# New Planted Tank Project (Knockout the Betta)



## AardRinn (Mar 22, 2017)

Hey friendos!

So here's the deal:

I've had fish most of my life, and went to an aquaculture school - so I have a fair bit of experience with them, and having them around is pretty normal. Then, I went to college, and I didn't have fish for a couple of years...

I graduated, and I didn't get new fish. I had cats, I didn't want more pets.

Then a young friend of mine got a betta and asked me to help.

I felt the _urge,_ my friends.

But... I had no money. So suck it, Aard...

Until today. Today, I got a job. And on the way home, I passed a Petsmart (I _knoooooooow._ But the spirit is weak.) I went in, just to look around, and they had some nice mondo grass (I _knoooooooooooooooow._ But my 40 has a bioball filter.) And then they mentioned the Waterbury Aquarium...

The point is, I now have a 10gal set up and planted in my bedroom.

Well... partially planted. I stuck the mondo grass in there because w/e, I'll move it to the bioball filter once I've got something else to hide the filter. I'm looking to add a nice upright jut of ye aulde driftwood, and possibly a flat plinth of sandstone in front of it to give me somewhere to feed over, but I'm pretty happy with the raised section in back... You can't see it very well, but I managed to get ahold of Frogbit and duckweed, so it's going to have some nice cover for my boy once the tank has had a chance to grow out some.









So, what's the plan for this?

I'm still designing it, plant-wise. The one thing I'm 100% on is that I'm gonna do the front half in Microsword, since I'm frigging obsessed with it - I'll probably buy a bag of planter sand to mix in for that. I also want a nice Brazilian Sword in the back corner, or some other sort of tall foliage - I was thinking of an BS with some mid-size, simularly-shaped plants around it and spilling down along the back wall, though it's still very much a design-in-progress. I'd like some Cardinalplants to mix in with the Microsword, and a couple _Anubias_ to round things out maybe... or I might do Aquatic Clover. Opinions would be dearly appreciated!

Fish-wise, I'm pretty set: 6-8 cardinal tetras, a betta (my boy Knockout), and two cories. My sister wants glass cats, but I think it might overfill the tank... If my chemistry is rock-solid after a few weeks with that crew, I might grab three of them, though.

Let me know what you think! I've been out of the game for a while, so I'm a little rusty - still, very happy with how this is shaping up! I figure that if I put 15$ a week in for a while, she'll be pretty excellent in about 5 weeks, about when I'll be ready to put fish in if her chemistry is ace. I could probably add them sooner, but I want to give the Microsword plenty of time to root in...

(Water is cloudy because I seeded her with my dad's (my, technically, but w/e) 40-gal community's biofilter. Should clear in 2-3 days, and I'm hoping the wood tints the water nicely.)


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Welcome to the forum! 


I'm afraid, mondo grass is not truly aquatic. It's more of a terrarium plant, so it will die in the tank. It looks pretty in your tank and Petsmart sells it as aquatic though... :-( 


By the way, congratulation on the new job! Is it also aquatic related?


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## AardRinn (Mar 22, 2017)

@ryry2012

Yeah, I know - that's what I meant. Originally it was gonna get stuck in a bioball filter - it does, like, absurdly well in a semi-submerged environment IMO - but since I had this big ol' empty tank I figured I'd toss it in until I get something better to replace it. Probably a Hygrophila if I can get one - I love them, and it'll add some variety to the general long&spiky vibe I'm going for with this tank.

Nope! Delivery Driver for Panera Bread. Not great pay, but easy work and a good schedule...


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Oh I see. Sorry for my misunderstanding...


I've never tried Hygrophia. I liked stem plants for a while, now I'm into crypts. If you can't find Hygrophia locally, you can always get one from online. Shipping fee is a pain, but if you order some plants, can be cheaper than buying at LFS. At least it is for me. 


You know what. Sometimes easy work and a good schedule with not great pay is much better than stressful work among mean people with great pay. I would say - Good environment is priceless!


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

As a suggestion for stocking, I'd increase your corydoras numbers to six. I personally think glass catfish need more space than a 10 gallon can offer, especially as they are a very gregarious fish and prefer to live in groups.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Welcome to the Forum! :wave:

Agree with LBF: Shoaling fish such as the Cories need a minimum of six to feel secure and exhibit natural behavior. When I had Glass Cats I never kept them in anything smaller than a 20 gallon long or 29 high.


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## AardRinn (Mar 22, 2017)

Yeah, I don't really want glass cats... TBH I think they'll do much better in the 40. My sister's nuts about them though - they are great fish, and they'd match this tank's aesthetic well, but they're not what I'm after.

So I picked up two clumps of Microsword today, moved the mondo grass to the large tank, spent like an hour declumping the microsword, and planted it in. It looks fantastic - hoping it will take to the gravel as well as I know it can.

Next up I'll probably be installing the Brazilian Sword. My FLFS (All Pet's Club) was restocking when I walked in today, so they've got all new inventory - I'll probably swing by on Friday to grab some more plants.

I'd dearly love to find some shrimpies, too... Love the little cherry guys... hm.


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## AardRinn (Mar 22, 2017)

So I'm actually gonna break this post up into two posts! First is three days ago - the second is today!

So, I went and got... significantly more plants. Like... 30$ worth more plants. An amazon sword (looking at it, brazilian would be far to big for the tank) a couple bunches of baby's tears, some macrosword... I'm gonna grab two or three more amazon swords, but after that, this tank will be fully planted out - at that point, the only thing that's gonna help her develop is time.










As far as tank accessories go, I've put in a heater (a preset @ 78*) and got the sponge filter going strong. I've left a clearing in the middle of the tank with no plants - my plan is to aquire a flat stone of some kind, and another piece of driftwood, to set up here. I want the slate flat, so that the cories will have somewhere to hang out - they do alright in denser plantings, but this means that they'll have the most space to move in two places: up on the ledge with the amazon swords, or on this slate.

The driftwood's gonna be a jut - something that the betta can sit on, or the tetras can hide in. I'm gonna look for the perfect piece - it's gonna be the focal point of the tank, a huge spear of dark brown in amongst the lighter plants, so it's gotta be impressive.

I also added six ghost shrimp, who are busily shuffling around. They're good boys. Originally, like I said, I intended to go with CRS - but I was contemplating it, and I felt that with two red sets of fish already - the betta and the cardinal tetras - it would be a little much to have them in. Plus, I'm going for ruby/iridescent reds and blues, and I felt the brick coloring might seem garish... Ghost shrimp are a nice compromise - invertebrate neatness without the obtrusiveness.

I also, as you can tell from above, moved my betta over! I've got some good pics - you can't really see all her color, though. She's gorgeous - great dark boarder on the fins.




























She's been fasting for around a week, maybe a little over, at this point - she wouldn't take in the large 40, the other fish were outswimming her. She ate a couple brine shrimp, but that's about it. I fed her when placed in the transition tupperware to adjust though - she ate with great gusto, and took at everything she was offered aggressively and without prompting.

She's a gorgeous fish - more pics to follow from later in the week.


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Your tank is getting nicer. I tried giant baby tears. They didn't survive in my tank.


That's one pretty fish! 


...Can I tell you something? Your fish is a boy. Unlike humans, only males wear long dresses in the betta world ;-)


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## AardRinn (Mar 22, 2017)

... I know it's a boy, but... guh, I just like calling him she. I call pretty much all animals she by default, so unless I've got compelling reason, like they're being bred, I just... don't even notice I'm doing it. Much like with the mondo grass, I'm aware in the most technical sense but I'm f***ing it up anyways...

Speaking of, the mondo grass is doing very well in my father's filter! And I have more pics of my gal to show off too:



















You can see the iridescence on her scales much better, now, and with god as my witness, these pics are as close to her real colors as I can get - a real deep, rich, indigo blue. Part of it may be the new bulbs, but she's looking fantastic - and slowly gaining back her weight. I was worried about her orienting to food in a tank with surface plantings, but no - she's locked on whenever I toss food in, and she takes as fast and as much as I give her, very aggressively.

I plan to get some pics of her flairing once I've grabbed a mirror - she's got a great open posture, even at rest, but she seems pretty laid back, with no aggression at all towards any of the fish I've seen her interact with, so I haven't even seen her flare once.

Still, she's kind of a curious case... She's got kind of a rosetail-type tail IMO, but I'm no expert at IDing these guys so I could be miles off, especially having never seen her flare. The pet store I got her at (APC) buys decent fish, but they had no idea what she was because she wasn't marked - the guy working there said "f*** it" and coded her out to me at 3$ and change, which I know is substantially less than her real price... They had lots of bettas, but she was (and is) the only one I've ever seen with blue this dark and saturated... The base color under it is almost a charcoal black/grey... And I love the shaded edge to her tail. Almost interesting enough to me to breed, if I were inclined for that sort of thing and could find an absolutely perfect female (great colors and really perfect form...)

But I'm not into breeding atm so oh well. Good fish tho.


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Oops. I'm sorry I thought you genuinely believed it was a girl...


What a great buy! Petco charge $15+ for bettas like this. I paid about $12 for my halfmoon boy at Petsmart.


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## AardRinn (Mar 22, 2017)

Nah, I'm sure there are loads of folks who don't get that at first, so it's always good to point it out! I appreciate the thought always, even if it wasn't needed in this case!

Yeah, she was a steal. At the time, I didn't even have a tank for her... but at that price, I just saw fancy fins and a healthy fish and impulse bought. Wound up having to toss her in my forty for like a week an a half... it's a nice quiet community tank though, so she was happy as a clam, living it up in the fake baby's tear plant we have rigged to the back wall... she made a little lair in there.

It's actually the main reason I got the baby's tears for here - and yeah, as soon as I put her in, she headed right for them and started hanging out in the little opening between the clumps.


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