New fish bowl project for shrimp (maybe betta)

So, the urge for a project has hit me again. I already have my own 5-gallon planted tank with a betta and 10-gallon tank with a swordtail and guppy. I have also taken over and redone my sister's neglected 15-gallon tall (with neocaridina shrimp, tetra, and platy), and her 30-gallon long tank with platy and angelfish. I've somehow managed to get fish tank building in my YouTube suggestions and saw a video by MD Fish Tanks on a large vase/bowl setup that basically does its own thing. No filter and limited water changes needed. I found a 5-gallon fishbowl for $20 and plan on trying it out and seeing how it goes!

The plan is to take some of the neocaridina shrimp from the 15-gallon and add them to this once it's finished, maybe getting some more with other colors, not sure yet. I'm also considering another betta once it's done and cycled (or doing the necessary water changes needed for a fish-in cycle, which is fine). I'll be following what MD Fish Tanks did and hopefully, the multitude of plants and shrimp will make it an easy-to-maintain tank. I'll post updates here on the scaping I end up doing.

I was going to use some leftover stones I had but they're too big and different types so I'll get some smaller ones at Petco and some spiderwood. The substrate will all be leftover stuff I had from my 10-gallon tank (aqua soil, white sand, and some rock gravel I purchased recently for this build). I'll nab a mini heater as well since I don't trust my room to maintain a decent temp for a betta. Haven't thought about plants yet. I don't want to do the exact same as MD but I'll see about plants to get on Saturday. Wish me luck!

 

Good luck. I always love hearing from people starting new tanks. MD fish tanks is a pretty cool fishtuber and always has great advice.

 

Okay, so I was looking at plants I could get and wanted to change things up from what MD did. Petco has more of a selection than Petsmart, so I'm sticking to what I can get from there since otherwise, I'd have to get plants delivered as LFS near me aren't great.

I'm thinking narrow leaf java fern in the center, anubias nana or buce plants to accent it and attach to the wood piece, then alternanthera reineckii on the left and right sides of the centerpiece. I wanted to use different stem plants than MD and with what's available I'm thinking of using pogostemon erectus and rotala wallichii (Whorly Rotala). Then, for shorter and carpeting plants I'm going to try out pogostemon helferi (Little Star) near the centerpiece if I can get it or I'll glue moss to rocks instead. And dwarf hairgrass for the actual carpet, so long as it doesn't die on me.

I'm hoping these will all work out. If not, I've got other tanks I can put them in. Only downside is that by getting them at Petco, I'm getting tissue cultures mostly so they'll be little baby plants but I'm hoping it works out with no CO2 and minimal water changes (except in the beginning when I'm cycling). If it's better to get adult plants then I'll look into ordering stuff through etsy, but I'll try the tissue cultures first and do my best to be patient.

And sorry if these paragraphs are long, lol. I'm not a talker IRL but give me a keyboard and I get carried away.

 

No worries about the text. getting tissue culture plants is better anyway since they won't have any pest snails. I would be very careful when ordering stuff from Etsy. I don't have any experience with Etsy, but Ive heard enough stories about people ordering stuff from Etsy and getting other stuff instead. If I were you, I would boil the wood before adding it to the tank since you probably don't want brown water at the beginning. Btw keep in mind to add some root tabs for the carpeting plants. Do you know if your Petco has these plants? How many shrimp do you want to add? Sorry if im asking way too much questions. As you can see, my text isn't very short either.

 

No worries about the text. getting tissue culture plants is better anyway since they won't have any pest snails. I would be very careful when ordering stuff from Etsy. I don't have any experience with Etsy, but Ive heard enough stories about people ordering stuff from Etsy and getting other stuff instead. If I were you, I would boil the wood before adding it to the tank since you probably don't want brown water at the beginning. Btw keep in mind to add some root tabs for the carpeting plants. Do you know if your Petco has these plants? How many shrimp do you want to add? Sorry if im asking way too much questions. As you can see, my text isn't very short either.

I’ve gotten lots of rarer plants from Etsy and have a few sellers on there that I trust and who’s plants I love. I usually get my plants from there or Petsmart because I work there and get a discount. but petco has more variety than petsmart and shows online they carry a lot of these but I’m going to get what I can in store today and might order the rest later.

For the wood, I’m going to do spider wood and I boil it or soak it anyway but I don’t mind brown water so long as it clears up later. I know the bigger wood pieces leech more but I’ve not had as much issue with spider wood.

And I’ve got rootabs for my other tanks. I plan on just popping one or two open and adding them to the aqua soil layer before I cap it with sand.

Also, I’ve got no shortage of shrimp. My sisters shrimp have been mass producing since I redid their tank and I was going to throw about 15-20 of hers in this bowl then maybe get some more from the store later. MD did about 50 in his so I might add more. he also used some ramshorn snails that I should also look for. My sister is overloaded on bladder snails I can use instead but I like the look of ramshorns better.

 

I like ramshorn snails more too. I would add the shrimp aver a period of a week. I think that would help the cycling process. Good luck, and please keep me updated

 

Also, I’ve got no shortage of shrimp. My sisters shrimp have been mass producing since I redid their tank and I was going to throw about 15-20 of hers in this bowl then maybe get some more from the store later.

Just keep in mind each betta is different. My mustard gas betta lived peacefully with tons of cherry shrimp but my latest dragon scale seeks them out and killed every single one…. So shrimp may or may not be an option for you.

I think water movement and filtration is still important even with a heavily planted tank. Even a small sponge filter is a great idea.

 

Just keep in mind each betta is different. My mustard gas betta lived peacefully with tons of cherry shrimp but my latest dragon scale seeks them out and killed every single one…. So shrimp may or may not be an option for you.

I think water movement and filtration is still important even with a heavily planted tank. Even a small sponge filter is a great idea.

I know betta can be finicky (my current is rather aggressive and still flares at the nerite I've got in his tank, the punk) and I've found having shrimp in the tank first can help. I only plan on starting with the initial 15-20 and getting a well-bred betta (as mine was from Petsmart and has a tumor/cyst so I'm hoping to avoid that in the future with better bred ones) and seeing how it goes. If it kills them, then I won't add more. I'll just use snails instead.

And the whole point of the bowl was a heavily planted tank that can take care of itself. I'd post the link to the MD video but I think that's against the rules here. HIs was working well and he's done multiple bowl tanks without filters with and without fish and has had no issues. Betta don't like a lot of water movement anyway and between the shrimp/snails and plants it should be okay. If it starts not working out or I feel it needs filtration, I'll add a small sponge filter though, definitely. Just want to give it a try without first.

 

Okay! Hardscape is done and I’m a little frustrated because I didn’t notice until after the fact that I put too much of the bottom gravel layer so the bowl isn’t going to have nearly as much water in it and the slope isn’t as dramatic. But I don’t mind. I can always tear it down ages from now and redo it right. I like how it looks so far, though the smaller rocks don’t quite match and the sand I have is blindingly white. But it’s the best I feel I’ve done so far! Now to add plants.

 

You’re frustrated but you don’t mind. I wish I would be able to do such things. That looks really good btw.

 

Finished planting and added water. Kind of wish the stem plants were full adult ones so I can see them but they’ll grow. And the substrate is definitely too high, making the narrow leaf Java ferns almost poke out the water. But I like it! And ignore the one stick on the bottom. It decided to move when I added the water even though I tried to weigh it down with a rock. I’ll adjust it later when it’s more… sinkable. I think a betta would love it but won’t add anything yet. I’ll maybe add snails and some shrimp tomorrow to see how it goes. I did get a small heater to keep the water temp decent as I don’t trust my room to do that. But let me know what you think! Need to work out a lighting thing (I’ve got an 8 watt but it’s just a smidge too short and will fall in) but I think I’m okay for the moment.

 

You’re making me feel bad because I can’t make such awesome looking aquascapes. I really think that you created something awesome.

 

You’re making me feel bad because I can’t make such awesome looking aquascapes. I really think that you created something awesome.

Thanks! I only got the general idea from MD, but I'm not used to doing lots of plants (mostly because of budget). I started live plants in October/November with my 10 gallon, but that tank is constantly giving me issues before and after rescaping. Then I took over my sister's tanks and the tall one is doing surprisingly well (I'm assuming because of the hundred shrimp in there) and the long one is doing alright growing plants but having minor algae issues. Neither really have a whole bunch of plants. They've got a lot but not... filter-by-themselves a lot.

I like this scape though. Wish I hadn't put as much gravel/substrate/sand but too late to change it. So long as it doesn't turn gross it's as done as it's going to be. If it does get gnarly, then I'll tear it down, salvage the good plants, and redo it properly. When my brain needs a project I supply it with one. This was just the next project and it turned out pretty good.

 

From the way the pic looks, I dont think that it has too much gravel/sand in there. One of my tanks is pretty disgusting. Its a ten gallon shrimp tank. Its the one on my profile picture. It has way too much algae in it and does NOT look good at all. I have no idea why this is happening. What I wanted to say earlier was, if you want to remove some of the substrate, you can try to suck up some of it while doing your water change.

 

From the way the pic looks, I dont think that it has too much gravel/sand in there. One of my tanks is pretty disgusting. Its a ten gallon shrimp tank. Its the one on my profile picture. It has way too much algae in it and does NOT look good at all. I have no idea why this is happening. What I wanted to say earlier was, if you want to remove some of the substrate, you can try to suck up some of it while doing your water change.

Yeah, I just know that's all the sand I had and in order to keep the aquasoil from sinking into the gravel or climbing up through the sand I used plastic mesh between the layers (it's like... for yarn? so it's got some nice holes for roots). MD was packing his aquasoil in mesh media bags but I had this stuff hanging out without use and figured it'd work nicely.... but that means getting down to lower layers is extra hard because I'd have to lift that mesh and hope the layers don't get intermixed.

And MD definitely had less substrate in his and therefore more space to work with. His bowls had more of a slope to the substrate and he didn't have any plants poking up out of the water. He may have had a bigger bowl but about 1/3 of my bowl is just substrate and I think 1/4 would've worked better and given a betta more room in it. But overall? I like how it looks and don't see the point in changing it unless something goes wrong.

And I feel you on the frustrating algae tanks. My 10 gallon has always had issues. Had issues cycling it and spent a lot of money trying to fix that. Completely redid it once, then redid it again to use live plants and aquascape it. Then, couldn't get rid of algae. Moved rocks, threw even more plants in there, changed liquid fert, and it's better but I've got bad staghorn algae because I haven't gotten a good CO2 set up working yet. Mine likes to turn itself off... Hopefully this one works out well!

 

Sorry I'm replying so late. When I saw that MD was using mesh bags, I bought them too and theyre so helpful. I really like the combination of spider wood and seiryu stone you're using. Is it seiryu stone? I set up a pea puffer tank a few weeks ago, trying to rebuild a MD tank. It worked out fairly well. Is MD your favourite fish tuber? I wish Co 2 set ups would be easier to set up, and cheaper. btw, im not sure if there's enough space for a betta. You could try chill rasboras. Again, sorry for not replying earlier.

 

Looks great! I never thought to extend the spider wood past the top rim in my shrimp bowl, it looks awesome. Now I might have to do some rearranging, lol.

 

Sorry I'm replying so late. When I saw that MD was using mesh bags, I bought them too and theyre so helpful. I really like the combination of spider wood and seiryu stone you're using. Is it seiryu stone? I set up a pea puffer tank a few weeks ago, trying to rebuild a MD tank. It worked out fairly well. Is MD your favourite fish tuber? I wish Co 2 set ups would be easier to set up, and cheaper. btw, im not sure if there's enough space for a betta. You could try chill rasboras. Again, sorry for not replying earlier.

It’s fine! And yes, it’s seiryu stone. I was hoping to get a few individual rocks but ended up getting a bag from petsmart and throwing them at the sidewalk to break them up smaller. MD is my first fish YouTuber but he’s fun and informative so I really enjoy him and don’t know any others who can compare at the moment. And yeah, I added the shrimp today 10 ish I think. Two blue from petsmart, then a few red and orange from my sister’s tank. I figure a betta would just try and eat them so maybe I look into the chili rasboras.

 

I bet people were wondering what you were doing when throwing the stone on the sidewalk XD
Yeah, MD isn't really compatible with any other You-Tuber. Adding two different types of shrimp can sometimes go a bit wrong. I have a 15 gallon aquarium with blue and red cherry shrimp, and the cross bred, and the babies look like white/brown dirt. But we will see how it goes, I guess. I once tried adding child rasboras to one of my shrimp tanks and they all died within a week. I have no idea what happened, but im probably try adding some, in a few months.

 

I bet people were wondering what you were doing when throwing the stone on the sidewalk XD
Yeah, MD isn't really compatible with any other You-Tuber. Adding two different types of shrimp can sometimes go a bit wrong. I have a 15 gallon aquarium with blue and red cherry shrimp, and the cross bred, and the babies look like white/brown dirt. But we will see how it goes, I guess. I once tried adding child rasboras to one of my shrimp tanks and they all died within a week. I have no idea what happened, but im probably try adding some, in a few months.

Yeah I don’t mind whatever color they come out to be. My sister had cherry red shrimp and orange shrimp. They cross bred and I’ve seen pink-ish red, orange, red striped clear, orange striped. I don’t mine either way. Shrimp are shrimp. But I’ll see about the rasboras. I’m probably gonna wait a bit though, just to make sure the bowl is doing okay with just the shrimp
Here’s some of the shrimp I have in there. Apparently I got a blue and a black one, not two blues. Still love them!

 

Yeah, its probably the best if you just wait one month. How long have you been in the hobby?

 

Yeah, its probably the best if you just wait one month. How long have you been in the hobby?

I got my 10-gallon May of last year (2021) struggled with it for ages before I found out I had a false ammonia reading. Did 100% water change after some crazy ammonia issues and got my betta and a 3 gallon. Rescaped 10-gallon with live plants in October and upgraded betta to planted 5-gallon tank later that month. Took over the two tanks that my sister neglected in November and scaped them with live plants.

I've only ever done fish-in cycles because my 10-gallon was my first and I followed the poor advice of "waiting a week" and then adding probably too many fish and was forced to figure it out. Since then, fish-in cycles just work for me better as I know what I'm looking out for. I will wait to add fish to this tank though, because it has no filter and I'm relying on water changes alone to keep it where it should be.

All in all, I've been fish keeping for 7 months. I'm a big animal person and have a dog, cat, and ball python. I was uncertain about doing fish but basically did it because I was tired of looking at my sister's nasty tanks and wanted to prove to myself I could do it better. I know more about dogs than I do fish, but aside from my setbacks with my 10-gallon I enjoy a good project and aquascaping is fun It actually got me into redoing my snake enclosure as well with plants too.

 

Last time I looked at your message, I didnt see your shrimp pictures. They are super cool btw. I started having fish tanks 10 months ago. I bought the 45 gallon fluval all in one thing, and it went pretty well until we visited our grandparents in Germany. we had house sitters looking after my fish btw. anyway, we came back home and all the plants were full of algae and the glass was nasty. There was a huge army of bladder snails too. I was basically freaking out. we ended up re-doing the whole tank and the plants don't really grow anymore and die off. Even though im only ten months into the hobby, I own the 45 gallon community tank, a 15 and a 10 gallon shrimp tank, and recently set up a pea puffer tank. so, 4 in total. We have dogs and cats too. "I was tired of looking at my sister's nasty tanks and wanted to prove to myself I could do it better", proving yourself better than your siblings is always cool. aquascaping is super fun. Thats actually the reason why I set up the ten gallon puffer tank. Im actually thinking of starting a YouTube channel about aquariums. Not sure about the name yet.

 

Last time I looked at your message, I didnt see your shrimp pictures. They are super cool btw. I started having fish tanks 10 months ago. I bought the 45 gallon fluval all in one thing, and it went pretty well until we visited our grandparents in Germany. we had house sitters looking after my fish btw. anyway, we came back home and all the plants were full of algae and the glass was nasty. There was a huge army of bladder snails too. I was basically freaking out. we ended up re-doing the whole tank and the plants don't really grow anymore and die off. Even though im only ten months into the hobby, I own the 45 gallon community tank, a 15 and a 10 gallon shrimp tank, and recently set up a pea puffer tank. so, 4 in total. We have dogs and cats too. "I was tired of looking at my sister's nasty tanks and wanted to prove to myself I could do it better", proving yourself better than your siblings is always cool. aquascaping is super fun. Thats actually the reason why I set up the ten gallon puffer tank. Im actually thinking of starting a YouTube channel about aquariums. Not sure about the name yet.

My 10-gallon was a starter kit, but me not knowing much of anything about the cycling processes meant lots of issues right off. Then, even more issues after I fixed it all. Now, staghorn algae issues because I haven't set up my good CO2 canister yet. I wish I could just do really good aquascaping but the only tank that is doing super good is my sister's 15-gallon tall and my betta tank. The long tank has algae issues (just added some today to join the nerites and my CO2 liquid Booster in trying to manage it) and my plants like to hit a point where they stop growing and just darken in color. I just got that fixed in the 10-gallon but then.... staghorn...

I also can't afford another tank really, as much as I'd love a whole room for fishtanks I live with family and don't have room either. This bowl was just.... easy? All the substrate was old stuff I already had other than the bottom gravel layer. The plants I bought, but you can never have too many plants. Same with the spiderwood. I wasn't planning on getting all the stone I did, but extra stone doesn't bother me. So, while I spent hundreds of dollars trying to get my 10-gallon set up and nice (only to have it troubles again and again) this was far cheaper and only became pricey because of the rocks, wood, and plants.

And my family just shouldn't have pets. I've taken over caring for this sister's pets in general (fish, cat, her old rats that passed...). It was definitely to one-up her but gave my brain a project.

And your goal of a youtube channel sounds fun! I hope it works out for you!

 

I wish Co 2 systems were cheaper. I'm trying to keep my hobby going by only using money I make selling cherry shrimp. It's not very easy. When I started looking into the aquarium hobby, I didnt have a hobby. My siblings always were like, "you need a hobby man" and I was super into it. My dream is to one day have a whole fish room. I bet that its gonna take a while for me to reach that goal, but I think that it's possible. And I'm only 14, meaning that I will have to move out of my parents house to have a fish room.

 

I wish Co 2 systems were cheaper. I'm trying to keep my hobby going by only using money I make selling cherry shrimp. It's not very easy. When I started looking into the aquarium hobby, I didnt have a hobby. My siblings always were like, "you need a hobby man" and I was super into it. My dream is to one day have a whole fish room. I bet that its gonna take a while for me to reach that goal, but I think that it's possible. And I'm only 14, meaning that I will have to move out of my parents house to have a fish room.

Yeah, I'm hoping to move out eventually and leave the country (meaning starting all over I guess). And I have the smaller Fluval CO2 system which is fine if it didn't constantly try to turn itself off, leading to inconsistent CO2 levels and therefore, staghorn algae. My sister had a 5lb canister for CO2 in her tall tank that she's giving me (all that was in there were cherry shrimp who didn't need it) but I need to find a place to get it filled. Covid restrictions make that hard anyway but I have it by the front door and keep forgetting it....

Do you think Emerald Dwarf Rasbora would work? I'm having a heck of a time finding the chili rasbora that won't cost $60+ for 6-10 of them online (there's not much option at LFS near me). Though I swear I won't order them for a good few weeks at least. Just trying to see what my options are.

 

I think some welding shops refill bottles of some sort of stuff, but im not sure about Co 2 tho. I live in Canada right now and sometimes thinking about some day moving to the US, or UK.

 

I think some welding shops refill bottles of some sort of stuff, but im not sure about Co 2 tho. I live in Canada right now and sometimes thinking about some day moving to the US, or UK.

It's just me trying to find someplace near where I'm at for an easy refill, is all. There's Dick's sporting goods I'm going to try, but if that doesn't work then I need to call around places and see if they do small canister CO2 refill. There's a welding place nearby and I can see if there's a paintball shop around that would do it. It's just not a huge priority on my mind with other things I've got going on that are more important. I've just gotta keep an eye on my current CO2 and make sure it's not turning itself off every few moments.

I'm also hoping Emerald Dwarf Rasbora will work instead of the chili rasbora. I might have found a place that has both of those, but the Emerald Dwarf Rasbora are $5-10 cheaper and look just as nice. I think they get a little bigger though. School size was a minimum of 6 for both, I believe, but the Emerald Dwarf Rasbora come in a pack of 8 and the chili in a pack of 10, so I'd have to split the schools up either way as I don't think 10 chili nor 8 Emerald Dwarf Rasbora will work in this bowl. So I'll either do 5 chili in here and 5 in the 15 gallon or 4 Emerald Dwarf Rasbora in here and 4 in either the 15 or the long tank I have. I could put the extra in my 10 gallon too, which has just guppy and one swordtail, so I've got options.

 

I just looked up, how the emerald rasboras look, and I actually think that the emeralds look better. So, I would go with the emeralds. If you would buy the emeralds, I would buy two packs, just because the rest of them wouldn't be very happy alone.

 

So, I've had one shrimp doing laps around the tank but figured he was just having a good time as he would stop at night and the blue shrimp would take over, lol. I saw more doing it today a good while after my daily water change and did a test of the water. 0 ammonia, 0.25 nitrite, and about 5 nitrate. I've been dosing with stability during my water changes but added some prime with that test to keep it safe for the shrimp. Given it's a new tank I have been adding a few fish flakes to keep them fed. But I saw a molting today and am hoping a majority of the swimming laps was the males looking for the few ladies in the tank.

And I did order the emerald dwarf rasboras but it's a good week or more before they'll get here and I've got another tank I can put them in if this one isn't ready by the time they show up. Given there's 0 ammonia with only a smidge of nitrite, I've got my fingers crossed.

Also ordered some Rotala Rotundifolia Orange Juice since I figured having some mature stems would help, though the hygrophila pinnatifida from the tissue culture is in the back as well and still alive. I haven't seen any new growth but no death of plants so as long as that keeps up, I'm happy. The shrimp are loving the heater I put in though, and like to congregate on it. I only added it as I don't trust my room to stay a constant temp. I have a spare 8 watt light as well that I've got just sort of held by the spiderwood so more focused light during the day. If I see an algae issue because of it though, I'll remove it. So, all-in-all, things are going well

 

Im happy to hear that. When you get the emeralds, don't add them at once, since the tank has to get used to the extra bio load. Having a heater really does help.

 

Fish came earlier than expected and are smaller than I feel comfortable with putting in my 10 gallon. I'm concerned the swordtail in there might see them as a snack. I'm acclimating them to the bowl for now and will put them all in. I don't work for the next 4-5 days so I will keep a close eye on them. I checked my levels today and there's 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. I've done fish-in cycles before and will be changing the water every day for the next week once the fish are in, adding Stability and Prime when I do. They're super small and I'm sure they'll all do fine in the bowl. If they do get bigger than they are and I feel upkeep on the bowl is risking their livelihood, I will move them to the 10 gallon or I have a spare 3 gallon that's empty that I could set up. I'll post pictures tomorrow once they're comfier in the bowl. I'm hoping they color up nicely

 

Fish came earlier than expected and are smaller than I feel comfortable with putting in my 10 gallon. I'm concerned the swordtail in there might see them as a snack. I'm acclimating them to the bowl for now and will put them all in. I don't work for the next 4-5 days so I will keep a close eye on them. I checked my levels today and there's 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. I've done fish-in cycles before and will be changing the water every day for the next week once the fish are in, adding Stability and Prime when I do. They're super small and I'm sure they'll all do fine in the bowl. If they do get bigger than they are and I feel upkeep on the bowl is risking their livelihood, I will move them to the 10 gallon or I have a spare 3 gallon that's empty that I could set up. I'll post pictures tomorrow once they're comfier in the bowl. I'm hoping they color up nicely

Sounds like a plan. I'm pretty positive that they're going to have a color glow up.

 

They’re coloring up already very darty swimmers and about the same size as some of the big female cherry shrimp in there.

 

Wow. They look really cool. How much did the shipping cost?

 

Wow. They look really cool. How much did the shipping cost?

I paid $25 for the fish, got a $1.25 discount, and shipping was $12.99. So the total of all of it together was $36.74. They place I ordered them from was in my state (California), thankfully, which is probably why the shipping wasn't much, but most other places were going to charge like $40-70 just for shipping $30 worth of tiny fish. I definitely need to look into some LFS near me and see what they have next time. I stick to PetSmart usually (I work at one and get discounts on lots of stuff) but have to look elsewhere for rarer fish and other items.

 

The nearest online fish selling store costs $50 shipping, which in my opinion doesn't make sense to buy from. Some LFS let you place orders for free if their breeder has them in stock. You could check if any of your LFS do such things.

 

The nearest online fish selling store costs $50 shipping, which in my opinion doesn't make sense to buy from. Some LFS let you place orders for free if their breeder has them in stock. You could check if any of your LFS do such things.

Most of the LFS I could find near me didn't have websites or anything. There were a few that I could call but they didn't have any nano rasboras on their list of fish. mostly saltwater stuff. but the site I got mine off of seems decent and they shipped faster than I expected but have some good variety and I'm not spending a ton for some triple-bagged fish in a foam box, you know? they added a heat pack too, though it's not been super cold here.

 

If you think that ordering them online, go for it. They sound like a pretty decent website.

 

Lost one rasboras today sometime after my daily water change. I'm wondering if he got caught somewhere and I just didn't notice. The rest are doing fine. All are colored up so I know they're not stressed (though they lose some color when I do the water changes). I'm dosing Prime and Stability with every water change just to make sure any bits of ammonia or nitrite that are still around aren't harmful. I used strips to test today and it was showing 0 nitrite and a little bit of nitrate. I'll do the liquid test either tomorrow or Monday.

They're definitely spunky fish though! One is confident and likes to hang out in the front with me while the others hide in the back and occasionally move around the rest of the tank. There is some bickering going on between the biggest male and some of the others (I don't know how many are male or female), but I'm assuming it's just working out the hierarchy of the school.

Rotala will be here by Tuesday and I'm sure they'll like some of that extra cover. I'm trying to figure out what to do about the biofilm on the top of the water that isn't really going away. Got a new light for the tank as well, since I'd just squeezed a long 8 watt one between the branches of the wood above the water. Now I've got a magnetic usb one that is brighter and not as difficult to deal with. Chucked a couple bladder snails in there too (sister's tank is overloaded with them and I'm sure a few wouldn't be an issue). Gonna look into getting some frozen brine shrimp as well since they're not super interested in the flakes I have.

Other than that, it's looking good. Bit of white fuzzy film on the wood, dwarf water lettuce is doing okay (one leaf is going yellow but I'm keeping an eye on it), and shrimp aren't having any issues.
Based on coloring alone it looks like I have 3 females and 4 males, though I could be wrong.