So about a week ago, I posted a video where I did an unboxing of new plants and a few other items from Aquarium Co-op. But as I have heard enough horror stories of people introducing things into their aquariums that were harmful to their pets that came off of new plants, I did a little week-long quarantine to make sure I didn't see anything coming off them. I wasn't expecting anything bad, since ACO has a great reputation and all, but I wanted to be extra safe for my fish and snail friends. :)
After a week, I called it good and planted the new plants in the tank!
My main impetus for adding new plants was to hopefully foster peace between CuChulainn, my spicy betta fish, and Macha, one of the two nerite snails (Sanglainn is the other and CuChulainn mostly leaves him alone). CuChulainn sometimes fixates on Macha really hard and flares at her, wiggles his butt and fins at her, and even has booped her shell a few times that I've seen with his face (and one time he faceplanted doing that ...yes, I have it on video, lol).
He hasn't hurt her, her antennae are intact (one of the reasons I chose nerite snails over mystery snails, which is what I was thinking of getting at first, was because I had heard of some bettas nipping at the antennae of mysteries because they are really long). But at least two of those boops to her shell nudged her on the glass and I really don't want him to knock her off at any point and then go after her if she lands on her back. Not to mention, I think the fixated flaring isn't good for him; the color on the black part of his fins seems a bit faded, and that can be a sign of stress. Flaring a lot can be stressful for bettas, so I worry about him, too.
CuChulainn flaring at Macha while she's monching any traces of algae on the glass
Thankfully, he hasn't seemed to be as fixated on her lately, but also, she hasn't been on the glass as much, which is the only place where it happens. If she's on the rocks, gravel, plants, decorations, anything else ...he leaves her alone. It's only when she's up on the glass that he turns into Flarey macFlarepants. I don't know if she's been off the glass because she and Sanglainn cleared off most of the algae already, or if it's because of those times he booped her shell and now she knows Mr. Boopensnoot bothers her there.
Anyway, after searching on the internet for solutions that hopefully would work without having to get a second tank and separate them, the advice was to add more things, especially plants, to the aquarium. More interesting things to interact with, more hiding spots for the snails, more line-of-sight breaks so that maybe he doesn't notice her if she goes up on the glass.
And I love plants anyway, so you didn't have to tell me twice. :)
This tall skinny guy with the wavy leaves will hopefully be a big guy once he recovers. He's called aponogeton crispus, and is the fastest grower I've added to the tank yet. However, they are prone to melt when you first get them, which totally happened; several leaves came off already. But they say what you are buying is the roots, because they should bounce back and be healthy. My hope is that he will spread out and be tall and mostly cover that side wall of the glass which is very reflective, both cutting down on that (bettas may also flare at their reflection, though I haven't seen CuChulainn do that yet) and providing snail cover for when they are up on that wall.
I also added two Anubias nana petite plants, which are smaller cousins of the big one with the broad green leaves you can see in these photos as well. One is up front, next to the marimo moss balls that have been in there a long time, and one is in the middle kind of hiding behind a rock and an Amazon sword which has also been in the tank for some time. CuChulainn has been hanging out with these plants a lot; I think he likes to hide behind them or feel their leaves.
And finally, what I'm calling "the grasslands": I planted a bunch of cryptocoryne parva in this big open space in the front, which I hope will spread out and carpet the area. It may take some time, but that's fine by me! I just think it would look cool and be an interesting space for them to snail or swim through a "grassy" area.
I also finally re-introduced spider plant babies to the tank! I had tried to float them in that fish-shaped cookie cutter at first, but they kept flopping over so the leaves would be in the water and they would melt. So I took them out of the tank for a while, but then in this order I also got this feeding cone. It says that it's good for feeding worms, and my brain wasn't thinking clearly because the frozen food I got for CuChulainn is brine shrimp, which is a different shape and so wouldn't poke out of the holes in the right way, and the bloodworms I have are freeze dried, so they float, not sink. But it turned out to be a fortuitous purchase, because it's perfect for keepting the spider plants upright so they can live in the tank again! Hooray!
For plant fertilizers, I have root tabs for the swords and crypts, and two liquid fertilizers: Leaf Zone from API and Easy Green from Aquarium Co-op (also a new purchase) for the water column feeders. One betta and two snails isn't a very heavy bio-load, so I figure the plants need additional fertilizers.
So here's hoping that CuChulainn, Macha, and Sanglainn like the new plants as much as I do. :) Learning about aquarium plants has been really fun for me.
Here is Sanglainn, staying out of the drama ;)
Thanks for reading! :)
