#betta plakat

[photozoi]

Ever since the Neons joined the family the other fish have been more visible.

Suddenly everyone wants to come out and play.

[valokuvapaivakirja]

Poni tutkii

[tytonidyke]

I’ve been ready for a betta for a while and I was enamored by this TINY little koi - hand for scale (and I have small ass hands). Could be a female or a plakat male but clearly has some growing to do. They’re settled in to the 10 gallon now and seem really interested in hunting the shrimp, even though the shrimp are half their size and can’t physically fit in their mouth. I’ll get some better pics when it’s dark and there’s less glare, and keep an eye on their behavior so I can move the shrimp to the 3 gallon if needed.

[aeriona]

Got a fancy new book on fishkeeping over the weekend which prompted this study (that i spent too much time on whoops).

[headlessandhellbent]

Emmett and Nameless: just two fish being absolute fish.

[thejohnlockedfemboy]

:(

tw pet death

My betta fish, Rudy, only got worse so I made the decision to humanely euthanize him.

His scales were badly pineconing, his stomach was swollen, underbelly and gills turning white, finds clamped ( indicator of stress ) and he was just laying on the bottom barely able to swim, all signs of dropsy.

I had him for almost nine months and he would have been roughly six months to a year old when the pet store sold him. Unfortunately, betta fish ( especially koi and plakat bettas, which is what Rudy was ) are horrendously overbred to the point where their immune systems are fucked up beyond belief and they’re susceptible to all kinds of genetic disorders, fungal infections, bacterial infections, and viruses. Most betta fish never even make it past six months.

Rest in peace, Rudy. You were a sassy little shit who refuses to eat anything but the 99 cent Walmart clearance-isle fish flakes. Wouldn’t even eat the $11 dried crumbled bloodworms. Bro had horrible taste but enough bad bitch energy to make up for it.

I’m sorry I couldn’t save you ❤️ 🐟

I put him in a Tupperware bowl and put him in the freezer since I have no access to vodka or clove oil ( other common methods of putting down a fish )

His final swim. He tried so hard just to get to the surface for some oxygen. He went have gotten better, but it still makes me feel horrible for not being able to treat him ( I had no aquarium salts or fish antibiotics, and I didn’t have time to order any ).

[shrimpapalooza]

💙💙 Beau 💙💙

[picturesoffishandotherthings]

Piccolo seems fascinated by the gravel today. Maybe he's hunting snails. I've seen him try to eat them a few times. Maybe he's finally figured it out.

[battfishe]

pretty boy my girlfriend and I saw today, he came right up to the glass and struck some poses in the light to show off the beautiful blue luster on his scales for us

(bonus pics of him in different lighting under the cut)

[photozoi]

30 gallon view from the kitchen, and from my computer.

Not the best pics, but you get the idea. There are a LOT of fish in there, but if you want to see them you have to put food in the tank. :/

Thank you, Wyatt, for hanging out with me when everyone else is playing eternal hide and seek. <3

[valokuvapaivakirja]

Poni

[chipped-chimera]

Today in fish nonsense! 🐟🐠- Tank is good to go! Cool wood piece is cleaned and time to spend way too long on a plan painting.

More below the cut.

Tank has been set up, leak tested so it's good to go (after I overhauled the layout of my office ... still dealing with the fallout of that though lol) and the piece of jarrah/mirra? wood that my Dad grabbed from the tree he cut down on a farm (noting this specifically because it's actually now illegal to commercially harvest Jarrah in my state - this was on private property so it's legal) has had the absolute crap scrubbed out of it - I mean literally, in the process I found yet another interesting hole in it so that's cool, then high-pressure blasted with water so I am finally ready to think about scaping.

Which apparently means spending longer than I should drawing a plan lol. This piece is super awkward to work with I think - while functionally interesting it has a silhouette that makes me oscillate between 'boring' and 'awkward'. After talking to some artist friends, generally it was agreed I'd need to put more stuff in there to actually make it look better, right now naked glass is super harsh. Problem is, rocks and wood? Well in the aquarium hobby that shit is expensive. We're talking 60 AUD+ for pieces of wood. I mean they are fully cleaned and treated (?) and selected for being interesting, but I have a budget and I'd like to save as much of it as I can for more than just harscape sooooo planning is just the right idea here.

Thinking seiryu stone because I looooove the white veining through it, and then for the branches to break up the shape it's probably going to be spiderwood or something (as much as I love mopani wood I don't think it usually sells branched like this - but I will watch out for it) but the good part is these pieces are all probably going to be on the smaller side since I have my huge hunk of feature wood for free.

I don't know how this piece of wood will interact with inhabitants, I've soaked it for probably a month at this point to get a large amount of the tannins out (and I know it waterlogs, which is great because I won't have to play 'how long will this take to sink') but also to help the looser material come off so all I'm left with now is the hard stuff. It's also now sitting in the sun (and I mean sun - it is going to be 40C today and the next few days so that shit is gonna bake 💀) but prior to that has been sitting in the sun either here or the farm for a total of about idk ... at least a month? Maybe more?

I've struggled to find information on whether Jarrah or Mirra wood is safe beyond one post on a forum where someone-who-knew-someone at a local fish shop had put a piece of this in his store tank and all the fish died. Beyond that? no more context. According to my freshwater ecologist friend I caught up with, she thinks it's probably going to be okay given the amount of time/work put in. I have not done a bleach soak and I don't think I really need to given the amount of time it's been soaking in regular tap water (so already contains chlorine) and sun exposure. There will still probably be tannin leakage into the water but I'm okay with having a mild blackwater tank after seeing one in my LFS, I actually like the slight tannin tint of water and how it makes everything a little 'softer'. But I do ACTUALLY want to be able to see though lmao. I've also seen Jarrah seed pods sold locally specifically for blackwater tank setups so it might be fine?

Either way the plan is going to be: Scape, plant, cycle and then introduction of some cheap shrimp as my poor guinea pigs to see if that wood actually is awful.

Right now I'll just have to painstakingly go through plant choices and placement and making sure it lines up with the planned parameters for the community. I absolutely will take suggestions btw.

More soon. Fish nonsense will contain fish ... at some point. I swear lmao.

[mandsleanan]

Partner and I were very responsible- we went to the region's autumn Reptile Expo, and only left with one betta.

I always recommend people visit expos and trade shows, even if the primary focus is only tangentially related to your interests. I don't keep herps and I'm a novice with terrariums, but we like to go to gawk at what vendors bring and I peruse the horticulture offerings while Partner looks at the curiosities. Most people specialize in more than one thing, so it's like a treasure hunt.

First row I hit the jackpot- a reptile vendor who bred bettas on the side.

I must have spent fifteen minutes chatting with the owner and trying to decide which one I wanted. I was torn between a bicolor rosetail and a veiltail with coloring I'd never seen before. Since I couldn't decide I asked my partner to pick. They weren't interested in either of those, instead they were completely taken with a tiny male koi plakat shoved to the side in the first row. Not one I would have chosen but then I did hand the reins over.

Thus Mulberry entered our lives.

Frankly I think he should have been a cull. He's runty compared to the other stock the vendor was offering, and his mouth doesn't seem to be constructed quite right. He struggles to grab food. Truly a scrungly little man.

Then two days into quarantine I can't find the little fucker. It's a 5.5 tank. It's tightly covered. Filled with plants but not so dense I can't find a fish. Not behind the small internal filter, either. That left the filter itself. But there was no reason for him to enter, and it would be a tight fit even for a wee plakat. I opened the top and started pulling out parts anyway. Yep, saw a flash of scales in the murk.

Genius boy had somehow gotten past the two media plates in front and was in the main body, unable to escape. Brilliant little man.

God's Perfect Idiot.

[ainawgsd]

Poor Shinta is not having a fantastic fishie Friday. He wants to know where all his plants have gone!

[korya-elana]

Welcome to the zoo, little one <3 I wasn't expecting to nab you today, but you are literally everything I was looking for in a second betta. Named Sokka by @the-sour-patch-crew, he's been since introduced to his new tank and tomorrow I will hopefully be adding the blue shrimp and, eventually (when I figure out what I want) I'll add a small group of schooling fish. Excited to learn about your personality ^^ (Gotten at an expo from a shop we frequent, was not bought at a pet store, don't come at me)

[headlessandhellbent]

Emmett update 150225

Also tf do I do with this grass? It will not stay buried in the substrate, there's no roots to bury. I have them weighed (kinda) down and they still float with the weight attached. Idk man, hopefully it lives.