Damien's upgrade! (LOTS OF PICTURES)

Hi there! 

Today I took a trip to the pet store to buy sand, and plants for Damien Shadowe's tank upgrade to the 6.6 gallon.  All the pictures have tons of bubbles because I took them right after I finished filling it up, and adding Damien!

I got a beautiful sand color.  It's more white than it looks in this picture.  Because of the pale color it goes really nicely with all the blue decorations! Like this archway.  The lighting also helps with that.

I've seen this statue a few times, and I've wanted to get it for a while.  It says "No Fishing", my favorite animals are sharks, and my favorite aquarium fish are Bettas (which is the reason behind my fish forums username Betta_Shark5678) so why not have them both in one tank?  Sort of anyway.  Also blue, I didn't notice the blue thing until I finished setting up the tank.  Damien is black, and blue though, so it's perfect!

These are my Cryptocornye Wendtii green plants, and a pile of polished blue stones.  Another thing in my blue theme.  I wanted red Wendtii, but the pet store only sells green.  It goes better anyways.

This is the other side of the tank.  Java fern is on the rock in the left corner, and the plants in the middle of the picture are Water Wisteria.

This is a piece of wood I originally was going to put in my big tank.  I have three pieces I'm going to put in a little tipi over the amazon swords, then one longer piece in the sand on one side, and on the rocks on the other.  This was an extra piece, and I didn't know what to do with it, so I decided to use it in Damien's tank.

Here's Damien when he first got in his tank.  He's swimming away from the picture... You can't see them, but there are rips in his fins, and under the (annoying) lighting in his old tank I couldn't see the rips until a few days ago! Luckily I got a gift card for a pet store for Christmas that I hadn't spent yet.







Anyways, maybe I'll enter the fish forum's Tank of the Month contest with this tank when the plants grow a little! :)

55 Filled!

  The 55 Gallon is officially full! Tonight I'm going to get ammonia and start the cycle.  This should be interesting.  I went to get some more plants today, I got El Nino fern, but apparently it's like Java fern and needs to be planted on a decoration, which I didn't want, so I gave it to my sister for a tank she's been wanting more plants for.  Hopefully the sand will settle soon, then I'll really be able to see how it looks! I keep imagining a big snakehead swimming by the front of the tank, through the murky water, and it would look amazing.  Someday...  Anyways, I completely forgot about my wood today, but I'll probably get it tomorrow.

  This morning I was in a panic because Zip was darting around the little tank, and swimming in tight little circles, then he stopped suddenly, and bubbles came out of his gills and mouth.  He's fine now, except the Platys keep nibbling on his top fin! I think they're starting to feel cramped, adding the Guppies last night did not help with that.  Soon they'll be in the tank though, I'm adding sponges from the 6.6 to the new filter, which will help the cycle.

  I'm thinking about trying "Quickstart" by Api, theoretically it won't hurt, and if it helps that would be good, but I'll skip that.  As soon as it's finished all of my little fishies (except Damien) will be going in the big tank, and I'll be getting my Female Guppies soon after that.  That's later though, I'm going to concentrate on the cycle, and my current fish first.

  Damien is doing well soon, he actually ate a little bit this morning when I fed him! Apparently it's rare for Bettas to eat the day after installed in the tank, but none of mine were like that.  He's such a gorgeous Betta fish, I'm still drooling over how beautiful he is.  I fell in love with him as soon as I saw him in the pet store, and I still feel like it's the first time I saw him every time I look at him! (<--- Sounds like a love song)

  More tomorrow :)