Recent content by DWC

Beautiful fish! Always liked white clouds, both the golden and “standard”.

I have a shoal of 6 Zebra Danios in a heavily planted, sponge filtered 10 gallon tank and they have been active and healthy for well over 2 years. Happy? You'd have to ask them. They started as a shoal of 8 but 2 passed on right away. The remaining six are fed once daily with Tetra flakes...

I vote never. Your current maintenance sounds fine. I wouldn't tear down the tank for a "total" clean unless you were really starting over, say wanted to go from "regular" tank to an African Malawi cichlid tank, or after a devastating disease, or wanted to change your substrate. You would...

Years ago I had a small fantail oranda goldfish in a ten gallon and while Belinda was a wonderful pet, full of personality, she sorely strained the capacity of the tank even with twice weekly 50% water changes. Small goldfish become big goldfish so I would NOT go that route. I like Zebra...

Guppies good choice if you get all males or you will soon be heavily stockedwith offspring. How about Zebra Danios; a very active hardy colorful fish? I have a small a shoal of 6 in a similar sized tank and they have thrived for the last couple of years. Some individuals are more blue and...

Tank size sounds ideal. As mentioned by others, any filtration should have a low flow or the ability to diffuse/redirect it. A heater is crucial. As for window sill, the painting of the back and sides is good and I like black as a backdrop for the fish, BUT, it may encourage too much heat...

Definitely can grow back. I picked up an orange veil tail whose color I liked so much that I failed to notice his ragged tail. With just clean water, good food and appropriate temperature his tail is now fine. I'd not be too quick to medicate, but that's just me.

I formerly, quite happily, used Tetra EasyStrips 6 in 1 Test Strips for measuring the water parameters before my weekly water changes on my Betta's 10 gallon tanks.  After repeatedly reading on this board the superiority of the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, I switched to the API Kit and found...

A while back I had asked advice of the forum concerning a couple of ideas I had.  I received excellent though varied feedback so after a while I decided to run experiments myself.   Question #2: Would house plant Spider Plants (Chlorophytum comosum) grow hydroponically by dangling their roots in...

A while back I had asked advice of the forum concerning a couple of ideas I had.  I received excellent though varied feedback so after a while I decided to run experiments myself.   Question #1: Would I have to increase maintenance if I removed filtration from my Bettas’ Tanks? Answer #1: Turns...

Sorry, forgot to add LiveAquaria.com where I bought Water Sprite lists preferred pH of 5.5-6.5 though it has thrived for me around pH 7 David

I love White Clouds but have to concur, their ideal temperature environment is significantly below a Betta's by a good 10F, indeed a temperate rather than tropical fish, but hardy so it may work though certainly not ideal for them. I have 6 Bettas each alone in a 10 gallon and they don't seem...

I have my Bettas in ph 7 water only because that is what comes out of the tap. I have them (6) in 10 gallon low tech tanks kept from 78F up to room temp in summer (no AC for me or fish). I currently have forests of Java Ferns, Java Moss that continually needs to be thinned or it will cover the...

I agree, a gang valve is my vote. Air line from pump attached to one end. Air lines from filter, air stone, mermaid, etc attached to valve controlled connections. Usually made to hang on tank rim (side, back). PetSmart has some nice lever controlled metal valves for $6 for 3-way, $8 for...

I found these great plastic basket/cylinders in a $1 bin at store. They are maybe 4" in diameter, maybe 6" tall, with the sides of a hard plastic mesh and the bottom solid. Probably meant to hold pens or what not on a desk but I bought a couple as they looked useful. As luck would have it...