lolagurl

My little brother has a betta and keeps it in one of those half gallon containers...i feel so guilty here my one mollie is whos much tinier then the betta and in a filter decorated well planted tank..and hes stuck in that container with just his food. I tried to convince my olittle brother to get him a bigger tank. Though he beleives the pet store staf over me (i guess cuz they work with the fish), and says that little container should be good enough. I used tot hink the same when I heard that they live in small rice patties story, and i dont think they need a 10 galloon personally because they survive in little cups for so long. Though i feel bad for it and i think ill hve to go out and buy maybe a 2.5 gallon hexagonal tank for him,,, i cant stand it any more..but i wish i didnt have to use my money on a fish i knew he wouldnt care for in the fost place

Isabella

How old is your brother?

starshine

Before I knew anything about fish keeping, I did the whole betta-in-a-vase-with-a-plant thing.* I feel bad about it now...my fish (Mushu) lived for almost 4 years and seemed happy and healthy, it just seems that one shouldn't be confined to such a small space.* My vase held less than a gallon.* Now, I have my little Go-Go (named by my son) in a 2.5 gallon planted tank, and it is so much better.* He has plenty of swimming room, plus a controlled environment (filtered, etc.)* I think now of what I did to that poor fish...I would change ALL the water and wash the rocks with soap every few weeks, I didn't know they were labyrinth fish so just about the whole surface was filled with roots so he didn't have room to get up there, plus he was on the windowsill in my kitchen with the sun shining through and the temperature changing all the time...it's a miracle he lived that long.* They can sure endure a lot.* But I'm sure that your brother would not object to an upgrade of a hex tank.* They're cool looking, and he will get to see more behaviors of the fish since he has more room to move.* Or maybe he would consider letting you adopt him, since your brother doesn't care for him?

shollia

If you do get a new tank, just make sure he doesn't want to put anything else in the tank thinking that just b/c there's more room now means he can add more fish.