# New betta sorority



## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

I upgraded my sorority to my 48g and re-homed my cichlids. I really enjoyed my cichlids but they needed more room plus the varied diet I gave them was getting a little expensive when added with the fresh foods I need to provide for Rosie. They all went to large well cared for aquariums. 

So on to the sorority. 

I was going to make it a soil based NPT but decided I don't have nearly enough live plants so instead I decided to try pond potting media. I'm not sure how much it will effect the plants, but it will be interesting. I plan to continue using root tabs. For some reason my tiger lotus fell apart when I very carefully uprooted it. I have been finding lots of little tiger lotus's floating around but I didn't expect it to have separated into like 5 plants. Weird. I really hope the lotus grows well, it's all so scrawny right now because I planted them on each side of the aquarium. I also might get a few more plants, such as a java fern and some low light plants. 

My Blue gourami who I've had for a little over a year is now highly aggressive in this new aquarium, he was attacking everyone and I had to move him into a large heated bin. I'm not sure if I will be able to keep him because of the aggression.If you're in the bay area and would like to adopt him PM me. 

So currently in the aquarium I have my female bettas, a young guppy or molly in the breeder in the back, 4 ghost shrimp, albino bristle nose, 6 red eye tetra. A week before the move my African butterfly went MIA, I have no idea where he went! I looked all around the aquarium downstairs and I can't seem to find him anywhere and he shouldn't of even been able to get out. I though about getting another but the 48 has some open back sections I want to close first. 









I wanted a group of schooling fish for this aquarium. I went by Dolphin Pet Village in Campbell and really liked the red eye tetras and black neon tetras. Unfortunately the black neons had been new and two showed some minor ick that I didn't want to introduce to my tank, so I went with the red eye tetra. The red eye tetra get a about a inch larger then the black neons and can grow to 3". They are also hardy and when they receive good care have been known to live close to 10 years old. They can also be a little nippy, but tend to nip each other more then other fish. 

I got 6


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

I love the tank and the fish. It looks awesome!


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

I prefer red eyes to black neons. You think they are such boring fish at first, then you catch sight of that red eye and WOW. 

Your tank looks absolutely stunning.  I want that lotus.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

I totally agree. There red eyes are dimmed when kept in most unprefferable habitats such as pet store tanks so they are oftenly over looked, but when kept in ideal conditions, they are magnificent


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

Now that I have them I really love them, they are fun to watch now that they've really settled in. At first they schooled very tightly and if one or two fell behind they rushed back, but instead they now break off to randomly explore.

Luckily this store takes excellent care of their fish so and they totally caught my eye. I've looked at them at other stores now that I have them and they aren't as impressive 

@Bombalurina
I got them as waterlily bulbs from petco, in the 17g it looked so awesome and was a insanely fast growing plant, I just added root tabs so I'm hoping they start to grow really well.


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## Thunderloon (Feb 6, 2011)

Adding in a few pristella/gold pristella can confuse the redeye up even more. Pristella tend to be formation-shoalers and often try to assert rank over other fish. They batter instead of nipping in my experience. Have had no problems with girls around any of my caracidae.

As color additives to the tank I could advise one or two MALE mollies but don't add females, the live-born fry are somewhat toxic to greedy betta. The male mollies I've kept have been playful and very physically communicative to the rest of the tank mates. My oldest, Buck, plays at being a male guppy, a pristella, a girl betta and has even spent time trying out being a chinese algae eater! Very fun to watch and they're aware of pecking order. You do occasionally have to feed them directly and when they get sick you have to put them in a breeder or isolation so they can get enough food - they're not as adept at scavenging as girl Betta.


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

Thunderloon said:


> Adding in a few pristella/gold pristella can confuse the redeye up even more. Pristella tend to be formation-shoalers and often try to assert rank over other fish. They batter instead of nipping in my experience. Have had no problems with girls around any of my caracidae.
> 
> As color additives to the tank I could advise one or two MALE mollies but don't add females, the live-born fry are somewhat toxic to greedy betta. The male mollies I've kept have been playful and very physically communicative to the rest of the tank mates. My oldest, Buck, plays at being a male guppy, a pristella, a girl betta and has even spent time trying out being a chinese algae eater! Very fun to watch and they're aware of pecking order. You do occasionally have to feed them directly and when they get sick you have to put them in a breeder or isolation so they can get enough food - they're not as adept at scavenging as girl Betta.


I saw some pretty male guppies the other day that I thought about getting, not mollies though. I have a hate relationship with mollies XD I find they have little character and stress out the fish in the tank by trying to mate with them. 

The Red eye tetra grow to 3" so I need to make sure they have room to grow


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## NoahG (Oct 24, 2011)

_Love_ that tank! Especially the driftwood and the anubias: just about the first two things to catch my eye.

Do you have a larger version that you could link to? Unfortunately my laptop, which I could open images in a new tab on, is out of commission at the moment (hoping it's just the charging cord and nothing to do with the computer) and I haven't figured it out yet on this PC desktop...


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

NoahG said:


> _Love_ that tank! Especially the driftwood and the anubias: just about the first two things to catch my eye.
> 
> 
> Do you have a larger version that you could link to? Unfortunately my laptop, which I could open images in a new tab on, is out of commission at the moment (hoping it's just the charging cord and nothing to do with the computer) and I haven't figured it out yet on this PC desktop...


I love those parts too 
I just posted it on my Deviantart, if that image isn't big enough on the top right click the download image button and it will take you to the full sized image in a separate window 

http://copperarabian.deviantart.com/art/another-sorority-update-297635763


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## NoahG (Oct 24, 2011)

Thank you  Also: _very_ nice!

I like the fish that are sort of facing the camera, but not straight on, haha.

I'm curious, what all do you have in there plant-wise? If I'm not mistaken there's anubias and the tiger lotus (of course), some swords, and...? One looks a touch like water wisteria, but I'm not positive if I can identify that because the wisteria we sell at work isn't actually _water_ wisteria (regardless of assurances that it is: it looks nothing like it).


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## jaela (Feb 22, 2012)

So beautiful! I love that driftwood as the central piece, it's such a beautiful shape. *-*


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## Thunderloon (Feb 6, 2011)

Male guppies come with female guppies or they'll terrorize the female betta.
Generally one more girl guppy than boys. I've never had the girls be bothered by Buck the molly.


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

NoahG said:


> Thank you  Also: _very_ nice!
> 
> I like the fish that are sort of facing the camera, but not straight on, haha.
> 
> I'm curious, what all do you have in there plant-wise? If I'm not mistaken there's anubias and the tiger lotus (of course), some swords, and...? One looks a touch like water wisteria, but I'm not positive if I can identify that because the wisteria we sell at work isn't actually _water_ wisteria (regardless of assurances that it is: it looks nothing like it).


You have it all right so far, A few I think might be small amazon swords but I'm not sure yet and there are also 2 java moss but they aren't doing well. 



> *jaela *
> So beautiful! I love that driftwood as the central piece, it's such a beautiful shape. *-*


I love that drift wood so much  It was only like $15 from the reptile section at petsmart, I bought it about half a year ago and put it through the sanitation cycle in the dishwasher(no soap of course).

After I sanitized it I used a dull knife to dig out any soft wood. When I was setting the tank back up I scraped off any parts that were getting soft again and made some of the holes bigger so my suicidal girls wouldn't get stuck.


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## NoahG (Oct 24, 2011)

Sweet  I wish I knew of a place to get some java moss around here...I wonder if an LF/LPS would be able to order some...

Another question I forgot to ask: is there only one piece of driftwood in there? Or is that a second piece off to the right side of the pic?


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

I returned the flora light to petsmart and brought home a full spectrum daylight light. I had another bulb under my tank(I took it out for the flora light) and it's also full spectrum, but it's made in china and the new light is made in Germany. I noticed immediately that the two lights are very different, the one from china is pinkish while the German light is more like bright sunlight.

first the full spectrum light, then below I'll post the flora light so they you can see the difference. I like this new light so much better, now I can actually tell my aquarium light is on when my room is bright during the day. Also the flora reminded me of a coral reed light. I'm also thinking about getting another piece of driftwood because the left side looks petty barren. Another thing I need to do is get my Anubias in the shade.


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## angelus2402004 (Jan 5, 2010)

did you say that you used Pond root tabs? If so, what kind and how have they been working?


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

I'm using the type pictured below. They're really big so I cut them into smaller pieces so there the size of the root tabs your buy for aquariums. 
My tanks a low light tank so I had to remove all the high light plants, too many tannins in the water lol My anubias to very good and grow fast(one even got a flower) and my crypt is doing pretty good. I also have a Lilly that grows very quickly. 

Here's a photo of my tank, compare how much bigger the anubias to the right is. 










Root tabs


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## angelus2402004 (Jan 5, 2010)

cool thanks for the info


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