Poosie, I like that! Over the weekend she had a few setbacks, I'd come in and see Droopsy swimming weird, as soon as she slowed then UP came her backside, or at times she was stuck nose down again. It came and went a few times, check again 2 hours later and all is good, 2 hours after that and UP POOPSIE. By Sunday she was all back to better. But geeze, I had 2 fish left in the pond, ShyBoy (another 3 yo goldie) and JesusFish (who's 2 inches at best, species is unknown as he came as an egg in some plants from Florida and was born in my plants-only pond) and ShyBoy was in trouble laying over. I don't think it was food as I have not fed him since the "incident" 2 weeks ago. Perhaps it is the wild temperature extremes the pond is going thru, perhaps the bio filter needs to reestablish. Anyway, ShyBoy is now in a warming bucket awaiting transfer to the inside tank till the pond stays steady at 60. I'll probably move JesusFish in too tonight. He's black on top, very hard to see so night fishing with a flashlight may be the best way to catch him.

Ok, that makes sense. I forgot that every time it turns back on it would continue pumping. duh. The bottom drain is an Aqua Art retro fit bottom drain with 3" opening. It is connected to a black flexible tubing that is really hard (almost w/ a metal coil in it?). It is reduced from 3" to 2" and then runs back to the pump. I had a Sequence pump but that thing sucked (not literally, unfortunately). I had to have it repaired 2x and it was NOT cheap to begin with! It lasted 2 yrs. BOOOO. When it last gave up the ghost, it was 1.5 months ago. I found a hayward 1.5 HP super pump on craiglist for $150. The pond was w/o a functioning BD for about a month. Here is where it all goes downhill. lol So the previous pump was connected to the hose in from the BD and hose out to the bead filter by the black hoses that were connected with a black screw-on style of fitting. They simply did NOT come off, no matter what. The new pump had smaller openings and so the old fittings wouldn't work. We had to cut off the "screw" ends and use compression fittings instead (the black squishy sleeves w/ two metal bands that you screw to tighten). The first day that we turned the pump on and were messing w/ it, the same top fitting popped off b/c it wasn't seated properly (the hose hit me in the head, almost knocked me out from the pressure...lol...bruise on my forehead for 2 wks!). Because of that, I was paranoid and was actually shutting it off at night...just in case something went wrong. (I know, this is a long story lol) Saturday during the day, we saw that the pump was emptying faster than the water could come into the basket and we realized the BD was partially clogged and decided to get in the pond and get it freed up. DH jumped in and pulled it up...cleared it out and then set it up on two large pieces of flagstone so it wasn't directly on the bottom of the pond. (Note: had he not done this, when the disaster happened, it would've drained the ENTIRE pond. Truly a lifesaving decision for the fish that lived in the remaining 6" of water b/c of that flagstone!) Anyhoo, everything was riproaring along at 100mph again and I was checking the basket frequently...not much there. That night was the ONE night I didn't unplug it overnight...I forgot. Small debris plugged up the basket, increasing the pull of the pump, which started moving around the hose on the top of the pump. It was moving enough to pull the compression fitting off and it popped the hose off. The water simply geysered out of the top of the pump until the pond was almost completely empty. SOOOOO...way more than you asked but I have known you long enough to know that you like a clear picture, MIke! LOL I"m hoping that makes the error of my ways clear enough! At this time I am only running the BD during the day and am trying to find screw-on fittings to replace the existing compression fittings. Additionally, I have bungee'd the BD to a crate so it is a foot off the floor of the pond. I have also been partaking of some retail therapy and have a little mass of baby koi in the pond right now. They just came up and started eating food this morning and I literally screamed with delight LOL! I'm not sure how these water bobbermcthingie's work but I *think* the external pump is close enough that if it truly does have a 20' cord, I can put it in the body of the pond and run the cord back to where the pump is. Need to get to the store today and get one to rig it!

Disclaimer: I’m sharing this in the hopes that this will be able to save many lives of bettas suffering from dropsy. I can’t assure you that this will work for all bettas but pwera bati, I have my official first dropsy betta survivor by using these meds. Marami na akong namatay na betta sa dropsy. My only wish is sana I should have known this earlier. Important reminders: 1. For me, minimum tank size should be 4x6x8. If you have this type of container for your betta, make sure to do 100% water change at least 2x a week. If your betta have longer fins, the larger your tank should be. 2. Do not overfeed. Pellets, tubifex, dried foods, or kung ano man iyan. Do not overfeed. 3. Know your bettas personally. Yup, I’m serious with this one. If buhay silang lahat, all my 40 bettas have their own names. You will know if they’re not being themselves kahit matakaw pa rin sila. The more if they refuse it. When they feel good, they only know one thing. FOOD! 4. When you’ve noticed that they are not feeling well, check for any signs of bloating or abnormal swimming patterns. These usually lead to dropsy. Pine-coning is dropsy already. 5. If they appear not to have energy without any sign of bacteria infection, do 100% water change and put 1 tablespoon each of magna salt, aquarium salt, and rock salt. Add 10 drops of prime to get rid of chlorine and other chemicals and 5 drops of vitagold for vitamins. Add 3 drops of stress coat. Strictly no antibiotics! Everyday ito until they act normal. 6. If they appear to have any kind of infection, you’ll notice them because it literally is a physical damage. Do 100% water change and put 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt and rock salt. Add 10 drops of prime to get rid of chlorine and other chemicals and 5 drops of vitagold for vitamins. Add 3 drops of stress coat. Add half-cap of melafix, methylene blue, and general aid. Strictly no magna salt! Everyday ito until they act normal. 7. Talk with your bettas. It does sound crazy but for some reason, my bettas know their individual names. They appreciate it whenever you talk with them or even play music with them. My bettas have different tastes for music. Some love classics while others react to pop rock. Maintenance Solution: 5 drops of Prime, 1 drop of Vitagold, 1 tablespoon of Rock Salt, 1 Drop of Melafix, 1 Drop of Stress Coat, 1 talisay or banana leaf. Saktong size for your betta to rest on but not block the water surface Magic Ingredient: EUGENOL (Clove Oil) Warning: Eugenol is both a natural antibiotic and antiseptic. Beware though, an overdose of Eugenol will euthanize your fish and we don’t want that. Others use a controlled dosage to sedate the fish so they can put a syringe on the bloated area of the betta to get rid of the unwanted body fluids because of the dropsy and another unknown disease. I’ve tried and have successfully removed the fluids causing the bloat but it’s already too late for my betta. Kumbaga sa cancer, it’s stage 4. That is why early detection is the key and you can only do that by personally knowing your betta, their behaviors, etc. Sequence of Events: Day 1: I saw Nymph, even with her usual large appetite for any food despite having a small body, a bit bloated and the dreaded pine-coning. I immediately did Step No. 5 as detailed above. Day 2: She’s still hungry as she is every morning but still with the bloated body and the dreaded pine-coning. This time, I did Step No. 6 as detailed above. Day 3: I’m losing hope. I just had a very remarkable betta die last week because of dropsy. I wanted to do the syringe process on Nymph and so I purchased Eugenol. Imagine normal size of a drinking water bottle, not the small and not the big one. I say the normal size. Fill this up half-way and put 5 drops of Eugenol then shake vigorously so the solution will have an equal amount of Eugenol in its content. By the way, you can buy this at any drug store. I placed Nymph in a bowl, one like what you can buy from a supplies store. Plastic bowls, small ones for some soup. Fill it with ¾ tap water with 5 drops of prime then ¼ should be the Eugenol solution you have. I was expecting Nymph to “sleep” but for the next 8 hours, she will randomly stop swimming then whenever we have decided that it’s time to do the syringe… she swims like normal. Doing her normal fast swimming like she doesn’t have any sickness at all. I got tired of her game and was afraid that she might suffer from overdose so I placed her on a net hammock for easier surface breathing in another plastic bowl with 5 drops of prime and a bubbler/airstone to get rid of Eugenol in her system/gills. In other words, to wake her up. After a number of hours, just make sure the fish doesn’t jump overboard, put the fish in another solution the same as Day 2 in her original tank. Day 4: I’ve noticed Nymph has significantly increased her energy level and also has significantly decreased her stomach bloat. The dreaded pine-coning is still there though. I put her into another water solution the same as Day 1. Day 5: The bloat is 90% gone while the pine-coning is only 10% visible. I put her into another solution the same as Day 2. By the way, I only stopped feeding her for 1 day but I fed her only a very, very small amount during the whole process. Like 1 pellet a day. She usually eats 2-3 pellets a day. The big round ones. I’m not feeding her pellet though. I feed my bettas dried tubifex. Live tubifex is good but I’m not very fortunate in prolonging their lives. Day 6: Tomorrow I plan to do the alternate Day 1 and Day 2 solutions until Sunday. Pwera bati but so far, she’s doing great. Thank God. She’s the only betta with positive results as early as Day 4 after applications of meds for dropsy. I’ve always been doing the Day 1 and Day 2 techniques with my previous bettas with dropsy but none survived. What made Nymph different from all my dear beloved now-angel bettas is besides her fast recovery, she’s the only one who tried a Eugenol solution as part of the medication process for dropsy. But please beware of the dosage as mentioned in the warning section earlier. I researched Eugenol and found out that it actually works naturally to kill infections. Sorry for the lengthy message. If ever you do try this method, I hope that your fish will have the same result as Nymph’s. Happy Betta Keeping!

I found the tax shelter in this posting when searching for a gift for my brother. He is a tax preparer and has everything. So I just had to share what I did for him. I took one of those woodcraft houses from Walmart- removed the two screws from the base. I cut a 1" block of wood that fit into the bottom of the house. I glued this block onto the base thus allowing the top of the house to be easily lifted off the base. I cut a 1/2" groove in the center of the block with the table saw so I could set a card of thumb tacks into it. This was hidden in the house until the top was lifted off. I wrote a poem for this & read it to him while my daughter did a Vanna White presentation of the house. Everyone got a good laugh out of this and I finally did a complete craft project! It's been a while. Hope you have as much fun with this as we did. Here's the poem: I drew your name for Christmas It's an honor, don't you know To get my brothers name for Christmas Ah! ashopping I will go. But then I started frettin After searching high and low Whatever will I get 'im (Twas wrong to worry so!) I went into an office shop Maybe something for your desk? I talked to the clerk a lot She tried to aid me in my quest. He could use a tax shelter Is what the lady said It seemed a bit off-kelter But there was nothing left instead. So here's your little shelter All painted so very nice The foundation has been mended The roofs' been polished thrice. The flowers are all blooming In the big pot by the door The bumblebees are buzzing And there's no sawdust on the floor. It seems to be the perfect place I do agree she's right It sure beats a plain old case And your tacks! They're finally safe at night!