StephanieBell

thanks

Thanks Hachi. That's exactly what I needed to know and sounds perfect Also, I misinformed everyone. The tank is 60 litres, yay!

Thanks guys! The corydoras hastatus look cute. From what I've read they need to be kept in groups. What would be the minmum number to keep them happy? Also would it be possible to keep a small group of rummynoses with the corys too? (Maybe not while I have my betta girls in there - that's probably too many fish for a smallish tank). Think the tank is a bit wider than 40cm, maybe 50-60cms wide and I think it's a little over 40 litres.

I love the look of the serpeas but I've read that they can be nippy and agressive. What about rummynoses? That's what I would get if I didn't have the 2 betta girls in there. Would the be ok with them? Steph

So I've had a sorority for a while now. One of my girls died a few months ago, leaving me with 3 and today I've had another girl die leaving just 2 in the tank together. I've had them for a couple of years now so I think they're in their senior years. They seem to be very peaceful with each other so far (they have all always been very peaceful) but I know they shouldn't really be left alone in there together. I don't think I'll be keeping bettas anymore, I've enjoyed it, but it's just too much work cleaning and mantaining all the individual tanks (I have boys too). It's becoming annoying and not fun. So when my current fish babies pass away, I would like to just have my 40 litre tank (current sorority - if you can still call it that) with something different. Just some little tetras or something really basic. The issue is what do I do for now? Can I add another kind of fish (like the tetras) to my sorority and will that keep the girls from bullying each other? Are they ok to leave alone in there just as a pair? I have two smaller tanks that I could use but I really want to avoid it, as I don't want to rip all the plants out of the 40 litre and I can't handle 2 more tanks to look after on top of what I already have.

Welcome!! Lots of Betta lovers here :)

Wow, 60+ tanks and you've been keeping fish for over 15 years! I'm sure you have some useful information to share with all of us!

Shrimp and Bettas together are considered a bad idea by most people you ask. It's pretty likely that a Betta would eat the shrimp. I looked into this before.

I don't know about favourite plants for aquascaping, but here are the plants that I don't kill: Anubias Java Fern (does best when I neglect the tank) Ambulia Some Kind of Crypt

Hello & welcome! It's a great site! I don't know what I would do without it.

I watch it all day (it's in my home office) and it gets some afternoon light on one side of the tank for a couple of hours. It's not opposite the window, it's next to it. But it is a very bright room! I add a few pinches of coral sand in the corner of the tank to help keep the PH stable and when I see it getting dissolved away I add a bit more. Plain fine gravel. Plants are doing really well but the algae is doing just as well. I only have 4 girls in a 3ft tank at the moment so I wouldn't say that there would be too much nutrients from the fish, but in saying that I don't have that many plants and they are all pretty slow growing. I have a big java fern that is about 1 1/2 years old, doing really well and probably about 6 or 7 baby java ferns that came from that plant I guess. I also have Ambulia, maybe 12 - 15 peices and a couple of other other stem plants that I killed most of (don't know what they are, got them from subscape). I do a water change every 2 weeks, about 30%. Probably should do less water more often, but you know how it gets! Do you think I should try increasing light and adding the ferts again at the same time?

Thanks guys. In all honesty I know very little about fish species other than bettas! KatuwaToy, I researched a bit about Otos - that's a type of catfish right? I read that they are pretty small which would be good. Razzi, I can't seem to get the balance right. Tried adding ferts (Flourish) and didn't make a difference. I've reduced time with the light on to only 5hrs a day, not sure if that made it better or worse. Perhaps the problem is that that tank is in a room the only has day blinds, so it lets daylight in from dawn to dusk. When I clean the tank I can never get rid of all of it. I end up with clumps of it settling on the bottom a few hours after vacuuming it up. Then I vacuum that and it just disperses throughout the water and I end up with the same result! Might still give them cherries a go and see what happens. The main issue is the algae in the fine hairs of the ambulia, which I assume will be ignored by most fish.

So, I'm moving my sorority girls to individual tanks and I'm considering keeping their 3ft sorority to use a a community tank (although I was meant to be downsizing). I have algae issues in this tank so want to try and make it more self cleaning (in regards to algae - I'm still going to change the water, obviously). I don't want to keep too many different species. Less is more... This is what I was thinking: Cherry Shrimp (to clean the algae off of the plants, particularly the Ambulia) Some kind of little shoaling fish (maybe 2 or 3 compatible varieties of Tetras) What I need is something to clean the algae off of the glass (there's not too much - it's mainly on the plants). Nothing big and no snails as my water is pretty acidic. Suggestions? Also do you think the Cherries will be ok with some little Tetras?

Hey Wendy! I'm from Shepparton! You're probably the closest 'betta person' to me. Good to know they're not all in the city.

Welcome! :)