Yanagi

I was there again today to pick up some more clown loaches, almost all of the fish are still there. Including that red dragon plakat that I want so badly. :)

The tank is 4ft x 14in x 18in. I really have no idea how fast clown loach grow but I expect our original one would die of old age before our new guys got to his size.

I don't have any clown loach in there yet, he won't break up the current school so I have to wait until next weekend if/when we buy more. lol I think I'll try to talk him down to just two, but he's so stubborn, his opinion is the only one that counts.

My snails are more prone to laying eggs on the driftwood, on plants, in the filter and pvc pipe vs places where I can actually find and destroy them before it's too late. It makes such a mess of the water to pull those things out and clean them. :(

Wow! That's quite a collection you have going on there. Welcome to the forum! :)

:) Oh man, I rearranged some of the new plants and while I was at it, collected all the snails off them and off the glass. Popped them in my dad's tank and WOW the new clown loaches went nuts.

Also, my dad's love affair with clown loach has been revived and next weekend he wants to get another 4, 2 of which will be on clean up duty in my tank until they either get too big or the population is gone. This would mean nine clown loach in a 4ft tank, only one of which at mature size, the rest are about 2 inch at the moment. That seems a bit much to me, opinions?

Yeah, I had just one survive my gravel washing and drying for a week treatment. Luckily I got it out before any eggs were laid.

We apparently don't have any zucchini at the moment so I used some lettuce last night, got maybe 20-25 snails out. Going to need a lot more than that!

We all have those moments. :)

Short Fin/Plakat. :)

Oh, nice work Phil! I like your choices.

At one pet store I had an employee telling me VT Betta were called Fantails. lol :)

They did have a stunning lavender BF DT boy a few months ago so I guess they've been experimenting with bringing in high quality stock. I hope they continue!

I bought my second ever Betta from there, CT boy.

I throw mine in my dad's 4ft or the goldfish pond. One way or another, they get eaten. I hadn't thought of them getting into waterways. Duh, I should have, they can certainly survive some terrible conditions, oops. I found one alive in a drip of water beside my tank once. Ugh.

Um, ok. My camera ate the other pictures. 2nd time it's done that. Anyway, his colour is actually much nicer than this photo shows. They had two Giants that I saw but the other one hid mostly, I think he's of the same colour.

This is the first time I've ever seen Plakats there. :)

Went there today and wanted to cry when I saw all the new fish they had in, if only I had more room for boys!!

Some of the range they had, please excuse the quality. I was getting a couple of weird looks standing there oogling and taking photos. If I had room for just one I would of taken home the red dragon PK.

Ran out of room for pictures, will post the last couple in a reply.

Hi all, just returned from the Aquarium (post about their awesome Betta to come!). I put the idea to my dad about getting clown loach for population control and moving them into his 4ft when they were done and he didn't like that idea at all but wanted more clown loach anyway so we went and got 4, and 4 silver mollies. I also picked up some more plants for my sorority.

So I have no choice but to either buy another tank, dump the gravel in the current tank or try zucchini. I have tried lettuce before and while it did work to help control the population, my new BN now eat it down to almost nothing in no time, so that was essentially useless (the BN would disagree). Hpefully zucchini will take them longer.

I honestly don't have any idea what they are, some look similar to the pond snails, but there's also some with gold shells, lighter, darker, different patterns, etc. I try not to look too close, snails creep me out.

I do scoop up any near the surface and remove any eggs I see (they lay them on the glass above and below the water and everything in between) but it's just not enough.

The population in this tank started with ONE snail that managed to lay eggs before I could get rid of it, I just washed close to 50 down the drain, and that was only what was in and on the pvc tube. Kill them while you can, dreaming_frog! :fish:

Argh, given that I don't want to go to such extremes, I'll try the zucchini. Is there such a thing as putting in too much zucchini? I think I'd need to put more than one slice in because of the sheer numbers, they reproduce too fast.

I did do the gravel method when my other tank had a snail invasion a few months ago but this time around I don't have a spare tank to put my kritters in, so that would be quite problematic. Especially since this is my most populated tank as well. ^_^

I meant to ask at the SBG but forgot. One of my tanks has, to put it lightly, a massive snail problem. The substrate is almost more snail than gravel and the snails eat the sinking pellets quicker than my bristlenose and corydora can. Is there any way to kill these horrid things without killing my fish?

Jeff & Wan right here on the forums sell IAL. http://ausaqua.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=6434

In the time I've spent lurking on various Betta forums I've read a lot of conflicting information, many 'DO NOT's and the like.

I'm curious to know what you have successfully and unsuccessfully kept in a community tank, along side Betta.

Obviously this also depends on the personality of fish, availability of hiding places, et cetera, so what works for one person may not work for another but I'm hoping to see some trends arise here, that and a good discussion!

I have a 40lt with one CT male, 4 Corydora and 3 Cardinal Tetra (The reason for just 3 is a long and complicated story .)

I have a 75lt with one HM male, 4 Corydora and 10 White Cloud Minnows.

I've also gave my VT male to my father who after the death of our last remaining Silver Shark (old age) downsized from a hideous monstrosity of a 6ft to a beautiful 4ft display tank which now houses way too many Bristlenose (55!!!) about 10-15 Cardinal Tetra, 1 Clown Loach (we had more, they long ago died of old age, we're thinking of declaring this guy immortal as we believe he was the first and oldest of all), 4 Corydora, 4 Red Platys and 4 Red Swordtails.

Note, I'm aware his tank is over stocked, he is a very hard man to deal with and very set in his ways. I'm working on convincing him to sell at least half of the BN. It's a miracle he is now acknowledging that there is a problem.

The only slight problem I've ever had with any of these set ups is the VT has a thing with one of the Platys, he will flare at and chase it, but only one of them, none of the others. Aside from that, everyone gets along great.

I'd post photos but the USB cable for the new camera has mysterious disappeared. Feel free to share you own photos though. :)

Betta have been known to jump 6 inches, I would not risk going without a lid.

Thermometer strips I've found to be pretty inaccurate, I would say you're better off with a proper glass thermometer.