Who Gives A Fish Forums

I'm gonna take a guess - I think lil dude is a female, but honestly I'm no expert at all

I'm glad someone else thinks of the video option, it's so much easier to see what's going on with these active little guys!

I got a baby betta a month ago, thought it was a boy but turns out it's a girl. Now that she's growing, she's getting a bit on the plump side, no matter what I feed her. Her body shape just seems to be naturally more rounded, I think. I've heard males are usually thinner, maybe like the one you have?

From what I can see, he does appear to be a bit on the lean side.

I noticed one seller actually labels them as "difficult" - makes me wonder if they're more high maintenance than I initially thought.

I was browsing various aquatic plant seller websites and came across Cardinal Flower (lobelia) being sold as an aquarium plant. I've had limited success growing the garden variety over the past few years.

I'm curious to know if the two varieties are actually the same. I know the garden plant ...

Just the opposite here, I've never bothered with vacuuming and my plants seem to handle the waste just fine.


I've come across people who don't vacuum, but their tanks are way more planted than mine. I just wanted to be sure, since I'm still building up my plant collection. I think I'll stop ...

I think I'll stick with my ramhorns, they've been doing a great job as a cleanup crew. I'll ease off on the vacuuming from now on. I've recently set up a sand-based tank, 150Ltr and wide, and I'm still figuring out the best way to vacuum the sand - it seems I might be taking out too much waste, haha.

I'm going to take a guess that the sword plant in question is a larger variety, perhaps the Echinodorus grisebachii var. bleherae. If that's the case, I'd recommend placing it off to one side rather than in the centre. A central sword can create an optical illusion, making the tank appear smaller ...

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. Yeah, I knew Java ferns and anubias weren't actually stem plants, I guess I didn't make that clear in my first post. I'll keep vacuuming the front and right side of the tank, and just leave the area around the new root plants alone.