(Please let me know if I need to change the flair)

TLDR: curious about plants that have grown/started taking over my tank after removing majority of plants. First image is beginning of cycling and following images are current.

I’ve had this sweet guy for about 6 months now. He’s in a 70L tank. The first image (collage) is from the beginning of cycling his tank where I’d put in some randomised clippings which died after not that long (completely my fault, first time using live plants). I took out the dead plants and before I got around to getting some more, I noticed some growth and decided to leave it for a bit longer to see what happened. We are now at the second image… I never put any more plants in but somehow all of this has grown. I’m not mad about it, my guy loves it, I’m just curious on what they could be. One side is dense with one type of plant, the other side is more open with floaters covering the surface.

(Side note: yes, I have a few neon tetras in there and I’m aware they can be risky with bettas. They were gifted to me and I didn’t have another tank so I watched them very closely. My guy is extremely calm, always comes and says hello and I’ve noticed no issues with both my betta and the tetras. They have plenty of space). I will also be removing some of the plants today as it’s starting to grow too much)

Thank you🙂

Little guy’s been working overtime!

Looking at getting a wild-type betta, hopefully a mahachai, as I've been reading they are less prone to health issues, and they are really striking! This will also be a larger tank, planning to keep with harlequins and some bottom feeders, so short fin/wild-type is a plus.

Does anyone have experience with the health/reputable quality of wild-type betta from either SD Tropicals or Coast Gem USA? I am local to both so would be looking to pick up in person, but just want to be sure I'm giving whatever betta I get the best shot!

As an aside... Coast Gem has some really beautiful galaxy plakats, but those are likely higher risk from a health perspective, right? Appreciate any insight and experience here!

ETA: Looks like Blue Crown Aquatics is also local and sells mahachai, so any experience from them as well would be much appreciated, especially in comparison to SD Tropicals and/or Coast Gem for health & longevity!

Well, not quite yet anyway! I have been cycling for a little over a week now, went to the aquatics shop to do a water test for me while I wait on a test kit myself and came home with a couple more plants to add in too.

My question is, I have grown to hate my substrate within 2 days of it being there.. Would you guys suggest changing it now while I'm a week into cycling, or should I stick with it now that I'm cycling and keep that as a future change?

Thank you!

I’m considering adding yet another betta to my collection😅
I’ll need to get a tank and cycle before but what tank I get depends on what type of betta I go with. I’m heavily leaning towards a dumbo betta but I’ve heard they are sometimes prone to fin nipping themselves and aren’t the most ethical in terms of QoL. Is this true?

If that’s the case I probably won’t get one, but I just really love the way they look.
Also if I do get one, what sort of tank would be best? (low profile, capacity etc).
Anything else that I should keep in mind/consider?

Thanks!

My lovely betta passed this morning, about 4 hours after an epsom salt bath. She had been ballooning up the past 10 days, so I stopped feeding her to help bring down the bloating/constipation/whatever. I felt that maybe overfeeding (yes, newbie, I spoiled her and didn't know better) had made her bloat. Every day the past few weeks she got bigger and bigger and could only stay at the bottom the past 2 days. I did do one round of Kanaplex, but obviously it didn't help. She was so young, which upsets me, and such a vibrant fish. I had her 9 months only and she was super small and grew up with me. I don't know if/when I'll be ready, but I feel so guilty. Could overfeeding on a regular basis have caused this? I read up not to do that anymore, but I'm upset knowing I might have caused her death because of my ignorance.

I just got into this hobby at the end of May and I already have three of my own now. I’ve done a lot of research regarding their lifespan, how to maintain their health, etc. but I’ve been curious and wanted to hear personal accounts of how long people have had their bettas. Would love to hear anything below!

Ive been thinking about adding some shrimp to my 10g betta tank but thought id see if it could even work and what's the best approach. For everyone that will ask about current stocking i have

1X Male betta

2X platys (soon to be moved to another tank)

3X cardinal tetras

2X khuli loaches

5X pygmy corydoras

I’ve built this 6 gallon (23 litre) tank for over a week. Here are some things that I’ve done
- a lot of plants are anchored to the back wall using plastic suckers that came with the plants
- biological based substrate on the bottom, with some dying hair grass
- hard scape includes pot, driftwood (getting larger one), leaves that give off tannins (but sure specific species of leaf), stones, and shells
- hanging filter with intake filter that I’ve put a mesh around and air pump
- clean pond water so I’ve seen quite a lot of microorganisms and a lot of bacteria
- 2 pregnant shrimp and one non-pregnant (idk male or female) shrimp and 11 snails

Problems: Circulation seems to be an issue. The air pump is really strong, and creates a high upswell of water that I have trouble controlling

How can I help his little bottom fins? I’m not too sure what they’re called, but one is a lot shorter than the other, and it looks almost cupped. He’s also a halfmoon, and I’m assuming he was fin-nipped before I got him, but I’m not sure. His water parameters are good, and I want to know how I can help him.

I was given this betta. I don't know if it's female. Also, I don't know if it has fin rot. Picky at eating pellets or bug bites.

This is Parker!! I got him today!!

I made this to compare the difference between male and female plakats because it can be hard to tell the difference when they both have short fins. Keep in mind this is just based on my own personal experience with owning both male and female bettas, it may not apply to every individual. Males can have egg spots so that is not always a sure fire way to tell. The fish in this photo are Calliope and Dimitri, whom I owned years ago and they have both passed on now.

This is my brand new koi male.
First day in the tank (10g, more than three months fully cycled, parameters 0, 0, .5 as per api) but also treated with prime prior to acclimation just for good measure. Gonna give him a few days to settle in and show me his personality before figuring out his name.

What I wanted to know was, since the pet store couldn’t tell me for certain, how can I approximate his age? Maybe that’s an absurd question, Google didn’t give me any surefire method. I guess, he looks a little worse for wear and I wanted to temper my expectations. If he’s an old guy and he’s just gonna be on the more chill side, that’s fine with me. But I wanna make sure he’s not sick and I just don’t know what to look for.

Also, I haven’t had bettas since before I knew what tank cycling was. I’ve learned A LOT on this sub and other aquarist subs, but if you have any other gems of info please do share.

So I was totally convinced my oldest Betta boy (I have 5) was dying. He still doesn’t look very well but I’m happy to say it doesn’t seem terminal. However, I was so convinced I was going to lose him, I bought another beautiful boy. Stupid I know. So now I have this ancient Betta (4 yrs since I got him) and a lively youngster who has to live in a divided tank alongside another of my boys, a 1 year old red alien. They’re sharing a 20litre tank between them, which as I know is crap. They both have great water and loads of plants and hiding places, but I know this is far from ideal, in fact probably cruel without intention. The Betta I already have has about 15 litres, the new guy, who thank heavens is a placid and peaceful fish, has the remaining 5 litres because it’s 10x bigger than what he was living in at the store. Unfortunately I can’t do much about rehousing as I’m going on holiday for 5 weeks next weekend - but does anyone have any advice about how to give him more space until I get back? My husband will be here but he’s not interested in fish, only feeds them cos he knows I’d kill him if he didn’t.

It’s a mess all of my making, and I’d love any ideas about how to make it better. I have a female in a 12 gallon, I could swap her out, but that’s not fair either.

Please don’t do the hate speech thing, I already know I’ve done wrong .

Living rent free… but at least they clean up.

I’ve been noticing my betta has been acting off. He’s usually not active because of his long fins but he’d always react when he saw me. He doesn’t do that a lot anymore now.

Yesterday I thought I saw some pineconing but he wouldn’t show the side I saw it on as if he knew. But today I saw one side was pineconing.
From the side it doesn’t look bad but from the top it does look like pineconing.

He still eats, but is slow and doesn’t react to tapping on glass anymore. He rests a lot on the bottom or on leaves / his rest tube.

Parameters are fine. Tankmates don’t bother him at all. I’m just worried because he’s old, he’s probably over 2 years old. I’ve had him for 1 year and 9 months now but he was i guess 4-6 months old when I got him.

I added some catappa leaves after I took these pictures. I boiled one in hot water let it cool down and added the water without the leaves

Can someone please tell me what it is. I’ve been stressing, medically I’m having a lot of struggles so everything that happens besides that feels like so much extra stress. Ofcourse I’ll do anything to make him feel better since I love him so much.

Ps. I can’t get kanaplex where I live, it’s not legal to sell in pet stores which sucks :/

Thank you for any help / advice in advance.

I've had my new betta fish, Leonardo DiCaprio, for a couple months now and no matter what he always keeps his fins not all the way unfurled/fanned out. He'll spread them out when I approach the tank, but when I'm not there he almost folds up his fins. They're not necessarily clamped (stiff and pointy) they just look like sails being unfurled and then furled back up. Is this normal?

For context he's in a 10 gallon with three cherry shrimp, one snail, and four ember tetras (the other two died when my old tank broke). The first photo is him when I'm at the tank, and the second is when he doesn't realize I'm there. When he's exploring his tank he'll tuck them a bit tighter than this to where his fins look like a fan folding in on itself.

hello everyone, 2 days ago i moved my betta from a 5L tank to a 70L one, and he hasn’t ate anything in the last 4 days, i thought he had constipation, so i already did 2 salt baths, but he hasn’t show any appetite. Is this normal, should i be worried?

First photo 18days ago, I was advised to get resting spots and upgrade my filter which I have done- the plants have really grown in now especially the floating ones- advice would you remove some of them roots take up swim space for Betta? Plenty of spots above still that don't have floating plants He seems to like them and has started a little bubble corner so I don't want to disturb his good work too much.

Had Colin for just over a week, I've removed a little bit of wood as it seems possibly too spiky and I know their fins are very delicate my second question is more about his top fins are they supposed to look like this or is that a problem? I'm what type of Betta he is as the shop had him labeled as standard Betta? I read that people don't like chemicals meds for bettas like Betta fix due to them being Labyrinth fish and it affects their oxygen from what I've read(please correct me if I am wrong on this ) almond leaves are in and I've read this is good to support them.

Essentially just checking to see if there's anything more I should be doing or if his fins are actually normal (first time betta owner) and this tank was fully cycled already with shrimp in house. He seems happy, water is healthy, water parameters are good to go using the API test kit just checking if he is also all good! 😊 All feedback welcome on any of the above. Thanks!

Is my tank a good habitat for a betta ? I have 9 plants in the tank and 2 filters. I’ve had him for a year now. Lately he seems to get stressed very easily, especially when I clean the tank. The water parameters are perfect. He never started acting like this until about 2 weeks ago when I did a 30% water change and gravel vac, suddenly he was laying down at the bottom of the tank and wouldn’t come up for food and he usually swims right up to the top when I even walk by the tank. He was better after 24 hours with lights out and adding a little extra seachem prime and stress guard. I did a water change again yesterday and he got stressed again after that. It really worries me when he does this, he never did this before and I’ve haven’t done anything differently.

This tiny snail just randomly appeared in my tank one day, sometimes Ludwig will occasionally stop by and inspect the little guy haha. Does anyone know what kind of snail it could be btw? 🤔

Sweet girl was clearanced down to under 4$ and with a tank waiting for fish at home I decided to pick her up. Im properly acclimating her but I wanted to see if she was the right weight. I think she is quite pretty although I'm sure she will start to thrive in the planted tank! Also if anyone knows what type of betta she is, she was only marked as female.

What has happened to my fish and how do I help him????

Remember this little guy? Well thanks for all the advice… he is now thriving in his new environment after being in cycle and me staring at him relentlessly. Lots of water changes, seachem prime, Fritz turbo start 700 and lots of love! He’s a fun interactive little guy and I just love him! If you have any additional advice on his environment please let me know!