Finally Happened!

[Andie]

I've been meaning to do a tank upgrade for ages- ever since Brill and Boq proved for once and for all they couldn't handle living in a divided tank, I've had three jarred babies in just over a half gallon each. Although I've been as fanatical about water changes as ever, it still hurt me to see them crammed in there like that so today I finally headed up to the LPS. They had 2 gallon hermit crab habitats on sale, and I came home with three of them. I popped one plant and baby in each, and you should see the fishy smiles!

Sarima is a little stress-striped still, and Brill and Boq, as you can see, are still shredded from their last encounter (the one that provoked their permanent separation to begin with) but I expect they'll all perk up now that they have some more space, and won't be enduring complete water changes every other day!

Sarima

Brill, hoping for a snack

Boq, hoping to hop in with Brill

The three musketeers

 

[Austin_09]

Thats real cool Andie! It would be cool to do that! I know they have some of those at the store here in town. I could put them on the coffee table in my room... But I think if I did that I'd maybe put some gravel in them. make it a little more homey. But nice set up!

 

[Andie]

I particularly love the little habitats because not only are they roomy but they're so cheap; I hate that price has to be such a deciding factor, but there you have the life of a student!

Yes they'd probably look even better with gravel in them, but I found with my long-finned boys the gravel tended to "nibble" at the edges of their fins, so after a while they got rather frayed. That, and of course cleaning is easier without sand/gravel in the way )

 

[Austin_09]

yeah, I'm sure that would be easier to clean, but how about sand? Would sand frey their fins?

 

[willtang3000]

v nic

 

[OohFeeshy]

I find I prefer tanks with bare bottom, or just enough to cover the bottom.

 

[Andie]

yeah, I'm sure that would be easier to clean, but how about sand? Would sand frey their fins?

I've never used out-and-out sand, since it requires some vigilance as well in order to prevent the buildup of gas pockets. I have tried a very fine-grain gravel that's a step up from sand, but since I only used it with my girls there was no evidence of fraying. I'm not sure if it would have frayed the boys' fins or not. It's much harder to contend with than gravel, though, because if for any reason you can't use a vacuum (for example, if the tank is too small) you really have to work through it thoroughly each time you clean it to make sure you eliminate all waste.

I really do prefer going without a substrate if possible, especially since not only does it facilitate cleaning, it also makes it very easy to see the waste on the tank bottom; that way I can't fool myself into thinking the water is cleaner than it really is!

 

[liz2]

I think those tanks are the 2g ones like they have in wilkos in UK. I bought one today in case my ordered betta turns up. I need to change my red betta tomorrow but he has a lovely bubble nest and he is not everso good at making them so he will be in a fit for a couple of days!

 

[Andie]

Just a word of caution that if they're labelled as 2 gal in the UK you might find they're just a smidgen smaller than a Canadian (or American) 2 gal tank; I believe one Imperial gallon is equal to 0.83 US gallons. Just a snippet of difference, but it's there all same