Can't wait to see it once you have it all set up!

I reaaallly want a huge tank
I'm just staring at all these ads on Kijiji and imagining how many female bettas I could fit in there.

There's a 120 gallon with a stand for only $150 Uuugh, I'd make it so pretty.

 

Wow that's a really amazing deal. I don't know if I could manage such a huge tank though lol. My dad had a 29, 55, and 90 gallon all running at the same time when I was younger...I don't know how he did it.

 

Parents are miracle workers lmao, they raised us! xD

And yeah, decorating the tank with limited supplies would be a paaain. And huge pieces of ornament/driftwood are expensive too :'c

 

Yeah exactly...I don't know why IT'S JUST WOOD!? Lol. I at least have one small piece and another weird looking piece to put it. I'll take pics of all the ornaments and stuff, although I still want a big piece of slate to put in the middle and angle it diagonally. No idea where I'll get that.

 

Looking forward to the pics

And yeah, it's overpriced, but I guess they can justify it. IT takes time for wood to become driftwood, you need waves constantly washing over them, and stuff, One day I will walk by a river and find my own driftwood!

 

I'll definitely be following this. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures when you have the tank set up!

 

The fish

I have a total of 12 girls coming from Thailand off of Aquabid.com. The cost was crazy but I'm excited to see them. Linda Olson is my transhipper and I've already paid her so I hope my fishies come by Wed or Thurs!!! Here they are:

• From Majcha Farm, the super blue, fancy (who reminds me of a calico cat...her name will be Calico), and super red. The super red I asked for so there wasn't an auction. I also bid on this girl by Majcha but I decided not to get her because I didn't realize her auction ended after the ship date for all the other fish I ordered:

• From TMT Betta I got 3 halfmoon plakats: the blue/red/white fancy dragon, blue/orange fancy dragon, and the white platinum.

• From Blimp33 I got 3 halfmoons: the solid copper, black/copper and a solid yellow (I didn't win the auction for the yellow but he had another one similar to sell).

• From Betta hero I got two big ear HMPK's, one that looks purple and one that is pink/orange.

• Then from 3dbetta I got red butterfly halfmoon. I also bid on this girl from 3dbetta and won, but sadly she died before being shipped R.I.P. little cutie.

Total cost for fish plus total shipping was: $354.40 :shock::shock::shock:

I hope they all make the trip and I am eager to see what they look like in person!!!

 

Also will be adding the two girls I have now whom I've had since December 2012/January 2013. Got them as wittle babies from Petco. Prize the blue VT and Spark the red/green/black delta tail (I think..I'm not very good at judging female's tails).



So I have a total of 14 girls. I might add a DT or a CT somewhere down the line since I don't have any. I was more concerned with colors and having a variety of them. I also will probably add my 4 bronze corydora catfish to the tank. There will be 10 Malaysian trumpet snails and 2 olive nerites as well. Maybe some Amano shrimp down the line if I get some algae issues.

 

According to AqAdvisor my stocking level is at exactly 100% without the Amano shrimp. This doesn't take into account live plants though. Heres my results:

Note: Betta [Female] can still become aggressive even if she doesn't show aggression right away. Not recommended to be mixed with peaceful community species. Also, they may jump - lids are recommended.
Warning: Betta [Female] is not recommended to be with Malaysian Trumpet Snail - baby snails will likely to become food.

Recommended temperature range: 75.2 - 80.6 F. [Display in Celsius]
Recommended pH range: 7 - 7.8.
Recommended hardness range: 10 - 15 dH

You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.
Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 182%.
Recommended water change schedule: 30% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 100%

 

Omg can't wait for my Aquabid girls come! They were shipped from Thailand to Linda Olson on Sunday...she hasn't told me when to expect them or anything. Paid express shipping and heard nothing back from her

Also still debating on which lighting to get. I am looking into a t5 HO fixture but it seems they only make them for dual bulbs and I really only need one since this isn't a high-tech tank or anything.

 

So my girls are arriving today! So happy! I still need a hood and sand for my tank. Oh, and some type of lighting. I have to quarantine the girls for 2 weeks at least so I still have time to get it up and running. My plant and snail orders have already arrived as well so hopefully today I can get the sand and hood.

 

So they've all arrived and are currently acclimating...here's some just-out-of-the-box photos:

 

Please think of some good names to help me out! I've already named one of the fancys Calico (4th from the bottom). I want to name the pure white one Snow but I might find something better. The other's I just don't know...the super blue I'll probably just call Blue and the super red Red lol. Probably the same with the yellow but Lemon also sounds cute to me.

 

You could call the blue one Blueberry and the red one Cherry (or Cherri of you want to mix it up)

 

That's cute, I like Cherry...Blueberry is too long a name for me to say lol. I'm still considering it....

 

So last night I finally my sand and hood which were the last things I needed. I actually didn't need to buy any sand because the sand from the two tanks I tore down to make room for this one had more than enough to cover the soil. I will just bring it back and get my $20 back Here's a pic of all the stuff I had to choose from ( I want a bigger piece of driftwood):













And here is the result:


Some of the plants are wilted and haven't recovered yet so hopefully once they get growing the tank will fill in. I really love the red tiger lotus in the middle of the tank, I hope it flourishes

 

Your tank will look really pretty once it all settles in and starts growing! It already looks pretty good!

 

Thanks! The lotus plant is already doing a lot better and has straightened itself out. I bought some plant called "mermaid weed" (on the left foreground) but it seems to be dying I had planned on quarantining the girls for at least 2 weeks but somehow half a dozen or so escaped their cups because they tipped over Luckily everyone is fine and looks healthy. All 14 girls are doing good. The water is dark now because I added some almond leaves and the Mopani driftwood still has some tannins leaking into the water. Today I add the 4 bronze corydoras from my other 10 gallon tank, they LOVE it! They were playing around for hours with each other...it was soooo cute!

 

Viva, I am so excited for you! I can't wait to see more pictures. This is the fun part!!! Enjoy.

 

Some pictures of the girls enjoying their new tank. Still thinking of names, hehe:

 

Oh, they are all so beautiful, each in their own way. I must, must get a white girl.

 

Thank you! Yeah my goal was to get a pure white girl, so glad I did! She's so pretty...her body is so long and slender she looks like a barracuda lol!

 

Some more pictures

Some more pictures of the girls...I've started noticing their personalities more and more each day. This yellow girl stayed in the back of the tank for 2 or 3 days before I could finally get a pic of her. She is probably the biggest girl in the tank but also the most shy.




These two are sisters and both are very small and cute! They make up for their size by being fairly aggressive and holding higher ranks than some of the bigger fish because they love to flare!





Tried so hard to get a pic of the solid red, white and blue girls together but the red one is so shy. Its hard to get a pic of her! The white girl is the least aggressive of them all, I think I've seen her flare ONCE. She just hangs out at the top front of the tank. The blue girl is pretty big and just explores around freely for the most part.




This girl is one of my favorites, her name is Halloween because she looks like she's wearing a face paint mask and her colors are orange, black and a dark blue. Her striped dorsal is so gorgeous, and her little orange head, so cute! Shes hard to get a good pic of.



More pics later

 

So I've been noticing that some of the girls (especially the smaller ones who are at the bottom of the hierarchy) have what seems to be missing scales or something on their bodies. Not all the bettas have it and I'm starting to get worried that I should maybe be separating the affected ones out. The worse is my girl I got as a baby, Spark. She has what seems like black spots or missing scales on both sides of her body. All their fins look fine, just some are a little nipped or torn. Today by all copper girl who had some body damage had a weird white growth on one of the spots now...maybe I'm just overreacting but I'll get some pics up here once I get home.

 

Here is the dark spots I was mentioning...anyone know what they are? Is it just missing scales from fighting? She seems to have more of them now but they other spots seem like they're healing. She has been sparring with Spark and Spark also has similar markings on her body but I couldn't get a good picture. Both are acting normal otherwise although Spark seems stressed a lot lately.