Think Fish Keepers Daily News [year 2020]

Ammonia and nitrite zero this morning and the loaches are busy swimming up and down the back of the tank.

And one of the pieces of wood I bought yesterday has already sunk  But the other piece and the one I bought a couple of weeks ago are still floating.

I must admit I love my ember tetras for the same reason - they seem to fill out the tank somehow the smaller fish don’t they?  Sorry about the loss of Greenie @fcmf

I lean towards active tanks, and I find it very noticeable when a tank is calmer than I've come to expect. I can image that the loss of Wee Greenie and the rasboras have been quite a blow. 

Congratulations on your new kuhli loaches @Sue
I think they are great fish and have lovely faces. 

 
I gather they can be quite speedy little blighters.
I guess their net evasion techniques are quite advanced too.

I remember when I got my Khulis that the shop staff were all trying to palm off catching them onto each other and they did indeed look a nightmare to catch - I remember the guy that eventually got he job being quite violent in his technique!!

The third piece of wood finally sank. At last. So today has been water change and sort the decor out day.

Instead of lots of little bits of wood, there are now 3 large pieces and 3 medium pieces.


A few weeks ago I put Amazon frogbit on the surface and started removing the water sprite (sold as Ceratopteris cornuta). It was getting very tangled and messy, and I've just taken the last pieces out as the frogbit now covers the surface.

Large wood #1 is cylindrical with a sort of knob on one end. At the knobby end is now a large anubias (I have forgotten the name  ) and at the other is a small species of anubias I've had for years.
Large wood #2 is also roughly cylindrical, and one end is hollow. This has 3 species of bucephalandra attached - crisped leaves, wavy leaf and Catherine.
Large piece #3 is flattish and has bolbitis on one end and java fern windelov on the other.

Medium piece #1 has 3 stems of bucephalandra Maia; these have been on this wood a few years.
Medium piece #2 has java fern narrow leaf
Medium piece #3 is standing on its end in the corner with moss attached.

Planted in the sand I now have:
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'. This arrived in the post yesterday and I am aware it will most likely melt.
A small bit of Schismatoglottis prietoi (the rest is in the shrimp tank)
A couple of pieces of Ceratopteris thalicroides 'fein'.


The plants on the new wood are tried on with thread and look a bit flattened. Once they've attached themselves and i can remove the thread, I'll take some photos. I'm not sure if I've overdone the wood. It looks a lot different from when there were lots of bits of wood in there, but the kuhli loaches will probably love it.

I'm sorry to hear about your betta. They do not seem very hardy these days. I too have a shrimp tank instead of a betta tank. It's actually more interesting than it sounds.



My tanks have evolved rather than being planned. I started off with a 60 litre tank and plastic plants. Then a 60 litre and a 25 litre with plastic plants. Then a 125 litre, 60 litre and 25 litre with plastic and silk plants.
Every live plant I tried died. So I gave up.

Then I got some java fern and attached it to some plastic decor. It survived and grew!!

The 125 litre was upgraded to 180; the 60 litre developed a leak and was replaced by a 54 litre (which was eventually closed down). Gradually, the plastic decor was replaced by bits of wood about the same size as those plastic logs and twisted root ornaments, with more and more live plants attached. So I ended up with lots of bits of wood with plants attached. And the 180 litre looked bitty.

I gave up on the azalea root as it still felt slimey and the water it was soaking in was still cloudy. But the three pieces of 'mangrove' are fine, now they've sunk.
And I am actually experimenting with plants growing in the substrate. The crypt I bought is supposed to be 'easy' and can grow in low light, so we'll see if I manage to kill that as I used to.

Great to read your updates, Sue, and very much looking forward to seeing the photos.

Aw - what very sad news about Gretta, Matt, but possibly of some comfort that she had a quality life and lived and ultimately passed away peacefully/naturally without any medication dilemma / potentially aggressive intervention required.
On the topic of quality of bettas, I was just reminded recently that they can succumb to dwarf gourami iridovirus (https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/fishkeeping-masterclass/week-4-disease-management/practical-fishkeeping-diploma-week-4-day-2/) - I don't know whether that might account for any of Sue's or anyone else's bettas' demises?

I've removed all the stones from my tank, with the exception of the pieces of Tufa rock, so that Mr Snail's numerous episodes of lying upside down on the tank floor don't result in further cracking of his shell. I have an inkling, judging from his locations, that a few of his plunges have resulted from attempting to walk on the Amazonian frogbit which is contained in a fish-feeding ring and misjudging their ability to support his weight.  
This week, I put some pea in the tank which I hadn't done as regularly as I ought to have - Wee Harley is the only fish excited by it (the harlies and the x-rays loved it) but I decided to leave what fell on the tank floor overnight. Good news - the cardinals and snails must have had an overnight feast as it was all gone by the morning rather than morsels developing a fungus, and the snails had left their appreciation by virtue of white snail eggs all along the back wall of the tank which often follows a feast.

I've found a few Australian papers which refer to DGIV as a strain of infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV), and, in turn, this https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa182 does include betta on the list from this original source https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10610777_The_Pathology_of_Systemic_Iridoviral_Disease_in_Fish  In other words, although I can't access the full text, it might be that bettas may be susceptible to a/some viral infection(s) which affect the spleen and kidneys - unfortunately untreatable.

some comfort that she had a quality life and lived and ultimately passed away peacefully/naturally without any medication dilemma / potentially aggressive intervention required.

Very true indeed - I’m going to have to move some more shrimp over into the tank - the absence of Gretta is too striking at the moment and the tank needs some more life in it... I’m going to remind myself of DG iridovirus now and see if anything matches... Edited to add - apart from loss of appetite nothing matches fortunately/unfortunately (depending on perspective  )