Marble instead of gravel?

Question

i'm setting up a new 2 ft tank for my betta, with a submersible filter and heater, can i have all marbles in the bottom instead of gravel? will plants grow in the marbles? also apart form neons and bottom feeders, what are some really peaceful fish can i put with him? thanks everyone!

btw if you say no fish is suitabale in a tank with him because he is a fighting fish, or tell me that he only needs a 1 litre bowl i will give you a thumbs DOWN!!! thats right!! DOWN!!!

:D

Answer 1

buy a couple baby silver sharks 2-3 cm and/or guppys. the pants will not grow in the marble you should leave the marble and put the plants inside a pot or small jar with gravel inside and and put the marble around the top of pot or jar. if this doesnt work you could just buy plastic plants.      

Answer 2

Don't put him with any angelfish types.  I think you would have a tough time getting plants to grow in the marble.  Maybe you could put in a couple inches of gravel and a layer of marble on top?  Not sure if that'd be the right look but it would give the plants something to root in and you could put fertilizer tabs in the gravel.

Answer 3

It's wonderful to see your betta going into such a large tank!

Personally I like barebottomed tanks (no gravel whatsoever) and decorate the bottom with a few marbles or very large river rocks. What's great about this is that you don't have to do any gravel vacs, it saves a ton of time on cleaning.

Plants that need a substrate won't do well in only marbles, though. To keep our plants alive we place them in little glass pots with whatever substrate inside of it: makes for an awesome clean look and keeps your plant roots safe from rooting fish.

Here's an example to show what I mean (not my tank):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3263/2682...

Here's a step-by-step on planting your plants in a pot (you can use glass too).

http://thegab.org/Articles/PottedPlantsC...

For tank mates you could try snails, otos, cories, kuhli loaches, and my fave, shrimp!

Good luck with your tank, I'm sure it'll be beautiful no matter how you go with the substrate. Again, I'm glad to see a betta going into such a nice home!

Answer 4

gravel is always better than marbles. it looks more natural and the plants can root into it easily. get fish that dont have long fins or else the betta might nip it thinking its one of its own.

Answer 5

Marbles are a bad idea, small fish can be trapped by them and detus also gets trapped in them making it more difficult to clean the tank without removing them    Plants may grow in them but won't do as well as they would with a proper substrate.  

Any peaceful non-nippy fish will be fine with a betta as long as it doesn't have long flowing fins (ie no male guppies)