Llj's 10g Journal...

I had a 10g divided betta tank, but the bettas in that tank took so well to bowl life in Miami that I moved them to bowls up here, leaving me a 10g with only one betta and three bridget rasboras to play with.

Quick stats:

Substrate: Gravel with some root tabs near the cryptocrynes
Lighting: One 24" T-5 28W fixture with 6700k bulb, so 2.8 WPG
CO2: Nutrafin defuser with a DIY mix, changed weekly. Was at 18.6ppm, not great but better than it was before I changed the mix today. Shooting for 25ppm on this tank since algae was never a big deal on this one.
Ferts: Dose twice a week. I need to buy nitrate.
Plants: Cryptocryne wendtii (green, red and bronze), and lutea, some wisteria, some other type of hygro, h. polysperma, some glosso as an experiment that probably won't work, one barclaya longifolia that I can't find right now, and four anubias anchored to driftwood. One anubia barterii, and two petit nana, but the other one is odd. I'm sure it's a petite nana, but it's rather on the large side, but it doesn't look like a regular nana either. Tomorrow, I can zoom in and get a better picture of it.

Here's the tank before the change after I cleaned it of the same yuckiness that plagued my 15g after my trip to Miami.



And here is the tank after I changed everything around. I wonder what I can put in it? The betta is going to be moved, and 3 tiny bridget rasboras equal like one fish. Decisions, decisions, I'll post in Chit Chat to get some imput.



Looking forward to this one, I think it looks really cute right now and I love the driftwood and the anubia arrangement. Hopefully they'll just attach to the wood and then I can just transport them with the driftwood.

Looks nice, personally id leave the Betta in there, makes a nice show fish. Id add a few otto's and double up on the rasboras.

RYO said:

Looks nice, personally id leave the Betta in there, makes a nice show fish. Id add a few otto's and double up on the rasboras.

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Thank you very much RYO. If I could double on the rasboras, I would, but I haven't been able to find boraras brigittae anywhere! The betta has been moved to a small tank and the show fish are T. pumilus, croaking or sparkling gouramis depending on where you are. If I can't find the rasboras, I'll go for another variety like the Espie rasbora.

This system is by far, much more stable than the 15g, which has algae issues. I can work more with this tank and try and create a prettier layout. I moved the anubias around and kind of like this arrangement. Eventually, this may go for a bigger tank, but the main goal is to root the anubias to the wood. One of my barclaya bulbs also sprouted, so with some TLC, that will be a better looking plant by May. Again, I have a duckweed blob on top, please ignore, it's for the gouramis, which love it.

fishkiller_nomore said:

Pretty! It's almost like a flower arrangement

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Thank you very much. Here is an update. No big deal. Plants are growing well. I am slowly increasing my Nitrogen dosing, since I'm still testing near zero. Had to separate some duckweed and put it with my bettas until I can find a way to get rid of it. I cut too much of the hygro, but I was getting a little sick of pruning it every week.



Thank you for reading.

EDIT: My T. pumilus bred, but unfortunately one of them got stuck behind my CO2 difusion ladder. Sadly, I found it too late and it was dead. Fortunately, it wasn't one of the breeding pair, but an extra gouramis that I had.

Time for another update. T. pumilus bred again! This time, I have fry. Pair are much better since odd man/woman out died. The male is guarding the nest as I type. The fry are under a cryptocryne leaf.

Still not getting the nitrogen levels I want, but I'm not noticing any algae in this tank either, so this is good. I might not worry so much about Nitrogen, since I got babies now. )

Here are some pictures, including some of the breeding pair. Sorry, lousy camera phone, but I do the best I can with what I've got.





EDIT: Finding fry has really surprised me. Why? Because I did an extensive gravel clean this afternoon for my weekly maintenance, so I'm sure I sucked up most of them.

Time for an update. I added some Egeria najas from my 15g to this tank. In case the T. pumilus breed again, the fry have more places to hide. I'm pretty sure I sucked up most of them, however, when I vacumned the substrate.

I'd love to invest in a few little loaches or something to eat snails. I have a lot more of the little buggers in this tank than I do in my 15g. Any recommendations? My bettas are getting full! Eventually, these fish would go in my 36g when I move back to Miami, so the 10g would only be a temporary home, 2 months or so. I've heard about Dwarf puffers, but I'm not sure how my sparklers or bridget rasboras will deal with them. Probably not a great idea. But a small loach, maybe?

Here's a picture.

Dwarf freshwater puffers are the only sure fire way to rid a tank of snails for good, BUT you will have trouble with them biting your other fishes tails especially anything with long fins or slow moving like Corys.

If you have another tank you could set up a puffer tank and add them to your plant tank a few at a time for a few days at a time as a snail clean up crew, but DO NOT leave them in there long term.

i seemed to get alot of snails from my plants when my order would arrive or when i took some new ones home from the lfs and after they got out of hand i bought a clownloach and havent seen a snail in about 7 to 8 months now..i know they like to be in groups but mines is pretty cheery..great personality. they dont eat the burrowing snails though i forgot the name trumpet snail i think..

danski said:

i seemed to get alot of snails from my plants when my order would arrive or when i took some new ones home from the lfs and after they got out of hand i bought a clownloach and havent seen a snail in about 7 to 8 months now..i know they like to be in groups but mines is pretty cheery..great personality. they dont eat the burrowing snails though i forgot the name trumpet snail i think..

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Uh... this tank is way to small for a clown loach. They grow to 12 inches and should live for decades. Check out loaches.com and click on clown loaches in the species index to see some awesome pictures of huge clown loaches with tons of character. They're like dogs that live in water. Your clown will eventually need at least a 75 gallon tank if you take care of him well enough to live out a full life. There are smaller loaches that would be OK in a 10 gallon tank but they're not so great at eating the snails.
lljdma, IMO, there is nothing that would rid your snail problem in that size tank, unless it is a species tank, ex. 3 dwarf puffers or a single Figure 8 puffer. But I know you like your pumillas so thats not really what you're looking for! If you have MTS like me, you might consider getting something to eat snails in another tank, so when you find them in your 10 gallon, you can just pick them up and feed them to your puffer, loach, whatever in the other tank.

A 10 gallon tank is too small for any group of loaches and you don't want puffers to kill the rest of your guys... so I guess you're left to just try trapping them yourself. Put a cucumber slice or lettuce leaf in a jar in your tank overnight. Hopefully, the snails come to eat what's in the jar and in early morning (before daylight), remove the jar with snails. Might have to repeat the trap for a few nights depending on your snail population.

The good news is I read that bettas eat snail eggs.

Not even kooli loaches, Wendy?

Well, I know some people don't count coolie loaches in the inch-per-gallon rule. But they still need space. Plus from what I've seen they like to be in goups of 7+, then they get more gregarious.

I didn't think there was a loach that could fit in my tank. There are some great loaches for my 36g and I am already considering Botia striata or the kuhlie loach for that tank. I appreciate the comments, however. I'll try the cucumber/lettuce method and not feed the fish for a few days, and see where that takes me. If I had Hunding in the tank, that could work too. He is the resident betta snail killer. Quite a violent little fellow. I just don't know how he'd get a long with the pumilus. I have my doubts, but the pumilus aren't tiny and are pretty pugnacious too. I do have a 15g with Honeys, harlequins and corydoras, the pumilus could go on a honeymoon while Hunding cleans. Or, I could also just hanker down and do it the old fashioned way, but I'm lazy and I stick my hands in the tank enough!

Thanks a bunch guys!

I know several members here have expressed a wish that my picture quality was better for my tank pictures. Well, I took matters into my own hands and I borrowed a digital camera from a friend. It's an older camera but the quality is much better than my camera phone.

Please let me know what you think, now that there are better pictures to look at. Thank you for your patience. It was as frustrating for me as it must have been for you to look at the pictures of my tanks. In addition, is there a picture here that you think would make a nice avitar? Not that I don't love my dog, but since this tank and the 15g will be dismantled in May (I'm moving back to Miami, taking fish and plants with me), I would like to have a nice memory of what these tanks looked like.











Thanks for taking a look, I am very happy that you can finally see this tank the way I see it everyday.

I like the new glorious technicolor photos llj. Very nice jungle effect.