Blackwater, Bettas, and Botanicals with Rachel O'Leary!

With the blackwater, botanical-style aquarium becoming a whole lot more of an accepted "approach" to specialized fish keeping, as opposed to just a "fad" or "trend", it's wonderful to see some of the true legends of our hobby sharing their experiences with this stuff!

One of our fave all-time aquarists is Rachel O'Leary, aka "msjinkzd" - who has contributed so much to this hobby for so many of us over the years. Her breeding efforts, emphasis on education and sharing of techniques and "best practices" have created many, many successful aquarists and devoted fans. 

And, as both a botanical-style aquarium enthusiast (yeah, she was tinting tanks long before it was considered "cool!") and breeder (okay, and bona-fide aquarium superhero...)Rachel is in a unique position to share her long personal experience and explain both the benefits and the aesthetics of this type of tank! 

Rachel recently acquired some botanicals from us in order to accent an already beautiful scape by Ricky Chawla for wild Bettas- long a favorite of many of us! And as she does, Rachel created a very cool video sharing the experience, offering some practical approaches, and some good 'ol fashioned education on the process and rationale for utilizing botanicals! 

As she explains, "...the aquarium houses 6 wild Betta imbellis, 14 Chili Rasboras, and a whole host of amazing plants and botanicals!"

The result is fantastic! Check it out!   

We hope you derive as much inspiration, education, and enjoyment from this video as we did!

Be sure to tell Rachel what you think of this tank, and share the video with others who might appreciate a little inspiration from one of the aquarium hobby's true ambassadors! 

Stay inspired. Stay curious. Stay creative. Stay bold...

And Stay Wet!

 

Scott Fellman

Tannin Aquatics 

 

 


Scott Fellman
Scott Fellman

Author



4 Responses

Scott Fellman
Scott Fellman

November 13, 2018

Hi Rachel,

I can only hope that more and more aquarists are going to see the practical applications for blackwater, move those “mental chains” and really embrace the potential for breakthroughs that’s out there! Thanks as always for sharing your experience snd perspective!

-Scott

Rachel O'Leary
Rachel O'Leary

November 13, 2018

What a nice write up! Thanks Scott! It has been fantastic using such high quality botanicals with such an amazing array of textures! And I agree 100%, it is not a fad, but should be something that more and more folks incorporate into their plans for housing or breeding fish.

Scott Fellman
Scott Fellman

November 11, 2018

We’re thrilled you found us! Really excited that Rachel’s video is generating a lot of excitement from some new “tinters!” Looking forward to helping you start your journey to the dark side! :)

Scott

Lisa Campbell
Lisa Campbell

November 11, 2018

I saw Rachel’s post first, and that’s what made me check ya’all out! I’ll be ordering soon, looking forward to being a new customer. 😁

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