10 Gallon Tank My Betta Journal— Dino's Bachelor Pad

Setting up the tank in the last month has been interesting because it's the last-gasp of summer weather before it finally turned into fall here in LA. While I was cycling the tank I was really struggling to keep the temperature consistently under 80F, and I know I will struggle again next summer, but right now we're sitting pretty at 78.5.

Ammonia, Nitrite, still at 0. Nitrate is at 20; Last water change was on the 16th, and I took some baseline readings of my tap water— they come in with about 5-10ppm Nitrate. I'm a little hesitant to do a water change because I don't want add another stressor while Dino is getting settled (he's been here 5 days), but I also don't want to levels to get too high.

I saw at least two tiny baby snails this morning (WHERE THE HECK DID THEY COME FROM!?), and I witnessed Dino eat one of them. I lost track of the other. So hopefully that will keep the snail population managed.

For his part, Dino seems pretty relaxed. The first day or so I rarely saw his pelvic fins and now he's dropping them all the time. I have a small jar of BettaMin, and I think we agree that it's terrible— he was flaring at it and apparently refused to eat it, until I tried cutting it in half, and then he gobbled it up. So. We'll try something else. Ordred some Fluval Bug Bites and we'll see how that goes.

The first couple of days he would dart away if I put my finger up to the glass, but now he's starting to follow it, presumably because he figured out that it is what brings him food. We stare at each other a lot. I absolutely talk to him like he's a dog, but he doesn't seem to mind.

Glamor shot of The Boy (ooh, and there's Weller photobombing):

 

Wow, that's a gorgeous fish!

 

Wow, that's a gorgeous fish!

That's not even his "good side." He's a handsome lad

 

There was a huge bubble nest in the corner of the tank near the heater yesterday, but it's gone now. I hope that means Dino's settling in.

Weller dropped down to the bottom and stayed there for nearly a full 24 hours (I poked them with my tweezers and they pulled their little trapdoor tighter, so I knew they were alive). This morning I found them cruising around on the big fake mangrove that is baffling the filter water.

The novelty of these two little creatures is fascinating to watch and I'm eager to make a good home for them. Being new to the hobby and having a tank as small as I have, I am worried that I will miss an important early sign and disaster will strike before I can fix it. But it has been exactly a week; we are all still getting used to each other and interpreting their behavior is premature.

My water parameters still look good. I'll do a 30% change on Friday to dump the nitrates. Ordered some high-calcium food for Weller because snail cannot live on algae alone.

 

The bubble nest is back. Either I missed it this morning or Dino built a new one.

 

He's a busy little boy!!!

 

He's a busy little boy!!!

He is SUPER active— when I picked him out it was partially his coloring and partially his cheerful wiggle and all the eye contact he was giving me, way over the other bettas.

He comes close when I’m taking water samples and vacuuming the substrate, not flaring, just checking me out, and swims up to the front of the tank whenever I walk by. It’s hard not to project too much emotion/intention on his behavior when our interest in each other seems so mutual

—————

We survived our first water change! I almost forgot to add Prime to the water but remembered at the last second.

My system for water changes is a bit awkward, passing tap water through a filter pitcher before adding it to a bucket. One fill at a time means I can adjust the temperature as I go to get it to match the tank.

I have to really watch the water levels with the filter I have because if it’s too high it creates a current that makes it a little hard for Dino to swim through. He’s a tough guy though; there is one spot close up with a strong current I’ve seen him swim straight into, as if on a treadmill. I’ve also seen him slip under it and ride it out, then swim around to do it again. Is he playing?

Weller is again pulled up in their shell and chilling in the back of the tank. I don’t know if I should be worried— they might just be super lazy. I picked a mystery snail because their needs matched a bettas close enough that I didn’t think it’d be an issue, and maybe it’s the contrast of living with such an active fish that I am a little concerned something is wrong.

There is a fine layer of algae blooming near the substrate at the front of the tank. Just enough to know the tank’s alive.

 

I am very concerned that Weller has died. They haven't moved in several days. Not at all since my last post. I moved them to the front of the tank so I could see better, and they just stayed put.

I read online that their preferred temperature range is a little higher than a betta's, but their low end should be roughly in Dino's high end, so I turned up the thermostat to 81 (it's going to be hard to keep it under 80 in the summer; might as well get the tank used to it now). No joy. I also read that you can try candling the shell to look for a heartbeat, but I couldn't see one, not that I really knew where I should be looking. The trapdoor is still tight, and there's a small airbubble inside (that I could see when I candled the shell). They don't smell. I put them back.

Dino is doing great. The plants are thriving. I may need to brush some algae off the front glass sooner rather than later. It's just the snail that has me concerned.

 

check this out: those two vials on the right represent the difference between forgetting to shake the Nitrite Test solution bottle before administering, and remembering


Water change today. I’ll take another nitrates sample after.

So Weller had definitely died. I candled their shell again and I could see snailparts moving around loose inside. I’m going to go to my LFS today and talk to the folks there about these particular snails and whether I was mistaken about their needs being the same as these particular bettas. If their keeping them differently it’s maybe not a good fit. Or maybe I just screwed up somehow.

Dino is still active and charming. He watches with interest when I’m poking around with the tongs.

I sponged the algae off the front glass today and he watched closely the whole operation. No flaring, just following along. As a matter of fact the only time I ever see him flare is when he’s struggling with a pellet that I didn’t cut small enough. That’s a problem for later, the big food.

As I’ve been staring into the tank worrying about Weller, Dino gets right in my eyeline and wiggles. If he’s eating and a piece of food floats away I seem to be able to direct him with either my finger (outside) or the tongs (inside). I’m quick to call somebody a friend in general, but I think we’re there.

 

WOW, I have never seen a Betta with such fin shape! He is absolutely gorgeous!

 

check this out: those two vials on the right represent the difference between forgetting to shake the Nitrite Test solution bottle before administering, and remembering

Yep makes a HUGE difference.

 

WOW, I have never seen a Betta with such fin shape! He is absolutely gorgeous!

He’s a looker, this boy. It’s hard to catch his fins completely unfurled and relaxed because he moves around a lot. And he does pause in that “shark pose” often. This picture is more representative of his actual fin shape:

 

Went to my LFS yesterday and talked through what happened to Weller with their resident Snail expert. I showed her my log book, and she suggested that maybe the water is too soft after I run it through my filter. I don't quite know how to communicate the GH/KH other than by the number of drops it takes for the reaction— My tap water comes in at 8*GH and 5*KH, and after filtration it's in the tank at 5* and 3* respectively.

Dino seems to like the softer water, so they suggested I try shrimp. I got three (Glas, Glessig, and Gleissad. Or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Or Larry, Moe, and Curley) they're nearly as big as Dino, so we guessed it'd be relatively safe to try them out.

Dino is interested in them, sometimes. I've seen him get close and watch them, but he doesn't lunge, flare, or bite. He watches them like he watches me. The shrimp...don't love it, I don't think. They do shy away or freeze when he gets close. But for the most part, when I see them out, they busy themlleves with munching on the bottom edibles or biofilm, or scraping on the calcium balls I got. Dino's behavior is mostly the same. He's not obsessing; when I'm looking around for the shrimp he's still getting in my eyeline, he's still keeping mostly to the top doing his little patrols.

Dino's bubble nest was definitely disturbed after I did the water change yesterday. There's a new one this morning.

 

Okay, no new tankmates. Two of the three shrimp are more hidey than the third was (...yeah), and they seem to be okay for now. That third shrimp, I found dead out in the open.

I made an error of confirmation bias. When I look into the tank, Dino comes and looks at me, so I was not observing any harrasment. But I'm not always looking into the tank.

I wonder if this was also what happened to Weller. The one time I saw Dino interact with them was when they were up on the big fake mangrove and Dino was Not Having It. What I saw was a big stare-down before I distracted him, but that doesn't mean something else didn't happen later.

I'm going to see if my neighbor who keeps mollies can take my shrimp.

 

My morning greeting to Dino has become "good morning, my handsome little murderer." He's just playing to his nature, it's not his fault.

This morning I thought I was pulling another shrimp carcass out of the water, but actually it looks like a molt? Is that a good sign? I have no idea.

And there is the ittiest, bittiest, little baby snail cruising around on one of my Amazon swords.

Life...uh...finds a way.

(honestly I'm a little concerned about the tiny snail babies— I don't think that was Weller's doing because they never laid eggs up above the water line, so these are probably hitchhikers from the moss ball. Are they the pesty kind of snail that's going to take over the tank? Will Dino eat them before they become a big problem? So many mysteries)

 

We're in a pretty stable state. I think the day after my last post I found one of the other shrimp in one of the fake plants, but it was turning pink, dead for while, apparently, so I pulled it out.

The third one, who I have tentatively renamed "The Dog" since the group names no longer make any sense, has been doing just fine living on the rock arch. Dino leaves them alone. I check on them several times a day because I am spooked, and I've been doing slower, smaller, and more frequent water changes just in case.

I'm slowly switching Dino over from BettaMin to BugBites, and he seems to like both just fine. This switch is mostly because I'm getting tired of slicing the BettaMin into chunks because it's too big for him to eat, but I also like the idea of providing him a little more variety.

One of my Amazon swords has little fern-like sprouts growing on the tips of its leaves. Is this parasitic? Should I snip them off and replant them elsewhere?

 

We're in a pretty stable state. I think the day after my last post I found one of the other shrimp in one of the fake plants, but it was turning pink, dead for while, apparently, so I pulled it out.

The third one, who I have tentatively renamed "The Dog" since the group names no longer make any sense, has been doing just fine living on the rock arch. Dino leaves them alone. I check on them several times a day because I am spooked, and I've been doing slower, smaller, and more frequent water changes just in case.

I'm slowly switching Dino over from BettaMin to BugBites, and he seems to like both just fine. This switch is mostly because I'm getting tired of slicing the BettaMin into chunks because it's too big for him to eat, but I also like the idea of providing him a little more variety.

One of my Amazon swords has little fern-like sprouts growing on the tips of its leaves. Is this parasitic? Should I snip them off and replant them elsewhere?

Java fern picture?

You're java fern is probably propagating lol (creating baby java ferns) you can wait for them to get bigger and then snip em or just cut them off now.

 

ah shoot read that as Java fern instead of amazon sword for some reason,Sorry, ignore that :')

 

ah shoot read that as Java fern instead of amazon sword for some reason,Sorry, ignore that :')

Well, so here's the thing: I have a few Java ferns as well, but it's the swords that have these little outgrowths. Now that proper leaves are coming they are looking more java fernish than amazon swordish to me. I'll grab a picture shortly.

ah shoot read that as Java fern instead of amazon sword for some reason,Sorry, ignore that :')

It might be a little of both. See, these little guys are coming up palm shaped, but the one in the back is very clearly propagating itself.

i think this is very generous of them— filling the tank with purchased plants was not gonna be cheap lol

 

The Dog molted last night!