I fully support glow in the dark plants.

Also, in spite of what people may tell you, bettas also like filters (which helps with the cleaning once a week). Just make sure, if you do it, it’s a relatively gentle one — they like to build their bubble nests and too much movement makes them sad.

Sorry — I get wicked soap-boxy about bettas. I kind of love them. My current landlord won’t let us have fish without paying extra for the filter/lights (electricity is included in the rent so I can’t really complain too much about that) but man. I miss having them so much. So meditative.

I will also say that live bearers (like platies) are SO fun. One day, I came home from a terrible day at work and was just zoning out, watching the fish. (This was the betta/platy community tank.) Suddenly, there was this tiny orange eyeball, just out of nowhere! Then, as I watched, the eyeball unfolded and turned into this impossibly small orange fish. I scooped him out and kept him in a jar until he got bigger, and then released him back into the tank — by which point there were four others that must have been born and hidden themselves in the java moss at the bottom of the tank. I had a self-replenishing tank! Maybe the intermediate step between betta and puppy? ;)