Afternoon All..

[ENR]

Afternoon all. Thought i'd say hi...er, "hi!"

Ok, thats the formalities out the way.

Little history:
Got given a tank, a heater, a pump and some odds n sods.
So started reading up on the interweb, looked at lots of different things, and set up a tropical tank.
160(ish) litres,4', now home to 3 slightly mad harlequin rasbora, 5 neon tetra, 2 coolie loach, 1 bristlenose, 1 otto, 1 shrimp (last three were freebies) and an uber grumpy betta.
2x3' lamps on timers, one LED nightlight.

Lost a couple on start up, but everyone seems to get on alright now. Apart from the betta who just eats and sulks..

I'll try and sort out some pics...

Anyway....Hello..

 

[spectrum]

Hi and welcome to the forum Your tank looks good, the pics are great (You will be asked to put a LOT of pics up on this forum ) Just one thing, your Betta, what gender is it? Males can be/are aggressive to ridiculous levels, although if its not being aggressive at the moment you may be ok.

Did you cycle it when you started? Its probably cycled anyway now but for next time...

 

[Jenste]

fantastic tank!!!

and bettas can work will in a community set up if the right steps are taken.

peaceful tank mates with no flowy fins and no fin nippers in the tank, and if the betta is added last - - this way he accepts the fish as part of "his" territory.

 

[Quisty]

I love your tank. Its very unique and the kuhli loach! We had one of those in our tank a long time ago. He was my mom's favorite! I haven't seen one in a long time. Thank for the pics!

 

[ENR]

Hi and welcome to the forum Your tank looks good, the pics are great (You will be asked to put a LOT of pics up on this forum ) Just one thing, your Betta, what gender is it? Males can be/are aggressive to ridiculous levels, although if its not being aggressive at the moment you may be ok.

Did you cycle it when you started? Its probably cycled anyway now but for next time...

Thanks for the welcome guys. Appreciate it. I started off this mad journey knowing the grand total of nada!
You learn really fast, dont you?
Have made a few schoolboy errors along the way...

Betta is a male. (wife reakons thats why he's moody!) he was in mid way, i'd have said. Before the coolies,bristlenose,chains and the shrimp.
As far as i know, i dont have any nippers in there, unless the rasbora are doing it.
Tank was settled for 2 weeks before fish were added, tests done on a weekly basis and other than Ph7.5 all are zero...


I do have some more pics, i'll put up a few.



Neon..

Rasbora

grumpy..

Shrimpy...

more pics in the album, if you wanna have a look..

http/s45.photobucket.com/albums/f80/ian_Rag/

 

[Jenste]

tetras are fin nippers unfortunately...i had alot of bad experiences with neons in the past, not just one fish, but mulitple at different times, in different groups, with different flowy finned fish...
things would always start out fine, then out of no where it seems my bettas fins would be destroyed

either your neons or your rasbora could give you trouble eventually...

 

[ENR]

tetras are fin nippers unfortunately...i had alot of bad experiences with neons in the past, not just one fish, but mulitple at different times, in different groups, with different flowy finned fish...
things would always start out fine, then out of no where it seems my bettas fins would be destroyed

either your neons or your rasbora could give you trouble eventually...

Ah, i see. That might be the problem then.
With 7 of them they might be doing the gang thing..
Love your sig, by the way.

 

[Jenste]

thanks i saw that video and it reminded me of the personality of my cat, couldnt resist it!

see how your tank goes....but have a back up plan ready just in case you need to either move Grumpy or the tetras!
fore-warned is fore-armed!!!

 

[Assaye]

Great looking tank, really want to get my paws on some khulis at some point!

I second what Jenste said about the betta. I used to keep a male betta in a community tank with neon tetras and for ages everyone was fine. Then, out of the blue, he started getting fin damage and becoming reclusive so I tested for ammonia, treated for fin-rot, etc etc. All fine with the water but he didn't recover. Then one day, I saw all 7 of my neons ganging up on him and nipping his fins! He got moved sharpish.

A happy betta is active, alert and spends his time relaxing or patrolling. Being reclusive could be a sign that he isn't too happy or a little bit stressed. I'm a firm advocate of keeping long-finned bettas in dedicated tanks with a few very quiet tank mates. I've even had problems with african dwarf frogs (a great betta tankmate, apparently). They creep up to Az in his sleep and nibble his tail!

Welcome to TFF and we look forward to seeing you around!

 

[ENR]

Well, that solved that problem, he keeled over this morning....RIP beckham...

 

[Assaye]

Poor Beckham =( any ideas what got him?

 

[ENR]

Poor Beckham =( any ideas what got him?

No, eyes were just milky white, fins were still intact. Just dodo-esque. :'(
oh well. He obviously wasnt meant to be...