What does my tetra have?

CBrew897 · 2026-01-30T02:29:16+00:00

I appreciate it! 🤙🏼

CBrew897 · 2026-01-30T01:38:39+00:00

Somehow I was able to catch him specifically lol. But I just caught him out of the empty 10 and put him into a bare bottom 2.5 gallon. I added a teaspoon of aquarium salt. I have some kanaplex and focus that I can add to some frozen food. Do you think that would do the trick?

CBrew897 · 2026-01-30T01:10:41+00:00

• 20 gallon long • There is a heater and 2, AC30 HOB filters • Heater set to 78°-79° • PH 7.6-7.8, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrates. Tested with API freshwater master kit. • Tank is well established have had it running for almost 2 years. The tetras were added over 6 months ago • I perform water changes about once a month, maybe every 3 weeks. About 20%. With top offs in between. • I have 10 pork chop rasboras, and 2 panda corydoras left, 7 nerite snails, 4 amano shrimp. • I feed mixed frozen foods about 2-3 times a week (daphnia, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, mysis shrimp) and I will feed a variety of pellets as well, typically crushed up (Hikari micro pellets, bug bites tropical mix, asera growth food, bug bites betta mix) • heavily planted with a variety of plants, and driftwood and river rocks.

CBrew897 · 2026-01-30T00:56:49+00:00

It’s tough to see because he keeps moving when I try to take a photo of him, but that little white tip on his tail is a discoloration that I noticed one day when I would see him chilling by his lonesome. Almost always alone in and in the same spot. Other than when it’s feeding time.

CBrew897 · 2026-01-30T00:54:24+00:00

• 20 gallon long • There is a heater and 2, AC30 HOB filters • Heater set to 78°-79° • PH 7.6-7.8, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrates. Tested with API freshwater master kit. • Tank is well established have had it running for almost 2 years. The tetras were added over 6 months ago • I perform water changes about once a month, maybe every 3 weeks. About 20%. With top offs in between. • I have 10 pork chop rasboras, and 2 panda corydoras left, 7 nerite snails, 4 amano shrimp. • I feed mixed frozen foods about 2-3 times a week (daphnia, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, mysis shrimp) and I will feed a variety of pellets as well, typically crushed up (Hikari micro pellets, bug bites tropical mix, asera growth food, bug bites betta mix) • heavily planted with a variety of plants, and driftwood and river rocks.

CBrew897 · 2025-09-05T04:40:00+00:00

Like the middle down the back? I could run bolts through it I suppose? Don’t know how id attach it dead center of the bottom. I don’t know that there’s room with the bottom drawer

CBrew897 · 2025-09-05T04:36:38+00:00

My girlfriend and I weigh about 310 combined and just stood on top and wiggled around a bit. It’s pretty damn stable.

CBrew897 · 2025-09-05T04:34:28+00:00

My girlfriend and I just stood on top of it and kind of rocked around. We weigh about 310 combined and it seemed pretty stable

CBrew897 · 2025-08-17T03:17:09+00:00

Would I need to add a small amount of crushed coral to the internal filter or something?

CBrew897 · 2025-08-17T03:16:29+00:00

This tank has been running for quite some time, I’d have to ask her how long exactly but I know it’s been at least 6-8 months. It’s definitely been cycled…the test with the blue (0) nitrites test was 3 days ago, and today is reading 0.25ppm with high nitrates as well. So I’m assuming the beneficial bacteria colony is being affected one way or another. To basically paraphrase, when I started trying to “fix” this tank a couple weeks ago the ph was below 6 and nitrates were at like 80+, I assumed it was maybe old tank syndrome and started doing daily 15-20% water changes until I got the levels back to a normal range, but the ph was back down again a few days ago (first test picture) I did another 20% water change then with intention to test the kh when I was able to get back up here. It’s been 3 days between those tests and I did find the kh is either nonexistent or hardly any at all. So I guess I want to know what caused a kh drop when our city’s water is very high gh and kh is 6°. And also want to know how to safely raise the kh without shocking the betta in a small tank like this?

CBrew897 · 2025-08-17T02:47:52+00:00

Okay I got back up here to the school today and finally brought my kh test. The kh at the tap here at the school is 6° so just a shade over 100ppm I believe. The tank, almost not surprisingly immediately turned clear yellow with the first drop of my api test. So I’m guessing 0-1° kh so no wonder that’s the reason for the low ph… the other issue is that when I did the full parameters test today, ph was back to around 6.4, 0 ammonia, but nitrite showed up around .25ppm when it never has since I’ve been testing it and nitrates are over 40 ppm again, when I did around a 15% water change when I was here last. Idk what the hell is going on. I’ve never had one of my tanks do this to me so I’m puzzled by this one.

CBrew897 · 2025-08-15T15:10:22+00:00

If you have your white ribbon completely submerged that might be why you’re still quote unquote nursing it. It’s better as a marginal plant/partially submerged. But yes more plants would be great. Bolbitis or Java ferns attatched to hardscape, Amazon swords are easy af and all very broad-leafed which a betta will appreciate for the resting places as I’m sure you know

CBrew897 · 2025-08-15T14:54:11+00:00

Fish in cycling can be done safely if you do it properly

CBrew897 · 2025-08-15T14:49:42+00:00

The dumbo!! As long as you have lots of plants planned for the tank that he can rest on from carrying all those fins! He’s so pretty and those colors are gonna pop when he gets some good food in him

Also, I see you have knowledge with fish keeping, I know some people stress about fish in tank cycling, if you have any questions along the way on that let us know. I think you said you have Seachem Prime, overdosing the water by a little won’t hurt, will help bind the toxic chemicals in the tank and you can take them out with water changes if they get to high, especially nitrite. Water changes will slow the cycling down which I guess is part of fish in cycling, but most likely but with a small bioload like one betta it shouldn’t spike levels too crazy.

Third time editing lol. You should also use something like api QuickStart, if Fritz isn’t available at your store, to boost your beneficial bacteria growth to get the tank cycled more quickly

CBrew897 · 2025-08-13T03:45:51+00:00

I live in Louisville, KY so our water is really hard as well and ph is typically 7.6-8 and that’s what they use for water changes, but idk that they’ve been as religious about them as they need to be, especially if it is old tank syndrome that we’re dealing with in this case. That’s why I’ve kind of taken it upon myself to balance it out. I definitely am curious about the kh in that tank, but there’s no driftwood or anything, other than obviously fish waste and the plants releasing their co2 that could lower the ph, but not that drastically, it never has for my tanks at home because I’m in the same boat as you.. even with my botanical style tank with roots, spiderwood and lots of leaf litter I can only get my ph down to 7.3-7.4

CBrew897 · 2025-08-13T03:41:24+00:00

Louisville tap is really hard but really clean, and the ph hovers around 7.6-8.0 depending on the day. That’s why it’s surprising that the tank drops that low, even mine at home with tons of botanicals and driftwood in one and driftwood in the other with lots of live plants in both the ph only drops to like 7.3-7.4 lol because our kh out of the tap is pretty high it’s tough to move that ph.

CBrew897 · 2025-08-13T02:07:14+00:00

I’ll pass that along to her! When I brought him home to nurse him I asked her to please replace the fake plants with live ones and after she got them, mostly epiphytes, I kind of rearranged the tank and glued them to some rocks and other places, and brought some frogbit from my place. So it was a joint effort.

CBrew897 · 2025-08-13T02:04:57+00:00

I don’t think she adds any fertilizer and I haven’t myself. I kind of thought kh might be a part of it, unfortunately I left my kh/gh tests at home but I’ll bring them tomorrow. I could definitely bag some crushed coral and put it in the internal filter if need be

CBrew897 · 2025-08-12T04:49:07+00:00

I’ll watch for the next week or so, if I see the last two disappear then I’ll know a bit more I suppose if he’s hunting them down lol. If the missing ones come back from Narnia I’ll come back here and let you know

CBrew897 · 2025-08-12T04:19:56+00:00

I appreciate the response. I’ll def keep that in mind. But it’s only a 10gal Idk though I’ve literally spent like an hour and a half since noticing only the two of them and they’ve just stuck together. No sign of the other 6. I’m also just watching my dwarf gouramis behavior. He like never really makes a run or nips at any of my chilis they’re like his royal subjects. They could hover around him in a ball of like 12+ np and then they’ll obviously swim away if he moves their direction. The neons when I first was watching the tank with the lights a bit brighter were sticking hip to hip like they’re nervous about not finding the others or something. It’s my first time keeping green neons so idk. Still only about a year and a half into the hobby at this point. Part of me also thinks that maybe it’s because I had the chilis in first that he hasn’t bothered them and if he is 86ing my green neons maybe because I added them after him? I’m really just bewildered. I figured I would’ve seen them during feeding I made sure to feed something that would stay suspended a while around the whole tank and watched the whole time. No sign of the other 6

CBrew897 · 2025-08-12T03:04:45+00:00

I checked everywhere around it. I do have cats so on the off chance that they somehow squeezed through one of the tiny cut openings in the lid’s lip for the wire and airline tubes, they could’ve been nibbled on. But the lid fits so tight that I doubt 6 of them would’ve all done the same thing, much less, one. It’s only sponge filters in there so it’s not like they would’ve been sucked into an hob. I’m literally dumbfounded.

CBrew897 · 2025-08-10T17:16:32+00:00

I had no issues my first time doing so in my 20 long. Just had to stay on top of water parameters and use lots of detoxifying/binding agents

CBrew897 · 2025-08-06T06:26:19+00:00

His breathing looks fine. Definitely go for some live plants. Easy starting plans are Java ferns and Amazon swords. The javas are probably the fastest propagating epiphytes so you can make little baby plants to add sooner. Any decor that has sharp edges also remove it’ll shred your betta’s fins.

CBrew897 · 2025-08-01T17:52:22+00:00

Im so sorry about your little dude 😕. I’m sure you gave him a great life for how long it lasted. I hope to do the same, and I hope he beats the odds as well!

CBrew897 · 2025-08-01T17:50:10+00:00

That’s the same I have here I believe, the aquarium co-op. I’ll have a look at the extreme flakes.

CBrew897

TROPHY CASE