Fish Lovers 2.0

[עורב לבן]

Oh yes, it should speed it up, but it's still not going to happen overnight. xD

[Zekea]

Wow Maniac, good man you got yourself. At least he likes fish, the last boyfriend I had liked watching his cats eat my fish. -__- That was over fast. I always go on the day the fish shipment comes in which is normally on fridays (Convenient yes?) and there is always one other person there waiting for the shipment with me. XD She always buys at least three of them as well as three new full tank sets. Last time I asked her, she had over 100 betta fish in +5 gallon tanks. THAT is betta insane. -_- I couldn't imagine having that many fish with small tanks, not to mention the cost of the tank, the thermometer, the heater and all of the decor she buys.

I feel so excited. :D I got the larger heater for Merlin's tank and some freeze dried brine shrimp for all of them. I have started doing a daily 50% water change with my smaller tanks, but I'm still not sure how often and how much I should be changing Unnamed's.. (3-3.5 gal) Everyone has beautiful fish, I'm just excited to see the improvement in my fish now that their getting better (Although not the best) care. Now that I've posted pictures, you guys can watch the improvement as well. Hm... There's an Idea... Wouldn't it be cool to do a daily picture of all of my bettas to watch their improvement day by day..? Man, I'm killing myself..

[MaineiacJay]

Yeah, he's a perfect match for me, can't wait to marry that man! <3

Anyways, The tiger hillstream loach gets about 2 inches on average is what I have found. They really are cool and she only cost me $10 =D I have another neat looking loach that doesn't really fit with what I want to do but he's so awesome that I can't give him up, same with my big ear betta, those two are staying no matter what, as well as my shrimp, which does fit the theme. The platys I will probably give to my fiancés mom for her 50 gallon. I don't really know what to do with my 3 guppys tho =/

I really want some of those fresh water puffers but they are fin nippers and I don't want my betta to deal with that =\ but that would be super awesome in a faux saltwater tank!! Ah decisions decisions. I suppose I could take my betta home and add him to the community tank I want to set up.

At any rate, I will get some pictures of it as soon as it's finished =)

[Dakotak]

It takes time for bacteria to get established, even if you seed it with something that already has the bacteria. Make sure there is an ammonia source in the water, or your bacteria will die. You'll want to get a water test kit. Look for no ammonia, no nitrites, but some nitrates. Once you get those, your tank is ready for a fish. If you test it too soon, there will be no ammonia, no nitrates, and no nitrates. Those nitrates are the final step, so if you don't have them, your tank isn't cycled.

Yea I know all that stuff XD but figured that since I was putting already established stuff from my first tank into the second in here it might speed up the process a little. Well thanks anyway Ill just figure it out

Harlequin is very right but the water from your tank does not have enough bacteria to cycle a tank if any at all and though your decor may have the bacteria on it it probally wont be enough. If you can get a little of the filter media from your. established tank and gravel if you have it it will really help. Your filter media has what the tank needs.

As time wise goes, it just depends on the tank really. What supplment are you using? A lot of the "quick" cycle stuff
only works for as long as you use it. Once you stop using it your cycle may crash beacuse the string of bacteria that they use in it is land based, not meant to live in water for very long so it dies off unless you keep buying it and using it. When it dies off the bacteria you need grows so you basically start cycling again.

[sarcasteil]

Damn. -.- my Betta died. RIP Torc. My mom said there was an electricity.. um, blackout? I guess you could you that word. Yeah, the filter died, and poor Torc. He was gasping. I suspect ammonia poisoning, I saw a little leftover food on the bottom. And the water was half-full. What a sight. His beautiful tail was being nibbled away by fungus, Stomach was.. Kinda "outside". The insides where spilling out. Aww, I'll really miss him.

And, about the cycling. I want to know, I use a DIY filter for my pond. I use a normal sponge for the media (I think it's called media..). And when I clean it, I squeeze out chocolatey-green stuff. Is that BB? Could I use that to start, say, a new tank? Speed it up?

[KittyCatKita]

Harlequin is very right but the water from your tank does not have enough bacteria to cycle a tank if any at all and though your decor may have the bacteria on it it probally wont be enough. If you can get a little of the filter media from your. established tank and gravel if you have it it will really help. Your filter media has what the tank needs.

As time wise goes, it just depends on the tank really. What supplment are you using? A lot of the "quick" cycle stuff
only works for as long as you use it. Once you stop using it your cycle may crash beacuse the string of bacteria that they use in it is land based, not meant to live in water for very long so it dies off unless you keep buying it and using it. When it dies off the bacteria you need grows so you basically start cycling again.

Yea I already put some gravel in there from my other tank but I can get a bit of stuff from the filter too. I'm not using that cycling junk (I don't believe it works), it is an actual bacterial supplement made by Top Fin that helps to establish or re-establish bacteria in new tanks, when adding more fish or after using medication (like, it is a liquid solution that basically has bacteria growing in it) for fresh and saltwater tanks. It is designed for water, not land.
Thanks for the help, but I already knew a lot of this lol I probably phrased my question weird or something
I will go ask on a betta specific site and see what they say, cause I know cycling anything below like 5 gallons is really hard to do <_<


Edit <3
Just thought I would post this since we didn't seem to really know. This is for a tank that is smaller than 5 gallons that does not have a filter.

Based on the senior members of bettafish.com (they have years of experience caring for and raising bettas) they say that it is very difficult to cycle anything smaller than 5 gallons and normally these aren't cycled. There isn't enough of a surface area for the bacteria to really culture on and so the tank will go into "mini-cycles" then lose it again.
The only thing you can really do for small tanks like that is to either heavily plant the tank to take care of the ammonia, or to do regular water changes. This is based off a tank that doesn't have a filter, but they say that (while possible) if you have a filter it still may lose the cycling unless you only used about 1/4-1/3 of the filter material as there just isn't enough food for them if you don't overstock your tank.

[MaineiacJay]

so i removed the male delta tail from my betta spawn today (pain in the butt! never had so much trouble!) and did a partial water change. took the time to look at the little guys closer and discovered something interesting...about 25% of the fry are light bodied!! how odd! one of the parents much be carrying a cambodian trait or something, but they are so dark its hard to imagine any light bodied fry coming from that, but there are definitely quite a few. they are very lively, which is wonderful! fed them some microworms as well so they dont go hungry. i think this is probably the most fry i have had in a spawn, there are so many of them! the female did NOT look like she had that many eggs in her at all! im impressed with the girlie!

anyways, heres a picture of the parents and some of the fry =) you can see some white bodied fry hiding among the dark bodied fry =)

FATHER

MOTHER

FRY


and while taking new pictures of all my fishies, i realized my red marble double tail lost his red! lol. i love marbles, they never stay the same for very long now hes just white. he is gorgeous though, i love this guy!

[Dakotak]

@kitty
I have cycled both my 5 gallon betta tank and my 2.45 gallon snail tank. But both of those tanks have filters on them and i stole media from my goldie tank, i also fed my snail tank with a lot of fish food, i had to use the betta to cycle the tank caz my brother could not wait to get him . Your tank wont cycle without a filter like they said. If you want to go without a filter(i dont advise it) use a lot of plants. I would use a sponge filter, they work well if you are just going to have a betta in the tank. All tanks risk losing a cycle if not fed, you can feed it ammonia from a bottle or fish food. The fish food will break down into ammonia.

@phantom
I have heard and seen people do that to seed new filters but I have never done it myself.

@jay
I love your now white marble betta.

[InsectNation]

i luv em!

[KittyCatKita]

@kitty
I have cycled both my 5 gallon betta tank and my 2.45 gallon snail tank. But both of those tanks have filters on them and i stole media from my goldie tank, i also fed my snail tank with a lot of fish food, i had to use the betta to cycle the tank caz my brother could not wait to get him . Your tank wont cycle without a filter like they said. If you want to go without a filter(i dont advise it) use a lot of plants. I would use a sponge filter, they work well if you are just going to have a betta in the tank. All tanks risk losing a cycle if not fed, you can feed it ammonia from a bottle or fish food. The fish food will break down into ammonia.

Hmm wonder if they are actually cycled all the time, but yea you said you have a filter so there is the difference.
I know a lot of people don't have filters on tanks this small cause they don't fit well. For goldfish I can see it being important, but betta's bioload is fairly small in comparison, hense why they can survive in those wretched bowls XD I don't think I will cause I mean it doesn't really need it; nor will it fit well and I refuse to go to an undergravel filter |D I clean my tanks often enough the ammonia doesn't build up and test it regularly and I do have plants in there. I also don't feed my fish cheap food nor do I overfeed which is more of a cause of ammonia than the fish is so I think I will be just fine without a filter. But to be safe I will go and ask on the betta site if I need help, they seem to know what they are talking about. Thanks anyway for the thoughts