# Charlie Gill and the 45 gallon tank



## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

i bought Charlie Gill on may 12 of this year from petco. he is a red male veiltail. i plan on using this just for anything i want to document. from the time i bought him until yesterday he didn't change much or really do much. he was in a 1 gallon and seemed happy (he swam a little and made huge bubblenests) but very bored. however on day 2 or 3 i noticed his tail fin looked weird. its clear on the end (new growth?) but has one tiny dark spot, about the size of a pinhead. neither the clear or the dark spot has changed at all so i'm not sure if hes just colored that way or if its tail rot but just incase i'm going to change his water daily for ten days and see what happens. but he has gotten bigger since i got him so its probably new growth. i extensively googled pictures of betta tail rot and it really doesn't look like that but i'd rather be safe than sorry. i've tried to take pictures of him using my phone and digital camera but all of them come out blurry or so dark you can't see anything or all white from the flash. i've tried every setting i can think of. 

charlies move to the 45 gallon

its 45 gallons long but right now its only filled just over half way (probably 23 or 24 gallons) i am going to slowly raise the water level over 3 months. i significantly under estimated just how large the tank is and as a result i don't have enough gravel. i didn't have enough decorations at first but i made some out of mesh. i don't have any plants. i also under estimated how much the tank would weigh and as a result its on my floor because i dont have anything that can hold that weight. as i was setting up the tank i think charlie somehow knew because he was excitedly swimming back and forth and watching me. i got everything in and filled the tank and then cupped charlie to float him and he was super pissed. he was thrashing and throwing himself against the sides of the cup. i was scared he was going to kill himself but he calmed down after a couple minutes. i floated him for about 45 minutes. when i took the lid off the cup and released him into the tank, for about 30 seconds he didn't move at all but then quickly started looking around. he stayed in the same area for about 10 minutes and then he realized how long the tank is and really started exploring. about 5 or 10 minutes after that i think he had a panic attack. he started swimming really fast and darting around. that lasted a whole minute. he spent the next 6 hours swimming around so happy, i've never seen him that happy before. he was flaring a bit but also had his fins fully open which made me realize in his small one gallon his fins were always clamped. i just thought he had small fins. i felt so bad putting him to bed i gave him an extra hour because he was just so happy. i was so scared he was going to be stressed and scared and not like it but he LOVES it. he was more curious than anything. i woke up to 2 separate bubble nests, one on each end of his betta hammock thats suctioned cupped to the glass which seems to be by far his favorite part of the new tank. for decorations he has a light house, 2 coconut shells, a cracked bell, an empty glass mason jar on its side a floating water bottle lid, a floating marble, and the suction cup betta hammock. today i added a free floating betta hammock, a mesh tube on the bottom and today i made a vertical tower with holes for him to go in and out of but i haven't put it in yet. i also have another coconut shell but i put it somewhere to clean it and i can't remember where i put it -_- today he wasn't as active as yesterday but i think hes probably tired. hes done more swimmin in less than 48 hours in probably his whole life combined. oh i forgot about the substrate! its probably 2 handfuls of regular aquarium gravel (different shades of brown) a lot of large aquarium rocks, pony beads and some marbles. there are bare patches too. at first i hated it but i really like it now. i think that plus the decorations make it look like a ship wreck, which is pretty cool. i'm getting tired now so tomorrow i will update this with pictures and my long term goals for the tank, because its still missing a lot.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

oh i also forgot to mention charlie headbutted several beads when first getting put in the 45 gallon tank haha! he seemed amused with watching them bounce. he had more strength than i thought. 

long term goals for the 45 gallon tank:
get a turkey baster to suck up poop
get a floating thermometer
get water conditioner
get a heater and filter
get some plants (not sure if live or silk)
get 1 nerite snail
possibly get a ghost shrimp (not sure because i still need to research it)
get a proper tank light
maybe get a hood (right now it has a screen top)
maybe get more gravel/rocks idk i kinda like the scattered look and its easier to see poop
find that coconut shell i lost
maybe get some of those worm things they eat, bloodworms? 

and now on to the pictures! they are in the order i took them, the last of the picture are the large tank but before allof the decorations were in and before charlie was in. and the very last 2 pictures are of my female, harlequin, that died. the first was the day i bought her and the second is about 8 months later. and for anyone reading this, can you tell what harlequin is? i think veiltail but i'm not sure..


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

just to document i did a about a 60-70% water change just now


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

i have more/better pictures of charlie!


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## Fenghuang (Dec 28, 2012)

D'aww. That picture of your bird! 

Charlie is lucky. He is going to be such a spoiled betta. I am excited to see the 45 gallon in its completion.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Welcome! I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Instead of a turkey baster, I would recommend investing in a gravel cleaning siphon. It will do a much better job and make water changes easier. That is really too big of a tank to effectively use a turkey baster.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

Fenghuang said:


> D'aww. That picture of your bird!
> 
> Charlie is lucky. He is going to be such a spoiled betta. I am excited to see the 45 gallon in its completion.


i call it "bird tv" he loves to just sit and watch charlie swim.



DaytonBetta said:


> Welcome! I look forward to hearing about your progress.
> 
> Instead of a turkey baster, I would recommend investing in a gravel cleaning siphon. It will do a much better job and make water changes easier. That is really too big of a tank to effectively use a turkey baster.





SmaugDragon said:


> I second that Dayton. I have two 5.5 gallon tanks and the gravel vac/ syphon changed my life! So easy to clean gunk up, and even better, it drains the water for water changes so fast.
> 
> CharlieGill, I got my gravel vac at petsmart for about $10 and a 5 gallon bucket at Walmart for $3 to syphon the water into. I have a small vac so a large one may cost a few dollars more. Great investment though.


i actually have a gravel vac but the tank is on the floor making a gravel vac useless. for water changes, i just use a cup to scoop the water out and it actually goes really fast. i was pleasantly surprised. i stir the substrate with my and and scoop where i stirred but its still hard to get all the poop which is why i want a turkey baster, just to pick up poop, not drain water. that would take hours haha!


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

i have some bubblenest pictures! the first is in his 1gal and the second is a couple days after being moved to the 45gal. but since the picture he has also started a third bubblenest! busy guy!


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

SmaugDragon said:


> My betta does the same with his floating tube! He is obsessed with building bubble nests on both sides of his tube! So cute CharlieGill


aw cute! i always feel so bad "destroying" the bubblenest when i change the water


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

well today after much searching i finally found a turkey baster and i also bought a fishnet. the turkey baster was surprisingly hard to find, my local grocery didn't have any, seriously! so today i sat on the floor and sucked up all the poop i saw and i also stirred the tank up and caught the debris in the net. OFL recommends a once weekly 50% water change and says the tank should be a little "dirty" but it seemed too dirty to me. i will say it has been at least 10 years since i've had a real fish tank and that point my mom did all the work so maybe i'm just being a clean freak? but after sucking the poop with the turkey baster and catching debris in the net the water seems way cleaner. i'm not due for a water change until friday and will do one on friday. i have not gotten a filter or heater yet because in a month or so i am getting a gift card that can pretty much only be used on that (fish items) so its just smarter for me to wait. the gift card should arrive in one month. i also can't decide on a filter. its narrowed down to 2 the one i really really like and really want hangs on the back of the tank the only problem is i don't have a proper tank hood, its just a sliding screen. so i would have to cover the opening with mesh and then the lid would also slightly hang over. its an aqueon quietflow 30 power filter. i found a tetra whisper in tank filter but for some reason i'm just not as sold on that one..


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

If you choose a hang on back filter, you will need to fill your tank the whole way. I have the Aquaclear 50, it got great reviews and I like it.

You could ask about the tetra filter in the accessories sub-forum.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

DaytonBetta said:


> If you choose a hang on back filter, you will need to fill your tank the whole way. I have the Aquaclear 50, it got great reviews and I like it.
> 
> You could ask about the tetra filter in the accessories sub-forum.


thanks! i have followed your advice and made a thread there!


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

today i did about a 95% water change and i raised the water level slightly. charlie is very happy.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

today i did about a 20-30% water change and raised the level of water.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

i have had charlie for a month now! wow, it seems like i've had him forever! hes getting even bigger. i have more picture to upload but i'm just being lazy about it.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

well last night when i went to put charlie to bed i noticed a sizable chunk missing from his tail, i thought he had bitten it off. it was too late at night for me to do anything about it so a snapped a few picture and then put him to bed intending on dealing with it in the morning. this morning i woke up, went pee and then went to charlies tank and started really assessing the situation. theres no black on his tail so no fin rot (yay!!!) and doesn't look any worse than last night. although last week or the week before he had split his tail. but i also noticed the thread holding his hammock together had literally disintegrated in parts so i don't know if his tail got stuck on the hammock and ripped, or if he bit it. i'm not going to give him any meds (yet) and just want to use clean water to get him all healed up. but doing a 100% water change without a siphon on a 45gal tank everyday is just.... no. so i moved him to his 1gal critter keeper. and moved him back to the window he was originally housed in. i think hes pretty bummed at the less space but i really think he enjoys being next to me all day again. so i have sort of been thinking about getting a 10 or 15gal tank and keeping him there on my window again. but i don't know. i'll see how he is when hes all healed up.


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

the last pictures will be of his bitten/ripped tail


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

well it has been quite some time and quite a bit has changed. charlies tail has completely healed and he is doing better than ever! i got a tetra whisper in tank filter for 10-20gal and i think a 125w heater. i also recently changed his home. he is now in a 10 gal on top of my dresser. i tried to change the title of this thread but i don't have that option anymore because its been too long i guess. the reason for changing tanks was because i was always so scared i was going to accidentally kick it and i almost fell on it twice (i'm quite clumsy) and overall it just wasn't practical. i am extremely happy with his move to on top of my dresser. i love being able to see him from anywhere in my room. i still have to add/change/move some of the decorations in the new tank and i might add some bamboo and i also have to tweak the filter baffle as its entirely too large for this tank. its going to storm all day tomorrow (sunday) so i will be doing that and cleaning my bird cage. i have new pictures of charlie too. some from the old tank and 3 from the new tank. i'll put the 3 from the new tank at the end. alot of the pictures are his crazy bubble nests that he makes. the new 10gal tank didn't come with a lid and the cost of a lid was more than the tank itself so i made my own lid out of plastic mesh. i don't have a picture of that yet. the second to last picture is charlie being introduced tothe new tank and he last picture is charlie peaking out from under the coconut. 

**i've had charlie for about 5 and a half months now and when i first started this thread i made a list of things i hoped to accomplish with this tank, i'm going to go over that list now and italicise what i have and underline what i changed my mind about

long term goals for the 45 gallon tank:
_get a turkey baster to suck up poop_
get a floating thermometer
get water conditioner
_get a heater and filter_
_get some plants (not sure if live or silk)_
get 1 nerite snail** not sure about this
possibly get a ghost shrimp (not sure because i still need to research it)
get a proper tank light
maybe get a hood (right now it has a screen top)
maybe get more gravel/rocks idk i kinda like the scattered look and its easier to see poop **still unsure about
_find that coconut shell i lost_
maybe get some of those worm things they eat, bloodworms? 

so i have accomplished almost everything on the list, yay!


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

i had a pretty long tiring day and i planned on coming home (pretty late) and cleaning charlies tank (for the first time in his 10gal) and then getting in bed. it did not go as planned. probably 70% of charlies tank substrate is acrylic pony beads. charlie really enjoyed pushing them around. i sort of thought they would work well with a gravel vac but i was so tired i forgot about it. until 30 seconds into vacuuming the pony beads clogged the vac. this happened 2 more times before i had to admit defeat and resort to removing the entire substrate and sorting rocks from beads. charlie now has rocks only. after that it went smoothly. i have a before picture but i forgot to take an after picture. recently i have also been heavily considering getting a second betta (with a second tank ect).


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

i haven't had much time for the internet lately so i have very much neglected my account on here. so some updates - for christmas i got 4 new silk plants, water conditioner and a piece of mopani driftwood. oh i also finally got a thermometer so i can constantly monitor the temp. i have some picture for before and after the new additions but the after pictures really aren't that good.i am going to take better pictures tomorrow. charlie hasn't changed much, hes doing great but still has occasional tail issues. he was pretty lethargic for a while but i raised the temp to 80 degrees and that seemed to help the problem 70% so i have started to fear hes just slowing down from old age. i hope that doesn't mean he is going to die soon (like from old age). maybe i should put the temp up to 81? i don't know. i suppose i will think about that. oh i almost forgot to say i bought the mopani hoping to turn my tank into a black water tank, but i soaked the wood for a couple days in a bucket and the water color didn't change AT ALL, so i put it in the tank today and kept an eye on it for about 3 hours but so far the tank water hasn't changed either. maybe i will wake up to a surprise in the morning. i hope so i think black water tanks look so cool. if it doesn't end up changing the water color at all i am thinking about doing it with tea, but i haven't researched that sufficiently so i don't know. 

btw i'm pretty sure i've gotten everything on my list of goals for my fish tank, so yay!


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

here is the current status of my tank


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## charliegill110 (May 19, 2014)

charlie after a water change


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