The bettas and galaxies were impulse buys to be honest and I researched about the puffer and everywhere I look I get contradicting answers that generally point to it depends on the individual =/. I bought the galaxies because I had to spend the money for exchanging the betta and i didn't want to get more guppies because of all the babies we have. I dunno what came over me and my partner to be honest, we talked about getting bettas the day before but decided it might be a bit of a risk and stuff and then we saw this totally beautiful one and people we were with were buying fish and the shop guy "made a mistake on his price for the betta" and it just sort of happened.
I do plan to get more galaxies when I can, just a matter of money and space as I do only have a 28L (don't shoot me) but now I've moved my nursary into a bigger tank so there's way more space and acquired two endlers in exchange as they seemed to be struggling a little in a massive tank.
My poor guppy died after a couple of days in a little hospital, I was quite hopeful because he seemed to improve but just didn't make it...
I took the betta back to my nice local fish shop because the one he was from was quite a distance away so they never found out but they should have known because we did tell the man what we had when we first bought them and no one else has said anything about our puffa or how many fish we have...
Currently there's four endlers, four cherry shrimp, three female guppies, one baby guppy who's just over an inch, female betta, two galaxies and the puffer. They appear to have loads of room and I've got over a third of the tank thick with plants and i have had several people who are quite into tropical fish see the tank and they haven't mentioned anything about =/
Your post was recieved in quite a good light to be honest, you seem nice and understanding of our noobism.
I know what you mean about getting different advice from different places. These days I have my "pet" sources that I check - these are ones that have stood the test of time, always have well presented and researched information and are backed up by serious fishkeepers. There will always be someone in real life or online who will disagree or tell you that you can do something that everywhere else is saying is a bad idea, and sometimes it's worth a gamble and sometimes it isn't. That understanding just comes with time. This forum helps - I've been on numerous other fishkeeping forums and this one comes up trumps each time. The members are generally very helpful, there are some really great minds on here with serious, long term experience and qualifications and the advice in places like the
Resource Centre is top notch. Sometimes we can be a bit bossy and may seem like we're always saying no to people but as someone who 'grew up' as a fishkeeper here, I massively appreciate that now.
The puffer I woulds still urge you to get a second tank for. 20 litres is a rock bottom minimum for them if we work on the often-repeated "5 gallons per puffer" rule. This isn't hard and fast but due to their potentially very aggressive natures and high waste output, they need a lot of personal space and a very good filter to clean up after them. Having a puffer in a 6 gallon tank with 11 other fish and some shrimp (which puffer will probably end up eating as he grows) is a recipe for disaster. If he is being well behaved and you really want to keep him, use the time while he is still young and not too aggressive to find a new or secondhand tank, heater and filter and do a
fishless cycle on it. Doesn't have to be expensive and I'm sure you can fit a little tank in somewhere.
I'm not going to say your tank is too small - I have a 28 litre tank with a betta and some aquatic frogs in it and another 30 litre tank with another betta. What I will say is that for the size of the tank, you could massively improve the stock. You seem to have a bit of this and a bit of that - a betta, a couple of galaxies (which you've said you'll add to - that's great but wait a sec), a couple of endlers, some shrimp, some guppies, etc. The endlers will breed with the guppies (unless they are definitely all female, including endlers), the shrimp would appreciate a bigger group, the betta prefers very different water to the other guppies and endlers (soft, as opposed to hard) and the galaxies need some friends. The guppies will keep breeding if they have had a male near them recently as the little madams can store the sperm and use it later and the baby guppy could start off your guppy-farm again. It's all a little bit all over the place and you don't really have space to sensibly add more fish.
What I always say to inexperienced fishkeepers is that guppies are awesome - very pretty, small, good for smaller tanks, etc. However, breeding them is a nightmare. You need nursery tanks, you need space in your main tank for new stock every few weeks, you need experienced local owners who will rehome unwanted babies, etc. If going for guppies, I always recommend males. They can't breed without a female present and look fantastic. Plus, they are smaller. Same for endlers (which are the same family as guppies).
Is the female betta well behaved with the other fish? Nippy at all? Does she hide away or seem lazy, or is she active? Stripes along her body at all?
The reason I ask is that I think you have two *sensible* choices for the tank. Shrimp, betta and guppies/galaxies OR shrimp, galaxies, guppies. In order to give everyone space to grow and in order to give you space to add more galaxies, I think either the female betta or one of the groups (guppies or galaxies) should be rehomed or taken back to the shop. If the female betta is super happy and chilled out, then it's not an easy decision and I'd probably go with encouraging you to take back the guppies. If the female betta isn't 100% happy then that makes the decision easier.
Of course, it's up to you. With a very well filtered tank and excellent maintainence (50% water change at least once a week, gravel cleans weekly, good varied diet) you may choose to have all your fish in the tank and also add more galaxies (which I think is fairly important, as they are shoaling fish). I wouldn't advise it. If you want to keep all your fish, the best policy would be to get a 10 gallon (40-45 litre) tank (minimum) and add your stock into there, keeping the 28 litre for the puffer. You could do a fishless cycle on the new tank which would make the transition painless for the fish.
Again, sorry to be nosy and bossy. I just remember what when I started out, people seemed to do one of two things - tell me NO to everything I wanted without helping me achieve what I wanted or just didn't tell me when they thought I was making a mistake. As a result I made loads of mistakes AND felt demoralised because I felt like I wasn't allowed to do anything by the bossy fish people. I know I'd have appreciated someone talking me through my tank and giving me a good solution to make things really great for the fish without compromises for them.
