My girlfriend wanted a pretty fish. The cherrybarbs were probably not colorful enough. So she pointed out a male Betta in the petstore.

Not one in a jar, but in a community tank. Which might have said something about his character. I’m not daring enough to put a Betta in a community tank however (I don’t want a jealous Betta fighting with cherrybarbs and cardinaltetras about who is the pretiest), so from the start this guy was going to have his own home. Sans red sakura shrimps ofcourse. All the tanks have offspring of the 10 Sakura i bought 2 years ago and they do well in all the tanks I have.

Alfie was the name given to him by my girlfriend and I first homed him in the 60l/13g tank I have. Not familiar with Betta’s and not getting any wisdom from what is best for the guy tanksize-wise. I thought maybe the 60L was too big for him. Or maybe I just wanted the 60L for other fish. So he moved to the 20L LED. That one had to be redone first. It had a nice grown (fake) bonsai with (real) moss grown on it.

The bonsai went tot the 50L LED, the rest except for the substrate was replaced. Now he has an assortment of plants (montecarlo, rotala, java fern, a cryptocoryne and other stuff to crawl in and wade through, added with some duckweed. A small filter, with circulation towards the glass of the tank, so he won’t be exhausted.

He seems to like it. It also helps that the 20L is right next to my desk at home. Giving him some interesting stuff to look at.