trafficgal

Ok so Friday my upstairs elderly neighbors begged us to take their betta Fish, they went on to tell us how easy they are etc.

Well after doing some online reasurch I'm getting nervous!!! LOL

Firstly they gave us a bowl but I'm reading online that it needs to be a much bigger bowl my guess is about 1 gallon Drum shaped take. The neighbors said only to put a tiny bit of water in it but I'm thinking that he needs a lot more space and maybe some pebbles at the bottom?

1) do you think that it is big enough for one fish? 2 Do they need more then just pebbles?

They gave me some water treatment stuff but from what I"m reading it dose nto seem necessary?
2) is it necesary to treat the water or is leaving it for 24hrs enough?

The food they gave me does not seem to interest him I'll try to get out and get some blood worms.

3) do I really need a filter for such a small tank and only one fish or is chaging once a week good enough?

Thanks any other tips apretiated! I had no idea it was going to be this much work!

BettaBuddy ~ Miley

Welcome to fishlore!! First - one gallon is too small though i have a onr gal and a 1.5 gal ...... i clean them EVERYDAY. So its hard, hard work to keep them happy/healthy in a one gallon... they need at least four-five.... Miley

Phloxface

Three gallons is the minimum he should have, but 5 gallons or more is better. Bettas need heat so a good quality heater like a VisiTherm is a MUST. It should be a consistent 80F. A cycled tank is much easier to maintain than a bowl which needs to be cleaned daily. He will also be healthier and less prone to constipation and many other diseases with happens in cold water due to slowing his metabolism.
He should have gravel that is not too big (dirt gets trapped in between) and not small enough to be swallowed, as they will eat anything that fits in their mouths and it must be smooth. Polished river rock is great or any smooth epoxy coated gravel. Stay away from marbles. They are too big and dirt gets in between very easily. No plastic plants or rough sharp ornaments. Live plants are best (java fern is very good at keeping water quality good and grows easily even in low light.) and you can use some silk plants. Just make sure nothing has sharp plastic pieces. If it can make pantyhose run, it can rip a Betta's fins.
A filter is needed for a larger tank. It helps cut down on maintainence and keeps the tank cycled.

Don't worry. If you get a large enough tank it's not a lot of work once you get set up and get the tank cycled (this can take weeks). After that it should take about 15 minutes a week to vaccum the gravel and do a partial water change.

Yes, you DO need water conditioner. I would never trust just aging the water. Most of us here use NovAqua+ water conditioner because it also adds vitamins and echinachea. You will need a small bottle of Prime conditioner as well during cycling to keep Betta safe from ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

We'll help you through all this. There is always someone here willing to talk you through the whole process.

COBettaCouple

Congrats on the Betta & welcome to fishlore!

We love the visitherm heaters and use the flat marbles in the crafts dept. (The Dollar Tree sells them the cheapest.) Debris does fall to the bottom of the tank, but we clean our tanks weekly. We use Prime and NovAqua+ for water conditioners. The bottles those come in aren't the easiest to measure with, especially if you fill gallon jugs with water to use as needed, so we found the little empty bottles they sell at walmart in the travel section for putting shampoo, etc in work great for dispensing the water conditioner.

trafficgal

Ok since this is a shocker and we kind of got landed with the fish I have to take things in stages.... Since he has been living in maybe a 1/4 gallon of water so far I think I'm going to fill it up to a gallon and call it even for now... I'll start to look out for a fish tank that is biger but hubby said I have to get one like the drum style b/c it looks nicer... they only seem to go up to 2gallon in size though I might invest in one of those b/c again 2 is better then 1 right?

Now the twins upstairs gave me a bottle of wardley watercare chlorout is that ok for now it says it neutralizes chlorine and chloramines in tap water and it is for use in fresh and saltwater.
I'll go out and buy some better water purifiyers and conditioners but it might be a week or so and I'd like to change the water ASAP

now how long does the water have to stand before I can use it? Does it have to be a full 24hrs??

Re heater will it work in a drum shaped bowl of only a gallon size? Dollar Tree flat marbles I can forsure pick up!! My mother also has a pack of small pebbles she used for her goldfish but after reading I'm thinking they are to small right? I really want to do this right but I allso have to do it cheep and the bowl has to look "stylish"

Oh one more question is it true that if you buy distiled water you dont have to let it sit 24hrs?

Phloxface

You can buy a drum style plastic bowl at Petsmart for about $10and it's 2.5 gallons. http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...N=2030056&Ne=2
You cannot use a regular heater in anything less then 2.5 gallons. For one thing, it wouldn't even fit, and second, it would cook your fish. You could get a 25 watt heater for the 2.5 gallon bowl. You will also NEED to put something on top, like a CD cover, to keep the Betta from jumping out. This type of bowl is a lot of work. You need to change the water every second day since you really can't cycle this without a filter.

As for stylish, I think a larger tank decorated beautifully with plants is far nicer than a bowl. Another good tank that isn't too expensive is a 5 gallon Hex shape tank. It comes with filter and light built into the hood. http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...N=2030056&Ne=2 I think you can even get these at Walmart for very cheap.

Any water conditioner will do for now. You don't have to let water sit for 24 hours if you use conditioner. It is ready to use in usually about 5 minutes. Distilled water is not good for them. It lacks many essential elements they need.
I'd go with the pebbles over the marbles. As long as they are too big to swallow. Really the worst substrate for them is sand and very fine gravel like that. Even flat marbles collect a lot of dirt.

COBettaCouple

With the chloramines that a lot of tap water has, sitting water for 24 hours doesn't really help too much. It's all about the water conditioner to handle the heavy metals that don't leave the water if it sits. Most water conditioners make water ready to use right away. we've not used distilled water for our tanks.

The visitherm heaters will fit in even 2.5g tanks (we've done that), but i'm not sure if they'd work in a bowl.. you'd want to measure for that but i think even the smallest one might be too much heat and i don't know if it would be a risk to the bowl cracking or not.

check the pebbles to see if they have any kind of points, that's the main thing i think that snags betta fins in gravel substrata.