bettatester

@H.K.Luterman, thanks so much for that. It was super helpful! Much to look into and think about.

I need this in my life!

Hello all, I am extremely interested in beginning a local fresh water aquarium club in my area (Nashville, TN). Currently, there is only a Marine club anywhere nearby. However, I have absolutely no idea how I would go about doing this. I also do not even know where to look for resources. Might be way over my head at this point, but I would love to begin researching and gathering info for the future. So if anyone has been a part of a local club and could give me advice/resources, that would be much appreciated! Thanks so much, everyone!

About 5 minutes from my house, and it is amazing. Where are you located?

I dream of fish stores all the time! Glad to know it is not just me. That and having 700 tanks to look after at my own home and getting overwhelmed, haha.

Though I am not a shrimp expert, but I would take her out. My understanding that shrimp (as well as other aquatic critters) are best kept with 3to1 ratios of females to males because the males can be aggressive toward the females when they want to mate. Though again, I do not know this for a fact this is what is happening, many other male animal species will attempt to remove any offspring that are not their own. So he may very well be attempting to remove her current eggs to make his own. Or, he may just be introducing normal mating behavior (cannot say I have ever seen shrimp in the process. However, with so many males to one pregnant female, those are going to be some unhappy males attempting to all get at one female. So I would take her out and change up the ratio with 3 females to every 1 male. This cuts down on aggression in other aquatic species, so my guess is it will here too.

Hello there, My name is Olivia, and I have been keeping bettas for about five years now. For the last few months, I have since move to keeping more species of fish in community tanks. My dream is owning my own fish store, and I am currently a shift supervisor at my local store working my way in that direction. I currently have 3 tanks and wish I had the finances and the room for about 10 more, haha. I have a 29 gallon and a couple fives. May be upgrading both to tens soon. I have a female betta who could not play nice with others in one of the fives (she has an Olive Nirite friend she has managed not to bother, haha.) The other five has 4 Endlers and a couple Red Neon Blue Eyed Rainbows. The 29 has 3 female bettas, 4 male guppies (they actually get along quite well with the girls), 4 neon tetras (had a full school at first, but lost a couple here and there scared to get more.), 5 White Clouds, 3 Panda Corys, 3 Pigmy Corys, 2 nirits, 2 mysteries, 1 rabbit snail, and 2 niacardinia shrimp (started with 10 now we're here) Everyone is happy and healthy, well, except for the ones that have disappeared (I have one very large and exceedingly zeolous Mystery snail that earned himself the name Hoover, haha). I'm super stoked to finally be a member of a dedicated fish community! I'm learning new things about the hobby everyday, and am having a blast keeping and caring for my fish! Thanks everyone, Olivia

I am no expert on peas, but I have done a bit of research having kept one and wanting to keep more in the future. I have kept a single pea before in that size tank, and she seemed to do ok on her own. I did eventually put some pigmy corys in there that she did not bother. She seemed to do better with the corys because she was interested in them. She spent more time moving around and exploring when I had other fish in the tank. I think she just got really bored otherwise. I have ultimately heard both that they hate each other and at best tolerate each other and that they need each other in a shoal. However, my experience was that mine did better with other fish simply because she had more to do. So I lean more toward their being shoaling. That being said, I think some of that depends on the individual fish. I definitely would not keep more than one in a five, and if that is your only option, they will likely do well enough. I think of it like bettas. Again, not an expert, but have kept them for several years. I think they in general do better in community tanks with other fish. They are always far more active and vibrant in my opinion. However, some are just simply too aggressive to be put with other living creatures. Ultimately, it is always a gamble with more aggressive leaning fish; however, done right and if everyone behaves themselves, it seems to me better if they can be kept with others (whether the same species or other species.