Beta Crown Tail.

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baron1282

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Sep 19, 2012
Messages
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Last night my wife and I did an impulse buy. We bought a Crown Tail Beta.
We got a 2.5 gallon tank, a heater for it and a little wispier tetra filter. Also we bought CaribSea Ready-Water.

I have had a Beta for five years before he died. I kept the guy in a 1 gallon aquarium, that I never cycled and I always did a weekly cleaning of everything. Took the beta out put him in a bowl and cleaned the whole 1 gallon.

With that said, I have never thought about cycling a 2.5 gallon tank. Plus with Beta's I never cycled my other guys tank and he grew to be awesome looking and lived for a good five years. I even moved with him in the back of my car across country. I read that people don't really cycle beta tanks and I was wondering if that was true? I still don't think you need to as long as you do the water changes. Besides isn't cycling a 2.5 gallon just almost impossible? The only thing different I got on this tank is the filter, the last tank I had my other guy in had no filter and only had a bubblier for O2 exchange. What are your thoughts on keeping beta's healthy and happy, and do you think cycling a small tank is not going to happen?

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I think you can cycle that tank since it has a filter. Non-filtered betta tanks or bowls will probably never fully cycle because they usually do a 100% change of the water and there's no filter for the bacteria to colonize.
 
Every tank with a filter goes through the cycle. If a tank/bowl doesn't have a filter than it's impossible really for it to properly cycle. This is a big reason why you shouldn't keep fish in something without a filter. It causes a lot of stress on your fish and is very hard to keep water quality good.

The cycle is basically the process of building good bacteria on in your filter media, to a lesser degree your substrate and decor. This bacteria will convert your waste - ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is less toxic than ammonia.

With a filter your tank is going to go through a cycle whether you want it to or not. It will just be a fish in cycle instead of a fish less cycle. Being prepared for this is important because if you aren't you can easily have a spike and your fish will die. When you have something without a filter ammonia just builds, you don't have the space to grow the bacteria to convert it so it doesn't get broken down to the less toxic nitrate. It just builds in your water until you change it.

You should invest in a liquid test kit, this will make your life a lot easier. Test your water daily and any time ammo or nitrite get above .25ppm do a water change. There are some great articles in the articles section at the top of the page that can help you out if you need more info on it..

Bettas don't actually need bubblers. Betta, along with a few other species of fish, are able to breath air from the surface.

Cycling your tank is very important and really makes your life and your fishes life easier. With a properly cycled and stocked tank weekly water changes of about 30-40% are all that is need to keep your tank happy. Some set ups can get my on less than that but something as small as a 2.5 has it's own challenges with water quality because it has such little volume.
 
Yeah, I got a kit. Like I said, I didn't think about the cycle process because I kept a beta before without a filter and with weekly full cleaning of the tank. So that is what might have saved me and him.

I really just jumped in, without thinking about it. I knew about the cycle process of a tank. So now that I am in, I am doing a daily water change of 10% and testing to make sure it's good. I think that water I bought really has helped a lot. It is really perfect water conditions already. I have not seen a lot of reviews on it, but it seems to be doing awesome. I will keep you all posted. He is swimming around happy right now. Gave him some Brim Shrimp and he ate that up like they were nothing. :p
 
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