Wondering About A New Fishy Direction?

Before making any suggestions, Jesnon, can you remind us what your water is like - hardness, pH etc. I know the tank is the smaller Fluval Edge.

With 23 litres, RO shouldn't cost too much and that may well be your best bet.

A betta would be fine if you could lower the pH and hardness a bit with RO water. Though you'd have to monitor him to make sure he could find the square of water surface. If he had problems you would need to drop the water level slightly so there was an air space under the top glass. It would spoil the looks of the tank somewhat but at least the betta wouldn't drown.
The endler shouldn't be a problem with a betta. They are not nippy fish and because it would be there when the betta arrived, he should regard it as part of the scenery. But I've forgotten what species Oz is 
A betta might well eat your shrimp though.

If you want something completely different, how about scarlet badis? Your tank is just about big enough for a pair. I've seen these fish at Maidenhead Aquatics. They can take pH up to 8.5 and hardness up to 15 german deg/268ppm. The downside to them is that they much prefer small live or frozen live food.

If you're having trouble finding a scarlet badis or want another suggestion, I would consider a group of sparkling gouramis to go in the top of your tank and maybe some more shrimp to keep yours company. I can't imagine the gouramis would be big enough to eat the shrimp (correct me if I'm wrong), although you would need to lower the pH substantially.

So I went to two of my LFS today - Aquajardin and Maidenhead. The Aquajardin is very small and didn't have any of the fish mentioned, however Maidenhead is amazing and has a fantastic range of unusual fish.

If you're having trouble finding a scarlet badis or want another suggestion, I would consider a group of sparkling gouramis to go in the top of your tank and maybe some more shrimp to keep yours company. I can't imagine the gouramis would be big enough to eat the shrimp (correct me if I'm wrong), although you would need to lower the pH substantially.

I saw sparkling gouramis in MA - lovely fish. I've written off buying any more shrimp unfortunately though, I've simply not had any luck with them and can't bare the thought of killing any more! However I guess if the problem is about my water, if I went this route and was using RO water it may not be a problem!

Oz should be OK with a betta if you chose that route.

Scarlet badis males are usually pale in shop tanks and don't look very inspiring. If they are the same as other fish, they will colour up when settled in. You could keep those in your tapwater without RO.

If you used RO to lower your hardness and pH Andrea's suggestion of sparkling gouramis would work, a small group of them. They would need an air gap like a betta. If you had a mixed sex group they might even breed. They are tricky to sex so you'd have to buy three or four and hope for at least one male and one female.

I would prefer to stick to my normal tapwater, however if it's just not viable I'm happy to go this route!

I saw in MA 'neon blue badis' - is this the same species but a different colour? I wasn't entirely sure so didn't want to make any decisions until I'd checked here! They were a greyish colour but with a pretty black pattern, and as you mentioned I imagine would colour up to a neon blue as described. I was very tempted by them! So just two - when you say a pair do you mean two male or MF or FF? This was the closest I found to the scarlett badis, though I think there is another shop I could try a little further out.

I spent a lot of time browsing in MA, such lovely fish! I was hoping to get some names to talk about here but my phone had died and I didn't have anything to write down any names. I really like this shop - the shop worker I spoke to really knew his stuff when we got the betta for work and they have a lot of really helpful information booklets around about everything to do with fish... they seem to genuinely want to make sure the fish are being looked after properly once sold!

Another ermm... interesting question! I was wondering if it would be OK to take my future fish purchases home on my scooter!? I can't see how it would be any worse than travelling home by car... I could either put them in an insulated picnic backpack and wear it, or I could put them in my top box or underseat storage. I don't think either get particularly cold or hot

I don't have a clue about the neon blue badis, I'm afraid. Just to complicate matters, the scarlet badis isn't in the genus Badis, it's a Dario - Dario dario to be precise. The best thing to do is ask at the shop what the wholesaler gave as the latin name on the invoice. I've done this in the past at Maidenhead Aq and they've been able to tell me.

You could take them home on your moped so long as they were somewhere secure. I would imagine the underseat storage would be the most secure. You want to avoid shaking them up too much and keep them somewhere that wouldn't come loose if you had to swerve suddenly.

Hmm now that is confusing!! I'll pop into the shop again tomorrow and see what they say. 

I'm sure if I put something around the bag in the seat that would work well or I could put them in the bag in the seat.

I forgot to say there was a ton of gorgeous endlers too!

I personally love endlers and you could have a lovely tank if you planted it really nicely, maybe even kept a fancy snail with them? Definitely put the fish you buy in the underseat storage of your moped. I suggest you bring a towel to wrap around the bag and stop it from moving around too much

I do absolutely adore endlers, and I've been fortunate enough to live in areas where so many different colours and types have been so readily available. Thru really are lovely fish and it's nice knowing that you can have the different colours perfectly happy together.  I could again have some yellow leopard print types, normal endlers, shocking pink and blonde and I have no doubt they'd look fab and all be great little characters! But I am thinking since they're the only fish I've ever kept it might be nice to branch out a little and try something different!

I'd love to have a well planted tank but again seem to have no luck with this! I've even killed off java fern! The only plants I have are moss ball and horn wort and I think you have to do something massively wrong to kill them!! There's also the limitation of the edges lighting for plants and my plain old gravel substrate. I'd love a really well planted beautiful tank but have no idea where to start and what would work!

I think you're right about the seat and towel combination, I think that'll work well!

Google seems to suggest that blue badis are Badis badis - this fish. There are several subspecies depending which site you look at. It could be that the fish in the shop were Badis badis which had been selectively bred to intensify the blue.

Blue Badis may be the subspecies Badis badis badis

Fish names don't get much better than that! 

Ooh dwarf puffers are awesome fish but I believe the minimum tank size for one if 40L which means they wouldn't be suitable for Jesnon's tank...

The bettas with frayed tails are crown tails. Most bettas in shops sold as half moons aren't quite that, they are more like superdeltas. True half moons can be bought from specialist betta-selling websites, but are expensive. It's all down to the spread of the tail when the fish flares. Half moon is a complete 180 degree half circle. Delta's have a tail with up to 120 deg spread and superdeltas are between the two.

The best way to buy a betta is to ignore tail types and colours. Go to a few shops and look at their bettas. Very often one will choose you by his behaviour. My current betta was a blue and white marble pattern when I got him but it didn't take long for all the white to disappear and I now have a plain blue fish. But he is such a character that it doesn't matter