Hi everyone, Last week my wife bought a Betta fish to surprise me with. We have a 1 gallon fish bowl which she set her up in before I got home. The fish has gravel substrate and we have conditioned her water. My problem is that in the very beginning we didn't know that she wouldn't eat her food off of the gravel at the bottom of her tank, and there has been a small build up down there since we got her. I logged on here, learned about the nytrogen cycle, and got quite concerned because her little bowl probably has a lot of ammonia in it right now. I have done one 50-60% water change a few days after we got her, again with conditioned water. I have since learned that another water change so soon might have been more stressful for her, and I want to let her bowl cycle as soon as possible. Her water has since become a little cloudy and I'm looking for something I can do to resolve this hat would be best for her. my current plan is to vacuum her gravel, and do another 50% water change because of how cloudy the water is, but would so many water changes so close together ( the last one was on Saturday) stress her out? I am feeding her one pellet at a time now, so that she doesn't drop any food, and as soon as she slows down a minute or two in I stop feeding her. What do you think of my cleaning "rescue" plan, and is my new feeding technique ok? If I let her eat her fill for a minute or two, is once a day good, or should I be feeding twice a day? Thank you so much for all of your help, we don't have a lot of money, and I didn't expect to be getting this Betta, and neither my wife or I totally knew what is involved. I'm looking for solutions because we all love our new little Betta, and I just want to set her up properly and make sure she's healthy and in a good environment.
Feeding once a day will be fine but honestly a 1 gallon is not enough for your fish. Does it have a filter? I wouldn't go smaller than a five gallon tank for that guy usually 10 gallon tanks are cheaper than a 5 so I would just do a 10. 1 gallon isn't enough for really anything.
Get a 5gal tank kit, the betta will need a filtered and heated tank. Nothing belongs in a 1gal bowl other than a bouquet of flowers. You will need to change about 50% of the water every other day to keep ammonia and nitrites down until the tank cycles. Read up on the fish in cycle. As for feeding, betta's don't need more than say 3-6 pellets a day (depending on pellet and fish's size).
Ok, we will look into getting a 5 gallon as soon as we can. The pet shops sure don't tell you this type of stuff... hahaha. Thanks for all of the info everyone!
The minimum for a Betta is 2.5 gallons. I have my little betta boy in a 2.5 gallon and he’s doing great! They sell tanks that come with a filter, so you’d just have to get the heater separately. Also, use SeaChem Stability to help your tank build good bacteria and establish a biofilter faster. That combined with Prime will really help. Prime protects your fish from ammonia for 24 hours. I highly recommend purchasing the API liquid test kit to watch your tank parameters. It’s worth the money! Good luck with your new betta! They have quite the little personalities
you know i know someone with the name reed m. from ma, and the same ish age as you lol i have heard 2.5 gallons also can be donr ( although bigger is better) keep in mind a tank isnt nessisary, if you have an old tote or sterilite bin, those work as well as a tank, then all you would HAVE to buy is a smallish filter and a heater, total cost probly 20-30 dollars high side. think about that if you are low on fundage, i do it and it works just the same. good luck. the folks here are AMAZING and will drop what they are doing to help out when they can. so dont feel silly asking q's you think are silly or obvious, we all started somewhere EDIT TO ADD: even a tidy cats 5 gallon cat litter bucket is perfect ( clean it out with boiling water then fill it with conditioned tap water for 24 hours, then dump that water and refill with fresh declorinated water and bobs your uncle). any 5 gallon bucket for that matter
Haha yes they certainly do have fun little personalities. our 18 month old daughter named our betta "Bip," haha, and she's a fun little fish. A lot of the time shes got herself positioned as close to the action as she can be, watching everything that goes in our home. Very entertaining, and I'm new to fish, but I love feeding her because its not such a frenzy the way it has been while I fed someone's large aquarium flakes, though the frenzies are fun to watch too. Bip is very methodical, sinking at the same rate as her pellet and then suddenly sucking it in. Very cool! Thanks for the support everyone, it is really appreciated.
A bowl without a filter is not going to truly cycle - there may be some good bacteria that will grow in the gravel, but not enough to really help. Water changes are the best possible thing, clean water keeps them healthy! I did not see it mentioned, but make sure to always use a dechlorinator like Prime in the water for her, chlorine in tap water harms fish.
@Reed M Everyone helped you out basically but until you get her her new tank honestly just give 100% water changes everyday. Get rid of the gravel for now and just keep her bare bottom, easier to take care of, until you bring home the new tank You can't cycle the bowl with 1gallon so to keep the water clean just give her fresh water everyday. Breeders, me included, keep baby bettas in containers less than a gallon and do 100% water changes every day or two so trust me, she can probably handle it. Im assuming you don't have a heater so just set aside a gallon of dechlorinated water for an hour or so and let it come to room temperature and do the change.
