Try for the "blackwater" look

Despite all the chaos, no one had took a turn for the worse as of yet. Nova, who is still quarantined and being treated for dropsy, is looking normal and eating well. Vitya is also doing OK but his eye is still enlarged. It looks like there's a growth rather than a swollen eye now. There's a bulge just behind the eye but it looks like it is fluid filled. Don't mind his bulging tummy, I just fed him brine shrimp.

You can see light through the back of the eye.


His body and fin condition is good though.



Taiga, the one who was severely bullied by the plakat, is still looking thin but eats and acts normal. I'm still debating on what to do with the evil plakat. I don't want to take her to my LPS because so few people around my area know how to care for bettas correctly...

Pk's are not evil. Oh ok they can be, LOL.

Nova seems to be doing well, no scales sticking out and she actively begs for food. I've added her back into the sorority yesterday and it's like she never left. Hopefully there won't be a relapse.

Vitya's eye is kinda just, meh. Looks like the swelling went up, almost like there's a third eye. Doesn't seem to bother him but then how would I know what a fish in pain acts like? I wish it would just rupture so it can heal up. Reminds me of an abscess, if only it would drain. Perhaps I might try more epsom salt baths.

The evil plakat/new mom was placed in her own tank which still needs to be decorated/planted. The tank is cycled but on the small side. It's the old 2.5ish gallon my sister had her male betta in whom recently died from a massive tumor.

Taiga is in Otabek's 10gal for the time being. She's getting extra TLC and frozen foods. I think she's about ready to go back into the sorority. Her fins are looking much better and she's gained a bit of weight.

His eye deflated like a balloon, it look pretty normal right now. Let's hope it neither gets infected nor inflates again.

Cool.

I've no pictures for today but I do have a few updates.

After inflated + deflating a couple more times (though not to the extent of the first time) Vitya's eye seems to finally be healed. No more swelling but he still insists on being fed by hand/pipette/chopstick. An algae problem has cropped up in the past week. Sheets of blue/green algae are covering the plants and glass. I've cleaned a lot of it off but it still persists. Tested the water yesterday before a water change and everything was zero. I'm going to decrease the amount of light and add some duckweed to see if that helps.

I finally got my hands on cherry shrimp. The owner of my LPS went to one of those conventions and bought a whole bunch of neat critters. He said he'll give me 5, not too sure which colors nor what quality they will be but I'm fine with that. Perhaps I'll get some of the orange ones as well. I'm perfectly fine with developing my own colony of shrimp. I get to pick them up on Friday and plan to take a bucket of plants and OB peacock fry to trade in as well.

My collection of BN plecos has grown yet again. I saw some little long finned albinos the owner bought at the convention and had to have one. Tiny thing, for now it's enjoying the driftwood in Grey's tank.

I'll have another lengthy update on Friday with pictures. The sorority started taking a nose dive but I think I've got it back in order. Feeling a little depressed about it ATM.

Glad to hear the eye thing is Betta. I love hand feeding my fish.

You are as bad as I am when it comes to BN's lol.

Before I talk about the sorority, I need to talk about these shrimp. It was agreed that I would meet the LPS owner at the store today. I get to the store at a reasonable time, roughly 1pm with my bag of plants and another bag of cichlid fry. He's not there, the shrimp are not there. I waste a bit of time while looking around and the cashier finally sends me off in search of his house which was roughly 15mins away. I get there or at least in the general area and then call the store to ask what their house looks like. The owner picks up the phone. I'm basically at his house and he asks me to come back to the store. I went on a wild goose chase for these shrimp and it better darn well be worth it.

I get to the store, we trade bags and I take a look at my new additions. First thing I notice is how cool the bag is compared to the one I had the fish in. This bag is chilly, not luke warm. The shrimp aren't moving at all. Many of them are tipped over on their sides while one was kinda crawling around. The less than pleasant feeling of disappointment comes over me and I kinda want to cry (driving w/ no definite destination stressed me beyond the norm). He said if they ended up dying then I can get more for free. I'm home, the shrimp are still floating in the tank, getting to a proper temp. I see some movement going on and it looks like one of the normal colored females is berried. 8 in all, 2 normal and the rest look like decent cherries, provided they live.

I'm thinking they were just really cold when I got them. After dumping them into the tank and having some time to adjust, they're all moving around. Vitya doesn't seem to know what to think. Here's to hoping he doesn't eat them all. Seems like there are 3 males and 5 females. They seem to be at work eating the blue/green algae.

I am sure he will try to eat a few.

So long as he doesn't eat them all before they get a colony going I don't mind too much.

Nah it should be fine, shrimp are quick, Its a pity you don't live close to me I just culled about 50 shrimp from the sorority tank.

Lol I think 50 would be the perfect number to get a colony going in the sorority and the other 2 boys' 10gals. Grey hasn't managed to eat the 2 amono shrimp that have been in there for the past few month. Otabek on the other hand, I know that one climbed out and died but I have yet to see any evidence of the other...

Alright, I feel like talking about the sorority now. The tank started crashing for no apparent reason. The parameters remained stable, yet I am down 3 girls. I guess I shouldn't of put Nova back in. She was doing well, eating and swimming around but then she started swimming oddly w/ her tail dropping down. Shortly after she had a relapse of dropsy and instead of trying to treat her again I gave up on her.

There was a freak accident and I think someone bit and tore the "throat" area on the mostly red smaller koi. She couldn't get a good gulp of air and when she tried to swallow food it would come out from the bottom of her chin area. She was suffering and didn't look like she'd recover so she's also gone.

Then just today the black CT died. Her gills were always oddly shaped and I figured it was due to bad breeding. Over the course of 3 days her gills started getting more and more puffy and she stopped eating last night. I tried a couple salt baths and M. blue but there was no improvement. I came home from college and she was not doing great. I went to grab the breeder basket and when I got back she had stopped breathing. It looked like there was possible pine-coning when she died.

So far no one else is looking ill. I did a 75% water change a bit ago so now we wait.

Just a few pictures

It's been a month since my last post and am so not happy with the sorority. My lovely koi is no longer, she succumbed quickly to dropsy shortly after the CT died. Now that the numbers of girls has dropped by half, they have been fighting more. The un-named halfmoon with red fins is being a real pain, flaring at the others and nipping fins. Taiga got a beating as did Rose. The only two behaving is the little plakat and the double tail. I've moved the mean HM and Taiga to breeder baskets for now.

To top it all off, I can't find the calico BN. I did a water change on tuesday, all was well until yesterday when I couldn't find her. I just gave the tank a thorough search. Checked the driftwood, the filter, the floor. Can't find her. At least the plants are doing well...