rescued a betta from walmart!

[rracechase]

i bought a Betta from Walmart today and im ready to put him in his own 10 Gallon tank. he was the liveliest one of the sad bunch, and he is a pretty cool color.

tank, a little plain

betta! he is camera shy..

if anyone has advice on how to raise a peaceful betta, please tell! i want to add live plants but don't know which ones he'll like.

 

[Sahabo]

Looks like a good set up so far...he'll be happy in the 10 gallon. As for plants, that would depend on what kind of lighting you have. If you have low light, I would suggest java fern or moss to start with. Bettas usually like to rest on leaves or have places to hide.

I'm not sure what you mean by raising a "peaceful" betta, but here are two great sites with lots of info all about bettas: bettatalk.com and ultimatebettas.com

Did you cycle the tank before adding your fish?

 

[rracechase]

thanks for the sites! yes i cycled it for two days using 5 minnows.

also, if i ever wanted to breed bettas, what would be the best way to do it?

 

[Sahabo]

Two days? Hmmm, others please join in here as I am still kind of new myself, but I'm not sure a tank can be cycled in two days. What are your water parameters? Ammonia, nitrite, etc

 

[rracechase]

err. maybe 2 days wasnt enough. but im sure what hes in now is much better than the cup he came it. also, i added 5 gallons of precycled water from my 20 gallon thats been running for a few months.

 

[Sahabo]

Alright AA veterans, please jump in here to help answer the cycling question and the breeding question...

rracechase, have you tested the water in the 10 gallon?

 

[neilanh]

You cannot cycle a tank that fast, the cycle just doesn't work that way unless you had some pristine seed material. The water from your 20g is of no help, as the bacteria colonize on surfaces, not in the water column.

A single betta is a very small bioload. Keep an eye on your parameters, particulary ammonia and nitrite, but I doubt you'll have much of a problem.

If your 20g tank has been established for a while, you could still some media from it and cram it in the filter of the new tank. This will seed your tank and may be good enough to eliminate ever actually seeing the cycle occur.

 

[rracechase]

i acutally took an extra filter off of my 20g (i had 5-15 and a 20 on it) that had a pretty established media. he seems to be swimming around and exploring some plants i added and even ate some freezedried bloodworms. i just cant wait 'til his fins are flowing!


testing- ph was 7.1
ammonia and nitrites ~0ppm

 

[Sahabo]

sounds good my betta loves occasional bloodworms, too, along with Hikari bio gold pellets that I feed him daily. your betta will also be happy if he's warm, a good temp for them is about 80 degrees.

There are some people on this forum who have bred bettas, I believe. You can also find info about it on those sites I mentioned.

Good luck!

(Thanks Neilan)

 

[neilanh]

I didn't realize you had already transferred some media over.

Chances are you'll never see a cycle then. Congrats on the new tank! I'm a huge advocate of MTS myself.

 

[theotheragentm]

I second Neilan. The bioload of a Betta is so small. Even with biweekly water changes, you're not likely to even see measurable parameters. I've tested on a 2.5 gallon that someone else had. A small clump of Java Moss will help out too.