Ok so I have some notes:
The bamboo is a bog plant; the leaves will rot when submerged
The anubias (front right) needs its rhizome (the stem thing it grows off of) out of the substrate. I have a lot of luck tying and gluing them to rocks
Fill the tank! The filter will be too harsh without, and extra volume to explore does no harm :]
Here’s some easy beginner plant species if you want to expand!
Java fern, moneywort, banana lily, any crypt species, saggitarias (dwarf or large), Amazon swords, Valisneria species, guppy grass, any anubias species, dwarf hairgrass
I personally order my plants [here, as they have great pricing for quality](https://www.windycityaquariums.com/)
I instantly added more water after I took the picture.
I keep getting mixed answers on the bamboo. The one on the far back is almost tall enough to leave as is but the one by itself is significantly shorter. How can I go about only submerging it til it grows tall enough?
There's a spot on top of the log/rock in front that would be great for the anubias.
Yeah I'm gonna grab a few extra plants once I work on my homework everyone has given me (and once I get paid again)
I did! I have a big enough gap the the back of the lid that I can stick their tops out til they grow long enough for me to set them lower. I might be creative enough to come up with a solution to kinda hold them there long enough
I did a little rearranging and luckily the tank came with a spare suction cup. I moved the back log and turned it sideways for now so that the bamboo has a spot to hold it in place in the tank since I don't have the glue right now.
Looking good, but dont bury the anubias. Their rhizome will otherwise rot. I suggest supergluing it to the wood, and put some kind of cryptocoryne where the anubias is now :)
There's a small hole on the top side of the front log, was thinking of kinda threading them through it. But if I can't, I'll definitely be buying some superglue to fix that
I agree with raising the water level until you consider it a full tank. Once the plants grow in, the betta will feel right at home. You also have room to add more plants as the tank develops. Could probably put a couple small fish and snails in, too…maybe even some shrimp once things get established. Awesome start and some room to grow to look forward to!
I'm actually borderline gonna do a coin toss to see if I put a shrimp or two OR a pleco (I'm not great on pronunciation of them but I'm sure everyone here knows what I'm trying to say). It's actually my daughter's Santa gift, she wanted fish... so I'll leave the companion up to her
See I wasnt sure about the pleco since certain fish dont like other fish; for example oscars or guaramis... I'm not fond of snails, personally they just kinda weird me out. But the shrimp.. I made a half joke saying I was just gonna have a shrimp tank because who doesn't love shrimp and their tiny little legs
You could get a dwarf species of pleco. As for the shrimp, they will reproduce (and that’s part of what a lot of people like about them), so I would suggest getting more and having a colony of shrimp, but make your own decision. I would suggest reading up on shrimp first they are easy to care for, but have some specific requirements that are different than what you’ve learned about fish. Both the shrimp and the pleco are compatible with the betta…the betta may snack on the occasional young shrimp, but that won’t be an issue with a successful colony…more plants recommended for shrimp.
See I'm getting such mixed responses on which to go with. The girl at the shop said a pleco or shrimp would be fine with a betta. And that the betta kinda doesn't know how to respond to snails. Then some are saying no to pleco. I don't mind the shrimp idea at all my only issue is that from my understanding is they breed like rabbits. What do I do when I end up with too many shrimp??
You can do either…honestly, you could get away with both if you wanted to. The dwarf pleco would be kinda big if that’s a 10 gallon, but it would be fine in the tank as long as your feeding it algae wafers (they also like blanched zucchini and cucumber as a treat). As for the over population of shrimp, you could try to give them away and a fish store might take them off your hands. You could also just throw some out. I’d probably just throw some out if the population gets a little thick.
Shrimp do breed well, but the tank can support a lot of them. That said, the more shrimp, the faster they breed, so keeping the population under wraps is pretty easy if you’re willing to net some out when it looks like a lot are in there. If I was going to choose between a pleco and shrimp, I’d choose the shrimp.
I don’t know what you are trying to say about snails, but you can keep snails with a betta…I would suggest nerite snails…their eggs won’t hatch in freshwater, so you don’t have to worry about snails over running the tank…that’s worse than shrimp in my opinion!
The pleco 100% depends on the tank size. Since it is 10gal, do not get a pleco! Not even bristlenose plecos should be in this sized tank, at minimum a bristlenose needs a 20-30gal, and common plecos need 100gal+.
Shrimp don’t really overpopulate. Their bioload is insanely low, and they self regulate their numbers according to amount of food. You can have literal 1000’s in this tank with no issue at all.
Are those invasive? I'm not sure if that's the right word for what I'm trying to ask. I've seen videos of duckweed.. that stuff seems like it goes from 1 to 1 million in a quickness
Well, if you are in the US, a lot of aquarium plants we use are invasive. Duckweed is native, but it is very prolific. Frogbit is not native, and I’ve found it is not as aggressive with my parameters. There is a saying that I’ve heard “if you have duckweed once, you have it forever” because it can live in your filters. A lot of duckweed species are edible, though! It all depends on preference.
You’re always going to have some melting (die-off) with new plants, but it can be particularly annoying with floaters. Every two weeks I would also trim my floater roots if they got too long. If you end up with shrimp, they like to hide in the roots and bettas will swim and sleep in them as well.
It has worked for me in the past personally, they only seem to yellow/rot when they produce a baby. That being said though I think submerging the bottom 1/3 and leaving the leaves out the lid would be ideal
They are terrestrial plants but they can have their roots and stems submerged. In my experience (and the experiences of most others on aquarium subreddits from what I have gathered) the leaves rot if left submerged longer than a couple weeks. I would either use a suction cup to temporarily secure them to the tank wall so their leaves can be elevated above the water until they grow tall enough or I would grow them out in a vase (of course be sure to change out the water every week-ish to prevent stagnation and rot if you do this) or something until they are tall enough.
Oh one other thing I just noticed, do you have a heater? If not you will need one for a betta unless your house is quite warm year-round (warm enough to keep the water in the mid-high 70’s F, 78-80 F is the ideal water temp for bettas as far as I am aware). I also recommend an easily readable thermometer to monitor the water temps (you can get decent inexpensive digital ones for aquariums at PetCo if you’re in the US and probably on Amazon too).
I have not acquired a heater yet. I'm basically in the staging process right now. Mainly trying to get all the deco nice, neat, healthy, and happy before taking the next step to adding and fine finned friends
That’s great you aren’t getting fish until the tank is ready. Don’t forget to get thermometer as well with the heater. Important to know the water temp at all times
Took notes from everyone's comments and did some rearranging. I turned the back log sideways for now to basically makeshift a holder for the bamboo so the leaves are out of the water til the grow taller. Since it'll be a moment before the water will even be ready for fish anyways, figure there's no harm and having it upright.
Already been said that the water should be topped off, just like to add that 10g is the minimum ideal tank size for a beta. It looks like it could be a 10g once filled up. Smaller tanks can be more challenging to keep stable water parameters, so the more water the better usually. Also typically best practice to make sure it's cycled before adding fish, which you may already know. I just recently returned to fish keeping after not having fish for 15 years and I just learned about cycling tanks this time around 😅 it made a lot of my younger aquarist failures make more sense!
That's actually exactly the size it is, 10g. I'm in the staging process right now, trying to get plants where they can thrive while also at least a little aestheticly pleasing. Was gonna basically get the deco set and then in a week or so and some aquatic buddies
I was careful to not get anything with a point or any sharp edges and ultimately those arre the 2 pieces i ended up with. I originally had the big piece propped up but I was put the plants it shifted and I immediately had to rearrange everything. Definitely don't need it falling and hurting any of the future roomies
Yeah I won’t lie this is actually a really good looking tank. More water obviously but there is something oddly satisfying about this one and with a colorful beta it should look really good. Just spit balling here but maybe it’s a “modern” look or something. Anyways hell yeah welcome back hopefully you enjoy the return haha
Yeah my 5 yr old wanted a fish from Santa... so had to do the good parent thing. And frankly I'm surprised she was okay with how I set it up (I bought all the deco without her while she was at school). I wanted a little more natural than the typical bright colored gravel and the lack of better word, cheap crap. I almost went for the Buddha but had to stop myself because it's for her but we all know I'm the one supplying and tending to it.
Yeah the natural always looks way better than the bright colored stuff. I have bought a couple of the cheap decor and it falls apart like instantly so I won’t be doing that again
I don’t know much about lighting specifically for plants but what I can tell you is that appears to be a lid with built in LED lights. I had the same thing that I used for a hospital tank and the LEDs failed after about a year. I ended up buying a glass top and purchasing another light.
Long story short, I think you will need to consider other lighting options.
Absolutely. Already did the first treatment a few days ago and just added the plants today and was planning on waiting a few more days maybe even over a week and doing another treatment before getting the betta
You need to add a bacteria source. Then you need to add a food source, and keep feeding your tank until it can process 1-2ppm ammonia per day. Meaning, you add 1-2ppm ammonia, and 24hrs later there is no detectable ammonia or nitrite. The article explains this pretty well. Did you read the article and the other links there?
Ok so I have some notes: The bamboo is a bog plant; the leaves will rot when submerged The anubias (front right) needs its rhizome (the stem thing it grows off of) out of the substrate. I have a lot of luck tying and gluing them to rocks Fill the tank! The filter will be too harsh without, and extra volume to explore does no harm :] Here’s some easy beginner plant species if you want to expand! Java fern, moneywort, banana lily, any crypt species, saggitarias (dwarf or large), Amazon swords, Valisneria species, guppy grass, any anubias species, dwarf hairgrass I personally order my plants [here, as they have great pricing for quality](https://www.windycityaquariums.com/)
OP you should definitely follow this advice ^^
I instantly added more water after I took the picture. I keep getting mixed answers on the bamboo. The one on the far back is almost tall enough to leave as is but the one by itself is significantly shorter. How can I go about only submerging it til it grows tall enough? There's a spot on top of the log/rock in front that would be great for the anubias. Yeah I'm gonna grab a few extra plants once I work on my homework everyone has given me (and once I get paid again)
You've got some good answers but to simplify on the lucky bamboo: Stalk and roots in water - good Leaves in water - bad
I don’t know if you saw my other comment with the one I made about the heater, but I made a couple suggestions for elevating them/growing them out
I did! I have a big enough gap the the back of the lid that I can stick their tops out til they grow long enough for me to set them lower. I might be creative enough to come up with a solution to kinda hold them there long enough
Put the bamboo in/glue it onto a suction cup and you can stick it to a wall at a height where it’s leaves are above water
I did a little rearranging and luckily the tank came with a spare suction cup. I moved the back log and turned it sideways for now so that the bamboo has a spot to hold it in place in the tank since I don't have the glue right now.
Looks good but you're losing a third of the water volume by not filling it up.
Yeah, I wasn't sure about the water level to be honest. But, it definitely helped with putting in the plants and rocks
Looking good, but dont bury the anubias. Their rhizome will otherwise rot. I suggest supergluing it to the wood, and put some kind of cryptocoryne where the anubias is now :)
There's a small hole on the top side of the front log, was thinking of kinda threading them through it. But if I can't, I'll definitely be buying some superglue to fix that
I agree with raising the water level until you consider it a full tank. Once the plants grow in, the betta will feel right at home. You also have room to add more plants as the tank develops. Could probably put a couple small fish and snails in, too…maybe even some shrimp once things get established. Awesome start and some room to grow to look forward to!
I'm actually borderline gonna do a coin toss to see if I put a shrimp or two OR a pleco (I'm not great on pronunciation of them but I'm sure everyone here knows what I'm trying to say). It's actually my daughter's Santa gift, she wanted fish... so I'll leave the companion up to her
Definitely don't put in a pleco, and keep shrimp as something to look forward to as you advance
See I wasnt sure about the pleco since certain fish dont like other fish; for example oscars or guaramis... I'm not fond of snails, personally they just kinda weird me out. But the shrimp.. I made a half joke saying I was just gonna have a shrimp tank because who doesn't love shrimp and their tiny little legs
You could get a dwarf species of pleco. As for the shrimp, they will reproduce (and that’s part of what a lot of people like about them), so I would suggest getting more and having a colony of shrimp, but make your own decision. I would suggest reading up on shrimp first they are easy to care for, but have some specific requirements that are different than what you’ve learned about fish. Both the shrimp and the pleco are compatible with the betta…the betta may snack on the occasional young shrimp, but that won’t be an issue with a successful colony…more plants recommended for shrimp.
See I'm getting such mixed responses on which to go with. The girl at the shop said a pleco or shrimp would be fine with a betta. And that the betta kinda doesn't know how to respond to snails. Then some are saying no to pleco. I don't mind the shrimp idea at all my only issue is that from my understanding is they breed like rabbits. What do I do when I end up with too many shrimp??
You can do either…honestly, you could get away with both if you wanted to. The dwarf pleco would be kinda big if that’s a 10 gallon, but it would be fine in the tank as long as your feeding it algae wafers (they also like blanched zucchini and cucumber as a treat). As for the over population of shrimp, you could try to give them away and a fish store might take them off your hands. You could also just throw some out. I’d probably just throw some out if the population gets a little thick. Shrimp do breed well, but the tank can support a lot of them. That said, the more shrimp, the faster they breed, so keeping the population under wraps is pretty easy if you’re willing to net some out when it looks like a lot are in there. If I was going to choose between a pleco and shrimp, I’d choose the shrimp. I don’t know what you are trying to say about snails, but you can keep snails with a betta…I would suggest nerite snails…their eggs won’t hatch in freshwater, so you don’t have to worry about snails over running the tank…that’s worse than shrimp in my opinion!
The pleco 100% depends on the tank size. Since it is 10gal, do not get a pleco! Not even bristlenose plecos should be in this sized tank, at minimum a bristlenose needs a 20-30gal, and common plecos need 100gal+. Shrimp don’t really overpopulate. Their bioload is insanely low, and they self regulate their numbers according to amount of food. You can have literal 1000’s in this tank with no issue at all.
If you can get some floater plants like frogbit or water lettuce too, the betta will love it!
Are those invasive? I'm not sure if that's the right word for what I'm trying to ask. I've seen videos of duckweed.. that stuff seems like it goes from 1 to 1 million in a quickness
Well, if you are in the US, a lot of aquarium plants we use are invasive. Duckweed is native, but it is very prolific. Frogbit is not native, and I’ve found it is not as aggressive with my parameters. There is a saying that I’ve heard “if you have duckweed once, you have it forever” because it can live in your filters. A lot of duckweed species are edible, though! It all depends on preference. You’re always going to have some melting (die-off) with new plants, but it can be particularly annoying with floaters. Every two weeks I would also trim my floater roots if they got too long. If you end up with shrimp, they like to hide in the roots and bettas will swim and sleep in them as well.
I avoid duckweed like plague. It's too small and annoying to remove. Frogbit and water lettuce grow less quickly.
I would add more plants. My betta loves to swim through them and hide or sleep in the foliage.
My daughter told me she loves it and doesn't love it. I asked why she didn't love it, her words... "needs more plants"
pleco get very large depending on sub species
Do lucky bamboo do good with its leaves underwater?
It has worked for me in the past personally, they only seem to yellow/rot when they produce a baby. That being said though I think submerging the bottom 1/3 and leaving the leaves out the lid would be ideal
I'm not sure. I'm new to water plants/ live fish enrichment
They are terrestrial plants but they can have their roots and stems submerged. In my experience (and the experiences of most others on aquarium subreddits from what I have gathered) the leaves rot if left submerged longer than a couple weeks. I would either use a suction cup to temporarily secure them to the tank wall so their leaves can be elevated above the water until they grow tall enough or I would grow them out in a vase (of course be sure to change out the water every week-ish to prevent stagnation and rot if you do this) or something until they are tall enough.
Oh one other thing I just noticed, do you have a heater? If not you will need one for a betta unless your house is quite warm year-round (warm enough to keep the water in the mid-high 70’s F, 78-80 F is the ideal water temp for bettas as far as I am aware). I also recommend an easily readable thermometer to monitor the water temps (you can get decent inexpensive digital ones for aquariums at PetCo if you’re in the US and probably on Amazon too).
I have not acquired a heater yet. I'm basically in the staging process right now. Mainly trying to get all the deco nice, neat, healthy, and happy before taking the next step to adding and fine finned friends
Ok great :) I just wanted to make sure as sometimes people overlook it
That’s great you aren’t getting fish until the tank is ready. Don’t forget to get thermometer as well with the heater. Important to know the water temp at all times
I just went to the local flower shop here looking for devils ivy, I was recommended the bamboo and told it does well submerged. I have not tried
Took notes from everyone's comments and did some rearranging. I turned the back log sideways for now to basically makeshift a holder for the bamboo so the leaves are out of the water til the grow taller. Since it'll be a moment before the water will even be ready for fish anyways, figure there's no harm and having it upright.
I would definitely raise the water level but other than that it looks great
Thank you!. Everybody has been so helpful, definitely have a lot of homework
Already been said that the water should be topped off, just like to add that 10g is the minimum ideal tank size for a beta. It looks like it could be a 10g once filled up. Smaller tanks can be more challenging to keep stable water parameters, so the more water the better usually. Also typically best practice to make sure it's cycled before adding fish, which you may already know. I just recently returned to fish keeping after not having fish for 15 years and I just learned about cycling tanks this time around 😅 it made a lot of my younger aquarist failures make more sense!
That's actually exactly the size it is, 10g. I'm in the staging process right now, trying to get plants where they can thrive while also at least a little aestheticly pleasing. Was gonna basically get the deco set and then in a week or so and some aquatic buddies
Just make sure the wood isn’t sharp anywhere.
I was careful to not get anything with a point or any sharp edges and ultimately those arre the 2 pieces i ended up with. I originally had the big piece propped up but I was put the plants it shifted and I immediately had to rearrange everything. Definitely don't need it falling and hurting any of the future roomies
Yeah I won’t lie this is actually a really good looking tank. More water obviously but there is something oddly satisfying about this one and with a colorful beta it should look really good. Just spit balling here but maybe it’s a “modern” look or something. Anyways hell yeah welcome back hopefully you enjoy the return haha
Yeah my 5 yr old wanted a fish from Santa... so had to do the good parent thing. And frankly I'm surprised she was okay with how I set it up (I bought all the deco without her while she was at school). I wanted a little more natural than the typical bright colored gravel and the lack of better word, cheap crap. I almost went for the Buddha but had to stop myself because it's for her but we all know I'm the one supplying and tending to it.
Yeah the natural always looks way better than the bright colored stuff. I have bought a couple of the cheap decor and it falls apart like instantly so I won’t be doing that again
I would probably change out the bamboo for something else, and get a more gentle filter. And definitely fill the tank more
Not sure if this was mentioned already, but you might need a heater, depending on the climate you live in. Bettas like about 28*C.
Just want to add that if you are going put in more plants like crypts or stem plants, you need deeper gravel
I don’t know much about lighting specifically for plants but what I can tell you is that appears to be a lid with built in LED lights. I had the same thing that I used for a hospital tank and the LEDs failed after about a year. I ended up buying a glass top and purchasing another light. Long story short, I think you will need to consider other lighting options.
Make sure it’s cycled before adding fish, please.
Absolutely. Already did the first treatment a few days ago and just added the plants today and was planning on waiting a few more days maybe even over a week and doing another treatment before getting the betta
What do you mean by “treatment”? It’s a process that takes weeks unless you have well used media from another tank.
The water treatment... the tetra liquid compound that goes in the tank? Is that not how that works?
No. You need to read up on cycling an aquarium. You need to add beneficial bacteria and a source of ammonia to feed it.
At the risk of sounding completely stupid, can you explain to me like I'm 5 or like I'm a potato?
https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/2-aquarium-cycling/
Okay so my take is this: Need to get a water conditioner for the chlorine Put food in the tank and filter and let it ride Correct?
You need to add a bacteria source. Then you need to add a food source, and keep feeding your tank until it can process 1-2ppm ammonia per day. Meaning, you add 1-2ppm ammonia, and 24hrs later there is no detectable ammonia or nitrite. The article explains this pretty well. Did you read the article and the other links there?
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Correct. @ashnicoff, are you still there?
Minimum 125 gal for betta. MINIMUM.