Introducing Jazz the Siamese Fighting Fish

As an early Christmas present, my boyfriend bought a new betta for me!

This is Jazz, the newest addition to my fish family.

Jazz is a blue and white marble, long eared, halfmoon plakat siamese fighting fish (betta splenden.)

'Long eared' describes the long flowing pectoral fins which other breeds of betta splenden don't possess. It is not a very common fish, but that could potentially change as it may become the next 'big thing' for breeders to try and breed into their stock.

Plakat describes the shortened tail, dorsal and pelvic fins, and halfmoon describes the shape.

Marble describes how the colouring has been presented in this breed.

Jazz is living in our bedroom in a filtered and heated 4gallon tank.

To quote Mr Potato Head: "Prepare to meet - Mr Angry Eyes!"

Guppies guppies guppies!

My 19gallon planted tank has now taken quite a different turn than I expected. From a planted community tank, it is now possibly going to be a guppy tank!

Earlier on in the week I was asked if I wanted to take 10 baby guppies and I couldn't really say no. My boyfriend went this evening to pick them up and he was given strict instructions to try and make sure he got 10 males as I really don't want babies everywhere, and by the looks of it he did a pretty good job! They are of varying ages from 1-3months so it's not so easy to tell, but it seems like they could all be male. They are the sweetest little things and are currently acclimating as I type.

We have a few photos of them and their packaging I'll show you, and in a few days I'll put up photos of them settled in. 7 of the guppies are going into the planted tank, and three are going into a new small tank I have set up in my bedroom for a new future betta, and when he arrives, they'll join their brothers.

Here is the box and them in their bag.

Time to say hello!

Another thing which has been added to the tank is more plants. I had a little spending splurge on ebay this week, and have been buying things with moss on! Plus my beloved duckweed. I have wanted some for ages and it is one of those plants which people either love or hate. I'll give my final verdict on this little floating plants in a few weeks when it starts to take over my tank!

Log with moss:

Bamboo with moss:

Aaaand duckweed!:

This is where the baby guppies are now. Settling down to the new temperature and water parametres.

19g Planted Tank:

New Bedroom Betta Tank:

I am so so excited to watch these baby guppies grow and thrive in my tank. It may have made my plans for my community tank change, but I don't regret it in the slightest.

Snail boom.

....And with new plants comes snails!

Itty bitty tiny snails eating my algae. Although sounds useful, snails are asexual and very soon I fear they will have taken over the tank! Now it's snail pest control time :(

Diatoms Galore!

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS! I can't believe how quickly November has gone, and now how quickly I'm rattling through December. What is particularly exciting about Christmas however, is not only Christmas itself, but the fact that my tank is now officially 100% cycled and come the new year, ready for fish!

Well, perhaps not 100%, but it is certainly practically there. I still have the smallest traces of ammonia, zero nitrites and a nice amount of nitrates which have become established.

I believe the level of ammonia present will be due to me continuously adding old fish food to the tank to maintain the cycle and also the fact that since adding my new plants almost 2 weeks ago, some are (expectedly) doing a little bit of dying off.

The decaying of the plants will also help attribute to my ammonia levels. This teensy bit of ammonia isn't bothering me yet seen as I am not going to purchase any fish until the new year.

So this is what the tank is looking like now! And please, excuse all the algae on the glass.

The tank is in a nice bright spot in my kitchen, has had brand new high voltage light bulbs and I've not bothered to do any maintenance on keeping the glass clean. The reason for this being, is that one type of fish I wish to populate my tank with is otocinclus. Ottos are complete algae lovers, and although you can supplement their diet with algae wafers and various veggies, having some (/a lot) of naturally grown algae in your tank is a good idea for when you first get them. They shall clear that all up quickity quick.

Besides the plants, my tank hasn't been exactly devoid of life. For the last few weeks my tank has been home to loads of little squiddly widdlies (a pet name). I believe they are possibly nematodes or even midge fly larvae. They squirm around my tank for a week or two and then suddenly I have a load of little dead fly all over the surface of the water.

Completely unharmful to fish (if anything the fish'd happily eat them) and have been relatively amusing to watch. I believe I have them since I kept the tank in the kitchen for months with a small amount of water sitting in it and no lid. Now that there is a lid, all the emerging midges are dying on the surface for there is no way to escape and not being able to lay any more eggs. So our neighbouring squiddly widdlies should soon all die out. I must admit, I'm not going to miss the constant midge fishing every morning...

ROLL ON 2012!...