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@thebettalife
I'VE MOVED
Kids I've moved! A childhood friend of mine and myself have decided to start up a new Tumblr together where we can share our love for everything fishy and also give awesome advice (hopefully) you can find us here @ www.awesomeaquatics.tumblr.com and also on YouTube or even follow us on Google+ :) hope to see you all there!
I'm not dead!
Sorry! It's been a while since I last updated my Tumblr. Just to let you know all is going fine and well...kind of.
I just want to take this time to rage a little bit at the TOOL OF A PET STORE SALES PERSON who told my mother that "You can just put the fish straight into the water, nobody acclimatises them anymore." You see, a few months ago I came home to see that my mum had bought some new Large Angel Fish for the tank I set up for her. Strangely some of them started dying, so I asked her how she put them in. She told me what the store person said. I...WENT...NUTS...BERSERK...CRAZY...I was ready to go back to that person and scream at him for giving such STUPID information. It was quite obvious to me that this person knew NOTHING about fish keeping. My mum had just literally bought the fish and put them straight in the tank, also without adding anything. Now they are all slowly dying and her money was WASTED. Let me give you a rough estimate of how much one of these large Angel Fish cost... AUD$30. WHAT A TWAT OF A SALES PERSON! Why do we acclimatise fish before putting them into a tank? Well, this is how it feels...Imagine yourself chilling out in the sun all nice and warm then I shove you into an ice bath. Ok, that's a bit extreme but even a small degree of sudden temperature change can shock a fish and lower it's immunity as well as shorten it's lifespan. So that is why it is important to float the fish bag in the tank, then slowly add some water from the tank into the bag, then finally empty them into the tank (I'll most probably do a proper post on this another time).
Let me know if you've had pet sales people give you crappy advice like they gave my mum!
RANT...OVER! If you're wondering what I've been up to, well I've been still happily taking care of all my fish. I've got my shrimp tank now properly set up with some Rocket Panchax. Good news is that the shrimp are finally breeding! So there's a few little baby shrimp darting around the tank. Eli and Enzo, my bettas, are also good and well. Hopefully you'll see more updates here soon. Other things I've been up to is my little side job as a YouTuber. You can check my videos out @ www.youtube.com/babymicko
Wish y'all a good week end!
A short but amazing insight into Killifish.
Killifish in natural habitat.avi (by B32Bela)
Phase one of new nano shrimp tank set up. I’ve used a piece of driftwood that I had lying around. I liked it cos it looks like tree roots. The substrate I used is UP Shrimp Sand. I’ve used it in my first CRS tank and it’s still going well as in it hasn’t broken down. It’s pretty good at buffering the pH levels down to 6ish. I’ll be attaching some Java Moss and maybe one or two Anubias to the piece of driftwood. I’d like to experiment with some HC too to carpet areas of the tank. I’m not sure how it will do in the UP Shrimp Sand. I’m leaving it as is for now to see if I like it or want to change anything. I would like to put some fine grain sand in the foreground though.
drooling. what kind of setup is that? like brand.
I’m using a Blue Planet Underworld aquarium :)
would you mind taking a picture of the filter and the little drawer underneath for me? pretty please?
Sure thing! Here ya go. I won’t be using the filter because I already have a seeded sponge filter. If I were to use the filter that came with this set I would’ve just used the end of one of the legs from a pantyhose stocking so the little baby shrimps don’t get sucked in.
Phase one of new nano shrimp tank set up. I’ve used a piece of driftwood that I had lying around. I like it cos it looks like tree roots. The substrate I'm using is UP Shrimp Sand. I used it in my first CRS tank and it’s still going well, as in it hasn’t broken down. It’s pretty good at buffering the pH levels down to 6-ish.
I’ll be attaching some Java Moss and maybe one or two Anubias to the piece of driftwood. I’d like to experiment with some HC too to carpet areas of the tank. I’m not sure how it will do in the UP Shrimp Sand. I’m leaving it as is for now to see if I like it or want to change anything. I would like to put some fine grain sand in the foreground though.
Don't panic! I'm not torturing Eli and Enzo. This was just temporary while I re-scaped their little home.
Today I put on my pants of awesomeness to use actual plants in Eli and Enzo's tank. So here's a few shots from my little tank makeover. I took out all the silk and plastic plants. Gave the current gravel a quick rinse (so I didn't destroy all the good bacteria). I gave the tank a light scrub down. Washed the new gravel and put it into the tank. I really like the two different substrate colours on each side, the contrast looks quite cool. I filled the tank up 1/3 of the way then planted the two small Anubias. I actually ran the plants under water and cleaned the leaves incase of any hitchhiking snail eggs. Once I had the Anubias planted I filled up the rest of the tank making sure there's gap at the top so my Betta's won't jump out, added the water conditioner and clipped the light on. Voila! My simple planted design for Eli and Enzo. I'm going to be installing a plastic mesh divider or Java Moss screen in the near future so the two don't stress each other out by flaring so much.
You may also notice that I've got a shot of the two sponge filters that I've installed into the tank. I soaked these in the old water so it should A-okay. Sponge filters are much gentler to use for Bettas and I also use it in my Red Cherry Shrimp tank. With the sponge filters, I'll just need to clean these every 2-3 weeks including the water change.
Hope y'all like the new set up!
Ever wondered what happened with Eli? Well here he is with a new friend, Enzo the Crown Fighter Fish! What I’ve done is used my Fluval Chi, had a piece of glass cut (at my local aquarium shop) and used the glass to divide the tank.
They get along well and get plenty of exercise flaring at each other, but not till they’re stressed out. I’m hoping to get the dividing glass drilled with a hole so I can put a plastic mesh piece. It’ll make the filtering easier to do. If not, that’s okay.
Coming soon additions to their tank: Plants and sponge filter.
The dangers of going on a long holiday...
Hello! It's been a while since I last posted on here. My collection of tanks has increased and so has my population of fish.
I've actually just returned from a 2 month trip from the Americas and upon coming home learned a painful lesson of leaving my aquariums for so long.
The main freshwater tropical tank in my bedroom is what I saw first when I got home from my 22 hour flight. I had my DSLR camera stolen onboard and was completely wrecked from the whole ordeal.
Dead/Missing Fish
My sister did report to me while I was away that one of my Black Widow Tetras died, but I came home and also found my male Dwarf Gourami missing! I asked my sister and she said she didn't remember even seeing it. I'm guessing it died and the other fish ate it. I searched the tank and couldn't find it anywhere, and before you ask, I also checked to see if it jumped out. If it did, then maybe one of our dogs got to it.
Snail Infestation
In both my freshwater tropical fish tank and my RCS tank there's been a large increase of snails! I believe the ones in my shrimp tank are Ramshorn Snails, and in the fish tank are Leopard Spotted Snails. I wish I could thrown in some Clown Loaches, but I'm unsure if the Panda/Bandit Corydanas would get along with them. I've set up my own DIY snail trap so I can lower the population of them. I'll most probably make a post about this in the near future.
Plants Wellbeing
I was horrified to find that the majority of the plants in the tanks died! I'm not sure if it's because of the lack of light (because I think the light was not turned on as scheduled) or because of the snails. It could be both factors. I spent a morning trimming down plants and pulling out all the dead ones. The Java Moss in my shrimp tank was growing wild! I had to trim it down so that you can at least see some of the shrimp swimming around.
Overall Tank Quality
The water in my bed room fish tank turned brown, but I believe that's because of the wood in the tank so I can live with that. Tannins do lower pH levels in tanks, but my fish seem to be quite happy swimming around in it. Tannins usually clear up after a while, depending on the driftwood. Also my Betta tank seems to have survived (I'm giving it a full-clean today). The water level was quite low and my Bettas didn't look very happy, but they shall be soon! The corner tank in the lounge though was filthy with algae so I gave that a quick clean. I will most probably add some algae eaters to keep the algae levels in check.
Lesson learned - What you should do before going on a long holiday
Find someone who you trust, and who knows how to take care of your fish!
Or you can be boring and not go on holiday at all, which is not the way I roll!
PEACE!
There's a horrible photo on the betta tag of someone who froze a betta! The blog is "lorzilla" and it's visible in her archive. HORRIBLE.
Looked this up & took a gander. I really didn't know what to say. I understand that it was already dead & she was preserving it till it's owner came back. Still, I definitely wouldn't be able to do that to Eli or any of my fish if they pass on.
Finished planting my mum's 160L freshwater aquarium for the lounge room last night.
Starting up a new shrimp tank! :D
an unfortunate end...
kidding. so after some long observations it seems that Eli can't join the community tank due to his aggressive nature. The filter pump is making him go nuts that he's eaten more than half his tail off. This does not mean Bettas cannot work in a communal tank! I've seen some successful ones. But for now I'll be putting Eli into a QC tank so that his tail grows back and 10-15mins of aggro-ing it out with his new mirror ball (supposedly this is meant to work off their aggression; maybe I'll give you an update on that later).
Also, yesterday one of my Cory Metaes jumped out of the tank! I didn't know they could jump. I was looking into my tank wondering where the bigger of the two Corys were (the larger one is female) and I could not find her anywhere! Then I tentatively looked under my table and saw this lump on the floor. I shone my light and to my horror it was my Cory (thank God the dogs hadn't gone exploring under my desk!). I quickly grabbed my small fishnet and a business card to flip her gently into the net then dunked her right in front of the water flow from the filter. She moved a bit but was doing back strokes. My sister who was with me thought the worst, but myself being ever so optimistic said, "NO! She will live! You must live little fish!" So I left her leaning between two plant stalks near where the water was moving most and added some Stress Coat+. An hour and a half later she was back at the bottom of the tank, slowly, but surely moving around. I believe the male Cory may have been trying to chase her which caused her to jump so I will be most probably adding 2-3 more Corys to even out the playing field.
But just in case...I've bought some fly-net to cut and mould over the top of the tank so this won't happen again!
A few of my friends have asked me, "Why does Eli have such a huge tank?" Well, like I had said before in a previous post, a decent sized tank makes a happy Betta. Every time I go into the pet store my heart is torn when I see the siamese fighting fish up for sale in tiny little 0.5-1L plastic containers. It just ain't right! Maybe they do change the water regularly, but the little dudes and dudettes just look MISERABLE. I wish I could just buy them all and put them into comfy tanks, but alas there are limits to becoming a borderline fish hoarder, not to mention the expenses.
I took these photos in a pet store close to one that I frequent. It's disturbing, but this is the nature of siamese fighting fish being sold at regular pet stores. I would love if anyone could let me know if there are any actual Betta breeders here in Perth, Western Australia.
So if you want your Betta buddy to be happy and to live for more than 3 months I recommend a tank with a minimum capacity of 10L per fish.
How do you keep the tank clean? Do you have a filter?
Hello! I used to do weekly water changes for the tank, but I've just added a small canister filter into Eli's tank. Though I am thinking of changing it to a sponge filter so that the water current is gentler. With the filter fitted I can do less (25%) water changes; usually once a fortnight.
Thank you for your question! Hope I answered it :)
Sorry for the lack of updates on Eli's tank! So over the weeks I've been collecting items to decorate the tank. I considered using live plants, but I don't think I have enough skill right now for that. So everything in this newly purchased tank is artificial. I had a play around "aquascaping" and came up with this. I'm hoping to make this my first community tank (36L). I'll be adding in some neon/cardinal tetras first then hopefully a couple of Corys, maybe a snail or two or ghost shrimp and a whale shark. Ok, the last one is impossible and illegal to acquire. The tank I bought is a Leo A600. It was a bitch to set up because there was no instructions and their site was in Chinese. Lesson learned: don't buy "complete" aquarium sets. It uses a "built" filter system (really it's just a submersible air pump and some filter media that goes into two different compartments in the white box at the back of the tank). It has a 75W heater (that you also hide in the white box). The dimensions are 60cm x 24.5cm x 24.5cm. After some long suffering with a splash of colorful words I finally got it set up. Would I recommend this tank? Heck no! It's pretty but the Leo logo sticks its pretentious ass right in your face on the "stand" under the tank. Also the set up was stupid, but it could be because I'm a noob and maybe impatient. The wires were really fiddly so the light stand didn't close down properly. So my tank rating? 1.5/5. Look forward to keeping you updated!!!
Little Eli in his latest tank set up.
Proposed layout for Eli's bigger tank. Art is spontaneous, but even spontaneous can be planned. Drawing out what I would like to see helps me focus on what plants and ornaments I'll need to get as well as a rough idea of the budget. Till next time!
