Brenton

sorry for your loss

Hi Zena Welcome to the forum!

Easy now Jay, you'll do a fetlock if you're not careful

Hi Ineke I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say you know Jay He contacted me recently about his "shrimp mama" and her wish to give Betta a go in SA - welcome to the forum...you've come to the right place! Unfortunately, lavender jumbo (or big ear, or ee) plakats aren't my specialty. I'm located in the northern suburbs and am currently playing with Crowntail plakat lines and a line of white doubletail plakats. Feel free to look me up on Facebook See you around the boards BT

Dial on top should equal thermostat I think. My room is insulated so it tends to stay a little warmer anyway. If you don't have insulation in the roof or walls, you can always insulate the tank with polystyrene or wrap it with towels.

Ah - I stopped heating my Fishroom because it got too expensive. I only have heaters in my tanks now. During winter, the room temp drops considerably overnight into the low teens but the tanks stay above 26C...the spawning tanks are stable at 28 all the time. My spawn tanks are only 20L tanks and I use 50W heaters in them along the back wall. Are your heaters thermostatically controlled or hard coded to a set temp?

Welcome Paul. Any reason for turning the heater off overnight?

Hi Morgan I like the idea of shrimp in a small planted tank somewhere in the kitchen or lounge...maybe one day Welcome back!

All good things, my friend...

Speaking of Razzi projects...hows the racks in the Fishroom going?

Rugs on the floor would help, and you can take them with you if you move. Wardrobe is cool - like a mini room - get some Velcro dots and stick up polystyrene on the inside of the robe. When it comes time to move, no mess left behind And stick some polystyrene to the tanks outside the robe to keep them stable. The insulation will keep the heat in during winter, but you want it to dissipate in summer, so make sure you can remove anything you put on. Get some snap lock sandwich bags and fill them with treated water and put them in the freezer - you may need them in summer to cool the fellas down when it gets hot. A pedestal fan blowing across the water surface helps as well. Make some tank lids out of flyscreen so you can still cover the tanks (remember these guys jump).

got all excited then for a second, I thought Yan was back... Plants - calling what I do aquascaping is a long stretch of the bow, but for what it's worth - Anubias are my staple plant. I have some peacock moss, but everything else are silk to add extra breakage of line of sight. I have a number of different sorts of Anubias so it doesn't all look the same...but then the plants aren't in my tanks to look nice - just to use up some of the waste from the fish and provide shelter and somewhere to sleep

As Raz said - insulate the tanks and check your temps throughout the day and evening...and if you happen to get up during the night for any reason, go ahead and pop in then too Is it your house or a rental? I ask as ceiling insulation is a big thing in keeping your Fishroom warm. Hot air rises and if there's no insulation in the roof, it will escape. Drafts under the door in or through the sides of the windows also needs to be addressed. Glass is a huge heat conductor, so as your room heats up, windows will let it straight out (or in during summer for the reverse problem of over heating). Shades a good, shutters a re better. At a minimum, cut a piece of polystyrene to insulate the window and tape it to block off drafts if need be (and you're not fussed about how it looks). Then insulate the tanks. Wrapping towels around and over the top of your tanks will quickly let you know if this will fix your fluctuating temp issues. If the towels work, then move to stick polystyrene to your tanks.

Yep - excellent topic to be interested in - will keep you busy for many years to come As Raz asked - anything in particular or just genetics in general?

Welcome to the forum - looking forward to the pics - we're all voyeurs here