it too.

Pictures of the little girl!
Her dragon scales make her look sad >.<


She's so small!




She's actually a decent spread! Her AB pictures made her look worse


Showing off for herself lol




She reminds me of Jewel


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## summersea

Yay for snow not as bad as expected but boo for bills and unexpected expenses. :-(

Your new girl is gorgeous! Love her color! I am so glad she is settling in well for you!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks summersea!

Know what else I'm sick of? (not directed at you summersea, just in general) People continually trying to correct me after I already admitted that I was wrong. What more do you want people? I also get extremely annoyed when we as a whole, and I know I've done this before, is repeated something someone else has already said. Like when someone points out a tank compatibility issue and then it's pointed out again and again and again. You can beat a dead horse guys so just back the heck off. I try to be mindful of it but I know I've fallen into that category as well and when I do it purposely I try to at least add more to the conversation and help out not just berate the poster as everyone else has been doing.

Sorry if I offend anyone but it's just really gotten on my nerves and I'm already at wits end with all this crap. Makes me want to quit the forum sometimes too, I probably won't but seriously people, what the heck? I really hate the "herd" mentality we all have as humans, it's innate and most of the time we don't really notice it but seriously....just seriously think before you post. You never know who's on the other end.


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## lilnaugrim

Sorry about the rant post last night >.< I was extremely pissed off at two uncalled for responses. Anywho.....

Just as I thought we were in the clear, we're getting another Snow Storm tomorrow! Kind of thankful it's Snow storm and not an Ice Storm as we have been getting! Campus is practically all glare ice although it is melting which means it's going to freeze over even smoother tonight! Thank god I don't live on campus! I'd probably die from walking up and down this hill :shock:

Fish are well this morning although we had a minor power outage around 1:16 this morning....Remmy's filter woke me up with those annoying sounds when the filter is trying to get the air out of it's pipes....ugg scared the crap out of me, Siberian was sleeping on top of me and sort of got through across my bed when I woke up out of no where lol. poor cat XD

Speaking of Siberian, that's literally all he did yesterday, was sleep on top of me which ever way he could get; my hip, my butt, my shoulder's, my legs >.< geez, this cat! I swear! I like lap kitties but he goes a little overboard sometimes lol he's still adorbs though.


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## Chesh

stay warm! *hugs*


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Chesh! The storm isn't until tonight so I'm going to visit my LFS just to stop in. They had called earlier in the week and I couldn't exactly here what Chuck said but I did get that he had something for me....this always happens >.< I ask them to keep their eye out for something for me, not special order but if it happens to come in the shop, give me a call. Well every time they get something I, I would have already bought that thing I asked them about either that week or the week before >.< I feel so bad sometimes!! I think they just got some more female Betta's in this week....I'm really considering doing that 10-ish gallon sorority....


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## lilnaugrim

So every time I've gone to clean out the 10 gallon I get caught up in something. The other day was cleaning my room, then watching Netflix lol and then today I decided to attempt a seriously DIY sponge filter since the old 5-15 Aqua-Tech was starting to get tired, she's had a good run....RIP Aqua-Tech Dec 2013-Feb 2014

lol. Anywho! I didn't take pictures since I was busy trying not to stab myself with the needle even though I did once. Meh, I'm pretty savy with a needle though so didn't slow me down! So I took some mesh, made a tube enough for a small regular air stone to fit into then got some filter pad material that I have, like the blue bond stuff. Wrapped that around and sewed it together and then stuffed the end with more sponge and voila! We have a...sort of working sponge filter XD no idea if it's going to pick up much debris since it isn't able to get a lot of the suction that a regular tube with holes would but hey! I've got sponge in there for the bacteria to colonize on again! The plants should take care of it but still, the added bonus is good and water movement is good too!

But I finally did a 50% on the 10 after....a long time--I'd rather not say how long >.< maybe a month and a half-two months? yikes....preparing to move and trying to get the bedroom you're moving into really takes a toll on things. Oh yeah and school and commissions and the job and trying to pay for a tooth implant :shock: okay, going crazy!

Oh! We've got a solid 6.5 inches of snow here too! I'm super thankful though that it isn't ice raining afterwards! Just nice, fluffy snow ^_^ Plows have been up and running since around 1, an hour after it started so that's cool. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to my mom's tomorrow without issue >.<

Isis is doing fantastically in her little 2.5. She's be pacing all day but it's not like a frantic, I need help pace, more like a 'hey! what's going on out there?' pace lol. She is so absolutely adorable! I can't wait to breed her and Osiris!

Remmy's injuries are growing back well. King All-Must-Bow-Down-To-Me-Charles is doing well but he keeps jumping....like a lot and hitting the light housing....I'm not sure if that's cause to worry or not, there isn't anywhere he could jump out but why the heck is he hitting the light housing?? Aero is fantastic, he and Hawk are getting along just fine; the occasional flare up but neither of them injure themselves over it *rolls eyes and looks to Remmy*


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## Lucillia

Maybe Charlie is seeing his reflection at the surface of the water from the lights? Wild guess.. dubno. AND BABIES!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, not a clue Lucillia! I'm kind of having second thoughts about putting him in a divided tank! >.< grrr, now I have TWO fishes that have issues being divided.....god, this sucks >.>

OOOOHH!!! The platinum Snakeskin guppy girl had her babies! Well most of them I assume were eaten, I checked in on Friday and Selkie was looking pleased with herself lol. But I was able to get two of them this morning when I came here! Roads weren't too bad today which is great! Oh and Selkie is coloring up more! She's gotten so much more black copper on her fins and has more grizzling on her body now! She looks pretty neat, I'll have to get pictures soon :-D

My two Bumblebee shrimp are still alive and one just shed its exoskeleton and survived so I take that as a good sign ^_^ These dinky Aqueon heaters are having issues keeping the temperature up, this morning both tanks were down around 72-74 degrees, not that much of an issue really but still it'd be nice if they could hold a steady 76-78 at least! The Betta girls are happy as ever in these tanks and I haven't gotten around to testing them yet but I believe they are both cycled now having used both SeaChem Stability and then a bottle of TSS but that bottle was subjected to freezing temperatures so I wasn't sure if it was going to work or not but I think it is since none of them have had ill effects. Lol Selkie is trying to get my attention to play with her XD she's such a cutie! She still looks like a fat harbor seal too haha

We got around 8 inches of snow last night...fun times! Took an hour and a half to dig myself out this morning along with the path and the porch. My memiere's 70th birthday party is in less than half an hour! I made this for her since she loves birds, it's made with colored Acrylic inks! Mostly I paint down the water and put a drop of the color on it and that's how I made the entire thing except for the seeds. It looks concave but that's because I took the picture of it propped up and with my phone which sucks anyway.


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## BettaLover1313

Wonderful painting!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Wonderful painting!


Thanks! Technically it is a drawing since it is done with inks but regardless, thank you much ^_^


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## DaytonBetta

Very nice artwork! My son loves drawing birds.


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## lilnaugrim

DaytonBetta said:


> Very nice artwork! My son loves drawing birds.


Thank you much! Birds are quite fantastic, I'm also doing a whole project with owls in my Lithography class as well.


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## Chesh

Owls are my_ favourite_s! Lithography class just made you even _MORE_ interesting (I dunno how, cuz' there's so much awesomeness already!). . . and? _AND?! _Congrats to platinum Snakeskin guppy girl on her first spawn! Such pretty fish. . . <3


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## lilnaugrim

Chesh said:


> Owls are my_ favourite_s! Lithography class just made you even _MORE_ interesting (I dunno how, cuz' there's so much awesomeness already!). . . and? _AND?! _Congrats to platinum Snakeskin guppy girl on her first spawn! Such pretty fish. . . <3


Awwww, thank you!!! That made my day ^_^  

And I've uploaded a picture just for you and DaytonBetta! Here is the finished owl which was my first one. This one is done on a Lime stone slab, drawn with a grease pencil, then a whole process and then you print it on good paper. This is one of my good editions, I did 3 good editions, and then 4 proofs leading up to my editions and 3 tests on newsprint paper so it was quite a process! But I'm loving process so much now!!
This is an Eastern Saw-Whet Owl








And this is the beginnings to my second image which is a Screech Owl. The stuff that I have down on the stone right now is called tosche which is liquid grease, so with the pencils it is a solid grease and with tosche you sort of paint it on. I'll try to get some up close pictures of the texture since it's so cool! It reminds me of sort of a typography map where you see the elevations, where you put down the most tosche you get the "top of the mountain" and then the valley's, it is so cool!
This is my Screech Owl, the dark spots are tosche that just hasn't dried yet so I'll have to get more pictures later when I can get back in the studio!








And yes! The Plat SS girl babies are doing well, they don't seem to be eating much though. I need to get some spirulina powder and make some guppy food for them since NLS flakes probably aren't the best staple for them although I've raised babies before on it. I think part of it is that there are only two of them so they are a little bit scared of everything which is fine. I just hope they warm up soon or the Moscow drops her babies so I can combine them all and make them feel safer


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## PetMania

I have fry as well, and are you as nervous about them as me  Because I am always wondering how they are. 
Still smaller than a thumbnail. I hope they are much bigger when they turn a month old.


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## tisci

I love your sorority tank!! You answered my question in the baby thread & I saw your name in this journal section & figured I'd peek around. I feel your pain w/the snow & car issues. I'm in MA & we're getting hammered with the snow. And to really doubly enjoy the snow, I got stranded with a dead alternator in the freezing weather last Thursday. And then the darn snow caused my sway bar to snap. New England winters are hell on vehicles.


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## lilnaugrim

tisci said:


> I love your sorority tank!! You answered my question in the baby thread & I saw your name in this journal section & figured I'd peek around. I feel your pain w/the snow & car issues. I'm in MA & we're getting hammered with the snow. And to really doubly enjoy the snow, I got stranded with a dead alternator in the freezing weather last Thursday. And then the darn snow caused my sway bar to snap. New England winters are hell on vehicles.


Thank you! Unfortunately that tank is no longer up, not sure how far you got on with my journal, there is a lot to read there if you wanted to haha. But yeah, seriously! Getting sick of all these snow/ice storms! Almost got caught in my driveway again last night but thankfully I know how to drive in the snow and got myself out. It's hell around campus where there are people not from New England who don't know how to drive in the snow.....yeah, I am not a happy college kid at those times lol.

Oh ouch, sucks about your car! Thankfully mine has been running great since we got her fixed up last week, I still need to get a new O2 sensor soon though >.< waaaayyy too many expenses for one semester!!


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## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> I have fry as well, and are you as nervous about them as me  Because I am always wondering how they are.
> Still smaller than a thumbnail. I hope they are much bigger when they turn a month old.


I gave up on worrying about them lol. Half the week they don't really get food yet they still turn out fantastic so I'm really not worried about them! Livebearer fry are so darn hardy it ain't funny! lol Good luck with your fry though ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

And just to show off a little bit more of my printmaking stuff since it is pretty darn cool I feel!!

Here are up close pictures of the Tosche I was talking about, see how it makes those lines almost like you would see on a topographic map?
This is part of the eye and the beak


Upclose of the tree part


And a branch, you can see where the liquid pooled more at where the 'branch' divides there. That's where I initially laid the liquid down and spread it from there but it still pooled mostly at that point. It's so fascinating!


And this is just the sketch of this image and what it will be roughly, I've added more 'ghost' branches in the stone slab but this is just the general sketch ^_^


And this is my first image that I showed you guys already, just a better picture of it with a real camera haha.


And this was my first attempt at the printing process XD lol, yeah....my stone isn't exactly level from past students not graining the edges enough so it's like the edges are a little raised and the middle is sunken in more or less. So I missed the middle while I was rolling the ink on XD


And THIS is my drawing project!!! I'm doing 22x30-ish drawings on printmaking paper with colored inks and a little bits of Nupastels by Prismaolor pastels. And from this picture I see I need to extend the blue on his anal fin a little more, I'm fudging it and making it a little more blue than he is in real life right now, he's more like a green at his anal fin there on the bottom but he used to have much more blue. Anywho, doing my Betta's portraits! And I can take commissions for these to be my project but they will be a little costly (around 80 dollars) because they are large and it takes a while to do!

Anywho, I'm particularly proud of his head and the scales! and his dorsal! Love his dorsal very much :-D Next up is Hawkeye.


----------



## BettaLover1313

So much lovely artwork! Love the owls!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> So much lovely artwork! Love the owls!


Thank you!!! Yeah, I think I'll be sticking with the owl theme through this semester with printmaking since she generally likes us to have a series although I did a series without even being asked last semester in print 1 lol. I may end up doing a Cooper's Hawk at the end if I run out of North Eastern Owls to do, so it will still be North Eastern birds of prey at least which was my original theme but I liked the owls too much ^_^ I want to do total: Screech Owl (in progress), Saw-Whet Owl (check), Short Eared Owl (they look evil! Love it!), Great Horned Owl (we have a beautiful one in our back yard!), and the last two are a toss up, depending on if I get to six or not. 

I want to do a Snowy Owl but that will be a little difficult, focus will be on the background since you know...snowy owls are mostly...white....not inky black lol. I kind of want to do a Barn Owl since they are pretty abundant as well but I'm not too keen on their anatomy, just kind of weird to me. My other options are: 
Northern Hawk Owl (rare but amazing looking!)








Boreal Owl (cute)








or a Long Eared Owl (lovely markings!)


----------



## summersea

I vote for Long Eared Owl! Love it!! Great work by the way! Wish I had that kind of skill!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks summersea! Yeah, I'm really digging the markings on the Long Eared! I like the Northern Hawk owl too, he looks so menacing! lol I may just switch him out for the Short Eared Owl instead since they are pretty similar, just the Hawk Owl is smaller and has more black/white rather than brown, not that that makes a difference in a monotone print lol. The Boreal owl is absolutely adorable but too similar to the Screech and the Saw-Whet which I'm already doing. Perhaps if I have time ^_^


----------



## BettaLover1313

The Northern Hawk Owl is very cool!

We have a resident Great Horned Owl on campus that is roosting along the path to one of our dining places, I've heard it twice now-very exciting!


----------



## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> I gave up on worrying about them lol. Half the week they don't really get food yet they still turn out fantastic so I'm really not worried about them! Livebearer fry are so darn hardy it ain't funny! lol Good luck with your fry though ^_^


Thank you  

Hehe, when I get a more planted tank, I won't have to worry about them that much


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> The Northern Hawk Owl is very cool!
> 
> We have a resident Great Horned Owl on campus that is roosting along the path to one of our dining places, I've heard it twice now-very exciting!


That's awesome! Yeah, I love our Great Horned, he's absolutely adorable! He roosts in our back woods so we hear him quite often! We also have a Barn Owl up the road as well ^_^




PetMania said:


> Thank you
> 
> Hehe, when I get a more planted tank, I won't have to worry about them that much


That's probably why I don't worry much lol


----------



## Huffle Puffles

Your owl art came out wonderfully! I can't wait to see when the second one is done.  I really hope you do the Boreal Owl picture his/her face is absolutely adooooorable!


----------



## DaytonBetta

Thanks for sharing your art. I love owls and the betta is beautiful.


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## tisci

Your artwork is amazing. I'm in awe


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you so much guys! I really appreciate all the comments, really makes my day that much better! Especially after sleeping...err "sleeping" in a 50+ year old bed...ugg my back is killing me and I'm plain exhausted from not actually sleeping. I'm house sitting for an elder lady who is still in the house, she's just mostly bedridden and wheelchair bound so once she's in bed, she's in bed. Her daughter called at 10:20 to confirm that the last CNA didn't show up like she was supposed to at 7:30, thankfully a friend of theirs has been coming to help her into bed and stuff. Her husband is currently in the hospital with an infection, I don't know if he's actually going to make it through this time, over the summer he had pneumonia and that's when I started helping them out, I'm paid for it thankfully but it's very taxing on my sleep schedule and stuff but I don't mind sooo much.

Anywho! From last night, I was able to get to my dad's to feed everyone and play with little Isis and Aero since they were the most playful! Isis is doing wonderful, eats like a pig and loves to swim around and show off for me! Hawkeye was moping around because he still has that makeshift sponge filter lol I cut the flow down on the airstone but he still doesn't like it much although he does like to sit on the sponge part of it XD lol he's silly!

Remmy's fins are starting to grow back well! I'll need to take pictures so you guys can see, it's been a pretty hectic weekend and I'm currently skipping my first class so I can do my drawing 4 project that is due today >.< ugg anyway, Charlie is doing well too I think he's finally done coloring up; he's lost his moustache but his head is almost entirely burgundy/brown color and he, quite frankly looks amazing!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Everyone is good here at home, got plants in from Carlos today! I finally got some Red Root Floaters and some Cabomba just because it was available. I really hope the floaters acclimate well and don't die on me like the last batch :-/ They are in the 10 and I threw the Cabomba in Isis's 2.5 since it has great lighting and it will help with her water quality. I'll do a water change for her tomorrow when I get home and hopefully after I'm done shopping on Saturday I'll do the other tanks. lol Isis is getting a little frustrated when she runs into the plants at the top (left them floating) and then she pushes her way through, it's kind of cute honestly.

So I have one more art related thing to show you all! It is from my Drawing 4 class, the same one I did the large Remmy picture in inks. This "homework" assignment was to take the word Labyrinth and apply it to whatever you want, some people took it literally while others abstracted it. I took it literally and decided I wanted to draw the Labyrinth Organ! First step, what the heck does a Labyrinth organ even look like? lol so I had to do some research but I finally fudged it and it looks partly of what it should look like and I drew Aero and his organ. I did this two hours before class started and it was due....I had this whole month to do it lol.

Done in water color pencil (Prismacolor) on a printmaking paper (BFK Rives for anyone who wants to know) which is 11x15 in size. I fudged the dip in his head and accidentally made it go out instead of in somehow but oh well! I love his lips!








The next word is Metamorphosis! Anyone have any fishy related ideas? Or ideas in general? I don't want to be so literal with this one.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Wow! All the detail on Aero!!! Excellent job!


----------



## summersea

I love the way his eye looks in that picture! So realistic! Love your work! What about doing the change of a rescue fish from a store cup to their "butterfly" (aka pretty colors/fins) true self after being rescued? Only metamorphosis I can think of in terms of bettas


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Wow! All the detail on Aero!!! Excellent job!


Thank you, thank you, thank you!! :-D



summersea said:


> I love the way his eye looks in that picture! So realistic! Love your work! What about doing the change of a rescue fish from a store cup to their "butterfly" (aka pretty colors/fins) true self after being rescued? Only metamorphosis I can think of in terms of bettas


Thank you! Yeah, the eye was what I started with and expanded from there. I'm a huge fan of eyes and their reflections and all the amounts of color within the eye even if you think you have plain brown eyes, there is a vast amount of color that are in there that normal people wouldn't see! I see the world in color and it's quite amazing. I had an epiphany earlier last semester where suddenly colors exploded in the world! It was fantastic! I mean, it's all based on light of course but trees aren't brown, grass isn't green, water isn't blue. It's quite amazing and half the time I can't explain it lol.

Anywho! That would be interesting but I think we're supposed to only do one picture...at least...I think. Either way I don't want to make this a huge project since it's only homework and not my real series but it is a good idea! I'm just not exactly sure how to portray it...I think I have an idea of how I would I would....hmm, I'll have to play with that! Thanks :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, I forgot to tell you all that Remmy's Mystery snail died a little while ago. I have the worst luck with "fancy" snails apparently, can't keep Nerites OR Mysteries alive >.> I even acclimated her with Remmy in the cup! I know lots of people don't acclimate snails and I've tried both where I just plop them in and where I acclimate and there seems to be no difference for me. HOWEVER! The old Ramshorn snail I have is still alive and kicking! He's not the best algae cleaner but he does well for what he is ^_^ he's huge and his shell looks amazing because of the cuddlefish bone I have in there still :-D And also the MTS are still doing well, had a baby pop out and go over the glass yesterday, occasionally some adults will pop up as well but apparently there is enough stuff for them to eat in the substrate they just never come out! Oh well, guess they are happy! It's funny, I know they are down there because I see the sand move occasionally and then occasionally a larger adult will come out, many of the babies come out at night though.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I come here with some sad news :-/ I was picking out the Salivina from the mix of Red Root Floaters that carlos_puron had sent me, Aero and Hawkeye were great and were happily inspecting my fingers for food. I took out the one from Isis's small 2.5 and she also did the same thing. I took them and transfered them to Charlie's tank and then went back over to the 10 to grab some RRF to put into Remmy's 5.5 as well. 

As I was sitting on the bed looking at my tanks, I looked over to Charlie's tank and saw he wasn't swimming around which isn't unusual. He's super good at hiding in the mass of wisteria and sometimes behind the driftwood log there too. So I went over to inspect the tank and found nothing. Some swear words ran through my mind as I looked to the ground and found him shriveled up, dead. I sighed and inspected the hole in the hood where I had covered with cling wrap and tape....he'd somehow pushed his way through it and to the floor as I guess he's been trying to do for weeks now. There's nothing wrong with his water, I guess he really just wanted to be free and now he is. I just feel bad he had to die that way, it's probably the worst way for a fishy to die, just waiting and slowly drying up :-/ I'm happy though that my cats didn't find him!

So I'll be moving Isis over to that tank shortly before I leave to get new shoes and a hair cut today. At least it will be healthier for her than the 2.5 for when I'm not around to change her water all the time.

Well, that's today's sucky news of the day.


----------



## summersea

Aww so sorry to hear that! SIP Charlie! He is free to swim where ever he chooses now.


----------



## PetMania

Sorry for your loss. SIP


----------



## Chesh

Gah! Such sad news. . . T____T
I'm sorry hon. *hugs*

. . . so that's where Carlos' beautiful floaters ended up! That's a happy thought!


----------



## BettaLover1313

So sorry to hear about Charlie! S.I.P.


----------



## Quinn

Oh no!  SIP King Charles


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you for the condolences everyone. I have mixed feelings about it, I mean in no way did I want him to die!! If anything I was going to look into adopting him out since he simply could not go into a divided tank without causing trouble!! But yeah...idk, I feel terrible that he died like that though, seriously it is the worse way for them to die :-/

So as the story continues, PetCo had their big sale this weekend and I knew I was stopping by but I had no intention of getting anything unless I saw a filter on sale that I needed or something. I had gotten my hair cut in the morning which was great; my dad paid for it along with my new sneakers!!! I've been needed both for quite a while, it's been around six months since my last hair cut lol and around 5 years since new shoes >.< yeah....perks to being sort of poor.....yikes. So new sneakers that cost 140 dollars because of needed arch support and the fact I have a wide foot! So hence, this is why I only get them every so often....

So anywho, stopped in to PetSmart first to see what was up, checked out the fish because I like to stare at fish when I'm bored; I was mostly wasting time anyway. Nothing appealed me and so off to PetCo I went! Got in the store, it was crazy busy! Went to the bathroom first and then checked out the plant selection, not bad but nothing worth buying. Checked out the fish, there were some cute ones but no oddball fish like gobies which was boring. Went over to the Bettas, nothing really caught my eye, not that I was specifically looking anyway! There was however a beautiful young HM boy, a good partial blue Dragon with black tail but it was one of those where the blue intermingled with the black and made it look lacy, he was super pretty but of course I didn't buy him.

There were two other ladies there, older, a mother and her daughter. She was asking which one I was looking at and stuff and we got talking, she pronouced Betta correctly!!! I was super stoked! Apparently she had bred twice before but only one baby survived which kind of set a red flag off in my head lol but happy she knew about the breeding process and how to take care of the babies mostly correctly. She had the right foods and all, I think it might have just been a fluke of her spawns from the sounds of it. But yeah, so we had a good old time chatting!

I went over to their little Aqua-Farm display and noticed a few cups there and that's when I saw him......this red Giant boy who I think is from the same Spawn as Charlie was.....he has been there for over a month now and I knew it was sort of the right time.....6.50 for a Giant? yeah...I went for him! So my new red giant is currently in the 2.5 being QT'd just in case, he looked like he might have been flashing but I think he was just scared of me and ran into the heater lol, poor dude!

So Isis is staying in the 5.5 for now until I deem everything is fine and he'll probably stay in the 2.5 until I get the 20 long set up at moms. I want to try him in the 10 to see how he fares being divided, if he has issues like Charlie then I probably won't hesitate putting him up for adoption. I feel like that is kind of cruel but in a way, he'll still be out of that pathetic cup and with someone who actually cares about him!

So without further ado, here is my new boy! Still thinking about names. I kind of like simply Red but too cliche, Ares kind of fits him but again too cliche. He's quite feisty and fiery (no pun intended) but he's also got that soft, gentle Giant side to him too which the God of War does not lol. So still thinking!

When I first saw him, those clearer spots were much more clear and cellophane. So over the month he's filled in a little bit and I assume he'll continue to become a solid red, but this is a color I absolutely adore!


Look at that mean 'ol face! Who could resist?!?! lol


He's also got teeny bits of white and some blue irid on him as well but I assume they will also color up red in a little while once he's in some good water :-D


Grrrr, he's also got some similar brown spots that Charlie had.


Pretty stressed still but doing well 


"You can't see me!"


"Oh...maybe you can.." his ventrals seem kind of short too but he's definitely boy, he's slightly transparent so with the light behind him I could see everything through him.


Love this sequence:




So that's my new boy! Here is everyone else :-D

Hawkeye is huge! He's smaller than my Giant but larger than Aero!


Aero begging for food lol



Mr. Grumpy lips!


Of course he was pooping but otherwise a nice picture! You can see the band of pure blue on his side that extends to his anal fin, otherwise he's "green" with that little patch of white and some yellow-brown on his fins ^_^ rainbow fish for sure!




The pretty girl!




I love her copper scales! Also....looks like her rays are splitting again!!!


Also...I'm having a bit of an issue with BGA in Remmy's 5.5 lol....yeah.....


My Ramshorn chilling out and doing okay with algae eating....he's pretty lethargic for a snail...well compared to my other Mysteries and Nerites when I had them but his shell isn't very aerodynamic either lol


Here is Remmy's ventral he bit clean off. Looks like it's healing very well!


And his tail is growing back pretty well too! You can't really see it here since his tail is bending but you can sort of get an idea, he doesn't look half ragged in this picture lol


Pictures from my mom's house coming up next so I don't overload this post here!!


----------



## Quinn

Maybe you should name him another King name, in honor of (one of) Charlie's nick name. Like King henry, or louis etc etc? He's cute.
Everyone looks great, and of course even when he's a bit ragged Remmy looks faaabulous!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So...yeah, this is a weekend for fish apparently! So yesterday my mom had quite the hangover after a great party at our house the previous night. Nothing bad, just a great time with good friends around! So we didn't go to church, instead I decided I should head up to campus to work on my commission works since I still need to finish Headlesslegomom's portrait of her daughter, I feel bad since I'm taking so long on it. I know she said to take my time but I feel like this is unfair. Every time I go back to working on it though I focus just on the face trying to get it like spot on and I end up working it too much >.< ugg,it's frustrating on my part too!

Anywho, the Fine Arts Center (FAC) wasn't open so instead of calling my Little to possibly open the door for me I went down to CBLS my work building which I knew I had access to and went up to the third floor to the tank I care for. It's been long over due for a water change so I decided now would be a good time. So I took an hour and cleaned out what I could without poisoning the fish. I saw the filter had two spots, one I assume was where a carbon floss insert went in but was no longer so I added a new cartridge with the old one to start getting that seeded so I could switch out the old one. I changed the little decor around and was done 

So after that I decided to go to my other LFS, Critter Hut to see what they had and to waste some time before going home. Well....I found two little Scarlet Badis who apparently were eating flakes okay! Well that's rare I said to myself and continued to look around, they still had the Gold Ring Danios which I wanted but now am reconsidering just for the pure fact that Danios are all pretty rambunctious and I'd preferably like to stay away from that if I can. So...I decided to get the healthy looking Badis!

It looks like they've eaten some of the flakes from yesterday, this morning. I'm thinking they are more eating them out of starvation, however they look healthy and not emaciated so I'm not worried quite yet! However I want to bring over my frozen daphnia to see if they bring any interest to that. But I want to start culturing live daphnia since it's pretty easy and cheap!

A first sighting after being acclimated!


I believe they are both males!


Coloring up


The paler one came up to inspect me! This was unexpected as I've read they are shy and timid!


Look at that little face! He wasn't scared of the camera at all!!


Checking out the surroundings



I can't stand their faces!!! So cute!!!



The darker one came over to inspect as well!


lol


picking at a piece of left over IAL from their other tank I think


And this is how the 29 is coming along, got the Finnex Planted+ lights in and some Manzanita branches in! I've got 4 other ones if anyone wants one! They are anywhere from 10-14" in length, some skinnier than others.


My two 13's of which you can actually see two branches sticking out from my filter lol. But here is the difference between the Finnex 7,000K white/red/blue lights versus the Marineland Single Brite stripe!


Proud mama guppy of two looks like she's brewing a few more in there!


And Selkie sulking!



She's gaining more black copper grizzle to her scales, more on the other side though





A few white/blue scales too!


She was flaring at me lol


She still looks like a Harbor Seal, just not as fat ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Quinn said:


> Maybe you should name him another King name, in honor of (one of) Charlie's nick name. Like King henry, or louis etc etc? He's cute.
> Everyone looks great, and of course even when he's a bit ragged Remmy looks faaabulous!


Thanks! Yeah, that's one thing I love about Remmy, he almost always looks good even when he's not lol

I'm not really feeling the 'King' thing with the red boy, he's not proud enough lol Charlie was all pompous and proud where this boy is a little more humble, almost though as if he is...hmm can't think of the word. He kind of reminds me of like a spy with his nature, he can be deadly but at the same time merciful and gentle at times if that makes sense lol.....James (as in James Bond) seems too 'blue' in color for him lol. I thought about things like Crimson or Cadmium but those didn't fit either.

Here were some of the other options: Maverick, Ricochet, Red, Phantom, Cola as in Coke Cola because he's red lol, and Fox so far.


----------



## Confishius

ooh, I like Ricochet  I say go with that one.


----------



## Quinn

One of the first horses I consistently rode was named Ricochet. 
Meh Names are always hard for me and then one just fits! Don't rush it, he'll tell you eventually!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, still waiting on him to name himself lol. 

So...sometimes I want to slap people upside the head here >.> It'd be great if people would actually listen to what I say instead of throwing it in the trash and running me over with the 18 wheeler of "TRUTH".....wtf guys...seriously.

Anyway, one of the Badis died, oddly enough it was the deeper red one! Come home to find him on his side. The other Badis is doing well though! He turned his nose up at frozen daphnia though even when I wiggled it around with the tweezers :-/ I hope to be setting up a daphnia culture soon for both him and the guppies since that will be a great diet as well for the occasion. But the Badis seems to be content, I've let him out and into the tank, Selkie doesn't care about him thankfully even though she's easily quintuple his size! She follows him around occasionally but nothing seems threatening and he just kind of stares at her like....what are you going to do?!? lol

Guppys are fine although still pooping a few fuzzy poops, I've added some Epsom salt (1 tsp/gal) to hopefully flush out some of whatever they have! I think I may be upping the dose this weekend when I get back if they aren't looking a little better. Other fish are doing well too ^_^


----------



## Huffle Puffles

I'm sorry to hear about Charlie and the Badis.  SIP little ones. 

However, the new boy is very handsome. Cutest little "mean face".  Lucky you got to take part in the Petco sale, I had no idea it was going on! I was so sad when I saw someone's post about it a few days later. But probably good as I would of spent a fortune on plants. But anyway. The Badis really do have adooooorable little faces, my goodness. Hawkeye, Aero and Rembrandt all look good as well. I dig the new copper's coloring, the nice line of lighter scales then the dark "shadowed" looking under belly, very nice. Don't tell the others but, Selkie really is my favorite, she's soooooooo cuuuuuuuuute!!


----------



## MattsBettas

You have badis? As in _Dario dario_?


----------



## LittleBettaFish

I had dario dario in the past, and they really do prefer live foods over frozen or pellets/flakes. Foods like grindals, white worms, BBS, microworms and blackworms were what mine would take. I think this is why they are often a less popular fish in the trade despite their small size and colourful appearance. 

They can also be pretty aggressive towards each other.


----------



## Chesh

MattsBettas said:


> You have badis? As in _Dario dario_?


*ishjealoussssss*


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yes as in Dario Dario, I'm aware they prefer the live foods but thanks all. The little basis left is doing well, he's actually quite outgoing! Comperable to bettas honestly, that completely shocked me since everything I had read and seen, they were shy little bugger's which is what I was expecting! Quite interesting! But eventually I'd like to keep some pygmy sunfish or blue spotted sunfish in the 33 when it goes in my moms living room ^^ so they need/prefer live foods as well.

Just did a full water change for the new boy...I'm thinking of naming him Azazel....he's got the color and the attitude also for some reason he has these symmetrical little bumps on either side of his face that look almost like horns so its fitting. Charlie had similar things but they didn't protrude so much. I'll get pictures of it, doesn't look disease in nature though.

On my way to start thinning out the duckweed in the ten...its choking out the red root floaters, who are doing marvelous I might add, and the water wisteria so they've got to go!!!


----------



## Chesh

*ishevenmorejealousssss*
Azazel. . . fantastic name! ^__^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Chesh said:


> *ishevenmorejealousssss*
> Azazel. . . fantastic name! ^__^


Lol, if badis ever turn up in my area again chesh, I could send you one if you wanted!! Lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hmm...what to get, what to get! I'm looking at a culture of Microworms right now and they seem pretty easy and more nutritional than white worms? Or at least less fatty and smelly lol. I'm thinking Microworms would definitely be possible, there is a ready-to-feed culture on AB right now that I'm considering and that way I can start my own cultures as well, I'm just wondering if they are too small for the little Badis? I assume my two female guppies and Selkie would also eat them. Any other cultures that would be good? I want to get Daphnia as well, one of my professor friends that I've been taking care of her tank for her has been doing research with Daphnia and so I can get some from her :-D

Yeah, never actually got around to getting the duckweed out of the 10....tomorrow...lol I ended up talking with my dad and we made dinner and then played a horrible game of checkers where I lost sooo badly it was hilarious!! lol, we had a good time and now I'm here ^_^


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Do you have access to grindals? I prefer them over both microworms (don't really think these are very nutritious) and white worms. 

They are super easy to culture as well. I use the soil-less method and it's not messy at all and there's very little smell.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sure! I can pretty much get anything off AquaBid, I'm getting paid tonight thankfully so I can purchase whenever. Grindals kind of gross me out but I don't mind toughing it out lol, it may also just be this one picture I keep seeing as well >.< Can you explain your soil-less method to me? Over PM is fine  Thanks for the advice! Should I keep both Grindal and Micro or just forego Micro and go with Daphnia or something?


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Haha my mum hates my live food cultures. They live up in my bedroom and every time she sees me getting worms out she has to leave the room. 

I will PM you with a link on how I personally do it (seems like there are some variations). My cultures have to be over a year old now and still going strong. My dario dario loved grindals as I found them to be the perfect size.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Phew, so it took over an hour to clean out most of the duckweed in the 10.....I'm like mentally exhausted from that XD lol But the plants and the fish are happy now that they can actually see!! So that's awesome, there is still some duckweed I couldn't get out but I'll be actively pulling it out to completely wipe it out of the tank which I have been able to do before, I did it with the 33 actually. I divided up the RRF a little more among the tanks, Remmy had some before but I put some more in and then threw a few in Isis's tank and then back into each sides of the 10. Since I have some left over, Remmy's old 3 gallon is technically still set up...sort of, I didn't drain it all the way yet and so the grass is still there along with the substrate SO I threw the RRF in there after filling alittle more water to the halfway point and put the light back on it to grow some more! These RRF are doing ammmmaaazing! I love them!! So red and full! I even got a flower on one of them in Remmy's tank!! Seeeee, apparently it likes my tank ^_^


And here's Remmy's tank, I need to do a water change tomorrow on that to get some debris out of there! Lots of MTS still poking around and Remmy chilling at the top because that's what he does!


Close up of fin regrowth! He's doing well ^_^


And the Ramshorn chilling on Remmy's leaf, he's been doing a MUCH better job with the algae! In fact I almost have none besides the BGA in that tank now! yaya for snails doing their jobs! :-D


Lots of BGA in Isis's tank :-( stupid stuff...I know I need some potassium to counter act it.


"To the right, to the right, to the right, to the right..."


"To the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, now kick, now kick, now kick, now kick now walk it by yourself, now walk it by yourself!".....stands awkwardly....no one? Cupid Shuffle? lol


And Azazel! My little devil fish XD lol, even his red color is enhanced in this pic! 


But see his "horns"? I thought Lympho at first since that looks like it but they are waaaayyy too symmetrical for it to be a disease and he does not seem effected at all, quite the opposite where he wants out of his tank. I feel bad he's in the 2.5 since he is a Giant but that's where he's staying until I get the 20L at mom's up and running...which reminds me, I need more mesh to make my dividers!


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## lilnaugrim

So I've been thinking about plants for the 29, here's what I've got so far, let me know if you like it or anything should be added or taken away.

Giant Hairgrass is definitely going in, will be in the back right corner on the "hill" and probably framing around the outside edges of that side of the tank. http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral...Eleocharis-montevidensis-TALL-PLANT_p_82.html

Giant Hygro most likely in front of the Manzanita "stump" on the left side of the tank so that will fill in nicely http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral...-hygro-Temple-plant-NITRATE-BUSTER_p_111.html

I'm also wondering about this plant: http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com/Ludwigia-Glandulosa-Peruensis-COLORFUL_p_41.html I think I've seen it before, just never really actually looked at it before. I believe I have medium-high lighting in that tank with the Finnex Fugeray Planted+ 7,000K lights ^_^ And I will be dosing some Flourish for added nutrients 

I think I may want some Water Wisteria in there to help control algae but I can keep them trimmed shorter to make a bushy effect :-D

I'm pretty sure I want HM in there as well either on the 'wall' I made and have it sort of creep down, I think that will eventually cover it but oh well, it will look nice. Or I can plant it in front of the wall to make like the "hedge" look http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral...DES-Baby-Tears-Pearl-grass-15-stems_p_22.html

I also find this plant interesting but I've found mixed reviews all over the place, anyone have any experience with it? http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com/Limnophila-aromatica-hippuroides-very-colorful_p_18.html

And to refresh everyone, here's what the tank currently looks like. It looks so small in pictures lol, granted it is technically considered a "small" tank


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## PetMania

I LOVE the Cupid Shuffle, lol


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## beautiful Betta

Sorry to heat about Charlie, I had one do that, I had replaced the light because of rust, and used a sealant in the hopes of preventing condensation getting in the light unit, not wanting to close the lid because of fumes and not being dry I placed wrap over the top. Like you I went to feed him and thought where is he (he was good at hiding) so didn't think nothing of not seeing him in the tank, until it became apparent he wasn't suddenly rushing out of hiding for food. You get that sinking moment when you realise he's nots there after searching and then hope perhaps it hasn't been long enough to kill him, he was behind the desk trapped in the gap between skirting board and desk on carpet, so well dried up. The real bumber was earlier that day I did hear a knocking noise but the cat was in the room with me and I though it was him rubbing on something, but it might have been the fish.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I hear you bB, this has happened to me around four times now, twice from my sorority but that was a little more difficult situation; an extremely odd shaped tank and I just never got around to getting some plexsi-glass cut down to fit it so that's my fault but had only one girl out of 32 at one point jump out so that's quite good odds if you ask me! I kept the water level down fairly well too, but then the last one was my Bossy Ram to jump out, I almost didn't feel bad for him since he was half the reason for my sorority downfall.....>.>

Anywho, yeah, it had to have happened overnight so I wouldn't have really heard anything. The first time it happened to me though it was Piebald, anyone remember Piebald? lol, but yeah, same thing, I heard something hit against my bureau but didn't think anything of it, hour later I tried finding Piebald in the tank and I couldn't! And it was at night so it was pretty dim in my room with only a small lamp and I saw a shadow on the floor. I freaked out, grabbed a cup and filled it with some of his water and went over to grab him although he scared the crap out of me since he was still alive and he flipped when I touched him! lol So I nearly had a heart attack but I got him in and floated him in the cup over night but he didn't make it unfortunately.

Anyway! All is well this morning, no jumping Bettas! lol Surprisingly my three little Otos are still doing well in Aero's side of the 10! they actually eat the Omega Veggie wafer bits I throw in for them twice/three times a week since there isn't much algae for them to snack on. Well there is, they just munch on it too quickly! ^_^ Bladder snails are still ridiculous >.> are there any good ways of fully getting rid of them?


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## BettaLover1313

Great name for your red giant! It really fits him! Love the Cupid Shuffle!


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## beautiful Betta

Not sure what bladder snails are, maybe a bigger fish to eat them. Assuming they are small. lol of course a betta friendly one.


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## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> I LOVE the Cupid Shuffle, lol





BettaLover1313 said:


> Great name for your red giant! It really fits him! Love the Cupid Shuffle!


Thanks! Yeah, Cupid Shuffle is awesome, great work out as well!! I love all line dances though; Cotton Eye Joe, Electric Slide, Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, even Fever by Peggy Lee, although I think it's something that my mom and I made up...sort of an aerobic exercise that goes well to the song lol


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## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> Not sure what bladder snails are, maybe a bigger fish to eat them. Assuming they are small. lol of course a betta friendly one.


Bladder snails are close in relation to Pond snails:








Assassin snails love to eat them but I'm not going to get Assassins just to clear out my tank and then have to feed them more snails! >.< I mean...I could borrow one lol but that would be silly! I've heard that clown loaches like to eat them but I'm pretty sure that would also be silly to borrow a fish like that, idk, I'm going to my LFS today so we'll see if they have anything I could use and then give back/donate, I don't care too much about the money, they would give me store credit anyway ^_^

EDIT: I used to have a bladder snail issue in my 33 when I had my sorority set up but my girls happily decimated all of them ^_^ my boy's? not so much lol


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## beautiful Betta

If you have the same clown loaches I had in the UK (orange black stripes) they are really nice fish, not aggressive at all and are quite the clowns. Mostly bottom dweller.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they would be the same ^_^ I was also reading that YoYo loaches eat snails as well, I do believe my LFS has both and whichever is smaller is the one I will get. I definitely do not plan on keeping it, perhaps I could adopt it out to someone who wants it! I like adopting out fish way too much lol

Speaking of adopting out! Okay, so the fish tanks I take care of at college, we're looking to restock one of them. Basically we just need to find homes for two of the Albino Buenos Aires Tetras that the Professor has, she said someone bought them for her and she doesn't even like them. They nip the poor Neons in there so we're looking to hopefully adopt them out to someone who already has a shoal of them so they can be happy as well and the Neons can grow back their tails >.> We're looking into a Betta to go in there :-D So anyway, all you need to pay is shipping if you want these cuties! I can get pics as well and I do ship with heat packs.


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## lilnaugrim

Ahhhh :shock: okay, I knew Clown Loaches get big but 16 inches??!?! Holy shnikes! I think I'll stick with the YoYo loach, another great snail eater I'm finding, 6 inches is a little more manageable.....yikes. And I'm like 99% positive that my LFS carries them as well.

You know what I really want? A Red Tailed Shark, not the Rainbow ones but the actual Red Tailed Black Shark, they are amazing! I know they can be semi aggressive and get up around 4-6 inches but darn it, I want one! lol Felt like a little kid just then! haha. I've been debating the restock of the 33 for when it goes into my mom's living room.

Geeze, this poor tank has been theoretically restocked over a dozen times already! I thought I wanted the Pygmy Everglades Sunfish but they can be a little rambunctious and aggressive towards each other but idk....I could technically hold a RTBS in that tank with plenty of room, I would just have to rethink all the stocking and planting. I know they are mostly algae eaters but I should have no issue growing algae in that tank, never did have an issue with it lol I would probably get another Finnex Fugeray Planted+ with that tank if the others do well with my 29 and 20 which I'm assuming it will be great in my 20 since the depth is only a foot as opposed to the 33 which is 18 inches tall, still not bad though!

Okay.....so, YoYo loach it probably will be and I could put him in the 29 if I have issues with it and no one wants to adopt it. The only issue I have right now is that I have gravel in the 10 and I know their barbels are sensitive, although the gravel is pretty small and not very sharp, just a little hard is all....My otos don't seen to have a problem so maybe I'll just try it and if I have issue I can bring him to mom's sooner since the 29 has sand in it mixed with the black FloraMax, currently being cycled with fish food and Tetra SafeStart, should be cycled very shortly though!

I'm also wondering if maybe I should bring Azazel into College for that tank I'm working on....as long as he doesn't bother the Neon's but since I take care of it anyway, it would be like I'm seeing him every day anyway....that way I can stick with four compartments for the 20 to give more room for Isis, Selkie, Aero and Hawkeye and I know they will all get along in the divided tank just fine. But at the same time, I've grown pretty attached to Azazel and the tank at college doesn't get all the attention it needs, doesn't have a light on it because the teacher is afraid of the algae >.< as if somehow it will mess up her daphnia culture :roll: ....yeah...she's a bit....flighty sometimes or all the times....she's happy though that I'm taking care of the tank! and I'm happy to do it lol, she even told me that I care about the fish more than she does XD and I'm like...well of course I do! lol oh well.

I think that's enough rambling for now, sorry I know I talk a lot...all the time >.<


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## Betta Nut

I had a red tail black shark way back when... Was my favorite fish 
He was with some tiger barbs and blue gouramis. It was a long time ago, but as I remember it, there weren't issues with them fighting.

And I like your ramblings, lol. I've stoped lurking.


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## lilnaugrim

lol, thanks Betta Nut! lol, I almost wrote 'Butt' there instead of Nut XD sorry!

So my adventure to find a YoYo Loach was unsuccessful! But everyone I talked to at the stores says they were getting them in next week so I apparently came in between shippings >.> grrr so I'm actually just going to see if I can buy one online and get it shipped here, probably easier anyway since I only want one. Thinking of buying from Gunpowderaquatics.com again, they were real nice to work with and decent prices!

I did however get a better hang-on breeder box for my guppies so I can actually see them instead of trying to find them through the net >.< Also my guppies can then give birth in the containers without other fish eating them up >.> although I wouldn't be sad if my Badis had eaten a few of the fry but I think they were a little too big for him and his tummy wasn't full. Oh well. Anyway, I also got a TopFin little filter for the 10 since it really needs a real filter....well it's an internal kind with a spray bar but the bar is missing >.> and it's kind of noisy, hoping it's just the air in the sponge needing to get out otherwise.....that will be the worst 12 dollars I ever spent. I knew it wasn't going to be a great filter but hell, I should have just bought another Azoo Palm filter for 6 dollars and 5 more for shipping!!! >.<


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## lilnaugrim

oookaaayyy, not ordering from online anywhere! Shipping is ridiculous! And when it isn't, I need a minimum order of 30 dollars >.> nope! I'll wait the week-two weeks for them to be at my LFS!

Currently discussing Grindal worm cultures with LittleBettaFish, they are so much easier than I previously thought! I hope I can start a culture going this week :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So I'm thinking about theoretically restocking the 29 again, instead of having a group of Dario Dario and basically nothing else, I could keep my little Dario in with Selkie since she's been a very good fishy and not nippy at all, he doesn't seem to mind her at all and half the time follows her like a puppy following his mother ^_^ it's absolutely adorbs! That, or he can stay in with the guppies since he seems to be quite the outgoing Badis! I'm thinking about just naming him Dario since it's cute, part of his scientific name and easy to type lol so Dario the Dario Dario XD

So....yoyo loach which I will eventually get, will eventually go into the 33 I've decided unless someone wants to adopt him at that point in which I would gladly give him away to a good home, not that mine isn't, it's just nice to be able to give someone a fish when perhaps they couldn't afford one although granted, yoyo's aren't exactly expensive fish!

So stocking for the 29.....anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to keep tropical for the most part, I don't necessarily want the traditional stocking of some rasboras and a Gourami, leaving that for downstairs in the 33!


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## MattsBettas

A pair of unimaculata complex bettas and maybe a school of smaller fish like cories or something would make a neat, very unique display.


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## lilnaugrim

Mmm, mouth brooders! I suppose I could get into some wilds, I would have the worm cultures going by then anyway lol I had looked into Betta Simplex a while back, the issues come about in the summer time when temps get pretty hot in my room and I suspect my tanks will be up around 85-90 degree's during the day and chill a little during the night hours. We don't have a/c or at least, not all the time and fans can't run while I'm not there to save electricity and all. I could get the little fans to cool the water in the tanks but I'd rather not have to deal with that.

With that said, would wilds still be alright for my tank? I'm aware there are many different species of wilds, any one that may be more adaptable to the temperature differences than another?

Oh and a given; something that obviously doesn't eat plants and likes plants lol (not in reference to Bettas of course but other fish for options)


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## beautiful Betta

I think Clown loaches would take years to get that big I had one in a 5 foot tank for good 3 years got to about 2-3 inches, I did see some in pet stores about 4 or 5 inches, I don't ever remember seeing any at 16 inches.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, 16 is like the max ever, most seem to get around 12-14 inches that I've seen. One of my other LFS's up in Providence (I've only been twice now lol) has huuuugggee Clowns! I looked at them and was like....nope! haha

But the fact that Yoyo's also like calmer, shallower water where Clowns like the faster moving water makes me want a Yoyo for this situation over a Clown since I can at least fulfill parts of their requirements in the temporary situation. And all the "little" clowns I've seen are still over 2 inches and I would prefer one that is smaller than 2 inches for being in the 10 but larger than an inch though so Hawkeye doesn't eat him >.<


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## beautiful Betta

Its good you have found what you want, hope your snail problem gets sorted quickly.


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## lilnaugrim

Sigh....what a day and not a great day either. Church was great, happy to be back after I missed three weeks...whoops, oh well. Concert I sang in was great as well, we fudged a few parts but honestly, no one knew except us ^_^

So when I came home to my mom's Sunday morning I checked the tanks for babies and to make sure everyone was okay, I couldn't find Kit-Kat and immediately searched the floors but she was just hiding under the driftwood piece. Went to the other tank, Dario is still alive and feisty as ever! Guppy mama's are well and the four babies are still there, no new babies. Selk was hiding on me, went to the other side of the tank and froze....she was sitting in the water looking at me with this gigantic fuzz on the right side of her body!

There was nothing I could do, I scooped her out and put her in a clean hospital tank to float while I had breakfast with the family and we went to church. I drove myself since mom had to DJ a birthday party afterwards so I went up to Warwick after church to PetSmart to get some meds, they were out of Maracyn II but I got Maracyn I and General Cure (why the hell is this so expensive?? geeze!) I have Furan-2 but it was at dad's house at that point. Got home, dressed for my concert and medicated Selkie's 1 gallon and threw a packet of General Cure into the other 13 since I'm still having issues with parasites in there, one guppy boy is very emaciated even though he eats like a pig, he's got the stringy poop so figured it couldn't hurt.

Went off to concert and came back, Selk was still alive but barely. I could see her light flittering away as she started to give up on me. Got a call from the lady that I was house-sitting, went and got my check and went to stop by dad's to get some stuff like the Furan-2, all my liquid test kit and my air pump to power the hang on breeder box I got for the guppies; so much more effective and I can actually see them! yay. Selkie was doing extremely bad by this point.

The fuzz this morning was only on 1/4 her body extending from her ventral to the first ray of the dorsal, by the time I knew I had to euthanize her it was covering more than half her body, anal and dorsal fin and little fuzzes were starting to show up on her face as well and over her body. Beneath the fuzz it was extremely red almost like internal bleeding. She was on her side and going belly up, I netted her after preparing my ice water for a good half hour, she didn't even fight at all and just sort of rolled into it with the motion of the water. Her head started to spazz a little and I promptly let her go to sleep, placing her in the freezer for another half hour to make sure.

Here are some pictures, to me it looked like a fast moving Columnaris, double dose of Maracyn didn't help a thing although I didn't expect it to fully do much for her. Her light was fading fast and I couldn't watch her gasp for breath as she rolled onto her back, not even trying to right herself :-(

After I got her into QT:
















And before she passed:








































Swim in peace little harbor seal, you will be missed greatly, especially by my mom who insisted you be in the living room with her so she could spoil you rotten with food and make you into a fat harbor seal


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## lilnaugrim

Oh yeah, sorry for the cell pictures; I realized I left my camera at my dad's house after only just getting back from there >.<


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## beautiful Betta

sorry for your loss. You did all you could for her.


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## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> sorry for your loss. You did all you could for her.


Thanks, it just sucks because the reason she was at my mom's house was to escape the disease that was in my sorority tank at my dad's. I was so careful with her, I never cross contaminated any equipment! In the 13 gal she was recently in, none of the fish she was in contact with had been in contact with the 13, everything was new. And yet, she still ended up with the rest of my sorority girls :-(

Granted though, what she had was slightly different from my sorority girls, most definitely was not the same strain but all the same, I tried so hard to keep her away from disease and infection and yet this still happens. I know it just happens some times, it just sucks is all.


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## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry for your loss. You did everything possible for her. S.I.P. Selkie.


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## Quinn

SIP Selkie, you adorable chunky-seal-cutie. So sorry...


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks everyone, I know she was a crowd favorite as well. I thought that tank was going so nicely too and then this happens extremely out of the blue! The only thing with these tanks is that the temp isn't steady, it's not like dropping 5 degrees on a dime but at night they sink down to around 72 degree's but still, they isn't bad at all! I don't understand why she got sick so suddenly and horribly, the only thing new is Dario...I mean, he could have brought something in but he's a more sensitive fishy than she would be. Sigh....I don't know man, I don't know!


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## DaytonBetta

I'm sorry. I'm new, but it really seems like bettas are very sensitive and prone to illness. You did what you could. It sounds like you and your mom got a lot of enjoyment during Selkie's little life.


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## lilnaugrim

On a lighter note, I want you all to listen to this piece at least half way through and tell me what you think! Godzilla Eats Las Vegas because it is my favorite composer and this is an absolutely ridiculous piece! haha Apparently Eric was told to do something out of his "normal" and so he came up with this! Brilliant, fantastic and absolutely entertaining! 

This piece was performed last night at our concert, an absolutely stunning piece that deserves to be heard! Angels in the Architecture by Frank Tichelli

And this was the piece that I performed in, Meridian by Ola Gjeiloanother great piece although the lyrics make no sense: "Meridian, Meridian, Endless line Through my body connecting me to you Meridian is the summit and the path, the path. Unflinching line, you grow me wings you take the burden off my shoulders. It was never mine to carry. Unflinching line, Endless line, Endless line, Endless Line, Meridian, Meridian!"

lol yeah, my teacher told us the "You grow me wings" part is Red Bull Energy drinks and now that is all I can think of when we sing it! It's hilarious! And Endless Line is definitely an endless line >.< but the song is beautiful still and quite entertaining to sing/listen to!


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## lilnaugrim

So I'm almost finished with my Hawkeye drawing! I need to go over some of him with the chalk pastel to brighten up some stuff like the red on his anal fin but over all, I really enjoyed this one! Especially the splattering of ink around him ^_^ I got it all on my hands too lol. One thing I say is; if your hands aren't dirty; you aren't an artist! Unless your a digital artist but still...lol



And then the other day I came home to this....Siberian ON my pillow >.> Ignore my blue sheets lol, I hate those things. I was washing my brown sheets which are supposed to be on because otherwise my room is entirely blue  But yes, Siberian knows that he should not be on my pillow....little brat! haha


And Ieli....my other spoiled brat. Came home to this....she was trying to get into the fish tank to drink the water :roll: even though the water fountain is right in front of here. But she was like....wut? lol


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! I forgot to mention that my Grindal worms are coming in tomorrow and I'm glad I mentioned what I was going to be feeding them to because the guy threw in some extra White Worms so I can start a culture with those too ^_^ super nice guy! I'm quite happy with this purchase as a whole! Only 12 dollars for the whole thing and I just hope I don't crash my cultures lol although with LittleBettaFish's help I'm confident that I can grow these things adequately!

On that note, Dario seems to be eating something, he doesn't look as emaciated as he did before. I'm wondering if he's finding little microorganisms to eat which wouldn't surprise me but I'm just happy he's finding something, even if it is the guppy fry :roll: although it looks like those two extra babies I had gotten were from the Platinum SnakeSkin girl not the Moscow girl. Moscow is ready to drop any day now though so I'm just waiting on that and looks like it will be a pretty big spawn if they don't eat them all first >.> :evil:


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## BettaLover1313

Gorgeous piece of Hawkeye! So beautiful! 

Cats are such stinkers, aren't they? I have a feeling Renji will still try to go for my filter even when we do get him a water fountain to drink from. They're so cute though ^^.


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## Huffle Puffles

Aww, noooo, poor lil' Selkie (SIP). Aw man, that made me so sad to read. I'm really sorry for your loss lilnaugrim


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Gorgeous piece of Hawkeye! So beautiful!
> 
> Cats are such stinkers, aren't they? I have a feeling Renji will still try to go for my filter even when we do get him a water fountain to drink from. They're so cute though ^^.


Seriously! Cats! Ieli seriously hates Siberian and she was just laying by my side while Siberian is sitting on my butt as I lay on my bed and he was just looking at her and she starts growling and hissing at him and I'm like....wtf...settle down girl! But she ran away lol, she's definitely an out door kitty!

And thank you! I've got to decide who I'm going to do next! Mom wants me to do a piece of Selkie to commemorate her but I don't think I'll be doing a 22x30 piece of her lol Probably Aero but I've got to find a position for him and some ref pics to go off of. I wanted to do a watery background for this next one but Aero is blue and water is mostly blue....that's a lot of blue....I was thinking about doing Charlie or Azazel for it with the watery background. I want to try salt with the ink as well to see how cool that reacts!



Huffle Puffles said:


> Aww, noooo, poor lil' Selkie (SIP). Aw man, that made me so sad to read. I'm really sorry for your loss lilnaugrim


Aww, I'm sorry to make you sad!!! But thank you.


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## beautiful Betta

I love your picture. My cat used to sleep on my pillow with his head resting on mine, I would wake up feeling like I was wearing a fluffy hat.


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## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> I love your picture. My cat used to sleep on my pillow with his head resting on mine, I would wake up feeling like I was wearing a fluffy hat.


My issue is that, that particular cat we are pretty sure has a mental disorder so he's constantly licking himself which means he smells bad and half the time he licks until he bleeds so then I get blood spots on my bed which I am NOT appreciative of >.> I still love him, just a pain in my tushy is all!


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## beautiful Betta

perhaps he's got a skin issue and needs some special shampoo or something. I would take him to a vet if he kept licking himself until he bled, that isn't normal behaviour something is bothering him.


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## lilnaugrim

I quite understand that bB, Lucillia on here who is one of my best friends, we've talked plenty about him and what it could possibly be. I fully believe he has mental issues though, I use gluten free and grain free foods/treats and I wash him weekly with dry shampoo that I could use daily if I wanted to. Nothing has helped him, I thought it might have been food allergies but it seemingly isn't and I don't have the cash to pay for a test of that sort. She is locating a low cost vet to just get the preliminaries checked out but other than that, I really can't do much unless it's just something as simple as buying a better food which that part I can do but again, I can't get him tested since I myself am paying 3,000 out of pocket to get my tooth implant which is kind of important, not that Siberian isn't. 

Also I've tried different shampoo's as well, nothing. I had treats that were reinforced with the fatty Omegas to try to oil up his skin and make it healthier, that didn't help either. We also looked into the possibility of seasonal allergies but that doesn't seem true anymore; at first it was just during the summer months more or less but it's all year long really. Also he has issues with his aim >.> he never quite makes it into the litter box, he's good with the poo but when it comes to peeing, it kind of get's everywhere so thankfully the litter box is downstairs on the cement floor for easy pick up. We also looked into perhaps he might have been fixed after he hit maturity and therefore got into the habit of spraying and that could be why he misses, but he doesn't spray all over the house or anything so it's most likely not that.

So...yeah...we've looked into a lot of stuff with him and I do plan on taking him to the vet to just get a check up to see if anything they could tell me that might help.


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## BettaBabyBoo

Definitely understand a cat with mental issues. We took my grandma's cat Molly in after she went into the hospital... She's the sweetest girl, a huge cuddle but, but it was obvious that she really missed my grandmother. For the seven months that we had her... She pooped on everything on the floor in my sister's and I's room. Clothing wasn't safe, stuffed animals weren't safe, even schoolwork wasn't safe! We tried more litterboxes, different brands and textures of litter, a healthier diet... Molly is really the nicest cat you could ever meet, but my aunt was going crazy with her making two or three messes a day. We gave her back to my grandma as soon as she was well enough to be out and about, and the cat hasn't pooped on anything except litter since.


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## beautiful Betta

Well I hope you manage to get him to the vet at some point.


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## lilnaugrim

Ah, another round of "Get that cat to the vet" game again....I know you weren't a part of that round of "bash lilnaugrim" but please take care in how you word things bB, I could easily take offence to the way you wrote that. I understand you probably didn't mean it to be that way but just so you know, I've had issues with people yelling at me before for not taking a cat to the vet. Previous to Siberian we had a stray come into our yard and give birth to kittens in our shed and everyone on the forum was yelling and berating me for not taking her to get fixed but at this point I did not have the funds nor did my mother.

Anyway, on a happier note the worms came in today and Dario is the happiest little fish ever! He's got a full tummy now, he managed 1 larger White worm and a few smaller Grindals. I didn't realize how small the grindals were! Perhaps they are yet to be full grown? Both cultures look great though! Even my guppies enjoyed the extra snack of grindals!


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## beautiful Betta

no I read your thread and understand your finances, just saying when you could, it would be good, that's all, and to be honest the stray wasn't really your problem, why everyone would get on at you to pay for vet bills that wasn't your cat in the first place I don't know. The only thing I would have said, would be to drop her off at a animal shelter with her kittens. If you have those over there, we have RSPCA and other animal welfare groups which rescue and help abandoned animals, so that's what I would have done, or dropped her and her kittens off at a local vet and they would of passed her on to a animal group for rehoming, but just looking after them and taking them in you were being good to them.


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Grindals are fairly small. I find them a good transitional food for younger fry who are growing out of BBS and microworms. It's great to hear your dario dario liked them, I thought he might. 

You mentioned possible food allergies with the cat, is there any way you could try a novel protein source for him? I know a lot of people do the same with dogs when they want to rule out allergies. You just have to make sure any food or treats you feed him don't contain any meat that has been previously fed.


----------



## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> no I read your thread and understand your finances, just saying when you could, it would be good, that's all, and to be honest the stray wasn't really your problem, why everyone would get on at you to pay for vet bills that wasn't your cat in the first place I don't know. The only thing I would have said, would be to drop her off at a animal shelter with her kittens. If you have those over there, we have RSPCA and other animal welfare groups which rescue and help abandoned animals, so that's what I would have done, or dropped her and her kittens off at a local vet and they would of passed her on to a animal group for rehoming, but just looking after them and taking them in you were being good to them.


Oh, okay, well thank you in that case. Sorry I was uppity about that, I'm sure you could understand though why I would be in this case. We've gone through a lot with Siberian and it's all been really frustrating because nothing has worked.



LittleBettaFish said:


> Grindals are fairly small. I find them a good transitional food for younger fry who are growing out of BBS and microworms. It's great to hear your dario dario liked them, I thought he might.
> 
> You mentioned possible food allergies with the cat, is there any way you could try a novel protein source for him? I know a lot of people do the same with dogs when they want to rule out allergies. You just have to make sure any food or treats you feed him don't contain any meat that has been previously fed.


So I saw! I think they'll work find though. Is there anything size-wish between Grindals and White Worms?

The treats that I have for him are fully gluten and grain free, basically it is Tilapia jerky and Salmon jerky, it actually smells pretty good lol. There are added Omega 3,6, and 9 but other than that it is the pure fish just dried up. As for the regular food, I haven't been able to get a full grain free food for him yet since we'd have to feed that to all three cats. We have this stupid automatic feeder for the cats which is fine but MC is getting to be a little overweight....granted they are Maine **** cats so he's more muscle than he is anything else besides fur fluff but he could still stand to lose a few pounds. But anyway, if we went to the higher brand of food we would have to regulate that because he would just gain more weight. But since I'm not at dad's all the time, I can't feed them meals daily and dad is too darn lazy to do so himself....sigh. Anyway, we've got them on Purina All Natural which first three ingredients are: Chicken meal, Corn Meal and Corn Gluten Meal....yeah but it's the best of the "cheap" brands. I would buy them the more expensive food but as I've stated previously, there would need to be other things set in place for that to happen.

However, we've had them on this food for around a year and a half now and Siberian's state has not changed from food differences. He goes through cycles where his fur will grow back and he doesn't lick as much and then he goes off the deep end where he licks off all his fur for a while. It's a constant cycle and there seems to be no pattern to the seasons, dryness of the air, food, treats, nothing. However when dad and us finally move out, he's only taking Ieli and MC (sad face, i'm not going to be able to snuggle my girl three days out of the week ) and I'll be taking Siberian to mom's house where I can spoil him with the good food there. I just hope mom lets me keep him there, she's still up in the air about it right now since my little brother (18 years old) wants a dog but we can't have one since A) I'm severely allergic to dogs and B) he can't even take care of his cat...Siberian is HIS cat but hey, look at who takes care of him! lol He's the type of kid who gets excited about something at first and then gets bored of it. So anyway, not responsible enough for a dog so hopefully mom will understand that this situation is different, it's not like I'm getting a new cat to bring into the house, just bringing Siberian over.


----------



## beautiful Betta

I don't mean to sound condescending but what flea treatment do you use? I ask this with experience, in that my dog had bitten himself raw, we couldn't see why, but the vet did find a flea under their bright lights (black dog) so embarrassing but he was on frontline so didn't really think fleas. But frontline wasn't killing the fleas fast enough and he said he thought our dog actually had an allergy to the actual flea bite, some stronger flea treatment and some medication and he was fine.


----------



## lilnaugrim

AKLSJDIDUHGSODIFJ! OMG, I seriously hate our school internet right now. I had written this awesome four paragraph (and as seen previously, they can be long) reply and the internet cut out >.> it's been cutting out all morning now.....ugggg.

Basically, we use Advantage II at times, not all the time so that is a possibility for sure, still doesn't explain him missing the litter box when he pees but could still definitely explain the skin iritation.

I use Nature's Miracle for the dry shampoo occasionally, it's not a flea shampoo but I do have Magic Paws or whatever the name is that is a wet flea shampoo. I've only used it on him once but I could certainly do it again monthly as per instructions, I know to not do any less than a month with that stuff. He's pretty easy going for baths, just cowers in the corner of the shower as I wash him with hot water and have his warm towels prepared to dry him off and cuddle him to keep him warm as he is drying 

He does have these fleas, I have yet to identify them but I just thought of taking pictures of them and I'll see if I can! I call them Super Fleas because they are harder to squish than regular fleas, they are slightly bigger and more reddish brown. I've looked into squirrel fleas which they might possibly be but seem a little too small if I remember correctly or the body structure wasn't quite right. We looked into bed bugs too, those aren't it. The flea population dies down in the winter a little kind of ironically since he spends a great time indoors and we don't tend to use flea stuff on them during the winter although I know we should....we give it to them when we remember basically...that sounds horrible :-/ but the fact that the flea stuff might not be killing the fleas sounds very plausible and I'll look into it more now.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some pictures! :-D

Aero still filling in some of those spots! He's come a long way! He's almost been here a whole year!! I believe come April he will have been with me a year! :-D I'll have to look back in my journal to see if I posted when I got him!


Being the beautiful boy that he is!


And so I went and picked up those fish today, the lady was selling them 10 bucks for fish and set up. I ended up throwing all the set up away because it reeked HORRIBLY of smoke, ugg, I can still smell it :-( it was just vases, a plastic plant, cheap crappy food and a teeny bit of water conditioner left. So into the grabage those went! So I never fully took down Remmy's old Tetra Cube 3 gallon and so I had put my extra Red Root Floaters in there to help grow some more and eventually sell some myself! So I took one of the boy's that she gave me (She said one male and one female but they're both boy's, just one is a PK I'm pretty sure) and plopped him in there with a sponge filter and four ghost shrimp! I wanted to see how he'd fair with other things in a tank so when he goes up for adoption I can confirm if he's community safe or not. So far so good!

But I just want to say that my 3 gal looks fan-freaking-tastic! lol, it looks better in real life, I just like the simplicity of it; it's a nice change :-D


Here's the possible female, I don't see ovaries, there is a small egg spot but we all know that's not enough. Ventral fins seem to be growing out and she's horribly spoon-headed; literally THE trait that I hate the most in Bettas! >.<


Also if she is female, she's got one hell of a beard! It's not shown here but she was flaring at Isis earlier




It just all around looks male to me :-/


And this is the one who is definitely boy! He's a Steel blue VT who is still growing out his fins. No fin rot thankfully, looks like he might have just been frustrated at one point because they are all growing back now and the lady said it happened suddenly so that's what I'm betting! He's very photogenic and loves my face apparently lol And as I said, so far so good with the shrimp!


He just looks like a little sweetie!


You can see the new growth alright here :-D


Both are quite bloated, no doubt from the flakes she was feeding so they'll be fasted for a while!


And then he saw Hawkeye lol


And then he was showing off ^_^





So I had an eventful day! I finally was able to get the last craft mesh that I needed for the 20 Long so hopefully I can measure it all out today and get that done so I can move the fish over quickly; dad's gone out to look at a promising house today so I've got to pick up the speed!


----------



## beautiful Betta

Your tank looks amazing, great job.


----------



## Lucillia

I love that urn/vase thingy. It's really nice... AND I LOVE THOSE FLOATING LILLY PAD THINGS AND I WANT TO STEAL SOME XD And wow... The boygirlthing fish... Even I'm cringing at the spoonheadedness.


----------



## Betta Nut

lilnaugrim said:


> Here's the possible female, I don't see ovaries, there is a small egg spot but we all know that's not enough. Ventral fins seem to be growing out and she's horribly spoon-headed; literally THE trait that I hate the most in Bettas! >.<
> 
> 
> It just all around looks male to me :/


My gosh, it looks like a whole new species of fish, lol... She (that's my vote for male/female) has the whole "so ugly it's cute" thing going on. Hope you get a good ugly/cute name for her, haha


----------



## beautiful Betta

call her Reese after Reese Witherspoon, lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> And so I went and picked up those fish today, the lady was selling them 10 bucks for fish and set up. I ended up throwing all the set up away because it reeked HORRIBLY of smoke, ugg, I can still smell it :-( it was just vases, a plastic plant, cheap crappy food and a teeny bit of water conditioner left. So into the grabage those went! So I never fully took down Remmy's old Tetra Cube 3 gallon and so I had put my extra Red Root Floaters in there to help grow some more and eventually sell some myself! So I took one of the boy's that she gave me (She said one male and one female but they're both boy's, just one is a PK I'm pretty sure) and plopped him in there with a sponge filter and four ghost shrimp! I wanted to see how he'd fair with other things in a tank so when he goes up for adoption I can confirm if he's community safe or not. So far so good!
> 
> Here's the possible female, I don't see ovaries, there is a small egg spot but we all know that's not enough. Ventral fins seem to be growing out and she's horribly spoon-headed; literally THE trait that I hate the most in Bettas! >.<
> 
> 
> Also if she is female, she's got one hell of a beard! It's not shown here but she was flaring at Isis earlier
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It just all around looks male to me :-/
> 
> 
> And this is the one who is definitely boy! He's a Steel blue VT who is still growing out his fins. No fin rot thankfully, looks like he might have just been frustrated at one point because they are all growing back now and the lady said it happened suddenly so that's what I'm betting! He's very photogenic and loves my face apparently lol And as I said, so far so good with the shrimp!
> 
> 
> He just looks like a little sweetie!
> 
> 
> You can see the new growth alright here :-D
> 
> 
> Both are quite bloated, no doubt from the flakes she was feeding so they'll be fasted for a while!
> 
> 
> And then he saw Hawkeye lol
> 
> 
> And then he was showing off ^_^
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And I thought Merlin was spoon headed :shock:. Definitely has a cute quality factor though.
> 
> Love the other male!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> I love that urn/vase thingy. It's really nice... AND I LOVE THOSE FLOATING LILLY PAD THINGS AND I WANT TO STEAL SOME XD And wow... The boygirlthing fish... Even I'm cringing at the spoonheadedness.


You were the one that helped me get that greek vase XD remember? It was on a sale and we used your discount with the filters and stuff lol. And those floating lily pad things are called Red Root Floaters ^_^ they don't like current at all and flourish red under medium-high lighting. They'd love your 20 then if you took/taking the filter out! I could give you some once they start growing well enough in my tanks :-D



Betta Nut said:


> My gosh, it looks like a whole new species of fish, lol... She (that's my vote for male/female) has the whole "so ugly it's cute" thing going on. Hope you get a good ugly/cute name for her, haha


Yeah, nope, I'm not naming them since I'm not keeping them. Just fostering them until someone comes along to adopt them!



beautiful Betta said:


> call her Reese after Reese Witherspoon, lol


Oh lol, I see what you did there ;-) I'm really certain it is a boy though.



BettaLover1313 said:


> And I thought Merlin was spoon headed :shock:. Definitely has a cute quality factor though.
> 
> Love the other male!


Yeah....I find no cuteness in him at all  Aero is slightly spoonheaded as well and I hated it at first but since his scales came in, he's much less spoonheaded although I know he still is underneath it all 

I love the Steel boy though! I want to keep him, he's just so darn adorable but my mom would kill me if I set up another tank at her house, I've got the four already and only 3/4 are running, just siliconed up the 20 long with the dividers!

Speaking of Aero! April 24th is his birthday; a year with me!!! He's so old! lol


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## lilnaugrim

Oh....my god! So...I just happened to look over at my posts since I'm on BF rather than TFK which displays them unlike BF and I'm over 10,000 posts :shock::shock2::shock: I mean, likely, 3/4 of them are meaningless comments like this one lol but still! Geeze...I talk too much I think!

Also, I just hit 100 friends! :greenyay: I'm popular! :redyay: hahaha! Actually, around 7/8 of them aren't even active any more so that doesn't count either XD It's the thought though, right? lol

So my Black Moscow was extremely unhappy after I gave the Platinum SS girl to Lucillia as we had planned, I know guppies are very social but holy mackerel! I wasn't expecting her to get so depressed so quickly!! So while I was with Lucillia today we stopped by PetSmart and I picked up two more beautiful females, not for breeding so much but just for her to be companions so she doesn't die on me!!!! I need her!! And the guppies were a dollar so that made me happy!

*So I've got another predicament!* So the tank at school of which I'm taking care of, I want to get a Betta for it and I have a few options:
Option A) is to bring Azazel there but I'm a little too attached to him now :-/ I would prefer to keep him safe where I know my tanks are clean and healthy for the most part, I just hope he does well in the divided tank.

Option B) Get this beautiful Red HMPK boy at the SeaHorse shop, he's got some minor green dragon scaling on him and he's been there for months now and he's absolutely beautiful! I almost wish I had gotten him instead of Azazel but honestly, SeaHorse takes care of their fish and they don't really have that many deaths so I don't regret taking Azazel where I know he's been at PetCo for over a month and a half at the point that I got him at.

Option C) bring over the new Steel Blue boy who I think I'm going to call Steele both after Remington Steele and since he is Steel blue...gee I'm so creative. Anyway, the only issue with him is that I told the tank owner that I'd get her something fun and fancy and he's anything but that, almost the normal regular pet store fish :-/ BUT he's not the normal blue that we have and I know he's good in a community setting (so far) and he's got almost a 180 spread so far and I have a feeling his tail is going to be beautiful as it grows out!

I'm leaning towards Option C but at the same time, I really want to get that poor Red boy out of the shop and into a loving home! I mean....I could adopt him out on here if someone wants him! I wouldn't mind shipping him for sure, he's very laid back and a sweet PK boy. His accents of green are absolutely beautiful as well. I can see if I can get better pictures of him sometime if anyone wants to see him/adopt him.


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh....my god! So...I just happened to look over at my posts since I'm on BF rather than TFK which displays them unlike BF and I'm over 10,000 posts :shock::shock2::shock: I mean, likely, 3/4 of them are meaningless comments like this one lol but still! Geeze...I talk too much I think!
> 
> Also, I just hit 100 friends! :greenyay: I'm popular! :redyay: hahaha! Actually, around 7/8 of them aren't even active any more so that doesn't count either XD It's the thought though, right? lol
> 
> So my Black Moscow was extremely unhappy after I gave the Platinum SS girl to Lucillia as we had planned, I know guppies are very social but holy mackerel! I wasn't expecting her to get so depressed so quickly!! So while I was with Lucillia today we stopped by PetSmart and I picked up two more beautiful females, not for breeding so much but just for her to be companions so she doesn't die on me!!!! I need her!! And the guppies were a dollar so that made me happy!
> 
> *So I've got another predicament!* So the tank at school of which I'm taking care of, I want to get a Betta for it and I have a few options:
> Option A) is to bring Azazel there but I'm a little too attached to him now :-/ I would prefer to keep him safe where I know my tanks are clean and healthy for the most part, I just hope he does well in the divided tank.
> 
> Option B) Get this beautiful Red HMPK boy at the SeaHorse shop, he's got some minor green dragon scaling on him and he's been there for months now and he's absolutely beautiful! I almost wish I had gotten him instead of Azazel but honestly, SeaHorse takes care of their fish and they don't really have that many deaths so I don't regret taking Azazel where I know he's been at PetCo for over a month and a half at the point that I got him at.
> 
> Option C) bring over the new Steel Blue boy who I think I'm going to call Steele both after Remington Steele and since he is Steel blue...gee I'm so creative. Anyway, the only issue with him is that I told the tank owner that I'd get her something fun and fancy and he's anything but that, almost the normal regular pet store fish :-/ BUT he's not the normal blue that we have and I know he's good in a community setting (so far) and he's got almost a 180 spread so far and I have a feeling his tail is going to be beautiful as it grows out!
> 
> I'm leaning towards Option C but at the same time, I really want to get that poor Red boy out of the shop and into a loving home! I mean....I could adopt him out on here if someone wants him! I wouldn't mind shipping him for sure, he's very laid back and a sweet PK boy. His accents of green are absolutely beautiful as well. I can see if I can get better pictures of him sometime if anyone wants to see him/adopt him.


I've been looking into adopting another boy, actually, since I just upgraded my two boys to a 5 gal divided, and I got too intimidated(for now) on the bidders who joined me on the eBay EE I wanted... So your red boy, or Steele would be great, actually! I have a 2.5 gal with one of their names on it :tongue: if you want, of course


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> I've been looking into adopting another boy, actually, since I just upgraded my two boys to a 5 gal divided, and I got too intimidated(for now) on the bidders who joined me on the eBay EE I wanted... So your red boy, or Steele would be great, actually! I have a 2.5 gal with one of their names on it :tongue: if you want, of course


Fantastic!! I think I'm going to keep Steele for a little while just to make sure his fins are nice nice, he was doing a little flashing too so I want to make sure that isn't an issue before he goes out to his home! I can certainly get you the red boy though! I would ask that you pay his price and then the shipping price though, I think he's going to be 10 bucks but might be 15....not sure yet but I can ask of course. I know that's kind of a lot but definitely beats the prices on AB still! And honestly, to me, he's worth it and just as good quality as any AB fish! My LFS tends to have very good looking fish!

And just to give you a certain idea, this is a super crappy pic of him I took with my phone around a month or so back. You can see his irid there :-D








Gosh darnit! Why can't male Bettas live together >.> makes me angry sometimes I can't just throw them all into the same tank without dividers and them be happy! lol


----------



## PetMania

^I KNOW!!! But if they could....sigh....I would have SO MANY bettas


----------



## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> ^I KNOW!!! But if they could....sigh....I would have SO MANY bettas


God! I know, right?? Grr, but they would be one hell of a tank!! Imagine all those colors and pretty fins (provided they didn't nip each other of course) uggg....whyyyy must we love these fish so much??

Okay, if BettaBabyBoo takes the Red boy, I'm going to keep Steele and put him at school so I can at least watch over him for the most part! Uhh yeah, I think he's stolen my heart! Sorry BettaBabyBoo if you wanted him >.< I'm aparently bad at this whole foster thing! I'm usually really good about it though! I mean, I fosted four kittens and they've all gone off to their forever homes (Oh my goodness, we remembered they will soon be a year old come April 20th!) and then I've adopted out plenty of fish before....no idea why Steele just stole me!


----------



## PetMania

That's what I love about fancy HMPK female bettas. They are really pretty, and they can be together. YAY! lol 

Great, now I am thinking about breeding again. NOOO


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Fantastic!! I think I'm going to keep Steele for a little while just to make sure his fins are nice nice, he was doing a little flashing too so I want to make sure that isn't an issue before he goes out to his home! I can certainly get you the red boy though! I would ask that you pay his price and then the shipping price though, I think he's going to be 10 bucks but might be 15....not sure yet but I can ask of course. I know that's kind of a lot but definitely beats the prices on AB still! And honestly, to me, he's worth it and just as good quality as any AB fish! My LFS tends to have very good looking fish!
> 
> And just to give you a certain idea, this is a super crappy pic of him I took with my phone around a month or so back. You can see his irid there :-D
> View attachment 312233
> 
> 
> Gosh darnit! Why can't male Bettas live together >.> makes me angry sometimes I can't just throw them all into the same tank without dividers and them be happy! lol


Don't even worry about a semi-expensive fish :tongue: I was prepared to pay up to fifty for the boy I originally wanted. Thank god for savings. If you could find out his real price and the shipping to northern VA, and give me an approx amount within a week or two, that'd be perfect haha  I would ask you make sure he is healthy before shipping, and that I get a few days to make sure I have everything set up and ready. Do you accept paypal? I signed up for an account along with eBay. And arrival time would have to be during week days ugh. My weekends are packed between work and competitions

But, he's gorgeous! Looks a lot like Blaziken! They could almost be brothers


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

Also, I swear he'd get a good home! This is the tank, 5 gal, set up for my boys currently:


----------



## PetMania

The thing is, I can no longer afford a collection. I need space for studying as I am going into highschool. I'll try to rescue, but that'll be hard. Naugrim, I am definetly still keeping Snowbird, but all of my other fish have to go. Urgh


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> Don't even worry about a semi-expensive fish :tongue: I was prepared to pay up to fifty for the boy I originally wanted. Thank god for savings. If you could find out his real price and the shipping to northern VA, and give me an approx amount within a week or two, that'd be perfect haha  I would ask you make sure he is healthy before shipping, and that I get a few days to make sure I have everything set up and ready. Do you accept paypal? I signed up for an account along with eBay. And arrival time would have to be during week days ugh. My weekends are packed between work and competitions
> 
> But, he's gorgeous! Looks a lot like Blaziken! They could almost be brothers
> 
> Also, I swear he'd get a good home! This is the tank, 5 gal, set up for my boys currently:


Certainly! I can only ship out on Saturday although it would have to be next weekend since this weekend I'm going to be in the next state over for a convention. I do have paypal so that would be easiest and shipping will be 10 bucks (it's really like 6.50 but I need to have money for the shipping bags, heat pack, insulation and the box of course!) So if you have issue with that, just let me know and we can work things out. I can visit the shop tomorrow and pick him up, I've got a few extra tanks laying around that I could easily just set him up in for the week or two while I make sure he's definitely healthy and doing well! I could get better pics of him as well before I purchase him if you like!

And I definitely trust you to have a good home for him ^_^ and yeah, I saw your tank in the "show your betta tanks thread" and was like, heeeyyy! The red DTPK looks like the red boy! haha, very awesome tank though!



PetMania said:


> The thing is, I can no longer afford a collection. I need space for studying as I am going into highschool. I'll try to rescue, but that'll be hard. Naugrim, I am definetly still keeping Snowbird, but all of my other fish have to go. Urgh


That's okay! I understand how it goes too, unexpected things come up and while it absolutely sucks, as long as you are able to at least give them to a good home, that's good I believe. That's just my philosophy on the sort of thing though. I'm happy you're keeping Snowbird though, she's just so beautiful! How's she been doing?


----------



## PetMania

That's okay! I understand how it goes too, unexpected things come up and while it absolutely sucks, as long as you are able to at least give them to a good home, that's good I believe. That's just my philosophy on the sort of thing though. I'm happy you're keeping Snowbird though, she's just so beautiful! How's she been doing?[/quote]

She's doing great  I ended up not breeding her. But she is very pretty.


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Certainly! I can only ship out on Saturday although it would have to be next weekend since this weekend I'm going to be in the next state over for a convention. I do have paypal so that would be easiest and shipping will be 10 bucks (it's really like 6.50 but I need to have money for the shipping bags, heat pack, insulation and the box of course!) So if you have issue with that, just let me know and we can work things out. I can visit the shop tomorrow and pick him up, I've got a few extra tanks laying around that I could easily just set him up in for the week or two while I make sure he's definitely healthy and doing well! I could get better pics of him as well before I purchase him if you like!
> 
> And I definitely trust you to have a good home for him ^_^ and yeah, I saw your tank in the "show your betta tanks thread" and was like, heeeyyy! The red DTPK looks like the red boy! haha, very awesome tank though!


The amount of money I've spent on everything... Has to be nearly 300$ good lord I have a problem! Still, it's fine, it's fine! Wasn't like I needed that money for anything else :tongue: that sounds reasonable, twenty in all does, I just need a few days since I'm working tomorrow and that'll help relieve my poor savings account haha 

Sounds good doing the whole keep him for a week or so, then I could definitely make sure he'd have his whole set up ready. I just want the best for my boys, oopsie. 

It's funny because I always told myself I didn't like Plakats... And now I'm going to have two! Something about them is starting to win me over, but I still adore CTs and EEs


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> The amount of money I've spent on everything... Has to be nearly 300$ good lord I have a problem! Still, it's fine, it's fine! Wasn't like I needed that money for anything else :tongue: that sounds reasonable, twenty in all does, I just need a few days since I'm working tomorrow and that'll help relieve my poor savings account haha
> 
> Sounds good doing the whole keep him for a week or so, then I could definitely make sure he'd have his whole set up ready. I just want the best for my boys, oopsie.
> 
> It's funny because I always told myself I didn't like Plakats... And now I'm going to have two! Something about them is starting to win me over, but I still adore CTs and EEs


Unless of course, he's 15 dollars >.<

PK's are just awesome all around, much more energy and with that energy they have more personality it seems! So do you want me to check on his price and get more pics tomorrow or just go ahead and get him?


----------



## PetMania

I've gotten 2 amazing bettas from lilnaugrim. And they were well cared for


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## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Unless of course, he's 15 dollars >.<
> 
> PK's are just awesome all around, much more energy and with that energy they have more personality it seems! So do you want me to check on his price and get more pics tomorrow or just go ahead and get him?


Check the price, but twenty-five is fine too, and better pics would always be appreciated haha! 

I could definitely see that, oh yeah. Blaziken is the spunkiest spitfire. He got into my VT boy's side two days ago(shoddy divider and my fault :/ it's been fixed though), and he came out unscathed but tore the Beast's tail to shreds, and took a big chunk from it, too! He's an aggressive bugger


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> Check the price, but twenty-five is fine too, and better pics would always be appreciated haha!
> 
> I could definitely see that, oh yeah. Blaziken is the spunkiest spitfire. He got into my VT boy's side two days ago(shoddy divider and my fault :/ it's been fixed though), and he came out unscathed but tore the Beast's tail to shreds, and took a big chunk from it, too! He's an aggressive bugger


Will do! 

Glad the boys are okay! I had my last Giant boy do that to poor Aero, took a huge chunk from his tail but he's all healed up now! Quick healing to Beast! :-D

Alright, going to bed, night night all!


----------



## PetMania

Good night!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Pictures from yesterday!

Here's what my tanks look like when I enter my room!
"Oh hello 13 gallons on my IKEA bookshelf on it's side!"


And we go around the corner! Oh! Look, two more tanks!
You can see Azazel is quite happy in the 29 lol! I had to bring over a fish and he was the better of them to bring over for the time being. I threw in a wisteria clipping and the two fake plants for now so he didn't feel so small in a large tank, the tank makes him look like a normal sized Betta anyway XD


Got the 20 long divided up! I need to clean up the silicone a bit with a razor since I kind of got it all over the place >.< I was a champ with siliconing though by the time I was done! haha


Here's the beautiful boy! He's coloring up well! He's getting more dark patches but they look more like tiger stripes lol. I don't think he'll go to the full brown that Charles was but I hope he just stays like this. Looks like the white on his anal fin has expanded more as well though...interesting!


He was interested in his reflection ^_^




Close up on the 13 on the right with the female guppies and Dario along with another female I purchased at Wal-mart :roll: she'll be up for adoption as well. Yeah, yeah, feel free to yell at me. 


And here's my little breeder box on the back of it with the four baby guppies who I'm certain all came from the Plat SS girl since they are all getting their spots in!


I'm fairly certain that the one you see in back is female and the blurred one up front is male. I'm pretty positive that I have 1:1 M:F of the older two and same with the younger two, even split! Cool!


All four are in this picture, just the older two are blurred and you can clearly see one young and the other young is at top near the wisteria stalk.


And here's little Dario! He's been doing fantastic with the worms ^_^


And here's the male tank which has just gone under with it's second round of General Cure but I'm still seeing stringy/white poop from the guppies and Kit-Kat is still very fat >.> However the guppies that were bloated and having stringy poop are fine now, it's just one that is emaciated, one of my favorites of course whom I call Sunset. He's emaciated but poops frequently with white poo, it's almost like a solid gel though, almost solid poo but still stringy enough to worry me. He also eats like a pig which tells me he probably still has internal parasites......Going to do a large water change soon.


And the video is currently being processed but here's a video of the new spoonheaded boy and Isis flaring at him! Isis is so darn adorable!!! I'm pretty sure it's a boy, I'll upload more vids later but he colored up quite a bit for her and then got severely stressed for Aero and Hawkeye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LL8qyJRhWU&feature=youtu.be


----------



## beautiful Betta

I love your red boy, he reminds me a lot of the Koi ones, like he has black to come through.


----------



## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> I love your red boy, he reminds me a lot of the Koi ones, like he has black to come through.


Thanks, I'm fairly positive that Azazel is from the same spawn as Charlie was so I'm not surprised he's got the deeper mahogany color coming in!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh and here's the video uploaded of Hawkeye and the new boy. You can see through him as well and I see no ovaries nor any shape of ovaries. And you get to finally see Hawkeye and all his radiance! lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8xJLcIu1Y&feature=youtu.be


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## lilnaugrim

Darn, can't edit my last post. Well here are all the videos together!

Isis Flaring
Hawkeye Flaring
Aero Flaring
And the New Girl

New girl is for adoption as well, those clear spots in her fins are actually just her color! I originally got her for her unique coloration and I thought those were bites in her fins! Turns out she's all around healthy! lol She very easily gets stress stripes but that's expected when still settling in! Her adoption will be 5 dollars!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Your new boy is so mellow! Once I got over the spoon-headedness he's actually appealing to me. Now if only I had a 10 gallon tank >.< All those fish flaring at him though and no response, is pretty good in my books (especially with my flaring monster, Merlin). 

Love Aero's video! Just watching him zoom around the tank in a temper was funny.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Your new boy is so mellow! Once I got over the spoon-headedness he's actually appealing to me. Now if only I had a 10 gallon tank >.< All those fish flaring at him though and no response, is pretty good in my books (especially with my flaring monster, Merlin).
> 
> Love Aero's video! Just watching him zoom around the tank in a temper was funny.


lol yeah! Aero was hilarious and I'm not sure if I laughed in the video or not since I haven't actually watched it all the way through yet XD I was just like...yep, this is my boy for sure! Somehow he's got a big chunk taken out of his dorsal >.> I think it might be the filter though, not sure!

Yeah, I hope someone adopts him because I really don't want him >.< unfortunately, I can't get over the spoon-headedness, just really not my type of fish. But yeah, I think he would make a very good fish for dividing! He was flaring at first to Isis before I got the video in but I think that was mostly out of surprise from a new fish. I'll have to see his reactions with Remmy, although I almost don't want to do that since Remmy don't like intruders at all and his tail is finally healing well!


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Here's the beautiful boy! He's coloring up well! He's getting more dark patches but they look more like tiger stripes lol. I don't think he'll go to the full brown that Charles was but I hope he just stays like this. Looks like the white on his anal fin has expanded more as well though...interesting!
> 
> 
> He was interested in his reflection ^_^


Dare I say, is that my [hopeful] boy? :tongue:


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> Dare I say, is that my [hopeful] boy? :tongue:


lol, no! That's my boy! That's Azazel, your boy is similar though but without the darker red on him and a little more iridescence. Sorry! I'll be getting pictures of him tonight after I get out of work!


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> lol, no! That's my boy! That's Azazel, your boy is similar though but without the darker red on him and a little more iridescence. Sorry! I'll be getting pictures of him tonight after I get out of work!


I wasn't sure, so I kept looking at the tail and back  it's all good! Haha


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> I wasn't sure, so I kept looking at the tail and back  it's all good! Haha


lol, that's okay! I know they are similar and the one pic of your boy is a terrible pic >.<


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> lol, that's okay! I know they are similar and the one pic of your boy is a terrible pic >.<


I feel silly :tongue: ah well, mistakes happen. Azazel is very pretty anyways!


----------



## BettaLover1313

lil, call me crazy, but I'm thinking of getting a 10 gallon tank (and hood...one that I could still use my daylight bulbs in) to accommodate him. I've had him on my mind most of the day, and glaring spoon-headedness aside, I quite like him. Out of curiosity, what are you asking for him (not including shipping) and when could you send him out?


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> lil, call me crazy, but I'm thinking of getting a 10 gallon tank (and hood...one that I could still use my daylight bulbs in) to accommodate him. I've had him on my mind most of the day, and glaring spoon-headedness aside, I quite like him. Out of curiosity, what are you asking for him (not including shipping) and when could you send him out?


I don't call you crazy! I call you addicted! lol :rofl:

I'm asking $5 for his adoption, seems fair enough since I technically bought him and Steele for 10 each with their set ups which I threw out anyway because they REEKED of cig smoke...ugg, literally made me sick! Shipping will be $10 so total of 15!

And I would be able to send him out next Saturday, or this Thursday if weather permits and I have a car to drive me to the post office. I'm dropping my car off at the mechanics to get my oil changed, a squeaking fixed (just needs some grease) and to replace my cracked coolant reservoir tank >.< So yeah, most likely though Next Saturday the 22nd though along with BettaBabyBoo's red boy if all goes well!


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> I don't call you crazy! I call you addicted! lol :rofl:
> 
> I'm asking $5 for his adoption, seems fair enough since I technically bought him and Steele for 10 each with their set ups which I threw out anyway because they REEKED of cig smoke...ugg, literally made me sick! Shipping will be $10 so total of 15!
> 
> And I would be able to send him out next Saturday, or this Thursday if weather permits and I have a car to drive me to the post office. I'm dropping my car off at the mechanics to get my oil changed, a squeaking fixed (just needs some grease) and to replace my cracked coolant reservoir tank >.< So yeah, most likely though Next Saturday the 22nd though along with BettaBabyBoo's red boy if all goes well!


Since I'm new to shipping fish, how many days would it take for him to arrive? (Trying to figure things out if I can adopt him or not).


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Since I'm new to shipping fish, how many days would it take for him to arrive? (Trying to figure things out if I can adopt him or not).


From me to you, two days with Priority mail, faster if you want to pay more for shipping but since we're college kids, figured you probably didn't want to deal with that lol. I could ship on Thursday to your home address if you wanted to pick him up there instead of at college, all up to you. And no worries if you don't end up adopting him too, it won't make me sad or anything. I'm just happy that people wouldn't mind taking him lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> From me to you, two days with Priority mail, faster if you want to pay more for shipping but since we're college kids, figured you probably didn't want to deal with that lol. I could ship on Thursday to your home address if you wanted to pick him up there instead of at college, all up to you. And no worries if you don't end up adopting him too, it won't make me sad or anything. I'm just happy that people wouldn't mind taking him lol


I'm sincerely considering it. The only thing that would keep me from adopting him at the moment is that a new hood for a 10 gallon tank (heater & filter are supposed to be able to work up to 10...or 15...can't remember) but a hood is like $23 and I'm not sure if I want to spend that much on a hood. Tank price was fine, it's just that evil hood >.<

Thursday would work extremely well since my Spring Break starts this Friday and I'd be home by then and once he arrived Saturday I could quarantine him for a week before returning to college.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> I'm sincerely considering it. The only thing that would keep me from adopting him at the moment is that a new hood for a 10 gallon tank (heater & filter are supposed to be able to work up to 10...or 15...can't remember) but a hood is like $23 and I'm not sure if I want to spend that much on a hood. Tank price was fine, it's just that evil hood >.<
> 
> Thursday would work extremely well since my Spring Break starts this Friday and I'd be home by then and once he arrived Saturday I could quarantine him for a week before returning to college.


As long as I can get a car to get to the post office!

You could always get a glass top: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3730+3781&pcatid=3781 well these are all on backorder lol but you would need to get like a clamp light or something instead is all since you wouldn't have the light bulb holder of the hood. Just some option is all  But yeah, I know hoods are stupidly expensive >.<


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> As long as I can get a car to get to the post office!
> 
> You could always get a glass top: Aquarium Lighting: Marineland Glass Aquarium Lighting Canopies well these are all on backorder lol but you would need to get like a clamp light or something instead is all since you wouldn't have the light bulb holder of the hood. Just some option is all  But yeah, I know hoods are stupidly expensive >.<


I'll get back to you about it by tomorrow. Going to do some figuring!


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## BettaLover1313

Actually, I have one more question that's just for my curiosity: what color is the male/what color do you think he is?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well, good question BL1313! I went to check on them today after stopping by for the red boy and the spoonheaded boy has colored up amazingly and has a bubblenest going!!! Just uploaded some pictures and a video that is currently uploading! He's a little more feisty and sassy now lol









I'll upload other pictures later!

Oh and forgot the one of his bubblnest!


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## lilnaugrim

Video of the blue spoon-headed boy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQYbM6ACk3g&feature=youtu.be

And Steele!


Look at all his new growth! :-D


And BettaBabyBoo! He's 10 dollars if you want him. I bought him today anyway just to save on my gas getting down there and if you didn't want him, I'm sure he wouldn't be that hard to sell lol His irid is actually blue not green, he's going to be absolutely gorgeous when he colors up! He's just floating in the 13 at the moment, the wal-mart girl was showing off for him lol


He did bite his tail a while ago but he should heal up just fine in a month or so ^_^


lol, love this pic!


He's young too.


A little bit of fin rot but nothing some water changes won't take care of!


Wal-Mart girlie all colored up!



Also Hawkeye started to make a bubblenest again lol


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## BettaLover1313

He is going to be such a pretty blue!

Unfortunately, after doing several different calculations and talking it over with my mom (two tanks running over break would effect her electric bill, even if just a little) I decided that right now, it's not feasible to try and add another betta to the family. 

I'm sure with him coloring up nicely you won't have too much trouble finding him a different home! Very sorry that I can't be that new home though. :/


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## lilnaugrim

Two tanks? What about getting the 10 and just split it three times?


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Two tanks? What about getting the 10 and just split it three times?


I should have been more specific, I'd have had the three-gallon serving as a quarantine tank for the week (not that I don't think he's healthy, but I don't want to take chances). Then the 10 gallon would be running with Merlin, Dragoon and the snails.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh okay, well as long as the house isn't too cold he'll be fine without a heater or a filter *shrug*, just sayin  he's currently in an unfiltered, unheated 2.5 gallon lol. Temp is running around 70-72 degree's and honestly, I'm pretty sure it's all an upgrade from their original homes.

But again, no worries if you can't take him


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh okay, well as long as the house isn't too cold he'll be fine without a heater or a filter *shrug*, just sayin  he's currently in an unfiltered, unheated 2.5 gallon lol. Temp is running around 70-72 degree's and honestly, I'm pretty sure it's all an upgrade from their original homes.
> 
> But again, no worries if you can't take him


I'd really love to have him, but the cost of a new tank and hood is also the issue, unfortunately. My paycheck wouldn't be able to cover it while still leaving me with gas money/just in case money. I'm sure you'll find a home for him since he is proving to be such a pretty blue.


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Video of the blue spoon-headed boy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQYbM6ACk3g&feature=youtu.be
> 
> And Steele!
> 
> 
> Look at all his new growth! :-D
> 
> 
> And BettaBabyBoo! He's 10 dollars if you want him. I bought him today anyway just to save on my gas getting down there and if you didn't want him, I'm sure he wouldn't be that hard to sell lol His irid is actually blue not green, he's going to be absolutely gorgeous when he colors up! He's just floating in the 13 at the moment, the wal-mart girl was showing off for him lol
> 
> 
> He did bite his tail a while ago but he should heal up just fine in a month or so ^_^
> 
> 
> lol, love this pic!
> 
> 
> He's young too.
> 
> 
> A little bit of fin rot but nothing some water changes won't take care of!
> 
> 
> Wal-Mart girlie all colored up!
> 
> 
> 
> Also Hawkeye started to make a bubblenest again lol


I definitely want him! Apparently I'm gonna be the queen of red Plakats :tongue: that's twenty for everything, correct? It's excellent timing too, since I just had to rehome the Beast with my grandma


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> I definitely want him! Apparently I'm gonna be the queen of red Plakats :tongue: that's twenty for everything, correct? It's excellent timing too, since I just had to rehome the Beast with my grandma


Yup! $20 for everything and you can PM me for my paypal and more info as well ^_^

Red PK's are the best! This boy is absolutely darling though! He's been showing off for the girlie that I have in there that you see in the pics and it's just so cute! He really reminds me of a B. Brownorum! Too cute! He'll be a fantastic addition to your tank for sure!

So I can ship him out on the 22nd if that's okay since I'll be out of town this weekend and I work all day this week and college again next week. Unless you wanted me to ship him out Thursday morning to arrive for Saturday, that's up to you


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Yup! $20 for everything and you can PM me for my paypal and more info as well ^_^
> 
> Red PK's are the best! This boy is absolutely darling though! He's been showing off for the girlie that I have in there that you see in the pics and it's just so cute! He really reminds me of a B. Brownorum! Too cute! He'll be a fantastic addition to your tank for sure!
> 
> So I can ship him out on the 22nd if that's okay since I'll be out of town this weekend and I work all day this week and college again next week. Unless you wanted me to ship him out Thursday morning to arrive for Saturday, that's up to you


Hmmmm... The 22nd would be best. I have work Sunday, and I'm hoping I make enough to not have to take more money out of savings  would be okay if I waited a bit less than a week to pay you?


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> Hmmmm... The 22nd would be best. I have work Sunday, and I'm hoping I make enough to not have to take more money out of savings  would be okay if I waited a bit less than a week to pay you?


Would it be before the 22nd? If so, that's totally fine ^_^


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

lilnaugrim said:


> Would it be before the 22nd? If so, that's totally fine ^_^


The 16th :3


----------



## Lucillia

Oh!!!! He was the one I was like :O HE'S SO pretty when we went!!! I'm jealous! He's gorgeous!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBabyBoo said:


> The 16th :3


Yup! that's totally fine then ^_^ just as long as it's here before I ship out :-D



Lucillia said:


> Oh!!!! He was the one I was like :O HE'S SO pretty when we went!!! I'm jealous! He's gorgeous!


Derp! He was the one _I_ showed you! XD He's absolutely adorable though! He's made a bubblenest since him and "his" girl have been flirting continuously! Although when she get's bored she goes off to bother the guppies and Dario lol. The Red boy also like to show off to Dario and I'm like "Silly boy! He's completely the wrong species!!" haha

Speaking of Dario, the little boy devoured an entire large White Worm last night! It was adorable! He can't seem to find the Grindal worms as easy even if I try to put it right in front of him, he's coming to learn that the tweezers mean food that so he's not running away any more. But the Guppies absolutely looooove the grindal worms so I feed them occasionally!


----------



## BettaBabyBoo

Excellent!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So all the fishes are doing well at dad's! Seems like I need to speed up production since dad's bid offer on a house over in New London was accepted tonight!!! I mean, he's still got to pack his stuff as well but holy crap! I've got to get moving! It's difficult when I've got a convention this week and then back to regular college next week which means I get about three-four hours at home each day before bed time to cram in all the stuff I need to do!!

Oh and before I forget, I think 1 out of the 4 Ghost Shrimp I got isn't actually a Ghostie! She looks like a young Amano actually! She's got the markings and all, still has claws though but she's definitely no ghostie! The other three are doing well, one of them even shed their exoskeleton and Steele didn't even touch them! I'm so proud of him lol I think he'll be going to the college tank soon...well, I need to get rid of those darn tetras first! Anyone want the Albino Buenos Aires Tetras? Geeze, these fish are a pain in my tushy!

Also, got in two Yoyo Loaches from a local store; not my usual place though but that's fine! They are young and absolutely adorable! I have been researching them for their habitat later on and where I plan to keep them. I figure I will move them into the 29 for the mean time while I switch everything over and once we get rid of the piano and set up the 33, they can go in there provided they are still alive and well which I should hope they will be! Hawkeye has been a butt to them as he is with all tankmates I give him >.> he quietly went down to inspect the second loach I put in, he slowly went up to him and just as his lips were touching the loach he bit him! I knocked on the glass and it scared him so I just hope he will leave them alone after inspecting for the first day or so. He's such a little spoiled brat! If he does continue to bother them though I will just move them to the 29 early since I don't want them to get hurt! They are too cute! One is roughly 1.3 inches and the other 1.5 or around that!

Remmy is still annoyed with me since I haven't been giving him as much attention as I used to when he was on my side table, silly boy! Glad he's not chomping on his fins though!

Aero was chasing his Oto's earlier which he rarely ever does and then tried to eat their veggie wafer but gave up on it thankfully.

Spoonheaded boy is very colorful now and he seems to look less spoon-headed, probably just an illusion but he does look healthier now at least. He's been very active, coming up and begging for food religiously lol

Isis is also doing well, her normal sassy self, yelling at me for food and such. Her tank is starting to get over run with BGA though >.< there's only so much I can clean off :-/ I guess I could do a blackout for her tank while I'm gone, probably the best thing and then blast the area's with a bit of potassium to try to get rid of it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I just wanted to say; I always laugh when people write Photo or Pic Heavy in the title of the thread and then it ends up being less than like, six photos. I just laugh every time because that means they haven't seen one of my photo updates XD When I was updating the photos of the kittens that I was fostering from a wild cat I actually hit the limit of 50 pictures per post and I still had around 20 more to post after that! So yeah...just makes me chuckle each time I see those kinds of threads lol!


----------



## beautiful Betta

I hope your move goes smoothly, it sounds like you are going to be busy for the next few weeks.

yea about the pictures is there a limit to how many pictures can go on one thread, I remember one poster saying they were going to have to start a new thread because of too many pictures, they only had a thread of two pages, and that wasn't all pictures either, lol. Obviously you have a large thread being on page 157. I have just started a journal thread, I think it is good just to have something to go back to check any information or changes you make, and just generally chat lol. no one looks at mine, lol:lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> I hope your move goes smoothly, it sounds like you are going to be busy for the next few weeks.
> 
> yea about the pictures is there a limit to how many pictures can go on one thread, I remember one poster saying they were going to have to start a new thread because of too many pictures, they only had a thread of two pages, and that wasn't all pictures either, lol. Obviously you have a large thread being on page 157. I have just started a journal thread, I think it is good just to have something to go back to check any information or changes you make, and just generally chat lol. no one looks at mine, lol:lol:


Thank you much! I really hope it does as well. Ugg, I look around my room and start to loath the idea of packing it all up and squishing it into the tiny space at my mom's house of my room......hopefully I'll be getting rid of a lot of stuff though so I don't have to take too much over!

The picture limit per each reply is 50 pictures, for an entire thread though there are no limits. Sorry if I made that confusing, it's per each post though not the whole thread. Yikes, if it were the whole thread I would be so mad by now! lol

EDIT: Oh forgot I was going to post more lol. So Spoonheaded boy isn't looking so spoonheaded now! He actually looks like a normal Betta XD He's be very happy in his unheated 2.5 gallon with his fake plant and barrel decoration. His ventral fins are growing out slowly but nicely it seems, he probably gave himself a haircut or something. lol He's peaking out at me from behind the thermometer right now, it's actually rather adorable! I'm not keeping him though for sure, no room. His adoption is still up! 5 bucks takes him! Also he's turned into this beautiful brilliant blue color, he's got thicker scales at the back half of his body and normal ones at the front, looks like he may have part of a dragon scale gene in him. If he does have it, it's very recessive and it's only just making them a little bit thicker looking, nothing too drastic.

And these are pictures that I found this morning on Facebook and they were way too accurate not to share! We actually got a Flash Freeze this morning, I literally had to pry my car doors open and my truck, it sucked! Thick ice covering everything, black ice and now we've got an inch of snow already and it's only been just over two hours granted that's not a very fast accumulation but we weren't supposed to get any at all!
Sorry for you Australians, the months don't line up for you guys but I'm sure it probably still feels the same for your winter as well!








I just about died at this one!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I apologize for not being around much but I've been at our North Eastern District Convention for my music fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi along with our sister organization Tau Beta Sigma! It's been such an amazing weekend and I honestly learned so much and helped others so much as well! It really surprised me when I was at round table conversations and just how much I was able to contribute to the conversation and help out other chapters who have had similar issues that ours have had in the past! This was my third District convention as a Brother (for those who may just be jumping in on this, yes I am a girl; both of our organizations are co-ed as we are not a Social frat/sorority but an Honorary one who do service for the band programs!) so my first one obviously I was still shy and really had no idea what was going on! Second one I ended up sleeping a lot during a few workshops that I skipped and over all didn't have the best attitude there >.< but I'm so happy and proud of myself for really being there this convention. I saw my Big Brother there for the first time in a year! I missed her sooooo much it wasn't even funny but she's been super busy with Grad School and she's going to Armenia this summer for two months for part of her church things...not sure exactly what it was lol but yay big brother!!

But just to see everyone there and be able to really contribute and have a fantastic time no matter how tired we all were, was really amazing and something phenomenal to see. Our host chapters of UCONN: Delta Omicron (KKY) and Gamma Kappa (TBS) were absolutely amazing and I commend them on their campus (even though it was huge and it sucked walking across it lol) and all the work they put into it!

With all that said, I have a LOT of threads to go through and read so I apologize to everyone if I don't get there soon. If something urgent comes up just PM me and I will most likely respond to you.

I've been working on my 20 long today! I bought Miracle Gro Organic Choice so I could make a real NPT, so I laid that down and used PetCo black sand on top of it, looks great so far! In the front I used about 2 inches of substrate all together and in the back around 3-3.5 so it's slopping. I'm going to try to keep it slopping until the plants come in and help keep it all together! I'm thinking about plant selections for that tank now as well so I can place my large order for both the 20 and 29!

I'm thinking some larger Baby Tears in one compartment at least since I've seen that can be okay without extra CO2 but it will have PLENTY of light! Since I can't really have it in the 29 since it is so deep. But open to suggestions! I like forests so anything like that is great! Water Wisteria is a given!

OMG, forgot to say! So when I came home this morning I had forgotten about my rapid water evaporation since it was getting warmer in my room this weekend so I first saw that the red boy that was originally going to BettaBabyBoo, his tank was sunk into the tank. I quickly threw my stuff on my bed and grabbed the net, prepared to pull out two dead Betta fish since the wal-mart girl is in there too. I was so relieved to find that neither were harmed, the girl was stressed with barely any color but she's so indecive with her coloration, she gets stressed at my face. The boy was just moseying around the tank and I'm like wtF???? so I scooped him out and quickly pulled the tank out with some water and took it all out since the water got too low and the filter filled it with water and pushed it under.

Apparently mom had gone into my room Saturday to see the fishes and she said they were fine, the boy was in the small tank and had a HUGE bubblenest and was still making more! lol I'm just thankful they didn't touch each other at all! Dario and the two newer female guppies are fine but on Thursday when I came to grab some stuff before heading out to Districts I found that they killed the Moscow Black Female.......:evil: I was extremely pissed at them and still am! I know it was them since the wal-mart girl would chase but she NEVER touched, granted I've only had her two and a half weeks now but she never touched any of them and still hasn't so it had to have been the two new girls, the Moscow's tail was missing too; bitten off. She was SOOOO close to giving birth! I promised SeaHorse their babies :-( I guess I have to find a new Moscow Female now :-(

So kind of sucky in the fish world but Districts was awesome! Oh and lol, we refer to ourselves as the North Eastern Districts but really we say it means "the Nations Elite District" lol we're so full of our selves...but really--we are the best in the nation! haha

Sorry for the word vomit!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Glad that you've had fun at your convention! Sorry to hear about the loss of your Moscow female though.


----------



## Sabina88

lilnaugrim said:


> Thank you much! I really hope it does as well. Ugg, I look around my room and start to loath the idea of packing it all up and squishing it into the tiny space at my mom's house of my room......hopefully I'll be getting rid of a lot of stuff though so I don't have to take too much over!
> 
> The picture limit per each reply is 50 pictures, for an entire thread though there are no limits. Sorry if I made that confusing, it's per each post though not the whole thread. Yikes, if it were the whole thread I would be so mad by now! lol
> 
> EDIT: Oh forgot I was going to post more lol. So Spoonheaded boy isn't looking so spoonheaded now! He actually looks like a normal Betta XD He's be very happy in his unheated 2.5 gallon with his fake plant and barrel decoration. His ventral fins are growing out slowly but nicely it seems, he probably gave himself a haircut or something. lol He's peaking out at me from behind the thermometer right now, it's actually rather adorable! I'm not keeping him though for sure, no room. His adoption is still up! 5 bucks takes him! Also he's turned into this beautiful brilliant blue color, he's got thicker scales at the back half of his body and normal ones at the front, looks like he may have part of a dragon scale gene in him. If he does have it, it's very recessive and it's only just making them a little bit thicker looking, nothing too drastic.
> 
> And these are pictures that I found this morning on Facebook and they were way too accurate not to share! We actually got a Flash Freeze this morning, I literally had to pry my car doors open and my truck, it sucked! Thick ice covering everything, black ice and now we've got an inch of snow already and it's only been just over two hours granted that's not a very fast accumulation but we weren't supposed to get any at all!
> Sorry for you Australians, the months don't line up for you guys but I'm sure it probably still feels the same for your winter as well!
> View attachment 314546
> 
> 
> I just about died at this one!
> View attachment 314554


I love the lord of the rings reference :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Glad that you've had fun at your convention! Sorry to hear about the loss of your Moscow female though.


Thanks! It really was amazing and I always love the convention "high" you come home with; everyone wants to accomplish so much in the chapter and we generally do the first two weeks or so after convention but then we come down and start to get lazy again lol



Sabina88 said:


> I love the lord of the rings reference :lol:


Haha, thank you!! I saw it on FB and was like "...yes...this is perfectly accurate!" and it goes along with my username since I'm a super LoTR fan!


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## Sabina88

It is really accurate. 
Yaa for LOTR fans


----------



## Elsewhere

Glad to hear you had so much fun, Lil!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys!

So I had another bad scare last night. So as the red boy had gotten into the tank earlier I think that obviously caused him to be super stressed; perfect opportunity for him to become stressed......right on the bottom of his peduncle last night, he was getting fuzz and it was spreading out fast....I freaked out; couldn't find my Furan-2 so threw in my Maracyn in hopes that he wouldn't end up like Selkie! This morning I'm happy to report I see no obvious fuzz but I was also half asleep this morning but I did take time to inspect him. He's still clamping his tail for the most part but he's very active still and has a great appetite which gives me hope that I caught it early enough and that Maracyn did it's job.

You know...I was thinking the other day....I've never actually had any medications do it's job for me before....the fish has either gotten better on it's own without meds or they've died.....that's kind of a sucky run :-/ I'm just happy that Red Wine as I've been calling him is doing okay seemingly but we'll see when I get home!


----------



## Sabina88

Im glad he seems to be doing better


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## BettaLover1313

Hope that he continues to get better!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! I really hope so too! I've grown fond of him and his little self! He is really small but I probably also think that since I have all grown-up fish and a Giant XD

The 20 long is all set up! Now I just have to buy some plants since I am NOT taking any plants from dad's to mom's. I know this is probably very wasteful but I am just not going to take the chance. The only thing I will be bringing over is my driftwood covered in Java Ferns; that's it.


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## Lucillia

Would you like new plants? XD I still have too many.


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## lilnaugrim

I think I'm good Luci, thanks for the offer though!

Red boy is not doing well....I feared this but I can't understand it 

I'm uploading a video that is both sad and happy, sad because it shows how fast the red boy is deteriorating and happy because you get to see Dario flaring the heck out of him! I'm wondering if Dario bit him in the peduncle when his tank sank since I know I saw no larger bites that a Betta would make. The girl has absolutely no wounds though! So maybe he only dislikes red things?

I can understand the stress and letting that open for acute Columnaris which I'm very certain it is but what I can't understand is that Selkie was in the tank for little over a month before she came down with it and then Red Boy is in the same water but was literally in the actual tank for only a few hours to maybe half a day and came down with it. Yet through all of this, the walmart girl is perfectly happy and peachy, what the hell gives??

Red boy is in Maracyn and Furan-2 at the moment and not very happy with it but if I have a chance of stopping it, I will do it. This is ridiculous and stupid! Gee, now I'm yelling at Columnaris as if it were a person >.> I don't expect him to live until tomorrow night but I will watch and see what can be done.

It's weird, he's got the fuzz on his peduncle spreading over his caudal and part of his anal fin. But, and this happened with Selkie too, it's as if the Slime Coat became highly attracted to dust and he's covered in like....large dust particles it almost seems. It's not like velvet or Ich dust but like....I guess like the slime coat is standing on ends like hair does when electricity...so it's....yeah, I really can't explain it. Hopefully it shows up in the video and pictures :-/ they will be up in a sec.


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## Sabina88

Could it be that for some reason his slim coat is over producing?


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## Sabina88

I know this is a goldfish but I couldn't find any good photos on a betta,
Does it look like this


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## lilnaugrim

Sigh....I wish :-( here are his pictures, video is still rendering so that will be up later.

He's currently sitting under his leaves and hasn't moved in the last fifteen minutes, he's really starting to slow down and just yesterday he was happy as could be minus the bit of clamping he was doing :-(
See the "dust" on him? And the fuzz is on this side, hard to see in this pics but I've got better pics of it.


Other side


Here's the fuzz



Not a happy dude


The greenish/yellow on top of him is just the Furan-2 he decided to roll in  


And the girl who is going to Alphahelix. She's a pain to get photos of and stresses whenever I do but she's absolutely healthy with no signs of sickness or disease!


Photobombed!


And just for a little bit of happiness; Dario flaring at Red boy  he was so silly! He was only doing it while I was taping Red! He's never flared at Red before like that! Weird!


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## Sabina88

Your fish are goreouse. Poor guy. Is he in Selkies tank?


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## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> Your fish are goreouse. Poor guy. Is he in Selkies tank?


Thank you! But yeah, he's not technically IN her tank, just floating in it. But honestly, if it is the tank then why hasn't the girl been affected?

Video is live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CMe0cFAcJ8&feature=youtu.be even if you don't want to see sick fishes, you can see Dario being adorable!


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## Sabina88

may because she was only in it for a short time and not long enough for what ever it is to "attach" itself to her.
How did you clean the tank? Could it be that it was left over on one of the plants or decorations?


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## lilnaugrim

The girl is still in there, she has been for three and a half weeks! The boy was the one who got out of the QT tank he was floating in.


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## Sabina88

Oh ya lol I forgot
What type of QT do you have him in?


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## lilnaugrim

Just a regular 1 gallon critter keeper.


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## PetMania

That's what I have rescues in.


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## Sabina88

maybe try rinsing down and scrubing the QT down with a hot walter Aquarium Salt mix, that might help kill off any bacteria on the QT tank?

Did you ever have Selkie in the QT tank?


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## lilnaugrim

Pssh, salt? I use 91% Rubbing Alcohol and a 1:19 Bleach:Water solution as my sterilization routine. She was in the tank but this is a different tank, I've got three 1 gallons and two 3 gallon kritter keepers for QT's and occasional holding for adoptions. I sterilize them all though. Regardless, Selkie was IN the 13 gallon actual tank before she was in the QT so if it were contagious, the girl would have it too by fault.


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## Sabina88

Hmm that is odd, is it possible that he was carrying it previously?

How is he doing?


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## lilnaugrim

I doubt it since he was perfectly fine at the LFS for around six months. I firmly believe the stress of the entire move and the girl constantly flaring at him has done it's toll. I would move him where he's not floating but my room isn't that warm so he'd get pretty cold, the tanks are already routinely at 73-75 since the heaters suck, I'll replace them soon just have other things to get first.

I haven't been up to check on him yet but he was quite unresponsive earlier when I checked :-/ I don't have much hope for him :-( I just wish this wouldn't happen. And this time I am NOT getting another fish. I don't know how Steele is doing with his Ich and bad bloat :-/ Spoonheaded boy had a spot of Ich but otherwise was fine. I adopted a female cherry barb (these are all separate tanks btw) and found out she's blind the poor girl but she's doing well, she's old so I don't mind her. But I had a male too and his peduncle and scales under his dorsal are all pineconing and have been for four days now.....wtf is wrong with my tanks? They haven't even been with each other!

I hate (not really) fish keeping >.> I don't think I'd ever give it up, it's just all so damn frustrating!


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## PetMania

I agree. Geez, I spend more on my fish then myself *sry if that sounds conceided*


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, that's fine Pet! I think of buying for my pets as buying for myself ^_^


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## Sabina88

Aww sorry to hear about that  
It can get frustrating at times, especialy when you cant figure out what's going on. I have a guy like that, first I thought I was SBD, now I think he has pop eye, and he is still tilting. Sigh. If only they could talk and tell us whats wrong.

I really do hope he ends up getting better though. Fingers crossed. 
I think I remember reading that protozoan parasites can sometimes mess with the slime coat, could that be part of why he is sick? (sorry im bad with desieses)
Do you think it would be worth it to re disinfect everybodies tanks and decorations, or things that you use with all of the tanks?


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## lilnaugrim

I really can't disinfect the tanks, they are naturally planted and I literally....just set them up and finally cycled them...The guppies and Dario are unaffected so I just won't have Bettas in there which is what the original plan was anyway. They weren't staying there in the first place.

It makes me want to give up regular splendens but wilds wouldn't work for me either since my room get's too hot in the summer for them. I'll stick to Gouramis I think. I want to try Paradise fish, they're much more aggressive I know but my LFS has a super adorable pair m/f and they are just the cutest things ever!

If I have space, I want to put Dario in one of the compartments in the 20 gallon long so he can have his own space and I can feed him easier, it's kind of hard to target feed him in the 13 gallon. Going up to check on everyone shortly after Gilligan's Island is done at 9 lol


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## Sabina88

Haha 
Paradise fish are cute. Well I wish you good luck with what ever you decide


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina.

Well....woke up to a dead male Cherry barb and Red Wine absolutely terrible. He was covered in the fuzz now and breathing so heavily, he just let the absent current push him around like when I moved the tank to get him to move he'd just bumble about, not even pushing himself upright and half the time he would end up upside down. So I decided it was time, he was suffering way too much for me to watch. Ice water it was, prepared for 15 minutes and introduced and set into the water for another 15 minutes for safety. I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you Red Wine and that you were subject of all of this, if I had just let you sit in the 20 gallon, you would have been fine :-/ S.I.P.

Everyone else is doing fine but I'll be sterilizing all of my equipment tonight when I get home. If neither of the guppies or Dario show any signs of anything I will leave the tank, if they do then I will take it down and scrub everything.


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## MattsBettas

Sorry for your loss. You seem to be having about as much luck as me.


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## Sabina88

Really sorry to hear about that, at least hes not in pain anymore sip


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## BettaBabyBoo

Oh no  poor Red Wine.


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## beautiful Betta

Sorry for your loss.


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## BettaLover1313

Very sorry for your loss.


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## PetMania

Sorry for your loss


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## Conuremama

poor red wine! I'm sorry for your loss but at least he is in a good place and is not sick anymore.


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Sorry for your loss. You seem to be having about as much luck as me.


I keep thinking about that too, always the people who take care of their fish that lose the most and of course...it's always the favorites :-/



Sabina88 said:


> Really sorry to hear about that, at least hes not in pain anymore sip





BettaBabyBoo said:


> Oh no  poor Red Wine.





beautiful Betta said:


> Sorry for your loss.





BettaLover1313 said:


> Very sorry for your loss.





PetMania said:


> Sorry for your loss





Conuremama said:


> poor red wine! I'm sorry for your loss but at least he is in a good place and is not sick anymore.


Thank you everyone, I just feel terrible that he was even subjected to that. The guppies are fine including the four fry I still have, they're growing at quite a phenomenal rate...at least I can keep THEM alive :-/ Dario is doing well, ate a white worm today extremely happily lol.

I've also come up with a plan, since Remmy has issues being in a divided tank I figured out a way to put him in the 20 with everyone else! Since I've got four I'm definitely keeping and five spots....I'm putting Remmy at the end with the only double divider and next to him will be Dario with the Ghost Shrimp and then Isis, Hawkeye and Aero ^_^ I really hope that works because I can't have another tank set up in my room >.<

I've decided that I am going to put Azazel in the tank at School when the Buenos Aires Tetras leave this Saturday. I love him but I'll still be able to see him daily and take care of him ^_^ I just don't want to stuff him in 3.33 gallons :-/ And if I do my plan above, hopefully Remmy will be fine. He'll have tons of plants too.


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## lilnaugrim

So it's been an interesting day. Was in printmaking today and I just couldn't focus even with my meds. My sleep or lack thereof is really starting to affect me adversely :-/ I felt bad for my professor since she had to repeat things a few things for me...this process just isn't sticking in my brain this time :-( Printing on zinc plates was easy compared to this! Granted there aren't as many steps as Stone Litho....sigh.

Fish are well although I think Remmy is literally killing off his snails too >.> I keep finding MTS bodies and my large Ramshorn died :-( I need to do a large water change for that tank.

Steele needs a home I've decided, he has some issues with bloat but I think it's mostly because he chomped on the shrimp's veggie wafer bit and proceeded to become bloated. Spoonhead is doing fantastic! He's such a little cutie and has definitely grown on me but alas, I cannot keep him. If anyone knows anywhere or anyone who might be interested in these two, please speak up here or PM me if you want!

Hawkeye is still chasing his two Yoyo loaches the brat >.> but they seem not very effected by it so I hope they will be fine until I get everything over to moms.

I splurged today and am getting a large piece of mine framed for the Annual Judged Student Show where there are cash prizes! 200 dollars later I'm getting it done within a day which is practically unheard of and that's a pretty fantastic price for my piece since it is 30 inches by 30 inches! Not your standard size lol The image is this one pictured below, wish me luck that I can at least get into the show!


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## BettaLover1313

Wow! Great piece! I really hope you get into the show!


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## lovee1795

I like it! I've always wished I had some kind of artistic talent.


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## beautiful Betta

Great Picture.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you all!! :-D Entry into the show deadline is Monday! Although, we normally have more warning than five day's beforehand >.< well, rightfully we (most of us) all know it's coming, I just forgot about it since I've never actually seen the show or entered into it before. Should be an interesting show! :-D

Off to bed for some well needed sleep!!


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## Sabina88

Good luck with the show, and your piece is awesome


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Sabina!! I'm also thinking about throwing this piece in there as well since it is already matted:

from my printmaking I class, zinc plate, I don't remember the size but it's fairly small. It was etched and aquatinted for the shading.


If I had money to buy a frame for this piece I'd throw that in there instead! Only two pieces can enter though


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## Sabina88

I love both of them, there amazing


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## daniella3d

Very sorry about your beautiful betta fish.

well it's a little late for this poor guy but if you can manage to get permanganate potassium and a precise weighting scale, that does miracle for even the most advanced external disease. Parasite, columnaris, you name it. A bath in PP usually clear up everything but it is tricky to do, but this is how I saved my fish from columnaris. What ever is on the fish and on the fish gills will die, bacterias, parasites, fungus.

I did a 30 minutes bath at 4ppm for mine and that did the job right. The fish was not affected by the bath and recovered fast after that. It's part of my med cabinet and I will always use it on all my fish to clean them off before introducing them to my system. If the fish is going to die, it's worth trying. Usually I prepare a base solution and once that is done it if very easy to mesure the concentration in ml per liter. I then add the correct quantity of the base solution to a certain amount of water to make 4ppm comcentration. It is easy enough to find all the insctructions on the web.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you daniella! Unfortunately, this was acute columnaris; quick contraction and a quick death. I've never personally seen a fish come back from acute columnaris before, I'm sure it's been done before though. I'll give the PP a try next time (hopefully there WON'T be a next time), I have it in liquid form from Jungle Clear Water.


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## daniella3d

My fish had acute columnaris as well. In one day it went from a tiny spot to the whole head full of it and there was some white stuff coming out of the wounds. It was spreading very fast. However the PP kill pretty much any bacteria on the fish. I followed the treatment with antibiotic but it is the PP that really stopped the progression and the antibiotics prevented reinfection. The problem with antibiotics is that they take some time to work. PP is drastic and quick.

It's tricky to use but in case of live and death situation it can make a difference...great stuff for extreme cases only!

I surely hope you and I never have to deal with that again.




lilnaugrim said:


> Thank you daniella! Unfortunately, this was acute columnaris; quick contraction and a quick death. I've never personally seen a fish come back from acute columnaris before, I'm sure it's been done before though. I'll give the PP a try next time (hopefully there WON'T be a next time), I have it in liquid form from Jungle Clear Water.


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## lilnaugrim

daniella3d said:


> I surely hope you and I never have to deal with that again.


I certainly agree!

Thanks for the information as well.


----------



## MattsBettas




----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, hello fellow new reference team member ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

So I got my plants in yesterday!!! I realized that I need some blocks for my wall so I can build up some substrate there to plant my plants in, otherwise....it will continue to look like this >.<


I already have diatoms blooming like crazy in there!
Current Plant stocking is: Green Parrot Feather, Water Wisteria, Red Crypt Wendtii, Crypt Parva, Pygmy Chain Sword, Giant Hairgrass, Red Ludwigia broadleaf, and Blyxa something, not the japonica, the larger one that doesn't need as much light/co2.
This is what it looks like when the dust settled:


Left side with Parrot Feather up top, wisteria in back, one pygmy chain sword in between feathers and Red Crypts. Giant hairgrass in the back


Right side with Azazel as a blurr lol, Blyxa far right, red Ludwigia and crypt parva at bottom of the wall.

EDIT: sorry for the crappy cell phone pics too! I forgot to bring my camera with me so this is what y'all get for now!!


----------



## beautiful Betta

lilnaugrim said:


> lol, hello fellow new reference team member ^_^


Just wondered how does that happen is it like when you go up from new member to member?


----------



## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> Just wondered how does that happen is it like when you go up from new member to member?


Not really, we are chosen to become part of the team because of knowledge and certain desirable traits. There's a lot to it I guess but we're still learning everything of course. It's similar to becoming a mod; you don't just become a mod for having so many posts or being on the forum for x amount of time; you are chosen by usually current mods and admins because you have a good attitude about things, can moderate politely and stuff like that. Again, there's more to it than just being nice though lol.


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## PetMania

It takes a lot to become a mod or ref. A very great achievement =)


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## beautiful Betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Not really, we are chosen to become part of the team because of knowledge and certain desirable traits. There's a lot to it I guess but we're still learning everything of course. It's similar to becoming a mod; you don't just become a mod for having so many posts or being on the forum for x amount of time; you are chosen by usually current mods and admins because you have a good attitude about things, can moderate politely and stuff like that. Again, there's more to it than just being nice though lol.


Thanks for that, I just wondered that's all.


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## lilnaugrim

Np! It's totally a valid question!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ug, finally just got through all my threads in my User CP there >.< Came on with like 20 threads to read....sometimes I rejoice at that but tonight I wasn't really feeling it but went through anyway.

So lots of stuff have happened, not all the best but I'm making with it what I am. I'll start with the sad stuff and hopefully end on a happy note.

So you know when something finally hits you after knowing about it for a while? You're just driving along and suddenly BAM! And you're like....oh my god....yeah, that happened to me this week. Let me explain; my uncle (dad's sisters husband) had Lymphoma cancer around two years back, he was able to beat it into remission after long chemo treatments and everyone was happy! Well, around two months back he was getting something removed, I think his tonsils but not sure about that. Well guess what was hidden behind them? A crap ton of lymphoma.....so back into chemo treatments he went.

With chemo treatments he has a 50% chance of living....not on chemo he has nearly 0%.....that hit me the other day while driving home and I couldn't stop the tears. He's an amazing, funny and sarcastic guy and I don't know how he can put up with his wife sometimes, she's feeble in the mind; smart and caring but feeble and makes believes she has all these illnesses when she really doesn't. God bless his kind heart (Luci, if you're reading, this is Dan's dad :-()

He's already had one chemo treatment and he reacted badly to it, had to be hospitalized a few times and he has his second treatment in a few more weeks and I'm just praying so hard that he beats this, 50% is still a good chance but I just can't help it. More often than not, the second time of cancer is it, that's the end....I prayed for him in church today where we say aloud prayers that we want the perish to help us with and pray for and I couldn't even get the second part out, I was stuck on the 50% chance of living part and just burst into tears. I've never had to pray for anyone before, generally it's just in my head or something, last time he had around 90% chance of living; enough to want to pray for but not really aloud and I'm not really the type of person to go around seeking help like that. But I do ask you all, if anyone feels the need or want, please keep him in your mind and in your prayers for both him and his family. I can only imagine how the three kids are doing (granted the youngest is 21) if I'm over here crying my heart out and he's only my uncle!

I'm sorry for all the sadness but I really just needed to let that out and hopefully stop thinking about it so much so I can focus on the good things in life  Damnit, we really need a smiley face that doesn't show teeth!! Anyone else hate that except me???

So I finally was able to get Isis, Aero, Hawkeye and Remmy over to my mom's! They are all sitting comfortably in the 20! My plants are doing fantastic! The Parrot Feather which I feared the worst of all of them, is actually growing like a weed! Already they are easily acclimating to being fully submerged and growing!! I'm quite happy with them! Water wisteria is growing as well but that, I expected to do well!

Kit-Kat is in time out because she literally bit off the entirety of my Snakeskin boy's tail!! Along with the Moscow boy! Thankfully it already has new growth but holy crap! I've got to do something about her! I'm thinking about throwing her into the 20 once the two Cherry Barb females go. I'm sad that I won't be able to keep that space for Dario but he's fine in the 13 and I'm able to feed him well enough, he loves the white worms the best ^_^

I've also been looking into Paludariums for my next project maybe! I've been obsessing over DIY projects (most likely because Spring is almost here....well....all except the snow storm we're getting this Wednesday >.>) I've been growing two wonderful house plants as well! One Peperomia and one Fittonia plant which is currently acclimating to being repotted in my extremely DIY pot lol I'll get pics of it tomorrow, it actually looks pretty good if I say so myself!

But I want a Chinese Fire Belly Newt lol I want to do a mini Paludarium of sorts in a small 1 gallon wide mouth bowl where it's kind of like a Fairy Garden of mosses and stuff with a small stream running through it and a tiny pond at the end of the stream. I can make it with a false bottom like Paludariums and have the "stream" made of black or brown silicone and then the mosses on either side! I'm super excited about this and have been researching all weekend plus Thursday-Friday lol


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## DaytonBetta

I'm sorry to hear about your uncle. I hope he improves and finds comfort.

I'm also on a Paludarium/terrarium kick! I want firebelly toads. I can't wait to hear about your project.


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## beautiful Betta

Best wishes to your uncle.


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## Sabina88

I wish your uncle good luck, he deserves it


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## logisticsguy

That is really too bad about your uncle. Cheering for him and hope he can win the battle.


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## BettaLover1313

I really hope your uncle gets better.

Your DIY projects sound really cool, especially your Paludarium/Terrarium project!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you everyone! This really does me a lot to me!!! ^_^

I really hope I can do the mini paludarium/garden thingy I'm planning! I think it would look nice in the bathroom, rather tranquil! We have toooons of moss I can collect in the back, I think most of it is pillow moss but I've got to do some more reading about that to really start to identify some mosses! I want to see if I can sketch up some rough design too! I can see it in my head but I need to find a suitable container first! This one is absolutely beautiful but I'm not sure I want to spend 37 dollars on it >.< http://www.save-on-crafts.com/bowlbranch.html This one is more my price but I want a wider mouth: http://www.save-on-crafts.com/lilybowl.html

So I think I will try some consignment shops to see what they've got!


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg, so we got snow today but good news! The rest of the week is supposed to be around 50 degree's! Classic Nor'Easter Storm!

So on Monday I was able to print my second owl stone for those who are following along with that! It was soooo freaking difficult! Toshe is amazing but you can't get married to it as it's very difficult to keep its reticulation as I was showing a while ago, but I'm still happy with what prints I DID get from the stone! Poor cell phone picture but you get the idea!


But printing that stone was sooo difficult. Most of the time you have your larger roller with ink on it, you roll the ink on the stone for 8 times or 16 if you count each back and forth motion. Then you recharge the roller and go again for 8 times. So normally you do 3-4 reps of 8 rolls if that makes sense. For this stone I had to do FIVE reps! That's almost unheard of in our class at least lol. My issue was that there was too much Magnesium added to my ink (whoops) and Magnesium decreases the stretch of the ink like when you take the ink from the jar you get stringy bits much like melted cheese when it just doesn't break! So the Magnesium reduces that stretch and does something else with the grease that I don't remember, it also will let the roller catch moisture from the stone (you have to keep the stone wet while printing so we use a large sponge to get a little water over it and just keep it damp) which will cause issues with the ink and it won't make your image as dark.

So we had to counteract the magnesium with varnish and even that only works to a certain degree. In the end though I ended up with four like prints for my Editions (prints that look almost exactly the same) with around 9-10 other prints that didn't make the cut because they were too light lol. But I can play around with them with water colors to make them their own Artists Proof!

In all, I am soooooo sore it isn't even funny. We printed for TWO hours which would be fine if I didn't have to do 5 reps of 8 rolls and then crank the printing press and then roll more ink and ugg....I'm still dead and it's been two days! I also grained my stone though later at night for an hour and a half as well. Graining is kind of like erasing your image. Stone Litho is a chemical process where the grease actually sinks into the stone after some chemicals are applied; we use Nitric acid for this. So you have to grind off those layers of the stone that still hold grease....yeah...it can be quite the work out!

So you use three different grades of this powder stuff which I don't remember the name of. Basically the lower one; 100 grade, is coarse and will help with the grunt work of erasing the image. Then we go up to 180 which is finer and more like final buffing and then 220 which is the polish basically. But it's one hell of a work out because we use this circular device called a Levigator which looks like this and we've got three different sizes; Large, Medium and Small. The small one weighs around 30 pounds, the medium around 55-60 and the large is like 90 or something like that....Large is for very large stones around 22x30 inches or larger. My stone is around 19x13 so it's really weird but it's small enough. We routinely use the Medium Levigator.










So yeah....I'm dead...oh and the kicker of that is that I accidentally scratched my stone with the 220 ground which means I have to go back with the 100 and do it all over again to get the scratch out which would show up in my next print if I left it there >.> Thankfully it won't be as long, should only need around 15 minutes of work today but I'm just so done with graining my stone >.< I still have blisters on my thumbs from printing!!!

In the line of fish though since this is....my fish journal lol

My Parrots Feather plants are growing amazingly!!! Seriously, they grow like 2 inches DAILY! I wasn't expecting that! In the 20 I was since it's a soil based NPT but the 29 is only FloraMax and PetCo Sand, no other nutrients really but I do dose SeaChem Flourish Comprehensive occasionally like twice a week. But I've accidentally skipped this week with all that stuff I've been doing so I'm still shocked that they've grown so much! Here was when I originally put them in last week:


And last night!


They aren't pearling, just hanging on to some bubbles there but they've really started to open up and grow! I'm a very happy keeper! I've gone a huge diatom bloom in the 29 but honestly, I don't mind too much; my tank is healthy and maturing quickly!

OH OH OH OH!!!!! Good news!!!!!!! My uncle who's the one who has cancer just had his second Chemo treatment and he's reacted well to it!!!! Hopefully the third and final one takes care of it all and he can live a few more years!!! He's only 47 and has so much more to live for, not just himself but for his kids too!! Thank you everyone for the support thus far, we're not out of the frying pan yet but it's a start at least!!!!!!!

<3's to all!


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## MattsBettas

Happy everything's going well, especially with your uncle!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you so much Matt!!!


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## Lucillia

<3


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## beautiful Betta

Your owl is great, and glad to hear your uncle is doing well.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks! :-D

So far so good with my Uncle for this treatment! Here's to hoping he stays well! :cheers:

Fishy world has been interesting! So I brought my three Oto's and 2 Yoyo loaches over to moms for the 29 gallon. I wanted to wait longer for the tank to actually mature for my Otos but these three are so hardy I can't even believe it! So I acclimated them and instantly they started on my brown and green algae! I definitely have enough in there to keep them easily for a week! The driftwood has tons of slime and fuzz on it for them to munch on if they so desire and then the walls are just covered with diatoms/green algae so they'll be so fat even by the time I go home on Saturday lol!

The 10 dainty cories I have in there now (from my LFS) seemed to be happy with the new fish additions, a few of them kept following the loaches around. It almost looked like they were protecting a territory but they didn't nip or nothing, just following the loaches as if curious lol. And then they'd switch to following the Oto's :roll: silly cories! But they are all thriving well and happy so I'm just happy this tank is going in the right direction. My Parrot Feather is almost to the top of the tank now! I'm going to have to trim it come Saturday!! Crazy stuff!

So Since my Moscow female has died I've just left the two other female guppies in that 13 gallon with Dario and one of the females has this....well the only way I can describe it is kind of like a fatty lump, not really as large as an abscess but like a column of it. It isn't fuzzy, not slimy looking. If come Saturday and she's still alive I'll get some pictures. I've thrown in some PP just in case, she's in QT at the moment and the other two fish seem uneffected by it but she seems to be declining in health.

The four baby guppies I have in their outside breeder box seem absolutely uneffected by all of the stuff that's been happening IN the tank >.< From Selkie to Red Boy to this guppy.....wtf?? Dario is still happy as all hell, pushing the guppies around; he's got quite an attitude for a tiny fish!

Male guppies seem to be okay although it seems like the internal parasite is moving from one male to another every week or so. I'm down to just 6 males some how, Selkie killed one of the three brothers I had originally ordered; she killed Tiger the one with the clear tail if you all recall any of the pictures I had. I found her in the act of destroying him and then proceeding to try to eat him >.> no wonder she's fat...she's eating all my guppies! So she's still in time out in a breeder box suctioned to the side of the tank inside. I don't know what to do with her! I'm thinking about adopting her out :-/ Especially since another situation has arisen. 

So most you know that my dad is moving which means I get to get all my fish out of my dad's and to my moms which I'm almost there. Dad is taking MC and Ieli, the two cats but refuses to take Siberian!! Siberian is obviously my boy and I can't let him send him to a no-kill shelter or adopt him out!! He's got special needs and I don't want to part with him! Mom was considering letting me keep him at her house provided I take care of him obviously which I intend to do. But when I asked recently she said no! She said she's already taken on my fish (I offered money and she said no) and can't take on the cat either. So I'm thinking about telling her that I'm willing to take down my 13's and put no other tanks up; sell the 33, my two 5.5's, the 10, my various 3's and 2.5's and just keep my two 1 gallons for QT tanks for the 20 long and 29, just so I can possibly keep Siberian. I'm waiting for the perfect time to ask but it's so darn difficult to monitor her moods :-/

So if I do take down the 13's, males can go to Lucillia if she wants some, that or I'll just give them to my LFS provided they are healthy. Dario I can shove in a section of the 20 with someone, probably Isis since she doesn't have long fins for him to pick on and I know she won't kill him like Aero or Hawkeye. Or if worst comes to it he can go in the 29, or I can bring him to my LFS or adopt him out here :-/ And then guppy babies can go to Luci if she wants them too and/or adopt them out/give them to LFS.

I don't care what happens to them as long as I can keep Siberian, he's worth more to me than most of my fish. I love my fish but I've had him for four years now! I can't just give him away! :-(


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## Fenghuang

I am so so sorry about your dilemma. One of my cat is with my parents, and I know he is well cared for, but I still miss him like crazy. I can't imagine how I would feel if I lost him. I really hope every ends up working out. *hugs*


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Feng! I hope it does too, otherwise I will not be a happy camper :-(

Alright, pics are way long over due so when I get to my mom's tonight I promise to take pictures this time! lol


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## lilnaugrim

So I did take pictures, I just didn't post them here XD lol I'm terrible! Okay! Pictures!

So Guppies first, another male died putting me down at....6 I think I counted this morning :-/ Kit-Kat is still in her time out, I'm not going to let her out until the two boys get most of their tails back unless everyone dies by then....
Here you see Snakeskin boy who's tail was literally all bitten off minus the little ribbons. He actually has amazing growth but it's all clear so you can't see it in the pics just yet.


One of the original trio that isn't doing so well.


Not his brother although the top guppy does look like the bottom one's brother!


So Steele is looking pretty damn good! The white dots are bubbles on the glass, not Ich.


Look at all that new tail growth!! I'm a happy fish keeper ^_^


He kept zooming around so I had to take pictures of him feeding lol


Spoon has been doing fantastically as well! Both fish are still up for adoption!




He's so darn adorable!



The 29 and how it looked last night! Parrots Feather have reached the top of the water!


Azazel showcasing his Feathers lol


Yoyo loach happily zooming around the tank! Oto's are nice and fat now as well as my 10 Dainty Cories! Everyone is all quite happy with each other which makes me happy ^_^


Remmy in his new home! He was happy and flaring this morning at himself when the lights came on lol


Mr. Blue Lips! I almost want to take Mr. Brightside the song and change it to fit Remmy haha


His ghosty is still alive as well and I just dumped the juvie Amano? into his side as well since he doesn't seem to be caring so much about them. lol, funny, he's got a taste for Guppy and Endler but doesn't care for shrimp :roll: what a silly boy I have!


View from above!


Isis being all pretty on the opposite end of Remmy


Above! She's got a pretty nice body if I do say so myself!


Mr. Grumpy Face!


I absolutely love this picture!


Looks like Aero is following the tradition of Dragons and Metallic's getting cysts :-/ he's got one/two behind each pectoral on both sides, you can see it well here


Two adorable faces!


I couldn't get Hawkeye to a) sit still long enough or b) show up on the camera since he's so dark >.< I'll get pics of him next time, maybe I'll tape a white piece of paper behind his compartment to make him show up better.


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## PetMania

Spoon looks awesome! Amazing what warm, clean water can do. 

Your guppies are beautiful. Haven't seen a nice cobra pattern in a long time.


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## beautiful Betta

I think you may have to re-name spoon head, lol. He really doesn't look that bad anymore. And all the others are looking great too.


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## MattsBettas

Fish look great, and the 29 does too! I think parrots feather is going on my list, with that growth rate. 

That doesn't really look like an Amano, by the way...


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## PetMania

Hmm, never heard of parrots feather. Naugrim, did you order it online or get it from a LFS?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! I'm not going to rename Spoon since I'm not keeping him lol. But he does look a ton better now!

The Parrots Feather I got from plantedaquariumscentral.com it's a Myrio species ^_^

I wasn't sure about the shrimp Matt, the colors make it look like an Amano but it's certainly not a Ghost Shrimp or an American Glass Shrimp either. I'll have to take a look on planetshrimp later. Might just be a Neo of sorts.


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## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> The Parrots Feather I got from plantedaquariumscentral.com it's a Myrio species ^_^
> 
> .


Ah  Thanks


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## lilnaugrim

Derp on my part, I meant planetinverts.com not plantshrimp lolz! I was distracted >.<

EDIT: Ah! looking now the shrimp appears to be a wild form of the normal Neocaridina Heteropoda shrimp! Cool! Either way, she's my favorite ^_^ Two of my other Glass shrimps died so I have one glass left and then the neo both of who are on Remmy's side now with no reported deaths! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So I figured out where my male guppies were disappearing to.....they're apparently dropping like flies and getting stuck to the back of the filter intake so I only see it when I go around back :-/ Got to fish them out today when I get home, found two of them stuck there. Whatever it is, it's slowly working up the chain of command in my tank.....Kit-Kat most likely is included on this......mother pooper, this sucks.

Got a new piece of Mopani yesterday! It looks sort of like a truck of a tree so I'm going to see if I can fit it into the 20 in one of the compartments :-D It's floating right now though in the 29 since it's completely dry and was sold for reptiles but it's safe to use otherwise and just needs to soak for a few days, besides it will give the 29 some nice tannins ^_^

Also got two more tiny AquaTop sponge filters, love these things! So I have three in total for the 20, so every other compartment will have a small air sponge filter to keep the water moving :-D

EDIT: Oh and...I may have....ordered more plants....whoops :roll: lol I don't even remember what I ordered >.< let me check!
Ah yes! My ever wanted Limnophila Aromatica! Some Dwarf Hairgrass because why not? And Myriophyllum Mattogrosense which looks very similar to Parrot Feather but a little finer and softer but not as fine as most Myrio species. I hated regular Myrio when I first had it because the needles would go EVERYWHERE much like Cabomba or Hornowort but not such an issue with Parrots Feather since they are larger "needles" that look like feathers so easier removal if needed. http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com/MYRIOPHYLLUM-MATTOGROSSENSE-Unique-plant-EASY_p_259.html


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## Lucillia

OH!!! Isis is so cute!!!!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Well I'm in a crappy mood again :-(

Mom is pretty adamant about not bring Siberian to her house although she did say she'll think on it a little more since I started to cry. Can't help the stupid emotions, got my period which you guys totally don't need to know but hell, I'm in a sharing mood. But that's just screwing with my entire body which doesn't help anything. It took me two strong doses of medications just to get up off the floor from pain...

So I just watched another one of my male guppies die, I'm down to three living, somewhere 3-4 of them just completely disappeared over night. I've checked the floors and everything, couldn't have jumped anyway because of the water height. I feel terrible, I can't euthanize Kit-Kat even though she's in a dying tank, I just can't. Otherwise she seems not ill or anything except for the stupid little bit of slime excess on her gill membrane. Almost like when males get ammonia poisoning and their membrane hangs out all the time? kind of like that for her but she's still breathing a little heavy but it's all constant, no changes in the last two months....I don't understand! The three males I have left are my SnakeSkin boy, Moscow boy and one that I raised myself.

The female guppy in iso right now, her abscess has grown a bit and she's clamped up tight, figure I'll euthanize her too......I hate this-hateithateithateit.

The 20 long has mould on the sand from the stupid potting mix, fish seem to be fine though. Going to attempt a water change today. I need to invest in a python of sorts too, probably Aqueon brand though. Need a 50 foot with probably another extension to reach the sink downstairs since that's the only one with a thingy to catch stray materials like plant debris since I accidentally clogged up the bathroom sink a little. This sucks. I knew it was going to be hard but what even the hell?

Oh and I'm way behind on commissions, behind on school work, behind on life. Trying to clean my room but I end up disinterested and then kick myself at 8:30 at night when I go to bed because I can't sleep so I need extra time to sleep to fit in my regular 4 hours of good sleep and then whatever the heck else I get after that is all bonus points.

I sucked at my aquaculture class exam today, shocker :sarcasm: since I regularly skip that class every other week and then forget to look at the slides. I would be fine if I looked at the slides but then I forget an hour before the exam and go "oh crap!"

I keep forgetting things, I go to do something; get sidetracked and then forget about the original thing. I know we all do that but it's getting worse and worse and it's severely frustrating me. I take ADHD pills for a damn good reason and it's not even helping the reason I'm taking them! I've tried many different brands too, this is my fifth brand I think--sorry not brand but type. I give up, give up on everything. I wish I could give up fish too but I can't, it's not possible!

Most of all, I can't give up Siberian, I NEED to find a way to keep him but I don't know how! I've tried reasoning with mom and I know it's not her responsibility and I know I can't force this on her but....I've had him for FOUR years, I can't just give him up like that! I can't! Why does life suck?

Oh, guess this is a piece of good news though. I went to PetCo Sunday to waste time and I ended up running into this older couple whom I helped with the coloration of some of the Bettas they were picking up. I mentioned that I was a Reference Member on this site and the wife got all interested, husband did too. We talked a good 35 minutes about fish and the care of! They were doing great so far, just needed a few points here and there. We exchanged emails and I've been helping them since. That made me feel really good inside, I love helping and teaching people so why can't my stupid school have Art Ed so I can teach?????

Sorry for the long butt rant, I just can't do this anymore, needed somewhere to vent.


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## lilnaugrim

Even though today sucks I want to post the pictures I took from yesterday, granted they aren't exactly fish related but they are still pretty. Photography isn't always my strong point but I still like to do it! We had tons of rainfall this weekend/Monday with a months worth of rain falling in two days. All of our rivers and ponds flooded, thankfully there was minimal damage but it was still ridiculous. So we have a small spring fed stream that runs seasonally so I decided to go out and take a look at it and some mosses since I've been still doing the research on the Paludarium and which mosses are good.

Just a nice picture compositionally. We have this moss all over our yard, no idea what it is yet but I want to identify it! Looks like a version of Anacharis actually, just tiny.


Also loved this moss on a tree branch


Zoomed out look of it


Moss with dew on a rock


The stream and it's many mini waterfalls!


Just a nice picture


The stream dug under a tree stump and out underneath it


Mini waterfalls, some exposed roots and moss covered rocks


We also found a poop ton of quartz that surfaced! Too bad it's not worth anything lol


I was trying to get the moss although not really paying attention to it, I still like the picture even though my intended focus is not in focus XD


Tiger branch!


And some very quick videos of the water, just is nice to see and listen to ^_^
Spring Fed Stream
Spring Fed Stream 2


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## lilnaugrim

So I fed my 29 gal some grindal worms.....they had a blast! the fish I mean, not the worms lol. My sole Ember Tetra at the moment is actually very bold and loving the cory cats, he came right up and once he saw the little wriggling worms and started to taste test lol and then he started to eat! Once the worms hit the sand the corys went into a frenzy as they gobbled up all the worms, even some of the otos got in on the action! I was pleased ^_^


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## Sabina88

I love the tiger branch photo


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina!

So my Honey Gourami's came in yesterday! I was excited! I forgot I only ordered 5 not 6 lol, oh well. I also got five (sent one extra to make six) baby Rabbit snails! I've had the mini yellows before but not the regular ones which I know can get pretty huge but my tank can handle it! But out of the Honey Gourami's I think I only have one female and four males....this could be interesting! But they are wild type coloration which appeals to me waaaayyy more than any "gold" "sunset" or whatever color else they have for them! One of them is also...very special....
See the deformed one in the back? Yeah...he's feisty though! They are in QT for now.


I also started another piece for drawing class. This one is based not off a photo but just something that came from my head. A supposes Red CT boy lol
This was the start:


And nearly done! I want to add more fin to the tail and then some blue wash for water over top and call it a day!


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## BettaLover1313

Glad your Gourami's came in!

Lovely painting!!!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Glad your Gourami's came in!
> 
> Lovely painting!!!


Thanks! I was kind of an idiot though, I wish I ordered the Ember Tetras first and not the Gourami's since I don't want too many territorial issues. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep all five but I have a feeling that they won't get along THAT nicely and I'm asking too much of them lol. I hope I can keep at least three though and that the tank will provide enough hiding places for them if they should feel the need!

And it's a drawing ^_^ But thank you! Done with Acrylic Inks on BFK Rives White Printmaking paper, forgot to add that bit :-D


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks! I was kind of an idiot though, I wish I ordered the Ember Tetras first and not the Gourami's since I don't want too many territorial issues. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep all five but I have a feeling that they won't get along THAT nicely and I'm asking too much of them lol. I hope I can keep at least three though and that the tank will provide enough hiding places for them if they should feel the need!
> 
> And it's a drawing ^_^ But thank you! Done with Acrylic Inks on BFK Rives White Printmaking paper, forgot to add that bit :-D


I hope all goes well with the Gouramis and Ember Tetras (when they arrive)!

I need to get my mediums straight >.< Very beautiful nonetheless!


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> I hope all goes well with the Gouramis and Ember Tetras (when they arrive)!
> 
> I need to get my mediums straight >.< Very beautiful nonetheless!


Thank you!! :-D

Yeah, that's okay! I know it's pretty difficult to tell mediums some times, I can see where that might look more like paint or something ^_^ Ink is one of those in between mediums or at least there is a whole bunch of debate on it since you can use a paint brush to "paint" it but it is still considered drawing because it is a writing/drawing medium. So some will argue it's painting because the use of the paint brush while others drawing because of the medium and that you can use pens & nibs with ink as well where as with acrylics or oils that's a little more difficult. Same goes for Oil Pastels and Oil Bars and Sticks where you can draw it on the canvas but you can use oil paint medium like thinner to make it more painterly....love these debates /sarcasm >.<


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## daniella3d

wow, I love your painting! very beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay so a lot happened these past two weeks that I either sort of touched on or forgot all together so I'll make a nice bullet list to tell you :-D


Went to my dentist appointment last Thursday and found out that I _wasn't_ getting my post in then and it was just a check up....people got me all worked up for nothing! My real appointment is April 16th though and he gave me antibiotics to start taking the day before just in case and guess what it is! Kanamycin! I chuckled to myself and went "hey, I know what that is!", it amused me was all. Had to have that since I'm allergic to sulfa and penicillin medications--yay :sarcastic:

So the rainstorm we got last weekend, we got a months worth of rain in two days and hence my pictures of our stream!

I've been obsessing over M*A*S*H and just want to watch it constantly but for some stupid reason it isn't on NetFlix! I did however watch the M*A*S*H movie, it was alright but it wasn't _my_ Hawkeye!

Remember I think I told you all that I was debating which drawings I wanted to enter into the Annual Student Juried Show? Well I entered the Raven's Dream one and then I entered the one I did of Hawkeye! Hawkeye didn't make it but Raven's Dream did!!!! And the word on the wire is that I actually got a Dean's Award for it!!!! Which means MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh I am so excited! I hope it's true! I had Sophomore Review (supposed to be taken as a Sophomore of course but that's hardly the case lol. I'm a Junior in my major but I've been there four years now) and because of Raven's Dream one of my jurors is actually the Digital Painting and Design teacher and he was super impressed with my work and let me surpass level 1 and go straight to 2! I'm excited!

I've been kind of obsessing over house plants too :roll: I've now got a Peperomia 'Rainbow', a 'Pink Angel' Fittonia, a Dracaena Deremensis (Compacta), and a Hedera Helix which is a Mini Ivy that I'm going to run up an extra Manzanita branch I have laying around to make a tree! The Dracaena I'm going to see if I can pot in a shower caddy plastic thingy and set in the back of the 20 to grow there since I've read it's often used as a paludarium plant and I believe can handle it's roots in the water at all times as long as the leaves are exposed to air? Anyone can correct me on that if they know better or have experience with that. 

Alright, I think that covers everything minus today. Today was fun >.< Yesterday I went to wal-Mart and the car was off for roughly forty minutes, came back and it wouldn't start. Thankfully a lady was stopping near me to pick up her daughter from work so she happily lent me her car battery to jump mine although she had no clue how to do it; I taught her. Very simple; red on red and black on black, except there was one issue this one time that I did it >.> her caps were on wrong and I assumed that it was the black going on black but it was actually the black going on red so it was sparking like crazy! I took it off and a guy come out of his car saying I looked scared and if I needed help....I kind of gave him a look like...really? If I look scared, you see sparks flying of course I need help lol. We figured out that the caps were wrong so we switched them and put them on right, car started up no problem!

This morning I figured it was going to die again, it sounded like a Starter issue which would have sucked so didn't go to church but got a jumpstart from my cousin who was over and got the car started to go to my sister-in-law's 30th birthday party but before that to go to AutoZone so they could test my car to see what it was.....tested car and nothing came up except that O2 sensor was almost shot which we knew and that Mass Airflow was probably an issue. So we hooked up the battery tester and it showed that the battery was only charging at 79%....it should be at 100% so after the party (which we got there at 2 thinking it was 2 to 6 when it was actually 12 to 4 >.<) my dad and I went to Benny's down the road to switch out the battery.....$140 dollars later I have a brand new battery and a bad dent in my wallet :-(

So car is fine now but I missed my meeting, oh well. Fishy pictures time!

Okay, post was toooooo long so splitting the words up with the pics! Copying and pasting pics to my next post!


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## lilnaugrim

So I've been trying to get good pics of Hawkeye but he's so darn dark it's really hard! Doesn't help I have black sand :roll:
Shows his color decently although there is some light reflecting so he's really not THAT red


lol, this made me giggle


Look how long he's gotten! His fins I mean lol


Mr. Fancy Pants!


Good god, he's even starting to LOOK old! He's gaining on almost two years if I guestimated his age correctly. I've had him a year and 3.5 months and I guessed he was around 4-5 months old gauging by fin size and tiny body size so that's roughly 1 year and 8.5 months old!!


Ragged as his dorsal fin may be, it's one of my favorite fins of his besides his luscious ventral fins!


Happily fed fishy! For some reason he sat there and stared in this position, I got like four pictures of him like this :roll: silly fishy!


HUGE Dorsal!!!


I've got to say, I'm loving this Myrio plant! It's the one that's slighly smaller than Parrots Feather. Not as fast of growth but fantastic adaptation and better patterning in the leaves I say!


My Rainbow Fish!


Beautiful scales!


Pretty girl Isis!


And for my 29 I've stacked up the wall better now! Although I have a feeling I'm going to need to re-do it....there are sand underneath the slabs which is making them lean forwards like that which means they could fall and harm my fishes :-( I tried really hard to get the sand out of the way but it was extremely difficult >.< You can also see the blur of my lone Ember Tetra who is having a blast with the cories! lol And an Oto on the branch!


And Bamboo that I picked up last week has already got another leaf or two sprouting!


Cory chillaxing by the Blyxa!


Half the time I can't tell if this is a cory or an Oto! They look too similar and are in similar lengths! But this is a Cory ^_^



Here's a fat Oto!


Another healthy Oto on a Crypt leaf!


Female Cherry barb who is up for adoption along with her blind companion female cherry. $2 bucks each if anyone wants them



Her companion is hiding under the Limno to the right


My largest guppy baby from the Platinum Snakeskin pair. I believe this is a he judging by the very sharp anal fin and full color.


This pic only showing the Plat SS boy in the background with my remaining female who is a Plat Blue Halfblack. And then Kit-Kat in the way back, she's in time out so she doesn't destroy the guppies or Dario >.> monster >.>


And all four of my babies!


I am so bad, so so so so so bad >.< When I was talking to that older couple at that PetCo last week I was holding a little baby DT in my hand the entire time as we talked and helped to pick them out a new Betta. Well when I really examined the fish it showed me he was older of the babies but seemingly newer to the shelf, there was nothing about him that screamed out to me that he wasn't worth it and well--I have extreme poor self control with an almost empty compartment that was going to be used for Dario but if there is Columnaris in that 13 then I'm not going to risk in with my beloved Bettas.

I present to you Pierce named after Captain Hawkeye Benjamin Franklin Pierce from M*A*S*H....told you I was obsessed >.< I tried other names like Radar, Hunnicut, Klinger (All MASH), Mica, Lucas, Mark (The Rifleman) but none fit like Pierce. He's a menance to the poor Cherry barbs although he leaves the blind one along and just chases/nips at the healthy younger girl occasionally when she gets in his way. He's got the most adorable flare too! Also in that compartment is a Bumblebee Platy fry that was stuck in a plant at my LFS when I bought it. He leaves the Platy alone too which is nice lol.

He likes to bug Hawkeye (which is funny cuz their names :rofl but leaves Remmy alone on the other side and Remmy hasn't seem to take notice...yet.


I'm pretty sure it's a boy, most likely a DTPK which would be fantastic! Half the reason I bought him was that I missed Ditto my old HMDT if anyone remembers him. Everytime I go back in my pictures I see him and my heart breaks :-(


Got a teeny false ovipositer, it's actually cute lol




Good coloration so far, I hope it stays a clean bicolor!


Two ray's already splitting!




And that's all for today! I may get some full tank pics later since the sun just went down and I won't have a horrendous glare!


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## Sabina88

All of your fish look amazing 
Your new baby is adorable so are all of your fry


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## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> All of your fish look amazing
> Your new baby is adorable so are all of your fry


Thank you!!! :-D


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## Sabina88

Your welcome 
Hows spoon head doing?


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## lilnaugrim

Spoon is doing really well! No homes for them yet though and I've reduced the adoption fee to $2 :-( I hope they can find homes soon! They are looking better and better each day ^_^ I'll get photos of them when I go back on Wednesday/Thursday if I'm not dead from classes lol


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## Sabina88

Haha 
That's good to hear, I hope they find homes soon too


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks 

I think Steele was tail biting again *sigh*. It seems to be when no one is around; he likes the stimulation of people around as far as I can tell. He'd be good in a living room with people in and out all the time.


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## Sabina88

Its funny how happy some are to have a humane to watch and hang out with lol
I hope his tail bitting peeters out and it doesn't get to bad. He's a pretty boy


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## lilnaugrim

So true while others couldn't be bothered! It's amazing how different these fishes all are! One of the reasons I love them so! Of course there are plenty of other fish out there who have their own personalities too! Mostly mini fish like Badis's, others like Ram's and Apistogramma's. The only ones who I've found really who don't have individual personalities that really stand out are most tight schoolers like Otos, Cories of the smaller variety, Tetras and Rasboras mostly. Perhaps because they are kept in larger groups so you don't see their personality as much as if kept by themselves but then again, they wouldn't really be themselves if they were by themselves lol.


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## Sabina88

That's very true,
I love how no bettas have the exact same personalities.


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## MattsBettas

Love the pictures! Can't wait to see how the dt boy turns out.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Matt! I'll see if I can get a nice comparison picture of him next to Hawkeye if they both wish to cooperate! 
---------------
For some reason, Pierce has a strange fascination with his sponge filter....he guards that thing like it's his job--which it probably is :lol: funny how animals know when another is blind or handicapped and all since he doesn't bother the blind barb but chases the healthy one. I think I'm going to try to move them to Isis's part so they can have some rest. I don't know how she is with other fish yet so I'll try the healthy one first and see what happens for a few minutes.

Oh! And yesterday we got up to 70*F!!!! Crazy! Just the day before high was 40, this morning it was 30 when I got up and it's going up to around 50. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain but be warm and then Wednesday is supposed to be nice again I think. Yep, got to love New England! "If you don't like the weather today, stick around 'till tomorrow; it'll change!" --Classic N.E.

I think I pulled a muscle near my shoulder blade doing water changes on Saturday as well :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg I need to STOP looking at fish profiles/aquabid/ebay/my bank accounts >.<

I plan on setting up my Marineland 3 gallon Eclipse at my mom's after I take down both 13 gallons. I want to put in my Snakeskin boy and his four fry there and just let them breed/eat babies all they want. But I've been looking at Tiger Endler's and I know Endler's aren't as messy as Guppies and---ack, I need to stop! And then I see Chili Endlers too, I love the striking red but I'm a sucker for yellow and black as most of you know by now I think. That and orange/blue combo are my favorites! I almost want to stock the tank with some bumblebee shrimp again too since one of my LFS's still has some lol.

I want to make it an NPT but without so much soil because I think I over did it on my 20 >.< I think I have to redo that tank :-( And then for a cap I want to do FloraMax black since I still have two bags left of that and one bag left of the regular ones. I'm terrible at guestimating how much I'll need for substrate...I have two extra bags of Miracle Gro Organics Choices Potting Mix too :roll: whoops. That's probably why I've been gungho about indoor plants too! Can't waste the soil! lol I'm a idiot I swear!

I want a nice small tank with the Marineland though and I want to see if I can rig the Azoo Palm to fit in it for filtration, that or I'll just stick with the AquaTop sponge filters since they seem to work really well! I just trust HOB's more than I trust Sponge filters honestly. And the nice thing about the Eclipse is that it still has the nice 6,500K tube fluorescent in the hood so no need to scramble for lights!

I think I want some Myrio in there for a nice bush plant and then maybe if my Limno grows well enough, I can throw that in with some Java Moss in the corner and then up front I want some nice short carpet plant....I really want to try Staurogyne Repens or Glosso since I'll have a nice high lighting situation along with the excess nutrients, Glosso might be a better choice since I think it does better without CO2 rather than Staurogyne. 

Also I have racked up a TON of points with plantedaquariumscentral.com which means I can get redeem them and get some free plants!!! :-D I like that thought ^_^ another awesome reason to buy from her if you're in the US!

I could always keep on with my HM Baby Tears (regular version, not Dwarf) and just keep it trimmed real short....which reminds me, time for trimming in the 20!

Any suggestions guys? Geeze, I'm a mess when it comes to tank planning lol


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## lilnaugrim

Geeze, I keep thinking about things that I keep forgetting to say on here! I've two things--I think lol.

One: our next homework assignment for Drawing is the word Heart. The first one; Labyrinth I did Aero and his Labyrinth organ and the second was Metamorphosis which I'm working on now (was due the 27th of March but I didn't have anything, can still turn it in at final critique though) which is ice melting into water. So Heart is the last one and I kind of want to stick with the fish/water theme because for one: I like it, two: my classmates would be disappointed in me if I didn't haha. So I'm thinking kind of like the "heart of the wild fish" or like depicting rice paddies or just a swampy area showing the wild habitat....or something like that. I don't really want to go the cheesy or literal route on this one, so any help is appreciated!

Second thing: which I just forgot....uhhh--give me a sec.....well kit-kat and the two yoyo loaches have found a home and I'm getting two balls of java moss and two balls of subwassertang in trade but that's not what I wanted to say.....grr, damn it stupid brain! Gosh darn it, I'll be back when I think of it >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Yup, still can't think of it!

Well, let's see...my mom is in Florida with her boyfriend! Yay, I get the house to myself. I'm planning on getting her some fresh cut flowers for when she comes back Wednesday! Also doing the dishes and keeping the house clean of course.

Got my car battery fixed, yup said that last night.

Found out M*A*S*H is on Sunday nights! I did't think it was! It's only one episode at 9:30 at night but worth every bit of it to stay up and watch!

Kit-Kat, 2 yoyo loaches and the 2 female cherry barbs have a home! They'll be going down to Tennessee! I'm getting 2 balls of Java Moss, 2 balls of Subwassertang and a Tiger Endler! :roll: he'll be put...somewhere for the time being lol. He'll just be a pet not so much breeder.

Hmm, I can't think of anything else! I know there was SOMETHING I was supposed to say but I completely forget--darn my job and being interrupted while I'm on the forum! haha Maybe it was just about kit-kat and the other fish being adopted....maybe....idk >.<


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## Sabina88

Wow youve been bussy
Im gad kit kat and the loaches and barbs found a home


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## Sabina88

Excuse my phone spelling lol


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## lilnaugrim

lol, np! Yeah, sorry about spamming my own journal too! Guess I'm pretty good at that! Keep missing the 20 minute edit window XD

Awww, someone was interested in either Spoon or Steele but they were in Ontario, Canada :-( Such a shame we can't ship fish back and forth :-/


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## JDragon

lilnaugrim said:


> lol, np! Yeah, sorry about spamming my own journal too! Guess I'm pretty good at that! Keep missing the 20 minute edit window XD
> 
> Awww, someone was interested in either Spoon or Steele but they were in Ontario, Canada :-( Such a shame we can't ship fish back and forth :-/



No kidding... It's easier to ship to us from Thailand or Malaysia, but Canada right next door? No cigar. :-?


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## lilnaugrim

JDragon said:


> No kidding... It's easier to ship to us from Thailand or Malaysia, but Canada right next door? No cigar. :-?


I know!!! Seriously! I mean I think we could technically ship we'd just need to ship to a transhipper here like Linda and then she's ship up to Hung and then to whomever but that's a lot in shipping fees! Not worth it!


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## logisticsguy

It really does suck shipping to and from USA and Canada. Drives me nuts! Must stop now before I go off on a long winded rant.


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## lilnaugrim

Seriously it's ridiculous! We're right next to each other!

------------------

Anyway, Hawkeye has been making bubblenests! lol, I'm wondering if Pierce is a girl XD He still acts like a boy though so I'll keep calling it a He until I know otherwise. I don't see ovaries and he's at the point where they would have definitely grown in by now.

Still can't remember what I was going to say before lol.


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## cousiniguana

*Fishes to Canada*

I might be able to help you. Sent a PM.


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## lilnaugrim

I got the PM! I hope it can work out because this would be awesome for both Spoon/Steele and the person who wants one or both of them ^_^ I would certainly be a happy fish keeper!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh, did you guys know that "Lucky" Bamboo is actually a species of dracaena! Fun facts ^_^

Going to do a water change on the 29 today hopefully and for the little Honey Gourami's! I still don't know why I bought five of them rather than just three :roll: as I said, I'm an idiot. Guess I could just adopt them out, I'm really good at doing that to my fish >.<

Pictures!
Honey's! Sorry for the terrible light and their dirty tank >.< As I said, definitely cleaning that today!


They're pretty pale in this picture because they were a little chilly, so they don't have their beautiful honey color and dark chocolate brown anal fin and chin!


Adorable Yoyo Loach face!


29 thus far, I'm not happy with it but I need to get rid of the floating Mopani wood :roll: and the floating Water Sprite, perhaps I'll try to grow it in the substrate again although every time I attempt that, they end up starting to die >.> granted, I know they are _supposed_ to be floaters but whenever I buy them they are planted! Don't understand why I can't do it too!

Parrots Feather is still growing like crazy and much softer now. I've been trimming twice a week to three times a week! It doesn't seem to like to grow new stems from the cut ones like Water Wisteria will do; taking off two new stems when it's cut or even growing a new stem from an old floating leaf! Another reason to love Wisteria!


KitKat and her ridiculously long fins! I'm glad she's going to her new home this Saturday along with the two cherries and the two loaches!


She totally wants out of the breeder box but I'm not even going to try it and risk my two remaining guppies and Dario!


The 20 as it looks right now. Still having issues with bubbles coming up....I really think I need to redo it this Saturday after I ship fish out.


Isis! She's such a good girl! I love her!


Such a beautiful Copper! I love her eyes! Eyes have always been my favorite part of everything no matter what it is! Her's are one of the most beautiful of Bettas that I've ever seen!



She's still relatively small. I'll have to get some comparison pictures of everyone!


Azazel! He's seemingly stopped coloring up and has stuck with this pattern for a while now. I'm loving the mahogany/brown against the red!


Nice pic of Hawkeye. He's got some...looks like planaria crawling on him....does that raise any red flags to anyone? It just looks like the worms that crawl on the glass when there are excess nutrients, Pierce has been snacking on them which is fantastic! But I'm wondering if it actually is a planaria or something more serious, it just seems to crawl all over him but not go into his gills but again, I'm not around him 24/7 so I don't know what happens! I'm kind of nervous actually so any suggestions; Matt, CJ, anything would be nice!


And comparison pictures of Hawkeye and Pierce, Pierce is down toward the bottom in front of the Limnophila. My tank is full of tannins so it's a little difficult to see and they weren't cooperating as I figured lol.


Little better, Hawkeye and Pierce is on the right and you can see the healthy Female Cherry Barb as well.


And just a nice picture (minus my red shirt glare >.< sorry!) of the female cherries. The one up front is the blind one as you can see her foggy eyes and she just bumbles around the tank. I never really see her eat but I make sure that compartment has enough with the two babies (Pierce and the extra surprise platy fry) and food sinks so I think she's getting food....she has lost a lot of weight since I adopted her, she was extremely fat to the point of serious health issues. Now she looks healthy minus being blind and old.


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## Sabina88

I love all of the photos 
I also love Isis's coloration


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks as always Sabina! I love Isis too ^_^ I hope her and Osiris spawn well for us this summer!! :-D


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## Sabina88

That's exciting 
Have you bread bettas before, or will this be your first?


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## lilnaugrim

Bread? Yes, I've eaten bread before lol I have not bred before, no. My bestie; Lucillia, and I plan on breeding my Isis to her Osiris ^_^ We're aiming for color first with black copper CT's and form second with at 180 degree spread and good web reduction.


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## Sabina88

lol I didn't even relize I typed bread instead of bred haha 

I hope all goes well with that


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, no worries! I had fun with it ;-) and yes, I hope it all goes well too!

Sigh, watching M*A*S*H right now and loving every moment of it besides the commercials lol. I need to get all the seasons on DVD for my birthday or Christmas or just because! I also want the t-shirt too....:roll: I'm obsessed!

Pierce is doing fantastic, being a little trouble maker as usual! Growing and eating well! The four guppy fry are also growing very well! My largest is nearing 2/3 of an inch almost 3/4! I'm also wondering if they are actually the Moscow guppies and not Snakeskin....the eldest has an almost full black tail but the rest of him is...well see-through/cellophane so we'll see I guess!!

Also finished taking down the 13, one still up and setting up the 3 gallon Marineland Eclipse with about an inch of soil and an inch and a half of black FloraMax since I am extremely paranoid now for overdoing it with the soil---I have to actually redo the 20 long.....I'm going to hate myself when I do that, oh wait, I already do >.< Bubbles keep coming up and it smells like sulfur. It's not to the point that they are huge bubbles and will kill the fish but just small ones frequently which could possibly be worse :-/ all the horror I've read about soil based tanks lol. I was not thinking when I dirted it though and I was patting down the soil thinking it was going to keep compacted but yeah....learned my lesson with that one and hopefully I've helped someone reading here if they needed those sort of tips on soil tanks :roll: :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

Oh, forgot to say I also did give the gourami's a water change and I think I have 1 female out of the 5.....that 1 female happens to be the deformed one >.> kind of mad about that but whatever. They seemed to be playing "ring-around-the-fake-plant" last night lol I was watching from my bed; it didn't seem very territorial or anything but just playful chasing and then they settled down to sleep--it was adorable.

Fish are doing well this morning, waiting for my Black FloraMax to dry out so I can throw it into the 3 gallon MarineLand, using that for a cap instead of sand; it's much finer than the regular FloraMax that it is almost like sand with a few big chunks thrown it ^_^ I hope it works. Anyone have objections to that or experiences with it? I think I'll make a post about it in the Planted Section to see if that's not such a great idea since I've been having many of those lately >.>

The rest is not fish related so you can chose to not read if you desire, just thought I'd format this so you can chose one or the other ^_^
---------------------
I had quite the dream last night, not that I don't every night but this one was very vivid. If there's one thing you should know about me is that I'm an avid dreamer--I dream every single night and I remember almost every single one of them. This is nice on most occasions but they tend to clog up my brain at times and can cause serious focus issues so that part isn't so nice :-/

Every single one of my dreams includes water in it, this dates way back before I ever kept fish; it's just a thing. I like to look up my dream symbols and see if anything matches up, most of the symbolism for water is lost in my dreams though and it's more of a constant rather than something that means something else. Kind of like a base and then my dreams shot up and growth from there *shrug*. I'll give you the synopsis of my dream from last night and see if you guys can or want to 'dissect' it at all  Most of it I know where it is coming from except for a few parts.

It started off with my dad and my two brothers and myself in a car; we were going on a trip and I forgot to bring money so we stopped at a restaurant to eat breakfast and there was an ATM. (this is coming from my fraternity as most of this dream is. We are an advising chapter for a new colony we're installing next week and last time I was up there for a degree, we car pooled and there was a 20 dollar fine for the parking garage we used and I didn't have cash for it at that time.) I went over to the ATM and swiped my card and was going to take out 40 bucks, 35 of it would go to my dad for "admission" to whatever it was we were being admitted to. The restuarant was pretty noisy and kind of more like a Bar and Grill place really. I started to take out the money until I 'realized' that it wouldn't get to me for a few days--it had to be shipped (went to the post office yesterday to inquire how shipping works with a PO box since I need to change my address to mom's instead of dad's) so I cancelled the transaction thinking that I wouldn't have the money until after the trip was over anyway so why take it out now? I went back to try to find dad and my brothers but they were no gone and I was faced with a room full of people who I sort of recognized but at the same time, I didn't know them but I knew we all had something in common. (this part I'm pretty sure it was meeting new brothers from different chapters of my fraternity--there are a lot of us!!!)

Next I knew we were taking a flight to Italy! (Concert Choir was going to Italy this year but we didn't have enough people to go. I couldn't go because of my tooth situation and buying a new car and all. The trip was only 2,999 base price but of course I've just spent 4,000 combined with my car n tooth!) My conductor was there at the restuarant and we were all discussing the trip and stuff and the itinerary of the trip. We decided we were leaving this Saturday morning to get there for Saturday night in Italy. We all went our separate ways since it was still Friday in my dream. I went home to sleep in the living room on the floor with lots of blankets (I've been keeping the house clean so I think it was my head telling me that I didn't sweep the floors and I should have lol). I couldn't sleep though (I have issues actually getting to sleep and staying asleep. Combined with my waking up during the night I probably only get around 4 hours of decent sleep and then 2-3 more of disturbed sleep through a 10 hour period).

I woke up in the dream and continued to our "meeting" spot which was a large pond. It was crystal clear and a beautiful summer day so we decided to go swimming. At this point there were brothers from my chapter, alumni I knew and new members along with many other brothers that I didn't know but we were all going to Italy! By this point Mark (my conductor) wasn't there but Marco was! (Marco is one of our National Officers of KKY that has been a tremendous help with us and the colony, he really is our guide and a fantastic one at that!) My friends were going around the pond to the other side to go swimming so I followed them! The pond was modeled after one that my grandpa owns  The pond was weird though, at one point we had to cross over poisoned black brier patches to get to the other side. (I assume that's the difficult times we've had to go through this year with bringing the colony up.) From that angle the pond was darker and more mucky where before it was crystal clear. We went to the other side which was the "swimable" side and on that side it was a cute pond, clear of grimy algae and muck but not quite crystal clear but we just knew it was clean and stuff. There were froggies on lily pads and lots of nice plants there, some rocks we could sit on and stuff. So we swam for a little bit and for some reason I was called back to the other side of the lake or something happened and I ran back to the other side. I looked at the water to find these gigantic fish in there, they looked like some large dime bodied Silver Salmon, like a Tilapia body but huuuugggeee! (possibly because I watched the new Godzilla trailer yesterday?) The water also became extremely deep but because it was so crystal clear it didn't seem so deep. All the fish were swimming hard but staying in place as if the water was moving fast but it was still as could be! I then saw a few fish just simply die, the water was turning hot and sort of boiling and I knew it was poisoned. We moved the group out of there and it was time to find our plane to board it for the trip.

This was all taking place on our campus btw but it wasn't really our campus....kind of a mish-mash of places really. But we were walking through buildings and trying to find our Plane Terminal, we had to walk through the Fine Arts Center but it was like a mangle of staircases and nooks and crannies that things could hide in, almost a maze. We were running through this part as if being chased my something but I don't remember what it was. I realized at this point that my phone was missing so I kept asking everyone if they'd seen my phone. Funny because I was describing my old phone rather than the one I've been using for over six months now! Someone found a phone and it had a red case but it was an iPhone instead of the slide phone that I had. No luck finding it as we made our way to the plane.

We boarded the plane to find our pilot was Marco! (he was our leader and mentor through the colonization process lol so it's fitting!) Marco and I were talking about the flight and the trip and all while he ran through all the buttons and whatnot on the plane; starting it up and make sure everything was running fine. Soon we started off but we had to make it down campus for the runway, we were at the top of campus and so we started down Upper College Rd. lol. We turned down Flagg Rd. and then instead of continuing down Flagg Rd. which would lead us to the bottom of campus we turned on Butterfield Rd. and Marco started to show us the "holy city" of Jerusalem which we apparently had some buildings modeled after temples and such (we had a visiting Indian artist yesterday from India and we were talking about the Taj Mahal and all). And then something happened where suddenly I was home again doing the dishes as if it were a dream within a dream. I looked over at the dish rack to find my phone sitting between some of the dishes. I picked it up and that was it.

There were many more little details I could have added into that lol. I've been told that I should write my dreams daily and by the end of the year I'll easily have a 1,800 page book! Of course, not all my dreams are nice so I doubt anyone would buy a book of "dreams". Anyway, just felt like I should share that since it was so vivid and colorful. I never dream in black and white and hardly do I stay grounded. Flying and water are two constants in my dream, sometimes I have issues flying and I know what that means. I'm quite in touch with my dreams but I don't always listen to them which ends up usually bad for me lol. Anywho....yep!


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## Sabina88

Wow, you have really interesting dreams  I usually don't remember any of mine, its amazing how much you remember from yours.

I love looking up the meaning of my dreams when I remember them, and I hope you don't mind but I looked some stuff up that I thought was interesting 

http://www.dreamdictionary.org/common/water-dreams/

http://www.dreamforth.com/search.php?query=fish&type=dreams&page=1#.U0Xu8HxOU5s


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## lilnaugrim

I take it as a compliment! I love my dreams even the ones that aren't so nice. I know they can tell a lot and it really is a dive into the deeper subconscious of a person, especially if you are familiar with symbolism and such! I have looked up many of the symbols in my dreams, especially the water and flying (although that one is obviously generally) since they are such a constant there. The water is interesting because it doesn't always say what it is supposed to mean although I know the symbolism is more generalized and each person is different. I've had dreams with murky rivers but it wasn't anything to do with the normal meaning to murky water such as dwelling in negativity as that site points out. Funny because in that murky river there was also a waterfall in that system which I was going over and having fun in more or less and in that first site it says: "Dreaming of a waterfall is a great dream symbol. It means cleansing and a new beginning. You might be getting a fresh start on life." lol so I'm cleansing but still dwelling in negativity XD :lol:

Anywho, I think I've more or less pinpointed what that particular dream was telling me. We've had so many issues this year with not only the Colony (not with the people) but with ourselves as well. Communication has always been an issue although we're getting better as we try to motivate ourselves to really get going and do what we're supposed to be doing. The phone being lost and then found it in a silly place where it had been all along was part of that communication. The boiling/poisoned water was more of a challenge as for us getting the colony going, there were two sides of the pond technically; the swimable side and then the poisoned side. This relates to the 'fun' side of the fraternity where we're carefree and when we were doing good things in the frat and then the poisoned side was the challenge and hard times we were going through this year with trying to get ourselves up and running as well as the colony. Not only did we poison ourselves but the colony; they had many issues that we also have dealt with in the past and were having in the moment; mostly the communication issues and lack of motivation.

Marco leading us was less of a symbol rather than an actual thing, most of my dreams are actual things rather than symbols like the fish; I'm in aquaculture class and look at what my hobby is lol. The plane and the Italy trip; that was happening in real life.

I had another dream last night much about flowers. Mom and her boyfriend went to Florida this past week (real life) and for when she came home I bought her a bouquet of a wild flower mix which she absolutely loved! So my dream was about getting the best flowers from a cemetery (There is our Veteran Cemetery that, after a certain point they throw the flowers and bouquets away and anyone can come to pick up these old flowers since most of them are still really good!). some of them were not so great bouquets as there are in real life; some of the flowers die before they go to throw them away so that also appeared in my dream. It all took place in my grandfather's old farm house (went to his house last night to use his lift to change my cars oil and look at a few other things under there). So for the most part it's just a conglomeration of my day's or week's advents while some of it has some meaning and a deeper look.

Dreams have always been so fascinating to me and I kind of want to start writing them down again, maybe I'll make a Dream Journal here if anyone is interested in reading the more prominent dreams ^_^ I won't bother with the little ones like last night or the ones I don't remember as there are a few.


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## MattsBettas

Can you lucid dream?


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## lilnaugrim

I have been able to before, it's not something I can do very often as I generally find it's exhausting only because I tend to fly more often in those dreams. But also in my regular dreams I have a tendency to be able to manipulate my dreams because of my sleep cycle. I sleep well-ish for around four hours at first and then after that I wake up every half hour to an hour for a few minutes, sometimes it's more often though depending on how exhausted I am or not. Half the time I'm not aware of it while other times I am fully aware that I'm waking up so often which really sucks the life out of me honestly, it's so difficult to stay awake during the day. No doubt I have sleep apnea which runs in the family regardless of size or weight.

So anyway, I do have a degree of control over my dreams normally which is why so many things from my day or week pop into them rather than having more symbolistic things in there which I understand most other people have more symbols and meaning in their dreams? Is that what you guys experience? I really have no clue lol.

But anyway, yes, I have lucid dreamed before and it's amazing. I have difficult sometimes differentiating between daydreaming and lucid dreaming sometimes, minus the paralyzing part which isn't always apparent when you are lucid dreaming.


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## MattsBettas

I've lucid dreamed before and it was absolutely incredible, to me it felt the exact same as real life except I had complete control over what I could do and create and where I could go). It actually took a lot of concentration and the last time (not sure when or if there were any before it) didn't last long at all because I got a bit over excited/overwhelmed. 

Generally I don't dream vividly (I have the common dreams that don't make any sense and are forgotten quickly (did you know that conscious muscle movement is what makes you forget these dreams?) unless written down pretty much every night though), but when my dreams are vivid, they are long and a lot of the time if I have one vivid dream in a night I'll have one or two more vivid dreams or common dreams in that night. I don't really pay attention to or find any symbolism in my dreams (especially common ones- those are usually just a compilation of things I did, said, thought about, was told, etc the day before), they're more like movies that don't make any sense.

Wow, that was some interesting sentence structure haha, shhh I'm tired. 

And if you are reading this and have no idea what lucid dreaming is, google it, it's a very real and very fun phenomenon.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh lol Matt, yeah I was looking at your paragraph and nodding along but chuckling at the structure.

Ooooh! I should do a series of drawings based on my dreams and what I remember! Those would be some funky pictures but would make for an interesting show I'd say! Watercolor would probably be my choice medium although I've never worked in it. They wouldn't be entirely complete images, I wouldn't fill the entire page since I don't often remember the details of the entire landscape but most of my vivid dreams I literally remember everything down to the last wood grain and stain of a porch or how dark the clouds and sky was or if the stars were twinkling and what shapes they made. It can be a little exhausting thinking about my dreams all the time; sometimes I feel like it's looking too much in the past rather than looking to the future but often the dreams will help me understand something that is frustrating me in real life and as I said before; if I don't listen to them then nothing will work out or at least it will go in an entirely different direction which isn't always a bad thing of course! But it's nice to have that foundation laid before I go stepping out onto it ^_^

Oh lol, last night I dreamed about being in the M*A*S*H unit but we were operating out of my basement which is funny considering the M stands for Mobile XD But we got a bunch of people in an were operating on them, I went to my table and found an orange tabby on it! We chased it around and I finally coaxed it in and caught it and started to put the front arm which it really seemed to like. We were side tracked and the cat turned into a guy who freaked out once more and tried running but again I was able to coax him back and he asked me to pet his arm because he liked that best so I did and everyone was kine of like...what? Including myself lol. This dream was more of a silly thing that I know it all came from current life events: watching MASH every day practically, the cat was probably Siberian since he woke me scratching at my door but I didn't let him in, and then no idea really why I was in the basement but I ended up flying up to my room afterwards which is on the second floor and that's probably because I'm moving full time into mom's house so it was just my brain simulating that.

Back to fish, fish are doing well! Went to dads last night to check up on everyone...well all two who are there lol. Spoon who has been renamed Grim in honor of my username which I am absolutely ecstatic about and honored really, has been doing fantastic! He's a really snarky fish lol, he eats a ton as well but that's probably because I'm feeding them the last food that I've left there which is my NLS Grow which I should have switched with the regular Betta Formula :roll: oh well. Steele also grew back a little more of his tail but bit the middle of it, at least his anal fin is growing nicely along with his dorsal. He's such a cutie really ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

I keep forgetting to say this but if anyone ever wants to chat with me or something we can set a time that both of us or more are available and we can chat on the TFK chat room or we can skype. I don't do video calls or nothing, mostly because my laptop doesn't have a built-in microphone and I don't have an extra after my last one broke, but I don't mind giving you my skype so we can chat!


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## Sabina88

Im glad both Grim and Steele are doing well 
I love spoons new name


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## lilnaugrim

I'm happily sitting here eating this chocolate pudding pie ^_^ my mom's bf (John) made it for our dessert! Not that it's terribly difficult lol, premade crust and the packet of pudding! But it's really yummy!

So I think I need to be banned from PetCo.....normally it's not such an issue; like PetSmart their Bettas are in the way back and I can avoid them if I need equipment or something and not look at them. PetCo on the other hand has them front and center, you can't look at anything without looking at them or passing them in some ways! Yes I could technically but that requires going all the way around the back side of the store and well...that's just silly!

Lucillia and I went yesterday since I needed sand to redo the 20 and we just wanted to hang out in general! She works at a PetCo (not the one I go to) so we get that nice 20% discount :-D so my bag of 20 lb black sand cost only 13 bucks after a coupon as well! yay! But we decided to look at the Bettas because...well, they were there! How can you not?--don't answer that >.> I picked up a little one and noted after I squealed that he was a another little double tail and a marble coloration! I held him for a while and Luci told me to get him lol well I didn't put up much a fight either XD I knew I was getting that 3 gallon up for the guppies, meh, what's another Betta in there? He probably won't harm him. Well later on after we were looking at the other fish and equipment stuffs we looked again to give a more thorough look at the babies and found another DT boy! I told her to get him lol so we both came home with little baby DT's! DT's are pretty rare around here for babies, we're getting more adults in now and more regular Plakat's not just DS's so I take the chance when I can! Her's will be a black body and red fins, perhaps a black outlining to them but I'm not THAT good at predicting how they'll turn out, I just know our area and what we normally get is all.

Also this coming Wednesday (after my getting my post in for my implant...yay /sarcasm) we'll be attending a meeting of a guy from SeaChem talking about fish diseases and how to handle them! After the meeting there will be an auction! yay more fish! lol I don't plan on getting fish unless I find a female for my new male killi---more on him soon, but that's doubted. I am allowed to buy plants though if they are there.

So yeah, new killifish. I went to my LFS SeaHorse looking for a white CT boy for PetMania (they didn't have any Pet! Not yet, they had a few crowns but nothing fantastic really) and I knew they got a new shipment in on Friday so I just browsed the tanks as usual, looking for unique fish and writing down names of fish I didn't recognize. I came to one tank with the dwarf gourami's and a few platies and I saw this little brown leopard looking thing and I knew right away it was a killifish I had been looking at on AquaBid before or at least was looking at a cousin! I watched him and well, he watched me lol. I asked Nick what the name of him was and after some trouble pronouncing the name he got it out and told me he was pretty sure it was in the killifish family and I nodded noting the fins as they looked exactly like the Splendid killi's (Aphymosium Splendopleure) I was looking at. I can only remember that name well since you know.. Betta Splendid lol. So I then asked how much he was since the other pairs of Killi's they had were 24.99 and 29.99 and when he said 7.99 I was like, yep! sold! So I now own a male Simpsonichthys Constanciae or better known as the Featherfin Fish! He's very compatible with my water and with the 3 gallon tankmates!

Annnnd I've hit my text limit with 15,840 characters and need to shorten it to 15,000 characters! lol Pictures up in the next post! Yay for copy and paste!

Grr, ignore the picture below, it's explained after the Featherfin pictures :roll: stupid thing can delete attached pictures...


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## lilnaugrim

Alrighty, picture time!

First up, here's the 20 I redid. OMG if you can, NEVER make your substrate so much! It smelled like a combination of low tide, rotten eggs and cow shi--manure....it's a good thing I'm a country girl and don't mind the smell of cow crap so much but rotten eggs and low tide? forget it. It took me 3 hours total and I accidentally killed my Ghost Shrimp....the wild is still living although not very happy. She's staying in the little breeder box with the guppies, eating leftover flakes.


Finally got the Mopani to sink! I guess it doesn't sink normally when it's dried and not meant specifically for aquarium use. I got it under the reptile side and soaked it for a week or so. But this is Remmy's side, I can't wait for those wisteria to grow and make a little path! That's going to look awesome! There is some haigrass near the bottom of the mopani as well, hoping that will spread out with time.


After being put in and being left alone while I watched The Rifleman on TV, came up to take pictures and I get this; Remmy rushing up to greet me ^_^ they're so much like dogs and cats lol.


Chillaxing at the top, his ventrals are growing back slow but well! A little crooked but that's fine ^_^ he's got some blue coming in on the one in front there.


Darn scum on the glass, otherwise would have been a perfect picture!


He was trying to reach something on the ground so he bent over a plant to try to get it...lazy fish :roll:


Not exactly in focus but I love the motion!


His "pad". I spread out the baby tears a little more and hoping they'll grow better that way, it looks nice spread out as well.


You really can't see his cyst well here but from the side it looks like it's really grown a lot :-( poor boy.


Synchronized swimming anyone?



Never realized that Isis is almost two-toned, the copper at the back has more white where the copper up front is the regular metallic.


The only good picture I ever get of Hawkeye >.<


And the best picture I've gotten of Pierce now!


No signs of ovaries yet, he was curious of Remmy who was chilling lol


Remmy couldn't care less about him which makes me super happy since he isn't tail biting!! Although I do still wonder if Pierce will be a girl since both Hawkeye and Remmy were making bubblenests before the whole change out.....




Shrimpy!



Dario!


Begging for worms as usual


Snakeskin is getting his pattern in on the new growth finally!


And the 3 gallon as of right now, I just threw plants in there but I want to get more plants so I can actually scape it the way I want to. You can see the younger of the two guppies in there. I took the two older ones and put them in there and left the two younger ones in the breeder box with the shrimp.


And here's my Featherfin!!


I love his markings and those fins! Absolutely gorgeous! I haven't seen him eat anything yet, I did feed them Grindals today but I'm sure he'll just take some time to settle in.


My pictures don't do him any justice!


Here's a better representation of the fins, this isn't my picture but something off google. They are annual Killi's so he'll live just around a year with me (hopefully) and they are peat spawners, not as easy to spawn as Aphyposium killis but really not that hard either. I'd like to find him a mate but I also still want to keep this tank more for the guppies rather than them.
View attachment 333778


And the moment you've all been waiting for! Actually you probably haven't lol, you're probably sitting there shaking your head at me. Here's the new baby and my first look at him looked a little something like this!


Comparing sizes, that's my larger male guppy of the fry!


Not very even lobes but I couldn't care less! Look at that face and his coloration!


Looking for more food even after being fed lol


Younger of the two guppy fry in the back there.


Poking at a leaf....fun fact about that leaf. Later I came to see something that looked like an inch worm stick its head out between the leaves....I took the leaf out and after a while of poking I was able to tear the two leaves apart and there sat what looked like a miniature meal worm....it was gross, teeny head with a large body. It looked like it was trying to make a cocoon or crystalis or something since the two leaves were sealed together practically. I think it came from the Ludwigia from the site I get my plants from since she grows them immersed, I don't doubt a bug can crawl in and make a nest. I ended up throwing him outside "BE FREE MY FRIEND! FLY!" lol


Apparently he thinks this is his best side and won't show me the other side XD


Lovely shaped ventrals! It's all about the ventral's baby!


How could you NOT resist that face and those big eyes?!?! I don't have a name for him yet but I'm thinking! I kind of want to continue with my M*A*S*H theme or at least my Marvel theme although those practically all died out now minus Azazel (technically), Aero and Isis technically count as well although that was not where their names originally came from, those names are still in the Marvel universe. Hawkeye was originally named for Clint Barton codenamed Hawkeye but I like M*A*S*H's Hawkeye much better! lol


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## Sabina88

Your new baby is adorable, I cant wait to see how he grows  I also like your Kili fish. I don't think ive really heard of them before. Do they stay small?

I was wondering do you silicone your dividers in place?


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## lilnaugrim

I did silicone the 20 gallon dividers in place, I'd never done it prior to this tank before though, normally I just fit them snug in place and they stay but I wanted this to be more sturdy and permanent so yes, I siliconed those in.

Some Kilis will stay small, this particular one will only reach around 3 cm, 5 is the max. So basically the size of a normal Betta. There are smaller Kilifish like I think the Clown is smaller. But of course, all small fish tend to eat more live foods rather than frozens or flake and it takes a lot to get them adjusted to the frozen and forever for the flake/pellet food for most small fish. These guys will more readily accept flake/pellet food more than Scarlet Badis will, Badis are just really stubborn I've found or at least Dario is lol he still won't take the frozen daphnia even though it looks practically the same as the grindal worms :roll:


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## PetMania

Oooh! Nice Killifish! I've been looking into killis -specifically Golden Wonders - and I have never seen that one. No problem with the CT  Thanks for looking. I might be going to PetCo (yeah, I might get banned from there one day, too) tomorrow, and if I see a white CT and grab it, I'll let you know ;-). Your snakeskin boy is looking a lot better. 

Wait, do you have TWO baby DTs? Wow, those are REALLY rare here. We mostly get the blue body with red wash VTs, although I did see a platinum one....why didn't I grab it? :frustrated:


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## lilnaugrim

Yep, two baby DT's now and if we count Luci's baby it's three! I've never seen so many before! All the rest were VT's though.

And yes, that Kili is pretty rare around here too or just sort of rare in the trade in general. I would like to breed them but that's just another fancy idea that I had, I doubt I would have the patients to actually do that, let alone find a female for him! I'll cherish him while I've got him. I don't particularly care for Golden Wonders though or any of the usual kili's like the Gardneri, I do like the Australe's though but only the Orange variation.


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## PetMania

yeah, nowadays to get a killi like that you either have to pay a fortune for a pair or by eggs that you have to raise yourself. I'm glad that they are starting to sell more 'exoctic' fish such as killis and wild bettas now.


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## MattsBettas

Haha you sound like me, only really wanting fish when they're hard to find or uncommon . 

All the fish look great, pics are always nice!


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## BettaLover1313

Aw! Your new DT is adorable! Love your new killi too! Such an interesting looking fish! Plus, all your bettas are looking great, especially Remmy!


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## Sabina88

I was wondering what type of filtration do you use for your divided tanks?


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## beautiful Betta

I love his blue lips, he looks like he has been eating blue sweets, it reminds of a sweet I used to get when I was small child they used to be called black jacks they were a chewy black sweet and would leave your lips and tongue black. lol


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## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> yeah, nowadays to get a killi like that you either have to pay a fortune for a pair or by eggs that you have to raise yourself. I'm glad that they are starting to sell more 'exoctic' fish such as killis and wild bettas now.


I had actually debated getting eggs to raise myself when I was debating what to get for the 29 but now that I don't have more room to do that, I really shouldn't tempt myself....:roll:



MattsBettas said:


> Haha you sound like me, only really wanting fish when they're hard to find or uncommon .
> 
> All the fish look great, pics are always nice!


Thanks Matt! Yeah, it's extremely hard to resist those interesting and rare fish! I keep looking on AquaBid and looking in like the US native fishes to see if there is anything unusual and then of course I go to my LFS and find this guy....



BettaLover1313 said:


> Aw! Your new DT is adorable! Love your new killi too! Such an interesting looking fish! Plus, all your bettas are looking great, especially Remmy!


Thank you! I'm just glad he's either A) not noticed the baby yet or B) doesn't care about Pierce enough to bite himself!



Sabina88 said:


> I was wondering what type of filtration do you use for your divided tanks?


In this one I'm using three AquaTop sponge filters, they're all run by one Air Pump and the line is cut and used a T connector to connect all the sponges.



beautiful Betta said:


> I love his blue lips, he looks like he has been eating blue sweets, it reminds of a sweet I used to get when I was small child they used to be called black jacks they were a chewy black sweet and would leave your lips and tongue black. lol


Thank you! That candy sure does sound interesting! We have similar ones of course but I don't recall anything that leaves your mouth black! Too cool :-D


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## Lucillia

I need to come visit. They are all so adorable!!!!!!! <3 Isis is really becoming so beautiful.


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## lilnaugrim

Long, busy and exhausting weekend!

Friday I went out with Lucillia to the PetCo/PetSmart and to her house as you guys knew from the new baby. Saturday I went out in the morning to send out fishes so the loaches, cherries and Kit-Kat are on their way to their new home and I should be getting Java Moss, Subwassertang and a male Tiger Endler today! The latter half of the day I redid the 20 long and holy shenanigans!!!! Pray you NEVER have to do that!!! I can handle the smell of cow manure but this was like cow manure, low tide AND rotten eggs all smooshed into one and it smelled so gross! 

So it took me around three hours to do everything; pulled the fish and shrimp (accidentally killed the Ghost) moved the sponge filters and heater, moved the light back, pulled all the plants and kept them in my spare 3 gallon critter keeper with water and then drained it. Then was the gross part and scooping out the substrate to leave roughly an inch of soil, maybe more like an inch and a half of soil and then capped another inch or 1.5 with sand and refilled, replanted and reacclimated the fish after the filters and heater went in....phew! that was absolutely crazy!

Sunday was also crazy! Got up, took my shower, did my hair, ate breakfast and was almost late for church! Had to leave church early to make the hour and 15 trek up to Boston for Installation of our newest chapter and our Little Chapter at Northeastern University! So we welcomed in Nu Theta (URI, my school's chapter, is Theta Upsilon or Theta Oops as we like to call ourselves lol) with their third degree and Installation! Then after that we all went out for dinner with dessert and then made the trek back to URI to drop off my little, that was an hour and 15 to there and another half hour back to my house. I got in little after 10 and passed out on my bed lol. So I'm still quite tired!

Fishes are all doing well, checked on the Killi and made sure he was still doing well and he is! Remmy and Hawkeye are being grumps but that's okay, the rest of them are doing well. Pierce's baby platy has doubled in size since I got him! Apparently my water is amazing for growing livebearers  which reminds me, I still don't even know what my pH is....I should check that.


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## Lucillia

Yeaaaahh I think I should give you all my guppies. They will grow and prosper in your tanks. They hate hate hate HATE my water. That could be a reason as to why they aren't growing as quickly too, now that I think of it. How big are your eldest baby guppies now? And we have to make a day to go to Fish Bowl. I wish I could bring you to class with me too. I think you'd love it. Especially since I'll be testing Prophet tomorrow.


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## lilnaugrim

I have a comparison pic for the two eldest in with the new DT baby. I think your DT baby was sliiiightly larger than mine so think your largest babies. Here the picture is again, biggest baby and the DT baby.


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## Lucillia

Nope. I think mine are just about the same size as my DT. I'll double check when I get home. BAAAHHH. They will never grow up!!


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## lilnaugrim

You can always throw them my way and see what happens lol. I don't mind a few more in my breeder box XD My two tiny ones are still very tiny.


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## lilnaugrim

Alright I just need to be banned from all things fish! My LFS, same place I got the Killifish from has had these Gelius Barbs in for a few weeks now. They look no larger than my Ember Tetra (who I'm still looking for more for the tank but don't want to pay obnoxious shipping prices!) and are absolutely adorable! I've done some research and they only get around 1.5 inches at max which means I can rescape my 13 gallon there and get around 8 or 10 to throw in there once the two guppies are gone. Not sure what I'm doing about Dario, I want to keep him but half of me doesn't want him in with 20 with anyone since I don't know if he carries columnaris or not but I would think he'd be infected by now or at least the other fish would! The babies are totally fine through all of this and I think they may actually be disease resistant to it!

So I'm picturing a new scape to have all fluffy plants like all Myrio species lining the back to make more like a Dutch aquascape and have the front open a bit so they can move around but still hide when they like! Ugg, I need to stop having all these fancy ideas!


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## PetMania

Naugrim, how many tanks and/or species of fish do you have?


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## lilnaugrim

Killifish! I love this tank but hate it at the same time since it always seems cloudy no matter what I do :-/


Love those fins!!



And here are the other compartments for the 20 long, starting left and going right. Isis's compartment


Aero


Hawkeye


Pierce who swam away from me as I took the picture lol. And sorry...you can see the dead Platy fry in there :-( I came home to find Pierce eating him.....sigh...


And here's Pierce. Just like Hawkeye my camera only likes to focus on his tail up close :roll:



And Pierce eating the platy.





Other DT Baby! ^_^


His little black nose is so adorable!!


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## Sabina88

Im glad every one is doing ok 
Poor platies 

Have you picked a name for your new baby yet?

Also touching on Petmanias post,
I would love to see of your fish area/tanks in one big photo if you would mind. I love each of your tanks set ups


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## lilnaugrim

At mom's I have 4 tanks up and running minus the 3 gallon QT.
20 gallon Long: five Betta Fish
29 Gallon: 1 Betta (soon to be moved), 1 Ember Tetra (soon to try to get 15), 10 Corydoras Habrosus, 3 Otocinclus, 5 Various Rabbit Snails
13 Gallon: Dario Dario, 2 Guppy's (M,F), various pest snails, 2 guppy Fry in breeder box with one wild neocaridina shrimp
3 Gallon: 1 Simpsonichthys Constanciae (Featherfin Fish), 2 Guppy Fry, 1 Baby Betta

EDIT: oh and dad's I have my two 5.5's with Grim and Steele in each.


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## PetMania

Thanks for letting me know  quite an interesting set up you have there


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## Sabina88

Oops sorry double post


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## PetMania

Your DTs are looking amazing!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys ^_^

And with that Featherfin Fish is dead too :-( seriously don't know what happened! I thought maybe the water was too cold because it doesn't have a heater but the two guppy fry and the baby are doing fine! Water is sitting around 72-74 degree's during night and then gets up around 76 during the day! And then I thought maybe I didn't acclimate well or long enough but he was fine the first day and then went down hill after that! I cupped him last night and was slowly acclimating him to the 13 gallon but I didn't let him out since he was content just sitting there. I tried to feed him but nothing--sigh. I knew but I hoped he would live, he kept looking up at me and following my face when I moved; it was adorable! Sorry little fishy!

Everyone else is fine though this morning, guppy fry are still alive and well. Shrimp is fine, babies are fine. Still no name for the new baby, still thinking if I want to go Marvel or stay M*A*S*H in which case I could do something like Radar, Blake, BJ, Hunnicut, Winchester, or something. I think I've exhausted Hawkeye the main character since I have two of his names technically (Hawkeye although not technically his namesake but all the same, and Pierce). I don't care for Frank, Henry, Charles I already did, MacIntire, Trapper, John, or Klinger.

And technically the tanks are still set up the same minus one 13 that has shrunk into a 3 lol. Here are the older pictures and I'll see if I can get new pictures ^_^
This is entering into my room.


And around the corner of the tanks


I'll try to get one photo, will have to stand on my bed XD


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## Sabina88

Sorry to hear about your featherfin fishy  
You should call your new baby MASH lol


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## Sabina88

i love how your tanks are set up


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## PetMania

Sorry about Featherfin.

 BJ sounds like a really good name


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## Sabina88

You should name him MASH


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## lilnaugrim

Ehhh I don't know lol I'll have to try different things out, I've been sort of calling him Mask, and Parrot lol Not sure yet.

So two elder guppies in with new DT baby in the 3 gallon are also dead....seriously I don't even know! The baby is still fine! These guys weren't murdered though, it looks like they just died! I tested the tank and the ammonia was a bit high, did a 70% water change and it's fine now. I got a KH/GH testing kit today and tested my KH of my tap! It's 3 dKH which is pretty good :-D I'm still soaking in info on GH/KH as it hasn't quite clicked yet.

I went to a different LFS today, another one of my normal LFS's and I was looking for driftwood since i knew they had some nice pieces but nothing tickled my fancy. I went around looking at the fish, got some neon's for the tank at school; I will acclimate them in the morning. Well I had seen they had female Betta's in a tank together last time I was there and knew it wasn't going to end well :-/ I went today and they were all still there, mostly because half of them were hiding from the alpha who was a pale orange girl. I kept looking, saw a red and two blues and then suddenly out from under the upturned castle ornament I saw a teeny opalescent blue head pop out! The orange girl quickly chased her in and kept biting her. I made them fish her out and took her home. She's feisty but her fins are a bit ragged, I'll be looking for a home for her so anyone is interested I'll let you know when she's ready to be set free! :-D

Here are the pics for you Sabina! The view from my bed area, door on the left.


View coming into my room, disregard that mess lol


Dario!


Shrimpy!


I got my Tiger Endler! :-D He's adorbs! I hope he actually survives >.>



He's as small as my small babies!




And here's the girl!



Her fins really aren't that bad at all but none of the others' fins were like this.


She looks a little devilish here lol she was just taking in a breath of air though.


Look at that face! The little 'soot' on her nose is absolutely adorable!


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## beautiful Betta

Sorry about your guppies. All the others are looking good. 

That poor girl, so glad you found her, sounded like she was really being the target of the alpha girl. I expect she will heal up in no time.


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## Sabina88

Sorry to hear about your guppies 
Your new girl is absolutely adorable  She has really pretty coloration.
Also I love your little fish nook area, and the color of your walls (blues my favorite color)
Fingers crossed for the new endlers

Do you think maybe it has something to do with the filter?


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## PetMania

She's so adorable! I absolutely love her coloring. 

Sorry about the guppies. Maybe it's a livebearer thing because last year, my platys kept dying off without a clear reason and I still don't know to this day.


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## lilnaugrim

There's no filter in that 3 gallon lol, just a plainly planted NPT ^_^

All is well though, the baby is still doing fine in the 3 gallon so he might have been bullying them just not directly attacking them, you know? Stress can kill!

Endler, neons and new girl are doing fantastic this morning but I'm not...ugg..passed few days I've been dealing with a case of acid reflux.....on top of that I started to take my antibiotic yesterday for today's surgery getting my post in and the antibiotic (I have to take 4 pills at separate times each day! ) is actually Clindamycin not Kanamycin as I thought it was. But it's been making my muscles ache and best part....almost everyone who's been on this med has ended up with diahrrea and I'm like seriously?? SERIOUSLY? What the hell else could go wrong?! I woke up with nasty post nasal drip and from that it's made my throat entirely sore, it hurts to talk :-( I had to ask what else could go wrong, didn't I? Ug, I just hope he can do the surgery today so I don't have to wait any longer and can get off these antibiotics pronto! Eating some strawberry yogurt to try to give my body some probiotics! So far it's just reacting badly with my acid reflux :evil:

But I got the neons to school this morning and they're stressed but they're happily swimming in the tank here so this puts the school up to 15 of them in total, it's a 30 gallon tank. There is also 1 X-ray Tetra whom is the professor's 'pet', she absolutely loves him and when I mentioned getting him a school she was like; but then I can't tell who's who! I just stopped talking :roll: so anyway, soon Azazel can come meet them once I get some more plants in for her since she's not buying what I tell her to buy even though she told me to tell her what to buy and she'd buy it! Gah, frustration! So it needs more hiding spaces and then Azazel can go in. I want to make a name tag for him so no one else can 'name' him since he's still my fish! Half of me feels terrible just dropping him here but I need to get him out so I can put the Honey Gourami's in the 29! Ideally I'd like to get the Ember tetras first but there's been no good places to buy from online that don't charge an arm and a leg for shipping and I really don't trust WetSpot too much. But I think the Gourami's will be fine when the Tetras come in. They're just a little miserable in their little QT tank but so far they're getting along just fine!


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## Sabina88

I hope you feel better soon and everything goes well

Hopefully it was only stress and your new baby wont be effected


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks again Sabina  I've been dinning on cough drops in hopes it will take away my sore throat and post nasal drip so I can at least be comfortable during surgery rather than hacking up a wad of mucus >.> sorry for the imagery there!

Oh and forgot to say! It snowed this morning! Well....more like iced I guess since it was like snow that was small hail crystals and then all piled all each other. So I guess it more or less hailed then and just covered the ground lol Yesterday it was like 55-60 degree's! This morning, 32! Yep, got to love New England!


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## Lucillia

That girl is adorable!!! 

NE- Just when you thought you were safe into spring... it snows.


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## Sabina88

I know how you feel lol, i had clean the "snow" off my car this morning and i was already pushing to get to school on time
I think most of it should be melted by the end of the day

Do you at least have good tasting cough drops?


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## lilnaugrim

lol seriously! Damn you New England! :lol:

Yeah, they're the herbal cough drops by Ricola, I always love their cough drops! They taste great but my throat still hurts as do all of my sinuses :-( Geeze, if I were a fish in this weather swinging temperature that we are having; I'd be dead with shock and I think that's half the reason I have the post nasal drip right now although that comes every season at the beginning of it when it changes over to the next season. :roll: sucky!


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## Sabina88

Aww that sucks 
Hopefully it doesnt last to long


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## DaytonBetta

I hope your surgery goes well. I am having a tooth removed because it's cracked and have to get an implant. I'm really nervous about it.


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## lilnaugrim

It wasn't so bad Dayton! A little uncomfortable and weird to have a titanium screw screwed into the jaw bone but my dentist is amazing and would add more novacaine when I could feel it. I was around 10-12 shots before I couldn't feel anything any more so it didn't hurt, was just weird really. My jaw is super sore at the moment but it doesn't really hurt; the antibiotics are kicking my butt worse than the implant is lol. And then my sinus stuff have turned into a sinus infection so I'm still a happy camper :sarcastic:

Fish are doing well thus far, I bought the Gelius barbs yesterday for the 13 gallon that I want to rescape. I'm uncertain if I want to add the cute Checkered Barbs that are at Critter Hutt, I think they have like three left but they are similar to the Gelius in nature and personality and then also in size and they're just absolutely adorable. But there are ways that the Gelius barb can breed on their own and I wouldn't mind reproducing some of these guys since they are pretty expensive ($5.99 from the LFS >.< and I got 8...) so it would be easier if they were by themselves but every time I go I just keep staring that those darn Checkered Barbs! Grrr, why can't I have all the fish?? >.<

Pierce has learned that me coming up to the tank means food and immediately swims up to the tank, he's so darn adorable! I'm thinking Radar for the new baby since he's adorable and Radar is adorable so it kind of works lol. He just needs a name so I can identify him easier!

I'm in aquaculture class right now and we're learning about GMO's (genetically modified fish) and were talking about bioluminescence of jelly fish and the Aequeous Victoria is the specific jellyfish that a scientist isolated the bioluminescence gene and that gene is what makes GloFish Glow, not tattooed which I previously thought. Although I know there are different types of GMO's just never really gave it any thought as to which procedure was which. So all the 'glowy' fish and frogs are safely changed just from the protein not tattooing. Tattooing is done still on the Parrot fish and the Platies and such, that part I definitely don't condone but I guess the GloFish aren't so bad anymore, I still don't really like them but it's nice to know they weren't in pain from tattooing or anything. *Shrug* Oh and we were just talking about the GloFish again and how they are "heavy metal detectors", they turn green when there are heavy metals in the water. I didn't hear the first part of that since I was typing lol, there was something else to that >.< whoops.

Lucillia and I went to our first Fish Society meeting last night and joined! The meeting was relatively short and then we got a talk about fish diseases and prevention from a guy from SeaChem! It was awesome! I took some notes of things I didn't know or just wanted to keep down so I'll post those later if everyone wants! But he was awesome and gave some great info! And after that we had the "Bowl Show" where some of the members bring in fish and we vote for the fish we like which was cute! A Syno catfish named Oric I think, was the first place winner that night ^_^ and then we had a small auction after! Lucillia got 6 baby BN Plecos for $5! They are absolutely adorable! So yeah, I'm happy to join this society :-D


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## Lucillia

I saw mollies at RI aquarium that had hearts tattooed on them... I face palmed. 
Glofish...Are interesting. They still have very short lifespans and lose their color so quick. 

ORECK!!!!! I LOVED HIM!!! AND I WANT HIM!!!!! I want all the catfish. The SeaChem guy was cool. I face palmed on the gram staining bit but oh well. That's why we do dip-quick now instead of legitimate staining... Which I suck at by the way. Really badly.


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## lilnaugrim

My uncle's sister had two White Skirt GloFish who were easily 2 years old and still living; they did lose almost all their color but 2 years isn't too bad considering all of what they went through.

Are you sure it was Oreck? Thought it was Oric! Either way, he was sooooo adorable!

What was about the gram staining that wasn't right or bad? We just don't use that type any more? Less effective? Granted yes, most of us WON'T be doing that as he pointed out lol


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## Lucillia

Haahaa.. Just me.. *waves awkwardly from the back of the room* 

Ahh I'm not sure. I know it was the vacuum company. Either way I want him. He's an old man too! 

As for the gram staining its just more time to do it, he messed up and said only 2 of the solutions and in the wrong order still. Heat fix for both. Dip-quick you dip it into the 3 solutions ten times one at a time and then rinse. Gram staining you have to do Crystal violet stain for about a minute, rinse delicately. Then your Iodine stain, 1 min... rinse.. De-color for 10-15 sec then your Saffranin for 1 min...rinse. Its really easy to mess up too. Which we all did. 
Your gram + will be blue, - will be pink. 
Its kind of pretty and disgusting at the same time.


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## lilnaugrim

Ah okay, that makes sense for the staining then!

Oooh right, yes the vacuum lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

And notes from the lecture! Some of it is things I was interested in and some were things I knew but just wanted to write down anyway. Feel free to question anything and maybe we can stimulate some talk on this! Which reminds me, I need to get back on my "Let's Talk" threads. I want to do one on disinfection; so anyone please PM me with how you disinfect and all the steps since I want to combine more than just my own procedure since I know there are multiple ways. Another one is female vs. male, I'm drawing up a female betta anatomy pic since the only ones out there are all males and everyone should know where the ovaries are! So disinfection, female vs. male, PetCo baby Care Thread will be separate, eggy vs. bloat/dropsy, and whatever else anyone wants me to write up as long as I know about it. Of course I'm not going to write one on African Cichlids since I basically know nothing XD Okay, notes!

-David Lee from SeaChem formerly worked at Mystic Aquarium, has 3 saltwaters and 1 planted freshwater. 

-Ammonia/Nitrite Burns: not actually burns but the brown parts are cells building on cells trying to regenerate and reproduce.
-Fish Disease [Book] by Edward J. Noga (Fish Disease Bible basically)
-Fishes Defenses in order: Scales/Skin, Slime Coat, Inflammatory Response [increased blood flow to bring white blood cells to site of infection], white blood cells. Stress Guard is unlike Stress Coat, it isn't a conditioner but contains proteins that seek out areas on the fish were slime coat is not present to stimulate the reproduction of the coat once more. Does not aggravate slime coat.
-QUARANTINE is the biggest defense.
-Meds to use in QT that aren't antibiotics or harsh on the body/biofilter.
--Copper
--Metronidazole
--Quazipro

-Increased temperature means less oxygen in the water so bump up that aeration! Increased temperature was not suggested as it increases metabolism which can stress out the fish.
-Parasites have life cycles categorized by different stages; ie. free floating and adult cyst stage.
-Velvet: Amyloodinium
-Brooklynella: most common in clownfish [found in Brooklyn]
-Cyst on fish for Ich is adult stage, free floating occurs for only 6 hours for each parasite.
-Copper breaks the cell open and kills the parasite.
-Cupramine [my favorite!] is 100% removable and safe treatment around .2-.8 fr freshwater. Safe to use if in the future you want inverts since it is 100% removable.
-ParaGuard can be used as a prophylactic, can also be used for viruses like Lymphocystis.
-PolyGuard; broad spectrum antibiotic which contains four different meds, diluted which makes it easier to dissolve in the water.
-Garlic has B6, B12, Beta-carotene, and has antioxidant properties among other things which makes it fantastic. Is a hunger stimulant so it doesn't only taste good, it entices them to eat the food.
-Mycobacterium is gram negative and the guy said that most bacteria infections are gram positive....I have to question that one.
-Virus: lives in the cells of the host fish whereas parasites live on the fish, hence no real treatment, just be a good nanny!
-Lympho: give them Vitamin C!
-Chlorella; better than spirulina as it is more concentrated but it's harder to extract, it also stimulates tissue repair. SeaChem uses it in their new foods, also they only have 8% ash content (NLS only has 9%)


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## Sabina88

Sounds like you had fun 
Im glad everything went ok


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg, I'm not feeling any better! Took a three hour nap today complete with an awesome REM cycle and a dream to boot! It was about snowboarding for some reason and eating pizza with friends and family after we were done snowboarding!!

I'm exhausted and completely stuffed up so I apologize to everyone if I don't answer your threads so quickly, it's been a rough week! A good one, but still rough  Night night everyone!


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## MattsBettas

Naps are awesome, not sure if you're like this but when I nap I either have to limit myself to half an hour or less or go through a full three hour REM cycle. If I just nap for more then half an hour and wake up artificially I end up feeling rested but tired, and am usually just groggy for the rest of the day.

I had an awesome dream last night too, it was one of those amazing ones that leaves you wishing desperately you could go back. The most interesting part was that I was lucid but not controlling, I was aware (or at least partially aware) that I was in a dream, I just let it take its course instead of consciously controlling it. Anything like that ever happened to you?

Night to you too. I want an update on the DTs when you can!


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## lilnaugrim

Same way! I know with naps you're only supposed to sleep like 15-30 minutes because if you disrupt the REM cycle you just end up worse. But I was happy I was able to sleep right through the REM cycle which is a feat for me even at night! I felt much better afterwards and I went downstairs with dad and we watched "Escape From Planet Earth" and it was hilarious! Great fun movie to watch with the family if you wanted ^_^

I sent Grim (Spoon) out this morning along with the new girl I had just bought lol, both are going to Flint. I wasn't going to send the girl out as I mentioned, honestly she really wasn't that bad or nothing but I just wanted to make sure but I know Flint will take care of her! So I brought Steele over and placed him where the girl was; in the breeder box of the 13. He's happily flaring at the female guppy and the Gelius barbs!

So yes, I don't remember if I posted it or whatever but I'm too exhausted at the moment to look back, I ended up buying 8 Gelius Barbs (Golden Barbs) as they only reach 1.5 inches max but that's more for females, males will stay smaller as usual. They are happily schooling in there! I moved planted around to make it more like a Dutch aquascape, I want more plants in there to give it more of that feel since they are loving the clumps of water wisteria and I semi planted my mother water sprite; holy crap that thing is HUUGE! I'll get pics later! I also picked up the remaining Checkered Barb at the other LFS where I also got the female there. I wanted a trio really but he was the only one left so he'll stay that way unless I find two females to go with him. I'm naming him Czech...get it? Sounds like Check as in Checkered but has nothing to do with the Czech Republic lol. Imma dork I know!

Babies are doing fantastic! Pierce has noticebly grown! Radar (yes I decided on Radar for the marble-ish DT) has put more black on him with a green irid, he'll be interesting to watch grow up! Fed them this morning and they happily gobbled down the NLS Grow! lol, I need to take a pic of all the NLS bottles I have XD It's rather hilarious!

Still feeling like crap but I sat outside for a while and that helped, the sun certainly feels amazing! It's a lovely 54 degree's today with a gentle breeze! My head is still killing and all stuffed up! I can feel it move from my left side originally and now to my right side where my eye is hurting and sort of drippy, my ear is plugged up and my nose has yet to cease running >.< My stitches hurt but the jaw is getting better from the Post, still kind of weird to think I've got a titanium screw screwed into my jaw lol. I wonder if I'll set off metal detectors now!


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## PetMania

Hope you feel better! =) 

Pretty clever name, Czech. Nice to know that the DTs are doing well. 

Hehe, I can't take naps 'cause then I won't be able to sleep during the night.


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## lilnaugrim

Normally I do the same thing Pet; can't sleep at night afterwards but I'm also sick so that's my excuse lol. I slept pretty darn well last night after my 3 hour nap! ^_^ I'm going to go take pictures now and call Aqua Life up in Providence about those white CT's you want Pet


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures!

These are all the foods I've got excluding the live cultures of course lol.


The barbs don't sit still so you get some blurry pics of them >.<


The big one up top is the only female of 8....she's gonna have fun if it comes breeding time lmao, poor girl!




Czech! He's larger than the female Gelius but he likes to swim with them and he keeps picking on the Snakeskin Guppy who I don't think is doing so well :-/


Here he is poking at SS boy.


And the 13 as a whole. You can see Steele up in the corner there, most of the barbs are beneath him. But yeah, that water sprite is pretty large! lol


Remmy! His poor ventral's are almost fully grown back now, they aren't as luscious as they were previously but that's alright.


I don't know if he bit his dorsal or if it ripped on something....I don't even try to understand him anymore :roll:


And on the other end we've got Isis!


She's such a good girl


I've introduced the Honey Gourami's to the 29 and they're doing fantastically but I had to separate Azazel out as I suspected. I'll show you the pics of them while still in the 3 gallon floating.


Mr. Flare-Mister came up and started getting all flare crazed!


I've never seen him flare before!




Look at ME!


"I'm so pretty!...oh so pretty! and witty and gay!" lol


I've got some fat cory's as well! The female is the one in the back, I think these guys are a pair!


One of the males


Rabbit snail!


And now to the babies! This is Pierce a few days after I got him, it's been two weeks now!


And today!
stuck in a tree like a cat haha








I really can't be sure at this point but I am wondering if he's a DTPK since he's larger in body than Radar but Radar's fins are longer.


And speaking of Radar, first pic for reference:


And today
The black has really darkened up here














That face is just too adorable!




And that's all for now.


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## BettaLover1313

Hope you start feeling better! Radar definitely fits your new little guy.


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## Sabina88

Wow Peirce has grown a lot, I also love Radars coloration so far, I wonder how he will end up.


----------



## beautiful Betta

The babies are looking great. I just assumed Pierce was DT from when I first saw him.


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Hope you start feeling better! Radar definitely fits your new little guy.


Thanks! Yep nope, still feeling like crap! Happy Easter everyone!



Sabina88 said:


> Wow Peirce has grown a lot, I also love Radars coloration so far, I wonder how he will end up.


Yeah! I can't wait to see larger differences in him. So far nothing major, just coloring up but no real pattern change yet! Maybe he'll stay like this!



beautiful Betta said:


> The babies are looking great. I just assumed Pierce was DT from when I first saw him.


Thanks! Yeah...both boys are DT's or are you saying something else?


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## PetMania

Happy Easter!


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## lilnaugrim

And to you too Pet!

So All the fishies are good except for SS boy, think I said he died yesterday? If I didn't, well he died :-/ So I'm down to one female guppy, the two babies and the Tiger Endler.

Pierce has learned how to beg for food and has been doing it all day although it wasn't helping that I kept feeding him when he would XD He's a happy little boy for sure!

Remmy and Hawkeye are jealous since they are either side of Pierce lol. Aero is clueless and Isis is trying to jump for food! Silly fish. Steele has been avidly making a bubble nest for some reason, Azazel has been too in his little breeder net being a good little Giant boy and not jumping! The female gourami's keep coming up to him haha

Radar looks like he's lost a little black but hard to really see, I just love that little black mask of his! Absolutely adorable! The Gelius Barbs are doing fantastic eating both Grindal worms and flakes today :-D Czech has also been doing great, he's been scavenging the gravel kind of like a cory lol.

Speaking of cories! All my female Habrosus are fat and filled with eggs! It would be amazing if they bred in the aquarium but I doubt it would really happen since eggs need roughly 10 days to hatch and if they aren't eaten before that they need micro worms and stuff for the first few days to really get started. But the females are seriously faaaatttt! lol My Ember Tetra is super duper red too! He seems super happy! Sounds good to me.

So I got bored today since I couldn't go to my aunt and uncle's Easter dinner because my uncle is the one with cancer and he's going for the bone marrow transplant soon and he can't get sick so I didn't want to risk it! So I asked Lucillia if she wanted to hang out and she said yep! lol so we went up to Warwick and hit up PetCo, PetSmart and Walmart for gits and shiggles to just see what they had.....we ended up coming home with a Bonsai tree each (small ones), I got a small Rainbow Elephant Bush (succulent), twin pots for our bonsai's (aww Luci, we should have taken pictures of them!), jobes plant food sticks, I got one of those Betta View 1/2 gallon tanks for 5 bucks for when I show Isis at the Fish Society! And then I didn't get what I went there for; another in tank breeder box, but I ended up with another Betta Baby.....this is THE first baby female I've ever seen!!!! I had to! And the best part is she's just as old as Pierce, older than Radar who is the youngest of them....she'll go into the 13 if she's not too aggressive. At the moment she's in my extra 3 gallon that the gourami's were in, it's like a quarter filled at the moment as I didn't want to get new water from the tub since everyone was sleeping so I'll fill it more tomorrow.

I know, I know, I shouldn't be doing this and all but I'm pretty confident I can take care of them especially since they are way older than Steve and Tony ever were when I bought them! I'll try to get more pics tomorrow! So far she looks like Pierce's coloration but more solid red fin although she hasn't fully colored up for me yet!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm so sad :-( Radar passed away :-( there could have been various things including the temp was too cold. It was around 70 degree's at night and 73-ish during the day since I didn't have my extra heaters on me and the only one I had is that stupid Xing one with a 2 foot cord, not nearly long enough for the positions of the tanks. That and I tested the water; Ammonia: 3.0 ppm*I'll explain later, Nitrite: 0 ppm, Nitrate: 0ppm. My well water is at a lovely 6.2 or so and the lower the pH level the less toxic ammonia is which means 1.0 ppm ammonia in 5.5 pH and then in 8.5 pH are completely different. The higher the pH the more toxic regardless of fish, tanks, planted, nothing. So while yes the ammonia tested at 3.0 it wasn't as toxic. I'm not trying to fool myself thinking that it wasn't toxic still as I know it is but I take a little comfort knowing it's not _as_ deadly as it would be in higher pH levels. But I know this is still too high for babies, preferably needing a cycled tank or at least the daily changes. I wasn't doing the daily changes for him as he was alone. I find that when the babies are alone or at least not around other babies they do not excrete the growth stunting hormone as much which means less water changes. This is why those people who only had one baby and only did the weekly water changes, they still grew up because they had no competition to worry about. Still no excuse for not doing water changes on a tank that was clearly just set up, no filter and the soil still leeching ammonia. Not to mention the plants weren't growing well, half of them melted and are just now recovering.

It was terrible though, Monday night I came home at 12:30 at night after a very long meeting (But I'm now our new Historian! We had elections :-D, yay I get to play with old documents now! lol) and he was fine! Fed him and the other two babies and went to bed. Decided not to go to school as I didn't have clean clothes and I felt horrible still, still sick but getting better and I couldn't have survived on only four hours of sleep. But I woke up after around 8:30 and he was vertical, nose buried in the sand! I quickly poked at the tank hoping he was just playing but he didn't move, I took the tweezers out and poked him around--dead for sure :-(

S.I.P. little Radar, I'm sorry I couldn't have done more for you. I was so looking forward to watching you grow up!

In other fish news, everyone else is doing fantastic. Azazel has just gone into his new home here at school. He was so confused when I placed him in the tank of Neon's and one X-ray tetra lol. He didn't care about the other fish but quickly swam up to the glass to me and my face and just was like....what the heck is this place?? lol He's such a good boy! I backed off and watched him for a bit. Everyone was eating and so he went up to eat with them and didn't bother anyone as he went off to explore. Some of the neons inspected him but backed off when he gave them a look, he doesn't really flare, bite or chase them but he'll give them a look and they back off so it's good!

Remmy is doing well, no biting that I've seen and I think his dorsal is starting to grow back *crosses fingers* I hope it patches up but his dorsal takes FOREVER to grow! Even slower than ventrals! And ventral's usually take a long time, that and they take a long time to color up (this is why you see many young Bettas with white tipped ventrals; the color just hasn't come in yet but it will with age), but his grew back yellow so that was interesting!

Hawkeye is fine although he's got a nip in his tail fin, I think maybe from Pierce but I'll never know lol. He hasn't done any flaring which is a good thing but I'd like to get some nice flare pictures of him to use in his profile pics! I'll have to float Isis or switch her and Aero up so he can see her since Aero flares all the time at her anyway and she just sasses him right back lol. I've also started to train Isis a little bit for flaring at fingers so when I bring her to our little Bowl Show at the society, she'll be a great specimen to watch!

Steele has been doing fine in the 13 in the breeder box although he's unhappy to be in there lol. It's funny, he doesn't mind the barbs or nothing but flares ridiculously at the female guppy! I'm like; she didn't do anything to you! XD he's a silly one for sure! I can't tell if he's growing back fins or if he's still biting but I'll get some comparing pics up to see if we can tell what he's doing ^_^ He'll be leaving May 17th to go up to NY and then from there to Canada! :-D I love him but I will be happy when he's gone lol. The little bugger kept gobbling down pellets enthusiastically yesterday so I figured he was really hungry. Well he didn't really swallowed them, just kept them in his mouth so he ended up looking like a mouth brooder with his beard sort of puffed out from all the pellets. He spat most of them out and then ate them later and I just laughed at him and moved on to feed the other fish.

I moved the Endler, two guppy fry and the Shrimp over to the 3 gallon after I did a water change. Also added more floating water sprite to keep the ammonia down. The other water sprite I had in there was half planted and it didn't like the change so it half melted >.< The red root floaters I have in there are doing well though. I ended up grabbing my Azoo Palm from dad's house yesterday, cleaned it up and put it in the 3. I need to modify the hood though so it will actually fit, right now the hood is sort of just resting on the top of the filter so it's partially open. I also grabbed the Hydor heater and threw it in there so it's a steady 75 degrees at the moment for the guppies which they like anyway. 

I then moved the new baby girl into the external breeder box that they were in before and I moved the box from the 13 gallon and to the 20 long since the temp is a little hotter which will be good for her. She can't really see Isis since the water line in the 20 is so low right now. I have to do a larger water change on that to get it nice and clear again. I think I have a bacterial bloom at the moment but I've just recently learned that bacteria don't work in pH levels below 6.0 and they really don't like anything 7.2 and under so I'm like....hmm....well this is weird and new information! So I guess it's all up to my plants!

The baby girl is doing fantastically though and I have a bunch of pictures which I'll post in the next post so it's not so cluttered in this one! Pierce is doing amazing as well! He's so darn difficult to get pictures of and it makes me mad, him and Hawkeye are just terrible lol. Funny considering the names are from the same person on MASH.

Luci and I hung out yesterday even with a time crunch since I had a concert last night that went fantastically but we made it! She gave me her remaining three Corydoras Habrosus, two of which were from my original stock lol. And then we went to a store called Oceans of Pets, cute store! I liked it! Lots of fish and good stock but it's usually way too far for me to travel for a fish store, it's literally in the other corner of the state but it was nice to visit! I found two female checkered barbs there!!! So I snatched those up and took them home! Czech already started to court them once they were in! lol, I found it really hilarious. But they are doing fantastically, Gelius barbs are doing well and so is Dario. The female guppy was breathing heavily yesterday but I don't know if she's just close to giving birth although I think it's only been three weeks with the SS boy but she was starting to clamp a little bit too which was the same symptoms my other guppies showed....so we'll see...

Alrighty, will format the pictures next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just comparing some growth in the 13 and thankfully there IS growth!
Last week:


And yesterday:


And the 3 gallon with some half dead plants :roll: at least the java ferns are doing well and I threw in my java moss and subwassertang too.


Azazel and his half wrecked bubblenest...sorry bud!


He's really darkened up on his body but he's got tiger-ish stripes on the top under the bubbles there. I had other pictures but they didn't really come out unfortunately. He's such a doll face!


Honey Gourami coming up to inspect me XD


Youngest baby and the Tiger Endler


Cutie, I think this one is a girl


Tiger Endler and the larger female guppy. Interesting because the younger one has brown eyes where this one has blue eyes! Tiger has reddish eyes lol


Tiger!


And the shrimpy! She just molted so that's why she looks a little red, she's just clear but with the sun shining in back it looks a little red but she's really not.


Here's the female guppy and some of the gelius barbs for size comparison. Sorry the picture sucks, they all keep moving too quickly!


Alright, let's take a look. This is Steele a week and a half ago


And yesterday


Well he's got growth AFTER he bit himself again :roll:


Give me foooooood!


At least his anal and dorsal are all growing back nicely






Pierce!!!


He's such a cutie!


His rays are splitting nicely




He and Hawkeye are two peas in a pod!



Love this picture


Look at those big eyes begging for food! :lol:


And the new girl!!!! I'm like 99% positive that she's a HM or at least a Super DeT! She's got a fantastic dorsal fin, amazing even anal fin and very straight caudal! I also think she's a Copper with probably a red wash as that is usual and looks like a black band around her fins!


She has the most adorable face!


You can see the colors well here


She was flaring at her reflection the silly girl!


Flaring! You can see her form here! Isn't it fantastic?!



Flaring some more but you can see the tail better in this one




And these are without the LED light over top when I rest it on the filter for changing things out of the tank.
Her just being overall cute!


Two rays so far but I do think she's a HM


Inspecting a piece of java fern




More non-fish related things to come in the next post


----------



## lilnaugrim

Took these pretty pictures this morning whilst walking to work at school. It's a Magnolia tree!





One of my favorite shots




Even though it's half dead, it's still beautiful


Another nice shot




And compositionally, this one is definitely my favorite


In other non-fish related stuff, ART! So in printmaking I'm doing Stone Litho still and we're working on Color prints! Not like my other ones where they were rolled in colored ink but legit the entire thing colored like you see in newspapers and stuff; that's all color printing with color plates. So you start with your yellow, add Magenta on top. You can mix those two to make a nice red or leave them pure so you have Yellow, Red and Magenta. And then Cyan goes on top of that, mixing if you want to make more in depth colors. And then on top you can have something called a Key image which is black, this is usually just small details; more like refining rather than a whole image sketched out.

So this is my Yellow plates. Yes you have to draw in black but it will be yellow so you have to make it really dark if you want a nice yellow, it can be a little difficult thinking that pitch black is just a nice yellow when you first begin lol.


These are my yellow and blue plates. I'm going to be using an actual blue color not cyan. But you can see the blue on top, basically wherever yellow is not is where blue will be for the shadows. I will be mixing a lot of the Magenta over yellow to make more of a red image rather than all yellow.


And these are all the plates together minus my key image since that one is on my stone and I didn't feel like lugging it back over, besides it wouldn't fit in the image lol.
So yellow is on top, the one you start with. Now you can see the Magenta plate is pretty detailed, so basically the parts that will be yellow will be the top of the head, top of the wings and the feathers and a small highlight on the feet. But the rest will be red, I'll differentiate between the red of the body and red of the background with my key image so there will be some black lines. And then blue plate for shadow which there will be some black there too to tie it all together. And you can see the sketch of the plates on the newsprint on the side there, color coded minus the background ^_^


And it is based off of this picture:








And this is the picture I sort of worked with where I reduced it down to only a few colors. So where the black is on the body will be red along with the background. Red outlines the insides of the wings where the blue is but you can see from the prints I've reduced how much blue is actually on there. And then white is just yellow 








Yay Art!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Very sorry to hear about Radar S.I.P.

Glad to hear that everyone else is doing well! 

Yay! Art! Can't wait to see the end result with your owl! Love the Magnolia pictures too!


----------



## Sabina88

I love the owl,
Im glad all of your fish are doing well


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys!!!

Ooooh! And I forgot to say! Tomorrow is Aero's year birthday with me!!! :-D thankfully his cyst isn't growing so rapidly, seems to not have grown much in the passed few weeks.


----------



## Sabina88

Thats good news
And happy early birthday arrow


----------



## BettaLover1313

That's great news!


----------



## PetMania

So sorry about Radar  SIP. 
Nice to know that the other fishes are good =) Hehe, java fern is perhaps the hardiest plant in the hobby. I had a huge clumb in a small 1.5 with barely any lighting or nutrient source. It's actually in my avatar right now. That bugger survived for a year in poor conditions. 
New girl looks so cute! And wow, I didn't know the barbs were that small.

And those drawings are AMAZING


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! Aero thanks you too!

Yeah! The Gelius only get around 1.5 inches at adult but that's mostly females, males will stay smaller. Checkered can get up to 2 inches but generally stay around 1.5 inches. 

And thanks! We actually had some issue with my plates today and almost lost it all but thankfully my teacher was super creative and we used a solution to clean up the exposed areas after the roll up. I'm sure that's a total foreign language to most of you but no worries, basically it would have turned into a blob rather than my owl! But we saved it! So I'll be printing on Monday! I can't wait! I really hope the yellow and magenta mix properly! lol that's the thing I'm most worried about.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I hate the world today. President of my frat emailed us about an "information leak" however the information was dire info that the sisters needed to know and the president was supposed to talk to the sisters president about it since the thing is happening Friday. Meeting was on Monday, by Wednesday the VP of Membership who happens to be my best friend, asked me about what was happening! I told her the gist of it and that she should get the sisters president to talk to ours. Ours fumed when the sister president asked about it because he wanted to talk to her but when the heck did he want to tell her? Friday night when the thing happens and whoops sorry we're not doing this anymore so eff you!

He also blamed me for ruining our brother/sister relations. Gee, thanks, because I'm not the one who talks smack about our sisters behind their backs and in front of their best friends. 

This just all pushes me towards dropping the frat, I wanted so badly to graduate in good standing but obviously this isn't going to happen. Also for my position as Historian now. The sisters are so confused because we're making it all into a bigger thing than it ever needed to be. I'm so done with this.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Was taken for granted today, disrespected, disagreed with and basically all around was shat on today.....fine freaking fantastic dandy day. I hate the world and all the people in it.....except for some of you...some of you are okay.

Don't worry, I'll have a better day tomorrow but for right now I need a serious venting session over some drinks with my girls!

Oh and told the President of KKY that I'm quitting so I guess that's about it.


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Was taken for granted today, disrespected, disagreed with and basically all around was shat on today.....fine freaking fantastic dandy day. I hate the world and all the people in it.....except for some of you...some of you are okay.
> 
> Don't worry, I'll have a better day tomorrow but for right now I need a serious venting session over some drinks with my girls!
> 
> Oh and told the President of KKY that I'm quitting so I guess that's about it.


Very sorry that you're having a crappy day. Hopefully getting to relax and vent to friends will help!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313. Unfortunately I don't actually get to sit with friends, it was just a little wish of mine. Half the issue is that my best friends are in the sorority where I am in the fraternity but I'm in that weird zone where I don't technically fit into either of them. There are a few of us that I call brother-sisters because we aren't completely brothers and we aren't completely sisters either.

My president just sent me an actual touching email that he felt bad for making me feel this way and that he wasn't even aware that I felt the way I did. I'm bad at actually expressing my needs after having to suppress them for so long over my life. I know it's a bad habit but crying and letting go is difficult, I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Knowing that doesn't help anything though.

He sent an apology to the whole chapter actually acknowledging that it was his fault he didn't talk to TBS pres soon enough. As I had told him, I understand it's the end of the semester and we're all busy but that was a pretty damn important topic to be talking about since it was time sensitive. I know being President is no walk in the park and I respect that but even I know how to prioritize things when I know it is sorely needed.


----------



## Lucillia

<3 I'm sorry you are so stressed Lil. You will always be my big no matter what since we have been so close for so long now. I'm glad you spoke your mind though, which I wish I could do sometimes in the sisterhood.... >.> But I have no say since I am not there. Makes me frustrated somedays. 

I think you will be much less stressed without KKY as sad as it is to say. We both stress a lot about stuff that we really shouldn't have to. 

Just think happy thoughts about fish! <3


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Luci, we'll never stop being family just because I'm no longer a part of KKY. I know I said that in the text but I wanted it here too 

I was happy when I got my stitches out today and then went to the bank to deposit some money and went to walmart. I picked up three cute little succulents! One Echeveria 'Sleepy', one E. 'Dondo' and one E. Minima. I wasn't thinking about anything except the plants in the store and it was a fantastic feeling. I got out to my car and was reminded about all this unwanted drama and it felt horrible again. I've cried like four times today >.< I know there's plenty more in there too.

I didn't technically speak my mind as I would have liked to. I have issues with not speaking up at the right time and then getting shut out when I try to bring something up later, much like our sister relations. I loved being the Sister Liaison but not when no one would listen to my suggestions. Sounds like here right now....I'm have a butt ton of issues with people not taking my advice on here and it's getting frustrating. I know it shouldn't bother me and I should just let them be and make their mistakes but I want so to help people, how can I when they don't listen damnit? grrrr makes me mad. Of course this whole week doesn't even help.

I just found out that I can make one of the other succulents I got before into a Bonsai Tree! I have a 'Rainbow' Elephant Bush, aka Baby Jade Tree. Luci and I both got Bonsai tree's at wal-mart when we were last out and I got my baby girl from PetCo that day. I got a Fukien Tea Tree and she has some sort of Ficus. We got matching pots too ^_^ This picture is before I did a little trimming to it so I'll have to take a more recent photo and from the side so you can see the cool bend. It's in the shape called Informal Upright. You can also see my Peperomia on the left there doing very well and behind it was a half dead Fittonia but it's coming back now that it's not in direct sun! >.<


Luci, if you want to post yours up here too you can! :-D

So it's safe to say I'm addicted to all plants! Here's the list of species growing in my room at the moment:
Peperomia
Fittonia
Peace Lily
Some sort of large succulent given to me by my Grandma
Mini Ivy growing up a manzanita branch
Fukien Tea Tree Bonsai
Rainbow Elephant Bush
E. Minima
E. Sleepy
E. Dondo
Mondo Grass half out of the 29
Clipping of mom's Philodendron
Janet Craig Dracaena

And I think that's it lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

And now I'm uncertain of my decision I made yesterday about my fraternity. Our officers are changing and we're graduating five people away, five of them that maybe weren't the best of brothers the entire time so it is possible that it will be different next year but still the fact remains of Kappa Pi, the art fraternity which is my major and my life. I know I should feel compelled to join the start and help out since I'm experienced now with bringing a colony into existence but my heart still remains with the brothers. I'm so torn.

In fish related news Azazel is doing fantastic in the tank here at school but he hates the flakes! It's stupid Tetra flakes.....I'm on the verge of buying NLS small fish formula for them, crush them up a little more so the Neon's will take them and throw out the Tetra flakes. I thought there was only a little left of the container but it's just below half even with me feeding every other day....so yeah, I can't wait any longer for the professor to take any action since she doesn't do half the things I tell her she needs to do so it's up to me. I don't mind spending money on the tank since I do take care of it and it benefits my fish. I've decided though that when I graduate I will take Azazel back and replace him with a Gourami or something nice in the tank.

Speaking of Gourami, I want to rehome two out of my five Gourami's, too many males in there and I really don't like looking at that deformed girl. I know that's like fish prejudice or bias or something but I just can't stand deformed fish of any sort. So the deformed girl will be free but the male to go with her (I believe I have 2 females and 3 males but 2 of them I'm still a little unsure about) will be like 2.50 or something cheap for adoption. Let me know if you want them.

I've emailed Wetspot (fish place on aquabid) about getting some Ember Tetras and how I would acquire them and then prices and all since they have the cheapest prices at the moment for them and I'd like to get my lone boy some friends! I also need to rescape the tank again since I never did after I pulled the driftwood branch from it lol. Not sure if I want to put that back or get a new piece, I've been looking for nice pieces but nothings really tickled my fancy yet.

I'm also looking at more plants to fill out my 3 gallon and the 13 and then extras will go into the other tanks. So far on my list is; water wisteria (can never have enough!), more Parrots feather and Golden Lloydiella, some Red Myrio, some Foxtail (Myrio species), Potamogenton Gayi is a new plant that I want to give a try, looks nice and will go into the 13 most likely, and then Alternanthera for Luci if she ever gets back to my text about it lol.

I want to try Glosso in the 20 but I don't think my lights are high enough and I don't have co2 although I think I'll start dosing Excel again since I'll be in full time soon at mom's so I'll be able to dose in the morning when co2 is naturally at it's highest point. I think I also want to try a small riccia mat in the 3 gallon for a nice lawn up front but unsure of that tank at the moment.

I need to do all the water changes tomorrow before my concert. Last Concert Choir concert of this year although it's not "our" concert. It's the Orchestra's concert but we're singing a piece called Flos Campi by Ralph Vaughn Williams...if you think you know Vaughn Williams think again and listen to this glorious piece! It's for wordless choir so all we're singing are ah's, oh's, eh's and mm's through it lol so technical I know! But it's such an amazing piece, I love listening to it! If RVW's had chosen this path of style instead of what we normally know as RVW's all current music would be extremely different!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well concert went fantastic last night!

I'm getting very frustrated with my stupid camera memory chips. My 8 gig one broke on me and then I have this 2 gig one and a drink accidentally leaked in my bag the other day and I guess it got on my camera and now the stupid chip isn't work well. It loaded the pictures earlier and then I took more and now it's not working again. I'll try again tomorrow. I have another 2 gig one but still, the fact of the matter!!!! grr. I want to invest in a DSLR eventually anyway.

So I'm like 80% sure that Pierce is a girl.....meh! even if it is a she I'll still call her Pierce lol. And I think I have a name for the new girl! River Song! River just for normal name :-D


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Well concert went fantastic last night!
> 
> I'm getting very frustrated with my stupid camera memory chips. My 8 gig one broke on me and then I have this 2 gig one and a drink accidentally leaked in my bag the other day and I guess it got on my camera and now the stupid chip isn't work well. It loaded the pictures earlier and then I took more and now it's not working again. I'll try again tomorrow. I have another 2 gig one but still, the fact of the matter!!!! grr. I want to invest in a DSLR eventually anyway.
> 
> So I'm like 80% sure that Pierce is a girl.....meh! even if it is a she I'll still call her Pierce lol. And I think I have a name for the new girl! River Song! River just for normal name :-D


Aaaaaahhhh! River Song!!! :-D Such an awesome name! My friends joking said I should name my next bettas Who (you can guess what that's short for ;-)) and TARDIS lol. We just watched "The Doctor's Wife"


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## lilnaugrim

Oh I love "The Doctor's Wife"!!! Idris!!! Oo, could name her Idris too....hmm, I liked Orchid at first but then River came up ahhhhh I need to decide! I think River will probably be good for her though lol


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh I love "The Doctor's Wife"!!! Idris!!! Oo, could name her Idris too....hmm, I liked Orchid at first but then River came up ahhhhh I need to decide! I think River will probably be good for her though lol


So many great name possibilities from that show :-D


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## lilnaugrim

I agree.

So I officially hate my camera >.> I had so many nice pictures on that stupid SD card and it's not working! Guess it's time to go back to dads to get my other one >.> Two SD card within a month :roll: laaame. My 8 gig one lasted forever until I physically broke it on accident but I had that one for easily two years! It even went through two different cameras lol. I'm half afraid of investing in a DSLR since I've dropped this camera a few different times, first being in Spain and that's where I initially broke it and the zoom doesn't focus anymore since then. Yeah...I'm fantastic to my electronics >.<

In other news, fish are doing well. Oh, forgot to say I did a water change on the 3 yesterday, I really need to get to my other tanks though!

I went to a LFS up in Providence on Saturday and bought the rest of my Ember Tetras! Fifteen in total! Except when I first brought them home I found that we'd accidentally scooped up a single Rasboras Espei! It was adorable and shoaling with the tetras in their 3 gallon QT but I knew he needed to go back. So I went back yesterday to exchange him. I also bout a bunch of Anacharis on Saturday as well which is acclimating to the 13, anacharis never really does well for me though but we'll see.

Yesterday I went to the other place; R.I. Aquarium since they've just redone their place and it looks fantastic! So you know how I thought Czech was a male? Well yep, I was wrong, he's a she lol. I finally saw a real male checkered barb and I bought one! So he's now in with the three ladies lol, Czech is so small compared to the other three, then I have one alpha female who was showing off to the male last night :roll: she also chases off the other two from her male. 

The gelius barbs are doing great, shoaling wherever they go. The female guppy is close to giving birth I think, I'm just going to leave them in there and hope they get eaten. Tetras are well and shoaling in the 29, the first Ember is showing them all around, it's adorable! All 13 cories are doing fantastic and devouring the Veggie Wafers. Funny, they love the veggie wafers way more than the Shrimp pellets I bought! Even the shrimp like the veggie wafers better! Oh yes, forgot to say, the wild shrimp died but I bought three bumblebee shrimps for the 3 gallon and they've been doing fantastic! One has already shed it's exoskeleton. The babies are also doing well along with the Tiger. I've decided that the 3 gallon is my black and yellow tank haha. Plants are finally starting to perk up.

Steele has been doing fine, I put him in the breeder net and he's been doing better with his tail now. Everyone in the 20 is great too.

So I did another stupid thing. I went to PetCo on Saturday waiting for Lucillia to meet up with her and I was walking around, looked at the babies but nothing really interested me. Saw some beautiful Butterfly DT's! But nothing spoke to me, not that I was looking anyway. Went around to the other tanks and around to the reptile stuff looking at driftwood. Went around to where they normally stack all of their tanks and noticed a whole crap ton of Betta cups there with bettas in them. I circled around while looking at the wall of tanks with fish in it to see if there was anything interesting. Finally completed the full circle, looked at the cups and just stopped to stare. Right there in front of me was a beautiful Black Copper bicolor with yellow fins! I stared at him and walked up to inspect, he did the same thing to me! My self control sucks.

I keep calling him Captain Mustard even though I wanted a better name for him but it's sticking >.< He's currently where Steele used to be :roll: But I've formulated a plan:

Since I have three tentative females; Isis, River and Pierce, I was thinking about setting up a divided ten for them and that leaves two spaces in the 20, one for Captain Mustard and whatever else happens, probably for Luci's baby DT unless it turns out to be a girl too lol. So that's my plan and I'm pretty sure I'm sticking to it unless I decide I can handle a sorority with them. I would make sure completely that this tank would be fully established before introducing them though, I'm just not sure how aggressive Isis would be since she is CTPK and from Thailand. It won't be until after we breed them though so we can make sure to have their babies!


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## Sabina88

haha  If I saw a fish like that I would deffinitly buy him too. Walking into petco is like walking into a candy store lol
Id love to see some pics of him if you have any

Also im glad every one is doing well.


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## lilnaugrim

Well I'm trying to get pics off my camera as I explained, my SD card is being stupid and not being recognized by my computer. Here are some crappy cell phone pictures though!
Here's where I first found him!


And at home:


29 gallon update. As I said, I have better pictures but I can't get them off my SD card :-(


And these are my shrimps when I first bought them:


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## Sabina88

I hope you can figure every thing out with your SD card.

From what I can tell he looks amazing , im sure he must be the happiest betta being moved from the little cup to a warm space were he can swim.

I like the patern on the shrimp, there cute


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## lilnaugrim

And of course just as I say I have shrimp two of them die >.> wtf. I should never update on my fish and maybe they won't die.

I bought a new card today....17.01 at CVS >.< it's only a stupid 2 gig one too! Not that I ever actually use it all up since I put them on the comp pretty often but I still like having the space. 

Sorting pictures now, they'll be up soon


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## Sabina88

Aww sorry to hear about the shrimp :-( Do you only have 1 now?

I cant wait to see the photos


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## lilnaugrim

Finally rescaped the 29 again, the fish are happy with all the hiding spaces!


Can you tell which one is my original Ember? He's like super red! lol


He's so darn bright! But all the Embers are happy!


One of my alpha Honey's with some cories behind him. I did find one dead cory today though.


I really need to get plants in for this tank.


I also decided to tank the rim off the tank and I like it a lot better, the light gets in better since it doesn't have that cross bar


New boy!


Such beautiful colors!




He's so silly!


A few curled rays but his fins are beautiful! I hope he doesn't turn into a tail biter or anything!


He's got a cute little bubblenest too ^_^




Got some great pics of Pierce...yeah I really think it's a girl now >.<


Pretty sure they are ovaries right there lol




Good god, she wouldn't sit still!




She's such a cutie though!



Best baby picture ever!!!!!!


Unfortunately no good pictures came out of River so I'll try to clean up her little tank before I take more pictures to try to show you all. She's just as large as Pierce if not slightly larger ^_^

Oh good god, I've been hankering for a saltwater tank all day! I've been researching nano reefs and damn, if I had more money I would totally do it! I need to get my 3 gallon looking good though before I do that >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> Aww sorry to hear about the shrimp :-( Do you only have 1 now?
> 
> I cant wait to see the photos


Yep, well one is still half alive and then the fully alive one was eating him alive....like there isn't enough food in that tank for him >.> there totally is though! Sigh...oh well.


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## Sabina88

Some one is a picky eater of a shrimp lol 

Are you going to get more of them or just keep the one you have?


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## lilnaugrim

Well I think it's because I started Excel so it might have killed the shrimp. I'm not getting any thing else besides plants for that tank.


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## Sabina88

That will be one happy shrimp once you get all the plants in haha


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## lilnaugrim

So the other shrimp is still half alive as well, the third was completely dead; I made sure of that before I threw him out, but I saw the other one eating stuff sooooo idk! Possible just Excel slight overdose that threw them off.

Got pics last night and just uploaded them!
Snagged one last good one of the boy. I'm thinking about other names for him since Captain Mustard is just plain silly and rather stupid, he deserves a better name than that! I was thinking Falcor but I need to look at different options here.


Took more pics of my 3 gallon last night after lights out. Yep, I really like it without the stock light and rim. I forgot to say that I put my Mini SolarFlare on it, it's a 6,700K LED light!




I was also just playing with my Moonlights last night too lol It looked like tiny corals! Gosh darnit, got saltwater on the brain waaaay too much!


I like this one better


The 20 and 29, funny since you can see where the moonlights are positioned in the strip; over Aero and Pierces compartments ^_^


Everyone on moonlights! Well except the 3 gallon since it's only one LED :roll: oh well lol. It looked cool


Accidentally scared River


Look at those ovaries!!!!


She's such a little cutie


Love those wild spots on her dorsal






Love those little ventrals too, she's got some nice fin growth now.


Also just took a short clip of the water reflecting onto my ceiling, it looked cool so I filmed it ^_^
Water Light


----------



## Sabina88

The water on your ceiling amazing, I love it when water does that. Its almost like your in a cave with a pool of water in it.

I love your new guys fins, there like little flowy flower pettles (horrible description lol). 
Some name options if you like them 
Riven 
Phantom 
Aslan 
Ra (like the Egyptian god)
Sven
Kili


----------



## knottymare

Love your updates! Sorry about the shrimp. I have quite a few. Sometimes, when I get new ones, they are great and other times, I'll have 2 or 3 die off. It's really strange. Probably more to do with the care they got before you got them than anything you did...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! Yeah, the shrimp are from my LFS where they just chill in a nice planted tank so idk! I'm pretty sure it's just me and the Excel, I've added less co2 this morning in case it was. I don't have enough plants to really justify it yet but I'll be getting the plants in shortly.

Thanks for the suggestions Sabina, is Kili from the Hobbit Kili or a different source? Because I love Kili and Fili! So options, Falcor, Kili, and Sven. I don't think he's silly enough for Sven though, but I do love the name ^_^


----------



## Sabina88

Yupp, Kili is from the Hobit  +1 for Fili and Kili lol


I don't remember where I read it since it was awhile ago, but I think I read that it was common for a few shrimp out of what you bought to die when you first get them so its suggested to buy a few more then you wanted just in case. 
Fingers crossed for the last shrimp


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I do know that of the shrimp but these guys are 3.99 each  so if you guys want to give me money, sure! I'll go buy some more! hahaha


----------



## knottymare

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, I do know that of the shrimp but these guys are 3.99 each  so if you guys want to give me money, sure! I'll go buy some more! hahaha


I was looking at shrimp the otherday and WOW, they can get expensive. I stick with my ghost shrimp. At $.99 I can afford to lose a few. Some of the ones I saw were gorgeous but WOW... super spendy


----------



## lilnaugrim

I would LOOOOVE to have some Cardinal shrimp but not for like hundreds of dollars for them!  Ghosties are fine but I'm over them lol


----------



## DaytonBetta

How about Colonel Mustard like in the game Clue?


----------



## lilnaugrim

No, no, I didn't want to be so cliche with him! lol I had Captain Mustard before but it was too silly for him, he's much more mature than that! But thanks Dayton ^_^ I was thinking Dijon too but again, no cliche!

------------------
Commenting on other threads, I'll be back to update this one! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, so I went to my LFS again yesterday after I was done with my second color of my print and the store I went to has two locations roughly 25 minutes apart so I went to the one further away since I'd never been to that one, I had time and wanted to check it out! The tanks were real nice, they had a great saltwater section and they had a Notho. Killifish in a vase near the Bettas! Oh how I wanted him but he was 15 dollars and I was like....naahhh I'm good. Thank god for self control when you need it the least >.> I could have used it for the new boy but noooo I /needed/ him :roll: silly brain.

Anyway, the workers there was fine but they kid who rang me out was so rude but I'm not sure if it was intentional or not. I don't think he really realized it or anything, he seemed very flighty so I don't really hold it against him but at the same time it was annoying. I grabbed some sand for my succulent pot and got out of there. I decided to go to the other location where I know everyone and they know me ^_^

I liked this location muuuuch more! One of the kids who work there; I say kid but they're both a little older than me lol, helped me out a bunch with saltwater! First I was looking at the Bettas because he was putting out new guys and I saw a white CT boy that PetMania wanted so with I told her about it and I have him at home right now! Anywho, I was talking to the kid, I think his name was Cameron about betta color genetics and he was completely fascinated and then I bought three more bumblebee shrimp for my 3 gallon. Figure I mind as well while I was there and they have been doing fantastic!

So anyway, I was talking to him about my planted tanks and then about the nano reef tank and he as like doooo it! lol so we got talking about the fish and what types of corals to use and which tanks and whatnot. I spent a good twenty minutes with him talking about it! It was fantastic to say the least! I've been looking at that 13 gallon and picturing that as a nice saltwater, that way I have more room for different fish rather than the nano clownfish which are cute but I don't want to get the cliche saltwater fish if I'm going for saltwater!

Also, was talking with my mom last night about the tank that will be downstairs and I asked her if she liked salt or fresh better. Of course she and John both like salt better but she was like; but it's so expensive to run! And I sort of lied and said it isn't if you set it up correctly which is mostly true really, but corals, fish, rock and sand are all still pretty expensive compared to freshwater. But we were talking about how clean saltwaters generally are if taken care of properly and so we decided for saltwater! We want a corner tank so I want to try to find a bow front corner somewhere around 30 or so gallons, I think that would be a nice size to have a good stocking but keep it sort of cheap? Anyone have input for that? I know we're mostly freshwater here but just in case ^_^

So but this means possibly not setting up my 10 gallon for the three girls, was going to separate it for them and then have the extra space in the 20 for the new boy who I'm still debating names. I do like Kili though, Falcor doesn't fit him although I still sort of like it since it was my childhood! lol Never Ending Store FTW!


----------



## Sabina88

Starting a saltwater sounds like fun, if I had the time, money and space I would love to have one. 
What kind of fish would you get?
I hope it all works out


----------



## lilnaugrim

So it's been a super interesting day yesterday and morning today. Yesterday we had wine and art lol, my art friends and I like to have a little 'party' where we chill with some nice wine and finish up our art projects. It's finals time and what better way to relax and finish your art than with wine and good friends?? :-D Unfortunately my endeavor was interupted with KKY stuff but oh well, good time was still had. I went back and they'd saved me a glass of my bottle which I had asked them to do and was very happy they did ^_^ Did some more work until midnight and got home around 12:30 ugg, I'm exhausted! Here are the works I was working on last night though!

This one is based off Aero but the reason it seems 'sloppy' is because the one I did of Azazel seemed so tight to me, I was focusing on small details and not letting the ink do it's thing which was my original plan. So this time I just let the ink do it's thing. I wasn't totally in love with it before, as it's not my style normally but as I progressed it's growing on me a little more.
Bleh, he looks rather deformed.


Got a little better as the night progressed. I did more but forgot to take a pic of it!


And then I'm doing one based off of Piebald if anyone on here remembers him! This one doesn't really look like him but just based off of for colors and stuff, so far I really like this one even though it's definitely the tightest drawing I've done all semester but I've figured out that that is my style!


Yes I realized he's humpbacked >.< that wasn't supposed to happen :roll:


And what I ended off with last night which is another lie, I worked more on it after too lol


--------------------------------------------------------------
So today! I woke up nice around 8:30-9, got up and ate breakfast. Lights came on at 10 and I fed the fish, before lights on I dosed my Excel and inspected everyone. Lights on after, round 11 I looked at the 13 and noticed it was wet around the bottom sides and thought "crap!" it had a teeny tiny leak but I wasn't standing for that!

So the Gelius barbs are now in the 29 and actually shoaling happily with the Embers! They were all eating happily before and they are all the same size so it really worked out. The checkered barbs are getting super fiesty, not at all what I read; I may adopt them out or trade them in for something at my LFS. They are adorable and I love them but they certainly are nothing like the Gelius barbs! So the checkereds are floating in a 1 gallon in the 29. Dario is in the breeder net in there so he doesn't disturb the gourami's because I have a feeling that he would. White boy for PetMania is in the breeder box that new boy was in before.

I was thankful I bought this .5 gallon "Betta View" tank from wal-mart. It was originally intended for use at the "bowl" shows for the Fish Society but it comes with a very snug fitting divider so Steele and new boy are in there currently and don't seem to really notice each other; the divider is solid black so that's cool. I put the female guppy in the 3 with the 3 babies and the tiger endler. All shrimps are still alive seemingly. I stuffed all that water wisteria in there too so it actually looks fantastic at the moment! And then the amazon sword and water sprite are floating in the 29. River is now hanging off the side of the 20 again instead of the 13. 

So I completely took down the 13 just in case, I didn't want 13 gallons spilling onto my floor so I'm good with throwing it out/putting it on the curb for anyone who wants it.


----------



## Sabina88

Your artowork is amazing! I love the one you based off of Piebald 

Sorry to hear about the 13 gallon. Are you going to get a new 13 in gallon in replacement or something different?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks!

I still have the other 13 gallon but since I'm looking into making a mini reef tank, I probably won't. Although, I _may_ use the other 13 for the tank and then a 5 gallon sump underneath if it fits on the shelf. Mom may rescind her decision about the reef tank downstairs since they are worried about salt creep.


----------



## Sabina88

I hope your still able to do a mini reef, that sounds like it would be a really fun project.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So just putting this all here mostly for my benefit so I can have a place to reference.

13 gallon tank with possible 5 gallon sump, AquaClear 70 hopefully for refugium, powerhead for additional water movement for the corals.

Live Sand/Live Rock
*Tree coral
Green Polyp Leather
Colony Polyp
*Torch Coral
*Sun Polyp Coral
*Duncanopsammia Coral
Eventually a Dwarf Feather Duster

Eventually for fish:
*1 Red Ruby Dragonet
Yellowstriped Cardinalfish
*White Banded Possum Wrasse
*2 Nano Ocellaris Clownfish from LFS

So the starred ones are the ones I really want and will most likely definitely get. Fish stocking I'm still iffy about, although I do want a pair of the nano clowns my LFS has, I don't mind taking them out and keeping the cardinalfish and wrasse in if they can get along. I still need to figure out if they are all compatible, they are all reef compatible which is my main priority and then from there if they are compatible with each other that will be great. I'm definitely getting the red ruby dragonet though! My LFS has them and they only get around 3 inches, substrate dwellers and very peaceful! I fell in love when I saw them and the kid there helped me solidify that they would be just fine! I do actually trust them and their suggestions for the most part :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

And now I have 13 guppy fry and counting :roll: I knew she was due soon just didn't realized it was going to be TODAY! Well I'm rather glad I moved her to the 3 gallon, it's easier and now with all the water wisteria, the fry are resting easy in the current of the Azoo Palm filter!

So now I have a decision.....use the 10 gallon for the display reef tank and the 13 as a sump/refugium since it's nice a tall/sleek it will fit nicely behind the IKEA shelving unit. OR use the 13 as the display tank and some sort of food-safe tub as the sump and use an AquaClear either 50 or 70 for the refugium....the 10 won't fit well on my floor or in/behind the shelf.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And pictures ^_^
Pretty boy!


And he's started fin nipping >.<


Isis ^_^


Pretty fins!


Poor Aero and his cyst


And the 20 gallon


Yeah....my Myrio is happy lol


PetMania's boy!



Cutie face!


He glows!


This is one of my favorite pictures of him!




He just finished taking a gulp of air lol


Gourami was teasing him!


He was not pleased XD


And because I could, here he is with Moonlighting!





And Steele, growing his tail back well now ^_^





River!




Pierce





Fry! I counted 18 last time.


My eldest fry, I think it's one of my Snakeskin boy's fry since it's got spots and isn't turning black like the younger one is.


Shrimpy



Hang in there!


----------



## Sabina88

Everybody looks awesome. I love how flowy your new guys fins are 

And wow pierce is so big now! I cant believe how big hes getting


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> Everybody looks awesome. I love how flowy your new guys fins are
> 
> And wow pierce is so big now! I cant believe how big hes getting


Thanks! New boy or PetMania's boy you mean?

Well Pierce is definitely a girl lol, she's just a tad bigger than River now and half the size of Hawkeye ^_^


----------



## PetMania

Omg! The CT boy looks so much more awesome than I thought, THANKS! Is he partially EE or am I imagining things? lol. 

Your new boy is so cute, where'd you get him? Sorry I haven't been stopping by that often. Band is getting a little overwhelming (performance trip on Saturday from 6:15 am to 10:00pm)


----------



## Sabina88

Your new boy 
Petmania's is pretty too, I love the pic of his grumpy face you got.

Are you going to keep the name Peirce for her?


----------



## lilnaugrim

PetMania said:


> Omg! The CT boy looks so much more awesome than I thought, THANKS! Is he partially EE or am I imagining things? lol.
> 
> Your new boy is so cute, where'd you get him? Sorry I haven't been stopping by that often. Band is getting a little overwhelming (performance trip on Saturday from 6:15 am to 10:00pm)


Yeah, even these pictures don't do him complete justice! He's very beautiful and interested in everything around him!

The new boy is from PetCo and I'm not sure if I can keep him now if I'm to set up this reef tank which I'm really jonesing for now! With my original plan to set up the 10, I'd rather keep the 3 and have the reef tank.



Sabina88 said:


> Your new boy
> Petmania's is pretty too, I love the pic of his grumpy face you got.
> 
> Are you going to keep the name Peirce for her?


Thanks, and yeah going to keep her name since it still fits her well lol. She's a little brat, teasing Remmy and Hawkeye.


----------



## PetMania

Haha, yeah girl bettas tend to be fiesty. Pierce can be either boy or girl. We have both at school.

Isis reminds me of an oreo cookie


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, that's why I don't really care, it really does suit her though!
Yeah, Isis does look like an oreo! lol

I'm wondering if I should start a new journal on TFK for my little reef project. I'd still update here too but it would be nice to have help from others who know how this all works lol.


----------



## PetMania

There are a lot of saltwater fishkeepers here/there (I'm posting through TFK). So, yeah, that'd be a good idea


----------



## lilnaugrim

I have now around 30 fry >.< I acclimated them to the 29 and released Dario into the 29 hoping he won't bother no one and put the fry in the breeder net with some water sprite for them to float on since some are still very new! I think the mother still has a few left in her though, she isn't quite skinny yet. It's a shame she's full grown since younger females can't have as many babies lol.

Oh and I've just figured out that the 13 didn't in fact have a leak >.> must have been some water or something that dripped down and just gathered at the bottom. Still going to take everything out to make sure before I go using it for anything else since I could possibly use both 13's for the mini reef!


----------



## PetMania

Oi! 30? Congratz! One of my girls is plump and looks to be carrying quite a few. How did yours look before giving birth?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, 30 >.< and possibly more coming :roll: she looked totally fine, breathing a little heavy from all the commotion today but otherwise she was fine. They tend to go more still before they give birth and become a little more antisocial. It was rather cool to watch her give birth though, she'd use her anal fin to help the babies get out! She's swing it side to side and it would help push the babies out, rather fascinating really lol.


----------



## PetMania

Hmm, never heard or seen them do that before. Did she consume any?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nope! I made sure to keep her well fed, at least she didn't consume any that I saw. No more babies this morning in the 3, there might be some hiding deep in the wisteria but nothing up top like they usually go and mama looked pretty exhausted but she's fine. I'm glad the Endler leaves her alone, he hasn't tried to mate or anything which is rather fantastic.


----------



## beautiful Betta

Congrats on your baby fry.


----------



## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> Congrats on your baby fry.


Thanks, not really hard since they do all the work. This is the fourth or fifth batch I've taken care of now >.< I think the guppies have to go so I can put River in there or something since I feel bad she's still in the external breeder box lol, she doesn't seem to mind much since she's still sharing the water of the 20.


----------



## beautiful Betta

Guppies can end up over taking a tank because they can breed so much. When I had a community tank, I eventually got rid of the guppies because I hated the thought of the babies being gobbled up and the females were always pregnant. so in the end I moved the guppies on, I left only males until they died out of old age.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, I know. They started as a breeding project and actually these babies are products of a silver snakeskin and this mama who is a half black so they should come out fairly decent offspring.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry about not updating this thread much! There's a lot to learn about this salty business!! :-D

Baby guppies are all fine and healthy, eating well. I took the Checkered Barbs to my LFS along with my deformed honey gourami and a male to switch out for two female honey's to make 2 males 3 females....at least, they look female for right now but they are in QT mostly so if they turn out to be male I can catch them easy lol.

I have 3 shrimps left after having 5...:roll: but mama guppy is happy and active again, coming up to the tank to greet me when I come over! I swear she's a Betta in disguise lol. Tiger Endler and the 3 older babies in there are fine but definitely not as outgoing as she is. All 15 Ember tetras are still there but looks like I might have lost one Gelius Barb...not sure but I kept counting only 7 out of 8 last night. I'll check again today. Dario is doing fantastic in the 29 as well, he keeps to himself and tries to attack my fingers whenever they are in the tank since he thinks he's getting food. Generally with the grindal worms I scoop them off the lid with my finger and put that into the tank and let them fall off; he's learned to pick them off my finger XD

All Betta's are well except Aero, now he's got a pigment buildup right behind his left eye :-( poor dear and his cyst is getting larger. It's a hard one so it's not like I could use Epsom salt to reduce the fluid buildup because there is no fluid! I don't expect him to keep very long if he continues like this. He can't put his right pectoral down now either because the bump is so large....I'll try for pictures tonight.

Isis is still sassy, Hawkeye is bored although he makes an occasional small bubble nest for Pierce. Pierce is growing super well, she's larger than River for sure now! River is still doing great though! And Rembrandt flares at everything :roll: Steele is well, he's now in my spare 2 gallon chilling by himself and he hasn't bit himself since! Kili is great, no more biting from him either but he's got a huuuuuge bubblenest from being around the gourami's. Also he needs a home, anyone want him? I ask $10 for him and shipping since I paid $15 for him.

I forgot I ordered more plants....guess they'll go into the 29 since eventually I'd like to take the 3 gallon down when I get my Reef really going! I may be getting a 40 breeder for it! Anyone want to buy a mother Water Sprite off me? 4 bucks and she's yours with shipping of course but I can use a large envelope for it. I also have some Myrio that needs weeding! $3 for a bundle of 5-6 stems. I think I only have one or two bundles from this trimming but I haven't actually trimmed yet to see lol. I'll confirm that later!


----------



## Sabina88

Sorry to hear about Aero, fingers crossed for him


----------



## BettaLover1313

I feel for you with Aero, Dragoon hasn't been doing to well recently either.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I read that :-( sorry to hear about Dragoon too! I'm wondering if this is a "side-effect" with Dragons as they are still relatively "new" to the hobby and all. We would now just be seeing the full potential of the scaling and the pigment buildup. Although I have a slightly difficult time telling a hard cyst from pigment buildup and there's no good pictures on google to help!


----------



## beautiful Betta

Oh no poor Aero, it wasn't that long ago that there were pictures of him and he looked well. 

I think little Dario is such a cutie.


----------



## lilnaugrim

The cyst hides behind his pectoral fin so you can't really see it and he doesn't like to show his right side much, he never did!

And thank you from Dario ^_^ I should get a short video of him some day :-D


----------



## PetMania

Best wishes to Aero! And is Kili the brown and white spotted kili? 

CT boy (still have no idea what to name this beauty) arrived safe and he is SUPER energetic! Thank you so much! I'll send you a couple pics. He is the whitest betta I have ever seen.


----------



## lilnaugrim

The killifish died a while ago lol, Kili is the Black Copper bicolor Yellow.

I did have a name for the white boy but now I forgot it >.< I'll try to remember what it was in case you want to use it lol.

Pics up soon!


----------



## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> The killifish died a while ago lol, Kili is the Black Copper bicolor Yellow.
> 
> I did have a name for the white boy but now I forgot it >.< I'll try to remember what it was in case you want to use it lol.
> 
> Pics up soon!


Oh, sorry. There's so much to read. I attempted to read from the first page, but then you guys wouldn't hear from me for days, lol. This is the thread I look forward to reading everyday. 

Yeah, I'll definetly take suggestions for CT boy.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's okay!

Pics: babies first since I couldn't get good pics of them.



Not quite a good comparison pic since I was closer to Pierce than Remmy and he was back further than her but gives you a sort of idea! She's all grown up!


Steele is getting there! He'll be leaving this Saturday hopefully!




Aero! He's still got spunk but the cyst isn't good.



Blurry but you can see the cyst.




He's still adorbs




Looks like his scaling is starting to creep more on his eyes too


Rembrandt is an idiot lol. He nearly tore an entire chunk of his dorsal off!! I need to take the wood out and give him only Water Wisteria as plants because obviously he can't handle anything else >.>


He was moping after I yelled at him for ripping his fins more


Thinned up Hawkeye's section, I had like a bajillion stems of Myrio in there!!! But it's finally a decent pic of him without clamping his fins!


My little Dario is so adorable!


So my male Honey Gourami apparently wants to mate! lol The bubblenest was much larger previously but I sort of wrecked it lol


This is my girl Honey Blue Eyes I call her ^_^ I keep thinking of Yu-gi-oh when I call her name lol but she's the only gourami I have that has blue eyes, you can't really see it in this picture, it's more of an iridescence really but it's there ^^


Honey Blue Eyes and one of my new girls.


One of the males! Isn't he gorgeous! So much more interesting than any other color morph!


Size comparison! Male and Dario! Dario snuck up on him lol


Adorable boy!


Honey Blue Eyes again and the male in the back


She's adorable! Very personable as well! The other male always hides.


So we all know my self control sucks. I don't know if I'll keep him or not but here I welcome Tiger! He's stressed here but I loved his stripes even though they weren't permanent.





He's got beautiful blue eyes too!




And home and acclimated!





Look at that cute face!




NOPE!





This is my favorite picture of him!!








A little stressed again.




Very beautiful ice blue iridescence!


----------



## Sabina88

I love Tigers fins, especialy how the blue contrasts with the black.

Fingers crossed for Aero, his scaling reminds me of mosaic tailing for some reason


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> I love Tigers fins, especialy how the blue contrasts with the black.
> 
> Fingers crossed for Aero, his scaling reminds me of mosaic tailing for some reason


Thanks! Yeah, I just love Tiger in general he's absolutely adorable and I'm rather smitten with him! His fins are ripped up with a touch of fin rot so I'm hoping I can heal him up.

Thanks, yeah I hope he'll be fine too. And yeah, I agree of the mosaic! He's my beautiful little Rainbow fish!


----------



## Sabina88

Hopefully it will be a quick heal for Tiger, and at least its not to bad


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, not at all! He just at the worst fins of the fancy fish they had there, they take relatively good care of the Bettas in our PetCo's, the one I go to are pretty well educated and if they aren't; I educate them lol. I'm glad though none of the babies looked like they would survive, not for them but it doesn't tempt me as much since I know they won't make it >.< instead I HAD to look at the other ones :roll: I need to get rid of all my extra tanks so I'm not so tempted but no worries, even if I don't have the tanks I'll find a way to keep the fish :roll:


----------



## Sabina88

You should open your own betta/fish store


----------



## lilnaugrim

I really want to! In my town we're all half an hour from any pet store....it'd make a nice addition to the town with no business lol


----------



## Sabina88

You deffinetly should then  
If you were to, would you breed your own bettas?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep! Lucillia and I are planning to breed our pair, my girl Isis and her boy Osiris ^_^

I'm seriously debating taking down my 29 to use that for a grow out tank and then put up another 20 long divided for Tiger and River....maybe I'll split it for two 3 gallon sections and keep my Gelius Barbs for the 14 gallon section along with Honey Blue Eyes and her boy, Dario, some of my Cories (couldn't keep all 12 though) and the Oto's..............like seriously debating this....I have all the equipment and resources already minus the actual tank but I have my filters, heater, substrates, plants, silicone and craft mesh....oh and the light too.....hmmmm....I could give my Ember Tetras to Lucillia as well since she's building up her school in her 40 breeder too!

Oh the horrible ideas I have....why are they sometimes so fantastic and tempting???


----------



## Sabina88

It sounds like its worth a try since you already have most of it


----------



## lilnaugrim

Annnnd I just found a $20 20 long up near where I'm going today with Lucillia lol. Messaging the person now and hopefully they still have it and it's in good condition!


----------



## Sabina88

Fingers crossed and good luck with that


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday was a fun day! Had work in the morning and then had my final Critique for Drawing IV class and then went out with Lucillia to some of the fish shops down my way! She ended up with a beeaaauuuttiiful Yellow Dragon PK boy! And I ended up with a free Black Copper Super DeT boy who is rather sick with bad fin rot! This poor boy has been in the shop for around five months now and while the owners take pretty good care of their stock, this boy came in sick IIRC. Nick said he'd treated him with Erythromycin previously but nothing helped, I don't think he was dosing the right amount or time though so I'll give my hand to help this poor little dude! He offered him to me for free since they know me, Lucillia was like yep! If you don't, I will! lol so we both ended up with pretty little fishes!

His name is either going to be Black Hawk or Chopper (since Black Hawks are Copters and Chopper is easier to type lol) but I'm leaning more towards Black Hawk since it sounds cooler lol. But he ate like a champ last night! I acclimated him to one of my 1 gallons with water from the 29 and added some floating water sprite and the little betta log that was in the 3 gallon (re-aquascaped the 3 gallon too) and he's a very happy little boy! He ate some NLS Grow last night since he's rather emaciated as well so he needs a little fattening up! And then this morning he ate a few NLS Small Fish, he was still a little full from last night which is quite fine; I didn't expect his metabolism to be quite high yet anyway.

So he's got my small XingLong 25W heater in there now and he's very happy little fish! Wiggling at me and everything! So I think, if he gets better then I will sell River once she's fully mature and keep him. I will make the new 20 Long so each side has one Betta; most likely Remmy on one side and either Tiger or Black Hawk on the other side since Remmy has completely ruined his fins again......I swear this fish!

That person never got back to me about the 20 long >.> I'll have to look around on Craigslist again to see what I find. Other than that, all fish are doing very well, Aero's cyst isn't any better the poor kid. I got my plants in yesterday and have no idea where the hell I"m going to fit it all! I've rescaped the 3 a little more, doing a change on it today since it's rather nasty. Also doing a change on the 29 and 20 hopefully, provided I have the energy. Spring is hitting me hard today! Even with my allergy meds I feel like I've got a bad hangover....spilled my large Iced Coffee in my car today....ALL of it >.> all 32 oz.'s of it just gone....I got two sips and over it went when I was straightening out my car in the parking spot....I didn't have enough napkins either :-(

Soooo Honey Blue Eyes and my one remaining male are breeding! Or at least attempting to! He's built a huuuuuge bubblenest, he's repaired all of what I wrecked and has been trying to lure her over to it, she's been chilling there and running off the other ladies. Turns out the last of mine was a girl, thought it was a boy so now I have 1 male to 4 females which isn't bad at all. When I downsize I'll keep Honey Blue eyes and her mate. I haven't seen any eggs yet but I'm rather hoping! I just don't know if they'll eat the flakes and I'm quite sure that grindals would even be too big for them! Pretty sure that Dario would come steal them in the night though :roll:


----------



## beautiful Betta

Well done for the rescue. He is in good hands.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks bB! I did take 3 pictures of him last night but my camera ended up dying so I'll take pics of everything tonight as I'm letting the battery charge while I'm at work right now. 

I'm wondering if I should get one of those small ponds, throw some anacharis and water lettuce in it and let my guppies go in there for the summer....most of me just wants to get rid of them all but I need to wait for them to grow up more and I really want to see how they turn out but I don't want to take care of two more tanks; one for males and one for females. I know it'd only be like 5 gallon tanks but all the same....I'd rather put my energies towards this reef tank I'm planning. But the babies I just had are good quality guppies, a platinum SnakeSkin crossed with a half black, that should produce some good quality stock! I could sell trios for 20 bucks! But then I remember that we're breeding Bettas too....

So plans for this summer:
1. Work (9-2, 5 days a week) <--this is my work study so it can't be full time.
2. Breed Isis and Osiris
3. Get basics for reef tank set up and functioning.

and then on the side; honey gouramis, guppies, house plants, outdoor plants, my bonsai Fukien Tea Tree, continued care for the fish I already have, commissions (that should be like top of my list but....yeah...).


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures! I ended up moving the female guppy to the 29 and the guppy fry to the 3 gallon and then put Tiger in the breeder next but pictures are post-breeder net. And then I put Black Hawk in the 3 gallon that Tiger was in.

Pierce being a cutie as always




Rescaped the 29 and added the Red Foxtail


He looks like he's in jail XD sorry buddy!


Tiger apparently doesn't like his plant and kept trying to jump over it so I had to take it out!


I love his beautiful colors!



Aero was the only one cooperating.


I found a wild Dario! lol




He found himself a worm ^_^



Female guppy fit right in and this is why Honey Blue Eyes is called Honey Blue Eyes ^_^


Guppy is adorable here ^_^




Well I ruined their nest but they're rebuilding already and Honey Blue Eyes is actually helping him! Quite interesting.



And this is how my room looks now.


Steele is there, this is entering my room.


And then this is post move as well so Tiger isn't on the top anymore, the 3 is where Black Hawk is.


Speaking of Black hawk, here he is!


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## Sabina88

Black Hawk looks awesome  Hopefully his fins will heal up fast. He deffinitly looks happy in his new home with you. Im glad Tigers doing well, the blue looks amazing especialy since the rest of his body is pretty dark. 
Ive never heard of Red Fox tail before. Im assuming by the name its the red plant on the right? What exactly is it?
I love the photo of Kili, other then the yellow in his fins he looks a lot like my Hale in that pic lol.


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## lovee1795

Ohh, I like Black Hawk. Do you think he'll stay that color or do you think he'll color up?


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## beautiful Betta

Your 29 looks great. And great pics of Dario.
Love Black Hawk, I think he will be stunning when he heals up. There is something about him, that I think will be special.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you everyone! Oh my apologies, it's Myriophyllum Tuberculatum Red, Foxtail Red is still a species of Myrio though!

Black Hawk will most likely color up more as he heals but I don't expect him to go completely black since he was never that way even when he came in! But I do agree bB, he's really got some personality about him! He's already taken to begging and wiggling for food! He's really adorable and has already gotten much darker than he was yesterday! I'm really happy I was able to get the opportunity to heal him up!


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## DaytonBetta

I love that Foxtail! I don't think my lighting would be high enough for it though.


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## lilnaugrim

All Myrio's are generally easy to grow so as long as you've got CFL's or decent LED's then you should be fine ^_^ it might not grow red but you could still grow it  there's a green version too that you could get! This is the east myrio out there and definitely my favorite even over the Parrots feather now!


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## lilnaugrim

Well now I'm ticked off, I finished HeadlessLegoMom's commission, I know I took forever on it but she also told me to take my time. I kept her fairly updated and now she's ticked because I scraped the original canvas and made a digital copy instead because I suck at painting babies. I made it look like a painting not just a digital rendition and now she won't pay me......this means I need to start taking half the money when I start my commissions so this crap won't happen again.....

Pictures up next.


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## ao

You should charge half upfront... I mean people who hire a lawyer have to pay the lawyer regardless of whether the lawyer wins or loses the case. Most people don't understand that most of what they pay are not for the finished product, but for the time invested in creating the product... 

Another example is...people run into restaurants with food they don't like/ consider horrible tasting. They still have to pay for the food!


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## lilnaugrim

Wooweee! Look at them ovaries!



Hawkeye and Pierce


Pierce and Rembrandt


Isis and Aero


Black Hawk seems very chipper today! Did a 50% change on him and redose the KanaPlex and added SeaChem Stress Guard.




I think his fins even look better today! Could just be me though lol




He's got mighty big pectorals, just a little large but could just be because his body is rather small from being emaciated.



So I picked up a round vase at Savers today that is a nice big wide mouth 1 gallon fish bowl. Also got a pirate ship ornament as well. I also picked up a "koi" PK boy that's going up for sale. The poor boy had been in the same bag at a different LFS for two weeks without a water change! Geeze, the store is good in other areas though but it's a branch from the original store so it's not as good as the original one so I've heard from Lucillia.

I've been calling him Blizzard, he's $10 bucks if you want him, $18 in total with shipping.








He's quite personable and rather lovable compared to my other fish honestly lol other than Black Hawk.



lol I love this pic, I had one of him coming out of the ships hull but it was too blurry.




There are more like him at the store if anyone is interested.


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## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> You should charge half upfront... I mean people who hire a lawyer have to pay the lawyer regardless of whether the lawyer wins or loses the case. Most people don't understand that most of what they pay are not for the finished product, but for the time invested in creating the product...
> 
> Another example is...people run into restaurants with food they don't like/ consider horrible tasting. They still have to pay for the food!


Yeah, I realized that but I didn't figure I had to do that so soon. I have issues of trusting too much sometimes....sigh.....


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## PetMania

Captain Blizzard


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## Sabina88

I love Blizzard 
Is he a marble?

I wish I could take both Blizzard and Killi lol
Good luck with finding them homes


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina ^_^ Blizzard is a Koi technically which is not a marble but I believe they carry the genes but I'm not so well on the genes of koi's and such. I'm good with those colorations that breed true though! haha. Mustard Gas breeds true (just means if you breed MGxMG you get 100% MG) ^_^


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## Sabina88

Your welcome 

I always thought Koi's had more splotches? 
Like this 
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1399992714

This one I saw while looking for the kois and I thought it would be something youd like
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1399734284


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## lilnaugrim

They are supposed to, yes but there is such thing as bad genes or bad breeding lol. Some of the other fish had more spotches but none were real Kois but they hold the geno for it. 

Ugggg, Don't show me those fish!!!! I've been so good NOT looking for mustard gases lately!!! lol He's such a beauty though for sure!


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## Sabina88

He he 
Mg's are addicting lol Is Remmy a Mg or is he a tricolor?

That makes sense about the Kois, either way Blizzards a beautiful Koi.

Oh I almost forgot. Do you remember the molly that I got and was going to bring back to the store. Well she decided to have her fry today... Two days before she was suppose to go back to the store


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah I saw that in your thread but I didn't answer it since I didn't read all the way through >.< sorry! But ground up flakes and you can leave them with her if you don't care, she probably won't eat them all if any.

And Remmy started as a MG but as he grew up he kind of lost his outer band. This is the first real picture I have of him!


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## Sabina88

Wow his fins have grown a lot since then! lol
Are his fins twice as long or three times as long as his body now ?

And that's ok for not commenting 
lol I thought I was losing my mind when I looked in her tank and there were little fish in there that had magically appeared


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## PetMania

I think I should be banned from even looking at Aquabid. When I get a job and a PayPal account, I'm screwed


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## lilnaugrim

They are twice the length of his body, oh good god if they were three times the length of his body I'm not sure he could even float properly! lol


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## beautiful Betta

How old is Remmy now?


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## lilnaugrim

Remmy has been with me since December 3rd, 2012 so that's a year and six months and he was roughly 4-5 months when I bought him so he's just over two years now!


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## Sabina88

its amazing how much growing hes done in two years.


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## lilnaugrim

I agree! He's been destroying his tail lately though >.> him and Pierce have been flaring like crazy....I'm debating putting Remmy in the freaking bowl and putting Blizzard in the 20 for now! At least HE can't ruin his tail so easily!


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## Sabina88

haha he needs the fish version of a padded room so he cant tare them


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## PetMania

Do older bettas have a tendancy to bit their tails? Hercules (2yrs. old) bites his tail often. Apollo did that as well (1.5yrs.).


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## lilnaugrim

Not that I'm aware. Remmy only bites when he's next to another Betta, he was divided with Ditto for a while and got over it but he doesn't seem to like Pierce at all so I think I will be doing the Betta shuffle soon so he doesn't tear himself completely apart. None of my other fish do this, he's just a narcissistic butthole is all :roll:


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## Sabina88

Some ones not a ladies man :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

Clearly! lol all my boys prefer other boys....silly fish! Jarvis adored Mercury, Tony and Steve truly loved each other and Remmy got along just fine with Ditto and only Ditto. Aero and Hawkeye tolerate each other. Aero flares at Isis and she flares back. Pierce flares at anything that moves, River is in love with her reflection. Kili flares at the male Honey Gourami who taunts him all the time, Tiger is scared of everything and Blizzard couldn't give two pennies to the world lol

EDIT: anyone want to take my AquaCulture 102 class final for me? Seriously this is going to kick my butt and it's only a 100 level class! We've talked about everything from algal blooms, oyster farming, net-pens, coral farming, pond culture, salmonoids, flounder, feed, lake culture, catfish, blue catfish, channel catfish, blue channel hybrid catfish, GMO's, water quality, kelp farming, seaweed farming, salinity, and sooo much more that I can't even remember! I'm only on the third slide of the class and I've written down five pages in my notebook! Easiest way for me to study alone is just to rewrite everything but make sure I pay attention to what I'm writing; if I physically write I comprehend better than if I type it all out.....uggg I'm going to die and this final is on EVERYTHING. In most 100 and even 200 level classes you at least get half multiple choice, true or false or something like that but this entire exam is essay answer questions! Let's see...oh 25 more powerpoints to go through...........oh good god....here's to no sleeping tonight!


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## Sabina88

Hahaha 
It sounds you have a interesting group of fish personalities


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## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> Hahaha
> It sounds you have a interesting group of fish personalities


That I do!


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## beautiful Betta

Remmy is a similar age to my boy, I purchased him on Jan 18th 2013, I think he was about 6 months when I got him, he was a big boy when I got him and his fins were already long he never grew any bigger. He is still going all right. Although I think his age shows a little in his body shape. I would post a pic, but I don't want to impose on your thread.


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## PetMania

I had Jarvis in an accilmation tank next to my CT girl's tank and he never bothered with her. Snowbird flares at the other two girls for hours, and Hercules doesn't flare or give attention to anyone.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh feel free! I welcome all pictures posted here ^_^ I like my threads to be discussion threads :-D Your boy is a year older than Remmy unless you meant 2014 and not 2013?

I'm thankful that Remmy's age doesn't show in his body shape but rather just in his fins!


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## beautiful Betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Remmy has been with me since December 3rd, 2012 so that's a year and six months and he was roughly 4-5 months when I bought him so he's just over two years now!


December 2012, and January 2013, that's only a month different, if you want to be picky you could say there maybe a month and half between them from Dec 3rd to purchase of my Betta Jan 18th. 

Unless you meant Dec 2013, lol we will confuse ourselves :-D:-D


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## lilnaugrim

beautiful Betta said:


> December 2012, and January 2013, that's only a month different, if you want to be picky you could say there maybe a month and half between them from Dec 3rd to purchase of my Betta Jan 18th.
> 
> Unless you meant Dec 2013, lol we will confuse ourselves :-D:-D


Oh derp derp, I'm sorry! It was late, I was thinking of Dec 2013 but he is 2012 so you're right, just a month lol. I was studying for my exam while I did that too so my brain is shot right now lol.

Speaking of that exam, it was terrible!!! If anyone wants to see the layout of the exam I'd be happy to send it to you if you want haha. Only one teach had her section with a few multiple choice and the rest had ALL long answer/essay answer sections! Which in the long run is fine but again, this is a 100 level class with all freshman (I was the oldest there!) and throwing in one or two multiple choice questions wouldn't hurt anything and would give us a bit of a break at least! Geeze, this was a class who expected a little too much from their students! Even my 300 and 400 levels classes aren't so ridiculous! >.<

Going to die now since I accidentally overslept an hour and 14 minutes, got up at 7:14 rather than the 6 that I was supposed to be up at. Generally I get to school at 7 for a good parking space, thank God there was one left and I snagged it at 7:48! Made it down to the building with 1 minute to spare!

I'm also having severe issues with HeadlessLegoMom (over email) about this stupid commission. Yes, I changed the project a little bit and did a digital rendition without her consent but I also made it look like a painting. I didn't just click a button and it happened, I've changed the entire background, the colors, everything! I changed the position of the baby, drew in new hands and features! While I recognize that this is partly my fault, she never contacted me past August and is now telling me that I waited way to long and that a painting shouldn't take nine months.....I'm in SCHOOL damnit! Pardon me while I fume over this.....oh and it's only costing her $40 bucks which I said she can use a payment plan to pay if she needs it! I severely under charged her, for a baby portrait now a day's I will be charging easily 200 bucks for traditional painting.


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## PetMania

Wow, that's just sad. You're an amazing artist, so you should be given more respect.


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## lilnaugrim

Well we're both at fault here. I'm sorry it had to come down to animosity between her and I but this was all ridiculous. She kept telling me to take my time, take my time and so I did. I'm sorry she lives in the slums and has welfare taking care of her and her daughter and stuff but I've worked hard for my college and I do my best to take nothing for granted except for the ocean of which I live twenty minutes from. She expected me to finish in a timely manner but I have a life too, we all know that here. Becoming a RT member hasn't helped much either, we've got a lot of work to do behind the scenes and I haven't even started to delve into it yet! But I'm no mind reader, how was I supposed to know she wanted it within a month? Yes, I know I procrastinated on it and my final decision to change from a canvas format to a digital format in the end was unwise to tell her about until the end. Stupid mistakes on both parts. The issue is also that people don't appreciate digital paintings, it's not like I press a button and it all magically happens as I said before. -sigh-

Now I've got to start drawing up policies for commissions and stuff, stupid. I know I trust too easily and that gets me in trouble but I didn't figure I'd have to do this to this community, perhaps outside the community but my trust has been shattered for sure. You all are fine here, it's just sad to see this all. Doesn't help my health either to remain mad like this for the past three day's; lowers the immune system and all....no wonder the pollen is killing me >.<

I should have some happier fish related stuff to update later, maybe I'll take some pictures too! Everyone seems pretty darn happy lately so I'm just working on my commission for FishyFishy89 which is a laptop screen of her six or was it seven? angelfish. Almost two angels down along with the extensive background I did, so I'm well on my way! Let's just hope I can keep my gumption up.


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## Sabina88

I agree with petmania
I mean its sounds like you put a lot of time and effort into this and im sure you have a lot of other things to do besides her painting. 
Even if its not exactly what she wanted she should still pay you, she comisioned you and you did it, weather she likes it or not she got what she asked for
Anyways good luck with that lilnaugrim


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, she doesn't think like that at all. It's whatever, it was only 44 dollars anyway which is extremely low for a commission of a portrait.

Her case was a special once since it was my first traditional commission, all the rest have been digital so it's a lot easier to tote my laptop around than a larger canvas with all my paints and stuff. So time to work on that is limited, it's also limited in my house as well since I don't have a clear space for working on my paintings here. Drawings are a lot easier since they usually take up much less space and I'm not using 20 different tubes of paint but usually only one pencil/charcoal item. Painting is just a pain in the tush and I don't think I will be taking another painting commission for a while, drawing sure but not painting. At least for no one online, in real life my Memere still wants another painting and glass ornaments for Christmas time and I really need to get working on those too. uggg, what even is my life? I'm so bad at organization and time management >.<


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## Sabina88

Awww hehe i know how you feel, im not the most organised person either


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## BettaLover1313

That's a shame that she's upset about the portrait. It's very good. Digital art is definitely very underrated, the best of it takes a lot of time and skill, and yours is some of the best I've seen! 

What is this organization you speak of? I do not know of it!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks, it's just a bad situation all the way around really. I'm done and moving on, I'm stuck on this darn Angel though! Sooo different anatomy from Bettas lol

And seriously, what even is organization? My big brother in my frat was amazing at it and even my little is fantastic! Me? I'm the black sheep of the family >.< while everyone else is in their music major glory, I'm over here in the art corner working on my work alone lol You can always tell who's a Theater/Music/Art major when you go through the Fine Arts Center; theatre kids are yelling and singing about, running around the building. Music kids are holed up in their practice rooms or out in the hallways singing, playing but mostly hiding in the practice rooms and then art kids are hiding in their corners never peaking out to see if anyone's around XD lol well that's half a lie but partly truth too!

OMG so my mom and John went yard sailing today (yes sailing, not yard sale lol) and she picked me up a little glass 2.5 gallon tank with a sponge filter/hose/pump with marbles in it for a BUCK! I threw out the pump and the hose though since it as naaaaaa-aaahsty! Cleaned up the filter though and can totally use that! Gave her the marbles and shells since I have plenty of my own substrate but I'm so very happy! She also got a box set of M*A*S*H the first three seasons for a dollar!!!! What a great day indeed!!!


----------



## PetMania

Those are some great deals!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Awesome finds! 2.5 gallon only for a dollar? Not to mention 3 seasons worth of M*A*S*H? That's amazing deals!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yes!!! I was internally freaking out lol!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I successfully wasted the day finishing up FishyFishy89's commission.....well I guess that's technically not wasting a day now is it? lol Ugg, I've literally been sitting all day, makes me feel gross! Good thing I'm showering first thing in the morning before church!

Good news on Black Hawk! The black edging of rot is falling off and I already see new growth coming in! He's a sassy little boy much like Remmy lol his appetite is huge, I've been feeding him NLS Grow for the extra protein, he could certainly use it! He's colored up quite a bit from his first photos too! I'll try to get some pics of him tomorrow since it's passed my bed time ;-)

River and Pierce are both growing very well, as are the fry! Some of them are already going dark! The eldest of the fry is a boy Snakeskin! Can't wait for him to fully color up but so far he's all spotted! And then the two younger ones are females which I will separate out into the 29 with mama once they are a little bigger and the gourami's wont touch them.

So I had been wondering why the heck all of my males and gouramis suddenly had bubblenests today! I figured it out when we had a pretty nice spring rain later in the day! It felt wonderful! A nice refreshing breeze and all my fish going nuts with the pressure lol.

No fry from the gouramis but the male keeps on building his nest! I've added a bunch of water sprite in that area to help support the nest and then I was doing some reading about developing fry, I added one of my shipping bags over the top to keep that area more humid because apparently if it's not humid enough over the nest the labyrinth organ doesn't develop properly or at least very well. I'm not sure exactly how true this is but I figured the bag would help support the nest as well where it touches the water a bit.

I'm happy and lucky that my Ember Tetras and Gelius barbs now readily eat flake foods! Dario is still picky but he happily munched down a white worm today and was scouring the rest of the tank for more afterwards lol.

Well I think that's all now so good night and talk to you all tomorrow most likely!


----------



## beautiful Betta

Glad to hear things are all going well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks bB, so far so good.
-------------------------------------------

Currently sitting at the dining room table watching a chickadee eat from the feeder outside the window. I love watching them hold the seed between their feet and peck at it, turn it and peck at it more until they can get inside and eat the seed ^_^ too cute!

Fish are all well and some are more than well! Black Hawk is getting feisty! A sure sign of feeling better! I've done daily water changes for him and kept him on KanaPlex, Stress Guard and added some Vita-Chem in to replace the vitamins lost with antibiotics, a probiotic would be better but it's the best I've got. His appetite is growing each day! I'm quite excited since he's my first real rescue that I've gotten for free and hasn't died on me! lol

Blizzard doesn't seem too happy currently, he hasn't eaten since day one and I even offered him a White Worm, he inspected as most fish do when they first see live food for the first time but didn't go after it. I'm going to try again tonight to see if he finds it more appealing. Overall though his health is great!

Steele is growing back his tail well, he just doesn't like seeing other Bettas but is fine with other fish. He should be leaving next weekend!

Pierce is just a tad smaller than Isis is right now! Phew she grew fast! River still has some catching up to do but she is younger than Pierce but still very healthy over all and has a decent growth rate!

Tigers fins are all patched up now! He's a nice deep black turquoise! He's been blowing constant bubblenests lol Kili has been too although his aren't as impressive but that's okay! The honey gouramis are still teasing the poor boy although he doesn't seem to mind toooo much.

Guppy fry are growing extremely well and eating well too! The oldest boy has some more spots on him today! The younger female just has a black tail but that's expected and then the younger of those three is the one that snuck in with the shrimp I think it was when I bought them last. She's doubled in size since I got her too, I don't expect her to be too colorful since her parents aren't very nice looking in the tank I got the shrimp from but w/e, I'll still let her grow up. Half the babies are already getting their black tails in! This is the earliest I've seen them color up before! Probably because they are in a "species" tank, I say "species" because I have the Tiger Endler in there too lol. The oldest boy is almost the same size as the Endler and they pretty much stick together like two peas in a pod, same with the two girls. The rest of the fry don't seem to care much. All shrimp are doing well, all three of them still. One shed the other day and is looking quite fabulous!

I took out the heaters from the 20 and the 29, both were exceeding their mark by ~6-8 degrees so I figure they'll be fine for the rest of the summer. Apparently we skipped spring and went right into summer....it was only 76 today but the sun was super hot outside, barely a breeze and when there was it was a hot breeze. It's cooled down quite a bit now so it's pretty nice out now. The 29 gallon was sitting pretty at 81 when it's supposed to be around 74 lol and the 20 was up at 84 when it should be 78 so all my fish are hardy and won't mind lower temps if it dips down to the 70s. My room stays pretty humid anyway since I generally keep the windows closed at the moment until actual summer hits and then they'll be open quite often but it will also be around 100 degrees too and humidity at 100% >.< it may not get _that_ hot here but our humidity sure does kill!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I really don't understand why people don't listen to me when I give a diagnosis...Clearly I wear this "green jacket" for no darn reason.


----------



## Sabina88

Did something happen?


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's a accumulation of things happening this week, mostly people who don't believe me or are challenging me when clearly the diagnosis is correct. It's frustrating when I'm trying to help and people ignore me or do the opposite of what I say.


----------



## KatNDog292

lilnaugrim said:


> I took out the heaters from the 20 and the 29, both were exceeding their mark by ~6-8 degrees so I figure they'll be fine for the rest of the summer. Apparently we skipped spring and went right into summer....it was only 76 today but the sun was super hot outside, barely a breeze and when there was it was a hot breeze. It's cooled down quite a bit now so it's pretty nice out now. The 29 gallon was sitting pretty at 81 when it's supposed to be around 74 lol and the 20 was up at 84 when it should be 78 so all my fish are hardy and won't mind lower temps if it dips down to the 70s. My room stays pretty humid anyway since I generally keep the windows closed at the moment until actual summer hits and then they'll be open quite often but it will also be around 100 degrees too and humidity at 100% >.< it may not get _that_ hot here but our humidity sure does kill!


lol here too was dying yesterday. Was out all day playing softball, got really dehydrated, had to leave fourth game because I had a really bad headache. Long story short 77's too hot when you haven't had the 60s lol


----------



## KatNDog292

lilnaugrim said:


> It's a accumulation of things happening this week, mostly people who don't believe me or are challenging me when clearly the diagnosis is correct. It's frustrating when I'm trying to help and people ignore me or do the opposite of what I say.


This may sound really bad but they'll pay for it when their fish dies or gets worse.


----------



## lilnaugrim

KatNDog292 said:


> This may sound really bad but they'll pay for it when their fish dies or gets worse.


It's not always the original poster....


----------



## KatNDog292

lilnaugrim said:


> It's not always the original poster....


Well then, if the original poster listens to them they'll pay for it. Those other people don't know what they're talking about and evidently don't know what a green name tag means.


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## Sabina88

I kinda agree with KatNDog292, 
In any circumstance if the don't believe you or choose to listen to some one else, then they are going to end up learning the hard way. But sometimes I suppose that's when you learn the best. 
Unfortunetly people can sometimes be stuborn especialy when it comes to something they think is right even if proved wrong.


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## KatNDog292

I know it sounds kinda sick (especially judging by my signature I just figured out how to add) but it's the truth. If you don't catch it as soon as it happens and listen to the wrong advice, your betta pays.


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## MattsBettas

That can be among the most annoying things to have happen on here. Like, you are a beginner who asked for help, we're experienced _volunteers_ who are trying to help... So you might as well take the advice. I'm sorry you've had to deal with that recently. 

But then again I'll be the first to say that just because I'm green doesn't mean I know everything (far from it!), and sometimes really good learning opportunities come about when someone like LittleBlueFishlets or another RT member disputes the diagnoses of another experienced member or has a different opinion on treatment.


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## KatNDog292

Nobody knows everything or else fish would only die of old age. You know more than some people though. Especially the ones looking for help.


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## Sabina88

That's a good point. I think for anyone getting advice on this site should consider all treatment responses and also maybe depending, looks at who the responses are from


----------



## beautiful Betta

I thought I was fairly knowledgeable in terms of fish keeping, but since joining this site I have seen Betta's is such bad shape it is shocking and where do you start. My experience stems from tropical community and Marine. But I have to say my fish rarely had issues and if they did it was often a odd breakout of whitespot which was easily treated. And I hate seeing things online that I am not sure how to deal with, plus medications are different here, and there is nobody else online that would be able to help. So I try and give some advise, my diagnosis isn't always right I am finding, but I do sort of leave it with the poster what it could be, unless I am 100% certain.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh of course, I completely know that I don't know everything! I've never said that I do and I do my best not to act like I do too, granted that doesn't always work out and I apologize for that.

It's not so much about the OP not listening but the fact that older members completely disregard RT members, again we're not all perfect and know everything but it's still frustrating to be left in the dust. It's happened enough to me that I'm quite frankly sick of it. I'm not quitting or anything, just frustrated.

Fish are fine, babies growing well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And I'm going back to looking at creating a paludarium instead of a reef tank. While I believe I could do the reef tank, I don't want to put myself in a position of literally no money. And besides, Luci and I are breeding Osiris and Isis after we both come back from vacation in June!

I have the 33 gallon still and I think I'll use that for my Paludarium, I want at least 20 gallons of water in there and I want fire belly newts as my original plan for the paludarium. I have the idea in my head but I think I should sketch it out. I bought more silicone yesterday so it's a start of accumulating my things. I'll need the expanding foam, black silicone, egg crate mesh, possibly a piece of plexi to help divide the land/water section. I have a water pump for a water fall and the lights, tank and stand of course! So really, I have the more important parts except that I still want to resilicone the 33 and that's going to be a PAIN.


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## Lucillia

Firebellies!!! You could do my friend the axolotl.... I really want one... MUDKIP!!! 

And yush! I'm very excited! And also very scared.... >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Firebellies will withstand the temps we experience here, I'd do the axolotl but I couldn't utilize land space whereas fire bellies will a little bit. Also I want some regular white clouds with the firebellies. No mudkips because of temp issues >.< and the fact they need brackish!


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## DaytonBetta

I've had a reef tank and it was a ton of money and really hard work, plus a lot of grief. A reef is beautiful, and incredible to watch and care for. My advice would be to wait until you're making a good salary and have a lot of disposable income and time. 

I've just begun my paludarium/ terrarium adventure. I really enjoyed the process of building it. I did hit some snags along the way,but overall I'm happy with it. I can't wait to see yours! I love frogs,so I have Fire belly toads, but Fire belly newts sound cool.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Dayton, yeah I know of the money and such but it is possible to take your time with it and budget a reef tank. Killavixen made a good example out of that!

But I've been researching paludariums longer than I have been reef tanks and so I'm definitely more prepared for that in the long run since I'm already efficient in all sorts of plants and now substrate types and fish and whatnot. The only thing I need to get is Great Stuff expanding foam, the black silicone and epoxy along with coco fiber for coating some of the areas to make it more realistic 

I'm not so fond of frogs/toads that aren't tree frogs and I'm already more geared towards the aquatic department so I wanted the newts (plus they are available at my LFS). This way I want at least 70% water and either 20 or 30% land, if it's 20% obviously it will be 80% water lol.


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## Sabina88

It sounds like it will be a fun project


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah! I still have to resilicone the 33 though :-( I'm NOT looking forwards to that at all but if I plan it correctly I could silicone it in and silicone in the divider for the land part at the same time since silicone doesn't bond to already cured silicone so you have to do it all in one shot....ugg that's going to be a lot of work right there! lol


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## Sabina88

Hehe well i cant wait to see the end result.


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## lilnaugrim

lol, me too! XD


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## Sabina88

When do you think youll get started on it


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## lilnaugrim

Idk, hopefully soon since I still have to get all my stuff from dad's house out yet. So the tank is still sitting there, the 5.5's are still technically set up too but no lights, filter or heaters are on lol but the plants are still growing XD I wonder if my BGA died out yet :roll:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH
So I've been looking for life that would suit my temperatures here and the conditions I'd like the tank to be in! And I FOUND ONE! What better than to use a newt that is native to my area??? It's called the Eastern Newt (so original I know) and as a juvie it mostly lives on land but frequents the water. This means I can keep a nice shoal of regular white clouds in the tank as well since they are just fine with peaceful fish, just nothing that will really bother the newt and cause it to excrete the toxins; they only do it when threatened! Oh I'm so excited! I really want to get a group in the larval stage, that's when they look like Axoltols and then it grows up, 2-3 years in the terrestrial stage (I'll have more of a 50/50 land water tank in this case) and then becomes an adult where it frequents both land and water! I like this a lot more than the fire-bellied newts which are mostly aquatic.

Larval stage:


Juvie Stage


Adult stage


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## Sabina88

I love those kind of newts 
We sometimes get them (the juvies) in our yard when it rains


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## lilnaugrim

Yep! Figure I could keep a nice pair in my tank with the White Clouds :-D They may not be the most exciting species but they are beautiful!
------------------------------------
On a sadder note, S.I.P. Trigger, Lucillia's poor baby who went into Dropsy mode but she was able to bring him back out of it. He was finally good today with flat scales and he accidentally went down the bathroom sink drain, slipped right out like only a fish can do. S.I.P. baby boy and I am so sorry Luci, the worst things happen to the best of fish keepers.

--------------------------
Pictures to upload later.


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## Lucillia

I have the worst luck lately. :/ he was just literally perfect today! My first successful treatment of dropsy too!Sunburst and Kosetsu are the only two left with body wounds though. Hopefully they will both pull out of it.


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## lilnaugrim

Here you go Luci!


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## lilnaugrim

Blizzard and his cutie face!


He's going home with freeflow246 this weekend!


Steele should also be crossing the border come Monday! I've got to contact cousiniguana for transportation and then BrodrickStrider to confirm everything ^_^


Funny since these pictures make him look like Royal instead of Steel....




Also put the dividers in the 2.5, they've got slots for the dividers so I utilized that to stick the mesh in. Blizzard will go on the other side with his ship if Steele can't find his way through the dividers lol The middle is where the heater will go when I pick it up from dads.


The male and his girl seem to really like hanging around Kili XD Apparently Honey Blue Eyes isn't the one that he's bonded with.



Kili only flares at the female though XD



Speaking of Honey Gouramis, this was HBE's and I thought it was just a funny picture.


Aero!


And here you can see how large his cyst is



Tiger! He's a happy little bugger!


And here's where Remmy spends most of his time now, in the back of his compartment biting his fins and making bubble nests :roll:


Here's the 20, yeah....it needs a serious trim!


The 29 is growing well too! Sorry for the awkward angle and then Tiger's in the net and Kili is in the box.


My glass bowl for excess plants. Blizzard is in there at the moment and he seems to like the bowl better than the 2.5 he was in :roll: silly boy.


Black Hawk's first day with me:


And today!



All the black has fallen off and it's starting to grow back :-D



Look at that adorable face! I love his dorsal too :-D


Pierce is doing fantastic! She's the size of a PetSmart female now!



I love her face too!


Maybe I mistook ovaries? I can't tell any more!





Her ventral's are cute too, probably my favorite fin of all of them besides the dorsal.


Her against Hawkeye


My 3 gallon looks decent


Guppies are doing great! The males are already coloring up!


My oldest guppy is looking amazing!!


Him and the Endler


His Snakeskin pattern is coming in! I'm excited!!!


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## Sabina88

Every body looks awesome 
Im glad that Black Hawks fins are growing in well, it looks like it shouldn't take him to long at all to get back to what he should be. Is he a copper?
Lol I love the photos of Kili and Honey Blue Eyes


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## lilnaugrim

Oh sorry I didn't specify, the female with the male is not HBE, it's the other original female. And then the one that Kili is flaring at is one of the new ones, I know it's hard to tell from photos though lol.

And yes, Black Hawk is a Black Copper.


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## Lucillia

That guinea pig!!! XD I snorted on that one. I love long haired g-pigs. 

Black Hawk looks so much better than when we got him!!! I'm glad you took him and ran!!


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## lilnaugrim

Ahaha! I thought you might like it!! :-D

And yeah I'm super happy with Black Hawk! He looked so bad in the store, it's good to know the store owners well! haha


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## beautiful Betta

Loved your pictures.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks bB! I try ^_^

---------------------------------------
Oh and I forgot to say about the two boys I almost took home yesterday! I was just tooling around and I went to PetSmart to price the coconut fiber and see if there was anything good on sale. I found a beautiful bicolor HM boy!!
His head isn't that elongated, the cup just stinks at allowing me to take good pictures of them, that and my phone sucks


And then at PetCo I found this boy under the "We think he has fin rot so we're going to treat him anyway!" sign but he totally doesn't have fin rot, just natural coloration. I was soooo tempted, I carried him around the store and then looked at the others. There was a Giant there who looked like he needed help, the poor EE's there all looked sorry for themselves since they never get bought :-( I ended up putting him down because he wasn't really in need, he was just another pretty face. I could go back if anyone is interested in buying him though, I can ship him out.
Sorry the pic sucks, he's a Tri color Black copper Red White


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## lilnaugrim

Fish are doing well, guppy fry are doing exceptionally well! I swear they doubled in size over night! I separated out the two older girls from the boy, I put them in the 29 with the mama guppy and they're pretty happy there now. They are the length of the Ember tetras!

Male gourami built another nest lol

Blizzard really likes the bowl still, he's super active right now but still not eating. I'll try another white worm tonight.

Dario has been hiding a lot, not sure why since he's basically king of the tank.


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## Sabina88

Im surprised that Blizzard still isn't eating. Hopefully he will eat the white worm.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I am too but he was interested in the pellet but just let it sank and didn't try to go after it so idk! He seems healthy enough otherwise though!


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## Sabina88

That's good. 

Maybe he will go for something that moves?


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## lilnaugrim

Woooo boy! I've done nothing but talk to Luci and plan for my Paludarium today, research, research, research! By golly my head is spinning with all this information I'm attempting to soak in! So far here are my findings/planning.

Materials:
*Styrofoam* sheets to cut and mold for the base
*DryLok* is safe for fish once cured! Doesn't make pH fluctuate like regular cement does, this is because DryLok is more like a paint, a waterproofing paint that is applied over cement.
*Quikrete Concrete Tint* to tint the white Drylok to make more realistic background.
Possibly will use *Great Stuff *can foam to fill in holes and gaps more easily but unsure as of yet.
*GE Silicone I* for applying the background to the tank itself.
*Hot Glue* to glue the pieces of styrofoam together for the easy parts.
*PVC piping* to hold up the false bottom, may create tree trunks or roots coming out of the bottom and keep the bottom completely for fish/adult Eastern Newts.
*Black Silicone *for the waterfall parts and probably for underneath the false bottom to keep everything nice nice and divided.

So now I'm just debating things like where exactly I want to place the waterfall part. I could place it in the back left corner and have it cascade down towards the middle although that cuts up space for the newts since they don't always like to be in the water in the Eft stage (juvie). Or I could keep it in the back corner and make it fall against the side so it's coming towards the tank. And last option is to make a Rock or tree structure towards the front with the water falling basically straight down the structure and into the water to help with aeration.
Pictures to hopefully help depict what I'm trying to get at here lol








I'm hoping for two ledges, one at the waterline and the other towards the top part but I don't know how much the newts like to climb rather than they prefer a flatter surface to run around on. I need to do more research on that bit. But for right now I'll have two ledges on the back part, plants various there.

Pictures of which I've taken inspiration from or just liked the look of. 
This one isn't a total Paludarium or what I would think of as one but it does have land space, it just isn't IN the tank. It's absolutely gorgeous though!








And this was one of the first tutorials I looked at, I love how the divider looks with the mopani glued on in the end, it all looks very natural and real. I want more on the background though with mine, not so open I think, I just like this one because it was one of my first real ones where I understood what was going on lol








Some honorable mentions:
beautiful!








I love how clean the water looks, minimalistic almost in the water and then expressionistic up top! lol pardon me and my art talk!








Love the waterfall area








I have the utmost respect for this man! That entire tree and all is made from foam! Amazing, isn't it?!


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## lilnaugrim

Took some pictures earlier. Did a water change on Black Hawk, he's doing amazing! I'm so happy and might be addicted to rescuing real rescues rather than getting "adoptions"--fish that I want and that I buy because I have no self control and then sell out to people on the forum....that's not rescuing >.< Oh well.

I moved River out of the 20 breeder box and into the box in the 29; better water flow, better heat and different stimuli. She perked right up! But my camera didn't want to focus >.>
I love this pic, they're both like 'wut'?? lol


The only picture that actually came out :roll: at least you can see her form! looks like she might be a VT afterall though....I'm still not totally convinced but I'll wait.


Pierce didn't want to sit still either






Guppies are doing well, this boy is really beautiful though! Tiger Endler isn't so happy with him though :-/


He's getting a beautiful butterfly pattern, I doubt it will ever stay but it it's nice to look at for now ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

I dreamed about the making of my paludarium :roll: I need a life I think lol. I ended up waking up exhausted because I was physically making it in my dream which mean I was probably moving all over my bed, throwing myself around as usual. I realized though that I may not have room for a second ledge but I constructed an amazing tree in the water part and then having a fallen tree have submerged from the ledge out to the other tree stump, this would give a nice place for the newts to relax on! See, dreams are actually useful! lol

I'm also debating breeding Remmy again, he's getting old I know so I'm not so certain about his strength to keep up but he's been making some great bubblenests and I really really really want his babies. Figure we can breed him the same time we breed Osiris and Isis! Two spawns, double the outcome :-D Now it's finding the right female to go with him....

I really like this female for her body form, her anal fin looks like it's just swooped to the size so it's not really angled like that, I could be wrong though. I'd be worried about how many rays she has and overbranching too much since Remmy does have a super large tail as we all know. I'm in love with the clean pattern though :-/
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1400689296


And then this girl, she's HMPK so I could potentially shorten the fins up, I know we'll get all varying lengths but I like the idea better of having different fin lengths then having one ginormous tail that's going to drag the fish down! I'm not so fond of her body shape all around but it isn't terrible, Remmy's form is pretty fantastic. Decent pattern, good rays and decent fin form. The only thing is she's a Copper mustard and I'm very willing to see what comes out as I know I'll at least get a few that look like Remmy and some that look like her. I do love the clean Copper Mustard, real Mustards are just more my fancy is all.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1400606675


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## lilnaugrim

I'm in LOVE!

Microctenopoma Ansorgii "Ornate Ctenopoma"


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## Kaffrin

Yup yup when I'm totally into a project I tend to dream about it too! Definitely looking forward to some progression pics of your paludarium~ Any specific plants you've got in mind c: ?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Kaffrin! I am too XD I still have to get it out of dad's, take it apart, empty the sand out, polish up the glass, and then reseal it :roll: geeze, that could take a whole week right there! But as for plants, I'm definitely getting creeping fig, probably will do a leaf litter as Red Efts love litters. I may do some crypts on the land, I'm not sure what else though as I haven't given it much thought as of yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated if anyone has experience ^_^

It won't be a humid environment so I don't expect the plants to die from rotting, the soil will be a bit moist for the Efts but not soaking. I will definitely do some mosses as that was my original intent with a paludarium. Pillow moss is fantastic and maybe I can scrape something up in my backyard too lol None of it has ever been sprayed with insecticides/pesticides so I know it's all natural out there. Speaking of which, if anyone ever needs Oak Leaves in substitute to IAL, I have like....50 Oak trees in my back yard and practically all of our fallen leaves are dried OL! So let me know if you want any and I'll scrounge up a few, clean them off and send them your way!


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## Kaffrin

Hmm, if the humidity won't be "soaking" I would like to recommend some orchid varieties~ Depending on the type, they would have different temperature ranges and whatnot ^^ In the Philippines they just hang on trees and they look wonderful!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_G3iEH8JFddk/TD8_e0I6B8I/AAAAAAAAB8A/-58jGy3c1D8/s1600/IMG_7475.JPG

Ohh, here's a paludarium with an orchid~


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## lilnaugrim

Ug absolutely beautiful! lol

I've seen paludarium builds with the orchids before and people always commenting that they're an addicting plant! haha, I'm already addicted enough! XD And just did some light research as I feared the flowers might trigger my horrible allergies but it seems Orchids are fine! They don't have the regular free-floating pollen which disturbs my sinuses but rely on pollinators to pollinate!! So I could have them in my tank :-D


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## lilnaugrim

Oh good god, this pollen is making me feel drunk and not in a good way at all. I was driving home and had this pounding headache, blurred vision from my eyes being so itchy, nose running....yeah spring time is _GREAT_ for me >.< Oh and this is me ON medications, I would hate myself even more if I weren't at this time of year!

Took some pictures. I had to do the Betta Shuffle, I moved Steele out of the 2.5 and into the breeder box where River was the first time, hanging on the 20. Then put Kili back into breeder box in the 29 and gave River the whole thing, she's got some stringy poo that I'm worried about so I'm going to treat her with PraziPro in the 2.5 with heat.


She wasn't eating regular pellets either so I tried a white worm and gobbled down one but not the second so I just let her be.


Pierce




Kili back in the 29



Mama guppy is quite happy in the 29!


The 3 gallon is growing nice! Glosso is doing well ^_^



Yep, I need a trim lol


Remmy's been busy making bubble nests and attempting to swim through his water wisteria infested forest XD


Poor Aero still doesn't look very great but he's chugging along!



My pretty girl!


And this was the 29 when I rescaped it...last week? week before? I don't remember now


And today! Umm yeah, my tank exploded XD lol


Tiger's bubblenest grew quite a bit!


Very fat female Cory with her mate :-D


Rabbit snail happily munching on driftwood fuzz!


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## lilnaugrim

Boy, you guys are boring these past few days....or is it I who is boring? lol

Did a massive trim from the 20.....I CAN SEE MY FISH AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:








And here's the bundle of Myrio and water wisteria I got from it, I had no place to put it so it's stuffed in the 29 >.< fish love it though! They keep swimming in and out of it happily *shrug*








But I figured I'd offer here first for anyone who wants some clippings of Myrio and/or Water Wisteria. 4-6 clippings each bundle, $3 for the Myrio and $2 for the Water wisteria and $6 for shipping.


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## BettaLover1313

No we're boring (or I am anyway lol). The fish are looking good, though poor Aero, he's being such a trooper! I hope River feels better!

Question: Are either of those plants good in low lighting & gravel substrate? I recently moved the plants around in Merlin's tank and have found that it looks really bare again >.<


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## Kaffrin

I'd totally take some of those clippings off your hand but I've got to find some bulbs so I can actually get some light on my tank again xD It's surprisingly hard to find 15/20 watt 6500k bulbs for not-crazy-expensive prices! I've also fallen in love with that myrio *-* Looks like it would be wonderful for dense-growth areas in my tanks~


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## lilnaugrim

BL1313: yes and yes! Wisteria in particular!

Kaffrin: 15/20? Do you mean 15 bulbs or something else that I have no idea about? lol


----------



## Kaffrin

Either x3 The ones I've been seeing around my area are heck expensive. 12$ for a -single- bulb!? No thanks~ I'm also totally jealous of how pretty Pierce looks c: I love how fat she is!(LOL not supposed to be offensive at all)


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## lilnaugrim

I'm just confused on what the 15/20 part means.

And Pierce does take offence to your comment but laughs it off afterwards and flashes her gigantic fins at you haha.

She is a little piglet though! Eats a tooon of NLS grow formula twice a day lol.


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## Kaffrin

OH. Both the 15 and 20 watt spiral bulbs at my local stores are about 12$ each is what I meant~
And oh my, she just gave me the fin! Someone's sassy c:!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ooooh okay, holy mackerel! Why do you need such high wattage?

Yeah, she's pretty darn sassy! Comparable to Remmy! Although Remmy's sass has been taking a break so I think he's passed it on to Pierce now lol.


----------



## Kaffrin

I was -thinking- about doing c02 then I realized how expensive it would be! I thought 3w per gallon was normal to be honest >.< 4 for cO2 funzies.

My females always tended to be much more sassy than my males! My current female baby likes to jump and face plant the side of her tank every time I stick my hand in for cleaning. Guess she thinks I've got food!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Wattage doesn't correlate to Kelvin or how to grow your plants. Wattage just tells you how much electricity your bulb is using. What you want to look for is the Kelvin rating, to have a bulb rated 6,500K (Daylight) is what you want for your plants. That's the color temperature that the sun is at in a mid clear day. It's best to have medium-high light for co2. There is more to light than just the color of the bulb though, if you are interested you can look up PAR (parabolic aluminized reflector rating).

Your female sounds adorable, I used to train them to jump for food but now that they're all divided I've stopped that since I don't want them jumping the borders lol.


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## Kaffrin

Oh sorry sorry I thought I wrote that in earlier xD I figured that was a given thing with lights for planted thanks. I've never heard of this "PAR" thing. Guess it's a new thing to research!

And yeah, that sounds like a dangerous idea, lol! Can only imagine how two males would react. One jumps over into the face of another- "What...? You're that guy on the other side!"


----------



## lilnaugrim

I've had it happen before, not fun. Thankfully Aero wasn't badly hurt before I found Charles in with him and quickly took Charles out! I sure do miss Charles---actually you know who I miss more? No one here probably even knows of him or remembers but I really miss Ditto! He's the only fish I regret giving away :-/ I'll find another like him some day I'm sure but he really was something special much like Remmy. I'll post the pictures I have of him!

I bought him last year right at the end of January because he looked just like Remmy but in a DT form! Hence his name Ditto, he was his own fishy though!




He ended up getting some fin damage and I didn't think I could really care for him and I was trying to make room more or less, we all know how that worked out "ooh, now I have an empty compartment I should fill!" :roll:


He and Remmy were like two peas in a pod though, one got fin damage and then the other did :roll:
I was just showing how skinny he was and the fact he still had his false egg spot too


He could barely flare half the time and he had a gimpy pectoral much like Nemo ^_^


Here he was getting better though and he'd grown a lot! His yellow bled out much like Remmy's did, although he had a beautiful iridescence to his fins!


This is the last picture I have of him. I always thought I had more but apparently I didn't :-/ I never could understand why I got rid of him and kept Aero, Aero came after him! Much after! Nearly 3 months later :-/ oh well.


Pictures uploaded from today, will post soon.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Black Hawk is up first today! He's such a little cutie!


His tail is starting to get big!


"Peek-a-boo!"


Beautiful Black Copper


Look at all that new growth!




My pretty shiny girl!


Aero hasn't enjoyed picture time lately and who would with that massive cyst?


My sweet, sweet Remmy


He's such a dufus XD he draped himself over the leaf but once I stopped to look at him...


He sprang back up as if to say "what? I wasn't doin' nothin'"


His tail is growing back though! Not very nicely but it's growing back.


Pierce today! My god she's big!


Here she is against Remmy although don't let the picture fool you, she's foward more than he is and it's angled a little bit so she looks bigger than she really is but you can get an idea. Remmy is a small fish anyway, at least his body is.


Very nice pectorals


She looks 4 rayed so far!


She's got a decent body for a DT all around though



Her and Hawkeye


The whole 20 after I did my trim and water change yesterday.


And compartment by compartment starting on Isis's side:


Aero. My baby tears aren't doing fantastic but that's alright, they've had a lot of cover from the Myrio so I'm sure they'll perk up soon. I'll probably take them out anyway and let the pygmy chain sword expand all over ^_^


Hawkeye


Pierce


And Rembrandt


Tiger has been doing real well too ^_^





I also bought 3 more Otocinclus for the 29 since my other 3 were getting pooped out! They weren't cleaning all the algae off! They'd sit on the glass all day long with their fat bellies ready to explode lol so I figured they needed a little help. The Rabbit snails don't to much for algae, they're just nice to look at :roll:


Also Dario made an appearance yesterday finally, got shots of him today. I was ready to pronounce him dead when I didn't see him for three day's!
I love this pic, although he isn't in focus, you can see the Honey Gourami lurking in the shadows XD


He's nice and bright after he gets a white worm for lunch!


His fin tear hasn't been healing well though, I may have to put him in with Black Hawk for a small treatment so it doesn't progress further. It hasn't gotten worse, it has gotten a teeny bit better over the week but not as much as it should have.




I also put the Tiger Endler in the 29 after he was being bullied too much by the male guppy juvie in there. He's been schooling with the Gelius Barbs oddly enough...they seem to like him and he likes them, wonder if it's the colors!



Shrimp!


I was also horrible and bought a teeny tiny Bumblebee Goby....Well the first thing he did in the tank was gobble up a guppy fry.....good thing most of the fry are too big for his mouth and I don't care much as long as he leaves the older fry alone which I expect he will. I had even fed him a white worm in his cup while he was acclimating! Piggy fish! He's adorable though! I don't mind if he helps with the guppy population lol



Steele has been enjoying the bowl too!


He chomped his tail off again though before he went in :roll: seriously this fish!


I also have a nice video in the works so that will be up shortly as soon as it loads!


----------



## Sabina88

Tiger looks amazing!
I love his face coloration


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the video I was talking about, apparently the music doesn't want to edit in so you'll just have to deal without the pretty music lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBkw4Vlgc9E&noredirect=1


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## BettaLover1313

Everyone is looking good! 

I'm going to PM you about the plants ;3


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## lilnaugrim

Uuuuggg this female is beautiful! I would buy her, the only thing is she doesn't have a dark body so I don't know how that'd all fare out with Remmy.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1400689215


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## Sabina88

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks Sabina!
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Here's the video I was talking about, apparently the music doesn't want to edit in so you'll just have to deal without the pretty music lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBkw4Vlgc9E&noredirect=1


Your welcome :-D
Its amazing to see the difference of when you got him to now.


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## lilnaugrim

Huh, well I guess _I've_ been the boring one now! lol, a ton has happen but then again not much has happened I feel.

Most important thing was we had a Fish Society meeting on Wednesday evening and we have the Bowl Show at each meeting, just bring in a fish and we all pick the one we like! Well I brought Isis since she's just so beautiful and Lucillia brought her German Blue Ram breeder boy. Funny thing because someone else brought their Long Finned Gold Ram and then there was a Blue Acara there too! There was another B. Splendens, a male HM partial Dragon bicolor blue/red. I put Isis next to him and by the end of the night she was flaring up a storm! There was also a wild type male Swordtail and a larger cichlid that I don't know the name of. Well Luci and I both though Isis would win as not many people have seen a girl like her, in fact one of the members was telling us she'd never seen a female Betta before! Well the night was almost over and there was a tie between #1, 4 (Isis) and 6, however we didn't realize the tie was for second place lol. Isis got third place, the #6 unknown cichlid got second and guess who got first!? Luci's GBR! lol, we really couldn't believe it! He was a stressed out little boy and yet everyone loved him! It was rather fantastic though! I'm super glad he got first! He certainly deserves it!

Other than that, it's been a little uneventful other than lots of work in the week, drawing up commissions, dealing with PM's, crocheting mom's blanket and looking at girls for Remmy. I ended up with two females, if you were on my other thread it was the last two females since they just seemed the best all around. I bought two just in case one isn't good for him and then I may keep her or sell her on the forum.

I do have some pictures, not many though as my camera died on me last night. So these are from last night.
Boy he's getting beautiful! His dorsal is amazing!



Here is the Tiger Endler and the sister of the boy above who is positioned below the Endler. And then the random guppy fry I got from my LFS when I got shrimp last time, she's grown up well too! Almost faster than the SS pair!


Here's what the 29 looks like....kind of looks like poop at the moment until I get rid of some plants tomorrow that I've sold off!


One of it's many occupants and King of the tank! lol Dario is such a butt sometimes.


My beautiful girl is growing up!


She was playing hide and go seek with me, she kept circling around that bunch of baby tears and then would come out to poke her head at me and then do it again XD


And Pierce!



Her and Remmy


Oh forgot to say that Luci and I went to PetSmart yesterday just looking around, nothing really in particular although she found a mated pair of Bolivian Ram's to go with her mated pair of GBR's! But I found some Tubifex frozen worms, turns out they were selling for .01 cents! Luci turned right around and grabbed both some Tubifex and Mysis which both rung up at .01!! I'm thinking about going back today to get some Mysis as well so I can have a fantastic food variety! I fed some of the Tubifex last night and omg, they were mostly melted from the ride home and I almost vomited when they wouldn't come out of the package because they were just frozen enough to not want to come out. They were in a big string but mostly, they smelled horrible! At least blood worms just smell like blood, I'm a girl, I can handle that lol. Brine Shrimp and Daphnia don't smell bad either! But holy shnikes! Tubifex are naaaaa-ssty! But hey, I got them for less than one penny so I'm not complaining too much! lol I also bought a bagged plant of Alternanthera Reineckii to see if it will grow in mom's water since it didn't want to in dad's. I'm floating it this time so it's closer to a co2 source and can acclimate easier.


----------



## Huffle Puffles

Gosh, your lil' girl is so pretty. I really am a sucker for black/white fishies


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Huffle! Yeah, I am too! That's why we're breeding her and Osiris! They're going to make some beautiful babies and maybe by then you can have one if you've got room ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg for some reason all my muscles are so sore! Probably from wearing my flip flops all week and last week so it's been stressing out my muscles and making me feel like poop!

So I've also realized just how much I enjoy fostering animals, that's probably why I could successfully foster those kittens last year without getting too attached. In fact the only fish I'm attached to is Remmy and Dario, the rest of them are meh lol. Isis is close but only because she's my breeder. Aero and Hawkeye are fine but I'm starting to become detached as it doesn't look like Aero may last too long. Following the pattern of Huffle_Puffles Ramses (may he SIP) and BL1313's Dragoon, possibly two-three more months for him. His cyst is growing fast, he's got another on the other side, same type and another one starting to protrude down towards the middle of his swim bladder. poor boy. Hawkeye doesn't look so good either :-/ His scales look more pronounced, not like Dropsy but like suddenly over night he aged 2 years or something....I've dosed the entire 20 with 1 tsp/gal Epsom since he's also a little bloated and I hadn't seen him poo in a while. So far it's been helping, I put it in last night and he and Aero were pooing when I got home so that's good, most likely just a blockage in his tract.

So I was going to get Sparkling Gouramis as I gave my Honey's to Lucillia for her 40 breeder, both hoping they'd help stimulate her GBR's into breeding and because she loved the male lol. But I was going to downsize the 29 to a 20 divided but I'm rethinking that now and I instead just bought a trio of Valliant's Chocolate Gourami after a bunch of reading! They'll be here Wednesday afternoon! I'd love to breed the too since they're much more rare than your typical gourami, I just hope they like my water! Everything seems to match but one can never know for sure.


----------



## Fenghuang

Poor Aero. ): Paimon had a cyst just like that behind his gill plate. At first, he swam funny and we thought he was blind in one eye because of excessive dragonscaling. Then, we noticed a growth and it gradually grew bigger and bigger. Soon, he mostly laid on his side and only swam for food or to breath. He clung on for a very long time. At least he is at peace and no longer suffering now. At least they had a comfortable life and were loved and taken care of and cherished. We can only do some much for our bettas in the short time they are with us.

I like those gouramis too.  Keep us updated!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Feng! Yeah, I'm holding on as long as he does!

Here's to hoping the Gourami's come alive! I've opted for next day shipping as they are more sensitive and WetSpot doesn't like to argue about shipping apparently....geeze, if the customer wants to pay Priority shipping and deal with it, let them! :roll: sucks they don't offer Priority in the winter because they never use heat packs.....how inconvenient....I also hate their $24 minimum purchase requirement, stupidest thing ever especially when they offer lower priced bids on aquabid and then turn around to tell you that you need to buy more from them. Seriously people, learn to do business better! But I'm happy to be getting these fish!

Looking at Luci's 40 Breeder log, the Honey's have colored up amazingly! It's only been like a day and a half and they don't even miss the 29 haha Hell, I don't blame them though! Her angel is the cutest damn thing ever and I so badly want to foster an Angelfish but....where the heck would it go after? Rehoming angels are a little more difficult than Bettas. I have started to plan for the tank that will be in mom's living room and basically it's going to be a group of Pearl Gouramis, possibly an Angel if I get a large enough tank! And then most likely Rummynose Tetras and some cory, most likely False Julii's since they are just the cutest things ever besides my c. habrosus! But I've always wanted the Pearl Gouramis, the males get BEAUTIFUL as they age and their fins elongate!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Whew busy day! Spent the morning yard sale-ing, I got a cute little Hen and Chicks plant that we'll plant outside soon, it apparently does well around here so we just need to find a good place for it to be able to grow and populate without too much issue. Mom and I planted our planters today and the hanging baskets with flowers, I got severely bit up by mosquitoes >.> oh and found a regular tick on me >.< reasons I hate spring.

Got some lovely pictures of the flowers today but those will be my next post. This one is for the fishes. I fed Mysis Shrimp today and most of the fish loved them, at least the ones that could swallow them lol. Fantastic food but hard for the micro-fish to eat them up.

I forgot to say that Azazel is home with me, unfortunately with an infection in his ventral fin that was bitten off by one of the tetras. He's on KanaPlex and Epsom Salt for his fatness at the moment lol he's doing well seemingly though! Steele is instead at school for the time being! I have someone interested in him and Kili is leaving Tuesday as well for his forever home with Pony! Plants will be shipped out Tuesday as well since I forgot about the holiday this Monday and the post not being delivered!

Pictures!

He's developing more and more every day! He's absolutely beautiful! Not the best formed Snakeskin for his markings but still beautiful nonetheless.


Here is Pierce today


And with Hawkeye


Azazel says hello


Isis today


Aero




River has been doing better




Her and Black Hawk got into a flare session today lol, they're adorable together!



And Black Hawk before flaring



And after:


----------



## lilnaugrim

And pretty plant pictures because I can!
These were after watering.



Poor flower was a little too wet! It dried off better as the night went on though and perked up




Looks like it's sticking its tongue out 


Yellow Iris, looks like a duckbill!


Water on the Daffodil leaves


From a small Japanese Maple near the driveway


Wisteria!


View of our backyard!


Part of our driveway and that young Japanese Maple


Good enough to be in a Calendar or for a laptop background!



Beautiful colors!



My Hen and Chicks!


And my mom being silly after two stems broke so we cut them to put them in a vase but she said they looked like eyes and did this lol


And last but not least! Our Unofficial flower of Rhode Island; the endangered Pink Lady Slipper! It is very illegal to pick them or harm them in anyway! We've actually got a few growing around the yard, they take a very long time to actually grow and are from the Orchid family. They prefer shaded areas and unfortunately the deer tend to eat them >.> delectable dessert I guess! But each plant can live to be around 20 years old! They are tubers and require a fungus to grow, otherwise they die out with no food source!


----------



## jennandjuicetm

7Is your Dario a Dario dario or a Dario hysginon. He is so cute!


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## lilnaugrim

He's a Dario Dario, you can tell because he's got the stripes. Dario Hysginon is normally solid red colored.


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## Sabina88

Wow black hawk has been doing fantastic, he looks like a whole new fosh then when you first got him. 
I love the second pic of Aero, his pectorals are pretty. Is the green on them iridesence or coloring?
And good job with your flower pics they came out awsome. Are the top two azalea's?


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! Yeah, he's really grown! His body is still tiny much like Remmy's but he seems fairly young, less than 8 months old I'd guess since he was at the LFS for a few months of that time. I'll post a before and after pic soon!

Aero's pectorals are colored turquoise and then inherently turquoise is irid so it's both coloring and irid on them ^_^

No, they aren't Azalea's, they are all annual flowers, Azalea is a bush. I believe they are a kind of Geranium if my google search yields true lol.


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## jennandjuicetm

Dario is so cute!


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## lilnaugrim

Whew! So I've sold a lot of plants but 5 more bunches are still remaining!!

Short update today as I'm headed to a party shortly!

Azazel unfortunately died this morning :-( he was fine when I woke up and then just slowly drifted down an hour later, I took him home too late and I feel stupid since I saw his ventral getting shorter at school but figured someone was biting it but the infection just spread too quickly. I know I shouldn't feel completely lost at this but if only I'd taken him home sooner to treat him 

Everyone else is doing well though, Aero is slowing down a little bit and Hawkeye is super grumpy. I've put Kili in fresh water in the heated 3 before he goes out on Tuesday.

I wasn't able to catch Honey Blue Eyes before when I gave the gouramis to Luci so I was finally able to catch her today! Funny story though because I let Tiger out figuring that he could chase her out for me....the silly boy made FRIENDS with her! He flared at first and then just was like 'oh whatever, you're harmless' and went about his way, she felt him with her feelers and went back into hiding. I was like....seriously?!?! well there goes that plan! I eventually just uprooted all the plants on the ledge and netted her from there, she's in the breeder box to go to Luci's tomorrow. Tiger is still happily roaming the 29 gallon ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

Very sorry to hear about Azazel, you did what you could for him. It's hard telling how hurt or sick our fish are. S.I.P. Azazel.

Glad that everyone else is doing well and that you caught your Blue-Eyed Gourami!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks, it just stinks because the professor at school and one of her grad students really liked him and marveled that he would come straight up to me when I tapped on the glass, it didn't matter where he was but he heard and would come zooming up to see if I had food! It really impressed them lol he was so beautiful too :-/ I just hope it's not something in the tank there and that Steele is fine...we'll see tomorrow....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was just laying in front of my 29 for a while, I was able to count all 6 Otos, 11 C. Habrosus, 6 Gelius Barbs and all 16 Ember Tetras along with three visible Rabbit Snails out of five and two MTS who have still decided not to breed....I really need them in my 20 to help aerate the substrate! It's becoming anaerobic and I may have to redo it AGAIN to top with a different substrate, most likely some gravel from Walmart since that worked well for me before. But anyway, 1 Tiger was spotted ;-), 1 HBE's, 1 Dario Dario, 2 female Guppy fry, 1 Mama Guppy and 1 Tiger Endler all spotted in the tank tonight! So practically everyone in the tank! That's pretty good :-D

Apparently my 20 now has Ich.....I've replaced the heater and am bumping it up to around 86-88 degrees tonight to get rid of it. I saw it originally on Aero but very small cyst, not like your typical Ich it seemed? I guess I've never really seen regular Ich though since none of my fish ever really had it. But when I came home I saw small white dots of Pierce as well but none on Remmy or Isis. Either way the heat will help them and I shouldn't have taken it out so early in that tank since it's been sitting steadily at 68-69, granted it's stable, just low for them. They're appreciating the heat now though.

Kili is happy in the 3 gallon, he's going out tomorrow morning to Pony!

Black Hawk is still growing his tail amazingly! River is doing much better since in QT and divided with Black Hawk, I think the little bit of stimulus helped them both out so I'm happy!

And apparently my Bumblebee Goby has found Guppy tails to be a delicacy....half of my guppy fry look like they have lyretails now or a swordtail :roll: doesn't look like he's eaten many more but he refuses both grindal and white worms every time I try to feed him so seems like he's done a fine job eating on his own. He seems to take some flakes occasionally as well *shrug* idk!

Plants are going out tomorrow as well....THANK GOD! My tanks are literally over run with Myrio! I love it but I'd like space for my other plants too lol good to know I'll have a good business in selling Myrio for the rest of my fish career! lol


----------



## beautiful Betta

sorry to hear about Azazel, he was a stunning looking boy.


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## Fenghuang

I'm sorry about Azazel. That is very sad to hear. 

The good news is, ich is usually fairly simple to treat if you catch it early. I hope all of the guys make a fast recovery.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh yes, I know! I'd rather treat ich than columnaris any day of the week! Looks like it wasn't ich though...maybe some air bubbles, idk! But they are happier with the heat again.

Kili is being shipped out today along with four packages of plants! Phew and I still have five more bundles of myrio! 

So I was an idiot and forgot my laptop charger at home but completely forgot I had my tablet with me! I haven't used it in like three months lol but I'm thankful I have it today! But I got more rows done on my moms blanket so its still a productive day!


----------



## Kaffrin

Yes yes, I understand exactly what that looks like! During water changes my own would like to "play" under the stream and be left with bubbles on them sometimes x3 it's adorable, but it does catch one off guard sometimes!


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## lilnaugrim

Well not exactly like that. They really were white dots, raised dots too. I don't have a HOB filter in that tank, just sponge filters so there aren't many little bubbles, even when I fill the tank, I do so with a cup and a bucket. Fill the bucket with fresh water, condition and then scoop out with a cup, lower cup into water completely and gently pour out so I don't disturb the substrate since it is an NPT.


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## lilnaugrim

I wish I could say all that I want to here but I fear for my friendships here and I don't want to ruin any of them so I will reserve everything. It's just been a frustrating week is all, no more to be said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the other side, a lot has been happening this week and I don't even know if I can recall it all!

Steele and Tiger are sold! They will be going to a lovely person next week along with a bunch of plants ^_^ I think it still leaves me with 2-3 bundles of Myrio though!

I got my gouramis in and OMG they are the cutest ever! I would love to attempt to breed them one day....I _think_ I have 2 females and 1 male....maybe, not sure yet lol. 

Pics from last night:

Pierce is NOT happy for some reason. There is 1 tsp/gal Epsom salt in the 20 right now because of possible internal parasite issues and Hawkeye looked like he was starting to pinecone so I don't think Pierce is very happy with it.....
She's a full grown lady now though! She just stayed here, pouting...sorry for the algae marks, I haven't done my weekly glass cleanings yet.


She hasn't been actively eating either which worries me, could also be the heat since I put the heater back in but it's only at 78-79 soo....I really don't know!


Hawkeye looks terrible. I QT'd him after this for his fuzz on his anal fin. Doesn't look like columnaris but more like Saprolegnia and I'll see if Meth Blue can help him out. He ate before this but even still, his belly doesn't go down too much which still makes me think parasites.


On the other fin, Isis looks fantastic! She's gotten a few more scales in over the few months I've had her. Excuse the crypts behind her, they'll be planted today most likely. They came from the 29 where I had no more space lol


Tiger has been super happy too! He's been loving the whole 29 gallon lol. Dario tried to give him lip but Tiger didn't really care XD He's got the bluest eyes too!



I changed the scape in the 29, did a nice water change too while I acclimated the gouramis.
Here's what I did originally


And apparently everyone wanted to have a gathering in this corner lol. Most likely just because it was the only thing floating


Trimmed everything down and got rid of some nasty bits of dead plants. I really like the front right now with the Ludwigia and the Pogostemon Erectus is doing pretty well! It's still acclimating to being submerged but so far it's doing pretty well! The water sprite is planted for the moment until I sell it....I have waaay too many!


And then all the crypts were placed on the ledge with the half buried vase everyone loves. The myriophyllum tuberculatum red is also doing well, it's got some algae on it but now that it's not touching the surface and getting so much light either the otos will eat it or it will die off hopefully.


And then I added the Manzanita branch again! I like how it looks like this, the fish really seemed to like it as well! The barbs in particular


A nice closer pic of it


Embers


The cats, otos and snails really like the oak leaves I put in there for a leaf litter under the driftwood. It's been in for about a week and a half now I think, so far so good, except it traps everything >.<


Fat cories and a Rabbit Snail juvie


Gourami time!!!! Welcome home to my trio of Vaillanti Chocolate Gouramis! I acclimated for an hour, very slow drip acclimation but I haven't taken out their original water yet. I did add a few drops of Prime to help with the ammonia built up and put in some Stress Guard to help out. So far so good. I tested their original water for pH which was a lovely 6.5 but mine is sitting at 7.0 and I want to hopefully lower it with the driftwood and oak leaves. I have to test my tap again because I forget what my stats were already >.<

Here is what I think is a male


And a female, she has a rounded dorsal and looks like hints of green coming on. Also apparently the females have their lower jaw stick out more than males will.


They were enjoying the Myrio I put in for them.


Lower I think is a female and upper is a male....I think....


Tiger came up to say hello and then flare at her lol


She followed him though


Faint vertical stripes coming on which she should develop once shes old enough and is more comfortable. That horizontal line is always there, it isn't a stress line like in bettas, it's their coloration ^_^


The gouramis will stay in QT for a while, more so that they can get comfortable with the fish in the tank and grow up a little more since they are small. I want to get them eating and comfortable with me first before they go in.


----------



## beautiful Betta

Hawkeye looked to me to have some small white spots on him, so yea I would treat for parasites. 

Good luck with treating him.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah that's what I was talking about, it's not Ich but in these pictures it looks more like Lympho and I really hope that it isn't. Granted, my healthy fish will fight it off but I don't want to deal with that, not after Aero's cysts already. I just hope that fuzz is actually Saprolengia as it is much easier to treat than other fungi. That patch of fin though has always looked a little funny honestly, it's always been thicker than the rest of his fins...idk!


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## beautiful Betta

From the picture I can only see the white spots, not sure what fuzzy bits you are referring to. But I guess you can see more with your actual eyes. To me it looks like normal white spot, I would probably just use a multi cure containing Malachite Green and Methylene blue and hoped that killed both of it. Obviously it must look different than what I can see from the picture.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Here I circled it. It does look more white in real life though, not Columnaris white but I've seen this before on Remmy a while ago. It's always been in the middle of the fin, never at the edges...quite interesting. I've always just gotten rid of it with AQ salt :dunno: did the trick lol. This was long before Hawkeye though (okay, not THAT long but still before him) and they were never in a tank together until now so it's not a reoccurance since it was well over a year ago.

Hawkeye is predispositioned for disease anyway, he's just reaching his year mark from PetCo and being taken home by his previous owners for roughly 4 months before I got him, he spent that time in a 1 gallon bowl with once a week 100% changes and no heater. So not the best start, I got him and he flourished, and then these passed two weeks he suddenly looked old which I'm not surprised since he is a PetCo baby and this is just about their life expectancy unless you are really lucky. And then he started to look like he was going to pinecone, I added Epsom for the parasites and he goes and gets this along with the white dots. I don't have super high hopes for him but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try for him! But I do realize that he had a not so great start but a pretty darn good middle at least!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And just going to leave this beautiful picture here. This is what it looks like from the Green Roof on fourth floor of my building ^_^ Please excuse the crane....what's a college campus without construction?!


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## Fenghuang

Omg, your tankscape is drool worthy. I love the branch. _Teach me your waaaaaays!_ Oh, and your gouramis look fantastic too.

That is really unfortunate about Hawkeye. He has the best care in your hands though, so that certainly improves his chances a whole lot more.


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## lilnaugrim

Ahaha! Thanks!!! I just can't wait for everything to grow in and then I can make more money off the trimmings! lol Mostly though I just look at scaping ideas on other sites and google and see what I like. I have a whole folder of potential scapes that I like lol The branch was just a last minute: "Oh! I has an idea!" and then it looked good haha

And thanks about Hawkeye, I decided on Quick Cure to treat him which has Malachite Green and Formalin. Pics up next!


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## Fenghuang

Well, it looks great. And ithe male gourami has some competition for the female's affection, haha. Tiger looks like he is totally trying to flirt with her. xD

Hopefully he feels better real soon. I don't know what is up with my fish though. >>


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## lilnaugrim

So weird, I've never seen this before, it's like the fin just peeled off..huh


He's not looking terrible :dunno:



I put Black Hawk where Hawkeye was, this was literally the ONLY picture I could get of him as he kept whipping back and forth flaring at Aero lol he seems to like exploring the plants otherwise though!


Isis and her judging face lol


Doesn't look like the glosso is doing much...


All three gouramis seem very happy, they were chasing the tetras through the glass which is weird since they are supposed to be very shy fish! One of the males was flaring at Tiger...at least I think it was a flare lol


And since I'm taking care of Linda's tank at school I figured I'd get her a new center piece fish since her last two died, it was two very old Swordtail females. And Steele will be leaving and Azazel died >.< So originally I was going to give her a Gold Gourami (3 spot) but then upon further research apparently they enjoy and do best in groups of at least 3....so I ended up finding these cuties, they are Painted Green Platies....I say they're blue lol. But yes I understand the "green" thing. I was trying for all males but I think the part Mickey Mouse is a female the more I look at her.


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## Sabina88

I saw 5 of these guys yesterday and it made me think of you since you were condsidering them :lol: :-D


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## Sabina88

All of your fish look awesome 
Black Hawk has come so far. He and Isis almost look like siblings from those two photos.

My fingers are crossed for Hawkeye. Hopefully it will be a fast fix.
Im not sure why but the picture of the fuzz makes me think of a dandylion that has the fuzzy seeds lol


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## Rosencrantz32

Awww!! The chocolate gouramis! I really want to have a tank with them some day! I'm happy you got them because that means I'll get to see lots of pictures of them (please?  ) and learn from your experience. I wish you the best of luck!!

Also, I think I've mentioned this before, but the pictures you post of your backyard and driveway seem unreal to me. As in everything looks unbelievably green and gorgeous. It's almost impossible to find that much green in one place down where I'm at >.< lol


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## lilnaugrim

Haha! It does look like a dandelion though ^_^

OMG, I never really actually see the newts around here! I wonder if you could catch some and I could meet up with you somewhere to get them? They'd be totally fine in a 10 gallon quite I get the paludarium set up! Would you be willing to? It's okay if you can't or don't want to! It will just save me a few bucks is all lol

I'm actually thinking it would be cool to breed Isis and Black Hawk if Remmy doesn't work out. He's a HM and she's a CTPK so I'd get hopefully some Halfsuns or something like that lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Rosencrantz32 said:


> Awww!! The chocolate gouramis! I really want to have a tank with them some day! I'm happy you got them because that means I'll get to see lots of pictures of them (please?  ) and learn from your experience. I wish you the best of luck!!
> 
> Also, I think I've mentioned this before, but the pictures you post of your backyard and driveway seem unreal to me. As in everything looks unbelievably green and gorgeous. It's almost impossible to find that much green in one place down where I'm at >.< lol


Well they aren't the normal Chocolate Gouramis, they aren't as sensitive as the regular Chocolate Gourami. My guys are Vaillanti Gouramis aka Samurai Gourami or Vaillant's Gouramis. But I will certainly keep everything updated with the ongoings of these cute little guys!

And thanks! It really is that green too! lol I would never give it up here, it's really so beautiful and I try to treasure it as much as I can!


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## Sabina88

I unfortunetly don't live close enough to you. Your a couple of states away from me, I would be happy to if we were closer though. 
I find its best to look for them right after it rains that's when they all come out. I usually find them on the edge of yard or ocasionaly in the yard. But then again we might get a lot since we have a brook by our house. Maybe you might be able to find some if you look after it rains. 

I think Black Hawk and Isis would be a good pairing. They would make interesting fry.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I know but I drive to New Hampshire easy in just two hours lol Unless it's Northern Maine then probably not but I don't mind driving to your town or so if it's not _that_ far. 

We could always ship them! They just need small holes that they can't escape out of but can breathe :dunno: lol you probably wouldn't be comfortable with that though, would you?

Yeah, I did read that about them but I've still never seen any before but I'll try looking next time and hope I don't get another tick bite!!! lol


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## Sabina88

I would be open to thinking about shipping since your not that far away but ill have to wait for it to rain again anyway. Ill think about it and let you know 

There not always the easiest to find so you have to look carfully and walk slowly, but another tip when looking for them is to look were there's were theres wet leaf littler. I find that them a lot near, under or on top of it.


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## lilnaugrim

Our entire woods are leaf litter so I'll certainly try! I could have easily 10 in the 33 without issue so I wouldn't mind starting off with only a few! And yay! I would be so excited if we could! I'll pay the shipping of course and do some more research on shipping salamander/newts :-D oh this makes me so excited! Ack! I've got so much work to do!!! lol


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## Sabina88

haha 

I found this article on shipping newts that pretty helpful. Ill deffinitly do more research on it too
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/shipping.shtml


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## lilnaugrim

I figured it would be fairly simple! I have a bunch of those insulation boxes at work that I could put in a box and send to you to send back to me with the easterns in it ^_^


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## Sabina88

That might work 

Ill let you know soon what I decide


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## beautiful Betta

Going back to hawkeye, after seeing that last picture I knew I had seen that before somewhere and after doing a search I think he has Saprolegnia, I found a thread on it and one image is pretty much identical to that fluffy ball he has. Here is the link, you will need to scroll nearly most of the way down the page past the Columnaris section to reach the Saprolegnia section.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/columnaris.html


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I had said he had Saprolegnia lol but thanks anyway. I'd just never seen the bit about the fin tearing off like that as if it were a layer but I've seen Saprolegnia before aplenty. His fin is still the same thing morning as well, dosed another drop of Quick Cure.


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## lilnaugrim

So! First things first:

I just found and talked with the lady that lives ten minutes from my house, she has a tank up for sale for originally $100 that comes with tank, stand, filter, hood, gravel, equipment, heater, and even two little zebra danios :roll: but the tank is 44.8 gallons! It's 36 long, 24 high, 12 inches depth so it fits near our chimney but far enough away it won't effect the tank in the winter when it's running. I got it for $80 though as they are moving. The only thing I'll replace right away is the gravel though, everything else seems decent and we're picking it up tomorrow but can't set it up for a while since we need to get rid of the Piano first which is where the tank will be.....

Gouramis are doing fantastic! They gladly slurped up white worms and ate pellets too! I was extremely shocked but so so so grateful! They're chasing the other fish through their tank and Tiger visits often to make sure they're still there lol

All other fish are doing well, returned the Golden Gourami today as well as that female platy and got a male for Linda's tank instead. They'll go in when I take Steele home to go out for adoption! That will be next Thursday as I won't be in work Friday. Originally I was going on a Friday-Friday vacation for a week with another great friend but we decided to leave on Saturday instead after I already told my boss I'd need that Friday off too so instead of working I'm going to take that day to do a bunch of tank work and hopefully take apart the 33 gallon. I found a guy on craigslist doing resealing work, I haven't contacted or anything but if my experience goes badly at least I know I can get someone else to do it lol

I went out looking for some Efts today but found none, got bit up by mosquitoes though >.> I did pick up some great mosses and I'm hoping I can actually grow them. I'll try twice a day misting since I think I have some Fern Moss, Cushion moss and...something else lol Here's a picture of my mini moss garden! Sorry for the cell pic, the one in the back and on the right is the same, I think that is the cushion moss. Then dark green I think is the Fern and then don't know what the one in front is


And Hawkeye is still hanging on. The part that ripped off I can see is now split off the anal fin whereas before I thought it peeled off like a layer, it actually fully split the fin. He's got some more fuzz on his other fins though so I'm going to do a Potassium Permanganate bath tonight and then back into the Quick Cure. He's still eating and swimming around, just looking a little more miserable.


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## Sabina88

Just a tip for growing your moss if you haven't already thought of it, is to use your fish water. I water all of my currently potted plants with my fish water and they've been doing really well. Maybe that might help the moss grow better. Oh also if you have any soil that worms live in, that's really good for plants also


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## lilnaugrim

Ahah Smaug! I actually still have my keyboard, it's around 10 years old but still works like a charm! Of course, nothing like a real one, wish I had a 88 key weighted keyboard but I'd have no place to put it! But thanks! ;-) I still have the FAC pianos i can play on! 

And yes Sabina, I use a spray bottle full of conditioned fish water since I need to use that for my worm cultures (not putting the moss on those though lol) but when I need to use more water I just take the turkey baster and take from the fish tanks usually the 1 gallon bowl or the QT tanks and then I refill from the 29 as that one is the easiest to refill with bath conditioned water ^_^


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## Sabina88

That's a good system 

You've actually inspired me, I really wanted to plant some of my potted plants today but its raining out and was getting dark. Lol I decided to do it anyways, and I found a garder snake too. It smelled gross but it was still cool. Anyway now that I have 2 free containers I think I might try growing some moss and maybe some wild flowers in those or something like that.


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## Lucillia

Lil I'm going to bring you some lupin seeds and I want you to make them grow!!! That would be fantastic. Every time I try they die


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## lilnaugrim

Sure Luci! I just did a light research on them and seems simple enough!

Did I mention I'm also growing some Alyssum and ornamental grass in my window sill? My room has perfect lighting for growing plants indoors of all sorts! Everything from high light to low light! The Alyssum are sprouting fantastically, already almost an inch in only four days! The ornamental grass has yet to sprout but I'm sure it takes longer time as grass does tend to take a little longer to initially seed.

All my other plants are doing fantastic, after a bit of an issue with my Mini Adam Ivy it's finally doing fantastic in direct light, same with my Peperomias but my Fittonia isn't so happy, it's alive just not happy. My Lily is flowering! (big surprise :roll: they're so easy to grow even neglected lol). All my succulents are fantastic, one has nearly doubled in size! Dracanae is growing steadily, unknown dracanae is also doing well. Dracanae in my filter is doing well along with the two stems of philodendron and then moss is still alive! lol I think that's everyone plant-wise!

Had a wedding to attend for my friend who I literally grew up with! We're pretty much like cousins so it was fantastic to see him get married and the wife is great too! Reception was great fun! My mom was the DJ so it's always a good time with her since she's really good at what she does!

Night night for now!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh wow, I just realized that my journal has over 2,000 posts! And most of it is whining about something! lol

I had a Cory die last night, looked like it's barbels became infected and died. All the rest look fine but now uncomfortable in the higher heat. I've added a Versa Glass top as of Friday and it's doing a fantastic job of keeping the heat in and keeping my bedroom much less humid! Which means my heater won't work as hard either. But I know the cories like less heat so I was trying to find something that will work in higher heat, there are some but they are larger and I'd prefer to stay small so idk what I'm going to do! I'll think of something, I think I have 10 left now.

Gouramis are eating well on NLS Grow pellets ^_^ I'm very happy.

Tiger has colored up amazingly and has been so very happy in the 29 all now. He'll be going with Steele to a member here :-D

Weekend was busy, Saturday we went to breakfast with my grandpa since his birthday was on Friday so we bought him three Bismarks which he absolutely loves :-D and then we hit some yardsales and picked up my 44 gallon tank! woot woot! It's a bit of a mess but it's a strong tank so I'm excited! I want to make a 3D background for that too! And then I went to my childhood friend's wedding! Amazing still that he's getting married honestly lol, he's so much like his father and his wife is much like his mother....at least we know what the future holds lol. The reception was fantastic, my mom DJ'd as usual since that's her side job.

Sunday, went to church and then went to help my dad move! He's officially moved! I really need to get my butt in gear and get my stuff out! I keep forgetting I need to sell off my guitars and amps first and then get another IKEA shelving unit and then put the 33 in my room after it's all set and done with and THEN I can get the livestock....ugg, this is going to take a while >.<

Hopefully I'm getting Siberian over to my mom's house sometime this week....I really hope she allows me to keep him. What more can I offer? I've offered everything and I know she's just afraid that she'll have to take care of him but does she not realize that I'm way more responsible than I was as a kid? Sure I didn't feed the chickens all the time but I feed my tanks every single day and sometimes twice! I can take care of my cat darn it!!

Anywho, Hawkeye is still alive and doing okay. I did the PP and AQ salt bath Sunday morning and need to do another one today. It helped getting rid of the initial fuzzes but they came back after a while. That strip that was falling off did fall of so he's got a lovely split anal fin now. He's still eating like a champ and pooping just fine so that's good. He's been in the Quick Cure for four days now I think? No real improvement other than after the bath time so I'll do that okay in hopes he'll be fine!

Guppies are growing very well, Bumblebee ate one of my shrimp so I'm down to one :roll: not even going to think about replacing them. My two breeder Snakeskin guppies are in the 1 gallon bowl planted doing decent as well! Everyone seems to be in good spirits so that's great for me ^_^

Here, have a picture my dad took of us at the wedding, my dad, myself and my little brother ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Oh gosh....attack of the allergens! I'm dying.....

Anyway! Yesterday did a nice water change on the 3 gallon and switched around my aquascape. I'm going to put the gouramis in there after I modify the hood to put that back on and still fit the filter proper. I'd prefer the gouramis not have to fight for their food since they really aren't that voracious and I'd rather keep them alive! Besides, my 3 gallon has a much lower pH due to the soil and driftwood branches I've just thrown in! So hopefully that female colors up soon! Everything is backwards in this species! lol the female initiates the mating, male holds (mouth brooder) and the male is the one that is bland where the female is very bright and much more dominant! I have one female to two males I do believe. I have a pair for sure, I just hope they don't hurt the other male as sometimes that happens but generally it's not to death, they just shoo him out of their way.

Hopefully soon I can sell the guppy fry as a wholesale deal thingy and get some good money off my little snakeskin pair! And then the tiger endler is going to a member here, if that backfires then he's just going to go to the LFS with the female mama guppy too. Maybe I'll bring her tomorrow since she's gearing to pop any day now and I don't feel like dealing with more guppy fry >.< 

Hawkeye is still alive, not very happy but he's alive. No real improvement from what I've seen so far but nothing is getting worse either so...we'll see.

Black Hawk has been ruling his little space in the 20 lol, he just flares at Aero and goes about his business.

Pierce has been very lethargic as of late and I really don't know why! She's seemingly healthy physically! She ate enthusiastically for the first time today in two weeks, she would eat before but it wasn't with the same gusto that she had previously. The only ones who aren't effected by anything are Isis and Remmy....for that I am glad!

Aero's cyst is still growing steadily :-(

Isis has grown a lot since I got her I realized!

River the other baby is still doing well although she hasn't grown much....damn you PetCo!

Tiger looks ammmmaaazing! He's fully colored up, his black undercoat is fully solid now that he isn't stressed! He looks really really good!

Bumblebee goby is steadily picking off my guppy fry, I started with ~30 and am down to ~19 that I can count at one time lol, he also at my shrimp which I think I said before, just have one left now which is fine.

Cleaned out the 44 a bit yesterday, just need to rinse out and wipe it down with alcohol and it's good to go technically but we need to get rid of the piano so that gives me to time to think about what kind of background I might want to do!


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## Sabina88

Im sorry to hear about pierce and black hawk. My fingers are crossed for them.


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## lilnaugrim

No, Black Hawk is fine lol. Pierce is the one lethargic


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## Lucillia

It could just be a petco baby thing. :/


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## lilnaugrim

I do think it is, although Hawkeye never went through this phase until now technically. He was always a spunky fish with energy! But I do blame PetCo and their dastardly cute babies!!! Soon though, we will have dastardly cute babies of our own though! lol No stunting for those babies!!!


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## Lucillia

Exactly! I really wish we didn't sell them that young. And ours will be beautiful! and hopefully they will never have issues later on like the petco ones!


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## lilnaugrim

They won't! Or at least most of them won't ^_^ I'm nervous but I can't wait at the same time!


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## MattsBettas

You guys will have perfectly healthy babies! Just fill them with good food and do tons of water changes... You practically already know what your doing. 

And that selfie tho haha.


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## Sabina88

lilnaugrim said:


> No, Black Hawk is fine lol. Pierce is the one lethargic


Lol i dint notice i wrote black hawk instead of hawk eye


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt!!! Knowing what you're doing and actually doing it can be two very different things though!! But knowledge is half the battle, right?

And yeah, that selfie XD that's my dad for you! He likes to take selfies every now and then XD He took his phone out and was like "say cheese!" it was well before the wedding anyway but I was oh like, "Oh! Surprise picture!" lol

And no worries Sabina, I figured as much ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Busy day yesterday! Luci and I went out again lol, big surprise there. But with her recent addition of Clouse the beautiful and sassy fancy goldfish who had been beaten up by the koi, she needed the T. Sulfa I had so we made a day of it! We went up to her work, a PetCo because they'd finally gotten in the Celestial Pearl Danios! We both got six and her co-worker regrettably showed us a strange fish that came in with the CPD's and I identified it as some sort of Killifish! Well needless to say she came home with me since she was an adoption! Who passes up a rarer fish for a dollar?! She also bought another beautiful angel who we think is a girl, she's a beautiful Black and Silver Marble with absolutely gorgeous fins! I'm rather jealous and almost took her home myself if Luci didn't grab her first lol She could have hung out in my 29 until I get my 45 up!

Anywho, we went down to Warwick again after going to her house and visited the PetCo and PetSmart there, nothing really special there.

So when I got home, took my glass 2.5 and acclimated the CPD's and the Killifish to it and let them free, they were stressed as expected but didn't seem to mind anything else. I threw a bit of food in there to see if they'd take the micro pellets, they didn't but that's alright. I feed them grindal worms this morning and they took to those lovely!

I did some research and found out that I have a Golden Topminnow AKA the Golden Ear Killifish! It's native to the lower US, is an annual and generally a mop spawner although they will just throw their eggs in the substrate as well. Males will spar but nothing terrible ever happens. There is a trio on Ebay right now and when I get back from Vacation I think I might get them since I already have a female and she's bland but beautiful at the same time! She would look amazing in a beautiful tannin stained tank!

Pictures!

Aero first as he was being adorable ^_^ he was swimming frantically for food but stopped when I wanted to take pictures of him and he posed for me XD


He looked like he was trying to intimidate me but clearly it wasn't working lol. His cyst isn't any better, not that I expect it to be, just sucks.


His scales have been looking especially rough on this side, where it looks like dark blue there.


Derp I hit enter, I'll continue on the next post XD


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## lilnaugrim

My female gourami! You can see her stripes on the side but she won't color up until she's in a lower pH environment which is why they are going in the 3 gallon and much like Bettas, they have a lower bioload so it shouldn't be an issue until they get a little bigger. At present they are roughly just over an inch.


Pretty brown eyes!


And here's what the 3 gallon looks like at present. Switched out the plants for all my Java Fern, three windlov's and one regular although I want to get one more I think and then one Crypt Wendtii and one mother pygmy chain sword with two babies!


Some of my guppy fry, half of them are half blacks and the others are getting the snake skin pattern as the one in the upper left hand is starting to get! Just about this age I can start sexing them too more or less.


Look at how beautiful Tiger has gotten!!! He's a whole brand new fish now!


Beautiful irid!


While the Killi was acclimating Tiger was trying to get at her and show her who was boss :roll:


Even mama guppy got in on the action! haha


And my Killifish! As I said, she's nothing too special but she really does sparkle in the light! Very beautiful for a bland fish ^_^ the males have more red on them.


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## MattsBettas

Knowledge definitely is half the battle! It's really important, but believe me, you will develop your own sort of style and routine (that cant really be read up on) pretty quickly... If your at all like me, at least. 

What type of wood is that in the 3? Same one as in the 29, right?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the reassurance Matt!

And yes, that is Manzanita branches. They are not sandblasted so they still have the nice bark on them, safe for the aquarium. I broke them off the larger branch I have and tied them with thread so they stay together, it's like four-five different small pieces put together.


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## lilnaugrim

Did a fish shuffle today....Gouramis and CPD's (2 died) went into the 3 gallon. Bumblebee Goby went in with Black Hawk and the guppy fry went in with the Golden Ear Killifish in the 2.5g. So far so good with everyone!

I cut the hood of the 3 gallon so it could work with the filter now because the filter was too wide for the hole so I had to score the plastic of the hood and I ended up breaking my scissors >.< but the hood fits now! Much better light than the tiny LED was doing for it. AND my gouramis are safe! They actually aren't built for jumping and it's rare for the Samurais to jump but I'd rather not risk it anyway ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

And this morning all the CPD's are dead >.< If Luci's 3 are still alive she's going to give me those three and then get me five more to make a total of 8 in there...IF they stay alive. This time I'm drip acclimating them, I did acclimate them before but I was in a hurry so it wasn't as long as it could have been. The CPD's are also emaciated though so I'm sure that it's mostly the suppliers fault that these fish are not at their peak health. I just hope I can keep them >.< The gouramis are doing exceptionally well though!

Pictures!
Let's start with my 1 gallon NPT Bowl, sorry for the tied Myrio, that will be going out Saturday morning. But the plants are doing exceptionally well! Guppy pair is doing okay too, they mostly lounge as they really don't have much to do in there!


The boy, his pattern is really shaping up nicely! He'll make some beautiful babies yet!


Guppy baby in the 2.5, one of the males


Food time!!


I was mostly trying to photo the Killifish but she doesn't like to stay still!



River has been doing okay, she was stressed becuase I had this thing shining in her face lol otherwise she usually is more colorful.





One of my now-dead-emaciated CPD's, this one was starting to whirl and I knew she wouldn't last the night.


Two of the CPD's and the gouramis


The female gourami is definitely much more outgoing than the male is who is behind her hiding lol






Female


I love my plant growth! In just 7 days my tank has gone from this last week:


To this!!!
Granted the right side hasn't done much growth wise but that Ludwigia, water sprite and the parrots feather/myrio have been growing like crazy!


Another comparison of this spot last week:


And this week:


And the 20 looks like poo but I have given up on scaping it in any sort of way. I did a large 89% water change on it to get out most of the Epsom Salt I had in there.


Remmy was flaring around because he thought lights were going out soon, he didn't realize I put the strip on "Outlet Power" so the lights would stay on so I could take pictures lol. Sorry little dude!



And now a comparison of Black Hawk! I got him May 7th so June 7th will be his one month with me! Seems like I've had him for so much longer!
First day:


And last night:





I think he's more classified as a Black Orchid.


He got stressed though all of the sudden but then was fine after :roll:





Got a lot of him doing this pose lol


And then very stressed! Geeze, you'd think he was a baby the way he changes his appearance all the time!


Speaking of full grown babies! Here's Pierce, she's also stressed out and I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong with her!



She stayed like this for a while last night too...


Her ventrals are getting looooong though!


Isis!


Isis and Aero


Aero is too darn shiny! Can't get any good photos of him without shining a glare at me lol


He's such a cutie though, such a shame he's got those cysts 


Tiger!


----------



## Huffle Puffles

I'm going to start off by saying I'm still totally jealous of your tank decorating skills. ^_^ 

Second off you've done an amazing job on Black Hawk, he's looking great!!


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Huffle!!!! I guess it comes from just looking at lots and lots and lots of aquascaping pages! lol

And thanks! Yeah, he's a real cutie! Wouldn't mind a spawn of him and his kids either! But three pairs is enough for me! lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

Aero is so shiny! My goodness! Everyone is looking quite good, especially Black Hawk with the recovery he's made under your care! Love Tiger's coloring, especially in his fins and tail.


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## lilnaugrim

Isn't he?! My god he's like a diamond, so shiny that half the time I can't even look at him without getting a solar glare! hahaha!

And thanks! Yeah, I really love the grizzled effect of blue in Tigers fins! He really has made leaps and bounds for himself too! Black Hawk needs to grow a little bit more but he's doing so well! Thank you! :-D

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I keep forgetting to say that I'm going on vacation where we most likely won't have WiFi unless we want to pay for it so I won't be on until the Sunday after next! But hopefully I can pop in an say hi at least!


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## taquitos

Wow your fish are beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks taquitos!! :-D


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## Sabina88

I agree your tanks look amazing, I wish my plants grew like that lol.

Is it just the way Black Hawks fins are growing or is he a feather tail? He looks like completely different fish then when you first got him. Good job with him.

Do you think that maybe Pierce is stressed for some reason because of her neighbors? I hope she gets better fast though.


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## lilnaugrim

D'aww, thanks!

It's just the way they grow back, once he's fully settled in with his HM shape it will look normal. The fins don't grow evenly thus making it look like feathers ^_^ He also damaged the middle section of his fin apparently, it's the part that you can see two strips of iridescence right next to each other which kind of makes him look like a double tail too. But those fused together and didn't grow back correctly, it makes him unique though for sure!

As for Pierce, she has perked up a little bit today, no flaring though but she did eat well enough! I think it was the Epsom Salt for some reason since it was after that that she started to feel down, now that it's not in there or at least in very trace amounts she seems to be doing better but we'll see...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg, my shrimp just freaked me out. I was observing my two male Vaillanti Gouramis were sparing, the shrimp was next to them on the java fern. As soon as they were done sparing the shrimp jumped backwards and just sort of drifted to the bottom and then just laid on the substrate and stayed there kicking its little swimmerettes and moving its legs like he was dying!

After I sat there and watched and wondered what the heck it was, I had just put some oak leaves in so I wasn't sure if there as something on them but I finally figured out he's just molting again lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg, I'm exhausted. I've had this horendous headache all day which was not helped along by the fact that both my mother and father telling me that I can't keep Siberian (Luci, sorry for crying in front of you!). He's going to a no-kill shelter in CT come Tuesday, I am utterly heartbroken.

Luci and I went out as it is becoming a lovely weekly thing! We both wanted to get some live brine shrimp for our fishes so we went to one of our favorite stores to pick those up, she got three Julii cats for her 40 to start off with and will eventually bump up the school if they live through her Feather Fin Squeaker lol.

We returned the dead CPD's and got her money back, I rethought about getting CPD's for the 3 gallon as my gouramis seem very happy on their own (oh and that shrimp DID in fact die >.<). But I took her two remaining live ones and put them in with Remmy, he's seemed to ignore them for now so I hope that continues.

Fed them brine shrimp and by gosh, my fish had no idea what to do! They'd never seen live food that can actually swim! (Grindal worms and white worms don't swim) At first all my fish kept looking up, expecting pellets but after around four minutes of waiting they realized these little things were swimming around! On came the hunting and it was fantastic to watch. Everyone is nice and stuffed including Dario and my Bumblebee Goby! I'll feed the extras tomorrow more before I go off for vacation so they should be set for the week!

Thank god for little brothers who aren't as much of an arachnophobia as I am! I'm getting better about the little spiders but when you go down into the basement to do laundry and you see this ginormous Wood Spider sitting pretty on the laundry basket, you kinda freak out! :blueshake: I tried looking for the bug killer spray but I couldn't find it! Ran back upstairs to find Bobby and implore his help! He agreed thankfully, but when he saw it I could see he wasn't too happy either lol He sprayed it and the thing wouldn't die! I tried finding something flat to smoosh it with but I couldn't find anything as I was still sort of freaking out, he grabbed a spray paint can and used the top to smoosh it...ugg, gross!!! An adventure I'd care to NOT go on again!

Anyway, most likely last post for a week! We come back next Friday but Saturday is our annual Scottish Festival that my family and I work the Clan tent at and I wear a fantastic real Scottish dress! Gosh I love the sound of bagpipes played well! And Charlie Zahm! Mhmm! He's such a fantastic singer/guitarist and such a great guy! He always says hi to us and calls us by name which is always fantastic! He's a pretty bit celebrity in the Celtic world!

Anywho, good night all and have a fantastic week! Hope you don't miss me too much! haha ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Ahah! I say 'wicked' all the time so feel free to exploit it here anytime!! 

Yeah, Pierce is a full grown lady now and seemingly feeling better without the Epsom salt in the tank! She comes up and eats well now! That makes me feel better for sure!


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## Rosencrantz32

I'm so sorry about Siberian  I hope he finds a good family that will take very good care of him.

Have fun on your vacation!!


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## Fenghuang

I am so terribly sorry about Siberian. *hugs* If I could, I would hold on to him for you. That is heartbreaking. ):


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! Just got back from vacation a day early because the family I was with, my friend's great grandmother died last night around 4pm, she was 101 and a half! An amazing life if I say so myself but I felt so bad for them all, the four of them huddled in the master bedroom to cry together for a bit and figure out what they were going to do.

Well, the other highlights of the vacation were: we went to this amazing Malt (ice cream) shop on Sunday and went swimming. My first time on a water slide for real and I ended up breaking my foot when I entered the water and my foot slammed against the bottom of the pool.....although I didn't realize it was broken, thought it might have been sprained or something. Got a nasty cut on the top of my foot too, went to the hospital next day and got some x-ray's, yep, broken foot >.<

We did a lot of shopping around, or rather Marissa did since I sort of ran out of money early since I had to buy most of my meals and I don't have a lot of money to start off on. She felt bad for 1) making me go down the water slide and 2) my lack of money all around so she helped out and bought me some of the small meals like breakfast and stuff  it ended well.

We went to a science museum/aquarium thingy called ECHO! It was super cool and I got a bunch of pictures from it, I'll try to label what I remember!

A fat Eastern Newt!!!! This one is a female, fat and eggy it seems!


Look at that cute face! I hope mine won't be so fat but she's so cute!


Here's the male who was near her!!


A super beautiful Garter Snail, she was so cute just sitting there and basking in front of all the little kids looking at her ^_^ looks like she might be ready to shed but I only know a few small things on reptiles so don't take my word for it lol


I don't remember what this one was but it looks like it's some sort of Bass


A beautiful little Trout, not sure of the exact type



No idea what this guy was but he was adorable! He kept coming up and posing for me haha


Adorable little Sun turtle basking!


Another turtle who was happily basking and posing XD



Sleepy Axolotl!!!!


The Eastern Newts (Red Efts just the adult stage) and the Axies I squealed about most when I found them lol

Got home and Siberian is actually still here, is appointment is apparently next Wednesday! And all my fish are still doing well, even Hawkeye is still alive but not happy. The Killifish did die though :-/ looks like it might have been this morning though, still pretty fresh.


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg, rainy and crappy today. Fish are doing well although Hawkeye is not happy in the slightest, I can't be sure but looks like his fins are starting to melt....I've got to keep on with his baths although it's going to be difficult now that I've broken my foot >.>

I forgot to upload the two pictures from my cell when we first got there and the day we left! I love the mountains!


Same pic basically, moved over a little bit to the right though. The clouds looked like a avalanche slooooowwwwwlllly creeping down the mountains lol


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## Fenghuang

Ouch! I'm sorry about your foot. 

It looks like you had fun on your trip. Turtles are one of my favourite animals. Those are so cute.

It just started pouring and thundering here. There is a emergency flood warning in the area. Thankfully, the house is on a hill so even if it does flood, we don't have to worry too much.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Feng! Thankfully it hasn't been too painful today especially considering how much I was walking on it yesterday at our annual Scottish Festival!

------------------------------------------------------------------
My apologies for my lack of activity lately, although there doesn't seem to be an awful lot going on on the forum lately either or I'm just not noticing it lol. I'm still sort of in vacation mode so I'm trying to soak up as much as I can before I go back to work tomorrow.

Did a water change on Hawkeye today, Steele in his 2.5 and the planted 1 gallon. Topped off the 20 long, 3 gallon Gourami tank and the 29 when I used that water for Hawkeye's change. Everyone is still doing well, Aero looks a little rough for his age but he's doing okay! Remmy has been pretty active as of late, not sure why but I'm all for it! He's still got the two little Celestial pearl Danios in with him and he hasn't minded them at all, they keep to theirselves and he keeps to his so it works out well enough ^_^ 

Tiger, Steele and the rest of the plants were supposed to go out before my vacation but the lady never got back to me so I hope everything is okay with her, got to check in since last I knew she was soon to be out of the hospital but wasn't sure exactly when so I've got to check on that.

I still have tons of water sprite left, most are small mother plants now if anyone is interested, flat rate envelope is 5.85 and each plant is 3-4 dollars depending on size, most of them will be 3 dollars though.


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## lilnaugrim

Did a water change on the Vaillanti Gouramis 3 gallon..I'm wondering if I do have three girls, one is very dominant but she doesn't hurt them, just chases and shows off. They weren't happy that I sunk the oak leaves though, I'll have to gather some more to float again since they really enjoyed that! I fed bloodworms today and they were very cautious at first but once they gave a taste they went nuts for them!

My cup of bloodworms ended up on the floor when I tried to catch mama guppy >.< thank god they were frozen and not live worms lol, I was able to get them cleaned up since it's a hardwood floor (fake) but I was just like...Really?? :roll:

I moved the guppy fry to Aero's side although some got through the divider to Isis and she was chasing like crazy! Aero tasted but didn't eat, Isis eventually gave up as well. I have this one half black blonde guppy who has a beautiful blue almost iridescence to his fins!! It was amazing! I hope he actually grows up! lol

Everyone is still alive and well although Hawkeye's back half is starting to become a little paralyzed like and I'm fighting with myself if I want to euthanize him or not, he's still eating well but his fins are deteriorating and nothing I'm doing seems to be helping! I even did a 50% change on him again today and added PP to his water, half dose since it's not a bath. I don't know what to do with him :-/ I guess I'll just let him be for a while and see if he gets any better....sigh.

Pics up next.


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## lilnaugrim

Aero's looking rough but still alive.


I have no idea what happened to his scales but when I came home he looked like he aged over night! Same thing that happened to Hawkeye :-/ his cyst doesn't look too bad though


I love that little face! He's so adorable!


Aero and Black Hawk


The little boy is doing fantastic!



Classic Isis pose ^_^


Waiting for her bloodworms


Happily fed but wishing for more


I love her fins!



Pierce is still not happy



I think this is one of the submissive ladies.


Dominant female




Dominant female on the right and male on the left....I think....


My 29 is a little over grown lol but I like it ^_^



Ember tetras eating bloodworms, the cories came out later to clean up that bottom!


Tiger has added some color!



That half black blonde in the middle is the one with the blue fins! He's beautiful!




Some snakeskins are coming out too like the one on the bottom right


Love their little faces!


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## Sabina88

Sorry to hear about Hawkeye and Aero, fingers crossed that they will do well. How long have you had Hawkeye for?

Everybody looks amazing  Im surprised Tiger got some red on him especialy that deep but I think it suites him. Both he and Blackhawk have come a long way in your care, good job with the both of them :-D. I cant wait to see Blackhawk once his fins are completely grown back, I bet they will look amazing. 

Your guppies are absolutely adorable. I love little baby fish faces. Do you think youll keep the half black blonde one?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina! I was surprised too about Tiger but I agree, it does suit him well ^_^

I've had Hawkeye since last August, he was approximately four months old then but he was also not full grown because of unintentional lack of care from previous owner, that doesn't help his situation. He was still alive this morning when I left, but sleeping on his boat. It's actually adorable because he sleeps on the deck of the boat ornament and will rest under the sail part where there is a hole.

As for the guppies, I'm going to be giving all those babies to my LFS along with mama guppy, the other stray guppy who is practically all colorless (I dislike colorless females) and the Tiger Endler if no one wants him. I've enjoyed the guppies while I've had them but I would rather not have to focus on them so much. The snakeskin pair I will attempt to sell on ebay/aquabid for a good price since they are show quality, the male looks absolutely beautiful now! I'll have to snag some pictures ^_^

Apparently we've got a Fish Society meeting tomorrow night, not sure which fish to bring along! I'd bring a Gourami but they don't look so nice stressed out :-/ maybe I still will though just because they aren't your usual fish. I was going to bring Dario but it seems many other people in the Society also have Dario Dario so that's not so exciting. So yeah, I'll probably bring a Gourami then.


----------



## BettaLover1313

I really hope Aero & Hawkeye get better. 

Isis is so pretty! Love her coloration!


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## DaytonBetta

I love the idea of a fish society. I wish we had one close by. 

Your planted tank looks beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Dayton! Yeah, it's pretty exciting although I don't feel super inclusive as they don't send out email reminds of events or really have a tight knit system but it's fantastic to meet the other fish keepers around us! Although they did chastise me for making fun of some of their plants >.< oh well lol

Yeah, Hawkeye is still alive, Aero is cool with the guppies now which is awesome! Everyone seems happy ^_^

I get to cull daphnia tomorrow which means they come home with me and I'll be feeding them to my fish! They will be so happy! I've been told I can cull 2/3 or 3/4 since there are so many! Maybe I'll try a culture too ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! I forgot to say our ladies are coming in today!!! I've got my two MG girls and Lucillia has her beautiful white Dragon ^_^ they are at the post office but I can't get them until I go home! Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you all :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So our girls came in yesterday!! I only have crappy cell phone pics I took for Lucillia but hopefully today I'll have some more pictures because they are beautiful!! Luci's snow white girl is gorgeous! My Mustard girl is much bigger than expected....I hope Remmy can wrap her! But she seems older, she doesn't have that "young" fish mentality it seems..idk, could just be me. The copper mustard girl is gorgeous too but slanted anal fin, too many rays, shorter body than expected....but she does have a great clean pattern that the other girl doesn't have as much....we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll have pictures tonight after my dentist appointment check up!

Went to the meeting last night, it was a pretty great meeting! Apparently it was election time but Luci and I abstained because we really don't know anyone yet so it would be silly to vote for people we don't know! It was pretty much all the same people running though lol. We had the bowl show as well, I brought Tiger and this other lady brought a Giant version of him! She claimed he was Double Crowntail but he only had a few small spikes, he was more a regular Double than anything but he was literally twice the size of Tiger....Tiger however was not intimidated by him and kept flaring at him all night! "Atta-boy Tiger!" lol Luci brought her male Honey Gourami, there was a lovely Lyretailed Molly, a Neon Tetra who was rather large and overall had super great form for a Neon! First place went to a large Cichlid which i don't remember the name for (the talk was on Cichlids mostly which is why she brought him in lol), second went to an adorable Ornate Bachir! And third was to the Giant Betta!

The talk was great, albeit a bit boring at times because he literally went over every single picture on the slide! When giving a presentation, plan to not talk about a picture or two on every few slides, that way the listeners can just enjoy it a little more because it did drag on a bit. But the talk was about Madagascar Fish and how many of them are in trouble because of deforestation from many years ago to now. 4% of their fish are already extinct and many are endangered, and vulnerable. There are efforts being made by a local named Guy Tam Hyoke, he's doing pond aquaculture and he's already made quite the come back for one of their fishes the Paratilapia and he's apparently got ~75 followers willing to help him out and repopulate their rivers/streams! Most of the issue comes about though with the tree's being gone, the rivers turn to mud and it kills out the fishes habitat so they not only have to repopulate the fish but they have to replant the tree's so the rivers can hopefully return to normal but that isn't going to happen unfortunately.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm a poop and didn't get pictures last night because I was too busy watching M*A*S*H and making strawberry daiquiri's....:roll: :lol:

But I promise! Today! Today I will get pics and maybe a video of Aero and his posse of Guppies and possibly Remmy and his new girl flirting! I've started conditioning Remmy and the new girl....I think lol. She's big....much bigger than I expected and so I'm trying to find out if he'll be able to wrap her or not because clearly he's not growing any more! But he seemed especially interested in her yesterday when I let them meet for the first time each in their own 1 gallons! He went seriously flare crazy from what I could see on the other side of the shelf. I couldn't go near the tank because he'd forego the girl to look at me and beg for food....I swear this fish.....lol

And I forgot the daphnia yesterday but I had a dentist check up appointment and from him, I am apparently perfect! haha, and then I visited SeaHorse because I haven't been in like a month and a half! I was looking at these gorgeous "Red" Panama Pleco's which were apparently just marbled Bristlenoses but they were only 9.99 which isn't terrible but I think I might just get one of their baby baby BN Pleco's for my 29 to help with the algae, the snails and otos can't even keep up with it!

I did however purchase a very small and very deformed little Panda Garra. I've been infatuated with these fish for quite a while and when they got babies in I was so excited but I never bought one since I never quite had the perfect tank for them because they like river stream typed tanks. However, I figured he might be happier in my 3 gallon with the abudance of algae, driftwood to graze on and an actual flow from the filter. So far the little dude is loving it! He settled in crazy fast and the gouramis leave him alone ^_^ he's just barely half an inch, they generally get around 4 inches but I doubt he'll even make it to 3 inches because of his spinal deformity and if he doesn't make it to their normal life span, I won't mind so much because I know I've given him a better life already than in the store with those baby pleco's who seemed to be tail whacking him every second they could get! I'm a sap I know!

Today I plan to stop by Critter Hut to just say hi basically and see what's in stock, I might buy some plants if I find something decent. Or if they have baby pleco's too. Hopefully I'll remember the daphnia today...I remembered to bring my brine shrimp net and a container so I hope I can remember because my fishes will love them to bit! lol, literally!

I think that's most of the "news"....unless anyone wants to buy my Copper Mustard girl off me....although I guess I can wait to see if Remmy can even wrap the new girl, if he can't then I'll have to use the Copper MG if he's still willing to breed. So far he's shown that even an older man still has some spring in his flare!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Also I am apparently the daphnia queen XD So you know how I've been taking care of the fish tank and daphnia at school? Well I went in to feed everyone today and Linda the professor was there with her grad student help and they were picking out the large daphnia from the small ones.

They looked up at me and just laughed, "We've never had this issue before!!" they exclaimed, apparently they have too many that they don't know what to do with! So I'm definitely taking most of them home today and they've recultured some of the big ones so I'm taking most of the babies and mid-sized ones for my fish! Boy are they going to be happy today! lol I just found it hilarious because usually their cultures crash from inadequate feeding but since I'm on a pretty regular routine with them, I've been keeping them alive and beyond that!!


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## lilnaugrim

Boy, the forum's been pretty quietly lately huh?

So today I went to my other LFS that i hadn't been to in a while. I looked around and noted they also had the Panama Red Pleco's and for cheaper, I was going to get one but I then I found Sparkling Gourami's (T. Pumila) lol all bets were off. They were only 1.99! So I grabbed up five of them for the 29! Dario has no idea what to make of them! lol it's hilarious to watch him!

So I never told you guys....but I have an small little Angel....yep, she'll be going in the 45...when it's up >.< But she's too darn adorable and she's doing exceptionally well in the 29, keeping to herself and she already knows that I mean food ^_^

So I took the daphnia home today, holy crap I still have a ton left over I've got in my .5 gallon with the air pump going so they'll be fine but holy crap! They weren't kidding that they didn't have enough room ahah! But everyone got daphnia and everyone is happy!

So I went to feed Remmy and his girl before I flared them and I realized that she'd dropped eggs! I realized that after I put the daphnia in so she got a ton of protein today!




She's super barred up but I still don't know if I can actually use her or not




Here's my other girl who I'll probably have to use but wow she's got large fins!


Super nice ventrals though, tell me what you guys think?




I love a fresh tail though! lol nice and flat ^_^


Munching on the daphnia! lol



Aero and some of his guppies eating the daphnia


Hawkeye is in Remmy's spot, he seems to be doing okay. He's had no Saprolengia for a while now and no other symptoms other than looking old.



Pierce was happy with the daphnia too, she killed and ate the random Guppy fry I had but mama guppy is still fine >.>


Gave the 29 a bit of a trim with the Myrio, everything hasn't grown as fast 


I'm also loving the hair algae on the driftwood! It looks like riccia or something ^_^
But I've got to start the Excel and Flourish again, I eased off two weeks before vacation and then haven't done it since a week before or so, so that's why so much algae when normally I don't have that much other than the normal green algae.


Rabbit snail taking a nap on the glass ^_^


Meet Stratus! (Lucillia has Nimbus so I went with the "cloud/atmosphere" thingy ^_^)




Embers ^^


A rare sighting of a Dario! lol


So it looks like I've got 2 males and 3 females however 1 female is incredibly tiny and totally not sexually mature lol but she's too cute!
Here's the little one, she's the size of one of my cories practically!


She was having a blast eating the daphnia in this corner of the tank! She really settled in too and I almost told the guy to not put her in the bag because she looked too small and sort of sickly in the store, turns out she was just hungry!



Another one of the females, this is the medium sized one


And the smaller of the two males! He has super beautiful iridescence!


Female in front and her male next to her, other female is in the back there as a shadow lol


Here's my very deformed Panda Garra juvie! I want to call him Bentley....I feel like that's cruel though lol


Video of Aero and his posse of guppies lol then Hawkeye, he's doing rather well considering everything. Then Pierce, Aero and Isis!


Here is that adorable baby Sparkler hunting daphnia!


Here's a video of Remmy and his girl but as I said, she's rather large compared to him....you can see her eating her eggs too! She was trying to gather them at one point into a corner like a nest! It was actually rather cute! I've got to move Remmy's plants out of the way so he can actually move around his tank and not get stuck as usual.


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## Sabina88

Im glad the girls got to you ok, I love how blue the first one is, and wow the second girl has big fins. I hope breeding remmy and either of the girls goes well for you, I cant wait to see what your fry will end up looking like. 

Im glad Hawkeye is doing a bit better. Fingers crossed that he wont get sick again.
I never noticed before how simaler Hawkeye and Peirce are in coloration, if it weren't for the fact that Peirce is a double tail id almost think there related lol.

Ive never heard of sparkling Gourami's or panda gara's before but after looking at pics of both kinds of fish, there kind of growing on me. To bad I don't have any LF stores around here that carry fish like that. 
I also like your angel, the colors are really pretty. They remind me of something that I cant put my finger on. How long have you had your angel?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina! Well MG breeds true so they'll pretty much all be MG's lol, but thanks ^_^

Yep! That's why I was sort of sad when she didn't keep her solid red fins and became like Hawkeye haha. I don't mind them looking alike, they are both PetCo fish after all!

Yeah! There's a bunch of different gouramis! Sparkling, Croaking, and Licorice are some of the small ones, Chocolates are delicate and can be difficult to keep, my type; Vaillanti Gouramis are a little easier than chocolates but can still be finicky which is why I rejoiced when they ate pellets without issue! And then your regular Honey's, Dwarfs, Powder Blues (dwarf variant) and then all the 3 spot variants and Pearls then the larger ones; Giants, and Kissers. Yeah, there are a LOT of gouramis!

Panda Garra's are fantastic! They do like fast moving water, they're omnivores but they eat mostly algae and veggie matter, they like their frozen worms and stuff though! Kind of like mixing a Oto and a cory cat ^_^ They also blink! Well it's not really blinking, just looks like it, they roll their eyes and it makes them look like they're blinking which is super cute, most plecos can do that too. 

The Angel I've had since just before vacation, got her from PetCo, she's missing a bit of her dorsal spikes but she seems to be doing well!


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## lilnaugrim

Wow.....so I think my daphnia multiplied overnight again :shock: I didn't realize I have this many left over and I fed a BUNCH last night! ....I'm not sure I can keep up with these little guys reproducing so much! lmao!

I know this is a terrible cellphone pic but see all those specs?? All those little specs are Daphnia!!!!! Yikes!!!! I guess they're getting more daphnia today!


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## MattsBettas

I've been keeping up, I swear. Just didn't have much to say. 

Anyways, I love my sparklers and I think you will to. They're really nice fish, and IME definitely not as peaceful as some profiles state- but hen again they can't do much because of their size. 

I want a daphnia culture, but they're so hard to find!


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## lilnaugrim

It's okay! I do the same thing to other people's journals, I do read I just don't always comment and then I feel kind of bad lol so no worries, I understand! I also know you're pretty busy this weekend as well ^_^ what do you think of the girl? I almost wish I had conditioned Remmy before hand since this girl is so darn eager! I think that might be a bad thing for him though since I do recognize he doesn't have as much spring in his step as a younger fish would. The copper girl seems much more relaxed than this HMPK one, the issue then would be slanted anal, larger fins and she's copper MG although in talking with Indjo, I'll still get plenty of irid MG's.

Anywho, yes! I love the Sparklers! I've loved them since the first time I saw them like a year and a half ago now haha but I just could never find them! That baby one is a riot though! She hangs out in the "broken" vase on the right of the tank while the others go where they please. So far no issues with my other fish but then again, they're all the same size minus the Angel. It seems like I might have a pair in the five, one of the males and females have been hanging out together all more, could just be coincidence though. 

Darn!! I wish I could send some up to you because Holy Daphnia Cloud, Batman! There are so many! Guess I'm better at culturing Daphnia than I though!! How does one even send daphnia through the mail......hmm, wonder if it's legal or not? I'll have to look into it for you because if it is possible then I sure as heck wouldn't mind sending a boat load up to you!


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## BettaLover1313

Glad the two girls arrived safely! They are both pretty. That one does have large fins though, wow!


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## Sabina88

Haha your fish are going to be very happy with all of the daphnia


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks girls! Yeah, seriously, So. Much. Daphnia! lol My gourami's were like "seriously? Daphnia, AGAIN?!" when I gave some to them this morning XD 'Twas rather comical really!


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## Lucillia

::waves~~:: Send me some daphnia!!! Xd


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## lilnaugrim

There will be plenty if you want some! ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

I hate the world right now, I'm so angry and sad that I can't even think straight. Siberian was just taken from me by my dad to be taken to a shelter in Connecticut. I know he'll be taken good care of but he was my boy! I can't just get over him like that! I wasn't going to cry until dad said "don't be sad", what the hell am I supposed to be?! Happy that my pet and best friend was taken from me?! I know women are more emotional generally but I know there is no difference in attachment, so don't go telling me to not be sad about taking my best friend away. You [dad] already took my other two cats and while yes I can visit them, it's not the same!

A tribute of pictures of my beloved boy, I'm going to miss you so much even if you did walk on me in my sleep and wake me up at 5:30 in the morning to pet you, I loved you and though I know you can't love me in the same capacity, I'm going to miss you so much.

The day we brought you home, you were so little and only 8 months old! Curious as any cat could ever be and you loved chewing on our electrical cords...


You got into things you shouldn't have but we still loved you.


And even though dad called you retarded, I knew you were clumsy just because your paws were so huge! It wasn't your fault!




And even though your brother and sister really hated you...


You were my silly boy with allergies


who slept in funny positions



You always made me smile and laugh. [took this morning before he left]


I'm seriously going to miss you my little Siberian Tiger.




It's going to be a lot quieter around here now...


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## BettaLover1313

I'm so sorry that Siberian was taken from you to a shelter. Hopefully a loving family will adopt him and take care of him. It's always hard to lose or be separated from a pet and you have every right to be upset.


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## Sabina88

Im really sorry to hear about Siberian :-(. Its always hard to loose a pet in any circumstance especialy if their your best friend. Its good you have all of those memories and photos of him so you can always keep him close by even if he isn't there.


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## DaytonBetta

I'm sorry that happened. He looks like such a sweet cat.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys....

---------------------------------------------------
Well mind as well update the fish as well while I'm here.

All the Bettas are doing well including Aero and Hawkeye although Aero seems to diminish in size everyday now. His eyes look like they've sunken in but he hasn't lost his vigor at all!

Hawkeye's scales look all messy and raised sort of like in Dropsy but it's not, it's just due to his "old" age. He still eats like a champ and hunts those Daphnia! His tail has sort of stiffened up though and I'm not doing anything for him, just letting him rest in the 20 with the plants and good filtered water.

Pierce still remains grumpy and testy, she doesn't touch mama guppy but I can see mama guppy is not happy being housed with her not one bit. Hopefully mama guppy and her fry will all go to the LFS soon.

Black Hawk is doing fantastic and I've been debating giving him back to the LFS to sell....I'm not sure yet, I do love him but...idk. His fins are doing better and better every single day though!

Isis has been in her glory with all this daphnia! If she's good at one thing, it's definitely hunting! lol

Tiger has been grumpy since the Angel keeps picking on him, not literally but the Angel hangs out by his little breeder box which annoys the heck out of him lol. It's rather funny actually! The Angel doesn't do anything except look at him :dunno:

Steele is doing well, hasn't munched on his tail badly lately which is fantastic. He's been loving the girl next door though! haha he's in the 2.5 split 2/3 to 1/3.

Remmy has been doing well, loving the feeding 2-3 times a day! His fins are looking great too, at least if this helps one thing it will be his fins! I switched out the HMPK girl for the Copper MG girl because the PK is just too darn big and I'm not even going to chance it. The Copper girl is much more laid back, didn't flare too much at him but seemed to perk up by the end of the flare session. He doesn't care which girl he gets, he just wants a girl lol

The Gouramis are doing fantastic! The alpha female is nearly colored up! I see her gaining the red every day so hopefully one day I can see their breeding colors!

Bentley the Panda Garra has been in his glory eating at all the algae on the walls and then snacking on the daphnia the gourami's missed.

Sparklers in the 29 are also doing well, even the baby is still alive which is great! They fed well today. Dario is absolutely colored up terrifically! He's the reddest I've ever seen him! I'm sure all this live food helps, he's been kicking the gouramis out of his little circle of domain at the lower left back corner of the tank whenever they get too close. Doesn't do damage, just chases them away and flares at them! He's really something for sure!


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## LittleBettaFish

I must have missed it while reading your journal, but why is your dad taking Siberian away?! I couldn't imagine how sad that must be for you. Hopefully he lands softly somewhere as he looks like a lovely cat. 

Also, you are making me want to do a blackwater biotope with samurai gourami now :shake: I think I need to win the lottery to make all my fish dreams come true.


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## Sabina88

Just cureous but didn't you adopt toger and steele out already?

Im glad every one is doing well at the moment


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you LittleBetta!

Well, dad moved to a town in Connecticut (we're from Rhode Island all originally) it's not far from my mom's house, just under an hour, and he doesn't want to deal with Siberian because he is clumsy and dad claim's he's retarded and doesn't want to deal with a mostly indoor cat (although he's perfectly content being outdoors just fine) so he told me to find a home for him. I asked my friends but either they couldn't have cats or already had plenty themselves. We [he] found a no-kill shelter near where he lives and I tried taking him to mom's house but mom wanted nothing to do with him either so she wouldn't let me keep him even though I promised her that a) I'd set up no more tanks and take down my 13's (at the time I had the four tanks; 20, 29, 13 and 13) and b) I would take care of all his expenses including vets, food, litter, medications if need, everything but she didn't want him so I was forced to give him up :-(

On another note, YES! I love my gouramis and I'm sure you would absolutely love them too! They are very much the 'wilds' of gouramis!

And Sabina, they were supposed to go out but the person adopting them never paid nor responded to me, I just hope she's okay because last I knew she was in the hospital but ready to leave shortly two Friday's ago but still no word. I'm trying to decide if I should put them back out for adoption or hold them until she responds, she was supposed to take a bunch of my plants too...


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## LittleBettaFish

That sounds like an awful situation for you and poor Siberian. I cannot understand as how a parent you could do something like that. Especially because it's not like you are not planning on taking responsibility for Siberian. 

I've had paros before and they were nice, if a bit shy. I would have kept going with them, but they are all but impossible to get here due to size minimums for imports. That they are similar in care to my wilds is why I like the samurai and chocolate gourami. I am very attracted to soft water fish.


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## lilnaugrim

It is/was :-( mom was afraid that responsibility would fall to her or that we'd get fleas or that if he was to go outside he'd be hurt/eaten by the local fauna around here (coyotes, foxes, raccoons, mountain lions, occasionally fisher cats) and she doesn't like the thought of getting attached to something and then having it die which I don't blame her but he made friends with the Skunks at dad's house.....we even had one follow him into the basement :roll: he was a cutie too and left peacefully.


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## Kaffrin

Siberian's case is unfortunate- my condolences. I can say I understand what you feel very well. My mother had given away my dog when I was young, but had the nerve to tell me it "ran away". She just didn't want to deal with him anymore because we planned to move soon-ish :/

As for the fishy-world, I'm very much looking forward to this breeding journal of yours c: Will love to see what little ones will come from it!

I'm envious of that daphnia culture of yours too~ The only really tiny critters I've managed to keep alive are planaria and bacteria x3 I may also happen to have a black thumb when it comes to non-aquatic plants as well!


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## beautiful Betta

I am so sorry to hear about your cat. But I cant help to think your parents are being awful. At the end of the day they allowed you to have the cat in the first place and as adults the responsibility for that pet ultimately falls to them. And now because of a house move, and the fact the cat has issues it is convenient for them to use the excuse the cat is yours, and because we are moving we are not going to take it. And lets dump the cat/problem on a shelter.

The shelter maybe a no kill shelter but even so if the cat has issues and is older, not sure of age, they may well decide to euthanize anyway deeming the cat sick, rather than spend 1000's of dollars trying to figure out what is wrong, and rehome a cat with issues. There are plenty of healthy ones in need of homes and I am sure that is where they will concentrate their probably limited funds. 

I am not trying to make you feel bad, but from the time your cat has been mentioned I have thought it terrible, not you but your parents attitude to just dump the cat.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys.

Siberian is only 4 years old so he's still got plenty of life in him. He doesn't really have issues much but more of the fact that my older girl Ieli absolutely hated him and it scared him even though he wanted to play and make nice. So he'd do stupid things to try to get her to like him but it was all for not  He's had skin coat issues and we're not sure if they are from food allergies (most likely), seasonal allergies (also a possibility), allergies to himself, fleas, or something else. So it's not like he has a huge mental disorder or anything, he's fully capable of defending himself (although he prefers to make friends) and just being all around self sufficient like a cat should be.

My parents being divorced doesn't help a thing. I can't really blame mom, although I'm still rather angry with her that all I offered to do, she still wouldn't let me keep him. I understand her fears and it's not like I also don't fear him getting hurt but he had a better chance with me who has kept him for 4 years rather than a stranger who knows nothing of him! I just hope he's adopted by someone who cares :-/ Sometimes I feel like cats have it worse off than fish, at least fish don't have the same 'feelings' cats and dogs do, they do have feeling and emotions but they aren't the same thing so much. And they generally don't live as long (smaller fish at least) so they don't have to go through so much heartbreak....sigh.

I'm going to be mad for a while, which is my right at this point. I woke up expecting a fuzzy face to be nuzzling at mine but when I found none, it was a sad start to the day. And then I ripped my last pair of pants....so far it's been a really good start to the morning /sarcasm....


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## Rosencrantz32

I'm so sorry for your loss. My family has volunteered as foster parents for a no-kill animal rescue out here and from what I've seen, if Siberian is as sweet as you say he is, he should find a home quickly or at the very least capture the hearts of the workers at the shelter he was taken to  I hope everything goes well for him and for you. You are absolutely justified in being angry at the situation; I know I would be. 

I hope the rest of your day improves! Wish I could be of more help, but you know we are all here for you


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Rosencrantz, it's good to see you around too!

I will be seeing How To Train Your Dragon 2 again later with another best friend, I saw it Saturday night with my little brother and I absolutely NEED to see it again! lol We're seeing it in 3D this time though and I'm so excited! I love the feel of flying! Which is why I love most of my dreams because generally I do fly and I love it! So that should be a good end to my day as long as none of my fish die! But I think I'll be home in time to watch M*A*S*H too which seriously makes me a happy camper!


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## beautiful Betta

I hope Siberian finds a loving home, at least he is a fairly young cat, so that should help in finding him a new home. And I am sure that any family that adopts him from the rescue will love him greatly. I don't know about in the states, but over here they are quite particular who adopts them, and will even house check after the adoption to see how they are getting on.


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## lilnaugrim

Wow apparently my life around animals sucks lately.

Copper MG jumped from her 1 gallon tank, the mesh apparently moved just enough back so she could jump out and fall to her death :-(

Also my Bumblebee goby died too but he hadn't been eating for a while now and I was concerned about him but never really wrote about it.

Hawkeye is miraculously still alive but looking even worse today, so much that I'm considering euthanizing him for just how bad he looks. His scales are raised and he's all roughed up looking, he has a hard time swimming for too long and gets tired out easy. He's still eating well but he's just really not looking good :-/ I'll give it a few more days I suppose.


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## Sabina88

Im sorry to hear about all of that :-(
SIP MG copper female and bumble goby

Poor Hawkeye I hope he pulls through and I hope you don't have to euthanize him  Fingers crossed for him


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina!

Apparently yesterday was just a mix of all sorts of luck! I went with my cousin and my cousin of my cousin to Bingo last night at the casino and I won $700!!!!! Oh my goodness, you should have seen me! I was shaking like a chihuahua! Now I can buy pants since I split my last pair of them Monday, I can get the top for the 20 long! I can possibly buy Remmy an appropriate girl OR just get a boy to match with my big female....she's beautiful and I've been considering it but I don't know what I'd do with another boy!

The bad side about winning that money is now both dad and mom are trying to dictate where it's going and it's really starting to bug me. Yes, I will pay my car insurance and I'm going to mostly use it for my gas money and my phone bill. I would really appreciate it [mom] if you'd let me run my own financial stuff thank you! geeze, you'd think I was 14 with the way they're acting!

We're actually going again tonight but this time I'm going with my mom and some of her friends. They invited her last minute and we were supposed to go pant shopping for me today but she wanted to go to Bingo instead so here's to hoping I win another 700 lol!!


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## MattsBettas

Glad something went your way!


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## Kaffrin

Oooh! Congratulations~ Winning big money certainly does deserve a little splurging ;3 I'd be surprised if someone won money, and DIDN'T use any of it on themselves for fun! A parent will always treat their kid like they're 8 or something foreeever... it's just what they do!


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## Fenghuang

Yeah, lot of parents have a tough time letting go of their adult kids, but they usually mean well. Congrats on your win and enjoy your prize money.


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## BettaLover1313

Congrats on the win! Make sure to enjoy a little of the prize money.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! While I will use the money to help for my car insurance, I do plan on spending most of it for fishy stuff!

I've been conteplating getting this silly little thing for functional use of an alarm clock and to do a mini planted tank with maybe a shrimp or two! I would never stick a betta in .4 gallons so that will stop me at least from sticking one in there but a shrimp with a bunch of live plants should look nice! I can switch out the LED light as well if I need with my Mini SolarFlare 6,700K light ^_^ Although, not sure what I'd do in the winter...it's a nice idea though.


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## BettaLover1313

That's a neat little tank!


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## Rimbaum

I've been thinking about one of those little tanks to keep a few marimo in! It'd go great next to a computer desk.


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## lilnaugrim

I agree Rimbaum!

The only thing I don't like about that alarm clock one is the undergravel filter thingy and the fact it's not flat >.> that annoys me. There is one that is slightly larger and flat but it's like 30 bucks and that's totally not worth it to me!

I got pics! Will be uploaded through the night, most likely going to be a little later because MASH is on in four minutes lol.


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## lilnaugrim

3 Gallon which is stuffed with Java Fern 'Windlov' front to back! lol


And it's inhabitants




Hawkeye is still quite ragged but still alive and eating well and trying to chase the guppy around when she gets in the way. I changed the mama guppy to Hawkeye's side since Pierce ripped her up.



You can see his 'raised' his scales, they aren't raised so much as he's really thinned down.


I also bought Cyperus Helferi from PetSmart when I picked up more Flourish and APT Tap Water Conditioner today. It looks good as a foreground plant when its a baby but apparently it gets over a foot tall.


Pierce wasn't feeling very photographic today lol



Still can't really tell if she is a she or a he....


Black Hawk has been doing great too



Tiger lol


She was being cute lol. I kind of want to call her Renoir after another painter and call her Renny for short lol, people would get so confused, Renny and Remmy XD But I'm debating just getting this PK or another and keep the HMPK line going, I really want true MGPKEE's, I think that would be beautiful but I'm not sure if the EE's can really have darker colors as we always see them in the salamander coloration or a variation thereof....it would take a long time but I think it could be worth it, let me know what y'all think!


Here's my 29, geeze, keeping up with an aquascape is really hard if you want to keep it nice! I need to trim all that Myrio and replant everything, some of it is floating too >.<


Stratus is absolutely adorable! She dances for me every time she see's me and loves to explore through the plants! I think her dorsal spines are starting to grow back too but I really can't be sure.



One of my female Sparkling Gouramis! Seems I have 1 male to 4 females lol


I love their bright blue eyes!



I love this picture sequence lol, This is my very small Male C. Habrosus and he looked down at the pellet behind him, I cracked up when I saw these two pics XD



Sooo I took my .5 gallon tank and filled it up, stuck some dwarf hairgrass in the back right where you can't really see. My Pogostemon Erectus is in there too along with a baby Alternanthera Reineckii and a small red root floater up top. I put my Jobes plant sticks in there and so I hope everything grows, I'll dose it with Excel and Flourish as well so I'm sure they'll do just fine as they now have higher light than before! Perhaps some shrimp will go in there once everything actually grows and I scape it the way I want.


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## Sabina88

Im glad Hawkeye is still hanging in there and eating, poor guy .
Stratus is really cute, Im glad she seems to be doing well. Do you think youll get a male for her to pair with?
MGPKEE's sound really cool, it would be interesting to see how they would turn out, especialy if you can get them to a darker color. It sounds like it would be a fun project to do


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## beautiful Betta

All looking good with a few exceptions (Hawkeye, but you know that, hope the little guy pulls through.)

I think EE in the plakats are really nice, it gives them that floating fin effect but being a plakat I think it doesn't really hinder them as they have great motoring power with their caudal. I think on normal HM's although it looks nice I think ultimately it is a struggle for the fish with all those long fins. I don't know about the colour on EE but that is just my thoughts on the fins.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina!

Probably won't get a male (not entirely sure it is female) since I don't want Angels breeding in my 45 haha I plan to have a group of Pearl Gourami's, one angel (most likely Stratus if she's fine), lots of Rummynose Tetra and possibly some cory cats, most likely Panda's.

It does! I think it might be worth it to find a nice bicolor EE if I can for my "little" girlie ^_^ What do we think about Renny? Not sure if it fits her...it's a "small" name I feel and she's got a HUGE personality! I'll have to find a "larger" name haha. I'll throw out some artists names to see if anything fits that you guys might like too. Titian (ti-sh-ian)[Tish], Velazquez [Vela], Dali, Cezanne (say-zan) [Ce], Kandinsky [Kandi]

You know, I kind of like the last...like Candy but I think I would just call her Kandi not Kandinsky lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah I agree with you bB, I do feel bad for Remmy most of the times just because he's just so heavy finned it's not even funny! He's the heaviest finned betta I've ever seen in real life.


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## Fenghuang

Looking good! 

I think you mentioned it somewhere, but what do you do for lighting for your planted tanks?


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## lilnaugrim

20 and 29 have the Finnex FugeRay Planted+ 30 inch lights. The 3 gallon has a T5 6,500K 9 inch tube in the hood and the little .5 I just set up has my little Mini SolarFlare 6,700K LED single light. My other planted bowl that I hardly show with my two guppies in it from the Snakeskin pair (actually the female is from the Moscow girl!) just has sunlight on it from the afternoon sun 

--------------------------------------------
So I'm just looking at some boys, tell me what you guys think. 

I like this one for the pattern, but no EE
http://www.ebay.com/itm/THAI-IMPORT...261516825357?pt=Live_Fish&hash=item3ce39e130d

I love this boy's form but pattern is lacking and no EE
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Betta-Male-...291170149930?pt=Live_Fish&hash=item43cb17e62a

And this boy...I could start out with a solid blue, not sure how the genetics quite work on bicolors like this but I figure it might take a few generations to get what I want. I can't do anything red as red and yellow cancel each other so either solid irid like this boy (although can't tell if that's a yellow-ish tint or red tint) or MG-ish coloration.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Turqouise-H...321399776413?pt=Live_Fish&hash=item4ad4eb649d


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## Fenghuang

Thanks.  

My understanding of show standards is spotty, so sorry...

Boy 1 - I think he would be considered a traditional HMPK and not a terrible example of one at that. His anal fin could be more pointed? Show colour standards still confuse me, but I think his colour is pretty.

Boy 2 - I think he has the smoothest topline. I usually like to see cleaner edges on the dorsal and anal than what he has, but he is my favourite. I honestly like his plain blue and orange.

Boy 3 - Personally, I don't think he is nicer than the other two. His fins look kind of messy. Also split ventrals and the size of his pectoral fins look like they would give him some trouble.


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## beautiful Betta

I don't know much about form, but I think I have a eye for quality and I really like number 2, such striking bright blue and if I am correct is he Dragon scale? it didn't say he was, and full mask with really good eyes. that would be the one I would buy for sure. Although that is just my favourite and don't really know in terms of what you want for breeding. That really black head and tatty looking EE fins puts me of of 3 and number 1 I didn't think he was wonderful pretty standard blue if you ask me, he was nice but not great.


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## lilnaugrim

Yes the first two are Dragons...well the first boy is only a partial but he's still Dragon.

Since I have a very good quality female I'm not worried so much about the males form since most of the fry take after the mother anyway. I'm more just looking for color and a male that can wrap my female. While I liked number 2, I still want to go EE and to do that I need to start off with at least one EE although I'm going to get a mass of different sized pectorals and colorations for the first generation and possibly second as well since it is hard to get the ears back out to 1/3 of the body length as they should be.

I also saw this boy whom I liked, not anywhere near of what I want/need but at least he doesn't have red but his brothers are up and they have red too so most likely red loss? I'm not entirely sure I understand the whole red loss thing versus yellow quite yet. lol http://www.ebay.com/itm/Imported-Li...151280896960?pt=Live_Fish&hash=item23390b4bc0


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## beautiful Betta

That boy looks like he might be a tail biter to me, not sure if that trait would get passed to the young? If you want the ears though that first EE had bigger ears.


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## lilnaugrim

No it's not a hereditary trait but a lot of his brothers also had ruined fins, its in an unusual spot for tail biters so I'm guessing either they were just separated out or they were bred again.

The issue I have with that EE boy though is that he does have red in his fins which I don't want. I'm consulting with indjo about genetics at the moment to see what is best to get since I won't be able to get an MGPKEE right off the bat.

Other issues is that EE is extremely recessive so even if you have dumboxdumbo parents more than half of them will only have maybe some colored pectorals so it will be a long road if I chose to take this one.

Are people even interested in MG PKEE's?


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## beautiful Betta

for EE I actually really like salamanders because they have that white edging to the other fins with redish tones then purpleish body and then striking white large fins, plus they would be a easier pair to get hold of. But you have to go with what you like, I am kind of a pink girly girl when it comes to colours.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I like Salamander's too but MG has been my favorite coloration since I started this whole charade lol And if I have an opportunity to make a new "type" then I certainly won't mind! It takes a lot of patience but I think i can pull it off in a few years lol


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## Sabina88

I think a MGPKEE's would be a really cool addition to EEPK coloration. I'm personally kind of addicted to almost any betta with MG coloring, and I think the MG coloration would look really pretty with a EE's big flowy pectorals.


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## BettaLover1313

MG PKEE sounds very interesting. I've been finding that I like the EEs (especially now that I can view them at Pet Smart) and an MG one would be very cool!


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## lilnaugrim

You know what would also be cool? If the ears were yellow with blue outlining band! lol, probably impossible but it's wishful thinking ^_^

So I went to my other LFS to check on the Neon Tetras, I need to get a few more for Linda's tank as we're down to 10 from 18 (out of the new ones only 2 survived last time) Last time I found these adorable Apistogramma's that I'm trying to identify the species right now, it might be Borelli but I'm not sure yet but it's a plain body with a blue and white face. She wants to stick with the mainly Blue and some white for the tank theme since those are our school colors so I figured he was perfect! He's really adorable and doing well in my 2.5 split. 

I also got a Nerite to help with the diatom bloom in her tank as well, he's happily munching on the green algae in my tank in Black Hawk's compartment lol I just hope he'll survive since I never had great luck with Nerites or most snails except Rabbit Snails, for some reason I can keep Rabbit snails without issue! >.< they don't even do anything! lol

And you all know how I'm a sucker for fish I know have been in the LFS for months! There was this little Gertrudae Rainbowfish that has been in the tank solo for around six months now! Having the money and he was only 3.99, I took him home and put him in Aero's compartment where he happily ate a meal with the Guppy fry and the two Celestial Pearl Danios! He's really super cute too ^_^

Oh, just found the species for my Apisto! It's A. Caetei!

Pics
He's super stressed in this pic but he was the healthiest one they had there, and the largest actually ^_^



And I moved my male SS guppy to the .5 for the time being because his sister was bugging him too much! He's getting absolutely beautiful though!


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## Fenghuang

I've seen multicoloured pecs before. There was a really cool HMPK (not full EE, but maybe partial, if I remember correctly) on Aquabid a while back. The pecs were striped, like a pinwheel pattern. Someone on the forum bought him. And I've seen a few fish with speckled or ombre "ears." I don't think anyone has tried to breed specifically for it, but maybe you could be the first. 

That snakeskin guppy is a beau.


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## lilnaugrim

Pinwheel! I remember him! He was beautiful! I was actually thinking about him when I thought about the colored pectorals ^_^

And thanks! I'm glad I at least I have him from my SS pair. The female I can't tell if she's Moscow or SS! She's got black fins but pale body and I just found a shiny scale on her today! Guppies develop their colors as they grow up and they can really change even if you think they're all grown up! I expect my SS boy's tail to become more spotted rather than the black it is right now.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! I forgot to say more about my LFS visit!

So I was looking at their planted tanks where they mostly have their micro fish and I originally got Dario from along with my little Gertrudae Rainbowfish (which I just checked up on and she came running up to see me! So cute!) and they just got a huge shipment in of Scarlet Badis!!!! I sat there looking like "LOOK AT ALL THE DARIO'S!!!!" lmao! they had Gudgeon's in with the Badis's 

They also had a gajillion Mexican Dwarf Crayfish and they were so cute! I was doing some research and as much as I'd really like to have a few in my 29, I probably really shouldn't but they're so cute! I won't though, I wouldn't want my fish to eat them since I don't have plenty of nooks and crannies for them when they molt. But they were really cute though!


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg I am feeling absolutely horrible again this morning.

Holy allergy attack, Batman! I've forgotten to take my allergy meds again and I've ended up with this horrible sinus trouble! Benedryl to the rescue!

Uggg, nose is running, eyes are tearing with pressure, head aches, ears plugged, nice deep congested cough.....absolutely fantastic way to spend your Saturday /sarcasm...

But fish are all good! Dosed my Excel this morning as I do every morning and added my twice a week dosage of Flourish. All the tanks are looking pretty happy. If I can get to it, the 20 and 29--nvm, ALL of my tanks need a water change including the 2.5, planted 1, and the two 1's housing Remmy and his girl.


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## Sabina88

Awww sorry to hear about your alergies. I hope you feel better soon 
Im glad all of your fishies are doing well


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## beautiful Betta

Came across this EE while on AB, thought of you, no red. And there is some yellow on the long bits, sorry cant think what they are called.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1404638641


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks bB! haha yeah, the ventrals! 

Still not quite sure how the genetics will work out in this but I'll definitely run it by indjo to see if he can explain a bit more to me! Thanks!


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## beautiful Betta

The Ventrals that was it I was thinking pectorals and thought no that's the other ones. I know his fins are not the best form I think he maybe halfsun looking at the points. But I didn't think body shape was too bad, and no red, and you did say a lot of traits come from the mother anyway. I will keep a eye out when browsing for any others, I am always lurking around AB when bored.


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## beautiful Betta

I did also come across this guy, not EE but he is a butterfly mustard I think, I did also post him on the AB thread, and then thought he might also be similar to what you want to breed in EE. Here is the link.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1404658797


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the link, he's quite beautiful and I'm pretty sure I drooled over him but not quite what I'm looking for!

Not the traits that come from the mother but the form itself, color and stuff like that is a mix of both


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## lilnaugrim

What a week!

So I barely got to spend any Bingo money on fishy stuff, instead I had to spend nearly $300 fixing up my car. The brakes in the back were bad, the left side, the pads were down to the rivets which were digging ravines into my rotor if anyone knows anything about cars haha, otherwise I'm sure this is just gibberish. And then the right side was dragging terribly so we replaced the Rotor's, Pad's and the Caliper and then we had to shine up and clean out the pins on my right side because it was still dragging terribly, but now I'm good!

Fish are good, I introduced the Cichlid to Steele and it was hilarious! They both flared and circled but didn't touch. They were with each other half an hour before I had to leave but neither touched the other, just minded their own business but flared and circled again whenever they came up to each other lol. It was rather amusing to watch XD I separated them again though just to be safe.

I lost Stratus for a while! She disappeared on me even at feeding time! I was shocked she didn't come out! She came out about half an hour later though and so I fed them all again because no one looked particularly full lol She was super happy and danced for me too ^_^

Black Hawk was biting his fins....like all of them >.> darned little bugger! I'm thinking about upping the Gertudae's school and moving it into Black Hawk's side to distract him as long as he doesn't kill them which I don't think he will. I'm pretty sure that the Bumblebee Goby died on it's own, not through Black Hawk buggering him.


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## lilnaugrim

Got some Frog-bit for 5 bucks and free express shipping! It's coming in today and I'm excited! I haven't had Frog-bit in what seems like a year! Okay, it's been like 8 months but it's close enough! I'm going to put it in the 20, most likely with Hawkeye and then in Aero's side and take out the w. sprite I have in there at the moment for the guppies. Although I might just plant it (this darn plant HATES to be planted and they say this is the planted kind! I even leave roots exposed and it still hates it >.<) or anchor it with a river stone since most of my plants are still recovering from that horrible melting session I had!

I'm hoping to put an order in at PAC to build up the twenty again, this time mostly low-medium light plants. I'm keeping most of the Myrio that has begun to grow back and the Parrots feather will probably all scoot into Isis's side in the back to let grow again since those melted the worst! But I've been looking at just small things like crypts and four leafed clover. I'm not really fond of Stem plants at the moment and trimming so I figure I can just make a Crypt forest or something so it doesn't go higher than 10 inches and I won't have to worry about trimming much! lol


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## lilnaugrim

So an interesting day yesterday! Went out with Lucillia and first we had to stop by my new Insurance place because now I have to pay my own insurance (gee, I sound like a rich, snobby kid!) so I got to throw don 374 dollars yesterday out of the blue and on the way there my brakes almost went!!!

So my dad and I switched vehicles (it was a good thing I knew how to use my e-brake!) and we found out it was just air bubbles in my brake fluid line so when the bubbles got up to the Master Cylinder it would cause my brakes to go away until it filled back up with brake fluid so they kept fading. Most likely this was due to when we bled them on Monday to replace the caliper's, rotors and pads. However, they are still dragging this morning and it's just getting worse....damnit this car! I don't have any more money to spend on it!!!

So after that fiasco, Lucillia and I went down to SeaHorse because she wanted the baby Pearlscale Goldfish there and by golly, these little guys are so darn adorable! She got three, one is named Pistachio Mustachio! because it has a little orange mustache! So cute!

And then I found Renoir aka Renny! She's a cute little HM with some fin damage but she's a little MG, not the best MG but Remmy will be able to wrap her for sure! She was only six bucks and she gave me those darned eyes! I couldn't help it and of course Lucillia didn't help either haha, of course we both enable each other ;-)

Renny looks like she might have a bit of pop-eye going on so I'm going to treat her with some ES and probably KanaPlex if it seems she needs it after a few days but she's also just very small in general so it could be she just hasn't grown into them yet lol. We'll see! But I've started to condition last night as well so I'm sure she'll grow enough by two weeks time!

I also got Osiris last night form Lucillia so I've started to condition those two as well; Osiris and Isis! We're going to have beautiful babies!

Pictures in the next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just a comparison of my little .5 gallon which has been doing very well with my three little guppies in it! Here's last week when I set it up:


And last night:
yay I see growth in those Pogostemon Gayi plants!


A lot of my fry have been coming out like this; half black with blue dorsal and anal fin and then the start of a yellow mosaic tail! He kind of looks like the guppy version of a MG at the moment though ^_^


Here's my SS boy, so far so good on his pattern! no large black "eye's" in his pattern which is good as they are not desirable in SS pattern and hard to breed out!


He's got black pectorals though! Something his father definitely didn't have!


Bentley loves these Oak leaves! I've got to get more for breeding and for the 3 gallon!


This is the best picture I can get of my Gertudae Rainbowfish! lol!! He's super active though and loves to come up to say hello and beg for food! He get's on well with my guppy fry and the two Celestial Pearl Danios :-D


So Black Hawk has been taking steps backwards >.> he's now into fin biting.....




Hawkeye is still hanging on, he loves the Cyperus though lol


Pierce's fins have been getting longer too....idk, still can't tell if male or female! She's quite reclusive though compared to my other fish, doesn't mind to be up front and eating but spends most of her time hidden in her plants and near the sponge filter.




Aero has been doing pretty well too! No lethargia or anything like Hawkeye has, he just looks ragged but doesn't seem to feel any less healthy :dunno:


Even with a new neighbor on the block


Now you can see just how huge this girl is! Darn her and her large gene's, she's too perfect!


I love everything about this girl except for her size! She would have been perfect more or less if she were smaller!




The 29 gallon inhabitants have been pretty happy with their abundance of food....I think I feed them too much >.<

Baby Sparkler came out last night! He's been coming out a little more now, I'm so happy he's still alive!



Stratus was strutting her stuff last night too!


And she's fat because she eats everything lol


Love her dorsal!


Nice caudal spread too!



And for the moment you've all been waiting for! I introduce to you Renoir! Look at that little face!


She has decent form, anal fin is not as slanted as it appears to be and she can get up to 180 degree's! Dorsal isn't as nice as I'd like it to and I know that's one of the hardest things to keep nice so I'm hoping Remmy will balance her out too.



Remmy was feeling pretty fantastic last night too apparently!


I got a lot of these shots, he's so adorable!


*grump*


Caught the end of a flare right there XD


His fins are huge, his beard his huge, everything is huge except his body.....


lol he does this thing where he only flares with the bottom of his beard XD I crack up every time he does, anyone else experience this or is Remmy a special fruitcake?


Here's a decent pic of how his fins are doing!


My pretty girl Isis doesn't know what to make of her new boyfriend!



For those of you who have never met Osiris before, I present you to him! The almighty Black Copper CT! He reaches 180 degree's but his fins bend making him not the ideal shape but he's very close. Through breeding we hope to perfect that.



He's a little ragged from being in fights by accident but he's healing pretty well!


Flaring at his new girlfriend!


He was also grateful for the dinner of live daphnia!




Isis my pretty girl, I just liked this picture lol. Towel is under her tank because it leaks, going to try to seal it up with hot glue and silicone but they are acrylic tanks so we'll see how it works.






And that's it for now!


----------



## Sabina88

I love Renny, her coloration is really pretty. I hope all goes well with both of your breeding pairs.

Other then that im glad every ones for the most part doing well. Im glad the Hawk Eye is still hanging in there, poor guy.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina!

Yeah, Hawkeye doesn't seem too affected adversely, he still swims everywhere but his anal and dorsal fins are shrinking :dunno: but he still loves to eat and chase around the female guppy that is with him. He and Aero really both just _look_ old but they really aren't. I haven't even had Hawkeye a year yet, his 'birthday' is sometime in August, August 18th I think is when I got him.


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## Sabina88

Well the fact that he still hanging on and eating is a good sign so that's good. Do you know what happened?

Oh I also came across this guy on aquabid. Not sure if he's what your looking for though
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1404487240


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## lilnaugrim

Nope, not a clue what happened other than he's a PetCo baby so that probably shortened his lifespan ridiculously!

Oh that's a cutie patootie! I think I've given up my dream of MG PKEE's though since I've found Renny now, two spawns is plenty enough for me at the moment! Maybe another time in my life. Thanks though!! I really appreciate it ^_^


----------



## Sabina88

That makes sense  Are these your first two betta spawns or have you breed bettas before?

Sigh its always petco lol The good thing is that he grew up well


----------



## lilnaugrim

First spawns! I'm a complete newb at this! well...okay, I've read plenty about it enough to give advise on the basics but never done it before in reality! Should be an adventure as long as Remmy keeps up this energy! I think the food three times a day has done very good for him! He's always up and swimming whenever I peak at him!

And yes, always PetCo. I assume the same fate is there for Pierce too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh! I also forgot to say that Dario made Photo of the Month on the TFK side!! Yay little Dario! He's so much more red now than he was in that picture though haha. He's truely colored up comparing to when I first had him and even when he was first placed into the 29!


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## lilnaugrim

So I realized I haven't drawn for myself in a long time so I decided to draw my African Lion; TAPS (yes that's her name) as a Nightfury-sort of, from How to Train Your Dragon! I think she came out rather cute!

Just something small and quick, mostly just to have fun and remember why I like and do art lol


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## PetMania

I love your artwork! 

Hi! I wanted to pop by and say hello. Wow, I missed a TON when I was gone. I need to catch up  

I look forward to reading your journal again!


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks Pet! It's good to see you around again!! Have fun reading!! XD


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## lilnaugrim

Happy Independence Day America, for everyone else; Happy Friday! Still a good day all around huh? lol

So Osiris made a lovely bubblenest last night that I wrecked today when I changed his water, he pouted at me for that lol. Flared both pairs today, although Remmy hasn't built any nests of sorts but he still flares at the girl...wondering if I should flare him to Osiris for a bit? Isis doesn't flare at Osiris but wants to get at him still, I flared her to the MG PK girl yesterday and I think I'll do it again today.

I found an Oto stuck between the breeder net in the 29...dead.

Mama Guppy has some sort of fungus thing around her mouth and eyes, not Columnaris but looks like a thick slime coat. She's also severely emaciated, I'm thinking about putting her down, I didn't realize how pathetic she looked!

My darned SS guppy boy, the one I was so proud of somehow jumped two feet from his tank (I've never had a guppy jump before!!!!!!!) and died, must have been very early this morning; like five or four am. I'm so ticked off at that!


----------



## Sabina88

Sorry to hear about your guppies and cory . But im glad your breeding paris seem to be doing well.

Also happy 4th of July to you to, hope you have a good day.


----------



## PetMania

lilnaugrim said:


> Happy Independence Day America, for everyone else; Happy Friday! Still a good day all around huh? lol
> 
> Mama Guppy has some sort of fungus thing around her mouth and eyes, not Columnaris but looks like a thick slime coat. She's also severely emaciated, I'm thinking about putting her down, I didn't realize how pathetic she looked!


First off, Happy 4th of July! 
Second, you have this problem, too? I had three female guppies die from the same thing. At first I treated them for parasites (for the weight loss), but the same fate came to all 3, unfortunately.


----------



## lilnaugrim

This has been literally in the last 24 hours because yesterday she looked a bit skinny but the stringy stuff is new and looks like she's going downhill fast too....idk!


----------



## PetMania

Hmm. Well, right now I do not have any other fish with this, fortunately. But that is very similar to what happened to my female guppies. The males did not show signs of being affected.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Interesting, wonder what it is. I expect her to be gone by morning and if she isn't, I will euthanize her in the morning because she just looks absolutely miserable and I have a feeling Hawkeye has been bugging her :roll: he may be an "old" man but he's still vicious!

You know, I really want a pair of male ADF's....I have since I was a kid and by gosh, they're so cute! I know they're prone to obesity and I like their slim froggie look but I figure they could go in with one of the Bettas in the 20....maybe take Hawkeye's spot when he goes or Black Hawk when he goes to Lucillia (yes you can have him!). They're just so darn cute!


----------



## Lucillia

<3


----------



## Kaffrin

ADF's are super cute! I love when the males croak trying to "woo" their woman~ The only problem I had with ADF's when I had them in my 10g is feeding. They have such trouble finding food unless you put it right in front of their faces. Sometimes my other fish ended up stealing their food before they got to it, lol!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I love croaking froggies! We hear the peep toads all the time at our pond in the back, they lull us to sleep each night!

I'm not sure if I want male x male or male x female, not sure how breeding would fare in the tank, I'm sure my other fish would happily eat the eggs or I could just throw them out. I've got to do more research on that part.

Target feeding isn't new to me so that part isn't an issue. Dario still only feeds off on live foods, he had a ball with the daphnia I threw in though lol but he gets white worms off the tweezers weekly and I used to feed my Bumblebee Goby the same way since Black Hawk would just steal it all!


----------



## DaytonBetta

From my research, actual breeding is pretty rare. Mine croak and are in amplexus all the time, but never any eggs. It seems that's the case for many people on the frog forum. 

The sound they make is very quiet, my husband can't hear it. 

Feeding them in a shell works really well for me.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh okay! Thanks Dayton, that sounds good to me ^_^

Yeah, I've seen videos of the males singing and it's so cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I have to say that Renny and Isis flaring at each other is the cutest thing ever! And Renny is a full 180 with 5 rays, uneven I know but she still seems pretty darn good for helping reduce Remmy's tail without losing the spread! She's got the cutest flare ever!

Flared Osiris to Remmy and they were having fun with that, Osiris flares at everything and Remmy was just like...what??? lol he seems to be just fine though! Fins are growing back nicely and he's loving the food all day long thing lol

Renny and Isis have huuuuge egg spots too! Is there such thing as super conditioning because these gal's are ready!

Oooh oh oh oh!! My Bonsai tree is flowering!!! Doesn't really mean anything because they can flower at any time but this is the first time it's flowered with me since we got them a few months ago! I'm quite excited to see the little flowers! I have a Fukien Tea Tree if you want to google that to see the flowers ^_^

Also looks like I have homes for Tiger, Steele, the Tiger Endler and River Song! And then with Black Hawk at Lucillia's I will have an open space in my 20, but of course unless Hawkeye goes after breeding I'll still have one fish left over.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Pictures!

Here's my Bonsai's flowers!


Steele wasn't even in the darned split tank and he's already destroyed his fins!


His anal fin WAS so nice!


Glad he's being adopted out because I can't stand fin biters! lol


I feel like my 20 looks so bare...


Aero decided to clean up after the guppies...


"Look ma! I've cleaned up the floor!" *facepalm*


And now he's fat lol


lol this was funny, I was looking at the Cyperus and was like "ooh! new sprouts already!" and then I realized that wasn't Cyperus sprouts at all! It's Dwarf Hairgrass from the middle compartment XD


It's gone into Aero's side too lol


I'm more convinced that Pierce is a boy but she's still got a prominent egg spot!
Also, maybe DTPK?




Just finished flaring, s/he flares wider than that


Cutie Patootie face!



Look at what he did! Darn it Black Hawk!


The Apisto has been doing well, recognizing me as food more or less now. I wanted to make sure he'd learn to eat before he went into the big tank at school.


Hawkeye's anal fin is still shrinking :-/


You can see the new growth on Remmy's tail :-D


And I've found out that all three of my Vaillanti Gouramis are females *facepalm* All three show stripes which a male will not have at all


My god, they bicker all day long too!



My tank is successfully a wall of green 


Oto resting on a Crypt Parva


My beautiful Dario! Look how red he's gotten!



My Giant Haigrass is doing very well apparently! I've got runners all over the place! Also you can see my baby Sparkling Gourami has grown quite a bit! He's almost doubled his size!


Two females on either side of a plant, they were trying to get to each other through it and I just through it was funny watching.



My one big male is in his glory with the three females he's got lol


idk, just looked like a nice shot of my C. Wendtii and some of my fish


Oh also forgot to say that my Celestial Pearl Danios are eating flakes! I was so proud of them! And my Gelius barbs have definitely doubled in size since I got them, they're still small fish but my one female is huuuuugee! The males keep trying to get at her but she's boss of the group of 6 lol


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## MameJenny

The tanks and fish look great! I've had a few bonsais, but I can never keep them alive for more than a few weeks, even with good care...possibly because I've just bought cheap hardware store ones. 

I just went though about 15 pages looking for Tiger pictures...it's amazing how much he's changed! I'm excited to be adopting him!  Is he in the 29 gallon right now?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mame! Yeah, we got ours at Wal-Mart haha! I did extensive research finding out about the species of my Bonsai and Lucillia and I were literally standing in the wal-mart half an hour looking up Bonsai stuff online to make sure we could keep them alive! lol. It's not bad if you can identify the species because each have different care requirements of course.

Tiger really has come along! I need to get more pics of him because he's gaining more red in his fins! And he is in the 29 but he's in the breeder box upper right and River is in the breeder net right next to him. I don't want him destroying my Sparkling Gouramis lol, he wouldn't but he'd flare up a storm and they are much smaller than him! He was fine with the Angelfish though!

I'm happy you're adopting him too! I can't say that all of my fish go to good people but I'm glad he is!


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## MameJenny

Mine were all junipers, I think. The fact that half of them at the store were dead at any one time was probably a bad sign.  At some point, I'd love to get another one, maybe from a garden center this time...I'll just research the species really well first and hope for the best.  

It's good to know that he gets along OK with the other fish...sounds like he has a lot of personality, though! Wonder what he'll think of the big, empty 20g. Probably won't know what to do with himself...lol. 

I'm surprised he did OK with the angelfish. I had a couple of them as a kid, and they killed every other fish in the tank (including each other). Then again, the tank I had was way too small. They're beautiful fish, though.


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## lilnaugrim

I'm sure he'll absolutely love it! He's pretty much loved everything I've put him in so far except cups XD but since being in the 29 and just a heated tank in general he's put on so much color!

He's a pretty easy going fella, just likes to flare at tank mates a lot and will occasionally give chase but never hurt anyone. The Angel liked to chase him around too much though and flare so I separated him out and got the Gouramis. I definitely will not mix Bettas and Gouramis no matter what anyone tells me!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm like 99.8% sure that Pierce is boy again, his flare is ridiculous and his fins are getting longer and I'm not really seeing ovary shapes anymore.....he's impossible lol, just like his namesake XD

I am now officially in the ADF owner club! I've found two healthy looking frogs at PetSmart and happily chatted with one of the associates who has always been very curious about the fish she takes care of and is always happy to listen to new information! I taught her how to sex the ADF's today and a bit more about Bettas, she was happy to talk that's for sure and I was happy to educate!

But so far the frogs are doing well, I'll feed them tomorrow after they've hopefully settled in! I'll start off with white worms to see if they'll enjoy a few of those ^_^


----------



## Kaffrin

It's okay! Now Pierce can be called handsome ;3 Would love to see some pics of the couple~

For your white worm culture - do you ever get squeamish? They're just sooo tiny! I'm a bit hesitant on starting mine. 

Boy I wish employees at pet stores around my area would be willing to learn! When I stop by they usually tend to ask me questions on what I'm buying and proceed to give me random information about it that's wrong most of the time. If you attempt to correct them they just smile and nod~ Oh, well. I wonder if they just give us information based off those care sheets supplied for all the animals they carry. (Petco)


----------



## lilnaugrim

White worms...tiny? Have you seen Grindal worms or Microworms? lol so much tinier! Nah, I only get squeamish when I see pictures of piles of Grindal worms, White Worms aren't so bad though honestly.

Yeah, they do pretty much just go off the care sheets from what I know. Some times you'll get a worker who is more curious and conscious! It's rather nice for sure :-D


----------



## Kaffrin

White worms are tiny but I can see them easily! I can at least pretend microworms are mold or something, LOL! They're extreeeemely tiny!


----------



## Lucillia

I hate those care sheets so much. The only one almost good is the nitrogen cycle one. The rest are garbage. They don't even tell you what size tanks are appropriate for any animal. It really irritates me. I was doing aquatics all day yesterday and I had two of my normal customers who come to me for lots of info, I tell them when I honestly don't know.. like one was asking about baby betta food cultures.. I was like uh I can give you a list of good ones but I really couldn't tell you how to culture any besides daphnia and bbs. But I also get anxious when customers are like we finally found a store with someone who knows what they're talking about! We're going to come here all the time! and then I start waving my hands and saying that doesn't always happen; most chain stores have no idea. Lil... save me. I love fish but being a fish sales person is bad for my store and me. XD


----------



## BettaLover1313

Can't wait to see pictures of your ADF's!


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## lilnaugrim

I know Luci! I'm sorry!!! If only your co-workers weren't such idiots :roll: such a shame!

---------------------------------------
What a day I've had! I'll report on that first before pictures.

Woke up, took a shower as usual and went out to my car to find that my led screen was flash STOP in big red letters and was telling me I was low on brake fluid >.> my dad and brother worked on it yesterday and apparently when Bobby drove it home yesterday he didn't find that the least bit odd....so my brake fluid is half drained out because I've got a leak now. So I didn't end up going to work, Boss said it was alright though; I'm not paid for it anyway lol.

Then my grandpa apparently had his car breakdown so he called John (my mom's bf) to come pick him up, they then went back home and then John ended up with a heart attack when one of his stents came loose! He's good and stable now but holy crap! What a morning!! Absolutely terrible! Mom was on a day trip with her friends in Boston and had to come home early, the one darn day that she had! I feel bad for both of them!

Alright, pics up in the next post.


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## lilnaugrim

I think Dario was eating some of the bloodworms! It'd be nice if he actually would eat frozen foods too.


He's a beautiful deep red now though!


Pierce, the only other fish that I actually got pictures of lol



Yeah I don't really see any ovary shapes anymore and he's been flaring up a storm.


I believe this was the "male" but I think I actually have two females, not sure.


Look at that face!!!




They are very curious!


I had fed them a few bloodworms at this point and she was looking for the tweezers to find more lol


Good looking female!


"I BELIEVE I CAN FLY!"


Hunting the bloodworm!


Grabbed it! Can see it there in her mouth lol


I just can't get enough of those faces! Absolutely adorable!


----------



## DaytonBetta

That pic labeled "good looking female" looks like a male to me. See the bump behind the arm, right where the arm meets the body? That is the nuptial pad, which is found on male frogs.

They are cute! I hope you have a great time with them.


----------



## BettaLover1313

So cute! Dario is looking amazing!


----------



## lilnaugrim

That's what I was looking for Dayton but it also has the tail bump between the legs which the males aren't supposed to have but maybe they're still too young to truly be sexually mature? I think I was reading males are mature at 7 months and females 8 months? That one there is the larger of the two frogs and the one I more suspected was female IIRC, I'll have to look at them again when I get home from work to be sure though. The smaller one looked more male to me and the larger one I'm like 99% sure is female...

Thanks BL1313!! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

This week is shaping out to be all around odd and weird.

I had to stay at work an extra two hours because my boss went home sick today, he possibly has Lyme so I don't blame him at all! But I had things to do like send out plants and Tiger today but since I missed yesterday, at least I could get in two hours of pay that I missed since I don't have vacation time or sick day's since I'm only a part timer here and it's only a work-study, not a real job.

And then last night found out that my girl cat Ieli is sick, I knew she had been vomiting when my dad moved to New London, we figured it was the tap water that was doing it and so we switched them to the spring water and she's been fine. Then last week she had one bloody stool, then yesterday fever and diarrhea. Dad thought it might be Feline Luekemia and I prayed it wasn't, her fever is gone today and so is the poops. There is still a chance of course but we're thinking it's more along the lines of something bad she ate since the mice there eat different diets than where we were before (well different flora around here is all) so it's stress, lonliness and different diet all bundled into one. But she's being taken to the vet on Wednesday (at least I hope he brings her) so here's to hoping and praying!

Other than that, the fish have been good.


----------



## hrutan

Eeek, I hope it's not leukemia. There's a vaccination for that so if she tests clean of leuki you might wanna do that.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they had their shots just about a month ago now for that.


----------



## hrutan

Good luck! Poor sick baby.


----------



## MattsBettas

How warm does your water get, lil?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Currently without heaters I'm getting up to 83 during the day roughly. I realized that last year my tanks only got so hot because I had the heaters in still lol. So it really doesn't get as hot as I thought it would but we're still not in the "thick" of summer yet, August is our worst but one month out of 12 wouldn't be too harmful for them, right?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Phew, did a 2 hour tank maintenance, 100% change on both breeders and the 2.5 and then 50% on the 20 and ~20% on the 29. Fish are happy though.

I promised pics of Tiger for MameJenny ^_^
Sorry about the water marks on my tank >.<



You can see the extra red coming in on his anal fin here. I suspect all that black fin on his tail will turn to red next too.


I love my frogs! They're so cute! This is definitely the female.


And the male decided to join her, they seem to like to greet me as they look for the food I've dropped in lol.


I mean seriously, how can you say no to those faces??


lol, he looks like he's just been insulted lol


Female crouching


They really like to do this in the Cyperus Helferi lol every time I come home, one of them is up there like this XD


----------



## Kaffrin

As long as they're not hitting boiling point I'm sure they'll be fine (Probably won't be too happy though). My tanks have been at 86-90 for quite a bit throughout this summer! Although it was only that high because I don't turn on my AC until later in the day, so my house turns into an oven even though it's not that hot outside. Their attitudes didn't really change all that much from the heat, just hungry lil' water puppies. I'm sure 11 months is enough time to recover 

Droooooling over Tiger's colors~~


----------



## Sabina88

Tiger looks awesome, and your frogs are adorable 

Where did you put the frogs again?


----------



## lilnaugrim

What are you talking about Kaffrin? The frogs? Or your babies?

Matt and I were talking about wilds and what temperature we can keep wild bettas at.

EDIT: Sabina, they are in the end compartment where Hawkeye used to be but I moved him to here Black Hawk was and then Black Hawk moved to the 2.5 split where Steele was and Steele is in the last compartment with the frogs lol.


----------



## MameJenny

Tiger is so gorgeous! :-D Could be the photo, but I think I can see some red on his tail already. Should be interesting to see how he continues changing. :-D Thanks for the pics!

I want to caption one of those dwarf frog photos. I didn't think frogs could be so tiny and cute!


----------



## Kaffrin

Oh, lil I totally thought you were talking about your betta splendens x3 So I chimed in since I thought you had this sweltering heat too~ Didn't read earlier posts, sorry about that!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, that's okay Kaffrin! Yeah, no my tanks have been up to 90 easily last summer since I still had my heaters in but this year I took them out and they're sitting comfortable at 82-83 during the day and drop to around 74-75 at night, sometimes lower depending on the temperatures outside.

Mame, I'm really glad you like him so much! Parts on his tail are sort of see-through and there are red plants behind him and he's also under red lights so that part on his tail isn't actually red just yet ;-) And I totally don't mind if you want to caption any of the pictures ^_^


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Splendens complex wilds may do okay at a higher temperature, if it is not year round. Based on the wildly varying temperatures I have seen recorded in the wild, I would think that during the hotter months, some of these shallow bodies of water would heat up quite a bit, particularly those that are exposed directly to the sun. 

This complex is also pretty similar care wise to the domestics, and are very beautiful fish, provided you can get them pure.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the info LBF! I'll see what I can find....although I'm not sure where I'd put them since we'll be breeding soon! One more week of conditioning and they should be good if I've done everything right! Isis still won't flare at Osiris though, she seems interested enough from what I can tell though! Half my issue is that my fish are too interested when I come around so I have to block them from seeing me or not be in the room with them >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Woohoo! I have 115 friends on here now! lol, not that it matters; the majority of them aren't even active any more! lol, it's the thought that counts, right? XD

Holy rainstorm, batman! We had one heck of one last night! Knocked the power out at the university, luckily my house wasn't hit. But apparently half our backup generators didn't come on >.< there goes half the experiments in this building! Sucks when that happens, especially since most of them are very expensive too....

But with the rainstorm came fantastically cool temps! It was only 67 when I woke up this morning, absolutely beautiful! And the best part was there is no humidity today! I'm quite frankly, sick of 100% humidity every day! It's ridiculous!

Fishes are all happy this morning with the rainstorm, the barrometric pressure changes and they get ready for breeding lol, Osiris built another bubblenest for Isis. But Isis still isn't flaring back to him, she looks like she wants at him but doesn't flare, she flares to Rennie though.

Remmy hasn't built any bubblenests yet but he still acts like he wants to breed if that's possible....heck, if he doesn't want to breed then Lucillia just got a new MG boy, he's a DeT but with Rennie's genes or even the HMPK girl I have if he's big enough, I'm GOING to have MG babies, I don't care how or by who, I WILL have these babies!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Whoops, I forgot to update that I took the guppies out of the .5 gallon and put them back in with Aero and they've been doing much better in there!

I also bought five Golden Pencilfish yesterday and put them in with Hawkeye to give him something to do but something he can't eat like the guppy fry. The Pencilfish don't seem to mind him but they do swim away when he tries to bite them, I think the exercise is good for him. His anal fin is still shrinking slowly and his fins mostly look collapsed, not melted or anything, just not as vibrant and flowly as they used to be but much more stiff. Much like an older persons joints don't work so well :-/

But the pencilfish have already been eating well and exploring the compartment so I think they don't mind not having a huge current that they would normally like to swim in.

After talking on the forum with some others, we discussed the issues of CO2 vs. O2 and then the factors that come into play; lighting, surface agitation, plant food and fish bio-load. For some reasons I couldn't figure out, the plants in my 20 don't do as well as the plants in my 29 even though they have the same lighting. Crud, even my Wisteria wasn't growing that well! Well I've figured out that it's most likely due to the fact that the fish-load is so very small in that tank and that's another reason for the pencilfish. Once the guppies go (which should be in the next few weeks) then I'm going to lose a lot of bioload for that tank and I suspect that if I don't have adequate fish load, my plants aren't going to be too happy neither.

So my plan is to eventually bump up my Celestial Pearl Danio school when I get the money and hopefully get my Gertudae a few more of his own kind, I want to see if the HMPK girl will be okay with other fish. She tried to nip through the bag of the pencilfish last night so I decided to put them in with Hawkeye since he can bite but he can't swim so fast so the chances of him killing one of them is very low. But the Gertudae are super quick so hopefully they can out-swim her and she'll leave them alone....hopefully.

But back to my 29, I have 10 C. Habrosus, 6 Puntius Gelius, 16 Ember Tetras, 1 Dario Dario, 1 Angelfish, 5 Sparkling Gouramis, and two Bettas in holding cells plus countless MTS, some Bladder snails and 3 Rabbit Snails from what I can see. That adds up to 41 fish and a bunch of snails so no wonder my plants are happy in there! lol


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## lilnaugrim

Holy crap, okay, update time and I really apologize about being scatter brained! I had a very busy day here on the forum! Yikes!

So I went back to the LFS where I got the Golden Pencilfish yesterday because in one of their tanks I noticed a fish that has been there for at least two or three months now. It's an Apistogramma Macmasteri boy who is severely emaciated, lose his left eye and is probably blind in his right eye. Looks like a bit of Nitrite poisoning and fins are all ripped up. So I asked the sub-owner if I could take him home and he was all for it! Apparently they didn't even know he was still there and not sure how he got into the tank because the tank with all the other A. Macmasteri's are in the tank above, I theorize that someone was fishing fish from the top above and he got caught in the net and fell into the tank under it with the guppies and Sparkling Gouramis. So I bought a little .5 gallon tank and have started him on a so far successful recovery process!

I also found a fantastic way to feed my little froggies! They like to hang out in the floating Water Wisteria in the back and so I was petting one, I believe the male and he bit my finger! Didn't hurt in the slightest but it gave me an idea! I slightly wet my finger and stuck a few pellets on it and though they take their time, they happily ate the pellets right off my finger! It was so darn cute! I'm so happy I got these little guys! The female is much better at actually eating off my finger than the male is but oh well, they'll get the hang of it!

Pictures up next.


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## beautiful Betta

Good on you for taking that poor boy.


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## lilnaugrim

Here's the little boy, sorry if he sort of disturbs you, I know he's not the prettiest fish! He at 2 and a half White Worms and one pellet (the worm broke in half >.<) but he still needs some more in there.
This is his good eye, although I can't tell if he's responding to my finger or just happens to move...


And this is the missing eye side.



Tank is little less than half filled so he can get around easier and he likes to rest in the plant. The light was temporary and pellets sucked out when he couldn't find them.


The breeder pair! Osiris actually looks a bit scary here to me XD he almost looks painted too!


Isis was the only one who really cooperated though.


3 gallon is doing nice.


Bentley loves to hide under here!


Two of my Golden Pencilfish!


Well Black Hawk is healing...again...>.< oh well, at least he's healing fine again.


Aero has not been doing well today :-/ he's lacking energy and has been resting all over the Water Sprite and his cyst just looks horrible.


His fins haven't reached passed this either


He's also fat because he eats the flakes that the guppies eat lol


The girl loves to bug him but he just chills like this :-/


He just look so miserable! :-(


Dwarf Water Lettuce came in today from Kaffrin! It all looks super healthy and I now have a ton of it! woot woot!


Hawkeye was giving me sass here lol. I feel bad, he's got more energy than Aero does :-/ he seems to not mind his new tankmates though!


He still looks pretty bad though.


Steele was happy to slurp up the extra pellets :roll:


Pierce has been doing well


My tank looks like it's half and half.....half green forest and half nicely aquascaped....I need to sell more Myrio! Yikes!


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## Kaffrin

Eek, the shipping crumpled them up and made them yellow! With you they'll definitely bounce back quick ^.^

Despite Aero's troubles, he's still one heck of a gorgeous fish! His scales are suuuper thick - totally reminds me of this on the last of his pics:


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## beautiful Betta

is there a disease that wastes them away? I don't know if it is your photograph angle or your lighting, but the sickly boys even steel to me look like they are wasting from their top line, its so strange? I hope you sort it out.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Kaffrin! Yeah, Aero is named partly because there is a color called aero and then because when he was little he still had a skunk stripe but it looked like he had arrows pointing up his back! So thus named Aero :-D I love that painting though! I agree, they do look similar ^_^

The water lettuce isn't as crumbled as it seems! They've all straightened themselves out this morning and the roots are looking fabulous!

bB, that is part of getting old. Think about an elderly person compared to a young one, the elder would be much more droopy and generally skinny because they don't eat as much, don't have as much energy and so on. The same happens in fish. Aero only looks skinny because his front end is so fat with the cyst but it's just a trick of the eye, compared at Remmy he still has a nice back half, it's just the cyst that makes him look so out of proportion is all.

Hawkeye is wasting away but he still has his energy. He's a fairly young boy in an old man's body. Steele is old to begin with, I assume he's reached around 2-2.5 years at this point since I don't know how long that lady had them.

I'm also finding that, and maybe it's just me but, it depends on the care they've had all their life. I've had Remmy since he was extremely young, he was smaller even than Aero when I got him which means I got him right around 3-3.5 months old. Aero was bigger but he was sick when I got him from the store which doesn't help the odds but mostly it's just his cyst that is making him look weird. And then Hawkeye spent who knows how long at the pet store as a baby and then was taken home and "cared" for for 4 months before I got him and he grew like a weed. Hawkeye is a special case I feel, Pierce probably won't have that issue as much or so early on because I took him in right away; they got the babies in and he must have only spent maybe a few hours on that shelf before I took him home. Hawkeye, we can't say the same for.

Oh and also, my little Cichlid there, I found out this morning that it is a girl! I found her ovaries lol. She took down one frozen bloodworm but absolutely refused to take down more, she kept taking them in but would spit them back out >.> so then I tried a white worm and she REFUSED it! I was flabbergasted but said fine and get the worm to Dario and figure I'll try to feed her again later. She hasn't gained any sort of weight even with the two worms she ate last night. It will be a long road for her though I know! I'm not terribly expecting results overnight but I would have liked her to eat some more :-/ her stomach is probably all shrunken up and tiny though from not getting food ever for a month! The LFS only feeds flakes to those tanks so I high doubt she could out compete the guppies in that tank!


----------



## beautiful Betta

I see, the little cichlid probably just needs time, she is probably feeling stuffed if she was so used to going without. I am sure she will want to eat again soon.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I figure so! I'm going to keep trying through the day since it's lovely Saturday and I'm home most of the day!

Just sent Tiger out to his forever home with MameJenny and then sent a bunch of plants out! I need to re-scape my 29 to look like it's actually cared for again lol I just sold a bunch of Red Myrio so that's looking a little better now....now to tackle that green forest of Myrio 

Oh also! I've found out that the red Myrio holds a TON of detritus and aquarium...gunk everywhere in it! The fine leaves just gather it all up! I have to periodically hit it and mess the tank up to try to get the filter to suck it up >.> I think I'm going to take the plastic part off of my glass top today and move the filter over in back of the myrio so it can suck up all that nasty stuff....hopefully :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

Ug, what an uneventful weekend, it's nice but it would be nicer without this headache.

Finished the tank maintinence I started yesterday :roll: 

I have a CRAP TON of Green Myrio....anyone willing to buy the whole thing for $30 free shipping? It's easily at least 30 stems if not more and long ones too, not dinky little clippings.

Female Cichlid has been doing well, she ate three small pellets today and yesterday she did keep down two bloodworms later in the day so that made me happy. She's funny when she smells food because she starts pecking at the bottom of the tank all over until she finally gets it. It's frustrating to watch sometimes because she could be right over it and not get it and then go do a different spot and I'm just like "ARRHH It was right there!!" lol. So I can't watch while she tries to find the food lol.

Aero is not been doing well, I don't really expect him to make it through this week honestly :-/ he lounges nearly all day and doesn't eat as much any more neither....geeze, Remmy is in better shape than both Aero and Hawkeye combined!

Pics up next.


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## lilnaugrim

Here's what the 29 looked like prior


And all cleaned up! Yeah, all that Myrio gone is what I'm selling off. Hey look, I have Giant Hairgrass! lol


Just wanted to prove I still have those mosses I talked about a while ago! I mist them twice a week or so and they've been doing well. Still alive at least! the pillow moss in the corner there has expanded a little bit and the one on the right is growing upwards which, if I'm not mistaken, means the light is too low....which I find weird.



And here's the little girl, she's doing better at least; doesn't look so straggly. I've got to find a name for her so I don't have to keep saying Female Apisto.


And this is how Aero has spent most of his time during the day :-/


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## Sabina88

It might help your female cichlid find her food if you train her. I learned this tip from Seki when I got my blind EE resue.
You tap the tank three times and drop the food in, but always drop the food in the same spot. So that way she'll know that when you tap it means food and she'll know where to go.

Im glad Aero's and Hawkeye are still hanging in there. Poor guys


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## lilnaugrim

Yep! I've already started one that and she was able to find the pellets pretty well today!


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## Sabina88

That's good news  Im glad shes eating well and is hungry


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## lilnaugrim

My fish are still confused at the lack of jungle in the 29 lol. At least Stratus can move around now! Poor girl was getting anxious with all the plants, she couldn't even move! She seems to be more content with the more space ^_^

The Apisto girl has been doing well, she found the pellets pretty easily this morning when I finally got them to sink! She knows the sound of the lid snapping open and looked up every time I did it, she's so stinking cute. I think she can see a little bit from her one eye but it's probably just light based and faint movement that she can see. She doesn't respond to my finger wiggling outside the tank but the noise helps her, she still scared of the actual taps on the tank though and I don't blame her; it's only a dinky acrylic tank after all!


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## BettaLover1313

Poor Aero  I hope he starts feeling a bit better.

Glad that you took in the Apisto female, as it sounds like she's already doing better with someone to care for her and handle her near-blindness.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks, I don't have high hopes for Aero this week :-( I came home expecting to see him dead, he was just floating but he's still alive. He seems to be losing all energy and is just slowly dying. He was trying to itch his cyst on a plant too. I don't want to euthanize him but I know there is no cure for this. If it were some disease or something I could cure, I'd say sure but I know that cyst is just going to expand and get worse. It looks like it's already pushing on his intestines and clogging up his gills/labyrinth organ. he's having some trouble breathing but he still eats, not with as much vigor but he does eat.

This sucks. He's really the first male that I've had to die since Dec. 2012 I don't really count my sorority girls though very devestating, I didn't have them nearly as long as I have Aero and Rembrandt :-/


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks, I don't have high hopes for Aero this week :-( I came home expecting to see him dead, he was just floating but he's still alive. He seems to be losing all energy and is just slowly dying. He was trying to itch his cyst on a plant too. I don't want to euthanize him but I know there is no cure for this. If it were some disease or something I could cure, I'd say sure but I know that cyst is just going to expand and get worse. It looks like it's already pushing on his intestines and clogging up his gills/labyrinth organ. he's having some trouble breathing but he still eats, not with as much vigor but he does eat.
> 
> This sucks. He's really the first male that I've had to die since Dec. 2012 I don't really count my sorority girls though very devestating, I didn't have them nearly as long as I have Aero and Rembrandt :-/


It's very hard to see them suffering, but even harder to make the decision to put them down. At the time, I resented my one friend telling me to put Dragoon down, but looking back, I'm glad that she did. She was more of a voice of reason than I could muster. 

Not saying you should put him down, I just sympathize with you. I really hope that he passes peacefully on his own and that you don't have to euthanize him. :-(


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## MameJenny

He has a cyst? That must be terrible...it's so hard to watch pets slowly decline. I have pet mice, and at one point, I had two of my favorites die from throat tumors within 6 months. They would be lively and happy one day, then a little lethargic the next, then I'd notice the tumor...and then I'd have to euthanize them within a month, when they were unable to breathe and move. I'm so sorry about your betta boy. :-( 

The 29 looks so empty now! Reminds me of my lagarosiphon...every now and then, it fills up my tanks, and I just have to trim it down to a few stems and start fresh.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys. He gave me a scare this morning but he was just sleeping, though, I should have known better since it was still dark to him lol.

Yeah, he's got a huge ol'cyst right on his side over the stomach/intestine area :-/
You can see it best in this picture below. It's enlarged on the inside, that isn't his normally I've-just-been-fed tummy, that's all cyst and you can see the white part exposed there behind his pectoral fin. It started as a harmless white scale on him about oh...last August/September I think? And then just one day started to grow. When I first saw the scale I thought he was marbling because it looked so innocent but know that I know better, that's not how marbling starts off and unfortunately has grown to this monster. The total cyst seems to be larger than the size of his head. It's also pushing out the other side, or at least pushing the organs to the other side, making him seem fat all the time when he really isn't.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh forgot to update, Apisto female happily ate around 8 pellets this morning I think it was! She knows where the food drops now and has been happily eating ever since! I need to clean out the breeder tanks and her's today.

I've been thinking about getting some semi-aquatic plants for the back of the 20 since it's still open, I have the glass in the middle/front but I didn't put the plastic part on so it's got a nice 2 inch gap that I could fill with some plants. I can make holders from either regular mesh pond bags or take the black craft mesh, make a box to fit in the compartment and suction cup it on and then line it with the mesh that prevents weeds so the soil stays in. I might mineralize the soil though this time so it doesn't effect the over all ammonia in my tank. 

I've been thinking about regular Lobelia Cardinalis, maybe Arrow Arum, Blue-eyed Grass for sure, and maybe something else that can handle wet feet ^_^ Or get one of my aquatic plants to grow out, like the Parrots feather; that will do nicely grown emersed since apparently it's often used in ponds for a half submerged plant!

Clearly, my plans for my paludarium are on major hold as the only project I've actually am getting to this summer is the breeding. Work, and taking care of what I do have has been taking precedence over anything else. 

Now I've been charged for my hospital visit when I broke my foot >.> I wasn't expecting it since they told me there was no copay for out-patient visits. I realize now they were talking about no copay's up front but they would bill me, they didn't make this clear though which severely pissed me off but whatever; they're taking up 10% of the bill so I only have to pay 90 dollars. Since our insurance has changed, it's no longer $100 for hospital visit but now $125....yipee >.<

I know I have a lot to be thankful for (free room and board technically) but holy crap, I'm just happy I have a job to pay for all this stuff! Car repairs, car insurance, phone bill, electricity bill now. Yikes! Oh and I need a new phone and laptop, my phone is my sister-in-laws old phone she happily gave to me when I needed an upgrade. It's an old Envy II phone and I do love it but it's getting worn out very quickly, I think it's six years old now. And my laptop is my dad's old DJ laptop so it's around eight years old, still has Windows Vista and is a complete downgrade from my other laptop but my other laptop had physical damage and some other issues from me not being the most experienced laptop user and rather ignorant to certain things. So, the phone probably won't be much but I want a decent laptop that can run the programs I need to without crashing so that's going to be a pretty penny.

Oh yeah, and dental work on top of it. I may still have to pay the $100 for getting the crown on my dental implant. Geeze, I can't win can I?

Sorry for ranting, I really needed to just let it all out! I don't have a lot of people I can actually talk to about it that wouldn't be annoyed with my texts (Luci, I'll probably rant to you tomorrow anyway lol) and my mother sure isn't going to hear it! Why, when she was my age she already had a kid and a full time job and car payments and blah, blah, blah....I despise when people do that, times change, okay? It's not the same world we lived in 31 years ago!

Tomorrow is our Tropical Fish Society meeting and I don't remember who is speaking but if it's anything good I'll be sure to report back to y'all about it!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh man, the presentation last night at the meeting was fantastic. It was a young kid (I say young but he was somewhere around 30's I'd guess) who'd gone to the Rio ***** in South America and gave us a talk on what fish are there and his journey's. It was hilarious too! At one point he had a picture and called it a "Cornecopia of Piranha" and holy crap we all died laughing, there were others too that I don't remember all of them.

One story though, he was in the water and apparently had scraped his knee on a log and found a piranha and was chasing it down to see if the piranha would bite him but instead he found...I think it was a species of geophagus guarding a nest and the fish was coming after him instead of the piranha but I guess the fish was huge so he freaked out and was trying to get away haha!! Oh man, there was some good stories.

Pics next.


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## lilnaugrim

Apisto female is doing well, moved her to the 2.5 split.


She's coloring up some! This is pre-feeding so she's not so fat.




I feel like her eye is getting better but I'm really not sure if it ever will return to normal.



So we all know how my will power sucks....like really sucks. I went to PetCo yesterday waiting to go to dinner with Lucillia before the meeting and I was just wasting time. I ended up getting 5(+1 that snuck in) Neon's for the school tank to make a nice school of 16 and then two otos to help clean up the tank and when they're done there, they'll come home with me as long as this diatom bloom does die down eventually.

But there was something else there....I took a gander at those darn cute little PetCo Babies and found one that was slightly larger than River is right now and she's a full HM! Already has 4 ray's, she's a black copper (looks like partial dragon!) devil Butterfly!

I give you Silhouette! She's been barred up all day! Well...since I've been home at least lol



I'm pretty sure it's a girl, ventrals are long but I'm pretty sure I've seen ovaries.
She's got a perfect butterfly though!!!



She's such a doll and eating very well


Beautiful tail!


River, looking more boyish now.....hmmm




Still has an ovipositer though.


Stratus was upset with me because I wasn't feeding her right away so she "hid" on me lol


I love her little face!!


Two females...I think lol it's hard to tell front on but sideways I can at least see the ovaries.



Dario! His tail is growing back I think, idk why but it really took a long time to heal up :-/



Ludwigia and Myrio are already growing! Everyone seems to be content with the plant's gone. At first they were like "what did you dooooo!??!" lol but they're fine now or seemingly at least.


I love Bentley, he's doing really well!


How can you resist that?!


He's not too shy neither


The two more dominant females are always bickering....I don't like how much they bicker :-/


Aero has not been super tolerant of the guppies but he can't really do anything to them lol. I love that guppy up front too, black pectorals!


Poking at the ground


I hate cysts :-/


My 20 now


And both larger tanks


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## Sabina88

Silhouette is adorable  I cant wait to see how she turns out, I can tell she'll be gorgeous 

Im glad your Apisto girl and Bentley are doing well. Is she going to get much bigger then what she is now?

Also happy to hear that Aero is still hanging in there


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! I couldn't just let her sit in the cup! I've never seen a baby that had four ray's!! Even if it becomes a 'he' he'll still be beautiful lol!

The Apisto girl is still very young, the other ones at the store were twice her size so if she hasn't had any large trauma's or birth defects (which I don't see anything wrong other than her missing eye of course) she should grow just fine once she gets over her emaciated state :-D she's coming along though!

Yeah, he's still hanging in there but he's given me a few scares the past few day's. Every day I come home sure that I'm going to find him gone :-/

EDIT: Apisto girl should end up looking something like these two girls below:


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## Sabina88

Hopefully both Silhouette and your Apisto girl grow up without a hitch 

Those two girls are pretty! 

Aww im sorry to hear that. I know that feels :-(, but I suppose that if he's held on with you for this long that must be a good sign of sorts and it means that he's well cared for


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Sabina, I really appreciate that!


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## Sabina88

Your welcome Lilnaugrim


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## BettaLover1313

Oh my gosh Silhouette is gorgeous! Such a pretty betta! I'm also very jealous of your tanks; they are so pretty!


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## lilnaugrim

Aww thanks BL1313!! See I love my 29 but my 20 I always feel like it's just bleh and not able to really be scaped at all. I want to try more rosette plants in there rather than stem plants and see if I can make something of it!

------------------------------------
I have some breaking news and pictures up next if they came out good!


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures!

Look! She's coloring up!!


Bentley and his darned adorable face!


I believe this is my dominant female



Aero being adorable ^_^


Silhouette today:




And for my breaking news!
I HAVE FISH FRY!

Okay so I have no idea how this happened, they are in my .5 gallon! I think maybe one of the fish scattered their eggs (both Barbs and Tetras are egg scatterers) on the plants that I threw in there and the eggs some how hatched! I was looking at the .5 gallon and I thought they were some weird copepod or amphipod but I realized they have eyes and a tummy! I think they might be Gelius barb fry and I honestly pray to god that they are because that means I don't have to buy more for 5.99 each!!!!!

Do you see it?


Two of them here!


Group of them!


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## BettaLover1313

Little fish fry!!! Too cute! Aero is also very adorable peeking up at you like that. Glad to see your Apisto female is coloring up, and I think you're right, her eye does look a little better.


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## lilnaugrim

I actually did a water change on the .5 gallon because I thought they were just little copepods and so I think I actually sucked out some of them but these pics are after the water change and there's still quite a few in there. I wonder if they're Barbs or Tetras! lol I'm not quite sure what do to with them, I think I might keep them in the .5 for a week or so until they get a little bigger and then set up the breeder net again in the 29 and acclimate them if they're still alive. I guess they kind of are a good start to handling the Betta fry lol, my Miracle Fry XD


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

Wow congrats on the babies! Maybe if your fry survive and my shrimplets survive they can be siblings from another motha


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks!

I went up to check on them before lights out and they seem to be okay, it's not a filtered tank, just a airtube with some air bubbling out gently and the plants. The dwarf hairgrass is doing fantastic and I'd honestly just like to let them carpet the whole thing lol

I did find one dead but seems to be around 8-10 fry in there that I could see at least. I think that big water change I did sort of killed some of them >.< of course at that point I didn't realize they were fry! lol


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

It's okay! We all live and learn from our mistakes. I prolly would of been thinking they were something bad for the tank.


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## beautiful Betta

What a nice surprise about the fry, I hope you can manage to keep them alive.


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## lilnaugrim

lol, using my line I see ;-) haha

Thanks bB, it sure was when I found out what they where!! haha, I just couldn't believe it was possible! The only fish that were ever in there was the guppies lol I'm betting that it is the Barbs since it seems to look more like a barb fry from google search but honestly I have no idea! I do hope I can keep them alive though! Small water changes each day and good food :-D I'm sure they're eating any infusoria that might be in there....at least I hope so!


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## lilnaugrim

Fry are still alive this morning....I think I counted around 12, I probably would have had more if I hadn't done that water change yesterday thinking they were some kind of copepod >.> They're so tiny! But I think I got them to eat the powdered up flakes, I also threw in some Grindal Worms on the off chance they could eat them, I don't see any more in there so it's possible, that or they died since Grindal's don't live too long in the aquarium.

I have Banana Worms and Microworms on order though along with Decap Brine Shrimp and some other powdered rotifer food so I should be set if they survive until Monday! lol I still really can't believe I have fry in there! I really can't! They really are my Miracle fry and I pray to god I can keep them alive! I did a small baster change, like one suck to get some of the debris off the floor but there's a bunch of other copepods and water fleas in there that it seems like they've been eating I think, that or infusoria at least. Some are larger than others, I'll see if I can get more pictures later, it's completely fascinating!!


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## Kaffrin

It's amazing how the new girl is coloring up! Can't wait for the surprise fry pics!


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## lilnaugrim

Did you mean the the new pics or the first pics because those are up already lol. I never expected them to be so tiny! I'm used to Guppy fry lol while I know they're big for fry, these guys are literally little specs! Heck, I think my Daphnia are bigger than they are!


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## Kaffrin

I meant new pics~ Favorite part of this journal is how updated you keep us with pics ^.^ I've never had fry before so it's pretty cool to see them growing up!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! Okay, thank you! I love taking pictures and I honestly love picking through the 200+ pictures I take some times just to find the good ones! Although it can also suck if my fish and I have a bad day with the camera lol But I know everyone loves the pictures too so I try to keep updated! I'll try to get some today after church, not sure if mom has anything planned today or not since this is usually our family day because most of the time we're all home unlike Saturday when my mom still usually has to DJ a party or whatever 

---------------------------------------------------
In other news, showed the fry to my mom and seems she's totally cool with the 13 gallon on my nightstand I just set up yesterday with Osiris in it lol I totally thought she'd freak at it because it's another tank XD but she was like "oh you're breeding more baby fish? That's fine" lol I showed her the teeny fry in the .5 gallon and she was amazed! I'm glad she likes the baby stuff haha, as long as she doesn't have to take care of it, she usually doesn't care much.

Aero yesterday seems to either have punctured his cyst or he's got some scales falling off around it, it's hard to tell but there was definitely something coming off the cyst area :-/ he's been trying to scrape at it real bad although there's really nothing in there but plants that he can scrape against anyway :-/

Apisto female is doing well, ate a bunch of pellets yesterday, she's getting better at finding them!

Silhouette is also doing well, she's the same size as River is and honestly her body is a little stockier, River is just so small!

Back to the fry, I believe they've been eating the copepods that are in the tank since I actually got to see one pooping yesterday so it looks like they are eating something! I throw in a teeny pinch of powdered flake when it looks like nothing is in there, so I can't tell if they are eating it or if the copepods are and they are eating the copepods which is more likely anyway. I can't wait to get those cultures in so I can actually feed them! :-D Still looks like I have 11-12 in there, hard to count though.


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## lilnaugrim

Fry are still alive from what I see, counted 8 but I know there are more.

Some pics

First up today is River
Nothing was really in focus today but I grabbed some pics anyway




29 today 


My beautiful little Dario!


One of the smaller female Sparklers



Stratus was being all cute ^_^


Puntus Gelius! Finally got some decent pictures of my Barbs, they're just a teeny bit bigger than my Ember Tetras :-D



I have 2 females to 4 boys as far as I can tell. Females have larger tummies.


Sparkling Gourami and the Barbs


Bentley!


Vaillanti Gourami girls. I really wish I had 1F:2M :-/


The smaller one is much more dominant, that black stripe on the larger one is their 'stress' line.


Some more attempted fry pictures! Sorry, my camera just didn't want to focus today!


two of them here





This is Dwarf Water Lettuce so for anyone who has this or Frog-bit, you can see the size comparison here!


One of the larger ones. Strange, I'm not sure if those are spinal disks or what but when I first saw them they looked like bubbles which is why I didn't even think at first that they might be fry; of course I was quite sure it was impossible then as well. Looks like they're forming quickly though! Of course, I haven't an actual clue on how fast these guys grow though lol I just hope I can keep them alive!


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## lilnaugrim

So I'm picking up my Microworms and Banana Worms today and I bought yesterday some Ramshorn snails for 1 dollar plus shipping....I think it might have been a mistake on the sellers part since this one had a BIN for 1 dollar and she had another auction with only a Bid price for starting at 1 dollar and it's 15 pea sized Ramshorn. I didn't care for anything fancy though but for a dollar? can't go wrong! They're going in the breeder tank, at least one in the .5 gallon with those fry and then a few in the 29 and plenty in the 20 since that has no snails, I need to get some MTS over there as well so they can help aerate the tank.

I got Isis in the tank with Osiris today, well she's in a cup covered so they can be properly introduced. I need to talk to a breeder though :-/ she recognizes him but doesn't flare, she does follow though but I know she should be displaying the same flirt to him as he is to doing to her....she'll flare to girls though...idk, she seemed like such a promising breeder too. I'll give her the day and see how she's doing when I get home.


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## Sabina88

Hopefully all goes well with Isis and breeding. Hopefully spending a day with Osiris will make the difference  
How is breeding going with Remmy? 

Quick non related question, I know the acronym for double tail is DT but what's the acronym for delta tail is it still DT?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks! I hope so too!

I haven't the extra tank for Remmy at the moment so once I either clean out my 13 or get the 10 from Luci (haven't asked about that yet lol) then I'll go on with him but he hasn't been very happy lately. When I turned the lights on yesterday to show mom the fry, he flared like crazy at the light, he's such a silly boy! No sorts of nests from him yet but I hope that changes. If he doesn't want to breed then Luci had just gotten another boy, another real Mustard but he's a DeT.

And that's my segway into your question ;-) Doubles are DT yes, and Delta's are DeT. I'm surprised how many people lately don't know that since I've had that question come up multiple times now. So you aren't the only one Sabina! ^_^


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## Sabina88

Thanks for the help Lil 

And hopefully Remmy decides that breeding is a good idea instead of intimidating the light lol


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, right? He still flares when it comes on (especially if it doesn't come on at the usual time and I turn it on earlier) and when it goes off :roll: he's a special fish for sure! haha


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## Sabina88

Sounds like a certain fish likes his routine lol


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## lilnaugrim

He so does, thankfully he doesn't bite himself if he doesn't get it his way but he's a spoiled fishy and all this conditioning he's gotten has really brought out the best of him. He's so colorful and while he may lack some energy, he's still looking really good for being a little over 2 years old! But yes, he loves to flare at the lights or rather the reflection of himself he see's when the light is turned on lol


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## lilnaugrim

Going to try putting Isis and Osiris together finally! Hopefully they take rather than try to kill each other >.>

So Lucillia and I went out today and I found something amazing!!!

I FOUND MRS. DARIO!
She looks hungry here but happily ate two white worms when I was acclimating her!


I'm going to name her Gem Dario aka Mrs. Dario lol


She's absolutely Tiny!




She's a bit beat up from being in a tank full of males.


Mr and Mrs Dario for size comparison! He didn't really seem to fond of her, chased her around but didn't really seem to care after that and just sort of looked like he was wondering why she was even there lol.


He's such a ham!




Stratus was also being a doll lol


Fry seem to be doing well!


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## beautiful Betta

Do you hope that in the future that Mr & Mrs Dario will have babies?


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## lilnaugrim

I do but I doubt the fry will survive in that tank. If I were serious about breeding, they'd have their own tanks. Although I think I can remove the eggs and hatch them manually but I have to do more research on that specifically. I'm just happy I was able to find a female! They are so rare in this hobby! I'd prefer another one or two so he doesn't bug her too often if he does want to breed. But yes, perhaps I could get them to breed too!


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## lilnaugrim

Clearly my endeavor to breed betta's is not working out the way I hoped >.> Isis does not want to breed, she's been taken out of the tank and put into isolation to recuperate, towel over her tank after I fed her a nice big meal this morning. She's unscathed but she's stressed is all, breathing a little hard. I'm going to keep her isolation a few days and then see if she'll flare to Rennie few days after that. I think I just didn't condition them properly, she wasn't aggressive enough and I think flaring to Rennie will help both of them. Then after those few day's of increase flare time, if she's still okay then I show her to a male and see if she takes, if she doesn't then I give up.


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## lilnaugrim

Today sucks.

I have little faith that Isis will be able to be bred but I'm still going to try at least.

Everything hurts right now, it's going to rain tomorrow so with the barrometric pressure dropping, all the bones I've broken (especially the recent one) are killing me right now, including my knees too!

I dropped a full box of paper (20 pounds roughly) on my broken foot earlier so that's been freaking fantastic >.>

The only good thing about to day is the plant order I put in yesterday is shipped out today, I'm getting ice cream after work with my Little (fraternity) and I should be getting my Ramshorns today....other than that, it just sucks today.


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

Awe hun I'm sorry you're having such a bad day. I know how those days go and it's not fun at all. Just think of better things, your ramshorns, ice cream, and all your lovely fishies! You got plenty of good things to look forward to and be happy about, so after ice cream, just sit back and relax by your fishtanks. I have mine in my birds room, which I can then sit back and listen to my birds while watching my fish swim around.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BTBG, I will be happy when I can get home. I've got a bunch of stuff to do at home too though lol. Half an hour more of work!

Mostly though I'm just real sore about my foot since I can barely walk again and the thought of having to rebreak it tomorrow to set it especially terrifies me. I've got my doctor appointment tomorrow to check up on it to see if it healed properly, although with the abuse I've involuntarily given it, I doubt it's going well :-/ I've lost a lot of my calf muscle too in that leg since I haven't been walking normal lol so...that's going to be interesting to try to get back >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Got my Ramshorns in today and they're pretty much all alive! The two small ones I put in the .5 immediately went to work on the algae and the leftover foods! I'm rather happy with them :-D

Had a fantastic hour eating ice cream with my lovely Little!

Fry are getting bigger! I can see them easier now! :-D


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

Yay! What color ramshorns did you get?!? I love my lil ramshorns.


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## lilnaugrim

They're just regular browns, nothing fancy fancy. I can try to get photos tonight in a few minutes. M*A*S*H is over in two minutes lol I'm way too obsessed with this show :roll: lol


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, I have pictures but I'm going to bed shortly since I barely slept last night so I need to actually get to bed at a normal time at least. Hopefully my brain will stop being so active and let me sleep >.> I'll have to start doing sodoku again before I go to bed to just to get my brain to shut up lol. Darn overactive brain!!

Doctors tomorrow for my foot, the appointment I should have made a month and a half ago....:roll: but I'll probably get more x-ray's to follow up and make sure everything is good good and I didn't injure myself more >.<

But I'll upload the pictures in the morning when I get to work!


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## lilnaugrim

I find it funny that my camera did not focus on the fry but rather on the two copepods on the more top right side of the picture :roll: But the fry are happy with full tummies!


Fry hunting copepods and other microorganisms!



Still not a clue what these little guys are, and I suppose I won't know for a good month or so until they start actually growing up, provided that they do grow up! I counted 8-9 yesterday.


Isis was happy seemingly to get out of the breeding tank. She's back to her old self. Two more days of solitary confinement and then she gets to flare at Rennie.


Pierce and Steele, sorry, I need to clean the glass I know! Pierce looks larger than he is but it's close to his actual size! He's gotten decently big! His body is slightly smaller than Aero and Remmy's but he's bigger than Black Hawk was (Who went to Lucillia, not sure if I actually noted that he left to her already!)


One of the largest red Ramshorns I received! This one is beautiful! Lacking some calcium but hopefully I can remedy that ^_^


This is froggie girl, she was begging for food. They now successfully eat off my finger! I'll have to show a video so you can see what I mean ^_^


And the 29 Gallon inhabitants!
The glorious and magnificent Stratus the Angelfish! lol


For some reason...my male Sparkling Gouramis fins are both shorter than the females...this is the larger of the two boys.


And this is that baby baby Sparkler I took home! He's almost full grown!


And now for spammed pictures of Gem! lol, she was such a doll last night and very much unafraid! She was eating all the little microorganisms as I watched her!
She's coloring up very well though she shouldn't do much more than this if she really is female. There is still a chance she's not female but I'm like 99% sure she is.




The Endler kept chilling with her, I think because she's the only thing close to her size, next being the Ember Tetras but they completely ignore him lol. She was doing well ignoring him too but he was just tagging along which I've never seen him do before; generally he tries to mate with everything and anything but he wasn't attempting with her! I think he might have just been curious is all but if I'm not mistaken, he also seemed kind of protective over her....could just be me humanizing things but that's what it seemed like at least.



He's a good boy 


Some Ember Tetras. I was also observing interesting behavior with the Embers. They were schooling and suddenly they broke apart into pairs! You can see the female up front here and the male behind her. They stayed apart for a few minutes and then suddenly went back to schooling but there was no mating behaviors other than the pairs hanging out with each other. It was very interesting!


Sorry for all the dust in my aquarium :roll: but I couldn't get enough pictures of her, she just kept posing for me unknowingly so how could I stop taking pictures? lol I stopped when my battery died XD


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## beautiful Betta

To me those fry look like they have a slight yellow and black colouring. Looking at your pics the Endler, I think the fry could be an Endler.


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## lilnaugrim

They do seem it but I have a problem with that....I have no female Endlers and this boy hasn't been with any of my new female guppies lol. And no female guppies have been in that tank either. All of the plants came from the 29 so it has to be something in the 29, also Endler fry are just about the same size as guppy fry, these guys aren't even half the size of a guppy fry! They're definitely either Tetra or Barb, I'm leaning Barb though because Tetra eggs are very light sensitive and would have never hatched with the light suddenly coming on every day like though.

Although, I still find it strange that it took nearly a month to get the fry it seems, none of the plants were new except some Red Root Floater and Dwarf Water Lettuce from the 29 too. I thought about the possibilities of eggs coming in on the Dwarf Water Lettuce but as far as I'm aware, Kaffrin has no schoolers that would produce fry this tiny! So I'm convinced they are Barb fry....somehow...

:dunno:

good guess though lol


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## lilnaugrim

I had a very strange doctor's appointment today....went for my foot.

I told him all what happened and he checked it out, I told him I never saw the x-ray's and so we both looked at them on the computer and MY FOOT IS NOT BROKEN....we stared baffled at it! Not one break or hairline fracture! Now why in the heck would the hospital tell me it's broken?!?!

I figure they just didn't want to deal with me so they told me it's broken and threw me along my way >.> Issue is, it still hurts :-/

Physical Therapy one day may be required if it keeps hurting a month or so down the line, I should be good for Marching Band, I'll have to fake back marching though since we're supposed to go up on our toes, I can't do it physically right now so we'll see. One month left till band camp!

Fish are well, oh and bB, the black/yellow is actually just the spine, it's really not black and yellow


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## lilnaugrim

Oh I forgot to say yesterday, I heard my Sparkling Gouramis croaking! It's a very unmistakable sound and I was surprised when I heard it three times! :-D they're absolutely adorable!


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## MattsBettas

Yay for croaking! Such a neat sound, hey? I missed it,haven't heard it since my girl died.


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## beautiful Betta

Well that's good news you don't have a broken foot.

It will be interesting to see what the fry turn out to be. It must be kind of exciting wondering what they are. Or frustrating considering how you look at it?

Regards
Jenny.


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## lilnaugrim

Honestly, I would have rather taken the broken foot; it's generally a definitive heal and the issues in the future would be possible calcium buildups and hurting when the barometric pressure changes. I can always tell when it's going to rain when all the bones I've broken start to ache real bad!

Sprains, muscle tears, dislocation, nerve damage are all worse than breaking a bone because they generally last much longer and can hurt pretty much your entire life. We didn't talk about it much in depth, he just said to call back if my foot is still hurting after a month or so the same. It's killing right now since he was poking and prodding it and I did too much walking on it yesterday :-/

The strange thing was is that when I did it, it hurt to the touch, sprains don't do that; they hurt with movement generally but not to touch. So I'm betting that I either tore some muscles or I dislocated the bone and it popped back in at some point since I couldn't bend my foot upwards but could go downwards. It just sucks that the hospital couldn't have said; "It's not broken but we don't know if there's muscular damage or if it was dislocated, either way treatment is the same, go see your doctor." IS THAT SO HARD?!

Regarding the fry, it is exciting and frustrating at the same time! lol I did a small water change this morning since I was too preoccupied yesterday >.< They seem to be doing okay, the Ramshorns are cleaning up nicely so I'm decently happy with it! I just hope I can keep them alive to adulthood to see what they are! lol


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## beautiful Betta

Oh dear I have just spotted my previous post, I am signing off on my forum posts. I am dealing with a lot of emails back and forth at the moment regarding the shipping of my dog to the UK, and I am constantly ending with Regards Jenny. And I just must have typed off on my post, lol. Just ignore me my mind is all over the place at the moment. 

I hope you get your foot sorted, I know how frustrating that is, I used to exercise all the time, then I started getting pain in one foot, it was quite distracting and uncomfortable while trying to bounce up and down doing aerobics. In the end it stopped me from exercising, and even walking on the beach triggers it off on the uneven surface. No strenuous exercise and keeping on even surfaces and I am fine. I should have got it checked out, but as mine was ok provided I didn't do anything to upset it, I didn't bother.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, not a worry!

Sounds like yours might be a stress fracture from my limited anatomical knowledge that I have from drawing people all the time and needing to know how the body works! ;-) But it's the same with me; if I walk on an even surface it's okay for under a mile, once I go over that it really starts to hurt even if I'm limping and walking on it in the wrong way in order to decrease pain >.< man, feet injuries are the worst! Well...I suppose it's better than back injuries which I also have but all the same, I use my feet more than I do my back haha.


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## lilnaugrim

More plants for sale in Betta Classifieds!

Just a few pictures. I got our plants in today from PAC, lovely as usually!
MG HMPK girl's end, I got 4 Cyperus Helferi to add and she sent two extra to make six so those went here. And then Crypt. Undulata, the smaller green ones up front are from PetSmart and the ones from PAC are behind it with one larger Crypt. Wendtii behind that in front of the Cyperus's. 


Different sort of view
Those other small plants are Pygmy Chain Sword that started over on Aero's side and found their way here lol


She doesn't get enough love but she also doesn't stay still long enough either lol


I really should find a name for her...nothing really has fit though.


The 20 gallon...it's so....green :shock: I want to change it over to more a grassy tank rather than stems....very much tired of trimming every week >.< I really like the Cyperus Helferi and it grows well so if that is lined in back with dwarf hairgrass up front or Pygmy Sword chain, I'd be happy.
lol you can see the two frogs at the other end.


My 29, I'll rescape once Lucillia takes her plants home. She has the Valisneria Americana and Vesuvius Swords up front along with some java moss. I bought a Red Flame Sword and it's absolutely beautiful, I can't wait for it to really fill out and grow under my lights! It's going to love it! I also got a Crinum Natans to see how it does.


Beautiful leaves on the Flame Sword!


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## beautiful Betta

All looking good, the angle of the shot on your 29 I think it is driftwood, in the left corner it reminds of a tortoise reaching up and stretching his neck out, lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh lol! It does look like a Turtle!! hahaha, that's awesome!


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## lilnaugrim

Before I begin my picture post I'd like a moment silence for Lucillia's beautiful and funny Fancy Goldfish Klaus (said Clouse, not claws). He'd been fighting for a long time, she took him in just about three months ago and her mother fell in love with the fish. Klaus had some swim bladder issues which is frequently common in Fancy Goldfish but he also had some other issues from the previous owner from what I can tell. Yesterday Lucillia went out of town and Klaus got sick, I tried to think of advise for Luci and her mom but in the end it just wasn't enough. Klaus waited for Luci to come home last night but he was already pineconing, he was able to turn around to say good bye to her before spasming and dying.

For you Klaus, an amazing goldfish who had such a huge personality and made us all smile! Swim in peace buddy, the pond beyond the Rainbow Bridge is lucky to have you swimming in it!








Pics up next post.


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## lilnaugrim

My male ADF, he's really cute and funny lol. He eats off my finger better than the female does.


Trying to get into position to get his food!



There we go! Perfect, now I can jump up and grab those funny orange tasty things!


Pierce doing what Pierce does best; beg for more food! lol


He's turned into a real looker! Sure his color might not be anything special but I love that he's a DTPK!


Begging for food as I fed the frog ^_^


I just love his fins lol


Silently wishing he was the frog so he could be getting more food :roll:


Flaring at Hawkeye


Hawkeye might not be much to look at anymore but he's still hanging on there real tight!


Ever since I got him to properly flare a few weeks ago his tail has become unclamped which is always nice, his anal fin is still decreasing little by little though, same with his dorsal.


Aero is still a beauty, even though he's sick, he still looks like the rainbow fish he is!


He's ragged as well but holding on without issue lately, he's been getting annoyed at the guppies because they steal his food but he's even tempered. Funny because I always thought he'd be the one to eat other fish, not Remmy, since he's short finned but it was always reversed; Remmy eats guppies for snacks and Aero just doesn't care lol.


THAT FACE! Look at that face!!


And guppies. Funny because my 1 gallon bowl NPT, the largest of the girls (there are three girls in there and was a boy but I took him out) gave birth to six guppy fry :roll: she's still young hence the smaller amount of fry but I was like...really? lol They all seem to be fine though so w/e, they can stay there then!

Half snakeskin babies!


Finally got a half decent picture of my male CPD too! He's a real beauty!


Male flag tail Snakeskin in the back, he's a cutie too.



I think I have three or four females still in with these males, hard to fish them out though. They'll be going to my LFS soon anyway so as long as they hold their babies in till then, I don't care lol


A bit blurry but this males tail is so colorful! 


More guppies


Two Golden Pencilfish males sparring over a female


Stressed out female because there are 3M:2F >.< I can never get the ratios right, can I? :roll:


Male and female. I might go back to get two more females since I know they still have them.


Pretty male


Male, guarding his female from the other males


And two males sparring for this female ^_^


Rennie is beautiful when she flares! This is during Isis and hers flare session today!






Silhouette is doing very well too


She's a little piggy too


Trying to figure out a way to get over to the cichlid female





And a Sparkler


The blind female Apisto is doing really well! She's definitely figured out the food thing which is nice and easy for me. She's grown a bunch too! Nearly doubled her size since I got her! I couldn't get any decent pictures of her though because she likes to swim in laps around her portion of the tank :roll: lol she's cute.


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## Lucillia

Thank you Lil... I miss him so much.. this morning was horrible. 

I'm glad everyone is doing well. Rennie is absolutely stunning; I hope Remmy goes for her. I'm shocked you got a picture of the cpd, he looks really good.


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## lilnaugrim

My pleasure Luci, it's the least I can do 

I'm surprised I got one of him too! The trick is to just sit there and while the guppies swarm, the CPD's and the Rainbowfish tend to join in so if I just sit there snapping pictures, I'm bound to get one from a hundred lol. This session I took 225 pictures XD

It's getting easier for my camera to focus on the Barb fry too! Means they're getting bigger! :-D

EDIT: WHOA! I just realized I didn't upload the pics of the barb fry!! Whoops! Those up next!


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## lilnaugrim

Wow, never really missed pictures before! Here they are!

Cute little face!


They're getting tails now! :-D


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## beautiful Betta

How is Remmy's breeding conditioning going? I am assuming you are still planning to breed him, what female did you decide on?


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## LebronTheBetta

Been a while, lilnaugrim!

Your fish seem to be doing just wonderful. ^^ A lot happens in a few months, eh?


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## lilnaugrim

LEBRON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! I'm so happy to see you around again!!! :-D

:redyay::greenyay::blueyay::redyay:

lol don't mind my obnoxious post here! 

Wow, it's super nice to see a familiar face again and yes! A lot has happened! How are you?

-------------------------------------------------
bB, I kind of stopped conditioning Remmy and Rennie, though they will be the pair if all goes well. I'm still feeding them two-three times a day but haven't flared them in a few days since I'm flaring Rennie and Isis, I don't want Rennie to get too stressed out, though she really seems to enjoy picking on Isis through the cup lol I still need to get the 10 gallon from Luci before I continue but at the moment I'm focusing on Osiris and Isis since they were our pair that started this. Remmy does get older but if he fails then Luci has her Super DeT boy; Sashami that we could try, much younger and also a true MG but slightly cleaner than Remmy, I think Remmy's dorsal is better we decided. But anywho, it's all going well so far, I just hope Isis takes this time!


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## LebronTheBetta

:-D I'm surprised, it sounds like you missed me. :lol:

I'm quite fine... I've been off for months - after my sorority fell apart, I moved into a new house with my family. Breme and Kryce had also fallen with them due to the same reason, I guess the stress from the move made them susceptible to that darn columnaris. I took down my tanks and here I am to the present, lol. I miss them terribly, and being here brings memories of all my past fish, but I missed this forum too! And all the fun I had here, from people across the world. :lol:

Enough of me, though. What were you up to these past few months? ;-) From beautiful Betta, you seem to have planned to breed?


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## lilnaugrim

I did!! You and Mar I both missed since neither of you have been on in so long! :-D

Sorry about your sorority, sounds like mine; acute columnaris is never fun to deal with :-/ I know that first hand as well.

Well, lots of college and art commission works! Lots of new fish and old fish sold to new homes. The ones in my signature are the ones I'm keeping at the moment. You remember Remmy and I'm assuming Aero and Hawkeye since they were here when you were too. Aero has a horrible cyst on his organs that has been growing and growing these past few months. Hawkeye has officially a little over a year old though almost a year with me and he's looking like an old man, but that's a PetCo baby for you :-/

I do intend to breed! Isis is my Black Copper CTPK girl that we're breeding with Luci's boy Osiris who is a Black Copper CT boy. And then Remmy is paired with Renoir aka Rennie, though he's 2 years old at the moment so he may not be up to it. If that fails then I will hopefully be able to use Luci (best friend) Sashami for a substitute 

Other than that, I have a 29 gallon microfish tank other than my baby Angel lol, everyone else doesn't get over an inch! I have my 20 gallon long divided with lots of fish too. I tried my had at guppy breeding which was fine but just wasn't my thing. I still have some of those guppies but will be selling them to my LFS soon, probably next week or the week after. I have my 3 gallon with Vaillanti Gourami's in it with a deformed Panda Garra baby named Bentley! :-D

That's the basic rundown at least lol.


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## LebronTheBetta

Aero has a cyst? Oh no! He was my favorite of all your fish. T-T Will he be okay? And I'm sure Hawkeye will pull through, he still has a few years ahead of him! 

Good luck in your breeding, especially with Rembrandt and Renoir! I can't wait to see the outcomes of your CT pair, as they're my favorite fin type. 

You have an angel now, too? How lovely, don't they grow big, lol. How many tanks do you have running?


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## lilnaugrim

If you go back a page I've had a photo dump there and you can see him there.

Aero won't be okay, he will die soon though I really don't know when. I was sure he was going last week or the week before, he was really becoming lethargic and looking terrible but he's seems to be okay right now. I actually debated euthanizing him in that week because he just looked so terrible, but I gave him a chance. He's about 1.5 years old now.

Hawkeye won't live as long as a normal Betta because he's a PetCo baby, they've been through so much that their life expectancy has dropped severely, I don't expect him to make Christmas this year. 

Yes the Angel will get around 6 inches minimum but I have a 45 gallon that we'll be erecting soon so she'll go into that when she gets too big ^_^

Here's pictures of what I have right now:

Rembrandt


Renoir


Isis


Osiris (Temporary for breeding)


River Song (Soon to be adopted out)


Silhouette


And a blind Apistogramma MacMasteri female I rescued, she's missing one eye and the other is blind.


In the 20 long, left to right


Unnamed HMPK girl:


Aero and his Guppies, 2 CPD's and 1 Gertudae Rainbowfish


Hawkeye and his 5 Golden Pencilfish



Pierce another PetCo Baby


Steele (adopting out soon) and a pair of ADFs



The 29 inhabitants include


Dario the Dario Dario (Scartlet Badis)


Gem the possible female Dario Dario


5 Sparkling Gouramis


6 Golden Dwarf Barbs (Puntius Gelius)


16 Ember Tetras


1 Tiger Endler (adopting out)


4 Otocinclus Vittatus


10 Corydoras Habrosus


4 Rabbit Snails


And 1 Juvie Angelfish named Stratus


In my 3 gallon NPT I have:


3 Vaillanti Gourami females


And a baby deformed Panda Garra named Bentley


And in my .5 gallon planted I have Barb fry! Miracle fry, completely unexpected and I'm just happy I had microworms and banana worms on their way to me!


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## LebronTheBetta

All your fish are lovely. I love Silhouette's coloring, although she's striped. <3 And Isis' iridescence, it's stunning. *heart eyes*

Your 29G's scape is perfect.  How'd you come up with such a thing! lol

What are Dario Darios?


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## lilnaugrim

Sihlouette is still a juvie so yeah, she's going to be striped.

That's dragon scaling on Isis too ^_^

Thanks! Idk, I just was playing with the plants and threw them together like that lol It's loosely based off of a Dutch Aquascape but with my flare on it ;-)

Dario Dario, better known as the Scarlet Badis are small fish that comes from India, there are many under the species, Dario Dario is just one of them. Another favorite is Dario Hysginon, a solid red Dario and very beautiful. They act a lot like Pygmy Sunfish if you know what those are. Google it and you'll see.


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## LebronTheBetta

I've been gone for so long, I've forgotten all I've learned. lol *sigh*

Either way your 29G is my favorite tank from the whole forum. :tongue:

And they're so cute!


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## Olympia

Bentley <3
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Aha, aww thanks Lebron! I do love my 29 too, everything is growing back very well from that massive trim so it's getting back to that dense planted look I love! I'll have to give an update when I give Lucillia her plants tomorrow since they're currently chilling in my tank haha.

Thanks Oli! He's such a doll too, he's not so afraid of me staring at him through the glass anymore but still runs when I throw a shrimp pellet in for him :roll: loves his bloodworms though! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

I swear all my fish went crazy yesterday!

First Dario was actually out and about and flaring a storm up at a female Sparkling Gourami, they were circling and flaring and body slamming! I've never seen him do that before not in his "territory"! I wonder if he was showing off for Gem? Though she wasn't really around him, she was hiding and eating bugs in the Myrio mini forest....

And then my male ADF is ridiculous! I came home and found him floating in Pierce's compartment! My heart skipped a beat as I thought he was dead, Pierce is known for killing ALL but he wasn't! He happily made his way over to me to try to get food. I scooped him up and put him back with Steele since I didn't want to take chances.

Then when I went to go to bed I looked over and he was back over on Pierce's turf! I said forget it, Pierce hasn't bothered him so I'll just leave him and whatever happens happens. I woke up this morning and looked for him, HE WAS ALL THE WAY OVER WITH AERO two compartments over! I am worried though that if he gets into my HMPK girl's compartment, she'll tear him to shreds since she's meaner than Pierce but I haven't had her around other fish or creatures before just in case. He can't hop out but he was divider hopping.

He needs an adventurous and daring name now, he's deserved it for sure!

EDIT: Oh, I'm also debating on giving up my Vaillanti Gouramis....what if I order another three and they all end up being female too? Then what do I do? 30 bucks plus 50 in shipping all wasted. I'd rather spend 30 bucks and 15 shipping for a proven pair! I just don't know. I'd love to breed them but I also don't want to waste my time and money if I'm just going to end up with girls again, and they're bickering too much as it is; they need a larger tank to have their own space....although they never really leave the Java Fern even though there's a whole other 2 gallons for them to explore, the only one that explores is the submissive female lol the other two just sit in front of the Java Fern all day picking at each other >.> I just don't know.

I almost want to completely redo my 3 gallon and make it Golden sand instead with leaf liter and driftwood, one large Java Fern and that's it and have some sort of Killifish in it instead >.> they're easier to sex and breed >.<


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

Man your animals are going nuts! Is there a full moon out or are the supernatural gathering and we don't know it yet? (Teen Wolf Series reff) Anyways, I think you should name the frog Indiana or Jones... Get it Indiana Jones? LOL.


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## lilnaugrim

Lol....Indiana "We named the dog Indie" lol I like it! Indie it will be! I'm not giving the female a name until she earns it too, so far she just lounges around and does nothing but eat and pick on the male; no wonder he wanted to get away from her! haha


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## Olympia

I miss my froggies...  Atilla and The Hun.... they were the best ever. Atilla was the girl and she was very aggressive. The Hun was the boy and he... well he was a wuss.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Ahaa! That's adorable Olympia! Indiana is the daredevil but at the same time I honestly think he was just trying to get away from the female ;-) I've seen her latch on and really bite him so I really wouldn't be surprised if that's why he left her! She didn't seem to care much this morning, though she was just hanging out really. Who knows what our froggies are thinking ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

So just looking for options on my 3 gallon....

Betta Uberis seems absolutely fascinating to me and I can accommodate it's feeding needs and water parameters but also Ctenopoma Angorsii is also absolutely beautiful and I could possibly just keep a male and Bentley in the tank, change it around a bit so there is a small open space for swimming but also a nice wall of my huge Java Fern in there.

Speaking of this tank, I saw the oddest thing yesterday while I did my mini water change on it....there was this one spot in the middle of the tank where my crypt. wendtii had died out and all the plant surrounding it had died too, part of the Java Fern Windlov and the regular fern and then some leaves off the Pygmy Chain sword too, it was a perfect circle like a mini bomb went off...I've never see this happen before!


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## Olympia

Hah. I think the females can be pretty aggressive. 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

Not that I was going to attempt this, but I've seen these "wild" bettas in peoples avatars and on AB. I was curious if those can be with splendens? Like have a few splenden girls and have a few female wilds? I was just curious because some of these wild ones are just so pretty!


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## lilnaugrim

It's a good question, I once asked it too  Some wild girls can be in a sorority life but for the most part it's much better to keep them in a species only tank. You can try wild splendens girls or wild Imbellis girls but I wouldn't add any other wilds just because their care varies so much. Wilds need much cooler water than domestic Splendens and generally they only really care for live foods and they need acidic water stained with tannins. Some wild species don't mind living in harder water but their care is much more different than the domestics


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

You should totally get some wild bettas then, they seem really interesting and if you are up for the special care for them, you should do it. I keep my tank around 80 because I also have the tetras living with my girls and they don't seem bothered by the cooler water. I already know tho that I can't get my tank coooler than like 80 after having my loach. So yeah, I would never be able to keep wild bettas but you should get some so I can OOO and AWW at them.


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## lilnaugrim

lol, well the other issue is that not much will be happy stuffed in a little 3 gallon though. I'm looking at the moment to see if I can upgrade to a 4 gallon, not sure if my jewelry stand could stand the weight though...but the Marineland is extremely old and the acrylic is all cloudy which is why I don't take too many pictures; you really can't see much :-/


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

One of my friends was shocked that I had 3 tanks on a long dresser. He was telling me people are afraid to use such things because of the weight. Dressers and jewelry stands can withstand A LOT. I weigh 100 LBs and I can sit ontop of almost any jewelry stand in our house. They are made to hold up a lot of weight and take a lot of damage unless it's one of those plywood fake compressed wood things, then yes you should worry and find a different spot for a tank.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I used to have my tanks on a dresser at dad's and my IKEA shelf here but the jewelry stand is a small thing on four small legs. I'll see if I can find the weight capacity online but it certainly cannot stand any more than maybe 50 pounds of constant weight, it's not terribly cheap but it's still not very sturdy. Otherwise I'd be fine, my 13 gallon is on my nightstand at the moment lol and I had my 3 gallon Tetra Cube on my nightstand at dad's where it had a glass top so I'm not shy for putting tanks anywhere, I just want to make sure it will hold it first 

EDIT: what was I thinking? It's a jewelry chest, it's not going to tell me how much it supports lol! I still won't go higher than a roughly 4 gallon on it though.


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## MattsBettas

Go with the wilds! The ctenowhatever is a cool fish, but wild bettas are super cool fish and you really should experience them. 

Temperature and water isn't the only thing to consider when you think about them in a sorority setting... The wild girls will likely be less aggressive and more shy, which aren't good traits for fish that are kept with nasty splenden females. 

And haha I used a ten buck ikea table for the longest time, and I still have a 20g on an ikea shelf. The rest are on a heavy duty rack, through... But still, cheap furniture can be surprisingly sturdy. Don't count on it though!


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## lilnaugrim

lol, yeah but you're biased! haha, but if so, what could I put in a 3-4 gallon since I probably won't be getting rid of that tank any time soon.

See I'd use the jewelry chest for a larger tank if it was a solid tower but it's on four very small legs, it's this one:


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! Forgot to update on Indiana! lol, he's still on Aero's side, apparently he likes the guppies and all the commotion, or just the peace from the female ADF XD oh well, if he's alright I'm just going to let him stay there and hop to where he desires as long as he doesn't get hurt.

Moved some plants around in Steele's end, got rid of my Water Wisteria; finally got sick of it. So I separated out the Cyperus Helferi and anchored some Water sprite to grow there. The water sprite in Aero's side is growing out of the tank, I always love the look and it creates a real nice place for the guppies and for Aero to rest in  The froggies like it too.

I also passed up a gorgeous PKEE blue marble at PetSmart today, ugg it was painful. I've never had an EE and he was super spunky! There was also a mixed tail who was a yellow butterfly who looked in between a long fin and short fin with a caudal spike in the wrong place lol. Reminds me of that PK on AquaBid a while back with the spike on the bottom of his caudal instead of the middle. He was so sweet looking though, ugg I stood there easy 12 minutes debating >.< but I set them down :-/


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## lilnaugrim

After some research, there's no wilds that I can place in my 3 gallon (actually 3.6 gallons I found out!) happily. Sorry Matt, no wilds for now.

Also....I can no longer name my male ADF lol the female joined him! He hopped back over to Pierce's side and she hopped over to Hawkeye's side! I'm not naming either of them, just referring to them as male/female ADF or my froggies lol.

Isis flared at Pierce today!!!!!!!!!!!!! One step closer hopefully to being able to breed! She doesn't really seem eggy to me though, but I know each female carries her eggs differently....or at least supposedly.

I think if I ever sell off my Vaillanti's I'll rescape the Marineland and put my CPD's in there and bump up their school to around 6 even

Pictures!

I'll throw them up in order so you can see how much I jump around sometimes lol.

Male froggie


Female froggie


Isis


Pierce and his glorious beard! (Sorry Isis is pooping through most of this lol)


Male froggie checking out Isis in the cup and wondering if he can eat her poop >.<


Roar! I am da handsome feesh!


"Go away froggie"


Skydiving: "My parachute won't open!! Ahhhhh!" [Female]


*flare flare flare* "Can I join?" [Male froggie]


"Can I eat the poop?"


"You said WHAT?" [male Pencils sparring]


Photobombed by a frog




"Hey! I'm still alive too you know!" lol funny story about Hawkeye today, the female ADF was near him and he latched onto her thigh but it didn't seem to be hard since she didn't freak out or nothing, it looked more like he was just licking her rather than really biting. She bit him back in the end anyway lol


I GOT A PICTURE OF HIM!!!! I have two like this, both have spike tails! And I have one aspiring Lyretail too! And a Flag tail, the rest are Rounds.


His beard was actually pretty impressive!




Decent form for a DT too, his anal fin is long but his fins are still quite luscious!




female


Geeze, she's got a good size beard too!...makes me question her gender...


I don't know why but I like this photo, maybe it's just the colors? Aero is just so pretty


Hawkeye again


Steele looking very grumpy


Still grumpy


The 20 and how it looks right now ^_^


My 29...annnnnddd


FROGGIE! [Female]


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## Olympia

You know what you should put in your 3 gallon.....? .... (a dwarf puffer) .....
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

lol! I do have enough pond snails he'd be happy to eat/sharpen his beak on!

I'll think about it...would he be okay with Bentley? I know my LFS sells them so it'd be easy enough to buy.


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## Olympia

Well they are often considered good with otos, Bentley is basically the same type of fish. . I'm getting a bumblebee goby for mine..
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Ooh I love Bumblebee Gobies too ^_^ I'm reading on the Dwarf puffers at the moment, I'll have to take out the soil from the tank so the pH is no so low, otherwise it seems like I might have a good set up for a Dwarf Puffer  It's something that is very different from what else I've kept so it's certainly high up the list. I can always throw my CPD's in the 29 if I need to lol, they eat flakes!


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## Olympia

They are funny little fish. Mine will slowly circle around a snail before he eats it.. It's adorable.

A bit off topic but we were talking about importers the other day.. and I was on the wet spot's site and it says they are working on shipping to Canada.  Rare puffers here I come!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Oh awesome! That will be real awesome if they can ship over the border! I think it's ridiculous we can't ship to you guys and visa versa :roll:

Yeah, I've been watching videos too lol. I'll have to see what I can swing. I might just take the Vaillanti's to my LFS, they'll be cared for well enough there at least and in a larger tank. Then I want to change my FloraMax/Sand combo to just regular Golden Sand since I've been liking the look of that. I'd like to add a few rocks for a scape and make a wall of my Java Ferns lol


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## Olympia

Crazy thing is that they're known to live 10-15 years. :shock: Seems like such a long time for such a little fish.

A java fern wall?
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I read that ^_^

Yeah, like a java moss wall but instead with Javafern climbing on driftwood or just placed


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## Olympia

Ohh, that should be interesting! 
I know they grow slow but over the years I have way more java fern and anubias than I need..
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I have two HUGE bunches of the Windlov variety and some of the regular. I don't have any anubias at the moment which makes me sad whenever I think about it lol

This is the most recent pic I have of my Marineland, those ferns on the left are the ones i'm talking about. They're bigger now and basically picture them sort of propped in the corner :-D Though I'm still thinking about getting a different 3-4 gallon tank because I'm getting sick of this haze on the front >.<


EDIT: Oh! here's the thread I was thinking about when I was talking about the java fern wall, she's done it with anubias ^_^ http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/aquarium-photography/rescaped-betta-tank-434586/


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, so since I'm sick of the marineland, I'm debating getting this tank: http://www.amazon.com/Schuber-Wrigh...=1406765226&sr=8-9&keywords=4+gallon+aquarium 

It's a gallon more (technically), it's glass, as good lighting and will still fit on the stand and (hopefully) not break it...mostly I'm sold on the glass part haha. I have the filter and heater when needed....should I spend lots of money on it or should I find someone that the LFS or should I build my own tank with glass I can get cut at Lowes?


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## Olympia

Ouu get that one. O_O
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

lol, I've heard that once you get Beveled Rimless tank, you'll never go back.

I just searched if Dwarf Puffers were jumpers and so far it's pretty much a negative, though I think I'd like to rig up some sort of cover for it since I just don't feel totally comfortable with a rimless tank. I'm also not sure if Bentley would jump either but so far he's never tried that I know of.


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## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> Okay, so since I'm sick of the marineland, I'm debating getting this tank: http://www.amazon.com/Schuber-Wrigh...=1406765226&sr=8-9&keywords=4+gallon+aquarium
> 
> It's a gallon more (technically), it's glass, as good lighting and will still fit on the stand and (hopefully) not break it...mostly I'm sold on the glass part haha. I have the filter and heater when needed....should I spend lots of money on it or should I find someone that the LFS or should I build my own tank with glass I can get cut at Lowes?


I like that rimless tank!!! Btw is that the 4 gallon marineland tank I have one myself it pretty annoying when it comes to water changes and scrubbing algae 
-__- and the back part of the tank with all the wires is very tiring !!! Looks like I'll need to upgrade to the same tank!!!! Hehe lol, I only bought this marineland bc of how cheap it was! ($34), and I was like: " I can put a betta in there O__O!"


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## Lucillia

I have to say, I really like Requiem's tank... but the algae is annoying. I do like that its rimless though. I wish it were bigger though! I had a customer call looking for her tank yesterday since its still on clearance in some stores. XD

But her tank definitely makes me a believer that LED is much more powerful than the CFL's I use. All of her plants have that nice red color to them. Even the red root floaters.


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## BlueInkFish

Lucillia said:


> I have to say, I really like Requiem's tank... but the algae is annoying. I do like that its rimless though. I wish it were bigger though! I had a customer call looking for her tank yesterday since its still on clearance in some stores. XD
> 
> But her tank definitely makes me a believer that LED is much more powerful than the CFL's I use. All of her plants have that nice red color to them. Even the red root floaters.


IMO I'm sticking to LED lighting, I've never tried the CFLs but LED lighting is amazing  I have it on my marineland tank and my plants are doing awesome!


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## lilnaugrim

It really depends on the LED lights and how cheap or not cheap they are. Some LED's are plain crap, like the ones you get with the Marineland's and wal-mart tanks, none of them are good and they're more like toys than anything. I actually like Aqueon brand, everything they make is pretty well done, even their food is a contender for good quality so I'd definitely trust them over Marineland.

blu, this is the Marineland 3 gallon Eclipse it is a VERY old tank that my mom found for me; I cleaned it out and have been using it every since. When I got it all it had was river rocks, the filter didn't even come with it lol but I don't care much since I wouldn't have used it anyway. But the only reason I like this tank a little bit is because it has a T5 Fluorescent 6,500K bi-pin bulb in it, if the light casing wasn't so nasty I could grow pretty much anything with it but I don't really keep up with it lol.

Algae only comes about with the imbalance of something, too much nutrients and not enough plants to soak it up is generally why ;-)


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## BlueInkFish

Oh lol that tank looked so similar to mine I mistakes it for the same tank hehe srry ! My marineland led lights are actually decent  they don't leave my plants die that's for sure!


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, mine is a bowfront so it's a lot different from the 4 gallon they have now ;-)

The LED's are alright, I have the Marineland Single Brite LED strips too, they could grow low light and some medium light plants; my Ludwigia Broad Leaf did alright but my Finnex Planted+ does SOOOO much better! I'd never use Marineland for a high tech tank though, not worth it.


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## BlueInkFish

^defeniatley, IMO it's really only good for low tech to low /med tech tanks, it's lighting ain't that strong either wise  but it's pretty cool (display) -__- mine is a hassle because there's limited room to do water changes and if I want to clean the filter I practically have to "re-esemble" the tank ! Uck!!


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## Lucillia

I'm assuming its all algae-y from not enough plants. XD But if I put any more she wouldn't have room to move. I do need to do a change on her tank too though. But I do like her LEDs.... I think its a tetra tank though.... o.o I'm not sure.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it depends on which plants you have too, fast growers will out compete the algae unless it's Diatoms; those eat silicates which plants generally don't (at least not that I'm aware of) so you'll get diatoms for a while and once they run out of silica they fade away 

What do you mean it's a Tetra tank?


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## Lucillia

The tank that I got for Requiem... I think it was tetra... Or Aqueon. I can't remember.


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## lilnaugrim

It's an Aqueon Evolve 2....how could you forget? lol!


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## Lucillia

XD I dunno. I'm tired and baby sitting. But thats it!! XD


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## lilnaugrim

lol, yeah, I forgive you ;-)

So I think I'm going to order that tank I said I might. Shipping is 20 bucks though, meh, comes to 80 after all that >.< Idk....is it worth it? I'm getting paid tomorrow...


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## lilnaugrim

And now I'm pissed off >.> I went to place an order for the tank, it says 21 dollars shipping on the page and when I went to my total it doubled it so it would be 100 dollars for that teeny tank! No way in hell I'm doing that! Ticks me off when they pull crap like that!!

I'm off to find a different tank >.> Maybe I'll just go with Truaqua's 3.4 gallon rimless with a light since they have free shipping....


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## lilnaugrim

HA! Suck it Amazon, I found these two:

More expensive but I love the Finnex LED's, they aren't the Planted+ but still good lights for low-medium growth:
http://www.amazon.com/T-4302FR-Schu...merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1406820419&sr=1-28

And this is the one I'm getting because I like the fact I'll be able to switch out the bulb if I need to. And hey look! It comes with a filter and the tank is still the exact same as the Schuber Wright tank, just with the Finnex name on it! HA!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CQWO3U/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3E5ELDKVG03PY

It's still 98 dollars in the end but it seems more worth it since it's more customizable, I like that it doesn't come with that stupid stand but still has the mat to prevent slipping AND comes with a filter? That's pretty awesome, looks like the Azoo/Mignon too so yay, extra filter lol. And the light is more high output PAR than the LED's are which means I can grow carpet plants if I dose my CO2 ^_^ I'm a happy fish-keeper.


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## Olympia

Aaaand because of you I am now looking at rimless tanks... thanks.. thanks a lot.....


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## lilnaugrim

Ahaha! :-D You are MOST welcome ;-)

The only thing I don't like much about them is the fact there is no lid so you can't fill too high even if the fish won't jump, I'd still not risk it. I'll figure out something though! ^_^


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## BettaLover1313

All these lovely landscaped tanks *glances at own & cringes*. Glad to see that everyone is looking well. Glad that Isis flared at Pierce!


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## lilnaugrim

Aha, it's okay BL1313! I never really scaped my tanks properly before this 29 so I'm sure you can do it one day too!! It's not too hard if you follow some pictures. I use this: http://tropica.com/en/home.aspx and google for layout inspirations!


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## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Aha, it's okay BL1313! I never really scaped my tanks properly before this 29 so I'm sure you can do it one day too!! It's not too hard if you follow some pictures. I use this: Tropica.com and google for layout inspirations!


Favorited the site to look at later, if I start looking at it now I won't go into work lol


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## BlueInkFish

Lol! I'm totally going to buy a rimless tank now ! I saw an 8 gallon rimless tank kit that comes with a filter and lighting!!! For $110-120! Sounds pretty fun to me! I really want it, might buy it now :3


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, yes! Everyone should have a Rimless! haha my .5 gallon is rimless and I do love the look too!

Oh and I found out something weird....so I thought my frogs were jumping the divider, I came home to find them CLIMBING the divider! I saw the female climbing and while it's not so far fetched, I was just shocked! She climbed from Hawkeye's section to Aero's lol.

I also found that PKEE I found at PetSmart that Sathori wanted so I'm housing him for the time being until we can figure out how to get the fish over the border for her!

And there's a fish store that was selling off all their stock at fantastic prices because they're redoing the entire building after a fire on June 19th (no one was harmed!) so I couldn't leave this tiny baby female Pearl Gourami. We have the piano going soon so that means my 45 will be up most likely within the month (I hope) so she'll be going into there, for now I'm going to keep her in a 1 gallon, I though about dividing the 3 gallon at the moment to just keep her in that with the Vaillanti's with a good divider so they don't kill each other >.>

Why do all of my tanks have anabantoids in them? lol I think that's why I'm so excited to have a Dwarf Puffer, it's so different from anything else I've ever owned.


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures :-D

He's such a tiny little thing, smaller than my largest Vaillanti! I'm pretty sure it's a he, I see no ovaries and seems like the color is male-ish but hard to tell at this young age.




He's a bit ripped up from the tankmates he was formerly with but otherwise he seems decently healthy



Female froggie, oh and my male CPD!


Both, I believe male is up front


Hawkeye isn't looking too shabby colorwise


Pierce ^_^


New boy for Sathori! I switched out my HMPK girl to a 1 gallon QT since she's got some cloudy eye going on so she needs the water changes.


He's real adorable!!


He's a HMPK too :-D Or at least a short finned HM lol


He had nasty stuff floating in his cup!


He really enjoys the Dwarf Water Lettuce


So I acclimated him and put him in and he immediately went like this...


And I was like...huh?


And then I realized he was looking at a snail lol!



He's very curious too about all the plants.


And most of all he's very handsome!


That's all natural coloring



That's not a spot on his eye, just on the glass.


More snails lol


----------



## Seki

Oh my gosh, I've been poking through this thread. Where do you find all these pretty fishies?! I'm way jealous, even though I certainly don't need any more right now. But still!! Soooo pretty~


----------



## Lucillia

<---- Annnnnnd Luci bought everything at the store. Except for that adorable chichi... and beardeds.... :<


----------



## scififan523

Lighting wise, I really like Fluval brand LEDs. really like the blue moonlight setting for early dimmings and if I don't know when I'll be home to turn everything off.


----------



## Pandanke

I ordered 2x http://www.amazon.com/Finnex-Rimless-Aquarium-FugeRAY-7-5-Gallon/dp/B00IWIYUUS and am in love with them. My first rimless. Love them! My scaping technique is nonexistant, but love them and the lights that are included.

Your scaping looks so so so much better than mine, hahaha... and I agree, your boys are beautiful. I've fallen hard for EEs, love yours 

I definitely underfill by 2+ inches. I have seen some people take acrylic sheets and use clips that clip to the sides.


----------



## BettaLover1313

That EE is so cute! Love his coloring! Very jealous of the fish you have near you!

Hawkeye is looking a lot better from when he looked so...old. He actually looks like a young fish in the picture you posted.


----------



## lilnaugrim

All the comments!! I love comments lol.

@Seki, we really don't have that big of a selection generally and these guys had just come in to petSmart, I think they said they just started to carry Dumbo's this month so he was not the typical find! The other boys there were mostly white mottled with some faint blue, possible marbles but they looked like bad pastels really. I sort through a LOT of fishes on a weekly basis lol!

@Luci, yep, I was there, she did buy everything lol! Those beardies at PetSmart were soooo cute though! Temps me for sure! Heck and I don't even know the first thing about lizard care! lol well...I do but after that it's all blank lol!

@scififan, I like moonlights but I never use them since I have my lights on timers so it's not a selling point for me lol

@Pandanke, yeah I had to stick to smaller tanks since it's still going on my jewelry armoire so 4 gallons was as high as I could go, 5 gallons is pushing it! I have the Finnex FugeRay Planted+ on my 20 long and 29 though and I do love that light so much! They really did a great job with them :-D

@BL1313, yeah I just looked at him again and his scales are no longer popping up! In previous pictures about a month ago his scales were all messy looking and sticking up, not in Dropsy fashion but just old-man fashion I guess if there's such a thing. He's been enjoying being able to chase the Pencilfish around, they ripped up his tail unfortunately, you can't see the big long split in his tail in that picture but it's there. But he bites them back, never actually is able to catch them but he tries lol

I wonder if it's the tankmates that sort of helped him get his energy back or something since I haven't changed anything in his care, tank still gets small water changes maybe once, more like every two weeks. It's all the same food and stuff...idk! 'tis a mystery for sure!


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## lilnaugrim

I can truthfully say that I will never get black worms again....I'm not so easy to disgust but these were gross, they broke apart any time I tried to pick them up with the plant tweezers but worse of all there were planaria mixed in with them. The worms weren't what got me, it was really the planaria, they looked like small leeches and uggg, it just skived me out! Got chills just thinking about them and my stomach turned 

My fish liked the blackworms though I did attempt to feed the planaria and only one was eaten by Stratus, the rest didn't care about the planaria. These are not the tiny little Detritus worms you see on a well fed tank, these are bigger, like bloodworm sized and more one of them. ugggg, gross.

I'll feed daphnia, brine shrimp, bloodworms anyday and look at my shimmering microworm and banana worm cultures over feeding black worms with planaria any day!!

Fish are good though, PKEE boy has found out a new love for food lol, froggies are still in with Aero and loved the worms once they figured out they could be eaten. Aero is still fine, I bumped up the Pencilfish school by another two to make seven as I needed more females. Now I have 2F:5M, not the best odds but now at least the older female won't be bugged all the time now she has a new female. Hawkeye looks good, Pierce's fins are still growing but he's got the uniform spikes all the way around his fins, not messy CTxVT spikes but real nice PKDTCT or just PKDT spikes!! He really looks good! Steele is doing fine too, still fin biting.

The ladies, HMPK, Isis and Rennie are doing great, looooved the worms. Remmy is bored and Osiris is too. Remmy won't be up for breeding, it's taking too long to condition Isis so I'm not even going to attempt unless he decides he wants to build a bubblenest lol.

New Pearl Gourami was confused with food but I think he ate the worms, Vaillanti's were also confused at the movement but soon came out of hiding to find the food was yummy. Bentley sucked some up too but quickly went back to the diatoms.

29 is good, everyone liked the worms. I knew the worms could burrow but it was still kind of gross seeing them actually burrow with the thought that if I rummage around in the tank, I could unearth them and it just sort of grosses me out >.< I was still grossed out with the planaria though and that just made everything worse.

I think I'm going to try to sell the Vaillantis, dwarf water lettuce and the Myrio on AquaBid instead of the forum since I know practically no one (well, no one in the US) will be able to properly take care of them. I know I can't really control where they go but I'd prefer for someone to at least breed them so there can be more of them! It's easy to breed....if you have a male and female >.>


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## MattsBettas

> I think I'm going to try to sell the Vaillantis, dwarf water lettuce and the Myrio on AquaBid instead of the forum since I know practically no one (well, no one in the US) will be able to properly take care of them. I know I can't really control where they go but I'd prefer for someone to at least breed them so there can be more of them! It's easy to breed....if you have a male and female >.>


Border laws :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Border laws :roll:


I know, I know, I hate them too :-( It'd open up the trade soooo much more for both of us! :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

Got my first auction up! woo! It was kind of nerve wracking honestly, everyone can see my feesh! I hope they're sold soon ^_^ I've had 9 views so far ;-) lol

I have to say that I just looked at some of the older pictures of my barb fry and holy crud, they're really growing! I counted 8 this morning ^_^ I need to clean the front of the acrylic so I can take proper pictures. The Ramshorns already laid four sacks of eggs in that tank :roll: more in the 20!


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## Olympia

Puffer food.


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## lilnaugrim

Nooooooo these are expensive fry! lol My guppies for sure though, they can go in without a doubt lol.


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## Olympia

I meant the ramshorns! Aha! I don't think a dwarf can handle a fry, considering people keep them with shrimp. :shock: A figure 8 on the other hand..


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## lilnaugrim

Oh lol!! Yeah, the ramshorns and bladders will make some great food!


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## lilnaugrim

My frogs were singing last night ^_^

Also! First bid on my Gouramis!! Set for 20 start price for the trio and then BIN was 30 but I doubt they'll sell for over 20 but that's fine with me honestly. I do really hope they'll be going to a good home though, but alas, I can only hope!


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## BlueInkFish

Lol very cute :3

Yay! I hope you do win!!! GET DEM FISHIES!!!!


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

litelboyblu said:


> Lol very cute :3
> 
> Yay! I hope you do win!!! GET DEM FISHIES!!!!


She's selling not buying. ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

+1 ^

lol, I've bought 13 fish already from AquaBid, not a new thing but this is the first time I'm selling! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

My Sparkling Gouramis have been croaking a LOT lately, no spawning that I've seen though, just lots of sparring between the females.

Gem aka Mrs. Dario is officially...a boy lol. Still going to call him Gem but he's actually got better form than Dario at the moment but he's also much younger, he has less stripes than Dario so it's extremely easy to tell them apart minus the huge size difference. But He's very much colored up and is more blue than Dario which is sort of nice :-D They seem to share a territory next to each other but don't really seem to bother each other much, they're more worried about the Ember Tetras bothering them lol it's rather funny actually to see how the fish react to other fish! I'm just glad they're peaceful!

OMG the PKEE boy's flare is absolutely stunning! Sathori gave me a list of names to chose from so it fits her theme but since I can see her personality and such, I get to chose which is wicked nice :-D But his flare is so beautiful, I flared Isis to him today to keep her going. I just wanted to make sure she would flare to all males, not just Pierce. I'll have to get some pictures later!

Osiris is back building a bubblenest with the HMPK MG girl in his view, I know he needed the stimulation so I'm just going to leave her there for now until I get to dump Isis in there with him and pray that it works this time. I know there are other techniques of conditioning I can use but I'm not sure if I really want to spend this much time trying to breed these guys if they don't take. If they breed and it's unsuccessful I'll try again since I'd then know she's at least willing but if she blows him off again...I don't think I could keep this up with school coming up in less than a month!


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## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> +1 ^
> 
> lol, I've bought 13 fish already from AquaBid, not a new thing but this is the first time I'm selling! :-D


Oh hehe from this previous post it sounde like you were buying lol!! Sorry bout that!


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## LittleBettaFish

I thought your 'female' dario might have been a young male when I first saw him. I had a similar story, the seller tried to pick me a male/female pair, but ended up getting an obvious male and a younger male who coloured up in my care. 

They may get more aggressive towards each other as time goes on, but they are in a pretty decent sized tank aren't they? That probably gives them room enough for individual territories. They have such a large amount of attitude packed into such a small size. I would love to own these fish again, but females seem very hard to get.


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## Sathori

I finally had time to check out the photos you posted of the HMPKEE. I'm in love <3 If only I could sneak across the border so I could get him RIGHT NOW xD Passport cannot come fast enough T-T


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah LBF, I knew there was plenty a chance that Gem could be a boy but I took the chance anyway since he was still very young but so far they've been doing just fine and for some strange reason have set up territories right next to each other in the Myrio "forest"....I would have figuired Gem would go to the Crypts I have but they seem content to be together lol. But yes they are in my 29 so plenty of space if they need it.

I know Sathori! I'm really enjoying keeping him for the time being, he's a real doll and you're going to love him guaranteed! I'll get pictures tomorrow when I flare him! I'd love to breed him too! Perfect age and size really! If I happen to find a super random HMPKEE girl blue marble then I do think I will with your permission of course but it'd be rather rare unless I bought from AquaBid which I don't really want to lol, not at the point right now at least.


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## Sathori

lilnaugrim said:


> I know Sathori! I'm really enjoying keeping him for the time being, he's a real doll and you're going to love him guaranteed! I'll get pictures tomorrow when I flare him! I'd love to breed him too! Perfect age and size really! If I happen to find a super random HMPKEE girl blue marble then I do think I will with your permission of course but it'd be rather rare unless I bought from AquaBid which I don't really want to lol, not at the point right now at least.


Breed away!! But only if I get to stalk your spawn log  And maybe get to pick a baby out of there 
I eagerly await to see him flare :3


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## lilnaugrim

Sathori said:


> Breed away!! But only if I get to stalk your spawn log  And maybe get to pick a baby out of there
> I eagerly await to see him flare :3


Haha, certainly! I debated maybe breeding to the HMPK mustard girl but I still think she's a little too big for him, she really is a big girl! But I'll keep my eyes out ^_^


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## Lucillia

Which reminds me, did you want a look at Sashimi? I still really don't have great pictures of him but I can try to get some. He's pretty cute now that he's starting to heal up and flare more.


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## lilnaugrim

I do! Haven't seen him in real life yet either! lol But yeah, if he's decent which he sounds like he is, I'd like to use him.

---------------------------------------------------------
I'm also debating selling off the HMPK girl too since I have no use of her, she's a nice pet but she doesn't accept tankmates which I'd prefer in a Betta so I'd rather keep Rennie since she means more to me at this point.


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## lilnaugrim

Alright so Osiris doesn't want to breed, I put Isis in again and it was adorable; she flared and chased him a bit and they danced but soon Osiris only wanted to hunt her again and she started to stress. After half an hour I took her out and for kicks I tried the HMPK MG girl since she's still been conditioned and very eggy at the moment. She went in and SHE chased HIM! lol it was hilarious! She had super breeding bars too, she tried to dance with him but he didn't really seem to care. I thought he was going to take a few times too, he'd dance a bit and go over to the potential nest site but then he'd forgo and started to chase her. Once it was apparent that he just didn't want to breed I took both of them out.

Right now Lyon [Lee-on, Sathori's HMPKEE] is in the tank and I'll see if he wants to make a nest for Rennie. Lyon looks like he's got a faint yellow wash so maybe we'll end up with some little weird finned partial MG marble babies lol. I figure why not, I want to breed SOMETHING at this point >.<

Pics up next.


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## lilnaugrim

Lyon is adorbs!



And Osiris and his face lol





He's got a real nice dorsal too


My Gertudae and CPD male were sparring :roll:



Pearl Gourami has been doing pretty good!



Aero!



Remmy flaring at the light lol



Lyon was adorable showing off to Rennie.


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## Sabina88

Lyon is gorgeous I love the coloration on the top of his head. Im glad Aero's still with you 

Remmy almost looks like a chocolate betta in that lighting lol He's looking good too


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## lilnaugrim

I know, Rem has pretty much lost all his blue band, he still has his iridescence and he does have a faint "dirtier" yellow band around the fins and then towards the center of the fins is pure yellow, strange how much he's changed.

Aero's doing well! He has been resting more but who wouldn't with a cyst that size?? It's pushing out the organs on the other side though :-/ not out as in out of his body, but squishing them so it's bulging on the other side.

Hawkeye is still feeling good, Steele bit his fins again and Pierce has been flare-crazy lol.

Silhouette has grown quite a bit and the female Apisto has really grown! River is doing fine too though she really hasn't grown much.


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## lilnaugrim

And if I'm not mistaken we have the startings of a small bubble nest from Lyon in the breeding tank!!

My barb fry are looking fantastic!! They're getting their dorsals in! :-D I counted 10 again, I have one that is a runt but the rest are easy the length of a pea for lack of anything else to measure by lol.


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## Fenghuang

Holy cow, Lyon has spectacular form. :shock:


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## Sathori

Lyon <3 

Love, love, love, love that boy!! I cannot wait to see his babies xD


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## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Holy cow, Lyon has spectacular form. :shock:


I KNOW!! Ugg, he's gorgeous! His ventrals are so luscious too! Perfect 180 degree spread, 4 ray's, perfect dorsal with only one stubby ray, nicely slanted anal. The only thing is he's got some web reduction on his anal fin and it's not exactly pointed but whew, he's darn close to perfection for a pet store fish!!


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## lilnaugrim

Sathori said:


> Lyon <3
> 
> Love, love, love, love that boy!! I cannot wait to see his babies xD


I really do hope it works out! That way I can still keep a part of him while you get the real deal! ;-)


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## Sathori

Haha hopefully he passes along his good looks and form 

I've considered breeding bettas at some point and selling them to my work, so that we no longer would have to ship them out from BC, but I would probably get too attached to all of them and make people fill out adoption forms or something xD
Plus I don't think any of my boys have a "good breeding" form.


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## lilnaugrim

Aha, yeah I hear you. I will sell to here, AquaBid and to my well trusted LFS but to no other stores. 

Rennie has pretty good form too, she's long fin though so it will take another generation to really get back to the PK good form or perhaps another but at this point I really don't care, I just want these babies! I'm attempting to not get my hopes too high since there's still a chance they won't breed with my luck so far, but here's to hoping.
:cheers:


----------



## Sathori

My co-workers are great at trying to convince customers to either buy the right tank size and equipment, and educate them on water changes and proper diet. However, we are not allowed to refuse a customer when it comes to purchasing a betta. My manager wishes she actually owned the store and could make her own rules, but what can you do? 

I wish you best of lucky with Lyon!! Hopefully he turns out to be a good "daddy" xD


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## lilnaugrim

I squee'd this morning when I woke up to find Lyon had built himself a small bubblenest! It's about the size of a quarter at the moment and he built it....on the OUTSIDE of the cup >.< Now I just hope that when I feed them that I don't wreck it since the humidity builds up on the saran wrap and the drips fall when I try to take off the saran wrap to feed them :-/ any ideas for how to go about not ruining his nest? I'll try to go in from the other side today to feed Rennie, she's sitting in the cup staring intently at him.

There's been no real flirting behavior yet so I won't release her any time soon but here's to being hopeful at least!


----------



## lilnaugrim

A question I've often asked myself.....why do people freak out about disinfecting their tanks?? If you keep your water clean then there is no problem, it bugs the crap out of me how much Betta people want to tear down a perfectly healthy tank. If the tank has Myco or something terrible of that nature, sure, tear down the heck out of it but for something like Columnaris or fin rot that is bacterial and will always reside in the water column....there is absolutely no point. Even if it makes them "feel" better about it, they just ruined a perfectly good cycle and have to go through it all again, to me it's not worth it.

If you want to QT your plants and critters, that's more feasible and worth it than trying to disinfect a whole tank.

Sorry, just had to mini-rant, it's just been bugging me that people actually think Bleach will kill organisms when it really doesn't and that's been proven.

Does no one know how to do google searches? I mean that for real though, do some people not know how to properly use a search engine and gather the information that they need? I totally don't mind helping people and honestly, it's what makes me feel good but there are so many questions that could be answered with a simple google search. Heck, that's how I learned practically all my information...sorry, it just really boggles my mind most of the time that people don't think to search first to come up with their own conclusions and then check against other people's info later to see if it makes sense/matches up.


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## MattsBettas

> A question I've often asked myself.....why do people freak out about disinfecting their tanks?? If you keep your water clean then there is no problem, it bugs the crap out of me how much Betta people want to tear down a perfectly healthy tank. If the tank has Myco or something terrible of that nature, sure, tear down the heck out of it but for something like Columnaris or fin rot that is bacterial and will always reside in the water column....there is absolutely no point. Even if it makes them "feel" better about it, they just ruined a perfectly good cycle and have to go through it all again, to me it's not worth it.
> 
> If you want to QT your plants and critters, that's more feasible and worth it than trying to disinfect a whole tank.
> 
> Sorry, just had to mini-rant, it's just been bugging me that people actually think Bleach will kill organisms when it really doesn't and that's been proven.
> 
> Does no one know how to do google searches? I mean that for real though, do some people not know how to properly use a search engine and gather the information that they need? I totally don't mind helping people and honestly, it's what makes me feel good but there are so many questions that could be answered with a simple google search. Heck, that's how I learned practically all my information...sorry, it just really boggles my mind most of the time that people don't think to search first to come up with their own conclusions and then check against other people's info later to see if it makes sense/matches up.


Oh my goodness. Thank you. I've seen threads where the betta is dying from a tumor or something and the OP wants to sterilize and then has that reaffirmed by other posters (who recommend "sterilizing" it with things that don't actually work). Like, I don't care, it's your time and effort and your money, and I'm not going to post more then once to try to tell you there's no need. I even get certain strains of columnaris or parasites, I mean I would sterilize anything if I think there's any risk that it could harm my other fish. But then again I'm keeping hundreds of dollars worth of stock (most of which I produced) and not three pet bettas. 

The best is how I've gotten told otherwise for saying that there's absolutely no need to sterilize a tank in whatever circumstance. I'm definitely not always right and I'll never claim to be, but I do know my share when it comes to disease treatment and sterilization procedure... Those are the threads that I just keep myself from replying to.


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Oh my goodness. Thank you. I've seen threads where the betta is dying from a tumor or something and the OP wants to sterilize and then has that reaffirmed by other posters (who recommend "sterilizing" it with things that don't actually work). Like, I don't care, it's your time and effort and your money, and I'm not going to post more then once to try to tell you there's no need. I even get certain strains of columnaris or parasites, I mean I would sterilize anything if I think there's any risk that it could harm my other fish. But then again I'm keeping hundreds of dollars worth of stock (most of which I produced) and not three pet bettas.
> 
> The best is how I've gotten told otherwise for saying that there's absolutely no need to sterilize a tank in whatever circumstance. I'm definitely not always right and I'll never claim to be, but I do know my share when it comes to disease treatment and sterilization procedure... Those are the threads that I just keep myself from replying to.


I completely agree! Yeah, I saw that post....while white vinegar is okay for minor disinfecting that's it, it's better at removing hard water residue/stains >.<

I agree though, yes there are certain strains of diseases that definitely warrant a complete cleanse but more than half the time it's not warranted at all and it just boggles my mind!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Pictures!

I picked up a little quarter gallon candle bowl on Sunday and did this with my Air plants ^_^ they seem to be liking it more than when I just had them laying around lol


3 small ones and two larger ones, the large grassy one is my favorite!


Barb fry


Sorry the pictures suck, I still have yet to clean the glass




29 has some real good growth! I just took out like five handfuls of dwarf water lettuce 


Pierce! :-D


Hawkeye and Pierce 


I transferred Silhouette to the spot where Lyon was and put River in where Silhouette was with the female Apisto.


Her scales are showing real nice!




And then she caught sight of Aero haha




Lyon's nest!


He wasn't too fond of me looking at his nest lol



Rennie colored up and pretty much lost her MG look


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## Lucillia

Here's Mr. Crabby Patty. He always looks so insulted when I take his picture.


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## lilnaugrim

Ahaha! He's adorable! Decent fin form but I'm not too fond of his body :-/ sorry buddy lol. Watch those eyes....white rings around the eye generally mean pop-eye. If I can get Rennie and Lyon to breed successfully as well as Osiris and Isis then we can look at Sashimi and Rennie! Indjo gave me another technique for Osiris....geeze he's so freaking high maintenance! I hope Sashimi isn't so vicious!


----------



## Lucillia

I finally just got Sashimi to flare. He and Symphony hang out all day without flaring at each other. They don't seem to care. 
He seems pretty docile thus far. He's also really small still.. like his body is smaller than Remmy... I'm wondering how old he is.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah he does look small, Rennie is small too though, so is Lyon. I'm sure he'll grow, he still looks decently young though. Though docile fish can be hard to breed too, hopefully he'll get a little more aggressive with conditioning since Rennie is pretty spirited girl.

I read that we shouldn't breed small males though.


----------



## Sathori

Ooh goodness I cannot get over Lyon's colours... I laughed when I read about his bubble nest xD he apparently has his own ideas of where it should go 
I always end up ruining my boys' bubble nests. Except the one Gray made one day - he built it up against the filter - which then got slightly caught in the current, and just spun in circles for a couple days, until which I then ruined it when I did a water change


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, he's really adorable when he's being all flare-y and showing off! I watched them a bit this morning and Rennie isn't quite in the mood yet, need to give her some more time. I might flare her to Osiris or Steele to help her.

----------------------------------------
Going for the third step in my tooth implant surgery today. I had the tooth extracted first in February after I clean cracked it all the way through and then I got the titanium post put in back in May and now that it's all healed today I get the cap that goes on the titanium post and my gums are supposed to heal around that before I get the fake tooth built up on top and then the crown after that. The whole process won't be done until like November or something but I'll be happy when I no longer have a gap in the back of my mouth and can chew properly again! Well...I've never been able to actually chew properly on that side but it will be nice to be able to do it for the first time!! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

I hate dentists, surgeons are fine but dentists all suck and so does insurance when they don't cover stupid tooth implants!

I'm incredible upset right now, I got the healing cap put on my screw today and then moved over to the dentists next door to see about finishing up the implant and I was informed that I have to somehow scrounge up another 2,193 for my NEXT appointment :shock: I felt extremely ashamed but I cried in front of the receptionist, she said it was fine though since I totally wasn't expecting this! The surgeon's receptionist told me that I was done, she didn't explain that I was done with THEM but not with the whole process! I was just so stressed out.

The office is nice enough to take up 5% of the 2,300 if I pay cash up front which makes it 2,193 apparently or I can split it up for 1,999 or something like that each times >.> I'm just so pissed off, it was so unexpected and so much!

The only good news is that my tank came in today...it wasn't expected until next Monday! Everything is there, the light works beautifully, filter seems good and tank is immaculate. I can't set it up yet though, I need more sand and some rocks for my aquascape.

And the boy who bought my 3 female Vaillanti's is breeding! He already has a pair but their fry didn't last too long for some stupid mistakes on his part but he's done Chocolate Gourami's and their fry so he has no doubt for the new girls. He also bought 6 Vaillanti's from WetSpot and he ended up with all males! He sold off 3 so he's got 3 males left for my 3 girls lol. I was so excited when I read that! I'm glad they're going to a good and appropriate home!


----------



## MameJenny

Ugh, dental work is so unpleasant...and if you need anything besides a filling, it's expensive, too. I have fairly weak teeth (in my dentist's words), and I had 15 cavities and needed a crown the last time I went in. The cavities were reasonable and covered by our insurance, but then most places wanted $1200+ for the crown. I can't even chew on the side I got it done on anymore, since the dentist messed up a bit and filed down one of the adjacent teeth too much.

That's great about your fish!  I probably missed it - what type of tank did you get?


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## Sathori

I have yet to meet someone who actually LOVES going to the dentist... I have a tooth that I had work on - they took care of a cavity and put in filling - however, any time I eat something cold, sugary/sweet, or if something pokes it, it hurts like crazy. If I brush too hard on the top, it KILLS. I asked my dentist about it, and she said it was fine, nothing showed up on the x-ray and I was "probably feeling pain from the tooth above it in my top jaw". I told her that made no sense since it hurts below and hurts WHEN I BRUSH THAT TOOTH. She ignored that comment and moved onto a new conversation....

That's always great news to hear when you rehome any animal.  Hopefully he has some great success with breeding


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## EvaJupiterSkies

@Sathori - I have similar issues. I was told it could be from grinding my teeth while I sleep, if I had recently gone through a stressful period. Oh yes, yes, the most stressful period of my life. I use Sensodyne and it kind of has cut back on some of the sensitivity, but holy cow... sometimes it still really randomly hurts.

@lilnaugrim - My dad had a similar procedure done. Mindblowingly expensive stuff right there. I hope things get better for you with that whole thing soon. It's quite a trip.


----------



## Sathori

EvaJupiterSkies said:


> @Sathori - I have similar issues. I was told it could be from grinding my teeth while I sleep, if I had recently gone through a stressful period. Oh yes, yes, the most stressful period of my life. I use Sensodyne and it kind of has cut back on some of the sensitivity, but holy cow... sometimes it still really randomly hurts.


I brush with Sensodyne as well, and make sure to brush every night for sure (I sometimes forget in the morning if I'm REAL tired xD) But there are still things that make me want to detach my jaw from my face :/ I have to be careful with how I chew... It is for sure the tooth that I got a filling in, but maybe during my process of widening my top jaw may have ground down the tooth a since the metal on my top jaw was a tad sharp. My poor jaws have been through a lot, perhaps they are taking revenge xD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mame, yeah I have tons of cavities filled in and I have two more that I've been putting off because for one, I didn't have a dentist and the second was because of the implant surgery, I didn't want to overwork my mouth so quickly you know? Normally crowns are covered by our insurance and it was $100 for my mom's crown but our insurance has changed and I might be in luck but I also might not be. We had a major switch over in insurance and it's a deductible now so I might only have to pay $500 instead of the full $2,300 but I have to check on that first since it just changed over a month ago.

Sathori, I actually do like going to the dentist, more than I'd want to go to my GP or my GYN, I just wasn't expecting that price! When we started this they told me it would be around 3,000 in total but 1,900 and 2,300 is 4,200....when this is done my mouth is going to be expensive >.> I swear to God, if I break another tooth....

Eva, thanks. I know it's worth it, because I'm only 21 (oh geeze, doing to be 22 in a month!) I have a long time ahead of me and if I didn't get this done it could cause some serious issues for the upper tooth. The upper tooth has already came down over the years to compensate since my former bottom tooth had been worked on so much by my child dentist that it became like a crater, so the top tooth came down to compensate. Well, it was like a hammer constantly beating on metal for so many years that finally the bottom tooth just cracked clean down. It had started to crack right after my root canal two years ago and we knew that one day it was going to crack, we just didn't realize it was going to happen so soon.

Thank God for student loans to pay for my tooth surgery >.>

Yeah, I use Sensodyne too, though I'm not too religious when it comes to brushing my teeth I'll admit >.< But yeah, it hurts like hell to brush and even worse when I go in for a cleaning ugg. Which reminds me...I'm due for THAT too. I'm terrible when it comes to flossing though which is why I end up with all these cavities :roll:

It just sucks that this costs so much and then I just paid my hospital bill yesterday for my "broken" foot so it just wasn't a good financial start to the day. I only get paid every other week and it's a part time job, though at the moment it's full time since my boss is on vacation which is nice for me but it still stands, I don't get paid enough. Welcome to the real world lilnaugrim, right? Got my phone bill, car insurance bill every six months, tooth surgery and soon I get to start paying back my student loans HOORAY /sarcasm.

And Mame, it was this tank: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008CQWO3U/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_3p_dp_1 The light is very blue so I might try to find a more white light to stay in the 6,500-6,700K spectrum, possibly white and red since red is best for the plants ^_^

I have pictures, I'll get those up soon.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I called off Lyon's spawning, he was going well with her and she looked like she was flirting but I realized soon that it wasn't :-/ she took a chunk from his anal fin and a slice from his tail but otherwise he's pretty well unscathed. I know spawns can get rough but it didn't feel right to me and I didn't want to chance Lyon since he's not even technically my fish ;-) But I also wanted to try the next method with Osiris so that Luci can have her fish back soon lol.

So, because I'm a dork, I took pictures of me opening the box haha, it was exciting!


Very well packed, I hate packing peanuts though >.>


Back side of the tank but still very nicely packaged!


Cute little filter that is exactly the same as the Azoo Palm/Mignon lol


Not sure why photobucket flipped my pictures, sorry about that. but the light works well, has little moonlight blue LED's for nighttime use which I never use because they're on a timer :roll: oh well.


beautiful rimless!!


Kind of makes me sad that Dario has that hunchback there, he didn't have it when he was a baby! Oh well, he's still a gorgeous fish!


I suspect he's been munching on the leftover blackworms as there are still some in there.


Corydoras Habrosus there in a blurr for size comparison 


Matt, when you get a chance, can you view the video here? These are "I want to eat you" wiggles right, not "I want to breed" wiggles?


Trying to keep Isis stimulated before I attempted the third method given to me by indjo for breeding Osiris and Isis >.<


Pierce is really coming along to be a handsome boy!


Lol, I love this picture, looks like Pierce is all "argg, hear me roar!!" and Isis is like "why did you put me in with this KID?!?" haha!


Just some nice flaring pics of Pierce, his anal fin is getting a little long but that's alright, he's still handsome.




And then because Steele has been making some lovely nests I'd figure he'd like to flirt with Isis some too! So I flared them for a few minutes before lights out. He was all for it lol, it's a shame that I won't breed him, I feel like he'd make such a good father too. It's always the ones we don't/can't breed that will make the good fathers, huh?


----------



## MattsBettas

> Matt, when you get a chance, can you view the video here? These are "I want to eat you" wiggles right, not "I want to breed" wiggles?


Yea, Isis especially looks pretty aggressive. To me that's fairly typical for fish that aren't fully receptive to each other yet, whether they just don't like each other or aren't conditioned enough yet. Then again, there were a few moments of very distictive "I want to breed" wiggles, like at around 0:40. The s shaped body, fast flapping pectorals, and not trying to actually get each other, just dancing, are what makes it the breeding dance. 

Can I just steal Isis to breed her for her body shape alone? It's perfect! Haha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Yea, Isis especially looks pretty aggressive. To me that's fairly typical for fish that aren't fully receptive to each other yet, whether they just don't like each other or aren't conditioned enough yet. Then again, there were a few moments of very distictive "I want to breed" wiggles, like at around 0:40. The s shaped body, fast flapping pectorals, and not trying to actually get each other, just dancing, are what makes it the breeding dance.
> 
> Can I just steal Isis to breed her for her body shape alone? It's perfect! Haha.


It's a good thing I'm alone at work because I just literally laughed out loud to that! oh lol.

Okay, yeah I figured out that it's difficult for me to distinguish between a dance and the fighting stance but that does help out some! Obviously, not breeding to Pierce but I just wanted to figure this all out >.< I really hope this last technique works with Osiris and Isis, she really does have a beautiful body!

Gahh stupid US/Canadian border rules!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Isis is not happy with Osiris >.> 

We had some great looking clouds today, huge thunderstorm that passed through.



Just pretty.


View from my window ^_^


So the new technique I was trying on Osiris is put three females floating in to tire him out, though he doesn't seem as tuckered out >.< But anyway, Silhouette was my third female since I only have five and Silhouette is larger than River so just used her. She colored up like crazy!
Beautiful dorsal! Possible DT geno


Love those cheeks!


Tail-end of a flare to Osiris who you see in the corner


It's a shame she's not a little older, she's very much willing to breed, wiggling at him and everything but he's easily just over twice her size lol.


I'm so glad I picked her up!


Pretty girl, she's definitely eggy but she doesn't show the slightest interest in Osiris :-/ I'll observe them more after M*A*S*H which is over in fifteen minutes.


And Osiris


----------



## lilnaugrim

Why, WHY??? Isis clamps up every time Osiris goes near her! She has absolutely no interest in breeding with him! What the heck am I supposed to do now >.< I've tried three different methods now and so far no luck. Osiris has calmed down plenty but she's not interested.

The HMPK girl is still barred up and I'm half tempted to throw them together just to get a darned spawn but I'd get quite the bit of mutts...HMPK MG x Black Copper CT lol but she's really into breeding and I think she's been bred before.

This stinks.


----------



## Sathori

lilnaugrim said:


> Gahh stupid US/Canadian border rules!!


You can say that again! 

And hey, mutts are adorable  Just ask all of the pets that I own xD


----------



## Lucillia

I had a customer come into work tonight talking about how she just threw a male and female together so they could breed. She had an interesting approach on how to keep the female from being destroyed but... I was like, whyyyyy?!?!? >.< ISIS AND OSIRIS HAVE BABIES RIGHT NOW. NAAAAO!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, no I know mutts are adorable but I don't want to end up with a bunch of bad Combtails, I like the Halfsun but they're harder to breed for and keep nice.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> I had a customer come into work tonight talking about how she just threw a male and female together so they could breed. She had an interesting approach on how to keep the female from being destroyed but... I was like, whyyyyy?!?!? >.< ISIS AND OSIRIS HAVE BABIES RIGHT NOW. NAAAAO!


This is what KILLS me! I don't understand how people can do this and be successful! But we try and I can't even get the damn girl interested!! Arggggg


----------



## BlueInkFish

XD, just keep trying an you'll achieve your goal!!! It took me 4 times to spawn with different Bettas and I finally get a spawn working!!!! Lol just keep trying and set goals ^__^!!


----------



## Sathori

lilnaugrim said:


> lol, no I know mutts are adorable but I don't want to end up with a bunch of bad Combtails, I like the Halfsun but they're harder to breed for and keep nice.


Haha I know, I know, I was just being stupid xD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys but Isis and Osiris literally have no interest in each other. They just want to inspect and kill each other. Osiris had a nice nest going previously with the four girls in there but he's literally stopped working on it and hasn't cared for it since I took out the other girls and left Isis in :-/ I'm literally convinced that they do not care for each other in the slightest! I'm just getting really frustrated since I spent a pretty penny on this girl and she's not even barring in the slightest! She hasn't once flared at him since going in, clamps up every time he comes around, though this morning she just stares at him and tries to bite him. It's so frustrating! I don't even dare put her in at this point, he shows no interest in breeding whereas before he and Silhouette were at least flirting!

I'm half tempted to just throw Silhouette back in there, though she's an HM girly, she's at least Black Cooper too. Issue is, she's so small, I don't think he'd ever actually be able to wrap her. Thoughts on this Matt?


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## scififan523

What about trying Isis in a mesh breeder? Worked with Yue and Kisa.


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## lilnaugrim

How do you mean scififan?


----------



## lilnaugrim

I feel sick.

This morning I had to send out Steele and the Vaillanti females which were fine but I looked up to the 20 just to make sure everyone was alright. I knew there was something wrong when Aero didn't waddle his way out of the water sprite to collect his food but I didn't have time to look for him.

I got home and had to answer almost 24 threads I was subbed to here and finally got the chance to go check on him.

I found my male CPD had died, he was still colored up for the most part and he seemed so healthy yesterday! This week sucks.

I looked around more, had to nearly rip out all the plants to find Aero. He was sitting peacefully on the bottom of the tank under some of the pygmy chain swords, I fished him up and found him to be dead but still flexible and warm (figuratively), he'd just died. I know it's not my fault but I still feel miserable, he's the first of my "ancients", Remmy is the only one left of them and it just makes me feel so sad.

I'm so sorry buddy, you were a real trooper though. You'll sorely be missed Aero. 4-24-2013 to 8-9-2014





















Swim in Peace buddy, you deserve it.


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## Lucillia

SIP Aero!!! You were so cute and funny. :,) I will miss him being adorable for me whenever I come over. Maybe he and Klaus are chilling with Ragnarok.


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## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> Maybe he and Klaus are chilling with Ragnarok.


For sure


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## DaytonBetta

I'm sorry to hear about Aero. I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Dayton. I hope so too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did some therapy drawing today, I'm almost done with it so I'll show y'all when I'm through. For now, I should make myself some dinner at least...I haven't eaten all day :-/


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures to cheer up my journal a little bit.

My guppy bowl with two females, ideally I wanted to separate out the females but I have three-four other females in the 20 and I don't want to stuff this bowl so much, especially since I have fry in there now. They're a week old by now.


The younger of the two


Good formed fry


Well I'm glad I can say I have SOME sort of fry at least >.>


Also, possibly Sparkling Gourami fry? I really still don't know what they are, they still look like Barbs to me though which I'd honestly be happier with.


The bigger ones are getting their dorsals in, they have tails all formed now and pectorals of course.


Still counting 10 fry



Apisto Female has been pretty happy and colored up lately! She immediately scours the tank floor when I tap on it ^_^


Kind of wrecked my aqua-scape when I had to fish out the Tiger Endler this morning >.< Finally caught him after trying eight gajillion times lol


Gem has done a LOT of growing! He's almost Dario's size! It's still extremely easy to tell them apart though, Gem is still smaller, doesn't have the humped back quite yet, less red stripes and doesn't have the notch in his caudal but is adorable all the same ^_^


Pierce and Isis have been flirting ALL day, funny and frustrating at the same time. He's still got a very prominent false egg spot too


Maybe he'll be a long fin after he's done growing? He's definitely sexually mature at this point, tries to build a nest but the sponge filter is too high to let him keep it.


He might just be a fish but Remmy knows! Well okay, he doesn't know, he was just happy to be back in the 20 and seeing his reflection. I got a crap ton of pictures of him so pic dump!

Mr. Blue Lips!


Fish butt


I have a very fabulous fishy



Little sucker doesn't like the camera so catching his flare is so difficult!


Mr. Grump too


He may be just over two years right now but he's still got it!



I love this picture, I was hoping for a new profile pic of him but none really took the cake over my current one.


This one is a close contender though


Fabio Fins!



Classic Remmy pose


----------



## scififan523

Sorry for the delayed response. Yue and Kisa had zero interest in each other until they were sharing water. Like, not even when she was in the glass inside the tank. Yue wouldn't build a nest, Kisa was eggy but wouldn't flirt. Then, I dropped her in my mesh breeder in the spawn tank and within 6 hours Yue was nest building, and they were both dancing (and Kisa dropped a couple of eggs).


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## lilnaugrim

interesting, I'll see if I can do that too. thanks for the tip!


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## Sathori

Remmy is such a handsome boy  I am jealous of his blue lips xD I always love it when bettas have coloured lips.

I miss caring for guppies (and how quick they spawn xD). I half considered getting some for my 30 gallon when I was stocking it since Elfman could care less about fish in his tank. I cannot find any cheap ones around here though - Petland sells them for like $7-$9 a fish, and people selling them locally have filthy water in their tanks (like brown/yellow water :/)


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! I do love my boy ^_^

I love my guppies but at the same time I really don't care for them THAT much lol. Though I do have some good looking males, it's not my fancy any more and my water isn't the best for them either. They'll be leaving soon, I might just feed the fry to my Angel if she'll eat them, otherwise they can just grow up in the 29 lol.


----------



## Sathori

lilnaugrim said:


> Thank you! I do love my boy ^_^
> 
> I love my guppies but at the same time I really don't care for them THAT much lol. Though I do have some good looking males, it's not my fancy any more and my water isn't the best for them either. They'll be leaving soon, I might just feed the fry to my Angel if she'll eat them, otherwise they can just grow up in the 29 lol.


Darn border issues - I would take one or two off your hands xD
My friend wants to do a tank full of guppies and cories.
I had a tank full of them when I was kid - and being a kid, I never changed the water, just filled up the tank when water evaporated out of it. Wasn't heated or anything like that. 

But the ad I saw online for them, the water looked like watered down coffee. You could hardly see the fish. I mean, I know guppies can survive through a lot, I've seen first hand, but that water looked disgusting! I wouldn't trust those guppies to be very healthy :/


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, heck I'd give you them all if I could! They'll be going to my LFS though for store credit or something 

Yeah, unless it was tannin stained, that's just gross lol.


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## MattsBettas

Haha Sathori I just bought a guppy for ten bucks... Granted she's a really nice Black Moscow, but still. I looked at it as a "hey, well, you're probably pregnant with good looking babies so I'll make back the 10$" investment, but it's definitely not feasible if you're stocking a tank. 

Have you checked local fish stores? Like, not petlands and petmarts.


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## Sabina88

I just read about Aero, im really sorry to hear about that :-( SIP Aero.
Im glad he was able to stay with you for so long, he was lucky to have you to take such good care of him even with his cyst.


----------



## scififan523

You're welcome. Hopefully it helps.


----------



## Sathori

Matt - haha, I have no issue paying for some really nice looking fish, like what you described, especially if you can get some babies out of it, but these looked like the kind of guppies that I had as a kid... Petland is SUPER overpriced. VT bettas are $10 each, Panda cories were also $10 each, neons are $5, rasboras $7... Especially with the panda cories, I don't know how they expect to sell them as a nice big school if you gotta pay $10 a fish :/

There's not much in the way of local fish stores in this area. The last guy who sold fish in my area closed up shop last year since he wasn't making much... Didn't help that he practically sold everything at store cost - You won't make much money if you sell something for the price you bought it for...

That being said, I'm tempted to check out one place in the city (2hrs away) called Pet Traders. They have a bunch of random pets in there, they may have some decent guppies. Don't need anything fancy, just looking for some flashy fish that don't need high numbers to function lol. They have some live plants there too (I was interested in the water wisteria). But then I have to find the time and money to make a trip out there :/


lilnaugrim - I don't know how I missed this! So sorry to hear about Aero!  I have only lost one betta before, and dang it's rough...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, my Moscow pair was $12 originally but they gave me them for $10 since I was supposed to give them the babies but kind of is an issue when everyone dies :roll:

Thanks Sabina and Sathori. Sabina, looks like this week hasn't been the greatest for both of us, huh?


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## Sabina88

It seems so, Hopefully by Monday it will be a fresh start and things will look up 
I hope things start looking up for you soon, you deserve it after this week


----------



## Sathori

I can see a pair going for $10-12. That's not terrible, but $10 for a single mutt guppy? No thanks...

I would love to get my hands on some endlers - but I think last I checked, they were not cheap from my work's supplier either.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks again Sabina, I hope so as well. Thankfully I get Monday off for V-J Day....I bet no one has any idea what that is lol Of course, it doesn't apply to Canadians anyway but RI is the only state who actually celebrates V-J day which is Victory over Japan Day, the day we dropped the A-bomb on Japan :-/ I don't mind celebrating Independence Day as most countries do that have one but V-J Day? However, I am thankful for the day off so I guess I can't complain too much. 

@Sathori, well I bought my Snakeskin pair for 23 dollars off Ebay lol, they were worth it though, beautiful pair that unfortunately died too :-/


----------



## Sathori

Yikes. I think that's where I would be very hesitant to order online. Even my work's supplier only guarantees DOAs. If they don't make it the next day, they are not covered... :/ Which sucks since there was a case where I had ordered my habrosus cories, and one looked kinda odd - his tail fin was super short, and he died later that week... Kinda makes me feel ripped off, you know? When I over pay at Petland, they at least have a 30 day guarantee...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh no, no, they did make it just fine! It was three months after that the female died and then the male succumbed about three weeks after. I order fish all the time "^_^ which is probably why I'm broke at the moment lol.


----------



## PetMania

Ah, being broke. I used to have money, but then I decided to go fish crazy XD. 
How's it going 'naugrim?


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, yeah...I'm just glad I started this fish hobby in college with my student loans :roll:

Look back two pages and you'll see how it's going. :-/


----------



## Sathori

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh no, no, they did make it just fine! It was three months after that the female died and then the male succumbed about three weeks after. I order fish all the time "^_^ which is probably why I'm broke at the moment lol.


Oooooooh. well then.
Between my 30 gallon stocking, my betta obsession, and my husband's birthday/christmas presents (Buying for him is WAY too easy...), my bank account is sitting at a flat $0 right now xD Don't get paid until next week Friday... Sigh...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I'm paid every other week too and it stinks lol. I'm running on just about 50 bucks at the moment (I have my savings but I don't want to dip into the paltry sum of money I have in there anyway) and that's got to buy me gas for this week so I can actually MAKE it to work lol. Ugg, why do all the bills come up so suddenly? Paid my hospital bill, phone bill and attempting to save for car insurance coming up shortly :-/


----------



## Sathori

Tell me about it... I'm very thankful for 3 pay days this month. It's the only way I was able to afford presents for my husband. Totally worth it though.
My savings is solely for "just in case" moments. With my accident prone pug mix, and a psycho 9lb cat, I like to have some extra money saved for those lovely vet trips in case one of the two decides to do something stupid xD But I'm guilty of dipping once or twice in there. I promised myself I would put some of this next paycheque back into my savings to replace what I took out...

Sorry, I'm waaay off topic on your journal here xD It's been a long week..


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol no worries, I often go off topic on my journal but I really don't mind. I like conversating anyway ^_^

Yeah, I am too! Yeah, I think I might have to dip in it this week since my mom and her boyfriend went to Maine for a week vacation which means I'm home alone (Party!! woot woot haha) and eventually I'm going to run out of food with what little we keep around anyway! >.< they could have at least left me $20 for food! lol


----------



## Sathori

Haha, yeah, my husband is down in the states right now, attending his best friend's wedding. It's a long drive down, and he's gone for the weekend T-T Just me and the dog, cat, fish for another two days. He left me his debit card so I could at least go shopping and buy some food for myself and some raw beef for Harley (my pug x). Otherwise both my dog and I would probably go hungry by the time he got back xD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol! Yep, pretty much how I'm feeling. Although my mother never used credit/debit cards so alas, no luck for me even for her to transfer me funds lol. Oh well :roll:


----------



## lilnaugrim

As promised, these are crappy cell phone pictures but I think it gets the point across? Anyway, since I've been obsessing over M*A*S*H what better way to de-stress than to draw Alan Alda himself? Aka Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce  Here's the process that I took pics of through the day. I started yesterday but did the majority of the work today.


----------



## Sathori

asdfghkjl
This makes me wish I never quit art class in school xD
Super jealous of your talent <3


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol! Sathori, thanks!

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that it's done in regular mechanical pencil .5 lead on regular computer paper. Terrible paper to use for serious projects lol, it's too shiny and acidic, you have to be really careful not to get grease on it or it stays FOREVER.

I'll take a better picture of it later after Church when I can use ambient light rather than lame kitchen light ^_^


----------



## Sabina88

Wooooooow that's amazing, I wish I was good at portraits but I'm terrible at drawing faces. Your drawing oof him is awsome plus your shading looks really good


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sabina! I love drawing portraits, one of my specialties I believe  Although I'm not getting as much of a reaction from Alan's portrait (not you guys but outside the forum lol) as I did from Robert Down Jr's that I did...I think I did that one on better paper and over all it had more contrast so it popped and people liked that. I'm going to take a nice picture of it right now so I can at least do light editing on my laptop to make it look how it's actually supposed to.

----------------
Sigh, just moved a bunch of crap from my Gramps' house to mom's. It's a good thing mom is on vacation, otherwise she'd kill me for bringing more tanks into the house, even if they aren't going to be used...currently....

I was able to ask dad for $20 for gas since I'm at half a tank and I have this thing where I severely hate my tank going under a quarter if I can absolutely help it. And he ended up giving me an extra $20 to help fill it and pay for some food basics for the house since as I said, mom left me little to none and I know if I eat all the blueberries she's going to b*tch about it either way :roll: got to love parents, right? sigh.

I sold some dwarf water lettuce so that's going out tomorrow. So I've got some money on my paypal but I'm not sure if I can transfer that to my bank account lol, got to check on that! Ugg, can't wait to get paid this Friday!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I figured that y'all would appreciate this little piece of humor. I know I laughed hard lol


----------



## Fenghuang

I lol'd. That is one fluffy cat. Your drawing is also awesome, as always. 

Did you get a PM from me? I am not sure if someone sent me a message because it says I have a new PM, but I don't see anything when I open it up.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It really sucks how quickly depression can come back. I never talk about it which is part of an issue I know I have but I just have a need to write at the moment...

My dad went to see a hypnotherapist a while back ($100 per session! sheesh!) and the first session wasn't so bad, he told me about it, it was mostly about his mother (dead for nine years now I think). But the second session actually brought me to tears when he explained what happened, about a week later or so dad actually suggested I go see the therapist as well, the money was still an issue then so I politely declined. Since then it's made me wonder about what in my short life so far could I really talk about? I mean, a lot has happened with growing up in a middle-class family with just enough money to scrape by and then with the divorce, I think that's really where a lot of my depression and issues come from honestly, even though it was an easy divorce so to say; my parents are still friends and can get along just fine, marriage just wasn't for them.

So it's just really been making me upset thinking about what possible might be haunting me and then I watch M*A*S*H nightly and it just makes me sort of hurt; seeing the characters break down some times--though it reassures me that I can keep going just fine if they could make it through a war.

But then Aero's death, though he's just a fish more or less, it's just all a lot for me at the moment. I'm just not sure what to do, I've always been told by my mother:

"Store all the bad stuff in little jars and put them on the top shelf. Once in a while you need to open them up and just face them, give a good cry if you need to."

Idk, sorry for the really random 'opening' up thingie here but I just needed to put it somewhere and facebook or texts are merely the place for this sort of thing--though I doubt my journal is the best place either but it's all I have right now. Very sorry.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> I lol'd. That is one fluffy cat. Your drawing is also awesome, as always.
> 
> Did you get a PM from me? I am not sure if someone sent me a message because it says I have a new PM, but I don't see anything when I open it up.


Thanks!

Yes, I sent one in return but I can resend it.


----------



## Sathori

Very sorry to hear that lil :/
There's something about opening up to "strangers" that seems to be a bit more soothing, if you ask me. I've always found talking to some new people, with different perspectives, can be quite therapeutic. 
There's something about dumping your feelings onto the internet, and being able to leave them there is nice at times. I find if I vent to my friends, then it becomes something that I am unable to escape/take a break from. When I use to talk a lot to online friends, it allowed me to go hang out with my other friends without them bringing the problem up. It allowed me to keep my emotions a bit more organized - IRL friends for having a good time and forgetting the issue for a little while, online friends for venting and getting opinions.
Of course if it was something SUPER serious, it would be brought up with my friends, but venting online after a crappy week is really good for IMO. Also, taking time for yourself really helps as well - do something that you love to do.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you Sathori.

Summer is always a difficult time too, for me at least, I get very lonely but honestly it doesn't help much at school either since I work so much I never get to see my friends hardly because I'm either working or in class! And then fraternal issues don't help either, I just feel more and more alienated though partially my fault.

I think that's why I spent all that time yesterday drawing Alan Alda, drawing is definitely a good release and I know it's healthy. I do a lot of writing too but I'm at a particularly sad part of a story I'm writing which doesn't help my psyche lol.

But yes, it does help to just sort of put it out there, I do feel a bit better though.

Anyway, I'm tired, so I'll be off to dream about Hawkeye and my other favorite characters lol. Thanks all.


----------



## MattsBettas

> Idk, sorry for the really random 'opening' up thingie here but I just needed to put it somewhere and facebook or texts are merely the place for this sort of thing--though I doubt my journal is the best place either but it's all I have right now. Very sorry.


_Never_ any reason to apologies for something like that. Besides, it's your journal. I really hope you start feeling better soon, I know that's a huge thing to say about depression since (despite what certain people might think) you can't just choose to get happy, but I really do hope things turn around.


----------



## Fenghuang

Do all the "opening up" you want. Like Matt said, this is your journal. And besides, you are among friends here. Just think of all the people who post thread with a shout out to you. You have helped so many people; it is nothing to ask for just a place to vent. You don't have to anything to apologize for. 

I wish I could give more of a peptalk, but I suck at them, so I can only offer my listening ear if you ever need one.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you for all the support everyone, I truly appreciate it.

It just sucks because overall I am a very happy person or at least I think I am until I have mini-breakdowns like last night. The part that kills me is that even through that, I can just pick up and smile if I see people and they'd never know. Part of the no-talking thing I guess.

Sigh...I had a very terrible time trying to get to sleep last night and I tried for a few minutes before I just couldn't. I also realized it was full moon last night which always screws with my system. So I got up and started to paint, I finished the commission I needed to do for my dad's ex-girlfriend though I'm not sure if I'm completely satisfied with it, it's a graphic painting so it's harder to judge if it's "right" so to say. I'll take a picture and show you next post. And then I started to paint my Memere's Christmas painting as well. I'll be giving it to her for free since I've put this off so long; painting just really isn't my thing and these are holding me back from doing the other commissions I have. I won't be taking any more painting commissions for sure.

And then after that it was about midnight when I needed to wait for the painting to dry so I could do more so I ended up doing the dishes instead....because that's completely normal :shake:

At least I'm productive rather than not. I'm not sure if it was completely depression coming back or just a breakdown and my need to prove to myself that I'm not a complete dunce. All my life I've been "Jack of all trades, master of none" and it gets to me a lot. Especially going through college and seeing how good everyone else is, I know I shouldn't compare myself to them since we're all different but I just feel like I'm not good at any one thing like they are. And then doing these painting commissions don't help, I like to paint but it's certainly not my forte and it's just all frustrating in the end. So hence I stayed up painting and being exhausted even though I couldn't sleep if I tried to.

And now I'm getting crap from the user who bought Steele from me, he was sent out Saturday as per requested but he hasn't gotten there yet; normal, that happens sometimes. 2 day isn't guaranteed, I just hope he gets there tomorrow because I'm done dealing with angry people.


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## lilnaugrim

Here's the painting. I'm not exactly satisfied with it, especially the part of Katie (largest person with sunglasses, that's my dad's ex) where that green is-two different shades. My yellow is terribly plastic-y for an acrylic paint (made from plastic) so it's horrible to mix and I had to retouch that area and looks like I'll have to go back again :-/ Anything that look or stand out horribly to you guys?








Here's the original photo they took and edited for comparison:


----------



## beautiful Betta

Sorry to hear about Aero, he had been ill for a while, so at least he can finally rest now.

Keep your chin up.


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## Sabina88

Sorry to hear about the all of the stuff that's going on with you right now. I hope things start to look up soon. Ive also had those nights were its full moon and no matter what I just cant get myself to sleep, my mind wont stop working. Hopefully you can get a better nights sleep soon, that might help 

I also love your painting it looks awesome. I hate plasticy acrylics, they really are horrible to mix lol
I don't think anything looks horrible at all with your painting, it looks like a copy of the photo  
I do kind of agree with the two different shades of green, I think maybe getting rid of the darker green and doing it all in the lighter green in that spot might help? My only other suggesting is to make the pink spots a bit smaller but those are just my opinions, but other then that it looks amazing nice job


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## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry to hear about Aero, I know it was hard to watch him suffer, and even harder now that he's gone. I hope things start looking better for you. You certainly don't have to apologize for anything you put in here, it is your journal, and, as others have said, you have a lot of people who are willing to listen and give their encouragement.


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## lilnaugrim

What a weekend!

First off, I just want to thank everyone for sticking with me through that, though I know it's not going to end with a flip of a switch, I am feeling better. A huge thanks to kaffrin for taking the time to really talk with me, I hope you're doing all right too 

R.I.P. Robin Williams too, so sad to lose such talent in the world. 

And we're back in the real world :-/ my boss is back from vacation. I was enjoying the solace more or less, or really just the lack of his company. Not even half an hour into my work time and I'm already being told for what I did wrong while he was gone  he cares like a father would but he doesn't exactly know how to let a person down gently, you know? Irks me sometimes, I know he means well but disappointing him is something I'm terrified of now because of the way he handles it :-/

Fish are doing well for the most part.

For some reason my Tiger Endler up and died when I put him into the .5 gallon to be held until yesterday to be shipped out with Steele but he just croaked Sunday morning and I forgot to put it here since I wasn't exactly thinking about my fish too much. But we made arrangements and she took Myrio and dwarf water lettuce in return.

Rembrandt had a bought of Saprolengia come back and Hawkeye has cloudy eye >.> I've been treating them both with salt/PP baths nightly, though I forgot last night and Sunday so I guess it hasn't exactly been nightly but I plan to do more tonight when I get home from work.

Pierce and Isis have been flirting through the divider :roll:

Rennie seems discontent in her little 1 gallon on the shelf, not exactly sure why...

Silhouette has been with Osiris since Saturday morning, I figured why the hell not? She's young but she was eggy and apparently very much so, as soon as I released her she released all her eggs >.> I know I should take her out and recondition her but they continued to flirt and I had a hope that maybe she didn't release them all? Well it appears now that they are buddy-buddy, he flares at her but it doesn't seem to bother her any more, she does run occasionally from him but they ate together yesterday twice and honestly, it was really cute. I don't know if I should take her out just yet or not, absolutely no nipped fins or scales or nothing, she's too fast for him anyway but I know the stress can get to the fish sometimes worse than physical damage can.

Lyon and the HMPK girl have been in the breeding tank but he's all but lost interest for his nest >.> they bicker but no damage comes from any of it. Seems they've lost the mood as she no longer shows breeding stripes this morning when I looked :-/ why...why does this happen :evil:

The little Pearl Gourami has been happy with all the 3 gallons to himself and Bentley, he doesn't seem to know what to make of Bentley and it's kind of adorable. I fed them bloodworms last night and it was just so darn adorable when he swam up and felt the tweezers first with his feelers (they have taste buds on their feelers so he's actually tasting it before he decides if it's food or not) and then proceeded to try to eat it lol. I missed having gouramis that had feelers!

Female froggie climbed the border into Hawkeye's compartment and nearly tried to steal the entire tweezers from me when I fed her! She just latched onto the whole tweezer full of bloodworms and didn't let go! lol It's a good thing I didn't try to let the tweezers go or I might have broken her jaw when they sprung back out to their normal position. Actually, that's rather gruesome to think about :-/

Fry are doing well, growing fast too! I have two that are runts but the rest are getting up to just about half a whole centimeter! They're still eating the banana worms, the don't seem to like the microworms as much or at least they don't fill up on them as much when I try to feed them that. I feed just about once a day and though I haven't done my little water changes the past two days, they generally get a change every day of around 10-15% with water from the 29.

I think that's about it. Oh, Fish Society meeting tomorrow, we're being given a talk on how to Show fish! We have our show coming up in September! It will be exciting to be able to finally attend a show for something I love so much! I just have to remember that I need to save money for it since there is a big auction at the end too! :-D


----------



## Lucillia

It's an awesome auction too! And(going back a page here) talking in general helps me; but sometimes my psychiatrist is the best to talk to because she also gives me ways to deal with the stressor, whether it's being over-worked, depression. Or just my adhd. The other issue is the people I usually vent to are getting sick of me.. so I can't really vent to Matt anymore :/ 

But I'm excited for tomorrow!!! Training and then the meeting! I'm thinking Requiem still.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> It's an awesome auction too! And(going back a page here) talking in general helps me; but sometimes my psychiatrist is the best to talk to because she also gives me ways to deal with the stressor, whether it's being over-worked, depression. Or just my adhd. The other issue is the people I usually vent to are getting sick of me.. so I can't really vent to Matt anymore :/
> 
> But I'm excited for tomorrow!!! Training and then the meeting! I'm thinking Requiem still.


Yeah, can't wait for the auction 

Unfortunately I don't have a psychiatrist, it costs money to go see one :-/

But you know I don't mind if you vent to me  I might not always know what to say but I'm a damn good listener at least--though I know that's not always enough.

I think I'll bring Dario.....Gem was doing a very odd thing to him earlier when I was watching them....Gem was swimming backwards into Dario and poking him with his tail or at least trying to. Some sort of show of dominance? Dario was just like...what...what is going on here?? Dude! get away! lol and then he'd puff up and Gem would back off....I have very strange fish.

Osiris and Silhouette are flirting still, she's got breeding bars still and looks like she's grown too. They ate happily together. I guess it's one thing Betta's can agree upon; FOOD lol. Even Lyon and HMPK girl ate happily together until they separated and did their own things.


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## Tony2632

Are you talking about that tiger endler I was supposed to buy like 2 months ago? If it is that sucks. Hey do you remember when I said I was buying a colony of endlers livebearer. I got loads of pure strain black bar endlers fry now.


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## lilnaugrim

Tony2632 said:


> Are you talking about that tiger endler I was supposed to buy like 2 months ago? If it is that sucks. Hey do you remember when I said I was buying a colony of endlers livebearer. I got loads of pure strain black bar endlers fry now.


Yeah, he was supposed to go to a different member. But that's cool. I prefer the Chili's myself, I just like the solid colored fish lol


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## Flint

Only thing I wasn't a fan of was the last girl on the right. Too much blue IMO.


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## lilnaugrim

Flint said:


> Only thing I wasn't a fan of was the last girl on the right. Too much blue IMO.


It's actually a grey but the light makes it look blue. Just following what's in the original pic


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## Flint

Oh okay. That was all that jumped at me. Looks good as usual. ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Just have to share this really fond memory from when I was kid. I was just reminded of it and it just makes me laugh every time.

So my dad used to make a lot of our meals, mainly breakfast and mom did dinner. Often we'd have bacon, scrambled eggs, toast or French Toast or something of the sort. He made killer Coffee Cake, ugg, so good! Well anyway, I remember one day I was doing dishes and playing around later just after breakfast, we had some bacon with breakfast and I saw the greasy pan, the grease cooling and turning white. Well dad had made something that looked a lot like Bacon Grease so I asked what it was; he said "It's Bacon grease, want to try some?" he asked and so I sort of looked at him suspiciously.
"No it's not," I argued.
"Sure it is, look," he tasted it himself so I figured, sure, it looked good, why not? He gave me a small spoon of it and it was delicious!

My brother and I sat to eat our portions of bacon grease, only after we found out that it was vanilla pudding lol! Makes me giggle every time because we really did believe it was bacon grease.


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## lilnaugrim

I'm the biggest derpina of all time! lol

Our meeting wasn't tonight but next week :roll: I'm really sorry Lucillia for making us think it was this week >.<


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## lilnaugrim

I feel sick. Absolutely sick and horrible and disgusting and like I just want to vomit right here at work.

Rembrandt passed away last night and Hawkeye followed him this morning.

I can't even continue or else I'm just going to sit here and cry. Remmy was acting poorly so I thought he just didn't want to see his reflection any more so I put him back in the 1 gallon with fresh water, Prime, and a bunch of Java Fern for him to rest on. Acclimated half an hour and released and he seemed okay, not very happy but he wasn't doing terribly. He died somewhere between 8-9pm last night when I found him.

Hawkeye looked fine yesterday, didn't look any worse than he normally does and I just found him this morning, face buried in the sand just like Aero was. I fished him out and put him with Rembrandt, I want to bury the three together later when I get home. I can't stand this.

And through all that Osiris and Silhouette spawned last night but Osiris ate most of the eggs. I don't actually know if they were fertilized at all but he was putting them in the nest. There was still around 10 or so this morning when I woke up from a horrible sleep.

My dreams were terrible too, I was at walmart and it was Black Friday for some reason and they had huge displays of fish and huge racks of Bettas. I wanted one that looked like Remmy and then changed my mind and wanted one that looked like Ditto to replace the both of them. I wanted to _replaced_ them! But all I could find were solid yellows and solid blues and then I found a mated pair of some wild bettas but they were seemingly fighting and I didn't like it so I didn't get them


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## MattsBettas

I'm so, so sorry lil. :-(


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## logisticsguy

That is so sad Lil  My heart goes out to you.


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## BettaLover1313

That's heartbreaking! I'm so very sorry


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## Sabina88

I really sorry to hear that lil,  I know how important they were to you. 
Just remember you gave them the best life they could have had. Remmy even got to flirt with some females and show off to them, which im sure he was happy about. 

SIP Rembrandt and Hawkeye


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## Tony2632

I can't believe it, that they passed away. I'm sorry to hear about the bad news. I know how it feels to lost something so precious to you. I lost BabyFace my female betta last month. I actually cried other a fish. I'm sure both of them are in a better place now.


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## hrutan

There are no words.

I am so sorry for your losses.


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84

What?!? Like hrutan, there are no words, I just can't believe it. I'm so sorry hun! I'm here for ya to talk to on Skype. I didn't even read this until now, I wouldn't have bothered you with my silly tetra questions if I knew you lost your babies.


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## Flint

I know it's getting to be time for my Pongo as well. Maybe he will swim alongside them under the rainbow bridge one day. I'm sorry for your loss, De'Anna.

SIP Rembrandt, Hawkeye and Aero


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you everyone for the support once more.

This has been the most ridiculous 24 hours I've ever had.

Pierce and Isis are still in the 20 and doing fantastic so I doubt it's anything in the water, they were all getting old and while I know it was their time soon...it just came so quickly. I just feel like crap all today, head hurts so much and my body aches.

I also found out that Stratus has Callamanus worms :shock: I hate these little buggers! And now I have to freaking dose the 29 entirely and hope I don't kill my cories, otos and plants with the medication I have to use. This is stupid! I also have one of my Golden Dwarf Barbs that is severely emaciated and uninterested in food, he's going to die soon too and nothing I've done can help him. I even fed live brine shrimp today and I watched, he wasn't interested even when they swam up to him.

I have to say though that my frogs are the cutest things ever to watch eat live foods, lunging at the food together was really cute.

Osiris still has the eggs and there's actually quite a few in the nest, I'd guestimate somewhere around 30-40. But if they're actually fertilized is the next test. I think they should be hatching sometime around 9-10 tonight? 24 hours I think?


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## hrutan

Good luck on the eggs! New life always brings such hope with it...


----------



## MameJenny

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your losses...and the trouble you're having with the other fish. I can't imagine losing three bettas at once. I hope the eggs hatch well for you.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you hrutan and Mame, I just hope the eggs are fertilized. I'll let y'all know what happens. I'm certainly not starting no spawn log until they've hatched and survived a few days.


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## hrutan

Understood! Hoping for the best for you!


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## BlueInkFish

+1^ hope they survive and those little babies hatch!!!!


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## MattsBettas

Eggs usually take around 36 hours for me, 24 is really quick... Don't call it off until at least 48 hours depending on temperature and genetics. Good luck... That would be nice right now.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks.

Good to know Matt, I hadn't looked it up lately but that sounds right  I'll keep an eye out then. Temp is running ~82 should I bump it up at all?


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## MattsBettas

82 is about perfect .


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, thanks 

I just fished out Silhouette and some of the eggs fell out of the nest and Osiris sort of freaked out and quickly picked them up to put them into the nest again lol! It was rather adorable and I'm just happy he's being a good father :-D One thing going right at least, as long as they hatch.


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## BlueInkFish

Lol very cute ! Is he a first time father?! Sounds like he has a bit of experience I'm so happy for you!!!!


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## lilnaugrim

As far as I know, yes. He might have been bred when he was back in Thailand but never since he's been here for a year now


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## Sathori

My condolences lil  I'm so very sorry to hear about all of your little ones. They were in the best hands that they could be, and I know they lived very happy lives <3

I hope you get a good spawn and I can stalk your spawn log, and drool over all the babies


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sathori. 

I had to separate Lyon and the HMPK girl after she got a little rough, he's fine but his anal fin is rather ripped up and I want him to heal up before anything else ensues.


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## Sathori

Good grief, Lyon, letting the ladies tear ya up like that.  
Have you noticed any changes in colour with Lyon so far?


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## Tuigirl

I am sorry about your loss!
And I hope all goes well with the babies....


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## lilnaugrim

@Sathori, nothing major so far though I can't be too sure his head where the white spots are look a little more red....I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow if I remember or get the time.

@Tui, thank you very much.


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## Sathori

Sounds good  No rush, I was just curious


----------



## lilnaugrim

:shock:
I HAVE FRY!

I woke up this morning and Osiris was swimming around sort of lazily, blowing bubbles here and there but I swore at him because he wasn't keeping with the nest very well. Well, I looked in and saw a bunch of tiny tails sticking out of the nest!!! I guess that was a quick hatch since they had to have been spawned somewhere between 5:30-9 day before yesterday so that was still only a day and a half. They're pretty quick though, some of them fall and shoot right back up into the nest. Two did fall as I watched and it took Osiris a little while to find them but when he saw them he did pick them up and spit them back into the nest.

You know, it's funny because all this time for some reason I thought the eggs were put INTO the bubbles, like literally in them not just cushioned by them. And then I realized that it's air or at least some airspace in the bubbles and they'd dry out and not hatch lol and the fry are bigger than my Barb fry were when they hatched. I was surprised to see just how big they were! Not guppy sized at all but they were larger than expected, granted my barbs are smaller than full sized Bettas so it's all relative but still so strange!

I'm not starting a spawn log until after they're free swimming...just in case Osiris gets hungry or something....I know the curse of the early spawn log lol. But I figure saying it here is relatively safe ;-)

Silhouette is doing well back in the 20, she's in Hawkeye's old compartment and so far doesn't mind the Pencilfish. Both froggies moved over there too, they're so cute. I get so happy when the male wants to eat since he literally does just eat off my finger, it's just so cute since he'll try to latch onto my whole finger but his mouth is much too small lol.


----------



## MattsBettas

Awesome, this is the fun part now! You know how everything goes now, like when it comes to feeding?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, this is the part I've read over and over again about :-D Although, when do I start adding water? It's after the dad is out and they're swimming around, correct? I'll have to brush up on everything but my Banana Worms and Microworms are doing fantastic, Lucillia has been breeding her brine shrimp so I can feed the babies if I beg her for some BBS lol. I also have tons of powder foods from the guy I bought the worms from so I think I'm set in the ways of food.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh and I was just surfing AquaBid because I'm at work a little bored. I found this guy, I absolutely hate his caudal but the rest of his fins are decent, clearly has some Marble in him but he's in the US and that's what kind of has me really looking at him. He could be a match for Rennie or the HMPK girl preferably as she has a MUCH better caudal and dorsal. But I'm not sure if I should even try with the MG's any more or just go onto my other possible breeding line which I have to wait to get the perfect fish for. I won't say any details here, don't want anyone to steal it lol it's basically going to be a huge throwback though but in a good way, going more for colors than tail types.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1408140612


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## MattsBettas

Haha good. The first few days are the most stressful for me, since I can never tell if they're actually eating. I just throw in some banana worms and hope for the best. You can start adding water a few days after they become free swimming, or even the day dad comes out if you're SUPER careful. It has to be slow dripped in (1 drop every second or two, or slower), and only add like a gallon at a time for the first week. If you go to fast they will die. 

That boy is beautiful. A female with a nice caudal and nice topline would be beautiful with him...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! Yeah, I plan on putting my bucket on top of the tank since it will balance super easy and just using my airline tubing that I have such excess of and dripping it into the tank ^_^ That will be honestly so much easier than trying to fill it quicker anyway since I can just set it and leave it there lol. The 13 gallon tank is only 8 inches wide so the bucket will set on top without any threat of falling at all which is one reason I used that tank, another was just because it was there ^_^

Yeah....I am really debating on getting that boy....it's pay day today which makes it really hard to control myself >.< Issue is, if he's too small for my HMPK girl, he looks about Rennie's size though but she apparently isn't really in to breeding either >.> darned fish!


----------



## MattsBettas

Haha that's exactly what I do. I use an air control valve to control the water flow. 

I shouldn't enable... But that's a really nice boy. Kinda reminds me of the father of aemaki's spawn (that might have been before you were on). I think you could justify getting him, but also justify waiting on a boy with better form.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, I have a few of those laying around. Or I just tie a few knots in the tubing too lol.

Aww, I miss aemaki! She's the one who actually helped me buy that Orange partial Dragon girl for my sorority. She was such a sweetheart (aemaki, not the girl, though the girl was nice too!) and I always think about her when I see the "Planted Tank Show and Tell" thread too ^_^

He is a really nice boy though....I just don't know if I want to continue with the MG stuff though, I have one girl who is great but doesn't want to breed and the other girl wants to be is too big for most of my males >.> Boy is this frustrating! I keep refreshing his page to see if anyone has bought him or bid yet :-/ idk....I really do want to but...half of me feels like I should wait until after this spawn to make sure that all can at least go well? but then I'm like, I have totally have two or three spawns going at once! lol This one is pretty small, though I'm not surprised with the small size of the female anyway but I know the chances of getting a LOT of fish too. Darn it...why does he have to be so damn good looking? I love his bright yellow head too, decently clean as far as a marble boy could go. Still don't like that caudal but that's a pretty easy fix if he spawns with my HMPK girl....:roll:


----------



## Fenghuang

Just got back from Mexico, so I missed out on a couple of pages. Congratulations on your fry and good luck with them. I am sure you are going to do great!

Hey, if you are not looking at _just_ MG fish, I have a blue marble HMPK male who I have been considering rehoming before I broke my own promise and got another fish.  I think you have seen him. His colour is well...marble, but I think his form is fairly good overall. He is an aggressive boy though.


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## Olympia

Babes! Awesome news. 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Feng!

Oh, I don't think I've seen that one? I pop in to your journal every now and then but I might have missed him. If he doesn't have any red on him or minimal red then it might work out with my girl, how big is he? Have you measure at all?

EDIT: Oh! Thanks Oly! :-D


----------



## Fenghuang

No, I hadn't measured, but I doubt he is smaller than your girl. I want to say he is close to full grown. I'll have to find better pics, but this is his colour more or less.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ooh I like his caudal, dorsal needs some work but not bad at all! She'd help reduce his rays too which would be good....if you really want to rehome him, I wouldn't mind taking him off your hands  want me to pay shipping or something?


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## Fenghuang

Yea, his dorsal and I think he has a short last ray on his anal fin.



You don't have to feel obligated to take him. I am just offering since I know he would be going to a great home.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh okay, actually his dorsal doesn't look that bad from this picture! Reaches his caudal fantastically! Stubby ray on the anal fin isn't so bad. I actually like his form so much better than that other boy I posted ^_^ and it'd be cheaper lol I really would like to take him if you wanted :-D Aggressive should be just fine since this girl is decently aggressive as well and I know she wants to breed so this sounds like a good match to me! We can talk more about it in PM if you like


----------



## Fenghuang

Sorry, sorry, I am still in Miami waiting for my flight so my responses are slow. >< If your girl's personality is like that too, I think it would be a fine match. ^^


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## lilnaugrim

No worries! I'm just at work, actually ready to leave soon.

---------------------------------

Hoping to get sand for my 4 gallon rimless puffer tank since I just got paid today thankfully. Need to gas up my car first though, gas is cheaper where the stores are so it's like a nice trip where I can get everything done in one place :-D

Going to dads tomorrow to give him his welcome mat, it's his house warming (as he says House Hottening, because it's my dad and he's crazy lol) gift. I want to check out the PetCo near his house too, they were not too bad last time I checked out. And I want to huggle my kitties for a while and get my mail that he has there ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Eek very happy for the fry I can't wait for the spawn log and if you defeniatley breed another pair id be stalking tht too! So happy for you!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks blu!

Pics next.


----------



## MameJenny

Ahh, congrats! :-D Can't wait to see them!


----------



## lilnaugrim

The proud daddy, he's got a few scales loose like the one on his chin there from Silhouette picking on him lol.


Couldn't get him flaring at me but he was here


Can't see the tails here but this is his pathetic nest....it was better when he was guarding it from Silhouette, once I took her out he started to do minimal work on it.


I also picked up two beautiful plants to bury my fish in the pot with, all three went in there with the plants. I'm aware the Spider Plant will get much bigger but it's only about four inches tall along with the Dragon's Tongue/Breath. 



My 29 is a mess, I'll replant it sometime...


No idea why it's sideways but LOOK AT ALL THAT DWARF WATER LETTUCE! I started with like...three in this tank lol it just dun 'sploded!


Pretty though


Enjoying my Ludwigia, hasn't grown much but I love it. And yeah...I got to take that rubber band out it's been in there for like...a month or so lol


Sparkling Gourami was flaring at the girl behind her there. They're so beautiful when they flare!



And Gem has certainly done a poop ton of growing lately! He's almost as big as Dario is!


I couldn't stand looking at the empty compartment so I decided to get two Red Cherry Shrimp and see how they do. I've done fine with Neocaridina shrimp in the past but they were generally eaten by Betta's before they could really live >.> these two are too big to get through the divider and there's only guppies on the otherside, not bettas.




Pierce was showing off to Silhouette


The fry are doing well, still don't know if it's Barbs or Sparkling Gouramis.


And FROG BUTT


----------



## lilnaugrim

Osiris taking care of his fry frantically lol. They didn't want to stay in the nest earlier so I took a video of him trying to scoop them up and put them back in the nest but they kept swimming around him and he seemed to be getting frustrated at it lol. They've settled down now and seem to be sleeping in the nest or rather...what's left of the nest >.> he's really sucked at taking care of the nest but they've been resting on the plants thankfully, glad I kept them in there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCR-AiYhKpo&feature=youtu.be


----------



## Tuigirl

Ha, like your minimalistic fish dad! ;-)
Hope those babies make it!

I also like that sparkling gourami. I think I never have seen one! What a beautiful fish.

I also see that you have oak leaves in the breeding tank.
I was thinking about this too- but question is- is it save?
If I pick oak leaves up from outside?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hah, thanks!

The oak leaves are safe IF you know that the tree has never been around insecticides or pesticides. We never spray ferts or any insect/pesticides since we're in the middle of the woods lol. So if you know the history, then it's safe, otherwise don't pick just any leaves off the ground. Some trees are poisonous, don't use Black Oak, Scarlet Oak, White, and Silver oak are all fine to use. We have Scarlet Oak around here plentiful. Also do not pick the leaves off the tree, even if they are dried, there usually are too much sugars still left in the leaves that you don't want in the tank  they aren't super dangerous but leaves on the ground are just better to use.


----------



## Lucillia

OUR HANDSOME BOY IS SOOOOO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!! I was all happy parent-like watching that video. I'm so proud of him!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait to see his children! They're bound to be just as big of pain's in the asses but so totally worth it!!!! I wish I could see him doing this in person right now. :< MAOR VIDYOS PEAS!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> OUR HANDSOME BOY IS SOOOOO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!! I was all happy parent-like watching that video. I'm so proud of him!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait to see his children! They're bound to be just as big of pain's in the asses but so totally worth it!!!! I wish I could see him doing this in person right now. :< MAOR VIDYOS PEAS!


Aha, I know!! Do you have any other free days before Thursday? He'll be out of the tank by then. 

Trying to get up some pics now, I'll post them next along with more videos if they came out alright.


----------



## lilnaugrim

This was taken earlier in the day but you can see some of the fry skittering around when I turn the corner and that is a fry he's grabbing off the glass at the end to spit back into his nest lol.


Because my 13 gallon is hanging off the edge of my night table a little bit, we get to see a rare view! From underneath the tank looking up at him and his nest! These two were from this morning



And then later, you can see how he's neglecting the nest but still trying to throw the fry into it >.>


Shrimp! Still doing well and happily eating every thing in the tank lol


And how many times do I have to tell myself that I just shouldn't go into pet stores? >.< I went to Petco in Waterford near my dad's house because it was there and it's 30% off this weekend. Well all the fish looked decent except this boy, has a few tufts of columnaris and that large split in his tail is not his natural double tail split, but it is healing. He's red with turquoise irid and honestly looks like he could be Tiger's sibling. In fact, there have been a bunch of DT's that look similar to him around lately but I was really sold on his solid red. I'm not sure if he'll actually make it since he hasn't been looking so good since we got home but we'll see.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I finally looked up what Sparkling Gourami fry may look like and I've found pictures identical to my mystery fry. So alas they are Gourami fry, not the Gourami fry I wanted haha but still welcome all the same :-D


----------



## Sathori

SO MANY CUTE PICTURES. 

I cannot wait to see the fry when they are older <3


----------



## MameJenny

Aww, Granite might have a brother. :shock: Wonder what this guy will look like colored up.

I love Osiris' little tiny bubblenest, lol. Glad the fry are doing well! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah Granite (sorry I keep forgetting you renamed him! haha) definitely has brothers still around here. I saw like four more that looked extremely similar to him and all DT's too. The little tyke has colored up a bunch today although he's darker than I thought he'd be, I'll have to get some light on him and Lyon today to get pics before I go to the Fair ^_^

Fry seem to be horizontally swimming this morning, tomorrow I'll get a log up since I'm getting ready for church at the moment, I may have some time afterwards but we'll see :-D


----------



## BettaLover1313

AWWW! Little fry! Osiris is doing a pretty good job! Can't wait to see more photos & videos!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313!! I have their spawn log up if you wanted to hop over and stalk that for now! I can't really get any good pictures since they're tiny but Osiris is out of the tank and he was sulking yesterday but he came up and ate hungrily this morning and was wiggling about so looks like he's feeling better! I'm glad he's not doing the normal sulking/depressed fatherly thing.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I've got to say that there is nothing like a County Fair to lift the spirits ^_^

I live in Washington County, part of five in total and we have the Washington County Fair every year I think we're on our 48th year so just two more till the big 50!! But it's got everything, we've got Rockwell Amusement rides (if anyone knows about Scarborough beach, they ran the rides there) and music entertainment, truck pulls, tractor pulls, horse pulls, lawnmower pulls--yes you read correctly lol. It's your basic ******* Country Fair and it is awesome!

Sunday is the best (as well as last day, it runs Wednesday-Sunday every second week of August each year) because of the Tug-o-War. Where else can you watch competative Tug-o-War with a giant mud pit? lol It was great, it lasts around 3-3.5 hours. There are four categories; Light weight Women, Heavy Weight Women, Light Weight Men and Heavy Weight Men. Light weights are a combined weight of under 1,000 pounds and Heavy weight is obviously over 1,000 pounds. Our reigning Champions in Heavy Weight Women; Corn Fed were defeated for the first time in eight years last night by Chicken Fried! Oh wow was it an exciting night for sure!!

But the fair is awesome, my body is ridiculously sore from all the rides we went on. Polar Express (a ride that goes in circles and over bumps but goes extremely fast so you almost are like flying out of your seat, it hurts but is so fun lol), Ferris Wheel of course (which I'm deadly afraid of heights but after the first turn I get over it haha), a Scrambler which I forget the name of and of course the largest portable Roller Coaster, man that thing is so fun! Scary, but so darn fun!

I have bruises from the Scrambler but lol, I love riding with my cousin because we both just giggle uncontrollably and it's the funniest thing ever! She's the best! But of course, it's not a Fair if I don't hurt myself >.< It's not my fault there was a stupid pothole in the road and I fell in it! Uggg, so now I twisted and sprained my OTHER ankle...again >.> my poor body! lol but I'm managing, no crutches or anything, just taking it easy is all.

But yeah, we had a real good time last night. Do you guys have fairs like these where you live?


----------



## hrutan

Nothing really close. We always have those little traveling carnivals, but the closest fair is the LA County fair, which is supposed to be some crazy big deal, but it's at least an hour drive away.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah, yeah, the Fair is only 15 minutes from my house lol. It only sucks when the fair comes in and when it leaves because it causes HUGE amounts of traffic in our little town off the Highway. But it's so worth it in the end :-D


----------



## hrutan

It sure sounds fun


----------



## Sathori

No roller coasters, but rides, vendors, and the events you described sounds a lot like the festival that rolls through my town once a year. I use to go on every ride, all day long. But now I just go for the vendors and the food xD
One vendor is called The Tokyo Rabbit, which sells dessert crepes. SO GOOD. I always get the one that is filled with chocolate, bananas and icecream. And they fold the crepe so that it's shaped like an icecream cone. Ughh, it's to die for.

Luckily, the festivals in my town, and the town 15 mins away are almost identical, and two weeks apart from each other, so I plan on going to the town over this weekend for some more crepes


----------



## lilnaugrim

Uggg yeesss! We have the same dessert crepes with nutella, and some others, I've only had the nutella and holy mackerel! And then the homemade apple cobbler pies and apple pies. We're big into the whole homemade farm thing, we're actually a really big farming community so almost everything there is homemade--food wise at least, even the Sweet Shoppe, it's all homemade fudges and stuff. Oh so good!


----------



## Sathori

Daaaaaang. Now I'm craving fresh, homemade pies T-T My family has always been the "homemade" type - we grow a lot of our ingredients and make home made pies, juices, bread, buns, sauces, jams, pickles, canned fruits and soups... Good gravy, now I'm hungry and practically drooling xD
Guess I need to move back in with my folks to get that all again xD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol! Yeah, we do too ^_^ we're getting summer squash by the ton it seems from our garden! We don't go that extent of breads and stuff but we do can, pickle, and jam. Love, love, love fresh food!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh boy....I'm falling in love with that DT boy I picked up Saturday...he's really colored up a nice deep rich red with that green irid over top. He's learning quickly that me staring into his container generally means food haha. He's still afraid of me and any time I knock against the shelf like putting the containers of food back down, it tends to resonate through the wood and he always jumps at the noises. His tail is healing well and I want to say the cottony stuff has gone down at the base front of his dorsal but hard to say. I hope to get some pictures after I clean up my room a little....I swear I have no idea how it happens but one day it's nice and the next it looks like a tornado went through it 

Fry are swimming around happily! Bumping into each other and being all around cute. I still giggled when they keep staring into the thermometer, seeing their reflections. So much like their adult counterparts! This breeding thing is addictive!

I believe Osiris will be headed on home to Lucillia's on Wednesday (tomorrow) since I'm sure Luci wants him back lol. He's done his part well and I'm very proud of him! Isis on the other hand.....darn girl, I spent 40 BUCKS on her! lame.....and that was WITHOUT shipping...ugg


----------



## lilnaugrim

I finally put it together! Only took me like three hours of actual work to get this together >.> most of it was tech issues, updated my Windows Movie Maker and then had to change all the file types so it'd match ugg it was frustrating. And then matching and lining everything up took forever too but I did it!

Original assignment was for animation class and one of the things was putting art to music, interpreting the music and so that's what I chose since I've played this piece before so I knew the inner workings of it more or less. I wanted to do an actual animation but I found out that I would have needed 3,520 frames to do a minute and fourty sections of animals and I had gotten to 200 frames in two weeks.....so I changed it to paintings as a more storyboard of what I wanted in the animation. 14 paintings of varying sizes ranging from 6x4 up to 18x20. In total took me 10 hours in the studio and listening to this piece over and over again lol.

The original piece is Elements (Petite Symphony) by Brian Balmages, originally with four movements Air, Earth, Water, and Fire but I only did Air here.

Video for your viewing pleasuring!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsdwmcumJb8&feature=youtu.be


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, I just remembered I didn't upload any of the pictures I took last night either! 

Pierce was flaring at the female frog who was trying to get over the divider to her mate since he was calling for her, it was rather cute (them calling to each other I mean, Pierce is cute too though lol) He stopped just as I took the picture though, but I love his little spiky fins.


Osiris and his grump face. He's got HUGE lips  especially compared to Remmy's lips.


Sort of put my 29 back together, I take out Dwarf Water Lettuce by the handfuls to dispose of almost twice a week >.> if anyone wants to buy any, please please please let me know and I'd be happy to ship out asap!


I haven't really done anything with my 20 lately so it just is sort of overgrown at the moment but the fish don't mind 


Also my water sprite is trying to escape....lol! It's like I have a mini Christmas tree in my room XD


And the new boy, he didn't like the light very much but dealt with it after I gave him food lol. He's finally learned to like my face! hooray! Didn't even take a week :-D But he's been doing well, the cotton in his mouth has gone down very well but the spot on his dorsal, hard to say if it's Columnaris or not but I think I'll try medicating with Furan-2 if KanaPlex doesn't get rid of it all by the end of the treatment. But he's looking good at least!



New fin growth! Then again, that could just be a cyst on the dorsal as well, it has a sort of texture about it that reminds me of a cyst. I love his fins though and his partial dragon scaling


Oh that FACE! How could anyone resist?!


Mr. Fishy is silently judging you lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

Love the artwork for Elements! The pieces went very well with the music.

Aw! The DT boy is so cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313!! My teacher was absolutely thrilled with my work which always makes me happy too of course haha. Especially since I got a good grade with it but unfortunately because the pieces were large (put together end to end they span about twenty feet or so) we couldn't look at it in the classroom but rather in the hallway and listened to the music before and after but everyone seemed to really like it and I'm rather pleased with it myself ^_^ not bad for 10 hours in the studio straight! haha.

Yeah, I really am falling in love with this DT boy, I'm debating on names for him. He's a sort of shy boy but he's also young so I don't really expect him to be out going, I want to show him Rennie who is next to him, today and see if he flares at all lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, I also want to attempt breeding my Barbs instead of more Bettas at the moment. The only thing that is limiting me to breeding more Bettas at this moment is the jarring once they are grown more, I don't want to burden Lucillia with 100 jarred males lol!

So I want to try the barbs in the 10 gallon, condition them and hopefully get them to breed! Heck, already had my Sparkling Gouramis breed so why not my Tetras and barbs? lol Barbs will fetch me more money and it'd be nice to have more of them in the trade too since they really are beautiful fish! Fantastic for nano and smaller planted aquariums, not as sensitive as microfish normally are but not as hardy as the Tetras are at least.

I did lose one of my barbs though the other day, he'd been emaciated for a little while but I never really knew why. I can only guess that he never grew accustomed to the flake/pellet foods. I still have two females to three males though but I want to buy more from SeaHorse tomorrow if they still are there. Maybe trade my guppies for some of them.


----------



## Lucillia

Just don't give me hundreds of barbs in jars and we're good  

But in a way I'm happy the spawn wasn't so big. Looking forward at this semester, it should be easier to manage.


----------



## lilnaugrim

oh lol, you ain't gettin' my barbs! haha, those can stay in the 29 when they're grown XD


----------



## Sabina88

lilnaugrim said:


> I finally put it together! Only took me like three hours of actual work to get this together >.> most of it was tech issues, updated my Windows Movie Maker and then had to change all the file types so it'd match ugg it was frustrating. And then matching and lining everything up took forever too but I did it!
> 
> Original assignment was for animation class and one of the things was putting art to music, interpreting the music and so that's what I chose since I've played this piece before so I knew the inner workings of it more or less. I wanted to do an actual animation but I found out that I would have needed 3,520 frames to do a minute and fourty sections of animals and I had gotten to 200 frames in two weeks.....so I changed it to paintings as a more storyboard of what I wanted in the animation. 14 paintings of varying sizes ranging from 6x4 up to 18x20. In total took me 10 hours in the studio and listening to this piece over and over again lol.
> 
> The original piece is Elements (Petite Symphony) by Brian Balmages, originally with four movements Air, Earth, Water, and Fire but I only did Air here.
> 
> Video for your viewing pleasuring!
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsdwmcumJb8&feature=youtu.be



It looks awesome :-D My favorite painting is at 1:25. Good job


----------



## Sabina88

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh lol, I just remembered I didn't upload any of the pictures I took last night either!
> 
> Pierce was flaring at the female frog who was trying to get over the divider to her mate since he was calling for her, it was rather cute (them calling to each other I mean, Pierce is cute too though lol) He stopped just as I took the picture though, but I love his little spiky fins.
> 
> 
> Osiris and his grump face. He's got HUGE lips  especially compared to Remmy's lips.
> 
> 
> Sort of put my 29 back together, I take out Dwarf Water Lettuce by the handfuls to dispose of almost twice a week >.> if anyone wants to buy any, please please please let me know and I'd be happy to ship out asap!
> 
> 
> I haven't really done anything with my 20 lately so it just is sort of overgrown at the moment but the fish don't mind
> 
> 
> Also my water sprite is trying to escape....lol! It's like I have a mini Christmas tree in my room XD
> 
> 
> And the new boy, he didn't like the light very much but dealt with it after I gave him food lol. He's finally learned to like my face! hooray! Didn't even take a week :-D But he's been doing well, the cotton in his mouth has gone down very well but the spot on his dorsal, hard to say if it's Columnaris or not but I think I'll try medicating with Furan-2 if KanaPlex doesn't get rid of it all by the end of the treatment. But he's looking good at least!
> 
> 
> 
> New fin growth! Then again, that could just be a cyst on the dorsal as well, it has a sort of texture about it that reminds me of a cyst. I love his fins though and his partial dragon scaling
> 
> 
> Oh that FACE! How could anyone resist?!
> 
> 
> Mr. Fishy is silently judging you lol



Your new boy is absolutely gorgeous! In some ways he kind of reminds me of Tiger in the color department especially with the red. I cant wait to see how he looks all healed up. Does he have a name yet?

Oh and congrats on the fry, good luck with them. I hope they grow well for you :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> It looks awesome :-D My favorite painting is at 1:25. Good job


Thank you!! I had to go through it again to see which one that was hah! Yeah, that was fun to paint ^_^ I literally listened to the song I think it was over 346 times that night to get the linear sound of the instruments, I think I really pulled it off on that piece. I realize on the previous ones with the horn in the beginning in red, it didn't exactly follow the length of most of the notes and so it sort of throws off people who don't know as much about music I find, but I think it still comes across as readable :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sabina88 said:


> Your new boy is absolutely gorgeous! In some ways he kind of reminds me of Tiger in the color department especially with the red. I cant wait to see how he looks all healed up. Does he have a name yet?
> 
> Oh and congrats on the fry, good luck with them. I hope they grow well for you :-D


Thank you! I do believe he is a cousin of Tiger's, as I said there have been a lot of DT's around coming in with the same or similar coloration to his. No name for this boy yet, I'm thinking though!

And thanks! I hope so too haha


----------



## Sabina88

are you sick of the song now haha. I don't personally know music that well or that piece but I think your pieces flowed nicely 

How old are your fry now? 

You should stick with the big cat theme for Tigers cousins  I love the blue color on his scales


----------



## lilnaugrim

Absolutely not haha, I actually listened to it on repeat again all day today. I really don't know why but I can listen to that song night and day without ever hating it, it's just so well done but so simple (knowing the music of course since I played it). This piece and October done by Eric Whitacre, I absolutely love both of them.

Fry are half a week old now I think...wait...maybe almost a week? I think they hatched Thursday morning last week lol so yeah, almost a week! I think....I'll look back later.

I'll think about that! I semi want to stick with the M*A*S*H theme but there aren't too many that I'd like to name my fish after, Trapper is fine, Mulcahy is the one I'm debating or Francis (same guy). Mulcahy is pronounced Mul-kay-he. It's cute and sort of quaint like he is lol but Francis fits too sort of. I'll think about the big cat thing too, Jaguar, Cheetah or Leopard may work since he's "spotted" lol.

Oh and Silhouette died today :-/ I guess the stress of breeding was too much for her :-( Isis has been hiding all day and I realize this could mean something is also wrong with my tank yet Pierce seems utterly uneffected by this and I hope he stays that way. Osiris is being grumpy but I also believe that is from breeding, he's going back to Luci tonight after our meeting.

Most of my pencilfish have died as well along with some of the guppies but the majority of the fish have been fine otherwise :-/ Idk, it could be coincidence or it could be something worse :-/ I just hope for coincidence.


----------



## Sabina88

oh no! im so sorry to hear that 
I hope nothing else goes wrong with your fish any more, you've had a hard time with that lately. On the upside you get to keep a small part of Silhouette in her fry, and you gave her lots of room to swim and warm clean water. Im sure she was gratefull to you for giving her a chance and allowing her to grow up in a good environment.


----------



## Olympia

Not the pencils.  Might just be a run of bad luck. .
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## Fenghuang

My condolescences about Silhouette and the pencilfish. That is really sad to hear. Hopefully it is all just sucky coincidence.


----------



## BettaLover1313

I hope it's all a coincidence, very sad to hear about Silhouette.


----------



## MameJenny

Sorry to hear about your fishes. You've lost so many bettas lately. :-(

I love the new DT boy. He looks exactly like Granite, just with a lot more red. Granite never did get red on his tail or body, but his blue has gone more greenish lately.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks everyone. At this point I've given up on really caring, it sucks but I'm not going to cry over it because this morning I found Isis dead. There could be one of two things going on:

Bacterial infection killing off fish without warning when they look completely fine. Silhouette was stressing before she died but I still have a feeling it was from breeding. Isis became withdrawn and started to sulk and when that started yesterday I knew it was the end, I fished her out this morning completely colored up but a little redness sort of around her ovaries near her ovipositer but otherwise, she looked a little pump, eyes sunken in but completely colored up.

Another possibility is anaerobic soil, all the fish that have died were on the floor of the tank, no floaters minus the male CPD that died, granted I have a feeling that Betta's just naturally sink to the floor when they die. But it's possible the soil is releasing large amounts of gas and are killing the fish who end up near it. I want it to be this option just because it is an easier fix.

Rennie, Pierce and River are in the 20 at the moment with the shrimp (who are still alive and happily munching away), ramshorns, some MTS colonizing, guppies, two ADF's and one lone pencilfish. So far no one else is effected or looks bad in any way so I have a feeling it is my soil which is ridiculous since I took the substrate down quite a bit last time when I changed out the substrate. Looks like I'll have to redo it again though and use something else :-/ maybe just use up my FloraMax even though I really dislike it but it's what I've got.


----------



## Olympia

Hey Lil... I think the anaerobic sand is what killed off all my kuhlis.. I'm guessing you have dirt but have you tried poking around in it? Even now underneath my driftwood I always have a ton of bubbles from it. It's a pain once it starts.. Also the smell is nasty...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I do have dirt with PetCo Black Sand as a cap. It was worse when I had nearly 3-4 inches of substrate, more in the back because I was silly when I put it in and packed it in, not realizing that it'd expand when it was wet. I ended up redoing it and taking out a good four inches but there is still about an inch to inch and a half in some places of soil with an inch cap. It's still anaerobic even with being uncovered when I redid it. My small population of MTS have been growing in that tank recently which leads me to believe they are doing their job but the soil is already anaerobic so it's releasing sulfur bubbles and gassing my fish which would explain some of the very random deaths I've had.

I'll have to redo the tank once more when I can find the time. Today I have a dental check-up, want to stop by SeaHorse to see about more barbs so I can maybe start a breeding group of them. I also want to stop by PetSense to see if they have any dewormers I can use on my 29 to get rid of those damn callamanus worms. Poor Lucillia's tank has them too which means most likely they came in with our angels since they came from the same place.

So to recap my month: Aero died, Rembrandt died, CPD male died, Isis and Osiris wouldn't breed, Osiris bred with Silhouette, Hawkeye died, Pencilfish died throughout, Barb died, Cory died, Silhouette died, Isis died.

This has been a very strange month :-/ not all of it bad but just full of either extremely strange coincidences or something bigger is happening in this picture that I'm not seeing.


----------



## Olympia

I remember my entire bedroom smelling like sulfer one day. >_>
I dewormed my goldfish tank... and all the nematodes that were in the tank crawled out above the water. It was so weird aha. Sneaky little things.. guess they are gonna stay.

Also if I remember correctly, MTS will only burrow in about 1" deep. So if the substrate is deeper they won't help with those areas. :/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Which worms did your goldfish have??  dewormers are supposed to paralyze them sooo unless you didn't clean before the 24 hours was up?

Oh, I think I remember reading about that somewhere one time like...forever ago. I still want to redo my 20 though, it's a pain trying to plant things because every time I do, I get gassed myself >.> not fun, it doesn't smell terrible, it was worse when I took up all that soil and threw it out to the garden but I don't want to kill any more fish if I can help it.


----------



## Olympia

I used PraziPro, which is a week long treatment..  I'm not sure but I got new goldies recently, and people recommend a treatment of Prazi since they are raised in pretty bad conditions, so I just treated the entire tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah, well I know for most nematodes PraziPro doesn't actually work, especially for Callamanus worms. For the more serious worms you need an actual dewormer; cat, dog, sheep, cattle, doesn't matter too much. Levamisole is the one I'm looking at but I'll probably get the Fenbendizole since it's commonly available unlike the aforementioned dewormer.


----------



## Olympia

I'm not entirely sure what is swimming around in the goldfish tank.. One of the baby goldfish had a huge white poop when I started the treatment but now he seems alright. I don't think they are hurting the goldfish, probably came from the mess in the filter tubes.. Which I have to clean soon since the filter is slowing down. :/ They're just free swimming little worms.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sound like detritus worms, maybe small harmless leeches or planaria if they're flat type worms. Callamanus you won't see free-swimming generally, they look sort of like Blackworms where they are skinny and red in color and they protrude from the anus of the fish when the population finally becomes too many. They generally protrude while the fish is pooping but will retract back into the anus after they are done and you can actually see this. The meds used will paralyze the worms and they'll be able to be pushed out, you then suck them up with the gravel vac and do a good 70%+ water change if possible.

White poop could be a few things, sometimes it's caused from a super sudden and very different diet change or from plain old stress. Also if they were fed ice berg lettuce it could turn a light greenish-white color. But also could be worms, though I don't know which worms are white that would infect them.


----------



## Olympia

The worms.. they just creep me out swimming around.. Ehe.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah me too. Planaria literally grosses me out, I'm not generally easily grossed out, only by broken bones and by Planaria lol Even the Callamanus I can handle, it's nasty but I can handle looking at them at least.


----------



## Lucillia

IF you do the Fenbendazole, use the safe-guard canine one. I grabbed the one in the green box. Its just 3 grams, each 1 gram packets. So far so good, everyone in the 45 and requiem ate it with food soaked in it. Even Nimbus ate, I was expecting him to refuse. 

I'm on to treating the goldies tank now. Its mainly the danios I'm concerned with, but the children really can't get worms... >.> My mother will kill me. If this doesn't work I'll be ordering Levamisole HCL anyway. I'll keep you updated.


----------



## Sathori

Holy crap - so sorry to hear Lil! 
Sounds like your having as much "fun" with your tank as I am with mine :/

How're the other fishies doing?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I grabbed the blue box since that's all the store had but it is the Canine one. (Luci, you know I get off of work at 2 lol you should have texted me that >.<)

Thanks Sathori, yeah it's been REAL fun >.> The other fish are fine. I picked up three more Golden Dwarf barbs to add to my remaining five so I can hopefully breed! I haven't sexed them yet though but I think I saw one female and two males but I'll look again later.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I set up my 4 gallon rimless! Ugg it's gorgeous but my guppies are jumping out >.> Okay, only one jumped out but still! Guppies shouldn't jump! lol I know they do clearly but they've never jumped on me before >.> anywho, yes I moved Bentley into the 29 and the Pearl Gourami into the section where the guppies were, the CPD female and Gertudae Rainbowfish are still in with him as well. I also moved the guppies out of the bowl and into the 4 gallon, they'll soon be going to my LFS, I asked today when I dropped in and they said yes so I'm hoping I can exchange the 13-15 of them for the remaining 3 gelius barbs they had.

Here's the rimless, it's so BLUE lol
Also I apparently stink at trying to take level photographs of tanks...:roll:


Love the lyretails on these guys :-D


I really like the boy in the middle there, he's the only one left like him, the rest are all snakeskins but I only have one snakeskin girl and the rest are blacks or at least they LOOK black, who knows what they could actually throw!




This boys is the smallest one and the girl behind him is the SS girl.


Sparkling Gourami fry are still doing well! Eating happily, I think they're eating the decap brine I've been throwing in. I do Decaps in the morning and microworms later in the day just in case they're not all on the non-live food which I don't really expect them to be just yet but I see the larger ones get nice red bellies afterwards ^_^





My shrimpies are still alive and happily eating everything.


Pierce



My Limnophila Aromatica has been doing fantastic!


Renoir was giving me quite the sass today, I took around 20 pictures of her but only got three >.<




River is still alive and well, I was doing things in the tank so she was stressed out.


River and her last Pencil, I believe this one is a girl, it's rather hard to sex them when they aren't all together though.


I love my male ADF, he's such a riot to watch and still loves to sit in my hand at the top of the tank ^_^


Bentley was not happy with this picture but perked up afterwards lol


The DT boy has been doing well! I think the thingy on his dorsal is going away too!
He started to flare in slow motion lol




I've been debating Jaguar and calling him Jag for short.


His caudal is healing well and pretty fast!


I love his face, literally can't get enough of his cute little face!


Don't know why but I really enjoy this picture


Once his caudal heals, he's going to be a real looker!


You can see his dorsal here looks good!


Cute pectorals


----------



## BettaLover1313

Ooh! Jag sounds like a good name for him, though I will be thinking of the TV show JAG XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol! I know! I used to watch JAG all the time when I was a kid! Actually myself, my older brother, mom and dad would watch it every week when it was on, my younger brother didn't care at all lol. But I think it sort of fits him, I'm still sort of stuck on Francis too though, he's sort of wimpy compared to Rembrandt even and Remmy wasn't have as aggressive as Aero used to be and Hawkeye. But I hate the nickname Fran for personal reasons so I think Jag it's gonna be ^_^


----------



## Fenghuang

Your 4 gallon looks a lot bigger than it is. I love your guppies! They are a very handsome looking group. 

And Jag is turning out beautiful. The name suits him.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Feng! Yeah, I'm already really enjoying this tank and can't wait to find a Puffer for it! I want to get more Java Ferns to fill out the corner as well and I want to replace the pygmy chain swords with Crypts too. I built myself a rock wall by siliconing stones together lol the bottom are plain black river stones from Wal-Mart since they're cheap and then I siliconed the nice stones from my yard on top.

Yeah, part of me wants to keep that one SS girl and one of the lyretail boy's to keep that line going since they really did come out nice! but I don't have enough space to really be housing so many guppies and I don't think my puffer would really like those kinds of tankmates....free food I suppose lol. But if I give them to my LFS I'll at least be able to see them and their kids I guess. 

Thanks, he's a lot prettier than I expected him to be. Poor boy, he was so stressed in the store but he's really starting to come out of his shell! He greeted me this morning ^_^

Oh I also stopped at a different store yesterday when I got the Fenbendazole and it was so darn hard to put him down but I found this sort of yellow/pastel yellow Dragon Super DeT boy there. His fins were perfectly flat and beautiful but I exercised extreme self control for the first time in a while >.< I didn't get him but boy was he gorgeous. I normally don't go for light colors but he just really looked nice and personable!


----------



## Fenghuang

Oh, your package is ready for pickup. ;-) I have been stalking the tracking like an obsessed fool because I'm a worrier. xD Okay, actually, I just get email updates sent to me.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, I was just going to check that too, I kind of forgot about him till this morning when I was like "oh yeah, something is happening today....now what was it? Oh right! I'm getting a FISH!" lol Unfortunately I work till 4 today >.< hopefully I can get there before they close but I can pick him up tomorrow too, it won't hurt him


----------



## Fenghuang

Lol, it's okay. I forget to tell Ci things like this all the time. She will get the packages and be like "So...this fish came in the mail today..." :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol yeah, I would have remembered at some point but thanks all the same! Makes my life easier ^_^

--------------------------
So a bunch of my friends are getting married soon and some are in serious relationships and all and I'm just like "I liek mah feesh...." :rofl:


----------



## lilnaugrim

I got him Feng! And oh gosh, I believed you about the tape but when I actually saw the huge thick strip on it I died laughing! I couldn't even slice it with my scissors and basically had to rip it off! lol!! Oh it was great lol. But the boy arrived miserable but healthy! He doesn't look worse off than Lyon does at the moment! So he should heal up just fine :-D He's actually just about the size of my HMPK girl, I think she's slightly more heavy bodied than he is XD

I've got some pictures too, I'll go through those soon.

I also was able to catch two barbs and added them to the three new ones I got and put them in the 10 gallon, hopefully I can catch the other three still in the 29 since they are the healthier of the eight. One is already wasting away just like the other barb :-/ I don't know if it's a hierarchy thing or worms....possibly both. But I hope I can breed them!

I took Lyon out and put him in the breeder net in the 29 so he can get better water and heal quicker, his poor ears have been trimmed down almost evenly though, it doesn't look bad or nothing but pectorals take FOREVER to heal >.> but he's doing well otherwise.

Fry as still alive and eating happily!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Shrimp are happy with the oak leaves. Also that Ramshorn has a clutch of eggs on its shell....these snails lay anywhere huh? lol


Jag wasn't so happy with the light today lol but his mouth is looking a lot better today :-D


This fish has quite the sass! Debating on names for him, I don't think I'll be able to find anything from M*A*S*H for him but I'll think of something the more I get to know him ^^


He's got a real long body too, quite interesting


----------



## Fenghuang

Haha, I'm glad my packaging amused you. xD And yeah, I bet he was miserable. He has always been such a grumpy face. I really am excited to see if he can win your grumpy girl's heart. :lol:

I hope your barbs perk up real soon. It is hard with fish that establish hierarchies like that. There is always that one at the bottom of the totem pole...

EDIT: Oh, he looks pretty good for having spent the last few days in a cardboard box without food. He'll darken up a lot more when he settles.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hah yeah, it really did. I hope he can too! It might not be right away because I want to breed my barbs first if possible.

He was absolutely pale when I took him out but darkened up really quickly once I fed him and acclimated him to the water. He ate quite greedily and still has room for more lol I'll probably feed him again tonight to fatten him up a little bit ;-)


----------



## Tuigirl

That is quite an interesting new fish! I am curious how his colours will turn out when he has calmed down and feels at home.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tuigirl said:


> That is quite an interesting new fish! I am curious how his colours will turn out when he has calmed down and feels at home.


Thanks, he should look about the same as he does in Feng's pictures on page 251 if you're really curious ^_^


----------



## Fenghuang

He changed a bit since the pictures on page 251 were taken. Colours darkened, fins grew more and he filled out some. This pic was taken the night before he left my house. His face is bitten up because the fish he was in the same tank got over the divider.


----------



## Tuigirl

Pretty!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm thinking about going with the wild cat theme again for Feng's boy, kind of thinking either Sunda or Serval, Serval kind of seems to fit him and his long body lol. But I like the marbled look of the Sunda Cloud Leopard....I've tried both though and they both sort of fit lol I'm leaning with Serval though, nicknamed Ser like sir because he is a sir ;-) lol

Love his tail


I showed him to Jag and the two went flare crazy ^_^


And his beard, I love his clear beard too!


He's got deep brown eyes like Aero did 



And yes, Jag has completely stolen my heart, he's healing up better than I expected! Granted, yes, he wasn't hurt THAT much but it's nice to see him heal so quick!








I love how luscious his tail looks!




Definitely a favorite picture here lol


And Jag's face :roll:






And to prove Lyon is still alive and well, he's still healing from his last escapade.


Lol, it looks like he's giving us the middle finger lol and with his attitude, I wouldn't be surprised XD


A little red came in on his head but that's all 



Lol Rennie's face, she really reminds me of Remmy there


The pretty girl


Pierce has done a lot of growing 


I'm really loving these shrimp, so vibrant and rather cute  I hope to get two more next paycheck or so.


Bentley has been doing fantastic in the 29! He's buddied with two other Cories who I believe are a mated pair, definitely a male and a female and he hangs with them all day long. The two cories behind him are the ones.


Lol, so I mixed up some Daphnia and Mysis Shrimp to soak in Vita-Chem (the cloudiness) and threw it into the 29 after I fed the other fish in the other tanks. It looked like it was suddenly snowing XD The fish loved it!


Especially Stratus lol


The rarest thing happened too! All five Sparklers were out in the open together! I mean, they're normally in the open but never together in one frame!


And to end the post, FROG BUTT


----------



## Islandgaliam

The frog pic cracks me up! Ser looks like a Radar to me


----------



## lilnaugrim

Islandgaliam said:


> The frog pic cracks me up! Ser looks like a Radar to me


Aha, cracked me up as well! Love me some froggie butts ;-)

The only issue I have with that is that he's much too aggressive to be a Radar and I did have a Radar in the past :-( he died though, gosh I cried hard when Radar left the show! Oh and Henry ugg can't stand it! I really need to own that show so I can just watch the later half of the shows, I love Henry, Trapper and Frank but Potter and BJ are my favorites for sure :-D

Though, Trapper kind of fits, he's arrogant and feisty lol!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And after trying it out, Trapper fits like a charm! :-D So Trapper it is! His namesake is Captain "Trapper" John MacIntire, chest surgeon from the 4077th M*A*S*H ;-)


----------



## Fenghuang

Gosh, you got more good pictures of him in a day than I did in the months I had him. He went crazy and zoomed around the tank like a madfish when ever I tried to point a camera at him. Like the name too. :-D Are those cherry shrimp? I love how vibrant they are.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol! It's only a point and shoot camera too XD It helps that he had something to distract him too, Jag did a fantastic job of doing that haha. I'm glad you like the name! I really do think it fits.

And yes, they're "Fire" Red Cherries IIRC.


----------



## Sabina88

Your new boy is gorgeous


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you Sabina!! :-D I'm quite partial to him myself ^_^


----------



## Islandgaliam

lilnaugrim said:


> Aha, cracked me up as well! Love me some froggie butts ;-)
> 
> The only issue I have with that is that he's much too aggressive to be a Radar and I did have a Radar in the past :-( he died though, gosh I cried hard when Radar left the show! Oh and Henry ugg can't stand it! I really need to own that show so I can just watch the later half of the shows, I love Henry, Trapper and Frank but Potter and BJ are my favorites for sure :-D
> 
> Though, Trapper kind of fits, he's arrogant and feisty lol!


Tapper would be perfect. MASH is one of my all time favorite shows, I was 9 when it first aired and my uncles were all in the war at that time.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Islandgaliam said:


> Tapper would be perfect. MASH is one of my all time favorite shows, I was 9 when it first aired and my uncles were all in the war at that time.


It's now my favorite as well and I only wish I'd found it sooner but I'm happy to watch the reruns on Me-TV weekday nights :-D


----------



## Islandgaliam

lilnaugrim said:


> It's now my favorite as well and I only wish I'd found it sooner but I'm happy to watch the reruns on Me-TV weekday nights :-D


Amazon.com has the whole series on DVD for $123.00. If I didn't have fish, I would probably have the $123.00! It's on my Christmas List


----------



## lilnaugrim

Islandgaliam said:


> Amazon.com has the whole series on DVD for $123.00. If I didn't have fish, I would probably have the $123.00! It's on my Christmas List


heh, yeah...123 is a bit much for me. We have the first three seasons on VHS, we found them at a yard sale lol. I have yet to see if they work or not but currently I'm watching Star Trek so I'm content at the moment.

Fun fact for everyone else, I was actually named after Star Trek's Deanna Troi, her one true love was the only one who actually pronounced her name correctly (De-on-ah, not De-ann-ah as most people say), and so I'm named De'Anna because my mom loved how it sounded. I seem to have the same problem that she had though, no one pronounces my name correctly, heck, half my relatives don't pronounce it correct or even know that there is an apostrophe in my name lol! It does get tiresome trying to correct everyone all the time so half the time I just let it go.


----------



## Islandgaliam

lilnaugrim said:


> heh, yeah...123 is a bit much for me. We have the first three seasons on VHS, we found them at a yard sale lol. I have yet to see if they work or not but currently I'm watching Star Trek so I'm content at the moment.
> 
> Fun fact for everyone else, I was actually named after Star Trek's Deanna Troi, her one true love was the only one who actually pronounced her name correctly (De-on-ah, not De-ann-ah as most people say), and so I'm named De'Anna because my mom loved how it sounded. I seem to have the same problem that she had though, no one pronounces my name correctly, heck, half my relatives don't pronounce it correct or even know that there is an apostrophe in my name lol! It does get tiresome trying to correct everyone all the time so half the time I just let it go.



How cool!I just learned that betta is pronounced Bet-ta...not Bay-ta....I never heard anyone say bet-ta until a couple months ago


----------



## lilnaugrim

Islandgaliam said:


> How cool!I just learned that betta is pronounced Bet-ta...not Bay-ta....I never heard anyone say bet-ta until a couple months ago


Aha, yep! We had a whole thread on that last year or so and people trying to figure out how to pronounce plant names and such. I tend to sort of mix the two, sometimes I say it right and other times I don't. Though with our "accents" up here it tends to sound like I'm saying Better Fish lol and people get real confused! hahaha.


----------



## Tuigirl

Well, when I say "Bet-ta" fish here to anyone, they just look at me not knowing what I am talking about.... even in the pet store.... ;-)
Hey, cool about your name! I am a huge TNG fan myself.....and you will laugh, even in the German dubbing of the series they keep on saying "De-ah-nah"....


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tuigirl said:


> Well, when I say "Bet-ta" fish here to anyone, they just look at me not knowing what I am talking about.... even in the pet store.... ;-)
> Hey, cool about your name! I am a huge TNG fan myself.....and you will laugh, even in the German dubbing of the series they keep on saying "De-ah-nah"....


Lol! Yay TNG fans! I need to watch EVERYTHING over again...whenever I find time lol Do you mean De-ann-ah? that's the 'wrong' way to say it but lol, yeah that's funny if so. 

I've always said to myself that I'll know when my true love comes along because he'll actually want to say my name correctly and know XD


----------



## Sathori

1. Looooooving that new boy. He's got a clear beard like Gray <3
2. LYON! Goodness boy, getting himself all beat up  Love that little red dot though xD I always love how marbles are full of surprises.
3. I've been saying bay-ta my entire life xD Oops
4. Frog butt.. XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

+1 to Sathori's #4 haha.

Yeah, he's only hurting in the fin department though, she didn't touch his body which is great news at least! Her on the other hand, she took some scale damage but nothing serious. ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

I like all your fishes! Lemme have your fishes! :blueyay:


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> I like all your fishes! Lemme have your fishes! :blueyay:


You can have their babies but you no take mah feesh! lol


----------



## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> You can have their babies but you no take mah feesh! lol


^__^... I'm fine with keeping ALL your baby fishes!!!!


----------



## Fenghuang

No way! I want babies too!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Fenghuang said:


> No way! I want babies too!


No! Back off Feng! The fry are mine!


----------



## Fenghuang

I'll fight you for them! :lol:


----------



## BlueInkFish

Fenghuang said:


> I'll fight you for them! :lol:


And a fight you shall get 

So lil, how are the fry atm?!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol! I love this XD

The fry are doing just fine, growing and eating all the banana worms or microworms that I give them! I had a dead fry this morning but I think he was left over from yesterday that I forgot to take out. Otherwise, they're relaxing with the ramshorns and growing pretty well from what I can see ^_^

I have some pictures up on the spawn log if you aren't over there yet ;-)


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'll check it out then !!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I just have to share with you one of my favorite synthetic orchestral piece I've ever found. It really lightens my mood and just all around makes everything you do feel more epic while you listen to it! Luchs on FurAffinity (similar to deviantart if you are not familiar with it) is an amazing composer so if you get time, take a listen to his composition; On Wings

Dawn is another very inspiring piece I find if you like this kind of stuff ^_^

I do have to give warning though if you want to browse around that site, there may be lots of furry sex going on "^_^ just be warned lol. But Luchs's page is completely safe!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well Band Camp has started and I'm not technically there lol. It's a complicated situation this year, I need to work since I'm the only one that my boss has. Since I'm going to my super senior year I know all the fundamentals and things like our Pre-Game show which doesn't change ever, just our spots get slightly moved around but that will be super easy to pick up since I still know all the music and stuff.

So Monday-Wednesday I'll be working in the morning and then Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon/evening I'll be able to attend camp and do the normal things. Thursday and Friday we start Half-Time drill so I'll have to be present for that for sure unless I'm Psychic and am able to know already how it goes lol! Which I'm not unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you look at it!

So anyway, I may not be around too much, especially Thursday-Monday, we have our annual labor day party as well on Sunday so it's a huge deal and I'll have to help get it all set up and stuff ^_^ Monday is clean-up day from the party if we're not all...ahem--hungover or anything lol it's pretty much an older crowd party so nothing illegal goes down, trust me XD

So yeah, just wanted to explain that before people start wondering where the heck I am :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

One more day, one more day of Band Camp. Holy crap. It's such a good time but so exhausting at the same time. We've learned half of our Half Time show already and our first show isn't until the 20th of September :-D The first show is from West Side Story which...I haven't actually seen lol. We did Le Mis last year though and I never saw that either XD I'm terrible lol.

Fish are still well from what I can tell. It's hard for me to really observe since I'm not home practically at all this week. I'll be doing a water change on the fry shortly.

Pretty sky pictures from today!
Beginning of our Evening Practice


Oh awkward, I didn't realize Brian was looking at me when I took this picture lol. We were supposed to be practicing Maria (West Side Story) and I saw how pretty this was so I took out my phone to snap a pic, he's the one looking at me in the lower right lol, Assistant Band Director back of head on Brian's left.


My phone didn't even attempt to get this >.> it was so much prettier with the sunray's in the clouds. You can see Brian's back there in front and colorguard practicing in the field.


I tried again but it didn't work well >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

I don't ever really remember being this tired before. Last time I felt this awful I had a bad case of bronchitis :-(

I woke up with a severely puffy face, droopy eyes and very hot all over. I was cold last night so I shut both my windows, didn't have the fan on and had my blanket on, it wasn't terribly hot or anything last night but it was warm when I woke this morning and with both windows shut, it didn't help. I think I was just overheated and I've had this "invisible" sunburn I've been calling it all week where it's like a fever almost--I can certainly feel it but I'm not really sunburnt, I can feel it a little on my cheeks but otherwise I took care this year putting sunscreen on before outdoor rehearsals since the sun can be killer.

But yay Band Camp! We memorized half of our show and Pre-Game already, Post-Game is generally the same as our Half-Time show so we don't have too much more to go! First game is Sept. 20!

As for fish, all seven of my adult Bettas are doing well, Jag's tail is really healing up well though I have to do a water change on both him and Trapper. Trapper is healing pretty well too. I have a feeling my HMPK girl is going to go soon though, she's been very lethargic lately and I have no idea why, Stratus has been picking on her though, not physically but she'll often hang around the HMPK girl's container and just intimidate her through the acrylic >.> stupid Angelfish.

My guppies committed mass homocide. I have 3 remaining adults, 10-12 of them decided they just didn't want to live. I suspect that the BB I had in the filter wasn't ready for 14-16 guppies to be living in that 4 gallon, even though temporary. I haven't checked the params on it but I did a water change last night, about 60% and the three remaining seem to be okay, they aren't great but they are still doing okay from what I can see. Two others, a male and female are in a net in the 20 at the moment since I suspected water parameters to be an issue and they weren't doing great anyway so I figured it couldn't hurt to put them in over night. They're still hanging on but doing much worse, I don't expect them to live the day out.

Blind Apisto girl has grown so much since I first got her, no idea what I'm going to do with her but she's been doing great so far! She was nice and colored up today with her checkered spots ^_^

Fish in the 29 are doing great, all of them are present and accounted for I believe, still have to do a water change for them though. Bentley is loving all the room he has and has even grown a little bit too! He leaves the otos alone which is great since I was worried about that which is what prevented me from putting him in there in the first place since I know they can be specifically aggressive to fish the same shape and size as they are if there isn't a group of them to spread the aggression.

Sparkling Gourami fry are doing fantastic, eating a mix of Banana/Micro (whatever I feel like feeding) and Decap BBS.

The Betta fry are interesting, I think I need to do a deeper clean on the tank since some of them seem to be more lethargic, not sure if it's me or something wrong with them or something. There are still plenty in there that are acting what I expect to be "normal" fry but I still worry all the same. They got banana worms and Artificial Plankton and Rotifers this morning and will get a little more APR for the ones hanging out on top, tonight with Microworms. Or Grindal worm babies if I find that they'll eat them since apparently they are more nutritious!

Lol, about my Grindal worms....there was like...oh maybe a month or so where I completely forgot to feed the Grindals and the White worms....but now my two Grindal cultures eat an entire kitty kibble piece daily so they bounced back like crazy! The one white worms in soil is doing great too but the soil-less one can only eat like a quarter per day so I'll need to let them grow up some more since they were the most neglected >.< whoops. But yay for prolific grindal worms!!


----------



## Lucillia

Uuuuuggghh worms... I don't know how you do it. 

If you need a hand with the babies soon let me know. I may be calling out of work on Monday if I don't feel much better so as long as I don't take a prescribed pain killer I could probably come visit for a bit. >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

It wont' be for a while Luci but thanks. Most of them are still less than a grain of rice long, I only have a few that are a bit larger but they won't need to be separated out for another few months.


----------



## Lucillia

I meant in general. XD I don't mind helping where I can.. I feel guilty for not doing much right now. 

Also, do you want me back on BBS duty? I'm thinking about ordering some eggs to try and I'll do a whole storage tub set up when they hatch. I'll grow some to adult for our big guys and the rest will be for the kids.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, you're going to have the hard part of the job anyway--at least _I_ consider it harder after this. But yes, you can definitely get those up and running since BBS just seems so...idk foreign to me, I get worms just fine though XD This is why we make a good team.

---------------------
I have some pics...I think lol. I have to get them upload and sorted through first but I think I got fry pics and maybe some Sparkling Gourami fry pics too, I wasn't really looking at those when I took them though so....we'll see. It kills me that the Sparkling gourami fry are thriving and the Betta Fry aren't so much :-/ I just feel like--unless they are hiding under the java fern and behind the sponge filter, their numbers have decreased substantially like...to the twenties >.> Heck, half of me wants to take out the Sparkling Gourami fry and throw the Betta fry in there because apparently SOMETHING is going right in there :roll:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Betta fry pics are over in the spawn log, I don't feel like posting them twice so you all have to suffer with just sparkling gourami fry pics lol.

I have no idea why, but these little guys are so afraid of any movement that happens outside their tank....annoying since I can't get any good pictures >.>

The buggers are too quick too so this was the best I could get for a single fry :roll:


Tank is cloudy due to algae


One of the smallest ones up front there in the middle and you can see the outline of the bigger ones >.< and yes, algae....this is what happens when you neglect your .5 gallon fry tank :roll:


I was trying to fix the airline tubing that came off the suction cup when I moved the tank so I apologize, I was taking this with my left hand and it was clearly not stabilized lol


Better one of the group. I could 11 still which is great!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yeah, I definitely had a reaction to the suntan lotion and it seems to be spreading to my neck....not a good sign. Thankfully you can't really notice it if you look at me but I can feel it and it itches like hell and hurts too. The more I sweat the worse it is.

We had our annual labor day party last night so hence my absence here. We just finished cleaning up the backyard so I'm sitting on my bed attempting to cool off so my face doesn't hurt so much any more.

So I still have three remaining guppies, they seem to be okay, they're very jumpy but otherwise they eat and school. I had a male and a female sitting in a net over the 20 water since Friday and they both died last night. The female however gave birth in the net, it was premature though and three out of 6 babies didn't make it. One was stillborn, the other two were eaten after birth and the other three are still sitting in the net now and seem to be doing okay at the moment. I tried feeding them a little bit to see if they'd take but they're more concerned with trying to stay near the surface so they can breathe and rest on the net. Poor babies, I feel bad, they probably won't make it though. Not really a loss for me but still sad that they didn't really get too much of a chance.

Now for those stupid Betta fry. I'm down to about 10 that I can count this morning. Four more were dead. What the hell am I doing wrong? I'm literally ready to give up and throw them in another planted .5 gallon because apparently that works for me and fry.....I really am debating doing it, it's still warm enough out that the water would stay mostly warm, although the sparklers have been fine with their water sitting around 70....who knows, maybe I'll actually have fry thriving then? It's just really angering me that I try so hard and still end up failing...again.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg, it's so hot today! Literally, I go to pick something up and I'm already drenched in sweat >.<

Yeah, this skin irritation isn't going away either, it feels like a mix between a sun burn and poison ivy....yeah, not fun. Poo.

Fish seem to be fine today.


----------



## MattsBettas

Have you tried benadryl (or the generic version) for your neck? I had a pretty awful reaction at the beginning of the summer to a life jacket with mould on it, my neck ended up completely covered in big hives and felt like it was on fire and itched like crazy... I took two Benadryl and it was pretty much gone by the time I got to the hospital (it was moving up my face and my eye was swelling shut so I didn't risk it lol). 

I would try it, I mean it worked really well for when I had a skin reaction. I took two and that just about put me asleep... Lol. 

I'm so sorry about your luck with the bettas... If it makes you feel any better, I failed three or four times, and everyone died in my first batch of fry. It's not abnormal. You've seen some of what I can produce now, though. You're a great fishkeeper, if it doesn't work out for you now I'm fully confident it will in the future.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I take Zyrtec nightly since it's the only thing that helps me. I have the opposite reaction to Benadryl and it keeps me wired, it does work but Zyrtec just works better is all and I have the normal reaction to that one lol. It helped the facial swelling but not the rash--though it's not really rash nor is it hives, it sort of feels scaly >.<

Thanks for the vote of confidence though. I hope I can pull SOME of them through at least :-/ I just feel bad for Luci too since I lost her boy too.


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## lilnaugrim

You know what's a scary thought? I've been thinking about what to write my Thesis on for my Masters that I'm potentially going for....I find that to be really scary, realizing just how close I am to graduating and potentially going to Norway to study there (colleges with free tuition for everyone, yay! Just a small entrance fee of around 50-100 US dollars which is 300-600 Norwegian currency). Some of the schools there are really great and I think it'd be a great experience, dad's pushing for me to go as well :roll:

Fish were fine this morning from what I could see with half opened eyes lol. I found 5 fry dead though, I'm acclimating them to the new water all day so hopefully I can get them in without a fuss and without killing them all :shock::blueshake: But I took them out yesterday and into a 1 gallon and then completely changed out the 13 gallon water. Now that I've done some more reading and have stumbled on some little 'tips and tricks' for water changes (just your usual), hopefully I can keep them alive >.> but I realized my fry weren't eating which led to fouling water and ammonia at .5ppm.....not good. Nitrites were zero though, that's good, and less than 5 nitrate. Here's to hoping!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh my god! Mrs. Kotter was on M*A*S*H!

If you have no idea what that even means that's alright but you should totally watch all the good old shows like "Welcome Back Kotter", "M*A*S*H", "The Rifleman", "Hogan's Heroes" yep, all the good ones. They play nightly on MeTV, you can google it to find out what channel it is on for you.

But anyway, I digress. Fish are good, did a change on the 29 that I haven't done in like....a month. Why I decided to do it today when it feels like it's 120 degree's out? IDK but I figured I should do _something_ for them lol, the tank is pretty self sufficient with all the plants growing and the bio-load I have in there so I'm not so worried about it. If I have time, I should do the 20 on Thursday, tomorrow is first day of school and I won't be home till late.

Sparkling Gourami fry are getting sassy lol. I'm debating just breeding Sparklers since they seem to breed readily for me unlike the Barbs who are unhappy in their breeding tank that I set for them. But no more deaths in the Barbs so that's something good at least.

The three premature guppy fry are still alive and seemingly well! I think they're eating their egg sacks which is normal, except it generally happens in the womb, but their tummies seem smaller and they seem more developed--at least what I can tell from the top is all.


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## Tuigirl

If you have a chance to go abroad for study, DO IT!
I am German, but have done my Masters and now my PhD in New Zealand.
It's just great to live and learn in a new country!
I haven't been to Norway, but I have been to Sweden (on a Camper Van Trip) and Skandinavia is a BLAST!


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## lilnaugrim

Whoa boy, this is my 14,500 post :shock2::shock::shock2: good god I talk too much.

Yeah, Tuigirl, I want to go but at the same time I'm also extremely nervous about leaving. I know it's not forever or anything but it'd be the first time I'd be "out" of the house and I know it's coming up soon regardless since I can't stay here forever but for me, it's still a scary thought. But free graduate school? yeah, that's my kind of school lol!

------------------------------
So first day of my fifth year of college.....UG. Someone kill me now. >.< This is basically my schedule:








It doesn't look terrible but it is :-( Digital Photography 6-9:45 at night, that sucks, for one I miss M*A*S*H and half the time Hogan's Heroes but it's just a ridiculously long night. I'm used to that time during the day when I'm awake but I'm not a night owl, I'm an early birdie so it kills me driving home half an hour 10 at night which means bed time around 11 by the time I get there unless I crash right away.

I love my Digital Art and Design class, that's the ART 306 and I actually skipped the first two classes, this is the third, because the teacher saw my digital work and was like "Yep, you're in" and I'm like "I don't know how to do vectors!" "oh you'll learn along the way" >.< while I'm flattered, I also know he's not a very good teacher, the Art department is very small so we all know everyone.

Digital Photography is going to be fun but also a LOT of work, and thank god for my friend in class because he's loaning me one of his DLSR's so I can actually do the class since I didn't realize that we needed our own >.> I don't have 300 bucks to drop on a camera! Granted, I'd use it all the time but holy crap. But today we spent an hour getting dust off of an image in Photoshop and I did about 1/3 or a bit less of the photo in that time....seriously? I can understand learning about the technique and spending maybe half an hour doing it just so we know but an hour and then the rest of our next class on it? That's effing ridiculous too.....ugggg.

Yeah, I haven't even been up to see my fish yet, I'm going up soon to hopefully do a water change on the fry and feed the hungry "starving" betta's of mine. I'm exhausted and I still need to do laundry lol


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## BlueInkFish

O__O all I can see I that calendar is WORK, BAND, and SCHOOL! Haha  I hope you get through college safely! I wish you the best of luck, lil!


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## lilnaugrim

Lol! Yeah...I work a lot for a simple work-study which is usually only an hour or so a week but I'm student help to a building manager and he prefers someone who can work more time than have to train multiple people since it's easier/more reliable for him and all. But yeah....LOTS of work and LOTS of Band. In addition to this we have the Football games every few Saturday's as well, first game is the 20th. And then fish on top of that and I'll have to miss the Fish Society meetings :-( oh yeah and then Kappa Kappa Psi on top of it, I'm the Historian as well so I have those duties and I just joined the South County Chamber Singers :roll: I think I bit off a little bit too much this year.....


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## BlueInkFish

XD sounds like a lot of work!!!!!  I hope you do well in school and in work an in band XD!


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## Rosencrantz32

I just started my 7th year of college >.< I'm so ready to be done...


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Blu!

Yeah, I feel you Rosen! Is it all for your Undergrad or are you Grad? I like college but I am also ready to be out as well.


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## lilnaugrim

I'm exhausted from school/work and running around like crazy trying to get stupid forms handed in and trying to find a cheap DSLR camera for my digital class. I'm hoping for the Olympus one that comes with four lenses including two Macro lenses which means pretty pictures of my fish finally!!

But all my fry died :-( They were too far gone I think and though I upped the water changes, it didn't help in the end. All 30 of them died :-( It sucks and I'm really sorry to Luci since I feel like she's lost the most with having Osiris for over a year when he died.

My premature guppy fry have actually fully formed now and seem to be okay! I acclimated and put them in with the Sparkling Gourami fry, they are the size of the smallest Gourami fry I have so they seem fine so far though I won't be sad if the gouramis decide to snack on them. But so far so good.

I'm starting to condition the HMPK girl and Trapper so hopefully I can get them to spawn, he's close to what I want in a VT, basically a real clean bicolor is what I want in the end. Not from this pair I know but I want to breed red bodied white finned fish eventually!

Pics
My 4 gallon thus far.


My Staurogyne Repens has been doing real good in this tank :-D


One of my lyretail snakeskin boys of two.


And my last female (The laaaaassssst feeemale! lol Ice Age reference :roll


Female and her two boys lol


I moved Jag to the 13 for the moment, his fins are growing back well :-D


My 20


Pierce has really filled out and my girl froggie was begging for food back there :roll:


My 29 kind of grew again....like...a lot


Stratus is such a butt. I would watch her go up to the HMPK girl's confinement and tease the girl and then ram into the thing to try and get at the Betta >.>


Sparkler!


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## Tuigirl

Love your setup!
O my god, your timetable sounds crazy!
Reminds me of my fifth year where I had 52 hours of classes per week....
the one that lasted till 9pm we called the "Moonlight class"....


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Tuigirl! :-D

Yeah, it is crazy. I know it's only five classes technically but it's a crap ton of work/class work so....yeah I'm going to be very busy.


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## MattsBettas

Ugh :/ I'm sad you lost those fry... I tried to figure out what it was, honestly I think the only think left is something bacterial from the 20. 

Everything looks good, though!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt. I'm still not too certain about the bacteria from the 20 because Osiris was lethargic right after spawning and didn't perk up after that. Also everyone else in the 20 is still thriving right now, Pierce has grown a whole bunch and River is starting to fill out too so if it was something in the 20 then they would have been dead or at least stressed/sick of some sort.


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## Sathori

So sorry about your spawn and other fish lil 

I am quite jealous of the amount of live plants you've got going on there xD So far the only thing growing for me is my hornwort and amazon sword. My wisteria wasn't working so well in my 30 gallon, so I moved it to my 10 gallon divided... Fingers crossed.

How many guppies are in that 4 gallon?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sathori.

Only 3 guppies in the 4 gallon, I did have 15 but 11 of them died....>.< that was totally my fault on that part though.


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## Sathori

sorry. Do you plan on adding more to your 4 gallon?


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## lilnaugrim

The 4 gallon will eventually hold my Dwarf Puffer once I get one. That's a few pages back though. I'll probably put my Fire Red Shrimp in the DP as well


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## Sathori

Ah yes! I remember you talking about your DP :3 Sorry, it's been a loooong day lol


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## lilnaugrim

No worries! I completely understand, I'm going to bed soon, hopefully I'll actually be able to sleep. This heat is insufferable >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Oh yeah, Blind Apisto Female died yesterday :-( but I'm happy I was able to give her...what was it, 2.5-3 months of good life? She'd clearly doubled in size, ate like a queen and was colored up when she passed.


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## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry about your fry and the apisto female passing. Hopefully things will start to look up.


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## Lucillia

She does have good news though!! I'm excited for pictures... I am waiting still!!!


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## BettaLover1313

Lucillia said:


> She does have good news though!! I'm excited for pictures... I am waiting still!!!


Good news? YAY!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Lol!! I'm getting there! just got the pictures up and sorted, they will follow in the next post!


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## lilnaugrim

So I trimmed my 29. The white specks are just brine shrimp ^_^


Stratus, as much of a butt as she is, she looks really nice when she's colored up like this--AND LOOK AT HER DORSAL! She's gorgeous!




Gem showed his face!


Bentley has been doing real well!



Guppies moved to the 20 gallon


River is fat and for some reason she gets stressed whenever she eats....strange fish but she's perfectly healthy.


The only compartment in my 20 which was more or less 'thoughtfully' scaped lol


I really love Jag, he's done well and hasn't touched my two shrimp at all! It was a total gamble putting him in the 20 but I'm happy with the results thus far. If the shrimp do die, I'm not going to freak out about it but I'm happy if they live too.


His expression in this one cracked me up, he's got a crooked mouth so it makes him look funny


I love his red undercoloring though!


The pic is blurry but you can see his colors best here



My beautiful Renoir!


One of my "middle" fry as in he's not the biggest or the smallest. He's kind of spoonheaded though...I hope that evens out with age.


And my runt, she's still doing okay though. I'm sure she'll grow once I take out the big ones


I was trying so hard to get decent photos of these two but they were too intent on glass surfing and flaring at each other :roll: but I was trying to get a size comparison pic....you can sort of see how large they are, these two are bigger than your average Betta but not quite giant. She's still larger than he is lol


One decent pic of her:


And one decent pic of Trap, he's healing up super well!


I added some plants to my 4 gallon! Took some Limnophila Aromatica from the 20 and some Ludwigia Broadleaf from the 29 :-D Behind the Ludwigia there is actually a small piece of driftwood but you can't really see it...oh well!


The left side, can you spot the new inhabitant?? :-D


And the right side:


And finally after a good month of searching--though not exactly actively searching--I've found my Dwarf Puffer!!! Unfortunately, as expected he's extremely shy right now so I won't be able to get any good pics of him for a while but these are from when he was in the bag at least!
Welcome to the family little one! I'm 90% sure this is a male from what I've read!


He's still young and obviously stressed so he won't show the signs of being a male but once he settles in and grows a little bit, it should be more obvious!


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## Lucillia

YAAAAY! He's so cute!!!


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## Pippin

How on earth is it possible to get tanks that look that great! How do you do it?

And on a side note, how do you care for a dwarf puffer, and how much do they cost?


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## lilnaugrim

Lol, it's because the 4 gallon is a new tank so it's easier to keep clean at the moment haha. Give it a month or two. 

You can google about DP's to learn and it depends on where you get them from. I think mine was somewhere around 4-5 dollars.


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## BettaLover1313

Oh my goodness that Dwarf Puffer is adorable!


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## Tuigirl

Oh my god, it is so cute! 
What do you feed him? You got a snail farm on the side? ;-)


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## BlueInkFish

Wow! Your DP is awesome!!

I'm curious, what kind of fish is gem? I like him very much ^__^!


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## MattsBettas

That puffer is very nice! Hope he settles in well... From what I've read and seen they have huge personalities for nano fish. I really like getting some good news. 

Blu, Gem is a Scarlet Badis, _Dario dario_. (Hope you don't don't mind I answered, lil!)


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## BlueInkFish

Ok that's cool! I'm defeniatley going too look into them!!


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## Lucillia

Hey Lil, whsts the yellow and red plant in Rivers' compartment? I really like it!


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## lilnaugrim

No worries Matt! I don't mind at all ^_^

Yes, Tui, I have tons of bladder snails in my 29 and 20 along with MTS if need be but those are harder for him to eat. He'll also eat bloodworms too among some other various frozen foods :-D I'm used to fish not eating flake/pellet foods much like my Dario Dario's, they only eat live foods as well. DP will probably take my White Worms as well. 

@Luci, that's my alternanthera reineckii which hasn't done much growing as of late.


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## Islandgaliam

You puffer is so flippin adorable! I have already decided that my Christmas present will be a Truaqua and a puffer and the plants of puffers choice


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## BlueSky99

Your tanks look so cool. I want to have a planted tank if I ever get a bigger one.


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## lilnaugrim

Islandgaliam said:


> You puffer is so flippin adorable! I have already decided that my Christmas present will be a Truaqua and a puffer and the plants of puffers choice


Thank you!! I still have to name him now but he's doing really well so far! I guarantee that you'd love a DP too!! DP's don't seem to mind about plants--I mean which types at least. I tried looking for a biotope tank scape and what kind of plants they live naturally, it's pretty much your basic vals and crypts with white/golden sand. I wanted to do the golden sand that is in my .5 gallon but then I figured he might show up better against black but I'm actually finding it the opposite which I find strange since he is mostly tan colored with black/brown spots on him. I may still switch over to golden sand if I can find a little more :-D




BlueSky99 said:


> Your tanks look so cool. I want to have a planted tank if I ever get a bigger one.


Thanks! Planted tanks are the best and a fantastic start to keeping healthier fish IMHO ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

So yesterday was our Fish Society's annual Fish Show and Auction! The show was really great! Lucillia entered her Squeaker Synodontis cat, he didn't place but he scored really high and we're both super proud of him! There was some amazing fish there!! It was a bit sad too because the Betta's, the one who got first literally could have been Osiris's brother :-( Osiris looked better than he did too, such a shame. The tank was really dirty though so I'm still shocked he won first, he must have had a real good deportation (the way they act) when the judges judged him.

We both entered three photos into the photo contest and I won third with my Dario picture!:


The actually picture printed looked worse than it does online but it's also blown up from it's original size so I knew it would end up grainy and sort of pixelated so in all, it actually turned out decent! I also entered my Remmy pic, the profile one right now and a pic of Aero. Apparently the judge wanted more scientific photos of the fish which is why Dario placed and Remmy didn't. But now I have a nice picture of Remmy and in a nice frame so I'm happy all the same!

-----------------------------------
The auction was really great but SO long! Started at 12 and I had to leave at 5 to make a KKY meeting and it was still not done by then! There was so much STUFF.

A beautiful 37 gallon tank and stand went for 14 dollars I believe it was, amazing steal! There was some fantastic fish there! Lots of Killi's and I ended up with a trio of Simpsonichthys Constanicae! The featherfin Killi I had before and accidentally killed >.< The trio is doing great this morning, a little chilly from the night since it got colder than I expected it to but they ate the Grindal worms decently this morning. They are young still but I want to spawn them if I can and then hopefully in about three months have baby Killi's!

There was also around 8 bags of Marmorkrebs which are the Marbled Self-Cloning Crayfish. Luci and I ended up with a bag of 12 for $3, it's actually a steal as well but I kind of feel bad because it was more for kicks than anything because there were so many bags that every time one came up the announcer was like "and another one of those...crustaceans...yep," lol, it was hilarious. So we got the last bag, they are currently in my breeder box in the 29 and I'll probably be using them for puffer food, yay lol.

But as per usual, we didn't really research them before we got them. I knew previously that they clone themselves and they populate extremely easily and all but I didn't know that they ate plants -_- so....that's going to be fun. I think I might freeze some of them to make frozen foods for the fish at a later date and then keep one female in a 1 gallon and then whenever she has babies I'll feed them to the puffer or just chop them up to feed to my Angel/Gourami since they'd appreciate it as well. Oh and the adults will kill each other too lol fun fact.


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## MattsBettas

Lol I used to keep a self cloner. Took a long time to get rid of her... I didn't exactly find them to be the most fun. Needless to say she's now living with my friend.

I love auctions though, they're so exciting and neat. We do our big ones twice a year, it's a long but great day!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah! I remember her, I couldn't remember if she was a Marmorkreb or a different cray. I still want a Mexican Dwarf Cray though, they stay smaller, don't really reproduce and are cuter and prettier IMO. But ours are a nice pretty blue color rather than the regular marbled brown/tan color so they look a little nicer. I know I'll probably be letting most of mine be eaten but I'm totally okay with that. For 3 bucks, it's really not a super loss lol.

I do too! Half a reason I love AquaBid...though it's no fun losing something you really want but there is always that chance! Just like Lucillia last night won three more juvie Syno Eupterus for 12 dollars I think it was! Generally they go 20-25 dollars per one and the bidding started at 20 but no one raised so they lowered it to 10 which I was surprised about but obviously, that was super exciting! She's going to try her hand at breeding them and I really hope she's able to! They're so darn adorable!

I, myself, would love some Syno. Petricola, only getting to around 4 inches but needing groups and they are expensive. Two bags went last night of around 6-10 in each, I couldn't really count but I know one of them went for 22 dollars I think it was, such a steal! I wish I had the room! I have the tanks, just no real surfaces to put them on! Even my floor is covered with stuff >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Bleh...so tired. My allergy meds make me sleep extremely heavy so that when I wake up, I'm still feeling very drowsy. I don't think I'll take them tonight  I need sleep! Well, good sleep at least. I end up groggy all day long if I take them 

Everyone is alive this morning although I forgot to do my Excel dosing because I was too hung up on the fact I needed to shower, find breakfast somehow and get ready before I left for college this morning. Yesterday I somehow forgot to push my alarm button so instead of waking up at 6 (after I reset it from 5:30), I woke up at 6:21 and was like "CRAP!" sprung out of bed and got dressed and left my 6:30 lol. I didn't feel any better for sleeping an extra 21 minutes though >.<

So I'm realizing that I think the picture I took of the Dario Dario that I thought was Gem two pages ago (most recent photo shoot), was actually Dario. I was looking for the Badis last night and found one of them that was more blue and no nips in his tail which means that is Gem and that photo was of Dario since Dario is more red and the healing rip in his tail is almost gone but he has a new small one on the bottom of his caudal now :roll: I'm going to remove one of them to put either in with the Puffer or the 20 depending on how this all goes so I can tell them apart easier. I should have done that in the first place but oh well.

One of the crayfish died yesterday, I'm not terribly sad about that lol but the rest of them are doing fantastic still. 6 will go to Luci and the rest I keep which is 5 unless Luci only wants 5 and then I'll take the 6. Doesn't matter to me though.


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## Lucillia

Im probably going to create a crustacean oasis in my room so whatever works for you. Maybe we can even sell them on aquabid! It seems like they'll be a good food source for the two squeakers.


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## lilnaugrim

I know it's relatively hard to get rid of them because no one wants them (hence all the bags at the auction). But yes, definitely a good food source for squeakers!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yeah, that picture of "Gem" was definitely Dario lol. He's so much more red than Gem is but Gem has outgrown Dario! Hence my confusion!

Okay, some pictures for tonight. I was fiddling with my camera settings so my pics aren't the normal pics and it'd help if I ever clean the glass of the tanks before I take pictures :roll: Oh and the pics are bigger which sort of help too.

Stratus is pretty, though she's got some black splotches on her that aren't coloration. I'm not overly concerned since they don't look infected or anything, just abnormal. That spot on her dorsal also has never grown back right where the first black stripe hits her dorsal. I guess it's just a birth deformity.


I broke one of my own rules about Gouramis which is never to put them together--though it's not really just "my" rule lol. So far so good though with the gouramis though. I have one female Sparkler who thinks she owns the tank, she beats up on Stratus so I expected her to go after my Pearl when I put her in. I was right but the Pearl chases her back, there's no real hurt but just feeling and a bit of chasing ^_^ so I'm not worried at the moment but will put the Pearl girl back in the 20 if need be.
But this is the best picture I've gotten of her so far! She's too darn camera shy!


Going after the mean Sparkler. Literally all my other Sparklers are peaceful and nice, but this one is just a butt to everyone >.<


Just an adorable picture of Jag :-D


Darn plant makes him look strange but you can see the regrowth in his tail is coming in nicely :-D


I tried my best to get these pictures but they're too darn fast! But I found my female CPD! I don't know if I had said it here but I thought she died since I hadn't seen her in over a week or so. But I found her when I took out the gigantic mother water sprite :-D Here's the Gertudae Rainbowfish


Female CPD. They do this thing where he shows off for her and she shows off for him....it's very much like courting but clearly...they are of very different species lol. Maybe it's some sort of territorial thing? Actually no, I don't think it is because they stick together like two peas in a pod so maybe they're just attached to each other.


Pic where he was showing off for her, you can see his fins all raised :-D



Well neither Badis wanted to pose or just my camera sucks so here is Gem:


And Dario when I moved him to the 4 gallon with my Puffer. Thus far they have paid absolutely no mind to each other and honestly, doesn't even look like the Puffer has noticed lol. But they both eat slowly and different things and both are good with other species given proper care so I'm sure it will work out :-D
Obviously he was clamping some since he was just added to the tank


My puffer is so darn adorable! I can't get over him lol!


Look at that face!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

He's got a funky caudal but I think I'm going to buy him to hopefully start a line that I want to work with if the seller has a decent female to go with him. I think I'm going to buy him either way actually, he's just really nice looking and red with splotches of irid on the body has always been a weakness of mine.


----------



## BlueInkFish

So if you buy a pair and breed... Do you mind handing the fry too me XD if defeniatley buy a fry from you! I just loooove btf hms


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol! Yeah...If I can keep the spawn alive :roll:

The seller sent me this picture of a female....I don't like her but I'm asking if they have a different female with more white on her fins. If not, I'll just get a boy and probably breed him to a red salamander or a white (not platinum or opaque) female to keep the white fins going on.








Besides, if I breed her to her brother than I run into possibilities of worse RT, too much irid on the body, poor dorsal fin. I just don't like her form in general, his isn't great either but I want his color and preferably want to shorten the red so it's more white on the fins instead of red! Ideally, I'm going for a bicolor, will I ever get there? Who knows lol.

EDIT: Also, this fish is freaking adorable, I'm not a fan of her really short body but she just looks so cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm also thinking about naming my Puffer Tuttle or Captain Tuttle. After watching a M*A*S*H episode last night, Hawkeye had an imaginary friend when he was growing up named Tuttle and whenever Hawk would get into trouble, he'd blame it on Tuttle lol. So in the episode, they were taking supplies from their unit to give to the orphanage who was in dire need, well he said to thank Captain Tuttle for the good deed and then it's a whole episode on the famed Captain Tuttle who is Officer of the Day and donates fourteen months pay to the orphanage lol. So Hawkeye and Trapper end up having to figure out how to get out of the mess when a General comes down to award Tuttle a metal, so Hawkeye grabs a parachute and informs then that Tuttle went out to do field medical work and he had everything an Army Doctor needed; his antibiotics, syringes, gauze, everything except for his chute lol. So he has to give this whole eulogy since he's the one who "knows" Tuttle best, oh it was a great episode.

But I may also just not name him and call him my Puffer lol.


----------



## SunnyCydUp

Capt'n Tuttle would be a great name for him!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks, I've been trying it out since it is sort of a funny name but I need to spend more time with him first ^_^ I'll be able to do that today after my first and only (thank god) class today after I return a dead platy and exchange it for a new one plus one. I went to one of my LFS's yesterday and bought two Blue Coral Wag platy females for the tank at school. One wasn't looking so good when I acclimated them to the tank and I knew she was a goner so I just waited until this morning and sure enough, she died. But I'll take her back to the store today and exchange for a healthier one. I always try to pick the healthy ones but even so, stress can do detrimental things to anything.

While I was there I noticed they had more Red Panama BN Pleco's for sale and the price had dropped from 9.99 to 6.99 and well....I couldn't resist. For a while I was looking for a nice BN Pleco for the 29 because of the glass algae. The Otos to a great job for the plants and the decor but they don't touch the glass too much and my Rabbit Snails are pretty to look at but pretty much useless when it comes to cleaning. So I bought myself a beautiful (what looks to be female at the moment but still very young) BN Pleco. She's about an inch and a half, maybe two inches if we include the tail. She honestly looks more like a Calico than the normal Red Panama's that I've seen before. She's like a mix of a Lemon and a regular Chocolate BN, it's actually very beautiful! I know she's bound to change as she grows but once she gets bigger and I can actually set up my 45, she'll go into that tank. But for the time being, she gets to relax in the 29 and I already saw her cleaning this morning before I left! I'm very happy with her.

I'll hopefully be getting pictures today now that I'm really learning how to use my camera!! I love my Digital Photography class, it's a lot but I do love it since it's just bettering my basic skills :-D I now understand what the heck all my settings actually mean lol, I always played around with them but I never fully understood what the ISO actually was but now I do ^_^ yay.


----------



## lilnaugrim

What a day!

I found out that my Uncle is almost cancer free! The transfusion worked!!! So far the preliminaries say there are no signs of cancer!!!! Here's to praying he's cancer free soon and will live a long life like he should! He's only 47 or around that (I don't remember exactly how old lol)

And I was inspecting my 29 today and now I realize why my Sparklers were being so rude and a-holes to my other fish.....I have like 20 more fry in my .5 gallon now lol. Since it seems to be good for rearing fry I took some and left some in the tank. Half of them are still horizontal but most are free swimming already which means they probably hatched around yesterday morning or so!! I kind of felt bad for taking them because the male was guarding his "nest", I said "nest" because he's just using the bubbles that the filter throws and the Dwarf Water Lettuce collects...he's the laziest gourami ever lol. But the fry are doing well in their new enclosure!

I moved the larger fry into the clear breeder box that the Marmorkrebs were in and moved them to one of my spare 3 gallons. SO MANY FRY! I still can't believe they're breeding so much in that tank! Stratus didn't even dare to go near the nest lol I'm mostly shocked that, since they spawn the same way Bettas and most other Gouramis do, that they're just fine in such a tall tank since they have to retrieve the eggs after they're squeezed out!

Anyway, pictures!

Not my usual but it came out pretty neat looking so I figured I'd show it off lol.


The largest of the Marmorkreb girls  just under an inch.


Gem!


I still can't believe how big he's gotten! As I said, he's slightly larger than Dario is!




Great picture of Dario! He's only dull because he isn't quite sure of his new tank. Tuttle has ignored him completely, actually they both ignored each other.


And the adorable Tuttle himself! :-D He's starting to get used to my presence and happily eats all the snails I put in there lol



The Ludwigia is already growing well.


Bentley has been a good boy (well I think he's a boy, haven't actually checked that yet). Panda Garras generally don't like other fish that are similar to them in body shape so like cories and Otos but he's been buddy-buddy with them. Each is different so he apparently has a decently calm personality and loves to shoal with the two mated cories, the female is picture here.


Pleco!


Pleco and Bentley chilling together. Look how yellow that pleco is!



I absolutely love her colors!




Sparkling Gourami fry after I moved them over. They've been eating Decap BBS so hence the red tummies ^_^





Lol, one of the females came up to inspect XD




The biggest one is getting his colors in little by little :-D



Fry! They're done absorbing their yolk sacks so the majority of them should be free swimming tonight :-D


There were a bunch swimming around but obviously, tiny objects swimming around are hard to get so you get to see the vertical fry lol


----------



## Tuigirl

Great about your uncle!
And really love Tuttle!
When you have more experience, you try to breed them?
I have seen that it is still a challenge....


----------



## lilnaugrim

Breed what, Dwarf Puffers?


----------



## Tuigirl

Yep, the puffers.
Because most are still wild caught....
will be great if captive breeding conditions are found out


----------



## Lucillia

Can we breed your bn? Shes beautiful!!!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ooh okay, I thought I read that breeding in captivity has been recorded, I'll definitely have to check that out! For now I'm busy enough with the Sparklers and future Bettas haha :-D

And yes Luci! I was thinking your Green Dragon and her would make gorgeous babies! Darn, we need more space lol!!


----------



## Pippin

It has, but they are apparently endangered, so breeding them and selling fry is a good thing. (I read up on them...)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Cool. I'll consider it for sure since the LFS has a few more DP's in stock but at this point it's more about the space.

---------------------------
I won that Samurai Red Butterfly boy!! I'm so excited! Now I need to decide if I want a white girl, a red girl or try for this girl: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Female-Half...390929421123?pt=Live_Fish&hash=item5b05359343


----------



## DatBetta

Where did you get the fry I thought they all died? Or are these different frys? Or am I dumb and not all of them died? Or am I even dumber and those arnt betta fry? Lol


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lol lil, I just read your signature!!! Eeek!!  when will you be receiving him?


----------



## lilnaugrim

DatBetta said:


> Where did you get the fry I thought they all died? Or are these different frys? Or am I dumb and not all of them died? Or am I even dumber and those arnt betta fry? Lol


Well if you look at the pictures I say they are Sparkling Gourami fry lol. All the Betta fry died, I have two batches of Sparkling Gourami fry though and three guppy fry.



litelboyblu said:


> Lol lil, I just read your signature!!! Eeek!!  when will you be receiving him?


Why, what's up with my sig? 
Idk, probably not till the week after next. I think Linda's next shipping date is the 13th and I doubt the fish will get to her by then so probably at her next date which hasn't been posted as far as I know.


----------



## BlueInkFish

... Idk, what's up with you sig!?
Lol, ok, whenever you wait for a paid betta it feels forever lol!!!! I don't have the patience that is why I bid on the 2-6 day before they ship too the transhipper


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm just confused. Did you mean my actual sig or in that post where I put the dashed lines and then wrote underneath them that I won the boy, I can see where that looks like a sig but it's not lol.

I don't mind waiting. In most things I have patience for, the only thing I don't have patience for is when I'm filling up my tanks with water and I have to go pee lol!!! But nah, I don't mind the waiting much, it gives me time to prep anyway!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Yes I meant the link of the boy you purchased, I forgot sarcasm doesn't work that great when typing XD!!!!

Lol, same! Getting prep is always great! I already have tanks set up cycling already though


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh okay lol...yeah...didn't work at all XD sorry!

Yeah, I'll probably switch Lyon to the open compartment with my Featherfin Killifish and female CPD and then put the new boy in the 2.5 so I can just keep him separate from everything. Not much prep either but it's sometimes nice for me to just have that time anyway, not that I need it.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lol,  I'm soaking some Ada aquasoil and trying too leach the ammonia, I'm preparing for a new tank set up. But the aquasoil fits perfectly in the 5g but I was planning too add it to the 10g... Uck, so many decisions. I do like the look of nano tanks. Maybe I have another excuse too go to the lfs? Just for Ada aquasoil? "Just"...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol! Just....riiiiggghhhtt :sarcastic:

I love nano tanks too and I'm debating getting the lovely and cute little Fluval CO2 mini system for my 4 gallon and getting some carpet plants going and actually getting my S. Repens to grow. Some of them are actually growing but I've lost two of the stems so far, that's a very minimal loss though so I'm really not worried. So far things are going just great with the Excel dosing daily and Flourish twice a week!

EDIT: Oh and I still want a full grass tank! With Dwarf Hairgrass up front and something taller in the back like Saggitaria or some smaller val or just let the dwarf haigrass get big in the back!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lol! I've been thinking about that same set up forever gosh, so much work, so little time


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yes! Love, love. I once saw a video around two years ago of a Betta Grass tank, the grass was swaying in the filter flow...it was gorgeous! And ever since then I've wanted one! I tried looking for the video but I don't think it exists any more. If I find it I'll certainly post it!


----------



## hrutan

Please do!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I've defeniatley wan carpet plants but I'm so lazy on growing them out lol i would like the experience but buying a carpet would save me time


----------



## Crossroads

Blu, you could try a moss carpet? That's what I'm going to do with my tanks.


----------



## BlueInkFish

yeah, I just don't have any interest in mosses though lol, I'm more interested into s repens and dwarf baby tears as dwarf hairgrass  I am defeniatley lookin into co2


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah I agree on the moss vs. stems--I generally prefer the stems over any of the mosses. Mosses are great for things like trees but I do prefer the stems for the carpets since I'm obsessed with grass like plants haha.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
So I counted about 30-35 gourami fry that I moved over to the .5 gallon and I see no more in the 29 so assumingly either they fell and the dad didn't pick them up or the fish ate them which is probably more viable lol But so far they're healthy! Did a 5% change on the tank :-D


----------



## BlueInkFish

good job lil! Keep up the great work!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks blu! Well even if I don't get Betta fry at least I can successfully sell Sparkling Gouramis since mine breed prolifically apparently! lol I've got to check on how old my older fry are so I can actually keep track of that lol. I think they're two months but I might be wrong. I'll edit when I find it.

EDIT: Oooh! They'll be two months on my birthday next week--the 18th! Or at least that's when I first documented them (7-18-2014)


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow! Time goes by so fast and so do they! There pretty big!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah! I didn't realize how big they were gettin! Some of them are still small but they seem to be growing well! The three guppies are doing well now too and I'm still surprised that they survive being born pre-maturely! They're all eating powdered flakes now too :-D Still combining Decaps BBS though.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Yummy!! Lol, I have a question, do you think my fry are able too eat decapped bbs by now? I also have other types of food that I'm not sure if I can feed them when there a month and almost 3 weeks!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Absolutely! They should have been able to eat them just after a months time :-D


----------



## BlueInkFish

Ok great! Looks like I'll be feed them that and more things, since my ult urea are down atm...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Your what is down??  :lol:


----------



## BlueInkFish

... Auto correct... I meant cultures XD!!! So sorry about my "smart" phone auto correct, I'm so sick of it. -__-


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ahhhh okay, I thought it was along those lines with the maggots and stuff. So yes, you can definitely use small powdered foods at this point :-D Decap BBS are absolutely fantastic!

Speaking of cultures, I need to reculture mine tomorrow. The bed of the cultures have become liquidy which is probably not a good sign and the banana worms aren't happily climbing the walls like they were previously so I figured it's a good time to reculture. I just hope I haven't waited too long >.<


----------



## BlueInkFish

!! I hate when that happens!  my cultures though are pretty healthy I cleaned it yesterday and their already climbing everywhere!!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ohh...you're supposed to clean them? lol XD


----------



## BlueInkFish

Well, if scooping out the worms, putting them in a jar cleaning the tub/home they were in, adding yeast and oatmeal and then adding the worms, means re culturing then yes  haha I'm vocab dictionary ain't that big in fish terms


----------



## lilnaugrim

oooh oh okay, right yes, that's reculturing--gotcha.

Well I'm off to bed shortly, I'm exhausted after this day. This whole week has been bad for me with my stomach being upset. I can't tell if it's from my dental implant aching or my sleep apnea. Although, I'm back on college food which means too many starch/carbs which means not enough veggies and fruits >.< I tried to eat a nice subway sandwich full of veggies with limited mayo on it and it made my stomach feel absolutely horrible--I thought the veggies were supposed to help darnit! I even ate an apple for dinner...yes my whole dinner because my tummy still hurt and even the apple didn't settle well :-/

stupid medical problems. sigh.


----------



## Alaura123

So sorry about the stomach problems lil , hope you feel better soon!
And I totally know what you mean, I get horrible stomach aches from the littlest of things I eat.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I hope your stomache gets better as well!!  Good night! 

-from the whole betta site !


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys :-D I've figured out that it's Post-Nasal drip....again >.<

Got more pictures :-D

Is it strange that I'm actually afraid of my Cray's? They kind of freak me out because sometimes they look like spiders or crabs and I have a rational fear of both of them lol. I actually feel bad about it >.<
This girl thinks she's alpha


Here's the biggest girl


Nomnomnom


And then the "alpha" from the first picture came over to scare the big girl away lol


Jaguar, I love his red undercoloring!


Look at that beautiful regrowth he's gotten!!


Froggie!


So I totally never even fiddled with the settings on my camera much or rather the different options I have. I totally forgot I had fish-eye lens and then I've got some other cool things too! This is done with what my camera calls "Toy Camera" which basically makes it look a little retro but sometimes it uses flash it some of those pictures actually came out decent! So here's Rennie


Jag


I think this was one of my female Killi's, they're settling in decently from what I've observed!


Renoir


Cutie Pierce


20


29


Bentley!! :-D


Gem was really active today!


Very large female Corydoras


I love this picture, it's like "ladies and gentle-fish! Start your fins!"


"And the Sparkler is in the lead!"
 

"Corydora close in second! Looks like the Panda Garra had some starting issues!"


"Looks like the Garra is out of the race!"


Gem again


Stratus and her pretty dorsal


Happy and fat Garra!


I absolutely love this pleco! Her eyes are gorgeous


She's got some damage to her fins but I'm sure that will grow out soon.


Bentley looks a lot bigger than he is but I like the composition here.


My favorite Rabbit Snail!!



All my corydoras like to sit under my crypts.


Sparkler fry


Gem, I really need to clean the GSA off the glass if I can >.<



lol I love when Stratus turns like this, she looks so grumpy




My Pearl was NOT happy when I cornered her to take these pictures lol










Ugg she's so gorgeous!


Gem for size


Again with that "Toy Camera" setting on the Marmorkreb lol


EDIT: oh forgot the pic of my tanks


----------



## BlueInkFish

Omg lil!!! All these pics are beautiful!!! I especially loved the racing pictures XD too cutez!


----------



## Tuigirl

It is always a joy looking at your pictures and animals!
Simply stunning!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Tuigirl!! :-D


----------



## Pippin

I like the toy camera effect on some of your photos...Does it have Monochrome, or Miniature Effect on it? My camera does, and they both are fun.


And Gem is pretty. What species is he?


----------



## MattsBettas

Those are Finnex lights, right? What models are they?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Pippin said:


> I like the toy camera effect on some of your photos...Does it have Monochrome, or Miniature Effect on it? My camera does, and they both are fun.
> 
> 
> And Gem is pretty. What species is he?


Yup! I like the Miniature effect for things that aren't moving lol, it doesn't work too well for my fish though, but I sort of wish I could change where the box is where it is focused :-/ that's the only thing that bugs me, otherwise it's a great setting too for making things look much smaller than they are!

Gem is another Dario Dario (Scarlet Badis or also known as Rainbow Badis depending on your area)



MattsBettas said:


> Those are Finnex lights, right? What models are they?


Yup! Those are the Finnex FugeRay Planted+ ones, 30 inches :-D


----------



## Elsewhere

Man, I have so much to catch up on! Just reading your last page I've realized how much I've missed! Can't wait to be updated on all of your animals, Lil!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> Man, I have so much to catch up on! Just reading your last page I've realized how much I've missed! Can't wait to be updated on all of your animals, Lil!


When I looked at my User CP and the subbed threads and I saw my journal with your name as the recent comment I literally squeed at work I was so excited that you were back! lol. Okay, maybe it's just because it's been a relatively dull day but all the same, I'm so happy!! :-D

Again, WELCOME BACK! :redyay:


----------



## Elsewhere

Aw, Lil, you're way too sweet! I wish I could give you a hug, it's been WAY too long! I missed all of you guys so much!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Internet hugs all the way! Though I do prefer real hugs haha. :-D


----------



## Kaffrin

Just finished reading through a few pages as I've not kept up with journals lately (silly me!) Your tanks are looking so soooooo pretty and clear!
Especially your ludwigia- huuuge looking leaves! I've been trying to get mine to grow better but they just keep on lookin' fugly, lol. (The leaves grow in deformed for some reason) And the puffer is absolutely adorable *-*! They remind me of tiny pups~


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh you know Kaffrin, I'd been meaning to PM you to ask how you've been doing! College and the fish have seriously kept me busy though >.< I'll hopefully remember after I'm done updating here lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So new Sparkler fry are doing great, did a 50% change to the tank today and they're handling that well. I think I'll try raising the baby Bettas similar to the way I'm doing the Sparklers since that seems to be working for me clearly. I still have a poop ton in there and I think my Sparkler adults want to breed again >.> I won't be scooping that batch out if they do, I can only handle so many babies! lol

The older babies have seemingly grown overnight in the 29 breeder box, the biggest three are about a quarter the size of the adults so they're growing fast for being only a little less than 2 months! I do have two runts and I don't think they'll ever catch up but they're eating so I'll leave them be for now. 

All Bettas are fine, I did the Betta Shuffle again and moved Lyon to the 'empty' compartment in between Jag and River. Trapper went into the 3 gallon with the 3 (maybe 4) Marmorkrebs who are doing well. I watched the biggest girl grab the bit of veggie wafer I added this morning and she carried it to her little hiding spot to consume it! lol, oh I laughed at that quite a bit. And then the HMPK girl went into the 2.5 that Lyon was in.

I fed everyone some Mysis and Daphnia today, they all loved it. I found out that my pearl Gourami prefers the tiny daphnia over the larger Mysis :roll: she's almost as long as my Angel so it's not like she's a small Ember tetra or anything lol. She's a strange fish for sure.


----------



## Lucillia

I love crayfish way too much. I was laughing at them today when I went home. They were playing on the piece of driftwood in there, and there was one on top. The top one kept pushing off the rest trying to crawl up. XD The one falling off would just float back down to the bottom of the tank. 
I also put the clay pots in today. As soon as I put them in they all started to crowd around them, looking at them curiously. It was hilarious. I wish I could have gotten a video. I really really like these girls.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they are hilarious! I love my big girl, she's a freaking scardy cat with the other girls but it was hilarious when she grabbed that piece of Veggie Wafer XD so funny! I just hope Trapper doesn't hurt them! I don't think he will since they have claws but you never know with these fish! :roll: lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh man, I can NOT wait to spawn my fish again! I think I'm addicted to breeding fish 

My Sparkler fry are already doing fantastic, fed them some Microworms this morning before I left.

Oh and I did reculture both my Banana's and Micro's, it was sorely needed and I thought I screwed up the Micro's but they turned out good! My numbers are small of course but they're breeding quick! My grindal's have been flourishing too since they've been getting fed almost every single day, they like that lol!! White Worms are doing well too, they like the colder weather, the hot weather just wasn't agreeing with them before and of course actually getting fed helps too >.<

So I'll be getting my Red Samurai Butterfly boy soon, just going to post another pic of him because I can haha. But Luci and I are combining shipping with her big dorsal'd boy and possibly a female from 3Dbettas or a sibling to the boy.


And I found this girl before but she was relisted and I figured why not. She doesn't have the best of form and her butterfly is just cello and irid but I'm hoping it keeps on with his white and her irid. I know irid is dominant of white but I'm just hoping and praying! She's light bodied but has dragon scales, I hope his red is dominant to her orange which I think it is so I know I'm going to get a whole variety of fish....hopefully and then I can just pick the best siblings or breed back to the male or whatever I need. I might even outcross at that point if I find a better girl/male for what I want. But this girl is cheap, she's in the US and she ends on my birthday so I figured it was some sort of strange sign lol!


Though, I sort of wish I'd just gotten his sister instead since she actually had better form as far as her anal fin and her caudal is closer to the D shape of a HM where the other girl is a DeT. But technically I'm going to VT anyway so I guess it doesn't matter at this point. But I have a feeling the DeT girl has a better dorsal than the sister and that's the biggest part of the form I want to improve other than getting that peduncle stronger on the boy since it's so funky.
Here's the sister:


----------



## BlueInkFish

Very exciting, congrats on the auctions! Pls hurry up and breed so I can snatch a fry!

I just love btf hms ...


----------



## beautiful Betta

love your butterfly boy, and girl, good luck with them when you get them.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks you two!! :-D

----------------------------------------------------------------
And thus starts the inondations of facebook notifications to remind me that today is indeed my birthday lol. 

You also know what today is?! Scotland voting for it's Independence!!!!!!!! YAYA! I'm even wearing my Saltire shirt to show my pride and support (not that they can see it, but it's the thought that counts!)

And I have pictures to follow that I took last night! Nothing super fancy but just some updates


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I was just fiddling with my camera again today and I always thought that only the settings on the dial were what I got to play with, well I went to the SCN setting which is generally for portrait use and I found sub-settings where I can change my exposure and shutter speed!!!! Oh I am one very happy fish keeper! There is a setting for "Kids and Pets" for a faster shutter speed so hopefully today I can take some better pictures of my fish!! yayayayayay! :redyay: so suped for that! Okay, pics from last night:

Sparkler babies are growing so fast! Oh and I'm referring to these guys as the babies and the younger batch as the fry so if that helps 'decode' my posts lol. And that yellow thing is one of the three guppy fry in the back there.


They were happy pecking at the Decap BBS


Oh yes and today they are two months old!!




Bentley munching on a veggie wafer! He's getting some real nice red in his fins now!


My largest and oldest female cory on the left, she originally came from my 33 IIRC, they'd gone to Lucillia and then back to me here.


Male Ember Tetra


I'm not sure exactly what I did to my camera but since I've been fiddling with my settings so much, I think it was the tracking that has made my shutter speeds slower so I've been getting long expose pictures with the fish which isn't necessarily what I want. But all the same, I found these next three pics interesting and have titled them "Feeding Time" lol I believe my shutter speed for these were 1 second long so each picture is an exposure of exactly one second during feeding time.




Almost everyone is in this picture except for one male guppy and River lol. But I got the female ADF waiting for food, the Gertudae Rainbowfish, my last Female Pencilfish, and one male and one female Guppy XD


Tuttle was peaking at me while I was taking pictures of the 29 lol!! He's such a cutie


----------



## MattsBettas

Happy birthday, lil! Have a great day .


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt! So far it's all work and then I've got class at 11-12:15 and then I get to go home and play with my fishes! I should probably clean my room too >.< But mom makes my brothers and I special dinners for our birthdays, whatever we chose :-D My little brother's birthday was the 15th (our family is inondated with September birthdays, like I'm literally two days older than my cousin who is on the 20th! and my dad is next week on the 25th lol) so we had Hen on the Nest for that (rice and chicken casserole!) and so since it's nice and cold today, I've asked for my mom's Beef stew which we haven't had in a LONG time so I'm super excited for that! We usually make bisque's for it as well and ugg, it's soooo good!


----------



## hrutan

What? A birthday? Happy Birthday!!


----------



## Crossroads

Happy Birthday Lil!


----------



## Fenghuang

Happy happy happy birthday! :-D


----------



## Alaura123

Happy Birthday!!!


----------



## Tuigirl

Happy Birthday!
Love the babies!
And the Tuttle picture....


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks everyone!! It was a great day in all! Definitely felt the warmth for sure :-D

------------------------------------

Oh and I just won that Butterfly girl! I hope I get some decent babies! I'm feeling much more confident now that I have some fry raising days behind me now and hopefully I've learned my lesson about the water changes and stuff.


----------



## Kaffrin

Wooooh! Happy Birthday! c;

Fabbuuuulous lookin' fry will be coming your way for sure~


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## Lucillia

Mmm... beef stew.... I'm jealous!!! Happy birthday again Lil!! I'm glad it was a good day  And is that cousin the adorably cute one that we all have a crush on? XDDDD


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Kaffrin! I sure do hope so!

Haha, yes Luci, it's Dan that I'm two day's older! He is really adorable (and I say that in a affectionate cousin way because I can), he's so much of a gentleman most of the time but on the same token, it's so freaking silly and does some stupidly funny things some times but he's such a great guy, he really is--I can't say that for all my cousins ^_^ He's still dating Catherine though (We call her C-Minor because his older sister is Catherine too lol! and back in the day, he dated my best friend and your big-Katherine! lol funny world huh), she's a real sweetheart too.


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## lilnaugrim

Holy wow I am tired, like my eyes keep going in an out of focus and it's giving me a headache! Yikes, and I drove like this this morning! I couldn't really skip out of work though, no one to cover my shift.

Anyway, so remember I was talking about that setting for the "Kids and Pets" thingy on my camera? It's supposed to increase shutter speed...well, it'd be fine and dandy if it had a macro option on it >.< Since my camera's focus is technically broken, I can only use the macro shot to get anything from 15 mm's down to 0 mm's, it won't focus even on things that are out at 20 mm's. The lens itself is a 5.0-25.0mm which means it can capture a wild depth of field (lots of things would be in focus) and can [should] zoom back and forth between 5.0-25mm's and be in focus still. But as I said, I broke my focus back in Spain so it doesn't focus on half the objects it should.

So needless to say, I couldn't use that setting and went back to my Program setting to use the macro but even still, I couldn't get many good pictures, I didn't have much patience for it either though, so that doesn't help.

So before I show pics, I'm thinking about selling off a bunch of fish and here's the list:
Gertudae Rainbowfish
HMPK girl
(Renoir is a possibility)
River (was supposed to go to CNDbettas but they never came back on the forum after adopting Patriot from Seki)
Trio of Featherfin Killifish (I know, I just bought these guys :-/)

My pencilfish, CPD female and guppies can stay since they're nice and civil unlike my Rainbowfish who shows off to ANYTHING that is female :roll: he's such a stud lol. But I don't think I can breed the Featherfins if I want to do the Betta's, it'd be too much and I don't feel like I can give them the best life either since they are so shy. 

Oh and I found a baby guppy from the reverse trio I have! I knew she gave birth a few days ago but never found fry so I figured they were all eaten. But I found one and she's already coloring up with some black on her unlike the other three premature fry. You can definitely see the difference from the premature guppies though, they are larger but not by much and I think they're two weeks older than this one? But they ARE growing which is a good sign so they should be fine after all!

Okay pics.

So I kind of freaked when I found my big girl (she's grown some too!) sitting in the Betta log looking at me like this lol. I find her fascinating but scary at the same time. I'm afraid she could pinch me and I have a big fear of pincher things like those Earwig bugs, YUCK. Had a bad time with those as a kid 


Trapper is doing well in the 3 gallon with the four girls, I figured he might pick on them but he's been a good boy so far! Healing well still 




Apparently my camera takes good pictures when the exposure of light is set low so less light is let into the camera lol


She was looking over at Jag who was showing off for her lol


Sorry it's dark again. I just like the layout of the photo, he even built a beautiful bubblenest!


Froggie! I need to feed them today, hopefully I remember to defrost some bloodworms tonight when I get home from band practice.


Oh and Lyon has pop-eye >.< so he's being treated in the 2.5 with KanaPlex and Epsom Salt (1 tsp/gal)


----------



## lilnaugrim

ARRGRGGGRGGG 

So my female came in today and I actually skipped class to go get her but I also had to pick up my photo prints from CVS for my Digital Photography class but the class I skipped I'm way ahead in the class so I'm not missing anything. Besides, this is the class that I was actually asked to be in and skip the first two levels lol! So anyway, I opened her up and GUESS WHO HAS A DAMNED CYST.

I don't know if I can breed her or not now! It's still small and I have pics of it but I know it's genetic which means if I were to breed her then it'd be passed to the children, at least that's what I understand. I could be wrong? Matt, have any input??

She really is cute as all heck though. Here's some pics
After she was first acclimated:


And there is is the cyst :-(


What do I do? Do I contact the seller about it? 






Her face is adorable



She's got some random black flecks on her scales


lol, she was looking at her reflection XD



I do like her tail, lots of branching but it's fairly clean overall for a HM girl.




Here's where you can see the cyst best.



Such nice butterfly though :-(


Baby Gouramis! You can see the smallest one in the back there, she's still doing okay, doesn't eat much but she's swimming around more often which she wasn't doing before so I think being in the 29 has been good for her.


The bigger ones!


----------



## MattsBettas

Ugh, that's too bad. I would watch it for now and see if it grows, and I wouldn't breed her to a dragonscale or partial dragonscale (it looks like that's an issue). Contact the seller, won't hurt. Try to be calm at first lol, I know you know that already. 

Otherwise she's beautiful!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the input Matt, I just don't know what to say? Like 'hey, your fish has a cyst...yep, bye...'? Never had to deal with something like this before. She was going to be bred with my Red butterfly boy coming in, he has some specs of heavy irid but I don't think it'd be enough to cause issue, BUT it's still not exactly something I want to risk if it's going to be life threatening.

I notice that most cysts are on Dragonscaled Betta's, coincidence or not? Are they really pigmentation buildups or cysts? Her's doesn't look like it's protruding out from under the scales like most do but rather built on top but the pigmentation buildups I've personally seen are the color of the scales; white on white or blue on blue. But her's is definitely greyish like how Aero's was.


----------



## MattsBettas

Yea, that's a tricky email to phrase... You could just tell him/her in the politest way possible that your fish has a cyst that (I'm assuming) wasn't mentioned and was not in many of the pictures and that you're extremely dissatisfied, most good breeders will try to amend a situation like that with as little drama possible. 

Even heavy irid isn't ideal, but I don't know... This isn't too common of an issue. Hers is kind of lumpy and definitely that same grey color, so that could mean it's similar to what Aero dealt with... Regardless I would wait to see if and how it grows.


----------



## Sabina88

It looks like I missed your birthday, happy belated birthday 

Also all of your fish look awesome. How's it been going with betta breeding? Any spawns yet?


----------



## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Yea, that's a tricky email to phrase... You could just tell him/her in the politest way possible that your fish has a cyst that (I'm assuming) wasn't mentioned and was not in many of the pictures and that you're extremely dissatisfied, most good breeders will try to amend a situation like that with as little drama possible.
> 
> Even heavy irid isn't ideal, but I don't know... This isn't too common of an issue. Hers is kind of lumpy and definitely that same grey color, so that could mean it's similar to what Aero dealt with... Regardless I would wait to see if and how it grows.


Okay, I think I can word something like that. The other thing is, they only post one picture of the betta they are selling (this seller) and it didn't even occur to me to ask for other pictures since I've never had this happen before. So in a way, I sort of feel like it's on me but also the picture they show is the same side the cyst is on and it doesn't show in the pictures, whether it's the lighting or they reversed the photo to MAKE it look like that side, I'm not sure. Either way though, yes, I am quite dissatisfied :-/



Sabina88 said:


> It looks like I missed your birthday, happy belated birthday
> 
> Also all of your fish look awesome. How's it been going with betta breeding? Any spawns yet?


Thanks Sabina!! :-D

No spawns quite yet, we'd done Osiris and Isis spawn although Isis didn't want to be a mommy so I used Silhouette instead and all three ended up dead with the fry to boot. So I'm going to try for Red Butterflies next whenever my boy comes in and I remedy this new girl's situation. ^^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So the seller replied already and wrote:

"i have looked at other pictures that i have of her it looks like a patch of thick dragon scales, would you be willing to return her for a full refund?"

I don't think it's a thick patch of scaling, idk what I should do though? I could possible ask FantasyBettas if they still have the female to the Samurai boy so I know at least she carries the BF gene and then fix form later on? Gah, this is so frustrating. I should have just got the sister before and avoided all this mess >.< Sucks because I'm a little attached to the girl already but I know it's best if she goes back, it just makes me sad


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## lilnaugrim

Just missed the 20 minute edit, sorry for double--scratch that, triple posting lol.

So turns out the seller doesn't want the hassle of giving me a return label so I can send her back, instead he's letting me keep her and is going to refund me in full lol. I offered the advice to just note in the comments if he see's something like that again, that she may not be the best breeder but will make a fantastic pet or something along those lines.

So that works I guess, I'm going to email FantastyBettas about the Red Samurai butterfly boy's sister to see if they still have her.

Btw, I think I may just call the boy Samurai and call him Sam/Sammy for short lol. I think it fits him ^_^ though, I suppose I shouldn't name him until I actually get him just in case of DOA >.< which I pray not!


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## BlueInkFish

Yay! You get a fish for free!!!! I'm very excited! Keep us updated once you get a new female :blueyay: I'm very jealous of you :lol:!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Merp, sorry for all the updates, it's been a busy morning I guess!!

I just bought Sam's sister, she was still available so I'm going to go ahead with that and fix the form later since that will actually be easier to do than finding color at the moment. The sister really doesn't have that bad of form, at least compared to her brother that is, so we'll see how this all turns out! I might try to breed them right when they get home since I've seen accounts that say they are most eager when arriving over here and make the best spawns. Though, it depends on the condition of which they arrive.

I love it, Linda Olsen is now charging "Room & Board" for fish, one dollar per week and I just found it absolutely adorable and cute that it was in the fee's for shipping XD I totally don't mind paying that since it is more work for her, it's all fair but I just found it really adorable! I wonder how she houses them all, I can just picture walls lined with racks of .5 gallon tanks everywhere lol

So in light of these events, I'm going to adopt out a lot of fish, first offer her will be free adoption but just pay shipping fee of 6 bucks for Priority (unless you want Express then you pay that full fee). Here's the list:

1 Red Butterfly female
1 HM Mustard Gas "Renoir" (I love her but I feel like she doesn't have a place with me anymore since she was bought for breeding. And I need all the space I can get)
1 HMPK MG girl (good with tankmates, very personable!)
1 DeT Red girl "River Song" (great with tankmates, was a PetCo baby so she's still a little small but otherwise healthy)
1 Gertudae Rainbowfish [Male] (preferably should go to someone with other Rainbows, he's very boisterous but is a great little fish!)
1 Female CPD (should go with other CPD's)

I think that's it for now.


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## BlueInkFish

I'm excited you bought her!  I hope you find home for your guys/gals going out!  so how many fish do you have now ? (Bettas)


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## lilnaugrim

Uhhh...let's see...Trapper, Rennie, Pierce, River, HMPK girl, Jaguar, Lyon, new girl I think is all I have at the moment so that is eight at the moment but I'm giving away half of them and then gaining Sam and his sister.


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## BlueInkFish

^__^! I do hope you the best of luck with your new spawn... I'll defeniatley be glued to it.. I'm a fan of the butterfly's if you probably didn't know :lol:?


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## lilnaugrim

lol, I know you are! I like blue butterflies too but Red is so much more unusual for a BF so I'm just naturally drawn to that lol. Plus I started off with Red Betta's actually, it's been a long time since I've had a proper red betta so it's a good time!

--------------------------------------
Oh and I forgot to say that Trapper pretty much marbled completely out to black with blue irid and a white butterfly. So he's like a dark Black Orchid Butterfly :-D


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## Lucillia

I am still considering Renoir. However, I feel as though I should find Black Hawk a better home now. :/


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## lilnaugrim

That's fine! He's your fish and I don't mind what you do with him  I'd be happy to give her to you, you know ^_^


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## Lucillia

I think that her and Sashimi would make a good pair ^^


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## lilnaugrim

I do agree, she'd help give a little more blue band to the fins but I think his yellow would help even things out a bit even though irid (blue) is dominant by far. She's fairly small too, not terribly but small enough that Sashimi would be fine wrapping her


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## Lucillia

Lets do it! XD Maybe I will just do everyone at once. That would make things easier, and babies would be ready to show by the show next year! I'm glad I'm getting my cultures early. They should be grown enough by December right?


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it would be easier to do the two at once if you wanted to do two lines. It's obviously more work, you'll really have to keep up those daily changes but I know you can do it! By December they should be decent sized, not fully grown but they should be big enough to sell at that point :-D

I can give her to you next week when our fishes come in


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## Lucillia

Okay so I need to get 3 places set up for Bettas... OH! I investigated my 2.5 after you left... >.> There's Planaria clinging to my hanging plants. I'm grossed out.


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## lilnaugrim

The Aqueon? or do you have a 2.5 Mini-bow that I didn't see? Yeah, I absolutely hate planaria, idk why but it grosses me out so bad, I think it's because it reminds me of tape worms. Yuck, absolutely disgusting.


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## Lucillia

They make me think of almost any nematode honestly, and you know how I feel about those. I guess I have them because I haven't changed the tank since Requiem passed away. :<


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I know lol. But yeah, I guess so but if that's the case then all my tanks should have planaria XD


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## BettaLover1313

Happy belated birthday!

I can't wait to hear about your spawn, I hope the boy and his sister arrive safe and sound. I'll be eagerly reading your threads for news on that front. I also hope you find homes for all your guys and gals that you're rehoming.


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## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Happy belated birthday!
> 
> I can't wait to hear about your spawn, I hope the boy and his sister arrive safe and sound. I'll be eagerly reading your threads for news on that front. I also hope you find homes for all your guys and gals that you're rehoming.


Thanks BL1313!! :-D

Yeah, I hope this time I can keep everyone alive! And thanks, I'm thinking about putting Rennie and HMPK girl on Aquabid, HMPK girl for sure since she's a quality fish and I'd really like to see her be bred. River, I couldn't care less where she ends up, though I'm not sure if she'll live too long since a year seems about average for PetCo babies. I'm not so attached to her though, I'm much more attached to Jag lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So sold a bunch of plants, woot woot! Which means my paypal is full again, yay! And I'm getting paid tomorrow, THANK GOD, and then paying Linda Olsen her shipping stuff.

But apparently I accidentally overdrafted my college bank account because it's linked with my paypal and I forgot that >.< But there's something else weird about it so I had to contact the stupid bank again to find out what the heck it was since it didn't look like a normal overdraft fee, actually they didn't charge me an overdraft, I've never overdrafted that account before except for when someone stole my card number and started buying stuff, that was remedied quickly thankfully.

Anywho, fish are fine, did some trimming and fed Tuttle some snails, he was very happy with that. I also fished out all of my duckweed as well in my 29 and I kept singing "I can see clearly now the duckweed's gone! I can see all my fishes swimming around!" haha.

Also, a really good, cheap alternative to ice cream is using a store brand low fat Whipped Cream in the tub and freeze it, it doesn't fully become solid but like a soft ice cream. I just take a little bit out when I feel like it but it also tastes amazing with some chocolate syrup drizzled on! Nice and easy! I actually forgot about doing that since we don't normally buy Whipped Cream but we did the other day and I remembered ^_^


----------



## Lucillia

Mmm.. I miss doing that with cream. Its so good. 
I need to sing that the next time I clear the 20 of duckweed XD I honestly just need to put Pistachio in there for a day and it will be all set. I'm considering it... is that bad?


----------



## lilnaugrim

I think you should do the smallest calico there, it would be easier on the bioload for the 20 even though it would just be a day or so lol! I don't think it's much bad at all if it's just temporary, he'll just get a fantastic meal is all! haha I was actually considering it for my 29 too >.< I literally took out a cup full of Dwarf Water lettuce so I can sell that, it's one of the Wal-Mart Betta cups so it's larger than the PetCo ones and it's literally stuffed full of it and overflowing with JUST the dwl lol!!


----------



## Alaura123

Oh I have to try that!! Never even heard of it before, which is surprising!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sent plants off this morning.

Ugg, what a terrible financial week :-( I accidentally overdrafted my college account because I didn't realize Paypal was drawing from that account and so now I have a 29 dollar overdraft fee that I'm trying to fix, they are helping me though and have put in for a request to waive the fee actually, I didn't even ask for it but okay. It's the first time this has happened in 5 years so I guess they like me.

THEN I found out that I didn't get paid this week....or rather the last TWO weeks since it's every other week. I looked on my timecard and found out that I filled out THIS week's card and not the previous card so I literally have nothing. My boss even approved this week thinking that they were the check from before and I'm so ticked, he shouldn't even be able to approve future hours like that, it's not right! So thank God for my savings account but seriously, this sucks terribly.

I keep forgetting to say though that since my dad, my little brother and I's birthday's are within two weeks of each other, that he bought us all a birthday present! We're going to go see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood tonight at the Foxwood's theater!!! I'm SOOOOO excited! I grew up with these guys on Who's Line is it Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll fangirl everywhere and probably pee my pants from laughing too much lol!!

Oh and I came home on...Wednesday I think it was and found something on the porch of our house....mom got me another 10 gallon tank lol. Too bad for telling me that the electricity is too high :roll: it's like she WANTS me to keep going with this thing...actually she does lol, she just doesn't like the electricity but I did offer to help pay and she refused. I just thought it was really funny, it's got some moss and some wood in it, looks like it was used for newts or something so I just need to rinse it out and make sure it holds water before I can use it lol. She's really funny sometimes XD


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Sent plants off this morning.
> 
> Ugg, what a terrible financial week :-( I accidentally overdrafted my college account because I didn't realize Paypal was drawing from that account and so now I have a 29 dollar overdraft fee that I'm trying to fix, they are helping me though and have put in for a request to waive the fee actually, I didn't even ask for it but okay. It's the first time this has happened in 5 years so I guess they like me.
> 
> THEN I found out that I didn't get paid this week....or rather the last TWO weeks since it's every other week. I looked on my timecard and found out that I filled out THIS week's card and not the previous card so I literally have nothing. My boss even approved this week thinking that they were the check from before and I'm so ticked, he shouldn't even be able to approve future hours like that, it's not right! So thank God for my savings account but seriously, this sucks terribly.
> 
> I keep forgetting to say though that since my dad, my little brother and I's birthday's are within two weeks of each other, that he bought us all a birthday present! We're going to go see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood tonight at the Foxwood's theater!!! I'm SOOOOO excited! I grew up with these guys on Who's Line is it Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll fangirl everywhere and probably pee my pants from laughing too much lol!!
> 
> Oh and I came home on...Wednesday I think it was and found something on the porch of our house....mom got me another 10 gallon tank lol. Too bad for telling me that the electricity is too high :roll: it's like she WANTS me to keep going with this thing...actually she does lol, she just doesn't like the electricity but I did offer to help pay and she refused. I just thought it was really funny, it's got some moss and some wood in it, looks like it was used for newts or something so I just need to rinse it out and make sure it holds water before I can use it lol. She's really funny sometimes XD


Not gonna lie, really jealous that you get to see Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood! I'm sure you'll have a lot of laughs with those two!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha thanks BL1313, I'm so excited and nervous all at once because apparently they pick from the audience too to play with them >.< I'm not exactly stage shy but I'm pretty sure I'd faint from just being so close with them haha!!! That's at 8 tonight so three more hours until I have to leave to get there for 7:30 to meet dad ^_^ Definitely one of the best birthday gifts too.

Dad is adorable sometimes, he tried real hard too. I had hinted to him about getting a new earring for my cartilage piercing but he found these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sterling-Si...204157?pt=Fashion_Jewelry&hash=item5d503e13fd which I'd actually looked at before and he gave them to me last night and went "Look! Betta fish!" he was so adorable and so I looked at them and corrected that they were Goldfish while I chuckled at him and he sort of looked sad and said that it said Betta fish on the site and then I explained I'd looked at them already and that they were actually goldfish but it was okay because I still liked them! So I'm wearing them today to show him I actually do like them!

Also, in searching for that link I just found this and drooled over it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Handcrafted...808?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2334441e58 it's probably not something I'd wear everyday but I'd totally wear them to my Fish meetings and events lol!!

Also, Luci, you need to get this for your mom: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEWARE-OF-A...279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c9094f7f


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## Tony2632

Happy late birthday lilnaugrim. I love the 2 links you posted, I don't wear earrings, because I'm a guy, but I do still love them.


----------



## Lucillia

I need to make my sculpey goldfish earrings!!! I may try it today! and YES XD I love that sign. I would hang it right over the tank.


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## lilnaugrim

Tony2632 said:


> Happy late birthday lilnaugrim. I love the 2 links you posted, I don't wear earrings, because I'm a guy, but I do still love them.


Ppssssh, you could _totally_ pull off dangly earrings!! haha. I just love the fact it's an MGPK which I absolutely adore!!

And thank you very much!! :-D



Lucillia said:


> I need to make my sculpey goldfish earrings!!! I may try it today! and YES XD I love that sign. I would hang it right over the tank.


Yay goldfish earrings!! Since I already saw the pictures, I want one with Remmy colors but I can't decide if I want it hanging or around the ring itself like you were describing.


----------



## Lucillia

Do you have a captive ring like mine? Or is it a regular loop? And I can almost guarantee you will have hair get stuck every now and then. I was thinking of doing those like I did my treble clef on my bar, but also making it into an ear cuff too. My other idea is to have it curve with my captive and have it actually sit on the ring itself. I would have to make the hole a little bigger so it slides though, other wise the captive won't fit my ear well any more. Is yours a 16 or an 18?

Also our plants should be here today, and I need your opinion when we get together on painting the goldies. :/ I made little sculpey eyes but everytime I put a pupil I hate it. Even if I put a light reflection. It just makes it ugly. :/


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's not a captive ring I found out but there are prongs in the ball I think that I have to literally pry off to get off :-/ I don't like it. I think I need to go to a piercer just to get it off to switch it out >.< My hair ALWAYS gets stuck in it from day one, it's got a small opening where the loop doesn't quite hit the ball so hair is always getting in it, it doesn't bother me so much now though but I do want to change it out eventually >.< I could bend the loop but I'd like to keep it just in case or something.

It's a 16.

Don't use black, use a dark brown or umber color to make it less harsh ^_^


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## Alaura123

Imagine if you could get betta earrings custom made to look like your betta? That would be awesome!!!! xD
Must start looking...


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm seriously going to explode soon. Financial issues still alive and well over here and I'm sick of being lied to and trampled over like a stupid floor rug.

I got my refund card balance resolved but then my stupid paypal drew from it AGAIN even though I have some money on my paypal, WTF. I'm so sick of this and for some stupid reason I can't unhook my accounts right now.

I missed my lunch yesterday in order to find out what the heck was up with my Student Loans and grants which I haven't gotten yet. I found out that I didn't have any up at the moment so the guy supposedly fixed it for me but I still can't accept my loans on my page and he told me that I was going to get it either today (as in yesterday) or tomorrow (today) but nothing so far. I'm sick of that stupid building just handing me lies, they never help me.

And then my boss, oh oh my boss, this guy, seriously. He freaking argues with me every chance he gets, blames me for everything--that's what a student help is good for right? >.> On Monday I'd explained that "I didn't get paid last week" meaning I didn't get my check at all deposited (direct deposit). and for the average worker here, they would assume that I wasn't paid at all because we all get paid every two weeks not weekly. Well he assumed that I meant I only got paid for one week and not the other which makes absolutely no sense. So we argued about that while I tried to figure out what the heck he was trying to say.

After that bit he told me "Never say you are confused, it means you are giving up," and I just had to stare at him, I was going to explain what I really meant but he cut me off and practically made me promise to say I'd never say it again. What I'd really like to do is tell him "No, when I say I'm confused it means that I am literally confused and that I want more information becuase it's not clicking in my brain just yet." He thinks he knows everything.

On top of that, I tried to get him to write out what he meant on paper because I'm a visual learner, not audio. He absolutely refused and told me that I was cheating and that I don't need to learn like that....WTF. I am so sick of seeing him every day.

Then on Tuesday I had to wrap my wrist up because it hurt from the extreme barometric pressure change we had, I'd broken it as a kid so the calcium buildups kill when the pressure gets to them. So the compression felt good to my wrist and he made fun of me "oh you're young, take that off, you don't need that. You'll bounce right back," thanks for making fun of some of my disabilities F you very much.

And then today...oh how I loved coming into work today....I came to a note on my desk saying "Why did you think these went to Chandlee [professor here], this is wrong" and I was like....BECAUSE FOLEY TOLD ME THAT'S WHERE IT WENT! Denise Foley is one of our girls who handles the purchasing for the labs, I go to one of the three when the package has no name on it to figure out where it goes since they know. She looked at it and went "oh yeah, that's Chandlee's, he says to put it in room 225 for some reason," so I was happy to hear that "oh good, I'll just put it with the other one, we called and he wants it in 219 which is his prep lab" "Why did he say 225 then?" "it's his teaching room but 219 is the prep lab where the fridge is" I explained, she nodded and I went on my merry way. Come to find out, she told me the wrong name and I get the blame for it. It was an expensive sample that had to be frozen and go to another lab and it almost didn't but Chandlee caught it when he went to check his stuff and they found out it went to the Sun lab instead. That was after I'd left to class though.

I don't mind getting the blame but when clearly it's not my fault, it starts to pile up. Normally these kinds of things I can just brush off, my boss has his ways and that's fine but this whole week has just been a huge pile up of bad things, I need SOMETHING good to happen this week before I explode.

I found out yesterday I have an overdue hospital bill for my crutches, my phone bill is up, I have photos waiting at CVS to be picked up and paid for, I have new photos I need to print before Monday but I need money, I need gas for my car, I'm apparently not getting my student loans, I missed the date to apply for graduation (though I'm doing it today so hopefully they accept it), I don't know who my advisor is because they change every single stupid semester that I changed to Art Major, Mother Nature came a'knocking this morning so I'm certainly not happy about that.

In the end I know things will work out, they almost always do whether it's the way I want them to go or not. It's already working this morning at least, Denise Foley accepted responsibility for the package since she thought I meant the other package even though it was it my hand, the purchase order numbers were different. My boss still tried to blame me for not paying attention though...how am I supposed to pay attention when I have no idea in the first place? It's not like I have a buzzer to say "you gave me the wrong name!"....right. But I talked with the girls upstairs and expressed my exasperation to Denise Brown, one of the other girls and she gave me candy to make me feel better lol. She's a sweet lady, well they all are actually and they know I work hard here.

Again, sorry for the rant. I probably should have just put this in the rant thread but I didn't feel like clogging it up :-/ And I haven't updated here in a while either.

Well fish are fine, for some reason I've lost all my sparkler fry except one...or at least one that I can find...I really should have stuck with the "rare" water changes since that seemed to work doing only two small water changes a week for the .5 gallon because when I did a slightly larger change (20%ish) every day or every other day, all my fry died....Do they die when you take out too much water too quickly or something? Water was still dripped in over the day at 1 drop per second practically. I don't understand. 

Lyon still has pop-eye, need to do a water change for him today and add more meds. Other Bettas are good. We'll be getting our AquaBid purchases next week from Linda.


----------



## Tuigirl

Oh my god, that is a pile.
I hope it is getting better next week!
Try to find some peace and quiet during the weekend!


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## lilnaugrim

Unfortunately weekends aren't peaceful and quiet :-/ I have to send out plants Saturday morning and then we have a football game (we get there at 9am and the game is done around 3:30-4). Sunday is church and then I forget what I have to do during the day...I have something, and then KKY meeting at night :-( it's going to be a loooong meeting too.

I pray this doesn't drag until next week but at this moment I'm not too hopeful.

Right after I posted about Denise Foley happily taking the blame, I had Yingxi come down from the Sun lab where that package was supposed to go. I'd just gotten the FedEx shipment in when she came down and said "I came down to get package, one delivered yesterday went to wrong place and I don't trust whoever delivers" and I just sort of stared at her since she's been this sweet little girl (okay I think she's a year older than me but w/e) all along and very kind to me! She knows I deliver the packages! I told her I still had to log it in so she waited right besides me and watched me over my shoulder as I logged it in :shock: I've never had this happen before...I've been there for a year and a half now.

I'm not mad at her or anything, it was just sort of a shock on top of everything else and just left me dumbfounded. I then went to my Art History class to absolutely ace my first quiz, I only mixed up two dates that were right after each other (1675 and 1680). Otherwise I really like this class, it's American Art and our first project if we so choose, is to go out and study the Gravestones from 1600-1799 and document what we find. There are three graveyards around my area that I want to study (oh, that's what I have to do Sunday lol). I find it absolutely fascinating! I could tell you all about early American art now lol, I've never been this interested in Art History besides History of Animation; that class was THE best class ever!

Sorry I tend to write my posts at night while MASH is on so I'm watching it while trying to write this so it takes me practically the whole hour to get through the post lol.

I fed my fishes today Daphnia and Bloodworms, the frogs were ecstatic to get food. I'm worried about Tuttle, he seems to be refusing to eat. He's afraid of the bloodworms I put in, I've tried Grindal Worms and White Worms, he shies away. I think he ate the MTS I put in and will go for the Ramshorns but his belly goes down really quickly after he eats anything. I need more snails for him but have no money to buy any >.> I want to get blackworms but I'm still grossed out by them and there is no guarantee he'll eat them. I have to do some research on it to see what might be bothering him. Water parameters are all in check, he has plenty of plant cover...He doesn't seem to be scared of my face as much anymore so he's getting used to me but still hates the tweezers and anything moving around him >.> He's practically depleted my bladder snail farm too  I'm trying to multiply them as fast as I can while I try other foods but he simply refuses!

If anyone wants to give me Bladder snails, I'd be much obliged, so would Tuttle.


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## Alaura123

I am so sorry about all the troubles 
Don't worry, it'll get better.

I have one bladder snail, at least I think it is,
If I had more, I would definitely give you some. :-(
I will look through the pet store the next time I go, and if I ever see eggs, I will let you know.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you Alaura, I'm going to try to make this the best day this week. Already I've gotten dressed and only when I got to school did I realize that I actually look nice whereas yesterday I wore sweatpants so it helps to make me feel better. Then Cumberland Farms (gas station/convenience store chain around here) has Free Coffee Friday's!!! I was so ecstatic when I went in to find that I didn't need to spend a dollar and six cents on my coffee! Well I normally will get Dunkin' but it's too expensive for me right now and I have lots of pennies, just no real dollars right now. So I pocketed my change and went for the Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino! Yummy! It's good not only for the taste but staving off hunger as well.

And last night I've gotten two offers for pest snails so I think I might be okay on that end! I'm going to spread them through my tanks to help populate them and hopefully get a nice farm going for Tuttle! He didn't look happy this morning, I'll need to do another change on his tank, I think the nitrates are getting to him. They're sensitive to water quality so I definitely need to keep his tank in check at the moment. Apparently also DP's are prone to Internal Parasites as some still are wild caught but what makes me believe he doesn't have that and is just a finicky eater is that he was eating like a king before, he'd eat all the snails I'd give him, though he still shied away from bloodworms and white worms even though the white worms were alive and wriggling >.>

Thanks for the support everyone. Hopefully I can get some pictures up for you all since it's been a while and I feel like I owe you guys some pics right about now ^_^


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## Pandanke

Did you end up finding a home for the red butterfly the girl who showed up with the cyst/heavy scaling or whatever it is? Not that my husband wouldn't kill me, but I've got a boy going into another tank this week, leaving his existing filtered/heated/cycled tank open and I've really wanted to try a female.


----------



## Pandanke

Also I have a load of ramshorn snails and other assorted snails if you happen to need those. I keep tossing them into my spare 10g and I have... so... many... I really should get a dwarf puffer.


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## lilnaugrim

I had someone interested in her but they said they had to convince their family and that was on Monday, I haven't heard from them since. I'm not sure what to do here since I'd like to get them out as soon as I can since the fish will be coming in this coming week and while I have room, I'd prefer to have to change as little of 1 gallons as I can. If you could give me the shipping/payment (she's 5 bucks) for tomorrow I can send her out tomorrow morning. Or if you just want to pay the 6 dollar shipping and we trade for snails, I'd be happy to do that and just send me everything you don't want ^_^ But I'd be more inclinded to give her to you rather than the other person, especially since they haven't been on since then and I don't like when people don't keep me updated if they want something from me.


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## Pandanke

Well, how about I send the 6$ now, and come Monday when I pull from my tanks (doing a plant exchange with a guy on another forum anyway) and if I am able to catch enough snails that I think it is worth it I'll send them, otherwise I'll pay the other 5$?

It seems like some days I can't catch any, and other days they're easy to get and I don't want to have issues with that.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sure, that's fine by me ^_^ I'll PM you for details.


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## lilnaugrim

Sam and his sister came in today!!! :shock: I was shocked to come home to find a package from Linda Olson sitting on my piano bench!! I quickly grabbed it up and opened it up to find four little fishes! Two are Luci's and two are mine. All came in healthy and alive, though very miserable as they were cold! Luci and I met up on a whim, exchanged some plants and the fish! :-D

I've now added Ludwigia Peruensis to my plant list, woot woot, we'll see if it grows though since it came in a little wimpy. It came from BamaPlants.

Sam is so much smaller than his sister! I was not expecting that at all, he's absolutely adorable little fish though! I'll need to let him grow out before I do any breeding with the two. I'm thinking I might just call his sister Rai (rye) for Sam(u)rai lol, I am SOOO creative aren't I? XD :lol:!!

Pictures!

Gem! Dario and Gem have been spending a lot of time together lately...nothing aggressive either which I find strange for two male Dario Dario's since they're generally more territorial but they apparently seem to be enjoying each others company more or less from what I can see. It's rather interesting behavior.


Sammie! Unfortunately none of my pictures of Rai came out well so no pics of her just yet.




My 29, the Ludwigia Peruensis looks huge against my Ludwigia Repens Broadleaf. I actually thought it was Alternanthera Reineckii when I first got it from Luci but upon more research, it is actually Ludwigia which means those first "Alternanthera's" way back last year I got from my LFS were actually Ludwigia Peruensis since the leaf patterns are much different. L. Peruensis is one leaf per node and it alternates after each leaf, A. Reineckii is two leafs per node and also alternates each node. Strange since my L. Repens has two nodes per leaf and alternates which is why I was confused on the L. Peruensis vs. A. Reineckii.


Calico is doing well and fat with all the algae she eats lol. I think I'll just call her Calico.


20, I haven't done much with it in a while.


I was shocked when I got this picture! Especially since my camera was being rather finicky in the lighting.


4 gallon with a few new sprigs of the Peruensis. Also, my pygmy chain sword grew a chain inside my rock wall there and then went towards the middle of the tank lol, I laughed when I saw it growing up from the rock wall XD


Tuttle is NOT happy with me  I hope he makes it, he's been acting more lethargic lately.



And just some other pictures from my latest Digital Photography project, we were focusing on Light.



One of my favorites with the ripple in the water, it's of our local river called Woodriver, lol we have such creative names here.


This kid was at the waterfall with me although he didn't know I was there so this made for some nice pictures as I stood on the bridge XD I like the composition of the photographer and the frame.


This is not part of the project but we have this adorable Mourning Dove who figured out how to land on our bird feeder. Normally doves are bottom feeders and eat whatever falls but aparently it wasn't enough for her XD For the first two weeks or so, landing was very awkward and she fell off quite a few times or couldn't figure out how to hop around and get to the other side, she eventually figured it out and is an expert at navigating a bird feeder now! She wastes a lot though because she picks through the seeds for the ones she wants (little white ones) and the rest end up on the ground :roll: so we literally have to fill the feeder twice a day but we also have a crap ton of Tufted Titmouse's that had babies and flock the feeder all day long along with a small family of Nuthatches who are my favorite since they have such attitude and constantly display to each other and try to warn off the other birds lol.


One of the may Tufted Titmouse's we have around, he went for the biggest nut in there XD


And my baby cousin Alanna when we were on the hayride last week, she's such a little doll!


Back to the project, the Woodriver in the morning light


I love this picture, light painting!


The leaves were just so bright!


And night light painting, this is my favorite picture


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## lilnaugrim

oh GREAT. I get my college account out of debt and then my regular account goes into debt from a transaction I made over TWO WEEKS AGO. AAAGHGHHHGHGHH. And my student loan still has YET to come in and since I was promised to get it next week, guess who gets to skip lunch yet again (my only free block today) to go see those stupid money sucking donkey's they call financial advisers.

I just keep thinking about this picture:








And this one:


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## JHatchett

Ugg. I feel your pain. I completed school and my student loans are still a major headache.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I'm extremely grateful that my mom works at URI so I get free tuition but I still have around 15,000 in loans which I know isn't nearly as bad as what most pay but honestly, I'm an art major and I'm going to have to move if I'm going to get any sort of good job that will actually pay off my loan and still feed my fish addiction lol.

-----------------------------------------------
So I took some pictures and a video which is still uploading but my Sparklers are breeding again and I actually got to see them embrace!

So I got home and noticed there were some older fry in the dwarf water lettuce and so I start to suck them out to put them in the .5 gallon to grow out so they weren't eaten. Some of the gourami's did eat some the fry >.< but most sources say they don't normally eat their young but w/e, it happens. But I knew they stood no chance against Stratus and the Pearl boy so I took out what I could catch and then realized that my dominant pair of Sparklers were being agressive again so I figured they were going to breed soon.

I sat there watching them and taking pictures and I watched the female go into an 45 upwards angle with her head up, tail down. The male approached her and they sidled up against each other and positioned and actually wrapped! I sat there shocked! They released but nothing came out so the male went off towards the back of the tank. The female kept to the front and defended her area there while the male tended to his nest.

They embraced more times and I found out that they only pop out one egg at a time unlike Bettas! The male quickly turns around to grab the egg and go put it up in the nest. They must do this over quite a many hours to get the 40-60 average fry if they pop out an egg every 5 minutes or so. A few of their embraces didn't work out so I only really saw three or four eggs be popped out, it was so cool.

I finally realized that his nest was under some Dwarf Water lettuce in the back but above my small 4 inch java fern windlov that has been floating there for a while now. Most of the fry that had survived from the last batch were still sitting in that plant! The male didn't bother them at all and honestly seemed to protect them but it might just be because his nest was directly above them. He'd spit the eggs up into the nest and catch them when they'd accidentally fall. It was simply amazing!

Here's some pics while my video finishes uploading hopefully in the next few minutes, if not I'll just show it tomorrow.

So mr. Pearl is finally showing his pointed dorsal and extended rays!


Here's Gem


Stratus is such an attention hog haha! I love her face!



Dario is quite the attention hog as well, he didn't want to stay still for me to take pictures.




Calico! Look at her beautiful eyes!



She's not as small as she looks, still a juvie for sure but she's growing well. All her fins grew back already as well! Her dorsal is just so beautiful


I love that it looks like she has little chipmunk cheeks ^_^


One of the largest Sparkler babies with the youngest guppy baby beside him.


And they're horrible pictures but you can get the gist of their spawning!


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## Schmoo

I love the names for all your wee ones!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Schmoo!


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## lilnaugrim

Here's the video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjpXQy4Dp0&feature=youtu.be

First attempt happens at :30 which is unsuccessful. You can see the male pop off and look for the egg lol.

Second attempt happens at 2:02 which is successful! You can then see the male grab the egg and swim off to the nest. Unfortunately my card ran out of space there and so it cut off the video right when I went to follow him >.<


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## BettaLover1313

Wow! Congrats on the eggs! Hopefully you'll get more fry.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313! I'm up to my neck in fry and potential fry! haha. I sort of wish that my Betta's and Gourami's would spawn at the same time so I could just put all the fry together, that would make things so much easier. I need to let Sam grow up a little more so he'll be able to wrap Rai XD he's so small compared to her!

Oh I'm a derp, I remembered my Excel this morning but not to throw a few worms into the .5 gallon for the babies >.< good thing I'm home early today to feed them!


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## lilnaugrim

That moment of pure satisfaction when you need to write a 2-3 page paper and you struggle to keep it under 3 full pages. It's a rare moment when I struggle to keep things under a certain page limit so I fully rejoice in this. Yes it's only 3 pages and plenty of people are writing 15 page essays and 45+ page theses but it's still nice to know that I can write so much more when normally I have an issue with fluff since I like to get right to the facts on these sort of essay's.


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## lilnaugrim

So the more I think about it the more I want to do it. Let's just look at a certain trend at the moment:

eleven 2.5 month old Sparkler babies survived in a .5 gallon with barely a weekly change with a turkey baster to take out the big chunks.

twenty five Sparkler fry died when I started to do daily water changes, and they died immediately even though water was dripped in at 1 drop/sec practically through the day. 

Only difference was I used water from the 29 primarily for the first batch, the others were new water that was conditioned. Is there something wrong with my newly conditioned water?

And then of course Betta fry, water changes done and I killed them.

I'm wondering if I should fully planted my 10 gallon and breed Sam and Rai in that instead of a bare tank. I realize cleaning will be different but if I can get my plants to grow and the tank to be established before I breed then I feel like I'd have a better chance of keeping fry alive by doing smaller water changes with established water. Clearly something I was doing was wrong and I assume it was just using newly conditioned water instead of established water? Idk, it confuses me since it is well water and the only thing we have a lot of are heavy metals so I use API Tap Water Conditioner (it is also 1 drop per gal like Prime) at double dose generally, I don't have chlorine or anything else nasty in the water system.

What do you guys think? Any opinions on this Matt?


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## Lucillia

Even though I don't have the nasty metals, I have the nasty cholorine. My goal is to plant the 10 well before hand, I'm already doing so with the guppies in there. Seems good so far, I have just water sprite and duckweed. But I feel like it counts. Did you test the water at all before you did the changes? I think I'll probably do that too. Do we know what the babies like for nitrates? 

I demand more pictures of Sam and Rai. And the sparklers... And if you feel like unloading some of the sparklers to me I'd be more than happy. They are really really cute!! I love their blue eyes.


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## lilnaugrim

You said you didn't want any!!! lol

And yeah, hopefully I'll have some time tonight to take pictures! No photo class today! I'm excited to get out "early" today!!

No, I didn't test the water that came out, why would that matter? Or did you mean test the water that was going in?

Nitrates aren't harmful until after ~60-70 ppm or so, so anything under 40 should be acceptable but in a planted tank, there really shouldn't be that many.

But I'm talking about fully planting with sand/gravel, root tabs, flourish (probably no excel), lights, filter, the works.


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## MattsBettas

lilnaugrim said:


> So the more I think about it the more I want to do it. Let's just look at a certain trend at the moment:
> 
> eleven 2.5 month old Sparkler babies survived in a .5 gallon with barely a weekly change with a turkey baster to take out the big chunks.
> 
> twenty five Sparkler fry died when I started to do daily water changes, and they died immediately even though water was dripped in at 1 drop/sec practically through the day.
> 
> Only difference was I used water from the 29 primarily for the first batch, the others were new water that was conditioned. Is there something wrong with my newly conditioned water?
> 
> And then of course Betta fry, water changes done and I killed them.
> 
> I'm wondering if I should fully planted my 10 gallon and breed Sam and Rai in that instead of a bare tank. I realize cleaning will be different but if I can get my plants to grow and the tank to be established before I breed then I feel like I'd have a better chance of keeping fry alive by doing smaller water changes with established water. Clearly something I was doing was wrong and I assume it was just using newly conditioned water instead of established water? Idk, it confuses me since it is well water and the only thing we have a lot of are heavy metals so I use API Tap Water Conditioner (it is also 1 drop per gal like Prime) at double dose generally, I don't have chlorine or anything else nasty in the water system.
> 
> What do you guys think? Any opinions on this Matt?


That's a good observation, it will be interesting to see if it's just coincidence... But it sounds like it's not. 

Have you tested fresh tap water, compared to at least 24 hour old water from a tank (without anything that would otherwise affect pH) to see if the pH changes? It could shift a bit, and while adult fish would be able to handle that the young ones may not. It's not like they would go into shock, it would just be a lot of stress. You have a lot softer water than I do, so this is more likely in your case.


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## lilnaugrim

I do have lower pH but I still have 3dKH which isn't a ton of Alkalinity but my pH is relatively stable. I'll test tonight when I get the chance to see if there is any difference. From what I've tested before though, there isn't much difference.

I believe my Home Depot passes out free water testing kits for one test which I think includes the different metals. I'll have to check that out just to check my tap and see what there is there ^_^

Even still though, with my schedule, it's going to be hard if I want to spawn my fish, since I'm barely home Monday and Wednesdays and even most weekends so I think it will be beneficial to my fish if I do a planted breeding tank. I can use water wisteria and some other short plants at first while the water line is lower and then increase it and continue to plant as the fry grow. It would help with the GSH as well in the babies.


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, results from tap (shower where I draw my water from)

pH: 6.0 (or lower, I want to get a lower pH test kit)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
GH: 4
KH: 2

So it's changed since last time I checked, yeah I know I should be testing my water more often >.< It's not an issue for regular planted tanks with my fish lol. But I left my water out on the counter (no conditioner) to see if it changes tomorrow. I also tested the pH on the sink and it was the same. I'll test my tanks tomorrow or tonight after Hogan's Heroes is over to see what the results are.


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## MattsBettas

Your (tap) water is... Beautiful.


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks Matt. Yeah, I'm happy with my well water overall. Though, I wish I did have a bit more dKH to keep things more stable since last time I tested my 29, the pH was at 7.0....we'll see what it is tomorrow when I get home.

So, overall approval of a fully planted spawning tank? I'm sure it's been done before?


----------



## Lucillia

Im so jealous of your water.


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## MattsBettas

Fully planted? Oldfishlady and a few others have done it... I've never seen as good yields from them thought he fish they produce are generally stronger, albeit slower growing. It might be easier to get a spawn in the typical western setup.

You could always just set up a cycled aging tub to use for water changes...


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## lilnaugrim

I could, the issue is space. At the moment, I really don't have much space in my room as we're still in the transitional stages of getting old stuff out and new stuff in :-/ I could put it in the bathroom but I'm pretty sure my brother would throw a fit, annoying little brat that he is. Love him but sometimes...well, he IS my little brother so I don't expect much more lol.

If I did fully planted, I'd still do the water changes but on Monday/Wednesday I have not much time (I get up at 5:30, shower and eat breakfast and leave the house by 6:20 and then get home around 8:30-9 and go to bed >.<) so for those two days the plants would at least give me some help. Do you know if OFL did the daily changes still or just let them be?

And by western setup you mean? the bare bottom, floating plants, sponge filter and water changes?


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## MattsBettas

Western setup is what most hobbiests in the US and Canada do... Bare bottom teh gallon, one decoration, a few plants, and a site to anchor the nest (there's room for some variation in that as well). This is in contrast with the Thai/eastern way, which is basically just tossing two fish in any container of water possible with maybe some plants and waiting. I think Victoria from BettySplendens was the first to use this term, and it works so I adopted it. 

Knowing OFL she wouldn't have done daily water changes. Your fish will survive two days a week without water changes whether or not the tank is planted. (A sponge filter will help you here too).


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## lilnaugrim

Okay yeah, just wanted to make sure. And yes, I'd seen some on here do the Thai setup as well. I think I do a sort of combination too.

Hmm, now I'm thinking about different possibilities, maybe I can just plant a corner of the tank or use the terracotta pots to keep most of the bottom bare...hmm that's sounding like a better idea so I can still have the plants anchored and planted probably with some Laterite on the bottom of the pots and maybe a small amount of mineralized soil. That way I can have the plants actively growing and possibly emersed as well, I know water wisteria would be good with that and I recently acquired two bog plants too and I can grow my Parrot's feather emersed too, it really likes to be emersed. Yep, I think I'll do that unless there is some serious precaution I should be taking with this or something stupid I'm over looking?


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## lilnaugrim

So got some pictures and tested the tanks. Will test the 24 hour water right after M*A*S*H. Here are the results from the 20, in order from left to right: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH
Nice and cycled!


Here's from the 29, pretty much exactly the same as the 20, pH is around 6.0


And poor Tuttle's tank apparently isn't cycled....ammonia is .25, no nitrite, and 5ppm nitrate.


And now for more interesting pictures lol
My pretty little Pencilfish girl, she's such a good girl compared to the Gertudae Rainbowfish lol


And guess who shredded his fins because his new next door neighbor has been harassing him? Yeah Jag completely shredded his tail but thankfully I know it's just because Trap is next to him now, he'll get over it, the same thing happened to Ditto and Remmy so I'm not worried since he never bit before. Trap is unneffected, he's just constructing a huge bubblenest to mark his territory lol. Here's the little bugger now, he's really darkened up since I got him! He's got orange lips though, I love it!


My pretty little Calico, though I'm pretty sure now it's going to be a He, you can see the start of what looks like bristles on the edge of his cheeks there.


Some Otos just chilling.


Not the best picture I've gotten of him but you can see how long his spikes are getting on his fins! He's really becoming quite the handsome little fella!


Set up my little bog/emergant tank with the .5 gallon. Used some soil and caped with the nice golden sand. The plants on the left, the parrots feather and I think some sort of hydrocotyle but I'm not sure, are what I got from another member here, then my dracanea and then some of my own Parrots Feather on the right that I'm hoping to transition to emersed growth.


Empty ramshorn shell but the Marmorkreb was trying to fend me off haha. She's cute.


Sorry it's blurry, but Tuttle was trying to swim away and I was trying to snap a photo before he went to hide >.< he already ate those snails in front there and still needs more....god he's a little pig in a Dwarf Puffer's suit!


Also, I've never seen a ramshorn pig pile  I put a veggie wafer in and they went nuts! I ended up putting another one in for them all to eat.


Sam is absolutely adorable! He's not quite personable yet but he's still adorable. Be assured he doesn't have pop-eye, he's just looking down.




The lovely pair! You can't see the size difference here but Sam's fins make up for the difference lol.


His dorsal is small but his overall form isn't too terrible, it could be much worse!


Rai is much more personable, she kept paying attention to me instead of Sam when I was trying to flare them XD



She likes looking at my finger XD



Look at his face!!! He's so cute!!





The 20


The 29, it's so funny I have this one stem of Ludwigia there you can see that seems to want to grow four times faster than the others lol. That one was trimmed two weeks ago with the rest of them but for some reason it just took off lol


And here's a poor Robin that smashed into the window this morning at work! He's just fine but he was a little dazed and confused the poor thing. We get a lot of birds do this since our building has a lot of large windows, we use the bird silhouette sticker things but it doesn't help much :-/


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## lilnaugrim

And I tested the 24 hour water and got a pH of 6.5 so it did increase but not by much. Started at 6.0-6.2 somewhere in that range. I'm going to wait another 24 hours to see if it changes any more. I do remember my 29 being at a nice even 7.0 before but now it seems stable. That's pretty normal though, happened at my dad's house with my 33 too so I'm not worried now; my tanks are just stable and mature ^_^


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## Lucillia

I love Sam.


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## lilnaugrim

:-D I do too!! He's ornery but so darn adorable!


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## Schmoo

Sam is such a pretty boy!


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## lilnaugrim

So fun fact time!

I tested the water that had been sitting out since Wednesday again last night and it was up at 6.5, tested again this morning and it's the same. Now I had a Tetra pH test come with the 45 I bought a while ago and it goes down to 5.0 so I figured why not test both?

My 20 came out at 5.5, tap tested at 5.0 shock: wow) and the water left out still tested at 6.5 so I know it's at least working....I really wonder what my tap is sitting at, I knew it couldn't be 6.0 since the API test only goes that low. I want to get a legit pH liquid test kit some day!

This means that any fish I get from stores that have municipal water, I REALLY need to drip acclimate a good hour so they adjust from 7.0 down to 5.5, phew! Good thing I've been doing that the entire time >.<

Something like this would be what I want, ATC is important though I don't necessarily need an LED screen or anything but it is much more convenient. What I like most is the increments of .1 and doesn't need to be calibrated too often! http://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-pH-0..._indust_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=081S79TPQEBMHXXRB5R7


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## MameJenny

I'm amazed by your 5.5 tap water. :shock: Mine comes out of the tap at 7.8 or so, but drops to 7.6 after a while.


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## lilnaugrim

Lol yeah, and I asked my dad and he said that he remembers it being low so when I said 5.0, he's like yep, that's about right. lol. Love my tap!


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## lilnaugrim

Holy Mother of All Things Good!

My Sparklers had babies again  They just had babies like last week! But I found more 2 day old fry and one more 2 week old fry. In my .5 gallon I have one 2 week old fry and then now about 9 or so 2 day old fry that I was able to fish out. Did a small water change on the tank with water from the 29, that really seems to help.

I switched things around since Tuttle still is not doing well, I don't know what else to do for him! He won't eat, he just lays in the same spot day and night for now two full days/nights. He's still breathing, it's not as laboured as it was before but he's still not doing well. He's still very emaciated and I've never really seen him poop before but I also never looked before. I'm assuming internal parasites :-/ So he'll be in a qt soon I think to treat with some PraziPro maybe...I really don't know. I feel terrible about him.

So the 4 gallon, Lyon was in it but I switched him back to the 2.5 gallon to continue treating his pop-eye, I tried to get him to eat some medicated food but he didn't like it, he ate other pellets though >.> I'll try bloodworms or frozen foods soon.

I fished out the four older guppies from the oldest baby sparklers and put them in the 4 gallon along with the 3 new guppies from Saturday. I found those when Luci was over before we went to get her brand new 72 gallon bow-front black silicone tank for her goldies! The tank is absolutely gorgeous!! I'm quite jealous of it lol but good luck aqua-scaping it Luci! haha, that part I do not envy.


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## lilnaugrim

So we had another Fish Meeting last night. It was a good meeting, we learned how to take good photographs of fish! I didn't learn much that I didn't already know in the camera and photographing department but I did learn about a really cool photo "tank" idea that some of our other people use!

Basically you use a 10 gallon preferably or something around that. Then you make a small three sided "mini" tank, dimensions of usually around 6-8 inches long, 1-2 inches deep and then 6-8 inches tall. The little tank sits on flower pots right up against the front glass (hence you only need three walls and a bottom) and then you put some gravel on the bottom of that and build up the gravel in front so you don't see the pots. Then in the back if you want you can put some plants you can.

And then he used an external flash above the tank in the middle and then his regular flash from the camera, the external goes off when it senses the regular flash so it illuminates the tank/back of the fish. This way you don't get shadows and the fish is totally illuminated. You have to be careful because you can wash out the fishes color, that comes with practice though.

He uses neutral/natural gravel because white and black wash out the fish, black is too reflective and white is just ridiculous lol. It was so funny when he was explaining this. So natural gravel like tans and browns will give you the best reflection of light and colors of the fish. It's also the cheapest to buy. And basically the fish is plopped into the tank and you can do it where you plop two of whatever in there (obviously they have to be smaller fish, no Oscars in these tanks haha) if you want two in the pic and then snap some shots. Or you can leave one male in (works good with Killifish) for a few days so he feels like that territory is his and then plop another in and take the pics from there. Obviously that doesn't quite work with Bettas though lol 

In other news, Lucillia's beautiful Black Copper boy; Mousse won second place in the Bowl Show last night! Woot woot! He was being so good and showing off to the partial Red Dragon next to him :-D (Red HM with some turquoise dragon scaling).


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## MattsBettas

That is a neat idea! I just use a one gallon glass tank (that somebody made themselves lol, it was four bucks at an auction) with a white paper background and a 6500k light... The light is important. 

Well, at least I do in the rare opportunity I want to take decent photos...


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, yeah! He had other setups too where he used a 2.5 gallon, and then instead of being in the tank, he put driftwood and some plastic plants on the outside back of the tank and then a blue background further back to give the illusion of depth. This is good for larger fish like bigger Betta's, gouramis and smaller Cichlids. 

In photographs, black is not black so don't use black paper. The camera will automatically assume it is grey and turn it 18% grey, so better to use a grey or neutral background to bring the fishes color out. And never use white either, way too reflective and will cause all sorts of glares, better to use darker creams, tans, and greys. The key is to have it away from the tank, not right up against the glass to get the best depth in the image. It's sort of hard to explain without an example I'm sorry >.<


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## MattsBettas

I don't usually end up with too much glare, I don't know why but a lot if the time the background doesn't stay white, which I really don't mind. I don't use flash, I think that might make a difference with glare but I don't know...


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## lilnaugrim

Some of the pictures I took last night.

Fish in the photo tank, There was a glass divider behind him, you can see the bottom there and then later we put in another male behind that so we could practice taking pics of them but I take other pics of them. But I swear, he's Jag's cousin lol


This was the third place winner, he's won before. He's a Giant DT Black Orchid but honestly I don't like the look of him compared to who Luci and I thought should win. He's getting old so he's not as showy as he used to be. And he's got apparent aging signs in his face too which I don't personally think are very appealing.


Here's one of my favorites! Here's who _should_ have won third! I call him Red Wine lol, that's actually what I call all Red partial dragons who look like this lol, idk why I thought of it but it just stuck with me.


These were without flash. So in fish photography, in order to have a good picture at least one of the fishes eye (if you have two fish, only one has to be in focus) HAVE to be in focus, it makes the photo more interesting and as humans, the eyes is one of the things that immediately draws us in so if it's not in focus, it usually isn't as interesting. The rest of the composition is up to the photographer.


This would be an example of bad photo, he's not really in focus but his colors are not under exposed (too much black with no definition in to) and not too over exposed (too much white with no definition) so color-wise, this one is good, but it's just not in focus.


This one is just one of my personal favorites because of his pectorals and his cute little face. His demeanor is just fantastic so he was definitely a favorite.


And Mousse! Lucillia's new boy for breeding. Without flash obviously you lose detail, if I had an overhead light right over him it'd be easier but he'd end up being a little washed out if the light was directly over him/too bright/too low over the tank. Little details you can work on as you take more photos.


His dorsal is absolutely beautiful though, look at it!!


This was with flash. When you use flash never take the photo straight on, you'll get a lovely square of all white from the flash. Always take it from an angle either slightly tilted up, down, left, or right, doesn't matter. Here I tilted down a little bit so the flash is at the top and not so distracting but Mousse is still lit up enough we can see more detail in him.


This one is better for his eye detail, more capturing.


And probably the best one I took of him. He knocked off a few scales I think when we were scooping him out to bring him over but he's just fine. I love the purple shine to his copper scales!


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## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> I don't usually end up with too much glare, I don't know why but a lot if the time the background doesn't stay white, which I really don't mind. I don't use flash, I think that might make a difference with glare but I don't know...


Yeah, I think he said that the same thing happens with the white background as with the black background when you use flash; it turns it to 18% grey. Nice pic though!


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## MameJenny

I'm so impressed by your betta photos, even the "bad" ones! I can never get shots like that. Probably doesn't help that all I have is a 5 year old cellphone camera. :lol:


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## lilnaugrim

Hah, thanks Jenny! Those were taken with my Canon Powershot which....Luci and I were comparing....her phone camera is just as good if not better, than my 3 year old camera.....I find that absolutely awesome but extremely ridiculous as well lol. My cell camera sucks, but the cell is also 7 years old too (Envy II) lol. But thanks!!

----------------
Lots to update, not all good unfortunately, but mom wants me to dry the dishes >.> at least I'm not washing them...right? :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

So Lyon has given up on me and laid down to die today. This was very sudden, he'd been struggling with some pop-eye and I'd been trying to treat him with KanaPlex and Epsom Salt but to no avail. He just suddenly started to give up last night :-/

Tuttle is also not doing well, I'm treating the 4 gallon with PraziPro and 1 tsp/5 gallons AQ salt. He's incredibly skinny, I bought blackworms today again (much less planaria in this one thank god) and he was interested in the one but never ate it. I don't know what to do with him because he seems to be fine, other than the obvious emaciation. He breathes heavily at times and is lethargic most of the time but idk...nothing left to do other than wait to see if the PraziPro works or not.

Onto the better news. I finally got the golden sand that I liked and originally wanted in the 4 gallon. So I switched out the black for the golden and I do like the look a lot more now. I'll hopefully take some pics tonight but can't promise much, I'm exhausted from the open house we had this morning for marching band.

And then I went to the other LFS, Critter Hut and found a beautiful year old female Pearl Gourami. Just what I was looking for, she went into Linda's tank at school that I take care of. I did a big water change on that tank and rescaped it again since she wanted me to put in the Spongebob ornaments she'd gotten and the multi-colored circle light bubble stone thingy. So I did as I pleased and then added the female to the tank after acclimation. The female is very personable and didn't mind the Neon's at all, I was quite pleased! If there isn't a terrible glare Monday morning I'll get a picture of the tank!

And finally, I found these tiny little Rhinogobius Duospilus fish, or at least what I'm sure is them. They were uncertain about the latin name as well but they knew the basic care requirements so I went for it. I found a beautiful pair that I ended up buying, at 12.99 a pop they'd better live lol. I know that's not much but I'm also very used to buying fish not over 8 dollars practically, well at least not two of them. But I bought a beautiful eggy female and a very nicely colored male of the Gold Cheeked Goby's. They are full freshwater gobies, though they prefer the river stream habitat so I have a conundrum. 

My issue is first, the male has already begun to dig a cave for himself and his lady, but they are in the 20 at the moment with Jag. I'm afraid that if he hits the soil, it might release some sulfur on him and gas him so I do want to move them. I can move them into the 4 gallon but that issue is that it's still not fully cycled from what I've seen. Now I can still move them over and just keep a good eye on them, Tuttle, and the parameters but the PraziPro is still in there. Though it wouldn't hurt them, I still sort of worry about it but it's better than being gassed >.<

I've done some reading on their breeding and it seems to be very easy care, spawns are often small and need artificial care as fry. Eggs need to be removed a few days before they hatch and hatched in a small tank, a 2.5 works fine with a sponge filter. Fry feed on egg sacks for the first week or so and then feed on artemia and infusoria until they are an inch long (approx. 6 weeks old) at which point they can return to the normal tank with the parents. Their growth slows down there as they age to become adults.

It sounds like something I can do just fine and with a nice fetching price too. The guy told me that they were originally 14.99 but he said no one would buy that and because they were so small, he lowered it to 12.99 which was nice.

Anyway, I think I'll go take some pics now while my lights are still on. I'll be back on later!


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## lilnaugrim

I just made the executive decision to euthanize Tuttle, he was too far gone. He didn't try to fight the net at all (normally I never would net a Puffer because if they puff out of water, it could be fatally dangerous) and I could pick him up in my hand too, he never allowed me to get anywhere near him before. He wasn't fighting and I knew the PraziPro wasn't going to work on him, he was too weak to even start to try to recover, even if he did beat the parasites or assumed parasites. I feel bad I didn't start treating before, partial denial and partial uncertainty of what he was really sick of and even now I'm not entirely sure it was internal parasites, I just know that DP's are prone to them.

Well got pictures, I used flash tonight and don't like the outcome. I'd need an external flash on top of the tank to get the detail in the picture I want, without that but still with the tank light, most of the background plants are lost with the flash which I don't particularly like. But nonetheless I will show the pictures because some of them came out good 

Jag! He's quit biting now that he's used to Trap but has a lot of healing to be doing now. He's got some nice clear regrowth already.




Pierce has done a lot of growing, he still has a very prominent fake egg spot though! I find it interesting still ^_^


He's still on the small side for a PK compared to Trapper but he's doing well healthwise!


Speaking of Trapper, he's done a lot of changing himself, he's a full black now with black orchid butterfly accents.





My little Gertudae Rainbowfish boy, he's still very bossy.


This one was taken without flash, you can see the clear difference in the pictures. But one of my female Featherfin Killi's came out! Almost to thank me for the blackworm dinner haha.


Fast growing mother guppy and one of the Lyretail males



I love my little Pencilfish girl, she's just a doll, she's very personable, doesn't mind the camera, eats well, get's along with other fish fantastically!


The female Featherfin in this one


And this is partially what I don't like about blackworms....they BURROW...thankfully the female ADF came back over to gobble up the parts sticking out but these worms break apart very easy so no doubt half of them are still under the sand.


My 29 is overgrow again 


I was trying to get a size comparison but it didn't work >.<


And while I look at the 20, 29, and .5 gallon, I get this face from Sam lol


He's such a ham!


So is Rai XD


I'm mad because this isn't in focus and I only took two pictures here, that was a stupid mistake of course. But after they were released I couldn't find the male again lol so you'll have to wait to see them all colored up again. But here are the two little Gold Cheeked Gobies! They are barely an inch long each.


Here's the female after they were acclimated, she's very fat lol. She ate a few blackworms and is eggy so it's not all eggs.



Here's the 4 gallon at the moment. I'm not done with the aquascape at all but I'm currently out of ideas for it with the plants that I have at the moment. I'll think of something but for now, this is fine.


And moonlights! I haven't shown the moonlights yet on this tank! I really like them!


And all three tanks with their moonlights


And I just want to show off this picture because I'm so proud of it. I was about fifteen feet away from these leaves and my camera was able to zoom to pick up the water droplets! I am proud of this point and shoot camera, it may be a dinky camera but in certain elements, it's still pretty damn good!


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## lilnaugrim

So I got some more pictures yesterday in the hour that I had to goof around. The gobies are doing well in the 4 gallon, albeit shy but they are well. I'm debating getting another pair since they only stay around 1-1.3 inches but maybe just get a female? The male hides under the driftwood and the female behind the filter intake tube. They both happily ate the black worms though ahah. Pictures:

I poked the female and she went to sit on the driftwood so you can see here there. She's still stressed but not as bad as she was before


Here's the male, he was NOT happy that I poked him out of his little hiding place. He's so tiny! He's barely an inch right now.



Calico is growing up little by little, though I'm sad he's losing all his yellow color! He's still got it on his tummy and at his fin bases but it's still sad.
Here he is from when I first got him...a month ago? Or a little more? Don't remember exactly when I got him, I'd have to look back in my journal but I think it's been a month.


And here's the picture from yesterday:


Excuse the green spot algae on the glass, I can't get rid of it >.< But Stratus is getting big! She's still a pain in the butt lol but she's cute. She's still decent to the Tetras and Sparklers but she hates the male Pearl Gourami, I may have to move him out soon or her. I hope I can set up my 45 soon.
She's also getting a beautiful blue iridescence on her fins!


I love when she colors up like this. She often will turn paler when she's aggravated and stuff, not so much stressed but annoyed usually by the Sparklers or Pearl.


I finally found a good setting on my camera that I like! I changed the color preferences to something that better suits the tank and I definitely like how this picture came out! She was happy to follow my finger and the camera just like a Betta would! She's not the top dog, the top female is the spoonheaded one of course :roll: but this girl is second in command.


I just like the composition of this picture, I think it's rather interesting with the out of focus gourami in the front and the second female in the back in focus!


Similar to the first picture but she'd darkened up for me and came closer :-D


IIRC, this is the male with the cataracts on the other side of his eye and the main male is in the back with the busted front lip from hitting things :roll:


I literally REJOICED when I saw these pictures were in focus! I've had such a hard time trying to photograph these little fish! But the 10 babies are doing wonderfully!


That one top left has super long ventrals lol They're eating decap BBS here, those are all those little orange dots.


But they also still get Grindal worms and occasionally I'll throw in some Micro's or Banana worms, they also get powdered NLS Flakes or Fishguy's "Fry Crack" which is another flake powdered food.


Bentley is still doing well, he hasn't grown too much but I half don't expect him too either with his deformity. But he eats well and tells off the corydoras when he needs too and seems to be content overall so I'm not terribly worried about him. If he passes, he passes, nothing much I can do about that. But he has doubled his size since I got him a few months ago so that's cool!


Gem is definitely bigger than Dario now, but I think he's full grown at this point.


And I thought I lost Dario again but he came out for me yesterday! He was clamping, I think he's getting old? Not sure how long Badis live but he's around 6 months now with me? I think I got him in the winter time somewhere between February and March. I'll have to look back.



He still likes the camera better than Gem which makes him easier to photograph.


And then Gem came over to chase him away :roll:


Dario came back though.



The female froggie was happy with the feast of blackworms she had.




I need to clean the glass in my 20 /facepalm.


Pierce still has a fantastic body for being a DT lol


I love Jag's colors much better without flash, this is more of what he looks like in real life.


He likes this pose lol


His tail is growing back though


Trapper is a doll lol, love this picture of him.


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## lilnaugrim

Took more pictures!

Yeah...Calico is no longer Calico, I'll have to show you his underside since it's still very yellow lol I accidentally took this one with flash since I forgot I changed my settings and then felt bad for him.. >.< whoops!




Moved some of the fry over to the 4 gallon, five in particular. The smallest one doesn't look so great but I think she'll be okay. The male goby came out to play too! lol you can see him hanging on the cup there haha



Here's the smallest one


He's got really nice red stripes under his chin but it didn't come out in this pic, over exposed.


He's really adorable


Look at face!


Love it! :-D


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## MameJenny

Sorry to hear about Tuttle. :-( 

Jag is so cute! I like how red he is! And I absolutely love Sam's color. Are you going to try breeding him?


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## lilnaugrim

Yep, Sam and Rai are brother and sister and once I set up my tank, I'll be breeding those two ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

So half of my Ludwigia in the 29 melted due to me stopping Excel for a week and a half >.< I figured I'd try it since many had said that their plants grew the same after not using Excel buuuut I think my tanks are better off with using the CO2 supplement. My weed plants (dwarf water lettuce and myrio) are still growing just fine but the Ludwigia is definitely NOT happy any more. So I started to dose daily again with Flourish twice a week, I may have to add Phosphate too to help the nutrient deficiency in the Ludwigia, that and maybe Potassium but I'm unsure on that part.

So for my digital photography class we're doing Time-Lapse and Stop-Motion for our next project. I think I'm going to do a Time-Lapse story that's actually more of a horror type thingie with Halloween around the corner. I generally stay with the cutesy stuff so going in this sort of direction is unheard of for me! But I'm thinking of a sort of Vampire-ish story. Girl/s driving down a dark backroad, windy out with fallen leaves (based off last nights storm). They see a shadow of a figure in the road for a minute, stop to investigate. Girl gets out to call to see if anyone was out there, there is a path in the woods. She stupidly (classic horror lol) goes down the path a few feet, hears a twig snap, looks back, car and road are gone, it's just more woods. (almost like slenderman feel!) Heavy breathing, another twig and she looks back down the path to see shadow of the figure. Turns to run the other way, finds herself on a dirt road with a car facing her, lightning flashes and wind blows. Car revs, lightning flashes and internal light comes on to see a shadowed figure again. And here I'm not sure if I want the "vampire" to appear behind the girl and bite or be some other creature or just a phantom and she's back in the car going down the road with the other girl or something. Still working on that part.

There will be background noises of wind, twigs, leaves rustling, heavy breathing, maybe a wolf howl in the distance at some point. Car noises obviously when the car is running, car door shutting, and talking. It will be shot on my road at night and at the edge of my woods.

I hope I'm not being too ambitious with this lol. But it's really intriguing me and I'm really excited to do this! I'll be starting tonight if my camera will cooperate with me.


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## BettaLover1313

Very sorry to hear about Tuttle.

Your story idea for your photography class sounds really neat!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL1313!

--------------------------------------------------
So the female Goby did die, found her under the driftwood. The male is absolutely no where to be found, I poke around the tank too, he's probably under the rocks dead too >.< I'm astounded that this tank isn't cycled yet....

I took out the baby sparklers, somehow misplaced two of them....but I acclimated them to the empty compartment of the 20 at the end where Rennie used to be. Oh...I don't think I said that here, Rennie went over to Lucillia's to potentially breed with her boy Sashimi! So I had that compartment at the end left open, so I put them there and added the last four from the 29 there as well to keep to easy for me. They're getting big! They've got their turquoise colors in, fins are all developed and coloring up too! Their eyes are BRIGHT blue now, it's so cool to watch them grow! I can definitely see where the planted tank slows their growth but they are stronger with very healthy appetites.

Not sure what I'm going to do with my 4 gallon. Half of me wants to just break it down to do a mini reef tank, but MONEY ugg. And if I do go to Norway next year....well, that's a whole year wasted to just be taking it back down for potentially 4 years in Norway....idk.

I started dosing Excel again since my plants were unhappy before so I'll be continuing that. My Sparklers are breeding again today, they croak a LOT too holy carp! I know Matt and I had that conversation before when I didn't realize Sparklers and Croaking were different species by my Sparklers croak like every single hour and they wake me up at night too >.< I don't mind that much since I'm generally already awake anyway haha but wow they are loud!

Oh and that's my new thing: "Holy Carp" lol, I generally say Holy Mackerel but I wanted to add to my vocabulary of holy fish hahah.


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## Sabina88

Hey Lil,
lol it feels like ive been off for a few months or more but I just looked and I was on at the end of last month lol 

How are your fish doing, well I hope? Are you still breeding bettas?


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## lilnaugrim

Hey Sabina! It's always good to see you around again ^_^

Not breeding yet but soon to be Sam and Rai, I've just been so run down with school lately that it's hard to find time to photograph my fish and update >.<

My Sparklers are breeding again tonight. lol, literally every two weeks they breed practically on the dot!

I made the mistake of stopping Excel a week back for two previous weeks and in my 29, my dwarf water lettuce has taken over and just choked out almost all my ludwigia and Myrio....it's ridiculous. Tomorrow I'm going to weed out as much as I can to get some light on my plants so I don't kill everything. >.<

My DSLR came in today!!! I was dissapointed that the battery didn't come charged >.> so I charged it a bit and played with it a bit, the lens needs to be cleaned up some but it's a decent camera. I need to get a real Canon macro lens since the Tamaron that came with it isn't so great. I have to play with it more to really understand it since it did take me quite a while to really figure out my Point and Shoot Canon so I assume the same learning curve applies!

Anyway, I'm exhausted, all the fishes are doing well, baby sparklers growing and eating well. I definitely lost the male goby too, he's no where to be found and I can only assume his rotting body will continue on the cycle of the tank. I just need it to be cycled like NOW so I can put something in it >.<


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## Sabina88

It deffinitly sounds like you have your hands full  But im glad every thing is going well. 
Sorry to hear about your goby's though


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## lilnaugrim

So I've had a sudden urge to make a moss wall with my subwassertang lol! I've got a nice big clump now in Pierce's section so maybe I can stuff it between Trapper and Jag so Jag doesn't bite, he hasn't been biting though which is great but all the same! It'd look nice anyway.

That or I can make a wall for the 4 gallon, though I'd kind of want that to be more moss since regular moss would grow above the waterline as well since it's better at transitioning than subwassertang is so I might do that. I'd just need to find some Christmas or Java Moss again :-D

I think today after my dentist appointment I really need to focus on my tanks, clean up the 29 since my mass of Dwarf Water Lettuce has killed off most of my ludwigia and Myrio and do some actual aquascaping to the 20, primarily in Pierce's section and Trapper since the other three sections are decent. I do need to move some of the Cyperus Helferi plants around though, the small plants I'd gotten from PetSmart are now BIG and they need to go in the background now haha. Maybe I'll move some of those over to the 29 and use the Giant hairgrass in the 20. The dwarf hairgrass loves the 20 for the soil, that's spreading all around the front of the tank, stretching right to each end of the tank now :-D

But in all, I mainly just need to actually take time to clean up the tanks and make them look decent at least before I get into any real big aquascaping at least.

The .5 gallon is growing fantastically, the Pogostomen Erectus came back great and is reaching the waterline! I need to cut that back and replant the tops to make it like a tiny little ecosystem! The dwarf hairgrass in there needs a trim too.

The only thing I'm mad about is my Stainless Steel plant scissors are corroding....I think my cat peed on them a while back >.> I'm ticked off at that for sure, it at least made trimming easier for the hairgrass. I'll just use my regular scissors since they're sharper anyway, I'll get a better cut. I need to invest in some small aquatic scissors too since my other ones are 12 inches long so it's good for deep tanks but not really for small tanks, it's very awkward getting around. I generally don't use them for stem plants and such but I can't really use my fingernails to clip grass all day long haha

So dentist appointment today at 1:30 to get my cavities drilled (I have three that I know off >.<) and a comprehensive exam and then got to stop at Wal-mart to try on some boots for possible Christmas present and then back home hopefully around 3-ish to have until 6 (I like to watch CHiPS, an older TV show. After CHiPS is M*A*S*H and then The Andy Griffith Show which is nice but I don't necessarily need to watch it, and then Hogan's Heroes which I love! After that is Gilligan's Island which is nice to occasionally watch and then after that is a different show each weeknight. Tuesday's are Taxi which is a nice show but I don't usually watch it) or until 7 if I don't feel like watching CHiPS. So hopefully I can actually spend that time doing aquascaping!

I'll also need to fish out the Sparkler Fry most likely, I'm not going to change tanks but I'm just going to put them in the breeder box since I moved the babies to the 20 so it's free at the moment with just some Red Root Floaters in it right now and snails :-D

EDIT: you know, I swear I only mean to update one thing and not make a huge post but every single time I just keep typing and typing lol! I apologize for the length as usual!


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## lilnaugrim

So I forgot that my dentist appointment was just my Cleaning and Comprehensive Exam since I'm a new patient there, they need to know how my mouth is and all so they do a deep exam and holy crap, I've never had such a comprehensive exam before  they even tested my jaw and asked about the clicking! It was from an injury in high school when a soccer ball hit my jaw and knocked me out for a second.

But I was in the dentists for an HOUR AND A HALF  that's how comprehensive this was!!! lol!! 

So I didn't end up at home on time, got home around 5 after going to RadioShack to buy an external hard drive since I literally had 2 gigs of space left on my laptop....yeah if I fill that up it's likely to crash >.< SOOOOO yeah, bought a 2TB external hard drive! Right around 117 dollars, I hate spending that money but it was a good deal, I have it instantly as opposed to shipping, and I needed it.

I also bought a 16 gig SD card for my camera since the "16" gig that came with the camera is actually a 2 gig with a 16 gig label slapped on it....jerk. I also bought a "Diamond" sword foam Minecraft sword lol, it's for my little brother for Christmas since I got him the Iron Sword last year so I'm upgrading him XD And I couldn't help it, I ended up with a Cloud Jumper figurine from How To Train Your Dragon II, he's one of my favorite dragons and I already have Toothless!

So I tried working on the tanks but the Sparkler eggs hadn't hatched just yet so I didn't want to disturb them so I emptied half the tank of Dwarf Water Lettuce to let light on my Sword to keep that alive. Then I trimmed the Myrio out of the middle section of the 20 to plant in the 29, I'll probably move some over to the 4 gallon as well.

I took two good pictures of the fish, I need to play with the camera more and get a better macro lens, one that actually works for the camera >.< One day I'll upload pics again lol


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## lilnaugrim

I love how many people PM me thinking that I'm a Mod lol, it's flattering but at the same time, I feel bad since I generally can't help them other than let them know that Green is RT and Red are Mods.


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## BlueInkFish

:lol: 

I defeniatley don't do that :lol: XD!!!


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## lilnaugrim

Haha, no worries Blu! It's totally not just you, I've had like five other PM's in the past three months alone for Mod related things XD I just feel bad that I can't do anything for them is all XD


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## MameJenny

lilnaugrim said:


> So I forgot that my dentist appointment was just my Cleaning and Comprehensive Exam since I'm a new patient there, they need to know how my mouth is and all so they do a deep exam and holy crap, I've never had such a comprehensive exam before  they even tested my jaw and asked about the clicking! It was from an injury in high school when a soccer ball hit my jaw and knocked me out for a second.
> 
> But I was in the dentists for an HOUR AND A HALF  that's how comprehensive this was!!! lol!!
> 
> So I didn't end up at home on time, got home around 5 after going to RadioShack to buy an external hard drive since I literally had 2 gigs of space left on my laptop....yeah if I fill that up it's likely to crash >.< SOOOOO yeah, bought a 2TB external hard drive! Right around 117 dollars, I hate spending that money but it was a good deal, I have it instantly as opposed to shipping, and I needed it.
> 
> I also bought a 16 gig SD card for my camera since the "16" gig that came with the camera is actually a 2 gig with a 16 gig label slapped on it....jerk. I also bought a "Diamond" sword foam Minecraft sword lol, it's for my little brother for Christmas since I got him the Iron Sword last year so I'm upgrading him XD And I couldn't help it, I ended up with a Cloud Jumper figurine from How To Train Your Dragon II, he's one of my favorite dragons and I already have Toothless!
> 
> So I tried working on the tanks but the Sparkler eggs hadn't hatched just yet so I didn't want to disturb them so I emptied half the tank of Dwarf Water Lettuce to let light on my Sword to keep that alive. Then I trimmed the Myrio out of the middle section of the 20 to plant in the 29, I'll probably move some over to the 4 gallon as well.
> 
> I took two good pictures of the fish, I need to play with the camera more and get a better macro lens, one that actually works for the camera >.< One day I'll upload pics again lol


Heh, I had an extremely comprehensive dentist's appointment yesterday too! I was told I needed all 4 of my functional wisdom teeth out, which I'm obviously not doing. Then my brother had the same thing an hour later, and he was my ride, so I was at the dentist for a total of 5 1/2 hours. lol. Gave me time to get my bio homework done, at least.

Yikes...2 TB. I have several hundred GB on my computer, and have barely used a fraction of it. :lol:

Also, mini reefs are -extremely- expensive. Don't be fooled by the small size. Fun story, my first tank (not counting the one I had as a kid) was a 3g reef. Little SW tanks are so fragile too - mine crashed eventually. (Tip: stay away from the nano-reef forums. Did not make the disappointment easier. ) I've seen some marine plants at my LFS lately. Those would be an interesting thing to try if you go for saltwater.


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## BlueInkFish

Haha! Thank you!

You've done the best you could with helping people and that's what counts  for helping and trying your hardest


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## lilnaugrim

MameJenny said:


> Heh, I had an extremely comprehensive dentist's appointment yesterday too! I was told I needed all 4 of my functional wisdom teeth out, which I'm obviously not doing. Then my brother had the same thing an hour later, and he was my ride, so I was at the dentist for a total of 5 1/2 hours. lol. Gave me time to get my bio homework done, at least.
> 
> Yikes...2 TB. I have several hundred GB on my computer, and have barely used a fraction of it. :lol:
> 
> Also, mini reefs are -extremely- expensive. Don't be fooled by the small size. Fun story, my first tank (not counting the one I had as a kid) was a 3g reef. Little SW tanks are so fragile too - mine crashed eventually. (Tip: stay away from the nano-reef forums. Did not make the disappointment easier. ) I've seen some marine plants at my LFS lately. Those would be an interesting thing to try if you go for saltwater.


I'm thankful that I have no wisdom teeth at all! YES, Evolution! haha
I do have three cavities and one of my old sealants fell out so I have to get those done in a few weeks too.

I filled up 144gigs wicked easy so with my RAW format photographs, I'll need the whole 2TB's!

And yeah, I know, I've done plenty of research on it. I'd use my AquaClear 70 with a AC30 propeller and motor in it and make that my refugium. I know it'd take well over a year to be established enough to add coral to it and even still it will be a long process. If I knew I was staying where I am then I'd do it but I don't know that right now so hence I'm not going to get into it right now 

And most of the marine plants they sell can be quite invasive and hard to remove, did plenty of research on that too since I was interested in a planted salt tank haha. But there are some beautiful plants!



litelboyblu said:


> Haha! Thank you!
> 
> You've done the best you could with helping people and that's what counts  for helping and trying your hardest


Aww thanks Blu! It means a lot to me ^_^


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## Lucillia

I hate the dentist... ugggh. I still have a crater from my lwft upper wisdom tooth.  its uncomfortable.


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## lilnaugrim

Well that sucks Luci, surprised it's not healing closed by now, it should at least be rounding out and starting to close :-/ Mine took about three months to fully close though but it was mostly shut around 1.5 months. Idk, i'm sure it's probably different heal times for different pulled teeth and of course for different peoples too ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

I love and absolutely LOATHE doing my semester schedule :-(

Right now I have a few more requirements to take care of; one more English class, one more Communications class, one more Art History and Senior Seminar (possibly may be waived but we'll see). The issue comes because these classes that I want to take fall on practically the same exact time >.>

I'm forced to take Com 100 during our new J-Term (winter term from January 5th to the 16th, not bad) so I can free my schedule for the English class I still need to take. Art History is Tuesday-Thursday 11-12:15 but Senior Sem is also TTH 11-12:15......AAAHHRRRRgGGGGG

Other than freaking out about my schedule, I did check my fish last night, the new Sparkler fry were still vertical but staying very much stuck to the dwarf water lettuce plant they were on. Daddy was still caring for them but I knew that if I didn't remove them then, they were going to be free swimming during the night and I'd never have a chance to catch them, so I decided to put that sprig of plant in the breeder box with the fry attached to it. It's amazing how they just stick right to the plant after it's out of water lol, I lost a few fry (meaning, they fell off the plant and went to other plants, they didn't die) but I have at least 50 of them in the breeder box with that DWl and some of the Red Root Floaters I have :-D

I kind of feel bad for taking them though because Daddy started to freak out wondering where the heck his babies went! I debated putting him in the box with them but there would be more of a chance that he'd just end up eating them before I got home today. He was swimming around frantically trying to collect the "lost" fry that he could find >.<

Fed the fishes and went to sleep.

I really need to clean out my snail tank.....it stinks....like, BAD.....whoops. I'm just going to throw them in the 29, at least the live ones and then throw the rest out so I can sort of keep my room decent smelling....kind of hard when my clothes are all over the floor too....:roll: whoops. Well actually, that doesn't smell bad, it's really just the snails that stink, the clothes just make my room a mess lol. I just feel like I haven't had any time lately, part of it is true while some of it isn't and it's just me being lazy. I feel very overwhelmed with everything though for the past two-three weeks :-/


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## lilnaugrim

So I think I'm getting the hang of my camera and how the lenses work (or more, how to work them properly!) so I took some pictures today after I did some maintenance. Cleaned the 4 gallon and part of the 29, though I didn't do anything with the 20 except top it off. Also did a small change to the .5 gallon and then Sam and Rai's 1 gallons each.

I moved the rest of those snails I'd gotten for Tuttle into the 29 and they're having a BLAST in there apparently! I have 8 new egg sacks on the front of my glass along  I was like...seriously?!?! Not even half a day and they've already bred! Holy carp! They're Ramshorns so I guess I should expect it but wow, I really wasn't lol!!

I think Dario is getting old, he's become the subdominant male and he almost looks like a female! His belly expanded and I'm honestly not sure if he is actually having a sex change or if maybe he ate something or he could be retaining fluids or just getting old? I really don't know! I know smaller fishes tend to have shorter life spans, I've had him for 6 months I think? Somewhere around that, might be 8 months now that I think about it. That seems about right. Anyway, I really don't know what's up with him, he hides a lot from Gem, I kind of expected that with only two male Badis in the tank, if there were maybe one or two more it might not have been too bad but nothing is life threatening, just flaring and an occasional chase away from his territory is all.

Anywho, pictures!

So I've kept them quite since I wasn't sure how they'd take to the 4 gallon, it's not technically ideal but I've had a secret love for regular White Cloud Mountain Minnows for a long time and they were on sale at PetSmart for a dollar each and it was right after the Gobies died and I just couldn't resist their stupidly cute red mouths! So I took three home with me, I think I have two males and a female, one male is emaciated and has been since the store, I didn't think he'd last this long but he seems okay...not sure if he's really eating or not though. But enjoy some pictures.
This is the most dominant one


Same fish, oh, I did lower the temp for them too since I know they are a coldwater fish, never fear!


I'm so angry though!! Jag bit his tail again! I thought he was over it!!! ARRGG stupid fish.


He gets angry with Jag lol, Jag doesn't flare to him as much, at least that I've witnessed when I'm around, mostly it's just Jag flaring.


Sam has filled out a little in his body, he's such a poser lol


Love that flowy tail of his!


The pair!



Rai is quite the beautiful girl even if she is a RT girl, she's also very eggy.




I know this one is dark but I love that you can see Stratus's iridescence on her dorsal that she's recently gotten! She's really beautiful, she can be territorial but she doesn't physically damage anyone which is good. I REALLY need to set up the 45 soon though....


This is my "main" Tetra, she was the original one I got from Luci that was leftovers after the others were killed and/or died, she remains the MOST colorful Ember I have and the dominant female. She gets the pick of the males, it's pretty funny honestly, she's very personable and always comes up to "greet" me when I come to the tank and then the rest of the Tetras follow haha.


Here's Gem


This one is Dario


Gem displaying to Dario who hid in the plant there >.<


My fat male Pearl, the Sparkler was telling him off.



I'm sorry algae ruins everything!!!

.5 gallon! It's looking good!


Got the Gertudae's fins! Too bad he's behind some grass >.<


The little female guppy was in sync with my lovely Pencilfish haha




She's so pretty and so nice too unlike Gertudae


And Calico's underside, still quite yellow-orange!


I was trying SO hard to get my little Gelius Barbs to photograph but it wasn't working so well, I'll have to try that photo tank method I talked about before!



And Calico is no longer really calico, sad but still cool you can see the yellow undercoat.


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## lilnaugrim

OMFG, I was almost done writing the stupid post and I freaking closed the tab by accident. DAMNIT. alkjfsghsfkDJ >.> I'm already ticked off and this just isn't helping.

Apparently it's going to be almost impossible for me to graduate next semester with all the requirements I still apparently need and didn't know about. I'm so angry! I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm already taking a class in J-Term (winter semester) and you can practically only take one class during that semester, it's two weeks long and my class is M-T-W-TH 12-4....that's on top of working 9-12 (supposed to be 2 but due to the class, I need to cut it short).

I'm just going to sit here and try to figure out what the heck I can do, I'm already doing two studio classes next semester, was supposed to do the stupid art history but it conflicts with my other needed class; Senior Seminar, I need one more art history and then that class and they're all at the same time, like who even does that?? AHHHHRRRGGGG

Before I spontaneously explode, here are some pictures I took today.

I can't seem to scape this take the way I want it, it's always harder when it's divided of course, I just sort of throw plants in there and hope for the best >.<


My male Featherfin Killi


Female Featherfin


I'm sorry they're so blurry but here are the Sparkler babies! You can see how big they're getting!



Got some new plants today, two bundles of "Red" Ludwigia, I think it's just Repens. And then a nice long bundle of Rotala Indica which is also nice and red and very beautiful, I hope it holds up!


Stratus loves taking pictures too lol


I love the composition of this picture!


This female Sparkler is interesting, she's the subdominant pair of the five, her and her male breed occasionally but not as often as the dominant pair do. She's been guarding the breeder box with the dominant pair's fry in there, they aren't even her fry! It's very interesting. The dominant female couldn't care about the fry and the dad has pipped down since I took the fry, he was running rampant the first day, I felt bad for him but the fry are doing well.


The Tetras were just fed so that's why they're fat, they're not always that fat.


I was so excited for this picture! Finally, clear pictures of my Gelius Barbs! And such great composition too! This is what they do all day long, go through all the plants and peck at them looking for microorganisms.



Dario is definitely not feeling well, he's quite washed out and seemingly bloated.


Calico's still orange stomach


Pearl is really nice. He's not eating the snails, he's eating the veggie wafer that is under the pile of snails lol. And yes I know he's fat.


Subdominant White Cloud, I think this is a male but not sure at all.



I love my little .5 gallon, I want to put a ghost shrimp in it but I feel it's probably...inhumane or something >.<


"I'm flying!"


I love rim lighting


I love Sam's little face, this borderlines on cute and also creepy haha


This is my all time favorite picture of Sam now!


He looks so regal lol



Rai is very beautiful too, much too long fins but we'll see what happens.


I really want this boy, he'd be perfect for my project, though I'm not sure how cellophane reacts with white since I want pure white fins in the end, that's going to be hard to achieve I know.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettasvt&1415631004

Also, I just want to show off my Rex Begonia, I'm so in love with the green and silver leaves that have red undersides and stems!!! So beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Yup, so I won't be graduating after all next semester. You'd think after 5 years that I'd have everything I needed.....

I'm missing one Art History of 300 or 400 level. Then I'm missing two more 300 or 400 level studio classes, this is after I take four more studio classes next semester.....Somehow I was missing a 200 level class which is just ridiculous so I'm taking Relief Printing and Typography I (233) which I'm not super thrilled about, I prefer the regular Stone Lithography over Relief and I'm already doing Printmaking (332) again next semester. So this is what my schedule sort of looks like next semester:









The English is a required class and my last required gen-ed is Communication 100 which I'm taking over the winter.....I'm so screwed. And to keep my tuition waiver, I need to be a full time student which means 12 credits or more so it looks like I'm graduating December 2015 instead now :-/

Yay I get to push back the "real world" and student loan payments but damnit, I was really planning on getting out next semester! :evil: 

So yeah, I'm an angry person right now. I'm attempting to not let that ruin my day today, it's going to be a long day though >.<


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## Lucillia

On the bright side, you may be with me next year!!! XD


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, one more year of Marching Band, guess that's nice. Are you coming back to URI next year do you know? I can't remember what you were doing after this year >.<


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## Lucillia

Dunno. Won't know until the spring. :< I have to reapply everywhere


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## lilnaugrim

Ah, gotcha. Well....maybe we'll be officially reunited again next Fall haha. Not that we ever were really departed anyway XD


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## lilnaugrim

Even though I'm a bit down about the whole not graduating thing, I still am absolutely thrilled about this mini-short I made in Digital Photography last night! It was just meant to learn how to use the programs but I had so much fun with this lol!! The music just made it ten times better so be sure to watch with headphones in or sound on in general!

The figure is Cloudjumper from How to Train Your Dragon II, him and Toothless are my favorites so I just decided to do a little thing with him. There are 108 frames to this short in total, not counting the title and credits. Made totally in iMovie. Enjoy!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmute2-mkBk&feature=youtu.be


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## Quinn

I just came back after a long hiatus and was reading through old journal posts of yours to catch up. Sorry about your spawns falling through and losing the fish  I know it was way past, but especially Aero and Remmy. I'm enjoying seeing all your others in the community tank too, I've been wanting to set up a small community with I'm not sure what, but we'll see.
And super bummer about not graduating. I can't imagine what a downer it was to find out about the missing credits. Damn.


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## lilnaugrim

Hey Quinn! Good to see you back!! How's everything been going with you and your fish?

Thanks for the condolences! I do appreciate it 

It does suck about not graduating, I'm trying to stay positive, this means one more semester of Marching Band and Concert Choir so I'm happy about that at least. AND I don't have to start paying my loans off until after I'm graduated lol, though I should start now >.<


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## Quinn

Haha, the loan thing is a bonus. I'm still paying mine :/ But I actually ended up getting a way longer extension than I should have on paying because of a screw up with the loan company (shhhh) haha.

This years been pretty crappy, I've had a lot of major losses this year, the worst being my Great Dane who was my everything and way too young to go  
The fish however are alive and kicking even though I neglected them sorely for many months. Bauer my petco baby must be around 16 months now, and seems to be doing great, so I'm hoping that he doesn't have that shortened life span curse! 
I'm also wanting to put more fish in my planted 10 gallon but I have no idea what I want. I've been considering dario dario, cpd, sparkling gourami, guppies, lots of things, but I keep flip flopping. They would be joining shrimp and pygmy corys, and I'd like something colorful. I wish I could do a bigger community because I really want to fill it with many fish, but I just can't afford to go through that right now... I've been fantasizing about throwing a 40b up on my kitchen island a lot recently.


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## Schmoo

Watched your project! :3 The music adds so much to it. xD


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## lilnaugrim

Quinn said:


> Haha, the loan thing is a bonus. I'm still paying mine :/ But I actually ended up getting a way longer extension than I should have on paying because of a screw up with the loan company (shhhh) haha.
> 
> This years been pretty crappy, I've had a lot of major losses this year, the worst being my Great Dane who was my everything and way too young to go
> The fish however are alive and kicking even though I neglected them sorely for many months. Bauer my petco baby must be around 16 months now, and seems to be doing great, so I'm hoping that he doesn't have that shortened life span curse!
> I'm also wanting to put more fish in my planted 10 gallon but I have no idea what I want. I've been considering dario dario, cpd, sparkling gourami, guppies, lots of things, but I keep flip flopping. They would be joining shrimp and pygmy corys, and I'd like something colorful. I wish I could do a bigger community because I really want to fill it with many fish, but I just can't afford to go through that right now... I've been fantasizing about throwing a 40b up on my kitchen island a lot recently.


Aww I'm sorry to hear about your Great Dane! That must be so difficult. I know when I first lost my cats it was devastating and it's going to be worse this time around with our 8 year old cats; Ieli and MC.

Ooh, if you want Sparklers you can buy a trio from me! ;-) the babies are getting big! They're almost half adult size now and going through a growth spurt haha. But Sparklers aren't too "colorful", though I find their blue iridescence absolutely stunning when they're showing off! And they have beautiful reddish butterfly markings on their fins too. But Dario Dario is fantastic, also you can do one Dario Dario and one Dario Hygsinon if you find them, they should mind their own business for the most part if you have enough division in the tank with decor/plants.




Schmoo said:


> Watched your project! :3 The music adds so much to it. xD


Thanks! Haha, yeah, I had a lot of fun with it. You should have heard us in the class, we were all giggling at our own movies and the labels they had on the sounds/music XD it was hilarious :lol:


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## Quinn

Yeah, lossing them is never easy, but with him it was just... My apartment is basically a shrine to him, pictures everywhere. I still cry about him pretty regularly, I'm sure it will be a while. Hopefully if your cats are only 8 you have a good ten years before you have to worry about that.

That was my biggest problem with Sparklers is they aren't as "interesting" looking, but I've heard they have a bit more of an obvious personality then many of the schooling fish, so thats appealing if its true?


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## lilnaugrim

What a strange week....found out about my Graduation having to be changed, then dad told me last night what he's getting me for Christmas! He's going to get me a Smart phone of my choice! With paid months, I think he's getting me a whole year! I'm so lucky to have him! So I have to go to Best Buy to see what kind of phone I really want and will do what I need it to do, basically just the basics really. He's got the Nexus which is decent I know, Galaxy is good but I just don't know the fine details between each of them so I need to do some research on that.

But since my phone is going kaput, he wanted to do that for me which does make me excited since that means I'll be out of the "Cellular Dark Ages" and into the "Golden Age" of Smart phones haha. Honestly, just the fact of being able to search things when I'm at a petshop or find a phone number when I'm on the road stuck somewhere will be what I'll really be using it mostly for other than actual cellular activities.

The next thing that happened was this morning, it started Tuesday morning with a small whirring noise that I knew was a belt in my car but I wasn't sure if it was because it was getting cold (was below freezing IIRC) and sometimes they get finicky during that time. But it persisted through the day after a while so I knew something was up. Went to dad's last night to do some photo shooting, though we talked more than we shot photos haha, I stayed there five hours! It was nice to see him and the cats though. But I asked him and we looked at it, we thought it might have been the water pump which would cost just about 1,000 dollars >.<

So this morning, I fill up my power steering fluid since it was low, filled up some oil and drove off towards school, the whirring persisting. I got in about 2.5 miles of school and suddenly the noise escalated and then suddenly stopped and I felt a small jolt in the car almost like it was up-shifting. I saw smoke out the exhaust and sighed as I pulled over and shut the car off. Called dad to figure out what I could do since I don't have AAA and the only towing company close by didn't open until 8 (I got stuck 6:58am).

So I found out that my fan belt (Serpentine belt) snapped because the tensioner pulley seized up. I took the belt out per dad's instructions and was able to drive the .3 mile to the park parking lot so I was out of the way. Though, I didn't realize it was going to effect my power steering lol so I had to really crank the wheel to get my car to turn, thank god I was going slow! I was able to pull into a parking spot, though I couldn't turn hard enough to get fully between the lines so I ended up partially over one of the white lines, felt like a jerk but at that point, I gave up and didn't care lol.

Thank God for my parents, mom was able to come me from work (she works at college hence my free tuition and not so worried about adding a semester) and bring me to school/work. Dad came and started to fix my car in the parking lot, he had to buy a new pulley and belt. So that was about an hour ago, he's still fixing it since it's a fairly compact car so it's hard to get into the spaces. So he's going to come get me when he's done.

SIGH....but seriously, thank God for my parents because I wouldn't be where I am right now without them, or at least not as comfortable as I am. (Clearly I wouldn't have been born without them, yes I know that lol) But seriously, I just can't express how thankful I am for them.

I showed dad one of my river pictures last night and he fell in love with it so I think I'm going to print out that picture big for him and frame it for Christmas :-D He's a big supporter in my art work so I think he'd really enjoy it ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Quinn said:


> Yeah, lossing them is never easy, but with him it was just... My apartment is basically a shrine to him, pictures everywhere. I still cry about him pretty regularly, I'm sure it will be a while. Hopefully if your cats are only 8 you have a good ten years before you have to worry about that.
> 
> That was my biggest problem with Sparklers is they aren't as "interesting" looking, but I've heard they have a bit more of an obvious personality then many of the schooling fish, so thats appealing if its true?


Yeah, hopefully. You know, I have a friend here at college who also lost his dog and he did a memorial piece for her (I believe it was a her) but I'm pretty sure it was also a Great Dane as well. Strange. But he basically did the same thing with the shrine at the moment, we actually all cried when he explained the piece at the critique because most of us in class all have pets and know what it's like to lose one and because the description was just really beautiful too.

As for the Sparklers, yeah, they aren't as interesting if you like the bright colors like orange, red, or yellow but they are like little Betta fish without the fighting! I have my two mated pairs and then an extra little one who just hangs out with Gem the Dario Dario. The dominant mated pair are always a hoot to watch. I can grab a video of them sometime if you want to see how they interact with the other fish and compete with my Angel and Pearl Gourami XD They are very personable too, they come right up to the tank when I get home and beg for food right along with Stratus my Angel lol.


----------



## Lucillia

To give you an idea, I have the galaxy s4. So you have sort of gotten to play with it. Its expensive but in my mind worth it. It essentially replaces my laptop almost all the time.

I'm glad it wasn't a serious belt.. still sucks but it could have been much worse o.o

Btw, I will steal Sam. I love him.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, I do think it will be between the Galaxy and the Nexus, I just need to know the fine details between them. I definitely want an Android over an iPhone though.

Yeah, that's what I've been telling myself; my engine could have blown so at least it wasn't that serious. Fan belt is easy, timing belt not so much >.<

Hehe, you can steal one of his babies but Sam is mine! haha


----------



## Crossroads

Man you're lucky that your serpentine doesn't run everything like on my car. My serpentine snapped and I blew my engine just driving about .25 miles to get off the freeway. My serpentine is my only belt. I ruined my head gasket, my radiator and my air pump in that .25 miles cause the part that snapped was a bracket that held my serpentine.

Glad to hear you're okay and that your car is too :>


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> Man you're lucky that your serpentine doesn't run everything like on my car. My serpentine snapped and I blew my engine just driving about .25 miles to get off the freeway. My serpentine is my only belt. I ruined my head gasket, my radiator and my air pump in that .25 miles cause the part that snapped was a bracket that held my serpentine.
> 
> Glad to hear you're okay and that your car is too :>


Are you sure it was the Serpentine and not the Timing Belt? That sounds something the timing chain would control. I know the Fan belt controls the alternator which then powers the battery, so my battery wasn't charging and thus the power steering wasn't working. Either way though, I am VERY thankful nothing more happened to it or me!!

But yeah, I'm really so thankful for everything right now. Dad bought a new exhaust pipe, water pump, timing belt, and a new antenna with a wire for my radio! We're switching cars on Tuesday so I get to drive his fancy 8 cylinder Mustang for a few days!!!! I'm suped about that haha


----------



## Crossroads

I'm positive cause the second it snapped my power steering went. It was not fun to muscle a 2000 Camaro off the road only to have it completely die and unable to be started again in the middle of a lane on the feeder. I may have a timing chain but neither my dad, my mom, nor my mechanic mentioned anything about it and I started carrying a spare serpentine on mom's orders haha. She was actually the one that bailed me out of car troubles most of the time xD

Wow! *o* That's awesome! Have fun driving that Mustang!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, even getting my little Passat off the road was difficult lol

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about driving the Mustang, my little brother already drove it before me >.< So sad lol But I can't wait!

-----------------------------
I've got some pics! Up next!


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## lilnaugrim

So I got my 18-55 mm lens in today along with my macro set of four screw on lenses! So I had to take pics! I took pics originally in RAW format and then realized after that my computer can't read RAW format.....so I took more in jpeg form...sigh.

But here's the baby Sparklers! They're getting so big!


They were all seemingly excited to see the camera lens in their face apparently lol I think they probably just saw their reflection though.



I still need plenty of practice with the lenses but this was decent


I really need to clean the glass....inside and out haha


Sam hasn't grown into his eyes quite yet lol


I just like the "dreamy" look to this pic


Okay so I went up to Warwick today to get oil for my car, gas, some floss and Excel since I just ran out. Well I stopped to talk with a PetSmart employee for a good half hour on Betta's, mostly about breeding and general care and the forum here. She was very excited to listen and asked a bunch of questions which was awesome! I expressed my love for people who still want to learn and she was all for it. She's got some Betta's over her own in proper set ups too so it was just really awesome. So I ended up pointing out different colorations when she asked and I noted three siblings who were all half marbled. Two were more purple and one was Turquoise, I wanted the purple one as I've seen her there two weeks ago and felt bad but the blue one called my name.

Okay, normally I don't go for the multicolored ones but more for like solids or more splotchy marbles if I go for marbles. So it was strange that I wanted her and well...she followed me home.

I bought her partly because I needed to flare Rai to another female since she hasn't been flaring at Sam but I realized that I didn't have another female after giving Rennie over to Lucillia haha. So that's my excuse.

I'm torn between three names; Honoria, Akimi 秋美, and Yunlong 云龙. Honoria is from M*A*S*H, that's Charles's sister. Akimi is Japanese for Autumn Beauty (or Beautiful Autumn, either way works) and Yunlong means Cloud Dragon in Chinese.



She has the cutest flare, not a full flare here but you can still see part of her beard.



This is with flash. Even still I normally don't go for CT's either because I get annoyed with the web reduction, it's normally not enough for me lol I'm picky I know but I don't seem to mind her much


She'll be fasted as well since she was just fed today at the store.


Interesting picture, I like her metallic sheen


----------



## MattsBettas

Looks great


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt!

I've got more pictures coming up....if I get through them all!! haha Somehow I took 481 photos in the last hour....whoops. Guess I got a little carried away with it XD Clearly I won't be uploading 481 photos since many of them won't be in focus or blurry or not bright enough or too bright so we'll see what I get. Alright, be back soon after I've sorted through them!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh god, yeah, I'm getting better with my camera which means more photos were in focus/not blurry than I thought would be!! :shock:

Well, y'all like photo updates right? lol I don't actually know anyone on this forum who doesn't, so, enjoy!

First up, one of my Marmorkreb girls, they're getting pretty big! Rounding to about 2 inches at the moment and loving the veggie wafers :dunno:


Frogs are still doing well, their faces are just the cutest!


Just going to throw all the Sparkler babies here next. The smallest one loved the camera lens apparently and didn't mind coming up to show off her colors. Not sure if I can sex them properly at this point though they seem plenty large enough. They're about the small size of the babies that PetCo sells, the biggest ones are about the size I got Pierce at.
They do have some nice deep reds though!




This is the second to smallest one, she likes the thermometer since she can see her reflection


I believe this was the smallest one.










Play sparring


And then they noticed the camera lol









And now fish from the 29!

Bentley's face competes with the ADF's haha


I think Calico is getting more orange back on him...:dunno:


Gem was secluded today


Mated pair of Dainty Cories :-D


Male Ember Tetra next to Pearl Gourami for size, I've been calling the Pearl Romeo because I have a female at school in Linda's tank and Juliet seems to fit her nicely.


Dinner time! It's interesting, the cory to the far right seems to have some sort of marble pattern on her! She's the only one with the light color, the rest are just two-toned whereas she has three tones. Very interesting


Male


And then I realized I could use flash.


My "view"


Dinner shot


Lol, I ran out of space for my images, apparently I have 52 images in this post so the site yelled at me reminding I can only have 50 images per post XD Rest of images are copied into next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Set up the new 1.5 I got from PetSmart that was on sale for 10 bucks, still expensive but comes with a cheap LED light. I'll probably switch it out for a SolarFlare LED so I can grow plants in it 
I believe I've settled on Akimi for the new girl, I like Honoria but Akimi seems to fit her better. She'll be a good help in getting Rai ready for spawning 


Decent action pic of Pierce lol


GRUMP
He bumped his head on something too so he's missing a few scales


Didn't mean to get this picture but it's a great example of a false ovipositer that's been kept after maturity!


It's very prominent all the time!


Really good profile picture of him 





Jaguar



It's really difficult to get different shots of him just because he's always doing the same thing >.<


I think I succeeded with these two though lol


It almost looks like this juvie is developing a gonopodium! But I'm quite sure it's a little too late to be deciding that you're a male at this point. The baby is a little bigger than the Sparkler babies so sex should have stayed put at this point and I was 99% sure it was female....


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Akimi definitely has Velvet as I feared, one of her sisters was showing the cysts when I looked when I got her so I'm not surprised. I just hope she makes it, today she was clamping hard and flashing. I'm bumping up the heat to 86 ASAP and just started her dose on Cupramine. We'll see.

I swear my Sparkler Babies had a growth spurt overnight, seriously, I really think they did! They're half adults now! At least the big ones are, the small one is still a little small but following well enough that I'm not too worried about her.

My oldest Ember Tetra that originally came from Lucillia but we got them at the same store, she seems to be getting pale. Not really pale but it almost looks like she's got more iridescence on her if it's possible. She's the only one showing this and she's incredibly fat but that might be because I overfeed this tank on purpose, I don't feed that much more but they do get both flakes and wafers and all the fish/snails eat the wafers so they get a double meal almost. I just looked it up and apparently Ember's can live up to 10 years!! Who knew?? I always figured; smaller fish usually equals shorter life span! Holy cow! I certainly hope I keep that dominant female for a long time though and it's just some sort of color change she's going through because she is dominant. She's just so pretty and very personable, most of the Tetra's like me because I mean food but she'll come up every single time I'm around even if it's just my feet she see's or my reflection. I'd love to show her at a show since she's just a very good show fish all around, she's got amazing form for a Tetra, no deformities at all :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Akimi didn't make the day, I just checked and she was dead, looks to be about a few hours. I'm sorry I couldn't help her, I started Cupramine last night but she just gave up I suppose. I still need a female for Rai though, she's really showing no interest in Sam but I'm also not exactly conditioning them for real at the moment anyway but she doesn't even look at him when I lift the divider :roll: I figure I might as well prepare and I'd just like another female anyways ^_^

Trapper ate a spider. There was one of those cute little brown jumping spiders on the glass of the 20 long and I tried to knock it into the tank, good protein I figured haha. The little bugger kept jumping away from the tweezers haha, finally I got it into the tank but it landed on Duckweed and just sat there wondering how it got down there or something :roll: lol I knocked it into the water Trapper friggin went to town on that poor little spider! I actually felt bad for the spider lol but Trapper was having a ball with it. It kind of grossed me out honestly, I try my best to not mind the little spiders, I like the little jumpers but I don't like thin legged ones, they freak me out for sure. But I couldn't handle him chomping on the spider, just skeeved me out.

The baby Sparklers recognize me as food, woot woot!

Pierce has actually grown  I didn't realize just how big he is, he's comparable to Trapper! Jag is smaller than Trap, he and Pierce are probably about the same size. I suspect Pierce to get bigger since he is a PK like Trap.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I think this was one of my largest Marmorkrebs and I think she might have eaten another one of the cray's this morning, it was either that or the molt, I couldn't actually tell what it was since early. I did count three but the forth always hides so who knows. I need to add more hidey holes for them to climb in since they loooove to climb all over everything!


Baby Sparklers!! My, they're getting so big!




She was trying to hide on me lol, every time I'd move up or down to see her, she'd go the opposite to hide behind the grass ha!



And an adult hiding from me haha


Ember tetra! :-D


My otos were so excited about the wafer this time, I'd never seen this before! All four of them were on one wafer at the beginning haha! Too funny 


My pretty little Calico


I just love this picture because it looks like the Sparkler behind Calico is gasping or yelling at Calico haha


Yup, so this little male guppy was a definite late bloomer! He colored up from just last night and got his snakeskin pattern starting! The lyre bars are starting on his caudal as well




Jag has some decent fin regrowth! I hope he doesn't bite again >.<


He always does the same stupid poses though :roll: he needs to learn new tricks lol


And Trapper is super black now, Black Orchid Marble I guess! Either way he's Black based marble for sure. I took a gajillion pictures of him though, it was so hard to get pictures of him!



I love that he kept his orange nose :-D


His eyes are wicked pretty


He's getting old though, he's scales are getting a little ragged.


Pierce



He doesn't change much but he's still pretty lol


Sam! I couldn't get any pics of Rai since she wouldn't sit still



I love his beautiful pectorals!


I debated making this my new profile pic but I can't take Remmy down, and besides, it'd probably freak everyone out if I changed my profile pic lol


Or to this one, I love this one too. He was such a sass-monster today lol!


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## MameJenny

Aw, I'm sorry to hear about Akimi. She was very cute - looked just like a female version of one of my males. If I can ask, do you know what that splotchy light blue/white coloration is called? I keep meaning to ask about my Eclipse. 

All your fish are so gorgeous! (Especially Jag and Trapper ) I really need to get a new camera. I'm seriously envious of your photography skills here.  When will you be breeding Sam and Rai?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mame! It depends, if the splotches aren't super close together like Akimi's was, it'd be called Grizzle. But Akimi was more of a Multicolor.

Well Rai hasn't been cooperating with Sam so I needed the female to stimulate her but clearly that plan didn't work out. So I'm getting that Red Butterfly Male and Female VT off aquabid, I tried getting their pictures but he already took the auction down. It was that butterfly I was pining after. I think I'm going to breed the female to Sam since she has the red reduction I want but he has the white fins I want. Hopefully that will lead to SOMEONE of their babies having red body and white fins lol. I have a feeling Cellophane is dominant though.

So on the hole, I don't know yet.


----------



## Lucillia

SAAAAMMM. He reminds me a lot of R. I love his big eyes and his pectorals! Remind me I need to get a pic of Symphony... He's starting to look really old :< He's getting all sunken in no matter how much I feed him. He finally stopped tail biting again though.


----------



## MameJenny

Ooh, I love butterfly VTs. And butterflies in general, lol. Definitely going to stalk your threads once you start breeding them. ;-) So, the female you bought is a butterfly VT with cellophane fins? 

And thanks for the help on the color - I'm thinking mine is more of a grizzle, then, since his spots are more widely spaced (though he's still coloring up). I think he's an uneven butterfly as well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> SAAAAMMM. He reminds me a lot of R. I love his big eyes and his pectorals! Remind me I need to get a pic of Symphony... He's starting to look really old :< He's getting all sunken in no matter how much I feed him. He finally stopped tail biting again though.


That's what I keep thinking about too, he poses so much like R, it's crazy! He's still a little small but he's definitely grown since I've gotten him! :-D

Oh yeah, I'd been meaning to ask if you still had Symphony or not since I hadn't heard anything about him in a long time! How's Renoir doing over there? Sashimi? Vashta? lol, I just like to name off your fish XD



MameJenny said:


> Ooh, I love butterfly VTs. And butterflies in general, lol. Definitely going to stalk your threads once you start breeding them. ;-) So, the female you bought is a butterfly VT with cellophane fins?
> 
> And thanks for the help on the color - I'm thinking mine is more of a grizzle, then, since his spots are more widely spaced (though he's still coloring up). I think he's an uneven butterfly as well.


Me too!! I'm aiming for solid white fins and red body so it's more of a bicolor that I'm aiming for but I'll be getting lots of butterflies no doubt about it!

Yes, female has cellophane fins. Here's a picture actually. I think that this is actually her sister maybe because this was from the last listing and I remember being sort of disgusted at the shortened body but then when I looked at the second listing, it wasn't so bad so I'm asking seller to resend pictures since I didn't save them before. So this may or may not be the actual girl, I could have swore she had less cellophane on her body too. Most likely marble based.


And here's the boy!


I almost want to breed him to Rai and then Sam get's the girl and just go with that and get a big spawn. I think I might overwhelm myself though if I do that lol and it'd be hard to really know who came where if I throw them all together. I think I'll just go with Sam/new girl since he has more of the traits I want and she has the red reduction I want and obviously I can't breed male to male lol even though that's more of what I want.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So it snowed this morning! It's a lovely 32 degrees right now but not too bad outside, actually it's already melted and turning to mud lol, good ol'New England! But it was pretty while it lasted. So I took some pics this morning! They're not fish related but enjoy all the same!

It's dark, I should have used a tripod but this was at 6:14 this morning lol, I wasn't interested in my tripod so I just made it darker is all so I wouldn't get bad camera shake. It's still shaky but you can still make out what it is. It's our Japanese Maple tree who is roughly 25 years old now, he had snow on him and it was just really nice looking with the brilliant red leaves of autumn!


I ended up getting sick of the camera shake so I used the flash and I actually like the effect! The nice thing with flash is that you can put your shutter speed up as fast as you like to freeze the motion since light is no longer a factor!


Droplets. I have to say that the Circles of Confusion are my favorite when it comes to photography. Those are those little color circles in the back that are blurry-ish, their proper name is Circles of Confusion! Love it




Looking down one of the side roads on our University here. To the left of those tree's is our Quad.


better framed picture


Autumn brisked away by the snows of Winter


Long grass covered and bent with the weight of the wet snow.



New Pharmacy building and a path leading through, on the left is grass and on the right is our medicinal garden.


Snow drooped flowers


Dark hallway I walk down going from Woodward into the Pharmacy building (actually the light turns on once I entered the hallway lol it's motion activated.


Looking out from the 3rd floor of my building; CBLS (Center for Biotechnologies and Life Sciences) That building is a dorm called Garrahy and then you can see the plains at the bottom of campus where our underground water reservoir is....yep, great idea to build a campus on top of a SWAMP >.>


Another Japanese Maple tree covered with snow!


Also from the 3rd floor of CBLS looking the other way, up the hill. That is the Science "Quad" there where the CELS building used to be (CELS is the life sciences part of CBLS, the two merged into CBLS; life sciences and biology, there is a difference) And that big building is Coastal with all the marine biology stuff and aqua-culture (what's left of the major at least)


Looking out to one of our main roads; Flagg road.


And I felt like the fishes here needed some attention so I tried to take pictures of them lol. Neon's are very cooperative when it comes to taking pictures unlike Ember tetras who have waaaay more energy. But I was having a hard time focusing on them, it's hard to remember which way is close and then which way to turn to get further away.

This "little" guy is one of the oldest, ranging around 5 years at this point. He's still very active despite his deformities! He's also a camera hog lol. This is without flash of course


Here he is again with flash, his tail has been like that since I've been taking care of the tank. I haven't really worried about it honestly.


Some of them also have this mouth cyst disease thingy, not sure what it is but again, not worrying about it since they aren't my fish technically so whatever. I just feed everyone lol They eat just fine though, it's more aesthetic honestly.


As I said, hard time focusing, sorry! But this is one of the younger ones.


Another young one. I think there are only 2-4 old ones left and the rest of the 12 total are young ones.


Again, LOVE circles of confusion! They look so cool lol!


And here's my pretty little Pearl girl, she's doing well though she wishes she had more cover....I had more fake plants in the tank but Linda took them out for some reason....annoyed me since the Neon's don't care but Juliet clearly does as she feels more uncomfortable. She's shier than she was before.


Pecking at the gravel behind/in front of Spongebob.


She really has beautiful colors though!


A great personality once you get to know her ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh yay, the seller got back to me with the photos! Male photos are the same but the female's is different. I swear is it's a different female....what do you think? Just colored up some?

Here's the new pics:


EDIT: after zooming in to compare spots and fins, yes it is the same female, she's just more comfortable in these shots. It's okay though, Sam's long body will contrast her shorter one as long as she's not a Giant and he can't wrap her >.<


----------



## Crossroads

Oh man you got the girl I wanted. At least I know she's in a good home though...and can always get some of her babies later


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hehe, yeah, I remembered seeing her in the aquabid thread and that led me to the boy and I didn't get them last week but I saw they were reposted and just gave in, I couldn't help it! But yes, hopefully all the babies to come!


----------



## Crossroads

Its probably better that you got her anyway, I probably wont even think about breeding until this winter is over. If my tax return is decent I might use it to get the stuff I want and need to do it. I don't know how reliable the idea is but I've though of using an incubator that lets you adjust the air temp and cycles air through to create a mini climate. Set to about 80-85 or so should keep the air temp nice and warm. Add a humidifying element and it seems pretty sound....in theory. It'd need to be tested long before fish went in it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> Its probably better that you got her anyway, I probably wont even think about breeding until this winter is over. If my tax return is decent I might use it to get the stuff I want and need to do it. I don't know how reliable the idea is but I've though of using an incubator that lets you adjust the air temp and cycles air through to create a mini climate. Set to about 80-85 or so should keep the air temp nice and warm. Add a humidifying element and it seems pretty sound....in theory. It'd need to be tested long before fish went in it.


Sounds interesting enough, I'd have to see exactly what you're talking about though to have an understanding.

Yeah, I hope to breed them before the semester is up that way I have all winter break to care for them and by Spring they'll be ready for shipping at least and I don't have to worry about using up heat packs :-D I just hope this time I can keep everyone alive....I've learned from mistakes, or at least, I hope I have!


----------



## hrutan

I kept thinking about that girl, but decided to stay with the stock I have. Can't help but wonder about that breeder's stock, most of them are metallic, but every now and then, they aren't.


----------



## lilnaugrim

hrutan said:


> I kept thinking about that girl, but decided to stay with the stock I have. Can't help but wonder about that breeder's stock, most of them are metallic, but every now and then, they aren't.


I completely agree lol. I don't think they are the breeder but just a seller. Sometimes they do that, sell whoever is ready to be sold but they didn't exactly do the breeding. Perhaps they have a contract with some of the farms or something. That's how I think of it at least since it's not always consistent. I know the seller I got Sam and Rai from was just a seller since they didn't have other siblings, those guys were it from that stock.


----------



## Crossroads

Most egg incubators are like this and I got the idea seeing an exotic stores cabinet incubator. The piece is solid with a thermostat controlled heating element that uses convection to send heat up. A fan unit brings in fresh air and a water towel or plate at the bottom creates evaporationkeeping air humid. Downfall is that most commercially sold incubators are designed to keep eggs at 99 degrees, far hotter than what would be needed for fish and run 500$ at least.Most are well into the 600-700$ range. There are however plenty of instructions on how to DIY a cabinet incubator. Built with enough racks and a time controlled string of LEDs it seems pretty sound since with it being sealed and using air temperature you'd be less likely to lose heat to the air.You can also insulate it so that if you had a power out the hot air would stay in longer.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, makes sense. I'd personally never spend that much money unless for the health of myself or future children lol. But it is a nice idea!


----------



## Crossroads

The DIY ones seem much less expensive as they use plywood and not metal. But I understand, just seems like a cool idea to keep a large spawn warm


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg I'm tired and exhausted.

So I went to town today, stopped by Wal-mart to pick up a few things then went up to town to get gas and stop by PetSmart and PetCo. I ended up finding three little American Flagfish at PetCo and I couldn't resist, I've been pining after these fish for ages now. I know they're semi-aggressive though so I'll be watching closely. But with their pricetag being 6.99 I only bought one, I got the bigger one (little over an inch actually) that had better flag markings on him. I feel bad for him for what happened next.

I was driving back down 95 and for those who don't live on the east coast, that's our big highway system that runs all the way from Florida and into Canada. So it's a pretty big highway at some points, mostly through RI though it's only a 2 lane highway. So I was just getting to exit 7 on the southbound side and I suddenly feel something sort of snap in my car, not like a whip crack but I knew something broken. I tried to make it off the exit but the car started to sputter so I quickly moved off the side of the road and stopped, turned the car off and turned my flashers on.

Most likely my Timing Belt went...yay.....dad had just bought one too and he was going to fix it on Wednesday :-/ So I waited the half hour while we got AAA to come, they towed me. The guy was wicked nice and polite, I was so very thankful! We got into my home town, he dropped my car off at one of the mechanics and my mom came to pick me up. All through this, the Flagfish is with me, cold in the car. I actually took him under my jacket to attempt to keep him somewhat warm, I know they're native of Florida and all but 38 degrees is still a little too cold for these guys lol. But he's fine now, stressed, but fine.

So dad is having the mechanics look at it tomorrow to see if I blew my engine or not and we'll go from there. For the time being, we're going car shopping tomorrow and dad is actually paying....I was shocked. He's never been great with money and I know he's going to be hurting soon in the financial department if he keeps up these big spending sprees he's been doing. I mean, they're all necessary but still, space it out a little!

So we're looking at a 2009 Hyundai Accent, I was surprised actually, this car is selling at 1,500 close by and I was like "There has to be something wrong with it?!" because you don't sell a 2009 car for 1,500 unless there is something wrong with it lol. But we're going to check that out along with a Subaru Imprezza 2004, a Toyota Carolla CE 2002, and a 2004 Hyundai Sonata....whew, lots of cars! All of them are manual except the Accent, that's an automatic but it gets 38 miles to the gallon highway and I want a good mileage like that so I don't mind taking an automatic instead of my usually preferred manual.

So yeah....I've had an interesting weekend!


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## Pippin

Ooh...Flagfish. That's the only part of your post I understand, but I've studied flagfish before. They seem interesting. And aggressive. But one he gets calmed down, (and you get calmed down after the car) then pictures of flag fish are needed!


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## lilnaugrim

Pippin said:


> Ooh...Flagfish. That's the only part of your post I understand, but I've studied flagfish before. They seem interesting. And aggressive. But one he gets calmed down, (and you get calmed down after the car) then pictures of flag fish are needed!


Heh, yeah, car stuff. It's sad that I know more car stuff than most males on my college campus, it's just really sad, but works for me since I get to help everyone else out in the end and that's what I love to do lol!

Yeah, there have been a wide range of attitudes for these fish, I'm hoping this one isn't TOO aggressive but I've seen tanks and fish that aren't as aggressive as some will claim they are. I'm sure with the densely planted tank, they'd pick their own territories and just mill around much like a Betta would. For now as a QT, he's staying in the 4 gallon with the 3 minnows to test him and hopefully to get rid of some of the algae I've got in there haha. We'll see how it goes!

I may or may not be able to get pictures tomorrow, if not then Tuesday will be the earliest I can get pics unless we go home early from class Monday. We have a critique in Photo on Monday so it is possible I'll get home early from that ^_^


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## Aqua Aurora

By manual you mean stick shift? I've never tried that only been autonomic. Stick shift and tragic jams (stop and go constantly) is no fun, see plenty of mid-life-crisis-gotta-get-a-[insert pricy fancy stick shift sports car) people in traffic in front of or by me lurching with the stick shift ugh.
Anyways glad your fish survived, did the tow dude give you an puzzle face when first noticing the tucked fish bag under the jacket?
What is your final tank destination for the flagfish post quarantine if he peaceful? Backup plan if he's not?


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> By manual you mean stick shift? I've never tried that only been autonomic. Stick shift and tragic jams (stop and go constantly) is no fun, see plenty of mid-life-crisis-gotta-get-a-[insert pricy fancy stick shift sports car) people in traffic in front of or by me lurching with the stick shift ugh.
> Anyways glad your fish survived, did the tow dude give you an puzzle face when first noticing the tucked fish bag under the jacket?
> What is your final tank destination for the flagfish post quarantine if he peaceful? Backup plan if he's not?


Yep, stick shift. I've only been driving five and a half years lol but I owed a red GMC Sonoma '95 for four years, that was my first car and was a stick shift. I prefer it because of the control but they also tend to get better gas mileage if you drive them correctly (granted it's not THAT much, but enough to make me prefer them with the gas prices we have here). I can get out of snowy situations easier with a stick shift as well, that's needed quite frequently around here. And the best part, my vehicle is less likely to be stolen by some young jerk who only drives automatics lol!!

Yeah, stop and go traffic sucks on manuals but I don't live in an area where I'm in that constant situation so I don't mind the occasional traffic jam. Also, if the person is lurching then they clearly don't know how to drive their car, just sayin' ;-)

Little Florida (I think I'll just call him Florida, yes, SOOO creative of me lol) is going to stay in the 4 gallon for a while provided he gets along with the white clouds. He gave me a scare last night when I went up to go to bed, he was very paled and leaning on the plants, I kept poking and moving him with my long tweezers and he finally woke up to swim away and give me this look lol, he apparently is a heavy sleeper  never seen that in a fish before!

So Florida will eventually go into the 29 provided he's peaceful and then into the 45 later on. The Piano is going today and mom and I decided not to set up the tank until after Christmas just so that there isn't any bumping and potential hurt to the tank while it gets set up! So if he isn't peaceful then I'll return him if I have to but so far so good in the tank, granted it's been less than 24 hours but he seems to be completely ignoring the white clouds as they inspect him and wonder what the heck he is lol. I love watching these fish inspect new fish if they're peaceful.


I've decided that Stratus will probably stay in the 29 her life since she's a butt to mister Pearl Gourami, I'm thinking of bringing him to school to put into the 35 there with Juliet the female Pearl Gourami if they get along. That way I have some space and Stratus won't beat him to death. It's never physical but the occasional chase that is a little more than playful. Stratus is actually more picked on by the Sparklers when they breed honestly, they're funny little fish for sure!

Sorry for the long answer to your question haha.


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## MattsBettas

I love Florida Flagfish. Never kept them, but their colors are just awesome. I really want to have I think a pair of them before this summer, because I'm probably going down to Florida and would likely end up visiting the Everglades and stuff... So it would be cool to own a couple natives! I already have my Least Killies... I hope he does well for you.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt!

From what I read, if you want to keep aggression down and keep more than one, it's best to have at least one male to three females or more females, it seems the more females the better. But females can be just as territorial and aggressive, so basically like a Betta. 

My boy is doing alright today, he still seems rather disoriented TBH. We'll see what the day brings tomorrow. He's colored up fully now, just doesn't seem to have his bearings just yet


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg car shopping is stressful! It's fun to test drive but still is stressful when we drive an hour out of our way to see a car and then get blown off by the guy! UGG stupid people. Both cars we really wanted to see we were blown off for which SUCKS. So we're still looking. In the mean time, I do have my dad's beautiful red convertible Mustang to drive while he has the rental! 

Florida is doing funky things, I don't know what's up with that tank but I think I'm going to try to acclimate him to the 29 tonight if he's still alive then. I hope he is, the other two at the store were definitely females so their markings aren't as prominent :-/

Also, I think I lost my main Ember Tetra, I can't find her anymore :-( makes me sad. She was the only one who had these cute little black markings on her, the rest are all red. I think I'll be investing in a few more Tetra's soon, I can only count 13 at the moment. So I think I'll bring mister Pearl Gourami to school and that will free up some territory space so Stratus won't be so annoyed and keep the school of Tetras up. The Gelius barbs are still doing well even though they're only 5 of them. Maybe I'll bump their school up instead? It's a shame they cost 6 dollars each. That's the only thing really stopping me from buying more of them.


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## lilnaugrim

So yeah, Florida died. The car ride home must have been too stressful for him :-/ I feel bad about that, I know I couldn't have helped it much but still feel bad for killing a fish always. I'm debating what to do with him, just flush him or bring him back to exchange for other female and buy the other female. The issue is timing, I could skip class Wednesday or just go Thursday. I'd go to tomorrow but I have other plans.

Along with my dentist appointment, I also have appointments to test drive other cars....but unlike the others, these are from a dealership! Not brand new cars but new enough! Dad says he's sick and tired of buying older cars and having them break on him all the time, so the cars I'm looking at I think all have less than 100,000 miles, are pretty decent on gas and range from 2007 to 2014. My test drives are: 2009 Ford Scion (leaning towards this one for mpg and looks, and price for dad since he's financing for me!), 2014 Ford Siesta SE, 2011 Toyota Carolla (possible!), 2008 Nissan Versa, 2007 Mercury Milan

It's going to be a busy day tomorrow. And I think I'm getting sick >.< feels like Post Nasal drip times ten, UG.

Good night folks!


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## Aqua Aurora

I feel like I have a permanent cold in winter.. it really allergies.. I manage to have something or another that I'm allergic to all year.. sucks when you can't sleep at night because of it x.x
Sorry about your fish loss. I'd put him in the freezer in a bag (or in a bag of salt.. though the store may not accept a desiccated fish) and take it back to exchange.. don't flush anything from an aquarium down the toilet, not even if its a dead fish.


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I feel like I have a permanent cold in winter.. it really allergies.. I manage to have something or another that I'm allergic to all year.. sucks when you can't sleep at night because of it x.x
> Sorry about your fish loss. I'd put him in the freezer in a bag (or in a bag of salt.. though the store may not accept a desiccated fish) and take it back to exchange.. don't flush anything from an aquarium down the toilet, not even if its a dead fish.


Yeah, I too have allergies all year round. I haven't been taking my Zyrtec so that post-nasal drip I'm experiencing right now is entirely my fault. Though dad said he just had something similar so he might have passed it to me (gee thanks dad, love you too lol!)

They accept the fish in most any form (though I'd assume they wouldn't if he were shredded and all nasty like...) if he at least resembles his original form. But the issue is just getting there, I love driving the Mustang, but it sucks gas and he only puts Premium in it. Where gas is roughly 2.88-3.03 right now for regular, Premium is still up at 3.40-3.45 so I want to save as much as I can at the moment since I'm clearly not made of money.

Yes I know about flushing the fish and all. Normally I do throw them in the garbage if they are diseased or I even think they might be diseased, it's a rare occasion they go down the toilet (NEVER alive).


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## lilnaugrim

So I only test drove half the cars yesterday, the 2009 Scion was nice but it barely started, brakes squealed and there was way more rust under the hood then there should have been. so we're nixing that one off the list. Then I had my dentist appointment to get four cavities filled, I was there for an hour and a half >.< I'm still sore today.

After that I went to the other dealership there to drive the Nissan Versa and the Corolla. The Versa was a standard six speed, I'm used to five speeds so having that extra gear was strange lol but it felt good over all. Then the Corolla is a 2011 and wicked nice, it's an automatic though and while it's easier to eat in the car with an automatic, I do like my standards. So I'm not sure. The Corolla is also more expensive at $14,348 compared to the 2008 Versa at 9,995. Dad's leaning to the Versa since it's less expensive so I'll probably end up with that even though I do prefer the Corolla purely for their better reputation. I know they're easier to fix when needed and they last a long time if you take care of them. The Corolla has 80,xxx miles on it where the Versa only has 40,xxx roughly. But I just don't know much about Versa's and I feel like dad just wants to jump on the Versa without knowing much about it like he did with the Passat :-/ clearly it doesn't end well when he does that....sigh. I wish he'd slow down sometimes. I'm going to do some research today to see what I can find and hope that he doesn't jump on it without my knowledge...he'd do that.


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## Lucillia

The versa does sound good. Though sometimes I wish I had an automatic for the sheer fact that someone else can drive it without an issue. Also remember how long corollas usually live. I'm hitting 230,000 this week and its going to be 12 years old in December. The mileage is nice, the priceee.... eeehhh can you wiggle them down at all?


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I do agree on that fact; other's can drive if necessary AND you can eat or drink without the hassle of shifting! haha. Idk, I'm still torn between it but apparently there are only automatic Corolla's available right now so I guess life is choosing for me.

There is actually another Corolla they just put up that is only 13,xxx so I told dad about it and I'm waiting to hear back if it's no-go or whatever. I'm sorely hoping, the Versa is nice but I really want the reputation of the Corolla. Also, the newer Corolla's are WAY more spacious than the old ones! It is certainly comparable to my old Passat! So much room for ART and FISH! lol

EDIT: also forgot to mention, dad thinks about now, not the future so he's not thinking about how long the Corolla will live versus the Versa :-/ Granted, yes, he's paying for the car but I will pitch in (if he'll let me) if it means I can get a little more expensive of a car.


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## andakin

Car shopping is such a pain. Although this isn't always the case, a lot of the time you get what you pay for. A cheaper priced car is not always the better buy when compared to a car that's priced higher with exact same specs on paper. You might end up paying more for it after maintenance down the road.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I know that but as I said, dad doesn't always think about the future.

I did end up discussing with him on that, "which car is easier to fix when it breaks down because they all break down at some point?" he replied with a "IDK" and I facepalmed over text lol.

It's frustrating right now for me because he got all of my hopes up with this beautiful 2015 Corolla, automatic, brand new for 18,995 and then he's like "Oh, the same dealer has a 2004 matte silver Corolla that only has 80xxx miles for 8 thousand!" and all of my hopes came crashing down on the floor. I feel really stuck up for feeling so disappointed at that, I know it's a good car more or less, but he shouldn't have been so gungho with the 2015 because he even told me that he wanted to get that for me and then turned on his word. So many ups and downs this week, not sure how much more of it I can take, I swear, if he does it again....idk what I'd do, probably cry out of stress and frustration but seriously, who does that? Get a girl's hopes up only to be false.

I know it's whatever he can afford, he's starting the pay on it and he said once I get a stable job out of college, I'll be taking over the payments. So $70 a month versus $250 for the new car. I can do it, I know I can, and I know I'll get so much more life out of the 2015 but ultimately, it's his decision in the end. This is partly why I hate people buying stuff for me :-/

I'll let y'all know what happens tonight. I plan on going home after class and taking some pictures so those should be up before I leave to test drive the other cars and check out the "loaner" cars for sale that they have.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh and here's the finished version of "The Adventures of Cloudjumper" the stop motion animation picture I did for Digital Photography class! I enjoyed doing this ^_^ Total time for pictures was about 3.5 hours of shooting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYXUoFcSp_g


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## andakin

Wow. You have quite the talent. It was very enjoyable to watch.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! And yeah, you get to see a little bit of my room too lol.

I had such trouble getting him to stick to the tape lol, originally I wanted him to actually come around the edge of the 4 gallon there and then down the side but he just didn't want to stick! So I said heck with it and made him fall off haha, it came out cuter than I expected. I want to do more with him, I have Toothless around somewhere and want to get them together as well. It'd be cute for a mini series I think :-D Maybe I can do that for my Senior Seminar project! Though, I'm more of an illustrator but I'm really having a blast with this photography stuff.

Oh and bloopers; Cloudjumper actually fell into the 4 gallon three times haha


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## andakin

You should embed the video directly into your post so people won't be directed to youtube.

I just went and re-watched that video and noticed something quite peculiar. There is a label on your hob filter for tank water level. What does that mean? I know those markings are often found in larger sump set-ups.


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## lilnaugrim

andakin said:


> You should embed the video directly into your post so people won't be directed to youtube.
> 
> I just went and re-watched that video and noticed something quite peculiar. There is a label on your hob filter for tank water level. What does that mean? I know those markings are often found in larger sump set-ups.


I've tried embedding videos before but it doesn't work well on the site. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or it's not supported.

Yeah, it's just the suggested level of the water for the filter not to make the big waterfall sound and all. It doesn't need to be followed directly, I just keep it around an inch below the top to keep the waterfall sound low so it doesn't wake me when I sleep. So yeah, just a recommendation.


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## andakin

Code:


[PLAIN][MEDIA=youtube]LYXUoFcSp_g[/MEDIA][/PLAIN]


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## lilnaugrim

Oooh, so it's just the brackets and only the number thingie not the whole link? Coooool, thanks! :-D


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## lilnaugrim

So....I took 198 pictures yesterday and have uploaded nearly 40 something of them lol. I know I've said it before but I always laugh when people write "Picture Heavy!!" as a warning and it's like 5 pictures and I'm like "no...no, no, that's not how you do it!" :lol: Picture heavy is when you get up to the picture per post limit of 50 and still have 20 more pictures to post! haha. Anywho, without further ado:

So the 20 was being hit with some afternoon light yesterday and it looked really pretty, also a decent time to take pictures with your flash as long as you angle your camera!


Going in order from right to left for compartments!

Baby Sparklers are getting big!!
Artistic pose:


This one looks female


They really love to peak out from behind the grass as if it's going to protect them lol, they're so funny and quirky! Actually, I keep finding the two largest ones over on Pierce's side of the divider! Thankfully he hasn't hurt them but I'm waiting for that day :-/


This one I believe is male, this one is the second largest I think...hard to tell with just the pics.


See? lol it's a different fish too


Next compartment: Pierce
He wasn't feeling very creative I guess so I had more pics but these were the only two that worked out



Middle compartment is Guppies (3M:1F), one Gertudae Rainbowfish (male), one CPD (female), three Featherfin Killifish (1M:2F), one Pencilfish (female)
She just gave birth on Wednesday I think but they ate the babies. I want to save the babies next time in the 29 so I can get more Lyretail Snakeskins. Her dorsal doesn't match her caudal as it should but she still holds the geno.


All three males and the female!


Next up is Trapper! He was posing for me very well but I wish I cleaned the glass >.<
Without flash


With flash
I love that he retained the orange above his "lip"


He still has that spot behind his gill there that hasn't fully grown scales back but it is healed. I'm not worried about it though.


I love his iridescence, he's a Black Orchid based marble :-D


This is where I wished I cleaned the glass >.< so good, he actually stayed still for a flare which he never does! He also has a beautiful bubblenest going!


His dorsal is absolutely beautiful


Sun was blocked from my window


And Jag's section. I really liked the pattern the craft mesh was making with the sunlight on the plants.


He still bites occasionally :-/


Working over to the shelf, here's the .5 gallon. The grass kind of took over....I want to just let all the grass grow and take out that Alternanthera, Ludwigia, and Pogostemon plant but I like the Pogostemon in there so I'm torn. I will take out the Alternan and the Ludwigia though since they're practically obliterated in the front there.
I also have no idea why Dwarf Hairgrass refuses to send runners out UNDER the substrate, they always go ABOVE the substrate.....strange plant


Didn't get any good pics of Sam but focused more on Rai this time since she didn't have a good shoot last time. She was still hard to get though. 



Her ventrals are badly split unfortunately


Sucky picture but you get to see the magnificence of her caudal! She's such a bad Rosetail but it's still very gorgeous to look at! She keeps all nice and pretty too when she swims, she rarely folds it up. She must know she's beautiful lol


And down to the 29. Full tank shot, unfortunately this was the least blurry out of them all >.< I'll try to take pics at night soon when I get time.


Again, sunlight was hitting it making it look quite beautiful. The fishes were very sparkly.


Calico's underside.


And her side


And this is slightly morbid but I found one of my small male Cory cats dead...Bentley was sitting next to it as if he were proud :roll: he was probably munching on the body. I'm left with what I think is only 1 or maybe 2 males left, I still have like 6 females though; they're wicked big in comparison to the males.


Pretty male Ember


Female Ember in the middle, males top and bottom


Stratus has been getting a beautiful blue tint to her scales and fins, it's really beautiful!


I was wicked happy to get this picture of the boy! He's usually very camera shy but he came out a few times to beg for food. His fins are becoming gorgeous!


And lots of Sparkling Gourami pictures!
I think this is my dominant female if I can tell them apart correctly yet lol


Oh, instead of hitting my pic max, I hit character max! Rest of the post will be posted after this one!


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## lilnaugrim

Rest of the previous post:

OMG YES! I JUST GOT THE TEXT FROM DAD SAYING THE LOAN WAS APPROVED AND I NOW OWN A 2013 TOYOTA COROLLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111 SO MUCH EXCITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry for that interruption lol, thank God this awful week of car shopping is over! Now we get to pay 256 a month for this car >.< ugg

And back to your regularly scheduled fish picture show! lol!


Subdominant female, she's a little more spoonheaded


Dominant pair, male up top female on bottom


The fifth little Sparkler kept trying to interrupt their courting session lol you can see her bottom left there




Dominant male




I hate that her (dominant female submitting subdomintant female) eye isn't in focus but look at those tail markings! Beautiful!


This one is better compositionally


And now over to the Rimless 4 gallon.
Again, this was the least blurry picture, I'm sorry!


So now that he's been a live a few days and has eaten yesterday, I'm comfortable introducing to you the newest and now only inhabitant of the 4 gallon. He actually killed the three white clouds, or at least something did; I'm not entirely sure it was him since they didn't have any marks them; just all three were dead but he's fine.....I was actually sad about them since I did like them too, especially the big one, he was feisty.

He's hiding here but may I introduce you to a 3 month old blue Paradisfish! I do believe it is a boy, he acts exactly like a mix of a Betta and a Gourami. I honestly feel that's what Paradisefish are; a mutt between Betta and Gourami lol For all I know, they could be! No concrete name as of yet


He happily ate a Mysis shrimp yesterday, actually he ate two of them and was stuffed after that lol. He's a real cutie. Still afraid of he's getting better!


He was bred by my awesome LFS: SeaHorse in Westerly, RI. They left a pair in a tub over the summer and got a bunch of babies both red and blue! So they're selling for just over 2 bucks which is cool! So he's going to be the only inhabitant for a while now.


Here's what this part of my room looks like, it's the only clean part of my room >.< I really need to get everything picked up and cleaned :-/ I don't have much time at home though.
No one is in the little 1.5 gallon on the right side, Akimi was in there but I haven't done anything with since she died.


Here's what the Cray tank looks like at the moment, nothing fancy but plenty of hiding and climbing spaces for them. They really like to climb over everything so I added the haunted tree decoration from PetSmart. Lucillia wanted it so when she gets the crays, she'll get that too ^_^ You can see one of the cray's on the right there


Here's one of the smaller ones


This girl is really pretty, she's blue and red! :-D I'm still afraid of those claws though lol


This killed me though, she tried to threaten me off when my face got too close but she was just really adorable!


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## andakin

Photos are always enjoyable. Are they mirrored by chance? I noticed you said were showcasing the compartments from left to right, but I think it might be backwards.

Congrats on the new car.


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## Fenghuang

My, my, Trapper really has grown into such a handsome boy. Love the paradisefish and sparklers are really striking too. And always, such beautiful tanks.


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## Aqua Aurora

Lovely photos.. surprised just how dark your wall color it (looks like deep royal blue). Also, *DAMN YOU* for having a fish names Stratus! I'm trying to come up with a name for my new dumbo betta.. wanted something sky/cloud-y.. already seen 2 or more "Nimbus"s. I was going to go with Stratus but don't want to be copying others.. grrr get to keep mulling over other name ideas...


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## lilnaugrim

andakin said:


> Photos are always enjoyable. Are they mirrored by chance? I noticed you said were showcasing the compartments from left to right, but I think it might be backwards.
> 
> Congrats on the new car.


Thanks! And I said I was going Right to Left ;-)



Fenghuang said:


> My, my, Trapper really has grown into such a handsome boy. Love the paradisefish and sparklers are really striking too. And always, such beautiful tanks.


Yes he has! I love the solid black that he is, he's like a real pitch black. It's hard to get photos of him because the camera doesn't want to read such a dark black lol!!



Aqua Aurora said:


> Lovely photos.. surprised just how dark your wall color it (looks like deep royal blue). Also, *DAMN YOU* for having a fish names Stratus! I'm trying to come up with a name for my new dumbo betta.. wanted something sky/cloud-y.. already seen 2 or more "Nimbus"s. I was going to go with Stratus but don't want to be copying others.. grrr get to keep mulling over other name ideas...


Thanks! Yeah, my room is sunny all day long so I can get away with nice dark colors. I have a light colored wood trim that off sets it and a white ceiling. So in the end it works!

Haha I'm sorry! What about Atmos like Atmosphere or Cirrius, or Meso (Mesosphere) or any of the other "spheres"?


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## lilnaugrim

More pictures because I had lots of time today while I was stuck in my room as John painted our stairwell lol. We're switching our living room/stair color from a green to a lovely creamy beige color and so I opted to be in my room with my fish and laptop earlier while he painted that.

So this time I focused on my Embers and tried to get the Gelius in there as well because they don't get nearly enough loving on here!

So I took out 7/8 of my water lettuce today, it was just blocking everything out! I had to throw it away unfortunately. I have two orders to fill after Thanksgiving week (this week for those not in the US) so I will certainly have enough for my usual box full of water lettuce lol. I also took out all the Pygmy Chain sword from the 4 gallon and planted them in the 29....all of THOSE were in the 4 gallon crammed together! lol!! I didn't realize I had so much


I really like this one random white Ramshorn I still have lol poor snails need more calcium though :-/


I'm in love with Stratus's iridescence that's coming in!


One of the smaller females



Male


So happy this came out :-D Gelius Barbs picking at their new plants


Swimming through the dwarf water lettuce




During feeding time


Would have been a better picture if she had her whole body in the picture lol but it's still cool


Calico



Better but a little blurry




I love this picture even though you really can't see the entire fish, it's nice and close and very detailed. Look at the rays on the dorsal and how erect it is! Actually, they always keep their fins out, the Embers close theirs occasionally as they swim and such but the Gelius Barbs never do!


Gem decided to come out and show himself! He's been a little reclusive this past week or so. I do believe Dario did die since I haven't seen him in about two weeks and last I did see him, he looked old and rugged, not a happy fish. I still never found out the Badis lifespan :-/



Oldest female as of right now


Sparkler!



Almost all of my Embers are in this picture lol! So many fish!


And look how big my Staurgyne Repens are getting! I've had them since the beginning of September or end of August, I couldn't find exactly when I got them.


They're all twice as tall now. Here's the picture from when I first got them.


Jag


"I'm Fantabulous!"


Trap didn't feel much like posing nicely for me tonight




Pierce





Sparkler baby


Rai



and last but not least, Sam


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## lilnaugrim

I also forgot that I went to PetCo last Friday just to kill some time and I saw this beautiful Black Capped Caique, unfortunately his price tag wasn't so nice at $1,299.99 but he was so personable and adorable! He was really interested in me and my cell, like genuinely interested! He posed for me too. Here he was when I first came over and he saw me:


And then he came over and my heart melted


I hated leaving him but I don't have the means to care for a bird like him! I do want to research him though so maybe one day!


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## lilnaugrim

So I've decided to switch the aquascape on my 4 gallon and make it a grass tank! Microsword mats will go in the front/middle and then my Cyperus Helferi will be the back :-D I already have tons of Helferi and I just bought three 1 inch mats of Microsword so those should fill in after a while. I also bought some mineralized topsoil that comes with a potash and something else mix for the bottom. i think I'll do a few grains of Laterite, a sprinkle of the potash mix and about .5-1 inch of soil and the golden sand will go on top of that. That should make a great mix for the rooted grass plants :-D So I'll be taking out the driftwood and the little rock wall I have. I could put that in my 20 though, I'll move the Staurgyne Repens over there as well, probably in Jag or Trapper's section since they get decent light.

I can't find good examples of grass tanks but I found this picture and holy crap, I love petrified wood! This is amazing!









EDIT: kind of like this but not so wild and without the hardscape:


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## Aqua Aurora

Good news then, the grass foreground in the second photo is dwarf hair grass which is very tolerant to being cut to desired height (aka you don't have to have the wild look). Looks like downoi on the right on top of the rocks in the second photo.. never seen it so thick and tall before.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh, no, I'm not using Dwarf Hairgrass, I already have it and it grows too slowly even with it's fully established. Microsword stays shorter and thicker, it also runs under the substrate whereas hairgrass has a terrible tendency to throw its runners ABOVE the substrate without CO2, I don't use CO2, just Excel. So what I was trying to say was that I want the micrograss up front like that hairgrass and then the back will be Cyperus Helferi. I can't find any examples of what I want so that grass one sort of works.


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## lilnaugrim

So I found I think three of my Rabbit snails have died but I know one is alive for sure and I think the fifth one is too but I couldn't find it. I did however find a TEENY TINY BABY RABBIT SNAIL!! It was so cute! It's climbing the walls of the tank right now and it's definitely a Rabbit Snail not an MTS. The MTS are light tan whereas my Rabbits are brown, the baby is a beautiful brown smooth shell, not riveted and swirled like the MTS are. I'm pretty happy!

I also only have 13 Embers left (started with 16 but lost one like the first two weeks or so and then one more back in the summer and then my oldest girl passed last week) so I want to invest in some more, hopefully get more females since I only have three females out of the 13. Also interesting to note that the females are the dominant ones in these species, there is one very large female that is dominant of the whole group and then subdominant females. When one dominant female passes, the second grows a little more apparently to fill the role. The males just sort of hang out and breed when the females tell them it, it's really interesting to see that in Tetras. I'm not sure if all Tetras are like this or just Emberas. This the longest I've kept any Tetra species before so I don't have much experience elsewhere.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And because I'm obsessed with taking pictures, I took more pictures lol.

I went to one of my LFS's today to check out if they were having sales or not but alas, they are not. But I did however pick up some more cuttlefish bone to add some calcium to my 29 for my poor deprived snails. I also picked up seven more Ember Tetras to fill out a full 20 in my tank. They acclimated very well and are schooling with the old ones :-D He was able to get me a few more females in the bunch of seven so I could have a better ratio lol.

I also picked up a Monster partially Mustard PK boy who's been there for over a month and a half. I couldn't help it. Actually, what I want to do is adopt him out on here for the purchase price. I paid 10 bucks for him and then the 6 dollar shipping will total at 16 for a near AquaBid worthy fish! Oh, 2 bucks extra for a heat pack too since it's cold and I don't want him to freeze! I'll put up an ad later when he's settled in a little and I make sure he is fully healthy.

My teeny little Paradisefish has gotten more confident! I'm so proud of him/her, it's also eating pellets very well too :-D I'm excited!


I want it to be a he but I think it's a she




Of course, it was pooping lol






20 gallon long


I ended up switching Pierce and Jag so Jag wouldn't bite his tail anymore, so far so good.


You can see the new boy in the back!








Jag


Trapper :-D







Sam and all his fabulousness lol!





And Rai


New boy!












29 is looking okay again


Stratus


Sparkler




Here's one of the new Tetra's, so dull in comparison to my old ones!


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## JHatchett

Oooh that new fish! So pretty! If you do adopt him out I have a cycled tank that needs an occupant.


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## lilnaugrim

Sorry no update in so long. Fish are fine. The new boy is still alive though he's unhappy at the moment. I'll definitely be making sure he's alright before he leaves me, he's still clamping and he tries to eat but doesn't seem to have much of the energy. I'll keep a good eye on him.

So I've been thinking about stocking my 45 and how I want to do it. Mom wants a community tank and it's in the living room or will be, so I want to include her on the picking of the fish though with my guidance. She knows she doesn't want guppies or any other livebearer lol, we had enough of those when I was a kid. I really want a Red tailed Black Shark, I've wanted one forever so I think this is my chance to do so. Here are some options I've been looking at.

I never look at Barbs other than Cherries and so looking at a semi-aggressive community sounds interesting!

Stocking #1
1 Golden Gourami
15 Black Ruby Barbs
1 RTBS

or I can do larger Tetras:
1 Angelfish
15 Red Longfin Serpae Tetra
1 RTBS

or
1 Angelfish or Golden Gourami
10 Odessa Barbs
5 Zebra Loaches (reasoning below)

Something along those lines maybe, not sure yet. All comes down to what mom likes to look at.

So I bought a unknown-at-the-time Loach that I thought was a Dwarf Chain Loach to help with my snail population control. It's a small thing just reaching 2 inches, well turns out it's actually a Burmese Border Loach (Kubotai Botia) and she's absolutely adorable! Her and Bentley have either become rivals or playmates, I really can't tell which but they don't seem to be hurting each other. They siddle-along each other and wiggle, it almost looks like a mating wiggle but obviously they are two extremely different species. Whatever it is, it's cute. The loach leaves most everyone alone, the Otos came up to inspect her when she went in lol, I love those little Otos; they're fat and jolly apparently. They love the veggie wafers even though there is plenty of algae for them to eat, they're fat before the wafers so I'm not concerned that they aren't getting enough to eat, they eat the wafers regardless as does everyone else (ahem...male Pearl Gourami and Stratus tend to HOG the food :roll

So I've decided instead of cories that I want to do loaches but I don't know how mom feels about them, my dad hates them because they remind him of water snakes and he doesn't feel like they're fish haha, they creep him out basically. But no idea's about mom. But the Zebra Loaches are smaller than the Kubotai so I may or may not keep her and see if she fairs with the Zebras as well. I'd still like the RTBS but I fear it would kick the loaches behinds and never let them eat or anything. I'd like to get some nice rock work going in that tank because it is so tall. I want to do a 3D background type thingy or at least make foam rocks because those are lighter than real rocks of course but I'd have to silicone them down or weight them with real rocks. Not sure which I'll do yet.


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## lilnaugrim

Pictures ^_^ I've got 39 tonight lol.

My cutie-patootie is doing so well! He likes my face but is scared of my hands lol, we're working on that with food, little by little!


I'm quite sure it's a 'he' so I'm thinking about names though I'm not sure what to do. I want to follow my M*A*S*H characters, I almost want to name him Hawkeye after this one since my previous Hawkeye was technically named after Marvel's Hawkeye not Hawkeye from M*A*S*H but I know it'd get a little confusing for you all. 



I love this picture ^_^ It's like he's curled up in the leaf there




There are times where his blue almost turns black! He's really adorable, I've definitely fallen for him


Sam


And Rai


I also upgraded my .5 to a 1.5! It's the Tetra LED cube tank but I kept the SolarFlare light of course since their LED's SUCK. Added a heater, kept the airstone and thermometer of course.


And Jag was added, poor boy is a bit stressed but he'll be better in there away from other fish so his fins can heal ^_^


Baby Sparklers!






I love the big male guppy here, he has good coloration. That baby guppy there has grown up real quick too!!


Little boy is doing alright now! Honestly there were two days I wasn't sure he was going to make it! But he was flaring at the Gouramis and attempting to eat, though he still has trouble grabbing it so I just left the pellets in there since it's not going to hurt the tank anyway.



Bentley is such a ham, he apparently loves to pose and will flutter around the front of the tank whenever I bring the camera out, doesn't seem to mind the flash either. Otherwise, he notices me normally but doesn't flitter around like he does when he see's the camera lol


Macro 10x, but the camera was blocking the flash


One of my pairs of Cories, the females are extremely fat >.<


This is a few hours after eating....they're just fat fish, I can't help it lol. The females are constantly eggy as well


Fat Oto too!


Two Embers who haven't quite colored up fully yet. Two females, one is younger than the other.


Just looking back at Stratus's pictures because I didn't remember these black lines being on her face and the gold under her dorsal, apparently she's changed quite a bit! This is her "baby" picture when she was only about two inches in body


Sorry about the algae but you can see she now has black behind her eyes that almost look like sad eyebrows lol! She was a little stressed so it was going away but she also has this more intense gold under her dorsal and more blue on her. I wonder if she's got some Marble genes in her Striped coloration somewhere!


The black is right behind her eye, not the one on top but it sort of connects. I thought it was bruising but it's completely symmetrical.


She's also lost some of her stripes too



She's adorbs


That spot on her dorsal still hasn't grown back so I assume it's a defect


And here's my lovely Kubotai! She's adorable, I'm pretty sure it's a girl because she's fat. I'm just going to just call her Kubotai


Love the blue field under her black parts




These two are just really adorable





And to finish off the post, FROG BUTT!! haha


----------



## lilnaugrim

Got my Drs. Foster and Smith order in yesterday, bought three more Hydor 25W heaters for the small tanks I have. I also bought KanaPlex, that's going to Lucillia, apparently they have a new bottle and it looks easier to use as well; that horrible scraping noise might have been eliminated with this new bottle which will make me oh so happy if it is! It's a screw top now as well which is nice, the pop off top gets messy. And then I bought NLS H2O wafers and holy crap, my fish LOVED these wafers, two were gone from the 29 in just about half an hour, they take around an hour or two for the Omega One Veggie wafers. I'll still be alternating those since they have different ingredients but wow! And last I bought a new pair of Aquatic Scissors which are ACTUALLY stainless steel unlike my last pair :roll: they're really nice!

And, and, and, and!!! My VT Red Butterfly pair is coming in today!! So excited! I don't want to jinx myself since I don't know what kind of time I have but I'm going to try and get the tank set up tonight after I get my license plates from the dealer for my car. I just need to clean out the 10 gallon and find a place to put it....yeah that's the hard part. Then a sponge from the 20 and a heater and I'm set. Need to collect a few more oak leaves from outside, today would be a good dry day to do that. And then need to find a styrofoam cup to use, plastic did not work last time >.<

I'll get pictures when I can. Tomorrow I have a concert at the other end of the state (hour and fifteen minutes from my house lol) at night so I probably won't have much time tomorrow to do things. Then Sunday is church in the morning and I have to make two batches of Red Velvet Swirl brownies for Monday and Tuesday and we're decorating our Christmas Tree at night. Phew, lots of stuff to do!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh gosh, I just uploaded 56 photos....big post! I'll have to split it into two actually.

But my VT pair came in today! That's mostly what the pictures are about.

For the male I'm debating names of Red Wine (RW for short or just Red) or Velvet. Maybe something else if it fits.

Not sure what to call the female, it will come to me.

I set up the breeding tank today, used a sponge from the 20, new 25W Theo Hydor heater, some plants (duckweed, water sprite, and a java fern), and a styrofoam cup for Sam. I'm not sure if Sam knows what to do just yet, he's been conditioned all along basically and loves to show off but we'll see. I was going to throw them together tonight since the female is extremely eggy and rearing to go but he's got to at least start the nest lol.

Pics up next! May take a while because M*A*S*H is on so I'll do the writing when commercial breaks come on, or if it's an episode I've seen I can multitask sort of.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Look how fat and eggy she is!






She's got huge finnage, they should work well with Sam's. I'm hoping for mostly white fins and red body...we'll see what we get!


I definitely don't love her body lol, I'm just using her for her color XD



She reminds me of a Black Capped Chickadee only with red instead of black ^_^ I was thinking maybe something like Cardinal or Chickadee or idk lol




Sam has a little black scale on top of his body there and he's getting a little black on the cellophane band around the white of his caudal, it's interesting.


Sam's face haha


He does take awesome photos though





Trapper


I love his form! And his color now ^_^


This is how I get comparison pics, just put my hand over the divider and the two of them start looking for food haha! Pierce has really grown up! He's just a tad smaller than Trap is!



And then they pout when I don't actually give them food


Majestic fins!



He still has a very prominent false egg spot though, it's interesting! I found out that Trapper still has a small one too and Jag's is there. Remmy and Aero never kept theirs.


Speaking of Jag, he didn't like the 1.5 at first and decided to really tear at his fins. He's colored up tremendously since yesterday and the day before so he seems to be fine now which is good. He's healing already, it's just going to be quite a while is all.





1.5 plants are doing fine, the Pogostomen Erectus isn't very happy but the tops are growing


I love this baby so much!


He's really coloring up too, he has black at the top and it fades to green and blue and then the orange in between, it's quite beautiful!





This is so far my favorite picture of him


Cutie


My new little Rainbow Fish, he does remind me a lot of Aero 


So I have a very...ahem, horny teenage Guppy boy....the youngest of the trio of males (the one I originally thought was female) will apparently mate with anything and everyone. He's really sweet on one of the female Featherfin Killis and I actually saw him barrel roll under her or to the side of her to get his gonopodium you-know-where. I've seen the other males dance for the other female fish but this little one seriously mates with everyone! He really likes this one Killifish and she just seems confused by him.

Here's the little bugger


I'm glad he has the lyretail thing going on, he doesn't have enough snakeskin pattern for me to really like him though.


Hanging out with his Killi girl here


And I almost got him actually mating with her....he's a freak. I know she's not, but her large eyes make her look terrified!


Chillaxing afterwards


The soon to be momma, she's due in about a week I think. She's in with the new boy because he jumped out of his cup before he was properly acclimated >.< he's fine though the little bugger.


I believe this is the other female Killi. I'm quite sure they are not Simpsonichthys Constanicae, there is another Simpsonichthys killi that is similar but stays much smaller and I believe these three are it because they are no where near the size of my other Featherfin boy I had a while ago.


Cutie little Pencilfish, she totally posed for me


----------



## lilnaugrim

And finally the new boy! I think I will call him Velvet, his beard is solid red which looks like soft velvet, it fits.






He has too much irid and black edging for me but he's still a cutie.






I adore colored pectorals!


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## FishWhisperer

Your fish are so pretty! Also, is solar flare from deep blue? I like their tanks!


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## lilnaugrim

FishWhisperer said:


> Your fish are so pretty! Also, is solar flare from deep blue? I like their tanks!


I only have the SolarFlare LED light, not the tank unfortunately. I love all tanks with low iron and black silicone glass like DeepBlue has


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## Aqua Aurora

Love the last photo of the new boy, perfect "OoooOOOo whats _that_?" childlike wonderment/inquisitive look. Maybe call the new girl Kadee (out of chickadee).. another bird I can think of with the red over the eyes is the black grouse or blackgame (Tetrao tetrix), or the European goldfinch or goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) if you want to try to derive names from those.


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## FishWhisperer

lilnaugrim said:


> I only have the SolarFlare LED light, not the tank unfortunately. I love all tanks with low iron and black silicone glass like DeepBlue has


Their tanks are pretty! I only have a 2.5 by them. The dividers could be better. See through glass.


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## MattsBettas

Love the pics, lil!


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Love the last photo of the new boy, perfect "OoooOOOo whats _that_?" childlike wonderment/inquisitive look. Maybe call the new girl Kadee (out of chickadee).. another bird I can think of with the red over the eyes is the black grouse or blackgame (Tetrao tetrix), or the European goldfinch or goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) if you want to try to derive names from those.


Haha yeah, that's exactly what he's like. He's fairly large too, about the size of Trapper and I'm sure he'll get bigger too seeing as he's a VT and they just naturally grow larger.
Thanks for the suggestions! Nothing has really clicked yet for her like Velvet did for the boy so I'll keep looking around ^_^ I want to continue with my M*A*S*H theme but there is more males than females there, I definitely don't want to name her Margret, she's sweeter than Margret is lol. 



MattsBettas said:


> Love the pics, lil!


Thanks Matt! I'm way obsessed with this camera and how I can capture really nice pictures now and more of them come out with less overall pictures whereas my point and shoot, easily get 250 photos and only 10 would really be nice >.< It's becoming a problem though lol, I have to split up my picture posts to fit everything in!! haha


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## Aqua Aurora

I've only seen a few episodes of M*A*S*H, were there any mini cameo/guess star appearances you can get names from? Did the cross dresser (drawing a blank on his name sorry) every use a female name for himself?


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## lilnaugrim

Haha Klinger, nope, just Klinger. Yes there were many mini cameo's but none that I particularly like. The issue is that I like more odd names, I love Margret's character but I don't like the name for the fish. I don't particularly like "regular" names for them if that makes sense like Joe, Danny, Ben, stuff like that. Pierce, Steve, and Tony were the closest I think I had to regular names, the rest were abnormal names like Trapper, Aero, Rembrandt (technically a "regular" name but it's no John Smith lol), Mercury, Ditto, and plenty more. I think that's why I liked my Marvel theme, all the code names weren't "normal" names for a person. Hence my dilemma haha. I could do Radar or Hawkeye again, Radar was a poor little marble DT baby from PetCo who only lasted two weeks I think? And of course Hawkeye was the other PetCo baby from a friend, who died over the summer (the fish, not the friend!) but he was named for the Marvel Hawkeye not the M*A*S*H one.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm attempting to condition Sam and the new girl with the male vs. male, female vs. female thingy to see if it will get Sam in the mood. He's apparently quite docile so I'm trying to pep up his attutude and get the girl to get her stripes going. She's still fat with eggs. So far so good but we'll see.

I just have to show off my Red Velvet Swirl Brownies, they look fantastic and they came out wicked good! I'm so proud of them haha. I only make them around this time of year since they're a bit expensive to make but so so so so worth it!
Before when they were just ready to go in the oven:








And when they were done!








Cut up into small squares for the party tonight and larger squares (not pictured) for my class party tomorrow!


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## BlueInkFish

Wow so beautiful!!!

It's great to see all your lovely fish! The pics are amazing as always!

I do admire your Bettas  It looks as if your having a passion for the color red?

Lilnaugrim: The master of red Bettas XD!


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## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Wow so beautiful!!!
> 
> It's great to see all your lovely fish! The pics are amazing as always!
> 
> I do admire your Bettas  It looks as if your having a passion for the color red?
> 
> Lilnaugrim: The master of red Bettas XD!


Well, well, well! Look who's back! Haha, nice to see you around blu ^_^

Actually, I do enjoy red but blue/orange is my favorites but I wanted to work with something different which is why I ended up with two red pairs right now. My goal in the end is to have a fish with red body and all white fins if it's even possible. My LFS was talking about when they were kids and they described the betta's as all being VT for the normal but their colors were much different. They described two of the "fancy" types, one was blue with all white fins and the other was red with all white fins. I made sure to ask if it was see through (cellophane) or not but they swore that they were white so ever since that I've had a dream of doing a "throw-back" type of fish. So hence my red fishes lol.

Normally I do go for the blues/blacks but I do have to say that it's really nice being able to see Velvet anywhere in the compartment even from across the room on my bed. Trying to see Trapper in his compartment? Yeah, he's like a huge shadow! I can't see him unless I've pressed my face against the tank which I've done more than a few times just making sure he hasn't jumped out anywhere or into another compartment >.< Same goes for Pierce.


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## BlueInkFish

Thank you Lil! Its been a rough time of the year for me. Finals coming up/around the corner, more test and study drama and swim practice busy as ever . Stationing at this community makes me happy the most though. Enjoying others company and learning something new every day!

Your goal for the fish you've been thinking of will defeniatley come Lil! We all believe! How have you've been?  your fish look as healthy as ever... Maybe it's time for me to stick to AB a bit more....not like I havnt.


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Thank you Lil! Its been a rough time of the year for me. Finals coming up/around the corner, more test and study drama and swim practice busy as ever . Stationing at this community makes me happy the most though. Enjoying others company and learning something new every day!
> 
> Your goal for the fish you've been thinking of will defeniatley come Lil! We all believe! How have you've been?  your fish look as healthy as ever... Maybe it's time for me to stick to AB a bit more....not like I havnt.


Yeah, I hear you for sure! Today is my last day of classes (yay for college!) and thankfully I only have one legit final because the rest of the classes are either rehearsal classes (concert choir and marching band) that we have concerts for our "midterms" and "finals" or they are studio classes in which we do projects through the semester and then just hand everything in at the end. I love studio art classes for that reason I have no finals! My only final is my Art History class and I need to do a CRAP ton of studying for that! Ug!

But yeah, I love being here too, it's nice to hear compliments about my photography, especially with all I've learned in my Digital Photography class, I'm glad it's paid off! I would love to work as a professional photographer for taking fish pictures! That would be awesome! We actually have one in our Tropical Fish Society and he taught us a little bit about photographing fish a few meetings back. I'm totally going to win the photography contest next year at our show! haha

Thanks! Yeah, I just hope I can get the red not to take over and keep the fins cleaner lol, we'll see! I think I'm ready this time! Though Sam is still being sort of docile >.> I need to make him fight! Got to get something pokey to poke him with to aggravate lol sounds cruel but it's really not since I'm not really fighting them, just getting him in the mood to breed!

Yeah, both red pairs came off AquaBid and both are brother/sisters. So I'm going to cross Sam the Red Butterfly HM to the new girl who is Red Butterfly Marble VT. First gen is going to be some crappy DeT with a mix of red cellophane butterfly and maybe if I'm lucky a few red white butterflies!


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## BlueInkFish

Wow. I actually am in a beginners photography class! Your probably better than me haha. I just thought photography would be an easy elective. Guess what. I get homework and test haha, it's pretty annoying, I have art 1 next semester and everyone in my school says it's easy. I hope you can get the pair spawning ASAP! I havnt even started conditioning my blue btf pair (spawn I recently did failed due to errands and so much more) I'm clearing up and now I'm more open to free time  I'm very happy, once I move out I'll defeniatley be having a fish room for breeding projects!


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah my Digital Photography class was also the "beginners" class but with my previous knowledge about composition and art in general, it helped out a lot. Yeah, we were tested too and its's a fairly easy course, just LOTS of time to do it. We had four main projects (one was a stop-motion/time lapse) and we had to take at least 150 photos for each one, then find 50 good ones and print them out at CVS or some other drug/photo place lol. And then we'd bring them in for critique and stuff. The time-lapse/stop-motion we had to have at least 30 seconds or more, mine was just over a minute and I think I had something like 350 pictures for it roughly. And then we had another project on top of it that ran through the semester, it's something we normally don't do but there was a collaboration of artists back n the 60s I believe it was and it was called Family of Man, you can actually look it up on google and see it. So basically we were recreating similar images to that and we're sending them in for a show and hopefully we get in! There will be a book made and it's an online gallery type thing so if I get in, I'll link it to you guys ^_^

Thanks, yeah that's always a shame when things fall apart...I know it all too well. Hopefully our next spawns both go well for us ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Heat Packs came in today, two of my older Baby Sparklers will be going off to a new home along with some water lettuce which I have WAY too much of again >.< Literally, I have to skim the top of my tank each week to take out more than half of them and I end up with a completely covered tank by the end of the next week again! Please buy my lettuce! lol


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## lilnaugrim

So we had a POOP ton of rain today, freezing rain too and wicked gusting winds. I was hydroplaning all over the road, it was terrible >.< We had flash floods too, fun times.

Have some pictures.

Sam wasn't too happy in the spawning tank, I took out the leaves and did a water change because I wondered if maybe the leaves were doing something to the fish. I took Sam out too because he apparently has no intent on building a nest and breeding. The new girl had actually let some eggs out and was attempting to care for them on her own but she didn't have a real nest to use so they'd only fall again and finally she just ate them in what seemed like frustration. So I put her back into the breeder box to keep her in the tank and put Velvet in instead to see if he'll build anything.

It sucks, Trapper totally has gigantic nests going and Pierce does occasionally too but the fish that I want to breed apparently don't want to breed...ever >.>

Girlie, she's got some sort of fungus stuff on her or maybe it's lose scales, hard to tell.


I thought about calling her Petricore; the smell of dirt [dust] after rain. Not sure yet.


Such a cutie face!




And this is why I named Velvet as I did, his beard looks wonderfully velvety!


Trapper being flared with Velvet and new girl


He has more black edging than I thought he had



Sam is doing a lot better in his 2.5 with Meth Blue and some salt to help with any possible infection.



He's very striking with the red against blue haha


What my 29 looks like at the moment


20 long


Not sure what's up with my colors today but it's all relatively bright, here's the bubble master himself, Trapper!


Pierce



And he was too darn excited for the camera but Jag had to move back to the 20 because he kept biting his tail in the 1.5 >.>


1.5 gallon


He's feeling a bit better now! Eating decently well when he wants to and has colored up some. This is a terrible angle of him haha


I love his face!


And I'm just so proud of how quick my dwarf hairgrass came back! Though, it's annoying how it loves to reach across the stupid tank for the root tab that I put in there even though it has TWO on the side of the grass >.>


4 gallon, got in my plants in from BamaPlants I'll switch over to soil and the grasses as soon as I get a free day which should be sometime soon! For now, the micrograss is weighted down by a rock lol


Little baby himself


----------



## Lucillia

The new girl is sooo cute!!! And that velvety beard... I wabt to hug him.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks! lol, yeah I knew he had to be Velvet because of that beard, looks more like crushed velvet but it's still beautiful! I don't think I've ever really seen a solid red beard like his before, they always have some black on there somewhere. Even her beard is very similar.

I'm still thinking of names for her, turning to my Gaelic roots now lol here are some possibilities:
Laisrén [LAS rain] meaning Flame (sounds nice)
Rúadhán [ROO awn] or Rowan meaning red haired (I really like this one)
Ceara [KYAR a] meaning Fiery Red (first pick)
Coinneach [CON yach] derived from "handsome" but is one from Kenneth (nice, could call her Connie)
Daighre [DIE r'yeh] meaning Flame, Fire (leaning to this one)
Easnadh [AS na] meaning Musical Sound (just sounds pretty)


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## Aqua Aurora

I like "Rowan", sounds strong but beautiful when verbalized.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks! I think that would best suits her as well, short and sweet just like her. It's technically a masculine name but pff, who cares? lol Rowan and Velvet


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## Olympia

4 gallon is looking good!


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## lilnaugrim

OLY!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh it's so good to see you around again!! :-D We missed you ^_^
Lol and thanks! I actually just rescaped it last night, I have the pictures uploading as I type this, I think I got somewhere around 62 good pictures haha


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## lilnaugrim

So I rescaped the 4 last night impromptu. Added my layer of dirt but put sand around the edges so you don't see the layers since it'd be really obvious unlike black sand and the dirt. Under the dirt is a few sprinkles of laterite, potash, and dolomite as well. I've kept the Staurgyne Repens in for now until the Microsword takes root and starts to grow. I like the Cyperus Helferi though, that's all doing quite well!
Sorry, I realize this isn't in focus for some reason >.<


And here's the little bugger himself!



He (she?) was a little stressed out though


But then he saw his reflection and became dark again lol




This little one is getting better and better! Love his little face and mustache!




I'm half convinced that Pierce is a girl again....


Look at that egg spot! No real signs of ovaries though and being that he's next to Trap, he'd have huge ovaries if it were a girl...





Trapper under his glorious bubblenest




He is getting old though, I think he's nearing on 2 years in total IIRC? Originally he's from Fenghuang


Froggies have been doing well, they haven't been divider hopping in quite a while now! Here's the girl, she's always fat


Sparkler baby! I sold two of the larger ones.


Jag and his short tail...I think it's the angle but he looks fatter than when I first got him...


My Rainbowfishy


Little boy is shaping up well!


Kubotai is really fat now haha I have this snail graveyard going on XD





Calico the BN


Looks like she's cooling lava with the orange skin and brownish scales, it's really cool


Ember Male


Ember Female


Fat Oto


This is the subdominant male, he has cataracts in that eye that you can sort of see



Dominant female





I think I severely stressed out Rai by placing her in the spawning tank to hopefully excite Sam into making a bubblenest. She's not looking too hot today, this was her last night and being grumpy


Sam is beautiful but he won't build a nest



Rowan!


Love this shot!


And I replaced Sam this morning with Velvet since Velvet made a bubblenest last night in the 2.5 >.<





Whoowee, look at those ventrals!


This shot would have been perfect >.<


----------



## JHatchett

Maybe you should trying having one of your champion nest builders build it then put Sam back in the tank with the female.

Some boys are just terrible nest builders. My PK boy builds the tiniest lamest looking bubble nests.


----------



## Fenghuang

Ahhhh, I love your red butterfly VT!!! Did you get him from a breeder? 

I got Trapper from Petco back in June, so he probably younger than two. Petco bettas usually look pretty young.


----------



## lilnaugrim

JHatchett said:


> Maybe you should trying having one of your champion nest builders build it then put Sam back in the tank with the female.
> 
> Some boys are just terrible nest builders. My PK boy builds the tiniest lamest looking bubble nests.


Haha yeah I thought that too honestly! Trapper is amazing at making bubblenest! Sam? Not so good. Velvet is good though, I have a good feeling about them right now. Rowan was released and Velvet was chasing her real good but last I just checked she was standing up for herself and wiggling back at him rather than turning tail and running like she was doing earlier. Fingers crossed!!



Fenghuang said:


> Ahhhh, I love your red butterfly VT!!! Did you get him from a breeder?
> 
> I got Trapper from Petco back in June, so he probably isn't that old.


Really? You didn't have him that long then huh? He looks real old, much like how Remmy was looking when he got over 1.5 years. So I'd gander he's approximately a year at this point then at least. He's really big now, bigger than he was when I first got him from you 

And yes, the beautiful VT's came from Somsak-bettafarm (bettafever) ^_^


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## Aqua Aurora

I've not bred myself but read a bit about it, and don't know how experienced you are at breeding so please don't get insulted.
If you're trying to get your one male to bubble nest, have you increased meaty meals? Live food especially seems to work especially well. Also a lot of breeders swear by big rain/thunder storms, the pressure fluctuation encourages them to nest build. One breeder even did water changes with a watering pale to simulate rain when it was raining outside then left their pair to have at it over night.


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## lilnaugrim

Yep I know. I've tried everything for Sam, tried to get him to "fight" by poking him a little, using multiple females, flaring him to other males during conditioning. They regularly get frozen bloodworms, live daphnia, live grindals and white worms so they get plenty of good food, NLS grow too for the 50% protein.

During conditioning you usually do frequent small water changes to simulate the rainstorms, daily small changes.


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## Aqua Aurora

Eh guess he's just not into_ it_.
"No, se I got you to breed!" 
"Well to bad, I'm not making a nest"
"Oh yes you are!!" *tries many things*
"Nu-uh" *nada on the nest*


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## lilnaugrim

Lol. Yeah, he loves to show off and does his lovely little wiggle dance for her but he just sits there and does nothing. I know it's not the water now since Rowan is fine and so is Velvet....:roll: ug


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## BlueInkFish

Well. If worse comes to worse you can always give him to me :tease:

I really would like to start a Veiltail spawn of my own someday. I just don't have the room, Uck!


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## lilnaugrim

Ha! NOPE! lol

Velvet and Rowan were looking good this morning, hanging near each other while they wiggled and flared though Rowan still was running away from him. Fed them some White Worms this morning. Velvet is kind of neglecting the bubbles >.> I hope he starts to build so. I'll leave them in for a week unless I notice severe damage to Rowan, she's got some chunks taken from her tail but otherwise her body is unscathed so that's something at least.

I regret to say though, Rai has passed on this morning. I guess the stress of being in the tank with the pair for a decoy was too much for her. When I took her out into the 3 gallon she was still (yes I acclimated) and very grumpy, she'd move but was clearly not happy about the situation. I added some Meth Blue and .5 tsp of AQ salt to help but this morning she was stiff as a board, quite dead. Sucks, I'm not overly sad about it like I would be if I lost Rowan since she didn't want to breed but it still sucks though. I didn't even have her four months, five months? Oh well, Sam is still fine and that's what counts.


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## BlueInkFish

I'm sorry about Rai  Your such a great fish owner and that's why your fish all love you  for you!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks blu


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## lilnaugrim

Well guess who I found spawning this morning!!! Velvet and Rowan are happy parents of eggs! lol And guess who threw out their back taking pictures of them this morning? Ah-ha, you guessed right! I'm sitting here in pain on the couch in the position I'm usually in in hopes that it will settle again with the heat pack on, just took some meds since my hip is out too.....ugg and we have a party tonight too, this won't be as fun >.<

But I did get some decent pictures, nothing I'm super in love with but still wanted to show you guys ^_^ I also took video but I want to edit it and splice them together since they didn't want to spawn once they saw the camera come out :roll: I'll get that up once I edit it and all.

Okay, wtf is wrong with Photobucket?? Anyone else having issues? I upload my pics to my Bucket and then it only shows a few of them there, I have to go to Recent Uploads to actually find the other images....those should be in my bucket...wtf?? grrr

First spawning I captured! This was about where I threw my back out with the way I was sitting on the floor >.<



You can see him catch the eggs here! it's funny, they get stuck on her pectoral when she's stunned and finally fall when she is turned upright by him. They're a really cute pair


Then they spawned again right away this time


Loving this picture.


You can see the eggs sort of cradled in her pectoral there haha


And then I had some fun, about 4 inches of the tank is hanging off my little nightstand (stand is solid oak, no way it's going to break with the little tank on it lol) so I took some photos from underneath! It's pretty cool!
Pitiful nest but I'm sure he'll bulk it up some as time goes on


This explains them very much, Velvet is like 'yep, I got a nest' and Rowan is like 'OOO CAMERA!' lol


He noses her into position, too cute!


And spawned!



Hanging by the nest








Lol, Rowan photobombed him ;-)


This is a size difference between them for sure. He's not gigantic or anything but he's big enough


My favorite "couple" photo of them


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## BlueInkFish

Oh my gosh! Congrats!!! I really need to start breeding ASAP! Your tempting me to get more fish!!!

Beautiful pair when placed together


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## MattsBettas

Awesome!!


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## Lucillia

Soooo jealous


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## Schmoo

Babies!  And wow, what a gorgeous couple.


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## FishWhisperer

Wow! I can't wait to see the fry!


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## lilnaugrim

Annnnddd I think Velvet ate the eggs :-/


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## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Annnnddd I think Velvet ate the eggs :-/


"OOO caviar" Don't worry it to much, its his first time. Also they're more likely to eat them if they aren't fertilized right? Time to condition them for some more bong-chicka-wow-wow.
I don't know if it works for bettas, but angelfish breeders will keep a room (not tank) light on when they have eggs as the parents are more prone to eating eggs when its completely dark. Many suspect its a because the parents fear something else eating the eggs.. kinda silly reasoning though but hey they're fish! A dim lamp or nightlight, or even room light in the next room or hall typically helps.


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## lilnaugrim

Actually I believe they were bred before back in Thailand, Rowan is a pro at it, Velvet had some hard time starting but got the hang of it no problem after some time.

I didn't want to say this here because apparently every time I post something it always goes the opposite but I did find some eggs in there!! There's still a chance! I'd be happy with a small spawn to start as well!

For Bettas, the light isn't necessary.


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## BlueInkFish

!!! Yes! Very exciting! Btw, I just got some awesome shots of my hm girl! I would love to share the pictures with you guys some time


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## lilnaugrim

And no eggs this morning, not even a nest, at least yesterday he was still tending to a nest!

So I'm going to recondition both of them and try again. If he doesn't work out then Lucillia picked up a real cutie butterfly male VT, he has more irid on him than I'd like but I think it's something I could eventually breed out given time and the right partners. Ideally though, I just wish Sam wanted to breed :-/ he loves to show off but just doesn't want to make that nest regardless of the situation! We've had thunder storms up here as well since I've had him where Trapper went crazy with the nest building but Sam didn't want anything to do with it >.>

Maybe I should just stick to my Sparklers since at least I know I can keep the babies alive :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

Two more hours in the dentist chair today and got four more cavities filled, geez I have a lot of cavities; I can see them on the x-rays though so it's not like I have a rampant dentist lol. BUT I"M GETTING MY TOOTH BACK ON THURSDAY!!!!
For those of you who might not have seen it before, I had a tooth extracted back in February because it broke, I had to get a tooth implant and it's a long process but worth it. I got the post in and got the molding done and finally my tooth came in so we're putting it in on Thursday :-D So excited!!!

I was also by my wonderful LFS so I stopped in and bought two more female guppies who are loosely based off Snakeskin, I should have bought real snakeskin girls since I do want to continue with the Lyretail Snakeskins but I need to work back up to the nice snakeskin pattern while keeping the tail balanced, it's hard! So I'm keeping them separate for now to get rid of the babies they have now so I can potentially breed them to my LTSS boys if by that point I don't have real SS girls.

Reconditioning is going well with Rowan and Velvet. I forgot to flare today with all the stuff I was doing out (had my art history exam this morning which I aced, had to do laundry when I got home and then went out for dentist, went to wal-mart to try to find more gifts, found Rooibos tea, and then went to a massage by my cousin who is a trained Masseuse and now I'm home) but they're eating well.

For a few days after I took Rowan out, she was lethargic and I was really worried she was too stressed out but she's eating well now after decimating a white worm lol


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, I think I love this forum too much :-( I'm immensley saddened and disappointed at all the stupid fighting that's been happening this past week.

I get it, it's the Holiday's, we're all a little excited or on edge but it's no cause to put that energy towards negativity. For anyone who may be reading this, take a deep breath and take a step back for a little bit and just notice how beautiful this forum is; how much good information is on here and how many good people there are; don't ruin it with petty fighting. Please.

Some pictures I took yesterday
Velvet



Even though it's dark, I still love the composition of this photo


The whole 10 gallon for breeding. I added tannins this morning


Rowan is doing well, healing very well, still has a chunk out of her caudal there but I'm not worried about it, it's healing, just slowly.


Sam


I wish he'd breed


Well, I can successfully say that whenever I'm down, this little tyke cheers me right up with his insistent swimming and begging for food. He's now not afraid of my hand/fingers and will come up instantly for food from the tweezers or just pellets. So proud of him!




My finger for size comparison, he's still relatively small


I love when he darkens up like this


4 gallon at the moment, not too much growth but I don't expect any for at least another two-three weeks


I forgot to pull the light forward so these are rather dark, sorry about that
Sparkler baby getting big!


This boy is the biggest by far



I'll retake these photos later when I have time to get lighter pictures but here are the two new guppy girls. This one is the biggest


Big girl in back and little in front


Big girl



Jaguar has ceased his biting thankfully.


And here's where I remembered to pull the light forward to get better pics. Looks like his irid is bleeding into his fins there






Pierce


This boy is the cutest little one ever! He's changing some, his white head is starting to slowly go away and a nice light blue is taking over. I do believe I will keep him (still a chance I might not) and put him in the 45 when it's set up since mom likes blue fish, she'll like him. He's also nice and docile so he won't hurt other fish


Showing off his marbled face


You can see the white going away here


His tank has done a lot of growing! The Starugyne repens are hitting the top! The Pogostomen is still recovering but again, the tops are still green so once they grow a little more I'll cut the bottoms and plant the tops and they should take off once I do that.


I did it again....picture isn't in focus >.< sorry, but you get the idea. It's the 20


And the 29 at feeding time, nothing spectacular going on here.


My sweet little Calico, she's doing well


She was totally posing for me


A newer female Ember, she still hasn't fully colored up yet but she's going well!


Two little cories munching on Mysis shrimp


My cories get so fat that they can't even balance on both fins...they lean to the side on one fin because they're too fat.....


Kubotia is also very fat too, I do have a snail graveyard now lol


Face full of Mysis


Red Root floaters are doing amazing now that I've taken out some dwarf water lettuce to help them grow haha


Topside, the ones directly under the light are super red


Stratus


Sparkler


Dominant female, she's so cute here


Here she is again


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## lilnaugrim

So lots of stuff came up! Yesterday I went to PetCo because I wanted to get something for the tank at school, I looked around for a while and decided on a beautiful Black Marbled Male Molly and a stunning Dalmatian Lyretail Female Molly to go in. Currently they're sitting in my heated 3 gallon where Rowan was, I'll bring them to school on Monday. Originally I was going to get two boys but then I realize none of the Dalmatians were boys lol so I said eff it, if we get babies then woohoo, I'll sell them! Or the Pearls can eat them haha whichever comes first.

I'll probably get some more Neons for that tank once it settles down, I had 20 neons in there but for some reason, they all dropped like flies, I'm down to 3, one older one and two young ones. So I'll get the Mollie's established first and I think I may sell of my male and female Pearl Gouramis since they have no real place in my tanks anymore now that mom decided what we want in the 45. I feel bad but maybe they'll go to a good home then.

So I'll start with the Molly pictures first:

Here's the female, she has a beautiful coloration, her tail is a bit crooked but I don't mind



Here's the pair, she easily is double his size if not a little bigger. I love his red tail though!






I just love how shiny she is in this photo, and it's artistic in a way ;-)


It's a bit blurry but this was one of the better pictures I took of him, I only realized that after I uploaded the pics though. I'll get better ones later


The happy couple


So next big thing is that mom and I went out shopping since I asked for some nice boots for Christmas, like flat dress boots to wear with skinny jeans and a large tee-shirt type boots. Well we went around to different stores, mom got the last of her gifts for everyone and while we were just about to leave Savers she goes "Oh, we should have gone to the store to see the animals!" as a backstory; when I was a kid we'd always visit a pet shop somewhere just to look at the bunnies and birds and lizards that they had there, just to look and waste some time. So of course I said "Oh, PetCo is right up there, we can just pull in!" "Okay!" so we went into PetCo.

I wanted to show her that beautiful Black Capped Caique who is still there in the store, he was freaking hilarious today! He was wicked worked up and excited with all the people there, he was showing off on high speed! He'd flip on his back and then bring his leg over his head like showing us what he could do! Mom absolutely adored him but obviously, we can't keep him or anything, especially not for the price of 1,299.99! But she enjoyed him as much as I did.

So we went to the Betta section, just wanted to look. I had looked yesterday when I went in, there were some beautiful Marbled blue bettas ugg, so gorgeous! There was a Copper Gas that she liked as well, he was partially marbled. Then she saw this purple CT flaring up a storm at the Betta next to him and she's like "Oooh, I want him! Look at his hair!" she loving refers to his dorsal as his "hair" lol. It was sticking up in all sorts of directions though when we watched him. So I told her I could keep him until we set up the 45 if that's what she wanted in there, she said Yep and away we went!

So I have a new fish lol. After about an hour I asked her "Jereth or Bowie?" because of his "hair", it reminded me of David Bowie's Labyrinth so she decided we'll call him Bowie lol. So without further ado, I introduce my first real CT since my first Betta fish; Bowie
He is actually purple in real life, my camera doesn't want to see him the way I see him lol


His dorsal just sort of flows everywhere lol. I thought about Fabio but didn't fit haha He's definitely more aggressive.


Annnnd he was flaring at his reflection


He has beautiful form! He's one of the best looking CT's I've seen in a while, he's not really a full HM, he reaches 180 degrees but the rays on the outside are rounded in so he's more roundtail but usually I don't like CT's because they ARE DeTs and I don't fancy it much. But his fins all meet up, his dorsal is beautiful broad, body has a great shape!


Best picture I took of him. Looks like he's flying through space lol "The New Adventures of....SPACE-FISH!"


He just didn't want to stop lol. I ended up putting the towel behind the back of the tank so it didn't reflect as much, it helped out.


And mister blue marble over here lost his white face!


And he built a small bubblenest too lol. I really ought to name him since I am keeping him still


He's got Steel AND Turquoise, that's rare


And Pierce, he looks like a Parrot here, he was just eating a pellet


Always in the same pose :roll:


Trap


My Rainbowfish looks like he's upside down haha or he looks like this emoticon: :dunno:


Going to breed this pretty boy to the two girls, lyretail geno girl (original girl) and to a new Mosaic girl I bought also on Friday. The other two I'd acquired before went into the 29, I'll probably sell them or something


Here is the new girl


I like the balance on this boy's tail better but I hate his pattern >.< nothing near Snakeskin that I need


Sparkler babies are growing still





Here's a better picture of the 20


And the 29, still haven't been doing much with it, just trying to keep everything alive. Trying to balance selling dwarf water lettuce and not letting to choke out my plants but still keeping some of it too >.< ugg


Probably one of the better pictures I've gotten of Stratus lately. She may be a He, I haven't decided yet lol




Couple of my Gelius barbs, I always want to call them Tigers because they're "striped" more or less but obviously, they aren't lol


And last but not least, Sam, he always holds the same pose too >.<


Sorry for his lack of creativity!


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## MikeG14

Hey Lil, 
I didn't know you had a paradise fish! I love 'em! I first saw them at my LFS back in the spring. Is this your first one? Do you plan on moving him/her into a community tank in the future? I hear they can be a little rough on other fish, I wonder how they would do with a shoal of white clouds? Seems like they would be a perfect match both being cool water fish from the same geographic region.

Thanks for the link to Sakura8's AQ and Epsom Salt thread. It made me re-think a few things.


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## lilnaugrim

MikeG14 said:


> Hey Lil,
> I didn't know you had a paradise fish! I love 'em! I first saw them at my LFS back in the spring. Is this your first one? Do you plan on moving him/her into a community tank in the future? I hear they can be a little rough on other fish, I wonder how they would do with a shoal of white clouds? Seems like they would be a perfect match both being cool water fish from the same geographic region.
> 
> Thanks for the link to Sakura8's AQ and Epsom Salt thread. It made me re-think a few things.


Yep, he's still a baby though. My LFS had two Paradisefish spawns over the summer so they're at varying ages now but this little guys is about 4 months old ^_^ He's my first one technically, yes, but I've always admired them. He won't be going into a community tank, originally this tank had three white clouds in it and he killed all three of them. With Paradisefish you need at least a pair in there to divert their attention away from the other fish and onto each other.


----------



## MikeG14

That adorable little guy has three kills already? Sheesh!

When I saw them at my LFS most of them were huddled in a corner rolling over each others like puppies. At the time I thought it was cute. Then I realized that the were probably terrified of the 3 or 4 larger ones that were swimming around the tank like they owned it. I'm not so sure PF's are for me.


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## lilnaugrim

MikeG14 said:


> That adorable little guy has three kills already? Sheesh!
> 
> When I saw them at my LFS most of them were huddled in a corner rolling over each others like puppies. At the time I thought it was cute. Then I realized that the were probably terrified of the 3 or 4 larger ones that were swimming around the tank like they owned it. I'm not so sure PF's are for me.


Yep! He almost had four last night >.<

I was acclimating my poor lone Celestial Pearl Danio female since they are also colder water fish. I just kept her in the cup to see if he'd act all aggressive just to be sure it wasn't some sort of fluke or anything. Well....he was attacking that cup like there was no tomorrow!! When she didn't move, he was fine, he's like a cat; she moved and he'd freak out on her! So I said absolutely not and put her back with the guppies, featherfin killifish, gertudae rainbowfish, and the lone Pencilfish.

They're adorable but definitely not community fish for just a single one. As I said, if you had a pair, they would direct their attention at each other and usually then you can absolutely have them in a community tank but...idk. My little 4 gallon won't be enough for him once he gets a little bigger!

I've been thinking though....once we set up the 45, I'll move over my Embers and probably the Gelius Barbs, Cories, Calico the BN, Bentley the deformed Panda Garra, and Kubotai Loach. Then I may sell off Stratus the Angel or give her to my LFS or something and sell off the Sparkling Gouramis. That leaves me with a free tank, I may just do some larger Barbs and get a female PF to keep the little one occupied and have a nice barb tank. I'd acclimate them to a middle ground temperature, like 68-70 should be fine for them. Just thoughts though.


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## lilnaugrim

Ugg I really don't want to jinx it but I swear to god, if Velvet eats the eggs again after I post this, I'll flip a table!!!

But last night was a success so far, Rowan and Velvet spawned yesterday morning and she was removed mid-day after he started to chase her off constantly and she'd hide. She was placed with the Mollies in the 3 gallon temporarily, the mollies actually left this morning and are swimming happily in the 35 gallon at school now. But these pics were taken yesterday morning and last night.
Velvet was caring for the eggs this morning still, I fed him and he got a little too excited for the food, some of the eggs were knocked out so after he was fed he started to play "52" egg pick up hahah. He's being a good daddy so far!

Things I changed: moonlights on at night and feeding throughout the day during spawning and egg care.

Pictures!
Here were the bundle of eggs yesterday morning, he'd moved them to the edge of the cup instead this morning and I thought he ate them but they were just moved ^_^ I think there's about 100 eggs or so maybe?
He makes a terribly messy bubblenest lol


The cute little bugger himself


Taking care of his eggs last night


Here's Rowan, she has a few more nips to her but otherwise is very spunky this time! She really enjoyed the Mollies lol



She and the male became buddy-buddy when she went in lol!! I love this picture albeit a little blurry



He's really something spectacular isn't he? I love the colors of the Mollies over Platies, there's just something about Mollies. I've never owned them before but I really enjoyed these while they were at home ^_^


I love his beautiful tail too


He's a very shiny fish lol


She's a grump for sure. But they acclimated well to the 35 gallon this morning, we'll see how they do in there ^_^


My adorable little assassin, it's a shame he can't be housed with other fish, he's got so much personality!



I've really got to name this little fella too, he's really beautiful! It's funny that for the three months he spent at the LFS, he retained his white head always but once he comes home to a nice warm home, he marbles out! He's still beautiful though. I swear he's not clamped like this all the time, he just doesn't like the camera much!




Without flash, lol he's like Shadow fish or something, idk


Here's his little 1.5, colors are totally off but that's alright. 


And I know he's in basically the same poses but I just can't help taking pictures of Bowie, he's just simply a beautiful fish! I've never fallen so hard for a CT before, let alone a MULTICOLOR! It's all in his form honestly lol!!






Now this is an awesome picture! Glad I got it ^_^


And then there were the fish from the 29. Here's the male, he's really getting his plumage!


This is the bigger of the two I'd gotten previously, threw them in the 29 for now >.< She's ready to drop kids soon!


Fat kubotai is fat


Sparkler


Gelius barbs picking at the Dwarf Water Lettuce roots lol


I'm sad to see that Gem, while still alive, is not looking so good. He's lost all his color, I do believe he'll be dying soon as well. Dario has been long gone, I never really reported it though. But I assume Gem will be following.



Sparkler


And that's it for now ^_^ Off to make more Scarves for Christmas!!!


----------



## Huffle Puffles

I've been quietly following your journal and I just have to comment on how smitten I am with your lil' blue marbling boy


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## lilnaugrim

HUFFLE!!! :redyay: oh wow! It's good to see you around ^_^ I thought that you, Elsewhere, Mar, and BettaLover1313 had pretty much gone!

Thank you! He looks completely different with his little "helmet" gone haha, he's still such a cutie though! I wish he wouldn't clamp so much when the camera comes out :roll: oh well, he'll learn one day!


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## lilnaugrim

Like the decorative banner? haha, It's not totally mine, took off google images but I changed the places of the words (originally Christmas was on bottom but I wanted a banner), it's rather nice if I do say so myself XD

I probably won't be on much tomorrow, gee, no surprise there haha. So I'll say it now; Merry Christmas to all!! If you're Jewish, I know yesterday was the last day but all the same: Happy Hanukkah to you as well! And if we have any; Happy Kwanzaa too!

-----------------------
On the spawning front, I just made my Spawn log as I feel Velvet is doing amazing in fatherhood right now! He spends all day and all night trying to keep those darn rebellious fry up in the nest but they keep falling out of it :roll: He's doing is best in keeping up though. The fry are developing slowly but that's because my heat is only up at 78, I can't get the stupid heater to go higher and I do have a larger Marineland heater but I'm afraid to use it just in case it shorts since it's an older heater :-/ but they are developing and that's what counts!

I also have some water aging for when I start to fill up the tank (drip method of course!)

Oh and I don't have bronchitis or strep as I first suspected, instead I have a sinus infection >.< I'm always sick for Christmas, haven't missed any years yet; 22 and still going strong haha.


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## FishWhisperer

Merry Christmas and congrats on the fry!


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## Tuigirl

Oh my god, love those photos.
And that Molly is indeed cute!
Oh, and Merry Christmas by the way. ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you, thank you!

If you're interested, I've started the Spawn log here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=495465

And the 45 went up yesterday lol! The tree was so dead so we took the tree out and I got to set up the 45. I'm making a separate journal about the progress, I'll still do some updating on it here but it's more generalized so I can keep track of things and all. Here's the link: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=495881


----------



## lilnaugrim

Can't believe my journal has over 3,000 posts now lol I wonder if there's a post cap on threads or not....

So a couple things happened. 

I switched Bowie and Jag, Jag has a little bout of fin rot from his fin biting spree's so I'm treating that in the 2.5 and Bowie went into the 20 where Jag was. He's already built a bubblenest lol

Sam went into the 20 as well in the middle section because he was looking dull and bad, so I wanted him in the 20 for a little stimulation. He's doing well with the guppies, he's ignoring them and they're ignoring him.

Here's how the 4 gallon is going.


Paradise is growing fast but...I don't know if I should keep him :-/ I absolutely love him but I didn't expect him to be so aggressive since he's grown up with his brother and sisters and then some other fish in the tank originally and they were all fine :-/ I can't fit another Paradisefish in there since they do get about 3 inches, sometimes bigger sooo....that's a bit much for a 4 gallon :-/ idk....maybe I should get another girl for him just so they can interact, I do know that if I had a pair then they'd be fine.....idk, I'd still have to rehome them though...ugg, I didn't expect this, I probably wouldn't gotten him if I did...though, knowing myself I would have anyway :roll: it's what I do--I know, I know.


I realize it's dark but I love his dorsal, it's Trapper



Still has an orange "nose" lol


Bowie is adorable, I love the black spot on his head


He really does look like he has a lot of "hair"


Sam!




Love his face lol, guppies in with Sam


And these are in the last compartment, SOMEBODY tore up the male....


And guess who it was....these little? guys! They're getting big!


Assassin frog is ready to leap!! lol she actually did leap right after I took the picture, grabbed at something...no idea what it was lol


Well...I keep calling him Azure and Blue, anyone want to vote on which it'd be? He wouldn't hold still at all! So this is the clearest picture I got of him tonight....oh well lol


My Red Root Floaters are flowering again!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Not too much to report on the fish front here since I'm busy with the baby spawn and the 45 gallon. Transferred four Embers (wanted 3 but 4 went into the net lol) Tetras to the 45 gallon and my mom's boyfriend made fun of them....he wants something that can eat other fish so when he learned that these guys aren't getting any bigger, he laughed at them :roll: Mom likes them but doesn't seem to be very happy with them. I think in the end I'll end up with the Boesemani Rainbowfish even though their temp requirements are a little lower than Ram's are, I think I can compromise though since the Ram's won't be actively breeding, or at least that's not what I'm looking for.

Betta's are all good, Trapper and Bowie are in a competition for best bubblenest contest lol. Trap's is real nice and tight but Bowie's is much more spread out but still thick, he definitely covers more space. It's a shame he won't be bred, or at least not in the near future at all.

I saw Gem today, he's looking paler than ever :-/ he seems to be acting fine....not sure if it's just his time or if it's something else.

Stratus might actually be a boy lol I've suspected it for quite a while with how aggressive s/he is. I haven't seen any inkling of an ovipositer which means most likely male. He's a lot happier with Romeo the Pearl Gourami out though, Rome went into the 45 to help cycle it along with a few plants.

While I was at PetCo today, I saw this gorgeous Blue PKEE absolutely flaring at his neighbor crazily! Gosh I wish I had space for him! What was most striking was his cheek stripes weren't red but silver, one of my favorites! Here's a few pictures! Oh yeah, I got a new phone too, a Moto X Andriod so you guys can actually get decent cell phone pictures now woot woot! And I can look things up on the fly; that's my real love of this ^_^




His form is literally almost so perfect, it hurts me that I'm not breeding irids


----------



## BettaLover1313

So much has happened in my absence! My goodness, you've been quite busy!

Love Bowie and Azure/Blue (can't really help you pick on that one, both sound good. Sam is absolutely gorgeous. Shame he's not a bubblenest builder :/. I'm glad things are going well for you .


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> So much has happened in my absence! My goodness, you've been quite busy!
> 
> Love Bowie and Azure/Blue (can't really help you pick on that one, both sound good. Sam is absolutely gorgeous. Shame he's not a bubblenest builder :/. I'm glad things are going well for you .


Ahh it's so good to see you around BL!!! I'd missed everyone as I stated to Huffle ^_^ Not that I don't like the new guys around but I missed everyone that I started here with :-D

Thank you! I'm still undecided on Blue, though I keep calling him Blue now because it's easy but I feel so unoriginal lol At least with Aero, it was spelled different than Arrow, you know? I thought about Aqua too but I feel like I'm just being too lazy with his name >.< Blue has stuck though....

I agree about Sam, ugg, even now in the 20, he doesn't really flare at the other two even though Trapper and Bowie are building huge nests right next to him and apparently, he couldn't care less :roll: seriously, these fish...whyyyyy lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> Ahh it's so good to see you around BL!!! I'd missed everyone as I stated to Huffle ^_^ Not that I don't like the new guys around but I missed everyone that I started here with :-D
> 
> Thank you! I'm still undecided on Blue, though I keep calling him Blue now because it's easy but I feel so unoriginal lol At least with Aero, it was spelled different than Arrow, you know? I thought about Aqua too but I feel like I'm just being too lazy with his name >.< Blue has stuck though....
> 
> I agree about Sam, ugg, even now in the 20, he doesn't really flare at the other two even though Trapper and Bowie are building huge nests right next to him and apparently, he couldn't care less :roll: seriously, these fish...whyyyyy lol


You could always spell it Bleu though, comparing him to the cheese doesn't seem right. Never mind! Disregard that suggestion XD.

I finally got caught up reading journals! So far behind, wow. I can't believe how long college kept me busy :shock:.

I'm hoping to explore some of the new journals I see after I go update my own journal and see what's going on in the other sections of the forum ;-)

Yes, I can agree with fish driving you a little crazy. My two have been doing that to me for awhile now XD.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I forgot to reply earlier but I literally laughed out loud when I read your comment about Bleu haha!! :rofl:

Yeah, college does get rather involved >.< I'm glad you stopped by though! Still makes me happy to hear from everyone every now and then :-D


----------



## BettaLover1313

lilnaugrim said:


> I forgot to reply earlier but I literally laughed out loud when I read your comment about Bleu haha!! :rofl:
> 
> Yeah, college does get rather involved >.< I'm glad you stopped by though! Still makes me happy to hear from everyone every now and then :-D


Glad I gave you a laugh 

I'm hoping to be around more. I'm praying next semester isn't as crazy as this last one. This last one was ridiculous :roll:.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Little Paradise and his grass tank is doing well!


Jag has been doing very well in his little heated 2.5 QT tank, he actually likes it so I supposed I'll just let him live there then since he's away from other males and all, he hopefully won't bite again!




Blue is ridiculous! He doesn't stop surfing! He likes to watch my finger and follow it, it's the only time he calms down some but seriously dude! Chill!
He looks so much more different now that all his white is gone


lol his ventral's make him look like a plane XD


He's a cutie for sure


Here is the lovely 1.5 gallon


Trapper:



He was waiting for food


Sam has found a new pose! Good job Sam!


Baby Sparklers!



Sam and the guppies


And this is Bowie...this is what he does...he stalks from the darkness in the back of the tank.....


And then he becomes an angel lol!


He's an interesting fish too!






Velvet is out of the spawn tank now, I watched him eat a healthy fry and said nope; he's out lol. He's pouting but he's fine 




Poor Rowan is still covered with Ich. After I took these pics I threw in some Quick Cure (Malachite Green), there is salt in there already (.5 tsp for 3 gallons, just a preventative) and the heat is up around 84 and won't go higher :roll: she's much less clamped than she was before though and she's still spunky so she'll be fine, I'm sure!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sooo I knew Velvet was a tad constipated, he was focusing too much on his fry...well guess who had a very large poop this morning? lol, it was literally the size of a pea.....Look at that little sucker!!


So I did some trimming today and figured I should show off my plants since they're always on the back burner poor things. I moved a few things around like this Java Fern 'Windlov' that I will be selling part of, it's huge and is throwing babies everywhere! It was formerly in Bowie's compartment behind the Limnophila Aeromatica and I had too much Limno so I wanted to keep it mostly in that compartment but there wasn't enough room with the Java Fern back there so I pulled it and put it in Pierce's compartment.
You can see Pierce inspecting the bottom of it there....


From the top


Pygmy Chainswords I will also be selling.


Pygmy from the top


I have to clean Bowie's compartment, for some reason, that one is just constantly dirty, I clean it and the next day it's dirty again :roll: no idea why either but w/e. Here's the Limnophila Aeromatica


In the last compartment with the frogs


And from the top, Bowie's stalking again lol


I might sell a sprig of this but it's very slow growing so I'm not sure yet, it's my Alternanthera Reineckii 'Cardinalis'


Red Root Floaters are budding everywhere!


Even on the green ones


Dwarf Water Lettuce still taking over my tank


The 29 looks like a waste land right now :-/ The water Sprite will be shipped off soon and the last mother plant will go into the 45 for the time being and I'm thinking about getting rid of my floaters so I can actually grow plants again. It's so hard because I sell the floaters so well but at the same time, I'm sure I could sell my stem plants well enough too, ug, floaters are just so easy though!


Subdominant Male Sparkler with cataracts in that eye he's showing us




Stratus, I'm pretty sure it's a boy now



Whoops, didn't realize how tilted this was but this is the 20 after some trimming took place. Yeah, you can see all the crap in Bowie's compartment there, looks horrible.


And I have this sort of grass growing in Paradise's tank with the microsword. I thought it was dwarf hairgrass because it looks similar but looking at it closely, it looks more like some strange bog plant. I really don't know what it is. I suppose it could be dwarf haigrass but the part that grew upwards has some nodes and more blades coming off it unlike hairgrass that would throw a runner up in the water....

Crappy pics but it's very thin so the camera doesn't like to focus on it



You can see it best here from the side


----------



## FishWhisperer

Ha! Bowie is a weeping angel! I like the 20.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol! That'd be extremely scary if he were a weeping angel!! nope nope nope! lol


----------



## Kaffrin

~Squeal~

Pretty tanks ^~^ Your plants are as vibrant as ever!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Kaffrin!!! hehe, thanks!!!

Geeze, everyone's coming out of the woodworks! I love it! hahah.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I totally forgot my Excel dosing this morning >.< whoops. Oh well, one day won't kill my plants. I usually skip a day here and there anyway just because :dunno:

So I'm not super fond of winter around here but I've got to say that we have some of the best sun rises on clear day's. We live in a sort of alcove on the side of a hill (the hill of Hope Valley actually, it's literally a valley) and I love seeing the sun come over our house. Here's the view from my porch, granted the tree's are kind of ugly right now but wait till it snows and we get this view! It's gorgeous!


Going up our little private road. Looks like the tree's are on fire!


This one isn't as nice with the tree's not in bloom, in summertime this view looks a lot better. And yes, I actually stopped for this photo unlike most of my other ones :roll: lol I'm a safe driver! I swear! XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Went to PetCo and PetSmart today to find a background for the 45 (showed in the journal) and a 50 watt heater for the babies since the 25W wasn't doing crap lol.

But I just wanted to show off some of the Betta's we get in, these are by far the prettiest ones I've seen but they were doing pretty well as far as PetCo's go 

We get a LOT of blue butterfly HM's


Turquoise butterfly DT


This little DT wasn't so happy but he was still sort of cute; a Marble


There were almost three of these here, Copper Marble CT! He was actually quite beautiful


Marble Dragonscale HM


Two of these guys there, not Septicemia but just coloration there


This guy is absolutely adorable, he's a Marble CT boy that has been there around a month now.





I'm always happy to send anyone a fish from my stores if they see something you like. I'd love to see that marble CT boy go to someone on here, his marble progression has been slow so far but I expect he'll speed it up once he's in a proper tank. He started as all red and added a little blue irid as he started to get the cellophane, the cellophane is still spreading out ^_^

All other fishes are still doing great! Bowie is really getting used to me now, that's great for when he'll go in the 45 eventually.


----------



## MattsBettas

Petco fish can be so nice. Ugh. 

I have to ask... What does "almost three" mean?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, I meant I saw two of them for sure but I thought I might have seen a third, I didn't give a thorough look to the ones in the back haha. There were two of them dead, both to dropsy but the rest were healthy. They use the faucet instead of a big bucket like PetSmart does so diseases aren't transmitted


----------



## BlueInkFish

Totally agree with you matt, VERY PRETTY!

I LOVE THE FIRST GUY!

Did you think of me Lil when you saw the blue butterfly guy  eh?? XD jk jk, blue butterflys are my passion, heck any btf hm is my passion


----------



## LittleBettaFish

I am drawn to the marble dragon with the blue spots on his body. This is why I don't look at the bettas in pet stores if I can help it. They always look so pathetic and imploring, and when you know you would provide them with better care than they would receive with the majority of potential buyers, it gets so difficult to walk away.

There have been a few over the years that I regret I didn't purchase. I suppose you can really only hope that they landed softly somewhere.


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Totally agree with you matt, VERY PRETTY!
> 
> I LOVE THE FIRST GUY!
> 
> Did you think of me Lil when you saw the blue butterfly guy  eh?? XD jk jk, blue butterflys are my passion, heck any btf hm is my passion


Haha, I didn't actually, I'm too preoccupied with those white CT's ;-) But we've had better BF's in the past where literally they were almost blue body and totally white fins, it was amazing! That's what I'm going for with my reds only in red with white fins ^_^



LittleBettaFish said:


> I am drawn to the marble dragon with the blue spots on his body. This is why I don't look at the bettas in pet stores if I can help it. They always look so pathetic and imploring, and when you know you would provide them with better care than they would receive with the majority of potential buyers, it gets so difficult to walk away.
> 
> There have been a few over the years that I regret I didn't purchase. I suppose you can really only hope that they landed softly somewhere.


Yeah, I've had good self control lately, especially since I have my spawn, I CANNOT take more in but I'm always happy to adopt them out to anyone, it makes me feel good at least lol. I do agree, I liked the one that you like as well. I really liked those Copper marble yellow CT's though, I've seen quite a few on AB and literally, it's like the same fish, strange to see AB quality fish at my PetCo lol

I'm just happy that they take care of their fish and genuinly care! I've talked with many of the employee's and we continue to talk when I see them ^_^ it's really great because we both enjoy our conversations about fish and all. They almost all care for Betta's at home or other fish and are always happy to learn more!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I totally want the fry of your red body white finned bettas! Tell me once you achieve your goal!

Yes. Update me with the white cts  Im defeniatley finding one still!


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

That red marble CT is beautiful. I've been looking for a mostly red CT. And my Petco has been really bad with their fish lately. And fortunately Walmart hasn't carried Bettas for a few weeks.


----------



## Fenghuang

Your Petco selection is awesome. I got a male very similar to that blue marble dragonscale from Petco. Faster marbler I ever had, but it was interesting to watch.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks! Yeah, I'd seen you post his progression before ^_^

I've found that fish tend to marble very slowly, if at all, whilst at the store and then once they come home to a proper set up, they marble like crazy. That's what happened with my boy Alloy (Formerly known as Blue, yes I finally named him! He's like a mix of metals and Steel coloration with DS so I thought Alloy and it fits perfect!) He had his beautiful white face for almost three months at the store, come home for two weeks and boom, it's gone lol. I miss it but he's still a beautiful shade of steel blue with some partial dragon scale and hints of turquoise! I've never really seen a fish like him before!

Trapper is solid black now with that bit of turquoise irid, even his orange lips are disappearing to black!! I'd hoped maybe he'd marble again back out but we'll see!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Random phone pictures over yesterday and today.

Bowie had a beautiful nest this morning, still has it right now actually.


Moss wall that's been growing between Bowie's section and the middle section (Sam) for a while! I only noticed it about a month ago but it's been growing for quite a while now since Java Moss is relatively slow growing. Needs a trim soon!


Bad picture but Alloy also had a bubblenest going today!


I finally did something with the 29!! I have most of my plants being shipped out this coming Saturday so hopefully my stem plants will actually be able to grow again!
And yes, I have terrible Green Spot Algae on my glass


Calico is getting pretty big! She's about 3.5 inches in body at the moment



And Rowan has had an amazing heal time! She's completely Ich free now thanks to Quick Cure (Malachite Green), best remedy for Ich besides heat. The stupid heater won't heat past 84 even turned all the way up :roll: It's only a 25 watt Hydor Theo so it's alright. She's very feisty still! She's actually fully eggy again too... O.O she's had no contact with any other fish lol


Fins are growing out nicely now!


And our first Snowfall of the season yesterday!!


----------



## Fenghuang

Holy moly, it's still a jungle in that 29! It is a wonder that you can spot your BN in there. 

Yay, the first snowfall is always exciting. =D We got some snow yesterday, but it's all melted now.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ahaha!! If you consider that a Jungle I hate to see what you think of it when *I* consider it a jungle! This is barely covered to me XD hahah

She's usually really easy to spot actually, she's always moving around and conveniently, she's at the top sucking on the glass in that picture too XD Now finding all four Otos or all eight cories can be more of a challenge lol


----------



## Fenghuang

Geez, and here I am trying to get water weeds and moss to grow... 

Really? Both of my plecos are super shy and never come out of hiding. Not sure what they are afraid of... The common is the biggest fish in his tank and the BN shares his with guppy fry. XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ahaha yeah...I apparently have good luck with most plants haha. This Dwarf Water Lettuce has been a real kicker though, it's been shading most of my plants so they haven't been growing as well. But I've recently sold almost all of it off, now just need to ship it out come Saturday. If you want a weed, get some DWL, it takes off like crazy once it acclimates to your water!

Yeah, my BN is fearless, she's definitely queen of the tank next to Stratus the king lol. She tells off the cories, Bentley the Panda Garra, the Kubotai Loach, and anything else that tries to take her veggie wafers lol which is all my fish.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So apparently today was the day everyone wanted to build a bubblenest minus Sam and Pierce lol

Bowie



Trapper from below, he likes to group the bubbles RIGHT under the leaves lol


Velvet made a spectacular one! This one is from above. Look how thick that is! He's an old pro at it now ;-)


Alloy's small one too!


One of our buildings on campus tonight, it was a beautiful sunset


----------



## BlueInkFish

So funny how they all wanted to build a Bubblenest! Maybe it's a sign meaning to buy more females?? Eh!!!? XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, I'd love more females but alas, I have no room!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Well, that's why Petcos having their $ per gallon sale!

 I don't blame you on having no room.. -.- I can barely have a 40 in my house!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, I have the tanks, I literally just don't have the space; not even floor space!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for more or less laxing on my journal, not much to report I guess. Was busy with the VT spawn but that failed again and I believe I have the answer since my pH is so low it fluctuates when the water is not fully matured. I'll try that experiment with the next spawning I do.

The 45 is taking most of my money at the moment, not that I mind much but I have to remember to save 50 dollars for my monthly phone plan and for gas weekly and for food >.< right, I have a life lol.

This J-Term (winter) class is kicking my butt! It's an overall easy class but it's a hell of amount of work to jam into only 8 classes each 4 hours. We cover 2 chapters a day, sometimes three! We had our first class Monday, first speech yesterday, today will mostly be easy an tomorrow our first essay is due 5-7 pages. Yikes!

But fish are all doing well, building bubblenests daily practically, Sam puts up with his fish-mates well and they put up with him; no one has ruined his tail thankfully! ^_^


----------



## MameJenny

lilnaugrim said:


> This J-Term (winter) class is kicking my butt! It's an overall easy class but it's a hell of amount of work to jam into only 8 classes each 4 hours. We cover 2 chapters a day, sometimes three! We had our first class Monday, first speech yesterday, today will mostly be easy an tomorrow our first essay is due 5-7 pages. Yikes!


Yikes. That is a ton of work to have from one class! This is why I'm a bit afraid of summer classes. I'll be taking two this year, and they're only 7 weeks long at my college, I think. :shock:

Love those huge bubblenests! I hope all your fish are doing well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

7 weeks for a summer class? Our's are only 3-4 weeks IIRC. But this is a 2 week class sooooo idk. It's both awesome and terrible at the same time >.<


----------



## MameJenny

lilnaugrim said:


> 7 weeks for a summer class? Our's are only 3-4 weeks IIRC. But this is a 2 week class sooooo idk. It's both awesome and terrible at the same time >.<


Yeah, I was trying to figure out how 7 weeks would fit in, actually. It's half the length of a normal semester, though. That's about as condensed as I'd want my classes to be.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm babysitting some of Lucillia's fish!! I've got Rennie back for the time being, strange to see her so often again! And I have Mochi and her baby goldfish! No pictures of the betta girls but just took some of the goldie for now.

He gave me his butt lol



When I brought them home




Planted the 10 gallon for Velvet when I attempt babies again. Looks decent I feel ^_^ I'm actually rather fond of the simplicity lol Velvet likes to swim under the driftwood too, it's amusing to watch him


So yesterday I was changing Rowan's water so I put her in with the boy's to see how everyone would react.
Sam flared at her but seems very laid back compared to my other fish


Bowie went crazy for her


He really does have wild "hair" lol






Here's Pierce, I still can't tell if it's male or female...I _think_ I see ovaries but idk...fins seem excessively male PK....I really have NO idea.






Alloy freaked. out. lol, he was so excited to see her! Actually I'm sure he'd be excited to see any fish since he's sort of on his own where he sits.




Also from last night, Jaguar's regrowth has been fantastic!


Today I moved Bowie to the 45 and moved Romeo into the 20 for now. He looks like a Giant! lol He's really grown since I've had him only seven months!


----------



## JHatchett

Pierce is a very confusing fish.  I can see why you are having trouble determining the gender.


----------



## Lucillia

I love Rowan!!! She reminds me of a koi fish with how her face looks and her back. I really love her. Sam has such a majestic caudal xD 
Pierce is... pierce. What if he/she were a hermaphrodite?! That would be really interesting! 

Thank you again for taking care of the girls and apparently Klaus jr. XD he gave me his butt for about an hour after I got him. I'm sure he'll love you when you feed him though!


----------



## lilnaugrim

JHatchett said:


> Pierce is a very confusing fish.  I can see why you are having trouble determining the gender.


Right? Usually I'm fairly decent at sexing fish, ESPECIALLY after having kept them for so long by now! He gets vertical bars for anything, this can happen to some feministic males as well, it's not uncommon to see for trying to assert dominance. He flares and wiggles at both females and males....actually he flares at everything lol idk man...idk.....



Lucillia said:


> I love Rowan!!! She reminds me of a koi fish with how her face looks and her back. I really love her. Sam has such a majestic caudal xD
> Pierce is... pierce. What if he/she were a hermaphrodite?! That would be really interesting!
> 
> Thank you again for taking care of the girls and apparently Klaus jr. XD he gave me his butt for about an hour after I got him. I'm sure he'll love you when you feed him though!


I've really fallen for Rowan too! I'm so glad I got her! She's full of spunk, even when she was sick, she was still hungry as ever and willing to dance though I could see she was clearly uncomfortable with the Ich. But she's all better now and she eats ridiculously. I feed her like...20 NLS pellets  it's crazy!

I know fish can potentially change sex if needed to but there is no need in this situation since he's seen both females and males so there would technically be a need for a sex change. y'know? I really want to say it's a girl since I _think_ I saw ovaries but I really like calling it a him haha. I'll continue calling it a him until I see clear proof. I've never seen eggs drop before unless he's eaten them all before I could see but considering he's next to Trapper for quite some time now, he's never plumped up in ovaries like Rowan did, her ovaries are HUGE. I realize that ovaries vary in size from female to female just like any other species but seriously, idk! Transgender fish I guess. I'm not disappointed, I just like knowing the real sex of the fish haha.

Yeah, Goldy greeted me happily this morning! He was angry with me last night but he's much better. Temp was around 70-72...heater is set at 75 so I'll have to fiddle with it to see if it's working or not, i think it is but since it's a 50 watt heater, it should be heating up more than what it's set at. Idk, he seemed happier and more content today. I didn't feed him yet this morning but will when I get home ^_^

Rennie danced for me this morning trying to get food but I usually don't feed everyone in the morning when I'm up early. I sure missed her little face, she's grown up some since I last had her!

I'll attempt to get everyone's pictures today! Real pictures, not phone pictures haha.


----------



## Lucillia

Awwah Rennie!!! I love her wiggle dancing. Has she grown? I thought she got a bit bigger since you gave her to me but im not sure. 

I want a pretty picture of Rowan to appear today xD


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

If Bowie disappears.........you know where to find him! :-D He is gorgeous! If you ever see one like him again, you must get him for me!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ahaha, yeah, I think my mother would hunt you down herself XD

We actually do get types like him in quite frequently which is why I was surprised she picked him out since there were like four others similar to him, just not as outgoing as he was is all. I certainly don't mind getting one for you if I go check out PetCo ^_^ I like doing the fostering program for people, it's nice for me because I get to own a fish for a while and then send it off to its forever home :-D Just makes me feel good and I keep the fish while not really keeping the fish if that makes sense!

But feel free to PM me if you really want to work something out ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay so I took a boat load of pics but I was careless with my photography and half of them didn't come out right lol oh well. I still have plenty of pics!

Velvet


Paradise is still growing well


The micrograss isn't going anywhere fast :-/ Maybe I should just do dwarf haigrass...the texture would be strange with the C. Helferi though....hmm idk


Jag is doing fantastic with his healing!




Alloy's tank


This fish just does not sit still!!


He's a very shiny fish



20 gallon


Trap


Sam


I just like the fact that this looks so fuzzy and fluffy


This one too lol


Beautiful flowers off the RRF!!



Pretty girl calico


Stratus is definitely a boy


Bentley


Cutie little Oto.


This is Lucillia's little girl Mochi!



And Rowan!! She's so funny! I was doing a water change on her today and she kept trying to attack the turkey baster and jumping out of the water trying to get it when I took it out lol it was hilarious! I tried to video it but every time I did, she'd stop doing it >.<





She reminds me of a Parrot with her yellow-ish mouth lol



And Lucillia's baby goldy which my brother nicknamed Tommy (because his body shape looks like Tommy Gun lol) or Flame-thrower XD


He's a little stressed out but so far so good! I've never cared for a goldfish before!


The placement of the nostril vent there looks like eyelashes haha!!


I know it's not a fish but I still love my Bonsai tree :-D
He needs a little more nitrogen but otherwise he's doing well!


I also gave this little one it's own pot since it was getting a little crowded in it's other pot with the mother plant. Anyone know what kind of plant it is?


Here's the mother plant
I actually have to find another pot to repot the second one in there too, it's just too crowded. It only had a few leaves when my grandmother gave it to me haha, that was only about four months ago XD


----------



## Fenghuang

I need to get my eyes checked. I keep thinking your name is a row of exclamation points when I scroll passed it.

Mochi is sooooo beautiful.

It could be some type of succulent?

EDIT: Snake plant?

https://www.google.com/search?q=sna...0FoijNonFgeAI&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=375&bih=559


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, that's funny. I can see here that might happen though.

Yeah Mochi has been growing very well since she got her from Thailand with Mousse, she'll be breeding the two of them hopefully if all goes well.

And no, it's not that plant, it doesn't get that big and it's a like a stem plant. Mother in Law Tongue is more like...idk, one leaf sticks out...idk. I think it's a subspecies...I'll keep looking. Whatever I'm doing, it likes it so I'll continue to do it lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

Ahhh! I'm jealous, you have a Goldfish (and an adorable one at that)!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lil got a goldie without even letting me now??? SHAME! Haha just kidding! <3 Adorable fish... -.- I got two that are fat and stubborn to me.. Lazy and spoiled.. But they do grow onto you <3 Like leeches XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Geeze, you guys really need to read when I write things. The goldie wasn't mine, I was babysitting it, Rennie, and Mochi for Lucillia >.< I would never get a goldie for one of my tanks, they're too small (the tanks).


----------



## BettaLover1313

I misread that lil, sorry XD Lucillia has a beautiful goldie though.


----------



## Lucillia

BettaLover you should the rest of my goldies! They're sassy little pearls.  

I love my Mochi Moo and Miss Rennie, I cant wait to see them again.they all look great though, mochi looks really good in those pics! And Alloy! Ugh he is so cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, it's okay. I don't always read everything either, only when something is different or pique's my interested like....myself owning a goldie lol. That wouldn't happen other than in our large pond, we have some commons in there, they've been there for over 10 years now though. 

Mochi looks fantastic! She ate like a champ today. Well everyone did lol. Fed some Mysis Shrimp and Daphnia and supplemented some pellets since I didn't have enough Mysis to go around with only one cube! With just the fish upstairs I can easily go through two cubes of any frozen foods, almost three with Lucillia's fish here!

Oh and baby goldie didn't make it :-/ he died overnight unfortunately. I have a feeling it was stress, poor boy, I felt bad about that.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, I need more opinions.

So my brother said he'd be totally fine with fish in his room while we were at PetCo, he was questioning me why I didn't have any pretty fish like the ones he saw there lol he's a butt. But then I showed him the Leopard Gecko's and I know he's wanted a Bearded Dragon but I can't accommodate that, but I could do the Gecko. But he's fine with either or.

We don't have a huge space to work with, I'd still have to get a little stand for the tank actually, it'd likely be a 20 gallon long with PetCo's sale at the moment.

Of course, he's a guy, he wants a big fish. I told him I could do a nice school of Tiger Barbs for him and a Bristlenose Pleco or Red Tailed Black Shark (likely to be rehomed or put in the 45 when he gets too big) and that's it. He likes the idea.

He's no help in trying to decided so what's it to be, Tiger Barbs or two female (hopefully female) Leopard Geckos?

Gecko's I'd have to get a heat lamp and other decor but with fish I'd be using the same stuff I have, I have substrate, extra heater, plants, decor, and filter so it's just the matter of getting a tank for him. In the long run it's cheaper to go with fish. What say you all? I'm leaning with fish but I would love a Gecko too because we can touch it and pick it up whereas you can't safely do that with fish....idk! I need help!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh geeze, now I'm getting into the stocking of the tank....possible options include:

1 Firemouth OR Jewel Cichlid
10 Tiger Barbs

I could do Africans but I'd have to seriously do some water buffering so I'd prefer to stay away from very hard water fishes of course.

Little bro did like the look of Mollies though at the store, specifically he was looking at the Dalmatian Lyretails. He does NOT like any fish resembling a snake though lol


----------



## BettaLover1313

I'd say go with the fish, you are more versed with those, maybe save the geckos for when you're more well prepared


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I wouldn't get it without doing all the research I can. So far I've done enough that I feel confident in regular day to day care but lighting still confuses me. Thankfully I have Lucillia to answer my stupid questions when I have them lol. It certainly won't be something I'd rush into.

Bobby likes the look of the Jewel Cichlid and the Rainbow Cichlid, doesn't like the Firemouth. So I know I can Jewel's super easier, need to pick which one now. I think Jewel is better suited to my water IIRC and they're already here so they'll be acclimated to lower pH anyway.


----------



## BettaLover1313

I know you wouldn't. Just from the sounds of it, you're better prepared for fish . Either way, geckos or fish will be very cool!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I think I got his hopes up with the Gecko though....maybe I should venture? I can get fish any time and I'm breeding so maybe it won't be such a bad thing to venture. I'm nervous about it for sure but I know I could do it. I feel bad since I know he wants something he can hold and 'pet' and I got his hopes up and then went back to my comfort zone >.< Though he doesn't say it, I know he was a little disappointed I was looking at fish again.

I'll have to sleep on it for sure.


----------



## BettaLover1313

You've done the research, have help available, I don't see why you couldn't do it. 

I'm sure he'll like whatever you decide


----------



## lilnaugrim

That's what he keeps saying; I don't care, whatever you pick out...you're paying for it lol. He's such a guy XD

Gah the more I think about it, I REALLY want a Jewel Cichlid but I feel selfish, granted yes, I'm paying for it but I feel like it should be something he can really enjoy too since I practically have fish in every room here now haha. And I still have the 45 to fully stock too.


----------



## MattsBettas

Sorry about the Goldie. I really do love all the bettas though! 

If you're going with lizards, Leo's are the right choice for a beginner... It doesn't get any easier when it comes to reptiles. Seriously. Fish are more difficult when you're breeding and a lot of the time even when you're not. 

Not going to lie, though, it's a HUGE commitment... They can live to be over twenty years old and often do, mines pushing at least fifteen right now and is probably going to live longer than my dog. If your brother (or you) aren't prepared to handle that or aren't sure if you want to, go with the fish that will live for a couple of years. They need to be fed/watered/cleaned up after two or three times a week and while care doesn't take long, it's not a light commitment. Regular care is easy though. Scoop poop, rinse and fill water dish, and feed. Occasional care involves deep cleaning dishes and decor, cleaning sand, cleaning glass, etc. I and the previous owner even trained mine to eat frozen crickets... No chirps, and better yet no smells! If you have questions feel free to ask, I've been keeping one for almost five years now so I'm no expert but I definitely do know my way around them...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Matt!

Yeah, I know I'll be the one who ends up with it anyway since he can't care for crap-I'm being honest here >.< He couldn't even care for a cat who could care for itself :roll: he's rather inept but I still want him to enjoy it too 

I think I have the daily care down now, I just need to actually buy the stuff; 20 gallon tank, probably around 5 hides in different areas of warmth/coolness, feed/water dish and some random decor. Then the heat lamp and an under tank heater will probably be the easiest way to go about it. I know about the Calcium powder with B3 or D3 whatever it is and the vitamin supplements.

I think I have all the information I need, it's just the act of actually doing it lol.


----------



## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> Geeze, you guys really need to read when I write things. The goldie wasn't mine, I was babysitting it, Rennie, and Mochi for Lucillia >.< I would never get a goldie for one of my tanks, they're too small (the tanks).


OH!! Hehehe, my bad!  When you said Lucillas goldie I thought that she gave her goldie to you! BAH! My fault, and Im sorry for that  Anyways, how are you doing!?


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, you guys crack me up. 

I totally forgot I had pictures for you last night too! Nothing big, just phone pics. Totally not related to my journal but KITTIES! Dad invited me to see the Hobbit yesterday since I haven't seen it yet, OH MY GOD, totally worth it! I cried and I laughed, ugg, Peter Jackson did it again! So sad to see it end, though it's technically not ending as the other three LoTR's follows of course but ugg, I just love Tolkien's world! It's amazing!

Anywho, went to dad's and saw my kitties ^_^ Here's MC, big boy:



Ieli wasn't impressed with my photo taking so she didn't pose for me >.<

As I mentioned, my little bro and I went to a PetCo after just for looksie's and found these Chameleons there!
This guy was happy just to chill


This guy however was like trying to dig his way out or something! Crazy!


And then here was a DTPK boy I found that looks like Mochi's coloration but with a better BF pattern ^_^


And even after selling off a bunch of dwarf water lettuce and my water sprites yesterday, I have a crap ton of floaters!


And I guess I'll post these here too but they'll go up on my Spawn log as well.
I have three baby Betta's who are doing fantastic in the breeder box of the 29! I guess it really was the water changes that was killing them! I have a fourth in there but he's iffy, he's doing his best to get around but I'm afraid it's not enough poor thing. But I have three lovely red ones! I hope I can continue to keep them!

This is the red one


And this one is more orange-ish at the moment


Orange one



And picture of the two so I can prove I actually have two lovely babies still. And yes that's a baby MTS that got in there.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So it's official, we're getting two Leopard Gecko's this Saturday when PetCo is having their 50% off sale! That means two Gecko's for the price of one!

I originally got the 10 gallon Desert kit last night (and accidentally overdrafted my account...again...I'm screwed) but I'm returning it today to get the 20 gallon long and the screen tonight and then the rest will most likely be getting online unless my Paypal payment goes to my URI account, which I hope it does because that should cover the overdraft....I hope!!! Ugg. But the 20 long will fit nicely on my little bro's desk and so we can each have one ^_^

I also have this horrible bronchial cough at the moment, it's a come and go thing, not sure if it's the black mold in the house or something else like Bronchitis :-/ I'm very susceptible to Bronchitis so I really hope not :-( 

This is going to be a terrible week. Mom and her boyfriend went down to Florida for 10 day vacation, my brother and I are left with no money to buy any food and there's only so much in the fridge that we can make and I'm not home most of the day which makes it hard for me to prepare meals when I have to study and do homework for my J-Term class and care for the fish.....ug, this sucks. I'm at work right now, finished off my outline for the speech tomorrow I'm giving and have less than an hour till class.....I don't like this class any more.....


----------



## lilnaugrim

Annnnd I totally made some money off PetCo, 20 dollars practically!!

So that kit that I bought yesterday, 10 gallon Desert Kit was 54 dollars as a sale price with Pals rewards. I brought it in today and she gave me back the regular price of 74.22 .....I made money! haha. So I went and bought a 20 long, the screen which was stupidly 20 dollars...wtf, it's a piece of mesh....and then a small water dish and a rug.

I can't wait to get paid on Friday with my double check! Yeah, my boss forgot to approve my hours last week which means I've been a month without payment :-/ getting paid Friday though!!

I guess Karma really works though because I took a fall on ice today, busted my knee, bruised, not bad cut but still hurts and it's swollen. So I'm really happy I got paid from PetCo today hahah. I used the last 13 dollars to fill up my gas tank since I was running very low and I wouldn't have made Friday.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I realize I'm not updating much about my fish and I apologize for that but I'm really excited for our two Leopard Gecko's that we're going to get on Friday. I have my eye on a beautiful one there, I hope it's a girl and I hope she's still there on Friday for the sale!!!

Don't worry, I won't be shucking my fish duties here and giving you all pictures!! I should have time on Friday to make time for pictures of both the Gecko's and of my fishy stuff :-D

Those two Betta fry are doing fantastic as well too!! :-D


----------



## Kaffrin

Waaah I get karma too. Spoke ill will of a nasty customer --- end up having scissors cut into my skin and getting quite the "booboo" as I was opening boxes.

I can't wait for pictures *~* I love seeing new pets! And I wish perfect-o health for your babies~


----------



## lilnaugrim

Usually I don't get such a reward as getting paid by a company I don't work for haha, that was a huge thing, things like that don't happen. I find random deals but nothing like that! I once got a 20 dollar pair of pants for .46 cents! lol

Yeah, I hope that girl is still there!! I'm super psyched!!

Now if I can only survive the last two day's of my semester. Did my 5-7 minute speech today and totally sucked. I can talk to a group of people no problem but giving a speech apparently freaks me out. I can sing in front of hundreds of people and if I mess up; big deal, I mess up in my speech and the world ends. I really suck at organization as well, I can write essay's like there's no tomorrow but speak that essay? Yep, nope. I try my best too, I want to be able to speak in front of the class but it just doesn't come naturally at. all. and it frustrates the living hell out of me.


----------



## JessikaSky

lilnaugrim said:


> Now if I can only survive the last two day's of my semester. Did my 5-7 minute speech today and totally sucked. I can talk to a group of people no problem but giving a speech apparently freaks me out. I can sing in front of hundreds of people and if I mess up; big deal, I mess up in my speech and the world ends. I really suck at organization as well, I can write essay's like there's no tomorrow but speak that essay? Yep, nope. I try my best too, I want to be able to speak in front of the class but it just doesn't come naturally at. all. and it frustrates the living hell out of me.


Ugh! I was the same back in highschool/college your not alone, I hated public speaking was happy to be the centre of attention but when it came to speaking in front of a class ohhhh heckkk nooo lol I'd end up getting pretty worked up over it, and still now I don't think I could stand up and give a speech to my work colleges or anything. 

P.S I love the Chameleons! The one in the second pic looks like he's dancing! hahaha :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it really frustrates me and I'm starting to get all worked up about it and anxious too, I'm normally quite a calm person when it comes down to it, y'know, I get excited of course too like everyone but I can't remember the last time I've been so mad at myself and frustrated; I know I can do it but something keeps getting in the way of being able to do it! I though I'd be better at it by now since I am comfortable here at URI and can talk without fear of being judged; used to be that way in Freshman year simply because it's a new place; new people. But now that it's an old place; new people I don't mind. 

I don't think I've seen a Chameleon in real life before so they were my first! I liked the little horned dude, he looked pretty chill and cute! The other guy was freaking out, I didn't get good vibes from him lol.


----------



## cousiniguana

If you need any leo info I've got knowledge I can share upon request. They're pretty easy keepers.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks cousin! I actually just joined a leo forum that seems active, I have some random questions about my tap water; only a fish keeper would have these questions hahah. But basically I was wondering if I needed to supplement more calcium in the water because my pH is so low (5.0) which means it's practically void of all calcium and magnesium that makes water hard (alkaline), or would just dusting crickets/worms weekly be enough along with a basking bulb daytime UVB bulb. Night time I'm getting one of the moonlight heat lights because I read that the red hurts their eyes on most forums. I think that's everything.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'M DONE!!! I'M DONE I"M DONE I'M DONE!!!! Oh wow, I'm so excited to me done with that academic nightmare! I mean, it was great class and all of us students were great too but gosh that was INTENSE!!!

Tomorrow Bobby and I will be getting our Leo's and Rennie and Mochi will go back to Lucillia now that she's home ^_^


----------



## cousiniguana

Get some of the calcium without D3 as they can't really overdo it on that. I just leave a little bowl of the D3 free calcium in there so they can self dose and dust once a week with a reptile vitamin. Leopard geckos are a nocturnal species and don't need a full spectrum bulb. I have a moonlight bulb for my viewing pleasure at night and a ceramic heat bulb to keep him toasty in addition to an undertank heater (the belly heat is very important for digestion). I have used red lights before and can't say I've really noticed any of them caring too deeply about it. One cool side hide, one warm hide, and one moist hide are what you will need in addition to a water dish. I also like having a mealworm bowl.





lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks cousin! I actually just joined a leo forum that seems active, I have some random questions about my tap water; only a fish keeper would have these questions hahah. But basically I was wondering if I needed to supplement more calcium in the water because my pH is so low (5.0) which means it's practically void of all calcium and magnesium that makes water hard (alkaline), or would just dusting crickets/worms weekly be enough along with a basking bulb daytime UVB bulb. Night time I'm getting one of the moonlight heat lights because I read that the red hurts their eyes on most forums. I think that's everything.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Good to know, I do have a small bowl for that and will get a water bowl tonight when we get the little ones!

Yeah, I know about the hides, I have one of those three story rock hides so far and I plan to make more of an actual scape out of painted styrofoam :-D I'm excited for that.

I've seen varying opinions on the red bulbs lol, some say they don't care and others say it iritates their eyes. Either way, I probably won't have one just to keep it simple. So I'm still confused on the lighting since there's a little bit of jargon here that I don't understand. Some say they need the UVB bulb and others say they don't, any insight on that cousin or Matt or anyone else who keeps Leos? So do I need a heat lamp of any sort? Is the cool side not lit at all through both day and night? Or should I have the blue moonlight heat lamp on that side? GAAHHH, so confusing lol.

Btw, I just want to point out that in your sig, you say you have an albino ADF, there's no such thing as of this point so unless you have a uber-duber-super-dee rare frog, you actually have an African Clawed Frog.


----------



## cousiniguana

lilnaugrim said:


> Btw, I just want to point out that in your sig, you say you have an albino ADF, there's no such thing as of this point so unless you have a uber-duber-super-dee rare frog, you actually have an African Clawed Frog.


They made it into the hobby recently. I am very lucky the my LFS regularly stocks them. I am 100% certain that they are not xenopus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGEXycud18o


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nice! That's super adorable!

So the PetCo sale wasn't today for all reptiles, it's Saturday and Sunday. So I'm going tomorrow morning to pick up the two that we liked! Super exciting.

Here's the tank so far, nothing much but it works so far. Got to make the moist hide with tuperware for now


There were some beautiful fish at PetCo last week too.


Lots of white's in varying in tails; HM, EE, PK, DT





Lots of lovely blue BF's too



And dragonscales


Bowie's been doing well in the 45!



And Alloy made a HUGE bubblenest, he's been working on it daily lol it's like an inch thick today XD



So this sword was supposed to be an Ozelot sword but apparently it's a red Melon or something, this new leaf is intensely red under the lights in the 45!!


Just some pictures of birds at our feeder lol
Mourning Doves love to frequent our feeder lol they're hilarious birds.



lol this little Junco was awesome, this picture cracked me up




We had some beautiful sun ray's today!




And a lovely sunset on the way home from the store


----------



## BettaLover1313

AHHH! Those white bettas! If I ever decided to get another one, I may be contacting you! We never get beauties like those anywhere around me!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Totally agree bettalover!

 surprised they have so many whites yet no ct whites LOL

I love blue btfs...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah! We almost always have whites of some form up here, though white CT's are a little less common than the white HM at least ^_^

So Bobby and I got our gecko's today! the ones we wanted too, I just hope it's male/female or female/female. If they don't get along regardless of sex, I may end up dividing the tank but that's alright, I don't mind it. Pictures up next since I took a lot with my phone haha


----------



## BlueInkFish

Well, best regards for your gecko! He's defeniatley going to enjoy everything!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Saw more beauties at PetCO when we visited, actually this dude was from PetSmart:


This guy was cool, he was from PetCo


So we started out with leaves in there for just extra coverage but they broke and had metal pieces showing so I didn't want them to get hurt so we removed them. So this is from when they first came home
Mine is the one in back and Bobby's is the one in front. Originally I picked both of them out but Bobby decided he liked the stripey one too.






Bobby's immediately went into the bushes lol


Mine was just like...yep...gonna sit here a while...


I'm pretty sure it's a boy but they're a little too young to sex at the moment. I'm likely going to call him Hawkeye because it fits so far. I'd thought of others for a female but I forget at the moment lol














He found the hide haha










Bobby's gecko chillin' in the hot hide


And later when I came home, Hawkeye still chillin


Bobby's was sleeping




And then Hawk perched on the cool side hide lol




Here's the tank at the moment


----------



## cousiniguana

Little beauties!


----------



## BettaLover1313

They're adorable!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Such adorable geckos! I defeniatley like them!

But seriously, stop making me want to move to RI... Your making me envious of your petco on purpose right? Well. It's working.


----------



## Zhylis

D'aaaw, LEO's! My favorite herps; I love how soft they are. Pair of cuties there!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks everyone!!! We're smitten with them ourselves too. Mom hasn't been home since last Saturday (vacationing in Florida) so we'll see what happens when she comes home XD

Blu, you know I'd totally send you fish if you saw any you can live without! Unfortunately no headway on white ct fishes lately, they come and go like seasons.

So I'll try not to photobomb you people with Leo pictures but from here out all is fair game, you've been warned! Lol.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Of course I know  I just try to not tempt myself by coming on this journal haha jk!

Your lil guys look awesome.. Very outstanding!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sigh...I'm so tired. I have this terrible respiratory virus, before it wasn't so bad. I had some nasty wet cough trying to dislodge the phlegm but now it's gone into my lungs :-/ bad bad bad! I have an inhaler now and that's definitely helped some today. The cough suppressant isn't doing crap for me >.< I wake up half the night coughing terribly....sigh.

Wednesday starts the Spring semester, yikes, totally not ready for this >.< It's going to be another busy semester....

Fishes are all doing well, those two baby Betta's I have are still alive and well! One has a slightly crooked spine under the dorsal but doesn't look like it will cause too much issues, she get's around just fine and eats like a champ so I'm not worried about it; clearly I wouldn't breed her but I'm not going to cull with just two of them. The other one is shaping up to be a real looker! Already has a lovely deep red to the body and looks like a teeny bit of butterfly is showing up, they have all their fins at this point and now just need to grow :-D

Jag's tail is growing back fantastically!! Rennie and Mochi went home to Lucillia and so I put Rowan into the 20 where Rennie was before since it's now free.

Everyone's doing pretty well so far! I may have to rehome Stratus, he's been picking on the Sparklers lately but they pick back so I don't know who starts it :roll:


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm so sorry about that respiratory virus  No fun at all, I hope you get well soon!!!
On to the baby betas topic.... Pics? XD jk glad everyone is doing perfect!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol thanks blu. 

Yeah, I meant to take pics today but haven't gotten around to it yet. I should be able to do it tonight though but don't hold me to it ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I made a Journal for my Leopard Gecko's if you haven't seen it already, it's over in journals somewhere.

I took some pictures last night, it's been hard to take pictures lately, for one because of my classes but also because of that fall I took last week where I slipped on ice and busted up my knee, it's almost healed now which is good. I pretty much kneel while taking pictures so that's been a little difficult lately. But here's what I took last night:

I'm very proud of Jag and his recovery! He hasn't bitten much if at all in a while! So key is to keep him away from other fish....guess he'll be a permanent resident in the 2.5 ^_^


One of the bigger Sparkler babies with one of the female guppy


Rowan!


Sammy boy


Trap, still dark as night lol



Pierce. Not totally sure why but I really like this picture.




Alloy


He had another big bubblenest in the corner there but I ruined it when I had to wipe all the algae off the acrylic, he wasn't so happy about that.


His tank, the dwarf hairgrass is doing amazing lol. I need some shrimp in there to clean it up >.< I doubt he'd co-exist with shrimp though


So funny story time.
I was looking at the baby Betta's in the 29 breeder box and suddenly this little yellow fry came up and I was like 'what the?? I don't remember having a YELLOW fry!' and then I realized it wasn't in the breeder box, it was between the box and the glass and that's when I realized it was a little guppy fry! So I scooped it out and put it in with the two little Betta's, they're all about the same size.

The orange Betta is the one with a slightly crooked spine, though it seems almost like it straightened out some....but at first I thought it was going to die since it seemed weaker than the healthy red one, but apparently he took a turn for the better and is all spunky. He immediately went up to the guppy and just like a Betta; has to bite it to inspect to find out what it is. The poor guppy was all frightened and swam away towards the Red betta, that Betta was also interested in the guppy but didn't bite it thankfully, just kept following it around lol. Baby Betta's are hilarious! But in the end they're all getting along and eating together just fine too. Babies are fed once a day and they snack on the decap brine shrimp all day but still only get worms once a day or every other day since that's what I have. I have to check my grindal worm culture >.<

This is the red one, it's hard to tell the difference in pictures though. In real life this guy is super red and the other is lighter



This is the orange one inspecting the poor guppy fry


Red fry and guppy below it


That's it for now, I may take more pictures later today since I don't have any classes today, whoopee!!!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Awesome! I love your pics as always!!

Your fry story is hilarious! You just don't ever know what your going to expect, personality wise. Which makes it all the more fun!

The life of Bettas is an adventure to enjoy.. Huh!?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Absolutely! I love these little ones ^_^ Oh and they have all their fins including the anal fin as well! They're developing at a decent rate considering I hardly ever do water changes to the 29 lol


----------



## BlueInkFish

lol their going to be beautiful once all grown up!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

WOOHOO!!!!! Patriots won the Superbowl again!!! That's my team!!!! Woot Woot!!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Jag continues to bite his fins, I found him earlier with one bite and then a little later he'd shredded his top lobe again :-/ Guess he's going to be a chronic biter then. There's nothing I've done to change anything, though I did add that barrel ornament a few days ago to give him some sort of hiding place....he was fine without a hiding place though so maybe I should take it out to see if that's the reason....claustrophobic betta? >.<

I moved Calico the BN over to the 45 gallon since it's built up a good amount of brown algae and biofilm by now. And I'm attempting to scrape off the green spot algae from the 29 >.< I'm using my algae scraper brush at the moment but I heard a razor knife will get it off too so I'm certainly willing to try that if it means being able to see my fish clear again!!

I think Stratus needs a new home, he's cooled down his attitude lately thankfully but soon he's going to be big enough to eat my Embers and THAT isn't cool. I'd put him in the 45 but I'm afraid he'd go for Bowie and THAT can't happen either. Angels and Betta's are a big no-no for me, just one of those rules I have.

If you haven't seen the AquaBid thread, I won this beautiful black HMPK female that I'm going to breed with Trapper!! It should be an array of fish since he's a Black based Marble and she's an Orchid which is what his final form is at the moment! Her form is pretty great which is why I was so enamored with her, her dorsal doesn't touch the caudal as it should but it's nice an wide unlike many other PK girls you see. I believe she's 4 rayed, I'm not sure what Trapper is, I think he's 4 as well but I'll have to look when I get home.


So I'll breed those two come the summer most likely when the Red Butterfly spawn is out of my spawning tank :-D

So I think that's all the updates on those guys for now until I get more pics for you guys ^_^


----------



## MameJenny

That is one of the prettiest females I've ever seen. o.o Can't wait to see the pretty babies!

Chronic fin biting is irritating to deal with. I have three of them right now. Mine never seem to have a reason - they seem perfectly happy, and then they suddenly only have a stump where their tail should be. I think it's mostly because they get bothered by the long fins. Actually, I just realized that I've never heard of a female fin biter.


----------



## Olympia

Hmm why is shipping fish into Canada so hard? -_- I am so in love with plakats.  

I love the sparklers, I've gone through so many and for some reason they've never lasted more than 6 months with me oops. Might have something to do with water hardness. I'm so envious of people with soft acidic water, it's so much easier to harden it than soften it.. Maybe it's time for an RO machine.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Beautiful girl!!! I cannot wait till the spawn


----------



## Fenghuang

I would love some babies from that spawn if you decide not to hoard them all for yourself. ;-)

My Clarence is a chronic tail biter too. So frustrating because he had such big beautiful fins! It seemed to start when I added more plants and decor to his tank too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha oh there will be no hoarding! Even with my BF spawn, I won't be able to keep them all at all, maybe one if I find a good breeder.

But yeah, I took out that ornament from Jag's 2.5 and we'll see how he does, there were a few more strands missing when I came home >.< Time will tell.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Linda got my girl in! She will hopefully be here come Monday I think, not sure if Linda shipped today or not.

So I went around to a couple of my LFS's today and PetCo/PetSmart though I forgot to buy Mealworms which is why it went up there along with a nice car wash/gas up. But while at my LFS I found Panda Loaches! I was sooooo tempted but I resisted, look at these cuties!
That tiny white and black fish by the lead plant weight! And yeah that's a ghost shrimp near the right of it.


Chillin' on the rocks


Swimmin through the plant weight



This was one of the bigger ones




Then I came home for a bit before my dentist appointment.
This little cutie greets me every day! He's fat lol


I bought an Amazon Sword from PetCo and it's actually two of them lol so I planted them in the 29 for now, I'll transfer to the 45 when it gets bigger. They're in the back


Here's Jag today, I need to do his tank


Sorry for my shirt reflection, my Iron Man shirt lol. 



BLU, there are some white CT's (three of them) at my LFS, want any of them?



There are also some Black Orchids!


And this poor little sucker! I so wanted to grab him to have him adopted out, I'm sure he'll still be there if anyone wanted him!


This white one was very feisty!


Partial dumbo too



I'm not normally into goldies but this big guy was so darn adorable!



And then I went to PetSense, this boy looked so much like Siberian, I had to do a double take....it really hurt me to see him, he was very curious and a little shy, very much like Siberian. He came up to let me pet him 



This fluffer-nutter was absolutely darling! He immediately came up and wouldn't let me get away from him so he could keep rubbing himself against my fingers lol. I wish I could take him home


And I seriously debated on getting this boy but I also refrained, no fish for me today



This guy was hilarious and a great flare!


"Come at me bro!"




He looked pretty miserable too




He was cute too, he's fine; he was just going up for some air when I took the pic


Beautiful Copper boy


I was thinking that my 4 gallon hasn't done much growing lately but this is from I think two months ago


And this is from today


Paradise has done a lot of growing himself!
This is from when I got him three months ago or so


And from today


----------



## MattsBettas

Out of curiosity, how much were the loaches going for? If it makes you happy they get much uglier as they age haha. 

Tanks and fish look great by the way.


----------



## lilnaugrim

6.99 each which is partly what stopped me lol, it's not that much I realize but I still didn't want to spend it when I just spent $455 on my cavities >.>
I have a serious thing for tiny fish >.< I need to stop lol

Thanks Matt! 29 is still sort of meh but I have this love/hate relationship with my floaters. They keep blocking out the light for the other plants but they also bring in some nice money for me too lol


----------



## JHatchett

Love that partial dumbo crown! And the Butterfly veil. Makes me wish I trusted my post office.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah...both packages came back to me with address not available. I've never seen an address quite like yours before lol.


----------



## JHatchett

Streets are all laid out in a grid, my street name is a number. It seems like it should be easy but... :/ ... I don't know some times.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Omg, lil thanks for thinking of me!!! 

The problem is I just bought a spawn off of AB cost me $66 

I do have a spare tank.. And doing two spawns at once sounds extremely fun... Though I'm not sure about the genetics of the partial ee.. He does look tempting. How much is he? He may be a new spawning boy !!! Uck, tempting me Lil in times when im almost broke!! Setting up another tank will give me some fun!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

JHatchett said:


> Streets are all laid out in a grid, my street name is a number. It seems like it should be easy but... :/ ... I don't know some times.


Idk, maybe you're supposed to spell out East or something, if it is East, I don't even know lol. I live in the woods so I know nothing of city life lol



litelboyblu said:


> Omg, lil thanks for thinking of me!!!
> 
> The problem is I just bought a spawn off of AB cost me $66
> 
> I do have a spare tank.. And doing two spawns at once sounds extremely fun... Though I'm not sure about the genetics of the partial ee.. He does look tempting. How much is he? He may be a new spawning boy !!! Uck, tempting me Lil in times when im almost broke!! Setting up another tank will give me some fun!!


I figured you might, that's alright! I think they're normally 10 dollars from that store but I didn't ask about them. He looked like he had a poor spread though, but he had nice thick crowns, good full colored pectorals, good body shape, strong peduncle, dorsal was a tad small but again, the rays were really good. Overall shape seemed to be there, just minor details  Just let me know and I'll happily pick him up for you if you wanted, or if anyone else wants fish from them ^_^


----------



## Olympia

Poor goldie looks like he swam into the glass! Adorable!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Yes I'll think about it! I'll pm you soon asap!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okidokey ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Sent a pm!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Not a whole heck of a lot going on right now, lots of school work getting piled on high and I feel like my back is going to break at any point with how much crap I have to do :-( I'm no good at organization and planning so it can get very messy when I get stressed like this; basically I just forget everything and curl up on the couch to watch TV for a while and then regret it terribly and then probably cry myself to sleep >.< Thankfully I have enough sense at the moment to start my reading for English since my books finally came in!

My black girl should be arriving today...I think, I have to check the mail once I get my car washed today!
Lucillia and I went on a road trip yesterday to northern Massachusetts to visit some fish/lizard stores! It was wicked fun but my poor car is coated in salt!
This was my pretty car on TUESDAY after a nice wash:


And my car when we got to northern Mass. to our first store.....


And when we got to Luci's house....


And what it looks like this morning
lol, time for another wash today!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, took more photos today :-D I realized that it's been almost a month since I've had a proper photo upload for you guys! At least from my DSLR, everything else are just phone photos lol

My 4 gallon!





Look at that face! Ever seen such puppy-dog eyes before?! lol!



Ah, please excuse the water spots, very sorry! But Jag is still trimming his fins, though he seems better now that I took out that hide and have just mostly left him alone 



Hmmmm I wonder what kind of babies I'd get if I crossed him to Rowan....lots of red....I like that. Broader dorsals, mixed tail types, partial butterflying and definitely marbled, slight decrease in irid scales but still present....it'd be interesting for sure!


And little Alloy, well he's not that little, he's just a little larger than Pierce is


I still love the fact that he's actually steel blue but he has a few Turquoise scales, I've never really seen that before



Oh and I bought four Ghost Shrimp to go into Alloy's tank to help clean the dwarf hairgrass off knowing full well that they may get eaten or harrassed. I put in some small stones to make some hiding places for the shrimp, I see two at all times but I think three remained alive. He tried to chase them at first and bite them but now he can't see them so well since they're see-through and has pretty much given up trying to eat them so I'm hopeful. I took out the Starugyne Repens a week or two ago because the dwarf hairgrass was just taking over so I'm just making it a DH tank lol it will look nice once it fills in totally!


And from the 20 we have: Pierce



He always looks like he's off in distance thought or something




Trapper





Rowan, my adorable little cutie! She's such a sweet Betta, doesn't bite any of the locals, even the Feather Fin Killis I still have!!
Her and Sam have the same positions lol


She healed nice and fast from the last spawning!



I also bought some brandy new Scarlet Temple from my LFS, put it in with Sam and damn! it looks good :-D So does he ;-)



It's strange, he's seemed to have lost a lot of his opaque scales on his body, he had more irid there before but now on this side he's only got those two scales....very interesting.


Going up!



Probably one of the best full body photos I've gotten of Sam in a while now


And from the last compartment, I still have my froggies too! The male is a little skinny but I've been attempting to feed him daily to get him to where his female is, she bully's him though so they are certainly no pair :-/ I actually feel bad for him


Sparklers!


She has the prettiest Dorsal!




I did some trimming on the dwarf hairgrass in the 20 there too, looks much nicer now! 


And I went over my limit again on pictures. More pictures will be in the next post.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And now from the 29 we have....
Fat otos!


Fat Kubotai!


She's growing very well, heck, by September (our fish clubs Fish Show and Auction) I may have an award winning Loach ;-)


Some Ember Tetras




So funny story about the Pencilfish (transfered from the 20 along with the Gertudae Rainbowfish). I also bought myself a beautiful, fat little baby Siamese Flying Fox. Now I'm aware they get big so he'll go into the 45 when comes time but that won't be a few years yet. But when I first introduced the Fox to the 29, she followed the Pencilfish around! The pencilfish would let him to follow her around the tank and when she got too far away she'd look back and swim back to the Fox to continue to lead him around. Or at least it seemed that way, my only thought is maybe because they're coloration's are similar, the Fox just immediately attached to her in a moment of uncertainty in a new environment until he became more comfortable later, he followed her around almost all night. Today he's swimming everything and eating everything lol But here's the pencilfish:


Though Kubotai may be an award wining fish....Bentley is not lol He's still kicking and doing fantastic! He's very outgoing and always up front whenever I come around in front of the tank, he likes to pose for the camera too, it's so cute.



Tiny male Corydoras


And his big female


And here's my Fox!


Nice healthy looking baby



Bottoms Up!


And here's what the 29 looks like now


----------



## BlueInkFish

Ahh I love to see your pictures every time it's updated!! Very organized and stunning photos! 

Btw. Can I send you the money for the cultures now!? Lol, I just wanted to make sure.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol, yeah you can. 

And thanks


----------



## Fenghuang

Are the dividers for the 20 glued in? Does it make cleaning the tank harder?

Also, I saw this "rare" boy on Aquabid, starting bid at $30, and I instantly thought of Trapper: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1424190262


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, they're siliconed in. And no, doesn't effect cleaning, anything in particular with cleaning like siphoning or scrubbing algae?

Wow! That boy is gorgeous! I love Trap, I do wish he'd retained more white like that boy, he's absolutely gorgeous! In breeding to a black female, the marble gene is much stronger so many should turn out like how Trapper started, some may retain it while others may marble back out to black like Trapper did ^_^


----------



## Fenghuang

Ah, okay. I need to silcone my dividers in. Never happened on my watch, but the cats at my gf's place like to knock them down apparently.

He actually had white/cello fins just like that before he got to you. Here's how Trap started out to give you an idea. I would love to see if any of his future offspring gets orange like he had.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Such a little cutie and so small!!

Depending on what he produces I may eventually introduce orange to the line to see if it does enhance it. He still has the orange on his nose area ^^


----------



## Fenghuang

You could create a whole line of Halloween bettas. :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, that'd be awesome!!

----------------------------------------------------------
Ugg, I still have horrible tooth pain! I have to be on constant Advil to stave the pain off. Which means, it's time for my nightly dose right now.

And I'm still slightly sick. I had to skip my Photography class in order to get some rest tonight after I write up my short English paper (if I even do it and don't pass out beforehand). But I have to take my inhaler every 4 hours on the dot (7, 11, 3, 7), otherwise I end up in a cough fit akin to an asthma attack. It's like this horrible tickle in my throat that I can't get out. I preferred it when I was coughing out phlegm, at least I had something to cough out! Now I'm just coughing, it's terrible!

I feel like I'm walking through in a daze, I'm so far behind on my school work that I'm seriously getting depressed and very much anxious because of it. I attend most of my classes but I just haven't been doing all the work and it's not like I have all the time in the world to do it, I just literally have no time because I'm still sick. This means I go to bed early and honestly even skip a shower here and there just to sleep in an extra half an hour! It's ridiculous!! I can't drop any classes either otherwise I'll lose my financial aid and dental insurance and we all know I need that >.<


----------



## Fenghuang

*Hugs* :-( I am sorry you are going through such a tough time this semester. I can definitely relate about the school aspects of it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks. Yeah, I always think that this semester is the toughest (going in to whatever other semester) but this one takes the cake. They're all upper level courses so they expect you to do everything. Granted, I only have five classes but I also have work and my fish. It's getting hard to balance everything, oh yeah, and KKY, I forgot about my fraternity :roll: sad beacuse I'm an officer right now too, thankfully just Historian but all the same.


----------



## Fenghuang

School is stressful. I have five classes and work too. I feel run down and tired all the time. With how many things you have on your plate, it is easy to end up neglecting yourself, but taking care of yourself is the most important thing. At the end of the day, one class is just one class to remember that taking care of yourself is the most important thing. Just pace yourself. Pick a couple of hours to focus on one thing you have coming up, but if you need some time to just bundle up in a blanket and watch TV or something, do it. I promise it won't be the end of the world. Forcing yourself when you are stressed and anxious and can barely keep your eyes open isn't productive anyway.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I totally positively agree with Feng! Im in a similar situation... School, exams, sports, clubs, and NOT MUCH BREAKS! That's why its good to have some "alone" time. Just enjoy yourself and take a break! It's very good for your health to rest and just "let it go, let it go, can't hold it back anymore," (from "Frozen" by Disney if you were wondering. You get my point Lil  Take a break, rest, relax, and enjoy the simple and fiishy things in life!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the support guys ^_^

But the issue isn't school, it's me. I give myself an inch and I take a mile. I let myself relax and then the next thing I know, I'm asleep and I haven't done any work. Much like I did last night where I was supposed to write my paper and chose the prints to print out and do my Contact Sheet for my Digital class. I'm a terrible procrastinator and I know it. I wish I weren't, I really do wish I were a better student, sometimes I just get into these ruts and can't get out of them! It's terrible! 

Le sigh.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sharing a pretty morning picture I took today while the sun was rising over campus.


Rising:




And then I went off to class which I'm in right now lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I came home yesterday to find that SAM and built a BUBBLENEST! Damn you fish! He must have just been too young to breed. I'm thinking that I'll take the best female of this spawn and breed her to Sam if he's still up for it to get my solid white fins...hopefully!! We'll see!



I also kept forgetting to show these pictures of Stratus, he really colored up when he was eating brine shrimp! Of course, these pictures hardly do him any justice, he only gets his beautiful colors in when he's fired up. :roll:


And I'll be taking his bad boy home soon! I have some extra fake plants I'll bring in for this tank, this is the tank at school that I watch over with Romeo in it, the Pearl Gourami and his girlfriend; Juliet. But this Java Fern has done a poop ton of growing!


And this is what Romeo looks like ^_^


And I just like this picture. The dalmatian molly is doing great too


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow, seems like Sam just wanted to piss you off LOL!!

That Java fern is gorgeous btw! I adore big Java ferns


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol nah, not piss me off, just frustrate me and make me spend more money on Velvet lol Oh well, I still love my Velvet and Rowan. 

And yes! Let's see if I can find a picture of that java fern as babies. It's actually like three java Ferns with an Anubias Nana on the other side we can't see. 

This is when I first got my very first Java Fern which is the largest one on that piece of driftwood. Yep, that's my baby Remmy there!!



Yup, here's the baby picture where I first tied it to the wood :-D


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

Lots of growth! I wanna try Java fern next.

And btw, if you happen to go back to the petstore that has the red crowntail and he's still there, let me know. I've been looking for a nice red crowntail for months and our Petco just doesn't seem to get them in.


----------



## BlueInkFish

How long did it take to grow!!??

Remmy is adorable btw !


----------



## Fenghuang

Java fern is one of the few plants I don't end up killing sooner or later. I love those plants.

And lol, Sam. Fish can be so frustrating sometimes.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Hehe maybe pissed off wasn't the word. How about annoy??? Lol. Silly boy, bubblenest are for big boys!

Yall know where I got that from?


----------



## Fenghuang

Is it the Trix commerical?


----------



## BlueInkFish

Correct! Hehe. 

How's Sam and his bubblenest doing Lil?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Bettalovinmomma said:


> Lots of growth! I wanna try Java fern next.
> 
> And btw, if you happen to go back to the petstore that has the red crowntail and he's still there, let me know. I've been looking for a nice red crowntail for months and our Petco just doesn't seem to get them in.


Oh! If you really want one I can keep a look out for you and get him. That place I think they're around 6 dollars for CT? It's been so long since I bought from there that I honestly can't remember but I don't think it's too much. Of course I can't guarantee that boy will be there but I can look again if you want him!



litelboyblu said:


> How long did it take to grow!!??
> 
> Remmy is adorable btw !


I miss Remmy!

That took....let's see...from when I tied it, I was still at dads so just over a year....wow it's been so long already!!



litelboyblu said:


> Hehe maybe pissed off wasn't the word. How about annoy??? Lol. Silly boy, bubblenest are for big boys!
> 
> Yall know where I got that from?


Lol, if she don't know where that's from then she's too young for you bro!! lol XD



litelboyblu said:


> Correct! Hehe.
> 
> How's Sam and his bubblenest doing Lil?


He's doing darned fine! He's still got it going!! Crazy!!

I've got a few pictures to be posting shortly!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, so it's not that many pictures cuz my DSLR died last night while I was taking pictures. But I found some extremely interesting things! I'll show after I show the normal pictures first.

I had the macro lenses out so this is +14 lol
Her mouth, the yellow-ish white part makes a little heart!!!!


Sammy boy


So at first I thought my Myrio was flowering but I think it's just roots growing? I'm really not sure, it's wicked cool though!


And the biggest thing!! I think my Red Root Floaters are getting some sort of fruit/seed thingy. I've never seen this happen before! The flowers are full of pollen and with me moving the plants around, they seemed to have pollinated each other and are growing these things from the flower!

Here are some of the flowers full of pollen!



And here's the thingy that's growing out of the flowers!


More fruity things


----------



## BlueInkFish

Ahh. I just love your photography!!! Gah! It's so stunning!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hah, thanks!!

Oh and I found out that it is a fruit! More or less, it's a tiny thingy that has two seeds inside apparently! I hope the big one opens tomorrow! I'll definitely get pictures of that :-D I'm super excited about that ^_^


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh! If you really want one I can keep a look out for you and get him. That place I think they're around 6 dollars for CT? It's been so long since I bought from there that I honestly can't remember but I don't think it's too much. Of course I can't guarantee that boy will be there but I can look again if you want him!


If he's there or you happen to see another pretty much solid red good looking CT, yes, please let me know. CT's have become my favorite. My daughter wants all red and she will call him Mickey. 

Petco here has been getting mostly VT's in. Some CT's but most of them are multi colored.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Bettalovinmomma said:


> If he's there or you happen to see another pretty much solid red good looking CT, yes, please let me know. CT's have become my favorite. My daughter wants all red and she will call him Mickey.
> 
> Petco here has been getting mostly VT's in. Some CT's but most of them are multi colored.


Sure! Absolutely! I can take a trip around tomorrow to see what we've got in stock ^_^ I'll PM you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Moar pictures!!




She's eggy again already!


Sam the pretty boy






Pierce



Trapper




The fruit thingy again


So having bought some Cholla from RusselltheShihTzu, I also got some marble cuts from her! They look fantastic! I'm thoroughly pleased with them! I'm not sure if she's be offering them here or not but if you're interested I'm sure you can PM her and ask! I got two of them, one in Pierce's section and one in Alloy's 1.5g. I moved the Java Fern up to make it more picturesque.



I'll get a full picture of the 1.5 once the Cholla becomes water logged but here's the beautiful boy for now:



Here's the piece



I also bought some new plants for the 29 from my LFS. I got a beautiful 1.5 foot long Ludwigia Repens, I cut it up to match the other Ludwigia I have. Then I also got some Corkscrew Val for the 45 and some Mermaid Weed again for the 29.


I bought another Janet Craig Dracaena and a young Purple Waffle to eventually put in the planned Vivarium for my up comming Gargoyle Gecko. I put them in my 1 gallon fish bowl; best use for a fish bowl lol. But I like the layout of it.



And just comparing with my older Janet Craig who I got around half a year ago? I think?


I have more pictures of somebody new, I'll upload them in a few minutes.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Lucillia and I met up today to give her some Cholla and stuff and just hang out for a bit. Stopped by PetCo and when we're together, it's practically guaranteed that one or both of us is going home with some kind of fish or plant whether that plant be terrestrial or aquatic, makes no difference.

So I've been eyeing this baby at PetCo for about two or three weeks now, it's healthy and beautiful black copper. But I'm 99% sure it's a boy, still could possibly turn to a girl but with my incoming two fish, I have no permanent room for it. So we went and it was still there and at the moment Luci has not real room either and wanted me to care for it as I seem to have better luck with the baby fish; she's good with the adults. So I caved, she paid for it and I took him home lol.

So I'm 99% sure it's a boy and I'm also very sure that it has Velvet too >.< I'll be setting him up with the 1 gallon, spare tank, and Cupramine tomorrow. For now, he's just floating in the 20, chilling.

So I introduce to you! The lovely baby! No name at the moment.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I just adore those marvle cuts!!! Their stunning!

And the new baby is very cute


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

Your pictures are amazing! The baby is a cutie!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you! I love taking pictures lol. Here are some more just because my camera was out XD :roll:

shhhhhhh he's hiding! lol




I love my little Fox, I think it's a boy but I honestly haven't a clue, just guessing. But I'm going to call it a he at least. He's so cute and gentle with everyone, they're a very passive fish.


He's got a LOT of growing to do though! Still a baby!



lol I love my little Otos, they're so fat all the time XD They eat EVERYTHING. I've never known Otos to be so carefree in their eating habits, they are not picky whatsoever! For that, I'm thankful! I still only have four of them but they seem to thriving just fine. They buddy up with the Cories occasionally and like to bug Bentley and Fox.


Sam is such a beauty


Trap Trap


----------



## BlueInkFish

Gosh, I'm so jealous of your photography! Your fish look so energetic!


----------



## MattsBettas

Love the pics! How big will the flying fox get? Are they the ones that eat black beard algae? 

Your avatar has been throwing me off all day :-?. I like it, it's just different!


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Gosh, I'm so jealous of your photography! Your fish look so energetic!


Thanks! They really are energetic! It's hard to photograph them sometimes but the key is to have a good overhead light (bright LEDs are good, pull them forward if they're over the middle of the tank) and to use your flash when you can. I used to think it scared my fish, some of them do jump a little bit but they get used to it and mine don't give a crap any more lol.




MattsBettas said:


> Love the pics! How big will the flying fox get? Are they the ones that eat black beard algae?
> 
> Your avatar has been throwing me off all day :-?. I like it, it's just different!


Thanks! About 5-6 inches roughly, 30 gallons is minimum but 29 is usually fine. They're very peaceful. Not sure about the black beard algae, I think so, but they eat everything and anything with algae being their main diet, they're omnomnivores just like goldfish haha.

Hah! I was wondering when someone was going to ask! It still throws me off too though XD I like to have different profiles of Remmy but I only had so many good pictures so I drew myself one. I think I'll keep this one for a while though, unless I find I don't particularly like it. I'm not sure yet. I like the drawing itself, but just not sure of it as my profile is all ^_^ But thanks thanks!


----------



## cousiniguana

Impressive drawing!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks! Took me a few hours to do but I like it ^_^ I'm growing used to it as my avatar I think lol.


----------



## Zhylis

*grin* The hunting betta stalks through in the tall Serengeti grass, lurking in....GAAAAAAH! CHOMPCHOMPCHOMP!


----------



## Olympia

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks! Took me a few hours to do but I like it ^_^ I'm growing used to it as my avatar I think lol.



It's so confusing changing an avatar after so long! ! Looks awesome!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Zhylis said:


> *grin* The hunting betta stalks through in the tall Serengeti grass, lurking in....GAAAAAAH! CHOMPCHOMPCHOMP!


I really cracked up at that!!! haha!!!
:rofl:



Olympia said:


> It's so confusing changing an avatar after so long! ! Looks awesome!


It is! I'm still iffy about it. Like I like the drawing itself but I've had the other one for so long! But idk, I'll give it more time ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So not too much going on lately fish-wish that isn't covered in my Spawn log and my 45 Gallon Journal and then my Gecko Journal as well.

I did go to my dad's house which was great, it's nice to see him so often since we both are basically on the same page intelligence wise. Not to say that my mom is stupid but she's more street smart whereas my dad and I are more book smart, so it can be difficult to tell my mom anything about school stuff since her brain doesn't work like mine--nothing against her, it's just not the same as talking with dad. I also got to see my kitties too ^_^

My big Fluffer-nutter MC :-D


Not entirely sure why he was sitting so close to the heater as the house was nice an warm but he just likes to sit underneath it like this and watch everyone in the kitchen lol. He's silly


Normally I like goldfish but they aren't so intriguing to me as Betta's are. But this little one was absolutely adorable when I went to the PetSmart near my dad's. Never really seen one like this. Unfortunately it's color will change as it ages but it was certainly cute for the time being!



I set up my Tetra Cube 3 gallon downstairs next to my 45 gallon because Bowie my crowntail was seriously getting beat up by the fish in there. So mom didn't want him to die so she let me set up that tank full time there. I want to get a small LED fixture for it to grow some nice place in it, it's soiled based planted for the moment. But I also bought the cutest (and last) German Blue Ram from PetSmart too on sale, not sure on the gender at the moment, could go either way male or female. But this picture is just really adorable. Bowie is all flare, rarely any bite


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

Awww! Bowie <3


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm going to move Bowie back into this log since he's on his own for good now, well..."own" is a relative term at the moment as he's rooming with two GBR's for the moment to serve as their QT period and grow up period as they're both very tiny at the moment. 

I have to color correct this but at least you can see the photo of the 4 rimless lol


lol, I love Paradise's face ^_^


Another image that has to be color corrected, I set the camera on Tungsten, should have been Daylight.


My fish decided to stop being fish and decide to be Balloons once I fed them some brine shrimp today lol!!


Fatness


Alloy! He always looks very flat, like a DT would be because of their taller bodies, but he doesn't even look like he holds a DT geno....not sure.


And his tank


The 20 long


29 gal


Jag, I always want to call him Jarvis because he looks so much like him 



So I was finally able to find a nice red CT for Bettalovinmomma. He's absolutely adorable and HUGE. He's bigger than Trapper is and Trap is my biggest boy (body-wise) at the moment lol. He's also a slightly messy DDR and possibly a marble but I doubt he'll change any time shortly. He's super cute.



Was trying to get body comparing picture but it was hard when Trap kept circling him lol





I wish there wasn't any glare, it'd be an awesome picture!


For some reason, I think Pierce was sort of scared of the new boy because he was flaring but he kept away from the cup that Red was in XD





The baby girl is doing well too, Velvet is pretty much gone now :-D


Bowie's 3 gallon


Tiny Ram, i think this is a boy, this was the first one I got, the new one is absolutely a girl.


----------



## Starburst44

Sam is just gorgeous!


----------



## Bettalovinmomma

Thanks again. He is so gorgeous! 

All your fish look fantastic and your pics are amazing!! 

And can't wait to get my cholla to finish getting my tanks set up!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you thank you!!

He's real nice to take pictures of Bettalovin, he's very photogenic!!


----------



## MattsBettas

Beautiful as always lil! Love your tanks. Jealous of how easily you seem to be able to plant tanks so well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha thanks Matt! Yeah, I'm really glad for that day I picked up a Java Fern randomly and decided that I liked plants. It opened up so many options for me and I don't think I could have a permanent tank that doesn't have plants in it! And of course, I always make out pretty good with selling them too! ;-)


----------



## BlueInkFish

... Stunning, all stunning!

I really need to get me a new crowntail. Your making me jealous now


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol, did you never get your white CT? I can still look for you if you want one ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Hehe. That was on me, I just need to cycle all the tanks I have and divide them


----------



## PetMania

Oh my. When I saw Jag, I thought he WAS Jarvis


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> My big Fluffer-nutter MC :-D


How many pounds is you maincoon?

Love the nick name btw! Me and my husband use to see a Himalayan male house cat that came by our house often (liked our little grey barn born feline... she did not return the sentiment). We called him "FluffyNutts" for obvious reasons. I don't think he liked the nick name as we got indigent looks when ever we called him.. must have sounded silly to the neighbors "*whistle (like you do for a dog)* Come 'er FluffyNutts *click/kissing sounds* FluuuffyNuuuuts. Who's the big fat FluffyNuts? Your are!"
Ahh good times....


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> How many pounds is you maincoon?
> 
> Love the nick name btw! Me and my husband use to see a Himalayan male house cat that came by our house often (liked our little grey barn born feline... she did not return the sentiment). We called him "FluffyNutts" for obvious reasons. I don't think he liked the nick name as we got indigent looks when ever we called him.. must have sounded silly to the neighbors "*whistle (like you do for a dog)* Come 'er FluffyNutts *click/kissing sounds* FluuuffyNuuuuts. Who's the big fat FluffyNuts? Your are!"
> Ahh good times....


OMG, I about DIED when I read that XD That is absolutely hilarious!

The boy, MC (named for Mischievous Cat, not MC hammer or something >.<) is 18 pounds during the winter and usually 15 around summer time when he's outside playing more. The girl, Ieli, (his sister) is only 11 pounds, still big fluffy cats though!

Yes, I call them Fluffer-Nutters, Fluffy, Fluff-Butt, Floof-Butt, Fat-Butt, Floofy Boy/Girl, Floofy-kins, the list goes on lol. I just think of Marshmellow Fluff all the time with them lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So just a small update.

Mickey, the red CT that I had has now gone off to his forever-home at Bettalovinmomma's place! He was a beautiful boy ^_^
He was building bubblenests like crazy lol






I tried breeding Sam to Rowan and she destroyed him!!! He's fine, just missing 70% of his fins.



Super Black PK girl ^_^ 


My Crayfish is Crazy lol (or as I like to say: My Cray is Cray-Cray! :rofl
she's eating the bubbles here much like on Finding Nemo and the crabs lol



Put her in a smaller bowl, much easier now


And this is why she's crazy lol


Trapper's bubblenest....he's not the smartest fish....he did expand it so it was slightly under the leaf but it's still mostly out of it lol


There's a Ghost in Alloy's bubblenest XD


Growing!


I seem to have Champion Bubblenesters XD


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Lucky, my boys make dad tiny bubble nests, but I do have a lot of surface agitation...
Sorry about Sams fins! Poor boy.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lovely update!

I own a crayfish too. Technically not mine. But I care for it, just curious what do you feed it?


----------



## lilnaugrim

I feed her Shrimp pellets, she absolutely goes crazy for Omega One Veggie wafers.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Ok, thank you! 

Hope Sam gets better! How are you doing!?  we talk way to much fish I forget about reality haha!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, he looks like he already has regrowth, at least it will be interesting to see how they heal up and if the butterfly will still be there or not!

I'm okay, I'm extremely stressed with school this semester though. I'm forgetting things left and right like making the invitations for my mom's 50th birthday party...John is going to buy some and print instead after I told him I just don't have time unfortunately :-/ And then forgetting homework quite a bit and assignments and crap. It's been bad :-/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Let's see if BF can handle GIFs lol. I made this Cinemagraph for my class, it's supposed to be a project reflecting you and who you are, thought this one is great! Everyone knows about my fish so they expect this lol. I really like this one. But I need another one!! I thought about doing one while i was driving but for this to work properly, the camera needs to be on a stand so it doesn't move, driving doesn't exactly work like that. But I have no idea what else to do >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh....also, I have NO IDEA what my Marmorkreb was doing but this is how she was this morning....I think she was sleeping and this was sort of just happening lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry, this is like a triple or quadruple post here >.< :roll:

But I think Jag needs to go up for adoption. I can't give him the care he needs as I'm really getting into this breeding thing now that the local stores are really wanting my fry, yes I know to sell, but I also want to sell here too to give out some great quality fish. 

So this is what I have:

Jag = Free, just pay shipping
Four Sparkling Gourami Juvies = $1.50 each plus shipping
Stratus the Angel = Free, just pay shipping
Pecilfish = $2 plus shipping
Gertudae Rainbowfish = $2 plus shipping
Two half Yellow Mosaic female Guppies = $1 each plus shipping


----------



## Nimble

What's wrong with Jag?


----------



## SplashyBetta

Shipping would be around $16 right? Plus a heat pack? Something like that??


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nothing wrong with Jag other than his insistent biting. But he's not any of my breeder fish so I dont have room for "pets" is why.

Shipping is $9 but be ware, he's a chronic fin biter so if you don't have a cycled tank for him to go into, then you can't adopt him.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Lol crayfish bubble farts


----------



## BlueInkFish

Aqua Aurora said:


> Lol crayfish bubble farts


Hehe! I was thinking the same thing!


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol!! Right? I was so confused when I saw that this morning and moved all my plants out of the way so I could take that video to see what the heck she was doing. It looked like she was eating some of the bubbles too....idk man, I have strange fish and strange inverts lol!!!

Oh and I was attempting to breed Trap and the new black girl, she tore him to PIECES. WTF is with my girls destroying my boys?!?! Yes, he was conditioned, I took the chance with her since they're usually eggy right from Thailand. He's fine but she took off a lot of scales on his cheeks and on his back end. Again, I just feel so bad for them :-/

But Sam already has regrowth, so I guess that's a good thing then....


----------



## Fenghuang

Poor Trapper. I guess she was having none of that lol. She must be like a little shark or something, because Trap isn't exactly docile himself. 

I am glad to see Sam is looking a bit better. Rowen really did a number on him.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow! Your girls are rough! Like Sharks in disguise!

*whistles* "They ALWAYS play hard to get" 

Hehe, like my annoying quotes?!

Glad everyone is doing great! I hope everyone gets better and regrows their fins!


----------



## Crossroads

Hey lil, how many pencilfish and what species? I might be interested in taking them from ya come this next paycheck to bolster my school (I was kinda waiting for my 40g breeder to free up, but I've got the space in the 20g to take on some more.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's a Golden female and just one. Her school died out a while back, she's queen of the 29 lol.

I have photos up shortly!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Jag is healing again but he's angry at Stratus who keeps bugging him through the breeder box :roll:


I have to euthanize one of my Sparklers, he has a pretty bad cyst that seemed to appear very quickly. It may be a small tumor or just a mass of some sort as it's black and seems to look more solid, it's hard to tell of course. I feel really bad for him, he keeps getting picked on since he's sick :-/



Two females sparring


Here's the new girl, she didn't really suffer any damage from the attempt at breeding


Alloy ^_^


Annnd....yeah, this is how Trapper looks....he's healing up very well and it's not as bad as it looks but he certainly took a beating. She went for his gills mostly, his fins are primarily fine.




And I found the most beautiful Bladder snail the other day too!! It was big too!


----------



## Zhylis

Oh man, Lil. I hear you about ferocious females! I have a yellow female who completely rip my boy Tamer into itty bitty emasculated betta bites. Then after he recovered, I had to try again... I think she tried to neuter him this time. X.x Now she's in a breeding tank with the biggest, baddest red boy I could find!

Best of luck with your black girl!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Zhylis said:


> Oh man, Lil. I hear you about ferocious females! I have a yellow female who completely rip my boy Tamer into itty bitty emasculated betta bites. Then after he recovered, I had to try again... I think she tried to neuter him this time. X.x Now she's in a breeding tank with the biggest, baddest red boy I could find!
> 
> Best of luck with your black girl!


Yikes! Yeah, I'm thankful they're still alive at least! Sam is healing well too ^_^ They're both in good spirits; eating like pigs as normal, acting like nothing happened so I'm not too worried about their final recoveries ^_^

I will try Trap and the black girl again shortly when I condition them again 

And then Alloy and my (hopefully, if I win) yellow Dragon female I'll have coming in.


----------



## Crossroads

Yikes, I can't get goldens around here and I have three-lineds. Darn idk if she'd assimilate to my school ;~;


----------



## lilnaugrim

Golden's are ALL we have minus a few minor species. I rarely see three-lined or Corals, I love corals though. 

If you'd like, I can get a few more at the sellers price and send them all to you. My LFS always has them in stock and always healthy too. I'm sure she'd be fine if you just had her though, she's been fine by herself for quite a few months now (I think five-six months?)


----------



## Crossroads

Shame you're trying to get rid of yours, I'd trade you. We get browns, three-lines and corals around here (Corals are 6x the price of the others though).

I might take you up on that offer, as I could support her and a small school(6 members strong) and I really enjoy pencilfish. I'll have to do it after next Friday when I get paid.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Yikes! That damage looks painful on Trapper! Your females are very mean haha. 

I always adore your photos even if their blurry, it's better then anything I could do.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> Shame you're trying to get rid of yours, I'd trade you. We get browns, three-lines and corals around here (Corals are 6x the price of the others though).
> 
> I might take you up on that offer, as I could support her and a small school(6 members strong) and I really enjoy pencilfish. I'll have to do it after next Friday when I get paid.


I'll PM you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I have a few more pics 

Alloy is wicked good at making nests, there's always one haha I'd destroyed it yesterday while cleaning and he rebuilt it in 24 hours haha



I'd been siphoning water and Alloy tried to take it out by biting it lol


So Quasi is really good at not harming shrimp, he's real gentle with them and just inspects them time to time lol. He's very spunky, sometimes he'll swim up so fast he knocks the shrimp off the wood or the grass lol!!


'Nother one


And this is basically what Quasi does lol, I had to take like 10 pics of the shrimp before I got the two good ones, he kept doing this XD


This is what the 1.5 looks like at the moment. There's about 7 ghost shrimp in there right now cleaning off the grass. I trimmed some of the grass and took out the grass from the 20 and put it into this tank to make it thicker. I can't wait till it's nice and thick and complete! I may enter it into a tank contest with the shrimp when our Fish Show comes around in September!!


Rowan is fat


Took out most of the grass and trimmed up my Alternanthera and Scarlet Hygro.


Left to Right






I also have Java Moss growing all over the craft mesh :-D It's pretty cool!


This is between the middle compartment and the one on the right of it where Alloy is, it's been growing there nice and thick for several months now and I have to trim it almost every two weeks to keep it down. I've been getting nice ping pong ball sized clumps of it from it!


Showing the size difference between Lucillia's black PetCo female and Velvet


And speaking of the girl, here are more pictures of her ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Gahhh! Those Quasi photobombs! To cute!

I'm glad everyone looks to be healthy and happy


----------



## lilnaugrim

I keep forgetting to upload the darned pictures, I think they're from Sunday IIRC, or Saturday night....not entirely sure at this point >.< Not that there is much, but all the same! I like to be prompt with them ^_^

But here's the 4 gallon, I'd trimmed it the last time I'd taken pictures so it was messy and I wanted to wait for it to clear up before taking a better picture of it. I added some natural colored gravel to it to increase depth a little more....well actually, it's just the leftovers from the 1.5 planted lol, so it's more like decoration at the moment XD oh well, still looks nice though!


Paradise!


He's growing very well!!


Alloy is king at making bubblenests at the moment


Velvet is close behind though!


Even Quasi joined in yesterday!


And just showing off my little plant collection. Most of them will go into my Vivarium once it's set up, the Lemon Button Fern (middle back) won't go in as I found out it's too delicate for Gargoyle Geckos, but the Ficus Pumila (left back) will go in as the fern (right back), and the two Hypoestes up front too. I also have two tiny terracotta pots, one with Dwarf Sunflower seeds in it that you can see bottom left there growing well. And the one behind it has dwarf daisies. lol, I got them from wal-mart for .99 cents so I said what the heck, besides, the tiny pots are cute! They'll need to be transplanted once they get about 3" I believe, but still worth it!


And the Tetra 3 Cube downstairs with Bowie. They have Ich at the moment under the stress, but I'm hitting it with Quick Cure and it's clearing up rapidly. 


He's such a cutie!


Showing off the Ram! That's the female if I'm looking at it correctly


Blurry but thought it was funny, he was just taking in some oxygen


Looks like three but it's only a reflection lol. That would have been neat if I had both reflections in there!


Male I think, might be female--I can't remember at this point. This is why I should upload right away, I forget all the details I wanted to say previously!!!


I just took this photo this morning coming out of my building after dropping off my backpack so I don't have to lug it down the hill from where I park. Now only if the sun were shining from the side just slightly to illuminate! It'd be even more beautiful!!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Male rams have a longer 'spike' at the front of their dorsal fin (1 or 2 rays are a little taller than the others) and a bit more color, females get pink bellies, but this is at sexual maturity, they are hard to tell as juvies.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Male rams have a longer 'spike' at the front of their dorsal fin (1 or 2 rays are a little taller than the others) and a bit more color, females get pink bellies, but this is at sexual maturity, they are hard to tell as juvies.


I know. They're still only about an inch. The one I presume is male, does have a longer spike on the front and the ends of the dorsal and anal are more pointed than the one who I know for sure is a female. The blue irid still runs through the black spot but that has become an unreliable way to sex as is the pink belly. Both male and female can have pink bellies but the females have a reddish pink coloring on the stomach whereas the males, it's more of an iridescence on top versus a coloring on bottom.

I merely meant that, I couldn't remember who was who in the pictures since it's rather ambiguous whereas other pictures are clear who is who.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm loving every single picture!

So. I've gear GBRs are hard to care for. I'm not sure if I want to get then... What do you think Lil?


----------



## lilnaugrim

They are hard if you don't have a handle on your Nitrates. They are very sensitive little ones so you need a very matured tank to keep them longer than a few months. My tanks never show nitrates with the amount of plants I keep in them and how low my pH is. So, if you don't have Nitrates out of control and can keep them down lower than 5ppm, then you're good to go. If not, don't do them.

The 3 gallon they are temporarily in is seeded from the 45 so there is more than enough bacteria in there for the three fish (Bowie and the two rams), plus the plants are growing fantastically. 

It's not just GBR's though, it's all Rams; Gold, Wild Blue, Electric Blue, all of them are sensitive.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Interesting. May I ask, what are their gallon requirements? Their very beautiful fish and I would like to invest in a pair or two in the future!


----------



## lilnaugrim

A breeding pair should be in no less than a 20, however, for temporary breeding quarters, a 10 gallon will do fine. But for ones that are not paired up (many of them won't pair for a while, I'm hoping that mine will) 20 gallons for a pair, 30 is fine for 3-4. Generally you want to get breeding pairs though, less fighting involved usually, but you're not always so lucky.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I have a 30 gallon fully cycled... I just need to plant it and I think I'll be good to go. I just need to do more research and I'll be ready!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sooo I no longer have to guess on my Rams....they're breeding!!! In the 3 gallon! Right after they had Ich! WEORIJSDLFKJGH!!!!!!11!11!!!!

I was literally shocked, I've never had a pair actually pair up so quickly like this and in such circumstances! Crazy! lol!!

Here's the male tending to their "nest" and you can see some of the eggs too, I see two for sure there but I think there is another. I believe he is actually eating them, they both are, but that's okay with me. I'm just shocked that they're actually breeding!


Another egg before his nose there a little bit


Male there tending and the female getting uppity lol. Actually, they just love to follow the camera and my fingers ^_^ They're two very outgoing fish!


But blurry but you can see how far her ovipositer is sticking out there!



Male


Laying




And then Velvet wants to breed again XD
He's losing a lot of his cellophane though, interesting as Rowan isn't!





Alloy, he moved his nest to the back



Quasi, I felt like this was just a very dramatic photo of him


He's such a quirky little fish!


Luci's long finned baby girl, she's growing well!


----------



## Nimble

So you're the one who bought that stubby little bugger? Thank goodness it didn't sell to anyone who would intent to breed it... not like it could breed anyway, with that stubby little body of his. He's... he's cute, kinda. In the same way that a pug is cute.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nimble said:


> So you're the one who bought that stubby little bugger? Thank goodness it didn't sell to anyone who would intent to breed it... not like it could breed anyway, with that stubby little body of his. He's... he's cute, kinda. In the same way that a pug is cute.


Yeah, there was a girl too, I don't know who she went to if she sold.

I agree though, he's spunky as all hell, he's been working on this big bubble nest, he's just so funny. He's gentle with the shrimp too! Doesn't touch them or their food, makes him a great "nano" fish technically lol. I'll have to get a video of him to show you all, he really is a cutie!

I'm not one for "pug" fish or balloon fish in general, but he really swam into my heart somehow.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And lol, both Rams ended up being females. I'll find a male one day.

My Embers were looking nice today once I turned the filter back on. It went off Saturday when it became clogged so I forgot that it was off until today. We're on Spring break so I got out of work at 2 instead of having school till 9 which is great lol. So I cleaned out the filter and found a dead Otoand my tank stinking like dead fish. My Kubotai Loach was not looking so happy, I'm also losing my only male Corydoras, he was floating at the top and panting and twirling. Nothing bacterial it seems, just maybe ammonia poisoning...idk, he's the only one effected, the other corys are just fine. We'll see what happens.



I also bought a friend from WalMart lol. I love these little stick pot figures, I got my Memere a few of them, I think a frog and a little gnome, I absolutely love owls so I had to get him lol.


----------



## MattsBettas

Lil, consider a methylene blue dip for the cory and other fish suffering from ammonia. It'll allow more oxygen to be in their blood and might just help, I'd try to do the bath in a container (like a shoebox or API test kit lid) floating right in the water, since temp change, etc will be even more stress...

Love the pot figure btw!


----------



## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> Lil, consider a methylene blue dip for the cory and other fish suffering from ammonia. It'll allow more oxygen to be in their blood and might just help, I'd try to do the bath in a container (like a shoebox or API test kit lid) floating right in the water, since temp change, etc will be even more stress...
> 
> Love the pot figure btw!


Yep.
Issue is, is that he's pretty much dead now. It's not that he was just effected, he was actually dying. I already euthanized him. Everyone else is fine other than that dead Oto (obviously), I think it was just lack of oxygen previously without the filter running and because of the amount of fish I have in the tank, the plants usually do their job just fine but the filter is still necessary. The loach is doing great now that the filter is on 

Thanks! It's so darned cute ^_^ Makes me happy when enter my room :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I thought I uploaded this before but I guess I didn't! I brought that Java Fern on driftwood home that I'd brought to school about a year ago now. It's HUGE



And here's Sam's growth as of a few days ago


My 29 is still a bit of a mess but it's okay.



Also yesterday I took Stratus to one of my local shops, he was getting too big for my microfish. No more large fish that will potentially eat my small fish (Flying Fox doesn't count since she doesn't eat fish at all). Also I seemed to have lost my Kubotai loach....I really can't find her. I searched in the tank and pulled the ornaments up. I know my fish didn't eat her since they didn't eat the two otos that died. I searched around the tank as well but no sign of her anywhere :-/ makes me sad since I actually liked her too.

I also bought three little Panda Loaches yesterday, I couldn't resist them at all any more. And I also got a Dwarf Anchor Cat (Hara Jerdoni) since they were only 2.99 at my LFS!!! So cheap! I knew I'd likely never see it again but it's still cool to have in the tank lol. I did spot it today though zooming around!

Here are the Panda's before they went into the tank



And here's the H. Jerdoni



Half an hour later, it loved the pygmy chain swords and nestled itself into them lol


Panda working away already!


Hard to see but he's right in the middle behind the plants there



Also, Alloy made two nests lol


And he's proud of them XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hey! Today is my 2 year anniversary on here! And it's also my mom's 50th birthday too ^_^ My brother and I got her a beautiful heart necklace with diamonds in it!

But yesterday I got in my breeder Yellow Dragon for Alloy! I'd been meaning to put him into the spawn tank previously in case she came ready to go (many fish come in ready to breed from all the good food and care they get over in Thailand). Thankfully though, she isn't ready. So it will be around two weeks until I see if they can spawn. Today starts flaring and lots of food! I have to think of a good name for her that's similar to Alloy's since she does have a Metallic sheen to her! I think she's Platinum versus the normal Opaque White that Dragon's are supposed to be. Regardless, she's beautiful and big!

Chilling in her bag


She looks huge in this picture but that's because Alloy is more towards the back, she is bigger than him but not by that much lol


Checking out the new girl


Flare flare flare!


Is this all for me??? :-D


And I added a terracotta pot to Bowie's tank.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Congratulations! I can't wait for the fry!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


>


I saw this and thought
Alloy:"Holy [censor] you expect me to mate that monster?! She's huge!! Are you even sure its a she?!" 
hahah


----------



## Fenghuang

Hahaha. Poor Alloy. She is a beautiful fish though.

I wonder what it is with Thai imports. Must be something in the water, but all the females I have gotten from Thailand are gigantic. Males less so, but I guess they're jarred earlier too.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Xd!!!

Im crying! Stop!!!


----------



## Elsewhere

Aw the new girl is sooooo pretty! Ah, she's just gorgeous!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Beautiful new girl!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I saw this and thought
> Alloy:"Holy [censor] you expect me to mate that monster?! She's huge!! Are you even sure its a she?!"
> hahah


AHAHAH!!! :rofl: that's fantastic! I believe that really was his EXACT reaction when he first saw her!!



Fenghuang said:


> Hahaha. Poor Alloy. She is a beautiful fish though.
> 
> I wonder what it is with Thai imports. Must be something in the water, but all the females I have gotten from Thailand are gigantic. Males less so, but I guess they're jarred earlier too.


They're either really small or really big, rarely have I seen one in between.



Elsewhere said:


> Aw the new girl is sooooo pretty! Ah, she's just gorgeous!





litelboyblu said:


> Xd!!!
> 
> Im crying! Stop!!!





BettaLover1313 said:


> Beautiful new girl!


Unfortunately, the new girl passed early Friday or late Thursday. I don't know exactly what happened, she was acclimated the same way as all my imports/other fish. She seemed to have some hemorrhaging on her back end and I'm not sure if it was trauma or some bacterial infection she had prior. I'm going to email the seller to see if he has any other in stock. I'm pretty sad about all this, I didn't spend too much on her but all the same :-/


----------



## Fenghuang

I'n so sorry to hear that, Lilnaugrim. :-( *hugs*


----------



## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry to hear about that lil


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm so sorry Lil


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys. I've been looking for a new one. Never contacted the seller, it's too late by now anyways. Been trying to find one with a better dorsal anyway to improve on his since it isn't that great to begin with.

Wanted to show off some of my DWL, this is about the third largest I've had it grown before. One of my mother plants, it's about 7 inches across and roots are wicked long.


And showing off my Peacock Gudgeon, it's the most darling fish! He's beautiful and yet still very gentle. He's not afraid to tell the other fish off if they get too much in his face but he doesn't chase or bite, just gives them a look and they scamper off.


He's still quite young and small though, I may get him a female, not sure yet.



It's only been about a week and he recognizes me for food already and the camera is a good thing not to be scared of XD He zooms back and forth at it like a Betta would. He's a riot


In fact....this going to be his name I think; Riot.....I like it.... :-D


----------



## Julie7778

Hello again! I was wondering if you could show us your fish room, or tanks I'm not sure if you have a room for them or they're just all around the house XD I love seeing the different tanks


----------



## lilnaugrim

Julie7778 said:


> Hello again! I was wondering if you could show us your fish room, or tanks I'm not sure if you have a room for them or they're just all around the house XD I love seeing the different tanks


No fish room, or rather, my bedroom could be thought of as a fish room I guess lol I don't have any recent pictures though. Here's a bad older picture of where it's set up. I dare not show the rest of the room as it is a mess lol But my door is on the left in this picture right past the IKEA shelf there. Tanks don't look that way and that 1.5 on the right is now on the shelf instead and there is a 2.5 QT there now.


And then I just have two other tanks downstairs


(Before the 3 went up)


----------



## Julie7778

Wow amazing! You have so many plants, where do you buy them? Aren't they expensive. Also can you recommend me some plants that don't need a good light and spread easily or easy to grow. I am getting a dwarf puffer tank set up, I want to have a heavily planted tank, tall at the back and I would like a carpet but I doubt the lighting would be good enough. Do you think you could show some pics of the easily grown plants that you have? I plan on buying from Big Als and probably not petsmart but if they have some and look good I will. I was looking at the thread of planted tanks and I saw from maybe a year ago you had in your betta tank this one plant you had to keep trimming, I really liked that. Does it need great light? How long does it usually take for plants to grow and spread? Sorry for all the questions >_<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for not responding sooner, it's been crazy here.

But I buy from various places, most of these I've cultivated myself by this point, especially the Myrio. I started with like 7 stems and it turned into thousands lol. But mostly I buy from PlantedAquariumsCentral.com and from some of my local stores, depending on where you buy from, the prices change. 

And that one you saw was probably Myrio Mattogrosense or Parrots Feather, both are like weeds  

Each plant is different, not all plants "spread" but just grow upwards such as stem plants and then YOU cut them wherever on the stem and replant that cutting in the substrate. The old stem will continue to grow, but in a different place. So stem plants just grow upwards until you trim them. Carpet plants and runner plants grow outwards/upwards. Like grass plants; Dwarf Hairgrass and Micro Swords, they send out runners and spread around like normal grass outside would do. And then plants like Swords and Valisnerias will send out runners and do similar things though they won't get as thick normally like a Carpet plant would. Swords will also send out a stalk with babies on it which you can pluck from and stick them in the substrate once they're big enough.

So different plants have different growing times, some of the easier plants like Water Wisteria (stem) and Water Sprite (rosette type) can grow VERY fast. While other easy plants like Java Fern and Anubias take FOREVER lol, or at least it seems like it compared to fast growing plants.

Plants are generally split into different categories, one for light:
Low Light
Medium Light
High Light

one for how fast they grow:
Fast Grower
Moderate Grower
Slow Grower

and for how easy they are:
Easy
Moderate
Hard

I'm sure there are more categories like how much CO2 they may need but that can go along with how easy they are; generally the easy and some moderate ones don't need injected CO2 so you won't have to worry about that. So basically, you have to know the plant you're looking at to know how fast it grows and it's other needs.


----------



## lilnaugrim

One of these day's I'll get you all a proper update with my real camera. For now, you get to suffer with my phone pictures (not that they're terrible, I just don't take as many is all!)

So I've run into some issues lately, like my mother going to Florida for the week and leaving me with a broken water heater >.> No real showers, no temperature correct water for my fish. So I've just been heating the water with a regular heater, but issue is that I only have one bucket so that makes water changes very difficult.

On top of that Trapper is NOT doing well at all :-/ I'm attempting to not shock him which makes water changes difficult. I don't think he'll make it through the next couple of days. I was honestly shocked he made it through the night last night, he was looking VERY bad yesterday :-( he never recovered from that attempt of breeding. If he does die, I'm going to sell the black girl,she'll no longer be needed and I want to focus on the Red Butterflies and fake MG's.


Jag has also been chomping away at his tail frequently. It's starting to really stress me out, not so much that I'm worried he'll get infected, but just the fact that it keeps going away. I don't need the added stress of this :-/ He's still a cutie though


Appropriate picture of Velvet, this is what he does all the time lol


Froggie! This is the female. The male is constantly border hopping to get away from her >.< she's mean to him!


Pierce is still here and doing well! That's the male froggie next to him.



Quasi is also doing well



Sam is....well he's Sam lol. He was underneath the plant XD His tail is also turning more coppery! It's very interesting! He's healing up very well from his own attack from Rowan way back when!


Also, anyone know what this tangly stuff is? I feel it's a weed of some sort, harmful to plants I think. I think it came in on some Java Moss, it spreads like wild fire. I just removed all of this yesterday


Also, as these are my first Air plants, I've had them almost 8-9 months now. I've never seen one flower before!!! At least, I think it's flowering!!

I came into the bathroom to find that it was turning yellow/orange and I figured maybe it needed fertilizer?


But then I saw that blue/purple thingy and went...huh


Hey! You look like a flower!


It grew overnight too, those were yesterday and this was this morning before I left


And obligatory beautiful sunrise from last Thursday morning:


----------



## Julie7778

lilnaugrim said:


> Sorry for not responding sooner, it's been crazy here.
> 
> But I buy from various places, most of these I've cultivated myself by this point, especially the Myrio. I started with like 7 stems and it turned into thousands lol. But mostly I buy from PlantedAquariumsCentral.com and from some of my local stores, depending on where you buy from, the prices change.
> 
> And that one you saw was probably Myrio Mattogrosense or Parrots Feather, both are like weeds
> 
> Each plant is different, not all plants "spread" but just grow upwards such as stem plants and then YOU cut them wherever on the stem and replant that cutting in the substrate. The old stem will continue to grow, but in a different place. So stem plants just grow upwards until you trim them. Carpet plants and runner plants grow outwards/upwards. Like grass plants; Dwarf Hairgrass and Micro Swords, they send out runners and spread around like normal grass outside would do. And then plants like Swords and Valisnerias will send out runners and do similar things though they won't get as thick normally like a Carpet plant would. Swords will also send out a stalk with babies on it which you can pluck from and stick them in the substrate once they're big enough.
> 
> So different plants have different growing times, some of the easier plants like Water Wisteria (stem) and Water Sprite (rosette type) can grow VERY fast. While other easy plants like Java Fern and Anubias take FOREVER lol, or at least it seems like it compared to fast growing plants.
> 
> Plants are generally split into different categories, one for light:
> Low Light
> Medium Light
> High Light
> 
> one for how fast they grow:
> Fast Grower
> Moderate Grower
> Slow Grower
> 
> and for how easy they are:
> Easy
> Moderate
> Hard
> 
> I'm sure there are more categories like how much CO2 they may need but that can go along with how easy they are; generally the easy and some moderate ones don't need injected CO2 so you won't have to worry about that. So basically, you have to know the plant you're looking at to know how fast it grows and it's other needs.


Thanks for all the info  btw beautiful bettas! So what's your plan for breeding?


----------



## DaytonBetta

I have that thread like plant/algae also. It's thin threads with little beads along them. I think it came from plants I got online. Someone in a face book group said it's a type of algae, but no one there knew the name. Just a lot of negative comments! I pull it out with a toothbrush. It seems to strangle the plants if you don't remove it.


----------



## MattsBettas

LOVE the airplants! I've always wanted a few, but I haven't been able to find them for a decent price here. No way I'm spending 15$ on a tiny little one...


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lol male frog "shh don't tell her I'm in here" *hear bitchy/raspy female voice in the background* "HAAAANK! I KNOW YOU'RE HIDING AT THE NEIGHBOR'S AGAIN!" I LOVE Velvet's face! So shocked looking (like he's seeing porn for the first time "They put it WHERE?!") My boy Xerxes does that mouthing thing, where he opens it and closes and opens.. I wonder it means. Sorry trapper is not doing well :/
Your plant pest is UTRICULARIA GIBBA. It commonly comes in on moss to tanks and can be a real pain to get rid of. Like duckweed, it just a speck is left it will regrow into the monster mass again. Its a carnivorous plant and great at chocking out your favorite stem (or other plant). I got some on my newly bought (I think xmas) moss a year ago but noticed before it went in the tank. I pulled the moss apart and plucked up the pest with tweezers for a good half hour. Never saw it again ^^

edit: and congratulations on your Tillandsia blushing (aka blooming). I've wanted to try them but I'm terrible at keeping up humidity (or watering frequently) that's why ripariums are so wonderful, set and forget! no plant maintenance (except pruning dead leaves very infrequently).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Julie7778 said:


> Thanks for all the info  btw beautiful bettas! So what's your plan for breeding?


Np!

I've already been breeding. I have my Red Butterfly Spawn log over in the spawn log section if you want to check that out. Not really profiting, just doing it for the fun of the species.



DaytonBetta said:


> I have that thread like plant/algae also. It's thin threads with little beads along them. I think it came from plants I got online. Someone in a face book group said it's a type of algae, but no one there knew the name. Just a lot of negative comments! I pull it out with a toothbrush. It seems to strangle the plants if you don't remove it.


Yeah, I knew it was carnivorous, I'd seen it before and was thinking Bladderwort but wasn't sure. But yes, bad bad bad! I already have enough struggle with duckweed >.> I'd really rather love to NOT take this tank down for a third time.....



MattsBettas said:


> LOVE the airplants! I've always wanted a few, but I haven't been able to find them for a decent price here. No way I'm spending 15$ on a tiny little one...


Same here! I actually bought mine from cousiniguana here in trade from some other things, I think it was a fish of some sort maybe. She's up in Canada so maybe you can PM her to see if she still has some, I think she still pops in every now and then. But the farmers market here sells them for only a couple dollars for most of them, some of the harder ones go for more (15-30) but for the main easy ones it's like 3-5 dollars on average. I wonder if I could send some to you....it's a plant so I'm not sure how the border patrol would take it. Could probably do some research on that though.



Aqua Aurora said:


> lol male frog "shh don't tell her I'm in here" *hear bitchy/raspy female voice in the background* "HAAAANK! I KNOW YOU'RE HIDING AT THE NEIGHBOR'S AGAIN!" I LOVE Velvet's face! So shocked looking (like he's seeing porn for the first time "They put it WHERE?!") My boy Xerxes does that mouthing thing, where he opens it and closes and opens.. I wonder it means. Sorry trapper is not doing well :/
> Your plant pest is UTRICULARIA GIBBA. It commonly comes in on moss to tanks and can be a real pain to get rid of. Like duckweed, it just a speck is left it will regrow into the monster mass again. Its a carnivorous plant and great at chocking out your favorite stem (or other plant). I got some on my newly bought (I think xmas) moss a year ago but noticed before it went in the tank. I pulled the moss apart and plucked up the pest with tweezers for a good half hour. Never saw it again ^^
> 
> edit: and congratulations on your Tillandsia blushing (aka blooming). I've wanted to try them but I'm terrible at keeping up humidity (or watering frequently) that's why ripariums are so wonderful, set and forget! no plant maintenance (except pruning dead leaves very infrequently).


I literally almost peed my pants reading your reply lol!! That was absolutely fantastic after a bad day, thank you for that!

Thank you for the name! HA! It IS Bladderwort! I wrote my reply to Dayton before I looked it up lol Yeah, I do believe it came in my Java Moss ages ago since I haven't bought any in....oh idk....9-12 months maybe? Yeah, it's been a while. Damn.....I should just restart this tank >.> I do have a spar 20 long that was previously my Gecko's tank and now they're in the 33.....maybe I can....Mom would kill me if I set up another tank......grr, I hate having perfectly good extra tanks and not being able to use them!!!

Yeah, my Tillandsia are just in a small glass bowl sitting on some rocks and sand. They will likely go into my Vivarium once that's set up! I have some Philodendron sticking out of my 4 rimless, I could count that as a riparium almost hahah But yeah, I can't wait to see the bloom on this! It's absolutely beautiful! Heck, I just can't wait to get home from school to see it even if it isn't bloomed!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> I literally almost peed my pants reading your reply lol!! That was absolutely fantastic after a bad day, thank you for that!
> 
> Thank you for the name! HA! It IS Bladderwort! I wrote my reply to Dayton before I looked it up lol Yeah, I do believe it came in my Java Moss ages ago since I haven't bought any in....oh idk....9-12 months maybe? Yeah, it's been a while. Damn.....I should just restart this tank >.> I do have a spar 20 long that was previously my Gecko's tank and now they're in the 33.....maybe I can....Mom would kill me if I set up another tank......grr, I hate having perfectly good extra tanks and not being able to use them!!!
> 
> Yeah, my Tillandsia are just in a small glass bowl sitting on some rocks and sand. They will likely go into my Vivarium once that's set up! I have some Philodendron sticking out of my 4 rimless, I could count that as a riparium almost hahah But yeah, I can't wait to see the bloom on this! It's absolutely beautiful! Heck, I just can't wait to get home from school to see it even if it isn't bloomed!


Sorry for the crappy day, laughter always help ^^
You don't have to destroy the tank, but take out as much as you can and just keep removing it as you fine it. Don't rip out blindly but try to find the end of it. Like duckseed it will take several times to get it all but it's not "the end of the tank". So don't loose hope.
I thought about setting up my 40g breeder with my unused manzanita driftwood and Tillandsia with some compact moss and creeping ficus "oak leaf" forgetting its proper name starts with a "q" I think, and some other small things.. Many mini orchids
Photos of the wood (held up with wire) red spots would be touching ground.



above view


Angled view

Would basically have a boring leaf litter bottom with all the plants growing in the branches.

But I'm using differnt wood and doing an emerged aquatic plant setup (poison dart frog tank). Got riccia and pennywort galore growing emerged now (along with some other stems and an Argentinian sword Ive had since my first batch of plants (durable mofo has taken a lot of abuse).


----------



## lilnaugrim

I know. But the Duckweed likes to stick against the divider and not come out so I'd have to do some serious work to remove all of it, same with the Bladderwort. I remove them weekly and they flourish immensely because of all the nutrients in the water unfortunately. 

And unfortunately, Trapper did not make the day yesterday. I feel bad that I didn't euthanize him earlier when he was in clear pain. He just wasn't responding to anything I was doing. Oh well....anyone want to adopt the Black HMPK girl? I no longer need her and do not view her as a pet so I'd prefer someone else to take her. I'm offering adoption here for free, just pay shipping, but elsewhere she will be up for sale. I'll give it a few days before I offer her in the Classifieds. 

And I have some pics!
My lovely Tillandsia is doing VERY well! Although....the bloom stalk is slightly...phallic looking.... lol Oh well, it's still beautiful! I love the color contrast!


Could look like a birthday candle too haha


And some beautiful clouds this morning!





And the night sky over Campus last night.



And I swear that I time travel when I do time lapses! I was outside taking shots of the stars and was planning on doing a short time lapse so I was like "Okay, one more pic ought to do it...well...let's do one more...okay, that should do it--OH! Look at that! Okay, just a few more I think" and it goes on. I stayed out there for an hour last night! haha or nearly, it was like 9:15 till 10:05-ish. I didn't even realize it till I got inside lol

So I didn't realize how quickly the sky and stars move at night! Clearly I knew they moved but I just didn't realize how fast since you don't exactly have something to compare them against whereas the sun, big huge lit object that moves through the sky, that's easy to see, Stars, not so much. So I hope you enjoy this short gif I made of the pictures I took as the timelapse. The clouds are lit with some light pollution but I feel it makes a very "out of this world" feeling, so I don't mind so much.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Sorry about Trapper :c I have no place to offer to put the female so I can't offer to take her, but I'm sure someone will.
Haha Tillandsia got a boner (wonder if I'll get in trouble for that comment >.>''). Its terrible that our minds can see so many things as phallic.. the poor banana doesn't get eaten enough as a good potassium source anymore because of it. I wish my local nursery would properly label their air plants instead of just "Tillandsia" for all of them.. and cost about 1/2 as much (they want $9-11 for pups >.<).


----------



## JHatchett

I'm sorry about Trap.  

If you decide to sell the black girl I'm looking for a black hmpk for my black line.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Sorry about Trapper :c I have no place to offer to put the female so I can't offer to take her, but I'm sure someone will.
> Haha Tillandsia got a boner (wonder if I'll get in trouble for that comment >.>''). Its terrible that our minds can see so many things as phallic.. the poor banana doesn't get eaten enough as a good potassium source anymore because of it. I wish my local nursery would properly label their air plants instead of just "Tillandsia" for all of them.. and cost about 1/2 as much (they want $9-11 for pups >.<).


Lol! Meh, its natural but as long as your aren't explicit, I'm sure it's fine. I really don't give a crap, it it were one a disease thread then maybe not but I don't care about the journal stuffs. Yeah, I eat.my bananas at home lol away from other people.

Thankfully, the store near me labels them more or less so they are different prices at least. I did know what mine were but now I forget. I started with 8 different kinds but have killed off five now lol that little one next to the blooming one is pretty much dead, I didn't water them enough. Oh well >.<



JHatchett said:


> I'm sorry about Trap.
> 
> If you decide to sell the black girl I'm looking for a black hmpk for my black line.


Yeah, did you not read the post? I'm putting her for adoption so if you want to adopt her for the $10 shipping fee then that's fine with me!


----------



## Fenghuang

Sorry to hear about Trapper, Lil.

I love all your little terrarium plants. We have now have a little eastern tiger salamander dubbed Mr. Salamander (yeah, original) and are slowly accumulating them.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol! Meh, its natural but as long as your aren't explicit, I'm sure it's fine. I really don't give a crap, it it were one a disease thread then maybe not but I don't care about the journal stuffs. Yeah, I eat.my bananas at home lol away from other people.
> 
> Thankfully, the store near me labels them more or less so they are different prices at least. I did know what mine were but now I forget. I started with 8 different kinds but have killed off five now lol that little one next to the blooming one is pretty much dead, I didn't water them enough. Oh well >.<
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, did you not read the post? I'm putting her for adoption so if you want to adopt her for the $10 shipping fee then that's fine with me!


Yep can't eat them in public anymore.

*How *do you water them? depending on humidity and air flow (they like their air flow!) different watering frequencies are needed. When I was looking into getting some I read [this thread] from someone that has a LOT of them. They would take them out of their tank (large display tanks with pc fans) and dunk them in water then let them air dry before putting back into the tank. I can't recall what page but they discuss the frequency they soak them in a bucket of water (with ferts added i think once every 3-4 soaks) (and for how long) in there. Maybe the thread will give you some tips about the plant to get a better survival rate. You can also pm the thread creator to ask about care, they were very helpful when I was researching.


----------



## JHatchett

I read the one where you where thinking about waiting a couple days to decide... I'm on my getto old phone...it's difficult. I'll pm you when I get home from work.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Sorry to hear about Trapper, Lil.
> 
> I love all your little terrarium plants. We have now have a little eastern tiger salamander dubbed Mr. Salamander (yeah, original) and are slowly accumulating them.


Awww, I love Eastern Tiger Sally's!! So freaking adorable!
And thanks 



Aqua Aurora said:


> Yep can't eat them in public anymore.
> 
> *How *do you water them? depending on humidity and air flow (they like their air flow!) different watering frequencies are needed. When I was looking into getting some I read [this thread] from someone that has a LOT of them. They would take them out of their tank (large display tanks with pc fans) and dunk them in water then let them air dry before putting back into the tank. I can't recall what page but they discuss the frequency they soak them in a bucket of water (with ferts added i think once every 3-4 soaks) (and for how long) in there. Maybe the thread will give you some tips about the plant to get a better survival rate. You can also pm the thread creator to ask about care, they were very helpful when I was researching.


I used to take them out and soak them in a little bucket but it became too tedious for me. Instead I take my turkey baster and just pour some water of the top of them. I take the water from my fish tanks so they already have nutrients in them and ferts.

I did notice that while one of them was just fine without water for a while, another loved to be watered more frequently. Same goes for any other plant honestly ^_^



JHatchett said:


> I read the one where you where thinking about waiting a couple days to decide... I'm on my getto old phone...it's difficult. I'll pm you when I get home from work.


Oh, no, no, no, I meant that I was offering her here for adoption. Once a few days were up, I'd offer her for sale in the Classifieds, meaning you guys who actually read my journal get first dibs on her  That's all.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

They need to air out properly, if water sits in between the leaves at the base (forget the term) too log they can rot and die, some sp. are more prone to this issue because of their shape than others. 
I'd have to use RO with ferts if I got this plant.. my taps' calcium (and tank's) is so high.. well to demonstrate I had a terra cotta pot with some plants in it.. the terra cotta turned 80% WHITE (big chalky chunks) from the calcium deposits in a week (from first through watering)x.x


----------



## MattsBettas

I love the flower! The color's beautiful, I mean the shape is a bit weird but I don't tend to sexualise inanimate objects and find it a bit odd when that's what people see... Birthday candle is more what I would naturally go with haha. I don't think this is super inappropriate, I mean I'm not a mod but we do have a breeding forum on here that no one bats an eye at (thankfully) and we are talking about a plant after all... Are your going to try and pollinate it? Also, will it die after the flower fades? 

Lil, I actually found a super cool little local store in Calgary (so three hours south of me, where CJ is located actually) that focuses on terrariums and some houseplants, seemingly of all types but definitely not things you would get at Home Depot. I stumbled upon them on instagram and kinda fell in love... Anyways, they have some super neat airplants and airplant terrariums, some of which are hanging. I can link to their site or share their instagram handle if you would like. I love it, it's a nice local buisness that features other small, local things (like, IIRC a lot of their glass comes from a guy in Edmonton). I'm not someone who goes out of my way to buy local but I'd much rather spend money there than at a chain, especially when they bring in unique things (exactly like local fish stores). I'll try to go next time I'm down there, but going to CJs would probably take priority and when I'm not the driver it's not like I have a huge amount of choice. 

Sorry for being so off topic! It is your journal and not mine! Anyways everything looks great and I'm sorry about Trapper. I'd definitely offer to take the girl... If you forgot, I've always loved black fish. I hate border hassle. Canada and the US are just so crazy similar too, I find it a bit silly.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> They need to air out properly, if water sits in between the leaves at the base (forget the term) too log they can rot and die, some sp. are more prone to this issue because of their shape than others.
> I'd have to use RO with ferts if I got this plant.. my taps' calcium (and tank's) is so high.. well to demonstrate I had a terra cotta pot with some plants in it.. the terra cotta turned 80% WHITE (big chalky chunks) from the calcium deposits in a week (from first through watering)x.x


The water generally doesn't stay on them long, it's more like a dribble over them and they soak up what stays and the rest is dripped off. I don't water THAT frequently, like once a week if that, it's more like once every week and a half because I forget. But whatever I'm doing has been working out great for them so far. The only reason the others died was because I'd left them without water for like....a month, it was a while. Then I tried to peal off the dead parts and save what was rest but it'd pretty much died already by that point. 

My water is 5.0 pH, teensy bits of Ca and Mg to give me like half a degree of hardness. So I really don't have to worry about much other than my pH fluctuating in my real tanks so I can't do large water changes is all.

To be clear, I'm not sure if others are reading when I said that they were in a bowl, the bowl is not filled with water....idk if anyone took it that way or not lol, not just you Aqua of course. But it's just some sand, some rocks and air!



MattsBettas said:


> I love the flower! The color's beautiful, I mean the shape is a bit weird but I don't tend to sexualise inanimate objects and find it a bit odd when that's what people see... Birthday candle is more what I would naturally go with haha. I don't think this is super inappropriate, I mean I'm not a mod but we do have a breeding forum on here that no one bats an eye at (thankfully) and we are talking about a plant after all... Are your going to try and pollinate it? Also, will it die after the flower fades?
> 
> Lil, I actually found a super cool little local store in Calgary (so three hours south of me, where CJ is located actually) that focuses on terrariums and some houseplants, seemingly of all types but definitely not things you would get at Home Depot. I stumbled upon them on instagram and kinda fell in love... Anyways, they have some super neat airplants and airplant terrariums, some of which are hanging. I can link to their site or share their instagram handle if you would like. I love it, it's a nice local buisness that features other small, local things (like, IIRC a lot of their glass comes from a guy in Edmonton). I'm not someone who goes out of my way to buy local but I'd much rather spend money there than at a chain, especially when they bring in unique things (exactly like local fish stores). I'll try to go next time I'm down there, but going to CJs would probably take priority and when I'm not the driver it's not like I have a huge amount of choice.
> 
> Sorry for being so off topic! It is your journal and not mine! Anyways everything looks great and I'm sorry about Trapper. I'd definitely offer to take the girl... If you forgot, I've always loved black fish. I hate border hassle. Canada and the US are just so crazy similar too, I find it a bit silly.


I'd love to pollinate, but alas, I have nothing to pollinate it TO! haha.
Yeah...I tend to have a dirty mind when it comes down to it. I blame it on being a Tenor Saxophone player haha. Not exactly, but in Marching Band we're known as one of the more "dirty" sections, we're constantly making sexual innuendos and such. It's all in good fun though, we're generally very nice people though and we more just joke inside of the section versus ragging on others.

As far as I know, the plant itself won't die after the flower is done with. But I'm clearly no expert!

That store really sounds like something I'd love to go to! I wish we had something similar around, we have a few reptile stores that sell a couple of plants but yeah, they're more of what you'd find at Wal-Mart/Home Depot. That store that has the air plants I was talking about is actually in one of our malls interestingly enough, and then just the Farmer's Market of course. I haven't been in a while so I'll have to check out what she's got in stock again, she only sells at that market.

Actually, I really thought about you when Trap first died. And then I damned the Border Patrol! It really is silly, I can understand some import laws but like Betta Fish? They can't even survive around here never mind up there! Granted yes, disease is still an issue even if they didn't survive. Grr, it really grinds my gears though!

And no worries, clearly, I go off topic quite a bit! haha, I certainly don't mind chit-chatting here at all! It's probably my favorite thing to do after taking pictures of course ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

More pics of the plant from yesterday
Now it really does look more like a birthday candle, it was just in an awkward stage before



And I went to one of my stores yesterday and saw this beautiful Beardie. I just had to laugh at him though. I know they love/need to bask but I've never seen one with their mouth open like this! I'm sure it's probably a common thing but I've never seen it before and it just made me giggle so I thought I'd share


He did have his eyes closed until he realized I was looking at him and he looked back XD


And I made Red Velvet Swirl Brownies yesterday for my gallery opening today! I make them into little bite sized pieces so you can eat freely while you look around :-D
Before baking


And after! Yum!
It wasn't the best batch I'd made, but they're still pretty good


And this is what's in the gallery, all ten are mine. They're double photos layered and lowered opacity to make a double exposure. The series is called Watermarks. Of course, you can't see half of them here but oh well


We were hanging on Saturday. Don't worry, we fixed the crookedness of my photos. With the brick, it's very hard to line things properly. You either have to level according to the level or level according to the crooked brick to make it look good....
And those lights aren't turned on during the show, it's just for the staging


And because I don't really have an art thread working at the moment. These will go here too. I've been working in Color Reductions in Stone Lithography. Basically the same way you'd layer anything else: light color first to dark color. So I do yellow and then work from there. I didn't get a pic of the yellow layer on this one though, but you can see it through the Leaf Brown color at least.
Here's the stone I'm working on and what I do is I scrape away at the black grease, what is black will be printed up as yellow at first and for this layer, the Leaf Brown.


Rolled up on the stone with the color I want


And then this is how it was printed on the paper. You have to line up the paper correctly with marks on the stone so it doesn't get off, it's difficult to do!


And then I worked more on the stone, scraping more away to get to the final dark Chocolate Brown layer. 
So again, what is white will be transparent and what is black will be the brown




I ended up with more brown than I would have liked, this is what came out:


So I did some more sandpaper work to the stone and finished with this which I prefer much more


And finally some fish pics lol
I moved my baby boy into the 20 gal long for those who aren't on my spawn log. He was getting beat up by the Sparkling Gouramis more than I thought he would :roll: he's such a passive boy, big flare but no bite.

Saying hi to daddy!



Velvet doing his normal velvet-things lol




I died at this, he looks like he's sticking his tongue out for some reason


Decent pic of Orange (he was orange as a baby), he's already growing back the fins though




Looking up for food, like Father like Son!


And some tanks. My 4 gal rimless


Paradise is growing well!


20 Long


29


1.5


10


----------



## logisticsguy

Your journal is fantastic! I love Quasi and your plants are amazing!


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## lilnaugrim

Awww thanks CJ! That makes me feel good on this gloomy, cloudy day!


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## Elleth

Love your art! It's gorgeous! Lol and those father/son fish pictures are adorable.


----------



## Julie7778

Love your tanks! So many plants ! I was wondering how much you cut your mesh dividers to fit a 10 gallon, I'm pretty sure the pieces are originally 13.5 x 10.5 and I can't figure out s good size to cut the mesh to fit good with the binder covers.


----------



## niQ

:thumbsup: Thx for sharing ur artwork with us, gorgeous owl! Tanks are looking amazing! :wave:


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## lilnaugrim

Elleth said:


> Love your art! It's gorgeous! Lol and those father/son fish pictures are adorable.


Thank you, thank you ^_^



Julie7778 said:


> Love your tanks! So many plants ! I was wondering how much you cut your mesh dividers to fit a 10 gallon, I'm pretty sure the pieces are originally 13.5 x 10.5 and I can't figure out s good size to cut the mesh to fit good with the binder covers.


Thanks! It's a 20 long but I believe you just cut off 11 strips from the long way and it should fit horizontally in your tank. It won't reach the bottom/or top if you go from the bottom, but with the substrate, you should be able to fill it up enough to reach the bottom of the mesh so it doesn't allow fish to get through still. 



niQ said:


> :thumbsup: Thx for sharing ur artwork with us, gorgeous owl! Tanks are looking amazing! :wave:


Thank you ^_^ I've been in love with owls for a while now haha thanks :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I realized something after last nights gallery and seeing the differences between the artists there and the non-artists (mostly it was parents haha) But I found out that what can make a good artist is, not to say simply that you don't like the art but to say why you don't like it, what in particular off-sets you? Is it the technique, the style, the way it's presented? Is it supposed to make you feel uncomfortable?

Even if you don't like something, I find it far easier to even appreciate the art even if it's really not my style or taste, if I identify what I don't like about it versus just simply saying I don't like it. Just because I, or someone else, doesn't like it, doesn't mean it can't still be appreciated.

It's just one of the things that was bugging me today and just something I realized and wanted to share. I wanted to share on my FB but my Memere and dad did this last night and today when we went to see the show lol, I didn't want to offend them right away or anything. But I think it's a lesson that can be brought into different realms of the world as well; just because you may not like it, doesn't mean that you should completely write it off instantly, you can still appreciate it


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just took more pics last night and uploading them now.

Paradise, he's getting big!


So I've been having some trouble keeping the algae down with my bright lights, so I decided to give Nerites a try again. I can usually never keep them alive though :-/ we'll see. I need to find my cuttlefish bone to add to the little 1.5 to help it out. I had one in my 29 but I think they ate it all....can't find the darned little box though where I threw it somewhere in my room....like everything else, sigh! But here's one of them in the 1.5 with Quasi. The other is in the 20 with Sam


And little Quasi



So very often when I come home, I come home to this. Sam LOVES to sit up in the floating java ferns and just relax lol he's such a cutie. Then he see's me and swims right up to check to see if he's getting food


Sam's body is still pretty small, this is little Orange for size comparison! O is also getting pretty big too lol


And clearly Rowan and Velvet are siblings....lol!!


Pierce and Sam. Guppy was in time out and still is for beating on the other girl and the male I stuck in there. The poor male doesn't have any tail fin left!!!! She's a real brute! Of course, she was one of my babies too >.<


Sam and his gigantic pecs lol


So..yeah, poor male froggie, she found him! She's the fat one on the right, he's skinny because she eats all the food before he can even find it! I've been trying to feed him White Worms to fatten him up some but it's hard when I'm not home too often


That face of her's....why are all my female creatures such b*tches?? lol, they're always hatin' on their mates! He's down below trying to find the food she just ate >.>


----------



## lilnaugrim

Now I'm just getting pissed off.

Bentley died the other day, though I don't know if that's his age (he's just about a year then) or from something in the water. 

And I had to euthanize the Black HMPK girl that was supposed to go to JHatchett, like seriously???

These are the fish I've lost in the last month:
Kubotai Loach
Siamese Flying Fox (yep, don't know where she went either!)
Bentley
(2) Male Sparkling Gouramis
(1) Ember Tetra
(3) Otos
(2) C. Habrosus
(2) male Guppies (20 long)
Trapper
Black HMPK girl

I think that's everyone....but seriously?? What is wrong with this?!?!

I've tested both tank water and tap water. I figured maybe something was in the well water, it's spring melting after all and there's generally an excess of nutrients, minerals, and metals flowing into my well. I didn't double the water conditioner so maybe that's something? Aging my water won't do much other than let the pH solidfy, but I don't do huge water changes for that to be such an issue anyway!

I tested my tap and somehow, I have 3 dKH but 0 dGH which means, I still have no hardness whatsoever but now I have alkalinity? My pH is stable at 5.0 from the test, though I have a sinking feeling that it's lower. I want to get a real low pH test kit to see what it's really at. But my dKH has gone up, that's the only thing that's changed but that's a change for the better, not the worse.

I spent the majority of yesterday trying to save the HMPK girl, I gave her Meth Blue baths with StressGuard and eventually added some salt for preventative dosages. I even risked putting her in completely new water after acclimating her to the 20 long water, I then netted her out of the cup, dumping the old water down the drain and refilling with fresh water from the 20. She was stressed but it seemed to help a little before she started to get bad again.

I'm not exactly upset about this or anything, if I have to euthanize a fish then I have to, I just wish it wasn't one that I was rehoming first of all :-/ and now I'm just getting pissed and frustrated at all the fish I've lost in one month alone. And it's not even to a disease, if it is, the disease is invisible and leaves no trace other than a dead, previously healthy, body.


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## Olympia

Hey Lil!
Wow, sorry to hear that. I went through something similar and mass die outs are so stressful and draining.  I hope you figure it out.

You may want to try getting some minerals for the water though, the stuff they use for RO water?


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Oly, good to see you around again, even if it is just to pop in ^_^

Yeah, I don't know if I should use a pH Regulator or the Replenish for RO water. I know I have plenty of minerals and metals in it so I don't think I should be adding more? But my pH is almost always stable, prove with my 3 dKH which is nice. I just don't have any hardness is all.

My little guppy that was in with my 3 baby Betta's is also doing the whirl of death. I don't think he'll make the night. This disease, or water issue, or whatever it is, hits fast and without any sign. Litterally, this guppy was fine this morning and yesterday! Now I'm just waiting, once guppies hit the whirling, it's pretty much a death sentence. You can bomb with antibiotics but that has rarely worked for me.

Just sucks.


----------



## lilnaugrim

But I did take some pictures at least
Did a slightly trim the other day to my 20


Sam being Sam lol


With flash


Crazy how big Orange is getting! For those not keeping with my spawn log, he's the biggest of the two with his sibling girl, he was previously orange when he was a baby but turned red later one. Sam is small to begin with anyway


Pierce gettin' in on the action ;-)


Velvet


He bit his fin >.>


Rowan's pucker lips



Jag and his horrible fins, le sigh


I'm still mad at him too. He was throwing a real temper tantrum last week. He was really getting bad, he would't eat and was laying around, I thought he was going to follow Trapper. He wouldn't even eat a white worm! He'd eagerly swim up to the top and chomp at the pellets I'd give him and then he'd violently spit them out. He wouldn't even give it a second chance, went onto the next one, violently grabbed it and to spit it out like a child would do! He'd stare at me too, expecting more food. I tried all the pellets I had, and then tried my white worms and Grindal worms, same thing; he'd eagerly gobble them and then spit them right back out >.>
So he didn't get any food for two days. I attempted one pellet today and he ate it...I sat there to watch, he swallowed and then turned to look at me to ask for another, so after about a minute, I fed him one at a time and he actually ate them all. He gained his color back, he literally looked like death before and I don't know why since I didn't do anything to him. There was no change in temp, I didn't even change his water since Trap had just died and figured the water perhaps. It was really just like he'd thrown a temper tantrum....idk man...I really don't know


My 4 gallon starring Paradise.


He's such an attention hog lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, so baby guppy died and I found a C. Habrosus carcass in the tank today. Looks like it was dead for a few day's though with the degradation thus far. And all my Embers are there, I mistook a Barb for a Tetra apparently. All 16 Tetras are there but I'm down to 3 Barbs from 8.

I cleaned and trimmed the tank today and by clean, I mean I found my Mr. Clean eraser sponge thingies, the Original ones you can use in the aquaria and I'd been informed by Luci that I can use it on my green spot algae! It's true! It works 10 gajillion times better than the Algae scraper, I highly recommend it!

Here's my tank before the clean:


And after!


The first time in just about a year that the front has been algae free! The sides and back still have it but that's fine, gives something for the loaches and oto to eat 

So I did a lot of Printmaking today for my new and last image. Here's the first yellow layer I printed yesterday:


And after I started to scratch the stone:
Doing a Barn Owl for this one




Did some sandpaper work on the edges


Cleaned the image


And printed with the Leaf Brown color on top of the yellow!


I printed this layer just by itself and I absolutely love it! I printed out for images so I'll keep two like this and then I'll print the Chocolate brown layer on top of the other two. It looks like an old (Orange) Daguerreotype photo!


And here's a small video of me using the Mr. Clean in my aquarium. I apologize if you're listening to the audio, mom was hosting a guy who's practicing Karaoke for his big party coming up, he's not too bad on that song at least....lol You can just mute it, I'd change the audio if it were on Youtube. But at :18 is where I show the Green Spot algae, although I accidentally moved the phone again but I show it again at the end where it's clean come right off!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday I learned that the Spring melting would increase minerals and metals in my water, but in fact, decrease the amount. As the snow melts and receeds, it raises the water table as we know. The well sucks in the water, but the more water there is, the slow it needs to suck so it doesn't pull in all the minerals and metals and ****. And on the reverse, in a drought season, it would then be sucking in as much water as it can get which isn't as much, so then it pulls faster and draws in all the other stuffs.

So looks like my problem may be lack of minerals? I do add Vita-Chem to the water to increase their vitamins since I know my water is lacking quite a bit. This still doesn't account for my 3 dKH as it was previously 1 dKH last time I tested about 8 months ago. I suppose I'll have to test that more regularly now then. 

HOWEVER, I was losing fish before I started my monthly water change, pH had been stable all this time. Again, fish are generally healthy one day and dead the next without any signs of struggling/disease. So the losing fish doesn't just collide with the water change but is on both sides; before and after without any increase or decrease in action.

That all said, should I just start using the SeaChem Regulator or the Alkalinity one, whichever one it is, to raise my pH, hardness and minerals? Even though I keep primarily soft water fish? I suppose there is such a thing as water being too soft then. 

Oh and also an update on my air plant! There is a new bloom coming up! Clearly I'm doing something right!
This was a few days ago:


And this morning:
Old bloom is dying and new one is flourishing!


Oh and my Peace Lily decided it was finally Spring and is also blooming on me haha. Three of them so far! I need to do some serious trimming on this plant though, a few dead leaves and it's getting too crowded for this pot unfortunately. I don't have anything larger so I'll have to dig up some of the sprouts and make some room for it. I'll likely re-soil everything this season as well.
(PS, this is my bathroom so hence my windows are fogged after my shower haha)


----------



## Olympia

I think the Replenish for RO would probably be the safest start!

Beautiful art, beautiful plants! I didn't even know air plants could bloom! Aha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olympia said:


> I think the Replenish for RO would probably be the safest start!
> 
> Beautiful art, beautiful plants! I didn't even know air plants could bloom! Aha.


Lol, me neither Oly lol!!

So the chemical right? Not actual RO water you mean? I can do Replenish, will it alter pH? I haven't looked too far into it yet so I'll probably answer my own question later lol


----------



## Axeria

wow I am so sorry about the death of your fishies  How frustrating and mysterious!

Your tank is looking awesome tho after the clean! And I love the purple air flower you got and the art! I adore owls!!


----------



## Olympia

Replenish only changes your general hardness and won't have any effect on your pH...

I am a bit confused that your plants do so well in such soft water, I'm guessing you fertilize them but you would think that would have some effect on hardness? 

I don't even know if it'll help but some extra calcium and other minerals surely wouldn't hurt the fish in the long run... I mean you've done really well up until this point without it! 

I don't know if you have any other livebearers besides your guppy that died, but they for sure wouldn't last in such soft water for long(?)


----------



## lilnaugrim

On the contrary Oly, the majority of plants LOVE soft water because of the lesser salt content as well as Mg and Ca. Of course there are some plants that need harder water but the majority of the low light and medium light plants prefer their softwater. This accounts for my plants taking over my tank after a trim in just a week! I do fertilizer, I use SeaChem Flourish and Excel, Excel is only used in the morning before I leave for school, otherwise the carbon will cause a pH crash once the plants stop using it up and everyone is creating CO2 (fish and plants breathing out, no one sucking it up like plants do during photosynthesis, for anyone who wants to know). Flourish is a split dose twice a week; Wednesday and Saturday.

I've added my first doses of Replenish on Thursday to all my tanks, so far so good! Everyone looks great at least. I haven't tested anything yet since I've been so freaking busy, but I will soon!

And also on the contrary with the livebearers lol, sorry Oly. I've bred and raised these guys for two years now, they're my Lyretail Snakeskin ones. I still have two girls and a boy right now. I'm thinking more on the lines that Rowan beat their butts since she practically tore off the last boy's entire tail....I had her moved and decided to move him in with the girls anyway. They've been thriving in my softwater here for a year now but had them when I was at my dad's too for almost another year as well.


----------



## Olympia

Hmm but 0 seems so low. xD

Ah interesting about the livebearers, I know Chesh (remember her?) had really soft water and could never get her mollies and platies to thrive, so I was going off of that...

Well I hope that you have no more losses to deal with at least...


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## ThisDragonisNerdy

Subbing


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## lilnaugrim

Olympia said:


> Hmm but 0 seems so low. xD
> 
> Ah interesting about the livebearers, I know Chesh (remember her?) had really soft water and could never get her mollies and platies to thrive, so I was going off of that...
> 
> Well I hope that you have no more losses to deal with at least...


What, 0 hardness? Of course it is lol.

Yeah other livebearers suck but guppies are so versatile.
Gosh, I miss Chesh and So and Aemaki and so many older members! Its still weird for me that I've been here for two years now!!

And yes, hopefully no more losses!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I tested yesterday.

Tap:
1 dGH
2 dKH

29 gal:
9 dGH
1-1.5 dKH (sort of)

So....yeah...that went up a lot! I used a little less than the recommended dose. It doesn't say but I assume I add it to the water that I'm adding in to the tank after a water change as well? Says nothing on the website either. So far so good though it seems, even with such a large increase in Hardness in the 29, I assume the other tanks are the same as I used the same dosage for each (varying for each different gallon capacity of course).


----------



## artemis35

> Tap:
> 1 dGH
> 2 dKH


Ha, I thought I was the only one with with water that soft :lol:
My readings are exactly the same as yours - must be a New England thing?

My plants do seem to love it, though. 
My poor nerite snails, not so much...


Also, my mom got a new EE boy 2 weeks ago who reminds me sooo much of your Rembrandt (just a shade or two lighter). Right down to the (obviously bigger) blue pecs, yellow ventrals, beautiful blue/yellow watercolor-like blended fins and multi-colored beard. I need to get some current pictures, but here's a crappy pic from his first night still in his cup (he has darkened up quite a bit and his tail has already evened out)


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## lilnaugrim

It is, the majority of our water over here is all very soft but to varying degree's of course depending on how close you are to a specific water source or if you're using city water versus well water. My well is Spring Fed so we have some really nice source water.

He is pretty, he's a nice looking Bi-color


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday we were having a party, I happened to go upstairs and found the one and only Paradise on the floor!!! I was shocked, at first I was like; wait...I don't have any dead fish...weird--OMG!!! I quickly wet my hands and picked him up, he was still flopping around and looked like he'd been out for about half an hour so there was still hope. I quickly put him back into the 4 gallon to make sure he'd get wet as soon as possible.

I'd been teaching him to bite my finger in return for food, he was doing really well but I think he got the notion that if he jumped, he'd get more food....no more training for this boy!

So, I gave him a Meth Blue dip before I went back downstairs, he didn't like it but it had to be done. I returned him to the 4 gallon and turned the light off to give him time to rest. I periodically checked on him and he seemed okay, very distraught and not happy but he looked like he was going to make it.

I woke up this morning and I have a good view of him from my bed and saw him at the top, initial thought was that he'd died but I got up and found his little pectorals moving still, he was still alive this morning when I left. He looked a little better, still clamping his fins though, I hope he'll recover!!! If he's still alive tonight when I get home, I'll give him another Meth Blue dip and call it a night. I just hope the lights turning on this morning haven't scared him into jumping again, I don't have a lid for that tank!

So besides that, I have some pictures.

Just some happy fish in my 29!


Darn snail was in the way of the pic lol, but I think I have a female Gudgeon? I haven't figured it out yet. Seems to have yellow behind the stomach but has the black stripe on the anal fin too....




Little Red having fun in the big tank. She and the Gouramis seem to have a mutual understanding unlike with Orange, she does have a few nips in her tail though but it's okay. They pretty much leave her alone




Realllllyyyy bad picture but my assassin snails are still alive and eating away!!


Orange up in the 20



Sam and his Nerite



And just showing you that my lone female CPD is actually still alive! It's almost been a year I think!




Grass 1.5 tank


And the 29


----------



## MattsBettas

I sure hope the paradise is okay. That's scary but at least they're labarynth fish so that makes jumping a little less likely to kill them. 

Did the 29 used to have a piece of wood?


----------



## lilnaugrim

MattsBettas said:


> I sure hope the paradise is okay. That's scary but at least they're labarynth fish so that makes jumping a little less likely to kill them.
> 
> Did the 29 used to have a piece of wood?


Yeah, thankfully. So far he's still alive and he ate for me tonight! I'm very grateful! The tips of his fins have rotted and his left side of the body is not so hot looking, looks like he has a bit of internal bleeding going on :-/ it might (hopefully) just be bruising though from his fall, which I hope that's all it is. It's little dark reddish spots towards the peduncle. I should get a picture tomorrow if it's still there. I have a feeling it's only a bruise since it's sort of on the outer side versus the inside, but we'll see.

The 29 used to have all sorts of things lol. I did have a piece of Grape Wood in there which is a no-no.....I found out only about five months after it'd been in there but at that time and previously, I had no ill effect to my fish. I ended up taking it out anyway when I no longer had my Pleco in there. So right now, there's been nothing in there since before Christmas. Just a piece of Cuttlefish bone which I think is now completely dissolved/eaten by snails.


----------



## MattsBettas

Ah. Why exactly is grapevine bad? I think that's what I've been using... Oops(?).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Apparently it's toxic.....though there seems to be two types; grape wood and grapevine? Maybe it's the same though, idk. There are no concrete things but doing a google search tells me that everyone is saying that it releases some deadly toxins which is why they're generally sold in the reptile side, not the aquarium side.

I've noticed that some pieces look an awful lot like Mopani wood but the main difference is that Mopani is very dense and heavy compared to grapewood which is light and more airy.

I think it's one of those things were it's mis-identified and so one thing is toxic that looks like another that isn't. Like the milk snake and the coral snake; look similar but one is deadly whereas the other is not lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I thought I took more pics than just these.....huh....school stress must really be getting to me! I'm forgetting everything! At least I got my major assignments done for the most part except one >.<

So visited one of my LFS's the other day. Saw these two cuties!
Labled as an HMPK but he looks like a 'tweener to me


This guy was gorgeous, once he colors up and spreads them fins out, he'll be beautiful! I wish I could take him home!




And gosh! My tank looks amazing now! Who knew that under all that Green Spot Algae, I actually had a nice looking tank?!? lol!

My AquaClear 30 kept plugging up and shutting off on me so I decided that I needed to upgrade a little if I was going to be keeping so many fish in this tank. I found the API SuperClean 50 for 30 bucks! I generally like API stuff and Luci, my best friend has one and it works great. So I decided I should buy it. The skimmer part at the top you can see, floats so it moves up and down with the water line. It was a b*tch to put together but it worked in the end. I also have an obscene amount of MTS....anyone want any?


Of course the guppy got in the way but look at that Giant Hygro Temple! It's glorious! I want to buy more for my 45 gallon downstairs :-D Those are two Amazon Swords on the right and some Ludwigia on the left, some fluffy Myrio and Rotala in the back left


And Bowie! Long time no see, huh?! He's been growing back his fins like a champ! I'm proud of him for sure!


Showing off those luscious fins!




I added more Pygmy Chain Sword after a trim on the 20 long....yep! I need to start dosing these two tanks with Flourish


And the 45 gallon, still boring as all hell. I want to get some Java Fern to tie to the wood, maybe some java moss too (lord knows I have buckets of that now!) and then the Giant Hygro should fill in nicely. I think I want to suction cup some Water Sprite so it looks like it's completely filling in that wall there....might look nice? Not sure yet.


And here's the 20. I took out a massive amount of plants from Velvet section, going to take some Myrio and plant it in the back, keeping the Crypts there I think and the Tropica Sword and adding more Alternanthera Cardinalis when the others get big enough so I can expand the aquascape!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So one of the projects we had to do for Photography was at least one picture a day to keep a Daily Photo Journal, we can do more if we wanted so I incorporated some time lapse/stop motion as well! But this is pretty much what a couple months looks like to me and the things that I look at most! You guys have seen most of these pictures in here.

Also, listen with the music, otherwise it will make absolutely no sense to you whatsoever!

Let me know what you guys think! It's due Monday! I have one last thing I will add at the end of it but it's pretty much almost done :-D


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I have a ton of MTS in my 55g too, all the food I put in for the otos and cory they like to pig out on. Non of the other tanks with mts have high numbers (hardly ever see them in the smaller tanks) but I don't over feed those tanks either. I just harvest the excess mts in the 55g off a cucumber (easiest way to collect) ever few weeks and sell the batch. Are you over feeding a bit in that tank?


----------



## Elsewhere

The tanks look amazing! What substrate is that, Lil?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I have a ton of MTS in my 55g too, all the food I put in for the otos and cory they like to pig out on. Non of the other tanks with mts have high numbers (hardly ever see them in the smaller tanks) but I don't over feed those tanks either. I just harvest the excess mts in the 55g off a cucumber (easiest way to collect) ever few weeks and sell the batch. Are you over feeding a bit in that tank?


Of course I am lol. My larger tanks generally do get more food since I can't really control who eats it. I really don't mind, my Assassin Snails are having the feast of their life time and it's going to take them a few months to get through all of them lol.



Elsewhere said:


> The tanks look amazing! What substrate is that, Lil?


Thanks! You mean in the 29? I use a mixture of Black FloraMax and PetCo Black Sand. I use that in my 45 and 3 gallons too. The 20 is Miracle Gro soil base and PetCo Black Sand over top. The 1.5 and the 4 gal are CaribSea Gold Sand


----------



## lilnaugrim

Primarily took photos of the baby babies yesterday but some others too:

Pierce
Of course he had a big long poo....


Sam!




Classic Velvet shot


Rowan's color has definitely filled in. I still want to breed her with Sam though but she's rather big now...


----------



## niQ

:cheers: Awesome job on your video! I really enjoyed watching it. Lots of talent and creativity that you have. Thx for sharing :welldone:


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## lilnaugrim

niQ said:


> :cheers: Awesome job on your video! I really enjoyed watching it. Lots of talent and creativity that you have. Thx for sharing :welldone:


Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!! It went over really well in my class too last night ^_^


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## cousiniguana

Love seeing the blooming airplant


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## ThisDragonisNerdy

Ooh, pretty tanks+fish! Love the photo journal video too!


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## lilnaugrim

MUTHFSLKJAKSF.....when I accidentally close out the tab after writing a good few paragraphs >.>

Basically, sorry, I've been away. Finals, got into creative thing; good for commissions, bad for social life. Puppies! Luci got a puppy and I got her two leopard geckos featured in my leo journal.

Here's puppy, formerly named Gaston now named Gimli.



He fell asleep on me after we tuckered him out at lunch time! He was such a good boy!



Seatbelt holster!


It's a little big for him in the front, but everything was adjustable to fit him mostly properly.


Not too much on the fishy front. I set up my extra 20 gal long in my brother's room with his permission to grow out my three lovely little babies. They're getting big and looking a lot like Cambodian Koi....it's interesting...

I found this beautiful girl at PetSmart! A DTHM girl! She unfortunately passed over night.


Fortunately, her sister was still there and she's still alive this morning happily and eating. So I give to you, my new breeder girl (hopefully) Elinvar! Named for a metal alloy that won a man his Nobel Peace Prize! She'll be Alloy's mate. She's a little more red than I want, but that's okay, I can work with it.





Acclimated to the 1 gal hospital tank, she happily ate which made me happy




And here's the 29 gal


The 20 long


and the 4


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## BlueInkFish

Love the puppy <3

And the new girl is gorgeous!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Is that a border collie pup? if so its going to need a lot of physical and mental stimulus, they're a working breed use to running all over the place herding from dawn till dusk.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Alright, I'm in a really pissy mood today so I'm really sorry, I'm trying not to be rude, hopefully it won't come off that way.

It's not my pup and yes, it's a Border Collie Mix. He's two months and a week old now. Luci is a dog trainer and a Vet Tech. She WANTS to do agility with him which is why she got him. She has an older Corgi who she does Rally's with, but Corgi's can only do so much. She will be doing sheep herding with him at some of our Scottish festivals and such. He's in good hands. Don't worry.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Ah cool agility is great for collies ^^ I didn't mean to sound rude with my original post read that way (sorry). A friend of my parents took in a border collie to avoid it being put down and did nothing to train it or give it exercise so I've seen the damage (to dog and property) that can do. Glad your friend is a knowledgeable and capable person for such a breed ^^


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## lilnaugrim

I understand, I just feel like by this point, you can assume that I know what I'm doing and if I don't, I'll research the living daylights out of it before hand. I know you mean well, but could you try to just ask first instead of pointing things out to begin with and assume? It'd make me feel a little better and then I can have a chance to explain too, win-win. I'd think at this point, I've proved that I'm not some random newb in the world :-/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Here's some of the stuff I've been doing in my art.

Commission for Linda for FourthWind, his beautiful hunting dog:


I've also been recoloring old black and white photos. If you have an old photo that you'd like colored, you can Commission me for it! $20 for a portrait (it still takes about two hours of work, that's 10 dollars an hour) $30 for two people/background and $40 for three or more with a background. If it's a really intense picture, likely it will be $50-60 depending on how much work I have to put into it. I can also restore old photos, take away dust, remove scratches, things like that.

Here's the first one I did of my Grammy who died when she was just 64 from Alzheimers. She was diagnosed at 60 and the disease spread quickly over just four years, she was taken quickly by it. Here's a portrait of her in her 20s in her honor:


The second one I did was a car accident in the 30s. Yeah, colors are a bit drab, it was rainy/cloudy that day and everyone liked brown/blue since it was the cheapest to buy then.


I also had a happy accident with that picture and ended up with this: looks like a print! I'm going to have it printed up and try to enter it into some shows lol


Third one is of a Soldier and his cat from WWII I believe it was.


And most recent one I did yesterday of Mariel Hemmingway when she was young. Harmonica man is lookin' at you! ;-) haha


----------



## BlueInkFish

Omg, your such an artist!!! I wish I had your amazing talent, I'm jealous!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha thanks Blu! I'm doing this to relax right now >.< Just finished another, about two hours for this one minus interuptions. Kept the background more faded to give Berenice Bejo more focus:


----------



## BlueInkFish

... So pretty!


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Cute puppy
Cute fish
AWESOME art!!!!
I know what you mean about assuming that you know what your doing. And you DEFINATLY seem trustworthy/responsible, imo  
I also like to do WAY too much research beforehand and after, really. (of course there is no such thing as too much when it comes to our pets


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks ^_^

So busy earlier that I forgot I took pics last night too. Not many, just some.

Quasi, my deformed little PK boy is still doing fantastic and blew a nest to prove it! 



Sorry about the algae, I have to clean the tank again





Elinvar, I've done the Betta shuffle today though and she's in the 20 gal along with Alloy now. I'm going to attempt Sam and Rowan again.


I found a lovely Dwarf Flag Cichlid at my LFS! I've been admiring the a long time now and decided that my 29 needed a good centerpiece fish! I've named him Colonel Flagg after M*A*S*H Flagg lol. 
He's colored up a lot today but he's shy as all hell, it's adorable. He loves to stick his head out of the plants when he see's me, he comes out and then goes back in when I move, it's a lot like a Clownfish lol



Little O




Sam being Sam




Velvet


And Rowan of course


She does NOT sit still and my camera doesn't like to pick her up :-/





My huge female Guppy, mother of the Lyretail Snakeskins. She's got a weird ray sticking out of her tail you can see there lol, not exactly a Lyretail but oh well, she's cute. She's a real a$$hole though, very mean.


Pierce doesn't take her crap though


Lyretail boy is growing his tail back, hopefully he'll be nice and good by the time September comes around for our annual Fish Show and Auction at our club!


Did a little trim to my 1.5, couldn't see the marble at all before lol I'll enter this tank into the show as well!


Little R




Paradise



I was playing with the macro lens for my phone camera, it's pretty darn good!!


This just looked cool


Detail of Sam's tail





Distorted Little O but it's still cool



Little Oto


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## BlueInkFish

I'm liking the macro lens shots!!! Very creative and detailed!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Art is beautiful!
Fish and fishy photos are lovely!
Hope things start winding down for you. Sounds like you've had a stressful semester.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks BL and Blu, yeah, it's been a hectic semester to say the least! Between being sick for so long (still am, allergies kicking my butt thoroughly!) and trying to get everything done for school and for commissions and for everything else in my life...yeah, I'm a little worn down and ragged.

I was talking with one of my friends who works at a PetCo, she's like, you really need to work here and was practically offering me a job! She's head of aquatics and I've been talking to her for oh...8 or 10 months now? Maybe a year? I don't remember. She knows how knowledgeable I am, I'd still have to let people buy stuff of course, can't turn down customers, but I can still educate people easily and in a way that is fairly fun for htem and easy to understand.  I'm good at that kind of thing. 

As much as I'd love to work there, I have a full part-time job right now with my work-study during the summer, plus I'm house-sitting for a month and going to be spawning my Betta's again. Trying for Sam and Rowan if she'll have him. He's a little fluff ball and quite the idiot when it comes to romancing his girls lol. But I'm gonna try and hope she doesn't tear him up again! He's still growing his fins back from last time!

And because I've pretty much stopped my 45 Gal journal, I'll just dump it all here.
I have five Panda Cories right now, here's a very faithful pair:


My beautiful and dumb Gold Ram, he's got two females to chose from, doesn't like either one :roll:


The females are also very quick, so this is the best my phone can do:





Bowie has been doing well too






This beautiful boy I found at a PetCo, I wish I took him home. But alas, I could not.


Sam being a dumb-butt as he tries to show off for Rowan.



Rowan is just like....really??...





His nest is under the DWL


Eli is feeling fantastic, lol


Little O is getting big!


O and his dad


Alloy



And I'm terrible at convincing myself for "No".....PetCo has decided to try to separate the baby girls from baby boys. Issue is, all the "girls" are boys except for one :roll:
Here's the boy I bought....



He's going to be a Wild Type VT
Acclimating with the other three babies. He's floating in a breeder box with them







And Koi-girl as I've been calling her.
She's the biggest of the three:


----------



## Strawberry12

*emerges, panting* I JUST READ THIS WHOLE DARN THING FROM BEGINNING TO END.



This exchange cracked me up: 

Sam: look at me!
Rowan: "oh boy, look at this nerd again"
Sam: *sings Mambo No. 5* 
Rowan: "you are such a loser"
Sam: "is she looking? *wiggles butt* 



lilnaugrim said:


> Sam being a dumb-butt as he tries to show off for Rowan.
> 
> 
> 
> Rowan is just like....really??...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Woooowww...Kudos to you Strawberry!!! Do you have a life? haha jk!

Yeah that's pretty much how it goes down between Rowan and Sam >.< he's such a idiot, he really is lol


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## Strawberry12

hahaha I swear I do! I'm just home bound because of my shoulder right now, i'm desperate for things to do 

btw, my Myrio has reached the top of my tank already! O_O Pretty soon I bet I'll be selling bits off as well.


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## lilnaugrim

Ahh yes, I was thinking it was likely that.

Yep! I've really got to sell off mine too but so far no biters >.> even for my Memorial Day sale I have going until Friday!! I'm going to go bump that thread again! Mainly I need my DWL gone, I have to cull a bunch of it daily so I can feed my fish >.< it's that bad! Poor stem plants below who are starving for light!


----------



## Strawberry12

haha oh no! I love that plant but it might be a little much for my smaller tanks. 

How is your Tiger Lily (that's what it was, right?) doing from Tropic Isle? My Ludwigia is doing fantastically, but I lost most of my shrimps. Totally my fault, I was impatient and didn't wait for the tank to stabilize before adding them.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, that's how I lose most of my shrimps too >.< plus the fact that my water just isn't good for them unless I did some HEAVY buffering to add in the calcium, magnesium and all the other crap that I'd need to add!

My tiger lily is doing great now that it's settled and gone through it's melting period! It's still a little small, but it is growing well. I'll have to get some pictures today ^_^ I have a terrible urge to do a crap ton of aquascaping right now, but none of my tanks are ready until I sell off my stupid DWL and Myrio!

Yeah Myrio does get a bit intense. I just took out a forest of it from my 10 gallon breeder so my fish could actually move :roll: it's a great plant for soaking up ammonia though, that's half the reason I keep it. Plus, people like to buy it and it earns me some money haha

I want to go back to Tropic Isle though, such a nice store but sooooo far away :roll: lol everything is far away to a Rhode Islander XD Oh, 20 minutes down the road? that's so far!! haha. Actually, I love to drive, I just don't like paying for the gas that makes me go :rofl: but I could drive all day and have done so before! One day Luci and I will go back up


----------



## Strawberry12

haha agreed on the gas thing! Tropic Isle is even like 40 minutes from me So worth it though. Are there any good stores in RI? Maybe over the summer we could meet up and go on a fish adventure, if you're not adverse to that


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> haha agreed on the gas thing! Tropic Isle is even like 40 minutes from me So worth it though. Are there any good stores in RI? Maybe over the summer we could meet up and go on a fish adventure, if you're not adverse to that


HELLZ YASS!

lol, I should tone down my enthusiasm XD

There is an absolutely fantastic, but small-ish store in Providence called Aqua-Life run by George who is part of our Tropical Fish Society of Rhode Island. MASS has a TFS as well, you should look into it! I believe they meet in Boston somewhere so that's convenient for you.

There is another good but small-ish store down in Westerly near where I live called Sea Horse Pet Shop, I know the owners pretty well so they're always giving me discounts lol.

Another one is in Narragansett called Critter Hut, I frequent that one often.

And there is one in Woonsocket right over the border called Oceans of Pets, decent store as well. 

Yeah, Providence is a good 45 minutes from me, so I'm at the other end of the state, 10 minutes from the CT border so I'm more apt to go to CT than Mass, but as I said, I totally don't mind driving!

I think that'd be real fun if you, me, and if Luci wanted to go too, we could totally make a day trip out of it; an expensive on likely, but still good haha. Oh there is another one in Mass called Uncle Ned's Fish Factory, very good store as well. That's in Millis, a hop, skip, and jump from Framingham where Tropic Isle is ^_^


----------



## Strawberry12

oh exciting! *bounces around* Yeah seems like Providence is the middle of us, so we could go there.


----------



## lilnaugrim

That will be awesome then! I'll have to ask Victoria (Luci) to see when she's free, likely it'd have to be a weekend since we both work during the week and all. I'll let you know if anything comes of it! :-D


----------



## Strawberry12

Fantastic! Usually a Sunday would be the best for me. It'll be a bit though, I'm in a sling for 6 weeks and my car died. So maybe end of July-August?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, that sounds fine. Gives us time to plan. I don't mind driving around either, I have a nice brandy-new 2013 Toyota Corolla LE, nice and roomy! Good for road trips :-D great on gas too ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

And when I bought that first PetCo baby the other day, I found this--what I believe is a girl--and couldn't get her out of my mind....what if she's a PK and I could use her for Alloy when she gets older? >.< Likely she's not, but it's not a bad chance to take for 1.99! She does have some thick scales so she might end up as a partial DS! I'm so bad...I know. But the babies are floating in the 20 with my three little ones anyway so it's not like I'm setting up extra tanks.

I actually have a feeling the first boy might not survive a couple of day's. He was very lethargic yesterday and he'd jumped out of the breeder box to hide, the girls didn't bother him and he didn't bother them, so it's not bad. I think I might have shocked him by not acclimating enough :-/ He was going to be a good looking boy too, nice long body. We'll see.

So for now, here's the new girl, she's feisty.


Could still be a boy, but I'm voting girl for the moment, I think I see the start of ovaries, not in this picture but just in life





Bowie and his 3 gallon


My 45 slowly filling in. I transplanted one of my Amazon Swords and my larger Hygrophila Giant in there as well. I had two cories die and my Goby's :-( mom is upset at the goby's, they were her favorite. I'll get more most likely since I liked them too.


And I asked myself last night;
"Self, what should I draw tonight?"
My self responded, "Ourself! We haven't done a self-portrait in nearly four years!"
"Good idea, Self!" Myself agreed.
And thus is how I drew my first self portrait in four years. I like it actually, I didn't try to make myself super pretty or anything, just copied the picture. Of course, I took a nice looking photo since, who wants to draw something ugly? lol

So please enjoy my self portrait!
Done with graphite, .5 mm lead
about 1.5-2 hours to finish
In the book:


And a closer picture for your viewing pleasure
I changed the light so there is no nasty yellow/orange light on this one and it looks how it's suppose to!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm still here reading you journal! And it's always exciting! I like the self portrait, you're beautiful!

Speaking of the trip between you and Strawberry... Come pick me up LOL!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I was just perusing online generators for code-names and fake names for my stories and....well, I stumbled on some gems. I had to share them with you all, they certainly got a laugh out of me!

*Unique Butter*....right, I'm picturing like some "superhero" standing there and saying that that's his name....
*Furious Jazz*....I'm picturing a heavy metal jazz and someone trying to do jazz hands to it XD
*Coarse Swordfish*....who put that one together???
*Twinkle Guardian
Lean Volcano
Dapper Roadrunner*....now someone's just sticking words together lol!! I love the last one most. Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote sitting on the road having tea party in Victorian clothing....I should draw some of these XD
*Unexpected Wildabeast*....I...I would be laughing hysterically if my boss weren't next to me!! I can picture a cartoon wildabeast bursting into the room and yelling out "UNEXPECTED WILDEBEAST!" oh god...I need to stop.


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> I'm still here reading you journal! And it's always exciting! I like the self portrait, you're beautiful!
> 
> Speaking of the trip between you and Strawberry... Come pick me up LOL!!!


I know! But Strawberry read the entire thing in what...probably the day? But I love dedicated people too, so thanks for sticking around Blu! ;-)

Yeah, if you want to fly out to us, you're totally welcome to come and hang out with us chicks haha.

Oh and Luci said yes!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Haha.. If only! I used some of my spending money on 2 new bettas from the CBS auction, which I plan to breed.


----------



## lilnaugrim

That's awesome though.

Grr, I hate being at work when I get all this inspiration to do water changes and to aquascape my tanks :roll: by the time I get home, I'm exhausted and I've lost my inspiration...poor fish. I do the water changes anyway of course and feed everyone, but the aquascaping part kind of gets lost usually....


----------



## BlueInkFish

I totally feel the same way... All the time, but since summer is about to start in a few hours I may as well look back to see how not motivational I was about changing water. Lol


----------



## Strawberry12

lilnaugrim said:


> I know! But Strawberry read the entire thing in what...probably the day? But I love dedicated people too, so thanks for sticking around Blu! ;-)
> 
> Yeah, if you want to fly out to us, you're totally welcome to come and hang out with us chicks haha.
> 
> Oh and Luci said yes!




haha about a week, but close  and yay!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So my Finnex Planted+ 12 inch came in today!! Woot woot! I'm sooo pleased with it as I knew I would be! It went on the 4 gallon and the Finnex CFL clamp light went on Bowie's tank downstairs. It's much brighter and I love it!!




And Strawberry, this is how my Tiger Lily is doing! It's grown out two-three leaves in the last week! Once it's acclimated, it's a fast growing plant so it should take off shortly and get nice and bushy ^_^
You can also see the obnoxious Java Fern baby I have in the back there lol, it's the 'Tropica' kind so it stays small-ish. It will reach about 6 inches in total for height


And of course I had to get Sam with it for size comparison ;-)
Sam wasn't very happy about it though lol


And my unintentional Java Moss wall between O and Elinvar and a frog. Did a nice little trim today.


And this is what I took out!!! Yikes!


Trimmed a bit on the 29 and moved the Myrio back in it's place and took some out too. Sorry it looks nasty, it doesn't look so nasty in real life. The light filters through the DWL and makes it look green in pictures :roll:


The 20, did a major trim on the middle section, took that Myrio wayyy down. I threw out a lot of the stringy ones and kept the nice bushy small ones.
For some reason, my Alternanthera Reineckii var. Cardinalis in that section has been doing very poorly :-/ makes me sad.


Did a major trim to the 1.5 as well with little Red. She's up for adoption if anyone wants her, free, just pay $8 shipping!


Also, Art is a weird thing. Like, you'll be trying to draw someone's face and you're like...okay, it sort of looks like them...kinda...maybe. Maybe if I made this dark--oh lord, what did I do?! And then suddenly at one point you go, Holy Sh*t, I just drew Chris Evans! Hooray!

lol, so yeah, I just took almost 3 hours to draw Chris Evans! AKA Captain America! God, his beard is absolutely sexy as all hell! I lose it for a man with a well clipped beard lol. But anyway, this is the third time I've tried to draw him this week, first he was too fat and the second he was too skinny. It doesn't normally take me so many tries to get someone right! Or at least similar looking! No idea what caused it, but I just had such difficulty with him!

But yeah, about 3 hours, done with .5 mm Graphite Mechanical Pencil on 90 lb drawing paper!


----------



## Strawberry12

lil! if you have commission space and time available, i'd love to have you recolor a picture for me.


----------



## BettaLover1313

I'm jealous of your portraits! People still elude me, but I'm also out of practice XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks ^_^ I like doing Portraits. I posted to Imgur and all they could pick about was his nose :roll: picky people man!

Went to a PetCo today and made a new friend lol. Woman was looking at the Betta's with me and I struck up a conversation with her and we chatted for like 20 minutes lol. She asked questions and I happily answered them. It helps when I say that I'm a Breeder and people always are happy to ask questions lol. Hopefully she'll join the forum too!

But I took a bunch of pictures of the beautiful fish they had there today!

This one took all my willpower not to buy him >.<





I loved his fins


Absolutely gorgeous this one!


He had the cutest expression :-D



He had a great personality, happily flared at fingers!



I wish I could have taken this one home too


And with much thanks to Linda, I was able to get this yellow pineapple HMPK girl for Alloy! I'll probably rehome Elinvar since she just has too much red and I don't really want to risk it :-/ Anyone want her? Just pay shipping. She's very temperate and good in community tanks as well


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

First of all, awesome portrait
Second of all, ADORABLE fishies
And third of all HOW DO YOU GET JAVA MOSS TO GROW LIKE THAT???
My java moss doesn't seem to grow much at all....


----------



## BettaLover1313

Lovely fish pictures! I think my will power would have failed me lol. 

It's great that you got to make a new friend, and betta enthusiast!


----------



## lilnaugrim

THATDragonLovesBettas said:


> First of all, awesome portrait
> Second of all, ADORABLE fishies
> And third of all HOW DO YOU GET JAVA MOSS TO GROW LIKE THAT???
> My java moss doesn't seem to grow much at all....


Thanks!
And....well, I'm not sure lol. I do have high lighting with my Finnex Planted+ so that helps; makes everything grow ten times faster. I also use Excel by SeaChem daily or mostly daily. And Flourish twice a week at half-full dose depending on how the tanks look. So that all helps out. I have crap tons of moss, I forgot that I stuffed my ornaments in the 29 with the extras as well from last time lol, they're all growing out of the ornaments now XD

But I never actually put the moss on the wall, it found it's way there and did it itself! I am trying to expand on it now that it's established itself just fine, but yeah, moss does weird things lol



BettaLover1313 said:


> Lovely fish pictures! I think my will power would have failed me lol.
> 
> It's great that you got to make a new friend, and betta enthusiast!


Thanks! I almost did go home with that first Piebald boy, but I resisted >.< I'm happy I did since I'm getting that yellow girl! Yippee! Paid for her last night and she'll be shipped to Linda on the sixth and sent out soon after :-D


----------



## BlueInkFish

Ooooooooh.... PRETTYYYYY


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday was a bad day for my pets. My Dwarf Flagg cichlid died :-( I tried acclimating him to a 2.5 with some salt in it when I saw he wasn't doing so well a couple days ago. Didn't help. I think my Sparkling Gouramis bullied him, them or the Peacock gudgeon, they're all a little territorial.... :-/

Then I released Rowan to Sam in a breeding attempt. She'd dropped some eggs during the night but she still had a bunch left, so I figured it was time. I knew she was going to decimate his fins again, that was a given. But no breeding ensued by the time I got home. I'm just glad he's alive. He's back in the 20 long for recovery.

Does anyone want to adopt Velvet? He's a good boy. Still has some cellophane left on his fins but not much. A good breeder and good daddy as well. I'm going to move away from my reds and try to focus on my MG's like I should have done in the first place.

I'm debating on keeping Rowan simply because I love to look at her, she's a real b*tch but I still love her lots, even if she did decimate Sam.

I'll be keeping Sam for sure.

Also, Red and Orange are ready to go, they're still a little small, O just went through a small growth spurt so they're not stunted by any means, if you do daily water changes on them in smaller tanks, they'll grow out very well for you. They're almost full adult size.

Sam is still in good spirits though! He was flaring to Velvet after I took pictures ^_^



The b*tch, she took a few nips but nothing serious at all


O was flaring at his mother


No other pics on fish right now, but here are some nice pictures of my road the other day while I was coming home. Nice and sunny and leafy!!





This is our private road that I live on


My uncle's house is on the immediate right here, the driveway. I'm at the bottom of the hill next right down




My Japanese Maple in the front yard! We have a picture of when I was taller than it when I was just a kid! We've had it for 21 years now, they bought it when the house was being built. We moved in when I was 1. The tree was about 2 years when they bought it though so it's roughly 23 years old now ^_^

The poor thing was split in the middle, hence why you can see the trunk so well. There was another half but the Blizzard Nemo tore down the other half. Poor tree, we thought it was going to die since it was weeping so badly. Thankfully, it pulled through! I hope to see it go all my life!


This adorable Bumble came to sit on our bird feeder by the window the other day as well!



And this little froggy was sitting in my window at work! I forgot I was going to pick him up and help him across the road to the forest area, but yeah, I forgot. I think he got over there anyway, he was gone the next day


And I have a tiny pineapple!
My grandma gave my mom a Pineapple plant but mom kills everything so she gave it to me lol. I'll cut it up soon to see if it's edible. I know Dwarf Pineapples are edible but I think this is a regular plant, just very young so the pineapple's will be small until it's older


----------



## BlueInkFish

Aww, poor Sam!

Sorry about the cichlid. I hope you find good homes for them! If I had the room I would have taken them


----------



## Aqua Aurora

What did Velvet think of the nearly finless flare wonder?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, Velvet was the first to flare so I think he didn't like him XD I haven't been around to observe too much, I'll see what they're all up to today since I can stay home tonight ^_^

I'm thinking about chopping off that long part on Sam's dorsal as well, that way the fins can grow out at the same rate. I know there's the chance for bacteria and all, He'll be in a QT if I do that with some salt and likely Meth Blue too just to be certain. He's patient with me so I don't doubt he won't mind the clipped fins, would probably enjoy the small amount of swimming freedom he gets.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Oh poor Sam, he really got mangled didn't he?


----------



## Strawberry12

oh my gahhhd that first HMPK you posted at the top of the page *swoons* 


Poor Sam!


edit: top of the last page


----------



## lilnaugrim

Did another commission for my Great Aunt Maryellen. She wanted a dragonfly of any type so that she could print it and hang it next to my Grammy's!

Here's the actual commission, sorry for the obnoxious watermark, has to be done :-/


And just the dragonfly since I thought it was pretty cool:


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow!!!!!!! Stunning!!!!! I'm so jealous....


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Did you base it off specific dragonfly breed in your area or just have fun with some artistic freedom? looks likely btw.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Did you base it off specific dragonfly breed in your area or just have fun with some artistic freedom? looks likely btw.


Nah, just picked one off google to follow with. My Aunt Maryellen actually lives in Texas anyway lol. I've only met her a couple times when I was a kid and she lived in Pennsylvania in Hamburg I believe it was. I was a little kid though, so I don't remember exactly where they lived. But thank god for Facebook lol, that's how we communicate now with all our cousins living out west 

I tried to ask her for her favorite color, flower, etc. but she's just like "nope, have fun with it!" lol. In some ways that's a blessing and in others, it's a curse. I like to do things that make other's happy so not even giving me a favorite color? Kind of puts me on edge and I get wicked nervous in hoping that they'll like it and all. I know she will, but still, it can be a little unsettling when they give you all the artistic freedom.

My favorite is when they [commissioners] give me freedom and then are like "ehh, well, you see, I wanted it this way..." well why the heck didn't you tell me that in the first place?!? And then I have to charge extra for extra hours taken to work on it and they all blow up in my face. Oh yes...living the dream of an art commissioner lol. :roll: gotta love 'em, right?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Forgot to say, Eli died yesterday :-/ I put her into the 2.5 and it seems like every fish I put there, is condemed!! I'm going to give everything a good alcohol bath either today or tomorrow and just rinse everything out that I can and hopefully be rid of anything harmful :-/ I feel bad, she barely got a chance.

She wasn't looking so hot the other day. I was too preoccupied with trying to find my escaped Leopard Gecko though :-/ which I still haven't. I did a good 80% water change on her and it didn't help. I even dripped water back in versus pouring it :-/

When my Thailand girl comes in, I'm acclimating her to sit in a breeder box in the 29, fish don't die so randomly in there at least and it's more stable versus a random 2.5! I swear to god, if she dies....



And this is Velvet and Sam. I did clip Sam's fringes, he hated me, but he felt better afterward. I'll be giving him a Salt and Meth Blue bath today just to heal up any wounds and help him to heal in general.
It's so funny though because his ventral's are still looking fabulous! XD




Didn't realize how big Velvet was, or rather, how small Sam is. Even Rowan is better than he is just by a bit





Sam looks smaller here, only an optical illusion, he's further back than Velvet is


Sam showing off lol


"Does he srsly have to be next to me ma?" -Velvet probably


----------



## lilnaugrim

Forgot I took pictures yesterday. I'm like Queen of uploading Next Day or something lol

So here is little Red, the thing I find absolutely fascinating about her is that she's turned into a DeT! She has four rays instead two rays like a VT should have! None of her siblings have shown this, of the ones alive! Interesting coming from two very VT parents!
She's up for adoption, just pay me shipping ($8)


Sorry for derpy picture, she's also very hard to get a photo of!


And Mr. Sam strutting his stuff! He really looks like one of my older chickens, a Buff Orpington, who was lowest on the totem pole and always had very little feathers on his wings and lower body, so he just looked terrible, but he was fun to have around still.


He's still in fantastic spirits despite everything!



WHoops, didn't realize this was blurry, but you get a nice size comparison at least


And Velvet doing Velvet things



Sam, I love those pectorals!


Here's the 29


4 Gallon


And the little baby babies!



They're all girls as well








Bowie's tank, took out the Water Sprite, gonna put something else in the back but haven't decided what yet


----------



## Strawberry12

The babies look like they're wearing blush


----------



## Tealight03

The babies are gorgeous!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks! ^_^

Not too much happening right now. My female Guppy who is siblings with my Snakeskin Lyretail boy just gave birth yesterday! Hoping to keep all 20 or so that I caught, alive and well. I almost killed everyone yesterday though when I did a water change and moved some plants around; stupid anaerobic soil! Let loose some bubbles and made it hard to breathe, almost gassing my fish. I immediately got in some Clear Water by Jungle, it's Potassium Permanganade, made for combating things like this. Thankfully, it helped and everyone's still alive today except my Celestial Pearl Danio female who I've had just about a year now! Or thereabout, found her floating today. Her shoal had died a while ago, it was a bad batch that came in, she was the sole survivor of 24 that had come in. I'm surprised she made it as far as she did! She loved flakes though, so uncommon for CPD's to actually take non-live foods. I fed grindals and microworms often though so she'd get both  she appreciated it.

So Thailand MG girl should be coming in on Wednesday/Thursday! Super Excited! Hope she's not a DOA! Going to acclimate her to the 29 so she doesn't die!

I'll condition her and Alloy immediately and get a spawn in asap before school starts.


----------



## ao

poor Sam! although...he might actually be enjoying his freedom, being so much lighter and all


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> poor Sam! although...he might actually be enjoying his freedom, being so much lighter and all


Yeah! I honestly think he is, he's been strutting his stuff like crazy! The guppies are in a breeder box in his section since it was the most open, so he's been flaring at them and trying to eat them, then he goes off to flare at Velvet on the other side lol. He's a crazy little fish! I can't wait till his fins grow back though, he's really the first long finned boy I've thoroughly enjoyed since Rembrandt died. Strange to think about that, I like my other long finned boys but none of them are actual HM's and they either destroyed their tails or weren't with me long (whether died or adopted out). Sam was bought as a Breeder, but I'm just going to give him the best life I can and really enjoy him like I did with Remmy ^_^

I try not to favor fish over others lol, but he does have a special place in my heart now for whatever reason. Might just be because he's got a tiny body and big fins, that reminds me of Remmy, but I think his personality is similar too. I'd hate for him to die so quickly so no more breeding attempts with him


----------



## ao

Aww, remmy passed? I loved his name, sorry to hear 

Fin biters are terrible terrible things. have any of your fish grown back their fins funny? Kuro grew back his fins all crooked! it's one of those thing that really make me mad. lol!


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> Aww, remmy passed? I loved his name, sorry to hear
> 
> Fin biters are terrible terrible things. have any of your fish grown back their fins funny? Kuro grew back his fins all crooked! it's one of those thing that really make me mad. lol!


Yeah, about a year ago now. He was 2 and a half and had gone through a huge learning curve with me, so I'm still surprised he lasted that long! Aero and Hawkeye passed virtually the same day as well so they're all buried in the same pot with my Spider plant and Dragon's Tongue  the plants are both doing very well.

Oh yes, fins never grow back the same. It's the same with Gecko tails; they can fall off and regrow, but they'll never be the same.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some pictures today using my DSLR for once lol

I was too close for my flash, but still made a good picture of Paradise



And of course I got this picture of Velvet (Not Sam) lol, he never shuts his mouth!


Male guppy that came from one of my females in the 29, he's almost all growed up!



"Orange", he's getting big too!



Pierce is indeed a boy, I finally figured it out! woot woot!


Female guppy from my Snakeskin Lyretail group, she's the one who just gave birth


Her brother is growing back his tail well and still in the Lyretail shape too! I hope to show him come September!


I haven't counted them all yet but probably around 20-ish. See them?


Sam says hi!


He's also doing very well with regrowing his fins!


Panda Loach!



I love my Peacock Gudgeon, still can't tell if it's male or female though. Some day's it looks female and other's it looks male. I know it's got the black stripe on the bottom fin, but...idk




Male Ember Tetra


Gelius Barb!


And so I went to PetCo to check out the babies in case. I ended up finding a feisty King to put into the 45 after his QT period! They had just gotten in two more and I so wanted to bring home the Almost MG King, but he didn't look so good. If he'd looked just a little bit better and wasn't so spoonheaded, he would have come home with me in a heart beat! But alas, this boy was too beautiful to pass up! His form is pretty darn good!

No name yet, I just want to make sure he lives first.

Flaring to Rowan


She wasn't a fan of him lol


Velvet also wasn't a fan


Pierce was a fan though lol



Look at that little flare! He's so cute





Photobombed by a frog






And here he is acclimated to his own 2.5 for the moment



He's a beautiful Turquoise


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lol Sam look like he saw something very _disturbing_...
Of course Rowan didn't like him.. such short fins when destroyed don't look as horrible/dramatic as long fins.
Love the last few photos.. turquoise fish, blue reflection on bottom... my newest mustard is turquoise but my camera always captures him looking blue >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol yeah.

Yeah, I wish I had gotten that almost-MG though, or rather, I wished he had better form, I'm so picky about that sometimes. Even this boy has a dip but it wasn't as severe and he just looked so healthy. I kind of wish I'd waited as well, but I'm sure he'll be a good fish still. But yeah, reflections are interesting.


----------



## kittenfish

lilnaugrim said:


> And of course I got this picture of Sam lol, he never shuts his mouth!
> 
> 
> Sam says hi!


Hey, these aren't the same fish. You can't trick me!

Great photos. New giant is very pretty.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh wow....yeah, that's totally Velvet....can't believe I did that!!!

*runs over to tank* SORRY VELVET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *runs away*

lol Good catch. I was watching TV when I posted them XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I was talking about electricity with my little bro and I got to wondering exactly how much my tanks plus gecko tank are running at. I nearly gave myself a heart attack when I found out!! But then I realized I calculated them wrongly haha!! I was about 200 dollars off XD Thankfully I caught the mistake and redid everything and it came to about $30 bucks a month for all of my tanks plus gecko. This is assuming that it's 16 cents per kilowatt/hour and heaters run at least half the time. It's likely more during the winter months since the heaters will kick on more to keep the tanks warm, I doubt it exceeds $40 bucks though.

My most expensive tank is the 45 of course. Here's the breakdown:
Fluval Daylight LED (35 Watts) runs 12 hours: $2.01
Penguin BioWheel 350 (couldn't find wattage so used the API one instead) (4.8W): $.55
MarineLand Heater (150W): $8.64

Total comes to: $11.20

I use this equation:

*Wattage x Hours used per Month / 1000 x .16​*
.16 is assuming the cost of electricity, that may vary depending on what company you use. I don't know exactly what my kilowatt per hour is, but that's a good standard to get an estimate off of. So here's how to calculate a CFL 13 watt Bulb that runs 12 hours a day.

First:
12 hours x 30 days = 360 hours a month

13 watts x 360 hours a month / 1000 x .16 = .74 cents to run a month

It was fun to do once I realized my original mistake. Originally I forgot to multiply times .16 so I ended up with much larger figures and I was about ready to go home and take down all my tanks!! But now that I know it only runs about 30 bucks a month.....I'm not so guilty!!!!! wooohoooo!!


----------



## BlueSky99

The king is gorgeous! Whenever I see them at my Petcos, they look awkward and too long because I'm pretty sure their fins are clamped :/


----------



## DangerousAngel

I know. Poor things.  But I can never resist their faces! <3
Lil, that math = ~Mind Blown~ I'm so glad you can do that. :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

BlueSky99 said:


> The king is gorgeous! Whenever I see them at my Petcos, they look awkward and too long because I'm pretty sure their fins are clamped :/


Yeah, mine are actually pretty nice. But my stores are good with their fish and so it's almost rare to see an ill or dying fish at my PetCo. I know I'm like 1 in a thousand stores and am lucky!



DangerousAngel said:


> I know. Poor things.  But I can never resist their faces! <3
> Lil, that math = ~Mind Blown~ I'm so glad you can do that. :lol:


Lol....that math came from another website, I certainly didn't figure it out!! I'm no wheres near that good with math. And then, I use a calculator XD Got it from this site: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cost.html


----------



## lilnaugrim

Forgot I had pics of some beautiful, very tempting boys from some of my stores. I went to SeaHorse on....last Saturday maybe? Can't remember.

They had these three beautiful Copper Dragons, I almost bought one for the 45 before I bought my King, but I didn't. I wanted to find someone healthier and bigger




And then of course some Copper Gas, oh boy, I almost didn't resist them!!




This guy didn't look so great, but with some TLC, he'd likely be a beautiful CT!


This one is for Linda, one of her favorite coloration types ^_^


Another:


They have lots of goldfish and koi, these guys were in some small ponds 


And then I was home and I love the look of Ludwigia from the top, so I snapped a pic!


29


20


Some Embers



And I always forget that I have Goldfish in my pond in the back lol. So here's a pic of this year's spawns! We have a TON!


And I was so mad! I think it was Monday that I came in and found the fish tank at school like this!! Romeo my Pearl is still in there, but I want him out soon. I asked the professor what happened and she said:
"Oh, I just cleaned it out. I stirred everything up and netted it all and rinsed out the filter pads"......I wanted to shoot her. She has a perfectly good siphon and instead, she endangered the fish's lives! A Neon had actually jumped out there was so much ammonia. I had to do an emergency water change and the fish were fine after, but I was so mad at that. She put me in charge of the tank; let me say when it's time to clean it!


Went to another LFS yesterday. I can't believe this guy is still there! He's been there for like two months now! He's super active and healthy, 10 bucks if anyone wants him!


Another bi-color, ugg, he almost came home too!


Beautiful Copper Red



And I'd switched my King into the 29 because I think that 2.5 is cursed.....he was getting lethargic again in there.


He was quite happy in the tiny box though lol



Built himself a giant bubblenest


----------



## ao

I loveeee the white crowntail! I went to pet smart the otherday to look for a tank and wanted to bring every single betta i saw home! I wont be visiting any pet stores any time soon!

And the poor school tank  if it gets any light at all maybe you can put a pothos plants in the or something to buffer Ammonia spikes in the future


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Consider gutting and sanitizing the 2.5?
Aso omg so want that copper gas and bi color 'mustard' (delta?) but I have enough mustards >.>'' if I get any more I should at least get tail types I don't have in mustard yet right?


----------



## BlueLacee

Gorgeous fish, and I love the spilt 10g with the life plants and pots

Also, I don't known own yu onto get more. iulatch up all those ababies in a heart beat


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

lilnaugrim said:


> Forgot I had pics of some beautiful, very tempting boys from some of my stores. I went to SeaHorse on....last Saturday maybe? Can't remember.
> 
> They had these three beautiful Copper Dragons, I almost bought one for the 45 before I bought my King, but I didn't. I wanted to find someone healthier and bigger
> 
> 
> This one is for Linda, one of her favorite coloration types ^_^
> 
> 
> Another:
> 
> 
> Thank you! Dexter is, I guess, a Cambodian but he's pink and white.


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> I loveeee the white crowntail! I went to pet smart the otherday to look for a tank and wanted to bring every single betta i saw home! I wont be visiting any pet stores any time soon!
> 
> And the poor school tank  if it gets any light at all maybe you can put a pothos plants in the or something to buffer Ammonia spikes in the future


HAha yeah, they were so beautiful! 

Ah yeah, we did have some philodendron in there but she killed that too....It only get's sunlight in the morning, she doesn't want any light on it because it creates too much algae :roll: I'm just going to give up caring for it and take my Pearl Gourami home, He can go in the 29. I should be giving my Sparkling Gourami's to a friend soon so he can breed them.



Aqua Aurora said:


> Consider gutting and sanitizing the 2.5?
> Aso omg so want that copper gas and bi color 'mustard' (delta?) but I have enough mustards >.>'' if I get any more I should at least get tail types I don't have in mustard yet right?


I did >.> Used alcohol, kept it wet for 20 minutes minimum contact time, rinsed out, air dried. Did the works and still something's wrong with it. I'll have to check my other 2.5 to see if it's something else like my water. I figure it's probably the water.

And yeah, you've got to get at least a CT and probably a CTPK lol.



BlueLacee said:


> Gorgeous fish, and I love the spilt 10g with the life plants and pots
> 
> Also, I don't known own yu onto get more. iulatch up all those ababies in a heart beat


Thanks, although...I don't have a split 10 gallon? Only a split 20 galon long.

And...what is up with that last sentence? lol, I have no idea what you're trying to say there....


----------



## lilnaugrim

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Thank you! Dexter is, I guess, a Cambodian but he's pink and white.


Oh lol! I didn't actually realize you were on my thread! I was going to email them to show you XD


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> I did >.> Used alcohol, kept it wet for 20 minutes minimum contact time, rinsed out, air dried. Did the works and still something's wrong with it. I'll have to check my other 2.5 to see if it's something else like my water. I figure it's probably the water.
> 
> And yeah, you've got to get at least a CT and probably a CTPK lol.


Hope you're able to figure out whats making the tank all whacky!

Still yet to get mustard tail types:
*ct
ctpk
vt
ee
eepk*
*feather/rose*.. though my delta 'turned into' a feather/rose from damaged fins healing so I could cross that one out.. silly Magnus...
Is there a *feather/rose pk* line yet? if not someone should get on that!
*dtpk* well unless you count my very first boy who died of ammonia poisoning from the store cup-was too far gone to save :c
I feel like I'm missing one.... I have pk, delta, and dt right now.... delta and hm are 'close enough' I could skip hm. and not be heart broken
*Looks like I need more tanks!!*


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Hope you're able to figure out whats making the tank all whacky!
> 
> Still yet to get mustard tail types:
> *ct
> ctpk
> vt
> ee
> eepk*
> *feather/rose*.. though my delta 'turned into' a feather/rose from damaged fins healing so I could cross that one out.. silly Magnus...
> Is there a *feather/rose pk* line yet? if not someone should get on that!
> *dtpk* well unless you count my very first boy who died of ammonia poisoning from the store cup-was too far gone to save :c
> I feel like I'm missing one.... I have pk, delta, and dt right now.... delta and hm are 'close enough' I could skip hm. and not be heart broken
> *Looks like I need more tanks!!*


Yeah, me too.

Yeah, if you get EE, EEPK, EEHMPK then make sure it's not any of those Pineapple/Mustard mixes. It annoys me when sellers are like MG! and it's really a Pineapple with some blue in the fins....grr.

MG VT, I need that too! I can't wait for my babies, though, it'd help if my female would get here! I just emailed Linda Olsen to see if she got my fish. I know Phusit sent out to her but she hasn't given me any sort of confirmation :-/ I miss when she used to email frequently and would actually give you the tracking without you asking for it. Of course, with the influx of business, I can see where it gets hard; but ask someone to help or something so that we can continue to use her and still get a good service. She's closest to me other than Jesse which is a shame, I'll never use him. Too many horror stories.

But anyway, the babies should come out HMPK so you can get another one later when they're all growed up ;-)


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

What about the MN Betta Shop Guy? He's gotten good feedback.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, me too.
> 
> Yeah, if you get EE, EEPK, EEHMPK then make sure it's not any of those Pineapple/Mustard mixes. It annoys me when sellers are like MG! and it's really a Pineapple with some blue in the fins....grr.
> 
> MG VT, I need that too! I can't wait for my babies, though, it'd help if my female would get here! I just emailed Linda Olsen to see if she got my fish. I know Phusit sent out to her but she hasn't given me any sort of confirmation :-/ I miss when she used to email frequently and would actually give you the tracking without you asking for it. Of course, with the influx of business, I can see where it gets hard; but ask someone to help or something so that we can continue to use her and still get a good service. She's closest to me other than Jesse which is a shame, I'll never use him. Too many horror stories.
> 
> But anyway, the babies should come out HMPK so you can get another one later when they're all growed up ;-)


Yeh not a fan of pineapple either, or this:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1434363762
basically a pink /washed out red, not remotely yellow or orange and they call it mustard.. also poor thing is already completely blind in one eye :c



I used Jesse in FL once, had no issue and Xerxes came a day earlier than expected (had to rush planting his tank while he sat in the box on my desk!). But that was over a year ago.. I did contact them and ask for *all *the details of how they do things before I bought so maybe he paid more attention to my package/fish because of that (or I was just lucky). Xerxes is my only transshipped fish so nothing to compare that one experience with to say who's better...


----------



## lilnaugrim

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> What about the MN Betta Shop Guy? He's gotten good feedback.


I forgot he existed. I'll have to try him next time then  

I miss Jennifer though, she was fantastic 



Aqua Aurora said:


> Yeh not a fan of pineapple either, or this:
> http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1434363762
> basically a pink /washed out red, not remotely yellow or orange and they call it mustard.. also poor thing is already completely blind in one eye :c
> 
> 
> 
> I used Jesse in FL once, had no issue and Xerxes came a day earlier than expected (had to rush planting his tank while he sat in the box on my desk!). But that was over a year ago.. I did contact them and ask for *all *the details of how they do things before I bought so maybe he paid more attention to my package/fish because of that (or I was just lucky). Xerxes is my only transshipped fish so nothing to compare that one experience with to say who's better...


Ugg yeah, I hate that too! Just because there is a yellow wash (barely on that one), doesn't make it a MG! kills me!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Pictures!

Did water changes on the 45 and Bowie's 3 and the baby's 20 long in my brothers room.

I did come home to this, anyone know what the heck it is?? I haven't a clue! Didn't seem to be coming from anything in particular, just was there.
Tank isn't open either, glass top...



I put Quasi back into the 29, he was much happier there. The fuzz fell off after a bit



The King wasn't so happy but he perked up after being fed, he's already recognizing my hand for feeding. He's so adorable


I love the sparkle of irid on top of him






Rowan


O




Sam is pretty sparkly too, I like sparkly fish


Can never get a good picture of Velvet


O and his mother


His four rayed sister Red, I still can't believe she ended up four ray after coming from VT parents....


So I did a thing where I took pics of almost all my Betta's from over head, gave some interesting results!
Quasi


Nameless


Sam


Velvet


O


Rowan (she was trying to bite me, waiting for food to come down lol)


Pierce


Red


Alloy


Extra of Paradise


Bowie


My babies are so hard to get pics of, I tried for over head shot, but it didn't work. I could only get Koi-girl (her nickname)


I also got a nice video of my Guppy fry! Look at them all! That's only half of them


And a video of Paradise jumping at my finger. He's so vicious!


Calico! She still changes color depending on her mood, it's quite interesting


I only have two Panda Cories and it's interesting that they're a pair. They're beautiful. This is the female.


Beautiful gold ram boy




Female GBR



Hate how destructive these guys are, but I love how beautiful they are!


GBR and my lovely rummynose tetras! Look how bright their red noses are!


Rainbows



How the 45 looks now


Bowie


----------



## Aqua Aurora

wtf  looks like filter floss gone wrong or... how old is your sibling(s)? maybe someone came in with that silly string stuff (that you spray from a can) to 'play'? Its too much to be an ambition spider in a stupid spot...


----------



## kittenfish

Maybe from the heater? Sometimes my heaters grow slimy white gunk on the plastic parts and it looks like at least some of it is growing on the power cord. Maybe the fish stirred it up somehow? I dunno. Or, do you use rooibos for tannins? I have a bottle of rooibos in my fridge with some white stuff growing at the bottom. I should probably dump that out.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I have one sibling older: 31 and a younger at 19 but he's living with dad lol. No one else around. I did use Rooibos on the tank but never had that effect before. The tank was set up for two days only, previously was rinsed out and dried as I said before. I definitely took it down but I've just never seen anything like that before! Not even from my heaters; they get the normal gunk/slime build up but that was more like webby....idk man....kind of freaky.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh poo! I forgot to show you all my new Syngonium podophyllum! Got it from walmart, I wanted to help the babies in the 20 long. Eventually the guppy fry will also go into that tank so I want it to be nice for them. I also have a Philodendron spring in there and some of my Dragon's Tongue which I didn't know liked wet feet before, it's thriving so well now!

I currently have them closest to the window and the Arrowhead is already growing for me, it's been since Tuesday I think. They're just in FloraMax, crushed clay basically.

This one is "Pink Allusion"


----------



## Aqua Aurora

be forewarned.. some Syngonium species grow like mad! Not sure the exact one I have, but TuiAndLa has a white leafed sp. that has much larger leaves and not so excessive of a stem.
Anyways some progress of mine:
6/30/14 20g long:


10/3/14 20g long (same hob to sue for size reference)


3/26/15 on 55g


5/17/15 on 55g (raised lights even higher-you can see its too tall to support itself now and has an "L" and "U" thing going on with some stems)


After my tank leak incident the arrow head stems were too long to support themselves so i had to pot them and bury 1/3+of the stems.. still growing insane!
today _next _to 55g:




From Googling some species gro 2-4 feet tall x.x


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep! That's why I wanted it! I can also open up the back of my 20 long and plant them all along there as well if I need to. That was the goal originally with that tank but I just didn't get around to it. I can also put the extra's in my Vivarium as well if need be/have the space 

Don't worry, I research things before I do them or get them! You should know that by now ;-)


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Yep! That's why I wanted it! I can also open up the back of my 20 long and plant them all along there as well if I need to. That was the goal originally with that tank but I just didn't get around to it. I can also put the extra's in my Vivarium as well if need be/have the space
> 
> Don't worry, I research things before I do them or get them! You should know that by now ;-)


I know I just wanted an excuse to share how huge my got ^^''
so you're thinking a primarily arrow head planted tank? Interesting, be sure to keep posting update photos for progress for us!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, you don't need an excuse, I don't mind you posting pics to my journal at all ^_^ Anyone can post here!

Yeah, and by 20 long, I meant the OTHER 20, the NPT one...don't think I made that clear lol since they're both 20 longs. Sorry about that. I was going to do other bog plants like Sweet Flag but that one grew much too quickly and not easy to trim off like Arrowhead is.

Originally I also wanted to raise up my finnex lights but I haven't gotten around to that either, but my room is on the sunny side of the house and always has sunlight pouring in, so I think it'd grow just fine if I didn't raise them immediately. But you make it sound bad to have just arrowhead coming out of the tank?

I'll certainly keep you posted, it's one of my specialties ;-)


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol, you don't need an excuse, I don't mind you posting pics to my journal at all ^_^ Anyone can post here!
> 
> Yeah, and by 20 long, I meant the OTHER 20, the NPT one...don't think I made that clear lol since they're both 20 longs. Sorry about that. I was going to do other bog plants like Sweet Flag but that one grew much too quickly and not easy to trim off like Arrowhead is.
> 
> Originally I also wanted to raise up my finnex lights but I haven't gotten around to that either, but my room is on the sunny side of the house and always has sunlight pouring in, so I think it'd grow just fine if I didn't raise them immediately. But you make it sound bad to have just arrowhead coming out of the tank?
> 
> I'll certainly keep you posted, it's one of my specialties ;-)


No I wasn't saying its a bad thing, but an interesting idea. I'd probably get a few sp like white butterfly, and a more solid green to get contrast the pink sp you have, but thats just _my _taste-I like the variation of colors. I've thought of converting my 20g long to mostly purple waffle with a taller grass species mixed in just for some height but I'd have no where to put my other plants that are on it now so I haven't gone through with that.


----------



## BlueLacee

Holly cow!!! What is your secret for plant growing success. I don't have any luck, I have to fight for every plant to stay alive


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> No I wasn't saying its a bad thing, but an interesting idea. I'd probably get a few sp like white butterfly, and a more solid green to get contrast the pink sp you have, but thats just _my _taste-I like the variation of colors. I've thought of converting my 20g long to mostly purple waffle with a taller grass species mixed in just for some height but I'd have no where to put my other plants that are on it now so I haven't gone through with that.


Ah okay. Yeah, we do have a few other sp at the store. If I feel like it, I'll go check again, don't think we had any others that were super contrasty. I remember this one and Red Allusion because I was like...why is there a difference lol. I know it's still a different sp. but...still. lol

Yeah, I love my purple waffle, that's in with a small Janet Craig Dracaena that will also go into the Vivarium for my Gargoyles. 



BlueLacee said:


> Holly cow!!! What is your secret for plant growing success. I don't have any luck, I have to fight for every plant to stay alive


Thanks! Well...light, lots of light, some CO2 supplement daily and liquid ferts twice a week lol. Also knowing what your plants need is a good start as well!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some more pictures of my tanks and plants

Got my girl in and she arrived great! Sorry for the potato picture


Drip acclimated her for half an hour and she's all happy and perky in her little box!


She's silly lol



God, she's so beautiful!





I'm apparently good at getting this kind of picture lol




King is still doing well


Quasi approves of the older 2.5


And I officially have 19 guppy fry, moved them to the girl's 20 and they immediately tried to eat them...





Velvet is so derpy


Beautiful Rowan


She looks like she's flying lol


Pierce and his guppies. He hates those guppies lol, but he tolerates them


Plants on my window sill


My lovely Janet Craig, this one grew like crazy!


An old Poinsettia that I'm rehabilitating after mom nearly killed it


Another young Janet Craig with Purple waffle under it. It's grown quite a bit since I planted them.


Sorry for the reflection, but you can see the purple waffle a little better here


My small Spider plant and Dragon's Tongue. The Dragon's Tongue would do better with more light, but it's okay right now


More plants on my Ikea shelf. I've got a Bromeliad in that tube there from PetCo in the reptile section. It was cheap so I picked it up. Then more purple waffle to it's left. Creepy Jenny, then behind that is my poor Mahogany Fern, you can barely see the small Sansevieria sp. and a Pothos. And on the other shelf is another PetCo plant but I have no idea what it is.


We continue our tour to the bathroom where I have this beautiful Philodendron, some legs are variegated and most are solid.


More of that Sansevieria sp.


Some of my air plants. The one on the far right is having two pups! I'm excited!
The one on the left is 'mother' to the two in the middle


On the bathroom window shelf is the airplants above. I also have my Bonsai but he's not feeling well at the moment so no close up pictures of him. Here we have a Lemon Button Fern on the right, more philodendron on the bottom left and more light philodendron in the back there. The philodendron light came from my mom, she was close to killing it and asked if I wanted it; of course I said yes lol


All the shelf plants, yeah, ignore my poor Bonsai. He'll perk up soon


----------



## Strawberry12

Your plants look so lovely! I kill every houseplant I come in contact with  Tomorrow i'm repotting some purple waffle to try and rehab it, I had to dump half of it due to some awful root rot, I disturbed it and the entire house smelled like roadkill.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Seriously if your girl fails at breeding I might take her off your hands, you know .. to 'help you out' ^_~
If shes a success I may bug you to sell me a juvie ^^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow, she is a complete beauty!!!

I'm with Aurora, you know,  we'll "help," ourselves too her.


----------



## lilnaugrim

A-ha, you guys underestimate my love for MG's wwaaayyyy too much! lol, even if she doesn't breed, she'll be with me forever!!!!

No name yet, been too busy to really think about that. Had our Scottish Festival yesterday and then spent the day with Luci and Gimli (her puppy) at the Tropical Fish Society of RI's 50 anniversary celebration! We had a lovely picnic and I'm sunburned more now, it's great lol.

Just a couple of pics. 

My Tiger Lily is doing fantastic!


My lovely Alloy


Alloy and her mate



Yeah most of my pics of Alloy came out like this....he's a little too vigorous




Gimli was happy I was coming along. I cannot express how much I love this puppy. Apparently he loves me a lot too. I've never owned a puppy before and never really was around dogs all my life because my dad and I are allergic, though my allergies have toned down through the years which is nice. So apparently, every time I'd get up to leave at the picnic or later on, he'd try to follow and would watch me. He loved to sit on my feet and keep close. I cannot tell you how happy this made me to know this, I knew he sort of liked me, but Luci pointed it out to me while we were at PetCo later to pick up a few things, she was holding him and talking to the groomers and I went over to look at the sales shelf and she's said he quickly looked over to me and squirmed a bit to get towards me. It melted my heart.

It was a good antidepressant day!



And we were playing at the picnic. Luci was teaching me how to help train him, again, never really been around dogs and didn't know what to do. But that's her job; to train parents to train their dogs ^_^





He was chomping on a treat in this one haha


I love this picture


One tuckered out pup!


hellloooo!!


He apparently also has terrible depth perception, Luci was feeding him some watermelon chunks, he sucked at it lol


And a video of our TFS president playing with Gimli lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ugg, so Sunday morning, all my guppy fry died. Just up and woosh, all of the sudden.

I hate my water, hate it hate it hate it hate it...

Quasi died too. I'm sure I could have prevented that one :-/ I feel like the worst keeper ever. The 20 and 29 and 1.5 and 4 and 3 are still fine. The 45 plants are doing bad, I need to add ferts to it; potassium is being all sucked up by my Giant Hygrophila. Need more Phosphate too :-/

Another keeper from our club suggested I use baking soda, but I'm leary on changing things too much. Things go better for me when I don't meddle with them so much and just leave them be.

One of my baby girls is doing bad too, the biggest one of course :-(

The plants are all doing well upstairs though.


----------



## Strawberry12

Oh poor Quasi!! I'm so sorry.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Sorry for your losses.
Have you consider switching to ro/di water and just re-mineralize before putting in tank? May be a way to get around the tap if its what causing issues. I'd recommend getting a LARGE reservoir to hold the water in so there is always some on hand. 
I've not used it yet but I bought this ro system for my (someday) vivarium.
http://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-...UTF8&qid=1434474874&sr=8-7&keywords=ro+system
I'd look around for a better price though. Mine was cheaper than current amazon price.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's too expensive to do that for all my tanks.

I know what the issue is, that's not the problem, the problem is I have no KH which means my pH is constantly fluctating; so by setting up new tanks, I start out at 5.0 and then it increases to about 7.8 overnight and then for the next four of five day's it fluxes between 6.5 and 7.2 roughly before dropping back down to 5.0. I do a small water change and it starts all over. My larger tanks it doesn't effect so badly since I don't do large water changes and the plants help out with the co2 exchange and all, but I just really need to raise that KH.

I'm thinking about adding SeaChem Alkaline Regulator as well to increase calcium and magnesium in my water; thus increasing my KH and pH.

Even with RO/DI water, I'd still have to add in all that stuff, so it's pointless to really do that. I'd looked into it when I was doing all that research about mini Reef Tanks that I was supposed to use that 4 gallon rimless for


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> It's too expensive to do that for all my tanks.
> 
> I know what the issue is, that's not the problem, the problem is I have no KH which means my pH is constantly fluctating; so by setting up new tanks, I start out at 5.0 and then it increases to about 7.8 overnight and then for the next four of five day's it fluxes between 6.5 and 7.2 roughly before dropping back down to 5.0. I do a small water change and it starts all over. My larger tanks it doesn't effect so badly since I don't do large water changes and the plants help out with the co2 exchange and all, but I just really need to raise that KH.
> 
> I'm thinking about adding SeaChem Alkaline Regulator as well to increase calcium and magnesium in my water; thus increasing my KH and pH.
> 
> Even with RO/DI water, I'd still have to add in all that stuff, so it's pointless to really do that. I'd looked into it when I was doing all that research about mini Reef Tanks that I was supposed to use that 4 gallon rimless for


Ah I didn't realize it was a soft water issue (might have missed it in past reading). Would limestone have the same effect? Could get some sexy pieces with holes big enough to avoid bettas getting stuck and have decor+water adjustment in one. If I didn't have such hard water already I'd try a limestone and simple planted tank. I've seen some lovely piece on ebay.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Ah I didn't realize it was a soft water issue (might have missed it in past reading). Would limestone have the same effect? Could get some sexy pieces with holes big enough to avoid bettas getting stuck and have decor+water adjustment in one. If I didn't have such hard water already I'd try a limestone and simple planted tank. I've seen some lovely piece on ebay.


That's okay.

Never tried Limestone, I generally go with Crushed Coral to get some Calcium going, but I need a Magnesium source too, otherwise it will go off kilter a little bit. But I can certainly look into that, thanks.


----------



## PetMania

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear about the losses! 

I've been gone way too much and I've missed the world going by it seems.


----------



## kittenfish

lilnaugrim said:


> Never tried Limestone, I generally go with Crushed Coral to get some Calcium going, but I need a Magnesium source too, otherwise it will go off kilter a little bit. But I can certainly look into that, thanks.


Epsom salt, dolomite?

Is your kH actually 0? My kH and gH are both 2 out of the tap, I just use cuttlebone to raise both.


----------



## lilnaugrim

kittenfish said:


> Epsom salt, dolomite?
> 
> Is your kH actually 0? My kH and gH are both 2 out of the tap, I just use cuttlebone to raise both.


I'd rather not use ES in the tanks on a regular basis; too much risk in running dehydration in fish since I don't change my water that often due to being NPT's.

Yes, KH fluctuates between 0 and 2 depending on the season. My well is driven by a underground mineral spring and so, depending on if it's flooding or not I can get a vast range in metals and nutrients. 

I do have a cuttlebone in the 29, very tiny amount for the snails. I actually forgot about it until you mentioned that. I used to have the box though....don't remember where I placed the rest of the bone since I only used the piece >.< poo


----------



## BlueInkFish

Hey Lil, it seems like it's been awhile since I've ever asked you a question or needed advice from you! And I miss old times like that, anyways I have a new question for you this time 

I'm looking for a big bushy plant that is hardy, and goldfish material (meaning they won't be able to chew or eat the whole plant, a couple of nibbles into the leaf would be fine) so I may add to my 40g breeder, it's getting boring and it's really plain, could you recommend me a couple of nice HUGE plants that would do well for such a tank with low lighting or sunlight?


----------



## LittleBettaFish

I have the same problem with soft water. I once tested the KH of our tap water, and based on the results from the API test, it is around 1. Out of the tap, the pH sits at around 6.8-7.0, but it drops very rapidly to 6.0, which is as low as my test kit will read. However, based on the species of fish I breed and the amount of IAL and peat moss I use, I would suspect it definitely gets lower. 

I used to just change my tanks with water straight from the tap, but now I age it for a week or so before doing water changes, to try and stop the tank water pH from crashing. With my goldfish where I need to keep the pH above 7, I use crushed coral in the filters, and water I change out, is treated with Seachem Neutral Regulator. The hope being that this can help hold the pH stable for at least a little while until the crushed coral can have some sort of effect.


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Hey Lil, it seems like it's been awhile since I've ever asked you a question or needed advice from you! And I miss old times like that, anyways I have a new question for you this time
> 
> I'm looking for a big bushy plant that is hardy, and goldfish material (meaning they won't be able to chew or eat the whole plant, a couple of nibbles into the leaf would be fine) so I may add to my 40g breeder, it's getting boring and it's really plain, could you recommend me a couple of nice HUGE plants that would do well for such a tank with low lighting or sunlight?


You could do a Anubias Barteri or A. Frazeri, it does take a while for it to grow, but my bestie has a huge one in her goldy tank and the goldies don't touch it at all. They also do very well with Amazon Sword, as long as you provide some root tabs for that, it will grow like crazy with the extra nutrients from your goldfish! It will take about 6 months for it to get nice and big. Water Wisteria is another that could potentially work, again, Victoria has a big forest of water wisteria right now that the goldfish don't touch. But they do get fed regularly so I'm not sure how well it would stand up to them otherwise if they weren't. Expensive, but big java fern mats would do well as well. I'm not sure about Hygrophila Corymbosa, the Giant one, not Kompacta. It may get nibbled on but it is a very big plant and good at growing quick, it's a potassium hog though so you may have to dose nutrients. Though, with goldfish, it might not be a huge deal since they produce enough waste and all ^_^



LittleBettaFish said:


> I have the same problem with soft water. I once tested the KH of our tap water, and based on the results from the API test, it is around 1. Out of the tap, the pH sits at around 6.8-7.0, but it drops very rapidly to 6.0, which is as low as my test kit will read. However, based on the species of fish I breed and the amount of IAL and peat moss I use, I would suspect it definitely gets lower.
> 
> I used to just change my tanks with water straight from the tap, but now I age it for a week or so before doing water changes, to try and stop the tank water pH from crashing. With my goldfish where I need to keep the pH above 7, I use crushed coral in the filters, and water I change out, is treated with Seachem Neutral Regulator. The hope being that this can help hold the pH stable for at least a little while until the crushed coral can have some sort of effect.


Yeah, I have my 33 gallon but issue is that there is no place for me to set it up so I could get water out of it from. I could scoop it out with a cup, but that'd take forever :-/

Curse you well water! :evil:


----------



## lilnaugrim

All five of my Sparkling Gouramis went to a friend in our Fish Club; he'd been wanting some and it was a good trade off. Now I can take Romeo home and put him in the 29. I let the King out today in the 29 once the Sparklers were out, just to let him stretch his fins  He's behaving himself very well and I project he'll do fine in the 45 as long as the Rainbows give him a chance!

Still no names yet, I've been working too much for that lol.

I did go to Gimli's training class today (Victoria's puppy I've been taking pics of) and I helped train and give him commands! He listened to me very well, even with all of the distractions! :-D So proud!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Somehow I missed a Sparkling Gourami! I kind of feel bad for her because Romeo came home yesterday! My Pearl Gourami that was at school, he's really gotten big! He's good with the other fish though ^_^

Pics from yesterday

We've decided to name the King, Blue. If you've seen Jurassic World, you'll know the reference!
Blue wasn't a fan of Romeo lol




Romeo was just like....yeah, I don't care about you lol


I took out Blue and put him in the 45 with success. Romeo likes the 29 and he liked my girl who is still nameless. She liked him too lol


And today I went out shopping, I bought some pants since I needed some. My other ones ripped. I also bought another Arrowhead, this one is "Holly" which is pretty much white. I liked this one and the "Butterfly" one as well, but I knew I shouldn't get another and keep with these two  this one is much bigger than my Pink Allusion.

I also put my Pothos "pearl and jewel" in the tank too, this is an older plant.



Sorry for potato pictures


And some nice pictures with the DSLR today

Paradise



Pretty boy Velvet



He looks like he's shrugging shoulders lol!


Sam is growing back very well!


lol, Velvet's face! He's so expressive!


Little O isn't so little




Rowan, taking off!


Crash landing!


She's always so fat with eggs


Pierce


Froggie


Red looks a lot like her brother!


Romeo


My Golden Ram is absolutely stunning! I didn't realize he had so much irid!


Rainbow!


I'm going to enter this into the photo competition in September at our fish show


And probably this one


Shame this is out of focus, but she's so cute lol





I love how bright my Rummynose's are!


Blue!


I may enter this one


Bowie is very fat


Definitely going to enter this one




Another good picture but too much in the background distracting it. I could photoshop it though, that's allow to an extent in the contest.


My two surviving Panda cories, a mated pair. They're really cute


----------



## DangerousAngel

What happened to Bowie?? 
The name blue is PERFECT! Your fish are gorgeous!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Why? Does something look off?

And thanks!! Take it, you saw Jurassic World? Would have been better if it were a female Giant, but he works just fine ;-) He's definitely beta, he tells everyone off but doesn't hurt them, keeps everyone together ;-) haha


----------



## DangerousAngel

Well you said he got fat, and I saw his little belly he was showing off.

Nope, not yet. He sounds so sweet though!


----------



## lilnaugrim

DangerousAngel said:


> Well you said he got fat, and I saw his little belly he was showing off.
> 
> Nope, not yet. He sounds so sweet though!


Oh, he just ate a lot is all. They got frozen foods today. Nothing wrong with a big belly, he'll lose it by tomorrow or the day after.

Ahh, you didn't get the reference then yet ;-) It's a fantastic movie and I REEEAAALLLY want to go see it again!!

lol, mom and I were saying that we went to the movies to relax but we practically had to take a muscle relaxant because it was so suspenseful!! Not scary, but wicked suspenseful and tense! They did such a good job with it! And of course, Chris Pratt helps the appeal haha ;-)


----------



## DangerousAngel

Ahh OK, he ate well!

That's good to know, my mom wants to go see it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh! I forgot I also got another bowl at Saver's, it was 3 bucks, who can resist that?? So I also got some Pogostemon Helferi at PetSmart and used what dirt and sand I had left to set up a dry start to the tank to allow the plant to spread out more before I fill it with water. I want to get some nice granite rocks to go in the center when it fills in some more ^_^

From the top


And the side, sorry about the cling wrap, I'll take a pic when it's off one day


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Curse you and TuiAndLa with you nice arrowhead selections!!!! I can't find [censor] around here.. my local home depot tries to sell the standard green with pink hued one as "white butterfly"... not remotely a hint of white in there... =.= all the other stores are big on outdoor plants no arrowheads to be found *sigh*
I might bug you two come fall for clippings (would pay of course).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Curse you and TuiAndLa with you nice arrowhead selections!!!! I can't find [censor] around here.. my local home depot tries to sell the standard green with pink hued one as "white butterfly"... not remotely a hint of white in there... =.= all the other stores are big on outdoor plants no arrowheads to be found *sigh*
> I might bug you two come fall for clippings (would pay of course).


Certainly, it's 3.98 or something like that for a pot. I don't mind shipping one to you if you like. The Butterfly wasn't a White Butterfly, but it was lighter than my Pink Allusion and had some real nice pink parts to it. I should have gotten a picture, I'm sorry. But I found out how to ship potted plants so that's not a problem


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's really weird, I have like...all red fish now whereas this time last year I had all blue fish....very strange how that happens lol

Moar pics cuz I like da camera!

Alloy is so sparkly!


He barely has any Dragonscales left! It's all marbled to black! Very interesting


Paradise


Annnnnd Sam


His pectorals are too big for his head XD


His regrowth is going really great!


Orange has some black lipstick going on lol


He looks a LOT like his daddy, hard to tell the difference sometimes in photos!


He also acts a lot like his mom


Velvet is beautiful too





Rowan



Little Red


Romeo is such a beautiful fish!




Peacock


My two remaining babies. Splits died unfortunately, not exactly sure why. But "Koi" and "Baby" are growing up though. Koi is turning red now! That was a surprise, I thought they were going to stay Cambodian. 
Her eyes are a little big though....a little worried about that


Flaring


Baby


Look at dem ovaries! Whoo boy!




Flaring again


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oooooowwwww :-(

Had four more cavities drilled (technically just two but because they're between the teeth, it's one on each side). This makes...I think 18 cavities in total that I've had drilled since December. I have two more next Tuesday to do and I should be okay as long as I learn the habit of flossing nightly! I'm so bad with that.

I confuse my dentist because he's proclaiming that my enamel is absolutely fantastic but all the cavities are between my teeth. Too much sweets and not enough flossing when I was a kid. So we did the front ones today, I've never had front teeth drilled before, not terrible but I'm very sensitive to cold air and so the air going over the opening in my front teeth became very uncomfortable. We had to amp up the Novacaine as well, my top lip was numb all the way up my nose, strangest feeling ever!! I'm used to my ear being numb, but not my nose! It was the worst feeling that I had an itch on my nose but when I itched it, it wasn't satisfying at all!! It was horrible!!

Numbness finally wore off but I'm sore now. Had some mashed 'taters and gravy for dinner lol XD

And forgot to show the color difference between the Holly and the Pink Allusion
And omg, I just noticed the white rock hide in there looks like a fish skull from this perspective :shock:


----------



## ao

Ugh, I hate going to the dentists...I try to avoid it as much as possible and never go in for this so called yearly "teeth cleaning" thing the rest of my family does.

I know this may sound like the weirdest thing ever. I've haven't been using toothpaste for over a year and haven't had a toothache since I started. Prior to switching over to just brushing my teeth with coconut oil I would get the occasional ache in one tooth or another. Basically I made the switch when I was looking into natural toothpastes. It was really surprising to read about teeth actually being self healing - providing we dont use commercial tooth paste which hinders the self healing process. It's been a year and I don't regret it, so far so good (Gosh i sound like one of those fake product endorsement reviews, lol!) 

Occasionally i would also do an oil pull which leaves my teeth feel fabulous and squeaky clean


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> And forgot to show the color difference between the Holly and the Pink Allusion
> And omg, I just noticed the white rock hide in there looks like a fish skull from this perspective :shock:


Yeh rub that white arrowhead plant in my face some more why don't'chya' XP

Ow don't talk about drilling, makes my teeth ache thinking about it!
Last time I went in the dentist was right scheduled for cavity fillings the day after braces came off (and day before molding for retainer)... I made it clear before it had to all be done that day... he tried to give some flim-flam about two visits...I swear I saw a golf set or fishing rod when I passed by his office and he as trying to bail early), well he and got quite a mouthful from me! In the end I had all done in one day and complete mouth and cheek numbness, I was 'laying down' so long for the fillings and with the Novocaine.. I couldn't walk much less talk when it was all done (I must have looked so drunk).. Had to sit in the waiting room an extra hour for the stuff to start wearing off before I was comfortable leaving. Once I could feel again i realized he MUTILATED my cheeks and tongue drilling (shredded tender flesh so fun! =.=), put out no effort to drill cleanly.. never going back to that [censor] again.

edit: also omg love the hide 'face' reminds me of my driftwood betta grumpy face:


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> Ugh, I hate going to the dentists...I try to avoid it as much as possible and never go in for this so called yearly "teeth cleaning" thing the rest of my family does.
> 
> I know this may sound like the weirdest thing ever. I've haven't been using toothpaste for over a year and haven't had a toothache since I started. Prior to switching over to just brushing my teeth with coconut oil I would get the occasional ache in one tooth or another. Basically I made the switch when I was looking into natural toothpastes. It was really surprising to read about teeth actually being self healing - providing we dont use commercial tooth paste which hinders the self healing process. It's been a year and I don't regret it, so far so good (Gosh i sound like one of those fake product endorsement reviews, lol!)
> 
> Occasionally i would also do an oil pull which leaves my teeth feel fabulous and squeaky clean


Interesting! Maybe I'll look into it.

I use a Fluoride toothpaste at night to help with my enamel, it's just that darned flossing that gets me! I really don't brush...that often...less often than I should, I hate to admit >.< But I also don't have bad breath so that helps, if I do, I make sure I brush and rinse so I'm not all stinky. It's a fear of mine, I suppose it's a bit irrational...but yeah, I have a couple rational and irrational fears about my teeth >.<

My cleanings are every 6 months! I don't mind the cleanings, I just hate when they scrap and poke at the holes because I feel like they're going to pull my teeth out!! Used to be an irrational fear, but now that I had my tooth implant and he literally broke it out of my mouth, it's a little more rational.....but I love the squeaky clean feeling lol!



Aqua Aurora said:


> Yeh rub that white arrowhead plant in my face some more why don't'chya' XP
> 
> Ow don't talk about drilling, makes my teeth ache thinking about it!
> Last time I went in the dentist was right scheduled for cavity fillings the day after braces came off (and day before molding for retainer)... I made it clear before it had to all be done that day... he tried to give some flim-flam about two visits...I swear I saw a golf set or fishing rod when I passed by his office and he as trying to bail early), well he and got quite a mouthful from me! In the end I had all done in one day and complete mouth and cheek numbness, I was 'laying down' so long for the fillings and with the Novocaine.. I couldn't walk much less talk when it was all done (I must have looked so drunk).. Had to sit in the waiting room an extra hour for the stuff to start wearing off before I was comfortable leaving. Once I could feel again i realized he MUTILATED my cheeks and tongue drilling (shredded tender flesh so fun! =.=), put out no effort to drill cleanly.. never going back to that [censor] again.
> 
> edit: also omg love the hide 'face' reminds me of my driftwood betta grumpy face:


LOL! Love the face!!

Hey, if you really want, we have like a gajillion Holly Arrowheads at walmart! I really don't mind sending you one!

I realized yesterday that my 45 is primarily open top.....which means, MOAR PLANTS! woohoo! I'm thinking about putting more of my philodendron on the side of it, part of the Pink Allusion Arrowhead and another Pothos in it. It doesn't get a whole heck of a lot of light and it's a Fluval LED so I can't raise it or the plants on bottom won't get any light >.< Don't get Fluval lights, they suck. It had like half the lumens that my Finnex Planted+ has and honestly, I feel like Finnex's Stingray would have done a better job for this poor tank! It was on sale though for more than half price, so it's not like I wasted crap tons of money on it, but for future reference; Fluval sucks.

Anywho!

That's awful about your dentist!!! I've been blessed so far with good people, except my childhood dentist who started this whole damn thing! If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had my second to last bottom right molar (think it's the 12 year molars? Or the one in front, idk) being a crater from worked on so much, my tooth above it wouldn't have come down to compensate and thus leave no room for a crown when I had it root canaled. And then, it wouldn't have broken in half and I wouldn't have had to pay $4,000 to get an implant!! F*ck him and his stupid practice >.> I don't know how he's still in business, probably because he's one of the few child dentists we have around here. 

I felt bad for my newest dentist yesterday though, he was like "you probably hate me today" lol but my mouth was being worked on that point so I couldn't assure him and say "nooo, it's my own damn fault for never flossing!!" and then the water thingy kept getting stuck with the on button for a moment after they'd release it to turn it back off, so it's squirt onto my face lol. Then the hygienist was dropping things on me lol, it was rather funny but he felt bad.

I'm all good today though, whoopee! A little sore where the needle was but I didn't bruise like I normally do on the back! So that's good!

Oh, I also found out that the reason why it hurts isn't the needle itself, it's the novacaine liquid. In the front, it doesn't have much place to go, so it's literally expanding the veins that it's pumped into, a good dentist will go slow to allow time for the veins to adjust but there will always be the pinch at the beginning. I thought that was interesting. Another reason they don't numb your hard pallet; hurts like hell because it's so hard; no fleshy part for the novacaine to seep into.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> LOL! Love the face!!
> 
> Hey, if you really want, we have like a gajillion Holly Arrowheads at walmart! I really don't mind sending you one!
> 
> I realized yesterday that my 45 is primarily open top.....which means, MOAR PLANTS! woohoo! I'm thinking about putting more of my philodendron on the side of it, part of the Pink Allusion Arrowhead and another Pothos in it. It doesn't get a whole heck of a lot of light and it's a Fluval LED so I can't raise it or the plants on bottom won't get any light >.< Don't get Fluval lights, they suck. It had like half the lumens that my Finnex Planted+ has and honestly, I feel like Finnex's Stingray would have done a better job for this poor tank! It was on sale though for more than half price, so it's not like I wasted crap tons of money on it, but for future reference; Fluval sucks.
> 
> Anywho!
> 
> That's awful about your dentist!!! I've been blessed so far with good people, except my childhood dentist who started this whole damn thing! If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had my second to last bottom right molar (think it's the 12 year molars? Or the one in front, idk) being a crater from worked on so much, my tooth above it wouldn't have come down to compensate and thus leave no room for a crown when I had it root canaled. And then, it wouldn't have broken in half and I wouldn't have had to pay $4,000 to get an implant!! F*ck him and his stupid practice >.> I don't know how he's still in business, probably because he's one of the few child dentists we have around here.
> 
> I felt bad for my newest dentist yesterday though, he was like "you probably hate me today" lol but my mouth was being worked on that point so I couldn't assure him and say "nooo, it's my own damn fault for never flossing!!" and then the water thingy kept getting stuck with the on button for a moment after they'd release it to turn it back off, so it's squirt onto my face lol. Then the hygienist was dropping things on me lol, it was rather funny but he felt bad.
> 
> I'm all good today though, whoopee! A little sore where the needle was but I didn't bruise like I normally do on the back! So that's good!
> 
> Oh, I also found out that the reason why it hurts isn't the needle itself, it's the novacaine liquid. In the front, it doesn't have much place to go, so it's literally expanding the veins that it's pumped into, a good dentist will go slow to allow time for the veins to adjust but there will always be the pinch at the beginning. I thought that was interesting. Another reason they don't numb your hard pallet; hurts like hell because it's so hard; no fleshy part for the novacaine to seep into.


MMMMM so tempted.. how much for one Holly arrowhead from Walmart? Will it fit a medium or (more likely) large flat rate box? my area is ok for temp through next week.. though next Tue and Wed is a bit warmer than I'd like (83F).... So tempting... I'm going to go pop over to walmart and see if I'm lucky enough to have some here (have not been by the plant side in a while). If not I'll pm you about paying for a plant from your walmart ad shipping!

Does the tank have the standard black trim around it (with a 'lip' on the inside? you can get waterproof LED lighting strips and slap them under that trip to get light down below the riparium plants. Or make a simply sort of 'platform' (maybe a narrow width cut polycarbonate) to lay on the 'lip' with ties ties/glued to that and get light down into the water. I've looked at them a bit on amazon and ebay but you have to read carefully what comes with it, you need a few extra pieces (drawing a blank on their names atm sorry) that not all sellers include with the light.


----------



## lilnaugrim

They should fit in the Medium box if I'm thinking about the right one. They're 3.98 each ^_^

Why put the lights under the rim? Are they better than Fluval or something or did I miss something??


----------



## lilnaugrim

LKJFSDGOisfj........

I wrote it all out and I was going to hit send and hit "backspace" instead....muthafuuuuuuuuuu >.>

The short of it: I fell down stairs when a plank broke outside and thankfully fell on my butt two steps down. Hurt my back bad, wrist has rash after trying to grab the rail in my fall but missed. Nothing severe, just pulled some muscles in the back. Have been icing every 20 minutes on and off. I'm dreading sleeping because I'm going to be very stiff tomorrow.

Luci and Gimli came over, we tried to catch frogs and newts in my pond, couldn't do it, she and Gim left to get meds for her goldfish.

Mom and I went back out (before fall) and she showed me up and caught four of them. Don't know exactly what they are, wanted to try my hand at raising them. Don't think they're Eastern Newts because they're all black, but they aren't our normal Redback Salamanders because they're tails are flat and not round. Eastern Newts are more tan with orange dots on them, these guys have slight yellow-ish dots but mostly black. Maybe waterdog?

This is the stupid stair that broke under me. They were built poorly in the first place, we hardly use them.


A little skinny newt but otherwise healthy looking!



I like this one


Tank setup




Sorry for potato picture


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## lilnaugrim

More Newt pictures with my DSLR 



This is the biggest one


Second largest and the largest behind it



Reddish tone to this one


Alert and attentive



Smallest one


You can't see me!!!


----------



## SplashyBetta

Newts are the best! I'd love to raise some babies myself... maybe someday.... 
Good luck


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks!

I was just looking at the pics again and noticed that the biggest one has a different shapped head and the darkest one has black stripes at it's nose like the Eastern Newt. Perhaps I have two different species here! I do think that one might be an Eastern New/Red Spotted newt, still don't know about the others though.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> They should fit in the Medium box if I'm thinking about the right one. They're 3.98 each ^_^
> 
> Why put the lights under the rim? Are they better than Fluval or something or did I miss something??


Sorry I must have miss read, thought you wanted to raise the lights but need something for the underwater pants (being shadowed by riparium plants)?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Sorry I must have miss read, thought you wanted to raise the lights but need something for the underwater pants (being shadowed by riparium plants)?


Ah no, I was saying that there are no lights above, like no sunlight coming in, just the Fluval lights on the tank for the tank plants. So the riparium plants wouldn't be getting much light other than ambient room light. I can't raise the lights because they're too weak in the first place, so yes, technically that's right then. I don't have the hardware to raise them anyway. But yeah, if I did riparium plants on the 45, then they just need to be low light plants is all.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Newts are doing well this morning! My upper back and shoulders are very sore. Rash on my wrist is bruising, I've got a contusion from hitting the railing so hard. Occasional big pain flare-ups even though I took meds to help reduce swelling and the pain. Unfortunately I'm at work, so no heat or ice packs until I get home :-(

But with these newts, I really really really really really want to do an awesome paludarium set up! Now that I've worked with the Great Stuff Foam, it'd be pretty easy to get it set up quick since it'd only be partially land based. I'd make a small ramp towards the back that goes up and it'd be a false bottom so they can still swim under the bottom there. I'd just do various mosses and small plants that don't need a whole heck of a lot of light. I think mom would approve of it since I'd still do just air, no big filter on it or anything and just a small 13 watt light on about 8 hours a day.

I'd have a glass top to keep moisture in for the moss and mist daily. 

I was actually honestly thinking about turning the Gargoyle Gecko tank I have in the process to make that for the newts, but it only holds about 5 gallons of water on the bottom and it's made for vertical stuff, not lateral like these newts. 

I'll be getting some black worms and brine shrimp today, worms for them and shrimp for everyone else  They'll enjoy that! I hope to fatten them up real good ;-) I'll post more on that later.

Just going to post some pics of paludariums that I really like and will work off of if I can set this tank up properly! I realize most of these are bigger than 10 gallons too of course.


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## BettaLover1313

Still jealous of your fish lol

I look forward to seeing what you do with the newts.

Hope your back feels better. Back pain is definitely not fun.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, thanks BL1313 ^_^ I do love mah fish!

Newt update next!


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## lilnaugrim

For now I added my grapewood vine piece to the tank, it will float while it gets water logged again and then I'll prop it on the side of the tank for them to get up on if they so chose to. So far none have tried to come out of the water, or at least not while I'm home. Of course, that's only like one fraction of the time.

I bought Blackworms yesterday and after they were done being afraid of them, they went all out on them and nommed them right up! I have fat newts now lol!!

Here's the tank for the moment.


Learning that these noms are good!



Oh and I'm pretty sure that I have 3 Eastern Newts and one either Marbled or Spotted Salamander, that's the darker one in the middle. The other three are lighter in color.





Littlest one



This one is wicked grainy, I'm sorry! It's hard to take pictures through cruddy pond water! But they just looked cute, the black one scared the bigger one away when she bit him :roll:


Littlest one nomming



lol, I love their faces!!


This is the second largest one, it's left top frill was broken off, not sure if from the net when mom caught him or from stuff in the pond before


Happy Newt Face!




*slurp*!



Happy face!


Sorry it's so hard to see, this is the black one


And we're fat after worms!







Black one again


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Will you keep a live blackworm culture going at home? If so I recommend setting up large tubs with a light and floating plants. Mine are covered in salvia minimia and I don't have to do water changes any more ^^ I use free brown paper bags from the grocery store and the brown paper used as packing material in some shipments I've gotten as their food. Its worked out well only complaint is getting the thick blob of floaters out of the way enough to see worms to catch (pipet) for feeding ^^''


----------



## lilnaugrim

I do have a tiny set up at the moment for the extra worms I had. They have an air stone going in there and I just used regular paper towels. I did some reading on it this morning. I will probably have to set up something, they seem wicked easy though so I don't mind. I'll probably get a low sterilite bin or whatever and just use that for it. I probably won't be able to use light on them so no floaters, I'm trying to use less power so mom won't kill me :roll: or at least she won't make me pay for it haha. It will probably be by a window though so enough for something like frog-bit or salvinia probably.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> I do have a tiny set up at the moment for the extra worms I had. They have an air stone going in there and I just used regular paper towels. I did some reading on it this morning. I will probably have to set up something, they seem wicked easy though so I don't mind. I'll probably get a low sterilite bin or whatever and just use that for it. I probably won't be able to use light on them so no floaters, I'm trying to use less power so mom won't kill me :roll: or at least she won't make me pay for it haha. It will probably be by a window though so enough for something like frog-bit or salvinia probably.


I heard mixed info about regular paper towels-supposedly the bleach used to make them white can harm the worms, organic brown paper towels were recommended (but I'm not paying for that lol). Duckweed also works as long as you rinse your hands/arms off to keep it out of the tanks you don't want it in ^^ I have 3x 12g blue sterilte tubs with worms.I think they were $8-9 at home depot gave most surface area for the price.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh...well that sucks. I'll have to get the paper bags then. Whoops, hope I didn't kill them....it's okay though since a portion at my store is only 2 bucks for a good sized bag of them. It's like half a cup of worms alone, they're good to me ^_^

On another note. I really want to try needle felting. I'm allergic to wool, but it might just be worsted wool. I want to make fish and probably do one of Gimli; the border collie pup. I'll update you all later if I'm allergic to all wools or not lol. Going to get a small kit at the store ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

ALKJSFOIDNJWNEKFOISDJGFDKGH

I FACKING HATE MY WATEERRRRRR FFFFAAAACCKKKK

So I spent the weekend in NH at a cabin with my dad, aunt, cousins and some of their friends. Great time, a little crazy, but still great.

I came home last night and finished taking down the 20 that the two baby girls were in. I was going to put the Newt's 10 on the stand so it's easier balanced and nice nice there. I grabbed some water in my bucket from the tap, dechlorinated it and added the Replenish. Sat it on top of the 10 and added the airline with the regulator thingy. Set it to like 1 drop every 2 seconds since I knew it was going to be a big change for the Newts. It was only like 3/4 of a gallon too, wasn't even a lot of water. Woke up and checked on them and THEY'RE ALL FACKING DEAD!!!! I am SO mad right now, it's not even funny.

So I said fack it and I'm going to build the paludarium anyway and get the Fire-belly newts that I've been wanting forever now. They're already fully grown, no larvae stage unfortunately like axolotls. I'm so mad, I wanted those Eastern Newts so badly and I don't understand why they died! The water wasn't even done dripping 8 hours later overnight! Still had like .8th of a liter to go!

Idk...should I try more newts from the pond? What thinks you guys? If I build it in the 20 long and let the water stabilize before they get acclimated. I'd have like 2 gallons in there already and use pond water again primarily and allow them used to my water. Or is it just all a bad idea and I just shouldn't collect from the wild ever again?


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm sorry Lil, that is such an unfortunate event to occur,  I hope you feel better.

As too your questions, I honestly think it's what you choose or what you want.


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Oh no.. I'm so sorry. :-( I could definitely see why that would be frustrating.

Super random, but what kind of betta is Paradise? I know it's a wild species, just not which one.


----------



## lilnaugrim

THATDragonLovesBettas said:


> Oh no.. I'm so sorry. :-( I could definitely see why that would be frustrating.
> 
> Super random, but what kind of betta is Paradise? I know it's a wild species, just not which one.


Haha, Paradise isn't a Betta, he's a Paradisefish, sometimes called a Paradise Gourami. Scientific name is Macropodus opercularis


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Oh. :shock: .. I KNEW THAT!
~not~


----------



## ao

Sorry to hear about your newts 

I would try using water from the pond, then put lots of plants in, if possible try to use rocks, substrate and plants found in the pond. I find that something magical always happens when you use substrate from nature, tanks seem to cycle right away  

Test the water params periodically, and if they're not off I wouldn't change it. I do this for on the verge of death bettas and they take much better to it than water changes. 

Eventually the TDS will go up, but you shouldn't have to worry about it for weeks... ( I've left my shrimp tank on its own for a couple of months without water changes and they did surprisingly well...)

For waters changes (because you'll have to acclimate them to tap water sooner or later right?

If you have planted tanks with across the board 0 readings, I would use that water for water changes... it may sound weird and counter productive, but the water in your planted tanks have their own little eco system in it as opposed to the sterile tap water we usually use for water changes. 

I would recommend changing out very little at a time (maybe 5%?), and your newts should acclimate over time. Wild creature are often very delicate and don't do too well in captivity unless we imitate their natural habitats, from KH, PH, GH... etc. 

Sorry for blabbering on! 

looking forward to any future newt keeping endeavors


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks.

I didn't change any of the water, I was just adding water into the tank was all. And yes, I had rocks and plants in there as well, not as much as I'd like but there was some. I didn't want to take any sand since newts and notorious for eating it with dinner and getting a compacted system which can also kill them. However, I might as well do it anyway. Mom said I should take more but I think I will anyway, I really want those Eastern Newts.

Yeah, that's actually what I do for my 1.5g and it's been great. I siphon the water into the 29 below it and take water from the 20 above it and fill the 1.5 back up with that. Then I add fresh water to the 20 since it's a bigger system and more stable than the 1.5g, works great.

I really don't change water much at all because of how low my water pH is, 5.0 causes a lot of fluctuations. I tried to combat that by adding Replenish to raise my GH but I also need KH, I've just started adding in SeaChem's line of AquaVitro things, I have Carbonate and Activate. The Carbonate claims to raise KH in the absence of CO2 injection, which I don't do. 

But yes, I'm guilty for letting my tanks go a couple months without a water change. My plants help combat it and I do top off with Prime of course to help negate any ammonia if there is any. There are no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate in my tap, it's just literally void of anything, hence the Replenish since it's practically like RO water. Sometimes I wonder how we survive on my water >.< I've been drinking it for 22 years now lol.

One thing with my water though, it's constantly fluctuating because of the change of seasons. It's well water and is fed with an underground spring as is my pond, same exact water which frustrates me since the newts shouldn't have died. I'm thinking that I shouldn't have added in the Replenish though and just used straight up water, might have been better for them.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Moar pics

Plants first

Airplant is having pups!


They're all doing very well!


Need to clean up my Lily but it's had 8 blooms on it this Spring!!


My windowsill of plants. From left to right: Saniseveria sp., Janet Craig Drcaena with Purple Waffle, Poinsettia, and another larger Janet Craig




The Purple Waffle like this setup lol. I keep it pretty moist in there


Went to the store yesterday looking for crickets, which I forgot. Oh well. I found this guy, I was so very tempted to take him home, he looked absolutely beautiful! He had a bit of bladder issue but I think that's just from the FD bloodworms is all, he was kind of fat.


He was a nice brilliant yellow in real life, very beautiful. And damnit, he gave me those eyes!! But I resisted and didn't take him home >.<


Paradise


20 is looking a bit grungy since I just scrapped off the algae on the sides, it was clearer today


29


Not sure why it's blurry....but I took down the 20 since I only have two babies left, the third died for some reason. So they're in their own 2.5 and I put the plants in this one since it's close to the window.


Also because "Koi" girl bit Splits so yeah. Splits is doing great though


Big fins for such a small girl


Koi girl who isn't really koi anymore but turning more red



Grungy looking 10 breeder


That's it for now


----------



## ao

What a lovely window sill you have there! *lives in a basement...fumes with envy* I have an airplant that strted up nice and compacts but eventually got leggier and leggier.


I've hear horror stories about well water D: Perhaps you should try adding water from the tank then, as it sounds like it would be much more stable than any other source (unless you want to start mixing your own RO concoction).

I really should feel blessed to have great water in NYC. Cichilids aside, it's perfect for almost everything else


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aw thanks! Yeah, I'm glad I have real windowsills, I didn't have them at dad's house so it's nice to have something to put on them!!

Idk, some days I feel like my well water is absolutely fantastic, it's been great for my soft water fishes, I've raised guppies in it so that's got to say something since they're generally a hard water fish. But then other times when we have a big rain storm I feel like everything bad just washes into the system, but I still feel like the newts should be used to it >.> I'm going to hopefully work on it soon, I'll use the 20 gallon long and some golden sand and rocks from the pond since I already have those. I do need to do a PP and salt dip on them though since I've got a bunch of buggies in them right now, don't care for them much. 

Oh and I forgot something in my pic dump! Uploading currently.....

While at the store, I was talking to a new employee in the fish section and told her about this website since she was looking to learn more about fish in general! So she wrote down the names and stuff so hopefully she'll join in and learn some more! But I also decided that I wanted a Rainbow Shark. I really want a Red Tail Black Shark but they get bigger and a little more aggressive, the Shark went into the 45 ^_^

He's a nice looking boy! Immediately went to harassing the long finned Serpae Tetras lol, but I didn't mind since they're a$$hole fish anyway.
Rummynose photobomb!


Sorry for potato picture


----------



## ao

did you quarantine him/her/it?

(I don't really quarantined myself)

That rummy is a Ninja, I had to look surprisingly hard to find it. haha, was almost going to ask whether you posted up the wrong fish.


----------



## lilnaugrim

No, I only really quarantine now if the fish is sick or came from a sick tank. I've had good luck with that and I know the store, I wouldn't do that to a new store that I go to or anything.


----------



## andakin

That's a great looking crypt in the 29. The balansae has become my favorite plant.

The RTBS has my vote every time.


----------



## lilnaugrim

That's not a Crypt, that's Crinum Natans 

There is Bronze Crypt under it but that's it


----------



## andakin

Interesting. I have both crinum natans and balansae. Those leaves look like balansae. My natans grow large broad leaves.


----------



## andakin

You're right. The natans are crinklier.


----------



## lilnaugrim

They are broader, you just can't see them well. It's definitely Crinum though, it's got that stalk thingy that the leaves grow out of. Huge root system as well. I'll get more pictures of it later 

I bought it from PlantedAquariumsCentral. How long have you had yours? I've had mine just about a year now so maybe it get's more full as it ages? Or perhaps it's a different light source that causes the leaves to change slightly, that's fairly normal for plants in general to change because of that.


----------



## andakin

The natans I got were very overpriced and the quality sucked. The leaves were either dying or covered in algae. I stripped them down to single leafs. It's been in for two month now and hasn't improved. Maybe I'm burying it too deep.


----------



## lilnaugrim

andakin said:


> The natans I got were very overpriced and the quality sucked. The leaves were either dying or covered in algae. I stripped them down to single leafs. It's been in for two month now and hasn't improved. Maybe I'm burying it too deep.


Ah yeah, mine liked it when it was only roots in the substrate, that's it. I have a few sections where I have some black beard algae growing but nothing drastic. I do Excel, Flourish, Carbonate, and Activate for supplements and of course Finnex Planted+ for lighting, 12 hours a day.


----------



## ao

How is the planted+ working out for you? I remember every one jumping into that bandwagon about a year ago


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh yes, I absolutely love them! I have them on three of my tanks; 20, 29, and 4. I have a Marineland Single Brite left over from when I started up two and a half years ago, it's on the 10 and I hate it. The Fluval Daylight LED is on the 45 and I hate that one too, I want to switch over to either Planted+ or Finnex Ray II DS, it doesn't have red lights though but the whites will be good enough to reach to the bottom of the tank whereas the Fluval Daylights are not bright at all. My Water Wisteria died....I've never killed that plant before >.< 

When I get the Vivarium set up for my Gargoyle Gecko, I'll use the Ray II DS for that tank as well, I've done the research and it's good for regular plants as well and I can keep almost anything alive that is light-needy.

I did want to try the Current USA Satellite LED lights, but they were expensive and I was doing more reading that they didn't have the same PAR ratings as Finnex, Finnex had a higher PAR rating which means you can grow higher light plants much easier. But the fancy features and ramp timer on the Current USA was nice too, wish Finnex had ramp timers (slowly fading from black up to the bright light like a sunrise over 15 minutes and the same going back down for sunset) just a fancy feature but nice.

So in all, I'm sticking with Finnex for a while.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

*whispers* you should get the yellow betta, save him from his cup of doom.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> *whispers* you should get the yellow betta, save him from his cup of doom.


nooooooooooo, I can't >.<

I could....but....ahh, and he's a VT too, that's what really caught my eye. Normally we have the yellow HM's and stuff, but I haven't seen a nice VT in a while.....I do want to sell off my fry and once I do that, I'll have some space......oh god....if he's still there on Wednesday when I go up for worms....yeah...maybe...........


----------



## andakin

Finnex released their new planted+ 24/7. It ramps and full color customization.


----------



## lilnaugrim

When did that happen? I knew it was coming out but didn't realized it was released already. 

lol just looked on amazon and it says it ships within 1-4 months......woooooow


----------



## lilnaugrim

Heh....I found this earlier and thought you guys might enjoy it! Kind of bad but hilarious at the same time!


----------



## ao

,_____,
It actually took me a while to get it... cos you know, our pellets float. lol


----------



## BlueInkFish

Haha, great minds think alike Ao!

But I also thought it was sorta a metaphor, the igloo represents its massive size, and the human feeding a massive amount of food... I overthink stuff too much!

I then came back to my common sense file in my brain.


----------



## Zhylis

I'm with AA... Get the yellow betta... yellow betta ...he wants to go home...


----------



## Elleth

Add me to the bad influence bandwagon.  That lovely yellow fellow is just too cute to leave.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Omg, you guys are killing me!

Well...if he's still there today then he's coming home with me! I've got that 1 gallon glass bowl that I just set up, I've added all the buffering stuff so I'll test it when I get home to make sure it's not fluctuating like crazy and put him in that ^_^ I'm not using my heaters right now, tanks are holding a steady 75-76 so I'm not worried about that at all. It's going to get much hotter through the summer as well so I won't have to worry about heating until late fall again. 

Went to the dentist yesterday again to finish my front teeth and one side one. I should be done with my cavities as long as I floss regularly!! Got to make that a habit....

So anyway, went to the LFS down there again to look at things. I brought home a lovely Dwarf Lily. I'd been thinking about putting one in the 29 to give a little more constant color. The Ludwigia colors up great when it gets closer to the surface, but that's about it for color. I also saw a couple cuties there too.

This boy was there previously, he looked pretty miserable in the cup yesterday


And this boy was wicked feisty!




And just showing, this is the newest leaf on the Pink Allusion, it's really nice!


The newest bowl


The Lobelia Cardinalis is doing great. I may get some more Alternanthera Reneckii Cardinalis to put in there as well. It's soil based on the bottom with regular sand on top so it should be good. I'm dosing ferts as well and have my 13W 6,500K light on it


And as promised, here's a close up of my Crinum Natans ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Too many beautiful photos... Your making me jealous Lil!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I can always stop!

:rofl:

lol, but I won't ever stop taking photos. I like to take them and it's nice to share them too ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So uhhh....I introduce to you all, Glisten! heh

Originally I was going to go with Glaston since it means glistening. There is a town in Mass called Glastonbury which is glimmering city. When the guy founded the town, it was completely sheeted in ice and thus, it shimmered. So I told my dad I was going to name a fish after it, but I think I like Glisten better than Glaston, what do you all think?

He was eyeing me the whole ride home lol okay, not the whole ride but still, so cute.


Chilling with Sam while I changed the water in the bowl so it was water from the 20 instead, I was so afraid of killing him!



Not sure if he tail bites or he's just young. He is young, he's a bit smaller than Velvet but we'll see. He might end up being a problem child with his slight SBD





Into the bowl


Chilling. He's not super happy at the moment but I'm sure he'll perk up in a few days when he's all settled in


----------



## Elleth

Yay! He is so pretty.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow!!! So lovely!!!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

My vt rescue's sbd cleared up in under 24 hours with a warm tank dosed with Prime. Hope his does too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Came home today and Glaston is feeling fantastic it seems! He's been flaring at Koi-girl who's situated behind him. That's really helped to excrete the bad food from the store and help out those SBD issues, he's all healed up now and very healthy! He ate a bunch of NLS today after he became used to my finger wiggling where the food was; he quickly figured it out.

You know, I've never owned a yellow male before :-D the last yellow Betta I had was Pineapple from my sorority two years ago....woooow that was that long ago? Geeze!

Okay, pics!

This was when I came home:




His bowl



And here's my little "weathervane" Velvet tells me when it's going to storm the next day by building bubblenests ;-)



Finding his pellet



Little bundle of fins Sam




Rowan and her grumpy face


O and his guppy companion


Pierce isn't all that fond of pictures apparently





So this is my set up. The 2.5, 1, and 1.5 is on my IKEA floating shelf


The 29 looks so small like this lol


4 gallon is on my jewelry stand. 20 and 29 and another 2.5 on a plant stand


Further back you can see the 10 on my nightstand and my plants on the windowsill.


So then I took an hour nap, boy did I need that! I'm still pretty tired and will likely go to be in half an hour or so. 

4gallon is a bit grungy


Glaston is also apparently a little weather vane! lol He seems to be doing very well ^_^






Sorry for the ridiculous glare but here's the 20


Romeo loves his Embers ^_^


He also loves me because I bring him food haha


29 with I'm sure about a 1000 MTS >.<


So my Rainbowfish have been dropping like flies :-( I've had 3 die already in the past three days.....one is on the verge today. I think maybe it was due to the heat? Tank got up to 84-85 and they're cooler water fish. Unplugged the heater and today it's holding a lovely 75 and they seem happier about that. Hopefully they all won't die :-( They're the only fish affected, everyone else is just peachy and happy! No external signs other than a darker blue appearing on them and then almost like dropsy where their scales stick up just a teeny bit. I'm quite sure it's not dropsy though, looks more like a species only disease which is why I thought about the temperature.

This is the one that's likely going to go next


Shark is a happy little sucker




Beautiful GBR


Gold Ram is fat lol


Otos are also happy and cleaned up the tank very well! They love the Omega One Veggie wafers and once they're done with the tank, they'll get cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, apples, they'll get it all :-D


And finally, Bowie ^_^


----------



## Aqua Aurora

See I told you he just needed some warm clean water ^^ As for the MTS I can point you at a forum where people like to buy them for their tanks if you want to harvest and sell some (won't posts link in open forum as I think thats against the rules). I've sold... too many to count...280 split between 3 people one week, usually smaller mts #s though.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> See I told you he just needed some warm clean water ^^ As for the MTS I can point you at a forum where people like to buy them for their tanks if you want to harvest and sell some (won't posts link in open forum as I think thats against the rules). I've sold... too many to count...280 split between 3 people one week, usually smaller mts #s though.


Yep ^_^ 

In the back of my mind I knew he would, he just seemed worse off than the ones I'd seen recovered before.

Yeah, the two Assassin snails I had died off....not sure if my Panda Loach ate it? Wasn't sure if they actually did eat them since they are loaches and are known to eat snails, but they're dwarfs so I figured they were safe. Could have been anything though. Actually...I haven't seen my Panda Loach in a while...hmm, I'll have to inspect the tank tomorrow.


----------



## ao

So wait... is it Glisten or Glaston?

Whichever it is, he looks like he's loving the new home 

How often do you end up doing water changes in these tanks?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> So wait... is it Glisten or Glaston?
> 
> Whichever it is, he looks like he's loving the new home
> 
> How often do you end up doing water changes in these tanks?


I did decide on Glaston since no one gave me any opinions lol. But I'm saying it similar to Glisten where the t tends to be a little more silent, so the "Glass" part of it is emphasized since it sounded too much like Gaston and I wasn't so happy with that lol. 

Depends on the tank. Usually around once a month or so. Sometimes every 2-3 weeks if something's off or needs a good cleaning. The 20 is due quite soon and I'll likely do it tomorrow or Saturday when I have time. The 1.5 and 4 actually hasn't been changed in.....oh I'm ashamed to say around 2 months....but...nothing's wrong with it and Red is very happy in her little home so, I guess it works lol.


----------



## Elleth

Glaston is looking so good now! Seriously I love all your fish.


----------



## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> I did decide on Glaston since no one gave me any opinions lol. But I'm saying it similar to Glisten where the t tends to be a little more silent, so the "Glass" part of it is emphasized since it sounded too much like Gaston and I wasn't so happy with that lol.
> 
> Depends on the tank. Usually around once a month or so. Sometimes every 2-3 weeks if something's off or needs a good cleaning. The 20 is due quite soon and I'll likely do it tomorrow or Saturday when I have time. The 1.5 and 4 actually hasn't been changed in.....oh I'm ashamed to say around 2 months....but...nothing's wrong with it and Red is very happy in her little home so, I guess it works lol.


Your really busy! I would have a headache doing so many water changes... Oh wait I forgot, Thats exactly what happens, LOL!!! Anyways, I'm glad everyone is doing great!!! 

I'd also like to tell you personally that I'll be starting a new spawn log with a new pair soon! Your one of the first people I've told, because your such a great person!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elleth said:


> Glaston is looking so good now! Seriously I love all your fish.


Thank you!! He's already eating like a piggy too! Let's hope that tail grows out a bit more :-D I'd love for him to keep that clear portion of it, but I won't mind if it colors up as well.



litelboyblu said:


> Your really busy! I would have a headache doing so many water changes... Oh wait I forgot, Thats exactly what happens, LOL!!! Anyways, I'm glad everyone is doing great!!!
> 
> I'd also like to tell you personally that I'll be starting a new spawn log with a new pair soon! Your one of the first people I've told, because your such a great person!


Lol, that's why I don't do them so often--well, that and the fact that I'd seriously mess up my tanks if I did them too often. Because of my well water, it would cause my pH to fluctuate like crazy and I think that was part of my issue before; too many water changes without aging water and it just all haywire and fish died. Though, not true about my Rainbows since I haven't done a lot to the 45, I did do a change on Wednesday or Tuesday...can't remember which day honestly.

Awww, you guys make me blush and smile! Thanks Blu! Which pair are you thinking about spawning?

OOOH I keep forgetting to tell everyone! I finally settled on a name for my little HMPK MG girl, Alloy's mate! She'll be dubbed Ally, short for Aluminum haha. It fits her though, she's such a little cutie! I need to flare her to Rowan since she's a little more docile than I'd like and Rowan is sure to get her all riled up! Alloy needs no help on his side of things lol.


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Heyy I'm glad Glaston is feeling better! He's such a pretty fish!
Have I ever mentioned how pretty your tanks are... hope I manage to plant my 29 like that.
Bowie's face expresion though XD "Why did you put me last??" ~pouts~
I have a question. After discovering Paradise fish, I did some research on them, to see if I could have one. I was really dissapointed when the websites said they had to be in big tanks- like 30 gallons. But you have yours in a 4 gallon- soooo? I'm not saying your not caring for him right at all- I really respect you. But if I can have one of those fish in a small tank like a could with a betta.. well, I would do that. :lol:
And, I could look it up, but I figured I'd ask you instead. Are rainbow fish easy to care for? Do they school/shoal? Are they good peacful communtiy fish? Thanks :3
Oh. and I love Aluminum's name!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks ^_^

The 4 gallon is only temporary. He was a baby fish when I got him and he's done a lot of growing since then! Minimum tank size for a Paradise fish is a 10 gallon for a single. I do recommend keeping them alone, unlike Betta's; most of these fish WILL kill everything in sight. Paradise killed the 3 White Cloud Minnows that were in with him before >.< Also, they are cooler water fish, so my 4 gallon has no heater and it stay sat 70-72 degrees all the time. It's a little higher now that the summer is coming but they can handle it as long as it isn't a sudden change.

Paradise will be rehomed to Hallyx if he still wants him, we'd made a deal a little while ago but I have to go check up on that. But yes, you are right, 4 gallons are too small for him.

Depends on the Rainbowfish but most of them are pretty easy to care for. Neon Dwarf Rainbows are some of the smaller ones that still have that larger body shape like my Boesemani. There are smaller ones like Gertrudae Rainbowfish that have beautiful fins. They're quite bossy when it comes down to it and yes, all Rainbowfish are schoolers; they need at least 5 to be really happy, they will be alright if you have less but the more you have is always better for them.

Here's a picture of a beautiful Gertrudae, they only get to an inch roughly (Pseudomugil Gertrudae)









Here are the Neon Dwarf Rainbows, only getting to 2 inches max.









The Boesemani is minimum of 30 gallons and almost all Rainbows prefer river type settings, so provide lots of flow for them. In my 45 gallon I have a 300 Penguin Bio-Wheel, it's rated for 70 gallons IIRC. They love to play in the flow and go against the current. The Dwarf Neon Rainbow should have at least 20 gallons long ideally, more is always better if you can. Like the Paradisefish, Rainbows are cooler water fish as well which is why my 45 is stocked poorly and I feel bad for my fish now. My Rams and Rummynose Tetra are high temp fish and Rainbows are low temps, a good example of a fish keeper dun screwed up lol. But I'm compromising at the moment until I can find a better solution, like to get rid of the Rainbows and keep hotter temperature fish. 

But in all, the larger Rainbows are generally very peaceful, they're a bit rambunctious so whenever I add in new fish; they will immediately go check him/her out and while they mean no harm, it can be really stressful for the new fish. They just get really excited to see something new and need to check it out is all. The smaller less than 2 inch Rainbows tend to be good still, just a little bossy. So if you go with them, then I recommend just doing one centerpiece fish that can handle the bossiness and then just some cories since they inhabit different parts of the water column; they won't bother the bottom dwellers.


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Thanks for all of that information! Wow, they're such pretty fish! I'll have to have them some day..
But I am a little dissapointed about the Paradise fish >.< Oh well. ;D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Np! I'm a wealth of (mostly) useless information haha! Okay, yes, I'll give myself a little more credit than that ;-)

It is said that you can house a pair (male and female) of Paradise in a community tank and they'll pretty much keep their attention on each other and not kill off others. I've been too afraid to test it out though, but it does make sense. Paradise is a very jealous fish lol, he hates when I'm looking at the 20/29 and is always at the glass, wanting attention. He's very much a water-dog in the sense that he's got his own personality and is very attentive to you. They certainly do make fantastic pets and if you ever get the chance, I'd definitely say go for it!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Such a cute name... I wish I could be creative with naming my fish... Lol.

I got the pair from the CBS auction, a yellow/sorta pineapple x blue grizzle double tail female


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Such a cute name... I wish I could be creative with naming my fish... Lol.
> 
> I got the pair from the CBS auction, a yellow/sorta pineapple x blue grizzle double tail female


Lol thanks! I just like themes and stuff so that helps a lot.

Sounds really nice!! Good luck with them!! :-D


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Ehh it's interesting, ya know? I love learning stuff like that. Besides..... you have to know that kind of information if you really want the fish...People who don't know anything probably can't give the best care and your really good so.. It works! :-D
Yeahh, I wouldn't want to try that. My community is doing really well right now. LOL he's jealous! XD
Yeah, I've read that about them. If I get the chance (translation-money) I definitely plan to. Until then.. ~wistful sigh~


----------



## lilnaugrim

This is what I come home to ^_^


Koi-girl


Red


Even Glaston through the other tank lol


Paradise



And my dwarf lily grew quick! I only got it Tuesday! Boy did I miss these lol



I did some changes to the 4 gallon today and while I was working on the 20/29, this is what Paradise does to me. He keeps snapping at the glass trying to get my attention lol



Took out some of the Cyperus Helferi, I was getting tired of how messy it looked. Still not pleased with it, I want to get some Dwarf Sag or something slightly shorter but bigger than the Microsword to stay in the back. But I put my small Amazon Sword in there for now until it gets bigger. I then transfered the other C. Helferi to the 29, didn't get a pic of it though.


Glaston is VERY happy lol


And here's how I do the water changes on the 20 without disturbing the substrate and is able to pour in the water very quickly.

Put the cup in and completely submerge it


And yeah, I needed another hand so I'm sorry it's not in focus lol. But as you can see, you aim for the cup and pour as slow or quick as you want and it doesn't disturb the substrate at all!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

If it wasn't a soil based tank that would make a mess pulling extras out I'd send you some pygmy chain swords.. but the last time I tried to pull one out of the bubble bowl I had to completely redo the substrate >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

I do have Pygmy chain Sword in there  There are some in the back still, most of what is in the 29 was pulled from the 20 ^_^ But it's so compact now that it really doesn't pull up much at all. I'll take a picture of all the roots underneath, it's quite awesome to see actually. What I do pull up though is easily siphoned out.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Happy Independence Day for all my US friends! Hope it was a good day for you all and everyone stayed out of trouble ;-)

We had a great cookout at my grandfather's as we do every year and have been doing since I was a little kid and even before (so that's at least 22 years!), cookin' up the hamburgers, drinking cold sodas, enjoying friendship and family, and lighting off fireworks!

Here are a couple pictures I took for your enjoyment!

My little brother, did some editing...obviously. I wish I didn't do as much, I can always redo it.


One of the old Donkey's on the farm


Beautiful Tiger Lily that I had trouble keeping steady for


Flags that we fly each year



Fireworks!






And then we had fun with the sparklers! I did these all without a tripod so if it seems a little shaky to you, that's why lol


Mom spelled out "mom" lol


Little bro did his name


Some more fun


We tried for "2015" lol, almost worked!


Then little bro had the fire torch and we tried that. Learned that you have to glow slower to get the same amount of light from it as the Sparklers, this is what happens when you go too fast


And then just dancing around with the flashlights on the cellphones ^_^


Good night all and hope your night is safe!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh yeah, forgot I had pics on my phone from Saturday as well.

My Grandpa's barn


All ready for the hayride!


Funny sign, we call this "Rt. 139" since we live off R. 138 lol, not real but we have fun on the farm!


Beautiful sun through the forest




Pond on my Grandpa's farm



Can you see the Canadian Geese? They nest here every year





Tiger, the farm kitty! He's about 10-12 years old roughly. He was dropped off near the farm and we adopted him, he is the most lovable kitty every!


Tiger on my Mom



Lovely clouds over the shed


And onto fishy pictures

I love this fish ^_^










Paradise



I can never get Velvet without his mouth shut lol



His son O


His daughter Red


Other daughter Splits


Rowan


Sam



I really like how the Staurogyne Repens have grown in!


Pierce


Romeo


Peacock


----------



## lilnaugrim

I forgot some pics!

I have an Ember Tetra who has internal bleeding, he seems okay though...still alive and eating fine, just...bleeding...


Koi-Girl went off to her forever home and so the 2.5 was open. Linda had a complication with ordering new fish and accidentally won a fish that she bid on before she found the White EE she'd been looking for forever. Soooo I'm getting him ^_^

So I dirted the 2.5 and set it up, just some plants thrown in.
I put it next to my Gecko tank since it was easiest to do


----------



## bubblesaurus

I love your tank setup (all of them) and your fish. You know a lot and are always posting helpful responses everywhere. 

So, are yellow bettas harder to find? Just curious. He looks like he's brightening up from your first photos of him.


----------



## lilnaugrim

bubblesaurus said:


> I love your tank setup (all of them) and your fish. You know a lot and are always posting helpful responses everywhere.
> 
> So, are yellow bettas harder to find? Just curious. He looks like he's brightening up from your first photos of him.


Aww thank you so much!

It depends on the area, some people have looooots of yellows, they just aren't as common in my area. We have lots of whites, reds, and blues.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I'm glad you went back and got your newest (at home) yellow betta boy, really like the irid/light blue touches in his fins ^^ Russel told me you took the grizzle off her hands for her. Amusing how the white EE (which she really wanted) only popped up *after *buying and bidding on 2 other fish (que head desk moment).

Also aaaaw I miss my barn cats..use to take care of a bunch of 'partial feral' kitties.. I think my highest count was 33 (they bred and inbred too much >.<)

Have you harvested any good aquatic plants from the pond?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep! I'm really happy to take the Grizzle, mom will kill me for the extra electricity but....yeah, oh well. 

With great responsibility...comes great electricity bill....


----------



## Strawberry12

lilnaugrim said:


> Beautiful Tiger Lily that I had trouble keeping steady for



had trouble keeping steady for, eh? ;-)


As always, your pictures are lovely. How do you recommend replanting the dwarf water lily bits once they pop off the bulb? i tried planting just the roots and not the little "nut" things, but they're super fragile!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> had trouble keeping steady for, eh? ;-)


I was very confused for a few minutes as I stared at this lol! I thought it was my Tiger Lily in my 10 gallon and not the pretty flower haha! I had to look back up to the photos to see what the heck I was talking about XD

Even though I did have a little...(we mixed Ginger Ale and Pineapple Vodka, mhmm!! yum yum), I was leaning over a fence and trying not to trip in the poison ivy. Suppose I could have given you all context as well haha!!



Strawberry12 said:


> As always, your pictures are lovely. How do you recommend replanting the dwarf water lily bits once they pop off the bulb? i tried planting just the roots and not the little "nut" things, but they're super fragile!


Thank you!

I just planted the roots in, but tried to keep most of the plantlet above the sand like you'd do for a Sword as well, just the roots and no more. That generally works well for me, I do that with the Water Sprite now and I've finally be able to grow it planted!! I think I was just burying it too deeply before was all.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Order Hydro. sp. Japan from AquaAurora and it came in yesterday! Happily planted it in most of my tanks!

And just pics in order that I took them

4 gallon



I didn't realize I still had this gigantic blob of subwassertang....whoops. I'll be selling that!


Here's the 20, planted the H. Japan in the middle three compartments


Each compartment from right to left.
This is my "throw away" compartment with Pierce and the two guppies....I don't really do anything to this section....like ever.


Rowan where I put a good chunk of the H. Japan


The middle is a little barren at the moment. Holds O and his guppy friend


Velvet


Sam's is one of my favorites. I need to clean up the back and get some sort of stem for the back part to complete it


And just some pics of the gang.
Rowan



Froggies! They both jumped into Rowan's compartment now :roll:


O's guppy companion


O


Velvet, always in motion


Sam is doing well!



Glaston was chasing after a worm ^_^


He pretends to be a tough fishy



His tank now. I moved the Lobelia Cardinalis to the side and back, pushed the Roman statue back and put the H. Japan in the middle to front to make a little path. Also, Glaston is growing his tail out I think!


At least, it looks longer to me!



He found a flake that accidentally went in with the tweezers :roll:


Red's little grassy paradise. I need to clean out the first little section so you can actually see the marble :roll:


After I was tired of planting the H. Japan, I just threw the rest into the 29 and pushed the Ludwigia back lol. Whatever grows will grow ^_^


It will look nice once it's grown though, H. Japan in the front, Ludwigia Repens in the middle and Rotala Indica in the back


And here's the little 2.5 set up in my brothers room. New arrival will come tomorrow for it!!



So yeah, Linda had an issue since she'd just bought two beautiful EE's and ended up having a bid on a beautiful Grizzle bi-color. So solution: I take him! He'll come in tomorrow and I'm super excited! Believe it or not, he'll be my first grizzle ever! :-D I'm debating over a couple names, Macklin is on the list (from Parks and Rec if you watch! lol) and possibly Radar from M*A*S*H since I haven't used that in over a year now and he wasn't even with me very long. We'll see how he acts when he comes in!

Here's what he looks like!


And lastly, the 45 is looking fantastically green! Hooray!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm loving how the tanks look!!!

Nice new fish ;-) he's surely a stunner, and I'll be waiting for pictures once he arrives!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Blu!

And absolutely! You know me and pics lol! Okay, maybe they'll be a day late, but that's okay ^_^ I still take them!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Glad you made good use of the hydro japan! ^^ Just give it a little time to acclimate and it should start growing. In the 10g is already growing after a week from planting it. I know you lost the axolotl (proper spelling?) but tossed in some black worms and salvia minima if you wanted to start a culture or just treat the fish. Did they make it alive or die from heat? I know they do better in cold water but I had no cool packs.

I got the cream illusion in the mail yesterday (ty for you great packing job! no smashed leaves). I had to hack off several leaves with holes so its a small plant right now but after de-dirting the roots and potassium permanganate dip I stuffed it on the 55g. Once it starts growing I'll rearrange things to give it a better spot for the nice contrast of color.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Glad you made good use of the hydro japan! ^^ Just give it a little time to acclimate and it should start growing. In the 10g is already growing after a week from planting it. I know you lost the axolotl (proper spelling?) but tossed in some black worms and salvia minima if you wanted to start a culture or just treat the fish. Did they make it alive or die from heat? I know they do better in cold water but I had no cool packs.
> 
> I got the cream illusion in the mail yesterday (ty for you great packing job! no smashed leaves). I had to hack off several leaves with holes so its a small plant right now but after de-dirting the roots and potassium permanganate dip I stuffed it on the 55g. Once it starts growing I'll rearrange things to give it a better spot for the nice contrast of color.


I did! Thanks!
Blackworms made it fine! I did just treat my fish since I wasn't ready for a culture. I completely killed them the last time by using those paper towels....if only I'd known about the bleaching beforehand lol. Oh well, they're pretty cheap at my LFS so I can always start up another culture if I need to. They seem to be pretty easy, easier than my White Worms and Grindals....speaking of which...maybe I should check up on them? whoops....it's been like a month since I've fed them >.< Sorry wormies!!

That's great! Glad it arrived well! I was really worried about the leaves but wasn't sure what else I could do. Yeah, I did figure you'd have to hack off a couple leaves with those dead spots, otherwise, I felt it was a great looking plant (other than the fact it was the only one left...lol). Hope it does well for you! :-D


----------



## BlueInkFish

Blackworms... I think I'll need to ask you (in the future) for some blackworms, because the lfs near here don't supply live foods. ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

That's a shame! That they don't supply live foods, I mean lol. I'm sure either one of us could oblige you ^_^ we also have brine shrimp and I have Daphnia, but they suck at shipping so if you did them they'd have to do overnight and that's...expensive >.<


----------



## Aqua Aurora

litelboyblu said:


> Blackworms... I think I'll need to ask you (in the future) for some blackworms, because the lfs near here don't supply live foods. ;-)


In the fall or winter when temperatures by you are cooler I'd have no issue shipping some down. In summer they may die from the heat in transit and you do *not *want to open a bag of dead black worms! Ugh smells so bad you could work as a bed pan cleaner in a nursing home after and not be phased (I'm saying dead black worms smells worst than bed pan duty.. haha double entendre).
I originally bought mine from easternaquatics.com The worms themselves are cheap but you pay for overnight shipping so its $35 x.x also they come with (harmless) leaches. Easy to get rid of but some are squeamish about. Leeches will stick tot eh sides of containers while worms will pour out so a couple pours back and forth between 2 containers and you can peel all the leeches off and dry them out. I never put any in a tank to see if something would eat them.. didn't want them multiplying if nothing munched 'em.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> In the fall or winter when temperatures by you are cooler I'd have no issue shipping some down. In summer they may die from the heat in transit and you do *not *want to open a bag of dead black worms! Ugh smells so bad you could work as a bed pan cleaner in a nursing home after and not be phased (I'm saying dead black worms smells worst than bed pan duty.. haha double entendre).
> I originally bought mine from easternaquatics.com The worms themselves are cheap but you pay for overnight shipping so its $35 x.x also they come with (harmless) leaches. Easy to get rid of but some are squeamish about. Leeches will stick tot eh sides of containers while worms will pour out so a couple pours back and forth between 2 containers and you can peel all the leeches off and dry them out. I never put any in a tank to see if something would eat them.. didn't want them multiplying if nothing munched 'em.



Yep, they're nasty. But they arrived all well.

Yeah a big portion for me (a little over 1/8 a cup) of worms is 1.50 at my LFS ^_^ and yep, mine come with the Leech's in it occasionally. They are a bit gross but I deal with them fine.

I don't mind worms of any time but any other bug, yuuuuuccckkkk. A big ol' bucket of NOPE!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Yep, they're nasty. But they arrived all well.
> 
> Yeah a big portion for me (a little over 1/8 a cup) of worms is 1.50 at my LFS ^_^ and yep, mine come with the Leech's in it occasionally. They are a bit gross but I deal with them fine.
> 
> I don't mind worms of any time but any other bug, yuuuuuccckkkk. A big ol' bucket of NOPE!


Not even those cute rollipolli bugs(Isopods) as microfauna to clean up (and be snacks) in dartfrog vivs?


----------



## BlueInkFish

You guys are silly! I'll defeniatley keep you guys in mind when I need Blackworms, the closest fish shop that supplies live food is a 30-45 minute drive from my house, they supply brine shrimp and bloodworms. But, taking a drive down there is not worth it for me unless I go on a fish shopping spree ;-)


----------



## Strawberry12

where did you find your Hara Jerdoni, lil? I want one! They're so mysterious.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, I guess my issue more lies with the flying bugs that fly into my face >.> I DO NOT LIKE THAT! I can't even stand Butterflies when they fly into my face! I love to look but it freaks me out!

As long as the Pill Bugs stay in the tank, I'm good. I know I'll be needing them for my Vivarium. I will NOT go with the centipedes though, absolutely a big no-no!

I'm good with small bugs, like little gnats even though they're annoying as all hell, I'm not afraid of them as I am with spiders and flying buggies. I like bumblebee's and honey bee's but I will still freak out when they fly near me, I like to watch the bumbles collect the pollen and nectar from our flowering bushes though. There is one that I don't know the name of, it's next to our Forsythia bush, but they looooove that bush.

And Strawberry, he came from Critter Hut in Narragansett! If we ever do our trip (which I still want to do) and go down that way, I know he still has like 3-4 of them for 4.99 now (of course price went up! I got mine for 2.99 which is why I was like suuurrreee! They're expensive everywhere else!). I still want to add a couple since I know they're supposed to be in a school and I felt bad about that. He's still in there though, I found a glimpse of him yesterday ^_^ So yeah, if you don't mind never seeing your fish, they're totally cool to have haha! But yeah, I can get them for you or ship them up to you since it only take a day pretty much, not bad at all :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ever wonder what the underside of a dirted tank looks like? Well, I have your answer because I'm weird and I take lots of pictures. Here's what the bottom of my 20 looks like. Sometimes I'm still freaked out that this tank has nothing supporting the underside of it. I tend to think about worse-case scenarios sometimes because my imagination is too damn overactive and I worry about things :-( 

Anyway, enjoy the view!
This is the left side, most of those roots are Pygmy Chain Swords and my little Amazon 'Tropica' Sword, it's a mini Sword and I love it! Originally from Kaffrin who was on this site for a while but hasn't been here in a while.


Middle-ish area


We've got some mold growing under the last divider here and towards the front. Not too many roots here, most of it is stem plants above. 


H. Japan already righted itself and I'm pretty sure it started to grow lol


WHAT'S THAT?!


Silly froggie border jumped all five compartments lol!


2.5 near the Leo tank needs some more Myrio for some cover since my fishy comes in today! I don't want him to bite due to too bright of light!


I see you Hawkeye! lol


He likes to look at the tank apparently, they all do. It will be interesting once a fishy goes in there ^_^


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I can cheap, my bubble bowl is curved so I can see roots against the glass below the substrate. 
Hey can you snap a shot of your tropica? I got one a while ago I think it transitioned either from high light to medium light or emersed to immersed old leaves very rounded and short, new leaves very narrow and pointed (and longer). All the images I see of it on Google have the fat/short rounded leaves.


----------



## Strawberry12

Oh awesome, thanks! And yes to the trip  

I just messaged Tropic Isle to see if they'll special order some for me, I'll let you know what they say.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I can cheap, my bubble bowl is curved so I can see roots against the glass below the substrate.
> Hey can you snap a shot of your tropica? I got one a while ago I think it transitioned either from high light to medium light or emersed to immersed old leaves very rounded and short, new leaves very narrow and pointed (and longer). All the images I see of it on Google have the fat/short rounded leaves.


Yeah, it looks exactly like an Amazon Sword but small.
I'm not home yet so here's a pic, you can see it in Velvet's compartment second from the left in the front


I realize it's not a full pic but you can sort of see the leaves. I can take better pics of it when I get home if you like




Strawberry12 said:


> Oh awesome, thanks! And yes to the trip
> 
> I just messaged Tropic Isle to see if they'll special order some for me, I'll let you know what they say.


Yay! And yeah, definitely let me know ^_^ I feel like they probably will, their customer service was pretty good I feel.


----------



## Strawberry12

I agree! We were the only ones in the store when we went, and everyone was super chatty and funny to talk to. They were ordering lunch and even asked if we wanted anything hahaha


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Thank you. Mines the same way. Wonder if all the google photos are just of freshly planted previously emersed grown tropica..or if it only stays rounded and short in high like co2 tanks.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, you might be seeing the Rosette Sword? Echinodorus Parviflorus. That's this one:


I've owned that one as well. My Sword is Echinodorus Amazonicus var. Tropica


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Yeh and you see how the leaves changed and got more pointed and narrow between first and second photo

Photo from first few days (left side of tank):


Most recent (same plant-just left of wood):


----------



## lilnaugrim

Huh! Interesting! My Rosette always kept the short fat leaves with the little points at the ends. When I received my Tropica from Kaffrin, it was smaller than your plant, let me see if I can find it, I know I took pictures of it. ...........

Here it is. Wow that took forever to find. But obviously, focused on the Rainbowfish. It's to the right, very very tiny


----------



## lilnaugrim

And guess who came in today happily! I do believe I will be naming him Macklin, he is a little...dumb, not the brightest bulb of my bunch lol!

Here he is in the bag, yeah, I realize you can't really see him lol


Seller included a tiny thing of food, thought that was cute


Into the cup!




Drip acclimated for a while in the dark and now floating in these pics






Into the tank!






Woooo, red eye!








Pretty scales, I think he'll be marbling to totally blue body, I won't be sad at that if it happens



Checking out the plants







He has pretty pectoral fins too!






This was funny, he got himself stuck in the plants




And then from here he turned all the way around so he back was to me.


He stayed that way for a moment and then he saw me and immediately flipped like this and stayed, switching his eyes to me and the plants like he was saying "You didn't just seem me do that..." lol





And just some of Glaston



His tank


----------



## BlueInkFish

Ooooooooooh my gawwwwwwwsh!!!! IM SO JEALOUS!!!! He's so prettttty!!!!! You're very lucky, I may have to borrow him for awhile... *whistles*


----------



## lilnaugrim

lol Blu. Thanks, he is a cutie! Still not the brightest bulb but he's settling in!

Went around the state today to some of my LFS's. I had to get more PraziPro for the 45 gallon. I ended up with SeaChem Regulator as well, I want to try it on the 45 first to see if it helps out my fish. Need to do some more reading on it but hopefully it helps with the cycle and my fishes!

I bought some Rotala Wallichii today, very beautiful bunch. Some went into Macklin's tank and some went to the 20. Once it propagates enough, I want to use that and Rotala Indica in Bowie's 3 gallon to make a nice bunch towards the back of it.

Then I also bought a beautiful piece of green glass, it's a fair big hunk, just under a pound. I didn't get any pics of it but I can't figure out which tank to put it in! I think I may end up with it in the 45 just because there is room, there is no floor space left in my 29...it's all taken up by plants! Heck, can't even find my cories half the time because of my many plants I have lol! But the owner said that he also has some Amber glass coming out, that's what I REALLY want! I only bought the green before he talked to me about it and I'm kind of sad I bought it, but for 1.32....that's not bad at all and I can live with it. I didn't want green since all my tanks are...green with plants, not that that is a bad thing but still  But I WILL be getting that Amber glass when it comes out!

I also bought four ghost shrimp to go into Macklin's tank to see how he fairs with them. There are enough plants in there that the bioload won't barely make a difference. I really wanted the Dwarf Mexican Crayfish but I wanted to make sure he can behave himself before investing in a 10 dollar crayfish!

Here Macklin spots the shrimp and slowly creeps up on him



He sat like this for a while, the shrimp was feeling him up and I'm not so sure Macklin was enjoying that lol He ended up trying to nip but the shrimp vaulted himself away, he didn't bother after that.


Lookin' through the plants ^_^


Grrr, looks so evil!



FTS. Rotala Wallichii back right corner, Pogostemon Erectus in front of it, Limnophila Aromatica to the left of the R. Wallichii. Hydrocotyle sp. Japan in the foreground. Myriophyllum Mattogrosense back left and in front of that is Lobelia Cardinalis.


My Dwarf Lily look way more impressive in real life than it does in this picture lol


And planted the rest of the R. Wallichii in the back of the 20 in the middle three sections here


----------



## artemis35

Lil, your tanks and fish are all gorgeous (as usual!)

I'll bet that the rotala wallichii grows great for you. 

My water here in Boston is very similar to yours, and r. wallichii grows like a (very pretty) weed for me. It is one of my favorite plants.

I started with a _single_ bunch from PAC last fall. I now have lots of it in almost every one of my 10 currently planted tanks


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks artemis! Yeah Rotala always does well for me so I'm sure it will double in just about two weeks haha.

Macklin likes to use it as a bed :-D
He already saw me so he already started to move







Glaston flares on command! Starting to train him to continue that since I've never really had one do that before :-D I have flaring Betta's of course, but not normally to my finger is all








It's been a while since I've had Whole Tank Shots so here's the 29. The Dwarf Lily sends up pads nearly every day.


20 looks so grungy


Glaston's 1 gallon


Red's 1.5 gallon


Sam


Velvet


Orange's fins are getting long!


Sorry for potato picture. Rowan and Pierce


My Arrowheads


All my other plants


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Is that dragon's tongue by the arrowhead (not the variegated grass, behind that)? If so that work as a riparium plant ^_~
also I see toothless!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, it is and yes, I know 

I actually have to downsize....everything...so...no more plants or fish or anything..I'll be putting things up for sale very soon once I compile all my pics and stuff.


----------



## Elsewhere

No more plants or fish? Holy crap, that sucks! Is it because of the geckos?


----------



## Strawberry12

*grabby hands* i'll take it all!


----------



## lilnaugrim

No, not because of the geckos. Mom is thinking about selling the house and while it's certainly no definite thing and it's likely not going to happen any time soon, I am almost 23 and still living in my mom's house....I'll be done with college is just about a year (hopefully) and I can't do a lot around RI unfortunately because our economy sucks and there really aren't many jobs around. The best option right now is living with my dad (muuuuch smaller house, only room for geckos) and working with him at Electric Boat (EB), government submarine designing place. I could get in fairly easily with all the people/family I know who work there and with my degree; it's good for designing and such. That'd start to get me on my feet at least.

And I meant just no more house plants, I will probably still buy the aquatic plant here and there but no more house plants. Oh and I did forget to mention the Dragon's Tongue and the Spider Plant are my memorial plants for Rembrandt, Aero, and Hawkeye sooooo I won't be moving them lol, not so much that I didn't want them to be riparium plants, but I just felt it disrespectful to them. 

So my plan is to no breed Ally and Alloy, I want to see if I can find someone here who will breed them to continue their glorious lines, they will make beautiful babies. I will take down the 10, put the remaining plants into the 20 and 29. The 20 and 29 will stay up for some time.

Orange, Red, and Splits have all been adopted and so they'll be shipped out soon. Orange (male) and my remaining yellow male guppy will go to Skitters on the forum here. Red and Splits will be going to another member once she get's her dividers in 

I want to keep my smaller tanks until September, that's when our Annual Fish Auction and Show is. We can show tanks as well so I want to show off my nano's: the 4 gallon, 1.5, 1g, and Macklin's 2.5 will go in. I'll also be showing Photographs in the Photo contest as well. Not sure if I'll show any fish though, maybe an Ember Tetra or Romeo if he cooperates with me since he is a beautiful fish. 

Once that's all said and done, I'll take down everything except the 4 gallon, 20, 29, and then the 45 downstairs will stay up as well as long as mom is willing to have it up.

I'll be keeping Sam for quite a while, he's the one Betta I really have an affinity for at the moment. I love all my others but Rowan and Velvet are just breeders to me. Glaston and Macklin are fantastic but I haven't had them very long.

Here will be a list of things I'll be eventually selling off:
Fish:
Paradise (gourami)
Rowan (female VT)
Velvet (male VT)
Pierce (male DTPK)
Alloy (male PK)
Ally (female HMPK)
Macklin (male HM)
Glaston (male VT)

I'll sell off the 1.5 probably how it is, I can drain it and pack it with damp paper towels and ship as is if anyone will want a grass tank. It will come with the 25 W Hydor Theo adjustable and the SolarFlare 6,700K LED light and the small red marble cut as well. The grass has grown all over so that will keep the sand in place, not worried about shipping since it's just acrylic.

I will likely sell off all my plants as well that don't fit into the 20, 29, 4, or 45. 

Mom is still attached to Bowie and Blue downstairs so I won't sell them off of course.


----------



## Elsewhere

I would love to take Pierce from you, he's been my favourite in all of your pictures. Such an adorable little guy. But, y'know, Canada (deep sigh). Unless you want to somehow figure out illegal transportation xD


----------



## Tealight03

I'm sorry you have to downsize. What a tough decision. I may be interested in some plants if you have any down the road.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> I would love to take Pierce from you, he's been my favourite in all of your pictures. Such an adorable little guy. But, y'know, Canada (deep sigh). Unless you want to somehow figure out illegal transportation xD


Thanks but yeah, no illegal transportation for me! I don't have any friends up there right now that could take him to ship to you unfortunately!


----------



## Elsewhere

I figured as much. I hope he goes to a great home with the rest of your fishy friends!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I'm sorry you have to downsize. What a tough decision. I may be interested in some plants if you have any down the road.


Thanks. It is tough and I doubt I'll ever fully get out of the hobby but for now it will ahve to go on hiatus. This does not mean I'll be leaving the forum by any means! I just won't have as many fish is all.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Aww, I hope everything plans out well!

Also, don't leave us hanging, we'd likes some more pictures now and then ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh of course! I'll never actually stop updating or being around, I'll just have less fish and tanks ^_^


----------



## BlueInkFish

Hehe, well, I guess that means you'll need to inform us when you get some new fish in the future ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Hehe, well, I guess that means you'll need to inform us when you get some new fish in the future ;-)


I always do and always will! You should know that!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Ok how much for the 1.5 set up? I'll buy it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Ok how much for the 1.5 set up? I'll buy it!


Haven't decided yet. Not selling until end of September though, still want to show it in our fish show. I've put a lot of work into it and with all the amenities it will probably be 30-40 bucks.

The light alone is 20 bucks, heater is 14-17 depending on what time of year you buy it. And then tank was 10, and then all that grass I've grown ^^

Not listing out for anyone's benefit but mine, just helps me reason out a price lol.

I'll have some nice pics up soon


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Haven't decided yet. Not selling until end of September though, still want to show it in our fish show. I've put a lot of work into it and with all the amenities it will probably be 30-40 bucks.
> 
> The light alone is 20 bucks, heater is 14-17 depending on what time of year you buy it. And then tank was 10, and then all that grass I've grown ^^
> 
> Not listing out for anyone's benefit but mine, just helps me reason out a price lol.
> 
> I'll have some nice pics up soon


K sorry was just excited about the dhg tank ^^''


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, that's okay. You can buy it once I'm done with everything 

Pics

Saaaaammmm!



Velvet! He's my little weathervane! He blows bubblenests when it's going to rain ^_^


Orange and his male guppy shipped off today! So Splits went into the 20 center section until she and Red are shipped off ^_^





Rowan



I don't think Pierce is feeling so well...he's been a little lethargic and his poops take forever :-/ may be internal parasites....darnit....


Remaining Guppy girl. My snakeskin Lyretail male randomly died the other day, it was weird! Just on the sand, dead. Wasn't expecting that, I'm not overly sad or anything, it was just unexpected


Glaston!



His flare!




Paradise


I also have a giant lily pad. I decided to let a few grow out and this is what I got. This looks way more like a Tiger Lily than a Dwarf Lily! Mine never had those spots before!


Romeo!


Red



Macklin




I've already got algae growing haha




Shrimpy


And the tank


----------



## Mo

Wow your tanks are so amazing! As are your fish, especially Sam and macklin, they're beautiful!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Mo


----------



## Mo

Where do you get your plants? I'd like more than 3-4 varieties right now haha


----------



## Elleth

Glaston is just so darn handsome!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I think once their up for sale, you have a potential buyer for Macklin... ;-)

He may also get a breeding buddy... If he ever gets in my hands that is...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Mo said:


> Where do you get your plants? I'd like more than 3-4 varieties right now haha


I have a lot of stores around me and I buy online as well.



Elleth said:


> Glaston is just so darn handsome!


Thanks ^_^ He is a cutie!!



litelboyblu said:


> I think once their up for sale, you have a potential buyer for Macklin... ;-)
> 
> He may also get a breeding buddy... If he ever gets in my hands that is...


That's fine, not sure if he'll breed or not, he's a very gentle fish so I'd be worried about him getting beat up if the girl is too vigorous for him. I don't mind though if you wanted to try.


----------



## lilnaugrim

My Rotala is already turning wicked red again haha! It had green growth from the LFS since they didn't have as strong of light.


Macklin this morning since I took pics of my Leo's and so it was just convenient that he was next to them 



I find it interesting that he lost the blue around his body that was previously on his fins. You can see it best in that last picture! Normally the blue takes over, not recedes like that! I had been checking to see if the blue expanded on his body or not and found that instead! Here's his auction picture:


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Some of my dwarf lily leaves have the red spots too, but I don't let them hit the surface before they get clipped.

The leaves are a darker orange/red in person-camera makes them look lighter.


----------



## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> I have a lot of stores around me and I buy online as well.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks ^_^ He is a cutie!!
> 
> 
> 
> That's fine, not sure if he'll breed or not, he's a very gentle fish so I'd be worried about him getting beat up if the girl is too vigorous for him. I don't mind though if you wanted to try.


A gentle boy eh? Maybe not good then. The female I have is a monster... When I tried breeding her, she bit the boys tail and hung on it like a rope... But maybe I'll take him as a pet because he's just so pretty!! Hehe!

I loooove those pictures of Macklin. I'm obsessing over him...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, well, you can claim him if you know that you can absolutely home him, otherwise, try not to get my hopes up! Obviously, I know situations change and all, but all the same; I prefer to know for sure.

----------------------------------------
Tropical Fish Society of RI met last night and in the Bowl Show, I brought Paradise with me! He wasn't so happy but he won third place :-D

Gimli is getting so big!!


And just a short video, he was learning "wait" last night ^_^


Macklin wanted to show you all how lovely our tanks stay during the summer without a heater! He's a very happy fish


And I just thought that this was hilarious, the Oto was just chilling on the tiny rotala stem....I love these little fish!


Mr. Gold Ram is getting big and beautiful!!


I thought Mr. Rainbow Shark was going to die from the Gill Flukes that my 45 has been suffering from, I've had 5 of my Rainbows die on me, I only have 3 left and it looks like two more might go. Only one has stayed healthy the entire time. But Mr. Rainbow Shark did not look good for a few days, I didn't think he was going to make it but he's doing great now!

Oh and before you get all up on me, the gill flukes did NOT come from the Rainbow Shark and my lack of QT'ing him. It actually started a week before he came home when the first female Rainbow died randomly and I couldn't figure out why they were dying and not feeling well. It was when Mr. Rainbow Shark became infected as well that I figured out that it was likely Gill Flukes. Thankfully I caught it in time for him but not for some of my other Rainbows since it was left untreated probably around two weeks :-/



One of my GBR's is officially a boy! So they WERE mating that one time in the 3 gallon lol. So funny!



Still haven't gone about trying to catch the three Long Fin Serpae Tetras


Three remaining Rainbows


Happy little Rummynose Tetras


And Velvet my little weatherman! The higher the bubblenest goes generally the worse the rainstorm. It was POURING cats and dogs and buckets out yesterday! I drove through it on the highway! It was so bad that we were all going like 20-30 miles an hour because we couldn't see sh*t!! But I made it just fine


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hey! I just hit over 19,000 posts ^_^ I'm ridiculous! lol

So once everything is all said and done, I'm only going to keep Sam and I'm going to take the dividers out of the 20 long except his last section. That will give 16 gallons of space which I will move my Ember Tetras, Gelius Barbs, Cories (if I have any left), Hera Jeradoni, and my Peacock Gudgeon will all go into that. And because I've always wanted Tiger barbs, I'll have those in the 29 with a Red Tailed Black Shark because I want one!

In my 4 gallon I will have a couple Celestial Pearl Danios once Paradise is rehomed and probably some shrimp. I'll get some shrimp in the 1.5 once Red is homed in a week or so, that will be nice in the Fish Show in September.

For the fish Show, I'm going to show my 1.5 grass tank, the 4 gallon rimless, and the 2.5 that Macklin is in right now.

Also going to show a lot of my photography as well.

For fish, I may show my Golden Ram, the GBR boy (or a pair, they can go in together, the male and female GBRs), probably my nice female Rummynose, female Ember Tetra, Peacock Gudgeon if she's big enough by then, maybe my large female C. Habrosus.

I also have two lovey Panda Cories in the 45, the remaining two and they're a pair! I love it. I want to show them but I don't want to disturb things because they're so sensitive! Maybe I'll chance it though....they're getting big! So proud! I need to buy everyone another potion of Blackworms to congratulate growing haha.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I love it when my fat otos do that just perch and hover on their bellies thing. First time my husband saw that with the otos in his larger tank he thought it was dead thankfully not though ^^ Gratz on placing at the show btw!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I love it when my fat otos do that just perch and hover on their bellies thing. First time my husband saw that with the otos in his larger tank he thought it was dead thankfully not though ^^ Gratz on placing at the show btw!


Lol yeah, my mom loves them too. She loves Gobies as well but I haven't found any to replace the ones that died previously!

And thanks, I did forget to mention there were only four fish in the show lol! It's nothing big, just a little cute thing to do during our meetings every month is all


----------



## BettaBoy11

lilnaugrim said:


> Hey! I just hit over 19,000 posts ^_^ I'm ridiculous! lol
> 
> So once everything is all said and done, I'm only going to keep Sam and I'm going to take the dividers out of the 20 long except his last section. That will give 16 gallons of space which I will move my Ember Tetras, Gelius Barbs, Cories (if I have any left), Hera Jeradoni, and my Peacock Gudgeon will all go into that. And because I've always wanted Tiger barbs, I'll have those in the 29 with a Red Tailed Black Shark because I want one!
> 
> In my 4 gallon I will have a couple Celestial Pearl Danios once Paradise is rehomed and probably some shrimp. I'll get some shrimp in the 1.5 once Red is homed in a week or so, that will be nice in the Fish Show in September.
> 
> For the fish Show, I'm going to show my 1.5 grass tank, the 4 gallon rimless, and the 2.5 that Macklin is in right now.
> 
> Also going to show a lot of my photography as well.
> 
> For fish, I may show my Golden Ram, the GBR boy (or a pair, they can go in together, the male and female GBRs), probably my nice female Rummynose, female Ember Tetra, Peacock Gudgeon if she's big enough by then, maybe my large female C. Habrosus.
> 
> I also have two lovey Panda Cories in the 45, the remaining two and they're a pair! I love it. I want to show them but I don't want to disturb things because they're so sensitive! Maybe I'll chance it though....they're getting big! So proud! I need to buy everyone another potion of Blackworms to congratulate growing haha.


Yes, yes, you are ridiculous... LOL Just joking... 
I'm subscribing... So give me an update... How many fish do you have?


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBoy11 said:


> Yes, yes, you are ridiculous... LOL Just joking...
> I'm subscribing... So give me an update... How many fish do you have?


Bettas:
Sam
Velvet
Splits (she'll be leaving soon)
Rowan
Pierce
Red (she'll be leaving soon)
Alloy
Ally
Glaston
Macklin
Blue
Bowie

Total: 12

29 Gallon:
14 Ember Tetras
4 Gelius Barbs (Golden Dwarf Barbs)
6 Corydoras Habrosus
1 Stone Asian Catfish (Dwarf Anchor Cat)
1 Peacock Gudgeon
3 Female Guppies
1 Pearl Gourami
1 RTBS (I did get one in anticipation of switching my tanks around. He's so small)

Total: 31

4 Gallon:
Paradisefish

Total: 1

45 Gallon:
3 Boesemani Rainbowfish
8 Rummynose Tetra
3 Long Fin Serpae Tetra
5 Otocinclus
2 GBR
1 Gold Ram
(1 Betta)
2 Panda Corydoras
1 Rainbow Shark

Total: 25

Grand Total: 69 :rofl:


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday I ended up having a really bad anaphlactic reaction to some Whey. I knew I was allergic to the protein (it's in all daily products so similar to being lactose-intolerant) but I thought I was more just intolerant to it, not actually allergic. Well, I've been drinking this Protein shake for breakfast for like two months now and I've always had sort of increased mucous in the throat and a little bloating and other intestinal issues, I didn't think it was solely attributed to the Whey! Turns out that yeah, all that was caused by the Whey in the drink!!

So my throat started to close up and I had to take an emergency antihistamine to help that and the excessive itching all over my body, also from the whey. I thought that was due to possible new reaction to poison ivy (I have a different reaction from normal bubbles, I get a very minimal amount and barely any itching, so essentially I'm not allergic to Poison Ivy) or blueberries since I'm intolerant to a good chunk of them and the chemicals on them as well (even though we wash them after picking).

So I normally take my antihistamine (Zyrtec) at night because it makes me so sleepy and I'm also anemic as well (darn, forgot my iron today >.<) as most women are. So all these issues build up and I crashed yesterday. I did go to my LFS to get some worms and shrimp for the fishes, I almost fell asleep on the way home and debated pulling over a few times to take a nap. I got home, forgot to feed the fish and took a 3.5 hour nap....

Got up and ate dinner, up for about 2 hours before I went back to sleep after I posted that post last night. I slept soundly as well.

All better today though, no itching, no mucous, no coughing, no lump/swelling throat! No more whey.

Also some pics from the LFS because I had enough sense to do that at least.

One of my favorite Salt fishes! The Red Ruby Dragonet!


I can't remember the name of this fish but he has very sensitive feelers that help him seek out copepods and amphipods! He kept bugging the Dragonet though lol


I've never seen these in real life before! They were actually Altum Angelfish!!! All the angel fish you see in stores are the Scalare species. These guys are very rare and have different requirements than Scalare do. They were tiny and beautiful! They get up to a foot tall
And of course they were hiding on me



Can see in the reflection there


They will eventually look like this:


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> I've never seen these in real life before! They were actually Altum Angelfish!!! All the angel fish you see in stores are the Scalare species. These guys are very rare and have different requirements than Scalare do. They were tiny and beautiful! They get up to a foot tall
> And of course they were hiding on me
> 
> 
> 
> Can see in the reflection there
> 
> 
> They will eventually look like this:


I think its time for a 75g and a couple of these, you pH (when its behaving) is low enough for them, right ^.~ DO you know if they were wild caught or tank bred?
I love alumns! I ended up buying my silver angelfish as she's the 'closest' I can get to one of those.


----------



## andakin

I'm not a fan of angels, but I too prefer the altums.


----------



## lilnaugrim

How am I supposed to have a 75 and downsize at the same time?? haha!

They were a deal to! Only 20 bucks per fish! And I didn't ask about being WC or CB since I knew I couldn't have them.

Also....my pH is apparently not behaving!! Since I've been using the SeaChem Replenish, I figured it was only going to affect my GH and possibly KH. Apparently it also affects pH after a while!

I had also won a bottle of pH Increase by Kordon from the fish meeting. So I was going to use that in my tanks to see if it'd help some.
My 4 gallon is apparently sitting at 9.0 pH.....
Here's the Tetra test


Tested with API since I wasn't sure, the Tetra test is a little old. I don't own the high pH test since....I never thought I'd need it!
It read off the charts on the API as well


So I tested my 20 before adding drops in. I didn't picture GH and KH since...they don't have charts, just count the drops. My 20 long was 5 dKH and 5-6 dGH and off the chart pH without any pH Increase in it at all!!!!


It's not like it's Old Tank syndrome either, I did a water change last week! It was a good 40% too! This is all very confusing!

So went downstairs to test the 45, that pH tested at 6.5 so that was a little more reasonable. I did add half the dose of pH Increase to help with that. All my fish seem to be happy otherwise, well, besides the gill flukes. I have one more fish who is showing symptoms, everyone else is either all healed up if they were infected or never showed symptoms at all..

So here's the pic of the test


----------



## lilnaugrim

Took some pics of my 45 fishes.

Absolutely love my Golden Ram, he's absolutely beautiful!


Trying to figure out if my GBR's are male/female. I'm pretty sure I have two females despite their first dorsals being a bit longer. They aren't as long as the Golden. They do look more female to me though






Blue


Blue flaring at the Ram


Longfin Red Minor


Happy little Rummynose. Pretty sure they're false Rummynose H. Bleheri


Rainbow Shark



Other GBR, she's got a nick in her forehead. Might be from the glass


Rainbowfeesh!



Wish the eyes were in focus but my Panda Cories are getting so big! I love them!


Oto!


Rams


All 3 together


I think the Gold and this GBR (not nicked one) are pairing. They pretty much always hang together but all three end up together quite frequently as well.


Bowie




Also, this is in my 10 breeder with the giant java fern mat on the driftwood. Some Dwarf Water Lettuce and Myrio are actually growing emersed! What'dya know ;-)


Whoops, also forgot the FTS


And the 29


----------



## andakin

lilnaugrim said:


> Happy little Rummynose. Pretty sure they're false Rummynose H. Bleheri


I don't like how the industry has coined the name "False Rummynose", or False anything. It makes the fish is sound inferior. 

This fish is probably even nicer than the "True" variety. It has more red stretching pass the gills. Depending, on where you look, the _bleheri _is called the "Common".


----------



## lilnaugrim

andakin said:


> I don't like how the industry has coined the name "False Rummynose", or False anything. It makes the fish is sound inferior.
> 
> This fish is probably even nicer than the "True" variety. It has more red stretching pass the gills. Depending, on where you look, the _bleheri _is called the "Common".


They didn't call them False, I did. I couldn't remember what they're normally called and I frankly don't care too much either lol. But I agree, they do look nicer. I like the fuller bodies


----------



## ao

So many sparkly fish!!!! I do like the close ups


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I think your suspected female ram is a girl. Females get pink bellies and I think the male's 'mow-hawk' (front of dorsal) is a bit longer/flashier looking than that one's. Lovely photos as always.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I think your suspected female ram is a girl. Females get pink bellies and I think the male's 'mow-hawk' (front of dorsal) is a bit longer/flashier looking than that one's. Lovely photos as always.


Yes but males can also have pinkish/red bellies. Though, it's more of the iridescence. Females also supposedly have the blue irid through the black spot but I've had a male that had it through his black spot before as well. And females also supposed have the black fun through the entire ventral fin like both of them have, not sure how solid that one is though as far as sexing id'ing goes.

But thanks ^_^ I love taking photos of the Ram's, they're just so photogenic!


----------



## Elsewhere

I realized yesterday exactly how much of your journal I've missed reading... trying to go back and get to the present! Your tanks are always so gorgeous, just like those rams!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elsewhere said:


> I realized yesterday exactly how much of your journal I've missed reading... trying to go back and get to the present! Your tanks are always so gorgeous, just like those rams!


Yeah, you were away a while ^_^

Thanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I realized today that adding Excel causes my algae and java mosses to actually pearl! I thought it was just bubbles when I add new water since I never really noticed if it was during any specific time but I have been cutting back on the Excel (it's only an algalcide anyway). I dosed everything today and with all the nutrients, my low light plants actually pearled lol! I haven't done a water change this week or a top off either.





Also, does it look like the white is taking over Macklin's body?! I've NEVER seen that happen before, at least, not white over blue! I've seen white over red/yellow/black but not blue before!




Pic from what I got him last week:
Maybe it was just the lighting?



He's definitely changed from his eBay photo though


----------



## Elsewhere

Yeah, he seems to slowly be turning white to me too... weird! He's still gorgeous, though. Such a pretty fish!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I told ao I'd get pics of my PetCo to show you all how it's set up.

So the Betta's are up front on this one but kind of all over too. This is normally where the babies are kept but there was only adults and moss balls here today


Front of the display where most of the fancy ones are.


Other side where most of the VT's are kept but occasionally Kings and whatever else they want to put there


And more on top of the Koi tank


The back where all the rest of the fish are kept!


Average looking PetCo tank


Cutie Platinum Gourami



Blue Lobstaaaaahhh


Their Saltwater section is absolutely beautiful too!



Goby


How the tanks look


Damsel's and Clowns


We even have corals!


Cardinals


We even have Discus that we've kept alive for a couple months now, they're all healthy too


Beautiful black Angel


Nomnom time!



Cichlid tanks. Love these Firemouths!



My least favorite tanks; the GloFish tank






And some beautiful betta's





This boy was absolutely gorgeous!



Video of the tanks


Macklin's probable white progress



And I bought a giant moss ball. The biggest one I could find at PetCo. It did have a dead spot so I picked that out and the rest seemed just fine. Rinsed it out, smooshed it and rolled it back into a ball and threw it into Bowie's tank.

Mom had been talking about the moss balls before and so I figured I'd get one for her to look at. She had "learned" some things about it from a friend and tried to tell me it cleaned the water and the betta will pick at it and all that jazz lol. But I let her know that's not quite how it works but yes, it is a live plant so yes. it does help clean the tank but not better than the plants I already have in there. But I knew she'd enjoy it all the same. She noticed it instantly when she came home


----------



## Boshia

You take such great pictures, your journal is so lovely to look at! If you don't mind sharing, what camera do you use?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Boshia said:


> You take such great pictures, your journal is so lovely to look at! If you don't mind sharing, what camera do you use?


Thanks! It's changed over the years. At first it was the canon powershot. Then I bought a Canon Rebel XS and have a T5i (I think) but most of the long stretched pics are from my phone which is a Moto X 1st gen.


----------



## ao

Wow, Those bettas look amazing! thank's for tanking the photos, as you said the tanks looked well cared for. My petco look bigger but always has dead fish/shrimps the other fish are feeding on in the tank. And dead bettas, always a dead betta or two on the bottom of the racks that no one notices


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> Wow, Those bettas look amazing! thank's for tanking the photos, as you said the tanks looked well cared for. My petco look bigger but always has dead fish/shrimps the other fish are feeding on in the tank. And dead bettas, always a dead betta or two on the bottom of the racks that no one notices


Np! I mean, of course we get dead fish and stuff but they're generally pretty good about cleaning them out. I only saw one, maybe two dead Betta's but out of almost 50? That's not so bad. And all the fish do sell, occasionally we'll get one who sits for a couple months but they're fairly well cared for


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some pics of Macklin, still trying to figure out if the white is taking over! I know he's lost it at his back right side (when he's facing our right) but it's slow I think. Still very interesting to me!




Plus he's so stinkin cute lol


This is the side he's loosing the blue on


----------



## Laki

I have never seen that color morph on a betta before! Wow


----------



## lilnaugrim

Laki said:


> I have never seen that color morph on a betta before! Wow


You don't peruse through AquaBid much, do you? lol


----------



## ao

Aquabid is soo laggy on my computer...

But no fear! there's always drool worthy bettas on ebay!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep! He actually came from eBay ^_^ Not sure which seller since Linda actually won the bid on him and then I just paid shipping when she already had three. 

If I can start training him for the show in September, he might be a good fish to show. He's not quite HM status and is still gentle, maybe I can remedy that.


----------



## Laki

I don't use aquabid no. I don't like the layout and I am in Canada so even if I was thinking of buying a fish from there I would need a second job just to cover shipping!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Laki said:


> I don't use aquabid no. I don't like the layout and I am in Canada so even if I was thinking of buying a fish from there I would need a second job just to cover shipping!


Meh, I still window shop occasionally. Just nice to look at the pretty colors. Same with eBay. But yes, I know all about Pham's shipping monopoly up there. >.> I don't like it at all and feel sorry for you guys!


----------



## BlueSky99

Do you know if the bettas in the back on another tank are for sale? It's setup the same at my Petco, and sometimes I see some really gorgeous bettas back there.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BlueSky99 said:


> Do you know if the bettas in the back on another tank are for sale? It's setup the same at my Petco, and sometimes I see some really gorgeous bettas back there.


You mean on the Koi tank? Yeah, they're all for sale....why do you ask?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just some more pics with the good camera!

Macklin is definitely loosing the blue. You can see where it's matte in the back and then shiny dragonscales towards the front



I'm going to give one last "hoo-rah" and breed Glaston to Rowan. I did try Alloy and Ally but he ate the eggs >.< I'm too impatient to condition them both again for another 2 weeks. Glaston and Rowan are ready, he just needs a week to build his nest up proper and they should be good to go.
He likes the 10 gallon though





Alloy



Velvet



Sam



Rowan



First proper pics of Ally!



Unfortunately, I don't think Pierce is going to make it :-( I treated him for parasites but he's not improving at all. He shows no other sign other than being lethargic all the time


Rome


----------



## ao

Glaston got really handsome! Hope he's ready for a tail trim


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sigh, yep! He's just as aggressive as she is so it won't be without a fight. She's got it in for her lol


----------



## BlueSky99

lilnaugrim said:


> You mean on the Koi tank? Yeah, they're all for sale....why do you ask?


I was just wondering for future reference. I thought they weren't on sale for some reason because they weren't on display with the others.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I think I forgot...yep, I did. I forgot some pics last night from my phone. Took FTS of all the tanks

1.5 is a bit messy because I moved the Dwarf Hairgrass so we can actually see the marble cut! Looks nicer IMO
Did a water change on all the small tanks last night as well


20, still messy. It will be nice when I can take out the dividers and have one real aquascape!


29 is very...green.
I also fished out four handfulls of salvinia! Thanks Aqua >.> it's even taking over my Dwarf Water Lettuce that took over my DUCKWEED....that's how fast this crap grows!


1 gallon bowl that Splits is now in for the time being


4 gallon. Paradise was mad at me for doing a water change, he's scared of the siphon of all things....You can't see him, he's hiding in the bottom of the Cyperus Helferi grass


Put some Staurgyne Repens cuts in there to grow ^_^
If you look closely, you can see Paradise mopping.


Macklin's tank


------------ 

So fish-wise. Red and Splits will be leaving Saturday for their new home! That free's the 1 and the 1.5. I'll leave them for the time being with just shrimp in them I think. I'll get some cherries somewhere for the 1.5, that will look nice with the green grass. The 1 gallon will stay empty.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Hope Glaston doesn't end up like Sam (maybe she'll like 'blonds'?).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Hope Glaston doesn't end up like Sam (maybe she'll like 'blonds'?).


Lol, maybe!

I doubt he will. She barely ripped up Velvet when they bred, he was much more aggressive and quicker than Sam ever was. Sam is like that happy-go lucky puppy that bounces all over the place; he may seem like he can be aggressive but underneath he's just all lovey-dovey lol. Glaston on the other hand seems waaayy more aggressive, he flares to my finger and every other object in the tank. Because his fins are a little shorter and he has a bigger body which = more muscle mass, he's a MUCH quicker swimmer, almost faster than Rowan is!

I'm kind of excited to see what will happen! They both carry BF genes (plus marble technically). Likely I'm going to get a lot of reds and cambodians again, but hey, it will be fun. Now that I mostly know what the heck is going on with my water and have the ability to make it more stable, it will be a sh*t ton easier to raise these fry! I have the extra tanks and the space available now. I'm going to use my brother's room and the 20L and probably the 33 as well.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol, maybe!
> 
> I doubt he will. She barely ripped up Velvet when they bred, he was much more aggressive and quicker than Sam ever was. Sam is like that happy-go lucky puppy that bounces all over the place; he may seem like he can be aggressive but underneath he's just all lovey-dovey lol. Glaston on the other hand seems waaayy more aggressive, he flares to my finger and every other object in the tank. Because his fins are a little shorter and he has a bigger body which = more muscle mass, he's a MUCH quicker swimmer, almost faster than Rowan is!
> 
> I'm kind of excited to see what will happen! They both carry BF genes (plus marble technically). Likely I'm going to get a lot of reds and cambodians again, but hey, it will be fun. Now that I mostly know what the heck is going on with my water and have the ability to make it more stable, it will be a sh*t ton easier to raise these fry! *I have the extra tanks and the space available now. I'm going to use my brother's room and the 20L and probably the 33 as well. *


Doesn't sounds much like you're downsizing to me lol
If you get any orange fry (dunno if thats possible with that coupling?) let me know!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Doesn't sounds much like you're downsizing to me lol
> If you get any orange fry (dunno if thats possible with that coupling?) let me know!


I didn't say I was downsizing right away. After September hits then that's when I'll sell off my little tanks and combine tanks. I will still keep my bigger tanks since I'm a hoarder and they're expensive!

I wasn't going to breed again but I need one more spawn to get it out of my system for a while since I won't be able to breed for quite some time if my life is going to be apartment complexes and such, at least for a while. Even if I lived with dad, it's a very small space, no room for babies, plus I have cats.

And yeah, if they pop up, I'll definitely let you know ^_^ It actually should be possible.


----------



## Laki

I'd love to see a pic of Mr. Paradise 

What's that nice fern like plant in Macklin's tank?


----------



## DangerousAngel

I just LOVE that bowl! Just wondering if it's cycled? Or if that's even possible. All your tanks look great!


----------



## Rosencrantz32

Finally got caught up! I've been gone for... a year maybe? But I managed to read *almost* all the posts since then... I'm glad your journal and tanks are still up and running. I love reading about them and seeing your pictures. It's inspiring. 

Also, I'm crazy jealous of all your plants.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Laki said:


> I'd love to see a pic of Mr. Paradise
> 
> What's that nice fern like plant in Macklin's tank?


You can see him in my other posts a few pages back. I almost always have pics of him up.

And which one? The green stem? That's Myriophyllum Mattogrosense.



DangerousAngel said:


> I just LOVE that bowl! Just wondering if it's cycled? Or if that's even possible. All your tanks look great!


None of my tanks are cycled technically, with my low well water, I couldn't sustain a cycle because the bacteria go dormant after/around 6.5 and lower. So no, the bowl is not cycled but it's planted with soil, that's good enough.



Rosencrantz32 said:


> Finally got caught up! I've been gone for... a year maybe? But I managed to read *almost* all the posts since then... I'm glad your journal and tanks are still up and running. I love reading about them and seeing your pictures. It's inspiring.
> 
> Also, I'm crazy jealous of all your plants.


Ahhh Rosen! It's good to see you back! Nah, hasn't been a year but it has been a while! And thank you ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Velvet tried to tell me it was going to rain yesterday lol, it didn't, he LIED!
For those who haven't been keeping up, he's my little weatherman and normally only makes bubblenests when it's going to rain, the higher he makes them the more it's going to rain usually. But he has a new tankmate near him (Alloy) so now he's just showing off his parenting skills because Alloy has none.



And stopped by the store yesterday to get a lid for my gecko tank since they keep getting out >.> Ended up getting the wrong one...off by 2 damn inches. But anyway, I LOVE this fish so much! Red Ruby Dragonet, definitely my favorite saltwater fish! Look at that face!


If you watch the video, you'll see why I love this stupid little fish lol. How can you not resist that adorable face and quirky way??


And sorry for all the pics on Macklin but he's so interesting! I've seen this happen to other people's fish but it's never happened to mine before! He's really turning white! I wasn't going crazy!
Also, sorry for the glare in the photo




And bonus photos of my cousin's German Shorthair Pointer, Maxwell! He does have a tail, he's just wagging it here so it's a blur lol


Such a cutie face! He's still a little fat but he's a lot better after going on a diet!


And my beautiful girl, Ieli the Maine ****! I love my baby girl. Got to see her last night and going again today since I've started a diet called Ideal Protein (super excited! Dad's doing it and so is Bobby, dad has lost 28 pounds in 3 weeks, Bobby has done 32 in a couple months; he cheats though) and the clinic is down Dad's way so I get to see my babies weekly now! If that's not one good reason to go down each week, I don't know what is :-D But I'm dieting to be healthy for the first time in my life and be content with my body. I'm aiming to lose about 100 pounds, maybe more if my body will cooperate!!!

Anyway, here's my baby!
She's really not a baby at 8 years old but meh lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

I don't have a lot of time right now but I just wanted to update you all on MC's status, my cat and Ieli's brother. He's in very poor shape and we don't have all the money to get his surgery done! We need help desperately. If you can give anything, a dollar, five dollars, it doesn't matter; we need help. I've started a gofundme and another thread which I'll link here. I've already reached out to Facebook and trying Imgur now, we really need help.

MC is only 9 years old (sorry, mixed up last night, not 8 but 9) and he still has so much life to live. The surgery is fairly simple but it still costs a lot. 1,200 is the total. Please, if you don't contribute, can you share on your own social media? That's really all I ask. If you don't or aren't on other social media, that's perfectly fine, I know everyone has different preferences here, but if you can help in any way....

I love you all and I hope I can bring good news come tomorrow

Here's the link:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=583650


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you to whoever gave money to us. We're at $320 at the moment due to the generous support of our friends and family.

MC has made it through the night (thankfully! My imagination ran wild and I was sure he wasn't going to make it :-() and was taken to the vet, he actually peed a little!! So they took that for analysis to see if we need the surgery or not! It shows that he does have a big infection and the blockage could still be there, they aren't sure yet. Right now, they're giving him antibiotics for 20 days and liquid 2x daily. If he's still bad then we go get the surgery for him. Either way, the money will still be used on him, I promise we will never take anything if we don't need it, we're not that kind of people.

This is the first time I've ever campaigned for money before and first time using gofundme. So far the results are very heartwarming. To see that so many still love and support us really made my heart ache with happiness last night and today. I can't thank everyone enough for this and I just hope that we can see it through and that MC will get better with the antibiotics.

I spent the night with them last night after my Ideal Protein appointment to start my diet. So far so good, I actually almost couldn't finish the omelet this morning. It's a powdered thing that you mix up and cook, you can add veggies to it as long as it's measured out. I was so stuffed that I couldn't finish the 1.5" x 1" section I had left lol. But anyway, Bobby and I played one of the latest games of Rayman. We used to play it when we were kids, the original Rayman's. This game has some similarities which is nice but it's definitely very different. We had fun even though we were all sad about MC and sure he wasn't going to make the night, at least, I was.

In fish news, everyone seems okay. I got home at 10:30 last night and just went to bed so I really wasn't home yesterday at all. I'll hopefully take pictures tonight of everyone.

Macklin is still turning white, though it looks like he may have some blue coming back near his caudal! Very interesting!

EDIT: Oh! I've been so caught up that I forgot to tell you all that Pierce died :-( he went sometime during the night on Tuesday I think it was. (Monday into Tuesday). Also, Splits the baby has velvet or what I suspect to be. She's in treatment of Cupramine and Salt and seems to be doing very well with it so far. She's to be shipped out Saturday and I'm questioning whether I should ship her or not just yet. I'll talk with the person to see what may happen with that.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Picture Time!

Look at this handsome fellow!


Flaring at Rowan


My pretty girl


Paradise hasn't been happy with me even though I let him gorge on black worms!


Looking for food


Splits is looking a lot better, she might not have had velvet; I hope not!


I found this funny, there were floating growing in the crack of the lily pad lol. This was before I took the three pads out that had grown in the last two days


Alloy is so shiny!




Velvet


My goofy boy



Sam and his outrageous pectorals


He's growing back fairly well!


Ally is doing very well






I love this pic of her. I'll edit it in photoshop to get rid of those white spots


Red


Her tank


4 gallon


20long


29


1 gal


Macklin!


I love that his cheeks are still blue





Common Rummynose's




God I love this Ram!


Blue is nice too. He's a good boy, he flares but doesn't hurt anyone.


I still can't tell who is male and who is female. I know one is female at least because I've seen one lay eggs!


This one is slimmer, may be the male



Serpae


Rainbow


So beautiful!


Female maybe


Rainbow Shark. I sure do have a lot of "rainbow" stuff, don't I? haha


And finally Bowie


----------



## Elleth

Wow has Macklin changed! Can't wait to see him all white, if he gets there. 

And I just love Glaston. <3


----------



## lilnaugrim

Elleth said:


> Wow has Macklin changed! Can't wait to see him all white, if he gets there.
> 
> And I just love Glaston. <3


Yeah! I hope he does! Well actually, I hope he goes all white except his cheeks, they can stay blue lol. I find it cute that he still kept them but it's probably just a matter of time.

And thanks, Glaston is pretty darn cute!


----------



## DangerousAngel

lilnaugrim said:


> None of my tanks are cycled technically, with my low well water, I couldn't sustain a cycle because the bacteria go dormant after/around 6.5 and lower. So no, the bowl is not cycled but it's planted with soil, that's good enough.


Ahh, OK. None of mine are either, but well kept I assure you.


----------



## kittenfish

Ally is the prettiest!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Look like your grizzel will turn into a white-gold instead of a mustard/bicolor, nice!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm so jealous of your tanks and fish, have I mentioned that? ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for the absence. We put MC down on Saturday and I'm still hurting from it. I'm still not fully ready to restart my duty's here but I did take some pictures today and wanted to show you them before I forget.

Rowan full of eggs


Glaston


Macklin


I get this face a lot



His white progress



His tank, the Myrio has taken over once again


Paradise


Her tank


Sam


Velvet


Alloy


Ally


She and the frogs have this love/hate relationship. They like her and she hates them lol they seem to confuse her





And because they were on sale when I bought the neons from the tank at school, I bought four little Cobra Endlers since I've been missing my guppy boys. Only two survived, they're actually doing very well in the 1.5


The 29


My little RTBS, she's a little elusive! Not so much hiding, but she's always eating and scraping at things under the "brush" and only comes out in the open when I throw in flakes. She's getting nice and fat which is good! Still only about 1.8-2 inches.


Little Bowl



Ram


The Germans


The Golden


I also bought the last two Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish at my LFS, they've been there easily half a year if not a little more. They'll be getting in some more so I'm planing on at least 8 more. I'll swap out the Boesemani and hopefully remember to take out the long fin Serpae's as well. Then add four more Panda cories if they'll live and 4 more Rummynose to make a nice school of 12.


Boesemani are all cured from gill flukes




Serpae


Rainbowshark is FAT!


Blue isn't a fan of the Tetras :-(


First decent picture of the Panda cory!



Male NDR


----------



## Kaffrin

Waah~ pretty fishies as always! I'm sorry for your loss, as well :c


----------



## Athra

I'm sorry about MC, that has to be hard


----------



## Elleth

Oh no, I'm so sorry about MC.


----------



## Rosencrantz32

No MC!!! :'(
I'm so so sorry for your loss. *big hug* I was so hopeful that he was going to be okay 
He was a beautiful boy and he will be missed, even all the way down here in New Mexico. 
RIP Mischievous Cat 
0:3 <----- (supposed to be a kitty with a halo...)


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

Oh no! I'm so, _so_ sorry... Don't worry to much about being on here. Take all the time you need..
All of your fish look excellent, of course.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

I've been feeling better now and pretty much over it, as long as his sister doesn't follow the same fate any time soon, I'll be fine. So far she's doing fine as well (she's quite the b*tch and didn't really care about her brother at all. He was a plaything to her)

I've been slacking on my tanks so they look pretty horrid at the moment. I ran out of Excel which is my algae-cide and that means my tanks are overrun with algae now >.< I'll have to do some H2O2 treatments for some of the more serious spots and get Excel soon so I can continue to enjoy almost algae-free tank. Yeah, that's all Excel is, algacide, nothing more, not a real CO2 supplement as it claims. Fun fact :roll:

Took some pics, but as I said, tanks are pretty grody right now. Didn't feed my fish for about a week either....no one was worse off for it, but I do feel bad. It was just in a daze mostly last week.

I feel like it's just the same photos over and over every time I upload. Is it?

Mr. or Ms. Paradise


Grungy tank going through a bacterial bloom at the moment due to a spike in pH >.> remedying that with water changes. Paradise doesn't like water changes though and hides for the rest of the day after
This tank is terribly lacking in it's aquascape, I need idea's, what do you think will look good in here?


Have some Philodendron out the top there


Sorry it's not focused properly but the 1.5 is nice. My two little Endlers are still doing fantastic, one is more outgoing than the other which is pretty normal


This little guy.



Sam's fins are growing steadily, slow but steady


Velvet is almost completely red now


Alloy



Rowan giving me the stink-eye. She hasn't see her "boyfriend" in over a week. I gave up trying to flare her to Glaston, I'm not going to breed. Sorry for being so flim-flammy on this. Things come up and I just don't have time as much as I'd love to breed again :-/


Ally being her beautiful self!


Froggie


See how grody it is? No rhyme or reason to it, I momentarily hate and will continue to do so until I can take out those dividers and make a real tank out of it


The 29 does it's own thing so I'm happy that it still looks nice mostly.


Romeo


Nice female Ember Tetra


Glaston giving me pouty face


And Macklin seems to be going back to blue




His tank, did a trim the other day


Probably the best picture of my Red Minor, definitely going in the show!


Boesemani


Neon


Rummynose


Ram


Ram


Blue


Nerite


Panda's


Shark


----------



## juliesybil

im very sorry to hear about your cat, no matter how long they are with us, we are never ready.


----------



## Tree

I need to watch this thread! 

oh no, I am sorry about your beloved cat. =(


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thought you were already on my thread Tree? lol, but thanks


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I've been slacking off on work today and was planning what the 20 long will do in the future once I sell off my Betta's. I want to do a sort of Biotope, it won't be true though since it will be a mix of South Asian and Amazon River Basin for Sam and the Ember Tetras. I photoshopped a picture together, though I forgot the sticks that I wanted to add as well but just picture sticks where the plants are and some other random sticks on the ground at the leaf litter on the left side and that's basically how it will look.

Flora will include:
Pygmy Chain Sword (because I have it, it's not in these biotopes though)
Java Fern on my driftwood
Crypt. Undulata and other various Crypts I already have (Wendtii and Parva)
And maybe some Dwarf Water Lettuce above the java fern; it will keep it on that side at least.

Fauna will be:
Sam (Betta)
14 Ember Tetras
4 Corydoras Habrosus
1 Hera Jeradoni (if I can find it)
4 Gelius Barbs (random and doesn't fit the biotope but they like the Ember Tetras)









I have some leftover guppies that will go to a store unless someone wants them. I have two Mosaic yellow/black girls and one black girl holding Snakeskin Lyretail genes in her. Then I will also have my Peacock Gudgeon, not sure if I'll stick her in the 20 as well or sell her off somewhere/someone. Romeo will also be sold off.

Fish that will inhabit the 29 after that:
RTBS (already have)
14 Tiger Barbs

I've always wanted them and I know they're pretty common and nippy, but an almost species only tank will look fantastic with them! The plants will stay the same.


----------



## sharkettelaw1

And where's them geckos? :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

sharkettelaw1 said:


> And where's them geckos? :-D


I have a separate log for them.


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> Thought you were already on my thread Tree? lol, but thanks


I thought so too but I was not getting any notifications Hahaha! Maybe I was watching but never posted?


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## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> I thought so too but I was not getting any notifications Hahaha! Maybe I was watching but never posted?


Possibly! Idk, we comment on a bunch of the same threads so I was probably just confused.

A note for those who want to watch a thread but not comment just yet! Go to the top right of the thread, there are a couple bars there and one of them says "Thread Options", click that and it brings a little drop-down menu. Click on "Subscribe to Thread" and boom! You're subbed without ever commenting so you can successfully lurk ;-)


----------



## Tree

GASP! thanks! never knew that after all of these years Buahaha!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> GASP! thanks! never knew that after all of these years Buahaha!


;-) you're welcome! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Went to the store today to get some black worms and see if they had Neon Dwarf Rainbows in yet, they did, I got five of them that are in QT atm.

Those Altum Angelfish were still there minus one, the healthy one looks amazing:


I wish I could keep these little ones alive! Mexican Dwarf Crayfish


So I'd been wanting to put the Finnex light on the 45 to help out the plants. Turns out, the Fluval light is crap! Don't buy Fluval, they suck. It also is more wattage than the Finnex.

Here's the 45 with the Fluval light:


And THIS is with the Finnex!


Fluval was put on the 20 to help decrease algae growth and wait to get a new light in. Look at the difference!! Crazy bad!


----------



## Tree

wow that is a difference with the light!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Right?

So I just found out on Amazon the Planted+ 24/7 model that has all the bells and whistles as far as ramp timing and different color settings is currently at the same price as a normal Planted+ 30" and with free shipping! I save five bucks in shipping! But also 50 something because normally this light is up at 130 something! Super psyched for this! So if you want one, now is your chance! I think it's only for 30 inch tank, but so worth it! You can hang it somehow or something.


----------



## ao

Whoo! what a great price!


----------



## Tree

It would be awesome for my SpecV! Though how long do LEDs last? If it dies you would have to buy a whole new light?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ao said:


> Whoo! what a great price!


Right? Should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday I think!



Tree said:


> It would be awesome for my SpecV! Though how long do LEDs last? If it dies you would have to buy a whole new light?


The one that is on sale right is only 30inch, so unless you want to hang it, it only fits a 30 inch tank.

LEDs last a veeerrryy long time. Some cheap ones dim over time but if you buy good quality like finnex, fluval is fine for nonplanted tanks though I just found out they have a new line and it looks very similar to finnex, and then beamworks is good as well! 

I've had my finnex planted+ for over a year and a half now and still going strong!


----------



## Tree

Man! I'm on a tight budget but if I had extra cash I would SO get one. maybe on the next huge sale if the 20inch one is on sale I will get it. =I


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, keep your feelers out. I just happened to look up the light since I knew I was going to get a new Finnex for the 20 anyway and found that! I'm glad I did as well! So far, all have been good reviews for the new model! I'm glad I had the cash on me, though my bank account is a little angry at spending 100 dollars (paid for 3-5 shipping instead of 5-10 days) but I'll survive lol.

-------------------------
Oh I also keep forgetting to mention, I've been on this new diet for almost 3 weeks now called Ideal Protein; my dad and brother are doing it as well. Though my brother just reached his goal weight (only had to lose 30 pounds to get down to 175) and he's accepted into the Air Force! Proud of him but also a little sad, I hope he's never deployed, but the discipline will do him good, he needs that in his life.

So the diet is basically lots of protein (8 oz daily either split for lunch/dinner or just for dinner) and 4 cups of veggies daily along with 3 Ideal Protein meals. I usually buy the Cappucino and Chocolate drinks because they're wicked yummy! It's a zero carb, zero sugar, zero dairy, zero fruit, lots of veggies are a no-no and so it is hard to find variation on recipes but the hardest part is honestly eating all the food! I end up being stuffed after dinner of 2 cups of veggies and 5-8 oz of protein! Crazy! Totally not a "starving" diet which are plain silly, don't starve yourself!

So I've had two weigh in appointments so far, after the first week, I lose 5 pounds of fat and zero water weight loss! That's huge!! Because I actually like to drink water (oh yeah, you have to drink at least 64 oz of water daily, that's four water bottles, it's a lot but can be easy if you space it right) that I usually drink around 80 oz a day; this means I'm actually flushing out all my fat faster than people who don't like to drink water as much!! They said that it's not normal for that to happen but it's healthy and I'm so proud of that!

This past Wednesday was my second weigh in, I lose 3 total points on my bottom number of BP and 2 on the top number; going down!! woot woot! I only lost one pound of fat and then one pound of water this time, but that's pretty normal. The body burns three main 'tanks': sugar, carbs, and fat. Fat is like your reserve or 'savings account' so it's burnt off last which means you have to burn off your sugar and carbs first to get to the fat, this process is called Ketosis. There is some water stored in the carb tank which is why I lost water weight this past week, pretty normal. If all goes well, I expect another 2-4 lb of fat lose this coming week!

Even if you aren't really overweight but just want to lose a little fat off your body, this program is actually quite affordable and it works so well! Granted yes, it may not work for everyone if you don't like drinking lots of water and eating lots of meat but it's so worth it to try! I'm so happy that my dad is helping me out with this, we're both obese people and soon, we'll be healthy! Results don't seem to vary too much on this program as long as you stick to it, they provide you with daily coaching videos and recipes to try out! I can actually make a waffle or a pancake with one of the pudding mixes! So you can still do imitation things for when you're craving that unpermited item :-D

So anyway, I just wanted to update you all on that and I'll probably post my results here every Thursday after my appointment just because I can ^_^ I know this is my fish log and all, hope you all don't mind ;-)


----------



## dannifluff

I was so sorry to hear about your cat lilnaugrim. I'm a cat person myself, I know how hard it is. And your tanks look gorgeous, despite the bit of algae... wish my plants were as good looking... subbing so I can lurk and be jealous of your tanks


----------



## Nimble

You should look into Soylent if you're looking for a long-term meal replacement option. I find the concept both hilarious and ingenious, and it's a pretty decent product from those who I know who use it. Not cheap, but I've heard you can make your own relatively inexpensively, if you know how.

My condolences on the cat, and congrats on the weight-loss.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nimble said:


> You should look into Soylent if you're looking for a long-term meal replacement option. I find the concept both hilarious and ingenious, and it's a pretty decent product from those who I know who use it. Not cheap, but I've heard you can make your own relatively inexpensively, if you know how.
> 
> My condolences on the cat, and congrats on the weight-loss.


I wouldn't be able to be on the same diet if I did that. Besides, this isn't just a diet, it's a life style change. It's a four phase process, phase one is the longest; you're in it until you reach your goal weight, then they slowly introduce you back to sugars and carbs through the next two phases and phase four is maintenance; they teach you how to maintain this life style and you can still have a cheat day but there are ways to "make up" for it the next day.

I can stick to diets without a problem, but this one is just so much easier; they hold your hands and I like to see the results on the scale. They use a scale that sends an electric pulse through your body and measures everything by resistance (you can't feel it). It measures your body fat, water, muscle, and bone density. Granted, the bone density doesn't change lol. But they can monitor everything to make sure that the person continues to be on a healthy track, sometimes you can overdose on something and cause bad muscle loss; you don't want that! So, this program helps maintain that. The clinic I go to is run by a Registered Nurse who has a Masters in Nursing and Nutrition. There is a doctor on staff and all the assistants are CNA to help make sure everything is going smoothly for you.

They hold your hand through it, which is very helpful for most people. If I could lose weight on my own with simply using meal replacements, I would have done that by now....

And thank you two about MC


----------



## Nimble

No problem. I'm sure most of us know how hard it is to lose a pet. I know I certainly do.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I took more pictures for you all today. I tried for some more interesting poses but my fish just look at me when I come near the tank :roll:

Start with the 45 today

It's still boring as ever but I replace most of the Water Sprite that had uprooted itself and bought Willow Hygro today. Also threw in one of my bigger Java Fern 'Windlov' there as well
With the newer light on it, my plants should ACTUALLY grow now! yippee!!


Bought 5 new Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish from the LFS to join my current two, they're schooling happily now. These are most of the new ones.


My first boy, he's such an outstanding fish, he's so adorable!



Size comparison between the Boesemani and the Neon Dwarf


Female Ram



Longfin Serpae


All my oto's are fat! Which is fantastic! I still have all five as well which is great!


Male Ram, he's much more obvious now



Boesemani



Bowie, I think he may have some gill flukes going on as well :-/ I didn't treat him the same time I treated the 45 and now I wish that I had. I added some PraziPro to his water today in hopes to help!


Planted some Myrio in his tank today since mom was complaining it was too empty and dismal looking. Also, my Marimo (I just split it into two today to see if it would help) balls are still floating after almost three weeks....Anyone have a clue? I tried googling but all they tell me is that there is air in the ball and can happen when it's photosynthesizing, but it normally doesn't happen for weeks on end....Only ferts used in it are Flourish Comp. twice weekly and Phosphate once weekly.


Back in the 45, here's the pic of the Hygro and java Fern


Rainbow Shark!


Gold Ram



Onto upstairs!

Paradise actually "heard" the camera flash clicking shut as I closed it, he flipped around from his previous position across the tank and zoomed across to greet me. I was only fast enough to get this as the first shot >.< He's so adorable though! Such a water-dog!


He always looks a little shocked XD


Nice profile


Or like he's judging you


Velvet


Sam



Feeding Glaston Blackworms, he appreciated but I got a little too close to his food....


He flared lol


About to chomp a worm


Paradise searching for worms


Endler!


Alloy seems...tired for lack of better explanation. He just lounges around a lot but he isn't even old! I've only had him about 8-9 months or so! :-/


Female froggie!


Golden Dwarf Barb


RTBS!


Here's what the 29 looks like so far


Some closer pics at the plants. Added some Willow Hygro in here as well


Pygmy Chain Swords up front, Crypt. Wendtii in the back, and Myrio. Mattengrosense on the left


Rotala Indica in the back, Ludwigia Repens in the front, M. Mattogrosense on the right


Ludwigia Repens in the back and Hydrocotle sp. Japan in front


Anyone want free guppies? Just pay shipping! I have three



Oh Romeo!


Ember Tetras!


Better pic of my 1.5


1 gallon bowl



Whoops! Went over the 50 picture limit! Rest of pictures will follow this post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And Macklin




Pretty little pectorals!


And his 2.5


Salvinia Minima up top.


----------



## Tree

Awesome! I am loving that rainbow shark! eeep so cute


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Tree!

Yeah, I actually like my RTBS better >.< shhhh, don't tell Rainbow! lol. I'm not sure what I'll do with the Rainbow Shark, she won't outgrow the tank but I will be keeping smaller fish once the three Boesemani and Tetras leave (if I ever remember to scoop them out in the morning) so it's just going to look a little awkward I feel.


----------



## Tree

no worries, you secret is safe with me..... OH RAINBOWWWWW. Hehe

that's good. lets keep the sharks small. =P and I bet. not many fishies in there after the big scoop out.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Actually I'll only be taking out 6 fish essentially. I still have 8 Rummynose Tetras (which I want to bump up to 12 or 14), 7 Dwarf Neon Rainbows (although one has this really funky white head today....like it's flesh is hardened...he can't move his mouth...I don't think he'll last, in fact, he's already twirling...time to get the ice bath out...), 1 Giant Betta, 1 Rainbow Shark, 3 Rams (one Gold, two GBR), and two Panda Cories (which I'd also like to add to but at 5.99 per fish, it's a little pricey). So that totals to 21 fish (would be 22 if that Rainbow lives but I doubt it).

Oh! And one of my Marimo's finally sunk! Still waiting on the other! I only squeezed them underwater when first cleaning them three weeks ago when I bought it. Then it was floating for 3 weeks and yesterday I ripped it apart into two balls, rolled it lightly but no squeezing; one sank and one isn't. I doubt the ball was photosynthesizing for three weeks!

Alright, I think I'll start downsizing my fish now. Would anyone like to adopt Glaston? Spunky fish, likes smaller tanks, eats anything, flares at everything. Adoption is free, just pay $8 in shipping for Priority.

And if any breeders would like either both Alloy and Ally, let me know, or just Ally. These two will be worth more since I paid more for them. Ally will be $10 and Alloy will be $6, plus the normal $8 in shipping. Shipping can be combined! PM me to work out details, I only use paypal and fish will be sent after receiving payment!

Velvet will be going to Luci my friend, not sure if she's taking Rowan as well. I'll try to figure that out soon.

Also, would anyone like Paradise? He needs a bigger tank soon, cooler water fish, extremely spunky and attentive! Place in a living room or area that has lots of people! He loves to interact and bite your finger! Can be placed in an open top tank, since his one and only jumping incident, he learned to not do that again! So long as you don't teach him to jump for food, he'll be okay. If you're worried, put a lid on it. Doesn't need a heater, filtration is good whether low or high. Doesn't need tankmates and will actually kill them so keep as solo fish or find a mate once he's sexually mature (still not sure if male or female) and you can keep a pair in a 10 gallon with some white cloud minnows or cories. He'll be free, just pay shipping.

Sam and Macklin are staying with me (along with Bowie and Blue downstairs but those are mom's fish).


----------



## juliesybil

glaston sure is a beauty...you mentioned he likes smaller tanks, do you think he would be happy in a 2.5?


----------



## lilnaugrim

juliesybil said:


> glaston sure is a beauty...you mentioned he likes smaller tanks, do you think he would be happy in a 2.5?


Absolutely. He was in a 1 gallon planted tank before and he was blowing nests daily; covering the surface. He's in a breeder 10 at the moment (only about 4 gallons filled) and hasn't built any nests unless he's flared to a female daily. The tank doesn't have surface agitation either so I can tell he was more fond of the smaller space. 2.5 gallons will be fantastic for him!


----------



## juliesybil

if no one else would like to adopt that pretty boy, i would be happy to give him a home


----------



## kittenfish

Wow, someone is getting an amazing deal on Alloy and Ally. I really want her, but I think they should probably go to a more experienced breeder.

But if no one else claims them...


----------



## Tree

I would so adopt them but I have my hands full with my five. LOL good luck in finding them a home.


----------



## lilnaugrim

juliesybil said:


> if no one else would like to adopt that pretty boy, i would be happy to give him a home


Sure, I'll PM you to work out details 



kittenfish said:


> Wow, someone is getting an amazing deal on Alloy and Ally. I really want her, but I think they should probably go to a more experienced breeder.
> 
> But if no one else claims them...





Tree said:


> I would so adopt them but I have my hands full with my five. LOL good luck in finding them a home.


Thanks you two. I do want to see if anyone breeding will be willing to do it, if not, I suppose I can split them up for whoever wants them.

I don't make any profits when I sell my fish (other than the ones I bred and even then, they were all adopted out :roll. As long as they're going to a good home, that's all I care about.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I wish I could get the hmpk pair!!!!! Sadly, no room. 

I hope you find them all a good home!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Blu


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Happy to see the hydro and salvinia I sent is filling in ^^ Btw the arrowhead you sent si doing well, not as fast growing as the green one I had but thats fine by me!


Its still pale/white like when you sent it, photos always make it look more green


----------



## ThisDragonisNerdy

I wish I could take Glaston.. alas, I just got a new betta. (he's wonderful, of course)
Paradise couldn't live with goldfish, could he? I'm going to have a tank setup for some soon, they'll live in it for the winter and be in a pond in the summer. A couple comets and a shubunkin. (pretty sure)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh good Aqua! Gosh, it looks so tiny against the full grown ones! :-D

And TDLB, I doubt he can, while they're both cold water species, he's still an extremely aggressive fish and would likely bother the more peaceful goldfish (though, their curiosity can sometimes lead to injuring other fish too lol :roll: silly goldfish!)


----------



## kittenfish

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks you two. I do want to see if anyone breeding will be willing to do it, if not, I suppose I can split them up for whoever wants them.


Oh I can breed them, I just can't guarantee success like some others might be able to. I'm raising two spawns right now, of 7 and ~20 fry, nowhere near the hundreds that some get. Though I think I've finally figured out the problem, so the next spawn should hopefully be more successful.


----------



## lilnaugrim

kittenfish said:


> Oh I can breed them, I just can't guarantee success like some others might be able to. I'm raising two spawns right now, of 7 and ~20 fry, nowhere near the hundreds that some get. Though I think I've finally figured out the problem, so the next spawn should hopefully be more successful.


 do you have time to handle another spawn?? I mean, it doesn't have to be right away or anything, but Alloy isn't a spring chicken like Ally is lol


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh good Aqua! Gosh, it looks so tiny against the full grown ones! :-D
> 
> And TDLB, I doubt he can, while they're both cold water species, he's still an extremely aggressive fish and would likely bother the more peaceful goldfish (though, their curiosity can sometimes lead to injuring other fish too lol :roll: silly goldfish!)


The palm is over 22" at its highest so it does make the arrowhead look small.. if the there one (green arrowhead) didn't get such long stems that it fell over I'd have left it on the tank to battle out "who can be tallest" with the palm. 
I wish I could breed Alloy and Ally but I've never done it and don't have the supplies/room for grow out tanks and cupping (keeping them at proper temp to continue growing.. we like a cold house.)


----------



## kittenfish

lilnaugrim said:


> do you have time to handle another spawn?? I mean, it doesn't have to be right away or anything, but Alloy isn't a spring chicken like Ally is lol


Oh I have plenty of time. Space would be the bigger issue, but my boyfriend's out of town so he can't stop me from buying more tanks :lol: I have plans to breed two of the fish from the spawn of 7 (trying to get EECTPK), but they are taking their time growing so it probably won't be for another month at least. How old is Alloy?


----------



## lilnaugrim

kittenfish said:


> Oh I have plenty of time. Space would be the bigger issue, but my boyfriend's out of town so he can't stop me from buying more tanks :lol: I have plans to breed two of the fish from the spawn of 7 (trying to get EECTPK), but they are taking their time growing so it probably won't be for another month at least. How old is Alloy?


Oh okay! Sorry, I just assume sometimes that we all have busy lives because I do >.< My apologies on that end!

Alloy is just about a year and a half now, Ally is only 5 months old now


----------



## Aqua Aurora

What's average plakat life span? 2-2.5 years?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Same as every other betta. 2-3 years is average but that average is taken from fish who live five years and fish who die after only a month in the fishes keepers care so its a big range.

EDIT: it depends on their genetics as well. Since I don't know his at all, can't say. Ally should live quite a while if nothing drastic happens to her


----------



## lilnaugrim

Took some profile pics of my tanks and stuff.

I also did some serious ******* DIY for raising my 29 tank lights lol. I had some galvanized wire left over from framing and hanging my works, so I just rigged up some to the metal frame of the stand and boom, hanging lights XD lol, it's so stupid looking, but it works!



29 is still quite bright, but it should help to keep down the algae I was farming


20 still looks like sh*t with those crappy fluval lights on them. New lights come in tomorrow!! I think I'll put the old Planted+ back on this and use the new ones downstairs on the 45 so mom can enjoy it as well. I know she'll enjoy the color changes


1.5


1 Gal


4 Rimless


Macklin's 2.5


And I also got this fantastic shot of my two beautiful Panda cories who are a mated pair. Shame it's not on my DSLR, but it's nice enough to show you guys at least!


I was also pet sitting for my aunt, got some pictures of the pets but missed out on Midnight. I have a pic of him on my DSLR but that's not with me at the moment 

This is Alex! He's just over a year old, some sort of Black Lab mix



He makes this face when he wants you to pet him


Chillin' outside!


Inside


This is Snickers, she's almost 7-8 I think, Calico shorthair who sheds a TON! She's gotten more lovable with age :-D



Happily perched on my lap




And this is Coconut! If anyone remembers the litter of kittens I had fostered two years ago! This is her all growed up! :-D she still remembers me even though I don't visit too often!



Sorry for the potato pictures, she wouldn't stop moving!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Does Snickers have a blue-ish tint yellow eye and a regular yellow eye? photo makes it look like left eye is slightly blue.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nope, it's just the lighting, she's got brilliant yellow eyes


----------



## Tree

Kitties and Puppies and fish OH MY! lol 

wow you have a pretty dog and your cats are super cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> Kitties and Puppies and fish OH MY! lol
> 
> wow you have a pretty dog and your cats are super cute!


If you'll notice, I said I was petsitting for my aunt lol. I'm super allergic to dog slobber and cat's who shed a crap ton! But thanks, I'll let her know you approve haha.

My kitty doesn't shed nearly half as much as these guys do because she's indoor/outdoor and only sheds once a year (after winter) or if she's in the house more often. She doesn't bother my allergies at all like my Aunt's cats do.


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> If you'll notice, I said I was petsitting for my aunt lol. I'm super allergic to dog slobber and cat's who shed a crap ton! But thanks, I'll let her know you approve haha.
> 
> My kitty doesn't shed nearly half as much as these guys do because she's indoor/outdoor and only sheds once a year (after winter) or if she's in the house more often. She doesn't bother my allergies at all like my Aunt's cats do.



Aah oops missed that part. I tend to be "oooh look at the pictures" and skip over the info half the time. lol 

but they are still beautiful. hehe


----------



## Nova betta

wow your tanks are gorgeus! Mine are crappy.:-? Also love the cat's, when I was looking at your pictures my russian blue kitty tried to sniff your cats :-D.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> wow your tanks are gorgeus! Mine are crappy.:-? Also love the cat's, when I was looking at your pictures my russian blue kitty tried to sniff your cats :-D.


Oh lol, thank you! I'm sure your tanks are just fine!! It takes time, be patient! My tanks didn't look like this overnight haha :-D

How cute! Yeah, my Aunt's cats are adorable!


----------



## Nova betta

thanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So lots have happened today!

Had my weekly weigh in! Lost 3.2 pounds this week! 2.8 of that was pure fat! So in total, I've lost 10 pounds in three weeks of this diet! Oh and I'm not sure if I was making this clear before; there are no real meal replacements, you eat the IP 'meal's along with the food you prepare that you're allowed to have. So like, for breakfast I'd eat an IP chocolate pudding and two hardboiled eggs. I realized the other day that I probably didn't make that clear and hence Nimble's suggestion about that soy stuff.

Anywho. After that, went to my dad's to see my kitty kat! This time it IS my cat lol



Gonna rub my face on the ground and roll in it! -Ieli probably






Such a cutie and beautiful eyes!



So then after that, I went to the local PetCo there just to take a gander. With everyone getting new fish around here lately, I've been craving buying a new fish! I knew I shouldn't; hell, I'm trying to downsize! But the darn devil on my shoulder keeps telling me I have an entire year to enjoy my fish! I can afford one more!

Here the ones I DIDN'T get but had to leave behind their beautiful faces!

This gorgeous DeT MG, not as spunky but slightly attentive. He was beautiful but not what I was looking for



This boy tempted me HARD! If he marbles out, he's going to Black Copper with red accent's; still a beautiful coloration! He was all feisty after I took the picture of course; flared at all his neighbors


I liked the disposition of this boy, extremely attentive and flashy!



This poor boy I wanted to take home just to heal up and sell off to somewhere here on the forum. He was a beautiful DeT (making him only 7.50 which is affordable) Copper Red bicolor. He was EXTREMELY attentive, didn't want me to put his cup down, would follow my finger, try to flare at the others and fail lol. He likely just had some ammonia issues going on since his cup was the dirtiest of them all. Nothing a little MB bath couldn't fix. But alas, I left him there.





And then there was THIS boy! Oh good lord, my heart jumped out at him! He was feisty as all hell but he just didn't call to me. Also, they mislabeled him; he's only HMPK




This one was absolutely stunning! Almost a Blue Dragon except he was missing actual dragon scales, just a white body. Very beautiful though




And then....there was this boy


As soon as I saw him, I knew, he was the one who was going to come home with me despite what the angel on my shoulder told me!


And here he is acclimating in the 10. I put Glaston back in the 1 gallon and he's loving it! He seems much more content with the smaller space.



He is going to marble, I realize that, but he's still going to be beautiful





And here's Macklin between.



His genes are still messing with his coloration




Into the nasty old tank we go! Lol, I need to do a water change on it but I did add 3 more gallons to it for him.


Sorry photos are potatoes, there's algae on the glass so it was hard to find a clean spot


I love that Glaston can hide in this tank and it actually takes me quite a while to figure out where he is!!


Here's the content boy! He's definitely grown since I've had him!



Yep! These two are from when I first got him!



Annnnddd went over my limit again with characters lol. Rest of the post on the next post.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And then we have Velvet




Ally is fat because she some of the froggie pellets





Rowan and Ally


Rowan being like her brother


Alloy


Sammy boy!


And I regret to say that Blue has passed away. I had one of the Rainbowfish bring Columnaris to my tank.....I am VERY angry. I did try to treat him today but it only made him worse to the point of death so I opted to euthanize him first. I feel bad about it but there's nothing I can do. I've medicated the 45 with KanaPlex for now, no one else is showing signs yet. Blue happened literally over night because he was fine as could be yesterday! A shame.

So this is a reason I may be calling my new boy Fate. or something along those lines. In Gaelic its; Cinniuint, could call him Cinni but I feel like that's kind of girlish. 

Here's what Blue looked like; you can see the bacteria has totally taken over his mouth and part of his eyes.



Back onto good news though! My Finnex Planted+ 24/7 came in today!!! Put it on the 45 and it's gorgeous! I just have it in 24/7 mode right now which means it cycles through the day going from midnight with moonlights to darkness 2-5 then a sunrise, some clouds, full sun at noon, backs off again and then sunset 6-9. It's fantastic!! It's getting to moonlights now ^_^
Here it is with sunset going on, of course, there's glare from the real sunset going on outside at that point



Comparing with the 3 gallon's 6,500K bulb


And I just thought this was cool, I didn't do this; they grew like this ^_^
(You're looking at Dwarf Lily pads lol)


----------



## Nova betta

I wish our petco carried bettas like that! I really love your tanks!


----------



## DangerousAngel

WOAH! What a beautiful new boy!!! Sorry to hear about Blue though, S.I.P. :-( I still love your planted bowl, how many gallons is it? I might have to try out something like that soon.


----------



## lilnaugrim

DangerousAngel said:


> WOAH! What a beautiful new boy!!! Sorry to hear about Blue though, S.I.P. :-( I still love your planted bowl, how many gallons is it? I might have to try out something like that soon.


Thanks! Still thinking on names, Fate just sounds too....boring for him. Originally I was going to call him Captain America since you know, he's blue (sort of), white and red! And besides, I love my Cap! I used to have Steve & Tony way back when but they died a couple years back, haven't had a Cap since then 

YES! I spent almost an hour searching for the picture of that girl that my new boy reminded me of!! I FINALLY FOUND IT!! Here is the beauty!








I was sad when she died in Roemgie's sorority tank with her other girls. They all had acute columnaris just like my sorority did, it's a shame! She did end up becoming blue, my boy will be a Copper though so I'm pretty excited for that but I love his coloration now! I won't be upset if he goes full copper with red accent; I'd love him even more!

Oh another possible name Calamine, it's a mineral used to create Calamine Brass! Another 'alloy' name. Cap or Calamine....I reeaaallllyyy love Capt. America but Calamine seems to fit him better.... hmmm.....darn, hate this kind of situation when you want one name but the fish chooses another >.<

And thank you! That bowl is just simply 1 gallon. Actually less if you account my 1 inch of substrate, more like .8 gallon. The plants help keep the water healthy though. If you're worried about ammonia, just go up to a 2 or 3 gallon bowl and add a sponge filter. As I mentioned; most of my tanks are not cycled and yet, no fish have died from not being cycled, they die for other causes (pH spikes from my stupid water, this would still happen if the tank was cycled though, it's not about being cycled or not, it's just the nature of the water). In fact, I've kept more fish successfully in smaller tanks with no filtration than I have in my bigger tanks WITH filtration and the works :roll: figures lol. But what I'm getting at is don't be afraid! With plants growing successfully, you really don't have to worry about much!!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a side rant; I hate how everyone here advocates for daily water changes on 2.5 or less gallons! That's not good for the fish! There IS such thing as a too clean tank! You can do SMALL daily water changes like with a turkey baster around 10-15% but nothing more less you risk stressing out the fish and likely if you're doing that many water changes, it means the fish is already stressed out from some sort of illness!

Betta's do not excrete that much waste! If you want to lower waste then feed every other day! It won't hurt the fish to do this at all! Lower temperatures also mean the fish is not using as much energy which means he won't need as much food! This also won't hurt him/her if you do it for a long period of time, it's sometimes healthier for the fish if they have digestion trouble too!

My plant-less 1-2.5 gallons get changed once a week and my fish have never been the worse for it. I just hate how everyone freaks out on each other about doing bigger water changes! It's not good for the fish! However, am I advocating no water changes at all? Absolutely not, there is need to change your water, just not that much and that often. As I said, if you want to do a daily 10-15% then that's great! Much easier on the fish and it still keeps the water clean and pristine!

Arggg, okay rant done!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

As a side tangent to your rant I don't understand why people think small tanks can't be cycled...probably because they do such large water changes and never leave in enough ammonia and nitrite to feed the nitrosomonas and nitrospira bacteria so the colonies can grow..


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> As a side tangent to your rant I don't understand why people think small tanks can't be cycled...probably because they do such large water changes and never leave in enough ammonia and nitrite to feed the nitrosomonas and nitrospira bacteria so the colonies can grow..


Yes! Exactly!

It is a little more difficult to do because of said water changes and stuff but it was never impossible. It can be hard to keep going if you do do the larger changes (sometime's necessary to give a deep cleaning occasionally and that's fine). But yes, I agree.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Yes! Exactly!
> 
> It is a little more difficult to do because of said water changes and stuff but it was never impossible. It can be hard to keep going if you do do the larger changes (sometime's necessary to give a deep cleaning occasionally and that's fine). But yes, I agree.


I just find it amusing as I have 2x 2gs, 2.5g, and 2.75 (i think.. bubble bowl) that are cycled (one even cycled without a filter).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I just find it amusing as I have 2x 2gs, 2.5g, and 2.75 (i think.. bubble bowl) that are cycled (one even cycled without a filter).


Yep! I'm pretty sure that my 1 gallon may have actually cycled. Though, I didn't have a fish in it for a couple weeks so I'm not so sure about it. :-D


----------



## Laki

Wow, I'm glad the pet stores here don't sell bettas like those shown above because I would have a big addiction. I think the ones they carry are beautiful but the double tails are the biggest fad here still- we haven't moved on to the plakats or kings or dragons. Just mostly plain blues and reds. Not that there's anything wrong with them! Lord knows my favorites are the blues. Multicolors are pretty popular at one place but no MG's or cambodians or butterflys or anything. 

Those fish are just darn lovely I would want to buy most of them. Sometimes I wish they were pokemon so I could catch them with my pokeballs and it wouldn't be terribly inhumane. 

Can I live in your house?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Laki said:


> Wow, I'm glad the pet stores here don't sell bettas like those shown above because I would have a big addiction. I think the ones they carry are beautiful but the double tails are the biggest fad here still- we haven't moved on to the plakats or kings or dragons. Just mostly plain blues and reds. Not that there's anything wrong with them! Lord knows my favorites are the blues. Multicolors are pretty popular at one place but no MG's or cambodians or butterflys or anything.
> 
> Those fish are just darn lovely I would want to buy most of them. Sometimes I wish they were pokemon so I could catch them with my pokeballs and it wouldn't be terribly inhumane.
> 
> Can I live in your house?


Yeah, that is partly the reason for my addiction >.< other than AquaBid!

I would totally catch them all if that was the case!! And if I wanted breed one, I could just find a Ditto isntead of finding it's perfect match! Oh look! A shiny variation! haha

If you'd like to, we do have a spare room ;-D


----------



## Tree

I am sorry for you loss on the big boy. But he had a great life I'm sure. 

wow what an amazing boy you found! the other are just jaw dropping as well. wow those MGs!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Sorry about Blue (meant to give my condolences in previous post but rant distracted me).. I (think) I lost Arist'oto' to columnaris that came in with new otos last spring/start of summer.. I qt all new fish for 4weeks or more now.. same with plants that can have disease (like anubias).
In other new Macklin's brother is on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/live-betta-...ne-shipping-/141745830292?hash=item2100b5b994
not as handsome with the darker head but for a moment I thought you'd slapped you boy up for sale until I looked closer.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Sorry about Blue (meant to give my condolences in previous post but rant distracted me).. I (think) I lost Arist'oto' to columnaris that came in with new otos last spring/start of summer.. I qt all new fish for 4weeks or more now.. same with plants that can have disease (like anubias).
> In other new Macklin's brother is on ebay:
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/live-betta-...ne-shipping-/141745830292?hash=item2100b5b994
> not as handsome with the darker head but for a moment I thought you'd slapped you boy up for sale until I looked closer.


Thanks and no worries, I know rantings can be distracting lol.

I wasn't as attached to Blue since I didn't have that long with him, it was sad and it sucks the tank has Columnaris now but I'm pretty much over it. I'd make a good vet when it comes to having to euthanize pets, but I'm a sympathetic crier so if someone cries; I generally cry lol.

Oh lol! Look at that! Yeah, not the same seller he came from so someone probably put his brother up for resale. And yes, Macklin doesn't bite (crosses fingers) so that's another good thing about him; he still has his nice pristine tail!

Yeah, if I sold fish, I'd use AquaBid; so much easier to use imo.


----------



## Tealight03

Sorry to hear about Blue. At least he isn't suffering now. Your new fish is beautiful! 

I think I'm guilty of having my tanks too clean. The 5 gallons get a half change weekly, the 10 gets about 30 percent and the 3 gets two half changes weekly. I also turkey baster out waste as I see it, but there is always more on water change day. I don't have a test kit (very limited finances) so I try to be on the side of caution. 

P.S. I will be stalking your journal for plant tips. Someday I will have live plants. Someday.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> Sorry to hear about Blue. At least he isn't suffering now. Your new fish is beautiful!
> 
> I think I'm guilty of having my tanks too clean. The 5 gallons get a half change weekly, the 10 gets about 30 percent and the 3 gets two half changes weekly. I also turkey baster out waste as I see it, but there is always more on water change day. I don't have a test kit (very limited finances) so I try to be on the side of caution.
> 
> P.S. I will be stalking your journal for plant tips. Someday I will have live plants. Someday.


Thanks!

Yeah, to be totally honest with you....I don't test my water very often! That's kind of bad though...I should test at least my pH and ammonia since my water is so wacky lol. But yes, too many people freak out over something small and their fish ends up paying when they aren't too careful. If you do do a big water change, always make sure the temp is as close as possible of course, it's dechlorinated and then add it slowly if it's a very large water change. The issue with most new people is that they just pour it right in (guilty as charged) and it doesn't give fish the time to at least adjust to the temperature. You can scoop your fish out and let them float at least half an hour so they can adjust to the new water IF the temp isn't exactly the same. 

And I hope you know that's not directed exactly at you since I quoted you Tealight lol, just more on ranting stuff lol.

You can always start with the two easiest plants in the world! Java Fern and Anubias! Tie them to anything and they'll grow in whatever light you have (most of the time)!! It's a nice ease into the plant side of things. See if you can keep those alive first (some people just don't have green thumbs and that's okay!) for a while until you can do some more reading on caring for plants and such! :-D


----------



## Tealight03

Rant away lol. I do match the temp and pour slowly but possibly not slowly enough. They don't get blown around, so I thought that was ok. 

I almost killed an anubias. It was overpriced from Petsmart and when it got worse I returned it. I didn't realize it was melting at first, so I cut some leaves off and it didn't help it at all. When the roots started turning brown I took it out. I really don't run my lights at all. All the tanks get indirect light. For now I prefer to not run my electricity bill up even more, but someday when I'm rich and famous, I can run the lights and hopefully have some decent plants going.


----------



## lilnaugrim

If you get an LED light, they really don't cost much to run, I can help you figure out your electricity as well if you have the wattage and know how much you're charged. I think the normal is 16 cents for kilowatt/hour. All my tanks running costs me about 40 bucks each month, that's combined with my Gecko tank that has a big under tank heater running as well!!

If you were to get this light: AquaVibrant: Finnex Stingray Clip light it's only 2.5 watts. Here's the formula to figure out the cost of running it. Let's say you'll run it for 12 hours just beacuse it's a nice round number. Also, we'll use the 16 cents per kilowatt/hour

Wattage x hours used per month / 1000 x .16

To get the hours used per month: hours per day (12) x days in month (30) = 360

So, your equation would look like this:

2.5 x 360 / 1000 x .16 = .14

So that's fourteen cents per month extra to run an LED light ;-) Of course, I'm not trying to pressure you into getting lights or anything! But just letting you know it doesn't cost as much as you might think! Now if you went into Fluorescent's at 13 watts or more, yeah, that's going to cost you more because you've upped the wattage there. ^_^ yay math lol. I can do simple math like this.


----------



## Laki

Lil... I am literally shaking my fist at you. Part of my "can't get a betta now" argument to myself was the extra on my power bill- but you've shown how cheap it is!


----------



## Tealight03

Thanks, Lil! I fail at math but that was easier than I thought!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Heh...sorry Laki!!

Heaters are generally the most power consuming of the whole bill. Filters only run a couple watts, even big ones are usually only 5-8 watts. Lights can range anything really, just got to look at the wattage!


----------



## Tealight03

Clearly this means we all need more tanks and fishies lol.


----------



## BettaLover1313

I'm very sorry to hear about Blue 

Your new boy is beautiful though! Such lovely coloration.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I bought another Mexican Dwarf Crayfish today (hoping this one lives, acclimated for 2 hours >.<) and put in with Bowie; I hope he's laid back enough to accept her. The crayfish is berried so I'm hoping for babies! Then I can raise them and sell them, woot woot! I'll put them in the 45 when they're big enough to not be eaten by my Rainbows, the others won't bother them. I also picked up a new piece of Malaysian Driftwood also for the 3 gallon, I love the way it looks!

Here's my beautiful girl. Gosh, I really hope she lives! She's big enough that Bowie shouldn't bother her after she clips him a few times. Hopefully....


Here's the tank! Both Marimo's have sunk


Driftwood and Bowie



The Marimo's


----------



## Tree

driftwood are the best no driftwoods are the same. I love the look of that indeed! 

Aww cute little crayfish


----------



## Laki

Oh CUTE!! Do crayfish eat bettas? I saw some nice blue ones in St. John's before I moved.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Laki said:


> Oh CUTE!! Do crayfish eat bettas? I saw some nice blue ones in St. John's before I moved.


Uh no, not the Dwarf variety. I'm sure the regular Crawfish/Crawdad could.
However, the dwarf can rip up Betta's if the Betta isn't careful. Bowie's anal is a bit ripped up when I got home today :roll: he's an idiot though. I'm sure they'll get along. He better not kill her >.>


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Victoria and I went out shopping today! Went up to Uncle Ned's Fish Factory and Tropic Isle in Mass! I wasn't really planning on getting anything other than plants but I found some fish....so did Victoria.

We both found Betta's that we're going to enter into the Fish show come September. I'll sell mine off here likely, I don't think I'll keep him but he is cute and he's an MG! I saw him in the tank an swooned, literally, ask Victoria lol. We were first going to co-own him but she ended up finding a darker MG (more like blue reddish orange bicolor). So she ended up with him instead and I took mine.

First, here's Victoria's beautiful 75 (actually 80 gallon) goldy tank!


The new Goldy she got today from Uncle Ned's. We believe he's a Sarasa Ryukin Phoenix tail. 


He's super red and white!


One of her older goldy's; it's a Pearlscale/fantail who started out mostly orange and turned all white! Her name is Pistachio!


This is Raine, her Ryukin Calico she got from Tropic Isle back in January/February!


This is the Betta she purchased. Though he's got crinkly ventrals, he's a decent Super DeT. I doubt he'll steal the show, but he should be nice if he flares well to other Bettas!





And some pictures of things last night. I'm rethinking the name Calamine, it just doesn't...fit or sound right when I say it outloud :-/




And this is how big my java fern is getting!


So I bought a few things today other than my Super DeT MG Metallic boy. I bought a Platinum Angel for the 45 since Blue died, this fish seemed like a fantastic centerpiece fish. I'm going to take out the Serpae's hopefully tomorrow. I'm going to keep one of the nicer boy's for the show in September. I also want to keep the Boesemani for the show since my alpha boy is fantastic looking. Not sure if I should put him in a 2.5 though or something bigger. 

I also bought three Tiger Gobys! I didn't know they existed! But they should be fun to watch and mom likes the Goby's best so I got them mostly for her. They don't surf the glass though so I'm kind of disappointed about that, but they do skip along the bottom and play! Note: not to be confused with the saltwater Watchman goby. This goby is of the Schismatogobius genus. No pics of them.

Oh and some more pics of my Aunt's animals, the ones I took with my DSLR
Snickers


Midnight


Alex


mother Cray protecting her eggs


Bowie before his anal fin was clipped up


Ram


Rummynose


This is likely the one I'll put in the show


Boesemani


Dwarf Neon


Female Neon Dwarf


Bowie again


I can see you!


So my Angel I think I'm going to call him Ghost 
He's barely bigger than my Ram's!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Wow! Lovely new Angel!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

So wait the new mustard betta shown after the gold fish is not yours, but you did not post photos of the newest mg you bought when that one was bought?
Btw cute angel. They grow fast!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Wow! Lovely new Angel!


Thank you! I have more pictures coming up!



Aqua Aurora said:


> So wait the new mustard betta shown after the gold fish is not yours, but you did not post photos of the newest mg you bought when that one was bought?
> Btw cute angel. They grow fast!


Yes, the one I showed previously is Victoria's. I couldn't get mine last night because lights were out and he was acclimating. I did however, get beautiful pictures of him today! I definitely love my boy over Victoria's, mine doesn't have crinkly fins at all and he gets to 180 spread! He just has rounded edges so he's still a Super DeT instead of HM, but he's gorgeous! For just 10 bucks, not a bad price! Yes PetCo is cheaper but this fish is quality! He's almost AB worthy!

And yes, I know Ghost will grow quickly in that tank ^_^ I've had Angels before and I'd always considered it for this tank to be a nice show piece but had tried different things; like Blue. Blue was just about the size of the Boesemani's though, and dark, so he didn't stand out much at all. Once I get down to just Dwarf Neon's and the Rummynose for schools, it's going to look much more "neat" like I like it to be. I'd actually just prefer an angel and a sh*t ton of rummynose with some cories at the bottom, but mom likes the rainbowfish and it's technically her tank lol so I've to to try to please everyone in some way!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fack....just typed out everything and hit a tab button which took me back a page >.>

Okay names for new kiddies, I keep thinking Mushu for the newest boy and I feel like that just isn't good enough for him! But it might stick >.<

Names from Skyrim language because I can and I like it, complete with IPA and literal pronunciations so you all can see. 

[ɗɔvɑ ɩɑɨʂ] (doh-vah-lies) Dovaliz Dragon Ice
[ɗɔvɑ ʐɨ] (doh-vah-zi) Dovazii – Dragon Spirit
[vɑ ɩɔk] Vahlok –Guardian
[ʦɑ ɩɔk] Sahlok –Phantom Sky

Last two are self explanitory. I feel like (Calamine) seems icy to mean so hence the first one, I think I may pick it but I'll probably just call him Dovah for short. 

Newest MG I like either of the last two or possibly Ravuuk which means Raven, no relation to what he looks or feels like; I just like it. (Rah-vuk) [ra-vük]

Pics!

Mama Cray still holding her eggs


Ghost



Whoowee! Look at that dorsal! That's why I chose him ^_^


Romeo says hi


Newest boy! Look at those ventrals!! Beautiful!


Dovah/Calamine



New boy went on to flaring immediately!






His spread is quite lovely!


I also tried Macklin to see if I could get him to flare. I'd like to enter him into the show as well!


I love reflection pictures like this ^_^


I may just keep this boy....damnit, why did we have to go shopping yesterday!!


While Macklin is like...what is going on??


I did actually get Macklin to flare!! Of course, I didn't get it on camera >.< These boy's will get almost daily flaring along with diets of almost exclusively frozen and live foods until the show!


He'd just put his beard away here


Macklin does get up to 180 though, he is a full HM


Love the action in this picture!


And again, just put his beard away and was lowering his tail :roll:


----------



## BettaLover1313

Wow! So many lovely fish. Ghost really is stunning, I can see why you picked him out. Your new boy is gorgeous! I'm quite jealous of him XD


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow, that new boy is stunning, I'm not sure which one I'll be stealing tonight.
I'll just steal both because I cant decide which one I like more!!!! Their equally gorgeous fish in my eyes!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Wow, that new boy is stunning, I'm not sure which one I'll be stealing tonight.
> I'll just steal both because I cant decide which one I like more!!!! Their equally gorgeous fish in my eyes!!!


Haha! Sorry, you can't steal until after Mushu has won the show in September! haha!

Yep....sorry little guy, Mushu is sticking.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm looking at new types of cories for the 45. I'm done with Panda's as much as I love my remaining one, they're just too damn sensitive for my tanks. I want to stick to slightly smaller cories but I don't want Pygmeaus/Hastatus since it's too small and they don't stay on the bottom as much. 

Considering:
Sterbai (get around 2")
Julii (expensive and still a little sensitive)
Peppered 
Habrosus (possibly, still have them in the 29)

I will NOT get Emerald/Bronze. Do not like them. Would also prefer smaller ones, any others I may be missing that don't cost an arm and a leg? I can get most things through my LFS's instead of online ordering.


----------



## Revosok

What type of betta is Maklin? I bought Prometheus from petco yesterday he was only labeled as a butterfly but I am trying to find out what type he is. Prometheus looks identical to Maklin except his fins have no orange, just opaque and light blue, and his ventrals are spindly. Also, do you have any tips on fattening up Prometheus' ventrals? And also, any tips on making Promethius flare (I don't think I've seen him fully flare yet)?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Revosok said:


> What type of betta is Maklin? I bought Prometheus from petco yesterday he was only labeled as a butterfly but I am trying to find out what type he is. Prometheus looks identical to Maklin except his fins have no orange, just opaque and light blue, and his ventrals are spindly. Also, do you have any tips on fattening up Prometheus' ventrals? And also, any tips on making Promethius flare (I don't think I've seen him fully flare yet)?


If you can post a picture of him or link me somewhere that you did, I can give you a Color ID on him. Macklin is a Grizzle Bicolor.

The ventral thickness is genetic, so there is no way to 'fatten' them up.

You can try to show him to another Betta if you have one or a mirror, he may flare. Some Betta's just never flare no matter how much you provoke them, just be patient with him. Also sometimes new Betta's don't flare until they're comfortable in their new home as well, so a Betta that used to not flare at all, may suddenly flare for you one day.


----------



## Nova betta

wow so many gorgeus fish!


----------



## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> Haha! Sorry, you can't steal until after Mushu has won the show in September! haha!
> 
> Yep....sorry little guy, Mushu is sticking.


Haha, well once you're are done with the show and everything I think they would enjoy a vacation at my house ;-)


----------



## Revosok

lilnaugrim said:


> If you can post a picture of him or link me somewhere that you did, I can give you a Color ID on him. Macklin is a Grizzle Bicolor.
> 
> The ventral thickness is genetic, so there is no way to 'fatten' them up.
> 
> You can try to show him to another Betta if you have one or a mirror, he may flare. Some Betta's just never flare no matter how much you provoke them, just be patient with him. Also sometimes new Betta's don't flare until they're comfortable in their new home as well, so a Betta that used to not flare at all, may suddenly flare for you one day.


Here he is:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh he's quite nice looking! I'd label him a Grizzle (he also may Marble on you like Macklin does to me) since he has a two tone body and same goes for the fins. Grizzle's have a sort of "salt and pepper" look to them like Macklin and your boy but it can be any coloration, not just blue and white but that is the most popular one for Grizzle. Macklin is a Grizzle Bicolor because his fins are completely yellow with no blue in them unlike Prometheus here who does, so that makes him a plain Grizzle ^_^


----------



## Olympia

lilnaugrim said:


> So I'm looking at new types of cories for the 45. I'm done with Panda's as much as I love my remaining one, they're just too damn sensitive for my tanks. I want to stick to slightly smaller cories but I don't want Pygmeaus/Hastatus since it's too small and they don't stay on the bottom as much.
> 
> Considering:
> Sterbai (get around 2")
> Julii (expensive and still a little sensitive)
> Peppered
> Habrosus (possibly, still have them in the 29)
> 
> I will NOT get Emerald/Bronze. Do not like them. Would also prefer smaller ones, any others I may be missing that don't cost an arm and a leg? I can get most things through my LFS's instead of online ordering.


Sterbai are amazing. I always wanted to keep the lil buggers.
Do you mean true julii or C. trilineatus? I kept trilineatus till the end of my fishkeeping and I thought they were nice and long lived. True julii may be trickier, but they are also rare so might be worthwhile to pick them up if you want to breed eventually?
I've had the peppered as well and they are shaped a bit different from most cories, nothing special but still cute.
C. guapore is another lovely fish that is smaller and likes to swim in open water (not good for you), but they may be hard to source anyways; I just saw them in an Amazonas magazine and thought they looked great.


----------



## Revosok

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh he's quite nice looking! I'd label him a Grizzle (he also may Marble on you like Macklin does to me) since he has a two tone body and same goes for the fins. Grizzle's have a sort of "salt and pepper" look to them like Macklin and your boy but it can be any coloration, not just blue and white but that is the most popular one for Grizzle. Macklin is a Grizzle Bicolor because his fins are completely yellow with no blue in them unlike Prometheus here who does, so that makes him a plain Grizzle ^_^


Thank you! By the way, can you look at my pictures and tell me if he is fully flared in any of them?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olympia said:


> Sterbai are amazing. I always wanted to keep the lil buggers.
> Do you mean true julii or C. trilineatus? I kept trilineatus till the end of my fishkeeping and I thought they were nice and long lived. True julii may be trickier, but they are also rare so might be worthwhile to pick them up if you want to breed eventually?
> I've had the peppered as well and they are shaped a bit different from most cories, nothing special but still cute.
> C. guapore is another lovely fish that is smaller and likes to swim in open water (not good for you), but they may be hard to source anyways; I just saw them in an Amazonas magazine and thought they looked great.


Yeah, I mean the false Julii since they're very common around here, almost as expensive as Panda's but not quite as sensitive usually.

I think I may invest in Sterbai, they don't get too big, right? I can't remember if I've seen a full grown one or not. If they get 1.5-2 inches, I may just go with C. Habrosus again, they're like my go-to Cory lol. Similar in size to Hastatus but they're bottom dwellers; win-win.

I could get some Apsidoras, one of my LFS's does carry them occasionally...about the same price as Habrosus. I just feel bad for my Panda and kind of want one his size to play with. I know it's not a proper shoal but I'm also not going to take him back to the store, at least with friends his size, he's probably more likely to feel safer with them than fish half his size. I could just be humanizing it too much though. 



Revosok said:


> Thank you! By the way, can you look at my pictures and tell me if he is fully flared in any of them?


He is not. If you look at my pictures from yesterday, Mushu is in full flare most of them. The beard needs to be sticking out as well as fins fully extended.


----------



## Olympia

Seriously Fish lists sterbai's maximum length as 2.6", so you're right they might be too large for what you want.
I'd go with the Aspidoras if I were you. It's always nice to try something new. But they might have trouble with being sensitive too? 

I wouldn't be worrying too much over the last panda. No telling how long you'll have him, right?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olympia said:


> Seriously Fish lists sterbai's maximum length as 2.6", so you're right they might be too large for what you want.
> I'd go with the Aspidoras if I were you. It's always nice to try something new. But they might have trouble with being sensitive too?
> 
> I wouldn't be worrying too much over the last panda. No telling how long you'll have him, right?


Ah yeah, I thought so. I know 2" is usually average but they vary of course like every other cory. Yeah, I think I'll check out the Aspidoras and see what he's got in stock. He usually only carries the most common one, can't think of the species name but it's not really that sensitive. It's very similar to C. Habrosus and Hastatus which I've never had problems in keeping; it's just the darned Panda's that I've had troubles with.


----------



## Tealight03

Gorgeous new fish! I love Ghost. Someday I will have a tank big enough for a couple of angels. Someday. 

Could I get your expert opinion on plant lighting? I placed an order with JD Aquatics. He is sending: Anubias Nangi, Anubias Afzelii, Java Fern, Java Fern Windelov, Java Moss, Hornwort and Brazilian Pennywort. It will be going into Liam's 5 gallon tank which has one of those crappy low leds that come with the kit. What would you recommend? I don't really want to get the Finnex but will suck it up if it's the best recommendation.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> Gorgeous new fish! I love Ghost. Someday I will have a tank big enough for a couple of angels. Someday.
> 
> Could I get your expert opinion on plant lighting? I placed an order with JD Aquatics. He is sending: Anubias Nangi, Anubias Afzelii, Java Fern, Java Fern Windelov, Java Moss, Hornwort and Brazilian Pennywort. It will be going into Liam's 5 gallon tank which has one of those crappy low leds that come with the kit. What would you recommend? I don't really want to get the Finnex but will suck it up if it's the best recommendation.


Thanks!

Ah, those are all nice low light plants so you really won't be needing much. I recommend getting a >>Clamp Light<< the 75Watt 5.5 inch one will do just fine. You can use a 5,000K CFL in there instead of a 6,500K; that will give you too much light but the 5,000K is still daylighting but more like a lightly cloudy day versus a bright and sunny one. >>Light bulb<<. Walmart usually only carries 6,500K bulbs but Home Depot and Lowes carry only up to 5,000K.

It may not look very pretty, but it will get the job done. If you do want to get a small LED you can use this one: SolarFlare 6,700K, it's the same one I have on my 1.5 gallon. It will give you some algae but it shouldn't be too bad since it's only a single .3 watt LED nodule and thus, not as powerful.

Or, the Finnex MightyRay it's a small clip light not specifically designed for plants but it will give the low light that your plants need. If you want to upgrade to medium light plants later on, you'll have to get a new light.

Pretty much any LED clip light will work for your plants: LED Clip << that's just a search I did and it shows other cheap models. I can't guarantee they'll work or anything, but if you didn't want to spring for a nice LED now and wait for it later; those will work just fine. Always read the reviews though!


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## Tealight03

Thanks! For now I just want something that will keep them alive. I can always upgrade later. Maybe someday I'll have a better job and more money.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So, I'm tired of my 4 gallon and how it looks. Any aqua-scaping idea's I can do to make it look pretty again? Now that I have Potassium, I can grow much more now yay. I love Blyxa Japonica and so I'm thinking of that in there.

Maybe I can do a group of Blyxa in the back corner raised up from stones and then....idk, what should I do?


----------



## ao

which one is the 4 gal?


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## lilnaugrim

Paradise tank:


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## BlueInkFish

lilnaugrim said:


> Paradise tank:


Stunning, as always ;-)

I have a Paradise Gourami myself! Though I can't determine if it's a boy or girl, any tips? I'll provide a picture as soon as he/she holds still haha!


----------



## Tree

I think stones and a small drift wood would look nice in that tank. Maybe make the wood look like a fallen tree with moss around it? Oh oh, or, if you like this kinda thing, Have a pot sideways making it look like the plants spilled out of the pot. That is if you want to redo the whole thing.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I do want to redo the whole thing. I don't have enough soil in there or substrate at all so I want to take out the sand and keep as much as I can and restart it with adding more soil and more sand. I bought more golden sand today that I can use, I was going to use it for the 20's restart but I can use it for the 4 gallon as well.

I liked how I had it before with the rock barricade holding back the FloraMax and some plants on that. I'm still debating though. I do want Blyxa Japonica at least, not sure if I'll do any driftwood or not, I'll have to find the perfect piece if I do. 

I'm really tired of the stupid dwarf hairgrass that hitchhiked in with the microsword which makes it look messy and untamed. I may buy the microsword from another source (My LFS has some right now for 4.99) that DOESN'T have hairgrass init and redo the carpet because I do like the carpet of microsword, just not the dwarf hairgrass with it. 

Should I go for a more dutch style? I can use Rotala Wallichii for a background plant and Pogostemon Erectus to contrast with it. Idk. I wanted to show this tank for the Show in September but since it's upheaval and all, I don't think I will. I will show Macklin's 2.5, the 1.5 and the 1 gallon though. Possibly Bowie's 3 gallon as well since that's coming along nicely actually! Up to 20 long's are possible to be showed because that's what the shelving units hold.


----------



## Tree

is dutch style all large plants in a square?
like this?









That would look sweet! what about making a small road/river with a different kind of sand?


----------



## Strawberry12

just popping in to say hi, laptop is broken and we all know this site is horrid on mobile. Hopefully i'll be back around frequently soon!


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## lilnaugrim

It doesn't have to be a square situation, that's just how that one is set up. It's grouping all similar plants together to create basically a fully stuffed aquarium. 

This is a bigger tank but it's not quite Dutch because it has those stones in it. Dutch requires no hardscape. But again, I'd fudge that a little and likely add some stones. I'm going to scrounge around my yard today to see if I can find some adequate stones to use in my tank! I also don't mind building up sand and making this more of a 3 gallon tank instead









This is an easy enough aquascape, kind of a mix between iwagumi and Dutch 









Can't do any serious carpet plants at the moment since they won't grow in time for September Show, the show is Sept 11-13 this year so a little less than a month. I may not even show this tank though if it doesn't cooperate with me.

EDIT: Oh! Hi Strawberry! And no worries! Glad you popped in ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

Oh whoops, looked through my phone today and found I had some pictures I hadn't uploaded yet!

Tanks:

29 Before I replanted that floating Cyperus Helferi 


20 before I planted the Blyxa's


Glaston's bowl before I turned it so the plants would grow evenly more or less


Velvet was warning me about the increase of humidity and barometric pressure!


And after I planted the Blyxa's and they stayed down finally! I also moved my Tiger Lily into here in hopes it actually grows! The store where I got this plant from originally has a GIGANTIC Tiger Lily in it! The leaves were the size of dinner plates!! I want that for this plant! Of course, I'd have to move it to my 45 but that's what I want! lol


As you can see, mine is tiny and not very healthy. With the iron that I've been dosing now, it should perk up nicely along with the Potassium!


Blyxa's


And some of Mushu ^_^ I had taken these before his flare sessions with Corwin and Macklin. Oh yeah, Dovah renamed himself Corwin....I really don't know how that happened but I was on my way to sleep and Corwin just popped in and wouldn't get out....so he's Corwin now!



I love this fish almost as much as I love Sam and Remmy! I love Velvet and Rowan as well but it's a different love; breeder love for them. Same goes for Alloy and Ally. Glaston is wonderful but he'll be going to a great home!



And this is how my 45 looks as of last night, one of my Hygro Willow's is floating, yes. Can you find Ghost??! He's so tiny in this tank :-D


Remaining Panda Cory is still healthy but he doesn't seem as active any more. Poor fella


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I tried blyxa for a while, reall pain to keep down and needed higher lighting than I gave so it went to [censor]. Narrow leaf pygmy chain sword is a more prolific substitute ^^
I see the hydro japan is taking over your 1g!
My original dwarf lily bulb went nuts in the 7g (last spring/summer0 and 20g but sorta went semi dormant in the 55g and when finally put back in the 7g again. They do have stagnate/slower growing periods, I'd suspect tiger lotus can too, just give it a few months it should kick into monster mode! As a side note I wish my camera could capture *how red* my lily leaves are coming in! They always look more yellow in the photos :/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Once it was planted in the substrate, it's held just fine. The only reason it died on me before was because I wasn't using Potassium, it's another Potassium hog like most Hygrophila's are. I do still have Pygmy Chain Sword as well, it's in my 29 and my 20 and Bowie's 3 gallon too. Oh and one chain in the 10 gallon too.

Given that my tanks all have high lighting for the most part now and proper ferts other than CO2, I should be able to grow anything in the 4 gallon now. 

The 1 gallon doesn't have as many plants as it looks to have, the H. Japan is doing well but hasn't taken over just yet. My Lobelia Cardinalis is actually growing quite prolifically! Similar to the sp. Japan!

So I think I know what to do with the 4 gallon. I can't find any pictures that explains it exactly but close.

So I want to do the road type of thingy where there is some open sand and then surrounded by plants. Microsword will be bunched together at the front and I'll have a couple small rocks I think. Then taller plants around the edges to try to get some depth in there.

These are page stretchers so links only, sorry!
http://www.gudrundesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/aquascape-design-aquarium.jpg

http://www.icubemobile.com/images/w...quarium-aquascape-design-ideas-1600-x-538.jpg

It will most likely be similar to this one that I posted earlier but the road will get narrower as it progresses to get make space. I'll see if I can't find some nice looking stones. And then isntead of the moss, I'll put the Blyxa's on the left (right side will be lesser plants and left will be heavily planted) behind the microsword and the tall plants behind it. Microsword on the right along the path and probably some pygmy chains behind it and probably either Pogostemon Erectus behind it or Rotala Wallichii.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I' sure you've thought about this already but my only comment wouldbe if you're using different sized substrates and don't want them mixing you may need to use those plastic garden dividers (keeps weeds out) or over time the substrates will mingle. I really like the first link with all the plants ON the rocks/using large rock barrier to separate other substrate.


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## lilnaugrim

Yeah, I'll just be using the sand with FloraMax in it, I like when they mingle and mix though so that's not an issue at all. 

Lol, I forgot what the links were already so I had to go back and look XD But yes, I do like the looks of that one as well! Looks like Pogostemon Gayi as the main fluffly plant, some Rotala? in there and Java Fern and Java Moss. Easy enough to replicate. I don't have to use those plants of course, I'd never get java moss to look that good in less than a month so I'll just use plants I already have growing instead. I'll have to see what I can find in terms of rocks though. I mean, I live next to a town called Rockville and it's aptly named lol. But it's mostly granite rocks, while most granite is inert and fine; some do have metal veins running through them but that's not the issue here; they just don't normally look as nice in this type of setup; too rounded and not very jagged usually. But I'll look!


----------



## Tree

YES that is that I was thinking you should do! It will look amazing!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I went adventuring today!! Went up to Providence to a fantastic store owned by one of the people in our fish club! Bought a thing of microsword and some more dwarf hairgrass for the 1.5 (some of the plugs were burning out/getting old from trimming or whatever) I also bought some beautiful petrified wood! I'd had this idea from the start but couldn't find small enough peices of petrified wood! So glad he had some! So I took a pic of the pieces and how they'll likely be arranged in the 4 gallon!

Path in the middle and plants on the side



Went around to PetCo and PetSmart.

Aqua, these fish are for you! Haha This girl was super orange in real life and a beautiful feisty VT!



And this boy was a little more reddish but still orange! Very cute!


My phone makes him much more red than he appeared



And for myself and everyone who love's MGs. I found this boy, I didn't get him but he sure did pull at my heartstrings! He wasn't super active though.


Flare time!


Corwin had a tiny bubblenest going and he was defending it



Mushu




Corwin kept hiding behind the Java Fern and peaking out lol



Most of his pics came out like this lol




You can't see me!


Glaston


The tank with algae on this side. Trying to get Excel to clear it up for me


Added another Endler to make 3 total in the 1.5g.


29 Gallon


Algae grew quite a bit despite Excel use!



And Mushu in Macklin's tank.
Waiting for Macklin to come out and play lol


Macklin saw him and hid lol


Finally!


Macklin's beard


Macklin hid again and Mushu was like 'really?'...lol



Hiding







Hiding again, you can see his reflection


Waiting again


I was holding Zolla while waiting for Macklin to flare ^_^ She was interested in Mushu



Decent pic of Macklin


3 Gallon, found some glass stone also at the LFS and bought the pretty blue piece since it's mom's favorite color. Bowie is not doing well and she's sad about it. She really loves him and I feel bad that I can't help him. I'm already treating him for possible gill Flukes and his torn fins, nothing else wrong that I can see other than getting slow :-/


Oto hanging on the dwarf lily pad


----------



## Aqua Aurora

*AAAAA DON'T TEMP ME!*
Last vt orange boy i photographed was really more pink but camera made him orange like I wanted him to be in real life... When will just have cameras hooked up to our eyes to take shots exactly as we see them? I'm sick of waiting!
The 1g looks like diatoms, easy enough to get out with a paper towel at water change, or you could toss a snail in and see if it cleans or turns into a meal... or turns into countless baby snails (aka my 10g x.x)
Love the two "m" boys interactions (or lack there or for some shots) ^^
And the oto on the lily stem made me think of "walking the tight rope" at a circus for some reason ^^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Could anyone give Paradise a home? I do believe it's a girl, though sex is still uncertain. S/he needs at least a 10 gallon and room temperature water, they are cooler water species so a tank without a heater is acceptable and required (unless your house freezes during the winter, a low set heater will be fine).

I want to use my Ember Tetras in the 4 gallon tank with the aquascape. Or should I use Mosquito Rasbora? Smaller so more acceptable for a 4 gallon space. Tanks are disqualified if they hold a species that isn't meant for that space, so mine would be disqualified with Paradise in it since they are meant to have a ten gallon minimum space. 

I want to do Red Rili shrimp as well, I've always loved them and had them once before. I'm confident I can handle them now at least as long as I don't get lazy with this tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> *AAAAA DON'T TEMP ME!*
> Last vt orange boy i photographed was really more pink but camera made him orange like I wanted him to be in real life... When will just have cameras hooked up to our eyes to take shots exactly as we see them? I'm sick of waiting!
> The 1g looks like diatoms, easy enough to get out with a paper towel at water change, or you could toss a snail in and see if it cleans or turns into a meal... or turns into countless baby snails (aka my 10g x.x)
> Love the two "m" boys interactions (or lack there or for some shots) ^^
> And the oto on the lily stem made me think of "walking the tight rope" at a circus for some reason ^^


Heh....knew you'd like them ^_^

Yeah, it is diatoms. It's still a 'new' tank so that's expected. I just don't feel like cleaning it out. There is an MTS in there. I don't have anything other than MTS at the moment and my male Nerite in the 45 (NOT moving him at all) and the MTS don't really clean up algae very well. There are some snail tracks in it but even a Mystery snail would do better :roll: and they suck at eating algae lol!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Could anyone give Paradise a home? I do believe it's a girl, though sex is still uncertain. S/he needs at least a 10 gallon and room temperature water, they are cooler water species so a tank without a heater is acceptable and required (unless your house freezes during the winter, a low set heater will be fine).
> 
> I want to use my Ember Tetras in the 4 gallon tank with the aquascape. Or should I use Mosquito Rasbora? Smaller so more acceptable for a 4 gallon space. Tanks are disqualified if they hold a species that isn't meant for that space, so mine would be disqualified with Paradise in it since they are meant to have a ten gallon minimum space.
> 
> I want to do Red Rili shrimp as well, I've always loved them and had them once before. I'm confident I can handle them now at least as long as I don't get lazy with this tank.


If you don't have luck selling him on this forum there is a plantedtank forum you could also try selling him on, I've read of sevearl people there with planted paradisefish, sparking goruami, croaking gourami, and other uncommon Anabantoids tanks (not all in same tank obviously).


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## DangerousAngel

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks! Still thinking on names, Fate just sounds too....boring for him. Originally I was going to call him Captain America since you know, he's blue (sort of), white and red! And besides, I love my Cap! I used to have Steve & Tony way back when but they died a couple years back, haven't had a Cap since then
> 
> YES! I spent almost an hour searching for the picture of that girl that my new boy reminded me of!! I FINALLY FOUND IT!! Here is the beauty!
> View attachment 610698
> 
> 
> I was sad when she died in Roemgie's sorority tank with her other girls. They all had acute columnaris just like my sorority did, it's a shame! She did end up becoming blue, my boy will be a Copper though so I'm pretty excited for that but I love his coloration now! I won't be upset if he goes full copper with red accent; I'd love him even more!
> 
> Oh another possible name Calamine, it's a mineral used to create Calamine Brass! Another 'alloy' name. Cap or Calamine....I reeaaallllyyy love Capt. America but Calamine seems to fit him better.... hmmm.....darn, hate this kind of situation when you want one name but the fish chooses another >.<
> 
> And thank you! That bowl is just simply 1 gallon. Actually less if you account my 1 inch of substrate, more like .8 gallon. The plants help keep the water healthy though. If you're worried about ammonia, just go up to a 2 or 3 gallon bowl and add a sponge filter. As I mentioned; most of my tanks are not cycled and yet, no fish have died from not being cycled, they die for other causes (pH spikes from my stupid water, this would still happen if the tank was cycled though, it's not about being cycled or not, it's just the nature of the water). In fact, I've kept more fish successfully in smaller tanks with no filtration than I have in my bigger tanks WITH filtration and the works :roll: figures lol. But what I'm getting at is don't be afraid! With plants growing successfully, you really don't have to worry about much!!
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Just a side rant; I hate how everyone here advocates for daily water changes on 2.5 or less gallons! That's not good for the fish! There IS such thing as a too clean tank! You can do SMALL daily water changes like with a turkey baster around 10-15% but nothing more less you risk stressing out the fish and likely if you're doing that many water changes, it means the fish is already stressed out from some sort of illness!
> 
> Betta's do not excrete that much waste! If you want to lower waste then feed every other day! It won't hurt the fish to do this at all! Lower temperatures also mean the fish is not using as much energy which means he won't need as much food! This also won't hurt him/her if you do it for a long period of time, it's sometimes healthier for the fish if they have digestion trouble too!
> 
> My plant-less 1-2.5 gallons get changed once a week and my fish have never been the worse for it. I just hate how everyone freaks out on each other about doing bigger water changes! It's not good for the fish! However, am I advocating no water changes at all? Absolutely not, there is need to change your water, just not that much and that often. As I said, if you want to do a daily 10-15% then that's great! Much easier on the fish and it still keeps the water clean and pristine!
> 
> Arggg, okay rant done!


What a cutie!!!

That is such a cool idea! Maybe I'll do something similar in the future! Maybe with Eclipse! I do have a planted bowl that I'm learning about.
I'm actually so glad you said that, none of my tanks of cycled, but they stay clean. My fish aren't dead yet! It's a little irritating when people say you HAVE to cycle a tank. We have such god water, even when I was underdosing my conditioner my boys didn't die. With the planted 1 gal. bowl how often do you do water changes, and how much?
I also agree 100% with you on your rant!


----------



## Julie7778

Can't wait to see how the tank turns out! Lovely tanks and bettas as well


----------



## lilnaugrim

So last night we had our monthly fish meeting and bowl show! I brought Romeo with me and he won first place!!! So proud of him!! I've decided to keep him out of the 29 and put him in the show come September! This means I have three Betta's going in, Romeo, a Long fin Serpae Tetra, and a pair of Ember Tetras (male/female), plus three tanks will be going in as well! I have to figure out how I'm going to light Glaston's 1 gallon. I may have to buy some sort of desklight for it or get another SolarFlare 6,700K daylight LED so it sticks to the tank.

Okay so I started lots of stuff yesterday. Cleaned out the 4 gallon and put Paradise in my extra 2.5 minibow that hasn't been setup in over a year!! I put the Sword in with him, the Philodendron's and some branches! It actually looks kind of cool ^_^ At fist he was unsure but now he loves or seems to love swimming through the branches!
It'd be cool to turn it into blackwater with leaf liter on the bottom. I'm sure he wouldn't mind!


Probably the best pic I could get of him :roll: he wouldn't keep still!


His tank after I stirred things up and unearthed some of the soil, whoops. That's really the only reason it's so nasty looking; the soil came right up and didn't sink. It's much clearer this morning. You can see a little at the top, I put my extra Azoo Palm on it to help to clear it up. I left the Cyperus Helferi in, they're smaller blades so I'll leave them in for the scape to give direction to the path! Oooh, I have such good ideas and I can't wait to actually execute it! I have so much else to do though like today is my weigh in for my program and tomorrow I'm likely working until 4 and then Saturday will be jam packed too! Fish-Sitting Victoria's fish while she's away, along with her bunny. Plus I still have to mow my Memere's lawn before she get's back!! Ahhhhh too much too do!!!

But yes, the tank was pretty much clean this morning


Mr. Romeo getting ready for the show yesterday. I took him out three hours ahead of time so he could get used to the tank, which he did very well!!


I moved fish around last night when I got him, he now has the 2.5 and Mushu is in a .5 gallon kritter keeper, next to Corwin who is in the same. They'll be getting every other day water changes mostly and fed every other day with live foods. I can go into detail about prepping fish for shows if anyone is interested! Shows are all different but the prep is mostly the same!

Romeo this morning with his ribbon! :-D


Corwin was wicked feisty yesterday with the sunset it was shining in the 10 gallon and so he was flaring at his reflection. He's going to be a great fish to show!





He had a small bubblenest going as well






And at our little auction, I bought 6 Super Red Bristlenose Pleco's for nine bucks!! What a steal!! I'll be sharing them with Victoria so I'll keep 2-3 of them to possibly breed :-D
They were stressed out and looking much more red this morning, this is from last night




So yeah, I can now talk about Kordon breather bags and how to ACTUALLY use them since so many people use them extremely wrong!!!

And I can talk about how to prep fish for the show!


----------



## Athra

Did you get the name Corwin from the Roger Zelazny Amber series, by any chance? I have a betta named Corwin, too, and that's where I pulled the name from, so just curious


----------



## lilnaugrim

Athra said:


> Did you get the name Corwin from the Roger Zelazny Amber series, by any chance? I have a betta named Corwin, too, and that's where I pulled the name from, so just curious


Nope. He named himself primarily but my dad is an author and Corwin is the name of the king in his series. The name of the book is Shadow of the Scorcher and he has his second book coming out shortly! Artwork done by me ;-)


----------



## Tree

Wow congrats on the winning first place!!!! =O All of your fishies are just stunning to look at how could you not win. Haha


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> Wow congrats on the winning first place!!!! =O All of your fishies are just stunning to look at how could you not win. Haha


Haha, thank you Tree ^_^

Well, just because they look good in their homes doesn't mean they look good after an hour drive and being jostled around into a temp tank for the show! He looked good though because I took him out three hours earlier to allow him to get used to the tank and being out of the 29. He adjusted well, not all fish adjust well!


----------



## Tree

oh you have a point there. But he seems like a fish that likes to show off since he did so well. hehe


----------



## lilnaugrim

Most Anabantoids and African Cichlids are that way


----------



## Tree

haha tough little fish then. =)


----------



## DangerousAngel

Wow! Congratulations!! How could Corwin not win anything. He is STUNNING! I would love to read about the showing process. And if you'd be willing, explain more about that planted bowl, I really think I want to try that out for Eclipse. You could even PM me. But whenever you have time.


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## Strawberry12

what is that massive wacky waving plant in the 29? i love it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> haha tough little fish then. =)


Yep ^_^



DangerousAngel said:


> Wow! Congratulations!! How could Corwin not win anything. He is STUNNING! I would love to read about the showing process. And if you'd be willing, explain more about that planted bowl, I really think I want to try that out for Eclipse. You could even PM me. But whenever you have time.


Ah, no it wasn't Corwin, it was Romeo, the Pearl Gourami not the Betta. 

And yeah, I'll write up a separate post tomorrow on readying fish for a show 

And what do you want to know about the bowl? There really isn't much to know other than, it's got a bit of soil, some sand, lots of plants in there and a light to grow them  I don't do water changes often because the plants need all the nutrients they can get; in a smaller tanks with less fish there is generally less nutrients available after a while. At first, there will be enough leeching from the soil and so you can do regular water changes weekly. It's much easier to do small water changes on it though, never do 100%. 10-15% twice a week is efficient enough. 



Strawberry12 said:


> what is that massive wacky waving plant in the 29? i love it!


That's Crinum Natans ^_^ There is also Crinum Calamistratus which is a little harder but it's just as nice.


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## DangerousAngel

lilnaugrim said:


> Ah, no it wasn't Corwin, it was Romeo, the Pearl Gourami not the Betta.
> 
> And yeah, I'll write up a separate post tomorrow on readying fish for a show
> 
> And what do you want to know about the bowl? There really isn't much to know other than, it's got a bit of soil, some sand, lots of plants in there and a light to grow them  I don't do water changes often because the plants need all the nutrients they can get; in a smaller tanks with less fish there is generally less nutrients available after a while. At first, there will be enough leeching from the soil and so you can do regular water changes weekly. It's much easier to do small water changes on it though, never do 100%. 10-15% twice a week is efficient enough.


Ohh yes! He sure is gorgeous! Well they both are!:-D
Can't wait to read it!

Which plants are good (and where to get them), what they require (fertilizer, ect.), would regular black aquarium sand be OK? I'm not sure I'd know what to do with real dirt! How do you plant the plants, and do you have to wait for the plants to grow, How long does it take for the dirt/sand to settle enough to put fish in, do you still have to remove poop, and is it hard with sand/dirt? Sorry there are so many, I just want to make sure I know all of what I need to do before I try anything. I'm already working on Anubias (just got a new one today!!) 10-15% water changes twice a week sounds doable, we have great water so it'll be just fine!


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## lilnaugrim

DangerousAngel said:


> Ohh yes! He sure is gorgeous! Well they both are!:-D
> Can't wait to read it!
> 
> Which plants are good (and where to get them), what they require (fertilizer, ect.), would regular black aquarium sand be OK? I'm not sure I'd know what to do with real dirt! How do you plant the plants, and do you have to wait for the plants to grow, How long does it take for the dirt/sand to settle enough to put fish in, do you still have to remove poop, and is it hard with sand/dirt? Sorry there are so many, I just want to make sure I know all of what I need to do before I try anything. I'm already working on Anubias (just got a new one today!!) 10-15% water changes twice a week sounds doable, we have great water so it'll be just fine!


Okay:

For plants you can literally do anything. You can stuff it with all Anubias if you like! Stick to smaller type plants like carpet plants or small stems that you can cut. I order from PlantedAquariumsCentral.com but some people have had issues with Heather, I still find her plants to be great so it's up to you. You can buy plants at PetSmart in the bag and tubes but they do tend to be more expensive. It's all up to you. I also have a local store that I buy plants from too. In my bowl, the Hydro sp. Japan came from Aqua Aurora here and the Lobelia Cardinalis came from PetSmart.

For what they require, it depends on the plants and their needs. Find some plants that you like the look of and do some research on them. For me, the Lobelia Cardinalis needs a good light source and lots of nutrients. I do Excel (for algae), Flourish Comprehensive, Iron, Potassium, and Phosphate weekly.

Yes, if you don't want to deal with soil in there, anything will work! Whatever you like the look of! If you did want to use some soil, I recommend getting the >>Mineralize Top Soil<< and just use about an inch of that and another inch or two inches of regular sand on top. Doesn't matter what kind of sand. You can use gravel too but sand keeps the soil down easier. 

Planting the plants, I use plant tweezers and just tweeze them into their spots and let them grow. I trim with sharp scissors when needed and plant the tops. I have this: kit and the scissors ended up rusting so I bought a new, actual stainless steel pair that are shorter. I use the straight tweezers most of all.

You do not have to wait for plants to grow to introduce fish; the fish waste will help feed the plants. At first, your levels might be a little whacky so you can just grow the plants for a week or two, do some small water changes and keep an eye on your ammonia and pH to see if everything is starting to balance out. But you can just plant and add fish immediately. Careful when adding water to the tank; you can blow the sand all over. I use a PetSmart cup, scoop out from the bucket, lower into bowl to submerge the cup and gently tilt to the side to release the water and that helps. 

The substrate shouldn't need a "settle" time if you do it correctly. But as I said, you can add fish right away if you want.

Well yes, you have to remove poop during your water changes or just daily pull it out with a turkey baster and that works fine. You can also use an airline tubing for a siphon to clean the tank, it will suck out poop and detritus but not all your sand which a larger siphon may do if you aren't super careful. Turkey Basters and Airline Tubing are your friend!

I don't find it very hard to use soil and sand, you just have to be careful in adding in new water is all. Otherwise, I don't find huge differences in caring for a dirted tank.

Also, if you use other soil like Miracle Gro Organic Pro Choice Potting Soil like I have in my 20 long, sift it to get out the big pieces of wood and those soils are not mineralized which means there will be an ammonia spike for the first couple weeks. You can look up google on how to mineralize topsoil if you're curious. 

And no worries, ask away!

I've got pictures coming up next and after that will be the post explaining to how Ready a Fish for Show! And the Showing process itself :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yesterday was my weekly weigh in! Lost another 3 pounds! That makes me 13.3 pounds in a month!! I'm super excited!!

So the PetCo down there is where I got Corwin from. I stopped in because I had to go pee and it was the only store with a bathroom around >.< So I checked out the Betta's to see who was still there. That beautiful HMPK that looked like Corwin was still there and so was that MG PK boy as well....you know where this is going.

Here I introduce to you, Impulse! He will be sold after the show though, I just feel he has a pretty good chance to win something. His color is balanced and fins good, but his ventral is short on one side; that's kind of a big thing :-/ didn't realize that until I got him home. Maybe it will heal....



Stressed out and kind of small


Got home and flared everyone and shined my flashlight on them (I'll explain more later).
Corwin







Corwin and Mushu


"Gimme some tail fin!" lol


Out of focus, but he's cute



Mushu



Impulse. By the way, his name is yes, partially because he was an impulse buy but it's mainly from Star Trek since I've been watching it frequently (NextGen) and Impulse Power is just one way they travel by when they aren't using their Warp Drives to get to Warp Speed. It was either Impulse or Warp, Warp just sounded strange for him so Impulse it was.


Mushu again




And Corwin


I also added in the Petrified wood to the 4 gallon last night! I also added some sand but it was cloudy to see. I need to do some water changes to get the detritus/mulm out and then it should be good to plant from there! I'll add in all my Microsword to make a nice carpet on the right and behind the wood on the right. Blyxa Japonica will be behind it and then I'm not sure what I should do for the back. Should I get the Cyperus Helferi out from the 29? The filter will ultimately be on the right side back so the C. Helferi that will be on the back will arch over and create a motion to the tank and sense of depth. I think I should have some tall plant outlining the back edge of the left wood so it's like mysterious where the path ends up at. Probably didn't explain that well but I can see it in my mind.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Nice new impulse buy ^.~, whats the total betta count at now?


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Nice new impulse buy ^.~, whats the total betta count at now?


....Too many?

Just eleven.

Sam, Velvet, Rowan, Bowie, Macklin, Glaston, Ally, Alloy, Corwin, Mushu, and Impulse. 

BUT! Glaston will be finding his new home next week if all settles well and Ally and Alloy are leaving tomorrow to Kittenfish to be bred eventually ^_^ So I'll be back down to 8.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Showing Your Fish​
First thing you need to do is find out how the judges will judge a fish, what method they use to examine it and that kind of things. Most judges have to do what the Chairperson of the show tells them to judge. Scoring is out of 20 for each category of: Deportment (attitude), Fins, Size, Color, and one last that I'm lapsing on >.< I apologize! But anyway, some Chairpeople will have the Judges start at zero for all categories and go up from there or start all at 20 and go down from there. Our show starts everything at 15 and goes up or down from there to get the total score.

Deportment is the attitude of the fish and how they are behaving how they should be naturally? Such as: they should not be hiding behind the sponge filter or a Tetra or Cichlid shouldn't be gasping at the surface. A Betta _should_ be at the surface or middle zone showing off itself. It's also how personable the fish is; do they come up to the judge to show off? It is good if they do.

Fins: do they have all fins/limbs? All fish should have two ventrals, an anal fin, a caudal, a dorsal, and two pectorals. If your fish is missing a pectoral for whatever reason, that's bad! Fins should not be ripped, bitten, or injured in any way. Depending on their species, they should conform to those certain requirements like Betta's; if it's a HM, they should fit the IBC standards for HM form. If it's a Ryukin Goldfish, the caudal lobes should be split all the way to the body and etc. 

Size: The fish should be adult size, does this mean you can't show juvie fish? Not at all. Judges will normally make note if it's a small sub-adult fish that shows good potential, if it's a small fish but doesn't do well in other categories then it's probably not good to show it. An adult fish almost always has a better score than a prettier juvie fish simply because the owner took the time to raise it properly and show it versus buying it at the last minute.

Color: Is the color healthy? Are there scales missing? Is the color balanced? The example we were given was a Betta having a red dorsal, blue caudal, and yellow anal fin lol. Other than that actually being almost impossible, it's an example all the same. Color should be specific to the species; you shouldn't show a Mexican Dwarf Crayfish if it's blue! They're supposed to be orange! There are other species that are blue but it's not true to the species.

And the last one I'm still lacking on, it may be Conformation but I feel that's part of fins. Apologies!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting Ready for a Show​
So how do you get a fish ready for the show? As I mentioned, you want to find out how the judges will be observing the fish. For my show the judges will stand in front of the tank with a mirror and a flash light; shining it on the fish to look to see how the color is, how the scales are, fins, behavior, etc. If your fish doesn't not perform for the judge at this time, that's the only chance it get's. The judge will not go back and judge it again just because he's now dancing; he'd have to go around and rejudge all the fish because it's not fair. So there are things you can do to ensure your fish will perform for the judge!

First is to take your fish out of it's regular tank and put it into the show tank that you'll be showing it in. Ideally you want to do this a month before hand to fully train your fish. This way, the fish is accustomed to the tank and how everything reflects through it and stuff, he can become comfortable.

Second is to feed your fish sparingly on live foods and frozen foods. Live foods tend to be better just because it get's your fish in the "mood" of dancing and showing off. This is not just Betta specific, it's true for all fishes. I feed Blackworms and Brine Shrimp during this period. Remember that worms will keep your fish fat and brine shrimp is a good laxative. During the last week before the show you want to slow the feeding or stop all together for that week for two reasons: the fish will be hungry for the show and will perform better for the judge because it's expecting food, and second reason is because there will be no poo visible in the water then. It won't be points deducted, but it will help to focus on the fish.

While you are feeding your fish every other day or less (2-3 times a week during this process is normal), you want to shine a flashlight on them before they get the food. This will train them to come to the front when the light is shone on them and they will sit there and beg and show off. This will prepare them to be judged properly.

Water changes should be done according to the tank size and fish. My Betta's will be getting 50% every other day in their little quarter gallon. I'll use Prime so the ammonia won't hurt them. They'll be producing much less ammonia anyway during this process.

----------------------------------------------------------------
How Do I Get My Fish to the Show?​
The next step is actually getting your fish to the show! Again, he should be in the tank that he is going to be shown in already so there are a couple of options. 

For Kritter keepers it's easiest to drain half to 3/4 of the water depending on the species being shown in it. Put cling wrap over the top and then secure the lid on top of that, it makes a nearly water tight seal! You can use a box to keep them in for easy driving transportation. I'll be doing that for my four Betta's being shown. The rest of their water can be stored either in a 5 gallon bucket or in fish bags. 

Or, if you have a bigger fish like my Romeo, I'll be bagging him in only 3-4 cups of water, just enough to keep him dry. The less water they have, the less they slosh around and get hurt or become stressed. The rest of his water will go into several bags, he'll be shown in the 2.5

While traveling to the show, it's best to keep your fish in the dark much like as if they were to be shipped, it just helps to keep them calm for the impending show! And then you get there, get them inside and set up and they're all ready to go!

--------------------------------------------------------

That's it! It's an easy process but it does take time and effort to keep your fish healthy and ready to go. Hope you enjoyed the read!


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## Aqua Aurora

Haha "too many" is there ever such a thing? Well I guess when you are tripping over tanks and have no room to move through the house its probably a "yes" >.>
Cool write up on show prep etc, thanks for sharing lil!


----------



## SplashyBetta

Hey lil, what substrate do you have in your 29?


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## Aqua Aurora

Also, aww I wanted Ally, so cute.. but I couldn't breed her :c


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## lilnaugrim

The 29 has a mixture of black FloraMax and Black PetCo Sand. and mulm lol!

--------------------------------------------------------------

On a side note, I just found out that all my supposed male rams are females >.< My golden "boy" was laying eggs last night on the terracotta pot :roll:

I also just took on Victoria's fishy's so I now have six Betta's in small tanks plus a bunny rabbit to care for!

Just did my 50% changes on the boy's and girls for the show. Tomorrow is feeding day ^_^ I'll alternate water changes and feeding days to make it easy on myself. Flaring days will also be with food days.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Did lots of other stuff today as well!

Planted the 4 gallon after it cleared up some. Still need to do some water changes, I have Chili Rasboras coming for it on Tuesday! I'll stick the Red Rili Shrimp in there as well and hope I don't kill them! I'll be acclimating them for quite a while!






So I did Microsword on the right. On the left is Crypt. Undulata I think or Parva, not sure which. Then a couple of the Blyxa's and Rotala Wallichii in the back. I think I may take out the Blyxa and put more stems? Or should I move the Rotala forward and put in more Cyperus Helferi so it arches over if the filter will allow it?

I'll also add a new layer of fresh sand to the path once the time comes since it will get dirty between now and then and no sense of putting it totally in now if it's just going to get nasty! I'll do it a couple days before the show so that it's settled some at least and doesn't jostle too much when I drive up the hour to the show.


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## Aqua Aurora

Pet sitting or you now own 6 extra bettas and a fluffy pooper (bunny)?

My angel girl likes to lay eggs a lot too even though there is nothing remotely resembling another angelfish in the tank.. at least she doesn't aggressively defend them any more (fish can still swim around the area she lays them). Did/will your golden girl eat her eggs overnight or go on guard duty for a few days? -question to answer tomorrow I'd say.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Pet sitting or you now own 6 extra bettas and a fluffy pooper (bunny)?
> 
> My angel girl likes to lay eggs a lot too even though there is nothing remotely resembling another angelfish in the tank.. at least she doesn't aggressively defend them any more (fish can still swim around the area she lays them). Did/will your golden girl eat her eggs overnight or go on guard duty for a few days? -question to answer tomorrow I'd say.


Petsitting three extra Betta's to make six all together in Bobby's room and a fluffybutt. ^_^ I'll also be going over a couple times to her house to care for the Goldies as well.

Yeah, Angel's especially will lay eggs regardless but most species will lay eggs just to get rid of them or to practice caring for eggs even if they may not hatch.

The Golden didn't eat them, the smaller GBR female hung around and defended the eggs from everyone else and ate them herself :roll: strange little fish.

Pics up soon!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just some pics of the fish going in the show.

Impulse





Mushu






Look at those ventrals!!


Corwin



Victoria's unnamed boy that is brother to Mushu. I've been calling him Monster since he's pretty huge, not Giant status but he's larger than any of my boys!




Black Copper girl originally came from me for breeding. She had some fin rot but is healing now. I'll be doing every other day water changes on her as well to help heal up those fins! She's a cute little one though, very curious



And if anyone remembers Rennie? She was supposed to be Remmy's mate! Victoria also took her on but she's spent the last month or so in an algae infested tank that Tori didn't realize how bad Rennie had gotten. It happens to the best of us so I'm not worried about it or anything, she'll be back to her normal feisty self soon!



Macklin


Paradise


Romeo


I was so happy my long fin Serpae started to eat again! He was angry for the first couple days and wouldn't eat anything :-( Finally got him to eat the blackworms today (had tried previously with blackworms, brine shrimp, and flakes but nada). sorry the picture sucks though


And um....guys? I uhhh....

...
Well, you see, I was talking to my LFS about the Fish Show coming up and telling them what I was showing and stuff and uh....

They offered me a Red Jewel Cichlid half off! Told me I could keep him, sell him at the auction on Sunday, or just bring him back if I wanted to!!

I've been admiring them for a very long time and I was explaining how I like to foster animals and all!! So....I now have a Red Jewel Cichlid, the Hemichromis Lifalili. He's max size at the moment and in a 2 gallon kritter keeper for the show. He's gorgeous! He's already starting to color up for me! Haven't decided if I'm going to keep him or not, he'll have to stay in his own tank if I do, but they like softer waters which is perfect for me and they're very easy to care for!

He's got a couple of nicks in his fins but with good care, they should heal up by the show. He's already eating as well, going to get some ghost shrimp to help heal fins; ghosties are amazing for healing fins and making trailers grow longer!

So uhh, yep, here he is!


He's stressed out in this pics but he's coloring up in real life



He may actually be H. Bimaculatus if he shows a third black spot on his peduncle, hard to tell at the moment. I'll check on him later to see what it is. The LFS said he was most likely H. Lifalili since they had a whole tank of them. 

I also really want a Firemouth, they are gorgeous! I'm thinking about when I redo my 20 long, moving all my small critters up there and then in the 29 since I was going to do Tiger Barbs anyway, I could put a Firemouth in there. According to the sites I've visited upon researching, it's possible to do a single Firemouth without any troubles. The RTBS will also be in there but that's it. I'll have to redo the scaping a little bit, make it more Cichlid friendly, but otherwise, it should be perfect!

One of our top Firemouth breeders in the state and pretty much the country at the moment, he keeps his show males in a 2.5 gallon tank pretty much all year round....I was thinking about doing that as well. As long as the water quality is fine and he's fed properly....have some air/sponge filter going, boom, tank for a Firemouth....I think that's a little far in the future though, I do like the idea of it being in the 29 though!

So here are some beauties I saw today during my explorations!

Found this adorable little MG girl today!


I was very tempted by this boy but...I have enough



This little guy was gorgeous!





A beautiful Sarasa Ryukin I was going to show Victoria


I stopped by PetSense to look at tanks for the Jewel. This fish was gorgeous! Piebald Marble!





Cutie, but was having some SB issues and his tail was all sort of bent



Copper Gas DT that bites


Just a nice looking Super Red DT boy


Another cute but bitten Piebald


Of course, I didn't get a pic of his head, but he's Piebald like that other one I linked up there


Pretty Blue BF


And because I talk too much, I exceeded the 15,000 word limit again. More on next post.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And this is how the room is set up with the tanks.

Paradise and Red Jewel are together. Hmmm, I may call him RJ...


The Betta's (three on left are Victoria's and three on right are mine). Bobby's room is unfinished so hence the nasty looking windows and stuff


Bad picture of fluffybutt, but this is Tyrion!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

OMG IF ONLY THAT COPPER GAS WAS A PLAKAT!! But i don't need another fin biter >.<
The mustard gal and boy are lovely to! you get a lot of nice bettas are your lfs!!


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## Tealight03

Gorgeous fish as always! Hello marble piebald, do you want to come home with me?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> OMG IF ONLY THAT COPPER GAS WAS A PLAKAT!! But i don't need another fin biter >.<
> The mustard gal and boy are lovely to! you get a lot of nice bettas are your lfs!!


I know right? That's a huge issue that held me back from any of them, most of them were biting their fins. Yeah, they were all around other Betta's though and it's pretty stressful so there is a chance they'd stop but not always worth it.

Thanks! I like to take pictures of them to show off what gorgeous fish we get in! That LFS with the Copper Gas, it's not as nice since it's more of a Cat/Dog store and a big chain that doesn't really care, but the other LFS (SeaHorse) is really nice :-D They did have a couple fin rot cases and an SBD, but they do take care of them and treat them when needed. Sometimes they come in already injured so it isn't their fault. I've been there on delivery days before and have seen them myself.



Tealight03 said:


> Gorgeous fish as always! Hello marble piebald, do you want to come home with me?


I can always go get him for you if you like. I can't promise that he'll still be there but I think he's labeled as a HM so he's 12.99 or something like that? Might be 15.99 but I don't recall them being that much. Just let me know ;-)

That goes for everyone, half the reason I take photos is also for anyone who may be looking for something in particular; I don't mind holding the fish a few days to ship out to you! I do it quite often actually!


----------



## Tealight03

Gosh I knew you would say that.  I have to say no now just because I acquired two in July. Sadness.


----------



## lilnaugrim

No worries ^_^


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## lilnaugrim

I went to another paint night tonight for my Aunt's birthday! Here's the walkthrough of the painting we all did!! I did mine slightly different because the original had the roots sticking out like the dirt around the tree had been washed away and I thought it looked funny, so I changed it up a bit.

Annnndddd my photobucket isn't working >.> I'll download them and then upload here instead :roll: stupid site.

It was funny, a drunk guy came up behind me and leaned on me and at first was like "what the f**k you doing man???" kind of creeped out. But he just whispered: "We've been watching around the corner and yours is the best one on this side!" lol. I said thanks and he left, he didn't mean to get so up close and personal it seemed, I thought it was funny after but when it initially happened I was like seriously, what are you doing??!!?!

Okay, photos up!

Step one:
Have a canvas!








Step 2:
Paint white on the top and blend a light blue to make a gradient down to the bottom! Don't worry about the sides just yet!








Step 3:
Make a blue circle! It should kind of fall off the top up there, doesn't have to be perfect but something circular or oval in shape! You can use a dry brush to blend the blue in with the light gradient you made before!








Step 4:
Make the blue nice and dark but blend those edges a bit so it's not so contrast-y and stark.








Step 5:
I actually missed a couple steps here since I was getting into it. 
First we make black around the blue circle, don't quite overlap it yet, leave a good inch or so of space between the black and the blue. Then rinse your brush, take the blue and extend it towards the black, blending the two colors together. 

(Step 5.5
Make a little mound/hill where your tree will sit. I made a little highlighted outline around the mound, you don't have to do this if you don't want.








Step 6:
Make a tree!
Use a medium sized brush to make the trunk and make a kind of C shape with a hook where the trunk is. It's a cheery tree so it kind of leans over a little. Then with a smaller brush, paint on some branches! Lighten up pressure on the brush as you make a line, that way it becomes nice and thick instead of being one solid dark line. Make branches off branches like veins! Not just a single branch!








Step 7:
I just added a few more branches to balance out the look of the tree








Step 8:
Take your red and the smallest brush or the back end of a paint brush and make dots where the blossoms will be! Paint them all over the tree area. We had the wind blowing and some petals being taken off in the breeze like Pocahontas!








Step 9:
Give it some stars! Same way you did the blossoms, just the tip with some white and make some dots! You can extend into the blue and light blue area's if you like, or just keep it at the black; whatever you prefer!








Step 10:
Not much difference here but I did add some grass effect at the bottom of the tree so it's like light spilling over the hill. I used my light blue, then the blue and the black. White is at the edge for highlight 
And you're done! Congratulations! Sign it and hang it up when it's dry!


----------



## DangerousAngel

lilnaugrim said:


> Okay:
> 
> For plants you can literally do anything. You can stuff it with all Anubias if you like! Stick to smaller type plants like carpet plants or small stems that you can cut. I order from PlantedAquariumsCentral.com but some people have had issues with Heather, I still find her plants to be great so it's up to you. You can buy plants at PetSmart in the bag and tubes but they do tend to be more expensive. It's all up to you. I also have a local store that I buy plants from too. In my bowl, the Hydro sp. Japan came from Aqua Aurora here and the Lobelia Cardinalis came from PetSmart.
> 
> For what they require, it depends on the plants and their needs. Find some plants that you like the look of and do some research on them. For me, the Lobelia Cardinalis needs a good light source and lots of nutrients. I do Excel (for algae), Flourish Comprehensive, Iron, Potassium, and Phosphate weekly.
> 
> Yes, if you don't want to deal with soil in there, anything will work! Whatever you like the look of! If you did want to use some soil, I recommend getting the >>Mineralize Top Soil<< and just use about an inch of that and another inch or two inches of regular sand on top. Doesn't matter what kind of sand. You can use gravel too but sand keeps the soil down easier.
> 
> Planting the plants, I use plant tweezers and just tweeze them into their spots and let them grow. I trim with sharp scissors when needed and plant the tops. I have this: kit and the scissors ended up rusting so I bought a new, actual stainless steel pair that are shorter. I use the straight tweezers most of all.
> 
> You do not have to wait for plants to grow to introduce fish; the fish waste will help feed the plants. At first, your levels might be a little whacky so you can just grow the plants for a week or two, do some small water changes and keep an eye on your ammonia and pH to see if everything is starting to balance out. But you can just plant and add fish immediately. Careful when adding water to the tank; you can blow the sand all over. I use a PetSmart cup, scoop out from the bucket, lower into bowl to submerge the cup and gently tilt to the side to release the water and that helps.
> 
> The substrate shouldn't need a "settle" time if you do it correctly. But as I said, you can add fish right away if you want.
> 
> Well yes, you have to remove poop during your water changes or just daily pull it out with a turkey baster and that works fine. You can also use an airline tubing for a siphon to clean the tank, it will suck out poop and detritus but not all your sand which a larger siphon may do if you aren't super careful. Turkey Basters and Airline Tubing are your friend!
> 
> I don't find it very hard to use soil and sand, you just have to be careful in adding in new water is all. Otherwise, I don't find huge differences in caring for a dirted tank.
> 
> Also, if you use other soil like Miracle Gro Organic Pro Choice Potting Soil like I have in my 20 long, sift it to get out the big pieces of wood and those soils are not mineralized which means there will be an ammonia spike for the first couple weeks. You can look up google on how to mineralize topsoil if you're curious.
> 
> And no worries, ask away!
> 
> I've got pictures coming up next and after that will be the post explaining to how Ready a Fish for Show! And the Showing process itself :-D


OK Cool! I really like the grass look, is there a recommended type? And where can I get some? I saw some at PetCo but didn't buy any. I guess when I research what I get it will tell me what it needs? If not I'll see if you can help. 

So sand will be just fine? I won't need the soil stuff under it? I have some blue plastic planting tweezers. Do you plant with or without water?
I don't test my water, but small water changes while removing poop should be no issue. 
I've never understood how airline tubing and a air pump makes a siphon because it blows air?
Thanks for the help! I had a reply yesterday, but I hit the wrong button and it deleted what I wrote.


----------



## lilnaugrim

DangerousAngel said:


> OK Cool! I really like the grass look, is there a recommended type? And where can I get some? I saw some at PetCo but didn't buy any. I guess when I research what I get it will tell me what it needs? If not I'll see if you can help.
> 
> So sand will be just fine? I won't need the soil stuff under it? I have some blue plastic planting tweezers. Do you plant with or without water?


For easy grass type pant, go with Pygmy Chain Swords or Dwarf Sagittaria, they chain and will grow pretty easily for you without overwhelming your tank or growing too large!

You don't need soil at all but if you want to go with some sort of grass, you will at least need root tabs. All the grasses are heavy root feeders so they'll like the root tabs best of all, or soil if you want to go that route.

You can plant either way, I've done both and none is easier than the other. 



DangerousAngel said:


> I don't test my water, but small water changes while removing poop should be no issue.


You do need to test the water though. You can get the strips if that's easier for you, they'll give you a quick look at how your water is doing. If your ammonia and nitrate's are skyrocketing, then you'll need to do a bigger change. This is important in the first few months it's set up so you don't kill your fish. It is a smaller space so things will build up quicker!



DangerousAngel said:


> I've never understood how airline tubing and a air pump makes a siphon because it blows air?


No, no silly. You don't use the pump, just the airline tube. Put one end in the tank and the other end you suck on gently to get a suction going and direct it into a bucket like you would do with a Gravel Siphon ^_^



DangerousAngel said:


> Thanks for the help! I had a reply yesterday, but I hit the wrong button and it deleted what I wrote.


No worries.


----------



## SplashyBetta

That lovely MG girl.. I want her so bad! I never see female MGs around here.


----------



## Julie7778

Hey Lil! I read your answers and I got DHG and was wondering if I need root tabs can you buy them at petstores Or only online?

Also, is there a certain way to use them? I have no experience, so I just put them in the gravel?


----------



## Julie7778

Sorry. I also forgot to ask, do you think DHG will spread with the Fluval 13W light? If not do you think that if I just left it in clumps not separate them would it be okay?


----------



## BettaSplendid

Eeep! Your painting is beautiful! I love the step by step.

Your fish are amazing too.

Corwin looks so much like my Antigua. The tail shape is different though. What color is Corwin, would you say?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Julie7778 said:


> Hey Lil! I read your answers and I got DHG and was wondering if I need root tabs can you buy them at petstores Or only online?
> 
> Also, is there a certain way to use them? I have no experience, so I just put them in the gravel?


Root tabd can be found almost anywhere. The best ones are the osmocote tabs found on eBay or aquabid. And yes, just push into gravel. They come with instructions on how many to use per tank.



Julie7778 said:


> Sorry. I also forgot to ask, do you think DHG will spread with the Fluval 13W light? If not do you think that if I just left it in clumps not separate them would it be okay?


Sure, dhg spreads very slowly though. My grass 1.5 tank took over a year to get where it is now to give you an idea. It's also easily uprooted since the roots are usually small or they can be. If you left it in a clump, yes, itd still be fine.



BettaSplendid said:


> Eeep! Your painting is beautiful! I love the step by step.
> 
> Your fish are amazing too.
> 
> Corwin looks so much like my Antigua. The tail shape is different though. What color is Corwin, would you say?


Thank you!!

Corwin is a Copper marble so his coloration is going to change. It already has, he's gained more copper on his body. He'll eventually be all copper with some red in his fins.


----------



## Tree

wow those bettas 0_0 

and that Painting is lovely! nice work.


----------



## BettaSplendid

...he is a marble? Ooooooooookay, that explains a lot, actually. I never considered Antigua could be a marble. If you have time, would you look at my journal? I posted pics of Antigua 2 months ago and some recent pictures. Everyday his white body is getting more blue and his fins are getting more red. I would love some opinions on his color!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaSplendid said:


> ...he is a marble? Ooooooooookay, that explains a lot, actually. I never considered Antigua could be a marble. If you have time, would you look at my journal? I posted pics of Antigua 2 months ago and some recent pictures. Everyday his white body is getting more blue and his fins are getting more red. I would love some opinions on his color!


Well, he'll be considered just a Marble until he makes some sort of pattern. Likely he'll end up as a Turquoise tricolor (red fins and blue band around the outside similar to Mustard Gas). Anything that changes color drastically other than coloring up from stress, is considered a Marble and that's a coloration in and of itself.


----------



## BettaSplendid

Thank you! Now I have been reading all the marbled betta threads I can find. Things are making sense now.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaSplendid said:


> Thank you! Now I have been reading all the marbled betta threads I can find. Things are making sense now.


Great ^_^ Glad to hear it :-D


----------



## DangerousAngel

lilnaugrim said:


> For easy grass type pant, go with Pygmy Chain Swords or Dwarf Sagittaria, they chain and will grow pretty easily for you without overwhelming your tank or growing too large!
> 
> You don't need soil at all but if you want to go with some sort of grass, you will at least need root tabs. All the grasses are heavy root feeders so they'll like the root tabs best of all, or soil if you want to go that route.
> 
> You can plant either way, I've done both and none is easier than the other.
> 
> 
> 
> You do need to test the water though. You can get the strips if that's easier for you, they'll give you a quick look at how your water is doing. If your ammonia and nitrate's are skyrocketing, then you'll need to do a bigger change. This is important in the first few months it's set up so you don't kill your fish. It is a smaller space so things will build up quicker!
> 
> 
> 
> No, no silly. You don't use the pump, just the airline tube. Put one end in the tank and the other end you suck on gently to get a suction going and direct it into a bucket like you would do with a Gravel Siphon ^_^
> 
> 
> 
> No worries.


Ok, where can I get the grass tabs? Do you plant those under the sand?

I can grab strips for testing the bowl.

OHHH OK! Duh! I have never used a siphon before. That sounds like something I can do for water changes instead of the horrid one I'm using!


----------



## lilnaugrim

DangerousAngel said:


> Ok, where can I get the grass tabs? Do you plant those under the sand?
> 
> I can grab strips for testing the bowl.
> 
> OHHH OK! Duh! I have never used a siphon before. That sounds like something I can do for water changes instead of the horrid one I'm using!


As I noted for Julie, you can get them in store or online. Osmocote are the best ones but I use anything from API root tabs to SeaChem to even Jobes plant sticks; made for indoor house plants. I break them into thirds and stick them in the substrate


----------



## DangerousAngel

Ok, I'll search them!
Can I get the root tabs in pet stores or online as well? 
Thanks for all the help!


----------



## Julie7778

DangerousAngel said:


> Ok, I'll search them!
> Can I get the root tabs in pet stores or online as well?
> Thanks for all the help!


Youncan get them both online and in store


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you Julie.

I don't mind you guys asking questions but please read everything (or at least skim it!) before you go asking more questions! I don't like to repeat myself unless absolutely needed (like thread to thread, not person to same person lol).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sigh....I'm pretty ticked off at myself. I added new water to the 10, not thinking about possible pH swings (for the Betta's and other fish, I've been taking from my 29 but I feel like I'm taking too much water daily and it's going to cause issues with that tank to....uggg). So yep, I killed off all six of my poor Red BN Plecos. At least I didn't pay an arm and a leg for them but they were so damn cute and I killed them. When will I learn that my tap water sucks and I need to add a boatload of chemicals >.> well...not a boatload, it IS possible to over-chemical your water so be careful on what you put into it. I usually just use Prime and Replenish and that boosts my pH (KH and GH) up fairly high. 

Is anyone else having issues with Photobucket and the site not showing the sharing options??? This is ridiculous!

I have to download from Photobucket and then upload to here one by one....you know how many pictures I take....this is taking forever!!! uggghghhh.

Okay, ten minutes later, finally uploaded them all here uggg....

Okay, pictures are from Saturday and Sunday, they're mixed, no way I'm going to try to organize them. I'll just go by fish and sort of order from what I remember.

Corwin. Okay, so he is actually Turquoise, not Copper as I previously thought. When it was only a little splotch, it looked more Copper with blue tint to it versus full on Blue but now that he's marbled more, he looks much more blue. Kind of disappointed in that and wish I'd gotten the actual Copper HMPK I'd seen at PetCo that he was at. Oh well, at least I have Impulse from there 





























Impulse. Slowly getting used to me and flaring!





























Monster, (Victoria's boy), we both love his zebra stripes on his dorsal, very beautiful coloration! He does get to full HM I think, doesn't have as rounded of edges as Mushu does HOWEVER, Mushu still has better and flatter fins than Monster does. Together, they make a perfect fish lol.

























































Mushu, my pretty boy! He just sits there with his fins open wide half the time lol, he's a hoot to watch!















So yeah, as I was saying, I killed off my Plecos, this is when it was still alive and cute.








RJ! He's very much used to me now and quite personable!! I'm a little worried about his indented stomach though. Tried to feed him Mysis shrimp but he didn't go for it. I need to get him some Ghost Shrimp since all my other food is too small for him! Funny how that works, he's my biggest fish now but even Romeo will eat flakes. Haven't tried flakes with RJ yet though.





























Put a mirror up to see how he'd react. Jewel's don't really flare like Betta's and Firemouths do, but he did get more red when he saw his reflection. If he fully colors up, he's going to be a show stopper!
Also in the following pic, you can see Paradise in the back, gives you an idea about his size. He's also in a medium critter keeper.


















































Tyrion, the little sh*t. He's been throwing a kanip**** fit and peeing everywhere in his cage and laying in it >.> I have a fan on him and an overhead along with a fan in the window of the room so it is cool enough for him but he's used to being in a basement. I'm going to bring him down into mine to see if it helps him calm down. I've been chatting with Victoria about him, he doesn't like change that much but normally doesn't mind different litter; this is a new litter for him. But he's still adorable and loves to run around and do figure 8's between your legs like a cat and try to trip you....this morning he ran full force, head on into my foot lol. I'd lifted it to walk and he didn't expect it and BOOM, right into my foot XD He loves to run and jump and kick his legs out to stretch. He gets a good hour or hour and a half daily of running so he's not just sitting in his cage.

As you can see from the photos, he doesn't sit still at all. He's a Dwarf, not sure exactly what type or anything but I know he's five years old according to Victoria 















And finally just another PetSmart betta I found yesterday whilst on my travels. He was really pretty, not a Copper Gas but a regular Mustard Gas DT. He looked pretty chill but healthy chill, not lethargic chill.















Phew! Finally done, my god that was a nightmare. I hope Photobucket kicks it up and notch and get's with the program here >.>

Oh yeah, and my 4 gallon, forgot about that. Attached below. Threw the 3 Endler's in there to make sure it was safe for my Chili Rasboras coming in tomorrow and the Red Rili's I'll put into the 1.5 since it's been set up the longest and the water is stable. I do NOT want a repeat of the pleco disaster!


----------



## Julie7778

The tank looks amazing Lil!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Where are your chilli rasboras coming from?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Msjinkzd; Rachel. I'm getting 6 Chili's and 6 Red Rili shrimp! I'm excited for tomorrow! Also the figurines of Sam and Remmy are coming in from Kittenfish tomorrow in exchange for Alloy and Ally! They both made it to her house safely today! :-D

EDIT: Aqua, you may want to see if she can order the Gold Ring and just buy through her if she can, worth an email! She's super cool and very helpful


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I tried asking her before (in early spring I think?) but it was a no go with her, I think she said she had too many danio sp. in stock and tinwini didn't sell well for her last time so she didn't want to restock them :c


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah, I see. Well, I'll let you know what my LFS says next time I'm there. I just went today so I won't go back for at least a week, sorry.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh crikey! I just hit over 20,000 posts.....wow. 

Also, side note, if you have NetFlix, go watch The Dragon Pearl RIGHT NOW! Oh my lanta, this movie was absolutely fantastic!! Great CGI and story! It's kind of typical and cliche but I love movies like this and if you liked the Forbidden Kingdom, Mummy (though not so scary lol), and kind of similar to Karate Kid but more fantastical, but you'd like this movie. I'm in love with the soundtrack too, I collect soundtracks and this one definitely makes it to my list lol. 

Okay, I took pictures. This will take me a while since there are like 32 of them or something... 

Okay so these are just in order, again, not going to sort them because that's ridiculous. Skipped Photobucket this time and just uploaded off my laptop. 

RJ.

So mom met RJ and she was like, why is he in such a small tank? He needs more than that!! She wants me to put him in the 45.....I'm...not so sure I can do that. I mean...I'll look into it of course but Red Jewel's tend to be for bigger fish only. Not sure if he'd try to eat my Rummynose or not-- and I just have to say, I have a rabbit trying to hump my arm right now while I'm typing this....Tyrion is QUITE happy right now....le sigh. At least he's not throwing tantrums any more :roll:























Mushu!






















Impulse is getting his colors back yay :-D


















































Monster





























Corwin















Rennie, she's look better after the M. Blue bath yesterday. Still not at her prime of course, but she's acting much better now.















Black Copper girl. She also had an MB bath yesterday with Rennie and you can't see it, but she does have new growth coming in. Hopefully these water changes will help heal her right up!








Some of the Ember Tetras















So I did get a Firemouth, he's very small and won't be in the show--hey! He's swimming! I just looked up, he's been clamped and on the floor since yesterday when I got him but now he's up and swimming!! Yay and hopefully eating too! I've named him Loki.

So in our fish club, one of the main guys breeds his Firemouths. His main stud was sent out to many many shows and won almost every time! His name was Thor, now, at the time, I didn't realize why he was called that and just figured it was because of his outgoing personality and winning beard! Come to find out when I was doing research, their scientific name is THORichthys Meeki lol. 

I also just looked up Thorichthys Maculipinnis, apparently it's new but it's like the German Blue Ram version of the Firemouth species!! holy wow, definitely give that a looksee when you can! Beautiful!

So anyway, my guy is like the opposite of George's Thor, so Loki seemed to fit! He's still very timid but he has amazing trailer fins and so far, a nice form. He has a long ways to go but I'm hopeful!

If it doesn't work out, where I got RJ, I'm pretty sure they had larger Firemouths...I may get one just for the show because it's already taking over my life anyway so why not? :roll: I'm ridiculous and stupid, I know!

So here's Loki. 








Longfin Red Minor/Serpae Tetra also loves the mirror! He kept showing off to himself lol.








Romeo!















He was great when he found the mirror! Colored right up and all!















I also have a GIF of Tyrion running around my feet and being adorable but since photobucket isn't working, I'll have to post it later when it is.

I also have some cell pics to upload but I already have too many pics here on my list so I'll upload them in the next post instead (shorter list is easier to use).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, rest of my pictures here, only a few more.

I found my Hera Jeradoni! Still alive and kicking! I was surprised to see it out during a water return (not a change, used water for Betta tanks so was filling with new water)








More pictures of Monster because he's stunning! This first one reminds me of Art Deco








The sun was filtering through the craft mesh which made him look fantastic!






















And I now have (I think) 23 Neon Tetras in the tank at school, slowly built up over the last few weeks with store sales and stuff. I've got three Gold Honey Gourami to go in tomorrow and that will be it. It's a 35 gallon tank and been set up forever.


----------



## Tree

oh wow he does look amazing with the light shine. =D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Huh.

So I was just fiddling with AQ Advisor. It seems that RJ could exist in my 45 without an issue! They're fine with Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish and Angels! I'd likely get rid of my Rainbow Shark and move the Rams up to the 20 long with the Embers (once it all changes) and Sam. I may just do it! Ah, though it is saying he's too aggressive for Rummynose Tetra. However RJ seems to be quite docile, he likes his reflection (what fish doesn't? lol) but he looks at Paradise often and just sits there to watch, doesn't seem like he's trying to chase after him and bite him. I may try it out when the show is over, I do want to keep him.

Reason I'm thinking about that and not the 29 is I really want a Port Acara, I've wanted one for a long time actually, so here is my future stocking plans!

20 Long:
Sam
14 Ember Tetra
4 Corydoras Habrosus (I think I have four, maybe more? Not sure)
1 Hera Jerdoni
3 Rams
4 Golden Dwarf Barbs

45:
1 Angel
1 RJ
9 Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish
9 Rummynose Tetra

I'm thinking about taking down the 29 and setting up the 33 instead for the Acara and some other fish I'll chose later, maybe Tiger Barbs maybe 5 Line Barbs or maybe Diamond Tetras again; they're beautiful but I'm not sure if they're too small, they get about the same size as Tiger Barbs though, and I'm sure their random fry will help feed the Acara lol. I'd do a single Acara, not a pair. There is also this rare tilapia species at my LFS that is gorgeous! I may do a pair of them since they stay small (3-4")

So in the 29's place, I'd put the 4 gallon down there on a board and maybe keep the 10 set up, not sure yet. Or I could just do two 10's there for Bettas/microfish and I can use the Finnex Light i have there already. I could use my Fluval light on the 33 (since it is also 36 inches long) since I won't have many live plants and if I do, it will be java ferns and anubias since Acaras dig. 

How's that sounding?


----------



## lilnaugrim

So....no one is going to comment on my newest addictions? lol

Have some pics too, photobucket still not working so yay, I get to do it manually again >.> I have like 24 photos or something like that, I may split it up again to make it easier to post. 

Chili Rasboras and Red Rilis came in yesterday, earlier than expected and fantastic! She sent me an extra one of each as well so I have 7 now of each.

Red Rilis went into the 1.5

Endlers were in the 4 gallon, moved them to the 20 long middle section

Chilis went into the 4 gallon.

For some reason I had a HUGE bacteria bloom in the 4 gallon, not sure why since that tank should be cycled without issue by now. It's pH has always been higher than the 29 and 20 so it should have cycled a long time ago. Anyway, did a 90% change on it last night before Chilis went in and they are doing fantastically! I also took out some of the Blyxas, only left one. They were severely melting! But they were also pearling....very strange sight to see! Mom actually pointed it out, questioning why there were bubbles on the plant. They were definitely pearling bubbles, not just oxygen trapped which I've seen plenty of times. I still have my algae pearling in my 20 long as well lol. At least I'm growing something in there :roll:

But I moved the Rotala forward and added some taller C. Helferi to the back and I think it looks much better now. 

So here's what it looks like as of last night after the change and plants. I think it added more depth to it which is what I wanted  Still not exactly what I wanted. Thinking about adding a couple single java fern leaves to extend out over the Crypt Undulata's in the front, they'd be small leaves to match the C. Undulata and not the big ones of the one in the 10. Regular Tropica variety, not the Windlov. What thinks you all??








Chilis!! They're pale as expected but inquisitive!






















And here is a bad picture of a Red Rili! They're so tiny that my phone had uber trouble focusing on it!








And here were the Honey's acclimating to the tank at school yesterday morning. They were confused and the Neon's were just begging for food lol. 















Poop monsters








RJ  Looks like his fins are starting to heal a little, hopefully he'll be good by the show!





























So even though I had excitement about the Rilis and Chilis yesterday, I still had a really bad day. I was grumpy and depressed and it all became worse when we went out to Olive Garden to eat dinner with my mom and Memere. I had a Grilled Chicken Salad, but there were shredded carrots in it :-( I tried to pick most of them out. I was sad that I couldn't eat the black olives and I accidentally used Balsamic Vinegar!!! I'm only supposed to use White or Apple Cider Vinegar :-( I only realized about half way through what I'd done. It didn't help that mom kept pressing me about what I could eat and what I couldn't; I know she's just trying to learn but that just wasn't the time to be asking me. She has issues focusing anyway so I had to repeat things like three times before she got it. I don't blame her for anything, it's just super frustrating and then seeing all the things I couldn't have (pasta, breaded items, meat in cheese sauces and tomato sauces, etc.), it just made me plummet into depression again.

Then we went out to Savers across the plaza to look at clothing. Mom kept pressing me to go off and find some clothes, I didn't have any extra money to spend on clothes just yet and I haven't really lost a whole size or two yet so there wasn't any pressing need for clothing. Although bittersweet, my tightest pair of pants are now loose on me and falling off >.< She ended up pressuring me into getting two shirts, she paid for them of course as she'd offered the whole time but I was being a grumpy-butt.

Then I requested to stop by PetCo so I could get some worms for my Leos since I ran out. We looked at the fish and animals while we were there and mom found a gorgeous Blue BF boy that she wanted but she wouldn't let me buy him; said I had too many fish already (she's seen my brothers room where all the show tanks are set up but no tech is running on them).

And then when we got home, I thought that Bowie was going into Dropsy and I warned her that he might not be around much longer. She's very attached to her fishy. He was severely bloated and I haven't feed him in about a week due to him being prone to bloating and constipation. She yelled at me to take care of his tank. It had some Diatoms on it and I haven't changed the water in two weeks (big deal, it's still full and all parameters are safe >.>) and she kept saying that the water turned to acid. She thinks she knows about fish care and she does know a little bit, but she keeps trying to insist to me that if the water sits too long; it turns to acid. Partially she is correct, Old Tank Syndrome can set in and the pH will drop due to fish waste and mulm buildup, but that's not going to happen within a month. So I was super stressed from that, went upstairs, spent two and a half hours taking care of the fish and the Leos and the bunny. I was so exhausted that I just went to bed and slept too heavily; happens when I'm stressed. So now I'm super exhausted today as well, I dragged the sleep with me as I got out of bed essentially :-(

Anyway, here are some of the PetCo fish that were really nice looking. That MG Rosetail boy was still there too along with that Orange DT boy who still looked very nice. Mom oogled over a blue King.

I loved this boy and wanted him but knew I shouldn't unless it'd be for mom. I pointed him out first and she was like, eh. I moved him to look at the Blue Butterfly and she pointed the Copper out again and was like OOOHHH!! Look at him!! I facepalmed and told her it was the same fish I pointed out....she goes, oh...he looked different. Yes, yes mom, that's because he's a Black Copper and he changes depending on the lighting....le sigh. 








This was the one that she was really in love with. She loved his blue color, though I told her that the white would be taken over by the Blue, she didn't care; she really likes blue. After Bowie does go, we'll probably get a blue fish. She did like Corwin so I may keep him for her.








This boy was very interesting! He'll become all blue but I think he'll keep that red head, should be interesting to watch!!















This boy just looked very regal, I liked him too even though I'm sure the blue will take over. He's Cellophane at the moment. 








This boy had freaking eyebrows and a mustache!!! Look at him!!






















I really liked this boy, he reminded me of a wild with his irid and long body. He was wicked active too! I call him Red Wine ^_^























And here's Bowie, can't really see his stomach but he was wicked fat! So I think he just ate all the baby crayfish that mama crayfish had. It's the only possible explanation unless someone has been secretly feeding him...also possible. But he was active still and acting normal, just really fat. I hope it was just the babies (though...I wanted to raise them >.<) and his kidney's haven't failed. It's in the wrong area for that though, so it's probably just him being fat.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh and while we were looking at the fish yesterday in the tanks mom kept asking why we can't have this fish and why we can't have fish...

Memere was looking at the saltwater and goes; Why don't you have this fish? It's gorgeous! I pointed out they were saltwater and she goes; well why don't you have a saltwater tank? I say they're expensive. Mom goes; we should have had one and I was fuming at this point; she had her chance!! I was planning saltwater to begin with on the 45! But nooooo, she doesn't like the the salt creep >.> And then she asked if the Bicolor Blenny was tattooed; no, they don't tattoo saltwater fish, only freshwater time to time. (Though I think that fad is fading here, I haven't seen any in about a year!)

Then I showed her the Bumblebee gobies and she asked why we don't have one (gobies are her favorite) and I explained that they need frozen foods and stuff, not always easy to feed. And she goes; on never mind then! But I was trying to explain that the 45 practically only gets frozen or live foods! But she wouldn't listen >.> she was too preoccupied with the goldfish and asked why we don't have one. Memere said she hated the colors on the Calico goldfish.....omg, I just wanted to drag them out of there by this point!!

Mom pointed at the Mbuma cichlids and asked why we don't have any; I told her they're species only tank and she ALSO had her chance with that! After saltwater, I had been wondering about Mbuma or African Rift cichlids, basically Peacocks or the little Mbuma blue/yellow ones. But she said no back then and GOD, this was SO infuriating!

I pointed out the Kribensis and said we could keep one of those in the 45 but she said no and pointed to the Glass Catfish, I said we could keep them but they're expensive to get. Finally, we were done looking at the fish and they rushed out to the car while I paid for the crickets and worms.

I like having mom in the hobby with me but omg, she just needs to settle her butt down and let me do my thing! >.< I should have taken her to the pet store first before setting up the 45 to see what appealed to her most since she really liked the Cichlids >.> But yeah, can you see why I'd be stressed out and angry and frustrated??


----------



## Tealight03

My mom can be difficult too. She always has to aska thousand questions. And they're usually the same question but asked different ways. Depending on my mood it ia either annoying or overwhelming. Moms. 

So exciting about keeping RJ! I have no clue about big community tanks, but it all looks good.


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> View attachment 620329
> 
> View attachment 620337
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 620345


These boys are gorgeous Lil :shock:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> My mom can be difficult too. She always has to aska thousand questions. And they're usually the same question but asked different ways. Depending on my mood it ia either annoying or overwhelming. Moms.
> 
> So exciting about keeping RJ! I have no clue about big community tanks, but it all looks good.


Thanks. Yeah, I don't mind educating people which is why I'm on the RT but she just doesn't really absorb the info >.< it just bounces off her :-/




blueridge said:


> These boys are gorgeous Lil :shock:


I can always go back and get one or two for you if you like ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Also, if anyone wants to claim Mushu and Impulse for when they're done with the show, I'll be glad to give them to you just pay shipping. Donations accepted too if you feel the need lol.

I'll see about Corwin and if mom wants to keep him, if not, he'll go as well.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Haha sounds more like you're mom was the kid and you the parent.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Haha sounds more like you're mom was the kid and you the parent.


Right? That's exactly how I explained it to my dad!

Especially with Bowie. I feel like that parent who just will let the fish die and replace it with a new one....sigh. It's exhausting trying to explain things to her; I don't remind repeating things since that's all I do here all day long but the issue is that she just doesn't learn. She's a self-defeating person, as much as I love her, she always claims she doesn't have book-smarts, that's dad, she's got the street-smarts but it's not true. Not true that she doesn't have book-smarts I mean, she's got plenty of common sense which is great but she always writes everything else off as just not being able to learn; I find that to be bullsh*t and she just doesn't know exactly how she learns. She's more hands on learner than she is auditory or pictoral like I am. I just hate that she tries to claim all this but she really is smart! She just can't see it.

She's been trying to learn guitar lately and her teacher isn't very good, he just kind of jumped right into it and that's not how she learns, I know that. So I got her a couple guitar books and have been trying to encourage her to play so she can actually accomplish something she's wanted to do for a long time.

Geeze. I really am the parent here >.<

I've always been a "motherly" type, even with my friends. I feel like it's because I was 14 when my parents divorced and I felt the need to take care of my little brother because they weren't around enough (mom worked three jobs at that point and dad moved out but we went back and forth between the houses). And then from there, it grew. I've always helped my friends get over things and give advice and stuff like that. It's exhausting but I find it rewarding when people do learn from me. It's just not so when the people don't learn a thing or they claim that they can't learn :-/


----------



## blueridge

Don't tempt me Lil! However if your mom decides that she doesn't want Corwin I would love to get him from you :shock: He is so pretty *drools all over screen*


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I think I might have found one of Corwin's brothers
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Live-betta-fish-plakat-half-moon-male-/381374451015?hash=item58cbb04d47


----------



## lilnaugrim

Blueridge; sure! I'll let her decide after the show.

Mushu and Impulse are still up for grabs after the show!

Also. This week has been so freaking crazy! Yesterday, had work as normal, had to go up to Victoria's to take care of the goldie tank and do water changes/feed everyone. I took some pictures of her fishies while I was there as well per request. Then I went to the local shop up there who is absolutely fantastic and I love George (Aqua-Life is the name of the store). Got some feeder ghost shrimp for RJ and the new Tilapia guy...did I show you him? Probably not, I've been too crazy. I'll get to him later. But no one has eaten their shrimp >.> So the shrimp are just sitting in their tanks, just chillin and I'm like.....well...that's not really what I expected you all to do!! I figured it'd give them a nice chase compared to eating Blackworms; blackworms have more fat but Ghost Shrimp do wonders to the fins! It's like Biotin (Vitamin) for hair, skin, and nails for humans; it strengthens and grows the trailers and fins much longer than usual!

So anyway. At the LFS where I got Tilapia (he's a rare species actually!) there is a mated pair of Electric Blue Acaras. The male is ABSOLUTELY stunning and I really want to breed them; they're super easy to breed. So they're $40 each, but I had bought a Black Acara the other day (same day I got Tilapia) but I kind of feel bad and just wish I sprung for the blue's before. BUT! I'm trading in a sh*t ton of my plants and some fish (Endlers, Guppy females, ADFs, and Paradise) to help lower the price. I'm thinking either 50-60 for the pair, that still seems reasonable and I was paid today so I finally have a little bit of money to play with. They'll go into the extra 20 long I have at first but later they'll be in the 33.

So my new Tilapia guy, he's almost full grown as well. The species name is Tilapia snyderae (I believe, there are two there are very similar. C. Bythobates get's a little bigger and has more bars on it, I don't think I have this one. The store couldn't remember the species name). He's still skittish of course but he's sort of eating black worms. Hopefully he'll be good by the show, I do want to show him. If not, he'll go into my extra 10 gallon with Loki who is still hiding behind the driftwood/Java Fern, but he's coloring up!

So this is when he first came home, of course he was stressed; he's a little more colorful now as well.
















And this was the Black Acara I had. I didn't realize just how smooshed his body was until I got home. I wasn't very pleased, he does have gorgeous fins though! Look at those!!! I do feel bad for taking him back, I had him all of three days but I couldn't/can't get those Electric Blues out of my mind! I've always wanted them as well, there are just a few fish that I know I've always needed to keep at some point and now is as good of time as any!
















And just to keep things simple for me, I'll do the Goldie pics in the next post so I can just insert all pics instead of doing one at a time when I attach them!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okidoke! Pictures of Victoria's goldfish!

This is a female Gold Australe, she had a male but he died unfortunately. We're looking for more at the auction in September!








Ginga Rubra Guppy male!








She got another baby Blue Oranda that came in yesterday (partly the reason I was there). Don't order from BlueGrassAquatics, they are terrible with communication and the first Blue Oranda she'd gotten last week died within a couple hours of receiving it, it had Ich and other nasty parasites. 








He was very inquisitive and quite beautiful!








Newest Ryukin (also from Aqua-Life)








I believe this is Albert








This is new Red Boy; Sarasa Ryukin. He's from Uncle Neds Fish Factory in Mass.















Raine! From Tropic Isle also in Mass.















This is Pistachio! Another of the original three Pearlscales.






















New white Ryukin again, no name (Aqua-Life)








I don't know which this one is, it might be Little One (There is Little One and Littlest One who are unnamed still)








Goldies in a pot! Lol, there was a wafer in there that they were trying to get at. Red Boy and Littlest One up front)








Red Boy








Red Boy and I think it's Callie.


----------



## blueridge

Yay! Can't wait to see what your mom decides ;-)

Also I love your friends goldies! I just cannot stop ogling over them, especially Red Boy <3 He is so pretty!


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> Yay! Can't wait to see what your mom decides ;-)
> 
> Also I love your friends goldies! I just cannot stop ogling over them, especially Red Boy <3 He is so pretty!


Yeah! Red Boy is gorgeous! He and Kurt are my favorites but I didn't get any pics of Kurt unfortunately. I'm going to go over again and we'll put them in the 2.5 like new Blue Oranda and take pics like that; it's the easiest to get some nice pictures that way!


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah! Red Boy is gorgeous! He and Kurt are my favorites but I didn't get any pics of Kurt unfortunately. I'm going to go over again and we'll put them in the 2.5 like new Blue Oranda and take pics like that; it's the easiest to get some nice pictures that way!


You should totally post them on here so I can drool over my computer screen :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> You should totally post them on here so I can drool over my computer screen :lol:


If I ever get them, then I absolutely will. I post almost everything I take photos of here!!


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## lilnaugrim

Yay photobucket is sort of working again! Pics!

So I traded a bunch of stuff including my two ADF, three Endlers, three Guppies, lots of plants and took the Black Acara back for a female Electric Blue Acara. I wanted their breeding pair but they didn't want to give them up since they actively breed quite a bit. That's fine, I'll probably find a nice one at the auction anyway  So the new girl is in the extra 20 long with just a bunch of stuff thrown in to make her happy.

Here was the male of the breeding pair, he was gorgeous! His breeding colors make his undercolor turn black!


Two females with the Blacks


My female acclimating. Look at that nice yellow ^_^






In the tank and already checking out the place







Getting a little bolder



Corwin is getting more Turquoise. He'll probably be a Monster Marble by the time the show comes along 


Deco




Impulse



Mushu


And the beautiful figurines done by kittenfish came in the other day! Look at how gorgeous Sam and Rembrandt are!!!! I'm in love with them ^_^


The other picture had some forced perspective, this is just more to show the size comparison; Remmy is bigger but he wasn't as big as the first pic tricked you into thinking he was. 


And Aqua, everything came in fine, thank you!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Glad the worms and plants made it ^^ Wow Corwin is marbling fast!


----------



## Tree

oh wow such nice scalpers. I want to do this but put them on my wall next to the tanks. 

Haha they have buggy eyes! so cute!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> oh wow such nice scalpers. I want to do this but put them on my wall next to the tanks.
> 
> Haha they have buggy eyes! so cute!


What? I'm...quite confused by what you mean?

And yes, she's adorable  She'll grow into her eyes a little more as she ages ^_^


----------



## Tree

OMG BUAHAHA I wrote sculpture WRONG! sorry! 

having a sculpture on the wall instead of on a stand. ROFL at myself. 

She is! look at that face.


----------



## kittenfish

Haha I'd be happy to make you some scalpers tree.


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## Tree

kittenfish said:


> Haha I'd be happy to make you some scalpers tree.




Hahahaha! *smacks head*


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oooohhhhh!!! Okay!! Lol!!!


----------



## Strawberry12

Lil I may be able to take Mushu or Impulse after the show!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> Lil I may be able to take Mushu or Impulse after the show!


Great! Whichever one you like ^_^ You could take him right after 2pm Sunday, that's when we can breakdown fish tanks. Are you going to stay a while for the auction at all? It usually ends around 4-5:30-ish. Unless we have an unusual amount of fish and objects to be sold!

And Corwin is available Blue if you wanted him. Mom likes to look at him but she said that she hardly gets to see him since he's upstairs and all. Even though I told her I could set a tank downstairs in a corner or something :roll: lol so yeah, he's free after the show ^_^

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Side note, Victoria and I went out today and she took everyone home tonight, no more Tyrion! I will miss his little fluffy face and him tripping me all the time lol. I still have those videos to show you guys and now that photobucket is working again (yay!), I can show you all later ^_^ probably won't be till Monday though.


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## Strawberry12

I love Mushu  let me look at my paychecks and get back to you? 

And yes, for sure!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> I love Mushu  let me look at my paychecks and get back to you?
> 
> And yes, for sure!


No need to pay me for him, he was an impulse buy practically anyway. And if you're there, then I can just give him to you ^_^ I should have bags with me so you can take him in a fish bag 

For those who want Impulse (and for Corwin if blue wants him), there is a $8 shipping fee for priority mail.


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## blueridge

I'm still interested in taking him Lil! Just let me know about shipping and I'll send it your way. Maybe hold off though on sending him if it isn't too much of a hassle? I'm going to have a busy first part of the week D: So maybe ship him out later in the week, like Wednesday or something, if you don't mind. 

Or wait is the show this coming Saturday? Cause if it is, you can ignore the this week thing. I forgot that it was already Saturday


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## lilnaugrim

The show isn't until September 11-13 so its still another two weeks away


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## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> The show isn't until September 11-13 so its still another two weeks away


Oh ok. I don't know why I was rushing things :lol: Just let me know where and how much you like for me to pay Lil! And I'll send it your way. Cannot wait to get Corwin :-D


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## lilnaugrim

No worries blue, either I'll PM you tomorrow or you PM me about it and I'll give you my paypal and work out the nitty-gritty details ^_^

Have a big post coming shortly once all my pics upload!


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## blueridge

Ok Lil! I'll PM you tomorrow and we can settle everything. Can't wait to see all your pictures tomorrow


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## lilnaugrim

These were from Friday night.




Love the reflection here lol


So I also added my Java Fern on driftwood to the tank as I took down the 10 on my sidetable with Loki the Firemouth in it. Loki is now in the 20 long with the Acara and he's behaving himself well! He was actually out and about with the Acara so that makes me happy. There is a little territory despite but it was settled quite quickly! No nipped fins or anything.

But this Java Fern has been growing for over two years now I realized! I could probably easily sell this for 80-100 bucks if I wanted to since there's just SO MUCH on it! Photos can't give you the proper depth of this plant but it takes up a lot of the 20 long! I won't be selling it though just to make that clear, this is my most prized aquarium plant!


Just some more pics of the girl


Hey look! There's....something in those rocks!


Let's get a closer look!
Lol, Loki liked the rocks


Acara in the back


Had gone to the LFS on Saturday, forgot to purchase more blackworms, oh well.
But this guy was cute, not anything special, but he was cute 



This guy was wicked nice looking though!



I ended up getting 5 little Pygmy cories for the 4 gallon tank! I had one Chili Rasbora die on me but the others still seem quite healthy! I have a giant bacteria bloom that still doesn't want to go away!! :-( I hope it does before the show!!!

But here's RJ for now


Acara!



This is AFTER a water change :-(


Tiny Pygmies!



Here's the 45 downstairs


Mama crayfish has been out and about lately, she's so cute!


How the 3 gallon looks right now


I love how the 20 looks with the sun filtering through! Very biotope-like.


Soooo.......


So....I was looking on Craigslist last night annndddd....


And I found a listing that was sixteen days old but it was for a 55 gallon tank and stand for $60 that was half an hour away from me!! I emailed the guy, just to see, maybe he still had it! Or maybe he didn't, either way, I'd know soon.


So he got back to me this morning and said yes! He still had it! I asked ma if it was okay and she said, as long as I help out around the house and consolidate some of my tanks, good to go!


Soo...guys...guys, I have a 55 gallon tank!! He knocked the price to $40 because the center brace was broken and the previous guys try to zip tie it together lol. But it's really not super necessary. It's got a lot of hardwater stains but the Mr. Clean sponges work really well for them and I cleaned it out mostly today, I'll siphon out the dirt some other day and use some white vinegar to get the hardwater stains out!

We got it down from the third story lol. That was a work out! The stand was the worst part since it's solid wood!


Up in my brothers room, geeze, another workout! I'm still all jittery from doing this twice! Thankfully mom and John helped me out!


Clean! Mostly


Loook!!!!! That Rainbow shale stuff!! I've wanted one of those from PetCo but they were always too expensive for me to justify it! I'm so suped that I have one now! I was going to use the slate for the geckos but I'll be taking Victoria's Syno. Eupterus catfish to live in the 55 so I'll make a nice little cave for him!!



Also! I've never seen an airstone this big before!! lol!! I've seen the large air stone strips, the long ones, but not a stone like this lol!


And wow, didn't realize how out of focus this was, but this is with the Fluval LED lights on it. Nothing in it yet, just seeing how it looked.


So that was my adventure for today!


----------



## Nova betta

awesome new tank! What are you planning on putting in it or is it just going to be the catfish?


----------



## BlueInkFish

WOW! I'm jealous!!!! I can never find great deals in my area! What a great find!


----------



## Nova betta

I know right!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I was super lucky! I swore it would have been gone with that price and everything!

It will have my future breeding pair of Electric Blue Acaras, Loki if he continues to behave himself and the Syno catfish! If Loki doesn't behave, I can do a group of larger Tetras or Danios that inhibit the top part of the water (no hatchets, I hate them! ugg!) I might do Diamond Tetras; they have babies all the time so it's free food for the Acaras and Catfish lol and they do get big enough. Or maybe the Odessa Barbs, those are beautiful! Or Rosy Barbs if they aren't too nippy. It'd be nice to do Congos but I'll be keeping some Live plants in there and they'll eat them right up so nope on those.

EDIT: Ohhh! I forgot about the Black Ruby Barbs that I love too! AQ advisor doesn't give warnings at all when I have this stocking:

2 x EB Acara
1 x Featherfin Catfish
5 x Bumblebee Catfish
8 x Black Ruby Barb

Puts me at about 105% stocking level which is way under what I normally stock but with bigger fish, I'll err on the side of caution. Microfish have such tiny bioloads that you can easily overstock them without too much issue if you can balance out the plants and stuff right ^_^


----------



## Tree

I wonder how many gallons you will need for Koi fish. I have always wanted them but right now the stand for a 70 gallon is being used up by my snakes tank. =P I'm sure a 70 gallon tank is so small for a koi or two? 
EDIT:Well I got my answer online. 1,000 gallon tank for the suckers. LOL


AQ advisor is your best friend XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol yeah, unfortunately, it is best to just throw them in a pond! But have a net over your pond so hawks/herons/cranes can't get at your fishes! Too many people don't do that and buy-buy 100 dollar fish or fish you've grown for 15 years! Raccoon's are nasty little buggers too!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Alright! So I've just gone through all my good pictures and have chosen/edited (mostly) the ones that seem to be the best for the show! I want to run them by you guys just to see what you all think about them. You've seen them before, nothing new here, I've cropped a lot of them and saved them as high quality jpeg (is there actually such a thing?? haha!) for future printing since CVS doesn't like png's which are my preferred saved format but w/e. 

Female Rummynose (Hemigrammus bleheri)















Male Longfin Serpae Tetra (Hyphessobrycon eques)








Female German Blue Ram (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)















Female Gold Ram (Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi)








Male Boesemani Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia boesemani)








Male Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox)








Female Panda Cory (Corydoras Panda) [Going to photoshop the leaf out and make it like she's on a sandy substrate instead, leaf is too distracting]








Impulse: Male Betta (Betta Splendens)








Unsexed Blue Oranda Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus)


----------



## BlueInkFish

So, I do not understand your show? All I can think of are Betta shows. Is it similar? Or is it just a site where people are allowed to show their fish too the public?

I'm lost... Lol, I'm sorry, if you explained it already, please forgive me.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Same as betta shows. You go bring fish, tanks, and photography to be judged. We've recently started showing printed photography as well hence my pictures there. Those are the ones I will show as well as some tanks and my fish


----------



## BlueInkFish

Awesome!!!


----------



## Zhylis

lilnaugrim said:


> 2 x EB Acara*
> 1 x Featherfin Catfish*
> 5 x Bumblebee Catfish
> 8 x Black Ruby Barb


Eeeeeee, just a word of warning, I've kept featherfins for 15 years before I tore down their tank (3 adults in a 100 gallon with Malawi cichlids). They're extremely territorial regardless of species, easily grow to 8 inches long, and are a VERY muscular, spiny fish. They tend to bulldoze most "soft" and shallow-rooted plants. They even did a pretty good job of tearing up my java fern, just shredded it to ribbons by swimming through it. (And EVERYTHING fits in their mouth.)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Zhylis said:


> Eeeeeee, just a word of warning, I've kept featherfins for 15 years before I tore down their tank (3 adults in a 100 gallon with Malawi cichlids). They're extremely territorial regardless of species, easily grow to 8 inches long, and are a VERY muscular, spiny fish. They tend to bulldoze most "soft" and shallow-rooted plants. They even did a pretty good job of tearing up my java fern, just shredded it to ribbons by swimming through it. (And EVERYTHING fits in their mouth.)



I am aware. Victoria has a stunted feathetfin named oreck who is already 3 years old and may not last long anyway. I'm taking him on to see if he'll get any better for me. He was in a 55 before he was given to her but she has two others in a 40b and so she tried him in the 75, he began not to eat due to stress. He's been in a 10g ever since and eats very rarely, doesn't move a lot of anything. He's barely 5 inches due to his first owners incompetence, but he is otherwise healthy.

Thank you anyway. If it weren't him, I would not get one otgerwise and go for a BN pleco instead.


----------



## Zhylis

lilnaugrim said:


> I am aware. Victoria has a stunted feathetfin named oreck who is already 3 years old and may not last long anyway. I'm taking him on to see if he'll get any better for me. He was in a 55 before he was given to her but she has two others in a 40b and so she tried him in the 75, he began not to eat due to stress. He's been in a 10g ever since and eats very rarely, doesn't move a lot of anything. He's barely 5 inches due to his first owners incompetence, but he is otherwise healthy.


Aaaw, poor Oreck! Is he squeaking/chirping at least? If he's lethargic, have you or Victoria tried re-mineralizing his water using a cichlid salt mix? They're really hardy buggers, but if he's having problems, harder water and a higher TDS may help? (Assuming it's not an issue with stunting.)


----------



## Julie7778

Great pics Lil! I especially like the Panda cory and the Rams, gorgeous and adorable! You're great at taking photos.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Zhylis said:


> Aaaw, poor Oreck! Is he squeaking/chirping at least? If he's lethargic, have you or Victoria tried re-mineralizing his water using a cichlid salt mix? They're really hardy buggers, but if he's having problems, harder water and a higher TDS may help? (Assuming it's not an issue with stunting.)


We've tried a lot but not with the cichlid salt mix. I can give it a shot when I get him, I'll keep him in the 10 to see if that helps (heck of a lot easier to dose a 10 than a 55 haha!) But no squeaking at all, he just sits there upside down in the dragon head ornament and looks at you. He's not dead of course, he is moving his fins and otherwise, his body is all healthy; good looking fins, no deterioration of any sort, no parasites latched on, no serious bloating or emaciation due to parasite/bacteria.



Julie7778 said:


> Great pics Lil! I especially like the Panda cory and the Rams, gorgeous and adorable! You're great at taking photos.


Thanks Julie! Helps to know how to work the camera ^_^ I'm an art major (though, that's certainly not saying that non-art people can't take good photos as well!!) and had two digital photography classes that helped out a BUNCH! And then we had a nice little photography lesson on taking fish pics in our fish club one day! It was super fascinating!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Not sure if I showed my 45 lately or not. If I did, oh well, you get to see it again lol.


Look what I found last night!!! The Tiger Gobies didn't die!! They're just exceedingly good at hiding!! And blending in of course lol. Helps that I have black sand >.< He was so cute though! Came right out and sat there for a while. A little clamped I see, but otherwise healthy! :-D made me happy to see


Mama crayfish has been out and about quite a bit lately!


Unfortunately...Bowie got to close to her again....mom's going to kill me when she sees this >.< I'll hopefully be redoing the 20 long soon and when I do, I can move crayfish upstairs instead.


Sorry, phone has been taking cruddy pics lately


Ghost is doing very well in the 45 ^_^


Corwin made a big bubblenest today!



My 20 looks like crap right now. I need to rub off all the algae, tried it on the Anubias you can see up front but that stuff is HARD to get off! I may try some spot treatments for the worst of it, with H2O2. It looks strange to see such big compartments now! Velvet and Rowan seem to enjoy it lol. I'm hoping the Mr. Clean sponge can get off the silicone that the razor couldn't, like at the top above the water line there, it looks like poop. If it doesn't, I may switch the 20 long that the Acara is in and use that for this instead and keep this 20 just for the geckos when I'm cleaning their tank.


And ever seen a Chili Rasbora toting around a full sized bloodworm? No? Well now you have!! haha!!

These little guys are a hoot to watch! They're quite brave and personable once they got used to me and know I feed them! The pygmy cories are still a little on edge but that's normal. I added an airstone to the tank so that my fish don't starve of oxygen from this stupid eternal Bacteria Bloom!

I'm still trying to figure out what caused it because it started when Paradise was in it, well before I changed the aquascape :-/ There was no excess foods or anything, didn't change out the filter media, rinsed it but that wouldn't kill anything. Changed the light though...idk! Water changes barely help so I'm just going to leave it for now. If it's not clear by next week, it won't go in the show this year :-( I may try some carbon as well to see if that will help. Anyone else have any ideas?


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Corwin made a big bubblenest today!


No idea how to stop your bacteria bloom :-( Because water changes always cleared up mine, but Corwin's bubble nest is adorable


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it's always helped mine in the past as well or it's gone away within a week! So far, adding the airstone seems to have helped, it's less cloudy than it was yesterday. I'm hoping that it will take care of itself within this week!! I really want to show this tank off at the show!!

And yeah, isn't it? He's the only one at the moment. Fed and did water change yesterday so he's very happy ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So, just sort of thinking out loud here about the 55 and how I'll go about it.

First, obviously, gonna set it up and insta-cycle it with seeded material. I'll probably use the Aqueon 50 filter from the 29. I do want to get a canister instead though, if there is one at the auction, I'm getting it! I love the SunSun canisters but most anything will be fine for me.

Going to use black and natural colored gravel mixed together. Victoria has that in her 75 and I love the way it looks. Kind of what I did with the 20 and the Acara. I'll use Wal-Mart Aqua-Tech black gravel since it's cheap and I've always had great results with it. I'll do mostly black gravel, a 1:3 ratio of Natural:Black gravel likely. I'll use a lot of ornaments at first until plants grow in. I'll probably use potted plants (as in put aquatic plants in pots so they aren't easily uprooted) with terracotta. I'll definitely be using that Rainbow shale rock thingy, love that! I have my fake coral reef thing that came with the 45, I may use that initially and then remove it when I find something better or plants grow in. I'll use the driftwood I have in the 20 at the moment and probably a couple more pieces tossed in to give either babies or other fish some hiding spaces.

Depending on what I find at the auction, I may go for Odessa Barbs immediately if I find them and keep everything in the 20 long until the 55 is up and running (hopefully soon if mother steam cleans the rug like she wants to...she won't let me set up the tank until then....sigh) since they're kind of hard to find, at least good looking ones. If I don't find them but find a group of EB Acara, I'll go with them to see who pairs with who and sell the extras to my LFS and keep my breeding pair.

For Plants:
Java Fern is a big one
Java Moss is likely
Anubias probably
Hygrophila Corymbosa giant, the real giant, not the stricta/kompacta version.
Amazon Swords probably
Various Aponogetons are likely

Any other nice big leafed plant that anyone can think of? I'm not going to do small scape plants in this tank, Oreck would likely rip them up anyway, or the barbs would  Have to be low light plants due to the Fluval lights I'll be using. I'm not going to buy new lights unless something real good comes up at the auction.

I also really want a Festivum, according to AQadvisor, they are compatible. I've done research about them and Acaras, it seem I can either keep a single or keep a group. Those who have kept singles say they're pretty peaceful with fish around their size, which Acaras are. Many have had success with both of these fish so I think I may give it a try. There are usually Festivums at my LFS and so that's not a problem. He'd likely be added last after Acara's are paired off and Barbs are settled. So that won't be for a couple more months!


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, it's always helped mine in the past as well or it's gone away within a week! So far, adding the airstone seems to have helped, it's less cloudy than it was yesterday. I'm hoping that it will take care of itself within this week!! I really want to show this tank off at the show!!
> 
> And yeah, isn't it? He's the only one at the moment. Fed and did water change yesterday so he's very happy ^_^


I don't blame you! I would want to show it off at the show too. I think it looks amazing. I hope it clears up for you :-D

It really is. Corwin is adorable


----------



## lilnaugrim

So um....I should ban myself to the pet store. Honestly! I was only going in to check out the EB Acaras they have! Looks like three females and a male, but they were 24.99 ouch. Nope. I'd have better luck at the auction!

So yeah...I shouldn't have looked at the Bettas. But the girl was saying that they took all the males off to shelf because someone was buying them all to give away for the start up of school :roll: so I was like, oh, I can check out the females at least; never really anything interesting in the females anyway....

But then....

I

Saw

Him....

Damnit

So...I picked him up and couldn't put him down, he wasn't expensive anyway.

I present to you all....again....this is Geronimo 

He's a Black Copper Marble, currently though he's a Copper Grizzle ;-)




Look at that face!




In the tank at home, looking at Corwin


He's going to be exquisite if he marbles out! I think I will keep him, he's something unique!






So yep. I've banned myself besides getting worms for the geckos, I can almost bypass the Betta racks at PetCo if I go all the way around >.< They're close to the cash registers though. I thought I was over the Betta bug since I've been so focused on cichlids! I was for a while and onto the Cichlid bug lol. I don't regret him though, he's absolutely gorgeous!


----------



## Tealight03

So gorgeous! And kudos to the store for taking them off the shelves.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> So gorgeous! And kudos to the store for taking them off the shelves.


Why? So others wouldn't buy them you mean?

But thanks ^_^ He's stunning!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Your female Acara is stunning! Love your new boy, & great name for him. 

I can't get over the beautiful fish you and your friend have (staring at Red Boy drooling).


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Your female Acara is stunning! Love your new boy, & great name for him.
> 
> I can't get over the beautiful fish you and your friend have (staring at Red Boy drooling).


Haha, thank you! Yeah, she really does have some gorgeous fish!! I wish I could have captured a picture of her Phantom, he's a beautiful Koi Angelfish with like...a spike in the middle of his caudal fin but it's a black stripe whereas the rest of the fin is cellophane, absolutely stunning! If she didn't take him home, I would have! She also has some gorgeous Killifish! Fundulopanchax Gardneri and some Aphysposium Australe 'Orange'!


----------



## Tealight03

Because of the people who wanted to buy them for back to school presents. Such a bad idea. 

Yes, he's stunning. Can't wait to see pics as he marbles.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> Because of the people who wanted to buy them for back to school presents. Such a bad idea.
> 
> Yes, he's stunning. Can't wait to see pics as he marbles.


Ah, no, no. They took them down FOR the guy who was going to buy them! He'd called them and apparently does this yearly. I know my uni does the same thing for First Night :-/ it's sad.

Yeah! I can't wait either! He's going to be gorgeous either way! His form is seriously lacking but his coloration makes up for it!


----------



## Tealight03

Darn. 

Gosh I know nothing about form. Or coloration for that matter.  There is so much to learn in this hobby.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Did you take a look at this thread as far as Form goes? http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=588074


----------



## Tealight03

I had not seen that. Thanks for linking it. Definitely a lot to absorb. I'm not interested in breeding or showing, but it's all very interesting.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it certainly is a lot to take in! Take your time and I'd recommend bookmarking it so you can go back and reread if needed, that usually helps me sink things in. ^_^


----------



## Rosencrantz32

Oh man, I totally want to take Impulse. I've wanted a fish like that for a while >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

He's up after the show if you want him Rosen!! No one has claimed him just yet!
Corwin goes to blueridge
Mushu goes to Strawberry 

I keep Geronimo

Also, anyone want Macklin? He'd be the next to go. Not sure if I should put him in the show since he recently bit his fins >.> But I think he's just mad at me because I haven't fed him in a while because he only did it once. The light may be too much for him as well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some pics today because I can't get over how adorable Geronimo is! He's already starting on bubblenests!




I love the red on his head!



And of course, Corwin
(Today is tank cleaning day, don't worry about that mulm!)


Marbling quick


Impulse. Sorry it's so dark >.<


Mushu!


And I know I have my Leo journal as well (sorry, haven't updated that in ages!) but I can't resist! Look at my little dinosaur! Hawkeye was so adorable in this pose, sleeping last night! He loves to bask under the light. I did an experiment where I had the light off for a couple days (partly to conserve energy) and he didn't sleep out in the open as much, stayed more in the big hide than anything. Turned the light back on and he started sleeping out on the rug and rocks again. I know the light will heat up the rug/rocks but I figured they wouldn't like the bright light that much, turns out that he just doesn't give a crap lol.

BUT LOOK AT MY WITTLE MONSTER! I JUST WANT TO SQUISH HIS CHEEKS AND KISS HIM!!
He's using the rug hump (wires for thermometer and thermostat go under there for the UTH) as a pillow!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Said it in my journal but will say it here too: I really like the look of your newest boy! I'm not a huge ct fan but the contrast of the anal fin to the other fins is cool!

Also wow Cowrin is loosing all his white *fast*! Think he'll stay pi-bald or go solid blue (with red)?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Said it in my journal but will say it here too: I really like the look of your newest boy! I'm not a huge ct fan but the contrast of the anal fin to the other fins is cool!
> 
> Also wow Cowrin is loosing all his white *fast*! Think he'll stay pi-bald or go solid blue (with red)?


Thank you! Do you mean his Caudal and the other fins? That's the fin that is black copper and the others are currently white/cellophane. Yeah, I'm also not a huge CT fan and as I mentioned, he doesn't have the greatest form for CT, but man, his color is just so striking!

Yeah, I knew Corwin would change fast, that's just what blue does. He'll lose all the white and be solid blue with solid red dorsal and anal fin, likely his caudal will stay blue like it is now.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Doh' >.< yes I ment caudal (tail fin) had a brain fart there ^^''


----------



## themamaj

Aww Geronimo is so cute! How long have you had your sorority going?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Aww Geronimo is so cute! How long have you had your sorority going?


I don't have a sorority any more, haven't for about two years now. Are you looking back in my journal?

I actually only have one girl at the moment lol.

But thanks! I love my little Geronimo ^_^ I'm so glad I bought him!


----------



## blueridge

Hello Corwin! :wave:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hehe! I got Geronimo to flare at me this morning! He's so adorable! His beard is outlined in black and cellophane in the center! I don't think I got the greatest pic of it, but he was so darn adorable!!

So before we get to that, these were from last night when I got home at 10:30.

Oh yeah, don't think I told you all, I rejoined Marching Band! I had 'quit' during the summer before band camp started because I didn't think I would have time. But then I quit KKY (my co-ed service fraternity) because dues went up ($100!!! :shock and it's just too much time to commit to properly. So I rejoined yesterday and already made a couple new friends! It is strange being a sixth year and half the people who are two years younger than me that I knew, have graduated already! Very strange feeling. But there are still a lot going on their fifth and fourths years at the moment. I'm currently the oldest member in the band (besides one of the Alto players who graduated long ago but works at the university and so she does band as well, but she's not a student)!

So anyway, joined after work yesterday and practice went until 8 as usual and then Uniform checkout for new members! Returning members was on Wednesday but I wasn't there for that so had to go to new members. Went with one of our new Tenor players (I'm a tenor sax) named David, turns out we're into a lot of similar things! Pretty cool! We talked for two hours!!! He's a sophomore that transferred from Syracuse this past Spring and then joined marching band this year. We were done with uniform check out around 9:30 and then sat in my car for another hour just chatting lol.

Oh but, yes, my uniform from last year was too big!! Because I've lost 20 pounds in six weeks!! So I got to try on new pants that fit FANTASTICALLY! They're a teeny bit on the small side, fine for when I'm standing but I'll have to unbutton when we sit in the stands, not a hard thing to do though, I've done it before. But since I intend to loose another 20 pounds in a month and a half, I may have to get a new uniform half way through lol!! Sorry about all this info, I'm just really excited!! Everyone was so supportive and happy for me which in turn makes me really happy! Gosh, I'm still high off the praise from last night lol! That's when you know you have a good group of friends ^_^

Anyway! Pictures! Yes! So from last night. I didn't get around to water changes because I was plum tuckered out! But I will do them tonight, I'll do 90% changes on everyone in small tanks. I'll do a 50% on the 4 gallon as well. Still cloudy as all heck! Grrrrr

Sorry it's blurry, RJ was really excited to see me and immediately swam all over, begging for some foods lol


Geronimo!! I love that red splotch on his head! There's a chance he could be a stable coloration as well! Either way, I won't be sad with him at all!




Corwin was trying to intimidate me to clean his tank :roll: sorry little guy! Had just enough energy to feed everyone, check the geckos and go to bed


This is from this morning.
Back to Geronimo



Look ma! I made a...well, I made a small bubblenest! But it's a bubblenest! It's the thought that counts...right...? lol




Gosh, I really don't care that his form sucks, look at that color!! Well actually, he does have some good things about his form; his topline is smooth, dorsal is actually really fantastic! It's just that caudal, not enough spread or reduction so it doesn't match the dorsal and anal fins. Ventrals are curled a little but otherwise, they're pretty great too! He's a nice strong fish




FLARE!




He also has wild type spots on his caudal! That's not usual! Normally they're only on the dorsal and a very small amount on the caudal if any, but he's got quite a bit of them! They're like freckles ^_^




Impulse:
WHY YOU NO PAY ATTENTION TO ME?!


Ooh! Look! A pellet!






Corwin and his little bubblenest








So yeah, one day, probably tomorrow, I'll break out my Canon (actually, it's up in my room already as I meant to take pics on Wednesday but didn't get around to it) and get some real shots of Geronimo and the gang!! :-D


----------



## Nova betta

wow Geronimo is so cute! I just picked up a female crowntail from petco. She has the same coloration as him.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> wow Geronimo is so cute! I just picked up a female crowntail from petco. She has the same coloration as him.


Ooh! Show me! :-D


----------



## Nova betta

ok, she does not really have the same colors but she reminds me of him. I'll get some pics right now!


----------



## Nova betta

here are some pictures of her.


----------



## lilnaugrim

She's cute ^_^ Yeah she's a grizzle but definitely not like Geronimo lol. But she is adorable


----------



## Nova betta

I really don't know why she reminds me of him... I guess i'm just weird xD.


----------



## Julie7778

Geronimo is so cute and pretty. I agree the red on his head is very nice. I always loved the look of those wild freckles ;-) I didn't even see them until you posted that photo. He is so unique. 

Also, congrats on all that weight loss! Something to really proud of as it's not the easiest. 

Can't wait to see more pics of your fish.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> I really don't know why she reminds me of him... I guess i'm just weird xD.


No worries ;-) In some lights she does look similar.



Julie7778 said:


> Geronimo is so cute and pretty. I agree the red on his head is very nice. I always loved the look of those wild freckles ;-) I didn't even see them until you posted that photo. He is so unique.
> 
> Also, congrats on all that weight loss! Something to really proud of as it's not the easiest.
> 
> Can't wait to see more pics of your fish.


Thank you! Yeah, I really am just so taken with him!

And thank you very much! 20 pounds in 6 weeks (Did I say that before? Can't remember!) and if I follow the program, it should be another 20-25 in another 6 weeks as well! That's crazy to think about! My goal at the moment is to get down to 200 (small goal, 100 pounds basically) which means that in 3 months time, I'll be down about 50% of my goal! So crazy to think about!

And yeah, you guys will get more pictures likely over the weekend. We have a huge Labor Day party that we've done for many years now and dad is taking my brother and I to see Gabriel Iglesias on Saturday for our birthdays! Brother is 3 days and 3 years younger than me ;-)


----------



## themamaj

Yes sorry trying read through your journal. Skipped through some so missed it sorry. Are you think a sorority is a good thing?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Yes sorry trying read through your journal. Skipped through some so missed it sorry. Are you think a sorority is a good thing?


No, its not. Unless you get females that are siblings straight from the breeder and have never been separated, its a recipe for disaster most of the time. You should try to find my posts, I can look back later when I'm not on .y phone but I believe the date was Jul-Aug 2013 when the great massacre happened. Sororities fail 90% of the time, in fact we have a thread that tracks how many times people post about failing/failed sororities, it far outweighs the ones that "thrive". Even still, the average life span of sorority girls is only a year...bettas should live well longer than that. It not worth the risk, enoy your girls in divided tanks without the high stress of being around each other all the time.


----------



## themamaj

Good advice. That a firms my second thoughts. Looked at my girls other day and could stand thoughts of loosing any of them. Appreciate your note.


----------



## kittenfish

lilnaugrim said:


> No, its not. Unless you get females that are siblings straight from the breeder and have never been separated, its a recipe for disaster most of the time. You should try to find my posts, I can look back later when I'm not on .y phone but I believe the date was Jul-Aug 2013 when the great massacre happened. Sororities fail 90% of the time, in fact we have a thread that tracks how many times people post about failing/failed sororities, it far outweighs the ones that "thrive". Even still, the average life span of sorority girls is only a year...bettas should live well longer than that. It not worth the risk, enoy your girls in divided tanks without the high stress of being around each other all the time.


I went back to try to find this massacre. Are you referring to the time your GBR killed everyone, or did something happen before that? Because that sounds like a problem with GBRs in a community tank, not specifically a sorority problem. You might be right about the reduced life spans though, I currently have only one girl in my sorority who's been in there for over a year.


----------



## lilnaugrim

kittenfish said:


> I went back to try to find this massacre. Are you referring to the time your GBR killed everyone, or did something happen before that? Because that sounds like a problem with GBRs in a community tank, not specifically a sorority problem. You might be right about the reduced life spans though, I currently have only one girl in my sorority who's been in there for over a year.


Nah, the GBR didn't actually kill anyone come to find out. My sorority succumbed to an Acute form of Columnaris, there are five different strains of Columnaris (Flexibacter).


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## kittenfish

Oh wow, that was some REALLY aggressive disease then.


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## lilnaugrim

kittenfish said:


> Oh wow, that was some REALLY aggressive disease then.


Yep, there are a multitude of aggressive diseases. Being in a sorority life doesn't help either. The higher the stress, the more likely the fish will succumb to the disease. Sororities are one of the most high stress environments throughout the fish hobby other than poorly maintained or poorly stocked tanks/incorrectly stocked tanks.


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## lilnaugrim

Pics I took on Saturday night after the Gabriel Iglesias show which was AMAZING! We got front row tickets! It was like being in his living room and having a private show!! I almost passed out due to laughing so hard at one point!! Oh god, so good!!!

So I got home at midnight and decided to take pics of everyone :roll: because that's what I do lol. My poor fish are like....why do we have to flare? It's way passed our bedtime! lol

Pretty Rainbow fish, took this before Saturday I think
It's a shame the algae is there, this is a beautiful picture otherwise! I may be able to edit it though



Geronimo!




His form isn't as bad as I thought it was! Still not desirable but not as bad as I thought! He had some broken rays but they should heal eventually



Corwin!





Impulse!






Mushu



So I gave up and put my Tilapia species in the 20 long with Acara and Loki the Firemouth. S/he colored up immediately upon being placed in the tank! So I guess I won't show him this year. He also immediately became the boss of the tank :roll: He pushed Loki out of his hiding spot, this is Loki; mad at the Tilapia




Pretty Acara


She's slowly getting used to me!



And my big bad Tilapia



Tilapia giving lip to Acara.


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## Aqua Aurora

Talapia is a common fish sued in aquaponics and auqafarming. You just tell that fish if he/she doesn't behave they'll end up on the dinner table!
Btw love the head on shot of the rainbowfish.


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Talapia is a common fish sued in aquaponics and auqafarming. You just tell that fish if he/she doesn't behave they'll end up on the dinner table!
> Btw love the head on shot of the rainbowfish.


Lol, I know. I studied AquaCulture as well ;-)

Unfortunately for me but fortunate for the fish, this is a very rare species of Tilapia so she won't end up on the dinner table ;-)

Thanks! I do love it too! So velvety looking!


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## BlueInkFish

Wow!! That Rainbow photo is stunning!!

I love all your fish. And they all make me jealous. The only thing I can do about it is steal them I guess ;-)


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you thank you Blu! lol

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Rainbow pic will look even better once I apply some photoshop magic to it today ;-) I'll repost it when it's done! Hoping to be the front cover of my fish club's newsletter this month! woot woot!

Sorry for lack of update on my other tanks! 45 is doing fantastic with the Finnex Planted+ 24/7. I mostly keep it on white with some red for the plants. Running into Green Spot algae on that tank as well but nothing a Mr. Clean sponge can't handle!

My 29 was looking gross, plants are fantastic, but tank walls were COVERED in algae. I forgot to take a pic of course and hopefully will get some tonight. But I cleaned it up with my Mr. Clean sponge and everyone was happy again when they could see me and I fed them. All Tetras are doing great, my RTBS has also been growing quite a bit! pretty sure I have a male, he's fat too! lol I spot my Cories every now and then and the Hera Jeradoni as well.

20 is looking grosser and grosser. Can't keep up with the mulm build up. Sam has figured out that he likes his fins short and he keeps munching on his tail...I'm hoping it's just because Velvet is next to him. I'm going to switch Velvet and Rowan to see if it will help him NOT bite his fins >.> His anal, ventrals, and dorsal are all coming back nice though! They're all mad at me because I haven't fed any one in like...a week....they'll get black worms today though so it should make them happy again.

Glaston is still with me in the little 1 gallon bowl. I may or may not show it. Not sure. Also my 1.5 with the Red Rili shrimp in it, the Dwarf hairgrass tank, a lot of my older hairgrass died due to trimming....I'm mad at that. I think maybe I'll try to take out the dead grass tonight/tomorrow and fill it with Staurgyne Repens from Sam's side since I have a crap ton of those still. I can fill the center behind the marble cut, with them and it should look pretty nice. But the shrimp love the tank so I'm happy!

As for my 4 gallon. Somehow the Bacteria bloom turned into an algae bloom through this last week.....gettin' tired of this tank's shenanigins!! Thankfully, I've been triple dosing Excel, Chili's don't seem to mind it at all and it is clearing! Here's to hoping it will be clear by Friday or Saturday at the latest! That's judging day. I've been doing water changes now and that's helped. I can at least see THROUGH my tank now >.< At it's worst, I could barely see half way through it was so bad! Once I figured it was then an Algae bloom, it was distinctly white before so I know it was a BB to start off with and then turned AB. But once I saw the green, I started the triple dose of Excel and I've cut the light time down quite a bit to help. I'm going to cut all the way down to six hours only of light time for today, tomorrow and then I'm not sure how it's going to work for the show; if I have to manually turn it off or leave them on or something....I'm a bit nervous about that!

Anyway, here's the 4 gallon as of last night after a water change!
I added an air stone last week to help the Bacteria Bloom which it did. I'm rather fond of the way it looks now and will probably keep it for the show  What say you guys?


And Romeo is so funny! I was showing him a video of a female Pearl and he literally flipped out! Like he almost jumped out of the tank!! He was so nervous! He clamped up and everything! But he LOOOOOVVEESSS the mirror and his own reflection XD He's so funny. So I feed him black worms when he responds positively to the flashlight and the mirror, he was a very happy boy yesterday! Today starts all their fasting until after the show. This helps to reduce waste in their show tanks and unnecessary poops or digestive issues.


----------



## Tree

I like the algae in the photo, gives it more detail. I'd just crop it and see how it looks. =D BEAUTIFUL shot.


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## lilnaugrim

I don't mind the Algae on the sides, but I hate it overtop the fish. Here's what the new version looks like


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## blueridge

Love the new version Lil :shock:


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## Strawberry12

I'm so excited for Sunday, Lil! Anything I should know/expect? 

Also if you have any extra plant trimmings at the moment I will totally throw some money at you for them, I need to do Mushu's tank


----------



## BettaLover1313

Love the new version of the Rainbow Fish shot. Good luck at your show!


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## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> I don't mind the Algae on the sides, but I hate it overtop the fish. Here's what the new version looks like
> 
> View attachment 628625


very nice clean up. Ah the power of Photoshop. hehe How we love it. you did use photoshop right?


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## lilnaugrim

Sorry, short reply, been working the show stuff this weekend.

Yes, Photoshop

And strawberry, if you want to buy anything at the auction, expect to be here about 5 hours to get through all the stuff lol. Bring money! If you just want to see fish then best to come around 10-11, auction starts at 12!


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## lilnaugrim

Phew.....

What a weekend!!

Friday was set up in the morning, we powered through that with getting the stands all up, looking nice with black fabric hiding the framework and the air piping that went around the room. Lights went up over the tanks. We're the only show in the country that lights our Fish Show, even the National chapters don't light their show! (But they probably have a nicer room than what we have!) Friday afternoon was fish registration and set up so Victoria and I went back to take care of all of that and get our stuff up! Have some pics of that. Then Saturday was judging and we both scribed for the judges which basically is write down the numbers they say and then write down their comments as well on that fish so the person knows what or why their fish won/didn't win and stuff like that! of course you can ask the judges personally later after awards are given and they're usually happy to explain why they gave that number and stuff.

So judging took about 5 hours, we had something like 24 different classes (some include: Male Bettas, Anabantids, Goldfish and Koi under 3", Goldfish and Koi over 3", Open Catfish, Corydoras, Open Pairs, Old World Cichlids, Open Class under 2", Open Class over 2", and so on) and we only had three judges and four scribes! So yeah, that took a while.

Then we were fed a dinner Saturday night and I didn't get home till....11 I think, or 10:30. I was pooped. Went to bed. Got up and drove back the 45 minutes to Cumberland for the showing and set up of the Auction. I unfortunately had to man the fish room for the entire auction but thankfully Victoria could bid for me and I still got quite a few things!!

Things bought from the Auction:
*12+ Cherry Shrimp* for $12 (though, lacking in color, need to add a Fire Red to the colony to get that nice red color back!) *+ some java moss* 
*3 Albino Ancistrus (BN Pleco)* for $16, which the male and female are mated pair, the other female just hangs out. They're full sized too. They've already cleaned up the entire old 20 long! (took out Sam and put him in a 1 gal for some minor fin rot. Put Velvet in his section and Rowan got the entire 16 gal section with the plecos after I took out that divider).
*Long-a$$ betta tank* for $8. It's acrylic and divided and it's like a super long 2 gallon or something. I'm going to see if I can rip out the divider and make my Red Rili colony in there and that way I can give my Dwarf Hairgrass tank to Aqua since I did promise her!
*3 Synodontis Lucipinnis* for $12!! This was my most exciting purchase I think! This fish is commonly sold under Petricola but it's the dwarf version, only reaching 3"! They will go into the 55 and hopefully I can breed them as well! They're pretty easy to breed and each fish goes for about 19.99 usually! I'm so stoked that I got 3 for less than the price of one!!!!! And they're so damn cute too!

I think that's all I had, Victoria had gotten some things as well, I don't remember half of them. Some sponge filters and stuff.

So I have some pics from the weekend! Nothing of setting up or anything, just afterwards on Saturday.

I lied, this was from Thursday or Friday morning I think. Tank never cleared up but I was recommended to use Accu-Clear for green water, clears it almost instantly and doesn't have adverse affects to shrimp or fish or sensitive plants. I'll pick some up and try! Excel was helping, but just not enough even at double dose daily.



My one last Pygmy Cory, they dropped like flies for me after the first week. He never came out for the show either, he might have died with the change of water since I used some of Victoria's water and the church's water to fill it back up at the show....oh well. I have some beautiful shrimp now so I'm happy with it still.


The Chili's were coloring up amazingly but of course, went pale for the show and the move. The judge still loved my fish though! Told me I had "Cute fish!" haha.


Okay! Getting ready for the show on Friday when we went back to Victoria's to pick up our fish!

This is her hybrid boy Red. He's part Ryukin and part Oranda mostly likely. He is a Pheonix tail and you'll see why in a few pics! I love the interaction with the reflection here though!



He has holes in his dorsal but they're slowly healing up. He got docked in points quite a bit for that.


Raine! The Calico Ryukin! She won second!


And here they are swimming happily in the bucket to be transported! They really love each other quite a bit!



Okay, see his tail in this pic. It looks like a Phoenix rising with how the top split is shorter than the bottom splits which would be the Phoenix "tail". For a regular Fan Tail, the lobes would be equal size








At the show! Everything set up and running! Those four are my Betta's, none scored as I figured, but Corwin had the most points out of them all. The others, I knew they had their issues, though the judge said that Impulse's caudal was uneven, didn't see that before....I'll have to look at pics to see.


And going down the line. 4 gallon!


1.5 with Red Rili


Corwin


Mushu


Geronimo


Victoria's boy which I was calling Monster/Deco. She named him Mosaic ^_^


Romeo!


"You want a piece a'dis?!" "Come at me bro!"



Red in his show tank




Raine!



Wrote too much, rest of post in next post.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Victoria's False Julii


Her full grown Featherfin Synodontis named Squeakz lol



RJ wasn't happy



Okay, on to other fish that really caught my eye!

I LOVE this fish! It's a Geophagus Surinamensis, aka, the Red Line Eartheater. Beautiful fish and I may get one for the 55!



Some sort of Cory, can't remember the name. Won Reserve of Show (basically the second Best of Show)


A beautiful male Albino Ancistrus, won second place in them.


Bumblebee catifhs!


A Lucipinnis in the show! Beautiful fish!


I love their white whiskers!


This giant Lungfish was there! He was super cool! Won either first or second, can't remember


Beautiful full sized Ornate Bichir!


These pair won first place in the Open Pair class. Gorgeous pair! I couldn't remember the name, related to Bichardi Cichlids though.


This giant boy was so adorable!! Very personable!


A Threadfin Acara!! If I don't get the Red Line Eartheater, I'm getting this fish!



One of the IFGA regulated guppy females


This Platy won first place in Domestic Livebearer ^_^


My Photos! None of them placed unfortuantely. Focus was too soft when they were printed.


This giant was cute too




This beauty won first place in Old World Cichlids!


Cutie-patootie! I don't think it's a Flowerhorn, but he was wicked cute. I can't handle the bump on the Flowerhorn, looks attrocious to me, this size is okay but I prefer no bump. I loved the coloration though!


Got home Saturday to find my Golden Ram girl laid more eggs lol



And my planted tanks placed first and second! but that's because they were the only ones there.....oh well, I GOT MONEY!


Victoria's Raine got second place



And got everyone home safe. My Lucipinnis love the 20 long so far! They all feasted on Blackworms last night.




Loki is still a poop head, doesn't like me just but loves when I sing in the room. I think he see's my mouth moving and takes it as a challenge since when Firemouths flare, they also open their mouth to try to bite the fish. Same happens with my Tilapia guy, except his mouth is huge



Acara!


Lucipinnis vs. Acara for size


And that's it for now! Have to go to class shortly so ta-ta for now!


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## BettaLover1313

Sounds like you had a lot of fun at your show and got a good haul from the auction. Congrats on the first and second place . Glad everyone made it back safe and sound.


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## Strawberry12

eep! Sorry I didn't make it, I woke up sick on Sunday, and bf is sick today  Between that and the weather it just didn't work out. Congrats on the wins, and some of those fish are INSANE!


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## lilnaugrim

Ty ty!!

It was a lot of fun, exhausting, but fun all the same and can't wait for next year!

And yeah Strawberry, I noticed that. It's okay though, I think I'm getting sick myself...so many allergies and its a terrible year for them! I feel like death.

Also, on the subject of mushu, I didn't realize that Victoria originally wanted him!! I felt really bad and I wasn't sure if you'd want to give up and maybe take Impulse instead? I don't want to pressure either of you and I know you had your heart set in him and all. You can PM me or just talk here about it if you really want. Sorry I put you in such an awkward position!!


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## Strawberry12

oh sure! that's not a problem at all. I think I have my hands full here at the moment anyway, so it's probably the smarter decision for him to go to somebody else 

I know! My allergies are going nutty, and I think it's the constant swing from 60-90 degree weather that put me over the edge, my body couldn't keep up. And on that note...going to drown myself in nyquil.


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## Tree

oh congrats on winning first and second place! even though you said they were the only ones. lol


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## lilnaugrim

Oh good!! Again, sorry about that awkward situation >.< I've been putting myself in them frequently lately....ug. But she'll be super happy to hear that!!

Thanks Tree! Hey, I still won money so I'm happy lol!

Also, does anyone want Velvet, Rowan, or Impulse? Corwin is going to blue, forgot to ship him out, too exhausted to think properly!! Sorry!!!

But I'm getting ready to set up the 55 and finally combine the tanks like I'd been planning to do. Sam and Geronimo are the only ones I'm keeping.


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## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Also, does anyone want Velvet, Rowan, or Impulse? Corwin is going to blue, forgot to ship him out, too exhausted to think properly!! Sorry!!!


It's about time!


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## Haleigh

I've been without a betta fish (and thus away from the forums) for a little while, but I'm finally back at it. I'm glad to see you're still here and keeping this journal going Lil! I can't wait to to see how your 55 turns out


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## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks Tree! Hey, I still won money so I'm happy lol!


Right!? Hahaha


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haleigh!!!! It's so good to see you!!!!! :-D I'm so glad you're back ^_^ And thanks! Yeah, hopefully it will come out nicely! I'm attempting to plan my "scape" not that there will be much since Acara's like to dig a little, so there will be potted plants and stuff tied to driftwood :-D

I actually just started to fill the tank today. Got about 20-25 gallons in before I stopped. Bought four (5lb) black gravel and that only covered about half the tank lol. Need to buy about three more and then I'll use what's left in the 20 long to finish it off. It will be black gravel with natural gravel highlights.

One of my LFS's is going to see if they can get some EB Acara's in for me so I can get 1-2 to see if I can get a mated pair :-D I'm excited!

So once everything is up and done, I'll essentially have five breeding groups of fish/inverts lol. Acara's, Albino Plecos, Synodontis Lucipinnis, Guppies (once they're gown), and I also got some Mollys that I didn't tell you guys about....I got three free females from PetCo and a beautiful male for a couple bucks. The females are like Gold Dust coloration but orange instead of Yellow, not sure the coloration name of that. They are hit of course and are carrying Lyretail Gold Dust babies! The male is a Orange Calico Sailfin! Didn't realize I didn't take photos of him! But at the show, they said if he was full sized, he would have stolen the show! Sooooo next year! :-D But I'll try to get pics of everyone soon!

Did get some random pics but I'll upload them tomorrow during work ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I moved Sam to a 1 gallon the other day to help with the minor fin rot. Looks like Zolla loves to follow him around XD She thinks he's food lol. They think that anything that moves is food sooooo....lol




Of course Sam isn't looking so great :-/ He's thrown a tantrum and has bitten his fins even more this morning >.< These are from....the other night, not last night but before.


These are from yesterday. Look at my berried shrimp!! So beautiful! All are doing fantastic as well!



male and Female here





Another berried female






Of course, this is a wicked washed out picture, but my Chili's are doing well. I did lose another so I'm at 4 now.


Red Rili over in the 1.5


And look at my sh*t-tacular 20 long! Yeah....this needs a lot of work.....I scratched the glass when taking off the silicone as well so I may just discard this tank, use it for Leo's when I clean out their tank.


Male Albino BN in the back there ^_^ He's big! Love it


One of the females with some nice bristles going on!


And the 29! Hasn't changed much. You can see the male Sailfin in the back right there. I have 8 guppy fry in the breeder box


And one of my Lucipinnis has taken over the terracotta pot ;-) I'm going to get a bigger one for them and turn it upside down so they can breed in it since that's what they prefer. I'll leave them out of the 55 for a while to see if I can get them to breed first.




Impulse is happy lol, I put him in the 20 just to put him somewhere. He quickly found all the blackworms hiding in the gravel and went to TOWN on them! This is before of course, he was MUCH fatter after that lol


My beautiful girl! I love this fish! She's getting use to me as well! Helps that I hang out by the tank so they can all get used to me looking at them and taking pictures



Loki is coming out of his shell too! He's going to be stunning when he grows up!


Syno



Look at the length of Loki's trailer! That's the part of the fin that extends off the dorsal and anal fin. He's still a little clamped but not too bad!




He likes to watch me sing, not sure if it's something to do with my mouth opening which is a "challenging" thing to do with cichlids, I don't mean 'difficult' but I'd literally be challenging him and/or telling him off if I went up with my mouth open to him and he'd likely do the same back to me; challenging me. My Tilapia did that one day lol, so funny to see a little (relative) fish challenging me XD He's got gonads for sure!




And the "betta" tank! It's 20 inches long I found out, as long as my 10 gallon. It's about five inches high I'd guess and the same wide. Probably equates to one gallon for each side roughly. I'm going to plant it with moss probably and put two colony's of shrimp in it. I tried taking out that center piece but whoever made it, they knew what they were doing!! I feel like I'd break the whole thing if I tried using a hammer or something to get it out. So I gave up and just figured I'll have two airstones going with mini sponges around them to make a sponge filter and then just thrown some moss in and get shrimp! I'm thinking flame moss on mesh maybe? Aqua, have any suggestions on what to do with these? No idea what I'll do for lights yet.


And start of my 55 gal!


I just threw the extra ornaments in there. The only thing that will be in there for good is the Rainbow shale rock. The coral one will come out, just put it in there for RJ to hide since he's in there. He was flipping out at the 3 gallon so I acclimated him once I filled it and he's happily sitting in there now.


This morning



That's it for now! Hopefully I'll get some better pics of the molly's so you all can see their beauty!!


----------



## Tree

what a cool looking tank! I can't wait until we see it finished. =D


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## blueridge

Hey Lil, did you ship Corwin out yet? I haven't seen anything, unless I missed it, about whether you shipped him out or not.


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## Tealight03

Hope Sam gets better soon! Darn biters!


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## Zhylis

Loving the synos! It's less a problem of getting them to breed, so much as it's a problem of getting them to STOP! ROFL, I swore I would buy them fish condoms if they kept going at it like rabbits. If conditions are good, they'll spawn every 2 weeks like clockwork with 30-50 surviving fry per spawn. OMG babies. So. Very. Many. Babies!


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## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> what a cool looking tank! I can't wait until we see it finished. =D


Thanks! Haven't done anything with it yet, not sure if I really want it to be set up actually, now that I've been thinking about it. I have my shrimps in the 4 and the Rili's still in the 1.5 (have to get them out to ship to Aqua) and so I need another place to put the Rili's. I was really hoping to take out that middle piece but it's discouraging now that I can't :-/ Idk....I was thinking of putting it on my windowsill and letting the sunlight do it's work. I'll end up with algae, but the shrimp will like it. It doesn't get too hot/cold there either.



blueridge said:


> Hey Lil, did you ship Corwin out yet? I haven't seen anything, unless I missed it, about whether you shipped him out or not.


Boy, you're quite adamant about getting him out >.< I'm sorry, college kind of took over my life this week, haven't been home enough to even feed my fishes! I will ship him out tomorrow and yes, you'll get your tracking number when I do ship out. I have our first football game tomorrow (marching band) so I'm going to be busy most of the day with that so you may get it at the end of the day if I'm not dead tired. 



Tealight03 said:


> Hope Sam gets better soon! Darn biters!


Yeah, I doubt it. He isn't going to stop. 



Zhylis said:


> Loving the synos! It's less a problem of getting them to breed, so much as it's a problem of getting them to STOP! ROFL, I swore I would buy them fish condoms if they kept going at it like rabbits. If conditions are good, they'll spawn every 2 weeks like clockwork with 30-50 surviving fry per spawn. OMG babies. So. Very. Many. Babies!


Yep, that's what I want. I have stores that will happily take them once they're grown. I have enough tanks that I can split them up if absolutely needed, I know they prefer their groups but I'm sure I'll need a break every now and then lol.


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## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Boy, you're quite adamant about getting him out >.< I'm sorry, college kind of took over my life this week, haven't been home enough to even feed my fishes! I will ship him out tomorrow and yes, you'll get your tracking number when I do ship out. I have our first football game tomorrow (marching band) so I'm going to be busy most of the day with that so you may get it at the end of the day if I'm not dead tired.


Sorry! I'm just so excited to get the little guy, and I was just curious about him getting shipped out since you hadn't mentioned anything about it yet. :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

I have some pictures from last night. I did get home late so I didn't get around to the 29 or 20 but I was in bobby's room with the cichlids (love how the rooms are almost split now; communities in my room, betta and cichlid in bobby's lol. Plus geckos of course). I went to my weigh in yesterday down in Niantic, I've lost 28 pounds in 8 weeks! Woot woot! Happy birthday to me!

Yep, today is my 23rd birthday as well!

So I celebrated by getting some new fish last night!

I went to the PetCo to see what they had (wasn't looking at Bettas). One of the older guys there is wicked nice and I talk with him often. We were talking about his Saltwater tanks, he once had leopard Grouper! It's now in the Mystic Aquarium!! He's like five feet long!!! I think he said he was in a 3,000 gallon tank :shock: crazy! So we talked as he put the Betta's out, there was a wicked cute marbled Dragon DTPK like Corwin, only black copper, some red and no blue. I think it was actually a girl, small, very cute. Didn't get a picture and wish I did.

While we talked, I noticed some large looking cories and when I looked for the tag, they said "Assorted Cory Cats, 2.99" and I was like...hmmm, what kind of cats? I look in and I see two Schwartzi cats; male and female and another unidentified one!!!! Schwartzi are EXPENSIVE! So yeah, I scooped them right up! I have pictures so maybe someone can ID the other one. I'm quite sure that the male/female are Schwartzi though, I have to look through Planet Catfish to make sure though. I was so stoked!!

And then....yeah, I did it. I took a gander at the Betta's and damnit, they always have such a gorgeous selection! I ended up with a Giant and a baby....I missed having a Baby betta.....but it's okay. The Giant is in with the Cichlids and he's totally fine. I had to move the Tilapia out of the 20 long, she's much too aggressive!! Funny to think that a 4 inch Tilapia is beating up a 5 inch Acara :roll: but Acara and the Giant get along fantastically! Loki will flare at everyone but he won't act on his agression at all, just puts them in their place and goes to patrol his area. The Giant knows what's up, he keeps to the top pretty much, flares back at Loki, I did get a pic of that sort of!

Okay, I'll show pics now. 

Pics of the other cool looking Bettas. Again, if anyone see's a fish they'd like, I don't mind going back to check next Thursday to see if they're still there. They don't have a giant turn over rate so chances are, they'll likely be there still if they are of the fancier types. This store is where Corwin and Impulse came from as well.

This guy was really cool!


This one looked like a brother, almost a real Blue Dragon but he isn't stable; that blue will take over, same with the other boy as well. Still nice looking fish. This guy wasn't happy, but he looked healthy overall.


THIS GUY!!!! He was gorgeous!!!


Little Monster face! If I hadn't seen the Giant first, I would have taken this guy home maybe. I seem to have better control over getting MG's. When you see the Giant, you'll know why I grabbed him!


One of the other babies, EE geno! Salamander type


And here's my baby! Either going to be named Snowcap or Feathers. Pretty sure it's female



She honestly reminds me of a Killifish, F. Gardneri to be exact with how they have a yellow band on their anal fin and caudal bottom/top. She has it with white/red. It's more pronounced when I show you pictures from home. 



And my Giant boy. Not sure what to name him. He'll likely marble to Black Copper/white with a yellow base I think. Or he may stay stable! Totally a gamble and it's worth it!


God, I love their faces!





And my three cory cats! Yeah, they weren't happy about the bag but all three were fine this morning! The one in front is the odd one, the other two are the mated pair (or at least, they've been sticking together like a mated pair. That's what my Habrosus do at least and the Panda's when I had more than one >.<)


The pair


The male


The female was a bit traumatized but the male, as you can see, was moving quite a bit. They were fine once the lights went out 


And the odd one. It's not a False Julii, the black doesn't cover all the dorsal. No black mask and the reticulation is quite even.


Acclimating upstairs!





This is slight forced perspective but it's close. Impulse is on the side there to the right if you can see him, you can see the size difference. Impulse is also rather small as well so that doesn't help lol. I did take Impulse out of course, that would result in a bloodbath! I'm not that stupid! Rest assured!!


My baby blue! I love her! She's really not a baby, but she's quickly becoming my baby! She recognizes me now as the one who feeds, so she pokes her head out to greet me and come out if I don't make sudden movements. I try to move some while she's watching so she can get used to me and that I'm not a threat. Slowly but surely, both her and Loki are getting used to me ^_^


And yes, the water is very tannin stained. I have like five pieces of driftwood in there plus the branches lol. She likes to "hide" behind a branch :roll: lol, it's so funny.


Blurry, but Loki is becoming more confident and he's growing as well!! I'm so happy! I hope he'll be big enough to show next year!


And here's the flaring pic! See! The Giant is pretty much the same size as Loki, slightly smaller than Acara lol. I don't foresee any damage other than maybe slightly nipped fins from these two. After the Giant flared back, Loki backed off and just sat there, telling the Giant that the bottom was his but he could go elsewhere.


Another forced perspective. Giant in front, Acara middle, and Loki is at the back.


My poor baby had some nipped caudal fin! That was from the stupid Tilapia, I do regret buying it >.< I will take it back. The Tilapia is in the 55 with RJ, see if RJ can't straighten her out lol. They're compatible as far as water goes, RJ is bigger but that Tilapia can hold her own just fine! I expect some nipped fins when I get home but nothing else. The tank is long enough for the both of them and I put in plenty of hiding spaces for both. Also the Tilapia can go through that reef ornament thing whereas RJ can't.


Loki!! I love him quite a bit too!


Tail end of a flare, Acara was like....hmmm, why you be flaring bro?




And because I actively post about 21,000 characters, the forum yells at me to shorted the message lol. So the next is in the next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Giant found the plants lol. I may call him Renegade?


Loki coming out to check if I was still there




And yep, here's the famous "hiding behind a stick" that she does lol. She's a riot!





Target located and locked!


Abort! Abort! Acara has noticed! Abort!


Engines have failed! We're sitting ducks here! Ahhh


And little Snowcap/Feathers! Look how adorable!! See why I couldn't resist?! My other stores only have solid color babies, there have been a few other colors but I haven't seen a Salamander in a while. And if all goes well, she'll be a HM or Super DeT at least! She won't be a full EE but she does carry the geno at least :-D
Her ventrals are also PERFECT


So perfect that it might be a boy, but I'm pretty sure it's female at this point.



But smaller dorsal, rounded anal, shorter ventrals usually all mean female. But just look at those ventrals!!! So full and big!


Sam and his poor fins





Geronimo!


(his anal fin isn't rotted, some of the rays got stuck on the ones further back. Scared me at first too but upon closer inspection, they were just clumped from laying down or something. They spread later)


So yeah, I'm liking Renegade for the giant, what say you all for the baby? Snowcap or Feathers? Originally it looked like she had a white scale on her head, hence Snowcap. My old Sally EE girl that I had like two years ago was Snowbird, I really like 'snow' names for EE's for some reason lol. But also, this baby has a lot of white for a Salamander so hence, I like snow names ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

And some other random pictures.

We have some beautiful Thistle bushes on campus!! These are from a few weeks ago during August
Oh! And I just realized that this thistle had dew on it!! If you look close, you can see it on the right side of the plant!!


Bumbles collecting nectar and pollen ^_^


I love bumbles! I've gotten over my fear of them flying around if I see that they're around at least. If one flies over without me knowing there are any around, it does scare me. But I can get close for pictures like this without a problem! Half my fear came about when I was a kid and we were biking down a hill near my house and I opened my mouth to talk to mom and I...well, I caught a bumblebee >.< didn't taste good. I thankfully spit it out and thankfully, I'm not allergic to bees (the ONE thing I'm NOT allergic too :roll and it stuck to my jeans and so I freaked out and wiped it off. Of course, now I feel really bad for that poor bumble, but yeah, that scarred me >.<


Beautiful sky from Friday or Sunday...can't remember which day.


This is one of our buildings, Pharmacy. I just love how the windows reflect almost perfectly, I've done other pics like this at this spot, I just love it lol.


Sky from last night! Gorgeous


And a panorama from this morning at the Wyoming Pond/Woodriver Dam! This is where I live basically.


Regular pic


Perfect calm


----------



## BettaLover1313

Renegade sounds like a good name for your Giant boy. I personally like Snowcap for the baby 

Bumble bees I like, stay out of their way, they won't bother you. It's honey bees I don't like...they dive bomb me all the time >.<


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> THIS GUY!!!! He was gorgeous!!!


Omg that cooper! If only I didn't have 2 Thailand imports coming in I'd tell you to send him my way!! How was his topline and overall fin form? (can't really tell from photo)

Love the lighter color on the baby's mouth, perfect pouty face!

As a side note what do/did you feed your blue eye gertrudae? I spoke with msjinkzd and have 2 maybe 3 viable foods for them: grindals, finely crushed flakes, and dicing up black worms.. I also have micro pellets but not sure if they're micro enough for these juvies(maybe for them as adults). I'm going to look for baby brine shrimp (frozen- no way I'm messing with hatching those buggers daily), would love input on other food options.


----------



## Tree

what about making it into a lizard tank? Or place plants in there and make it a riparium?


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> Renegade sounds like a good name for your Giant boy. I personally like Snowcap for the baby
> 
> Bumble bees I like, stay out of their way, they won't bother you. It's honey bees I don't like...they dive bomb me all the time >.<


Thanks! Yeah, I love the song Renegades by X Ambassadors and their other song called Giants which made me have that specific thought pattern lol.

I think Snowcap fits well too ^_^ That's what I've been calling her now lol.

See, I hate the freaking Hornets and Wasps, those buggers are MEAN! Yellow Jackets are the worst! They're so freaking territorial that it doesn't matter if you're near their nest or not, they're going to freaking sting you! That's the only bee I've been stung by on two separate occasions! Thankfully I've steered clear from White Face Hornets.....*shudder* uhhhgggg, I do NOT like them at all. They have one of THE worst bites of all the bees. 



Aqua Aurora said:


> Omg that cooper! If only I didn't have 2 Thailand imports coming in I'd tell you to send him my way!! How was his topline and overall fin form? (can't really tell from photo)
> 
> Love the lighter color on the baby's mouth, perfect pouty face!
> 
> As a side note what do/did you feed your blue eye gertrudae? I spoke with msjinkzd and have 2 maybe 3 viable foods for them: grindals, finely crushed flakes, and dicing up black worms.. I also have micro pellets but not sure if they're micro enough for these juvies(maybe for them as adults). I'm going to look for baby brine shrimp (frozen- no way I'm messing with hatching those buggers daily), would love input on other food options.


Overall form seemed to be really great! I think he had a super minor dip near his head, like the start of spoonhead. Actually, he looked a lot like Alloy did, there was a teeny tiny, barely noticable bump but it never amounted to anything! Fin Form, no idea, looks like a Trad PK, he didn't flare for me and I didn't really try either, just picked him up and set him down lol.

Yeah, Snowcap is very defensive lol, it's kind of funny. I forgot how defensive babies are but how curious as well!!

Foods for Gertudae, mine was mostly grown so he just ate flakes without a problem. Occasionally I'd throw in grindal's and live brine shrimp from the store but he'd eat anything thrown at him.



Tree said:


> what about making it into a lizard tank? Or place plants in there and make it a riparium?


.....You do realize that I said it was about half gallon each section? lol. It's literally just enough room for mosses in there and maybe a teeny, tiny piece of driftwood. Hence my thing about the shrimp lol. But thanks for trying though! I do appreciate it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! So I finally got around to taking DSLR pictures of most everyone! I'm exhausted today so probably won't have long explanations. We have our first football game tomorrow as I mentioned so I'm going to be dead by the time we're done!

Okay just going in order.

These were from a few weeks ago, about a week before labor day lol. We had a tree frog sit in the empty bird house next to the lights we strung up for our party! The bugs would swam around the lights at night and he'd feast! Smart frog!



Acara


Snowcap!


This photo is literally perfect! I may use it for next year's photo context if I crop it just slightly and change the background to something more muted and plant-like.


Macklin, looks like he's letting that tail heal up!


And....sigh, I was wrong. Geronimo does have fin melt >.< Time to break out the T. Sulfa.....sigh....



Corwin!



Impulse. He still needs a home


RJ



Berried cherry shrimp! Don't mind the horrible looking plants...shrimps will clean it up! lol


Red Rili


And finally! My molly male!




One of my cute females!


Lol, looks like she has a bit of a Sultry look going on!


Lol, thought this shot was hilarious. It's the other female. I think she was taking in some duckweed or something


Half a shot of my RTBS!




The two females together. I did loose one female


And guppy babies! Just cleaned their breeder box. They are....a week and a half old I think now.


The runt


I love this shot. Going to clean this one up as well. Boesemani vs. Neon Dwarf! I also love that orange coloration on the Boesemani


Ghost! He's growing!


One of the new cories.


These two are definitely Schwartzi!



And I think I just found what this cory is. Corydoras Agassizii! Another expensive cory cat! And harder to find as well. They all shoal quite well! I was surprised, but the Panda is about their size and they're all getting along very well.
In some pictures of this species, they have a dull black dorsal stripe while in others, it's just has dark as his is.


Schwartzi female


And just the whole 45.


----------



## BlueInkFish

IM SO JEALOUS OF YOUR 45g!!! It's so beautiful!


----------



## Elsewhere

Uuuuugh everything is so pretty!

I'd buy Impulse in a heartbeat- stupid border shipping!


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> IM SO JEALOUS OF YOUR 45g!!! It's so beautiful!


Thanks! I wish I could really "scape" it but I like how it is now. Now if only my Giant Hygro would GROW faster...yeah, that'd be great! I'd love a forest of Giant Hygro ^_^ So pretty!



Elsewhere said:


> Uuuuugh everything is so pretty!
> 
> I'd buy Impulse in a heartbeat- stupid border shipping!


Lol, thank you Elsewhere ^_^ and yeah, I hate the border thing as well; so lame!





EDIT: Oh yeah!

So we had our first football game today as I mentioned! We were CRUSHED by Harvard! I don't even know why we were playing Harvard in the first place! Apparently they scored low in their last games which somehow put us in the same division....not sure how that happened. But yeah, final score was 10-48.......CRUSHED!

URI (my school) is now 0-3. Zero wins for 3 games so far....yep! That's about normal for us :roll: it's a shame! My freshman year was actually pretty decent, couple loses and a couple wins. It was way more exciting back then for us in the band because we had something to cheer for! Now....well, we end up yelling at the team more than cheering for them >.< We cheer when they do something good; don't get me wrong, but yeah, it's difficult to be cheerful when you lose all the time!


----------



## micheemak

Beautiful fish - love the shots of the mollies in particular!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks!!

Oh yeah, that was another thing. I'm not quite sure if the females are Mollies or Platies.....They're about the size of adult Platies and I know Mollies get bigger so....? Any help on that? I find it hard to distinguish between all three: Platy, Molly, and Swordtail females. Males are much easier to define >.< I still love them though! If my two girls end up being Platies, I may still keep them but I do want the Mollies and I'd get a Gold Dust female for my male (or two just to keep the female safe from him). He does show interest in the one with black tail. That's how I tell them apart, it's like Indian names lol: One with Black Tail, One with White Tail, lol. But he shows interest in her but doesn't do the bow-chika-wow-wow with her at all. At least not that I'd see. Even though I'm not home much, I'd still see my guppy males try to mate with EVERYTHING. so....yeah. Maybe Mollies don't have as big of a libido? idk! Never had mollies before so I can't compare!

So just a couple pictures I took yesterday.

Did a water change to the 45. I've been slacking off on that and the poor Ram's have had the worst of it. Without frequent water changes, the fish won't grow very quickly. >.< My rams should be double the size that they are.....ug. So I'll hopefully be getting better with that. Plus, I needed to dose ferts because my Sword is clearly Potassium deficient!!!!

This is after I did the change, cleaned out the filter sponges as well. Funny, the AC70 sponges fit PERFECTLY in this Penguin 300 filter lol.

I just liked how the light shown through the water, even if it is kind of dirty. It cleared up within the hour though!


Schwartzi and Agassazii!


Ghost :-D


Blurry. This Angel does NOT sit still!!


My shark is getting big though! This one is a female. My Red Tail Black Shark is male ^_^


So uhhh.....I was making my Turkey burgers last night on the Pampered Chef stoneware that we've had for ages now. Annnndddd....yep, I broke it lol. Right in half! Whoops >.< It's about 10-12 years old so it's certainly seen better days!


And finally, I'm doing Senior Seminar again. I think I showed you guys the pictures I did with all the colors and stuff of the landscape overlaps? If not, let me know and I'll post one for you all ^_^ There were fifteen in total, ten went into the show (more feasible for space and money!) and I even sold one! Woot woot!

So I'm doing that again and this time I'm doing Stone Lithography like I was doing with the owl and feather prints last semester! This time, I'm going with fish and dreamscape type things. I'm doing Color Reduction again which is layering of colors to get mixes and a more realistic style (or not, whatever you feel like). 

My first print is of an Ornate Bichir flying over a city scape! On top of the print will be water. I'm actually using two stones for this so I could get a nice straight blue on the top without having it muddled through yellow and the red I'll be using for the bottom.

Here is the sketch and the first rendering on Newsprint just to get the sizing correct. This is a very intricate process so I have to be POINT for everything! The registration (tells me where to put the paper down on the stone when I'm printing so it all lines up), the colors, the scraping when I move to a next color, all of it. So I'm very meticulous about this one. The next one I may not be so meticulous with.



And here it is on the stone. At this point, I've already printed yellow, though I didn't get a picture of it yet. This is only one stone and I know it's confusing, but once you see the final picture, it will make more sense to you!

You can see I've already begun scraping away at the ink that is on the stone. Those area's that are scraped away, they will stay yellow. The black part will eventually be rolled in red and will layer over the yellow to make a nice orange color. Then I will scrape away again to layer the first blue on. The second stone will be done last with the pure blue of the water on top.

It's a very physical process but it's rewarding when you finish it!


For those who have not seen my color reductions previously! Here are a couple!

This one is the best example for the step by step.

I started with yellow (note that the image is reversed when you print it!!)
I didn't scrape out the white, what happens when you first start a stone; you use gum arabic (it's a liquid) to block out the whites. So no scraping involved yet, just printed a nice solid yellow.


And then here on the stone, I started to scrape away what I wanted to keep yellow and the black would be a color called Leaf Brown; a nice reddish brown color.


Final scraping; the black will now be printed as Leaf Brown!


And this is what the finished product looked like:


And just for fun, I printed JUST the brown color, I really liked this :-D It reminded me of an old photograph when it was just done in one color (cyanotype is the name of it).


My dad's favorite from that series ^_^


----------



## Tealight03

Tough one. My vote is Platy. They are lovely!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Poo, yeah I think they are platies. Darn, I was really hoping for Mollies. Looks like most mollies have an extended dorsal even if they aren't sail fin. I may move the ladies or just the male up to the 20 long with Rowan.

I have pics too.

Schwartzi male!



Rummynose


Gold Ram


RJ has some red-violet going on now though, not sure what the red behind his pectoral is about. I'm thinking that the Tilapia might have bitten him >.> That fish is going back to the store!! They said that these fish are usually rather peaceful! Guess I got the exception >.< 


I love how "sparkly" my fish are when I get clear pictures lol. My RTBS ^_^



One with White Tail


One with Black Tail


One with Sailfin


I found one of my Ember Tetras (just happened to be the one I took a pic of), has cataracts in both eyes!


Paradise always looks shocked lol. I love her XD


And now for a crap ton of pictures of Snowcap! She did well for me today ^_^ I fed her well for dealing with all the flashes lol.


I was using my new camera (new from dad, not really new-new), and the eyepiece was wicked out of focus so hence it took me a few shots to get that in focus so that the picture was in focus.
*Pro-tip: A good fish picture will have the EYE of the fish in focus! If it doesn't, it's usually going to be ignored by professionals/magazines if you send it on or anything like that!*













Mr. Bristles!


Classic Velvet shots






Rowan! Fat and eggy, she gets discolored when she's ready to drop eggs, happens every month 


You can see her thick ovaries here, all that yellow is her ovaries!




EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot my art stuff!

Here's the yellow layer printed on that reduction I'm doing:
Doesn't look like much yet!


More scraping done to the stone. Remember, what I'm scraping away with stay yellow and the black will be red (which will mix and make orange)


Done with this layer!! Printing tomorrow hopefully!


My next reduction will do with Betta's jumping out of clouds like dolphins from water. Very much like Fantasia!
Here's the sketch, it will be (white) light blue, medium blue, purple.


----------



## Tealight03

I loved having mollies when I had them. Had a nice community tank with mollies and a pleco. Someday I shall achieve that again. 

Snowcap is so stinkin' cute!


----------



## IslandGirl7408

I don't understand how you do it, but the end results of your prints are so cool!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I loved having mollies when I had them. Had a nice community tank with mollies and a pleco. Someday I shall achieve that again.
> 
> Snowcap is so stinkin' cute!


Yeah, I've had guppies (of course) and Platies but never Mollies before my male here ^_^ He's such a goof, it's hilarious to watch him!

And thank you!! She is adorable ^_^ I love how stark white her white is!!



IslandGirl7408 said:


> I don't understand how you do it, but the end results of your prints are so cool!


Haha, that's okay! It's hard to understand when you don't physically do it or watch the process. But thank you ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I stopped by Critter Hut yesterday just to see. I meant to buy some Brine Shrimp for everyone but I kind of forgot and only had my card so 1.50 charge would be silly and inconvenient for the store! Instead, I talked with one of the workers for over an hour just about fish stuff in general! We've talked plenty before, his main focus is salt water and African Cichlids primarily. I helped correct the synodontis they have there, labeled as Petricola instead of Lucipinnis. He was grateful to learn about that and the differences! We talked about the Dwarf Cichlid McMasteri which is an extremely mysterious fish! No one has claimed rights to finding the fish! Heck, we don't really even know where it came from! It just popped up in the hobby one day! So interesting! And then I color ID'd the Betta's for him since they had some come in labeled as Koi which were clearly not. So I told him just do Marble or Dragon Marble (since some were), it mostly covers it all. One of the "kois" was actually just a pretty little Yellow Pineapple! I laughed at that.

So yeah, I told him about the fish meetings and stuff and invited him to check it out, sounds like he's quite interested. I'll be excited to see him there if he does decide to come ^_^

So took some pics while I was there!

This adorable little 'tweener flared at me! He was so cute!



Tricolor



Cute young black orchid


Another young DT


So, I was curious! I saw they had Gold Dust Mollies! I looked in and the females do look like mine!!! So I think I do have Mollies!



And of course, we were talking about Mini Reef tanks and I gave him the tip about using an AquaClear 70 as a refugium! He never thought about it and said it was a great idea! He uses breeder boxes, the bigger ones that hang on back and use air to suck water in and then cycle it through the box, back into the tank. I reeeeaaaalllllyyyy want a Reef >.< I'd do a 20 long with an AC70 refugium (mostly because I have on already) and I'd do a Kenya tree coral and some other softs with polyps. I'd have a pair of Occelaris Clowns (like the Nano ones), a Red Ruby Dragonet, and this little guy; he's a Goby. Can't remember what type though. And then some Peppermint Shrimp and snails of course. No crabs though, uggg, no, no, no >.<


And then! When I got home! Low and behold! My Tiger Goby came out to greet me! Well...not really greet, he was just sitting there lol. But his coloration has changed quite a bit! Can't tell if it's the same one or if I still have all three...


And then got some pics of Snowcap because she's just so darn adorable!!


I changed her water and with the water from the 29, some duckweed got in....I don't think she's seen duckweed before lol



She kept trying to eat it lol!!!




And I found a Ghost Shrimp still alive in the 20 long with Acara and Loki ^_^ Thought they ate them all! (But don't worry, that was the POINT of putting the ghost shrimp in there! It's like Biotin for their fins/trailers! Makes them nice, long, sturdy, and beautiful coloration!)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Printed red yesterday! Does this make more sense now?

This is the first layer, Yellow


Army of yellows! Actually, this is a lot less than I normally do. I normally do an Edition (a group of all the same pic) of about 15-20, this is only 10. I didn't have enough paper >.<


Okay, going backwards for a second. This is after I printed the yellow and I started to scrape away for the red layer.


And here's when I was ready to print the red, done with scraping


And after I printed red! :-D


----------



## BettaBoy11

lilnaugrim said:


> So I stopped by Critter Hut yesterday just to see. I meant to buy some Brine Shrimp for everyone but I kind of forgot and only had my card so 1.50 charge would be silly and inconvenient for the store! Instead, I talked with one of the workers for over an hour just about fish stuff in general! We've talked plenty before, his main focus is salt water and African Cichlids primarily. I helped correct the synodontis they have there, labeled as Petricola instead of Lucipinnis. He was grateful to learn about that and the differences! We talked about the Dwarf Cichlid McMasteri which is an extremely mysterious fish! No one has claimed rights to finding the fish! Heck, we don't really even know where it came from! It just popped up in the hobby one day! So interesting! And then I color ID'd the Betta's for him since they had some come in labeled as Koi which were clearly not. So I told him just do Marble or Dragon Marble (since some were), it mostly covers it all. One of the "kois" was actually just a pretty little Yellow Pineapple! I laughed at that.
> 
> So yeah, I told him about the fish meetings and stuff and invited him to check it out, sounds like he's quite interested. I'll be excited to see him there if he does decide to come ^_^
> 
> So took some pics while I was there!
> 
> This adorable little 'tweener flared at me! He was so cute!
> 
> 
> 
> Tricolor
> 
> 
> 
> Cute young black orchid
> 
> 
> Another young DT
> 
> 
> So, I was curious! I saw they had Gold Dust Mollies! I looked in and the females do look like mine!!! So I think I do have Mollies!
> 
> 
> 
> And of course, we were talking about Mini Reef tanks and I gave him the tip about using an AquaClear 70 as a refugium! He never thought about it and said it was a great idea! He uses breeder boxes, the bigger ones that hang on back and use air to suck water in and then cycle it through the box, back into the tank. I reeeeaaaalllllyyyy want a Reef >.< I'd do a 20 long with an AC70 refugium (mostly because I have on already) and I'd do a Kenya tree coral and some other softs with polyps. I'd have a pair of Occelaris Clowns (like the Nano ones), a Red Ruby Dragonet, and this little guy; he's a Goby. Can't remember what type though. And then some Peppermint Shrimp and snails of course. No crabs though, uggg, no, no, no >.<
> 
> 
> And then! When I got home! Low and behold! My Tiger Goby came out to greet me! Well...not really greet, he was just sitting there lol. But his coloration has changed quite a bit! Can't tell if it's the same one or if I still have all three...
> 
> 
> And then got some pics of Snowcap because she's just so darn adorable!!
> 
> 
> I changed her water and with the water from the 29, some duckweed got in....I don't think she's seen duckweed before lol
> 
> 
> 
> She kept trying to eat it lol!!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And I found a Ghost Shrimp still alive in the 20 long with Acara and Loki ^_^ Thought they ate them all! (But don't worry, that was the POINT of putting the ghost shrimp in there! It's like Biotin for their fins/trailers! Makes them nice, long, sturdy, and beautiful coloration!)


Your pet store has bettas in nice big bowls??? Awesome!


----------



## Tree

what a cool masterpiece you have Lil! it's so neat on how that is done. scraping and painting. =D


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBoy11 said:


> Your pet store has bettas in nice big bowls??? Awesome!


One of them does, they're in 1 gallon glass drums. The VT's are on a different shelf in plastic ones, these are just the fancies they have 



Tree said:


> what a cool masterpiece you have Lil! it's so neat on how that is done. scraping and painting. =D


Thank you! It's a lot of fun, it's labor intensive and frustrating because of chemicals that you have to mix JUST right, but I still have a lot of fun with it! I hope that it turns out the way that I'm envisioning! I'll be scraping more of the stone today and hopefully print blue next week!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So! It's been 9 weeks on the diet and I've officially lost 30.6 pounds! I've lost two dress sizes! My cousin's wedding is tomorrow and so I actually had to buy a new dress because my old ones didn't fit so properly any more! I could have worn one of them but I need a waist belt to cinch it and make it look nicer. Unfortunately, I don't have one and I couldn't find one in time! So I found a beautiful dress at Dress Barn for 52 dollars ^_^

This is the one I bought, front:


And back! I fell in love with the back and I knew that I had to have it!
(Ignore my purple bra haha!)


I also found this red one, I loved it but not as accentuated as the black one is. This one was also more expensive :roll:


Beautiful sky over the Crystal Mall in CT



At my dad's house in New London, CT


And my beautiful girl; Ieli (eye-lee). We gave her catnip yesterday and put her on the concrete stacking stones, they were warm so she was having fun lol.

"What's dis? A hole?"


"Imma stick my paw in it!"







And then we took some stones out and made a little fort for her, she loved it!




She loved it so much that she became a gargoyle! lol


And a video of Ieli "freaking out" on catnip and eating the catnip lol!!


And I swore that I took a picture of my 4 gallon because it's finally starting to clear after almost a week using Accu-Clear >.< But apparently the photo didn't save or something....but here's some pics of my lone Pygmy Cory!
And a berried shrimp in the back



And also, if you haven't seen my Leo journal, here's the new arrival that I didn't plan on getting! But he's so beautiful! Full story over at my journal page but here's a pic for you all!
He's so tiny!


And Zolla for size (He's in QT, just to make sure and make it so he doesn't get eaten!)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Did anyone else see the Total Eclipse last night?! It was gorgeous!!!

Unfortunately, my Photoshop/Lightroom ran out so I'll have to upload my DSLR pics later when I pay for it again lol but I was successful in getting a picture with my PHONE! That was an amazing feat, I do have to say! But it helped that it was also a Supermoon and was the closest it's going to be to Earth this year. Also, this was the fourth Total Eclipse in a row! Usually it's two Total Eclipses and then a couple partial eclipses when it's not quite lined up correctly. The next time this will happen will be in 2033!

A picture of the sun setting last night, it was a gorgeous night!


And the picture that my phone was able to snap! A little blurry since I didn't have it on my tripod of course, but beautiful!


And finally, my 4 gallon cleared up! Now I need to rescape a little, take out the Wallichii and replace it with my Pogostemon Erectus which will be happier in the high light. Also, one of my shrimp had babies so now I have shrimplets! Woot woot!

Before I cleaned the algae off the front:


And after:


And the 29 that you guys haven't seen in a while. Nothing has changed much so...yep!


My 20 long before I cleaned the glass >.< whoops. Should have taken an after picture lol. Sorry! But you can see my male Ancistrus up front :-D His bristle that was black tipped, is healing, so that's nice!


1.5


And an out of focus shrimp


Glaston's bowl. Front


And back


Rowan


Velvet



Snowcap with her backend. She wouldn't face me >.<


And that's it for now.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Little late but finally uploaded my Supermoon Eclipse pictures! Nothing fancy fancy and I wish I had a telescope attachment for my camera....one day! One day I will be able to take amazing Supermoon Eclipse pictures the next time it happens in 2033! :-D

The start:









And I couldn't really get it when it was fully dark; not enough light and not enough exposure time. This one was a minute and 30 second exposure but I need an automatic clicker thingy so I don't have to hold the button; hence the shake and blurr >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Took some pictures yesterday at the store. And my apologies, I said they were gallon bowls before at that store, they're half gallon; but all the same! Still more than the cups ^_^ They also stick Lucky bamboo in there as well so that's helpful. A lot of their Betta's looked great yesterday! I was severely tempted by two. Darn it, why are they like chocolate: I want them all but then regret when I get them all >.< Well, okay, I don't regret them, it just is difficult to keep up!

This was one of them. A "Koi" but I politely informed them that they're Marbles. They listen to me which is great ^_^


LOOK AT HIS FACE!!




This guy was cute, nothing super special, kind of unhappy but he was healthy all the same.


This is the one that really tempt me and you can see why. He was the one that I labeled as Yellow Pineapple when I was back there last week talking with Cameron about fish colorations. He marbled already!




He has some slightly SBD issues but nothing a heater and some good food likely won't fix!


My giant finger for size >.<



And then we had some "Black Orchid" which I politely informed the difference between Black Copper and Black Orchid. These two were actually Black Copper Devils since they had a small section of red on their fins.



His brother:


One of the Turquoise's from last time


The other CT Multicolor


And back to my fish.

Renegade is actually doing the opposite of what I thought he was going to do in terms of coloration! He's turning more Cellophane! This is with accidental flash (forgot I had it on) and you can see the yellow base there at his back end. That used to have some light pineappling going on there



You can't see me!!


Blackworm riding on his back lol


Found it!


Acara, my beauty!


He has some red spots but very little now


Getting fat off blackworms


"I am NOT fat!"



I was actually trying to show that the one Ghost Shrimp is still in there lol. He's on the java fern leaf in front of Renegade


----------



## Aqua Aurora

How interesting that he seems to be loosing color rather than gaining it.


----------



## IslandGirl7408

Congrats on the weight loss, Lil-- it is no easy task to lose that much!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> How interesting that he seems to be loosing color rather than gaining it.


Yeah, that's the "joy" of marbles! Though....I've never experienced this side of the joy before haha! Usually mine to end up color gaining vs. losing! I have a feeling that his coloration is going to go for a wild ride! :-D Or at least, I hope so!

He's finally getting used to me and so he's coming out more, that's always nice!



IslandGirl7408 said:


> Congrats on the weight loss, Lil-- it is no easy task to lose that much!


Thank you so much! Did I update? Can't remember >.< If not, it's been 9 weeks and 30.6 pounds but today I'm getting weighed so I'll update what the 10th week is, later!

I cheated pretty badly this week though, I went for Carbs AND sugars. Usually, I just go for carbs since I have enough "sweet" things on the diet. I love Stevia by SweetLeaf (other brands leave bad aftertaste, SweetLeaf doesn't!) and use that in my coffee and cooking if I want something sweet. Also, the restricted bars help as well since they're usually chocolatey/dessert type items you can have once a day. Helps to keep on track at least. But....we'll see!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So, it's been a while! Sorry for infrequent updates, school kind of takes over at this point! I also just got my PS3 running so I've been playing Assassin's Creed a lot.....whoops lol.

I finally got the 55 filled and mostly running, moved everyone over to it on Saturday except my Lucippinis up and died on me this morning, all three, just randomly. Nothing wrong with the water, everyone else is fine; just random death and I'm pretty ticked off about it since they're expensive fish! grrrr >.> Acara, RJ, and Loki are all still fine though :-/

Victoria and I went out Friday and we both got fish. I adopted two more of those Sunset Dust molly's. I also got another Betta....I don't understand, my willpower sucks when I find these interesting ones! It's like I just can't have enough even though I actually have nine of them right now! Velvet (1), Rowan (2), Glaston (3), Renegade (4), Sam (5), Impulse (6), Geronimo (7), Snowcap (8), and Roman (9).

Roman is the new boy and you'll see why I named him that, I thought it was clever lol. Also because I'm studying Roman art history at the moment so it's been on my mind. But he's been at that PetCo for about 3 months now, I've seen him before. He's a DeT so he was only seven dollars.....

Sooo, here were some other notable Betta's at her PetCo!

This boy was soooo tempting and gorgeous!




This guy was feisty!



Cutie Patootie




A decent Red BF, spoonheaded but he was pretty big for a PetCo betta!


Another black copper Bf, he was a little sad looking though


Some beautiful MG's there!


Sad looking King but interesting coloration


DS MG



And then home.
Macklin


Paradise is growing again! :-D



And then, also on Friday, I bought two Fire Red shrimp (same genus as Red Cherry, just much more red) to bump up the redness on my Cherries. George gave me a baby one as well just in case. I left them in the bag Friday night into Saturday morning because I was so tuckered out, they were floating in the tank. Turns out, there was a berried one and she released her shrimplet's over night! haha!



Here is one of the adults and then the juvie he gave me


Mama is not pictured


So I have a bunch of shrimplets now! Some from the Fire Reds and some from my regular Cherries as well


Here is the 55 set up!



So I had an interesting discovery as well!! RJ and Acara literally love each other! I was NOT expecting this at all! They're from totally different area's! Red Jewels are from Central Africa (Old world cichlid) and Acara's are from South America (New World!) !!! But Acara is in breeding colors and RJ has beefed up his red/violet color! He won't get as red as a female RJ would, but still! I was shocked! They followed each other, caught them shimmying at each other as well! I think Acara picked out a nesting spot behind the Rainbow shale rock as well since they visit frequently......I'm so shocked but it's a good shock! They can't (I'm like 99% positive) hybridize but....this will definitely be interesting to see!







Paradise again


And I went 5,000 words over the limit lol, the rest of it in the next post as usual!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And here are the DSLR pics I took on Saturday/Sunday and this morning.
Going backwards

Just a lot of Acara and RJ because they're so damn adorable!
But you can see her black nose now! That's part of the breeding colors







The Odd Couple (Love that show ;-))









Had Renegade originally acclimating to the 55 but he and Paradise were not getting along. So I moved him to the 29 and put Romeo in with Rowan in the 20 long section




Paradise



Geronimo got over his Fin Melt!!! Super happy about that! His fins are healing now :-D



Impulse




Sam, however, is still pretty miserable and battling fin rot. I haven't kept up with the KanaPlex though and that's an issue >.<




The rot is going away, it's just that he keeps biting >.<


And this is Roman! His skunk stripe reminds me of a Roman helmet; the red mohawk thingy so hence his name ^_^





And back to Geronimo, he's such an expressive fish lol


Roman isn't very happy at the moment, these were from when he first came home though. He's doing better now


Can't get over his face lol



Geronimo again




So far he's been pretty stable in his coloration!


And that's it!


----------



## BlueInkFish

I'm crying because of how many overwhelming, awesome photos you always bring to your journal LOL! 

I'm in love with all your fish, and I don't know how to express it!

^_^ BTW lovely fish finds at Petco!


----------



## themamaj

Lil do you use fertilizer and co2 on planted tanks?


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> I'm crying because of how many overwhelming, awesome photos you always bring to your journal LOL!
> 
> I'm in love with all your fish, and I don't know how to express it!
> 
> ^_^ BTW lovely fish finds at Petco!


Awwww thanks blu!!! I love my fish too haha :-D



themamaj said:


> Lil do you use fertilizer and co2 on planted tanks?


Just liquid ferts and Excel which is not the equivilent to co2, it's just an algalcide with a bit of carbon in it; not near enough to be useful as co2. But I mostly use Flourish Comp. and Potassium since my Swords and Giant Hygro are both Potassium hogs!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Went to the PetCo last night where I got those awesome cory catfish (and Impulse and Corwin) and found they had three more cories! One is definitely Schwartzi and the other two I think may be the Agassizii but they may also be Melanitius....gah, idk. I'm pretty sure they're of the same species at least...could be wrong....idk....

BUT! I found they had Pygmy Cories for .99 cents!!!! They had three left so I took those three for the 4 gallon to give my lonely cory some friends! I was very excited for those because they're usually 3.99-4.99 each!

And took some pics as usual!


Nice looking White Dragon


This guy had a beautiful Royal shimmer


This one was so cute and tempting!! But I have enough




This guy wasn't very happy but his coloration was actually pretty beautiful. It was similar to wild type with slightly thicker irid scales, just nice looking other than being clamped of course.


Was looking at Angel's for Victoria, found a beautiful Koi and Black Marble. This is the Black Marble:




A different black marble, I didn't picture the Koi though



And Macklin is color changing again! He freaked me out the other day because now one of his eyes is going white and the other is still blue >.< So it was a little unnerving at first to see his eyes so well defined on one side!

Blue side


White side


HDR, but a sucky pic. Also, I think he's developing a cyst at the top of his back there, you can see a slight buildup near his dorsal


He looks like he's half undressed or something >.<


And my baby girl lounging on my dad lol


----------



## BlueInkFish

Wow! .99? Talk about a great deal!!!!

Btw, I have a question about my 30g! I usually come here to ask you cause I really like your replies, if you don't mind answering? I just wanted to know if my 30g is overstocked.

1 Koi Angel
2 Black Mollies
7 Gold Barbs
1 Paradis Gourami
1 Nerite Snail.

It's also planted, if that helps any some?

I'm still adjusting into the tropical fish section haha.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Wow Macklin looks sick/dieng with the sudden pale color change (even though it's just marbling). Got a laugh out of the "half undressed" comment, put some colored scales on you pervert! Little fry might be watching (their owner's monitor's) and see your nakedness!


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Wow! .99? Talk about a great deal!!!!
> 
> Btw, I have a question about my 30g! I usually come here to ask you cause I really like your replies, if you don't mind answering? I just wanted to know if my 30g is overstocked.
> 
> 1 Koi Angel
> 2 Black Mollies
> 7 Gold Barbs
> 1 Paradis Gourami
> 1 Nerite Snail.
> 
> It's also planted, if that helps any some?
> 
> I'm still adjusting into the tropical fish section haha.


Right? I was so stoked to get them for .99!

And no worries! As all the questions you need! I'll answer them...eventually :roll: sorry, been caught up in college and life! Crazy to have this thing called life, eh? haha!

Having a planted tank always helps, like my 29 where I have a bunch of embers and other fish, usually having a planted tank will allow you to increase your bioload of fish. Of course (for those who may be lurking), that doesn't mean that you can add fish that won't naturally go in a 29 already. Like, just because you have plants, doesn't mean you should have an Ornate Bichir in a 29.....but yes, like my Ember tetras, probably normally without plants I could do like 15 or so and be understocked. At one point I had 24 at the most, couple died of old age or unknown issues and I'm at 14 at the moment but little fish, you can add more. ^_^

Okay, focusing on your tank. I put a general idea into AQadvisor and since I don't know your filtration, I did a "user defined" 30g filter and I usually add an extra "user defined" 20 to compensate for plants--it's not totally accurate of course and it's just something I do to make myself feel better lol. With your current stock, it's warning me to add more filtration. *What kind of filter do you run?* On my 29 I have a SuperClean Aqueon 50 filter, so it's overfiltered for what I have in the tank technically. Overfiltering is usually a good thing as well, heck, even on my betta tanks that's what I do usually 

Here's what the image looks like from AQadvisor.










AQ advisor is rather conservative with their stocking numbers, so I find that 100% isn't always a "fully stocked" tank. You can go right up to 150% IF you have live plants. I wouldn't usually suggest that for someone who doesn't overfilter their tank and have live plants so there is that. So, technically speaking, you are fine right now, you could maybe add another barb or two so they don't become nippy (almost all barbs do that if there aren't enough numbers and I don't want your Angel or Paradise to be picked at!!) but that's about it. Again, knowing what your filter is will help out a bunch and inform me if you can add a couple more fish or not. And then of course, it also helps to have a heavily planted tank vs. a lightly planted one as well.

Long story short, as far as I'm aware, your tank is pretty good right now until I know what the filter is! :-D



Aqua Aurora said:


> Wow Macklin looks sick/dieng with the sudden pale color change (even though it's just marbling). Got a laugh out of the "half undressed" comment, put some colored scales on you pervert! Little fry might be watching (their owner's monitor's) and see your nakedness!


Right? I was scared when I first saw him and was like OMG YOU'RE DIEING!!!! AAiSHDSLFKJSDLKFj yeah.....and then I was like....oh....no, you're not dieing.....my bad. lol. He really does look half undressed though! Too funny. He's still like that as well, didn't do a lot of marbling just yet. So funny, he goes in waves; one day he'll marble overnight and then he'll stop marbling for like four days and then he'll revert back again overnight or sometimes it's a slow change over 2 days. Very interesting!

Renegade as still lost some of his color too! Going full cellophane! I put him in the 29 and he looks fantastic in there with the darker colors!


---------------

Have some pics up next!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So first off. This is week 12 on my diet (3 months) and I've lost 36 pounds in total! 24 inches (2 feet!!) lost around my body! I've gone down two dress and pant sizes! Shirt size is still in the middle so I can fit into a large but...doesn't exactly look nice just yet lol! So happy!

So, did anyone else take advantage of PetCo's Columbus day sale? Victoria and I did! I found three baby Electric Blue Acaras that looked fairly healthy, a little emaciated, but healthy otherwise! I didn't realize it was a BOGO sale and thought everything was 50% off so....I spent more than I wanted to, but they were still cheaper in the long run; 19.99 each and then one half off. I don't regret them.

Victoria did end up getting those Angels, I have pics of them since they're in QT in my 20 long (the other one) for now. I'm giving her my 20 tall and the Angels. She has an Angel at the moment, a Koi named Phantom who is a beautiful girl! I believe the Black Marble might be girl and the Koi we got is definitely boy. I have pics of course.

First, just going to show some other pictures.
I love this Panorama of the Wyoming pond/Wood River dam! I took it last week in the morning, I love when there is fog :-D




And then, just on my way to school and the sun trying to peek through the dense fog


A progression here. There was a crap ton of fog, super thick, at the bottom of campus but it cleared as you got to top of campus lol.




And now to fish

Okay, so this is Friday when I got everyone home and was acclimating the babies. Also got some ghost shrimp that they all demolished soon after lol.

Acara greeting me and RJ going to look at the babies


RJ saying hello. You can see the baby on the left top, mouth open, he was flaring at RJ at first lol.


The babies!


Can't believe how nice RJ's colors are now!


Acara found the babies and whoo-boy! She went flare crazy at first!


Paradise photobombed


My god though, it's like RJ is the concerned parent and Acara is yelling at her kids lol. So much anthropomorphizing there, but hey, it's fun and it doesn't get in my way of still treating them like fish--that's important!







Babies out of the bag and Acara quickly showed them who is boss. Acara's are interesting, they don't really physically fight, they just posture and that's it. Most other cichlids will fight or body slap and lip lock and whatever else, these guys knew that Acara is Matriarch of the tank and just eased off through the day. At first though, this little male (I believe I have one male and two females but won't know for a while) was wiggling at her just as much as she was wiggling at him.


Nice colors though!


RJ, wondering what's going on


Baby was wiggling at the two, showing off.


RJ mostly left the babies alone after they were released. He's so funny because he just seems like this big loveable fish, he doesn't really show off to anyone other than Acara but it's more like courting style, and no one bothers him either. I'm sure he's probably Alpha of the tank.


Following Acara around. I really need to name her.


A nice picture, she's nice and eggy and belly is rounded like they should be! I hate cichlids with the emaciated tummy like the babies had. Now that I feed them all like three times a day :roll: lol, not really that much, just once but it's a good sized meal, they all seem to be getting a little more plump which is healthy.




And here are the Angels! The Koi has the obvious bump, marking him as a male. The Black Marble doesn't seem to have an obvious ovipositer but the bump isn't as pronounced and she's bigger than the Koi so I have a feeling that she's female. Either way, whoever pairs off will make beautiful babies.


The black marble is a little more "angle-y" which is also a female trait in Angels vs. the smooth edges to the Koi minus his bump.









And yet again, I've gone over my character limit. Rest of it in next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Baby acara


I see you!


S/he was eating the pellet there.


My lovely odd pair.

I did decide that whoever becomes my mated pair will be named Altäir and Valka (one for Assassin's Creed which I've been playing, and one for Stoic's wife, Hiccup's mother from HTTYD2) I just like both names.


She has really nice scales


And my 29! Hasn't really done much.


The 20 which is still a mess....


The 4! I put the guppy male in with them. Out of my guppy fry, only one male but that's okay. I have like 8 females until one turns into a male lol, sometimes you get late bloomers. That happens with any fish or animal really.





Pygmy cories are doing great!





And I put Roman in with the Angels. I knew this might be a risk, there are a couple hides in there if he needed them. He's very assertive though as I found out. They have zero problems with each other. I had his little quarter gallon ready in case I needed to pull him but they all ignore each other and eat together so I said okay, I'll leave them until I see any physical harm or even non physical aggression happening. It's been almost a week and they don't seem to care still so I'm happy :dunno:



I just love this picture, he was inspecting the Angels as he's probably never seen them before in his life. But it just a nice size comparison of them all and kind of cute.


So my RTBS was being an a$$ and chasing Renegade around (Romeo is stuck in the old 20 long due to his bad behavior with the fish >.> he suddenly turned mean!! I had seriously debated sending him to a fish store but I can't give him up! There are just some fish that I won't/can't give up and he's one of them). So I put the shark in the 55.


He's actually quite nice looking now! Couple nips from Renegade though




And this is so endearing! The babies follow Acara around all the time now! It's so cute. Sometimes she'll turn around and kind of chase them off like she's annoyed with them but for the most part, she just lets them follow her lol.


And here's the 45. Finally planted the Corkscrew Valisneria behind the Hygro Willow. Some of it died off but it should bounce back soon. Some Crypt Wendtii came with them as well lol, so I planted those up in front of the giant hygro. 


These are my new cories that I didn't realize were different species >.< I feel bad now...I have like five different species of cory in here.....>.< whoops. These two are the same, not quite sure which species they are


Here's the Schwartzi (and yes, that's a twisty tie in the back, I have to fish it out >.<)


And this one I don't think is the Agassizi....bigger dots.....idk....


My Ram wanted in on the picture lol


And my beautiful female Rainbow Shark, she's becoming quite beautiful!


----------



## BettaLover1313

I'm very envious of all your fish right now. They're so beautiful!


----------



## Fenghuang

I love that you keep so many different types of fish, Lil. Your journal has introduced me to a number of species I would be interested in keeping in the future.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I see you're back Feng! 

Btw, lovely update Lil! Love how every tank looks way superior compared to mine LOL! :lol:

Anyways. To answer your question, I recieved my filter from a friend, it's an Aquatech 20-40. I'm willing to upgrade if I need to!


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> I'm very envious of all your fish right now. They're so beautiful!


Aww, thank you! :-D



Fenghuang said:


> I love that you keep so many different types of fish, Lil. Your journal has introduced me to a number of species I would be interested in keeping in the future.


That's really awesome! I'm glad to educate as well so if you have any questions, I do know most stuff about the fish I'm keeping haha! But yeah, I'm glad that I've branched out a little more and gone into Cichlids, I absolutely love RJ, he's such a beautifully personable fish! Of course, I can't guarantee that all red jewel's will be so temperate and nice to other fish, but he's simply amazing!

And yes! It's good to see you around as well!! :-D



litelboyblu said:


> I see you're back Feng!
> 
> Btw, lovely update Lil! Love how every tank looks way superior compared to mine LOL! :lol:
> 
> Anyways. To answer your question, I recieved my filter from a friend, it's an Aquatech 20-40. I'm willing to upgrade if I need to!


Aww blu! lol. It just takes a little time and care is all! And I suppose a little know-how with plants but you can honestly achieve amazing things with simple low light plants like Java Fern and Anubias as well! It doesn't have to be fancy plants by any means ^_^

And AquaTech is okay but I think you'd be better off with an AquaClear 50 or something rated for 50-60 gallons to help out your fish and the bioload you have in there. Even canister filters are amazing. I'm getting a SunSun UV canister 75 filter for only $45! That includes shipping, woot woot!


----------



## BlueInkFish

What!!!?? $45??!! That's a outstanding deal!!!! Next time you see another deal like that call me LOL!

I'll look into the AquaClear, I've heard nothing but good reviews about that filter!


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's just on ebay. It's a normal price, not even a 'deal' lol. But yeah, AquaClears are one of the best HOBs in my opinion


----------



## BlueInkFish

Normal price? Really? The canister filters in my area are $90+!

I've never found any canister filter that cheap.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I can speak from experience: sunsun uv canister filter is a *noisy *piece of junk. You get what you pay for and when its 1/2 the price of the next cheapest canister .. its not that good. And if you happen to have messy inhabitants (plecos or larger snails-nerite/mystery/apple), the uv section is just the _*perfect*_ spot to clog the filter with mulm. Also the uv light isn't much use unless you have green water (a type of algae that floats freely in the water) doesn't really help with any of the algaes sticking to glass/plants/decor. Mines in storage now. Only canister filters I still have running are the eheim 2211s in the office-so quiet I forget they're under my desk.


----------



## lilnaugrim

UV also helps prevent disease as well. I'm not using it for algae at all since my light isn't even strong enough to actually produce algae in the first place. My marine friend also uses SunSun, he loves them, has all different sizes. He has other ones too of course but he keeps Reef tanks that usually have more of a need for UV. Thanks for the review but for now, I'm short on cash so I have to get what I can and down the road I can upgrade when I need to but the SunSun will be better than the sponge filter I have in there rated for 10 gallons....I don't care about noise since a lot of my tanks are noisy with the splashing of the HOB filters anyway so it doesn't bother me. But yes, if you afford better things then go for it, for those of us short on cash, it's a good starter canister.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nature Appreciate Moment from Wednesday at band.


Beautiful colors! This is why I love Autumn here in New England. I know there are deciduous trees elsewhere, but we get some of the best colors!


And the Wood River again. Just going to post that same picture from last week so you can see the difference in the trees! :-D
Other than it being less foggy this morning of course, this was last week:


Today!


Closer pic of the trees in bloom


Sunrise over a turf farm


Apistogramma Cacatuoides 'Double Red'. Victoria is going to get a herem going to breed them and I've always loved this little fish. Same care basically as Rams except they aren't as sensitive to Nitrates but they still prefer hotter waters (80-82 ideally) and softer waters as well. I ended up with this little one, at least, I'm pretty sure it's the same one. They always freak out when the net goes in of course!


This little one was still there yesterday.....Cameron was egging me on to get him even though I told him I have nine already >.< He's like; so? What's one more? lol. He's a terrible enabler!! I told him that if he's there by my next payday (next week, bimonthly, not weekly) then I'll get him.....gosh darn him (the fish) for being such a cutie!!!! Cameron is a cutie too but lol, that's another topic.


This guy was there too! Not too much color change on him either


Beautiful Copper Gas who didn't look so happy but otherwise was healthy


Back home with my fish purchases. Renegade! Sorry it's blurry, he's happy in the 29



Male Molly. I'll have to get my good camera out tonight to take better pictures. They won't be up until Monday likely but still.


Snowcap is getting big! For a while, I thought maybe she was a male because a little bubblenest kept appearing daily and getting bigger but I think she's just going to have good parental instincts. You can see her ovary shape here. 


Again, sucky picture due to the flash but it was too dark otherwise. But I wanted to show how nice her ventrals are!! :-D



And Victoria's Angels. You can see one of my new fishes on the side.


And again, my phone sucks, deal with it.

These are Blue Eye Cutteri! Cousins to the nasty Convicts! However, these are the nice cousins! I did my research at the store. I was trying to decide between these guys (they were new), a single Festivum, a Dwarf Bandit Acara, or a Geophagus Surinames. I decided that both the Festivum and Geophagus, while beautiful and I do want some day, they get a little big for my 55 and I did't want to overload it. The Acara could potentially inbreed with my EB's which would be interesting, but I don't want that. I already have enough issue with Acara and RJ being bonded....so I decided on a pair of the Blue Eyes since they only get 4 inches, they get a little territorial in breeding of course but that's expected. They also come from the same area as the Acara's so that's good as well.
Here is the male, he's already got the little hump on his head going. I'm pretty sure these two are mated pair already since they were hanging out in the hide together.


Going for the blackworms! I was shocked, they were out and about immediately! Helps that I gave food of course and live food at that, but usually it takes a couple days at least for them to get used to me! I surprised especially because they were hiding in the tank, but they could have been attempting to breed as well. 


Slurped up that worm :-D


Looking for more


The pair


Female on right and male on left


male again


I just want to show you all what they'll look like in breeding colors! Mind you, this is NOT my picture....clearly. Got it off google. There are a couple different "blue eye cutteri" fish, I believe my pair are the Archocentrus spilurus. I know these ones are from Central America area whereas some of the other species like Cichlasoma spilurum are from North America.









And here's Roman showing off to the new tiny Apisto. Leaving the Apisto in the breeder box for now until he's bigger and can fend for himself.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I love your updates, you always find the most loveliest bettas at your lfs!!! Btw, cute Halloweeen decor!


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## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> I love your updates, you always find the most loveliest bettas at your lfs!!! Btw, cute Halloweeen decor!


Thanks!! Yeah we just have a lot of good looking fish which is why my willpower sucks haha.

Oh hah. Thanks. That's actually front last year, was supposed to give that to Victoria! Just using it for hides currently for the fishes


----------



## lilnaugrim

I finally finished that Bichir print I was working on!!! I have 10 beautiful copies now, I can sell them too if anyone is interested. I would mate it for you and everything. Not sure on prices just yet but I have some of my Owl prints that I showed you all as well, could sell them as well if anyone is interested.

But here's the progress from start to finish with all the layers:

Yellow:


Army of yellows!


Red layer over top yellow!


Blue layer over top the red and yellow. All three of those colors mixed makes a nice chromatic black (black that has some color in it).


Army of blue, red, and yellow!


Just the blue layer by itself


Had some fun with the newsprint for different proofs. This was red and then blue


And the final blue layer that goes over top the other colors. I had to use a different stone than the first one I was using because I needed the detail in the fish that I'd scraped away with the razor for the red part, so you can't really add back in after you take away.


And the final print!


I hung up my newsprint on the wall! Some of us who work in the print shop for a long time, we pin up some of our best works to be kept there forever so all can see them. So I chose these three.


This is just some close up details of the print. You can really see the different color here and how the ink works.


Lots of little detail


I messed up the registration (how it's lined up) and so the face is kind of ruined but it's okay, I don't mind it.


Here's the nice chromatic black, has more red in it but it's also a glare, it's not that red in real life.


Hope you all enjoy! Oh, I also titled it: "What A Bichir Dream" as in what a bizarre dream....get it? get it? lol. I'm so punny :roll: and ridiculous I suppose haha.


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## Tealight03

You're so talented! I don't have one artistic bone in my body. 

Lovely fish as always!


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## blueridge

Your prints turned out nice Lil ^.^ I've never tried doing that myself, but it looks like fun!


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## BettaLover1313

Those prints are beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> You're so talented! I don't have one artistic bone in my body.
> 
> Lovely fish as always!


Thank you! :-D



blueridge said:


> Your prints turned out nice Lil ^.^ I've never tried doing that myself, but it looks like fun!


Thank you! It is fun and the product is almost always worth it but it's a lot of manual labor and chemical reactions that you have to keep track of, otherwise, you ruin your stone or your print! :shock:



BettaLover1313 said:


> Those prints are beautiful!


Thank you, thank you!


-----------------------

Oh! And I just noticed my journal reached 400 pages!! Woot woot! Thank you all who comment on my images and rantings! You all are so fantastic!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, so I never got around to taking good pics of my fish this week! Midterms and last Sunday I did a 2.5 hour photoshoot for my old best friend's Save the Date for next year! So I've been working on those and trying to get everything done!

So we had our fishy meeting on Wednesday and there were a lot of good fishes and plants! Victoria got some Synodontis Petricola (actual Petricolas, not Lucipinnis like I had so they do get a bit bigger, not by very much though) and she'll give me a couple later when my 55 is actually running properly and I get my filter....Filter has to wait due to NO MONEY >.<

There were also two bags of Yellow Convicts! Not actually Convicts, almost like cousins like my Blue Eye Cutteri! So we got a bag of 12 to split. I have them all currently until they're bigger. I'm better at growing out than she is so it works all around! Scientific name is Cryptoheros Nanoluteus. I just found out that they're actually endangered so that's really cool!

C. Nanoluteus is very easy to keep much like regular Convicts. The only thing is, don't confused them with real Convicts because they only share a name but as I mentioned, they're more like very distant cousins to Convicts. They're very peaceful like the Blue Eye Cutteri. They can be a little sensitive to water quality but in a cycled tank, it usually isn't a problem (just keep nitrates down as usual. That should be done for most dwarf cichlidae and south American cichlids honestly).

Here are the babies! I used my 3 gal kritter keeper and submerged most of it in the 20 long to keep them safe from the angels. Angels will be leaving tomorrow to Victoria so they'll be safe after that.

I also can't tell if Roman is biting his own fins or if the Angels are biting him. It's a very methodical biting pattern though so I'm thinking that Roman is biting himself....I think he's aggrivated that he can't actually get at the still-small Apisto but can still see him. Idk.

Anywho, here are the pics of the babies! Look how cute!!


Roman photobombed....


I've got a couple big ones and some small ones as usual.


Camera randomly switched to HDR...idk, phones are weird lol


And back lol


And sort of related to fish, I finished my second Relief carving! Actually no, it's not finished yet, I have to carve in more money in the middle so you can actually see it but the fish and "plants" are done! Feathers replace fins and plants, it has to do with symbolism of feathers usually meaning a richer or more luxurious lifestyle. The whole picture has to do with how much money we spend on ornamental things.


And this is going to be the second image of the Bichir series. I'm using Kuhli Loaches for this one and it will be 3 color (4 with white but I don't really count it): (White), Light Blue, Dark Blue, and Purple. I may add a teeny amount of black if the purple doesn't create enough depth through the blues but we'll see! I'm keeping the theme of the city (even though I hate actually drawing it, oh well) down in the bottom right. For this image, I'm not reversing it from the orginal drawing so when I print it, it will be reversed. The Bichir I did, I had him originally facing to the left as how you see in the finished print but in order to keep him facing the left, I had to draw everything reversed and do that on the stone to get it to be correct. Sorry, hard to explain, easier to see when I print the image later and I'll show you again how it works lol.


And that's it for now!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I'm giving up the three EB Acara babies because I'm getting store credit at Aqua-Life, a beautiful, wonderful store! But all three babies are indeed females >.<

But I was talking with George, the owner of Aqua-Life, he's very knowledgeable. I'm good at diseases and stuff like that but I'm still a novice when it comes to the cichlidae families. So I was showing him RJ and Acara and he said it's very possible for them to hybridize, they're cichlids. Some cichlids are very prolific and will breed with anything they want to! Acara's are one of those. But the fact that my RJ is also in breeding/courting mode is a good sign! The full moon is coming up and fish have amazing internal clocks! So he advised me to do tiny daily water changes, like 3-8%, imitating their environment to try to get them to breed. Of course, there's always a chance that one may be sterile or the eggs can't be fertilized or they just aren't that compatible. But just imagine!! If I successfully breed these guys! That'd be an amazing looking fish! I could name it to! :-D so here's to hoping they cooperate!!

So I'm taking back the three babies and Paradise is leaving today so that leaves the RTBS in the tank with RJ and Acara. I'm hoping that less distraction helps out. 

Did I tell you guys I got some Odessa Barbs finally?? We found them on Friday (I think it was Friday? Yeah...I'm pretty sure). For now, they're in the 20 long (added the AquaClear filter back in since I have more than just two Betta's now) and they're doing great! I got five of them for $26 which isn't too bad for Odessa's that are pretty much full grown! I think I may have four males to one female though....but they should look amazing in the 55. I'm going to see if RJ and Acara breed first before they go in (need the filter too eventually).

First, pics from Friday (mostly)! We went Halloween shopping for Gimli and we tried on outfits! Gim wasn't so happy about it lol but he tolerated our shenanigans!

First, we tried on the butterfly wings lol!!


Then we tried on the Bumblebee wings!


This one came with a halter too and so we eventually decided on it because it looked much nicer with his coat than the butterfly wings did


And we tried on a real bumblebee costume! He was NOT happy lol! They had ear holes in it but he hated it so much. It also had a stinger!



Yeah, he hated that costume lol. So we decided on the bumblebee wings and he was dubbed GIMBLEBEE!


And then I was working on my own costume for Halloween! I was invited to a party last week and since I wasn't planning on doing anything for Halloween (diet doesn't really allow for partying, though, I don't have to eat or drink to have a good time of course, but it can help! It just means I have to bring my own food which kind of sucks but...oh well!)
At first I wanted to be an owl but then I decided on a Raven because it's all black and so one color is much easier than a couple different. I will be an Owl at some point though!

So I'm pulling ideas from a couple different sources. Here is my beak frame, you'll see how it's put together later.


Stretched the fabric over, read to sew! I did that Saturday and sewed last night


Beak sits on my head and will hook into my hood! The hood will have eyes on it and some feathers that go over the beak more to seem like a bird rather than human lol. It's actually a hooded scarf as well. Made with black sparkly fabric! My wings will be regular black fabric


That's all I have on my costume thus far, doing more tonight and tomorrow and it should be done by Thursday, Friday at the latest. I have all Saturday to work as well if I need it.

Also, I feel like this should have been an achievement on Assassin's Creed. Yes, I took a potato picture of my TV lol! I killed the guard and his foot got caught in the building and so he was just hanging there, twitching for a while! lol!! I take too much pleasure from killing Guards >.<


And I was trying to take pictures of my Odessa Barbs but man, they are FAST! They're beautiful though!
Romeo in on the feeding action and you can see my male BN pleco too




The clearest picture I got and he's behind the stupid silicone marks >.<


Rome-Rome




This was the average picture of the Barbs. At least, you can see their beautiful red!



Rowan! They're as big as she, probably a tad bigger actually.



And I had some time and energy, I cleaned some of the 20. It was covered in salvinia minima and some duckweed. Pulled out a lot but also gave a bag full to Victoria as well. Velvet's side still seems to be covered. I swear, this stuff multiplies by 10 over night! Still need some deep cleaning on Velvet's side, I'm getting there though! It won't ever really look beautiful, but at least the plants will be growing nicely.


And the 29, I feel like it never changes. The plants hardly grow, although, the lily has been doing better and sending out shoots so that's nice.


----------



## Tree

Hahaha your dog indeed did not look happy in that last shot. 

I am having the same issue with some of my tanks. the plants just don't want to grow or at least grow thick. So many times have I had to change out plants cause they just didn't like me. lol but at least you tanks are looking fresh. =)


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## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> Hahaha your dog indeed did not look happy in that last shot.
> 
> I am having the same issue with some of my tanks. the plants just don't want to grow or at least grow thick. So many times have I had to change out plants cause they just didn't like me. lol but at least you tanks are looking fresh. =)


(Not my dog--I'm allergic to dogs! Except Gimli ^_^ But he might as well be my dog haha)

Oh lol, thanks! It's only fresh because I've done like a 25-50% water change daily the last three days >.< And I cleaned off some of the algae before the pics but there is still plenty to do!

I know partly why they haven't been growing as much, I've been very lax on my ferts and took like two month off from dosing ferts like they needed >.< So that's part of the problem. The other part could be just a dormant time of year for them, my light cycle does change a big as does the temperature to mimick more of nature the best I can. So that's probably a thing too.

EDIT: Oh, I can't remember if you recently switched out your lights to LEDs or not, but Fluorescent's of all kinds will indeed expire in about six months and so they do need to be replaced even if they are still working. So, if you haven't done that lately, maybe that's something to look at?


----------



## BettaLover1313

You're not alone in AC in taking pleasure in killing the guards lol


----------



## jadaBlu

lilnaugrim said:


> Went to the PetCo last night where I got those awesome cory catfish (and Impulse and Corwin) and found they had three more cories! One is definitely Schwartzi and the other two I think may be the Agassizii but they may also be Melanitius....gah, idk. I'm pretty sure they're of the same species at least...could be wrong....idk....
> 
> BUT! I found they had Pygmy Cories for .99 cents!!!! They had three left so I took those three for the 4 gallon to give my lonely cory some friends! I was very excited for those because they're usually 3.99-4.99 each!
> 
> 
> If your Petco has some healthy looking melanistius cories can you let me know? I've been searching for some to keep a lonely one I have company. They are kind of hard to find recently. My Petco has tried twice to ship some in for me and got the wrong fish. Mine was was put in with some Three Line cories and I didn't notice the difference when I bought her. I like them better than the 3 lines they are more active and engaging. I would work something out to get them if you would ship them.
> 
> http://www.aquatab.net/_files/Image/clank /0029/corydoras_melanistius.jpg
> 
> 
> I will post pic of Paradise when she is settled in.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaLover1313 said:


> You're not alone in AC in taking pleasure in killing the guards lol


Oh good!! haha! It's just so fun XD and besides, the guards are bothersome anyway -- yes, yes, I can be on this roof! :rofl:



jadaBlu said:


> If your Petco has some healthy looking melanistius cories can you let me know? I've been searching for some to keep a lonely one I have company. They are kind of hard to find recently. My Petco has tried twice to ship some in for me and got the wrong fish. Mine was was put in with some Three Line cories and I didn't notice the difference when I bought her. I like them better than the 3 lines they are more active and engaging. I would work something out to get them if you would ship them.
> 
> I will post pic of Paradise when she is settled in.


Unfortunately, the second batch of cories weren't Malani, they were completely different species that I still haven't ID'd just yet. The store gets random fish in so it's a gamble, and if they do, they only get two at a time of each. You'd be better off buying online for a little more money unfortunately, sorry!


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> (Not my dog--I'm allergic to dogs! Except Gimli ^_^ But he might as well be my dog haha)
> 
> Oh lol, thanks! It's only fresh because I've done like a 25-50% water change daily the last three days >.< And I cleaned off some of the algae before the pics but there is still plenty to do!
> 
> I know partly why they haven't been growing as much, I've been very lax on my ferts and took like two month off from dosing ferts like they needed >.< So that's part of the problem. The other part could be just a dormant time of year for them, my light cycle does change a big as does the temperature to mimick more of nature the best I can. So that's probably a thing too.
> 
> EDIT: Oh, I can't remember if you recently switched out your lights to LEDs or not, but Fluorescent's of all kinds will indeed expire in about six months and so they do need to be replaced even if they are still working. So, if you haven't done that lately, maybe that's something to look at?


does changing the temp and lowering the lighting time work well for when they grow by next spring? That would be something I should look into doing. 

ah yeah I have been too only the root tabs though cause I forget what day I put them in there Haha.

oh and no I did not go get the LED lights due to my dogs needing surgery. I might just leave what I have since its doing well. I just have to find the right plants that likes my green thumb. Haha


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> does changing the temp and lowering the lighting time work well for when they grow by next spring? That would be something I should look into doing.
> 
> ah yeah I have been too only the root tabs though cause I forget what day I put them in there Haha.
> 
> oh and no I did not go get the LED lights due to my dogs needing surgery. I might just leave what I have since its doing well. I just have to find the right plants that likes my green thumb. Haha


I'm not sure, I haven't really paid *that* much attention before lol. I know they were growing great this past spring and summer so it certainly could be affecting. Aurora might have more information on that if you ask.

Ah yeah, I have to put more root tabs in too I think, my swords suck it all up >.< And....it's been....uhhh....too long since I replaced them lol! My 45 actually never got any so I'll have to do that since my Amazon Sword is suffering!

Ah okay, if you haven't replace the Fluorescents lately, then I'd definitely do that first. Cheap Wal-Mart lights will be great and last 6 months on average for good, strong light.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And GUYYYYYSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GUYS GUY GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ACARA LAID EGGS!!!!!!!!!

I am sooooo excited for this, you can't even imagine! I'm just praying that RJ actually fertilized them and they won't go bad!

But she laid them last night and as of this morning, they were still yellow which is a good sign! If they turn white, then they're bad :-( They weren't really protecting them this morning, although, now there is only the RTBS in there so there isn't much to protect them from. If they successfully breed and I get babies from an Electric Blue Acara and a Red Jewel Cichlid.....I don't know what I'll do with myself!!!

She laid them on the rainbow shale rock thingy. This is last night:


And this morning, the proud pair--not quite parents yet lol



Her pectoral is slightly damaged, probably from courting/breeding maybe but otherwise, she was very hungry this morning and ate all the pellets I gave her!


Eggs this morning, a piece of gravel got on there....probably RJ's fault, he's a little....clumsy but he's also bigger than she is.


OMG you guys, I'm so anxious! It's only 9:30 in the morning and all I want to do is go home and watch the eggs to see if they turn white or not!!! But I'm stuck here until 6pm :-( SO SADDDDDD

Okay, turning away from fish for a moment >.<

So I made my feathers for my costume, finished that all last night. Started these on Sunday, outlines!
I regret doing it in cardboard, I wish I'd read the whole tutorial because I was supposed to use broad fabric for the feathers, not cardboard. Cardboard was only the outline. I could have used Posterboard; stronger and lighter. Oh well.


Feathers numbered and cut out


Feathers with primary coat of paint! Just used Acrylics. I ran out of black though >.< had to buy more yesterday


And after trial and lots of error and frustration, I finally decided to just stick them on my fingers. The feathers will be strung to my wrist so that I can take them off without losing them and they'll just hang from my wrist. I will have gloves too and black shirt of course.
But this is what it looks like with the feathers on and the beak and hooded scarf. I still have to do the eyes on the hood and the little feather bits. I half-a$$ painted the beak a little, I kind of like how it looks like this and probably won't touch it.

I'll do the tail feathers tonight and if I get to it, cut out the rest of the fabric for the wing that will attach to my shirt and the last primary feather so it's not just the cardboard part.
(and you can see the 45 on the right side lol)


And last topic!
So, remember this is my sketch for my second stone litho image?


I printed my first layer! In total it will be (white) light blue, dark blue, and purple (black MAY be needed but I predict not).


And in my Relief class, I'm almost finished with my Pearl Gourami Money print!
Did a little more carving to it, added more coins in there.


We decided that it needed something else and so we experimented with one of the newsprint proofs to see how it'd look if we took out most of the background.


I decided that I liked how it looked and so I started to carve away! I left off here and will likely finish it tomorrow
This is the linoleum piece that I carve into. (note: just like all prints, it prints in reverse!)


----------



## Tree

hahah I could just picture the swords sucking the tabs up and begging for more. 

I just got new lights for all the tanks so I will be replacing them next spring for sure. 

congrats on the eggs! never had a fish lay eggs before but I'm sure it feels like the moment your dog or cat has babies. 

I'm loving that outfit and those awesome print drawings. keep up all the great work!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> hahah I could just picture the swords sucking the tabs up and begging for more.
> 
> I just got new lights for all the tanks so I will be replacing them next spring for sure.
> 
> congrats on the eggs! never had a fish lay eggs before but I'm sure it feels like the moment your dog or cat has babies.
> 
> I'm loving that outfit and those awesome print drawings. keep up all the great work!



Lol, yeah, pretty much!

Okidoke!

And thanks! Yep! It's like having two very distantly related dogs breed together whereas it was thought that they couldn't before (without human intervention). I know they all can but with Cichlids, these two are from opposite sides of the world!

And thank you!! Hopefully I'll be done with the outfit come Saturday since that's Halloween!! lol


----------



## DerangedUnicorn

I know you posted it a few days ago, but is your dog a border collie pup? He's so cute. Here's my baby. She's almost a year now. Her name is Luna.


----------



## lilnaugrim

DerangedUnicorn said:


> I know you posted it a few days ago, but is your dog a border collie pup? He's so cute. Here's my baby. She's almost a year now. Her name is Luna.


*not my dog*
But yes! He's a Border Collie mix, likely with a lab we're thinking. He's quite barrel chested and a lot of coat's don't fit him because he's long and so thick in his chest lol. Luna is beautiful though! I have a gecko named Luna (she's actually from Gimli's owner, she wasn't mine originally)


----------



## lilnaugrim

So, update on Acara and RJ. The eggs were yellow as of last night which is good!! BUT! Someone ate the eggs last night >.> I left my moonlights on for them since that's a thing for Betta's; they'll eat eggs if they don't feel safe/can't see. So I took the precautionary measures. I don't know if it was Acara or my RTBS.

I'm going to see if I can breed them again but I'll take out my RTBS and keep my new Gold Firemouth separate for the time being. She's not too happy, I got her in exchange for my three young EB acara's who were all girls. I'll be getting a mate for the Gold soon too! But I think Acara never bred before so she's inexperienced, RJ was the only one who was semi-guarding them.

Here's my little Gold! She's stressed so she isn't showing as much color of course.


RJ is beautiful! He looks amazing under the moonlights, wish I could get a pic of him!


Acara, still in breeding colors


Eggs as of last night


RJ this morning, digging around for pellets.






Acara is still eggy so I'm hoping they'll breed next week or the week after


And Macklin is almost all white! I know my Betta's have been on the backburner lately and I apologize, this is a Betta forum and thread after all >.<

This side is white but the other side, his eye is still blue lol.


Still biting his tail




Finished the wings on my costume! Cheap, and not very durable, but they're functional! I just used safety pins to pin the fabric wings to the shirt which is hard to see since it's black on black and in not very good lighting either. I did add a secondary covering to the back to cover the awkward pins that you can barely see. Didn't get pics of it though.


And the feathers. Yes, anatomy isn't that great but IDC at this point, it works for what I need it to do.


Tail feathers!


and that's it for now!


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## Tealight03

Wow, Macklin has really changed!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Right? I'll post a progression of his colors at some point since he went back and forth for quite a while but now is mostly white ^_^


No real update, just showing you all that I finished this print! I call it: "The Ornate Buy Pearls", it's a reference to the fish but also the fact that it's ornamental fish and how we buy so much for the hobby and not all of it is necessary and stuff  Throwing money in the proverbial fish tank! ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

I finished!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!








I was "drinking" lol


Stay safe everyone ^_^


----------



## Tree

cool costume! and happy Halloween to you too =)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks Tree!

I ended up winning Best Crafted Costume! :-D

I also won Best Sexual Educator XD lol. Okay, this is what happened!

I was showing off to the judges and I was perching on a stone bench, the guy was like "OMG, I thought you were going to pop out an egg or something!" I was like "Uhhh...yeah, I can't do that...." lol. So the girl says "this might be TMI but I was thinking about chickens the other week and how they produce eggs, like, do they need two chickens to make eggs or do they just make eggs?!" I was kind of shocked by the question but I was like "wait-wait, I gotchu!" and so I explained briefly about ovulation and how we also pass our eggs as females, the chickens do the same thing. She was like, wuuuttt??? I'm 33! How did I not know this! I was really shocked at this point but went with it.

So yeah, the guy gave me Best Sexual Educator and the crowd laughed even though they had no idea what transpired XD

Took some pics yesterday! Not too many but enough :-D I want to take more tonight, we'll see.

Odessa!! I apologize, I was cleaning tank and so it was kind of grody.


Snowcap is growing well too!



I adore these pictures I took of Renegade! He's gaining color too! I actually really like how he is right now and would be happy if he stayed but I'd be happy if he changed too! He looks amazing in the 29 with all the dark colors and the greens :-D






And my male sailfin molly was hiding on me but he's definitely gained more black, it's quite interesting! He's so beautiful!


Female Ember Tetra


Male Ember


Male Albino BN Pleco! He's been hanging outside of the ship ornament more lately, always looking for food! He's nice and fat with all the algae they get and the wafers :-D They all love the Omega One Veggie wafers!


Classic Velvet, sorry, I suck at wiping the glass >.< gonna clean with some alcohol wipes tonight so it's not so nasty looking



Something interesting is happening to my male guppy fry. All of their gonopodiums are growing out EXTRA long! I couldn't get as many shots as I would have liked to since I did a change and cleaned the filter so it was rather cloudy. Hoping to get more shots tonight if I get the urge to take more. This is one of the less colorful males I have so far but still a cutie! This one hasn't grown out super long just yet, but wait till you see the larger male! It's ridiculous!


My golden firemouth girl is absolutely miserable! I feel really bad but I want RJ and Acara to breed first! She's eating at least. She'll have friends come tomorrow. I may put them in the older 20 long...depends on how they'd do with the strange assorment of fish I have in there >.< (Odessa Barbs [5], Pearl Gourami, Betta, BN Plecos [3].....yeah....)


Acara! My pretty girl!



I freaking love RJ's face!





Geronimo, fending off the terrible camera!





And look at these little cutie patooties! These are my Yellow Convicts. I have lost a couple now, my water sucks. I've been trying to use water from the 55 so it's more established at least but I still need to use new water occasionally and the pH swings too much, even with Replenish and occasionally I'll use pH up if it's just not going any where (I monitor it of course and add slowly).




And Macklin who just looks pathetic >.<


He literally looks like he's seen a ghost....


And almost totally white on his body too. Interesting that his fins are staying yellow lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, a couple more pics I forgot about ^_^

From Friday, this is what happens when you print in yellow >.< I washed my hands four times. Use a rag with some Paint thinner on it (we use it to clean the rollers), then used GoJo, then some other larger grit soap that I don't know the name of, and then GoJo again because it smells nicer than the larger grit soap does. And I still ended up with hands like this!
The hazards of printmaking lol


Somehow got it on my underarm too....idk


Did some work to my second print! I've decided that my project can't only be color reductions because they take too long. So I'm going to work simultaneously on some other prints that have the same theme. I'll be using Rainbow Rolls to get the color in there but black over top for lines.


My Chili Rasboras are happy fish!


And yes! Here, on the left side! You can see the guppy's obnoxiously large gonopodium!! And yes, some nice colors too


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some more pics.

Some beautiful betta's at PetCo yesterday but alas, no one came home with me. I just went in for mealworms and crickets for the geckos.

A lot of these have been there for quite some time now, at least a month if not a little more.

I'm confused as to why this guy is still there! He's only a DeT so that makes him 7 dollars something in change! Cheap, comparatively! I kind of want to snatch him but I know that if he marbles, he's just going to be Turquoise mostly.


Same with this guy!



Same, this guy is beautiful! Never thought that I'd like one like this but he's gorgeous!



This guy was quite attentive as well, a little sad but otherwise nice!




This guy really tugged at my heart!



This guy, he's new, but he has such a unique coloration!!







And so I'm dividing up the new 20 long so I can just throw my males in there and so they aren't stuck in cold, small, tanks. I felt so bad that they were sitting there :-( Sam is not doing well at all and I'm not sure how long he will make it unfortunately.

The tank won't be anything extravagant, just some plants to help keep it healthy and provide hides for them but that's about it. Will be divided five ways as usual. Sam (if he gets better), Macklin, Geronimo, Roman, and Glaston will go in there. Impulse is being given to my fish friend who's Betta just jumped and she found him dried to a crisp >.< So she's going to be sealing the tank with seranwrap before she takes Impulse ^_^ She knows what she's doing, it's just a little incident of unfortunate event.

But Roman is in his side already and apparently quite happy about it.
This is what it started off with yesterday


Tannins! And Roman!


Growing...sort of lol. He's not good at keeping them all together.


Renegade! He's staying in the 29, he's a good fish for the 29 ^_^ Doesn't bother any of the other fish, in fact, the male Molly kind of pushes him around if anything! My male molly is kind of an a$$hole, wasn't really expecting that! Livebearers :dunno: so pushy.


4 gallon pic! Haven't done a whole heck of a lot. Transfered my Pogostemon Erectus to it from Macklin's previous 2.5! Need something for the back right corner though.


The 20 has more life now! Not so dead looking! Yay! Feels good to have a clean tank again. It was really making me depressed before and that just became and almost-endless cycle :-(


29, hasn't changed that much as usual lol


55 also hasn't changed much. In the middle of a water change so the water line isn't usually that low


My beautiful odd-couple!


RJ looks amazing under moonlights, I wish I could get a picture of him!


Acara just glows under them but RJ looks like a hidden treasure, it's gorgeous!


Golden firemouth (Thorichthys Ellioti) girl still isn't super happy but she's better now and eating ^_^


Just missed it but she was flaring at my Fairly Odd-Couple lol


Geronimo flaring at Impulse!



Come at me bro! -Roman and Geronimo
lol


----------



## Sadist

I love your tanks! Awesome costume, too.


----------



## BettaLover1313

I'm really loving Acara! I think you've made me really want to have a couple Electric Blues sometime in the future. She's just so pretty!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I love your tanks! Awesome costume, too.


Thank you! And thanks! Yeah, it was fun but frustrating to make haha!



BettaLover1313 said:


> I'm really loving Acara! I think you've made me really want to have a couple Electric Blues sometime in the future. She's just so pretty!


Yay! Yeah, she's just an amazing fish, so personable! For the first time ever, I'm very content to just have those two in the 55 and maybe it sounds crazy, but their personalities make up for everything! I kind of feel bad though since I already have the RTBS, the gold firemouths, and the Odessa Barbs....oh and the Plecos....whoops....I may give up some of those fish. I'm going to try the Firemouths in the 45 though, there should be enough room and hides for them to settle in. If not, they can run the 29.

Such a strange feeling to only want two fish and that's it lol. Granted, I do want them to breed, but it's weird to not want a full community any more! :-D


----------



## Tree

Congrats on the WIN! =D and amazing fish as always.


----------



## Sadist

lilnaugrim said:


> Such a strange feeling to only want two fish and that's it lol. Granted, I do want them to breed, but it's weird to not want a full community any more! :-D


Not too strange! I really want an oscar, but I'd have problems convincing the hubby to get a 6 feet long tank for one fish.


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lovely update!!!!!

I love all your photos! Especially that last one, hehe!


----------



## jadaBlu

If you get printing ink or other paint on your hands orange automotive soap is good for removing it and and sometimes baking soda paste mixed with soap suds helps.


----------



## lilnaugrim

jadaBlu said:


> If you get printing ink or other paint on your hands orange automotive soap is good for removing it and and sometimes baking soda paste mixed with soap suds helps.


That's what we use: GoJo, it's the same as Fast Orange or Orange Glo, just different brands and names. The other stuff we use that has larger grit is a mixture of grains/oatmeal I think and some pumice as well as other things, I haven't looked at the ingredients. It just smells like oatmeal and so I assume it's in there  I can get the ink off, it just takes many washes that I usually don't feel like doing haha. It comes off with showers and washing dishes in about a week's time


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> Congrats on the WIN! =D and amazing fish as always.


Thank you thank you!



Sadist said:


> Not too strange! I really want an oscar, but I'd have problems convincing the hubby to get a 6 feet long tank for one fish.


Yeah, thankfully I don't have to convince anyone haha. It was just a strange feeling for me was all since I normally do community tanks!



litelboyblu said:


> Lovely update!!!!!
> 
> I love all your photos! Especially that last one, hehe!


Thank you! Yeah, Geronimo and Roman are quite the pair! ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just a couple quick pictures I snapped this morning!

Macklin and poor Sam in the background :-( Sam is still alive, he's just not happy at all. I was hoping that the warmer water would help him out but it doesn't seem to be. He's refusing foods as well :-/


Macklin still apparently see's him as a threat though :roll: silly fish




Geronimo! Sorry about the cruddy film on the water, working on this tank little by little! It won't be anything spectacular, just adequate.



The basic photo of Roman lol


Poor Sam :-/


Macklin always looks worried lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay so....I took 419 pictures over the weekend.....I parred it down to 92 lol. So it's going to be a couple posts since it's a 50 picture cap on each post. I could do it in two posts but I think I'll split to three to make it more manageable for you guys  sorry! But also not sorry for giving you lots of pictures! haha.

I'll start with the ones who have less photos!

Acara and RJ! My lovely babies who are getting ready to breed again! :-D

This fish is prettier than half the people I know!




I love the Electric blue on her face!


RJ's sparkles are just so beautiful! He's a gorgeous fish for sure!


He's grown a bit since I've had him as well! His hump has protruded a little more. The more I see him the more I don't mind the small humps, I just can't stand the Flowerhorn hump or the Red Hump Eartheater hump, it's...too much! RJ's is nice and reasonable.


My Gold Firemouth, she's a Thorichthys Ellioti if anyone wants the scientific name. Mexican Firemouth or Gold Mexican Firemouth, all the same.
She's trying to get through to get at Acara in this picture. She's still a little skinny but has slowly been eating more, I assume she'll fatten up in a week or so!


"Look m'lady! A cave! Perfect for....breeding!"


"Meh, I'm not in the mood just yet..."
"Sigh..."


RJ! YOUR FACE IS SO PRETTY


I don't normally like pictures where the whole fish isn't in it, but I really like this one for some reason!


I also got them some Ghost Shrimp yesterday as well ^_^ RJ was quite impatient!

"FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!"




"Darn, can't get them through this invisible barrier!"


And here's the video of RJ being all excited and trying to get the shrimp through the bag lol


Okay, onto Snowcap now!
She's growing very well!
Look at those pretty ventrals!






And fish from the 20 long will finish off this post.
Rowan!



And I did it again guys, I'm sorry! I forgot to wipe the glass again!!
Rome-Rome


Odessa Barbs are beautiful but I'm going to trade them in to George's (Aqua-Life) for more store credit, may also give him the female BN's since I lost the male last week from what I think was sand impaction (his tummy bloated as was anus but was black like black granular sand as if he couldn't pass it any more :-/)


This is the leader, he likes to pose for me ^_^


And did you guys know that BN pleco's can move their cheek bristles forward when they feel threatened?! I didn't know that! So cool!


First post done, onto the next one!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Taking a brief break from my fish and going to the fish I saw at PetCo yesterday and PetSmart ^_^

PetSmart first
This little DT was giving me a death glare! haha


Hard to get his colors though, he was more like a Copper than a Blue


This Purple VT was gorgeous! He wasn't too happy but he looked very healthy!




Sorry, HDR randomly came on :roll:


Cute marble DT


We get in some really beautiful Blue Butterflies!


This one was quite tempting!


And sigh, my Black Copper BF friend was still there :-(



As well as this guy!


And this guy


This guy was cuter in real life, couldn't capture him too well



And back to our regularly scheduled Monday Morning Program!

Pictures of Renegade! He's such an amazing fish!
These were from Friday




And then these are from Sunday, so he did change a little bit in between!




And just a couple more for this post.
My Embers are wonderful fish! I absolutely adore them! I have about 12-14 left I think, started with 16. The ones that died have died of old age. I don't know if the one with Cataracts have died yet, haven't looked that much.


I have one that is mottled white now, not sure if due to disease or dying or something. It seems healthy enough though, eating well and otherwise uneffected....strange!



Okay, next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fish from the 29

My sailfin Male is being mean to everyone :-( I may have to remove him :-/


Pretty female. Also, turns out that my four "female" mollies are actually three females and one male! I didn't realize!



Two females


This one is the prettiest but Shhhhh! Don't tell the others! lol


And Glaston! He's still alive and with me, though he's not very happy since his tank isn't heated >.< My room is so it's staying around 72-75 depending on time of day so it's not bad. I just need to clean his tank....I've been bad about that....sorry buddy!!


And the four gallon!
FTS!
I still haven't done a lot with it but it's looking better now that the Wallichii is coming back and the Crypt. Undulata are filling in!


So what's in this tiny tank you ask? Why, it's Snakeskin Lyretail male guppy juvies, Chili Rasboras, Pygmy Corydoras, and Cherry Shrimp!

They get along so well actually!


Sorry his face is awkward, the glass is beveled there so it makes for weird images sometimes! But do you see his super long Gonopodium!??! WTH is with that??




All day I was trying to capture pictures of Cobra (I've named them according to pattern mostly), he's the one in the middle. But he's not a good poser, too quick!


Tiger is below him here


You can see Cobra has more to his pattern but he doesn't like to show his side! At least, not when the camera is at him!



Here is Stripe2, the smaller of the "stripes"



Stripe1 has the longest gonopodium




Tiger




Classic Guppy picture!


Stripe1 showing off to Cobra, Cobra has different patterns on each side sort of, but his gonopodium is sharper than Tiger's is right now, so that's how I tell the difference


Cobra


Tiger and the Chili's


Stripe1 and Tiger



Stripe2 and Tiger


Chili's!


And berried shrimp



And Pygmy Cories!



Oh gosh, I'm not even going to get to all the pictures in one sitting! I have more to post but it's almost class time!!!

I'll try to post them later!!


----------



## Sadist

Wow, I love the pictures! Those male fish are out of control with their private parts.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Right? I told you their gonopodiums were long! lol, no idea why either! On lyretail mollies they tend to be longer and more feathered, but this is kind of ridiculous....

Anywho, I have some time! Back to photos before I have to do something else again!

Okay! Time for the Betta's which is clearly why you all are here ;-)

Look! look! look! Sam isn't dead!!! He's feeling much better now! He's still kind of not great, but he ate yesterday and swam around! He actually begged for pellets!



Roman is silly sometimes




I think this is the best picture of him ever! haha
Such grump!


Geronimo!! He's also biting his tail >.<




These kinds of shots are my favorite Betta poses ^_^


He's also fat lol


Macklin, the other worst tail biter :roll:


Yeah....just...just ignore his tail :-/



He's got a nice looking beard though 



Annd.....I have a new friend. Partly why I want to give up the Odessa's (other than being SUPER rowdy! Which...I knew would happen but for some reason...I still went for them >.< I wish I hadn't :-/) and the other fish in the 55.

I saw this picture the other day of this gorgeous fish, had no idea what it was. Looked up the scientific name and was like, oooh, now I know what it is.

Then I went to my LFS on Friday and low and behold, they had the very same fish but only in juvie form! I usually take it as a sign when something like that happens, I was literally researching it Friday morning so this was all the same day!

Scientific name: Heros sp. Rotkeil
AKA: Red Shoulder Severum.

Yes, I have a baby Severum now and yes, I'm aware they grow up to 6-8 inches! But god, these fish become gorgeous! As a baby, he doesn't look like much yet and he's still hiding but he'll come out soon I'm sure!

New friend:



A little beaten up from the store



And because not a lot see my Leo journal, I'll post a couple images I took of some of them!
Hawkeye is prettier than most of my friends....lol


The stars are in your eyes


Luna wasn't coming out for me so this was the best I could get of her so far  I plan to take more and better pictures of them as well.


And phew! Apologies for the massive update but also not really since I know you all enjoy the pictures! Thank you for all the comments and the talkings! It's really made this journal that much more interesting!! Love you all! :-D


----------



## Sadist

I feel you on the tail biters! Mr. Fish even managed to eat his ventrals off >.<

I love your geckos!


----------



## Fenghuang

Great pictures as always, Lil. I am glad to see that Sam is feeling a little better. I just recently started following journals' again and wad really shocked to see Sam in the state he was last update. Your guppies and cichlids are gorgeous too.


----------



## Strawberry12

Hi Lil! Hope school is going well  

Poor Mr. Sam, I hope he feels better soon.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I feel you on the tail biters! Mr. Fish even managed to eat his ventrals off >.<
> 
> I love your geckos!


Yep! Sam was originally attacked by Rowan during a breeding attempt but he still continued to bite his caudal off. Thankfully his ventrals have grown out but they're all sorts of split now and he looks silly since he's all ventral and no other fin >.<

And thank you! I need to take some better pictures of them all so I can upload to Imgur and try to get to the Front page haha!



Fenghuang said:


> Great pictures as always, Lil. I am glad to see that Sam is feeling a little better. I just recently started following journals' again and wad really shocked to see Sam in the state he was last update. Your guppies and cichlids are gorgeous too.


Thank you!

Yeah, that's what happens when you try to breed him to a veteran breeder (Rowan) and she decides that he's too whimpy for her >.> And then he realizes that he loves short fins and then gets infected due to my inattentiveness....sigh.

But thank you! Gosh, I love these cichlids so much! Never thought I would but their personalities are just so darn huge! They're like the dogs of the fish world and Betta's are more like the cat's; they know you bring food and may sort of like you for you but on the hole, they just want to be fed lol. The guppies are just guppies XD



Strawberry12 said:


> Hi Lil! Hope school is going well
> 
> Poor Mr. Sam, I hope he feels better soon.


Yeah...school....it could be better :-/ everything just kind of went wrong this week and I'll update on that in my next actual post (not that this is any less of a post lol) but yeah... >.< thanks anyways!

And yes! He's eating like a pig again and the tail still needs work but he's looking so much better now! Roman has pretty much ignored Sam now (Sam is floating in Roman's part for the time being), so it's working out well!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So yeah, it's been one hell of a week, that's for sure!

Good news is that I've hit 50 lbs lost in just 4 months! What a crazy journey! I still have 50 more to go for my "small" goal to be 198. Then it's about a 100 from where I am now (245) until I'm at my goal weight size (135-145ish)! So crazy to think that it just basically melts off! I lost 3.2 this past week, though that was done in 5 days since my usual Thursday appointment had to be moved up to Tuesday due to a Student Council meeting on Thursday. But then I cheated bad when my brother and I played video games all Wednesday because of the holiday lol. I also cheated last night because I was so damn stressed out! I don't eat bad when I'm depressed, in fact, I don't eat at all when I'm depressed, but I do eat bad when I'm stressed out and college IS NOT HELPING AT ALL!

So yeah, my gallery show is in about a month now and I'm freaking out because my stones keep screwing up on me! My second image (the kuhli loaches with the moon one) completely scummed over, the ink filled in the lines and I have to rescrape into it to fix it! That takes about a week in and of itself! Then my third image (haven't shown you guys yet), scummed over in the open water marks and I'm ready to give up and try something different. I'm so torn with trying to save that image (I also measured wrong and I have a 10x14 image on 11x15 paper which means it's only half an inch border where you usually need at least an inch, inch and a half on the bottom for title, sig., and edition number). So I'm pretty much royally screwed.

So yeah, I went to the PetCo at my dad's house on Tuesday/Wednesday and found this amazing Koi cello PK boy for Fenghuang! Originally looking for just a cellophane but I showed Feng and she loved him. So he's in my care at the moment.

I'll start off with the little Koi boy, he is still very young looking but so adorable!




This next boy I wanted so so badly but I couldn't face the fact that he's 20 dollars. Even the EE's were only 15! But look how beautiful he is! Yellow Copper BF



He was very spunky too!



This little HMPK was much more active on Wednesday, flaring at his neighbor. He had beautiful form too!



This EE was probably the most beautiful Yellow Pineapple EE I've seen in a very long time! At least, in a pet store!
I debated on him for a long time on Wednesday, I decided that I couldn't afford a 15 dollar Betta.







And this little spunkster! He was miserable but he warmed up to me very quickly so I have the most pictures of him. He reminds me of Corwin!








A beautiful reddish-orange HM for Aqua's viewing pleasure and anyone else who likes this color!






This little EE was absolutely darling too! Very large for his type, wasn't a Giant/King but he was larger in body size.



He basically wouldn't look at me



This guy was also one of my favorites!


----------



## Julie7778

Wow, 50lbs! That's awesome Lil. 

Those petco bettas are making my drool! They're all so beautiful.


----------



## Sadist

That sucks about your prints! The things we do for art.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Julie7778 said:


> Wow, 50lbs! That's awesome Lil.
> 
> Those petco bettas are making my drool! They're all so beautiful.


Thank you!! Still a long way to go but I've also come so far too!

And thank you! It's a shame I can't send you one! I know you were looking for some options ^_^



Sadist said:


> That sucks about your prints! The things we do for art.


Yeah, it does >.< Hopefully the work I do today won't end up completely ruining the stone!!! Sometimes there's only so much we can do and I totally accept that, but what has happened was a poor chemical reaction and that can be fixed, it just takes so darn long!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

If only that yellow ee was a pkee I think I'd loose my restraint and have you to buy and ship him to me.. but I don't want any more long tails! Too many damaged fins... pk and females only from now on! 
I haven't been to my usual betta buying petco in a long while.. trying to avoid the temptation....(though my husband mentioned growing herbs inside for the winter.. perfect excuse for another small tank (or 3) on the windowsill >.>''' )


----------



## Fenghuang

Omg I really like that last boy too. Huge soft spot for those cello based partial DS fish. Jealous of your nice Petco... There is only one near (still can only get there on the rare chance I can get a ride) and while they occasionally get some interesting colours and patterns, it's always risky because a lot of their aquarium stock seem to have internal parasites.


----------



## PetMania

Wow, there is so much that I have missed in the months I was away. 

Oh my, congrats on 50 lbs.!!!! You should be very proud of yourself, that is one heck of an accomplishment. Great job


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> If only that yellow ee was a pkee I think I'd loose my restraint and have you to buy and ship him to me.. but I don't want any more long tails! Too many damaged fins... pk and females only from now on!
> I haven't been to my usual betta buying petco in a long while.. trying to avoid the temptation....(though my husband mentioned growing herbs inside for the winter.. perfect excuse for another small tank (or 3) on the windowsill >.>''' )


Right? I would have probably definitely bought him if he were a PKEE as well! His color was just so rich and he was very attentive too which I always look for.

Ah haha, yeah, definitely a good excuse! If my window sills didn't get so cold, I would definitely have fish on them :roll:

I also have to PM you about that grass tank, I do still have it and I do still plan on giving it to you if you still want it! I'm really sorry about all the delay with this! I'm just trying to find where the heck to throw my Red Rili shrimp into that they won't be eating  bad thing about owning all these Betta's and carnivores >.<



Fenghuang said:


> Omg I really like that last boy too. Huge soft spot for those cello based partial DS fish. Jealous of your nice Petco... There is only one near (still can only get there on the rare chance I can get a ride) and while they occasionally get some interesting colours and patterns, it's always risky because a lot of their aquarium stock seem to have internal parasites.


Right? I wanted him so much! He looked like an in betweener with long fin/short fin so I doubt he would be a biter for the sake of being a biter. But yeah, I love my PetCo's (and suppose I also hate them for that fact to haha!!)

That sucks! Yeah, the PetCo up in Seekonk Mass., also has issues with parasites. One time the goldfish came in with Anchor worms :shock: it was the grossest thing I've ever seen! Poor Victoria, because PetCo doesn't allow them to use medication, all they could use was salt :-( I don't think any of them made it unfortunately. It boggles my mind sometimes how the corporate companies can send fish like that and get away with it. It's all about the money but I feel like, if your whole stock is infected, why would you just let them die? Isn't that wasting money versus buying a couple things of medication and treating them? Is that so hard to understand? Bah, I know I'm preaching to the choir here though! Sorry!



PetMania said:


> Wow, there is so much that I have missed in the months I was away.
> 
> Oh my, congrats on 50 lbs.!!!! You should be very proud of yourself, that is one heck of an accomplishment. Great job


Heh, yeah, definitely a lot has happened!!

Thank you very much!! I am quite proud, it hasn't quite sunk in just yet even though everyone has complimented me this past week about it. It's definitely invigorating and I don't like to think of myself as attention-seeking, at least, not often, but even with all that praise, it still doesn't feel quite real lol. Still a lot to go though! I have a bad habit of doing that though; do something big but then look ahead and make myself depressed with how much more I have to do >.< bad-bad lilnaugrim!  but thank you very much, I truly appreciate each and every one of you all for your support!!

:thankyou:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Piiiicccssss!

So RJ and Acara had eggs again yesterday. Unfortuantely, they were eaten quicker this time >.> I'm going to take the rock out next time and try to artificially hatch them, it's a lot of work but it might be worth it if they really are fertile like I'm lead to believe!


See how intense Acara's ovipositer is?? Crazy!


"What'chu lookin' at?"



Beautiful pair!



She's probably the most beautiful Acara I've seen yet


"My wifey! No touch!"




Geronimo's classic pictures lol


Sorry the lighting is off color!



My new favorite picture of him!


Little Mr. Koi boy!


He's got some bubble nesting going on!


Macklin: "Is it food time? Is that why you're here?"


Macklin: "It's definitely food time but you aren't giving me food...."


Macklin: "Come on! Gimme, gimmme, gimme!"


Macklin: "Can I eat his poop?"


Rawr


Koi Boi "He's bothering me"




Roman boy!


Sam is feeling like his old self again! He still looks bad but he's swimming and flaring and eating and bubble-nesting!



Posturing to Roman


Roman: "Really?"


Roman: "I'm so pretty!"


I've decided to name him Sephiroth or her, I don't know the gender yet lol.


Renegade's colors are absolutely stunning! I'm definitely taking him to the Bowl Show with me for our meeting!




Snowcap and all her cute-ness



She loves to pose for me



Pleco!


My two little Yellow Convicts are doing fantastic! One is bigger than the other, that's to be expected



This one is the biggest (same as last pics) and he's fearless



Rowan! I don't know why, but she's always looked like a Soccer Mom to me....don't ask why >.< I thought maybe due to her ventrals looking like striped soccer socks that a mom would wear to cheer on her kids lol.




And her derpy brother, Velvet


Darn, went over by three pics lol. I'll post the rest in the next message!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Took some more gecko pics too. Here is Zolla


Was taking some nice pictures of Luna too


When suddenly....who is that?


Oh lol, it's Zolla, wondering what this blinky reflective thing is doing! It's so funny, they see the shutter of the camera move and they come up to investigate


----------



## Sadist

A whole lot of cuteness!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Replied to your pm, also answered my question.. egg eating.. is it rj noming them? Love the last Geronimo photo with the gasping mouth, look like he saw something.. disturbing ^^ Also I want to your lil' Snowcap! so cute!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Yep, you've definitely made me want Acaras sometime in my fish keeping life XD

Beautiful pictures all around. Loved that yellow pineapple EE male. Gorgeous!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> A whole lot of cuteness!


Right? I love being around all these cutie-patooties!



Aqua Aurora said:


> Replied to your pm, also answered my question.. egg eating.. is it rj noming them? Love the last Geronimo photo with the gasping mouth, look like he saw something.. disturbing ^^ Also I want to your lil' Snowcap! so cute!


Saw it, will reply tomorrow properly lol.

And no, its likely Acara. RJ actually wants to guard like he's supposed to but acara seems too inexperienced and wanders all over, RJ tends to follow after he gives up. It's either acara or the red tail black shark, but I find he doesn't bother the two much or go on that side of the tank much at all.



BettaLover1313 said:


> Yep, you've definitely made me want Acaras sometime in my fish keeping life XD
> 
> Beautiful pictures all around. Loved that yellow pineapple EE male. Gorgeous!


Yay! I loooveee acara ^_^ she's so goofy lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

So, not too much going on this past week. I have a lot to do in terms of artwork so I don't think I'll be on a whole heck of a lot in the next two weeks or so other than being at work which is kind of what I do anyway! I feel bad that I can't be on as often and reply to all the threads that I'm supposed to!

Anywho, here are some pics!

Saw my kitty last week and she was very pleased that I was around since I'm the only one who gives her proper loving!! Dad got her one of those self scratch loop thingies you see on TV. She doesn't like it lol. She self-pets and rubs on your legs but doesn't like the loopy thing at all. We even tried catnip on it and nope!

Accompanying me on the couch while my brother and I play games.


You called?


Yes, I suppose you may worship me


Laying on my hand later


She's so beautiful when she sleeps!


Some art stuff from last week.

So I use a razor to scrape away at my stone and for the first time ever, I actually broke on of my razor's! haha! broken one next to a new one in case you forget what a razor looks like.


I also tried printing in silver since I found it. I found out that I LOVE the way the roller looks with silver on it!! So cool!


Different roller but this is what they normally look like. It's a synthetic roller, basically rubber.


And this is part of my Angelfish print, the first color. I haven't shown you all the sketch yet I don't think. I'll do that in a sec.


Here's the sketch, hard to see, I apologize.


Printed silver on a botched yellow one just to see how it would print since I never printed in silver before!


And this is what I was getting super frustrated at. Two Thursday's ago everything kept going wrong. I messed up the chemical process and this is what happened.


See all this scum?? That isn't supposed to be there at all!


This is the good copy after I scraped away all the scum on the stone. Took about three hours in total to fix it including the chemical process and wait time.


Here is a sketch for the next Relief print that I'm doing. I'm splitting this all up into three sections.
Top one


Middle and bottom:


Beginning of the bottom print!


Beginning of top print


Detail of fish


Back to bottom print. I had to color in the parts I don't want to cut to make sure I don't cut them lol. But the issue is that I found out that sharpie prints through the blue I used to print as a base!!! Also the red makes a heart apparently lol


Detail



Feng, your boy is doing great! Have to clean out his cup there but he's blowing nests and all!





A wild Macklin appears!


Macklin's fins are still terrible but some parts are regrowing....the parts he isn't biting still....sigh


Fat Koi boi is fat


Geronimo!


Taking some steps back here to last week.

Some really pretty fish at my other LFS





This guy tempted me


Hard to see in dim lighting but he's a bicolor


Beautiful Black Copper!


Renegade before I took him to the show. But I forgot the show was the Best of the Best, so if your fish had won a place then you bring it in if it's still alive or around. I'd never shown him so I totally forgot about that and so he just hung out on the side, I felt really bad for him >.< but he was a champ about it all!




At the Bowl Show. Won Second, some sort of Synodontis


Golden Killie won first place


Dwarf Flame didn't place


Adult Blue Gularis won third


----------



## Sadist

Wow, I love your art! 

Those fish are gorgeous, too.


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## themamaj

Oh I would have snatched that koi boy up in a heartbeat! Love the yellow EE and the HMPK too. So jealous you found a koi at Petco. Maybe that means there is hope of finding one around here!!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you!! Hopefully the art works out in the end >.< We're so close to the gallery show that I'm getting nervous!! Yikes!


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Oh I would have snatched that koi boy up in a heartbeat! Love the yellow EE and the HMPK too. So jealous you found a koi at Petco. Maybe that means there is hope of finding one around here!!!


Well if you ever see one from my pics that you like, definitely let me know and I can ship him down to you! Or I can look for something specific if you want a specific coloration/tail type or anything. I like to do that, it's like a treasure hunt for me lol.


----------



## themamaj

Definitely let me know if you run across any more koi betta. Would love one with red and black, but really like all kinds of koi.


----------



## Whippet44

So much pretty! Glad Sam is getting a little better!


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Definitely let me know if you run across any more koi betta. Would love one with red and black, but really like all kinds of koi.


Haven't seen any yet and I usually don't but just wanted to mention that Red Koi tend to be very unstable and will marble out to all red with some spots of other color or splashes of dragon scale. If you don't mind that then a Red Koi is fine, but if you want it to stay koi then it's not going to happen unfortunately.



Whippet44 said:


> So much pretty! Glad Sam is getting a little better!


Thanks! Unfortunately, now he's got an even worse rot. Hoping I can cure it with kanaPlex and Furan-2 :-/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Picture time!

So I blame Victoria for my new fish....but she also just bought a juvie Bearded Dragon on Friday as well lol. We're very bad influences on each other >.<

But you all remember that beautiful Black Copper Butterfly that had been at my PetCo for weeks and weeks? Well, yeah, I bought him. With Victoria's discount it came to 70% off for us instead of just 50%. So he was actually only 6-ish dollars instead of 15. So yeah, he came home with me.

Then we went on Saturday as well because she needed a bed for her pup Gimli and a jacket for him. Well, of course I looked at the Baby Betta's......but first.


So I've had these Dwarf Rainbows in QT for about three weeks now. I had bought them a while ago but they came with Ich (got a discount for them which was nice) and so finally! The other day, they were completely Ich free! Yay! So they were able to get out of the 2.5 QT and into the 45! Man, it was awesome to watch them swim around with their brethren lol.















Roman, doin' his thing! I'm sure he'll turn all red one day since his body has turned almost solid red now.








And Sam....sigh....this is what I mean. That super Rot stuff :-/ I was hoping that he wouldn't get it. He's still feeling and acting great but the rot is clearly there and advancing. I haven't started treatment just yet but I will soon.















Sam's bubble nest








Feng's boy!















Koi Boi's bubble nest








Sephiroth is much more active and calm around me which is great. She knows when it's feeding time haha. She has a long way to go with growing but she's already grown just about .25 of an inch in less than a month!















And meet Ezio! He's actually not Black Copper as I thought but Black Orchid, still a beautiful fish! He flares at pens too but I forgot to grab a picture of that.
He actually hung out with me at work all Friday and I had pellets there so he happily ate them while we sat around!


He'll probably marble too with those yellow patches on his body/head


Such a beautiful boy!


We got home and I put him in a 1/4 gal tank while I rescaped another tank.
















And the tank. The 2.5 that I had originally had Macklin in is the one I used. I'd been building up my Anubias collection for this type of thing!
First done, kind of cloudy.


In he went after a while!















A little stressed out but okay



Added Columns! Because he's named after Assassin's Creed, an Italian Assassin, the decor couldn't be more fitting ^_^ I'm very happy with how it all looks!


He enjoys the columns



Four gallon:


And then guppy males! I believe this one is Cobra








Cobra, Tiger in the back and Stripe1


Chili Rasbora! Look at that color!








Cherry Shrimps and Pygmy Cories!









Shrimplet










Tiger and Cobra








Cobra is so beautiful! I love how vivid his color is. He's starting to get his Lyretail too








Stripe1, his gonopodium is still growing.....








And yeah, as I mentioned. I found the babies at her PetCo......but they have awesome names at least! This is Fresco! I found her first and oogled over her for a while before I decided that yes, 80 cents for a baby is totally doable (50% off plus Victoria's 20% off discount. PROTIP: Befriend a PetCo employee lol)






















And this is Tempera! More art things haha. But she is a gorgeous PK! I'm 99% sure it's female and she's stressed out here but she's wild type coloration and man, she's going to be gorgeous!





























1.5 Red Rili tank. Still not sure if I just have all males? I can't seem to see any babies and the Red Cherries have all had so many babies at this point. But I added new plants to this tank instead of keeping it totally dwarf hairgrass. Added some of my Alternanthera Reineckii and some of the Limnophila Aeromatica from the 20 long.








And Glaston's tank! The Hydocotyle sp. Japan had taken over but his bowl looked gross. So I took that out and threw it in the 20 long for the time being. Funny, those leaves grew huge whereas the ones that grew in the 20 long and 29 are tiny. Different lighting situations. But this was him before lol



And after. I used my chunk of Java Fern 'Windlov' and another Java Fern 'Tropica' in the back which you can't see well.








Glaston approves ;-)








Rowan is fat, she ate all the food.















And Snowcap! Somehow she bit her fins >.> this happened before the other babies came so it's not due to them but I'm just baffled at how she can do that with such short fins....goes to show you! Anything can happen!















Odessa's! They'll be leaving soon to trade in for credit at one of my LFS's. I may also bring my two Albino BN plecos. I just don't have time to do the breeding that I want to do and no male so it's hard.















Velvet! Typical Velvet pose lol








Rowan likes to show off to the Odessa's and make sure they know their place in the hierarchy lol








And my Golden Firemouth girl killed my Red Tail Black Shark >.> Somehow the RTBS jumped into the breeding box with her while I was away, this was last week some time. And the damn girl killed him!!! So she'll be staying by herself for a little while >.< But she's so beautiful though!








I have PetCo fish pictures too that I'll upload later!


----------



## Sadist

Love the new fish and new pictures!


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## BlueInkFish

I agree, Sadist!

Haha, Rowan looks very cute, being chubby


----------



## Fenghuang

Lil! I hope your Thanksgiving went well. Your new fish are so pretty!


----------



## Sadist

I forgot to add that I love the shrimplets, too.


----------



## BettaStarter24

Just curious, and it's been a while since I've stalked your journal, do you still have Quasimodo? If so how's he doing? Me and my roomies are discussing the short bodied HMPK's like him.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Love the new fish and new pictures!





Sadist said:


> I forgot to add that I love the shrimplets, too.


Oh cool, I just found out that this site will Multi-quote in the order that you clicked on the MQ! lol

Thank you! Yeah, I love looking for the little shrimplets! Probably my favorite pastime other than watching RJ and Acara lol. Someone just had more babies too so there is a plethora of tiny shrimplets in the tank!



litelboyblu said:


> I agree, Sadist!
> 
> Haha, Rowan looks very cute, being chubby


Doesn't she though? lol, she just eats everything :roll: I can't exactly stop her....they don't get fed every day though and usually has a fasting day so I'm not worried about it or anything.



Fenghuang said:


> Lil! I hope your Thanksgiving went well. Your new fish are so pretty!


Thank you thank you! :-D



BettaStarter24 said:


> Just curious, and it's been a while since I've stalked your journal, do you still have Quasimodo? If so how's he doing? Me and my roomies are discussing the short bodied HMPK's like him.


Nah, he's been gone for about 8 months-ish? Maybe less, can't remember honestly. He was too deformed and as I predicted, had a shorter life-span due to it. Had I known the seller had more like him, I would have never bought him in the first place.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh yeah, I never showed you all the PetCo beauties! Sorry! Here they are:

These are ones I showed on the other thread; Beautiful PetCo Betta's but not on here, so some of you might have seen them before. These are from last week sometime.








I seriously debated on this girl for half an hour, she was so darn adorable! This was before I got Fresco and Tempera...


Maybe I can get a nice white girl and do a five girl sorority.....and go against everything I teach here :roll:


Another cutie patootie. The females never get enough lovin!


Another one I debated, a nice Black Copper Devil



A Blue


This guy's pectorals were amazing!




A badly formed MG Metallic



A big dragon


I like dark color like this, it's nice


This little one was still there too!


And this one





Just a nice little orange


Ugg, he was still there too! He was there this week as well




Nice DT but with bitten fin.


Little Blue BF marble




Beautiful Cello Platinum!




A really beautiful little Dragon!



And some more when I went back this Tuesday for my appointment, I stopped in.



Again, this guy was still there






And this one!



And this guy


And this one. And don't worry, this isn't Ich on the following ones, they just had a water change so they had bubbles stuck to them!


And our yellow EE friend





Okay, phew, that's done!


----------



## banana0217

Man that yellow EE is so handsome. If only I had the space...


----------



## lilnaugrim

And now pics of my fishes!

I was playing with Glaston, he still loves to flare! Shame that this is dirty but you can see his beard still lol





His bowl as of right now


And his nest!





More shrimpies!


Love this pair lol. Big one under the leaf and little one on top


Ready to breed


One of my Fire Reds and I'm so happy because they finally bred with my regular Cherries and I'm finding darker red babies! That means more Fire Reds! My regular Cherries aren't as red as I'd like them to be


Regular babies



And Renegade



Ezio, a couple more spots on his face


It's hard to tell if Macklin's tail is growing or not lol. He let's one section grow and bites another and keeps rotating :roll:


Sephiroth is becoming used to my face now!



And my art! Here's what I left you off with last time for the Kuhli Loach print. First layer:


Second layer added.


Second layer by itself


And then I drew on the third layer! Preping:


Printed! I wasn't satisfied though! The fish get lost in the clouds and that's not what I wanted! So I did a quick fix on it


After making things darker and adding to it and etching the stone again, this was the final; much better


purple alone


Purple on only first layer


And then for my Angel fish print! Last you all knew, I only had yellow layer done:


Now I have red:


And then blue! Here's the prep image


And finally printed




Also if you remember, I had printed a silver copy of the yellow just for funsies:


Well I continued to print on it to see what would happen, I love the result!


I have a couple minor details that I want to print in gold and silver in both of these prints but they're pretty much done for the most part! The Angelfish print didn't come out exactly how I would have liked but it's growing on me 

Also, if you've all seen those Pokemon fusions all over the interwebs? Well, if not, there is a site where you can 'fuse' first gen pokemons! And then us artists draw with a bit of liberty and they come out awesome! This is one of my versions!

"Nineot"
Ninetails head and Pidgeot body!


----------



## Olivia27

Oh gosh that blue EE male. My new tank will only be here by Monday  only if I can simply wave a wand and get it cycled right away!

Speaking of, you're a very talented artist!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Oh gosh that blue EE male. My new tank will only be here by Monday  only if I can simply wave a wand and get it cycled right away!
> 
> Speaking of, you're a very talented artist!


Thank you! :-D

And you can have an Insta-cycle! Just use media from another cycled tank and add that to your new tank and voila; insta-cycle! :-D


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> Thank you! :-D
> 
> And you can have an Insta-cycle! Just use media from another cycled tank and add that to your new tank and voila; insta-cycle! :-D


Uhh... What's a "media" again? Is that the thing you put inside your filter? Sorry, people have too many names for one thing

And oh no don't tempt me LOL I just looked up the price of a male EE on Petco and they're between $20-$25. I promised myself I would only stick to the "cheaper" Bettas >< which is why I have only had VTs so far


----------



## BettaStarter24

That yellow EE looks exactly like one my roommate got who died due to faulty heater (unknown by us)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Uhh... What's a "media" again? Is that the thing you put inside your filter? Sorry, people have too many names for one thing
> 
> And oh no don't tempt me LOL I just looked up the price of a male EE on Petco and they're between $20-$25. I promised myself I would only stick to the "cheaper" Bettas >< which is why I have only had VTs so far


Media encompasses all the things; sponges, carbon, bio-max/cermamic rings. So yes.

And no, our EE's are only $14.99!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Ugh that yellow EE is so tempting.. if only he was pkee... 
Does this one seem like he has a bit of a body deformity/.. for some reason he looks odd to me..like his body is longer in height than others ..or is it distortion from the cup/angle he's at?


>





BettaStarter24 said:


> That yellow EE looks exactly like one my roommate got who died due to faulty heater (unknown by us)


You should have lil' buy and send him to you to give to your roomy as a present/replacement.. after they get a better heater ^.~
Which brand bed bad? I've had good luck with Aqueon and Hydro Theo adjustable heaters.


----------



## Sadist

Oh man, all those cute little crowntail girls! I'm in love! If I could build the tanks into the walls, I would bring them all home with me.

I love how the prints are turning out!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Your artwork is amazing!

Oh, my! That blue butterfly marble...


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> Media encompasses all the things; sponges, carbon, bio-max/cermamic rings. So yes.
> 
> And no, our EE's are only $14.99!


Oh gee. And I actually am on the lookout for a male, too.

When's the next time you're gonna go back to this store? Whenever it is if this boy is still there by then I'd love to have him.

EDIT: wait that made it sound like an impulse decision! It really is not, I actually saw your reply the moment you post it. Minutes ago I found out my tank is going to arrive a day early. With that extra day plus double cheat code: current tank's filter media and Seachem Stability, I should be able to cycle the tank in time. Just don't wanna sound irresponsible.


----------



## Olivia27

Sadist said:


> If I could build the tanks into the walls, I would bring them all home with me.


Actually...


----------



## Sadist

Haha, I meant inside the walls like the pet store ones.


----------



## lilnaugrim

banana0217 said:


> Man that yellow EE is so handsome. If only I had the space...


Yep, everyone's reaction lol



Aqua Aurora said:


> Ugh that yellow EE is so tempting.. if only he was pkee...
> Does this one seem like he has a bit of a body deformity/.. for some reason he looks odd to me..like his body is longer in height than others ..or is it distortion from the cup/angle he's at?


He has DT geno in him, see his nice extended dorsal fin? It's not super broad or anything but it's definitely more broad than a regular HMPK. So thus, his body is a little taller due to genetics but the cup makes him look worse, he really wasn't that bad at all.



Sadist said:


> I love how the prints are turning out!


Thank you!



litelboyblu said:


> Your artwork is amazing!
> 
> Oh, my! That blue butterfly marble...


Thanks :-D



Seren27 said:


> Oh gee. And I actually am on the lookout for a male, too.
> 
> When's the next time you're gonna go back to this store? Whenever it is if this boy is still there by then I'd love to have him.
> 
> EDIT: wait that made it sound like an impulse decision! It really is not, I actually saw your reply the moment you post it. Minutes ago I found out my tank is going to arrive a day early. With that extra day plus double cheat code: current tank's filter media and Seachem Stability, I should be able to cycle the tank in time. Just don't wanna sound irresponsible.


Unfortunately, that boy was gone on Tuesday when I had revisited the store. I noted the ones that were still there when I started to post pictures from this week in that post. I usually post in time linear fashion with oldest first and newest last. But I can look for a boy similar if that's what you want in the long run! And no worries, I didn't feel it sounded irresponsible at all! Just excitement which is totally normal! ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Guys.....I did it....I did the thing that I tell everyone not to do....well....I have a current four-girl sorority now in the 16 gallon section of my 20 long. Hopefully, because they are babies at this point, they will be a little more receptive, though that means nothing going forward honestly. The biggest thing will just be doing water changes is all to keep the growth stunting hormone down.

I did get a fourth baby last night, she was too damn cute to put down even if she is a normal red VT, looks like she has copper irid on her or maybe just regular blue, hard to tell for the most part. But she's beautiful. I think I'll call her Sinopia which is part of Fresco paintings; basically the sketch layer when you first begin is done in red pigment ink which is called Sinopia! Continuing with the art theme here.

ANywho, I have to go and perform in my concert now so I'll upload the pictures later! Sorry to be a tease lol


----------



## Olivia27

Aw sad to hear that lovely boy is gone but I don't blame whoever bought him. He's a great catch. And yea I'm still on the look out for a male. I don't know if I should have you keep an eye on your local Petco though, since I'm also touring my own Petco and the pet store I got Seren from. Ideally I don't want to have a live animal shipped to me during the holidays, but that one boy just tugged at my heart strings so I caved in  

And about the sorority thing you can always get a fifth to make the number odd again  good luck on your concert!


----------



## BettaStarter24

Aqua Aurora said:


> Ugh that yellow EE is so tempting.. if only he was pkee...
> Does this one seem like he has a bit of a body deformity/.. for some reason he looks odd to me..like his body is longer in height than others ..or is it distortion from the cup/angle he's at?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You should have lil' buy and send him to you to give to your roomy as a present/replacement.. after they get a better heater ^.~
> Which brand bed bad? I've had good luck with Aqueon and Hydro Theo adjustable heaters.


it was an Aqueon 50W adjustable heater. It killed the yellow EE boy and her black dragon HMPK before we realized it was the heater.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaStarter24 said:


> it was an Aqueon 50W adjustable heater. It killed the yellow EE boy and her black dragon HMPK before we realized it was the heater.


That stinks, Aqueon heater's are usually pretty good! I use three of them myself. I do use a MarineLand one but I hate it, it's in the 45. It barely does it's job :roll: Once I get money, I'll upgrade it to a big Hydor Theo, I just simply love those heaters so much lol!!

You know, I had a dream about betta's the other night, I kept seeing female Black Dragons and going ooooohhhh, I want one! lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Aw sad to hear that lovely boy is gone but I don't blame whoever bought him. He's a great catch. And yea I'm still on the look out for a male. I don't know if I should have you keep an eye on your local Petco though, since I'm also touring my own Petco and the pet store I got Seren from. Ideally I don't want to have a live animal shipped to me during the holidays, but that one boy just tugged at my heart strings so I caved in
> 
> And about the sorority thing you can always get a fifth to make the number odd again  good luck on your concert!


Whatever you want me to do is all set! If you happen to see one that you like (I'll try to upload day after at least so we can get better timing here) then just let me know!

And yeah, I'll be adding more babies. I saw a couple but they're too small, I want nothing smaller than the ones I have to keep it fair and give them a better chance. I'll hopefully be up to around 7-9 girls eventually. Rowan won't go in until the babies are a little bigger.

And thanks! Maybe I'll upload the video of one of our songs that I love love so that you all can enjoy it too ^_^ my dad video'd which was really great!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Also, note that I did add the female guppies to the 20 long and let out the two Yellow Convict babies and the young Double Red Apistogramma as well. So there is plenty of distraction in the tank, plus it's filled with plants from Aqua-Life; George (the owner), kept throwing plants at me to take home lol! He's the best!!

It's pretty funny, the girls don't care about the guppies or the Apisto, but the Convicts threaten them. No one hurts each other which is good, it's all just displays of dominance. Everyone has gotten rid of their stress stripes which is also good. I did have to cup Tempera though, she's a little too feisty and was picking on the guppy females.

Rowan is still cupped on Velvet's side.

Pics are in order, they took forever to upload because of their size sigh...it's been almost 45 minutes >.< But I'm not going to go through and label each one.

Also, I don't think I'll keep the name Sinopia, I had started to call her Starfire (the new red girl) and it's stuck....though, Starfire or Firestar? I do like both. I think Starfire flows better? What say you all?









































So I didn't realize that Rowan is nearly twice the body size of Velvet now! She's huge!








Fresco








Starfire















Tempera's flare is gorgeous! Flaring at Fresco here. And yes, she is definitely female, she has ovaries.








Oh hello human! -Snowcap








Look at me! I'm the Alpha now!








Is Tempera looking? No? Darn! It was such a nice pose too!








All of Snowcap's nips are from before sorority, nothing new on her even today. She just bites her own fins :roll: but she's got some nice growth today








Smaller baby Convict


----------



## BettaStarter24

lilnaugrim said:


> That stinks, Aqueon heater's are usually pretty good! I use three of them myself. I do use a MarineLand one but I hate it, it's in the 45. It barely does it's job :roll: Once I get money, I'll upgrade it to a big Hydor Theo, I just simply love those heaters so much lol!!
> 
> You know, I had a dream about betta's the other night, I kept seeing female Black Dragons and going ooooohhhh, I want one! lol.


I have two Marineland 50W. One works fine in my 5g, the other is barely doing its job. I love my Hydor Theos


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> Also, I don't think I'll keep the name Sinopia, I had started to call her Starfire (the new red girl) and it's stuck....though, Starfire or Firestar? I do like both. I think Starfire flows better? What say you all?


As an avid Teen Titan fan, I give two thumbs up to Starfire   

Sinopia is a great name too. But the rule of thumb with pet names is: if they're more than two syllables long, they somehow don't sound as great in our ears. You can always shorten it into a nickname though. For example Seren's full name is Serendipity. The full name only comes out either on official papers or when the human is pissed off


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> As an avid Teen Titan fan, I give two thumbs up to Starfire
> 
> Sinopia is a great name too. But the rule of thumb with pet names is: if they're more than two syllables long, they somehow don't sound as great in our ears. You can always shorten it into a nickname though. For example Seren's full name is Serendipity. The full name only comes out either on official papers or when the human is pissed off


I don't watch Teen Titan, I know about it of course but never watched.

And yeah, I'm aware. I don't like to do nicknames though, I don't really care how long the names are or anything, ex; Geronimo, Astrael (Ah-strae-el), Andraste, Renegade, Sephiroth, Pineapple, Mercury, Rembrandt, Lady Deathstrike, etc. I go by what fits to them and Sinopia didn't fit her, she's too feisty. I've named a girl Starfire before though, that's the reason I was hesitant before but I'm glad with that change.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Before I go to edit through my newest pictures, I'll show you the PetCo beauties from last night! This damn PetCo has broken me so many times, I just throw money at them now and take a fish :roll:

Blu, you're going to hate me for showing you this fish. I cannot guarantee he'll be here if someone wants him, I did try to hide him but they get water changes frequently so they're always moving around.

I didn't realize this guy was a DT either! Just saw his color and went, oooohhhhh shiny! It's a Steel Blue too! Not Turquoise!
(Water spot on his eye)



He looked quite content!





Not a fan of his body but I do like the stark contrast of colors though


I found the male version of the female that I have coming in!! I didn't get him of course but gosh, he was gorgeous and personable!





And this picture doesn't do him justice at all! He was SUPER shiny and shimmery!


Another blue EE plakat




She looked poorly but she had such rich coloration!


A miserable looking PK but he was also super shimmery! He's almost a Platinum Blue or something, his blue wasn't dark at all, what you see in the pic is almost true to life!


This little EE was interesting. He looked a little stiff but his coloration was quite unique! It was more orange than red in real life




Another super shimmery guy! Very bright again, must be someone breeding some real light turquoise and white fish!



And sorry for the poor lighting. Spent the night at dad's again and forgot to take pics of my new girl at the store. I can't remember if she's blue and cello or black and cello. Either way, she's likely going to marble but I'm excited I found her! Definitely a girl, I see the ovaries in her when I examined. There was a little boy just like her that I was 99% sure was male, otherwise I was going to get him as well. I ended up finding a Black Copper Devil CT female that was barely grown as well. So I bought both of them, no pics of her yet, sorry!



So yeah, I'm super busy this weekend so I probably won't be on much or at all. We're hanging our gallery show tomorrow and I'm freaked out, I have to finish one piece today (hopefully it prints well) and then I have to mat everything. Thank god for my Relief teacher, he found me some awesome foam-core board to back my mats with since I royally f*cked up my cutting of the mat board (miscalculated! Wanted a 3 inch border but I ended up with a 1.5 inch instead.....it still looks nice I guess, just not what I wanted. I don't have the money to buy more since they're each 10 dollars a sheet. Fish is at least only 2 dollars, I can afford that).

Also, this is me



recent print that I'm hopefully finishing today


Print to go on top of the previous one


And I made a fresco for my art history class! Fresco's are done with pure pigment powders painted into a wet layer of plaster. The pigments adhere to the plaster as it dries and literally bonds with it, unlike paints on a canvas which simply lays on top. That's why we have so many fresco's from ancient times, they're permanent unless of course the fresco breaks which happens to many of them.

I painted a section from the house in Pompeii called House of the Golden Bracelet (houses are usually named after owners that we know of or items that were found in them, such as this house). The South and North walls both have large fresco's. I worked from the South Wall, just a small section. Here's the original image that I worked from:
Click link, image is too large
http://naturalpigments.com/images/education/pompeii_garden.jpg

I poured the plaster onto burlap, easiest to work on and keep nice.


Yay...watching plaster dry......
Close to being able to be worked


How wet is wet? Whoops, this is still too wet!


I used water colors and Plaster of Paris as an imitation fresco
First day's work done (real plaster you get a 12 hour working period; Giornatta, with this, you get about an hour before it gets really hard to work unless you keep it very wet with paper towel and spritzing)


Working the rest


First panel totally done!


Poured the second Giornatta (work day)


Painted and working the third Giornatta




the pieces broke when I tried to take them off the burlap but hey, it just made it look more authentic lol


All done and glued onto black foam-core board!
Everyone friggin loved this! For everyone else who did model's we were all like yeah, that's cool. The presenter would have to ask us to come up to look at it but when I took the newsprint paper off mine to show it off, everyone freaking jumped out of their seats to come see it! lol! I was shocked by the sudden crowd around me! But it was really awesome :-D


I also did an extra one because I had liquid gold-leaf and wanted to try it out on something, so I did a wild type Betta, not really one species in particular.


Can see more shine here


And my little lounge kitty!


----------



## blueridge

That blue butterfly boy <3


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> That blue butterfly boy <3


Right? I wish he wasn't so expensive! If he was labeled as a DT instead of BF, I could have afforded him and probably sold him to one of you guys after Christmas since I know he'd definitely be able to find a home! But no boys for the time right now, just females  (Unless being fostered and going to a home after!)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! Finally got all the pics in order and stuff like that. Had to make a new Photobucket account due to running out of space on my old one.....whoops....

Okay, so I think that Starfire may be a boy >.< Ventrals are thick and I see no ovaries at the moment.....poo. But good news is that I found two more girls last night, one I showed you and the other I didn't get a pic of yet. So once the other two girls come in, I'll have 8 in total, I would like 9 eventually in there, it's a good number.

Starfire is cupped currently since he was picking on everyone and ripped up Fresco a little. So he'll stay there and get water changes as he grows and eventually I'll sell him or something. He's wicked cute though and very attentive to his surroundings. Nice deep coloration too!

Pics were taken over the course of a couple days!

Snowcap is like ---I want no part in these shenanigans mom!


Tempera was originally in the cup due to showing too much aggression. It's flipped though now that Starfire is in the cup, she doesn't fight with the other girls much now.
And yes, that's a food piece on her head lol


Starfire is fat. I overfeed the tank so everyone gets food and it helps to increase success chance in the sorority


Not a super impressive beard for a possible male, but it grows as they age. Still a (false) ovipositer, but as you'll see later, the ventrals are much thicker than Tempera's


No ovary shapes


See here for ventrals, they have a lot of potential for growing long!


I love Tempera's flare lol


Very nicely formed fish though!


I love how it looks like jewels on the side



Starfire and the Yellow Convict



Fresco!




I love these little guys! They're growing so much every day!


And my small Apisto is gaining weight every day too!


Released Tempera to see how it would go. After I soon decided to cup Starfire after determining it was more likely a boy


Snowcap is healing well! Again, these are not sorority inflicted wounds! These are self-inflicted before the sorority life!


Here's really where you can see the ventrals


Before I cupped Starfire, I introduced Rowan to see if she would be the alpha and stop the fighting.


What is that? A mini-me?


She was not being chased by Tempera here, Tempera had just turned around to look and Rowan was looking for food already


"Where's the food at?"

She literally did nothing about the girls and nothing after either. All she wanted was the food. She acts like she doesn't even see the females and just swims around in her domain, I was surprised that she didn't do a thing at all!




Nomnomnom




One of my guppy fry, she's growing well too


And then some awesome pics of Renegade! He's just like a beautiful koi!







Fresco however, was picked on by Starfire


But food!


Apisto again






Still before being cupped


No pics after being cupped, sorry! That's it for now!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Cute photos of the babies! And wow. Just now, I realized how bold and vibrant Velvet's ventral a are :shock:

Oh my... I just died a little on the inside... That Petco find... Oh my... What's really ironic is I've been looking at DTs recently and having the need to get a DT and take a break from HMs... Oh my... I'm speechless... I must resist. -cries-

He's so beautiful! -cries even more-


----------



## Sadist

Love the pics!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Aw you should get the male version of that copper devil female and breed the,! And name him Gunther (que Gunther "Ding Dong" song-warning not for little kids). I dunno why but that male looks like a Gunther to me.


----------



## Olivia27

Aww fat Starfire is adorable LOL and your paintings are amazing! x


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Cute photos of the babies! And wow. Just now, I realized how bold and vibrant Velvet's ventral a are :shock:
> 
> Oh my... I just died a little on the inside... That Petco find... Oh my... What's really ironic is I've been looking at DTs recently and having the need to get a DT and take a break from HMs... Oh my... I'm speechless... I must resist. -cries-
> 
> He's so beautiful! -cries even more-


Yeah, that's why Velvet's name is what is it! Nice, velvety and rich color! :-D

And yeah, I know. He was absolutely gorgeous. I found another sort of BF DT as well at my other PetCo, no where near as pretty though!



Sadist said:


> Love the pics!


Thanks!



Aqua Aurora said:


> Aw you should get the male version of that copper devil female and breed the,! And name him Gunther (que Gunther "Ding Dong" song-warning not for little kids). I dunno why but that male looks like a Gunther to me.


Really though...should I really breed? >.< I'm pretty sure that mom and Victoria would both kill me if I brought home another boy lol. I'd have to at least give someone away before doing that and I can't give anyone up right now! lol.

No idea what that song is, sounds like it'd certainly be interesting though haha! He was gorgeous though, and my bestie, Victoria did say that he was stunning.....



Seren27 said:


> Aww fat Starfire is adorable LOL and your paintings are amazing! x


Yeah, Starfyre (changed it up a little) is definitely a male and yeah, he's really cute when he's fat lol.

-------------------------------

Pics up next!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Starfyre is definitely a little man and oh man did he double in size over night!! Holy shnikes! I was gone for Thursday into Saturday evening and I came home and BOOM! He was so huge! Nearly the size of Rowan already! Fresco, Snowcap, and Tempera have all done some serious growing as well as my Yellow Convicts! I'm shocked! But also very happy!

So Rowan, Fresco, and Snowcap. Starfyre is still cupped and will be there until he grows up and I can give him away. If anyone would like him, he'll be a dollar adoption and just pay $10 in shipping (shipping + heatpack included). He can be shipped after the New Years


Snowcap absolutely loves to pose for me! Whenever she see's the camera she instantly comes to the front to beg for foods and show off lol. You can see Starfyre in the back there!



Fresco and Rowan


My other new girl! She's the Black Copper Devil! Still thinking on a name for her. I'll probably go with a colored name versus an art medium/method name


She was so tiny! Even smaller than Mosaic who was in the Baby cup whereas this girl was in the regular CT female cup >.> should have gotten her as a baby price.




Tempera


"Take Pictures of MEEEEE!" --Yellow Convict


My Convicts are growing fantastically! I love them! They're assertive without being overly mean which is great for the sorority life! If they continue to just coexist fairly peacefully, they can stay there for a while until they're older.



Starfyre



Rowan for comparison!


Little Fresco! She's actually not that little which is great!


Tempera again


And baby Mosaic! May end up being a boy but I'm like 95% sure it's female for now.


Look at that adorable lipstick! She comes running up to the glass to beg for food as well and examine the camera, it's hilarious. She doesn't like the flash much but she loves to come to wiggling fingers too! Very personable fish!













Starfyre for comparison


My Apisto is also growing and doing well :-D


And lastly just another pic of Starfyre, I can't believe how he's grown!


----------



## Olivia27

Aww looks like Starfyre's gonna be a lovely big boy real soon x good luck finding him a new home


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I bet this boy would make pretty babies with your new copper devil gal:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Live-Betta-...395075?hash=item1a0acd95c3:g:FS8AAOSwCQNWb37b


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I bet this boy would make pretty babies with your new copper devil gal:
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Live-Betta-...395075?hash=item1a0acd95c3:g:FS8AAOSwCQNWb37b


It's a shame that he isn't in the US! No more oversea's shipping for the moment.

Oh but look....this boy is in the US....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/live-betta-...918955?hash=item51dcfcff6b:g:I8EAAOSwnipWU5OL

But not for THAT price and THAT shipping. I don't like when I can't chose my own shipping methods. He's cute but I don't even have money to buy food right now.

Have you all seen this girl? She's gorgeous, totally not a PK at all but definitely a nice looking HM
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unique-Larg...015308?hash=item2a5da97dcc:g:6TcAAOSwv-NWbMyQ


Oh, Sprinkles is up again!

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1450444375









Just zoomed through to see if there were any other copper cuties but none compared. Idk, I'll be going back that way on Saturday, if the boy is still there then it was meant to be, if not, oh well. He was a very nice looking boy though.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Opps sorry forgot to set ebay filter to "US only"


----------



## lilnaugrim

Eh, it's okay!

And I feel like I jinxed myself somehow....Renegade is suddenly not doing well! He was absolutely fine this morning when I checked on everyone. I came home, fed everyone and noticed that he was hanging at the top and tipping to the side. He has cloudy eye infection on one eye and I thought (hoped) that he was just eating too much. He's currently in an Epsom Salt solution and will be for the night. I floated Glaston in with him to try to stimulate him into pooping since Flaring helps that. He did poop but he's still very fat. I'll keep trying to flare him but he isn't look good :-/ he's constantly struggling to float correctly so clearly it's affecting his swim bladder organ. I hope he's going to make it, I love that little (big) fish! I'm also treating the cloudy eye as well.

So...hope for the best for Ren tonight!

Some pics for you all lovely people!

This little bugger is a bully! If she keeps on with how she's acting, she'll need a time out! She's really not that bad, just standing up to Tempera which is interesting since she's so damn tiny lol at least, comparatively!


I'm fat!


She actually has amazing CT form! I'm apparently really good at finding really good babies! :-D




Rowan, the big protector!


Fresco stole the show!


I swear I don't love you just for your body! haha, she does have gorgeous form though!


Apisto is gathering courage too! He's out and about all the time now! He likes to hang with Rowan


Baby Snowcap. It's interesting, I thought she was going to be Alpha but she's ended up as Omega! Last on the list!


Starfyre is looking pretty amazing too!




Mosaic is marbling already! Though, I pretty much expected that. Hope she doesn't end up completely like Fresco lol, looks like she's got red in her too though maybe it will end up being interesting!








Glaston flaring at Ren










And Ren tonight
View attachment 678713


And then I added a rock to Glaston's tank, I didn't realize just how much the glass magnifies the rock! It's really not that big! lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Good news is Ren made the night and he's looking better! Haven't examined for his cloudy eye since it was still kind of dark in my room but he wasn't on his side at least and seemed less bloated. Hoping that it was just due to eating too much. I'll have to watch for that in the future. He's soaking in ES still and I used the proper dose of MelaFix since the cloudy eye is barely there, the MelaFix will knock it out before it becomes an actual issue.


----------



## Olivia27

Yay for Renegade getting better x hope he continues to improve xx


----------



## Sadist

I'm glad Red made it through the night and is improving! 

I love your sorority girls, too, especially the little orchid. That's my favorite coloring, and I'm so jealous that you found her!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I'm glad Red made it through the night and is improving!
> 
> I love your sorority girls, too, especially the little orchid. That's my favorite coloring, and I'm so jealous that you found her!


You mean the Black Copper girl? Yeah, she's a hoot to watch!


----------



## Sadist

Yes, oops.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep so Ren-Ren is doing better but I found out that under the cloudy eye he's got a Cataract growing! Oh well, nothing I can do about that. He's now in clean water and just chilling out for now.

I also got my Golden Firemouths! George gave me six! One did die unfortunately but that means possibly three pairs! I'll probably only keep two pairs in the 29. My original golden girl is in her glory surrounded by other fish she can beat up! lol. she's super crazy and very eggy right now, showing off to all the males to see who will take her lol.

I moved the Embers up to the 20 with the girls and the Convicts and guppies and apisto! 20 is probably closed to well stocked now, I only have about 11 Embers now so it's not like I added a big bioload to it. Frequent water changes and my babies have nearly all doubled in size! It's crazy!

Here's some pics from this past week

And here's some PetCo beauties! I'm not sure if I showed these here but this guy was fantastic:






This boy has been there for a couple months now



Pics don't do this guy justice! He was fantastic!


Purple EE



Orange DT again


Adorable baby eating a BW



Nice Marble



Cute VT boy at PetSmart




Guys I saw at a PetCo yesterday! Beautiful scale coverage!


Just really nice coloration


Super nice! Miserable looking but nice!


Adorable King!



Loved the color on this guy! I wish I'd gotten a better picture! He was real orange based with black/blue on top, super cool!



Sorry the tank was crudy, just took out the Pygmy Chain Swords but here are my firemouths!!




Half-grown Female BN Pleco in the 55 to help with the algae


Not a great pic but my Severum is becoming really orange! She's also grown a crap ton!


Mosaic marbled quick as I figured


Starfyre!



Rowan and the littlest baby the Black Copper girl


Snowcap--I swear her ventrals just keep growing!


Apisto and derpy Convict


Fresco has done the most growing, her and Rowan



My Embers found each other lol. THey're out and about now


Sorry for potato


Mosaic! Idk, it might be a boy :-/ I did take the chance


But then sometimes I think I see ovaries....have to wait a bit!


Rowan's eggy poop; she's just reabsorbed her eggs


And Ren's cataract. He wasn't just floating, just looking up for more food is all!


And here's my meme for being an art major haha!


Gallery show before it opened!


And up on the wall!


A couple more pics in next post


----------



## lilnaugrim

So we had Brotherhood Weekend for my Fraternity (KKY) and we go see a sunrise. This was Point Judith, RI at 7:00 am Saturday morning!








And bonus pic of me! :-D


----------



## themamaj

What incredibly gorgeous pictures of the beach! Absolutely stunning sunrise with the rocks. Most jealous! I hope I have the privilege to drive up the East Coast one day. 

Glad Ren is doing better. Your little black crown tail girl is the cutest thing! It seems like the little ones can be just as feisty as the big girls  

I always enjoy your trips to the pet store! I know where all the pretty bettas go! Rhode Island!! The first white and yellow boy was gorgeous. Oh that baby eating a blood worm was the cutest thing. Ah the beautiful white and multi colored fin plakat was a wow and that king oh my goodness how unique. I would have to add a new wing to the fish room! I never ceased to be amazed at how each fish is so unique and beautiful in it's own way and color combinations I could never dream of. 

Great pix of you too.


----------



## themamaj

Your art work is amazing! How much more school do you have left? 

Can you give us a run down on all the fish in your sorority tank? I know you have mentioned you have added some different fish. A 20 gallon? How often do you have to do water changes with a community tank like that?


----------



## BlueInkFish

Beautiful artwork! And stunning scenery! I wish I could have viewed that! Cute photos of the fish too! You're very beautiful, and pretty. ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you! I love RI and I try not to take our coast for granted since I know so many never experience it! It is hard when I've loved here my whole life!

And yeah, why do you think I have sk many bettas? Lol!!!

Fish in 20 long:
1x male betta in 4 gal section
6x female in 16 gal section (Rowan, Snowcap, Fresco, Tempera, Mosaic, copper)
1x juvie male
11x ember tetra
2x yellow convicts
4x guppy female fry
1x apistogramma cacatiodies (double red apisto)

I think that's everyone. Water changes are only once or twice a week, mostly just for poop reasons. The plants and growing up with many different species helps out the most which is why everyone is sprouting. They get fed usually twice a day on NLS grow and some NLS flakes. Frozen foods once a week or whenever I get to it.

And just a semester left in college for my BFA.


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Beautiful artwork! And stunning scenery! I wish I could have viewed that! Cute photos of the fish too! You're very beautiful, and pretty. ^_^


Thank you so much blu!!


----------



## Olivia27

Aw Lil I wish I don't already have an eBay fish coming my way. You have the nicest King collections! My local Petco only ever has the black ones  sorry to hear about Ren's cataract speaking of. These fishes really need to stay young a little longer.

And as always your artworks are all amazing x good luck with your last semester!


----------



## themamaj

You are in the homestretch for school! Yeah congrats! I am most impressed you can balance all the pressures of school and all of the fish too, but if you are like me, the fish are the fun and relaxing part. Where would you like to work or do after college? 

Your 20 gallon sounds wonderful. Do you think the additional fish with the sorority helps create a more peaceful environment for the girls? Or possibly distracts them enough to keep their minds off fighting each other? Very interesting to see how sororities work.


----------



## Tealight03

I'm excited to follow your sorority. I'd love to have one, but they seem difficult!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Aw Lil I wish I don't already have an eBay fish coming my way. You have the nicest King collections! My local Petco only ever has the black ones  sorry to hear about Ren's cataract speaking of. These fishes really need to stay young a little longer.
> 
> And as always your artworks are all amazing x good luck with your last semester!


Aww, I found another beautiful Blue EE boy too! Didn't have the same colored pecs but he flared at me when I was taking pictures! lol. I'll have pics up in the next post.

Thank you!



themamaj said:


> You are in the homestretch for school! Yeah congrats! I am most impressed you can balance all the pressures of school and all of the fish too, but if you are like me, the fish are the fun and relaxing part. Where would you like to work or do after college?
> 
> Your 20 gallon sounds wonderful. Do you think the additional fish with the sorority helps create a more peaceful environment for the girls? Or possibly distracts them enough to keep their minds off fighting each other? Very interesting to see how sororities work.


I've been in the "homestretch" for two years now lol. I'm a sixth year due to coming in as a different major for a year and then finding out I missed a 200 level course plus two art histories. There's no way I could have taken two art histories in one semester, love the subject, hate the class.

There are many things I can do after college, I do commissions now--photography, drawing, painting/digital painting, etc. and I'll definitely continue after school. I can work at any fish place, any graphic design company. I'll either be going up to Amherst, Mass. with Victoria while she finishes her degree up there and I'd likely work at a PetCo or PetSmart or some fish store and do commissions on the side. If we don't do that, then I'll go down with my dad in New London, CT. for EB (Electric Boat), it's where they make all the submarines. But they've been hiring for Graphic Designers for a while now and they love Art majors! So I've got a foot in there for sure (dad works there as well as older brother, two uncles, and aunt...yeah, I'm good lol). So there is plenty to do!

As for juggling everything, I don't always do a good job of it and many times the geckos and fish suffer because of it which makes me sad. It is difficult and I know I need to cut back, it's just hard to break down a tank or give fish away :-/ It doesn't help that I have all these extra tanks laying around as well. But thank you for the sentiment all the same, I do try my best!

And as far as the sorority goes, it helps to distract them. The girls pretty much ignore the other fish except for the convicts who get up in their face as well. The tetras and guppies are completely ignored so it's hard to say whether it helps or not. For me, I had to move the fish and so I made room and that's just where they ended up going. So far I've seen no difference with the Embers added.



Tealight03 said:


> I'm excited to follow your sorority. I'd love to have one, but they seem difficult!


Thanks! I really don't suggest them and I knew I was getting myself into trouble here as I started one up again. They're so hard to resist! But they are difficult, if you don't have everything just perfect, it goes downhill very quickly. It's a stressor even for me, I'm constantly feeding them and checking on them and doing water changes twice a week or so. The only "fun" part about it is taking pictures of all my pretty girls to show you guys, that's really it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

And some pics from the PetCo I visisted over the weekend!

Stayed with my dad and brother all weekend, it was fantastic! We went to see Star Wars yesterday and oh man! I highly recommend it! Some things happened that I didn't expect but it was classically and well written so there were obvious things of course! It was so well done though! We're going to go see it again in non 3D--3D is just too distracting and it strains my eyes too much. 

Brother and I played Diablo III for a good portion, dad fixed my car mirror (yay! I can see again lol, just right side mirror had broken) and then I also played Dragon Age: Inquisition as well! I love that game!

But here are the pics from the PetCo

So this guy was clearly marked as a VT but he was some sort of in-betweener. His caudal was wicked short but would likely grow out. I wanted to grab him just because and give him to one of you guys but I didn't--it wasn't worth it.



This guy was super feisty lol




Lovely clean Blue BF!


This VT looked nicer in person, he was just miserable


Here's that blue EE Seren


He also flared but I only caught the end of it





I didn't find that Copper HM boy that I said I was going to get if he was still there. This one was kind of cute too


MG PK with EE geno!






This guy was nice and active



And that Dalmatian Dragon is still there too!


----------



## BlueInkFish

*oooo, ahhhhh*


----------



## Nova betta

WOW! You have some gorgeous petco fish! How do you not buy them all. I would struggle with that!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> WOW! You have some gorgeous petco fish! How do you not buy them all. I would struggle with that!


You see all the names in my signature? Those are all Betta fish lol. There is a reason I DO struggle with cutting down and keeping to just one or two or three.....the struggle is real!


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> You see all the names in my signature? Those are all Betta fish lol. There is a reason I DO struggle with cutting down and keeping to just one or two or three.....the struggle is real!


that's true! But two or three are just boring! If I had a petco like that my house would be an aquarium. I would own millions! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> that's true! But two or three are just boring! If I had a petco like that my house would be an aquarium. I would own millions! :-D


Until you had to pay the electricity bill lol!


----------



## themamaj

Believe me, I feel your betta struggle! That dalmation plakat was beautiful. Love the butterfly. It is nice to see them with such clean lines. Felt sorry for the white veil tail. He would sure make a beautiful boy if he had some love and good home. I sure hope he gets adopted by a good family. 

Don't worry on timeline for school. It took me forever to finish too because I changed from accounting to nursing as a junior. Funny thing is after working several years at the hospital, I took a job as a bookkeeper for our Parent's Day Out. That was about 10 years ago. It worked really well with my schedule with kids and that was the greater pay off. I get to still doing some nursing things with meds, bandaids and popsicles. The great thing about a degree though is it opens doors for you. It sounds like you have many great opportunities. Boy Petco would be so lucky to have you on staff! I hope you are also able to continue with art as you are so very talented. When you find something you love, it makes work so much more fun.

Thanks for info on your sorority tank. It is very interesting to see how all works together. I did have a behavior question for you. I move my tanks around periodically. Sometimes it is to give the fish a different view in the room or if they don't seem to be meshing with their neighbor. Anyway, had set one of my girls Millie next to Peppermint (juvenile) for a short time while I was doing some things in room. I am really interested how different fish respond to one another. Millie is one that will flare up a storm if you put a mirror by her. She is a feisty little girl. She will flare at others as well her little girly beard. When she saw Peppermint, she didn't flare, but she would turn her body sideways in the water, fins fully extended and just hover there. Peppermint was flaring and active at glass. Occasionally Millie would swim away and then come back and assume this position again. Is this an aggression pose? Peppermint colored up and her breeding stripes showing. Will girls show their stripes as a dominance behavior? Peppermint is so much smaller.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Thanks for info on your sorority tank. It is very interesting to see how all works together. I did have a behavior question for you. I move my tanks around periodically. Sometimes it is to give the fish a different view in the room or if they don't seem to be meshing with their neighbor. Anyway, had set one of my girls Millie next to Peppermint (juvenile) for a short time while I was doing some things in room. I am really interested how different fish respond to one another. Millie is one that will flare up a storm if you put a mirror by her. She is a feisty little girl. She will flare at others as well her little girly beard. When she saw Peppermint, she didn't flare, but she would turn her body sideways in the water, fins fully extended and just hover there. Peppermint was flaring and active at glass. Occasionally Millie would swim away and then come back and assume this position again. Is this an aggression pose? Peppermint colored up and her breeding stripes showing. Will girls show their stripes as a dominance behavior? Peppermint is so much smaller.


Peppermint is also female? If so, it's just showing dominance is all. Breeding stripes are also part of Dominance showing. We say Submission Stripes but it is not the fish that is showing them that is submitting, they are attempting to make the other fish submit by showing their breeding/vertical stripes. Submission/Breeding stripes are all about showing who is Alpha in the pack. The alpha usually doesn't pick fights but prevents others from fighting, if they are a good alpha. Not all alpha's are this good lol. But basically, Millie is not threatened by Peppermint but still wants to show the juvie who the Alpha is.

That all make sense? Sorry it's a bit messy, I'm slightly distracted at work atm!


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Peppermint is also female? If so, it's just showing dominance is all. Breeding stripes are also part of Dominance showing. We say Submission Stripes but it is not the fish that is showing them that is submitting, they are attempting to make the other fish submit by showing their breeding/vertical stripes. Submission/Breeding stripes are all about showing who is Alpha in the pack. The alpha usually doesn't pick fights but prevents others from fighting, if they are a good alpha. Not all alpha's are this good lol. But basically, Millie is not threatened by Peppermint but still wants to show the juvie who the Alpha is.
> 
> That all make sense? Sorry it's a bit messy, I'm slightly distracted at work atm!


Yes! That is fascinating thanks!


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Until you had to pay the electricity bill lol!


that's why I would move to Thailand, no heaters needed! :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> that's why I would move to Thailand, no heaters needed! :lol:


Or Florida lol. But still have filters and lights, lights run up quite a bit as well unless you have no planted tanks. You could do it cheaply but I'm addicted to planted tanks as well. lol


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> And that Dalmatian Dragon is still there too!


Ugh _so *want*_ but no free tanks for him >,<
Curse you lil' always showing off such lovely fish!!!
Hows his form? spoon head? ventrals deformed?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Ugh _so *want*_ but no free tanks for him >,<
> Curse you lil' always showing off such lovely fish!!!
> Hows his form? spoon head? ventrals deformed?


Sorry! Not really sorry though lol

No spoon head, body fantastic. Dorsal nice and broad, anal isn't as slanted as it should be. Couldn't get a good look at the caudal but seemed to be HMPK as far as I could see. Ventrals seem to be stubby and kind of crinkled as seen in the pics. They may straighten out with some AQ salt baths just in case it was due to ammonia as some are. They didn't seem to be stubby like deformed stubby, but just shorter than they should be. Can't tell if split or not though. I won't be back there until Saturday however.


----------



## Nova betta

UGH why lil! I want him, just no space... or time...


----------



## Fenghuang

That Dalmatian...! You cruel cruel person. D:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Whoops, looks like I've released the hounds on this one lol!!

Does someone want him? I'm not shipping until well after the holidays are done. No more of this 2 day mail turning into 3-4 day mail! I also need to buy better heat packs too :-( Ran out of the good ones. BUT, I don't mind holding until that time if someone does want anyone. Just let me know so I can actually get them before they're bought up--still can't promise but the sooner you know, the sooner I can take a trip to possibly get them.


----------



## themamaj

Aqua you need a new tank! Someone has to get this fish. Oh sooo pretty. I wish my hubby liked fish like I do...who says there can't be two fish rooms in the house?? Sigh must resist.


----------



## Olivia27

Oh gee. I love the fish I just won, I love the fish I just won, I love the fish I just won, I love the fish I just won... @[email protected]


----------



## Aqua Aurora

No I can't I'm trying to cut down on tanks not add more!! Would completely defeat the purpose of combining 4 tanks into 2 if I immediately turn around and re-use one!


----------



## Nova betta

Aqua Aurora said:


> No I can't I'm trying to cut down on tanks not add more!! Would completely defeat the purpose of combining 4 tanks into 2 if I immediately turn around and re-use one!


but you could do it...:lol:


----------



## Tealight03

lilnaugrim said:


> Aww, I found another beautiful Blue EE boy too! Didn't have the same colored pecs but he flared at me when I was taking pictures! lol. I'll have pics up in the next post.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> 
> 
> I've been in the "homestretch" for two years now lol. I'm a sixth year due to coming in as a different major for a year and then finding out I missed a 200 level course plus two art histories. There's no way I could have taken two art histories in one semester, love the subject, hate the class.
> 
> There are many things I can do after college, I do commissions now--photography, drawing, painting/digital painting, etc. and I'll definitely continue after school. I can work at any fish place, any graphic design company. I'll either be going up to Amherst, Mass. with Victoria while she finishes her degree up there and I'd likely work at a PetCo or PetSmart or some fish store and do commissions on the side. If we don't do that, then I'll go down with my dad in New London, CT. for EB (Electric Boat), it's where they make all the submarines. But they've been hiring for Graphic Designers for a while now and they love Art majors! So I've got a foot in there for sure (dad works there as well as older brother, two uncles, and aunt...yeah, I'm good lol). So there is plenty to do!
> 
> As for juggling everything, I don't always do a good job of it and many times the geckos and fish suffer because of it which makes me sad. It is difficult and I know I need to cut back, it's just hard to break down a tank or give fish away :-/ It doesn't help that I have all these extra tanks laying around as well. But thank you for the sentiment all the same, I do try my best!
> 
> And as far as the sorority goes, it helps to distract them. The girls pretty much ignore the other fish except for the convicts who get up in their face as well. The tetras and guppies are completely ignored so it's hard to say whether it helps or not. For me, I had to move the fish and so I made room and that's just where they ended up going. So far I've seen no difference with the Embers added.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks! I really don't suggest them and I knew I was getting myself into trouble here as I started one up again. They're so hard to resist! But they are difficult, if you don't have everything just perfect, it goes downhill very quickly. It's a stressor even for me, I'm constantly feeding them and checking on them and doing water changes twice a week or so. The only "fun" part about it is taking pictures of all my pretty girls to show you guys, that's really it.


Ok you talked me out of it.  I'll just drool over all the pics.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I love the banter here haha!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just some quick pics I took the other day before I go off to our Christmas mass!

So I'm pretty sure Mosaic is a boy >.< I was really hoping it would be a girl :-/ I know I took that chance though. He's still living peacefully for the moment and until someone shows aggression, he'll stay for the time being and then moved into a breeder box to grow out.

But, he's still a gorgeous fish to say the least!



I was trying to get Snowcap in the back there but Ember tetra came up instead lol. One of the females


My BN Pleco in the 55


4 gallon as of late, haven't done much with it


20 long. Still haven't taken the crypts out of the planters >.<


29, I took out the Pygmy Chain Swords, they weren't doing well.


Romeo's fins are growing out well!


And his orange is coming in!



One of my Goldens!


Most of them stay in the Rotala



And a Merry Christmas to me! lol. So this is my Janet Craig Dracaena and guess what! I have a bloom!!!! Apparently they only bloom in the winter and most who keep these only get them to bloom once in like 10-15 years....not sure if plant not in correct conditions or that's just what happens. I've looked at a couple different forums, one person said they bloom every year in winter but idk, seems like everyone is having a different experience. Either way, I'm very happy that it's blooming! It's happy!


And that's it for now!


----------



## Olivia27

Yay for the blooming flower! Happy holidays and happy almost new year to you!


----------



## BettaLover1313

Merry Christmas, lil ^^


----------



## Whippet44

Lil, you're wearing a red "jacket"!!
Congrats!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Whippet44 said:


> Lil, you're wearing a red "jacket"!!
> Congrats!


I was very confused at first and had to go back to see if I posted any pics of myself was then I realized "Ooooooh! Yep! Yes I am!" haha, thank you very much!

And thank you every one else for the Christmas wishes! I hope everyone else's day was just as good as mine was!


----------



## Sadist

I love all the tanks! Congratulations on the flower, too! Do you water with tank water? I get more blooms on my Christmas cactus that way. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I love all the tanks! Congratulations on the flower, too! Do you water with tank water? I get more blooms on my Christmas cactus that way. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!


Thank you! And yes, I do water with tank water. Usually from the smaller ones if I'm doing a change on them; more poop which is great for the plant. And then just use water from the 20 or 29 if in a hurry.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry no real updates this week as of yet! I have to clean my rooms before I really do anything >.<

I'm working on Save the Date photos for my old best friend, we're not really best friends any more but I have a hard time saying ex-best friend :-/ we fell out by the time Senior year of high school came along but we're still friends at least through college. She's marrying her high school sweetheart who has told me that I'm a worthless piece of sh*t before and that I won't even amount to anything...yeah, he's a great guy.....sigh. But hey, this helps my portfolio at least so that's partly why I'm doing it. My mom and dad had told me that she apparently took advantage of my friendship when we were younger (friends since fourth grade). She always cancelled play dates and stuff like that, took more attention than she gave basically. I don't remember a lot of it but I guess it's probably for the best, funny how your brain knows what's good for you even if your heart doesn't--sometimes.

But yeah, so I've been busy with those and making the cards and such. I've also taken on another work-study at school, just making posters for the Music Department to advertise for Recitals and concerts and other events. I only have to make two so that's not bad 

I'm also taking care of Victoria's bunny again, Tyrion! He's doing much better this time, not throwing kanipsh*t fits this time and not poop-scenting everywhere just yet! He did a little this morning but not so bad this time. I'm heading to her place tomorrow to take Gimli out to the dog park and to do some training with him so he can keep up with it. I'll also be taking care of her tanks and her Bearded Dragon; Rhaegal as well  So yeah, lots to do this week!

I had gone over dad's for the weekend and Ieli, my kitty, stayed with me the entire two days I was there lol. I was her pillow while my little bro and I played video games together
I took pics of all her positions but this was the main one


And then this one


My fluffer-butter!


And it was so cool! Yesterday I was walking down to my building for work and I saw a beautiful Cooper's Hawk! Native to this area. He didn't seem to care that I was only about 10-12 feet from him at all, taking pictures lol. He looked down at me and tilted his head this way and that, eventually he took off right over me, man, that was amazing! As I kid I would always refer to my dad's book the Peterson's Field Guide to North Eastern Birds, it was my bible! So that experience, being so close to a hawk like that, it was simply amazing!

From farther away


Closer


"Oh, hello hooman"


And that's it, sorry for lack of photos! I'll get something soon for you guys!


----------



## Sadist

Awesome! I love when we can get up close to nature without disturbing. The kiddo and I found a red-tailed hawk feeding on something on the ground once. I kept her back 50 feet or so, but once we were that close, she was scared of it.


----------



## Olivia27

Aw love your kitty's bushy tail!  and the hawk too! I lost the photos ( =\ ) but once I stood less than 10ft away from a red-tailed hawk perching on a trash can in front of my classroom building. It was amazing how he let people snap pics without making a fuss <3

Don't mind your old best friend, just think of her as a client now. People are people, and sometimes it doesn't work out. Not anyone's fault. Most definitely not yours.


----------



## themamaj

Pretty hawk. I have seen one or two around here but not very often. Your kitty reminds me of a long haired version of my Oreo. Looks so comfy all curled up.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Awesome! I love when we can get up close to nature without disturbing. The kiddo and I found a red-tailed hawk feeding on something on the ground once. I kept her back 50 feet or so, but once we were that close, she was scared of it.


Exactly! One of the reasons I love campus, most of the animals around are pretty used to human interaction--though they still keep their distance. I wasn't expecting to be so close to him though!



Seren27 said:


> Aw love your kitty's bushy tail!  and the hawk too! I lost the photos ( =\ ) but once I stood less than 10ft away from a red-tailed hawk perching on a trash can in front of my classroom building. It was amazing how he let people snap pics without making a fuss <3
> 
> Don't mind your old best friend, just think of her as a client now. People are people, and sometimes it doesn't work out. Not anyone's fault. Most definitely not yours.


Yeah, that's my favorite part of her, that and her little nose that she lets me kiss occasionally lol. She's getting used to it now, she used to hate me kissing her cheek; her brother would let me do it before he passed, but she hated it. Now, she knows that we both need the loving and lets me kiss her as I please lol.

Yeah, I'm mostly over it, it worked out in the end. It's a shame she nearly has no friends any more though, her hubby to be won't let her and she doesn't seem to care so it's silly to even think about how it must suck :dunno: oh well. Thank you though, I appreciate it.



themamaj said:


> Pretty hawk. I have seen one or two around here but not very often. Your kitty reminds me of a long haired version of my Oreo. Looks so comfy all curled up.


yeah, she was very comfy! She would follow me when I left and went out of her sight. She would then proceed to yell at me until I picked her up and held her again lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Went to my PetCo yesterday, not the one with all the pretty fish but this one usually has a couple. I got Ezio from here. Unfortunately the fish were all in sad conditions, there was a new worker there that didn't seem to know squat about the fish :-/ she gave me the reigns to help one of the customers there and I referred him here since he was buying it for his kids. Hopefully he listens  he seemed like he understood that there were misconceptions about Bettas so that was helpful.

There were a couple pretty ones and so I'll show you those

Oofph....I saw this guy first and man he pulled at my heartstrings. He would look amazing once he colored up! Unfortunately he is a DS which puts his price at 14.99 along with BF's and EE's



This one kept grabbing my attention, he was very healthy and very attentive


It was very hard to say no to that face!


He had nice colors but was miserable



I felt so bad for this guy; he looked terrible! Only a DT which meant he was 8 bucks total. But I didn't get him


Rawr!



I don't normally like Cambodian's but I really like the shimmer on this guy



Cute little EE



Couple of nips but he had gorgeous color


Another EE geno guy



Another similar to the blue BF up top



Again, sparkly shinny, I liked it


Not the typical EE but wasn't a full EE either




I also made friends with a squirrel. I actually have a friendly squirrel that I pass by almost daily during the semester. It's always under a specific tree that I pass by and doesn't seem to care much that I pass by, two feet from him. Never really does anything, usually scouring for nuts. This is a different squirrel.


And Tyrion the bunny rabbit! He was super happy to get out this morning and play! I guess he likes me because he forces me to pet him. I'll sit there and pet him and then stop, he gets up and tugs at my hand until I pet him again and he settles down once more. I stop again and he does the same thing. Guess he only does that to Victoria his owner and her mom, no one else. So I feel special! lol


Handsome old man! He's 5 going on 6 soon


----------



## themamaj

Heart goes out to DT boy! He would be so pretty with some good care. Like shimmer of the Cambodian. Your bunny is so cute.


----------



## blueridge

That cellophane double tail would be grogeous! :shock: All he needs is a little tlc


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Heart goes out to DT boy! He would be so pretty with some good care. Like shimmer of the Cambodian. Your bunny is so cute.





blueridge said:


> That cellophane double tail would be grogeous! :shock: All he needs is a little tlc


I know he would be. If anyone wants to adopt him, I can stop by today to pick him up and start healing him. It'd likely be about a month or so before he's better. I'm willing to do it but only if he has a home to go to afterwards; I can't take on another permanent animal for now! In fact, I'm getting ready to think about giving off some of my Betta's that I don't love as often enough as I should--not that I don't love them, I just terrible at getting around to give them what they deserve! And I feel bad :-/ this is why I like rescue/fostering. I can give them the temporary TLC they need and then they can go off to their own homes after. But, I'm still just thinking about it. Mom hasn't complained about the electricity bill in a while so it hasn't spurred me into any action.

And thanks themamaj, he's not my bunny as I said. I'm just watching him for the week.


----------



## Olivia27

That's a lotta EE in one store! I wonder if they sell well where you are? There's one EE in my store and he's been there almost a month now. And... Gee, the things I would do to bring home that blue BF  or that DS on the first pic xD gaah I need more tanks lol 

gotta love Tyrion  never had a bunny but always loved the lop-eared ones


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> That's a lotta EE in one store! I wonder if they sell well where you are? There's one EE in my store and he's been there almost a month now. And... Gee, the things I would do to bring home that blue BF  or that DS on the first pic xD gaah I need more tanks lol
> 
> gotta love Tyrion  never had a bunny but always loved the lop-eared ones


We always have EE's around. Some sell well and others have been there a while. There's that yellow DeT with some splotches of scales that was still there as well as the other cello DeT with similar markings! This store hasn't been doing as well as the other one that has the prettier ones. That Blue BF EE that you had wanted before, that was the other store in CT.

Yeah, he's a great bunny. Apparently he had been sold as a Dwarf but....he's not lol. He's not a full Lop I guess, just what Victoria tells me since I don't know a whole heck of a lot on bunnies; I just know how to take care of him ^_^


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> I know he would be. If anyone wants to adopt him, I can stop by today to pick him up and start healing him. It'd likely be about a month or so before he's better. I'm willing to do it but only if he has a home to go to afterwards; I can't take on another permanent animal for now! In fact, I'm getting ready to think about giving off some of my Betta's that I don't love as often enough as I should--not that I don't love them, I just terrible at getting around to give them what they deserve! And I feel bad :-/ this is why I like rescue/fostering. I can give them the temporary TLC they need and then they can go off to their own homes after. But, I'm still just thinking about it. Mom hasn't complained about the electricity bill in a while so it hasn't spurred me into any action.
> 
> And thanks themamaj, he's not my bunny as I said. I'm just watching him for the week.


Lil if you are willing to go get him, and treat him I would be willing to pay you for him, plus shipping and stuff! I hate that he is like that, because I know he will be gorgeous with some TLC.


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> Lil if you are willing to go get him, and treat him I would be willing to pay you for him, plus shipping and stuff! I hate that he is like that, because I know he will be gorgeous with some TLC.


Okay!  I can pick him up today if he's still (very likely that he is! Seems like he's been there for weeks). I'll update you when I'm home.

Have to go over Victoria's and change water on her goldie's and feed her beardie and take Gimli out to the park to play so I won't be home for a while but I will eventually be back on with news one way or another


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Okay!  I can pick him up today if he's still (very likely that he is! Seems like he's been there for weeks). I'll update you when I'm home.
> 
> Have to go over Victoria's and change water on her goldie's and feed her beardie and take Gimli out to the park to play so I won't be home for a while but I will eventually be back on with news one way or another


Sounds good to me! Let me know if you get him ^.^


----------



## themamaj

Glad you are going to get him Blueridge! Lil I totally understand how you enjoy fostering them. That is why I do rescues. When I see one in dire need, know how to change it for them and potential they can become, it spurs me into action. I love seeing the transformations. I have adopted out some, but by the time I put a lot of time and care, I get really attached. I genuinely enjoy each one! It is fun though to see them getting a really good home.


----------



## lilnaugrim

See, I'm really good at not becoming attached to the animals which makes me a good foster parent ^^

And blue, I'm a dummy, I forgot its new years eve (doesn't feel like it!) And the store closed at 7, I got there just before 8 due to being at Victoria's to take care of her animals. I'll go back Saturday or Sunday, I'm sure he'll still be there


----------



## Olivia27

Quick curious question: so do you have a lot of spare tanks? Hospitals perhaps? I'm fostering for two people ATM and as much as I enjoy it I'm a bit nervous waiting for the reply from another person who wants a fish from my local Petco. Technically I *can* get a kritter keeper to open up space for a 3rd foster, but then that'll mean I would end up with three hospital tanks and only two fish of my own ._. So yeah. How do you have space for your fosters? What if 3 people wanted 3 different fish from your Petco?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Quick curious question: so do you have a lot of spare tanks? Hospitals perhaps? I'm fostering for two people ATM and as much as I enjoy it I'm a bit nervous waiting for the reply from another person who wants a fish from my local Petco. Technically I *can* get a kritter keeper to open up space for a 3rd foster, but then that'll mean I would end up with three hospital tanks and only two fish of my own ._. So yeah. How do you have space for your fosters? What if 3 people wanted 3 different fish from your Petco?


Because I have some bigger tanks I often just use breeder boxes for healthy fishes and they sit in that for the time being. Or they float in a cup or in a quarter gallon tank so I don't use another heater but can still qt them if I must.

In general I do have a lot of spare tabka around that I've accumulated over the years mostly from yard sales or cheap tanks from wamlart or wherever.


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> See, I'm really good at not becoming attached to the animals which makes me a good foster parent ^^
> 
> And blue, I'm a dummy, I forgot its new years eve (doesn't feel like it!) And the store closed at 7, I got there just before 8 due to being at Victoria's to take care of her animals. I'll go back Saturday or Sunday, I'm sure he'll still be there


Sounds good to me! And don't worry about the New Year's Eve thing, I totally forgot what today was too until I turned on the news tonight xD *fingers crossed that he is still there*


----------



## lilnaugrim

He was still there Blue! He's all safe in my 55 in a breeder box now ^_^ Well, he's not out of the cup yet, I'm taking my sweet time in acclimating him due to the state he was in. He's really not that bad, just need to clean up those fins but otherwise, I see no real big damage on him. I'll do a MB and AQ salt bath on him later when I'm home to get his blood running well again but he shouldn't need too much heavy care, just plenty of warm, fresh water! :-D

Last night after some food and a long trek home. I'd gone to Victoria's a couple hours to care for Gimli and her fishes.


This morning. Really no difference here lol


I had also purchased another baby Betta who was larger. Again, seemingly a girl but now....I'm not so sure >.> This is the reason you don't do a sorority with Baby Betta's, they're too unpredictable! I admit that I didn't look too closely at her but we'll see. She's in the sorority now, got her last Wednesday.
These are from Thursday or so


Thought I saw the start of the ovaries, they do start off small and fill up over time which is why there are late-bloomers



The Convicts for size comparison.


Went to my cousin's house on Saturday for our late Christmas. This is his dog, Max, a beautiful German Shorthair Pointer! He needed a bath real bad though >.<


New addition to the family; Cocoa




Max later in the day when he was too pooped to play!



This is the classic picture that I get of him, nose right to the camera when I'm trying to take a decent pic lol


Tyrion has been really happy with me, he was so happy yesterday morning that he flopped over onto his side with happiness! Mom was worried that it was a seizure or something but I did some reading and found out that they do that when they're simply that happy with their home/surroundings! So that's good!



Backtraking a little to last THursday when I was over Victoria's house again to take care of the animals. Gim was a very good boy, we went out for a walk and everything!



Sorry for the awkward angle, this is Holly, her Corgy!








And then I took Gimli to the dogpark yesterday! What a happy and dirty puppy I had afterward! It was muddier than I expected and dog slobber EVERYWHERE! Good thing I had a beach towel in my car for emergencies lol.
This was Scout that he was sniffing, a puppy who was unsure if he wanted to play or not.


Look at all that fluff!


Sniffing around




Little video. Of course, I wanted to get one of him running around but he was pooped by this point lol


And then we went home to change water, he helped out lol



Victoria's lovely beardie named Rhaegel, she was ecstatic for her salad lol



And Tyrion last night


----------



## themamaj

Gim is such a pretty dog. Is he a border collie? We hope to get another dog at some point maybe an australian shepherd or border collie. Your friend, Victoria, is so lucky to have you to take such good care of all animals. They are all very cute. I love the new baby you got. Does she have any hint of color to her or will she stay cellophane?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Gim is such a pretty dog. Is he a border collie? We hope to get another dog at some point maybe an australian shepherd or border collie. Your friend, Victoria, is so lucky to have you to take such good care of all animals. They are all very cute. I love the new baby you got. Does she have any hint of color to her or will she stay cellophane?


Yes, he's a collie mix, we're not sure what with since the shelter had a male get loose and they aren't sure which one. His mom was definitely border collie though.

Thanks! Yeah, I thought she was totally cellophane but then I took those pictures and saw the hints of yellow, looks like she'll just have some yellow fins but the rest seems to have stayed cello for now. I doubt she'll change.


----------



## Olivia27

I see hints of a sight hound on Gimli  that skinny tail, tall legs and of course the signature hump by the back legs. I propose a greyhound x BC ^^

Sorry XD I love playing guess the breed


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> I see hints of a sight hound on Gimli  that skinny tail, tall legs and of course the signature hump by the back legs. I propose a greyhound x BC ^^
> 
> Sorry XD I love playing guess the breed


We actually guessed a lab mix because he's got such a huge chest. It's not round so much as it is very long, he wear's a 2xl coat for most brands. He is also only 8 months old still and so he still has a lot of filling out to do as well. He has the standard Collie form though and he could be closer to a purebred as well. He's got that squarish head, and lean build, his back legs are tall but as I mentioned, he's been filling out as he ages and looking more and more like a purebred should look. 

What hump are you looking at? He's got his adult fur coming in on his back in a ridge, are you looking at that? It apparently takes two years for the full adult fur to come in for collies. He certainly doesn't run like a Greyhound lol.


----------



## blueridge

Yay! So glad that he was still there ^.^ It seems like warm water is already perking him up quite a bit too, because he doesn't look as bad as the other picture of him that you posted. Can't wait for him to heal up and come home :O


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> Yay! So glad that he was still there ^.^ It seems like warm water is already perking him up quite a bit too, because he doesn't look as bad as the other picture of him that you posted. Can't wait for him to heal up and come home :O


Yeah! He seemed pretty content this morning in the warmer water, not as dead looking. There was one point where I checked on him while at Victoria's and I thought he died, I was upset until I poked the cup a little and he moved. But yes, he did eat some last night and seemed to pass it well enough this morning--I'm not too worried about his internal organs; they seem to be working just fine ^_^ Swim bladder issues already resolving themselves with good water and good food! ^_^


----------



## themamaj

Blue what are you going to name him?

Lil how many girls in sorority now?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Lil how many girls in sorority now?


Uhhh....let's see....Rowan, Fresco, Snowcap, Tempera, Black Copper girl, Mosaic (probably a boy), and Orlais (the new cello girl possibly boy. Pronounced Or-lay, is from Dragon Age lol). Starfyre is obviously a boy and Velvet on the otherside doesn't count of course. So five are absolutely girls and one two possible boys >.< I still have those two girls from Thailand coming too. Have to pay Linda today so she can ship them out finally. Stupid awkward seller lacking communication >.>


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah! He seemed pretty content this morning in the warmer water, not as dead looking. There was one point where I checked on him while at Victoria's and I thought he died, I was upset until I poked the cup a little and he moved. But yes, he did eat some last night and seemed to pass it well enough this morning--I'm not too worried about his internal organs; they seem to be working just fine ^_^ Swim bladder issues already resolving themselves with good water and good food! ^_^


Not as dead looking? Haha that is a good sign! Great to hear that he is doing better. Can't wait for him to heal up, and hoping that he marbles too, unlike some of the other cellophanes with coloration that I have bought before :roll:



themamaj said:


> Blue what are you going to name him?


I have no idea xD I never know unless I'm around them for awhile.


----------



## Olivia27

Whoops yeah I meant that ridge. I hesitated a bit with the terminology writing that XD oh and contrary to popular belief, greyhounds are actually very lazy. 

I'm not there to see him myself though.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Whoops yeah I meant that ridge. I hesitated a bit with the terminology writing that XD oh and contrary to popular belief, greyhounds are actually very lazy.
> 
> I'm not there to see him myself though.


Oh, yeah, that ridge is just his growing adult fur coming in! He gains more of it every month and it's slowing going down his sides. His feathers are beautiful too!

Oh and I meant as in form wise, I doubt it's technical at all since I only know the barest of all basics when it comes to dogs lol. But he crouches when running like a Collie does when herding sheep instead...idk, probably is nothing but just something I observed.

If he does have greyhound in him, it's a super tiny amount. Just looked at pics on google; not that they're all reliable, but just to get an idea and there was nothing that looked like him lol. But we'll never really know unless we get a blood test done and that's pretty expensive of course.


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Uhhh....let's see....Rowan, Fresco, Snowcap, Tempera, Black Copper girl, Mosaic (probably a boy), and Orlais (the new cello girl possibly boy. Pronounced Or-lay, is from Dragon Age lol). Starfyre is obviously a boy and Velvet on the otherside doesn't count of course. So five are absolutely girls and one two possible boys >.< I still have those two girls from Thailand coming too. Have to pay Linda today so she can ship them out finally. Stupid awkward seller lacking communication >.>



Love the name Snowcap! Hmm may see that as a future name here  Will look forward to seeing your new girls when they come in.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay, so I'm changing Orlais's name to Solas since it fits him/her better. Still from Dragon Age Inquisition if anyone has played ^_^ I freaking love that game too, I have some more of the Assassin's Creed games from Christmas but I've been obsessing over DA like crazy >.< So Solas it is!

I've got some pics! The first ones are from like....oh..last week I think? And then there are some new ones from this morning.

My older Ember Tetras, gosh, they're just about two years old now! Getting old for their species!


This is a newer one I think


And Solas when I first got him/her


Fresco is such a lovely blue!



I adore Mosaic's patch! He's actually going pale just like Renegade did when I first got him! I'm very pleased with his marbling process!


Solas and Snowcap


The smaller Convict


FInally have decent pictures of my Gelius Barb! He's the last one unfortunately. But I've also had him for two years too!



Moasic's progress has been interesting! According to my pictures, he started off like this:


then went to this a couple days later:


And now he's like this this morning!


I love that patch on his head ^_^



Tempera is so gorgeous!





Lovely Velvet, such a rich color



Love my Apisto too, he's growing quite a bit, this is about the size he'll get




Fresco


My lovely Golden Firemouths too


Bickering




Macklin looks bad but he's really not that bad



Geronimo ^_^



Renegade



Roman's red is slowly spreading


Sam is still there


Ezio! I know he hasn't made an appearance lately but he's still good!



Cleaned his tank!


went over photo-limit again, rest of post will be in next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Acara!




RJ


Blue's cello boy


My female BN


These are from this morning.


Rowan and Mosaic are like best buddies all the time, she doesn't care about him and seems to hover over him quite a bit. Not breeding or anything like that, just a nice simple relationship



Starfyre is beautiful!






Solas


Solas is a bit small but still larger than normal PetCo babies



Tyrion was very happy this morning and content with his surroundings. So much so that he plopped right now and flopped onto his side!



Fluffy butt last night


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Blue's cello boy
> 
> 
> Tyrion was very happy this morning and content with his surroundings. So much so that he plopped right now and flopped onto his side!
> 
> 
> 
> Fluffy butt last night


He is looking good already :-D Also love your friend's bunny! He is adorable!


----------



## feistygirl

Lil, are you adding the baby female to the sorority?


----------



## themamaj

I have never seen a Gelius Barb. He is really pretty. I like Embers too. I have admired them frequently at local store. Ezio is a beautiful. Is sort of a dark green or black? Solas is cutest thing and love Mosaic's spot. I love all your pictures. They are really amazing.

On the cellophane betta, does he have a bent ray? He looks great already. He is definitely going to be a beautiful boy. I am working with a new fish right now that basically was chewed to pieces by store super filter. He has several bent rays, not to mention lack of most of caudal. I have had some fish with significant fin damage that turn out perfect and others never look normal. I guess it depends on type and severity of damage? Typically, do bends straighten as heal or kink? 

Also, is too eggy ever a problem for a girl if you don't breed her? I have one that looks like she could pop.


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> He is looking good already :-D Also love your friend's bunny! He is adorable!


Yeah! He greeted me this morning when I turned the lights on so that's a good sign! Somehow a ghost shrimp ended up in his little breeder box :roll: he hasn't touched it and so I have a feeling that he'd be a good community fish or a Betta with adult shrimps. Then again, he may just not see him but they spent the entire day together yesterday since I didn't feel the need to move the shrimp back to his death per RJ lol. RJ freaking loves his shrimp! I get him at least ten a week, Acara tries to eat them as well but she isn't fast enough like RJ is, he's a spoiled fish for sure!

Yeah, Tyrion is adorable! My mom is infatuated with him which I didn't think could happen. She's lost many animals since she was young and she vowed to never have other animals in the house again except for the ones I keep and foster. Fish are different though lol.



feistygirl said:


> Lil, are you adding the baby female to the sorority?


Yes, the whole sorority is made of babies other than Rowan. What I'm doing is not recommended as you see, I already have three accidental males and I consider myself to be a pretty good baby Betta sexer, sometimes you just never know! But, as babies, they do tend to be a little more receptive and welcoming of new girls but it's still a high stake gamble, not one I recommend for the average fish keeper even. There are still plenty of nipped fins and missing scales from the girls.



themamaj said:


> I have never seen a Gelius Barb. He is really pretty. I like Embers too. I have admired them frequently at local store. Ezio is a beautiful. Is sort of a dark green or black? Solas is cutest thing and love Mosaic's spot. I love all your pictures. They are really amazing.
> 
> On the cellophane betta, does he have a bent ray? He looks great already. He is definitely going to be a beautiful boy. I am working with a new fish right now that basically was chewed to pieces by store super filter. He has several bent rays, not to mention lack of most of caudal. I have had some fish with significant fin damage that turn out perfect and others never look normal. I guess it depends on type and severity of damage? Typically, do bends straighten as heal or kink?
> 
> Also, is too eggy ever a problem for a girl if you don't breed her? I have one that looks like she could pop.


I love my Gelius barb (Golden Dwarf Barb is the common name I guess) and wish his school had lived longer. They are beautiful fish and stay the same size as the Embers which is why I got them. Plus, I love Black and Yellow fishes lol. At one point I think my whole 29 was black and yellow fishes. Panda Gara, Calico BN Pleco, Gelius Barbs, and something else I can't remember....

Ezio is a Black based Turquoise and so usually his scales look black with a tinge of blue in normal light but with flash, they turn green due to the layering ^_^ He still has some yellow around the edge of his body on the fin, wish that had spread some more though. But he's finally friendly with me and knows when it's feeding time and all, for a while he would pout in the corner and refuse to come up when the glass lid was off. With a little work, he's much better now!

And thank you! I love taking pictures of my fish ^_^ Going through them afterward is always so exciting!

The cello boy has many bent and kinked rays due to some fin rot beforehand. Some of the dead parts have broken off which you can kind of see in that last picture of him.

As for regrowing the fins, yes, it usually depends on the fish itself, the damage, how quickly the fins grow back and their diet. I find that a fish who takes its time in healing the fins and if the fin damage is more uniform, they grow back straighter and like the damage never happened. Those fish who have non-uniformed damage tend to grow back with kinks or bends or even fused rays. depends on what you use to treat the fish too, methylene blue baths or antibiotics which tend to be harsher. I haven[t actually documented that difference but I recall something about the different meds...idk, din't quote me on that lol.

Females never need to be bred just to release eggs. On rare occurrences when she can't pass the eggs or reabsorb them, she can become egg-bound but it's fairly rare in fish than it is in lizards where it is more of an issue. If you happen to be worried, fast her for 3-5 days so she can reabsorb them and/or flare her to a male daily and she'll drop the eggs eventually. You can do one or the other or both if you like, won't harm her at all


----------



## themamaj

Very good information. Thank you. I have treated many rescue fishes for fin rot. Typically, I start with a blue bath and then treat with aquarium salt. After a few days or week, I reevaluate it. If the rot doesn't seem to be resolving or is advancing still, I typically then move to antibiotics. As far as fin development, do you think it is better to treat with daily blue baths and aquarium salt longer?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Very good information. Thank you. I have treated many rescue fishes for fin rot. Typically, I start with a blue bath and then treat with aquarium salt. After a few days or week, I reevaluate it. If the rot doesn't seem to be resolving or is advancing still, I typically then move to antibiotics. As far as fin development, do you think it is better to treat with daily blue baths and aquarium salt longer?


Yeah, that's sounds about right.

And do you mean for regrowing fins? Once they are regrowing, you no longer need to treat them at all, not with antiseptics/antibiotics. You just need to keep them warm and feed them high protein foods to help with development. Shrimps will help out a ton, it's like powerfood for fins for whatever reason. We use them in cichlids to help grow out the trailers on the fins. You can use brine shrimp or Mysis shrimp for a supplement if ghost shrimp happen to be too big for Betta's which is the usual case; they may kill them but not always eat them. But anyway, there is a protein in the exoskeleton that essentially helps fins grow stronger and healthier. Since learning this information, I haven't specifically done this to a Betta yet to see if the response is the same yet but will do it for the cello boy to see how it may help him. I haven't given him anything else other than pellets just yet, wanted to fatten him up some before giving anything else or doing MB baths. I haven't started on those yet either due to time restricts in my actual life. Thursday will be his first bath if I can't get to it tonight


----------



## themamaj

Yes I stop treatment as soon as I see rot resolved and the beginnings of new growth. Good to know on shrimp. I will try to feed that more to my rescue guys. I keep lots of variety of frozen foods such as brine shrimp, daphnia, blood worms and formula one. I know the pellets will bulk them up faster but for long term health and growth is it still good to do a variety? I also supplement mine with BOOST it is a garlic and omega vitamin liquid I add to their frozen food. It has helped boost immunity and encourages appetite for ones that wont eat at first. Boy it smells like Italian food at feeding time haha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Yes I stop treatment as soon as I see rot resolved and the beginnings of new growth. Good to know on shrimp. I will try to feed that more to my rescue guys. I keep lots of variety of frozen foods such as brine shrimp, daphnia, blood worms and formula one. I know the pellets will bulk them up faster but for long term health and growth is it still good to do a variety? I also supplement mine with BOOST it is a garlic and omega vitamin liquid I add to their frozen food. It has helped boost immunity and encourages appetite for ones that wont eat at first. Boy it smells like Italian food at feeding time haha.


Lol, yeah, I use Vita-Chem myself; essentially the same thing as yours but with only vitamins in it; NLS has enough garlic haha.

Feeding a variety is up to the fish keeper. You can stick to just a high quality pellet or you can switch it up, doesn't really matter. Some foods will offer certain benefits; such as, feed more worms if you need to fatten a fish. Feed crustacean's if they need to loose weight. Pellets are usually high in protein just as worms are but they also have veggies in them that the frozen foods usually don't (though, we don't know what they were fed prior to being frozen so they could have veggies for all we know). So in most cases, feeding a variety is good all the same. You can feed solely frozen and live foods if you want but I like to still keep them on a steady pellet as well, it's easy to digest and provides all the things they need.


----------



## themamaj

Not to mention pellet are faster when i am running out the door like a crazy woman late for work haha.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just gonna show the 20long here. Not sure why I can't take a stupid straight picture of this ever, so, sorry for the tilt >.< But it's very jungly in there! Help to deter the fights in the females, I actually don't observe many fights. A couple of picks here and there and a chase every now and then but no real fighting which is good. The Embers help as a dither and the Convicts pretty much keep their peace.


And the 4. Mom was observing all the shrimps last night. Someone else exploded with babies yesterday so I have teeny tiny little shrimps all over again lol. I easily have at least 50-ish in there! My Fire Reds are breeding too which makes me happy! I'm starting to cull (meaning put into Ezio and in Glaston's tank) the regular Cherry's so I can keep my Fire Reds as red as possible and get more money for them ;-).

OH!!!! I FORGOT TO SAY! MY RED RILI'S FINALLY HAD THEIR BABIES! Gosh, it's been what....four months since I've had them and they finally JUST had babies! Tiny shrimplet's around the tank made me so happy! Theyr'e in the 1.5 grass tank still. Super happy about that!

ANyway, here's the 4


----------



## themamaj

What is best size for a shrimp only tank?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> What is best size for a shrimp only tank?


Depends on what you want. The minimum is about a gallon-filtered. You can do anything up to 65 gallons or more. There is no 'best' size technically. You'll want it to be planted of course, filtered, heat isn't necessary if the room is mild. I keep my 4 gallon around 70 degree's which is what my room is at. During the summer it goes up but there is no heater in that tank at all. But 5-10 gallons is good for shrimps, gives plenty of room for plants. It also depends on what kinds of plants you're good with and what their requirements are. In this tank, I keep smaller plants that need a little more care (microsword needs root tabs or soil) but if you like bigger plants, you'll want something more like a 10 or 20 gallon long.

Long or tall doesn't matter. It would actually be pretty cool if you had a tall circle or hexagon tank with a nice piece of driftwood that spirals up and was covered in mosses like weeping/christmas moss! Could make a pretty cool world ^_^


----------



## themamaj

Is it a problem to keep different type shrimp together? Is there a max number shrimp/ gallon rule?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Is it a problem to keep different type shrimp together? Is there a max number shrimp/ gallon rule?


I think it's like 10 shrimp per gallon or something like that. They have super low bioload if you're talking about the micro shrimps like my guys.

Yes. You can't keep Neocaridina's together of different colors. The ones you see most often; Cherry, Fire Red, Sakura Red, Yellow, Orange, Black, any Rili colors, are all of the same species: Neocaridina Heteropoda. Mixing any of those color variations will effectively ruin the color and revert them back to their original wild brown color. So if you like brown, you can do that lol.

You can however, keep one color var. of Neocaridina together and one of the Caridina together such as Cherries and Crystal Red Shrimp together. But again, like all the Neocaridina's, you can't mix any of the Caridina's either like Crystal Reds and Caridnal Shrimps <- my personal fave!

So you just have to know the shrimp species and go from there. Most of the different species can be kept together; shrimps like cooler water mostly and pristine water conditions; don't skimp on changes but doing smaller changes will lead to less chance of shocking the shrimps. Doing 10-15% weekly is usually sufficient for a shrimp only take if it's cycled. I do not recommend adding shrimp directly to a new set up; let the tank mature for at least 4-6 months before adding shrimp so the parameters are stable and there is a good layer of biofilm on everything for them to snack on!

EDIT: Oh yeah, here's a great website to look at! http://www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html


----------



## themamaj

Awesome will check out link


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah! He greeted me this morning when I turned the lights on so that's a good sign! Somehow a ghost shrimp ended up in his little breeder box :roll: he hasn't touched it and so I have a feeling that he'd be a good community fish or a Betta with adult shrimps. Then again, he may just not see him but they spent the entire day together yesterday since I didn't feel the need to move the shrimp back to his death per RJ lol. RJ freaking loves his shrimp! I get him at least ten a week, Acara tries to eat them as well but she isn't fast enough like RJ is, he's a spoiled fish for sure!
> 
> Yeah, Tyrion is adorable! My mom is infatuated with him which I didn't think could happen. She's lost many animals since she was young and she vowed to never have other animals in the house again except for the ones I keep and foster. Fish are different though lol.


That is good to hear! I was thinking about maybe throwing him in my native tank, since they don't mind warm water too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> That is good to hear! I was thinking about maybe throwing him in my native tank, since they don't mind warm water too.


I would just worry about stressing him out too much is all. He seems laid back but more active fish might spook him. Worth a shot though! And yes, he's gaining some black on him now! It's just a little bit but it's there on his body and fins--color wise, not fin rot. ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

I went to SeaHorse Petshop yesterday after my dentist cleaning (no cavities!!! THANK GOD! After 20-22 or something fillings last year, I couldn't foot another bill like that!!) since it's right down the street. I picked up a big jar of NLS flakes. I like them better than Omega One flakes for my communities, the flakes are softer and OO seems to have something really hard in the flakes....like bone pieces.....I don't like that. So got a big jar since they tend to go right through the smaller ones >.<

Found out my Rainbowfish are eating my Giant Hygro...a BIG no no! That plant takes forever to grow well! So I got some dried seaweed for them to pick at and graze on all day instead of my plants. Hopefully it works out! They ate a sheet yesterday and gave them another this morning. The cories were super ecstatic about it so that makes me happy.

They (the store) also gave me cuttings of their wandering jew plant! I'd been eyeing the one we have here at school since it seems like no one is taking care of it the poor thing! But I have three big cuttings now that are super duper healthy!

Threw them in the 20 long:


The whole tank:
The wandering jew isn't wilting, it was actually just reaching up the window before in their mini pond but the way it was curved, it wouldn't sit in my tank right so I just let it plop over like that and turn around when it wants to.


Geronimo! Hey, hey, you! Yeah, you! Take a look at my bubblenest! Cool, huh?


His copper color has really taken over since I first got him. He sat here and posed for me like this a couple minutes lol


Macklin!
Also....I just noticed the hair in the tank.....I've been staring at it hoping that it goes away in the pictures >.< So yeah....don't mind the hair 


He's not dead or lethargic, he's looking for food




Renegade! He looks so angry but really he's just a big softie lol. He lets me "pet" him, really just touching his back when he's up at the top.




And Roman



Ezio!



Almost flaring! I lowered the light so I could get a better pic of him and he spread his fins out lol


FEED ME!


----------



## Sadist

Love love love the pictures! I'm excited about all the shrimp babies, too. I was thinking of getting red shrimp for one of my blue betta's tanks or blue shrimp for the crayfish/oto tank. 

Will ghost shrimp coexist with amano shrimp? I want more grazers for my shrimp window tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Love love love the pictures! I'm excited about all the shrimp babies, too. I was thinking of getting red shrimp for one of my blue betta's tanks or blue shrimp for the crayfish/oto tank.
> 
> Will ghost shrimp coexist with amano shrimp? I want more grazers for my shrimp window tank.


Thank you! I'm super stoked about the Red Rili's, it's about darn time they have kids! lol. I was just surprised at the AMOUNT of kids she had....I literally spotted fifteen on the glass alone, who knows what hid in the grass! Crazy that shrimp can carry that many! I also spotted one of my regular Reds about to release her shrimplets too yesterday, I could see all the teeny shrimplets hanging to her! It was so cool!

Yes, Amano's might try to outcompete the ghosts for food since they do get bigger; Amano's tend to be a little pushy but for the most part, they'll get along fine IF you have regular Ghosts. Sometimes other species are sold under that name like the Red Claw one that RusselltheShihTzu warns about, but regulars should be just fine ^_^

I never thought that I'd love an invert tank as much as I love my 4 gallon! Heck, I love looking at the shrimp more than I love looking at the fish XD They're just so interesting!

I would honsetly love to convert my 29 gallon into a huge shrimp tank...wouldn't that be something?! A couple of snails and maybe some microfish just to fill the open spaces up top like the Chili Rasboras I have. I would get a Neocaridina species like my Red Rili's, a regular Caridina species like the Crystal Reds or possible a Bee shrimp. I'd probably throw Ghosties in there too just for variety. A Pepermint Mystery Snail, a Tiger Nerite and a bunch of Ramshorns/bladder snails to finish off! .....darn it, now I really want to do it!


----------



## Sadist

Me, too! We just don't have room for anything bigger than a 10 gallon right now.

I'm pretty sure my ghost shrimp are actually ghost shrimp. They've gotten a lot bigger than when I bought them, though. I thought they were 4 males and 1 female, but now I think they were 4 juveniles and 1 adult. I put too much rooibos in the tank, so now it's hard to really see what's going on.

I'm going to head to the pet store in a minute to see if they have any amano shrimp today and see what shape the plants are in. Mrs. Fish and the 10 gallon need more plants still.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Nice Tradescantia zebrine. I've had mine for quite a while. It tends to get so long that if I don't trim it, it breaks the vine (its not sturdy like pothos) so it stays manageable-ly short for me as I let it do its own thing, unlike my pothos which I have an early 40' vine of!
I'm typically not a fan of the larger snail species with their pooping but the peppermint looks cool! Almost tempted to try one but with my luck the tank I choose to put it in with have a betta/fish that decides it likes to eat eye balls or just flat out kill it. Only thing with big snails and small shrimp is making sure the snails don't just completely stand on top of and cover food while they eat, starving shrimp (seen in video-found it amusing like a (big) toddler going "NOOO!Mine!" and covering something up to keep mom/dad/sibling from taking it).
If Renegade the only one that lets you pet them? My husband's girl Chiyome really enjoys contact with my husband, letting him pet her or rubbing herself against his fingers its become a regular part of feeding time. She won't let me pet her though (she'll partially flare at me actually). Xerexs tolerates a bit of it but I think he only does in hopes of getting more food.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Nice Tradescantia zebrine. I've had mine for quite a while. It tends to get so long that if I don't trim it, it breaks the vine (its not sturdy like pothos) so it stays manageable-ly short for me as I let it do its own thing, unlike my pothos which I have an early 40' vine of!


Yeah, I was pretty excited! Couldn't remember the scientific name, wandering jew works fine for me--I don't feel strange saying it since it's just it's common name. It likely was botched from it's original name anyway just like the Jew Harp. It has nothing to do with Jews at all and actually is supposed to be Jaw Harp but over time, the name was misconstrued. 

But yes, that's one reason I like them, they just have lovely color too that nicely offsets all the green and white I have! This one is a super sturdy stem compared to the one that is at school and isn't doing as well (no one waters it enough).



Aqua_Aurora said:


> I'm typically not a fan of the larger snail species with their pooping but the peppermint looks cool! Almost tempted to try one but with my luck the tank I choose to put it in with have a betta/fish that decides it likes to eat eye balls or just flat out kill it. Only thing with big snails and small shrimp is making sure the snails don't just completely stand on top of and cover food while they eat, starving shrimp (seen in video-found it amusing like a (big) toddler going "NOOO!Mine!" and covering something up to keep mom/dad/sibling from taking it).


Oh lol, that's cute. Yeah, there would definitely be enough food for all the shrimps and snails if I did that. Snails are still much slower than shrimps. I wouldn't solely feed prepared foods either. My shrimps enjoy the occasional black worms I throw in as well along with the Pygmy cories.

I do enjoy the Pepermint Mysteries, just a color of course but they look pretty haha. I had some for a time back when I was living with dad. My water sucked over there though and they died eventually. I have two golden Mysteries I just purchased the other day. One went in with Velvet and one is in the 29--haven't that one though (though, I didn't look too hard). The one in Velvet's compartment is doing great though, Velvet doesn't care about it at all; he's more interested in his sister and the ladies on the other side if anything.



Aqua_Aurora said:


> If Renegade the only one that lets you pet them? My husband's girl Chiyome really enjoys contact with my husband, letting him pet her or rubbing herself against his fingers its become a regular part of feeding time. She won't let me pet her though (she'll partially flare at me actually). Xerexs tolerates a bit of it but I think he only does in hopes of getting more food.


Nope. All the Rainbows and the shark in my 45 let me pet them too, especially for feeding time. I usually hold a block of frozen foods so they have to come up and eat from my hand and so they don't mind it any more. Renegade is the only Betta at the moment that I've tried 'petting' with. Haven't really tried for the others though I assume they don't mind my hand since it's in there all the time and they usually pick at the bubbles on the hairs.

Renegade is the only one who seems to actually enjoy the touching though, of all the Betta's. Though, it's likely because he's half blind that that damn cataract but he's still a good boy and stays there waiting for his food--it's all food driven ;-)


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Renegade is the only one who seems to actually enjoy the touching though, of all the Betta's. Though, it's likely because he's half blind that that damn cataract but he's still a good boy and stays there waiting for his food--it's all food driven ;-)


Unfortunately my husband's girl Chiyome also has cataracts, they started out small and at first I thought it was eye color until I closely examined her. Its not a full eye cloudyness like 'cloudy eye' and reading up on cloudy eye nothing matches with the possible causes (ph normal, nitrogen all 0s, no signs of flukes or gram negative bacteria infection (no one else had signs either and I share the feeding utensils for her tank with the others)). Bit bummed that 3 bettas in the house are partially blind now: Xerxes (worst-diamond eye both eyes), Ajax (one eye with diamond eye so far), and Chiyome (cataracts in both eyes). Especially since all three are bought from overseas breeders.. would hope for better quality (having paid more than for a lfs betta).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Unfortunately my husband's girl Chiyome also has cataracts, they started out small and at first I thought it was eye color until I closely examined her. Its not a full eye cloudyness like 'cloudy eye' and reading up on cloudy eye nothing matches with the possible causes (ph normal, nitrogen all 0s, no signs of flukes or gram negative bacteria infection (no one else had signs either and I share the feeding utensils for her tank with the others)). Bit bummed that 3 bettas in the house are partially blind now: Xerxes (worst-diamond eye both eyes), Ajax (one eye with diamond eye so far), and Chiyome (cataracts in both eyes). Especially since all three are bought from overseas breeders.. would hope for better quality (having paid more than for a lfs betta).


Yeah, it's genetic just like Diamond eye--which can happen on non DS betta's as well.

And you know they're just trying to make money, you would THINK that they could make better lines to avoid that kind of thing but people still buy the fish and don't care (not you particularly, just those who see Diamond Eye and don't care about it). So it's not like it benefits them to create lines with less chances of cataracts and diamond eye :dunno:


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## lilnaugrim

Okay, big updates here! Lots of pictures, likely two posts...maybe three >.< I have 77 pictures to show you all! 50 are limited in one post haha! Prepare yourselves!!!


Okay, so my girls came in yesterday!!! My red Koi actually kept mostly koi-like! I was shocked that she wasn't totally red! I'm certainly not complaining, she's the first actual 'koi' I've ever kept that was bought as a Koi. Mosaic could be counted as a Koi now though with his markings. Both the girls are absolutely wonderful and beautiful! The koi will likely get along fine, the copper girl might need a few time outs along the way lol. They'll sit in their cups for about two weeks while they get used to their new friends.

Victoria and I also went out yesterday to the fish stores just to see what there was. I needed Flourish and was looking to see if they had any plants I could get. Always looking for plants! Got some more Ghost Shrimp at Aqua-life for RJ and Acara along with some Brine Shrimps for everyone later! Got home too late to feed everyone lol.

Then we went over to Animal Instincts and I found two female Pearl Gouramis that were adults! So I snatched them up for Romeo, he's been needing some female company! So I was very excited for that!

Then we went to Aquasthetics, run by the same guy who does Animal Instincts. And....I found two girls.....I didn't mean to but when you'll see them, you'll know why I couldn't leave them! They were 2.99 each, super cheap for what they are! So I'm done with girls now until the boy's grow up and leave (Solas is still undecided on his gender, Mosaic is definitely boy but I'm keeping him). The last girl I want is a Mustard Gas. George at Aqua-Life had a pair that I'll show you guys and I wanted so badly! But Victoria told me no lol. I also told myself no too at the time. Not sure if I regret it or not....idk...I'm going to PetCo and PetSmart tonight down by dad's to check to see if one of those blue EE's I took a picture of, is still there for veatki.

Anywho, first Pics of my two girlies when they arrived!

Look at that face! How can you not love it??



Copper girl




And we went out! This girl was cute, miserable but cute. These were all at Aqua-Life



And the first MG boy....oh so lovely....


His counterpart. They are 24.99 for the pair



I would have actually paired him with the other MG female, she had shorter fins and would compliment him more


Another random female


This was the other MG boy I think



His female


And then we went to Animal Instincts!
If only Flowerhorns stayed this small, he was about five inches minus fins. I still hate the horn part but his color was absolutely stunning!! He was such a ham too lol





Full grown Pacu's I think they were? Or something similar, Piranha? I think Pacu's are larger bodied? Idk, they were huge. At least 1.5 feet long, this big one was like 2 feet


I think this was a smaller Pacu maybe?


Full grown Redtail Catfish!


Beautiful Goldfish we saw!


Cutie Oranada!




And then down to PetCo!

Don't know if Seren is on here but I found a small female! She's not quite a full Devil I suppose, more like a Bi-color really, but she's close!





Flash didn't do much more her


And then there were these guys....Blue BF's but with white backs! Not sure if they're marbling out TO blue or going out TO white--both is possible!




This boy tempted me


I picked this guy up but later put him down. He's labeled as a DeT but was really a full HM! He would be gorgeous to breed with my copper girl but alas...I can't get that other Copper bicolor Red I had found before-out of my head. If I find another like that other one, I'd probably get him. Had this boy been copper, I likely would have taken him home too


Then this little cutie! He was a DeT but also EE geno!


And I didn't grab any pics at Aquasthetics apparently, oh well. It was a nice store! 500ml Flourish for 12.99 when it's usually 15-16! I was a happy fish keeper!


----------



## lilnaugrim

This is one of the two girls I bought there. She's so beautiful! She'll probably marble out too but she looks mostly stable


Flash shows off her dark blue. Solas in front


New girl, Solas, and Mosaic


I guess I only got pictures of her backend lol, sorry! She's very feisty!


And then there is this girl! I was super intrigued by her! She needs a little TLC but she's going to be amazing! I have a feeling that she's from a Giant x Giant spawn due to her body shape. She needs a lot of filling out before she looks okay again and she's got Ammonia burns. I guess they had just gotten the girls in to the store and so it was likely due to the seller, not the store since their tanks looked pretty darn clean. 
These were from last night


She isn't huge but she's definitely bigger than the copper girl and slightly larger than Rowan. Rowan is larger than normal anyway


Mosaic isn't actually that big lol, forced perspective here


Copper girl on the side


Copper and Koi after they colored up with being in warm water all day ^_^



And just the two female Pearls I bought as well while they sat in their bag all night to adjust to the temp. They were released this morning, have more pics later



Pics from this morning after everyone slept and mostly ate! The big girl here didn't eat much


But she did color up some! She's quite personable!





Copper and convicts


I'm not even totally convinced it is a girl, but heck, if it's a boy, he's going to look great once he's healed up too! lol


Looks more wild than anything in body shape, color obviously isn't



Mosaic is VERY nosy as you can see >.< he made it into almost every single shot.....




See?



Solas! The smallest one of them all but growing well! All the babies have nearly doubled in size since purchasing them!


And down to the Pearl Gouramis becoming acquainted! Romeo was quite pleased with his ladies!






The tank looks pretty sh*ty at the moment :-/ I really have to refocus and get this back in shape again!


Severum!




My Diamond Tetra girl is funny too, she likes faces and knows it means food usually. She swam right up to me after this pic


Unfortunately it was blurry


How the 20 long looks now, quite crowded!!


And lastly, Blue's boy! He's got some black shading coming in on his fins in a butterfly pattern!


Can't see due to the poor lighting though



Also! My sensitive plant is growing! Mom got me these little mini terrarium cheap-o thingies for Christmas. One is a Venus Flytrap and this one is a Space plant; essentially a mini sensitive plant I guess. I didn't expect anything to happen with it since it's just those cheap things but it's sprouting! It's super exciting! They're going to outgrow these stupid little egg things in easily a week though! It's been a week since I planted them! The Venus Flytrap I guess will take 1-3 months before it germinates and sprouts.


I also got to see Gimli last night! Such a good boy he was!
Here he is imitating a walrus haha, he looooovvess antlers!


And then we were in my car and Gimli had a static electricity attack lol. His ear fur was standing up and so Victoria tried to take a picture but he ended up going to sniff it instead. "What's dis mom???" haha! He's such a hoot!


Here's the actual pic


And this was Tyrion before he left to his own home again yesterday! That was the reason for us meeting up in the first place. He really likes being at my place lol. He's not dead here, he's just flopped! He loves live and he feels secure at my home!


And phew! That's it for now! Thanks for looking guys!


----------



## Olivia27

Eeeek!! How, HOW does everyone have more fish shops around their area than meee? >< I'm mad! I just have Petco and my LFS which would require me to take a cab! I love all your new girls OMG would be so interesting to see how Big Girl turned out! 

Aand.. about the Petco girl... I don't know, she looks a bit funky XD those rays on her caudal aren't even the same length. I'm not looking to show or breed but since this is a pet store fish I'm not taking any chances. Thanks for keeping an eye out for me though x


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## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Eeeek!! How, HOW does everyone have more fish shops around their area than meee? >< I'm mad! I just have Petco and my LFS which would require me to take a cab! I love all your new girls OMG would be so interesting to see how Big Girl turned out!
> 
> Aand.. about the Petco girl... I don't know, she looks a bit funky XD those rays on her caudal aren't even the same length. I'm not looking to show or breed but since this is a pet store fish I'm not taking any chances. Thanks for keeping an eye out for me though x


Well, the stores I went to are an hour from me for Aqua-Life and then Animal Instincts and Aquasthetics are both hour and a half from me, it's not exactly 'near-by' lol. The closest store to me is still 25 minute drive away but since I have my own car and make money for gas, it's a drive I love to take haha. Then I go the other way and it's another 45 mintues to the other PetCo and PetSmart down in New London, CT! So...idk, it's far for me but I don't mind the drives.

And yeah, I can't wait to see how she does too! She's going to be really interesting either way! :-D

And yeah, I never said she was breeding quality haha, just thought I mentioned that we do occasionally have them around here too. The PetCo I'm going to tonight has better ones, that's where I got my CT Devil female too which I still haven't named! She's elusive so I might just call her Silhouette, she'll be like the third fish I've named that but hey, it's a good name! Anywho, I can take a look at that one as well. I'll be updated for Vaetki as well so likely will upload pics for you all to see and make a decision before I leave on Saturday, so check in if you want to see anything!


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## Sadist

Lovely fish! I don't know how you don't have fish swimming in your ceiling with all those lovelies at the store. I can barely resist buying all the ugly ones at our pet stores, mostly because they look so miserable and start flirting when they realize I'm actually paying attention to them.


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## Aqua Aurora

I think they're pacu. Did you see into their mouths at all? Pacu are distinctive teeth that look like they took someone's dentures ^^








And they get absolutely monstrous in size!

















The giant x giant spawned female almost looks like a wild beta cross, wouldn't that be cool?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I think they're pacu. Did you see into their mouths at all? Pacu are distinctive teeth that look like they took someone's dentures ^^
> The giant x giant spawned female almost looks like a wild beta cross, wouldn't that be cool?


I think the black ones were the small Pacu's but that big silver one was something else, different body form. Possibly related type of fish, I just wasn't that curious to ask haha.

And yeah, it would be cool! I don't think she is due to her strange color pattern. She just looks like she has a deformed nose to me, but that's okay! She's still quite lovely! I just want to go home and do a bath for her but alas, my boss asked me to stay until 4 today which puts a damper on my plans >.<


----------



## themamaj

The first female you posted from Aqua life store has more of a yellow tone to body. I have seen a couple of fish like that. How would you classify the color? Also, is there a type of white fish that for sure will not marble? The black and white and blue boy was very interesting. I wonder if he will turn out mostly black and blue.


----------



## themamaj

Your new girls are quite the cuties especially little koi girl.


----------



## blueridge

Did someone say butterfly pattern?! I love butterflies


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> The first female you posted from Aqua life store has more of a yellow tone to body. I have seen a couple of fish like that. How would you classify the color? Also, is there a type of white fish that for sure will not marble? The black and white and blue boy was very interesting. I wonder if he will turn out mostly black and blue.


Yeah, she's just a Yellow based Marble is all.

Any fish has the potential to marble. The only way you'll know for sure if the fish won't marble is if you've bred them yourself over many generations, even then, the gene can stay hidden >.< But yes, most white fish don't usually marble unless you see hints of blue or some other color on them. That white boy I posted from that PetCo won't marble, he's a full white fish. I almost grabbed him to sell on here since I know people like him but alas, I didn't.

And that butterfly boy, I'm not sure if he was going TO white or coming FROM white so it's hard to say. The white looked very clean though whereas on some blue butterflies, you can see the blue bleeding already, this boy had none of that. It's possible he was stable for the mean time. I wish I'd gotten a picture of his brother--swore I did too. I can always ask my best friend to see if he's still there since she works at that PetCo.



themamaj said:


> Your new girls are quite the cuties especially little koi girl.


Thank you ^_^ I do love her, she's got the cutest expressions!



blueridge said:


> Did someone say butterfly pattern?! I love butterflies


heh, yeppers! I have a couple more to show off as well, not as nice as that blue BF boy but still nice all the same!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren, another cutie, she just came in so she was a little stressed out but otherwise very nice looking. Again, just showing you what we have is all, not pressuring you into even liking her haha
She was a nice Black Copper Devil


This boy was super cute! These were all new shipments so I was taking pictures on the cart before they even went to the shelf!


Another BF


Without flash


I really liked how this guy looked but I didn't get him of course


A cute Copper


And these pics were taken on....Friday I think before I left to dads for the weekend
Glaston's tank needs a bit of a scrub! But Victoria got me a beautiful air plant from Florida! :-D She also found us some shells and the base is lightning struck sand--it has a specific name but I forgot it.
Also mom got me those little egg terrarium thingies, cheap-oh things but it's fun all the same. The one on the left will hopefully be a Venus Flytrap, the left one is already sprouting you can see, it's a Space plant (Sensitive plant).


Blue marble girl


Koi, I love that blue splotch on her, that will definitely stay


I think I may call her Lady Trevelyan! It's from Dragon Age as well, figures. Sorry, I love the game so much!


And this little (big) stinker jumped out of her cup after I came home! I was going to medicate her for her swollen gills (just some ammonia poisoning) and it would have been easier had she stayed in her cup :roll: Came to find out that she really likes my face and swims up to greet me so that's cool! She doesn't mind my hand either, going to try to teach them to swim into my hand to rest so I can easily take them out. She did well in her MB and AQ salt bath last night though as did Blue's Cello boy! They were both champs and got extra food to reward them!


Starfyre is still growing very quickly


Blue Marble


Mosaic can't stand it when he's not in the picture lol


Finally got some shots of her for you all!


That face! Can't get over it lol


And yeah, her mouth is slightly deformed as you can see. She is a deformed fishy but she's still super sweet and interesting! No one really picks on her yet, just's just kind of there and they don't care--which is good! That's what you want for sorority fish



And I realized that it's been a while since I showed off my 45! I changed it up a bit for Christmas. It's now officially been up for just over a year!


I also changed the scape for my 55 after I did about a 25% water change on it :-D


And then these pics are from yesterday.

You can see she's already colored up! I think these were....before the bath? Maybe...idk, can't remember tbh





Her and Rowan. Rowan is thicker than she is of course, but the new girl is much longer


Solas, Mosaic, new girl, bigger Convict, Rowan




And pics with the DSLR
GUppy!


Snowcap is clearly the Omega in the chain of command. She doesn't seem to care though and this is the extent of her damage. It's been the same for a couple weeks now and her tail is already got some nice growth on it. I'm not worried about her, the tank is clean and she's still healthy and eats like a pig


Solas, he has beautiful eyes. It seems like his new growth is also darker like copper, I wonder what he's going to be!


Koikoi!



She has some pretty colors on her


"Who me?"


Mosaic looks so offended by her!


Grizzle girl


Lady Trev.


I hate that the stupid Ludwigia was in the way but I still like the colors on this picture lol. You can see her lovely stripe of red on her anal fin!



Rowan!


Grizzle marble


Lady, she has a couple spots of red on her undercolor too, should be interesting if she decides she wants to marble! I doubt she will, but it would still be interesting


Glaston! He chewed his tail off again >.> He had such good and long growth too!


Crud, too many words for this post! More pics in next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And the cello boy! I've been alternating two names for him but I won't tell you Blue if you don't want to be influenced by it!







And RJ lol the big lump of a fish!



Lovely female BN


Lol, his face, it cracks me up!



Some nice splash of scales on the side there


----------



## Olivia27

Eeeek your gang is just the cutest! Love your aquascaping! I really need to rescape mine one day. Looks like on hell of a mess

And oh gee. That devil girl x___x I can't have her now sadly but she's cute as a button! How do you get so many OMG we need to trade Petcos.


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## Sadist

Oo, I wonder if your grizzle girl will get a butterfly pattern! I love all your fish and tanks; they're gorgeous and healthy. Think I can sneak one into my house?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Eeeek your gang is just the cutest! Love your aquascaping! I really need to rescape mine one day. Looks like on hell of a mess
> 
> And oh gee. That devil girl x___x I can't have her now sadly but she's cute as a button! How do you get so many OMG we need to trade Petcos.


Haha, no! I love all my stores!! haha.

Thank you! Haven't done a whole heck of a lot in terms of plants and scaping, need to get back into that, especilaly for the 29. I'm wondering if I should break down the 29 and throw everything into the 55. Give up on the firemouths since they all died. I just have the three Pearls, Serverum, two cories that can go into the 20long, and the four mollies. It's looking more appetizing the more I think about it....plus, mom is complaining about electricity again... >.< Anywho, yeah, tangent, sorry!



Sadist said:


> Oo, I wonder if your grizzle girl will get a butterfly pattern! I love all your fish and tanks; they're gorgeous and healthy. Think I can sneak one into my house?


She might, more likely she'll just be a grizzle or go solid blue eventually.
Thanks!
And idk, can you? haha.


----------



## themamaj

Mosaic's face cracks me up staring down the new girl with contempt. What personality!! Little new girl is precious. The cello betta looks to be doing great! Love the dark lips and the colors coming out. Oh Blue if you ever change your mind.....  I can't wait to hear a name.

Lil let me know if you run across any amazing long finned double tails. Have been pondering adding one. 

Do all marbles typically have white or cello as a base?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Mosaic's face cracks me up staring down the new girl with contempt. What personality!! Little new girl is precious. The cello betta looks to be doing great! Love the dark lips and the colors coming out. Oh Blue if you ever change your mind.....  I can't wait to hear a name.
> 
> Lil let me know if you run across any amazing long finned double tails. Have been pondering adding one.
> 
> Do all marbles typically have white or cello as a base?


Isn't he? He's so adorable! I'll certainly be keeping him regardless of what happens! :-D

Yeah, I won't say the names unless Blue says it's okay, I'd hate to name him without permission or if Blue doesn't like it!!

Sure, any color in particular? We have a zillion DT's around of varying color!

And no. Marbles can literally be anything, cello is most common with the koi's as a base but it changes quickly. The base has nothing to do with the actual marble gene though. A solid blue with black base fish (turquoise for example) can hold the marble gene and turn completely red with no blue on it at all. But we can hazard a guess that a Cello or White fish with some other color on it will eventually turn to a different color. I had thought Blue's fish was actually going to go blue due to the small flecks of iridescence but he's actually going black instead, so it's still all a gamble! Blue just happens to be a very dominant color which is why it takes over all the colors underneath it.


----------



## themamaj

I would probably flip for a solid white that actually stayed white lol. Have seen a black one on Aquabid that intrigued me. There was an ebay one called a starfish, a multicolored that was a wow. If you see something really pretty or different, snap a pix.


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> I would probably flip for a solid white that actually stayed white lol. Have seen a black one on Aquabid that intrigued me. There was an ebay one called a starfish, a multicolored that was a wow. If you see something really pretty or different, snap a pix.


Yeah, that solid one DeT boy at that PetCo with EE geno will stay white for sure. He had nothing else on him. All the Platinum White's that you see usually stay white as well.


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## BettaStarter24

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, that solid one DeT boy at that PetCo with EE geno will stay white for sure. He had nothing else on him. All the Platinum White's that you see usually stay white as well.


Sorry but I do have to laugh a little at this statement. My platinum white HMPK Blaine (SIP) that had absolutely nothing else on him within months went completely blue. I have had such a hard time finding a white that stays white.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaStarter24 said:


> Sorry but I do have to laugh a little at this statement. My platinum white HMPK Blaine (SIP) that had absolutely nothing else on him within months went completely blue. I have had such a hard time finding a white that stays white.


The EE geno ones generally stay white. You don't often see marble EEs around yet. I didn't say all of them, I just meant its less chance. As I mentioned, any fish can marble at any time, we can't say for definite on one or the other.


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> And the cello boy! I've been alternating two names for him but I won't tell you Blue if you don't want to be influenced by it!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Lol, his face, it cracks me up!
> 
> 
> 
> Some nice splash of scales on the side there



Eeeek! He is coloring up nicely and looking so handsome! Can't wait to get him :-D I would love to know your name suggestions Lil! Corwin's stuck, so I'm sure you have something nice for this guy too. Probably going to give him his own 5 gallon tank too since my veiltail that I rescued a couple of weeks ago seems to have taken a liking to the minnows next door :lol:


----------



## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> Eeeek! He is coloring up nicely and looking so handsome! Can't wait to get him :-D I would love to know your name suggestions Lil! Corwin's stuck, so I'm sure you have something nice for this guy too. Probably going to give him his own 5 gallon tank too since my veiltail that I rescued a couple of weeks ago seems to have taken a liking to the minnows next door :lol:


Oh yes, he'll enjoy that!

I've been alternating between Bandit and Pierre. I'm not sure why but he seems French to me haha, but Bandit because of the black that stretches across his nose! The black deepens each day! :-D


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh yes, he'll enjoy that!
> 
> I've been alternating between Bandit and Pierre. I'm not sure why but he seems French to me haha, but Bandit because of the black that stretches across his nose! The black deepens each day! :-D


I'm liking Bandit! :-D He most definitely reminds me of one. It would be nice if he became solid black with the iridescent :O


----------



## lilnaugrim

Bandit or Panda? Either way, he likely won't end up with both the cello and black in the end but at least he seems like a steady marble! His fins seem to be doing better, though I'm not sure if his ventrals are just that short or if they won't grow back....it's hard to decide since one looks like it was bitten and the other looks normal just...really short....idk!

I have some more pictures! Whhhaaaa??? Pictures at night! How strange of me!

haha, yeah, I'll be busy tomorrow so I'm doing some posting tonight instead!

So big news guys! Big and kind of sad news :-( I took down the 29.....it was like putting down an old friend and gosh, I almost cried after everything was set. Mom was complaining about the money again and so I knew everything would fit comfortably in the 55 and so I did it. I have pictures of the progress from the last two years that I'm going to put into a video at some point and show you all from start to....finish.

On the bright side, the 55 does look gorgeous so that's nice. I did lose one of my female mollies, not sure if stress or aggression from RJ. He wasn't happy at first but got over it pretty quick when Acara distracted him.

You can see how they're set up in my room from my bed side.
"Say goodnight, sweet prince [tank]"


This is how I originally set up the 55 until I realized that my Finnex is definitely too small for anything permanent and the plants at the side need light.


And so I did this. I'm very pleased


So are my fish


The pair checking out the newbies


The Diamond kept with the mollies since she doesn't have a school yet--I get paid Friday and will get a couple more for her to start building up a nice school!



Pics of Bandit



Romeo, his Juliet's and RJ



Romeo likes his new females, he likes one in particular




My sweet, sweet girl


Was trying to get a pic of Severum but she kept getting in the way


Diamond!



Here she is


Bandit again









DSLR pics up next!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And DSLR Pictures!

My koi took an unexpected turn! She's turning black instead of red! Strange since black is under red so maybe she'll go red in time yet but I found this a very interesting development!




Pretty boy Solas!


Lady



Grizzle



Mosaic


Solas looks feminine but he's not, he's just a very pretty boy


Tempera is definitely girl, can see her ovary bulge


Black Devil still needs a name too


Lovely girl! She's actually not very sweet but I like to pretend lol


He was in the midst of turning which is why he looks shorter and distorted


My male Sunset Dust molly


Geronimo!



He looks broken but i assure you, he's not


Roman
"Does this plant clash with my colors?"


Zolla was out with me and so she was peeking at Ezio lol




Baby Severum


Diamond, she's so pretty. I'm glad to have them again, I loved Diamonds! They're so peaceful and gentle, they just kind of sit around and twitch their fins as they hover, much like Glowlights as well. Some Tetras are too jerky in their movements but Diamonds are pretty graceful


Glaston
Me "Did you eat your tail again?!"
Glaston "NO!"


"Come on, show them your tail"
Sorry, algae makes him look glowy and I didn't clean the glass, sorry!!


Two of my guppies. That bottom one doesn't have a long poop, nope, that's his extra long gonopodium that's pretty much the same length as he is! Apparently it's not usable lol


And Fresco! She's such a wonderful shade of blue!


And Romeo


----------



## Olivia27

You can call devil girl some famous female devil name XD like Lamia, Mermaid (they're devils no?), Siren or Banshee


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Black Devil still needs a name too


How about Sidi after snowflake obsidian?


----------



## Tealight03

I vote Sidi too. All the girls are gorgeous!


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Bandit or Panda? Either way, he likely won't end up with both the cello and black in the end but at least he seems like a steady marble! His fins seem to be doing better, though I'm not sure if his ventrals are just that short or if they won't grow back....it's hard to decide since one looks like it was bitten and the other looks normal just...really short....idk!


Definitely Bandit! I think naming him Panda would make me a little sad in the end if he ended up loosing all the cellophane. I'm glad to see that he is marbling out, because I've bought two cellophanes with coloring in hopes that they would marble out, I like marbles, and they never did :evil: Glad to finally have one that will! I see what you mean about his ventrals. It is kind of funny that they are short xD I have a double tail cellophane right now that has short ventrals like that too.

Also sorry to hear that you had to take down one of you tanks, and a big one to boot too :-( I hate taking down tanks, and it never lasts with me. I always have to set them back up after awhile.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> You can call devil girl some famous female devil name XD like Lamia, Mermaid (they're devils no?), Siren or Banshee





Aqua Aurora said:


> How about Sidi after snowflake obsidian?





Tealight03 said:


> I vote Sidi too. All the girls are gorgeous!


Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'm not super fond of Sidi for her though, it sounds too....insidious? I was thinking more like Silhouette again or possibly Shadow since she's hardly seen! Of course, makes it more difficult when it's black on black substrate and stuffed with seemingly a thousand plants lol.

I had considered just doing Onyx or Obsidian but too boyish and heavy for a small girl and too long for her. She needs something light and wispy almost but dark and elusive! I may stay with Silhouette since I do fancy the name quite a bit and she's the CT version of my last Silhouette who was HM and also a PetCo baby lol.



blueridge said:


> Definitely Bandit! I think naming him Panda would make me a little sad in the end if he ended up loosing all the cellophane. I'm glad to see that he is marbling out, because I've bought two cellophanes with coloring in hopes that they would marble out, I like marbles, and they never did :evil: Glad to finally have one that will! I see what you mean about his ventrals. It is kind of funny that they are short xD I have a double tail cellophane right now that has short ventrals like that too.
> 
> Also sorry to hear that you had to take down one of you tanks, and a big one to boot too :-( I hate taking down tanks, and it never lasts with me. I always have to set them back up after awhile.


Yeah, I do like Bandit for him too, he's such a cutie! He'd make a terrible thief though haha!

And thanks, yeah, the small ones don't take enough electricity to rationalize taking down. I absolutely cannot set up another larger tank, mom will literally kill me. I already have too much electricity (40B geckos, 55, 45, two 20longs, 4 gallon, 2.5, 1.5, and 1).

I'm going to....as much as I hate doing this, I'm going to also put up most of my boys for adoption as well. The only ones I'm keeping is Renegade and Mosaic. Geronimo, Macklin, Roman, Ezio, Velvet, and Glaston all need new homes. Adoption will be free as always, just pay $10 for shipping Priority or $35 for Express. I'll have to wait a bit, going to order more heatpacks come Friday when I'm paid. I can likely ship out next weekend and the following Monday/Tuesday as well.


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, I do like Bandit for him too, he's such a cutie! He'd make a terrible thief though haha!
> 
> And thanks, yeah, the small ones don't take enough electricity to rationalize taking down. I absolutely cannot set up another larger tank, mom will literally kill me. I already have too much electricity (40B geckos, 55, 45, two 20longs, 4 gallon, 2.5, 1.5, and 1).
> 
> I'm going to....as much as I hate doing this, I'm going to also put up most of my boys for adoption as well. The only ones I'm keeping is Renegade and Mosaic. Geronimo, Macklin, Roman, Ezio, Velvet, and Glaston all need new homes. Adoption will be free as always, just pay $10 for shipping Priority or $35 for Express. I'll have to wait a bit, going to order more heatpacks come Friday when I'm paid. I can likely ship out next weekend and the following Monday/Tuesday as well.


Yes I think so too!

I hear ya. I'm glad my parents haven't started to complain about all my tanks. Although I've offered to pay for the extra cost for electricity and water, especially now that I have two really big tanks.

I wish you luck on adopting out your boys! I'm sure they will all go to nice homes. I know it is hard to get rid of some of your fish too. I had to down size a couple of years back, and that about killed me to get rid of some of my bettas at the time.


----------



## Sadist

That little guppy is too funny. Who's he trying to impress with his gonopodium?

I love your sorority, and I'm glad it's working so well! I'd love to have one, but I don't have room for another tank, especially what I'd want to set up to have them.


----------



## Tealight03

I'm sorry you have to downsize. Hope they all find good homes.


----------



## themamaj

Lil I would love to adopt Ezio if you think he would be happy in a planted 2.5. He is such a beautiful boy and have admired him a long time. Would need to have him arrive on a Mon or Wed when off if possible. Let me know what you think. 

By the way I love the name Silhouette! It would be perfect for your girl.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Lil I would love to adopt Ezio if you think he would be happy in a planted 2.5. He is such a beautiful boy and have admired him a long time. Would need to have him arrive on a Mon or Wed when off if possible. Let me know what you think.
> 
> By the way I love the name Silhouette! It would be perfect for your girl.


Sure! That's what he's in right now actually 

Oh yeah, I forgot to say I only use PayPal too, no money orders or check through the mail; takes too long!

And yes! I can ship on a Saturday for Monday arrival if you'd like! I can also note for it to be held at the post office if you like; they don't always comply but most offices are good with that. You can PM me with the details and I can give my paypal to you. Again, it won't be for another week or so at least until I get my heat packs in which usually takes about a week.


----------



## kittenfish

Where do you get your heat packs? Ken's fish is the cheapest I've found but I don't know if I want to buy $50 worth of them for the free shipping. I mean I guess I'd go through that many eventually...


----------



## Olivia27

Do you have Amazon Prime? They give you one year free subscription if you're a student so that'll take care of the shipping fee if that's what you're worried about  I got my heat packs from eBay though.

(( why am I doing this )) Hey Lil, is black copper devil girl still there? After Saylor leaves I should be able to have her. Screw summer pet sitter fee. I'll just pick up more shifts at work


----------



## lilnaugrim

kittenfish said:


> Where do you get your heat packs? Ken's fish is the cheapest I've found but I don't know if I want to buy $50 worth of them for the free shipping. I mean I guess I'd go through that many eventually...


Idk, whoever is cheapest on AquaBid usually. I got the 40 hour ones last time which was stupid, fine for autumn/spring delivery but not winter.



Seren27 said:


> Do you have Amazon Prime? They give you one year free subscription if you're a student so that'll take care of the shipping fee if that's what you're worried about  I got my heat packs from eBay though.
> 
> (( why am I doing this )) Hey Lil, is black copper devil girl still there? After Saylor leaves I should be able to have her. Screw summer pet sitter fee. I'll just pick up more shifts at work


Nah, I don't buy from Amazon enough and I do NOT want to encourage myself to do that lol. Victoria does but I don't really care that much about the shipping. I need to wait till Friday because I literally have no money is why and that's payday for me lol.

And gosh, idk! Which one are you talking about? The most recent one that had more red in her fins? Or the smaller one from the second to last post? I haven't gone out to any pet stores in trying to avoid spending money and saving it just for foods until Friday. But Friday I will be back at the store with the recent pictures that had the new shipment in. Can't guarantee she'll be there but if she is, I can get her for you and foster her for a bit or just ship her out right away. Whatever you want me to do


----------



## Olivia27

The second one that has lotsa and lotsa red <3 oh and about Amazon I was talking to @kittenfish but good to know that you don't do Amazon xD 

Speaking of, this is totally impulsive ._. Rationally speaking I need to find an adopter for Saylor first =\ he doesn't have a lot to recover from. He might even be able to leave tomorrow say his adopter knows what they're doing. Without a guaranteed adopter I won't know how long you'd have to hold devil girl for me and that makes me feel bad  I'll go out there and "advertise" Saylor as much as I can ><


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> The second one that has lotsa and lotsa red <3 oh and about Amazon I was talking to @kittenfish but good to know that you don't do Amazon xD
> 
> Speaking of, this is totally impulsive ._. Rationally speaking I need to find an adopter for Saylor first =\ he doesn't have a lot to recover from. He might even be able to leave tomorrow say his adopter knows what they're doing. Without a guaranteed adopter I won't know how long you'd have to hold devil girl for me and that makes me feel bad  I'll go out there and "advertise" Saylor as much as I can ><


Ooh lol okay, thought you meant me, sorry! I do do Amazon, just not very often is all ^_^ I try not to online shop when I don't have money >.<

And no worries. I could just float her in the 55 for a while, I don't mind that. She won't have super fancy accommodations of course but I just can't guarantee that she'll be there for a while is all. We do have females that come in like that periodically. So if you want to wait and see, that's fine by me too  I can always update Friday after I've gone to check out to let you know if she's there or not. Females tend to not sell as quickly but that store just has a huge turnover rate for some reason! It's a big city-ish area but still, seems like a lot of fish to me!


----------



## Olivia27

Naw, no foster gets super fancy accommodations. Mine lives in critter keepers. And Saylor - who dared to rent one of the permanent tanks - is getting kicked out! XD 

Well I sure hope she's still there then  people tend to pass by the girls right? *fingers crossed*


----------



## lilnaugrim

Unfortunately I don't know Seren, that PetCo just has a huge turnover rate. But I'm going tonight! So I'll let you know whether she comes home with me or not. If she's not there but there is a similar fish, I'll show you pics tonight and you can decide yes or no and I can pick her up tomorrow then. 

Pics up next! ^_^


----------



## Sadist

I can't wait! I love torturing myself with pictures of all the fish I can't have


----------



## Olivia27

Crossing all my fingers and toes here xxx


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lovely female Molly


Diamond


Acara



Romeo, he's so beautiful!


Jules (Romeo's favorite) and Severum



Come at me bro!



Just kidding! I'm a pretty fish! Don't hurt me!


And the 55 as per how RJ has ruined it lol. He's a cichlid and so his natural reaction is to DIG. He dug up a bunch of the Rotala and the Hygro Corymbosa lol! It's okay though, they can just be replanted, no biggy!


After I cleaned out the 20 long yesterday, took out most of the duckweed; it's just going to come back but it looks nice for now. It looks very empty without the duckweed there  but the girls are happy at least.

I did release the three newbies but Koigirl proved to be a b*tch so I cupped her again until she calms her butt down.

Mosaic flaring at Lady Trevelyan


"Meh, never mind...you're cool" --Mosaic to Lady


It's crazy but Tempera, Fresco, and Mosaic are all the same size as koi girl! Which means they're almost adult size! They're still small compared to Rowan but everyone is small compared to Rowan lol


I accidentally scrapped Koi's nose during a water change before I decided to release them! Poor girl, felt bad about that but she's not ill or anything, it will heal in a couple of days


Starfyre needs a home too!


I'll put up an ad shortly in the marketplace


Solas still has a lot of growing to do before he's adopted out


Pretty Grizzle! She's an HM too! I got a huge deal on her and the large girl, I'm super happy with them both!





Mosaic is such a pretty boy



Koi


Deformed girl, still thinking on a name for these two.


Mosaic, Koi, and Tempera


Darn picture is out of focus but you get the idea. There is a lot less plants in there than I thought but I'll fix that come Sunday ^_^


I also cleaned the top glass vigorously! I can see through it, yay! Yeah, reminder tho those who even have hoods but have plants; clean off the glass that protects the bulb occasionally because it does get nasty and can dim your lights!


I also gave the gecko's their baths. I hadn't done it in a while and they all needed it. Nothing to do with shed since they're all shedding very well, but just to help keep them hydrated and healthy! Helps their organs too
Hawk wasn't pleased at first but then realized the rock was warm and was happy






Astrael was next


Along with Zolla. Zolla has the smaller spots. Astrael is a High Yellow and Zolla is a High Yellow Aberrant


My pretty girls!


And then there is Andraste the baby! I was really worried about her since I never see her eat but I occasionally see her poops so that means she's eating. Turns out she prefers crickets whereas everyone else prefers mealworms >.< So I separated her yesterday and she had a ball with the crickets I fed her! And then I gave her a bath as well and she LOVED it! Whereas everyone else was romping around in the water trying to get out, she sat right down and enjoyed it! I was a happy gecko-mama!



Luna was not happy so she didn't spend that much time in the bath


If only the pic was in focus, but she has adorable spots on her chin.


That's it for now!


----------



## themamaj

Look forward to the store pictures tonight. It is the fun of shopping and looking without the driving haha. How's my buddy Ezio today?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Look forward to the store pictures tonight. It is the fun of shopping and looking without the driving haha. How's my buddy Ezio today?


Idk, I'm at work lol. But he was just fine this morning when I left and turned the other lights on (still need a timer for the 55...sigh).

And lol, yeah, I suppose it's a lot like browsing through AquaBid for you guys, huh? haha! I like driving though so it's good for me too ^_^


----------



## Fenghuang

What a lovely assortment of girls you have, Lilnaugrim. Most of my store bought sorority females in the past have been rather drab... Found a copper black dragon HM and a "speckled" dragonscale HM last May at Petsmart, but all the ones I have seen since are the usual blue or turquoise veiltails. 

I love your store pics too. Window shopping without ever leaving my house! What more could a girl ask for? :lol:

EDIT: Could you keep an eye out for a nice EE girl? Preferably another color besides salamander. I don't want you to go out of your way or anything, but if you happen to come across one... Please. :-D Thank you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> What a lovely assortment of girls you have, Lilnaugrim. Most of my store bought sorority females in the past have been rather drab... Found a copper black dragon HM and a "speckled" dragonscale HM last May at Petsmart, but all the ones I have seen since are the usual blue or turquoise veiltails.
> 
> I love your store pics too. Window shopping without ever leaving my house! What more could a girl ask for? :lol:


Thank you! Though half ended up male >.< But that's the chance for PetCo Babies. In adults we don't have that kind of selection, it's usually just the same as you; red or blue VT's and CT's. Occasionally we get cello CT girls or the red blue VT girls. The ones I find lately are rare and I just happen to be at the store at the right time is what it is! Trust me though, it's not like I have these kinds of girls all over the place lol. I do frequently visit four different PetCo's so that is something not everyone has. Plus the two girls; koi and Lady are from Thailand so not all are from around here 

Lol, you guys crack me up! It's true though! And I love taking pictures for you guys ^_^


----------



## Fenghuang

Babies are definitely a gamble. I ended up with a salamander partial EE girl. Not my favourite color, but her personality sure makes up for it. She is like a freaking piranha. Imagine a tiny <1 inch fish leaping at your fingers for food and attacking them and her reflection and everything. She flitted around the tank more like a hummingbird than a betta fish. She never grew really big though. Even living in a 20 long with just two over residents.

I edited my last post, Lil, to ask a favor.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah sure! Though, I really can't guarantee since I've never seen an EE girl around here other than my Snowcap and even then, she's only EE geno. But yeah, I'll keep an eye out still ^_^

And yeah, Snowcap has grown but she's still smaller than my other PetCo babies are (minus Solas but he's still relatively new) but she seems to be Omega in the hierarchy. She does get picked on more but she picks right back. Her fins are healing pretty well despite it all


----------



## Fenghuang

Thank you. I am waiting for my girlfriend to bring me my breeders since they stayed for my two week winter break, but I am considering trying with this guy at some point. Because his pectorals... He has some weird finnage going on with his anal fin and ventrals though, so I don't know...


----------



## lilnaugrim

With the right girl, that's easy to fix. But yeah, the long pectorals are pretty common in my area. They come and go though so someone is breeding them :dunno:


----------



## Fenghuang

Holy cow you're a ninja, I think I was editing to try to find a better photo to show and you already responded!

Wow, you're lucky! I have only seen long pecs like that on a fish once before... But that was a long long time about like 7 or 8 years now. I love the look of them. They're about as long as his ventrals and are just always fluttering about when he flares. But I wonder if it is hard for him to have? He doesn't seem to have difficulty swimming, but you wouldn't consciously design flippers that drag that much for humans swimwear or anything...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Holy cow you're a ninja, I think I was editing to try to find a better photo to show and you already responded!
> 
> Wow, you're lucky! I have only seen long pecs like that on a fish once before... But that was a long long time about like 7 or 8 years now. I love the look of them. They're about as long as his ventrals and are just always fluttering about when he flares. But I wonder if it is hard for him to have? He doesn't seem to have difficulty swimming, but you wouldn't consciously design flippers that drag that much for humans swimwear or anything...


hehe! I am called lil'ninja for a reason! ^_^ SkyeWillow nicknamed me that when I kept ninja'in her posts XD Still calls me that on facebook too since we're friends haha.

Yeah, I don't remember what indjo had said about them, or maybe it was Hal....someone had said something about them sometime--yep lol! Super vague. But like it used to be the normal to see those guys around much like it used to be popular for Spades to be around all the time and now it's rare. But no, his fins vs. EE fins is like nothing. The pecs mostly keep balance whereas the caudal is what moves them forward more or less so it's not that bad for him at all.


----------



## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> hehe! I am called lil'ninja for a reason! ^_^ SkyeWillow nicknamed me that when I kept ninja'in her posts XD Still calls me that on facebook too since we're friends haha.
> 
> Yeah, I don't remember what indjo had said about them, or maybe it was Hal....someone had said something about them sometime--yep lol! Super vague. But like it used to be the normal to see those guys around much like it used to be popular for Spades to be around all the time and now it's rare. But no, his fins vs. EE fins is like nothing. The pecs mostly keep balance whereas the caudal is what moves them forward more or less so it's not that bad for him at all.


It is a fitting nickname lol. When I mention your username to my girl (you know, like when she asks where I got ANOTHER fish from haha), I say "lil' ninja" because I am bad at pronunciations.

Dang, I wonder what EE VTs would look like then... There was a picture someone posted a while ago of a red vt also, but I can't remember what it looked like for the life of me. Good to know he isn't struggling though. You're like a wealth of knowledge! Thanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> It is a fitting nickname lol. When I mention your username to my girl (you know, like when she asks where I got ANOTHER fish from haha), I say "lil' ninja" because I am bad at pronunciations.
> 
> Dang, I wonder what EE VTs would look like then... There was a picture someone posted a while ago of a red vt also, but I can't remember what it looked like for the life of me. Good to know he isn't struggling though. You're like a wealth of knowledge! Thanks!


Haha! Yeah no worries! most people don't understand that the lil and separate from the naugrim (naw-grim essentially) and so I get a plethora of different names here ^_^ lil works just fine for me though! It's funny since no one can pronounce my real name properly either XD or at least hardly anyone. It's De'Anna--yes, with capital A and everything! Most people say it like Deanna but it's Anna as in Anna from Frozen but with a De in front of it! So I just tell most people to call me De. It's a shock when people use my full name because I'm not used to it! lol. It's kind of sad sometimes really, but it's okay 

And I'd guess something like this ;-) :


----------



## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> Haha! Yeah no worries! most people don't understand that the lil and separate from the naugrim (naw-grim essentially) and so I get a plethora of different names here ^_^ lil works just fine for me though! It's funny since no one can pronounce my real name properly either XD or at least hardly anyone. It's De'Anna--yes, with capital A and everything! Most people say it like Deanna but it's Anna as in Anna from Frozen but with a De in front of it! So I just tell most people to call me De. It's a shock when people use my full name because I'm not used to it! lol. It's kind of sad sometimes really, but it's okay
> 
> And I'd guess something like this ;-) :


Oh! I have been saying it correctly! Was just afraid I would butcher it, since I usually do. It's an interesting name. Not very common obviously. I like it. 

Aw, but that isn't a real vt.  But joking aside, I guess you're right.


----------



## themamaj

Oh don't go tempting with those white fish...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Oh! I have been saying it correctly! Was just afraid I would butcher it, since I usually do. It's an interesting name. Not very common obviously. I like it.
> 
> Aw, but that isn't a real vt.  But joking aside, I guess you're right.


Thanks! :-D

And yeah yeah yeah lol



themamaj said:


> Oh don't go tempting with those white fish...


You can't have him anyway, he's just on google lol.


----------



## Olivia27

I only made this post to let you know I've been sitting here watching your journal for new posts for 4 hours now


----------



## themamaj

I think that means we are all anxious to see the Petco pictures lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm really sorry Seren, she wasn't there :-( I'll have pics up next but I just wanted to let you know  There wasn't even one that looked like her, they were only blue CT's and a cambodian.


----------



## Olivia27

Aw  

Well I wouldn't blame anyone who took her. She's lovely indeed. And this may be a good thing too! Less pet sitter fee! XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

So here are the prices for this specific store in Waterford:
I literally died when I saw the DS's were only 10 dollars....I may or may not have someone who came home with me after going to my house and going back to get him.....well, my mom is in FL now so she can't say anything! lol!



Some of the EE boy's, their pecs weren't that big though, kind of dissapointing


A different one


And adorable BF boy!



Very active little Copper boy



Bicolor next to him


It's hard to see but Feng, though you might enjoy him. He's white with a couple of blue spots, no idea if they would spread or anything but he was cute!





Beautifully formed Blue BF


An MG is seriously debated on. Aqua before you ask, ventrals were split but dorsal was lovely and broad. Couldn't really see his tail well, it was clamped. Anal fin was pointed. ^_^



Nice grizzle DT boy


This boy was one of the ones I saw last week as well and took a pic of and showed you guys. He was nice and feisty but still very attentive!



And then I found his brother....

May I present to you....

Lord Trevelyan....mate to Lady Trevelyan.....yep eventually I'd like to breed them.
Never fear, he's a partial Metallic and so his scales stop halfway and you can see the red underneath!
Also, his pectorals are fully red too



He's a full HM as well and he's only 10 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!! That was when I looked at the prices, I couldn't say no >.<


----------



## themamaj

Drooling over butterfly boy. Really nice colors that are different and not the traditional blue and white. Mustard plakat boy also very nice. 

Here is a question for you. Was out at my local Petco today and looked at some of their double tails. Are there different types of double tails? Some looked like they had obvious branches at the start of the caudal fin and others the split was higher in the fin. What is ideal as far as form? I know there are halfmoon versions as well as plakats. Most I looked at were halfmoons.


----------



## themamaj

Was grizzle a double or delta? Your dragon halfmoon has gorgeous colors! Great price too. Glad mom was in Fl


----------



## Fenghuang

Darn you, Lil! Always tempting with fish I don't need but so so so want. >.<

Lord Trevelyan is handsome. I hope didn't isn't rude to ask... It's not that I question your pick, but that I really don't have a great eye for this... What qualities make him more preferable as a breeder over his "brother"?


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I cant stop myself from thinking that the blue BF would be a perfect match for my female... but theres no way I can take on another betta at the moment let alone start thinking about breeding pairs...He's gorgeous though!!!


----------



## BettaStarter24

This guy though! If only I had room/money...


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Drooling over butterfly boy. Really nice colors that are different and not the traditional blue and white. Mustard plakat boy also very nice.
> 
> Here is a question for you. Was out at my local Petco today and looked at some of their double tails. Are there different types of double tails? Some looked like they had obvious branches at the start of the caudal fin and others the split was higher in the fin. What is ideal as far as form? I know there are halfmoon versions as well as plakats. Most I looked at were halfmoons.


It's all about genetics. So yes, it's the same with HM's as well and really any other tail type. As far as ideal form, the split of the caudal should go all the way to the body, dorsal fin shouldn't have stubby rays and it follows the same as HM standards; D shaped caudal, all fins meet at the same length and essentially makes a big circle.



themamaj said:


> Was grizzle a double or delta? Your dragon halfmoon has gorgeous colors! Great price too. Glad mom was in Fl


DT

Thanks! Actually it really doesn't matter since I'm not setting up a new tank for him, just going to float him in the 55 for now until I move out my other fish. I do always kind of feel bad about that :-/ but I do need to take down the 20long (new one, not sorority one).



Fenghuang said:


> Darn you, Lil! Always tempting with fish I don't need but so so so want. >.<
> 
> Lord Trevelyan is handsome. I hope didn't isn't rude to ask... It's not that I question your pick, but that I really don't have a great eye for this... What qualities make him more preferable as a breeder over his "brother"?


Heh, sorry! I thought you might like him though, he was cute.

And no worries, not rude at all!
It's really about pairing the male and female together. Lady is a full Metallic (DS) and so I want to reduce that a little, Lord's brother was another full Metallic and likely the babies would end up with Diamond eye galore and other issues. Lord is only a partial as we can see in the pics and so that will reduce scaling a bit. Lady is a full HM which is hard to find good ones, her branching comes near to RT though and I would keep HM. Lord's brother has too many branches in his tail and would result in more RT which would likely result in fin biting >.<

It's also about personal preference. Lord flared for me whereas his brother didn't. I prefer Lord Trevelyan's clean bicolor. I loved the stripe of white in his brother but his color bled too much for me.

Was there something in particular you saw that you had questions about? Or did I cover it?


----------



## themamaj

So can you actually make predictions of biting related to tail type?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> So can you actually make predictions of biting related to tail type?


Of course! The most common are just heavily laden fins, which means: anything from FT, RT, OHM, HM, Super DeT, and DeT are usually prone to biting. VT's usually have much longer fins and so they will bite if they're too long and inhibit their swimming ability. PK's of all types tend not to bite because they're fins are naturally short and the length they are naturally supposed to be. Anything other than Trad PK's are technically unnatural so the bigger the fins, the more likely they are to bite for *having too much fin as a reason*.

That's just one reason, the other main two are that the tank is too open and the tank is too bright. Betta's hate both of those things and so that can lead to stress which can lead to tail biting. Sometimes the fish becomes a chronic bitter and other times they stop after the problem is fixed.

Biting always comes down to stress, whether stress from the three reasons I mentioned here or some other tick that bothers them, it's all about stress! Which is why we always suggest lots of floating plants or plants that reach the top or big silk plants that cover more than 50% of the tank, it's all about reducing those stressers to ensure the Betta is comfortable and happy as can be ^_^


----------



## Olivia27

What about crown tails? Their fins always look so long and flowy to me just with less volume.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> What about crown tails? Their fins always look so long and flowy to me just with less volume.


_Usually_ they don't have issues. For them it's usually not about being weighed down like an HM would, it's more about the other two issues (too much light or not enough cover) than it is about their fins.

Oh and forgot, females usually don't bite either due to having shorter fins. Long finned females may bite but still are much less likely to bite than males are.


----------



## Olivia27

Well that sorta helps with my paranoia XD yay CTs!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Anyone else's Photobucket not working well today? Mine is giving me terrible trouble >.< I'm not about to upload 36 photos through this system here. I hate that this site doesn't allow more than one photo upload at a time instead of uploading all at once or rather just selecting the ones you want to upload and they load after that. Plus, with my photo sizes, it takes a while to actually load so it takes me like an hour just to upload 20-40 pictures >.< NOPE! Reasons I use Photobucket. At least with uploading directly to here, the photo links never break but still, if I only had a couple pics, I would but not with more than 10....toooo much!

Well, when it starts working for me again, I'll show you all the pics I've taken!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I just went to photobucket, I can move around the site and get at links fine.. I tested and was able to upload images ok too. Is your flash or java out of date? Clear cookies/cache (this usually works when websites are being weird for me)?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I just went to photobucket, I can move around the site and get at links fine.. I tested and was able to upload images ok too. Is your flash or java out of date? Clear cookies/cache (this usually works when websites are being weird for me)?


Just cleared out cache/cookies/history and seems to be working better! Thanks for the reminder. I always forget to do that occasionally lol.


----------



## Olivia27

Some photos upload fine some just won't. I have troubles too =\


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, nope it's being bad again. It might be my wifi possibly.

It's not letting me move things or delete albums. I deleted the pic fine. The other DSLR photos, only 5 out of 36 uploaded soooo yeah. I'll just have to wait until I'm home tonight to upload everything.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I notice photobucket uploads then sorts chronologically by the time stamp your computer put on the photo. At least that's how it is with my photo bucket settings. So an older photo can end up on a back page instead of the front with newest uploads even thought I uploaded it to photobucket today.

edit: hmm never-mind, sounds like that not the issue here.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I notice photobucket uploads then sorts chronologically by the time stamp your computer put on the photo. At least that's how it is with my photo bucket settings. So an older photo can end up on a back page instead of the front with newest uploads even thought I uploaded it to photobucket today.


I know that. I sort my uploads into albums of their own with just the pictures from that day's uploads. So today's album is titled 2016-1-20 to keep them in chronological order that way. I rarely use the bucket album. It's not an issue of where it's going, it simply won't upload them. I have this problem occasionally and I really think it's more to do with the wifi than anything.

EDIT: derp, just saw your edit too lol. nvm me!


----------



## themamaj

Look forward to seeing pictures. Thanks for info on biting. Very helpful.


----------



## themamaj

Lil did you get the invoice? Let me know when ready to ship.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I did, thanks. As I said, it won't be until another week or two. I'll let you know before he goes out of course and give you tracking; I always do.


----------



## themamaj

Thanks! Looking forward to him coming.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay! So Photobucket had gone down that night for maintenance, that was half my issue lol. It's working better but still refused to upload two of my photos so I'll just add them through the attachment system here instead. At least they'll be permanent :dunno:

Okay, I have a lot of updates because of that whole snafu thingy with photobucket so bear with me!
My fish in the 45 go absolutely nuts for seaweed! I highly recommend it for those of you with grazer fishes. Anything Omnivore or Herbivore will loooove this suff! Some of my carnivores eat it as well but it doesn't seem to bother them. It's not a staple food of course so they still get flakes and frozen foods but it's fantastic for rainbows, angels, cories, and sharks for sure!

You can see my half eaten giant temple plant in the back >.>


Okay, so Victoria and I went out to Mass. last Sunday to Tropic Isle and Uncle Neds (never buying fish from there again! They wouldn't do anything about her Angel that she bought and it died two days later! They said nothing was wrong with their stock and so it must have been her. She's an established fish keeper and the tank she acclimated it to has been running for just over 2 years now....it's definitely established and fully matured!). She bought most stuff and I just went home with one fish.

But man, they had beautiful betta's! We almost both took one home but we couldn't, it wouldn't have been right!
Little Yellow "Koi"


This was Peachy boy, Toria wanted to bring him home. I don't blame her!



He also had a huge bubblenest you can see at the top


Another marble


This marble MG-ish boy almost came home with me. He looked slightly miserable but damn, he was beautiful!








Red Koiboy that she almost took home as well


Another cutie



Then we stopped by a PetCo. Beautiful Black Orchid!


Blue BF marble


And then these are from Wednesday. Went to Critter Hut



Beautiful MG that almost came home with me but I resisted!



And just had to show off these cutie patooties!! I love Zebra and Leopard Angels, so beautiful! This little one was just larger than a quarter


And my PetCo last night. This poor Bicolor was still there. This store's dragons are still 15 bucks. If they were down to 10, I would get him, rehab him and sell him here but alas, I don't want to spend that much without knowing he'd have a home



A cutie Red Dragon



So going back to last Saturday. You all remember this guy at the PetCo? Well I picked him up for someone on the forum but they have said that their husband won't allow another fish. Today is her last day to respond to me and she's pretty much ignored me. I'm going to keep him for a while, he's just floating in the 55 anyway. He's such a gorgeous fish but he's got something up with his cheek. I'll see if I can heal him and then either keep him or send him to someone here if I find I can't house him well enough.


He has beautiful colors!


And just a couple days ago he started to flare! He flares at everything! My god, his form....so desirable except his vents which are split but IDK! If I don't breed Lord and Lady Trevelyan then I may just find him a pretty woman to breed with!



Lord Trevelyan when we got home from dad's



My mollies are not...the brightest fish in the tank.....Bandit was simply confused as to why the fish had jumped in with him lol. Otherwise, he's doing very well!


And here is the one fish I took home from Uncle Ned's. A Threadfin Acara! Likely what will happen is Victoria and I will move to Mass to finish off her education and I will probably only be able to take my Leo's with me and maybe one tank. It depends on the electricity rates and what she brings since she also has a Bearded Dragon too, that's already a lot of electricity between the two of us. So I will likely have to take down all my tanks at that point and sell fish off. It all depends on what happens though. Even if I go to dads, I'll only be able to take my Geckos really and maybe a small 2.5g. So I wanted to own this fish while I can for the moment. I haven't been able to find good Diamond Tetras yet for a good price so I'm waiting on those guys. The 55 is just about stocked well now for fishes.
(3 Pearls, 3 Mollies, 3 Betta's technically, 1 Diamond, 1 Red Jewel, 1 EB Acara, 1 Threadfin Acara, 1 Severum juvie, 1 Redtail Black Shark juvie, 1 BN Pleco juvie)
But here is the beautiful boy! RJ was wary of him but they're dealing with each other better now. I was wondering if I was going to get some sort of love triangle between Acara and the Threadfin and RJ lol we'll see.





Here's my lovely female BN



Okay, went over my WORD limit this time instead pics >.< All up next!


----------



## Olivia27

Aw that PK is gorgeous! I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding him a new home when it comes down to it!


----------



## Sadist

Seren27 said:


> Aw that PK is gorgeous! I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding him a new home when it comes down to it!


+1


----------



## lilnaugrim

And the tank a few days ago. RJ decided to redecorate and pulled up most of the Rotala. I just left it floating anyway. And then he moved a bunch of the silk plants on the right plus he pulled up the Crinum Natans plant (big octopus like plant) lol


Bandit this morning




Acara just putzing about


Threadfin

And the Lord! Man, he's so beautiful!




Okay, DSLR pics up next!

MG boy


Don't know if you noticed but he had a split in his tail before in one of his earlier pics. It's all healed up now!
Split you can see here:


But not here ^_^





Bandit





Romeo


This one is Jules. She's shorter in body than Juliet and likes me more lol. She greets me with Romeo whereas Juliet just comes up as an after thought.


Juliet


Threadfin


RJ








Male molly


Lord T. before he went into tank


And the sorority!
Koi


Solas


I adore Tempera's body lol. --things you can say about fish but not about humans XD



Deformed girl. I really need to name these guys


Grizzle








Mosaic and Koi are about the same size!


Fresco has become elusive these days but boy is she beautiful! She has some red wash going on too that recently came up. Pretty sure she's also a PK as well


The gang begging for food as always




Lady is such a beautiful girl! Don't you agree?





Apisto and Convict


Starfyre



Lady T


Tempera


FEED US


As always, thanks for looking and commenting!


----------



## blueridge

Bandit is looking great :O I love the black that he is developing on his nose! Also if you decide not to keep that plakat boy I wouldn't mind taking him. You could just ship him out with Bandit :lol:


----------



## Sadist

I love Bandit's face as he looks at you!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Wait... Bandit? When did that happen? I must have missed a page 

Ugh that critter hut mg.. if only he was pk! 

I've never seen a leopard angel before  so cool! If I didn't already have an angel I'd ask you to buy and ship that my way, but my girl would kill that little thing.

I have a copper and gold fin betta at my petco that looks similar to the one at yours I was also tempted by but again those long fins...do not want.

Incidentally I'm looking for giants as my husband's taken an interest and wants to use one of the 10gs for one (though I 'd probably upgrade it to the 20g long) so if you see any pk giants let me know/take pics! From reading on this forum it seems 3.5" is king/half giant and 4-7" is true giant, correct? I looked at aquabid and didn't see any giants I liked.. not paying $80 for that giant metallic blue black female on ebay either.


----------



## BettaStarter24

There's a really really nice dragon giant on AB, not sure if you saw him though Aqua. 

Talk to chocolateturtle too. Her petco recently got a nice shipment of really big "kings" not sure what they'll have next shipment though. My roommate grabbed one from last shipment, he just arrived today and he's about 3.5 inches (Same size as my Zuri and Mom's Kevin who are full giants who are almost 4 months old and still growing).

EDIT: The dragon I was talking about is no longer on AB


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I'm going to regret this... But Lil... can you keep an eye out for a true purple male? I'm not that particular on tail type but HM, DT, DeT, VT, and CT depends on the fish. I like solids or with white or black patterns, as long as the purple is vibrant. I have a bright red male and a bright blue female at the moment, so purple is on my wish list!

Thanks!


----------



## Sadist

I saw a purpley grizzle at Walmart yesterday! I'm not sure what that color turns into when it's in a good environment.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

BettaStarter24 said:


> There's a really really nice dragon giant on AB, not sure if you saw him though Aqua.
> 
> Talk to chocolateturtle too. Her petco recently got a nice shipment of really big "kings" not sure what they'll have next shipment though. My roommate grabbed one from last shipment, he just arrived today and he's about 3.5 inches (Same size as my Zuri and Mom's Kevin who are full giants who are almost 4 months old and still growing).
> 
> EDIT: The dragon I was talking about is no longer on AB


I've checked once a day on ab, no giants I like. Want a giant not a king, though I admittedly was tempted by the copper kings chocolateturtle posted but they were gone fast. My petco has 3 kings but they're not what I'm after.


----------



## BettaStarter24

The one my roommate got is HUGE, he's definitely giant. He's the same size as my full giant from the Betta Shop. Keep an eye out, maybe one will pop up.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Will answer everything later but wanted to post pictures from tonight's fish just in case anyone wants any! I'll check back later when I have time!

yellow DeT
VERY inquisitive!



This guy is STILL there!


Still healthy too!


Blue EE


Marble too



Yellow Salamander EE who became more active after this pic



MG DT


A BEAUTIFUL orange DT


This guy was still there


Also still there


He's also marbling out to white apparently!


I may bring this boy home tomorrow if no one gets him....


HE HAS BLUE LIPSTICK!



Copper DeT still there


Lord T's brother still there too. Not new picture but he didn't change


----------



## Olivia27

OMG Lil I have that yellow EE's twin brother right here in my Petco! XD he's not there anymore today though.

Look look!



And... gee, only if that red BF is a blue.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> And... gee, only if that red BF is a blue.


Lol that's awesome. 

And uh, did you look at the pic below? That's the Blue BF HMDT....no worries if you don't like him lol but figured I'd mention.


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol that's awesome.
> 
> And uh, did you look at the pic below? That's the Blue BF HMDT....no worries if you don't like him lol but figured I'd mention.


But that one's marbling :roll: I'm insanely picky ._.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Oh my that blue EE though! If I didn't already have an idea in my head of what kind I want next..... He's gorgeous...but I want a purple...but he's gorgeous


----------



## Tealight03

They're all so pretty. Out of curiosity, what is Starfyre?


----------



## SplashyBetta

I'm so tempted by that yellow EE... How much do EE cost? I can't keep track of all the prices


----------



## BettaStarter24

That Dalmatian plakat is gorgeous if only I had room...


----------



## Sadist

I love the copper det! That violet hue on his fins is gorgeous! I have even less room than before, though.


----------



## lilnaugrim

EEs cost 15 here


----------



## themamaj

That blue plakat looks so much like my alpine before he turned solid blue. All the fish you posted were lovely. Any new Ezio pictures?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Wait... Bandit? When did that happen? I must have missed a page
> 
> Ugh that critter hut mg.. if only he was pk!
> 
> I've never seen a leopard angel before  so cool! If I didn't already have an angel I'd ask you to buy and ship that my way, but my girl would kill that little thing.
> 
> I have a copper and gold fin betta at my petco that looks similar to the one at yours I was also tempted by but again those long fins...do not want.
> 
> Incidentally I'm looking for giants as my husband's taken an interest and wants to use one of the 10gs for one (though I 'd probably upgrade it to the 20g long) so if you see any pk giants let me know/take pics! From reading on this forum it seems 3.5" is king/half giant and 4-7" is true giant, correct? I looked at aquabid and didn't see any giants I liked.. not paying $80 for that giant metallic blue black female on ebay either.


Are you talking about Bandit's name decision? If so, that was done a few pages ago and I've referred to him by that a few times now lol. Blue liked it 

A real giant won't usually get over 5 inches, 7 is absolutely insane and I've never heard of that before! Maybe there was that one rarity? Anywho, I'll keep an eye out but mostly we just get regular Kings, no real Giants.



OUOhYeah2016 said:


> I'm going to regret this... But Lil... can you keep an eye out for a true purple male? I'm not that particular on tail type but HM, DT, DeT, VT, and CT depends on the fish. I like solids or with white or black patterns, as long as the purple is vibrant. I have a bright red male and a bright blue female at the moment, so purple is on my wish list!
> 
> Thanks!


There is actually no such thing as a true purple. Royal Blue is the closest which can appear purple-ish in certain lights. But in reality, no true purple or green (turquoise) exists. But I'll keep an eye out anyway, can't promise too much ^_^



Seren27 said:


> But that one's marbling :roll: I'm insanely picky ._.


Oh fine! lol



Tealight03 said:


> They're all so pretty. Out of curiosity, what is Starfyre?


He's a regular red VT



themamaj said:


> That blue plakat looks so much like my alpine before he turned solid blue. All the fish you posted were lovely. Any new Ezio pictures?


Thanks!

And no, he's off to the side so I forget about him quite a bit to be honest. Can't take pics of everyone all the time. He'll get updated eventually.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I know, but some get really close! I've also seen more like a lavender but that's less striking I guess. Thanks for keeping an eye out! I know it's not the easiest request, but I figure I've got a better shot at it with multiple people on the lookout! Not gunna lie though, still daydreaming about that blue EE you posted... but I can't right now.


----------



## themamaj

Lil are you still snowed in? Haven't heard updates lately. Any Petco visits for us to see? Hope you are doing well. Say hi to Ezio for me.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh gosh no lol. We got about a foot at my house (average was about 6 inches for the state though) but it's pretty much all melted now! We had a warm spell after it snowed so it started to melt the day after which was very nice ^_^ I just haven't had much to update on is all. Photobucket is under maintenance again so I'm kind of stuck with the pics. I did go to my PetCo today, the good one. Got TribalElephant a lovely yellow salamander EE boy after a couple weeks of looking around ^_^ There were some nice red sally and blue sally's there. Two beautiful blue BF marbles with white/red heads! Heck, almost took it home for myself to foster for a bit before selling to you guys lol. But they are 15 bucks each (I'd ask 16, dollar commission for spending the gas to go there and for the time).

I finally found a couple of nice Diamond Tetras and so got three more for my small school of four now in the 55. And apparently my cichlids love the taste of Livebearer. When I first put in the four mollies, one did die but I thought it was just stress or something. Saw them picking at the body the day after (which was when I found it). And then yesterday I noticed that I could only find one! Somehow they'd eaten two more without me noticing! I suppose since I always saw the one, that I assumed the rest were still there. I generally do check my tanks to see if all the fishes are there but sometimes things escape me, this was one of those times. Then today, I found the last dead with them eating her >.< so yeah, they like the taste of livebearer. Haven't touched the Diamonds or the Pearls or the BN Pleco/RTBS either so that's fine. No more mollies for me. 

I also got a new angel for the 45 downstairs so Ghost has a friend. Ghost is my Platinum angel for those who don't know. Templar is the new girl in town, or guy, idk yet. He's a beautiful zebra! The ones I'd shown you all last week or so. They're healed up now and he was the best the of the lot!


So yeah....once Photobucket gets off it's behind, I'll show you all the photos


----------



## themamaj

Look fwd to updates. Butterfly with red/white head. That's intriguing. Are your cichlids a smaller variety?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Look fwd to updates. Butterfly with red/white head. That's intriguing. Are your cichlids a smaller variety?


Red Jewel, Electric Blue Acara, Threadfin Acara, juvie Orange Shoulder Severum. All but the Severum stay about 5-6 inches.


----------



## vaetki

lilnaugrim said:


> So yeah....once Photobucket gets off it's behind, I'll show you all the photos


Have you tried using imgur at all? I switched to that after using PB as well and I found that it's a lot cleaner and doesn't lag like PB does. x_x You can upload multiple images at once and create albums, etc.


----------



## ao

^+1! Imgur rocks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yes, I actually use Imgur frequently (okay, daily, I'm addicted >.<) But I like to use one source at a time, expend it, and move on. So since this photobucket account is fairly new, I'm going to use it until I fill it up like I did my last one and then move on from there. It's just how I work :dunno: 

Anywho, lots to update!

Geronimo was given to a friend (the same one who took Impulse who then died of Dropsy....idk), she's going to rename him Steele after the sleddog from Balto.

Ezio was sent out to themamaj, she's renaming him Aspen. She'll let us know when he arrives I'm sure!

And then I finally found the perfect fish for TribalElephant so he is also on his way as of yesterday! I have pictures of him for her as well but you all will get to see him too.

Sam finally passed away on Friday sadly.

I played the Betta shuffle. Roman, Renegade, and Macklin are still in the extra 20 long. Starfyre has joined where Geronimo was. Starfyre has also found a home with another friend, she loves red VTs so she loves him lol. I'm just helping her set up her tank in the mean time and then he'll go to her.

Glaston has moved up to the 2.5, I've added some Ghost shrimp with him just because I can. It was funny, I had added three Cherry shrimps to his bowl previously just to see what he'd do. I thought he ate them since I never saw them again. Turns out all three lived just fine! lol, so I'm keeping the bowl set up behind the 2.5 with some floating java fern windlov's so they can chill there and the tank can still get some light.

I still need to rehome Velvet, Roman, and Macklin if anyone will take them. Solas should also go, he's still quite young and now he has a kink in his spine just at his peduncle. Strange I enver noticed it before but he's still healthy. I've separated him and Snowcap in a breeder box. Poor Snowcap, I didn't realize just how much she was getting beaten up on until they took off her pectoral >.> it was her nice one too, the fully opaque one. So she's going to stay separate for a while (maybe forever). I separated Mosaic too but he loves the sorority life. He jumped out of the box and back in last night. I can't find the darn cover for that box, I'll have to search more tonight because i have a feeling he jumped out again, :roll: silly boy, doesn't he know sororities are for girls? (lol, funny because my fraternity and our sister sorority are both co-ed haha!)

And of course, photobucket was working just fine when I started this....now it's being sh*ty again......arg. I've had just as much troubles with Imgur too though....sucky. I mind as well just attach the forty pictures here...it'd likely take less time :roll:

Yep, just gonna attach them. At least they're permanent that way. Most of the pictures on my journal are broken anyway due to using various hosting sites.

Here's the Yellow Sally HMEE of TribalElephant















Floated him with Roman to see if I could get him to flare. Unfortunately or Fortunately, Roman was the only one to flare lol



















































And Macklin just does...Macklin things lol















Renegade






















Mustard HMPK, I'm keeping him for now  I do enjoy him. He still has his pimply thing but it doesn't seem to be inhibiting him from flaring at all and pushing his gill plate out to fully flare, it just bends with him. I wonder if it's painful at all, though, if it were, I'd imagine that he wouldn't flare so much!






















Technically speaking, this photo is awful; the eyes aren't in focus! But darn, look at those pectorals! That's what makes this picture lol! Love him ^_^















And stinks that there is those lines in the middle but his fins are so luscious! I'm afraid to put him in the split tank because I don't want him to bite his fins at all! I don't think he would since they aren't heavy and he hasn't done it yet....but there's always a chance! I think once Glaston goes, he'll have the 2.5 planted.















Bandit








The two sides of Romeo lol















Severum, definitely female, look at that ovipositer down there! I'm good at picking out female cichlid's apparently!








Diamond's, not sure if it's the same one or different. Oh well, doesn't matter. I've seem to have lost one....hope RJ or Threadfin didn't eat them >.> I'm not getting more until I know these three are safe. Unfortunately, I have two males and a female. They don't bother the female, they just constantly spar each other!















Threadfin








Juvie RTBS doing his job! :-D








Velvet!















They look like I've intruded on a super secret meeting.....whoops!
Deformed girl (I really should name them....nothing is coming to mind though! I thought about Doodle Bug or Sketch but they don't really fit her) has really darkened up! Still hasn't put on enough weight though.








I can't help it, the Apisto looks like that crazy roommate who partied a little too hard the night before and woke up at 1pm the next day XD lol!








And my beautiful Mosiac! Even his blue is gorgeous! He's a steel blue which is becoming more rare to see! But yeah, that Apisto! He cracks me up!








Okay, so fun story time! I went to PetSmart yesterday to see if they had any Ghost Shrimpies for my RJ, Acara, Threadfin! They did! Had a whole bunch! So I sucked it up and asked for 20 of them. She grabbed a good 23 for me just in case some died (they're food anyway so I didn't care lol). Some of these were beautiful and very large! I also got a 75 Watt heatlamp on sale for 7 bucks, a small box of small crickets for Andraste the gecko and a new Amazon Sword plant because it looked extremely healthy and big.

So I get up to the register, the lady forgot to add the number of shrimp in the bag so they guy rang it up as only one! I didn't realize until I went to pay but heck, I wasn't going to say anything! I saved like 7-8 dollars on that! So yeah....the story of when I stole technically 19 ghost shrimp from PetSmart XD lol!!

So I added five of them to Glaston's 2.5 just because I wanted to. He may kill them, he may not! We'll see. It will be fun for him to chase them anywho, he needs the distraction so he doesn't bite his tail.

So here he is in the 2.5 now, he's a happy boy!
"You can't see me!"















I see you shrimp!
















"Can you flare for me buddy?" -me
"How about a gill? I can give you a gill"
"That's not...that's not really...okay" -me


----------



## Sadist

My female flares more than my males! Well, she flares at me, and the males flare at a mirror (Tequila) or my finger (Sky) if I try to pet.


----------



## Tree

How long did it take your sorority to calm down? Some of mine are still giving chase and nipping. 

I love that pug face girl, omg! She is a doll!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> How long did it take your sorority to calm down? Some of mine are still giving chase and nipping.
> 
> I love that pug face girl, omg! She is a doll!


They still aren't very calm, it's been about a month-ish. It usually takes about 2 weeks after the last girl's arrival to fully settle in but can take longer depending on some personalities. My koi girl likes to start crap unfortunately so I have to separate her occasionally. Lady Trevelyan usually stop her so that helps.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Now that Photobucket isn't throwing a tantrum, I can show you all the pics I took with my phone over the last week!

I've decided to call him Render! The MG HMPK boy. Keeping him for now.



Short video of his beautiful flare!


Trevelyan


He doesn't flare much but this is just a short video of him begging for more food
Guest appearance of Acara! lol


Bandit


He also doesn't flare much, another short video of him begging for foods


4 gallon


45 gallon


I found out that I have two different types of Otos! There are two main species; vittatus and vestitus. But I don't know which is which, I just think they are. The only real way to tell I guess is by doing a scale count but...that's nearly impossible without the right equipment and either being knocked unconscious or dead lol. Anywho
this one is also bigger


And the other one


Ghost!


We welcome a new Angel to the group! Templar is her name! Was hoping for a boy but two girls is fine, at least they likely won't fight too bad as they grow. I can always rehome if necessary. People love Angels around here.
Templar is a Zebra






And Starfyre before I moved him




You guys might not think it, but the 4 gallon without lights on but sunlight hitting it, I thought it looked very pretty lol.


And did some rescaping on the 55 in hopes RJ wouldn't dig up the plants again but he did already. Oh well. Rotala will be left floating I guess! I left the right side open because that's his nesting area


And after the Betta Shuffle, Glaston got the 2.5 gallon. I took his big windlov plant and stuffed it in there as well in the middle. This tank only has java fern, anubias, and some small crypts


----------



## vaetki

ahhh that 4g is beautifully done! what type of moss are you using?


----------



## Sadist

I have both species of otos, too! The lighter ones are a little bigger than the darker ones. The darker ones also have smoother top coloring while the lighter ones look like overlapping dots.

I love your tanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

vaetki said:


> ahhh that 4g is beautifully done! what type of moss are you using?


Thanks! It's kind of not the way I want it right now, still has some work to do. I'm trying to make a tree out of clay instead of buying bonsai driftwood because it's so darn expensive!

Moss is just regular Java Moss, it's only in there because it came with the shrimps and I haven't taken it out just yet. It will likely eventually go on the tree if I'm able to make it.



Sadist said:


> I have both species of otos, too! The lighter ones are a little bigger than the darker ones. The darker ones also have smoother top coloring while the lighter ones look like overlapping dots.
> 
> I love your tanks!


Yeah! Exactly. The black lines on the side are slightly different as well, same with the white line on top of the black one; on one of the species it's slightly smaller than the other. The caudal pattern is also different. 

Thanks!


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> They still aren't very calm, it's been about a month-ish. It usually takes about 2 weeks after the last girl's arrival to fully settle in but can take longer depending on some personalities. My koi girl likes to start crap unfortunately so I have to separate her occasionally. Lady Trevelyan usually stop her so that helps.




Ah okay, that's good to know. Yeah I have seen a lot of personalities going on in the tank of mine. I had to separate one girl for a good 2 hours in the QT and now she seems to have calmed down. Might have to do that for my other angry girl as well. I have tried the 15 minute time out but they just don't listen. LOL Children am I right?! 

thanks for the advice!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> Ah okay, that's good to know. Yeah I have seen a lot of personalities going on in the tank of mine. I had to separate one girl for a good 2 hours in the QT and now she seems to have calmed down. Might have to do that for my other angry girl as well. I have tried the 15 minute time out but they just don't listen. LOL Children am I right?!
> 
> thanks for the advice!


For time outs, you actually want to do more like 2 days or more, not minutes or hours; that does nothing for them 

You may also find that one girl is too aggressive to be in sorority life, this is why we do the thing where you float the new girl in the tank for 2 weeks before she goes in; can see but not touch. Sometimes, even if you do this, the girl is too aggressive and should be taken out of the tank immediately and rehomed/put into different tank. A girl that is too aggressive will never 'calm down' unfortunately, best just to keep her out.


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> For time outs, you actually want to do more like 2 days or more, not minutes or hours; that does nothing for them
> 
> You may also find that one girl is too aggressive to be in sorority life, this is why we do the thing where you float the new girl in the tank for 2 weeks before she goes in; can see but not touch. Sometimes, even if you do this, the girl is too aggressive and should be taken out of the tank immediately and rehomed/put into different tank. A girl that is too aggressive will never 'calm down' unfortunately, best just to keep her out.


how much is too aggressive? Like if they hunt out the others for sport or attacking them when they are at the surface only? I've had some occasions where one will get kicked away from the food but I've been nipping that in the butt.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> how much is too aggressive? Like if they hunt out the others for sport or attacking them when they are at the surface only? I've had some occasions where one will get kicked away from the food but I've been nipping that in the butt.


Constantly chasing, constantly nipping/biting. Some torn fins are normal but if it progresses or doesn't stop over about a month then it's likely time to take out the aggressor.

Aggression just during feeding time is pretty normal. Keep your girls well fed, twice daily if you need to. Their bellies should pretty much be plump all the time, not bulging and drospy-like (although, sometimes it happens and it's okay) but plump and just well-fed. You can spread food across the top so they can feed in their own area's--although, half the time they're stubborn and just all congregate in the middle lol.


----------



## Tree

Okay, well I know there was constantly chasing the first few days. But now it had calmed down. But I will watch closely for any signs of that. thanks Lil


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> Okay, well I know there was constantly chasing the first few days. But now it had calmed down. But I will watch closely for any signs of that. thanks Lil


Ah, okay, that's good! And np!


----------



## themamaj

He's here! (Ezio) Aspen arrived healthy and safely. A little pale from journey but sure will color up as soon as acclimate. I'll post some pictures when get settled and more info on the J Journals. Thanks so much!


----------



## themamaj

Aspen is settling in nicely. His color is starting to brighten, he has been off exploring and has flared a little at his neighbors. He ate some pellets and seems to really like the floating plants. Thank you again. I am really happy to have him home! I'll keep you posted on his progress.


----------



## Tealight03

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks! It's kind of not the way I want it right now, still has some work to do. I'm trying to make a tree out of clay instead of buying bonsai driftwood because it's so darn expensive!
> 
> Moss is just regular Java Moss, it's only in there because it came with the shrimps and I haven't taken it out just yet. It will likely eventually go on the tree if I'm able to make it.
> 
> Thanks!


.

I've been wanting to make a tree too. I was thinking about using cholla wood. What kind of clay are you using?

Do you have a deadline for re-homing everyone? Not that I need one more but......


----------



## themamaj

You guys have me pondering a sorority again. I have thought about it a lot in the past but seemed to read such mixed reviews on trying one. Tealight is yours a 10 gallon? Lil how many girls could you do in a 10 if it was super heavy planted? Is there a way to tell which girl would be most aggressive or is it just one of those things that you have to see how they would respond when put together? Is it better to have girls about the same age or helpful to have an older girl in the mix? I have eight girls currently so I could pick and choose personalities and just do some of them in sorority, but I know sometimes one you think is passive could change when feels stressed. How can you tell who is the alpha female? Is she typically the aggressor or protector?


----------



## Tealight03

I don't have a sorority. I did look into it but Lil scared me away lol. I am super jealous of Lil's.


----------



## themamaj

Sorry I guess it was Tree's posts I was reading.


----------



## Tealight03

Oh no worries. I realized after I replied here you may have meant Tree.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> "Can you flare for me buddy?" -me
> "How about a gill? I can give you a gill"
> "That's not...that's not really...okay" -me
> View attachment 709578


That one gill semi flare is what Chiyome sometimes does to me when I put my finger to her tank, she flared the gill away from my husband so from his view she is acting nice but its like she's grumble/whispering under her breath "I will [censor]ing kill you if you don't get that finger off my tank!" She doesn't do it very often though.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Aspen is settling in nicely. His color is starting to brighten, he has been off exploring and has flared a little at his neighbors. He ate some pellets and seems to really like the floating plants. Thank you again. I am really happy to have him home! I'll keep you posted on his progress.


Glad he made it! Unfortunately the other EE guy I sent out didn't somehow :-(



Tealight03 said:


> .
> 
> I've been wanting to make a tree too. I was thinking about using cholla wood. What kind of clay are you using?
> 
> Do you have a deadline for re-homing everyone? Not that I need one more but......


What I'm going to try to do is going to be tricky, especially for a shrimp tank, might be fine for a normal tank though. I'm going to do a thin wire base to sculpt that clay around. I'm using regular Sculpy clay, once you bake it, it's sealed. As long as you don't make it too thick (this is where the wire helps support it), it won't crack. Then I'm going to paint it with regular acrylics and seal it with three coats of a polymer sealer stuff I used for my gecko tank. People use it for vivarium/paludariums so I know it's aquarium safe. I'll likely soak it for a couple weeks to make sure nothings changed of course before I go adding it to a shrimp tank! But yeah, that's what I'll eventually do when I have the time.



themamaj said:


> You guys have me pondering a sorority again. I have thought about it a lot in the past but seemed to read such mixed reviews on trying one. Tealight is yours a 10 gallon? Lil how many girls could you do in a 10 if it was super heavy planted? Is there a way to tell which girl would be most aggressive or is it just one of those things that you have to see how they would respond when put together? Is it better to have girls about the same age or helpful to have an older girl in the mix? I have eight girls currently so I could pick and choose personalities and just do some of them in sorority, but I know sometimes one you think is passive could change when feels stressed. How can you tell who is the alpha female? Is she typically the aggressor or protector?


I do recommend using at least a 15 gallon for the base of a sorority. 10 is rather hard to keep and ideally you want at least 5-8 girls for good results, more if you can; it helps spread out aggression.

Technically, you can do nearly 13 girls in a 15 gallon, but ideally somewhere in 5-9 would be a good number if it were heavily planted.

There is no way to tell who will be an aggressor and who won't be. I thought for sure that Rowan was going to destroy the girls since for one, she's been bred multiple times and usually you can't put a breeder girl in with a sorority because she's too aggressive now. It was completely untrue, she is the alpha but that does not mean she fights. I'll get more to alphas in a sec.

It's easier to have girls that are roughly the same size, age doesn't matter much unless you're putting babies in with a 2 year old fish; the 2 year old fish might be too stressed out due to old age and babies running around her like crazy. Most say that size isn't a huge factor, when I say size, I mean, try not to put PetCo babies in with adult girls; that's no good. The PetCo babies that I used were much larger than the typical babies from PetCo, they weren't little fry. The only reason I had gotten them were because they were much larger and closer to adulthood than the others. Solas has been my smallest and he's suffering for it--he's separate now of course but he's still small whereas the other babies are full adult size now more or less.

You can never truly tell how a Betta will act with another fish until you try it unfortunately. Just as you suspect, a seemingly passive fish could turn into a little murder-machine of death lol

And the alpha is known by her breeding stripes usually. She is not the aggressor but just the girl who breaks up the fights or tries to. She usually doesn't favor one fish over the other, doesn't pick on others usually and just swims about her business. Rowan is my Alpha girl. The aggressive ones tend to actually come from those at the bottom of the hierarchy trying to win their way up the ladder essentially. Usually after some time though, they'll settle down unless you have a real big aggressor who just doesn't give up--that happens a lot.

Answer all your questions?



Tealight03 said:


> I don't have a sorority. I did look into it but Lil scared me away lol. I am super jealous of Lil's.


Heh, sorry! But also not sorry. I do love my sorority but it's even stressful for me >.< I was quite mad when I saw Snowcap all torn to shreds the poor dear! They did it overnight too so it wasn't like I'd seen this coming. She was doing really well for a while there, couple weeks of healing before they went at her. I have a feeling it was koi girl, she may have to be separated unfortunately.



Aqua Aurora said:


> That one gill semi flare is what Chiyome sometimes does to me when I put my finger to her tank, she flared the gill away from my husband so from his view she is acting nice but its like she's grumble/whispering under her breath "I will [censor]ing kill you if you don't get that finger off my tank!" She doesn't do it very often though.


Lol, right? Glaston doesn't really care about that much though, I was flare training him with food for a while but I slacked off and this is what I get for slacking. He knows I'll give him food even if it's a partial flare XD He's a smart cookie for sure!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Oh! And I forgot, someone asked about purple betta's here a couple pages back. Sorry, too lazy to go look for the post, I apologize >.<

But here's a nearly purple VT boy from my PetSmart


Water drop on the cup there, he doesn't have wonky scales lol. Of course, can't tell if he bit his fin or was damage from water change. Just an example though of course, he wasn't the prettiest boy I've seen in purple-ish color but he was there


----------



## Tree

themamaj said:


> Sorry I guess it was Tree's posts I was reading.


Sorry for making you want to have a sorority. lol But it is so stressful so maybe that will sway you away. 10 gallon is too small for a sorority tank even though I have a 10 covered in plants. >_> 10 gallon was my limit if things don't go well I will have to find them all home but two maybe three. Seems like things are going well in my tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh derp, forgot something! Tealight, there is no real deadline on rehoming the four I mentioned (Glaston, Velvet, Macklin, and Roman....don't think I mentioned Macklin before...) but if they could go soon, that'd be cool. No adoption fee, just $10 in shipping which is Priority (2-3 day mail but usually in 2 days unless we have a snowstorm) and a heat pack.


----------



## Tealight03

Lol oh no worries about talking me out of a sorority. I would freak if I found one all torn up. And then wouldn't know what to do with everyone. It would be a bad situation. 

So I would like to take Macklin in. Although Glaston also calls. Ok just Macklin for now. I'd like to wait until the 15th to pay shipping but anytime after that is fine. And that will give me time to get another tank and plants.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> Lol oh no worries about talking me out of a sorority. I would freak if I found one all torn up. And then wouldn't know what to do with everyone. It would be a bad situation.
> 
> So I would like to take Macklin in. Although Glaston also calls. Ok just Macklin for now. I'd like to wait until the 15th to pay shipping but anytime after that is fine. And that will give me time to get another tank and plants.


Okay! He's a bit of a mess at the moment, I would like to see him in his own tank just because he does bite when he's around other Betta's male or female. So that should help curve his biting habit, I just haven't had the space to actually do it. He was fine when he was in the 2.5 when he first started but once he went into the divided tank, he was not happy! So as long as you can provide that then we're good!


----------



## Tealight03

He will have his own tank. Divided is an eventual goal but is highly unlikely at this point. Also that scares me toi lol. I will be buying a tank. 2.5 is just fine with me!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> He will have his own tank. Divided is an eventual goal but is highly unlikely at this point. Also that scares me toi lol. I will be buying a tank. 2.5 is just fine with me!


Yeah, he's good in any size really! Just needs to be by himself and he'll eventually heal on his own ^_^ You can see the rips in his tail I think in the second picture I posted last post there. But he's still a good boy ^_^


----------



## Tealight03

I have two biters now. Nips don't really bother me. Well it's annoying but fine lol. Oh how did Glaston like the shrimp? I'm always interested in a way to distract them!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I have two biters now. Nips don't really bother me. Well it's annoying but fine lol. Oh how did Glaston like the shrimp? I'm always interested in a way to distract them!


He bit his tail more -_- but it was only a little bit. I'm wondering if it's more from the glare on the sides now, I'm sure it's very different from curved glass to straight glass so that's more likely. He's got a lovely bubblnest now. I've seen a couple of the shrimp but nothing dead yet, they were big ones; nearly the size of him so he likely wouldn't be able to eat them very well or quickly so I would have seen something most likely--of course, there's always one who can gobble them down quick lol. But I'm pretty sure they're all there for now. He never touched the other three cherries and these ghosts are much bigger, he just likes to show off is all.


----------



## Tealight03

I'm wondering if the reflection is the cause of one of my biters. He never leaves one side of the tank. He was so good when he was in an acrylic tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It's very likely. Reflections, too bright of light, not enough top cover are often the top three that cause Betta's to bite other than being able to see another Betta as well of course. Have you tried angling the light in different ways if it's able to be tampered with? Sometimes that helps (or can make it worse lol)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Glaston says good morning everyone!



And then I got this lol.
He's flaring at his reflection, not my finger there technically. The light turns on much earlier than he's used to so he doesn't like it and he's showing it lol!



And a short video of him. I was hoping he'd continue to flare but he only flares in that one spot.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

That's me looking for purple! lol That VT is definitely close and I have the space now, but my LFS is getting a new shipment and the employee I've befriended told me they've gotten less common colorations before, so I'm holding off to see what they get. I appreciate you looking and I'll let you know if I find one or not!


----------



## SplashyBetta

Is Velvet still looking for a home?


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> That's me looking for purple! lol That VT is definitely close and I have the space now, but my LFS is getting a new shipment and the employee I've befriended told me they've gotten less common colorations before, so I'm holding off to see what they get. I appreciate you looking and I'll let you know if I find one or not!


Ah! Yes! And no worries ^_^ I'm going down to that awesome PetCo tomorrow so I'll see if they have any purples there for you. I can check the PetSmart nearby too which I don't usually go to--they slack off but they occasionally have great fish, Geronimo was from that PetSmart so that gives you an idea ^_^ But likely those would be VT's, the PetCo at least has many other tail type options. I'll post the pics and you can decide from there. I can't promise they'll still be there the next week if you want to hold off, of course, but it's worth a shot ^_^


----------



## Tealight03

lilnaugrim said:


> It's very likely. Reflections, too bright of light, not enough top cover are often the top three that cause Betta's to bite other than being able to see another Betta as well of course. Have you tried angling the light in different ways if it's able to be tampered with? Sometimes that helps (or can make it worse lol)


I can definitely try angling the light. It's shadier on that side now. Was trying to give him a little area where the light wasn't so bright. I also just ordered more plants so maybe adding a few will help.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I can definitely try angling the light. It's shadier on that side now. Was trying to give him a little area where the light wasn't so bright. I also just ordered more plants so maybe adding a few will help.


Yeah, definitely more plants is always a good thing ^_^ Also, for the sides that you don't have to look through, you can put up some construction paper to reduce glare. White tends to work best if he's a lighter colored fish, black works for dark fish. Regular computer paper doesn't work because it's shiny, you need something matte. You can also use fabrics too if you chose.


----------



## Tealight03

He's red so I'll try black paper. I have some somewhere from another biter. With that guy I ended up having to put craft mesh inside the tank wall because nothing I did stopped him. He even wedged himself between the craft mesh and glass a couple times. He was a mess lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> He's red so I'll try black paper. I have some somewhere from another biter. With that guy I ended up having to put craft mesh inside the tank wall because nothing I did stopped him. He even wedged himself between the craft mesh and glass a couple times. He was a mess lol.


Oh lol, yeah Betta's do that. If you really want to stop them, you could silicone the mesh to the wall on the sides so it isn't permeable. I bet that'd work pretty cool for keeping Shrimp safe if you have more of an area back there and cut small holes in the bottom for the shrimp to swim through...hmmm that's interesting. lol and then just make it a moss wall XD haha, anywho! Yeah, the fabric might be a better choice, could do some dark grey or a pattern you like, red would just make him disappear and that's not the goal lol. Experiment! He might like a color and not the other :dunno: fish are weird sometimes!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

lilnaugrim said:


> Ah! Yes! And no worries ^_^ I'm going down to that awesome PetCo tomorrow so I'll see if they have any purples there for you. I can check the PetSmart nearby too which I don't usually go to--they slack off but they occasionally have great fish, Geronimo was from that PetSmart so that gives you an idea ^_^ But likely those would be VT's, the PetCo at least has many other tail type options. I'll post the pics and you can decide from there. I can't promise they'll still be there the next week if you want to hold off, of course, but it's worth a shot ^_^


Sounds like a good plan to me! Thanks for keeping an eye out!


----------



## Tealight03

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh lol, yeah Betta's do that. If you really want to stop them, you could silicone the mesh to the wall on the sides so it isn't permeable. I bet that'd work pretty cool for keeping Shrimp safe if you have more of an area back there and cut small holes in the bottom for the shrimp to swim through...hmmm that's interesting. lol and then just make it a moss wall XD haha, anywho! Yeah, the fabric might be a better choice, could do some dark grey or a pattern you like, red would just make him disappear and that's not the goal lol. Experiment! He might like a color and not the other :dunno: fish are weird sometimes!


They are so weird! I try to leave them something to look at like a calendar or picture. He really loves that. Rather he is always interested to see what new thing there is to look at. Siliconing the craft mesh sounds like an excellent plan too! I will win!


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Victoria and I had an impromptu trip to George's! I was going to get some art supplies at Dick Blick just a couple minutes down the street and wanted to see if George had some good plants in for me, so we met up!

So first I'll show you his pretties!

Ug, this girl was the love of my life! Unfortunately, she came in a pair with a male. Upon further reconsideration, I should have gotten them and just sold the male here :roll: oh well. but damn, she was beautiful! Turquoise with white skunk stripe but it wasn't a real dragon skunk stripe, just a patch! So cool!


The other pair I couldn't get good pictures of either but the male was a beautiful marble BF! He had the best blue band around his fins!
The female was cute too




A lovely Red Copper boy


Another blue Marble boy


Blue Marble Bicolor



Blue Cambodian VT, sorry, didn't get a good pic of him


And then I went to the Warwick PetCo, the one that used to be good but slacked off for a while! They finally got a new shipment in!
Beautiful Steel Metallic BF!


DT Blue Marble


And this guy, man, I should have taken him home to sell on here! I know everyone would have taken him in a heart beat! Issue was, this store is still expensive, he would have been 20 versus the Waterford store who have dropped their prices and an EE is 15 down there. So I would have had to have charged about 25 for him, still worth it but it would just suck is all.




Black Copper Devil


MG!



Purple-ish boy for OUOhYeah2016!


With flash to see difference


Copper MG boy that has been there forever


Another Black Copper BF boy


Purple-ish Cambodian type



And now my fishes!

I got a couple things at George's including this girl here! I'd been waiting for an MG girl to pop up! I had been debating on buying one from AquaBid but didn't want to import again. I was so happy I found her!
She's a little stressed of course


Picture technically sucks but I wanted to show you her fins! She's beautiful! She's a little short bodied but I don't mind! I'm not going to breed her of course unless my situation later changes but for now, no breeding




I love Tempera, she's so beautiful!


Grizzle and Apisto


Larger Convict


Bad pic, but Mosaic!


Pug


Pug and Grizzle


Grizzle and Solas


Apisto


Poor Snowcap


She's in good spirits though and already has regrowth!


Rowan looks good against the green! George also had some lovely Ambulia! So I got some of that too


Fresco


Pic of the Ambulia


And the 20 long at the moment. Now that Starfyre has found a home, one section in the other 20 long is free so I'm going to throw Snowcap in there and float Solas in his breeder box there to free up some space there for my plants to grow.


Another video of Glaston from last night. He's torn his tail up terribly now >.> he really doesn't like the reflection I guess! Shrimp are all still there


And then the other thing besides Brine Shrimp that I got at George's was a beautiful HUGE Anubias for 20 bucks! He's amazing! It's only because we go there often and throw money at him so he gives us discounts quite often! I love it! This plant could easily go for 50-60 bucks!
Put it in the 55 so RJ can throw it around if he wants to lol


More tank for size comparison. Romeo is up in the right corner and my huge Java Fern is on the left there


And bonus pic of my very outgoing female BN Pleco munching on a wafer!


----------



## Olivia27

Eeeep I never knew Plecos can be so adorable! That face looks like a flattened pizza dough with eyes! What's the minimal tank size for these guys again? 

And wow, I never knew different Petco charges differently for their Bettas. I would scream if EEs are $20 here. Not that I have space for a 4th right now... but... ugh >< I hang around this forum too much. The temptation is unbearable.

That steel metallic BF for example XD and to think that I'll have a blue-ish orchid BF HMDT guest in a little over a week... gee, maybe if I got rid of my microwave I'd have more room for tanks. Hmmm...


----------



## themamaj

Squeeeeeals at the EE! So tempting!!!! Love MG girl you got. Beautiful fins. Love her colors. What a great anubias at such a great price.


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## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> Eeeep I never knew Plecos can be so adorable! That face looks like a flattened pizza dough with eyes! What's the minimal tank size for these guys again?
> 
> And wow, I never knew different Petco charges differently for their Bettas. I would scream if EEs are $20 here. Not that I have space for a 4th right now... but... ugh >< I hang around this forum too much. The temptation is unbearable.
> 
> That steel metallic BF for example XD and to think that I'll have a blue-ish orchid BF HMDT guest in a little over a week... gee, maybe if I got rid of my microwave I'd have more room for tanks. Hmmm...


Lol! She is a little cutie! 10 gallons minimum for one BN but honestly, I believe 20 is better since they do still reach at least 4-5 inches, 6 being the biggest but 4-5 is average. 

Yeah, most charge the same prices, these used to be the norm but all the other stores dropped their prices recently so the turnover rate is much higher now.

Yep, that BF boy really tugged at my strings. I should have gotten you a picture of his flare, man, he was gorgeous! It was absolutely stunning! But I'll be quiet now lol


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## Aqua Aurora

I want your big anubias and java fern!!


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## Sadist

All the pictures on page 437 are broken for me >.< I guess it's a good thing so I don't ask you to buy and ship anything over here.


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I want your big anubias and java fern!!


That java fern has been growing almost three years now, I deserve to have this! lol!! I was so happy he said I could buy the anubias! He almost didn't give it to me haha!



Sadist said:


> All the pictures on page 437 are broken for me >.< I guess it's a good thing so I don't ask you to buy and ship anything over here.


Aw, really? Have you tried clicking them? I haven't moved them or anything so that's strange :-/ Does it show the little kitten and says it's broken?


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Oh my lol there are so many beautiful fish on that post! I think maybe I'm just in the market for different? lol cause I love that metallic and I love that purple-ish boy or the black... My LFS let me down a bit today. The new shipment they got is mostly pretty standard VTs. I'm kinda looking for variety. I have solid red and solid blue... I still need to see if I'm gunna win that ebay auction tho. So torn.


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## BettaStarter24

So a BN pleco would be ok in a 10g? I saw some albino BN's at a local Petsmart a few months ago and they were so cute. I almost impulse bought one but didnt' have my 10g at the time and wanted to do more research on them. (of course I then impulse bought an ottocinclus...poor guy didn't make it in his new home; fully cycled tank but alone)


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## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Oh my lol there are so many beautiful fish on that post! I think maybe I'm just in the market for different? lol cause I love that metallic and I love that purple-ish boy or the black... My LFS let me down a bit today. The new shipment they got is mostly pretty standard VTs. I'm kinda looking for variety. I have solid red and solid blue... I still need to see if I'm gunna win that ebay auction tho. So torn.


No problem! If you see something you like, just give me a holler ^_^



BettaStarter24 said:


> So a BN pleco would be ok in a 10g? I saw some albino BN's at a local Petsmart a few months ago and they were so cute. I almost impulse bought one but didnt' have my 10g at the time and wanted to do more research on them. (of course I then impulse bought an ottocinclus...poor guy didn't make it in his new home; fully cycled tank but alone)


Yep, I mean, unless you have the tank fully stocked otherwise. If it's just a Betta or something else small, you're good. They do have very large bioloads so you just need to be mindful of that is all


----------



## BettaStarter24

Good to know. Yeah all I currently have in that tank is my giant Zuri. And mom has a 10g as well with a regular sized DTHM David. She ended up getting a common pleco for her 10g completely against my adament objections. Poor thing didn't make it. (Her tank also isn't cycled yet, we're working on it). I'm still not 100% sure if I want to try tankmates yet though so I'm just looking at different options. Ember tetras are also on my radar as an option. I really want Neon tetras but 10 won't fit in a 10g and they get nippy I've heard so I'd rather not risk it with Zuri's fins.


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## lilnaugrim

More fish!

first, from PetSmart

Cute EE



I almost got this girl. I picked her up three times before I ultimately put her down. If I hadn't of just gotten my MG girl last night, I would have totally brought her home. She was beautiful. Couldn't get her to flare to see her tail though


Marble DT


Couldn't get a good pic but a Black Copper Devil girl


A paler EE



This girl was the cutest thing!


Poorly Black Turquoise



Blue and Red


Purple-ish VT


This yellow was actually quite handsome! Lovely thick body, just the right weight for a Betta!


And on to PetCo!
Red Turquoise Metallic


Brother, Red Dragon


Orange Dragon


MG PK!



Kind of a cool orange-ish guy


Red and Blue


Dark MG DTPK



Koi PK!



I almost took this boy home myself but TribalElephant wanted him since Sunny (that Yellow Sally EE I had pics of last time and sent to her) didn't make it through shipping unfortunately. So this is her new boy!


DTPK labeled incorrectly so he's 2 dollars cheaper lol.


Grizzle


I may or may not have this boy at home right now.....


Grizzle DT



Red Dragon that looks sort of purple-ish



Lovely large Black Orchid HMDT


Unique Multicolor


That's it for this area. If anyone see's one they like, let me know before the morning or afternoon so I can go back an get them! Otherwise, I won't be back until next week and I cannot guarantee that they will still be there unfortunately.


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## lilnaugrim

BettaStarter24 said:


> Good to know. Yeah all I currently have in that tank is my giant Zuri. And mom has a 10g as well with a regular sized DTHM David. She ended up getting a common pleco for her 10g completely against my adament objections. Poor thing didn't make it. (Her tank also isn't cycled yet, we're working on it). I'm still not 100% sure if I want to try tankmates yet though so I'm just looking at different options. Ember tetras are also on my radar as an option. I really want Neon tetras but 10 won't fit in a 10g and they get nippy I've heard so I'd rather not risk it with Zuri's fins.


Oh yeah, did you want Embers still? I can ship some out to you if you like. They're 3 dollars each plus $12 in shipping if you want Priority. $35 for Express.


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## Olivia27

So sorry to hear about Sunny  darn, this weather is a killer isn't it.

That MGPK is so very similar to @feistygirl's Karmac XD it's funny how each Betta is different but can also be near identical at the same time


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## lilnaugrim

Seren27 said:


> So sorry to hear about Sunny  darn, this weather is a killer isn't it.
> 
> That MGPK is so very similar to @feistygirl's Karmac XD it's funny how each Betta is different but can also be near identical at the same time


I don't think it was the weather at all. I think the box got to hot honestly. It was more insulated but it had vent holes in it for the heat pack. I used the 72 hour one though and so it's naturally larger than the 40 hour ones, so it produces more heat for the small box.


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## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> This yellow was actually quite handsome! Lovely thick body, just the right weight for a Betta!
> 
> 
> I may or may not have this boy at home right now.....


I love that yellow boys fins, they look so lovely!
And omg how many bettas are you at now? I thought you were trying to downsize! I'm one to talk .. I have to keep myself out of the lfs or I'd have as many as you >.>


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## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I love that yellow boys fins, they look so lovely!
> And omg how many bettas are you at now? I thought you were trying to downsize! I'm one to talk .. I have to keep myself out of the lfs or I'd have as many as you >.>


Isn't he? He's lovely
and shhhhhh. I am downsizing but I can keep him for a little while at least


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## BettaStarter24

I have to wait. I don't have the money right now.


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## OUOhYeah2016

lilnaugrim said:


> More fish!
> Grizzle DT
> 
> 
> 
> Lovely large Black Orchid HMDT


.... Theyre all so gorgeous but these two are favorites lol I'm surprising myself here a bit. I usually am not the biggest fan of DTs but they both have really nice size and shape going for them. Jeez what do I do! :question: Your journal may end up being the reason I fill my new 10 gallon far sooner than I'd been expecting.... How much would one of them be? Hypothetically speaking? :roll:


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## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> .... Theyre all so gorgeous but these two are favorites lol I'm surprising myself here a bit. I usually am not the biggest fan of DTs but they both have really nice size and shape going for them. Jeez what do I do! :question: Your journal may end up being the reason I fill my new 10 gallon far sooner than I'd been expecting.... How much would one of them be? Hypothetically speaking? :roll:


Both of those would be 14 each with the tax


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## Sadist

Oh, those fish are so gorgeous!


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## Aqua Aurora

Someone on the betta chat subforum said petco has a 20% off fish livestock, it ends after today >.> maybe go back and grab another 1 (or 3) ^^
I'm tempted to rescue a king that's been at my petco for 2 moths at least (maybe more).
There's also a lovely dark mg/chocolate double tail plakat (very red-orange fins) that's been there just as long.. aaah I shouldn't go into the store!!


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## Sadist

Haha! Can't choose just one, and can't rescue them all!


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## Tealight03

So true Sadist!


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## Olivia27

Today is also the last day for free shipping on all PetSmart online purchases - no minimum  got my new tank a ZooMed floating Betta log and my dog an itch relief spray. Whoop!

@Lil: so are you going back to the Petco that's been slacking off but has just received their new shipment today? O


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## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Today is also the last day for free shipping on all PetSmart online purchases - no minimum  got my new tank a ZooMed floating Betta log and my dog an itch relief spray. Whoop!
> 
> @Lil: so are you going back to the Petco that's been slacking off but has just received their new shipment today? O


Shipment days are different for each store but yes! I'm on my way there now! I'll let you know soon if that boy is there. You want me to grab him regardless of prices, yes? He'll be 20 if normal price but I don't know what it will be with sale price, I can let you know. Just want to make sure you're good to go with him ^ ^


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## Olivia27

Considering how boys like him are always at least $25-$30 on AB, before all the extra charges probably totaling to ~$80, yes. $20 is a deal.


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## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Considering how boys like him are always at least $25-$30 on AB, before all the extra charges probably totaling to ~$80, yes. $20 is a deal.


He isn't here :-( sorry!

There are some other bfs though, not as nice but deeper blue. Some marbles and that ee marble boy. I may get him to sell here so I can earn a couple bucks, I know people who snatch himdue to his unusual coloring!


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## vaetki

lilnaugrim said:


> He isn't here :-( sorry!
> 
> There are some other bfs though, not as nice but deeper blue. Some marbles and that ee marble boy. I may get him to sell here so I can earn a couple bucks, I know people who snatch himdue to his unusual coloring!


I'm very tempted by that EE boy, just wish he wasn't a HM 8( long tails, ack


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## Olivia27

Aw  do you have photos of the other BF? It's fine, don't sweat! I kinda figured people would snatch him fast


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## lilnaugrim

These two. One marble HM and the other DT but less bf band. Hopefully the pics attached.


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## Olivia27

Aww. They're gorgeous, but I think I'll pass for now. Thanks for keeping an eye out!


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## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Aww. They're gorgeous, but I think I'll pass for now. Thanks for keeping an eye out!


I figured ^_^ they don't quite had the same luster that other boy had! But no worries!


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## lilnaugrim

I'm really sad :-( I just had to euthanize Velvet. He was already half-way into Dropsy and half dead. I let Rowan say goodbye to him (ie. I just let her flare at him lol, fish don't say goodbye, but people do) before I froze him. Damn, I just feel really sad. I don't always get attached to a fish but I really loved him, ugh, this sucks.

I did take advantage of PetCo's sale though and bought three fish that I'll throw up on AquaBid to see if I can make some money from them. I'd love to offer them here but I do want to make money. Anyone is free to bid on them of course lol, they'll just be a little higher than I normally charge is all. Wait till you see one of them though, actually, all of them are gorgeous but damn, the DT I found! He's amazing! I'm tempted but he'd also likely rake in some good pennies!


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## Sadist

I'm sorry about Velvet. It seems like the ones we like the most are the ones that leave the soonest.


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## Tealight03

Sorry to hear about Velvet. 

I know you're charging but would love to see pics!


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## lilnaugrim

My auctions are up!

This is the Black Copper Devil I picked up! He was labeled as a DeT but he's really a HM! He has beautiful dorsal too!

Here's the auction link
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1455241836

And his photos!




































This guy was absolutely stunning! He was labeled as regular DT ;-)
Auction:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettasdt&1455242159

And his photos:






















The HMEE boy! He's gorgeous, isn't he?

Auction:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashm&1455242642

And his photos:















Osta! I named him that lol. But I have decided to sell him, he was also labeled regular DT. He's beautiful and a good boy too so far

Auction:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettasdt&1455154926

And his pictures:





























Trevelyan








Mosaic. Since Velvet is now out of that section, I was able to put Mosaic there and hope he won't jump the border. He really does love his ladies! He became depressed when I put him in the breeder box so I hope he'll be okay in the divided side since he can still see them....idk, let's hope!






















Render
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettashmp&1455243135


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## Olivia27

Wow. Hard to believe that black copper devil is a pet store find! Good luck!


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## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Wow. Hard to believe that black copper devil is a pet store find! Good luck!


Thanks!

Yeah, my stores get some real beautiful fish in as you know ^_^ I always count myself lucky and love to spread the beauty! :-D Besides, if I can make a couple bucks off it, that's cool too!


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## Tealight03

Wow they are all gorgeous!


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## themamaj

Gorgeous! I hope all auctions go well!


----------



## Tree

wow that HMEE boy is beautiful! Wish I had a spare tank or else I would buy him from you. He looks like he would turn into a black and white betta. Maybe a little red wash?


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## lilnaugrim

Tree said:


> wow that HMEE boy is beautiful! Wish I had a spare tank or else I would buy him from you. He looks like he would turn into a black and white betta. Maybe a little red wash?


:-D yeah, he's beautiful! Likely black and white, red wash and blue wash possibly. Not really sure, his tail has a blue ring after the red but it's no where else. It might go away though, I have no idea how he's going to go!


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> :-D yeah, he's beautiful! Likely black and white, red wash and blue wash possibly. Not really sure, his tail has a blue ring after the red but it's no where else. It might go away though, I have no idea how he's going to go!


that's the best part with bettas. You never know what they will look like. Hehe though at times that is a bad thing if you are looking for a stable color.


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## lilnaugrim

Tealight, did you still want Macklin or did I scare you from him? Linda was also interested which is why I'm asking, if you want him then you get first dibs since you asked first ^_^


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## Tealight03

I could be talked out of it. He's all hers if she wants.


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## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I could be talked out of it. He's all hers if she wants.


So....do you want him or not? I don't mind either way. He's not that special of a fishy in terms of need, just needs a separate tank is all ^_^ But whatever you choose is fine with me.


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## Tealight03

No I think Linda should take him. I'm pretty easy going like that.


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## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> No I think Linda should take him. I'm pretty easy going like that.


Okay  There will be plenty more fish along the way too! I like this fostering thing I have going and I know we have beautiful fish around here, so I think I'll keep doing what I've been doing; offering fish to you guys and selling on AB ^_^


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## Tealight03

You do get gorgeous fishies!


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## Zegor22

Your journal has expanded a lot since I have last seen it. Congrats on Moderator!


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## lilnaugrim

Zegor22 said:


> Your journal has expanded a lot since I have last seen it. Congrats on Moderator!


Yeah, I talk a lot lol. Thank you!


----------



## themamaj

Where do you buy your heat packs and other shipping supplies from?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Where do you buy your heat packs and other shipping supplies from?


Whoever gives the best deal on AquaBid and boxes usually are reused from old fish brought in or I buy them at Wal-Mart. I pack with paper towel primarily because otherwise, the heatpacks overheat and can kill the fish. The towels insulate very well but still offer some ventilation as well. Tape also comes from Wal-Mart.


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Whoever gives the best deal on AquaBid and boxes usually are reused from old fish brought in or I buy them at Wal-Mart. I pack with paper towel primarily because otherwise, the heatpacks overheat and can kill the fish. The towels insulate very well but still offer some ventilation as well. Tape also comes from Wal-Mart.


Is there a particular size of heat packs you buy?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Is there a particular size of heat packs you buy?


72 hour for 3 day and 60 is fine for Express. I have 40 hour too for milder seasons.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I sold the two Black Coppers, the Devil and the HMDT already! Super excited! They should be arriving to her today at noon! :-D

But here is a pic I took of him before he left.



And Random Too, Linda's EE now! She will be taking him soon as well ^_^


And his flare video, he doesn't have a good profile though :-/ Linda wants a good flare pic so I'll keep trying to get him to flare better. He didn't want to flare in the photo tank but I might pick up two or three more fishes tomorrow if there are some good cheap ones at the good PetCo and of course, I'll show you all photos too! So I'll try him in the photo tank again


And Ostwick, TribalElephant's new boy who I'm keeping at the moment until next Saturday. Next Saturday is going to be a big ship day for me since the holiday on Monday prevents me from shipping this weekend >.<


And out-of-focus video is very out of focus but you can see him flare. I'll try him in the photo tank too so Tribal can have some good pictures of him as well ^_^


And Osta's flare video! He has damn good form for a DT! I'm surprised there were no hits on him yet. Going to lower the price though.


Here is how the sorority looks for the moment. I've finally planted that Ambulia on the side there, the girls adore the plant! It's exactly the kind of plant every Betta should have ^_^


And the sorority video. I was just trying to get a good flare picture of the Chocolate girl (she ended up being Choc. not MG since she doesn't have a blue body ) and ended up just with a good video. I adore her form and Tempera's flare. Silhouette is a full grown lady now! She started off half the size she is in this video! Crazy how quickly they grow up :-D


Pics of Choco.


Heh, I think I'll name her Chocobo lol




Mosaic is grumpy but he's growing so quickly on his side now! He loves that he can still see the girls though. Solas is not happy now that he's out of the sorority.


Grizzle


Tempera


Lady


So I went to Critter Hut, one of my LFS's and found this super grassy stem plant! They thought it was Ambulia (the other new plant I have in the sorority) but I was like nooo, that's not it. Turns out, it's Limnophila Aquatica which is a cousin, Ambulia is Limnophila Sessifolia. I also have Limnophila Aeromatica as well. Love this genus of plant! So there is one in the 4 gallon here and one in with Mosaic as well. The Shrimp ADORE this plant! I hope it grows like a weed for me ^_^


----------



## Sadist

I love all of your ladies and plants!

I see you answered about heat packs and boxes, but I have no idea where to get the special plastic bags for shipping them. Baggies might work for plants, but I doubt they're good for fish!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I love all of your ladies and plants!
> 
> I see you answered about heat packs and boxes, but I have no idea where to get the special plastic bags for shipping them. Baggies might work for plants, but I doubt they're good for fish!


Oh, I just buy them from aquabid too. I get these bags:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?shipping&1455233282
3 x 16 2mil bags. Perfect for Betta's. I double bag mine of course just in case. I don't fill very much though, only about 1-1.5 ounces of water roughly. Enough to cover the Betta and then I use 75% air to the 25% water. So I really only use about 5-6 inches of the bag really but it works for me. As long as the Betta is still covered with a bit of water when it's tipped on it's side; it's good to go. You don't want to use too much water because they slosh around more and that can cause biting/stress. Plus you want the air for them to breathe too.


----------



## Sadist

Awesome, thanks!


----------



## Olivia27

Hey Lil, is it okay to have two adult males on both sides of that breeder box? I have one of those in the mail and a bunch of imports to sell. But then of course I decided to bring home a couple PetSmart victims as well so now I'm worried I will have to put two boys in the transparent breeder box ._. Will they stress out? The plan was to only use one side of the two...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Hey Lil, is it okay to have two adult males on both sides of that breeder box? I have one of those in the mail and a bunch of imports to sell. But then of course I decided to bring home a couple PetSmart victims as well so now I'm worried I will have to put two boys in the transparent breeder box ._. Will they stress out? The plan was to only use one side of the two...


Yep, for the most part yeah unless he's a fin biter due to seeing other fish. I had put a string of moss in but you can add more moss to help reduce sight lines. It's a small space but it works fine if it's temporary. You could paint the dividers with Krylon Fusion black or whatever color, black is just nice. It bonds to the plastic with ease if you let them dry a few days completely.


----------



## Olivia27

Ok thanks! Speaking of, I found a twin brother of your sold Copper Devil boy (first pic)  I'm squeezing my brain to figure out a space for him because DARN! I'm so bringing him home! ... To sell, unfortunately, but I'm happy with my 4 anyway.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Saw that lol. He's cute, good luck selling him ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

So went and got a couple things yesterday. Two Aquatica for Linda and two Sessifolia for her and one more for me. I seriously love this Ambulia! So happy I bought it! I also bought four more Black Phantoms. Not sure, did I tell you guys I was switching to Black Phantoms instead of Diamonds? Now that I only have two diamonds (one male and one female), I can't find any more of them locally >.> Black Phantoms are always abundant and I've always loved them, so I switched to those. Some were eaten by RJ and the Acara's likely--or they died and were eaten after, can't find any bodies. But I successfully have six now, three males and three females (though, one of the males is tiny and I'm surprised he wasn't eaten! He must be quick!). So I had bought some larger ones last night, adult size so RJ wouldn't try to eat them. He thinks that anything that comes in a bag is meant for food for him since that's how his shrimp come in! He's a smart little (big) bugger! Acara just kind of does what he says and follows him around lol.

So I went to stop by the two PetCo's to see what was in stock. The store that had been slacking off had new fish again, yay! Finally! I found one of the DeT's that I'd seen last week and had debated upon but didn't then, I took him home last night. Lo and behold, it turns out that he's Linda's dream fish! haha. So we're swapping him out for the EE boy instead, so the EE boy is available again if anyone is interested!

I have the perfect photos of the Pastel Dragon too, Linda's fish. A shame, he would have looked beautiful on AquaBid haha, but I'm happy he's going to her ^_^ He's a beautiful boy!

Short clip of my Black Phantoms after they were introduced!


And the Ambulia has had some great growth!


The last like two-three crowns on top are all new!


First up, grabbed some nice pics of Ostwick for Tribal!






















Mobile:



EE boy flares for me! yay!








He's already gaining a bit more color too!















Hello, have a fin!








FLARE!











And the new boy! He didn't want to flare at all but after a while and getting comfortable, he finally flared up a storm for me!
























































And his flare video!


----------



## Sadist

I love all their beards!


----------



## torileeann11

I am officially in love with that EE! Never seen one with any type of pattern other than salamander!


----------



## themamaj

Oh that EE boy!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Isn't that EE boy gorgeous! He was on his way to Tennessee until De sent photos of the other boy. I have to remind myself I'm tanked out to keep from going for broke...I mean "both."


----------



## themamaj

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Isn't that EE boy gorgeous! He was on his way to Tennessee until De sent photos of the other boy. I have to remind myself I'm tanked out to keep from going for broke...I mean "both."


I need to try to quit thinking of him or he will still end up in Tn haha!


----------



## Tealight03

I know that EE pulls at me too!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Will one of you get him so we know how he turns out? De says he has quite the personality.


----------



## Tealight03

Ah peer pressure!  Lil, I was debating about Glaston and am now debating the EE. I'm not confirming so if anyone else wants either of them go for it. I'll let you know in a few days, so you can ship with Macklin if needed.


----------



## themamaj

I hope you get him Tealight. Such a cutie! Then load us up with lots and lots of pictures. I can't remember what does Macklin look like?


----------



## Tree

Lil, Not sure if you asked this in your replies, but what do you feed your plants? and how much? everyday? once a week? I want my plants to be so lush like yours! 

I used potassium every other to every three days, Flourish Comp. once a week. and root tabs once a month. Am I doing it right? I don't think you have CO2 in your tanks do you? my 5.5 gallons have 15 watts, and my 10 gallon has 40 watts.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

The Ambulia looks like a thick riccia growing from a stem ^^ How's it doing for you? I've read it can live in all light ranges (low to high) but gets leggy quick if its not in high light.
Love the new boys prismatic/opal fin colors and that light oval on his beard!


----------



## Tealight03

Lil, if he's still available, can you remind me how much the EE boy is?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for the late reply everyone!
I didn't have work on Friday due to my coworker wanting the whole day. So I slept in and then went to my dad's house to chill down there for the weekend!

The PetCo disappointed me down there, not because there were dead/bad fish, but all the fish were nearly from the same spawn! Red and Orange "dragons" everywhere but they were bad form; short caudals, long anals and weren't actually dragon's either. Didn't get any photos of them but they weren't really that great anyway. Nothing that would sell.

Went over to the PetSmart just to see who they had in. Ended up with a male and a female! I will try to sell both as well. I don't have their professional pictures just yet since they won't flare but I have regular phone photos I'll upload later to show you all. They're both quite cute!





Sadist said:


> I love all their beards!


Right? They're adorable!



torileeann11 said:


> I am officially in love with that EE! Never seen one with any type of pattern other than salamander!


We have quite a few that aren't Salamander entirely but the majority are still Sally's!



themamaj said:


> Oh that EE boy!


;-)



RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Will one of you get him so we know how he turns out? De says he has quite the personality.


He does! He's such a cutie really!



Tealight03 said:


> Ah peer pressure!  Lil, I was debating about Glaston and am now debating the EE. I'm not confirming so if anyone else wants either of them go for it. I'll let you know in a few days, so you can ship with Macklin if needed.





Tealight03 said:


> Lil, if he's still available, can you remind me how much the EE boy is?


He's $22. Just a dollar more per fish so instead of 12, it's 13 for two for Priority ^_^



themamaj said:


> I hope you get him Tealight. Such a cutie! Then load us up with lots and lots of pictures. I can't remember what does Macklin look like?


Macklin is the Grizzle Blue/Yellow Bicolor HM. He's been biting his tail frequently lately >.< Kind of destroyed himself. But I'm like 95% sure that if he's alone, he'll stop as long as there isn't huge glares on the glass. 



Aqua Aurora said:


> The Ambulia looks like a thick riccia growing from a stem ^^ How's it doing for you? I've read it can live in all light ranges (low to high) but gets leggy quick if its not in high light.
> Love the new boys prismatic/opal fin colors and that light oval on his beard!


Right? But it looks so much better than Riccia because it doesn't fly everywhere and clog everything! lol

So far so good! I've only had it about a week though so can't say too much. And yes, it does prefer medium-high light, doesn't necessarily need CO2 but obviously like any plant, appreciates anything extra you give it (ferts dry and liquid, etc.)

Isn't it cute? I love the different patterns on Betta's beards, that's the best thing really!




Tree said:


> Lil, Not sure if you asked this in your replies, but what do you feed your plants? and how much? everyday? once a week? I want my plants to be so lush like yours!
> 
> I used potassium every other to every three days, Flourish Comp. once a week. and root tabs once a month. Am I doing it right? I don't think you have CO2 in your tanks do you? my 5.5 gallons have 15 watts, and my 10 gallon has 40 watts.


Depends. I used to feed daily with Excel at half dose and then Flourish, Iron, and Potassium twice a week, Phosphate once. Now however.....I kind of forget to do that until I'm at work on the forum and then I forget once I'm home again >.< So lately, they just get whatever nutrients come from the fish poo and extra food since I usually overfeed my tanks (okay to do if cycled and with lots of plants, still needs to be cleaned every other week at least or so).

No CO2 in my tanks. Up your Comp to twice a week at 1 drop per gallon, that should help. If you start getting more algae than plant growth, cut back again. Each tank is different and so you have to find the right balance yourself. Experiment, sometimes plants need more Potassium than others (swords and Hygrophila are huge users of Potassium/Potash). 

Root tabs shouldn't have to be replaced monthly, more like every 3 months. Which brand do you use?

Wattage doesn't matter as much as the Kelvin rating on the bulbs. If they're 6,500K then that's Daylight and that is ideal for plants. Highlight plants might like more on the blue side of 6,700-7,000K. Don't use anything lower than 6,500K though, even 5,000K is like a cloudy day essentially. The kelvin rating tells you what color the bulb is and that's the important thing over wattage. Yes, for a taller tank, you might want more wattage because it does mean it will be stronger (can penetrate the water more) but for anything 20 gallons and under or long tanks vs. tall tanks, wattage doesn't matter that much.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So Friday my cichlids were breeding again but alas, I wasn't around to save the eggs again. But I observed some hilarious behavior from Acara! She was nesting and trying to make the tank as SHE wanted it XD So she kept trying to move all the plants around to her satisfaction, unfortunately, most of the plants don't move haha!! So I got some of her trying to move the plants, enjoy, they're short:



This one she was just flaring to RJ and cleaning off their rock




I was sitting next to Glaston on Friday and he kept flaring at me lol


He really hates the reflection >.< I've tried moving the light but apparently it didn't help :-/


Linda's Pastel has made a huge nest!



Lovely flare!


Crappy video, was trying to get his flare and the nest but it didn't work out so great >.< Sorry about the shakiness and all!


And for the two I bought!
An HM female who is Cambodian BF but she also has splashes of dragon scales too! She's a real cutie!





And then in the photo tank


(She had a bite taken out of her anal fin apparently but it's all healed up now, just clear regrowth at the moment.


And the boy! HMDT Metallic Marble BF





Ieli was guarding them......lol, more like trying to eat them!


And a video of her watching them haha


Osta in the photo tank as well but he wouldn't flare >.<


The first night on Friday when I was at dad's, Ieli decided that she loved me again and so she claimed me by sitting on my lap and didn't move :roll: silly girl.



Then Saturday she slept most of the day. I call this her bunny rabbit pose when she sleeps on her back with her paws up lol


Look at little snoot!


She tolerates me doing a lot of things to her occasionally XD Some days she doesn't but others she does, this was one of those days that she didn't care.


Hawkeye is a year and a half old already! Wow how time flew!


He was trying to tell me that I should buy that fish haha


----------



## Sadist

Oh, that little red bf girl! I bet she brings in the money. 

I love Glaston's flare. Struttin' around, flaring at his lady.

Cute little Hawkeye!


----------



## Tealight03

He's more than I thought. Not that it will stop me. Paypaling you shortly.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Glaston knows you're trying to sell him and he's not pleased *flare*. If you were keeping him I'd recommend trying the DIY krylon fusion painted acrylic or lexan inserts in the tank to see if it helps. Worked great for my eehm Aristocoles

I'd be horrified lil' miss kitty would "accidentally" knock those jars off the counter/table and "help clean up" the mess she made on the floor below.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Glaston knows you're trying to sell him and he's not pleased *flare*. If you were keeping him I'd recommend trying the DIY krylon fusion painted acrylic or lexan inserts in the tank to see if it helps. Worked great for my eehm Aristocoles
> 
> I'd be horrified lil' miss kitty would "accidentally" knock those jars off the counter/table and "help clean up" the mess she made on the floor below.


Haha, he does, he really does.

And nah, she's a good kitty. Normally she doesn't go after them but I've never had the PetSmart cups before so I think she could see them better this time which is why she was so intrigued. She was the one who would drink out of Rembrandt's tank if you remember that, she'd taken off the hood one day to try to fish.....She did try to bat at them but I told her off and she stayed away; she knows better. Granted, yes, she's still a cat and cats do cat things but she's never one to repeat something unless we give her permission to. Except for sitting on my brother's x-box one lol, she does that all the time.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh! I forgot the couple of pics I took at that PetSmart too! I may buy that one EE I saw since he was quite unique!

This EE was flaring up quite the storm!




And this was the other EE I was talking about! Beautiful! Isn't he?



Before I got the HMDT boy, I was going to get this one but I didn't like the sweep in his dorsal there



That's it ^_^


----------



## Sadist

There was a violet/lavender ee geno guy at our petco yesterday. He seemed kind of listless, though, so I didn't go back with a camera for the person looking for a purple fish.


----------



## Olivia27

Love the first EE better than the second for some reason XD


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Oooo I love that EE and his tail shape! Also my search for purples maybe over/temporarily suspended because I've decided to start a sorority instead of divide my new tank and one of my girls will likely be an EE geno lavender girl. Not to say if the right male showed up I wouldn't use it as an excuse to expand my current selection of tanks, but we'll see! Thanks everyone for keeping an eye out


----------



## Sadist

No problem! This fish actually looked purple, not the usual turquoise with red stripes on the fin that combine to look purplish. It was even and really pretty, but he didn't look like he would survive shipping. I don't really have a good place to save and fatten him up since my quarantine tank is already being used to foster someone!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm going to just....just cry. This work-study is driving me up the friggin wall!

Okay, story time.

I work for the Music Department as well as the CELS department (which is when I'm on the forum here usually). The Music Major is a hard enough major but I didn't know that WORKING for them would be just as freaking hard!

I get it, I know that being a graphic designer is no walk in the park, people want options and they want you to read their mind, but what I'm doing for them is absolutely ridiculous! Had I known it was going to be like this, I wouldn't have taken the job offer no matter how much they paid me.

So this all started end of last semester when I was offered the job when the chair of the department (Joe) asked if I could work photoshop and all that to make posters. I said, sure can! No problem! He said great! We'll hire you! We want you to make two flyers; one for Calendar of Events and another for the Student Recitals to be sent out to the campus and all the mailing addresses we have to advertise. Great! Deadline for these is January 21st so we can mail them out in time for the semester to start. Great!

I finished the five or six different options for them a week before the deadline, gave them to them to check on to make sure the info was right and that they liked the look. Got the thumbs up but a couple corrections for dates/times. I followed the calendar that they gave me and everything.

Deadline comes, it's all set. A week later, oh! We have some students who just signed up for their recitals so let's make this correction. Okay, fine. This continues for two weeks, I wait for the go ahead to do all the corrections at once instead of doing one one day, another the next, and so on. I never get that go ahead. I stop by and ask what's up (Amy, the secretary told me she'd give me the go ahead end of January which is why I waited). She said, go ahead and put everything in (why couldn't you have just emailed that to me? Ugh). Okay, great.

A week later, I'm still doing corrections. We've added concerts to the calendar (AFTER the semester has started, wtf?) and we've dropped one, added another event. Last week I stopped in again to ask when the corrections were going to stop and I could give them the final version? Joe told me to make an appointment with him because he wanted to talk! I've also got a commission on the side going for him as well but I needed him to measure out the space in his house that he wanted it to go so I know what I'm working with; vertical, horizontal, etc. He forgot to measure again (third time) but we figured out a size to work with which is why I thought he wanted the meeting.

Meeting happened yesterday morning. Amy had printed out my flyer of the calendar and written all over it for corrections (again, why couldn't you have just emailed me the corrections???). Seems like everything is all set from the way they were talking. Surprise, Concert Choir and Wind Ensemble have a concert on March 13th, Joe and Amy only knew that it was a Wind Ensemble concert, not that Concert Choir was also attending when I told them (I'm in the Choir, which is why I knew). So now I'm concerned because the profs know when the concerts are but the secretary and chair of dept. don't? WTF is going on?

Okay great, meeting is done, we've figured out all the corrections, good to go! I send in the final final version of the flyer and think I'm done with that. Nope, Amy emails me another ADDITION to the calendar! Now I have to squeeze everything in because it's a big list and only half the semester. But like ,wtf? How are you adding in new things when the semester has ALREADY STARTED THREE WEEKS AGO?!?!

Okay, no big deal. I add it in. She emails today and says that there are typos and corrections on the calendar that need to be done. ALKSJFKJSHDGOIAOFHNFWEO AHHHHGHGHGHHGHG, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I am so done....but I'm getting paid so I can't say no! Well I can...I just won't get paid. I like money.

And then yesterday during the meeting they also needed a quick flyer about a new orchestra scholarship for string players. They need it by Friday. Fine. I whip it up this morning and I've gone through five different designs for them, this color is too dark, this is too gaudy, this is too big, this doesn't follow regulations. Oh....My...God.....I'm going to strangle them!

NEWS FLASH: I CAN'T READ MINDS!

So yeah. I'm all jittery and going to explode now. This is way more frustrating than I thought it'd be. It was just supposed to be simple posters, that's it. >.<

Here's a screen cap of all the crap I've done for them in the last month alone. This doesn't include all the stuff that I've deleted too which is about the same amount as all this! Plus the files I've written over as well!









So Yeah, safe to say I'm a little stressed out right now........GAH

sorry, i needed the rant


----------



## Olivia27

Oh. 

My.

Gawd.

I remember picking out a title for my high school yearbook as my best friend is the president of the yearbook committee. I gave them, like, 20 suggestions and they kept on saying they want something that sounds more "high-class". In the end they settled with *bleep*ing Dreamland. Just... Gee gosh.

Hang in there, Lil  xx


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Oh.
> 
> My.
> 
> Gawd.
> 
> I remember picking out a title for my high school yearbook as my best friend is the president of the yearbook committee. I gave them, like, 20 suggestions and they kept on saying they want something that sounds more "high-class". In the end they settled with *bleep*ing Dreamland. Just... Gee gosh.
> 
> Hang in there, Lil  xx


Yeah, you know my pain then lol. I'm sure plenty of people do and heck, this happens all the time in "the real world", I get that but seriously? This department is a train wreck! And I'm the one to suffer because of it >.<

I will finish out the semester, no worries about that, it just really sucks is all. It just boggles my mind how indecisive they are about everything! Granted yes, most things in photoshop I can change with the click of two or three buttons but all the same, just be happy with what you've got if I've given you options! ESPECIALLY if I've given you options, if it's just one and you want some tweaking; finnnneee, I can handle that. But, I've literally given them all the options and they still want things changed >.< Ugh, just super annoying.


----------



## lilnaugrim

You also may or may not hate me Olivia.

Stopped by the slacking PetCo (which is now not slacking any more) because I was in the area and had to use the bathroom, also bought some more meal worms too for the geckos.

I happened upon these lovelies but I didn't take anyone home with me.

This guy was clearly a marble of course, likely will end up being a Turquoise BF by the end of it but he was beautiful! Love that splash of red on his head


HDR apparently




And then this guy was just plain adorable


And this is the guy Olivia, I know you have your Blue BF already anyway or on the way still but this guy was gorgeous too. Shame was still 15 bucks though.


----------



## Sadist

I have some friends who do that job for a living. Hang in there!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Oh jeez Lil! Haha I thought I was stressed! It'll be okay, we'll all survive! I feel like every 20-something/college student on here is having a stressful week or two!


----------



## Olivia27

Goodness d**n it Lil why's your Petco so awesome! My local store never, ever carries actual butterflies until very recently. They tried to pass off marbles with splotches of color halfway through one of the fins as butterflies (see my past foster Marble). Never saw an actual dragon either. Just any Average Joe with some irid. 

Anyway. Sith, my blue BF, is indeed on his way here. But EEEEP! He's so cute! His blue slowly fades to white from the tail to the head too <3 <3 awww only if space is no object ><


----------



## lilnaugrim

Heh, sorry Olivia!

We don't always have great fish but we do get in some great lookers!

I've got a lot of fish going out this Saturday!

Marble EE and Macklin are going to Tealight

Pastel Dragon going to Linda

Ostwick will be going with TribalElephant

^_^

Which means I will also be going to that good PetCo to see what they've got in stock! :-D yay!


----------



## BettaLover1313

*hugs* You'll get through it Lil! I remember all of those frustrations while working in the ceramics studio/being apart of Clay Club.


----------



## Olivia27

Looking forward to your pic updates Lil  I'm back on the blue BF hunt. I got a fully cycled, filtered, heated 5g tank and no fish. That's gotta change.


----------



## Sadist

Our walmart had blue butterfly crowntails! I've never seen them before. Good luck finding the blue butterfly of your dreams!


----------



## Tealight03

So usps hasn't updated the tracking information since Saturday. I'm a little worried. They will probably show up tomorrow, right?


----------



## themamaj

Sadist said:


> Our walmart had blue butterfly crowntails! I've never seen them before. Good luck finding the blue butterfly of your dreams!


What??? Walmart actually carrying butterflies?


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Tealight03 said:


> So usps hasn't updated the tracking information since Saturday. I'm a little worried. They will probably show up tomorrow, right?


I got two girls from Olivia via USPS and was freaked out too. She's in Michigan and I'm in Ohio. Not that bad right? Their tracking number said they'd left Grand Rapids at 1:15am Thursday and there was no more updates until Saturday morning it said they were at my local post office and then out for delivery. Idk whats going on with all that lately.


----------



## themamaj

I have had trouble as well where there would be no info for what seemed like a long period of time and then as you said all of a sudden out for delivery. I have signed up for text alerts before and sometimes I will get more info on those. It is very helpful knowing when delivered as sometimes my crazy postman puts in the mailbox instead of bringing to door. You would think they at least would check to see if someone is at home. I hope everyone arrives safely!


----------



## Tealight03

Thanks everyone. I hope they show up today. Darn usps.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Damn, I hope so too! Apparently you all are having this issue. Haven't check with Linda but she hasn't emailed me so that means that he isn't there yet!!!

Gah, this sucks. I'll see what I can do from my end but I can't promise anything :-/ I just hope they all arrive today :-(


----------



## Sadist

themamaj said:


> What??? Walmart actually carrying butterflies?


Ours does. It had the plethora of classic blue veil tails, and whatever breeder they used has been mixing crown tails with crazy colors. When I picked up Tequila, there were 2 blue marble/butterflies and a black butterfly (all crowntails) as well as a yellow pineapple. We brought home the orange one. They're all fully grown, and my guy is showing signs of old age already. I may have to take him off the adoption page :-(



OUOhYeah2016 said:


> I got two girls from Olivia via USPS and was freaked out too. She's in Michigan and I'm in Ohio. Not that bad right? Their tracking number said they'd left Grand Rapids at 1:15am Thursday and there was no more updates until Saturday morning it said they were at my local post office and then out for delivery. Idk whats going on with all that lately.


I had the same problem all winter, and the 2 day delivery would also take 6-8 days at the same time. Even with just plants, I was ready to pull my hair out!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I've never had this happen though unless there was a huge snowstorm somewhere (which, there isn't to my knowledge). Last winter I had a guy holed up in Texas when they freaked out over a couple inches of snow >.< Oh well, things happen. But still! I sent out four fish! I swear, if they all arrive dead...idk, I'll punch a pillow or something lol....but seriously! Never had this issue before (other than holiday weeks of course or during the holiday's which I try to refrain from shipping if possible!). I really hope they all survive :-( they're all going to members here too, not people off Aquabid at least, still doesn't help anything though.

Here's to hoping!


----------



## Sadist

I'd like to point out that Texas freaks out about snow because they don't have winter gear ready to go like northern states. They don't have enough salt ready for all the roads, and they probably only have one snow plow for the whole city. So yes, it's silly that they freak out about a patch of ice on the road and two snow flakes that melt when they touch the ground, but they have a reason! It's a shame that they stopped shipping, though. Interstates should be the first thing salted/plowed when that snow flake comes down.


----------



## Tealight03

I'm hoping it's just their system not updating. The weather here has been nice.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I've got another fish for sale! He's a beautiful Red "Samurai" (not really but I'm saying it anyways) HM!

I also bought an Orange Dragon OHM who is going to my bestie; Victoria!

I still have the Marble HMDT, the Orange Dragon BF HMDT, Monster Mustard HMPK (Render), and the girlie up for sale.

Roman and Glaston still need homes! Again, free adoption, just pay $12 for Priority shipping or $35 for Express one day!

So first up will be the pics I took at the store on Friday. I'm sorry I didn't upload them sooner so you all could choose if anyone wanted anyone! There weren't many super nice looking ones but there were a couple.

This guy was cute


Looks like a brother



Red! This is the one I took home




Reddish-Orange Dragon I took home! Some lights he looks orange and some he looks more reddish. Definitely more orange than a brilliant red though. He has some tail biting issues but I'm hoping it's only due to stress in the store. He'll be going to my best friend there anyway and she doesn't mind tail biters.


A nice rosy kind of Copper BF




Another Black Copper Devil with a slight spoonhead



His brother



A cute CT, though I didn't grab any other pics of him


Another orange-ish Dragon



Also, this PetCo was selling Archer fish.....baby Archer fish.....this fish gets HUGE. Wonder if someone ordered them? Like a customer, not just randomly ordered. But yeah, they were rather cute ^_^


Got the fishies home. I also brought over one of my glass 2.5's to dad's to house the fish in for the weekend while I was there.
Orange Dragon



Red perked right up!






flaring



Kitty interruption!
I love her "I'm better than you" look lol!


Watching the fishies


And later, fell asleep


And then in the photo tank once I was back at mom's






And then the DSLR photos!
Red








































































Here is his video as well!


Cambodian BF female!
















Her video:


Orange Dragon!
















































And his glorious video!


Wanted to show off some of my shrimps as well but I have to clean the glass >.< this is all from my phone so pics aren't as good unfortunately
One of my Fire Red babies, this one is about 1.5 cm


Big cherry. I'm slowly taking out some of the less red cherries and putting them with my Rili's so I hope to up the population there first and then from there, I'll cull out some of the ones that go full red and put them in either the 2.5 with Glaston or with Mosaic on his side (if they don't eat them, or if they do, it's okay)


One of the less red babies but still thought the pattern was neat!


And I had a video of this but I ruined it since I couldn't actually see the baby in it. But I had Andraste the leopard gecko on my arm and the HMEE was flaring at her lol, so cute. She was attentively watching too!


Speaking of Geckos! Astrael has finally been moving around more! I think she's finally comfortable after almost 7 months with me! She was basking a little here. She usually always hides under that rock behind her there, which is fine; that's fairly normal Leopard Gecko behavior after all but I was still worried.


Baby Andraste on my arm


And then taking a warm bath later!
I usually soak the shale rocks in some hot water to warm it up to about 90-95 degree's and set it to one side of the bath tank so they can chose to lay on it or not if it's too hot. I learned the Bearded Dragons don't have heat sensors on their bellies which is why those heat rocks are bad; they can't tell if they're burning up or not! But Leo's do so they know what is too hot and what isn't.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I'd like to point out that Texas freaks out about snow because they don't have winter gear ready to go like northern states. They don't have enough salt ready for all the roads, and they probably only have one snow plow for the whole city. So yes, it's silly that they freak out about a patch of ice on the road and two snow flakes that melt when they touch the ground, but they have a reason! It's a shame that they stopped shipping, though. Interstates should be the first thing salted/plowed when that snow flake comes down.


Oh yes, I am very aware of that! I'm not blaming them technically, it was just kind of funny (and sad that they delayed shipping for a week!) still.



Tealight03 said:


> I'm hoping it's just their system not updating. The weather here has been nice.


Me too.


----------



## torileeann11

You take some amazing pictures!!!

I was at my local Petco the other day and the "aquatics specialist" told my friend that she wasn't allowed to take pictures of the betta fish, or any habitats. Seems kinda rude, silly and made up on the spot to me. Do you know if they have any technical rules?


----------



## Sadist

I love that little butterfly cambodian girl! The new boys have some nice flares, too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

torileeann11 said:


> You take some amazing pictures!!!
> 
> I was at my local Petco the other day and the "aquatics specialist" told my friend that she wasn't allowed to take pictures of the betta fish, or any habitats. Seems kinda rude, silly and made up on the spot to me. Do you know if they have any technical rules?


Nope, it's actually a thing. Sometimes you get a stickler manager who won't allow it. It's for safety essentially. If I'm taking pictures of dead PetCo/PetSmart fish and posting all over the internet about what a terrible store it is and how they abuse animals and blah, blah, blah, then it's bad for them! One of the stores around me has that policy, however, the manager knows me and I've talked to her about taking pictures to show off, never to shame. She's seen my photos and let's me do what I want. But yes, it is an actual rule! Not all PetCo's will follow it though.

But thank you! :-D


----------



## Olivia27

Yeah I was approached several times too when I snap pics. Especially because I *have* taken gruesome photos before to attach on my complaint letter. But rather than telling me that it's not OK to take pics the new manager asks if I found anything wrong. When I say "no, they're just pretty" she lets me go ahead. Plus they all know me fairly well by now. There are times when I visit three times a day LOL 

And that BF girl is stunning.


----------



## BettaStarter24

My Petco doesn't care although I'm pretty inconspicuous about it


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Also, this PetCo was selling Archer fish.....baby Archer fish.....this fish gets HUGE. Wonder if someone ordered them? Like a customer, not just randomly ordered. But yeah, they were rather cute ^_^


It bothers me how many species petstores sell that really get too big for the average aquarist, most people don't know better or can't get proper size tanks for like common pleco, oscars, piranha, and pacu...


----------



## Tealight03

Mail came and no package. I called the local post office. She could only see the same tracking information we have. She said she'll try to figure out where to go from here. Hopefully it's good news tomorrow.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

lilnaugrim said:


> Damn, I hope so too! Apparently you all are having this issue. Haven't check with Linda but she hasn't emailed me so that means that he isn't there yet!!!
> 
> Gah, this sucks. I'll see what I can do from my end but I can't promise anything :-/ I just hope they all arrive today :-(


Sent an email on Monday and Tuesday that he hadn't yet arrived. Only information is "Departed Waterford..."


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Update: Just checked tracking and he's in La Vergne so should get here today.


----------



## Tealight03

My tracking finally updated. Woke up to a text they left Denver. Fingers crossed!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh thank god! Thank you both for the update! I found my receipt and I'm going to try to get a refund since its guaranteed 2-3 day not 5-6 day!! I'll update you all when I call later.

Currently I'm at the hospital due to pelvic pain that I'm 93% sure is another ovarian cyst :-( not happy and not fun. Will update later!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

I literally feel for you, you poor thing! Hope they don't have to do surgery. Fingers crossed.


----------



## Sadist

I feel for you. They wouldn't do anything about mine until it ruptured.


----------



## Tealight03

Oh my gosh. My post office is expecting to get it tomorrow or Friday. I explained the situation and she said it was 3 day priority and today is the third day. I said they were expected to arrive yesterday and if we're talking tomorrow or Friday that is well beyond 3 days. She also said priority isn't guaranteed. Ugh. Sorry to dump this on you. I hope they figure out what is wrong!


----------



## Olivia27

Unfortunately that is true. If it's priority then there's very little - if any - chance of getting a refund of any kind  no insurance claim either since fish is a "perishable item". Just luck of the draw really.

Hope the Bettas arrive okay.


----------



## Sadist

Wow, living creatures are "perishable items." I hope they arrive safely! Stressed for sure, but hopefully a few days in their new homes will perk them up.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

I've had Betta that were a week in transit that arrived just fine. I'm sure these boys will be, too.


----------



## Tealight03

Thanks all. She made me mad. As soon as she heard live fish she was all it's not our fault, they should have been sent express. Well would that have made it on time because your track record isn't good right now. She just wanted to push the blame off. And I told her it wasn't her fault they were delayed. I hate bad customer service. 

Thanks, Linda. That does make me feel better. Did I mention this is the first time I've ordered fish? I'm a nervous wreck!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

He's here; he's fine and feisty. ;-)


----------



## Tealight03

Glad your boy arrived! I'm jealous lol.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

But doesn't it make you feel a bit better?  His name shall be "Hobbs."


----------



## Tealight03

It does make me feel better.  I'll try to quit thinking mean thoughts about the local post office lady. I love the name Hobbs!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Thank you. It just popped into my head. That's how many of my Betta and ADF have been named.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Any updates Tealight? I'm really sorry that this is your first experience! I'm sure we can all assure you that this is a one in a million type situation! As I mentioned, I've never had this happen before so I was just as flabbergasted!

While Priority may not be fully guaranteed, at least if they lose the package or it's damaged in any way, I can get a refund on it. My post offices are pretty good about that thankfully. 



----------------------------------------

ANywho, I'm okay!

My hospital visit was only a couple hours. They did the ultrasound but everything looked good. Apparently it was only painful ovulation......ugh! Even the numbing med they had me on didn't help much, that's how painful it was! Apparently it's also pretty common too. I've never had it before which is why I was nervous about that because I DO have a history of ovarian cysts. I'll spare you all the details but I was freshly 15 when it happened >.< Just before Halloween too!

So I took naps yesterday and rested up, I was exhausted! Then I went up to Warwick to get some gas in my car, get a couple things from Wal-Mart and visit the PetCo's/PetSmart up there. The second PetCo I don't visit as frequently, they used to have more fancy Giant's but nothing as of late. I found a beautiful CT boy there that I grabbed haha, he'll be up for sale soon ^_^ I lost my SD card this morning though >.> I pray that it's only in my car!! But the Aquatic Specialist of the second PetCo talked to me for a while and he said that if I weren't in school and lived so far away, he'd absolutely hire me in a heartbeat! What a compliment! :-D

I also found out that we have a new PetCo opening up just a couple minutes from my college! So yep, I'll be visiting that today along with the two Critter Hut's as well just to check up on them.



I also sorely want to change my 45 over to an African Cichlid tank. Not sure exactly which ones I'd be going for, likely not Peacock's just because I see them everywhere but some of the lesser known species likely. But alas, mom would miss Ghost too much. I need to do something with that tank though.....it's just too....meh. Maybe I'll switch out the sand to natural golden sand to give more contrast, I do have some darker fishes. Besides, the background is dark too. I have a bit of cash now so I can buy some sand, maybe I'll do that today.....


----------



## Sadist

I'm glad the hospital visit was nothing serious!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Same, though, I almost wish it was a cyst; at least that can be removed and the pain is done after a bit >.< I could have painful ovulation every month now! I am NOT looking forward to that :-(

Now that it's more information than you all needed to know....lol!

I did take a couple pics yesterday when I was out!

These were at the PetSmart
Cute Sally EE


Mustard "HM", really though he was only a DeT


An adorable multi cambodian type


ugh, this girl i almost went home with!
mg "hm"



And the second PetCo
Beautiful Black Copper BF!



Cute DTHM Red BF


And a really big HMPK that was lavender, really nice fish!


I came home with a Silver Sailfin Lyretail Molly for the tank at school which he is now swimming in happily!


And this CT boy! He's DDR (Double Double Ray which means 4 rays)


Very short video of him, he isn't flaring just yet though in this vid. I'll get a proper flare photo and video of him once he's out of his MB and AQ salt ^_^ Nothing wrong, just a little ammonia burn on his left side, otherwise, he's healthy as a horse!


And the rest are of my geckos lol

I bought a cheap fish hide to give to them and they all immediately went to check it out!
Zolla wasn't a huge fan of it lol
(Astrael going in the back there)


Hawk going to check it out too


Astrael




Zolla getting some worms!


Luna hunting her own


Andraste chilling in her favorite hide 


I also bought a couple small succulents for the tank and made a minigarden. They're Leo safe as well, my Leo's also don't really care for crickets so I don't have to worry about them swallowing sand if they lunge at a cricket that happens to be on the garden.
Hawk found it


Wondering if he can climb out


"Dis....I like dis!"


Hawk and his ladies


Hawk also likes to routinely block the entrance to everyone's favorite middle hide lol


Luna is not a fan


Luna also likes to invade personal space, poor Andraste in the back there!


And the little garden this morning when I put in all my airplants. I also want to buy a couple more airplants and use some wire and suction cups to put them on the walls above the Leo's reach to grow them  I think it'd be nice decoration


Full tank shot this morning. I also want to paint the left side and back to black so that the Leo's feel more comfortable and you don't see that yucky wall behind!


And that's it for now ^_^


----------



## Tealight03

I just picked them up! Macklin is in rough shape. Floating on his side but his gills are moving. The EE boy is good. The heat pack died. Not surprising. I wrapped them back up and put them on my foot warmer. We just have to make it about 8 hours before we're home. 

I was pretty worked up and worried lol. It seems like it took forever and tracking wasn't updated. Plus dealing with rude usps employees made it worse. 

Thanks for taking such good care of them on your end. Usps will be hearing from me lol. 

I'm glad you're feeling better!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I just picked them up! Macklin is in rough shape. Floating on his side but his gills are moving. The EE boy is good. The heat pack died. Not surprising. I wrapped them back up and put them on my foot warmer. We just have to make it about 8 hours before we're home.
> 
> I was pretty worked up and worried lol. It seems like it took forever and tracking wasn't updated. Plus dealing with rude usps employees made it worse.
> 
> Thanks for taking such good care of them on your end. Usps will be hearing from me lol.
> 
> I'm glad you're feeling better!


Oh thank god, that makes all three then! Man, what a mess this came out to be! I'm really sorry about all this--I know it's not my fault but still!! So crazy >.<

Yeah, I half expected Macklin to be dead at this point :-( glad he's still alive! Definitely float them about an hour when you get home and keep the bags open; this will allow for the oxygen to flow again and easier acclimation on their end. Keep lights off and room on low light if you can, that will help de-stress them. If you've got Prime, add a drop to their bags as well. After that hour of floating, you can start adding in some of the new tank water to the bags until they're more full and then remove some of my water and repeat the process. Should take about an hour. Usually, I also just plop my fish right in but after this long journey, best to treat them with care since even Betta's can be fragile! They are hardy little buggers though lol! For that I am glad!

It seems everyone who shipped out this past weekend and Monday had huge issues with USPS, I think it was just a good weekend to ship and so USPS was just overloaded which makes delay. That's all I can gather from them :-/ But glad so far that everyone made it just fine!

And yes, the heatpacks were only 75 hours so that's normal that they would have died out by this point but thankfully we had some good weather! Seems like someone up above is watching out for me! haha!


----------



## Tealight03

Thanks for the acclamation information. They could definitely use extra care. 

I wasn't sure Macklin would make it either. But I like to assume the worst case scenario and worry lol.


----------



## Olivia27

Yay for all three live arrivals! 

Aw Lil if that lavender HMPK is here in my Petco I'd snatch him without a second thought XD screw space! I'll figure something out!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Np! Normally I'd just say dose them with a bit of Prime and plop them in; best technique I've used, but they've been through a lot lol..

Unfortunately not all of them were alive :-( Ostwick didn't make it, TribalElephant just told me. Damn, he wasn't even the one I wasn't expecting to live! I thought for sure he'd be fine! Healthy as could be when he left me! :-( so now I'm sad. This is the second DOA for TribalElephant, I really don't know what's going on here!! I've never had so many DOA's before! Darn you winter *angrily shakes fist at sky* lol

Yeah, he was really pretty but he was also 14 dollars which I didn't feel like spending on him. But he was the size of their regular "Kings" which have been smaller lately.


----------



## Olivia27

Aw no. I can text Tribal and see what she's looking for. Since it's closer from MI perhaps things will go smoother


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Aw no. I can text Kinsley and see what she's looking for. Since it's closer from MI perhaps things will go smoother


Sure, if you like!
She's still letting me give her photos of fish that I find lol, so that's nice. I offered free shipping and free fish with all this disaster! I'm 99% sure the first time (Sunny), it was just too hot in the box because I used the left over insulation instead of my usual paper towels which at least can let out excess heat if need be, styrofoam doesn't allow for that.


----------



## Olivia27

Aaaand I lost her number. How perfect. I got a Sunny look-a-like in my Petco last I checked. I got reward dollars too so he'd only be $10


----------



## Tealight03

I'm sorry to hear about the doa. Blame usps. But I'm on a good blame usps for everything wrong in the world kick right now. 

Think I can submit a claim for "damaged goods?" Macklin floating on his side should count. I swear I will let this go......


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Aaaand I lost her number. How perfect. I got a Sunny look-a-like in my Petco last I checked. I got reward dollars too so he'd only be $10


Yeah, we almost always have yellow sally's around here too. But she saw Ostwick and wanted him ^_^


----------



## Tree

lilnaugrim said:


> Depends. I used to feed daily with Excel at half dose and then Flourish, Iron, and Potassium twice a week, Phosphate once. Now however.....I kind of forget to do that until I'm at work on the forum and then I forget once I'm home again >.< So lately, they just get whatever nutrients come from the fish poo and extra food since I usually overfeed my tanks (okay to do if cycled and with lots of plants, still needs to be cleaned every other week at least or so).
> 
> No CO2 in my tanks. Up your Comp to twice a week at 1 drop per gallon, that should help. If you start getting more algae than plant growth, cut back again. Each tank is different and so you have to find the right balance yourself. Experiment, sometimes plants need more Potassium than others (swords and Hygrophila are huge users of Potassium/Potash).
> 
> Root tabs shouldn't have to be replaced monthly, more like every 3 months. Which brand do you use?
> 
> Wattage doesn't matter as much as the Kelvin rating on the bulbs. If they're 6,500K then that's Daylight and that is ideal for plants. Highlight plants might like more on the blue side of 6,700-7,000K. Don't use anything lower than 6,500K though, even 5,000K is like a cloudy day essentially. The kelvin rating tells you what color the bulb is and that's the important thing over wattage. Yes, for a taller tank, you might want more wattage because it does mean it will be stronger (can penetrate the water more) but for anything 20 gallons and under or long tanks vs. tall tanks, wattage doesn't matter that much.



Either my plants are melting due to the change of water, (had them in the tank for a month now) or I am doing things wrong. My three other tanks are fine, they are just not as thick and lush as I want them too. My 10 gallon is not doing so well. I might have to get Excel. I have iron, potassium and Florish. I will start feeding more Potassium to the tank then. thanks =)

I normally get API root tabs but they were out of it so I got Seachem tabs. So maybe add every other month? Do you think I am over feeding the plants?

Ah that's right, forgot about, don't matter on the wattage part. And yeah they are 6,500 for the three 15 watt 18 inch bulbs and for the 20 watts on my 10 gallon I think they are 6,700. 

sorry for my late reply as well. I have been super busy with my two jobs and "spring cleaning" LOL Phhht spring, I wish!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

*Introducing Hobbs*

He's here and doing swimmingly....as you can see. 

The tank isn't slanted....I am.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

He is gorgeous!


----------



## Tealight03

Lil, Macklin is doing better. I kept them on my foot warmer all day and the warmth helped. They've been floating for two hours. I'm gradually adding water. 

Linda, Hobbs is gorgeous! Love the tank too.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Thank you! I list the plants in my journal.

Glad Macklin is doing better. Can't wait for photos.


----------



## Tealight03

Here's a couple of the EE boy. The one of Macklin didn't turn out. They are in their tanks and in the dark currently.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

I love him and if Hobbs hadn't come along he'd be mine. :wink2:


----------



## Tealight03

He says darn, that would have been a day less in the mail. Lol. I'm glad Hobbs came along.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Haha, thank you all for the picture updates! Feel free to post them whenever! I definitely want to see the marble progression in the EE as well Tealight ^_^
Glad Macklin is doing better too ^_^ As you can see, his tail is pretty tattered but I suspect that he should stop biting once he's fully on his own for a couple weeks, that's what he did for me at least so here's to hoping it's still true! He might be in the habit now though >.< But he's still a gorgeous fish and he'll also color change on you too! His body changes from blue to white pretty much monthly, it's great :-D

So I went to check out a new PetCo yesterday! It's right by my school! I already started to get to know the employee's and even helped one of them out with their own fishes! :-D so great haha.
I'll also be stopping by that other good PetCo tonight after my weigh-in (back on the diet, yay!) I won't be buying anything right away but if anything interesting comes up, I'll definitely show pictures so if anyone wants one, I can get it on Saturday.

But here were some of the lookers from the new PetCo!
Black Turquoise Metallic!


A Blue BF that wasn't a Blue BF anymore


One that isn't actually a dragon....oh well, he was still cute! This store has the good prices too! Dragons are only 10 instead of 15 like the store that had been slacking off previously but is good now. Lol, I love my names for these stores XD


Marble


This guy was in a Marimo cup lol. I looked at it and go "You aren't a Marimo..." haha. Lovely MG though!


Another BF


Nice Dragon Marble DT



Got home and did a little photoshoot with the CT I bought Wednesday and the fishy I brought home last night! I have a potential buyer for the white already but I'll certainly show him off still!


CT looks big but it's only forced perspective, he's about average sized



And the white!! He was a DeT but he's really an HM! I love these finds :-D




And his flare video!
My phone did NOT want to focus on him, terribly sorry about that! He's too darn reflective!


Something interesting about this new PetCo! The decor shelves are lit up! Never seen something like this before! Too cool! So you can actually see the decor, I was impressed!


Oh and this adorable little gecko! I don't normally like Albino anything but this guy was just the cutest! If I didn't already have five, he would have likely come home with me simply due to his behavior lol He found the best spot in the tank! haha It was likely just warm but I still found it absolutely adorable
Nice healthy tail too!


And then four out of five of my geckos feasting! Left to right:
Astrael, Hawkeye, Luna, Zolla (Andraste is out of the pic)


Zolla looked like a dog when she posed like this, thought it was absolutely darling!




And this morning, Zolla likes the warm hides


Hawk in the middle hide. Love when he just has his head poking out like this, too cute.


----------



## BettaBoy11

Your geckos are so cute!

I can just image someone, "Hey, I'd like to buy this Marimo...." Lol


----------



## torileeann11

I can see the thread now...

"New Marimo Betta! Help ID?"

xD xD xD


----------



## lilnaugrim

torileeann11 said:


> I can see the thread now...
> 
> "New Marimo Betta! Help ID?"
> 
> xD xD xD


Oh god! lol!!!! Yep, that would totally happen XD If Marimo's were priced cheaper at like.....six dollars, I totally would have taken that boy home to sell, he was gorgeous! :-D



----------------------------------------
On an almost related note. I think I should open a thread in the Marketplace for my store fish from PetCo to sell here or offer to those who may want them. They'd be the fish price plus a dollar of commission so at least I can pay my gas and then just the normal $12/35 Priority/Express shipping of course.

You all think that's a good idea? I would then upload all my store pics to that thread instead of here, though I might upload some here occasionally. What say you all?


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

I like seeing them here. But that's me.  Plus, I don't visit the Marketplace very often; maybe once a week.


----------



## Olivia27

But then people would snatch them faster ;___; what if you found a blue BF!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Agreed about seeing them here. lol Sometimes I think the marketplace section attracts the crazies... I check it often enough but also because I think if people are really looking for something they'll post about it and people who know about your journal will direct them here.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol you guys XD

Alright, alright, I'll keep them here then!

And Olivia, if I do find a good Blue BF, you'll be the first to know! ^_^


----------



## Sadist

I love your gecko habitat! The plants really make it.

I love that black and green metallic boy. I wish I had room and wasn't afraid of USPS and fish.

That little "another blue butterfly" boy looks a little sad. Is that spot behind his head some sort of infection? It looks scary.

Whatever you want to do with the pictures. You could put them both places if you want.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I love your gecko habitat! The plants really make it.
> 
> I love that black and green metallic boy. I wish I had room and wasn't afraid of USPS and fish.
> 
> That little "another blue butterfly" boy looks a little sad. Is that spot behind his head some sort of infection? It looks scary.
> 
> Whatever you want to do with the pictures. You could put them both places if you want.


Thanks! Yeah, I like the gecko tank now ^_^ It was too barren before, the geckos seem to be enjoying it more openly now as well.

And no, that's just a bit of marbling. Likely he came from that spawn that all had white heads a couple weeks ago since he has the same type of blue going on. Wasn't infected at all, he just wasn't happy ^_^


----------



## Tealight03

Sadist, don't let my usps trauma scare you away. Lol.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

IMO, they can go longer in the tender care of the USPS if they are packed properly. That's why ours did so well. ;-) As I said, I've had Betta take a week with no ill effects...except the ulcers the seller got.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some USPS posts aren't as good, I'm glad that mine all around here are usually very careful with their handling, especially live animals. Sometimes people have bad days and it does get taken out on the packages but I've noticed that if I plaster LIVE FISH everywhere on the box, it helps to deter them. I haven't noticed it as much with USPS as with FedEx. I work in the science building and I get deliveries all the time. I adore my FedEx guy but he still throws packages around half the time >.< He's a bit jaded but he does his job well enough. That's why it's so important to plan for the worst in packaging and buffer them as best you can. Granted, sometimes there's only so much we can do.

I was actually worried that the packages had been placed somewhere out of sight at the post office on Saturday because they were trying to be careful and that led to them forgetting them there but it seems like everyone had trouble with the mail this week. I know a lot of our packages here were delayed a couple days as well, UPS and Amazon specifically but some with USPS as well. I think really it was just a big shipping weekend was all, weather was forcasted to be good and so everything just went out all at once!

Oh Linda, how did the plants do? They did they all completely die on you from transit or were you able to salvage some of them? It's a shame if they did die off, I can likely supply more Ambulia in a couple of weeks, mine is growing very well; needs a trim already!


----------



## torileeann11

My first ever import should be here any minute! Coming from USPS.. I am nail biting!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Nope, only the tips of the Ambulia were alive all the reset were pretty stinky. You can see the Ambulia floating in Hobbs' tank.


----------



## lilnaugrim

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Nope, only the tips of the Ambulia were alive all the reset were pretty stinky. You can see the Ambulia floating in Hobbs' tank.


Darn :-/ yeah, I hate that dead plant smell, it's almost as bad as rotting snails---yuck! Well, those should grow quick for you at least! If not, I can send more for you free of charge because of this darn holdup this week!


----------



## Olivia27

torileeann11 said:


> My first ever import should be here any minute! Coming from USPS.. I am nail biting!


He'll be fine I'm sure! 

Hey Lil how much are the ambulias again? My 5 needs floating plants


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> He'll be fine I'm sure!
> 
> Hey Lil how much are the ambulias again? My 5 needs floating plants


They are 6.99 a bunch if you want them from George. Depending on how well they propagate in my tanks, I could probably give you a good bunch for $4 just because they are less common. Shipping then would be $9 with a heatpack for Priority and $30 for Express. I can combine shipping as well if I find I need to get rid of more plants lol. I haven't been keeping up very well with all of them so some of my plants suffered unfortunately and without the 29 as a sort of grow-out tank, my plants have been limited now with species.

If you want a lower light plant (Ambulia is still a medium-high light plant preferably) then I can get pretty much anything else like anacharis or hornwort through Critter Hut, they're good with their plants.


----------



## Olivia27

Oh no I'm fine with the lighting needs. Got a Stingray so nothing can stop me now > I'll wait until you can trim some off then. My Stingray isn't here yet either. But if Critter Hut has Amazon Frogbit....


----------



## Tealight03

Yeah they were packed well and are mostly fine. I was not fine, but I like to worry. 

Lil, Macklin is swimming a little odd. Like he can't hold himself up? It's probably from shipping. Or because he doesn't have much of a caudal lol. I'm sure he'll be right as rain in a few days. Speaking of color, he's pretty white at the moment.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

lilnaugrim said:


> Darn :-/ yeah, I hate that dead plant smell, it's almost as bad as rotting snails---yuck! Well, those should grow quick for you at least! If not, I can send more for you free of charge because of this darn holdup this week!


I had a moment of panic because Edward has only sniffed and pawed boxes that had a dead Betta in them. He sniffed your package and pawed so I was scared spitless to open it. When I saw Hobbs flipping around in that bag I'm surprised you didn't hear my sigh of relief.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Oh no I'm fine with the lighting needs. Got a Stingray so nothing can stop me now > I'll wait until you can trim some off then. My Stingray isn't here yet either. But if Critter Hut has Amazon Frogbit....


Okidoke! And no, no actual floating plants other than duckweed. That's the one thing we don't get around here!



Tealight03 said:


> Yeah they were packed well and are mostly fine. I was not fine, but I like to worry.
> 
> Lil, Macklin is swimming a little odd. Like he can't hold himself up? It's probably from shipping. Or because he doesn't have much of a caudal lol. I'm sure he'll be right as rain in a few days. Speaking of color, he's pretty white at the moment.


He does have some slight issues with buoyancy time to time but usually nothing to worry about. What are you feeding or what will you be feeding?


----------



## lilnaugrim

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> I had a moment of panic because Edward has only sniffed and pawed boxes that had a dead Betta in them. He sniffed your package and pawed so I was scared spitless to open it. When I saw Hobbs flipping around in that bag I'm surprised you didn't hear my sigh of relief.


Ooh, he smelled the plants then? Yeah, that would have scared me too! haha


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Yeah, and we're talking about Shih Tzu...you know, those frou frou dogs with no brains. ;-) He's probably one of the smartest dogs I've ever owned and that includes German Shepherds and poodles.


----------



## Tealight03

I mostly feed NLS pellets. Maybe Omega One on occasion. And frozen brine shrimp weekly for a treat.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> I mostly feed NLS pellets. Maybe Omega One on occasion. And frozen brine shrimp weekly for a treat.


Okay, he's good on NLS. Omega tends to be a little hard for him. He also doesn't like to feed from tweezers if you use those :roll: he prefers to catch them as they fall, silly fish. All my other fish take frozen/live foods straight off the tongs! Some don't even wait for it to hit the water and they jump out to get it! My leo's also love the tongs because that means worms! lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

More pictures! Went to both the PetCo and PetSmart here just to see what I could find! There a quite a few lookers!

Again, as always, if you want one, make sure you let me know! I charge only the price of the fish plus a dollar of commission for my gas of getting there, then just shipping of $12 and express is $35! Shipping can be combined for a dollar more!

PetCo first



















Yellow Salamander EE



This guy is still there and super adorable!






Copper White Dragon. Super cool!


Little splotch of red up there too





Aqua! An MG PK! He was super cute! Ventrals look good too, dorsal is nice and broad. He wouldn't flare for me just yet though





Just a really nice solid Turquoise!


Copper Devil




Another sort of MG-ish long fin


Look at those wile type spots! Lovely!



Nice marble



A "BF" that really isn't one any more


This guy is still here too! He was nice and cute


And just a nice Blue CT too 








Darn went over my photo limit again, PetSmart fish in next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And I found a Blue Dalmatian at PetSmart!!!
Likely he'll completely marble to blue but there is a chance he'll be stable



Bent dorsal guy was still there


An almost blue BF


(his eye is a different color, it's not diseased)



Black Orchid



And this guy is super cute!! He's a Turquoise White Bicolor! Ventrals are small size but he looks mostly healthy ^_^


----------



## Olivia27

Somebody get the turq bicolor please! He's so sparkly <3 it's as if his whole body is made of sequins! Now only if I can stretch my limit =\ 

Ugh, Black Orchid is also among my top three favorite colors. Maybe one day.


----------



## BettaBoy11

Ack! Lil, you're killing me. You don't ship to Canada, do you? If not, it's a good thing, because I have no room for new fish. It would be so tempting otherwise. YOU'RE KILLING ME!!!! SO MANY GOREGOUS FISH!


----------



## Fenghuang

Whelp, that blue dalmatian... Okay. I'm done. I need him. Is he for adoption too? (Please tell me he is or I think I might cry...)

<-- He is a dead ringer for (baby) Vasuki. Coloring, tail type, everything. 

Edit: Jk on the crying. Maybe. Omg.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaBoy11 said:


> Ack! Lil, you're killing me. You don't ship to Canada, do you? If not, it's a good thing, because I have no room for new fish. It would be so tempting otherwise. YOU'RE KILLING ME!!!! SO MANY GOREGOUS FISH!


Sorry bud! Can't ship to Canada unless you know someone at the edge of the border who can carry the fish over for you!!



Fenghuang said:


> Whelp, that blue dalmatian... Okay. I'm done. I need him. Is he for adoption too? (Please tell me he is or I think I might cry...)
> 
> <-- He is a dead ringer for (baby) Vasuki. Coloring, tail type, everything.
> 
> Edit: Jk on the crying. Maybe. Omg.


I was wondering if you were going to see him, I thought of you the moment I saw him! I can go back to get him if you like! I think he was 10-ish? So it'd be his price plus a dollar and then whatever you want for shipping, express or priority. So you want him?


----------



## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> I was wondering if you were going to see him, I thought of you the moment I saw him! I can go back to get him if you like! I think he was 10-ish? So it'd be his price plus a dollar and then whatever you want for shipping, express or priority. So you want him?


YES! (please, thank you very very very very much) 

Gosh, I'm crazy, aren't I? Totally obsessed...


----------



## BettaBoy11

Good! I don't have the room or time for new fish. As I said, it would be so tempting if you could. LOL


----------



## lilnaugrim

Got him!!

We're also off to see Deadpool today too!!! Yay! I've been waiting forever!!


----------



## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> Got him!!
> 
> We're also off to see Deadpool today too!!! Yay! I've been waiting forever!!


Omg thank you!

I hadn't seen it yet either but I really want to. I hope you have fun!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Those pks so tempting!!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Yay! Glad you got him Feng! Lil, you are so generous! I love all those fish! But the bi color boy at the end catches my eye.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Victoria's boy and Feng's new boy!


He's a cutie!



Roman, he's been adopted out ^_^


Victoria's boy is doing well with growing back his tail!


Feng's


So I did a big project and spent four hours on Sunday redoing my 45! I really wanted to change out the substrate at least since I was tired of the black in there. So I went with my favorite golden sand!

During scooping out of the black sand, got a little mucky lol
Had to throw back in my driftwood with the java fern on it because the 13 gallon I had all my fish and plants in wasn't tall enough and I couldn't flip it upside down to keep the fern wet. So I just worked around it and moved it as I filled the sand back in. I used the water bottle method for cleaning the sand. Used a 2 liter soda bottle, apparently that holds 5 pounds of sand just fine! Fills it up to 3/4 which is about the point I normally only fill to anyway with cleaning lol! Perfect!


For whatever reason, my phone didn't save the in between pic I took with the bottle in the tank and all so oh well.

This is after everything was back in, filter running


Ghost was happy to be back in


Cories were too


Finally, clearing in the morning time. Still had a ways to go, this was Monday morning.


Happy cory


And this looks horrible! lol, it's only because I put in some Potassium Permanganade to help clear the water and the lights were on the 24/7 mode so it was early morning which is reddish light anyway so it made it look worse XD


Finally clear Monday night (last night!) Lights on sunset mode now so that's why it's reddish again.


And back to sunny for a moment to show you how it actually looks. I forgot I had wanted to change the background to flip it over too but oh well, filter is already on, not going to change it until I clean out the filter again.


I'm pleased with how it came out. I'm going to get a couple more plants for it but I think it looks nice!

And to finish off, Geckos!
I love when I catch them sleeping like this, too cute. I'm pretty sure he was just posing for me because he opened his eyes right after this lol


Andraste found her way to the top level of the hide last night! It was an achievement because she usually keeps to the bottom and doesn't climb lol


Hawk last night, just being his cute self


And Luna....resting on the poop :roll:


----------



## themamaj

So what all is involved in keeping a gecko?


----------



## Sadist

Awesome! I'm in love with Feng's new boy.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> So what all is involved in keeping a gecko?


Depends on which kind of Gecko you want to keep. Do you want a desert gecko (Leopard/African Fattail, etc.) or a rain forest gecko (Gargoyle, Crested, Tokay (mean, don't get unless you don't mind not handling, Anole, etc.)?

Assuming you would want a Leo like mine, all you need is a 10 gallon for one minimum. Add 10 gallons for each additional gecko. Ideally you will get two females or a male and a female if you get more than one, males will fight. Females are mostly peaceful with each other except during breeding season they can get a little feisty while they produce eggs. I have one male and four females in my 40 gallon breeder. The more floor space they have, the better.

Things you need:

*Under Tank Heater*
*Over head light* (not necessary, Leo's don't like too bright of light so I have mine on the timer turn off and on throughout the day just to give a little over head heat off the Incandescent bulb, don't use a Fluorescent light)
*Three hides*, one being a moist hide to help in shedding, a middle hide and a cool hide on the other end.
*Crickets or Mealworms*, Leo's are carnivores unlike Bearded Dragons and Cresties
*Thermometers*
*Thermostat* for the heat pad to make sure it doesn't overheat the tank. Should be kept roughly at 90F
*Food dish, water dish, pooping place* (I just use the paper towel and throw away when it's dirty and place a new one down, they are potty-trained)

Leo's live 10-20 years. They are crepuscular which means they are most active during the dawn and dusk hours. They are carnivores, they always need fresh water to keep hydrated. Always keep the moist hide moist for them, I use a moist paper towel inside a tupperware container that I cut a hole in for them to climb into. They grow up to about 8-9 inches usually, there are Giant versions as well. Males get to about 60-80 grams, females about 40-50 grams roughly. Females ovulate once a month during breeding season which is about four months long. Females can become egg-bound. Do not keep Geckos with sand, they may eat it and become impacted. They need a bath about once a month or more frequently when babies. Warm water, it also helps with shed and to keep the gecko hydrated. Geckos will shed roughly once a month or more frequently when they are growing. After a year, shedding slows down as they aren't growing out of their skin. Leo's tails can regrow after falling off but they won't be the same. That's where they store all their fat; a fat tail is a healthy gecko! Pick one with a good fat tail!

Geckos can become infected with parasites and bacteria, be careful and try to look out for bad looking poops, emaciation, lethargy beyond the normal (Leos are pretty lazy after about a year old), crust eyes, etc. Vet visits are sometimes necessary.

Think that's about it. Any other specific questions you're curious about?


----------



## themamaj

Very fascinating. How did you teach them to use paper towel? Are they social with you? Do they try to bite?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Very fascinating. How did you teach them to use paper towel? Are they social with you? Do they try to bite?


They came that way. Whoever bred them and sells them to the stores, they naturally use the back left corner of the tank to poop. They just know now to just go on the paper towel, not really sure how though lol.

They are! They aren't as cuddly as Bearded Dragons but they will sit on you and if you hold them enough, they don't mind being handled at all. They respond to me when I make noises and call them--not by name but I do a clicky sound with my mouth and they come out. They also respond to the food bowl when I shake around the mealworms in their calcium powder to coat them. That's something I forgot--Calcium powder is a big thing, cheap enough though ,just sprinkle it on the crickets or mealworms before feeding!

And sometimes yes. It depends on their personality, some are more bite-y than others. Don't get Tokay's if you don't want to get bitten lol, they're mean little suckers but beautiful! But Leo's will get used to your hand if you work with them slowly at first. Mine still get a little scared if I move too quickly around in the tank or make a big noise but they will easily get used to noise and ruckus if you keep them in a busy room, mine are just upstairs and don't get a huge amount of attention is all. The babies are more likely to bite but it really doesn't hurt much, just surprising. They will also hiss at you if they don't like you. At the store, you can have the employee pick them up and sometimes they let you hold them so you can see if they are passive or not. But with just a little bit of daily work, your gecko will love your hand in no time! My Hawk even begs to come out and steps up on my hand without me picking him up! It's great ^_^ Some geckos need more work than others depending on what breeder they came from and what that breeder did while he/she had them and cared for them.

One thing I learned is that Leo's are bouncy lol. I've dropped two of them before from about four feet up >.< I feel bad but they literally bounce when they hit the floor and jump right up again.

Oh! and a lid, you always need a lid! They can and will find ways to escape!


----------



## themamaj

Thanks. That gives me lots to think about.


----------



## Fenghuang

Oh my goodness, the blue dalmatian really is just so like Vasuki. I love him... Thank you so much, Lil. Again.


----------



## Olivia27

People keep tokay geckos as pets?! Omg they're nasty! I used to have one living on my walls in my old house. My friend's house in the more rural area has an almost infinite supply. Are they expensive? I might as well start sourcing them LOL the perks of being Southeast Asian


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Oh my goodness, the blue dalmatian really is just so like Vasuki. I love him... Thank you so much, Lil. Again.


He is really cute! Still a little small but I expect him to grow for you!



Olivia27 said:


> People keep tokay geckos as pets?! Omg they're nasty! I used to have one living on my walls in my old house. My friend's house in the more rural area has an almost infinite supply. Are they expensive? I might as well start sourcing them LOL the perks of being Southeast Asian


Yep, mostly as decorative though since they are beautiful, just mean. There are a couple of geckos/lizards that people keep as pets but not for handling.

Not sure, I think they're around 15-20 for a young adult? Can't remember the price to be honest. I can look on Friday again when I go back, there's only one store that carries them around here for PetCo.


----------



## Strawberry12

Dang, if Feng didn't snag that guy, I would have! Adorable!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Isn't he? I keep forgetting, Feng, I'll PM you in a couple minutes >.< sorry for, like, a week's delay! College is simply crazy right now.

You know what else is crazy? Me. I'm crazy. Yep.

Went to Critter Hut on...Monday? Yeah, Monday I think, nope Tuesday. Was going to go to George's but I went there instead because it's closer and I was tired. I ended up coming home with two lovely small Anubias Nangi for 4.99 each! I also found a "Bugarium" which was just a small 3 gallon tank. But it's taller and more cube-like. I had the perfect aqua-scape in mind!

It came with a little wooden log hide which I gave to the gecko's as well as another plant vine thingy which they also enjoy hiding under. The ceder wood chips obviously I'm leaving out.

So first step was to test on if it could hold the pressure of 3 gallons or not!

Oh and it has a rim but the darn thing is cheap-oh particle board with some screen on it, even for a viviarium; it wouldn't be able to withstand the humidity needed after a time! I will likely make my own later so I can set a glass top on top.

Here's how it looks with the top on


And filled up in the bathtub without the top on!
I adore the black silicone!


After a successful 30 hours of holding water, I set'er up!
I'm combining three of my "tanks" into this one. Took down the small bowl I had Glaston in originally--it still had three cherry shrimp in it plus java fern windlov. Then I also took down the 1.5 grass tank as well and add the Red Rili in here but I didn't move the plants over since they just weren't doing well and I wanted to do a low-tech tank here. And finally the 2.5 I had set up with Glaston in it was taken down as well.
Cloudy as all heck!


Getting better, Glaston was added after the shrimp. Eventually I'd like this just to have some micro fish in it and some shrimp, probably not more Cherries. I may get the blue velvet's from critter hut, they're 5 bucks each but if I get a trio, I'm more likely to at least get babies.


And finally! This morning!
I've got the sponge filter behind the rocks and a "wall" of my java fern 'windlov' which I have a lot of. I couldn't even fit in half my anubias species since they'd block the beautiful windlov! I worked hard for my windlov! So I kept them out.

You also see the "leak" that really wasn't a leak on the left side....you can see the pool of water. I didn't see it until after this picture >.<
What happened was the water was up high as you see and the bubbles from the sponge filter caused the water to gather under the lip of the wooden rim and then leak down from there. I had black paper in the back to make it look nice and the only reason I know it wasn't beading from the bottom was that I stuck the paper into the wooden rim on the top so it actually wasn't touching the bottom when I cut it just a little too short. But I noticed the paper was wet from the top down which means the leak came from the top.

Once I cleaned it up and removed about 1.5 inches of water, it was all good, no more leak! So yeah, that was a bit of a scare this morning lol


And just a quick pic of it afterward.


And just some nice pictures of my Fire Red's in my 4 gallon



A big Cherry


And then I noticed someone last night! Trying to escape! lol. Actually, they will go up to the waterline occasionally to eat the algae that gathers there and sometimes they can sneak up this far but it's rare that it happens. I've only seen it twice.


And my 45 is all clear now! yay!
Most of my extra Anubias will go into this tank next water change which will likely be next Tuesday or so. I'm busy all weekend and Monday I don't get home until 5-ish so I'll be pooped by then.


Speaking of art (that's the reason I get home late---printmaking class lol!)
For my final art history project, I get to do a project instead of a paper! Thank god! I'm so happy that Art History prof's are finally seeing that doing a project is often just as good as doing a paper! There's a lot of time involved and still plenty of research! So I wanted to originally try encaustic paintings (painting with hot wax) but my prof wants me to do a mosaic because she adores them and we have gone over them quite a bit! So off to do a huge mosaic!

I've decided to do an almost life-sized figure from Hagia Sophia in Italy, a very famous building from the early Byzantine under Justinian. In the apse of the building is the mosaic below called Virgin and Child, pretty typical portrait of them. I will be attempting a 6 foot tall by 4.5-5 foot mosaic of this! I've bought nearly 3000 tesserae (the individual tile pieces) from a fantastic mosaic supply place who gave me a bit of a discount on broken/irregular pieces because of my project when I asked! Well, it's actually about 2,900 pieces but then I also bought more blue/ivory (1/2 pound each, about 200 pieces) just in case.

It will be done on a large piece of plywood which then will staple on a metal mesh netting for the plaster to adhere to. Then first coat of plaster about 1/2 inch thick and I'll likely drive bolts through it to ensure that it stays on the board; plus that will also help in eventually hanging it as well because I'll probably give it up to my church if they want it in the end!

Then second coat of plaster will be thin enough and that's where I'll be setting in my tiles and building the mosaic in wet.

Here's the reference picture!


Here's a sketch I did of it quick yesterday just so I could get a feel for the placement and stuff!


And then printmaking! I showed you all that I was printing on Dura-lar, a thick Mylar. I have the yellow, this will eventually be the red layer here.


Detail of the head. I've scraped away the ink on the stone where the yellow will show through under the red. The black is what will eventually print as red


Tailfeathers, one of my favorite parts of it all lol.


Oh yes! I forgot! A cute video of Glaston taunting Astrael when I placed him up there for the time being lol. She's so curious about him!


And just a picture still if you don't care about the video


----------



## Olivia27

Sounds like a huge project! Good luck!  the "quick sketch" look awesome already. If it was me it would involve two stick men LOL

Aww you got Anubias nangi  I can't get those guys unless it's SNE. I have one right now and I want more LOL my 3.3 needs serious redoing ._. Love your new tank! The thick black rims look cool


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Sounds like a huge project! Good luck!  the "quick sketch" look awesome already. If it was me it would involve two stick men LOL
> 
> Aww you got Anubias nangi  I can't get those guys unless it's SNE. I have one right now and I want more LOL my 3.3 needs serious redoing ._. Love your new tank! The thick black rims look cool


Yep! It definitely will be which is why I'm starting now versus the night before as I usually do for these things lol! Thanks ^_^

I did! We have a couple around if you want me to grab some for you. I think they're a little more expensive at George's (like 12.99 or something). Unfortunately, they didn't make it into the new 3 gallon, I put them in the split 20 long instead which is where all my "extra" plants go lol.

Eventually, all my anubias will likely be put into the 45 or 55 and weighed down or on a suction cup since I have a few of those around. I like doing the suction cup with java fern and anubias and creating a "wall" of it, it usually ends up looking good if you've got enough to hide the suction cups! :-D


----------



## Olivia27

aww they're not $4.99 each? XD Well I'll pass then...


----------



## BlueInkFish

Lovely artwork Lil. Glaston must love his new home! I sure do!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> aww they're not $4.99 each? XD Well I'll pass then...


Only in select places. I can ask Critter Hut to see if Will can get some more in or not if you like. Then they will be 4.99 each. 



litelboyblu said:


> Lovely artwork Lil. Glaston must love his new home! I sure do!


Thanks! I'm sure he does, he loves all the shrimp he can terrorize now! haha He already ate a dead one XD It was shocked from the water change, I expected a couple to die. The rest are all fine! I have like eight or nine in there so I'm really not worried.


----------



## BlueInkFish

I've always wanted some shrimp. I had a few at one point but they were all eaten in the same day they arrived. Thanks to a friend of mine called a Betta -.- whatever though. I wasn't expecting much. Maybe next time I'll get a more calm fish willing to share his/her tank.


----------



## Fenghuang

Oh wow, it looks really good. I love the picture of that big shrimp. And your artwork is amazing as always.

Don't worry. I have been meaning to mail you too (I mean, it is also my responsibility), just keep getting sidetracked with being sick and busy and stuff.


----------



## Sadist

Wow, love love love the pictures and projects! I haven't been able to view any of your videos (probably a problem on my end), so thanks for adding a picture, too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Wow, love love love the pictures and projects! I haven't been able to view any of your videos (probably a problem on my end), so thanks for adding a picture, too.


Really? Does an error come up or something? You click on them right? Should bring you to the Photobucket album to view there. Photobucket takes a little longer than youtube to buffer so they're choppy at first until it fully loads.

But thanks!! :-D


----------



## Sadist

Sometimes, I get an error. Sometimes it just sits there loading, and I get impatient after a while. I'll try doing some updates that may have not updated on their own.


----------



## lilnaugrim

The three gallon this morning! All clear! :-D


And just my lovely angels because they are lovely!
Templar:



I adore that coppery color to her dorsal! She's absolutely stunning to see in the tank!


And of course Ghost!


----------



## Sadist

I love the new 3 gallon! The angels are awesome, too. My daughter wants some, but the biggest tank we have room for right now is 10 gallons.


----------



## themamaj

The new tank is amazing! What kind of substrate are you using? Oh I wish I had your eye for design!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> The new tank is amazing! What kind of substrate are you using? Oh I wish I had your eye for design!!


Thank you!

I just use CaribSea's Golden sand, regular sand, nothing special ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hey all, I'm on my phone so this will be brief. Just a quick upload of the fish from my stores. First two are Petsmart and the rest are Petco. As usual, if anything stikes you fancy, just let me know and I'll go back and get him!

The last boy I did take home. He was the same one from last week!


----------



## Tealight03

Lil, I need to avoid your journal. Too many temptations. 

The boys are doing great. Macklin has quite a bit of regrowth. My pics of him never turn out great but I'll try to get a decent one.


----------



## Olivia27

Dat grizzle girl tho O_O 

My friend back home was talking about starting a Betta tank. Do you ship internationally? LOL


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

also kinda drooling over the grizzle girl... I'm trying not to over do blue girls in my very blue tank for my sorority that will start when I get home.


----------



## Sadist

I think she is adorable, too! I hope she finds a great home!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Woohoo!

Sold off four of my betta's on AquaBid, sent them out this morning.
White EE geno boy and Cambo. BF girl went to a nice lady in Florida.
Red and my Orange BF Dragon boy went to a guy in Texas ^_^
And of course, Feng's boy was shipped out this morning as well!

So....having a very bad day with cramps and period stuff (worse on this diet that I'm on but resolves itself after a cycle or two), I skipped out on school today. I slept most of the morning before I shipped out fish and then went out on an adventure. Mostly because I needed some essential things from Walmart and so I stopped off at a couple places between.

I went to Critter Hut and found Tiger Gobies! Not like the ones I had last time but these are real Tiger Gobies, the freshwater ones. They are found in brackish too but unlike some of the other species of the genus, these ones can thrive totally in brackish whereas some others will need brackish as time goes on! So then I was thinking on where I could put them. Why, what about that beautiful new three gallon I just set up? Sure! Why not! Oh, I should take out the Betta though--that's okay, he can just go back into the 55 in a breeder box, he won't mind (lol). Oh gee, that means I need some tiny top dweller too to complete the tank! Well, lookie here, Norman's Lampeye that stay under an inch! Yup, you five are coming home with me! lol. That's about how my thought process went and that's what I did.

Then I went to Wal-Mart, picked up things and then stopped at the brandy-new PetCo again and I found HM Giants! This was a new tag! They were labeled Male Halfmoon King's and man, they were huge! So naturally, I bought one. I wanted to get both of them but the guy helped me and figured out that they were 19.99 each -_- 

So here they are in their cups at the store.

Dude, he doesn't fit!


The one I bought, figured he'd sell better since he's white pastel-ish


On top of the Omega pellets getting another pic.


And I bought the BF guy for 6.99 since he was labeled as a DT on his lid but the cup said DeT lol, they scan the lid soooo....yep.
SO yeah, this guy is pretty darn big!




He's beautiful though!



BF's flare video



Giant's flare video


And I had bought an HMPK Fancy Marble boy from Victoria's store, his dorsal is gorgeous!!
I have pics of him soon but this is just his flare videos



































































































The rest of the pics will be next post!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Alrighty, here are the others!

Gobies!





Video!


And a video of the Lampeyes too!










































































































I also found a beautiful orange girl! So yeah, she joined the girls. Not sure if I should call her Tangerine or Peach. I like Tangerine though, that's more of her color.


----------



## Whippet44

I kinda like Peach, so when she does something wrong, you can exclaim, " Oh that's just PEACHY!"
Sorry about the horrible joke.


----------



## thatdude902

Wow, those Giants are tempting. I never had one before.


----------



## Sadist

Tangerine's a beauty! Her coloring goes well with my Tequila Sunrise boy.

Did you ever find a name for deformed girl? She still looks skinny compared to the other girls to me.

I love all of your fish! So jealous!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I'm in the market for a giant but want to check locally first, if I don't find one around here I might poke you if you've not sold the white one yet, or if the other is still at you store(or new stock comes in). Are they really hm? or pk giants.
Ghost doesn't look like they know what to do in the shower of black worms hah.
How big is you male Madagascar rainbow fish? I have an adult female(6"), sadly solo...store never got more in until she was full grown and the juvies they sell now are so small she could swallow them! So she 'schools' with my angel and reminds the cherries who's boss ^^


----------



## Nimble

gggg


lilnaugrim said:


> Alrighty, here are the others!
> 
> View attachment 738082
> 
> 
> View attachment 738122


Ooh, I like that pretty chocolate yellow girl. Tell me more about her.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I'm in the market for a giant but want to check locally first, if I don't find one around here I might poke you if you've not sold the white one yet, or if the other is still at you store(or new stock comes in). Are they really hm? or pk giants.
> Ghost doesn't look like they know what to do in the shower of black worms hah.
> How big is you male Madagascar rainbow fish? I have an adult female(6"), sadly solo...store never got more in until she was full grown and the juvies they sell now are so small she could swallow them! So she 'schools' with my angel and reminds the cherries who's boss ^^


Sure! I wasn't sure which coloration you'd like (other than MG or Orange) but I'll definitely keep my eye out!

The Wild coloration boy at the store was more of a Giant PK as you can see in his photo, he was flaring at me. The White is definitely an HMPK, he's an Asymmetrical so he's allowed to have curved edges as long as the actual spread still gets up to 180 which his does. His topline is obviously messy but he's still gorgeous all around! I'm going to try to sell him for 30 (BIN 35) but if I happen to find one that you want, it's just the 20 plus a dollar for commish and then shipping! Not sure how exactly I'll charge shipping for a giant...I need a bigger bag for him which means a little more water. I'll have to weigh it but it may have to be about 14 dollars instead. I try to keep as less water as possible in the bags to reduce cost and stress on the fish of course.

And both the males are about 3 inches at the moment ^_^
Are you sure yours is Madagascar?? They're supposed to max out at 4 inches tops, 3 is average. Mine are definitely full grown.

If you wanted males, I can definitely ship you out some, we have three more in store and we can always order more of course. I get these ones from PetSmart, not PetCo; they never have them. But they're 7.50 each unfortunately. 



Nimble said:


> gggg
> 
> Ooh, I like that pretty chocolate yellow girl. Tell me more about her.


Aha, she's not for sale! She's my lovely Chocobo girl!
Bought her at George's though, Chocolate's are rare-ish around here.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Whippet44 said:


> I kinda like Peach, so when she does something wrong, you can exclaim, " Oh that's just PEACHY!"
> Sorry about the horrible joke.


Aha, that's cute.



thatdude902 said:


> Wow, those Giants are tempting. I never had one before.


Aren't they? That's kind of why I bought one lol, I've never seen a Giant in real life either! Just on AquaBid!



Sadist said:


> Tangerine's a beauty! Her coloring goes well with my Tequila Sunrise boy.
> 
> Did you ever find a name for deformed girl? She still looks skinny compared to the other girls to me.
> 
> I love all of your fish! So jealous!


Thanks! oooh, maybe I'll call her Tequila instead! lol, I do kind of like that......heh. Yep, that's her name, Tequila Tangerine for her full name XD

And nope. Haven't named her or the Grizzle Girl. She is skinny though, there is clearly something wrong with her genetically. She's not infected with anything, her poops always look great and she's got a great appetite. I even target feed her solo but she just can't keep weight on! She's colored up quite a bit though which is good. I'll just let her do her thing.


----------



## Sadist

Torpedo
Pepper
Patch
Prisma

Ugg, I'm sure something good will come to you some day. You get to watch them and see their personalities and everything.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Meh, I don't really want to name her though. She doesn't really fit anything. Thanks though. I generally like to name them myself unless I ask for suggestions.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Sure! I wasn't sure which coloration you'd like (other than MG or Orange) but I'll definitely keep my eye out!
> 
> The Wild coloration boy at the store was more of a Giant PK as you can see in his photo, he was flaring at me. The White is definitely an HMPK, he's an Asymmetrical so he's allowed to have curved edges as long as the actual spread still gets up to 180 which his does. His topline is obviously messy but he's still gorgeous all around! I'm going to try to sell him for 30 (BIN 35) but if I happen to find one that you want, it's just the 20 plus a dollar for commish and then shipping! Not sure how exactly I'll charge shipping for a giant...I need a bigger bag for him which means a little more water. I'll have to weigh it but it may have to be about 14 dollars instead. I try to keep as less water as possible in the bags to reduce cost and stress on the fish of course.
> 
> And both the males are about 3 inches at the moment ^_^
> Are you sure yours is Madagascar?? They're supposed to max out at 4 inches tops, 3 is average. Mine are definitely full grown.
> 
> If you wanted males, I can definitely ship you out some, we have three more in store and we can always order more of course. I get these ones from PetSmart, not PetCo; they never have them. But they're 7.50 each unfortunately.


I'm not actually caught and measured her (she's a freaking torpedo). I thought I read max size was 6" (maybe I remember wrong and thinking of another rainbow species for size) so just assumed that's what she is, but it could be 4".. with all the roots its hard to see her to estimate. I just know she's done growing (she's been with me since.. 2013). She's definitely Madagascan, looks *exactly *like your males minus the red on the tail tips. 
Thank you for the offer on the Madagascars but no thank you, the 55g is near stocking limit with all the [censor] mts in the substrate, don't want to add fish.. If I ever get rid of the cherry barbs I'll contact you about getting some Madagascars for a proper school.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I'm not actually caught and measured her (she's a freaking torpedo). I thought I read max size was 6" (maybe I remember wrong and thinking of another rainbow species for size) so just assumed that's what she is, but it could be 4".. with all the roots its hard to see her to estimate. I just know she's done growing (she's been with me since.. 2013). She's definitely Madagascan, looks *exactly *like your males minus the red on the tail tips.
> Thank you for the offer on the Madagascars but no thank you, the 55g is near stocking limit with all the [censor] mts in the substrate, don't want to add fish.. If I ever get rid of the cherry barbs I'll contact you about getting some Madagascars for a proper school.


You're probably thinking about the Red Irian's, those get up to about 6 inches max for sure.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> You're probably thinking about the Red Irian's, those get up to about 6 inches max for sure.


You're problably right ^^''
I forgot to add, I'm not too picky on color for giant though I think 'wild' coloration is my least favorite, but if that's all I can find it's what I'll get. I might be more picky about top line/spoon head and such.. I notice a lot of giants had a more.. how to put it.. blunt face look (not as..pointed?).. might just be overall larger proportions give that illusion, or maybe just the breeder's line (was thinking of emma (emmi?) giants from aquabid).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> You're problably right ^^''
> I forgot to add, I'm not too picky on color for giant though I think 'wild' coloration is my least favorite, but if that's all I can find it's what I'll get. I might be more picky about top line/spoon head and such.. I notice a lot of giants had a more.. how to put it.. blunt face look (not as..pointed?).. might just be overall larger proportions give that illusion, or maybe just the breeder's line (was thinking of emma (emmi?) giants from aquabid).


No worries! Yeah, that boy at the store was definitely much more appealing than the usual drab Kings we get in but it's nice to see other colors! I'll certainly keep my eye out for you if we start getting more in! The White boy I have has that blunt face but the red and blue wild-ish boy at the store was muuuuch nicer! He's turned toward you in the pic so you can't see as well but he had some of the nicest form out of them all minus the rounded caudal but that's totally fine in Trad PK form!

And yeah, EmmyGolf, it's not an illusion, that's just how they came out.


----------



## ThatFishThough

Im so freaking jealous of you fish, Lil! Maybe one day, I'll get a Giant from you. How do you do your bought-to-sells? Divided 5Gs? Or 10s?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> Im so freaking jealous of you fish, Lil! Maybe one day, I'll get a Giant from you. How do you do your bought-to-sells? Divided 5Gs? Or 10s?


Thanks!

And heh, they don't get it that good! They chill in a breeder box in the 55 until they go. I do have my divided 20 long but those are generally for fish I'm keeping. I'm taking out dividers as I go and will eventually take it down. I did put the giant in one of the sections though, he's just too big, the others fit fine in the breeder boxes.


----------



## Olivia27

Lil once you break down most of your tanks are you gonna be selling the breeder boxes? I just cannot - for the life of me - find a good one on eBay  my current one is too small, and the second one I ordered is so flimsy it's not even funny


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> No worries! Yeah, that boy at the store was definitely much more appealing than the usual drab Kings we get in but it's nice to see other colors! I'll certainly keep my eye out for you if we start getting more in! The White boy I have has that blunt face but the red and blue wild-ish boy at the store was muuuuch nicer! He's turned toward you in the pic so you can't see as well but he had some of the nicest form out of them all minus the rounded caudal but that's totally fine in Trad PK form!
> 
> And yeah, EmmyGolf, it's not an illusion, that's just how they came out.


Yeh I'm not as huge a fan of that blunt-er face, so I'd take a wild with a more normal pointed face over a blunt face mustard/other 'pretty' color. Also I'll only take short fin giants (no more long finned anything). I think I'd make an exception and get a blunt faced giant if it was a true chocolate (no blues) soo want a chocolate pk.. wonder if anyone's managed to make a giant chocolate yet, bet it would sell of for $100+ ..


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

noname = emanon


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Lil once you break down most of your tanks are you gonna be selling the breeder boxes? I just cannot - for the life of me - find a good one on eBay  my current one is too small, and the second one I ordered is so flimsy it's not even funny


Ah, no, the breeder boxes won't be sold. Those float in the 55 and I won't be getting rid of that. The 20 long is simply divided.

I can get you the ones from PetCo if you want. They're the 3 way breeders with the divider. They're small but it really doesn't matter if they're only there for a couple days to a couple weeks. 



Aqua Aurora said:


> Yeh I'm not as huge a fan of that blunt-er face, so I'd take a wild with a more normal pointed face over a blunt face mustard/other 'pretty' color. Also I'll only take short fin giants (no more long finned anything). I think I'd make an exception and get a blunt faced giant if it was a true chocolate (no blues) soo want a chocolate pk.. wonder if anyone's managed to make a giant chocolate yet, bet it would sell of for $100+ ..


Okidoke, I'll keep an eye out then.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Okidoke, I'll keep an eye out then.


Thank you!
I'll be shopping locally this weekend/early next week and will let you know if I don't find any to see what you have around ^^


----------



## Olivia27

Petco sells that?  I suppose I'll find it in my own local stores first then. But yeah! A 3-way breeder box sounds like the way to go! I'll let you know if I can't find any


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Thank you!
> I'll be shopping locally this weekend/early next week and will let you know if I don't find any to see what you have around ^^


Sure!



Olivia27 said:


> Petco sells that?  I suppose I'll find it in my own local stores first then. But yeah! A 3-way breeder box sounds like the way to go! I'll let you know if I can't find any


Both PetCo and PetSmart's do. They're generally near the filter/vacuum stuff on the very bottom. I get the ones from Imaginarium or whatever that brand is. They're usually 6.99


----------



## thatdude902

Ok I want that green-red giant. Please check to see if he's still available.


----------



## lilnaugrim

thatdude902 said:


> Ok I want that green-red giant. Please check to see if he's still available.


Sure, you got the 22 plus shipping? I only take PayPal.
I'm literally there now so I'll give an update in a sec if he's there or not


----------



## thatdude902

lilnaugrim said:


> Sure, you got the 22 plus shipping? I only take PayPal.
> I'm literally there now so I'll give an update in a sec if he's there or not


Yes, just let me know the total and I'll paypal the amount.


----------



## lilnaugrim

thatdude902 said:


> Yes, just let me know the total and I'll paypal the amount.


He's here! And now he's in the car with me lol. I have some things to do first but I'll PM you later with the details and options and such! He's really beautiful!


----------



## thatdude902

lilnaugrim said:


> He's here! And now he's in the car with me lol. I have some things to do first but I'll PM you later with the details and options and such! He's really beautiful!


Awesome, thank you. I really like his body shape. Never had a giant before, don't think I even seen one in person yet, intriguing.


----------



## Sadist

Awesome! I really hate that they have the same cup size as regular bettas. I've seen some that are barely able to keep their bodies straight.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I have more pictures from the DSLR but a couple from my phone of the Giant boy and other things.

This was the 55 a couple days ago before I filled it back up with Betta's in breeder boxes lol!


And I can't remember, did I tell you all I got a couple platies? I've been itching for something new and I wanted something in with Renegade in the 20 long since it's a nice big section. Well I found these Red Dalmatian Platies and fell in love! I realized after that they look so identical to Renegade and was like "Oh! That's why I loved them!" lol! I adore their blue eyes! Unfortunately, I have four males and two females but they haven't started up bugging them to death yet so we'll see. Obviously, it's better to have more females than males but this is all that the stores had!



Giant's flare video:




And then took some pics of the other fish at that store! They're pretty nice!
Boatload of BFs














Our Marimo Ball friend is still there lol, you'd think they would have corrected that by now!







One of my favorites


And I printed the blue layer for my reduction linocut!
Just the blue layer


It looks black but it's just the light. Blue and red only


All three colors!


----------



## Sadist

Gorgeous print! I love the fish, too. Too bad they can't all get along.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Lil, any idea if that grizzle girl is still around and how much she'd be? 
....More than very tempted....
Actually any other really nice girls at all I'd love to see.


----------



## thatdude902

Wow, Giant boy is lovely, and huge. Mine, all mine, lol.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

[Censor] so many lovely fish at your petco!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Gorgeous print! I love the fish, too. Too bad they can't all get along.


Thank you! And I know, right? Lol



OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Lil, any idea if that grizzle girl is still around and how much she'd be?
> ....More than very tempted....
> Actually any other really nice girls at all I'd love to see.


Oh, idk, that was at the Waterford Petco, won't be there until Saturday this week.



thatdude902 said:


> Wow, Giant boy is lovely, and huge. Mine, all mine, lol.


Yes he is! Glad you could take him!!



Aqua Aurora said:


> [Censor] so many lovely fish at your petco!!


Heh, see my problem? I just wnat to collect them all >.< but thats why I foster! Gives me a chance to have them for a bit and then they move on from me! :-D its a good system for me.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh, idk, that was at the Waterford Petco, won't be there until Saturday this week.


Thats fine! Just let me know! I'm in the market for 2 or 3 more girls for a sorority depending on if I think my little EEHMPK can be part of it since she seems to have some kind of problem swimming, like possibly a swim bladder birth defect or something. She manages well on her own so we'll see.


----------



## themamaj

Beautiful prints! Little double tail plakat on last picture is such a cutie!


----------



## Olivia27

What's a reduction linocut? Is that a wall decor? I love anything with a picture of a wolf on it O_O if you ever make more...


----------



## Nova betta

wow lil your fish are to gorgeous to let them get away!


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Thats fine! Just let me know! I'm in the market for 2 or 3 more girls for a sorority depending on if I think my little EEHMPK can be part of it since she seems to have some kind of problem swimming, like possibly a swim bladder birth defect or something. She manages well on her own so we'll see.


Okidoke. I'll keep an eye out for you.

Mostly we get the regular reds, blues, grizzle, and occasionally black orchid/black copper devils and cellophanes. I regret leaving her there at the Cranston store but there was a beautiful white CT girl, I totally should have brought her home but alas, I won't be back there for a while and she'll likely be gone.



themamaj said:


> Beautiful prints! Little double tail plakat on last picture is such a cutie!


Thanks! He is, isn't he?



Olivia27 said:


> What's a reduction linocut? Is that a wall decor? I love anything with a picture of a wolf on it O_O if you ever make more...


So they're two different things. Linocut is an art form of printmaking (using a technique to get multiple copies of an image, mostly used in newspaper printing.) It's done in Linoleum pieces, thick rubber basically and you carve into it! Think like a stamp! The rubber bottom is essentially a linocut. You may also know about wood cut, that's another popular form, it's just taking a piece of wood (flat wood, not a stump lol) and carving into it. So Relief is the overarching term here for these things.

[Color] Reduction is a process also used in newspapers. It's printing in layers from lightest to darkest. So you see in my print there is yellow, red, and blue. I printed yellow first and then I cut away more of the linoleum to keep the yellow shown and then I print that in red over top so you see both colors. Then again I cut away more so you have an opening where it doesn't print and you see the red and yellow underneath the blue. It's the same process I use with my Stone Lithography if you've been around to see that.

I usually do mostly fish and birds but I could definitely do a commission if you wanted something. I can pretty much do most techniques, I'm not super fond of painting though but I do lots of digital painting if you want something ^_^



Nova betta said:


> wow lil your fish are to gorgeous to let them get away!


Thanks! :-D


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

lilnaugrim said:


> Okidoke. I'll keep an eye out for you.
> 
> Mostly we get the regular reds, blues, grizzle, and occasionally black orchid/black copper devils and cellophanes. I regret leaving her there at the Cranston store but there was a beautiful white CT girl, I totally should have brought her home but alas, I won't be back there for a while and she'll likely be gone.


I currently have a dark/royal blue hm, an aqua ish EEHMPK, and her sister who looks lavender in some lights and blue-ish in others. I probably wouldn't be as interested in reds unless she was really something special, and no straight blues. Lol I really don't have anything That specific in mind which is almost worse than knowing exactly what I want! All I really know for sure is I want some variety, so blue HM is definitely already covered in the tank. White CT sounds gorgeous, but you're probably right about her no longer being there.


----------



## Rennie Sky

lilnaugrim said:


> He's here! And now he's in the car with me lol. I have some things to do first but I'll PM you later with the details and options and such! He's really beautiful!



Totally jealous! I forgot to keep up here and I think he's gorgeous. Congratulations!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry for the delay on pics! Had a dress rehearsal last night for our concert tomorrow! So I didn't go to CT last night but this morning! Here are the pics! Some of the boys were left over from last week still!

As usual, if you want one, make sure to tell me before 7pm tonight EST so I can run and grab him or her! You pay the price of the fish and tax plus a dollar for commission and then just $10 shipping without heatpack or $12 with it. If you want Express, that's $35

































































I swore this was a girl when I first looked at him but nope, it's a boy.

















































































































These girls are for you OUOhYeah2016!

























This girl is particularly nice!








She wasn't as bad as she looks here. I moved her cup and freaked her out a bit by accident but she's a lovely copper Multicolor!


----------



## BettaBoy11

Your fish and your petco's fish look great like always!


----------



## ThatFishThough

lol, if you ever find an EE girl, I might just have to look.


----------



## Olivia27

Aw, the two boys underneath the first EE photo are cute. If there's a member that lives in my town and wouldn't mind pet-sitting for the whole summer I would've snatched them both already


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I love the second girl! The first pale bodied CT with the blue and red in her fins! I think she'd be a great addition to my sorority. I'd love to have her.


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> I love the second girl! The first pale bodied CT with the blue and red in her fins! I think she'd be a great addition to my sorority. I'd love to have her.


Sure! Anyone else or just her? I may stop at the PetSmart too while I'm out. I don't have cell service there so I can't show pics there unfortunately but can upload them when I'm home. They usually have some nice girls. There was an MG girl that I showed about two or three weeks ago when I got the Cambodian Butterfly girl. If she's still there, did you have any interest? There was also a lovely yellow HM girl.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I'm actually trying to win an eBay auction for a "yellow samurai HMPK" that ends tonight and I also saw a cute white-ish blue/purple girl at my petsmart last night, so I think it's best I stick with just the one for now lol 
Plus as tempting as those boys are I don't have the space for boys especially with my mother telling me how beautiful my current rescue is and how I should keep him! I told her I'll ship him to her if she likes him so much, but she's got a pretty good petco by her too so she's pretty set on finding one for herself there.

Thanks! How necessary do you think a heat pack will be? I don't want to take any chances, but the weather here will be at or near 70 until Thursday at least.


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> I'm actually trying to win an eBay auction for a "yellow samurai HMPK" that ends tonight and I also saw a cute white-ish blue/purple girl at my petsmart last night, so I think it's best I stick with just the one for now lol
> Plus as tempting as those boys are I don't have the space for boys especially with my mother telling me how beautiful my current rescue is and how I should keep him! I told her I'll ship him to her if she likes him so much, but she's got a pretty good petco by her too so she's pretty set on finding one for herself there.
> 
> Thanks! How necessary do you think a heat pack will be? I don't want to take any chances, but the weather here will be at or near 70 until Thursday at least.


Oh, I didn't say anything about boys, just the girls since I knew you wanted one. But no problem!

Since the weather won't get below 40s Monday-Wednesday it seems, I'll just use one of my 40 hour packs instead, it's still $12 for shipping though with that. I only start not using them if the weather doesn't go below 50 during day or night to be on the safe side, that includes my weather and the weather they're going to.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Sounds good! I trust your judgement on that. Thanks again for getting her!


----------



## Lucillia

HAHA Astrael!! I also love that I can see my face in one of the betta cup pictures.


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Sounds good! I trust your judgement on that. Thanks again for getting her!


Got her! She had a sister with more red and less blue too, I didn't see her the first time.



Lucillia said:


> HAHA Astrael!! I also love that I can see my face in one of the betta cup pictures.


Oh lol!!! I didn't see that before so I went back to look and laughed pretty hard at that!! Haha


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I can't wait to get her! How much do I owe you? PayPal right?


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> I can't wait to get her! How much do I owe you? PayPal right?


Yep, I'll PM you


----------



## Sadist

I thought of your sorority, oo yeah, when I saw a cute little black crowntail at the store the other day!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I'm really excited! I got this girl from Lil and, despite having lost my auction, messaged the seller who had a nearly identical fish that they sold me for the starting bid price of the one I wanted originally. So I officially have 5 girls to start once they both get here :]

I'm on my phone so the picture will probably end up being sideways... but this is the other girl:

Edit: Guess not lol I never know when my pictures are going to be right side up...


----------



## Sadist

Wow, what a gorgeous girl!


----------



## lilnaugrim

What's this? An update on a Sunday? What??? lol

Just uploading the pics I took on Thursday or whenever.

Not going to comment heavily, I have to get ready for my concert shortly! So for now, enjoy the pics!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Sadist said:


> Wow, what a gorgeous girl!


Thanks! I'm really excited for them both to get here. I've been itching to start this project for weeks but I was out of the country for a week and a half and figured that wasn't the best time to start a sorority lol


----------



## Sadist

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Thanks! I'm really excited for them both to get here. I've been itching to start this project for weeks but I was out of the country for a week and a half and figured that wasn't the best time to start a sorority lol


True right there!

Lil, those are all gorgeous! That marble girl is out of control with her fancy goldfish-red head and turquoise blue body with clear edges on her fins. Out of control!


----------



## Olivia27

Who's the redhead girl? Eep she's too cute!


----------



## themamaj

Incredible pictures as always Lil! Love love the first one. What a great face!

OUOhYeah what a cute girl! Congrats. Can't wait to hear more details on sorority plans.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah, that's not a girl, that's Moasic! He's marbled! I kind of hope he stays like this lol, he's been fairly stable for a couple weeks now with his steel blue! He flares at all the girls on the other side of the divider lol. He loves the company it seems though, so I'm glad I kept up that one divider so he could still see them and share water since he grew up with them. Still growing out his fins but its a normal pace. All my baby girls are full grown now! And my yellow convicts are also growing very well too, halfway to adulthood!


----------



## Tealight03

I thought that was Mosaic. Wow has a changed. They all look great!


----------



## Tealight03

A few pics of the EE boy for all to enjoy.  He is getting more black spots. He is tentatively named Grayson. I don't love it, but nothing else seemed to fit him and I got tired of thinking about it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oooh yay! Thanks for the pic update tealight! He's looking great!


----------



## Tealight03

Yeah he's doing well. I feel bad for him because he's on an end table in the dining room, where there's not a super lot of activity. I feel like he'd appreciate some more action lol. 

Macklin has regrowth! I'm a little concerned because his ammonia level is .25, the same as the water. Will try a new water source this week. He is acting the same though.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Have you tried testing the tap water with a Salicylate Ammonia test? My tap water once measured Ammonia with the API test; none with when I used the Seachem test.


----------



## Olivia27

The API Ammonia liquid test kit cannot distinguish between ammonia and ammonium. Which is why people recommend the Seachem Ammonia Alert Disk. They're $20 at my Petco :'( I swear I would get one but there are always more important stuff I need =\


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

AA are much cheaper on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=seachem+ammonia+alert&_sop=15


----------



## Strawberry12

Who are your little polka dotted friends? (Pics 11+12 in your photo dump a few pages ago)?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> Who are your little polka dotted friends? (Pics 11+12 in your photo dump a few pages ago)?


I had to sit and think about who they were lol. Do you mean the Red Dalmatian Platys?


----------



## Strawberry12

These guys are the ones im talking about


----------



## Tealight03

Thanks, I'll look into the Ammonia Alert.


----------



## ThatFishThough

If i'm not mistaken, those look like her Freshwater Gobies. But I probably am mistaken, so don't quote me.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh those are Tigrinius Larson Gobies. One of the many species called Tiger Gobies, specifically collected by a guy named Larson and yes, they are freshwater gobies. 

I have one female and two males, seems like I have a pair though!


----------



## themamaj

Wow almost didn't recognize Mosiac. Love how those marbles change. He has such a great pattern now I hope he stays stable.

Here is a picture I took yesterday of Aspen (Ezio). He is doing great. Look at him flare!


----------



## BettaStarter24

wait...wasn't he white?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Wow! Aspen looks fabulous!!!




BettaStarter24 said:


> wait...wasn't he white?


Who, Aspen (Ezio) or Moasic?


----------



## BettaStarter24

lilnaugrim said:


> Wow! Aspen looks fabulous!!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Who, Aspen (Ezio) or Moasic?


Aspen (Ezio) I know Mosaic was lighter when you got him. Gotta love marbles.


----------



## lilnaugrim

BettaStarter24 said:


> Aspen (Ezio) I know Mosaic was lighter when you got him. Gotta love marbles.


Ezio was always that color ^_^ He became a little pale when I moved him around but he was always Black Turquoise with yellow!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Small video of the 45 and what happens when I put my fingers in lol


Templar


One of my cories




So a funny story now!

On Friday, I went to my lady doctor which happens to be in Westerly where all my other doctors are and it's where SeaHorse Pet Shop is as well! I only really visit them when I've either got a dentist appointment or doctors since it's about 30 minutes from my house, the opposite way of all the other PetCos minus the one in CT. So I went to visit them and found this beautiful marble-ish VT boy!

I talked with Nick for a while, he's one of the owners of the store along with his brother; Chuck. So I was telling him about my weird fish. I had put the Rainbow shark from the 45 in the 55 and tried to swap out the Red Tail Black shark from the 55 to put in the 45 since I knew they wouldn't get along and the Rainbowshark had such an attitude! She killed one of my Bosemani Rainbows!!! SO I only have one left of them, I feel bad. So I couldn't catch the RTBS and so I said, whatever, he'll likely be dead by morning from her. Guess what, along with RJ and Acara, my two sharks are getting along and seemed to be performing almost like a mating ritual, definitely showing off to each other and not fighting.....I swear, my 55 is a magical tank! I'm flabbergasted! So I said it's probably just because new tank and new fish, she'll kill him over the weekend. It's Tuesday now and they're still coexisting happily....wtf? I'm not going to mess with it, if they're happy then great! I just have very strange fish!

So anywho, I was telling Nick about that and spotted the VT and asked how much. He was 8 bucks but worth it! Going to sell him since he is a fancy VT, his tail spread isn't that great but he's beautiful! Looks like he's also gaining copper on his top too!

So through all that, he ended up giving me one of his other Betta's that apparently had been there for months and no one wanted the poor fella! He's a Copper Red Metallic DeT! Not the best looking fish but he's adorable! So if anyone would like him here, I'd just ask for $5 plus shipping for him. The VT will be 15 on Aquabid with 20 BIN once I take good pictures of him. 

They've both settled in wonderfully!

First day home



Couple days later, Sunday probably. VT built a nest lol. The Copper doesn't really want to flare.



Short video of them


Also, ever wondered how different a Giant's bubble nest is compared to a normal nest? Well, wonder no more! I have the answer! lol

This is the HMPK Fancy dragon guy's nest
He's been busy!


And this is the white giant's small nest lol
Look at the size of those bubbles! Both pics were taken at the same height, I didn't zoom or anything


These were from Sunday.
ERMAHGERHD BLOODWERMS!



Even shrimps like bloodworms!


Messy 4 gallon


Sorry I'm tilted! lol
20 long


Just the sorority side


The most active spot usually


And a video of the sorority


Tiger gobies happy with worms


And updates on art!
I printed yesterday, had lots of difficulty with chemical processes this time but it worked out in the end!
Here is the two layers on one paper!
Color Reduction in Stone Lithography


Upclose of the scales


Head


I'm also printing on Dura-lar which is a stiffer Mylar, basically just see through plexi that is very thin. This one I printed like regular; so yellow on first and then red over top. Registration is spot on!


And here's one where I printed just the red layer. The separate layers will eventually be placed in a shadow box with a small round light behind the left wing/head to simulate a moon!


On paper so you can see the detail, this is the Dura-lar again


I found Luna sleeping on top of Hawkeye the other day! Super cute! I know it's only because that was likely one of the warmest spots but I still found it endearing. It's not like there isn't plenty of space for them either, two adults can comfortably fit in that hide plus there is another warm/moist hide as well


And Astrael was pretending to sleep, she had her eyes closed before this pic lol


Zolla lounging


Luna!


----------



## Sadist

Awesome pictures! I love the new boys! My favorite picture is the shrimp eating. My ghosties would hang on the floating plants and swipe worms at feeding time.


----------



## Tealight03

Love that vt. And how nice of the guy to give you the other one. Hope they boy find good homes.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

I managed to find my giant semi locally, so no need to be on the look out for me though I'm sure others will buy giants from your stores. ^^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Awesome pictures! I love the new boys! My favorite picture is the shrimp eating. My ghosties would hang on the floating plants and swipe worms at feeding time.


Right? They're so cute!



Tealight03 said:


> Love that vt. And how nice of the guy to give you the other one. Hope they boy find good homes.


Yeah, I hope so too ^_^



Aqua Aurora said:


> I managed to find my giant semi locally, so no need to be on the look out for me though I'm sure others will buy giants from your stores. ^^


Cool! I honestly wasn't looking too hard anyway, glad you got one though!!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Omg omg omg omgomomgomgomg!


Sooooooo

I may get rid of most of my fish to get a PUPPY!

Oh ****, I'm so excited but trying not to get my hopes up. Because I'm still living with mom, it's going to be extremely tough to convince her to let me have one. I'd be getting one with Victoria and she promised to help me through everything. I've already learned a poop-ton through Gimli with training and diets and everything like that. And of course she'd continue to help me as well. But mom is going to be extremely tough to work over in letting me keep one because she's so afraid of flea's in the house even though I'd keep that dog immaculate due to my own allergies. She doesn't mind animals outside but despises them inside. She's afraid of becoming attached and the dog dying. She also doesn't want me to "waste" my money as well. ugh.....

This is the litter


I want the one in the middle.....look at how fluffy! I hope the temperament is good. I won't get him if the temperament isn't right or we don't click. I'd honestly be happy with any of them but this little one is a doll! Also, they're like Border Collie and Golden mixes or Lab, not entirely sure.


----------



## ThatFishThough

Awwwww!!!!


How many girls in the sorority?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> Awwwww!!!!
> 
> 
> How many girls in the sorority?


Hmmmm that's a good question.....10? Nope 9, I took Snowcap out a while ago. Nope 10, I forgot Koi

Rowan, Fresco, Tempera, Lady Trevelyan, Koi, Silhouette, Chocobo, Grizzle, Pug, Tequila Tangerine

Think I have everyone now.


----------



## Tealight03

Omg! I want one! Darn no furry pets in apt policy. Hope it works out for you!


----------



## ThatFishThough

So it'd be okay to divide a small space for another male? >3


Edit: I have Harmony, Melody, Viola, Candy, Poptart, Hershey, Eclipse, Luna, and Star. :3


----------



## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> So it'd be okay to divide a small space for another male? >3
> 
> 
> Edit: I have Harmony, Melody, Viola, Candy, Poptart, Hershey, Eclipse, Luna, and Star. :3


Sure. You see mine, I have Mosaic on the other side and much more fish than you. Though, the plants help to offset the bioload as well. Ember's barely create any bioload comparatively. I also have two yellow convict juvie's in there, 3 Corydoras Habrosus, 2 Guppy female juvies, annnddd that's it I think.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Is that a car/truck tire the puppies are in? Interesting basket.. good chew toy option haha.

The puppy thing can be hard but i find shoving a cute puppy (make sure its already pottied so no oppsies on their shirt) in someone's face tends to melt them quick. Having a pet and it dieing is an inevitability, but getting smaller breeds and mix breeds seem to be better than large inbred breeds. 
My mom (have not lived with in many years) told me she almost bought a lab pup a few years ago because she pretty much has it shoved in her face (nicely) when at Pestmart getting something for her friend's dog she was caring for. Until the breeder gave her the price (the last dog in the house (also lab) was a rescue so free.. mom wasn't paying $600 for a puppy). I thought it was surprising she even entertained it for a second as she hates dealing with hyper dogs and wouldn't' want to do teething/ potty trying/general training or have a large dog again. But a cute (puppy) face can throw your will power out the window.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Is that a car/truck tire the puppies are in? Interesting basket.. good chew toy option haha.
> 
> The puppy thing can be hard but i find shoving a cute puppy (make sure its already pottied so no oppsies on their shirt) in someone's face tends to melt them quick. Having a pet and it dieing is an inevitability, but getting smaller breeds and mix breeds seem to be better than large inbred breeds.
> My mom (have not lived with in many years) told me she almost bought a lab pup a few years ago because she pretty much has it shoved in her face (nicely) when at Pestmart getting something for her friend's dog she was caring for. Until the breeder gave her the price (the last dog in the house (also lab) was a rescue so free.. mom wasn't paying $600 for a puppy). I thought it was surprising she even entertained it for a second as she hates dealing with hyper dogs and wouldn't' want to do teething/ potty trying/general training or have a large dog again. But a cute (puppy) face can throw your will power out the window.


Oh yes, Victoria will be making sure they are in good health before I get one. She would never let me get a sickly puppy!

And yeah I think so lol, I was too focused on the puppies to see what they were in XD They're currently in Puerto Rico though but will be imported soon I believe. So I won't be getting one any time shortly, but soonish.

And yeah, mom loves to see puppies and visit, she doesn't want the care. She's also afraid that I'd leave her with the care. Most importantly though, the fleas and she doesn't want me to spend the money...specifically because I have no job and student loans are coming up. Or rather, I don't have a permanent job, I have my two work studies which is great for now but once I'm out of college I mean.


----------



## Scribbler

Very nice lithograph! I had to do printmaking in one of my foundations classes, so I know the amount of time that went into that beautiful piece!

Also, your fish are very pretty too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Scribbler said:


> Very nice lithograph! I had to do printmaking in one of my foundations classes, so I know the amount of time that went into that beautiful piece!
> 
> Also, your fish are very pretty too.


Thank you very much!! Yes, it is time consuming but I love lithography so much! I'm glad I took the class on a whim!

And thanks! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

And just as I thought. Mom was completely adamant against the idea.

She doesn't want me to move out, she doesn't want me to get a puppy at all even with Victoria's help and reduce costs. She doesn't want me to get a credit card even though I NEED credit in order to buy literally anything in lines of apartments or houses later or cars! WTF am I going to do without credit? Live at home forever? Hells no!

She's offered to sit down and go over finances with me but I don't know exactly how much I trust her information since she's been in trouble herself with credit before which is why she doesn't want me to use it. I'd literally use it like once a month for maybe groceries and gas and pay it off, I'm not stupid. I'm very much aware to never use it for things I can't afford and if I don't pay it at the end of the month, I'm in trouble. I understand that, I understand all of that but she doesn't believe me!

She wants me to stay at home another year to save up and then do something after but I don't think it's such a great idea. Yes, saving money is great but staying at home another year? Damn, I'll be 25 before I even move out! But the thing is, I'm not going to be alone, I'll be with Victoria and maybe one other friend if we find a cheaper place with 2/3 bedrooms. I don't mind sharing beds and living in smaller spaces, I can absolutely make due. I won't be relying on her of course, I would never do that to a friend but we've always helped each other out in times of need and I really believe that we can do this.

Any tips on how to make mom understand that I need to go? >.> she's also afraid of being an empty nester which is another reason she's trying to keep me back. She was so angry this morning when I told her that she wouldn't like me living with her another year because I'm getting a puppy. "No, absolutely not, you can't afford that!" is what she told me. Cool, thanks for the faith mom. I understand the commitment, I understand that things happen such as pet sickness, vet bills, and all of the above.

She tried to pull one on me though and I'm fuming because of it. I told her that I hadn't pushed my fish onto her at all! She looked at me and told me that she was still paying for them! "Oh no, no, no! I've offered to pay the electricity multiple times! Don't you dare tell me that!" and she just smiles and goes "I know, I know, don't worry about it..." Seriously...don't worry about it? How the hell am I supposed to not worry about it when YOU keep bringing it up and using it against me?!? I've tried shoving money into her face and she won't accept it! I swear that she's only doing that so she can hold it against me!


So anyway, sorry for the rant but I'm livid at the moment. I'm going to be running a sale on my AquaBid fish shortly (probably tomorrow) to get quick sales and start to move everything out. I will be tearing down pretty much all my tanks except the geckos. I may keep that one 3 gallon going, it's cheap, it costs about .50 cents a month to run with just the sponge filter and the LED light that is .7 watts.

I don't know what is going to happen to the 45, if she'll want to keep it up or not. Likely I'll end up stuffing all my plants into that tank until I want to sell them off. I have a horde of anubias that I'm not ready to give up just yet. That's the only sucky thing about keeping a small tank, half my anubias are larger than that tank >.< And I'm pretty sure I can feel Aqua Aurora looking at my large Anubias in my 55 and going"I want it" lol. Maybe one day friend!

So that means I'll be taking down the 4 gallon, the two 20 longs, and then just the 55 and the 45. I'm already hurt for thinking about giving up RJ and Acara, I may give them to George to see if he can breed them because I still want their babies and gosh, if we make a hybrid fish....it may look amazing with those two as parents! But....we'll see. I want to keep those two through this tear down at least and they'll be the last to go.

I know a bunch of people here have expressed their interest in my sorority girls as well. I have to price everything out first and deal with that before I say anything definitive but...if you want someone in particular, give me a PM sometime and I'll bite the bullet. They won't be free, I can't afford that. They will be the price I've paid for them plus a dollar, that means the babies I raised will only be 4 dollars so that's something nice at least.

I haven't decided yet what I'll do with my tanks. Thinking about it, I may actually keep the 4 gallon instead of the 3 just because it's a nicer tank and I could keep at least a Betta happy in that.

I'm tearing myself apart because I want to keep Renegade but I can't thrust him into a 4 gallon, he's just too big....but he's so beautiful. I believe he will be a Journal exclusive offer because I'd still want to see pictures of him occasionally.

Again, none of this is definitive as of this moment, I still have to sketch everything out but I'm just typing down my ideas currently. I would be happy to see interest though if anyone does want them, it just may not be shipped out immediately.

But let me write up all my prices first and we'll go from there!

Sorry for the very long wall of text....I'm still mad.


----------



## Olivia27

I'm sorry Lil  not much I can say. I'm the kinda person who would probably just pack up and go the next day tbh so no help there. Good luck getting through her.

I do wish I can take some of your sorority girls  with Seren being deathly ill I was honestly thinking about it. But it doesn't look like I will be going back to three Bettas anytime soon


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

That is all really annoying and sucky and words I can't use on the forum... I'm sorry to hear that all of that is happening. How long of a time frame do you have to break everything down? Or is that an immediate thing? 

As for your mom, I can't really relate that much because I went away to college, but I am an only child so I know the feeling of having a mom afraid of an empty nest. The best advice I can give is to stand your ground. Obviously not to start any unnecessary argument, but calmly say that you're 24 (right? lol) years old and that you have to start living your own life. Credit is a part of that and I've had issues with it too. I've been really fortunate to have my parents able to pay for things like my college and my first car is also technically theirs, but when I get a new one in a year or so that car is being put in my name so that I start gaining credit for paying that loan. I hate the idea of a loan, but if there's 0% financing then that makes it better and I'll be able to pay it off without paying more than the car is worth. As for a credit card it's possible the company would deny you just because you have no credit history. I have a credit card and my checking account that comes from my paychecks, but they're both linked through my parents so I'm not really gaining any credit by having them. I was denied just recently when I tried to apply for one of my own. Just a few things to consider I guess.

Also I'll let you know if that CT girl gets here. Her tracking number hasn't been updated for about 24 hours but my other girl that was shipped from the Chicago are is in town so we'll see.


----------



## Tealight03

I'm sorry Lil. It's hard for moms to let go. My mom and I had a lot of fights before she realized she couldn't make me do stuff. If you decided to move just be firm.


----------



## Sadist

Oh man, my parents kicked me out in the middle of a semester right when I got fired at work, and I had to join the military to survive! I can't help at all with your situation. I'm guessing that she doesn't want you to make the same mistakes that she made in her youth. I'm sorry that you have to lose a lot of your animals and tanks and plants to move. Good luck!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> I'm sorry Lil  not much I can say. I'm the kinda person who would probably just pack up and go the next day tbh so no help there. Good luck getting through her.
> 
> I do wish I can take some of your sorority girls  with Seren being deathly ill I was honestly thinking about it. But it doesn't look like I will be going back to three Bettas anytime soon


Thanks, that's alright. I'm listing everything out right now. If I don't start selling things off, I never will. That's just kind of who I am. 

Sorry about Seren too, that really sucks :-/



OUOhYeah2016 said:


> That is all really annoying and sucky and words I can't use on the forum... I'm sorry to hear that all of that is happening. How long of a time frame do you have to break everything down? Or is that an immediate thing?
> 
> As for your mom, I can't really relate that much because I went away to college, but I am an only child so I know the feeling of having a mom afraid of an empty nest. The best advice I can give is to stand your ground. Obviously not to start any unnecessary argument, but calmly say that you're 24 (right? lol) years old and that you have to start living your own life. Credit is a part of that and I've had issues with it too. I've been really fortunate to have my parents able to pay for things like my college and my first car is also technically theirs, but when I get a new one in a year or so that car is being put in my name so that I start gaining credit for paying that loan. I hate the idea of a loan, but if there's 0% financing then that makes it better and I'll be able to pay it off without paying more than the car is worth. As for a credit card it's possible the company would deny you just because you have no credit history. I have a credit card and my checking account that comes from my paychecks, but they're both linked through my parents so I'm not really gaining any credit by having them. I was denied just recently when I tried to apply for one of my own. Just a few things to consider I guess.
> 
> Also I'll let you know if that CT girl gets here. Her tracking number hasn't been updated for about 24 hours but my other girl that was shipped from the Chicago are is in town so we'll see.


Yes, many a word I wish I could say but cannot either lol.

Thank you for the advice though! Victoria said she could refer me for a Discovery Card. My own credit union also offers credit cards, I'm going to see what kind of interest it is as well. I've been with them for...oh, six years now? Maybe that would help? I've only had savings accounts though but that probably doesn't count for anything. Just wins me kudos points with the banker ladies since they know me lol, doesn't mean they won't still deny me 

But yeah, currently dad is a co-signee for my car and he'd probably pass the payments over to me once I'm out of college so that's another $200 for car payments. $55 for phone, ~$60 a month for gas for car, food on top of that (would be shared of course) and then rent, anywhere from $400-600 for each of us. It does add up to be a lot.

And thanks, hopefully she arrives fine for you ^_^



Tealight03 said:


> I'm sorry Lil. It's hard for moms to let go. My mom and I had a lot of fights before she realized she couldn't make me do stuff. If you decided to move just be firm.


Yeah, I do realize that. But, it's not like we're moving to Ireland (which was a nice thought before since they have great vet schools out there), we'll still be around. I've also talked with her about this before as well, this wasn't just a random pop-up conversation, she's never really believed in me. Though, I've never really given her a reason I guess other than taking on my phone bill myself for the past six years and taking care of my car and my fishes/geckos....but how am I going to learn if she won't let me pay for electricity and stuff? Granted, yes, living rent free is fantastic but it's not going to force me into saving money because I don't need to. I know I absolutely can if I force myself and have an end goal, it's how I think about it at least, but if I don't have that goal, I just spend it on things like fish. That's kind of how I got into this hobby really.

But anyway, thank you ^_^


----------



## Olivia27

Would a letter help? Sometimes what we can't say well come across better on paper.

... That's totally my teacher side speaking. Anyway. There's this lady that wanted to pick up my copper devil CT girl when I listed her on Facebook, but then something happened and she had to drop out. She contacted me again last week looking for another female, but I'm not super keen on bringing home another fish right now. Once you start listing I can direct her your way.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Would a letter help? Sometimes what we can't say well come across better on paper.
> 
> ... That's totally my teacher side speaking. Anyway. There's this lady that wanted to pick up my copper devil CT girl when I listed her on Facebook, but then something happened and she had to drop out. She contacted me again last week looking for another female, but I'm not super keen on bringing home another fish right now. Once you start listing I can direct her your way.


I'd like it to work but it likely won't. Mother just doesn't have an open mind any more (though, not sure if she ever did). Thankfully, dad is helping me learn all about credit cards and stuff. Thank god for one parent who doesn't bite my head off and cares about my future! I know mom cares, she just has a very different way of showing it and I know that, it just isn't a very healthy way.

Sure. That's fine with me


----------



## ThatFishThough

What size tank would he need? I have a divided 10, 5, and a 20 long I could divide.

EDIT - Renegade?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> What size tank would he need? I have a divided 10, 5, and a 20 long I could divide.
> 
> EDIT - Renegade?


He'd need a full 10 gallons, he can share it with a couple small fish but he's not too fond of the platies at the moment. He's a half giant so 10 gallons is minimum for them. He loves to explore like any betta!


----------



## ThatFishThough

Aww. The closest I could get to that is dividing my 20, but then my 9 girls would be crammed into 10G.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, not so ideal, sorry!


----------



## themamaj

Love red marble boy with cello fins! If he is still available I would love to get him from you. 

Your artwork is amazing! My mom is artist so I am familiar with some of the work that goes into those designs. You are incredibly talented! I'm sorry things are so difficult with your mom. I will be praying for you about that. 

What breed are the puppies?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Love red marble boy with cello fins! If he is still available I would love to get him from you.
> 
> Your artwork is amazing! My mom is artist so I am familiar with some of the work that goes into those designs. You are incredibly talented! I'm sorry things are so difficult with your mom. I will be praying for you about that.
> 
> What breed are the puppies?


?
Do you mean Renegade? He's orange not red. Do you have a 10 gallon to house him in? I won't accept anything less for him, he's too big for smaller tanks. Maybe an 8 gallon but that's it.

And thank you! I really appreciate that  It's nice to be recognized occasionally, not that you all don't, but it's nice!

And they seem to be border collie/golden retriever maybe, we're getting more info soon


----------



## themamaj

The red VT you got from Nicks store along with copper boy.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> The red VT you got from Nicks store along with copper boy.


Oooh the VT okay lol. Yeah, they're available! VT is $10 and the Copper is $5, shipping as usual will be $12 still (not quite warm enough to not use heat packs yet) or $35.


----------



## themamaj

Just the veil tail and yes agree still need heat pack as weather too unpredictable. Think supposed to drop down lows in 30 near Easter. This week 70 and so not wanting to give up warm weather.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Just the veil tail and yes agree still need heat pack as weather too unpredictable. Think supposed to drop down lows in 30 near Easter. This week 70 and so not wanting to give up warm weather.


Oh okay, np. I was very confused by what you were saying but all good now XD You can paypal me the total and I'll ship him out this Saturday if you'd like. If you've got my paypal still, it's $22 for regular Priority  And as usual, just put your username in the note so I know who you are even though I do, it helps me keep track haha ;-)


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh okay, np. I was very confused by what you were saying but all good now XD You can paypal me the total and I'll ship him out this Saturday if you'd like. If you've got my paypal still, it's $22 for regular Priority  And as usual, just put your username in the note so I know who you are even though I do, it helps me keep track haha ;-)


That is fine. Monday delivery would be great for me. This is the boy I was talking about.


----------



## themamaj

Oh is it the Tahitian gold substrate you use? Was going to order some.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> That is fine. Monday delivery would be great for me. This is the boy I was talking about.





themamaj said:


> Oh is it the Tahitian gold substrate you use? Was going to order some.


Yep got it. And no, it's Sunset Gold.


----------



## Strawberry12

If you're still looking for a home for Renegade by the time I set up my new 29, I could take him! 


Also FWIW, I really like the Capital One student card I have.


----------



## Tealight03

Congrats mamaj! He tempted me but I had to close the screen lol.


----------



## BettaStarter24

Who is Renegade again? I swear I knew who he was but I apparently have a bad memory


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

+1 BettaStarter lol I struggle so hard with what fish we're talking about at any given time. 

Lil, The tracking number for the CT girl updated that the package arrived in Columbus which is about an hour and a half north of me... With any luck they'll get here tomorrow morning.


----------



## BettaStarter24

I can keep track of mine and a couple of other people's but not everyone. Oh I've been meaning to ask you OUOhYeah2016, have you found a way to help Saphira? My roommate's girl Hera is showing similar symptoms


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

BettaStarter24 said:


> I can keep track of mine and a couple of other people's but not everyone. Oh I've been meaning to ask you OUOhYeah2016, have you found a way to help Saphira? My roommate's girl Hera is showing similar symptoms


Not really. I was doing 30 minute ES baths daily for a week and I really didn't see any changes unfortunately. I may start another round of it though... I haven't decided yet.


----------



## BettaStarter24

My roommate has been trying dosing the tank with ES but that's not helping either.


----------



## themamaj

Tealight03 said:


> Congrats mamaj! He tempted me but I had to close the screen lol.


Thanks Tealight. I need to start doing that too. haha. I had been missing my red veil tail Crimson I had for a long time. When I saw this guy I was hooked. Red and White...Alabama my favorite team, but this guy I immediately knew I wanted to name him Bo (my favorite and very dear uncle who loves the Tide as much as me). So Lil you can tell him his new name :-D


----------



## themamaj

*Taking the plunge*

Lil and all you sorority people out there do you mind to chime in and tell me what you think of this tank I have set up for a 5 girl sorority. Sorry water not completely clear from me working in it. Biggest concern is do I have enough plant coverage? From everything I have studied plant hides seem to be the key so have tried to add a lot of taller bunch plants and leafy plants. Any other suggestions of things good to do or add before unleash the hounds?


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

BettaStarter24 said:


> My roommate has been trying dosing the tank with ES but that's not helping either.


Let me know if anything improves for her. I've been leaning toward a genetic predisposition or birth defect effecting Saphiras swim bladder...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> If you're still looking for a home for Renegade by the time I set up my new 29, I could take him!
> 
> 
> Also FWIW, I really like the Capital One student card I have.


Okay  Let me know when you're up.

And thanks. Not sure if I can get a student card since I'm at the end of my college career?? Something to ask my credit union for sure!



BettaStarter24 said:


> Who is Renegade again? I swear I knew who he was but I apparently have a bad memory


Renegade:











OUOhYeah2016 said:


> +1 BettaStarter lol I struggle so hard with what fish we're talking about at any given time.
> 
> Lil, The tracking number for the CT girl updated that the package arrived in Columbus which is about an hour and a half north of me... With any luck they'll get here tomorrow morning.


I hope so!



themamaj said:


> Lil and all you sorority people out there do you mind to chime in and tell me what you think of this tank I have set up for a 5 girl sorority. Sorry water not completely clear from me working in it. Biggest concern is do I have enough plant coverage? From everything I have studied plant hides seem to be the key so have tried to add a lot of taller bunch plants and leafy plants. Any other suggestions of things good to do or add before unleash the hounds?


More top coverage. Good for the bottom but get some floaters or even let some of the stems float or grow really long so they bend over the top, that will help ^_^


----------



## themamaj

Thanks! I added some water sprite and will add some stem floaters for now. Any suggestions of best top floating plants? I have duckweed and salvinia but didn't think they really would help in the way of hides.

Also haven't received a paypal statement request.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Thanks! I added some water sprite and will add some stem floaters for now. Any suggestions of best top floating plants? I have duckweed and salvinia but didn't think they really would help in the way of hides.
> 
> Also haven't received a paypal statement request.


Dwarf Water Lettuce is always fantastic, nice long roots to hide in.

Annnndddd, I asked that if you still had my paypal, to just paypal me the total. But I can give you an invoice if you need it.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm going to offer my girls here first, it's just easier honestly. I'm just going to do the regular; you pay the price of the fish plus a dollar.

If I don't get anyone by middle of next week, I'll put up an ad in the marketplace and then after that they'll go to aquabid if they still haven't sold.

Because Pug is not your typical girl, she'll be free if buy two other girls to make a trio. Rowan is getting old and is about 1.5 years now, she's getting old so the same deal for her, buy two and you can get her free. Just let me know who you want. If you want all my girls then I will absolutely give you a good discount on that. I can fit four fish in a regular box, I just ordered some medium flatrate boxes for my larger fish as well.

Most of the boy's are up on AquaBid along with Romeo and his girls, Severum, and Threadfin.

Prices for girls:

Tempera:
$4








Fresco:
$4








Silhouette:
$4








Grizzle:
$6








Pug:
Free








Lady Trevelyan:
$18








Koi (bottom):
$18








I don't have a recent picture of Rowan actually! But I'm sure you all remember her? The Red Butterfly VT girly, she's big.

I've offered Chocobo (chocolate girl) to Nimble first since s/he expressed interest, waiting on that. If they don't want her then I'll offer her here as well but for now, she's on hold. Tequila Tangerine is also on hold for Victoria as well so she isn't available.

As usual, Glaston is still free if anyone wants him. Just pay shipping.


Also, my other small fish if anyone would like them. I'd prefer to just kind of dump them to one person but can split them up. If they don't sell, they'll go to George and the fish club.

Ember Tetras: $2 each
(I don't actually know how many I have...whoops)

Pygmy Cories: $2 each
x 3

Corydoras Habrosus: $3 each
x 3

Chili Rasbora: $4 each
x 2

Diamond Tetra: $3
x 1

Rainbow Shark: $6
x 1

RTBS: $4
x 1

BN Pleco female: $6
x 1

South American Bumblebee Catfish: $5 each
I think I still have three, will have to tear the 55 apart to find them.

I will do plants later when I figure out exactly what I'm going to do for the 4 gallon and mom's tank downstairs. If she doesn't want to keep it then those fish will also be up for sale. It includes: Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish, Boesemani Rainbowfish, Madagascar Rainbowfish, various Cories, RTBS, Gold Ram, Rummynose Tetra, Otos, Angels. But again, I don't know about these fish just yet.

As usual, PM me to reserve and pay for fish. I only accept Paypal and ship Saturday and Monday for Priority. Express can be shipped out on Wednesday if you prefer.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Hey Lil, the little CT girl made it here and seemingly in perfect health :] Currently acclimating to my breeder box temporarily until I set up my sorority tank. I would like your opinion though. There was a mix up at Prism Bettas and I received the wrong fish and it looks like I'm getting a freebie out of the deal. The one I wanted originally wont be shipped until Monday. I currently have 5 girls. Should I start them together in the sorority or should I wait until I get my unintentional 6th?


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Hey Lil, the little CT girl made it here and seemingly in perfect health :] Currently acclimating to my breeder box temporarily until I set up my sorority tank. I would like your opinion though. There was a mix up at Prism Bettas and I received the wrong fish and it looks like I'm getting a freebie out of the deal. The one I wanted originally wont be shipped until Monday. I currently have 5 girls. Should I start them together in the sorority or should I wait until I get my unintentional 6th?


Great! I'm glad to hear! Thank you for updating me ^_^

Ideally you should have them float in the sorority tank for at least two weeks in a box so that the older girls and see but not touch. This prevents unecessary nips and fights generally, or at least it's always lessened it for me. It helps the girls become adjusted without actually fighting.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Currently I have my sorority tank divided in 3 for my original 3 girls. The girl from prism Bettas got here yesterday and now the CT and her are sharing a tank (one in the tank and the other in the breeder box). Lol I'm new to the idea so any pointers on getting it started would be very helpful. I know I've read it's Best to release them all together into a new environment so there isn't any established territory for them to fight over?


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Currently I have my sorority tank divided in 3 for my original 3 girls. The girl from prism Bettas got here yesterday and now the CT and her are sharing a tank (one in the tank and the other in the breeder box). Lol I'm new to the idea so any pointers on getting it started would be very helpful. I know I've read it's Best to release them all together into a new environment so there isn't any established territory for them to fight over?


Oh okay, thought you had the others in already.

It's up to you really, you can release all five of those today into the sorority tank and then when you get the new girl, that's when you'd want to keep her in a cup or breeder box for at least a week, two is better and then release her after that. I have found it doesn't matter if you have the girls in a divided tank or floating together in boxes, they will still fight until they have their territories settled at first. So the initial meeting doesn't matter what you do, you're going to have some fighting for the first two weeks generally.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Got it. Thanks! When I release the newest girl should I reorganize the tank again or will she find her own spot among the others the way it is?


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Got it. Thanks! When I release the newest girl should I reorganize the tank again or will she find her own spot among the others the way it is?


You don't have to, I never did because it was all live plants; easier to do with fake ones of course. But if you feel that it might be needed, then go for it, it won't hurt anything at least


----------



## Olivia27

Lil when do you move out again? Like, when's the deadline to make up my mind?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Lil when do you move out again? Like, when's the deadline to make up my mind?


Nothing is absolutely final but I want to be out as soon as this semester is done which is end of April/beginning of May...


----------



## Olivia27

Perfect. That's when I gotta start sending my gang to the pet sitter as well. I really like Silhouette. Been keeping an eye on her for a while. But I don't know yet what will I end up doing. But if I do end up deciding to get another before summer you'll see me bidding on Silhouette on AquaBid 

I just got another person offer to pet-sit too, so if that works out I can divide the gang between two pet sitters. If this happens, and I managed to get everyone in the foster house out before April, I would probably bid on Grizzle too


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Perfect. That's when I gotta start sending my gang to the pet sitter as well. I really like Silhouette. Been keeping an eye on her for a while. But I don't know yet what will I end up doing. But if I do end up deciding to get another before summer you'll see me bidding on Silhouette on AquaBid
> 
> I just got another person offer to pet-sit too, so if that works out I can divide the gang between two pet sitters. If this happens, and I managed to get everyone in the foster house out before April, I would probably bid on Grizzle too


Soooo....do you want me to just hold them? I can't guarantee that they will be here if you don't want me to hold them. I don't mind as long as you know for sure is all.


----------



## Olivia27

Nah it's fine, don't hold on to them. I don't know for sure so that's an issue


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Nah it's fine, don't hold on to them. I don't know for sure so that's an issue


Okay


----------



## Tealight03

They're all such pretty girls. I think you can still get a student card. You are a current student after all.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Soooo how much aggression is too much and when do things start to quiet down? 

The CT is minding her own business and is fine, I had to separate the one who can't swim as well because she's picking fights she can't win, my Luna is in the middle and has some nipped fins, and the new Koi and my bigger EEHMPK girl are at the top and I'm not sure who's going to end up alpha and beta. I'm getting nervous and this is even more stressful than I expected.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Okay I may have freaked out a bit prematurely.... Still nervous though!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lol, it's okay. You're going to see body slamming, chasing, nipping, scale biting for the first two weeks roughly. You aren't going to know your alpha for a while yet. It's not a cut and clean hierarchy, such as, if one is in second command, she may not always be there. The alpha does not start fights, they stop them and chastise fish who do fight, essentially, she's your peacekeeper. But she's the only definitive role we see in a sorority besides last on the chain, as I mentioned, the roles in between can fluctuate so we can't really say Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc. since it really isn't how it works. It isn't how wolves work either in a pack, that myth was debunked about 15 years ago but we still parrot it today funny enough!

But anywho, you just want to watch for excessive fighting. If you see whole fins being torn, many scales coming off, constant cowering from the other girls. That's when you want to separate out the bully (if you can ID her) and let her sit in time out for about a week or two. Two weeks is a nice easy thing to remember. Quarantine for two weeks, introduce girls for two weeks in breeder box, put in time out for two weeks, etc. It's a nice round number that will get you good results each time!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Sounds good. I wanted to separate the koi as the aggressor this time but little Saphira was hell bent on challenging everyone even tho she's so small and cant swim right... she's definitely getting that time out lol. Would you mind looking at my journal and giving a bit of feedback on my tank?? That would be awesome.


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Sounds good. I wanted to separate the koi as the aggressor this time but little Saphira was hell bent on challenging everyone even tho she's so small and cant swim right... she's definitely getting that time out lol. Would you mind looking at my journal and giving a bit of feedback on my tank?? That would be awesome.


I wasn't expecting to see that many silk plants in your tank! haha! I'm so used to telling people "add more! More more!" lol. You're is absolutely perfect!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Awesome! lol I'm actually really proud of that. so got the background size petco ones even though they're technically too big because I knew they'd give good top cover that way. 

Alright I think I'm way calmer about this whole process now!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, that's exactly what you should do! ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj, you'll be happy to see that the koi-ish marble red VT boy is busy making bubble nests! lol


He's floating in with Glaston who has a poor excuse for a nest lol, he tends to build taller versus wider though


Fancy Marble HMPK's nest


White Dragon Giant's nest, he's also starting to turn a little blue


Had done water changes on the 55 a couple days ago, did a bit of moving around. I prefered the central design so I took out the rainbow rock and moved the big coral thingy back into the middle with the java fern behind it


The 45 plants have been growing well too!


Through everything, Hawkeye never fails to make me smile though 


Zolla and Hawk


"Target acquired"


"Target was delicious"


The gang




Astrael and Hawk yesterday morning


And working the blue layer on my stone! Detail time!



And I drew the second image for my linocut. It will be a dyptic (two images that go together) with the first one of the cat. Tributes to my two kitties, Ieli crossing the bridge to find her brother who has already passed


----------



## Sadist

Love the artwork and the bubble nests! My favorite picture has to be "target was delicious."


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Dwarf Water Lettuce is always fantastic, nice long roots to hide in.
> 
> Annnndddd, I asked that if you still had my paypal, to just paypal me the total. But I can give you an invoice if you need it.


Thanks just saw and paid the invoice. Where do you get your water lettuce from? I have admired that as a really nice floater but not available local. Forgot to add a note on invoice that it was from me but it's from me. haha So far so good on sorority with just typical challenges for hierarchy and some mild fin nipping. Hope they will settle in and do well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Thanks just saw and paid the invoice. Where do you get your water lettuce from? I have admired that as a really nice floater but not available local. Forgot to add a note on invoice that it was from me but it's from me. haha So far so good on sorority with just typical challenges for hierarchy and some mild fin nipping. Hope they will settle in and do well.


Got it, thanks.

Originally I had gotten it from a member here but she's long gone unfortunately. Then I gave some to Linda and I haven't had it since. I can't get it locally either so just take a look on AquaBid or ask around the forum.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

If you can't find water lettuce I can pm you a link to a site where people buy/sell plants a lot, you're likely to get some there. I know I've seen several members tanks with it.


Lilnaugrim, did the marbling giant betta sell yet?


----------



## Olivia27

Water lettuce is the only floater my LFS sells. They sell the babies (the size of a nickel more or less) at $1 for 5 and the XL ones (larger than a 50c coin) at $6 for 5. Forgot how much the medium ones are. If anyone wants some I can ship  might be cheaper than online stores. 

Love the bubble nest photos by the way! None of my boys make nests that big LOL yours should come over and mentor them.

Quick question: I'm getting an 8.5g next semester. Is that good enough for a giant? I signed up for a giant spawn and planned to put one in my future 20 Long (dropped my N. Multies plan, the fish cost too much) but if an 8.5 is OK then I can have two fish


----------



## BettaStarter24

Olivia27 said:


> Water lettuce is the only floater my LFS sells. They sell the babies (the size of a nickel more or less) at $1 for 5 and the XL ones (larger than a 50c coin) at $6 for 5. Forgot how much the medium ones are. If anyone wants some I can ship  might be cheaper than online stores.
> 
> Love the bubble nest photos by the way! None of my boys make nests that big LOL yours should come over and mentor them.
> 
> Quick question: I'm getting an 8.5g next semester. Is that good enough for a giant? I signed up for a giant spawn and planned to put one in my future 20 Long (dropped my N. Multies plan, the fish cost too much) but if an 8.5 is OK then I can have two fish


8.5g should be fine. I have mine in a 10g currently, but will be upgrading him to a 20g in a couple months. But 8.5 should be fine for a giant.


----------



## lilnaugrim

@Aqua, nope, nothing's sold just yet. You can have him fro $23 if you'd like, 13 shipping.

@Olivia, yep. Anything 8 and over is good usually. I mean, they can live in a 5 but its much more ideal to keep them in something larger.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> @Aqua, nope, nothing's sold just yet. You can have him fro $23 if you'd like, 13 shipping.
> 
> @Olivia, yep. Anything 8 and over is good usually. I mean, they can live in a 5 but its much more ideal to keep them in something larger.


No no, I got my boy so I'm good ty, just didn't remember if someone had grabbed yours yet.


----------



## Olivia27

Yaaaaaay! Two giants then! For precaution sake I can have a girl (supposedly smaller?) on the 8.5 and a boy on the 20. Thanks guys <3 I have a lot to look forward to this year!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Yaaaaaay! Two giants then! For precaution sake I can have a girl (supposedly smaller?) on the 8.5 and a boy on the 20. Thanks guys <3 I have a lot to look forward to this year!


Wait, you want to divide the 8.5? Or one in there and one in the twenty? That's fine, j just wouldn't divide the 8.5 for two giants.


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> Wait, you want to divide the 8.5? Or one in there and one in the twenty? That's fine, j just wouldn't divide the 8.5 for two giants.


No no one guy in the 20 Long, alone, and one girl in the 8.5 alone. I have, like, zero faith in divided tanks


----------



## themamaj

What an awesome bubble nest! Owl is incredible!


----------



## BettaStarter24

Divided tanks aren't bad. I've had a divided up a couple times. Just gotta be sure the divider is stable and the occupants don't perma-flare.


----------



## themamaj

Olivia27 said:


> No no one guy in the 20 Long, alone, and one girl in the 8.5 alone. I have, like, zero faith in divided tanks


Where do you find tanks in odd sizes like 8 or 8.5 gallon?


----------



## Olivia27

themamaj said:


> Where do you find tanks in odd sizes like 8 or 8.5 gallon?


I asked the forum! :lol:

LBF pointed me to ADA Do! Aqua 60-F. It's short enough to fit in the third shelf of my weirdly-shaped bedside table, yet still big enough for a giant (apparently)

EDIT: here are ADA's Do! Aqua series -> https://www.adana-usa.com/index.php...65_101&zenid=4aa7af768effb789b76075c4b8f4b058

EDIT: Liiil! So it looks like I managed to get all four of my current guests out the door before the imports arrive after all. But I also found this super cute blue butterfly boy so I'm gonna just get Grizzle for now  x


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> I asked the forum! :lol:
> 
> LBF pointed me to ADA Do! Aqua 60-F. It's short enough to fit in the third shelf of my weirdly-shaped bedside table, yet still big enough for a giant (apparently)
> 
> EDIT: here are ADA's Do! Aqua series -> https://www.adana-usa.com/index.php...65_101&zenid=4aa7af768effb789b76075c4b8f4b058
> 
> EDIT: Liiil! So it looks like I managed to get all four of my current guests out the door before the imports arrive after all. But I also found this super cute blue butterfly boy so I'm gonna just get Grizzle for now  x


My grizzle or a different one?

Unfortunately my grizzle girl was killed and eaten last night and I have no idea what happened. I have a feeling my convicts got a little feisty as they are sexually maturing...but they're supposed to be nicer cichlids than most so idk....she was completely eaten inside and out >.<


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> My grizzle or a different one?
> 
> Unfortunately my grizzle girl was killed and eaten last night and I have no idea what happened. I have a feeling my convicts got a little feisty as they are sexually maturing...but they're supposed to be nicer cichlids than most so idk....she was completely eaten inside and out >.<


Oh gee  sorry about that. Yea I was talking about your grizzle. Welp I'll look around then. I still like Silhouette but I don't know how I feel about having a black fish in a tank with black sand :| I'll keep ya posted


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

themamaj said:


> Where do you find tanks in odd sizes like 8 or 8.5 gallon?


I love this eight gallon (says seven but it isn't). Bought an internal filter and Bob's Your Uncle! Great plant growth, too. If I had room I'd have another.

http://www.truaqua.com/aquarium-fish-tank-sc380b.html


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah poop, I'm really sorry about that. I had no idea what happen and doubt I will ever know. Things just happen sometimes.

I think I'll separate everyone to keep them safe for sale so this doesn't happen again.


----------



## Tealight03

That is crazy. Darn convicts.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> I love this eight gallon (says seven but it isn't). Bought an internal filter and Bob's Your Uncle! Great plant growth, too. If I had room I'd have another.
> 
> http://www.truaqua.com/aquarium-fish-tank-sc380b.html


I'd been meaning to ask you how is the splash guard for the light? Have you had to replace the bulb yet (if so where do you get a replacement and how much$?)? Also whats the high of the tank space for water (guessing site gives over all height, but I'm asking for height minus the lid?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> That is crazy. Darn convicts.


I don't really think it was the convicts because they are peaceful. They aren't the typical white or black or pink convicts you see in stores, they're cousins but much more peaceful. They still breed like rabbits though lol.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> I don't really think it was the convicts because they are peaceful. They aren't the typical white or black or pink convicts you see in stores, they're cousins but much more peaceful. They still breed like rabbits though lol.


Free egg/fry snacks for the sorority? Or are they defensive parents like rams and angels (no fry nom-age allowed))?


----------



## Tealight03

What a mystery. 

Um can you post a couple more pics of the ds DeT. Just thinking about it but not sure.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Free egg/fry snacks for the sorority? Or are they defensive parents like rams and angels (no fry nom-age allowed))?


They aren't super defensive but they are good parents. Looks like I have three females anyway, other fish could sneak egg/fry if they were sneaky enough. Nocturnal fish are always an issue.



Tealight03 said:


> What a mystery.
> 
> Um can you post a couple more pics of the ds DeT. Just thinking about it but not sure.


Gonna have to be more specific than that, sorry. 

I also have a potential buyer for all my males (besides renegade) so we'll see if he takes my offer or not.


----------



## Tealight03

The one you got for free when you got the vt mamaj took. But if all the boys have homes no worries. That would be great news!


----------



## Crossroads

Hey Lil, maybe a bit late to the party but you wouldn't happen to have any community fish that would go well in a 40 gallon South American would you? Or plants? Power outages shorted my community heater and wiped out my 20 gallon tank minus a few survivors. So I'm rebuilding in my 40-gallon breeder.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> The one you got for free when you got the vt mamaj took. But if all the boys have homes no worries. That would be great news!


Okay, thanks for clarifying. Yeah, its looking like the guy wants them all but I will absolutely let you know if he doesn't!




Crossroads said:


> Hey Lil, maybe a bit late to the party but you wouldn't happen to have any community fish that would go well in a 40 gallon South American would you? Or plants? Power outages shorted my community heater and wiped out my 20 gallon tank minus a few survivors. So I'm rebuilding in my 40-gallon breeder.


Well, I've got the 3 pearl Gourami which would look great. Not exactly South American. I only technically have one South American and I'm not ready to give her up, she will go to George to be bred along with RJ since they are a mated pair.

Mom says she doesn't want the 45 so I could sell of anyone from there. The Angels are both female but they're 3 inches in body size already. And then my gold ram and double red male apistogramma.


----------



## Crossroads

So far my stock in the 40 is(well, will be when the rams and cories come out of QT)
2 electric blue rams
11 bronze cories
3 panda cories (all the store had, plan on adding 3 more)
1 female betta
1 female guppy
5 golden pencilfish 

I know the betta rules out the gouramis, since anabantoids do not mix, but would my EBR pair rule out the apisto or golden ram? I wouldn't mind angels either but im not sure if the angels would mix well with my other fish or if that extra 5 gallons would make a difference?


----------



## Crossroads

Sorry for the double-post here Lil, but I was looking at Aqadvisor and I could either take the golden and the angels or the golden and the apisto without many concerns. My tank just isn't large enough for all three, as much as I'd love it to be. Personally, I'd probably add the golden and the apisto (cause that apisto is absolutely stellar and would pop so well against the greens and blues of the rest of the inhabitants) and then possibly get a female apisto or another Ram. If my 10 becomes available I'll likely move my pandas there, and have the two ram pairs and apisto pair. I'm not sure yet.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> Sorry for the double-post here Lil, but I was looking at Aqadvisor and I could either take the golden and the angels or the golden and the apisto without many concerns. My tank just isn't large enough for all three, as much as I'd love it to be. Personally, I'd probably add the golden and the apisto (cause that apisto is absolutely stellar and would pop so well against the greens and blues of the rest of the inhabitants) and then possibly get a female apisto or another Ram. If my 10 becomes available I'll likely move my pandas there, and have the two ram pairs and apisto pair. I'm not sure yet.


Np

Oh yeah, I have Panda cory too if you want him.

Oh, on the apisto, they need to be in harem's so one female would get picked on. Better to get at least 3 females so there wouldn't be as much fuss. Or just keep the male by himself lol, he won't mind.

The only thing with the Rams is that they do need enough space and lots of broken sight lines, so driftwood usually makes a good breaking point so they can find their own territories. My ram is a female, if you got a male for her that'd be nice or just keep her on her own. The GBR and Golds can inbreed so if your male decides he likes the gold, that can happen. They are the same species, just different color morphs.


----------



## Crossroads

My tank is nothing but gnarly root-like driftwood and plants with a cichlid cave in the back. I could do the harem of apistos and only be mildly overstocked(by like 5%) or leave the male apisto as is and get the golden a male and not be overstocked at all (about 80% according to Aqadvisor). I intend to refill the tank back to where I normally keep my tanks plantwise (near jungles) so I'm not worried about the line of site or lack of hiding places. My pencilfish and guppy (ies) should make nice dither fish for the apisto (I've heard they benefit from this?) I need to see if any of my Myrio or rotala survived in my 10 and propagate if it did xD. Either way, I really look forward to seeing it restocked.

Edit:








This is the hardscape I'm working around.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, that should be fine. If you get some cichlid caves/rocks that would help too!


----------



## Crossroads

Yeah had considered dropping some more in, the ones I've found just take up such a large footprint.


----------



## Lucillia

arghablargh. That is all.


----------



## themamaj

Got notice that our veil tail boy (Bo) arrived in town this evening. Right on schedule. Will be looking for postman about noon tom


----------



## lilnaugrim

Lucillia said:


> arghablargh. That is all.


This, I like this.

lol

:rofl:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Did some cleaning on the 4 gallon last night and subsequently killed off a lot of my shrimp with a water change....I used new water but dosed with Replenish and pH Up to keep it up and buffer it. Apparently it wasn't enough and I still had a big pH swing....damn water. Another reason to take down my tanks. I'm sick of killing things with this and I don't have another container to age water in, I'd have to age it at least a week to get anything done properly. Thankfully some of my shrimp are still kicking around though.

I'll likely change this around to make the tree coming out of the other side and move the rocks to the right so it's more balanced and there isn't so much open space but for now, I'm just going to let everything grow again and settle.


That moss is weeping moss! We had our TFSRI auction this past Saturday and so I bought some moss, some Ludwigia Repens (can never have enough lol) and then a Cryptoheros Nanoluteus female (thought it was male, same species as my other two female Yellow Convicts).

I'm going to take down one of the 20's once I get rid of the males and then move the nicer twenty (the one that doesn't have silicone and a scratch!) to my bedroom and going to make that my convict tank. Good thing about these yellow's is that they only get to 2.5-3 inches roughly! Great for 20 longs! Also, one of my LFS's has some for sale so I'm going to try to find a male tomorrow when I visit. I'll be trading them my Guppies, probably my platy's and some plants since Nick always loves my plants 

Going to find a bunch of rocks to put into the 20 long along with my manzanita branches and then all my extra anubias will go in there for the time we have left.

Victoria and I may not move until next year when we have some more money so I at least want to keep two tanks running; the 4 and the 20 long. I'd love to keep the 55 but it is a lot of work admittedly, especially with my killer water :-(

Here's the beautiful full grown lady! My two are almost the same size! yay!



And man! One day I look over and Mosaic grew! He's going to be a big boy!




And now DSLR pics from last night:

Shrimpy








Mosaic again.






















Tequila Tangerine is for sale too! $5








And did one last photo shoot to get some good ones of these guys to show the guy who may be buying them all.
This Dragon is a hoot, he was more interested in me than the mirror!








It took him a while but he finally flared for me!















Render















And the CT boy all healed up and doing well!
Looks like he may marble out to be a Koi as well with that yellow on his topline and the red/black coming in. He may also just stay like that forever as well.


----------



## themamaj

Mosaic has really changed and is growing so fast. Looks great. Beautiful dragon guy flare and crown tail boy looks amazing. I ordered some of the substrate you use. Should be here tom. Anxious to rework some of my tanks that are driving me crazy. Always a work in progress isn't it?!


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Mosaic has really changed and is growing so fast. Looks great. Beautiful dragon guy flare and crown tail boy looks amazing. I ordered some of the substrate you use. Should be here tom. Anxious to rework some of my tanks that are driving me crazy. Always a work in progress isn't it?!


Yeah! He's really becoming beautiful! Even if he does go solid turquoise, he's still a beautiful fish!

Great! I love the sand ^_^ You know how to easily add it and clean it at the same time with a soda or water bottle? Makes the work that much simpler lol


----------



## Nova betta

I haven't been following your journal for a couple weeks and I just caught up. 
I wish I could take "Tequila Tangerine" but I always seem to see these way to late! I don't have any room! But when do I have room? The second I downsize and take down a tank I get a new fish. It's a cycle.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> I haven't been following your journal for a couple weeks and I just caught up.
> I wish I could take "Tequila Tangerine" but I always seem to see these way to late! I don't have any room! But when do I have room? The second I downsize and take down a tank I get a new fish. It's a cycle.


Oh lol, sorry about that! I seem to do the same as well >.<


----------



## Tealight03

They are all lovely boys. I must not have been paying attention because I didn't realize you had the lol.


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh lol, sorry about that! I seem to do the same as well >.<


I think everyone does on this forum!


----------



## Crossroads

Okay so I have my tank mapped out and planned. It's gonna be a cross between a cichlid tank with the cliffs and rock face caves and the driftwood mimicking mangrove roots and such. Once the weather down here warms up and we're not having cold snaps(which will probably be next week) I'll pop you a message regarding the apisto, ram and lil lone panda. C:


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> Okay so I have my tank mapped out and planned. It's gonna be a cross between a cichlid tank with the cliffs and rock face caves and the driftwood mimicking mangrove roots and such. Once the weather down here warms up and we're not having cold snaps(which will probably be next week) I'll pop you a message regarding the apisto, ram and lil lone panda. C:


Okay ^_^


----------



## themamaj

Bo is here and arrived safely. He was fairly stressed and breathing a bit hard but postman had him upside down in truck. Ugg. Apparently didn't read the this side up live fish. Anyway I gave him a blue bath and his is settling in and exploring new tank. Already coloring up more. Beautiful boy! Thank you again.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Bo is here and arrived safely. He was fairly stressed and breathing a bit hard but postman had him upside down in truck. Ugg. Apparently didn't read the this side up live fish. Anyway I gave him a blue bath and his is settling in and exploring new tank. Already coloring up more. Beautiful boy! Thank you again.


Yay! Thanks for letting me know!

Yeah, honestly I only do the arrows so they might see the live fish on it but it really doesn't matter whcih way they're sat. I pack them so they can literally be tossed and nothing will happen to them but a little stressed


----------



## Nova betta

ugh i'm caving for that orange pineapple veiltail girl!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> ugh i'm caving for that orange pineapple veiltail girl!


Lol. If you like, I can also send over my old 1.5 tetra cube tank, great for a lone Betta  I can send a couple plants too if you'd like but I am keeping the light I had on it so you'd just have to find yourself one is all. Clamp lights are great, you can clamp them on your other tanks and just hang it over the cube. It is acrylic and I can leave the substrate in there if you like or clean it out. I have some left over natural colored gravel or FloraMax if you want any. The cube would just be $8. Not sure how shipping would go but I have some medium flatrate boxes coming in which would be $14 dollars shipped.

Or if you just want the fish, that's totally fine too ^_^


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Lol. If you like, I can also send over my old 1.5 tetra cube tank, great for a lone Betta  I can send a couple plants too if you'd like but I am keeping the light I had on it so you'd just have to find yourself one is all. Clamp lights are great, you can clamp them on your other tanks and just hang it over the cube. It is acrylic and I can leave the substrate in there if you like or clean it out. I have some left over natural colored gravel or FloraMax if you want any. The cube would just be $8. Not sure how shipping would go but I have some medium flatrate boxes coming in which would be $14 dollars shipped.
> 
> Or if you just want the fish, that's totally fine too ^_^


That didn't help! 
I am seriously debating getting the girl. The worst part is I have an extra 2.5 with a heater and filter in my closet. I even have extra live plants.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> That didn't help!
> I am seriously debating getting the girl. The worst part is I have an extra 2.5 with a heater and filter in my closet. I even have extra live plants.


Haha! Well, you just let me know when you decide ^_^


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Haha! Well, you just let me know when you decide ^_^


I will let your know if I want her!


----------



## Nova betta

Nova betta said:


> I will let your know if I want her!


EDIT: What other bettas do you have for sale lil? I am really interested in the orange veiltail but I might like some others. :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> EDIT: What other bettas do you have for sale lil? I am really interested in the orange veiltail but I might like some others. :-D


Well, all the boys are on tentative hold for the moment until I hear back from that other guy about them all. The girls that are left are the orange, Pug (deformed girlie), black copper CT, Tempera and Fresco (PK girls), and...I think that's it for the girls now. Copper HM and the Chocolate are spoken for tentatively as well.


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Well, all the boys are on tentative hold for the moment until I hear back from that other guy about them all. The girls that are left are the orange, Pug (deformed girlie), black copper CT, Tempera and Fresco (PK girls), and...I think that's it for the girls now. Copper HM and the Chocolate are spoken for tentatively as well.


pug is just so adorable! What is exactly wrong with her?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> pug is just so adorable! What is exactly wrong with her?


Nothing really, she just can't really gain weight. I think she's from a giant spawn so she's longer, just not is tall. But honestly, there's nothing wrong, she eats just fine, interacts very well, she might be a little near-sighted though, she has trouble catching pellets occasionally but I would too if I were in a sorority with a bunch of fish swarming around me lol. Otherwise, she does quite well for herself!


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Nothing really, she just can't really gain weight. I think she's from a giant spawn so she's longer, just not is tall. But honestly, there's nothing wrong, she eats just fine, interacts very well, she might be a little near-sighted though, she has trouble catching pellets occasionally but I would too if I were in a sorority with a bunch of fish swarming around me lol. Otherwise, she does quite well for herself!


I might want her instead. :-D She just caught my eye. I'll PM when I decide.


----------



## thatdude902

He's alive. The betta formally known by his Native name "Dude, he doesn't fit" is now named Dembe. Because he's one big tough mofo. 

The Post office sent their trained assassins after him at every stop. 2 day priority turned into 8 days. The first pic is the postal tracking. Second is him in his temporary petco cup I had setup at with treated water at work in case he survived his 8 day trip. And the last is him in his new home. 

Thanks to Lil for giving him enough air, and packing him well. Otherwise the postal assassins would have succeeded.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Holy cow! That's insane! When I didn't hear from you, I assumed that everything was fine! Wow, I'm really sorry but glad he made it just fine! He's already looking fantastic!! :-D


----------



## thatdude902

Yeah, I was shocked and happy to open the box and found he was still alive and moving well. The water was yellow enough that just a little of it dirtied up the petco cup full of clean water. But he was alert and ate immediately. He even tried to flare a little bit.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

thatdude902 said:


> He even tried to flare a little bit.


"Don't ever put me in the mail again!" lol poor thing.


----------



## thatdude902

Heh, he's surprisingly feisty for someone that just came out of that ordeal maybe 3 hours ago. He's already flaring and going nuts at the mirror.


----------



## Olivia27

OMG poor little guy! Do you think USPS would do anything if confronted? I mean, sure, priority is not guaranteed blah blah blah. But come on. They're a week late! That's beyond acceptable =\

He's gorgeous though glad he's alright


----------



## Tealight03

Ugh usps. Glad he's ok though.


----------



## Nova betta

wow now I'm really nervous for my girl! I just hope she makes it! She should be here Friday or Thursday.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Idk what the heck is happening with USPS, I've literally never had this much trouble before >.<


----------



## Sadist

Wow, I just got done complaining on someone else's thread about them! It only happens with live creatures for me. I had a 2 day priority turn into 8 days, and then it was left in the sun!

Check everywhere they ever leave packages, too, even if you have to go outside and walk. Mine doesn't always ring the bell!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Next time I'm not putting LIVE FISH on it, maybe it will help :-/ idk. It's just weird! I know baby chicks go through the mail all the time just fine, but a fish? Geeze! It stinks too because I love my post offices around here, they're always (usually) so nice! I had a grumpy guy yesterday but he was still nice to me


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Next time I'm not putting LIVE FISH on it, maybe it will help :-/ idk. It's just weird! I know baby chicks go through the mail all the time just fine, but a fish? Geeze! It stinks too because I love my post offices around here, they're always (usually) so nice! I had a grumpy guy yesterday but he was still nice to me


BTW thanks for adding the stamps! My dad collects them and whenever I order fish or plants he wants people to add stamps on.:lol:


----------



## themamaj

thatdude902 said:


> Heh, he's surprisingly feisty for someone that just came out of that ordeal maybe 3 hours ago. He's already flaring and going nuts at the mirror.


What an awful ordeal though I LOL at idea of Postal Assassins. I have felt that way too. So glad to hear he is ok and looks fantastic. Very nice tank as well. Thank goodness bettas are so resilient.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I just sent one off today and I'm hoping that goes well. My girl from Prism Bettas was on 3 day priority and was sent on Monday but I got her today... It's all been weird lately.


----------



## Nova betta

Just a update on pug! She came 1 day early and was healthy and active. I put her in her 1.5 quarantine tank and she is mad and wants out. She is a little pale but that's normal. I'm sure she will get her color back in a day or two.

Thank you lil!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Glad she made it! Can't wait for photo updates! :-D


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Glad she made it! Can't wait for photo updates! :-D


here she is of five minutes ago, a little pale but really active. I totally see what you mean when she wasn't afraid of your hand! I was putting in some NLS pellets to see if she would eat and she jumped for my hand and grabbed them out of my fingers. This is her quarantine tank before she goes into the divided 20.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> here she is of five minutes ago, a little pale but really active. I totally see what you mean when she wasn't afraid of your hand! I was putting in some NLS pellets to see if she would eat and she jumped for my hand and grabbed them out of my fingers. This is her quarantine tank before she goes into the divided 20.


Haha! Yep! She really never minded. Some girls do and some don't. Rowan, Tequila Tangerine, and Koi didn't mind either


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'M SO SAD!
My big 'ol air pump that I've run for four years as finally bitten the dust! For the first time in almost two years, it was unplugged and never turned back on once I plugged it back in! I was so sad! I tried multiple plugs but alas, she's gone for good!
RIP big 'ol air pump! You'll be missed!



lol, so yeah, the reason I unplugged the pump was to set up this little 5.5 for the Convicts at the moment until I take down this 20 long and set up the other one in it's place for the Convicts. This way they stay away from the other Apisto and girls and have alone time to get to know each other and hopefully pair off!
I'll throw in some more wood and rocks later but this was just thrown together yesterday and taken this morning after the dust settled. Of course, every single one of my four Convicts are hiding under that middle center piece of wood since it's hollowed out in the middle :roll: not like there wasn't three other pieces of wood they could hide under. Hence, I'll add more wood for them.
Again, this is just a temporary set up, nothing fancy will occur here


My 4 gallon looks nicer since the dust settled! Have to clean off that filter sponge already >.<


The 20 long sorority after I tore it apart trying to catch the three convict girls lol


Sorority side


Chocobo!


Mosaic


Before I get into my DSLR pics, I'll finish off my phone pics with other random things from the past couple days!

Just a nice sunset through the woods, that's my uncle's house (next door neighbor!)


Don't know what this is but it's in my building and it's flowering! When it first was here a couple months ago, it had two leaves and looked terrible!



Same goes for this poor wandering jew, now it's bursting with growth!


I had some time to kill on Wednesday before my oil change so I sat at the beach for about half an hour! It was beautiful! Still around 58 degrees by the ocean (elsewhere it was 68-70) but man, it's still gorgeous and so relaxing!


This is what I call Rocky Beach, it's not it's official name but it's part of Misquamicut State Beach


We had a little friend get into our garbage yesterday morning lol


Geckos!

It's breeding season soon! Astrael is feeling it! She's got two eggs in the making!


So fat she had to sit down lol


"Is it dinner time?!"


Hawk sunbathing


Suspiciously happy gecko


Luna also getting a little eggy


More of Astrael and Hawk's lounging positions!


Astrael also looooves to watch fish! I have Snowcap on the desk there so they can watch each other. Poor Snowcap has not been doing well, she's still biting her fins....sigh


And their position last night :roll: silly geckos


And because I know I have 32 DSLR pics, I'll post them in the next post so I don't go overlimit as per usual! :-D


----------



## torileeann11

I have a version of that air pump running my betta station. I love it! May yours RIP.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I apologize for all the algae! I didn't clean anything before doing pics >.< My bad!!

Lord Trevelyan!








Half bearded CT! Lol, he can pull out his other side but he doesn't seem to like doing it all the time unless he's really angry and trying to defend his territory and you'll see it come all the way out. But most of the time, it's just this haha.















DT BF hasn't been bought yet. He's $12








Render!








White Copper DS, scales are healing well!








Little Copper Red has a huge nest! He has some swim bladder troubles but nothing too bad, looks like digestive issues more than anything.








Severum!








Jules! Of course she was pooping lol!








Look at that BN Pleco! She's gorgeous! She has the most symmetrical pattern I've ever seen on an Ancistrus!






















Acara! She loves the camera!








RJ however, does not like the camera lol but I snuck some pics of him anyway















Threadfin Acara








Another fish who loves the camera or attention in general! Rainbow shark!
She's a really pretty fish! It's a shame she's such a brat though!















Glaston! Again, algae over him so he looks a little more "glowy", he really isn't glowing lol








Renegade's good side








Renegade's blind side








HMPK Fancy Marble















White Dragon Giant is turning Turquoise! It's really pretty though!















Koi








Tempera








Tequila Tangerine








Lady Trevelyan








Chocobo!








I can finally rest! I have flare pictures of Mosaic! Look at these glorious photos!!! I'm so happy!


----------



## lilnaugrim

torileeann11 said:


> I have a version of that air pump running my betta station. I love it! May yours RIP.


Yes! I have two smaller ones as well, this was the 300 I believe so it had two valves and a flow control so it was my favorite. Four years was a good run though ^_^ Especially since it's cheap haha!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I love how the giant has become turquoise! He's beautiful! My next tank plan is to get a 20 long to expand my sorority and get a giant for my 10 and he just raised my standards for a giant lol


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Your pearl gourami girl looks like "Nooo not yet, I'm not ready for my photo shoot (cause I'm poopin')". No surprise the pleco is pooping, they pretty much always are, I wouldn't think that was a bn at first, so lovely. Do RJ and Acara gal still try to make babies?
I must have missed a post somewhere, when did Rengade's eye go bad?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Your pearl gourami girl looks like "Nooo not yet, I'm not ready for my photo shoot (cause I'm poopin')". No surprise the pleco is pooping, they pretty much always are, I wouldn't think that was a bn at first, so lovely. Do RJ and Acara gal still try to make babies?
> I must have missed a post somewhere, when did Rengade's eye go bad?


Lol, right? Sorry Jules!

Yeah, she's definitely a BN though! She's probably the prettiest 'normal' coloration I've seen. I love Super Reds, Blue Eye Yellow, and Calico's but she's just really nice looking and has a decent temperament; not all are so nice!

Yes, yes they do try. RJ likes to guard his little place between the pillars on the right side of the tank under the filter and tries to get Acara in the mood. She only spawns when it's about full moon and I've done some water changes to help them along. They didn't spawn this week but had done so about two weeks ago so she wasn't quite ready just yet.

And Renegade has been blind in that eye for quite a while now. It started soon after I'd put them into the 20 long divided tank. He ended up with a cataract and lost his vision.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Found some beauties at the Waterford store but noooo! The prices went up :-(



This guy was labeled a Butterfly but clearly (lol) isn't


This guy is amazing! I'd call him Cerulean or something because he's so beautiful! He's a Blue Cambodian!



Cutie marble!



This guy was actually my favorite! He was so spunky and flaring at everything! I normally don't like that color but he really pulled it off!



Copper Gas!


Black Copper Marble BF



Really cute orange CT girl


Regular Copper


Tricolor


Big boy


White DeT


Couldn't get many pics of him but he looks like his brothers



Another big boy


Yellow Salamander



Marble



This guy was actually super impressive! I don't normally like RT's or red washes either but he was amazing!


His brother


And lastly a Copper Bicolor!


As usual! If anyone wants one, they're more than welcome to it! Just let me know before tomorrow is up! You pay the price of the fish (plus tax) and a dollar for my commission! Shipping is $12 for Priority, $35 for Express and only $1.50 for each added fish! :-D


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Because of PayPal fees you need to charge more than $1.00 over the original price + taxes. I think $2.00 is more like it.

Wish I had room for the Giant boy. Normally I don't care for PK but he's really nice. However, I cannot not divide the 20, I cannot not divide the 20, I cannot not divide the 20!


----------



## lilnaugrim

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Because of PayPal fees you need to charge more than $1.00 over the original price + taxes. I think $2.00 is more like it.
> 
> Wish I had room for the Giant boy. Normally I don't care for PK but he's really nice. However, I cannot not divide the 20, I cannot not divide the 20, I cannot not divide the 20!


None of them are actually giant's, none were even to the size of Hobbs, they were just a little bigger than most of the ones there is all.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Giant, Schmiant, he's still gorgeous and I still like him.  I'm talking about the boy that started white and is turning turquoise.

BTW, I showed Guthrie to Gary and he said, "How come he only has one fin (EE pectoral)? And how can he swim to fast?" LOL


----------



## Olivia27

I agree with the above ^ PayPal would eat up your commission. Might want to charge more. 

I wish I don't have to go home every summer. It's the only thing holding me back from adding to the gang right now. That fat marble (grizzle?) DTPK is too cute. And I know I can divide my 20 to a 15 and a 5. But to have so many fish I gotta buy KKs and mini heaters for... Ugh ><

Edit: lol wow all those replies happened while I was typing? You guys are speedy


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, that giant is already sold. He, the fancy marble, Lord Trevelyan, and the white copper dragon are leaving Monday.

Glaston and the cello CT are also going to homes.

The ones I have left are the marble bf DT and the bf DeT, and Render.

Then someone was taking renegade eventually.

Girls are all still available (Tempera, Fresco, Silhouette, Tequila Tangerine, Koi, Lady Trevelyan, annnd I think that's it)

Then gold ram, panda Cory and apisto are going to Crossroads.


----------



## thatdude902

I thought that if you pay via "send money to friends or family," neither party has to pay a fee. 

Wow at the change in color for the white giant. Would have been funny had someone bought it from you as white, and received it after the color change. They would probably think you shipped them the wrong fish. 

And I gotta stop looking at these threads, some of those are tempting and I don't have the space for another tank.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

There are only no fees if your PayPal account is financed by your bank account. If it's a credit card the seller doesn't pay fees but the buyer does. 

Just a note: Only use the "Friends" option when buying from people you know or trust as your purchase is not covered by PayPal's Buyer Protection, otherwise.


----------



## Tealight03

Oh Render is available? How much? I really need to stop reading you and Olivia's journals! Too tempting!


----------



## Strawberry12

thatdude902 said:


> I thought that if you pay via "send money to friends or family," neither party has to pay a fee.




you aren't protected if you do this, the seller could just take your money and run and you've have no recourse. (not saying Lil would do that of course! Just that it's not a good practice to get into, and it's always safer to send it as for merchandise.)


----------



## Aqua Aurora

If you send as gift (friend family) you cannot print shipping label from paypal. Right now printing usps flat rate shopping label is cheaper on paypal than usps.com/post office.
The other reason is stated above: if you pay as gift, a seller can [censor] you over and paypal will do nothing about it.


----------



## Tealight03

I've just paid lil. No idea if it was a gift or not. Thanks for not screwing me over lil. Lol. Seriously have learned a lot about Paypal.


----------



## Olivia27

lilnaugrim said:


> Girls are all still available (Tempera, Fresco, Silhouette, Tequila Tangerine, Koi, Lady Trevelyan, annnd I think that's it.


*gasp* 

Silhouette is still around? I swore someone took her already when I saw your signature O_O omg she'd worth the extra KK-mini heater investment! Lemme just move my tanks around so I'd have space for another 3g in the shelf. PM me your paypal when you see this 

My pet sitter would so love me lol


----------



## kittenfish

Aqua Aurora said:


> If you send as gift (friend family) you cannot print shipping label from paypal. Right now printing usps flat rate shopping label is cheaper on paypal than usps.com/post office.


You can, just go here: https://www.paypal.com/?cmd=_ship-now

It's just a little more work since the address isn't filled in automatically.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh, I forgot chcocobo in the girl list! Everyone but Rowan, grizzle, and pug 

And yeah, don't think I could ever screw someone over lol, definitely not my style XD


----------



## cousiniguana

I just love following this journal. Do you have any word yet on if you will be selling any of the fish from your Mom's tank?


----------



## lilnaugrim

cousiniguana said:


> I just love following this journal. Do you have any word yet on if you will be selling any of the fish from your Mom's tank?


I am. I may hold onto Ghost and Templar for a bit still since they are my faces bit the rest can be sold if you are interested.


----------



## cousiniguana

I might be interested in some rainbowfish and/or cories if I am remembering the tank description right...

Your tanks are a big inspiration on my first "big tank" adventure.


----------



## Nova betta

WHAT? The kio is still available at least I don't have an extra tank this time! LOL

But I have a few questions about pug. She is completely healthy and active but is still really pale. She eats well and swims all over lol but has no color. Right now she in a 1.5 quarantine heated to 78 and has silk plants. (they were live but the light was stressing her out so I turned off the light)

Is there anything I can do to help her get her color back? The tank is dark and heated, no filter either.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fish will always be stressed out for a day or a week or two after they're shipped. Did you really expect her to color up so quickly? It took her a month with me to finally color up so don't be worried about it.

Also yes, everyone is still available girl-wise...I would have said otherwise had I sold them or if anyone had asked.....so yeah. Taking stock and listing out the fish I have left in the next post.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Girls:

Koi $18
Tequila Tangerine $5
Fresco $5
Tempera $5
Lady Trevelyan $18

Boys:

HMDT Marble BF $12
Super DeT BF $12
Copper DeT $5

And other fish:
x3 Corydoras Habrosus
x3 Pygmy Corydoras
x2 Chili Rasboras (2:M)
x4 Lampeye Killifish
x1 Threadfin Acara (M)
x1 Orange Shoulder Severum (F)
x1 BN Pleco (F)
x1 Diamond Tetra (M)
x3 Pearl Gourami (1:M, 2:F)
x5 Assorted cory cats (I think there are five, might be four)
x2 Red Tail Black Sharks (2:M)
x1 Rainbow Shark (F)
x6 Rummynose Tetra (might be more than six, haven't counted lately)
x6-8 Ember Tetra
x2 Angels (2:F) will keep these till the end but if anyone wants to claim them ,that's okay with me.


----------



## cousiniguana

How much for the pearls, and how much/what type of assorted cories? The rainbowfish (bosemani and neon dwarfs) are staying? Thanks.


----------



## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Fish will always be stressed out for a day or a week or two after they're shipped. Did you really expect her to color up so quickly? It took her a month with me to finally color up so don't be worried about it.
> 
> Also yes, everyone is still available girl-wise...I would have said otherwise had I sold them or if anyone had asked.....so yeah. Taking stock and listing out the fish I have left in the next post.


Im just paranoid :lol: she actually is starting to color up. I thought I was doing something wrong, like it was my fault she was a little stressed. Thanks for putting my mind at ease! :-D


----------



## lilnaugrim

cousiniguana said:


> How much for the pearls, and how much/what type of assorted cories? The rainbowfish (bosemani and neon dwarfs) are staying? Thanks.


For the pearls, I'd like at least 25 for the three of them as they are full grown and show fish.

$3 cories and I'm not sure. I think two are schwartzi and two are agassizii and one is another type.

Boesemani all died. Neon dwarfs can go, $2 each. I think I have 4 males to 2-3 females? Haven't counted recently but can if you are interested.

Only fish staying for now are Mosaic, RJ and Acara, Ghost and Templar, and the yellow convicts.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Just a small update!

So I was playing Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt at my dad's over the weekend and damn, this game has amazing graphics! I know that's what it's famous for but man! It's so beautiful! So here's a pic I took of it when the sun was rising lol (although the sun apparently rises at 3am but hey, whatever lol)
Don't know why my phone did it but it crops my photos sometimes and zooms in really far >.< This was originally a wider photo that showed the whole TV but that's okay. It's also amazing to play on a 72" HDTV too....heh, a little spoiled there!


It was also my mom's birthday Sunday along with Easter so my brother picked out these mini-roses and we went over to surprise her! Well, she hasn't seen my brother in a month or two and she misses him quite a bit which is understandable, so yeah, she was really happy that he came over ^_^


I've got to say, he knows how to pick out roses! I was going to pick out the Red variegated with white but I agreed with him that these were better!


And just for fun, look how allergic I am to cardboard! It's all the dust and crud that accumulates on the board that irritates my skin and causes these lovely lines! Great when I work solely with deliveries and cardboard boxes! yay me


And I'm about ready to print the blue layer of my owl print! Yay!
This is when I was done scraping at the ink. It gets a little messy because you wipe away the dust and it just makes the stone look grungy after a while. My favorite part is cleaning it off lol!


Details! My favorite part ^_^




And all cleaned off and freshly etched! (Chemical process)


Hawkeye was happy last night, he was begging to come out of the tank so I let him crawl all over me while I was cleaning out the tank and feeding them crickets.



And for cousiniguana,
this is the one that I can't ID, I though it was Agassizii but I don't think it is. They don't match up any pics on Planetcatfish though they often come close.


And the Schwartzi


And I found myself a new friend last night. A "Koi" Black Copper Butterfly. I'll keep him for a little while and sell him off later. There were many really nice looking fish there last night but he was calling me for once. I love Black Copper Butterflies and he was cheaper than the usual ones labeled as BF's so I grabbed him. Bad of me, I know.




Looks like an injury but rest assured, it is not! It's just his coloration!



"Is this food?"


Also my male Convict has been brave! He stayed out with me just chilling, watching me as I watched him. He's a beautiful boy! Can't wait to change over the tanks to give them more room!


That's it!


----------



## Nova betta

beautiful new fish! I love the red mark on his head!


----------



## Tealight03

The new boy is gorgeous! Interesting the HMEE has similar markings now. I freaked for a minute then BettaSplendid said it looked like natural coloring. Darn marbles lol. 

Hawkeye is adorable too.


----------



## Aqua Aurora

It really looks like a burn/wound. Will the red eventually dominate the copper, or vise versa? Hawkeye looks like he has a nice big smile in the 2nd photo, so cute ^^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> It really looks like a burn/wound. Will the red eventually dominate the copper, or vise versa? Hawkeye looks like he has a nice big smile in the 2nd photo, so cute ^^


I know right? But nope, definitely just coloration. Black and red are finicky, red is generally more dominant but I find that even koi's will go from cello/red and then red/black and then all to black eventually with some turquoise likely. It would be very interesting to see if the red does take over the black underneath and he keeps the Copper over top. That's partly why I bought him, when I saw the red, I wondered how exactly it'd work. In theory at this point, he was likely more red at one time and now he's coloring up to the black. I've been seeing a lot of Black Copper BF marbles out here lately!

And doesn't he? This is why I love leopard geckos! They're always happy to see you! lol


----------



## Sadist

I love Witcher 3! What a treat to play it on a big screen, too.

Those roses are the best! I love that coloring. They look like mini sunsets.


----------



## cousiniguana

That new guy is gorgeous. Those cories will look fab on my black sand. And I totally get it, I kept thinking the "mystery" was a third type, lol.


----------



## Olivia27

I would be tempted to get new guy if I don't already have Silhouette XD she arrived alive and well this morning. Thank you SO much, Lil. She's a lot larger than I expected! She's sooooo adorable <3 

Her tank is super empty as of right now. Only four java ferns and a single strand of java moss from the shipping bag (I'm keeping that lol thanks). But I'll fill it up this weekend


----------



## BettaLover1313

Wow! Those graphics are stunning in that game! Love your owl print too, and gorgeous new boy.


----------



## Crossroads

Fish arrived at their destination! Just got a message from my old boss that they were there! Unfortunately I work too late to pick them up so I'll have to get them tomorrow, but no postal assassins here!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yay! Thanks for letting me know you too!

And Olivia, how small did you think she was? lol. She's actually one of my smaller ones of all the girls. She's just fat is all it is lol, she's a pig! Always hoarded the food >.< Good for a solo tank ^_^

The new boy has been tentatively spoken for as well.

Thanks BL1313! :-D Finished product posting soon!


----------



## Olivia27

Well she was $4, which prompted me to assume you got her as a Petco Baby. I know you've had her a while, but somehow that made me expect her to be just a tad larger than my ten-week old fry - who is about 0.75" LOL and you're right with her being a pig! I didn't expect her to eat in her first day but she totally did XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Well she was $4, which prompted me to assume you got her as a Petco Baby. I know you've had her a while, but somehow that made me expect her to be just a tad larger than my ten-week old fry - who is about 0.75" LOL and you're right with her being a pig! I didn't expect her to eat in her first day but she totally did XD


Well yes, I did get her as a baby lol. But babies do indeed grow ;-) I've had her at least three months now I think. She's pretty much full grown now or at least close to it for a little lady.


----------



## Olivia27

Oh I see! So she's probably give or take 4 months old. A juvie then? I'm always confused when exactly do these guys are considered adults. Like, they reach sexual maturity at 3-4 months but they're still advertised as "young" at that age. Or is it just seller's language poisoning my mind? lol 

Gee, I sure hope I did everything right with Nichi (the ten-week old baby) so she'd grow as much. I try to keep her belly round-looking all the time by feeding small meals three times a day, but it deflates so very quickly.

edit: this is gonna be fun lol. I actually know a human Siloo (well, not spelled like that, but pronounced that way). And that's what I've been calling Silhouette LOL


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Oh I see! So she's probably give or take 4 months old. A juvie then? I'm always confused when exactly do these guys are considered adults. Like, they reach sexual maturity at 3-4 months but they're still advertised as "young" at that age. Or is it just seller's language poisoning my mind? lol
> 
> Gee, I sure hope I did everything right with Nichi (the ten-week old baby) so she'd grow as much. I try to keep her belly round-looking all the time by feeding small meals three times a day, but it deflates so very quickly.
> 
> edit: this is gonna be fun lol. I actually know a human Siloo (well, not spelled like that, but pronounced that way). And that's what I've been calling Silhouette LOL


Once they are sexually mature, they are adults regardless of size technically but yes, they are still young. Young does not = juvie ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay so I have a couple males left and if no one here wants them, they'll go to the marketplace instead!

The Blue Butterfly Super DeT has marbled but he's still gorgeous!
Without flash shows the striping in his tail. I've been calling him Pin Wheel lol
He is $12


And flash shows color



Marble Butterfly HMDT has also marbled slightly but not much.
He is also $12




And Render is $16


Ghost and Templar are getting big!! Look at her dorsal! She has filaments coming out! yay!!


Ghost's baby picture from August


Also I'm insanely proud of my house plants. Y'all remember (probably not) that mom gave me her Mini Poinsettia plant when I asked for it because the poor thing was dieing? Well, i took it on and it's been almost a year now, about 8 months of caring for this thing!
This is the earliest picture I could find of it, this was about after oh...two months or three of caring for the plant.
It'd never been repotted in her care and occasionally would get a Jobes plant stick like every other year. She kept it in the dark for a while but overall, did nothing for it.


This plant is now huge! Mom made fun of me because it didn't flower this year but who can blame it? It didn't have the energy to bloom! I expect it to bloom this year though! Look at all this growth! Also, it was repotted yesterday and doing absolutely fantastic! No dropped leaves or anything yet! I'm very pleased!!


Repotted a bunch of my plants because they were begging for it. Most were rescued from my mother and so they'd never been repotted before. I'm glad to say that they are ALL doing fantastic today and super perky! My Peace Lily's all have blooms already lol!
(Left -> right)
[Dracaena species with Wandering Jew at the bottom, Sansevieria sp (maybe?), Pineapple mother plant with shoot off to back left side, and Sansevieria mother plant)



My bedroom windowsill with my mini Poinsettia, Peace Lilies with various philodendron (green light, regular, variegated green, and silver), and Janet Craig Dracaena off to right side which still needs to be repotted but I ran out of soil!


And bathroom windowsill!
(Left -> Right)
[Fittonia I think? can't remember, Fukien Tea Tree Bonsai, Sansevieria babies, Jade Tree bonsai babies, Croton (new so it's acclimating), annndddd something else, it's also new lol]


And lastly! I finished the Owl print today! Well, the subject of it at least! I have the backgrounds to do yet but that will be easier since it will be two color instead of three!
Here it is on the stone as it was rolled up with blue ink!
(Used Process Blue for those who are into this)


Finished print!!


Here is solely the blue layer on the Duralar


The one Duralar I printed all three colors on


And my Bichir print from last semester will be entered into the Student Art show this year. I tried something different, floating frame instead of matting it! I like it but also I don't, I like that it's non-traditional but I also don't like it because it's non-traditional lol. We'll see what the judge says!
But due to my irregular edge pattern that I usually do in my prints, it was begging for a float instead of a solid mat which would be too 'clean and cut' for my tastes


That's it for now ^_^ Enjoy!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Okay, I just love that Butterfly Doubletail boy! He's so pretty! I wish I had room!

I hope you don't mind me asking a question, since I know you have great knowledge about cichlids! Every fish actually, but the question I have is about a specific dwarf cichlid. The German Blue Ram 

I'm just actually searching for your opinion about this Dwarf Cichlid and what you think about it overall. I'm planning on either purchasing a new 20 gallon long, or use my 40 gallon breeder, for a planted community tank. Thanks! I really value your advice and opinion, it's been an awful long week so it feels I haven't talked to you in forever! How are you?


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> And bathroom windowsill!
> (Left -> Right)
> [Fittonia I think? can't remember, Fukien Tea Tree Bonsai, Sansevieria babies, Jade Tree bonsai babies, Croton (new so it's acclimating), annndddd something else, it's also new lol]


Last one looks like a small (young)Chinese everygreen (Aglaonema). Have it on my 55g, its a monster!


----------



## Crossroads

Aqua Aurora said:


> Last one looks like a small (young)Chinese everygreen (Aglaonema). Have it on my 55g, its a monster!


I was thinking that or Dieffenbachia?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, it's the Chinese Evergreen. I wanted a larger plant, I have lots of floor space so that's not an issue at all. I knew Diffenbachia get too big. I'm not entirely plant incompetent people!


----------



## lilnaugrim

litelboyblu said:


> Okay, I just love that Butterfly Doubletail boy! He's so pretty! I wish I had room!
> 
> I hope you don't mind me asking a question, since I know you have great knowledge about cichlids! Every fish actually, but the question I have is about a specific dwarf cichlid. The German Blue Ram
> 
> I'm just actually searching for your opinion about this Dwarf Cichlid and what you think about it overall. I'm planning on either purchasing a new 20 gallon long, or use my 40 gallon breeder, for a planted community tank. Thanks! I really value your advice and opinion, it's been an awful long week so it feels I haven't talked to you in forever! How are you?


Hi Blu!! Yeah, it's been a long week here too! Lots of projects to start and finish >.<

I adore Ram's!

So the thing you need to pay attention for with Rams is your water parameters. Wild caught Rams will need a fairly low pH (5.0-6.5 ideally) but most fish in the trade are aquarium bred which means that they are much more tolerable of a wider range of conditions. So if you have a higher pH (as long as it's below 8.0 I'd say, there is a point it does get a little too high) then you'll be just fine to keep them! The biggest thing are the Nitrates. You need to watch these like a hawk! Don't let them get over 5-10ppm preferably and you'll have happy rams! Nitrates are taken out with water changes and by plant consumption.

A 20 long is perfect for a pair of Rams! Be aware that they are absolutely TERRIBLE parents if you want to breed them. You'd have to raise the fry yourself which isn't too terrible in terms of raising fry. They're delicate just like Betta fry but once they're over the hump of about a month of age, they're pretty easy going from there. You might get lucky if you get a pair and they turn out to be good parents, it's not unheard of, it's just not common is all!

If you did a 40 breeder, you could house two pairs with lots of sight-line breaks; driftwood, rocks, plants all along the bottom are great! They don't use caves as much as other dwarf cichlids but they will enjoy exploring any cave systems you set up (terracotta pots, PVC piping, etc.). My all-time favorite stocking for Rams is a pair (or a single male) and then a huge school of Rummynose Tetra! They have similar water parameter needs so it works out fantastically! And then if the tank is big enough, a trio of Discus. Or a single Angelfish (though, they can get a little angsty and finicky during breeding time, so be careful there with the Ram vs. Angel).

In all, yeah, I really love Ram's, you just have to watch out for those Nitrates is all and you're good to go! ^_^ They do only live about two years though, so keep that in mind as well.


----------



## Sadist

Gorgeous plants and prints! Good luck on the contest!


----------



## cousiniguana

Amazing prints!


----------



## BlueInkFish

Thanks for the reply! I really do value your advice! I think I'll consider using buying a 20 gallon long, but I'm still really unsure for now. By the way, it's so ironic that you mention RummyNose Tetra, because I was just going to do some more research about these fish and if they're compatible with the GBRs. I'm glad they'll coexist! Looks like I've got a new project!  Thank you so much for your knowledge Lil!


----------



## Sadist

You're good with plants. Is there a safe way for me to take care of a mealy bug infestation on my riparium plants? All I can find on the internet is soap or alchohol.


----------



## Crossroads

All three fish have arrived to the house safely. The Apisto is a little clamped but otherwise is already trying to stake out turf in QT(which was set up like my 40 so the pH didn't shock them). Ram colored up in minutes, shes not at 100% yet but shes the most alert of the bunch. Fins on full display haha. Apparently she likes my blackwater. Panda seems the most traumatized of the bunch. I'll leave em about a week since I trust you waaaaaay more than stores and then update ya with some pictures c:

The apistos ventrals are impressive! He keeps swimming about like some hulking bruiser.


----------



## cousiniguana

Sadist said:


> You're good with plants. Is there a safe way for me to take care of a mealy bug infestation on my riparium plants? All I can find on the internet is soap or alchohol.


Not to butt in or anything, but you can use the alcohol and a q-tip and touch each of the mealy bugs one by one.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yay! Thanks for the update crossroads!

Yeah, cories are terrible in shipping, I almost half expected him not to make it, not because they were/are sick or anything but simply because they are cories. Cories emit a stress hormone in bags which, the small amount of water will amplify which is why its important to get them out of the bag ASAP. I've actually had more success in not acclimating cories but just dumping them right in so they can go hide and destress, its been 100% so far. I generally don't acclimate much or at all these days. It can be a controversial topic and I wouldn't recommend it for beginners simply because they should learn the basics first and decide for themselves later, but yeah, I usually don't acclimate and I've had 100% success with that. Shrimp will always be drip acclimated though, they're too sensitive still.

And yeah, I might be competent in my planted growing and basic knowledge of care but I'm not good with the buggies and insects other than the usual soapy water method! Sorry! Cousiniguana gave some good advice, thanks for stepping in! I'm sure Aqua Aurora could lend something too!


----------



## Sadist

cousiniguana said:


> Not to butt in or anything, but you can use the alcohol and a q-tip and touch each of the mealy bugs one by one.


That's what I read online. I just wanted something that won't kill my fish if it drips in the tank, especially since the stems/vines right down to the water level are contaminated. I didn't want to destroy my intricate root system on my wild tank, but I guess I'll go ahead and ruin it, take them out of the water, and do my treatment.


----------



## cousiniguana

Sadist said:


> That's what I read online. I just wanted something that won't kill my fish if it drips in the tank, especially since the stems/vines right down to the water level are contaminated. I didn't want to destroy my intricate root system on my wild tank, but I guess I'll go ahead and ruin it, take them out of the water, and do my treatment.


If the alcohol is dripping, you're using too much.


----------



## blueridge

Hey Lil,

I just wanted to show you Bandit's progress! Also Corwin ended up passing away too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks blue! I did see Bandit on your journal, he's really looking good! I'm sorry about Corwin, I though I saw him only a week ago or so?


----------



## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks blue! I did see Bandit on your journal, he's really looking good! I'm sorry about Corwin, I though I saw him only a week ago or so?


Thanks! He is such a sweet heart, and he knows when I have the camera on him, because he will pause mind swim so I can snap a picture. 

Yeah, he ended up developing a tumor, or what looked like a tumor. It popped open sometime last night, and by this morning he was pine coning, and on his way out :-(


----------



## lilnaugrim

Gosh, this took FOREVER to upload from my phone this morning! Oh well.

As promised for those who wanted my plants, I'm posting the basic ones here. Most of my Giant Temple will not be sold but I don't mind sharing a sprig or two of it here. 

Most of this will be an "offer me a price" and I may counter it if I feel the plant is worth more so don't be offended if it's too low, a lot of care has gone into these plants, not to mention, some of them are years and years old lol.

*Ludwigia Repens*
Full plants and some cuttings but they should all have roots by now. Roughly 2-3 bundles


Dust and algae on the glass, it's not the plant.
I have four swords in this tank. Two *Ozelot swords *, one *Amazon Tropica Sword*, and one regular *Amazon Sword* (NOT Bleheri)
Not pictured are the Ozelots but they have lovely spots!
Tropica is left and regular Amazon is a baby on the right (same size as Tropica atm)


Don't mind the dead leaf there lol.
I have one large *Dwarf Lily bulb* shown and a couple smaller ones


Mix of *Mini Taiwan Moss* and *Java Moss*


Small *Starugyne Repens*


Mysterious* Crypt*, fairly large, may be Undulata or Petchii


I have this mass of plants. Mix of Hydrocotyle sp. Japan, Rotala Indica, Duckweed, moss, java fern, and more. If anyone wants to untangle this mess, you can have it for $5



This is the big Anubias Aqua, sitting in the 55.
I believe it's* Barteri Broadleaf*



And can't get a good pic of the *giant java fern* on driftwood but it's sitting behind the big ornament. You can at least see the size relation to my 5 inch Red Jewel.
Also not shown is my *Crinum Natans* also for sale, you can see some of the limbs on the left


*Cryptocoryne Lutea*


*Java Fern Windlov*


Another *Anubias Barteri Broadleaf*, smaller than the big one. This is in the 20 long for size comparison


*Anubias Barteri var. nana* on a pumice rock with some java moss
(Though, looks like the moss died? Haven't actually looked at that in a bit lol. Easy enough to pull off though)


One of my *Nangi's*. I have three in this section though one isn't a Nangi and I can't remember what it is or which! So Olivia, if you want to buy each of the Nangi for $9 then you're welcome to the third for free. I know it isn't a Nangi, pretty sure it's Barteri


This is the *Barteri *(I'm pretty sure) on top. Lovely leaf striation and almost blue color sheen!
This tank isn't dosed any nutrients so that's why you see a bit of deficiency there on the lower leaves, with regular dosing, that should heal up and go away (or leaves will die and it will grow healthy new ones)


*Nangi*


One of my *Java Fern Tropica* I've had a while. The anubias on top right does not have rhizome rot, there is just a dead leaf in the way. It wasn't happy with the tank change, it happens. That one I think is the other Nangi though :-/


Okay this looks WAAAAYYY more yellow than it is. I'll try to get a proper pic of it later today in and out of the water. It's really not that yellow, I promise!


Plants from the 45

*Java Fern regular*


Another *Anubias*, I believe Congensis, may be Barteri
Two rhizomes attached to a rock for weighing down


*Cryptocoryne Wendtii Bronze*


Mass of *Java Fern Windlov*


Small sprigs of Giant Temple.


The whole 45 for size reference!


My girls are pretty peaceful now  Chocobo was bought and the rest will go to Strawberry ^_^ I'm happy with that.
Rowan did pass away, she ended up succumbing to the bite wound, not sure if I told you guys about that. She pineconed and died, I doubt it was anything bacterial, no one else has shown signs of anything.


Mr. Mosaic has been busy, he makes a new nest daily! The airline doesn't blow bubbles any more due to my aerator dying but that's okay, he's claimed it as his nesting site now lol


And somehow some of my Philodendron made it's way under the glass hood on the 20 long and has been growing very happily lol! One of it's main roots has already dug into the gravel! (Note, that leaf underwater belongs to an Anubias, not the philodendron)


Astrael and Hawkeye ^_^


And I told you guys that my plants were happy with repotting, well here's the proof! Sorry for potato photo but you can see the bloom coming up!


----------



## Nova betta

plants...now that is something I could put in my tanks! I'll PM you if I want any (which I probably will)


----------



## Olivia27

I need to wait until I get paid first. I just bought three portions of plants from a forum member as well. But OMG your plants are GORGEOUS. Those crypts are crazy tempting too! But I probably can't afford them seeing how mature and healthy they are.

I definitely need the windelov for Silhouette's tank. Same lighting need with regular java fern right? If not only slightly higher? The nangi too. They can be divided between Sapho and Nichi. Ugh but that means I have room for the smaller broadleaf you have in your 20. But then again I probably can't afford it ._. Aaargh >< sorry. I'll PM you an offer for the windelov once the paycheck comes in. Friday, come quick!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Okay this looks WAAAAYYY more yellow than it is. I'll try to get a proper pic of it later today in and out of the water. It's really not that yellow, I promise!
> 
> 
> 
> And somehow some of my Philodendron made it's way under the glass hood on the 20 long and has been growing very happily lol! One of it's main roots has already dug into the gravel! (Note, that leaf underwater belongs to an Anubias, not the philodendron)


That anubias would scare me if you didn't reassure its not so yellow.. hows its rhizome?
Can you show a photo of the philodendron, the part of it that's above the tank glass when you have a chance? It kinda looks like pothos from the angle of the shot you took under the hood. I'd love a closer look at leaf shape color with a clear above view of a leaf ^^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> I need to wait until I get paid first. I just bought three portions of plants from a forum member as well. But OMG your plants are GORGEOUS. Those crypts are crazy tempting too! But I probably can't afford them seeing how mature and healthy they are.
> 
> I definitely need the windelov for Silhouette's tank. Same lighting need with regular java fern right? If not only slightly higher? The nangi too. They can be divided between Sapho and Nichi. Ugh but that means I have room for the smaller broadleaf you have in your 20. But then again I probably can't afford it ._. Aaargh >< sorry. I'll PM you an offer for the windelov once the paycheck comes in. Friday, come quick!


Oh well gee, I'm not charging an arm and a leg! I just don't want one dollar offers for a whole lot lol. Windlov has same requirements; low light, low needs, easy plant. Would be $3 for a stick of about 5-10 leaves on it. I have to break apart the bunches to see exactly what I have! But I do have LOTS of it. Again, if you want to offer me something, I'm ears.

Which crypts were you looking at? I have a BUNCH of the Lutae, $3 for a small bunch about 4-7 crowns depending on what I dig up. They range from 3"-4" tall roughly, they stay about 4 inches so it's a nice small crypt. Grows quick once established. The Wendtii would be same price for 4-5 crowns. Petchii/Undulata (I'm like 90% sure it's Petchii) is the same as Wendtii. 

Smaller Broadleaf Barteri would be about $15 since it does have so many leaves and is quite big already! I can make a deal though and will give free java fern windlov plantlets with each purchase!


----------



## Olivia27

Okay I can't have the broadleaf barteri then. I'm also buying a Fluval tank which is why I don't have much to spend LOL I'm looking at the lutea alright. Love wendtii but already has a colony of them so want to try something new. Petchii was also in my want list for a while. What about:

- the two nangi plus one, ($18)
- one small bunch of lutea ($3)
- one small bunch of "90% petchii" ($3)
- two sticks of windlov ($6)
- you say free windlov plantlets? <3 <3 <3

I think that's all I can get for now. Mind holding them until Friday? I can put a deposit if you need me to 

Ohh and how much is shipping?


----------



## vaetki

OMG perfect timing, I've been wanting java fern for my 5g! I'd love to snag a bunch of that Java Fern Windlov if you have plenty to go around!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

vaetki said:


> OMG perfect timing, I've been wanting java fern for my 5g! I'd love to snag a bunch of that Java Fern Windlov if you have plenty to go around!


Tangent sorry: love your avatar!


----------



## vaetki

Aqua Aurora said:


> Tangent sorry: love your avatar!


Oh thanks!  it was a commission from FennecFoxAim on DeviantArt  Here's a link if you're interested: http://fennecfoxaim.deviantart.com/ Her art is amazing for what she charges! Got my avatar for about $6


----------



## BlueInkFish

Oh my! I really do need to think about if I'd like to even purchase! I promised myself I was on a budget... Until I saw this on your journal! I'm really debating if I truly want the giant Java fern for my 40 and some S. Repens, which I have been trying to find forever locally. But they don't really carry it unfortunately. I'll have to convince myself sooner or later, before someone takes them! Good luck :-D Best of wishes!


----------



## Crossroads

As promised, Picture update on Lavache, Chrysanta and Shell!

Shell survived the corydoras bag stress and has joined my other cories.

Lavache has claimed the left side of the tank. He's a total pain to photograph. 








He was trying to fight my phone xD








Chrysanta just kinda goes wherever


----------



## Tealight03

What is the light requirements for the mess of plants for $5? Would also be interested in anything java fern or crypt, as long as they aren't huge. The biggest tank I have is a ten gallon.


----------



## camilleee

Do you know by chance how tall the big java fern is?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> That anubias would scare me if you didn't reassure its not so yellow.. hows its rhizome?
> Can you show a photo of the philodendron, the part of it that's above the tank glass when you have a chance? It kinda looks like pothos from the angle of the shot you took under the hood. I'd love a closer look at leaf shape color with a clear above view of a leaf ^^


It's the lighting color, I'm currently down the what we think is the flu, I've got a fever, aches, chills, tiredness and sudden onset >.< but point is, I'll get a better photo soon, I just can't promise when it will be up. I slept for four hours today after coming home!

And that's definitely philodendron, the only pothos I have is marble Queen, its pretty obvious. But I'll snag a pic later anyway.



Olivia27 said:


> Okay I can't have the broadleaf barteri then. I'm also buying a Fluval tank which is why I don't have much to spend LOL I'm looking at the lutea alright. Love wendtii but already has a colony of them so want to try something new. Petchii was also in my want list for a while. What about:
> 
> - the two nangi plus one, ($18)
> - one small bunch of lutea ($3)
> - one small bunch of "90% petchii" ($3)
> - two sticks of windlov ($6)
> - you say free windlov plantlets? <3 <3 <3
> 
> I think that's all I can get for now. Mind holding them until Friday? I can put a deposit if you need me to
> 
> Ohh and how much is shipping?


(Windlov won't be just one stick, I will put a couple ina bundle, not sure if I didn't make that clear enough sorry!)

I'd use a medium flat rate box so $15 for shipping. And sure, next shipping day is next Monday.



vaetki said:


> OMG perfect timing, I've been wanting java fern for my 5g! I'd love to snag a bunch of that Java Fern Windlov if you have plenty to go around!


Sure, I have three huge bundles so I should be able to split that up just fine!



litelboyblu said:


> Oh my! I really do need to think about if I'd like to even purchase! I promised myself I was on a budget... Until I saw this on your journal! I'm really debating if I truly want the giant Java fern for my 40 and some S. Repens, which I have been trying to find forever locally. But they don't really carry it unfortunately. I'll have to convince myself sooner or later, before someone takes them! Good luck :-D Best of wishes!


Okay, for the giant on driftwood, I am asking $100, I know that's high but as I mentioned, its been four years and the mat along costs around $80 in and of itself! Got to work out shipping, likely a large flat rate box.



Tealight03 said:


> What is the light requirements for the mess of plants for $5? Would also be interested in anything java fern or crypt, as long as they aren't huge. The biggest tank I have is a ten gallon.


Low, easy. Crypt. Lutae only gets about 5 inches. My tropica plants are smaller and windlov is the same (4-5")


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks for the update crossroads! They look happy! And yeah the RAM just does what she wants lol



camilleee said:


> Do you know by chance how tall the big java fern is?


Nope but I can measure it. It exceeds a 20 long height, that I know. It would be fantastic in a 40 breeder if that gives you an idea. It's in a 55 ATM.


----------



## Olivia27

Thanks! I'll PayPal you Friday. Get well soon Lil! xx


----------



## camilleee

lilnaugrim said:


> Nope but I can measure it. It exceeds a 20 long height, that I know. It would be fantastic in a 40 breeder if that gives you an idea. It's in a 55 ATM.


That's alright. It'll probably already overflow my tank from your description, haha. Thanks!


----------



## Strawberry12

Feel better soon, Lil! If it's the same thing I had this weekend, it comes on fast but leaves fast, too. 

I sent you a PM about plants, but no rush  It was a bit vague and rambling anyway lol. 

I definitely want some anubias and the dwarf water lilies, and the ludgwiga if it's still available? Also BALL O PLANTS. And Amazon sword. ok I want a lot more than I thought  I can't do Java Ferns at all, for some reason they hate my water and all shrivel up and die.

you may just very well be stocking my entire sorority, both with fish and plants! haha


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Sorry you're not feeling well, lots of rest, and fluids! 
I wasn't arguing if it was pothos, just thought it was interesting the leaves look similar at certain angels so I was curious hour different it is via a top view ^^ Only philodendron I own is silver leaf, don't have experience with any others inside that species.
Dunno if you saw but I sent you a pm yesterday too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> Feel better soon, Lil! If it's the same thing I had this weekend, it comes on fast but leaves fast, too.
> 
> I sent you a PM about plants, but no rush  It was a bit vague and rambling anyway lol.
> 
> I definitely want some anubias and the dwarf water lilies, and the ludgwiga if it's still available? Also BALL O PLANTS. And Amazon sword. ok I want a lot more than I thought  I can't do Java Ferns at all, for some reason they hate my water and all shrivel up and die.
> 
> you may just very well be stocking my entire sorority, both with fish and plants! haha


Yeah, that's pretty much what ever has had lately I guess! I am feeling better today after sleeping for about 15 hours total between 2pm and this morning. I was up for a bit of dinner and answering things here and then went back to bed to sleep 9 hours. I still feel extremely achy today and tired but I had to go to school unfortunately!

Ball-o-plants was going to Tealight if she still wants them.

Dwarf lilies are available, $4 for the big one, $1 for the tiny ones (I think I have two?) Tropica Sword is $10 and Amazon is $8. Ludwigia $3 for a bundle of 4-7 stems (could whip up about 2-3 bundles).




Aqua Aurora said:


> Sorry you're not feeling well, lots of rest, and fluids!
> I wasn't arguing if it was pothos, just thought it was interesting the leaves look similar at certain angels so I was curious hour different it is via a top view ^^ Only philodendron I own is silver leaf, don't have experience with any others inside that species.
> Dunno if you saw but I sent you a pm yesterday too.


Yep.

Ah, yeah, they do look similar at that angle but I don't think Pothos spreads it's vine as far spread as a Philodendron would? I've had to look up differences before since I swore my Green Light Pothos was a Philodendron but it's not, it is indeed Pothos. This one could be Pothos but I'm pretty sure it's a Philodendron.

I too have Silver Leaf now, yay! But I'm finding out that a lot of it that is sold as Silver Leaf, actually isn't even Philodendron it seems? Idk, it's weird.

Yeah, got your PM but as I said, I've been sleeping and school doesn't allow for too much extra time unfortunately!


----------



## lilnaugrim

And here is the Nangi (definitely sure this is the other Nangi, the larger of the three was a Barteri but you can still have it Olivia).

It has some diatoms on it which is part of why it looked yellow.



Some slightly nutrient deficiencies but nothing that would hurt it permanently. I just haven't been keeping up with my dosing!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Someone told me my silverleaf wasn't philodendron either.. something that starts with "s"
.
.
Dug up the post they said it was "Scindapsus pictus var. argyraeus". Quick google shows 'Scindapsus' as its genus.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54390/
http://www.pernellgerver.com/silverspottedphilodendron.htm


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, that's what I found. So like....it's not a philodendron then? It's bigger and thicker leaves than my other philodendrons. I have regular green and variegated variety along with my green light and marble Queen pothos. My silver is thicker than any of the others which I found interesting. I'll have to do more research later, its piqued my interest


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Yep, that's what I found. So like....it's not a philodendron then? It's bigger and thicker leaves than my other philodendrons. I have regular green and variegated variety along with my green light and marble Queen pothos. My silver is thicker than any of the others which I found interesting. I'll have to do more research later, its piqued my interest


I really can't say.. finding conflicting info on silver leaf being philodendron or a different species... I'm just calling it a philodendron for now..

Well pothos vine vary in size, the older/longer is it the thicker it is. This is all pothos but you can various sizes over the front tank glass

Closer look at my biggest-its vine gets a more woody texture as it gets longer-its more brown hued than the smaller vines now.


I've not owned other philodendron vines, but my silver leaf has a slight fuzzy texture to its leaves, where as pothos has a distinctively waxy/rubbery feel.


Please share your findings once you reach a conclusion on the philodendron research! ^^


----------



## Strawberry12

lilnaugrim said:


> Ball-o-plants was going to Tealight if she still wants them.
> 
> Dwarf lilies are available, $4 for the big one, $1 for the tiny ones (I think I have two?) Tropica Sword is $10 and Amazon is $8. Ludwigia $3 for a bundle of 4-7 stems (could whip up about 2-3 bundles).


Ahh sorry I missed that about the ball, my phone is not a fan of journals because of all the pictures so sometimes I miss stuff! 

I will take all you have listed there ^^ and will probably want them shipped so my tanks will be planted for my girls. 

I'll PM you when I get home from work. Glad you're feeling a bit better!


----------



## Tealight03

Sorry been crazy busy. I'll take the ball of plants lol. Any left over java ferns or crypts? Can paypal you tpday. 

Thanks!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> I really can't say.. finding conflicting info on silver leaf being philodendron or a different species... I'm just calling it a philodendron for now..<<snip>> I've not owned other philodendron vines, but my silver leaf has a slight fuzzy texture to its leaves, where as pothos has a distinctively waxy/rubbery feel.
> Please share your findings once you reach a conclusion on the philodendron research! ^^


Ah, yeah, all my Philodendrons are MUCH smaller than that. I saw there is a mini variety as well but none of my Philo. or Pothos have ever grown that large before. The marble queen isn't super happy with me right now and I kind of neglect it unfortunately so that's probably why, there are still some stems that are growing, just not quick as it doesn't get a huge amount of light.

But I'll definitely search around tomorrow. I'm interested to know why this Silver is called a Philo. if it's really not of that species. Likely just because someone messed it up down the line and it caught on, that's how it all works, right? lol



Strawberry12 said:


> Ahh sorry I missed that about the ball, my phone is not a fan of journals because of all the pictures so sometimes I miss stuff!
> 
> I will take all you have listed there ^^ and will probably want them shipped so my tanks will be planted for my girls.
> 
> I'll PM you when I get home from work. Glad you're feeling a bit better!


Okay, so you want both swords? Tropica and Amazon? Amazon's do get larger eventually. You could keep it in the 20 long (that's what you have, right? Or am I crazy? lol, hard to keep things straight!), it will just eventually spread out quite wide (good for the girls) and may try to grow leaves above the water; don't let it do that, it will focus all it's energy on converting it's leaves to non-water situation which isn't good. The leaves may also just dry out too but Amazon Swords are actually found primarily along river sides, not actually in the water, fun fact! It's often used in a Blackwater/Amazon setup but it's incorrect to use it like that if you are going for a true biotope setup since, as I mentioned, they grow on the land primarily! Yeah, I'm full of useless facts, sorry! heh



Tealight03 said:


> Sorry been crazy busy. I'll take the ball of plants lol. Any left over java ferns or crypts? Can paypal you tpday.
> 
> Thanks!


No worries! I'm still fuzzy from sick so I'm trying to figure everything out. This is the only thing I hate about selling plants; making sure I'm not double selling something and making sure I have everything I say I have! But let me confirm with the others here for what they want and we can go from there.

I can say I definitely have Crypt Lutea, regular Tropica Java Fern (small variety), a larger regular Java Fern (pictured in the 45), and likely I'll have some baby or small Java Fern Windlov left over as well.


----------



## Tealight03

Sounds good. I definitely wouldn't want the large java fern. I wouldn't have room for it unfortunately. Let me think about an offer and I'll pm you.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> Sounds good. I definitely wouldn't want the large java fern. I wouldn't have room for it unfortunately. Let me think about an offer and I'll pm you.


The large one isn't that big, it's about 6-8 inches roughly. But I do have at least 3 bundles of the Tropica Java Fern (couple sticks in one bundle and the other two are singles--I say "sticks" but you all know I'm talking about the Rhizome? 5-9 leaves per usually). But the regular can definitely fit in a 10 gallon, would fill up a 5 gallon lovely. The Giant in my 55 would be too much though lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

EDIT for Strawberry: forgot to say that I also found another regular Amazon, another Amazonicus not the Bleheri Swords that you commonly see being sold as Amazons! Amazonicus have broader and longer length for leaves, like the leaf starts to widen from the bottom immediately whereas Bleheri is a long stick with a round/oblong leaf at the end. They both get about the same size though and can look similar when they are young.

So anywho, 2 Amazonicus and 1 Tropica.


----------



## Strawberry12

Haha yes I do have a 20 long! How big do the other kinda get?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> Haha yes I do have a 20 long! How big do the other kinda get?


They _can_ get up to 2 feet tall/wide but you can trim off larger leaves if you need to. I've done that in the past just fine, though some still don't recommend it. I've had swords in the 20 long for a while now and they don't grow as quickly but they do spread out. My Ozelot's supposedly also get 18-24" as well but mine have stayed small. Don't know if it's due to high light which generally causes more bunching versus leggy growth so they have more leaves that are smaller. One does have a bunch of diatoms and algae on it but it's an older leaf so it can just be removed if you want. Can take them for $8 each


----------



## Strawberry12

Ok so I'll take

1 Amazon $8
1 big 2 small lilies $6
Ludwigia $6


I think that's good for now haha!


----------



## cousiniguana

Sorry to hear you've not been feeling well. You've got so much going on!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Okay Strawberry, I'll PM you a bit later!
Cousiniguana, I'll PM you soon too, sorry about the delay! But yes! Lots going on!!

Big Anubias in the 55 is also available for those interested. It's $25 plus $15 shipping. I can fit a couple other things in that box as well with the Anubias if needed.

Once things start to come down, I can sell off some of the driftwood as well and other ornaments/equipment so stay tuned for that. It won't be for a couple more weeks though so please be patient! I will not take offers before I offer them myself on here!!

In other news, my Koi Black Copper is doing very well! He was in a flare mood yesterday lol


His cute flare video!


I have a couple other pics uploading but its going to take forever as usual.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Look what I won last night!
This is my second Dean's Choice award through my college career! She really enjoys my work lol



Here is the piece with it's non-traditional floating frame!
This was part of the Dream series I did last semester


Closer for details.


So that was pretty exciting last night! I win $100 for that :-D I also won that my Sophomore year in the major (3rd year in college)

Hawkeye and Luna last night


And then this goof! Astrael was apparently quite content standing like this....I wonder if she was stretching? She was there for a good ten minutes lol
She wasn't trying to climb out like Hawk would do in the corners when he wants to come out. She just sat there


----------



## Olivia27

Congratulations!! You do make awesome artwork  x


----------



## Sadist

Wow, awesome! And silly Astrael.


----------



## themamaj

Congratulation on your award! What an amazing honor that is well deserved. Your pictures are incredible. 

Koi is stunning! Lizards are so cute. They have the funniest expressions!


----------



## Nova betta

good job!


----------



## torileeann11

Congrats Lil!!!! You deserve it!


----------



## firewood04

Congrats what an achievement! Your art is absolutely beautiful!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you everyone for the kind words! I'm glad you all enjoy my art!

I sincerely apologize to those who have ordered plants and/or fish from me that I was going to ship out today. I've come down with another sickness, we're not entirely sure if it is stomach bug or flu since I have pretty much all the same symptoms again but includes vomiting today....ugh. I've never been this sick this many times I a row before!! So I wasn't able to get my packages out today due to being stuck in bed either sleeping or vomiting up my breakfast....yay me. 

For those of you who did want them today, I think Strawberry, Olivia, and Linda I believer are the only ones I've received payment from, but did you all want to PM me to figure out next best shipping time? I'm currently exhausted and can barely keep my eyes open at my screen so if probably PM the wrong person >.< I can ship out on Wednesday for a Friday/Saturday arrival unless you don't trust USPS, then we can ship Saturday for a Monday arrival.

Again, I'm really sorry about this! If I didn't get carsick, I would have had myom being me but I don't even have enough strength to pull out the stupid plants lol. So yeah, just PM and if I wake up before tomorrow, I'll try to PM back, sorry!!


----------



## Olivia27

PM'd you. Stay alive Lil ><


----------



## Nova betta

Feel better!


----------



## cousiniguana

Congrats! You deserve it! Such a beautiful work of art! Sorry to hear you're sick, nothing is worse than when your stomach gets involved. 

While you're on the topic of plants, do you have any floaters available?


----------



## Nova betta

Hey Lil do you still have any betta boys up for adoption? I was currently planning on getting a boy from a breeder but he ended up wanting to keep him. The breeder is sending me some more pictures of other fish but before I completely go out and get one I wanna check if I can take one of your boys if any are left.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, just Render and Pin Wheels.

I have a koi boy coming from Victoria as well who will likely be sold. He's Black Copper as well but with only spots. My current Black Copper boy with the red stripe head is marbling but only his fins! His BF portion is going away but he still has his red head lol. He can be sold as well. I can't remember who but someone wanted him on here? He's *$15 plus $12 shipping*. He's lovely boy. Does well with other fish but not shrimps. Good for a divided tank, he hasn't bitten fins yet but I've only had him in the 4 gallon and recently put him into the 20 long with Renegade divided because I didn't want him to eat my newest shrimp additions which I'll talk about later!

EDIT: Oh, Cousininguana, no I do not. I only have duckweed but I don't think you want that >.<


----------



## Nova betta

Could I possibly get the red copper boy when you're ready to sell him? If not I'm really intrested in render. I'll PM you after school!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sure, he can go this weekend if you like. I have some pics of him!

From a couple days ago



And when I moved him over to the 20 last night


Sorry it's out of focus!


----------



## Nova betta

Yeah I definitely want him! He would be going into a four way divided 20 so he gets 5 gallons. I'll PM you later today!


----------



## lilnaugrim

On Friday I had driven a large van for part of a class trip for work. Okay, that was a mess of a sentence lol! But anywho, we went down to a local park where there was a salt pond. The class was going to go collecting for algae and water samples. I took some pictures with my phone while we were out ^_^

Plants!


It was a lovely day for the trip!


A small cove of the pond. There was a bridge on the right of the pic which is not seen here, but it was pretty neat!


It's blurry but I like things like this lol




This was probably my favorite picture. I also took a small video of this section but didn't upload it


Sand blasted tree!


Small puddle


Blasted on the ocean side but still had some bark on the other side, it's amazing this happens!


Had some neat branches


Overblown image but I enjoyed it


I then went and edited it
I loved the texture on the limb coming towards us with the blue, it looks almost charred! I find things like this to be neat lol


Jogging/walking path that goes aorund the whole park



Wish the tree's were actually full but I loved the contrast here anyway. My backyard


My Cryptoheros Nanoluteus (Yellow Convicts) are attempting to breed!
This is the female's color when she's ready! 


Female Goby


I couldn't resist this girl....so yeah, Strawberry, she'll be added but to no cost! Not your fault that I bought her lol. So far she's integrated well into the sorority. Some flaring but otherwise just fine! Anal fin damage was there before I bought her




And yay!

So over the weekend was the big NEC convention and auction! Victoria and I couldn't attend Friday/Saturday but we were able to make it to the auction on Sunday! So we happily went!

We essentially bought only shrimp and plants lol!
I found Crystal Red shrimp which I'm super excited for! Was able to get 8 for a combined total of 30 dollars which is super cheap for Caridina species! Usually it's around $10 for one shrimp! I was mad because the first bag I bought for $11 only contained one shrimp, how cheap can you be!?! I was mad! But Victoria spied another bag and I won that for $19 which had seven shrimps in it so I worked out!

I also bought two small baggies of Blue Carbon Shrimp (Neocaridina species) similar to Blue velvet coloration. I don't have any pics of them just yet, they're a little more elusive than the Crystal Reds but I know they all survived acclimation just fine!

Victoria won Chocolate shrimp and a beautiful bag of five Anubias Barteri var. nana! Plus some wonderfully large crypts species! And probably something else but I can't remember.

The one thing we didn't count on was there not being food available! At our TFSRI auctions we always have the kitchen open with some snacks and sandwiches but for whatever reason, this auction didn't have anything! Let me tell you, we were both starving! We were there 10:45am-6:30pm without food....NOT a good time! Plus one of the auctioneers was extremely loud, he wasn't a very nice guy either and he was the same guy I had at the spring TFSRI auction we just had a month ago, he's horrible. I don't feel bad saying that he caused my sickness, it was terrible! We even tried moving back away from the speakers but it didn't help. I could have been across the hall with the doors closed and still be able to hear him just fine!

So we went to find food after, I ended up getting sick sick. I felt so bad but Victoria was the best for trucking through it with me. I had her drive us home in my car and I ended up sick on the way back again. I'm glad I had asked for a bag, the dramamine didn't help much either but it didn't exactly have time to kick in either.

So yeah, not an adventure that we'll forget soon!

So anywho, meet my crystal reds!



And to put the cherry on top, my geckos from the past couple days!
Hawk and Luna


Hawk and Astrael



Luna
(I'M SO HAPPY THEY USE THE TOP OF THE HIDE! That's what I designed it for so I'm suuuuper happy!)



Zolla


Hawk beginning to shed
(It's hard being the Pimp of the tank LOL!)


----------



## Strawberry12

Ahhh that girl! you're awesome!

Any ideas on a disney name for her? I think they're all getting Disney names, hope you're not offended i'm probably renaming them  


Here's a WIP pic of where they'll be going. I have some girls in there now, but I will be playing the Fish Shuffle when your girls get here. Some may stay, some may go, not sure on the plan yet.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Np! The only ones I really like are Tempera and Fresco but I don't mind if you don't keep them  and nah, I haven't had her long enough to know personality or anything but I thought you'd like her as well ^_^ She's a lovely Chocolate!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Your favorite picture could be manipulated to make a really nifty background! Hint....Hint. ;-)


----------



## DragunzGirl

Not sure if you have any or will but Im looking for 3 betta boys. Looking for crown tails and maybe something else. One would love a deep white one, and maybe a blue marble type and maybe another type of marble or something Or even a very red male.... the white and one other would love to be crowntails, one would love to be something other than a crowntail.


----------



## lilnaugrim

DragunzGirl said:


> Not sure if you have any or will but Im looking for 3 betta boys. Looking for crown tails. One would love a deep white one, and maybe a blue marble type and maybe another type of marble or something.... Really one I would just love white. The other two I dont mind to much but still they need to be crowntails. If you have any let me know.


I don't have any on me at the moment but I might be able to find one for you if you would be patient. They come in occasionally around here if you wanted to wait. If you don't, that's fine too!


----------



## DragunzGirl

lilnaugrim said:


> I don't have any on me at the moment but I might be able to find one for you if you would be patient. They come in occasionally around here if you wanted to wait. If you don't, that's fine too!



ah kk, I changed up my post some lol I was thinking all crowns than thinking of a different one lol. Well If you get any white ones let me know. I have had not luck finding one yet. I see them around but they are more yellowish and I dont want that.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So a White, Blue Marble, Solid Red, or other Marble CT?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Shrimpies that I caught out earlier!

A terrible photo, I apologize! But it's one of my blue's


Crystal Reds are out and about all the time!



I moved the 4 gallon around just a bit. Nothing is final, just some plants in there for the moment


Overtop of the tank where I have some Peace Lily babies growing from!


20 long


3 gallon tall


45 has grown in quite a bit


----------



## cousiniguana

Really nice set of pics. I love inverts!


----------



## themamaj

Wow I wish I could get my tanks to look like that!


----------



## themamaj

Hey Lil, having technical difficultly... have managed to hit something and turn all my pictures on journal to thumbnails. Do you know how to fix me?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Hey Lil, having technical difficultly... have managed to hit something and turn all my pictures on journal to thumbnails. Do you know how to fix me?


It's not just you. It's site-wide. New thing I guess, I'm not fond of it but it's how attached pictures are appearing now. Click on the pic to see it and then you can click off the pic anywhere to close it, doesn't have to be the X button.


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> It's not just you. It's site-wide. New thing I guess, I'm not fond of it but it's how attached pictures are appearing now. Click on the pic to see it and then you can click off the pic anywhere to close it, doesn't have to be the X button.


Ok thanks. Not overly fond of it either but at least you can view in larger form. 

Do you have any experience with dwarf puffers?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Ok thanks. Not overly fond of it either but at least you can view in larger form.
> 
> Do you have any experience with dwarf puffers?


Yep, what do you want to know?


----------



## Olivia27

*beeps buzzer* question stolen!

Is it true that they need a tank that is *at least* six months past cycling? Can't I get away with three months? Four maybe?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Oh lol you guys. You're all looking at Dwarf Puffers now?

Ideally, the tank should at least be 6 months old, that's when the tank is finally mature. Mature means that the tank is cycled, the biofilm has all grown in and it has a healthy culture of microfauna. However, the puffer's would likely be fine in a tank that is at least fully cycled.

Puffers are often wild caught, they're easy enough to breed but the fry are extremely cannibalistic which is why it's difficult to keep them. So be aware that most do come in with internal parasites and so it's best to treat right away with PraziPro as a preventative.


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Yep, what do you want to know?


Daughter pondering one so I have been trying to research them. Have read lots of conflicting info on tank size. She had asked me if one could live in 5.5 heavy planted and of course would cycle it first. It looks like they eat a variety of frozen food and like small snails in their diet. I tend to have an overabundance of ramhorn snails showing up in other tanks so would those be appropriate to feed? Any concern or things to know about tank maintenance?


----------



## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh lol you guys. You're all looking at Dwarf Puffers now?
> 
> Ideally, the tank should at least be 6 months old, that's when the tank is finally mature. Mature means that the tank is cycled, the biofilm has all grown in and it has a healthy culture of microfauna. However, the puffer's would likely be fine in a tank that is at least fully cycled.
> 
> Puffers are often wild caught, they're easy enough to breed but the fry are extremely cannibalistic which is why it's difficult to keep them. So be aware that most do come in with internal parasites and so it's best to treat right away with PraziPro as a preventative.[/quote
> 
> Good to know to treat from the start! Lol Olivia great minds think alike


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yep, Ramshorn and MTS are great snails, Bladder snails are the easiest for them to feed. Unlike larger Puffers, the Dwarf's teeth don't grow as quick as the larger ones and so they don't need to file down their teeth much or at all. However, snails are still a big part of their diet as well as bloodworms, blackworms, and whiteworms! Culturing white worms is super easy and I recommend feeding those as well intermittently. 

Yes, one in a 5.5 is great! You can have a trio in a 10 gallon, they will live mostly peacefully but not all get along with each other so be aware of that at least.

No other big concerns other than the internal parasites is all. Once you rid of those nasty buggers (if they are there) then your Puffer should be all set! ^_^ They're wonderful once they warm up to you. Having plenty of places to hide will always help bring them out sooner as they are shier fish. Bright light can bother them and make them more shy so again, planted tanks are always preferred ^_^


----------



## Olivia27

One of the many reasons why I want puffers is because they eat snails, and I'm afraid of snails so I like anything that sees them as snack  

Great heads up about the IP. I do have PraziPro ready, part of my first aid kit. I want them in a 10gal me thinks. Let my future giant have a twenty. I have enough room in my new apartment anyway. 

I forgot, are they omnivores then? Because that would mean they need at least a bit of vegetables in their diet as well (?)


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> One of the many reasons why I want puffers is because they eat snails, and I'm afraid of snails so I like anything that sees them as snack
> 
> Great heads up about the IP. I do have PraziPro ready, part of my first aid kit. I want them in a 10gal me thinks. Let my future giant have a twenty. I have enough room in my new apartment anyway.
> 
> I forgot, are they omnivores then? Because that would mean they need at least a bit of vegetables in their diet as well (?)


Well you'd have to culture snails ideally to care for a puffer soooo....they may not be for you. They don't just snack on them occasionally, they eat them daily for meals usually. You can get them to eat mostly worms but they do still need the snails.

They are Carnivores.


----------



## themamaj

Great info thank you


----------



## Olivia27

Butbutbut :'( 

I... Really should get over my stupid phobia one of these days. Thanks for letting me know


----------



## lilnaugrim

My blue carbon's are coming out more now! yay! Most of them hang around on the "tree" with the mosses which I expected.
I'm wondering if I should change the aquascape to be an Island type (plants and stuff in the middle)


Crystal Reds are the easiest to spot though


Loook!! It's so cute!


I switched my 45 gallon to just being 24/7 mode because it's pretty! This is the evening/night time color


Morning color


Pin Wheel has some beautiful coloration going on! Is everyone sure they don't want him? lol, I'm going to take some updated pics of them soon hopefully, maybe Sunday if I get around to it!



Renegade looking for food. This is his blind side though, or at least maybe he isn't totally blind but partially. He doesn't respond to finger movement with this side but still looks up like this, perhaps he can only see light shapes from this side. He responds from the other side very well, always swims up to greet me


Astrael had her eggs yesterday!


Hawkeye a couple days ago



Epitome of laziness!
Astrael in the back there, resting after her morning endeavor!


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

I Love how adorably lazy they are! I miss keeping reptiles... unfortunately there's no way my apartment complex would allow the size tanks I'd need to bring my turtles here with me so I have to be happy with going home to my parents to visit them, at least for now. 

Are pinwheel and renegade the only bettas left for you to sell? They all went pretty quick


----------



## lilnaugrim

OUOhYeah2016 said:


> Are pinwheel and renegade the only bettas left for you to sell? They all went pretty quick


Renegade is taken by someone or someone offered. Got to go back to see who did. Someone with a 29 gallon.

Pin Wheel and Render are still here. I have two others that just came in, the Koi I'll get from Victoria next week and I have a Copper BF that I'm waiting to take good pictures of as well. He'll be $20 though.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Render! Oops that's what I meant. Idk why I did that, I remember someone wanting Renegade.

In any case, I'm glad they've all found homes :]


----------



## Strawberry12

Hopefully that wasn't me that you were thinking of for Renegade? I mentioned it offhand like "I might get him for a 29" but I wasn't committed. I hope you're not holding him for me? I don't think so, but just wanted to clarify that if so. 


I got my plants! didn't get a chance to look super closely, because I had to just dump them in the water to get them somewhere before I left to pet sit all weekend, but as always from what I saw, they look great. Thanks lil!


----------



## Calvin88

On page 214 what is the fish under the leaf?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Calvin88 said:


> On page 214 what is the fish under the leaf?


Baby panda garra, river fish


----------



## Nova betta

I just wanted to tell you the the butterfly just came! He's more beautiful in person! Thanks lil!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Strawberry12 said:


> Hopefully that wasn't me that you were thinking of for Renegade? I mentioned it offhand like "I might get him for a 29" but I wasn't committed. I hope you're not holding him for me? I don't think so, but just wanted to clarify that if so.
> 
> 
> I got my plants! didn't get a chance to look super closely, because I had to just dump them in the water to get them somewhere before I left to pet sit all weekend, but as always from what I saw, they look great. Thanks lil!


Ah yep! No worries, I didn't commit but I remembered you'd said something about that. No worries!

Yay! Glad they made it fine! :-D



Nova betta said:


> I just wanted to tell you the the butterfly just came! He's more beautiful in person! Thanks lil!


Yay! Thanks Nova! :-D I'm glad you like him! I loved the way he was marbling out with the frilly black around his fins!


----------



## Nova betta

I was surprised the red mark was still so small! Do you think the red will cover his body or will the black copper cover the red? I thought he would marble with more red! I'll pictures when he is a little less pale.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Nova betta said:


> I was surprised the red mark was still so small! Do you think the red will cover his body or will the black copper cover the red? I thought he would marble with more red! I'll pictures when he is a little less pale.


Black ultimately takes over red so likely he was red before and marbled out to black after. However, that doesn't mean he won't marble out again in time! ^_^ that's the beauty of marbles


----------



## Olivia27

Just letting you know that the plants arrived yesterday  haven't put them into the tanks yet as my life is a bit crazy ATM but they made it. 

Yay for the geckos laying eggs! Will you hatch them?


----------



## ThatFishThough

You should hatch the eggs!  Baby Geckos!!!!

Our Zoo breeds Bearded Dragons. :3


----------



## Sadist

Oh wow, eggs! No wonder Hawkeye looks smug ;-)


----------



## lilnaugrim

No hatching Leo's for me! Too much work and electricity! Have to use an incubator if you want good results and then the babies are quite a bit of work. Fine if you don't have much else going on in life but I'm too busy!!

Stopped by Victoria's last night and took a pic of her goldie tank lol. Sorry it's kind of crummy though!


I now have the other Black Copper Koi boy in my possession and so I'll hopefully take nice pictures of everyone tonight to get them up for sale!
Here is the Copper Butterfly I purchased last week. This boy is $18 for those here on my journal, will be $20 on AquaBid





My BN the other night


Blue Shrimp!



Terribly zoomed in photo so I apologize but look how pretty the red crystals are!!


And in the mass of plants that are going to Tealight (have to PM you, SORRY!!) there is Hydrocotyle Japan growing out of the mess lol.


----------



## Sadist

Lovely fish and plants! I really love the goldfish tank. I've never seen someone actually take care of goldfish nicely like that!


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Stopped by Victoria's last night and took a pic of her goldie tank lol. Sorry it's kind of crummy though!


Nice. How big is that tank? 120g+ range?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Nice. How big is that tank? 120g+ range?


72 gallon bowfront


----------



## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> 72 gallon bowfront


Nice, it looks larger. Is it by the kitchen/dinning room table? So the goldies can stare at her while eating meals?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Nice, it looks larger. Is it by the kitchen/dinning room table? So the goldies can stare at her while eating meals?


Haha, it's technically the dinning room but it's not often used as such. They usually eat in the kitchen or the living room depending on what's for dinner! The dining table is usually used for random stuff like growing garden plants or for hospital tanks, stuff like that lol.


----------



## Tealight03

Lol I got distracted and forgot. No worries, I'm in no rush.


----------



## BettaLover1313

Love your friend's goldfish tank! All of your shrimp are lovely too!


----------



## Fenghuang

Oooooh, that goldfish tank is AWESOME!

I wish I could be trusted to get shrimp. Yours are nice.


----------



## Strawberry12

In case you guys were wondering, lil is just as cool in person as she is online  

The girls are happily settled in devouring brine shrimp this morning! They've integrated very well with my four girls


----------



## themamaj

Prettiest goldfish tank ever seen. Love shrimp pix


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys and thanks Strawberry! You're the best!!

So many things have been going on! Too much, I apologize for not keeping up with everything and slacking! It's been a long couple weeks and it's not over yet!

But, we visited Tropic Isle on Sunday with Strawberry and I came home with two more Angelfish....meh, I should live large while I can and then rehome them later lol! I'm terrible, I know! But when you see them, you'll understand too.

So this was Ghost 'greeting' our newest additions. The male is Tuxedo because of his black markings and I haven't decided on the other female if it will be Trip or Tripod.....I feel bad for Tripod but I just found out that she has THREE FREAKING VENTRAL FINS!!!!!!!!! I had no idea at the store! I thought something was strange about her but didn't realize until a day later!! It's so weird! But I do like the name Trip even though it's likely female, I think. They're all roughly the same size so that's good.

Tuxedo in front




Sorry about all the stupid green spot algae >.< 
You can kind of see Trip's three ventrals, she's the farthest right


Templar joined in


This one you can really see it!


Trip


Tux!



Trip


Trip and Ghost


Ghost


Trip



So yeah, that was weird finding out that she has three ventral fins! Like, they're all separate at her body, they aren't split or something.

Bundle o' plants going to Tealight are growing lol


And this is the newest boy to sell! If anyone wants him, he's $16 here! I've been calling him Rorschach ^_^





And my eggy female Yellow Convict!



And the male just chillin'


And because I'm lazy, gecko's will just be updated here. I'm too tired to switch between journals.

So we had an issue with formerly Andraste, now called Dorian because I'm pretty sure it's a boy. Someone bit his tail off :-/ or he was too stressed out and he lost it.

So I did what I should have done before, I bought a small heatpad and put in him a 10g on his own. I took down the 3 gallon and put those fish (Lampeye and Scarlet Badis) in the 4 where they're like super happy and all colored up!
He also hasn't been eating much at all so I'm feeding him some liquid foods designed to help increase appetite and give him the calories that he needs to help regrow his tail. I'm also going to try Repashy's Grub Pie to see if he'll take that at all (as well as the others). I can also try mushed baby food too. So far he's taking the formula so that works for me. Have to feed him 2-3 times a day since he won't take it all and I never expected him to! It's a lot of formula! He still doesn't finish it but I'm happy with what he does take down.

He was also shedding here which is why he's dull


But he was happy to explore around!


Day two, all shed and perking up!


My hand for size comparison


Healthy pink nub!


This morning



Hawk and Zolla, Zolla is due to have her eggs as well


Luna and Zolla


All four!


And my Artwork!

Stayed up until 2am Friday night to work on this print. I kept some with the plain white since I like it that way and printed the other five (plus one I missed) with the light blue and then will have dark blue over it as well.



I don't think I've showed you guys the mosaic I've been working on? Probably not, been too busy! Well the bottom part was about 4.5 hours of work! This is an 18x24 to give you guys an idea. It's due today but my prof said it was okay if it was unfinished since I have to finish it for church anyways! The top part was 3 hours of work last night. I meant to stay up most of the night to finish it or get a good part of it done but by 9:30, I was exhausted! So I went to bed


Closeup of the new section


And I quickly painted out what the form will roughly be! She's really squat at the moment >.< I'm going to redo the bottom part to make it better and match the top. But I will make the figure slimmer as well to emulate the Byzantine period style!


----------



## Olivia27

Beautiful artwork as usual Lil x love Trip's triple ventrals lol how unique is that.


----------



## cousiniguana

Fabulous artwork! I love the unique critters like Trip. I miss my 5 legged ADF. Your little gecko looks content


----------



## Crossroads

Well Lil, several weeks after getting the trio from you, I lost the ram :c cause unknown. She was bright and eating, no physical injuries, water quality was fine as normal. Only change was the addition of some plants and ghost shrimp. Idk, rams are funny like that. Lavache and Shell (who I was honestly surprised was the survivor out of the three are doing spectacular)
Lavache has an absolute hatred for cherry barbs but loves his pencilfish. Shell is best friends with my big bronzes, Bertha, Lucy, and Annie.


----------



## themamaj

I am so impressed with your mosiac. Can not imagine how much time and effort goes into them but never cease to be amazed at beauty of finished pictures. The fact that you can envision that is amazing.


----------



## Lucillia

Hey! I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves my goldy tank ^^ They're pains in the butts to care for though. Never again once they all pass on. </3 

I still can't believe that angel has three ventrals. o.o


----------



## Strawberry12

Ahh! I noticed she seemed extra "flappy" at the store but didn't pay much attention at the time! That's so cool!


----------



## Tealight03

I got the plants Saturday. Thanks! Also wanted to share Macklin is doing well. Lots of regrowth.


----------



## themamaj

How is our black and white boy doing?


----------



## Tealight03

He keeps getting darker! I miss him being white with black spots. He's gorgeous but still.


----------



## themamaj

Gorgeous Tealight! I love marbles.Maclin looks like doing good too.


----------



## Tealight03

Thanks! Marbles are the best.


----------



## themamaj

Posted on my journal but thought you might like to see new pictures of Bo and Aspen. Both are doing great!


----------



## Nova betta

Hey lil then copper butterfly is doing great! He is absolutely stunning and as still kept his red spot!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks for all the updates on the fishes everyone!

Sorry for radio silence here, I've been dealing with a sick Gecko :-( Zolla is not feeling well. I noticed she was supposed to have her eggs this past week and so I watched her on Saturday. She was abnormally lethargic, she isn't as energetic as Hawk and Luna, but she was never as lazy as Astrael is. I started to notice she was looking to lay eggs somewhere and was straining. I tried giving her a warm water bath for about twenty minutes, replacing the water with warmer stuff as it cooled. She was floating in the bath and wiggling her backside as she tried to get her eggs lined up properly.

I gave her a few days and went to the vet with her on Tuesday finally to see a specialist in case it was egg binding. I went home with a lot of valuable information!

First, I essentially wasn't giving them enough baths or calcium in their diet. Inverts, while great for carnivores, are often not gut fed with enough nutrients that would naturally be found in the wild for the geckos and other lizards. They also don't contain all the calcium that Gecko's need to be healthy. Inverts are primarily (crickets mostly) made of water and bones which are actually Phosphorous. When Gecko's do not have enough calcium in their diet but an excess of Phosphorous, that's when things start to get iffy. There essentially is no such thing as a calcium overdose, the lizards and gecks will just pass it in their pee and poop if they have too much. Calcium is so important and it needs to be everywhere essentially, not just dusted on the crickets or mealworms. It's essential for kidney health, without it, the kidney's start to overwork themselves which can lead to failure. Baths are also essential to help kidney's function.

I had no idea baths were so important, I thought it was only to help the gecko hydrate and to help with shed if there were issues. There is so much more to baths and I feel terrible for not knowing or not seeking the information out. Just like fish, there is so much misinformation out there for lizards and geckos! I feel like I've put my geckos in such a horrible condition because of this misinformation. I know that I shouldn't berate myself so much but I can't help feeling bad. Zolla is in this condition because of this.

Not a lot is known about Gecko egg production like there is on birds. She explained that birds will harden the eggs through the whole process of the day, the shell forms in the system and then eventually is laid each day. Gecko's on the other hand, the eggs remain soft until literally they are just going to lay them and then get their "hard" shell (they're still soft shelled essentially but it's a thicker layer than when they are inside the mother). It is unknown whether it is a few hours before passing the egg or literally in the moments or minutes before they are laid. But that's when Gecks need the calicum the most. Most will eat up dry calcium powder if it's given to them (I had started to leave a container of it in the tank as well) to help in this process as well.

So through this, Zolla is not egg-bound yet. Her eggs are still soft inside of her but she cannot pass them, it's a difficulty in birthing (there is a word for it that begins with a D but I can't remember it). Egg bound is when the eggs have formed their hard shells and cannot be passed due to deformity or being stuck together or something blocking the way (small misformed eggs can happen too and block up the system). If the eggs have not gone hard yet, then the lizard/geck is not egg bound.

So the treatment thus far? Load Zolla up with Calcium! She hates it and she hates me now. She's never been this irritable :-( Normally she doesn't mind me picking her up or bath times to help remove her shed. She was so bad for the vet >.< I have two calcium things for her, one is Calcium Glubinate which is the important stuff for her which I have to give her four units a day (two in morning and two at night). She absolutely hates this stuff. I've never seen a gecko cringe before but she does! It's like a kid who takes medication and freezes and grimaces with the bad taste of it! She shakes her head to get the drop off her nose and refuses to take it. I try to trick her by using the other calcium stuff (Emeraid, only available through vet. Fluker's Repta-Boost is similar) which seems to taste better but she eventually shuts down when she's had enough. It's a difficult process!

The vet told me to actually use the Emeraid as a good part of the Gecko's daily diet since inverts don't hold enough calcium and the calcium dusting eventually goes away if they sit too long so they won't get it if they eat the mealworm or cricket a day or so later instead of immediately! It also holds more calories for them, good for baby and growing geckos or geckos who lost their tails. Flukers can also be used daily since it's very similar. So if you have a lizard that doesn't take dry calcium powder, I really suggest using Fluker's or getting Emeraid from the vet (a big 1 lb container only costs 40 bucks, she gave me 10oz for 10 bucks because I have small geckos and it's going to last me forever lol).

The other thing is that Zolla may also have an infection inside the eggs if they were fertilized but have died inside of her. She could potentially have internal parasites as well but we won't know for a while :-( It's a wait-and-see game now and it's stressing me out! The vet can do surgery on her and essentially she'll be spade due to it, I wouldn't complain about that but it depends on how much the surgery is.

I was thankful that the visit only cost me $99! It was $75 for small reptile and then just the extra 14 for the Ca Glubinate and the Emeraid jar so that was awesome. I always expect outrageous fees from the vets but I know they're worth it, it's just a nice pleasant surprise when they aren't because the animal is small.

So yeah, it's been a stressful week for me :-( Zolla is in the 10 where Dorian was and Dorian is now in a 5.5 where the Yellow Convicts were. The Yellow's are now with Renegade in the other 20 long. Talk about playing the Betta Shuffle!

I intend to eventually have just the 20 longs running (or maybe just one for RJ and Acara since I love those two so much) for RJ/Acara and Yellow Convicts. Most other fish I have at the moment are going to Linda (embers, pygmy corydoras, c. habrosus) as well as plants.

I still have Mosaic who is still coloring up, the darn boy bit his anal fin. I think he misses having the girls around to occupy his time! Now he doesn't build bubble nests but I don't give him the attention he deserves either. I know someone had wanted him before and I said no because I was going to keep my Betta's but things have changed. I will offer him for sale now, I apologize to whomever it was that wanted him before!

Fish I have that can still be sold: Mosaic, Pin Wheel (who has turned into a Black Orchid!), Render, Copper Butterfly, and Renegade.
I also still have the trio of Pearl Gourami, the Threadfin Acara, juvie Orange Shoulder Severum, Female BN Pleco (nearly adult size), 1 Diamond Tetra full grown.

Pics will be up next if I'm not pulled away at my job.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some pics for you all. Most of them are Geckos since I've been focused on them lately!

Ghost!


Ghost and the usual Templar pic, she's always blurry lol


Tuxedo!


Ghost again


I had cleaned out and trimmed the plants in the 45 on Saturday/Sunday. It looks much better without the darn green spot algae on the front!


Renegade last night



He's been existing well with the Yellow Convicts so far! They inhabit different levels of the tank so that is helpful (Convicts territory is bottom and Betta is top even though they do swim all over the tank)


My male Convict, he's so pretty! Almost to adult size!


4 gallon, haven't done much with it lately but it has exploded with some growth which is great! The Willow Moss has grown back thick and very green on my "tree". I want to get into CO2 with this. I've finally worked up the nerve since Victoria has done her 3.8 gallon nano tank! I'm finally confident enough lol, still scared poop-less! I'm going to use two 1 liter bottles and use the Baking Soda/Citric Acid mixture since that seems to work well for everyone online. I bought a small DIY system of just the sealed bottle caps and the airline tubing and a pressure guage! It's helpful since I don't want to drill bottle caps and have the poor thing leak! It's worth the money to me. I still have a nano diffuser that I bought like four years ago! So I'll be using that and I did buy a bubble counter Fluval brand but I don't think I'll use it for this system, I think I'll try it without and see what happens.


I also bought a beautiful mini Orchid last week. Another thing I've been nervous about trying but really wanted to! They're so beautiful but I have a tendancy to kill plants that don't do well with over watering! I like riparium plants because I can over water them (to a point more or less)! But I'm not going to do the ice cube method, I feel like that just burns the plant. I'll just mist it occasionally since Orchids don't take from their roots but I think their leaves IIRC? Something like that. So I started with one, this orange and pink


And I bought another one on Sunday, I looooveee the white's and so I had to! These guys were only ten bucks so if I do kill them, at least I didn't spend a crap ton of money on them! So far so good, they've both perked up since being near a better light source than at the store!

Terrible picture and I'm sorry about that, I'll get a better one later if I have time! I'll be working hard today and mostly at school


And finally my babies.
I'm glad Hawk uses the top of this hide, actually both he and Luna love to sit here and it's hilarious because they blend in so well with the colors half the time that I don't see them!
He and Zolla here from last week


Hawk and Astrael from Saturday. I love Astrael's hand on his back lol


Zolla is clearly fat here, this is just when I started to notice that she should have had her eggs already since they generally ovulate around the same time for all three and generally lay their eggs within a few days of each other, or at least that's what happened last year.


Incoming!


Splosh! Touchdown!


Hawk and Astrael were not happy that their naps were interupted but Zolla had important business to tend to! (Trying to pass an egg!)


The look Hawk gives me when he wants food


Zolla during her bath time. You can see how fat she is, bloated and she's floating as she's straining to try to pass the eggs.


They often lounge like this


Majestic beast


Zolla not happy after her bath. She actually bit me when I was transferring her in, she didn't like her stomach to be touched and I don't blame her. Gecko bites don't really hurt so it didn't bother me. She's bitten me many more times with the force feeding.


Hawk being a pimp


Luna lounging on the moist hide


Hawk has quite a few interesting sleeping positions! Tail in the food and leaning on the middle hide


Zolla on Tuesday when we went to the vet! I had a heat pack taped to the left side there and bent it around the bottom so there was some slight bottom heat. She was not very happy with it but eventually settled down on the pad after climbing over the sides and taking down the paper towel :roll:


Luna HATES bath time! She goes as far as fake wheezes (would wheeze all the time if she had pneumonia) to throw her temper tantrum about being in a bath.



Another odd sleeping position of Hawk


Dorian enjoying his bath time


What I see form my bed of him in his moist hide ^_^


Zolla last night. She does not look well at all. She stayed like this all night and even pooped her. She has been trying to make a valiant effort to make it over to the paper towel but it seems like she's losing strength and hasn't been able to make it over :-( She's also lost a bit of fat in her tail as well


----------



## Fenghuang

Hi, Lilnaugrim. I am so sorry that Zolla is sick. I hope she feels better soon. Her bath picture is actually so cute, even if she is egg bound.

How old (and how much) is Mosaic now?


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Hi, Lilnaugrim. I am so sorry that Zolla is sick. I hope she feels better soon. Her bath picture is actually so cute, even if she is egg bound.
> 
> How old (and how much) is Mosaic now?


He is...oh about 8 months ish? He's almost full grown, his fins have some growing to do but his body is getting big! (Indicative of slower growth due to infrequent water changes but it's a healthier growth and the opposite of power growing which causes small body, big fins and shorter life span!) He's $8 plus $12 shipping (or $35 for Express)


----------



## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> He is...oh about 8 months ish? He's almost full grown, his fins have some growing to do but his body is getting big! (Indicative of slower growth due to infrequent water changes but it's a healthier growth and the opposite of power growing which causes small body, big fins and shorter life span!) He's $8 plus $12 shipping (or $35 for Express)


Okay, thank you. I have really liked Mosaic for a long time. I will have to think about it though. Kind of tight on money right now, if you can understand. >< If you sell him to someone else before that, it's totally fine.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Fenghuang said:


> Okay, thank you. I have really liked Mosaic for a long time. I will have to think about it though. Kind of tight on money right now, if you can understand. >< If you sell him to someone else before that, it's totally fine.


That's fine


----------



## Aqua Aurora

Good luck with the orchid, the ice cube method is horrible way to water-they're a tropical plant and that's lie exposing them to a freeze. I tried one of those mini orchids before, didn't do well.. I learned after it died that those chains store orchids are often infected with a nasty fro the nurseries they're mass grown at so they don't last.


----------



## Olivia27

Sorry to hear about Zolla 

When are you moving out? Will you still post Petco fishies and offer to ship them from your new place? xx


----------



## lilnaugrim

Aqua Aurora said:


> Good luck with the orchid, the ice cube method is horrible way to water-they're a tropical plant and that's lie exposing them to a freeze. I tried one of those mini orchids before, didn't do well.. I learned after it died that those chains store orchids are often infected with a nasty fro the nurseries they're mass grown at so they don't last.


Yeah exactly my thoughts. I knew they grew mostly on tree's in tropical area's and figured that ice cubes would burn them due to how cold it was!

These guys are actually from...Stop and Shop >.< Local grocery chain lol. Terrible, I should have gotten them from an actual propagator I know but they were right there so I couldn't resist! I picked out the healthiest ones, I knew to get ones with some buds still closed so I could enjoy the longer blooms versus the ones that were already opened. I looked for any sort of rotting and they all seemed fine so here's to hoping! Not everything carries infection but doesn't hurt to be cautious. 



Olivia27 said:


> Sorry to hear about Zolla
> 
> When are you moving out? Will you still post Petco fishies and offer to ship them from your new place? xx


Well, my plans changed and once I figure out my portfolio and get my website up and running, I'm going to apply for Marvel/Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar for art jobs! So....I might be moving to California.....yeah....BIG step for me! So for the time being, I'll just be living with mom I suppose. I have a gallery that I'm submitting to this weekend and an art tent during a festival in July! So I'm hoping to sell off some of my art work to keep up money flow! Besides, with the area that I was going to in the first place, it'd be the same PetCo's that I visit now haha! It's only half an hour away!

I have been to a couple stores but haven't been taking pictures since I figured you all were tired of seeing them? I need to get rid of the other guys before I take on any others first but if you want to see pics, I don't mind grabbing some when I do go, I just didn't think there was any interest any more!


----------



## Olivia27

O_O 

I'm a HUGE Disney fan! Eeeeep! Pixar is awesome too! OMG might as well ask for your autograph now before you became too famous 

Well I have an empty 10g with the heater, filter and money set aside for plants but the spawn I signed up for didn't seem to really take off. So I'm back on the market for my one last final addition. Preferably a giant - which seem to be making appearances in Petcos lately O_O That said I'm going home in three days, so I probably shouldn't ask ._. Unless you would pet sit for four months XD


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> O_O
> 
> I'm a HUGE Disney fan! Eeeeep! Pixar is awesome too! OMG might as well ask for your autograph now before you became too famous
> 
> Well I have an empty 10g with the heater, filter and money set aside for plants but the spawn I signed up for didn't seem to really take off. So I'm back on the market for my one last final addition. Preferably a giant - which seem to be making appearances in Petcos lately O_O That said I'm going home in three days, so I probably shouldn't ask ._. Unless you would pet sit for four months XD


Oh haha, thanks! I mean, you could always just save a label from shipping that has my name on it XD haha!

Ah, preferably not. Normally I'd say yes but if I'm going to be moving in the future, I'd rather have less on my plate to get rid of versus what I have now. Besides, I have no idea if I could take fish with me since many apartments won't accept tanks or have a gallon limit and all. I'd keep my Leo's with me absolutely and possibly get a dog after I move (to avoid annoying stipulations and stuff)


----------



## Olivia27

Ohh true! Shipping labels! Will cost a thousand bucks one day lol

And don't worry, I figured. I'd annoy you after summer then lol good luck with doggies!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Olivia27 said:


> Ohh true! Shipping labels! Will cost a thousand bucks one day lol
> 
> And don't worry, I figured. I'd annoy you after summer then lol good luck with doggies!


Haha, one day!

Sure, np! And thanks :-D

Go big or go home, right? haha


----------



## Tealight03

Hope Zolla feels better. So excited you are looking into Pixar and Disney! I did a lot of "big changes" and moving and wouldn't take any of it back.


----------



## Strawberry12

I lost my peach boy  I'll need to pick your brain at some point about a mystery disease thatso killing anyone new I put in my tanks, with no symptoms. Old timers are untouched though. 

Girls are happy, though! Despite getting over some ich, they're all getting along really well, fins are almost entirely grown back from nips. That new girl you got turned out to be the B of the tank


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tealight03 said:


> Hope Zolla feels better. So excited you are looking into Pixar and Disney! I did a lot of "big changes" and moving and wouldn't take any of it back.


Thanks! I'm excited and hope it happens! I need big changes in my life I think!



Strawberry12 said:


> I lost my peach boy  I'll need to pick your brain at some point about a mystery disease thatso killing anyone new I put in my tanks, with no symptoms. Old timers are untouched though.
> 
> Girls are happy, though! Despite getting over some ich, they're all getting along really well, fins are almost entirely grown back from nips. That new girl you got turned out to be the B of the tank


Aww :-( literally no symptoms? No lethargy a few days before? No strange makes after death? What were they eating and was the tank fully cycled? Add new plants?

That's good! And lol, yeah, she did seem that way even when she was with me. She was a cutie though!


----------



## Strawberry12

A few of the deaths I wasn't home for the days leading up to them, so I cant speak to those in terms of lethargy, but the day I came home to feed them they were their usual selves. Peach boy had never been thrilled about food since I got him, but he was healthy enough. Flaring at Merlin through the divider and whatnot. 

Same death song and dance almost every time though, they're fine in the morning, I go to work, come home and they're gone. Laying on the bottom like...perfectly. It was almost unnerving because they were still so bright and normal looking. 

Peach RT guys fins were a bit clampy and jagged when I found him, but didn't look like that before death that I saw.

The fish who have been in these tanks 6+ months are fine, its almost like they're immune to something the others aren't? 

Only new plants are the ones I got with you, but they're also in the sorority tank and there's no issues there. 

They eat NLS and an assortment of frozen. 

Then Duke Silver just disappeared. Full hood so no jumping, gone in less than six hours. 

The only symptom I could see would be a bit of lethargy, like you said. But nothing drastically like whoa there's something wrong here, if that makes sense?


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## themamaj

Here are some pictures. Doing great.


----------



## lilnaugrim

I regret to say that Zolla passed in the night this past night. At least she's no longer suffering.

On a happier note, happy mother's day to both human children mother's and pet parent mother's, I hope all your day is great.


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## Olivia27

I'm so sorry Lil xxx


----------



## ThatFishThough

Oh, no! Lil I'm so sorry! ;-;


----------



## cousiniguana

I am very sorry to hear about Zolla.


----------



## vaetki

;_; *hugs tight* I'm so sorry for your loss.. may she rest in peace.


----------



## OUOhYeah2016

Aw :/ I'm sorry Lil. Losing pets, regardless of the species, is never easy...


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you all. It was gloomy all day but the moment I buried her, the sun came out  it was nice. I'm sure the weather was doing its own thing but it was nice all the same. I am sad but I'm glad she's not suffering since she clearly was. I don't know if anyone else has the sense but sometimes you just look at an animal and you just know that it's their time. I had that feeling last Saturday when I figure noticed it. I tried to think positive but all the while, I still had my gut feeling. But, I tried my best to make her well and I've got that at least. I know she had a good life with me 

My remaining three adults are doing fantastic, the baby, Dorian, is also doing well in spite of his tail being ripped off previously! I've learned plenty through Zollas death and that's the most important thing to me, bad things happen but you can still learn from them and improve from there.

I'd also like to think she hung on log enough for me to get home late last night so I could say good night to her and give her head a Pat since she seemed to always like that. She was tired and I had that feeling this morning when I woke. I'm glad I was able to say good night, she's sleeping peacefully now


----------



## firewood04

So Sorry to hear that Zolla has found her perfect rock to laze in the sun on the other side of the rainbow bridge. I have just been thinking how hard it is for you re-homing all your fish and then losing Zolla. I know you are thinking of your future but I still think about how hard it is to do to get to the moving forward things!

I am routing for Pixar and Disney to happen for you! I have been a huge fan of Walt Disney since I was a child. I grew up in the shadow of Disneyland and remember well all the changes over the years. Walt Disney gave a lot of artists great starts and places for Ideas to become reality before he died. I know the Disney family has carried on that tradition in the background. I have known some of the Innovation Studios people and they all loved what they did!


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## Sadist

Just caught up. Wow, you've been busy! Good luck on the Disney job, I'm sorry to read about Zolla. I'm a real fan of your geckos!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thanks all.

Idk, I think I'm more attached to the actual tanks versus the fish inside of them. I really don't mind rehoming fish, there are only a few that I am attached to which would be RJ and Acara since they are bigger and a bonded pair which is just crazy insane. Otherwise, it hurts more taking the actual tank down than anything else. Or at least, the ones that have been set up for a while. The other 20 long I don't care much about, it's just an extra tank to throw extra fish so idc but taking down the 4 gallon would be hard eventually.

I'm keeping the 4 gallon up and then the two 20's for my two breeding pairs (if my Yellow Convicts ever get to it. I just may end up giving them to George to see if he can breed them which I don't doubt he can). And then the 45 downstairs will stay up for a bit more with the Angels in it.

I had recently bought 8 (George gave me an extra 2 to make 10) Cardinal Tetras thinking that they'd be great in the 45 with the Angels.....Ghost freaking ate them ALL. I'm beyond ticked off at her! They were 20 bucks for all of them! SO MAD! And now of course mom is mad too because she doesn't like to see nature essentially at work. She thinks that the fish eating other fish means that the fish were really stressed out and sick or something when in reality, the Cardinals were just small enough that they fit into Ghost's mouth. They were also much slower than the Rummynose were and so they didn't run away from Ghost when she approached.....mother also wants me to get rid of the other three and just keep Ghost since Ghost picks on the other three. Also, my angelfish are racist, I swear it. They all shun Templar, the only non-Platinum in there....it's quite strange actually. Ghost is big kahuna, Trip is next and then Tux and Templar seem to share the same rung on the ladder but Tux will shun Templar when given the chance. My angels are strange. And it's not like I stuffed them into a tiny tank either so...idk. Should I just give up the angels? But issue is, mom likes Ghost so I get rid of the other three and then it's just Ghost and the two Madagascar Rainbowfish (plus three otos) in the tank....what else can I put in there that she wouldn't eat but is a good shoaling fish that won't eat plants? I adore Congo Tetras but yeah, they eat plants so no-go there.

And yeah, I'm sad Zolla is gone but I'm good at not attaching myself. Maybe that's a little strange but I'm really not bothered too much by animal deaths or giving up the animals. I have my little cry over it and then I'm done, it's okay  As I mentioned, I prefer that she's not in pain any more, granted that could mean that she's either passed or all better but either way, it's all good now. The other three are doing very well, Dorian is still trooping along so I'm really not doing that badly to be honest.

Is that weird? Idk, to me it isn't but I know other people have a hard time with it. I still view fish as pets for sure and I love them but I'm just really good at unattaching myself when their time comes. As I mentioned before, I had a gut feeling about Zolla the first time I'd seen her so it wasn't so much a surprise come Sunday morning. But yeah, it really doesn't bother me. It makes me a little sad sometimes to think about my cat who we put down, MC but mostly it makes me sad to think that Ieli is alone, not so much that MC is gone now if that makes sense. I'm more concerned about the other pets becoming depressed versus myself. But Ieli is doing well too ^_^ She gained a bit of weight when my brother was giving her wwwaaaayyyy too much wet food but he's cut back and she's lost some weight and is healthier again ^_^ she's starting to feel her age a little bit though, she pulls herself up to get up onto the couch instead of jumping up so I do recognize that. Considering that cancer can often run through family lines, I would not be surprised if she did pass within the next year or a couple. For her though, I would be more sad than MC, Ieli is my baby girl. However, unlike my mom, it wouldn't stop me from getting another pet. My mother HATES pet or any animal deaths, she cries at documentary shows about animals dying in the wild....sigh, I really wouldn't mind it if it didn't restrict me so much. it's one of the main reasons she won't let me have a dog, she's afraid of becoming attached and that animal going away. I understand she's had many animals die in her life time but I also feel that she's being very selfish with that decision as well. There's so much joy that a pet can bring, is it really so bad to mourn for a year or more when they've brought 8-15 years of happiness? Maybe it is, people have different mourning times and I recognize that too but all the same, it's just my view on it. I'd rather have those couple months or years with a fish or a lizard and have that be some of the best time than to have never experienced it. Maybe my view will change in time too but idk, it's hard for me to comprehend mom's decisions when it comes to that, like I understand the reasoning but it just doesn't really make sense to me.

I guess that turned more into a rant than anything lol, sorry about that! It's been a long couple weeks with finals and all!

And thanks for the well wishes with the job! Still haven't applied (yes yes I know, I'm getting on it!) but I'm getting there!!


----------



## Crossroads

I have a similar deattach reaction Lil. Sudden deaths get me more than prolonged ones because I come to terms and expect the worst.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> I have a similar deattach reaction Lil. Sudden deaths get me more than prolonged ones because I come to terms and expect the worst.


Glad I'm not alone there, and I knew I wasn't either but yeah. I don't mind sudden deaths either though, I just kind of go "Oh...well that sucks," and then move on. Sometimes it's easier for sudden deaths because then you know it's over, the animal is no longer suffering at all, whatever was that bothered the animal is done with (unless it's bacterial/viral and can infect the other animals it may have been living with). But yep, that's just me I suppose. I even apply it to humans, perhaps I will be (and I assume I will) more devastated when my parents pass or if my brothers do but since I am introverted, I don't really hang out with my grandparents too much or anything. Mom keeps saying that I'm lucky to have them around and that I should savor every moment. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandparents but I hardly see them as it is and it is almost as if they are dead right now when they aren't. I've had two grandparents die, I forced myself to cry at my Grammy's (dad's mom) funeral because everyone else was and I felt awkward. I did cry for Bernie (not blood related, was only common-married my Memere--mom's mom) when I saw how bad his Alzheimer was when he didn't remember us but I didn't cry for his death or funeral. And then my great grandparents as well, I didn't cry for either of them.

The only things I cry for are movies and books or if I see someone else crying. I am a sympathetic crier which sucks but whatever. Idk though, the more I delve into my personality and my little quirks, the weirder I seem to myself lol.


----------



## Crossroads

For me, because I've had so much family and likewise, so many pets die, I'm pretty desensitized to death as a concept. For me, it was more that I formed a wall because of my depression. If I deattach, it won't hurt and I can go on with my life. But it's gotten to the point that I just don't feel it. It doesn't really hurt until months or years later. A grandmother I thought I'd bawl when she passed was more of a relief because she had dementia for 4 years prior.

Humans affect me more than animals though. I still break down sobbing at my grandpa who has been gone almost 8 years now but can shrug off the death of several pets like yeah, that happened, moving on.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Crossroads said:


> For me, because I've had so much family and likewise, so many pets die, I'm pretty desensitized to death as a concept. For me, it was more that I formed a wall because of my depression. If I deattach, it won't hurt and I can go on with my life. But it's gotten to the point that I just don't feel it. It doesn't really hurt until months or years later. A grandmother I thought I'd bawl when she passed was more of a relief because she had dementia for 4 years prior.
> 
> Humans affect me more than animals though. I still break down sobbing at my grandpa who has been gone almost 8 years now but can shrug off the death of several pets like yeah, that happened, moving on.


Yeah, I can understand that. My Grammy also had 3 years of early on-set Alzheimer's which was an extremely aggressive form. She became aggressive too and recognized no one, not even her spouse. So yeah, definitely a relief when she did pass, it was easier on all of us after. I won't care about her spouse, my grandfather that I've talked about in my journal before if there are people who read this two years ago (gosh, it's been that long already? lol!). He's an ass and doesn't care about us, can't pronounce my name correctly and doesn't bother to try. He's a pig both in food and with his....late night skype chats....ugh, I shiver just thinking about it all....ugh, he's utterly disgusting old man who doesn't know how to treat other people. I'll honestly be happy when he goes, I don't wish death upon people but I definitely won't be sad.

For my Memere, I may cry for her. She's the one who's been there the most.

I swear I'm not a strange person for anyone reading all these lol. But yeah, definitely finding more about myself as I'm finishing up college and things are happening. I'm not dissatisfied with myself but I do have some strange quirks, that's for sure. :roll: oh well! We're all weird underneath it all, right?


----------



## themamaj

Well here is something that might make you chuckle. What color did you think our black and white boy (Patches) would be??? Marbles love my water lol. Big changes in less than week.


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## lilnaugrim

In my lighting it looked like Black Copper but when I sent him out, i could see the blue starting to appear a little more. He'll end up a Black Orchid which is very close either way 

For whatever reason, Shipping tends to trigger the marble gene so I'm not overly surprised ^_^


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## Sadist

Wow, and does his beard have a red part on the bottom? What an amazing boy! I love that color. I had no idea they could marble to my favorite color scheme.


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## themamaj

Yes his beard has red in it. I noticed blue hues in fins when got him too. It is neat how things like shipping and changes in water can spur the marbling gene. Really fascinating. I think they get even prettier when marble. You always find the beautiful ones. Thanks Lil!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank Victoria, she's the one who spotted him, I just said yes to taking him home ^_^


And I had mentioned I bought Cardinal Tetras for the 45 before. Well Ghost ate ALL of them >.> I was mad. Still am mad, they're expensive! So I brought in some fish to George today and we exchanged my fish for 3 new Chili Rasboras and 6 beautiful large Diamond Tetras for the 45 instead. Mom already really likes them. I was worried because they aren't super colorful for Tetras but they are gorgeous and shiny! Mom likes blue fish and they're blue-ish/purple so it works out lol. I have one female still in the 55 that will transfer to the 45 if all works out.

I traded in the Threadfin Acara, Romeo, Juliet, and Jules, and one Yellow Convict girl. I couldn't catch the smaller one or the Severum so those will go in next week for more credit ^_^ George is the best!

Mosaic left for veatki today! He should arrive Friday for her.
Pics of him from yesterday






My new Diamonds!



I was trying to get the Angels but this little dude swam right in front of the phone and just sat there for me lol, camera hog!



Trip and Templar


Ghost


Ghost and Trip


4 Gallon, nothing really exciting happening


Can you pick out the three newbies from my two older ones? lol


A Blue shrimp eating a flake on the moss. His eyes are super yellow, it's kind of freaky


Crystal Red with a bladder snail!


Blue Carbon shrimp on the Peace Lily roots


Red Crystal again


Scarlet Badis


And I don't think I've shown off my last art piece?

This is the first one I did entitled "I Will Cross The Water For You, My Brother"


And the finished second part. "I Will Wait For You Here, My Sister"


Our two press's in the back right there and my work usually takes up three tables as I print them lol


I like to do variations on a theme so these are all the same but different color layers.
Red and Black


Yellow Red and Black


Red Blue and Black


Just Black


And just wanted to share one of the last pictures of Zolla  She was a good girl


Her baby picture


And Hawk! Look at how little he was!


Some things never changed much though


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## themamaj

Special pictures of Zolla. 

What kind of fish was the camera hog with angels? Very pretty. Diamonds are lovely as well.


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Special pictures of Zolla.
> 
> What kind of fish was the camera hog with angels? Very pretty. Diamonds are lovely as well.


Madagascar Rainbowfish. I have two males.


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## Sadist

Awesome pictures and prints! I love your new fish and the shrimp and scarlet badis and everything!


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## Tealight03

You're so talented! Love the prints!


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you thank you!

So I had another one of those stupid gut feelings, the feeling I get when I know something isn't quite right. So I checked everyone this morning, everyone upstairs including Geckos were just fine. I knew exactly what had happened before I got down there, went downstairs and Templar the Angelfish had died. Cause is unknown but I did notice some small cysts on her yesterday and she had been hanging out at the top :-/ It looked like it may have been either Lymphocystis or some other viral thing. I'm betting that the new Angels had brought it in since I noticed the same cyst type on Trip's chin that had gone away a few days ago. Likely, Templar was bullied or stressed out to the point where she gave in to the infection. She was face down this morning in the sand, not breathing and very much dead. Mom is going to be so freaking ticked off with me.


So plans for the future. I think I will take down the 45 with mom's permission, get rid of the Angels and Rainbows. I'll set up my 33 flat back for RJ/Acara and the Diamond Tetras and just have that going. And then I'll have my one 20 long for my shrimps and the Chili Rasboras. That tank will have co2 on it once I figure it all out. That way, the 20 would be a lot more stable than my 4 gallon. I may keep the 4 gallon for other shrimps or a Betta maybe. Or many I'll try something else, idk! I could do brackish maybe for some gobies or something else small. The tank is gorgeous and so I won't be selling it or the equipment but the 20 would be much more stable for my Crystal Reds which I'm hoping to breed some nice quality and sell eventually!

As much as I love my angels, they've been so much of a headache! Granted, I'm the one who added the expensive feeder fish for them >.< But yeah, I know mom likes RJ and Acara at least. And the 33 Flatback is shorter than the 45 which means it's much easier for me to clean and will look nicer in the long run!


----------



## Sadist

:-( She was bound to get sick sooner or later with the snubbing from the other fish.


----------



## lilnaugrim

It wasn't so much snubbing from the other fish that began it I think. The snubbing happened after she started to come down sick IIRC. I could be wrong, but that's what I did notice at least. Either way, everyone else is doing just fine!

I did come home and Dorian passed away....sigh....I did wrong by him and I know it. I should have never put him in the big tank for starters, should have just set up a smaller tank for him to grow up in and then from there, do whatever but I was ignorant.

I did go out yesterday and buy a new gecko though...yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead and shake all your heads at me. It wasn't because Dorian passed, I had wanted to buy another girl for the big tank anyway. I was debating getting one from a breeder, at least it would be older and sexed (mostly) properly versus getting one from the store and guessing. Well I went around yesterday and knew I wanted another Mack Snow or at least some other variant than Hypo or High Yellow or Tangerine as I already have. Hawk is a Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail (SHTCT), Astrael is a High Yellow and Luna is a Super Hypo Tangerine, I think.

So I knew the one store in Waterford carried Mack Snows and so I traveled back down to see what they had in stock.

I was lucky!

We looked at the babies and I found a female! Thought it was male at first but I looked again later and definitely female!! I am going to continue to call her Dorian though because I really like the name and who cares? It's not going to cause a gender crisis so whatever! She's pretty chill and well mannered! She settled in well yesterday.

I cleaned out the 5.5 and put her in that for the time being, I'm modding the 10 gallon for a second deck up top so that she can use that when she grows. And then eventually she'll join the others in the 40B if they all get along! If not, she'll stay in the 10 then 

She's not as white as I'd like and she likely will have some yellow on her as she grows up but she's definitely a Mack Snow, she might be Super Mack Snow since she'd darker? Leo morphs are hard to get a grip on!


Healthy tail weight, no shed on toes and no other signs of illnesses yet! She's eaten some Emeraid and some of the mealworms already! And she even pooped last night on the paper towel :-D


Her first bath home! She was VERY content in the bath, the most content I've seen any Leo before! She really seemed to enjoy the soak



And just to prove it, yeah, I know you all want to see Leopard Gecko undersides haha! But she has no preanal pores which is what you look for and she has very little space for where the two penises would be if she were boy.


I also had redone the gecko tank last week after Zolla's death. I added a spare hide and moved the cold big hide to the medium zone since they use that one most besides the moist hide. They're digging the log over the two hides apparently! Gives them a place to rest their eyes while they leave their body out to sunbathe lol


Hawk doesn't really care though


Hawk and Luna


Hawk enjoys being a Toasty Gecko!


Happy Gecko faces!


Hawk is curious and likes to climb on things


See? Great place to lay your head while your body bakes lol!


Bath time yesterday!


And Luna joined the Toasty Gecko's club!


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## themamaj

Aww I just love your geckos! Congrats on new baby. I am so sorry to hear of angel fish.


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## Crossroads

Your new girl Dorian(?) looks like my big girl Ba'al!













Mind her yellow, she's about a year and a half now so she's yellowed out.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks themamaj!

Awww Crossroads, she's beautiful! Yeah, I'm sure Dorian (yeah, just going to keep it. I'm weird, whatever) will yellow out. Looks like she may keep her brown banding though which would continue to make her a Mack Snow at least! Or she might go dark and be a Super Mack Snow. I know we Luna, we expected her bands and little butt spot to go away but they haven't! But I am expecting Dorian to yellow out since that's just normal and dominant apparently.

The terrible trio!


Whenever the cage top is open, Hawk-ster goings around like this, looking on how to get out or looking for my hand to climb his way out lol!


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## Sadist

That makes sense that the fish snubbed the sick one. I've seen it in guppies, too.

Wow, love the new girl! And I had no idea geckos had multiple boy parts. You learn something new every day!


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## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> That makes sense that the fish snubbed the sick one. I've seen it in guppies, too.
> 
> Wow, love the new girl! And I had no idea geckos had multiple boy parts. You learn something new every day!


Yep, that's normal for all fish but sometime more obvious in specific species. Usually the bullied fish is the weakest or sick, easiest to bully around.

Thanks, thanks! And lol, yep! I thought they were balls but apparently they are not! Their gonads are actually very tiny and they have two manly bits! Females are just normal haha.


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## lilnaugrim

Whew! What a week!

I've been getting up at 5:30 each morning to go out for a half hour jog/run! It's been great! It sucks at first but I always feel better after, the stimulation helps to wake up the body! The only day I didn't get out was Wednesday since it was already going to be a long day with the Fish meeting we had! I walked away with 7 Baby Betta's from one of our member's spawns :roll: shoot me. They're about a month-month and a half old so they're over the first hump at least and it's easier from here on out. They're in the newer 20 long. I gave George my Yellow Convicts, as much as I wanted them to breed, I'm seriously downsizing since I just can't keep up with it all properly! It's better for the fishes.

I will also be giving George my three Angels, unless someone wants them here? I can sell them for a price since they are larger than the average pet store and show quality colorations! I will be taking down the 45 and erecting a 33 long from George that fits perfectly on the 55 gallon stand! That will go downstairs where the 45 is. That also means the 55 will come down, it's much easier to care for a longer tank than a taller one, I'm done with tanks over 1.5 feet tall!

So eventually, I will have one 20 gallon long for my shrimps/large school of Chili Rasboras. And the 33 for Acara and RJ! That will be much more manageable for me.

I went to my university's Child Development Center yesterday, it's just a transition place for kids going into preschool I think. But they keep pets in there, unfortunately, not in the best conditions. They just bought a hedgehog and the poor thing has no hides! It was so scared when we accidentally woke it yesterday! His name is Fraiser though.

They also have a Cornsnake named Jericho!


He was super cute and friendly! Apparently the kids hold him all the time and he's great with them




And the hedgehog after being woken


Here he is munching on a piece of his food ^_^
http://i.imgur.com/QtYKNzw.gifv

And then Dorian is doing well! She came out and ate her worms after I showed her where and then drank some of her water while I was around! She seemed to like when I was singing.
I apologize for potato quality photo, my room at night is not lit well.


And how I found her this morning lol


She saw me XD


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## Sadist

Awesome snake! I'm glad Dorian is settling in, too. The preschool we picked had a policy that each classroom had to have a pet, and they picked bettas because of the "easy care." I showed them my research, and they retaliated by calling the pet store to get "expert opinions." I donated a 1 gallon tank, some silk plants, and quality food (because those were upgrades, ugg).


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> Awesome snake! I'm glad Dorian is settling in, too. The preschool we picked had a policy that each classroom had to have a pet, and they picked bettas because of the "easy care." I showed them my research, and they retaliated by calling the pet store to get "expert opinions." I donated a 1 gallon tank, some silk plants, and quality food (because those were upgrades, ugg).



Yeah, that's most of ours around here too, or the teachers just want a classroom pet to "teach" the kids responsibility and crap but how responsible can you be if you don't do research on your own as the adult? I felt so bad for the finch and the Budgie. At least, I know for my animals, they'll get an upgrade once they hit a certain point, these birds have been in those tiny cages for many years now. I'm pretty sure it's the same Budgie there that was there when I would visit on the weekends when mom would take my brother and I while she worked and cleaned, we played. This was back when we were like 5-8 or so.


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## Sadist

Poor pets. Her whole school had that policy "to teach them responsibility," but they didn't really do anything to have the kids interact. When I started doing water changes every day, the kids got to help. The assistant dean saw and put a stop to that because it was too "disruptive" to their transition from home to school time. I think it would have been better to just add pet care to their weekly assignments and have one kid help me at a time or something. She seemed to think they already did pet care assignments, but if they did it was just to throw too many flakes in and leave.


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## lilnaugrim

So yep, I graduated officially yesterday! It was a great ceremony! Apparently my Memere and mom thought it was extremely boring and the worst commencement they've ever attended (both work at the university so they've worked these ceremony's before so this isn't their first). I was like....great, thanks guys....:roll:

So I went out yesterday and I bought myself a graduation gift.....I'm terrible but I couldn't help it, he was BEAUTIFUL!

Meet Cullen! He's bunking with Dorian for the moment, they'll be going into the 10 shortly and then eventually Dorian will join the others in the 40B and Cullen will stay out. I was actually kind of worried for Dorian since the chances of her joining the rest in the 40B without being social as a baby, likely wouldn't turn out well. So, by bunking with Cullen, at least she'll be able to cohabitate a little better. Granted, yes, Leo's are not exactly social by nature but they do learn skills and manners from other gecko's.

Cullen is absolutely wonderful! He's a lot like Hawkeye; climbing around, he likes my hand already so he was socialized as a baby very well! Dorian actually hissed at me yesterday...whoops, I scared her though by accident so I don't blame her. I'm just going to do my best to keep socializing her. They've been getting along well so far!

Cullen is actually white! He's going to stay white too which is what I had wanted when I bought Dorian. I don't regret Dorian at all but I'm happy with Cullen!


Napping already on the heat pad :-D He was like, ooohh this is nice, and settled right down soon after he went in haha! And that's a mealworm shed under his toes, not part of him or anything


Later in the night, he'd tuckered himself out from climbing everywhere


Dorian looking out from her hide


Cullen climbing more lol


And Cullen sleeping this morning ^_^ He was such a cutie to wake up to!


So yep! Happy Graduation to me! It's such a strange feeling, no more school....WHAT DO I DO WITH MYSELF!?!?! Haha what am I kidding? I have a crap ton of stuff to do!


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## Sadist

He's adorable! And he'll stay white! Even better.


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## lilnaugrim

Yes! He is! I love him to bits already!

And I'm a derp, I forgot to add the pictures of the baby Betta's! These were the ones I had won at the auction the past Wednesday for our fish club meeting. Some of them are missing ventrals but the good ones still have theirs so that's fine with me. I think I have three lighter ones (two cello and one is a light Turquoise with EE geno! she's also WICKED hard to get a photo of) four-five black and royal blue ones. I have nine I think all together? I know for sure two are cello or maybe three...ugh, idk, they all move around too quickly lol. I DO know that there is only one EE geno baby so yeah...it's great! They're all eating decap BBS and some teeny tiny ground up NLS Grow pellets (50% protein!) and growing quick already! Lots of fat bellies around!

One of the nice babies. The one on the right only looks weird because it's turning towards me so it's kind of in a U shape, it's really not that disproportionate lol




They're all PK's though


Beautiful dorsal fin!




I think this will be female. They're just slightly too young to tell sex for sure at this point but looking at fin and body shape, this looks female


Also! I went to one of my PetCo's for Giant's and PK's for @EJHath

Normal King PK's, just regular wild type. They're a staple and all over but not super different or unique


Beautiful PK that has been there for about a month and a half


This guy didn't look as happy but he definitely was more perky than the previous guy, he was more interactive but his fin form is terrible lol


one of the HMPK Giant's! These guys are the 20 buck guys. The other's are 14-18


This PK has also been there for about two months, still perky as ever. They just got a water change done 

@EJHath, let me know if you want any! I can visit more stores if you have an idea of a certain coloration you might like now that you've seen a few of ours. We get all sorts of different types in! Sometimes we have to wait a bit though.

And anyone else, if you all want one, you know the rules! PM me, price of fish plus 2 dollars for commission! $12 for Priority or $34 for Express. I ship M-W + Sat.


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## Sadist

I forgot to add "Congratulations!" I was too excited about the new Cullen to remember.

Nice fish. I'm glad we don't have room, or our house would be full of your commissioned fish!


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## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I forgot to add "Congratulations!" I was too excited about the new Cullen to remember.
> 
> Nice fish. I'm glad we don't have room, or our house would be full of your commissioned fish!


Oh hah, thanks!! Yeah, Cullen is distracting, I agree! I didn't want to go out for my jog today and just play with him this morning but he was sleeping so adorably so I opted to do the healthy thing and go out for a while haha!

Thanks! It is hard to say no sometimes! THat's how I ended up with so many! I'm working my way down to 1 or 0 Betta's at the moment. Once I take down the 55 or at least move it downstairs once the 45 is gone, I'll just have the 20 long for my nano fishes and shrimps. Then likely I'll mod a 20 long for Cullen and Dorian if they prove to be nice to each other, if not, Cullen will get a 10 and Dorian will join the other three if that works out.

Oh, I forgot, I bought some burlap thick ribbon to make a hammock/climbing area for the geckos! Hawk will probably really like it and fall off a lot, he just does that kinds of things >.< Cullen will probably follow suit! Seems like the boys are my most active, Zolla was the only girl who loved to climb. Luna likes to hide and Astrael loves to lounge, she doesn't care where.


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## EJHath

Thank you! We did find a healthy, but slightly stressed King at our petco Saturday! My husband wanted our daughter to pick hers and this one responded to her and has been most curious every time she runs over to check on him. He follows my husband's fingers around also, lol! Completely ignores me.... Sigh.


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## lilnaugrim

EJHath said:


> Thank you! We did find a healthy, but slightly stressed King at our petco Saturday! My husband wanted our daughter to pick hers and this one responded to her and has been most curious every time she runs over to check on him. He follows my husband's fingers around also, lol! Completely ignores me.... Sigh.


Oh haha, that's great! No worries, I'm sure he'll warm up to you soon ^_^ Especially if you give him food or treats! :-D


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## themamaj

Congratulations on graduation!!! I know you have worked so many long hours. Your artwork is amazing! Do you have a place you are applying to work? And Cullen is the perfect gift  Sooo cute! Sad to hear your are weaning down your bettas. I guess that is to make things easier if move?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Congratulations on graduation!!! I know you have worked so many long hours. Your artwork is amazing! Do you have a place you are applying to work? And Cullen is the perfect gift  Sooo cute! Sad to hear your are weaning down your bettas. I guess that is to make things easier if move?


Thank you!

To me, it's strange thinking that the artwork I've done is solely done for the purpose of graduating. I did it for myself, not to graduate faster or anything so now that it's all done with, I feel very weird. 

And yeah, once I finish putting together my portfolio, I'm applying for Disney/Pixar/Marvel, and Dreamworks. I may have to apply to anything for the moment in the meantime just to have a job and keep making money!

And yeah, it will make moving easier. I've decided that I will only bring my Leo's with me, wherever I go. That and eventually a doggie down the line somewhere!


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## SimplyXt

Cullen is super cute!! Congrats on graduation!!

Curious to see how your babies turn out. Are missing ventrals common?

That HMPK giant is gorgeous!


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## lilnaugrim

SimplyXt said:


> Cullen is super cute!! Congrats on graduation!!
> 
> Curious to see how your babies turn out. Are missing ventrals common?
> 
> That HMPK giant is gorgeous!


ty, ty!

Missing vents are pretty common for first time betta breeders or in certain water. We don't know exactly what causes it for sure, but it could be linked to nutritional value in certain foods (like too much BBS) or more often, it's noted that the fry sit at the bottom of the tank and if it isn't cleaned well enough, bacteria attack the fins and prevent them from growing. It's not a life-threatening thing it all, it's just not obviously something you want to happen


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## Fenghuang

Congratulations, Lil!!! That is awesome. :-D

Cullen is such a cutie. And the betta babies too.


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## Kaffrin

Gratz <3


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks everyone! :-D

Cullen loves to climb! I forgot to add in a piece of driftwood for him to climb over from moist hide to other hide, I'll do that when I'm home!

Dorian was like "is he really doing this again?" lol



The cuties!


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## themamaj

How cute! I saw a white striped gecko yesterday when out. Never seeneed one before. I think leopards are favorite. How do you clean green pad? I know you said you paper towel train. How do you do that?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> How cute! I saw a white striped gecko yesterday when out. Never seeneed one before. I think leopards are favorite. How do you clean green pad? I know you said you paper towel train. How do you do that?


The carpet? Super easy. You can throw it in the wash--line dry, do NOT put into the dryer or it will shrink lol. I actually put mine in the bathtub and fill with some hot water to soak and use Dawn dish soap over it and scrub with my hands in gloves to rub out stains like calcium or sometimes poop if they miss the towel.

They come trained essentially. Most Leo's are quite clean and will only poop in a certain corner, occasionally you get a stubborn one. But most of the time, I find they poop in the left back corner, put the paper towel there and they'll go. I don't really do anything for them as far as training other than getting used to my hand and voice. It's important for them to know that it's you making the sounds and not some monster coming to eat them. Dorian is still frightened of my hand but strangely enough, doesn't mind to be picked up so I'm working with her to realize that hand doesn't equal death, it just means food. So I'll use the tongs/tweezers to pick up a mealworm to hold in front of her when she's on my hand so she'll go for it and eat it usually. I also still use the Emeraid from the vets or the Fluker's Repta-Boost to feed from a syringe so they get that when they're in my hand as well.

Be aware that most stripes on baby Leo's will go away with age. Cullen will likely have his darker yellow fade down to a light yellow, the black dots may fade to brown or disappear totally as he ages. His white should stay white or white-ish yellow. Like, if you google Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail leo babies, you'll see lots of thick black/brown stripes on the babies and as they age, they become totally yellow/orange like my Hawkeye! So, just don't be totally shocked if yours does change if you happen to get one! If you get a picture of it, I may be able to say whether it may or may not change. I'm no expert in Leo's but I've seen enough where I can give a good guestimate at least for you ^_^


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## themamaj

What are things to look for in buying one? Have only seen available around here at Petco or another chain store. Petco ones look good and well kept but not sure eye for what to look for. I have pondered gecko for some time but still need to do more research on them.


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## lilnaugrim

Essentially, just a nice fat tail is what you want!

Like this is an unhealthy Leo. Known as stick-tail. A leo stores all it's fat in it's tail (or at least the vast majority of it) and when it's like this, it means it's been starved (likely bullied) or is sick with some sort of possibly parasite or bacterial infection.









Look at the toes, are they all there? It's okay to have a missing toe, sometimes they fall off if they have trouble shedding but a leo with all it's toes and at the right length is always good.

A picture of a gecko with most of her toes missing, the furthest one away from us is the only full toe. My Luna has some missing parts of her toes but she still gets around fine


You don't want toes looking like this:









Healthy toes and healthy leo!










eyes should be healthy and clear, no shed stuck over them. This can become a big problem, sometimes they don't shed properly around their eyes either. This is part of why it's so important to have a moist hide and to bathe them weekly, other than the fact that baths help the kidney's stay functioning properly!! But a good moist hide is kept damp to help the gecko shed properly. Soaking can also be done to help aid the gecko if it is stuck on their toes which is a normal occurance. Geckos will often eat their shed after to help attain more calcium! More calcium the better!! A q-tip can be used to help take off shed, I honestly just hold my gecko and pull the shed off with my fingers, gently of course and only after a soak. Do not aid a gecko in mid-shed, sometimes the shed is still attached to the skin and can rip off easily! No good! Only aid after the shed is done and if they have some stuck on their nose, tail, or toes.

I won't show nasty pictures of a gecko after their shed becomes stuck around their eyes. Essentially bacteria then worms its way in and it becomes like pop-eye and can bulge with nasty necrotic tissue built up around the eyes, rendering them blind. You can google it if you want.

And then of course, just watch out for obvious damage like open sores, red looking anus, obvious leakage from nose. Those kinds of things essentially. 

And lastly, if you see this below, it's tail regrowth. It's not a big problem, it's still healthy, it just means that it was lost in the path and as long as it's regrown then it's all okay! But ideally, get a gecko that doesn't have this if possible!


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## themamaj

Those are great examples! Can see big difference in rails and toes. Will the toes regenerate if bitten off in fight? How do you keep hides moist?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Those are great examples! Can see big difference in rails and toes. Will the toes regenerate if bitten off in fight? How do you keep hides moist?


No, toes don't regenerate, they just heal up is all. Only tails regenerate on Leos. Regenerated limbs never come back looking the same though.

And you just mist the moist hide. I use paper towel in closed Tupperware. Not sure if you were around for the building of it last year but I can show pictures if you like. Paper towel is laid on the bottom and I use a turkey baster to use water from my tanks to wet the towel and just let it sit near or on the under tank heater. Or you can spritz the inside with a water bottle too, whatever works for you. Has to be done daily or every other day or so. I slack on mine a bit unfortunately but it hasn't harmed them yet. Especially now tht I've bumped up their bath times!


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## themamaj

Would love to see pictures


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## lilnaugrim

I had been using just the tupperware containers with painter's tape (I use duct tape now, no reason for switching, just what I had on hand at the time. Helps make the hide darker when not encased in the styrofoam hide build). You just cut out a hole in the tupperware like so and I used the tape to keep the edges from scratching the geckos



Building the styrofoam up around the tupperware to disguise it. The only problem I have with this is that I left too much room between the tupperware and the opening and around the sides. So sometimes I find crickets under the hide when I remove the tupperware to re wet the paper towel or to change it out for a new one. You can see it here in the white styrofoam. I tried to pack it with paper towels but it didn't help much. Just the other day Luna actually squeezed herself between that area! Got to pack it again to avoid her getting stuck >.<


Finishing it up. I kept the top separate so I can remove the two pieces and take out the container if I need to clean it or change out the things. Works great so far! Been up for over a year now.


And the finished painted product you see in my tank ^_^
It's sealed with a Polymer satin product. Can't remember the name right now but can show you a pic when I get home. I did three layers of it, letting it dry about a day between and then you let it fully dry and cure for a week before using it.


Featured here now!
Note, I've taken away the litter box on the left. I tried it for about a week, it was great but Astrael kept eating the crushed English Walnuts >.< She passed them through without problem thankfully but back to paper towel I went!


Approved by the gang


I can take a video later of how to take it apart and show you the inside and all. I can take off the lid of the tupperware too to insert a new paper towel. Let me know if you've got questions still!


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## themamaj

Wow what an awesome hide. Do they try to chew or bite at stryofoam? What size tank are they in? Lid? Been watching videos on them. The thermal heat strip goes on tank bottom and then put humid hides over? All that helps with shedding as understand. Do you have a thermostat? Do they need different day and night temps?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Wow what an awesome hide. Do they try to chew or bite at stryofoam? What size tank are they in? Lid? Been watching videos on them. The thermal heat strip goes on tank bottom and then put humid hides over? All that helps with shedding as understand. Do you have a thermostat? Do they need different day and night temps?


Thanks! And nope, they just climb it.

40 Breeder

Yes lid because I don't want unwanted bugs to get in and Leo's do have a good knack for climbing on decor and wires to get out!

Under tank heater goes on one side. Mine is hooked to a thermostat that is kept at 90 degree's, same heat throughout day and night. Hot side should be 90-95 average. Mine get's a little hotter during summer time due to warmer new england air. Cool side should be 70-75 average.

Humid/Moist hides can be over or near the under tank heater, mine just happens to be over it at the moment.

I have thermometer under the carpet with the thermostat sensor just to have two readings to ensure that it's regulating properly. Then I have another for hot side air reading and cool side air reading about half way up the tank to ensure it's heated properly. For the most part, as long as the room stays about 70 degree's, you're all good and don't need to fuss too much ^_^


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## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Beautiful PK that has been there for about a month and a half


Holy smokes he is gorgeous :surprise:


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## themamaj

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks! And nope, they just climb it.
> 
> 40 Breeder
> 
> Yes lid because I don't want unwanted bugs to get in and Leo's do have a good knack for climbing on decor and wires to get out!
> 
> Under tank heater goes on one side. Mine is hooked to a thermostat that is kept at 90 degree's, same heat throughout day and night. Hot side should be 90-95 average. Mine get's a little hotter during summer time due to warmer new england air. Cool side should be 70-75 average.
> 
> Humid/Moist hides can be over or near the under tank heater, mine just happens to be over it at the moment.
> 
> I have thermometer under the carpet with the thermostat sensor just to have two readings to ensure that it's regulating properly. Then I have another for hot side air reading and cool side air reading about half way up the tank to ensure it's heated properly. For the most part, as long as the room stays about 70 degree's, you're all good and don't need to fuss too much ^_^



Thanks for all the great info! Got a book to read as well. They really intrigue me but want to make sure I really understand as much as can and feel like can commit time and money before I would get one if decide to. Does Petco and places that sell them let you touch or hold one in store to see what it is like? Are they easy to sex when little? Is one sex more docile than other? Lol didn't think about loose crickets but yes lid would be a definite there and as you said keep the critters in. Would freak out hubby if something loose in house haha.


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Thanks for all the great info! Got a book to read as well. They really intrigue me but want to make sure I really understand as much as can and feel like can commit time and money before I would get one if decide to. Does Petco and places that sell them let you touch or hold one in store to see what it is like? Are they easy to sex when little? Is one sex more docile than other? Lol didn't think about loose crickets but yes lid would be a definite there and as you said keep the critters in. Would freak out hubby if something loose in house haha.


Some of them will if they know you. Like I was allowed to pick up Cullen to figure out his sex since the guy knew me quite well. Otherwise will just show you the bottom side if you want a chance at trying to sex it. The little ones are VERY good at running and bolting away from you so for the safety of the gecko, they usually don't let you hold them. You can still try to ask though 

Some are obvious and some are not obvious. The little little ones are harder to sex, try to get one that's around 3.5-5 inches in body size with a nice full tail; the chances of being healthy are better in the larger ones. Sexing takes a while to get used to, look at videos and pictures online and that will help give you an idea. I can take a picture of Cullen's underside later to show you the preanal pores; those are the easiest to find for being male and then I have the other picture of Dorian's underside and I will show you the differences between them 

Sex doesn't matter as far as energy level, they're all different. Astrael (female) is a lazy bum but Zolla (also female) loved to climb and loved to come out of the tank. Hawkeye also loves to climb and come out of the tank, Luna still spooks at my hand, though I'm trying to work with her there too. I think boy's have a little more gentle personality and outgoing but it's a grabbag really. I'm lucky with my two boys! Dorian still hisses at me when I spook her by accident but she totally doesn't mind chilling in your hand and listening to you talk, it's a strange thing really!

Cricket's usually aren't the ones to escape, it's the leos! Not sure if you remember or anything but Zolla had escaped twice and then Luna escaped after! So lid it was! We also have stink bugs and sometimes bee's and mice around the house so I don't want those in the cage to hurt my leos!


----------



## themamaj

So by time 4-5 inches are they fairly easy to see, if know what looking for? About how old are they at that length? Love to see pictures


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> So by time 4-5 inches are they fairly easy to see, if know what looking for? About how old are they at that length? Love to see pictures


Well--I'm sorry I can't give definite answers lol!, but it really depend on sexual maturity. If they are sexually mature then you can spot the preanal pores, if not, then that's when it's hard. Geckos will mature at different ages and sizes so there isn't really one all around good way to tell age. Most of the teeny tiny ones are probably 3-6 months of age whereas the bigger ones around 4 inches in body size could be 5-8 months old roughly.

If you look at Cullen's pictures where I'm holding him, you can see the ration of my hand to him, I guestimate he's roughly 5-6 months old right now.

Some gecko grow faster than others depending on genetics and diets and whatnot so there really is no way to accurately tell age unfortunately! I can only say that the bigger they are, usually the easier it is to care for them since they will likely be over the bump of full babyhood and such. They may also be more tame as well which is easier on you.

I'm at work at the moment but will get pictures of everyone's undersides later! haha. I'll try to get Hawk and Astrael as well to show you adults. You can also just look online too if you wanted ^_^


----------



## themamaj

Just saw some pictures of the pores online. Males have very distinct v shape pore pattern plus the bulge. It said hard to sex younger than 6 months as both similar until then.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Just saw some pictures of the pores online. Males have very distinct v shape pore pattern plus the bulge. It said hard to sex younger than 6 months as both similar until then.


Yes!
I found that the juvie pores aren't as pronounced as when they are in breeding mode of course, just like a female Betta's ovipositor will stick out more when she's ready to drop eggs; same idea. The males pores become more pronounced during breeding. The phallus pouch isn't as pronounced as babies of course but sometimes you can see the space between the anus and the tail where they will eventually grow larger with age.

I'll definitely get you those pictures later tonight!


----------



## lilnaugrim

I'm a dumb-dumb! I took some awesome DSLR pics last night and exactly as I thought I would, I forgot to bring my card this morning so I could plug them onto my computer! Shammmmeee!

I went to pick up that PK boy for Blue yesterday and I also found a marble baby boy in a girl cup who is just about the size of my other baby betta's so I threw him in a breeder box with the babies (he's a tad bigger than the others so I didn't want him hurting on the baby babies). And then I went to Wal-Mart. My Wal-Mart has fish but it NEVER has the good looking fish that people sometimes find at their wal-marts. I had only found one mislabeled boy as a girl before way back when. They had been in a lull for a couple years but I just went to check on it today and I had to say that I was actually impressed by the selection! Still only CT and VT but damn! There was an all white CT and a white one with red (got him to sell) and a few other amazing looking ones! Not like koi or anything really but still not the typical blue/red/copper with yellow that we have all the time.

So I came home with three fish yesterday :roll: yes, yes.

I also found out that my PetCo is starting with the koi trend! found one yesterday! And found the stupid Paradise crap that they're labeling the MG betta's has :roll: why do they have to come up with stupid names? Why not just take the names from the community unless patented....although MG is patented so yeah, but still! The little koi had some sb issues though.

I love coming home to my geckos, I get to see their adorable faces all the time! I'm so happy to have them!


Not sure how they were comfortable but they were happy! Do you see Astrael's foot? It's bent backwards onto Hawk lol! Luna was in the moist hide finishing off her shed ^_^


And then I finally did the thing, I forgot I needed suction cups to do this so I finally bought some today when I remembered! I usually remember when I get home lol
Hawk was already trying to figure it out


Astrael knew that it was a climbing thing, she just didn't....didn't know how to get onto it lol!




Success! They loved it! Hawk already went around on it trying to scent it lol. Likely I'll have to secure the burlap with hot glue so it doesn't totally rip off, especially if they all get up there, it likely won't hold! Project for another day


And as promised, I grabbed a picture of Cullen's underside and now I'm wondering if it isn't a girl! >.< I mean, I would be totally fine if it were a girl but then I have two girls with boy names haha! whoops!

Here is Dorian from before:



And here is Cullen from last night
Now that I'm looking, I can see the tiny pores which females do have, just not so pronounced. Cullen is slightly smaller than Dorian but at this point, I really don't know any more! I thought I had a grasp on it lol! They could come out opposite as well >.< whoops.


And just stressed out little koi boy.


I'll get the rest of the pictures tonight which includes Astrael or Luna's underside as well as Hawks. Then all the nice pictures I took of Blue's new boy and the others as well! Also took pics of the baby betta's for you all to see. They're all doing very well!


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## themamaj

They both look like girls don't they? The burlap looks like would be such a fun climbing bridge. Look forward to fish pictures as well..


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> They both look like girls don't they? The burlap looks like would be such a fun climbing bridge. Look forward to fish pictures as well..


No actually, Dorian looks like a boy and Cullen looks like a girl now. See, there is a space for Dorian and his preanal pores are further up his leg, not as pronounced for the moment but there are little dots on them which I don't know if that means anything but Cullen's don't have the dots yet.

And yeah, so far Astrael and Hawk love it, haven't seen Luna use it yet but she's not much of a climber, more of a digger


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## lilnaugrim

Crickey's! I hate when my photos take forever to load! I've been at this two hours now! Granted, I forgot sometimes between loads and go back like ten minutes later and realized that it uploaded 9 minutes ago lol. But seriously!

I'll upload the pics of the babies and other fish tomorrow when I'm not dying to go to sleep!

Pictures of the boys, no captions really. Other than blue's boy not flaring for like, ever, until I put Render in next to him. Render took a few minutes too to realize it was a photo shoot. I had pictures of him flaring near the divider and realized that it's sparked Blue's boy as well and then he FINALLY went to flare! This was after all he had been flaring up a storm to the new boy who is pictured first. His red is a lot more red in real life but I couldn't quite get it to be red when I edited! Wrong light angle and light setting essentially. He still has some SB problems but some fasting days and good food should fix that up right fine!

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And hooray, half the photos didn't come up....sigh, I'll reupload tomorrow. Night everyone


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## blueridge

OMG he looks so much nicer out of that cup! He is quite a stunner! Eeek! So excited to get him. That blue band on his tail is awesome :O


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## lilnaugrim

Annnddd, why does this do this to me?! Now today my pictures upload like super fast?! Not just the ones I uploaded before but all of them! I wonder maybe the site is just faster at this time of morning because no one is on?? Idk, it's frustrating though.

Anyway, here, have the pictures that didn't upload last night.

Wal-mart guy! Still having some SB troubles but getting much better!





























Blue's dude. He was doing this most of the photo shoot, just looking at me like "why?"








Copper Metallic Super DeT. He's for sale. Feisty, loves to build bubblenests




































Cello marble DDR CT. Also for sale, he bit off his crowns out of frustration though. They'll grow back ^_^






















Render









Babies! The PK babies from the auction last week. They're all doing very well! Two cellos, the rest blue and one EE geno.











































Some possible metallic genes!








PetCo baby




































One of the cello babies. Sorry this image sucks, had to zoom in some.








This is the best looking baby out of them and the biggest. But he's got all his fins and look at that dorsal width! Beautiful!






























Picture of the little EE geno baby!
















Lampeye Killifish, beautiful fishes!















Chili Rasboras! Look how bright my older two are! I have done very minimal retouch here, no saturation, just a little contrast and exposure down because it was too bright. Otherwise, that's the normal bright red color I see!








Newer ones aren't as impressive yet but they'll color up soon!


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## Sadist

Gorgeous fish! I especially love the copper boy. I love when the copper expresses itself that way! I'm sure you'll find a home for him super quickly.


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## themamaj

Gorgeous plakats!!!!!. Very cute babies!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks girls!

The babies are growing! Heck, everyone is growing!

Dorian is all legs right now and it's rather funny! I'll be moving them to the 10 shortly, I want to mod it to create a second layer deck up half way to make more space. Cullen likes to climb so I'm sure he'd enjoy it! Sticking with Cullen = boy and Dorian = girl for the moment until I'm proven otherwise!

Astrael had a lovely set of eggs Sunday! They're now in the freezer but all the same, they were lovely eggs lol. She did a great job of caring for them when she had them. So much that she pulled the poop paper towel over near the water dish to cover them...the towel was then soaked and I had to clean up wet poop and clean the water dish now empty of water lol. She also pulled over BOTH mealworm dishes to help "cover" her eggs lol. Such a funny girl! Luna will ONLY lay in the moist hide whereas Astrael doesn't give a crap it seems; wherever she is is where she lays.

Hawk has figured out the burlap more or less, he uses it only to try to climb to me and get out but hey, he's still using it! Sometimes he basks on it.

Cullen became a laptop gecko yesterday. He was happy to sit while I worked away lol


The two of them listening to the peep toads for the first time in their lives!
They coexist mostly peacefully for the moment. They need a bigger moist hide which is why I'll be upgrading shortly!


Last week I saw a tiny bunny, we have dwarf bunnies all over the campus; too cute!


And I saw this beauty last night when I came home from a drive. Didn't see her until I was out of the car and going around to get the stuff from my seat. She sat there, chewing on cud while she watched me. Granted, it was all part of disguise but it was cute nonetheless. She even sat there as I moved around, getting my things and closing the car door. She ran when I started to walk to the house (it's not towards her). We have a beautiful family of five does living near us now!


And my baby girl Ieli! Video taken on Friday when I was over and she was being all lovey! I adore my kitty


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## lilnaugrim

Omg....

I had a dream last night that I was looking through PetCo bettas to see what they had and over half of them had leopard gecko colorations! I was so confused but really excited! I was like "wow! They're really stepping up the koi-game!" lol!! Many of them were white base with similar patterns to Cullen the gecko, so like brownish without the black he has. It was weird but very cool! I was sad to know that they would change when they were older lol. Funny, because that applies to both the bettas and the geckos too!

Very strange in all.

I've had a very strange week though so I'm not overly surprised. I slept 14 hours last night/yesterday. I've been suffering some ovarian torsions, not that you all need to know my pains here but, they've been excrutiating! Unfortunately, my muscles relaxed before I went to the hospital and me, being paranoid of not actually being in pain when going to doctors or hospital for an injury (stupid mentality I know), I never actually went. I'm pretty sure I have yet another cyst down there.....it's been a pain to sit or lay down but standing is okay. Walking is not okay.

It sucks because over the last three-four weeks, I've been doing really well with getting up at 5:30 am to walk/jog for a couple miles before I go home to take a shower and head to work! It's been a great routine! Well, now I'm learning that those who are prone to ovarian/Fallopian cysts, jogging and running and NOT good for you. There's a chance for torsion if too much exercise is done. This seems to happen to me every stupid time I go to try to make myself healthy (not that I was eating healthy but exercise is a good start at least!), something happens to halt that whether it be an allergy or a stupid cyst....it's absolutely frustrating because I want to lose weight! I want to be healthy but my body says "Oh! No! Can't do that! Let me just stop you right here so you can't go forward". Part of that is my own mentality about it, I realize that, but it still sucks; I can't exactly stop an allergic reaction from happening or a cyst.

I will continue to exercise, I'll just do it lighter for a while is all. It's annoying because I found out that I really enjoy jogging! It's fun to run around in the morning! Especially when there are no bugs out just yet :-D Although, with the mornings being earlier, I'm going to have to get up earlier to avoid bugs still lol.


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## Sadist

Ovary pain sucks! Most doctors won't even do anything unless something is ruptured and leaking. I hope all your stuff calms down so you can get back to jogging. Walking is good, just takes longer  Swimming is good, too, but you're at the mercy of the pool hours for that (and any membership fees).


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## themamaj

Gecko cuteness!!! I love seeing pictures of your guys. So sorry about ovary thing. My coworker had them twist like that and it took her to the ground in pain. Aweful just thinking of it. I hope all that gets under control and you feel better soon. Dream is hysterical. Funny how we get things on our mind and it plays out in a funny way in our dreams.


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## firewood04

I had those same ovary problems and man is it painful! I could never jog, only walk. I sure hope that you can find a way to stop that pain it is so awful...


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## lilnaugrim

Finally! Attachments loaded quick this morning. I still don't understand why it takes forever sometimes, I assume it has to do with the flow of traffic on the forum. I tried to upload these Sunday morning though and they didn't take....it took twenty minutes to upload one >.< So I said forget it, I'll do it later!

Fry's are getting big! I can tell male from female essentially, only 2-3 males I think and there rest female. I have six fry remaining from the auction and the one PetCo boy. I believe two of the other fry were eaten by Acara when I put her in a divided section. She was being beat on by RJ (or I think it was RJ, could have been the Severum) so I separated her in the fry tank with mesh. The first divider wasn't tight enough so the fry kept slipping through and I think she ate the two smaller ones. Unfortunately the one with the EE geno went and another I can't figure out. It's alright though. Acara is doing better now, the rotted parts of her fins fell off and she's got her appetite back now  The newer mesh is holding just fine between them.


Cello baby, the bigger of the two cello's and I believe this one is female. I think the smaller one is male possibly (ovipositer doesn't stick out as far)








Bumpy head baby








PetCo baby "girl" is absolutely a boy lol. Likely a marble VT.








He's making some great nests!








Yellow wash on this one, only seen under flash though.
























I love how intensely blue they are! Under the right lighting, they look like this and it's super cool!
























There has to be some DT geno in these guys, look at that dorsal width! I'm excited to see how they grow up into adults! They're nearly there!








Miserable girl at the time of pictures, but she's doing better and eating from my finger too ^_^ She's a lot more gentle than I thought, when it came to fingers. RJ....not so much, he's got a mean bite!








And look who's all better now!! He's swimming perfectly well and absolutely beautiful flare! If anyone wants him, just ask!








And who could resist these faces? Hawkeye ADORES his hammock! I have more pictures of him from photobucket as well, he's such a cutie








Astrael has been much more outgoing lately! Luna still tries to hide from me, she's afraid of loud noises still >.< I do my best to make noise around them, like, not obnoxiously but enough so they aren't afraid when the mesh top is taken off because it does make a loud noise. She still runs from it as if she isn't expecting it. She's a hell of a gecko, she hates baths, hates to be held too long, hates loud noises lol. She's good though, she doesn't bother anyone so I'm cool with it.








Lol, I should call Hawkeye "Toruk" from Avatar with the blue people. It's the big bird if anyone hasn't seen it. Toruk means Last Shadow, and that's exactly what this reminds me of. You can see his shadow on Astrael lol, it's the last thing you see before you're suffocated by the burlap falling and a big gecko crushing you, hahah! lol, even if it did fall, it wouldn't crush her lol.


And despite everything that Leo's are "supposed" to do, he is happy to bask! The other good thing about the burlap is that it does provide more shade a well, so I figured if they didn't like it, I'd leave it in for that but Hawk loves this thing!


Astrael with Luna in the back


Coming to say hello


Looking out the window


Pretty girl Astrael


Luna was out, yay! She doesn't mind to be out but she is the opposite of Hawk; doesn't like to bask and doesn't like to greet me. It's funny to see their different personalities!


And a typical scene I see daily now. Astrael eating, Luna lounging and Hawk trying to get out to see me and failing.


He does this a lot lol.


He also does this a lot as well!


I can't describe the joy I have when I enter the room to see the burlap being weighed down and know that Hawk is lounging in it!


And I had a graduation party this Saturday as well! Made a lot of money which is awesome! Straight to the saving's account! For now...lol, it will all go towards Student Loan payments, yay.
But mother found a fishy for me! I was really excited about him lol, He's called a Jeweled fish which is funny because that's what RJ is!


And for my gift, John, my mom's boyfriend, bought us tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil's Toruk - The First Flight! OMG, It was Phenomenal!!!! I highly recommend it if anyone likes Avatar and they're touring in your city! The most spectacular show I've ever seen!! The way the combined digital imaging to project on the floor to create the scenes and their acrobatics; it really felt like we were on Pandora. And it was interactive with a phone app! Super cool! Parts of the show the app would have our phones light up and we point them at the stage to create an atmospheric effect, oh man, I'm getting chills just thinking about it!!

These are just a few images of how amazing it was! These silk things were wicked cool, wish I got a picture of them open but I think you get the idea



They actually had a Toruk as well!! Super excited about that!


The Tree of Souls


This was the ending scene and holy crickey! Yeah, goose bumps for sure!!!


Here's a short video of Toruk in action! I won't give away any of the story of course but it was so amazing to see! And yes, that is someone riding the Toruk lol


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## Sadist

Wow, how awesome!


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## Nova betta

I really love the marble baby! He's beautiful!


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## themamaj

Gecko faces soooo cute! Hammock is funniest with them lounging. Cello girl is a beauty and love marble boy VT. Crowntail is also lovely!!! Congratulation on graduation and what a great gift to go to show!


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## themamaj

Having a moment..wrong journal lol


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## themamaj

Astrael is such a pretty girl. Will their facial markings stay the same as they grow? Hawk seems like such a character. So precious when sleeping or basking in hammock. Have you worked to socialize him more or is it just his nature?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Astrael is such a pretty girl. Will their facial markings stay the same as they grow? Hawk seems like such a character. So precious when sleeping or basking in hammock. Have you worked to socialize him more or is it just his nature?


Yep, they're stable now. They only change to about a year of age, some slight differences as they age later but the biggest change is from hatchling to about a year old.

Hawk isn't the one with the issue, it's Luna. It's just her personality though. I can socialize with her more but it's difficult at this point. I'd have to spend a good hour each day at first and a bit less once she's accustomed to everything. It's nothing that is harmful though, she doesn't mind being held once she's out, she does like to run though.

Everywhere I've read, they've always said that geckos slow down after about a year and that's like the opposite with my geckos! They sleep just as much but they still lots of energy! They all love to climb everywhere!


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## themamaj

Got to hold a leopard gecko at Petco! Soooo cool.


----------



## cousiniguana

Have you tried Repashy's Grub pie with your geckos? I've been very curious about it. The Grub Pie would eliminate the constant trips to the store for more live insects and having to keep those stinky buggers alive. You could just feed live crickets/mealies once a week or two.


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## themamaj

What exactly is in the pie?


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## cousiniguana

themamaj said:


> What exactly is in the pie?



It's a food made by Repashy (a reputable reptile food maker) and it is an insect based meal replacement gel for insectivorous species of reptiles and amphibians. It is a powder you mix into a gel.


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## themamaj

That sounds very interesting. Lil how do they do with non live foods?


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## lilnaugrim

Yep, I have it and have tried it. I mixed up way too much in the beginning and had to give some to Victoria for her beardie lol. It only lasts about 2 weeks in the fridge so start with like a teaspoon of the powder to mix up! It will give you a lot!

Hawk loves the stuff but they don't eat anything unless it's moving. So I usually slice it into little pieces and dangle it in front of them with my plant tweezers and he nabs it right up! Astrael does as well, Luna is more picky and takes longer to eat so she doesn't get it as much.

Most Leo's only go for living/moving things, sometimes you get lucky with one who will eat the dead stuff too. I know Beardie's have no problem with that usually since they eat salads and stuff but Leo's are mostly-strict insectivores and so they don't always go for it. I think you can train them maybe at a young age? I haven't looked much into it since I just primarily feed mealworms anyways. But Cullen and Dorian have been wolfing down 100 mealies in a day soooo....yeah, babies eat a lot and very often. They really only eat about ~30 roughly. I get the small's 100 count but there's hardly ever actually 100 in there so it's really not 100 in a day, I just pick out all ~100 and put them in the dish so they can snack through the day.

And @themamaj exciting about holding a leo! It's so different when they're babies and when they're adults! Much heavier and you can feel the weight usually lol, well, okay, I can with Hawk since he's a lovely 72g. THe girls are still 45-55g depending on egg laying and all.


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## themamaj

Saw these cuties while out today. Expressions cracked me up. Are the claws typically curved a bit on toes?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Saw these cuties while out today. Expressions cracked me up. Are the claws typically curved a bit on toes?


Awww, that first one is adorable!!

Yes! Claws should be curved and usually pointed downwards. Claws at the first to go if the shed stays on too long but it's okay, they can survive without toes and claws. Their claws don't hurt much but they can be prickly! My skin gets a little irritated after they walk on me but I don't mind much, it kind of tickles lol. You can just wash your skin after and it usually goes away just fine.


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## lilnaugrim

Yep, Dorian is yellow-ing out but it's okay because s/he is still beautiful! It's funny, s/he hates being picked up but once s/he's up, it's like "okay, this isn't so bad....guess I'll chill for a while" lol. And then Cullen get's all jumpy, still working with them! Upgraded them to the 10 yesterday to give a bit more room.



Stopped to get some worms, saw some beautiful bettas!



Beautiful girl!


An actual golden VT girl! She was legit gold, not yellow with dragonscales, gold



Her sister


Koi boy was still there


Beautiful boy!


I also tried some embroidery to mod my scottish chemise! Had to make a thingy with a button to hold up my sleeves during hot weather since that's when I generally wear the costume. Trinity knot for those wondering and first time at really embroidering something.


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## themamaj

Dorian has great markings. Love seeimg pictures of your leos. Gold betta female very pretty. Impressed with embroidery. I could never do that.


----------



## Sadist

Look at the fins on that gold girl! So long.


----------



## ThatFishThough

*twitches* I need to keep up better, I've been looking for a gold girl, though I know I shouldn't add another to the sorority.

Viola just died, so I also have an empty tank if it doesn't go well.


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## lilnaugrim

I have no idea if she's even still there honestly! I have a quick look over today when I went in to get some worms for the geckos but I didn't look hard enough to know whether she or her sister was there!

I'll be uploading pics in a moment, not of store fish though lol. Just regular pics.


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## lilnaugrim

Alrighty, picture times!
Sorry I haven't been updating the last two weeks! Been strangely busy. Mostly with designing posters and cards for the Music and Art departments. Funny, I graduate and then make money off of the two departments I was in most during school. Anywho, glad the whole Music Department stuff is over with! What a nightmare that was! Let me tell you a little story!

So, I made the poster for their Auditions for the coming year. It looked great! I thought. I have the marketing dude from URI call me and tell me the one of the photos doesn't fit with the other three, I agree (originally I had one photo as I was keeping to the URI guidelines for appearing professional--we have a whole guidebook on how to make a proper URI poster! But the dept. head wanted more photos = more diversity). So I changed the odd photo out from a Clarinetist to a Vocalist. Vocal teacher gets t'd off because the singer's posture is not correct in the photo.....ahem...I didn't take the photos, I only could use what the department gave me. It's not my fault _your_ student isn't using proper posture! So after that mess of a scene, I opt out for a viola player instead, no more vocalists! Sorry, you want to be THAT picky for an audition poster then YOU won't have a representation on it. If it were me, I'd simply use it as an example. "You see this person on the poster? Don't be like the person, use better posture". She's also one who complained that one of her other students wasn't captured in the proper O of the mouth while singing....it's not the photographers fault. Most photographers don't know much about what they're photographing--generally, so while the O might not be there, it's probably the best picture if they're showing it to you.....Finally, on version 4 edition 8, I finally got a version everyone agreed on! I formatted it for poster size and a smaller one for a music festival booklet we do. Yikes.

I am so glad I'm done with that job. I'm sure there will be many like it in my future as a designer/illustrator but at least for now, I can give myself a bit of rest >.<

Alright, NOW onto photos! Lots of babies and lots of geckos!

I still have two Red Dalmatian Platy's in the 20 long with Renegade and Tux the Angel (had to separate him due to Ghost/Moonbeam and Trip bullying him.) (Mom calls Ghost Moonbeam because she apparently doesn't like her name....:roll















Found two babies, only one made it. The other baby looked very strange, likely deformed. Kind of looked more guppy than platy which is why I figured it wouldn't make it, it didn't. I let my cichlid eat it after it'd died...not that it was much of a snack but w/e.








RJ!








And the babies. The blue ones are marbling! It's funny, the two cello's that were originally cello, are like a white cello. The ones who have marbled, are a yellow cello, quite interesting!






















The PetCo boy















Babies with flash.








































































And Acara is growing back her fins very nicely! She's kind of bored in her little section of the 20l but it's good for her at least.








Leo's discussing something over breakfast XD At least, that's what it looks like!








And!!!


Dun dun dun duuuunnnn!!!

Meet Cloudjumper! My newest addition, a baby Gargoyle Gecko!
That's what my terrarium DIY tank was originally going to be for and I just never finished it. Well, I finally decided to get one because they're quite easy to care for! They don't need heat like Leo's, just a warm-ish room (74-86F roughly) with some humidity in the tank. They don't need as much humidity at Crestie's, their tails regenerate whereas Cresties do not and they're easier to handle than Cresties! They do jump! Well...it's like a hop if I'm honest lol. It's adorable! I'm pretty sure it's a he but he's still very small and I won't know for a while. But the first thing he did was jump onto my shirt and Cloudjumper just came into mind! If you don't know who that name is referencing, it's a dragon from How to Train Your Dragon 2, my favorite!








I have more Gecko pictures coming up but they're off photobucket and I have a lot so I'll put them in the next post to keep everything nice nice!


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## lilnaugrim

First back to fish since I have fewer of those pics.

My 4 gallon at the moment. Kind of a jungle, haven't done much to it recently.


The old 20L after taking out the Yellow Convict cichlid finally. She was tearing apart all my fish! Gave her to George since he has a lovely male for her! Hope she doesn't kill him!!


Renegade, one of the fish she tore up >.< This is his blind side.


Tux was taken out of the 45 and put into the 20L a few days ago. Cichlid tore him up as well, poor thing. He's on the mend though, it will be a few weeks but he should be just fine if all goes well! He's already better without the stupid cichlid around. I loved the yellows, at least the nice pair, that last one was just horrible though!


My baby girl from last weekend! Look how much red she has! I think her grandma must have been some orange/red cat. We knew both her parents was the regular brown/tabby color. Her brother also never displayed this kind of color either. We always say she's truly my cat because both our hairs turn red in the summer and we have the same splotches of grey showing up in our coats in the same places lol! Love my girl!


"Handgun kitty" lol, at least, that's what it looked like to us. I call this the bunny rabbit pose, idk why, just reminds me of a bunny the way she holds her front paws up





Better pic of her coat


And a short video! Listen with sound lol
Ieli coming up to greet me when I came over ^_^


And geckos!
Cloudjumper first. He's currently residing in a 5.5g on it's end with three fake hanging plants, a driftwood piece that he loves to lounge on and a screen cover on the side. He's got a water dish and a food bowl. He's eating Repashy Crestie food and some small meal worms occasionally. They are omnivores like Crestie's so they eat anything. It's said that Gargoyle's/Crestie's that are fed both the powder food and live bugs will grow faster than ones on just powder but they both end up being healthy in the end, just takes a bit longer is all.


Climbing his log.
He's an Orange Stripe, sort of. Kind of blotchy but when he Fire's down, you can see it better.




I was so excited to see him fired down just a few days after getting him! Some Garg's never fire back down and stay fired up all their lives. He was the white when I picked him up from the store and at the time, I didn't realize they change so drastically. Leo's fire up and down as well but it's usually not super drastic like Gargs are! I still love him all the same!




And Leo's!

These start from last week.


I realized Luna was sleeping on the leaves lol



"Oh hai!"


Hawk loves his hammock!








This is probably my favorite picture of him right now


I decided that I should probably gut-load my mealworms before feeding them...I don't usually do it and so far, no ill effects (other than Zolla but I think that was something else) but it can't hurt. They swarmed the orange cubes!
Small's on the left and Large's on the right


Hawk and Astrael the other day


Today, Astrael laid a huge honking egg! 1.5 inches! They generally only have two 1 inch eggs but I think her's merged together. I'm glad she was able to pass it! I have to check with a gecko forum to see if this is normal and okay! I've beefed up their calcium intake but it shouldn't merge two eggs into one! In fact, it should keep the two eggs healthier! So a little concerned for her wellbeing. She doesn't seem to be bother by it and Hawk mated with her today already >.< darn male won't give her a break! She bit him back when she had enough though, she's fairly placid and doesn't mind being bred (I say that as in, it's natural. I'm sure she's sick of pooping out fertile eggs but that can happen even if separated--though they just wouldn't be fertile is all).


Cleaned the tank and found ALL their stupid superworms under the rug. They apparently don't like superworms either, scratch that off the list with crickets! Luna likes crickets but they don't catch them in time and it seems to frustrate them and they give up quite quick. I still feed them on occasion; usually during a tank cleaning where I can put the crickets in with them in their temp tank while I clean and they can eat. Not today though, they've got some nice mealies in the fridge for them.




Clean tank and rug!


Hawk approves of it!


Oh cripes, I went over the character limit! The rest in the next post, sorry!


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## lilnaugrim

And Dorian is definitely yellowing out and might actually be a male! I think Cullen is still a girl though lol


Cullen's still keeping the pretty colors though which makes me happy. They've both had their first shed with me already which means they're growing and healthy! Baths are in order tomorrow!



S/he came out to watch HISHE with me lol. Geckos like to watch movies! They like the moving objects. I also found out that s/he likes to try to eat my microfish through the glass when I held her up to it lol


Cullen hates being picked up but once up, he's totally fine with it and just sits there comfortably looking around. He also likes to watch movies with me



Feeding time yesterday! I adore watching geckos eat because whenever one of them goes to grab for a mealie, the other looks at it offended like as if he'd just taken its worm! So hilarious to watch them!


Interesting tactic!


And just climbing around today. I was so happy! It's acting like Hawk, it steps up onto my hand now when offered so it can come out to climb around! I'm so happy! That's the goal with all the lizards! It's hard to work with the others when two of them do it so well now XD but got to keep them all socialized! They can lose it with age if they aren't held enough!


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## ThatFishThough

You haven't updater you signature yet!


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## themamaj

Loving all the gecko pix!!! Hawk is so funny in the hammock. Cutest little squinting eyes. I think I like Cullen's pattern the best. Such pretty markings and colors. I have seen the ones at store eating and you are right it is hilarious. How dare you eat that worm! Cloud Jumper squealing so cute!! Can you explain exactly what fired up and down is? 

All fish look great. Very interesting to see changes. Turquoise boy is so pretty. RJ makes funniest faces. 

Glad got project done. Sounds like hard to make everyone happy. You are very patient.


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Loving all the gecko pix!!! Hawk is so funny in the hammock. Cutest little squinting eyes. I think I like Cullen's pattern the best. Such pretty markings and colors. I have seen the ones at store eating and you are right it is hilarious. How dare you eat that worm! Cloud Jumper squealing so cute!! Can you explain exactly what fired up and down is?
> 
> All fish look great. Very interesting to see changes. Turquoise boy is so pretty. RJ makes funniest faces.
> 
> Glad got project done. Sounds like hard to make everyone happy. You are very patient.


Ty!

Fired up and fired down is just kind of like flaring Betta fins. Not all geckos do it, some only do it partially, some go all out like my guy does. Unlike flaring fins, there is no one cause for a gecko to flare up or down. Sometimes it's due to the light or lack of. I noticed that Cloudjumper fired down when I added a light to his enclosure like it was at the store. He's only done it once in the span of a week so it's not constant. Sometimes it's about food, or heating, or moisture. Mostly it seems to be about light from people's experiences but it's definitely a combo and it's all about the gecko's personality as well.

Firing up can also be kind of like a mating display or possibly threatening. Or it could be part of blending in. I noticed that Cloudjumper was a bit more nervous due to me handling him and so he stayed fired up (his brown color) and he blends perfectly with the wood he likes to sit on, so maybe it's that? We don't actually know!

Here's an extreme version of it. Top is fired down and bottom is fired up!


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## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> You haven't updater you signature yet!


I usually don't until I 'reveal' the surprises lol. I'll change it sometime this week maybe.


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## ThatFishThough

Waaaaiiiiitttttt...... More surprises?


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## themamaj

That is really neat. Glad you shared! Always look fwd to your updates


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## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> Waaaaiiiiitttttt...... More surprises?


No, no, definitely no more surprises lol. I meant that I don't change it until I post about it. In this case, it was about Cloudjumper. I was simply saying that I'll change it at a later day when I feel like it ha. I don't feel like it tonight. Much too late, going to bed! Lots to do tomorrow!


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## Sadist

Cloudhopper is gorgeous! He really does look like a little dragon.


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## ThatFishThough

@lilnaugrim I'm gonna ask you because all the information online is soo confusing.

If I were to *maybe* decide I want a Leo, what would I need? I'd probably only get one, because there are no local breeders & I don't trust PetCo's genders. I was thinking a 15 G tank, but that's as far as I got lol. I might end up going for a 20 G Long. Which would you recommend? Also, what do you feed your Leo's? And how am I supposed to go about this lighting thing? And substrate? Sorry for all the questions LOL. I took some shabby notes off of Leopard Gecko Care.


- around 8 or 9 inches
- terrestrial species
- long aquarium is better than a high one
- 20 gallon long aquarium is adequate for 3 or 4 geckos
- no form of UV lighting is necessary
- daytime temperatures should be around 90 and the nighttime temps can go down in the low 70s
- thrive on insects
- calcium/D3 and another that is a reptile multivitamin
- shallow water dish should be provided
- changed daily
- access to a moist area


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## themamaj

I will throw in another question: the heat pad that you need for bottom of tank...is that an issue to place between tank and wood dresser for example. Do you need some type spacer in between. Concern for safety obviously.


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## ThatFishThough

I was under the impression of them not needing one lol.


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## themamaj

They need a heat pad to put under hot side hide (believe it said to maintain about 90 degree- Lil can verify?)then they need a moist humid hide in opposite part of tank that is used to cool off (side kept about mid 70s)and to help shead. Was reading something last night that said geckos can only absorb heat through abdomen so why important to have the heat pad. You can use a regular overhead light though.


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## ThatFishThough

themamaj said:


> They need a heat pad to put under hot side hide (believe it said to maintain about 90 degree- Lil can verify?)then they need a moist humid hide in opposite part of tank that is used to cool off (side kept about mid 70s)and to help shead. Was reading something last night that said geckos can only absorb heat through abdomen so why important to have the heat pad. You can use a regular overhead light though.



Hmmm.... Interesting. My thermostat at home is set to 75, and I have one of the warmer rooms in the house. I (maybe?) get a stronger heat lamp, for during the day? LOL Idk.


ETA: I'll upload the pic later, but I was planning on something like this. (M= Moist, H= Hot/Humid)

Heat Lamp
. v
|----------------|
|_H______M_|


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## ThatFishThough

Edit time is up, but look who was right?  @themamaj, come here.  https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110827024309AA16rDB


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## blueridge

@themamaj If you are going to use an under the tank heater (UTH) they come with plastic spacers that you put on the bottom of your tank to keep it up off of the thing you place it on. 
@ThatFishThough If you are looking to add a heat lamp I would suggest getting one with a dimmer. My reptiles stay in my room, which is the hottest room in the house and it lets me control the wattage, preventing the tank from getting too hot.


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## ThatFishThough

Ah. <3

I want a Leo from here, but they're almost $300 per Leo >.<

Specifically 2nd down from the bottom.

Males | Leopard Geckos for sale | giant | super giant | breeder care | Geckos available


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## themamaj

Thanks Blueridge! Actually was looking at some heat pads today and saw where they included the spacers. That is great to know and makes me feel better. Good info on dimmer as well. 

More questions: Lil you may have to start a gecko journal  Looks like a digital thermometer that has a probe would be most accurate to place under rug on hot side. Have seen a couple other gages that monitor temp and humidity. Any recommendations on that? Do you change your bedding in the moist hide every week? Any tips on cleaning or disinfecting habitat. Did you mentioned before that you feed the calcium powder separate? I know some people coat their crickets with it but plan was to feed primarily meal worms and just supplement crickets. I held another gecko today which was good in that feeling much more confident to hold and handle one. Looked up at me with cute little leo eyes and licked its lips. Yep I was a goner! Haha. Starting to buy supplies for a habitat. Bought a few more books to read. Hoping to have a cutie some time very soon.


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## themamaj

ThatFishThough said:


> Ah. <3
> 
> I want a Leo from here, but they're almost $300 per Leo >.<
> 
> Specifically 2nd down from the bottom.
> 
> Males | Leopard Geckos for sale | giant | super giant | breeder care | Geckos available


Jaw drop $300! Pretty amazing coloration on those but I think I will stick to the $30 variety


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## blueridge

@themamaj No problem! I've seen people use just regular dimmers from Wal-Mart, and other stores too with just the regular lamps. Don't know how well they work, but if you wanted to be a little bit cheaper you could give that a try too. If you are going to use a UTH make sure you get a thermostat to plug it into. I would not recommend just plugging it into an outlet and then keeping an eye on it with a thermometer, because they have a high risk of overheating, which could burn your animal and crack your glass.


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## Sadist

ThatFishThough said:


> Ah. <3
> 
> I want a Leo from here, but they're almost $300 per Leo >.<
> 
> Specifically 2nd down from the bottom.
> 
> Males | Leopard Geckos for sale | giant | super giant | breeder care | Geckos available


Wow, look at all those healthy, fat tails! I'm guessing that's part of the huge price -- hard to find a properly handled and cared for one with a fat tail at a box store.


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## ThatFishThough

Thanks, @blueridge. I'mma go work at the zoo today. I know two "zookeepers" that will get absolutely nothing done. (Me & the Leo keeper.)


Eta: I found the Fire n' Ice Gecko breeder near me, and theirs are closer to the $100 range


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## themamaj

How fun. I would love to go shadow a keeper for day.


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## ThatFishThough

Hehe, It's not for a day. Each "shift" is 4 hours -- 9-1 and 1-5. You can sign up for at most, 6 shifts per week. Then you clean the zoo/work with animals/shadow keepers. <3

Soooo fun. I'm officially getting a Leo. I want one, because I could devote all my attention to it. Butttt..... There's two from Fire n' Ice, that if they are both females, I will get both. ($75 each.)

ETA: 

*glass aquarium – 20 G Long - $20
*screen top – 30” x 12” - $14.99
*bedding - $7.99 - http://www.petsmart.com/reptile/sub...6-5037116/cat-36-catid-500013?_t=pfm=category 
*reptile cage thermometers - $9.44 - http://www.petsmart.com/reptile/hum...6-5176729/cat-36-catid-500012?_t=pfm=category 
*mister - $4.99 - http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/conceptual-creations-lil-mister-for-reptiles 
*food dish - $7.99
*water dish - $7.99
*hide for the warm side - $9.99
*hide for the cooler side - $9.99
*under tank heater - $26.99 - http://www.petsmart.com/reptile/hea...r-tank-heater-zid36-14819/cat-36-catid-500035 
*daytime light and fixture - $0 – Window Light
*appropriate size crickets or mealworms
*cricket "keeper"
*cricket food, water gel, calcium dust - $8.99, $3.99, $4.99
http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/flukers-orange-cube-complete-cricket-diet 
http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/flukers-high-calcium-cricket-diet 
http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/flukers-cricket-quencher


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## themamaj

I can tell you have really done homework! I plan to use the reptile carpet. Cant remember 20 gallon size price but maybe around $11.99. I know smaller size $7.99. Heard there were some good hide options on amazon but haven't had time to look yet. Petco had several nice ones in store. 

Also wanted to mention http://www.grubco.com 
They are a greatmail order co for mealworms. Have ordered from there several times when feeding bluebirds. Have great prices and several sizes meal worms available. 

Great opportunity at your zoo!

Maybe Lil can add to shopping list


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## ThatFishThough

I went to look at PetCo today, and all the Leo's were skinny. ;-; There was a Beardie that followed my finger, too.


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## themamaj

Lil have you fallen off the face of the earth??? Missing your updates.


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## ThatFishThough

Lol that's what I was thinking!


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## Aqua Aurora

Hey lil' just wanted to say thanks for sending me the arrowhead 'Cream Allusion', it been growing big ^^


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## ThatFishThough

Pothos?...


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## themamaj

That is beautiful Aqua!


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## Aqua Aurora

ThatFishThough said:


> Pothos?...


Arrowhead plant aka Sagittaria.


themamaj said:


> That is beautiful Aqua!


Thank you ^^


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## themamaj

ThatFishThough did you ever get your gecko? I have bought most all of my supplies. Going out today to hopefully get mine. Sure wish Lil was around for some advice....


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## firewood04

Where did Lilnaugrim go? Did you move out on your own? Did you go to do art for Disney? Where are you? I hope that you are okay and not having any health issues! We miss you on this forum.


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## lilnaugrim

Okay. I have a lot to go through here, bear with me please!



ThatFishThough said:


> @lilnaugrim I'm gonna ask you because all the information online is soo confusing.
> 
> If I were to *maybe* decide I want a Leo, what would I need? I'd probably only get one, because there are no local breeders & I don't trust PetCo's genders. I was thinking a 15 G tank, but that's as far as I got lol. I might end up going for a 20 G Long. Which would you recommend? Also, what do you feed your Leo's? And how am I supposed to go about this lighting thing? And substrate? Sorry for all the questions LOL. I took some shabby notes off of Leopard Gecko Care.
> 
> 
> - around 8 or 9 inches
> - terrestrial species
> - long aquarium is better than a high one
> - 20 gallon long aquarium is adequate for 3 or 4 geckos
> - no form of UV lighting is necessary
> - daytime temperatures should be around 90 and the nighttime temps can go down in the low 70s
> - thrive on insects
> - calcium/D3 and another that is a reptile multivitamin
> - shallow water dish should be provided
> - changed daily
> - access to a moist area


20 long is NOT suitable for 3-4 geckos. It's okay for 2, better for just one adult. They might be "lazy" reptiles but they do like to climb and move around. They will get stressed and bullied if you have too many per one tank. 3-4 geckos would need a 40 breeder or a 55 gallon tank at the minimum!






themamaj said:


> I will throw in another question: the heat pad that you need for bottom of tank...is that an issue to place between tank and wood dresser for example. Do you need some type spacer in between. Concern for safety obviously.


Blue answered this one but you should be fine if you have it on a thermostat. You already have your gecko now and I assume you saw the little feet that you put on the tank to keep it elevated off the surface of the thing it's sitting on. I have my 10g with Dorian and Cullen in it on my little solid wood nightstand and it's done no damage to it so you should be just fine.



ThatFishThough said:


> I was under the impression of them not needing one lol.


You absolutely do need a under tank heater. Leo's utilize belly heat, not overhead heat like Beardie's do. They use it to regulate and for digestion. You'll see your Leo move over to the pad after they've done eating so they can digest it properly. Sometimes it's immediate but sometimes they wait a bit, depends on the gecko is all.

Light is not necessary but I find it helps keep the hot side hot as well. My geckos do like to bask occasionally which is NOT normal. Most geckos do not do this so do not expect this to be the normal! Belly heat is all you need. Light is just for viewing and convenience. If you have a light, put it on a timer so it's not on all day. It will bother their eyes regardless of the color it is. Red light will bother the gecko contrary to popular gecko forums out there. I only use a regular warm house light incandescent which helps provide some air heat. Ideally you want dry heat, my house is very humid in the summer and so that can help with shedding but it can also lead to infections if you aren't careful! There are charcoal things you can do to help keep it dry instead of moist, I have yet to use it though. 



themamaj said:


> They need a heat pad to put under hot side hide (believe it said to maintain about 90 degree- Lil can verify?)then they need a moist humid hide in opposite part of tank that is used to cool off (side kept about mid 70s)and to help shead. Was reading something last night that said geckos can only absorb heat through abdomen so why important to have the heat pad. You can use a regular overhead light though.


I have my moist hide on the hot side which helps keep it moist (heat plus water equals moist). You can put the moist hide where you want technically but it make sense to me to have it on the hot side or near the hot side.



ThatFishThough said:


> Hmmm.... Interesting. My thermostat at home is set to 75, and I have one of the warmer rooms in the house. I (maybe?) get a stronger heat lamp, for during the day? LOL Idk.
> 
> 
> ETA: I'll upload the pic later, but I was planning on something like this. (M= Moist, H= Hot/Humid)
> 
> Heat Lamp
> . v
> |----------------|
> |_H______M_|


Cool side does NOT need to be moist, it just needs to be cooler than the hot side. Technically it should all by dry heat and dry cool as they are from Pakistan and surrounding areas. It's all dry, not moist. You can spritz the tank with some water occasionally but it should always be DRY heat when you can help it.

You should have a thermostat (not a rheostat) on the UTH as well to help with regulation. They are expensive but they will help save you money on electricity, help keep your geckos at the proper heat and as blue said; it won't crack glass or over heat your geckos which can happen! I have my UTH set for 90 on my stat. There are two types of thermostats: one that brings pad up to desired heat and then shuts off for a bit and keeps that cycle going, the other is one that keeps it steady at the desired heat which is ideal but more expensive. You can get either one!

I used one for gardens called LeapFrog Thermostat for about 35-40 bucks.



themamaj said:


> Thanks Blueridge! Actually was looking at some heat pads today and saw where they included the spacers. That is great to know and makes me feel better. Good info on dimmer as well.
> 
> More questions: Lil you may have to start a gecko journal  Looks like a digital thermometer that has a probe would be most accurate to place under rug on hot side. Have seen a couple other gages that monitor temp and humidity. Any recommendations on that? Do you change your bedding in the moist hide every week? Any tips on cleaning or disinfecting habitat. Did you mentioned before that you feed the calcium powder separate? I know some people coat their crickets with it but plan was to feed primarily meal worms and just supplement crickets. I held another gecko today which was good in that feeling much more confident to hold and handle one. Looked up at me with cute little leo eyes and licked its lips. Yep I was a goner! Haha. Starting to buy supplies for a habitat. Bought a few more books to read. Hoping to have a cutie some time very soon.


I do have a Gecko journal actually. I just stopped it for the moment because I was talking to you all here  It's labeled the same as this but with gecko's instead of betta's. You all can find it if you like 

Digital thermometer's are fantastic! I have three! One in hot side in the air, cool side in the air an the third is under the rug with the thermometer probe so I can double check that it is in the right setting.

You can get the little circle disks that monitor humidity, if you have digital probes then you don't need the dual one, just the humidity. Ideally you should have one on both hot side and cool side to make sure your humidity stays good. Humidity should be between 20-50. You don't want it too dry because they'll have issues with shedding, too wet and you can respiratory infections.

I change the paper towel in the moist hides when they get dirty. Sometimes they use it for eggs and so I change it after that, sometimes it gets a little yellow and I change it then. Some sites say every day but I find that a bit excessive. Once a week is a good plan or more often if you notice a stray poop or something like that is all. 

For disinfection, I do it about once a month or sooner if it's really dirty (with three geckos in one, it can get dirty fast lol). I take geckos out and put them in a separate tank for holding (my 33 flatback hex tank is right there on floor so they chill in that for a bit. I don't move my UTH for the hour or so that I'm cleaning, they're usually just fine without supplemental heat for the tank. If you want, you can heat up some slate pieces and stick those in there for belly heat.

I use rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and spritz the bottom and sides (Hawk is good at getting the side of the tank when he defecates :roll. I use paper towel to scrub it down with the alcohol and then let dry for 20 mins so it all disapates.

To clean my rug I throw it in the bathtub, add hot water and use Dawn dish soap to hand wash it. I let it rinse off in shower mode once it's clean and then attempt to wring it out some (it's difficult with a big 40B rug!) and then hang over shower rung to drip dry for the day. This is usually done in advance or I have two rugs that I switch out. I put the clean one in while this one dries! best method if you ask me. You can also throw in washing machine, do NOT put into your DRYER! It WILL shrink!!

After it's all set up, they get to go back in again.

Yes, I have a small container of calcium separate just for the females when they need it. But I do also dust my mealworms AND I gutload them with Fluker's cricket feed and the thirst quencher. I've tried the cricket dry food and they took it okay but they LOVE the yellow calcium-fortified thirst quencher stuff. Took that down yesterday like it was no one's business lol! The trick is to not let them get wet or too moist. So when you have them out feeding, do not cover the container because it will get too moist and they'll die.

I also add Fluker's liquid calcium to their water as well. Since Zolla died, I'm religious about this! Everyone's been healthy so far!

I'll list off all my supplements and things I use in my next post for you all!





themamaj said:


> Lil have you fallen off the face of the earth??? Missing your updates.


Essentially, yes, yes I did lol.



Aqua Aurora said:


> Hey lil' just wanted to say thanks for sending me the arrowhead 'Cream Allusion', it been growing big ^^


Thank you for the update Aqua! It's beautiful!!!



firewood04 said:


> Where did Lilnaugrim go? Did you move out on your own? Did you go to do art for Disney? Where are you? I hope that you are okay and not having any health issues! We miss you on this forum.


Heck no lol. I just had the Wickford Art festival last weekend and it was very time consuming! Took up my whole month essentially so hence I wasn't on. >.< sorry all but thanks for the concern!!


I believe I've answered all of that, one more thing and then back to normal! lol


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## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> Hehe, It's not for a day. Each "shift" is 4 hours -- 9-1 and 1-5. You can sign up for at most, 6 shifts per week. Then you clean the zoo/work with animals/shadow keepers. <3
> 
> Soooo fun. I'm officially getting a Leo. I want one, because I could devote all my attention to it. Butttt..... There's two from Fire n' Ice, that if they are both females, I will get both. ($75 each.)
> 
> ETA:
> 
> *glass aquarium – 20 G Long - $20
> *screen top – 30” x 12” - $14.99
> *bedding - $7.99 - ZOO MED? ECO EARTH? Expandable Reptile Substrate Value Pack | Substrate & Bedding | PetSmart
> *reptile cage thermometers - $9.44 - ZOO MED? Reptile Terrarium Digital Thermometer | Humidity & Temperature Controls | PetSmart
> *mister - $4.99 - http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/conceptual-creations-lil-mister-for-reptiles
> *food dish - $7.99
> *water dish - $7.99
> *hide for the warm side - $9.99
> *hide for the cooler side - $9.99
> *under tank heater - $26.99 - ZOO MED? REPTI THERM? Reptile Under Tank Heater | Heaters | PetSmart
> *daytime light and fixture - $0 – Window Light
> *appropriate size crickets or mealworms
> *cricket "keeper"
> *cricket food, water gel, calcium dust - $8.99, $3.99, $4.99
> http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/flukers-orange-cube-complete-cricket-diet
> http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/flukers-high-calcium-cricket-diet
> Fluker's Cricket Quencher | Petco Store


I too wanted to mention, do NOT use anything other than rug or paper towel for Leo's. Sand or any other loose substrate CAN cause fatal issues with their joints. They need stiff ground to crawl on. Where they come from, it's mostly rock and some sand but it's all packed down and not loose like most people keep it. It's much more sanitary to use the rugs even though they cost a bit more. Keep your gecko safe!

Forget the mister, just get a spray bottle from Walmart: IMPACT 5032WG/7906 Trigger Spray Bottle, 32 oz., Clear/Red - Walmart.com

You should at least have three hides (one in cool side, middle, and warm) warm hide can also double as the moist hide or same for middle hide if you like. There just should be at least three hides. More if you have more geckos. Sometimes I stack hides if I have a smaller on a bigger one, they'll use it like that. I also use stray driftwood from my fish tanks that are dry now and they like to climb on it.


This is just for everyone (glad you had it on the list)
The one thing i cannot stress enough is a tank COVER! Get the metal mesh ones. You don't want random bugs getting INTO the tank and you don't want your leos getting out! Do not take your leo OUTSIDE! Bugs and other things they might get into may carry diseases! Your leo can become sick!

Next post I'll list off all the stuff I use currently and stuff I've tried in the past and give a little review on it and why I don't use it any more!


----------



## lilnaugrim

actually, I'm going to do the review on my gecko journal and try to steer this one back to my fish lol. Here's the link for my gecko journal! 
http://www.bettafish.com/144-journals/507841-lilnaugrims-leopard-geckos.html


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## themamaj

Is this thermostat have?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Is this thermostat have?


Ah! Yes! That one! Yeah, LeapFrog was a bit off lol XD The tank is in the other room so I didn't get up to look at it, silly me! But yes, that's the one!


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## themamaj

Great! just placed a big Amazon order with your recommendations. Haha they should give you a percentage of proceeds


----------



## ThatFishThough

themamaj said:


> ThatFishThough did you ever get your gecko? I have bought most all of my supplies. Going out today to hopefully get mine. Sure wish Lil was around for some advice....


I did not. I got a "no" from my mom and a "yes" from my dad -- I don't want them to fight, so I'm asking for a puppy now LOL. Either an Aussie or a Collie.

ETA: Thanks Lil! Glad to have you back.

My mom said no because of the size of the tank they need. Plus, I wanted a "giant" gecko from a nearby breeder, and he was nearly $400.

ETA2: Lil, I meant the overhead light, not the UTH. I know they need one LOL.


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## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> I did not. I got a "no" from my mom and a "yes" from my dad -- I don't want them to fight, so I'm asking for a puppy now LOL. Either an Aussie or a Collie.
> 
> ETA: Thanks Lil! Glad to have you back.
> 
> My mom said no because of the size of the tank they need. Plus, I wanted a "giant" gecko from a nearby breeder, and he was nearly $400.
> 
> ETA2: Lil, I meant the overhead light, not the UTH. I know they need one LOL.


Ah, that stinks! Geckos are fantastic pet's and 100x easier than a dog!!

If you do get one, you'll have to keep in mind that those are both working dogs, they need a job otherwise they can get bored and destructive! Lots of exercise and social play is good for them! Lots of daily walks ^_^ Also, obedience training!! Positive reinforcement training is the best! You can do a private trainer or go through PetCo classes. Not all PetCo's are great but if you've got a good one around, it's very much worth it!

And good it was the overhead light lol. I was worried when I saw that post and was like....hmmm...well...I'll mention it anyways! Sorry about that!


----------



## ThatFishThough

lilnaugrim said:


> Ah, that stinks! Geckos are fantastic pet's and 100x easier than a dog!!
> 
> If you do get one, you'll have to keep in mind that those are both working dogs, they need a job otherwise they can get bored and destructive! Lots of exercise and social play is good for them! Lots of daily walks ^_^ Also, obedience training!! Positive reinforcement training is the best! You can do a private trainer or go through PetCo classes. Not all PetCo's are great but if you've got a good one around, it's very much worth it!
> 
> And good it was the overhead light lol. I was worried when I saw that post and was like....hmmm...well...I'll mention it anyways! Sorry about that!


Haha, you're good. I tried to tell that to my mom. I have to save up 1,300 for a dog + supplies. I think umma negotiate. I'll save up ~300 for supplies and they can pay for the dog lol. 

My friend actually works at the nearby animal science collage. Imma see if I can train the puppy and get a summertime job working sheep. <3

I want to compete in Agility, too, but I was told that Spayed Females & Neutered Males will be disqualified.


----------



## Sadist

That's a shame that they won't let fixed animals compete. I'm pretty sure gelded horses are still allowed to race. I guess it's a different type of competition and probably not comparable.


----------



## ThatFishThough

Sorta. Geldings in races doesn't have much comparison. It kinda depends -- some races have different jumps and stuff. 

According to a website I found, spayed/neutered dogs are "more intelligent, easier to train, and less aggressive." So they want aggressive dogs racing through an agility course against other dogs?


The breeder I want my puppy from also won't let you register your dog with the AKC. :/


----------



## themamaj

I will amen the puppies harder than gecko! Have 6 month old puppy as well. They are fun though and worth it. Do recommend the obedience classes. Hope you find a great dog for your family


----------



## ThatFishThough

Lol I just got a window-washing job for $50. Imma try to convince these people they need their exterior Windows washed, too.

ETA: How do you housetrain them?


----------



## Sadist

From what I understand, you pick up any solid accidents, put them outside in the grass, and praise the puppy while they see the waste in the grass. I guess for tinkles, you'd have to be outside a lot and praise them when they tinkle. Dogs are really, really in the "now." Praise them for exactly what's happening right at the moment. RusseltheShihtzu has a lot of dog tips.


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I got some free plants at our last fishy meeting last week! Woot woot! They're annual's but very easy to seed or take them in for the winter and have them bloom all year! They're called Datura's. They are poisonous so no good for those who have animals! But they are beautiful! I have three purples, two yellows, and a white that is recovering. Mother agreed that I could keep them on the porch for now, I wasn't expecting her to do so and just thought I'd put them somewhere in a corner but nope! The porch it is, yay!

Purples in the square black containers, yellow in the peat containers and white on the floor


Old fish tanks put to use! They like water and so little to no drainage is just fine! This was last Thursday when I planted them, they all have nearly five more leaves to them now! Okay, maybe more like 3-4 each lol but they have grown quite a bit! I may have to repot the yellows in separate containers if the purples get too big. They do get to be large.


And my Bonsai is flowering! It's a Fukien Tea Tree for anyone interested, a fully indoor bonsai



I also realized I never showed you all the new mod I did in my 45 a few weeks ago!
I took the pillars from the 55 and put them in here along with the rock thingy and the giant Java Fern driftwood piece and the giant Anubias. It worked out very well!


And just to prove that I do still have fish. This is my poorly 20 long that needs to be cleaned with the Betta youngin's in it. They're doing wonderful, one is marbling again!


55 is kind of bare but the few fish in it don't mind


And the mossy heaven, the old 20 long. I have 12 baby Red Dalmatian Platy's and two females left. Tux the Angel is in here recovering but will go to George soon. Renegade is also still there and doing very well and marbling slowly


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## Sadist

Awesome updates! How lucky that your bonsai is flowering! It's gorgeous. The new plants are nice, too.


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## themamaj

Beautiful plants. Really like bonsai! Good job on 45. Glad to hear all fish doing well.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you for the compliments you two! I adore my Bonsai and hope I can keep it going for the years to come!

So um, the new plants, the Datura's. I need to repot the yellow's already, they're being shaded by the purples! Look at this growth! In just over a week!
And just for reference, BEFORE:


AFTER
1.5 weeks of growing


I recently cracked my 2.5 gallon so I'm going to take that out and put the yellows in it. I may have to remove the middle purple as well and put that in it's own pot! I knew they'd get big but yikes! lol. At least the porch will look beautiful!

Renegade is marbling! It's been close to a year (September) since I've had him!
These are from a few days ago on Thursday




My baby platy's are getting big!



Tux is healing well too



These are from today




Massive ball of moss that will likely go to MysticSky


Mini Taiwan moss that covered my vase ornament that you can barely see it


I also bought a new fish Friday for our upcoming fish show and auction! He's not what I'd typically buy but he's big and seeing how they judged last year, I know he'll do well. We don't judge like the IBC but we go off a few other things since we do all fish and do not focus heavily on Betta's specifically. The biggest thing is the size of the fish, next is deportment (how the fish acts, is it hiding or out and flaring and showing off?), then fins and possible damage is deducted. There are five categories total and a total of 100 points. A fish scoring 80-90 did extremely well, no one has ever gotten a full 100 before. Most fish score 60-80 and a bad fish will be less.

This is Mr. Feesh


At the store, forgive his mouth, it's the cup bending not him



This guy caught my attention first but I decided against it when he wouldn't flare much



This guy was another contender but his fins weren't as nice




A cute koi male. It's a shame they'll all marble out


This guy would likely color up beautifully


I wanted this guy but my brother said he was ugly. He was small which deterred me, I was looking for a show fish not a pet fish. However, if I was looking for a pet fish, I likely would have taken him home!



Photobucket is being really slow at the moment but this should work eventually. Video of Mr. Feesh in the store with another red I had debated buying.



In other news, we have new kittens! Sam and Dean from Supernatural are their namesake's and boy does it match! Dean is a hoover, he vacuum's up all food and just jumps without thinking. He's fearless mostly and tries to make friends with my older cat Ieli. Sam is contemplative and studies things before playing with them or jumping after them. He's a little more standoffish but he very lovey once he figures out that you aren't a threat. Dean is smart, he knows "Up" "Off" for bad things and "down" to get down off shoulders. Sam is still figuring out how to be held, he doesn't like it but hopefully we can help him see that it isn't a bad thing!

Ieli is not happy as we knew but she's starting to tolerate them little by little. We adopted them on Saturday July 23rd and kept them in Bobby's room for a week. Friday they came out and did their first explorations and met Ieli formally. We've been trying to treat her to help her along but she's a grumpy 10 year old. I'll post the kitten pics in the next post likely since I'll link them straight form my phone because my photobucket is full again. I really need to start attaching photos instead of linking them, then they're permanent that way. But it's so much easier from an image hosting site lol. Anywho, there will be lots of pictures and it takes a while to attach so whenever I finish, it will be up!


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## lilnaugrim

Kitten pictures!! Sam is orange and Dean is grey.









































And Friday when we let them out. This was after they started to get comfortable in their new surroundings!

















He likes to cuddle on chests
































Kittens sleeping next to you can't get any better!

















But then it did!








Better and better!
















Praise the sun! Lol








He crossed his arms under himself


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## themamaj

What cute kitties. Good luck in betta show. I wonder how that plakat would color up over time. He was a cutie.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you! It's an all fish show. We're the only fish show left in the country that accepts all classes (all types: african cichlid, new world cichlid, catfish, pleco, native fish, anabandtids and bettas, goldfish, koi, loaches, crustacean's, planted tanks, odd ball fish/open class) No one has ever brought in Koi because they have to provide all the aeration and the pond, we do not accept koi in tanks but goldfish can be tanks. I think I may have missed some classes but there are many!

I think I may offer to have people send me their fish to show in the show and then I send them back after. I don't know if anyone would do it but it might be nice to offer at least. Fish have to be shipped properly though and I have no control over what happens during shipping, only the care for the fish during the time it is in my care. And the owner would pay shipping both ways, that will probably deter people but whatever, I don't care much about that.  If anyone wants information about it, I can post the flyer that we have as well. Anyone close by or who wants to travel is welcome to come on Sunday! Results of the show are in the morning as well as other awards (Best of Show, Reserved Best of Show [second essentially], Best Junior Entry) and the start of the auction! Auction is at noon and viewing is 9-11:45. It's a lot of fun if anyone is close by! I'll make a post just about that as well and offer for showing fish to see if anyone is interested at least.

I do wonder about the PK too, looks like black bodied with red. He'd likely be a Black Devil since black and red wash out the most when stressed!


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## themamaj

Would love to see pictures of show. Wish they had something like that around here. Bet it is great fun to see.


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Would love to see pictures of show. Wish they had something like that around here. Bet it is great fun to see.


Absolutely! It's not until September 9, 10, 11, so we've got time yet but I will take pictures of everyone regardless! ^_^


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## RussellTheShihTzu

ThatFishThough said:


> I want to compete in Agility, too, but I was told that Spayed Females & Neutered Males will be disqualified.


A little late...I don't know who told you that but they're talking from a sad lack of knowledge. The only areas where neutered/spayed dogs can't compete at AKC events is conformation. And that's only because conformation is supposed to evaluate breeding stock and neutered/spayed animals can't be bred.

BTW, dogs are judged based on a written standard developed by each breed's parent club and approved by its members.


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## Sadist

Those kittens are absolutely adorable! I love them!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Sadist!

We went out to my pond today to feed the goldfish. We really don't do anything to this, it just happens to be a hole in the ground that filled with water many years ago when my grandpa dug it out with the backhoe. Then about 10 years ago we introduced three goldfish that turned into many!

We occasionally go out to feed them but they get enough with all the buggies around and such!

The whole pond. It shrinks in the summer but fills right up in the spring. Where I was standing would be flooded, it goes all the way up towards the treeline in the back there where the ferns start  It's a nice big pond. No good for swimming though.


Lame picture of some of the goldies


And a video of said fishies eating. Still doesn't work on my end but maybe will work for you guys?


And I don't have any real before photos but we're nearly done with our garden! Or rather, it's mom's garden that I take care of. She's got a brown thumb and I've a green one. So I take care of her plants and watch her joy grow. For a while I was mad that I wasn't getting any recognition in the garden because I was the one who helped her organize the plants tallest to smallest whereas she typically just throws them wherever and lets them grow. But I made sure to organize them by height and width and then the only reason it's all still alive is because I water it daily. She tries to keep up but doesn't always have the energy. Now, I'm just happy that she's ecstatic each time she looks at the garden and the growing grass.

I also deadhead the plants weekly or sometimes twice weekly when I see them. It's promoted long and healthy growth in both annuals and perennials!

Rock wall we built. The glory of living in the woods, we don't have to pay for stones! Plus we live on the edge of Rockville...an aptly named town lol. Under the lattice is Morning Glory's. On the rocks is English Ivy and more Morning Glory's all purple, white, and blue's.


Up the stairs in the middle, this is on your left. Hibiscus is small one up front. Some annuals line the left side at the wall top. Silver Mound, Beebalm, and some others I can't remember the name. This is after I watered it so hence it's moist.


Mom dug the stones in for the path at least. We're halfway there to our walkway to the front porch! Grass is finally growing in well! This was a few days ago and it's grown in more as well!


Top of the garden near the house. Vase has drainage hole in bottom and is only carrying a potted plant, it's not full of dirt. Hasta's have been there for years. In the middle right is all annuals that we can switch out each year. Everything else is a perennial.


From the top looking down. Ignore the mess in the back.


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## Sadist

I love the garden! Our yard grass is an invasive vine type of grass, and I haven't kept it out of our garden since the daughter was a baby. The biggest problem was 2 summers in a row of bad fleas in it, and I just couldn't manage to weed it without both of us getting covered in them boogers. Yours is gorgeous!


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## lilnaugrim

Sadist said:


> I love the garden! Our yard grass is an invasive vine type of grass, and I haven't kept it out of our garden since the daughter was a baby. The biggest problem was 2 summers in a row of bad fleas in it, and I just couldn't manage to weed it without both of us getting covered in them boogers. Yours is gorgeous!


Oooh yikes! I'm glad we don't have that! We do have the typical weeds and crab grass but no vine grasses thankfully! And no fleas!

Thank you! :-D


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## Sadist

If you ever move down south, you're welcome to come fix my garden! ;-)


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## firewood04

Or to the North West to see the Oregon Coast, my garden needs help!


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## lilnaugrim

Hah, will do Sadist! As long as you can provide me tools and/or plants you'd want planted, I'm happy to do the work! :-D Gardening is very fun for me!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I took pictures this morning and FINALLY got around to rescaping the 4 gallon...again yp. I've rescaped it...what, four times now? lol. My 3 shrimps are doing well, I need more reds to make this thing pop but they're so expensive! Can't do anything else until I get a job.

Here's the tank after it's been completed. I switched back to black substrate because it looks better with dwarf hairgrass. I only have the DHG and Ambulia in here now. Dosing Excel, Flourish, Iron, and Phosphate at the moment. I also have API Root tabs under there and I couldn't find my open package of Jobes plant sticks so I'm waiting to open my new package to finish off the root tabs in case my open package is still around (or maybe I used them all? I can't remember >.<)









My biggest of the three and the only female. She's got eggs! Hope they hatch! And maybe I'll get some reds if she bred with any of them before they died (crossing fingers to hope).
View attachment 815481

View attachment 815489


Copper boy isn't entirely happy but he's doing well. Trying to get him back to show quality flare!








Render! He's still kicking around happily! He's still got weird gill plants and he looks a lot like @Aqua_Aurora's Xeres ^_^ More orangy but similar how they aged.








He's a pretty messy fish when it comes to showing so he won't be shown but I'm still training him all the same and hopefully fattening him up a little bit back to a healthy weight. Fish will get daily meals around 2pm (that's when judging happens and fish have impeccable internal clocks which means they'll be out and wiggling for food when they come around!)








By the way, on all my pictures I typically do edit them but the most I usually do is lower the exposure. I use flash on them all and an overhead light preferably or external flash is best used over top them as well. I turn the exposure down and occasionally turn contrast up but that's for a really dull picture. What you see here is almost true to life of what they actually look like.















I call this one Batman! Look at his face! This was the baby VT I bought along with the other babies I have. I have taken down the 20long and put all the babies in cups now to finish out their growing. We've got six babies and this VT boy.















He's marbled out quite a bit, for a long time his head was more reddish and half his body was still cello so it kind of look liked the american flag lol. But the last week he's turned turquoise now. He's still a very pretty boy and I'm hoping we can help stretch out that tail to give him a better spread!








Mr. Feesh didn't know what to make of the camera. He wasn't happy with the extra light over top him but he eventually stopped caring.








One of the biggest things we look at in our shows is size. Is the fish up to the size that they are supposed to reach in captivity. We don't compare with wild fish as there are sometimes drastic changes in domesticated fish--especially when it comes to color. Betta's are obviously the most drastic.
Mr. Feesh is a good sized fish and his fins are almost equal length which is important.
His butterfly band will likely marble out by the time the show happens and that's fine, that will make his fin colors more even which is the next important thing.
Actually the most important is their deportment; it's how they act. A fish that's hiding behind a filter or laying on the ground is not going to score well. You want a fish that's up and flaring at the other fish and the judge.















The only baby that stayed colored! S/He's blue with red fins typically and no ventrals.








This is Bumblebee. The only baby that's still half marbled. The other four are nameless and are all cellophane. But enjoy the pretty lady and that wonderful dorsal of hers!





























Red Dalmatian Platy babies! They're red/orange is coming in!





























And Renegade. He's been chilling the last two days, he might be feeling his age :-/


----------



## lilnaugrim

Ah, shrimp pics didn't attach. Take 2!


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## Sadist

Awesome pictures! Those platy babies are adorable. I really like the black substrate with the grass, too. It makes the grass color really pop.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you!
Yeah, I knew it would which is why I went with the black. The gold would look nice and natural but that's not the goal haha.


Annnndddd all my shrimp died >.< This was a full and complete change, I did not acclimate them (one actually snuck in on a plant) and thsu I kind of figured this'd happen. I was down to two Chili Rasboras as well. When I trade in my Angelfish and the Serverum, I'll get more Chili's to restock it from George. One of the males I have is from Rachel from last year! He's a toughy! But what I didn't realize until the other day was that the filter was sucking them up >.< I had taken off the prefilter because I thought I didn't need it because I didn't really have any shrimp left that I cared about. I found one Rasbora stuck in the slits but thought nothing of it. I now realize it was probably like a different one stuck every other day because I lost 6 out of 8 I had and down to 2. One male and one female but again, I didn't acclimate them and my water varies a TON. So I don't expect them to live either and that's my foolish mistake. I knew that but I was also in a hurry. This is the only time it sucks to have my water, I can't really transfer fish tanks to tank because the water is so different in all of them!


----------



## ThatFishThough

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> A little late...I don't know who told you that but they're talking from a sad lack of knowledge. The only areas where neutered/spayed dogs can't compete at AKC events is conformation. And that's only because conformation is supposed to evaluate breeding stock and neutered/spayed animals can't be bred.
> 
> BTW, dogs are judged based on a written standard developed by each breed's parent club and approved by its members.



Ooh, interesting. The only thing is, the breeder I'm looking at won't let you register with the AKC if you are buying a "Pet Stock" Mini Aussie. I don't understand, because apparently the AKC finally recognized them as a breed, called the "Mini American Shepherd".

Home


----------



## Fenghuang

ThatFishThough said:


> Ooh, interesting. The only thing is, the breeder I'm looking at won't let you register with the AKC if you are buying a "Pet Stock" Mini Aussie. I don't understand, because apparently the AKC finally recognized them as a breed, called the "Mini American Shepherd".
> 
> Home


I never owned a purebred dog, but perhaps the breeder restricts registration to discourage breeding of the puppies, since they're sold as "pet stock?"


----------



## ThatFishThough

Possibly, but he/she also requires "pet stock" to be spayed/neutered by 8 months.

See the contract here - http://dakotatoyaussies.com/images/pdf/DakToyAusscontract.pdf


----------



## lilnaugrim

So I have six Betta's on their way come tomorrow from Martias Pham on facebook. He's a wonderful US breeder down in Texas! I did the BOGO sale last week for HM's so I have 4 HM's from that and then an HMPK the next day and then the poor guy had some family issues and had to delay shipping but he gave us a free fish of our pick for the delay! He's absolutely wonderful to work with and I highly recommend him and his fish! The free fishy is a marble metallic MG-ish HM boy and he's super cute! I'll have photos of them once I get them on Wednesday and let them settle a bit!

I also found a half-giant MG PK at my PetCo yesterday. I was trying to say no but no one's shown a large Betta at the shows before so I knew I had to get him. I can always sell him afterwards of course. Until I pick a favorite or two, all betta's will be sold except the Black Copper I have coming. 

So I'm currently pet sitting for my aunt who has a Black Lab (Alex), 3 cats (Snickers, Midnight, and Coconut - for those who have been around for two years, Coconut was one of the kittens I fostered from the stray), and a fish. It's a baby Betta that was in a 1 gallon >.< She wants it to grow up but doesn't quite understand it all. So I upgraded her to a 2.5 minibow led since PetSmart is having a big sale on their tanks and it was half off! 20 bucks, okay! So I used the same gravel but the biggest thing was it has a filter now. I gave her one of my Hydor 25W heaters too and some of my old silk plants. She's got a Mystery snail already and three lovely Marimo's which have been thriving somehow. The tank is near sunlight so it does get that which is how they were growing. But now it's got the light and I'm setting it up on a timer as well so she doesn't have to worry about it.

The snail is covered in algae too lol


But he's doing well


3rd one is on the other side. This is in the new tank


All the plants were mine but she had the ornament and the 3 moss balls. Much more suitable for a betta at least. Not perfect but better. She no longer hides so much but she is having issues with her fins and clamping, likely due to water quality.
I also painted the back black to help keep the sunlight out so much and causing algae spikes. I did make a cute little swirl to let in very minimal light and keep it interesting.



My new half-giant
Chilling in the 2.5 for the night before I took him home this morning


His dorsal is glorious!


Showing off size. Not a true fair comparison but the copper is closer to the front making him seem bigger than he is.


A partial flare to the side!


The copper likes to build nests lol



Mr. Feesh



Renegade and his marbling progress


Ambulia is melting surprisingly. Not sure if it likes the Excel or if it's just the water itself. Grass seems fine so far (crosses fingers) I hope it stays fine!
I accidentally killed Render too :-( He was in there but I didn't acclimate him. The biggest issue was that I used totally new water on this tank and with my pH being so low and no GH or KH, it fluctuates like crazy and I was hoping that he'd be okay with it. It's my fault and I do feel bad but I'm not stressed or anything, just kind of sucks is all. I knew it too.


My dutura's are growing like crazy! Just over week three now!


And with my diligent watering of mom's garden, I've been able to get the grass to grow twice the amount! I try to water twice daily if possible, once in morning and once in evening. Sometimes it's only once.
Week and a half ago


Today


Portulaca which is a succulent plant! We have lots of these and they bloom like crazy! I'm also harvesting seeds from them in hopes to grow them next season!


Mom's Hibiscus



My Dahlia ^_^



Also a plant we were given for free on the verge of death and I brought it back to life ^_^
Trimming and deadheading are your best friends along with daily watering!


This is Alex! 3 year old Black Lab who is lazy and a wonderful cuddler!




I was also playing around with watercolor pencils today! We have our County Fair coming up in two weeks and for the last eight years or so I've always said I'd enter something but I never did! This year will be the year that I do finally! lol
This was my second one but I like the other one better show I'll show you reverse lol.
I learned a lot through these two. This one is better in technique but the other one is more like my typical style.
Start with the pencil sketches. Leave white spaces so that you can push the colors around once it comes time to add water!


I also made a mistake and made the cow body much too large so I covered it up with a fence post lol, thankfully it was only a few lines and an easy coverup!


Water added! Things I learned:
1. Leave white space to allow colors to be pushed around.
2. Don't layer too much pencil, in most cases "More is less", too much pigment causes block shapes unless you want that.
3. More water on the brush creates a thin wash and get's rid of hard lines.
4. Less water on the brush creates thin lines, good for detail.
5. Do lines first with water and let dry.
6. Do shadows second and let dry to allow the "water" color type shapes to appear versus allowing everything to mix.
7. Do light colors last and always leave white.
8. Mistakes are fairly easy to cover up or "erase" with using lots of water to smooth out the pigment.
9. Each pencil pigment is different. Light Blue barely washes out and feels more like a regular colored pencil. Red and orange on the other hand are heavy and thick pigment. A little line of orange will go a LONG way whereas the blue won't.
(Lighting isn't very good here,it's much more vibrant I promise)


This was my Rhode Island Red rooster that I started with to try out the pencils. I almost didn't fit the image in even though I tried to plan it out lol. But you can see here where I layering too much pencil on in the red sections and didn't allow much room to push the color around to create a wash. But, through that, I believe it still came out well! Both images function within themselves so I'm not worried.


Filling out the color


The beak, the red, and the eye have all been washed with water since the first image. It is smoother than the pencil lines as you can see. It's also more vibrant when you add the water.


Finished product!


----------



## Fenghuang

You're quite the gardener! I am so so bad at it. :-( And holy moly I love that giant plakat. And it's so nice of you to get your aunt's betta a new home and set it up for her. And also very impressive watercolor paintings!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Feng!

Mom did all the planted, I just kept everything alive lol. 

Isn't the PK adorable? He's such nice proportions too! Nice to see a PK, giant or not, with such a nice dorsal fin! Most I see are severely lacking.

Yeah, I'm going to tell her it's an old tank I had sitting around anyway and not a new one but all the same. I know she'll appreciate the help. I also bought her a small bottle of Prime and brought over a container of my NLS Grow mixed with NLS Small Fish for the baby. She had BettaMin flakes before >.< She's not the type to freak out over someone tampering with her fish, I've seen horror stories of that on here, she's the type that absolutely appreciates it and wants to learn more, just doesn't quite have the time unfortunately. So that's why she's got me ^_^

And thanks! I want to do two more today so I have a nice little series of Barn animals going for the fair!
I'm wondering if I should do some backgrounds on them or not, nothing details but rather just light washes of color. I may try another one and try it on that first before going back into the other two!


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## Sadist

Wow, I love the watercolor pencils! I've never heard of those. Hubby is going to blow a fuse if I start buying a bunch more art supplies. 

The fish are gorgeous, too. I love the black copper you have pictured. I've almost bought that type several times but had no where to put him.

I'm glad you're helping with the baby betta. Does she know the growth will be stunted without lots of water changes? The filter will help with water quality a bit, but even in a 2.5 the growth stunting hormone is bad. :-(


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## lilnaugrim

Heh, yep. I have art supplies littered across the house essentially but I'm an artist, what can I say? haha

Thanks! He's not a Black Copper, just a regular Copper but still gorgeous!

And yes. I linked her to my PetCo baby care thread and she read all about it. That's when she realize that the pet store advice was wrong and that she needed help caring for it.


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## fernielou

Oh the paintings are great! The rooster is my fave - I think because you never usually get in yheir face to notice that detail 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## themamaj

Glad able to step in and help with baby betta. New additions you have picked up are gorgeous. Really like the half giant. Enjoyed pictures of your beautiful garden and flowers. I can tell you all have done a lot of work. Great drawings as well! Have you ever done anything of your fish or geckos?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Glad able to step in and help with baby betta. New additions you have picked up are gorgeous. Really like the half giant. Enjoyed pictures of your beautiful garden and flowers. I can tell you all have done a lot of work. Great drawings as well! Have you ever done anything of your fish or geckos?


Yep! Well, she did ask me for help lol. At our last party two weeks ago she goes "oh! You know fish!" haha. Then we had an hour chat about the proper set up and care. I do wish she'd just gotten an older one though. I'm going to offer her a trade to see if she wants one of my older ones instead and I'll take the baby.

Thank you! Yeah, daily watering and deadheading! At least I have the time ^_^

Thanks and yes! Not particularly in water color pencil (actually I have one that was done in a project) but in other mediums. My avatar is digital painting of my old boy Rembrandt! He was the forum mascot for a while ^_^ Everyone knew Rembrandt.

Here's my boy Aero that I used for a project. Project was to use the word Labyrinth in whichever way you wanted. Most people did an actual maze labyrinth, others did takes on mazes and I did this lol. Had to explain to everyone what it was. Teacher thought it was clever.








And then the same semester I did an Acrylic Ink series on fish as well. Here was another of Rembrandt.
9 Hours roughly, 22x30 BFK Rives printmaking paper








And last was Hawkeye (the other Hawkeye, not Hawkeye the Leo lol). I did other fish of mine but I didn't take pics of them because they weren't as successful.


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## Sadist

Haha, I love your take on Labyrinth! It's way different than the standard maze stuff everyone else thought of.


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## themamaj

Wow those are incredible!


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## lilnaugrim

So I got all my fish in from Martias Pham on Friday! He was such a pleasure to work with and I highly recommend him! His fish are Texas bred, not imported which is a huge thing! Unfortunately most importers only have their fish about a week before being turned around to sold. It's not enough time to acclimate to not having any salt in their tanks and this ends up killing them in the short end of it. Thailand breeders us 1 tsp per gal of aquarium salt all the time in their tanks.

So I'm impressed with all these fish but mostly the red dragons! The HMPK is a real good Red DS, his whole body is red unlike those Red Platinum DS like my HM who has a fleshtoned body instead of velvety red.

I'm in love with this fish! He's gorgeous and super good at showing off!















Look at that face!






















I wasn't able to get great pictures of him flaring in the tank but he's impressive when he flares! I'll grab more photos sometime this week now that they've all settled in.















This is my...special boy. He doesn't quite understand flaring just yet but we're working on it! He did flare at my finger a bit today so that's good!








This Black Copper is gorgeous! Big flare






















I adore this guy's color too! Black Copper with red. I love the contrast of his white head and the copper. It's beautiful from the top!




































This was the free guy! I adore him! He's already got a wonderful personality! I love his spunky coloration too!




































The MG giant! He is also impressive when he flares















Mr. Feesh


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## Sadist

Wow, they are gorgeous! I love that red dragon scale, too. The contrast of the scales with the red, and I've always loved that little diamondy pattern above the eyes that the scales make on dragon scales.


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## themamaj

Love the red dragon scale and the copper boy with red. Amazing fish!


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## lilnaugrim

Yes! I love the skunk stripe too! I like Full Mask dragons like the rest of them, but there's just something so adorable about a skunk stripe!

More pictures for you all! Taken just before water changes and food!

This guy is really photogenic so I tend to have more pictures of him than anything.




































I finally got my Special fish to flare lol. He just needed to settle in was all! Of course, I didn't exactly capture it on camera but you get to see his pretty fins at least.





























My lovely friend. 








I enjoy this photo of the Black Copper too.






















Mr. Fancy Fins over here!















I think he's going to marble blue scale eventually. You can see some of the blue in this photo along with a spot of hyperpigmentation buildup.















Annd my favorite photo!


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## Nova betta

beautiful pictures! You have such photography talent!
I love the last pictures of that plakat! He is stunning! Will you be rehoming him after the show...?LOL


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Nova!

I'm happy to share photography tips as well if anyone wants it! ^_^

And I...might keep him. Him, my freebie friend the yellow, and probably the Black copper with red I'll keep. The Black Copper will go to Victoria if she wants him. That leaves the Special one (who really isn't special, it's just what I'm calling him), the Red Dragon HM, and the regular Copper HM if anyone wants to claim. They are $20 each plus $8 shipping.

The show isn't until Sept 9-11 so we still have time as well. I will place a hold on the fish if someone wants him but I do expect you to pay when the time comes!

The Copper HM is currently in the 4 gallon right now. I can grab old pics if anyone is interested. He can go now, he won't be in the show. He's done a little nipping to his tail but otherwise is just fine!


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## Sadist

I love the pictures! Those fish are gorgeous!


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## Nova betta

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks Nova!
> 
> I'm happy to share photography tips as well if anyone wants it! ^_^
> 
> And I...might keep him. Him, my freebie friend the yellow, and probably the Black copper with red I'll keep. The Black Copper will go to Victoria if she wants him. That leaves the Special one (who really isn't special, it's just what I'm calling him), the Red Dragon HM, and the regular Copper HM if anyone wants to claim. They are $20 each plus $8 shipping.
> 
> The show isn't until Sept 9-11 so we still have time as well. I will place a hold on the fish if someone wants him but I do expect you to pay when the time comes!
> 
> The Copper HM is currently in the 4 gallon right now. I can grab old pics if anyone is interested. He can go now, he won't be in the show. He's done a little nipping to his tail but otherwise is just fine!


that's ok! I probably won't be able to take any fish. I have my hands full right now and I am saving my last open spot for a fish from a breeder. 

Thanks though! Not having enough space sucks lol.


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## themamaj

That red dragon is really stunning with red base. Love the beard picture! You have great eye for photography.


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## Tealight03

Lovely new guys! Our HMEE friend has become quite the nipper. Even nips his ears!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys and gals! (Actually, I think most of you are gals? lol)

Yeah, big finned EE's are very prone to biting and then of course, those pectorals are just _right there_, so close lol. I think it's more likely they get in the way of the tail biting and happen to get both sometimes and then they realize they can swim so much better and keep doing it! It's a shame Betta's are so smart in that regard!

I had some night photo stuff to show you all but the site is being whacky and not letting me upload at the moment so it will have to wait unfortunately!


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## Tealight03

That makes sense. Poor guy lol.


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## firewood04

I am loving all these pics of the new fish for the show. You are quite the artist with the water colors, the photos, the beautiful fish you pick, the lovely garden and all the help you give us and teach us on the care of all fish, plants, your pets...I have learned a lot from you. Thanks!


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## lilnaugrim

Ah shucks, thanks firewood! I really appreciate hearing that! I'm so happy that I can spread knowledge and help others learn. I might now always be correct but I do strive to help others learn how to learn and it makes me really happy to see them flourish as well! 

Speaking of things I've learned myself ;-D

I FINALLY photographed in-focus stars!!! This was a really exciting night for me lol.
The full moon was wicked bright and I was astonished to see so many stars out! So I came home late last night from our monthly fish meeting and I noticed the high clouds and how beautiful everything was! So out came the camera again!

This was the first one I took after figuring out how to finally focus everything properly! The moon was so bright it was lighting up the trees too!
View attachment 819306

View attachment 819314


And the moon was gorgeous so I had to take photos of it as well. But these were the clouds, such neat things!
View attachment 819322


Moon!
View attachment 819330


Trying to show the details of the moon, difficult to do even with the aperture (lens opening) up high (so it's closed small to let in only a little light to photograph bright things). The moon is wicked bright!
View attachment 819338


And there was an eerie red ring around due to the atmosphere and clouds.
View attachment 819346


This was my favorite photograph!
I could only see those three (four) bright stars but my camera captured more than I could see! Then I found out the bright star is actually a dancing star! Two stars that circle around each other to create one that looks like it's blinking or twinkling. Wicked neat!
View attachment 819362


More stars and more trees
View attachment 819386









And these were from the other night when I was having difficulty uploading photos. It seems to be working okay now, just takes forever since they are big photos.

But this is our walkway, mom was super proud of her lights and the patterns they make. I do admit that they are neat.








My um, my mom isn't...always the brightest bulb lol. She seemed surprised when the night sky showed pure blue in my photographs and exclaimed "wait, the night sky is blue? How is that possible?!" I just kind of stared at her for a moment before explaining that the sky doesn't change color, just darkness and brightness. She isn't typically stupid or anything, it was just kind of a brain fart moment I think. Still amusing though and kind of cute.
But this was how bright the moon was the other night too!








I had really stopped to photograph the tree and the glow around it but ended up photographing other stuff as well trying to find focus and whatnot. But the glow around the tree was absolutely stunning and almost fantasy-like. This was my favorite photo of that night and what I was aiming for.








This photo was fun, shooting the house. It was frustrating because in camera at night, it looked in-focus to me when I looked at the review and so I thought nothing of it. I usually take at least two pics of each object (or more) and move on. I did take two but I changed the focus so one was totally out of focus and this was the better of the two. It still kinds of gives off a creepy halloween-ish vibe to me so I thought that was neat.








Some stars and just overall bright night.








And now onto some of the flower photos I took today! I won't upload them all because there is a bunch but I'll show my favorites!
White Portulaca, it's a succulent and very easy to grow. I've harvested seeds from these guys and will hopefully grow some myself next year!








Last standing Gladiola and a little buggie friend inside.








Tiny, underdeveloped raspberries!








Honey bee on the purple Butterfly bush








White butterfly bush








Some sort of purple flower








Pretty weeds that are growing in our walkways. Make a nice lattice-type pattern!








Petite flower off a grassy/tall plant I can't recall the name of








I believe these are Flowering Vinca








Can't recall the name of the purple flower but the bottom is Silver Mound and I adore that plant! It's so soft!!








Three barely opened Portulaca, red and white.








Red fully opened Portulaca








Yellow and finally a pink Portulaca as well!


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## lilnaugrim

Alright this is just ridiculous. ANother reason to upload to photobucket instead of using the attachment system on this stupid site. Forgive me, but I'm a little annoyed after taking nearly an hour just to upload my photos through it. I hate the new "upgrade".

Photos should be in order as I had them up above.


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## Amberjp

The pictures of the moon are amazing! What camera are you using?


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## lilnaugrim

It's a Canon Rebel T5. I use an 18-55mm Canon lens for most of the star shoots. The real up close ones and of the moon are done with my 70-300mm Tamron lens.

For my fish I also use a Wide Angle and Macro lens attachment on the 18-55mm for closer shots. All the flower ones were done that way as well


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## Sadist

Stunning pictures!


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## lilnaugrim

What a week it's been. I'm on mobile so it will be mostly short messages because I hate mobile version of this forum.

So the first thing this week that really irked me was the friendly neighborhood deer showing up to ruin my garden! I can't even begin to explain how angry I was when I found this! Had this happened three to four weeks ago I would have been fine because it would have grown back in time. We have our big annual labor day party coming up and the grand reveal of our summers hard work was going to be then! Instead, half the garden is eaten. They ate my WHITE Portulaca! Not thr red, not thr yellow, orange, or pink. Just the white. Thry took out most the white Impatiens as well and half the hostas.















Hibiscus gone too.








Good news is I brought this plant back from death. It was the one we got for free because I'm good at making things grow. So wish me luck on growing our garden back in time.








One of my favorite pots. Portulaca, silver dust, and one unknown to me.








We also have what we think is a hybrid between watermelon and a squash lol. We shall see!








My datura bloomed!















And I won one first and two seconds in the Washington County Fair this past week with these three!








And I started another owl pic. This js what it looks like before I start to use the water to move the pigment around.








And after.


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## Sadist

Oh, those deer! I guess they like white flowers. How odd. I hope you can get everything grown back up in time! I forgot what's supposed to repel deer, rosemary and mint? But mint will take over everything.


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## firewood04

I have that same problem with deer here. The deer here seem to eat anything. Hopefully the trim will help the flowers grow back fuller by your event.


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## themamaj

Remind me the date of your fish show. How are all the new guys doing? How are all your leos doing and Cloud Jumper. Love to see some pictures when have time. Love all your nature pictures. Incredible. Sorry for deer issues. My dad just about goes unleashed when sees them in his yard. Don't know how many wildflowers and daylilies he has lost from someone having an evening snack.


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## lilnaugrim

Woowee, what a weekend!

We just had our fish show and auction and man, it was awesome! Much better than we anticipated. Most clubs around the states, their auctions and even membership have been down lately so its not just us at least, we know thT. But it was a good turnout! We didn't have as many lots to sell but I think it worked out well in the end.

The show! RJ won first place in his class! He's Old World cichlid (Africans), new world cichlids are the American ones. But I was so proud of him!! And hen I took second and third in the betta class male! Black copper and Mr. Feesh took their places respectively. Apparently Black copper was a contender for best of show which is a $100 award!! But alas, a beautiful killifish took it instead. And just so everyone knows, judging takes place all at once. If your fish happens to not be colored up at the time, it has points docked off. It doesn't matter if the fish colors up after or not, it will not be judged again. Some newcomers always get mad at that. Judging occurs Saturday and auction and shoe viewing is Sunday and sometimes even the best of show fish is really dull on Sunday but was breathtaking on Saturday. Happens all the time!

But I took $20 for 1st, $10 for 2nd, and $5 for 3rd so not a bad weekend!

So the auction was great! First time I sold some of my stuff. I got rid of my 33 flat back hex tank, one of my 13 Aqueon tanks, glass low circle thing tank and some gravel, some floramax, petrified wood, lights, some old decor and some slate. I ended up taking in $102 even after I bought two bags of Kribs!

So my next project is breeding some beautiful albino kribensis. I've taken down the 20long and I've moved my room around! No pics yet since I'm at work now but it's filtering and cooling off as I work. Kribs are in a little 2.5 for now. Tux, Renegade, and the platies are all in my bucket until I move them. I plan on getting rid of all my fish except the kribs, my freebie betta and the babies (until they are sellable size at least). More on fish to sell for later though. Im on mobile so I can link my pics easier so that's next!

So these are most of the old world cichlids. We organize by class of course to make it easy. You can see RJ with his pretty blue ribbon!!








And here's the good boy!








Here are all the bettas. I didn't take individuals of mine since you all know what they look like but you can see my second and third place ribbons!








This is the guy who took first, he was super nice!








I just liked the minimalist look of this one.








And this one caught my attention as well.








And other fish I liked.

We had some beautiful goldfish! Calico ryukin 








A nice red








He didn't place sadly, he was really nice.








Calico ranchu baby








Lovely big pair of cichlids! Female is the smaller








Victoria's angelfish, Sparkle. Almost took third place!








A nice cichlid, old world.








Victoria's firemouth, Fenrir. This is an example of a fish not showing well, he usually has so much red on him and flares too! But he didn't like the show and decided to be a butt about it.








Small spot, salvini cichlid I think? Don't quote me








These two are the same, mated pair. Large spot and another small spot female















Nigeri cichlid I loved!








And this is our Best of Show. Didnt look like much Saturday morning but by judging time, he looked really nice!








Another nice pair of cichlids. You can show pairs as well as single fish, they just have to be getting along or in breeding mode.








Albino lungfish! Small but beautiful








A much larger regular lungfish. Lol, we keep a huge slab of slate on his 20long to keep him from getting out! He's a smart bugger!








And then on the way home! All buckled in and wrapped to prevent sliding!








Beautiful sky on the way home. Auction ended around 3:45 which is really early, we usually go until 5. I stayed to help clean up after eorking all day and didn't leave till 7. Holy crap my feet were killing me! And then of course my body was too hyped up soon couldn't sleep until 3 in the morning....ugh. but I'm okay today.








And my kribs! Not the best pic since they had a long day too but they are beau. I have one female with a HUGE red tummy! She's ready to breed already!! I think I have 7-8 kribs. Will be going into the 20long. Will get pics when I get home.


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## firewood04

Congrats on your beautiful fish! 1st for RJ! Wow! Then 2nd and third for Betta and the copper for best of show contender...your fish did awesome! Congrats!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks firewood! I was shocked that RJ took first with all those other good looking fish!

Many think that the bigger fish the better, so not true! The Reserve Best of Show was actually a tiny 1 inch fish, a Gambusia Holbrooki, gorgeous fish with a super personality! And then of course RJ was one of the smaller African's there and he took first! Crazy but it's all about how they act sometimes!

We judge according to 5 categories: 
overall *Condition* (is the fish sick? clamped? Or not?)
*Fins* (any rips, tears, or irregularities? Are all trailers there that are supposed to be there? All legs on a shrimp present?)
*Color* (is the fish properly colored? Does it lack color? Does it have more color? Is the fish dull?)
*Size* (Is the fish of appropriate size? Too big or too small is no good. Fish are judged according to wild standards, not overbred and fat fish standards)
*Deportment* (Is the fish in your face and with lots of personality? Is the fish doing what that species normally does? Ex. a top dweller shouldn't be sitting on the bottom and like-wise a bottom dweller shouldn't be floating. Does the fish show itself or does it hide?)

Each category there is a chance for 20 points total to make up to 100 points. Most fish score 60-79. Placed fish score 80-95. There has never been a "perfect" fish


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## Sadist

Wow, what a show! Congratulations.


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## lilnaugrim

Alrighty! So I still can't post a new thread apparently, good thing I only reply to ones already made -_-
But I have Bettas for sale!

The only ones not for sale is the Black Copper which is going to Victoria and my little freebie Mustard dude is staying with me. The rest can go!

Shipping is $10 without heat pack and $12 with. CHeck your weather, I can't always look up everyone's weather so please know your area! I will ship Saturday/Monday/Tuesday in the morning and you'll get your tracking number when I can get back online.

Mr. Feesh is $15
This fish is award winning and took 3rd place!








Black Copper Monster is $20
Gorgeous fish with a great personality! He marked well in the show!















Special is $20
He definitely sleeps special lol. He's a very good natured fish though. Heavy fins, needs lots of plants to rest on!















Fancy Fins is $20
He has a small tear in his caudal that is healing very well. His ventrals are a bit wonky but he's got quite the attitude! He's a good center piece fish for any tank! Again, lots of fins, would be good in a tank with lots of plants to rest on.








Sir Flare-a-lot is $16
Scored very well, he's just a bit small. He'll absolutely grow wonderfully in a big tank! He's very energetic and eats everything!















That's all for now! PM me if you want to buy anyone! Tell your friends since I apparently can't create threads atm >.<


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## Fenghuang

That's super odd that you can't make a new sales post. O.O But they're gorgeous, Lil. I hope you can sell them all. I really like the Black Copper Monster but I already committed to buying a couple from the breeder(?) you bought from last, after hearing everyone's wonderful reviews of him.


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## Sadist

Oh, I wish I had room! I'm sure those boys will sell really fast.


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## RussellTheShihTzu

Let Yung know you can't post new threads. I can't do that nor can I quote a thread. I'm on AOL and have to post/quote through Foxfire. At that I have to disable script. Sorry for the problem but it's nice to know it's not just me. Note the toolbar.


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## themamaj

I cant quote either. It totally locks up.


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## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Alrighty! So I still can't post a new thread apparently, good thing I only reply to ones already made -_-
> But I have Bettas for sale!
> 
> The only ones not for sale is the Black Copper which is going to Victoria and my little freebie Mustard dude is staying with me. The rest can go!
> 
> Shipping is $10 without heat pack and $12 with. CHeck your weather, I can't always look up everyone's weather so please know your area! I will ship Saturday/Monday/Tuesday in the morning and you'll get your tracking number when I can get back online.
> 
> Mr. Feesh is $15
> This fish is award winning and took 3rd place!
> View attachment 828273
> 
> 
> Black Copper Monster is $20
> Gorgeous fish with a great personality! He marked well in the show!
> View attachment 828281
> 
> View attachment 828289
> 
> 
> Special is $20
> He definitely sleeps special lol. He's a very good natured fish though. Heavy fins, needs lots of plants to rest on!
> View attachment 828297
> 
> View attachment 828305
> 
> 
> Fancy Fins is $20
> He has a small tear in his caudal that is healing very well. His ventrals are a bit wonky but he's got quite the attitude! He's a good center piece fish for any tank! Again, lots of fins, would be good in a tank with lots of plants to rest on.
> View attachment 828313
> 
> 
> Sir Flare-a-lot is $16
> Scored very well, he's just a bit small. He'll absolutely grow wonderfully in a big tank! He's very energetic and eats everything!
> View attachment 828329
> 
> View attachment 828321
> 
> 
> That's all for now! PM me if you want to buy anyone! Tell your friends since I apparently can't create threads atm >.<


the monster copper is so lovely! if i want's already way over stretched on tanks (at 17!! x.x ) I'd grab him. I'm sure someone will grab him quick.


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## themamaj

Aqua thanks for great salvina. Let me know if extras again. 

I love the flare boy. Look at that red!!


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## RussellTheShihTzu

Stacey: Please start a thread in the "Feedback" section. I believe it is thought I am the only one and it's just a glitch on *my* part.


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## lilnaugrim

Well, it's my birthday today. I'm 24. But it's not been a good week.

Went to my brother and sister-in-law's on Friday for my little brother's and I's birthday dinner. He turned 21 on the 15th and now I'm 24 today on the 18th. It was just going to be a nice dinner with some video games.

Jen ended up breaking some news to us that I don't think I was ready to hear. She has Huntington's Disease.

For those who don't know what that is, it's a degenerative nervous system disease similar to Parkinson's. But unlike Parkinson's, you also lose your mind with Huntington's disease. It's genetic and so far, there is no cure and very little treatment for symptoms. Her mother is currently suffering with it and in my unpopular opinion, her mother should have never had the two kids. It was known that the family had this disease back four generations. Her grandmother and great grandmother died from it and her mother is on her own way out too. It makes the person irritable and distraught, depressed, and they just end up with Alzheimer like symptoms. Symptoms start to appear at age 30-40, she is currently 32....

So, there is a test to know whether you have this gene or not. For a long time, they never tested because they were afraid of the results. Finally, this year, they decided to do it. It's been three months since they've known and they just wracked up the courage to tell my little brother and I. It's crazy to think about this. We knew there would be a good chance but we all hoped and prayed that it wouldn't. But fate didn't work out. But good news is that there are human trial drugs being tested at the moment. So maybe in few generations, this disease won't be so devastating.

We'll all be very supportive of each other, I know this. I'm not worried about that at all. But I know this isn't going to be easy at all. Jen is a fantastic person and I hate that bad things happen to good people.

So yeah, it's my birthday...

In other news, my albino kribs are doing wonderfully! They're all active and I think I have three pairs pairing off. One pair may have mated already? I think? One female is incredibly pink in her belly which is a good sign and the male has been hanging out in their "cave" so idk, can't see in it to know or not.

I also purchased 5 (plus 1 for my birthday) longfin blue Danios as dither fish for them. I had debated a long time what to get, Black Ruby barbs would have been wonderful but they could potentially eat fry if the parents aren't so good. White Cloud Minnows were the next choice because George has BEAUTIFUL fish! But I ended up finding these guys today and they were gorgeous. They aren't quite regular zebra danios, much more solid blue but with long fins. They stay at the top which is what I wanted. The Kribs are already more outgoing and zooming around whereas they hid much more before. So having dither fish with cave dwelling cichlids is usually a good idea


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## themamaj

A very Happy Birthday to you! So sorry to hear about Jen! Yes what an awful disease. Maybe they will be able to slow her disease with her being younger. Prayers for researchers to find new ways to make the quality of life better for those suffering with this.

Blue danios sound lovely. Glad to hear albinos doing well.


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## lilnaugrim

Thank you @themamaj
I sure do hope so. Or at least, if the gene activates, it's slower progressing or takes longer to show. I can't lie that I am scared for her and for my brother. But there isn't much I can do, worrying over it isn't going to help at all.

But on some good news, I snapped some pics of the kribs and danios! Danios are hard as heck to catch but I managed some! I had to do a bit of finagling because they don't like me just yet so stretching out with the camera without having my body near was...fun lol. 


So first, some of the Kribs.
One of my favorite male's, he staked out the Roman vase ornament on the rocks here and has been cleaning it out for a potential mating site. One of my females behind him.








This is the female and the male I think have already bred in the upturned Roman pot. He's on the left turning so he looks strange, it's the white blob lol. But he keeps going in there and keeping guard while the female stays outside which is typically breeding behavior. Suppose I'll see! If nothing happens in the next days then nothing happened in there. But she's really pretty, small but very pretty. 








Female in the middle. I love that the females color up and they have a darker tan lateral line!








My favorite little guy again.








And again.








My favorite Platy baby! Somehow he's survived everything. I think if they grow up in the tank without being in the breeder box, they get "street smarts". Because I put all my red dalmatian platy fry in there as well and they were all eaten. Which is actually what I wanted to happen anyway, just wanted them gone and that was the easiest way. Thankfully this guy has survived! Even Acara is in there right now and she doesn't mess with him. I'm quite proud of this little one! I always wake up expecting him to be gone but he always pops up. Hopefully that continues because I like him now lol.








Acara is a bit beat up from RJ's return home. He was being all territorial and picked on her so I moved her to the 20 to heal and then off to George they go.








And the Blue Danio! It's really just a Zebra with less pattern and long fins but they are pretty.








Better shots once I figured out that trick of leaning over and holding the camera out and hoping for the best lol.
















My favorite guy and his gal on the left.
























I always forget that Danio species have whiskers too! Look at them! So cute!








That's all for now.


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## themamaj

Wow what wonderful pictures. Albinos are stunning. Love the hide pictures. The blue coloration of danios is so pretty. I didn't know they had whiskers. So cute!


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## Aqua Aurora

themamaj said:


> Aqua thanks for great salvina. Let me know if extras again.
> 
> I love the flare boy. Look at that red!!


I have extra salvinia now (have it in 5 tanks, always growin'), but will wait till I have water sprite so I can send you both.


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## themamaj

Sounds like a plan! Thanks


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## Sadist

Happy birthday, and happy fish news! I'm sorry about the Huntingtons. Step father in law has parkingtons, and it's sad to see him degenerate over the years. They're coming up with more and more treatments for these sorts of problems, so I'm hoping there will be something that can be tried when Jen comes down with symptoms.


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## firewood04

Happy Birthday! A little late sorry! 

I sure hope that they find something to help Jen. This is certainly not news you want to celebrate your birthday with. So sorry that they broke the news then but you would want to know.

Beautiful new fish!


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## lilnaugrim

Well, it was a tough week. Emotions kind of went way out of whack due to hormones...yay. But all better now!

Had a day out with Jen on Saturday and we got our nails done! Full gel set so they'll last a while and weather through me doing dishes and taking care of tanks lol.

Yesterday we went out fish collecting for natives! It was so much fun! Victoria and I went along with two others plus our two wonderful guides. We collected at three different sites, though I wasn't able to make the first one. The second one was brackish water and we caught a bunch of Mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) which are typically used for bait fish but they are gorgeous killies! So I took some home and now I have a saltwater tank....yeah lol. Third site was freshwater again and we caught some minnows and more killiefish (Fundulus diaphanus) which are freshwater unlike the Mummichogs. We also caught a yellow perch to look at and then throw back along with some shinners. At the beach there was TONS of ghost shrimp! We attempted to take many home but they pretty much all died in the bag, kind of gross lol. But I have three surviving ones in my new salt tank though lol, they came with the Mummis.

Here's our picture of Fundulus diaphanus








And our yellow perch friend!








And not our photos but this is what the F. Heteroclitus looks like (Mummichog)
These are really nice ones









This is more of what mine look like at the moment lol









I also took home three 3 spine Sticklebacks but two died this morning.









And three darters which I can't remember the species name so I can't find pictures but they look similar to a goby. They will go into the 45 once they're out of quarantine


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## themamaj

Wow what an amazing opportunity to get to collect fish! Fish are really lovely. I hope the rest you have do well for you. I really like the F. Heteroclitus.


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## Sadist

I love the Mummichogs! Is that a male and female? The anal fins look different to me.


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## lilnaugrim

Those aren't my fish pics but yes, female in front and male in back. Only sexual dimorphism is the female is bigger and keeps the stripes where males do not. Females are also a little more yellow.

Got some live rock today!! 

My stickleback and darters all died though but it's okay. It was fun to have them for a moment at least. There are plenty more out in the wild if i ever want to catch more again.

Not much to look at yet but this is my impromptu salt tank!








And a hitchhiker! Little bumblebee snail, hope he lives!


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## Sadist

What a gorgeous snail! I hope it survives, too.


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## lilnaugrim

Sorry for the lack of updating everyone! The site has been ridiculous with it's picture limits and crap. Apparently my files are "too big", because yes, 3-6 MB for an average picture size is TOO BIG apparently >.> I'm mad, clearly. Whatever.

So, I'm currently unemployed but may have a job coming up at Dunkin' Donuts in town, whoopee. Not my ideal choice but I will gladly take work wherever I can! Even though my degree may not be the area of employment that I go down, I'm still grateful for my time in college. Yes, student loans are crippling but I learned valuable lessons in college about the world and about myself. I think I really found myself there and I'm glad that I went  I wish I knew what I know now back when I started though, that college isn't necessary in today's society, a trade school would have been just as good. But, if I'd gone down that path instead, I likely would have never fish-sat for my friend in freshman year and became obsessed with fish, I would have never been here.  I'm glad that I went down the path that I did, even if I never use my degree, that's okay with me.

So, after that, I am still very frustrated with the work force and trying to get a job. Many see my Bachelor's degree and say that they don't want me because I'm just going to leave them when I find my "career" >.> I sincerely hate this attitude about all the "low quality" jobs. If someone applied and they are more than qualified, just hire them; you never know where they might end up! They could leave or they could become manager or even higher if they find that they enjoy the atmosphere and whatnot. But, whatever.

My biggest issue these past weeks since I went to Florida--Oh yeah, forgot to tell you guys that I went to Florida finally! We went to Disney too! First time! It was amazing! I have lots of pictures to show if only the site will allow me! But anyway, on the flight over, my phone decided to die. This phone is well over two years old and I knew that lithium batteries only last about that much if a little less. So....I take it to Verizon Wireless spot in town when we got back...It was that Saturday which was a week and a half ago. AND DO I HAVE MY PHONE BACK YET?! NO!!!!!!!!! THey told me 3-5 business days, it's been 7 BUSINESS DAYS! Now, normally I can live without a phone just fine but I'm unemployed and giving out my number all day to potential employers!!! UGH! I need to know who is calling me so I can get a JOB!

So yeah. I'm frustrated.

So next thing that happened, I bought another boy from Martias and I adore him to bits! He is called Suiche (swee-che. The che is more of a 'h' sound huffed out. So it's more like swee-huh almost with a bit of hard c thrown in), it's Gaelic for Soot :-D I also bought another PetCo baby in thoughts of selling him here but I still can't make new threads >.> He's the more adorable baby I've seen, you all are going to love him!
I've decided to name my freebie boy from Martias, Rembrandt II since he does have the same colors as Remmy but is different. I was going to name him Ditto after my old boy but I decided that Remmy fits him better :-D

I also took advantage of PetCo's 50% off sale of reptiles >.< I now have a Toothless to go along with my Cloudjumper! More on him in my reptile journal shortly.

I have much more live rock in my salt tank now and it's almost cycled! Looking great. I have 9 Mummies left and a few Bumblebee snails. I apparently ended up with 6 in the end somehow, 2-3 are alive. Hard to tell sometimes lol. They're cheap enough that it's okay, plus I got them free off the live rock so I'm certainly not complaining.

I have moved all my Leo's in together in the 40B now in my room. Originally I had Hawk by himself in the 10 but he was miserable and so were the girls. I decided to try them together and now they're all out crawling around and interacting. I know it's said that Leo's aren't sociable but I truly believe that they are! Maybe not all are very nice about it *cough*Luna*cough* but they do definitely communicate on some level and enjoy each other's company.

Current tanks up are the 20 long with Kribs, 20 long salt, 3 gallon Suiche, 1 gallon Remmy II, and 45 gallon. 2.5 and .5's with temporary babies and older fish. Mr. Feesh, Big Red fins, and Special boy all died for some reason. Black copper fancy face and red PK are all still alive and very well. All the baby girls are doing well in the 2.5 as well as the baby VT I had and the newest baby. Everyone is now in my room instead of being between my brother and I's room (except 45 down stairs of course). Just the gargoyle's are still in my brothers room. I want to redo my room so everyone is in and I can just heat my room instead of both. It will be cheaper on the electricity.

I will attempt to upload some photographs next.


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## Tealight03

Sorry to hear about the job situation. I had a hard time too. Finally found something great, but it seriously took years. Hope you find something soon!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Tealight! I am applying for larger companies and such, mother believes that going to the company to present my resume is still a good thing to do. I realize that not all companies do this but most of the larger ones I know of, prefer you to just apply online and that's it; they don't want to deal with a billion people coming in with resumes but mother still believes it's the best thing to do. It might be good for some companies but just not the ones I'm applying for. She doesn't exactly make me feel bad about it but I do certainly feel that way sometimes. Like yesterday was a bad mental day :-/ I stayed home and watched Legend of Korra all day which wasn't bad but I certainly didn't feel good when mom came home and asked me why I wasn't out handing out my resume to everyone :-/ The only jobs I can get are silly retail jobs which, I'm not exactly complaining about, but all the jobs that I do want won't hire me because I'd just "train and then leave once I found a better job" which isn't exactly true. I really just want something where I can pay my bills but still do art commissions on the side or go to art shows and such, it isn't that much to ask for, is it? Ugh. Jobs suck lol. Actually, I honestly love working but people don't believe me when I say that. When I don't have anything to do, I just kind of get into a depressive funk and it sucks.

Still trying to upload photos and it's being a PITA >.> I can't upload every photo but I do want to give you all some nice pics at least!


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## Sadist

Hang in there with the jobs! Honestly, my first job I only got because we were friends with the owner. You might have to go the contact rout (whether it's someone your mom knows or you or a friend, etc).


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## Tealight03

I heard Target will hire anyone with any type of degree for their management program. Think it pays pretty well. 

I also did a lot of temping. It really sucked but it got my foot in the door a couple places.


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## lilnaugrim

That's how I got my 3 year work-study program. I didn't even have work-study (sorry for the kids who did >.<) until later at the end but yeah. My mother is a custodian working for our state university, I will probably end up doing something similar. Even if you know someone in the Uni, you still start off on the lowest bit, doesn't matter what level they're in. My mom's at the highest for custodial but it doesn't mean diddly unfortunately. My father works for Electric Boat and he was supposed to talk to someone this week about getting my brother and I in since we've both been applying like crazy to that place but so far no go for either of us!

Thanks for the tip about Target, unfortunately the closest one to me is about 45 minutes away. Would have to depend on the pay grade for sure. I'm not below traveling for work but the other options are closer so I'm trying those first for sure. But I appreciate any and all tips! and support ^_^ I know I'm certainly not alone but damn, it sure does feel like it sometimes.


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## Tealight03

I heard a rumor Target starts you off at $60k but it's for four ten (sometimes longer) days. 

I understand about feeling alone. Sometimes you just have to give yourself depression time. Unemployment is a lot.

Can't wait to see pics by the way!


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## lilnaugrim

Ugh, I don't think I can handle 10 hour days. My father did it for a while but it was so hard on him. I'm similar in mind-set to him, I'd much rather have regular 8 hour days but I don't mind working 7 days a week if need be, just not 10 hours all the time. I've worked 14 hours before and that was awful, did 3 days of it in prep for summer time at Wal-Mart since I was the only toy associate. But hey, 60K might be worth it in the end.

Uploading pics shortly! I ended up just going through and making the file sizes smaller of all the pics I want to upload. Added my new signature to them as well, I'll try to make them unobtrusive as possible but I know it's still annoying to see signatures in pics. But hopefully they'll upload quicker this way!


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## themamaj

Have you thought of applying at one of lps? I cant imagine they would snap you up with your knowledge and experience! 

Cant wait to see pictures! 

Here is a question for you. Did water changes on 6 tanks last night. Exact same water, all planted. A couple have wood, one ornament and other just plants. 2 of tanks super cloudy today and stink like rot smell. All tanks had deep cleans and did update my osmocote. Other 4 fine which did exact same cleans on. Has happened a couple of times and cant figure cause. Did another water change affected tanks. Any suggestions?


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## lilnaugrim

Okay! Just made it with 41 pictures lol! Cap is 50 for anyone wondering.
I still have some of my saltwater tank photos to edit as well so I'll upload those in a moment once I sign them as well.

So Florida!
We did an airboat ride and these were some of the better photos I took!
Just over the lake, it was super fun and really nice out!








Old Cypress tress and the path we went through.








Looking up at the Cypress tree








Looking behind the airboat.








The cutest anole that ended up getting relocated from the land that we ran over and onto our boat! The poor thing! She was just holding onto the rail as tight as she could until we picked her up. Fortunately for her, it was the end of the ride. Here she is as mom is holding her. She was bright green but started to turn brown with the warmth and attempting to blend in.








And on my hand. She didn't want to get off even when prompted. I would have taken her home in a heartbeat! But I know they're really cheap to buy as well.








Then we went to a restaurant called SquidLips! Awesome river-side restuarant! This one is out on the dock so I got some pretty neat seagull pictures! Granted seagulls aren't the most fascinating or rare creature, but I thought they were some pretty cool shots!






















Out on the docks at sunset, some nice boats.








A very old dock that I decided to walk down. There are no rails or anything, just the dock and the posts. As you can see it's very wavy, it doesn't move but it certainly feels like it lol. Best to keep looking down at the dock while you walk unless you have very good equilibrium haha








We went to Animal Kingdom! On the Safari ride we saw many of the animals but this was my favorite!








I took some other great shots of the Rhino's, these are White Rhinos, but this one was my absolute favorite!








One of the birds building its nest.








The Gorilla's were beautiful. This one was lounging and eating and happily being watched. The other older one didn't seem very fond of people at all.








Mr. Feesh, he looked totally fine before he passed. Not really sure why he died but oh well. 






















Mr. Fancy Copper















Baby VT boy. He's not such a baby any more but still smallish.















Mr. Red PK















Newest purchase! Isn't he the cutest thing ever?




































Remmy II. He's such a shiny fish!






























I introduce to you Suiche! My new favorite fish besides Remmy lol. They're the only two I'm keeping though.






















Their habitats close to each other. I like to wake up to Suiche flaring in my face haha








And the longfin blues!


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## lilnaugrim

@themamaj most of the stores around are one-man show kind of things. George only accepts volunteer help since he doesn't make enough money. SeaHorse are owned by two brothers who do everything. The only one I could really apply for would be Critter Hut, which I meant to do but haven't yet. They're still family run by two brothers so there certainly isn't any "growth" available there for me but obviously can help me get the cash I need soon for my student loan payments.

Did you swish out the filter media at all? I get that sometimes if I haven't cleaned that out in a while. Could be that you kicked up too much during the water change as well. Best thing to do, as you already did, just do another quick water change. It should settle overnight. You can use activated carbon to get rid of the smell though. Carbon doesn't really last long so it's more cost effective to buy a box of it and use some pantyhose or whatever to replace it frequently if you want the effects of it. On a dirty tank, most carbon only lasts a few days. On a clean tank they last 2 weeks to a month at best.


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## lilnaugrim

Whoops forgot about the pics of the babies too!









Loved this face lol








Ms. Bumblebee marbled out but she still has some black flecks on her and some nice copper irid to her fins.








Ms. Blue is adorable


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## themamaj

Gorgeous pictures!! Love that surprised face  

Both of tanks actually had rinsed filter and changed sponge media. Maybe stirred up too much.


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## BlueInkFish

Welcome back! Great fishie photos as always!

I wish you the best for your job situation! Who knows, maybe you'll become the next world famous Betta scientist ;-)!


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## Sadist

I love all the pictures! Even the seagulls looked romantic and knightly.


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## Aqua Aurora

lilnaugrim said:


> Loved this face lol
> View attachment 838457


omg that is so awesome!

wait when did you get babies? I must have missed a post


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## lilnaugrim

@Aqua Aurora I've had them since July-ish or August, can't remember which. I bought them from a club member. She bred them and I've just raised them is all


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## Fenghuang

Such pretty babies...


Hang in there on the job search, it is definitely really tough! I graduate at the end of this year and the whole process is haunting me. So so many sleepless nights... But in the end, I think we will all get where we need to go.


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Feng!

So far I have applied so many places I can't even remember where I did >.< probably should have wrote it down. I have an interview on Thursday for a warehouse job about 40 minutes from me...just a $10 an hour job but it's something, right? And I have another interview on Friday for an account manager job, a sales person essentially but this company doesn't do telemarketing but rather face to face which I think I can handle a little better...hopefully. But they do full training as well but it's a commission based salary :-/ Totally out of my comfort zone but hey, maybe I can have a desk with a fish tank on it....hopefully.


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## Fenghuang

I don't know if you care, but my Petco has baby leopard geckos on sale for $9.99!

EDIT: Also how did job interview go?


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## lilnaugrim

10 bucks? Is there something wrong with them?? I'm good though, no my geckos for me but thanks!

I'm hired ^_^ But as soon as I was done with the interview, I got an interview with another company that is much closer to home and likely will be better pay. I felt bad but my new boss is chill, he was reluctant but I guess he likes me and so he said it was okay. I'll get half a day Friday and be able to go to the interview even if it means I may leave. It could still be a month or so before the other company decides to hire me or not. The job I have now is an engraver for a jewelry company, with Christmas coming, they're bumping up employee's. But it's an hour from home, pretty far to drive every day for a $10.10 job. So the other position is an Administrative Assistant, more of what I like to do; secretary essentially. So I'm hoping that will be more like a $14 an hour job and it's only 20 minutes from mom's. More money, less gas, win-win! But I do feel bad for my new boss, he's a great guy and I feel like I've totally crushed his hopes for hiring me >.< whoops. But I explained my situation to him and he said it was okay. So I start on Monday! Which means I won't be around as much, I'll have my phone to check on occasionally but can't spend hours at a time on unfortunately. At least, until I get a different job.

All I want is a job where I can have a fish tank lol, I think I mentioned that already. But wouldn't that be awesome? Just a little 2.5 on the desk or something so I can move Suiche with me and can watch him during the day ^_^


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## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> 10 bucks? Is there something wrong with them?? I'm good though, no my geckos for me but thanks!
> 
> I'm hired ^_^ But as soon as I was done with the interview, I got an interview with another company that is much closer to home and likely will be better pay. I felt bad but my new boss is chill, he was reluctant but I guess he likes me and so he said it was okay. I'll get half a day Friday and be able to go to the interview even if it means I may leave. It could still be a month or so before the other company decides to hire me or not. The job I have now is an engraver for a jewelry company, with Christmas coming, they're bumping up employee's. But it's an hour from home, pretty far to drive every day for a $10.10 job. So the other position is an Administrative Assistant, more of what I like to do; secretary essentially. So I'm hoping that will be more like a $14 an hour job and it's only 20 minutes from mom's. More money, less gas, win-win! But I do feel bad for my new boss, he's a great guy and I feel like I've totally crushed his hopes for hiring me >.< whoops. But I explained my situation to him and he said it was okay. So I start on Monday! Which means I won't be around as much, I'll have my phone to check on occasionally but can't spend hours at a time on unfortunately. At least, until I get a different job.
> 
> All I want is a job where I can have a fish tank lol, I think I mentioned that already. But wouldn't that be awesome? Just a little 2.5 on the desk or something so I can move Suiche with me and can watch him during the day ^_^


No, it was a random sale? If you had a Pals Reward Card. But that's so easy to make one... They were really cute, all huddle together and fast asleep. I don't know what normal pricing is. I do not look at reptiles because I love them, but I've never kept one before and have no supplies (and no money to set them up nice), so that'll just be a bad combo for impulse buying. I understand. I was just letting you know if maybe your store had the same sale lol.

That is awesome you got hired! And that they're letting you interview for another job anyway. Must mean they really like you.  Hah, a fish tank in the office would be nice... Although personally, I couldn't have a office desk fish because I see a lot of offices where people do the same thing and they keep bettas in a stupid skinny glass vase with some lucky bamboo and barely any water and I have this paranoia that I would end up encouraging people to do that if they see I have a fish tank. It's illogical, so don't mind me lol.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh I have pals rewards lol, definitely have that! I think I'm going on four years with my card now :-D
But yeah, they're usually $30 each so $10 is wicked low! We only do the half-off sale here, reptile rally. That's when I got Toothless my newest Gargoyle gecko. Which I forgot, I have pictures of now since I got a phone but the camera sucks so badly >.<

And yeah, I think my boss really does like me lol. He even remembered my name. I was leaving the call center area and we saw each other, we both did like a triple take before he realized. He also looks like someone I knew in high school (we grew up in different areas though and he's like 30-32 ish) so I was thinking about that, not realizing it was him. But he remembered my name and remembered how to pronounce it correctly! That's impressive to me lol. So that only makes it worse that I will quit the job if I get something closer to home because I like him too. Helps that he's extremely cute too lol.


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## Fenghuang

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh I have pals rewards lol, definitely have that! I think I'm going on four years with my card now :-D
> But yeah, they're usually $30 each so $10 is wicked low! We only do the half-off sale here, reptile rally. That's when I got Toothless my newest Gargoyle gecko. Which I forgot, I have pictures of now since I got a phone but the camera sucks so badly >.<
> 
> And yeah, I think my boss really does like me lol. He even remembered my name. I was leaving the call center area and we saw each other, we both did like a triple take before he realized. He also looks like someone I knew in high school (we grew up in different areas though and he's like 30-32 ish) so I was thinking about that, not realizing it was him. But he remembered my name and remembered how to pronounce it correctly! That's impressive to me lol. So that only makes it worse that I will quit the job if I get something closer to home because I like him too. Helps that he's extremely cute too lol.


These were some of the leopard geckos... I think they're healthy, anyway? I was really admiring this Madascagar panther gecko they had in any tank... Its eyes were beautiful.  No sale for it though.






A little confused, so is he someone you knew or is he someone who looks like someone you knew? It does sound like you have a good situation. But you just have to pick what is right for your circumstances right now. And if that is a job closer to home, you will probably be happier in the long run.


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## lilnaugrim

Oh my, that first girl is adorable!! But alas, I have no more room in the 40B for another, I already have 5 in there lol.
They do look healthy though other than the stuck shed.

I did not know him before, just looks like someone I knew back in high school is all.

Annnddd I was just offered an interview from the Dunkin' in town that is 7 minutes from my house. Same pay, but I get tips too... ughhhh, I feel so bad if I just quit on the first day >.< Well, it'd just be an interview at Dunkin', I did recline but I think I may go visit tomorrow and ask if I can get an interview. I feel bad but I know this would save me so much money on gas. It will take nearly a quarter tank to get to and from work (mostly because I drive hard) :-/ poop. Idk, maybe I can work part-time at both. I'll be exhausted but that way I can still do both and earn the tips....uuugggghhhh why is this so difficult? I should have never gone to that job fair! >.<


----------



## Wildsho

i love this journal lil


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks Wildsho!


--------------------------------

So it seems like each time I go to an interview, I get an email request for yet another interview. Don't get me wrong, it's great to be liked but maker, what do I do?????!?!?

So I started working at EvesAddiction this week. I'm an engraver which is really cool, it's long hours and I'm on my feet all day which I'm still not used to and won't be for a while. It's a seasonal job so I have still been looking for a long term career position. My current boss knows this as well. He actually gave me raise last night in attempts to keep me around longer! I was/am very flattered! But it's still less than the minimum that I'd make at this other place I'd really like to start at.

I was interviewed this morning for a preliminary interview. Just as soon as I got out, I was contacted for another interview but it's the same distance away from my house as Eves is but in the other direction. That's the main issue with Eves; it's too far away. 45 minutes drive which isn't all that bad, it just takes a lot of gas and currently I barely make enough to pay for everything. The job I interviewed for today has a 15-20 dollar skill-set based pay grade. Much higher than Eves AND, it's only twenty minutes from my home! I forgot to ask about benefits but honestly, it wouldn't matter as much to me at the moment. I'm still covered under my insurance from my mom so that's fine and dandy until I'm twenty six in two years.

So here's to hoping for the company I interviewed for today. She said she'd let me know either way by the end of next week so I'm crossing my fingers and toes! But until then, I get to stand on my feet for eight hours and engrave/package/ship out jewelry. But hey, I get a 40% discount from our jewelry so that's cool I suppose lol.

Fishes are doing well. I've set up the 10 again next to the geckos where Hawk was. This way I can put my three fishes that I'm keeping, into that and get rid of the others.

I still have the red HMPK from Martias if anyone is interested in purchasing him. He's $12 plus $10 shipping (heat pack included if needed, weather has been weird so if temps go below 30 at night and 50 in the day, it should be used). I have the other ones too but the girls are still a bit small. I feel like they really haven't been growing :-/ They would be good for someone's sorority, all six of them. They get along with each other pretty darn well and have been together almost their whole lives. I did separate them out once for a week or two but put them back before long and they were just fine. They were always in view of each other though so I think that helped.


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## lilnaugrim

Went to PetCo today thinking that I'd get a versa-top for my 10gal and one divider for now. I was going to use my craft mesh but I don't feel like cutting it and fiddling with the mess it'd make. Dividers aren't cheap but they at least fit in properly or at least mostly properly. Well, I left with neither of those items. I did get worms for my geckos that I needed but I found out that they were having a sale on a lot of the saltwater items! I ended up buying my first cleaner shrimp! Yay! He's happily nomming at whatever he can find in the tank now!

I also have tons of diatoms and some coralline algae growing! Yay healthy tank! I do need to do a water change everything this weekend though.

Tomorrow I have an interview at Dunkin' Donuts which I believe I will decline unless the pay is higher than what I'm getting at Eves at the moment. Plus side to this job would be that it's 7 minutes from home and I get tips. But if it's just like minimum 9.60 an hour then I won't take it and will politely decline. I was getting 10.10 at Eves but just got a raise last night since my boss is trying to keep me there because I'm actually good at what I do! I'm very proud of myself and I know I should be! So now I'm getting 11.40 an hour. But in the end, I hope I can get that secretary-ish job for 15-20 an hour and then from there I can work on getting AutoCAD portfolio so I can be hired by Electric Boat and make 30 an hour with awesome benefits! That's the plan at least!


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## lilnaugrim

So....I'm hired at Dunkin' Donuts! I'm going to be an opener so the shift is 3am to 11am which isn't so bad. I like to be up in the morning and it will be not so busy which is fine with me!

Which means, I need to put in my two week's notice at Eves. I still feel bad >.< ughhhhhhh why is this so difficult!? I'm wondering if Ross will just let me go on Monday and not have me work since it would just cost him money. I'm kind of half hoping that will happen so I can start immediately at Dunkin.

So at Eves I'm making 11.40 an hour but it takes me about 50 dollars in gas to get there for just the five days. That's a big chunk of change. At Dunkin, I'll be making 9.60 an hour (minimum wage for us) plus tips (so it will be around 11 dollars anyway) but it's seven minutes from my house which means I'll be saving a TON on gas. So in the end, I think Dunkin will be better for me.

And then I get to wait and see if I've got that secretary job. I'm kind of thinking now though...my end goal is to end up at Electric Boat in Groton, CT. It's where they make the submarines for the USA navy. I want to do designing there. All I need is to prove that I'm capable of using the AutoCAD programs so I need a certification from taking a class. The class is 400 bucks and takes about two months to complete. So if I work at Dunkin and do this at the same time, I can end up at EB quicker and they actually have benefits whereas the secretary job, I don't think has many benefits. Plus I could live in New London/Waterford which have pretty cheap housings and renting stuff. I think it's a better path. The secretary is 15-20 an hour but my dad already makes 30 an hour roughly and has been at EB for about 7 years now, that's not too bad. We start off at 17 an hour......ugh, this sucks trying to figure out what to do.

Anywho, I grabbed a new female for Retof here on the forum! In the process I also grabbed a male that was absolutely stunning! I will fix him up and sell him when the time comes. My phone currently sucks butt and is terrible so I apologize for the terrible quality photos.






















Here is a gorgeous dragon-ish red speckled female!








MG girl! She wasn't super happy but would probably be gorgeous when she's in her own heated tank!















A bicolor metallic boy found at PetCo last night!








Then I saw these!! I was stunned! They are gorgeous! Just regular red gloLight tiger barbs! They are the only ones who have ever tempted me to purchasing a glolight fish! I don't have anything against glo light fish since they are dyed humanely but I just never found any beauty in them. But these guys?! Holy crap! I want to set up the 55 again and have a tank full of these! Too bad they're 12 bucks each! Glo light definitely knows that these are going to be a hit!








Suiche's nest this morning. He had a big pile in the middle but let that peter out. Now it's just kind of everywhere lol. He changes his nest site each week.








And my salt tank! I bought my first coral this morning! I know I should have waited a bit longer but all my parameters are stable and everything is looking good! This is a green star polyp, one of the easiest ones out there. 








Here's the polyp closed up.








And here is what it will eventually look like when it comes out in a few days:
Image off google:









And my little cleaner shrimp I bought yesterday! He's doing exceptionally well! All settled in!








I also bought two tiny cleaner crabs from Critter Hut and a Purple Short Spine Pincushion Urchin which I didn't grab a picture yet but it's cruising along in my tank and doing well! Munching on detritus and diatoms! I'll eventually grab photos with my DSLR so you can actually see quality photos lol


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## themamaj

Gorgeous! Congrats on hire.


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## Aqua Aurora

Thanks for posting the gals photos. The mg girl looks like the ones at my store-some have black trim on their fins, some are just yellow fins. That petco boy ugh so tempting but I don't want long fins (except Midas >.>'' ).


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## Wildsho

Congrats on the job, and such gorgeous new fishys!!!


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## Sadist

Congratulations! Awesome fish. I'm so jealous of your saltwater tank, too.


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## Retof

Congrats on the job! The male you got is amazing to, and that cleaner shrimp looks pretty happy. 
(Subbed to this journal now. :3)


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## lilnaugrim

My star polyps came out this morning!!!! I'm super excited because it normally takes a few days for them to come out! They weren't out all the way or nothing but they did make an appearance! But then my light turns off for two hours in the day and they went back to sleep lol.

My urchin has now decorated himself with black worms that I fed them all lol. It's so cool to watch him eat! He'll capture the item with his spines and hold it tight if he catches multiples. Then brings down one worm at a time to his mouth underneath by moving his spines and then munches! Sooo cool! I love it!
My Mummichogs are fat! Going to sell/get rid of them soon. They were fun in the beginning but now that I have a proper salt tank, I do want to get into the regular salt fishes!

First, I still need some things and I'm going to use this part as a check list for later in the months. So these are what I need and will eventually purchase down the road:


Finnex Ray II Marine
Hydor Koralia Evolution 600 pump x2
Hydor Koralia SmartWave Pump Controller
API Calcium Liquid Test
Dry Rock for building

I think that's it for the moment.

For stocking, I know for sure I will have a Red Ruby Dragonet, or if I happen to find a male and two females, I will have a trio.

I have been debating on other stocking for mid and top levels. 

So I did find this awesome hybrid dottyback from ThatPetPlace. Black Neon Dottyback, so it's a hybrid between a Neon and a Black Dottyback....but apparently the colors vary so I could get a dull one like the first photo or a orange one like the second. Ideally I'd want one like the second photo they have but it's a gamble. And I was thinking that, if I'm going to have a salt tank, I need to have fish that are iconically salt related. I mean, I could easily get a Jack Dempsey and have similar striking blue to the Neon Dottyback's, know what I mean? I need something that looks like it only belongs in saltwater.

So then I moved to possibly the Royal Gramma. For one, I know I can get them locally which is nice. Second, they're purple and yellow!!! How awesome is that? They're easy and most importantly, reef safe.

Another bottom-ish mid dweller that I could do would be this gorgeous fish: Citrinis Clown Goby. Should get along fine with the Red Ruby as they are both peaceful and the goby would likely be higher up in the tank. I would have to wait on this one until I have more corals down the road.

The other option would be a Flame Hawkfish. I love Hawkfish but they typically aren't invert safe. I do have the Cleaner shrimp which would likely be okay since they are bigger, but I'm not sure if I want to chance it. And then, it's red and I already will have the Red Ruby Dragonet's so I figured I should branch out to other colors which brought me back to the Royal Gramma. BTW, these photos in the site don't do these fish justice at all, this fish is amazing looking and acting.

Fish I know I can get for sure at home would be the Banggai Cardinal, gorgeous fish, sensitive, but safe. I could have three. I don't want Pajama Cardinal's even though they are adorable, they don't look like "Salt water" fish to me if that makes sense. I want bright colors that say "SALT!" lol. Banggai aren't very bright but they do have a more characteristic "salt" water fish look to them which makes them a contender for me.

And these guys I can also get locally. I know Damsel's are kind of a-holes when it comes down to it but I love the Sapphire/Azure coloration. Ideally I think if possible I would do a trio of different colorations. I haven't done research on that just yet since I just thought of it, it may not end up being possible but we'll see. Fiji Devil and Starck's Damsel contenders.

But I'm not sure if I want to go with Damsel's because they are "boring" to me. I wanted to go with a pair of Clowns, I am still undecided at the moment. If I do get them, I would get a regular wild type bonded pair. I toyed with the idea of getting a Wyoming White or a Picasso but I do think the regulars appeal more to me than any of the others.

I think now maybe I should go with the Red Ruby, Clown Goby, and a pair of Ocellaris. What think you guys? I know you may not all know salt or anything and that's fine. The fish I've picked here will get along fine with each other with whatever combo I do.

I have so much to learn about the corals too and ID'ing them. I felt like I knew things but I went to the store and felt like a total newb again! But I could ID the brain corals and the Hammer's so that's good lol. I felt silly that I didn't know the star polyp since it's pretty darn common lol. Oh well!


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## themamaj

Wow! So excited for you.


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## firewood04

I love watching "Tanked" onAnimal Planet but...I really do not know much about Salt Water tanks. I am no help but I do love Clown fish too!


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## Sadist

I love the dragonet! All the fish are pretty, as far as coloration go. I liked the fiji devil coloration the best on that type of fish, but I just love speckles like that.


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## blueridge

I would probably stay away from the dragonet for now, if I were you. They are very hard to keep if you do not have a constant supply of small crustaceans for them to munch on. Plus they are very good at eating all of your beneficial goodies in the live sand. Gobys are good at jumping, and from my experience can be pretty finicky eaters. Maybe stick with the Clownfish pair, and the damels/gramma/dottyback/hawkfish.


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## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> I would probably stay away from the dragonet for now, if I were you. They are very hard to keep if you do not have a constant supply of small crustaceans for them to munch on. Plus they are very good at eating all of your beneficial goodies in the live sand. Gobys are good at jumping, and from my experience can be pretty finicky eaters. Maybe stick with the Clownfish pair, and the damels/gramma/dottyback/hawkfish.


Is that dragonet as an overview or Red Ruby's in particular? Because that isn't what I've been told or what I've found researching. Red Ruby's prefer live foods but more like black worms, blood worms, and brine shrimps. And I have a tight fitting glass lid, no escapee's from this tank.

Regardless, I will be getting the Dragonet since this is the point of the tank, but thank you for the insight.

--------------------------------------

I was more looking for opinions on the other fish since I am set on the Dragonet and have a good source for healthy ones. I think I have settled on a pair of Ocellaris, a Royal Gramma, and the Dragonet for a final stock.


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## blueridge

lilnaugrim said:


> Is that dragonet as an overview or Red Ruby's in particular? Because that isn't what I've been told or what I've found researching. Red Ruby's prefer live foods but more like black worms, blood worms, and brine shrimps. And I have a tight fitting glass lid, no escapee's from this tank.
> 
> Regardless, I will be getting the Dragonet since this is the point of the tank, but thank you for the insight.
> 
> --------------------------------------
> 
> I was more looking for opinions on the other fish since I am set on the Dragonet and have a good source for healthy ones. I think I have settled on a pair of Ocellaris, a Royal Gramma, and the Dragonet for a final stock.


Both dragonets and Red Ruby's are hard to keep since most are wild caught and live off of the isopods that live in the sand. They can be trained to eat live/frozen foods, but that isn't always a given. I'm sure you already know this but I would just make sure that where ever you will be getting one they are already started on live/frozen. I wish you luck! Can't wait to see pictures!


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## lilnaugrim

So I quit Eves and have started at Dunkin Donuts today! Oh man, my head is swimming with all the different coffee types I can make now >.< It was just video training today but wow! I'm burnt. Thankfully my manager likes to give us a few days to settle before we really start so I'm starting my training on Thursday! Annnddd I'm going to apply for our local Cumberland Farms (gas station/convenience store, mostly a southern NE thing) which is 12.95 an hour and a raise after 60 days which is nice. Currently getting 9.60 and tips...yippee. Cumbies is just stocking, gas, and some food which isn't hard at all.

My fresh tanks are doing well. I feel like I have Betta's everywhere again >.< I bought another one to sell. He's a bicolor Copper, gorgeous. And I was going to sell this little VT I found but I think I'll keep him too lol. I'll have to set up another photo shoot to get clear pics of everyone. They're all currently in Meth Blue mix due to a bit of rot on the new guy and on the Red HMPK. 

Salt tank is doing well, looking to get rid of the Mummichogs soon so I can start stocking fish eventually. I think if I do the pair of clowns then I'll skip the Royal Gramma. As much as I'd like it, I think it would be too much for the tank. It's already a lot with the eight Mummies I have in there. Granted, only two of them are full grown and the rest are still 1 inch juvies. But they are voracious and ostentatious. They don't seem to bother my coral too much (which has been growing!) other than swim by which is normal of any marine fish. The small cleaner hermits like to chill on the green star polyp and pick between the polyps for the food that gathers there. I feel bad for the coral but it seems that that is normal behavior so I'm not too concerned. The coral doesn't seem stressed and still comes out daily now so it doesn't seem to bother it too much which good.

My cleaner shrimp molted and scared the poop out of me. I just installed a circulation pump (kind of a big one because that's all the stupid store had >.> I will end up changing out since it's just too strong. I know that reefers suggest nearly 1000x circulation rating but even the coral didn't seem to like the super high flow and it's a coral that likes high flow. So... we'll see) and I saw the shed stuck on the bottom of it and at the time, didn't realize it was shed. So I quickly dropped down to get a look under but noticed the shrimp still chilling in his normal area and realized it was just the stupid shed lol.

I will be adding a candy cane coral soonish. One of my awesome PetCo's is getting some in and I was recommended to try it by the aquatic head. She's been a hobbyist for quite some time and actually knows her stuff. She's into lizards and fish the same as me which is great, we have a lot to talk about! But she said I could get a frag, they're relatively cheap and easy to keep. So can't wait for that!

So some pictures from the last week or two!

Kribs are growing and eating well.








Danios love the blackworms too!








My favorite girl Krib, shhhhh don't tell the rest!








Last week when I had bought the girl for Retof on the forum. She'll be part of a breeding project. She has signs of marbling but colored up more before she left from my care 








She's really quite stunning! Beautiful Royal Blue















Showing off to the boy who I purchased with her. This guy is for sale, $20 plus $10 shipping.








He's currently ruling the Krib tank at the moment and loving every bit of it. He has one tear in his tail that was there on purchase but he is healing up quick and very well!








And the newest new boy! This is the one that I think I'm deciding to keep. He's like a Salamander Dalmatian. He's like a regular red/orange salamander but with red spots in his fins! I snatched him immediately when I saw him. But he's in M. Blue as I stated so he looks way more blue than he really is. I should get some new pics of them tomorrow likely. 















Mummichog nomming a blackworm.


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## themamaj

Oh that for sale boy is gorgeous!


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## Sadist

The girl looks like she likes the look of that for sale boy! Hehe. I love the pictures!


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## lilnaugrim

Thanks guys! The for-sale boy's copper is starting to bleed out in his fins, he's beautiful!
Girl went off to Retof and was late two days but finally made it safe and sound! It wasn't even the week of Thanksgiving, the post office was just being poop apparently! I sent out Saturday, expected for Monday and didn't get there till Wednesday! Thank god I pack my fish well!

Also,

I AM SO POOPED!

So, I started my job as a Dunkin' Donuts baker. I get to work at 2AM which means I go to bed around 4-4:30PM. It's a lot of work but now that I'm getting the hang of it, I'm kind of actually enjoying it! It's not as stressful as being up front but I do go up front once my work in the back is complete. We are one of the few Dunkin's that does bake all of our stuff: cookies, muffins, and bagels. Donuts come in plain and glazed and then I get to frost and fill them (I HATE JELLY DONUTS AND STICKS, THEY SUCK). The Boston Kreme Croissant donuts is probably my favorite to do because it's just fun. I like frosting the regular Boston Kreme and then Coffee rolls since it's just a nice big plain and I don't have to go around and ring lol. The ring donuts (donuts with holes in the middle) are more of a pain but I'm getting good at frosting them.

I opened the store by myself this morning! Fourth day and I opened by myself lol. Well, "opened", I started my baking at 2 and my help came in at 3:30 so she opened the front and I just got all the baking stuff done. Takes me until 6 to get everything fully done typically. Then we pull out more bagels to defrost for the 2nd bake later when we start to run out of stuff.

Today was crazy, because the Pat's won last night, we do the 87 cent medium coffee thing and my god, everyone and their mother, cousins, aunts, and uncles came out of the woodwork to get their coffee! I got to work the window which is fun though. One of my regular customers from when I worked at Del's Lemonade is now coming to this Dunkin' which is right down the street from the Del's and so I thought that was hilarious that we both attend the same Dunkin too.

But I am pooped.

Fish are all good. I have a pair of clowns now, waiting to get rid of my Mummichogs so I can get the rest of my fish eventually. Tank levels are great!
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 8.2 (still working up to the 8.4)
Calcium: 460

Calcium should be in the 400-450 ish range for some of the corals. My base level of Calcium is 380 which isn't bad considering my tap water has nothing in it. I added a bunch of crushed coral to the tank before because of this, it's helped out a lot.

My green star polyp has exploded with growth! Super happy about that! Have some Red Slime algae unfortunately (cyanobacteria in the saltwater world. In freshwater it shows as blue-green algae that everyone loves), but I just manually remove some of the algae and it's okay to manage. Not a huge explosion but definitely there. I need to get some macro algae for sure.

Betta's are all doing well. Fishies in the 45 are also doing well, did a nice deep clean to it the other day in prep for Thanksgiving at our house 

Alright, time for my nap >.<


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## Sadist

I'm glad you're enjoying your new job!


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## lilnaugrim

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with this lately!

But Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays! Happy New Year too!

lol.

So work has been taking over my life essentially. Still have everyone, they're all doing well.

New additions:
PetCo is now selling female Koi's for 12 bucks so I have a new female!
I have a Yellow Clown Goby for my 20long salt. So far it's just that and the pair of clowns, going slow now.
Gold Gourami female in the 45 with Ghost my angel. So far so good.
Also got my latest boy from Martias from RussellTheShihTzu as well for my graduation present! Super excited, he's gorgeous and showing off to my female koi!

Nothing else really new. I've been sick the last week and a half with a bad virus. I was quite literally dieing, I was sure of it lol. And I was still working which...in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have but I didn't want to leave them shorthanded either. And I like my paycheck too. But....I probably also spread my illness around too >.< whoops. Got my dad sick too but he's fine after three days, of course. I'm still on the tail end of it where some phlegm and mucous remain and it's just annoying at this point. My sense of smell and taste is also coming back gradually as well. So that's nice.

Christmas was really nice. Got a Bamboo sheet set from mom since I always get hot at night so these should cool me right down! I'm excited! And some of the usual stuff: spray to melt ice off windshield, chocolate orange, got a mitt with a snow scraper in it (pretty excited about that, I hate snow between my gloves and coat!), small handle thing with cleaner head on it for cleaning the windshield inside because it's a Toyota and so it's slanted and I can't reach in without hitting my elbow on the window or something and making another mark >.<, got a 3D printer pen from my brother! Mermaid sequined pillow from Walmart (got the bronze and black one, my favorite!!), and the usual candy and food from my Memere lol. It was good!

My brother loves slim jims and jerky and stuff so I individually wrapped three packets of jerky, two packages of 26 mini slimjims and 6 monster slimjims for him to open. He's 21 but he still had a blast with it lol. I also gave him $100 to buy a new 39" TV with as well the other week so that was most of his present right there. Gave mom a $30 certificate to Saver's, her favorite clothing shop lol. And some Live, Love, Laugh scroll words to hang up since she requested that. And then gave John, mom's bf, a $20 certificate to West's Bakery, the oldest bakery in our town and still going very strong. He frequents every morning with the gang. And then I purchased some expensive bluetooth headphones for my dad which he also requested. These ones flip out to become stereos as well which he was psyched about ^_^

Great Christmas all around! We had the family over for our usual Christmas Brunch at 10am. Got to watch my little cousins open their presents which was so awesome. I don't typically get to watch them so it was super exciting this year. My littlest cousin: Alanna, she's a riot! She's 3 and already knows so many words and is forming fantastic sentences now! Oh man, she's going to be too smart for her own good, that's for sure! She even knew what a Cookie Cutter was!! I was shocked! Heck, I didn't know what the heck those were until I was like 10 lol! OKay, maybe not that old but seriously. I was impressed! She also remembered I have geckos (snakes in her mind lol) and she loves to feed my fishes and say hello to each and every one of them. Oh my goodness, it's so cute! And she has to have everything in a certain order. She paired up all the same items if she got multiples and put them in a neat pile. One of her juices kept knocking over and so she'd right it before plucking through her giant bag of goodies some more lol. Too funny. I wish I had taken videos of her, she's too precious for this world!

I'll try to upload a couple pics for you all in a moment once I jump to my phone. Since I no longer use photobucket, it's been hard to get motivation to post photos >.< A shame too since it was so easy to use but darn, their service has really gone downhill the last year or so!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and their holidays!


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## lilnaugrim

And the photos

Recent boy from Martias when I first received him.








Later that night, coloring up some more.








Couple days ago, trying to court my lady koi. He's built a bubblenest to cover the surface of his little holding tank!








Lady koi at the store! She's peachy and so I'm hoping she won't go all red but peachy color instead! Color change is inevitable but I'm hoping she'll keep the spots, I like them ^_^ She's great, laid back personality as well.















Painting I did for my Memere for Christmas. She had originally commissioned it but me being the lazy butt that I am, didn't finish it until two years later. So, instead of her paying me, she just got it for Christmas instead. There was no way I'd force her to pay for it after all that. I'm pleased with the turnout. Last minute finishing on Saturday lol. I work best under pressure though. No deadlines means no work for me.








And pictures of Sammy! I love Sam, he's my little boy! Wonderful lap kitty! And it was true what someone told me; orange tabby's are the most lovable kitties!








Sleepy kitty








Different day but same pose lol.








Christmas day! Sorry it's sideways, seemed the site turned my vertical photos to fit with the format, oh well.















And chasing treats lol








Dean, the handsome brother kitten in his own tie for Christmas!








Ghost showing off one day. She's so beautiful!








My baby girl Ieli chilling in the bushes one day. Enjoying the peace and quiet away from the kittens lol.








Simon the stray cat that frequents a breakfast shop we go to! He's mostly friendly unless he doesn't feel like being pet. Didn't like my dad, liked me though 








And a new (first) bed at dad's house so I don't have to sleep on the couch any more yay!!! But yeah, who am I kidding? It's not my bed lol!








Baby girl was not overly happy about starting to wear her Seresto collar but she's grown used to it now ^_^ She's a pro!


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## RussellTheShihTzu

Have you named your new boy? Names from "The Graduate" are pretty nifty. Dustin Hoffman played "Ben Braddock." So, maybe "Braddock"? Or, maybe not.....

I thought I had names for my guys but, nope, just didn't work. :-(

Although the yellow HM will still be Tamarack and. Need four more. :dunno:


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## lilnaugrim

I'm sorry for the absence everyone. I get really tired of repeating myself which, as you all know, it happens often when you tend to give out any advice! So I had to take a break. I cannot promise to be on every day at the moment, I'm still not on my laptop very frequently but I'm going to try to come back.

Current tanks:
45 Fresh (1 Angel, 1 Golden Gourami, 1 Blue Gourami, 1 Opaline Gourami, 3 Rosaline sharks [will rehome once bigger, purchased as tiny .5-1 inch juvies], 5 Diamond Tetra, 2 Albino Cory, 1 Shwartzi Cory, 1 Clown Pleco, 1 Synodontis Hybrid)
20 long Fresh (1 Betta female, 1 longfin blue Danio, 2 Otocinclus)
5.5 fresh (3 breeding Honey Gourami)

29 Salt (1 Ocellaris Clown, 1 Royal Gramma, 3 Banggai Cardinals) (3 Xenia coral, 1 Pulsating Xenia coral, 1 GSP coral, 1 zoa, 1 Ricordea mushroo) (1 Black legged hermit crab -- killed the others and my snails....)
10 Salt (Fiji Devil Damsel)

So the 20 long saltwater reef tank was moved into the 29 and to the top stand so I can admire it more. Took five hours to move everything around and killed off my Feather Duster but everything else is good! Tank is settled again and working on Purple Coralline algae again. Finished off diatoms last week and going through Red cyano again. Switched lights from Finnex Planted+ to T5 HO light that was given to me. 10,000K and Actinics are on it currently but have to purchase new bulbs, these are old.

My great Aunt moved up from North Carolina to live with my grandma down the road. She brought her 10 gallon halfmoon tank because she couldn't get a decent price for it >.< So she gave it to me. It was right before the auction we had for the club, I so wanted to sell it but knew she'd check up on it >.< So I made it an excuse to set up another nano reef. So far so good on it, it's cycling fast. I have 12 pounds of rock in it lol. I like it and the Damsel is settled in and showing off his true colors, he's gorgeous. I am mostly using him for cycling purposes but maybe will keep him, we'll see. I know fishing him out is going to suck. I really want Springeri Dottyback (pseudochromis springeri) because they're beautiful but I doubt the Damsel would let another fish in with him since they are known to be buttfaces.

I still have some Betta around. Currently still have my three from Martias, some PetCo boys, a boy from Critter Hut, and three other misclaneous fishes.

I had an itch to breed something so I decided on Honey Gourami but I really want to do Sparkling Gourami again since I had such good luck with them before but of course, when I look for something; it's no longer around >.< Found some on AquaBid but I don't feel like paying $17 in shipping....ugh. Going to an auction this weekend to see if I can't find any. That or corals is all I will purchase. It's always fun to attend the auctions anyway, so many unique fish you'd never see normally! If you ever get the chance to attend the auctions (most clubs are free for the auction days, convention days might have to be paid) then definitely do it! Sometimes you get great fish for as low as $3 a bag!

So if I don't find Sparkling Gourami then I'll just try it with the Honey's to see if I can't get them to breed. So far their tank is stained with tannins but I need more. Need to cover the sides so the male quits surfing and focuses on his two ladies! Need more floating plants too, may get some Dwarf Water lettuce from Victoria.

So, that's pretty much all the update currently.
Dunkin' has been wearing me out even though I love the work. I've figure out that I enjoy places of work where I serve others, now if only I can find a place that will give me benefits as well lol. I'm still applying for Electric Boat, it's a desk job but benefits and pay are fantastic. It's just going to suck to sit there all day and do submarine designs ugh.

This is all for now, got to get some sleep before work tonight


----------



## themamaj

Glad to have you back!


----------



## ThatFishThough

Nice updates. I think we need more pictures! :3


----------



## themamaj

I came home with a new fish today. I liked the different color pattern. He was labeled by Petco a bumble bee male. So what is this new label and is it basically a fancy betta? His colors are more of a blue grey and a golden yellow. My Marlin I have is what I consider a "bumble bee" that is a yellow/black koi so this was a new description on cup.


----------



## dennythebetta

All your fish ARE SO GORGEOUS!! Emma is beautiful!!


----------



## ThatFishThough

Sorry to butt in, @themamaj, but I made this thread on these labels awhile ago. You may have seen it.

http://www.bettafish.com/129-betta-chat/723114-psa-petcos-fancy-names.html

(He looks to me like a tri-color HM or Delta, but he could be just considered a Multi, Bi-, or Butterfly.)


----------



## themamaj

ThatFishThough said:


> Sorry to butt in, @themamaj, but I made this thread on these labels awhile ago. You may have seen it.
> 
> http://www.bettafish.com/129-betta-chat/723114-psa-petcos-fancy-names.html
> 
> (He looks to me like a tri-color HM or Delta, but he could be just considered a Multi, Bi-, or Butterfly.)


Butt in anytime! Great list by the way and I think you are exactly right with fancy names. I have bought a couple of "paradise bettas". One was chocolate and other pastel mustard. Funny clerk today (big on sales) was making a big deal about the bumblebee. Lol I never even looked at lid. Just fish himself caught my eye. She made such a big deal and I was thinking to myself I have a bumblebee koi. I see them a fair amt what is she talking about. This guy doesn't look anything like my koi. Anyway I liked him so bought him but hype didnt impress me. Drawback was he came with fancy price. Rrr have you noticed how many stores are naming guys more and sneaking that price up? Oh well. Interesting on your baby bettas. Have had 5 babies. 4 out of 5 still going strong over 1.5 year later.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yeah, that's a Butterfly at the moment @themamaj but he'll probably marble out to be a tricolor or a multi 

I do have some pics to upload. I'm feeling the urge to go out fish shopping today (though, I haven't really bought much other than corals atm) just because I can  it's my one day off.

I was up a total of 32.5 hours yesterday and ended up crashing and slept for 15 hours until this morning. Had some seriously whacky dreams! But now I'm rested and rearing to go somewhere lol. Hopefully I can get back on later and share the pics with you guys since it has been quite some time ^_^

Glad to see you all around!


----------



## themamaj

Thanks Lil. Get some rest and enjoy some shopping if go out 😊


----------



## lilnaugrim

Some pictures for you patient people!

Betta I picked up a few weeks ago. Cute little thing! Will be sold on AquaBid likely, $20 for him.















Red guy also for sale, $20. He had some tears in his anal fin but he's healing quickly and spunky!








Armageddon guy from Martias that Linda bought for my graduation present! He's such a pretty boy but this is an awful photo, I'm sorry lol.








My Royal Gramma








Banggai Cardinal!















These are all from George's store.

This is a Yasha's goby. An adorable shrimp goby! They bond with a Pistol Shrimp and help guard while the shrimp digs tunnels for them to live in.








Auratus cichlid juvies.















Convict Cichlid juvies (two drops)








Emperor Tetra








Unknown Killifish








Blue Gularis Killifish male, gorgeous fish.








The Blue Gularis and his two females on the right.








Clown Killifish!








Black Phantom Tetra








Yellow Convict (Cryptoheros Nanoluteus)
These are babies from the trio I gave him!








My old Orange Shoulder Severum has done lots of growing!








And back to my fish.

Fiji Blue Devil Damsel helping to cycle my 10 nano!








Suiche dancing to the Devil and the new fish in front of him (between camera and him)















And new fish I plan to sell as well, another $20 but I think I'll pair him with my Koi female to see if I can get more money for the two ^_^















Hope you like, this is all for now.


----------



## ryry2012

Banggai Cardinal is my favorite!! What kind of fish are you planning to get today?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ryry2012 said:


> Banggai Cardinal is my favorite!! What kind of fish are you planning to get today?


That was like...three days ago lol.

I wasn't planning on getting anything, just going out for a drive and a look. Did end up getting a gorgeous Frogspawn coral that I've been searching for, for months! Super excited but then had to drive back an hour to get my brother and bring him to our dad's. I ended up buying the new game, Horizon Zero Dawn (spent way too much money, but SO WORTH IT!).


----------



## ryry2012

Oh, it was three days ago! lol


I looked up Frogspawn coral. It's beautiful! I've seen beautiful corals at LFS. They are $$$. Playing game is fun. But don't get addicted ;-)


Can I ask you a question?
I want to get Chili Rasbora in my CPD tank. My LFS sells wild caught Chli's. My tank water pH is 7.2-7.4 and GH is under 100 (5-6 API drops). I'm using Sera Super Peat, but it seems it hasn't altered pH at all. I don't want to use any chemicals. Wild Chili's prefer pH under 7.0. Do you think I can still add the wild Chili's in my tank?


----------



## themamaj

How are the geckos?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ryry2012 said:


> Oh, it was three days ago! lol
> 
> 
> I looked up Frogspawn coral. It's beautiful! I've seen beautiful corals at LFS. They are $$$. Playing game is fun. But don't get addicted ;-)
> 
> 
> Can I ask you a question?
> I want to get Chili Rasbora in my CPD tank. My LFS sells wild caught Chli's. My tank water pH is 7.2-7.4 and GH is under 100 (5-6 API drops). I'm using Sera Super Peat, but it seems it hasn't altered pH at all. I don't want to use any chemicals. Wild Chili's prefer pH under 7.0. Do you think I can still add the wild Chili's in my tank?


Oh lol, I've been addicted to video games my whole life now. I mean, I'm not going to stop everything to play the games but heck, if I get even a moment's chance, I will!

Yeah, the Chili's should be fine. They're pretty resilient fish thankfully.



themamaj said:


> How are the geckos?


They're good  Still have everyone. Have to clean out the 40B with the Leo's but all is well. THey're all adult size now and gearing up for the breeding season. I won't keep eggs but I know they'll be laid for sure this year. I'll be upping their calcium intake again when that happens.


----------



## themamaj

Great to hear. My leo is good as well. Such a character. I have thoroughly enjoyed her.

Do you use a python for water changes?


----------



## ryry2012

lilnaugrim said:


> Oh lol, I've been addicted to video games my whole life now. I mean, I'm not going to stop everything to play the games but heck, if I get even a moment's chance, I will!
> 
> Yeah, the Chili's should be fine. They're pretty resilient fish thankfully.


Hahahaha! I knew it! This is how games are made. Get people addicted, make them want to buy more games when they complete the ones they already have. The newer games are, the more real and addictive they are  Somehow, I've never been into games. I mean I never want to get one because I'm horrible. A friend of mine told me to play his Zelda game when I was housesitting his place. I turned on the player but couldn't even make Zelda walk, lol. 


Thank you for assuring that Chili's should be fine with higher pH. I've been dying to get them. Well, my LFS was out of them last two times I stopped by last month. I will check in again!


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Great to hear. My leo is good as well. Such a character. I have thoroughly enjoyed her.
> 
> Do you use a python for water changes?


Awesome ^_^

And nope, 3 gal bucket and a siphon hose for water changes.



ryry2012 said:


> Hahahaha! I knew it! This is how games are made. Get people addicted, make them want to buy more games when they complete the ones they already have. The newer games are, the more real and addictive they are  Somehow, I've never been into games. I mean I never want to get one because I'm horrible. A friend of mine told me to play his Zelda game when I was housesitting his place. I turned on the player but couldn't even make Zelda walk, lol.
> 
> 
> Thank you for assuring that Chili's should be fine with higher pH. I've been dying to get them. Well, my LFS was out of them last two times I stopped by last month. I will check in again!


Ah, you mean Link lol. Link is the main character and Zelda is the princess ;-) common mistake with the names and all! But yes, absolutely!


----------



## themamaj

Glad I'm not the only old school


----------



## ryry2012

Oops! I thought the boy was Zelda  


I called the LFS today. They don't have Chili's. They haven't gotten any for a while. I saw they had a lot of them when I was still cycling the tank. The owner doesn't know when they will get a new shipment. Oh well.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Glad I'm not the only old school


I'm too cheap to spend it on any sort of Python type hose! Gotta save the money for my salt tanks! lol.



ryry2012 said:


> Oops! I thought the boy was Zelda
> 
> 
> I called the LFS today. They don't have Chili's. They haven't gotten any for a while. I saw they had a lot of them when I was still cycling the tank. The owner doesn't know when they will get a new shipment. Oh well.


Haha no worries! Many do!

Aw shucks, that stink :-/ George up here always has them. I can always get some from him and ship them down if it's something you're interested in. His are 4.99 each IIRC. They're tank bred and raised from a guy who has a 300 gallon that is chock full of them! It was absolutely stunning to see! But those are nice and hardy as well.


----------



## ryry2012

Aww, thank you! I'll see if he gets Chili's. If not, I'll ask you to do get them for me  
Chili's at the LSF is 3.75 each + 9.25% tax. They have good assortment of nano fish. I got a dozen CPD about six weeks ago, lost one from fungus and one jumped out. The remaining ten are doing well and already breeding although I'm not sure if any fries can survive in the same tank. 


Do you acclimate all fish including wild caught fish with the drip method? I saw a Rachel's (msjinkzd) youtube video. She does "plop and drop" all her fish and invertebrates she gets, including internationally shipped ones. I was so amazed to see it.﻿


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## themamaj

I saw that too. Have done that method myself. Mainly because I'm too impatient to drip acclimate but also of thought better to get in a tank quicker to limit stress. 

Maybe one of these days I will try a salt tank. Very intriguing as particularly fond of several salt species.


----------



## firewood04

themamaj said:


> I came home with a new fish today. I liked the different color pattern. He was labeled by Petco a bumble bee male. So what is this new label and is it basically a fancy betta? His colors are more of a blue grey and a golden yellow. My Marlin I have is what I consider a "bumble bee" that is a yellow/black koi so this was a new description on cup.


That is a beautiful fish and I love the markings.


----------



## firewood04

Good to see you posting again Lilnaugrim! I have taken a break also. I love your new fish and your pics of them. I love reading your thread and have i ever said thank you for all the things you have taught me since helping me treat Midnight? Thanks for all that you have done to help all of us! I now have 5 Bettas and all of them are healthy at the moment. I did rescue a Betta with Pop Eye that I have treated with everything that should have cured his pop eye. I have just decided that both his eyes must have been damaged in shipping. He is pretty blind so he takes special treatment but he is an Elephant Ear with a happy go lucky attitude that I just love.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Thank you firewood! I really appreciate hearing that ^_^

--------------

I always do the Plop and Drop method now as well. Especially with any type of cory cat. They excrete a hormone when stressed, it becomes concentrated in the bag and can kill them if they don't get out of it quickly. It's a defense mechanism (though, usually working against another fish or animal, not the cory). Even my saltwater, I'll let the water warm up a bit if it's chilly, but otherwise, it's plop and drop. Although, pretty much all saltwater is the same unlike freshwater where it can vary greatly. I've still had the most success with plop and drop. They might be a little stressed for the first half hour or so but otherwise, they color up quicker and are overall healthier than if I did a full acclimation. The only thing I acclimate is temp now, just open the bag to get some fresh air and let it float for about 15-30 minutes or whatever. Then in they go. 

----- @themamaj, yeah! Love my salt tanks! Set up was costly, even with using items I already had. I started using my own tap water and mixing with salt and other chemicals but now I simply buy 5 gallons of it premade from George, it's only 7.50 which is nice. All I have to do is heat it up and it lasts me a few weeks. I'm not on a weekly schedule at the moment for water changes because I was letting the tank re-cycle from moving it from the 20 to the 29 but soon I'll be doing the 10% again. I'll probably keep 10 gallons of premade salt soon since my 10 is pretty much finished cycling and due for it's change.

The one thing that you cannot, absolutely cannot, skimp on, is lighting. I've learned this for sure. I started with the Finnex Planted+ which is still a favored light of course, but my friend gave me a fixture for T5 HO lighting. One Actinic and one 10K at the moment. I am undecided what I want to try next because the bulbs likely are old and need to be changed. So far, my corals have grown nearly double what they were with the LED. I have much more red cyano unfortunately, manual removal is your friend. But I know red cyano can't grow under blue light, if I were to switch to two Actinics, it would go away and my coral colors would pop tenfold. However, corals don't grow as quickly under blue lights, just bumps color up. So I think I may stay with a 7K or 10K with the Actinic so I can get both growth and some color while they fill out and then once they're at a level that I like, I'll switch to two Actinics instead. But yeah, don't skimp on lighting if you want a reef tank! ^_^


----------



## themamaj

Good to know on lighting. So moral of the story is save up and expect to be addicted to coral 

Hey sent you an email. Is address the same? If not pm me.


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## lilnaugrim

I woke up to an awesome surprise!! My honey gourami bred and I've got get already!!! Took out the females to let the male do his thing!

Little black things are the dry. I count around 10 at the moment, might be more against the leaf that I can't see.








And my 20 long at the moment. Again, nothing special. Have to buy more plants again. All I have currently is some ozelot sword and hygrophila. Just have two otocinclus and six baby red jewel cichlids now (hemichromis bimaculata)








Ricordea mushroom has burst with new growth under better lights!








Finally found some frogspawn last week!








And here's my salt tank as of today. Nothing super special, gotta figure out the rocks. I'm not in love with the scape just yet.


----------



## Sadist

Congratulations on the fry already! The corals are looking nice with the new light.


----------



## themamaj

Congrats on fry. Love the corals. So is it harder to maintain a salt 10 gallon vs a larger tank?


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Congrats on fry. Love the corals. So is it harder to maintain a salt 10 gallon vs a larger tank?


Thank you!

Yes, it is because it's such a small space, changes in any sort of level can be very harmful for the fish. Most corals are very sensitive but there are a plethora of fish that are hardy. You could do a FOWLR tank (Fish Only With Live Rock) instead or do one coral that grows quick like the Green Star Polyp and just do that and be fairly easy. Water changes and feeding have to be done carefully. Too much food can create nitrate spikes which can also kill off some corals or fish.

And, I am so sorry for not responding to your email. I did see it and I don't want to say that I have been ignoring it because I kind of have but I also forget about it until I log in here as well because once I read an email and don't respond, I just....forget about it >.< Thank you for bearing with me though. To answer the question on your email, it looks like a start of some sort of cyst. Has it done anything since you emailed me?


----------



## themamaj

I have had treated both girls with malachite green. They have both have shown improvement. Going to water change tonight so will get another good look then.


----------



## themamaj

Girls completely recovered and doing well. Do have lizard question. Miss Sofie is my problem child at moment. Haven't pooped in a week. Last one was very dry. She had been hanging out in moist hide more and urine output down so determined she was dehydrated. Humidity good. Been doing baths but no poop. Did drop of olive oil on nose. Still nothing. Tried to get good look at belly. No obvious blue. Carpet substrate. Had been eating only meal worms for few weeks. She goes in food spells where only eating one thing. Back eating crickets this week which better for moisture content. Had 20 min bath tonight and massage belly. She wasn't real happy with me after that and ran to her hide. May be a little lethargic but overall herself. Any suggestions? If no poop soon was thinking of vet visit.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Girls completely recovered and doing well. Do have lizard question. Miss Sofie is my problem child at moment. Haven't pooped in a week. Last one was very dry. She had been hanging out in moist hide more and urine output down so determined she was dehydrated. Humidity good. Been doing baths but no poop. Did drop of olive oil on nose. Still nothing. Tried to get good look at belly. No obvious blue. Carpet substrate. Had been eating only meal worms for few weeks. She goes in food spells where only eating one thing. Back eating crickets this week which better for moisture content. Had 20 min bath tonight and massage belly. She wasn't real happy with me after that and ran to her hide. May be a little lethargic but overall herself. Any suggestions? If no poop soon was thinking of vet visit.


Oh good! what did you do for her, anything special?

Hmm, I'm not too certain.
I would try another bath, do it daily for three days about 10-15 minutes should be sufficient. If still nothing then I would see the vet as you've done everything else that seems to be suggested around the internet.

Also keep in mind that breeding season is upon us! My girl Len just had her two first eggs of the season. If Sophie isn't taking in enough calcium, she could end up with an egg that just can't pass. Most of the time if she doesn't see a male then they'll just reabsorb the eggs but I know that it can still happen occasionally where they decide to pass a pair. I'm not too certain of the circumstances for it, just know it's happened before is all. If she starts to bloat then I would absolutely bring her in ASAP, but try more warm water first to see if it helps.

Do you use anything like the Repta-Boost? It's perfect for female leo's to get that extra calcium. As always, a Leo cannot overdose on calcium and this is the time of year that you'd want to load them up with it, even if they aren't having eggs. Vet may suggest using Emeraid as well if they offer it. I got my giant bottle for $10 from them, lasts quite a while! And formulated specifically for Insectivore lizards.


----------



## themamaj

I got her to take a few drops of Reptivite the other day. She hates it but can get her to get down some doing a drop of it on nose at time and she will lick it off. Poor girls have to deal with eggs too. Males have it easy haha. I will cont baths and see how she does. I have a name of exotic vet in town that is supposed to be good. What can they do for them if egg bound?


----------



## lilnaugrim

She likely isn't egg bound but could just be bound up from her own poop. Egg binding only happens if a male is present and lack of calcium (or egg morphs into one giant egg like Zolla had that one time--still can't believe she was able to pass it!). Typically it won't happen (unless super rare occasions) without a male present. So I don't think you have to worry about that. If anything, just her regular diet might be causing some issues.

Reading some more it looks like also bugs being too big can cause impaction, so that might be something to look into as well. Mostly people say to look at the normal stuff first: is her tank hot enough? You have a heat pad under the tank, yes? If so, is it at 90-ish degrees? Dehydration and vitamin deficiency is another one as well. And then it goes into the uncommon stuff of parasites and bacterial infections.


----------



## themamaj

Yes have thermastat set and tank stays easily 90s+ on hot side. Humidity 50%+. 20L tank so think habitat fine. Big bugs may be issue. Lately have not found smaller crickets because everywhere out and even meal worms eating were larger than like. I dust everything and try to get boost down her. Did you tell me one time you add a calcium additive to water? Had her walking around in room. Controlled area of course and had good warm bath. Hoping something moves tonight.


----------



## themamaj

Success we have poop! The things that excite us lol. Dry so going to continue baths and see if I can get her back on regular schedule. Thanks for help 😊🐊


----------



## lilnaugrim

Yay!!! That's always very exciting!

Yeah, I add calcium to my water since it has literally nothing in it. If it weren't for the iron, it would be fine to use for my saltwater tanks with no issue! But Salt doesn't like iron lol. So I add calcium in it so they get it there as well. I also add it to the water that I mist with as well since they'll lick that sometimes as well. Don't typically add it to the bath though. 

Yeah, no small crickets here either! Must be a shortage somewhere :-(


----------



## lilnaugrim

So um.....hey guys
*awkwardly waves*


It's uh...been a while, huh?


A lot as happened with me and I'm sure a lot has happened on the forum too. I just found out that I'm able to get onto the forum on my work computer! I'm not sure how long it will last or if it will be blocked eventually if I use it too much (I HATE using mobile for forums) so for now, I'm saying I can at least be around!


Currently I am employed now at Electric Boat as a drafter! We design and build our navy's submarines here!
I started last week (8/22) and so, being the new girl, I've got nothing to do!


I am currently keeping three types of wild Betta. B. siamorientalis, B. rutilans (wine red), and B. wyjok (why-jock). The last two were given to me as gifts!
I still have other betta, tried an HMPK spawn recently but daddy ate the eggs >.<
We have our fish show and auction coming up very soon! Can't wait to show my fish!


I now have a few more additions to my reptiles!
I still have all five Leo's: Hawkeye, Luna, Astrael, Cullen, and Dorian. Plus Cloudjumper my Gargoyle. I sold Toothless to a local shop for credit. I then bought two African Fattail baby geckos: Lux and Nox. And now I have my first bearded dragon: Stormfly (continuing with the How To Train Your Dragon theme there). She's a hoot and quite the character!


I have my salttank still but I think I'll take it down soon.


I'm still at my mom's but hopefully within the year I'll be at my own apartment (renting from my dad actually lol)!


So, no pics at the moment since I have terrible cell service here but if I have the time tonight, I might upload a few for you guys!
So, don't expect a total comeback but I will help out when I can! I just hope this site stays open at work! And my cubemate doesn't get annoyed with the clickety-clack of my keyboard >.< Wish I had a non clackety one, ugh.


----------



## ryry2012

Good to see you! Isn't Electric Boat the company you really wanted to get the job at? How wonderful  Designing navy's submarines?? Since I'm not a creative person, I can't even imagine how you can do that ;-) I'm trying to hand sew a nice lunch bag for my son using three fabrics. It's taking too long to decide how to cut them to start. haha


I do hope your work won't block the access to this forum. Please, please, please. We need you. I also like to read your journal!


----------



## lilnaugrim

ryry2012 said:


> Good to see you! Isn't Electric Boat the company you really wanted to get the job at? How wonderful  Designing navy's submarines?? Since I'm not a creative person, I can't even imagine how you can do that ;-) I'm trying to hand sew a nice lunch bag for my son using three fabrics. It's taking too long to decide how to cut them to start. haha
> 
> 
> I do hope your work won't block the access to this forum. Please, please, please. We need you. I also like to read your journal!


Yes! Well, it's not my dream job but it's a really good place to be in. Honestly, you need no artistic ability to work here, or any experience for most positions. ^_^


Thanks, I hope not as well, it will be nice to be on here again.


----------



## indjo

Hey lil, welcome back.
Congrats!!! Glad to hear things are working out for you.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu

Welcome back!!!

:greenyay: :redyay: :blueyay:

:yourock:​


----------



## LittleBettaFish

Welcome back. Good to see you keeping some wild betta species.

Do you mean Betta sp. Wajok instead of Wyjok? I've never heard of Betta wyjok. Betta sp. Wajok is a small red bubblenester likely from the coccina complex (although it's not officially described).


----------



## themamaj

Glad to see you back and thrilled you have a dragon! They are the best


----------



## lilnaugrim

LittleBettaFish said:


> Welcome back. Good to see you keeping some wild betta species.
> 
> Do you mean Betta sp. Wajok instead of Wyjok? I've never heard of Betta wyjok. Betta sp. Wajok is a small red bubblenester likely from the coccina complex (although it's not officially described).



oh lol, yeah that's the one. It's still new to me but my fish store received 15 pairs of each: Wajok and Rutilans on his last shipment. Pretty exciting, they're beautiful fish!


----------



## ThatFishThough

Hurrah! Let's celebrate! Welcome back, lil!


----------



## lilnaugrim

heh, thanks guys ^_^


so turns out that my internet usage IS tracked at work so I just have to be careful for how long I'm on. I'll try to check a few times but I don't want to get into trouble either ('^-^)


I looked for pics to show you guys last night but it's been a while since I've taken any! I'll have to take some more to show you what I've got right now.
Made the geckos take their baths last night, they all hate me for it. Need to take them out more often; Hawkeye practically begs me to come out every time I'm over there!
Cloudjumper is really big now! She's almost to adult size, just shy a few grams but very close! She's so funny, she'll sit at her feeder and just mlem the Pangea food until it's gone! And then she'll lick the cup clean and then beg for more apparently. She's quite the silly Gargoyle!
Stormfly has suddenly developed a fear of my hand in the last two days >.> Not happy with that but I'll keep doing what I can to coax her. She loves her crickets, mealworms, and superworms for sure! And salads of course, Escrole is her favorite.


Fishes are mostly good. My 55 has suddenly turned into some sort of death trap. Every fish I put in there mysteriously dies within 24 hours....I think some chemical might have gotten in there or something. I was going to raise some calico goldfish (fantails, comets, commons) for my outdoor pond since it hasn't seen new blood in um...like 12 years since we first introduce the first 3....yeah, might be time. But I was going to raise them over winter and then introduce them in springtime or soon after when the weather gets warm enough. But my plans have spoiled >.>


45 is still up and running, looks about the same. Haven't done much. I have 2 Rosaline barbs (adoptions), 2 Tiger Barbs, 1 Golden Gourami, 1 RTBS, 1 Syndontis hybrid sp. (I think she's a Leopard and maybe a squeaker but idk, she's small). So not much going on here, need to bump up my numbers! I had 6 Tiger barbs but the little ones were eaten...whoops. The bigger two actually don't seem to bother any other fish, they just kind of hang out together. Seems like they might be a pair, idk much about barbs and mating though, just happy they like each other. I want to get more Rosaline barbs but these guys shouldn't be in my tank in the first place, I know how big they get after all, but they are cute as hell! They bug the RTBS and she bugs them right back but then they settle like nothing happened.


I have a 5.5 with B. siamorientalis in there, a group of 4. And then another 5.5 with an HMEE blue salamander with 6 Ember tetras. My 2.5 is currently holding the B. wajok and B. rutilans until I set up a few more small tanks for them but they seem content in their java moss jungle and feasting well. And then my 29 salt tank is still up but I think I'll take that down soon and donate it all to a middle school with the help of George. I was going to give to him but he suggested donation and so that's what we're going to do. Pretty neat! I have my clownfish still, a Falco Hawkfish, and the Fiji fire devil Damsel.


And then I have smaller show tanks around, gearing up for our fish show and auction this year in just two weeks! September 8-10. If anyone nearby wants more info, go on tfsri.net or follow us on facebook for updates!


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## ThatFishThough

Hey, lil!

I'm getting 8 40G Breeders, and in one of them I'm putting a Leo.

I have a "couple" questions for you; What thermometer do you use? How many? Where are they placed?

ETA: What do you think of tis? https://www.amazon.com/CNZ-Thermome...rd_wg=kzdNC&psc=1&refRID=5K3NN0FRMZYBN773H2NX

I want to do a bioactive natural set-up, with real plants. I'll try to explain in as short as I can...


The places where the plants are placed are going to be 'separate' from the "base" substrate; Most likely in circular cork-bark, hanging from basket-type things on the side panels of the glass, etc. If I decide to put any of the plants near the ground they will be seaprate from the cocoa fiber... So, would organic potting soil be okay for the plants? If it's separated from the soil, can I use EcoComplete? I'll probably be putting Isopods (Pill-Bugs) and Springtails, but what happens if the gecko eats them? Will it hurt him/her?

What plants would you use?

Can I have multiple females? Would it be better to go with one male?

Is there anything that I absolutely need to know that I'm totally ignorant about? Any n00bish mistakes that you can see? XD Sorry for the "couple" questions... I'm excited to have you back!


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## blueridge

@ThatFishThough
I know this is Lil's journal, but I can answer your questions about a bio-active terrarium. 
If you are going to put plants in your substrate you are going to want to have a drainage lair under your plants (like clay balls, egg crate, etc.) to help with drainage, with weed block on top of that, then soil for your plants. Organic potting soil is definitely a good choice, or you can go with a substrate called ABG mix. You can use Eco Complete for just your leo, but you'll have to be cautious about making sure your leo doesn't get eat too much substrate to get impacted. A couple of ways to not worry about this is either feed in a separate container or feed via tongs. The chance of your leo eating springtails or isopods is very slim because they are extremely small, however if it does happen there is nothing to worry about. 
Here is a good reptile plant list for you to start from: Chameleon Safe Plant List | FL Chams


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## ThatFishThough

Thanks. I don't want to drag this too off topic, so I'll go post in your journal.


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## lilnaugrim

Blue's got it! And no worries! I always encourage others to educate as much as they can as well! I don't mind ^_^

I personally wouldn't do loose substrate for Leo's. Their joints are too finicky and loose substrate can cause them to collapse or to lose muscle from what I've heard. Carpet, slate, or some other firm substrate is the way to go with Leo's. As far as I know, these are the only geckos that have this issue. They come from Pakistan where they run over harden dirt and sand when they need to and dig large burrows in the wild. Most domesticated Leo's don't dig as much, though some love to do it.

And yeah, I just use the cheapest digital thermometer so the one you've got will work fine. Mine ran out of battery a little while ago so need to get more >.< But I only use two. One under the carpet with the Thermostat for my UTH to make sure that it's heating correctly and not out of whack, and one on the cool side to make sure it's around 75-80 ish. You can use a third one on the hot side on the side of the tank as well if you like but I don't bother with that one. The geckos will move when they get too hot.

The plant list that Blue gave you is good but very few come from the Leo's Natural habitat. Not to say that you can't place other plants though. But I already mentioned the reasons for not doing a soil substrate. You could still do the corkbark planters with a water catch on them so it doesn't soak the bottom. Leo's will climb, especially when young so make sure they're very hardy plants. Also make sure you stabilize the cork rounds as well so they don't just fall over. Also keep in mind that you still need a minimum of at least three hides. You might think there's a lot of room in a 40B but, it fills up fast, let me tell you! lol

And I would go with a solo male if you can. Easier to care for; no worries of fighting, less of a vet bill if needed, less to feed, and more personable! Having a few females is nice but things can still get ugly, even if they grew up with each other. All reptiles are solo creatures in the wild. They will come together for breeding and sometimes eating, but for the most part, they aren't social enough to be kept successfully. Even my girls fight for dominance, they don't always physically fight, but it's a lot of mental stuff as well. You can tell who is on the bottom of the list by looking at their tails unfortunately. The lowest girl will always have a smaller tail since she's not permitted as much food as the others because they eat it first. Even Hawkeye is a little on the skinny side at the moment because he's for some reason given up his crown this year. Even my African Fat-tails; I'm going to have to separate them out or give one away because Nox isn't getting enough food. I take out the "omegas" of the pack and feed separately typically though, it helps but it's so much simpler to just keep two. Cloudjumper is 10x healthier since I gave away Toothless. She's fully grown now and shedding like crazy! :-D

So yeah, those are my opinions and not to be taken as bible law though. The substrate thing is always a big debate, you can try it with the soil if you want to, but I recommend compacting it at least to make it firmer. Lay it down in layers and mist the section and press down, lay another and repeat until you get your desired depth. That's what I did for my Beardie.  Hope this helps!


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## lilnaugrim

And just to report, Cloudjumper is apparently a fatty! >.<

So an adult Gargoyle is supposed to be around 35 grams, she weighed in at 38 this morning. Yep, she's been eating well!

Beardie
Stormfly was 24grams

African Fat-tail
Nox: 7 grams
Lux: 8 grams

Leos
Hawkeye: 45g
Luna: 41g
Astrael: 23g (she's always been small but she did lose weight recently)
Cullen: 42g
Dorian: 29g

So you can clearly see who's top of the list and who isn't for my Leo's. I do regret saying that I've had a bath month and my reptiles suffered due to it but I'm doing everything now to correct that wrong I did to them. No one is deathly ill or anything so that's a good start I think. They all just need to gain weight mostly. Nox and Lux are still babies and hence the tiny number.

I believe Stormfly is about 2-3 months old at this moment. I haven't measured her yet but I think she's around 8 inches from snoot to tail end which is in that range for age from what I saw. She's eating super well. She's still afraid of me when I put my hand in and today she started puffing at me >.> but once she's out of the tank she's like "oh, this is okay". I'm not really sure how to transition this and make it a good thing. I try holding her just in the tank and she jumps off to puff and pancake at me. So like...that doesn't work. Any other beardie keepers have tips/tricks? I tricked her onto my hand today with a cricket, is that the way to keep going?


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## themamaj

Scooping beardie under tummy and more from side or behind seems to work better. If I approach from the front like a big hand coming down it tends to spook more easily. Young ones are naturally more jumpy and will flare that beard a bit more. Offering a cricket from your hand or another treat like a blackberry is great so they associate the hand with food. They are extremely food driven. Very interested in your set up. What kind of substrate is she on? 

How about excavator clay for leos?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Scooping beardie under tummy and more from side or behind seems to work better. If I approach from the front like a big hand coming down it tends to spook more easily. Young ones are naturally more jumpy and will flare that beard a bit more. Offering a cricket from your hand or another treat like a blackberry is great so they associate the hand with food. They are extremely food driven. Very interested in your set up. What kind of substrate is she on?
> 
> How about excavator clay for leos?


She's simply on compacted sand in an older tank.
I have the excavator clay stuff but I'm not much of a fan yet. Maybe just in sections but not for the whole tank. It's with my fat tails at the moment to try it out. I'll be switching them to cocofiber mix to mimic their environment a little better. The clay got a lot harder than I thought it would, though, I guess I expected something different.


But the setup is just simple, nothing fancy yet. Have some stacking stones and a nice piece of wood under the basking area on one side. Food and water on the other side under the UVB light. Log hide that she never uses on that side and that's about it. She's misted almost daily (sometimes I forget >.<), always has water. I've been able to get her mostly to stop pooping in her water which is great. She only poops in her food if she doesn't like it, it seems. She loves Escrole, Collard Greens, and Carrots, and some Peas mostly. Loves all bugs. I have mealworms breeding which is great, need to get a bigger tub for them to breed more! And crickets hopefully to be bred soon as well. And then I've been getting small superworms lately since my stores were out of mealworms (the breeding colony is still small so good for fat tail but too small for bigger Leo's and Stormfly).


And yeah, I do scoop her as much as I can. The only time my hand comes in front is if I'm offering a bug to her or I pet her heady gently. She likes that a bit sometimes, kind of lulls her to sleep if she's sitting near me. She's still too energetic and my room is a mess so I can't let her run around much in my room yet. I'm working on that one a the moment because I think it'd be awesome if I could let them all (not at the same time) run around and be a little more free for playtime.


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## themamaj

Putting in an order tomorrow for some bioactive supplies for my gecko tanks. What do recommend on lighting for plants but still ok not to stress the geckos?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Putting in an order tomorrow for some bioactive supplies for my gecko tanks. What do recommend on lighting for plants but still ok not to stress the geckos?


Most planted LED's do just fine or daylight CFL's is always an easy way with a dome lamp to reflect it into the tank. That's what I did for Cloudjumpers old tank. As long as there are dark places they can hide and sleep if they wish, you should be all set.


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## themamaj

I had thought of ordering one of the LED bulbs that would fit in the hood, but have a bunch of the CFL on hand since that is what I use on fish tanks. I might go with the cheaper option for now and see how plants do then. One other question for you. I am looking at a couple of base substrates the hydrogrow, false bottom or ecoballs. Have seen a lot about siphoning out excess water that ends up on your drainage layer. Is water accumulation really an issue with just typical watering for plants and daily misting?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> One other question for you. I am looking at a couple of base substrates the hydrogrow, false bottom or ecoballs. Have seen a lot about siphoning out excess water that ends up on your drainage layer. Is water accumulation really an issue with just typical watering for plants and daily misting?


OH wow, for real? I never had that issue. Watered 3-4 times a week depending on plants, but I use little bit of water when I do that; it's better than drenching typically. And then misting daily shouldn't accumulate THAT much water at all. Often the gecko will lick up half of it anyway lol. But the way I did it, it isn't hard to get a small airline tubing down to the drainage layer if I absolutely need to. I just did the NEHerp's drainage layer on the bottom and then a layer of the black weed blocker and then soil on that and I was all set. But I put the weed blocker up along the sides to cup the soil so it didn't fall down into the drainage layer as well. So I can just lift that a bit and jiggle the drainage layer balls a bit and could get a tube down there if I needed to. But I've never seen it accumulate that much, it usually evaporates if you've got a big enough drainage layer. If you only have 1-3 inches, I could see that maybe having more of a problem...maybe. But if you do get some issue, stop watering so much is all, at least, that's my solution lol.


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## lilnaugrim

So we just had our Fish Show and Auction this past weekend!
What an event!


I barely slept, still recovering >.<


But I thought some fantastic items and some things were just given to me! Super excite!


One of our big names in Anabantoid collecting, Tony Pinto, he GAVE me his Betta Hendra trio!! I'm SO EXCITE! They're beautiful! I hope I can get fry from them, they're F1 fish too which means this is the first generation since the wild caught ones! They're stunning but still shy. I currently have them sitting in a 1 gallon until I can set up my other 5.5 and get them in there. I NEED to invest in a rack to put my wilds on. I now have four types! Yikes, when did that happen? I only bought one of the three though lol. My Betta wajok is doing fantastic, colored up beautifully. Rutilans are still small-ish but curious little buggers. Siamentorialis is about the same size as my wajok.


So, some say that the wajok is the same as Hendra, some others say the wajok is the same as the rutilans. The wajok were brought in as "Wajok, From Rutilans" so we don't know if it was collected in the same area or if they were bred from rutilans and crossed. Both Hendra and Rutilans are bubblenesters, though Rutilans have been known to mouth-brood which is very weird. I thought at first that Rutilans were only mouth-brooders but upon further research, that isn't entirely true. I had no idea that some do both! This was found according to the IBC page.
I believe Wajok might be a cross of the two fishes; Hendra and Rutilans but it is only a speculation. They're always changing the names of the Betta's, reclassifying them to sell them for higher prices so the information gets muddled. We'll have to see what comes of them all!


I was also given a lovely big white fantail goldfish for my pond to get some better tail types in there and more white! I'm very excited.
My 55 currently has been killing fish though so I'm going to have to drain that completely. With the land work we've been doing, our well now has heavy metals in it that have been killing off my fish before I realized that was going on. So, I've since stopped using my water and hopefully I can use my uncle's next door. His is a deep well into the bedrock whereas ours is shallow, so very different water sources. He should be fine with it; he's barely home anyway.


I also took home five blue panda guppies! They're cuties. Some cherry shrimp and some box filters for my wilds. I purchased a lot of little things and only spent $40 which was a surprise! I thought I spent so much more. I also went to PetSmart and bought the TopFin 2.5 glass tank for $50 lol. The light is beautiful! It's a touch to turn on! So cool! And the best part is that the filter and light operate separately but they do run on the same power source, so can't really use a timer unless I want to turn the filter off but that's okay. I turn it on before work and turn it off when I come home or soon after, it's about 10-12 hours of light. I have some Cyperus helferi (seriously, it's like my favorite plant ever) and Ludwigia repens in there right now. Bought a huge bag stuffed full of Ludwigia, I have too much now! lol. Got three bags of java fern and subwassertang, great stuff. The cherry shrimp came with some mini Taiwan moss so I threw that in there on my piece of driftwood. I'm hoping I can take this tank into work with me once I have my own space. Hopefully they don't say anything about it but we'll see.


Bought a book on mini-aquariums as well so that's cool.


My Denison barb took second place in her class and Victoria's snail took third in his class!


It was a really good weekend, I'm just exhausted from working it all >.<


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## themamaj

What a great weekend with the show. Exciting to hear of new additions. Love to see some pictures. Wild type bettas are really interesting!


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## LittleBettaFish

I would say Betta sp. wajok are either closely related to Betta rutilans, or are different type locality of Betta rutilans. Personally, I think the mouthbrooding Betta rutilans are a separate, undescribed species. I've never seen the standard 'red' form of Betta rutilans mouthbrooding. It's always a fish known in the hobby as Betta sp. cf. rutilans green. There are also mouthbrooding Betta brownorum (this may be limited to fish from a single location but not much is out there) and I have heard reports, but never witnessed, mouthbrooding Betta coccina. 

Betta hendra look entirely different from Betta sp. wajok once both are coloured up. One interesting quirk about Betta sp. wajok that I have seen in person and read about online, is the presence of a green lateral blotch/spot similar to what is seen in Betta brownorum in some of the offspring. Hybridisation is frowned upon by a lot of wild betta breeders (including myself) and you really only see it with the splendens complex fish. 

Unfortunately, it takes a long time for species to be officially described. I mean Betta sp. cf. rutilans green has been around for years and still hasn't been officially described. Betta hendra was only fairly recently described, and before that it was known by several different names. 

One thing to watch out for with this complex, is velvet. They seem especially prone to it, and because of their strong natural iridescence and shyness, it can be easy to overlook. 

If you want further info on keeping/breeding these fish, I still have my blog Redwine Bettas. It's basically a summation of my years working with these fish, as well as everything I've absorbed from online sources.


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## lilnaugrim

LittleBettaFish said:


> I would say Betta sp. wajok are either closely related to Betta rutilans, or are different type locality of Betta rutilans. Personally, I think the mouthbrooding Betta rutilans are a separate, undescribed species. I've never seen the standard 'red' form of Betta rutilans mouthbrooding. It's always a fish known in the hobby as Betta sp. cf. rutilans green. There are also mouthbrooding Betta brownorum (this may be limited to fish from a single location but not much is out there) and I have heard reports, but never witnessed, mouthbrooding Betta coccina.
> 
> Betta hendra look entirely different from Betta sp. wajok once both are coloured up. One interesting quirk about Betta sp. wajok that I have seen in person and read about online, is the presence of a green lateral blotch/spot similar to what is seen in Betta brownorum in some of the offspring. Hybridisation is frowned upon by a lot of wild betta breeders (including myself) and you really only see it with the splendens complex fish.
> 
> Unfortunately, it takes a long time for species to be officially described. I mean Betta sp. cf. rutilans green has been around for years and still hasn't been officially described. Betta hendra was only fairly recently described, and before that it was known by several different names.
> 
> One thing to watch out for with this complex, is velvet. They seem especially prone to it, and because of their strong natural iridescence and shyness, it can be easy to overlook.
> 
> If you want further info on keeping/breeding these fish, I still have my blog Redwine Bettas. It's basically a summation of my years working with these fish, as well as everything I've absorbed from online sources.


Ah yes! LBF, I meant to tag you in that post since I had looked at your blog! But I got sidetracked >.>

They could have potentially hybridized in the wild though since their parents were wild caught. Tony said that he's seen a lot of variation in all the species. Some Rutilans that were as dark as Hendra, some Brownorum with the spot and some without. There's a huge variability which makes it hard to classify the species. 

And yes, Velvet, I recall your battles with those :-/ I have definitely been keeping my eye out. Thankfully all my wilds actually seem to like me and come up for food all the time. They rarely hide unless I accidentally hit the tank or move the stands they're on or something like that. But they respond very well to me which is great! My wajok are always at the front begging for food and wiggling at the Rutilans next to them.

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate it. I'll surely document what comes of my Wajok for you. I do intend to breed or at least attempt to. Did you ever get a female for yours?


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## LittleBettaFish

I would very strongly doubt that B. sp. wajok is a hybrid. Particularly between those two species. However, until further study has been done on this 'species' and it's been officially described, I suppose it's still anyone's guess. If I was going to speculate on this being a potential hybrid, I would think it was more likely to be the result of interbreeding between Betta brownorum and Betta rutilans, being that a Betta brownorum without its lateral blotch is extremely similar to Betta rutilans in appearance. Especially as the lateral blotch has shown up in some F1 populations. 

My B. sp. wajok pair spawned and produced offspring that I reared up to about juvenile size. However, I lost the pair and had to euthanase the juveniles during the velvet epidemic. 

As I'm getting out of wild bettas, I never bothered to replace them.


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## lilnaugrim

LittleBettaFish said:


> My B. sp. wajok pair spawned and produced offspring that I reared up to about juvenile size. However, I lost the pair and had to euthanase the juveniles during the velvet epidemic.
> 
> As I'm getting out of wild bettas, I never bothered to replace them.


I'm sorry to hear that :-(
I definitely understand how frustrating it can be.


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## lilnaugrim

So, still no pics yet. I've been slacking, I'm sorry!
Training at work has been kicking my butt this past week! Barely slept through this week, it's been bad. It's fun to do but it's also info overload and frustrating when you can't get the program to do what you want it to do. So there is that.


My goldfish went out into the pond and have been doing great. I originally had one small 3" sarasa inside along with a huge white fantail given to me by a friend. Then picked up a shubunkin about 5 inches from a coworker as she took down her pond. Then I was coerced into taking a Koi home from a PetCo friend lol, she gave me quite the discount on him since the season is ending and he was the only one at the time. I plan to get a few friends in the spring if he lives fine (which, I would assume he would). He's about 6 inches in size so shouldn't be an issue unless he gets eaten. He's a beautiful platinum with a red tancho spot and some other spots, nice gold spot on his side too.


I had one of my betta's die the other day. A lovely little yellow dragon HM fella I bought a few month ago. So I'm down to nine domestic Betta's. I still have three Betta Hendra (1M:2F), 2 B. wajok (1M:1F), 2 B. rutilans (1M:1F), 4 B. siamentorialis (1M:3F). Then I have one male Green Sunfish that I picked out of the PetCo feeder tank. I thought it might have been a jack Dempsey baby but turns out it's a sunfish! He's rather cute so he's just chilling in my 55 for now. They get aggressive so he'll be by himself, they don't get super huge either which is nice.


So for tanks I currently have:
2.5 with Rutilans and Wajok (split)
2.5 with Hendra
2.5 with Panda Guppies
2.5 (deep blue) split between 5 domestic betta (2 males and 3 females)
5.5 that is empty (Hendra will move into that and Wajok will move into empty 2.5)
5.5 with Siamentorialis
29 FOWLR tank (I do have one little green star polyp which has been spreading like crazy, that's about it)
45 downstairs (1 Gold Gourami, 1 RTBS, 1 Synodontis hybrid, 2 Tiger Barbs, 2 Rosaline barbs)
55 with Green Sunfish


Reptiles:
5.5 two Fattail (will be moving up to a 10 at least soon)
10 with Cloudjumper; Gargoyle (will be moving back into her Exo-Terra medium soon)
20 long with Stormfly
40B with Hawkeye, Luna, Astrael, Cullen, Dorian, and Gallifrey (new)


I want to get a 33long (George sells them for about 80! Same footprint as 55 but shorter), or a 75 gallon perhaps for my Leo's since I now have six. Rather irresponsible for me to get another one I know, she hasn't been integrating as well as I'd hoped. She's bottom of the pecking order but she's gorgeous. The other option is to get a bunch of 10's and separate them all out and have lights on them instead of heating pads (not my preferred method) . Or use my spare two 20longs and split them up. They seem to work well in smaller groups of 2 and 3 for my guys. I can see the two dominant girls: Luna and Cullen, the other three girls are very submissive. So, I'd likely separate out those two to see what happens with my remaining ones; see if another dominant girl rises or if Hawk reclaims his place. Dude's been sitting back this summer and just observing rather than actually taking part and mating with them; he's been weird this year. He's like, allowing himself to submissive to Luna. So I think taking out my problem child; Luna, will help. I know Victoria didn't mean to burden me with her, but I wish I never had Luna. If I were to give Luna away, she'd be heartbroken so I'm kind of stuck :-/ She's certainly not my favorite gecko and isn't super friendly. She'll allow me to pick her up when she deems it's okay but will bite occasionally (doesn't hurt) when she doesn't want me to hold her. She's a typical female.


Stormfly has entered Burmation I think which means she's older than I thought. She's been pooping a little but eating has been a minimum. I raised my heat to 110 for her basking, I was just falling short at 95 before, so this will help her digestion. I think she does have a small blockage at the moment though. I've been soaking her as often as I can in hot water or about 10 minutes or so. She's primarily getting greens and some mealworms, she wasn't interested in crickets. So, we'll see. I know it's that time of year so it's hard to tell sometimes.


I've also just adopted an English Lop rabbit named Wiki. I'm picking him up on Sunday! Kind of excited for that. He was free along with all his equipment and stuff! The owner just didn't have enough time to take care of him and be with him. I've already cleaned out my bathroom to make it rabbit proof (or as much as I can) and working on my spare room at the moment (where my 55 and wilds are) so he can just be out and run around when I'm home. That will give him a good 5-6 hours out daily which is what he needs  I've learned a lot about rabbit care from Victoria and from the web here but always ears if anyone has tips for them! Since he's a Lop, I know his nails need to be trimmed and ideally he should be on soft substrate. Ears need to be checked often for infections, and then the usual just cleaning daily, food, fresh water, toys, etc. I still have some toys from Tyrion; Victoria's old rabbit so that works. I've already bought some soft paper substrate for him and hay/feed. I'm waiting to see exactly what he comes with and then purchase better things from there. Looks like the owner just bought basic things for him. I do also want to neuter him down the road; need to take him to my vet to get a checkup done as well. If I can get two rabbits down the road (long ways), then he'll have even more companionship while I'm at work which would be good; hence the neutering part.


So that's about it for my updates on pets. Lots going on with the fish club still so been busy with that and work. I'm also starting a Zumba class with my dad so we can hopefully both lose weight ^_^ Much excite!


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## blueridge

Can't wait to see your rabbit! :shock: Definitely get him fixed. It will help with a lot of behavioral problems that you might have. Also if you can set up a run like area for him to have access to 24/7 he will definitely appreciate it more than just being let out for a few hours every day.


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## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> Can't wait to see your rabbit! :shock: Definitely get him fixed. It will help with a lot of behavioral problems that you might have. Also if you can set up a run like area for him to have access to 24/7 he will definitely appreciate it more than just being let out for a few hours every day.


Yeah, that's what I've been reading. It's worth the expense even if it's not health detrimental like it is for females. But I'd rather him actually poop in his litter box, she says he's trained but we'll see. And no humping is good, or at least less. Tyrion, Victoria's rabbit, humped my arm all the time, or at least tried >.<


That sounds good! I heard that puppy fencing is good for something like that? I kind of want to set up a corner of the room with his cage and then fencing around so all his stuff (litter box, food, water) is in there and he can just run around while I'm away. I think that would be great. The room is short rug as well so that's good for him. Tyrion used to love that room; he'd run around and hop excitedly and then flop over near me when he was done. He really loved me and my room so I know it's bunny-approved lol. He was a Lop/Rex mix IIRC. He was a good bun-bun.


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## ThatFishThough

Do you have pictures of the Sunfish? This summer I was thinking about setting up a kiddie pool and getting a couple Sunnies, but never got around to it because I wasn't sure where to get them. The fact that you found one at PetCo... I find that hilarious! Are they interactive? Easy keepers?

I didn't realize how much you've gotten into wilds! If you ever produce offspring I might have to grab a few.  I've always thought about getting some but I don't think I have the right water for the ones I want. That, and the fact that 90% of them are in, like Austrailia with LBF lol.


----------



## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> Do you have pictures of the Sunfish? This summer I was thinking about setting up a kiddie pool and getting a couple Sunnies, but never got around to it because I wasn't sure where to get them. The fact that you found one at PetCo... I find that hilarious! Are they interactive? Easy keepers?
> 
> I didn't realize how much you've gotten into wilds! If you ever produce offspring I might have to grab a few.  I've always thought about getting some but I don't think I have the right water for the ones I want. That, and the fact that 90% of them are in, like Austrailia with LBF lol.




<<snip>>That, and the fact that 90% of them are in, like Austrailia with LBF lol.<<snip>>
LOL!!! Truth!


Anyway, yeah there are actually a lot of wilds in the states you just have to know people! I know people who collect directly so that's a huge help. If you've got a Fish society near you, you might be able to get involved and meet some people! We have plenty all around the states! ^_^ But yeah, if I get fry, they'll go to the club first and you guys second. As much as I love you all, the club is local and I'll get good money for them (not saying that you all wouldn't pay me anything), so it's just easier on me. But I'll keep you updated as I go along!


The Sunfish are great! He's still a little shy; doesn't know what to do with all this new space lol. But when I turn the light on, he comes out to challenge me and ask for food. If I move, he gets kind of skittish as he would in the wild. But, I've only had him like two-three weeks so he's still settling in; I've moved him a lot since I've bought him so it's no surprise that he hasn't settled too well just yet. But he's funny to watch if you just sit there and let him get used to you!


I'm not sure how multiples would do in a small-ish area. They're typically quite aggressive, at least the Green's and the Blue's. I think Pumpkinseeds are less aggressive but get bigger? I'm no expert on them of course, just things I've looked up through google.  But it's fun! Currently mine is about 2 inches long, still a baby! I have photos but will have to upload later at night when I'm home.


GETTING A BRAND NEW PHONE TODAY!!!! So much excite!
I've never ever had a brand new phone in my life before! I've always had the old models, like the 2-3 year old models >.< It's what I could afford. But now, dad, my little brother, and I, we're going on a Sprint plan and getting the new Galaxy s8!! I'm so excited! That's the highlight of my day lol ^_^


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## blueridge

It will also prevent him from spraying too! You definitely won't want that >.< 
Before I had to get rid of my guy, I used a dog X-pen. You'll definitely want something 36" and up so he can't hop over it too.


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## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> It will also prevent him from spraying too! You definitely won't want that >.<
> Before I had to get rid of my guy, I used a dog X-pen. You'll definitely want something 36" and up so he can't hop over it too.


Yes! I did read up about that as well. 

So I picked him up yesterday! Yes very healthy, nails trimmed, no obvious ear damage, inside of ears look good, clear eyes and a clean coat!

She gave me all of his things which actually include a big dog run! It's 16 square feet and it is 36 inches as well. I already had one in my "cart on Amazon before reading your reply and going since I had no clue what she had for him and assumed the worst. Yes got a big 3 foot long cage, water bottle (gonna offer bowl and bottle for him since bowls are more natural), feed bowl, litter box, food, hat, litter, got, fencing, and hay box. The only things I'm buying at the moment is a few more toys, non slip/too bowls, and better litter. He came with pine shavings which is controversial but I think I'll just finish off the package since its one of those huge ones. I have soft paper bedding to switch to when its done. Ive done a lot of research this morning and it seems like the pine causing liver damage is just a myth perpetuated by lab rabbits and their controlled environment. The carefresh paper bedding isn't all that good it seems. 

But Wiki is a good bun bun! He hasnt pooped outside of his cage yet, no scent marking or chewing things. Still want him fixed in case but so far so good. Tyrion would immediately start to poop scent when he got to my house >.< Wiki is just a big loud at night when he hood around. Yes a big bun bun, not Flemish giant sized but he's a full grown English Lop. Can't wait to take him to the vet ^_^

The lady also had some gorgeous angels too!


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## lilnaugrim

Some more pics since you guys have been so patient!
1. Stormfly on her hammock
2. Salt tank. Still battling my red cyanobacteria but going better. 
3. Red goldfish I entered into the show!
4. Red goldfish against white goldfish that was given to me!
5. Red, white, shubunkin goldfish I adopted, and a koi that was also practically given to me.
6. panda guppy tank. 2.5g topfin tank. 
7. Gallifrey, you see the circles in her back?
8. Stormfly again. 
9. Cloudjumper during shed
10. Beautiful hmpk that died a few days ago, the stress of showing was too much for him I guess.


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## themamaj

Bunny is such a cutie! Love all the picture. 

Stormfly is precious. Chomper went into a light brummation a couple of weeks ago. He would hide in cave most of day and eating went way down. He seems back to normal now. From what I have read there are different degrees of brumation and it varies between dragons. The frequent baths are good. 

Cloudjumper has grown so much! I remember when you first brought him home. What is his coloration?

Panda guppy tank is gorgeous!


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## blueridge

Wiki is gorgeous! He is such a cute bunny~ I used feline pine for my bunny. It seemed to go farther than the paper bedding. I love your single tailed goldfish!


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Bunny is such a cutie! Love all the picture.
> 
> Stormfly is precious. Chomper went into a light brummation a couple of weeks ago. He would hide in cave most of day and eating went way down. He seems back to normal now. From what I have read there are different degrees of brumation and it varies between dragons. The frequent baths are good.
> 
> Cloudjumper has grown so much! I remember when you first brought him home. What is his coloration?
> 
> Panda guppy tank is gorgeous!



Yep, so did Stormfly. She's still in it as far as I can tell. Just kind of chilling, not doing much at all. She somehow ingested some of my hairs (must have been in her bedding) and so they've been coming out in her poop  hope she doesn't become impacted. She's not pooping as much, so I don't know if she is impacted (been doing daily/twice daily hot water baths and massages just in case) or if it's from burmation and she's not eating as much hence not pooping as much. Gotta take her to the vet too to just get a check up, she'll be cheaper than Wiki at least.


Yes! Cloudjumper is an adult these days; pays rent, buys food for the kids--lol!
No idea, orange broken line? Something like that. She's from PetCo so your guess is as good as mine. 



blueridge said:


> Wiki is gorgeous! He is such a cute bunny~ I used feline pine for my bunny. It seemed to go farther than the paper bedding. I love your single tailed goldfish!


Mm yeah, I was reading about that pine as well. I may look into it if it goes further. The paper is nice and soft but may be too absorbent. I'd rather not spend an arm and a leg if I don't have to lol. Now, was that for just litter or bedding or both? He's got some weird pellet things for litter at the moment. I've used the SoPhresh litter before for Tyrion.
And thank you! He was a nice looking goldfish, I though ^_^ wasn't perfect for the show in the way of his fins being ragged but he wasn't too shabby!


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## blueridge

I used it just for litter. I had fleece liners made for him that he absolutely loved.


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## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> I used it just for litter. I had fleece liners made for him that he absolutely loved.


Oh! I have excess fleece I could use! But Wiki moved most of his shavings away to sit on the bottom of his cage so maybe he likes the coolness there. I may add some fleece in for the cooler months (it's been unusually hot), or at least give him the option to play with it if he likes. I shall give it a try!


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## lilnaugrim

Oh! I didn't say it on here!


I officially changed Wiki's named to Remington (Rem or RemRem for short). Yep, basically the same as Rembrandt. I'm still not very sold on it though....Wiki is adorable but it's weird to call him, especially for such a big bunny. I'd think it'd be great for a dwarf bunny but he is no dwarf. So....I'm stuck. Any suggestions?
I was thinking of Remington Steele, a great show with one of my favorite Bond actors ;-)


I finally received his new bowls! They're just 32 oz dog bowls essentially, non-slip so he can't tip them over easy. He LOVES drinking out of the bowl so that's awesome! He'll get more water in him, he definitely wasn't getting enough before with the bottle. I'll leave the bottle up just in case he does find a way to empty the bowl or drink it all and needs more.


I finally also moved my two African fattails onto a soil based substrate. The excavator sand/clay stuff was cool, but not good for them. Maybe for a small cave but I like to have caves I can lift up to take them out since they do love to hide. They aren't like a Monitor or Tegu or Beardie that would just come out. Especially since they're nocturnal and I'm not. I always feel bad for waking them to eat but have to makes sure they get food! Nox will eat mealworms off the tweezer but Lux has more issues eating. I can force her to eat out of the syringe though, I still use the Emeraid that the vet gave me, good stuff!


In fishy news, not much has changed. Down to 3 domestic males, 3 domestic females. Still have all the wilds, the wajok are colored up to super red, it's beautiful!


I bought two damsel's for my salttank so I have 3 and the Clownfish at the moment and one hermit crab. I think I still have a narcissus snail down there too, I see it occasionally at night and it freaks me out because I forget about it and then go "WHAT IS THAT???" "Oh....my snail....right" lol.


Nothing else has really happened.


I believe Stormfly came out of burmation or perhaps passed whatever was blocking her system. When I go to the petstore, the beardies her age are very obvious to sex now by looking at their heads. Males do have very different looking heads which is pretty cool. I really wanted to get a beautiful male I saw but I knew I definitely should not. No breeding or being egg-bound for Stormfly. She's had enough issues to go through. But he was beautiful and seemed to be fairly well tempered with the other girls. Looked to be dominant though and I'm pretty sure that Stormfly is dominant herself, so that would probably not end well. Plus, she's still only in a 20 long for now.


Leo's are all doing pretty good. Gallifrey isn't really happy but no one is bothering her and she isn't losing weight which is good! I'll have to weigh everyone again. I think Cloudjumper has grown some more too lol!


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## lilnaugrim

Okay yep, staying with Wiki because he actually responds to it! He also knows the command "Get out of there" and will actually do it. I'm rather impressed! He met Gimli on Sunday and wasn't a fan lol.


Nothing really new with fish. Two of my male Betta died, just the domestics. Don't really know what happened there. But I have two male domestics left, three females, and then the wilds all seem to be doing great. Once I'm back on good wifi, I'll upload some pics of those. My new phone takes great photos! I was very discouraged before with that terrible phone I had for about a year. So I just need reliable wifi in order to do that.


Nothing much new with the reptiles either. Moved the Fattails onto some soil finally and they've been pretty happy with that. Nox will eat worms off tweezers so I just have to hand feed him daily. Lux still won't really eat which is annoying and worrisome. I can forcefeed some Emeraid down him though. He's still bigger than Nox though so it's not too bad just yet.


Cloudjumper might be a boy? So hard to tell on Gargoyles >.< @themamaj, any tips on sexing them? I can do everything else except Gargs it seems! I'll try to get some pics if she cooperates with me. Still doesn't like being handled much :-/ but we're working on it. Still working on getting her back into her bigger cage too. She's in a 10g at the moment admittedly, definitely needs more room to climb. That's probably why she's so fat lol! She loves her pangea food though too.


Stormfly didn't seem too bothered when Wiki figured out how to climb over the fence and onto her cage >.> her 20 long is sitting on top of another 20 long that blocks the door from closing on my other room so I had to put the fence up so he wouldn't get in there. I think he actually climbed onto the box in the hall and jumped over. He did it like three times yesterday before I got fed up with it and locked him back in the bathroom where he couldn't escape. But Stormfly just seemed to be watching, wasn't startled much lol. She chowed down her superworms yesterday too.


In other news, I slipped down the stairs this morning and broke my thumb nail! No worries, just a couple bruises, the nail broke back to the bed but didn't go any further which is great. So funny though because I was holding the rail like mom used to tell me all the time (still does). My socks are more slippery than I thought so when I fell, I actually released the rail and slammed my hand back down on it which is where the nail broke off. It was such a beautiful nail too :-( sadface lol. Just glad it didn't rip through the bed, that would have been awful! But otherwise, I'm perfectly fine, just a little shock to the morning to wake me! lol.


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## ThatFishThough

I always find it easier to fall up the stairs rather than down, but it takes talent to do either safely! Glad you're okay!

How many reptiles do you have now? What size of terrariums are they in?


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## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> I always find it easier to fall up the stairs rather than down, but it takes talent to do either safely! Glad you're okay!
> 
> How many reptiles do you have now? What size of terrariums are they in?


Heh, it's true!
Had they been wooden stairs, I don't think my legs or back would have met the same fate!


Um let's see, 10 I believe.


*Leo's* are in the 40B
*Fattails* in a 5.5 but I have a 10 they're moving up to (or the 20long if I find a level space to put it on)
*Cloudjumper* in a 10 but I have her Medium Exo-Terra to put her back in once I move that onto my side table. Don't know why I keep putting it off now that I've cleared it off >.< that was the hard part!
*Stormfly* is in a 20L right now. I have the 55 for when she's a bit bigger. She's still a little small and I'd need to break down the 55 in order for her to fit.


But when I move into the apartment around April-ish we're hoping, I want to get a rack to put Leo's and Stormfly on one rack. So I know I can get 33longs from George, same footprint as 55 but half the size which is great. If I could find 40 long's that would be even better. I was thinking two 75's but they're too tall for me. I don't want a stepladder to take out my geckos >.<


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## lilnaugrim

Okay! Some pictures!

1. Wiki eating carrot tops
2. Wiki relaxing
3. Wiki flopped!
4-5. My supposed Betta wajok male 
6. Betta rutilans male
7-9. My poor kitty Dean. My brother took him to the hospital on Monday night because he was in pain. Turns out he had a big abscess on his side likely from an animal biting him (indoor/outdoor cat). And he had a vlae completely ripped out!! Poor baby spent the last 24 hours at the hospital. There goes $800! But worth it. He should be up and at it in no time, he's only a year and a half. Poor kitty, he was walking around like he was drunk, I felt bad for laughing but it's been a while since I've seen high kitties that walk into doors lol. He seems yo be doing well tonight, dosed on pain meds again to keep him satiated. It's going to be a long night for him though. The vets said he was the sweetest kitty ^_^ glad I raised my boy well! 

10. A gorgeous leatherbavk bearded dragon that I REALLY wanted. I can't tell you how much! But damn, I know I can't afford him, but if I had room! He would have come home with me in a heart beat!

11. Our Turkey chicks are all grown up! It's been a lovely year with them! They're wild but they stick around our house year round except November....they know...lol
12. Just a pretty pic I took with my new Galaxy s8 of our Columbine flowers from last week! Still blooming!


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## themamaj

Great pictures! Oh those leatherbacks are calling me. Would love to have a citrus hypo trans leatherback female. Now doesn't that scream expensive?! On gargoyles, I had to resort to my breeder lol. I think it is similar to leos but not sure that it is as pronounced. I hope that as mine reach a year or so it will be more obvious. I know Skylyn is a girl so I guess I will use her as a guide for Snickers. The crested geckos I have seen are fairly easy to tell. Maybe size is the key. 

Sorry about your finger. Sounds incredibly painful. As easy as it is to slip on regular stairs, I am sure glad we don't have wood ones.


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Great pictures! Oh those leatherbacks are calling me. Would love to have a citrus hypo trans leatherback female. Now doesn't that scream expensive?! On gargoyles, I had to resort to my breeder lol. I think it is similar to leos but not sure that it is as pronounced. I hope that as mine reach a year or so it will be more obvious. I know Skylyn is a girl so I guess I will use her as a guide for Snickers. The crested geckos I have seen are fairly easy to tell. Maybe size is the key.
> 
> Sorry about your finger. Sounds incredibly painful. As easy as it is to slip on regular stairs, I am sure glad we don't have wood ones.


Thanks!!
Ugh, that boy (pretty sure male) bearded was sooo tempting! And yes! That does sound a bit expensive lol.

Well, CJ is a full grown adult so it shouldn't be do hard. She's just very wiggly and flighty so I don't want to hurt her. But I'll try to get some pics of her!

And nag, the thumb is fine. It literally just looks like I clipped it down. It didn't bend back or anything so it didn't hurt bad, it was just what hurt the most relatively when it happened. I've got some nice bruises on my left leg though lol


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## lilnaugrim

Wiki found out how to escape his cage. I think I mentioned that already but he was doing it in front of me yesterday >.> He pushes against the wire and jiggles it until the first part comes undone and then he bites at the top part until that unhooks. I had it closed last night and used the clicky hook thing made for climbing--at least the bigger ones, I know they have a name but I can't remember. But I had a small one and used that, he wasn't able to escape that at least. I tried to teach him that if he stays in his cage and doesn't do that, he gets a treat. He...sort of did it. It's going to take quite a few sessions before he realizes I think. But I'm mostly patient. lol


Fishies are good. Nothing really new there except that I totally forgot I had some corydoras habrosus in with my B. siamentorialis until I saw them swimming around last night lol! I've had them for like...a month now, totally forgot.


Reptiles are good, stormfly gobbled down a bunch of mealworms happily as she does every night. Loves her salads too.


Mom brought me home some lizard eggs from FL! I think that's technically illegal but whatever! I found out that they're regular House Gecko eggs because they're hard and not leathery. But I do know that if rotated, it can kill the eggs so I'm pretty sure they're dead now :-/ I candled them last night and three out of six have veining in them which is good but I have no idea how long they were incubated for earlier. So, I'll keep them for a few weeks and see what happens. If nothing does, then I'll toss them. But it's neat all the same. Mom had good intentions.


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## lilnaugrim

Not much to update on with lizard eggs. Trying not to touch them even though I doubt they'll hatch, but on the off-chance they do....


I'm founding out that my Leo's are no longer happy in their tank. I really wanted to upgrade them but I think I'm actually going to downgrade and split them into appropriate pairs to see if they do better. Four 20 longs is the idea.

Hawkeye and Astrael (they're the worst of the weight-loss even though they eat)
Luna and Cullen (fattest two, most alpha of the six)
Dorian and Gallifrey (both diminuative. Gallifrey is still new so unsure of nature just yet)
Nox and Lux the African fat-tails that need an upgrade.


I feel awful, I didn't realize just how skinny Hawk was getting :-( I picked him up and I could see his ribs! I feel so so bad. I'm trying not to overload him with food but definitely doing Emeraid at least once a day. He didn't want to take it yesterday but I tried to force a little bit at least. The others took it fairly well.


Nox and Lux have grown a little which is good. But they do need more space to stretch out. They're in a 5.5 currently. Would love to get them on a bio-active tank.


Note for others with reptiles or thinking of getting them: feed in a separate container for live bugs. I made that mistake of not doing it when my reps were small and now they aren't used to it and don't want to eat out of their home. Not so bad for Leo's but not good for Nox and Lux. They're still small so I'm sure I can teach them. But the problem is that, they're on soil as they should be since they're a partial burrowing species, but this also means that if they miss the crickets--and they do--they get a mouth full of soil and don't know not to ingest it. So, poor Lux took in a woodchip before I could get it out of him, at least, I'm pretty sure he swallowed it. I've been doing hot baths for them as often as I can. He doesn't seem to be in bad shape due to it, I would have seen it by now if he was having issues I think. Still keeping a close eye. So yeah, no more bugs in the viv. I knew this info before but never put it into practice because I didn't need to with my Leo's as they're on rug. But Leo's don't burrow in captivity as much as African's do, or so I've been told. They'll burrow in the wild but I believe they take over other dens of other reptiles/animals and have the colony there instead of digging their own.


BUT, the crux of the situation currently is, I have no money to purchase a rack for the tanks to go on. I have the other 20 longs, they just need to be cleaned out of sand that I've thrown into them. But, I have no horizontal space for them, nor do I have other heat pads. I could use slate piece and light to heat it, but during the night it can get chilly so I don't want them to have digestive issues if the slate goes cold. I could use a ceramic heat emitter but they're expensive and cost a lot to run. I'm trying NOT to run my mom more money :-( This means, I definitely have to take down my fish tanks if I'm going to keep my reptiles successfully. At least, most of my tanks. I'll keep a few 5.5 I think, but the big ones need to come down for sure.


I just hate that I have so much to do that I become overwhelmed by it and then do nothing >.< It SUCKS. And it's not due to having too many reptiles, which I kind of do, but I love them all to bits. Other things in life have popped up and I knew I should have prepped myself for this instead of getting more reptiles but I don't and I didn't. Sigh....this is difficult. I can give up fish without too much problem but giving up my reptiles is a no-go. Even Wiki, I'm allergic to his hay pretty bad but I wouldn't give him up because of that. It's my own fault for adoption a rabbit. I can absolutely care for him, that isn't the issue, I just get insanely itchy after using hay. I wash myself but it doesn't always help, sometimes just the smell of it is enough. I'm hoping that, like my other allergies, the more I'm around it, the better I'll tolerate it since it doesn't cause direct anaphylactic shock like eating shellfish would. It causes hayfever, itchy and sore eyes, hives, rashes, that kind of stuff. So it's not good obviously but I can handle it. I'm pretty much over being allergic to dog saliva now that I've been around my best friend's dogs more often. I still have a reaction if you keep a dirty house/apartment and a dirty dog, but to a clean dog, I have little to no reaction which is awesome! So, I'm hoping the same thing happens with the hay. Especially since I plan to get Wiki a friend down the line when I can afford it. Hopefully a rescue so she comes spayed already.


I did buy myself a beautiful orange-ish koi girl. She's more Super Orange really, but close enough that I was willing to take her home. I've been looking at orange Betta's for a while. I love orange dragons but it has to be a true orange, not a pale orange or a super orange that is actually red. Most sellers say orange but it's really red which I dislike heavily. So, the choice was to buy online and ship over, or buy this girl and be okay with more super-orange. So I said fine, I'll take this girl. She was cute too. She had a sister there who was a little more on the orange side but she was smaller and not as healthy looking. I didn't feel like dealing with a sick fish so I took the bigger one  No name as of yet. But I'm going to smuggle her into work and see if I can't keep her here. I might get in trouble though lol, we'll see. The most that will happen is they just tell me to bring her home is all.


Stormfly has been eating very well and grown a bit too! She's pooping regularly and enjoying her veggies which makes me happy! Introduced yellow squash to her yesterday, I think it confused her lol but she ate it I think. Trying to work with her again on being picked up. She doesn't like my hand in the tank but once she's out, she's okay. She's kind of afraid of my face, though, who wouldn't be with a giant staring at you and their mouth so close to you when you're on their shoulder? lol So, just trying to get her used to that.


Looks like I'll be taking on Victoria's Bearded Dragon as well; Rhaegal. She's a good girl but she doesn't like me much last I was over. Hopefully that changes and the two of them can get along. Victoria is going to give me everything including her tank and such which is good. I'll have the 55 for Stormfly and the 40B for Rhaegal. Rae is full grown though, and it won't be for at least till the spring time which gives Stormfly some time to catch up in growth. I definitely need to get her into the 55 though, I think the 20 long is too small for her at this point and is stunting her. Not sure if that can really happen, I've read it a few places but not sure if I totally believe it. I still have the sunfish in the 55 though, so not sure what I'll do with that. Maybe throw it in a 5.5 or 2.5 for the moment until I figure out what to do with it.


Victoria, my best friend, is getting married! Originally it was only supposed to be a courthouse wedding with a bigger party later in the year but the original wedding is turning into a real wedding >.< Which is really nice since the groom-to-be's mother is taking care of the venue and such, she's still trying to keep it small but we have like 40 people attending so it's nice for all of them to be able to hang for a while and have a mini reception. I'm a bridesmaid which is exciting! She's not really doing a Maid of Honor since there is only two of us and she doesn't want to pick, so we're sharing the responsibilities. Not that there really is many since it's not going to be a traditional wedding and such, but we'll plan the bar crawl for the bachelorette party since that is what she wants haha. Works for us! Simple and easy, it's still stressful and I feel bad that it's turned into this when she didn't really want it in the first place. She's one of those types that can't say no even if she doesn't really want it, or at least has a hard time saying no. So I'm trying to remind her that she can absolutely say no, it's her wedding after all! But everyone is being really good about it and trying to keep it minimal ^_^ I'm so excited!


So lots happening in the world.


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## blueridge

I'm sorry to hear about your leos, Hawkeye and Astrael, Lil. I hope you can get them back on track!


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## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> I'm sorry to hear about your leos, Hawkeye and Astrael, Lil. I hope you can get them back on track!


Thanks, I hope so too!


Funny though, when I read your reply, I read it as "...about your loss..." and I went...oh god, which one did I lose?? lol, then I read it properly! haha.


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## themamaj

Have you tried any wax worms with Hawkeye and Astrael? That might help bulk up their weight. It sounds like you have some good plans for the leos. I am sitting here trying to figure out space issues as well. 

I agree on feeding containers for live bugs. It makes life much easier, plus you can monitor better how much they are eating. Another reptile tip I will pass on for any want to be owners is get a front opening cage if you have that option. It drives me bonkers moving lights off and on the lid everyday. 

Sorry things are overwhelming at moment. I sure go through those times as well. Daily life stuff gets so busy. When you are trying to balance work, family, housework and doing all the things animals need it seems there are not enough hours in the day! I was having one of those moments the other day thinking of everything I needed to do and wanted to accomplish. I get pretty mad at myself if I don't get as much done as I think I need to that day. My daughter made a good suggestion to me of trying to write out some goals for the week on my calendar. Maybe designate these days to cleaning, these days for work, and plan some down time. Of course, each day has certain responsibilities you have to do but it helps me to try to look at a small number of tasks to do that day instead of the whole big picture. I think that is a struggle with women that we try to do everything for everyone all the time. 

Excited to see your new orange girl.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Tried to upload a few pics at work. It was working but now isn't. Oh well.

Pics of my new koi girl! So she's orange, just a little deeper than I wished. But she is cute, already comes up to beg for food.

And bonus pic of Stormfly! She likes her rocks ^_^

And Ieli, my good girl. She's 13 this year.
She only weighs about 10 pounds but het paws are huge as a Maine **** should be ^_^ it fits in the palm of my hand and I do not have a small hand.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Stormfly is going to HATE me tomorrow heh.

This is her costume that I just made. It's a bit big but I think it will help keep her calm while we're out at least! Just felt and hot glue! It's Stormfly's namesake, Stormfly from How To Train Your Dragon. I attached the pic of her at the end.

And look who's also gained a few grams! She was 24g last time I weighed her beginning of September!

Nox and Lux are still about the same but they haven't dripped which is good. They're stronger eaters now too.

Poor Hawk looks awful. I don't even want to show them but, I feel like I need to have the complete set here. He's not so skinny yet that he's going tok perish but he did lose a lot of weight. Made him eat by himself and polished off all the superworms I gave him! So his appetite is still there which is great! Also, that shadow makes him look awful, he doesn't look as bad as that photo makes him look. He still has some meat on him.

Astrael has always been small, but she is too skinny. She doesn't have the greatest appetite and is a very picky eater. Doesn't like waxworms or hornworms >.>

Dorian a bit small too.

Luna is friggin massive now....54g?? Ij had to double check that One! I'm prettyg sure that qualifies for a Giant Leo female Lol!

Even Cullen at 51g! That's so big for a regular female Leo but they're healthy. At the edge of being overweight I think but they're also just coming off summer where they ate a lot.

And then Gallifrey my newest and good girl. She looks a lot like Hawk but with softer eyes almost. It's because of her hypo coloring that she just looks velvety soft. She actually stepped up on my hand without me having to scoop her! So proud! But she's younger and clocking in just about right for her age so I'm not overly worried about her.

I didn't get CJ in since she was sleeping but I'll get her tomorrow. I grabbed two plants to set up her vivarium again!! I still have some of the old ones growing on my windowsill so I'll put those back in. Hopefully I can get yo it tomorrow or soon. I have a lot to do in the next week! 

And boobus pic of Stormfly questioning why there is a phone in her face while she's trying to eat lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

CJ!

So damn, she's 41g now! Little fatty lol.
Posted the second pic because she's clearly jujmping into hyperspace Lol!

Oh, upside down pics. Sorry guys. Can't fix it >.<t

Took pics of her underside and still can't tell if she's male or female >.< 

I'll take pics of the viv tonight since there's too much glare from the sun at the moment.


----------



## lilnaugrim

She didn't want to go back in lol and then doesn't quite let go when she jumps. @themamaj Snickers isn't the only one failing at jumps lol


----------



## lilnaugrim

Not much happening.
I did get waxworms, thank you for reminding me they existed! I usually try to stay away from them because of their addictive nature but they are definitely necessary at the moment.


So far, everyone is still getting along for the most part. They all happily took the waxworms, even Astrael who didn't like them last time! She gobbled them down!


Nothing new in fish.


CJ doesn't seem to like all her space now. She's back up top at the ledge where she used to sit when she was a bab too. There is plenty of hiding space in there though, not as densely packed as the 10 was. She's a strange one. Haven't seen her eat yet either. Hope that starts up soon and she settles into her new (old) home. Plants seem to be doing alright as well but we'll see in a months' time lol


I did a derp and took home that red bearded dragon, not the leather back. I'd taken Stormfly out for the costume contest and showed them to each other since it was the same store. He poofed up and started showing off to her. She was actually submissive which surprised me since she's a fairly dominant beardie. She didn't really respond to him at all though. I went to the other PetCo to grab worms since I forgot at this one. Was too annoyed with the fact that we won a button....yeah, a button...like a pin.....so he felt bad and no one showed up for the cat costume contest last week (surprise surprise) and so he gave me the cat basket to bring home lol. It had discounted items in it and half of it was for dogs....like...wtf? PetCo seriously favors their dogs, the dog contest had won a $15 giftcard....ANYWAY, went to the other store and took home the other beardie for the night. He almost immediately kicked Stormfly off her spot. I knew it wasn't right and knew it wouldn't end well if I took him home. But, it took me taking him home physically to realize why just one beardie is good. I returned him the next day. I felt silly because I did all of this but I think it was good as well. Stormfly is happy now up on her rocks again and basking all day long  I just can't wait for her to grow bigger! She's getting there though!


Gecko weight differences between September 2nd and October 19th:
Stormfly: +15g


Cloudjumper: +5g


Nox: =
Lux: -2g


Hawkeye: -14g
Luna: +13g
Astrael: +2g
Cullen: +9g
Dorian: -2g
(Gallifrey: 30g)


So, the loss weights aren't too terrible except Hawkeye :-( He's getting the most love the next few weeks. Gah, this is awful :-( I hope he's not sick with a parasite either. Gallifrey would have been the one to bring it in if that happened but I'd likely be seeing it in more leo's and not just him, also, she wouldn't be as healthy as she is either. So...I don't *think* it is a parasite, though I know that it could be.


----------



## ThatFishThough

D'awww. Did you get any pictures of the Beardie by chance? 

I would love to get into reptiles some day but my parents are mad enough about the Koi boys, lol. Leos would be fist pick with Beardies coming up second. Ball Python if I can work up the courage to feed frozen mice, but probably not. Would love a Chameleon but heard they don't like to be handled.

How many reptiles total do you have? Which are your favorites, and least? Is there a specific reptile you would love to have? Is there one you would never, ever, get?


----------



## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> D'awww. Did you get any pictures of the Beardie by chance?
> 
> 
> How many reptiles total do you have? Which are your favorites, and least? Is there a specific reptile you would love to have? Is there one you would never, ever, get?


I do but will have to attach it at home. Just have the one from the store.


10 currently.
I have favorites for different reasons.
Stormfly is easiest to handle long-term but the Leo's are the easiest to feed and care for tank wise. They're litter trained whereas Stormfly isn't really and just poops wherever she wants lol.
The African Fat-tails are the most calm though and don't mind being held forever if you wanted to. They sleep most of the day though so I don't like to disturb them too much during the day. I try to feed towards the night so all my reptiles are awake or near to being so.


I don't think I have a least favorite species that I have right now. I mean, Luna is the most dominant in my Leo's and I didn't really want her or Astrael to start with. Victoria gave them to me and I thought it was just going to be for a little bit, not forever :-/ had I wanted them, I would have bought them myself. She's kind of the root of all my problems but I can't get rid of her because Victoria would be upset. I mean, I don't mind keeping her but I wish she was a nicer gecko to hold and be with the others.


But least favorite species overall? I guess snakes. I respect them and adore them but they just don't appeal to me as much as geckos and lizards do. I'm not afraid of them but they just don't feel the same to me. Guess it kind of goes along with your last question there, I'd never own one unless my significant other would want one.


One I'd love to have is a Chinese Cave Gecko, it's like the Leopard but opposite colors almost and nocturnal instead of crepuscular, it's so cool! That and the Neon Blue Day Gecko or a Giant Day Gecko! Day gecko's are gorgeous! One aboreal gecko is enough for me at the moment though lol.


----------



## themamaj

Cloud Jumper is so big! I love how they hang on with their tails. I call Snickers my little monkey. CJ has great colors. Encouraging to think mine will actually grow to that size one day. Seems like each gram takes forever right now. I think gargoyles have most interesting eyes. I just love them! Love seeing all pictures and costume is amazing! Dragon is so cute. Dont you love it when you get the stink eye?! 

I looked at picture of tummy. Really hard to tell but might guess male. I just got home last night. Will try to get some pictures of mine for comparison. I wanted your opinion on Tango too.


----------



## lilnaugrim

Pic of the red dragon is first. He was so easy to hold and just chilled. Can't wait for Stormfly to get that big and chill out a little.

Stormfly's colors when we were out, she fires up so bright! And then when I put the fleece over her, it closes up their third eye and puts them to sleep. Useful for traveling! "But mooom, you said it was sleep time!"

Some of the pretty boys and girls at my petco.

CJs vivarium

Stormfly sleeping on her bridge

I bought Wiki a bed today. I think he likes it lol.
He also figured out how to climb up into his cage >.< need to put some thick cardboard and fleece up there so he can chill and not hurt himself on the wire.


----------



## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Cloud Jumper is so big! I love how they hang on with their tails. I call Snickers my little monkey. CJ has great colors. Encouraging to think mine will actually grow to that size one day. Seems like each gram takes forever right now. I think gargoyles have most interesting eyes. I just love them! Love seeing all pictures and costume is amazing! Dragon is so cute. Dont you love it when you get the stink eye?!
> 
> I looked at picture of tummy. Really hard to tell but might guess male. I just got home last night. Will try to get some pictures of mine for comparison. I wanted your opinion on Tango too.


That's how I feel with Stormfly. Just stare at her and grumble "grow! Grow! Come on, know you can do it!" Lol.

Yeah, Leo's are easy for me so shouldn't be too much issue. I find it's much obvious to see their hempienial bulges over rhacs >.<


----------



## lilnaugrim

Well, this has been an interesting week/weekend.


Attended a convention over the weekend, kind of like a comic con but smaller. Same idea though, people dressing up in suits and cosplays, it was fun!


Power went out yesterday when my Uncle's poor Tulip tree fell on our wires :-/ going to be a few more days until we get power back up likely. Since we're a private road, we're last on the list but it also fell on the wires which means national grid does need to help get it off the wires. So, all the reptiles have the big 72 hour heat packs to warm on while the power is out :-/ 


Got Wiki to the vet last night! $100 later >.> but, my vet is an expert in all small animals, reptiles, and birds. She knows what she's doing and she wants you to learn as well so you can understand why things are happening or not happening! So it's worth it.
He was given a mostly clean bill of health! Like I expected, he did have some gunk in his ears that she was able to mostly clean out. If he gets worse then she said to call immediately but otherwise, he should be okay now. She's going to give up a full ear cleaning when he goes under for his neuter which will be end of December. She's also going to file his teeth as well.
His teeth may become a problem down the road. Currently he's starting to "wave" which means the middle of his teeth are ground down but not the edges, those edges may become so sharp that they puncture his cheek or tongue and cause abscesses. They get that by eating too many pellets where they chew up and down, on hay they chew side to side like a cow or horse. This helps grind down the teeth so they don't get too sharp or long. So more hay for Wiki and less pellets!


He weighs just over 9 pounds, she says that she doesn't see a lot of English Lops come through so it was interesting for her to check him over. He did try to bite the Vet Tech though >.> But they gave him a craisin after and he was happy.


His neuter is going to be $400.........OUCH. But....again, she knows what she's doing, he's going to be in great hands. She's also going to clean his ears and file teeth as well and give him an overall groom so it's not just the clip and snip, there is more to it. So, I just have to save up for that as well. End of December, I have almost two months till then so it should be just fine.


Everyone is doing alright, Leo's look like they're gaining a bit more weight. Haven't been around too often unfortunately due to being away on the weekend but we'll be back at it tonight! Stormfly was afraid of my face yesterday when I took her out >.> she wouldn't stop hissing or keeping her mouth open. She was not a happy dragon. But she settled under my shirt because I'm warm and her light was off. I didn't realize our power was going to go out so I didn't prep for that earlier that morning. But they're happier now with their heat packs.


----------



## Tourmaline

I'm rarely on here so I haven't been keeping up with journals like I used to.. I didn't realize you joined the beardie family! I have two boys, a two month old citrus tiger leatherback (possibly hypo?) named Cider and a 6 month old hypo citrus tiger named Apache. Both from PetSmart, separate tanks. I'm upping Cider to a 40g this week, Apache is already in a 40g. Stormfly is gorgeous! Expect massive growth spurts. 

Cider is smol bean, Apache is big bean














I've really wanted to get into Leos lately too, I just don't want to go into borderline zoo territory. But there's a really cute one at my job that has me smitten..


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## lilnaugrim

Tourmaline said:


> I'm rarely on here so I haven't been keeping up with journals like I used to.. I didn't realize you joined the beardie family! I have two boys, a two month old citrus tiger leatherback (possibly hypo?) named Cider and a 6 month old hypo citrus tiger named Apache. Both from PetSmart, separate tanks. I'm upping Cider to a 40g this week, Apache is already in a 40g. Stormfly is gorgeous! Expect massive growth spurts.
> 
> Cider is smol bean, Apache is big bean
> View attachment 923841
> View attachment 923849
> 
> 
> I've really wanted to get into Leos lately too, I just don't want to go into borderline zoo territory. But there's a really cute one at my job that has me smitten..


They're so cute!!!! I want a leatherback pretty bad but I'm with you, I'm already at the zoo level >.<


But good to see you around Tourmaline! Even if it is intermittent ^_^


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## themamaj

Tourmaline said:


> I'm rarely on here so I haven't been keeping up with journals like I used to.. I didn't realize you joined the beardie family! I have two boys, a two month old citrus tiger leatherback (possibly hypo?) named Cider and a 6 month old hypo citrus tiger named Apache. Both from PetSmart, separate tanks. I'm upping Cider to a 40g this week, Apache is already in a 40g. Stormfly is gorgeous! Expect massive growth spurts.
> 
> Cider is smol bean, Apache is big bean
> View attachment 923841
> View attachment 923849
> 
> 
> I've really wanted to get into Leos lately too, I just don't want to go into borderline zoo territory. But there's a really cute one at my job that has me smitten..


Beardies are gorgeous! Love names


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## themamaj

Sorry all power issues. Love pictures. That #2 white fish is gorgeous.


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## Nimble

Sucks to hear that your power went out during the wind storm. My mom lives up the mid-coast of Maine, and her power went out, too. Thank goodness she and my stepdad have a generator at their place.

Hopefully all your lizards will be able to stay nice and cozy.


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## lilnaugrim

Power is back on!
They had to turn it off again last night to cut the tree off the line and then straighten the pole, took about 4 hours to do.


My drawing tablet died last night as well but I was able to purchase a brand new one this morning because pay-day woohoo! Didn't get as much money since I didn't work a day and a half last week and that hurts >.< But I needed the time to go to the convention I went to. 


I separated out Hawkeye and Astrael to see if they'd be any better. Put them in CJ's old 10 with a heat pack since I don't have another UTH at the moment. They were happily lounging on it last night though and this morning. It's hard keeping up with the Emeraid that I have to do with them daily to gain any weight. Hawkeye was eating the waxworms ravenously but he hasn't gained much weight, in fact, I think he lost more :-( He doesn't look good and I'm afraid I'm going to lose him. I'm wondering if it is the parasite...I don't have money to take him to the vet, nor do I think it'd be entirely worth it because if it is the parasite, it's already done too much damage. He was happy in his bath last night though, drinking the water and taking the Emeraid like a good boy. Some days he refuses it and doesn't want it, same with Astrael. I have to force it down her mostly :-( But all the other Leo's are doing just fine. Dorian is still a little small but gaining weight. We'll see what happens now that I took out two of them. I hope it helps.


I'm glad I had these big 72 hour heatpacks, even though they were for shipping; so helpful! I recommend all reptile owners get some of these for just in case. Good for traveling too during cooler months if you have to go to the vet or somewhere.


Fishies are all still mostly fine. The salttank made it through the power outage amazingly, haven't done a thorough check yet but pretty sure everything is still alive. We still had the house hooked up to a huge generator for a few hours a day couple times a day so that helped. There wasn't too much downtime with the filter and heater. Plus we still have the woodstove so the house was warm more or less.


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## themamaj

Glad power back on. Heat pads a great idea for emergencies! Did you get them on Amazon?


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## lilnaugrim

themamaj said:


> Glad power back on. Heat pads a great idea for emergencies! Did you get them on Amazon?


AquaBid, bought them originally for shipping but I'm sure the ones on Amazon are just as good and likely cheaper ^_^


----------



## lilnaugrim

Hawk and Astrael have been doing better on their own. Bought a heater for them and so they've been chilling in a 10 gallon next to the 40B with the other four.


Cloudjumper hasn't really seemed to have eaten since being in the new (old) tank :-/ I think she's stressing about the space she has now. She hides in one corner and that's it :-/


Stormfly has been doing well though she went backwards with being held again and hates me once more >.< Need to take her out more often.


Wiki was doing so well with being out 24/7, he only poops in his cage (so far, haven't found any bunny piles otherwise), and wasn't too destructive until he found an old mesh divider and decided to eat half of it O.O he seems to be fine, no digestive issues yet >.> put him back in his cage last night for the night, he wasn't happy but oh well. Let him out again this morning, though, with plastic mostly out of sight.


I've started on my art commissions again which is great! A little more money for income :-D
Went to the doctor's the other day for these splitting headaches I've been getting the last few weeks. They debilitate me until I sleep it off :-/ no good. She thinks it may be stress/anxiety related as well as the fluorescent lights over work. I'm allergic to the lights, as weird as it sounds, I get red rashes and itchy when I'm under them for prolonged periods of times, sometimes it's not too long depending on how far away they are from me and if they have covers or not. So yeah, it's been fun >.<


----------



## ThatFishThough

I'd pay to have something like your avatar!  Where can I put in for a commission? (JK... Would love to but I'm broke.)

Glad to hear the Leos are doing better. How is Cloudjumper? Wiki?


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## lilnaugrim

ThatFishThough said:


> I'd pay to have something like your avatar!  Where can I put in for a commission? (JK... Would love to but I'm broke.)
> 
> Glad to hear the Leos are doing better. How is Cloudjumper? Wiki?


For something like my avatar, I'd charge $25, just for a future reference 


I um...I talked about them in my last post lol, did you not read it or did something happen to the post? I can see it on my end here.


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## ThatFishThough

Deeerrrp. I saw your post this morning but didn't post my reply until later in the school day.... I swear, school breaks my brain more than it builds it up/helps me learn.

RIP My Brain 11/15/17


----------



## lilnaugrim

Sorry I haven't been posting much. I've been lurking but not talking much.


I've been quite busy with a new person in my life which I'm quite excited about. We're not official yet but definitely headed that way!


Hawkeye finally passed yesterday. I had given him a nice warm bath and a meal just a few hours before. I had a feeling but I let him back into his cage for the night. Woke up and he'd passed, likely not too long after that bath since he'd started to smell a bit :-/ So, he's buried now. No more geckos for me, I'm trying to pare down in case of move or rather, in preparation of moving. Plus, also saving money, I really need to focus on that. That's a goal for this year. I wasn't going to make any resolutions since I find them silly, but this one I really need to work on and so I've just decided that will be it. Along with the usual stuff; getting in shape and whatnot but that's a given and not really new.


Wiki was neutered the Friday before Christmas and has been fantastic. I also accidentally cut his quick while trimming nails, that was a bit of a disaster and he was sore for a few days but doing better now. I didn't have any Kwik-Stop on me and had to use flour instead. Mom was pretty upset that he was bleeding but I was calm as I had to be. It actually kind of made me queasy for the first time ever, I can handle blood and especially knowing that this is something that can happen pretty easily, I knew he'd be okay. But, before it actually stopped bleeding, he kicked his (it was his back foot) back foot up and it sprayed me with blood on my face >.< that kind of got me. But, after pinning him properly, I was able to get it to stop bleeding after about half an hour. It was long but he's doing just fine now. My bathroom looked like a murder scene. I'm grateful I had the thought to do it in the bathroom though. I'd thought about doing it on my bed since it's a little higher and I can likely pin him easier, but I'm glad I didn't.


Victoria had her wedding! I was one of the Maid's of Honor ^_^ I also sewed my own dress for the first time and got a lot of good reviews on it! I was quite excited. The wedding was gorgeous and lovely down in Georgia. I had a hard time because I forgot my license and all other forms of ID at home :-( but thankfully I was still able to fly after going through rigorous testing and pat downs. But all was well in the end.


As far as fish go, I still have my 45 downstairs, my 29 salt, and a few small betta tanks laying around with fish in them. My rooms are getting cold though and it's been hard to keep everything warm. I definitely need to sell off my fish. I can post them here if anyone is interested. I have four females and I think one male left. The wilds will go back to George since he can breed them successfully.


The only lizards I'm definitely keeping are Cloudjumper and Stormfly. The others, I'm not sure what I'll do with. Nox and Lux haven't grown very well even though they get crickets quite often, more than the adults do. I feel bad for them since they're still small. But, I do know they can still go through a growth spurt given the right care. I've just been so darn busy between art commissioning (which is basically my second job now which is good, just time consuming), Wiki, cleaning my rooms, and plenty more. :-/


But yep, I'll be around a little bit. Mostly lurking. You can send me messages and I'll do my best to respond, it's just been tight this time of year. Things settling down after the holidays. Especially after two of my family members fell and broke ribs. My grandfather fell the Saturday before Christmas, broke four left ribs and ruptured his spleen. Then my uncle on the other side of the family slipped and fell the following Saturday and broke his sternum, clavicle, and one rib. >.< so it's been pretty eventful to say the least.


----------



## blueridge

It's good to see you posting Lil! 
I'm sorry about Hawkeye :sad: Losing a pet is no fun. 

I hope you have a great New Year!


----------



## ryry2012

Is the new person in your life is also into fish keeping...? 

I'm sorry about Hawkeye and your grandfather and uncle with broken ribs  
I'm out of the stressful life now. I feel much better.


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## lilnaugrim

blueridge said:


> It's good to see you posting Lil!
> I'm sorry about Hawkeye :sad: Losing a pet is no fun.
> 
> I hope you have a great New Year!



I did thank you ^_^



ryry2012 said:


> Is the new person in your life is also into fish keeping...?
> 
> I'm sorry about Hawkeye and your grandfather and uncle with broken ribs
> I'm out of the stressful life now. I feel much better.


He likes to eat fish.....I told him that if he touched my fish, he would die lol. He doesn't understand it all but he doesn't mind either


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## triton0212

Hi guys! Why can't I see the pics on this thread?


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## ryry2012

triton0212 said:


> Hi guys! Why can't I see the pics on this thread?


If you are talking about photobucket pictures, they disabled the 3rd party hosting function.


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## lilnaugrim

triton0212 said:


> Hi guys! Why can't I see the pics on this thread?


Yeah, my older photos are no longer viable. This is why attaching photos, though it may take longer, is better because they will stick with the site no matter what ^_^


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## ryry2012

lilnaugrim said:


> He likes to eat fish.....I told him that if he touched my fish, he would die lol. He doesn't understand it all but he doesn't mind either


As long as he doesn't hate the hobby, it's all good. I love seafood myself... 

I hope he is not into PlayStation games as much as you do, because if so, you guys will have too much fun and won't be able to stop ;-)


----------



## triton0212

Ohh. Coz I was trying to see your pics but I'm like: am I tripping?? They were talking about some pics. I was trying to post a thread now but I don't see the link to do it and I can't find any info (i might not be in the right posts) about what to do once the babies are swimming horizontally. Should I turn the filter on already? When should i do a water change? I left the dad there too. Any help is always great appreciated. Thank u all and happy new year ;-)

Here is a short vid


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## lilnaugrim

ryry2012 said:


> As long as he doesn't hate the hobby, it's all good. I love seafood myself...
> 
> I hope he is not into PlayStation games as much as you do, because if so, you guys will have too much fun and won't be able to stop ;-)



We play PC games together! Haha



triton0212 said:


> Ohh. Coz I was trying to see your pics but I'm like: am I tripping?? They were talking about some pics. I was trying to post a thread now but I don't see the link to do it and I can't find any info (i might not be in the right posts) about what to do once the babies are swimming horizontally. Should I turn the filter on already? When should i do a water change? I left the dad there too. Any help is always great appreciated. Thank u all and happy new year ;-)
> 
> Here is a short vid
> 
> Betta fish fry - YouTube


I can't see the video at the moment since I'm at work but I can answer the questions at least.


What kind of filter do you have? If it's a sponge filter as it should be, yes, turn that on. You don't want flow that is knocking the babies everywhere so if need be, tie a knot in the hose to lessen it if it isn't adjustable.


Water changes should start about week 2 typically. Everyone does it different, some start right away and some wait even a month. I like to go in the middle of that and start at week 2 just to make sure everyone is strong enough and growing steadily. You don't want to take out too much of their food source if you're using live plants and infusoria. But, if you find the floor of the tank become too muddled, definitely do a small water change. Make sure to drip in the new water through an airline so you don't shock your fry. If you can age your water and heat it to their temp, that's the best thing to do so they don't die of shock.


You can leave daddy in or take him out at this point. It's up to you and how he's doing. If he's still caring for the fry and not eating them then he should be okay to care for them for the next few days or a week. But do be warned that sometimes daddies start to randomly eat fry and will eat off the whole spawn. So, if your fry are doing just fine, it's safe to take him out at this point once they're horizontal. It's just those first two or three days that are pivotal in making sure they stay in the nest and not rot on the floor of the tank.


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## themamaj

Good to hear from you Lil. Are you snowed in yet? So deeply sorry to hear of Hawk's passing. I know he was a special one. Exciting to hear you have a new friend in life.


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## triton0212

Extremely grateful for your fast and great response. Making a knot to the air line was a great tip tho. I won't make any water change then but in order to turn the filter on I had to replace the evaporated water. The dad is pretty calmed and he swims around fry acting normal. I read online that some breeders with good reputation leave the male sometimes till 3 months with the fry. I'm not using infusoria or vinegar eels or anything like that; just Hikori First Bites. Is that ok? I don't know if u mind watching videos of prefer pics or idk even if u have time for that. I just bought a male "Bumble bee" at Petco. I know is a made up name but I'd like to hear ur opinion. I know the video doesn't have the best quality but that jar's glass is kind of foggy. He's way bigger than the Mustard Gas. They are eating New Life Sprectrum Grow as u recommended me. Well.. thanks once again. Regards


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## lilnaugrim

triton0212 said:


> Extremely grateful for your fast and great response. Making a knot to the air line was a great tip tho. I won't make any water change then but in order to turn the filter on I had to replace the evaporated water. The dad is pretty calmed and he swims around fry acting normal. I read online that some breeders with good reputation leave the male sometimes till 3 months with the fry. I'm not using infusoria or vinegar eels or anything like that; just Hikori First Bites. Is that ok? I don't know if u mind watching videos of prefer pics or idk even if u have time for that. I just bought a male "Bumble bee" at Petco. I know is a made up name but I'd like to hear ur opinion. I know the video doesn't have the best quality but that jar's glass is kind of foggy. He's way bigger than the Mustard Gas. They are eating New Life Sprectrum Grow as u recommended me. Well.. thanks once again. Regards
> 
> Bumble Bee Betta - YouTube


Good song in the background ;-)
Photos are easier for me just because I tend to do most of my stuff at work and video's aren't allowed.
He's sort of a Butterfly at the moment due to the white trimming on his fins but he's really just a multicolor since he doesn't fall in one specific category. He's pretty though.

Infusoria typically rides in with live plants so if you have any plants you can throw in there, definitely do. Hikari isn't that great for carnivore fish as it's made for the herbivore/omnivore so I don't usually recommend that. Without live food, your fry will likely grow slower. Live foods are nearly essential for breeding Betta but you might be able to get by. Try some hard boiled egg yolk as well if you can. Take some of the yolk and crumble it into tiny pieces before dropping it into the water. Don't use too much as it can cloud the water and make it nasty, but a tiny piece will help as it's much higher in protein which is what they need.


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