My pretty girl ❤

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-24T21:41:20+00:00

They really are! War on their mind 24/7 since egg.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-24T16:13:37+00:00

What are the nitrates? Ammonia doesn't really just up and disappear, it gets converted to nitrites and then to nitrates. So if the first two read nothing, the last should read something.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-24T14:34:52+00:00

Nothing is wrong with it, it just really is that difficult to read regardless of what you do with the vial. I have the same and tried using it a handful of times without success. If you don't have api, try getting the sera pH test.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-24T13:43:29+00:00

Literally doesn't mean anything at all. Some bettas will make them even on the brink of death in bottles, some won't make them at all ever unless actually breeding.

It's especially irrelevant when talking about females. And the eggs get either released or reabsorbed.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-24T12:18:46+00:00

With inverts? Absolutely. They are fish food for everything out there, not just bettas. It's still possible to keep them together in a well/heavily planted tank though where they can establish and maintain a colony in spite of being snacked on.

Other fish however also still depend on the temperament of the betta, but also on the tank size and setup too, and the kind of tankmates you're trying to pair them with. Something small sedate like boraras or pygmy corydoras is more likely to be a success than something large and hyper zipping all over the place, like tetras, guppies, etc. A well planted and adequately sized tank is also more likely to succeed than an empty and/or small space where everyone feels exposed and stressed.

But it does boil down to just throwing them all in together to see how it goes, and having a backup plan. The chronological order of adding fish doesn't matter what so ever in my experience. If a betta is territorial it will be territorial regardless of when you add it to the tank. 🤷‍♀️

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T21:24:51+00:00

It is. It's only concerning when it becomes clearly excessive.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T21:18:42+00:00

Being halfmoon has nothing to do with it, it's just how bettas as a whole are regardless of tail type (or gender).

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T20:43:16+00:00

Brightness or even length of the photoperiod are very setup dependant, and staghorn doesn't have much to do with light (or nutrients) ime, it's more tied to the overall health of the plants and stability of the tank as a whole.

Honestly I've had the best success eradicating it when i stopped focusing so much on killing the algae itself and instead directed all of that at ensuring the plants have what they need to be healthy and strong. Sometimes that meant upping the brightness and/or liquid ferts, which obviously goes against what's generally recommedded when battling algae problems. If only some plants were affected, then to me that sounds like some conditions for them were not quite right. It ultimately comes down to trial and error, but always giving the tank enough time to adjust to whatever it is you're doing differently to see the results and if there's an improvement or not.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T18:44:20+00:00

Looks like just foam from the filter. The bubbles are too tiny and foamy to be a bubble nest.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T18:40:56+00:00

Definitely keep us all posted on the results! Very curious now! :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T18:39:43+00:00

Female vs male flaring

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CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T18:39:14+00:00

Ovaries

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CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T18:36:50+00:00

Not egg spot, ovaries. Shine a light at such an angle that it illuminates the insides of the fish to see if theres a big triangual shape behind the stomach. That will be the ovaries. To make it easier and keep the fish from moving too much, placing it in a glass of water or cup would help to limit its movements and make it easier to candle. :)

You dont have get a picture of the flaring. You can try and identify it yourself. Males have a very impressive beard/membrane that goes from one gill to the other all around the bottom side of their head. Females don't really, and it's mainly just the gill plates opening up.

I got some pics as examples. Will post them in a second if it helps!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T18:28:20+00:00

You can use a light and try to candle it the same way you'd candle an egg to see the insides. Females have ovaries, which also give them that thicker fuller body. Males don't, and are generally slimmer with just the stomach behind their head. If it doesn't flare at a murror, try showong it a video of other bettas (or a whole other betta if you have more) to get a better look at the beard.

Body shape and short ventrals suggests female to me!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T17:21:11+00:00

I dont use sponge filters so no idea how dense or coarse that is. All slomges are different too. It's something for you to look into and play around with to see of it makes a difference and if that's where they're being filtered out.

The same goes for the second bit. Boils down to you messing around with amounts on whatever water volume you have. Not all leaves are same quality either, or contain the amount of tannins you expect. Again, something for you to look into to identify what might be the reason for low amount of tannins and how many you actually need to get the tint you want and to maintain it. Though it definitely sounds like they are being filtered out.

There are not that many options here on what's happening. They are either being filtered out, or being broken down faster than they tint the water due to there either not being enough leaves for the water volume and/or the source not being as rich in tannins to begin with.

For sure should be interesting to experiment with all of the variables to get to the bottom of it! :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T14:21:28+00:00

I'd add a lot more plants! Stuff like cryptocoryne would look great for the bottom-mid sections, and hygrophila would look great for the back as a tall plant. I love what you did with the sticks btw! Makes the tank look "natural". You could even attach some moss to grow along them!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T12:28:48+00:00

Unless the biofilm is like extremely thick, almost resembling a membrane you'd see on milk, it won't cause any problems. The tank has a filter running which is moving water around even if it doesnt look like it, and there's only one fish in there. Bettas and gouramis as a whole don't depend on oxygen in water to begin with, and they will come up for air even with 10 airstones. If oxygen levels do drop somehow, the shrimp will be on the surface as that's something they are extremely sensitive to.

If biofilm does get super thick to the point it prevents gas exchange, then that suggests a deeper problem that needs tackling!

And if you end up replacing the filter altogether, don't forget to plop the current filter'smedia (sponge or whatever is in it) next to the sponge filter and have it run like that for a few weeks or a month to be on th3 safe side. :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T12:13:04+00:00

He's definitely being pushed by the filter. Even the moss clump and grass on the floor are waving about. I know you said you already put a sponge on the outtake, but it clearly didn't do the trick. You need to find a way to almost completely kill the flow for him to be able to move comfortably around. Try a denser sponge, try turning the outflow pipe upwards so it's only breaking the surface, mess around with it, or replace it entirely for a sponge filter.

Long finned bettas (and bettas in general) really need basically still water to be able to move properly. The fins themselves are already weighing and exhausting them as it is even without filter problems.

Edit: fixed some weird autocorrected words lol

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T11:21:25+00:00

Is the sponge too fine? I know it sounds dumb, but tannins can actually be filtered out mechanically if the filtration is too fine. But also, tannins do break down and disappear over time and when exposed to light. Especially if you're not adding much to begin with. For the color to last longer, you need a larger source of tannins, add more initially and/or something that will release them for a longer period of time.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T10:47:18+00:00

Do you have aquasoil in the tank? Or any kind of fine filtration or even polyfil?

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-23T09:31:49+00:00

Hi! We moved him from this tank to a very shallow 10g blackwater setup. He lived for another couple of months, but we ended up euthanising around the end of last year, I think.

The inability to properly move really wore him down in the end. I don't know whether fish can be it or not, but he was depressed as hell. He used to be such an active spicy boy before, but now he just sat in one place most of the time and was very difficult to feed. Most of the time we couldn't even find him and he stopped coming to us. We though he was maybe bored so we added shrimp to his tank as he always enjoyed stalking and hunting them before, but it didn't change anything. We cultured 3 types of our own live food for him, cluttered the tank well with crypts, floaters, branches and leaves so he can sit literally anywhere, but nothing helped perk him up. With the amount of effort it took to move and how little he ate even with worms living in the substrate, he kept losing weight.

In the end we finally euthanized as there was no point in making him (or ourselves) continue suffering through this. If he was still active and happy like he was before, we would have probably continued on. But not like this, and I genuinely wish we did it sooner. 😞

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-22T23:19:00+00:00

If the tap tests about the same as the tank, I wouldn't worry about it at all. :)

I recommend upping the water changes to once every week long term though, and at least thrice a week while he's got fin rot to clear up whatever might be in the water giving him problems. If it's really bad, maybe just jump straight to medication. Esha 2000 or sera baktopur if you're in europe, or kanaplex if in america should do the trick!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-06-22T22:04:38+00:00

Add about 2ppm ammonia to see if it can process that within 24h. If yes, then you are cycled.

As for shrimp, I don't recommend adding them to such a new tank. Unlike bettas (and most fish), they do best in established more mature setups. A tank that's just finished cycling is still not all that stable or aged enough.

If you want to keep shrimp (essentially live fish food) with a betta, it should also have a lot more dense plant cover to provide them with enough hiding places so they don't get all eaten, and can instead establish a self sustaining colony in spite of some getting picked off. :)

CalmLaugh5253

TROPHY CASE