SpacedCadette

I keep the tank at 77 and so far it’s been working out. Lots of plump, happy, active cories and same for the betta! I briefly entertained the idea of bringing home a ram, but yes! That warmer temp makes it a no go for the community tank- just got me thinking about getting another one set up. 😆 @anewbie @Scapexghost thank you both for taking the time to take a look and share thoughts! Definitely feeling reassured about my current tank and its residents. ☺️

I feel like I’m terrible at judging how much I can stock a tank. Even with the calculators online— for some reason my brain just doesn’t want to work with the inputs and outputs. Something about the math involved makes me. 🤢 So I’m just looking for a gut check from the much more experienced folks on the forum! My tank: 40 gallon breeder, water parameters are consistently stable, really only need to do a 25% water change maybe once every two weeks to clear some of the debris from the bottom gravel. Decently planted with lots of hiding spots and coverage. My community: 1 male Plakat betta, 1 female bristle nose pleco, 1 panda garra, 2 honey gourami (male + female), 10 panda cory, 9 Rasbora hets, 6 green neon tetra, 4 amano shrimp, 3 assassin snails. When I list it all out it seems like a lot, but my experience with my tank being reliably stable makes me feel like it might be fine? The tank doesn’t “look” cramped and there are no issues with aggression. The betta may chase a rasbora here and there but otherwise everyone gets along and interact really well with one another Maybe I’m overthinking it! Just want to make sure I’m providing my little buddies with a healthy environment. Im sure this question has nothing to do with the beautiful gold rams I saw at the co-op yesterday 😅

Picked this handsome boy up from the Co-op today.

Photos from today:

Hi folks! I was asked to document how I mounted my light in this thread. Nothing too crazy really. It was just a matter of figuring out what existing parts I could order that would work well enough together with a bit of fiddling. So, this isn’t a perfect solution but it works better for me than resting the light on the lid like I was before. I upgraded my main tank from a 20 gallon long to a 40 gallon and really didn’t want to buy the 36in Fluval if I didn’t have to since I already had the 24 inch and it was working just fine for my setup aside from the fact that I couldn’t rest it on the tank rim. The pieces I used: Fluval Marine & Plant 3.0 LED Mounting Clips Current Dual Adjustable Aquarium Light Arm Mount Kit Total cost: about $80. So, it’s not a cheap solution but it’s cheaper than buying a new light. My tank: Aqueon 40 gallon breeder 24in Fluval 3.0 First, I swapped the clips that came with the mount for the Fluval mounting clips. I unscrewed the nut and bolt from the Current clips and used them to attach the Fluval ones to the mount arms instead. It’s not perfect— the screw doesn’t get as snug as I’d like but it’s still pretty secure. I’m not worried about it going anywhere or jostling around. Next up was attaching the smallest of the two tank rim brackets provided in the kit to the mount arms. My tank has a plastic lip on it so once I attached the brackets to the arms and placed them approximately where I wanted them, I used the spacers provided in the kit to get the bracket as even as I could against the inside of the tank. There was still too big a gap between the arm bracket and the tank which meant the arms would be tip forward. To resolve this, I then padded out the remaining gap with air tubing that I wedged back between the spacer and the tank glass to get rid of the remaining gap and make sure the arms were tight and secure. Tighten bracket screws, clip the light in, and presto! Fluval light mounted! I also went ahead and cut the plastic part of my tank lid to make room for the brackets so the lid would still be flush with the back of the tank. Hope this was helpful! I didn’t take any process pictures because I wasn’t sure this was going to work. 😅

Will do!

Well shoot… that would explain why she’s not been responding to treatment. I read up on it a bit and sounds like it’s eventually fatal as well… damn. Poor girl… I’ll give her a couple more days on this last treatment and see. But it sounds like the kindest thing might be to say goodbye…

We’re on day 5 of the jungle fungus and KanaPlex regimen. I wish I had a more positive update. Things are continuing to progress downward. I’ve noticed a lump starting to form on her tail. It looks like her spine is starting to curve as well? I can’t tell if my mind is playing tricks on me or not. Her appetite and energy are still decent though her mobility is starting to suffer a bit. Her poop was a little pale today but I’ve seen her have a couple normal ones as well. More pictures included below. I think the thing that has me down is that it doesn’t seem like she’s ever really started to improve… she’s just been slowly trending downward. It’s so bizarre though that it hasn’t really affected her energy or appetite. Almost makes it even more puzzling.

@Guppysnailthanks for the info! I’m in WA state so I’ll give contacting them through the website a shot. Hopefully they can point me towards a retailer. Appreciate the help!

If you don’t mind me asking, where did you purchase your Seapora tank? I’m having a heck of a time finding one. I really like the dimensions of their standard 30 gallon.

Today was bottom dwellers day for feeding. I always love watching all the cories pour out of their Clubhouse. Roman supervises and Bruce is obnoxious as always. Highlights: - Bruce’s poor attempt at being stealthy with his approach over the rock on the left. - Bea flailing at Roman https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cd6ZnbwD9bF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Some fun nighttime shots of Roman and Bea. ♥️

Aw thank you! The Pennywort has been going through a bit of a melt the last couple of days, but think it’s starting to stabilize again thanks to lots of advice from folks here. ☺️

I haven’t had a hillstream loach but I do currently have a panda garra. While I can’t say he’s the worlds best algae eater, I can easily say that he’s one of the most active fish in my community tank. He’s always out and about. Mooching on the glass and flopping around. He’s like a little torpedo bouncing around the tank. He’s definitely the class clown in my tank. Such a goofy doofus.

Just doing a photo dump of some other pictures from this week. Sweet Peach cleaning the front of the Cory Clubhouse. Roman photobombing as usual. 🙃 Bruce lounging. Roman snoozing on some of the floating plants. Hannibal cruising around.

I’ll finish out this round of treatment and hope she starts to improve since she’s still active and eating. If I see any further reduction in her activity or appetite I will very seriously consider humane euthanasia. Thank you again for all your guidance, @Colu♥️

Update Lemon’s condition continues to worsen. Her appetite is still good and she still has energy, but she just looks totally torn apart. I’ve noticed her movement is becoming awkward as well but she’s still moving around the tank to eat and inspect things. She’s still engaging with me when I approach the tank, but I can’t get over how awful she looks… She’s on her second round of Jungle Fungus Clear Fizz and KanaPlex right now. I just feel so bad for her. Am I doing the right thing by continuing to try and treat her? Her activity and engagement level is the only thing that keeps me trying. Ive included some video and photos of her as of a couple of minutes ago. video: https://imgur.com/Ak1zT2m

Added an air stone to the tank as an experiment to see how the fish felt about it. Bruce loves it. I wish I got better video of him zipping back and forth through it after he first discovered it. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CdzH7IGDeF1/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Bea was being very judgmental about the whole thing. 👁n👁

A secret meeting was held outside the Cory Clubhouse late last night.

In order of appearance: Roman 👹 - Plakat Betta The boy that got it all going. I lucked out big time with this guy. He's incredibly mellow and easy going. He's just interested in prowling his kingdom and jumping at fingers for food. Super curious guy, loves attention. Total camera hog. Definitely the tank boss. Team Tetra - Green Neon Tetras There's 6 of these goobers right now. I'm pretty sure they all share the same brain cell. A little dumb, but very pretty. Impossible to photograph. Cory Gang - Panda Corydoras There are 10 of these lovely beings in the tank right now. They sleep in cuddle piles under the driftwood (the "Cory Clubhouse") when they aren't hoovering along the bottom of the tank, wagging their little tails in the air. Shy, but playful. Unproblematic cuties. The Boys - Harlequin Rasboras Currently a group of 9. Rowdy. Seem to cause problems on purpose. There's a high probability of there being a couple ladies in this group, but they have teenage boy vibes. Peach 🍑 - Super Red Bristlenose Pleco Total sweetheart. Can do no wrong. Hardest working being in the tank. Small right now, but will eventually be the biggest fish in the tank when she is full grown. We love her. Shramps - Amano Shrimp 3 live in the tank right now. Good at cleaning algae, terrible manners at dinner time. They are constantly stealing entire waffers from the other fish for themselves. Weird me out a bit. Too many legs. Hang upside down on the floating plants. Bruce 🌪 - Panda Garra Chaos incarnate. Hangs with the cories a lot. Big, clumbsy doofus. Himbo energy. Bea 🐝 and Lemon 🍋 - Female Sunset Honey Gourami Little sweeties. Bea is the more shy of the two. Lemon has a dorsal fin deformity but is pretty out going. Lots of slap fights. Must touch everything. Hannibal, Clarice, and Third Wheel - Assassin Snails Hannibal was the first. I then introduced two more. He and Clarice immediately started mating, leaving the third snail out in the cold. Hence their names...

Felt like I was posting a lot on a bunch of threads about my tank so figured I'd start a journal! I started my first tank back in December last year. It was something I had been thinking of doing for a while, but didn't feel like I had the space to grow it out until we moved into our current place late last year. Anyways! Skip forward a few months and I've now got a 40 gallon breeder tank that houses my community! I'm definitely still feeling out what I like in a tank so it's already gone through a couple of iterations. I've struggled the most with keeping plants. For whatever reason, that hasn't come to me as easily as I was hoping. And I've definitely gone through my share of newbie mistakes like overfeeding. I'm in the process of managing the amount of tiny snails that are currently crawling all over things by dialing down my feeding regimen. Anyways! Figured I could condense most of my nonsense into one location. I'll do a roll call of all the little buddies in the tank in my next post!

Same! My boy is super easy going and peacefully shares the 40g breeder with two honey gourami. Its a lot of fun watching them all interact together. Especially when the HG rub their little feeler fins all over the male bettas face. Honey gourami: 🥰👋 Betta: 😑 Anyways, all this to just say that the right betta can be a great little community member that adds a lot of entertainment to the tank. 🙂 Please do! Would love to see your new pal if you decide to go through with it!

Roman’s Pennywort hammock looks pretty cozy.

If the shrimp are big enough, it shouldn’t be an issue. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen my betta even acknowledge their existence, lol. Though mine are Amano so they’re fairly large now, but I know lots of folks that have kept cherry shrimp with a betta. Honestly, if it were me in your same scenario I’d totally give it a go. Especially with a female betta since they have an easier temperament (like you mentioned). Just have a 5-10 gallon tank on hand in case it doesn’t work out. Though it sounds like it should be fine. Maybe add a few more plants or something for additional coverage if your tank is not already heavily planted. There’s other folks here that know way more than I do, but I would think you’d be ok to introduce a female betta to this particular community. In regards to feeding— I would see if you can condition your tetra to associate their meals with a certain side of the tank. At least that’s what has worked for me. My Rasbora are feisty and are much faster than my betta so they can easily snap food from him— but I always feed them on the left side of the tank and the betta on the right. Seems to work well. Occasionally a Rasbora or two will wise up and snag a bite from the betta, but because bettas are so social it’s relatively easy to condition them to come up and take food directly from you so other tank members can’t steal it.

It really depends on the betta’s personality. I have my male Plakat in my community tank and he’s totally chill. I tested things slowly with him and built up to including him in the community tank. You’ll also need to be super selective about which fish you pair the betta with. Peaceful bottom dwellers are usually a safe bet. The fish you mentioned don’t send up any red flags to me. The otos and the betta may occasionally occupy the same spaces so that could cause a confrontation— it’s worth keeping a close eye on things for a while in the beginning. Just be prepared to separate the betta if it doesn’t work out. As for feeding, I just bait any competing fish to one side of the tank and hand feed my betta. He comes right up to the surface so I can place food right in front of his face or let him jump up and grab it from me.