LBF's Journal

[LittleBettaFish]

I thought I'd use this journal to keep track of my fishroom going ons. Expect lots of slightly out of focus photos of my fish and possibly photos of our dogs.

Anyway, yesterday I did a photoshoot with my Pseudomugil mellis more commonly known as honey blue-eyes. They are a native fish and are an absolute treat to watch. The males of all this genus are stunning when sparring and defending their turf.









They come from areas where the water is usually very dark and tea-coloured so I've tried to emulate this in my set-up. Tank needs scaping as I plonked the rocks in to see if they would affect anything and the wood is in no particular order.

Also in there are two killifish fry and a pesky guppy who will be getting removed once I can catch them. Photos are slightly blurry as these guys move fast.

Then for the betta aficionados here are some shots of some of my latest imports. The blue marble HMPK female has an almost identical counterpart who is a little shyer. Both of them are getting moved out of the sorority to take pride of place on my bedside table.

[Aus]

Yay, fish room pics! Love the blue-eye tank, it looks very natural as you have it, like a little bit of a real creek in there. Are the blue-eyes from Aquagreen?

Your sorority is perty, and the marbled girls.. that blue is stunning!

[LittleBettaFish]

Nah they are from Coburg and Exotic Aquatic. My gertrudae, tenellus and skull creek rainbows are from Dave. He also chucked in two what he said were flyspecked hardy-heads.

Hoping once my 4x2x2 is moved downstairs and passes a leak test to see if Dave has some blackmast available and I will have a school of them and some signifer in there.

Blue marble with no red or any other colour is my favourite. Too bad most of my blue marbles have developed red on their fins as they get older.

[LittleBettaFish]

Here are some quick snaps I took just then of my tenellus (delicate blue-eyes) so people can see the difference. Also have two female Pseudomugil connieae in there and the bigger fish are my skull creek rainbows. They are quite shy and rarely come out from the back unless it's food time then they push everyone else out of the way.


Eating grindal worms


Rainbows joining in


FTS showing their spawning mop and my need to attach my canister filter (lot of fish in there so luckily duckweed eats up most of the ammonia) and to do some re-scaping.


Close-up detail of some hydrilla in my gertrudae (spotted blue-eye) tank

Also scored what I think is HC for free attached to the roots of my Coomalie Creek hairgrass so I am growing it emersed in a chinese takeout container with some ADA aquasoil. Don't know what I am going to do with it. Maybe a emersed type set-up outside in summer.

[LittleBettaFish]

Final update for the day. Took some photos of my gertrudae tank now it's properly set-up. I'm hoping to put in some dwarf lilies to mimic the habitat they come from, otherwise I am happy with how it currently looks.









Thinking of sticking black backgrounds on all three of these tanks to hide my cords and equipment. Just need to find something suitable.

Also our poor dog has been twice to the vet after hours now. On Tuesday because her back was out after being T-boned by our other dog and tonight with what we think is pneumonia that may or may not have been festering on Tuesday as well (she was breathing funny but her heart rate and temperature were fine). She's due for x-rays and bloodwork tomorrow so hopefully she is alright.

[MaisyDawgThirteen]

Love your tanks!

I hope your dog is feeling better. :(

[LittleBettaFish]

Eos had inflammatory pneumonia, so we stayed up all night watching her as her breathing was really bad. She went to our vet in the morning and stayed there while they put her on an IV and did chest (her intestines and stomach looked weird but there were no blockages or bloat), throat and stomach x-rays. She is now on a strong course of antibiotics and desperate for a walk.

Unfortunately she has to stay inside/quiet for at least 2 weeks. She also has had her sides and tummy shaved so the show we were going to enter her in August is out. Just happy to have my E back. We thought she was going to die she looked so terrible.

Then our 8 month old has come onto heat driving our desexed male insane haha. She doesn't know what he wants so then he barks at her and starts wrestling with her. Meanwhile Nike just keeps sooking and squealing at weird things.

You can see now why I am a cat person!

My Betta persephone have got fry now. Around 30-40 it looks like. Male keeps moving his nest and fry around and I'm plumping up Mrs Persephone so they will hopefully spawn again once the fry are out on their own.

[LittleBettaFish]

Got my fancy HMPK dragon pair in the spawn tank (well sort of). Won't be releasing the female until this weekend. Both have been conditioned for a week and a half and I would really like (in my dream world haha) to get some minimally marbled cellophane females like their mum.









Going to chuck in some moss when I get a chance. This is just set-up so I have somewhere to put them both as every other tank is full-up at the moment.

[dramaqueen]

Your tanks are so natural looking.

[LittleBettaFish]

Thanks. I like to keep them as natural feeling as possible.



I finally got around the other day to fixing up my rainbowfish tank. Just need to get the energy to fiddle with my Eden canister.



Also got a picture of my gertrudae set-up which is coming along nicely. Unfortunately I have six males and one female so I want to boost my numbers up by at least four. Also want to find some kind of small lily to put in there to mimic a wetland/billabong habitat.

Just spent the afternoon dividing two 30cm cubes into four. Realised I must have spent at least a few hundred dollars on anubias plants haha.