zombieworm

Due to failing health, I no longer have the energy or finances to keep the number of tanks I have going, so I am selling most of my tropical fish. If you are interested in any of them, PM me. I will consider any reasonable offers. Pick up only - Hastings. Genuine enquiries only please. Don't say you want them, then leave me hanging, waiting for you to contact again. 3 golden bristlenose 3 common bristlenose 3 striata loaches 4 white spotted doradid 2 chocolate stripe doradid (aka raphaels) 4 serepae tetra 4 black widow tetra (1 male 3 female) 3 koi angels 2 chain loaches 10 leopard danios 4 gold rams 3 cardinals 4 female bettas - 1 blue crowntail, 1 red dragon crowntail, 1 red half moon, 1 gold half moon 6 congo tetras (2 male 4 female) 1 honey gourami 6 penguin tetra 5 freshwater puffers (aka pea puffers) 2 Farlowella 1 red whiptail catfish 4 Bosaman rainbows (2 male 2 female) AFRICAN CICHLIDS 3 electric blue johanni 2 kadango 2 red shoulder peacocks 2 eletric blue haps 2 cobalt blues

How much were you wanting? If you don't find anything local, let me know (I'm in Hastings). Cheers.

There are some for sale on Trade Me.

Hiya. Only just found this post, so don't know how helpful this info is going to be. I have a mix of Tropheus and Mbuna types, along with some Julidichromis, and they do very well together - despite the "total apocalypse" level of warning from some. I have a group of 10 Tropheus - 2 each of 5 different types. Tropheus do need to be kept in a reasonable size group to spread the aggression, but I have found the "they all have to be the same kind" thing a bit of a myth. They are quite happy to aggress on anything Tropheus shaped, regardless of colour, and mine are all very happy and healthy. Along with the tropheus I have Masked Julies - my all time favorite of the rift cichlids and another Tanganyika fish, like the Tropheus. All the rest I have are Malawi, - 4 electric blue Johanni, 2 other blue one (forgot what they are called), 2 Kadango, 2 Red Shoulder, and 2 Chilumba. Also 3 Cuckoos. Again, the Malawi types should be kept in a group to spread the aggression, but, again, I have found it doesn't really matter if they are the same type or not. All of mine are chosen for the fact that none are over 6" as adults, simple because I don't want any really big fish. The one that isn't a myth is the damasoni. They do need to be kept in largish groups of the same kind - minimum 16. In the early days, I made the mistake of buying only 4. The dominant one bullied the other 3 to death, then died of loneliness. I feed mine a mix of the NovoRift (only some will eat it, mostly the Julies and Cuckoos, and it does make a mess in the substrate) and NovoMalawi. The NovoMalawi is fantastic, and there is always a feeding frenzy over that. Once the NovoRift is finished, I'll be moving to Repashy Super Green instead. I have found the various Repashy foods to be great, all the fish and the turtles I have feed the various (appropriate) types love it and do really well on it - and it doesn't make a mess in the aquarium. Hope some of that was helpful for you.

The other day I saw Elephant nose fish advertised at a different place than I have bought all my others from, and they were substantially cheaper than my others cost, so I thought I would go ahead and get a couple - out of curiosity over the low price as much as anything, and because with all but one of the discus now gone, there would be room in the tank for another two EN. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I waited with anticipation for them to arrive. And arrive they did - healthy, active... and teeny tiny itsy bitsy, coming in at just 1" (2.5cm) I didnt know they came that small! The congo tetra youngsters I got the same time were the same size, maybe even a little bit bigger. All my others are between 5" and 7", with Jack - the baby of the group - at a "tiny" 3 1/2". Like Africa, the African tank is WAY to dangerous for them (OK, so it's only African above the ground level, the plecos and bottom-hugging catfish are all South American). They like hanging around the surface floating plants, but in the tank the African Butterfly fish would quickly make a meal of them. If they decided to hang around the bottom instead, there are 2 spotted dorydids, and 2 chocolate striped dorydids that would find them a delectable snack. And if they managed to avoid the top and bottom of the tank, once the lights go out there is 7 inches (18cm) of Featherfin Sydontis that cruises back and forth through the middle like a hungry shark. I currently have them in a breeding net in the African tank until I decide what to do with them. They are just sooo adorable though! The brine shrimp and bloodworms are to big for them, so I am feeding them frozen daphne (luckily I had some on hand). They also seem really keen on the Hikuri Gold Discus pellets, so I might see if I can get some even smaller pellets for them, as those are a little big for them at the moment.

I have amassed quite a number of polystyrene boxes - small, medium, large, and huge - from getting my fish shipped to me. If anyone is in the Hawkes Bay area (or passing thru) and wants some (or even just one) let me know. They have a multitude of uses - shipping/carting live fish (obviously), but also chilly bins, shipping/carting cheese, meat, fish (not live), on boats for storing catch or as bait boxes, or for growing mushrooms in. I'm sure there are even more uses. A small veggie garden for the kids - they can grow some lettuce, radishes, and carrots. PICK UP ONLY

You don't - lol. Occasionally you can pick one up at Animates or Pet Essentials, Hastings (I don't know abut Napier), but for the most part, I get my fish from Hollywood Fish Farms in Auckland. I'm getting some bettas from New Pupuke Aquarium Centre in Auckland this week - it will be the first time I have bought from them. He has been happy to send through photos of what he has in stock so you can see, which has been a real plus. Hawkes Bay doesn't really have much beyond the basics in terms of fish.

What are the plant you have in the bottom photo? I find it really hard to get plants that don't shoot straight for the top and take over the tank - in all my tanks, not just the bettas. I really need plants that stay short, so I don't end up with lots of bare sand. Love your aquuascaping, you have a real talent for it.

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

I only keep the ones that are really poncy - i.e. have very full/heavy fins and tails (and a couple of elephant ears). They do really well in the smaller tanks because they aren't as active. Mine spent a lot of time sitting on the plants at the surface as well. They do like caves though. I was looking at trying to get some of the floating logs that Fluval make for bettas, but they don't seem to have them in NZ. I haven't been able to find something suitable/safe to use instead yet. I'll see if I can find something like what you used. I don't use plastic plant either. Apart from an aversion to plastic plants (each to their own though), I think the points on the leaves are a too sharp, even on the softer ones, and the bettas are too likely to rip their fins - as you said JJ. I always rip the plastic plant bits off the ornaments when I get them (even though that is half of what you are paying for - lol). The silk ones would probably be fine though, and the silicon ones are good. At one point, when I didn't have anything else to put in one of the tanks yet, I put a large-ish bright yellow silicon 'coral' ornament in with one of the bettas, and he loved it - he would swim in among the polyps like a clownfish.

I like the way you have wood and plants coming out of the tanks. Sadly, my Bengal likes water and loves fishing, so everything has to have a cover. And yeah, they can jump out the little holes - I lost my elephant ear that way. The ones with the really fancy (heavy) tails don't seem to though.

It depends on the betta. Some colour are more suited to the natural setting, but others do well with colour. The tank section with the mushroom house and octopus is being saved for a black betta I'm getting. I think the bright colours will show him up better than the natural colours. Sasha, my blue and white, is in a natural themed section, but would have also looked great in a winter (or 'Frozen' themed if that had been something I liked) setting. That would have really showed off his blue. If your betta has several colours, choosing an ornament that matches one of the lesser colours will bring that colour out - like accessorizing clothes or picking cusions for the sofa - lol. Also, bettas quite like bright colours. I actually keep a stash of small, colourful ornaments which I put in front of the tanks, and swap around on a regular basis. The bettas are fascinated by them, and spend time looking them over (except Reggie - the only that fascinates Reggie is the khuli loaches). The Asian style betta ornaments go very well in the natural settings though, like a little zen garden type thing.

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.

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.

I contacted them yesterday evening thru their FB page, they said they would get back to me on Monday, so here's hoping I had tried somewhere locally (Hawkes Bay) recently, I told them I was after a green in any tail type EXCEPT veiltail, so they ordered me a green veiltail. *Sigh*

Having finally figured out how to do video on the tablet, upload to YouTube, and link it here, here is a video of the elephantnose at feeding time. I couldn't get one of the handfeeding - there is only me here, but this is just after the hand feeding, and they are all snuffling around looking for the food that dropped. Gligor, you asked where the elephantnose were in the African Butterfly fish video - they go to sleep mid morning, and wake up just before dinnertime, so here they are now

They're all sleeping. It amazes me that such big fish can dissappear so completely in the tank when they go hide to sleep.

When I first got my African Butterfly fish, I was under the impression that they stayed at the top of the tank. Apparently that isn't always so - or at least not all of mine are aware that's where they are supposed to be - lol. I have seen them do this a number of times before, but I have only just figured out to work the video feature on my tablet. Ok, now I have figured out how to upload to YouTube (having figured out I can't attach a video to the post like I do a pic). Ooo! Look at that! I've even figured out how to do the link thingy! Yay! Enjoy

Really? What fish did have with them?

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.

Yup, some people choose to do to do that, and that's fine, but that is not what this thread is about. I'm not asking people whether they keep their bettas in big community tanks or not, I'm asking whether or not people who keep their bettas in 'betta tanks' - small tanks (hence the use of those phrases in the original post) - aquascape them or not. I'm asking to see pics of, and discuss, how people set up their small betta tanks, not setting up a discussion on whether people think bettas should be kept in small or large tanks. Many people who keep bettas - especially people who keep quite a few - aren't going to have 10 or 20 200ltr community tanks to keep their bettas in.

All the bare ones I've seen weren't for breeding, that was just how people kept them. But I expect that most people in a forum like this don't do that (I could be wrong though), and I'm really interested to see what other people do for their bettas. And maybe this can give people new ideas (i'd certaily likesome new ideas!), and even provide food for thought for newbies who have decided to get a betta and don't realize how much 'scaping you can actually do in a small betta tank.

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.

Do the wild ones have the long fins/tails and bright colours?

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