I'd definitely get rid of the UGF. Bettas LOVE to swim around the bottom of their tanks, dragging those delicate fins. They also tend to 'sleep' on the bottom.
You could get a little HOB filter like:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...004+22768+2032
We have about a dozen of these and they work pretty good. If you get one, just get the filter media 4-pk and get:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113808
just one of the uncut pads will last you the lifetime of the Betta. You can cut the pad to the size of the white part those things use and use it instead. The white part isn't that great and tends to fall apart easily. Those pads can be swished around in clean treated tap water once a week and used for months and months at a time. They really hold up and we use that for all of our filters instead of bags or cartridges.
A whisper 3i would be another filter that could work, but you'll have more room inside the tank for the betta with that palm filter.
A heater is a must with a Betta. 78-82 is what they are most comfortable at, which will feel slightly cool to the touch since we run at 98. I find the 25w Visitherm Stealth heaters to work fine in tanks that size:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113767
You might want to consider changing the gravel out for the small flat glass marbles that you can find in the crafts area or walmart or Dollar Tree. They're easier on the Betta fins and your little girl can match her bettas colors (like my wife did with ours). She'll enjoy how they look.
Food can slip down easier, but we clean ours by scooping the marbles out once a week into a container with enough tank water to keep them covered. Then I use a turkey baster to clean the bottom, put the marbles back and add clean treated tap water to the tank to make up for what I took out. It's a little more work, but our tanks stay cycled with clear water and we've had no finrot on any betta that just had the marbles for substrata.
A bigger tank would make the betta happier and give you more room for betta-safe decorations. The tank that we buy now for our bettas is a 6.6g bookshelf tank at petco. it comes with the filter and is just perfect for a betta, being long and shallow. $50 though. (You can see pictures of them on our tanks page, we have 2 bettas left to move into them and 1 betta who already had a 10g so we won't downsize him).
We get the Tetra wonders plants for the bettas. They look pretty good for artificial plants and the base can be covered in the marbles. Safer for their fins than regular plastic plants. Caves, bridges and hamster tubing (yea, they love it. lol) are fun for them, just look for any rough spots inside or out that could snag pantyhose (or betta fins).
They don't NEED aeration, but it seems to make them happier and ours love to play in the bubbles. Petsmart has these little walls with a small air tube on the back. One of those hooked to an air pump with a gang valve will give you air bubbles and a fun toy for your betta. The gang valve lets you control the flow so it's just how your betta is happiest with. We get the wall that looks like it's mostly brown stones.
I did links to DFS, but if they don't ship to Canada, you could also try Pet Mountain and although I don't like them - Big Al's ships to Canada I think.
LED lighting should be the lowest-heat generating lighting.
Have you gotten food yet? I'd recommend the Hikari frozen bloodworms cubes, frozen peas and Ocean Nutrition Betta Pro Pellets. We feed our Bettas 3 pieces of thawed & peeled pea am & pm on mondays, 3 pellets am & pm tues-fri and 3 thawed frozen bloodworms am & pm sat with a fast on sundays.
Quote:
Originally Posted by choochiegirl
My daughter got a dreaded small tank for Christmas she was happy since she could have a Betta now since I won't let her in the big tank. I seeded the tank with gravel, water and filter material from my other tank. We went & got a beautiful dark blue fantail. The store we got him from of course has them in tiny bowls so this 2 gallon has to be better. we bought an LED to stick on the outside of the tank so there is light, there is an UG filter (bleh) and a bubbler but no heater. All of the heaters I looked at the LFS are way to large for this tank. How important is heat for a Betta? I can maybe get a small one from from DFS if they will ship to Canada, other then that I may have to get a different tank.
What should I do? Heat the one I have? I have no clue to the temp that it is at, but feels cool to the touch, or scrap the Christmas gift and get a bigger more easier to heat tank?
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