Reptiles and Amphibians

Me 👀😬 "I would agree if not for their high heat needs, large tank requirements, and extremely varied diet"

USARK - United States Association of Reptile Keepers

All article credit to the author Art Parola as posted on the National Animal Interest Alliance’s website https://www.naiaonline.org/…/federal-legislation…

A last-minute amendment to the COMPETES Act, H.R. 4521, was slipped in, presumably to avoid attention and pushback from the millions of Americans who will be affected, and to bypass congressional hearings. The language creates a major change to the provisions of the Lacey Act that regulate species deemed by US Fish & Wildlife Service to be injurious. While promoted under the guise of protecting the country from invasive species, the true goal of the legislative change is to ban as much of the wildlife trade as possible. Many of the organizations pushing this change oppose keeping animals in zoos, public aquariums, research facilities, and sometimes even as pets. While these organizations do not have the public support to implement their agenda outright, they have been effective in hijacking otherwise legitimate initiatives to achieve their ideological goals quietly, piece by piece.

Currently, the Lacey Act allows US Fish & Wildlife Service to promulgate rules that list species that could be injurious “to human beings, to the interests of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, or to wildlife or the wildlife resources of the United States.” Every state in the US also has legal and regulatory mechanisms for banning species that could cause harm to native species and habitats. The current federal Lacey Act list, and most state lists, are often referred to as “Black Lists.” Any species on the list is prohibited, while any species not on the list is allowed to be imported into the respective jurisdiction, sometimes with stipulations such as permit or health certificate requirements. This method of regulation is often regarded as best regulatory practice because it allows jurisdictions to prevent unwanted environmental and health threats that are relevant to their region without being overly burdensome to organizations, businesses, and individuals.

The language in the COMPETES Act would change the Lacey Act list to what is often referred to as a “White List.” If the bill passes, only species that go through an administrative rulemaking process and are found not to be a risk or an injurious species would be allowed to be imported into the United States. Any species not listed would be presumed to be injurious and would be banned from import. All species would be in essence regarded as guilty until proven innocent.

There are multiple problems with taking this regulatory approach.

I was a dumb dumb and forgot to salt soak my stuff, so now I have nuisance snails invading my tanks. I'm doing the Blanched veggie trick, but it's only working so well with my infestations.

Is there anything else short of redoing the whole two tanks and aquarium salt soaking everything??

I'm so tired of these lil things

I have had a betta for several months now, and he always had a single cateract/cloudy eye, which I tried treating for cloudy eye just in case. Then, eventually, he developed popeye in that same clouded eye; the other eye is fine - completely clear and no swelling. Nobody else in the community tank has developed popeye either.

In the previous community tank:

Stress Coat+ treated Spring Water

Stress Zyme+

Melafix

Planted substrate

Java ferns

Anubias on driftwood ×2

Oriental sword

Dwarf lily

Sanded coconut hide

6 Neon Tetras, 3 Kuhli Loach, 1 betta, and 1 snail (a bit too stocked at the time, ik, we have since dwindled down how much is in the tank)

Water parameters:

0ppm Ammonia

20ppm Nitrates

0ppm Nitrites

7.0 Ph

Medium General Hardness/Hardness (Trying to remember my last strip reading since I use the kit now)

Water temps:

75°-78°F *has a heater

In the current tank:

Stress Coat+ treated Spring Water

Planted gravel for substrate

Stress Zyme+

Seachem Stability (Used it to help Cycle)

Spiderwood

Narrowleaf temple plant ×2

Mopani Wood

Coconut hide

1 Betta

Water Parameters:

0ppm Ammonia

0ppm Nitrates

0ppm Nitrites

7.5 Ph

High General Hardness/Hardness (I use the Freshwater Test Kit now instead of the strips, so I'm going off my last reading with the strip)

Water temps:

75°-77°F

Here is what I've already tried:

• Seachem Kanaplex

• Seachem Metroplex

• API Pimafix *just started

• API Melafix

• API Fin & Body Cure

• API Aquarium Salt Soaks with slightly extra Stress Coat+ at 8 mins per night.

The swelling goes down with the soaks but always comes back the next day. If I miss a day by accident, the swelling gets worse. I've already called an aquarium store and discussed possibilities with them, but I need to hear from more people now, too.

Now, onto the question at hand: