My Freshwater Tanks (20g Community, 5g Betta, & 2.5g Betta)

Hello everyone,

I'm Dan, and new to Fishlore, but have a 15-year obsession with freshwater aquariums including Cichlid's, Community, many Betta tanks, Nano Invert tanks, and my next project!

The attached pictures are my current tanks, so this is what you're looking at:

20g Tall Community Tank - 7 years old

• Driftwood & silk/plastic plants
• 6 Serpae Tetra
• 5 Cherry Barb
• 5 Golden Barb
• 5 Female Guppies
• 3 Sterba's Cory Catfish
• 3 Amano Shrimp
• 1 Golden Mystery Snail

5g Cube Betta Tank - 2 years

• 1 Delta-tail Male Betta (Rick)
• 4 Ghost Shrimp
• 1 Nerite Snail

2.6g Fluval Spec III Betta Tank - 1 month

• 1 Koi Male Betta
• 0 anything else because he wants to murder it

I'm glad I found this site, any feedback on my tanks would be greatly appreciated!

 

I think the set-ups sound great, with only minor details I’d like to point out. But to start off: Welcome to the Fishlore forum! Hope your experience here is as informational as enjoyable as mine has been so far!
Now to the fish: I’m sure you’ve heard that most people recommend 5-10 gallon minimum for bettas, but there's honestly no detrimental urgency to move your one betta to a larger tank. Secondly, the Sterba’s are gorgeous cories, but the cories, as I’m sure you know, are schooling catfish, and they really would prefer to be in groups of 6+. Also, one of the probably biggest issues is that your 20 gallon has gravel on the bottom of it, and cories have very delicate barbs which hurts them to scavenge. Cories will do laps around your aquarium scavenging (almost like a crazy housewife from the 1950’s cleaning up before their husband gets home LOL) so they need at least a smaller, smooth gravel, but preferably just sand (I know, that would be such a hassle to change it all out— I have to change my 90 gallon from gravel to sand sooner or later -_-) I’d like to mention the giggle I made when reading (Rick) because I, too, take my fish very seriously and treat them like family As far as your betta tank with the inverts, my only concern is that any other living creature usually tends to cause stress on the male bettas. Have you ever seen him flare up at the ghost shrimp or nerve snails? Now obviously, since ghost shrimps are basically invisible and even I can barely see them, they still do sometimes develop some pretty coloration over time and I would try to keep an eye on the betta and if the inverts cause him any stress. My one last concern would be the nerite snail in a small tank because A). They eat the algae off the tank walls pretty quickly and can go through round upon rounds around the fish tank (although adding some supplemental food to his diet would help too in case he runs out of algae), and B). The nerite’s are known to be sneaky little… “you-know-whats” and they tend to climb out of their tanks actually especially if they’re filled to the brim, which it why its better for the nerite’s to be in a tank that has at least an inch of air at the top. Although altogether, for those being only your biggest issues, I think you’re doing quite well with your fish keeping! No glaring issues, and the fish all seem to be well acclimated and well taken care of Glad to see another person with a passion for fish in the forum. One more thing I figure I’d mention— plants in your 20gal tall would really set the tank off, in my opinion. Especially maybe a Java Fern with maybe Hornwort and some Brazilian Pennywort, possibly even anacharis. I’m a bit challenged on the plant aspect of aquarium keeping though, and if you’re in the same boat, I completely understand Hornwort seems for me to be the lowest maintenance plant and most hardy; its only downfall is that it grows rapidly— although I guess on the bright side, you won’t have to worry about buying a bunch If you have any questions on what I’ve stated here, feel free to ask more questions I think the tanks look great, and keep it up!

 

Your fish are stunning! Such bright colours.
I completely agree with everything Cichlids Stole My Heart has said. Up the cories and barbs to 6, change gravel to sand, etc.
I love the 5 gallon tank.

 

I think the set-ups sound great, with only minor details I’d like to point out. But to start off: Welcome to the Fishlore forum! Hope your experience here is as informational as enjoyable as mine has been so far!

Hey there, I appreciate the welcome and constructive criticism - I'll try to make sure I respond to each recommendation and hopefully we can come to an agreement

• Betta Tank Size: Traditionally, I keep Betta's in 5 gallon and up, but the reason I bought the Koi Betta and put him in the 2.5g is because he was essentially dead at my LFS. He was listed for $14.99 - I offered $5 to see if I could save him, and they accepted! He seems much happier (and alive), and he'll be getting his own 5 gallon tank in the near future. The 2.5 is going to be a planted shrimp tank when I'm done.
• Cory Catfish: The tough part of having a 20 gallon tall is there's very limited surface area at the bottom of the tank. 5 years ago I had 7-8 Cory's in there, and there's just not a lot of space for them to scavenge for food. All 3 Cory's I currently have are 3+ years old, so it seems they're happy. As for the gravel, it's a clay substrate because it used to be a planted tank. The clay isn't nearly as hard as gravel and their 'whiskers' are long and healthy.
• Betta Tank Mates: The 5 gallon tank had Ghost Shrimp in there for 2 months before I tried to introduce a Betta. It seems that since the Shrimp were established in the tank, and I got lucky with a friendly Betta, there's never any aggressive behavior toward his tank mates. In fact, when I turn the LED lights on each morning, Rick the Betta and the shrimp usually exit the same cave where they've rested throughout the night. I've never housed any species with a Betta prior to Rick, but he has more personality than my Oscars years ago. We're pals.
• Nerite Snail: I got the snail because I'm using fake plants in the 5 gallon for now, and it's extremely bright lighting on a 6-hour timer. Even though my water parameters are perfect, there was weekly algae blooms on the substrate and rock formation. I clean most of it up during the weekly water change, but the snail and ghost shrimp definitely help keep the tank clean. As for the snail escaping, there's a lid on the 5 gallon securely fastened to the acrylic cube, so it's impossible for him to escape.
• 20g Tall Plants: That tank was planted for about 5 years, and I loved it. However, my girlfriend eventually thought dead plant matter was unsightly in our bedroom and asked if I could just use faux plants. As you know, she just doesn't understand it's part of the ecosystem, but I tried to choose the most natural fake plants I could find. It actually looks similar to the tank when it was planted, less a hairgrass carpet.

 

Your fish are stunning! Such bright colours.
I completely agree with everything Cichlids Stole My Heart has said. Up the cories and barbs to 6, change gravel to sand, etc.
I love the 5 gallon tank.

Hey thanks! I posted a reply to her concerns, but I do prefer a fine sand to clay/gravel any day. It's just a chore to swap out substrate without messing with the bio-filter. It's been in the tank for 7 years now, and I'm scared of killing any fish.

 

Hey thanks! I posted a reply to her concerns, but I do prefer a fine sand to clay/gravel any day. It's just a chore to swap out substrate without messing with the bio-filter. It's been in the tank for 7 years now, and I'm scared of killing any fish.

Yeah I know what you mean about the sand being a chore. As long as the clay/gravel doesn't hurt them it's fine. I plan to change my gravel to sand before getting dojo loaches, I'm dreading it.

 

Yeah I know what you mean about the sand being a chore. As long as the clay/gravel doesn't hurt them it's fine. I plan to change my gravel to sand before getting dojo loaches, I'm dreading it.

Hey I'd much rather swap out gravel for sand then vice-versa. The 5 gallon tank was tan sand prior to me swapping in the black sand....that took way longer than I anticipated.

 

Glad you cleared things up; sure sounds like you’ve got a great thing going for you! Good luck with the impending substrate switch ;P