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I don't know what I want

4K views 103 replies 11 participants last post by  Jexx 
#1 ·
So here's the deal: I currently have two 5 gallon tanks. One houses a male one houses a female. I have the best of both worlds but I want more. Here is their set-up:
Aquarium Aquarium decor


I intend to get another shelf identical in size to the one they are currently on. It measures 31 inches long and 15.5 inches deep. I will place it on either the right or left side of the current one.

Here is my dilemma: I don't know what I want! I'd love a 20 gallon long but I don't know if I can swing it. My husband BARELY agreed to another tank and he thinks I'm getting a 10 gallon lol. I really should be choosing between a 10 or 15 gallon. I kind of want to do Low tech planted. So low light plants. I don't think I could handle a NPT because I like things neat and tidy and still want decorations. I can't decide whether I want a community of small fish, a sorority of girls or if I want to divide and do another male and female.

I really need to over think this because this is the last tank I will be able to have for a couple years without my husband leaving me XD

Give me your creativity!!!
 
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#54 ·
I am still deciding. I think I know what I want but there is still so much to decide on. I would love to have a million tanks. If it was up to me I would line my walls with tanks with different fish in them :D My husband hates my fish though so until my children are old enough to rally on my side (they are only 3) I'll have to stick with my two 5 gallons and a 15. I was gonna try for the 20 but I realized my shelf isn't deep enough for it :(
 
#55 ·
Ok, as promised here's the pic. The left side is covered by my giant silk plant & the rest are live plants. The right side is what they call wisteria in the stores around here. :roll: I haven't had an aquarium with plants for a long time, but I'm pretty sure it's not wisteria. I just decided to divide up the stalk (they were bunhed when I got them) & try out making a little jungle scene with it. It seem to be growing even more that way now.
 

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#56 ·
The plant on the far right side looks like bacopa to me. Your tank looks great! I have that same silk plant. I love it because I can hide my filter and heaters behind it and the fish like to lay in it.
 
#57 ·
Thank you for letting me know that. I haven't had time to compare it to pics to find out. Well, it's my first bacopa plants then. I went to two different stores & they both had plants like this labeled Wisteria. I thought I was losing my mind until I went home & looked up pics of Wisteria, lol. Funny thing is I can't find wisteria around here now, but I made due with what I had & it seems to be working out.

I have the silk plant for the same reason. I love it & so do the girls.
 
#58 ·
I love it!!! It's so green and pretty :)
 
#59 ·
Well, I could very well be wrong, but it doesn't look like any wisteria I've seen. And it looks like the bacopa caroliniana I used to have...
 
#60 ·
Jexx, I love all the green. I took the pic at night so all the girls were getting settled in for sleep. So, they weren't out & about in the pic. I can't wait to see your pics after you get your tank set up. Oh & my daughter is only 2, but she already asks her Dad to take her to the fishy store. The first baby betta I got she looked at him tilted her head, folded her little hands like she was praying, & said please get the fishy Daddy. He was defensless! So, home we went with a baby betta.

Tabbie, I pretty sure it's not Wisteria too. I'm going to say bacopa since it looks more like that & I just want to believe I have bacopa since I've never had it before & it's thriving in my tank, lol.
 
#64 ·
That is soooo sweet!!! My daughter and son love our fishies. My daughter loves to feed and talk to Esmeralda. When I first got Galileo before Christmas, my son who couldn't speak very well at the time called him Cupcake. He still loves Galileo better although now he can say his name. Ever since getting these fish he has really bloomed :)

I love all your plants. Do you have any pictures of your fishies?
 
#63 ·
Shady I am in love with your tank. Its beautiful. Your girls live in there with tetras right? It looks like the perfect place for a group of princesses!
 
#66 ·
Yep. In that picture I can find 8(ish) of my girls, 7 of the tetras, one loach. The kids picked the castle (It's huge!) and I love it too. If we go with the Princess theme, it's the Beasts' castle deep in the wilderness. And getting deeper as the plants fill in :)
 
#78 ·
I finally got my charger & I took these pics today just for you Jexx. It's a pic of what I call the parade of girls. My girls line up to swim through my hand. It's so funny.
Here's another where they turn around & go back through my hand again.
That is awesome! That is my favorite thing ever posted on here. That cracked me up :lol:
 
#73 ·
omg that is hilarious!!!! I love it! every time i put my hand in my girl's tank she bites me :/
 
#74 ·
It all started because of one of my girls I got when she was a tiny baby. I would put my hand in her bowl & she would snuggle into it. After she got bigger & I set up the sorority tank she still came to the top for snuggles. One by one the girls started snuggling my hand too until it turned into them forming a line & taking turns to swim into my hand. Who knew fish could have such good manners as to form a line & wait their turn, lol.
 
#75 ·
i love it! it is just so sweet. i wish i wasn't afraid to touch my fish lol. I know they can't hurt me, I think I am worried about them. Maybe one time i'll try it. what are your girls names?
 
#76 ·
So far I only have 2 named. My blue girl I got as a baby was named Baby, lol. It just sort of stuck. The runt that is in my hand in the first pic is Gidget because she little & feisty. I was thinking Lavi for my purplish colored girl, but I can't think of names for my blue CT or my Cambodian CT.

As you can see I'm not good with names. My male VT is simply named Mr. Fishy, lol.

How's your aquarium planning going? To you get any supplies yet?
 
#80 · (Edited)
oh that is quite all right fishy mom! they are worthy lol.

but since we are all here, I'm thinking I may be able to swing a 20 long after all. If I do go with a 20 long how does this change my plans? Does this increase my options for stocking? what can I put in a 20 long? Also, does anyone here have any experience with taking a female who has been in her own tank and introducing her into a new sorority?
 
#82 ·
20 gal you can put a bunch of fish in, the general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon, so 10 2 inch fish, if you have a ton of plants like my tanks do you can push that number a bit, and to make a sorority with an existing fish is easy enough, get your new tank set up and I would a tleast get all the work done water heated/conditioned and maybe start a cycle or just wait and add fish, some people do a fishless cycle some do it with the fish, to me it doesn't make a difference depends on how much time I have, but get the tank all set up and decorated you will need tons of fake/real plants some little pots and such for them to hide in and so on, just add all the girls at once so no one has established territory in tank, then well sit back and watch, they will establish a pecking order, they will fight and chase each other around, but it should not look like a wwf royal rumble, the big thing is having enough stuff in the tank to break line of sight so one can run away if needed, and watch them for a few hours when first putting them in and keep an eye on them when you can, you can get like a net breeder to put girls in time out if needed, and from that point on if you want to add another just move things around in the tank and float the new girl in the cup she came in for a few hours in the tank so they can all come and see her and she can see them, that's what I have been doing with good sucess
 
#81 ·
Here is my 46 gal bowfront there is a male king betta in it, various guppies, various mollys, some platies I believe, barney the 7 inch placo, 2 peacock rainbow fish, 2 turquoise rainbow fish, 2 boesemani rainbow fish, 2 albino corys, and 3 sydontis lace catfish I know tha'ts a mouth full
Aquarium Freshwater aquarium Aquarium decor Feeder fish Fish



Here is my 29 gal sorority tank in this tank there is about 12 or so female bettas in their various kinds even a double tail,2 albino corys, 1 spotted cory,1 stingray suckerfish, 2 sydontis lace catfish and a 6 inch rainbow shark named gargamel, he makes a great referee for when the girls try to hold their wwf tryouts
Aquarium decor Freshwater aquarium Aquarium Aquatic plant Aquarium lighting


here is the stingray suckerfish cute little guy
Aquarium decor Aquarium Freshwater aquarium Terrestrial plant Plant


I have been trying different kinds of fish and so far I have not had any issues ' well besides one, one of my bettas is really really aggressive I tried giving him a albino cory cat to keep his tank clean, as soon as he saw it he flared up and attacked, good thing I was watching I pulled the cory from his tank and put him in the sorority tank, since this is already pic heavy I wont add another but i have a king who lives with 2 serphe tetras, a black phantom tetra,a spotted cory, and a couple of ghost shrimp
 
#83 ·
ohh and here is a pro tip, if you are wanting fishtanks and such try craigslist and see what people are selling, I got the 29 gal with stand, hood, light, filter, and heater for 100 bucks, the 46 gal bowfront I got from craigslist as well, stand, heater, gravel, canister filter, glass hood, light and about 40 pounds of coral for hardscaping for 180 bucks
 
#86 ·
java fern, anachris, java moss, ambulia, cabomba, ludwigia, hornwort, anubias, wisteria, pennywort, bacopa, some crypts, vals
these were all listed as plants that feed off the water column.
I am thinking (4) bunches of anachris, (2) hornwort, (1) wisteria (do i need soil for this?) (2) bacopa australis, (1) pennywort, (4) anubias, (4) java fern and some java moss. would these quantities stock a 20 long appropriately?
 
#87 ·
That is personal choice, seems to me whenever I am setting up a tank and getting plants I never seem to get enough, but that because I usually find something new and want to add some to all my tanks, and you do not need soil persay but you will need to fertilize if you do not have soil, all of my tanks are going to soil and sand/gravel caps 5 down, 4 to go, and you will need good lighting 6500k bulb is best I dont even want to guess how much I spent on my 29 and 46 gal tanks these last coupe of weeks in plants and fish lol
 
#89 ·
you can get tubes and those compact bulbs in 6500k without much trouble if you shop around enough they are cheap or not much more than a normal bulb I did try a plant aquarium bulb and it made everything look yellow, so it's not really any more complicated, the NPT tank with soil isn't too hard to do pleanty of members on here do them I am not an expert at them but I know what works for me oldfishlady is the expert on site, wiht a npt its about achieving balance a mini eco system but even I cheat a bit with some fert and c02 to get things rolling
 
#90 ·
yes i read OFL's post on NPT.She provides excellent info! I am not really going for a NPT though.. As I mentioned at the beginning of my post I do intend to have decor and even some silk plants to fill in spaces. I want live plants for the Benefit of the fish and also because I like the look but the plants I am choosing will be low light. Also most of the plants I have chosen get their nutrients from the water column. I want to make sure however that I don't make any mistakes. So with those intentions in mind and the list of plants I have given as well as the tank dimensions (20 long) (originally was going to be 15 which is why i am now reopening my questions. I thought i previously had it all figured out XP) would the list of plants be suitable for low light, sand substrate and would they fill in a 20 long? or do any of the plants I listed need soil and do I need more/ less of the plants listed. I still am intending to have a sorority and 6 cories.
 
#91 ·
Most of the ones on your list I've grown with a full spectrum light (the ones that came with the aquarium kit), sand, & no fert dosing.

Oh & that mystery plant we were talking about is now growing tops that look like Wisteria. I trimmed some of them & made a little bush out of the trimmings. The trimmings bush looks like wisteria. It is bizarre. The rest now look like half bacopa & half wisteria plant, lol.
 
#92 ·
Most of the ones on your list I've grown with a full spectrum light (the ones that came with the aquarium kit), sand, & no fert dosing.
awesome thank you! are there any on my list that you haven't grown in those conditions?

Oh & that mystery plant we were talking about is now growing tops that look like Wisteria. I trimmed some of them & made a little bush out of the trimmings. The trimmings bush looks like wisteria. It is bizarre. The rest now look like half bacopa & half wisteria plant, lol.
weird!! although i read somewhere that certain types of wisteria can change their appearance based on growing conditions and age and size. chameleon plant!
 
#93 ·
All those plants should do fine with little care, as far as filling out the tank in question, I can't really say if you look at my tanks they are "heavily" planted so I do not think you have enough personally, and when a seller says bunch they could mean 3 stems or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 I have seen no standard defintion of "bunch" and you are in canada so I can't even suggest a place to order from, because of customs and such other than ebay I have used tricker.com but we also have the southeasts largest place here in knoxville
 
#100 ·
Snails need to eat too. Give him some veggies and algae wafers. Snails eat veggie diet.
 
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