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 -

OMG! Peas!

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

Hip-hip-furray, it’s time to shellebrate Ruby’s birthday! 🦦🥳

At eight years old, playful Ruby is our youngest resident sea otter.  She was found as a stranded pup in September of 2015, and at 1.9 pounds (0.86 kg) she was one of the smallest sea otters we've ever rehabilitated. Noticing her small size and fresh belly button, our Animal Care team suspected she may have been born prematurely and rescued her that same day.

Ruby grew up in our surrogacy program and after serving as an ambassador at Aquarium of Americas for a few years, she was welcomed back to our raft in 2022.

We’re pawsitively thrilled to sealebrate you Ruby!  You’re otter this world!

"I decided it's my break day today, Oh coincidentally, I'm gonna sit here, and watch you work." also it's too cute how Nemo just came run at me whenever i sat on a bench

@dandunn Not pictured: Sanji who’s missing a few things from the fridge

Look I love Binghe just as much as all of yall but like let's be real more than a shizun who loves and adores him man needed like a hobby that wasn't in any way about husband catching or housekeeping. I have never seen a man in more need of a pet fish or crochette kit in my life.

He needs help. Somebody get this boy wii bowling

This was an "interesting" exhibit. A canebreak rattlesnake, a southern copperhead, and an eastern rat snake all cohabitated at the California Academy of Sciences.

I realize they're in an educational facility and these snakes have overlapping habitats, but I didn't see many places for them to get away from each other and I wasn't impressed by the enclosure size or decor.

This display gave me an uneasy feeling. Hopefully I'm just wrong.

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.

how does one show a fish they are loved?

im no scientist but i think all fish are born with the knowledge that they are cared for and someone out there loves them. its etched into their heart!

Yayyy!! He looks happy!!!

The little green plant at the bottom is an Anubis and it's real!! There's also a cute cluster of fake plants in the other corner that he likes to drift around! Aaaa he seems really happy 🥹

I'm thinking about getting two little shrimps but idk because it's already the minimum sized tank for a Betta fjwjjdsj I don't want to overcrowd it

Daisy only likes the middle of peas, it's a good job Bluebell decided that tidying up after her was easier than fishing

I know folks are joking about the hermits all saying they’ll take it slow this season and then slamming out 200 episodes in a month(ish), but I think by now we’ve seen that the decision to actively seek each other out and distance themselves from Mega Builds has made them want to spend more time on the server. They’re not efficient, but they’re enriched as fuck and its so great actually.

Talas' birthday is monday next week what should I draw for him 😳

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.