# New "Small" tank for bettas!



## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

My "loach/betta" tank is still a work in progress, but I figured since I had the tank, I might as well transfer the occupants into it for now. So yesterday, I did a complete tank clone from my 29 gallon. So here are the bettas and loaches in their 75 gallon tank! Well, not really since I have filled the water only up to about the 50 gallon mark. 









This was supposed to eventually be a paludarium, but I have decided to put my orchids in a regular terrarium with no animals.

So specifics: 

Occupants are 4 female bettas. 5 yoyo loaches and 2 golden dojos, and random black skirt tetras. Oh, almost forgot, and a female albino BN pleck. 

Plants are 2 types of anubias since the loaches have eaten nearly everything else. 


I have a "sump" integral filter type concoction I made on the end that puts out a very gentle water output.









I put a rock bottom (sandstone flags) on one end with a pile of mostly smooth rocks for little caves and hiding holes. This will be more of a river bottom experience for the fish. There is also a large build up of wood on the side with the black sand. 

Future plans: A spray bar. 

A wall of moss hiding the filter.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Lovely!


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## garstrom (Jan 5, 2014)

Looking good, keep us posted with updated pics, always fun to see new projects here @ AF


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

Cool tank, are you planning to get any more inhabitants?


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

This morning I nabbed my 5 pristella tetras and threw them in there as well. I also forgot to say there is a killie fish in there. I think that will be it for the occupants of the tank. 

I was supposed to be getting 4 more female bettas, but don't know if that will happen, so I will just wait. I am looking out for non-brown colored ones like reds, blues, greens, whites. Just for a bit of variety. I can often be talked into getting a female betta because no one looks at them as anything more than a chance to try betta breeding.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

Ooh yay, can't wait for pics .


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

These are not sorority raised, but if no one wants them for spawning in this FB group I have two steel blue sibling ladies and a blue and platinum marble.


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

*Re: rant follows*

So this is the deal: I talked to Henningsc about getting 4 females. I haven't heard from him since. He said he was sending them on Monday. That he had some kind of scheme that would make the shipment cost him only 4 bucks. 

So, they have been in the mail since monday. What are they in, a pill bottle, and then in an envelope? I wrote him back in despiration twice telling him that I would pay for real shipment (you know like a cooler and air in the bag). 

The fact is that I live in a tiny out of the way town in the desert. If a shipment is not marked "expidite" or 2nd day air, no one cares. 

I have had quite a few shipments linger for a week or two in a warehouse in Dallas. It is not temperature controlled. 

We are just not on a major shipping hub. If I want something, it does not come direct to my town, it goes to another town, and then goes by another carrier. 

It is totally different if you pay extra for the fed-ex or UPS overnight or whatever. 

Okay, enough of my worries. It has been eating me up inside all week. I took a day off from school (for which I am paying 360 per credit hour) just to wait for fish that never came. 

I am now considering that he may have never sent them but forgot to communicate with me. I really do not want to open up a package to find 4 decomposing bodies, (it has gotten up to 90 degrees twice this week) when I offered to pay $30.00 to have them shipped in a proper cooler the fast method.

:betta: I cannot be trusted with nice things


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

I think I know how he shipped them, but I could be completely wrong. The way pet stores get bettas in are in tiny 2inch by like 1.5 inch little bags. He could be doing that. Check out this link. Shipping Live Fish: Striking Images Reveal How Betta Fish Are Packaged And Delivered (PHOTOS)


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

big b said:


> I think I know how he shipped them, but I could be completely wrong. The way pet stores get bettas in are in tiny 2inch by like 1.5 inch little bags. He could be doing that. Check out this link. Shipping Live Fish: Striking Images Reveal How Betta Fish Are Packaged And Delivered (PHOTOS)


Does he not realize that one week and 90 degrees will equal a dead cooked fish?


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

It is just a guess, I hope I am wrong though.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

big b said:


> I think I know how he shipped them, but I could be completely wrong. The way pet stores get bettas in are in tiny 2inch by like 1.5 inch little bags. He could be doing that. Check out this link. Shipping Live Fish: Striking Images Reveal How Betta Fish Are Packaged And Delivered (PHOTOS)


This is not how most shippers send bettas.

http://www.aquariumforum.com/f86/how-ship-fish-19147.html

This is how to properly box and send fish.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

Oh, I was just thinking how he could do it for $4.


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

A express small flat rate box, cut to fit housing insullation, tape, a bag of fish with water and air. Still you would have to stamp "live fish" all over it, and send it the fastest way possible. No more than 3 days in post, I would think, and never when too cold or too hot. 
That is still going to cost 12 to 15 dollars for one small bag of fish. You could do it with a beta, shrimps, and other easy going fish without spines. Remembering most of the time they are just babies (like dime size) when they are sent. So you could fit 10 tiny baby angle fish in one bag. 

I was quoted 22 dollars from wet spot for some wild bettas and a few nerite snails. I thought it was more than fair.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Ive sent a single fish for right around six, That was the cheapest. Priority. 

No tracking number?


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

You really need a tracking number. I forgot that. I mean, when they deliver, the person who is getting it needs to know when it arrives.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

Tracking numbers are the best thing since people started shipping fish. I hope the site that I am ordering from does it too.*gulp*


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

big b said:


> Tracking numbers are the best thing since people started shipping fish. I hope the site that I am ordering from does it too.*gulp*



Some times you need to ask specifically. You also need the option to be sent to the shippers office so the fish is not spending time in a hot mail box, or on a porch somewhere. One hour in a bag is enough. I cannot imagine 3 days in a box. 

What fish are you ordering? 

Other than the wild bettas, I really have a yearning for angle fish and blood red parrots. I would need big tanks for both so I am not bothering. I can't do anything till I move out of the house I am living in. I can't even fill up my 75 all the way.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

Ok fish will be 1 male blue guppy, 3 female blue guppies,1 pristella tetra, 4 golden pristella tetra, 10 assassin snails, 10 cherry shrimp. And a few more I think. Why can't you fill it all the way to the top? Weight concerns?


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

No I was asking, it is given free with Priority. He did not give you a tracking number?


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

majerah1 said:


> No I was asking, it is given free with Priority. He did not give you a tracking number?


No. He did not give me a tracking number. I asked for it once through I M and then once through email. He is simply not responding to any communication 

I was sent an IM yesterday from someone on this site, telling me that he often forgets to send things he offered to people here at this site. He also does not communicate during the process. I read that after I read most of what was here. 

It is after mail delivery right now. If they were sent last monday, they would have been a whole week in the postage. I am crossing my fingers that he never sent them now. 

------
Brian, I can't fill the tank all the way because my brother owns the house and I promised him I would only fill to the 50-55 gallon mark. He owns the house, so I have to do what he wants. I think the reason is because he had a major tragedy with his 55 gallon back when and he thinks all aquariums are going to shatter and spill hundreds of gallons on the floor. All I can say is I am glad I do not live in his head, but I need to respect that he owns the house.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

How sad. I am sorry. I hope he is OK, he usually does not just wander off into the sunset for so long. Did you pay for them?


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

Well no. I offered to. But it has been a great inconvenience. I have not moved from my house waiting for them and worrying about them. I missed one of the last classes of the semester (in a class I was auditing) because I still thought that a shipment of live animals was coming. That was Thursday. I am quite angry and feel like I have been taken for a fool. I did this out of good faith, and I have lost a lot of trust. I felt badly treated and it is my right to complain. 

He has lost more than me. This is not the way a person who might want to be respected should act. I guess that is his choice.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

kalyke said:


> Brian, I can't fill the tank all the way because my brother owns the house and I promised him I would only fill to the 50-55 gallon mark. He owns the house, so I have to do what he wants. I think the reason is because he had a major tragedy with his 55 gallon back when and he thinks all aquariums are going to shatter and spill hundreds of gallons on the floor. All I can say is I am glad I do not live in his head, but I need to respect that he owns the house.


That's a good reason to not fill the tank to the top. Why not put in a few plants in it and make it look nice? Like ones that can grow out of the tank, that would be a good use of the empty space .


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

kalyke said:


> Well no. I offered to. But it has been a great inconvenience. I have not moved from my house waiting for them and worrying about them. I missed one of the last classes of the semester (in a class I was auditing) because I still thought that a shipment of live animals was coming. That was Thursday. I am quite angry and feel like I have been taken for a fool. I did this out of good faith, and I have lost a lot of trust. I felt badly treated and it is my right to complain.
> 
> He has lost more than me. This is not the way a person who might want to be respected should act. I guess that is his choice.



Glad you have not paid. I would count them as not coming, truthfully.


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## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

That is what this is for:

































These are pieces I am making out of fiberglass for the background. I just decided that I wanted them to off gass for a few months to make sure they were perfectly fish safe. I will be caulking them to something to hang, probably a piece of thin plexiglass. The long one is a "riparon" planter type thing, and the big triangular one is a cave unit with a planter on top. It will also have a kind of a fountain. I just wanted the tank to be put to use (put fish in it) because I had it around, and what the heck. Use it. I also wanted to be sure that my hand made filter actually worked and that the fish would be healthy and safe. 

Like I said it is a work in progress.


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