Betta Simplex with pygmy corys

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks for all the info!! Really appreciate it For some reason I was sure you had kept them. Anyways, I really hope that you will be able to find them

Good luck when you get yours! Congrats, they're really beautiful! Please please share lots of photos when you have them!

 

[betta4ever!]

Not ordered them yet. But my lfs can get anything. I mean it. Last time they got wilds they brought Channoides, Edithae, Enisae, Hendra, Brownorum, Coccina, Jade and Unimaculata. Whatever you want, they'll get it for you. And they order wilds once a month!! The best lfs ever.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Not ordered them yet. But my lfs can get anything. I mean it. Last time they got wilds they brought Channoides, Edithae, Enisae, Hendra, Brownorum, Coccina, Jade and Unimaculata. Whatever you want, they'll get it for you. And they order wilds once a month!! The best lfs ever.

Hmm, got a spare bedroom? I'm moving to Greece then!

 

[Crispii]

Not ordered them yet. But my lfs can get anything. I mean it. Last time they got wilds they brought Channoides, Edithae, Enisae, Hendra, Brownorum, Coccina, Jade and Unimaculata. Whatever you want, they'll get it for you. And they order wilds once a month!! The best lfs ever.

Consider yourself very lucky! It's hard these days for my LFS to get wild Bettas from Indonesia due to restrictions and airlines. I also think that their supplier is out of business, so that could be the reason why they have a hard time sourcing. The last wild Betta I saw at my LFS were a group of Betta pallifina, and that was a few months ago. They do carry a few species in the past like channoides, albimarginata, rubra, gladiator, unimaculata, enisae, brownorum, and hendra.

 

[betta4ever!]

I'm quite lucky indeed

 

[betta4ever!]

Which substrate is best black sand or black gravels?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Which substrate is best black sand or black gravels?

I'd always plump for sand over gravel personally, since if you ever want bottom feeders in there, you'll want sand for them. But if your planned stocking doesn't include bottom feeders, it's really a personal choice.

Sand is much easier to keep clean though, since old food and muck doesn't sink down into it like it does in gravel. When I gravel vac my tank with half gravel, it needs a really thorough clean and always has muck in it, while the sand only tank I only really need to clean around decor and plants.

 

[betta4ever!]

https://www.petsupermarket.gr/sand-ae-siliceous-0-5mm-8kg?sort=p.price&order=ASC AdoraBelle what do you think of this one? Would a completely black sand be better?

 

[betta4ever!]

Just saw I had 6 kilos of 2-4 mm black gravel. It's really cool looking and using it will save me 10 euros so I'll use this one. Also here's my ramirezi tank after removing a ton of plants. Would this amount of plants work or does the Simplex tank need to be more planted?

 

[betta4ever!]

The "caves" I'll be using

 

[Crispii]

Just saw I had 6 kilos of 2-4 mm black gravel. It's really cool looking and using it will save me 10 euros so I'll use this one. Also here's my ramirezi tank after removing a ton of plants. Would this amount of plants work or does the Simplex tank need to be more planted?

Should be sufficient.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

https://www.petsupermarket.gr/sand-ae-siliceous-0-5mm-8kg?sort=p.price&order=ASC AdoraBelle what do you think of this one? Would a completely black sand be better?

Sorry @betta4ever! , I didn't get a tag for this so didn't know you'd asked me something! Sounds like you've found a better solution anyway, so yay! I couldn't hazard a guess about the linked substrate, I'm sorry, I don't speak the language and google didn't give me a translate option , so I wouldn't have been much help anyway! Glad you can use something you already have though, that saves some cash, and lord knows this hobby costs enough as it is!

In general terms though, I don't think a completely black, unnaturally dark substrate is better - we know that the blinding whites aren't good for fish, especially with the tank lights bouncing off an unnaturally bright substrate, and I think @Byron has suggested other potential problems with a super dark black, dyed like substrate, since neither would be found in the wild and a looming darkness beneath them might stress fish out as well, since it wouldn't look the bottom of a river or lake, but looming open water where predators might lurk. So I went for Unipac Limpopo "black" sand, which is really more of a slate grey than a true black;

But by the time you've added plants, leaf litter, other decor etc, I shouldn't think a dark black sand would be that stressing either, if other items help visually break it up? Hazarding a guess here though since I don't know how much research has been done into substrate colours. The feel in the hobby has definitely swung more towards replicating natural colours and textures as much as possible overall though.

Love the thick, healthy planting you have going on! I'd imagine most fish would be delighted to call that home! It appeals to me a lot, I really like the "jungle gone wild" type planted tanks. Much as I can admire the work and dedication that has gone into beautifully scaped and trimmed CO2 tanks, for us low tech people, having a wild mass of slightly untamed planting really appeals to me!

 

[Byron]

The problems with black substrate relate more to substrate living fish, like cories and loaches, maybe the small/medium cichlids that remain in the lower half/third of the tank. But upper fish are probably less bothered, though that may be a mistaken assumption. The substrate fish that "live" on the substrate will stress out with either pure white or black. Cories are know to darked their colouration over black, and this is not a good thing because it means the fish are stressed. I actually observed this with my group of panda cories; when I moved them to a tank with a lighter sand they changed colouration quite noticeably.

 

[betta4ever!]

Woops, didn't realize it was in Greek! Sorry!

Never thought/ read / heard this about black substrates! I was told that "the darker the substrate, the better" so I thought that completely black would be best!

Wow, your sand really looks cool! My substrate has the same colour , maybe a little lighter.

And thanks! High tech tanks are cool, but... Nope, could never imagine doing this myself... Too much work for me... Lol

 

[betta4ever!]

Thank you for the info, Byron! Really interesting.