Im in love

[asparagus]

I cant very well say its a Lfs, but its about an hour away. They have the most beautiful bettas!! (oh and other fish looked great too. I also purchased their last package of biospiro(a?). They have all kinds of bettas (all different tails and fins and colors) and they're all in about 8-10 oz of water, in nice clear glass bowls. There is poop on the bottom of the bowls but not too much and they were very active and healthy looking. They have mirrors that you can put up next to the bowl to see them flare, they change the order around daily so they dont always have the same shelfmate. I was so impressed!!!!. Now, they charge up to 15.00 for these babies, and they sure arent "show" material. But when I get mine- thats where Im going!!!!
Im so excited!!!
Here's the downside- they also had a tank of absolutely gorgeous females. These were some of the prettiest fish Ive ever seen. The colors were just spectacular!!! And their little faces were so cute! Oh, the downside of this is that I didnt have any plans for adding female bettas to my "mix".
I hear you can add 3 females to a community mix. I WAS going to go with (for my 29 gallon) 7 platies, 2 black mollies, 2 other color mollies 3 cories and 2 otos plus an apple snail, but what do you think if I just got 5 platys, 2 black mollies and then the 3 female bettas along with the 3 cories (pandas) the 2 otos and the snail. Think I could add an ADF in there too?
Oh yeah-and they had the cutest albino frogs! I think they were ADF but I wasnt sure- they were sure darn cute tho!! lol
ARGHHH. I need a bigger house and more money! lol
asparagus

 

[wuvmybetta]

awesome,great find!!

There is poop on the bottom of the bowls but not too much and they were very active and healthy looking

That's acceptable,there's nothing a betta likes to do more than poop after a water change So frustrating

Your plans for a set up sound great, the more female bettas the better. It's said that 4 is the smallest number you should have. With three you'll have one who tries to be boss and her and the other strongest will gang up on the weakest,then when they kill it off she'll turn on her buddy. Four evens it out a bit. This is all heresay though. I personally would lose the mollies and go with about 7 females (if not more).

I keep a 20 gallon with about 20+ sisters and its one of my favorite tanks (if only it wasn't just a grow out) They're pretty old and some have been bred before, I've constantly sat and watched waiting for fights to break out but no,they get along just fine.

 

[asparagus]

Would I be pushing the overstocking factor if I just added 4 female bettas to the 5 platies, 2 black mollies, etc?

 

[wuvmybetta]

No,especially not if you ditch the oto's. Your filtration is what allows you to bend the rules a bit,as well as hiding spots. So if you plan your tank out and supply many,many crevices and hide-aways in addition to a filter that turns your 30 gallons over 4 times an hour (you'll need a filter that pumps 120 gallons an hour) I think it will be just fine.

Mollies,platies and otos are big time poop producers. As are female bettas (not sure about cories) so stock your tank slowly and you should be ok. I'd add the bettas last.

 

[asparagus]

Ohhh, thats an idea- I can put the otos in another tank later on...Im going to do a guppy/black phantom tetra mix at some point and the otos can go in there maybe...hmmm.
If I lose the otos, maybe I can go back up to the 7 platies! lol