|
Looks a lot like a crowntail betta to me, although even for a crowntail it does look a bit frayed, although it's hard to tell. Could be a water quality issue or could be that his fins are getting ragged from being in too much flow, or from mechanical damage from pushing past the plastic of the artificial plants. It could also be elderly, do you know how old he is? Probably a better indicator of his health is whether he's eating, whether he's swimming normally or hiding, and the fact that he's up at the glass giving you the eye looks to me like he feels fine. I'm sorry for your loss.
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2022 15:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 12, 2024 10:27 |
|
|
Pet stores tend to sell unsuitable but attractive looking plants, or emersed grown plants that are suitable but will lose all their leaves and take time to recover, or kits/tank sets with inadequate lighting, or maybe it’s just that the local water isn’t suitable or not knowing how to feed the plants that need it. It’s easy to buy a few plants, have them all die, feel like a failure then give up. Or to look at the cost and complexity of a CO2/high lighting set up and be overwhelmed or put off. Or sometimes it’s just the immediacy of “my fish needs cover, I can’t wait for this cutting to grow”. Personally I went through so many different plants until I found the few basic and obvious species that grow well for me and give me free plants forever, and I understand why not everyone has the money or patience for that. It’s worth the effort though, I think live plants add so much to the stability of the tank through being an extra part of the biological filtration, adding surface area, and they’re probably doing something beneficial in the substrate too with their root systems.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2022 20:05
|
|
|
I’ve only seen fry “in the wild” once, and that was in very shallow water at the edge, among emerging plants. For egg scattering fish it’s a numbers game though, in good conditions they’re capable of producing so many eggs every single day. Penguin tetras in captivity for example are so fecund that it’s possible for the milt they produce in one spawning event to completely foul the tank. Egg laying fish ie ones that stick the eggs to a surface instead of pray and spray, tend to have strategies and preferred locations to lay their eggs, usually in thick plants or the underside of broad leaves, environments that provide cover for fry once they’ve hatched. And of course the other route to take is parental care, cichlids for example get extremely worked up to protect their fry. Fish spawning in extremely shallow water: https://youtu.be/vyAB3iNN6xI
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2022 07:47
|
|
|
The weather warmed up so there's a box of fish in the mail with my name on it! I haven't had any new fish since I bought 20 kuhli loaches over 18 months ago. I'm getting some pristella tetras for my sister and some male guppies to split with her - she wants the longest fanciest tails and I just want some fresh genetics and extra males to help with my guppy colony's gender balance (almost all female after accidentally running the tank at a cooler temperature). I'm also getting a bunch of red fin danios for myself, I miss my zoomy zebras, I gave them away to a friend who has a bigger tank. There should be room for the new guys in the 4 foot tank with my rosy barbs. Lastly I am getting a half dozen ember tetras, as a trial. I found out one of my bigger tanks has been running with only a handful of shrimp and a single peacock gudgeon, so I've moved him in with the younger bunch in the grow out tank and he seems to love it there. I've been pulling shrimp from that tank to try to preserve whats left of that population because I think the gudgeons had been eating them. So I have a small tank in the kitchen that I think the ember tetras will suit, and if they do well I will get more of them and swap my rasboras from there into the bigger tank which is now virtually empty. The tank is due for an overhaul anyway, I've had that tank at almost floor level and I want to move it back up where I can see it and work on it more easily. I didn't realise my gudgeon population in there had shunk so much, I wonder if at some point a crayfish got in there and ate them?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 14, 2022 17:22
|
|
|
I've seen mould grow on some of my old unused ferts but I figure the worst that iron could do is react and precipitate out of solution. I've got an iron based additive that I've had for years without getting through the bottle and it seems pretty stable. No sign of box of fish yet, I think they missed the morning flight and are catching the afternoon plane. Hope the couriers don't get lazy and go home early or there could be a sad box of fish in a warehouse tonight.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2022 06:29
|
|
|
Finnex have only a 6 month warranty if I’m not mistaken. Mine certainly died quicker than I expected (it was the power unit not the LEDs). I’ve seen some comparisons with Hygger full spectrum and the light appears fairly comparable. Not sure whether it’s better to go over-bright then leave the light on shorter, or under and leave it on longer.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2022 20:50
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 12, 2024 10:27 |
|
|
Box of fish was a whole day late! And it was kind of cold overnight. Turns out none of the tetras or danios minded at all, but it hit the guppies pretty hard. The albino/gold snakeskin guppies fared worse, with 3 deaths, meanwhile the red pigmented and black pigmented guppies came good after warming up. My sister's kids absolutely love the new guppies, they have named them Hitler, Pingu, Flame, Bubbles, Bit and Bot (Hitler has a moustache marking and was bullying the other fish) and my sister's pristella tetras loved the boost to their school size. My new ember tetras are bold and zoomy and having a great time with the rasboras, they like the flake food I tried but spat out the pellets. I'm not at all worried about feeding them now even though they're so tiny, and I don't really want to move the rasboras out of this tank now since they're all schooling together nicely. I think as the rasboras age out I will replace with more ember tetras, I've had some of these rasboras since 2015 and I'm not sure how long they're supposed to live.  The danios are kind of small and shy and extremely fast so I can't get pictures of them. I have the one surviving guppy that my sister's kids didn't take, he's got a red tail, black tuxedo body, and white face/veil top fin. He kind of looks a bit like a swimming bird poop from the side, but his white is really striking from above (maybe they call that colour platinum?). He's far too busy chasing girls to pose for a picture.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2022 12:36
|
|