I succumbed

[MaloK]

@MaloK I am completely and totally blown away by that Dragonfly nymph ! I have NEVER heard of one inside in an aquarium or seen one . That is both awesome and frightening . Menacing looking thing ain’t it ?

It's like living with a Xenomorph in the house.

The more I think about it, all the pieces fall in place. The past comportment, patrolling the tank, often "Attacking fiercely" something... The scratches everywhere on his face, The problem with his eyes, the always similar shaped nips in his tail and fins...

Man, I swear the table was turning. Growing larger. The nymph would have finished by killing him. I'm off the water on this one.

Big took his water change like a breath of fresh air... I'm giving him a couple hours before resuming the second part of the medication. He acts normally and I hope he will be ok, Since I cant really know what damage that monster did to his eyes, I hope for the best.

 

[MuddyWaters]

I had a couple a long time ago, but they were WAY smaller than that- small enough where one of my green fire tetra ate them. I started doing a bleach bath for new plants after that.

 

[MaloK]

The fist time I saw them, 50 cents size gouramies where making quick sausage meat of them.

I think the java moss layer contributed to it's protection and it's nutrition needs.

But I agree , once you established something you ca manage, you will tend to be careful ...

All this was bought on impulse at the same time tank, plants and fish, no need to QT anything,.. nooooo

I gonna pass my next plants in the dishwasher.

 

[gilltyascharged]

@MaloK If I may, how did it get in in the first place? I've had scuds, ramshorns, and planaria tag along on new plants, but never...that. The more I think about it, the more I assume that they came from an outdoor location vs an indoor one, but I still never would have guessed that a juvenile dragonfly would have been attacking your betta.

 

[MaloK]

@MaloK If I may, how did it get in in the first place? I've had scuds, ramshorns, and planaria tag along on new plants, but never...that. The more I think about it, the more I assume that they came from an outdoor location vs an indoor one, but I still never would have guessed that a juvenile dragonfly would have been attacking your betta.

It hiked with one of the plants, must have been eggs, I rinsed the Java moss and Java fern in tap water, I swept my fingers over all the leaves of the fern and removed maximum of snails etc.. Same for the moss.

But it is impossible that a dragon fly entered the house, when down in the basement, found the tank and lay only one egg, then got out without notice... Even more that it was winter when I set it up.

I learned about "Endophytic oviposition": This is where the female Dragonfly lays her eggs inside plant tissue. She uses a sharp ovipositor at the tip of her abdomen to pierce the plant stem and then lays her eggs inside.

So without a good QT, the eggs can easily survive a quick bleach or peroxide treatment.

 

[MaloK]

I think Big doesn't realize his problem is gone, He still hangs in the upper level of the tank most of the time, like he's scared of what lies in the bottom...

His face looks a lot better and all traces of fungus has vanished, He his still a bit sluggish at feeding time, but it was to be expected until the end of medication, 8 days left. I feed him a lot less, more often for the moment. He takes more time, but he eats everything and seems more comfortable.

Note: Bladder snails are really tough, the remaining ones are looking unaffected, all other critters are dead, I vacuumed the substrate and all the copepods and worms are gone...

Still no trace of ammonia or nitrite, keeping close monitoring on these.

Optimism as returned and it looks like it's going better everyday.

 

[MaloK]

For the first time nitrates shown up at 5ppm this week, maybe because of the meds used... I did a 75% water change and Big managed it as usual business... I re-seeded the filter with gunk from my shrimp tank and going to monitor this next week.

Last Sunday was my birthday... So I thought... Maybe... I could give myself a gift, on his behalf...

After a little boasting at my local pet store, I managed to get a very good price on a Fluval spec V with a super led light and a good heater. Also picked up a few pounds of sand and tiny gravel. I already had a nice piece of Mopany wood soaking for a couple weeks and got a very dark rocky background plotted for the purpose.

I installed the new tank next to his current one, so he could see his new home building up. The desk seems to be holding the weight without effort...

It's filled with water and the filter is running since Monday. I'm going to add a couple anubias on the wood and use the plants and decor from his current tank to complete the setup.

Big watched me working all along, with his inquisitive attitude... He places himself facing the corner so he can check me from 2 angles at the same time... Loll !

He doesn't know it's for him...

 

[NearMeBettas]

So I talked to soon... Big went on a rampage again and split his tail some more...

The next day he was frustrated that the siphon for water changes was not for food distribution. He also got mad at me later, a couple times because I was taking water for testing... And no food fell from the dropper, lolll.

His Ravenous behaviours at feeding time made me raise his diet a little, but he still goes trough 5-6 pellets under 40 sec, 0% loss... and has a mix of frozen food in the afternoon.

At the moment I'm writing this .He is near the top, Blowing bubbles, then looking at me... Like, please please, please.

I didn't want to buy a dog exactly for this reason...

Your everyday vocabulary is extensive compared to the average person. It's fun reading your posts.

 

[MaloK]

Your everyday vocabulary is extensive compared to the average person. It's fun reading your posts.

Thanks !.. I try not to be too repetitive, keeping a playful manner...

 

[MaloK]

Nearly a month since last update...

I frankly did not anticipate everything that followed the extraction of the dragonfly nymph. I don't know where to begin, but it was the most strange experience I ever had with a fish. And thinking that this could be the last post of this thread made me want to go trough before.

A week or so after. the removal, (I just posted the 14 mars update) Big stopped being active that much and started to rest head down stuck to the filter input, like he loves to do... So I didn't mind too much at start, He was always there for his meals etc... Later on the next week he started to eat less and less and finally completely stopped at some point. Nothing was doing... He looked like he was doing a depression. Stuck to his filter, inactive for hours, looking like he was going down in a spin.

I got him under permanent close observation... Continued to add a little food for him 2 times a day, and could see that he was eating some for sure, while I was not there, it was not enough. It took 4 days before I could see him giving a slight impression that he was going to flick against something. In the following days I could confirm that was the case and he was starting to clamp, more and more sluggish.

Here we go again... I setup a crash QT, mixed a 3 days worth old timer bath for external parasites. Netted big and dropped him in. Poor fish, that certainly was not really what he needed to crank his moral. Stuck in a Fishbowl with blue water that foams at the top. I immediately completely teared the tank apart and cleaned it removed all the snails I could rinsed the substrate in a strainer washed the plants, cleaned all the filter section but preserved the filter media drastically rinsed in tap water. rebuild everything filled with water and added 3 ppm of ammonia immediately.

After 3 days, of maintaining his bath clean, I was looking at him and was not very enthusiastic of recovery. I tested the water in his tank and ammonia and nitrite where 0 so I decided not to euthanize him and put him back in his tank.

After this episode big remained inactive not eating much and sluggish all the time... I persisted adding food to the same place every days I also dosed the tank with probiotics out of despair and took the occasion to initiate a bladder snail genocide. I pulled my favorite plant spatula and squished the heck out of them. But they where too numerous and I got tennis elbow doing so.

I needed another strategy. Baiting might work, I thought I could use a cucumber slice I put in the shrimp tank before it get eaten completely, So it might be a win-win situation, the slice is always covered with ostracods of all sorts and could possibly populate Big's tank... And is very effective at drawing the snails to a manageable space where you can open a wormhole to a bucket.

Now at this point what happened surprised me completely. I can't say if it's the probiotics or the live food or both.

But that Soab made me buy clove oil and was taking bloodworms from my pipette the next day. He is swimming around as I type this, going about his normal behaviors. He looked like he was going to die 3 days ago.

I can't compute that this crazy fish might be missing his old dragonfly nymph "buddy", He probably enjoyed fighting with it, He have so many scars that his forehead looks like an orange peel...

Now that I introduced something else to kill, his interest came back ?!? A fighting fish without a fight, is no fish at all.

I don't know. But I have cucumber and ostracods in stock

 

[rebe]

How bizarre, maybe he did miss the nymph! Betta fish seem to be dramatic creatures, I know mine is.
Maybe he had an emotional crash after all his fighting fun

 

[MaloK]

The only thing I know is that he flashed on decor enough and I bleached him solid with Methylene blue, Malachite green, salt and Hydroxy Trichloromethyl phosphonate, before he spreads his fins back. that product was called "Life Bearer" from Aquarium Products, I bought 20 years ago and my bottle still treats itch in a drop.

All the excess of mucus from the fish was floating in a day. The next hes was nearly stripped to the skin.

I was on the "If I do nothing, 100% chance of death" and bleaching "50%"

I when with it... At the moment optimism is back

 

[MaloK]

Nitrogen 0, but the tank was on the verge of starting to stack nitrates. And honestly, I was beginning to have some melting with the plants and algae showed it's ugly face and I stopped adding fertilizer etc...

This confirms the rule (with very few exceptions) that every light provided with an Aquarium kit is base line atrocious... Sooo, Big got a new 10 watt Nicrew Plant Clip-on, RBW Led strip. Wow this is powerful! I might be able to recover balance with that.

Big's still seems to be doing well, he eats enough, but it's a changed fish again. He looks like he's not very interested with food if there is no hunting involved... So I drop his pellets on the surface and leave him eat them as he see fit. I do the same with his bloodworms, I spread some around the tank and let him forage for them... While he does a pretty good job finding everything. It still leads to more waste, and I hate it. But, Big is happy again and so are the snails... I need to find a good live food that gives somewhat of an hunting experience, loll.

It's been 2 weeks since Big got his bath and I cleaned the tank. Whatever the parasite that was bugging him, seems to be cleared at the moment. I'm thinking to dose the tank with Life Bearer once to be sure. While it's not too harsh on the nitrifying bacterias, It will kill all the seed shrimps at once. And I don't want to take another step back on the new cleaning crew I'm trying to put in place while removing the snails.

There is a squishing session scheduled today and the seed shrimps seems to enjoys the fodder it creates.

 

[MaloK]

Water is good.

And Big is hunting. He waste a lot of food but... Hunting not always pay... He can stay immobile next to a frozen bloodworm for five minutes... Before it moves. Then he attacks like hell breaks loose... High drag, Slow speed, no profile... Like a real splendens.

Still at his old age and all the tribulations... He looks like hes going for a guiness world record...

 

[MaloK]

Yep. Big's operates as a Uboat now...

Darts to the surface takes a breath of air and falls back in position, for a strike. Taking multiple darts, for a single strike.

I have found a real cool way to bring in constant water changes filled with live food every 2-3 days. By maximizing my shrimps tank water changes and bringing as much of the overload of seed shrimps to the betta tank.

Easy to say... But after a third try to wrap my head into a single flowing process...

I end up, running in the house for "something"...

Loll.