McTurtle

The most common advice I've come across is that male and female bettas can not exist in the same tank. You can have a sorority of all female bettas, but a male needs to be the only betta in the tank.

I've always kept sponge filters in my betta tanks and thought that'd be best for them, since they seem to like less flow. However, any time I've kept a halfmoon betta I've had problems with tail rot, no matter how often I change the water or what medications I treat with. It seem I have finally stumbled upon the solution - small HOB filters. My guys are in 5 gallon tanks and I'm using the AZOO Mignon Filter 60 with a bunch of filter material stuffed in the outlet (and I changed the internal filter material that came with it out for Seachem matrix) and the tail rot is gone! My betta is back to 90% and still recovering and he was in a bad way before. I'm so happy! No more sponge filters alone for my bettas! Just had to share.

For those of you with multiple tanks in a room/ aka a fish room, how do you handle your power needs?

I've pretty much maxed out my extension cords/ power bars and I'm hesitant to add more, but I have 3 more filters that need to be plugged in...

And they all have to have their own rooms down the line!

I've had a female and male betta in separate 5 gallon tanks that face each other on end. My female was striping up and interested but my male couldn't be bothered, so I never tried to breed them.

Recently I got a new male betta and he started blowing a nest. So my female is floating in a breeder tank inside his tank and he is going to town on his nest. It's at least 3 times the size it was. I'm hoping to introduce them tonight. I'm just terrified they're going to damage each other instead of breeding... There's a big sword in the tank for them to hide in... so nerve racking! Any suggestions?

wow!

Stunning tank!

Thank-you.

I'm no expert, but I thought I'd share my opinion of the hatcheries I've tried so far.

I had many schemes to build my own brine shrimp hatchery, but I just kept putting it off. The designs are not that complicated and if you're a handy person go for it. I gave up and bought mine, which is where this review is leading.

Hatchery #1 - San Francisco Bay Black box.

I drilled a small hole into the lid and ran an airstone inside.

Pros - The nice thing about this hatchery is that you don't have to rinse out the shrimp. There is a clear pill bottle shaped container that fits onto the box with a small hole in the lid. The clear bottle is filled with water and inverted onto the hatchery. The hatched shrimp swim up into the clear bottle (towards the light).

Cons - 1) The container is square, so the aeration doesn't move all of the eggs, as they get trapped in the corners.

2) The airstone degrades in the salt water, needs to be replaced every so often.

3) Tends to leak as the container has to be full to the brim to prevent an air bubble between the hatchery and the collection bottle

Hatchery #2 - Angelfins brine Shrimp Hatchery Medium - I'm not sure if they make it or if it has a brand name

Stand with inverted bottle on top, valve at the bottom, aeration straw with valve & lid

Pros - 1) Very efficient! The aeration is great and my hatch rate was awesome.

2) Easy to clean, no mess and no escaping salt water

Cons - not really a con, because this is common to most hatcheries of this type, but the collection is a little more involved. The instructions are for 1 day hatching and then cleaning the hatchery and starting again. I find that if I collect the hatched shrimp into a small container I also have a bunch of unhatched eggs, I use a turkey baster to collect the shrimp and then dump the eggs back into the hatchery. On the second day I have another haul of new shrimp, though less than day 1. Then I clean out the hatchery. Also, the shrimp have to be poured into a brine shrimp net (or a coffee filter) and rinsed to remove the salt.

This is a new hatchery for me, but I really love it so far. Considering how expensive Brine shrimp eggs can be, I'd much rather have a little more fuss to collect them than a lower hatch rate.

Thanks! Cherry leaf green temple.

Its been a while since I updated so, new photos.

60 gallon - swords are taking over!

Guppy juvie/ young adult tank

Guppy fry tank 1

10 Gallon - Ember tetras

40 Gallon breeder

Have a little bit of a fight with BGA in my 30 gallon pygmy cory & blue eye rainbow fish tank and my 40 gallon breeder. Reducing light, increasing excel and constant vacuuming and the BGA is receding. I'm having a lot better luck with the pygmies this time. I think air shipping was a lot easier on them then a drive from Calgary,

Still missing pics of my 10 gallon guppy adult tank, 10 gallon fry tank and 2 x 5 gallon betta tanks. They'll have to wait for the next photo session.

Bought a fluval nano tank but can't find any place to put it!!! d'oh.

You can also try a hydroponics store instead of a garden centre. I don't have any idea about stores in Calgary though, sorry.

Where are you located?

Canadian Aquatics is a good online source.

I mix mine using boiled tap water (cooled) and sterilized mason jars, stored at room temp in the dark. Seems to work so far.

Guppies - I have no idea what the strain is called, but I'm trying to get more like this guy -

celestial pearl danios

long-fin pepper corys are laying eggs, but no fry yet

Bettas! *drool* Maybe it's a good thing you're in Calgary... can't be tempted to order many many pretty bettas.

Welcome to the forum.

For the last week or so new pms don't show as mail from the main page. It's not a huge deal, but it is handy to know when new pm's come in. Any ideas of how I go about getting my red flag back?

EDIT - it seems I fixed my own problem by turning off notifications and turning them back on again.

Thanks for the info! They seem to have cooled it a bit.

Welcome to the forum.

2 of my boesemani rainbow females seem to be fighting... is this normal? I've seen the males chase each other out of their territory, but the females have been peaceful and loosely schooling. Just seems odd.

Welcome to the forum.

Congrats!

I am doing a modified EI dosing - basically 1/2 the recommended amount +1/2 dose of Excel. The swords also have root tabs. So there shouldn't be a deficiency... I'll bump up the ferts and see. Could also be the green tiger barbs... but I don't know why they'd target swords and not the other fine leaf plants.

The green temple is H. corymbosa. It really doesn't like the Excel. It grows fine in high light & CO2 and in medium/low light no CO2, but high light + Excel = death. Again, perhaps there is a nutrient shortage.

I have a bit of a BGA problem since I ran out of Excel (waiting for my Angelfins order!!), so maybe the nitrates are low. Before the Excel shortage I didn't see much algae.

Looking forward to the plant list! Thanks.

I'm doing a few of my tanks and I've notices that the vals, which I've read are quite sensitive, seem to love the Excel, while my swords keep getting holes in the leaves and looking quite sad. My green temple also seems to degrade rapidly when dosed with Excel.

Anyone have suggestions for Excel proof plants?

Beautiful tank!

Dwarf Sagittaria is easy to grow & find.