New Baby Betta Advice Wanted

[Vice]

Hi Guys

My name's Sara ... it was taken so I'm going by my alias Vice. I live in Melbourne, Australian and am the proud new owner of a Betta Splenden named Kurt. He is yellow and blue and very pretty. I'm fairly new at keeping fish and was just wondering if you folks could help me out with some advice.

1. I have a Dymax IQ3 Mini Acrylic Aquarium (8 litres / 2 U.S. Gallons) with a 25 watt temp. controlled water heater set to 26 deg. C. and while the set up looks great I'm having an issue with the filter. Even on the lowest setting it still blows the poor little guy over which does not make for a happy fish. Any suggestions on maybe a different pump or how to reduce the flow?

2. The second question is I wanted to get Kurt a live plant and some friends (of the non snack variety). I was thinking maybe 7 or so Ghost Shrimp and a Mystery Snail for friends. Is this a good idea and does anyone have any suggestions for plants that would improve the water quality and give him some good hidey holes?

Think that's about it for now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Bovbov]

I also have the same tank as you ;P and had this prublem. What I did was get some fake fern (silk) and put a clump infront of the nozzle, this managed to slow it down and give him a hiding place, I also reccomend a seachem ammonia alert; it plughs on the side of the aquarium and gives a constent reading as the ammonia levels change quickly in small tanks! Do you have any pics? And do you find the water to evaporate quickly and empty the bit were the filter is?

- bovbov

 

[Bovbov]

*Sorry for the bad spelling, i pod keyboard

 

[Vice]

Don't worry about the spelling. Mine's terrible at the best of times I will deff. try the silk plant thing and invest in an ammonia alert. I haven't had the tank long enough to have trouble with evaporation yet but I'll let you know. I do have pics ... just can't work out how to post them. Try this. It's the link to the pic on my Facebook page.
Sara Hales | Facebook

 

[Shadey]

Hi!

I recently came across a rather cool idea that solves this problem. I ended up using it on my tank too, since the incoming water from the filter ends up excavating a giant hole in my sand as well as annoying my betta.

Filter Currents: A Betta's Worst Nightmare

What you do is cut out the middle of a plastic pop bottle, and then cut that in half lengthwise, leaving you with a curved piece of plastic that you can attach on top of the filter (though for me the curve of the plastic itself holds it in place). The water hits the curve and gets majorly slowed down, leaving you with very little current.

It works great!

 

[Vice]

Genius! I'm trying that as soon as I get home. Thanks.