The Tales Of BB & Her Fish-Phobia

Well, I noticed Orion's ich quite late, being a light coloured boy it made them hard to spot. My swordtail being bright orange had quite a contrast between the few white spots he'd caught making them easy to notice early on and treat. He survived.

I treated my guys with (API's) AQ Salt, IAL, API's Stress Coat and Waterlife White Spot and Fungal treatment. The Waterlife treatment was the one that seemed the best option at the time. I needed a treatment fast and this was one of the best out of the other treatments available at my small LFS. I also picked it so it would be useful - it treated a multitude of other things too, so it wouldn't just be something that I had sitting in my fish drawer until my fish suffered a bout of ich a few years (hopefully atleast) later, where I'd find its now gone off and of no use to me.

I'd suggest checking what treatments are available to you and just quickly review that particular products reviews and effectiveness and whether it had any severe flaws. Whatever you decide to use, you must act quickly otherwise the ich will spread.

You also need to do large WCs every day to every other day. This can be a pain, but essential for all your other fishes well being. If possible if segregate your girl but also having a sorority I know that sometimes that isn't always the best idea. The bacteria is already in the water anyway.

Speaking of that pesky bacteria, it dies within 24 or 48 hrs of it doesn't find a host fish, which is a good thing. It means you can significantly reduce the bacteria lurking in the water for a host with WCs.

Once your happy you've removed the ich successfully, (I'd give it 3/4 days + a dose of treatment the day before) and then doing a 100% change to remove anything that could of possibly been in the water you don't want. It also means nice fresh water! Yay

Just make sure you monitor her closely and select a treatment to start ASAP!

Good luck with your girl ^^

Nyx transferred today. It was sad but happy at the same time. She'll probably remain there until she has grown up a bit more. She's so tiny right now, aha.
When I went to plonk her baggy in, I saw Honey my female ram cichlid lying lifeless at the bottom, her fins all ragged and torn. She didn't die of a disease, that's for sure. I have my suspicions over a culprit. Feel sorry for my male ram, "Ram" is his totally original name (yes I call him that for real). I'm going to have to research about lone males and finding him a girlfriend, however o have a feeling this could prove very tricky. I'll probably be getting another pair or two, I really do love my rams. Anyway, I'm pleased to say Nyx is doing well and is settling.

I'm hopefully going go get a fish haul at the weekend. Buying 3 girls or so (which I'll attempt to quarantine in their baggies / my plus size baggies I have already. I've done it before, hopefully it works this time. They will probably only have a week of quarantine as I've been watching them all for weeks and they have there own filtration system, I'll have to see). I'll also be buying some cheap tetras or something to start the community ("distraction") side of the tank. Possibly a ram girl or pair or so.

Also looking to get some floating plants. Maybe some ricca or salvinia, hm.

That's all! I'll get some nice pictures of Nyx, and the new community but for now, it's a picture of my lovely girl Honey who passed on as I mentioned.

She had such a lovely character, and ate her food SERIOUSLY LOUD. All I'd ever hear is "splash .. Sploosh ... Splash.." Haha, I'll miss you Honey, and so will Ram. ):

So we have some new arrivals. I bought them on Saturday, and only just managed to type this up.

I bought 3 girls and 7 Neon tetras.

However, sadly one of the girls has disappeared. I can only hope she is either seriously good at hiding or I kept confusing her with the other two. Somehow, I'm fearing the worst, which is really disappointing.

I picked out a mostly red wild variety SDeT with some combing, most likely VT girl, and she is the one missing. :-S she showed completely no signs of illness, and was the healthiest girl of them all, super curious, and colouring up instantly. She also for a few seconds showed me some horizontal bars, which was strange, she looks so tiny.

The others were a red with blue irid (obviously wild variety based) and I picked her due to even though having stress stripes, she had a very nice red coloured head. I've forgotten the name now so I'll have to look it up.

And lastly, this girl is a Royal blue or violet. She's still very nervous and pale, all stress stripes and is less active, albeit healthy touchwood.

The neons were simple, and I got some great discounts. They only had 4 adult neons, so I picked those. I asked about the "neon" on its own in the tank next door, thinking it had accidently got in. He said it was a "diamond head neon" but being the lovely guy he was, he gave it me the price of regular neons.

Wanting to have 6, I asked for a baby neon tetra, but to my suprise he gave me two for the price of one because they were only small.

The guy, who I've spoken to over the course of a couple of weeks of going to the store and everything was lovely, happy to help, knowledgable, chatty, and obviously passionate about his job.

I went to the store Maidenhead Aquatics. Mine wasn't too big, but a lot was crammed into that space and Everywhere was clean and tidy, the fish healthy, etc, and the atmosphere was nice. Couldn't ask for any better ^^

I apologise for my lack of activity. I decide to take a break.

Well, as usual it's not good news. I cracked my tank shutting the lid. It got a bit jammed and I thought it would just slip round. To my suprise the plastic hood remained and it snapped the glass. The crack spans about a third to a quarter of the way from the top at the back of my tank. At first I thought it went straight to the bottom and I was doomed, but it wasn't that far down fortunately. I had just done a WC, so I managed to siphon into a bucket while I shoved a handful of towels under the crack as I did not want the electrics to get water in them, so I turned all my tank electrics off.

The fish are fine (well, not everyone, but I'll get to that) and are living in a third to half of the usual amount of water. I fully intend to repair the crack with aquarium sealant and a glass insert the is "L" shaped so it's covers the whole corner properly. I'm praying it works, if not, my tank will be replaced, and this one will end up as spare with a glass partition in after the crack so it can still hold water. That or I'll sell it, someone will be able to use it for a hamster or something.

And then...

Well Nyx and Carpathia are both ill. I think they have a severe constipation or dropsy. They seem to have some pineconing but nothing too severe like all my other fish that had dropsy. They have bouts of rapid and slow breathing, and I'm fasting currently, and have fed peas. I'll be going out to get some Epsom salts if this doesn't help. They had no symptoms other than very slight bloating, so I just assumed they had a little too much. I'll also be getting some clove oil, because it's clear they are suffering, but because they seem to not be deteriorating any further, I won't be euthanising until I know that death is certain and there is nothing I can do. I'm a firm believer animals are PTS too early on, and for too smaller reason because it's seen as the 'fairest' option.
Well I think life is just too precious to go taking it away so easily. I'm only generalising on personal experiences.

Also... I'm giving up on sorority. Well not giving up, but I will no longer be keeping a sorority, as I feel like this is not what I'm looking for. I'm able to keep two aquariums, one will always be a community,and the other something... More extravagant???

I'm looking at taking on a pair of discus or a pair of convicts. My tank is on the smaller side, but I'm looking into a canister filter and or sump. Quite a difference but, that's what I'm doing, still researching which would be my best match. My all time grail is discus, but we'll have to see. I certainly will only be buying from a reputable breeder this time and no LFS fish.

The little purple/blue and red girls are doing really well! I'm happy to say. They have lots of growing to do and I'm hopefully going to be keeping them, oh yeah, I think I forgot to explain the part where I think I'll be rehoming all my girls. I am really attached to them all so I don't know. Tank dividing ? My plan is not set, but, if anyone should be interested in rehoming them to a good home, I'll give them to you, and you can collect or I can ship (however I'd rather not due to the fact they could be infected with some kind of disease knowing my luck.) I wouldn't even consider taking on these girls if you couldn't quarantine them for a good amount of time. Please let me know if you are interested. I'm not sure if Nyx and Carpathia will make it, but if they do, I will be very unlikely to offer them for rehoming, it just wouldn't be fair if my miracle fish didn't stay with me.

Basically, I'm taking my fish keeping in another direction. I'll still have a Betta in my community, but, I probably won't have any in my other tank. I mean, and then there is the sneaky 8 gallon I was thinking of putting in my room at my other house. (Shh don't tell anyone.) So I could easily keep another boy or two in there, but that's not set it stone.

Bettas will always remain my favourite fish type. There is something about them. But, I'm just taking a little break.

Should anyone still be interested in my fish keeping with reduced amounts of Betta posts, I'll continue to happily keep my journal updated. I completely understand if nobody is really interested after. Well, there are many parts of fish keeping, and this is just one of them. I'm starting a new chapter hopefully soon.

Practically none of that makes sense, and I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood to rewrite it. I just hope you get the general gist.

I'm going to most likely remain inactive for a while, sorry. I've not died or anything haha.

Sorry again. -BB

Carpathia and Nyx both passed on. It seems I'm cursed with female bettas, and for their own sake, I refuse to take any more on.

The two little ones have names. Lénor and Violeta, or Viola for short. Little Lenor is the gorgeous little red with cute head markings, and Violeta is, the purple-blue one suprise.

My tank is empty, and has been for a while. My fish are living happily in an ikea trofast tub. They have less space but more depth. They all seem a lot happier, with the babies finally losing their stress stripes and little Lénor has put on a bit of weight and size, and Viola is growing at a steady pace. Rosaline is happy, she has succeeded Carpathia and become the dominant girl, and I think that's definitely helped the atmosphere.

The neons are neons. Happily going along put put at the bottom. I'm a little concerned not enough food is sinking down to them, I can only hope. I'll try using a tsp to sink some more food so my hungry girlies don't gobble it up before they even have a chance!!

I have the glass, and I'm waiting for my sealant to arrive, hopefully it will arrive soon. My tank got all scrubbed today which is fabulous.

Thanks for that ThatFish, and meh, things go down before they go up right? I hope anyway! I don't know if I'll be adopting them out. I'll play it by ear. May have to put one in the community and put a 8g there, divide it and have it filtered in both sections, I have two filters (or I will rather, as I'm replacing my 15g's with a canister, or something stronger methinks) and I'll just have to get a heater. Or one of them will have to stay in a 1.5g for a bit, idk. The offer is open to anyone. I'm increasingly becoming attached to little Lénor, but then Viola is so pretty... And Rosaline is very special. If any are offered appropriate homes, then I'll probably accept. Decisions decisions!

It's still very up in the air, lol. And then their is the what if my 15g doesn't patch up... Oh lord.

Thanks sadist! I love all animals too. speaking of ideas, I have plans for my community. I'm planning on getting: another swordtail because my little dude is all lonely after his girlfriend got SBD, another ram pair and plus two-three ram girls to pair with my lonely Mr. Ram, after Honey died unexpectedly, 3 giant mollies, a pair of bottom dweller things I forgot the name of, a shoal of marble hatchets and a male Betta.

Probably overstocked? I'm unaware of that tanks gallon age and due to its unusual bowed sides I can't calculate it. It holds a fair bit anyway. (Don't judge me for this lol.) I'll be adding everyone slowly so the filter can keep up. My filter in there is a complete badass, way too big and overfiltering, which is how I like it. I can always make adjustments later accordingly.

I was so sure I wasn't going to blabber, and there you go I've done it again. ;-; sorry everyone. ;-;

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that all my girls are happy and safe with the neons in my patched up 15g. It repaired beautifully, and touchwood, I hope I'm not going to jinx it, the tank is very sturdy and doing perfectly, after 24hrs of being stocked and all water and fish added.

My tank has a new stand, I'm using the IKEA Kallax 4-box square (happy week early birthday to me!) thing and I'm 100% sure that the stand could take another 15g if I could fit it. It's built seriously sturdy and is just what I was looking for.

I completely re-did my room for my birthday, and it's got the look that I wanted. It was pink shabby chic, which was mature and reflected my teen-age. But it just wasn't me...?? I'm a bright, colour funky person and for me that's what I wanted to reflect in my room. I also have a new bed set with cat mermaids on (I know right?!) which makes me happy!

Back to fish. I was pretty stressed it wouldn't work out, but I'm quite happy, even if my tank somehow seems a lot more sparse plant wise. A lot of my Cabomba melted from lack of light exposure (it's really hard to get a tank light on an ikea trofast tub!!), but it seems to be recovering... My Ozelot seems to be thriving and I feel really bad because it's issue in my tank must of been that it was getting too much light. My Amazon swords large leaves had all died, but there was plenty of sprouting healthy green babies below so it won't be long before its fully back to its former leafy glory. The Java fern... Yeah, what Java fern? It had rotted and fallen off and only 10 long strips that had started to attach are on my mopani wood. ): I'm definitely going to try and get some surface coverage by floating plants.

All my neons are fine, with the exception of the fact that I didn't manage to remove the Ick. I missed a dose after the tank broke, so while I have caught it early again, I'm having to treat them all over again.

Rosaline seems to be doing well as the dominant girl. She isn't too cruel either, and certainly doesn't go looking to cause trouble like Carpathia did. Violeta, even as the smallest, is middle of the pecking order. I was concerned that she would be bullied, and even though she still has her stress stripes from the cross over, she certainly isn't being bullied!! Lénor is bottom of the order, and she has certainly filled out. She is so beautiful with her red head and doesn't seem to be concerned about the hierarchy. She minds her own business and doesn't get too stressy. She is such a lovely red colour now with blue/ green irid. Definitely had atleast one wild variety parent. Her form isn't the worst either for a pet shop fish.

I -think- I'll be continuing a sorority / community in this tank. But while the fish are happy, I'm not concerned. I was so sure I wanted to try other fish, nut now I think I'm going to wait to get a 20-30g high for some discus, and a 20g long at some point in the future for those convicts. Nothing is set in stone, but I think I'm never going to buy another LFS Betta female. Definitely will be importing from the US / other. They seem a lot more hardy and stronger. What I want. ^^

I have two more posts planned - one picture overload of my girls, especially Lénor and Viola as nobody has met them yet, and one of how I fixed my tank / a tutorial ? It's hard to write a tutorial as every crack is different and could need an equally unique repair. I'll do my best to explain mine and give my opinion and experiences.

Thanks for reading guys