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

I was pretty much in the same spot you now find yourself in - this forum and the people on it are excellent - enjoy, and welcome

What size sponge filter did you have in there and how turned up did you have? I have a bunch of two footers for grow outs, and all have a large sponge filter in them turned up to max bubble rate - seems to be doing the job But if you only have smaller sponge filters, then yes, multiple will work for you.

I've got a couple of these little heaters I got to keep my females warm during the intro phase while they're in a beanie-type container. My Fishroom gets cool at night at the moment with the temps regularly dropping below 5C - and the nano's cant handle it. They don't seem able to maintain the 26C temp. I think their operational range is quiet small, unfortunately. Mine normally keep the water around room temp, so no lower than 18-19C, but that's not overly conducive to breeding, so I've given up on them for now. I'll pull them out again once the nightly temps stop dropping below 10C.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome to the forum Chad!

You might need to post some photos and let people know where you are if it's pickup only. You could also try the AusAqua FB page...or any of the numerous Betta Buy and Sell pages around on Facebook...good luck We have the wanted to buy or sell pages on the forum, but I'm not sure how much people look through there at the moment - forums going through a bit of a quiet period...but we spark up from time to time

Nice! Nothing wrong with filter over kill

If you attend the table show day/meet, then you will be well on your way

What's Jess' Betta breeding goals...we might be able to point her in the right direction for stock. As for the barracks, maybe Maddie, James, or Miss M will be better suited to throwing up suggestions (they sell the things )

Hey Will and mysteriously unannounced partner First good move - coming here - lots of excellent information and lots of excellent people with massive experience in breeding and raising Betta. Not all of them are around all of the time, but there's usually one or two who can help out with any of you, or your partners, questions Second fortunate move - being in Melbourne, you should take an evening and look in at the Vic Betta club. Lots of nice people, lots of information, and a good place to start getting together the items and cultures you'll need for starting your breeding programs Feel free to throw up Marine photos in the Coffee Shop (if we don't actually have a marine thread). We love photos, and we don't really care what fishy scene they depict - we'll be happy anyway Welcome to the forum!