Annadvn

OK, so my breeding bettas have new living quarters. Its a 30g long divided into 9 sections.

I want a bare bottom tank, with something in each section so they can hide or rest on and thought live plants would be perfect.

But... here's the question

With it being a bare bottom tank, i will need to pot them, not a problem i will go buy some terracotta pots, but what soil can i put in them or do i not use soil?

What am i going to anchor the roots in?

I'm going with pots as they can be moved around easier and taken out if i'm having trouble catching one etc...

Not sure which plants i will be using yet but will prob be what i have now such as amazon sword, apologen (sp?) java fern, unknown stuff from Dino and cory55 (ok forgotten the name). Also have not sorted the light yet so this will affect the choice for the plants.

Thanks in advance for the help

Anna

Beeker

Amazon sword is not a good idea. It will get too big for your sections. I would say that either the java fern or Anubias would be good. If you want a plant that the bettas can rest on, the Anubias would be great. My betta loved the Anubias. You don't need a special soil for them. It should be fine with some moss or gravel. I use florite. It is a little pricer than regular gravel, but it gives the plants an extra boost. Maybe that is why my Anubias keeps blooming flowers for me.

Will you be keeping bettas in all 9 sections?

Dino

I believe the plants you got from us are all low light.
Not sure what you got off of Cory.
In the pots here, we use top soil, covered by an inch or so of pool filter sand.
Unless, there are larger fish that dig( cichlids) this should work out fine.

Annadvn

So i do not have to worry about any fertilizer in the soil being harmful to the fish?

I will move plants around and trim them as needed if they get too big. At the moment i only have 10 bettas (12 if you count the wilds) and a couple of them have there own 5g but at some point i will have it all used up and probably another one of the same.

Anna

sirdarksol

Java fern and anubias both don't need soil at all. They just like to be anchored to something (often a piece of porous rock or driftwood).
The topsoil will have some ferts/minerals in it, and the fish will provide more ferts. You may, at some point in the future, have to add iron, but cross that bridge when you come to it (I think iron deficiency shows up as a yellowing of all of the leaves).