Upgraded Tank at Work

[pittipuppylove]

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited to finally have gotten to do this. When I'm not at school, I work at a vet clinic that my mom owns. A few years ago, before I was really into fish, one of the technicians got a betta and set it up in the lab area in a little one gallon tank with one little plastic plant. Since I got into fish keeping, and more recently bettas, I've been nagging my mom to let me upgrade the tank to something more suitable, and she finally ok'd it (probably doesn't hurt that the tech that got and took care of the fish was recently freed to pursue other oppertunities and we therefore don't have to worry about "offending her fish keeping abilities"). While I realize that a 1 gallon is arguably accepable for a betta, the goal was to put together something that's easier to take care of, and maintaining stable water perameters is way easier in a larger tank.

So here's the original tank in the lab area. No heater and only one (sharp) plastic plant, one 100% water change once a week.


And the new tank located in the doctor's office. 5.5 gallons, uses a (baffled) Marina s10 Slim filter, heated to 80*, and is fully planted with fast growing, easy to care for plants. I also picked up some Omega One Betta Buffet pellets to replace the crappy junk food they had been using. If I'm not home on a weekend, I'll be instructing someone there to do the required water changes and fertalizer dosing.


lol I'm now known as the fish nazi, as I refuse to let anyone put any more fish in there. You should have heard the suggestions - neon tetras, male guppies, and I nearly screamed when someone asked about a goldfish.

[LeoTheLakerBetta]

Wow you are a good person. I am sure that will be a much happier betta and much more interesting to watch. It is a beautiful setup. Good job!

[pittipuppylove]

Thanks Doing this kind of thing makes me happy, especially knowing that it's helping the fish. I'm just hoping the plants grow in nicely.

The betta is kinda iffy at the moment. He's spent most of his life (I'd guess three or so years) in that little hex tank with care that's sporadic at best, and I think it's taken it's toll on him. Granted he's only been in there for a day, but he pretty much sits at the bottom of the tank, hiding behind the plants. He swims tilted at an angle and seems to have a bit of trouble staying at the top of the tank for long. I really hope he makes it, but even if he's coming to the end of his life, at least he can be comfortable and warm for the last of his days.

[ChoclateBetta]

Glad you are helping him by giving him everything a Betta could want.

[pittipuppylove]

Thanks!

I went in to check in on him earlier today and found out that the little bugger's been busy. There's now a rather large bubble nest in one corner of the tank - lol I had to almost physically restrain myself from "squee"-ing; I know bubble nesting isn't nessicarily a sign of health or happiness, but I was going in almost wondering if he'd still be alive today. He still isn't very active, but I'm thinking that may also be because he's a rather large, older CT with heavy fins and I'm very accustomed to my young HMDTPK zipping around his tank with ease. It's kinda crazy - he looked like a small, homely, blue CT in the original tank, but in this new tank you can see that he's actually a quite large, stunning, blue/purple/red/copper multicolor.

And I also found some appropriate tankmates for him, per the request of some of the people that work there. I hope they enjoy the small colony of Malasian Trumpet Snails that I introduced to help keep the sand aerated.