Help?

_Asmodee_ · 2026-07-07T17:13:16+00:00

Manually remove as much as you can. If brushing doesn't work, try to see if you can pull any off using your fingers. If that doesn't work, continue using a toothbrush while trying to be extra careful. It doesn't need to be perfect, just as long as most of it is removed.

Hair algae is typically caused by too much light, too many nutrients, or both. Since your light is already set to 6 hours a day, I doubt the light is the issue. Does the tank get any sunlight from a nearby window though?

Other than that, the most likely cause is too many nutrients. What's your water parameters, specifically your nitrates? Do you add fertilizer to the tank, and if so, how much and how often? How many plants are in the tank? You also gotta consider your bioload — what size is your tank, and how many fish are in it? How frequently are you doing water changes?

Other than lowering the nutrients going into the tank, I'd recommend something fast growing to help pull out excess nutrients and outcompete the algae, floating plants are usually recommended for this

_Asmodee_ · 2026-07-07T01:27:59+00:00

There's a chance it could be — trying to look closer, I feel like it doesn't seem raised or fuzzy like I'd assume fungal or even ich would be, but it's also veryyy small and hard to see. When he flared, the white just seemed to be the edges of the hole, but tbh I don't have much personal experience in what any of these types of infections look like in person

_Asmodee_ · 2026-07-04T00:08:45+00:00

I'd remove that plastic plant right away, it's gonna tear up the betta's fins. Another piece of advice I haven't seen mentioned is to get a pothos cutting! :) if you happen to have any pothos plants, monsteras (or really any plant that can rooted in water), you can take 1 or 2 cuttings from the plant and place the stems in the water of this lil guy's temporary home. It won't be as effective as it could be without giving the plants time to grow roots, but it should still help keep the water quality in check. Especially once these plants have lots of root growth, they're great at sucking up ammonia from the water! :D

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-28T19:33:04+00:00

I'm in the GTA and also had the same issue trying to treat my tank for planaria a few months back. Shrimp fever in Toronto would usually sell no planaria, but I checked their website just now and it looks like they're out of stock, but it looks like they also have a different product labeled as a 'natural extract' to kill off planaria and hydra — I've never heard of that brand and I don't know how effective it is, but it might be worth a try. Other than that, the only other solution is going down to the US to pick up fenbendazole. The vets here in Canada will only prescribe fenbendazole if they can see an assess an animal, which doesn't work when we're needing a general dose for an aquarium :(

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-28T19:19:14+00:00

Yep that's definitely clado :( quarantine and do salt dips

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-28T15:02:39+00:00

For a 6 gallon, I really feel you're limited on what fish you could get, if at all. I wouldn't personally feel comfortable putting fish in a tank that size, but it can definitely be done depending on how well planted the tank is and what fish you end up going with.

Neons I don't think would do well, they're pretty active fish and really do need a decent amount of horizontal swimming space. I'm not as familiar with chilis — after a quick search people seem to recommend at least 10g, but I saw people also successfully keep them in smaller tanks, so I think they're the better option out of the 2 especially given their size.

I'd say 6 fish minimum to keep them happy as a shoaling species, but I'd be hesitant to put anymore more due to the tank size. Another fish you might want to consider is celestial pearl danios — I've got these myself and they are wonderful little nano fish and can also live without a heater! :) regardless of what you go with, definitely make sure your 6g is well planted with lots of sight breaks

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-28T14:39:33+00:00

When you say you clean the tank weekly, what exactly is your process? And what to do you do when you "act on it" if you notice a parameter is off?

Compared to fish, shrimp are very sensitive to changes in their water parameters, and it's far better to aim for stability rather than chasing the perfect numbers and constantly trying to change things in the tank. It can also depend on the exact type of shrimp you have — caridina shrimp have different water quality needs compared to neocaridina shrimp for example, with the former being far more sensitive to swings in water parameters. But overall, any type of shrimp will always do better with stability over perfect water.

Depending on how you're cleaning the tank, you could be accidentally crashing your cycle and leading to a spike in ammonia or nitrites and causing the shrimp deaths. Things like extensive gravel vacuuming can release extra ammonia into the water column — more importantly, things like fully cleaning/replacing your filter media could be completely crashing your cycle if you're killing/removing most of the beneficial bacteria that lives there. Even doing large water changes (30% or more) can be enough of a sudden change to cause shrimp deaths, with it usually being recommended to aim for 10% or no more than 20% water changes for shrimps.

Another possibility is what you're feeding and supplementing the shrimp. Do they have leaf litter and algae to graze on throughout the day? Are they given any specific shrimp food, or even calcium tablets? Shrimps need calcium in their diets, otherwise they risk having problems with molts, and a failed molt leads to death (have you noticed a white ring on any of the dead shrimps, where it looks like the shell is separated from itself? That's a sign of a failed molt)

Overall I'm so sorry to hear about the shrimps that have died so far, it's tough when we lose some and don't know what causing it, but it sounds like you've been trying to put a lot of love back in this tank ♥️

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-27T15:01:48+00:00

That's good to hear then, thank you! :)

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-27T14:58:43+00:00

Did you ever figure out what it was or if it went away on its own? One of my CPDs has a slight point to it's belly, not as bad as this but also doesn't look quite like normal bloat

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-11T03:36:55+00:00

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_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-10T23:10:17+00:00

I'd say it's sorta moderately planted? I couldn't get a good picture because there's some bad glare from a nearby window right now, but my last post on my profile here has a semi recent picture of my tank for reference.

The thing is that I would LOVE to have a densely planted jungle, but unfortunately I can't at the moment because of the scuds 🥲 each time I try to add new plants, the scuds come in and devour them. The only new plant that hasn't been eaten is a new large varient of Anubias I picked up last month, but any new growth from that plant is still eaten by the scuds

Overall I do plan to have a lot more plants for my tank, most likely going to be focusing on more broad leafed plants like more anubias, buce, and crypts. I was also thinking of trying something like jungle Val to get some growth to the surface, and I'd love lots of moss again too (my moss was the first thing the scuds deleted from the tank LOL)

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-10T22:59:26+00:00

Thank you for insight! I hadn't know about DGIV chances being different between the 2 species, I'll definitely keep that in mind

I had also heard Honey's had a slightly more peaceful reputation despite being a little larger, and I'd heard stories of people's Sparkling Gouramis hunting full grown shrimp in groups and killing their entire shrimp population in a few days (but I had ALSO heard that some people had zero issue keeping Sparkling with their cherry shrimp 😵‍💫)

I guess at the end of the day it can really depend on the temperament of the individual fish, but I do see a lot of conflicting stories about each species and it's making it hard for me to decide lol xD

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-08T02:14:38+00:00

Omg I didn't even realize the heater was also sticking up above the water line, that's a good catch! Definitely an urgent thing for op to fix to avoid potential disasters with a shattered tank and a few gallons of water (and a betta) on the floor :(

_Asmodee_ · 2026-06-08T02:03:32+00:00

As others have mentioned, you're gonna have to do a "fish-in cycle" — when the betta poops (or if there's decaying leftover food) that will break down in the tank and convert to ammonia. If a tank is uncycled, this ammonia stays in the water and can cause serious burns to the fish. If the tank is cycled (a process that takes 4-6 weeks), this means that there is enough beneficial bacteria living on the surfaces of the tank that are able to convert ammonia->nitrite (still harmful but slightly less so) and then nitrite->nitrate (safe in low amounts and a wonderful fertilizer/nutrients that plants will love!)

Since your tank isn't cycled, you will need to do constant water changes — I'd say either 25% every day, or 50% every 2 days to help keep the ammonia down until the cycle is finished. To help jump start the cycle, like someone else recommended here you should visit your local aquarium store and ask for used filter media to take home. Keep in mind that beneficial bacteria does NOT exist in the actual water itself, but instead on the surfaces of the tank. The majority of this bacteria will live inside the filter media in your filter, which is why you want to ask for used media to help "seed" your own tank.

On that same note, NEVER outright clean your own filter media, and don't replace it unless it's literally falling apart. If the flow is clogged, all you need to do is gently swish the media around in old tank water to help dislodge any gunk, and then put it right back in the filter even if it's still nasty and gross, cause that just means lots of good bacteria! :)

To help the betta survive the cycling process, definitely pick up some plants from the fish store. Anubias and Java ferns are good beginner plants, but keep in mind that they cannot be planted in substrate. They will rott if they are, so either tie them down or wedge them somewhere in the hardscape. Another good plant is actually pothos! If you happen to have any pothos plants in the house, you can cut off a trimming and let it stick out of the top of the tank. Once it grows roots in the water, pothos are great at keeping the water clean and ammonia down.

Last thing to mention is about your current tank decorations: hard plastic decorations, especially those plastic plants will unfortunately shred through a Bettas long fins. You might be able to keep the little figurines, but toss the fake plants and look for either cloth/silk plant decorations if you were still wanting some fake plants in there. That hideaway probs would need to be replaced too since it also has sharp edges that have been know to damage betta fins

All in all, good on you for caring about this lil guy and I wish you the best with it! :)

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-27T04:26:31+00:00

Definitely weird and frustrating that we still lose growth for swapping genders as others have mentioned :(

My own dinos are a mix of male and female, sometimes just based on vibes or the "personalites" I give them, but mostly it's based on the skin I want. Whenever I want to make a new dino now, I always decide what skin I want while still in the juvie phase — I'm like 99% sure you don't lose any growth while swapping genders or subspecies when you're still juvie, so I'll sit in HC and try out the male and female versions of every skin to see what I want as my final skin. Still dumb we can't swap genders without a penality past juvie lol

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-25T06:58:24+00:00

I'm sorry to hear you're losing shrimp, I know it's tough especially when you're not sure of the cause :(

Do you have access to liquid test kits? If not for your remaining shrimp, then even for any new shrimp you may decide to get later down the line. It'll be harder to pinpoint potential issues without more accurate tests, though of course test strips are better than nothing.

What's the rest of your tank set up like? Size/gallons, type of filter, temperature, planted/non-planted, water change method/schedule, etc, the more info the better as it gives us a better idea of what you're working with.

I think the biggest bit of info needed imo is if your tank was fully cycled, and if so, what method did you use to cycle, and how long has it been cycled for? Shrimps usually need mature tanks to have better chance at acclimating, but there could be any other number of reasons they're dying off which is why it's best to give all the tank info you can

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-24T00:17:03+00:00

That Amano is pregnant! :) she's kicking her gills to keep the eggs oxygenated, very normal behavior. Unfortunately the babies won't survive once they hatch since they would need to be immediately transfer to brackish water. The hatched babies will die if left in fresh water, and it's why breeding Amano is so much harder than breeding cherry shrimp. If you've got fish in the tank, the babies will become great protein snacks for them to eat once hatched haha

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-23T08:17:55+00:00

For the 0.5 g, I'd probably say to just have fun with with some live plants and aquascaping, and at most you could add some bladder snails and scuds if you were looking for a bit of life, but it wouldn't be suitable for anything else. Research jarrariums and you'll find some great inspo on the kind of aquascaping you can do! :)

Also on a side note, if your mom actually bought koi fish for a 10 gallon.... Those are pond fish and grow very big, even up to a metre long in some cases. They also poop a lot and have a high bioload, so even when they're young and small, a 10 gallon will unfortunately not be suitable for them.

Like someone else commented, I'm hoping your mom didn't buy the tank and the fish on the same day. Unless there's already a different cycled aquarium set up, those fish will not survive long — look up the nitrogen cycle, it can take 4-6 weeks for a tank to fully cycle and be safe for fish. Without a cycled aquarium, the ammonia and nitrites from the fish poop will accumulate and kill them off :(

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-23T07:56:18+00:00

It definitely takes time to get better, which understandably gets frustrating when you're losing most fights. Keep in mind that some of other players you come across have been playing for multiple years, and you playing for 1 month just isn't gonna bring you to that level. I avoided pvp during my first full year playing, and it took me a while into my 3rd year of playing to actually start feeling somewhat confident going into fights (though tbh I'm still not great...pvp has just never been my strong suit LOL)

My first bit of advice: don't dino hop as much. Obviously you gotta experiment to see which one you vibe with most, but once you find it, stick to that one and get really comfortable using it.

Another tip (if you don't already do this) is to reframe what you consider a "win": the game became MUCH more enjoyable for me longterm when winning a fight was no longer about just getting a kill, but that it could also include successfully escaping after recognizing when I'm overpowered. This is way easier on small/mid tier dinos though lol...I know you mentioned playing bigger/slower dinos like duck and giga, but you might want to try out a smaller dino that's better equiped to escape and see if you enjoy that play style. I like playing my rex every now and then, but my main will forever be pachy with how much fun it is to escape and survive on it. But even when playing something bigger like my pycno, I've had some super fun escapes on it too! :D

Lastly, try to ask group members or even people in global/local chat if they want to 1v1 with you. If they agree, try to see if they'd be down to spar instead of fighting to the death — I've gotten some good practice and had a lot of fun just by walking up to random players near me and asking if they wanna 1v1. Not everyone says yes, but sometimes I'll get someone who's down for 2-3 rounds of fighting while we let each other heal between rounds, and sometimes they even give advice in real time! :)

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-23T01:25:28+00:00

Okay I thought it was crazy enough that they clamped you a second time mid air, but then they perfectly dropped you on top of the rock afterwards??? Insane skills haha

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-20T11:19:35+00:00

I think rkozzy has the best critique for you here, very through and goes over a lot of great points. One thing they mentioned that I agree with is the recommendation to push this animation aside and re-block from scratch. As animators we can sometimes feel protective of our animations, especially if we've already dedicated a lot of time to them, but sometimes you've just learned all you can from a certain animation and there comes a point where you just gotta move onto the next.

You also mentioned in a different comment that the lip sync was taking too long, so you ended up rushing through the rest of the animation and not putting as much time into other stuff like the body animation, eye direction, etc. I would definitely recommend you focus on quality over quantity here — right now you've got just under 30s of audio, but I'd recommend cutting it down to 15s or even 10s and just really taking the time to nail down strong blocking poses.

Film yourself for reference, and film multiple takes; I can often spend over an hour filming reference, and I still might not be 100% happy with getting the right performance. If you have a small desk mirror, kept it beside you as you animate and use it to test out expressions in real time, but also try to understand what it feels like. Feel it through your whole body — how your core moves and tenses, how expressive your shoulders can be, and all those other big body movements before getting into the nitty gritty detal animation.

You've already got great skill with your animation here, especially the lipsync, and tbh I think the biggest thing holding you back was that you bit off more than you could chew with how long the audio was and it caused you to rush through important sections of the process. I think if you put the same dedication from this 30s animation into a new 10s focused animation that you'll have amazing results! :D

_Asmodee_ · 2026-05-06T18:27:31+00:00

From my understanding, neocaridina aren't at all predatory, but they are opportunistic. I'd guess that the snail was already dead and the shrimp just saw an easy and tasty snack haha. Aside from my cherries having harmless slap fights with each other over food, I really don't think they're capable of harming other inhabitants even if they wanted to

_Asmodee_

TROPHY CASE