Planted Betta Sorority (Pic Heavy)

[Demeter32]

I like the look of Riccia, so if i come across some I might very well end up buying it. Hopefully I will go shopping this weekend and see what I can find. 

 

[Demeter32]

Haven't had any luck with finding decent plants in pet shops for my tank. I was on vacation for the last two weeks and left all my aquariums in the care of my sisters for the first week, and then they were left alone for the second week (when my sisters came to join me on vacation). The betta tank had a food block put in it and it was gone when I got back. The light was left off for a week but the plants faired pretty well. The crypts had their leaves pointed up in search of light but other wise, there was no change in their color. The amozon swords oldest leaves started to yellow but the new leaves stayed green. I expect all the plants to recover after a week or two with normal lighting

All the fish seem perfectly fine and active.... for now. I might of made a huge mistake by adding a few native aquatic plants that I collected while on vacation. Some of the sepecies are Elodea, eel grass, water mil-foil (of some sort) and a couple others that I'm having a hard time identifying. I soaked/rinsed all the plants in treated water and looked closely for possible hitch-hikers. So basically the new plants recieved the same treatment that plants from a sketchy pet store would of gotten. I just added the new plants to the tank two days ago and now I'm hoping that some of them will take root. The Elodea has no roots yet because I took clippings so they are just floating around for now. 
 
       Elodea                                                                       Eel grass                                  water mil-foil                         
       
 
Unidentified
 

 

[Demeter32]

The Elodea and a few of the other unidentified plants have started taking root. The three little eel grass plantlets seem to be having trouble adjusting. Most of their old leaves are dying off but I do see a bit of new growth. The water mil-foil seems okay so far. The lower leaves on one of the plants are turning brown an falling off but it looks like the top is still healthy and growing taller. I added several red ram's horn snails to hopefully help eat up the dead plant matter. Also, forgot to mention that I removed the two old aponogeten bulbs that were doing poorly. 
The amazon sword plant seems to still be recovering from its one week without light. The oldest leaves are turning yellow and beginning to decay at the tips of the leaves. If it can't recover I might end up pulling it; looking back now, it was probably a bad idea getting it in the first place. They grow far too tall for an itty bitty ten gallon 

 

[Demeter32]

I haven't really been saying much about the fish so I will do that now. All the fish are doing well as far as I can see. No one is acting strange and they are all active and eating. The bettas never argue or nip at each other until I put a slice of squash/cucumber in for the snails and pleco. They're little pigs that eat anything so they like to squabble over the veggies. The oldest betta, the blue viel tail, has a cloudyness to her eyes but it's been that way for several weeks now. I'm pretty sure that's just due to her age. I'm going to move out the pleco into a 29 gallon soon and then see about either getting more loaches or giving the one I have now to the new LFS so it won't be lonely anymore. Right now she's fat and healthy, looks like she's full of green eggs too. I don't really know how many red ram snails I have in the tank, but they don't seem to be laying many eggs. Maybe the loach and bettas are taking care of the younger snails. It seems like there should be dozens of them but I only ever see the larger ones, usually one or two, when I feed the pleco. The nerite snail seems to be finally acting its age. The shell looks perfect, no signs of a lack of calcium, but I don't notice it moving much anymore. I also haven't seen it taking a "breather" when it sits just above the water line. Pretty sure I've had it for at least 2 years now but who knows how old it was when I bought it. Doesn't seem to of grown hardly at all in that time either. After it dies I might see about buying a few more or possibly a couple apple snails. Sorry, no pictures this time around

 

[Demeter32]

It would seem that I haven't been paying enough attention to my mom's male crowntail. I was checking on the new peppered cory cat that was added a week ago when I noticed something was not quite right with the betta... I turned the lights on to get a closer look at the base of his fins and found some anchor worms. Never noticed them before today on any of the fish. I scooped him out into a pail of tank water, sterilized a pair of tweezers and went to work. Took a few tries to get them because the fish was very unhappy about being handled. The little parasites were hard to see but I managed to pull off 3. I put him back in his 10gal and it looks like I missed one near his pelvic fins. I didn't want to stress him out too much more so I added some Melafix to help heal his open wounds. I will try to pick off the last one tomorrow. I felt pretty bad that I didn't catch this earlier I don't know how fast these things reproduce when introduced to the tank so I don't know where he got them from. I know for sure that the new cory didn't have any visable parasites when added to the tank and it doesn't look like there are any on the 4 corries. I'm just hoping he doesn't get any secondary infections from the sores left behind. When I pulled off the two by his tail it bled a little bit. Looks like I ran out of parasite guard so I will have to pick some up later. 

 

[Demeter32]

Just got the male betta out and pulled off the (hopefully) last anchor worm. I tried to get a picture of it still on him but it might not of turned out too well. It's the little white, forked line near his vent/pelvic fins. I added another dose of Melafix but he looks like he's sulking from the whole ordeal. I also noticed a bit of fin missing on his tial but the edges look like they're healing so I hope fin rot doesn't become a problem. 

 

[Demeter32]

I haven't seen any more anchor worms so I think the male crown tail is good to go. Now for the bad new... The planted tank for the females seems to of sprung a leak on the bottom. It donesn't look like a crack but I think the seam became weak. I found this out less than an hour ago and just now finished moving all the fish, snails and plants. I'm feeling really bummed about pulling the plants.

 Their roots were spread out all over the tank and uuuggghhhh this sucks big time. I'm not too worried about the fish but I hope the plants make it through this 

  
I'm glad I found out about it before water got all over the floor, but the dark violet cloth the tank was on ended up dripping red dye and staining the wooden stand. The tank is now sitting on a towel with the substrate and a couple inches of water still in it. Tomorrow will be very messy when I get around to taking care of that. 
 
Now I have a few choices for fixing this up.
1. take this chance to set up the 20 long to be planted and have the girls plus a few new friend for the loach to live happily together in
2. Use the 10 gallon quarantine tank and set everything up the way it was
3. Leave the fish and plants in the 5 gallon bucket they're in right now and take a couple of days to fix the tank/let the sealant dry 
 
I'm going to sleep on it and then decide tomorrow. 

 

[Demeter32]

Just finished "renovating" the betta tank and it only took 2-3 hours

I decided to use the ten gallon quarantine tank instead of the 20 long simply because I have 50+ fry in it right now that can't go anywhere else. After I scooped out as much of the flourite as I could, I ended up reusing the dirt and then using the sand from the quarantine tank as a cap. I might end up liking this set up better because the black and white sand makes the girls' colors stand out really well. The water still needs to clear, hence the sponge filter in the front. I'll be back with more pics once the water clears.
Fingers crossed that the girls don't decide to fight over the new territory...

 

[Demeter32]

Okay, it's update time. The girl's didn't end up fighting after the move and the crypts' leaves didn't end up melting. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but the tiger nerite did end up dying and I just got two new zebra nerites of the same size today. Also bought a bunch of ophiophogon fountain plants, there were three seperate plants in the bunch. The roots don't look too bad but I noticed that they are very similar to the anubias' roots. If anyone knows if they are similar to anubias (that they can grow on rock/diftwood) please let me know!!! For now the smallest plant is attatched to a small lava rock and the other two are in the substrate. 
  
 
Note the nerite snail on glass, near the bottom middle area
  
 
Turns out the red ram's horn snails were not disappearing but hiding, so when I turned the lights on for the day, I found them all over this anubias

 

 

[Demeter32]

So about a week ago the HOB filter suddenly died for unknown reasons. I have a different HOB that's rated for a 20 gallon up and running now. The current was too strong so I dampened it down with one of those sock things for when you try on shoes at the store. I think this will only be a temporary fix though, I plan on buying a better filter next time I go shopping.

 

[supperfish]

I find out that if I keeping many Bettas including more than 5 male Bettas since they are children, then they get mature and can live together without any problem.

 

[Demeter32]

I find out that if I keeping many Bettas including more than 5 male Bettas since they are children, then they get mature and can live together without any problem.

So you have tried it with males? I think it would be awesome to be able to do that!

I think the reason why people find it so terrible when putting more than 1 betta in a tank is because the bettas are already too mature and territorial to become a peaceful community. Starting out with really young bettas goes a long way towards a workable mix. Of course you want to have an appropriate tank size and all that good stuff.

I don't have the courage to try it with male bettas, and I don't know where I could buy really young males either. Perhaps in the future I wouldn't mind trying it, but I would definitely use a 20 gallon long, or something with a larger foot print.

 

[Demeter32]

My mom's crown tail decided to make a bubble nest so I took the opportunity to try my hand at spawning bettas again. The last few times didn't go well because the old crown tail I had always ate his fry in the wiggler stage.
Anyways, when I turned off the HOB filter and put in a sponge filter, he stopped tending to the nest. When I put the blue half moon female in, he didn't bother with the nest at all. There was some flaring and a little bit of chasing going on, the female seemed interested and had vertical baring. I left them together for a day and still no nesting and the male seemed to of lost interest in her. I didn't want the other two females to forget that she existed and beat her up when I put her back in, so I took her out.

It was basically a trial run, neither the male or female had any injuries. If he makes another nest I will see about putting the blue or pink half moon in again.

 

[Demeter32]

I got some really good pictures of the girls this time The older blue veil tail didn't wanna cooperate but the pink HM was very photogenic. In the second pic you can see the yellowish triangle in her body, which is tons of eggs. I'm really tempted to try and spawn her with the crowntail but I would prefer to use the blue HM, simply because most of their babies would end up blue too.

 

[Demeter32]

The crown tail male decided to make another bubble nest after a water change yesterday so I put the blue HM in again. He seems much more interested in breeding this time and chases and flares at her. She's looking ready to spawn with vertical bars and a plump belly so hopefully things start happening by tomorrow. His nest is rather small at the moment, but I'm hoping he starts adding to it. I threw in a handful of anubias leaves that started to look bad and were trimmed off in hopes that he builds his nest under them. I'll see about uploading a few pictures if all goes well

As a side note, I'm not looking for a huge turn out in terms of number of fry. I'd be happy with a dozen surviving to adulthood.