Pennyleigh17

Good to hear a shop refusing to sell fish if they don't think you can house them properly.
 
I think Wellington tap water is fine, but I've never used it.

1.  Yes.  The standard half dozen or so.
2.  They're basically non aggressive, so any other moderately sized active fish. 
3.  I'd say something in the 4 foot, 400L range minimum.  More mature you're looking at 6-8 foot.
 

Recommended rate of flow is between 600 - 2200LPH so any pump or filter within this flow rate should work.
Product                                    Recommended Flow Rate                                       Aquarium Size  HC-100A 200 to 1000 LPH 100 Litres HC-150A 250 to 1200 LPH  150 Litres  HC-250A 600 to 2200 LPH 250 Litres  HC-300A  1000 to 2500 LPH  300 Litres  HC-500A  1200 to 3000 LPH  500 Litres  HC-1000A  1500 to 4000 LPH  1000 Litres  HC-2200B  3000 to 6000 LPH  2000 Litres 

I have a group of Sterbai and Peppered I like the Sterbai's colours better but my peppered Cory's are a lot more active than the Sterbai - possibly because the Peppered are roughly a year older and larger.
My Peppered are approx 3.5 years old, 6cm and quite round! See pic

Just snails and few shrimps 

i've kept them.  I like them as much as I like Sterbai, which is a lot!  Peppered cory leave me cold.  Found Julii were relatively slow growing in comparison to Sterbai.  

Sterbai's get to 5-6.5cm.  love my Sterbai's, cute little guys.

They more or less breed themselves  As I think I've mentioned somewhere on the forum, 4 of them are a breeding group which originally belonged to Alexyay and the rest of the adults are babies from that breeding group. Then theres another random female I picked up somewhere and she bred with the breeding group to produce the bubs that I've raised  Large cold water changes, the right time of year and frequent feedings of good food tend to trigger them to spawn and each female will breed pretty much once a week for a few months a year. Then you just remove the eggs from the nooks they put them into in the tank and raise the bubs in a fry tank

This Eli before he commited hari kari. He liked sleeping in the dragon's arm.
 

It was my favourite of the lot I also had a stage where the trio and duo were pushed together and I had a lot of plants coming out of the back, which was pretty cool also. But always worth giving a fighter a bit of space to strut their stuff

I like your trio with the dividers removed. Looks lovely like that

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:




 
 

My DIY bird feeder in my backyard works very well. The fat attracts the waxeye, the sugar-water attracts the waxeye and tui , and of course always present the house sparrows
They are drinking a litre of sugar water daily.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I only use live plant too, but I do like my ornaments - a bit of an ornament junkie
I really like the colours of your middle betta. At first glance I thought it was ornament. - that blue is stunning.

Yeah, I liked the red columns when I saw them. They are a very earthy red, and give a nice Asian zen sort of theme, which doesn't clash with the natural themes at all - not like my mushroom house and the octapus dude from the new Nemo/Dory movie - lol.

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

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

Over the years I have seen a lot bettas kept in their little tanks, and most have been very bare - maybe some gravel, and if they are really lucky even a plastic plant, although some haven't even had the luxury of gravel. On the other hand, I have seen some beautiful mini aquascapes in betta tanks on Google.
So for those of you who keep bettas (not including breeding tanks and such here), do you aquascape or not. I would be interested to see what other people do.
I'll start the ball rolling. I have two 21 ltr duos, and two 32 ltr trios, and below are pics.
 

Yes, they are supposed to be a very good community aquarium fish.
http://demitry.co.nz is where you can get some if you are interested. I have gotten quite a number of fish from her, and all have been very healthy and are doing very well.
 

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.  

Niceeee! Yeah, I never even considered them before because when they are young they are not as flashy and people just don't look at them at the LFS because of that. But they are a really good addition to any community tank as they are peaceful, however quite active so you'd need to make sure they are not in a tank with some fish that don't like that much activity in the tank. 
I've got 5 yoyo loaches and will get 5 of the boesmani rainbows, that will be one manic fish tank
Glad I could provide some other options for you

I had never even heard of rainbow fish until you mentioned them, gligor. I don't remember ever seeing them for sale either. But I have kept my eyes open ever since, and yesterday I found some Boesemani Rainbow for sale, and bought 6. I  think they will be great once they get their colours. And at only 3 inches when full grown, they are big enough to see from across the room, but small enough that you can keep a nice number in a community tank 

Try placing a piece of lettuce in your tank to attract the snails and pull it out once its covered in them. That and dwarf chain loaches helped me get rid of the snails in my tank.

Try placing a piece of lettuce in your tank to attract the snails and pull it out once its covered in them. That and dwarf chain loaches helped me get rid of the snails in my tank.