Try for the "blackwater" look

[Demeter32]

The crown tails are laying eggs The girl never developed the vertical stripes but she showed a lot of interest in Grey. She was flaring back at him and doing the wiggle dance. They got on pretty well yesterday and all his flirting paid off. He's absolutely terrible at picking up the eggs, but she's got the hang of it. There isn't even a split fin on the girl, but Grey seems to of managed a couple tears in his tail and anal fin. I blame the oak leaf stem that's sticking up right under the bubble nest. I'm hoping he doesn't eat the eggs/fry, I will be so disappointed if he does. I'm 100% ready for baby bettas.

 

[NickAu]

Good luck with the babies.

 

[Demeter32]

I'm getting a little tired of my betta breeding failures...I took the CT female out and after that the male completely ignored the nest. All the bubbles disappeared and I didn't see even one egg/fry, not that there would be that many from the tiny female.

I did a water change, switched out the CT male for the plakat and but the pink/red HM on the other side of the divider. This was about 3 days ago. I can see the masses of eggs in her because she's practically see through, so I know she should be ready to spawn. I put her with him today, she flared at him and went up to the bubble nest a few times. He's being super aggressive like last time, but so far no harm to her body, just the fins. This is going to work, eventually...

The blue HM is healing up, the CT female has zero injuries so I didn't bother quarantining her. Grey's few split fins are pretty much healed up already and he acts perfectly normal.

No new photos today, I'm too lazy to upload them. All I can say is the plakat's dorsal and anal fin are almost completely framed with the dark blue/black and there's now the dark color spreading throughout both fins along the rays. Basically he looks awesome.

 

[Demeter32]

Okay. So it looks like the plakat is far too aggressive to breed. He's an A$$ and I'm done trying to pair him with one of my angelic females. The fins on my poor Rose are shredded, now she's going to get some TLC and frozen blood worms.
After another week or two I'll try the crowntails again. Maybe they'll get it right after some practice.
Here's the only pic I got of them spawning last time. They make such a good pair

Here's the updated pics of the A$$. I was really hoping to get his marble gene going in some new babies but he blew it. See the black going up/down his dorsal and anal fin via the rays?

 

[FrontsBfrontin']

If your BN has ich the tank mates will also have it you will have to treat the whole tank.

I treat with high water temp and salt. I did it in all 3 of my tanks. The fish are now immune. They will get ich maybe once in a year and a half and it goes away in less than 24hrs. Its best to try to treat them naturally as they will build NATURAL immunity vs chemicles that kill the disease the fish won't gain the antibodies.

 

[Demeter32]

Now that I have decent adjustable heaters I plan on treating any new cases of Ich with heat. It worked great for my betta sorority when the new black kuhlis brought it in.

 

[Demeter32]

I don't know if I ever stated this, but this thread now pertains to the 20gal long and the 10gal. I bought 4 corydoras labled as Aeneus, but I'm not too sure they are the same species as the one I already have (bronze). 2 look the same as my female bronze, but then 2 look slightly different. They are a bit longer with pointier faces, and they have a green/yellow tint to them, especially on their whiskers.
The 2 in question:

The two that look like my bronze:

I also bought new plants and split them among the tanks. duck weed, ludwigia, water sprite and Rotala are going in the 20gal. I had to improvise with the planting, I'm not quite ready to full out dirt the tank and get is going. The plants are in a little fish bowl and mason jar. Flourite black "sand" was used. It's more like gritty dirt, even with a lot of rinsing. I planed on using it alone but decided to cap it as it was super messy. Black/white sand cap in the jar, flourite red substrate in the bowl. I know these plants can grow tall, so I might end up using the 20 tall as the future planted tank.

 

[Demeter32]

I think I might be dealing with my first case of velvet. Over the past 2 days I've noticed that the coloration on Grey's and the plakats heads look like there's rust on the lighter parts. Neither of them should have any red coloration to them, let alone with it starting on their heads. I turned off the lights and got a flash light out. Grey's entire head and a little behind it looks like it's covered in pollen. Very yellow and "gold dust" looking. The plakat doesn't have much gold on him, but he's been acting kind of twitchy. Other than that both act normally and eat well. I did some researching and am now treating with Quick cure, which has the M-something green and formalin. They're both in the 10gal again with the divider.The tank will be blacked out for the next few days during treatment. Temp is right around 85 F.

I can only think that playing musical tanks with them when I was trying to get them to spawn brought it all on. I flashed the 1 bronze and 3 peppered corries that are also in the 20 but they don't seem to have any gold nor do they act itchy. I'll be keeping a close eye on them for the next few days. I really don't want to treat that tank nor black it out. The new plants have yet to take root and settle in.

Now that I think about it again, my mom's male CT who died of dropsy early last week might of had velvet at first too? I do use the same gravel vac and water buckets...I should of flashed him with a light too I guess. And of course I had to use that betta's tank for quarantine for the new corries! I did give it a proper rise and repeat the day he died, but it's the same established filter media. Guess we'll see. WATER CHANGES ALL AROUND cuz now the ten with my two boys probably has a lost cycle from the meds. Should be an easy fix after adding carbon and more media from other filters.

 

[NickAu]

Oh dear,

M-something green

Malachite green

 

[Demeter32]

I think I may have been over thinking the velvet thing. The plakat seems right as rain, no gold dust when flashed with a light. I threw him in the 20gal a bit ago, he's still figuring out that duck weed is not food. I've decided, he shall be name Otabek, after my favorite side character from an anime. Ignore the little tear on his dorsal, he snagged it on a fake plant while flaring at Grey.

Remember when I said there shouldn't be any red on him? Yeah, well I took a good hard look and there's a few little red specks on his anal and tail of dark red...I'd rather he stay black. It's fine either way, he's still my boy.

Grey doesn't have as much yellow on his head anymore, but there's still a bit there. He doesn't act as though there's anything wrong, so hopefully it's okay now.

New corries update: I figured out that the two yellow tinted ones are indeed a different species, melanotaenia where as the bronze are aeneus. They school together just fine though so I don't plan on getting them more friends of their own species, at least not for a while yet. One of the bronze has a dark spot right at the vent, I think it is the vent itself. It's protruding a tiny bit, like there's a block. I'm keeping a close eye on him but so far there is no change in behavior.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

You just used regular dried oak leaves? I got no color change in the water when using oak, however when I used alone leaves I did succeed in getting black water, there's no carbon in my filter either,
Strange

 

[Demeter32]

It takes a lot of oak leaves to get a decent amount of color. It works better if you soak a lot of leaves in a small amount of water for a few days or boil the leaves and use the liquid. The leaves seem to be appreciated by the snails more than the fish though. There are zero shell problems with the snails in the tanks with oak leaves and/or drift wood.

 

[Demeter32]

Checked on the corries and it was indeed a blockage, he's passed it now and everything looks normal. After another week of observation I'll throw them in one of the 20gals. Btw I put the lone female bronze in with them, she seems much happier having friends of her own species. She never really rested with the peppered corries but now she's always resting with the new guys.

 

[Demeter32]

I re-arranged the 20gal and finally got see the replacement hybrid pleco that I got 2 weeks ago. He/she is doing well but is very shy. I hardly ever see it so sometimes I wonder if it's still alive. The new plants are sending out little roots and growing taller so I filled the tank up most of the way and also switched the light hood. This one is 17 watts rather than 15, so it should be better. Fish are healthy, plants are settling in, happy tank, but it could use a HOB as well, the sponge filter doesn't really pick up all the snail poo.

Before water change + rearranging:

Plants:

Java moss that's finally sticking to the drift wood and growing well.

You all remember that little long finned BN pleco? It's a male and his fins are looking better. Everyone says BN are super peaceful, but this guy is a jerk, even the big plakat betta is scared of him. The plants in his tank (my sister's 36gal) aren't doing so hot. I think it needs better lighting.

Grey's doing alright too, but no pictures. I want to get him a good light so I can plant the tank, but I don't know what light to get yet. His fins are healing really slowly and it's worry-some. I'm doing water changes every couple days though.

 

[Demeter32]

Went shopping again, came home with 2 potted foreground plants, a small bag of black sand, 2 more pieces of wood, and 2 glass mini pie pans. The plants weren't labeled but I'm pretty sure I have dwarf baby tears and micro swords. Took a while to get them pulled apart and planted.

This one has flourite sand on the bottom, a bit of clay in the middle, and then black sand on top. The peppered corries really like the sand.

This one has just flourite sand with a bit of clay sprinkled between layers

I also received a blue/black mystery snail for free, I love the pet store lady The shell is a little worse for wear but the snail is pretty active.

I distributed the extra micro sword between the 10gal sorority and my sister's 36gal. Half the baby tears are floating in the 20gal, we'll see how it goes.
Haven't decided what to do with the driftwood yet, I'll probably just toss a piece in Grey's tank and a piece in the 29gal for the albino BN to chew on. I've been debating on training some of the marimo to grow on the wood, but more research is needed before I try it.