BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Any suggestions?

Hi everyone,
Several days ago I decided to move my betta Frankie from his 1 gal. tank into a 2.5 gal MiniBow. I also decided to try my hand at live plants. I've got him all set up with a couple of supposedly hardy plants in his tank, but I just can't get it to look... right. It doesn't look bad , but I feel like something is off. The set-up feels unbalanced, or the colors don't go quite right together. I've been messing around with it for days now, moving the plants and fiddling with the gravel colors, but nothing I do seems to help. The whole thing still looks kind of "blah." Since I am officially out of ideas, I decided to see if any of you had any suggestions! I have seen pictures of the small tanks set up by people on this forum, and have always been impressed. Obviously the people here have a good sense of color and aesthetic. What do I need to do to make it look pretty again? Any ideas? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Pic of the tank:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.js...xygxkg&Ux=0

Thanks in advance!
--Rebecca

I think it looks great (but a little bare maybe). If it were my tank, I would put a small bridge or really small terra cotta pot on its side in front of the anacharis (sp?) in the back right. Some kind of little hidey hole there would look great!!! Beautiful Frankie BTW!!
HTH!

You coud put some black construction paper behind the tank to let the colors stand out, although you betta would be harder to see, maybe orange.

Patricia

Ooohhh...I do like the gravel. The little plant on the left should grow if it is real, and it will look better I think...but I do think it would look cute with a little terra cotta pot in the middle!

Thanks so much for all the ideas! I definately like the terra cotta pot idea. I think it might accent the few brown pebbles in the substrait. I'll pick one up when I'm out tomorrow and post pictures if it works out. I also spent some time this afternoon experimenting with different color backgrounds, but it seems like all the colors I have either wash out the plants or the fish. It's a neat idea, though. I'll keep playing with it.
Thanks again everyone! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
--Rebecca