Betta Fish: King Pete would like to show you around his fishdom

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King Pete, full name is King Señor Petushok the first, has now governed his realm for about 2 weeks and has declared his sovereign rule by building a bubble nest.

I am very honored that King Pete has found this little world I created to his liking. I have found him almost two months ago in my LFS, where this beauty was modeling in display tanks. During his time as a model, King Pete has graciously shared his Fishdoms with shrimps, snails and small fish. He is a calm, curious fish who enjoys environments full of enrichment as he spends his days wandering his kingdom and inspecting every nook and cranny.

I immediately fell in love with this Crowntail. Where I live Crowntails aren't very popular, which is why he wasn't with the other Bettas and was being sold for the price of a French breakfast ( Coffee & Croissant).

After talking to the owner, I knew I could build something grand for him. Being a Crowntail, he can swim better than Halfmoons, so a 60L Tank was a possibility for it. So I set out to create a perfect Fishdom for him: Good heater, a lot of filtration (HOB rated for up to 100L with Sponge on inlet and mini Seraprox as filter material to maximize biofiltration), lots of different plants, wood and rock to create seperations and hiding places. The front part of the tank is open, while the back is covered in a jungle. The HOB has a waterfall and runs down the open front part.

Every other day I let the HOB run faster for a couple hours, to create a stronger flow to give enrichment to the critters who enjoy it. King Pete loves to swim in the higher currents as well! I call it treadmill time. When he tires he retreats to the back of the tank, where wood & plants block the flow and watches his subjects frolic.

King Pete governors over the following subjects, each full filling their own duty:

General Tank maintenance is done by the Blue Dream Neo Corp. For big stringy algae we have small crew of hard working Amanos. Glass & plants are kept spotless by the small Mom&Pop Shop Otos,Snails&Sons. Mister Bunski and his apprentice Rabbit Snail diligently nose through the sands.

King Pete enjoys the hourly butterfly ballet performance of the wandering Paskai Blue Eyes circus, which he loves to observe from the highest seat in the Plant beds.

And then…. there is the Gang of Hoovering Hooligans: A pack of 5 Corydoras Strebais. During his initial inspection of his realm, King Pete slowly checked out the front part of is tank. He noted the Butterfly Ballet Performers, but didn't react much to them. He decided to have a look on the back, when suddenly, out of the bushes, the carded mob jumped out and viciously attacked him! They were barbarically sifting through the sand with their Cthulhu whiskers, not even looking at him! King Pete took great offense, and flared at them regally. The Corydoras changed course to get closer to a snack – a win! The hooligans retreated! He flared at them a couple more times and even chased them. Suddenly, the dim light turned off completely, leaving King Pete blind and causing him to chill out.

The next morning King Pete had made his first decree: The gang can stay, as long as they stay at the bottom.

Note about busy tank:

I had and still have a 30L Cube ready, in case I noticed that the busy aquarium stresses him out. He has only flared once since the introduction, when I was feeding everyone with Daphnes and he decided he deserves *all of them*. He likes to spend his time in the quite left corner ( I specifically set it up to have lots of tall plants so he can just chill there) and has set up his first bubble nest there. No one goes there, so he doesn't need to protect it. He patrols the upper left side of the tank, the one with more plants, and seems to have made that his immediate territory. Cory's & Amanos stay to the botto and Blue Eyes & Otos prefer the front & right side where the waterfall gives plenty of movement and a bit of current. So Long Pete has about half of the tank completely for himself (minus shrimp who are allowed), where he can retreat to his royal chambers anytime he wants to.

Note about the Corydoras:

Here I did make a Newby mistake, I didn't read up on the Strebais specifically too much. I noted that they like the same water temps as Bettas, and I found their colors beautiful. I thought they would all be a max of 4-5cm. Instead of up to 8 cm for this specific Cory O.O

Which is why I plan to upgrade them to a 100L tank within a year or two. The rabbit snails and the Amanos will move with them as well.

Note about potential overstocking:

After my LFS informed me about my strebais being able to grow to the size of big as mouse / small rats, I worked with them on a plan. We careful chose the current inhabitants with the plan in mind that I will upgrade/ seperate the inhabitants into a bigger tank. Pete would stay in the 60L. So all of the mentioned inhabitants are small / juvenile none are bigger than an inch.