Here I am going to present some of my favorite betta books in my collection. Having good, solid resources to fall back on is the best way to up your betta game! The internet is not always the most reliable source of information. It is always better to go to serious hobbyists that have tried and true knowledge.
Here I am going to present some of my favorite betta books in my collection. Having good, solid resources to fall back on is the best way to up your betta game! The internet is not always the most reliable source of information. It is always better to go to serious hobbyists that have tried and true knowledge.
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I was getting frustrated with my male's apparent incompetence at raising large numbers of fry to free-swimming. I finally decided to bite the bullet and try artificial hatching. My first attempt was an abject failure! Despite picking out the obvious bad eggs morning and night, the entire spawn eventually dissolved into some truly disgusting smelling goop. It was so sad to see the eggs with obvious back bones and eyes just go caput over night. I'm happy to report that my next attempt appears to be a success! (So far). I bought some methylene blue and added one drop to a shallow cup of water floating in the parents' tank. Lots of little ones bobbing around today. It seems as if the larger the burdigala become, the BIGGER their spawns get...there must be at least 40 eggs in there. We'll see how many fry make it!
It's been a while since I've tried taking pictures with my point and shoot. I love taking it with me to travel - it's so compact, and takes quite good pictures actually. Especially things that stay still! For example, here is a macro shot of a little slender salamander we found. Although the sharpness and resolution is quite good (after playing with the settings a little bit...macro setting (the little flower), adjust white balance, etc) the only problem is that trying to take pics of rapidly moving subjects is extremely difficult. Like bettas when they are in full flaring mode! As long as they are posing, it isn't too much of a problem.
After posting the "how to train show fish" video, a great breeder in Hawaii told me that she never cards her fish, and yet the flare very nicely at the shows. I decided to try partially carding my fish, so that they are able to retreat from the gaze of their neighbors, but also engage in when they want to. You can see that the card allows for the top 2-3" of the jar for viewing. The fish seem to be even happier and more active. They can choose to rest at the bottom, or flare up top. They seem to flare periodically throughout the day, without exhibiting signs of exhaustion to stress. I still get an aggressive flare response when I remove the card, which is ideal for showing. I may still fully card them right before sending them to a show, but for maintenance purposes, this works very nicely!
I decided to make a short updated video on how I harvest and feed grindal worms. I have found that swirling the worm suspension allows the heaviest and largest grindal worms to collect in the middle, leaving the medium-sized and small worms in the periphery. This way I can feed the correct size of grindal worm to any size fish.
Indian Almond Leaves = Less Water Changes? Due to the extreme drought in California, I decided to take a tip from my awesome betta friends Larissa and Minh and try to use a lot of IAL to extend the time between water changes. My fish seem to thrive in these conditions - lots of bubblenests, flaring, and egging up! Our extremely soft SF water (negligible kH and gH) allows the pH to plummet to <5 with the addition of IALs, and supposedly the low pH binds the ammonium into a non-toxic form. It also effectively sterilizes the water. Few fish are able to withstand these extreme conditions, but this is exactly the habitat that most bettas hail from. So far, I haven't done water changes in 2 weeks and the fish are doing great!
I decided to create some IAL extract to ease the transition during water changes. The idea is that I can take a small amount of super concentrated extract and add it to the new water, immediately lowering the pH and preventing pH shock. I read several articles on IAL (I will do a short literature review of them in the future - very interesting research being done!) and decided to both boil and water extract the IAL. I boiled a ton of IAL leaves in a stainless steel pot for about 4 hours, replacing the evaporated water every time it got half empty. This way, the water became almost black. I got out about a gallon of black water. I then sealed it in a jar with even more freshly ground up IAL added to it, to extract further the compounds that may be damaged by boiling. (I do not think that boiling disturbs the extract's ability to lower pH). I tested it out when I did a small water change on some of the fry, and it really colored the water up well with only a very small amount. I was able to match the color of the spawn tank water very easily. I need a better way of measuring pH to ensure that the extract is able to drop the pH as well. Hope you're having a betta day! A successful experiment to get a foster dad to take care of abandoned eggs!
Having wayyyy to much fun with these tube extenders! Tube extenders are the poor man's way to get cool macro shots. I got my Fotodiox Macro Tube Extension Kit for Nikon from Amazon for only $12!
There are several lengths of tubes that come with it. You have to be very gentle when you screw them onto your lens and camera, otherwise they might jam (they are cheap for a reason). You must use manual focus since your lens will no longer directly connected to your camera. Make sure to have a LOT of light! It automatically sets at f22, which means that you will need a ton of light to avoid underexposure. I bought an awesome (and cheap!) tube extension kit from Amazon, and had a LOT of fun playing with it! It's like having a microscope on your lens! Be really careful when you screw the tube extenders to your lens and camera. You can only use manual focus because the lens is no longer attached directly to the camera, and it will automatically set to f22 (which means you need a LOT of light!)
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