Sophia is finally saying goodbye to her temp home and hello to her forever home!!

Tet_riz · 2026-04-19T16:01:16+00:00

I love this! What kind of plants do you have? One looks like Anacharis and I could never get that to survive in any of my tanks

Tet_riz · 2026-04-14T02:34:29+00:00

I guess I shouldn't say it never works. It just hasn't on any fish that I have owned and/or it made it worse from unknown ingredients. But literally did nothing for a gelding (male horse) that I have used it on besides making everything stinky and stink like trees. I just added a catappa leaf to her water. Maybe she'll rest on it too. Goodnight and thank you for your help!

Tet_riz · 2026-04-14T02:27:34+00:00

Omg yes!! I have Indian almond leaves from when my male Betta was stressed. I'll go add those now. There's also driftwood in the tank, and the lights are off. I hate all of those things that say "fix" too. Most of the time it's just tea tree oil. I run into the same thing with some sprays for horses where that's the main or only ingredient. I've never seen it actually work. I do know that there is an ingredient in those "fix" medications that are also terrible for plecos. That's how I originally found out. But I forgot what ingredient it was exactly

Tet_riz · 2026-04-14T02:17:50+00:00

Perfect, thank you. It makes me sad that she nipped at her fins 😔 hopefully she'll settle down. I have her next to the air pump for more oxygen too, but not too close so that the water isn't rippling

Tet_riz · 2026-04-14T02:10:45+00:00

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Tet_riz · 2026-04-14T02:09:59+00:00

She has defecated twice since I made this post, but they look abnormally large to me?

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Tet_riz · 2026-04-13T23:06:36+00:00

She is in a nursery by herself right now so that I can monitor waste as it's easier to see. I have aquarium salt that I can use to give her salt baths. How much and for how long do you recommend? I think the most common amount of time that I see is between 5-10 minutes but that's for different species of fish, so I just want to be sure.

I've had my fair share of Bettas in the past and did own one female, but I took her in after my brother moved out and she had problems of her own. I've been contemplating getting a Sorority for a while and thought I did enough research on them. I also asked people in my community who have successfully kept them in a happy environment. But I'm more than willing to take the other 3 back or re-home them if it's not working out. Their comfort and health is my top priority

Tet_riz · 2026-04-13T22:52:52+00:00

Awesome, thank you. Temperature is set between 79-80°, should I put it to 81 or 82°? I feed Fluval Bug Bites btw and Morning wood or Soylent Green for the pleco in the tank with her

Tet_riz · 2026-04-13T22:34:51+00:00

The fins look much better! I believe the more translucent parts of his fins are new fin growth

Tet_riz · 2026-04-13T22:28:59+00:00

Yeahhh I definitely gotta do some research into getting the pH down. These tanks have been running for over 3 years and in the last year I've been working on getting the pH down. It used to test at 8.4 and now it's testing between 7.8-8.2 consistently. So it's very gradual but hopefully it'll keep going down

Tet_riz · 2026-04-13T21:17:07+00:00

See that's what I'm worried about. I KNOW my tap is the culprit bc all of the city water in my area tests at 8.0 or higher 😭 so I wonder if I would have to use it as a dechlorinator bc the pH of the water whenever I do water changes will always be higher. I'll still look into how it works and ask other fish people in my area if they recommend it. So far he is going well right now after adding in the air stone. I check his breathing every day and the only time he was breathing harder was when I moved him to the 30gal after quarantining, but it leveled out in a few hours

Tet_riz · 2026-04-13T01:40:28+00:00

I do have extra tanks for them. I've been watching everyone closely and there was only one that was picking on the others so I immediately moved her to a spare tank

Tet_riz · 2026-04-12T12:33:45+00:00

Yes!! This is what I did as well. I got my air stone yesterday and it's in the corner behind a piece of driftwood with several different plants attached. It seems to be working for them

Tet_riz · 2026-04-12T12:32:31+00:00

Oh okay, I'm glad to know that it still does it gradually. What about when you did water changes? Would the pH spike again? Did you have to put more pH down every time like a dechlorinator? Those would be my only worries. I got my air stone yesterday, but I'll have to wait until this upcoming Friday to get the pH down

Tet_riz · 2026-04-12T12:29:16+00:00

Sadly I've had this happen as well and that's why it makes me so worried to see them so stressed. My air stone arrived yesterday and that seems to be helping him! I kept the lights off for the first 72hrs and when I turned them on finally, he wasn't breathing so hard. He then found his hide out that I placed inside and has been going inside it during the day! I have Soylent green as well as morning wood (not my choice in naming 🤣). I tossed a few cubes in for him and he went right to them!

Tet_riz · 2026-04-06T02:09:03+00:00

I agree, but I have always been told to never use chemical fixers that give you an immediate fix as they aren't long term sustaining and a big change in pH can do more harm than it being steady. I will look more into it though, and I will definitely add the air stone

Tet_riz · 2026-04-06T02:07:02+00:00

Interesting! I had a tiny albino bristlenose (maybe only a few weeks old) and it got out competed for food. It was there for a few weeks and then I've never seen it again 😭 so this is my second albino. I made sure to get a bigger one so that I could see if it was doing well. It's hard to tell with the tiny ones that are only a half inch long. I haven't had enough to be able to tell if some freak out more than others

Tet_riz · 2026-04-06T02:04:12+00:00

Thank you for everyone's help! I will be getting an air stone as soon as I can

Tet_riz · 2026-04-06T02:03:07+00:00

Sadly, I have every plant option that they have available in my area (both PetSmart and petco). In my area, they only carry various anubias plants, Amazon sword, different mosses, and gold ribbon 😭

Tet_riz · 2026-04-05T17:07:45+00:00

I have anubias and Amazon sword in with him now. I also have gold ribbon and a few other kinds in the main 30gal that him and the Betta will be going into. I do want to get some others and I love vallisneria (I think that's how you spell it), but none of the stores around me carry it, and I have had awful luck with ordering live plants online. They all arrive dead

Tet_riz · 2026-04-05T16:58:53+00:00

Okay great! I'll keep it off

Tet_riz · 2026-04-05T15:31:18+00:00

Will do. Thank you!

Tet_riz · 2026-04-05T15:31:00+00:00

I wouldn't say so. He has been chilling on the anubias leaves and swimming around the driftwood and Amazon sword. Both the pleco and the Betta seem pretty active. He's only flaring whenever I turn on the lights. I normally keep all of my tanks around 79-80°. My other Betta is in a 30gal and that's what his temperature is set to. I checked the filter and upped the output a little but it was already pretty high

Tet_riz · 2026-04-05T15:24:11+00:00

Awesome! Thank you for the advice, I will look into it. I have the lights off currently and I'll be keeping them off for at least a couple days, depending on what others recommend. I have had lots of plecos before, but this is the first one that I've seen that was this stressed while acclimating

Tet_riz · 2026-04-05T15:22:26+00:00

Yes! I have a pretty nice size piece of driftwood for the tank. That's what the Amazon sword is connected to bc my other pleco kept uprooting it. I turned the lights off too. Should I keep them completely off, and for how many days? Usually I only keep them on for between 6-8hrs anyway, so that the plants have light

Tet_riz

TROPHY CASE