5 Gallon Planted Journal - R.I.P. Mr. Betta and little tank! (!56k)

[Karackle]

Well, I am happy to report that after a weekend away, instead of a disaster, I came home to find my tank looking quite lovely. The very crooked (tallest) wisteria on the right has straightened out nicely, some of the other wisteria plants appear to have grown a bit, and the cabombas have straightened out and grown as well! All three Otos are frolicking around the tank and the betta is doing his thing Finally, i can breath a little easier about this tank as it seems to be stable. (the mini-cycle is also over, back to 0 ammonia and nitrIte, ~10 nitrAte )

[mybrotherdarrell]

I love your betta - he's so pretty!

And I love your idea of placing the heater at the very bottom - I've never thought of that, and it would work perfectly in my tank because I have lots of large rocks at the bottom to hide it. However, in your tank, you might want to try hiding it behind the wisteria. *shrug* Just a thought.

Anyway, I love your tank with all the different textures and colors - it looks really nice. Keep up the good work.

[Karackle]

Thanks! I'll send the compliment along to him! hehehe

Thanks for the thought, I'm not sure I can fit it there with the filter hidden by the wisteria as well, but i have thought about it. I keep hoping that wisteria, cabomba and crypt wendtii will fill in along the whole back wall more. I also need to replace one of the suction cups to keep it parallel to the bottom. Once side always drifts up! I also find with the heater in that configuration the tank temp tends to be more even. Thanks again for the suggestion though, i'll take another look! I might be getting a whole new heater soon though and keep this one as my extra/QT heater.

And thanks for compliments on the overall look of the tank, i've worked really hard on it, and have had some big and sad setbacks, so it's really encouraging to hear the positive feedback! :-D

[Karackle]

Well it's been a while since I updated this thread, I'll post some pics tonight before and after a major rescape. I pulled out all of the Wisteria to go in my new 30g, it gets too big too fast for this tiny tank, but I got some plantes from the SNS here that need slightly higher light and whatnot and I plan on planting them. I got some marsilea minuta that is starting to put out new plantlets for ground cover and a few others that had been intended for the 20g but weren't fairing too well in there so into the slightly higher light 5.5 they'll go. I pulled most of the cabomba for the 30g as well, but I left a little of it because it does seem to do well in this tank, if it doesn't fair well in the 30 i'll move it back to the 5.5. Currently there are only 3 Otos in this tank, my Betta is not doing too well so I moved him to a small QTT where he can sit comfortably on top of some silk plants near the surface of the water, unfortunately, I don't think he'll be going back in this tank, so I'll need to find a new resident to keep the Otos company and some color back to the tank. Haven't seen a Betta I love yet though...

[nugzboltz]

Nice tank Karackle. I have a similar low-tech setup , and it's nice change of pace to see a simple setup amongst all the fancy, high-tech ones.

Did you ever have any issues with the Cabomba? I had some when I started out my tank, but got rid of it after two months because it kept shedding its leaves and clogged my filter all the time. Then it started thinning out and uprooted all the time. So I've been happy ever since

[Karackle]

nugzboltz - thanks! I haven't any major problems with the Cabomba, no. It didn't fair well and got really leggy in my 20g, but it's done great in the higher lighting of my 5.5g. I'm hoping it continues to do well in my new 30g also. So far it's looking pretty good but it's only been a short time :-P

[Karackle]

UPDATE 8/11

Well as I mentioned earlier today I pulled a lot of the plants from my 5.5g to put in my 30g and planted a bunch of stuff that had been floating in the 20g (some of which hadn't been doing too well when it arrived) None of it is very tall or taken hold yet so the tank is looking quite sparse at the moment. I just realized I never posted pictures of the marsilea minuta planted though, so that's in here as well.





And a shot of one of my Otos checking out his reflection in the glass cracked me up:


As always, questions, suggestions, comments, concerns etc. are more than welcome! But please keep in mind, a lot of stuff has just been planted in small quantities and needs to grow in quite a bit Enjoy!

[Karackle]

Otos were posing for me today so I snapped a few pics, enjoy!

Silly camera focussed on the wrong thing!


This one is quite a bit clearer:


And the third little chubber (he's a little more shy than his buddies :

[demonbreedr16]

Is your betta doing any better? Your tank is very nice BTW.

[Karackle]

demonbreedr - Hi, sorry I just saw your post, thanks for the concern, unfortunately, he's not doing any better but he is still with me. I'm keeping him in a separate small tank with vert little water flow (just a tiny corner air-powered filter) and some soft fake plants he can sit on near the surface. He's a trooper. The tumor doesn't appear to be getting too much larger, but it's certainly not going away either. I've been spoiling him by feeding him frozen bloodworms that he absolutely loves and trying to make what I am sure are the last days of his life happy ones, he's got the energy to launch himself after bloodworms (well any food actually, but he's most enthusiastic about the bloodworms) so I don't think he's suffering too much. It's when he stops going after food that i need to worry i think...

Thanks for the compliment too!

So yeah....as much as I hate to say it, this means i need a new centerpiece fish in that tank....Should I go with another Betta? Or something new this time? There are 3 Otos in the tank, and as cute as they are, I'd like someone who swims in the middle of the water column too

[Karackle]

Quick update....
After all the suggestions of "interesting" fish to put in this tank now that my Betta no longer resides here, I decided I simply can't deny the fact that I love how pretty guppies are so I went with guppies. There are 2 male guppies in this tank now, a yellow cobra and a lyretail delta.
Marsilea minuta continues to grow, the tank is still looking a little sparse, you can't see the hygro polysperma 'rosanervig' yet, it's growing low behind the DW, i might move it out front until it's taller. Also please excuse the floating plants, I'll post another update later once they've been planted (and the tank is looking less sparse ) I'll also try to get some pictures of the guppies. They've been very busy playing in the bubble wall though, so no promises

[Karackle]

Ok, planted the floating plants and I added a Betta. I was going to leave it with just the guppies but when I was at the LFS with my boyfriend getting fish for his tank, he noticed a gorgeous betta from across the room....he's orange with iridescent purple tips on his tail and fins! I know pet/fish store Bettas aren't the healthiest generally, but he was so gorgeous I had to have him!

Anyway, here's the new Betta boy (the ones without the flash are blurry, but show the orange color the best, the ones with the flash show the iridescent purple the best):








And the guppies (again some pics are blurry but show the colors best)



lyretail delta:


yellow cobra (and a good shot of the purple edges on the betta)


Full Tank Shots, this one from above to show how much the anubias has grown since i first planted it, it started with like 5 leaves!


FTS


and a shot of the hygro poly 'rosanervig' starting to poke out from behind the Crypt

this started out as a couple small pieces broken off the larger stems in the 30g, they were only about 1/2-1inch tall when planted a couple weeks ago, I think the tank will look really nice when they get taller!

[Karackle]

Well, the peace lasted a few days, but when I got home from the conference I was at yesterday there was a nice chunk taken out of the tale of the Yellow guppy. No massacres by the Betta, but I guess he got a little nippy. So I removed the guppies and put them in my 30g. So it's back to a Betta + 3 Otos tank.

In other news, the male endlers in the 30g think the yellow male guppy is a female and have been chasing him around ah well...

[Karackle]

A few quick updated tank shots, still looking really sparse, it's not growing in as fast as I hoped, I think I might add a few more plants depending on what I find at my LFS tomorrow




And my Betta flaring at his own reflection that he could see when I turned off the bubble wall to get pics




isn't he pretty?


I miss my pretty blue and turqoise boy in this tank (he's still kickin' in his shallow, low/no flow hospital tank) but I'm just in love with this new orange guy too! I think he's stunning with his purple trim!

[lauraleellbp]

Wow, he really looks fantastic when he's flaring!

Can't wait for everything to grow in, I think the tank will look fabulous.