The Tail Issue

      Things have been pretty steady in Auberon's aquarium these past few months, save for an incident that occurred mid-October-- Auberon tore his tail on a piece of driftwood.

Offending driftwood removed and tank rearranged, time moved along and the tear began to heal.

     Everything seemed fine on the fin front until this past weekend when I noticed what appeared to be some red ulceration on Auberon's fins. Due to their proximity to the tear, and thanks to some online sleuthing, I deduced that the redness was likely a bacteria infection introduced by the tear. 

      After noticing the red spots, I immediately performed a water change (complete with detailed vacuuming) and added some Stress Guard. On Sunday night, seeing as there had been no change, I decided I would drive to the fish store the next morning and pick up some Kanaplex to start treatment, however, when I woke up on Monday morning, the redness was gone!

      Now, closing in on a week later, the redness has not returned and things appear to be just as they were before.

      I'm glad to have not medicated Auberon unnecessarily but I'm concerned that there is still some underlying, less visible, infection lingering. Auberon and his tail have done so much growing since I brought him home, it's hard to tell if the ragged edged I'm seeing are fin rot or fin growth.

      Moving forward, I'll continue to try and maintain pristine water conditions for continued tail healing and to, hopefully, deter any more redness.

The Second Week in September: Pictures & Parameters

For the first time since bringing him home, I am noticing some improvement in Auberon's tattered anal fin and damaged fin rays. And, while photographs may not reflect this, I do believe his color is increasingly pink in tone, though he is just as iridescent as he has ever been (may he always be so!). 

He continues to be active, curious, and voracious and still spends a good deal of time hunting for copepods, whose continued existence I am surprised at considering Auberon's aptitude for hunting. I have added a new food (Hikari Betta Bio-Gold) to his diet and I am finding that they are a better size for his tiny mouth than the New Life Spectrum, though the ingredients appear to be of lesser quality. 

In the last week, I've only performed one small water change, during which I added a Zoo-Med mermaid to the tank, hoping Auberon might enjoy swimming through her hoop. To my disappointment, he has barely acknowledged her existence. Perhaps in time, he might find her entertaining. Many reviews regarding this particular mermaid indicate that she may shed some paint, so that's something I must remember to monitor.

Tested	9/9/16	9/11/16	9/13/16	9/15/16
PH	8.2	8.3	8.3	8.3
Ammonia	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm
Nitrite	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm
Nitrate	1 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	1 ppm
Action			1 gal water change 2 ml stressguard



I approached this week's small water change a little differently-- instead of immediately pouring water from the bucket into the tank, I slowly added cups full of water to the tank, in hopes of not shocking Auberon with the slight temperature and pH difference between the new water and the water in the tank. Before adding the water, I was sure to test the pH this time-- it measured 8.2 compared to the tank's approximate 8.3.

Auberon had no adverse reaction to this new way of changing the water and I find that it does not disrupt the tank as much doing it this way.

Another change to the tank this week is the photo period for the tank. When I first started the tank up, the timer would pop the lights on around 8 AM and then turn them off in the early afternoon. I have now split the photo period so the tank is lit in the morning and evening, but dark during the middle of the day. Auberon is still quite active during this "siesta" period and I'm hoping the change will be beneficial for the plants and that it may decrease the amount of algae growing on leaves. Having the tank lit this way also allows me to enjoy it later in the day, which I was missing out on before.

The First Week of September: Pictures & Parameters

Auberon's second week found him exploring his flower pots (though not hanging out in them for too long) and flaring at me for the first time. He remains active and inquisitive and, though he spends a bit more time hiding, still wiggles his way to the front of the tank to say hello when anyone passes by the tank. When he is out of sight, he is generally behind his driftwood, near the filter, or wriggling his way through the java moss. He has continued sleeping near the thermometer and spends a lot of his waking hours swimming around the suction cups of the heater, chasing his own reflection. I've entertained the idea of getting a Betta Bling hoop from ZooMed for a little kitsch and additional stimulation.  

  Auberon continues to have a healthy appetite and thoroughly enjoyed chasing and eating garlic soaked blood worms after his water change. In the future, when feeding frozen food, I will try to slice off the tiniest bit of the cube as not to waste or overfeed. I've read that many betta keepers also soak food in Vita Chem-- I'll add that to my shopping list.

With this week's water change, I did a little rearranging, moving the marimo moss balls around and adjusting the driftwood so there is more space between the filter and the wood which should lower the chance of Auberon getting trapped. I am noticing new growth on plants but also some algae (diatoms or bba?) on the Java ferns. With the next water change, I will remove some damaged leaves and try to wipe away some of the algae. I'll need to research further, but I may need to dose with some flourish or excel to keep the plants happy. 

...

I'm playing catch-up on recording my parameters here but, save for the last few days, things have been pretty steady. As per the advice I received on the aquarium sub-reddit, I've attempted to perform two small water changes a week however, I ended up removing a great deal more water than intended while vacuuming the substrate during my last water change. 

As I did with my first water change, I removed water and immediately (and rapidly) replaced it with some Prime treated water that I had aging in a bucket with some almond leaves. By using this water, and adding such a large quantity so quickly, I believe I may have shocked Auberon as he was swimming erratically a few hours after the change. 

Parameters: 8/27 - 9/7

Tested	8/27/16	8/29/16	8/31/16	9/1/16	9/3/16	9/5/16	9/5/16	9/7/16
							after pwc
PH	8.3	8.3	8.3	8.2	8.3	8.3	8.1	8.2
Ammonia	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm
Nitrite	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm
Nitrate	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	3 ppm	2 ppm
Action	1.5 ml stressguard		1 gal water change 2 ml stressguard			2 gal water change 2 ml stressguard

The drop in pH after water changes indicates that the water I'm adding has a lower pH (testing confirms this is true) and could definitely be responsible for Auberon's odd behavior. 

In the future, I will try removing less water and slowly adding new water to the tank as to not shock Auberon with the sudden change. Considering the water pH is not optimal, I really need to try and keep it as stable as possible. 

The Last Week of August: Pictures

After a water change, 8/31/16

        Auberon seems to be adjusting to his new home quite nicely. He is an active swimmer and has figured out that when the little hatch on the tank's lid opens, it's time to eat. 

We successfully completed our first water change and Auberon discovered the siphon is the most interesting thing in the world, second only to the turkey baster.

After completing a water changing and doing some tank maintenance, like blocking dangerous hiding spots and removing dying leaves, I fed Auberon his first frozen brine shrimp soaked in garlic water. He thoroughly enjoyed them and had, for the first time, some roundness to his belly. In the future, I will feed less in case a fully stomach might impact the delicate swim bladder.

Auberon is very curious about me and already swims to greet me at the front of the tank. He spends a great deal of time over by the heater and filter and I quite often catch him swimming between the stems of the Java fern. I have only seen him exploring the clay pots a handful of times and he does not hang out in them as I expected him to. He has taken to sleeping near the anubias above the clay pots or by the thermometer on the same side of the tank. He sleeps with his fins fully unfurled and is not easily roused except by light.

There has been no visible color change to his body and no remarkable healing to his fins.

The Homecoming

With the major water change I performed on Wednesday, and my nitrates measuring under 20 ppm, my tank was finally ready for a fish. On Wednesday evening, I set out in search of my Magnus or Grendel and instead I found Auberon.

I had imagined myself with a handsome blue betta, much like my regret fish Alfred, but tucked in the back of PetSmart's betta section, this grumpy, pale, little guy was purposefully swimming about in his tiny cup. 

Enchanted by his vivacity, despite the gross water he was swimming in, and by the slight iridescence that illuminated his little white body, I kept coming back to him over and over again.

After a lot of deliberation, I finally brought the little guy to the register. 

A whopping $6 later and he was mine.

It would be a bit before I was able to get him home and start acclimating him to his new environment and I felt terrible that I had not thought to bring a little Prime to bind the ammonia and make him temporarily a bit more comfortable in his cup. 

Had I thought about it, and felt like being a pest, I would have insisted that the PetSmart employees fix the situation for his journey-- after all, its the least they could do after making him live with rotting fish food in odoriferous water.

Acclimation was not perfect. It was only after I had started to add tank water to his little floating cup that it dawned on me that I should have tested the parameters (at least the pH and ammonia content) of the water he had been living in. I would have been curious to know what the ammonia concentration was with that rotting food in there-- I really wonder how long it had been since a water change had been done at PetSmart. 

I let his cup float for a few hours, slowing adding more and more tank water until the cup was nearly full (but with enough room for him to breathe) until, finally, I poured betta into a net (over a bucket, as not to get cup water in the tank) and set the net into the tank. It took him a few second to find his way out of the net, but as soon as he was out into open water, he was busy swishing around the tank.

 I acclimated and released with the lights off and didn't see Auberon in the light until the timer popped the bulb on in the morning. Under the light of the tank, he was even more beautiful than in the florescent light of the store. 

That iridescent teal shimmer I had seen in the daylight when I brought him outside after purchasing him was much more intense under my daylight bulb and featured hues of purple, pink, mauve and even yellow. 

His ethereal, diaphanous, appearance and fluttering double tail had me think of wings-- moth wings, butterfly wings, faerie wings, which lead me to name the little guy after the king of the faeries-- Auberon. 

He spent his first full day at home hunting the colony of copepods that had (almost miraculously) shown up in my tank. He was busy exploring, swimming to and fro, and almost giving me a heart attack showing me the dangerous places he could fit in the tank. 

Next water change, I'll do some rearranging to make sure there are no spots he can potentially wiggle into and get stuck. I'll also give the leaves of my anubias a trim since some are yellowing. 

I'm quite curious to see if any color intensifies or develops on the little guy especially because of that blue splotch on his dorsal fin. 

A few of his fin ray bones are exposed or damaged, mostly on his anal fin, so he has some healing to do but, overall, I think he's in pretty good shape. 

I figured he might not want to eat on his first day home, but I dropped a New Life Spectrum pellet in the tank anyway, and a minute or so later, when he discovered it floating over by the thermometer, he ate it. And then spit it up. And then ate it again. He's so tiny, I'm surprised the food would even fit in his mouth. 

I'm going to look into getting some frozen food for him and maybe another pellet food to add some variety. 

The video really shows how changeable Auberon's color is. Sometimes it seems like the different hues are just pulsing through him or like he's lit from within. 

So glad I took a chance on a pale betta rather than going with a traditional blue fish like I had intended!

Welcome home, Auberon!

The Fishless Cycle, Part II

Marimo moss balls added (8/13)

        The second half of my cycle was a bit more relaxed than the first half as I figured I was in for a long wait for the all the nitrites to convert to nitrates.

During the second week of the cycle, for the most part, I continued to test for nitrites and nothing else because I knew ~2 ppm ammonia was being converted to nitrites and I knew there were nitrates present, so really I was just waiting for the drop off in nitrites.

Tested	8/14/16	8/15/16	8/16/16	8/17/16	8/18/16	8/19/16	8/20/16
						did not test
PH	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	8.3		8.3
Ammonia	0 ppm	0 ppm	n/a	n/a	0 ppm		0 ppm
Nitrite	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm	5 ppm		0 ppm
Nitrate	20 ppm	n/a	n/a	n/a	80 ppm		40 ppm
Action	dosed with 5 drops	dosed with 5 drops	dosed with 5 drops	dosed with 5 drops	partial water change dosed with 5 drops		dosed with 5 drops

On the 18th, I performed a partial water change late in the day and dosed with ammonia before bed. I did not test the next day as I had dosed so late the day before, I knew my results would still show some ammonia. It was very surprising to find, when I finally tested early in the morning of the 20th, that just two weeks after I started the cycle, it appeared to be completed. The partial water change, it seems, jump started the cycle and got things moving a little faster.

To test that the tank had truly cycled, I dosed with ammonia after performing partial water changes, then checked the levels 24 hours later. Here's what I found:

Tested	8/21/16	8/22/16	8/23/16	8/24/16	8/24/16
					after water change
PH	8.3	8.3	8.3	8.3	n/a
Ammonia	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm
Nitrite	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm	0 ppm
Nitrate	80 ppm	80 ppm	40 ppm	20 ppm	5 ppm
Action	dosed with 6 drops	partial water change dosed with 7 drops	partial water change dosed with 3 drops	major water change	betta time :)

After watching the nitrite test tube turn purple instantly for so many days in a row, seeing it stay sky blue seemed almost magical, and with my nitrates finally below 20 ppm, it was time to consider finally adding a fish to the tank!

The final arrangement. Driftwood and anubias coffeefolia added 8/15