Heylo! My lovely boyfriend decided to bestow upon me a twenty gallon aquarium kit from walmart for our one year anniversary, plus plants, two new cory cats, and tons more! Here's the story!!

I don't have any before pictures, but as I'm still working on the tank, you'll get to see the after later!!

The tank came with:

100 Watt Heater
10-30 Gallon Filter System
Digital Thermometer (Which I don't like and will be replacing)
Dechlor
Fish food
Lighted hood

What my boyfriend added:

Fake log ornament with attached silk plants
Two eight inch realistic Amazon Sword Plants
Two packs of medium sea silks
Thirty Pound bag of bronze gravel

What I added:

Three eight inch fluffy plants (lol I don't remember what they're actually called)
One pot (stolen from Starvin Marvin's tank, he doesn't like it very much)

What I'm adding:

Several sixteen inch silks and other realistic plants
Another log decoration for the front corner of the tank
New Thermometer
Several Taller Amazon sword plants
Biospira, then fish!

This tank is going to be a betta sorority for six betta females:

Two Lovely DTCT's named Shrimp and Tansy
One beautiful platinum marbled VT named Sophie
A lovely Mustard Gas plakat female named Dolce
A half-moon turquoise female named Minerva
And soon to be added, a 1/2 giant cello pk female!! (woot)

Other tank mates include:
Three cory cats (one peppered/panda, and two regular "green")

I was going to add danios, but as five of the females are still juveniles, and don't move quite as fast, I can easily see the fin nipping getting a little out of hand, the danios are moving to a new home in a divided ten gallon. They'll get a five gallon partition to themselves, and I'll be keeping two divided betta males on the other side.

Here's the piccy of my twenty gallon so far:



As for right now, until I can temporarily move the danios into a large spacious ten gallon home tommorow (I just added a 25 watt heater to the ten gallon tank, so it has to wait twenty-four hours for temp. regulation), I have three cories and four danios in a five gallon mini-bow.

Yes too many fish, but it's only for one day. I just want to say though, I'll never buy a schooling fish alone again!! -_- I didn't realize how depressed Mr. Nibbles actually was, now with Peeves and Sirius, he's like the king of the world!!

Here's my picture that I've dubbed "Two Cute Cats". Mr. Nibbles is on your left, Peeves is on your right, Peeves seems to be the instigator of much mischief and forays into the fake plant jungle for dropped tetramin flakes...his namesake, is of course, the Poltergeist from Harry Potter :rolleyes:



And here's the five gallon as a whole, you can tell I went a little overboard with the hidey holes and things:



And of course, can't go without a shot of the peppered/panda cory in the corner underneath the filter, so for my last pic, "Three Cute Cats" :wub: Sirius is in the corner, and the Mr. Nibbles and Peeves, kinda can't tell who's who here, I have to look at them from the side, Mr. Nibbles is the biggest :D

Great pics! Really seems like you are off to an awesome start. Can't wait to see some pics when you add the fish.

I can't wait to add fish either! :D :D :D b I've been calling local pet stores all day to see who has biospira in stock, the only place I know of is back where I go to school at, two hours away!!

That is so tight! in those words! I was just talking to the hubby about getting a twenty and when we went to the LFS, he was immmbarresssed when I asked where they were. WOW! A 20! I have to save a bit for the 55G I want to get him, but I will have to special order my littler tank. If I get my way, he will, graduate from a 29G GF.
And to think you were, only Bettas,? You would have went crazy at the LFS with me today! When I was there for the first , time in a long time . I thought of you!
They had the Bettas in with the shrimp? Not only that, they had cichilds,(babies), in with everything.

Alrighty! Went searching for biospira and couldn't find it anywhere in town!! :mad:

Anyways, I decided to go out and get the rest of the decorations for the aquarium.

What I got:

Large tree root/false drift wood decoration for the front corner
New suction cup thermometer
Two sixteen inch fluffy plants
Two blue long-finned danios
One opaque white female betta, now dubbed Myrtle

What I added:

The decor, then decided to do a temporary two week cycle with my danios, and will be bringing biospira back from my college to put in the tank!! ^_^ Then I'll add the females. :wub:

Now for the rest of today's work. It is so hard to catch danios. I mean, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard!!! I caught the first three from the minibow and deposited them in betta cups so they could float, I was planning on releasing all of them at relatively the same time so they'd form a new school, including the blue long-finneds, which of course, I bought today.

Then there was one danio in the five, which is full of decorations, as you can see. And it took me twenty minutes to catch him. I finally had to sprinkle food over the net then scoop him up while he was busy eating. Yes it was a dirty trick, but at least he got in the daggum cup!! -_-

Here's the some shots of my danios floating around in the twenty before I let them loose!





And here's the new female I picked up, opaque white veil tail! Her name is Myrtle, I'm on a Harry Potter name kick, lol. :lol:

Jdizine, thanks!! And a big lol! I always get so stoked when I see an LFS doing something different with the bettas. Today, I went to a Petsmart in a different part of town, and they had a betta SORORITY! It was unbelievable. There was a dead girl though :( She got kinda squooshed behind a decoration and nobody saw her...

They also had teeny tiny month old juvies in there! I couldn't believe how teeny they were! I actually moved my new female Myrtle into the five with the cories. I don't wanna put the cories in the twenty just yet, I don't think they do very well with cycles! Bettas do okay with shrimp, but I have heard of very aggresive bettas eating them, including one case where a ramshorn snail fell prey to a betta as well!

I just realized though...I put the danios in....and how the heck am I going to get them out?!!! I'm used to catching slow-ish bettas. I rarely move the danios, but now that there's six of them....and that many hidey holes...oh lord...preserve me!

Danios are fast but they're dumb! :P Don't worry too much.

Yep, they are dumb!

I have had blue long-finned danios before. Do they school with your other danios? I got kinda lost- are you putting danios in with any of the bettas? I definitely would not put blue long-finned danios in with bettas. Way too fast and nippy. That is the only type of danio I have kept, so I don't know that much about the other kinds.

Those are both very pretty set-ups you've got there.

I didn't see any pandas in your pics. Here are some pics that include pandas

The pandas are the smallest ones
Left to right: spotted, panda, peppered, peppered, panda (and there's a neon tetra up there)

Those are the cory cats in my 29 gallon (one spotted cory is not pictured- as you know it is hard to get group shots)

Unfortunately, I don't have a green cory for comparisons

Here is an elegant cory pic in my other tank:

Obviously, yours aren't elegant cories, but I don't want my elegant cories getting jealous because I posted picture samples of all my other cories, but not them! ; )

Maybe after looking at these pictures you could tell us for sure what kind of cories they are. :D I'm not trying to steal your thread with the pitures or anything, I'm just incredibly nosey and interested in what kind of cories you have. I'm a major cory cat fan!

Cute pics!

Can't wait to see more pics!

That's definitely not a problem :D The pics definitely helped me make sure that Sirius was a peppered, lol.

I know the two, Peeves and Mr. Nibbles are green, but I think I just had the two terms confused :D Sirius is a peppered cory, he looks just like the one that's third in your pic up there, you just can't see it in that pic with all three of them because of the light. The cories are in the five gallon minibow right now with Myrtle because the twenty is cycling, and I don't want them to be subject to the ups and downs of a cycle.

Yeah, the danios are pretty dumb, my impression of a danio:

"Food...no food, food no food? Food no food, nip tail, food no food, swim, food?" LOL!

The danios are getting their own ten gallon tank, I don't want them in there with the females, they'll be too nippy, especially because some of the females are juvies, and really don't swim that fast, and aren't much bigger than the danios length wise at all!! :D Speaking of females, my half-moon girl is flirting with Starvin Marvin! It's too cute!!

Smart choice not keeping the danios with the bettas! It sounds like you've got a great set up coming along :D I agree on the whole dumb danio thing lol

Well, good luck with your tank. Keep the updates comin' :D

Looking good looking good :D :up:

OH YEAH! I forgot to add that they are schooling together. I was pretty excited. It's like they'd never met eachother before, even the ones that were together, and they were like HEY WHO ARE YOU?!! LET'S GO SWIMMING! YAY! Food, no food, food no food? LOL! :D

I got my biospira ya'll! I get to set up the sorority this weekend!!!! ;D ;D ;D

Hey guys!! I just set up my sorority!! :lol: I'm sooo excited! I'll be adding more pics soon. I had a couple of scuffles, and Myrtle has become the dominant lady in the tank, hands down, even though Sophie (what an upset) my demure little lady fought it out with her for about fifteen minutes. And Dolce, my Plakat who's so aggresive towards males? Totally chickened out and hid in the bottom when my JUVIE nipped her!! :P

Sophie then took to bossing the cories around. She keeps swimming them around the tank until they go hide. But other than that, the sorority has really died down and everyone's settled in nicely. I moved the danios into my ten gallon, and I'll probably be adding some neon tetras, or some other schooling fish for a brighter tank :lol:

Alrighty! Twenty gallon is up and running.

Current Inhabitants:

7 betta females
3 cory cats

Soon to be added:
Another peppered cory
1 or 2 more females (got a new batch coming in sometime next week, Shrimp and Tanzy's spawn siblings!!)

Anyways, so here's some pictures of my new twenty and of course, a video of my girls during the best part of feeding time, the chase for the algae wafer.

Here's the sorority overall:


Minerva, enjoying herself in her new home, a little stressed, but not too torn up:


My new Double-tail girl, Marie!



Algae Wafer Chase (you'll notice all ten inhabitants of the aquarium trying to get inside the pot:



And here's Tanzy, she's gotten herself a little more beat up. She's having some SBD problems. So I have to isolate her at feeding times (I'm fasting her right now)


And Sophie!


I don't have individuals of all the girls, but here's a video of the action during the algae wafer chase!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XbJP2kqDU0

Great fish nice video as well. :)

Thanks!! :D

Thats a very nice tank :D

Thanks!! :D :D

Just wanted to let ya'll know that I added a live sword plant to the tank. It makes everything look perfect!! :D

This tank also now has live anacharis, java moss, glosso, and will soon be getting a java fern, or maybe some more swords, or other plants as they outgrow my other aquariums! :D

Added another rodica sword (12+ inches) and duckweed. Some java fern and amazons may be coming soon, my anacharis is going crazy though, and the java moss is thriving.

gotta love that anacharis, great for filling corners and backgrounds. and for sucking up all the nasty stuff you don't want in the tank, also a good oxygenator. :D

Hey, just noted in your sig that you have mondo grass in your ten gallon comm. tank. Just wanted to let you know that it isn't an aquatic plant, the LFS are selling them as aquatic, but they're really like lariapi that grow in your front yard or in your garden. They're short tufts of grass that are never supposed to be submerged.

I found out the hard way when mine started dying in my aquarium. It does well for a month or so, but then it starts to turn brown and make your water look nasty. :-\