Should i be worried?

[fairy74]

Originally Posted by MSG

I like the magic castle theme, but I've noticed my girls don't like to HIDE in caves. I've watched them and they love to swim through crevices and crawl underneath little rock tunnels, but most of them WON'T enter a cave.

The true test is when all the girls minus the bloated one go into the tank. My opinion is there's NOT enough plants & I would add 2-3x more.

I understand it doesn't look that good when there's plants everywhere, but with sororities, it REALLY does help minimize the fights.

When I tried to clear the front of my sorority tank of plants to make it more visually pleasing to me.... it seems to have increased the fighting.

• How long ago have the breeder bettas been in QT?
• How many bettas in the 30G?
• One of those banana plants would look good, they're usually pretty cheap too.

The breeder bettas have been in QT for a week,i think they are good to go as she is a highly recommended breeder and they are looking far more lively than the others ever did.

There are five bettas in the 30G right now all looking good.

I will look in to a banana plant for sure,is that midground?

Not sure if i will stick at the seven yet,i will see how it goes for a month or so with the seven together.

[MSG]

I see the banana p for about $3 at the stores, the only thing that scares me is I would have to QT them, the store that sells them keeps the plants with other fish.


http://www.thehomeaquarium.com/banana-plant/

http://www.bonniesplants.com/images/...atic/banab.jpg

Just make sure you don't bury the bananas in your black sand if you get them.

I'm not really a religious QT person, but I would go with the 2 from the breeder. I don't know how you would introduce the 2 breeder girls since the 5 bettas have already been in the tank for a while.

My sorority is non-stop fighting. The girls look horrible. Once again, all the ladies have been removed.

I'm going to give the tank a good gravel cleaning before reintroduction

[Goldie2nd]

MSG love your Avatar Betta is he yours?

[MSG]

Yep, the white one is Akoya aka the pearl HM. He's the first betta that I actually appreciated. Unfortunately nowadays he's gotten pretty lazy and only gets up to move around for pellets. He definitely enjoys posing for pictures and yawning as well.

Fairy, just noticed that little baby cory in your picture of the female that just passed.

Those little tiny cories are usually not good to bring home, because there's a good chance they were born as RUNTS.

Those little guys usually don't survive because genetically they're not strong enough to compete for food.

While they're cute, you have to keep that in mind when you pick them out at the store.

I'd rather have a healthy pair of cories that might breed and create a 20-100 catfish fry.

Keep that in mind. I've had my cories breed before, but I wasn't prepared so I lost all the fry. Water changes @ night & dropping in a tray of ice cubes to lower the temperature a few degrees encourage them to breed because it simulates rainfall.

[Goldie2nd]

wow new news. I think I'll stick with one type of fish the Bettas.

[fairy74]

Well all the girls are in there,i took the five out added another plant from the biorb and then the two new girls..gave them 20 mins to have a look around and then added the others back with least aggresive first.
They all seem ok..in fact the two new girls are acting like they have been in there forever lol.

As for the banana plant..i found just two on ebay as apparently they are rare in the UK,i may buy one in a few days.

And yes i agree the corrie was just to tiny to fight for its share of the food(the other two are bigger than she/he was).

MSG your pearl HM is pretty dam gorgeous.
I hope your girls get it sorted soon, i already have my eye on another girl on ebay..a white and blue,would never find such a colour in a store here.
This could get way to addicting.

[MSG]

• I would highly recommend sticking with the group of girls have right now. You're lucky your tank is LARGE enough, & your bettas are generally from the same spawn.
• Don't mess with the dynamics of the tank other than adding plants. There's way too many beautiful bettas out there. Just learn how to control your impulses till you see one that you can't say no to.
• I've chosen the runt fish before because they're cute, but they NEVER put on weight unless I'm dumping massive amounts of food in the water. Which makes more work for me. I like the fish to be smart enough to search for their own food in the tank by checking out the leaves of the plants.

Also for sources of live plants, you should try your luck on the plantedtank forum. There should other experienced members that are local to the UK that I would rather buy from than internet retailers. You should be able to get a better deal & a wider selection from them.

• Just be careful not to choose plants with a ton of lighting/fertilizing requirements.

I am going to stick with my java ferns/anubias for now until the fighting stops.

At this point, I have no other choice but to set up the 20G I'll be trying to speed cycle it in about 5 days or less. Like I said in my previous posts, at least my girls haven't caused each other permanent injuries.

They sure are keeping me busy with their missing fins, other their personal problems with each other the girls all love their food.

• Also once you NAME a fish, that's when you get too emotionally attached to them. When Akoya was just a plain halfmoon betta, I didn't really care too much about whether he seemed happy or not.

I sort of adopted him back in January/February from another owner that didn't take care of him, kept him in really slimy 5.0 ammonia water with decorations that had paint peeling off of them. I think he finally got a name I think late July or early August of this year.

[fairy74]

My anubias hastifolia is odd,it has taken root very well on an ornament cave thingy and is growing new leaves and yet some are again turning brown..very frustrating.

I wont be going for any plant that needs bright light as my lights clearly arent that great.

Why is it that such pretty fish have to be so aggresive when kept together lol.