so my friend gave me an old 11.5 gal tank (seems to be a rather random size...) he had in his garage which i plan on cleaning out and turning into a female betta community tank. only problem is i'm leaving for college in about a month, and i'm not sure i'll have space for a tank (or if i'd really want to move 5 females and the 1 male i already have 4 times a year...)

of course i'm a little over excited and would rather not wait a good 4 years until i'm out of college, so i was thinking i could get some plants (or even seeds, since they'll have plenty of time to grow at this point) and just have a tank of plants/decorations while i wait ever so impatiently for my girls.

now, seeing as i know essentially nothing about planted tanks, i'm not sure whether or not this is possible. could i leave the tank just sitting in my room for 6 months, or would that be totally impractical? maybe even impossible...i really don't know, which is why i'm asking you guys :)

not improable, but, highly unreccomended, some of your plants may die, along with some of the fish, i would reccomend taking it along with you, no matter how hard it is, that is, if you plan on keeping fish for a while (they should live rather a long life, compaired to some of the 'aquariums' that they are reccomended to live in, which, isn't fair for the fish, i am talking about the bowls of corse.) becausethey are rewarding in the end, if only a decoration for the room. I use to travel with my betta every other week up to my mothers rented cabin, 320 miles away, and, that was just to keep him alive. he lived for 5 years, after some bad mistakes.


but, if you don't intend on having room for a 12" x i think 10 1/2" aquatic habbitat LOL, make sure you have some one change the water every other week.


as for the plants....get easyto care for, low lighted plants, they are the best kept for a while w/o tank matience, even if you still need to maintain(spelling?) it.



some one else please leave a comment.

oh i wouldn't leave fish by themselves for that long! only a tank full of plants (with absolutely no fish or other animals). my little betta in his 5.5 gal is also def coming with. i just don't know if i could put the plants in the tank with a timer for the light, call it good, and leave it at home. i could always have the family put in water to make up for what exaporates, but i doubt they'd be too into really watching it for me.

I tried to do a plant tank but mine failed miserably, but to be fair they were all plants harvested from the wild and all of them that I put in my fish tanks died too.

If anything I'd take the 11 gal with to school and put the betta in it with plants, he can be transported in a 1gal jar and most plants can survive in very little water for transport purposes so it might not be too much of a hassel, just a thought.

or, you could just go to a LFS (local fish store) and ask for some XXL baggs and some rubber bands (ones for the bag it's self.) oh, and make sure you double bag it if it isn't going to be with you the hole time.

and, while ransporting the fish, to keep them in a paper bag, to keep out the light. (of corse, in the plastic XXL bag.)