I suck at designing a tank for my female.

[IonBaller07]

Well I gave up on breeding for a long while, since marina bit of a chuck of snowflakes tail (hes still pretty) and snowflake had nibbled on Marinas dorsal. Then I realized I had kingdra in his own 5g,snowflake in his own 10g, but poor marina was stuck in her 5g with 3 neons and a ghost shrimp . So I decided I am going to switch marina and the neons with snowflake, so she can have the 10g, but I wan to make it really nice for her since its pretty bare right now. I have a few questions though because basically Im stupid.

1) What kind of live plant is that grass looking stuff, I wanted to put some of that in the tnk because its really cool looking? What other kinds of plants are good in low light (I think it came to 1.5 wpg) and doesnt look terrible.

2) I want to sand, is there some type of snail/cory that will stir the sand for me, I will still do it occasionally but I dont want to risk forgetting and killing them all, just a little help would be nice. Also so you guys know a way to make dunes or raised spots in the sand without it all falling to the bottom or falling apart.

3) I have a few options as for the stock I will add, I will either a) put in 3 more neons to give them a real shoal for once b) try to make a female sorority in the tank c) go a completely different route with some corys or a blue ram or something (I dont know Im just listing stuff).

4) Any other tips or cool ideas you guys have? Im basically starting a new tank and want it tobe more creative then my crap other one.

If anything goes wrong or outgrows I could easily aquire another 10g.

[onekatietwo]

I have a grass looking plant in mine (you can see it in the tank photos thread) and at petsmart, they were selling it under the name "Java Grass". So far it has done alright in low light. It seems to be dying a bit, but I kind of have abused it by moving it a ton and even putting it in a goldfish tank for a while where it froze and was nibbled on by giant goldfish and a koi.

Creativity, well, mostly you'll have to come up with that on your own. You can use photos or magazine collages or movie posters as the backround of the tank (though some, myself included, may argue that this borders on the edge of tacky and creative)

Maybe come up with a theme?
I have one with a glow in the dark constellation map as the background, a moon buggy/rover as decorations, and i have ideas for floating planets/balls (anchored to the bottom with fishing line) so it has a space theme.

Malaysian Trumpet snails are excellent sand stirrers. They reproduce a ton, but supposedly they keep themselves in check as long as your water is good because they won't have enough food to eat to make a billion babies. I've read that this isn't quite true though. Anyway, they're cheap and it's generally agreed that they are great at stirring sand and won't harm your plants much (not sure how true this is)

Elodea has grown REALLY well for me in low light.

On sand: I've heard that you have to be really careful if you ever want to scrape algae because it stirs up the sand and then it will rub against the glass and scratch it.

Anyway, good luck. Can't wait for pictures.

[dramaqueen]

A female sorority is a good idea, too.

[IonBaller07]

Yah I really want to do a soroity, I was going to breed one but that didnt work, how many females could I have in the tank with 1 female,3 neons, and 1 shrmp?

Ohh, somehow I didnt see your post at all katie, thanks for all the info. I have seen the little packages for that java grass at petco but I never knew what it looked like. I think I will have tall plants in the back and the grass in the front.

Im thinking a Malaysion trumpet snail sounds like a great idea, not only is it pretty but it will serve a purpose.

[dramaqueen]

You can have 4 females. I wouldn't do less than 4. The more females you have, the more it spreads out the aggression. Its a 10 gallon tank, right? I think you'd be ok with 4 females, 3 neons, one shrimp and a snail. If you want to know anything about snails, ask Lupin. He's our snail expert.

[mumzy]

Also so you guys know a way to make dunes or raised spots in the sand without it all falling to the bottom or falling apart.

I would think you could put some rocks on the sand and then put the sand on top to make a little hill..?

[crowntail lover]

I think you should go with the sorority!!!

[IonBaller07]

Alright Im going to go setup the tankn today, maybe plants idk if I can find any today. But Im going to get sand and maybe the snail. The bettas will wait but I will probably get the 4 females, I have to get them around the same size right? By the way, is that tahitian moon sand just for marine tanks or is it freshwater safe?

[dramaqueen]

I think Lanibaby has tahitian moon sand in her tank. I think there are some pics in the pic section of the forum. I'll have to look it up...

It's the 3rd page of the photo section, the second post down if you want to see pics. It looks really nice and she put some glass gems in it too. Her betta loved it. He kept poking around in it. lol

[IonBaller07]

Ohh I found it that is very nice, do you know if it can grow plants? I dont knowif I would rather have blackor white sand, I guess it will be a "spur of the moment" decison.

Thanks for the help.