“I want to look at a tank set up that I loved doing myself and one that became extremely popular in the hobby over the last 18months to 2 years at least that’s what I’ve seen that’s when they grew in popularity. That tank set up is of course a betta sorority. So, what does betta sorority mean, well that means that you set up a tank with all female bettas.
Now typically we all know the rule is you can only keep one betta in a tank or they will fight each other. And yes this is the rule when it comes to males, but people tested it with females and found that under the right conditions you can actually keep groups of them together in tanks and they do not murder each other. Now that being said, these can be very hit or miss, so they are by no means a beginner level tank, in fact I would not even classify them as a moderate level tank, these should really only be attempted by people that have
A. done a bunch of research into them,
B. have been keeping fish for a few years.
C. people who have dealt with and know how to handle aggressive fish, and
D. people that have the ability to think on their feet and have the funds and space available for extra tanks incase a sorority does not natural balance itself.
So, for these the smallest size tank you should attempted them in is a 20 gallon, you will want a group of 5-7 girls. You are going to want to make sure you have plenty of hiding spots in the form of décor; rock work, driftwood and other things. You are also going to want a large number of plants in the tank for the same reason as the hiding spots. You want to treat your sorority like an African cichlid tank and give the fish plenty of ways to break line of sight with each other to curb their aggression.
The biggest mistake I think people make with these is trying to put too many girls in a small tank and they do not include something that I think is essential to sororities; dither fish. Dither fish are one of the biggest things you need to do if you want to keep a successful sorority. Dither fish are a schooling fish or active fish that will distract your girls away from fighting each other. I have found black neon tetras and emerald eye rasboras are great for this. Another big thing you want to try and do is get all your girls young and at the same time, this way they grow up together. If you notice aggression you can put that one fish in a time out, ie put it in a net in the tank or a breeder box. You might find you need to pull a fish completely as some just aren’t suitable for cohabitation.
Eventually your girls will establish a natural hierarchy among them, and balance should be achieved. Overall betta sororities can be an amazing tank and a fun project for someone that wants to try a tank that requires more work to maintain. But sadly, given the level of knowledge you need to successfully keep a sorority I would not recommend this to everyone. Don’t get me wrong, I love sororities, but they just require so much more in-depth knowledge of fishkeeping than a simple community tank or singular betta tank that I don’t feel comfortable recommending them to everyone. “
Originally Posted by Yorkie
10-19-2020 ref. Diana Walstad
In her book, Ecology of the Planted Aquarium (Chapter 7), Diana Walstad talks about the use of aquarium plants to take up ammonium from the water. Section 4 within this chapter is entitled “Plants and Nitrifying Bacteria Compete”. The essence of this is that plants prefer to uptake ammonium instead of nitrate. So, I did a very basic experiment in order to probe deeper into this…
In an illuminated tank containing Java and Congo Fern, I was able to show that NH4 dropped from 2 mg/litre to 0.4 mg/litre over a period of just four hours! Late yesterday evening, I then added ammonium chloride to raise the NH4 to just under 3 mg/litre and left the tank overnight in darkness. At 12:40 pm today, I measured NH4 and it was still around 3 mg/litre. What could be the explanation for this? Is it because my plants only absorb NH4 in the presence of light, i.e. when the plants are photosynthesizing?
I usually don’t check other forums on APC (Aquatic Plant Central), so I would post your questions there.
Plants take up ammonia as their source of nitrogen for growth both day and night. (Nitrate is only taken up in the presence of light.)
Your plants reduced NH4 from 2 mg/l to 0.4 mg/l in 4 hours. This addition may have saturated their need for nitrogen. Then you added 3 mg/l. Was that immediately after the first reduction?
Plants take up N for growth along with some excess. But there’s a limit. There has to be some plant growth involved. Ferns aren’t fast growers. You’ll notice that most of the scientific testing is done on Elodea, duckweed, Hornwort, etc, not ferns. Usually, scientists doing these studies show that the uptake is accompanied by plant growth.
In an NPT (natural planted tank), growing plants take up ammonia as it is generated in small amounts by natural processes. This means small amounts as they grow.
High concentrations of ammonia are toxic to plants (my book, p. 20), so there’s some limit on how much they can take up and how fast.
Currently, I use plants as sole water purifiers in all of my 8 guppy tanks. No filters.
Originally Posted by dwalstad
September 2014
Your plants reduced NH4 from 2 mg/l to 0.4 mg/l in 4 hours. This addition may have saturated their need for nitrogen. Then you added 3 mg/l. Was that immediately after the first reduction?
Yorkie Re:
I am very grateful for your comprehensive reply – thank you!
With specific reference to the above – yes, the 3 mg/l total ammonia addition was immediately after the first reduction. I was guessing somewhat and, in hindsight, it was too great an increase. I measured total ammonia at 1900 this evening and it had dropped to 0.2 mg/l. Tomorrow, I’ll test total ammonia again and also include NO2 and NO3.
dwalstad Re:
Sounds like you have a scientific mind-set. Excellent.
The scientists looking for plant uptake of ammonia always check nitrates and nitrites to make sure that the N removal from the ecosystem is not due to nitrification.
Even then, it is hard to sort out. Nitrogen is recycled via many different pathways by many different organisms, bacteria species, etc. Everybody wants nitrogen!
As I load my truck with nets & buckets battery air packs in anticipation for today’s collecting (treasure hunt). Going to my favorite place a magical creek full of koi & goldfish. The creek periodically dries up so I feel a need to rescue as many as possible. My biggest so far is about 11/2 ft orange n black koi named Titan very handsome.
But Ghost has escaped my net twice. She is a beautiful white female. I’m hoping my next trip third time will be my charm. But I am content until then to relax and watch hundreds of baby frogs hop all about. The beautiful deer at the waters edge having a cool drink don’t seem to be concerned with me. I have collected such beautiful wonders of nature there; Crystals, plants, arrowheads & even the biggest mystery snail I’ve ever seen – (Mo).
The water is cool & refreshing as I wade through or in a few cases get drug down the river by ghost, almost medicinal for my body & soul.
Blessed Be fish family & I hope everyone has a magical place to go to just like Ghosts creek.
submitted by Scott Burden @Fancy Tail Aquatics
November 2020
The Start of Guppies
The Guppy takes its name from Robert John Lechmere Guppy, a conchologist, geologist and also President of the Scientific Association of Trinidad. This was around 1866 roughly. These were small fish that he had collected from streams in Trinidad.
The Guppy continued to be sent to many different Museums by various collectors and acquired no less than 11 different scientific names. These turned out to be different strains and not new species.
The scientific name of Guppies has undergone a number of revisions in the past 100+ years, finally settling on the name of Poecilia reticulata
The first recorded live Guppies to enter Europe were into Germany in December 1908. The German Hobbyists were so impressed with the reproductive rate of the Guppy that they nicknamed it the Millionenfisch (million Fish).
Around 1920 a fish club in Germany developed the first points system for judging Guppies, the maximum points available was 50, the club held the first recorded Guppy show in November 1922.
The first International Guppy show was in 1954 held in Germany
After this, I can not find much more information of the first true breeding species. I just thought you would like a small break down of the slow coming of the species.
I’ve been in the fish hobby since I was 11 yrs old. I don’t remember not having a fish tank in my childhood well up until now.
I recently got into what we call “summer tubing”. I purchased 4 different types of stock tanks from Tractor Supply company, only to end up with 3: a 25 gal, a 10 gal, and a 40 gal. The 4th was a 100 gal but I read many negative reviews on using the tough stuff stock tank and decided against it.
I live in North Florida, the emerald coast. The heat can get serious here so I encountered several issues: maintaining a safe environment for them to live in (we have Hawks, snakes, rats, even lizards will eat fish here), maintaining adequate temperatures, and whether or not I actually needed to do water changes. Mind you, I’ve NEVER tried breeding outdoors before. We’ve had turtles and small 300 gal goldfish pond at my parents house as a kid, but never before have I been in charge of setting up and keeping my own pond!
I used many different strains of guppies: yellow cobra, red Mosaics, Red Dragon Dumbo ear, and Purple Mosaics.
I started the end of February. I dug up the old tenant’s garden just outside my patio. I added Scott’s organic topsoil as a base for plants I wanted around the pond, as well as some Coco fiber leftover from my Pacman frog substrate changes. The soil here is hard, compact, and sandy with very low nutrients. Next I leveled the area, but (and this is a newbie move) I didn’t add anything underneath to account for the weight of the tub. I filled the bottom of the tub with old sand substrate (another newbie move). I was able to add the guppies late March.
Now here’s what I’ve learned the past couple of months of doing this:
1) Level your ponds with hardscape! Use pea gravel, rocks, flag stone, anything HARD! Down here in July it rains for days at a time, sometimes the whole month! The newly added soil which benefited the plants, shifted my tub. I’ve been able to work things out over time but it’s been a pain.
2) DON’T add substrate to your small tubs, 100 and under! Especially if you’re breeding guppies. You don’t want to spend hours and hours in summer heat trying to dig up guppy fry
3) Know your stock source! I’m fairly new to guppy breeding but have learned the hard way if you get bad stock, you’ll spend MONTHS culling deformed fry. I had bend spines, lopsided dumbo ears, twisted tails, etc all of which I had to get rid of. Even 2nd generation fry were horribly deformed and this comes from not adding new genetics to a pure line.
4) Keep lots and lots and LOTS of floating plants! Yes it can make spotting your stock harder but trust me! Even the larger ponds can heat up and fry the stock. I find that water Hyacinth is the best at providing both shade and cover for fry. They are an invasive species in Florida and I’ve actually collected a bunch from city workers who pull them out of our ditches!
All in all, I had a blast this summer and will continue to be able to keep my tubs outside until the end of October. It doesn’t get really cold here until mid November (low 70’s) Good ole Florida weather!
WHEN THE TIME COMES… to close the fish room.
The Struggles in closing a Fish room
Sometimes there comes a time in our life that we have to weigh our priorities and make difficult decisions.
Susan shares some of her sorrows and blessings that came from her changes.
First of all, the decision making process.
1. Weighing Priorities
2. Purpose out ways desire
3. choosing to sell or give away
4. timeline
5. dealing with depression
6. making good choices
1. Family First. This is usually the way we go because our Priorities should be in order, but sometimes, they get out of wack! I am an all-In type of person that when I decide start a new project, that’s all I think about and dream about. I try to learn as I go and that will often put me in a predicament where I was not prepared for the long haul.
God, family, self, work. So where does a Hobby or Business fit? Gee, when researching Priorities, there were so many choices and different formats, I became Overwhelmed.
You have to choose what list fits your lifestyle and commitments.
As a christian, God must be first priority in my life, but there, I see variables. God is Love, so love life, first, but in loving Life, my priorities should be what produces life. Resources we need to sustain life, are physical. Air, water, food, health. What produces good Health? Mental outlook and physical provision: nourishment, rest, oxygen, water, exercise, sunlight, social engagements, and in my case, spiritual relationship with my God. I had no idea, I was going to go this way. If too heavy for you, disregard for your peace of mind. LOL.(What does Fish Keeping have to do with Faith?) Oh that’s another Topic! Haha, don’t worry, I’m not going there!
So as you see, Priorities will be individually designed. So choose what is important to you and do your best and get help when needed. 😀 2. Purpose will be determined and influenced by what your priorities are. In my case, I was asked to come help care for our aging mother. Priority in this case: Family. So I need to free my time and not put more on other family members, therefore, dismantling my hobby, the Fish Room. 🙁 3. Because of my financial need was going to increase due to travel and maybe temporary relocation, I needed to decide to sell my stock and maybe supplies as time goes.
Then researching what others were charging for species of fish, snails, and plants was another time consuming process of breaking down the fish room. Pride, and personal quality and worth came into play. Many told me I wasn’t charging enough and then some said, it’s worth it but I can’t afford that. So I began giving things away at the end. Time has changed things as well with world pandemic issues that has caused me to reconsider even opening a fish room again. But I can’t even shut down everything yet, emotionally holding on to fish and tanks and listening to the water movement in the empty tanks is comforting, but not really helping the situation. (frustration) 4. Timeline, was of the essence. THEN… COVID-19 STRUCK!!!! My timeline was pushed back and then staying home and job duties changed and depression hit with selling my fish, that I had grown attached to and cared for daily and the maintenance in the fish room fell to an alarming neglectful state. But guess what, everything is thriving and reproducing and reproducing. ugh, to a point of HELP! Panic, my blood pressure is rising and Oh well, I’ve gotten off coarse again! TimeLINE has been adjusted, my sibling is having to ask the other sibling to step up and help and mom has come to the conclusion that I will get there one day. Shaking my head and trying to come to terms with it and make plans to get back into the fish room and finish emptying tanks and cleaning equipment for the next hobbyist to enjoy. 5. Dealing with depression. well so far, I’ve been able to fake with many others and direct my mental concentration on what is at hand with my current job duties changing that has busied my daily schedule with video editing and broadcast programming and scheduling and training of others to do what I do. I Know this is not a Good practice when dealing with Depression. It is real, and it can take a toll on ones mind, and physical health if ignored. I have to take time to breathe and meditate on the goodness of the Lord and all He has created. I also take time to walk in the sunshine and eat well and rest. My personal study in God’s Word helps remind me, that I am not alone, my visits in the Live Streams with some of my Fish Family helps take my mind off of my concerns. I miss you all and hope to visit streams and watch videos to be with you. My depression does not need medication at this time, but I am aware that I should ask for help before it becomes more than I can handle. For now, I am able to pull myself up by the boot straps as we say, and relax and think on good things and appreciate life! Thank you for being there! You know who you are. 😀 6. Making Good Choices: Taking one day at a time, one project at a time, and disciplining my mind and thoughts to Not get Overwhelmed. I have taken care of some things concerning the Fish Room, and decided to do what I can when I can. I’m in the process of scheduling for a Covid-19 test to carry a medical paper with me when I travel to see my Mom. I plan a short visit for now to access the situation and help my sister make an educated decision concerning her long term care. I will finish breaking down the fish room and sell much of the tanks and equipment for local pick up for now. Over the last two months, I have found more strength mentally than I thought I had. Usually that happens for me under extreme pressure and purpose driven energy! My husband has been so supportive through this all, understanding the responsibility and love that life has for us.
In conclusion: Love of this Fish keeping Hobby will never leave me. I hope to continue to make contact with all of my beautiful #FishFam and will continue to share with you of my life experiences as long as you want to hear them. This is not Good Bye, but See you Later! I love you <3.
-Susan for SLC Aquatics
#fishfammom
"Touching Lives One Fish at a Time"
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