Bettarazzi

Not sure what it is. Looks fungus-like. Not saying that's always a bad thing. Maybe they're like shrimpy mushrooms. (

Hi there fishfin. Welcome to AAQ. Lilli, the forum administrator will approve your account soon which will give you access to the rest of the forum. In the meantime enjoy reading the forum and if you have any truly burning questions which can't wait, feel free to ask them here.

Wow! They're gorgeous. Who was the breeder? Rung Keereelang of Banleangbettas?

Looks very nice and natural. How big is that tank?

Yes. Sorry for the sudden and dramatic change. Had I realised that requesting an upgrade would trigger an immediate change I would have requested it a little earlier in the evening yesterday and stayed up to get it looking a little more like the old one. Would have liked to at least get our logo and colour scheme up. Anyway, we have Twitter and Facebook sharing icons now. LOL! I'm afraid I won't have time to fiddle with the look and feel until this evening. Feeling a little silly now for not just waiting till the weekend. But I honestly thought after I sent the request that there would be a slew of emails about when we would schedule it, backups etc.

Woah! I requested the upgrade last night. Wasn't expecting them to do it straight away. OK then... That box that's open underneath your username at the top right. I think that's supposed to only appear when you hover over that area. I'll report it to the software support guys. And yes, it's hiding the view new posts link. I noticed in the topic listing that there was a new posts list box on the right, though. So it should be still possible to find the latest posts.

That wasn't 3D it was IMAX and I did hurl into the nearest bin. So far I've watched 'How to train a dragon' and 'Street Dance' and they were both fine. It really only adds a bit of texture. It doesn't give you the sense of movement.

It'd be cool if you could fix that marking. Don't suppose you've got one of each gender?

Thank you all! I'm having a great day. Took the day off work as Brett said. Got a Le Creuset pot as one of my presents. I've always wanted one but could never afford it. Then I went out to brunch just before going to the movies. Used my free birthday movie ticket from Hoyts part of a promotion they had earlier in the year. Saw 'Street Dance' which was ok but to be honest I only went because it was in 3D. I've discovered that 3D movies don't make me queasy even though I'm extremely prone to motion sickness. So I need to find somewhere that's still showing Avatar. And now I'm off to dinner at Jacques Reymond as another present, woohoo!

Hi Dave. Welcome to AAQ. Would love to see some pics of those apistos. They're on my wish list for when I have a bit more time to devote to the hobby.

Definitely don't PM Jodi. While a PM will trigger an email notification, she has to log into the forum to read the PM, so if she's busy it will go into the to-do-later basket, which eventually turns into the 'never' basket. Phone her during business hours as Cassi has suggested

I'll flick you some questions. Thanks for the offer, Chris

Hi nitroo. Can you give us a little more info about yourself and the fish you keep?

Love the colour of that pair. Very nice.

Welcome back, Beano!! I'm the same as Lilli. Gorgeous discus but can't offer any proper advice.

I don't think that 2 x 36 watts is going to cut it over a 4 footer. That not even enough for low light plants. Red plants really need very bright light. If you can get 4 x 36 watts over that tank then you'll have much better success with the low to medium light plants. See if you can find some NEC Tri-phosphors. Shouldn't be too expensive. Try Middy's or somewhere like that.

Nice. I like the first photo. You've captured the colours really nicely.

No. Don't rinse it. I thought that you'd already filled the tank with water. If you haven't then what you do is gently place the gravel on top of the laterite. Ideally you should do this without any water at all. That's the best way to reduce the murkiness when you finally fill the tank. I know some people who are able to get a completely clear tank straight up. I never bother washing my gravel. I just place it in over the clay, or garden soil, or whatever I'm experimenting with. You want at least a couple of centimetres over the laterite. Then using a spray bottle, spray all over the gravel. This will get a lot of the dust in the gravel settled down into the bottom. You're not trying to fill the bottom, just dampen down the substrate. Then you start placing in your rocks or driftwood and keep spraying down any dry substrate that you keep adding. Once you start planting you can start progressively filling the tank. What I do is plant the lowest plants first and only fill enough water to support the height of plant that you're working on. The more patient and gentle you are when you fill the tank, the less murky it's going to be. Oh, and it's mandatory to take pictures at every stage. :)

Wow! I love it when people give a full and proper Intro. Welcome to AAQ, Chris. Looking forward to the photos.

It doesn't look real to me. I think that's just a royal blue that's been enhanced in photoshop.

The cloudiness of the water is almost unavoidable. One way to reduce it is to keep spraying the gravel with a spray bottle while you're planting the tank out and then fill very gently. But I guess it's too late for that now. The filter should eventually take care of it. It might take a few days to clear up. You should see a bit of an improvement each day. It doesn't really matter if the laterite was lumpy although you could have broken it up with your hand. What to do next? Umm... take a photo?

I would suggest a copper female to go with him because I think his underlying iridescence is steel. If that's true then pairing him with a copper female would result in half the fry lookiing like dad and half like mum. If he is actually royal blue with one copy of metallic and you paired him with a copper female, then half will still look like him but only a quarter like mum and the remainder should be teal. Teal is royal blue with 2 copies of metallic.

Actually it looks like we've now been able to fix your old login. I'll send you a PM about it.

Welcome back Thomas. We're working on fixing your old login but it's not looking all that hopeful. There's something seriously broken with it.

Hi Bec. Welcome to AAQ. Unless you have pretty good DIY skills I'm not sure I'd recommend trying to do the split yourself. However, have a look at the Equipment & DIY forum. A few people have written about how created barracks. There are lots of variations. Not sure about the purple betta. Some people find what we call royal blue to be purplish. But I've never seen what I'd call a true purple betta in real life. The photos I've seen looked like the photo may have been modified.