# The Tanks of Castle



## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I've finally gotten my tax return back, so I can upgrade to a bigger tank and get all the decent equipment it requires! I thought I'd try out this journal thing. I'm going to try to post regularly. I hope you guys enjoy it! I'm still really new at fishkeeping so I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, tips, things you notice, how my story relates to yours! 
Right now, I have one 1.6 gallon tank. I also am attempting a planted 1 gallon bowl; that one is . . . a work in progress.. We call it the Experiment Bowl.

If you haven't seen her picture yet, this is Chadashah. Her name is Hebrew for "new," and she is named that because she marks a new season in my life. The other name you will want to know is E.Joy. She is my roommate and one of my best friends; she is also a great photographer. I'm (not so) secretly hoping that she will be providing lots of pictures for this journal! We call our house Castle; you will probably notice that theme sort of came out in the aquariums . . .

I decided around Christmas that I really wanted a pet, and since The Castle is a rental, the only pet we can have is fish. Luckily, I really enjoyed keeping fish as a kid. So I called up my landlord and asked about getting a one gallon tank, and they said that would be fine.

This is the first lesson I have learned fishkeeping: *don't suggest a size to your landlord!* Ask them how big of a tank you can have and let them give you the number. When I realized how much too small one gallon was going to be for Chadashah, I gathered up my courage to ask if I could get a five gallon. Turns out, my pet-free property, does in fact allow 5 gallon tanks. 

Honestly, as much work as having a 1.6 gallon tank is, I am kind of glad I started there instead of getting a more expensive kit that still would not have been a good quality one. Over the last six months, I have learned so much more about keeping fish. I know I have a lot more to learn, but I feel confident picking out a basic five gallon glass tank and fit the filter, heater, substrate, etc. to what I want rather than just going and buying whatever the first thing I find. I would not have known what to do when I was first starting (and yes, I do recognize that 8 months is still 'first starting'). Fishkeeping is a little overwhelming, especially at first. Now, I feel much more prepared to get a tank that fits what I like and what Chadashah needs.

I have been slowly acquiring things while I wait for my tax refund to come in. With my state refund, I picked up a nice piece of wood, rocks, and substrate. I picked up a 5.5 gallon tank at a Petco sale back in June. My Amazon order of light, filter, heater, quality thermometer and vinyl for the back ground arrived a couple of days ago. Now I'm headed off to Menards, Petco, and my LFS for a few more supplies, and then I'm going to try (gulp) scaping it. The substrate and hardscape are all ready. I have one anubias coffeefolia, but I do need quite a few more plants. Fingers crossed I can find something good at my LFS! If not, I'll be doing an online order and finishing the planting when they come in. I'll wait to move Chadashah over until it's all planted. In the meantime, here are some pictures of Chadashah, Chadashah's Castle version 1, and the Experiment Bowl!

Let me know what you think. If you have questions, tips, tricks, etc. let me know! I am excited to learn more and share my journey with you all! Stay tuned for pictures of my progress on the new tank later on this week!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I got a lot of progress made on the new tank this weekend! In other words, I spent all day Saturday working on it. It was great to watch it go from just a pile of boxes and bags to an actual aquarium! As much as I ranted about the wait, it was worth it.

















My LFS was low on plants, but I managed to snag two of the kinds I really wanted: anubias nana petite and corkscrew vallisenaria. I already have an anubias coffeefolia which I will be using, but Chadashah likes it so much I decided to leave it in her tank until I'm ready to move her over, unless I end up with an extra of some other plant that I can put in with her.









The coffeefolia is going to go in the middle of the driftwood between the two petites that are already there.

I'm definitely going to have to order some plants online. I for sure want to get a lighter version of the anubias nana petite, a buce wavy green, some Christmas moss, and two kinds of stem plants. If anyone has suggestions for what stem plants would look good behind the treehouse, let me know! I am still trying to decide. There are so many good ones out there!









And. . . drum roll please . . .









Here is the full tank as it is so far! I am very happy with how it is turning out. What do you think?


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

Sadly, no real updates on the new tank. I put in an order for plants very early Thursday morning and was hoping that they would be here yesterday, but it looks like I got it in a little too late to have here before the weekend and the post office is estimating it will be here on Wednesday. I'm praying my plants survive the wait; I am optimistic that they will at least arrive algae free!

I did put my first dose of liquid fertilizer in yesterday, so we'll see how everything does this week. So far none of the plants have died, and the val seem to be perking up a bit: they were a little raggedy and melty from the store. I'm doing a sort of hybrid cycle on the new tank right now. Since I have plants in the tank already, I don't want to risk the high ammonia levels you get from a fishless cycle, but I won't be moving Chadashah until all the plants are in, so I can't really do a fish-in cycle just yet. I did however use a bunch of substrate that was in Chadashah's current tank and I don't want to lose any beneficial bacteria that might be on it, so I have been dosing enough ammonia every couple of evenings to get me up to .5 ppm. So far that is gone by the morning, so I think I am going to try upping that dose this week. No sign of nitrates yet, so I'm not sure if it is the BB taking care of it, or if the plants are using it. 

The experiment bowl has been a little neglected the last couple of weeks, so I did a bunch of cleaning on that. Once the plants arrive for the 5 gallon, I'll trim the Christmas moss down in the Experiment Bowl and use the trimmings in the 5 gallon. I tried supergluing some loose strands to a different part of my wood in the Experiment Bowl and it now looks like a bird pooped on the log. Also, I superglued some Christmas moss to my fingers, so in the 5 gallon, I will be using cotton thread to secure the moss. I'll still glue the anubias and the buce, though.

I added some rooibos tea to the tank Chadashah is in, yesterday. She's been a bit . . . off this last week. I'm hoping she is just stressed from moving her tank: I can't see any visible signs of illness, and her offness is really subtle, so I hope it is nothing. She is hiding more and flaring a lot. She is sometimes slower to come out to the front if I walk up to the tank. And while she is still eating, she isn't grabbing the food as fast as usual and seems to be less interested in non-pellet food. When I tried frozen daphnia this week, she took a couple of bites and spit it out. I had to run to work, so I'm not sure if she went on to eat the rest of it or not, but the tank seemed pretty clean when I came back, so I think she did eat it. All the water tests are coming back normal though; since I had to take her out of the tank to move it AND one of her hides went into the new tank, I'm pretty sure it is just stress. Hopefully the tea helps!

I'll grab some pictures tonight when the lighting is better and post them. In the meantime, have a great day, everyone!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

Full tank shot of the experiment bowl:








And that superglue job - it is definitely going to be a while before I try supergluing moss again, unless anyone has tips on how to do it a little more neatly. But that is why I have the Experiment Bowl - so I can try things out and see what works best!








And a couple shots of Chadashah in the small tank. The last two are compliments of EJoy!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I have sad news to report this weekend: Chadashah passed away on Monday evening. I'm not sure what was wrong. She didn't have any obvious signs of disease, and the water tests came out 0 for ammonia and nitrite and 5 for nitrates. I tried rooibos tea and blocking off the back and sides since she seemed stressed for a few days before, but I guess it was her time to go. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to get her in the new tank, but I am thankful I had her. I will for sure be getting another betta. I'm going to pick up a nerite snail first though: I want to give it a little time to settle in before I add a betta.

In happy news: my plants arrived on Tuesday!! I got everything planted in the 5 gallon tank and I am very happy with how it came out. The pants are:

Anubias coffeefolia,
anubias nana petite
anubias super petite "snow white"
Christmas moss
Valisneria contortionist
marimo moss balls
bucephalandra wavy green
hygrophilia compact
Ludwigia sp. Atlantis 





















The val is growing very well: there are already at least two new runners with a couple of inches of growth on the new plants, and the old plants have sent up some new leaves as well. I've already talked to my LFS about selling them plants and they said they would be happy to take whatever I don't have room for. Maybe I'll have enough growth that I can get some store credit toward the betta! I ended up with a lot of plants, so I'm hopeful that I will have something to give them soon! I ordered from Aquarium Plant Factory and everything I wanted was on a buy two get one free sale. I wanted to have the new tank planted pretty heavily, but the result is there isn't too much room for replanting extra growth.

The lesson I have learned this week is that I love epiphytes that can be superglued to decor, and I _really _don't like planting stem plants. The hygro wasn't so bad: it has a pretty thick stem that seemed to stay in the substrate, but the ludwigia has very thin stems, and was not fun to get in there. I've watched so many youtube videos of people planting and it looks so easy. Then I try it and 2 hours later, I'm _still _trying to get the stupid plants to stay. Hopefully they root quickly and not too many of them float up.

I had enough extra plants to add to the Experiment Bowl as well. I decided to try plant weights with one bunch of the ludwigia. It seems to be doing fine so far, and I can see some roots starting to form at the bottom. All in all, the Experiment Bowl looks sssooooo much better! It's nice to see so much green inside; I'm thinking of picking up some shrimp for it while I'm getting the snail. I think some blue dream shrimp will look great against all that light green!


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## FishandBirdLover (May 5, 2021)

This is great! Following!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

FishandBirdLover said:


> This is great! Following!


Yay! Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying it! Let me know if you have questions, thoughts, insight, etc!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

It was a super busy weekend, so this post is coming later than I was hoping. There isn't too much news on either tank. The plants seem to be doing well. The val in the 5 gallon is growing great. There was some melt when I bought them from the store, and some of the leaf tips are still looking raggedy from that, but all the plants have a lot of new growth on them. In this picture, you can see that the new shoot has grown almost to the water line and is looking great!









From what I can tell, there isn't much growth on anything else, but the only thing that is showing any melt is the anubias snow white. There are quite a few melting leaves on that one, but I'm hoping that it is just adjusting to my parameters, and will recover. It looks like there is a tiny bit of new growth on the left one, but that could be wishful thinking. The leaves are so tiny and they were so close together, even in the pictures it is hard to tell if there is a new leaf growing or if an old leaf just melted. I'm choosing to believe in it though!
















Even if I am not seeing much growth on the other stuff, I am happy that nothing is melting. I know it is still early days for this tank, even if I am impatient for it to be fully established and mature. I keep reminding myself that minimal melting is a wonderful first step to a beautiful, planted aquarium. 









The ludwigia looks a little taller, but I'm pretty sure those are the stems that came uprooted which I just tangled in with the others in the hopes they root themselves in. I'm a little scared to do anything more with those. Apparently, planting ludwigia is slightly traumatizing (and definitely led to not enough sleep). If anyone has tips for how to plant those I would love to hear them! There is some empty space in front of the heater that I was planning to put trimmings (you know, some wonderful day when it is tall enough to _be_ trimmed), but the cowardly part of me is thinking maybe it would be a good spot for hygro trimmings.















I don't have any livestock in there yet. Well . . . I say I don't have livestock. I have found two pest snails, so I am sure I'll be finding more eventually. I'm pretty sure they came with the val or the anubias petite from my LFS, because I found 3 more when I was cleaning out Chadashah's old tank, and the only plants that were in there were from my LFS. So far I don't mind the snail hitchhikers, I'll probably keep pulling them out if I see them so my 5 gallon tank isn't overrun, but I'm more pleased to know that I managed to catch all the duckweed that definitely came on those plants. I'm willing to risk pest snails (even if it turns out to be a little naïve and I decide I hate them), but I know I do not want to deal with duckweed!

In addition to the snails, tonight I noticed a lot of little tiny, white moving dots on my glass. I know those came from the blue gravel that was in Chadashah's old tank, because there were lots in there. From everything I've read are harmless and potentially free food for the betta; I don't have any equipment to zoom in enough on them to see more than dots, but I'm taking them as a good sign of a healthy aquarium (if experienced aquarists read this and discover I'm wrong, please let me know so I don't continue in ignorance!).
















This week, I started looking for nerite snails locally. Shipping for live animals is just more than I can afford right now, and I would rather have a chance to pick out what I get. My choices to get this weekend were black racer or zebra nerites. I've been hoping to find either a red racer or a tiger. I talked to my LFS, and they said they can order tiger nerites next week, so I decided to hold off until they get some in. I'm not going to lie, though: I'm kind of hoping they can find red racers to get with that shipment. Those things look so cool! And they'd only be $4 a piece! But if they can't find them, I don't really want to wait longer than 2 weeks. My plan is to give the snail a week to settle in, then start looking at bettas! I can't wait to see a fish in this beautiful aquarium!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

Well, I have definitely not done well with regular posts here! I'm sorry to anyone who happens to be following! I kept thinking that there hasn't been anything to post, and in some ways that is true: I haven't---actually _hadn't_---gotten any livestock in the tank, so it was just growing algae and possibly plants. Then I went back and looked at the pictures from when I first planted it, and oh man! Did it grow plants. And algae, too, of course.

Here are the before and after pictures:















I was going to take pictures on a really bad algae day (I was letting it accumulate in preparation for the snail), but I honestly forgot that day. The front of the glass got bad enough that I just couldn't stand it anymore, so I wiped it off. Just the front pane though. That was at least a week before these after pictures, though, and it was MUCH worse in there!

Most of my plants seem to be doing well. The hygro and the val especially. The vals had so many new shoots and runners, I pulled three plants (the same number I started with) and traded them in for store credit at my LFS. I didn't measure the leaves, but two of the plans had leaves long enough to make an L around the short side and long side of the tank and touch the far corner! I'm feeling hopeful that I will be able to spend a lot less on fish stuff from now on!

The ludwigia still has plenty of room to grow, but it seems to be putting out roots and it is definitely not dying. The buce and the anubias all seem healthy, except the snow white. That one is still struggling. I think this week I'm going to take one of them out and move it up to the experiment bowl: I'm hoping more light and being closer to the surface will help it out a bit. We'll see. I am also hoping having livestock in the tank will keep me more regular about tank maintenance: there is a reason all the terrestrial plants in the Castle are E.Joy's!









There's also a pretty healthy collection of microfauna in there. I've come home in the evening several times and found these little guys all over the glass. I'm not sure what they are (and don't have access to a camera or microscope to get a better picture of them), other than hopefully free food for a fish. It's kind of fun to watch them creep around the glass though!









Now for the exciting news!! This weekend I was able to get a snail, finally! I've been trying to get one for a few weeks now, but I've been holding out for either a red racer or a tiger nerite. I really wanted a red racer nerite, but was willing to settle for a tiger, if I couldn't find the racer. Sadly, the pet stores around here only had zebra and black racers. I don't really want to ship live fish right now. My LFS was out of both kinds I wanted, but said they would try to get some. It took a couple of weeks, but they got a whole batch of both just in time for this weekend. My sister, ten-month-old niece, E.Joy, and I all traipsed out to pick one out.









My niece had so much fun! She loved all the different fish. She wanted to look at all the tanks and kept trying to grab the fish through the glass. The cichlids were definitely her favorite, but they are also a really good size for her to see and recognize. I'm sure I'll bring her to the betta side soon!  We found a beautiful red racer. I'm not completely decided on a name, but I'm probably going to settle on Moo Shu after the dragon in Mulan. The other choices are Mufasa and Raja. Which one do you like best?









I was hoping to get a better idea of his personality before naming him, but after yesterday he has lost himself somewhere in this jungle of a tank.. This seems to be the downfall of a well planted tank and a tiny snail! Also, he is almost the same color as the flourite. Even though he is small, he is making big headway on the tank. The front pane is clear, and there are big patches of clear glass on both sides. I had heard nerites were big eaters, but I didn't realize they were that big of eaters at such a small size! I was planning on him taking a week to clean everything up, and at this rate he's going to have the glass sparkling by Wednesday!

I do have some rocks sitting in water to grow algae, so hopefully I'll have some progress on that soon. I picked up some spirulina wafers that I want to try, too. And there is lots of algae on the plants, substrate, etc. so I am not too worried that he will run out of food. But man alive! These things are voracious!









Once he makes an appearance and I decide on a name, I'll post more pictures for you guys. I'd like to say it will be sooner than this post, but I'm headed out of town for a couple of weeks to attend my sister's wedding, so it probably is going to be a few more weeks. Don't worry though! I will be back with an update on The Tanks of Castle!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

Wow, I have not been good about updating this journal the last few months. I am sorry to anyone who has been following it! I will try to do better about it! The last few months have been crazy, between my sister getting married out of country and the holidays. Quite a bit has happened for the 5 gallon in the last three months, including adding a betta! Let me officially introduce, Raj! Isn't he a beauty?















The nerite has a name as well! I'd like to officially introduce Moo Shu! Yes, he is named for the dragon in Mulan. He pretty much does his thing and ignores everything else. He disappears every few days, then reappears for a couple. It is a fun challenge trying to find him. When people come over we often offer them a prize if they can find him. No one has been able to collect yet! I was a little afraid that Raj would pick on him, but they both pretty much ignore each other. Here is Moo Shu today!









Both of them are doing well, despite my fumbling through learning how to grow plants. That has also been an adventure. It is really cool going back to the first pictures of this tank and seeing what it looked like at first and what it looks like now. Here is the tank today!









The val is doing amazingly well. It has put out so many runners that I've taken two batches to my LFS, and I'll need to take out a couple more plants in another week or two. I waited too long the last time and when I finally got around to trimming, one of the plants was so big, we measured it. It was 3 feet long! Much too big for my 5 gallon tank, but it was really impressive! The anubias coffeefolia and anubias nana petites are both doing great! I can't believe how many leaves those two petites at the front have!









The super petite "snow whites" are . . . not dead. Which is about as much as I can say for them. I moved one of the them up onto the porch of the treehouse hoping that it will grow better closer to the light (sorry, that picture didn't come out great: it's the dark spiky lump in the corner to the right of the door). I'll keep you guys posted on how that one does.









Unfortunately, I lost the Christmas moss to algae while I was out of country. And one of the Buces melted after a root tab popped in the water column and cause a nitrate spike that I didn't catch for a couple of days. I'm a little sad about that one. Raj and Moo Shu survived the extra nitrates, although Raj went off his food; he is back to his old self, thankfully! Moo Shu disappeared for a couple of extra days, and I was afraid I had killed him, but he turned up again and seems to be doing very well. All the other plants enjoyed the extra nitrates a lot: the coffeefolia put out an extra leaf and you can see all the new growth on the hygrophilia. The Ludwigia got really tall and leggy. I trimmed a bunch of it this week, to try and get a more bushy look. We'll see how that goes. 









Over all, I have decided I really prefer epiphites to stem plants. I have a lot of trouble planting them, and so far adding root tabs has just been frustrating. I'm not sure if it is the kind of substrate, or the kinds of plants, or having such a small tank with quite a bit of hardscape, but I really dread anything to do with trimming, replanting, or adding root tabs, etc. I'm going to see how the ludwigia does now that I've trimmed and replanted it. I may end up taking it all in to my LFS and replacing it with a java fern so I don't have to fuss with replanting trimmings or root tabs. They hygro isn't quite as bad since it has thicker stems; also, I think the leggy look on it makes it seem more like jungle trees. At least that's what I tell myself so I don't have to uproot it get rid of the bare stems! If anyone has any tips for replanting in fluorite, I'd love to hear them!









Have a great week, everyone!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I don't know why that full tank shot came out so tiny. Here's one that you can actually see without a magnifying glass!


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## betta4ever! (Oct 5, 2021)

KatieMR said:


> Here's one that you can actually see without a magnifying glass!


I honestly used one, I'm not kidding! The tank looks great!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

Haha! Sorry about that, @betta4ever!! My phone has been weird about transferring pictures to my computer. I thought I checked all of them before I posted, but apparently I had missed that one!


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## betta4ever! (Oct 5, 2021)

KatieMR said:


> Haha! Sorry about that, @betta4ever!! My phone has been weird about transferring pictures to my computer. I thought I checked all of them before I posted, but apparently I had missed that one!


No worries! This was actually fun!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I have been trying to find some time to sit down and write up another update on this tank. I've got a good one all planned out on the theme of learning from my mistakes. However . . . I have not been able to find time to sit down and put it together before I leave for vacation. I will hopefully have a chance to update when I get back. In the meantime, EJoy has graciously agreed to keep an eye on Raj while I'm away. I have high hopes that I will not come back to find hair algae taking over the whole tank again!


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I'm finally making some time to do this entry! These last two months have been crazy around Castle: I'm glad I haven't succumbed any further to MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome). As it is, the Experiment Bowl is . . . becoming more and more of a neglected experiment. Surprisingly, there are still plants alive in there, quite a lot of them do not look too bad, despite having only sporadic top offs, no actual water changes, and the sort of fertilizer routine of which nightmares are made. One of these weekends, I'll have some free time and the courage to face that tiny monstrosity. I'll post some before and after pictures for anyone following this journal. That should be an interesting one!

Tonight however, I am here to admit some mistakes I made, which I am learning the hard way from. Hopefully someone else can learn (the not-hard-way) from them, too. Or at least get a laugh out of it.

Okay.









Here goes.

You know when you are first starting out your betta journey, and the people who have been doing this for a long time tell you to do the nylon test on your decorations? You know how you think, in all your newbie wisdom, "That will be too much work!" and "Fins can't possibly be _that _delicate! No one is sanding stuff down in the wild!" Maybe you even thought, "It doesn't matter if I get this part of the driftwood perfect: I'm going to be growing moss here!" or "My fish can't possibly fit in there!"

Yep. I thought all of those thoughts when I set up this tank.🤦‍♀️

To give myself a little credit, I was thorough with the treehouse. At the time, I also had a largish female with short fins, who _possibly_ didn't need quite as much care as my extremely tiny rosetail (a tail type I also said I would never get 🤦‍♀️. Hahaha. Yeah, that's probably a lesson for another day).

What I've learned is this:

1) It is way more work to take hardscape out of a fully planted, flooded tank with a fish in it than to sand it down before you start scaping. Next time, Katie, you need to do the work _before_ you set up the aquascape. Also, Katie, there is this wonderful new invention called an electric sander available to us now that dinosaurs are extinct, the stone-age is over, and the Flintstones have moved out of the house next door. Using this marvelous tool will not, in fact, hurt the appearance of your drift wood and will save you a lot of time and energy. Make sure to rinse the driftwood well before putting it back in the tank, Katie.









2) Yes, yes, fins are that delicate. Also it seems that long-finned bettas (even ones who aren't actively biting their own tails off) have no regard whatsoever for the safety of their fins. Wild bettas do not have big trailing fins to snag on the not-sanded-down stuff in the wild, and clearly all that breeding for fighting also bred out any sense of fin-preservation that may have originally existed in the betta splenden species. They just don't care how un-beautiful and unhealthy their fins look (or actually are) when they have been damaged. In fact, it is possible that they take pleasure in our dismay and worry over these delicate appendages. Bettas are a bit like cats in that way.









3) Planting moss. Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I did do that in all the spots I planned, carefully covering the rough parts so no delicate fins could catch. Then I was out of town for two weeks and missed the algae apocalypse, which sadly did not miss my Christmas moss. When I returned home and rescued my poor, overgrown jungle tank . . . let's just say there hasn't been moss anywhere for a looooong time and not because I don't want moss. The moral of that story is: do not assume plants you have never grown are going to survive to protect your betta.









4) And finally: oh yes, your betta absolutely can and will get there. The smaller the space, the better he or she likes it. He or she may hang out there just to spite you. Remember: bettas are a little like cats. Don't skip it just because it is small, or you think it will be hard to get to, Katie!









In the end, I did get that piece of driftwood sanded down. I also reorganized the anubias on it. I may not have grown moss successfully in this tank (yet), but my anubiases are doing well. The coffeefolia, I split in half, so now I have two of them, both plants have new leaves coming in. The three nanas are now five. The not-dead snow white petites are still not dead. They all now live on the top of the treehouse. All of them have managed to put out some new leaves and all of them are also fluffy with algae. One of my next plant goals is to figure out what this algae is and how to get rid of it without killing the plants I want to keep. Here is the tank right after the driftwood was put back in.









I also did a big trim on the hygrophelia and the ludwigia. I still don't love stem plants, and Raj lost quite a lot of cover in that two day fiasco. The hygro liked the whole replanting about as much as I did, and a bunch of stems melted. I think there is one stem still in the substrate and maybe a couple that are still floating and I have little hope for. The ludwigia seems to have decided it might as well stay where it is put and produce some new growth. I'm waiting for my LFS to get some java fern in. That is going to go in the back left corner and will hopefully be a harder-to-kill bit of cover for Raj.

Unfortunately, Moo Shu the nerite snail decided to take a walkabout and did not make it back into the tank, so I currently have nothing enjoying the algae. I am planning to replace him as soon as I can. Hopefully my next snail is less adventurous! Until that happens, though, you'll have to excuse the state of the glass you'll probably be seeing in future pictures. I'm trying to clean the worst bits off, but I also want to make sure there is plenty of food for my next snail!

That's all for this week! Happy spring everyone!


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Did you ever figure out how to keep stem plants down? Plant in bunches of at least three. Wrap a led weight around them and anchor under the substrate. Strip bottoms of stems so there are no leaves to rot. 

You can also put each stem in a short piece of airline tubing. Instead of inserting into the substrate, move some out of the way. While holding in place repack around the tubing and stems. Depending on the size of the tubing, you can insert more than one stem.


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## KatieMR (Mar 31, 2021)

I just kept sticking them in and eventually they decided to stay. The ludwigia did anyway. There hygro stems decided to melt, and now they are too short to plant. Right now, I'm letting them float to see if they'll grow any additional stem so they can be replanted. I'm keeping an eye on them, though, so if they start rotting in the water column I'll take them out. So far no stems, but I've seen some new growth, so it also seems like they aren't dying.

I've heard about the lead weights, but I haven't really used them. I'd never heard of the airline tubing trick, that sounds intriguing. Don't they float out of the tubing? Or are you able to get them in tight enough that they stay? I'll have to try both of those before I completely give up on stems.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

I think the reason the tubing works is because you pile the substrate around them. I've only done it using sand. Or, one can buy rooted stem plants. I've found them here Tropica Aquarium Plants - Green Leaf Aquariums | GLA

If you ask Tristan (APF) if he has any potted stem plants he'll let you know. Sometimes he doesn't list them.


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