Yeah, the betta is non aggressive. The neons are only half an inch, so right now, I'm at under 1 inch of fish per 6 inches of surface area on the tank. I do have two sponge filters running on it for now, until the plants grow back and can start taking on the nutrients. Then I will cut back to one sponge filter. But sponges hold a ton of bacteria in them, so it's all good. [Reply]
Originally Posted by scott free:
Bettas only fight with other bettas, alone in community tanks they're usually the ones getting nipped on all of the time.
Thats a great tank, he must have mega-overkill filtration on it to keep that many fish.
This. They will also fight w/ other labyrinth fish like Dwarf Gouramis.
I had moved my new Betta from my 5g into my 55g for just a couple of hours and I had to move him back to the 5g. My Red Tailed Shark was bullying the hell out of him and he was in the back corner of the tank taking shelter under plants. Prior to this, my other Betta went through the same thing. He just hid all the time. That one is in my 10g w/ no other fish. [Reply]
I wouldn't put it with guppies. Bettas are fine with other fish, so long as the other fish don't have long fins. I mean, you can TRY it, but your results may vary. Notice that none of the fish I selected have long fins that might confuse the betta into nipping. I know my betta isn't aggressive and would probably be fine with guppies, but others may have different personalities that don't get along so well with long-finned fish. [Reply]
Getting serious about real substrate with live plants is the most logical next step for me, nothing looks as nice & its just a more involved way of keeping a tank, i need a challenge.
I've had a lot of different freshwater & brackish tanks over the years, some in whats often called a river or terrarium tank, with plenty of built up dry land for frogs, lizards, crabs & whatever, while trying hard to maintain as much aquatic area as possible, waterfalls, caves, all kinds of stuff.
But never did get serious about a more natural substrate, natural pebble on the bottom and usually just dirt, sand & bagged moss on top of wood & slate in selected areas i was trying to keep dry, maybe throw in a weed or clumps of grass from the yard which a sun bulb would keep alive for a while, but never did get serious about it, seemed to intimidating & fussy, but i think i'm ready for it
Silocks tank looks great & that snail Fish has is awesome. [Reply]
The only advantage to a dirt substrate is that you don't have to dose fertilizers all the time. My plants did awesome in bare sand when I used liquid fertilizers 5 times a week. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Silock:
The only advantage to a dirt substrate is that you don't have to dose fertilizers all the time. My plants did awesome in bare sand when I used liquid fertilizers 5 times a week.
Yeah, i wasnt even thinking about that bit of chemistry in my post last night about you needing overkill filtration for the fish, the plants can eat a lot of it up, and i dont know a lot about them, *edit - actually Not a jetfilter, meanwhile, back at the ranch* .
Thats the more detailed, more natural ecosystem aspect of it that really interests me. [Reply]
Heh, my tank looks like absolute SHIT right now. All those plants melted away, so they're in the process of growing back.
I got rid of the loaches, and have some Oto cats on the way, as well as some red cherry shrimp. I am growing out a bit of algae so the Otos will have something to eat when they get here. Hopefully, that will solve the algae problem. [Reply]
Had a similar problem with my plants shedding, and didn't realize that was normal. Replanted half of them and now watching the new ones shed. Half my tank looks like rotting / skeleton amazon swords. Thankfully my anubias look great as well as some other plant I forgot the name of that changed shape after planting.
Just dropped in 3 assassin snails to work on my snail problem so my single Oto doesn't go hungry (I have a heap of ramshorns right now). Hope to grab a school of pearl danios in a week or two. Absolutely beautiful fish, but tiny! [Reply]
Yeah, don't get discouraged about the melting. It happens. I even did 30% water changes every day and it still happened. Just look for new growth and be happy about that. My crypts have started to come back, my swords sprouted a leaf yesterday, and my ludwigia is getting new stem growth all over the place. The hairgrass MAY have sent out some runners, but it's hard to tell. Hopefully, the new light I put in today will make it all take off.
There's a guy doing a fantastic deal on the CPDs on Aquabid. 10 for $55 shipped overnight.
Yeah, at this point I'm just waiting. Got 3 fish (and 1 fry) plus a ton of snails. I'm just going to wait a week or two or three to see what happens. I can see baby leaves coming up, so I know everything's fine. I'm just impatient.
Pet shop near me has CPDs for $4.95 ea. Almost bought some last time I was there but made the mistake of getting Serpae Tetras. Didn't realize they were such aggressive little nippers. Pretty, but I couldn't keep them. [Reply]
OK, I have eggs on the glass of my aquarium. They're little white dots some close together some not. They look like cory eggs but I only have one cory, the other died a few months ago. So they more than likely aren't fertile, if they're cory eggs correct? I also have blue snails in there but they usually lay there eggs above the water line in clusters so I don't think it's them. The only other fish in there are tetras (rummy nose and emperor).
