14g Cork Paludarium Photo Journal

[rockhoe14er]

when i saw the cherries with the betta my first thought was he's gonna eat them. But if you have a ton of hiding spaces where the betta can't go then you might be able to get away with it and the betta can help control your population.

In my experience any shrimp you put in with him even a larger amano will be killed and eaten. The betta will eat the legs of the amano which will kill him and they he'll feast. This happened to me but you might have a different experience.

 

[pedzola]

Any suggestions what I might be able to put in this tank w/the betta? It's approximately 5 gallons of water in a 10g footprint.

Maybe I should have stuck w/a shrimp-only tank. I feel like I need the shrimps to help keep the tank clean and eat algae.

 

[XanAvaloni]

Up to you of course pedz but if it wuz me I would get rid of the betta entirely and go with shrimp and. As in, shrimp and endlers, shrimp and rasboras, even shrimp and neon tetras. Of course I am prejudiced becuz I, well, don't like bettas. And do like shrimp.

just checking in to see if there were more/newer pix. Alas. also. Maybe next time....

 

[RAustria]

Good looking tank... I understand that it's your tank and you can do what ever you choose, but I think it would be a nice shrimp only tank. Plus they're a cleanup crew too!

 

[the doctor]

Very nice tank. It makes me want to make one myself.

 

[steffish]

Looks great! I really like the way you used the cork to make planters. Did you put any holes in there for waterflow?

 

[pedzola]

There are some holes drilled in the bottom acrylic sheet of the "planter".

My anubias hastifolia haven't been doing too well in this tank. The top leaves are turning brown on the tips, spreading to the rest of the leaf. (Too much light???). I I've clipped the 2 tallest leaves but the next 2 are doing it now. A couple of the bottom leaves under the water have turned yellow and I've clipped them also.

I got a couple of small anubias (nana? barteri?) the other day and replaced the hygrophila kompakt. The hygro was doing very well for a long time but I raised the water level because it was a favorite hiding spot for my shrimps, which were being picked off 1 by 1 by my vicious betta. Raising the water level had the effect of totally flattening out the plant for some reason, so it ended up just looking like a mess.

I put an anubias in its place, and moved the hygro down to the bottom of the tank. Also added a moss ball.

I moved the betta to a new 5g and I should be receiving a shipment of 20+ cherry shrimps tomorrow (thought they'd arrive today but USPS is too slow...). The paludarium will be a shrimp-only tank from here out. I only have 1 survivor of the betta left and I found him stuck to the filter today. I pried him off and he is still alive, but not moving too much... doesn't look good...

I will take some more pictures once the shrimps are established and maybe after a little more gardening... might end up buying some new plants, I'm not sure yet....

 

[pedzola]

A couple quick pics for those interested in a visual update...


Really hard to get good pictures of the whole tank. You can see my new Crystal shrimp in there... there are actually about 30 in the tank but most of them hang out in the filter area unfortunately. :\ You can see they are quite the little mountaineers... they climb all the way to the top of the waterfall and then jump off the other side into the water. Interesting to watch.

 

[Callmeconfused]

How is the tank doing?

 

[steffish]

Cool shrimp! I didn't realize they would climb out of the water! Are they harder/different to keep than the cherries?
My first thought was that the anubias browning out probably needs higher humidity. Underwater I think it's adjusting.
Moving the betta out is a good idea.
Tank is looking really good!