Wild Betta Spec - Betta Channoides

[Lee Sweeting]

Hi all, just thought i would start up a little journal for my Betta Channoides tank. The idea behind the tank was to set up a biotope (not accurate) type tank for a pair of betta channoides. I'm using pure RO water, which after the addition of a nice handful of beech, oak and alder cones gives me a nice low pH of 5.5 (the betta should love it), GH & KH are negligible. I've also added some microsorum and salvinia natans to help deal with any nitrates.

The tank is a Fluval spec (19L) with stock filter and lighting. The hardscape consists of Sumatran driftwood, baltic rock and silver sand.



The Male


The Female


Sorry for the crappy phone pictures 🙂
​

 

[Martin in Holland]

I think they will be very happy in this tank. I hope you will get lots and lots of fry.

 

[Edvet]

Looks good, just not sure if the sand will pose troubles. Everything will stay on top of the sand, would it be a bit coarser i would suspect there would be some biodegradation in the substrate. Dou you have trumpet snails?

 

[Lindy]

Beautiful little fish, I hope they breed for you.

 

[James O]

Really nice!

Keep the lid on though - it only a small leap to the toaster😉

 

[Hamza]

Beautiful setup!

A dumb question... how often do you change water in this setup? And when you change it you cant match water parameters with such acidic water. Does the fish easily cope-up with that? Never kept a blackwater tank and I always wonder about it.

 

[James D]

Looking great as always Lee! What's that black pipe thing?

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Looks good, just not sure if the sand will pose troubles. Everything will stay on top of the sand, would it be a bit coarser i would suspect there would be some biodegradation in the substrate. Dou you have trumpet snails?

Hi Ed! I hadn't thought of that to be honest 😕. I'm not to worried though, the tank is pretty small and should be easy enough to keep on top of. No trumpet snails either, i don't think they would do well in the tank, given the GH/KH.[DOUBLEPOST=1403254124][/DOUBLEPOST]

Really nice!

Keep the lid on though - it only a small leap to the toaster😉

Haha! Its well and truly sealed mate 🙂[DOUBLEPOST=1403254196][/DOUBLEPOST]

Looking great as always Lee! What's that black pipe thing?

Thanks James. The black piping is pond filter hose, just somewhere for the little guys to chill out 🙂[DOUBLEPOST=1403254649][/DOUBLEPOST]

Beautiful setup!

A dumb question... how often do you change water in this setup? And when you change it you cant match water parameters with such acidic water. Does the fish easily cope-up with that? Never kept a blackwater tank and I always wonder about it.

Hi Hamza! I change 10% of the water twice weekly. The replacement water is brought up to the correct temperature and added straight to the tank. I'm using pure RO, and only change small amounts of water at a time. The affects on pH, GH and KH will only be negligible, and shouldn't really affect the fish.

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Beautiful little fish, I hope they breed for you.

Thanks Lindy. 🙂

 

[Greenfinger2]

Great looking set up🙄 Hope they breed and have lots of little ones 😉

 

[Lee Sweeting]

A little pic of the couple 🙂


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Can anyone see the little white worms on the glass? Any ideas what these are? Rotifiers? They don't look like planaria. There's also some other tiny white creatures, to small to get a pic though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Edvet]

Hydra probably, i don't mind them, they could be troublesome in case of fry

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Lee, I think mum&dad will eat them first 🙂

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Hydra probably, i don't mind them, they could be troublesome in case of fry

Defiantly not hydra ed. There more like a Nematoad, similar to banana worms.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Hi Lee, I think mum&dad will eat them first 🙂

I have seen them eating the little blighters. 🙂


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
They could be "detritus worms", which are small annelid worms and eaten by the fish. I get a lot of them in the filter.

cheers Darrel

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Hi all,
They could be "detritus worms", which are small annelid worms and eaten by the fish. I get a lot of them in the filter.

cheers Darrel

Cheers Darrel! I'm always happy when there's free food in the tank 🙂


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Hi all,
They could be "detritus worms", which are small annelid worms and eaten by the fish. I get a lot of them in the filter.

cheers Darrel

Any ideas where these come from Darrel? The tank has only been set up just over a week. The filter was mature, but everything else in the tank is new. There's defiantly no issues with cleaning/maintenance, as the tank hasn't been running long enough, and I'm pretty stringent with maintenance etc etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Greenfinger2]

Any ideas where these come from Darrel? The tank has only been set up just over a week. The filter was mature, but everything else in the tank is new. There's defiantly no issues with cleaning/maintenance, as the tank hasn't been running long enough, and I'm pretty stringent with maintenance etc etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Lee, Sorry to butt in . Most of the time they come on plants😉