# niQ's aquarium journal



## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Hello betta keepers 
I have 2 female veiltail petco babies that have been with me since may 2014.









At first I kept them together in this 10g farm tank.









But the girls eventually did not get along so I moved them out and I am now in the process of creating their own homes. I decided to scape the 10g and made it into a shrimp breeding tank for my red cherry shrimps.









Baby #1lives in Aquatop's 2.11g rimless.









Baby #2 is temporarily living in a 1g jar until I buy a new tank for her (truaqua ran out of stock on the rimless tank). For both babies I do 2 water changes weekly, 50% & 80%. Both have plants but no substrate. I like to keep the bottom bare so I can remove their poo with a dropper when I see it. I decided not to use heaters, do not want to end up cooking them. Temp is 78° in the tanks. Any suggestions are welcome


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Red cherry shrimp tank









2.11g rimless


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

The red cherry tank is beautiful. If you aren't going to keep the girls heated, you'll probably want to find some way to keep their temperature steady and warm. My heater automatically shuts off when target temperature is met, so you can probably use one in a tank that small as long as it is adjustable and has a thermostat...


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx hrutan  I will keep my eye out for a nano sized heater like you described.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I am coveting the moss in your 2.1 gallon tank. Your shrimp tank looks good as well.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx LittleBettaFish


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Decided to post my other tank as well, its a 24g community.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Your tanks are beautiful! I love the shrimp one.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx DaytonBetta


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84 (Jun 29, 2014)

For some reason in the first post, I can't see any of the images. It's showing tiny lil broken page images for me. Could you repost them?


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Sure BambooTikiBettaGirl84, sorry about that.
In the 2nd post I reposted the last 2 pics from the original post. 
Here are the first 2 pics-


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## JelloBetta (Aug 29, 2013)

Spongebob decor, how fun!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

JelloBetta, yup! Especially the pineapple, the girls had loved swimming in there.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Nerite snails that I purchased from petco last week, they live in my shrimp tank.
The last pic is funny, the lil horned nerite is a badass.


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## BambooTikiBettaGirl84 (Jun 29, 2014)

That last pic is funny! It's like the little one is looking down into the big ones shell like "Helllllllllooooooooooooooooooo anyone in there?!?!"

Love all your setups, very jelly of your shrimp tank especially!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx BambooTikiBettaGirl84  haha! So small yet so silly huh


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Ever find yourself talking to your lil fishie friend and they are looking back at you like this with their cute lil fishie eyes haha


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

So my 24g is looking a bit overgrown & ugly. The stem plants look too leggy and their roots look a bit weak. But the tops look healthy. I will have to do a major trimming- toss out the bottom half & replant the tops.
Btw, does anybody else experience this?- my glosso grows vertical. I actually like it that way since its in a kind of tall tank. I figure its probably reaching for the light.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Found 3 baby assasin snails while working on the plant trimming for the 24g. They are so tiny & cute. I placed them in the 10g because I read on a different forum that they will eat limpets (which have started invading my 10g). Temporary home for the baby assasins until they get bigger since I have nerites in that tank too.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Baby assasins totally wiped out the limpet invasion, they are amazing!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Tank updates:
24g was trimmed n replanted. Empty space on left will be for moss rocks. 7 baby assasin snails were found, yay!
10g nice growth, some new plants added from other tanks- anubias nana & dwarf pennywort. 
2g white substrate & flame moss were added. Anubias nana were moved.
1g still looking for new tank.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Oh my goodness....tank #2 is so amazing!


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## chok23 (Aug 13, 2014)

Those are very beautiful tanks!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx hrutan & chok23


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Some of my red cherry shrimps eating a veggie wafer on top of a stem plant in the 10g.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

I love those shrimp!


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## autojoy (Jun 16, 2014)

Beautiful tanks!!!!!! That moss! Incredible


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx autojoy!  moss is a very cool plant & so easy, I luv it.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Trimmed the 24g & 10g yesterday.
Today I tried to get a pic of my 2nd baby girl (still no name) as I let her explore the 10g. She harassed every shrimp & snail (no casualties, no worries). She is back in her 1g jar. I am still waiting for Tru Aqua to restock the 2g rimless tanks, may take up to 3 months they said.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

What's the little thing with the smiley face in your photo?


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Co2 indicator


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## chok23 (Aug 13, 2014)

niQ your tanks are really gorgeous. I would like to have something like that but I'm worried that I won't have enough time to do maintenance. I'm so jealous of your tanks.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx chok23, I am jealous of ur beautiful fishes hehe!


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## chok23 (Aug 13, 2014)

Send me your tank and I'll send you my fishes. LOL. I'm now researching on how to keep a planted tank.. grrr and it looks like I'll have a hard time, my aquariums are just aquariums with water and nothing more. Keeping betta here doesn't require filtration, heater etc. hence, making betta keeping easy.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

U can still keep it simple, I just have moss in my betta tanks. It really depends on the plants. I think if you start off with easy low light plants then work your way up, you will enjoy keeping plants more. Rather than starting with the high tech planted tanks. Things can get quite expensive with those type of tanks. What are the fish stores like in the Phillipines? 
You are willing to trade me all your fishies? Jk


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Horned nerite snail chillin on narrow leaf val with a red cherry shrimp


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## chok23 (Aug 13, 2014)

Ok Thanks for the advice. I'll try to consult first with experts first before I start with planted aquariums. Fish stores here are not good, the bettas are in a very small cup and are usually veil tails. That's why my first set of bettas are all VT, I went to a fish show to purchase the better looking bettas that I will use for breeding. I will send you free bettas if my breeding goes well, wish me luck. ^_^


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Goodluck chok23!


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

niQ said:


> Horned nerite snail chillin on narrow leaf val with a red cherry shrimp


So cute....I love the clithon corona's and have several. They look like lil bumble bees!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

I just have 1 horned nerite, but he is fun to watch. He likes hitching rides on the back of my other nerite. He is the only one that does it. So funny.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Been a while since I posted in my journal. Some sad news- many plants died due to lack of co2 and routine ferts, I became busy with other more important priorities. No details but just wanted to say that I am back on top of things and will have beautiful tanks again soon. Fish, shrimps, and snails are all doing great. Spring is in the air. I see lots of baby assasin snails and red cherry shrimps. My 2 female baby bettas are now about a year old and looking like vibrant young ladies.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

My 24g community tank-


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Red cherries, Assasin snails and Khuli loaches


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Cool picture of the shrimp and loaches!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx DaytonBetta! Those kuhli loaches are my fav fish. They like to hide out during the day. But these guys were hungry enough to come out and eat with everybody else.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

My 2 beautiful baby girls ♡ :cheers:


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

So I finally divided the 10g for my 2 girls. At first they flared but after a few days, they got used to the idea of being neighbors.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

24g: Made moss ledges that the shrimps enjoy. It has really helped to get rid of that messy giant ball of mixed moss I had always kept on the left hehe :doh!: This allowed room to spread out the sunset hygro and ludwigia. Both are beautiful plants.

2g: This used to be the home of betta girl #2 but I decided to give her more swimming room.
Then I added a few pregnant females and some male red cherry shrimps. So far I have spotted 3 baby shrimps in the week they have been in there :welldone::cheers:


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## BettaLover1313 (Apr 15, 2013)

Subscribing!

Your tanks are lovely!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx BettaLover1313!


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## artemis35 (Jul 11, 2014)

Your tanks are beautiful!

Also, it's nice to see a fellow female betta enthusiast.

The females are my favorites (I have 8, all separately housed in 5.5G). They have such great personalities and are so incredible active. It's too bad they generally either get overlooked as "plain & boring" or thrown together in ill-fated sororities.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Emerald rasboras (2 m,1 f) live in my 24g along with 10 exclamation point rasboras, 5 kuhli loaches, assasin snails, amano shrimps and red cherry shrimps.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx artemis35! You have quite a collection, that is wonderful! I think the female bettas are so beautiful but under appreciated like you said. Time to change that! Thx for pointing it out.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Left side 10 g


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Right side 10g


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Searching for baby shrimp is always fun :-D


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Here's a pic of 5 berried females surrounding a male in the 2g tank. I will return the females back to the 24g after all their eggs have hatched to increase the shrimplet survival rate. I suspect the emerald danios may be the ones eating them.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Update: I decided to take some pics since I gave both tanks a trimming. I recently added a black background to all the tanks.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Oh wow!!!! How stunning, I'm always jealous when I scroll through your photos on this thread!

It seems you know about plants, I'd like to ask you a question if you don't mind. I'm in search of some new hardy, (goldfish material) aquatic plants that are bushy and do well in low to med. light. Could you recommend some that won't get shredded to pieces easily?


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx litelboyblu! The hardiest plant I have would be my anubias nana. They have thick leaves and can live in low/med lighting. I have not kept goldfish so I do not know much about the damage they can cause to plants. Goodluck with your goldfish tank!


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

Thank you for your generous advice!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

I had received the half bubble way back when I bought my 1st betta boy, soon after I upgraded him into a 10g. The bubble is perfect for my pothos plant. I cut some stems and added them into my hob. Great plant, has not died which is awesome if you do not have a green thumb like me hahaha!


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Update pic of the 24g, it is starting to fill in now. The moss shelves are growing really well. All fishies are still alive. Shrimps and snails are reproducing steadily.


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## BlueInkFish (Jan 13, 2013)

I love it!!!!!!!!!!!! Im so jealous


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Thx litelboyblu  it takes time to let the tanks grow in.


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