D-34 cleanout

I had to throw away all the clams and snails

They were not making my tank cleaner but polluting it so much that

My fish had almost died

They made so much waste and did not clean up anything

After throwing out the snails and clams Jessica seemed much happier

And made a huge bubble nest

I think might be moving on to just blogging about my life instead of

Blogging about my fish.


Stay tuned!

D-21 Algaes

At last my algae shipment has arrived , it came in a small envelope.
They were much smaller than I thought they would be but then all is good because my tank is very small and I had to cut most of them in half to fit it in my tank.


My mini aquariam is starting to look more complete with some greens in it.
These algaes are suppose to grow very fast and the seller stated that I would need
alot of trimming to do. Hopefully It grows enough so I can share this with my girlfriend's aquarium as well.





It was very difficult to plant these algaes into my small pebble box. I hope they can grow well in pebbles because I do not want to introduce any dirt in to my tank.
I might need to scoop some fine sand from a nearby lake or creek.




Jessica seems to be loving its new plants. Its exploring around, hiding between the plants, taking a bite and just loving it!

D-19 Arrival of Clean up Crew!

The cleanup crew , clams snails , and shells have arrived
only 2 came dead and rest seemed okay!
I was hoping the shipment was for the aquatic plant but hopefully these shellfishes
will keep Jessica's home abit more cleaner and enjoyable for him.



the box!



eeeeeeeeeergh yuck this was very stinky and gross, smelled very salty when they were suppose to be good for fresh water tanks...



a lone ranger Jessica, must miss his love as well; as he is staring at the heart.



welcome the new aquatic family, who will eat off Jessica's waste and leftover food



Jessica seems very puzzled and frightend with the arrival of the new family







Jessica seemed very cautious and abit frightend with these new shell fishes in his tank. perhaps because it used to love hiding between the rocks but then now all the spaces are filled with these shells . He kept floating near the surface and avoided staying low near the shells and clams.

We'll have to wait and see the results if the cleanup crew actually cleans up the mess or not. Because so far the clams and shells have been emiting these white little pieces of unknown things and actually made the tank messier so far...
but we'll have to wait and see.

D15 Clean up time

Today was my day off so I decided to clean-out Jessica's Aquarium

Not much response from the conditioning just yet.


Guide to changing fish tank water:
OI
1. Pour half of your tank water into another bowl/tank/ I used a bucket that used to hold bungeecords




also pour your betta fish into this new bowl.




2. Pour the rest of the water down the drain


3.Clean the tank and rocks with fresh water



redo until it is clean





4. Use an old brush or a cloth to wipe the tank clean for any debris build up!



5. Now fill half the tank with fresh new water and add the recommended amount of
tap water neutralizer. (this time i did not use one because I was provided with some extra water when I had made this purchase!)



6. Dip the Calcium neutralizer for about 10 mins to neutralize any acidic materials
in the water



7. DONE! Sparklin Shine!!! Jessica is once again a Happy Camper!

D7~14 busy

I had neglected Jessica for few days and wasnt able to feed it for 3 days. It resulted in disappearing of the bubble nests, but after nurturing him well,
tbubbles had reappeared (:


I have not been able to blog for the past week I have been busy with
exams and my girlfriend x)
today marks day 7 of our conditioning project.

Jessica seems to be responding to not the visuals but, whenever I get near by
he seems to get excited and come up to the surface of the water.




Jessica staring at the chessboard visuals.




Jessica says : Good Morning sunshine x)


It has been two weeks since Jessica has joined the family, I should clean the tank
and give it some clean water this wednesday.

the water seems to be getting dirty :(

D-7 Sleeping disorder?

Jessica sleeping in his tank



Seems like Jessica has adapted his owner's sleeping disorders.
As his lights are letft on for about 20Hrs a day
because I usually go to bed around 4AM in the morning.

I should cover the tank once again during night time so Jessica can enjoy normal sleep patterns.

As you can see in the picture below he was sleeping already at 9PM when all my lights were on... He must be very tired.

Betta fish should be getting plenty of sleep.
Imitating an environment with 12 hours of daylight
12 hours of night time is recommended.





Today also marks day 2 of my conditioning experiment.

I first flashed the checkedboard to Jessica for about 2 mins,then I took the images away and gave him the goods.

I tried to keep the food at the highest point of the water as possible, so Jessica has to make the trip to the top of the water.

I repeated this step twice at one occasion to embrace the conditioning.






The presence of Bubble Nests are more distinct now ,
as they have been piling up on one corner of the tank!




Jessica says: Hell0 World!



Song of the day: Hello I love you - Ima Robot
download link:

D-5~6 Classical Conditioning

(black thing behind is my heater replacement)

Classical Conditioning is where you present a subject with a neutral stimulus followed directly by a significant stimulus (or reward, ex.food).

This should result in the subject to behave a certain way, when presented first with a neutral stimulus. here is a good example:





Through some googling ,I found out that fishes too have 5 senses of :
1. Vision
2. Smell
3. Hearing
4. Touch
5. Taste

Apprently fishes have superb vision. Although it may look like theres a mirror effect going on if you try to see the side of the tank from the inside, fishes can see clearly through the tank. You could test this statement by putting your head inside the tank , or you can just take my word for it :D.

Procedure:

1. For my conditioning experiement I have printed out a simple checker/chess board image to use as the visual (neutral) stimulus image is available for download below



2. As for the significant stimulus I have here some frozen bloodworms
their favorite treat




Hypothesis:

If conditioning is sucessful, when Jessica or (Sica as his more masculine short form name) is visually presented with the checkerboard all around his tank, he should be
comming up to the surface of the water to eat his food.

I will be conducting the experiement starting today and will be posting
updates starting tomorrow :D

Photographed by WSK Canon SX120 IS 6-60mm

D-4 Bubble Nests

Photographed by WSK Canon SX120 IS 6-60mm

Bubble nests started to appear on the surface of my fish tank
These bubbles mean that your betta fish is happy to be your fish!

I haven't been able to see much activity of Sica today beacuse I was out all day
But in general it seems to be adapting well to its new home as we can see alot of bubble build up on the surface of the pool.

Last night I have ordered an aqua plant and clean up crew (clams , muscles & snails)
they should be arriving in about 2-3 weeks .

Live plants are useful because :
1. they provide hiding spots for your betta fish
2. they create oxygen for your tank and betta fish
3. they make awesome decoration for your fish tank

clams,snails,muscles will be useful for keeping your tank cleaner , as they feed off
your fish waste and moss created in your tank.

D-1 ~ 3

I have just purchased my Betta the fighting fish 2 Days ago on July 12th

his name is Jessica (lol)

I have started off with a simple Betta Kit ($16)
including a 1/2 Gallon square tank, some pebbles , 3 round rocks
1 bottle of tap water treatment, 1 bottle of pellet food
the betta itself light peach in color for ($20)
a pack of frozen bloodworms ($7)
one calcium frog ($2)for a total of $50.4

to better meet its tropical conditions, without getting a heater

I have left my tank near the sun whenever I could. When I am more ready financially I should be upgrading to a larger tank and add a heater because betta fishes need to be kept at temperatures around 25 degrees celcius.

At night time I placed my laptop adapter in contact with the tank so the hot adapter can transfer some heat to the fish tank.






Photographed by WSK Canon SX120 IS 6-60mm