10 & 29 Gallons of Utter Chaos!

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Howdy everyone👋

After a lot of learning, planning, executing, learning, plant casualties (oopsies) and more learning, I've decided to start a journal and document the progress of my two tanks. 

The first of which is the 10g Betta Tank. This has been my ultimate learning tank - it's taught me a lot. I still struggle with algae in this tank. Some plants are doing well, others not so much. It isn't terrible, but it isn't as good as I think it could be. May end up doing a complete redo of this tank in the future (mostly to take out the fake rock bc my nerite has totally scraped all the paint off of it LOL) but for now, I'm just doing my best to keep the plants healthy and the fish happy. 

This tank is home to 1 elderly betta named Cosmo (where are my cougar fans at?!) and a nerite snail. Both are living out their golden years in this tank.

The other half to this party (and the reason I've decided to start a journal) is the 29g Community Tank! It's hanging out in our home office upstairs. I'm really excited for this tank and can't wait to watch the plants grow in and the fish grow up. 

I bought some regular ol' petco gravel for this tank and didn't realize it would be this coarse. Oh well... ya live and ya learn. At least I'm enjoying the color of it so far. I just didn't love how the black Eco Complete showed all the mess in my other tank.

Right now there's only 8 cherry barbs and 1 hillstream loach in here. Not exactly sure which variety he is. LFS said he was a "zebra bluefin" but I'm not sure.

I love the cherry barbs already. They're very new and shy right now (hence no pictures of them out and about in the tank) but already lots of fun to feed and watch do their thing.

I don't want to crazy overstock it, but I want to really see the fish and enjoy a lot of action! So the plan for this tank is:

8 (or more) cherry barbs

8-10 cardinal tetras

1 honey gourami OR 1 bolivian ram

6-8 panda corydoras

Possibly 2 more hillstream loaches bc they're tons of fun already!

 

Anyways - there ya have it! I love this hobby and am super stoked to have this new tank open up so many more options!

Let the chaos begin!🐠🌱✨

 

Edited September 23 by EricksonAquatics
formatting + fixed pictures

[Tony s]

Unfortunately, the pictures didn’t translate. 😕 but looking forward to seeing your tanks.

[PonyPlantedTanks]

A water change for the 10g today.

Things are getting better in this tank. The floating plants are the best they’ve ever been.

The dwarf water lettuce is taking over, but there’s also salvinia, pennywort, guppy grass, and a mat of Pearlweed under those DWL roots.

While I was trying to take out some of the guppy grass, I pulled out this absolute monstrosity of a stem:

It ain’t exactly pretty, but the plants are getting there so I’m happy with it. 
 

The 29g has been very fun as of late. The cherry barbs have totally come out of their shells and are now everywhere at all times. I’ve found that they are not afraid of the tweezers. In fact, I think they have zero fear at all.

I’m loving them so far! The males are getting redder every day. Hoping to swing by my LFS to pick up some frozen foods and maybe some cardinal tetras this week if they’ve got them. I’ve been testing water and doing water changes pretty frequently and everything is going smoothly. Despite some brown algae and BGA (🤦🏼‍♀️) the plants are doing their thing. It’s a new tank so I’m not super worried - manual removal for the win, right?!

I’m having a great time with mine, so I hope y’all are loving your tanks too!

[PonyPlantedTanks]

I lost my hillstream loach today 😞

Still trying to figure out what the cause was. Any ideas would be appreciated because I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He/she was acting normal the whole 2 1/2 weeks in my care until this morning - swimming around, munching on the diatom algae on the glass, colored up pretty darkly. I’ve been checking water parameters every day. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and about 10-20 nitrate the whole time. Tank is stable at 77F. The cherry barbs in the same tank are doing wonderfully. The only thing I can think of is I scraped the algae off the glass on the front and the back, but I purposely left the sides untouched so the loach could munch. Did he/she starve? I haven’t bought Repashy or any sinking wafers yet.
This morning it was down on the gravel and had totally changed colors and was super pale. I read that they change colors sometimes to blend in with their surroundings or bc of stress. I do have light substrate so it makes sense. But the poor little thing was gone😢

Edited September 29 by EricksonAquatics

[Whitecloud09]

The tanks look sweet! I vote a honey gourami for the centerpiece!! 

Sorry for your loss. Sometimes we just do not the outcome when we put a fish into our aquariums. I am thinking there was no visual problems with him? Idk, kinda same thing my my pandas maybe, but I mighta gotta bad batch of them like you said @EricksonAquatics. I admire your 10g!!!! Looks ten times better than mine! I need to toss the cave (fake rock, my snail is scraping off the algae and the paint LOL on the cave. Mine needs some more plants and better looking decor. But I am thankful that I am winning the algae battle for now! Your tanks look sick @EricksonAquatics! Well done!

Cannot wait to see the updates to come. 🙂

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Thanks @Whitecloud09! A honey gourami is the plan 😉

Yes, no visual issues with the little hillstream. I wonder if they’re already a sensitive enough species that going from his origin to the store to my tank was just too much. Still so sad!

On 9/30/2024 at 6:05 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

I admire your 10g!!!!

Thanks! It’s getting there. Hoping I can get everything dialed in so the plants can really take off.

[Tony s]

On 9/29/2024 at 12:43 AM, EricksonAquatics said:

He/she was acting normal the whole 2 1/2 weeks in my care

Sorry for your loss

If it was only 2 1/2 weeks, it was probably nothing that you did. Sometimes fish just don't acclimate well to new environments. Just for an example, the big box stores usually give a 1-2 week guarantee. Do you think they would if they thought people would have problems before 2 weeks? even if the fish already had problems, they can usually make 2 weeks.

[PonyPlantedTanks]

I love cherry barbs. That is all.😂

PS - I’ve already seen a few of them spawn!! They’ve only been in this tank 3 weeks! Maybe in the future I’ll have to try raising up the fry!

[Whitecloud09]

On 10/5/2024 at 3:58 PM, PonyPlantedTanks said:

I love cherry barbs. That is all.😂

PS - I’ve already seen a few of them spawn!! They’ve only been in this tank 3 weeks! Maybe in the future I’ll have to try raising up the fry!

So have you ever seen any aggression outta your barbs? I am considering them for my 20g long. There is more fish in there correct? 

 

Ps: I was like, "Who is PonyPlantedTanks"? LOL, since you changed your name, just noticed it now, 😅🙂. I have changed mine many times on 4 different forums, so not saying u cannot lol.

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Haha, yes I changed my name! I’ve been wanting to change it for a while but couldnt decide what to do.

On 10/7/2024 at 4:38 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

So have you ever seen any aggression outta your barbs?

There aren’t any other fish in there right now, so I can’t really say how they’ll do with others. There will be more species in there soon, though😉They didn’t bother the hillstream loach at all, however.

The males definitely do chase each other quite often, but never very aggressively. No fin nipping or physical contact. It’s always pretty short lived. They seem to be lazy little blimps😂

So far they’ve eaten everything I’ve thrown in there, they’re not afraid of the tweezers or my hand AT ALL, and they swim all over the tank (but spend most of their time mainly in the bottom half).

Hope that helps!

[Whitecloud09]

On 10/7/2024 at 8:47 PM, PonyPlantedTanks said:

Haha, yes I changed my name! I’ve been wanting to change it for a while but couldnt decide what to do.

There aren’t any other fish in there right now, so I can’t really say how they’ll do with others. There will be more species in there soon, though😉They didn’t bother the hillstream loach at all, however.

The males definitely do chase each other quite often, but never very aggressively. No fin nipping or physical contact. It’s always pretty short lived. They seem to be lazy little blimps😂

So far they’ve eaten everything I’ve thrown in there, they’re not afraid of the tweezers or my hand AT ALL, and they swim all over the tank (but spend most of their time mainly in the bottom half).

Hope that helps!

I'm glad that they are mostly bottom swimmers. I cannot seem to find a fish that is a schooler, so to speak, that is not of the Cory family. It did help! My plan might just work for my 20g after all. Appreciate it, @PonyPlantedTanks.

[PonyPlantedTanks]

There’s been some new additions to the 29!

First - a honey gourami! YAY!

I am 90% sure it is a female. I can’t say I didn’t want a male because of the better colors😂, but hey, I’m happy to have a honey at all! She was in a tank with a ton of mislabeled thick lipped gouramis and the only true honey - so beggars can’t be choosers. She’s shy right now, but I love how she moves around, inspecting things with her little “feelers”, putting it into reverse, etc. Cool little fish that I’m excited to keep!

And the next addition - one tiny blue mystery snail😂He’s about the size of my pointer finger nail.

Please DON’T look at the algae 👀 but needless to say I think this little guy will have plenty of food to munch on for a while😂

[Whitecloud09]

A HONEY YAY!!!!! Cannot wait to see how he does in the future and my oh my, that snail has a AWESOME color 👀

 

If you can say the name, where did you purchase the honey? A LFS? Or online @PonyPlantedTanks.

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Yes he’s from a LFS. He was labeled as just a Blue Mystery Snail so you shouldn’t have trouble finding one, they come in all the colors of the rainbow! He’s a tiny guy, I have to search for him in my 29😂

[PonyPlantedTanks]

Lots to update!

Current state of the tank. It’s messy, I know - but everyone is doing well and I’m enjoying it. Waiting for plants that aren’t guppy grass to start going wild😂

I went to a local club auction (YAY) and picked up some plants as well as a group of 6 smudge spot corydoras (corydoras similus). Then on the way home I stopped at my LFS since I was in the area and grabbed 8 Cardinal tetras (that I’ve been hunting for a while) and 6 Norman’s Lampeye Killis (kinda impulse buy, but I’d had my eye on them for a minute). I lost 2 Cory’s in the first week but everyone else is fat and happy. They’ve been feasting on magic small fish feed, Repashy and frozen brine shrimp! 
The cardinals add a lot of color and movement to the tank. I was worried they’d be shy but they definitely aren’t.

Algae on the gravel - ARGH!

The Norman’s lampeyes are hard to photograph bc they’re quick and their blue eyebrows don’t show on camera well. 
The cherry barbs are their same old fat blimps doing their thing - I love them to the moon and back!

 

Hope everyone is enjoying their tanks as much as I am, even if jt ain’t pretty just yet!

[MWilk]

Have you considered adding some crypts? There’s a lot of open gravel space at the front there. 

[PonyPlantedTanks]

@MWilk I’ve only got one crypt in there right now and I definitely want more - they’re awesome plants! I did purposely leave the open space as a sort of pathway in between the two pieces of hardscape, but I just transferred a dwarf lily bulb from my other tank to put right in the middle there. Not really fine tuning the “scape” yet because I just want the plants to grow first. And I’m also hoping my dwarf sag will take off and fill that space.