Introducing Racer

Here is my son's Betta that he named Racer. Pretty big upgrade from Petsmart's little cup to heated 10 gallon Spongebob themed tank in a 4 year old's bedroom.

Haha, how sweet for both of the little guys involved

I seem to remember you mentioning getting a couple more fish for the tank after you've finished your fish-in cycle. Have you thought about what you may get? A little school of small fish would look nice in there (and even if your betta is grumpy they are usually too quick for him to get them lol)

Cute! My son is obsessed with his 'Neenaas' (neon tetras) that are in his room.

I agree with AlmostAwesome. You could easily add a nice schooling fish. My betta lives happily with harlequin rasboras and it adds something extra to look at.

I'm thinking about getting some endlers and otos and maybe a ghost shrimp. It will kind of depend on what the have in the stores around here. Hopefully my water test kit will arrive today so I can check the progress of the fish in cycle.

Well good luck! It's kind of fun testing the water (at least for a geek like me lol). I second the rasbora idea I've got espei (aka porkchop) rasboras in mine and they are great little fish!

I love Otos but u might want to add a few more live plants, some of them ONLY eat live algae,(and don't like algae fish food) and they love to clean and hang out in real plants. They can be hard to keep without an established algae source, esp since most at the chain pet stores are starving when u get them, unless they keep them in planted tanks. They like to be kept in groups of 3 or more too! Look for the fattest ones...the thinnest might be too far gone to eat.
Kudos for u for teaching your son to give fish a proper home! Good luck, it's a cute tank!

How long has the tank been set up?
Oto's can be fragile in new set ups & need to be kept in groups
You also need to feed them as there won't be enough algae.
Mine like courgette, broccoli stalks & I grow algae by putting some stone/wood in a bowl of tank water on a sunny window ledge.
Some endlers would be good or ember tetras.
It depends on your Betta how you'd be with shrimp, one of mine lives happily with cherries, my others saw them as tasty snacks

Tank only been set up for 2 weeks so it will be a while before it is ready for more fish. Hopefully my test kit will arrive today so I can check the progress of the fish in cycle. Got some air set up yesterday to help with cycling and for the later additions. My son loves the action air treasure chest. Next thing is some sort of background to hide all the lines and cords behind the tank. It is looking a little cluttered back there.

I was thinking about getting more plants, but I am waiting for the tank to cycle first. I don't know how many plants it would take to matter but I read that they can slow down the cycling process. The ones in there now are growing pretty fast so I'm going to hold off on more for now.

I have heard about otos being starved in pet stores and also that the like cucumbers and zucchini. By the time I get this tank cycled my garden should be producing some zucchini so hopefully I can find otos that aren't to hungry to eat and fatten them up quick.

RIP RACER
He died just a few hours ago.
I am so mad at myself because I am sure that I killed him. I just added some endler/guppy hybrids to his tank and it seems that they were carrying a disease as 2 of them died before Racer died. I have posted in the emergency help section to see if I can save his former roommates before they all die from the same thing.

Oh dear. Are you sure your cycle was over? Sorry to hear it.

FishFanatic04 said:

Oh dear. Are you sure your cycle was over? Sorry to hear it.

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It went into a mini cycle when I added the new fish but I was on top of it with water changes every 20 hours or so. He never showed any signs of ammonia or nitrite poisoning. By the time I figured out something was wrong he was gone.