Bettarazzi

I've been thinking about experimenting with making my own small tanks (smaller than 20 ltrs) and came across this article which I thought was quite informative http://www.austinglass.com.au/aquariums.html. While we're on this topic, does anyone know where to get those plastic strips for the lids. I'm looking for the semi-clear kind like the ones that come with Aqua One tanks.

Make sure you have your video camera on at all times. *lol*

That's brilliant! I can't believe you managed to get so many holes drilled without cracking the glass. Well done.

Well I assume the people who leave the "that's cruel" comments on my YouTube videos of bettas in beanie boxes must be from the Cruelty Kids Club. So they've firing shots at me for ages now. I just roll my eyes and hit delete. I wasn't going to tell anyone about this but in what was probably an ill-advised moment of reckless abandon, I put another four pairs together last night. Must be the same attack of betta fever that saw me bringing in 15 fish instead of just 8. I'm sure they won't all spawn. I'm thinking that putting them together sooner rather than later makes a spawn more likely. But yeah..... growing them out and then jarring them is probably going to be a little bit of an issue. I meant to answer this.... Apart from the beanie box barracks which holds 64, I do have a little stash of hoarded bottles. Not that I really need to hoard bottles. We only drink bottled soda water so there are plenty of 2 litre bottles. We also go through a not insignificant number of 1.5 litre bottles of Schweppes tonic. (Yeah, the 300 ml bottles just don't cut it at our place. ) The plan is to reduce the numbers quite severely before jarring. But you know how it is. When it actually comes time to part with them it's a totally different story.

The Black Orchid DT has spawned with the super black female. She'd dropped some eggs when I went to feed them yesterday morning. It didn't look like a full load so I thought I'd put her with the male. Then immediately regretted it and stressed all day about whether or not to pull her out. But she really didn't like the betta scoop and absolutely hated being netted. Anyway I left them together last night. Had to rush off to work and didn't get a chance to check them. But when I got home this evening there were eggs in the nest. Two other females also dropped their eggs in their tanks today. One of them dutifully blew a bubble nest and spat the eggs in there. Her mother clearly neglected to have that special chat with her. The second one looked quite freaked out and was swimming around with fins clamped. Annoyed about that because she and her male were going to be first of the butterflies that I was going to put together. Her male had a huge bubblenest all ready to go. Maybe I'm taking the teasing thing a bit too far.

Long. Okay..... Very long. The tank had a lid! But it was only a small tank -- 20 cm cube. My excuse is that there was no fish in there and so I didn't have to feed anything. And because I don't feel the need to stare at anubias every day, I never looked at it. Until the other day when I was doing the big clean up for the new fish. Some of the roots had grown into the sponge filter.

I only tried accidentally when I... umm... neglected a tank long enough for it to evaporate below the level of leaves. Some of the leaves dried out and went brown even though the tank was lidded. You might have to occasionally spray the leaves with water.

It doesn't have the thick scales of a dragon and in real life doesn't look especially metallic. When the light hits it at the right angle the colour seems more intense than a regular royal blue. The copper female isn't dragon either. Well I don't think it's thick enough to be called dragon. Her colour seems paler than normal coppers I think that could be the lack or reduction of some of the other colours. Maybe she doesn't have as much red, blue or black and that's affecting the copper. She's a tad larger than the males. Hopefully that won't be too much of a problem. I have basically divided them into a solid group and a butterfly group. I'm going to attempt to get one spawn from each group to start off with. I have a little problem in that I'm going to be away for a week at Christmas and will need my fish looked after. Any fry will need to be past the brine shrimp stage to make them easier to feed. If it's only a matter of chucking some pellets and/or frozen food into the fry tank I could even get my mother to look after them for a week. But she wouldn't do the bbs thing. So what I'm going to do is prepare all of them to spawn but only release 2 pairs at a time. As soon as one pair from each group spawns I'll stop teasing the rest. But really, the spawns have to happen no later than next weekend which is kind of a big ask for fish that have been in transit for 2 days. I'm counting on Fishchick's excellent care during quarantine. The pairs are in neighbouring tanks and I couldn't resist uncarding them a little bit yesterday. (I know, I know the Cruelty Kids are going to come after me.) All of them, without exception, reacted to each other. So I'm hopeful but we'll just have to see what happens. I might just have to try again after Christmas.

My new breeding stock arrived today. Luckily only a handful of people noticed my embarrassing display of childish excitement earlier. Unfortunately it wasn't a simple matter of opening the bags and plopping them into their containers. Before that I had to scrub out the 16 little 20 cm cube tanks which were filthy from long neglect. But before I could clean the tanks I had to replace all the fluoro tubes which hadn't been replaced for at least a year and some wouldn't even light up any more. Even in the dark I knew the tanks were dirty. The smell kinda gave it away. But before I could get to the fluoros I had to clear away the accumulated junk that some crazy hoarder (not me) piled in front of the tanks. Ok, alright, I am the hoarder. So much of it I didn't recognise and couldn't think why I kept them in the first place that I could be forgiven for thinking someone else left them there. What?? Bored of my story? You just want to see the fish? Ahh.... well there lies another tale. I started taking some video, got four of them. Then the batteries ran out. But I always keep some spares charged up. I continue, get a few more and those batteries run out as well. And without any power I can't get what I have taken off the camera. But all is not lost. Here are the links to the archived AquaBid auctions. They don't all still look as pretty. A few of them decided their tails would make a good snack. The super blue isn't the one I won but is a sibling which looks pretty much the same. And I didn't have to pay nearly as much. . Enjoy! http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1286557221 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1286838073 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1286229903 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1285776131 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1287061390 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1285765613 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1285776398 http://www.aquabid.c...tashm1285778035

Yeah I use marbles for handles. Looking forward to seeing this all setup with fish in it. :)

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the spawn. There's nothing to be scared about bbs. They are a great food and fry do really well on them. I get the best growth when the fry are fed on bbs. First things first, go and buy some good quality brine shrimp eggs. You can get them at Fishchick Aquatics or aquarium shops that specialise in marine fish also usually stock them. Making brine is easy. Get a bag of rock salt from the supermarket. Check the back to make sure there are no additives. Add 6 teaspoons of salt to 1 litre of water. I don't usually dechlorinate the water but it's probably a good idea to add a few drops of dechlorinator. At the beginning when the fry are still getting used to bbs you don't have to hatch very much. When you're only hatching a tiny amount you can just use a cup. Add about 200 ml of brine to the cup, then add a tiny pinch of eggs (say a thin line about 5mm long), put it in a warm place (around 25 deg C works best for me) then wait 24 -36 hours. At this quantity there's no need for aeration. When you need to hatch more than 1/16th teaspoon you'll have to start using a larger container and possibly giving them some air. I've been able to hatch a quarter teaspoon of bbs in 500 ml of brine with an airline (no airstone, just the tube). That's enough for a single feeding of several hundred fry. I start a new batch every 12 hours and feed my fry before and after work.

I've never been more than a casual observer of the use of LEDs to grow plants. But I have seen some impressive photos of well planted tanks lit by LEDs. It always seemed to require a lot of DIY skill which puts me off them. I think there may be hydroponic LED units that you can get now but I don't know where from. Sorry I'm not being much help.

I don't like snails either, unless they're a decorative variety. Generally I find them a nuisance. And they add to the bioload. I had one line of bettas that seemed to like taking nips at them. Some of the snails would die and then the rotting snails would foul the tank. And before I knew what was happening the whole tank crashed. Manual removal seems to be the most effective way to get rid of them. You must have Malaysian trumpet snails or something like that. They have a hard shell and can safely seal themselves up in it. Must have been in the gravel. They burrow into the gravel during that day and come out at night. I've seen traps that allow the snails to crawl in but not crawl out again. If you can get one of those you might be able to catch more of them. Or if you can be bothered stripping the tank you could consider baking the gravel in the oven to kill the snails.

Welcome to the forum Alex.

Don't just stand there taking photos. Make yourself useful and do some water changes. *lol*

In the bit that says, "Your Current Avatar". Try clicking "Remove My Avatar" first. Then put the url to the new avatar in the section below. Then click "Save Changes". I can't try it myself because I can't get Photobucket at work. But if you're still having problems I can look at it when I get home. Unless someone else comes up with the answer in the meantime.

Welcome to the forum Serenity. Yeah pity about the move to Tassie. But you can certainly have fun in the meantime. You just won't be able to take any fish or plants with you.

That's good that Bayfish will talk to you at least. So you can get it all organised, put the fish on hold(?), and then the shop just does the ordering. Presumably you spoke with the shop first. I'm just thinking out loud in case we want to do something like that in Melbourne. But I guess there are people in Melbourne who already have a good relationship with Bayfish.

Well they're still pretty fish to have. They would be good for beginners wanting to learn about the husbandry. And they would look great in an aquascaped tank. Mike are you speaking with Bayfish directly? Or through a retailer.

That's disappointing. I suppose the males are pretty enough fish to have in a tank but disappointing for killie breeders.

@paul ROFLMAO!!! @somchai Good job! Can you tell us about the lighting and filtration? Don't suppose you took photos of the build, did you?

Welcome to forum Askitz. The betta hobby in Adelaide hasn't been as robust as elsewhere lately. I think your best bet is to get fish from interstate. Most of us import fish or get them from Fishchick in Brisbane.