Greenhorn stocking query.

[RedPots]

Greetings with gratitude. 
Steven here in Colorado. 

I’ve been keeping (a) fish for about 7 months now and greedily soaking up advice and information from this wonderful forum for almost as long. 

One five gallon betta tank quickly became an ecosystem of the betta, a two gallon snail tank ( ramshorn & bladders ) an aquarium water 5 gallon bucket with air stone and most recently a 14 gallon cube (1/2 price) which began with seasoned water, seasoned sponge filter and some established plants ( Val, Java Fern, Pennywort ).  Substrate was a new batch of Fluval Stratum ( also 1/2 price ) and I doubled up with a fresh small CoOp sponge filter.

My delightful Significant Other has had quite enough with my early stages of multiple tank syndrome - so these are the tanks I have to work with.

So - I went big ( too big ? ) on my 1st Aqua Huna order :

10 ember tetras

10 black neon tetras

8 blue velvet nc shrimps

4 nerite snails

added to already existing 

Male Dumbo 1/2 Moon Betta ( his name is Harriet )

nocturnal nerite ( called Dark Helmet )

Ramshorns, Bladders and Malaysian Trumpets 

water Parameters for both tanks :

CoOp test strips

Cl2 - 0

PH - 7.2

KH - 80

Gh - 300+ 🤷🏽

NO2 - 0

NO3 - 15 in 5 gallon , 25 in 14 cube

Aqua Huna fish came in satisfactory excepting the Black Neons. Three DOA , 5 more didn’t make the 1st week. And one empty nerite shell.

So -

14 gallon cube houses :

Harriet ( male Betta )

2 nerite

2 black neons

ramshorns, bladders, trumpets

and a Hydra bloom

5 gallon houses :

11 (!) Ember Tetras

8 Blue Velvet

2 nerite

ramshorns, bladders, trumpets

Which means I have two healthy tanks🤞🏽one which is under stocked and one may be over stocked.

So far so good in the 14 gallon with Betta and 2 Neons.

Embers and Shrimps are stoked in the 5.  At least 1 shrimp is berried and 2 more saddled. 
 

My query is this :

do I add the Embers to the 14 and go shrimp only in the 5 ?

only concern is stress level on the Betta.

I could split the embers 6 & 5

ditch the SO and start a few more tanks 🥹

keep things status quo for a couple months ( boring).

Trips to LFS have me eyeing a single Venezuelan Cory living with Angels or a few Otos. 
Either would probably like a more seasoned tank than the 14 is at present. But I Can be Patient…

So BIG THANKS for all the help I’ve gleaned from lurking and thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Very Happy to have found such a wise and generous community.

Yours in Gratitude,

steven. 

[Fish Folk]

On 6/27/2023 at 12:23 PM, RedPots said:

do I add the Embers to the 14 and go shrimp only in the 5 ?

I’d try this.

[jasper5150]

I agree with @Fish Folk.  Thee tetras will do better in a larger school.

[RedPots]

Thanks for the thoughts. @jasper5150& @Fish Folk
Funnily I’d miss the Embers in the 5gallon in front of me. Even if they were in the 14 behind me. 30 years an artist brings me deep colour satisfaction to watch the blue shrimps vibrate with the orange tetras. 
so my today question is - are 11 tetras and 🤞🏽dozens of shrimp going to overwhelm 5 gallons of increasingly forested water sometime soon ?
tank health seems more vital than ever and the water has been Good…

10% changes 1/week & mid week top off.

in which case - i’m thinking on a nice sized shoal of CPD’s in the 14 cube. 
Aqua Huna would send 8 or 16.

I’m going to think on it 

Any real world experience with Aqua Huna Celestial Pearl Danios would be gratefully received. i know they’ll be smallsmallsmall and blonde - but i like that kind of thing. 
my plan would be to ‘time out’ the Betta in the large acrylic hatchery i grabbed as insurance for previous switcharoo (within the 14gallon) , rework enough of the waterscape to reset Harriet’s territory habits , add the CPD’s , reintroduce the Betta , trust but verify. 
certainly do not want to feed Harriet a bottomless trout buffet , but he’s not like that 🙏🏽.

thinking out loud here.

guess i should start a journal. 

stoked to join all y’all. 

✌🏽🐟💩🪴

#cpd #betta

[redfish]

Welcome.  Beautiful tanks!

[RedPots]

RedPots & Harriet Journal

thank you @redfish . 
nice name. 🙃

[Lennie]

On 6/27/2023 at 7:23 PM, RedPots said:

Love this guy 🥰😍

[RedPots]

On 7/1/2023 at 1:26 PM, Lennie said:

Love this guy 🥰😍

Thanks @Lennie 

i feel like he is Dr. Frankenstein & i’m the monster.