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Marko's Betta Sorority Riparium -- Updated 8/19/13

24K views 72 replies 36 participants last post by  bettamom34 
#1 · (Edited)
now that i have a growing spawn of black orchid CTs being jarred and sold off, i decided it would be a good idea to make a sorority tank to house 8 or 9 nice looking females that i want to keep for myself. its going to be a mid-tech tank, and im doing a dry start. after 1 month in dry start, here is how it looks:
fts


h. 'tiger'


f. 'mini'



m. pteporus 'threadleaf' (this is not needleleaf, the leaves of threadleaf are even thinner)


h. glomeratus


r. 'green'
 
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#6 ·
petrified wood. from my LFS.
but all petrified wood ive seen is more or less the same. i love the way it looks in a scape.

Your hard scape is super!
thank you.
IMO, everybody should spend as much time as needed to get their hardscape as good as possible, since that is the backbone of your tank. without a solid hardscape its hard to orient yourself in the tank.

Cool scape. DSM seems the way to go when attatching mosses. Can you do that with all mosses? just lay them on an object and let them attatch while emersed? Generally, how long does it take?
thanks.
i agree.
so far i havent heard of a moss that wont grow emersed, so they should all attach.
you can just lay them down, but i minced them. some people even put them in a blender (google "moss graffiti"). when you have more disconnected segments, you have more growth points, and that is where the moss will be attaching.
since attaching was the goal here, i minced pretty finely (most sections of rhizome were 1/8" or so long). but when planting emersed and just looking for growth, ill just lay the fronds down onto the substrate. thats what i did with my terrarium (here is a link if youd like: http://plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=73569 page 8 has a pic of the moss at its best)
the time it takes depends on the moss. i dont think it should take any longer than 3 weeks. once you see significant emersed growth, its safe to assume its attached.
 
#5 ·
Cool scape. DSM seems the way to go when attatching mosses. Can you do that with all mosses? just lay them on an object and let them attatch while emersed? Generally, how long does it take?
 
#7 ·
Awesome. Thanks for the info. Good stuff. I wanted to try it with mini pellia on driftwood and rocks. And maybe other moss and go for the amano scape look.

Nice terrarium. I wanted to make one for a Jackson chameleon (popular here in Hawaii) but my warden (wife) said no:(
 
#11 ·
no problem
thats life. :icon_roll

Simply beautiful! I love the rock work. When I first saw it, the large rock on the right reminded me of a magical castle. I'm looking forward to watching the plants grow out.
thank you.
the large "rock" on the right is actually manzi. also from my lfs. its got SO much texture, i fell in love with it. ill post a macro shot later today and show you guys.

Awesome! I love sororities, wish I wasn't in Canada so I could get some girls from you.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
thanks.
yeah i dont know anything about trans shipping, sorry. :)

Great looking tank so far!
thank you.
 
#8 ·
Simply beautiful! I love the rock work. When I first saw it, the large rock on the right reminded me of a magical castle. I'm looking forward to watching the plants grow out.
 
#16 ·
here they are.
as you can see, there was some algal growth during the emersed phase, likely since there was an inch or so of water above the front substrate as it accumulated from misting. but im not too worried. some mechanical removal, shrimp, and healthy plants should clear it up.

pics:



 
#20 ·
they are.
i just fed a large amount of frozen mysis, to help them heal from yesterdays battle royale (the first thing they did was fight to figure out who the alpha was).
many also seem to be full of eggs, and would likely produce some very nice large spawns if i were to put them in with a male.

looks awesome! your fish are beautiful! i cant wait to get mine!
thank you.
only a few days. :)
he is a pretty handsome fish. looks very much like a replica of the spawns sire (the fish in my avatar).
 
#22 ·
update.
everything is growing very well. better than i expected actually. and the bettas are all doing fine and healing from their initially bout.

FTS:


the best looking orchid female:





lavender female (from same spawn, just exhibiting an unlikely phenotype):


nerite:


r. green:


h. tiger:
 
#25 ·
nobody.
they have a feeder and i show up to do water changes at least every other week. my college (rutgers) is only 35 min from my house, so its easy to go back and forth to dump my laundry and take care of the girls.
D they bite the nerite's antennae?
i dont think so. they grew up with that nerite, and i dont think they even notice that its a living animal. i never saw them lunge toward it, and i see the nerite in a different spot every time i look, so im pretty sure they are coexisting just fine.
 
#27 ·
its been a while and a few changes have occured.
1 - the timer got stuck in the on position for 2 weeks and i didnt notice (as i was at college), so some algae occurred. its going away now that i fixed the issue, and reduced the photoperiod by 1.5 hours.
2 - the resulting CO2 shortage did a number on the h. glomeratus and r. green. i removed them and added l. sessiliflora
3 - got a tellis raft and so i took out my old riparium planter and set them up in here. using an aluminum plant in the planter, and h. glomeratus on the raft.

pics:










 
#29 ·
the submissive ones get stress stripes when another girl swims by, then as the other girl swims away, the stripes fade. i think in this case, its more of a sign of submission than a sign of actual stress and fear.
i know its not a water quality issue, as the alpha (the larger, and darker devil girl) is jet black with blood red fins all the time, constantly flaring and strutting her stuff. her fins have never been perfect from introduction to the tank, though, as occasionally the other not-all-that-submissive girls get fed up with her and spar. since they all occasionally squabble with her, and not with each other, she is the most torn up. all of it is superficial though. no damage to anything but the ray extensions which are the easiest to get at.
 
#33 ·
thanks. :)

your bettas look amazing and your scape is real nice... I love the rock on the far right its perfect
thank you
that "rock" is actually manzi driftwood from my LFS. just had to have it when i saw it.
 
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