Shai

Last July I bought a 10g tank to get myself back into the hobby. I started out with a veiltail betta, neon tetras, two panda cories, and some Malaysian rainbow shrimp. Along the way I bought my 55g and moved everyone there. I then picked up a crowntail betta and let it be master over the 10g with some more shrimp. Eventually, it looked like this: The betta was lonely, so I got him some friends, a group of cherry barbs. The entire group succumbed to ich, my first major disaster. The betta survived. I got him some more friends, again cherry barbs, along with an oto. Then it was time to upgrade... The 10g setup just wasn't cutting it anymore. Golfnut sold me his 20g and stand. Thanks! After netting out and bagging all the inhabitants of the 10g, I dumped the gravel into the 20g and replanted the plants. There wasn't quite enough gravel for the 20g so I added some more that I luckily had on hand, and slowly filled the tank. While the mulm and other junk from the gravel was settling out, I hung the fish in the tank to acclimatize them and keep them warm. No losses from this changeover! Everybody was pretty happy... ...for a while. Unfortunately, the cherry barbs began nipping the betta's fins so I was forced to move them into my 55g. In the end I've brought the neon tetras originally from the 10g back into this tank to get them out of the 55g and to keep the betta company. The neons are looking good in this tank! Other inhabitants of this tank include shrimp and snails as listed in my sig below. I have other plans for this tank in the future, after the betta eventually goes to fishy heaven. But those I'll save for another day. : ) Thanks for looking!

More pictures! One of the zebra nerites recently added. Fantastic snails. : ) One of the Malaysian trumpet snails given to me by Osprey. Thanks! The different shell shape is a neat contrast in the tank (when I can see them!) I also have a video of my cherry barbs and neon tetras mobbing an algae wafer. The harelquin rasboras I had also make a brief appearance (I've since given them away). Today I picked up 8 dwarf neon rainbows. It looks like I ended up with two males and six females: In a few weeks I'm going to rescue the bronze corydoras I'm after from a Wal-Mart nearby. The specimens they have look okay but, as usual, the conditions they're in are terrible. If they're still there once I'm ready to get them, I'll be doing them a favor...

What wattage of bulb does that strip light take? Doesn't seem to say on the webpage. There's a listing for Big Al's at 162-8228 MacLeod Trail SE. Is this not valid anymore?

These would be way too much for my setup, which constitutes mostly low light plants. Staying around 2wpg will be more than plenty for them, and I probably won't need to worry about CO2. I quite prefer the "low tech" approach. : ) I did a search for this and couldn't find it on the Hagen website. I've heard on other boards that T5s aren't as good; many people seem to think they aren't as bright-looking as other bulbs.

I was at an LFS on Saturday and after I explained I'm after a canopy that will give me at least 110W, they tried to get me to buy a Coralife Freshwater Aqualight T-5 Series - Double Linear Strip saying that even though it's 56W (1.02wpg), it would be "way more than enough light". I'm rather skeptical and think I need the Coralife Freshwater Aqualight Deluxe Series - Single Linear Strip, which is 130W (2.36wpg). The main difference between these two is that the 56W canopy has bulbs of differing types, whereas the 130W bulbs are both the same. I don't have enough experience to know which is truly suitable. Thoughts?

Ah, the crabs are nice! Great color. I recently bought some zebra nerites from Riverfront. These little guys are awesome and took care of my GSA problem almost overnight. Highly recommended.

: ) Added the cory sandbox yesterday. The dish I ended up using was a glass Pyrex pie plate, about 10" across. Osprey donated the sand in exchange for the three harlequin rasboras I still had. It was actually pretty easy to get it into the tank without getting a whole lot of sand everywhere. I hope the cories will like it, once I get them. Osprey also gave me six trumpet snails. I put four in this tank and two in my 20g. Haven't seen them since they disappeared into the gravel. :3

Potential new stocking list... 9 cherry barbs 8 dwarf neon rainbowfish 5 turquoise rainbowfish 5 bosemani rainbowfish 5 bronze cories 4 neritina zebra snails 6 Malaysian rainbow shrimp I'm actually more excited about this plan than the original one. I saw a couple tuquoise rainbows at Petland today, very nice! Tomorrow I'm picking up the sand I need to make the cory sandbox. Shortly thereafter I'll likely get the cories or perhaps the dwarf neons. I still have the neon tetras to get rid of before I can pick up the larger fish.

: ( Brutal, Christian, sounds terrible. What are you going to do now?

I've decided to basically start over with this tank, stocking-wise. After I get rid of the fish I no longer want (I need to offload my neon tetras somewhere. Anybody know an LFS I can trade them in at?), I'll be left with: 9 cherry barbs 4 neritina zebra snails 6 Malaysian rainbow shrimp Still planning to add: 5 bronze cories 8 dwarf neon rainbowfish Even though the 20g in my sig is sorely understocked, I'm stuck for now with keeping the cherry barbs in the 55g (they don't get along with the betta. When the betta eventually goes to fishy heaven I can move them back. This could be several years from now though). I'm interested in turquoise, boesemani, and possibly australis rainbowfish. These grow a lot bigger than what I have stocked in the past though...

Well done! It looks very nice. Great photos of the shrimp too, nice details! I agree with Jason, try some of the slower growing plants. Crypts are very nice (green wendtii is a favorite of mine) and java fern will work well too. I kept anubiases when I first started out but found I just couldn't get them to stay rooted to ornaments, but you might have better luck. : )

Thanks for all the comments!

Right now my 55g has only .56wpg on it. I'd like to get to 2wpg. I checked out http://ahsupply.com but having done the math, the cost to order from them is out of my budget. I'm going to have to find some other solution. Does anyone have any recommendations for me? Am I stuck having to build a 4' canopy that accommodates the center brace or can I somehow do this with two 24" hoods? I've checked out some DIY tutorials but am not sure that I have the know-how to build something myself and I feel pretty lost on the whole subject.

I use tweezers to feed peas to my betta. When I do this I hold the piece of the pea just at the surface, and my betta goes through the behavior you described. I think it's a predatory thing, for example, in the wild the betta would have the strike response to an insect or some other edible morsel near the surface in similar fashion.

Sounds like the tank is really coming along, Taylor! Too bad about the pleco and the gourami (and the betta! They can be such grumps sometimes). In the long run you're probably better off though. When will you be posting more pics?

I went to just about every dollar store in my quadrant of the city that I could find, and none of them had anything suitable (most of what I found there was too small). : ) Are we sure?! I don't want to poison my fish! This is great news though, I can go back for it later this week.

Well, I've been looking and looking and looking and I haven't found anything completely suitable. Either the dish is too shallow, or too big, or too deep. But I did find a star-shaped dish that would be perfect, except it's not glass. I think it's ceramic or clay and it has been glazed, but it's a serving dish. I didn't buy it. The material it's made from reminds me of the material clay pots are made from. But would I be taking a risk due to the glaze?

This probably won't last. Mixing bettas and gouramis is a no-no because they are too closely related (both are labyrinthian fish) and can mistake the other as a rival. Eventually you'll probably get fighting. : ( (And I'm confused...in your Feb 10 post you said you took the betta out of this tank.) Fabulous picture though. She's actually the flame variety of gourami. I was thinking about getting one of these for my 55g to replace the betta I couldn't keep in it.

One thing I've learned since getting into planted tanks is that it's really useful to research the plant before buying it. If you see something at the LFS that looks interesting, write down the name and look it up online when you get home. This will help you avoid buying plants that are really hard to keep or will grow too large for your tank...and this will save you money and headaches! As a beginner, you might consider some of these plants to start with: java fern java moss anubias nana anubias afzelii anubias barteri cryptocoryne wendtii (the "green" variety is very nice, IMO) sagittaria subulata vallisneria spiralis water wisteria cabomba These are all relatively easy to grow and take care of. I'm sure there are others that can be suggested too. If you Google the names you should be able to find lots of information about them. Good luck!

lol You could have given the all-female bettas a try to keep the biotope in line, but if you like the gourami, that's what matters most. Hope to see pics soon!

Interesting mix. Please post pics as you get this going!

lol I won't have this problem, as I literally only have room for two tanks. : ) : ) Thanks Tammy! Should they all be females, do you think? I'm seeing some aggression between the males I already have, though that may be due to tank size... I've read that in larger groups, cherry barbs can be kept in any sex ratio, but how large does the group have to be to get to that point?

I'm thinking about upgrading my 10g (in my sig) to 20g. I'm curious about the stock... I want to increase the number of cherry barbs and possibly add another oto, but I'm not sure how many cherry barbs I could get away with. Currently I have 3m and 3f. What are my options?

I probably missed any discussion about this particular choice, so forgive me if this has been said. Are you prepared for the fighting this combo is going to induce? All the reading I've ever done on bettas says the males and females only get along when it's time to mate and will tear each other to pieces the rest of the time. If you want more than one betta, you have to stock only females, and even then, you still run the risk that one of the females will become dominant, harrassing and possibly even killing the others.

Doh, Osprey, you beat me to it! I just went and posted that link in the Galaxy Rasbora thread in the Sponsor forum... :P :P Oh well. Sad story, and too bad. They're fantastic little fish. I hope the situation improves with fishkeeper breeding!