zombieworm

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

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.
 

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!

Really cool stock choice, groups of elephantnose are not common to see in the hobby. They get fairly large right?

What an awesome looking tank, I particularly like all the plants in it, and the ENFs are looking great - especially in a group!

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.
 

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.
 

Today I had a crack at making that gel fish food.
First I checked out a couple of Utube vids.
Then i went to the local supermarket and got a hoki fillet, some seafood assorted mix stuff with mussels, squid, and salmon bits, and i got a half of beef heart, and some gelatine. Threw the lot in a blender, boiled some water and spooned in the gelatine. Mixed it all together and put it in the fridge.
It worked like a charm! My fish are really into it! 
Yay for Utube!
 

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.  

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 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 

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 

Can't wait for these to come to the LFS. Let me know when this happens!

I know from the manager of my LFS that AquaOne is moving from flouro to LEDs. They are in a long flouro-like tube, and will be able to be used in place of the flouros in existing tank setups using T8s. They have been a big hit in Aussie, and are just being trialed for the market here in NZ. Try Animates - that's my LFS where I heard about it.

ok cool, sounds like your off to a good start. what size are they? it usually goes bad aggression wise once they mature so if they are small, under 6cm then it hasn't hit yet. You may be lucky and get away with only having pairs but it's likely you won't.
The info about stocking many for spreading aggression is right for most malawi species, think of tropheus to be like demonsoni rather than e yellows.
 
Oh i forgot above, pemba and bemba is the same thing. as i understand it the confusion comes because the locals call them that and the europeans can't tell the difference between "P" and "B" in their big dark african voices

They did actually. I think the reason was that the Honey gourami were one of the first two fish I added to the tank, so they had established themselves in there by the time I added rams. Unfortunately the rams didn't last very long though, they both died after 6-7 months from unexplained reasons...

Your honey gourami did fine in with the rams? That would make my tank shuffle so much easier if I could put the Honey Gourami in with the rams! 

They are very entertaining to watch, the rams that is. Especially when they have a duel against each other. 
I had some rams with my glowlights, yoyo loaches, angelfish and honey gourami. They were all good 

Yeah, I've got 5 yoyo loaches now, they're doing really well! They have started cleaning up some of the snails as well I think. The snails I have are very small though so I am not sure they can eat them when they're that small. I don't think they are MTS. 
In regards to the lights, I did change the blue light back to a white one this weekend and replaced the dead plants with new ones a few weeks ago so the tank is looking nice and active again!!! 

Rasbora paucisqualis



Culex sp. - Mosquito larvae

Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus
Gold Spot Common Pleco, L001

 

Just sharing photos of my fish