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ClaytonTheTurtle c: Bettas ideally need a minimum of 5 gallons but the bigger tank you can provide the better for the fish. Bigger tanks mean the water is more stable and more forgiving of mistakes. The betta will also enjoy the extra space to swim about and explore c:
The absolute minimum for bettas is 2.5 gallons but you really should go as big as you can.
You don't just need a filter, you also need to cycle your tank so it can take care of the waste your fish produces. If you don't already have a fish it's better to cycle your tank before you get one. If you already have a fish you'll have to do a fish-in cycle.
You can read about fish-in cycling here:
http://www.kevinbush.com/cycling/the-fish-in-cycle/
And fishless here:
https://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm
It's not as important as a filter and a heater but bettas like lots of cover and places to hide. If you don't already you should consider getting real or silk plants for your tank. There are a few real ones that will grow fine in low light and with virtually no maintenance and they also help out with your cycle since they take in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
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ClaytonTheTurtle c: Bettas ideally need a minimum of 5 gallons but the bigger tank you can provide the better for the fish. Bigger tanks mean the water is more stable and more forgiving of mistakes. The betta will also enjoy the extra space to swim about and explore c:
The absolute minimum for bettas is 2.5 gallons but you really should go as big as you can.
You don't just need a filter, you also need to cycle your tank so it can take care of the waste your fish produces. If you don't already have a fish it's better to cycle your tank before you get one. If you already have a fish you'll have to do a fish-in cycle.
You can read about fish-in cycling here:
http://www.kevinbush.com/cycling/the-fish-in-cycle/
And fishless here:
https://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm
It's not as important as a filter and a heater but bettas like lots of cover and places to hide. If you don't already you should consider getting real or silk plants for your tank. There are a few real ones that will grow fine in low light and with virtually no maintenance and they also help out with your cycle since they take in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
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ClaytonTheTurtle That tank you link to actually already has a filter with it, so you wouldn't need to buy another one! (Though it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a spare on hand, I have had a filter lock up on me and burn out its motor once >>)
(Also I don't like have they say you can keep small tropical fish or GOLDFISH???? in a 3-gallon tank!!! You might be able to get away with a small school of like neons or something similar, but GOLDFISH??? No no no no no. Period.)
Anyway, that's not a bad tank, but as the others said, if you have the room, get the biggest tank you can handle. The water parameters stay stable more easily with a larger tank, plus your betta will have more room to swim around. 2.5 gallons is what I consider to be the absolute minimum a betta should ever be put in, and even then I've saved my 2.5 gallon tank for my smallest female. My regular-sized female and my males seemed a bit cramped in it.
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ClaytonTheTurtle That tank you link to actually already has a filter with it, so you wouldn't need to buy another one! (Though it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a spare on hand, I have had a filter lock up on me and burn out its motor once >>)
(Also I don't like have they say you can keep small tropical fish or GOLDFISH???? in a 3-gallon tank!!! You might be able to get away with a small school of like neons or something similar, but GOLDFISH??? No no no no no. Period.)
Anyway, that's not a bad tank, but as the others said, if you have the room, get the biggest tank you can handle. The water parameters stay stable more easily with a larger tank, plus your betta will have more room to swim around. 2.5 gallons is what I consider to be the absolute minimum a betta should ever be put in, and even then I've saved my 2.5 gallon tank for my smallest female. My regular-sized female and my males seemed a bit cramped in it.
[quote name="Dinogrrl" date="2018-07-22 14:15:59" ]
(Also I don't like have they say you can keep small tropical fish or GOLDFISH???? in a 3-gallon tank!!! You might be able to get away with a small school of like neons or something similar, but GOLDFISH??? No no no no no. Period.)
[/quote]
No neons either they're really active, need to be in a school of at least 6 and should have a minimum of 20 gallons. A Betta(ish), shrimp or snails is all you could put in a tank that small.
Dinogrrl wrote on 2018-07-22 14:15:59:
(Also I don't like have they say you can keep small tropical fish or GOLDFISH???? in a 3-gallon tank!!! You might be able to get away with a small school of like neons or something similar, but GOLDFISH??? No no no no no. Period.)
No neons either they're really active, need to be in a school of at least 6 and should have a minimum of 20 gallons. A Betta(ish), shrimp or snails is all you could put in a tank that small.
I think the other people have said some good stuff here, but I will say, regarding filters:
Always baffle or guard your filter!
If you choose to use a top-mounted baffle, or place a guard around your filter intake (or both), these can help your fish co-exist with a current in the tank. Betta boys have a hard time lugging their fins around, and a strong current makes that even harder; the current can make it hard for them to get food, or even push them toward the filter intake, where they can get stuck and possibly drown.
There are tutorials online on how to make a top-mounted baffle out of a soda bottle.
Back when I still had a betta, I had good success using an intake guard made out of plastic needlepoint material, rolled into a tube and sewn shut. (The shrimp would chew threw the thread, so I did have to re-sew it a few times.)
You can see the filter guard sitting around the intake in this photo:
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/kfelidae/new_tank_1.jpg[/img]
Also, obligatory photo of my boy. I miss him.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/kfelidae/pouty_mcpoutypants2.jpg[/img]
I think the other people have said some good stuff here, but I will say, regarding filters:
Always baffle or guard your filter!
If you choose to use a top-mounted baffle, or place a guard around your filter intake (or both), these can help your fish co-exist with a current in the tank. Betta boys have a hard time lugging their fins around, and a strong current makes that even harder; the current can make it hard for them to get food, or even push them toward the filter intake, where they can get stuck and possibly drown.
There are tutorials online on how to make a top-mounted baffle out of a soda bottle.
Back when I still had a betta, I had good success using an intake guard made out of plastic needlepoint material, rolled into a tube and sewn shut. (The shrimp would chew threw the thread, so I did have to re-sew it a few times.)
You can see the filter guard sitting around the intake in this photo:
Also, obligatory photo of my boy. I miss him.
ok these fish are a lot of work I think I'll stick with a bonsai but I heard you can keep more than one male in a tank if they hatched together is that true?
ok these fish are a lot of work I think I'll stick with a bonsai but I heard you can keep more than one male in a tank if they hatched together is that true?
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Wuffraptor Bettas, especially the males, are EXTREMELY territorial and will severely injure or even kill one another. They aren't called 'fighting fish' for nothing. Even the females need to be kept separately. They are just as aggressive as the males, and because they don't have big fins weighing them down, are often even more dangerous because of how fast they are.
Now, many wild betta species are calmer and some of them CAN be housed multiple bettas to a tank.
FWIW even sibling bettas aren't friendly to one another. I have 100+ baby bettas currently, and one got nicknamed 'Juggernaut' because he(?) went on a killing spree at a month old. The rest of the fry are more tolerant of one another...sorta. They get testy when someone eats 'their' food and I've witnessed them chasing each other out of their 'territories' on more than one occasion. They're not even an inch long yet! Jerks.
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roadworthy My Nuwa looks similar to your guy! Is he a marble? Nuwa started out completely white except for the very tips of her fins, which were black, but over the course of a month or so she turned completely black, except a bit of her face like yours has.
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Wuffraptor Bettas, especially the males, are EXTREMELY territorial and will severely injure or even kill one another. They aren't called 'fighting fish' for nothing. Even the females need to be kept separately. They are just as aggressive as the males, and because they don't have big fins weighing them down, are often even more dangerous because of how fast they are.
Now, many wild betta species are calmer and some of them CAN be housed multiple bettas to a tank.
FWIW even sibling bettas aren't friendly to one another. I have 100+ baby bettas currently, and one got nicknamed 'Juggernaut' because he(?) went on a killing spree at a month old. The rest of the fry are more tolerant of one another...sorta. They get testy when someone eats 'their' food and I've witnessed them chasing each other out of their 'territories' on more than one occasion. They're not even an inch long yet! Jerks.
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roadworthy My Nuwa looks similar to your guy! Is he a marble? Nuwa started out completely white except for the very tips of her fins, which were black, but over the course of a month or so she turned completely black, except a bit of her face like yours has.
ok good to know. I wish they'd invent a pretty floating filter so you could just put one in a really big pretty bowl or vase. I know you can't keep them in little bowls or vases. They should also breed some of the aggressiveness out of them because having a bunch of these jewels sharing the same tank would be nice...
ok good to know. I wish they'd invent a pretty floating filter so you could just put one in a really big pretty bowl or vase. I know you can't keep them in little bowls or vases. They should also breed some of the aggressiveness out of them because having a bunch of these jewels sharing the same tank would be nice...
@Dinogrrl
He was, indeed, a marble!
He started out like this:
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/kfelidae/frankie_3.jpg[/img]
...and went to this...
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/kfelidae/frankie_small_3.jpg[/img]
...before finally ending up nearly-fully black from the face back, with some nice opaque white on his clear fins. He was a handsome boy.
Do you have any pictures of your marble babb?
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Dinogrrl
He was, indeed, a marble!
He started out like this:
...and went to this...
...before finally ending up nearly-fully black from the face back, with some nice opaque white on his clear fins. He was a handsome boy.
Do you have any pictures of your marble babb?
@roadworthy Ah that's exactly what mine did! I don't have a picture of her now, but this was her when I first got her:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/Hf62fIy.jpg[/img]
And then the black crept up her fins and onto her body and then almost overnight she turned solid black. She had really pretty shinies too, I would be tempted to call her a black orchid marble, since it's not a solid enough shiny to be a copper I don't think. Honestly I wasn't a fan of marbles before, but if I could have more marbles like her, I'd be so happy. She's the prettiest betta I've ever owned. She's a halfmoon and is the biggest, weirdest spazz ever. Like, she bubblenests to the extreme. I have never had even my most exuberant male make bubblenests as big as she does. I keep wondering if she's just a very small plakat male but nope. Definitely a female.
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roadworthy Ah that's exactly what mine did! I don't have a picture of her now, but this was her when I first got her:
And then the black crept up her fins and onto her body and then almost overnight she turned solid black. She had really pretty shinies too, I would be tempted to call her a black orchid marble, since it's not a solid enough shiny to be a copper I don't think. Honestly I wasn't a fan of marbles before, but if I could have more marbles like her, I'd be so happy. She's the prettiest betta I've ever owned. She's a halfmoon and is the biggest, weirdest spazz ever. Like, she bubblenests to the extreme. I have never had even my most exuberant male make bubblenests as big as she does. I keep wondering if she's just a very small plakat male but nope. Definitely a female.
