10 Gallon Tank Midna's Money Drain Betta Tank

The words "flightless" and "flies" just seem to me to be at odds with each other.
Sorry to hear about Allan, livin' the shrimp life ain't no easy life.

 

- I finally got my little boy to flare today!!!! ♡ it took him a while to realize the mirror was an Enemy. he didn't do it for very long, so no pics or videos. today is fast day but I gave him one bug bite as a treat for being such a Good Boy.

- I seem to be getting a lot of nitrates in my tank, which makes me think i'm using too much ferts or not enough water changes. or I need more plants lol.

- blah blah blah plants: I think i'm going to cut the brown leaves off of my java fern windelov and see if new leaves will grow. I'll probably shove it in the back and replace it with a rosette sword. might also get rid of the terra cotta pots. I got rid of the hornwort except for about 6 inches that have grown since I got it. I let it float. my frogbit's long roots got pulled off somehow :/ might have been my filter, might have been sidon throwing a tantrum.

i'm probably going to get either bacopa or anacharis to hide the filter in the front. not sure where to get anacharis though, every lfs and pet store either doesn't have it or it's all dead. can't order anything online when it's this hot. I want to get some vals or rotala rotundifolia green for the background, plus maybe water wisteria.

your tank and betta are beautiful! Wow! You are gifted! May I ask you where you get your plants? Congratulations on your handsome Betta!

 

your tank and betta are beautiful! Wow! You are gifted! May I ask you where you get your plants? Congratulations on your handsome Betta!

thank you so much!!!!!

all of my plants are from petsmart, petco, and my local fish store (the fish gallery). petco and petsmart get all their plants from , and i'm pretty sure my lfs gets all of theirs from ( gets all their plants from there too).

to break it down, my plants from petco and petsmart are crypt wendtiI green, pennywort, rosette sword, anubias frazeri, anubias nana, hygrophila corymbosa, and java ferns. crypt lutea, anubias nana petite, frogbit, creeping charlie, water sprite, corkscrew vals, and hornwort are from my lfs.

 

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this is his favourite spot and pose to sleep in...

trying to give his mom a heart attack by playing dead

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He looks so content!

 

thank you so much!!!!!

all of my plants are from petsmart, petco, and my local fish store (the fish gallery). petco and petsmart get all their plants from , and i'm pretty sure my lfs gets all of theirs from ( gets all their plants from there too).

to break it down, my plants from petco and petsmart are crypt wendtiI green, pennywort, rosette sword, anubias frazeri, anubias nana, hygrophila corymbosa, and java ferns. crypt lutea, anubias nana petite, frogbit, creeping charlie, water sprite, corkscrew vals, and hornwort are from my lfs.

Do you get the plants from their tanks? Do you sterilize them before you put them in the tank? Thank you for the information!

 

Do you get the plants from their tanks? Do you sterilize them before you put them in the tank? Thank you for the information!

only petco and my lfs have tanks, so yeah, I get them from there. a few of my plants are also from tubes. all I do is rinse them under tap water and kinda rub them gently, inspecting them for snails and eggs. then I let them soak for several minutes in dechlorinated water using prime until i'm ready to plant them.

 

it turned cloudy! i'm not sure if it's safe or aesthetically pleasing to use

I heard it is supposed to do that. I'm sure it's safe. It is, after all, almond tea, right?

 

only petco and my lfs have tanks, so yeah, I get them from there. a few of my plants are also from tubes. all I do is rinse them under tap water and kinda rub them gently, inspecting them for snails and eggs. then I let them soak for several minutes in dechlorinated water using prime until i'm ready to plant them.

I only have used the tubed plants from them. I have mostly good results using those.

 

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Nice, I think it looks a lot cleaner without the leaves. And yeah, more plants, lol. Your Sidon has some serious finnage there. My Carlos has really long fins but they're just ... can't even describe it. I'll just say they're long, lol.

He's actually flairing in a couple of these pictures! So much character!

 

photo spam of my boy, continued in my next post. I got him a floating betta mirror :'D

 

Hey, who doesn't like to flex in front of the mirror?

 

Hubby says “ok, that was worth waking up for” nurse says “what kind of fish is that?” So I’m going to “sell” her on the idea of the beautiful betta. And keep her mind off sleeping drugs for a bit!

 

bonus





i've recently noticed sidon has some patches of iridescent blue scales on his pectorals. anyone else seen this on a betta?

 

Hey, who doesn't like to flex in front of the mirror?

it took him a while to figure out it was a mirror. it was nearly 7 bucks on amazon for a flimsy piece of whatever (not even a true glass mirror). i've seen it go for $10+ in pet stores though. I was getting tired of using my aquascaping substrate spatula to get him to flare. this way I can just drop the mirror in and go do something else for a while. it's the lazy man's way.

Hubby says “ok, that was worth waking up for” nurse says “what kind of fish is that?” So I’m going to “sell” her on the idea of the beautiful betta. And keep her mind off sleeping drugs for a bit!

awww gypsy, you are too precious! i'm so sorry you're having such a rough time. I wish you could see this little booger! I hope you feel better xoxo

 

it took him a while to figure out it was a mirror. it was nearly 7 bucks on amazon for a flimsy piece of whatever (not even a true glass mirror). i've seen it go for $10+ in pet stores though. I was getting tired of using my aquascaping substrate spatula to get him to flare. this way I can just drop the mirror in and go do something else for a while. it's the lazy man's way.



awww gypsy, you are too precious! i'm so sorry you're having such a rough time. I wish you could see this little booger! I hope you feel better xoxo

Thank you. It’s ok. We all have our “thing” to gear right?
He sounds gorgeous! Nurse Anne can’t believe he’s a betta and my Jaax is too. She’s on her phone now looking at all the different kinds. Got her mind off me anyway.
My Jaax has his reflection in the aquarium glass to flare at. He thinks he’s so big! Wish his brain was a bit bigger. Got caught between the ammonia alert and the glass this evening. I’d forgotten that was in there. But, why even try? What reasoning goes through their little fishy brains that says yeah, I’ll fit there.

 

The tank looks beautiful ! And the Betta seems to look better and better in each pic !

 

Wow that is one special looking betta! I love his fins!

 

this is what happens when you spend 5 minutes debating if you should buy a huge anubias coffeefolia from your lfs, and you decide that yes, it might work. this situation could have been avoided if petco had their smaller coffeefolia in stock




i'm planning on getting a little tank for my ghost shrimp later in the year, so uh. might just transfer that plant to there when that happens. I also got some bacopa to put in front of the sponge filter. had to move some of the creeping charlie over and course ALL of it go uprooted.

I took the pumpkin out because the snails kept pooping in it. they also ate the paint off of it and started leaving radioactive orange poop everywhere. they look like tiny cheeto puffs.




I put my two ghost shrimp in sidon's tank a couple days ago. he immediately started to chase them and tried to eat them things have calmed down a bit, but i'm still going to try to get that shrimp tank later to make everyone's lives easier.

I also may have done something else over the weekend...

 

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Haha! You've got MTS!

 

i'll eventually make that thread for my new betta when i'm not so lazy lol. for now y'all just gotta be in the dark about him. or follow my instagram. just for the stories though. I never upload anything to my instagram except for the stories. too much effort.

today is a very sad day, everyone... poe has died.




rip poe. idk what happened. he just diddly darn died. saw him yesterday and everything was hunky-dory. gave him a brine shrimp to munch on. he ate it but ignored the second (I gave that one to edgar). checked on him tonight and I thought he was just chillin in the creeping charlie... I tried to feed him some tubifex worms but he wasn't grabbing them. investigated and saw that he had corked it. bad boy. he was my favourite shrimp. edgar and sidon hadn't munched on him yet.

edgar is still around and gladly accepted his worms after I spent 10 minutes trying to find him (he was hiding in the java fern cluster on my driftwood). I did dose ferts this morning, which has a very negligible trace amount of copper, but edgar would have died too if that was it. these ghost shrimp are just poopoo butts. edgar better live for like 2 years is all i'm sayin. if he dies before I get that 2.5g topfin tank i've been eyeing then I suppose i'm just going to have to get a baby betta! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (no Pescado_Verde I don't have mts what are you talking about)

 

MTS is just a myth around here....!!

 

Well, I think we've established now which one of your shrimp is a stone cold killer. If hiding isn't a sure sign of guilt I don't know what is. I guess it could have been self defense but we'll just have to let a jury figure that out once all the evidence is presented. Terribly sad day.

RIP Mr. Poe.

BTW, I've got a 3.5 gallon Enchant kit you can have. If you're ever passing thru let me know and I'll put it out on the front porch.

 

Well, I think we've established now which one of your shrimp is a stone cold killer. If hiding isn't a sure sign of guilt I don't know what is. I guess it could have been self defense but we'll just have to let a jury figure that out once all the evidence is presented. Terribly sad day.

RIP Mr. Poe.

BTW, I've got a 3.5 gallon Enchant kit you can have. If you're ever passing thru let me know and I'll put it out on the front porch.

Y'know, the Enchant was a lot cooler to me when it was an idea. I have 2 of them now....one is empty, the other one still has my only betta waiting for a 5.5g upgrade

 

Y'know, the Enchant was a lot cooler to me when it was an idea. I have 2 of them now....one is empty, the other one still has my only betta waiting for a 5.5g upgrade

I loved mine, just wanted a bigger tank for my Betta. The only thing I could complain about might be the light cycling thru the different colors. That to me is a waste but different strokes for different folks. I'd turn it on and immediately click the light selector to white and leave it that way. Other than that one little thing I thought it was a pretty sweet tank. I've considered putting it in the kitchen and getting another Betta to keep me company in there. Hey! midna, you might want to come get this thing BEFORE I decide to start using it again, lol.

 

I loved mine, just wanted a bigger tank for my Betta. The only thing I could complain about might be the light cycling thru the different colors. That to me is a waste but different strokes for different folks. I'd turn it on and immediately click the light selector to white and leave it that way. Other than that one little thing I thought it was a pretty sweet tank. I've considered putting it in the kitchen and getting another Betta to keep me company in there. Hey! midna, you might want to come get this thing BEFORE I decide to start using it again, lol.

Yeah, not a bad tank for sure, the lights are annoying. I found I like it much better with white gravel in it, feel like the light doesn't shine to the bottom enough otherwise. Still using one of them, other just sitting empty with some gravel. Wife better figure out what she gonna do with it or that purple/white elephant ear at Petco will be occupying it....

 

Checking in, how is the tank doing?

 

Checking in, how is the tank doing?

I will hopefully get a pic once I get my newest tank set up!! actually I can get one right now lol. the giant anubias coffeefolia is going into my new tank. i'm going to replace it with a smaller anubias.

I think this tank is doing pretty well actually. my ghost shrimp is still alive -gasp- all though he'll disappear for a couple days and worry the heck out of me. he gets shrimp dinner whenever I can find him during feeding time and just scavenges the rest of the time. he's so cute, he'll wiggle his little leggies and grab the food right out of the tweezers. i've had to pull a few abandoned molts out of the tank so he's doing well. algae and diatoms have calmed down for now. prince sidon is happy and healthy and as wiggly and active as ever. my water sprite and frogbit are going crazy. i'm planning on taking the azoo mignon filter out and replacing it with my old top fin silentstream for increased flow. the mignon will go on my smaller 5.5 tank. I noticed a couple hydra on my hydrocotyle tripartita hopefully nothing to worry about though. I have fenbendazole that I can dose if it gets bad, but I'll have to locate my nerite snails and put them in a smaller tank.




bonus: zora's very depressing tank. he uprooted one of my new bacopa stems

 

Pssst where did you get your fossil? I'm going to need one for the jurrassic world tank lol

 

Pssst where did you get your fossil? I'm going to need one for the jurrassic world tank lol

oh my goodness, I got it a lonnnng time ago when I was a kid. I used to be really into rocks and fossils. it was a souvenir my great-uncle (I think??) sent me. he actually got it in norfolk, england! lol I thought it was somewhere in the states like north california hahaha wow. the fossil itself was found in yorkshire.

I wanted to pay tribute to my old adf tank, which was jurassic park themed. so yeah. just go to a rock or fossil shop or order one online lol.

 

Even your “very depressing” tanks looks great!

 

your tank looks amazing! I'm going to follow this thread! what do you use as far as ferts, substrate etc...? I'm not sure if you mentioned it here in the thread but I'm too lazy to go over 6 pages lol

 

your tank looks amazing! I'm going to follow this thread! what do you use as far as ferts, substrate etc...? I'm not sure if you mentioned it here in the thread but I'm too lazy to go over 6 pages lol

it's all in the original post lol but I use nilocg thrive+ (I ordered the wrong kind for my tank lol) and flourish root tabs. I dose 2ml of thrive+ twice a week. I just got seachem iron in, and dosed 2ml of that today -- will be dosing 3 times a week. substrate is just some seachem flourite capped with black diamond blasting sand.

here's an update: I took the big anubias out yesterday. I should be getting my osmocote root tabs in today so i'm gonna add those. my hydrocotyle is doing better in this tank than my other tank.

 

it's all in the original post lol but I use nilocg thrive+ (I ordered the wrong kind for my tank lol) and flourish root tabs. I dose 2ml of thrive+ twice a week. I just got seachem iron in, and dosed 2ml of that today -- will be dosing 3 times a week. substrate is just some seachem flourite capped with black diamond blasting sand.

here's an update: I took the big anubias out yesterday. I should be getting my osmocote root tabs in today so i'm gonna add those. my hydrocotyle is doing better in this tank than my other tank.

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that's great! and is that a background with plants on it? I can't tell if they are real plants or just a background lol

 

that's great! and is that a background with plants on it? I can't tell if they are real plants or just a background lol

it's just a background hahaha

 

lol awesome!

 

I figured I should post a shot of king zora's tank after adding some new plants, because I know it's gonna look like complete doodoo again in a couple days. I found someone that lives right by me that sells plants for cheap.

I may have also ordered a gold anubias nana for sidon's tank... plus some plants for my newest tank

 

I figured I should post a shot of king zora's tank after adding some new plants, because I know it's gonna look like complete doodoo again in a couple days. I found someone that lives right by me that sells plants for cheap.

I may have also ordered a gold anubias nana for sidon's tank... plus some plants for my newest tank

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Looks great!

 

I figured I should post a shot of king zora's tank after adding some new plants, because I know it's gonna look like complete doodoo again in a couple days. I found someone that lives right by me that sells plants for cheap.

I may have also ordered a gold anubias nana for sidon's tank... plus some plants for my newest tank

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Great looking tank !

 

figured I should update this thread and introduce my new boy. i'm thinking about turning this into a thread for all my tanks but it's kinda long... maybe I should just make a new thread? it might be less intimidating.

this is marshmallow, a halfmoon white opal male betta from the same petco I got sidon and zora. didn't go for a zelda-themed name this time rip. I went for a cute food name like my cat, cupcake. he's basically her betta. she loves him unfortunately his pristine flowing fins did not last long in my tank.

 

figured I should update this thread and introduce my new boy. i'm thinking about turning this into a thread for all my tanks but it's kinda long... maybe I should just make a new thread? it might be less intimidating.

this is marshmallow, a halfmoon white opal male betta from the same petco I got sidon and zora. didn't go for a zelda-themed name this time rip. I went for a cute food name like my cat, cupcake. he's basically her betta. she loves him unfortunately his pristine flowing fins did not last long in my tank.

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He looks like a ballerina