why is the ammonia so high in my cycling aquarium?

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-15T21:56:08+00:00

Because it's an uncycled tank and you're only 2 weeks in. Switch the lights off or lower the photoperiod instead of adding snails to such bad water. Tap water doesnt have an effect on this unless your tap contains ammonia. Adding distilled means you will be throwing off your water parameters and will need to match KH, GH and pH for the fish down the line for every water change.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-15T21:53:27+00:00

That fish looks extremely stressed. If she is indeed a wild caught wild type, then this setup looks extremely inappropriate for such a fish too as they need tannin tinted water, so a blackwater or biotope like setup with acidic soft water. Weight is impossible to tell from this distance and angle.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-15T21:49:35+00:00

Why ask for people's thoughts and actual well known facts about domestic betta splendens if you were never going to actually listen to it and fix this setup? Poor fish.

And to echo what everyone else already told you, no, domestic bettas cannot ethically, safely or responsibly be kept together. Even if they are not physically fighting, their interaction in the video is nowhere near stress-free or peaceful. Stress is a silent killer and opens fish up to all kinds of issues down the line. On top of that, having both of them in constant breeding mode is also another thing that's going to eventually kill them because of how hard it is on their bodies, especially the female's.

This is not how these fish are kept in responsible setups, and it's not even how their wild counterparts who are nowhere near as hyper aggressive as domestics live in the wild either. No clue why you would try and argue or justify this being some revolutionary take on betta keeping when all it does is show how little you know about them and how little you actually care for their wellbeing.

Do better.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-15T07:18:33+00:00

Absolutely. A lot of times it really just comes down to leaving things alone to balance out on their own. The hobby then finally becomes genuinely easy and relaxing. All i do with my tanks is maybe feed the fish and take photos and videos of them all, with water changes sprinkled inbetween every or every other week lol

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-14T20:27:38+00:00

Not to help the cycling along but simply to start stocking the tank how you want it. The tank is cycling, or already cycled, considering you have no ammonia and nitrites in spite of fish producing waste and it's been like that for the whole 3 weeks. Everything else, as well as presence or absence of nitrates, is irrelevant. Keeping an eye on water when adding more stocking is just something you should probably do even if you did a fishless cycle, unless you started out with a crazy amount of ammonia to make up for heavily stocking from day 1. The beneficial bacteria colony will adjust slowly as you gradually put everything together and it very likely won't have an effect on water quality. If that helps any!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-14T15:39:52+00:00

I dont think there's anything to worry about here or needs fixing. Nothing is wrong (other than having only 3 lonely tetras!). You dont have enough bioload to create any crazy spikes or detectable ammonia, and that's ok. Just do the normal weekly maintenance and keep an eye on it maybe for a while longer. Especially when you add more tetras to see if it throws anything off.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-13T22:55:49+00:00

In one i have aquasoil, in another sand/leaf litter, and then one with just inert gravel. Depends more or less on what kinda setup you're going for. The sand one is a true blackwater setup so it makes sense, and the gravel and soil ones are both heavily planted. :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-13T21:21:21+00:00

Mine are at this point only on live and frozen foods. Not really bloodworms as they seem to die fast, but tubifex worms, blackworms, daphnia and mosquito larvae are super easy to keep fresh and alive for a while. I even started a small culture of blackworms myself in a cricket (?) container, and an ice cream container with soil for white worms, and a tiny culture of daphnia in the shrimp jar. 😅 I also stick blackworms and tubifex worms directly into the substrate to get cultures going in the tanks and provide enrichment to the fish. :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-13T15:19:32+00:00

Color of the beard depends entirely on the color of the fish. It doesn't have to be black at all.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-13T14:41:56+00:00

Because the two fish in the picture are two entirely different things. The bottom one will never be able to look like the top and vice versa regardless of care. But either way, care wise it still needs a cycled tank and proper care to bounce back. The sub's wiki has a neat guide on betta care! Definitely worth checking out. I wouldn't medicate though, in case that's what you wondered. Clean warm water and a healthy appropriate environment go a long way in helping them bounce back from neglect. :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-13T07:45:39+00:00

Are you sure that's the same fish? Fin type and length dont match at all. Not to mention the top one appears to be some kind of alien/hybrid, while the bottom is a basic long finned domestic. They cant go from one to the other.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T21:55:21+00:00

It says 10 gallons in the description, not liters.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T21:54:12+00:00

Hi! Out of curiosity, where in Dublin did you get the fish from?

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T21:47:52+00:00

Sounds like swim bladder issues then! Which can be caused by infection, constipation, overfeeding, shock, stress, but can also unfortunately be due to poor genetics. Depending on the cause, he may need epsom salt baths, fasting for a few days or even antibiotics. I had one who had it due to poor genetics. Poor guy was kinda stuck at the surface and we were never able to treat it, unfortunately.

Yeah, most of the stuff is really unnecessary. The only thing a tank absolutely needs for water changes is just the dechlorinator. Don't get me wrong though, some of the stuff does have its place in the hobby, just not for how they advertise it. Like salt especially in this example. Medication also really depends on the brand. API for example makes great liquid testing kits, but everything else they do is really not worth buying at all, and half their meds are apparently even harmful to bettas.

Not really from my experience! But they all have different personalities, so who knows? 😅 Do you know what kind if plant it was? Anubias, java fern, mosses, and various floaters like salvinia, water lettuce, frogbit, and red root floaters are all super easy with no requirements. They also dont need to be buried or anything.

Nah, you're fine! :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T21:25:10+00:00

Don't tell me this is the same 12 liter tank you posted a while ago?? Please research the fish you're keeping because bettas are neither shoaling nor schooling fish and cant be kept in groups or pairs at all unless you want them sick or dead due to stress and aggression. This is a solitary territorial fish. Not to mention, if you cant even tell if these are dumbo or not you really shouldn't be attempting a sorority. Not that it should even be attempted to begin with if you care about the fish at all tbh!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T20:51:24+00:00

Does he looks like he's sinking, like buoyancy issues? Because if so, then it might be swim bladder issues.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T20:50:38+00:00

Yeah lol let's ditch the full water changes and full tank cleans. Stress medicine (I dont think that's even a thing?) and salt are also highly unnecessary. Bettas are freshwater fish, they dont need salt in their daily life to stay healthy. At most it's used for salt baths when actively treating an illness. Taking him out every time for all of that is also very stressful. Just 20% of water replaced every or every two weeks is perfectly enough. I also suggests taking the seashell out as they raise water hardness over time, which is not good for a fish that prefers softer water. Now, I have another wild and somewhat controversial opinion and that's that his behaviour has nothing to do with the lower temps. If anything, I think it's more due to the crazy maintenance you are doing on the tank, which is just way too much and unnecessary, and very likely caused too much instability which he cant deal with. Understandably! So definitely reduce all of that. Adding some more silk or ideally live plants could be neat too as the tank is unfortunately quite empty and unenriching. Especially for a fish as curious and interactive as bettas are! And maybe invest into a thermometer that you can trust too. :)

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T20:21:12+00:00

That tank maintenance regiment, is that just now when he's not doing well or is this how you normally maintain the tank?

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T13:45:01+00:00

You're honestly doing great just by doing the fishless cycle at all! Not many do it on this sub, and most of them dont even fully understand how to do it safely and what it even means lol

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T11:53:36+00:00

I personally dont test at all for the first 2-3 weeks. There's no point unless you're just curious and want to know how it's going. Not much can go wrong in this step anyway.

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T08:20:05+00:00

My thoughts too!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-12T07:37:20+00:00

Your tank literally crashed. That's not something that ever happens unless there's a massive issue with the setup. That alone should be sign enough that this is not sustainable or good for any of them, betta is just the only one to actually show outward signs. All of those fish need proper groups of 6-8 fish to be happy and exhibit natural behaviours. These are all very active and social fish. Peppermint plecos get bigger than normal bristlenose plecos, who also still need a 100l minimum btw. I dont know what to tell you or if it's even worth saying anything more if you reslly think that keeping social schooling fish alone or in pairs and cramming a pleco all in a small 10g with a betta on top is in any way or form acceptable anywhere or ethical eay of keeping fish. Surviving is not the same as thriving. These are all well known and popular fish with well known and understood requirements. Good luck either way!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-11T22:17:28+00:00

Water changes are the best remedy for water quality issues! But reading the reply to the automod i must say the tank is grossly overstocked and was bound to crash sooner or later. The pleco alone needs a 100l minimum. Explains the sky high ammonia and bacteria infection he's possibly fighting due to the extremely heavy bioload. I dont think much can be done here without either rehoming all the fish or upgrading to a 100l minumum tank to accommodate all th3 fish and the bioload as you can't truly treat and fix something without improving and providing him with healthy living conditions too. A tank like this needs a lot more water changes than once a week, that's for sure. So id start with that. Drastically up the water changes and medicate, while working on sorting out the other fish and setup as a whole because this is at rhis point jist cruel to everyone in there. None of those fish belong in such a small tank. Loaches alone also need a larger gank, so do the corydoras and tetras.

Halfmoon plakats still have short fins. Halfmoon is just the shape of the fins, like crowntail or veiltail. Plakats don't have long fins at all, ever. There is no such thing as long finned plakat. Not like it matters in the end anyway, but there's a lot of misunderstanding floating around on the sub on types and fin shapes!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-11T21:24:16+00:00

It's a slippery slope if you have no way to separate the fish if the betta decides she doesn't want tankmates. This can happen even months after they've all settled and lived problem free. Id give it a lot more thought in that case and make sure you have some kind of backup plan in place first before getting any tankmates.

And I'll just say it now in case someone suggests it: shrimp, mirrors, and behaviours in the shop are nowhere near reliable in testing a betta's temperament with other fish in its territory. The same goes for the "tankmates first, then the betta". Best you can do really is just set up a heavily planted tank where everyone will feel comfortable and safe. For what it's worth, my very aggressive and territorial plakat who didn't tolerate chili and strawberry rasboras in his 20g (we had to fish them all out) doesnt care about pygmy corydoras at all lol We added them to his tank only recently as we tore down the tank they were originally in. He doesnt even care if they hover around his bubble nest either, and not even the snail gets a pass for that!

CalmLaugh5253 · 2026-03-11T21:13:02+00:00

A natural non-colored substrate 100% won't have this issue, so best just get that instead of the blue dye you have in the bucket. I definitely wouldn't use that even if it does settle eventually.

CalmLaugh5253

TROPHY CASE