#lychee betta

When you're an old man who just wants to sit on his porch, but those damn guppies won't stay off your lawn

Put a background on it so I don't have to see the wires.

I was working next to the holding tank where Lychee has been staying, and only fed him once all day.

The indignity.

Gluing moss to the wood. Gluing moss to my fingers.

Filled it to get a better idea of how everything's going to sit.

Cleared up- needs a good vacuuming, more stone, some natural gravel fall, and the plants.

Also need to come up with a plan for my bristlenose; Mikan's hiding cave is gone since I rearranged the wood and stones. Right now she's being held temporarily in Juniper Betta's tank.

So there are a few reasons why I generally don't do this kind of aquascaping, the main one being my aquariums are animal enclosures, not dioramas.

Bare bones hardscaping.

Laid the path down. The path splits because I originally planned for it to be viewable from both the front and side.

I just fed him. He's being dramatic. This isn't even going to be his tank.

Planted, filled, hardware set.

I hate this part. The only thing worse than gluing a shit-ton of moss onto driftwood is tying it on to individual branches by hand.

Driftwood, placed! Almost there! I added floaters and let the tank cycle for a couple weeks, then ran into something unexpected.

A combination of the driftwood tannins and a bacterial bloom from the Bio-Stratum turned the scape into a cloudy blackwater tank. I unintentionally made a goth aquarium.

It'll resolve itself eventually, but in the meantime, it's very suitable for the main resident: my dumbo betta Lavender.