Pancake's Journal: Betta Community Tank

[pancake]

With what looks like success with getting tanks cycled, I have some fish in quarantine now!

I decided to go with a Betta Community Tank (hopefully) in my 45 Gallon cube. For the time being, fish are in 10 gallon quarantine tanks.

 

February 6, 2024 we found Valentino, our red and white plakat Dragonscale Betta. The place we bought him from had him labeled as fit for a community tank and he most certainly seems so!! Very laid back and active compared to a Betta I had in the past. He seems pretty interested in the purple knob of his heater for some reason. He has a couple of real plants in the tank with him and an almond leaf, soon to add a second. Gravel vac and refill of his tank happens about every 2-3 days. Still getting use to feeding. He seems to like Betta pellets best for now rather than flakes or freeze dried foods. He is still willing to pick at the unfamiliar foods but doesn't seem to really like them. It'll take time!

February 9, 2024 we acquired 3 Orange Venezuelan Corydoras Catfish. They seemed healthy to me. 3 was all the place had at the time, so we will have to make a trip back sometime in the future to get more. Thier gills seemed kinda red I thought but the redness have since faded by the next morning (it is February 12 now and redness seems gone). They were about 1-1.5 in when we brought them home. One of them is a little bigger than the other two. They seem active and playful. They have active times and rest times together and apart at different times. There is a couple that like to hang out a little more often together than apart, and sometimes the nuzzle their "noses". We brought them home a little thin, so we are keeping an eye on them, but they all have appetites and energy. They eat all their food. They have duckweed in their 10 gallon tank (separate from Valentino for now) for the time being with gravel vac and water changes about every two days to keep nitrates down and to remove any fallen debris from the duckweed. They have a couple of almond leaves in their tank.

Pics are from the first 24 hours of having them. Corycats seem pretty difficult to photograph since they are so wiggly.

The last pic of Valentino is from February 12, 2024 and with brighter light.

 

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/12/2024 at 9:52 AM, pancake said:

With what looks like success with getting tanks cycled, I have some fish in quarantine now!

I decided to go with a Betta Community Tank (hopefully) in my 45 Gallon cube. For the time being, fish are in 10 gallon quarantine tanks.

 

February 6, 2024 we found Valentino, our red and white plakat Dragonscale Betta. The place we bought him from had him labeled as fit for a community tank and he most certainly seems so!! Very laid back and active compared to a Betta I had in the past. He seems pretty interested in the purple knob of his heater for some reason. He has a couple of real plants in the tank with him and an almond leaf, soon to add a second. Gravel vac and refill of his tank happens about every 2-3 days. Still getting use to feeding. He seems to like Betta pellets best for now rather than flakes or freeze dried foods. He is still willing to pick at the unfamiliar foods but doesn't seem to really like them. It'll take time!

February 9, 2024 we acquired 3 Orange Venezuelan Corydoras Catfish. They seemed healthy to me. 3 was all the place had at the time, so we will have to make a trip back sometime in the future to get more. Thier gills seemed kinda red I thought but the redness have since faded by the next morning (it is February 12 now and redness seems gone). They were about 1-1.5 in when we brought them home. One of them is a little bigger than the other two. They seem active and playful. They have active times and rest times together and apart at different times. There is a couple that like to hang out a little more often together than apart, and sometimes the nuzzle their "noses". We brought them home a little thin, so we are keeping an eye on them, but they all have appetites and energy. They eat all their food. They have duckweed in their 10 gallon tank (separate from Valentino for now) for the time being with gravel vac and water changes about every two days to keep nitrates down and to remove any fallen debris from the duckweed. They have a couple of almond leaves in their tank.

Pics are from the first 24 hours of having them. Corycats seem pretty difficult to photograph since they are so wiggly.

The last pic of Valentino is from February 12, 2024 and with brighter light.

 

Nice tank! Yeah bettas seem to like pellets mor than flakes…keep us posted on everything and hope everything goes well! @pancake

[Crow]

Valentino is such a handsome guy! 

[pancake]

The corycats (3) and Valentino have been moved into the main tank now as everyone seems healthy and fine.

The cats have been schooling together most of the time and seem fearless. I am surprised at how much time they spend in the water column. One of them made a loud squeak after they were placed into the main tank yesterday. I didn't know these could.

Valentino's fins have been growing back and his scales looking better from when he was at the pet store. Everyone has been happily eating and active.

Valentino was moved in earlier than planned as scales have been growing over his eyes. I wanted him in there before going completely blind so he can get use to his floating log in there where he eats from. Hopefully he will eat fine in this tank.

I have a couple of small plants in there for the time being, but we will work on getting more in there. Valentino is so docile, so I think he'll do just fine. He hasn't flared but has ran away a few times. Sometimes he will watch them but most of the time he ignores them.

I plan on picking up 3 kuhli loaches and some snails. I figured that will be a safe tank for Valentino since he will one day not see at all since he is a dragon scale and got the dragon curse. If he misses food, his friends will take care of it.