Adventures And Pictures Of My Bettas

[Erisna]

My snails and moss arrived today! I got enough moss to completely cover my mopani wood, and they sent three snails instead of two! I'm afraid one of them might not live though- he looks like he has a big crack in his shell, and he's just sitting on the mopani wood, not moving much. The other two are going around mowing down algae like crazy. I only have a couple minor complaints- the box wasn't very well insulated, the bag was sort of loose in the box and didn't look very secure, and the bag with the snails, oddly enough, had no water in it. Is that normal? It was nice and humid and sealed well, but there wasn't any actual water.

I'll get pics later- I've decided to call one of the snails Harvey. He has a two-tone shell. Yes, I'm a nerd, don't judge!

 

[Llegmore]

I'll get pics later- I've decided to call one of the snails Harvey. He has a two-tone shell. Yes, I'm a nerd, don't judge!

You should call the other one Bruce and watch them chase each other all day (really slowly) ...

Sparky's a lovely looking girl. Really suits her name too.

Live plants are great. Since I swapped silk for live in my betta's 10 gallon, his colour has come up so much better. He likes resting on the leaves too. He's a lazy lump.

 

[Erisna]

I'll get pics later- I've decided to call one of the snails Harvey. He has a two-tone shell. Yes, I'm a nerd, don't judge!

You should call the other one Bruce and watch them chase each other all day (really slowly) ...

Sparky's a lovely looking girl. Really suits her name too.

Live plants are great. Since I swapped silk for live in my betta's 10 gallon, his colour has come up so much better. He likes resting on the leaves too. He's a lazy lump.

Haha! I should! And if the one with the cracked shell lives, I'm calling him Joker...

Thanks! I like my little walmart girl.

Yeah, I recently made the switch to live plants for the first time and I don't think I'm ever going back! They look so good and help the water so much.

 

[Erisna]

Well, thanks to the snails, I no longer have an algae problem in the 5 gallon! Those little suckers ate nearly every bit of algae off the glass, and are now starting on the plants. I'm cautiously optimistic that the one with the cracked shell will live- he's moving around a lot more and the crack seems to be healing. But oh my gosh, the POOP. I never knew such little invertebrates could poop so much, and it looks awful on my white sand!

On a less happy snail note, I somehow got freshwater limpets in the 5 gallon. No idea how, since no new plants were added anytime recently, but I've crushed and removed two already.

I unbaffled the filter in the 5 gallon. Sparky doesn't have any trouble with the flow, and it's better for the plants and the snails. I really like how this tank is starting to look as it matures. I finally got a clue abut carpeting plants and replanted the microsword so it should hopefully actually carpet now instead of sitting in a sad little clump.

I took the filter out of Steel's tank. He was just hovering around in his lantern, looking depressed, and as soon as I took the filter out he started swimming around and looking happier. I stuck the cartridge in Sparky's cycled filter, so whenever I get a bigger tank I can seed it and jumpstart my cycle. For some reason, I keep getting huge ammonia spikes in the tank. It was .5 last night. I vaccuumed the gravel very well so there's no icky little debris rotting down there, I actually boiled his gravel for 10 minutes a few days ago in case something snuck by the first rinse with scalding hot tapwater, and all of his plants are healthy... SG's water has been 0 ppm every time I tested it for comparison, so I don't know what's up with Steel's tank.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Snails do poop lots. It must be grose on sand too. i think they have battery operated lights, like LEDs?

 

[Erisna]

Snails do poop lots. It must be grose on sand too. i think they have battery operated lights, like LEDs?

Yep, it is gross... The poop's slowing down now that they've eaten the majority of the algae, thank goodness! Joker's doing just fine, moving around a bunch and eating with the rest of the snails.

Hmmm... I may look for a battery operated light then. I've been browsing amazon, not much has caught my interest TBH.

Limpet Kill Count: 4. And now there are a lot of suspicious little specks on my glass...

Got some Seachem Flourish today! Dosed the big tank for the first time. I may have dosed more than was needed, but it's hard to calculate a dose for such a small tank... Only going to be dosing once a week anyways.

Also switching my water conditioner from TopFin conditioner to Stress Coat. Steel has been ripping up his fins recently (I think it was because he was wedging himself into small places behind the wood trying to get out of the filter flow) and I hope it will help him heal.

 

[Erisna]

Ha! I found out why Steel has been acting so listless lately, even with frequent water changes!

Last night I walked into the kitchen right before bed, which I normally don't do, and noticed that the spot I had recently moved Steel's tank to was directly under the light that stays on all night! In his old place he was in the shade of the coffee pot, and his tank was dark at night. It was lit up like daytime in his new spot. My poor boy wasn't getting any sleep! Just to check, I covered his tank with a cloth (loosely, it had good airflow) so it would be dark, and this morning he was his normal bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, begging-for-food self! So now I'll either move him or just cover his tank at night.

 

[Erisna]

Limpet Kill Count: 5

Moved Steel's tank to new, darker spot. Also removed his lantern ornament so he has more swimming room.

SG's doing great- he certainly made a personality 180 since I got him, he is now one of my most outgoing, active, AGGRESSIVE bettas! Seriously, he'll nip your fingers if you put them in his bowl! He's not really a shy guy anymore, but the name's stuck now... I'm also starting to think that he's not actually a double tail, he's just a REALLY deformed halfmoon. I'll try to get some decent flaring pictures of him soon and see what you guys think. Shouldn't be hard... that guy flares at EVERYTHING! Seriously, when he was on our counter he flared at: my drink cup, my book, a bottle of suntan lotion, my dad, me for no reason (eating dinner)... You get the picture.