My Few Weeks...

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Well I’ve had a bit of a “interesting” few weeks with my fish.

First the filter in my betta sorority tank decided it was going to stop working (it was still making a noise so I assumed it was working); so on water change day I discovered it wasn’t working. Then a few days later I noticed my male betta’s tank (fully cycled) was white slimy (bacterial bloom); so I did a full water change on him; then tried his filter – every time I plugged the bottom sponge bit onto the top filter bit the flow reduced to a trickle; luckily I had another one of these filters, so I swapped it over (moved the sponge over) and thought all was fine, until about 3 days later and he was white again; so a full water change later and a new filter (different brand) later we seem to be working fine, trouble is we are now fish-in-cycling again since in my frustration with the 2 broken filters I’ll have ‘murdered’ all the bacteria colonies. I had a filter but it was too noisy and a bit too strong (in my bedroom), so I got another one at the weekend; again too noisy (who’d have thought the filters would be so noisy; when the huge ones we have are quiet) – my boyfriend is getting a betta at the weekend so he’d bought a filter, which I promptly stole as it’s quiet, strong but has a spray bar so my betta doesn’t mind it; needless to say I’m buying him (boyfriend) another filter tonight.

I have green flies in my newt tank; so after reading a post on here someone said to check the filter; so I went one further and put it in boiling water to steralise it, it’s not very resistant to boiling water, so the bottom half (sponge bit) melted lol. So since I had taken the filter out the male bettas tank and I have a 3rd one in the newt tank I just swapped the bottom and it now appears to be working fine.

THEN yesterday…..I was feeding my betta sorority; and “plop” one ends up on the floor (thankfully I know they jump and I now have a nice ornament of a fish net in my room), so she was scooped straight back into the tank; trouble is I’m not 100% sure which one it was; it was one of my blue ones but I have lots of blue ones; of different shades; but I didn’t take the time to look, I pulled my shoulder muscle in the process of lunging for a fish lol. Anyway all girls look fine. My mam came in to help me rescue said fish…then she told me her ‘secret’…TWO had jumped out a month or so earlier; she hadn’t seen them and then noticed them so she was screaming for my dad to help. They’d jumped out together (the lid is VERY tight fitting; they are just so greedy for their food). She didn’t want to tell me in case she got in trouble lol. I don’t mind; so long as she gets them back in the tank; it’s not her fault and there is a reason the net is there. I’m now going to have a trip to get a second net to go next to that one so scooping is easier). I have 2 huge nets downstairs but for a small betta girl they are way too big.

Sooooo….hopefully the next bit goes a bit better

 

[gbailey141]

Sounds like a mad few weeks. With your luck lately I wouldn't bother buying a lottery ticket! lol

As they say..things can only get betta!!!

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I'm just not going to touch anything lol.

 

[fishnovice]

I'm just not going to touch anything lol.

Know how you feel -two of my filters just stopped working after a water change. And in the last 3 weeks I've lost 3 tanks which spontaneously started leaking overnight with no obvious sign of damage. Woke up twice to noisy filter in 10cm of water and a flood on the floor. Typically happens on Mon morning when I'm late for work!

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I'm not sure when my filters broke; they were still making a noise so I assumed they were working.

Oh I forgot to add to my "story"; I have 2 weather loaches in a Aquaone 850 (the filter is above the tank and drops down into the main tank - for those who have them or know what they are then you can picture it lol), well when I first got them they decided they wanted to swim up the filter outlet a few times, so I bought a fish net, decapitated the net and tied it around the end of the filter tube with plant weights....fast forward 2-4 weeks. I was sitting and all of a sudden I notice a loach IN the net; there is no way he could get up the filter and along to there...turns out there was a TINY TINY TINY hole in the net and he got through it; no idea how he got through it as he'd have had to be on top of it and wiggle in some un-natural way to actually get to where he was. Thing was I couldn't tell which one it was to check them afterwards; well it's been a couple of weeks since and both are ok.

Another side story:

I have a terrestrial newt; I built him a large turtle dock; with large swimming area; part of it shallow, part of it deep (way better than the actual 'turtle dock' he had....anyway I finally got it finished (it was a long process; having to keep waiting for the sealant to dry - it took about 2 months from start to finish), anyway I went in to find my terrestrial newt swimming casually in the water, minding his own business, looking nice and calm and not panicing. LOL. The the dock with more water was meant to encourage him into the water; seems it did that; we just have to see if he goes in again (normally he stays near the edge and holds on to things when he swims but not yesterday when he was calmly enjoying his swim)