Sorority Tank

So, as I said, I have gotten the sorority tank going. Here are the pics I promised. The top one shows the whole tank - and I'm pretty sure you can see all the fish too, if you look hard enough. The slideshow is just the same as always - mouse over to see any of the pictures properly, click to see them full sized.

The girls (in pecking order):
Maddi (big red one, you've already met her)
Big Blue (the bigger of the two blues)
Runt (little reddish one... orange/dragon mix, I believe)
Little Blue (the smaller blue one)
Silk (a.k.a. that little white one)

Not very original names, I know... but often I start calling them something before coming up with a real name and it just sticks. That last image of Runt is my fave... she's so cute ^^

Anyways, they seem to be getting along. I tried adding in Specks and Iri, but they're too aggressive, which is strange because when I had my three original girls (Maddi, Specks and Iri) together, Maddi was the most aggressive. In some of those photos you can see them chasing each other... Maddi chasing Big Blue and Little Blue chasing Silk... but there hasn't been any damage yet. Silk has a bite taken out of her tail, but she was like that when I got her. She also spends a lot of time hiding - there's a pic of her hiding in that slideshow, too, see if you can find her. You might also have noticed that some of them look a little bloated... I haven't gotten the hang of how much to feed them yet.

One kind of pellets in my inventory are too big for any of them to eat all at once... and I love watching them eat them... they all grab one and dart off to their caves and then repeatedly let go of their pellet and attack it again until it's gone... so amusing...

Only other thing I wanted to talk about was how I decorated the tank. Went out and got some more gravel and buried an air stone in the front left corner. Then I went to Sears and found a whole bunch of mugs on sale for $1 each, so I bought six of them. That log ornament in the middle was on sale at WalMart for less than $10, and I got the plants mostly on ebay, though some were donated by other betta owners who didn't need them anymore.

So it really didn't cost me much to set up this tank. Got the tank, lid, light, gravel, filter and aerator along with a bunch of other useful stuff for under $50 from a friend and the decorations cost me around $30 all together. It may seem over planted, but female bettas like crowded tanks, they need places to hide from each other.

Update

I was so preoccupied with bad news and features that I forgot to say everything else I had to say! So now that I'm done those water changes, I'm posting again.

I moved Maddi to the 12 gallon by herself for now. She has always had a chronic case of fin rot in the .5 gallon, even when I change her water every day, so hopefully she'll do better in there. When the other five females come, I'll take her out temporarily before putting all eight females in together. Don't have to worry about her claiming territory because there are only a couple decorations in there right now, and I'm going to be adding tons of plants before putting all the girls in, so she won't recognize it. I have a couple live plants and tons of silk ones on the way, so by the time I get the fish and quarantine them for a week I should be all set.

I should be (finally) getting those five other females in the next week. I'm getting to be less and less of a fan of winter. I don't normally mind it all that much... but it's keeping me away from my fishies.

Also, I'm moving Sky to the 2.5 gallon. Alpha's not happy to give up his tank... but Sky is so jittery about everything, I don't want to freak him out with water changes every second day.

And... I joined Technorati. So if you've got an account, there's a link to fave this blog on the left.

Small tanks

Ok... so I figure it's time I tackle this issue. Small tanks are acceptable to a point - and they require a lot more care to keep up without your fishie getting sick. Stores and companies will often try to sell you a smaller tank, saying that it's perfectly fine to keep them in that small area because it mimics their natural habitat... at the same time as saying that you only have to do a water change somewhere between once a week and never. All my half gallons came with instructions, and they all said to change the water once a week - when with a half gallon you should be doing water changes every second day or every day.

Frequent water changes can also be stressful for the fish, because they're being taken in and out of the water all the time. A solution to this is to use a small scoop rather than a net. I found mine at PetSmart, though I'm sure they can be easily made (tell me if you figure out how, and I'll post a how-to giving you credit). It pretty much looks like a clear plastic pipe, so you can scoop out the fish along with a bit of water. Still stressful, but not as stressful.

Another solution taking a large tank (like 20gallons) and putting in dividers (cheapest are made out of plastic craft canvas), then you have to take into account the fact that there are more fish but you can also filter. Or you could set up betta barracks - though this is only practical if you have lots and lots of fish. However, both of these methods involve sharing water. So make sure you keep an eye out for diseases and whatnot - because if one gets it, they're all likely to get it, and fifty bettas with ich is not fun.

Some fish will get so stressed that they start losing fins after water changes... these are the ones you don't want in a little tank. If possible, keep him/her in a larger, cycled tank.

Next step up is a 1 gallon or a 2.5 gallon. Still too small to bother filtering, in my opinion, and water changes should happen once a week. If you're looking to filter, I think 5 gallons and up is what you need (though the only filtered tank I have is a 12 gallon). You can get kits that have a tank, filter and light included, for about $20-30 depending on the size, and they tend to come with free samples of food and purifier too (though don't count on it).

Now, on to the worst of them all. Betta in a vase.



Pretty, right?

This is a fairly big craze these days... and I'm not saying you should totally discard the idea, just that you should use some sense. Most people buying these set ups are being told that it's the perfect, hassle-free live centerpiece. These vases are typically a half gallon or less, and the companies making money off this craze are saying that you don't need to do water changes or even feed the betta - the plant will take care of it. This is completely wrong. For one, bettas are carnivores, so you will need to feed them pellets. They may eat the roots, as the companies are saying, but they can't survive off of them and will still end up starving to death - as well as killing the plant. For two, water changes are still necessary, the plant may even pollute the water more depending on what it is. Also, the vase is too small to share between a betta and a plant. If you're going to do this, I suggest at least a 1 gallon vase (that's four liters), and a fake plant... or one that's made to live in water. Otherwise it's likely to start rotting because it's not made to live in that much water, and then you'll have a nice deadly tank.

And lastly, make sure your tanks have lids, or the water level is kept a few inches from the top. Bettas can and will jump, and you don't want your fish to be flopping around on the floor. Any questions, comments? Everyone going to run off and do a water change now?

It's getting there...

So I got Lisa over here on Saturday to help me set up the 12g. She's the one I bought it off of, so set up went a lot faster with her help. I'm sure I could have figured it out on my own... but then I might have made some tiny mistake somewhere that made it not run smoothly.

So I now have a huge tank full of water... still need six more caves and a lot of plants. I bought some tumbled stones at Michaels and got some aquarium sealer and was planning on making some caves with that (using the sealer as glue) but when I got home I realized the stones said "not for use in aquariums". So learn from my mistake and read the fine print before buying these things. If it was summer, I'd just head to the beach and find my own rocks... stupid Canadian winter... but now I've wasted like $15 on useless rocks. They're not even anything worth putting in my old stone collection (that has been sitting under my bed untouched for two years now).

So, I'll continue my cave search... and if anyone has any plants or caves to donate, let me know. I'll pay shipping. Right now I have two clay pots in there as caves, but I need more. There should be one cave for each betta - and I think I'm going to try putting in all eight and I'll pull out the more aggressive ones if there's a problem.

I'm also looking into bottom feeders to cut down on the work I have to do. I wanted a little catfish, because catfish are cool, but they don't like temperature fluctuations too much - or rather they like them less than most fish - and with the thermostat in my house being constantly fiddled with, sometimes my heater can't keep up. So corries are being recommended - but I really don't like them that much.

So... ya, that's my update.

As for next year when I run off to a different city for school... my half of the dorm room will be a box of clothes, a bed and the rest will be covered with clothes XP I can do homework on campus somewhere, right? The rate I'm going, I'll have my 12 gallon and like ten half gallons. Really, so long as I can find a place to set up the 12g, I should be able to find space for the others easily enough - and most dorm rooms have a desk... I should be able to share a desk with a 2'x1' tank.

My mom doesn't think I'll manage. But I always do.