#80 gallon tank

[bitchfitch]

I'm impulsively setting up a lil ten gallon so i can get something at Aquashella next weekend, a friend is letting me skim cycled water and an established filter cartridge and some substrate from her tanks, I'm not just dumping something in an uncycled system, and I'm just fucking Excited about it. it's been over 3 years since i could have a tank. but since I'm going to be doing twice weekly jellyfish tank maintenance for my parents following Aquashella, I'll be able to get water that's been put through the ro system i installed for them like obviously I'll have to re-mineralize it, but as a temporary thing until the new place is done and i can get my own filters and ro set up it should work out.

[maletomboy]

one of my current goals is to acquire a pet crayfish so im doing the research and god damn this is gonna be a lot more expensive than i thought 😭

[daggers-drawn-returns]

Help Our Homeless Queer Squatter Camp to Raise $80 for Refilling Our Community Water Tanks!

April 13th 2024

My girlfriend and I are two transgender homeless women living in Slab City, a homeless squatter town in the middle of the desert.

We live in one of the poorest communities in the United States. None of our neighbors have access to water or other utilities that they don't have delivered to tanks or otherwise provide for themselves.

Summer is rapidly approaching and the heat reaches 120°F

Our camp is dedicated to helping our neighbors and our community. As such, one of our services we provide is two gallons of free water per person per a day.

We don't have an income outside of whatever donations we raise and so if we can't raise money we can't help people.

Please help us raise $80 to fill our water tanks so we can continue to provide this service!

💕 Cash App: $ThistleDD

💕 Venmo: @ThistleDD

💕 PayPal: PayPal.me/ThistleDD

If you can't donate please like, reblog, and share. Every bit of help counts!

[oliviawebsite]

working in the fish department at a pet store was such a nightmare. a guy got so mad about saying he cant have 10 tiger barbs in a 5 gallon tank he spent the next month trying to get me fired. someone called me a "stuck up faggot" for refusing to sell bettas to someone who was gonna house 4 of them in one little tank. i wanted to seriously maim or injure about 80% of my customers there

[crevicedwelling]

Can we please see some more of those Triops you had some years ago (if you have more videos/photos of them ofc)

btw you just threw them in a bucket and they even TRIVED in there? should i do that if i someday have Triops?

(Triops longicaudatus)

so I had one of those commercially sold packets of eggs I’d gotten as a kid, and never got any to grow past the first few microscopic instars since the care instructions were really bad. I didn’t even know what they looked like as adults!

a few years ago I found the egg bag, and emptied it into a 10 gallon tank outside with some sand, forgot about it, and then a few months later it had filled with a couple centimeters of rain and had two huge Triops in it! these laid eggs in the sand, which became the bunch in this video after being dried and rehydrated (the video is after I brought them indoors because of the cold, water is unusually clear). other generations thrived in a literal bucket of dirt, like in the first post.

they’re largely filterfeeders so fed on the algae and microorganisms living in the water, and ate drowned wasps, mosquito larvae, and dead leaves if they were available. I’m not sure what the exact key to success was, but many things replicated their wild vernal pool habitat: 80-90°F weather, a lot of sun for their algae, very shallow water, and rainwater rather than anything filtered.

I can’t say if keeping them like this is right for you. when kept like this Triops spend most of their time in murky water so they’re hard to see. I also suspect the favorable conditions shortened their lifespan to about 30 days (a couple weeks less than normal I think). if you live somewhere they can escape and become invasive, don’t keep them outdoors. otherwise it’s a decent way to make a bunch of Triops with essentially zero effort

[bettyfrommars]

Stop the World and Melt with You//Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

✨One minute, you're bawling your eyes out in 2023, and the next thing you know--you're at a gas station with guy named Eddie, in a town that feels stuck in the 80's. The thought of traveling back in time hasn't occurred to you yet; maybe because it's way more than that.

Series Masterlist

✨Based in an alternative universe, I think the only triggers are that reader is terribly sad in the beginning and is having a hard time remembering things. Slow build. Mention of dad passing away. Word count: 2.9k

A/N: I'm not sure if I will turn this into a series, or if it will stay as a little weird piece floating in the ether 💕 (update: link to part 2 above)

----------

So, there you are, crying in your truck. Not that pretty kind of sniffling where a single tear runs down your cheek and your eyes glisten, but massive, snotty, choking sobs. Gasping, wailing, shoulders bouncing, wringing your hands on the steering wheel. You were crying so hard, you missed your exit. At least, you must have, because the exit numbers jumped from 12 to 14 in the time it took for you to wipe your eyes, mascara stinging, your throat raw. The song playing is full of hopeful love (Melt with You by Modern English) and you scream at the radio like a banshee, scrambling to turn it off.

You slow down and get over to the furthest lane, hands at 10 and 2, eyes squinting, ready to take that exit 15 to Empress Landing Road that your GPS keeps squawking about. The rain is coming down in sheets now, mirroring the tears that have run down your neck and soaked the collar of your gray sweatshirt. You approach the bend and take the exit, winding your way around to a two-way stop sign, and that’s when you lose all of the bars on your phone and a flat message cross the screen says: NO SIGNAL.

“What the hell,” you mutter to yourself, making sure no one is behind you before you reach over to grab your phone and bring it to your face for a closer look. No cell service and no wifi; perfect. Just what you were hoping for on this day of our lord, the worst day of your life. Not the actual worst, but close: when you lost your dad six months ago to cancer, that was the worst. It would all be a walk in the park from there for the rest of your life as far as bad days went.

You keep waiting for your phone to find it’s way back to the network, but you drive a couple miles and still nothing. The windshield wipers are flapping, and your head is throbbing to the beat. It doesn’t make you feel any better to look down and realize you’re almost out of gas and are about two minutes from coasting on Empty. You’ve got seven dollars in your wallet, but then there’s a couple hundred in your checking, and also the emergency credit card with an impressive $500 limit. All of that needs to be stretched out for another week until next payday.

Coming up on your left, you see a sign for “Gary’s Garage” right next to a double garage mechanics shop and a two pump gas station. You’re not sure if you have the luxury of pricing gallons of gas right now, with the way you’re about to be stuck on the side of the road, but out of habit, you check the prices on the sign anyway.

Wait...you try to focus your eyes, thinking maybe you’re seeing things, or perhaps one of the numbers on the sign had fallen off. There is no way gas is 5.7 cents a gallon, that’s insane. You figure maybe someone just put and extra zero in the front, so you hit your blinker and pull over your old truck bouncing down through a large puddle.

The rain shower lets up, thankfully, because there is no awning over where you need to pump your gas. You get out and pause at how old the gas tanks are. Nothing digital, all black and white flip numbers like on those old alarm clocks, and no where to pay outside. After looking at both of the tanks and scratching your head for a good minute or so, you turn to go inside when you see someone walking over from the garage.

He’s about your age, wearing dark gray coveralls that match the color of the overcast sky, long, curly dark hair tied back in a ponytail, and a blue banana on his head. He’s wiping is hands on a rag as his eyes widen at you, getting closer, close enough for you to see that his lips are soft and full, and his eyes are dark but kind.

“This way, follow me,” He tells you, motioning with a twitch of his head, cleaning down between the webs of his fingers as he goes.

You do as he says, in through the glass doors to a small space with two vending machines and a desk with an old fashioned cash register. You notice that the soda machine offers the drink TAB, which is a diet drink you haven’t seen around since you were just a kid. On the window sill behind him, there is a tiny black and white TV the size of a toaster with a vintage daytime soap opera on.

He reaches into a brown lunch sack on the window sill and puts a pretzel into his mouth. “How much do you want?” He asks, the pretzel drying up his mouth so he can’t enunciate as well. He grabs for an open can of Pepsi sitting near the TV to wash it down, and you can see that the creases on the skin of his hands seem to be stained with grease and dirt. “Sorry,” he apologizes. “I forgot to eat today.”

“It’s alright,” you see that the name on his coveralls reads: Eddie. “I just realized that I forgot to eat today, too,” you say, putting a hand on your stomach.

His tongue slips along his teeth under his lips to make sure there is no pretzel goo stuck behind as he looks at you, waiting for an answer to his question, but then he pulls a box of tissues out from under the counter and passes it to you.

“You’ve got…” he points to his eyes and makes a circle around one of them, and then points to you. “...from the rain probably but…”

Oh god, no. You realize that you never took a look at your face in the rear view before you got out of the truck. You’re so used to paying at the pump and getting the hell out of there without having to talk to anyone, you weren’t prepared to meet a cute guy in overalls.

“Um, thank you,” you say, self-consciously, sticking the tip of your tongue out to moisten the tissue so that you can wipe under your eyes. You look around and don’t see any type of reflective service to check and see if you got it all, but Eddie assures you:

“You got it,” he says with a wink. And then he stands there waiting, and you forgot what he asked you again, but finally…

“Gas! Right,” you look out at your truck, knowing what a gas guzzler she is. “Do you take debit cards?”

His forehead tightens, not sure he heard you correctly. “We take credit cards, sure.”

He reaches down to the same shelf where the tissue box had been and pulls out an archaic credit card machine that presses the credit card numbers onto the receipt with carbon paper. They haven’t been around in...20 years? Maybe more?

You wonder how this mom and pop, completely analogue service station, has been able to stay in business by keeping everything so simple. He sees that your hand trembles as you look through your wallet, realizing you don’t have the cash you thought you had, and then touching the credit card, trying to do the math in your head.

“We also take trade,” he tells you, matter-of-fact, tapping his finger on the wood table top, as if that’s another world wide form of modern currency.

“Trade?” Your mouth drops open a bit, your eyes shifting around, hoping he doesn’t mean sexual favors. But for him in particular, though, you might consider it.

“If...if you don’t have cash, I mean. You can just give me something in trade for the gas.”

You can’t tell if he’s serious or not. “I’m sure your boss wouldn’t like that.”

“How do you know I’m not the boss?” He asks, squaring his shoulders, crossing his arms at his chest, but then a little smirk pulls up one side of his mouth. Slowly, his smile widens, disarmingly, and it helps you to drop your guard.

“God, I’m having the worst day,” you confess to him on an exhale, your shoulders sinking, angry at yourself for feeling tears building in your eyes again. “You ever have one of those days when everything feels off and everything goes wrong?”

“Yeah,” he scoffs. “I’d say that’s pretty much every other day for me,” he gestures around with his free hand, and then he steadies his eyes on you and nibbles at his lip.

You choke back a sob that is lingering in your throat.

“Listen, what about this,” he is making a little circle on the table with his finger as he talks. “What if I get your gas for you, and then you let me take you to dinner?”

Your head snaps up, your bloodshot eyes meeting his. “Like...a date?”

He shrugs. “Or, just two people eating together. Whichever sounds better to you, princess.”

You inadvertently make a sloshing sound in your throat, jerking back a small spasm of tears. “I have to...I have get back home.”

Eddie’s eyes look momentarily set with sadness, but then he blinks, wetting his lips with his tongue.

“Where...where is home?” He asks you

You tilt your head as you try to remember, and it feels like trying to recall the colors of a marble lost down a dark well, never to be seen again. Was it red and green or blue and yellow? Did it have sparkles or was it clear with yellow speckles? You know there are so many possibilities in your brain somewhere, but you can’t find it.

“I..I don’t remember,” you cringe as you say it, placing your hand on your forehead to see if you have a temperature.

You snap your eyes up to his. “Hold on, just a second,” and then you pop open the snap on your wallet, your eyebrows knitting together as you turn it horizontally to grab your driver’s license.

“Wait, it should be right here,” you realize that that your ID isn’t in your wallet, neither are your credit cards or your cash. You spread the folds of your wallet open and shake it out on top of the counter, waiting for things to fall out.

Something yellow softly trembles from one of the slits in your wallet folds, and then flutters to the desk, landing between you and Eddie:

It’s the flattened flower from a daffodil; its the only thing in your wallet.

You and Eddie both stare at the flattened flower, and then Eddie picks it up, bringing it to his nose:

“This,” he raises his eyebrow, pinching it delicately, presenting it out like a prize. “This we can trade for. Daffodils don’t grow here this time of the year. This will get you a full tank.”

***

When you open the door to return to your truck, there are little kids scampering away, and one has your license plates clutched to their chest. All of them have long hair and over sized clothes that don’t fit, and the one with the dirty Hawkins basketball jersey seems to growl at you as they scamper across the road.

“Hey!” You scream. “Give that back!”

You start to head after them, but they are already disappearing into the corn fields and Eddie puts his hand on your arm. “Foreigner plates are always the first to go, sweetheart,” he tells you, as if it should be obvious. “They are worth a lot in trade. I thought I would have time to warn you.”

As your brain is trying to assess the situation, you come back to something he said. “Um...foreigner? Is that what you call someone who lives one state away?”

Eddie opens your gas cap and sticks the nozzle into your tank, and then he gives you a smile that you can’t read. “Which state are you in now, princess?”

“Well,” you rest your thigh against the bumper, forehead creased in thought, reaching one finger up to press thoughtfully against your mouth. There is a huge chunk of your memory, of the past 24 years of your life that you simply cannot recall.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Eddie reaches out and squeezes your arm. He ducks his head down to try and get you to meet his eyes. “I’m sure it will all come back to you.”

“I feel like…” you search his face; it’s familiar in a way that makes you feel comforted, even though he is a stranger. “...like I was upset about something, but now I can’t remember what it was.”

He releases your arm, lifting his chin with a grin. “Well, that’s good, isn’t it? You just need some food and some rest.”

“Sure, if you say so.” you are bothered, but you also like the feeling of not having anything weigh on your mind. You’re just in this moment, here with Eddie, in this strange place, without any plates on your vehicle.

Eddie pumps your gas for you while you sit with your legs dangling out of the passenger seat to talk to him.

“When you check in at the motel, let Claudia know that you’re a friend of mine, hopefully she’ll give you a deal,” Eddie tells you. But, then he squints, “Mmmmh, or she also might charge you more, depends on her mood.”

“Motel?” You cock you head, confused.

“Oh, well,” Eddie sticks his free hand in his pocket. “I figured you’d be staying at The Grove because it’s the only motel in town.”

You remember a motel, that rings a bell. “Yeah,” you tell him, feeling a little better, like maybe things were coming back to you. “I am staying at a motel. I just forgot the name.”

You reach over to grab your phone so that you can put The Grove Motel into your GPS when you realize it’s not on the dash mount, and you can’t find it anywhere. With a curse, you realize that those kids must’ve taken it. Next to you on the seat is your suitcase, and your overnight back with toiletries and snacks is on the floorboard, and you are grateful they didn’t have time to take those. Your phone was insured for theft, and so you figured you’d just deal with that back at the motel.

“Okay, well, thank you,” you say to Eddie as you shut the heavy metal door to your truck, manually rolling your window down to continue talking with him. “I guess I’ll...see you later? You said that the diner is next door to the motel?”

Eddie nods, wiping his hands again. “It’s just a block away, connected to the bowling alley with the big, neon sign. You can’t miss it.”

He also said he would keep an eye out for your phone (in his head, he’s picturing a handheld landline with a cord, and doesn’t know why you had one in your truck) and your plates, in case anyone tries to trade them for gas or garage services; this happens a lot, apparently. Eddie gave you directions to the motel, which was basically a straight shot a couple miles down the road, and then you waved goodbye out the window as you pulled back onto the highway. You swore you turned the radio off earlier, but the same song Melt with You by Modern English is playing again, and you give it a curious look before turning the dial to find another station. Static and then...Master of Puppets by Metallica...a news story quoting Chief Jim Hopper...strange electric buzzing...the song Running up that hill (make a deal with god) by Kate Bush….more static...and then what sounds like two young kids talking back and forth on their walkie-talkies.

You snap the radio off just in time to make room to pass by 4 young kids hurrying along on their bikes. Ahead of you on the horizon, the sunset glows pink, purple, and orange, and a strange certainty washes over you, assuring you that you’ve been here before.

Eddie stands in the same place, watching you go, excitement and fear gripping his heart. He stuffs the rag into his back pocket and goes to twirl one of the rings on his hand like he normally does, but then he remembers they are all in a dish inside the shop.

A tall, scruffy, older man with a full head of gray hair and a mustache walks over from the garage to stand next to him. He’s in a pair of jeans with a dark blue, button-down shirt that has “Gary” embroidered on the pocket.

“Well, I’ll be damned. Another one,” Gary says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Eddie nods his head, silently, squinting as tiny flecks of raindrops hit his face, watching your brake lights tap as you pass a group of kids.

“She doesn’t remember anything,” Eddie says, biting his cheek in thought. “Just like the others.”

“She will,” Gary assures him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “When the time is right, it will all come back to her. Poor thing.”

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Housed For Now!

[New]

AS OF DECEMBER 20TH, 2023, WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT OUR NEW LANDLADY WANTS US OUT WHEN OUR LEASE ENDS IN FENBRUARY. EDIT Dec 27th 2023: We just learned that she's adding an electric garage door to the garage. Her ex-husband is working on it with an electrician friend of his and I overheard them. She doesn't intend to move in, she wants to add the small ass garage onto the lease and thinks it's worth adding another $1K+ dollars to the rent.

[Old]

Dave just doesn't get how finances work. Because he's so unhelpful and doesn't fucking listen when people speak, he's whining about how after getting paid, mom has nothing left for the month. "But we don't have to spend $230 on the storage unit anymore!" "That went into other bills, Dave!" He thinks that cuz we don't have that one issue holding us down, we're going to be able to handle everything else easily and have money left over for whatever he wants to waste it on. Because mom has had to pay one bill and let another slide as a result every month. It's how she's had to handle our financial problems this entire time. And people all over have to do things like this, it isn't a new tactic.

Mom finally paid off the bank after Dave bounced her account several times last year. She's been paying $100+ a month for ages to get that handled. That should make things a little easier now.

The car insurance has increased by several dozen dollars so it's over $150 a month now. (EDIT: Dec, 2023: It was increased again.)

Her phone and Bethy's phone have to be kept on because of her schooling and we need a functioning phone number or else we'll be in big trouble in many ways. $100+ just for 2 phones. Dave is in charge of his own damn phone.

She has to handle her Discover and Capital One cards since she's had to use them to save our asses a few times. She NEEDS to pay them off so her credit score doesn't tank, and many places won't give you a chance if your credit is low. She's got monthly payments for those around $100+ in total.

The P.O. Box price has increased. Almost $50 now. (EDIT: Dec, 2023: We had canceled it since we finally got a place to live, and now we'll need to get a new one. I'm so tired.)

Dish Network has been on pause or almost 2 years cuz she can't cancel it before the full year she paid is used up or the fee is astronomical. They keep suspiciously unpausing it and trying to lob thousands in fees at us. (EDIT: Aug, 2023: Mom finally got it taken care of by going to the Better Business Bureau with dozens of emails of proof for her case and they came down hard on Dish Network. So we're fine on that front now.)

Then we have gas for a minivan, that Dave should be paying for, but isn't. A mostly full tank is around $80 every 4-5 days. Gas is average rn. So over $400 monthly in gas. (EDIT Dec, 2023: $20 gets 4 1/2 Gallons right now. It is hell.)

We need the part for the van which is $800+. The van is just so old that finding parts for something considered an antique now is damn near impossible, and not having the money up front makes it worse. (EDIT: Dec, 2023: The van is dead and despite how the alternator was replaced and the battery and starter are fine, there's no vehicle.)

She has to pay for her medication cuz we have shit medical. She's already going without many of them but some health problems, like Asthma, can't be ignored so the inhalers are prioritized. (EDIT Aug, 2023: Our medical changed out of nowhere at the beginning of the year and all of our doctors no longer take it. No doctors take it, in fact, so our attempts to get better help have to start all over again.)

Bethy needs school supplies regularly.

But Dave just thinks that she should have all this extra money left over at the end of paying everything off. Many of these things come out instantly on the 1st of each month btw. She has to then work through what is left for the bills that aren't instantly paid off. He thinks if he works with his friend for 3 weeks, he'll have enough money for an apartment, completely ignoring that he'd only have about $1800 for a full month of work with no breaks. The cheapest 2-bedroom in Delaware requires almost all of that, which is why we're waiting on housing which charges based on your monthly income. Even if he handled the monthly rent of $1400-$1700 for a 2-bedroom, mom still has all this stuff to worry about... and then gas, water, electric, sewage, etc... Dave doesn't listen. In public housing, those things are included. Outside it, they are separate expenses.

Other Posts About Life:

[1] [2][3] [4] [5]

~.O.~

[Ko-Fi]

[GoFundMe]

[Venmo]

[CashApp: $Flame818]

[Amazon Food List]

[Amazon Christmas List]

[Meal Train]

[Patreon]

[NEW Dec, 2023]

I was right to keep on my toes about this. Dave does not read or pay attention and he just rushes into things without thinking. He's made every excuse possible to defend this lady saying she'll see how clean the house is a let us stay, but when she made a point to say she's thinking of moving in here, she isn't looking for a ruined house. She already has the reason for why she wants us out and she put it in writing, and it's because she claims to want to live here now. She doesn't need any other reason; she owns the property and that is good enough.

So, we have to be out by mid-February, which means more moving. And we just have no money and nowhere to go.

[NEWER Mar, 2024]

We need food, heat, hot water, etc... and Dave's getting scammed by a blackmailer that he's now given over $3K to... His dumbass was cheating, as he always does, and within a few conversations felt safe enough to tell this bitch all his personal business, as well as everything about his kids and grandkids. And now, cuz he offended her, she did a search on him and found his family and is how holding them over his head to Apple gift cards.

Yet he stomps in the house every day demanding to know if anyone 'gave us money'. And then got mad when mom finally snapped at him with, "No, actually Helen has gotten any commissions this month, so there's nothing in the PayPal." All cuz Dave doesn't want to admit that I've brought $16K in just through commissions alone.

[bestanimal]

I voted neutral on Ichthyostraca but let me tell you it was NOT easy 😅 I have a personal grievance with Ich, I lost all 10 of corydora to it. It was my first indoor aquarium and first run in with ich as well: I had 3 albino bronze Corys, 2 regular bronze and a glo bronze, and 2 melanistic pandas and 2 regular from the same batch. Cutely my male Melanistic panda corydora Romeo was infatuated with my biggest corydora Ghost a female bronze albino. After they died I ended up bleaching the entire 40 gallon tub and throughly rinsing and soaking it before I got it started back up again. Thankfully I haven’t had a run in with ich since and I switched to guppies, which ended up being a good thing even though I have an all female tank one ended up being pregnant and I ended up with my five baby guppies who I love even more? Than all of my other fish not that I pick favorites but I was with them from day one and they are the only ones who never run from me for anything a net or otherwise 😂

That type of Ich (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis) is actually a parasite called a ciliate, and is not an animal at all! It’s easy to confuse them with fish lice though: they both start with Icthyo (coming from the Greek “ichthys” as they’re both parasites of fish). Ichthyostracans can usually be seen with the naked eye running around on the scales of fish and don’t have to stay latched on.

I feel your pain though. I had an outbreak of Ich in my large tank once, and lost some cherry barbs and a tetra. I managed to kill off the parasites without any chemicals by gradually increasing the temperature of the tank, up to 80-85 Fahrenheit. Somehow most of my fish survived the ordeal, even though a lot of them were absolutely coated in spots. 😬

Including my immortal South American Bumblebee Catfish. Maybe I’ll make a seperate post about my immortal South American Bumblebee Catfish when we get to Actinopterygii…

[endangered-aquarium-fish]

Toba betta (Betta rubra)

Endangered

One of the domestic betta's 74+ wild relatives!!! The Toba Betta is just a tiny little guy at only 2 inches long, and it's only found around lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, under a canopy of tropical pine forests. It's known for being very expressive, with just as much personality as domestic bettas- theyre goofy little guys, always exploring and interacting and showing off (or squabbling) with other fish and people, and changing colors to communicate - males seem to glow with a stunningly bright crimson when they're ready to mate.

Betta rubra is one of the more adaptable wild bettas, living both in stagnant peat swamps and fast flowing hillstreams, but always in soft, acidic water. It's one of the best fish for someone who wants to get into wild bettas for the first time.

Most fish in its family build bubble nests to raise their fry, which is such a wonderful thing that anyone who keeps them would recognize, but the Toba Betta has its own way- it comes from an ancestor that only lived in fast currents that would pick up the whole nest and carry it away if they could, so it came up with a new strategy called mouthbrooding - the males just hold the whole clutch inside their cavernous mouths!!! the eggs can take a couple weeks to hatch and the fish holding them goes that entire time without ever eating. Toba bettas can be very aggressive about constantly mating, sometimes doing it right as the fry from last time are released, so they sometimes go for months without any food 0.0

And that's not the only one of its clever tricks either!! Like other fish in the gourami family, Toba bettas have an entire unique organ to help them adapt to stagnant swamps and pools without oxygen. It's called a labyrinth organ after its mazelike fractal structure - and that structure is used to breathe air. Yeah!!! Air breathing fish!!!! They've gotten to the point where they actually need access to both air and water to breathe from or they drown.

Overall they're a lot like a more chill and funky version of a domesticated betta :3

Make sure you have at least a 5-10 gallon tank for your bettas, and 15-20 gallons is really best for a pair or small group - they're normally peaceful but it's important that they can get away from each other if there's a conflict. They jump a lot, so it's also very important that the tank has a lid, and that the water level is about an inch or more below it so they have enough oxygen to breathe (make sure the lid isn't completely airtight - you can poke holes in it or something)

Toba bettas love soft, warm (70-80 F), acidic water with a gentle current and some tannins from decaying leaves, wood, and seed pods. If your tap water isn't naturally soft this may not be the best fish for you. The tannins are medicinal, help grow food for the babies, and help the fish feel a bit safer. My favorite way to get them is from oak leaves and twigs and acorns since they're tannin rich and readily available where I am.

Like most wild bettas, Toba bettas love to have plenty of shade and cover from aquatic plants, rocks, and wood. Some of my favorite plants to use for this are pearlweed, susswassertang, frogbit, banana lilies, and Cryptocorynes- they'll all help your bettas feel safe and at home :3 (and they help the water quality a lot!!! do not underestimate the power of photosynthesis >:3)

Bettas have a reputation for being aggressive, but not these!! They're a bit more peaceful and can be kept in pairs or trios, and with other small, slow moving, peaceful fish if you give everyone enough space and cover, but males are very territorial to each other so only add one unless its a large tank. The one other thing they won't get along with is shrimp - they love eating crustaceans and their adaptation for mouthbrooding means they have a bigger mouth than you think.

They're really easy to feed - other than your shrimp, they love to eat most protein rich foods, like fluval bug bites and freeze dried or frozen blood worms, mysis shrimp, etc., but they really prefer live foods like mosquito larvae and daphnia if you can provide that to them.

They're easy to breed too, just put a male and a female together and keep them happy and well fed and you'll have babies in no time. The male will wrap around the female and squeeze out all her eggs before fertilizing them and scooping them up into his mouth until they hatch a couple weeks later. Keep a separate tank ready so you can move the female after breeding or she's likely to eat the babies once they're free, and don't move or stress the male while he has eggs or he might swallow them. The male should be removed too once the fry are swimming - they don't usually eat their own young, but they certainly can. The fry need humid air, like 90% or more, otherwise their labyrinth organ won't develop properly and they can die - luckily it's pretty easy to just put some plastic wrap or a good lid over the tank. They're super tiny and they love super tiny foods, including the millions of little creatures already living in the substrate, dead leaves, and plants. Some of their favorites are microworms, daphnia, and baby brine shrimp. As long as you keep the water clean and feed them well you'll have lots of new thriving colorful bettas in a couple months :3

Toba bettas are endangered in the wild from habitat destruction/degredation, invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change. So go keep them alive at home!!!!! its fun i promise :3

[cast-you-dxwn]

Do the Legions of Heaven employ flamethrowers?

The Model 331 ‘Purgatio’ man-portable flame projector is a area-suppression and fortification-clearing weapon utilized by the 778th Legion. It is a two part system, consisting of an armored 10-gallon fuel tank and pumping system as well as a hose assembly affixed to a handheld projector nozzle.

With a maximum range of 150 feet, a firing capacity of 30 seconds in constant flow, and a fully filled weight of nearly 80 pounds, the Model 331 is not standard issue amongst the Legion, instead being special-issued upon request or depending on mission parameters, largely due to the questionable psychological effects that frequent operators* have experienced.

The standard fuel mixture for the model 331 consists of little real flammable material. In reality it is mostly holy water, thickened into a near-gel like state similar to napalm. The molecular structure of this mixture is then imbued and excited with holy energy from the Legionnaires armors power source, such that when it makes contact with the air, it releases this energy in a manner visually similar to that of fire.

*See Recovery report 1-12-1983, Cultist Writings on so-called Angeli Ridentes

[horsesarecreatures]

Got three new friends. I just love them. ❤️ Right now they are a bit stressed from shipping so their color is dull, but they are going to be gorgeous. One is a Penang Blue Knight, one is green base Heckel cross, and the other is a turquoise base Alenquer cross (Heckels and Alenquers are wild species of Discus). As per usual I'm having equipment trouble, though. One good quality heater for a 75 gallon tank should be enough to heat it to 80 degrees, but it took three of my old heaters to get there. So then I ordered a fluval heater (generally considered one of the top aquarium brands; they're made in Italy) for a larger 80 gallon tank in the hopes that it would be sufficient, but when I put it in with 2 of the older heaters as backup the temperature dropped to the seventies again. Piece of crap. So now I'm back to having the 3 old heaters. They look ugly and go against my principle of having a low tech efficient tank, but I need to return the fluval and get my money back before I go on another wild goose chase for a good one. But yeah. Four different large heaters, of 4 different brands (aqueon, fluval, enheim, and marineland), and not one can get the job done on its own. It's so hard to get good aquarium equipment these days. I'm sure my filter will break next. I wasn't even using it, but discus are a higher maintenance fish than the Ameca splendens are so it had to come out of retirement.

Speaking of the Ameca splendens, I am down to one pair and their 2 deformed offspring because the male is insane and killed off all the others. In ten years of keeping the species I've never had such a problematic individual before. I decided to get the discus because there's no point in replenishing the Amecas until he's gone. Unfortunately my nano tanks are too small for him. If the female has more babies I will raise them in a large bucket with a pump and heater.

[daggers-drawn-returns]

Help Two Trans Women Living in a Homeless Queer Squatter Camp to Raise $80 for Refilling Our Community Water Tanks!

May 13th 2024

My girlfriend and I are two transgender homeless women living in Slab City, a homeless squatter town in the middle of the desert.

We live in one of the poorest communities in the United States. None of our neighbors have access to water or other utilities that they don't have delivered to tanks or otherwise provide for themselves.

Summer is rapidly approaching and the heat reaches 120°F

Our camp is dedicated to helping our neighbors and our community. As such, one of our services we provide is two gallons of free water per person per a day.

We don't have an income outside of whatever donations we raise and so if we can't raise money we can't help people.

Please help us raise $80 to fill our water tanks so we can continue to provide this service!

💕 Cash App: $ThistleDD

💕 Venmo: @ThistleDD

💕 PayPal: PayPal.me/ThistleDD

If you can't donate please like, reblog, and share. Every bit of help counts!

[newyorkthegoldenage]

In April 1927, Bert Acosta and Clarence D. Chamberlin set an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds in the air. Time magazine reported:

Up they put from Mitchel Field, Long Island, with 385 gallons of ethylated (high-power) gasoline. All day they droned back and forth over suburbia, circled the Woolworth Building, hovered over Hadley Field, New Jersey, swung back to drop notes on Mitchel Field. All that starry night they wandered slowly around the sky, and all the next day, and through the next night, a muggy, cloudy one. Newsgatherers flew up alongside to shout unintelligible things through megaphones. Messrs. Acosta and Chamberlain were looking tired and oil-blobbed. They swallowed soup and sandwiches, caught catnaps on the mattressed fuel tank, while on and on they droned, almost lazily (about 80 m.p.h.) for they were cruising against time. Not for 51 hours, 11 minutes, 25 seconds, did they coast to earth, having broken the U.S. and world's records for protracted flight. In the same time, conditions favoring, they could have flown from Manhattan to Vienna.

The following month, Charles Lindbergh flew from New York the Paris, covering a shorter distance (3,600 miles or 5,800 kilometers) and staying aloft for a shorter time (33.5 hours). His, however, was the first non-stop transatlantic flight and the first solo transatlantic flight.

The building at the right is the New York Municipal Building (now the David Dinkins Municipal Building).

Photo: Bettmann Archives/Getty Images/Fine Art America

[diabolus1exmachina]

N.S.U Sport Prinz

The Sport Prinz utilises the rigidly braced platform chassis of the Prinz, to which is welded the all-steel body designed by Bertone, the Italian stylist, and built by N.S.U. The body is a two-door coupe of typical Italian design, resembling the Alfa-Romeo Giulietta coupes. The two trailing doors are large but entry is difficult because of the rake of the steering column and the intrusion of the wheel arches into the foot space. The pedals are considerably offset to the left and there is no room to rest the clutch foot. The steering wheel is also considerably angled so that the right-hand side is nearer the dashboard, causing the new driver some initial apprehension as to whether his left arm has begun to wither ! The Sport Prinz makes no bones about being a two-seater as the two bucket seats are large and comfortable with padded rolls, while the squabs are adjustable for rake. Behind the seats is a large shelf which could accommodate a good deal of luggage or two children if they did not object to the lack of padding. Additional luggage space is available under the bonnet, but with a 5.7-gallon petrol tank and a spare wheel already in occupation a medium-sized suitcase would strain the capacity.

Instrumentation is similar to that of the saloons, the sole instrument being the large Vdo speedometer, curiously marked with coloured segments denoting maximum speeds in the gears: These are placed at 12 m.p.h. for first gear, 25 m.p.h. for second, and 40 m.p.h. for third. Incorporated in the speedometer is a mileage indicator which is well illuminated at night (something appreciated by rally drivers and not often found in British cars); although no tenths recorder is fitted. The rest of the instrumentation is taken care of by five coloured lights, these indicating high beam, dynamo warning, oil pressure, fuel level and direction flashers. The lighting system is just about perfect, a switch on the facia being turned to left or right to bring on the off-side front and rear lamps for parking, depending on which side of the road one parks, while the same switch is pulled for side-lights and dipped headlamps. A stalk protruding from the right of the steering column switches the lights to main beam if it is lifted, while depressing the lever flashes the main beam even when the remainder of the lighting system is out of operation. Pulling the same lever in the horizontal plane sounds the effective horn. A similarly placed lever on the left of the column operates the non-self-cancelling direction indicators. The remainder of the switches include a rather small windscreen-wiper switch, a windscreen washers plunger and a socket for an inspection lamp.

The engine is started by twisting the ignition key, while use of the T-shaped choke lever, placed just in front of the gear-lever, is almost always necessary. The engine bursts into rather noisy life and idles unevenly but once under way the engine smooths out, although the noise is still very reminiscent of a two-stroke engine. The gearbox operates in the rather disconnected way of so many rear-engined cars, and the synchromesh tends to obstruct gear selection, especially in first gear. To obtain good downward gear changes it is advisable to double-declutch, a manoeuvre which is aided by reasonably sensibly placed pedals. With 36 b.h.p. to move just over 10 cwt. along, the acceleration is more than brisk and the Sport Prinz will certainly never get in the way of other traffic. Normal cruising speed is an indicated 60 m.p.h., while the needle will swing round to 80 m.p.h. on a slight downgrade, and a more fully run-in car would probably reach the claimed 85 m.p.h. top speed. Remember, this car has a capacity of 583 c.c. !

[thebrackishtank]

I have a new to me 550 gallon tank (120x36x30) that I'd like to set up as a brackish community with mangrove. If you had this gigantic tank, how would you stock it? Only thing I'm 100% dead set on is a dragon goby. If I have the water depth 24", is that too deep for mudskippers if there's lots of roots/wood for them to get up on? Monos, scats, archers, and puffers seem to be the most commonly recommended, but I dont know who can live happily with who. All recommendations welcome!

Mama Mia that's a big ol tank! Let's see if I can answer your questions/statements in order...

I love Dragon Gobies and kept one for many years myself. They are lovely and peaceful with other fish - and though territorial, in this size tank with many possible locations for caves, you can keep a few without issue. Worth considering!

Mudskippers are fun but the issue with them is they are skittish. They are prey animals and they know it. If there's a big old fish in the water, even if harmless, they won't go in the water much. I'd probably skip then.

Puffers are also fun, but the issue is that most puffers will nip at sedentary fish like Drsgon Gobies. I say most because they are smart fish with distinct personalities; I have maybe the most peaceful GSP out there, who lives in a tank with snails and hermits and never once attacked then. But it's a risk I don't recommend.

Scats, Monos, and Archers will work here. You want to make a tank that LOOKS brackish? These are your guys. I do absolutely love Scats, and recommend Silver Scats if you can find them, but prepare for a fish that lives 15 to 20 years :)

As for other suggestions, I have three:

What I personally would be most tempted to try is a native brackish biotope. Dragon Gobies live up the US coast from NC down to the Gulf of Mexico - and we have so many awesome brackish fishes. Lined Killifish, Silversides, Sleeper Gobies, Needlefish, Mollies, Sunfish, Soles, and some of the introduced Cichlids are just a small taste of our many brackish options. You'd have to collect most of these yourself, though, limiting you somewhat.

I might be tempted to try Chromides here. Cichlids of the genus Eutroplus, the 2 brackish species are the chunky Green Chromides (that get up to 14 inches) and the tiny Orange Chromides (that get around 2-3). Sounds like a bad match right? In the wild, the two live together swimmingly, with the oranges acting as cleaner fish for the greens. Such a cool tank concept!

At your low end here (1.003 to 1.005) there are a few schooling rainbowfish that would work fine. I know it might feel like a waste of a big tank to keep mostly 3 to 4 inch long fish, but if you've ever seen a tank with 50 or 80 Boesemans Rainbows, you'll know it's a legitimate choice. Mix in some Australian and McCulloch's Rainbows and you've got a nifty tank!

My blog has caresheets for basically any brackish fish you are likely to find in the trade commonly or uncommonly. Take a browse and if you have any questions, let me know!

[axelaxolotll]

YAY!

(Special interest anon)

betta fish can live up to 5 years, 7 in the right conditions!

they are insectivores which means they mostly eat insects!

Betta fish originated from Thailand but can be found in nearby countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Wild bettas live in shallow, freshwater areas such as rice paddies, stagnant ponds, marshes, and slow-moving streams.

there real name is Siamese fighting fish named after the Siamese warriors who first found them!

at minimum bettas should be kept in a five gallon tank with hiding places and a heater! They prefer 78-80 Degrees!

Bettas are anabantoids, which means they can breathe atmospheric air using a unique organ called the labyrinth. This accounts for their ability to thrive in low-oxygen water conditions that would kill most other fish, like the rice paddies, slow-moving streams, drainage ditches, and large puddles they live in! betta fish can learn tricks and even recognize their owners!

There are more than 70 different species of betta fish in the wild. The most popular species is called Betta splendens and that is what type you will almost always see in pet stores. There are over 30 varieties of Betta splendens that have been selectively bred to show certain traits like bright colors or long flowing fins. Some of the most common varieties of pet bettas include the dumbo, delta, double tail, halfmoon and so many more!

Many people think that betta fish do well in bowls, but this isn’t true. In reality, bettas need clean water conditions to thrive. This means they need a tank that is at least 5 gallons , or bigger, with a heater and a filter!

It’s common in animals for males to have more vibrant colors than females. The same is true for captive-bred bettas. Male betta fish often have more bright and varied colors than female betta fish do!

Wild betta fish are different looking than those bred in captivity. Captive-bred bettas have been selectively bred to be more colorful then their wild forebearers because most people prefer brightly colored fish as pets!

WOAHBTHIS IS ALL SO COOL

i think little me accidentally messed up somewhere because my little guy lasted maybe 4 months, even tho he had a filtered+heated+always clean tank with lots of pet safe furniture and stuff that was 8 gallons.. and i think i fed him decently. who knows tho may he rest in peace in fish heaven (if such thing exists)

this is all actually so cool omg this is so fun to read about :o