[OregonDreamsBettas]

Hi All!
I am just burning up the forum here with new questions! Just let me start by thanking all of you who have been so helpful with my first spawn. THANK YOU!!!
So now I have a new problem.
I had a bunch of horn wort in the breeding tank to help with water quality. But now almost all of the needles have fallen off and I am worried they will start to decay and make my water worse instead of better.
I tried siphoning some out last night with some airline tubing and that worked but I got fry too.
Currently my fry are in a plastic tote that is maybe 12x18x7" and has about 5" of water. I can either continue to siphon small amounts out each day... hoping that I can keep on top of any water quality issues.
Or I was thinking I could place the tote inside a larger tote and slowly raise the water level...
any thoughts or suggestions on what would be the least stressful for the babies? Other than don't use horn wort in the future... lol

 

[vilmarisv]

I do not like hornwort because of this. I made the mistake of using it once in one of my breeding tanks and it took me weeks to get rid of all the needles.
I would suggest you just keep up with the water changes and semi-ignore the plant until the fry are easier to see while you syphon.
So slowly remove water and slowly add some back to it reducing the amount of bacteria in the water without syphoning up your kids.

 

[MrVampire181]

Hornwort is a cold water plant so the needles fall off in warmer temps. I'd move it to a cooler tank. I usually don't clean the bottom. I just remove water and add it back in again.

 

[OregonDreamsBettas]

Aha! That totally makes sense. It looks like it's already started to grow new needles. I can put it in the guppy tank and move the water sprite over to the betta grow out tank.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[MrVampire181]

Aha! That totally makes sense. It looks like it's already started to grow new needles. I can put it in the guppy tank and move the water sprite over to the betta grow out tank.

Thanks again everyone!

Yeah I had the same issue awhile back. Couldn't figure out why my horn wort wasn't lasting lol!