My protege.

[tlindsey]

No need buddy, I went to my LFS today with the wife and her sister to sort her sister out with fish and what not for her newly set up tank. I tend not to look at the tacky stuff when I go, but the wife's sister was on it like a moth attracted to light. And I was amazed at the selection of stuff...divers too should I require one, lol.

In fact something quite astonishing happened today. The wife's sister couldn't make her mind up so came away with ideas only. But I have a feeling she's going to go with tiger barbs. They had the standard striped ones, the green ones and some gold ones, so we may end up with a bit of a mix for her. I think we're going back next week.

But the astonishing bit was that my wife actually took an interest in what was going on and went all gooey over a solitary mustard gas betta. So gooey in fact that she asked me if we could get it!!! I was amazed because my wife, on many occasions, has made it perfectly clear that she has no love for my hobby whatsoever.

So I've set up a little makeshift temporary tank for it and put it in the kitchen so she can talk to it, and boy, does she talk to it!! She's smitten. I must admit though he's a good looking little fish.

So....meet Flash, the mustard gas betta.
View attachment 1542204View attachment 1542205

That's a great looking Betta.

 

[esoxlucius]

A bit of an update. This thread started with me setting a tank up for my sister in law, and soon digressed into me setting up a small tank for my missus too.

Well the mustard gas betta, pictured in post #19 is doing great, and not only that, he now has some pals too!

We've been back to the LFS a couple of times and my wife wanted loads of tank mates for him, I've honestly never seen her so animated about the hobby.

After a lot of going back and forth we've added a small shoal of Normans Lampeye tetras, three corys and three amano shrimp.

All the fish are doing great, there is absolutely no hostility from the betta whatsoever, which admittedly was concerning me slightly at first.

The tank is maturing nicely. Algae has started showing and there is a nice clump of java moss and surface salvinia too. It won't be long before nitrate is completely undetectable in this tank.

One thing worth a mention is the Normans Lampeye tetras. I have never heard of these guys. They are tiny little things with the brightest bluest spot emanating from their eyes. A fantastic little nano fish.

Here is a pic of the tank below. It is in the kitchen so my wife can talk to them, lol.

I will soon be posting some details of the sister in law's tank too.

 

[abominus]

Hey esoxlucius , its update time!

 

[esoxlucius]

I'd forgotten all about this thread, lol. The thread started off with me setting my sister in laws tank up, and i ended up setting one up for my wife too! Ashamedly I never even posted any pics of the sister in laws, apologies for that. Here goes....

The wife's tank is in the kitchen and has a mustard gas betta, three corys and a small school of Normans lamprey killifish, plus three amano shrimp.

All are doing well, it's a great little tank to watch. I had a load of salvinia and java moss in there too but it took over so I took it out and replaced it with frogbit, which also needs regular harvesting, it grows like crazy.

Nitrates are not quite a consistent 0ppm yet. In my experience it's algae which is the real nitrate eater and my surface plants prevent the algae from flourishing. Wife's tank below.


The sister in law was smitten with tiger barbs when we initially visited the LFS. I told her it would be better just a species only tank then because of their nature. So she got regular tiger barbs, green tiger barbs and albino tiger barbs, along with a single bamboo shrimp.

All her fish and shrimp are doing great. Her tank has been set up for a couple of months now. I did her first few water changes but now she does all the maintenance on her own. Her initial urge to get wacky decor quickly subsided and it sort of looks half decent now. Pics of her tank below.