Adrienne

Don't do that.  Would YOU want to be stuck in a 2'X4' box with a bunch of other people with garlic breath?  How cruel are you?

Yeah seems to be, no change in the lumps yet though. Tank is still a little cloudy but I'm happy with how it's looking. Good chance check up on how the nuggets are doing, I wish I saw them more often as the bigger ones (~6" now) are very cool!
 

All done, no dramas, looks good but needs a heap of smaller rocks to finish the look.

I had various betta tanks at one stage - here are some photos, although some it woudn't let me upload. At various stages there was a duo, a trio, a fluval chi 21 litre, an aqua one 9 litre (would not recommend, I quickly upscaled this tank), and a 30 litre tank. I eventually ripped the dividers out of the trio which was where my last boy was happiest. Can also post up pictures of the fighters if you're interested.
Ended up scaling down a lot since finishing uni and my last little guy decided to go for a skydive so I no longer keep fighters.
Some variations on the 30 litre scape:


The fluval chi:

The Trio and duo at various stages:




 
 

When I kept mine in small tanks I did not aquascape the tanks.  That was just my personal preference.   I have seen several betta keepers in Auckland with small and lovely looking aquascaped betta tanks - yours look great.  JJWooble on here has/had hers in smaller aquascaped tanks last year but I don't know what she has now.
The smallest tank I had that was scaped with bettas was from memory a 54 litre tank that was a females only tank.  Made for a stunning effect with all the females colours.  I'll see if I can find any photos but they are likely to be on this forum if I do - just pre 2011

This is my betta trio tank. I like to stick with a "natural" theme in my tanks by using live plants, driftwood and rocks.

I thought about having a larger tank of females, but I've only ever seen females for sale once here. I bought a gorgeous blue crowntail female to breed with by beautiful blue crowntail male Reggie. She wouldn't have a bar of it though. She didn't just nip his tail, she pulled great honking strips off and ate them! Cannibalistic little snot. Needless to say Reggie wasn't too interested in her after that. Would love to see the pics if you find them 
When I first started keeping bettas, I didn't really aquascape - just sand, one live plant, and one small ornament. That was the most I had ever seen in a betta tank (no internet to Google back in those days!). I thought the tanks were too small to put much else in, and really, you can see the bettas better without much in the tank. Then when I started back up keeping bettas, and Googled bettas, I was really surprised to see what people were doing in the tanks. So I thought I would give it it go. I think it appealed to me because I am an avid gardener (or was, before the cancer diagnosis - not quite the same energy for it these days), and aquascaping is just underwater gardening really. I think what surprised me the most was that after the aquascaping - putting all that stuff in the tank - it actually looked roomier than when it was bare. Seems counterintuitive, but there you go. 
I also thought I wouldn't see the bettas as much, and for some of them that is true. Reggie will only come out at feeding time, but most of the others eagerly come out of hiding to greet me whenever I walk into the room. They love hiding in the plants, and Sasha (the blue and white one in one of the pics) likes the little hollow he has created for himself under the piece of wood at the back. 
I have Khuli loaches in the betta tanks as well. When the tanks were bare-ish the khuli loaches hated it - no place to hide - and would go frantic and get really stressed, and jump out of the tank, so I stopped keeping them in there. Now, with all the places to hide, they do great. Reggie likes searching his area to see if he can find them, then he sits there and stares at them until they move somewhere else - lol.

Unlike freshwater aquariums which contain a high percentage of captive-bred and raised animals, nearly all the fish kept in saltwater aquariums are captured from coral reefs, with fewer than 5% bred in captivity. A lot of fish simply won't breed in captivity, which means the reality is either wild caught, or a different hobby. Sorry.
I am starting my first marine tank too, but have opted for a reef tank - mostly corals. As far as I am aware most of the corals and anemones available in NZ are tank bred (remember corals are animals not plants). I do want some clownfish, and maybe some Bangai cardinals, and will try to get captive bred if possible, but the mandarin fish I am interested in is only wild caught.
Good luck with your new tank 

When I kept mine in small tanks I did not aquascape the tanks.  That was just my personal preference.   I have seen several betta keepers in Auckland with small and lovely looking aquascaped betta tanks - yours look great.  JJWooble on here has/had hers in smaller aquascaped tanks last year but I don't know what she has now.
The smallest tank I had that was scaped with bettas was from memory a 54 litre tank that was a females only tank.  Made for a stunning effect with all the females colours.  I'll see if I can find any photos but they are likely to be on this forum if I do - just pre 2011

That's because those ones are wild. The ones we have are a lot more fluffy and ponsy, and like clean water with their blue cheese and chardonnay - lol. Actually, I've always kind of wondered about that myself. Cool that you got to see them in the wild! 

Just thinking - something that is rare   Grab yourself something like a turkey baster or syringe and suck out any waste/food off the bottom daily or every couple of days.  The sponge filters do a great job of free floating particles but by doing this it will prevent the fins/tail getting mucky when the fighter rests on the bottom.  It just helps with the tank hygiene and they do like clean water   Not sure why, the rice paddies I saw them in ten days ago were pretty yuck!

IMO it would be worth contacting New Pupuke Aquarium Centre in Auckland and asking Ron the owner (discusguru on these forums) to ship you a high quality fighter down.  There is no one in NZ more experienced than he in Betta Splendens.

Ok, so no-one seems terribly interested in elephantnose fish, but they are my all time fav, so I'm going to keep posting anyway - lol.
I had been waiting for more to come into the country, as I wanted to add to the two I had, and they finally came. I bought another 4, which came a couple of days ago, so now have a nice little group of six. They have settled in really well, and are very lively. 
It took almost a month to train Petey to eat out of my hand, and now every time I stick my hand in the tank to clean etc., he gets all excited looking for food. But the new ones saw Petey eating out of my hand, and within 3 days they were all doing it, and even the discus and featherfin sydontis are joining in! It is so cool!
So here is a pic of my new ENF.
 

I cant help a lot sorry as this was not the tank I converted.  I converted my custom 450 litre and had Raymond Klein do the conversion.  He designed the sump and did all the plumbing plus I got the skimmer, wavemakers, lights etc from him.  He is aquarays (has a website) and valray on trade me.  I am so glad I used him, yes I could have gone overseas and purchased directly but it would have given me no back up and he is always available for advice which is great as he knows the set up so well.  
I know people have converted the aqua ones, I think most put in a sump under the tank.  Try asking in the saltwater section as there are a number of experienced marine keepers on here.

I cant help a lot sorry as this was not the tank I converted.  I converted my custom 450 litre and had Raymond Klein do the conversion.  He designed the sump and did all the plumbing plus I got the skimmer, wavemakers, lights etc from him.  He is aquarays (has a website) and valray on trade me.  I am so glad I used him, yes I could have gone overseas and purchased directly but it would have given me no back up and he is always available for advice which is great as he knows the set up so well.  
I know people have converted the aqua ones, I think most put in a sump under the tank.  Try asking in the saltwater section as there are a number of experienced marine keepers on here.

We have very limited medications for fish here in NZ as anything with an antibiotic in it is vet only prescription which requires taking said fish and paperwork showing what you think is wrong with it to a vet.
In NZ we have praziquantel available from a licensed pet shop but I see you have Kisuri wormer available in Australia.  Having used this on my discus when we could get it here I can vouch that it is effective.    This vet is reknowned for his work even here in NZ  http://www.thefishvet.com.au/

The answer to your question is no, it is not okay.  It is very thin and this is possibly due to internal parasites.  Have you wormed your fish?

The answer to your question is no, it is not okay.  It is very thin and this is possibly due to internal parasites.  Have you wormed your fish?

I am probably going to keep a tank, or slightly smaller tank where I have one now. So will always have the option of keeping them in there. My male gourami does try to makes nests, but doesn't help that they get destroyed/damaged each water change with the change in water levels. The advantage of the new tank is water changes will happen with the sump so the display tank never changes water level.
Tank Design Thoughts
So I picked up a cheap 2nd hand, 100Lish tank to use as a sump. Also came with plenty of other little odds and sods (airpump, in tank filter pump, test kits, etc). So was pretty happy with the deal.
I am most likely going to document and build a fluidized sand filter. Out of 100mm clear acrylic tube, end capped with standard 100mm drain fittings/end caps. Very similar in design to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz0WgaRHcJA around 80cm tall. I will probably also set this up as an exposed piece as I like the look of the cloudy/storm sand look.
I have seen that these are both great filtering/converting ammonia to nitrate, but with enough column height also decomposing nitrates as well. But as these are both anaerobic and aerobic processes it is also great at stripping oxygen from your water too. So I probably inject air on the outlet of the filter, and 3D print a gauss like pipe insert to try and break/smash the air bubbles up into small bubbles to increase the surface area as they travel back up the return line to the display tank.
As almost all of my filtration will be happening in the FSF, the sump just needs to handle mechanical filtration/polishing, place for heaters, automatic drip water change and overflow/drain. This gives me plenty of space for a good sized refugium or 2. For whatever i feel like/need. So if I am lucky enough to get some fish to spawn, I have somewhere safe with the same water to move them too.
 

I'm not sure if you are financial members and if not, if you can see the magazine link on the tool bar above - and open it to see the content.  I wrote an article for one of the Aquarium World magazines on rainbowfish and pretty much dedicated it to the ones we have in NZ.  The magazine is the one with the rainbowfish on the cover.  Have a look and see if you can see it, then have a read if you wish.  

I'm not sure if you are financial members and if not, if you can see the magazine link on the tool bar above - and open it to see the content.  I wrote an article for one of the Aquarium World magazines on rainbowfish and pretty much dedicated it to the ones we have in NZ.  The magazine is the one with the rainbowfish on the cover.  Have a look and see if you can see it, then have a read if you wish.  

I'm not sure if you are financial members and if not, if you can see the magazine link on the tool bar above - and open it to see the content.  I wrote an article for one of the Aquarium World magazines on rainbowfish and pretty much dedicated it to the ones we have in NZ.  The magazine is the one with the rainbowfish on the cover.  Have a look and see if you can see it, then have a read if you wish.  

I'm not sure if you are financial members and if not, if you can see the magazine link on the tool bar above - and open it to see the content.  I wrote an article for one of the Aquarium World magazines on rainbowfish and pretty much dedicated it to the ones we have in NZ.  The magazine is the one with the rainbowfish on the cover.  Have a look and see if you can see it, then have a read if you wish.  

Thanks heaps guys I've crossed off confirmed species so far and have put Rice Fish in red as it looks like MPI see them as invasive/problematic enough to go after them. 

Rice fish were in the shops 2014 or 2015 until MPI removed them. I can't confirm that they managed to track down the ones already sold.