What's made your day? - Page 103

Ben Lahnger · 05-01-2011, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mariner

Only 25% each time? I thought they would have to be 100% water changes...

Because you don't want to change out too much of the water at any given time. Honeythorn can elaborate, but dramatic changes in temperature, ph balance and even bacteria activity can cause a fish trauma or shock. The 25% rule is good for all fish if you're working with a single tank.

honeythorn · 05-01-2011, 09:11 AM

Yep, correct. Too much of a swing in PH and Temperature, as well as other water borne minerals, can literally shock the fish.

Water changes are also really stressful and you should never remove the fish when you do it. Frequent hoiking in and out of the water will cause him no end of hassle and discomfort, and stress is one of the biggest causes of disease.

Whitespot is often triggered by stress. Uusally when in combination with poor water quality.

Small frequent changes will keeps things at a constant.

What you could do is 25% on a Monday, 25 on a Wednesday, and 30-50 on a saturday as a little extra.

25% on a tank as tiny as that is plenty for each change - I have one that size with live plants and shrimp in it, as shrimp is all a tank so small can support .

My main tank is 30 gallons and has a community and live plants in it. And yes, there is a betta in there

. The mix of fish I have with mine is very unusual for betta tankmates) and not normally reccomended for a beginner. I know my fish really well and have several spare tanks if something did go wrong.

Once you've upgraded to a larger tank, keep the smaller one. You can use it as a spare in case something happens to the larger one ( a crack for example ) , or set it up with invertebrates like shrimp if you want to keep it running, which I have with mine. I also have spare filters and heaters in case of failure but I'm slightly pedantic like that.

While a 5 gallon tank can only support one betta and no other fish, if you are able to go larger than that, 10 gallons for example, there is a small selection of safe tankmates you could try keeping with him, depending on his personality. Ricefish, micro rasboros, normans lampeyes and dwarf cories ( not all at once ) are some good peaceful tankmates, and not too colourful, so they shouldn't be attacked by him.

Mariner · 05-01-2011, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeythorn

Yep, correct. Too much of a swing in PH and Temperature, as well as other water borne minerals, can literally shock the fish.

Water changes are also really stressful and you should never remove the fish when you do it. Frequent hoiking in and out of the water will cause him no end of hassle and discomfort, and stress is one of the biggest causes of disease.

Whitespot is often triggered by stress. Uusally when in combination with poor water quality.

Small frequent changes will keeps things at a constant.

What you could do is 25% on a Monday, 25 on a Wednesday, and 30-50 on a saturday as a little extra.

25% on a tank as tiny as that is plenty for each change - I have one that size with live plants and shrimp in it, as shrimp is all a tank so small can support .

My main tank is 30 gallons and has a community and live plants in it. And yes, there is a betta in there

. The mix of fish I have with mine is very unusual for betta tankmates) and not normally reccomended for a beginner. I know my fish really well and have several spare tanks if something did go wrong.

Once you've upgraded to a larger tank, keep the smaller one. You can use it as a spare in case something happens to the larger one ( a crack for example ) , or set it up with invertebrates like shrimp if you want to keep it running, which I have with mine. I also have spare filters and heaters in case of failure but I'm slightly pedantic like that.

While a 5 gallon tank can only support one betta and no other fish, if you are able to go larger than that, 10 gallons for example, there is a small selection of safe tankmates you could try keeping with him, depending on his personality. Ricefish, micro rasboros, normans lampeyes and dwarf cories ( not all at once ) are some good peaceful tankmates, and not too colourful, so they shouldn't be attacked by him.

Oh, yes, that makes sense. But what about the gravel? Doesn't that need cleaned? And what is whitespot, how can that be treated if my betta has it? The conditions the betta were in at the pet store weren't good...I found the pet store with the best conditions (which isn't saying much), and picked the healthiest looking betta...but I still worry he may have gotten something during his stay there.

Mariner · 05-01-2011, 12:30 PM

And thank you again honeythorn you've been very helpful...I've been having a rather difficult time with figuring out how to take good care of him...I found absolutely no books on betta at my local bookstore or my school library. My last resort has been websites that seem to be filled with, as you've pointed out to me, a wealth of bad information.

honeythorn · 05-01-2011, 01:17 PM

The gravel does need cleaning, and you can get small gravel vacuums for that.

A cheap way to do it is to just get a flexible length of clear hose/pipe about 4 feet long , stick one end in the tank and swirl it about just above the gravel to stir up any crap.

Suck sharply on the other end of the hose to pull the water in and start the flow, and very quickly point that same end into a bucket to catch the dirty water.

Keep the end that's in in the tank swirling all around over the gravel, and this will suck up any bits of crap and empty them into the bucket.

Be careful not to suck your fish up the tube.

Make sure you're not overfeeding your fish. If you are and he's not eating all of it, you will make more work for yourself and pollute his water even quicker, because the uneaten bits will sink and rot on the bottom.

I feed mine every other day in small amounts, once in the morning and once in the evening.

To be fair, the main bulk of bad information with regards to bettas on websites, is in three areas. Tank size, heating and filtration.

Many will reccomend that you keep a betta in a couple of gallons because they still believe that bettas live in puddles for most of the time and that they don't like big spaces. Utter bullshit of course.

Many will also say that as long as you keep the room warm the tank doesn't need a heater. Again, utter bullshit. Unless you actually live in Thailand where the heat is pretty constant most of the year, your betta absolutely needs a heater. It's a tropical fish and needs a steady temperature.

And of course, many say they don't need a filter because they can breathe air. Those two things have nothing to do with eachother. They need filtration to maintain a steady biological environment in the tankwater. The bacteria inside the filter process the fishwaste and do that for you.

The breathing air thing is a survival mechanism for when their water sources in the wild dry up and heat up, making the oxygen levels in the water too low for normal breathing.

The care of a betta is exactly the same as any other basic tropical fish . They are anabantoids, and are closely related to Gouramis.

Simply look up basic tropical fishtank care. It's just a matter of weekly water changes, check all equipment is working, check all fish are alive and healthy, feed everyone what they need feeding when they need it.

They all need the correct size tank to keep a stable environment and have plenty of space to swim, they need the correct temperature provided by a heater, and they need filtration and weekly water changes to keep the biology of the tankwater stable.

Doing all these correctly will give you a healthy fish and tank.

Here is a website listing tropical fish diseases with pictures.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_...cation.html#TB

Whitespot, otherwise known as Ich, is a very common one, and very easy to identify. Given good tank care, your fish shouldn't display any signs of disease, though it is very possible he could have developed or caught something in the store.

Don't medicate him unless he is showing definite signs of illness or disease. If he's swimming and eating, and not lethargic and hanging in a corner or the surface all the time, he should be fine.

Some bettas are more active than others, they all have different personalities. Some are very territorial and flare at their reflections all day, others are really lazy and chilled.

MissCheyenne · 05-01-2011, 01:27 PM

Ran two miles in 25 minutes. The last half mile done at full speed as I was being chased by what I can only assume was one of the hounds of hell. It had evil in its eyes, I swear it did.

vindicatedxjin · 05-01-2011, 06:19 PM

Versus · 05-01-2011, 08:21 PM

Apparently, Bin Laden is dead.

Murder.Of.Crows · 05-01-2011, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Versus

Apparently, Bin Laden is dead.

yup, pretty cool. The news made my day as well.

Annihilation · 05-02-2011, 02:30 AM

Learnt Stabwound on guitar. The solo and everything.

Ben Lahnger · 05-02-2011, 06:58 PM

.

According to an article published at Gizmodo, as news of Osama bin Laden's death broke last night, someone at The New York Times actually had to yell,

"STOP THE PRESSES!"

.
__________________________
.

Also, this was tweeted by The Batman:

"And unlike comic book super villains, Bin Laden will STAY dead. Nice work, SEAL Team 6."

.

Fruitbat · 05-02-2011, 07:57 PM

I didn't get sea sick on the boat.. woohoo...love my sea legs

Murder.Of.Crows · 05-02-2011, 07:59 PM

I might have a job tomorrow. I'll be a cowboy.. lol.

Fruitbat · 05-02-2011, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murder.Of.Crows

I might have a job tomorrow. I'll be a cowboy.. lol.

A gothic cowboy?

Congrats.. what are you going to be doing?

Murder.Of.Crows · 05-02-2011, 08:08 PM

Well just taking care of horses, goats, and cattle until the owner's arm heals.

Fruitbat · 05-02-2011, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murder.Of.Crows

Well just taking care of horses, goats, and cattle until the owner's arm heals.

Sounds great! Hope you get the job... Wings crossed for ya.

Ben Lahnger · 05-03-2011, 11:32 AM

Reading Terry Pratchett's mini author bio at the back of his first Discworld novel, 'The Color of Magic':

Terry Pratchett lives in England, an island off the coast of France, where he spends his time writing Discworld novels in accordance with the Very Strong Anthropic Principle, which holds that the entire Purpose of the Universe is to make possible a being that will live in England, an island off the coast of France, and spend his time writing Discworld novels. Which is exactly what he does. Which proves the whole business true. Any questions?

Ha ha ha ha ha!

carakitty · 05-03-2011, 08:15 PM

Hey MOC that sounds like a great job, but hard work! If you get it, don't injure yourself in the process too!

My day was made by a bike ride. A nice gravel trail along side the nature reserve. The prairie dogs talked to me and I did talk back.

Fruitbat · 05-04-2011, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

Reading Terry Pratchett's mini author bio at the back of his first Discworld novel, 'The Color of Magic':

Terry Pratchett lives in England, an island off the coast of France, where he spends his time writing Discworld novels in accordance with the Very Strong Anthropic Principle, which holds that the entire Purpose of the Universe is to make possible a being that will live in England, an island off the coast of France, and spend his time writing Discworld novels. Which is exactly what he does. Which proves the whole business true. Any questions?

Ha ha ha ha ha!

^ this.. thanx for sharing Ben

Versus · 05-04-2011, 04:27 PM

Fooly Cooly is on Netflix.

Solumina · 05-04-2011, 04:59 PM

It was slow enough at work that I got to go home as soon as I wanted so yeah I was there for 30 minutes and I got to come home and take an amazing nap.

Ben Lahnger · 05-05-2011, 09:51 AM

I have my Nintendo DS XL tricked out with an AceKard 2 and a 16 GB micro SD card, so besides having the rather robust, native Opera internet browser (which works with Wi-Fi) on board, I also have loaded it up with 105 Nintendo DS game roms, a media player with over 26 hours of video and 125 MP3's (I don't listen to music on it much) as well as 100 classic books. And it still fits in a pocket and holds a battery charge that will keep me entertained on the go for 6-8 hours at a pop.

Yesterday I found a comic book reader, so I've loaded up some of my favorite digital comics and graphic novels. Now it IS the ultimate portable entertainment machine!

vindicatedxjin · 05-05-2011, 11:22 AM

Hah! I just did that myself. Except I have the R4. I'm having some difficulties using language patches though

Ben Lahnger · 05-05-2011, 12:28 PM

Yeah, that's why I have the AceKard 2i instead of the R4 ... no patching.

PorlNecklace · 05-05-2011, 12:48 PM

Ooh, while I own an M3 and 12 gigs worth of games on it. Plus 10 and a half more worth of oldies on my computer, consisting of everything from Atari to the Genesis and PS1. Literally thousands of titles..Almost 6000 files worth 0-0. But am considering to start a legitimate, physical retro game collection additionally. Already have a head start with my old N64..., and a basement crammed with enough cyber-goodies to last my entire lifetime.