NatureNut

The rocks are just the plastic coated gravel. We have extremely hard water here. I tried to test it once and gave up after adding 60 drops of the reagent (The chart only gave results for up to 18 drops or so...). I asked at my LFS about it and they said the fish we have are used to hard water and it shouldn't be a problem. That said, your concern was more over changes in hardness, and that shouldn't be happening. I wondered about the age thing. They were both large, and of course everything in the little cups were quite large. So they're probably full grown. Maybe I should get something younger from a private breeder?

I tested the pH of everything today. Our water from our taps is 7.4, the 33g tank is 7.4 but the two acrylics (betta homes) were 8.0... ugh? Their nitrates were between 0 and 5 (the day after an H2O change) and ammonia and nitrites were all 0. Could this pH cause problems with our bettas? Should I get some adjuster for them? :S

Those of you who have been following my posts know I'm battling algae in my 33gallon. Now we're battling Betta survival in the 2 gallons. I bought 2 2 gallon Waterhome 2 acrylic tanks and fully cycled them before adding Bettas. These were designed to be in classrooms. One for my son's kindergarten and one for my husband's class. My husband never took his to school because he has some challenging kids that he doesn't trust with a fish in the class, so it stayed home. The Bettas for them were purchased from what I think is a reputable LFS and brought home just before Christmas. I have done weekly water changes, test their ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels regularly and run a 7.5 W heater in them. Their temperature is usually around 24C with some fluctuations due to external changes, but it's quite steady. Their ammonia and nitrites have never registered at all. Nitrates come up between 5-10 ppm (closer to 5 but with my test kit I can't tell exact level) by the time I do the weekly change. I run the water for them through a dechlorinator (britta on tap filter) as well as treating it with Step 1 from Pisces. The tanks have gravel substrate, are filtered, have fake plants and a rock formation for hiding. About 2 weeks ago the Betta we kept at home died. He slowed down a bit and stopped eating for a day or so before he died. Then this week my son's teacher told me she thought the fish wasn't moving as much as usual so I brought him home last night so he wouldn't be there over a long weekend with no food etc. (I move him in an insulated bag right in his tank... easy to move those 2 gallons around when needed) I did his water change last night with aged water, treated as described above and warmed up to room temp. He died overnight. I can see no outward signs on either of them of any disease/injury/whatever. I've asked at our Village office what water treatment they use and they said it's just Chlorine, but I treat for Chloramines anyhow just in case (BAD experience with that when we moved to Edmonton years back and lost all our fish twice before the fish store told us what had likely happened... we were relatively new to the hobby and didn't know better ). When I called after the first one died the store said it was probably just bad luck. That some bettas live 2-3 months after purchase while some go on for years. We've kept several in the past and had no problems. They all lived to the 2 year mark or more. Does ANYONE have any ideas about what could be going on? I'm going to test pH today in case it could be something to do with that or heavy metals or something. We also lost 4/5 zebra danios in our 33 gallon tank. I thought they were supposed to be the hardiest things around? The swordtails are fine in there and producing fry non stop, and the ottos are fine too. If we can't find anything wrong with our situation I'm interested to hear some sources for healthy Bettas. It's not fun having fish die at the best of times, but telling my 5 year old and now his whole kindergarten class really stinks. I know fish/animals die, but I also know Bettas usually have a better lifespan than this.

Hmmm... I thought that might be what you would say. All my plants were growing like weeds the whole time. They were taking over my tank. LOL I might try the Co2 thing once hubby gets over how much I've spent on these little water addictions already Incidentally... in your humble opinions would it be best to add more plants again now, or does that just put them at risk of 'infection' with the algae. I asked at a LFS (quite reputable one I think) and they said to try to eliminate the algae first, but maybe getting some cheaper fast growers would be a help at this point? Thanks a million for everyone's thoughts on this. You're an amazing and active group of people here! I think I feel at home!

It's better now than it was when it first got going. It covered all my plants, my ornaments and the glass, filter etc etc. I did a mild bleach treatment on everything, got rid of the plats that were completely infested and started with the Step 3. It came back but just on the plants, nothing on the ornaments, so I just threw out all the infested plants and tried to save the ones that didn't show any. I now have it on 2 plants (guess they have to go) and can't really see it anywhere else. I really want to increase the plants in my tank again, but I'm afraid to b/c of the $$ I watched going in the garbage over the past month or so. In reading more today it might actually be considered 'fuzz algae' :S It's very short, but covers entire surfaces. Some sources say it's a less virulent form of beard... nonetheless, it's a pain when it coats all my beautiful plants! I'll toss/trim everything in there tonight, take a good look at the gravel and ornaments again, and do a big water change, scrub down the sides and the filter and do the dance of no more algae problems. I've considered the CO2 thing, but in some ways it doesn't make sense to me. Green algae photosynthesizes and therefore CO2 is a nutrient it needs. Can someone explain to me how adding it to a tank can slow the growth? (If I should be moving this discussion elsewhere, mods, please let me know... it's gone in a different direction than I expected)

Thanks! I've definitely slowed the algae down by removing as much as I can, doing frequent water changes and Step 3 from Pisces (anyone had any luck with that???). The stupid thing is I know exactly what plant the algae came in on. I saw some on it when I took it out of the bag and was too STUPID in the moment to just throw the plant out. What was I thinking!?!?!? OK... so give me the bad news... when you say strip down are you talking tossing all your plants, scrubbing everything (what about gravel?) or? I've never had a problem with algae like this before. I ran a tank for years without any of this junk. :P I had some spot algae and whatnot but my ottos always took care of it. I just got back into fish in the fall... I've tried to do everything right with cycling the tank etc and I swear I've had more problems than I ever did before. LOL Bad luck I guess.

I have a 30 ish gallon tank lightly planted b/c I'm battling beard algae and had to remove a TON of plants *sob*. It's gravel bottom, filtered, heated and has air pumped in. I can get all the stats on the equipment if anyone needs it. The critters I currently have are listed in my siggy below. I'm wondering about getting some better algae consumers and some waste food cleaners. Anyone have any suggestions? I wondered about shrimp. Would they get along with the fish I have? We'd like to add some Emperor tetras when things settle in a bit, but I don't want the tank to end up overpopped. Any comments on the current crew, suggestions for additions or general thoughts are welcome.

Oh great! So they'll keep having babies even if I remove the male? LOL Well... we sure love them... they're beautiful fish, so hang in there, those of you who are interested... apparently we'll be in the supplying business very soon

We've got a bit of time before they're big enough for me to be comfortable moving them, but I'll post when we're ready to give them away. I have a couple of friends/coworkers I might be able to coerce into taking some. After that we just need to decide if we can get the male off viagra or if we need to split him up. Not sure I want to end up in the swordtail distribution business long term, but if there's enough demand I might let them keep it up for a little while. Thanks a heap for all your advice, and the reminder that I hadn't done my profile and signature.

Thanks everyone. I'd prefer they don't go as food... though maybe that's a bit hypocritical since some of my danios have feasted on them I'm sure. I can gurantee anything that survives in there is a smart little cookie and knows how to swim fast and hide well! What size is it best to wait for before transporting them?

I set up and fully cycled a 33gallon tank in the late fall. Within 3 weeks of adding 2 female and 1 male swordtails I had a fry who lived through the danios. That fry is getting bigger and bigger (of course), and now we have another who-knows-how-many teeny tiny fry and 2 at least in between. The biggest is probably about 2cm long now. I'm not sure what to do... we love having the babies. It's fun for my 5 year old to see the progression of pregnancy to fry etc, but we can't keep going on like this unless we find a source to take our fry. Anyone know somewhere that will take them in the Strathmore/Calgary area? Or does anyone have experience with giving them away? Are they desirable enough or are they too common? If I can't find good homes for the fry I'm going to have to separate studly from the gals. Of course then I'll have to deal with if there's more young studlies in with the gals and then it's about inbreeding and... *screams* I did NOT expect that they would do this well in my tank. I'm honoured and all, but my goodness! If I do separate him the only place I have right now is in with my betta (hopefully soon a 5 gallon tank)... but wouldn't they likely fight too much due to both their testosterone fueled desire to fight? ANY input at all would be welcome!