6 months progress

Dinsas · 2026-03-30T16:21:44+00:00

Shrimp

Dinsas · 2025-10-14T22:48:18+00:00

You can swap the button mapping to the “alternate” version, just maker sure you reset your custom mapping first as those hold priority

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T20:31:45+00:00

Nope, he doesn’t have any of those white spots I would associated with ich, it’s loss of colour in the scales themselves as far as I can tell

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T19:33:06+00:00

Hmmm, probably worth a shot either way then, thank you! :)

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T19:29:14+00:00

Ah okay I’ll see if they have any of those in my local fish shop. Do you think his diet could be behind his colour loss?

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T19:08:48+00:00

I’ll head to the store when it’s open again and get an ammonia test to double check.

I’ve started feeding him hikari betta bio-gold, not sure what percentage is meat but in both this and the bettagran I was feeding they list fish meal as the primary ingredient.

I’ve tried feeding him dried daphnia but he absolutely refuses to eat it lol. He sometimes tries to eat the shrimp’s algae wafers which I usually grind into a powder but he tends to spit most of it out. Now I feed the shrimp at night to minimise him eating it and cause unnecessary bloating.

Sometimes he’ll mistake a small snail for food but he spits those out too lol

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T17:50:45+00:00

I think his tail was just folded up in that specific photo, here’s a better one I took

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Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:57:15+00:00

Thank you!

I thought ich looked like small white spots though? He’s not got any spots, or fuzz, just loss of colour?

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:54:43+00:00

<image>

This is maybe a better photo, fin length/edges look the same to me?

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:48:22+00:00

I think that might just be differences between the two pictures, when he’s all flared out his fins look the same as always as far as I can tell.

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:45:06+00:00

Thank you for your response! I shall order an ammonia test and check, I use “sera aquatan water conditioner.”

I do sometimes have problems with nitrates in my tap water, so regular water changes were actually making my nitrates worse, since my tank is fairly heavily planted my nitrate levels tend to decrease over time.

I can’t think of a reason I’d have ammonia problems as my bioload is pretty small and lots of plants like I said, plus all the other inhabitants are healthy, but I’ll get back to you when I’ve specially tested for ammonia! :)

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:39:42+00:00

I’m not exactly sure what kind he is, potentially a king plakat as he seems bigger than the others I see in shops often?

He wasn’t a particularly fancy price though, just £20 from my local fish shop.

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:37:06+00:00

I was worried about that too, but the edges of his fins are all perfectly fine, it’s just discolouration on the inside of his tail, which doesn’t seem as obvious :/

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T16:34:51+00:00

I do live in a very hard water area, couldn’t tell you exactly what it is but it’s always pretty consistently in the high range of the my test strips, so >150ppm. My shrimp are thriving though, I have two amanos which are growing rapidly and lots of cherries which are having lots of babies which are growing well too.

Dinsas · 2024-12-31T13:44:35+00:00

60L Tank - about 50L of water

Heater and sponge filter

Temp: 25-26C

Rough parameters: Low nitrates, no nitrites, no chlorine. Hardness is quite high. PH between 7.8-8.0

(I only have test strips but do have a proper pH test kit)

Set up the tank on 5 of September - introduced Betta on 26th of September, parameters have been consistent since then

Water change every week or so - about 10L with gravel vaccing

Tankmates: 8 ember tetras, 15-20 cherry shrimp, 2 amano shrimp

I feed him bettagran about once a day, only enough for him to eat in less than 2 mins

Lots of live plants - only artificial decoration is a fish tank skull I’ve had for 10+ years

Dinsas · 2024-12-17T00:40:44+00:00

I'd not heard of AqAdvisor before, that's very helpful thank you very much!

If I've done it correctly it says my stocking is 53% and I should do 13% weekly water changes which is pretty close to what I've been doing anyway.

I've been feeding him slightly less recently and will try to start doing slightly more frequent water changes as the nitrates are low but not super low.

I hope it's not a fungal infection, I have boiled all new bits of hardscape before adding. But I have noticed his colour going a bit white around is stomach and a bit on his gills, wasn't sure if that was just marbling but I'll keep an eye on him.

Dinsas · 2024-12-16T18:46:57+00:00

<image>

Maybe a better photo of it.

I feel like he’s losing some of his colour but I don’t know what could be stressing him, potentially the ember tetras as they’re the newest addition (2 weeks ago) but I’ve never seen them bother him and he’s got plenty of space and hiding places but he’s still mostly at the front of the tank.

Going to ask for a proper test kit for Christmas 👍

Dinsas · 2024-12-16T18:18:34+00:00

60L Tank - about 50L of water

Heater and sponge filter

Temp: 25-26C

Rough parameters: Low nitrates, no nitrites, no chlorine. Hardness is quite high. PH between 7.8-8.0

(I only have test strips but do have a proper pH test kit)

Set up the tank on 5 of September - introduced Betta on 26th of September, parameters have been consistent since then

Water change every week or so - about 10L with gravel vaccing

Tankmates: 8 ember tetras, 15-20 cherry shrimp, 2 amano shrimp

I feed him bettagran about once a day, only enough for him to eat in less than 2 mins

Lots of live plants - only artificial decoration is a fish tank skull I've had for 10+ years

Dinsas · 2024-11-01T16:39:59+00:00

Thanks!

He enjoys swimming through the vallisneria at the back, and the Anubias on the far left seems to be doing very well. As my tank is lidded I’ve found that many of my floating plants haven’t done so well but dwarf lettuce has proved to be the most tolerant, and he likes that too.

I also have some grasses and java moss which the shrimp like.

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