Birthday Present!

[Meggie :)]

Hey all! So as part of my birthday present my parents are buying me a fluval ebi 8 gallon shrimp tank because I've wanted to upgrade my betta's home for a while...I have lots of questions...

1) what would be the best way to cycle this tank?
2) what kind of scape do you suggest? (jungley, wood, rocks, iwagumi style, etc...)
3) how many of what kind of shrimp do you suggest?
4) anything else I can keep in this tank?
5) what can I do to this tank t make it a wonderful home for my betta?

Btw my betta is a male ct...

Thanks,
Meg

 

[Mowbz]

1) what would be the best way to cycle this tank?

Are you going to o anything with his current tank? If not, take out the media from the filter and stick it all in your new one, no cycling required

2) what kind of scape do you suggest? (jungley, wood, rocks, iwagumi style, etc...)

Loads of inspiration in the planted section, jungle scapes with red shrimp is my personal favourite. Dark substrate, makes the red stand out better against moss etc. I have Cherries, can you tell? lol

3) how many of what kind of shrimp do you suggest?

See above, and its difficult. Would depend on the eventual species you choose, because of size, but a shrimps bioload, even at 100, is very little.

4) anything else I can keep in this tank?

Not much with a Betta in there unfortunately, ill let someone else come up with some ideas, as i have honestly never kept Betta's!

5) what can I do to this tank t make it a wonderful home for my betta?

See above

Seriously, i would take a look through the planted section and get some ideas, throw in some surface floating plants for the Betta to play in.

Ben

 

[Meggie :)]

Unfortunately, (ashamed, I know...) my betta is in a 2 gallon bowl that I do a 100% water change every week that's why I'm upgrading...so I don't have media to use to cycle it...I don't know what kind of filter comes with the ebi but I might be able to use my sponge filter that is in my ten gallon if I can...can I put crystal reds in there? But I do really like cherries soi might end up getting a good amount of those...with a betta and, say, 50 cherries, would that be too crowded?

 

[onidrase]

Unfortunately, (ashamed, I know...) my betta is in a 2 gallon bowl that I do a 100% water change every week that's why I'm upgrading...so I don't have media to use to cycle it...I don't know what kind of filter comes with the ebi but I might be able to use my sponge filter that is in my ten gallon if I can...can I put crystal reds in there? But I do really like cherries soi might end up getting a good amount of those...with a betta and, say, 50 cherries, would that be too crowded?

If your betta doesn't have a filter now, I'd just move him to the new tank and do a fish in cycle. About 20-50% a day in water changes is what you'll be looking at depending on the bioload of the fish. The goal is to keep ammonia as low as possible. But it'd be better for him than being in an unfiltered unheated tank. (please please please do get a heater and keep the temp at a steady 77 degrees.)

50 cherries would be too crowded. not in bioload, but just in space. The tank you said was 8 gallons? Aim for like 8-10. They might breed, as well. but the betta may eat most of the babies.

There are fish you -can- keep with a betta, such as rasboras, but first you'll want to make sure your tank is cycled (as in, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and nitrates present) before you add anything other than the betta. That means no shrimp, as well. I also believe you should avoid live plants up until the cycle is complete.

bettas are kind of solitary fish. There are tank mates they'll tolerate, but in honesty, if you're looking to make him happy, he'll be happy with just shrimp and himself. Adding fish is all to your own preference. Imo, to make him as happy as he can be, just make sure the water is clean, give him some driftwood and a cave for shelter, and some nice live plants which will help keep the water quality at its best.

In the beginners resource center there will be info on fish in and fishless cycling. Since you already have the betta and its in an unfiltered unheated tank, I'd just do a fish in cycle. But if the fishless is more appealing and you wanna do that and keep your betta in the bowl for a few more weeks, it's all up to you.

If you're up for the chances, you can go around asking other local aquarists to borrow mature media to help cycle the tank or even ask the pet stores, though some of them won't help you.

 

[Mowbz]

Based on you having a small filter already, you'll have enough bacteria to cope with the bioload of the Betta in the 8g. I would then put half of the shrimp you want in there in, and let breeding take care of the rest.

Shrimp can kick out babies in their hundreds, so i doubt the Betta will get a chance to get them all, if your feeding him aswell. You'll probably find yourself selling some off after 3-4 months

 

[the_lock_man]

Meggie, IIRC you've got at least one other tank that has been running successfully for some months. You can take up to a third of the filter media from this tank, (replacing it with the new media from your new tank) and put the mature stuff in the new filter. You would almost certainly have enough bacteria for the new filter to be instantly cycled, so long as you put the betta straight in there - don't let the bacteria die off through lack of ammonia.

I have a tank which is about the same size, in which I have a betta and a shoal of chilli rasboras. You could have shrimp as well, since their bioload is negligible. The problem with shrimp is that some bettas see the shrimp as lunch. It depends on the betta.

 

[pablothebetta]

If you heavily plant the tank before you put the betta in and allow things to grow and settle in and use some of the media from the 10 gallon, then there won't really be any cycling to do, as the plants will absorb the ammonia produced and the pre-existing bacteria on the filter media from the 10 gallon will be enough to keep your betta going. As for the scape, again, do look in the planted section for inspiration - the tanks there are already beginning to persuade me to try to set up a new tank. There really are some stunners. I personally would go for a more "jungle" look, fairly densely planted with lots of green.

I'd go for some easy care plants to begin with and I personally would put in some faster growers first to help get the tank going. Java moss, Java fern, anubias, crypts, those sort of plants should do well in a low spec setup if that is what you are aiming for. A moss wall might look nice on the back too, depending on your personal preferences. The addition of CO2 can be optional, depending on the plant species you want to keep. If you want a planted setup, what about the planted version of the Fluval aquarium you are looking at? I'm not sure of the differences between them, but I would hope that there may be different features/equipment included.

They look quite nice little tanks, I'm sure your betta will be happy in there. Once all has settled down and become more established, you can think of adding shrimp and possibly a group of microrasbora too.

 

[Meggie :)]

thank you guys so much for all of this information! I have decided that I will order the cherries online: about 20 of them, maybe and pop them all in my ten gallon when they get here...I will get 20 because I need some more for my ten gallon, and the other 8-10 that will be going into the betta tank will stay in my ten gallon until they grow out a bit (because they will be shipped to me at about 1/4"-1/2"...when they are big enough I will transfer them to the betta tank...)

If the filter that comes with the tank kit can hold the media from the filter from my ten gallon, I will use that to cycle it...If not, then I guess that means just a lot of water changes I think I will start the tank off heavily planted if i can. ...Poor betta needs to get out of that bowl ...(don't worry, I live in Arizona, so even though he doesn't have a heater in his bowl right now it stays warm. There will be one in the new betta tank, however...)

Scaping-wise, I think I might have a round-about idea...I might want to do something with moss and wood (kind of like THIS ) but not exactly... I would have the wood and moss over to one side, kind of arching toward the middle, if that makes sense, creating almost a little overhang, and then carpeting the rest in some way, adding a few other plants here and there...I don't know whether to go with something like that or like THIS ...opinions?

I have also decided that I will do the planted tank version of this tank kit... I was originally planning to get this one, I didn't need to worry about the exact name of the tank initially though, because I knew that they had it at the store I was going to buy it from...however the store that I go to is 45 minutes away and I just found out that they are changing location and I don't know if their store is still open atm or if they have shut it down yet. Since I don't want to drive that far out only to find out that the store is closed, it looks like I'll be getting everything online now (their number is disconnected already btw)...so, with all that said, does anybody know of the planted tank version of the fluval shrimp tank? I cannot find it on the internet for the life of me!

Thank you all so much!
Megan

Edit: forgot to mention, it will be just the betta and the cherries...no other fish for now

 

[Mowbz]

Awesome, look forward to some pics