Live Plants for a Cycling Betta in a 10 gallon

HI all,

We are heading into week 4 of cycling. Phoenix is doing great but I was hoping to see some progress with his cycle. I'm heading to my LFS later this afternoon and was wondering if there were any plants that would help speed up his cycle and/or plants Bettas really enjoy. Right now, in his tank, he has silk plants and a couple live ones but they are pretty small.

I used Stability for the 7 days and continue using Prime everyday. I'm doing 20% water changes every other day to avoid ammonia stress or disease.

Water Parameters:
pH 7.6
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Temp 80F

I've seen so many beautiful planted tanks here and hoping to get his looking just half as good.

Here's a pic of his tank and any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Live plants wouldn't really speed up the cycle but you can add them if you want to. Anubias and java fern would look nice attached to the decor or in the substrate as long as the rhizomes are not covered.

Have you rinsed the filter media in tap water or replaced any of it at all?

 

HI el337 and thank you for the plant recommendations! Last week I noticed his filter was very dirty so I rinsed it in old tank water as I read here that's what you should do and good thing, I wouldn't have known otherwise.

I don't think he's a big pooper. I have never seen him poop and when I vacuum the gravel once a week there's really not a lot of anything. When I feed him I make sure nothing falls into the gravel and so does he! lol

He doesn't look bloated and is always hungry even though I feed him 3 ex small pellets twice a day and a bloodworm twice a week (I was holding back one of the pellet feedings but I was recently told to not combine the two in a day so I haven't done that lately). I haven't done the fasting thing with a pea, but maybe I should look into doing it even though he's not bloated but where's his poop going?! I just read somewhere, not here, that VTs are the worst when it comes to overeating and are hit hard by the complications, the info didn't say why but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. I'm going to look into other live food options at my LFS, based on recommendations I received here, and I'm definitely going to get a better brand of pellets from what I'm currently using.

So many things to learn and very grateful for everyone's help!

 

I'd dose Prime on the days you don't do a water change and just keep testing daily and adding Stability. I think you're doing great!

 

Thank you! I'm adding prime every single day but should I also start adding stability again? I stopped after the 7 days as instructed on the bottle.

 

Betta poops are pretty small. They might be hiding in the gravel or breaking up before you find them?

 

I'd still add it until you're cycled.

 

Lizzinator - If anyone would have told me just a month ago that I would be posting on a forum about my Betta's poops...Apparently I'm officially now a crazy Betta owner too! lol

Will do el337 thanks again!

 

Went to my LFS and bought 3 more plants: A Narrow Leaf Java Fern, an Anubias Nana, and a Rosette Sword. I also got another moss ball. I brought my first moss ball and 2 live plants when I first got Phoenix so out of sheer excitement I didn't notice that each plant and moss ball cost more than him. Crazy!

I also got him Omega One pellets and frozen Brine Shrimp. He went absolutely nutso over the brine. It was hilarious because at first he spit it out like eww what's this then once he got a taste of it he grabbed it again and started thrashing around with it hanging out of his mouth. A piece got on his pectoral fin so he swam around in a circle trying to get it off, which it eventually did. Thankfully I only gave him a very small amount, that stuff goes a long way.

Embarrassed to say that all this time I thought Phoenix was a Veil Tail but obvious to most, lol, he's a Double Tail

Here's a pic with his new plants.

 

Sounds like Pheonix is in betta heaven. What a lucky guy.

 

Aww thanks Lizzinator, he deserves it for going through this crazy cycling process with me.

 

Bettas are carnivores and prefer and flourish on live foods. Many people get into a weird Live food is a treat mindset and its false. You can get white worms as Bettas love these and once you have a culture they are free and easy to keep going. Althoufh with live foods is more effective of you have a lot of fish lol

Froze beine shrimp are great and tou can break up those cubes so as to not waste them.