Betta needs space do I trim or remove Crypts

[MichelleN]

"C.T." and his plants have been in this 6.8 cube for a year now. His Crypts are happy and crowded now. I removed one plant several months ago. Debating is it possible, or more importantly advisable to trim his Crypts (two large, taller variety in back) back or best just to pull more out again. We'd have to hold them outside or in a spare 10 gallon for several more months until we set up our next tank. But C.T. needs a bit more open swim space I'd think. 

Edited June 14, 2022 by MichelleN
Better photo

[Ken Burke]

I’m sure CT loves his crypts.  Lots of places to explore, plenty of leaves to rest on.  But the crypts are a touch leggy.  If you don’t need the plant elsewhere, you could try trimming it back first.

[Odd Duck]

Either works but when you’re trimming, you’re not making room for growth of new plants.  If you’re looking to set up another tank and want to use some of the crypts, then I would pull some.  You’ll get more runners and you can grow out the pulled plants in another tank or tub/tote to have more plants for the new set up.

[QBNOD]

Beautiful tank... I think you might as well remove a few and do a trim on the rest.  It's so nice to have full healthy plants to use elsewhere.

I can't get my plants to grow this nice.  Hard to get a good balance for my light schedule with a Fluval 3.0 Nano plant light in my 6.8gal betta tank without getting an algae bloom.  Same problem on a 14gal pea puffer tank.  My plants just look "blah".  You are definitely doing something right!

[MichelleN]

Thank you. I've been lucky with this tank. It holds its balance pretty well. The LED light that comes on this cube is bright. To keep the Annubias from getting algae on the leaves I taped a piece of white translucent paper/velyum to the light. It softened it nicely. I run the light 8 hours with a Siesta. C.T. is my office buddy. 

[Ken Burke]

On 6/14/2022 at 11:05 PM, MichelleN said:

Thank you. I've been lucky with this tank. It holds its balance pretty well. The LED light that comes on this cube is bright. To keep the Annubias from getting algae on the leaves I taped a piece of white translucent paper/velyum to the light. It softened it nicely. I run the light 8 hours with a Siesta. C.T. is my office buddy. 

Everyone needs an office buddy.  Even if he can’t file

[Torrey]

On 6/14/2022 at 5:52 PM, MichelleN said:

But C.T. needs a bit more open swim space I'd think. 

As my bettas got older, they appreciated more heavily planted tanks for more resting areas (those long fins get heavy), and more microfauna to hunt. I don't know how old C.T. is, most male bettas are sold between 6 to 18 months depending on supplier, and bettas in well planted tanks tend to live longest at 3 to 5 years.