I have 20 long planted soil-based tank with snails, limpets, khulis, amano, microfauna, and amano shrimp. I'll be adding botanicals and rearranging/adding more plants. I wanted a betta sorority but ran into a lot of angry opinionated people who are vehemently against it. I ended up with Sparkling Gouramis after being talked into it. I got 4 unsexed juveniles and I now have 1. They fought worse than my female betta ever did (I once kept a few females in a large community tank and they did fine, only minor skirmishes). I have immense purchase regret. I am not enjoying this stocking choice. They're too small, too bland, and I need to do a "where's waldo" and stand directly in front of the tank to even see the one I have. I plan to give him back to the store vs setting up a smaller planted tank for him/her. I'm debating going back to my initial betta idea vs maybe trying a few female red or gold honey gouramis. I want to hear any betta sorority stories, good or bad. I'd rather hear from people with actual experience rather than just be told it's a bad idea from people who have never tried it. Open to conversation, please be nice. Just looking for insight.

I’m just looking to see what advice someone can give me on how to clean my bettas tank.

I currently have low water levels in it as my betta has been sick and I’m trying to help him be able to reach the surface faster, but now I’m not sure how to clean it if I need to keep as much good bacteria in as possible

It’s a 5 gallon tank
It has a heater
It has a filter system, however I can’t run it because of how low it is.
It had a few live plants, no tank mates
Water parameters are good just a little on the harder side which I’m working on correcting.

My sweet boy Sammy passed away two days ago. I am very heartbroken and I want to know what could have been the cause.

When he passed I checked the water parameters- everything came back fine. PH was at 7.2-7.6 and the temp was at 76.5. I fed him adult brine shrimp, (amount about the size of his eyeball) everyday and would occasionally skid a day to avoid overfeeding. There were 4 large shrimp in the tank with him along with many bladder snails. (This is a 20 gallon fully planted tank.)

I noticed he was acting lethargic a few days before he passed, but he was still eating and would come up to the glass when I stopped by. I also noticed he would shake/erratically swim almost as if he had something on his skin, so I bought some ich treatment. I removed the carbon part of my filter, did a 25% water change and put in the treatment a day before he passed.

I am wondering if I was overfeeding him or if the ph was wrong. Any advice/tips on what I could be doing wrong would be great. I love bettas and hope this will never happen again.

This is a 5gal tank I’m keeping outside as a scud culture and with a female betta (haven’t named her yet). I used the Father Fish method (no cycling, fish in immediately, no filter, deep soil and sand substrate with natural debris sourced from a local ecosystem). The only tech I am using is a very low-flow powerhead to circulate the water.

I’ve since redone another tank I had with the Father Fish method and it really works. It’s basically a modified Walstad method. I will never cycle a tank again tbh.

With this 5gal, I modified it by not using any submerged plants and instead heavy-feeding floaters. I did this because I wanted the water column to be as shaded as possible to help with temp regulation and to keep the betta from jumping. Lots of scuds in the leaf litter and she is super happy. Her stress stripes went away immediately after I moved her into this tank from another setup (she chronically had them for like a month since I got her) and she is a lot less shy.

She spends her time hunting in the leaves and in the floating roots. Water parameters have been pristine, especially due to the water hyacinth! I highly recommend using it if you have a bright light source, as my ponds outside have had way more stable parameters since I added a bunch to them too. This tank has no artificial light and gets about 2 hrs of morning sun and then bright indirect sunlight the rest of the day. I live in the tropics and it’s about 75-85F year round.

I wanted to share my planted tank :) This is for my female koi betta Chappell Roan. Idk how you guys get pictures of your fish without them looking doofy 😭👹

no co2, damn cambomba grows fast it’s already time for another trim

Fish:
1 female betta
11 harlequin rasboras
12 amano shrimp
Too many ramshorns
a couple assassin snails

plants:
val
cambomba fucata
rotala blood red sg
ludwigia super red
red tiger lotus
cryptocoryne spiralis
java moss
anubias
java fern
red root floater
dwarf water lettuce
amazon frogbit

Anyone here has an experience of keeping two male Bettas in 1 tank? I have a 50 gallon tank (120cm by 40cm by 50cm) and I am planning to put my giant plakat and regular Hellboy plakat in the tank. I know that Bettas are usually kept by itself but I have watched few videos that manage to successfully keep 2 male Bettas alongside community fish in 1 large tank.

I finally have my betta and nerite snail in my 5 gal tank and it has been continuously cycled for over a week (since starting my fishless cycle for almost 2 months now) I just wanted to show off my male Nemo Koi Betta and Nerite snail George.

Thank you everyone who helped me with my questions about changing my internal filter with HOB filter and for stabilizing my ph with crushed coral!

I still have some of my filter floss and ceramic rings from my old filter near the water flow just until my tanks filter becomes more established.

I just need help naming my new betta. He is curious and really cool. Thanks again for the great advice from this forum🐟🐌💜

this is blueberry pie, she started growing a tumor about a month ago and it’s slowing grown. she’s totally fine active swims totally normal and is a very active eater and hungry. but the tumors just so huge? should i look into euthanasia or something like that what do we think. it’s marked nsfw but it’s a video of blueberry and there tumor that’s a little bigger than the size of it her head.

Should I be worried?

I had two male bettas from petco (one in a 5 gallon the other in a 10) my first one died in about 6 months and I have one pineconing now 5/6 months after from him his water parameters are perfect temps at 77-79 I’m not sure why they keep dying and it feels like I’m doing something wrong and is discouraging me from the hobby. Any in site to why they are dying will would really help!!

I have had tropical fish tanks on and off my whole life. However I’ve never had a betta! I feel like I can sense he isn’t that happy and I am determined to get him there!
I’ll start by saying I know I shouldn’t have.. but I got this fellow at petsmart. He was looking so sorry and the fish next to him was decaying and slimy. (Yes I did let the manager know and asked them to change the water out).
So I took him home.
I promptly bought a 3 gallon tank and bought 2 gallons of betta water (I know I was probably scammed lol) and filled the rest up with regular tap.
I let it run a full 24 hours before taking him out of his cup and into there.
There are 3 total live plants and 1 fake one.. and the betta leaf bed? Again another scam probably)
And a heater that is 15w and at 78 degrees.

I just feel like he isn’t happy! Now it’s only been a few days.. maybe going on a week. But from what I know of this kind of fish is their fins don’t look like this when they are happy.
At this time 3 gallon is the biggest I can go!

Does he just need more time to adjust?
Does he need less light?
More plants?

I’m investing in getting this guy happy!

I have a 10 gallon tank, I just started to cycle it to prepare for my lil guy!
I got the Sicce HOB which is rated for MAX 10gallon. I took out the cartridge filter and put in Fluval BioMax.
I bought these two sponges to try to baffle the water flow, but I am worried that it’s still too strong for them.

Is this water flow low enough? If not, is there a better way to baffle this?

I’ve never had a fish tank or a fish before so I just wanna make sure I have it right!!

I've only had him since the end of August. When I first got him, he was in a ten gallon. I downsized to a 5.5 gallon recently. I think he likes it a lot better. He was always stressed in the 10 gallon. Its like a completely new fish.

I just went to feed my little guy here and noticed he has a huge bulge (bubble?) In his chest. Ammonia nitrate nitrites all 0. Tank temp is 80.
He's always been kind of a sickly fish I suppose. He was a cup fish. Pectoral fins have always been uneven, his ventral fins have always been curled up. Since I've gotten him and given him a proper life his tail fins have only gotten longer. His fins have never had a defined shape, they were just like long drapes.
As you can clearly see, he has recently nipped off so much of his fins. I feel so terrible for him. He has trouble swimming and he has the entire time I've had him. He just sinks and he has to work so hard to swim around. He eats normal and exhibits good behaviors. He perks up when he sees me and swims towards the glass.
Just wondering what this could be? I don't think it's constipation, I feed my fish about 6 days of the week and sometimes skip a morning or evening meal on those days (not large portions either).
Has he just been doomed to a life of tragedy? What can I do for him? Also don't mind the dirty glass it's cleaning day tomorrow 😭.

Hi everyone, this little guy was just delivered to me, what type of plakat do you think he is?

set her and her shrimp friends up for halloween :)

Hi, first tank here. I have this betta, name is Greg.

I got it 2 days ago and it is like very still and not moving a lot. Moves very slowly almost always on surface unless directly stimulated or because of food. The tank is a 30 lt, constant 26C°, here is a pic of values and a few shots of it.

Can you help understand what am i doing wrong?

The no3 values seems a bit high but idk what am i doing wrong. Maybe the water current is too high? It always leans against the glass and idk why.

Please any help is appreciated.

So, I have recently just cycled and set up this tank (over the course of about four weeks before adding gila!) and I made a bit of an error with the substrates.

I used fluval stratum for the base layer, and some Japanese sand for the over layer.

And, of course, they mixed! I kinda just went with the flow of things because I was so excited to get the tank cycling that I didn’t want to disrupt it any further or the plants that I added.

Anyway fast forward to now, it’s kind of bugging me how mixed the substrates are. I’m wondering whether to replace the sand with just all stratum? I’m not sure how that would affect parameters just because of the acid alkaline nature of the material, or whether to replace it all with sand? But will that then affect the integrity of the plants?

also, the logistics of just having to remove alllllll of the substrate and do a full water change is daunting now that I have little gila with me and he’s still quite new to the environment.

It’s not a pressing thing, just wondering what other people would plan on doing!

Hi guys!! Wondering what everybody thinks of my setup for my new addition gila! (King gizz reference if anyone has caught that). He is settling in amazingly to his new kingdom and has been loving swimming in the tall plants

I have been planning this tank for over a year now, and finally took the step into setting it up properly!

Saw online and just wanted to confirm my betta doesnt have them. Shes super energetic in this six gallon cube tank, and i dont think i have anything that can be cutting her fins (maybe one piece of spiderwood but thats it). Thanks!