I was going to bed when I saw your post and looked at the pic.
Algae isn't bad for fish, it's just kinda ugly.... although if it is covering the surface of the water like it appears to be, I can't really see how the fish could comfortably get through it to breath, personally.
I wasn't planning on responding tonight, except I saw at the bottom, the comments on the picture. Doggyhog suggested very nicely that Betta enjoy a two gal tank..... and promptly got her head bitten off by the person. I just had to LOL at that. I looked at the other pictures the person had up, It appears she loves her animals. I honestly can't tell through the algae haze how clean the water is kept. So I can't really comment either way.
I love the cut in half fish bowls though. They WOULD look awesome as bookends planted up as mini terrariums in that window, or filled with white sand and some candles. Personally still not a big fan of trying to make a "swamp" biotope in a half gal container. One of the stories in the art forum was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the snappy comment to Doggyhog though lol.
That is horrible. I know I sometime (SOMETIMES) skip water changes, but that's in tanks that are 5+ gallons, filtered and heated. If there was the first sign of algae, I would change the location of the tank.
The next picture over, another person was commenting on the conditions, and the poster kind of ripped that person's head off, too. Very sad.
This is awful...Someone PLEASE bite their head off back telling them that their tanks are disgusting and despite the look being appealing to them...That really is gross. That is WORSE then the cups. They're gonna get fin-rot.
I think they have duckweed in there, which grows like crazy from what i've read. So maybe they have not taken out what's not needed for space to remain at the surface. Ask them!
The algae is what is making it look so bad,
though algae isn't unhealthy to be in the tank, doesn't it still cause ammonia to rise as it grows? If they want the pretty green, they could paint the outside of it (safe paint) or just get some moss.
They need bigger homes!
Oh, not like it really makes a big difference, but I read her caption incorrectly at 2am or whatever it was. The top of her tanks have duckweed on them. Its not algae on top of the water. I couldn't edit my other post to correct what I said though since my edit button was gone.
She did her own homework and sounds stuck in what works for her. About the only hope I can see would be linking stuff on how often to do water changes in a half gallon bowl from published reputable sources. IBC maybe? (They have a handful of VERY basic care facts that anyone can read.) Or possably Betta club websites based in Asia and Thailand? Seeing how set she is in her comments that would be just about the only way to get through. Fight homework with homework!
BTW- Algae won't hurt your fish. Marimo moss balls are algae. Just a different type.
Yikes though her next photo says she doesn't feed her fish????? They thrive on the critters that grow in her algae??? God I hope she feeds them something other then that.
Personally I think it's an ugly setup, but the algae and duckweed isn't bad for the fish. I'm ore worried about how often water changes are preformed, and the fact that she thinks there are things that are growing in the moss for the bettas to eat. Unless she introduced something, I can't imagine that happening on it's own. Honestly, if she was using a heater and larger bowls/tanks, I think it could be a nifty setup, assuming you LIKE how algae looks growing. And that she did frequent enough water changes.
But it's all floating everywhere in the water.. it must make it hard for the fish to swim with all the icky algae floating around everywhere. Not to mention, wouldn't it be able to get caught in their gills?
I honestly can't tell if it's really floating freely in there (she says she only scrapes the front, flat of the tanks.), or if it's simply on the walls and clinging to the bamboo. Even so, don't you supposed that in the wild there were mossy, muddy conditions in water? I don't think it would really hamper their swimming, and I also think that it probably wouldn't clog their gills. I could be wrong, but if it could, I'd think that bettas in general wouldn't have made it very far up the evolutionary chain. *shrug*
the water's brown. .____. algae doesn't grow to cover the whole bowl, unless you rarely change the water. even in direct sunlight, it takes a long while of NO water changes for algae to cover the bowl totally like in those pics. poor babies. Dx
I think the fact that there is so much algae and duckweed (which normally aren't problems in and of themselves) indicates that she is not doing apporopriate water changes. Those things are .5 gallons, so they need frequent 100% water changes. No way would there be so much algae and duckweed if she was doing the appropriate water changes.
I don't have a flicker but....Would it be awful to tell this person what awful care she's giving her fish?
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