tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75563048097231661832024-03-12T18:11:36.732-07:00Polly RamblesPolly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-51564916396407785842017-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:002017-04-05T12:21:58.668-07:00Art guitar tips #1I believe that an art guitar that is not playable is not a guitar, and therefore you have failed to create an art guitar.<br />
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So, tips: Mod Podge will NEVER dry hard enough to sand it. Since sanding down the board is a very important part of the process of keeping it playable, don't use modpodge on the soundboard. <br />
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This has been a PSAPolly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-54725616868951304562017-03-27T20:07:00.001-07:002017-03-27T20:07:37.604-07:00Greg DetailsCanvas Guitars made good guitars for like two years and then disappeared entirely, so finding info on them is hard.<br />
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This bass is fucking heavy. Not joking around. I thought it was just heavy because I was lugging it around high school when I was 17, but no, it's actually heavy.<br />
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All the hardware on this is actually really nice quality. <br />
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The thing that drives people insane about this guitar, when they see it, is that the top wasn't done in a reversed figure, so there's this chunk where the wood grain abruptly changes.<br />
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And it goes on to the back too.<br />
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Apart from being really heavy and a sort of awkward spot on the joining at the neck that my friend one time made fun of in 11th grade, it's a really solid guitar. It's currently got flat-wound strings on it which is sort of like playing bass on the most satisfying thing ever.<br />
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The one thing to note is that while it's a totally fine volume, this bass does not get Hella Loud like you need if you're playing screamo or something. It's a bit more of a jazzy bass than a death metal bass. It's got the full 24 frets and a deep cutout for all those fun high-fret things. Super jumbo frets make it easy to play and to hear yourself articulate.<br />
This bass weighs about the same as my harp. It's heavy, like 11lbs or seomthing<br />
This was the first musical instrument that tiny me saved up for and bought with my own money, so I want it to go to someone who will love it. Mostly it just needs to go to someone who will play it. I just don't do that enough anymore. <br />
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<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-4090711124950620152017-03-27T19:51:00.001-07:002017-03-27T19:51:13.584-07:00Hannah detailsLike I said, the pink s-type usually goes for about $50ish. Some people charge extra for "patent war" models, but it's not something that makes the guitar itself better. It's just a guitar that happened to be made at the same time that Fender was suing Johnson for being too similar to the Fender patent.<br />
The only thing that Johnson changed after the lawsuit was the shape of the headstock.<br />
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That chunk missing at the top is the only thing that makes this guitar a Patent War one and not a regular one. I cannot in any kind of fairness charge someone I know more for a guitar where someoneone lazily reshaped the headstock on a belt sander.<br />
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Blue tape's there because that last fret sticks up and the high E gets stuck there while you strum. This problem can also be solved with less obtrusive tape. The butterflies and hearts come off cleanly and the neck's got the standard dot inlay underneath. <br />
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That nut on the jack and the internal nut underneath it aren't stock. The originals fell off before I bought it, and I had to find replacements. Those replacements will not fucking fall off, made sure of it.<br />
I don't have the trem arm or the spring that some say should go under the trem arm, but it takes stock pieces for that and last time I checked it was about $12 for the two. <br />
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Bridge springs are in really good shape, but aren't dampened. I've never had a problem with that, but it's an easy mod.<br />
The knobs on the front work, but they're a loose turn that "well it just doesn't feel like a fender" as a stranger once mansplained to me BECAUSE APPARENTLY I DIDN'T KNOW MY $40 BRIGHT PINK JOHNSON S-TYPE WASN'T A $1300 STRATOCASTER or something.<br />
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This is from back when Johnson used EMG pickups in their guitars instead of their shitty Johnson brand ones that are in all their guitars now. <br />
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Anyway, other than that, nothing else to disclose about it. It's a nice guitar for the quality range. Weighs nearly exactly the same as my dad's 78 Fender Strat, so just grab your nearest one of those and you'll know exactly what it feels like.<br />
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Beth's borrowed this guitar for several weeks and played it, so you can get her input if you want. <br />
<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-36945619328403374632017-02-19T12:17:00.003-08:002017-02-19T12:22:24.322-08:00Bonus post: How to change a micro tank or small bowl.I don't currently have a micro tank or a betta bowl, but I have a buttload of experience keeping betta bowls maintained <i>(thank you, Craft Warehouse, F you, Craft Warehouse, stop selling fish. They're not craft supplies, and they're not just "product and numbers" in the words of my manager, the words that made me quit that job).</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Big big big, important note: different fish have different needs. It is possible to keep a betta fish in a bowl larger than a gallon without negatively impacting their life. It is not possible to keep a goldfish in a bowl without making the fish really sick and cutting its lifespan in half. This post does not apply to any fish other than betta fish.</b></i></span> <br />
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You're going to run into people who say you can't keep betta fish in bowls. Most of them have never tried, and they're just parroting information they hear on the internet. I, personally, get more enjoyment out of watching fish who have swimming space and a low-stress life, so I keep my fish in larger tanks. However, if you've decided that you want to keep a fish in a bowl, I think it's important to have some useful and correct information out there.<br />
The first thing I want to say, though, is that I have maintained a lot of fish in a lot of fish in bowls ranging from .5 to 2.5 gallons, and I do not think it is possible to meet a betta fish's survival needs in a bowl or tank smaller than one gallon. The difference in fish health between living in 1.5 gallons versus living in 0.75 gallons is easily visible.<br />
If you've already got a 0.25 gallon betta cube and you want to keep something in it, look into planaria, the only pet you can cut in half to make two of them. Other great pets for a betta cube include m&m's and plastic dinosaurs.<br />
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I'm going to be kind of harsh here. In a bigger tank, you get a little more flexibility with what you want to do, and you get a little more flexibility with how you want to care for it. When you've moved your fish down to the smallest container possible for it to stay alive, you need to be ready to provide everything you need to keep it alive.<br />
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First, if you're doing a betta bowl or a micro tank (tank under 2.5-3 gallons), you need certain things when you set it up:<br />
<ol>
<li>A bowl that is as big as you can physically pick up and move around when it's full. It needs to hold a gallon or larger, or it's too small for the fish. If it's too heavy for you to move, you're never going to clean it on a regular schedule. If you can't find a bowl that's over a gallon, but light enough for you to move, either get a lighter bowl and a lighter decor, or get a 5-gallon and a filter. <b>I cannot stress enough that it is actually much easier to maintain a 5-gallon tank than it is to maintain a small bowl. </b>Less stress on you, less stress on your fish. </li>
<li>A heater that you trust. Before you buy a heater, look up reviews of it. There's some heaters marketed especially for bowls that overheat and kill fish. The less water you have, the more quickly an overheat will kill someone. <b>The basic rule is the less water you have, the less room you have for things to go wrong.</b> Your heater needs to keep the tank at roughly 78 degrees. A small bowl or tank is going to be colder than the room temperature, and very likely to get too cold if you turn the heating off or the air conditioner on. You can't let your room regulate your temperature. You need to heat it yourself.</li>
<li><b>NO FILTER. </b>That's right. Unless it's three gallons or larger, no filter. Look back to #2 and read that bold text again. Betta fish have an adaptation that allows them to live in a higher ammonia environment than most other fish. They don't have that same resistance to nitrite. Nitrite is also, on its own, more toxic than ammonia. If you don't have enough water in your tank, your cycle will crash, and it will make nitrite. Among the many things that a filter does, it makes it easier for you to take care of a mini ecosystem in your tank. <b>If you want a micro tank or a betta bowl, you need to be ready to change the water once or twice a week. </b>Once again, a bowl is harder to maintain than a 3-5 gallon tank. </li>
<li>Easy to remove, easy to clean substrate. The poop goes into the gravel, and you're going to have to get it out. My favorite substrate for a bowl is glass rocks or marbles. You want the ones that are the diameter of a quarter, or smaller. If you want big rocks, you need small rocks to fill in the gaps, because for some reason betta really like to get stuck under rocks. They like getting stuck. They don't really like the subsequent death. <b>Whatever rocks you use, you need to be able to take them all the way out and wash them off, and wash the bowl out. </b>You can use gravel and a strainer, if you want. You can also have just a bare bottom of your tank. That's all up to you, but you need to be able to remove all of your substrate and wash it. Sand is really bad for betta bowls.</li>
<li>Enough places for your betta to hide. Being in a small, clear bowl does not make your fish feel any less exposed than being in a large, empty tank. <b>Betta need some form of cover, or they get stressed out and more vulnerable to sickness.</b> You need a cave they can't get stuck in Flower pots that are unglazed or glazed with non-metallic high-fire glaze work well if you lay them on their sides. Plants that can't scratch them and that won't rot in the water are a good thing, too. I like weighted silk plants. </li>
<li>Nothing else polluting their water. Live plants are pretty, but <b>live plants in a bowl do not filter the bowl. Live plants in your betta bowl may make the conditions in the bowl much worse. <u><i>Plants do not filter your water. PLANTS DO NOT FILTER YOUR WATER</i></u></b>. Lucky bamboo and peace lilies are both land plants, and they need to have their leaves exposed to the air. All live plants can have parts that die, break off, and rot. When you clean your bowl or microtank, you're going to take everything that's in it, out. This can stress out the plant and make roots break off, or just make your plant die. Dead plant bits are just adding to the shit you have to clean out of the tank. </li>
<li>Food and respiration space. Betta fish need to take gulps of air from the surface of their water. It feeds their labyrinth organ, which is sort of like a lung. This is the adaptation that helps them live in higher ammonia environments than some other fish.<b> If they can't get air from the surface, they die</b>. The surface of their water needs to be mostly clear, with space to allow oxygen to reach the surface. This means that, while pretty, putting a peace lily on top of a betta bowl is a bad idea. Also, betta fish don't live off the roots of the peace lilies in the plants. They're carnivores. If you've seen a betta in a peace-lily-on-top setup biting at the roots, it's usually because it's starving to death and willing to try anything. <b>A betta's body is unable to eat and get nutrients from plant roots in the same way our body isn't able to eat and get nutrients from plastic soda bottles. </b>You need to give your fish actual food made from actual meat.</li>
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Setting up some of this might be inconvenient and some of this might be hard or expensive. That's really tough luck for you, there. If you've been informed about the basic needs of your fish and decided that not going to meet the basic needs of your fish, you don't deserve a fish. You don't deserve a pet. They're not a right, and if you can't take care of yours and you can't find someone who will, it's a privilege that you don't get.<br />
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So, you've got your bowl set up? Good. Now, it's time to clean it.<br />
<ul>
<li>Grab your ammonia test kit (YOU NEED AN AMMONIA TEST KIT. It really doesn't matter if it's expensive and you don't want to spend that much money. Trying to maintain a bowl without owning an ammonia test kit, "because it's expensive," is like trying to store food in a refrigerator that isn't plugged in "because electricy costs a lot." Someone's going to get sick because of what you're doing and they're going to die). Do a test on your water. If your ammonia is above .5ppm, you know that it's been too long since your last water change. You need to do a water change when your ammonia goes above 0.5 OR when you see crap accumulating on the bottom OR once a week, whichever comes first. After a while of testing, you're going to have a good idea of when you need to change your water, but you should still do a test before each change. As your fish grows up, gets healthier, gets sicker, water gets warmer, water gets cooler, the ammonia production will change. <br />A good rule to go by: If you tested your water and it was 1ppm, and you haven't done a change for 12 days, you should change your water and check it again in 6 days. If you test your water 6 days later and your ammonia is below 0.5ppm, you need to do your next change in 6-7 days. Your ammonia test will give you an exact answer for the question of how many days should you go between changes. </li>
<li>Cup your fish. You can use the cup you got him in, or any other clean cup that you save for that purpose. Get him out of the bowl and put him somewhere where you can keep an eye on him, won't knock him over, and where the cat won't see him.</li>
<li>Unplug your heater. You can let it cool for about half an hour, or grab another cup full of water and stick the heater in that to cool off while you clean the bowl.</li>
<li>Take the whole bowl to the sink of your choice. Scoop out some water first, if you need to. You can also use the bathtub if you don't like using a food sink. You can use your garden hose outside if you don't like using your bathtub.</li>
<li>Pull out your castles and plants and other things and set them aside. </li>
<li>Use a bucket or a large bowl or a colander that you use only for fish, and pull all your substrate out. Try to get as much rocks and as little water as you can. Dump the rest of the water out of the bowl. </li>
<li>Do not use soap on anything at all. No soap. Don't even wash your hands with soap until you've finished the whole change and made sure your fish buddy's okay. </li>
<li>Rinse out the bowl. Using a paper towel or your hand, wipe the inside of the bowl to get any extra gunk out, and then rinse it again. </li>
<li>Rinse off the rocks and all your decoration. Grab your now-cooled heater and rinse that off as well. </li>
<li>Fill the bowl halfway with water that's roughly the same temperature as the temperature in the cup your fish is in. If your heater goes under your rocks, put it in place. Don't just dump all the rocks into an empty glass bowl, or you can break it. You can do it a handful at a time, or fill up the bowl some of the way before dumping the rocks in. </li>
<li>Either decorate the bowl the way you usually do, or take the bowl to where it lives, and then decorate it.</li>
<li>Fill the bowl up all the way. Match the temperature of the water to the temperature of the cup your fish is in. Put conditioner into your water. (I like to fill the bowl with tap water, and then put the conditioner in. I like to pretend that the chlorine in the water kills some of the remaining bacteria in the bowl. I objectively know it doesn't, but it makes me feel good and it doesn't hurt anything)</li>
<li>Put your fingers over the top of his cup like a screen, and dump all the water out of the cup without dumping the fish out. Immediately dump the fish into the bowl. This makes sure that you don't add high-ammonia water back into the bowl.</li>
<li>Look at your fish and tell him he's pretty. Watch for a couple minutes to make sure he's breathing okay. If his breathing is very labored and doesn't settle down after two minutes, take him out and figure out how a toxin could get into his water. Change all the water again.</li>
</ul>
Can you keep a betta fish healthy in a bowl? Should you do it? That's really up to you, and up to your fish. If your fish is sick in these conditions, then you need to be ready to move him. See above about fish are not a right.<br />
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And there you go. Sorry for no pictures, but I'm not at a point in my life right now where my lifestyle gives me enough free time to maintain a high-maintenance thing like a micro tank, so I couldn't take any.<br />
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Take care of your fish, and they'll make you happy.<br />
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😃Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-2594877894416336702017-02-19T10:33:00.004-08:002017-02-19T10:37:35.795-08:00A tale of three betta water changes, #1, when it's all rightI did the legendary Triple Water Change Extravaganza today, and all three tanks that I have ended up being very different. Since I know some folks have questions about when do I have to water change, why do I have to water change, how much do I have to water change, and all the rest, time for not one, not two, but three blog posts about changing water. <br />
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Those of you who don't keep up with my many betta fish (HOW DARE YOU) might not remember little Cinco, the fish who can't swim (and also isn't all that small).<br />
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Cinco is in a 5 gallon tank with a highly restricted sponge filter. He has a submersible, adjustable, 25w glass heater.<br />
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So, first question: Why do I have to water change?<br />
<ul>
<li>If your tank has a filter, your water change is largely to remove nitrate generated by your nitrogen cycle</li>
<li>If your bowl does not have a filter, your water change is to remove ammonia generated by your fish</li>
<li>You also remove solid wastes from the water while you change the water</li>
<li>If your cycle failed, you need to do a water change to remove other toxins that build up</li>
<li>If something bad gets into your tank (toxin, disease, or other), you might need to do an <b>emergency 100% water change with cleaning. </b>This is different from today's water changes. </li>
</ul>
Question two: When do I have to water change?<br />
<ul>
<li>When you need to change the water is determined by a lot of things. Some tanks need it once every two weeks or once every week. A small 1-gallon bowl or a tank with a broken/forming nitrogen cycle may need it twice a week. </li>
<li>I can't tell you exactly when you need to do water changes. On the other hand, you can buy a thing that can tell you exactly when you need to do water changes. Go out and get yourself an accurate test kit for freshwater. I like API's liquid tests. They're easy to do and easy to read, and have a reputation for being accurate. </li>
<li><b>If you have fish, you need a test kit. </b>This is important. Trying to take care of a fish without a test kit is like trying to drive your car if you have 3" of snow on all your windows. You can't tell what you're doing, and you're going to kill someone because of it.</li>
<li>If you have a tank with a filter, you need a test for ammonia, a test for nitrite, and a test for nitrate. If your tank does not have a filter, you only need a test for ammonia. Your bowl won't produce any nitrite or nitrate. </li>
</ul>
Question three: How do I water change? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0gnR1NG0KRU0o6o1eYO5RLxRoRRiQWBpyhIfPYlN0qYDdKz5oVlKRU96Ae-ycgGNAZRJ6f5f505YX0LTEL8UtW65Jy9_hw9gXkdah-h5SYYBv_DDcoa3V3yl1f_1RDsYx1Hs8ZnyXuYv4/s1600/20170218_114330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0gnR1NG0KRU0o6o1eYO5RLxRoRRiQWBpyhIfPYlN0qYDdKz5oVlKRU96Ae-ycgGNAZRJ6f5f505YX0LTEL8UtW65Jy9_hw9gXkdah-h5SYYBv_DDcoa3V3yl1f_1RDsYx1Hs8ZnyXuYv4/s320/20170218_114330.jpg" width="240" /></a>The first thing you're going to need to do is to run a water test. This is the first step of doing the water change. Without this, you can't tell if you had a surprise spike in the system, and you might change too little water. Living in fucked up water makes your fish weaker, which means if they get sick, they're going to die of a disease a healthy fish could fight off. <br />
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For some reason, I don't have a picture of all three tests, but his nitrite was zero, ammonia was below .25ppm, and nitrate at about 20</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsdjaeqMRaxr0fhOJio0MJXoicbZ0p4BjD7UScVrPHTRwivKYNS0rzgEc2Z-H-_Luo9Av3hFqOQajqWDvjARvuTJGeFZfTOm9lgblp9XA8kofHXVn1BHHAq5t9Rh_TUGq7OA3YjvjdgIx/s1600/20170218_114301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsdjaeqMRaxr0fhOJio0MJXoicbZ0p4BjD7UScVrPHTRwivKYNS0rzgEc2Z-H-_Luo9Av3hFqOQajqWDvjARvuTJGeFZfTOm9lgblp9XA8kofHXVn1BHHAq5t9Rh_TUGq7OA3YjvjdgIx/s320/20170218_114301.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
Your water tests tell you how much water you need to change.<br />
<ul>
<li>If your ammonia is above .25, you need to do a change big enough to get it under .25 </li>
<li>If your nitrates are above 20, you need to do a change big enough to get it at 20 or below</li>
<li>If your nitrite is anything, you need to get that level down to where it doesn't register on your test at all. This is usually 80%-100% of the water. </li>
</ul>
In Cinco's case, everything checks out just fine. All his water levels are already under the maximum.<br />
<br />
(If the cycle's going really well, there shouldn't be an ammonia reading at all. The fact that there was ammonia means that I need to move the filter up a notch to get more water going through it) <br />
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<b>Even if your water tests are below maximum, if it's water change day, it's a good idea to change enough of the water to vacuum your gravel.</b> Poop falls in there and you don't want him living in poop, bro.<br />
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While you're doing those water tests, unplug your heater and filter. Changes are easier if you turn those off. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIquMHmSonMcZK3Sh5DO5E3BZqaahubyN_kx6aLEBM2jZ_2t_cW1aLXh2DaTaKEIXejvZkvEvf2qgzBZ1kqvZRclzid1HkuyRTnZq0PSMN1Z89FUaXyVRQFOr4CuTzAAyMWjKVSxi0Wf1/s1600/20170218_114755.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIquMHmSonMcZK3Sh5DO5E3BZqaahubyN_kx6aLEBM2jZ_2t_cW1aLXh2DaTaKEIXejvZkvEvf2qgzBZ1kqvZRclzid1HkuyRTnZq0PSMN1Z89FUaXyVRQFOr4CuTzAAyMWjKVSxi0Wf1/s320/20170218_114755.jpg" width="320" /></a> (Say hi to my mom, accidentally photobombing the tank here.) <br />
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After your water tests, take some time to look at your fish. Really look at him. You need to know what your fish looks like, so that you can notice if anything changes. Keep an eye on things that concern you.<br />
If your fish gets sick, it's important to know if that shiny spot on their back is a tumor they've already had or a rapidly-developed columnaris saddle. <b>Fish that are sick usually are sick before they start acting sick. The key to keeping your fish healthy is to notice that they are looking or acting differently before they start looking or acting sick. </b>My fish Casper had a tumor on his back that grew slowly, but ended up the size of an edamame bean. Keeping an eye on him, how it was growing, and how it was acting, let me know when it was starting to affect his quality of life.<br />
Also, if I saw another fish lie on the bottom or lie flat on decorations like Cinco does, I would immediately think that they were sick. Because I know Cinco, however, and I keep a close eye on all his traits and behaviors, I can use other things to judge if he's feeling sick.<br />
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If you're new to betta fish or if you like lists, you can keep a journal for your fish. Every time you change the water, you can write down temp, test results, what size water change you did, and the state of the fish's eyes, fins, body, movement, breathing, and iridescence. This is handy to look back on when you think something isn't right.<br />
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Step two of the water change is to take water out of the tank and put it in a bucket. If your tank isn't small enough for you to safely pick up and move to a sink, look into getting a siphon.<br />
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<i>Quick note: Even if you let your filter and heater cool, try to keep the heating element under water. If you put your heater horizontally near the bottom of the tank, you can drain almost all the water out without it reaching the air.</i><br />
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Siphons use gravity to suck the water out of the tank. While they're sucking the water out, they can also suck crap out of your gravel.<br />
<br />
To vacuum all of the gravel, I ended up draining about half the water. If I had a smaller siphon, I could do it in less, but I only want to own one siphon. This is the medium size.<br />
You can use the siphon to vacuum pea-sized gravel and small glass stones by just shoving it into the gravel to suck some of it up into the siphon, and then picking it up to let the gravel out. It lets the gravel down but keeps the fish poopies in your bucket. You just repeat that process until you've vac'd all the gravel. <br />
If your tank is bare, or has sand, you can just hover it over the bottom and it'll pick it up. Some people argue that this makes bare tanks or sand tanks safer, but I disagree. That's for a later post.<br />
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Step three of your water change is to use the water in your bucket to water your household plants. The water from your water change has an elevated nitrate level. Nitrate's good for plants. You don't have to waste water. The sea pig gets a fish in its butt. Everyone wins.<br />
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Once that's done, dump the rest of the water and fill the bucket up with new water. <br />
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Make sure it's within a few degrees of the temperature of your old water. Pull your thermometer out of the tank and use it to check, if you need to.<br />
All the water in betta fish range should feel slightly warm when you feet it with your fingertips, and slightly cool when you feel it with the inside of your wrist. <br />
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You're going to need to put water conditioner into your water, to remove chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals <i>(unless you're awesome, like me, and get all of your water from your private well and control every aspect of it and are 100% sure it has nothing in it)</i>.<br />
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My favorite water conditioner is Seachem Prime. It's pretty intensely concentrated, so you only need two drops per gallon to remove chlorine and its friends.<br />
Prime's also handy for if your cycle crashes, but you can't do a change right then, because it temporarily detoxifies ammonia and nitrite. Just follow the directions on the bottle. <br />
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However, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SP60LJ1bwvC6DDfDKcijA5lp_WpFBFWVuxpkL1FEBxE/edit?usp=sharing">almost all water conditioners have nearly the same ingredients. </a>Anything that says, "removes chlorine, chloramine, and detoxifies heavy metals," will do the job. I have never run into a water conditioner that doesn't work.<br />
Water conditioner is slightly different from dechlorinator. Dechlorineator removes chlorine, but not chloramine or heavy metals. Most municipalities use chloramine instead of chlorine, so dechlorinator doesn't do all that much.<br />
<br />
You hear stories of leaving the water to sit overnight and the chlorine evaporates. This is. Well. Uh. If we were in like 1970, yes? If you leave the water out for about a week, the chlorine evaporates. The chloramine doesn't. The heavy metals don't. It takes a long time. Aquasafe is $2 a bottle. Just get some.<br />
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Water conditioner works almost instantly. Drip it in the bucket, give it a stir or let it sit for a few seconds, and you're good. If you're adding water conditioner to the bucket, dose enough for the number of gallons in the bucket. If you're adding to the tank before you add your water, dose enough for the whole capacity of the tank.<br />
If I had a 20-gallon tank and I was adding 5 gallons of water, I'd add 5 gallons worth of conditioner to the bucket, or 20 gallons of conditioner to the tank.<br />
It's safe to go a little bit over on water conditioner. An extra few drops won't hurt the fish, though it also won't make the tank any better. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJADxn98kYGDvPz56isQ8giS4E19nZDJ8q0gZsrbdwsXt-BPFia-2VMy0ti8QQFfE7FQke99hS69lWcmDWEKhSy4p4wJaJL7sSVcvAaz0gZREF8IO1BsmGHqLpci8tN9C32y0VDGYfEwJ/s1600/20170218_115456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJADxn98kYGDvPz56isQ8giS4E19nZDJ8q0gZsrbdwsXt-BPFia-2VMy0ti8QQFfE7FQke99hS69lWcmDWEKhSy4p4wJaJL7sSVcvAaz0gZREF8IO1BsmGHqLpci8tN9C32y0VDGYfEwJ/s320/20170218_115456.jpg" width="240" /></a>So, now you need to get the water from your bucket, into your tank. I am not a super strong lady, and a lot of the time I can only barely lug 5 gallons of water around the house. I used to have a pitcher for scooping the water up, but it was too small and I got tired of it. Now I use a milk jug that I sawed the top off with a steak knife. It was easy, and fun!<br />
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Any time you use something for your fish, before you use it the first time you need to wash it extremely carefully in hot water, with no soap, and a lot of abrasion. You don't want to dump milk into your tank. My milk pitcher lives in my fish bucket with my water change towel. I use the towel to cover the space between my bucket and the tank, to catch drips.<br />
<br />
After a couple of scoops into the tank, I can usually pick up the bucket and dump it in. When you dump, be careful to not dump on the fish. It scares the poor boys.<br />
Cinco already can't swim, so pushing him around with water really upsets him and might hurt him. <br />
I usually aim all my pours on the top of a decoration. If it hits the top of a cave instead of the gravel, it disperses the water and gravel doesn't go flying everywhere. This is especially handy if you're using sand instead of gravel.<br />
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Then it's just a quick rearranging of the decorations that might have gotten knocked out of place during the process, and a check on the fish, and you're done! Just time to put everything away.<br />
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And there you go, how to do a water change when there's nothing wrong with the tank.<br />
Just remember, test the water, look at the fish, then change the water. Easy, easy. <br />
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<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-81487036564844379912016-10-27T20:24:00.003-07:002016-10-27T20:24:42.319-07:00the blue Amazon GSO, review part 1The extras include a tuner that is a pitch pipe that doesn't play the right notes, a strap that actually works like a strap, strings that you can't put on the guitar or you'll break it, a "gig bag" that's tissue paper thin, and a pick that's 2.5" long, no joke.<br />
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<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-25610461764292484642016-10-27T12:50:00.001-07:002016-10-27T12:50:59.935-07:00The Guitar Shaped Object checklist"Guitar Shaped Object," is a term used to describe an item that was sold as a guitar, but lacks some of the important features that makes a guitar playable.<br />
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In the realm of people who buy cheap guitars, accusing someone's instrument (or 'instrument') of being a GSO is asking for a fight. You get a lot of, "well, it works well enough," and "it's all I can afford! Do you want me to not play at all?!" and "not everyone can afford a $3,000 guitar!"<br />
<br />
However, and I'm just going to say it, if you spent money on s guitar-shaped object and not on a real guitar, then you don't own a guitar. Spending money on a guitar you can't play and calling it a guitar is as bad of a financial choice as spending money on a spiral-bound notebook and calling it an iPad. You spent less, but you're not going to get the experience of playing a guitar out of it.<br />
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Most people who fall victim to guitar-shaped objects are people who don't have experience with quality instruments. If you've played a $500 guitar, then broken tuners will feel broken. Bad action will feel bad. Stressed joints will look stressed. If you haven't really played any guitar except for your GSO, you're more likely to think that the broken parts are normal or "good enough." Sometimes they are good enough. Sometimes they're actively stopping you from learning. If you have no other frame of reference, then you can't know which is which.<br />
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When someone's critical of your much-beloved Object, it's easy to want to write them off as, "Well, they play $3,000 guitars all the time, so they don't know what a cheap guitar is like."<br />
However, it's important to remember that people who play $3,000 guitars do know what <i>guitars in general</i> are like. Most people who own a $3,000 guitar also owned a $200 guitar at some point in their lives. When a person with a $3,000 guitar says that your GSO is impossible to tune, they aren't saying, "Well, it doesn't have GForce and tune itself!" They're usually saying, "The tuners are moving when they should stay still and are not moving when they should," or "The nut is badly cut and is holding onto the string, making my tuning less accurate."<br />
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<i>That said, GForce is hella cool</i> </div>
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I've been trying to make an objective checklist for determining if your object is a GSO or a real guitar, and it's been a bitch to make, but here's what I've got so far:<br />
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<i>Please note that this list is made with 'guitars' sold in a new state. Your great-grandfather's guitar that requires a lot of care and precision to sound good is not a GSO, it's a guitar in retirement. An instrument that was great new, but slowly lost elements of functionality, is very different from an instrument that, when new, never had those elements.</i> <br />
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<b>The number one, defining thing:</b><br />
<b>Can a person who has good technique make it sound good, using good technique?</b><br />
This video of the Barbie Violin is a good example. She clearly knows how to play, and this is what it sounds like:<br />
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<i>And yes, it's a violin, not a guitar. Principle's the same.</i> </div>
<b> </b><br />
Here's why this matters:<br />
Guitar technique is universal. While there's some difference between guitars of different styles and music of different styles, a person with basic good technique should be able to pick up a guitar and have it make some pleasing sounds.<br />
That's what I love about the Barbie violin video: in the second half of the video, she switches to a very basic song that is taught to people just learning the instrument, and it sounds like a screaming mess.<br />
If your guitar requires bad technique to make it sound passable, it's not a guitar, it's a GSO. If a guitar requires extremely precise technique to make it sound passable, it's not a good instrument for a beginner, but it might not be a full GSO. <br />
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<b>Do the pieces work as intended?</b><br />
<b> </b>Not talking about the fine things here. This isn't asking if the tuners are smooth or the balance is perfect. Can you use the tuners to get the strings in tune? Do the frets change the pitch of the strings?<br />
No? Then it's a GSO.<br />
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And then the finer things. Do the tuners turn in the normal direction? Can the strings be wound on the tuners in the normal way, or are they fiddly or backwards? Do the frets buzz? Does the output jack give clear output from every angle, or does it cut out if the cord's held at certain directions? Do the tone controls give you a wide range of tones? or just one or two spots where it sounds good and the rest is a mess? One or two of these things alone might not make it a GSO, but several definitely pulls it in that direction.<br />
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Why this matters:<br />
The function of the basic pieces of a guitar is not a feature, it's an element. If you buy a car where turning the wheel left goes right and turning it right makes the car go left, it's not a funky quirky car. It's just a shitty car. A guitar that requires a Master's degree in precise string winding and fiddly tuning isn't a guitar, it's an Object.<br />
If it doesn't properly fulfill the basics of what it takes to be a guitar, it's not a guitar.<br />
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<b>Are all the pieces there?</b><br />
Does it seem like all guitars have a function that yours doesn't have? That might be because you don't have a guitar, you have an Object.<br />
Fully electric guitar, but no tone controls? Doesn't have a truss rod, but every other guitar you can find like it does? No way to adjust the intonation or action at the bridge? Does it have a head design that needs string trees, and that plays like it needs string trees, but it doesn't have string trees?<br />
I'm not talking about an acoustic guitar not having a scratch plate or a strap button at the top. I'm talking about an essential elements that make a good sound. To go back to the car metaphor, it's still a car if it doesn't have air conditioning. It's not a car if it doesn't have seats or a break pedal.<br />
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Why this matters:<br />
It might be able to make good noise without the essential pieces, at least for a while. But a good guitar has elements that make it playable in a wide variety of situations, and has pieces that can adjust for changes in humidity or different kinds of amps or different thicknesses of strings.<br />
Not having elements that do that might not stop it from being a guitar, but only in the same way that my 1989 VW Rabbit that hasn't driven since '02 is a car. It's a car, but only if it stays in one location and does very specific things. If you can't use it like a guitar, it's not a guitar.<br />
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<b>Does it play the right notes?</b><br />
People own guitars for two reasons: to make music and to get laid. If your guitar will not make music, you will not get laid. Therefore, guitars exist for one reason: music.<br />
If your guitar does not play the right notes, you will not make music, and therefore not get laid. ):<br />
Guitars play the wrong notes for three main reasons: the strings are out of tune, the intonation is wrong, or the fretboard is wrong. <br />
If the string is the wrong tune, the string itself should still play properly relative to itself. When you play the first fret, the note should be raised half a step, no matter what the string is set to.<br />
If the intonation is wrong, you can hopefully fix that (see previous comment about adjustable bridge saddles).<br />
If the frets are in the wrong place, you're fucked. There are two ways to fix a guitar with frets in the wrong place. The first is the extremely expensive fretboard replacement, where a new board is made with the right frets, and put on your guitar.<br />
The second is the more common, frequently similarly-priced, full-guitar replacement.<br />
This is an easy thing to check for yourself. You need a precise tuner (I use GStrings on my phone) that tells you the HZ of each note, and you need your guitar (with suitable amplification to make the tuner pick up your notes).<br />
So, pick a string, and tune it with the tuner so that the open string plays a note perfectly. That little needle should be right in the center of the tuner display.<br />
Now fret the first fret and play the string again. You want that note to be almost in the center of the display as well. Check around on the fretboard, and you want most frets to be playing notes that have the needle roughly in the center. If your frets are ringing really sharp before about the 5th fret, you're going have problems.<br />
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Why this matters:<br />
If it can't play music, it's not a guitar, it's a GSO.<br />
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<b>How long is it going to last?</b><br />
Durability is not always the sign of a good guitar. Unnecessary fragility is frequently the sign of a bad guitar.<br />
Guitars go through things. You love them, you treat them nice, you buy fancy hard cases that protect it from harm, but it's also going to be in your car when you get into a crash and strapped to your shoulder when a drunk guy rams the stage with his shoulder.<br />
Three of my guitars and two of my ukuleles are 10+ years older than me, and still in totally playable shape. None of these guitars was built to be particularly durable, and all of them have a little bit of road wear and battle damage, but none of them have broken in a way to make it unusable or less enjoyable to play.<br />
Every guitar that I own could survive a drop from 9" high onto a wooden floor and not suffer any structural damage (yes, even the 30-year-old Ovation, despite everyone's insistence that it'll shatter like glass). I'm not saying you need to beat your guitar up, but if you're afraid to grab it by the neck and pick it up, it better have a really good excuse for being that fragile.<br />
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And another thing: A guitar shouldn't destroy itself through the process of existing. If you tune it up, put it on a good stand, leave for the weekend, and come back to a neck that's broken and unglued itself, you didn't have a guitar.<br />
They're not like violin bows. You don't need to remove the tension when they're not in use.<br />
<br />
Why this is important:<br />
Because even if it was a guitar before you dropped it, if it broke in the first week of you owning it, it's now a guitar-shaped object.<br />
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<b>OKAY, PINK, BUT WHY DO YOU CARE? why do YOU care how I spend MY money?</b><br />
1) Because I like playing the guitar and watching other people get excited about learning the guitar. Because there's something very special to me about watching someone get interested in a thing I am interested in. Because I think the worst thing you can do to someone who is interested in something is to make it so they are not interested in that thing anymore. Because giving someone who wants to learn guitar an Object doesn't just make them lose interest in that particular Object, but in playing guitar in general.<br />
2) Because there are so many good quality instruments out there that cost the same or less than the GSO crap you bought off Amazon for $39. This is especially true with guitars. There's so many people out there who bought a usable guitar, found out it wasn't for them, and are selling it in barely-used condition.<br />
There are three ways to judge if you got your money's worth for something. How much would it cost to buy another just like it? What else is out there for that price? Do you feel like you paid too much?<br />
Because, first of all, if there's some intangible "other" about what you own, and you feel like it was worth the money, then fine. But if you spent $80 on a guitar, and someone else is selling that exact same guitar for $30, you didn't get your money's worth. On the other hand, if you have a guitar that's technically worth about $30, but is very special to you in some way, then you might not be willing to part with it, because money cannot buy a replacement. If you got a used guitar for $20, but you would need to spend $300 to buy one exactly like it, you got more than your money's worth.<br />
When you look at money this way, a $30 GSO will always be less than your money's worth, and searching around for a quality used guitar will almost always be more than your money's worth.<br />
People buying GSO's because they think they're saving money just frustrates me. It's like burning $20 bills because you think the fire's saving you money on your heating bills.<br />
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<br />
So, there, my guide to looking realistically at an instrument and saying, do I hate guitar, or do I hate my guitar?<br />
Also a handy guide to "do I need to feel bad for smashing this at the end of my set?" and "Can I cover this in glitter and route holes in it and make it into a zipline for the play that I'm working on?" and "Can I use this as a weapon."<br />
Because as we all know, destroying an instrument for the sake of destruction is unforgivable.<br />
But as we all learned, there's a lot of things out there that look like guitars, but just plain aren't.<br />
Go have fun.Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-91282162261763304872016-08-08T13:11:00.001-07:002016-08-08T13:11:18.223-07:00Fish Sickness, part 2This one might be a bit more organized.<br />
Recap from the last post: I have 4 betta in a split 20 tank with good parms*. One of them has a symptom called popeye. The other three have problems that wouldn't be a concern for a single fish, but having four fish with these conditions together points to a bacterial infection. The whole tank is being treated with a 4-day treatment of <a href="https://www.chewy.com/api-tc-powder/dp/122188?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=hg&utm_content=API&gclid=CjwKEAjw26C9BRCOrKeYgJH17kcSJACb-HNA3Hu6ZKrciRm1g1QzTPHfP3lEW2zBmCwPUvfag4Oa7hoCfxbw_wcB">API's Tetracycline</a>. Tetracycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic.<br />
<br />
<b>So, treatment day 2:</b><br />
<b>STEP 1</b>: Water parameters. Something I forgot to mention is that if you're doing a several day course of treatment, you can't do water changes during. This means if your nitrates are at 35, you'll want to do a change before you do the treatment, to prevent them from going over 40.<br />
<br />
Even if all the water parameters were fine yesterday, test them again today. This double-checks that your tests were right the first time, and it's important to know anyway. <b>If your water quality is not perfect, always fix that before going to another treatment</b>, unless the symptoms are life-threatening.<br />
<br />
My tank temp is between 78 and 82. Because of the dividers, some parts of the tank are cooler than others. I have two thermometers to make sure the warm sections don't get too warm, and the cool sections don't get too cold.<br />
<br />
I tested my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and came up with 0/0/10, which is good and normal. It's important to test your water ~12 hours after putting a treatment in your tank, in case it killed some of your filter bacteria.<br />
<br />
The surface of my tank is covered with foam. This is from the tetracycline, and as long as it's not interfering with the fish's ability to breathe, I'm willing to just keep stirring it back into the water. If I was running a hang-on-back or internal filter, I'd probably have the foam in the water chamber. Undergravel filters don't have a water chamber, so it comes out on the top of the water instead. I googled "API Tetracycline foam" to double check. Google is your friend for whenever you don't know what to do.<br />
<br />
<b>STEP 2: </b>Now it's time to look at the fish. Because Twister is my sick boy, and because he was easy to cup, I put him in a cup for a few minutes to get a good look at his eye. It's still cloudy and swollen. Bo and Mr Tipsy's tumors (which both look like internal tumors, but could also be hemorrhagic septicemia, which is also bacterial) are still the same size. Bo's fins look like normal, as do Fierce Mango's. I'm feeling extremely stupid at this point for assuming that all my fish had unrelated, non-contagious diseases. That's the problem with google. You search until you find an answer that sounds right or feels right, and then you stop looking.<br />
We all make mistakes. What's important is that, when you realize you made a mistake, you admit it and re-evaluate your plan of action.<br />
<br />
The good news is that tetracycline can treat bacterial fin rot, popeye, and hemorrhagic septicemia, if they're all caused by the same bacteria. Since this is a shared tank, there's a good chance that's the case.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>STEP 3: </b>Take a look at your fish and make sure your plan of action is still a good plan.<br />
First things first: Have you already started a treatment? In my case, I have. <b>If you've already started a medicine, you need to do the complete treatment, even if the fish look or act like they've healed</b>. Do you want antibiotic resistant bacteria? Because running an incomplete course of antibiotics is how you get antibiotic resistant bacteria.<br />
The only exception to this is if the fish is having trouble breathing after you put the treatment in, but wasn't before you did. If it looks like the fish is having trouble breathing with the treatment in the water, you need to get them out of there.<br />
Did you do any non-medicine treatments? These include aquarium salt added to the water or aquarium salt baths and epsom salt baths. Do those things look like they've helped? If it helped, do it again.<br />
Do the symptoms look worse? More swollen, more ragged, anything? This might mean that you need to get more aggressive with your treatment.<br />
How's the fish acting? Did he go from being active to being withdrawn? Did he go from swimming to lying on the floor? Is he having trouble breathing, staying afloat, or sinking? Did he go from withdrawn and back to active? Behavior is a good way to judge how your fish is feeling. <br />
<br />
<b>STEP 4: </b>So now what?<br />
If your water quality was bad, and your fish is not having any life-threatening symptoms, wait to see if their condition gets better with clean water.<br />
If the fish had damaged fins or sides from contact with another fish or decor in his tank, are the edges of the wound looking infected? Are they looking like they're healing? Does he have new damage?<br />
If the treatment was working, keep doing it. If you started a medicine, keep treating until you've finished the course.<br />
If the treatment wasn't working, or wasn't working well enough, look for other options or ways to make the treatment stronger. Now might be a time to add medication, if you weren't already using it. Remember to check if you can continue salt baths or adding salt to your water while using another medication. Don't mix treatments unless you know they won't interact. <br />
If the treatment's working, but there are other life-threatening symptoms, you need to treat those too. Sometimes you need to do whatever you can to keep the swelling down, so the antibiotic can cure the infection before the fish dies of the swelling. <br />
If the fish is significantly worse and clearly suffering, now might be a good time to buy clove oil in case you have to put him down. It's not easy to think about it, but it helps to have it on hand.<br />
<br />
It's frustrating, but there's a lot of taking care of sick fish that's just about waiting and watching.<br />
<br />
It's also scary, because betta fish are small and can go into organ failure quickly and without a lot of outward warning signs, so keeping an eye on them is important. <br />
<br />
<b>Quick note on bettafix: </b>I wrote a song about bettafix. It goes bettafix isn't an antibiotic. Bettafix is an antiseptic. Don't use bettafix on things it isn't designed to treat.<br />
And then you repeat that for five hours. I have an EP i'm releasing in april.<br />
Also, when using bettafix, watch out for an oily shine on the water. If you see that, skim it off. A lot of people say it can damage a betta's lung-like labyrinth organ.<br />
In general, there are treatments out there other than bettafix, and bettafix is popular because it's so cheap. Like with any treatment you use on your fish, google is your friend. <br />
<br />
<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-12609739711176469242016-08-07T22:21:00.001-07:002016-08-07T22:21:26.092-07:00unorganized information about sicknesses<div data-contents="true">
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="9eudp-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9eudp-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9eudp-0-0"><span data-text="true">Twister the betta's got popeye going on, and I"m hoping that's not what's causing all the minor little problems in my tank. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="dpraq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dpraq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="dpraq-0-0"><span data-text="true">For those of you who didn't do your basic Betta Fish Popeye reading, let's have some review:</span></span></div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><span data-offset-key="d3gs8-0-0"><span data-text="true">~Popeye is when your fish's eye gets swollen and sticks out of the head a bit. In Twister's case, it's also cloudy. I'll see if I can take a picture tomorrow, but he's asleep right now and I'm not going to stress out my sick fish unnecessarily for the sake of educating your guys, sorry. There's pictures on google.</span></span></li>
<li><span data-offset-key="1trho-0-0"><span data-text="true">~Popeye is a symptom, not a disease. The actual cause can be a bacteria, virus, or fungus. </span></span></li>
<li><span data-offset-key="acn3b-0-0"><span data-text="true">~Because of this, if you treat for the wrong thing, it's not going to do any good. You need to know what the cause is.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="dbnr9-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dbnr9-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="dbnr9-0-0"><span data-text="true">Okay, so here's what I'm doing, complete with <i>abuse <b>of the <u>formatting tools</u></b></i>. If anyone out there thinks I'm doing the wrong thing or has any advice, let me know! I'm not a 100% fish expert, I can be wrong, and I don't want my fish to die, so I'm going to listen to anyone with any advice. (I'll translate this for the non fish people in case you just love my writing or something)</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dbnr9-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="dbnr9-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="brprg-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="brprg-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="brprg-0-0"><span data-text="true">1) Like with all fish shit, <b>first thing to look at when a fish is sick is tank parms.</b> Mine's a split 20l with 4 male betta, cycled UGF, 78 degrees, 0/0/15 </span></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="5cfhm-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5cfhm-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="5cfhm-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5cfhm-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="5cfhm-0-0"><span data-text="true">*(Translation: 20L is a size of tank, 4 male betta live in it, "split" means I'm not a nutbag trying to keep 4 violent fish with each other. Their spaces are split, but their water is shared, so they all have been exposed to whatever made Twister sick. Cycled means it's established the nitrogen cycle and ammonia waste is being converted into nitrate by the bacterial filter. UGF is a type of filter. Sometimes people ask what kind of filter because certain filters are known to be unstable, and some don't have good places for filter-bacteria colonies to grow, so it's always a good idea to mention. 78 degrees is the temperature of the tank, and 0/0/15 is my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. Everyone lists them in the ammonia-nitrIte-nitrAte order, pretty much always. "parms" is short for "parameters" and not "parmesans")</span></span><span data-offset-key="brprg-0-0"><span data-text="true"></span></span><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="brprg-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="brprg-0-0"><span data-text="true"><i>If you're asking for fish help, always provide this information</i> <i>up front.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="brprg-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="brprg-0-0"><span data-text="true"><i> </i></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="brprg-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="brprg-0-0"><span data-text="true">Even though I know that my water stays in the good range with my current maintenance schedule, I still checked this anyway. I use API's liquid ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tests. I don't like test strips, because they expire much more quickly, and lose accuracy.</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">WHAT THIS MEANS: In any case where your betta is sick, if the water isn't 76-82 degrees or your water levels aren't 0/0/<40, the first step is to make that happen. I say it every time I talk about betta help, MOST BETTA SICKNESS IS CAUSED BY BAD WATER QUALITY.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">If the water was bad, the first thing I would do is change the water to get it to the right level. Then, if it's not immediately life-threatening, I'll give it 24 hours of careful watching but no further treatment. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">In my case, the water's fine. Depending on the sickness, I might boost the heat of the filter, but I'm not going to do that until I know what's causing the sickness.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<b><span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b>2) Step two is to look for other symptoms. </b>That's right, you make sure the water's right <i>before</i> you look for other symptoms. If the water's not right, that needs to be fixed. Nothing else matters until the water quality is better. You can't tell what symptoms are sickness and what symptoms are water quality until you get the water quality in line. </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">The first thing is to look for any <u><b>life-threatening symptoms</b></u>. <b>Is the sick fish sitting on the bottom, panting or gasping?</b> If you've got a community tank like mine, you need to look at all the fish. Anyone on the bottom struggling to breathe? <b>Is anyone bloated or swollen around their middle?</b> This can be a sign of organ failure, especially if they also have scales sticking out. <b>Does anyone have fuzzy things around their mouths?</b> This is the sign of columnaris, which is a nasty bacterial infection that needs fast treatment.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">If I see any of those, there's no time to wait. Something needs to be done and it needs to be done fast. I usually pull the fish into a hospital tank of new water, so I can get a better look at them and look for anything else. Swollen fish get epsom salts, obvious bacterial infections get antibiotics, and so on.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<b><span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">Other symptoms <list in incomplete. Always google your symptoms*></span></span></b></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">Fungal/Parasitic: fuzzy spots not on the mouth, raised white dots, gold dusting that shines under a flashlight, indent-lookin' thing between the eyes</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0"><span data-text="true">Bacterial: sores, cloudy eyes, ragged fins that won't go away with clean water</span></span></div>
Other: torn fins that showed up suddenly, things that look like physical damage</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Long-term: tumors, scars, the suchlike. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<br /></div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
My tank's symptoms:</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Twister: the stickin' out eye. No fin damage or rot, no body damage, no lumps or scars. Nice iridescent shine. Acting withdrawn and has been spending time at the back of the tank, sleeping on plants or the floor. Has been withdrawn for maybe 3 days. No trouble moving or floating. Breathing normal. Not struggling to reach the surface. Swimming normally, but less active. Good weight.</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Bo: Swimming normally and actively. Iridescent like normal. Raggedy fins that have been refusing to grow properly for over a year (can be the sign of a bacterial infection, but I'd chalked it up to bad genetics). Internal tumor-like lump (could be bacterial) showing through his skin that's been there for 3+ months. Good weight.</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Mr Tipsy: Mr Tipsy has some fucked up genetics. Skinny due to not eating well due to mouth that doesn't close. Tumor-like lump on one side that's been there for 5+ months, tumor-like lump on the other side that's been there for 3+ months. Not iridescent and never has been, so useless diagnostic criteria. No fin damage or rot. Swimming normally.</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Fierce Mango: Black tips on his tail rays (can be bacterial but could also be coloring). Growing normally and eating and swimming well. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<br /></div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
All in all, what I saw with my fish was several things that, on their own, weren't worrying me (except Twister's eye), but when looking at the whole tank, made me think bacteria. Since I'd treated the whole tank with prazi (an antifungal) less than 6 months ago and nothing new had been introduced except Fmango (who had also been treated with prazi when I got him), I thought bacteria was more likely than fungal. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
If your fish is sick, but not looking life-threatening, it's usually better to start with an antifungal than an antibiotic. Antifungals don't make resistant bacteria and they're more easily processed by the kidneys of the fish.</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
If your fish has damage, like a torn fin or a wound, bettafix is an okay product. Bettafix is an antiseptic, not an antibiotic. It doesn't do anything for internal infections. It doesn't do anything for bacterial problems that aren't cuts or scrapes. Think of it like fish neosporin. Also, if you see an oily sheen on your water, do a big change right away. The oil in bettafix is actively bad for their fish lungs. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
If I thought it was viral, all I could do would be to separate the sick fish, empty and clean the whole tank, leave it to dry for a few days, and reassemble it.</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<br /></div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
But since I had good reason to believe that it's bacterial, I stuck two packets of API tetracycline in the water in agreement with the package directions, and now I wait and keep following the instructions. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Because I had good reason to think everyone was exposed, I'm treating the whole tank instead of excluding Twister. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<b>When you're using an antibiotic, it's extremely important to follow the instructions exactly and to use the proper dose for the proper length of time. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a real thing and they're scary and you don't want them in your tank. </b></div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<b> </b> </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
Because I'm really tired, the story ends here for tonight. </div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
<br /></div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
____</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="apdrc" data-offset-key="4mhfh-0-0">
*75% of my betta care is googleing shit for other people</div>
</div>
Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-28630613544867876042016-07-25T22:28:00.001-07:002016-07-28T16:15:42.796-07:00Wordy DIY Fretboard Stickers Review<b>Muy Importante Edit: Down in this post, I mention that if you want to, you could probably find the original maker that the hummingbird stickers are knock offs of. <a href="https://www.inlaystickers.com/products/tree-of-life-w-hummingbird-fret-markers-for-guitar">I think I found them</a>. More rambling after the review.</b><br />
<i>Original post reads: </i><b> </b><br />
<b> </b> <br />
It's always weird to review Chinese knock-off products, but that's sure not going to stop me. Being weird has stopped me from doing zero percent of things I've wanted to do, since 2013(ish)<br />
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I bought <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112031762147?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT">these</a> stickers.<br />
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<i>Product image</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>My Pictures, No Flash and Yes Flash</i></div>
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<br />
In case you're not familiar with the concept, or can't figure it out from the picture, they're stickers that you put on the fretboard of your guitar to give it the look of being inlaid, or just to give it a neat design.<br />
They're a bit tacky, but if that's your style (and that's my style), they're nice and cheap. I think these are especially nice if you're thirteen (or thirteen at heart) and you really wanted a pink glitter guitar, and your parents bought you a plain, boring, nicer quality guitar. You'll thank them later (I thanked mine!), but for now, nothing wrong with wanting a humming bird on your guitar. You could be doing destructive things, like carving your favorite band into the back. Don't do that. Just do stickers.<br />
And while you're at it, do removable stickers like these so you won't be stuck with a bass with a Sunny Day Real Estate sticker that you just can't get off, and you have to sell for $100 at a swap meet because you couldn't get the price you wanted for it, because no one likes Sunny Day Real Estate.<br />
I think I got lost. Where was I? HUMMINGBIRDS. STICKERS. YES.<br />
<br />
<b>About The Stickers:</b><br />
You see the same several designs going for various prices all over the internet, and they're all usually from China. Because these are the same designs, sometimes stolen or copies of copies of copies, your print quality might vary. You might buy the same stickers that I did, and get different stickers. It's pretty tricky to tell, and my suggestion is either find the original seller (and probably pay more for higher quality stickers) or buy the cheapest ones you can, so that if they're bad, you'll only have wasted the cost of a cup of coffee.<br />
However, from what little I understand about Chinese resellers, most of them will have the same stickers, that they all got from one supplier.<br />
The stickers come on a yellow piece of paper. Despite what they look like in the product images, they are not metallic. They are printed with a mottled pattern, which can look metaillic in some angles.<br />
Because this pattern is easily available, people who are familiar with fretboard stickers would know that they're stickers, and not real inlay. That's a very small group of people, though. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About My Guitar:</b><br />
These went on my beater guitar (the guitar you take to the beach so it can get wet and sandy, or camping so it can get covered with smoke and chicken grease. The guitar that you love, and that if you break you will cry, but that isn't the nicest guitar you own). I've wanted to do some custom stuff like this to a guitar for a while, but didn't have a true beater to do it on. I've had a really nice Ovation guitar that was my dad's, and I think he'd disown me if I put stickers on it.<br />
It's a nylon string/classical guitar, which means it has a <b>wide neck</b> and <b>no fret markers</b>. That's something to keep in mind if your guitar is different. It's got <b>18.5 frets</b>, which is a pretty small number. Most guitars have 20/24.<br />
The fretboard has a lot of wear. It's got some deep grooves in it.<br />
The guitar itself is a pre-1989 Suzuki from Nagoya.<br />
<br />
<b>The Application Process:</b><br />
First, I had to take off my strings. There is absolutely no way to do this successfully without taking off the strings, or at least loosening them until you have good clearance of the fretboard.<br />
I use oil on my fretboard, but I hadn't oiled it in about 2 weeks. I did not use acetone or any oil remover to clean the fretboard.<br />
Because this design has fret markers built in (the white flowers), it's important to start at the top and work your way downward.<br />
The stickers are cut right at the edge of the design (which is good, because it helps them look like inlay). This makes them a bit tricky to put on. I put the first white flower as far to the right as I could, and then followed the pattern down.<br />
It's good to note that every sticker is cut with the ends being parallel to the fret. This can help make sure you're not putting them on crooked. I didn't measure, I just eyeballed it. Repositioning them was possible, but tricky.<br />
When I had all of them on, I put a piece of paper over it and then rubbed with a hard object to really stick them down.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>THE ACTUAL REVIEW:</b><br />
Sticker quality:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTVLYLrG3X3I7SOJ2pSBxoz9O1UoapUiXdaVks3x-gpwRnGMKrUX9cDdnW3k6KsRKNGzKB5KhIFqeWRxk6wwTClrVFZdg3mMu5k0VIj8megg5vJC6btsJCBBWytlwNgBJqTKp__j6IGgV/s1600/DSC_0190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTVLYLrG3X3I7SOJ2pSBxoz9O1UoapUiXdaVks3x-gpwRnGMKrUX9cDdnW3k6KsRKNGzKB5KhIFqeWRxk6wwTClrVFZdg3mMu5k0VIj8megg5vJC6btsJCBBWytlwNgBJqTKp__j6IGgV/s320/DSC_0190.JPG" width="212" /></a></div>
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The stickers are very precisely cut to make the right shape. I think this is the most important thing. There's a lot of visual distortion between your guitar and the viewer (distance and strings, mostly), so it's not as important that the image be clear as that it has a lot of contrast between the brightest colors and the fretboard.<br />
<br />
The actual images are blurry, but not pixelated. God, I hate pixelation. This is probably a side-effect of stealing the design from another artist, and not being able to get big enough pimages of the original for reproduction. Since your guitar's usually seen from a distance, this isn't obvious to the casual observer.<br />
<br />
The stickers probably effect my tone somewhat, in the same way that you get different tone out of a maple fretboard versus a rosewood one. It's not a tone difference that I can hear.<br />
I did a couple hours of playing, complete with a lot of string bends, and the stickers did not scratch or peel up. It's important to note that my nylon strings are almost certainly easier on the stickers than steel strings would be, but I have faith that they'd stick with steel strings unless you're fretting really hard (and really, you shouldn't be fretting that hard).<br />
Removal was easy. Removing the sticker intact was hard. I had a couple extra in the set because I have so few frets, so I stuck some on as hard as I could and then removed them. I left some to set and to be played on for a couple hours, and they were still removable.<br />
After this testing, I'd be willing to put them on my $600 guitar (though I wouldn't because my dad would be disappointed) with faith that they'd come off without damage. <br />
<br />
<b>So, In Summary:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Theses stickers are cool</li>
<li>These stickers are a nice way to make your guitar distinctive</li>
<li>These stickers are staying put</li>
<li>These stickers are removable</li>
<li>These stickers look pretty cool</li>
<li>These stickers are cheap </li>
</ul>
If you like the look, I definitely suggest picking up a set! They're a lot of fun and a good way to add details to a guitar without decreasing the value.<br />
<br />
<b>EDIT: </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJce0j31hgXauD0nMLkRV9FByZmhfNpej_UrmDrtTqTikzof94OIIdVUNJhg-t3tC4AB03WcZQ_xDxuoL6sYiJIg6myieklSTc34OYPKs1x3PnZ3atFzX7CFn80oBC8hRUAEyfGFSqn4Q/s1600/091028treebird-img2_2048x2048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJce0j31hgXauD0nMLkRV9FByZmhfNpej_UrmDrtTqTikzof94OIIdVUNJhg-t3tC4AB03WcZQ_xDxuoL6sYiJIg6myieklSTc34OYPKs1x3PnZ3atFzX7CFn80oBC8hRUAEyfGFSqn4Q/s320/091028treebird-img2_2048x2048.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Someone sent me a picture of the product that the one I bought was ripping off. These stickers are $20, and look 100x better (in this picture). I also like supporting original artists when I can, and when I have the money.<br />
Does that mean that you shouldn't buy the stickers I bought? That's up to you. I still like them. I still think they look good. They were easy to put on. Are they going to convince anyone that they're real inlay? No, but they look nice. I'll review the ones from inlaysticker when they get here, to give you more information so that you can make your choice. <br />
<b> </b> Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-57139599588209237112016-06-10T23:03:00.003-07:002016-06-10T23:03:54.161-07:00Giving Back MagSo, earlier today on tiwtter I tweeted three or four pictures of giving back magazine.<br />
<br />
Giving Back Magazine (which I'm going to call GBmag from now on) sort of personally offends me. I didn't know it existed until Thursday, and now I'm angry about it. Sort of. As much as I care about anything right now. I'm a little tired and so this isn't going to have my standard level of bitchy snark.<br />
I"m not angry. I'm just kind of bothered. A little offended. And I want everyone to be a little offended about it too. <br />
<br />
So. First of all, let's go over the distribution of GBmag, INFOMERCIAL STYLE<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?<br />TIRED OF WAKING UP TO FIND ISSUES OF PLAYBOY DELIVERED TO YOUR HOUSE WHILE YOU SLEEP? COSMO? READER'S DIGEST? FINE WOODWORKING? AMERICAN GIRL? GUIDEPOSTS? CHICKEN FARMER?<br /><br />OF COURSE YOU HAVEN'T.</blockquote>
This is because no <i>legitimate </i>magazine actually distribute their magazines by putting them in baggies and throwing one at every house in the neighborhood. That is just not cost effective.<br />
For you who aren't familiar with legitimate magazines, you pay money for them, and they only deliver magazines to people who pay them money. People who pay for magazines usually want to read them (or bought one from a high school kid trying to fund a band trip). If you only want one issue of a magazine, you can pay the cover price.<br />
<br />
Real magazines make sure that the only people who get the magazine are paying money for it and actually want it delivered. This is because real magazines need money in order to make their magazine happen.<br />
<br />
You can tell that people don't pay for GBmag for two reasons: First of all, because I got one and I sure as fucking shit didn't pay for it. Second of all, because if people paid for the magazine there wouldn't be five of them sitting outside, over 24 hours after they were delivered.<br />
<br />
So, a really, really important thing to keep in mind here is that <i><b>the people who got copies of Giving Back Magazine </b></i>(and it calls itself a magazine)<i><b> did not get it because they wanted it. </b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b>Someone out there decided that everyone in my neighborhood should have a copy. The people of Giving Back Magazine do not care who gets a copy. There is no filter process.</b></i><br />
<br />
So you might be saying, Polly, calm the fuck down, do you get this annoyed about spam email? Was the bold italics REALLY necessary?<br />
<i><b> </b></i><br />
<i><b>Yes.</b></i><br />
<br />
This is because it makes the content that much more offensive. Someone decided that the content of the 'magazine' was worthy of being shared with literally everyone.<br />
<br />
So, what is GBmag about? It's entirely rich people wanking themselves.<br />
<br />
Let's go through it.<br />
(I will use the word "charity" to describe any cause. I'm not going to look up if they're technically charities. You're lucky any of this has pictures) <br />
<br />
Front cover: Excellent example of steampunk. Black studded leather jackets and thigh slit skirts, very steampunk. Tiny top hats on headbands, so much the steampunk. The other two look like they at least have heard of steampunk, even if they don't know that you don't wear brown hats with black dresses. I digress. That's a bit nitpicky. No mention of why they're in steampunk<br />
<br />
Okay, 8 pages of adverts. Guess that's how they get the funding to just lob copies everywhichway to people who DGAF.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Page 10: We still have no information about who or what GBmag is published by or what exactly they're giving back, and what they took that they have to give back.<br />
Page 10 is the first real page of content. It is advertising local events: Poolside Jazz, the Mexican National Soccer Team playing a game here, and "a day for schools and business to hilight their interests in science, technology...through interactive experiments."<br />
Awesome. Note that none of these events are for charity, or if they are it doesn't sai it. <br />
Page 11: The concert gala is coming up. The name of the gala chairs, Cheap Trick will be playing, you can win a ring with 90 diamonds. Down at the bottom it mentions a charity and a private concert for people who buy a ticket.<br />
<b>Charity count, 1 charity, 2 (non ad) pages, 50%</b><br />
Page 12+13: Summer vibes, a guide to fashion of the summer.<br />
Page 14: Quick summary of a charity with a lot of pictures.<br />
<b>Charity Count: 2/4, 50%</b><br />
Page 16+17: A story about two girls who like fitness, no mention of any kind of charity that they have.<br />
Page 18: Community event where you can meet the mayor or interrogate the police.<br />
Page 20: Summary of a charity event. 1 paragraph and a lot of pictures.<br />
<b>Charity count: 3/8, 38%</b><br />
Page 21: One line mentions a charity<br />
C<b>harity count: 4/9, 44% </b><br />
<b> </b>Page 22: Story about a lady who helped the community<br />
<b>Charity Count: 5/10, 50%</b><br />
Page 23: Event at the zoo thanking sponsors<br />
<b>Charity Count: 6/11, 55%</b><br />
Page 24+26+28+30: Paragraph about event and a lot of pictures<br />
Charity Count: 10/16, 60%<br />
Page 32+33: Story about the Red Cross<br />
Charity count: 12/18, 66%<br />
Page 34, Paragraph and pictures<br />
Charity Count: 13/19<br />
Page 35: Ronald Mcdonald house likes its sponsors<br />
Charity Count: 14/20<br />
Page 36: Pictures and paragraph<br />
Charity Count 15/20</blockquote>
<br />
Okay, you know what? Those "pictures and paragraph" pages are literally just pictures of people who donated. That's just WE DID GOOD.<br />
<br />
Updated Charity Count because I changed the rules:<br />
Charities you can help: 4/21, 19%<br />
Self Wank LOOK AT US WE DONATED: 9/21, 43%<br />
<br />
Now, remember that <i>this magazine was sent to everyone</i>. Look at us. We donated.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
40-43: Masturbation<br />
<b>Wank: 12/24, 50%</b><br />
44+45: Event, music in the park, does not support a charity<br />
46+47+49+50: Wank<br />
<b>16/28, 50%, 57%</b><br />
50+51, story, not about community<br />
52-57, wank<br />
<b>23/35, 66%</b><br />
58+59, story about community event<br />
<b>Charity count, 6/37, 17%</b><br />
60-65, wank<br />
<b>25/39, 64%</b><br />
66+67, story about the ballet's new season<br />
68+69, you guessed it, wank<br />
<b>27/41, 68%</b></blockquote>
<br />
Okay, I'm going to tally the rest and share the final result because chronicling it is getting dull.<br />Final countdown:<br />
27% stories not about helping the community <br />
16% ways you can help the community (if you have a lot of money)<br />
57% thanking sponsors for events.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>*****If you stopped reading, start reading again here!*****</b><br />
<br />
Now, listen up. There's nothing wrong with thanking people who helped the community. There's nothing inherently wrong with the act of being over half thanking sponsors.<br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>But here's where they stopped being okay</b>. It's about the distribution. If there was a magazine ('magazine') given out at events thanking sponsors, or mailed out to everyone who was a sponsor, or even mailed out to everyone who attended an event featured in the magazine, they'd be fine.<br />
Instead, this was worse than mass mailing. This was given out to anyone who may or may not want it.<br />
<br />
Then it goes from a thank you to, "Look at us! We're so good!"<br />
<br />
A magazine called giving back, that's given to everyone, inherently is given mostly to people who literally could not give a single flying fuck about people they don't know donating to charities they don't care about. This magazine has more articles about people who in no way seem to help or represent the community, than it has articles or adverts about events or ways to help the community.<br />
A magazine called Giving Back that is given to everyone regardless of wanting it should be about inspiring people to give back, and helping people who want to give back give back.<br />
<br />
Instead it's about looking at a bunch of rich people who you don't give a shit about doing shit you don't give a shit about.<br />
<br />
What a fucking waste of money. I feel sorry for the trees that had to die to make this. They deserve better. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-91640861321432381692016-05-30T14:55:00.001-07:002016-05-30T14:55:11.392-07:00Polly Magic vs Theatre Magic vs Disney MagicSo, over a year ago I went to Disneyland with two people who, at the time, both worked at Walt Disney World, and that got me thinking about the nature of magic.<br /><br />Not Harry Potter magic, but theatrical magic. <br /><br />See, I can't turn my anilitical theatrically-trained brain off a lot of the time. I have to know how things work. It drives me completely nuts to watch a magic trick and not know how it works. I watch plays and count the light cues and wonder what's going on in the box, and I figure out where seams are on dresses and wonder is the fabric's bias-cut and is it actual silk chiffon or is it a really good poly-nylon blend because it's not moving like I'm used to. <br />First time I say Yumimissa it just blew my mind.<br /><br />So, Disneyland's a place that I just love because every element of it is designed in a way that most theme parks aren't. There used to be a little kids snake-themed roller coaster at Six Flags: Marine World, and the queue had some snakes on it, but Disneyland's got queues that add to the story, and you miss out on some of the story if there's no line and you just breeze through the queue. The cast members (not 'employees') all wear costumes (not 'uniforms') that match what they're doing. There's no generic Disneyland uniform. People who are serving hot dogs in one area of the park are dressed totally differently from other parts of the park. Attractions that are based on live-action movies (Roger Rabbit's thingy with the spinny stuff that I forgot the name of) has cast members with the same cartoony scale of the trims on the costumes, which is one of my favorite parts of that movie. <br />Which loops back around to, when I was watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I was noticing the trims and going, "Oh, that's cool, they made the cartoon world blend in with the real world by increasing the scale of the trims and prints on the live action character's clothes!" And noticing that for me is more special(?) than watching the movie and not noticing that they blend because they blend seamlessly. Also that movie was made before digital compositing was a thing, so keep that in your mind when you watch it (if you're an analyzer like me, that is!).<br /><br />The Haunted Mansion is one of my, maybe absolutely my, favorite parts of Disneyland. And I've broken it down as much as I can. I watch other people's filmings of it on youtube and look for all the things I didn't know. I stare at satelite pictures of it. I devour trivia about it. I look to see if I can fail to see the floor in places that I know don't have floors, and knowing that there is no floor but not being able to see that there is no floor is a magical thing for me.<br /><br />While we were there, we saw a show that I think was called Mickey and the Magic Map, and I was really impressed with it. I didn't want to dissect it for a while, because one of the people I was with found it magical because she didn't know all the behind the scenes and could enjoy it for what it was. But now it's been a while and I'm going to. <br />Plotwise, Mickey…unpaints a map that Yensid was making and he has to…repaint it? Honestly, I've forgotten the plot of the show. There was Mickey. There were princesses. There was some really, really on-point dancing and more princesses, and Sebastian was there and then there was a giant steamboat on stage. I remember the pictures but I don't remember how they connect. <br />Anyway,<br /><br />***<CAUTION: I am now going to start breaking down the aspects of how I saw the show created. If your Disney Magic isn't about knowing how things work, scroll down to the *** break>***<br /><br />Anyway, the show. There was a live-action Mickey/Mickey actor, who had this really cool thing going on with his face. I think it worked the same way the puppets in Thunderbirds worked, where the face was programmed to move with the backing track and the actor didn't really need to talk. If this is the case, I want to point out the absolute precision that it takes to be that actor. There's no flubbing your line or tripping and stalling things while you catch your balance. Your line is going to come if you're ready or not, so you better be ready. <br /><br />For over half the show, however, Mickey was a projection on the stage. There was a lot of projection work in this show. It's pretty rare for me to see a stage show with video projections and not think, "Wow, that was better than what could have been done live-action,"<br />but that's a personal biaS. Problem directors I've worked with think that projections can solve all the budget problems a show has. I guess the projections in Avenue Q were pretty good in that they were mimicking the "Today was brought to you by the letter B" segments of Sesame Street, but if they'd done that live-action it would have had the same effect. That's the nicest thing I can say about projections. If done well, they can be on equal level with live action. <br /><br />In this case, the CGI of Yensid (the wizard dude) didn't look finished. It looked like a 3D model does before you go about texturing it. It kind of reminded me of the Butt Ugly Martians and that's a horrible thing to be reminded of. It has about the same level of sophistication as the textures in Foodfight!, but much smoother animation. It kind of threw me through a loop because I know that somewhere in Disney are good animators, and while there was nothing in that part of the animation that looked bad, but it didn't look like the animation I expect out of Disney. The rest of the projections was largely filmed live-action of Mickey that moved around the screen. In a couple cases it was really obvious to me that the actor they'd filmed was running in place and then they slid that video across the floor. For the majority of the show, the actors onstage and the projections did not interact. There were cherry blossoms while Mulan was singing and there was a sea theme while Sebastian was there. <br /><br />I think Sebastian's puppet worked similarly to Mickey's face (breaking that disbelief wall there. To me, they're always actors, always puppets, always animations, always props, always costumes. It's the main reason why I don't watch TV anymore) and like the Team America puppets with the preprogrammed facial movements. I'm not 100% sure of that, though, because the vocals were coming live from the puppeteer, and they matched seamlessly. Anyway, a+ eye blinks on that puppet to whoever made those happen. A lot of puppets have really unnatural eye blinks. That puppet was my second-favorite part of that show. It was really seamlessly controlled, and looked like a single cohesive thing. I found myself focusing on the puppet's face, and not the actor/puppeteer's mouth, even though I knew that the sound was coming from the actor and not the crab. The actor very seamlessly matched the expressions and faces of the puppet, so nothing looked wrong that I could focus on and my eyes kind of slid off him. Very well done. <br /><br />But my favorite part was watching Mickey (the physical, non-projected one) interact with the blank spot (which was a projection). Mickey wanted to paint the spot because it was the only blank spot on his magical map (I think? Again, I lost the plot somewhere in the last year), so we have this actor, whose visibility is impaired due to costume, running through three levels of stage, making sure he isn't blocking any projection or being projected on, who is holding a long prop, who has no control over when he says his lines, and is acting against nothing. And what it looked like and felt like was Mickey Mouse chasing a sentient ball of black paint. It was seamless. <br />And the other, WONDERFULLY seamless bit, the moment my mouth actually dropped open, was the transition from projection Mickey to physically present Mickey. There was something with a trap door and an elevating platform going on. I know how it happened. I can picture what it looked like backstage and what the stage manager's book looked like for that sequence. I know the how. <br />But WHAT happened was that 100% seamlessly they rose Physically Present Mickey out of the stage at the same time that Projection Mickey was rising (and disappearing, because projection) up, with perfect posing. With perfect speed. And I believe Mickey was also moving his arms during this sequence. It matched perfectly. I have never seen a more accurate projection in my life. The precision there, of an actor, who has limited vilibility, is standing on a moving platform, has to match something he can't see and can't feel (no "find your light" when the whole stage is projected onto), with a prop, while moving, and being unable to control his own lines, while also interacting with something that isn't there. <br />Knowing that all of that went into that makes me feel like I just watched magic. <br /><br />*************<br /><br />So, yeah, there's a walkthrough of how I see magic. Of how, to me, a perfect illusion that I know how it happened is more impressive than totally being fooled. I don't think there's real magic anywhere in the world. I know the pingpong ball didn't appear out of nowhere. I know that the secret letter was in the orange the whole time. I know that even though I think I picked my card, the magician knows exactly which card I randomly selected. And even when I know there's only one alive bird and the others are fakes and I know where he put the bird in his sleeve and then pulled it out with his thumb while the other thumb lit the match, even when I know EXACTLY how the trick is done, not being able to see that it was done, that's magic. Knowing it's a trick, but still being tricked. Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-71051898355443832002016-05-21T14:37:00.001-07:002016-05-21T14:37:34.502-07:00Betta Care: Your Cycle, your cycle, your lovely cycleI've talked a bunch about filter bacteria before, but here's a summary for you who missed it.<br />
<br />
Fish make ammonia when they live.<br />
This ammonia is toxic to them.<br />
Without a filter, you need to change all of the water in your tank to get the ammonia out.<br />
There are bacteria you can grow that can convert the ammonia into less toxic wastes.<br />
This lets you change only part of the water.<br />
<br />
There are two colonies of bacteria that you grow when you make a successful biological filter.<br />
One group converts ammonia into nitrite.<br />
Nitrite is more toxic to fish than ammonia<br />
The second colony converts nitrite into nitrate<br />
Nitrate is much safer for fish to live in than ammonia.<br />
<br />
So these bacteria take a while to grow. The first group, that makes nitrite, grow faster than the second group. This means that, while the bacteria are growing, your water will have waste products in your tank that are more dangerous than not having a filter.<br />
The dangers of nitrite spikes are why you should not filter a tank under 2.5 gallons. If you have no filter, the only risk to your pet is ammonia. If you are filtering it, and part of your colony dies (which happens is smaller water volumes because there are fewer resources to go around), your fish are now exposed to more dangerous wastes.<br />
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So, how do you grow the bacteria without harming your fish?<br />
First, you're going to want to make sure you have a place for your bacteria to live. If your filter only came with a carbon pad, you're going to want to find a way to put more growing space for the bacteria.<br />
Find the canister filter media/bulk filter media section of your pet store. In this section, you'll be able to find ceramic pellets or noodles (Fluval brand name: Biomax) or filter sponge/filter foam. Now all you need to do is find a way to put that into your current filter, so that water is running over it. I like to keep the carbon pad in the filter, because the filter floss in the pad can help remove particles in the water, and because the filter is often designed with the idea that the pad will regulate the water flow.<br />
If you have a sponge filter, you've already got your biological media. If you have an undergravel filter, your gravel is your biological media.<br />
<br />
Some people are going to tell you that you can't leave a carbon pad in your filter forever because it will "leak toxins back into the water."<br />
Who's up for betta fish myth busters?<br />
1) The way activated carbon works is basically that every piece of carbon is constructed with a lot of holes in it and a very high surface area, and an electrical charge. The charge draws certain things to the carbon, and those things lodge in the holes and stay put. Carbon stops being effective when all of the holes have filled up.<br />
2) If you have a brita pitcher in your house, you might have noticed the warning to always change your filter on time. This is because carbon that has filled up can breed bacteria, and if you're a human drinking water you really don't want to be drinking bacteria growing in carbon.<br />
3) Full activated carbon does not let go of what it has collected. Even if it did, the only toxins it would have collected are ones from your tank, ones that would be in your water if you didn't have carbon. So, yes, your carbon is going to grow bacteria in it, once it's full. Do you know what kind of bacteria? Nitrifying bacteria. The kind of bacteria we're trying to grow anyway.<br />
So stop fucking telling people carbon leaches stuff into your tank, because it fucking doesn't.<br />
<br />
Okay. So. You have a good place for your bacteria to grow. It's somewhere porous. Now you have to make sure that there is a source of oxygenated water moving over your bacteria. These bacteria need fresh water, water with oxygen, or they die. Almost all filters are designed to draw water through them, so make sure wherever you stuck your biomax or foam is getting water flow.<br />
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Make sure to dechlorinate your water with a water conditioner (I like seachem prime, but Tetra's Bettasafe is cheap and available everywhere), because the chlorine in your water can kill your bacteria. <br />
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Now you have a good place for the bacteria to grow. So, where do you get them?<br />
All water has small amounts of these bacteria. There's small amounts in the air. If you keep your filter running, and you feed the bacteria what they need, they'll grow.<br />
You can go to the hardware store and pick up some 100% pure ammonia (the kind that doesn't foam when you shake it) and add some drops of it to your water.<br />
You can put a piece of shrimp in a cup of water and leave it there for a few days, and then dump that water in the tank. The shrimp will decay in the water and produce ammonia.<br />
<i>Don't intentionally add ammonia if there's a fish in your tank. </i><br />
Or you can put a fish in the tank and watch your water parameters like a hawk. This will be between two weeks and two months of frequent water changes.<br />
<br />
If you don't want to wait and grow the bacteria slowly, you can speed it up in a couple ways:<br />
You can buy bottled bacteria. Some brands out there don't work and some do. I've had good luck with Tetra SafeStart+ and bad luck with Tetra SafeStart. Fluval makes a decent bottled bacteria.<br />
The other brands usually have anaerobic bacteria in them, which can cycle your tank for a short while before dying. Anerobic bacteria products generally do not get your tank to cycle faster than the slow-cycle method.<br />
<br />
Or you can beg/borrow/steal some bacteria from someone's established tank.<br />
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There's a few ways you can go about this. If you're putting biomax in your filter, and you know someone who has biomax in their filter, you can ask if you can trade a small handful of your uncycled biomax for their biomax with the bacteria on it. If you only take 1/3rd or less of theirs, their cycle won't crash, and you'll have bacteria to give your cycle a boost start.<br />
You can loan them some filter media or your whole filter, and have them run it alongside their filter. After about a week or two, the bacteria in your friend's tank will have also taken up residence in your filter, which you can put into your tank and have your cycle.<br />
If that doesn't work, ask if you can borrow a porous decoration from their tank: a handful of gravel, the pink castle cave, a silk plant, or something similar. While there won't be as many bacteria on this, there will be more than there are in your unestablished tank, and it can cut cycling time down by quite a bit. When I'm borrowing decor from someone's tank, and I'm cycling with a HOB that has the room, I just shove whatever I borrowed into the filter like it's normal media. If I have gravel, I put it in some pantyhose, knot it tight, and cut off the excess. This keeps all the gravel in one place. Being put in the oxygen-rich water will help whatever bacteria are clinging onto it to grow faster.<br />
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What doesn't help a tank cycle faster is taking water from it. The bacteria you need to make a tank's biological cycle complete doesn't live in the water. It lives on hard and porous surfaces in your tank.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>If you already have your fish, and you don't have a cycle, read here:</b><br />
So, there's a couple things you can do. If you don't have fishkeeper friends to steal the bacteria from, you're going to need to build your cycle from scratch.<br />
Some people say you can do a fish-in cycle. This is where you leave the filter running with the fish. Every day, you need to test your water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. You need to use an accurate liquid test kit for this, and you need to change the water every time one of those toxins gets to an elevated level (0.5 for ammonia, 0.25 for nitrite). The changing of the water will slow down your cycling, but it's the only way to cycle with the fish in the water and keep the fish safe.<br />
I don't like that method.<br />
It is much safer to let the fish live in an unfiltered tank for a while. I like to buy a plastic shoe box (big tupperware, sterilite bin, 1.5gal pitcher...it depends on the size of the filter). Then I hook the filter up so that it can run in that bin. Then I get another source of ammonia and add that to the bin. The advantage of this is that I can add ammonia in the cycling tub until it's at 4ppm, which is too high for a fish to live in, but provides the bacteria with ample food. Letting the bacteria live in a high ammoina/nitrite environment makes them grow faster. When you can add enough ammonia to bring the tank to 4ppm before bed, and wake up to 0ppm, your filter's well on its way to being cycled. This usually takes a couple weeks, but it depends on your water, the temperature of your water, how much ammonia you put in it, and a few other factors.<br />
<br />
As for how to know if your tank's cycled, you're going to need a way of testing your water parameters. I like the API liquid test kit master freshwater kit. It's about $30. If you're cycling with the fish in, you need a liquid test kit, because test strips can stop being accurate if they're exposed to air. If your fish is directly at risk, you need the precision you know you get with a liquid kit.<br />
If you're cycling outside of your tank, you can use the API 5-in-1 strips and an ammonia test strip. When you're buying test strips, always get the smallest package you can, because being exposed to air will reduce the accuracy of your strips. However, if you're cycling outside of your fish's environment, you don't need extreme accuracy. All you need is to see that when your cycle's done, you have no ammonia and no nitrite, and a good level of nitrates. When that's happened, remove the filter from your cycle tub and put it in your aquarium (but don't add any of the cycling water).<br />
The liquid test kit comes out cheaper in the long run, BTW. <br />
<br />
<i>But this looks hard and I thought having a fish was easy. </i><br />
If you think you're going to just put your fish in with the filter and change the water a lot, because you don't want to get some water tests, here's what you can do:<br />
<i>First of all, save up for some water tests</i>. Any time your fish is sick, you should test your water. Most of the time, the cause of your fish's sickness is incredibly obvious when you test his water.<br />
Second, because you can't measure your ammonia level in the water, you have to be careful adding it. Get 20% ammonia (which is available at the hardware store) and add 1 drop for every 2/3rds of a gallon of water you're cycling the filter in. This should get you to 4ppm. You cannot go higher than 8ppm or you'll start killing your filter bacteria. They can only tolerate so high of levels.<br />
Now add 1 drop every 3 days for 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks, add a drop, and 12 hours later take a water sample to your pet store. Most pet stores (including petsmart) will test it for free. If you have no ammonia, no nitrite, and a good nitrate level, you're good! Make sure you let the employee know that you're cycling the tank without a fish, or they might panic at your nitrate level.<br />
Remember that you still need to change the fish's water while your filter is cycling.<br />
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<br />
<i><Insert witty final remark></i>Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-12225795783582764562016-05-20T19:51:00.004-07:002016-05-20T19:51:34.230-07:00Betta Care: My Standard Setup (& Price Breakdown)<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There's a lot of different environments that you can keep a betta fish in. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">However, when I'm setting up a new environment for a fish, here's what I get:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGqTmg5OboKKX7xx3YN2FADUZigXzi_sj_MJUwq9rXsTMvz__oaBEkhF9ST5Iq332hQNa0kkY12K4FiZENlI3GGjksrheyzE1qyVsXFyON_8rbBYdcC6vxgugkcU2hqAdn7LbbIhZQdfY/s1600/20160520_182630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGqTmg5OboKKX7xx3YN2FADUZigXzi_sj_MJUwq9rXsTMvz__oaBEkhF9ST5Iq332hQNa0kkY12K4FiZENlI3GGjksrheyzE1qyVsXFyON_8rbBYdcC6vxgugkcU2hqAdn7LbbIhZQdfY/s320/20160520_182630.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>TANK: </b>2.5 or 5 or 10 gallon rectangular tank with lid.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What one I get is usually based on how much space I have to put it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Circular and bow-front and other tanks take up more space for the same water volume. Since I have a lot of fish, I rarely have a lot of space to put a new fish tank.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Another consideration is weight. A 2.5gal tank, set up for betta, weighs about 35 pounds. A 10gal tank, set up for betta, weighs about 115 pounds. Make sure your furniture and your floor is ready </span><br />
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<i>(it's that little black thing in the back)</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEATER: </b>In general, I like glass heaters. I'll use paddle heaters for 2.5's. I use up to 10w/gallon (25 watt heater for a 2.5, 50 watt heater for a 5gal) as a guide for maximum heater size.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If it's a submersible heater, I like to put it horizontally by the floor. This lets me drain most of the water without unplugging my tank. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>THERMOMETER: </b>If you have a heater, you need a thermometer. I use glass thermometers because they're more accurate than the kind that stick onto the outside of the glass. I prefer sinking thermometers to floating thermometers, but both work. I don't like that floating thermometers tend to free themselves from the wall and run around the tank without you. Here, I've got a magnetic horizontal thermometer, which I really don't like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> </b><i>Right, sponge, left, filter</i></span></span><b><br /></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>FILTER: </b>For a 5gal tank, I almost always use sponge filters. A sponge filter also needs a <b>air pump</b> and <b>airline tubing</b> with it. I use black silicone airline tubing because I like how it looks. I've also had luck with Tetra's HOB for 5gal tanks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For a 10gal, I either use a HOB filter or two sponge filters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For a 2.5, I use either a sponge filter and a throttled air pump, or I leave the tank unfiltered if I know I will be able to ALWAYS stay on top of my water changes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I don't like internal power filters. I've never had bad luck with them, but the idea of having all the electricals INSIDE the tank with my fish always makes me nervous. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tank, heater, thermometer, filter. If you have a betta fish, your environment needs to have those four things. There is no good reason to not have those four things. They're the bare minimum.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now, the things you put in it:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Substrate: </b>I like gravel. I tend to have gravel on hand in case I need to set up a tank on the fly, or in case I change my mind about how I want a tank to look. Enough gravel for the bottom of a tank weighs less than enough sand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You don't <i>need</i> substrate, but I think it looks nice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Cave</b>: Your fish needs somewhere to hide. You can buy cool looking caves at the pet store, or you can use a flowerpot or mug on its side. Make sure it has no metallic decoration or paint that would flake off. If it's got a hole big enough for the betta to put his head in, plug it with some hot glue or something, because they can and will get stuck.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Plants: </b>I like silk ones, because I think they tend to be prettier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I've found that I like the look of heavily-decorated tanks better than sparse ones. I like having at least two plants that are as tall as the tank itself, and then shorter ones for the front. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I like having plants to cover up where the sponge filter will be, so I don't need to look at it. I've also found that having tall leaves near the surface helps break up the bubbles from the sponge filter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Other:</b> Once you have the tank, filter, heater, thermometer, cave, and enough plants to make the fish feel safe, everything else becomes about what <i>you</i> want. There are people out there who will talk your ear off about human amusement vs fish needs, but I don't think applies here. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A legitimate comment about putting human amusement above fish needs is if you wanted to keep a fish in a wine glass, or wanted to use fish as decoration for a party. There, you've taken the needs of the fish, and said you don't care about the needs of the fish, because you <i>want</i> to put the fish in a wine glass.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">However, when you've made sure you have already met the needs of the fish, and you are making sure that nothing you are doing is harming the fish, there's nothing wrong with setting up a fish tank that you really enjoy looking at. If you want an ornament that looks like Spongebob, or you want a tank backdrop, or you want whatever you think looks cool, feel free to add it. It is not wrong to want your fish tank to make you happy, as long as your happiness is not coming at the expense of the fish's health.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you run into someone ready to lecture you on that who DOESN'T keep their fish in opaque sterilite bins, send them to me because I'd LOVE to call someone on that kind of hipocracy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Price Breakdown of my ideal betta setup:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$16 -- Tank (2.5 with lid, Great Choice brand, at both Petsmart and Petco) or</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">($10 for a 10gal)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$16 -- Heater (Great Choice 15w paddle, Aquaeon 10w Mini) OR</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">($30 -- Heater) (Marina 25w, Aquaeon 50w, Tetra 50w non-adjustable--for larger tanks)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$3 -- Thermometer (any brand, as long as it's a glass internal thermometer, should run you this price range)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$9 -- Air Pump (the smallest one you can stand the sound of)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$3 -- Airline Tubing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$6 -- Sponge Filter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$4 -- Gravel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$1 -- Flowerpot Cave</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$7 -- Plants (Petco has a silk plant set that has 3 small and 3 tiny plants, which would be great for a 2.5, and they have a set that is 3 medium and 3 small plants that'd be a great start for decorating a 5 or 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Puts you at $65 for my ideal 2.5 or 5 gal tanks and $73 for a larger. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Note this is just enclosure and living space. Tack on another</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">$5 for Seachem Prime, $8 for Omega One, $3 for a fish bucket and $10 for a decent siphon and $6 for a good power strip to plug it all into. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My analysis here comes up to, if you know you're going to get a betta fish, set aside around $100 to do it with. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Most of us don't plan on getting betta fish before we do. We fall in love with one at the store, a friend is getting rid of theirs, you rescued it from being thrown away after being used as a party decoration...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In my case,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">It has been</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strike>260</strike> 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">days</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">since the last betta fish impulse buy incident</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What I've noticed is that, unless you have a big stash of fish-related things hanging around (like I do), it's almost always cheaper to buy all of the <i>things</i> for the fish, and then to buy the fish. This gives you a chance to go price shopping and buy things you need online. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You might shrug off a lot of things as, "I don't really need that," when you first get the fish, but be aware that you'll end up spending that money anyway, if you want a healthy fish. </span> </span></div>
Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-91745398488310863952016-05-20T16:09:00.000-07:002016-05-20T16:09:09.062-07:00Betta Care: Cup SicknessFirst, I'm going to soapbox for a minute here.<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">My personal rule is that I'll never buy a sick betta fish from a store unless they give me a discount on the fish. I'll also never buy a fish that I know will die. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This sort of comes from where I used to work, when I was keeper of the betta. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Basically, stores understand money more than they understand morality. When you're buying something at full price, you're telling the store, "Yes, I like what you're doing, keep doing this," and telling them that sick fish will still sell. When you ask for a discount you're telling the store that the fish is not worth as much when it is sick. Stores do not want product that can only be sold at a discount</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Buying a fish that you know is going to die is removing the responsibility of looking at the dead fish and disposing of the body from the store. Knowing that a fish died and looking at a dead fish are two different things. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This means that if a store won't give me a discount on a sick fish, I have to walk away. I have to leave that fish. It is not easy. It's never easy. But it has to be done, to teach the stores that their fish need to be taken care of. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I'm trying to find the video of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, talking about buying illegal animals at a market. He's filming this video at a market in some country where people have taken wild animals, put them in tiny cages, and are selling them as novelties or pets or for their fur (I don't remember why). You can watch Steve's heart break as he's explaining that he has room for them at his zoo and he has enough money to buy all of them and give them a home, but for every animal he buys, another one is caught and put in its place in the market. I know that Steve Irwin loved animals more than I am capable of loving anything, and if he could walk away from those animals, I can walk away from a betta at Petco.</span></i><br />
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This doesn't mean that you should only buy betta fish in perfect health. A little fin rot or a little skinniness is normal from a fish that's been living in 1/18th of a gallon for more than a couple weeks. It does mean, however, that you should consider the quality of life of all the fish in the store before you buy an extremely sick fish. <br />
Soapbox done.<br />
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I'm going to call this Cup Sickness. A lot of fish who stay on the shelves at the store, or who live in enclosures too small (LOOKIN' AT YOU, BETTA CUBES, FUCK YOU, BETTA CUBES) get this combination of problems.<br />
~They lose the ability to control how they float. This usually means they're stuck on their sides at the surface of the water, but sometimes means they can't float and are stuck at the floor of their cups. Losing their ability to control their floating is called swim bladder disease, or SBD<br />
~They become either extremely skinny or seriously overweight (or both, which, yes, is possible). A betta's weight is easiest to see when viewed directly from above.<br />
~They often have very poor muscle tone, from not being able to swim in a straight line<br />
~They are often constipated, and may have a swollen tummy.<br />
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Important note:<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Cup Sickness</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Cup Sickness</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Cup Sickness</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis_SHQpsKmXlwnUlrfM4AaO1bVWFEqhdCuEtWPbI0Hwt-2dOo0dyBYHqra0Lpxhf7uVRUUmVRttpj-H4esPWteHmOD7k8RrsaBdSaewXgTcG5ZaqigyrgZxYjYVokHojvwsUGA7NmEJMCS/s1600/tumblr_nu2v77TgLf1qkf1fpo1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis_SHQpsKmXlwnUlrfM4AaO1bVWFEqhdCuEtWPbI0Hwt-2dOo0dyBYHqra0Lpxhf7uVRUUmVRttpj-H4esPWteHmOD7k8RrsaBdSaewXgTcG5ZaqigyrgZxYjYVokHojvwsUGA7NmEJMCS/s320/tumblr_nu2v77TgLf1qkf1fpo1_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Cup Sickness</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>BUT THIS </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>IS NOT CUP SICKNESS</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b><span style="font-size: small;">This is called Mystery Bloat or Malwai Bloat. This fish was not having trouble floating or sinking. He's severely swollen in all directions, like he swallowed a marble. His scales are sticking up. This is not cup sickness. Mystery/Malwai bloat is contagious and fatal for betta fish. Do not bring a fish with this sickness into your house.</span></b> </i></span></div>
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Back to Cup Sickness <br />
There's four main things that can cause these symptoms. At least three of these causes are usually present in cases of cup sickness.<br />
1) <b>High Ammonia Levels:</b> Betta fish have a very high tolerance for ammonia. They can stay alive in cups with 32ppm of ammonia or higher in them. 1ppm of ammonia is considered the lethal level for ornamental fish, because living in 1ppm of ammonia for 4 days kills 50% of fish. Betta fish can stay alive in higher levels of ammonia, but they do start getting physical damage from it. Living in 4ppm of ammonia is just living in and breathing poison.<br />
2)<b> Small, Cold Living Space: </b>If their bowl is a size of shape where they can't even swim their body length in a straight line, they are going to develop weird muscles. If there's no stimulation in their bowl, they're going to get bored and sit on the bottom. Cold water also makes them sleepy, contributing to cold. Water that is too cold also makes it harder for their digestive system to work properly. The combination of these things means that many fish get seriously overweight, and if they stay in the cup for longer they start losing all their muscles. They become extremely thin and very small.<br />
3) <b>Awful Food:</b> Most betta foods on the market are just kind of crap. Betta fish cannot digest plant matter at all, but a lot of betta foods have grains in them as binders or fillers. Constantly needing to crap out over half the food they eat, combined with the fact that they can't move enough (moving aids in digestion) is just a recipe for serious constipation.<br />
4)<b> Damaged Slime Coat:</b> Betta fish have a mucus-like coating on them, which their bodies make to protect them from physical damage and illnesses. Their slime coat can be damaged if they're sick, but it can also be damaged when they move or are touched too roughly. A lot of store carrying betta in cups don't have the time or skill to make sure the fish are not stressed or roughly handled every time the water in the cups is changed. Children of shoppers like to pick up fish cups and shake them<i> (AND IF I CATCH YOUR KIDS DOING THAT I WILL GIVE YOU A PIECE OF MY MIND)</i> This means that even if the cups are changed two or three times a week to keep the ammonia levels lower, the fish are still being damaged.<br />
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Usually, Cup Sickness is caused by 1, 2, and 3, with an occasional appearance by 4. So, your fish has cup sickness, or you bought a fish with cup sickness, or your friend was going to get rid of their fish because it started swimming sideways...whatever it is, you have a sick fish on your hands.<br />
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A lot of people are going to tell you that you need to feed a pea to the fish and they'll be fine, bathe them in Epsom salts, blah, blah.<br />
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<b>Adding aquarium salt to the water of a bloated fish will make the bloating worse. </b>Throwing that out there. <br />
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So, let's go over the basics of treating a sick fish really fast:<br />
First of all, <b>betta fish are small and the wrong treatment can take a very serious toll on their bodies</b>. You don't want to give a fish antibiotics if you're not 100% sure they need them, because they can stress the poor fish's kidneys. A bath in Epsom salts can also stress out their kidneys and their respiratory system, which will already be damaged if they are living in a high-ammonia environment. You don't want to put anything in their digestive tract that can damage it unless you know it is necessary. <b>Unless you are very sure than the betta's condition is rapidly deteriorating, you want to use the smallest and least damaging treatments possible, working your way up until you find the most gentle treatment that works.</b><br />
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<b> </b>So, the first thing that causes cup sickness is ammonia levels, and the first treatment is to get them out of high ammonia water. This means getting them into a larger tank or tub.<br />
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This is how most of my hospital tanks for sick fish look. The plastic is easy to clean, and cheap enough that if a fish had something really contagious I can just never use it for fish again. Having no substrate makes it easier to monitor a fish's digestion (counting the poops). They have something in the tank that they can use for hiding and to not feel so exposed. They have heaters keeping the water at 75-83. Both of these tubs have about 3 gallons of water in them, and no filters.<br />
Unless you have a filter already cycled* that has a very low output, I don't filter hospital tanks for cup sickness. When the fish is trapped at the surface, small bubbles will move them constantly.<br />
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Getting them into ammonia-free water is the first step. The next step is to make sure that their water is a good temperature. Get a heater that you can control the heat on, and that has an internal thermostat. Set it to the higher range of their acceptable water levels (I like 80).<br />
Instead of putting 80 degree water in the tank, I try to match the temperature of the cup the fish is in. I then add the fish before I turn the heater on. This changes the temperature of their water much more slowly.<br />
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So, they're in ammonia-free water that is heated, and at least three times as long as the fish's body so they can swim. What now?<br />
Now you just wait. Unless you /know/ the fish has not eaten in the past week, don't feed him. Don't put peas in there, don't bathe him or add salt or anything. Put him in good, clean water, heat it to the right temperature, and let him be for a day. Keep checking on him, make sure he's not panting or deteriorating, but just give him space and clean water and give that a chance to do its thing.<br />
In some more mild cases, enough water is all you need.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This is Cinco. Cinco had been in a cup at work, stuck on the bottom and unable to reach the surface without fighting, for five months. Where his swim bladder was, the side of his body had caved in. I thought he had a birth defect and that he would never be able to swim. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Brought him home and put him in a bowl I'd carefully built to accommodate a betta who can't float. Went to sleep, woke up, and he could swim fine. He's still very sensitive to water currents and ammonia levels, but for the majority of the time he swims like a normal fish. </i></span></div>
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<br />Sometimes, though, water isn't all you need.<br />
Once the fish has been in his new water for about twelve hours, it's time to feed him. Make sure that what you're feeding is good quality food. He's probably got all sorts of weird shit in his digestive tract from eating whatever Hikari shit the store's feeding him. I like to limit it to one or two pebbles (I feed Omega One, which has larger pebbles) and no more. Then it's a matter of waiting and counting if he poops.<br />
This is why it's a good idea to not have gravel.<br />
If it's been 24 hours and your fishy hasn't pooped, it's time to feed him something with fiber. A lot of people suggest a pea. Peas are entirely plant-based, so the betta cannot digest any of it. In theory, when he shits that fucker out, it'll take out anything else in his digestive system that might be blocking it.<br />
To feed him a pea, take a frozen pea and microwave it for about 10 seconds. Then use your fingernail to pull off a section about the same size as a food pebble, and drop it in the tank. If your fish is aggressive, desperate, or kind of dumb, he might go right for it.<br />
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If you just can't get him to eat a pea (can you blame him?) go to the pet store and get frozen daphnia or frozen mysis shrimp.<br />
Both of these are things a betta might naturally want to eat. Daphnia have a natural laxative effect and mysis shrimp have an exoskeleton that's all fiber. They're also much easier to feed than tricking him into eating a pea.<br />
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If you're on day three and the swelling just will not go down, then you can try to give him an epsom salt bath. I pull half a gallon of their tank water out into a pitcher, add two teaspoons of epsom salt and dissolve it. Then I transfer the fish into the pitcher and watch him like mad for ten minutes. If he starts panting or panicking, I immediately transfer him back. If he stays calm for all ten minutes, I transfer him back to his tank, and then add half a gallon of fresh water into his tank to replace what I pulled out of the tank.<br />
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Honestly, this has never failed me. In some cases it's taken weeks, weeks on constant ammonia checks and water changes and baths and poop counting, but all of my cup sickness rescues are now better and normal fish.<br />
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And it's worth it.<br /><br />
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*We haven't talked about cycling yet, but we will<br />
Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-64881217892843384392016-05-18T15:29:00.002-07:002016-05-18T15:48:46.409-07:00Betta Care: Let's talk decorDecor is all the stuff in your tank that's not water or your fish.<br />
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You have decor for two reasons: 1) To make the tank pretty and something you like having in your house, 2) To replicate the natural environment of your fish. <br />
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This means you have three things to keep in mind when you're decorating (aquascaping) your tank: 1) Will it make my betta feel safe, 2) Do I like how it looks, and 3) Will it hurt my fish?<br />
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<i>Pshaw, Polly, I'm not just sticking random shit in my tank. I got it from the pet store! I don't need to worry about if it'll hurt my fish. </i><br />
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Bad news, Italicized Strawman. <i> </i>A lot of decor you can get at the pet store will hurt your fish. Some stores sell cheap (or overpriced) decor that has paint that'll flake off into the water. Also, betta fish have very delicate fins. Sharp or rough decor can rip right through them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This is just the stuff that's not currently being used</i></span> </div>
Luckily, I have a lot of decor hanging around, so I can talk about the good and the bad.<br />
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The sand, gravel, or stones you put on the bottom of your tank is called substrate. There's several different kinds, all with good and bad sides.<br />
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I like gravel. It comes in a lot of colors, it's cheap, I find it easy to clean, and it's reusable. It's the only substrate you can use with an undergravel filter. I suggest getting about 1 pound a gallon for your tank (though this depends on the shape of the tank).<br />
Some people don't like gravel because it requires a more thorough vacuuming than sand does. You can't grow live plants in gravel, and it's dangerous for bottom feeders like catfish to be on. (side note, don't put gravel in your goldfish tank. They try to eat it and frequently choke).<br />
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The cup on the right in the above picture has glass stones. Large acrylic or glass stones are great for unfiltered tanks. They're easy to dump out, rinse off, and put back in the bowl. You don't need to worry about them going down your sink like you have to worry about gravel.<br />
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Some people use very large stones, 3"+, in their aquariums. This works really well for goldfish, but betta will try to swim through any little hole, and can get caught. If you use large stones, make sure they are smooth and that there are no spaces a fish could get stuck.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>2.5gal tank with sand </i></span></div>
Sand is another popular substrate. You can buy a bag of play sand at the hardware store for $4 for 20 pounds, which will be enough for most tanks.<br />
When you're buying sand, make sure you're not getting marine sand. Marine sand has salt in it and isn't good for betta tanks. Play sand and pool filter sand both work for fish.<br />
Sand is difficult to remove, and if you frequently rescape your tanks it is also very difficult to clean up and move. It's easier to bury plants in. You can't use it with a buried heater and you can't use it with an undergravel filter. It doesn't come in any fun colors.<br />
Some people have an easier time cleaning sand than gravel, or feel they do a more thorough job cleaning it. A lot of people like that it's more natural looking. People who have tanks with live plants like sand for planting in it.<br />
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You can also choose to have no substrate and just have a bare tank floor. I like this because it makes it easy to tell if the tank is clean and very easy to vacuum, but it's harder to add more water without the decor sliding around.<br />
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It's also important to remember that if you're going to divide a tank, you need at least an inch of substrate to bury the bottom of the divider.<br />
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Now, other stuff!<br />
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I suggest that every betta enclosure has some kind of cave. A cave is anything a fish can swim into and hide. You can buy cool ones that look like pirate ships or skulls, or you can use a mug or teacup or terra cotta flowerpot turned on its side (no metallic decorations, though, as those can be toxic).<br />
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I call these guys ornaments. They're hard decor that isn't meant to look like plants. When Twister had the triangular arch in his tank, he liked swimming through it. It's possible to put an airstone under the lighthouse and have bubbles come out the window, which is pretty cool looking.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>DON'T TOUCH MY LEEF!!!!!</i></span> </div>
Here's some betta-specific decor. The left is a betta log, and the right are betta leaf hammocks. If you have an older fish or a fish you've noticed sleeping on other things in the tank, it can be nice to give them a leaf that's meant specifically for sleeping on, or a log for sleeping in. Currently, none of my tanks have betta leafs or betta logs.<br />
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Before we go on, there's two types of bases for plant decoration. Bottom left is my favorite, the weighted base. You can bury the end in gravel or sand, or have it just sit on the floor of the tank. I like these because if I accidentally unbury one, it doesn't float to the roof of the tank.<br />
The top and bottom right ones have cups in the bottom that you have to bury to make it stay down. If you have sand, these stay better than if you have gravel. They do not work at all for bare tanks.<br />
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Now, on to plants:<br />
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Silk plants (which are made from fabric, but not necessarily silk) are my favorite for betta fish. They are soft and don't scratch delicate fins, and a lot of them have big leaves to sleep on.<br />
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Here's some soft plastic plants. They don't have sharp edges. Even though some of them are made of hard plastic, they don't have bits that are easy to catch a fin on.<br />
If you want to test if a plant is good for your betta tank, put on some tights and rub the plant on your thigh (or pretend you did). If it snags your pantyhose, it's too sharp.<br />
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And here's the sharp plants that I suggest you avoid. If you grab one of these in your hand and squeeze, you can feel it digging into your hand.<br />
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When you're actually scapeing your tank, put short plants at the front and tall plants at the back. Petsmart sells these filler carpets that are great for cutting up and adding little decorations. That's what that front piece is. Here Casper's got a clay pot for a cave.<br />
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Mr Tipsy's cave is wider than his apartment, and has to be at an angle. Again, note the tall plants in the back and short in the front. This isn't for any health reason, it's just nicer looking in general.<br />
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Bo's got a lovely piece of driftwood that I made sure was smooth before I put it in the tank. For the first few months, the driftwood turned the water brown and I had to use carbon in my filter to keep the color away. Now, however, it's done leaching tannin and just looks pretty. Driftwood can help lower your PH, and the tannins they stain the water with don't hurt your fish.<br />
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And here's Twister's dragon. The dragon has an airstone in it to let it breathe bubbles, but I disabled it because Twister already had the UGF lift tube putting bubbles into his tank. Twister doesn't have a cave, and instead has a very dense group of tall and short plants in the back of his space. This is because when he had a cave, he'd still hide in the plants if he was scared, so it seemed better to replace the cave with more plants.<br />
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Well, that's more than anyone ever needed to know about fish tank decorations. Have fun, folks.<br />
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<br />Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-77346491118236005452016-05-18T13:54:00.003-07:002016-05-18T13:54:48.878-07:00Betta Care: A tank dividedIn the last post that I wrote six minutes ago, I covered two things: you cannot (in general) keep betta fish together, and you have to be very careful when keeping betta fish with other fish.<br />
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So what if you want nine betta fish but you don't want to change nine tanks, and buy nine filters and nine heaters.<br />
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Some people really hate split tanks, but I love them.<br />
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<b>The dangers of split tanks: </b>fish getting around or over the dividers and hurting each other, diseases traveling through shared water, betta seeing each other and being constantly stressed.<br />
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<b>The advantages of split tanks: </b>fewer filters, fewer heaters, fewer water changes, fewer lights. Easier to keep parameters stable for several fish, fewer water tests, less space. A larger water quantity makes waste build up more slowly.<br />
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So, first of all, what's a good divided tank?<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Here's a hint, it's not<a href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Aqua-Culture-BettaView-Aquarium-.5-Gallon-Fish-Aquatic-Pets/17248150"> this thing</a>.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">A divided tank is a tank that has a barrier in it to keep the fish apart. The fish all live in the same tank, and that tank only requires the maintenance of one tank, but can have more than one living space in it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>10 gallon tank, divided to have two living spaces and a small space in the middle.</i></span></div>
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There are two dangers that you find in divided tanks that you don't find in solo tanks. The first is that if your betta fish somehow gets around or over the divider, there's a good chance that he'll kill his tank-mate. The other concern is that if one fish in a divided tank gets sick, every fish gets exposed to it. Instead of losing one fish, you can lose several. If one heater fails, all your fish will be too cold. You're putting all your eggs in one basket.<br />
Both of these are 100% avoidable, however. Proper quarantining is an important part of any shared tank. Quarantining means you keep the new fish in his own tank for ~30 days, to make sure he doesn't have any disease that could spread. Proper care for a community tank means not putting in any fish you know is sick, or you know was exposed to a disease.<br />
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You can keep bettas on their side of their dividers by building the dividers properly. The dividers you see at the pet store don't work for betta fish. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Those dividers are built for fish who don't have the biological desire to murder everything they see. The good news is that you can easily build the kind of divider that <i>does</i> work for betta fish, and they're cheaper than the ones at the pet store. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A 20 gallon long tank divided 4-ways</i></span></div>
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First, you need to think about how big of a tank you want. I recommend having at least 4 gallons of water per fish. This is based on the total water volume. The tank might be divided, but they'll all be breathing the same water, so you need to have enough of that. The other concern is space. Take a very critical look at the size that each apartment will be when it's divided. It needs to be deep enough, wide enough, and tall enough. For this reason I say that a 20-long tank can be divided into four, but a 20-high tank should only be divided into two.<br />
Also you need to take into account your fish. If you have a big guy, he might not be comfortable in 1/4 of a 20-long, but other fish will have plenty of space. If you have a very aggressive fish that will spend hours trying to attack the shadow on the other side of the divider, he might not be happy in a divided tank. Just because a stranger on the internet said it'd be okay for most fish doesn't mean it'll be good for every fish.<br /> <br />
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I make mine out of plastic needlepoint canvas, the spines to report covers, and a shitload of aquarium silicone. You cut the canvas to the shape you need, put two or three layers together. Then you snap one report spine on the top, and silicone two more spines into the tank. Then you slide the canvas into the spines, and cover the bottom of the divider with gravel or sand. There's tutorials out there that go over this exact process.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Center two apartments of the divided 20. The left and right walls are needlepoint canvas dividers</i></span></div>
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Using silicone to attach the dividers to the walls of the tank is very important. Betta are crafty little fuckers and they can find their way through the gaps in the wall. It's very important that you also use aquarium silicone. The bottle just saying 100% silicone isn't good enough. Go to the hardware store, find an employee, and ask for aquarium-safe silicone. Then make sure it says "aquarium safe" on the packaging. If they don't have it, <a href="http://www.homedepot.com/p/DAP-2-8-oz-Silicone-Aquarium-Sealant-00688/100128841">buy it online</a>. A lot of silicones that you can find in the hardware store have anitfungal additives that will kill your fish. This is a case where buying the wrong product will kill your fish, so be careful.<br />
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If there won't be a lot of jump space when your tank hood is closed, you only need one divider. If there will be a lot of space, you can use two dividers with a little space to catch an angry jumper.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Divided 10 with a thermometer in the jump space</i></span></div>
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If you have a jump space, you can keep your heater or your HOB intake in the jump space, to leave you with more space in the living space.<br />
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If you want to temporarily un-divide your tank, you can slide the needlepoint canvas out and leave the spines glued in. This will let you re-divide it without having to drain the tank and glue in new spines. If you decide that you want to un-divide it long term, you can remove the silicone cleanly with a razor. <br />
<br />As a final note, I've been told that you should not keep a male and female betta in a divided tank, because being close to each other will keep them constantly ready to breed and stress them out. I have never tested this, but if you are interested in keeping a boy and a girl in the same divided tank, this is something you should research first.<br />
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And remember that a healthy fish is prettier than the prettiest tank in the world!Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-46246408560320273282016-05-18T12:42:00.000-07:002016-05-18T12:46:16.143-07:00Betta Care: Community TanksLots of people say betta are solitary fish, and this is largely true.<br />
Under no circumstances should you put multiple male betta in the same living space.<br />
Under no circumstances should male and female betta live in the same space for long term.<br />
Keeping females together requires very specific setup and some generally chill-headed (for betta) fish, and should only be done if you have experience with betta fish.<br />
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I'm going to repeat that in bold text to make sure you get it. <b>Under no circumstances should a male betta fish live in the same living space as any other betta fish.</b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Betta fish do not like to live with each other</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Betta fish that live with each other frequently kill each other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Got that? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the other hand, betta fish can have tank-mates. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">When you're looking for a tank-mate for your fish, you need to take into account both what your fish needs to be happy and healthy and what the other members of the tank need to be happy. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Full disclosure: I do not have experience keeping betta fish with other fish. Most of what I am sharing here is synthesis of other people's research and experience, and not my own research and experience. <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Before you put other animals with your betta fish, make sure you do your own research. I do not know your fish or your life and I cannot do your research for you.</span></i></span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tank-made checklist:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Is my tank big enough?</b> Just don't try to do a mixed-species community tank in a tank smaller than 10 gallons, and I suggest going bigger. There's several reasons why. First of all is the bio-load. All living animals that you might put in a tank produce waste. Your filter (and you need one for a community tank) takes that waste and makes it into less toxic nitrate, but nitrate is still toxic in large amounts, and you don't want it building up too fast. Apart from the nitrate, the waste your tank inhabitants produce creates solid waste on the floor of the tank and in the gravel. If you have too many inhabitants, these things will build up faster. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The other reason why you need a larger tank is that different species of fish (or other animals) do not always like living in close quarters with other species. Everyone needs room to have their own territory. Some species are also social (zebra danio) or schooling (cory catfish, tetras), and you need enough room for six or more of them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">In general, betta like to occupy the top 2/3rds of the tank, so they do better with animals that like to stay in the bottom part of the tanks. Because of this, I suggest going against danios (including their glofish cousins), who also like the top of the tank.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Are the living requirements the same? </b>Betta fish need water that's 76F-82F. They need tanks with a decent amount of cover. They need to reach the surface to get air. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Therefore, if the tank-mates do not also do best with water in the 76-82 range, or if they need to not have dense planting, or if their other living requirements do not match the betta's requirements, you should not put them in the same tank. For this reason, I suggest against African Dwarf Frogs. They need cooler water.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Are they going to provoke the betta?</b> Betta fish like to attack anything quick moving or brightly colored, or anything that shows it too much interest. For this reason, I do not recommend putting a betta with neon tetras, who are very bright. Glofish are out. Lyretail mollies have big fins that draw betta's attention.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Are they going to attack the betta? </b>The answer to violence is not more violence. The answer to an aggressive fish is not another aggressive fish. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Betta tankmates that I've personally had good luck with: ghost shrimp (and I've heard that other nonaggresive shrimp like bamboo shrimp work very well, though cherry shrimp can become dinner if your fish is so inclined), pond snails and other snails that are small (including mystery snails and apple snails, if you have a backup plan for when they outgrow your betta tank), and marimo. Due to the extra stress of making sure that everyone in the tank gets along, and the fact that some days I work a lot of hours and don't get a chance to look at my tank beyond feeding everyone, I don't keep community betta tanks with other fish. I'd</span> </span><b></b>rather just have more betta fish. I do really like ghost shrimp with betta, though. They're exciting to watch and generally stay at the bottom of the tank. They're willing to defend themselves if the betta gets curious, but they rarely actually attack the betta. Marimo are not animals. They are balls of algae. However, you can give them a name and talk to them, and they never disagree with your betta. Marimo are the perfect pet.<br />
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Now you need to ask more questions:<br />
<b>How aggressive is your betta? </b>Some betta fish are very aggressive, and some aren't as aggressive. If your betta flares at everything that goes past, he's probably not a good candidate for tank-mates.<br />
If you are purchasing a betta specifically to put in a community tank, consider getting a female. While aggressive, the female betta are generally less aggressive than the males. While your fish (boy or girl) is in quarantine for 30 days (which you should do with every fish that you will put in a community tank), you'll get to know them and their aggression levels. If you buy a betta to put in a community tank, be ready to give them their own environment or rehome them if it is clear that they are too aggressive for the community tank.<br />
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<i><b>But what about sorority tanks?!</b></i><br />
Lots of people like to crap on sorority tanks, but I have seen them done well. A sorority tank is a large (20<i>long</i><b> </b>or larger), very densely planted tank, with at least six <i>female<b> </b></i>betta in it. Once you establish the tank, the girls will establish a pecking order and territories, and stop trying to kill each other. It's very important in a sorority tank to carefully monitor it for stress or bullies, and to be ready to have a place to have an overly-aggresive stay in a solo tank (or ready to be rehomed), in case things don't work out.<br />
I do not suggest a sorority for a first tank. I think you need experience learning how to identify healthy fish and stressed fish and sick fish before you try something this complicated.<br />
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In fact, <b>I do not suggest a community tank with betta and other fish as your first tank</b>. In a community tank, you need to know what it looks like when your fish are hungry or sick or stressed. You need to know how to be in tune with how your fish is feeling, before setting up an environment where that is likely. <br />
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Remember, when you're an aquarium owner, keeping the fish healthy and happy, and meeting their needs, is much more important than what you think will look good. You are in charge of their entire ecosystem, and you owe it to them to have it be a safe and healthy one. If you want fish that will do whatever you want, that you can look at without needing to worry if they'll fight or become stressed, well, there's a lot of iPad apps for that that you might want to check out instead of hurting real fish.Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-38696965657359503202016-05-13T15:53:00.003-07:002016-05-13T15:53:25.594-07:00Betta care braindumpI could talk for pages about betta enclosures, and I will later. Having a good setup makes having a healthy betta much easier.<br /><br />For now, if it's under 1 gallon, get a bigger one. If it doesn't have a heater, get one (that's not the Aqueon betta bowl heater). If it doesn't have fake plants (the kind that aren't too scratchy) and a cave to hide in (terra cotta pot on its side works well), get that too. <br /><br />Quick few myths, busted: Plants don't filter your water. Snails and shrimp don't filter your water. If you have a filter, you still need to change your water regularly. There is no maximum size for a betta tank, as long as there aren't too many big open spaces. <br /><br />Food: Bettas are carnivores and can't digest plants. Because of this, you should find a food with a high meat content and a low grain/filler content. I feed my fish Omega One Betta Buffet, because it's got quality ingredients and is available at petsmart.<br />Because your betta will crap out all the non-meat parts of their food, feeding a pellet that's high in meat and low in fillers will make your fishy poop less, which is important to keep in mind if you have a smaller or unfiltered enclosure. <br />One of the top betta killers is obesity. Also, if you feed too much, the uneaten food will sit on the bottom and foul up your water. Pellet size differs between brands, but if I smush all the food I feed in one feeding together, it is about the size of half a pea. Their stomachs are about the size of their eye. With Omega One sized pellets, I feed four to six pellets, once or twice a day. <br />You can suck uneaten food off the floor of your tank with a turkey baster (one that is kept exclusive to fish and not used for cooking).<br /><br />Water: You can't use the water out of your tap without treating it. Water conditioner is cheap and works almost instantly. I use Seachem Prime because it's very concentrated, but I also use Tetra AquaSafe/BettaSafe, because it's readily available. Stress Coat+ has aloe in it, which is good if you've moved your fish or if he's sick, but it's also expensive.<br />Prime also can detoxify ammonia for short periods of time, so I add about 2 drops per gallon every other day in an unfiltered tank. This does not replace the need for weekly water changes. <br />Betta can adapt to a wide range of PH and KH levels, so don't worry about trying to change them. The chemicals available for changing your PH are actually pretty bad for bettas, because it makes an unstable PH, and they need a stable PH more than they need the technically 'correct' PH. <br />If you're really concerned about a high PH, adding a piece of driftwood to your tank can help, and looks pretty. <br /><br />Water Changes: Water changes stress your fish, so it's important to not do them more than necessary. <br />If your tank has a filter, you don't need to change out all the water. On a 5-gal tank I change about 1/2 the water every week or every other week. On my 20-gal that has 4 betta in it. I change about 1/4 of the water every week or every other week. <br />If your tank does not have a filter, or is under 2.5 gallons, you have to change all the water every week. You cannot skip a week, and being even a few days late can have bad effects. In a 1 gallon tank, I suggest changing the water every 5 days. <br />If you want to know FOR SURE when you need to change the water, pick up a liquid ammonia test and test your water daily. If the ammonia level reaches .25, change your water. If your ammonia level doesn't reach .25 in a week, still change your water, because your level of dissolved solids will be pretty high by that point. <br />If you have a filtered tank, use a liquit nitrate test kit. You need to change bi-weekly or when your nitrate level reaches 40, whichever comes first. <br />To do a partial water change on a filtered tank, use a siphon and a bucket dedicated to fish. I like the kind of siphons with a priming bulb, and I like the 5-gallon bucket I got at the hardware store. Use the siphon to clean the gravel in your tank too. <br />To do a full water change on a small tank, start by getting the fish out of the tank and into a cup (the one he came in will work well). I don't use a net, I just scoop with the cup. Then dump out all the water, rinse out your bowl, fill the bowl up with water and dechlorinate it. After the bowl's halfway full, add your rocks and plants back in. If you add your rocks before your water, you can break your bowl if it's made of glass. I find that larger, marble-sized rocks work better than pea gravel for unfiltered tanks, because they're easier to dump out and put back in. <br />On my 2.5 gallon unfiltered tank, I leave my fish in and siphon the water down to as low as I can go without upsetting the fish, and then adding in dechlorinated water.<br />Always try to match your water temperature with the temperature of the water the fish was in. Be careful not to add too hot of water--remember, 82 degree water (the max temp for a betta) will still feel cool on your wrist. After a while, you'll be able to judge the temp by feel, but for the first month or so, use your thermometer to check. <br />Some people will tell you to do 100% water changes every day for unfiltered tanks. I find that the stress of changing the water every day doesn't outweigh the consequences of living in a low-level ammonia environment, and that twice a week is sufficient. <br /><br />That's all I've got for tonight, so let me know what else y'all'd want in a care sheet and I'll add it. Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-25647999070189445392016-05-13T15:39:00.000-07:002016-05-13T20:20:28.574-07:00Betta Care: To Filter or Not To Filter<b>To filter, or not to filter, why you might need a filter, and what filter to use.</b><br />
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Unlike a lot of people who give out betta advice on tumblr, I have quite a bit of experience keeping betta in unfiltered bowls. I maintained all the displays for work (unfiltered bowls between .5 and 2 gallons, plus ~60 fish in cups at any given time), and watched fish in various sizes of enclosure suffer health consequences based on being in those containers. I have firsthand experience when I say what my minimum size is for a healthy betta. <br />
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I'm going to make a controversial statement here when I say that I don't think betta fish absolutely <i>need</i> to be in a filtered setup. One of my fish has lived in an unfiltered/100%water change weekly 2.5 gallon tank for several months now, and is healthy. He's not just suffering no consequences, he is actually healthy. When I got him, he had developed severe swim problems due to being in a high-ammonia environment for months. He still has problems floating and swimming, and would not be healthy if he was in a tank with a water current.<br />
On the other hand, I had a very large betta named Steve who was living in a 1-gal bowl when I got him. I moved him to a filtered 10-gal tank and his fins doubled in length, he developed iridescent scales, and his pectoral fins went from being stick-thin to long and flowing. Steve couldn't live to his full potential in a small bowl.<br />
What I'm trying to get at here is that blanket statements about "this is acceptable" and "this is not acceptable" don't apply to all fish. Environments that are good for some fish are not good for others. It's important to learn what a healthy betta looks like and acts like, and to compare those betta to you to determine if your environment is meeting your fish's needs. <br />
I'm going to use the word "tank" for any enclosure that you have your betta in. This information applies to tanks, bowls, plastic shoe boxes, wherever your fish is.<br />
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A couple myths: plants, shrimp, and snails do not filter your water. Shrimp and snails actually add to the bio-load of your tank, and produce the same waste that your fish does. Plants like peace lilies and lucky bamboo are not meant to live underwater. Parts of them will decay and detract from your water quality. Marimo balls only grow .5cm a year, making them too slow of photosynthesizers to remove any wastes in your water, though they don't decay the way peace lilies do. <br />
This is not to say that any of those are <i>bad</i> for your tank. All I'm saying is that having those in your tank does not mean you need to change your water less frequently. <br />
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I went over this in another part of care, but there are a few things that also contribute to your water quality worth mentioning again. If you are feeding your betta food with a high content of plant fillers and a low content of meat products, your fish will poop more frequently and produce larger poopies. In a small environment, this will make your water quality deteriorate faster. If you overfeed your fish, uneaten food will stay on the bottom of your tank. This food will decay and contribute to poor water quality.<br />
Also, all betta tanks should be heated so that the water stays between 74-82 degrees. Living in an unheated bowl will drastically reduce your fish's life span by months or even years; you're literally slowly killing him. I'll go over heaters in another post, and just now leave you with the advice to research any heater on Amazon before you pick it up. Some heaters are unstable and have a tendency to consistently overheat and kill your fish. <br />
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So, to filter, or not to filter?<br />
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<b>Why do we filter?</b><br />
When your fish breathes, pees, and poops, it creates ammonia. Fish cannot live in an environment that is high in ammonia. If you have a filter, you grow a colony of bacteria that eat the ammonia and produce nitrate. This colony is called your biological filter. Nitrate is much less toxic to your fish. A good filter colony makes sure that your fish live in an ammonia-free environment. <br />
If you have a functioning biological filter, you do not need to change all of the water in your tank every time you change your water. If you do not have a biological filter, you will need change all of the water every time you change the water. Because you do not need to change all the water every time you do a water change, you can have a tank that's 10 or 20 gallons without using 20 gallons of water every week to maintain it.<br />
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<b>Why would we not filter?</b><br />
You need at least 2.5 gallons of water in order to support enough bacteria to make a functioning biological filter. This means that even if you have a filter running, if your tank is less than 2.5 gallons, you do not have any biological filtration. <br />
Betta fish come from still (not small, not dirty, still) water and don't like moving water. Therefore, if your tank is too small to support a biological filter, it is better to not have a filter running in a betta tank. <br />
Betta fish do not produce much waste, and they get oxygen by breathing air at the surface. Because of this, they do not need water aeration, and a 1-gallon tank will not reach dangerous levels of ammonia in a week, so it is possible to keep their water livable without a filter. Other types of fish cannot live in conditions that betta are comfortable with.<br />
<br />
<b>What about other kinds of filtration?</b><br />
Technically, a filter can provide three kinds of filtration: biological, mechanical, and chemical. The really important one is biological. Your biological filter keeps your water breathable for your fish. If your filter doesn't provide biological filtration, it's pretty useless for betta. <br />
Mechanical filtration takes all the floaty particles of fish poop and uneaten food and plant decay, and it holds all those pieces in one place (usually on the filter sponge or filter pad). No matter how good your mechanical filtration is, it does not remove dirt from the water. Your tank is a closed system and the only way you can get dirt and waste out is to change your water. Shrimp and snails provide limited mechanical filtration, in that they like to eat waste food, but they still poop out what they eat and add it back to the ecosystem.<br />
Chemical filtration means carbon. In the same way that you can buy a brita pitcher to make your tap water taste better, you can put a carbon pad in your tank to absorb some impurities. Pet stores will tell you that carbon is the best thing ever. Pet stores tell you that because your carbon will run out and you'll have to spend more money on carbon every month. If you have medicated your tank, or if you have driftwood in your tank that's staining your water brown, carbon is useful to have. Otherwise, I recommend you don't have carbon in your tank. When you throw away your carbon pad, you'll also be throwing away a lot of your biological bacteria colony, which is bad. <br />
Despite what some people tell you, <i>a full carbon pad does not leak toxins into the water. </i>It drives me absolutely nuts when people say that and I will go fuckin' science on your ass if you demand to know why.<br />
<br />
<b>Should I filter my tank?</b><br />
Be honest--How on top of water changes are you? An unfiltered tank can get toxic or lethal levels of ammonia very quickly without changes. If your tank is 1 gallon, I suggest changing the water twice a week (once every 4-5 days, really). If your tank is 2.5 gallons, you need to change it every single week. You can't miss a week, and you really shouldn't miss a couple days. You need to be on top of your water changes every single week. If you travel a lot, work intense hours, get sick, stay at your friend's house a lot, and might miss a water change, consider getting a larger tank with a filter. <br />
Is your tank 2.5 gallons? If it is, you can go either way on the filter. However, due to the smaller water level, your biological filter is more likely to "crash" or "hiccup," which means some of your bacteria will die and stop filtering the water. If that happens, nitrite can build up in your tank. Nitrite is more toxic to your fish than ammonia. If you have a filtered 2.5 gallon tank, be ready to check your water quality frequently.<br />
Is your tank too big to change all the water at once? If it's going to be difficult for you to change all the water, get a filter. With a working biological filter, you only need to change 15-25% of the water every week.<br />
<br />
<b>What kind of filter should I get?</b><br />
Remember that the most important kind of filtration for betta tanks is biological filtration. To grow your biological filter colony, you need porous places for the bacteria to live, and a source of oxygen for those bacteria. The bacteria don't float freely in your tank water; they grow on surfaces like your filter media, your gravel, and your cute pink castle your betta swims through. Most grow on the filter media, because the point of a filter is to make a good habitat for your bacterial colony.<br />
<br />
My favorite filter for betta fish are sponge filters.<br />
A sponge filter is a piece of sponge that is built so you can hook an air tube to it. You use an air pump to make bubbles in the sponge, and the bubbles rising out of the exit tube creates suction that draws new water through the sponge. The bacteria grow on the sponge, and the sponge provides some limited mechanical filtration. Sponge filters make very small currents (just the bubbles from the exit tube), which are good for betta fish. They're cheap too, but you can't buy them at pet stores. I get mine on Amazon. If you have shrimp in your tank, be ready for them to spend a lot of time eating off of the filter sponge.<br />
<br />
For larger tanks, I'm a fan of undergravel filters.<br />
Undergravel filters aren't super popular in the fishblr community, but I have never had a problem with mine as long as I clean the gravel properly.<br />
An undergravel filter works similarly to a sponge filter. You use rising bubbles to pull water through your gravel on the bottom of your tank. The bacteria grow on the gravel.<br />
There are two kinds of undergravel filters that I've seen. What I'm going to call "real" undergravel filters have a grating that covers the entire floor of your tank, and two lift tubes/bubble tubes (one at each end). A lot of cheap tanks now have what I call "fake" or "nonfunctional" undergravel filters, which have a very small grating that covers maybe 25% of your tank floor, and has one lift tube (usually in the center). The fake undergravel filters don't get enough lift from the central tube, and don't pull enough oxygen through the gravel to support good colonies. If your tank came with one of these, I suggest you throw it out and get a sponge filter.<br />
<br />
If you want a filter that you can buy at the pet store, I suggest modifying a HOB or hang on back filter.<br />
These are cheap and maybe came with your tank. It's got a tube that goes into your tank, pulls water into the filter, and returns the water to the tank via a little waterfall-looking thing. <br />
Most HOB filters come with a carbon pad, which isn't a great home for bacteria. However, if you go into the canister filter section of the filter aisle, you'll find all sorts of great biological media. You can get sponge, ceramic noodles, bioballs, whatever they're selling that has good bacteria growing properties. Then just shove whatever it is you bought into the empty space in your HOB where your carbon used to be.<br />
If you can find a good one, I suggest getting a nice prefilter sponge. This is a sponge you can put over your intake tube on your HOB. It reduces the current for your betta and provides even more places for bacteria to colonize. If you have a sponge with a lot of surface for bacteria, you don't need to put anything in your HOB, and use the sponge for all the filtration.<br />
Some HOB filters have too high a water current coming from the water return waterfall, and you will need to baffle it. A lot of people use water bottles (google for a tutorial) and I've had good luck putting filter floss in the output.<br />
If you're limited to the filters Petsmart sells, I think the HOB is the best option. <br />
<br />
Internal filters <i>can</i> work, and your tank kit might have come with one. These work like a HOB and either use a propeller or rising air bubbles to draw water into it, and then return the water through a little chute. I don't like them because I feel like they take up a lot of space in the tank (compared to a sponge or HOB), the water flow is usually difficult to control, and they're built to take carbon. Some of them have electronics that remain submersed in their plastic housing, and I worry what'll happen to the fish if that leaks and gets water on the power supply.<br />
<br />
If your tank kit came with an undergravel or an air-powered internal filter, the easiest thing to do is to buy a sponge filter, because you've already got the air pump and the tubing. <br />
<br />
<br />
There's other kinds of filters, like canisters and fluidized sand, but they're expensive and usually overkill for a small betta tank. <br />
<br />
Up next I guess I'll just ramble about how to decorate a betta tank for ten pages and then pretend I wrote something deep!<br />
<br />
~PollyPolly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-27977833673907532872016-04-03T09:47:00.001-07:002016-04-03T09:50:11.468-07:00One of 15<p dir="ltr">Blogger doesnt like me uploading pictures from my phone, so here's a link<br>
Check out @SeriousPollyNod's Tweet: https://twitter.com/SeriousPollyNod/status/716668820610416640?s=09<br>
Let me tell you, I love reading stories that aren't meant for you, where you don't get all the information because you're snooping, or you feel like you are. <br>
Famous Blue Raincoat is a good example. I once read a book called Cathy's Book, which was more an ARG than a book, and that helped change how I like to tell stories. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Also my boss leaves me sticky notes all the time, so I collected some for inspiration.<br>
Two years ago, I made a 9 foot tall portrait of Sarah Palin out of sticky notes on the outside of a Staples. Long story as to why. Anyway, then I took down my 1200 pastel squares and they lived in my car for about a year, so those are the colors I see in my head. </p>
Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-2021636768828629782016-01-21T23:14:00.003-08:002016-01-21T23:14:52.977-08:00Another ProjectSo, for my New Year's resolution, I got off tumblr. The only exception is writing for my blog<br />
<a href="http://20dollarlolita.tumblr.com/">20dollarlolita</a><br />
which is about budget Lolita fashion.<br />
<br />
On Blogger, I have<br />
<a href="http://musicwithoutmusic.blogspot.com/">musicwithoutmusic</a><br />
which is for people who would like to play stringed instruments like guitar, ukulele, and bass, but don't know how to start.<br />
<br />
And my lack of tumblr means I'll be back here to share things like how I feel about my job, some frustrations with bipolar disorder and how people fail to understand it, and my betta fish.<br />
<br />
I guess right now, no news is good news.<br />
<br />
If you want lots of short updates, there's my <a href="http://twitter.com/seriouspollynod">twitter</a>, and if you want very infrequent, costume-specific updates, check out my <a href="http://facebook.com/PollyCostumes">facebook </a>page.<br />
<br />
I might give BEDF (blog every day in February) a shot. For now, my job and MwM are taking a lot of my time, so I don't want to commit to blogging, when all I'm going to do is be blogging about the same day over and over. My job's streesful, but consistent. Not good blogging material.<br />
<br />
That's about it. Sorry, guys. That's all for this post.<br />
Goodnight<br />
~PollyPolly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-48797351534239943532015-05-29T00:00:00.001-07:002015-05-29T00:00:47.658-07:00Blah Blah June is comingI have the tradition of failing Blog Every Day In June every year.<br />
But I like the idea of trying to do it.<br />
Even if I'm not successful.<br />
<br />See, there's this thing about saying you'll do something, and then doing it every day for a month.<br />
This month I'm going to kind of change it up.<br />
This month, I want to get better at both guitar and bass. My logic is that if I touch the instrument once a day, I"ll be better than if I didn't do anything at all.<br />
<br />
See, my only friend in this city is moving, and I'm scared to death of being stuck here alone.<br />
And I really like playing music with people.<br />
And I think I'm good enough. I really do. I have gear I'm not ashamed of (this was a problem in the past). I have a solid ear for intervals, and a good backing in theory, and I can improv basslines in various styles, and I can write basslines based on chord progressions.<br />
I'm passable at acoustic guitar. I'm okay at rhythm guitar.<br />
<br />
But who cares. No big deal. I want more.<br />
I want to be better at the actual playing. Build up the muscles. Build up the intuitive skills and the sense of where the strings are.<br />
So here's the list of things that I can do for practicing when I don't feel like doing actual music.<br />
You know, the stuff that you can be doing lying down in bed while you're not thinking about it.<br />
<br />
So here goes<br />
<br />
As for strumming, up, down, updown for guitar. Up. down, updown, fingerpicking for bass.<br />
Eventually work in 8th notes and shit,. <br />
The rest<br />
<ul>
<li>Chromatic scales: Always chromatic scales. Bass and guitar. Up and down. Super fun. </li>
<li>The stretchy one. 1, skip a fret, 2, skip a fret, 3, skip a fret, 4. So your pinky's on the 7th fret when your done. Then up a fret and again. And again. Till you hit 12.</li>
<li>Hammers and pulls. Once with 1-3, once with 1-2, once with 2-4, once with 2-3. Until you're sick and want to kill pull-offs. </li>
<li>Metronome training. Just everythign but with a metronome. I'm kind of shit with teh metronome, but I'm okay with a drummer. It's weird. </li>
</ul>
Anways. I'll think of more things but I'm getting tired and so I'm going to post. BEDJ and bass every day (also BEDJ) start on Monday.Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-68476465254928769272015-04-28T18:18:00.002-07:002015-04-30T11:34:12.804-07:00A Lesbian's Review of Pure RomanceBackground needed:<br />
<ol>
<li>I am a lesbian</li>
<li>A coworker/friend invited me to her party. It was her first party as a consultant, and she was both consultant and host.</li>
<li>I knew of Pure Romance through being invited to a party once but never going, and then checking them out online. </li>
<li>There were other people at the party, but for the sake of privacy, this story will be told as if they were cardboard cutouts capable of generic speech. </li>
</ol>
So, for those of you who don't know what Pure Romance is, they're basically Mary Kay of sex toys. Pure Romance sells things for getting intimate: perfume, shave gels, lube, sex toys for couples, sex toys for solo/couple*, and a few other things. Pure Romance products can only be bought through a consultant, either at a party on online through the consultant's site**.<br />
This is a method much like other companies such as Tupperware, Amway, Mary Kay, Big Yellow Box, and Herbalife. All of these work through the same sort of promise: Own your own business, and you will make money! Once you make your business, the REAL money comes when you sell your business to others! This is what I'm going to define as multi-level marketing (which is not my term). Level 1: you're selling the product. Level 2: You're selling the business. Level 2 often includes hosting a party where someone else is the consultant. You're making money selling the product. They're making money getting you to sell the product. In some versions (lookin' at you, Amyway*** and Herbalife****), the <i>real</i> money comes in when your business you sold starts selling the business.<br />
<br />
But we're not going to talk about that. What I'm reviewing from here on out is the level 1: the product, and my experience with the selling aspect.<br />
<br />
<b>THE PARTY, an overview</b><br />
Pure Romance parties consist<b> </b>of all women over the age of 18. Well. I say women. It was specified that they should be "female". I do not know what Pure Romance's policy is on trans and nonfemale women. It may be up to the discretion or the party host or the consultant, or it may be Pure Romance's policy that the only dicks allowed are synthetic and battery operated.<br />
<br />
Everyone sits down at the party. There was wine at mine. Our consultant/host (henceforth called GFHBF because random numbers are fun) started up with a little game, involving a lot of innuendo**** and us all admitting that we have sex organs.<br />
<br />
The story and sales pitch we got was pretty fun. We got to try out perfumes, look at body sprays and shimmers, and then progressed into tasting lubes. They were some damn tasty lubes.<br />
<br />
This progressed into sex toys. Bullets, and the optional c-ring they could go into. Pure Romance doesn't say "cock ring." Up next were the g-spot vibrators and a demon called the "B.O.B, your battery operated boyfriend!" It was blue. It rotated. It vibrated. It had a tiny remote control attached to it.<br />
<br />
There were discussions about clitoral stimulation and how to find your g-spot. We skimmed through the catalog, looked at anal toys and fetish supplies, and then went into a private room with GFHBF to place orders.<br />
<br />
I then locked my keys in my car, failed to break into it, in the hail, and called AAA.<br />
<br />
It was a fun party. I had fun.<br />
<br />
<b>THE PARTY, a review on product</b><br />
I love the idea that intimate products can be bought privately, among friends, and without pressure to prove anything<b></b> or know anything about toys. It'd be a good environment for buying your first toys, where you can go home and not have to admit to anyone that you just touched something called "The Thumb's Up."<br />
<br />
Some very important sex toy rules were set down. Cleaning product was available from Pure Romance, and the consultant was clear that it's needed. Silicone toy safety was covered too, like no silicone lube on silicone toys, and no leaving your silicone toys where they can touch each other. Anal toys were not to be bought without lube. All in all, good rules.<br />
<br />
I could have gone with a little more safety on the butt stuff, personally, because I've known people to do dumb shit like puncture their colon on a toilet plunger handle or get nasty anal fissures because their partner said that anal was a good idea but wasn't quite sure how. My main issue was that most of their butt toys were silicone, and silicone lube is the lubiest of them all, your butthole needs much lube, and Pure Romance just established that you can't use silicone lube on silicone dicks.<br />
<br />
Unofficially, I've been told by several people who know their way around bondage products from many manufacturers, including Pure Romance, to never get their fetish supplies. First of all, they were added into their inventory to cash in on Fifty Shades of Grey's popularity, and second of all, they're cheaply made. Mostly what I saw consisted of 50 types of blind folds and some badly-made whips. In general, in my opinion, fetish toys are specialized enough, and bondage/kink likes and dislikes are specific enough, that trying to find stock Pure Romance can offer would be very difficult. It's kind of like buying bras from Chinese Ebay.<br />
<br />
Other than that, the products seemed pretty damn swell. Prices were similar to what you'd find online, but more comfortable to order, since the party goers were aware of their products and quality.<br />
<br />
<b>THE PARTY AND PRODUCTS, a review on inclusivity.</b><br />
As I had expected, I was the only lesbian in the room. I know that I was not the only non-straight woman in the room, but I believe I was the only one who wasn't interested in penises or men.<br />
And, also as I had expected, this wasn't something Pure Romance frequently caters to. Most girls who go to a sex toy party like that are going to be interested in a different kind of sex from what I am interested in. I'm not a lesbian trying to make everything equal or take away dick fun for the non-lesbian women. I just thought it'd be fun to share how my sexuality affected my experience here.<br />
<br />
The party itself was very fun. There was an understanding that all of us girls like sexual stimulation and that it's nothing to be ashamed about. The consultant tended to say, "your partner" and not "your boyfriend," or "your man." Most of the conversation was about personal preference, your right to control your sex life as a woman, and about embracing your sexual desires. There were absolutely no jokes about me being gay that weren't jokes I made.<br />
<br />
The products, however..<br />
Look. I know that a lot of girls who like vaginal vibrators also like dick. I understand that a lot of people who like vaginal vibrators like them to look like and feel like dicks. I understand that only about 1.6% of USAmerican women identify as lesbian and that most of them probably don't go to parties like this. I understand that I am not in Pure Romance's normal demographic and I am not expecting them to cater to a side demographic like mine.<br />
That said, while I was looking through their catalogue prepping to make my purchases, I ruled out all of the toys that would be emotionally uncomfortable to put in my me, and then kept looking. And the thing that got me was the names. Like I could just see myself going to town, about to hit it, and suddenly that evil voice that tries to make me never have fun would just go, "its name is Carl," and that'd be a great o-moment killer, and as a chick with a stressful life and frequent periods of genital numbness or total anorgasmia, I don't need the voice in the back of my head reminding me that I have Mr Know It All or The Cabana Boy all up in my vag to kill the occasional moments I get.<br />
<br />
So, Pure Romance, if you want to cater to lesbians, which I am very aware that you may not want to do, if you change your naming structure so that the sleeker and more stylized toys didn't have obviously men/male names, I would appreciate it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ALL IN ALL</b> I give Pure Romance a 5/5 on concept, 3/5 on product (I'd personally prefer a smaller selection of safe and high quality toys than trying to expand it into fetish gear and anal play that you're not sure 100% how to encourage to be used safely), and a 3/5 on lesbian inclusivity, which is <i>very damn impressive</i> because I don't think they were actually trying for that at all. A ?/5 in trans inclusivity awaits further information before I can make that ruling.<br />
<br />
So, women with vaginas over the age of 18, if someone invites you to a Pure Romance party, I definitely suggest you give it a shot. Stepping out of your comfort zone is always fun, and if your party is like mine, you'll stretch your comfort zone in new directions without ever feeling like you left. If you're not into toys, they're great for you. If you're thinking about toys or just getting into them, they're fantastic for you, and if you're really into toys, you might have everything in their catalogue already, but in that case you need to buy some of that rainbow sherbert lube. I'm tempted to buy some to just put on ice cream. That shit was tasty as hell.<br />
<br />
Wishing you luck<br />
~Polly<br />
<br />
___<br />
*Any solo sex toy can be used as a couple/more than couple. You've just got to think. <br />
*That's a lie. You can buy the toys online through Pure Romance directly, but don't. You'll pay the same as you would through a consultant, your order's private, and no one's making money off it except Pure Romance. If you see something on their site that you like, hit me up, and I'll ask my consultant to send you her webpage. You'd make her fucking week. <br />
**My mom has sold Amway for over ten years, now<br />
***Some of my best friends are Herbalife<br />
****inYOURend-oPolly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7556304809723166183.post-19676851611283239392014-07-28T13:32:00.002-07:002014-07-28T13:32:46.527-07:00How to turn yourself gray<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">All right, you
whippersnappers, Great Aunt Polly here to teach you about gray. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;"><i>But Great Aunt Polly, we
know about gray. We've been graying since 2009.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Shut
up or you don't get any ginger snaps when I'm done talking. I'm here
to teach you about GRAY SAFETY. The thing about cosplay is that a lot
of methods that come up are things that work, but can permanently
damage you, your friends, your costumes, and your reputation. But I'm
first going to address damaging you. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">(Please
note that I'm using USA standards for labeling and safety warnings,
since that's the only thing I'm familiar with. The general advice
should apply everywhere, but labels might be more or less specific
depending on where you are. Research is your friend)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">One
of the methods I've seen for graying up is mixing acrylic paint with
lotion and using that on your body. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">NO
NO NO NO NO.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">No.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">A
lot of acrylic paints have heavy metals in them. They're usred to
make the right colors. There's no consistent way in the USA to tell
if it does. There's the AP certification, but I've seen the highest
safety label on cadmium yellow with real cadmium. Cadmium is a heavy
metal, and you don't want heavy metals in your body. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Story
time, children. Almost a year ago, I got lithium poisoning because of
some meds I was on. It was a solid two weeks of vomiting and
dizziness. I missed two weeks of work. I missed two weeks of class
and had to drop my favorite class because I couldn't catch up. It
sucked. My lithium toxicity was still below the range considered
toxic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Lithium
poisoning is one of the less shitty heavy metal poisoning. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Your
body can absorb heavy metals through your skin. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;"><b>Do
not put acrylic paint on your skin.</b>
Heavy metals stay in your body for a long time, sometimes years. They
can build up over years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">A
lot of people ask if PAX makeup (acrylic paint and pros-aid adhesive)
is still okay. I don't recommend it. Show me one referenced source or
scientific study that shows that Pros-Aid neutralizes heavy metals
and I'll change my view. But I don't believe that PAX with acrylic
paint is any safer than lotion mixed with acrylic paint. It may
actually be more danger since it is so much harder to remove from
your skin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;"><i>So
I just need to get actual body paint? Party City sells tubes for $1.
That's not too hard!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Hold
up again, children. I'm going to put this in bold italic capitals
because if you only get one thing out of this write up, it should be
this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;"><i><b>DO NOT EVER USE ANY
MAKEUP THAT TELLS YOU TO ONLY USE IT LESS THAN (4, 6, whatever)
HOURS.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">This
is really important. Using acrylic paint and lotion naturally feels
like it's a little less than safe, and you're instinctively going to
want to be cautious. Actual body paint, you think, is going to be
safer. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Well,
that warning's there for a reason. If they put that label on it, it's
because it needs to come off your skin before the bad ingredients
reach toxic levels in your body. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">I
learned this the hard way. My friend cosplayed as a Weeping Angel
once and we got our makeup from the party store. It said it was good
for six hours, but apparently she was sensitive to an ingredient.
Four hours in, she was unable to walk without help because she was so
dizzy, and then threw up for almost a solid half hour in the
convention bathroom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">It
is impossible to know if you are this sensitive without trying it on,
and even if you aren't sensitive, the chemicals will still build up
in your system; your body just isn't trying to get rid of them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;"><i>Great-Aunt
Polly, I'm not made of money, damn it. I need to gray on the cheap.
You just ruled out the cheapest two paint methods.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Watch
your language, kid. First of all, I didn't rule them out. The makeups
ruled themselves out by being dangerous to your body. Let's say it
one time together, Homestuck is not worth bodily harm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;"><i>Homestuck
is not worth bodily harm.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Good
job. Everyone have a cookie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">So,
what's a good option?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Well,
the following paint brands are safe and all offer paint I'd say is
safe on your face:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Ben
Nye (Cream Liners)<br />Mehron (Paradise AQ, Starblend)<br />Snazaroo
(All of it)<br />Krylon (aquacolor, color cups)<br />Graftioban (I've
used their RMG because I got it for prosthetics, but I trust all of
their greasepaint)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">These
all take a lot of paint to cover a body. Paradise AQ's big $11 thing
has covered me for two fullbody paintings and that's it. I've heard
you need two or three Ben Nye creamliners to cover a body. This is a
lot of money for an unemployed old lady with no kids to take care of
her.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">You
definitely need face-safe makeup for your face. Your skin is thinnest
on your eyelids and so you're going to want to stop anything nasty
from getting into your body fast. Just because your body paint is
body-safe doesn't mean it should go on your face for hours at a time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">So
you've got that, right? </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Now
you need some water-based cream makeup. I use Mehron Fantasy FX (I
like Mehron). You need a tube of gray and a tube of white to get the
right color. This comes out to $7. Order a tube of sealer too (this
is not optional any time you wear body paint. Seriously. Not
optional)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Then
I picked up some lotion. I use Body Series Hand and Body lotion SPF
8, but you're not going to be able to find that in a store. Just pick
up any lotion that you like and isn't super fancy. While you're out
getting lotion, grab some aerosol spray-on sunscreen, some baby
powder, and some Monistat chafing relief powder gel. The powder gel's
got the exact same ingredients as Smashbox Primer Potion and doesn't
cost a shitload. You're also not going to be using it on your
eyelids. If there's empty squeezey bottles, get one too. 3 oz or
bigger's best.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">The
exact proportions of white to gray are going to depend on your
particular face paint that you're matching. Here's what I do (to
match a 50-50 white and Storm Cloud ParadiseAQ mix):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Squirt
a little bit of lotion in the bottle to stop the makeup from getting
stuck on the edges. Close the lid and shake the crap out of it till
it's on all of the inside surfaces. Then put the entire 1oz tube of
white into the bottle. Shake to mix it up. Then add the gray, little
by little, until it looks like the right shade. Mix it up after you
add even bit. I add edamame-sized blobs at first and then decrease
the dosage as it gets closer to the color. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Put
some face paint on your arm so that you can compare the colors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Put
some powder gel on your arm. Let it dry and then put a tiny bit of
the face paint over that. Let it dry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">The
color should get lighter when it dries, because the lotion's white
when wet but clear when it dries. Add more gray and keep testing
until it's the right color.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">To
cover yourself in paint:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Primer
(powder gel) everywhere the paint's going</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Put
the paint on a sponge and sponge the areas with a smushing motion,
not a smearing one. A little paint goes a long way.</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">LET
IT DRY ALL THE WAY. Put a second goat on the areas that need it.</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Put
baby powder on it, let it cook for a minute, then brush it all off
with a fluffy</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Spray
a light coat of sealer. You really only need one on most areas that
aren't going to be touched a lot because</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Spray
sunscreen over all of it. (it seals it a bit more, and prevents
premature aging and sunburn! Your skin's going to get more heat
absorbing if you make your skin darker)</span><br />
</li>
</ol>
<br /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">The
other way to save money on body paint is to use less body paint. Make
yourself some troll arm tights so you can skip painting your arms
(and you should never paint your hands anyway or you'll get gray
everyfuckingwhere and that's not okay, kiddos.), and while you're
buying gray tights for your arms, get some for your legs. Then, if
you're cosplaying Feferi (who I think has the most skin showing. That
or a godtier page) you'd just need to paint your chest and back,
neck, and face. Saves you a lot of paint and a lot of money.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">So,
kiddos, to sum it up</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Heavy
metal poisoning is bad. You can't know (in the USA) if paint has
them or not.</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">do
not put acrylic paint on your skin</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">do
not put acrylic paint on your skin</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Do
NOT put acrylic paint on your skin</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">(Don't
even <i>CONSIDER</i> oil paint)</span><br />
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Buy
good quality paint. It'll look better and keep you safer. </span>
<br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Prime
and seal.</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">The
gray can't rub off if the gray's made of tights and not paint</span><br />
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Don't
get gray on anyone's clothes.</span><br />
</li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Thanks
for listening, children. Everyone have another ginger snap. </span>
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Questions?
Just ask your loving Great-Auntie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">Found
something factually incorrect? Correct me!</span><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, monospace;">~Polly</span>Polly Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18270582589334213885noreply@blogger.com0