So Many Choices Suddenly!

[soritan]

I almost posted this in the 'beginner' area, but realized I wasn't actually asking for advice. Honestly, no one I know would understand why spending $45 would make a person so happy.

I made an awesome impulse buy today, I purchased myself a 5.5 gallon All-Glass aquarium and lid. I know, that sounds microscopic, but wait!

I have a 10gal tank cycling. I'd been in agony over what to do with it, as I'm well researched and indecisive. I originally started to cycle it, for one of my bettas. I was going to plunk him in there, and then add a tankmate or four for visual interest. I was thinking of kuhli loaches, adfs, shrimps, corydoras, and even just leaving him there by his lonesome. And then I started to worry that maybe he wouldn't like it in there, as my filter is internal and pumps out 90gph. Bettas are lightweights, especially the veiltails that I have. I can imagine him getting blown about like mad hell.

So, I did what I always do, I researched for backups, just in case the kid hated it and need back to bowl-dom. Smart, but also a big mistake. I fell in love with other fish, other little aquarium dwellers that would also do well in the tank.

I could make the 10gal a Dwarf Puffer species tank, put my betta in the 5gal and use the 5gal to breed snails for the puffer to munch on, add a 1-2 ADFs and a couple shrimps! I could put the betta in the 10gal with 3-5 ADFs and 2-3 shrimps and put a single puffer in the 5gal. I could leave the betta in the bowl (not likely), make the 10gal an ADF species tank.

See a trend?

ADFs, Dwarf Puffers, Bettas, Shrimp. Dwarf puffers, ADFs, Bettas, Shrimp. Shrimp, ADFs, Bettas, Dwarf Puffers.

I'm quite lucky the fish I'm the most attracted to would be well cared for in a myriad of combinations in my two little tanks.

The most simple combination is of course, to put 1 betta in the 10gal, and 1 betta in the 5gal, and add a couple tankmates to each according to whimsy (cories, for example), and leave the mean little (cute) Dwarf Puffers out of this. But I just saw my first Dwarf Puffers today, and I thought they were great.

I seem to be attracted to predatory aqua-life.

I know, I know, no one cares, right? But I'm real happy with the possibilites that open up to me, with this measly little 5gal addition.

"OMG weee" comes to mind.

 

[prankster705]

I would make the 10 gal a dwarf puffer species tank, and make the 5 gal a betta tank and grow ramshorn snails with the betta gor puffer food.

 

[soritan]

I thought of that! It was in there with the 30 odd other ideas I had.

I guess at this point, it's really up to whatever I happen to prefer. I never thought I'd have that luxury, as having a bunch of 1.25g bowls and a single 10gal at my disposal, really meant that the question was, "what can i do?" not, "what do i want to do?"

 

[Ethos]

Huh, I think i just like new tanks. For some reason I'm in this weird mood where I feel like I'm not as passionate about fish...I wonder what i'm doing here....Oh well.
I crave a small tetra tank right now....Like little platies and stuff....guppies....a very pretty 10G, planted.....sandy bottom....ah, heaven.

 

[soritan]

Yeah, I have to admit, that's something I really want for myself. A tank that isn't extremely high maitanence (so why the attraction to Dwarf Puffers? )

However, I'm not much for schooling fish. I don't know, they just don't draw me the same way that non-schooling ones do. I think I just enjoy a central focus for my eye.

Aquariums are very soothing for me, and as I'm one of those people that has a tendancy to be very high strung, I've been quite keen on getting my solitary 10gal setup and set to 'go'.

I like my bettas, and while I think that 1 of them would really like life in a larger tank which has a current, I think the other really prefers a bowl with absolutely nothing. It's the young one that seems to crave movement, he's a stronger swimmer and he's almost always listless, except when it's his turn to get the 2.5g bowl. I know, I'm probably reading too much into his actions, but ah well, so be it.

I like having Sori right next to me, I'll admit that much with great ease. He's the older betta. He's the one that seems like he's gonna need little/no current. He swims like he's barely a fish.

 

[Ethos]

It would have been cool if I did my 55G planted with a bunch of small community fish. Uh-oh, here comes regret. I shall stop it before I get any further!
I love my African cichlids, and I'm not letting anyone or anything tell me different!!

 

[soritan]

I still regret not going sand in my 10gal, as so many of the fish I found the most attractive "needed" sand. However, now I've settled quite comfortably in my few obsessions: bettas, african dwarf frogs, (ghost) shrimp, and dwarf puffers. Corydoras are more of a side dish for me, as well as those kuhli loaches, and I'm sure that has much to do with them needing sand to be healthy.

I feel a little sheepish for being so happy to own what so many people on this forum consider wholly inadequate.

 

[Ethos]

Haha, I doubt I'll ever live again without a fishy - even if its just a little itty bitty betta.
I've been scraed for life. Infected more.

 

[soritan]

I last owned fish around 12 years ago, and that was 3 goldfish, in the same 10gal tank I own now. I introduced myself on the forum and mentioned it, and the first reply I got was, "you shouldn't put a goldfish in a tank that small!"

We lived by different rules back then. ) I was told by every book I read and every pet store owner I spoke to, that so long as I didn't put more fish in there and kept the tank clean, that my fish would live happy lives.

Ugh, but the equipment was loud back then! I had insomnia quite horribly, even then, and that loud grinding noise from the filter/air pump drove me mad.

(( and before anyone dresses me down on the goldfish issue, they didn't die from disease, they died because the heater gave out while we were out of town and the fish literally froze. the pet-sitter, who hadn't been doing his job, disposed of the fish before i returned and apologized over the phone ))

Now that I have fish back in my life, I'm amazed at how far everything has come. The tank doesn't drive me crazy with noise, even with a heater, a air pump, and a filter running all at once. the stocking methods have also improved my life, they don't require anywhere near the same amount of work the goldfish I had back then required.

So naturally, I had to compensate for the 'ease' of aquarium keeping, by getting interested in 'special needs' fish. Oi.

I'm seriously enamoured of Dwarf Puffers. I've been reading up on them for a good month now, and now that I've actually *seen* one... it was as big as my pinky nail, a bit of a baby... I'm not entirely sure I can pass those guys up this time 'round.

I ramble. A lot.

Uhn, this is called 'tropical chit chat', right? )

 

[Ethos]

I ramble. A lot.

Uhn, this is called 'tropical chit chat', right? )

yeah, rambaling is ok on here. If people like me (how have high post counts, that just means we live on our computers, lol) bother to spend time on a forum like this, we can bother to read other peoples psts.

Yes, since we're chitting, and we're chatting, and its about tropical fish, so yes, we're playing fair game.

I like goldies. They're on my list of what to own before I die.

 

[soritan]

I quite liked them, while I did. My nose was often pressed to the glass.

Although, I didn't find they had much 'personality'. My bettas seem smarter than my goldies did, and I really dig that one-to-one connection with the very 'other' that fish are. Mammels are one thing, but fish? That relationship is something that's learned by observation and the careful portioning of food.

 

[Ethos]

I have a friend who has 3 in a 10G - commens. They are all about 6 inches

What are you putting into your new 10G?

Does anyone know about an intresing fish that can fit in a 10G?

 

[soritan]

Kya, I have no idea.

I'm torn between a Dwarf Puffer species tank (for a 10gal, I've read you can get away with as much as 4 dwarf puffers, as they are messy eaters); a tank for my betta and some tankmates -- such as African Dwarf Frogs, since they eat about the same kinda food Bettas eat, but require a different set of parameters, so both parties involved would need to adapt to a common ground; a betta and some cories (everrywhere on the forum reads, corydoras = sand substrate); an African Dwarf Frog species tank (about 1-2 inches per gallon, depending on who you speak to).

Schooling options seemed to include tetras and white cloud mountain minnows.

Dwarf Corydoras were cute little buggers, but they're harder to find where I'm situatated. I hear they're about as big as neon tetras, act like cories, and are middle dwellers.

 

[Ethos]

Dont get white clouds, they are ugly and way to exciteable - I have 6 right now that i can't get rid of! They are really boring addtions to tanks, so just dont get em, no matter what.

I'd go w/ the puffers, they are intresting, and can be a very good coversation peice, more so than say, a betta.

 

[prankster705]

Yea I am for Dwarf puffers too, aparently this is the topic that kept me awake through the night, gonna go to bed now.