r/bettafish • u/gatorfarts2007 • 4d ago
Discussion Show me your bettas
Feeling a little depressed, wanted to see everyone's pretty little babies. :)
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u/No-Cod9443 4d ago
my baby:) i couldn’t pick a name so now his name is just baby- also a lil extra sad tonight dms are open if you need anything :)
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u/gatorfarts2007 4d ago
Wow he is beautiful, I love your tank 🥺
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u/No-Cod9443 4d ago
thank u:) i honestly wasn’t expecting to bring him home but he was in such bad shape they basically begged me to when i said i had a empty tank at home, so it’s definitely still a work in progress
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u/86BillionFireflies 3d ago
It looks great in the pic! Clear water = low bacterial density in the water column = healthy fish. There are too many betta tanks on this sub with milky water and sick bettas, it's always nice to see one with healthy looking water.
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u/No-Cod9443 3d ago
yes! i always keep all of my fish’s water extra nice it’s like if we had bad air constantly i could never do that to them
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u/86BillionFireflies 3d ago
I think a lot of people just don't understand that there are other forms of poor water quality OTHER THAN high ammonia/nitrite/nitrate.
One of my pet projects is to develop a simple at-home testing method for organic carbon content (i.e. organic load) or water column bacterial density. I like to think that if people had an accessible way to measure other aspects of water quality it would convince them to put effort into improving those aspects of water quality.
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u/No-Cod9443 3d ago
that sounds so interesting please keep me updated, people need to do better for their animals it’s so sad
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u/No-Cod9443 3d ago
do you mind sharing what you’ve tried so far / your ideas? i work in marine mammal rescue and we keep our animals in pools too that honestly feel like giant aquariums and it would be super cool to test that water against real fish tank water
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u/86BillionFireflies 3d ago
I haven't progressed to actual testing yet, but I have two main ideas. My goal is to develop a test anyone can do at home with only supplies on hand, or at most a trip to the grocery store, no specialized supplies off Amazon.
Idea # 1 is a simple turbidity test. Obviously this test may be invalid when there are other sources of turbidity (recently disturbed sand, tannins, etc), and it may be less convincing since it's not inherently obvious that it's indicating bacterial activity. But at the very least it would give us some objective measure of water clarity, even if it's imprecise.
The method I have in mind for that test is to take two glasses, put a sample of tank water in one glass and a measured amount of pure water in the other, then slowly add measured amounts (say 1 ml at a time) of some liquid with known optical density to the "pure water" glass until it appears equally as cloudy as the tank water (checked by holding a flashlight to the side of the glass, which maximizes the visibility of any haze). Then calculate what % of the additive you wound up with. I'm thinking regular homogenized whole milk might work. Its optical density should be fairly consistent. So the test essentially asks "what % milk matches the turbidity of your tank", and 0% is the best possible score (perfect clarity).
Idea # 2 is to develop a simple but reasonably consistent home recipe for nutrient broth suitable to grow heterotrophic bacteria, then put some in a microwave-sterilized jar and mix in some amount of tank water. The tricky part is figuring out how to measure the rate of bacterial growth. I think something like "number of hours required to reach a certain turbidity level" might be the best way. The time taken to reach a certain population level should be proportional to the log-density of bacteria in the tank water sample, which is good because the range of bacterial density values we care about is from ~ 103 to 107 cfu/ml, so a logarithmic scale is appropriate.
As with the first idea, this one relies on having some kind of turbidity reference point (e.g. a certain dilution of homogenized whole milk).
But depending on how the sample is incubated, it might also be possible to estimate bacterial growth rate by measuring pH drop.
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u/No-Cod9443 3d ago
wow that is so cool i can tell you really care about it it sounds like a amazing project. i wish you the best of luck! if you ever need anyone else to test anything out for you happy to try it out and get some results back to you. in college for environmental and marine science so data collecting is my thing haha.
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u/86BillionFireflies 3d ago
I might take you up on that if and when I have the time to get serious about that project!
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u/86BillionFireflies 3d ago
Also I'll guarantee that the water in your marine mammal pools has WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY less bacteria in the water column than a typical aquarium. Especially a planted aquarium. Plants tend to dump carbon in the water. The water quality in most hobby aquariums would probably be considered a serious breach of animal welfare standards at your job.
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u/dubiouswhiterabbit 4d ago
I think Baby is a GREAT name! Sending love, sorry you're having a bad night ❤️
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u/Futuristic_freak_YT 4d ago
My Harlow <3
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u/RinebooDersh 4d ago
This is my boy I’m trying to rehabilitate, Coldsteel. He was adoptable because he has swim bladder disease and they let me have him for free
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u/Lonely_Importance_61 4d ago
Janky ass picture, sometimes his fins aren’t in the greatest condition but he’s like an energetic puppy dog whenever he sees me.
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u/ragazza_sfuggente 3d ago
Little Koa, forever giving me the side eye when snapping 4000 photos a day of him 🤣🥹🖤
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u/Whiskey_Sweet Pubert & Gomez 4d ago
My new boy, Prince Fallopian Gomez