Meet Zenith, my betta and my baby, the 5 guppies (2 male 3 female), the neon tetras (5), and the three musketeers (amano shrimp are impossible to find in my tank unless they wanna be seen). This is my 20 gallon tank!

I'm an 18yo new fish parent. By new, I mean I got this tank and my fish two weeks ago. Yes, two weeks. No, I didn't cycle, no, my tank didn't look like this originally, and no, I never properly acclimate them. I'm, by definition, a very awful fish momma right now and I definitely recongize that. I have nowhere/nothing to temporarily house them though. Which, also, I'm dealing with guppy pregnancy through all this, send reinforcements. Nobody's gone into shock at least.

I learned very, very quickly these past two weeks. Researched EVERYTHING, and oh, do I mean everything. After I got my fish. Not the brightest thing I've ever done for sure 😓. I've made some very drastic changes veeery quickly, and some veeery expensive emergency purchases, I have a big fat hole in my pocket right now. The last two weeks have been a WHIRLWIND as a new fish mom. I did have to put them in the tank after this latest redo and letting the filter run for a couple hours, but this time I added quick start, so I'm hoping they'll pull thru. Definitely recifying my original mistakes asap. Tank parameters are way better now. I'm dosing them appropriately with stress guard and aquarium salt to help, and I'm feeding them hikari brand food (I can't believe I only bought tetra brand tropical flakes at the start).

I followed this subreddit immediately, and am trying to go for a much more natural tank look over time now that I realized where I was going wrong. This is the work in progress so far! Definitely plan to get more plants and definitely getting some moss or something to put on the driftwood, and I have some water spangle on the way. I got some thrive S shrimp specific to give my plants a little help. The natural look is so appealing to me and my fish are loving the new tank design so far! My fish are in love with the treehouse and the jellyfish though, so that might have to stay, lol.

Somehow, my fish all get along with each other for the most part! Also, my male guppies are best friends? I have no idea, but at least they're not assaulting my females. Nobody's fin nipping and Zenith isn't flaring, so I'll take it as a win. Watching the parameters pretty closely too given the stock of the tank and the preggy guppies giving off more waste than usual. I don't know how people have kids! These fish are like taking care of newborn babies enough as it is!

But this is how it's going so far! Here's to hopefully things evening themselves out and my fish living happy lives despite having an ADHD hyperfixated idiot for a momma! 🫡


Meet Zenith and the crew (+ their idiotic mom)