# "My First Sorority" journal



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Well I've been excited about setting up my sorority tank but can't yet until i do some cleaning, testing and quarantining. Oh, and A LOT of spending $$$  But it's worth it  So I decided to make a journal to help me not go crazy while I patiently wait.

I originally wanted to turn my split 10 gallon into a sorority tank. However with 2 girls already, and over 100 beauties on Aquabid to choose from, that didn't last long. I chose too many girls I like on Aquabid and therefore needed to get a bigger tank. I searched Craigslist and found a 29 gallon tank with stand, heater, filter and lights. They delivered it to me (they were 40 minutes away!) all for $190. Not THAT great of a deal, but I needed it fast. And I really like the stand. The tank has a lot of scratches on one side of it, but the other side was okay. It had some hardwater staining but I got most of it off. Some at the top I couldn't get off for the life of me but I was using just vinegar and a razor scraper. I could use some stronger acid but when it's wet the cloudiness actually isn't too bad. Here is the pic of the tank which is currently being leak tested. So far, so good. It has been filled for about 12 hours. One of my cats has already jumped up and fell into it sometime this morning. It has a makeshift hood which is just a piece of clear plastic on top, but it isn't quite long enough so it leaves about 4 - 6 inches exposed.




I'll be buying a new hood and the light fixture I have is kind of weird...it is the type that needs to be mounted rather than just sits on top of the hood, don't know know how well that will work out:


----------



## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Can't wait to see it once you have it all set up!

I reaaallly want a huge tank  
I'm just staring at all these ads on Kijiji and imagining how many female bettas I could fit in there. 

There's a 120 gallon with a stand for only $150  Uuugh, I'd make it so pretty.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Wow that's a really amazing deal. I don't know if I could manage such a huge tank though lol. My dad had a 29, 55, and 90 gallon all running at the same time when I was younger...I don't know how he did it.


----------



## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Parents are miracle workers lmao, they raised us! xD

And yeah, decorating the tank with limited supplies would be a paaain. And huge pieces of ornament/driftwood are expensive too :'c


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Yeah exactly...I don't know why IT'S JUST WOOD!? Lol. I at least have one small piece and another weird looking piece to put it. I'll take pics of all the ornaments and stuff, although I still want a big piece of slate to put in the middle and angle it diagonally. No idea where I'll get that.


----------



## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Looking forward to the pics 

And yeah, it's overpriced, but I guess they can justify it. IT takes time for wood to become driftwood, you need waves constantly washing over them, and stuff,  One day I will walk by a river and find my own driftwood!


----------



## Haleigh (Jan 24, 2013)

I'll definitely be following this. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures when you have the tank set up!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

*The fish*

I have a total of 12 girls coming from Thailand off of Aquabid.com. The cost was crazy but I'm excited to see them. Linda Olson is my transhipper and I've already paid her so I hope my fishies come by Wed or Thurs!!! Here they are:





 From Majcha Farm, the super blue, fancy (who reminds me of a calico cat...her name will be Calico), and super red. The super red I asked for so there wasn't an auction. I also bid on this girl by Majcha but I decided not to get her because I didn't realize her auction ended after the ship date for all the other fish I ordered:
 



 From TMT Betta I got 3 halfmoon plakats: the blue/red/white fancy dragon, blue/orange fancy dragon, and the white platinum.
 


 From Blimp33 I got 3 halfmoons: the solid copper, black/copper and a solid yellow (I didn't win the auction for the yellow but he had another one similar to sell).
 


 From Betta hero I got two big ear HMPK's, one that looks purple and one that is pink/orange.
 


 Then from 3dbetta I got red butterfly halfmoon. I also bid on this girl from 3dbetta and won, but sadly she died before being shipped  R.I.P. little cutie.
 



Total cost for fish plus total shipping was: *$354.40 * :shock::shock::shock:

I hope they all make the trip and I am eager to see what they look like in person!!!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Also will be adding the two girls I have now whom I've had since December 2012/January 2013. Got them as wittle babies from Petco. Prize the blue VT and Spark the red/green/black delta tail (I think..I'm not very good at judging female's tails).



So I have a total of 14 girls. I might add a DT or a CT somewhere down the line since I don't have any. I was more concerned with colors and having a variety of them. I also will probably add my 4 bronze corydora catfish to the tank. There will be 10 Malaysian trumpet snails and 2 olive nerites as well. Maybe some Amano shrimp down the line if I get some algae issues.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

According to AqAdvisor my stocking level is at exactly 100% without the Amano shrimp. This doesn't take into account live plants though. Heres my results:

Note: *Betta [Female]* can still become aggressive even if she doesn't show aggression right away. Not recommended to be mixed with peaceful community species. Also, they may jump - lids are recommended.
Warning: *Betta [Female]* is not recommended to be with *Malaysian Trumpet Snail* - baby snails will likely to become food.

Recommended temperature range: 75.2 - 80.6 F. [Display in Celsius]
Recommended pH range: 7 - 7.8.
Recommended hardness range: 10 - 15 dH

You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.
Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is *182%*.
Recommended water change schedule: *30%* per week.
*Your aquarium stocking level is 100%*


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Omg can't wait for my Aquabid girls come! They were shipped from Thailand to Linda Olson on Sunday...she hasn't told me when to expect them or anything. Paid express shipping and heard nothing back from her 

Also still debating on which lighting to get. I am looking into a t5 HO fixture but it seems they only make them for dual bulbs and I really only need one since this isn't a high-tech tank or anything.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So my girls are arriving today! So happy! I still need a hood and sand for my tank. Oh, and some type of lighting. I have to quarantine the girls for 2 weeks at least so I still have time to get it up and running. My plant and snail orders have already arrived as well so hopefully today I can get the sand and hood.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So they've all arrived and are currently acclimating...here's some just-out-of-the-box photos:


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Please think of some good names to help me out! I've already named one of the fancys Calico (4th from the bottom). I want to name the pure white one Snow but I might find something better. The other's I just don't know...the super blue I'll probably just call Blue and the super red Red lol. Probably the same with the yellow but Lemon also sounds cute to me.


----------



## rubinthebetta (Oct 9, 2012)

You could call the blue one Blueberry and the red one Cherry (or Cherri of you want to mix it up)


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

That's cute, I like Cherry...Blueberry is too long a name for me to say lol. I'm still considering it....


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So last night I finally my sand and hood which were the last things I needed. I actually didn't need to buy any sand because the sand from the two tanks I tore down to make room for this one had more than enough to cover the soil. I will just bring it back and get my $20 back  Here's a pic of all the stuff I had to choose from ( I want a bigger piece of driftwood):













And here is the result: 


Some of the plants are wilted and haven't recovered yet so hopefully once they get growing the tank will fill in. I really love the red tiger lotus in the middle of the tank, I hope it flourishes


----------



## Mar (Apr 9, 2013)

Your tank will look really pretty once it all settles in and starts growing! It already looks pretty good!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks! The lotus plant is already doing a lot better and has straightened itself out. I bought some plant called "mermaid weed" (on the left foreground) but it seems to be dying  I had planned on quarantining the girls for at least 2 weeks but somehow half a dozen or so escaped their cups because they tipped over  Luckily everyone is fine and looks healthy. All 14 girls are doing good. The water is dark now because I added some almond leaves and the Mopani driftwood still has some tannins leaking into the water. Today I add the 4 bronze corydoras from my other 10 gallon tank, they LOVE it! They were playing around for hours with each other...it was soooo cute!


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

Viva, I am so excited for you! I can't wait to see more pictures. This is the fun part!!! Enjoy.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Some pictures of the girls enjoying their new tank. Still thinking of names, hehe:


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

Oh, they are all so beautiful, each in their own way. I must, must get a white girl.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thank you! Yeah my goal was to get a pure white girl, so glad I did! She's so pretty...her body is so long and slender she looks like a barracuda lol!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

*Some more pictures*

Some more pictures of the girls...I've started noticing their personalities more and more each day. This yellow girl stayed in the back of the tank for 2 or 3 days before I could finally get a pic of her. She is probably the biggest girl in the tank but also the most shy.




These two are sisters and both are very small and cute! They make up for their size by being fairly aggressive and holding higher ranks than some of the bigger fish because they love to flare!





Tried so hard to get a pic of the solid red, white and blue girls together but the red one is so shy. Its hard to get a pic of her! The white girl is the least aggressive of them all, I think I've seen her flare ONCE. She just hangs out at the top front of the tank. The blue girl is pretty big and just explores around freely for the most part.




This girl is one of my favorites, her name is Halloween because she looks like she's wearing a face paint mask and her colors are orange, black and a dark blue. Her striped dorsal is so gorgeous, and her little orange head, so cute! Shes hard to get a good pic of.



More pics later


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So I've been noticing that some of the girls (especially the smaller ones who are at the bottom of the hierarchy) have what seems to be missing scales or something on their bodies. Not all the bettas have it and I'm starting to get worried that I should maybe be separating the affected ones out. The worse is my girl I got as a baby, Spark. She has what seems like black spots or missing scales on both sides of her body. All their fins look fine, just some are a little nipped or torn. Today by all copper girl who had some body damage had a weird white growth on one of the spots now...maybe I'm just overreacting but I'll get some pics up here once I get home.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Here is the dark spots I was mentioning...anyone know what they are? Is it just missing scales from fighting? She seems to have more of them now but they other spots seem like they're healing. She has been sparring with Spark and Spark also has similar markings on her body but I couldn't get a good picture. Both are acting normal otherwise although Spark seems stressed a lot lately.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Also got a new light for my tank...a 36" dual T5 fixture which I hope works and doesn't break within a few months because it was only $50 which is cheap for that type of fixture. Literally the cheapest I could find. With free shipping too. I got one pink and one white bulb for it.










http://www.ebay.com/itm/16087168352...eName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Everything in the sorority is going well so far. No one seems stressed and everyone is eating. Besides the missing scales (which I think was from fighting for rank with some of the other smaller females) I don't see anything to worry about. 

Today I picked up two girls...I wanted a CT girl but I also picked up a VT girl who looked like she was about to die. I don't know if she'll make it through the night honestly. I got her to eat one pellet and then she wouldn't eat anymore. Gave her some IAL and treated water with Stress Coat. She was laying on her side when I got her and I thought she had died on the trip from Petco to home because she wasn't moving at all, laying there, barely breathing. However when she gets startled she still has a lot of fight left in her and she can swim fast. Her back seems like its all bent and crooked and she is very skinny. Both girls are TINY, like TINYY. They're basically babies. I have the sick one quarantined because I don't know if it's carrying an illness or not...she a has weird black head. The other pretty girl is floating in her cup in the sorority tank until she gets bigger.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So the crooked girl is still alive! She made it through the night! After trying to feed her pelelts a few minutes ago I realized she just spits them out...she held one in her mouth for a few seconds and then spit it out whole. I threw away my frozen blood worms because they were so freezer burned and forgot to pick some up when I went there yesterday. Luckily I still have frozen brine shrimp, and remembering that when feeding my two baby bettas a pipette works great for this. I sucked some shrimp up and as soon as she smelled that shrimpy water she attacked the pipette and gobbled at least 2 shrimps down! I am so happy. I'm gonna be late for work now, lol. I hope she makes it through the day:




Other white/blue girl is doing great too!


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

You have such gorgeous girls! I wish my college allowed more than one tank/larger than 10 gallon tanks, since I think I would enjoy a sorority, but that must wait :/. 

I hope your VT girl continues to get better since she is quite pretty, even with her crooked spine.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks! Yeah college dorms suck lol. I hope she gets better too. I'm hoping her crooked spine is just due to malnutrition because it straightens out pretty well when she swims. She is really, really skinny  I think it's because she's too young to know how to eat pellets so she didn't eat much or at all while she was at the pet store


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

It sounds like she just needs a lot of TLC. It's a shame when pet stores don't know how to properly care for the animals they stock and intend to sell.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So the little rescue girl is still alive and doing much better. She still has a crookedness to her and she has a hard time swimming down, hopefully she will grow out of it because she's still a baby. I've been working 10 hour days and this is my 7th day of work IN A ROW. Tomorrow will by my 8th 10 hour day in a row and then I get 6 days off so I'll be feeding her every 3-4 hours instead of twice a day like I do now. She's still only eating frozen brine shrimp so I need to get her to eat pellets ASAP but so far no luck. I've named her Oceania (Oh-Shauna) because of her deep blue/green color. Who knows it might turn out to be a boy because I assume his/her growth is extremely stunted and I know for a fact its malnourished. It was basically starving to death and on it's last storage of energy when I bought her.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Here she is doing a lot better! She is now in a 5.5g heated tank until she gets well enough and big enough to join the sorority. CT girl is still floating in a cup in the sorority tank because she's still so tiny. Oceania is so cute! Look at this face






It's a lot cuter than when she was half dead on her side laying in a cup at the store. I thought she had died halfway through the car ride home actually. She's still not out of the clear but I have hope for her. I just need to get her to eat pellets. I think she ate one or two today but then she wouldn't eat anymore. She just spits them out.


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Oceania is so cute! Glad to see she's doing better, and I hope it continues!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks! She's doing better every day.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Here's the girls being cute and swimming right above an IAL. The yellow girl was defending it so no one else could be on it for very long lol!


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

That top picture looks like a bite! Do you see any evidence of fin nipping? My copper half moon girl had long flowing fins that have taken a beating.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

My copper girl has also taken a beating so I have her alone right now with some salt. No one ever attacks the white girl I swear...she's in mint condition lol. She never fights with anyone she's a good girl. Little copper, the two EEs and Spark my girl I've had since she was a baby, have been taking the brunt of the attacks because they're the smallest. I'm getting a huge plant order on Monday or Tuesday and since my tank is still kinda bare at the top it should help control the aggression a little.


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

I guess I should take out my copper girl, too. How do you plan on introducing her back to the group?

Where did you get your IAL? I need to get me some.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

I got mine from Ebay from Amy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/380449815175?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

The girls really love it. I'm pretty sure it helped save my little Oceania's life too. I have the copper girl floating in the tank still in a cup. I just change the water twice a day with the water I have the dissolved salt in. I will re introduce her with the other two new girls once they're ready. Right now they're still just babies and Oceania is still gaining her strength and getting weaned on pellets. The new plants will add a lot more foliage and hiding spots and I'm most likely going to rearrange everything in the tank at the same time too.


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

I'll get some. Where did you order your plants from? I want some more water sprite, but can't find any in LFS in the area. 

I put a breeder's net in my aquarium today to use for time-out (just posted a picture in my thread). The female that I believe was responsible for the copper girl is now picking on Queen B. Those fancy pectorals are irresistible.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

I've used aquariumplants.com for a while but wasn't completely happy with them the last time I got an order (their hornwort was weird and comes with a lot of snails). I used plantedaquariumscentral.com this time and got some really beautiful plants that I HOPE I can keep alive lol. I got:

CABOMBA PALAEFORMIS (2 bunches)
ROTALA WALLICHII (2 bunches)
Brazilian Pennywort (3 bunches)
MICRO SWORD (2 orders which is apprx. 8" of area)
Red 'Rubin' Sword Plant (1 plant)


----------



## mybabyjets (Jun 4, 2013)

hows the crooked girl doing now?


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

Sounds like a great list of plants! I'll check out the website. I think I will eventually get a 20 gal. long and try to discipline myself not to fill it up with a bunch more females. There are 8 girls in this 10 gallon and I personally think it's about 2 too many.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

mybabyjets said:


> hows the crooked girl doing now?


She's hungry all the time but still won't eat pellets. She's zipping around the tank right now looking for more food, hehe! I think she's gonna be just fine. This is her just a few hours ago:






Janan said:


> Sounds like a great list of plants! I'll check out the website. I think I will eventually get a 20 gal. long and try to discipline myself not to fill it up with a bunch more females. There are 8 girls in this 10 gallon and I personally think it's about 2 too many.


8 isn't too many as long as theres enough plants. 20 gallon would be awesome and you could add some cory cats or snails in there. I love my cory cats, they're adorable! They help stir the bottom of the tank up too so things don't build up in one area.


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

I have four cory cats in there now and have been wondering if I should take them out.


----------



## thisismydesign (Jun 22, 2013)

You have 2 females that look like the two males I had! It amuses me.

Mushu









Your girl (Mushu looked like this under dim lighting)










007









Your girl


----------



## mybabyjets (Jun 4, 2013)

thats good that she is doing fine..i was really hoping for her to make it


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Janan said:


> I have four cory cats in there now and have been wondering if I should take them out.


It might be a little too much bioload for the 10 gallon with 8 female bettas. I would hit up aqadvisor.com. Just convice yourself to get the 20 gallon maybe? hehe


thisismydesign said:


> You have 2 females that look like the two males I had! It amuses me.
> 
> Mushu
> 
> ...


Wow they're gorgeous! They do look a lot alike.



mybabyjets said:


> thats good that she is doing fine..i was really hoping for her to make it


Me too. I'm surprised she did. I thought she maybe had some sort of illness but I'm pretty sure she was just starving.


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Your girls are really stunning!! Happy to see Oceania is doing well. :grin: If you're still undecided with names, Orchid and Lily popped into my head for the two pinky/purple sisters. Miyuki for the white one, I believe it can mean "beautiful snow". And the little pastel girl you picked up with Oceania, Nixie would be cute, means "water sprite" cause she looks like a little fairy! Of course these are just suggestions, don't know if you've named them all yet, but maybe they'll help! :grin:


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks Huffles! I really like the name Sprite for the new CT girl, so I'm going with that! Nixie is really cute too though! For the two EE girls I've already named them Blossom and Lilac. I've just been calling the white one Snow since I got her so I think I will stick with that. The solid red is named Apple. The blue one is named BB for "big blue" because she's huge! The yellow one is named Lemon I've decided because that's all I could think of lol. I still haven't thought of a good name for this huge girl (probably the biggest girl I have). She reminds me of a clown lol. I just can't bring myself to name her Clown or Bozo or something  The solid copper and the black/copper sisters are still unnamed as well. 

Any suggestions for these 3? The sisters are very feisty and about the average size of a female. The big fancy girl is also very feisty and doesn't really need to do much to get her way. She doesn't even need to flare and the others back away lol. She also eats like a little pig! She waits for the extra pieces to fall and eats them all! I swear she's eaten like 10+ pellets for the last few feedings...I'm gonna have to try not to feed her next feeding the big fatty!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Also here's Oceania yesterday. her colors look sooo different with and without the flash. With flash she's a metallic green/blue. Without flash and under the fluorescent light she's a dark blue with red. I love her stripes on the dorsal fin though, I'm a sucker for stripes and spots!


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

Beautiful girls! My copper girl has fins like your second picture. I love her fins. I named her Pretty Bird.


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

That's so funny, I just talked my aunt into rescuing a fishy last night and he's this beautiful green/gold/rust color iridescence with no light and in the light it turns to pink/purple/bright red opposite Oceania. :-D

As for a name, could always go with Harlequin (Harley for short?) for the girl that reminds you of a clown...sounds a bit more fancy shmancy! Plus her scales remind me of the diamond shapes of their costumes. :lol: As for the goooooorgeous copper colored girls, I keep having Cleopatra (Cleo for short?) and Nefertiti (Nefi for short?) pop into my head. Probably cause the black/coppery colors make me think of the Egyptian pyramids and jewelry!

Seriously, all of your fish are so beautiful!


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Maybe for your big girl you can call her BG (short for Big Girl), or, if you're a fan of the Muppets, you could call her Ms. Piggy XD.

I like Huffle Puffles suggestions, particularly Cleo for one of the copper girls.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks Huffles! Those are actually all perfect names! I LOVE Harlequin for the big girl, its so cute! Cleo and Nefertiti are awesome for the two copper sisters, and I really love the ancient Egyptian culture. I think Cleo will be the solid copper and Nefi will be the black/copper. I was gonna name my cat Cleo when but then I found out he was a boy lol.


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Yay! So glad the names helped! :-D I was thinking that exact order for Cleo and Nefi too!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So Oceania is doing AWESOME and she ate her first pellets this morning! I was getting sick of feeding her frozen brine shrimp and blood worms and she needed to be weaned onto pellets so she could eventually join the sorority when she's big enough. She didn't eat the pellet I gave her last night so I decided to just see if she'd be hungry enough to eat one in the morning, and she was! I'm so happy!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Some more pictures of the two new little girls gettin bigger, and my tank now that I've added the new plants:



Sprite with no flash:


Oceania and Sprite floating near each other, getting ready for the sorority life:


Sprite with the flash on:


Oceania being cute:

Oceania looking quite mad, lol. This was taken after I wouldn't feed her the frozen blood worms and brine shrimp and was getting her to eat pellets. She's saying, "WHERES MY FROZEN FOOD MOM!? These pellets aren't as tasty >=( "


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Sprite and Oceania are beautiful! Glad to see that she's doing better! Love her little grumpy face in the last picture!


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Yay, great that you got Oceania to start eating pellets! I loooove her little mad face though ! Kinda jealous, I can't seem to keep a plant alive in a tank for more than a few weeks, lol. But yours looks great!!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks BettaLover, I didn't even notice the grumpy face when I took the picture. I saw it when I uploaded it, lol. She's so cute.

Huffle: Me TOO! I was really getting sick of cutting up those frozen foods 4 times a day. She now gobbles the pellets like it's nothing  Still feeding them both frozen foods daily though so they grow. I don't know how I keep the plants alive tbh. I really don't do much, lol. I just plant them and hope they live!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So Cleo and Lilac both had to be removed from the sorority yesterday...at least for now. Lilac has this weird blackening all on the bottom of her body on both sides and also is missing some scales on her side from being picked on. I have no idea what the darkening of her scales is...it might just be her color changing. Either way I didn't take any chances and removed her. I removed Cleo because she is being picked on and has quite tattered fins at the moment. She is also missing a lot of scales on her body so she's no longer a shiny, solid copper girl right now  I'm hoping she'll recover quickly and I will try introducing her again when I release Sprite and Oceania in a month or so (whenever they grow up!). They are still super small and cute. I will take pics of both Lilac and Cleo to show you guys and maybe you can help me figure out what Lilac's darkening is.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Unfortunately my Rotala Wallichii isn't doing well as I thought it wouldn't because my tank isn't exactly high-tech or anything. I assumed it would be really hard to keep alive and it is! I might need to replace it with something else, maybe some more cabomba because that stuff is growing like a weed! I really love the way it looks too. It's like little skinny pine trees in there! Also the kind I got has a nice metallic purple tint to it on the underside of the needles. Need to get some more pictures to upload but I've been sooo lazy.

Also turns out I'm just paranoid about Lilac. I put both her and Cleo in a divided 5 gallon to treat them with AQ salt for a few days. Lilac's darkening was literally just a shadow -_- It seems she's all better now so I released her back into the sorority. Cleo is floating in a cup because her fins are still pretty tattered but they are growing back fast. The two little girls, Sprite and Oceania, are still doing great. Everyone else is doing great too. Now that there is a lot more plant cover in the tank I've noticed A LOT less aggression. My long finned girl Diva is still swimming near the filter intake like a dumb-dumb and getting her fins torn  She literally stares at it and I think tries to pick little bits of food off of it, it's actually funny to watch. But she slowly gets sucked closer and closer to it until her entire body is stuck sideways to it! She can free herself pretty easily but her fins must be taking a beating from it


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

OMG the worst thing happened! Harlequin my biggest girl is wedged completely inside a piece of stupid mopani driftwood...I HAVE NO IDEA HOW SHE GOT IN THERE! She's still alive but theres literally no way I can get her out of there IDK WHAT TO DO


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Oh my gosh, I do hope she comes out soon/is okay.  Have you tried rotating the wood so it gives her a different angle to try and swim out? What about putting in a little extra Stress Coat, that stuff is all slippery, I wonder if it could act as a help for her to slide out. Either way, good luck with her! I hope it all ends well!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

RIP Harlequin....I couldn't save her. Ended up throwing the wood out with her body still wedged in it  She died while I tried to literally shave the wood down with a razor/back of a hammer and scissors.


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

I'm so, so very sorry you lost her. I'm sure she knows you tried your best to save her though. SIP Harlequin.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

I just can't believe she got in there  I can't even describe how weirdly shaped the crevice was, there was nothing I could do in time  I have no idea how long she was in there before I even noticed she was missing and I only found her because I saw another girl investigating the wood. I honestly was afraid that would happen with that piece but I put it in there anyways thinking that there's no way they could get in that tiny little crevice -_- I will always trust my first instincts from now on, no matter how paranoid I seem!

SIP Harley


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

On a happier note, here are the girls today playing on the huge lily pads that are now at the surface of the water...this plant is seriously amazing in how fast it grows!

BB, Apple and Lemondrop:

BB, the queen of the tank!:

Snow saying, "Hello!":

Diva coming up to see what all the fuss is about:

Red, white and blue. Sadly not in that order:


I loled at this picture. Lemondrop coming up to claim the lily pad:

Then she is chased away, hahaha! :twisted:

Halloween, Apple and Blossom being friends:

Nefertiti. rarely get a good shot of her especially at the surface. She tends to stay near the middle/bottom of the tank:

Another one of Halloween:

Blossom being cute!:


Nefi and Blossom looking right at each other, lol:


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I'm very sorry to hear about Harlequin-S.I.P.

Love the adorable pictures of the girls playing though! Very cute to see them interacting!


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

You take some really gorgeous pictures of your girls! Thanks for sharing them


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks guys! My camera has been acting weird lately...sometimes my PC won't be able to read the picture on it and transfer them over. I think it could be my USB cable though since MY CATSSS love to chew on one end of it...those little b-stards!


----------



## Haleigh (Jan 24, 2013)

Great pictures! You have such a lovely sorority!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks Haleigh! 

So today I went to Petco...twice. I had $20 rewards there so I need to spend it. I picked out a bunch of stuff including some amano shrimp, shale rock, some plants, and two bettas; a baby and a female crowntail. I am a sucker for bettas that are in bad shape, which is why I picked them. Anyways I went to the counter ready to check out and realized my debit card wasn't in my wallet...I FORGOT IT ON THE DRESSER! I had to drive back home and get it then drive all the way back to Petco...smh -_-. I had them put the bettas aside for me and the shrimp were still floating in the bag when I came back the second time.

The little baby looks like a DT (WHICH I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR SO I CAN GET A FEMALE DT!!) and a CT female that is very bloated and her mouth seems to always be open for some reason...it's strange. She is purple though! So pretty. I hope both recover. The baby looks like she was either attacked by another fish or has fin rot...since being in the new 5.5 gallon tank she is already doing MUCH better!
Here is the DT girl looking in bad shape in her cup, probably starving!




Here she is after eating tiny bits of frozen blood worms...she didn't eat any of the frozen brine shrimp though:




Here is the bloated CT girl with her mouth open all the time, lol:




And here is just a pic of Oceania looking more and more like a grown lady. She looks so much better than the scraggly, bent half-dead betta she was a couple weeks ago


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Glad that you picked up that CT female and the baby betta! Both look like they'll be quite the lookers once they're healthy and have received some TLC!

Oceania is looking great!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Finally got a new cable for the camera and it seemed to fix my problem of my computer not being able to find it when it was plugged in. 
The new purple CT girl has a bit of fin rot and is being treated. The baby DT is getting stronger every day! I still have to name the two of them. The CT has a weird deformed mouth that she can't seem to completley shut so it's always slightly open, lol. Here's some random pix of everyone:

Baby eating and getting fat, hehe:





Snow and Lemon looking at the camera with BB off to the left:

My Tiger and Olive Nerite snails:


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

OOOh, how did I not see this before? Well here I am a-commenting lol

All your girls look so beautiful Viva!!! Baby is doing so well :-D Glad you picked her up ^_^

I think Halloween is my favorite so far lol


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks augrim! Halloween is probably my favorite for looks, but personality I really can't say. They're all so silly! Snow is in my top 5 for sure because she literally jumps at everything. She jumps onto lily pads and floating IALs its so funny. She then has to wriggle around to get back into the water...she's like a beached whale or something. Here's some random pics and full pic of the tank so you can see how the plants are filling in. The lotus plant is growing like a weed as is the cabomba and the sword plant. I added some new IAL leaves so the water is pretty dark with tannins right now:



Some pictures of Lilac who I swear has some CT in her:




Snow playing on a lily pad (lol):




My new purple and red CT girl who is being treated for fin rot right now in a KK. She is an odd one, lol. Her mouth is huge and always stays open:




And now some pics of my cat Martini sitting on my lap and trying to kill the corydoras through the glass (as usual):


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

OMG your cat does the same thing mine do! It's sooooo adorable!! lol I love it when they do that, except for when my boy cat tries to scratch the glass >.> that tank has enough scratches in it without him digging in any more!! lol

Oh and for Lilac, if she's a Trad PK which it looks like she is, it's very normal for PK ray's to stick out in that kind of fashion. No CT genes, just a good lookin EEPK girl ^_^


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Ah I see, yes she is a PK  She's so cute. She and her sister Blossom are so small and the only EE's yet they pretty much run the tank, lol! My tank also has ALOT of scratches because I bought it from Craigslist and it had been used as a saltwater tank previously which means they had to scratch it all up with coral and rocks apparently -_- I also caused a lot of scratches accidentally because I tried scraping the hard water stains from the glass (which there was A LOT!) with a razor and it slipped a few times  I should have bought a new tank


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ah yeah mine came from my college, they were throwing it out so the maintainence guy grabbed it and had it sitting in his office. Then I was complaining to my mom at the right time when Steve was there, and about the right things and he goes "Oh, I have like a 50 gallon tank in my office, you want it?" lol so I was like "hell yes!" lol, came with the stand, gravel which I didn't use and donated to my LFS, a small Betta bowl which was weird, also went to my LFS, and an AquaClear filter which is still wired to it but I can't use because the wire is on the wrong side of the leg >.> so that's just sitting there lol

But I think mine was used for saltwater previous as well, gave it a real good bath before anything went in lol But one day we'll both have beautiful new tanks :-D and then when scratches come along we'll be like WTF is THIS! Where did THIS come from!?!?! lol I can see it now XD


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Viva said:


>


Oh my gosh, loooove these two photos. So precious!
Side-note what sort of camera do you use if you don't mind my asking?


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Hahaha, I can't wait to have a brand new tank! Someday....

And thank you Huffles! I have a Canon Powershot SD1200 IS...it's old and nothing special xD


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

All your girls are beautiful as always! Your cat is simply adorable! I love the pictures that you posted of her trying to get at your fish!


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

I love the pictures of your fish, Viva! I got a new Canon 3ti slr and used it non-stop on my vacation. I can't wait to get all my housework and unpacking done, so I can practice on my sorority. You will have to give me some tips!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Most of my shots I take are using the Macro feature on the camera...it focuses pretty well most of the time! One thing I've noticed is that you can't get a focused shot without using the flash...with flash off it's almost impossible to get a clear shot unless the target is completely still.

Well on that note, here's some more random pictures!
Amano shrimp that became pregnant within a few days of adding the three of them to the tank:


This picture is cute, it loks like Apple and Halloween are cuddling  I love Halloween's orange tinted pectorals! It's one big reason I could tell her apart from Calico in this pic.

Little Sprite is now living amongst the sorority as of a few days ago. She escaped her cup for the last time and I didn't feel like catching her again. So far she is still in mint condition, I saw her flaring and holding her ground against the all big girls, it was the CUTEST!

Lemondrop looking at a Corydora that was passing by...LOL! "Yo dis is my hood." (That's how my fish talk btw, they're all pretty much straight up G's).

Apple literally loves to get her picture taken. She will come up to the glass and just stay there motionless until I get a perfect picture of her. She never has any nips or tears in her fins either, she's so careful!:

Now this is Sprite saying to Lemondrop, "Yo dis is my turf, I ain't scared of you!!!" Look at the size difference LMAO! Luckily Lemondrop is pretty cool and isn't very aggressive at all. 

(See this picture was taken without flash so it's blurry, kinda sad because if you put the flash on you won't get the same lighting of the tank in the background which looks a lot nicer):


And some updates on the new baby DT who I am almost positive is a female now. Showing blue and red coloring now  I'm happy her tail is almost perfectly symmetrical because I just prefer it that way  Her lower lobe is probably a little larger but not by much!


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Your girls are just so pretty & love Sprite's spunk! Glad the new girl is coloring up nicely!


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

VIVA! Our girls look so similar! Well...at least Lemondrop to Pineapple and your Apple to my Cherry lol. And your Sprite to my Stardust XD except tail difference. that's so funny though.

And yes! The little DT is a girl :-D she's looking amazing! I'm super glad you were able to save her ^_^


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thanks Bettalover! I'm really in love with Sprite!

Yeah everytime I see your Cherry I'm like omg...that looks just like Apple! I was going to name her Cherry as someone suggested but I chose to go with Apple because a little girl's name that is a member at the petting zoo I work at is named Apple and I thought it was sooo cute! I will probably end up getting a Cherry of my own though in the future since I really love that name. Pineapple and Lemondrop are like the same size its hilarious...it's funny how we went with names of fruits for them...lol. Fruits and fish just mesh well together I guess (maybe not in cuisine though eww).


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

lmao that's so funny! Yes, you should definitely get your own Cherry ^_^ Cherry's are just too darn adorable! And yes Pineapple and Lemondrop....omg I just realized something else as well. Pineapple and Lemondrop are the same amount of letter's too XD not that it makes a difference but I thought that was rather funny! Same size, same color, same iridescence, same amount of letter's lol. I think the only real differences is that Pineapple is a VT and longer fins while Lemon looks like she's a HM? and shorter fins. That's hilarious though!

And that's really cute about Apple's namesake ^_^


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Yeah Lemondrop is an HM I believe. Lol @ the same amount of letters too, too many coincidences!


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Sprite is just beauuutiful! And your little baby is adorables!


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

I'm in love with Sprite, too. Love all your fishies!


----------



## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I think the 'fruity ' names are cute!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Today I changed a good portion of the water in the sorority tank and did the water changes for one of the 10g and the baby's 5.5g. Also doing daily changes still on the new CT girl...both are still unnamed! Took pics afterwards since the water wasn't too dark anymore with tannins from the IAL:

Oceania looking cuter all the time! She escaped her cup today during feeding time...she jumped out of her cup that was floating in the tank when I dropped food pellets in. It was hilarious because I came back after feeding another tank to see her on the outside of her cup trying to get through it to get all pellets she left behind...LOL! I didn't actually see her jump out though, I wish I had. I decided to see how it goes in there for her. She is about the same size as Sprite now but she was pretty stressed when she realized she was swimming amongst the others without the protection of her plastic cup anymore ;P


Here's Diva my longest finned girl. She gets nipped a lot because of it  She's so shiny though!!!


Here's Cleopatra, she gets picked on but has since been getting better.


Blossom turning around. Her damaged anal fin seems to be growing back quickly too!


Just a shot of Halloween and Calico, they look sort of similar in colors:

Calico:


BB looking big and...BLUE!


Lilac getting a breath at the surface under a lily pad:



And now a small back story for the next shots. Sprite was acting super aggressive and not letting ANYONE in the front right corner of the tank..I've never seen it before! Her and Diva were going at it especially, Diva was the only girl that would come back for more. All the others..including BB were fought away by Sprite LOL! It was so cute! She never got a scratch on her either. The pics are kind of blurry unfortunately but it's the best I could do with her swimming around at 100 MPH with all the other girls crowding around the same area...they obviously were begging for food those fatties! And I had JUST fed them before their water change!

Lol poor Diva 


"WHAT CHU LOOKIN' AT?!"


Diva coming back in stealth mode to claim Sprite's corner!!!:


BB and Snow don't want to mess with her...


Snow doesn't learn!


As you can see on some of my photos the Nerite snail (pretty sure its the Tiger nerite) keeps laying eggs all over the glass...they look like little Sesame seeds! Ever since I got it I've been seeing them all over the place. Luckily none of them will hatch...hopefully!


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

I definitely love Sprite! She's so spunky! 

All your girls are gorgeous as always ;-)


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

lol How cute is Oceania! Must of been the site to see with her trying to get back IN the cup. XD BB's colors look stunning in that pic!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So I haven't given an update in a couple weeks, had a lot going on with work and job interviews and such  The girls are doing great! My new baby DT (still unnamed, I'm up for suggestions) is growing up  She's a cutie! Here are a couple pics of her, taken today. It's almost impossible to get a clear shot of her, probably because I need to clean the outside of the aquarium glass LOL. 





Now just some pics of life in the sorority:

I LOVE this pic! Look at Cleo's open mouth, "GIMME DAT FOOD!!" Then she jumps out of the water like a crazy girl! Speaking of jumping for food, Paradise my male HMPK jumped out of his tank last week! He hit the floor and didn't move...I thought he died  But I scooped him up with the net and he started flailing around. Put him back in the tank and he hid for a few hours then came back up looking for his food that he has missed when he jumped out O_O I swear these bettas are CRAZY!!! I need to be extra careful with him and the girls! 



Tight-walking Nerite snail. He's on a tiger lotus stem. I've named him Oliver because he's...olive  So original!:





Well I guess that's all I have for now...thought I had more pics but I guess not  I'll have to take more soon!


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Awww, the baby DT is so cute! I love the mix of colors and the red glowy ring around the eye. The girls are adorable as ever in their little group shot! Glad that Paradise is okay!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

So I've been busy with work and things...left my job of 7 years to pursue a new career with my Computer Science degree. Today is day 4 of my new job as a Technical Support Engineer and it's already getting really boring...although right now I'm not actually working any cases because I need to read up on the documentation and crap. Working outside with people all day like I did at my other job at the petting zoo definitely keeps you awake. Sitting in front of a monitor reading code and documentation puts me to sleep. Don't ask me why I decided to stick with C.S. in college but I did.

Anyways just an update:

The baby DT girl is doing great, she's getting bigger every day! Her fins are really starting to grow out now, too. 

Prize, my first baby betta that I got in Dec 2012 got a case of fin rot. I noticed one day I couldn't find her in the tank so I panicked (last time I couldn't find one of my girls she was stuck in a Mopani driftwood and died). I found her huddled in the back-right corner of the tank not moving much at all. She had major stress stripes and wouldn't even come up to the surface of the water at feeding time. I removed her from the tank about a week later into a KK with some AQ salt. She seems to be doing a lot better now. She has been a very stressed fish since she first joined the sorority. She lived alone for about 5 months before joining the sorority in a split 5.5 gallon tank so I think I will set up my extra 10 gallon tank and split it so she can live there permanently. I just don't think she can handle the sorority life without becoming too stressed and I don't want any illness outbreaks in there that's for sure. 

Spark, the second baby I got in Jan 2013, has a weird fuzzy white growth on the side of her head but it seems to be slowly fading away. It isn't getting any worse I know that.

A strange thing I've noticed about Apple, my super red girl, is that her color is starting to slowly fade. She used to be bright, bright red all over but now her body is a lot paler-looking. None of the other fish seem to have any paler pigment, just her. Is this normal? I wish I could get pics but I'm at work right now and I've been so busy I haven't taken pics of my girls in about a month or so.

I did manage to get pics of my new CT "girl" that I got with the baby DT. You know, the purple/red one? I'm pretty sure "she" is actually a "he" because I cannot see an ovipositor on "her" and "her" fins are much longer than most females I've seen (it's especially noticeable in "her" ventral fins). I had her in the sorority tank for about a week and she's completely calm in there. Last night when it dawned on me that it looks like a male I immediately cupped him and he's now floating in there. I will post pics later and maybe start a new thread somewhere to get advice on it's sex. Maybe today I will see how he reacts to another male so I can get a better idea.

Cleo, the solid copper girl, is still looking very scraggly and has missing scales. I have no idea why everyone picks on her. I think her and Prize will live in the split 10 gallon tank as soon as I set it up. I could split it three ways and house the CT male (at least I think it's male), Prize and Cleo.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Paling in color although not stressed seems to be pretty common in red fish. I think it has something to do with the layer's of their scales since colors are layered on. I find that my girl Cherry also looks the same where her head and fins look nice vibrant red but her body looks almost orangish really. I'll see if I can get some pics. But I know she's not stressed out, so I think it's just a thing.

This is how she normally looks:









And then other times she looks like this (red in the top left corner if you couldn't figure it out lol)


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Sadly, whether it was from PH swings due to water changes and IAL, or from the filter in my tank constantly malfunctioning (that's what I get for buying second-hand supplies off Craigslist) a dreaded columnaris outbreak has occurred. I know it wasn't from lack of cleaning, I changed the water at least once a week or more, at least 30 - 50% of it each time. It could be the lack of cover in the tank so I ordered more plants and driftwood to fill more space. Strangely the three Amano shrimp, the snails and all four Corydoras seem totally unaffected by this outbreak...go figure. I see how the bettas could be at more of a risk because they are stressed from each other being chased and nipped at. So far it's been about 2 weeks since the disease has really taken off.

It all started with Prize, my first female betta and my first baby betta. She was known to hate the sorority life and so I was planning on removing her from the tank as soon as I got another tank up and running, but one day I couldn't find her in the tank. I know it's a red flag when I see all the other females greeting me to be fed and just one girl is missing. She was hiding in the bottom, back corner of the tank, which is hard to see because of the tannins in the water. She was lethargic, clamped and didn't want to eat. I kept her in there a few days to see if she would improve, but her fins continued to deteriorate so I removed her and put her in a KK where I treated her for fin rot with AQ salt. She has not been back in the sorority tank since. She has been in her KK recovering well with no other symptoms. She may not have had columnaris at all, actually.

It was a few weeks later (about 2 weeks ago) when I started to see what looked like small, white scales on Cleopatra and Spark. I thought that they were just damaged/healing scales from a fight so I didn't think to worry much more. Then I noticed Halloween, my gorgeous dragonscale fancy, was just sitting at the bottom of the tank. When I saw her finally start to swim she struggled to keep with her back-end up, almost as if her back was broken near the end and her tail was just hanging there. I put her in a cup to QT her and to make it easier for her to get air from the surface. The next day I noticed that Nefi and many others had blotches on them. I noticed Calico had a large bump on her mouth and then the next day, her lip was gone. She didn't eat for about a week before I finally got her to eat some smaller pellets I had. Big Blue started to get clamped and a bit of white mouth, her fins deteriorated up quickly and she sadly died within 2 days of me noticing her ailments. Snow, my platinum white HMPK died mysteriously without showing much and any symptoms. It was very sad. All the while I was treating with Kanaplex, I added salt to the tank but only at 1.5 tsp/gallon for 4 days because I have a planted tank. Almost all the cabomba died off and the Pennywort suffered a little bit, but all the other plants were fine. The Corydoras and snails were fine too. I also found an article about a medicated bath to give infected fishes for 30 minutes daily, but I did it just every other day: 3 teaspoons/gallon AQ salt, double dose kanaplex and/or Furan-2, double dose Methylene Blue (0.20 tsp/gallon or ~1.0mL/gallon). Bathe for no more than 30 minutes. From the article: 



> "The Bottom line is a Fish Bath and maybe a swab too is a MUST part of any moderate to serious Columnaris infection treatment!
> 
> With Methylene Blue or Potassium Permanganate I prepare a double strength bath and place the fish in this solution for 30 minutes).
> I strongly recommend this bath as a FIRST course of action.
> Furan Two and/or Kanamycin SHOULD be added to this 20-30 minute bath for more serious or stubborn cases, _HOWEVER do not combine these medications or any others with Potassium Permanganate, ONLY Methylene Blue can be combined_."




The Kanaplex itself did not cure the disease although I believe it did prevent it from spreading any quicker. The same article I read about the medicated baths says to *mix Kanaplex with Furan-2* as this is the ONLY way to cure it: 



> "By using broad-spectrum treatments such as a Furan Two &  Kanamycin COMBINATION against diseases with similar symptoms affecting fish, precise identification of specific bacterial or fungal pathogens causing the disease that often display similar symptoms may not be absolutely necessary.
> _Please note that the combination of BOTH Kanamycin AND Nitrofurazone MUST be used for effect against true flavobacterium columnare infections, otherwise the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of these medications individually is too low."_


Here is the article: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/columnaris.html
The Furan-2 and Kanaplex combination started Saturday, and with 4 total doses of Furan-2, should end tomorrow if everything seems better.

On top of the baths and kanaplex/furan-2 added with 75% water changes every day to every other day, I've also been feeding frozen bloodworms medicated with Kanaplex once per day.

So far, with 2 deaths, the disease seems to be coming under control since I've started combining the Kanaplex with Furan-2. I just wish I had the Furan-2 on hand to start with, and that I didn't have to wait for it to be delivered which took over a week  And of course they don't sell barely any fish meds in stores anymore because they assume people buy them and abuse them by using them on themselves..at least that's what the fish guy told me at Petco. Like yeah...all these people seeking a high are going to go out and buy ANTIBIOTICS...the hell? It makes no real sense to me.

Halloween is still unable to swim properly, but I am hoping that she will recover, she is still eating like crazy. The white growths on her head and face are disappearing. My yellow girl seems to have no outward symptoms, but Saturday I noticed her starting to pinecone a little bit which got me very scared. That was before I started the Furan-2 treatment, but she still seems a bit pineconed even today. She's definitely bloated but I've isolated her in a cup with some Epsom salt so hopefully nothing too bad has happened internally yet and she can make a turn-around  Calico is still missing the entire upper portion of her mouth but she is somehow able to eat small pellets. She won't eat any medicated frozen foods (brine shrimp OR blood worms)...she actually panics when she sees the food coming at her and will swim frantically away from it...it's weird. The small pellets she devours though!

So that's whats been happening at my house lately. The other tanks and fish are totally unaffected by this outbreak thankfully.

R.I.P. Big Blue and Snow <3


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Welcome back Viva and I'm so sorry to hear :-( I hope you don't have whatever it is that my tank has!! I'm still unsure if it is an anti-biotic resistant form of columnaris or something else but either way my Ram's are fine and my girl's are just deteriorating and going quickly. Here are most of the pictures of the girls and our discussion about them if you want to compare: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=262458

And just a note, you can actually use fish antibiotics as a regular antibiotic, usually mixed in with some water and just consumed. It is safe and there was a bunch of research on it that I was looking at a while ago when researching medications. But still, that is a very stupid reason to not sell medications, even the simple ones; I consider Furan-2, all the Maracyn's and some other's to be pretty basic.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

I just saw read through your journal from where I last left off, so sad to hear Cherry passed away  I know she was one of your favorites. I really hope this isn't a strain resistant to antibiotics  It seems to be going away since the Furan-2 treatment started, though. I am starting to think Calico will pull through, she is active and has gained a lot more color over the last couple days. I thought she would die because she wouldn't eat for over a week, but I got her to start eating again which is a relief. Halloween I still don't know if she has some sort of internal injury that is causing her swimming problem or if she was really actually somehow injured...she is the only one with this symptom and it happened seemingly overnight. 

I know humans can use the fish antibiotics for themselves, but why do they have to be so overly concerned!? You can get everything online anyways!!! And it's not like some overly-abused drug like painkillers/opiates. Gaaaaaaah, oh well.

Anyways wish me and the girls luck, I wish you guys the best of luck! I heard your going to go through with a necropsy for one of your fish Mystique if she doesn't pull through...I'll definitely be following your thread to learn more.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, I'll be doing a necropsy on someone at some point, don't care on who though at this point.

I am wishing you and your girls all the luck! I'd hate for anyone else to have to go what my girls are, it's never fun. I hope the Furan works for you!!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thank you!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Gah, so no more fatalities but the illness is NOT going away. I've run out of Kanaplex, so now I'm just dosing Furan 2. I did a medicated bath last night and almost ALL the girls had negative effects from it...at least it seemed. Then I read that methylene blue should be added at least 30 minutes after adding seachem prime or stress coat...and I had just done a water change and used that water for the bath sooooo maybe that had something to do with it 

Lemondrop is still pineconed and small, red lesions have appeared on her side. Her and some other of the fish's poops look very strange...like brown dusty leaf-litter looking stuff. It's probably due to internal damage of organs...most likely their kidneys. I have lemon-drop in a 2 gallon hospital tank with 3 tsp/gal epsom salt. All the fish are still wanting to eat and still NONE of the corydoras have been afflicted. Snails and shrimp are okay still too. Now, Apple, who had no symptoms at all, is showing symptoms and going downhill fast. Also, last night I realied the temperature of my tank is at 72 F! THE HEATER IS TOTALLY NOT WORKING AT ALL! So I had to order a new heater last night and now wait for it to be delivered which will be at least 7 - 10 days from now! Just in time for the cold weather, OF COURSE  That could be most of the reason why my fish seem a lot more sluggish now...this BLOWS!


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I'm so sorry Viva :-( Any pictures on them?


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Viva said:


> Gah, so no more fatalities but the illness is NOT going away. I've run out of Kanaplex, so now I'm just dosing Furan 2. I did a medicated bath last night and almost ALL the girls had negative effects from it...at least it seemed. Then I read that methylene blue should be added at least 30 minutes after adding seachem prime or stress coat...and I had just done a water change and used that water for the bath sooooo maybe that had something to do with it
> 
> Lemondrop is still pineconed and small, red lesions have appeared on her side. Her and some other of the fish's poops look very strange...like brown dusty leaf-litter looking stuff. It's probably due to internal damage of organs...most likely their kidneys. I have lemon-drop in a 2 gallon hospital tank with 3 tsp/gal epsom salt. All the fish are still wanting to eat and still NONE of the corydoras have been afflicted. Snails and shrimp are okay still too. Now, Apple, who had no symptoms at all, is showing symptoms and going downhill fast. Also, last night I realied the temperature of my tank is at 72 F! THE HEATER IS TOTALLY NOT WORKING AT ALL! So I had to order a new heater last night and now wait for it to be delivered which will be at least 7 - 10 days from now! Just in time for the cold weather, OF COURSE  That could be most of the reason why my fish seem a lot more sluggish now...this BLOWS!


Hi Viva,
Im new on this forum, this is my first post actually. I am in the process of starting a Betta sorority and I read through your entire journal. Im SO SORRY about what you're going through with your girls. Its so awful! You have done a great job with your journal, giving updates and great pictures. I sure hope the rest of your girls will pull through and you can eventually start reintroducing them back into the sorority.
I wonder if your heater being out might have been a major factor in the whole outbreak..
Keep us posted i'm tagging along to see how it goes.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

lilnaugrim said:


> I'm so sorry Viva :-( Any pictures on them?


Thanks Augrim  I've been so heartbroken to take pics but I will definitely take some today so I can post them here. Lemondrop passed away yesterday afternoon  Halloween is literally just lying at the bottom of her cup all day and struggles to swim but she still wants to eat. Calico seems a lot better now but her fins are deteriorating. It looks like her top lip is actually growing back in though.


annyann said:


> Hi Viva,
> Im new on this forum, this is my first post actually. I am in the process of starting a Betta sorority and I read through your entire journal. Im SO SORRY about what you're going through with your girls. Its so awful! You have done a great job with your journal, giving updates and great pictures. I sure hope the rest of your girls will pull through and you can eventually start reintroducing them back into the sorority.
> I wonder if your heater being out might have been a major factor in the whole outbreak..
> Keep us posted i'm tagging along to see how it goes.


Hi Anny! Thanks for your kind words, I hope my journal is helpful to you and your future sorority! I am also starting to think that my heater could be a cause of this - or at least a part of why my girls are so stressed and contracted this disease. Gah I'm never trusting anyone on Craigslist again -_- The heater probably wasn't working the entire time I've had it, which was since June of this year, but I just didn't notice it wasn't working because the summer heat was keeping the tank at an acceptable temperature. Who knows!  I'll try to get some pictures up later!


----------



## Huffle Puffles (Jul 5, 2013)

Awww man. ;_; I'm soo sad to hear about your fish.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Well the good news is that it's most likely not Mycobacteria if your girls looked anything like mine, there's a chance but most likely it's not. Probably just a antibacterial resistant form of Columnaris which still sucks though, KanaPlex is mildly effective against it. It slowed it down for my girls but they still end up dying. :-/

You bought most of your girls from aquabid, correct?


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Yeah all but 4 of my girls are off of Aquabid =/


----------



## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Sorry to hear about your loss. 

Is illness very common with sororities?


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

No, it's not Pet. That's why I'm wondering if perhaps the two of us bought from the same breeder/seller and the fish came with it...do you remember who you bought from Viva? I know some of mine came from PP-Betta, Somsak, Aquastar, TMT, and Chaba.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

I bough from 3dbetta (note: He had another female I had bid on and he said she had died in the night so I never got her), Majcha farm, Blimp33, Betta hero and TMT-betta. So far the females from Petco are least affected..and Prize who was taken out early with the first signs of her lethargy and clamped fins/fin rot has no other symptoms and is living happily in a separate tank. Also the MALE CT who I got from Petco and who was labeled as a female was floating in the tank almost the entire time and never contracted the disease or at least shows no symptoms. He is also in a separate tank now.

DEPRESSING PHOTO TIME:
Diva has been feeling bloated and crappy since yesterday and just sits at the surface of the water like this:



Halloween has been like this for weeks, idk what is causing the bend in her body:



Calico has most of her upper lip gone and has been clamped and pale the past day or so:



Blossom has had the 'saddleback' appearance for a while, but is still fairing pretty well. She has some fungus growing on her dorsal fin yesterday so I have her in a quarantined tank treated with Methylene Blue. Halloween, Calico, Nefi, and Diva are also in the quarantine tank.


Nefi, notice the blotchy pale marks on her:



Sprite



Oceania


download screenshot

Lilac with pale blotches on her and Oceania (top right):


Oceania and Blossom:


Spark (she looks really fat because of the angle and also because she eats EVERYTHING!):


Apple, she looks like she's doing okay but I think the top part of her mouth is starting to rot:



Cleo (copper girl on top):



The tank:


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Okay, yeah they don't really look the same, mine has more fuzzy parts and nipped fins where you have more mouth rot and stuff. But yeah, I got a few from Majcha and 3D as well, they came from Catw0man. But I guess we won't know if it's from the breeder's over there if we're the only two experiencing these diseases and whatnot.

Almost all my original females are gone and more of the imports are alive right now so it's probably not the imports then so more just the sorority life I guess :-/ which is a really sad thing to think about. I mean, I know they won't ever live harmonously but I just wish they'd be able to thrive together at least. Maybe there's something we're doing wrong :-/ I know on my end my plants started to die off bad because my "grandfather" was turning my lights off when I wasn't there so I had a lot of plant death which caused a lot of stress I know....so I really don't know I guess :-(

I'm sorry that you're going through nearly the same thing though Viva, I loved your sorority and all your girls were so beautiful! I especially loved Halloween and Calico, they were so unique!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Yeah it's really depressing  It could have been caused by the filter not working properly and/or the heater just completely not working. I'm still confused as to why the catfish aren't showing any symptoms though...they just might have stronger immune systems and/or are less stressed. I'm still not ready to give up though, I want there to be at least some survivors.


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Oh my gosh that's so depressing . I really hope you have some survivors. I know you're trying your best to get them better.
This scares me about starting my sorority. I already have my tank up and in the middle of cycling. I also already have six girls. This could happen with any community tank though. Years ago when I first started keeping fish I went through this with goldfish.
Just keep trying to do what you can, maybe things will take a turn for the better and all the girls will start to improve.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah my Ram's aren't effected by my disease either, just the girl's. Betta's are extremely susceptible to so many things though, them and gourami's and just so susceptible it isn't even funny. So I think that's the majority which sucks :-/


----------



## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> No, it's not Pet. That's why I'm wondering if perhaps the two of us bought from the same breeder/seller and the fish came with it...do you remember who you bought from Viva? I know some of mine came from PP-Betta, Somsak, Aquastar, TMT, and Chaba.


Okay, thanks. Perhaps you did. I have not heard of myco until I started reading your journal...


----------



## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Do you think that fish with labryinth (don't know how to spell) are more prone to disease? 

My betta Bloo caught more disease in a month than my platys did for a whole year.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, there's something about the labyrinth fish that they just are more susceptible and all. idk. it's frustrating though.


----------



## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

You would think that the fish that are only able to breathe through water would be more prone........doesn't make sense to me. Well, any sort of fungal infection or rot, or parasites would spread regardless, but other diseases................

I hope your fish get better. I wish there was an immediate cure for fish. That would be boss!


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Hey Viva, how are your girls doing now? Any improvements?


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Hi Anny. Unfortunately no improvements to the sickest of the girls, and I had to euthanize Calico  I've never even thought about purposely killing an animal before, besides maybe the occasional fly when I worked at the farm, so it was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in a while. I was literally shaking before I did it, and on the verge of tears, it was horrible  I chose to slowly reduce the temperature of her water with ice cubes over about 30 minutes until she went unconscious and finally passed. She had started to pinecone and the top of her back was literally being eaten away by bacteria....you could see the flesh underneath her scales =/ The same thing is happening with Blossom, one of my EE girls. She had developed a fungus on her dorsal fin that quickly grew over a day or two, but after today's salt & M.B. bath the white fuzz was gone and an open wound was there. I would have done the bath yesterday but I wanted to give the girls a break from the constant 30 minute baths every other day...now I wish I had done it. The sickest of the girls are Halloween...I may need to euthanize her also...but she is still eating like a pig and has no open wounds or fungus...just a weird bent body and struggling to swim and fin deterioration so idk; Diva who still has a swollen belly and just floats at the surface...she also has a bent spine when floating there like in the above pics; Nefi who has the bad fin deterioration and weird blotches all over her body; and now Blossom with the huge open sore on her dorsal fin that's basically eating away at her slowly...I will have to euthanize her if it gets worse but so far she is swimming around normally but not eating. I have all 4 of these girls separated in a 3 gallon KK with 1.5 tsp/gal salt and started up double dosage of Kanaplex and mixed normal dosage of Furan-2. 

In the main tank I added a little less than double dosage of Kanaplex and normal dose Furan-2. The girls in here haven't improved but also haven't gotten any worse which is why I'm keeping the other girls isolated. At this point I think I'm fighting off different strains of bacteria, fungi and maybe even parasites due to the girls' ailing immune systems.

In lighter news the plants are doing pretty well although my Brazilian Pennywort isn't growing as fast as I think it should be and I dose Seachem Excel every other day and use Trace and Comprehensive 2x per week.


----------



## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

Oh man Im so sorry to hear you and lilnaugrim having a disease outbreak in the sorority. I have no specific advise other than don't give up. We started giving med dips to all fish coming in via aquabid or local. Its really an anti septic dip using Paraguard and its very effective. You are both good keepers and it sucks that stuff happens when the care is excellent. Cheering for you.


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Thank you logistics, I'm trying the best I can to help the girls through it! I'm confident that the girls in the main tank will pull through, but the others may not make it I'm afraid. It's sad to see them go, and quite honestly expensive considering their all imports, but I'm using it as a learning experience.

Update on the fish: This morning Blossom looked a lot worse, she would barely swim, but her dorsal looked SLIGHTLY better, at least no sign of any fungus. However she wouldn't eat, and when I changed the water in her cup she wouldn't even fight the small current of the swirling water. I hope she get's better! 

Girls in the main tank were happy to eat this morning as was everyone else (besides Blossom). I swear Cleo is NUTS when it comes to jumping for food! She and her sister Nefi are little jumpers. Nefi, the black/copper girl, always manages to jump out of her cup. When she first came to me I had all the imports in separated cups on the floor...some with covers that were just placed on the cup and not completely fastened. Nefi had one like that with I SWEAR A CENTIMETER OF SPACE at the top that you wouldn't even think a fish could fit through. I turn around to go into the bathroom and come back to see my cat Martini playing with a fish on the floor..it was Nefi! She had managed to jump out of the cup and flopped all the way across the living room on the hardwood floor...I panicked and put her in a jar. She was stressed but recovered with no other issues. She did this AGAIN a couple weeks ago when I was separating the girls with the worst symptoms...she being one of them. Didn't stop her from jumping out of her half-lidded cup and flopping around for a bit (again with Martini watching and pawing at her in amazement LOL). When I floated her cup in the main tank with no lid on it she would jump an inch to get out EVERY time. 

Cleo, Nefi's copper sister, is LITERALLY INSANE. I swear she thinks that she's a dolphin. She's always been one of my favorites, she just a pretty solid metallic grey, so I guess she KINDA resembles a dolphin hahaha. Anyways, as soon as you go over to the tank and lift the lid shes at the top getting ready to jump at every movement that she thinks is bringing food. She actually jumps into the other girl's floating cups to steal their food...I swear. It's hilarious. Sometimes she jumps and belly-flops like a whale onto numerous pellets of food and then they sink to the bottom and she's still at the top like, "HEY WHERES DA FOOD!?" She's never ended up on the floor because of her jumping but when it comes to jumping on lily pads and the rim of the tank she's all for it. She'll go on a lily pad just hang out on her side for 5 - 10 seconds with her eyes moving around (looks freaky actually) then flops back into the water hahahahahahahahaa.

Well that's enough about my fish jumping, it's really not that amazing but it's hilarious nonetheless.


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Viva said:


> Hi Anny. Unfortunately no improvements to the sickest of the girls, and I had to euthanize Calico  I've never even thought about purposely killing an animal before, besides maybe the occasional fly when I worked at the farm, so it was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in a while. I was literally shaking before I did it, and on the verge of tears, it was horrible  I chose to slowly reduce the temperature of her water with ice cubes over about 30 minutes until she went unconscious and finally passed. She had started to pinecone and the top of her back was literally being eaten away by bacteria....you could see the flesh underneath her scales =/ The same thing is happening with Blossom, one of my EE girls. She had developed a fungus on her dorsal fin that quickly grew over a day or two, but after today's salt & M.B. bath the white fuzz was gone and an open wound was there. I would have done the bath yesterday but I wanted to give the girls a break from the constant 30 minute baths every other day...now I wish I had done it. The sickest of the girls are Halloween...I may need to euthanize her also...but she is still eating like a pig and has no open wounds or fungus...just a weird bent body and struggling to swim and fin deterioration so idk; Diva who still has a swollen belly and just floats at the surface...she also has a bent spine when floating there like in the above pics; Nefi who has the bad fin deterioration and weird blotches all over her body; and now Blossom with the huge open sore on her dorsal fin that's basically eating away at her slowly...I will have to euthanize her if it gets worse but so far she is swimming around normally but not eating. I have all 4 of these girls separated in a 3 gallon KK with 1.5 tsp/gal salt and started up double dosage of Kanaplex and mixed normal dosage of Furan-2.
> 
> In the main tank I added a little less than double dosage of Kanaplex and normal dose Furan-2. The girls in here haven't improved but also haven't gotten any worse which is why I'm keeping the other girls isolated. At this point I think I'm fighting off different strains of bacteria, fungi and maybe even parasites due to the girls' ailing immune systems.
> 
> In lighter news the plants are doing pretty well although my Brazilian Pennywort isn't growing as fast as I think it should be and I dose Seachem Excel every other day and use Trace and Comprehensive 2x per week.


Oh no! Im so sorry about Calico and you had to go through that. I hope the rest of your girls will make a turn around. Your doing everything you can do for them and, i'm sure some of your girls will pull through this.


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

Love, love, love the jumping stories! Praying your girls get well. I started my sorority right after you, so I can only imagine your despair.


----------



## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

The jumping stories are hilarious! I do hope your girls get better!


----------



## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

Came home to Blossom's lifeless body and to Sprite, who was in the main tank and my only CT girl, with an ulcer and white fuzzy stuff growing in between her pelvic fins =/ Her scales are also raised, and pretty much her entire anal fin is gone  Idk what I'm doing wrong. Did another bath with all the girls and applied some hydrogen peroxide to Nefi's weird blotchy spots on her body to see if that does anything. Also added some general cure to the hospital tank because Diva is still very bloated and I haven't treated for parasites yet. Also, there's really nothing to lose at this point. I've lost basically half my sorority =/ I have Maracyn II and I've heard that may fight it off but I'm so burnt out with water changes and dosing meds and doing medicated baths every day that it's kind of just P***ing me off at this point.


----------



## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

I'm so sorry!!! I don't think it's anything YOU did, but these things tend to happen with sororities.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I hear you Viva :-(


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

That's so awful. Im so sorry.


----------



## Janan (Mar 6, 2013)

Feeling your pain!


----------

