Siamese Fighter and my tank...

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2cvbloke

2cvbloke

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
May 27, 2006
Messages
502
Location
Lancashire, UK
Ok, I would like an SFF, cos they're pretty, especially the males ( :shock: ), and my tank is empty awaiting a new place to put it, and I would like to have an SFF in it... :)

I know that they can live in fairly small tanks (I once saw one in a little bulb type thing, smaller than a goldfish bowl, which I thought was very cruel!!!), but I'd like to know if my 18" x 9.75" x 10" tank is ok for a single male and if I could safely put something else in there, like shrimp, as I would also like to have some shrimp too cos they're cool... :)

Also, I have a Fluval 2+ (2nd hand) which I'm in the process of cleaning out, if I pop this into the Coldwater tank to seed with the orandas and loaches, would this be ok in a tropical tank? Or should I use Tetra SafeStart to seed the filter pads? :)

Thanks in advance... :D
 
Not quite sure on the size of that aquarium, but it sounds like it's bigger than a 5.5 gallon but smaller than a 10 gallon. Probably about an 8 gallon. That would be a very nice sized aquarium for a Betta. It would completely depend on the personality of the Betta as to whether or not it would live peacefully with the shrimp or decimate them in a matter of minutes. If you do decide to try shrimp it would be best to make sure that they have LOTS of hiding places.

Placing the filter pads in your established aquarium for a couple of weeks would be a great way to seed them. The temperature wouldn't make much difference, as the beneficial bacteria are the same for FW reguardless of temperature.
 
From a post I made about the tank a while back, it was measured as approximately 7.5Gal, so you're not far off, but as my tank seems to be good for a Betta, but I'll be planting it up nicely and I have a couple of home-made CocoHuts that I can use for shrimp shelter, I was thinking of maybe using a clear divider too just to get the two creatures used to each other before introducing them, if the SFF doesn't react in a bad way that is... :)

All I need to do now is finish cleaning my Fluval2+, sort out where to keep my tank, get a divider & several plants, and of course get the SFF and a couple of shrimp... :D
 
Well, I went to the pet shop today, and there was the perfect SFF, he's amazingly coloured, a purpley-blue colour with red accents (where the light shines through him), and the price was right, as was the two shrimp (unknown breed, but providing much entertainment!!), so both species are in my tank, which I filled with plants to provide places to swim through, and as for the filter, well, the Fluval2+ is in the big tank still, so I nabbed the other one that came with the tank, as it's been in ther for a long time now, so is definitely seeded!!! So, all I have to do now is get a video for you lot to see how amazing they are... :D
 
Sounds like a perfect setup. Looking forward to the pics (or video or whatever).
 
I've been watching my SFF (haven't thought of a name yet, and I think Finny seems a bit silly!!!) and he doesn't seem to be that interested in the Shrimp, even when they're right next to each other on the divider, do you think it would be ok to lift the divider or should I give it another week or two? :)

I'm just waiting for my camcorder to charge up, then I shall do a video of him and his tankmates... :D
 
2cvbloke said:
I've been watching my SFF (haven't thought of a name yet, and I think Finny seems a bit silly!!!) and he doesn't seem to be that interested in the Shrimp, even when they're right next to each other on the divider, do you think it would be ok to lift the divider or should I give it another week or two? :)
Click to expand...

Well, FWIW, I recently had a female betta for a week or so in a 2.5 gal tank with 3 ghost shrimp (1 of which was pretty small) without problems. She would sometimes poke her snout at them and shoo them away but she never attacked them. This is the same betta that mercilessly eats even rather large snails--gobbles them right out of their shells.

All I can say is you can give it a try. The whole key will be the first time your betta lays eyes on the shrimp and swims over to investigate. If he doesn't attack them that first time, then you have reason to be hopeful. If the shrimp last 24 hours, then you can be 99% sure there won't be problems in the future.
 
I've got a video uploading right now to YouTube, and I'm posting a picture of one of the shrimp here (to identify the species)... :)

I've also removed the divider and all seems ok so far, the two species have passed each other within millimetres and there was no sign of any eating or attacking, which is good. I'm now thinking of getting another two shrimp cos they're such amazing little creatures, it would be nice if they were Cherry shrimp too cos I like the look of them... :D

Also, I seem to be having a heater issue, the tank water feels cold, and the heater is on, I wonder if it's just in the wrong place.... :confused:
 

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Yep, the heater was in the wrong place, I've now got it horizontal near the base, and I can see it's working going by the wavy distortions in the water, I just hope it's not heating things up too quickly though... :shock:

Whilst I was doing that though, one of the shrimp came up and onto my hand and had a taste, I don't think he liked me though as it promptly swam off... :lol:
 
That's a ghost/glass shrimp of some sort or other. There are lots of species sold under the same common name which makes them hard to identify.
 
Purrbox said:
That's a ghost/glass shrimp of some sort or other. There are lots of species sold under the same common name which makes them hard to identify.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it got me a little confused as they had another tank labelled as Ghost Shrimp and they were much more transparent, but either way I'm happy, cos I have two of my favourite creatures in the same tank... :D

One odd thing though, I saw a wriggly!!! It looked to be about 5-8mm long and seemed to wriggle about, but last I saw of it, the wriggly thing was heading for the filter, I do hope it's not a parasite of somesort.... :(

EDIT:
Video of my SFF and shrimp is now ready!!!:


:mrgreen:
 
The water feels cool because your body temp 98.6F and the tank is ~80F. Do you have a thermometer? The one on the heater (if it has one) is unreliable as are the ones that stick to outside glass. You'll want a thermometer that you can use to tell the temp of your tank and the water you add to it at pwc time.
 
Alaris said:
The water feels cool because your body temp 98.6F and the tank is ~80F. Do you have a thermometer? The one on the heater (if it has one) is unreliable as are the ones that stick to outside glass. You'll want a thermometer that you can use to tell the temp of your tank and the water you add to it at pwc time.
Click to expand...

It was actually colder than it should have been, it felt about as cool as the big tank, the heater was in the wrong place so it was just heating up the water around it, but not the rest of the tank, so I moved it to somewhere that was in the water flow where the heater could do its job... :)

I don't have a thermometer at the moment, the last one I had I broke (that's the third one in a row!!!), but once paypal transfers my money to my bank account I'll be up to the petshop to get yet another one, preferably one that I can't break of course!!! :lol:

I've never trusted those stick-on ones though, I thought I'd use the one that came with the big tank as a general thermometer for the living room, and it gave very high readings when it was rather cold!!! :confused:
 
Would it be possible to add other fish to the tank at all? Or would Mr. SFF eat/attack them? it just seems a little bare with just him and two shrimp... :confused:
 
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