Impulse Bought A Betta From Petco

Hello all, I was at Petco today and I just couldn't get myself to not buy this poor thing that seemed to be begging me to pick him up. I wanted to get all of them, poor things, but this one seemed to be destined for my new tank.

I am not a complete beginner, I have an established 10G that's doing great. The last time I got a betta fish was a few years ago and I had no clue what I was doing, poor guy died in a few months This time I have been looking for a betta for a while for my second tank, so I purchased a Fluval ChI 5G from Amazon and I had a spare 50Wheater as well. So this is not a terrible situation by any means I picked up some aquarium gravel as well, and had a spare banana plant and I plopped it in.

The trouble was I impulse bought him and had nothing setup or cycled, except the tank that I had leak checked. The heater was plopped into a filled tank (for the leak check) - it's one of those preset heaters supposed to be at 78, I know 50W is plenty for a 5 gallon, somehow it never crossed 74 (either the thermometer's wrong or the house is too cold, it's usually at 66).

I had to rush home in the snow and the house was a toasty 64F, so I kept my betta a few feet from the heater while I pell-mell cleaned gravel, stones, the tank and all such while making sure the betta was warm but not hot. Then I setup the filter, added some of the material from the polishing pad from my other tank into this filter to help the cycle, added stability and prime, and floated the guy in the tank for 20 mins before letting him in. He's been very active, exploring all corners, hasn't eaten a couple pellets I dropped in.

My questions:

1. I know I should have cycled the tank before getting him, but it was an impulse buy. Anything else I should do now other than keep an eye on ammonia/nitrite and dose stability every day for the first week? Prime is on hand if needed
2. The heater somehow doesn't seem to go beyond 74-75 - but they have +/-2 margin and so do the thermometers. Do you think the temp is probably okay for him? It's an Aqueon preset 50W heater. Any suggestions for other good heaters for a 5gallon?

Attached photo of my new betta and tank And a photo of my other community tank just cause. Thanks for reading

 

I purchased the same thermometer and one of weighted style with fins on the bottom, from petco. I have a Klein infrared thermometer (very accurate shoots a laser)I compared the two petco thermometers & the suction cup style one was reading 4-6 degrees Fahrenheit under. The weighted one was dead on with my laser beam thermometer! Hope your Betta does great! Iam saving one tomorrow for my 10 gl tank!

 

In my experience, It shouldnt be too bad if you added him before cycling. Before I got my 20 gallon (first bigger tank) I didnt know about cycling and I added them aswell. They all did very good and never had any problems. Just make sure you're testing frequently to make sure there are no bad spikes. What you can do is maybe set up a small 2.5G or something just incase it gets dangerous for him.

 

Thanks montanafish88 and SushiLovesYou. I have an ammonia detect that should change color as soon as there's ammonia and I'll monitor daily with my test strips. I have a 3.5 gallon on standby JIC

 

Thanks montanafish88 and SushiLovesYou. I have an ammonia detect that should change color as soon as there's ammonia and I'll monitor daily with my test strips. I have a 3.5 gallon on standby JIC

Would invest in a API master test kit if you already do not have one.

 

I have found that small water changes daily help keep the levels in check when having fish/aquatic life going into an uncycled tank. I found this especially true when my tank has been *stuck* on a cycle (Such as nitrites).

You for sure would benefit from having the API Master test kit.. you can get them for under $30 on Amazon and they last a very very long time. You can check for Ammonia, Ph, Nitrate, Nitrite, which in all honesty Ammonia is just as important as the rest! Good luck

 

montanafish88 and Aliceisalive Thanks for the advice I do have the test kit ! Also I am adding stability daily - with the last tank I somehow never even noticed ammonia or nitrite in the tests, it just went directly to nitrates and the plants just soaked it all up. Hopefully it does the same here, like u said the API kit is awesome, will definitely be monitoring with that! Will keep water changes handy and an extra tank JIC.!

Here's a photo of him flaring now

 

montanafish88 and Aliceisalive Thanks for the advice I do have the test kit ! Also I am adding stability daily - with the last tank I somehow never even noticed ammonia or nitrite in the tests, it just went directly to nitrates and the plants just soaked it all up. Hopefully it does the same here, like u said the API kit is awesome, will definitely be monitoring with that! Will keep water changes handy and an extra tank JIC.!

Imgur: The most awesome s on the Internet Here's a photo of him flaring now

A betta I had a really long time ago looked just like that! So pretty!