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new and about to get myself in over my head :)

4K views 33 replies 9 participants last post by  willow 
#1 ·
Hi! I thought I'd introduce myself since I'm new. I'm about to (literally any minute now) get a tank full of fish I know nothing about and I'm rather nervous!

So the story is, I've had this beta for quite a number of months now. I've had him in a 5 gal tank. I read ALL about betas. He has a heater. I keep it at 78 degrees. I do lots of water changes since I don't use a filter. I check his water stats. My water was a little hard so I got him a piece of drift wood. I fed him a variety of foods--soaked pellets, soaked flakes and frozen blood worms. This fish should have been very healthy and happy. But no. His fins were are chewed away--despite trying to fix it with some meds and softening the water. I suspect he might eat them 'though I never caught him.

I pretty much began looking upon him as a burden and an ugly reminder of my giant fail in beta-keeping. See I had this beta in college and I only knew what the fish store guy told me. So he was in half a gallon bowl, whose water I change only once a week, who only got pellets--not even soaked, no heater or anything. And that beta was really healthy. Look beautiful. ARGH!

Well anyway, my neighbors saw my beta and wanted him. (don't ask me why he looks like crap, though his temperament is pretty feisty which I liked) and they have a 35 gallon tank full of freshwater fish (actually the tank and equipment used to be mine from quite a long time ago but my mom gave it away). So we're trading.

I don't know what these fish are or anything. I'll find out as soon as they bring the tank over. And then I'll probably have about a million questions! LOL

I've always wanted to have a planted tank but I'm guessing that's near impossible once you already have fish set up in the tank huh? Hopefully I won't kill off all these fish since I couldn't even do right by my poor beta.

Probably I sound like a horrible person! But I promise I'm a good animal keeper. I have three horses and two cats (as you can see) and I work really hard for all of them to make sure they have the best care. One of my cats has IBD and I spent a long time studying it and figuring out what to feed her. Now she looks great and no more symptoms. Two of my horses are old and one in particular has cushings and needs special treatment and I make sure he gets that and they all look fabulous. It's just this beta that I had so much trouble with! LOL I'm hoping my neighbors will have better luck with him.
 
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#27 ·
hi
sorry if you've said this already, but what are you feeding the fish ?
a lot of catfish won't come out during the day time,so you could drop in a couple of
pellets before you go to bed,a nice chunck of cucumber for the plec would
be greatfully reiceved,pleco tabs should be around in your fish store,if you
can get some of those too,and like i said drop them in at either lights out time,
or when you go to bed,not too many,you don't want to turn the water.
:-D HTH.
 
#28 ·
My neighbor gave me some flakes and also some cubes of dried blood worms. She said she used to try the pellets that drop down but they wouldn't eat them. She said the pleco would swim up to the top and grab the cube.

It put a cube in late last night when I saw him being more active and the shark was out but it was still floating in there this morning so I took it out. The shark is still hiding.
 
#30 ·
I know but two things made me decide not to 1) I wanted to give them what they were used to just to get them to eat. I'm certain my neighbor never did this since, when I told her the betta's pellets need to be pre-soaked she looked at me like I was crazy and said "but they're going into water" and 2) since I knew they wouldn't be going for it any time soon I figured it would soak in the tank which it did.

I know it's not ideal but I'm a bit desperate to try to get them to eat.
 
#31 ·
So I bought some shrimp pellets and I shut the room lights out. This is when I was about to shut the tank lights off but before I did I dropped some in by where the shark hides but nothing. I went away to see if he'd come out and came back and the plecco was there so maybe the plecco is at least eating the pellets. I guess that's a slight improvement. LOL
 
#32 ·
hi
it's always a worry when they don't eat,but they should do soon.
they may just need a little more time to settle in.
the shark probably hoovers up any left overs after all lights are out and
everything is quiet.
may i ask what decor have you in there ?
 
#33 ·
It's small-medium gravel with a few silk plants attached to fake logs. I'm hoping to make it nicer once I'm sure everything is managing. Not sure how to go about doing that without killing anybody. I did catch the shark coming out last night and he looked like he nibbled something.
 
#34 ·
that's really great news !! :-D
you can use plant pots to make hiding places for the fish,comercially built decor
but that can cost a few more $$,coconut shells,plastic pipe...........
the list is endless for when you're ready.
the more secure the fish feel,as long as they are not nocturnal,the more you should see them.
 
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