Well, I made it almost 2 weeks before I started Really wanting to upgrade Nova to a 20g tank so I can add more stuff. 😂

I discovered the betta enrichment stuff on etsy, and then someone in one of the fb groups posted this & I flailed -

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.

Fish depression

Fish behavior is affected by environment. Tiny tanks create low-quality, non-stimulating conditions for fish, and bettas can become lethargic and less curious about their surroundings.

Betta fish need at least 5 gallons, a heater, a filter, and a lot of things to interact with in their environment like plants and hiding spots.

Also as a random note i look at lc angela and ruina angela and they just. don't Look like the same person to me. and at the same time kind of do

Thought that was interesting so (vague gestures)

[taking notes sagely] [writes down "Pokemon Evolution" and circles it three times with a question mark]

most people: hope i don’t have to fight my evil shadow self today

bettas: i’m gonna kick my evil shadow self’s ass THERE HE IS I’M GONNA GET HIM COME HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT oh okay he ran off, he better run

I hate people who put fish in tiny little tanks just because they look cute

would anyone be interested in a video of me reading to my betta and horned nerite snail? :3

Gonna be a bummer for a bit! (CW fish illness)

Lucy started pineconing slightly a few hours ago and I feel really shitty about it because I don't know what I could have done for this to not have happened, but I'm sure there was something.

Her fin rot visibly and dramatically worsened over the weekend despite a second dose of the antibiotic treatment I was using, and I even had a second medication arrive today, but she was already lethargic and not really eating. She's just been floating in the front corner of the tank where I usually feed her with her belly somewhat swollen, not really moving except to take breaths every once in a while. And then as of the past couple of hours, her scales are popping up a bit, which, in combination with the belly swelling, pretty much guarantees end-stage renal failure resulting in fluid retention, which is a death sentence for a fish.

She's always been such a lively fish full of way more personality than you'd expect from, y'know, a little aquatic creature, and I have been so convinced that she'd live a good life of at least 4-5 years of chasing shrimp around, but here I am with her probably-dead barely a year and a half into her life. It just feels shitty, because this isn't, like, a random death - there's clearly a disease process happening - but I don't know how to fix it or what I should have done to prevent it, except maybe realize that it was happening earlier. I still don't know if the red splotches she developed months and months ago were signs of a latent bacterial infection or just her changing colors like bettas sometimes do.

I've done water changes. Her water parameters are pristine. There's a thriving and reproducing population of adult and baby shrimp in her tank, which are all notoriously bad at handling crappy water. There's no other fish in there to stress her. There are so many plants. I only feed the highest quality betta food I could find based on extensive reviews. I added shrimp for enrichment and snacks. The water is heated. Even a few hours ago, I was convinced that I could get her through this. What happened?

I guess now I just mostly feel bad because barring a miracle, I'm probably going to find her dead tomorrow and it's going to be fucking horrible. Her poor fins look so awful right now. At least she's in a comfortable and familiar place. She's moving around a little more, now, and the pineconing is less obvious in the new light...I'm going to at least hope that I'm wrong about this.

Swim in peace, Lucy, if you don't make it the night.

It's vital to the fish's health to provide a good environment but I also just wanna say that giving a betta (or any fish) an enriching, proper environment unlocks so many interesting to watch behaviors. It's genuinely better for your entertainment to treat them right

bapis thoughts: 1) peridot introduces her to NANFA (north american native fish association) 2) views aquarium hobby for her personally is an opportunity to enrich a fish’s life and is one of those ppl who sets up a complex 20 gallon for her single betta

YES I LOVE YOUR MIND SOREN YOU ARE EPIC

honestly, and i can truly say this with my chest now that i don’t work for the bastards anymore, but more people need to know that buying a hamster or a gecko from petco is synonymous with buying a puppy from a mill breeder. unless they’ve made a major u-turn in the months since i quit after years of refusing to change suppliers (spoiler: they haven’t) their animals are always gonna be sourced from breeders who don’t outcross their animals, breed them too young, send them out as young as legally possible, don’t do health checks or even monitor animals for disease before they’re shipped to the fucking store (we’ve had incredibly young mice show up with cataracts, visible and impairing birth defects, active neurological issues like spiraling or self injury, stuff you should be able to pick out IMMEDIATELY and cull. guinea pigs and hamsters were constantly arriving with ringworm and wet tail. reptiles would come right out the box with mites, stuck shed that led to amputated toes or feet due to lost circulation (in one case a panther chameleon lost an entire leg!!). we had fish that arrived with massive tumors on their face that obscured their mouths and made it impossible to eat, fish lice, ich, fungal infections, kinked spines, malfunctioning or thoroughly nonfunctional swim bladders, missing eyes, pretty much anything that could happen to an animal due to bad breeding showed up at my old location at least once. we kept insisting they stop sending us spider ball pythons because their neurological issues were so bad we had to have every single one euthed because it couldn’t eat or navigate without injuring itself. the result? they stopped individually labeling morphs and sent us ‘assorted fancy’ ball pythons instead. they didn’t remove the spider gene from their breeding stock. we started seeing BPs without visible spider morph traits that were corkscrewing and stargazing. our manager got fed up with taking our animals to the vet constantly and removed a bunch of shit from our planogram, but that didn’t stop them from sending animals we didn’t ask for.

the animals supplied to petco (i can’t speak for other chains, but i’d imagine this is par for the course elsewhere) are badly bred, overpriced, and not cared for properly in the stores BY DESIGN - i got written up multiple times for ‘breaking policy’ because i would give animals extra hides, proper substrates, extra enrichment, just to keep them from cowering in the fucking corner at all times. i was told by our district manager that “you’re treating these animals like they’re pets, and they’re not. they’re merchandise.” i tried to complain about this statement, but nobody gave a shit.

don’t buy animals from chain stores unless you know how to look for sick/injured/badly bred animals and are prepared to deal with the potential vet bills and even having to put the poor thing down. even if you are, like. i guess i can’t stop you? but i’m not sure why you’d do that.

and for the love of all that’s fucking holy, STOP PITY BUYING ANIMALS. stop buying sad, sick looking animals to ‘rescue’ them. i know it’s hard to see them suffer, but putting money in the company’s pocket will only encourage them to continue. these companies are well aware that pity buys are a big market, especially when it comes to small animals like bettas or other fish. if you feel strongly about how an animal is being treated, by all means make a stink about it, complain to corporate, bring it to the employees’ attention (although there won’t be much, if anything, they’ll be capable of doing about it, sadly), hell, post about it online or whatever, but don’t fucking buy the animal to make yourself feel better about “saving” it. if you wanna rescue an animal so badly, visit a shelter or look into rehoming or rehab programs. consider fostering. just…. stop giving these companies your money. they’re overcharging you for the absolute bottom of the barrel, and they’re outright refusing to change because people are still buying what they’re selling no matter what.

Bring the natural world into your home with our nature-inspired betta fish tank ideas. Discover setups that mimic betta's native habitats, from calm rice paddies to flowing streams. Check out our blog for ideas on creating a more natural and enriching environment for your betta.

Hello it is now Fish Tank Time

Hello I am obsessed with my fish tank and now all of you have to suffer as well.

I bought a 3.5gal plastic tank at a goodwill on Christmas Eve, 2022, and same day also bought this tiny baby Betta fish from the local Big Pet Store.

She was sold as a female, and I named her Powder because of her pale coloring and because I am useless Arcane fan trash. I set her up and then proceeded to never get a good picture of her ever again.

A week or two later, had a huge massive terrible brain fog fuck up and put another fish in with her, and she was beaten up frankly not as bad as I feared. I separated the fish, and resolved myself to never ever make such a hasty decision ever again. This child would be my new princess.

So I made a plan to build my first planted tank. Live plants! Natural bio sponge filter! Grow lights! Lots of enrichment!

It was a disaster for a while. The cycling was constant agony of too high ammonia, then too high nitrites, then a big algae die off that caused another ammonia spike. The bacteria colonies I needed just would. Not. Grow. I knew if I just bought the turbo start solution, it would have solved all my problems immediately but no. I made it difficult for myself for two months.

What a sad, empty tank. Nothing wanted to grow or root, just suffered quietly while I struggled to fix my mistakes.

Then I caught Covid. I was very lucky, fevered for two days on NyQuil and then started feeling human again. Decided to redo the entire tank to make it more appealing. Took out all the plants, drained all the water, rearranged everything.... And then remembered I was still actively recovering from Covid and almost passed out. Laid down, came back, and all my plants were dried out. What a disaster!! I finished the tank quick, but there were some casualties. Somehow I killed hornwort, one of the hardiest aquarium plants on the damn planet, all my other plants melted all their leaves off. Triggered a massive ammonia spike. Back to square one.

Hooray for more plants! But ouch on all the empty spaces. My floating water spangles all turned brown and snapped apart. The mirio grass turned black. The scarlet temple was scraggly and pale. But...

I finally gave up, bought the turbo start, and bam, two weeks, water parameters were good. It was time. And I had a surprise for this tank.

Dwarf shrimp! Five cherries, two blue jellies, and two blacks! And my little prize, a rednose!

I have named him Jumpscare, for obvious reasons.

Powder, now around six months old, was also added to her new fish mansion, just as I envisioned.

(I was told she was female, but check out those fins! And that color! I am now completely unsure the sex of this fish, but for now she is still my princess and that is what matters to me.)

Post livestock addition update here!

I have this little evening ritual that I’ve trained all my betta fish to do with me. Partly out of practicality, partly as enrichment and social interaction.

My tank is very heavily planted, including lots of floating duckweed covering the surface - live plants are great for any aquarium as they filter the water and absorb nitrates, the end waste product of the natural cycle of any healthy tank. It looks nice and bettas love having lots of plants to patrol and rest on! The downside is that the virtual jungle can make it hard for the fish to find the pellets at food time.

So I’ve developed a little ritual with my fish, where I’ll call them over by dipping my finger into the water, clearing a little patch of the surface among the duckweed.

Once they’ve come over, they will boop my finger with their snoots to tell me that they’re in position and ready to eat. And once they touch me, letting me know they’re in the right place to find their food, I’ll drop the pellets in.

Every fish I’ve had has developed its own signature way to interact with my finger - some just smoosh their whole body against it or head-butt like a cat. Some give a light little nibbly fishy kiss. Qing, in his younger and more macho days, would do a piranha-impersonation and “bite” to show his fierceness (his mouth is very small. It merely tickled)

It’s just a very sweet thing - these tiny, tiny little clever animals quickly learning the rules of this little game, each of them choosing to play it in their own preferred way.

Oh to live a simple life with a rich yandere that indulges your every whim (as long as it doesn't involve escape)

I'd be like "OK I'm fine being captured but you're helping me set up my lifelong dream of breeding and keeping an entire room filled with fish. I'm gonna breed bettas, cute lil shrimp, rams when my balls are big enougj and I know what I'm doing, get a giant fucking enclosure for an octopus with all the enrichment they could want, and a big fucking koi pond. And in return you can breed me. Deal?"

I'm not sure if you know anything about betta fish but if you do I could really use your help. I got one for college and I'm very scared I'm going to kill him, as I had lots of bad luck as a kid with my fish. I'm very paranoid about anything that might be going wrong with him. I know I don't have all the materials right now to care for him but it'll be a couple of days before I can get to a store. Should I be worried he's spending almost all his time near the top of the tank? In addition, my tank has lots of white algae. Is that an immediate threat to his health?

Is it actually algae (Textured to the touch) or is it a clearish-white slime? If it's slime, it's fine, that can happen in new tanks and it should go away on its own, if it's algae you should remove as much of it as you can mechanically, scrub everything down, and potentially treat it with an anti-algae treatment. HOWEVER if it's algae, that's usually a sign there's something wrong with the tank care; too much light, too much excess food, water parameters are off, etc. So you'll want to correct for those factors as well, as those could definitely be an immediate threat to his health.

Bettas being near the top of their tank is not the same as other fish being near the top of their tank. Bettas have an organ called a labyrinth organ, which allows them to process air-air instead of just oxygen dissolved in the water. Normal fish at the top are gasping for air because their water is not oxygenated well enough. Bettas just actually breathe some air and often hang out at the surface where the air is. This is why, for a very long time, people believed they were "just fine" in vases and other tiny, unheated, still-water "tanks." They are not- they should have a minimum of 5 gallons, with proper filtration and heat. Preferably with substrate, and decor for enrichment.

And this is not going to be what you want to hear, and please know I'm saying this on the behalf of the fishes, but typically when it comes to fish, the tank and other setup should come long before the fish. I don't know the circumstances of why you acquired the fish before the tank, and I'm going to assume in good faith that it couldn't be helped in this case, but in the future if it can be avoided, it should be avoided, as that will go a long way toward protecting your fish. Tanks need a minimum of a week to even start to cycle and grow good bacteria to process ammonia and handle the nitrate/nitrite cycle that maintains the water quality within your tank and prevents your fish from dying from waste issues. In reality, the cycling process can take upwards of a month, sometimes even two, to get going properly and stabilized from a brand new tank. Bettas are pretty resilient little dudes a lot of the time, but they shouldn't have to be. Their tanks should be cycled and stable long before they come home to be the final addition to it.

I hope that you're able to get him all the stuff he needs quickly, and that he makes it through the cycling process when you get his new tank set up. Good luck with him!