DarthRevan
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Posts posted by DarthRevan
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On 7/13/2021 at 12:56 PM, NanoNano said:
You have mainly root feeding plants in your cart, so I would second getting root tabs as well. You have *a lot* of plants in your initial order. I would suggest that you split that order in half if not thirds as: 1) The Co-op is fairly picky and the plants they send out - you should be confident that you'll get strong hearty plants with an excellent chance to thrive. 2) You've got multiples of plants that can get *huge* in there like swords and can send out runners and spawn "satellites" like Crypts. You'll likely end up with some additional plants from whatever you purchase. 3) As you note, you *might* have some species that don't dig your hard water, so better to discover that by losing just a single if you have something that just doesn't thrive.
I'd highly recommend looking at Reddit's r/PlantedTank forum- they have frequent posts of "how it started / how it's going" where people show the grow out results of their tanks. The amount of growth can be *astounding* even in a matter of just a few weeks. You want to be careful to not overplant. Two of the things you want to be thoughtful of in your scenario are 1) Open access to the water surface for your Betta to surface breathe. Sword and Octopus leaves can block a lot fo surface area when they get long. Floaters can complicate access. 2) Dissolved oxygen levels- When there's light, plants photosynthesize and produce oxygen, BUT when it's dark, plants will absorb oxygen from the water column creating the potential for both low dissolved O2 levels and PH changes. Shrimp are sensitive to both (low O2 and PH swings), so you want to be thoughtful about not super duper over planting- especially if you're looking to have them breed.
That is some excellent advice, thank you. I was thinking about taking some out because my order is already crazy expensive lol so you just helped me confirm that. I got so many at first because I didn’t want to wait too long for them to start spreading and establishing, but I also don’t want to overplant. I just need to be more patient 😂
I will be keeping the stems trimmed regularly though, I’m not letting this tank get overgrown because I want to keep a fairly neat look to it. I’m still not sure on floating plants, I haven’t found any that I really like yet but I will definitely keep my betta in mind and make sure it has space up top.
Do you think in addition to cutting back on plants I should also get an air stone for at night to help keep it oxygenated?
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On 7/13/2021 at 9:54 AM, Patrick_G said:
I would definitely go with fertilizer. I use Easy Green and API Leaf Zone. In a 40 breeder with that light and the plants you’ve selected you’ll probably dose at the medium light level. Make sure your substrate level plants are not in the shade. I lost three pots of Pearl weed that weren’t getting enough light.
I’ve been adding a layer of Aquasoil and gravel under sand like MD fish tanks recommends. Just in case I pop some root tabs under plants that are supposed to be heavy root feeders.Ok perfect, I had some easy green in my cart but I didn’t know if I’d need anything else.
I’m definitely doing the MD substrate mix for the root feeders lol I feel like he really nailed that system he has down. Root tabs are a good idea too.
Thanks for all the tips I appreciate it 😄
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On 7/13/2021 at 9:28 AM, FriendlyLoach said:
I have a betta with cherry shrimp, I had a few to start in there but my betta ate one. 😞 So I took them all out, or so I thought. I missed one or two and now I have hundreds. I guess the betta will eat one here or there, but it is still a positive number of shrimp in the end.
Well I guess they’re doing pretty well if their population exploded like that haha! I don’t want my shrimp to get eaten but honestly if a couple end up as a protein supplement for my betta I won’t be too sad as long as they’re breeding regularly lol.
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Ok so after some quick Google searches, it looks like I should really only have trouble with the Scarlet Temple if at all. I’ve seen other posts where it’s just melted in hard water, however a lot of aquatic plant care sites say it can tolerate a range of paramaters, but generally prefers soft and acidic water. I guess I’ll just try one or two and see how they do, worst case I can find some other red plants that are more tolerable. I was also a little worried about Monte Carlo but my LFS has it growing fine in our tap water.
Would you guys recommend getting fertilizer or will hard water and aqua soil help take care of nutrients? For lighting I’m going to be using a Finnex Stingray 2.0.
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Thank you for the amazing help everyone! I’m going to try and do more research on the plants I want but from what you’ve all said most of what I have should be fine 😁
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On 7/12/2021 at 9:04 PM, Stephanie I said:
The betta will be fine in your water. My well water has a ph of 8.4 and gh sits around 450 ppm. I've had no problems with my fish or nerite snail. Growing plants has been a struggle though, which is why I'm now adding a bit of distilled water during water changes.
That was gonna be my next question lol, how do plants handle hard water. Do they just grow slowly for you or do they completely die off?
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On 7/12/2021 at 7:24 PM, laritheloud said:
Mystery Snails (if you want a larger snail) only breed if you have a male and a female in one tank. I have two mystery snails in my 29 gallon and there's been 0 signs of mating or laying eggs, so I likely have two of the same sex. There's also nerite snails which cannot reproduce in fresh water, though they will lay eggs that will never grow into snails. If the look of the eggs on everything bothers you, then you can try other snails that won't lay eggs.
I have a giant ramshorn snail, too, and they're like mysteries. They need a male and a female to breed. I only have one so I'm safe there!
That’s a good point I didn’t think about that lol.
Do fish eat Nerite snail eggs?
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On 7/12/2021 at 6:40 PM, laritheloud said:
Your fish should do fine in that water. My tap is the exact same parameters as Jason from Prime Time (8 - 8.2ph, 10-12 gH and kH), and so far I've trusted his experiences fully. I keep gourami, diamond tetras, amano shrimp and neocaridina (blue dream) in my water with no problems. I'd recommend snails, too, if you like snails. They love harder water and do amazing in my tanks.
Thank you 🙌
I was also thinking about snails, I was just worried about them overtaking the tank. Being new I’m not sure what would constitute “overfeeding” and I know that’s the main reason people have snail explosions lol.
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On 7/12/2021 at 2:17 PM, Guppysnail said:
1 betta (passed of old age) an uncountable population of neo shrimp still going strong. Did just fine. Stability was my key
7.6 ph 14-16 drops of api gh hardness. No corresponding numbers on the kit it’s so hard. Coop test strips register a color not given.
That is good to know, thank you. I was worried but you guys are really helping lol.
I also saw a couple of videos where cattapa leaves were used and I saw that it’s great for shrimp because they can eat the microorganisms that break down the leaves so I’ll definitely be trying that as well 😄
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On 7/12/2021 at 2:06 PM, NanoNano said:
Quick thoughts:
* I'm fairly certain that the higher Ph won't be an issue for Betta's or Shrimp themselves- the issue would be the increased "free ammonia" in the tank water that comes with higher Ph. That could lead to things like fin rot in the Betta and weakness/death in the shrimp if not regularly monitored and reduced as necessary. I would think that you would want to do daily water checks until you establish a baseline for ammonia both in your newly treated tap water as well as build up over time in your tank water. I'm getting the impression that your thinking is likely similar.
* When I get a new betta I usually pick up a couple of "feeder ghost shrimp" (usually less than $.50 a piece at my local chain store) and introduce them to the betta to determine if they're going to be treated as neighbors or dinner.
* My thoughts on plants would be to start with a relatively small number and see how you fare....not because of potential failure, but because of potential success (I've found myself over planted 6-9 months after starting a tank more often than not). Be especially thoughtful about plant heights in your initial selection as tall fast growers can shade smaller slower growers and give them trouble as they're trying to root and get established in a new tank.
Good luck!
I definitely plan on testing regularly until I figure out what normal water quality is here and then going from there. I wanted to plant the tank first and get them established, then start adding livestock. I didn’t know that you can just have ammonia in the water, I thought that was only once you started adding animals lol, so now I’m definitely going to be testing daily.
My LFS guy I talked to did say to try ghost shrimp because they’re cheap, I just didn’t know if it would be exactly the same with cherries since they’re more brightly colored and could be more attractive to the betta where ghost shrimp might not because they’re clear. I could also be overthinking that though 😂
For the plants that is great advice that I had not heard before, so thank you! I plan on keeping the fast growing plants trimmed regularly as this will be an aquascape so I’m trying to keep a certain look to it. Roughly how many plants would you say could “comfortably” go in a 40 gallon breeder? It’s a combo of stem plants, root plants, and slow growers that I have in my cart so far I’ll post screenshots.
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On 7/11/2021 at 9:47 PM, DannyBWell said:
I was gonna say the heavy plant cover will help I tried this years ago before doing planted tanks so the shrimp had nowhere to hid so I'm sure that wasn't great for them. Also ask your LFS what their parameters are and see what they suggest if you have one.
That’s what I’m hoping lol. Plus I love plants so we’ll see how it turns out.
Phoenix, AZ has a reallyyyy limited selection of fish stores. But I called one and he said we have super hard, highly chlorinated water so he recommended cutting it and using double the dechlorinator. I’m going to check it out in person this week so I’ll see how he keeps his water. I know he mainly does African cichlids because they do well in our water.
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On 7/11/2021 at 9:28 PM, DannyBWell said:
I do have to say when I tried the two together the shrimp didn't make it. Could I of had a shrimp murdering Betta and you could have success in your tank most likely I would say.
Thank you, that gives me peace of mind for when I finally get my tank set up lol. If I didn’t have to go through figuring out tap to RO ratios every water change I definitely didn’t want to 😂
As for the betta murdering shrimp, I know it’s really gonna be a 50/50 chance I can actually do that. I’m hoping the heavy plant cover plus the larger tank size, plus keeping it well fed with good food will save them. But if my test shrimp get killed then I’ll probably go with snails instead and have a separate 5 gallon just for shrimp.
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So I’m finally getting a tank started for the first time, I was originally going to do a 20 long but since I want a decent variety of fish I decided to go for a 40 breeder instead. I’ve also been researching on YouTube for over a year now (mainly getting info from Aquarium Co-op, Primetime Aquatics, Girl Talks Fish, and MD Fish Tanks).
I’m wanting to keep a betta as the centerpiece, rummynose tetras, some kind of live bearer (I’m leaning heavily towards Endlers), either ottos or plecos, and cherry shrimp. I know bettas can sometimes eat shrimp so I’m going to test it’s temperament with a couple of cherries first before getting a bunch for a colony. Also this will be a heavily planted tank (got about $200 worth of plants in my cart on Aquarium Co-op’s website 😅) and I plan on feeding high quality food.
In Arizona we have really, really hard water and high PH. I’ve seen it range from 7.6 to 8.2 depending on the city (I don’t know numbers for hardness, I haven’t gotten my test kit in yet). I know I can cut the tap water with RO/distilled water to lower PH/hardness, but I recently saw a video from Prime Time Aquatics where Jason said he’s successfully kept bettas and shrimp in his tap water, which is pretty close to what I have here. In the video he says that keeping stable parameters is a little more important than matching the exact parameters of the fish you’re keeping.
So, finally to my question lol. Has anyone here kept bettas or shrimp successfully in harder water with a high PH? If so, did you end up cutting your water, or did you leave it just as it comes out of the tap, and did you notice any issues with the health of the fish or shrimp?
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I also have extremely high PH and GH in Arizona, I was just talking to a local fish store owner and he said pretty much the same thing as ArmyVet, use RO or distilled water and mix tap water into it. He also said to use double the dechlorinator but that might just be for our water in the Phoenix area lol. As for proportions and ratios he said to just keep testing different mixes till you have it where you want it.
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43 minutes ago, binkysmom said:
regarding shrimp and a betta, it depends entirely on your betta. I currently have one in a 10gallon with cherry shrimp and I've never seen him go after any of them. They are everywhere and i've seen them "walk" over the back of this betta. I've had other bettas where they will pick off the little ones but leave the adults alone. I have another betta who was on a mission to seek out and kill all living things in his tank. He's now in a 3 gallon long with a big ramshorn snail who he still occasionally hassles.
That seems to be the general consensus, it depends on the tank and the betta lol. I was also looking into Amanos because even though I like the red pop the cherry shrimp bring, at the end of the day they’re a cleanup crew for me and I guess they’re known for doing better than cherries at eating algae and stuff. But I guess Amanos would follow the same rules pretty much.
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17 minutes ago, Maggie said:
@DarthRevanI have them in a 45 gallon tank and I think there aren't enough of them to cool the two bullies' young-adult aggression a bit. I can't wait to move the 12 new "teens" out of quarantine and hopefully chill out the vibe in the main tank some. (Wishful thinking?) I already had two with fin damage a few weeks back, due to fighting, and a subsequent infection which I successfully treated (and all fins have grown back), but that was a nightmare as the quarantine tank was in use so I had to treat the main tank. My male dwarf danios (in another thank, a 20-long), which are smaller than dwarf shrimp, also go after each other, as well as any unwanted females that get in their way, when they're chasing the gravid female of their affection. It looks positively vicious sometimes! But they are also very shy and hide every time I get close. I'm looking at options for a few dither fish for that tank to help them be less shy and maybe less aggressive with each other (as in, the guppies or whatever would get in the way of the chase and break things up). Such is life in "peaceful community tanks".
That sounds like pure chaos 😂😂 hopefully the dither fish help. I actually just saw a video from the Aquarium Co-Op channel on that yesterday too lol. I guess that just highlights the fact that even if the fish species are considered peaceful, every tank is different!
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4 hours ago, ChefConfit said:
Softening water is relatively easy (get a jug of RODI water and cut your tap water with it. It's an added expense but not nearly as bad as having soft water and trying to make it hard.
3 hours ago, Jess said:It can be! It's just a question of whether you want to. In my case, I am adding my tank to my already-busy life and I want it to be a peaceful, pleasant source of joy and relaxation. When I kept a tank 15-20 yrs ago, I was always tinkering with my water to get it to be how I wanted it to be for the fish I wanted to keep. Now I want to minimize the tinkering. But it definitely can be done - you can raise GH using something like Seachem Equilibrium and raise KH by adding crushed coral. You can lower both by using RO water that you remineralize yourself to be exactly what you want. It's just an added level of complexity (and expense), and only you can decide if that is worth it to you!
3 hours ago, Maggie said:Harlequin rasboras sound perfect as part of your crew. I think they're perfect for a 20L as they love horizontal space a lot more than vertical! I have 7 (lost one to injury) and 12 more in quarantine. I suggest at least 10, as my 7 seem to get into a lot of spats. This goes on all day.
Thank you both for the info! I’ll still need to test my water first to see where it’s at, but I think that’s definitely worth an added expense.
And thank you Maggie for the info on the rasboras! So you’re saying they keep fighting each other? I didn’t know they did that lol, let me know how it goes after you add the others! If I need to add more I definitely will, they seem like awesome fish.
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39 minutes ago, Jess said:
You may be able to find a detailed water quality report for your county. I just found one for mine, and it cleared up some things for me! You may have to dig around a bit. In my case, there is a "layman-friendly" water quality report that only contains things like chlorine, fluorine, turbidity, and bacteria counts, and (on a totally different website) a more detailed one that has water hardness, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and a bunch of other stuff. Obviously, you'll still want to test your water, etc., once you get started, but this water quality report may help you in the planning stage.
It's vastly easier (and cheaper) to adapt the fish you keep to your water conditions, rather than the other way around. I have super-soft, slightly acidic water, so I plan to keep fish that naturally prefer those conditions.
Good luck and welcome to the hobby!
Thank you! I did find a report on my city’s water quality but it was kind of hard to read, maybe I’ll have to search more for a layman’s report haha. That is something I didn’t consider though, I thought matching the water parameters for the fish would just be a matter of conditioning the water first with some chemicals lol. I will definitely keep that in mind, thanks for your input!!
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@ChefConfitThat is awesome to hear and super helpful, I will definitely look into sponge filters. Plus I know those are good for the shrimp since they can’t get sucked up lol.
Ah ok, I thought they wouldn’t go after them if they’re too big. Someone else suggested Amanos, I wonder if they would have the same issue. And I definitely want to give them time to get established. My plan was plant the tank, let it cycle and get good growth, then add shrimp and wait like 2-3 months before adding the smaller fish. The betta is definitely going in last once everything else is established.
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11 hours ago, Paul said:
@DarthRevanOne of the reasons I run two filters in my tanks is redundancy but it also insures there's enough flow to eliminate dead spots. In the smaller tanks the different filter types are used to take advantage of their strengths. Sponge filters are really good at biological filtration but not so much with mechanical filtration so the HOBs are setup to do primarily mechanical filtration.
Ok so a sponge for bio filtration and a hang on back for water flow? That sounds like a good combo. I was hoping not to have to get a canister filter because they’re expensive lol. I know some things with this, especially starting out are going to be expensive but I’m trying to reduce costs where I can without sacrificing the quality of life for the fish and plants.
8 hours ago, wendypizza said:Back then my problem was not using a strong enough light. I'd rather buy an extra sponge filter as needed, than start with a giant HOB that blows my poor fish and salvinia around.
In my current setup that's eating nitrates like crazy, I've got a strong light, planted tank substrate, and liquid ferts. The sponge filter is too large, but the flow is so minimal that it's kind of turned into an oversized eyesore that I'll be glad to move into a larger tank soon. At the moment the stocking is low.
My opinions and rambling about my tanks aside, if you haven't listened to it yet, I recommend this video by Cory, as well as one I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think it's about changing water too much.
Thank you for the video that helps a lot! I was trying to avoid a really strong filter for that reason, because from what I read bettas like to sit near the surface and they can’t do that if they’re getting shoved around by a current. And the lighting was another dilemma since the fish I was looking at don’t like bright light especially bettas. I was thinking do a bright light anyway for the plants but then put a bunch of caves and shady spots for the betta to hang out, and maybe a group of small floating plants.
4 hours ago, Frost said:A couple years ago I had a 20 long running as my only tank with a betta, a dozen-ish harlequin rasboras, and some amano shrimp. I really like 20 longs and think they're the perfect tank for the "betta community" setup
I'd recommend picking one of either the rummy's or the harlequins. A 20 long is a bit small to do two schooling species in my opinion, but if your heart is set on both I think about 7 of each could work.
Harlequin rasboras are one of my favorite schooling fish and for the several years I've been keeping them now I've known them to be completely peaceful, beautiful little fish and couldn't recommend them enough. When I kept them with a betta I didn't have any fin nipping. I have little experience with rummies and have never kept them with a betta so I can't speak to that.
As for shrimp if all you want is a cleanup crew amanos might be better than cherries, they get bigger and a betta might be less inclined to attack a larger, less colorful shrimp. Cherries could work just as well though depending on the betta, but I don't have experience with them either.
That’s good to hear, I wasn’t 100% sure that would be a good tank but I love the length of it because it gives you more room to create a scene in the tank rather than just like a rock and a piece of wood lol. Plus the fish have more room to swim back and forth.
I might start out with just one since I’m so new at this and then go from there. I want a lot of variety to keep things interesting but if two schooling fish are too much I don’t want to make them miserable just for my enjoyment lol. I went with a 20L so I could have a good variety and then move up to that plus a betta as the centerpiece. As far as the rummy’s, KGTropicals has a video of their 10 favorite betta tank mates and they were #1 lol so I think they’d get along fine, but if the general consensus is having two schools of fish would stress out the betta or themselves then I’ll just stick to one. My main concern is how many fish can I feasibly have in a 20L, I don’t want to overstock.
I was thinking about Amanos since they’re bigger but I like the red pop of the cherry shrimp. I’m starting with just shrimp anyway so if they can get established in there and then be ok with the schooling fish then I think it’ll work. As long as they have hiding spots. And if the betta ends up eating them then I guess I’ll just go with only plecos instead. Not that I want to feed cherry shrimp to my betta but if thats what happens then I’ll know lol. I looked up a lot of articles and YouTube videos and the general rule seems to be they have a good chance to live together if the betta was raised in a community tank, the shrimp were already there and are already established when you add the betta, and if they have plenty of things like Java moss to hide in. But you never know with a living ecosystem lol.
4 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:I have a few 20 longs set up, I use two of the medium size sponge filters from the co-op, one in each back corner. There is plenty of filtration between the two filters, plus if you are planting the tank, you'll have the plants to help with water quality. You ask about having a group of tetras, another group of rasboras, some shrimp and a betta.
I would recommend putting the shrimp in and one of the groups of schooling fish, let the shrimp establish for 6 months or so, then add the betta. You may find that you like just having the one kind of schooling fish, sometimes in a smaller tank one nice school of one species looks nice rather than having a couple different species.
With the two sponge filter set up is there enough water flow to keep it from stagnating too much? I’m trying to go heavily planted, low maintenance with this setup.
That was my plan, let the shrimp establish and the smaller schooling fish as well, then think about adding a betta. Also that gives enough time for the plants to grow in nicely. I was going to start out with a school of like 7 rasboras and the shrimp, then see about adding the tetras. And then depending on how that goes maybe the betta. But other people have been saying a 20L might not be big enough for two schools of fish. The good thing is I haven’t bought anything yet I’m just trying to see what would work best for what I want so I can always change something up.
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21 minutes ago, ChefConfit said:
If you do it plant extremely heavy and let them establish themselves for a few generations before introducing the betta.
As for filtration. The tricky part of a 20 long is getting good flow throughout the tank. I'd probably do 2 sponge filters. One on each side. You can probably run them off 1 nano air pump. The sponge filter is also safer than a HOB for both shrimp and bettas, but a prefilter sponge will make a HOB just as safe.
That was my plan so I can get the hang of things with some easily replaceable shrimp first, then start adding fish when I feel ready. Also so the shrimp can get big enough that a fish wouldn’t mess with them much.
With the sponge filters, are they fairly easy to hide with plants and how involved is cleaning them?
19 minutes ago, wendypizza said:re: filtration, when I first got into the hobby I overfiltered so much (like, an Aquaclear 50 + kit HOB for a barely stocked 29g), but after coming back to fishkeeping...I probably underfilter. The exception is the goldfish tank, which has two HOBs, but one is primarily for filter floss/seeding sponges for new tanks. I'd like to get that on just one sponge filter one day to keep the energy cost down, but I'm going to use what I have for now. All of my tanks are planted, and I've been struggling to keep nitrates above 20, so I have to dose ferts about twice a week in the most heavily planted one.
(also, I love your username.)
Lol thank you, one of my favorite Sith Lords! So in your case you ended up over-filtering and had trouble keeping nutrients in the water for the plants? That was one of my main concerns.
19 minutes ago, Paul said:@DarthRevan you're new to the hobby, you need to learn to walk before you start running. If you don't know what you're doing filterless aquariums will be nothing but a headache. I have a planted 20L stocked with 5 Apistogramma nijsseni, 5 Bronze Corys, some tetras and a couple of Otto's. That's considerably less bio load than you're thinking about putting in your tank and I filter the tank with a sponge filter & a Penguin Pro 175 HOB placed at either end of the tank.
Oh yeah I definitely agree. I for sure am not doing a non filtered tank it seems like you have to get a LOT right to balance the ecosystem out. I want to take it slow and do it right, so I definitely don’t plan on putting all of that stuff in the tank right away, just starting with some shrimp and lots of plants. Then moving up to tetras/rasboras, then the betta. If I even get the betta, I probably will just stick with the small guys for a while. So even with lots of plants you still recommend heavily over filtering? Or is it more to get good water flow?
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@PaulI’ve been watching all of them actually lol! I started a couple months ago and started going a lot deeper into it in the last month. I’ve found myself watching Aquarium Co-op (how I found this forum!) and KG Tropicals the most. My issue being new is there’s so many differing opinions out there. Some people say you don’t need to filter a heavily planted tank at all, some say you need a light filter, some say you need a filter equivalent to a non-planted tank... it makes it a little hard lol. I plan to absolutely pack my tank with plants so I’m not sure how much filtration I need.
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25 minutes ago, Patrick M. Bodega Aquatics said:
Welcome to the hobby! My fist question is, what is your ph & hardness? Also, what kind of filter are you planning on using? If you do an overkill filter like a Fluval 207 - 307 you would be able to do the stocking you want. If you go with a filter rated for 20g, you'd be barely overstocking. The shrimp are a great cleanup crew and be very beneficial. All the fish you want are compatible and would make a great community. I'd recommend sacrificing a few of your schooling fish and do a couple cleanup crew fish instead. Small plecos and loaches are great! You don't have to, just an idea. I hope you learn a lot here and it took me 10 years of fish keeping before finding this forum so you are getting a great head start. Happy fishkeeping!
Thank you! That is a good question haha, I haven’t even gotten a tank yet I’ve just been planning things out. Do you mean for my tap water? I’d have to test it, I know water in Arizona can be hard but I’m not sure of pH.
For the filter I haven’t decided yet either but I definitely want a little overkill, I think the general rule is the filter should be able to process at least 3x the quantity of the tank per hour right? So maybe like a 70-80 gallon per hour filter to be safe? Or would one rated for a 20 be good in combination with lots and lots of plants? That was my original plan.
Haha I did a lotttt of research because of the reputation of bettas. I’m glad someone as experienced as you thinks my choices are a good idea, it gives me more confidence to get started!
That is a great idea for the extra cleanup crew, I was actually thinking of that, but I wasn’t sure if I got some bristlenose plecos or something similar if they would out-compete the shrimp and then all my cleanup crew is starving lol. I guess I could always pop in an algae tab or something for them if they do their job too well 😂
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Hey everyone, I found out about this hobby from a random YouTube video and since then I’ve gotten really interested.
I’ve been doing research for like 2 months now and as soon as my lease is up (don’t want to get a tank going then have to move immediately lol) I’m planning on starting a planted tank. Based on what I’ve seen I would really like a 20 gallon long tank to scape.
I’d love a betta and some smaller tank mates with it like rummy nose tetras and harlequin rasboras and cherry shrimp (for cleanup). I’m just not sure how many I can do of each. Now I know the betta might eat some of the shrimp but after looking into it, it seems like the shrimp should be ok if they’re the first in the tank, are allowed to grow, the betta was in a community tank already at the pet store, the other fish are fed enough and the shrimp have hiding places. So that aside, would 6-7 shrimp, 7-10 tetras, 7-10 rasboras, and a betta be ok in a tank like that? I want a lot of fish and variety but I don’t want to overstock it and make them miserable. Also I know this is a lot for a new person, it’s not going to all be at once but it is my end goal for my first tank. Any thoughts/constructive criticism are welcome and appreciated 🙂
Betta/Shrimp in hard, high PH water?
in General Discussion
Posted
Right you want your vision set up before you end up changing your mind 😂
I did take a few off though lol, especially the stems. Those grow like weeds so I can just trim and replant and it’ll be filled in no time. It’s hard to take it slow when you’re new 😂