Need ideas..

[Dakota Ice]

Hello all,
I have a cycled, heavily planted, and empty 20 gallon. I have one female betta in there as of now..

I am up for the waterchanges, so please, stuff as much as you can into the 20. I am open to everything.

I love guppies, but I am trying to get away from them.. just for alittle while.

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

how about a shoal of harlequin rasboras? they are great fish and shoal really well

 

[Bryan]

(remember, this is only my opinion) I hate guppies, they swim like there retarded. I like the idea catfish gave you, harlequin rasboras are nice to look at and they do school well. It's fun to watch them dissapear into the plants then re-appear somewhere else. I suggest something on the bottom too, to help keep it clean, I like either some kuhli loachs or a couple of the small newts, both are very gentle and won't uproot your plants.

 

[Logitech]

Some mollies or long-finned danios?

 

[tear-scar]

A pair of SAE would be good . . . I like the kuhli loach idea.

You just said FEMALE BETTA and now we're all suggesting asian fish.

Anyway, algae eating fish (I recommend SAE) and scuffling/digging bottom feeder (We've suggested kuhli loach, though other loaches and cories are good) are always HIGHLY DESIRABLE for planted tanks. They help with plant maintenance.

Harlequins are nice. I also always have to suggest White Cloud Minnows when talking about dither fish. You could get some other females too.

Maybe something like this:

2 SAE
3 Kuhli Loach
1-3 Female Betta
5-9 Harlequin Rasbora/White Cloud Minnow (pending on how many female betta)

All of these fish don't require lots of food and don't produce a lot of waste.

 

[Discomafia]

(remember, this is only my opinion) I hate guppies, they swim like there retarded. I like the idea catfish gave you, harlequin rasboras are nice to look at and they do school well. It's fun to watch them dissapear into the plants then re-appear somewhere else. I suggest something on the bottom too, to help keep it clean, I like either some kuhli loachs or a couple of the small newts, both are very gentle and won't uproot your plants.

what kind of newts are you talking about?

 

[Bryan]

what kind of newts are you talking about?

I'm not sure what kind I used to have, they were dark brown to balck on top, i can't even remember what color the belly was, i think yellowish white, but they did not grow any bigger than 3" long. They were great for cleaning up dead plant matter from the bottom and it was really kewl watching them walk around the bottom of the tank.
The newts I have now are like 5" long, i don't like these, there almost greenish on top with a white belly.
I'm trying to search the web to see what type of newt i'm recommending but can't find much about newts at all.
As soon as I find out I'll post it here

 

[Discomafia]

what kind of newts are you talking about?

I'm not sure what kind I used to have, they were dark brown to balck on top, i can't even remember what color the belly was, i think yellowish white, but they did not grow any bigger than 3" long. They were great for cleaning up dead plant matter from the bottom and it was really kewl watching them walk around the bottom of the tank.
The newts I have now are like 5" long, i don't like these, there almost greenish on top with a white belly.
I'm trying to search the web to see what type of newt i'm recommending but can't find much about newts at all.
As soon as I find out I'll post it here

check out http/www.caudata.org

 

[Bryan]

what kind of newts are you talking about?

I'm not sure what kind I used to have, they were dark brown,
As soon as I find out I'll post it here

This is the closest to what I remember, but it looks a little to fat the the legs look to small
This picture the colors look right (Notophthalmus perstriatus, Striped Newt):

this one the body looks right (Notophthalmus meridionalis, Black Spotted Newt):

 

[Discomafia]

ok i'm still trying to find about as much as I can abt these newts atm, but are you sure you can house them in a fully-aquatic environment? And in a what sized tank? They dont need any land? Have you kept them before? This is interesting. I keep a Cynops orientalis (fire-bellied newt) myself, he's such a fun little feller'... look at my profile pic

 

[Bryan]

ok i'm still trying to find about as much as I can abt these newts atm

As I was looking through all the different newts I noticed that some had normal tails and some had flat tails like the ones in the pictures I posted. I'm not an expert at all, but I think that might be something to look at. The newts I had, had a flat tail ment for swimming, and yea, they were in a 40gal long, one tank I had set up for over 4 years. I usually had plants that were so long they were on top the water so the newts could go up and rest on them, but they never did. Everytime I was watching the tank they were on the bottom, walking around looking for for food on the bottom.
Like I noticed though, some newts had round tails, I would figure these were ment more for land.
Every tank I ever set up I would make sure there were newts, they realy add to the look.
Hope this helps.

 

[_]im]

I would go with Mollies, if you like guppies you'll like them too.