Bettarazzi

Some of you are already aware that I’ve just moved house but I’ll just quickly summarise the situation for everyone else. In short, I’m demolishing my house and rebuilding. In the meantime I’m renting a house close by and the selection criteria included: no carpets and a spare room for the fish. Now it turns out that the temporary fishroom is very close in size to the fishroom in the new house. This is good because I can get a feel for the space and plan out the future tank layout. It’s BAD because I realise, too late, that this is way, way, way too small!! Never mind, it will still be nearly three times more tank space than I had before. And probably 10 times more than I can really cope with.   I thought I would show you some pics from the move and temporary setup. I am trying not to buy any new stuff and making sure I keep in mind that this is only temporary. But I also wanted to the make maintenance a little easier. Here are some pics of the tanks before the move.  The 2 ft tanks holding a breeding pair of bristlenose, swordtails and guppies.  The 20 cm tanks holding my breeding stock of bettas.  The barracks and collection of 20 litre tanks. This was the biggest challenge. I didn't want to keep the L shape and I also wanted to be able to get at the beanie boxes from behind. So simple in theory. Just remove one of the wings and attach it to the other end. In reality it was a nightmare of buckets, cleaning and moving tanks, catching fish, etc.  I thought I should measure the different racks and made a rough floorplan on my iPad. One week before the main house move I started moving the fish. Was crazy busy at the time and knew I would have to do it in chunks a bit at a time before and after work. The first tank getting stripped down.  That was the first and last of the step by step photos. After that it was getting up at 4 am to try to move some stuff before work and then after work I'd get home, make some dinner and continue moving till midnight or till I dropped whichever came first. So making a photographic record was a low priority.  But I do a few more pics as each bit was set up again. 

No the shelves will only need to hold another 2 tanks each. They fit in the gaps. So 5 tanks on each shelf. Thats 4 extra tanks on your current setup And if you add another shelf that's another 5. Total 9 extra tanks.

Problem filling the tanks?? Surely that's the easy part.

You can fit a lot more in. Find somewhere else for the bits and pieces and you can fit tanks in between. Plus you could add another row of shelves which means an additional 9 tanks more than what you have. LOL do it do it I dare ya!! *lol*

Welcome to the forum! A tank in every room! Wow!

Welcome Josh! Sorry about the slow topic approval. You can post away now. Enjoy.

Yeah they're gorgeous. Still sad about the ones that didn't survive very long in my tanks. 15 years ago... still not over it. (

How do you know if your substrate is producing hydrogen sulphide?? I'm starting to get a bit of a headache. Yikes! Is that because I'm breathing in the H2S?? Oh wait, I haven't got any soil soaking anywhere. Must be all the chemistry talk that's causing it. *lol*

The water changes... not quite as fun. Have you got plans to automate? Are the tanks drilled?

Could be any number of factors including insufficient demand. One of the key reasons I think is because there aren't any big killie farms in Asia. Seems to me that unless there's a big supplier that our wholesales can get fish from, we're not likely to see them in shops. That said, the wholesalers DO often have some species eg gardneri, australe, dageti, and annulatus. You have to ask your shop to order them for you.

That is gigantic. Going to be fun filling all those tanks.

Yes but if you tell them the shop will happily swap fish until they get a compatible combination, doesn't that reassure them? :P

Oh I was assuming this was going to be a fully planted display tank. Not sure why I assumed that. But I agree with MTS. Plants will look great, provide cover for the fish and will assist with maintaining good water quality. You will need to invest in a light for your tank. I suggest getting one that holds at least 4 tubes. Although to start off with I recommend you stick with low light plants and only use 2 of the light tubes. As your knowledge and interest grows you can move on to more demanding plants without having to replace your light fitting. I'm thinking a big clump of anubias nana with needle leaf java fern poking through it, and some java moss wrapped over small round rocks in the foreground. A nice bit of driftwood will give the composition some structure. With those plants you won't need any fancy substrate. Just gravel will do.

Well nothing is killproof but they're pretty hardy. I recommend using a product like Seachem Stability to get your tank cycle started. You'll be able to add fish pretty much straight away, although perhaps waiting for a few days or a week wouldn't hurt. Maybe go for the more common bronze or albino corys, get a school of 5, they like company. Mollies and rasboras are pretty hardy. Some Australian rainbows might be nice too.

Welcome to AAQ Clarence! We'll help you turn that tank into 3 or 4 or a whole roomful. It's a decent sized tank you've got there. I would get some corys for the bottom, a school of rasboras, and maybe some Sailfin mollies.

Nice! Have you got a male to go with her?

Would be good to see her in different lighting. The blue is really quite odd.

Split from Brisbane meeting thread. Well done on a well-written and easy to follow article, Matt.

Yeah, I never really kept killies in a community tank. If I were going to try it I'm not sure I'd do it with the fish you've listed. Not sure the killies, even a larger type like SJO, would cope very well and might get bullied. I'd suggest more peaceful tank mates eg. rasboras, small livebearers, corys, bristlenose, kuhli loaches, that sort of thing.

Wait.... what was that?? I think I just saw a flash that looked very similar to your screenshot. Went away so quickly I barely noticed it. I think your browser might just be taking a little longer than usual to render the screen. No... LOL.... I think it WAS your screenshot that I was seeing. But I thought it was mine. *lol*

I'm using Safari right at this very minute and not having any issues. So I'm not sure what I can do. Nothing's changed with the Board. Although that reminds me that we're overdue for an upgrade.

That's very weird. I've not seen that before. Have you tried using Firefox or Google Chrome?

OH I see... you can spell Aplocheilichthys but you had problems with dageti? I am so onto you Les! Hey Neffy... I need a spanking emoticon. Ahh WTH this will do.

What I was getting at was that in my mind sjoestedti are the pinnacle of killifish keeping, in the same way that macrostoma are the pinnacle of wild bettas. For me that is. I'm sure other people have different species at the top of their wish list.

But then you'll just be a shadow of your former self. *lol*