splendidbetta

Cool idea, I look forward to seeing your progress

I'm happy you've found the Bettas4all Standard useful I'm not keeping fish at the moment, but hopefully I'll get back into it in the future.

Looking great, Les. As far as the chimney idea goes, have you thought of also adding an air intake pipe that runs underground to provide cool air? Otherwise whatever new air the chimney drags into the room would be warm from directly outside. The chimney would need a plug for winter too, I imagine.

Oh! Even better, just take it out then, no problem If you want to put it back, cut a big square out of each side to turn it into a table, so fry and the male don't get trapped

An airstone very gently trickling air may help in case hydrogen sulfide has accumulated, though.

How old are the fry? I would suggest leaving it for now, but monitor the smell and appearance of the water and the health of the inhabitants closely. At some point you will need to get rid of that water, to be safe. In the meantime, do not disturb the container. Waterchanges with an airline tube siphon should be ok.

When the fry are about 3 weeks old, carefully collect some fry water, put that in a new tub or tank, add up to 3 times more fresh warm conditioned water, fish out the fry and transfer them to the new tub, rinse out the old tank, and return the tub contents to the old tank. Top up with new water every day or few days from then on until your next waterchange. If the water goes bad before 3 weeks old, transfer the fry to 100% new water that has been conditioned and ready for about a week. My tap water is safe to do 100% WCs on fry of any age, but I've heard Sydney's water is not so great, hence my above recommendations.

Hopefully there's nothing to worry about, but good luck :)

Thanks for the info Razzi. I have put the recent news on the Facebook group, and sent a message to all the members: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150908138262236

This is a very fascinating observation, guys. I have no idea whether it's something that splendens normally does/is supposed to do, but it does make sense that they would do this to protect their fry from predators or fast water, and clean them. It's a logical extension of nestling-care, and it also makes the origin of exclusive mouthbrooding easier to grasp.

Matt, I noticed you've used an inverted container in the fry tank. Is there a hole in the top or sides? Anaerobic bacteria could thrive in there otherwise, and possibly make the water very bad.

I did that earlier and this thread, at least, can't be read unless logged in.

LMAO. Such nonsense.

Make your relatives sign it ;)

http://ausaqua.net/forum/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=active

"Today's active content" in the last panel on the forum main page, above the "active users"/"Board Statistics" area.

It doesn't reverse "mark all as read" but it bypasses it.

Juvenile and adult females and juvenile males develop vertical barring. What you're seeing is normal. The ventrals suggest to me that this fry is male, but I could be wrong.

No worries, good luck :)

Yes, a few holes in the sides should be enough Also, occasionally dismantling the pots and giving them a swirl after a jar WC would help.

Looks cool

Is there water flow through the clay pots? It could be problematic if anaerobic microbes are able to grow in there.

A few weeks ago I had to throw out 4 of my grindal cultures because a blowfly had managed to lay her maggots through the air holes of my culture lids.

If you don't have a lid, pets will get in, and the worms will crawl out.

I am thinking of keeping all my culture containers inside a large plastic tub, with air holes in each culture lid, and large holes in the tub lid covered by cotton wool.

Hilarious, thanks for the laugh :lol:

If you can't find them, I'm sure you could make something similar using plastic, metal or glass.

Thanks JL :)

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes everyone! I had a great day :D

Apparently the seller's paypal email address isn't always the same one you email them on though. They'll tell you the address to pay to.

You need to email the seller and ask for a matching or sister female. Always use paypal. Never buy without seeing photos. :)

Hey JL, would you mind if I sent your post as a mass message to all the facebook group members?

Make sure the screen is high enough above the water so the dragonfly ovipositor can't reach the water.

If you use the cement it would be a good idea to add some plants and allow the trough to cycle and develop an ecosystem before you spawn in it.

A negative is that predators like dragonfly larvae might infest the pond and you won't know until too late.

Congratulations!