Betta fish starting out

[katw1986]

Hello, we got a betta fish today for our cycled 5 gallon tank. We have a low flow filter, and a heater that is automatic and stays around 76-78 degrees. I forgot to ask at the store how often to do water changes and how much. I'm going to assume 25-30% weekly?

Also, does this little guy require the tank light to be on? If so, how many hours per day

Thanks!!

 

[Andy Sager]

Hello, we got a betta fish today for our cycled 5 gallon tank. We have a low flow filter, and a heater that is automatic and stays around 76-78 degrees. I forgot to ask at the store how often to do water changes and how much. I'm going to assume 25-30% weekly?

Also, does this little guy require the tank light to be on? If so, how many hours per day

Thanks!!

Water changes should be done at least weekly but if more is required, it will depend on your readings. If your nitrate is above 20 ppm, it's best you change whatever percentage of water it takes to get it under 20 ppm. For example, if your nitrate was 30ppm, doing a 30% water change would bring the level down to 21 ppm so that's not enough. A 50% water change would bring the level down to 15 PPM so that's the better choice. Unless you have live plants in the tank, a 0 ppm nitrate is best but don't make yourself crazy trying to keep a 0 level as fish can handle some nitrate in their water.
As for lighting, Bettas prefer dim lighting so if you have no live plants and good ambient lighting, you don't even need a light on the tank. If you don't have good ambient lighting, I'd put the light on a timer so that the light is on during the times you most likely would be viewing the tank. You want to keep the light hours somewhat consistent to help the fish keep a good sleep/wake cycle which helps with the feeding routine as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Do you have a test kit?

If it's just 1 betta in a 5g aquarium i would expect a 30% water change every 2 weeks would be sufficient, but obviously the more often you change the water the better the water quality. You can be guided by water parameters. Nitrate below 40ppm acceptable, below 20ppm good, below 10ppm excellent. Change some water every 2 weeks regardless as that will replenish important mineral content.

Do you have live plants?

If you don't have live plants you don't need the light all. The fish still need to have a circadian rhythm of light and dark, but this can come from ambient room light. Live plants will probably need some aquarium light, but I've kept some plants alive in unlit aquariums. 6 to 8 hours a day with the light is going to be sufficient for most live plants. Apart from that the light is for your benefit, not the fishes. A couple of hours in the evening or whenever you are home wanting to enjoy your fish. Once you get beyond 8 hours light on per day you will probably run into algae issues unless you have high demand plants that will starve algae of nutrients. If the light intensity is adjustable you can have the light on longer on a lower intensity.

 

[katw1986]

Water changes should be done at least weekly but if more is required, it will depend on your readings. If your nitrate is above 20 ppm, it's best you change whatever percentage of water it takes to get it under 20 ppm. For example, if your nitrate was 30ppm, doing a 30% water change would bring the level down to 21 ppm so that's not enough. A 50% water change would bring the level down to 15 PPM so that's the better choice. Unless you have live plants in the tank, a 0 ppm nitrate is best but don't make yourself crazy trying to keep a 0 level as fish can handle some nitrate in their water.
As for lighting, Bettas prefer dim lighting so if you have no live plants and good ambient lighting, you don't even need a light on the tank. If you don't have good ambient lighting, I'd put the light on a timer so that the light is on during the times you most likely would be viewing the tank. You want to keep the light hours somewhat consistent to help the fish keep a good sleep/wake cycle which helps with the feeding routine as well.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!!

 

[katw1986]

I have the masters test kit, all water parameters good just tested today and keeping an eye on it

I am sooo confused about feeding. I'll attach pics of the betta we got and the pellets. The instructions on the pellet packaging has a big range of how many to feed per day we are feeding him 3 pellets, twice a day right now. He gobbles them up. I don't want to overfeed though. Also, I read that once a week he would benefit from some variety like freeze dried blood worms?

Thank you!!!

 

[katw1986]

Oh and I also read that they should fast for one day a week?

 

[katw1986]

He's always begging for food but maybe that's normal betta behavior he eats one pellet within seconds

 

[Andy Sager]

I have the masters test kit, all water parameters good just tested today and keeping an eye on it

I am sooo confused about feeding. I'll attach pics of the betta we got and the pellets. The instructions on the pellet packaging has a big range of how many to feed per day we are feeding him 3 pellets, twice a day right now. He gobbles them up. I don't want to overfeed though. Also, I read that once a week he would benefit from some variety like freeze dried blood worms?

Thank you!!!

Oh and I also read that they should fast for one day a week?

He's always begging for food but maybe that's normal betta behavior he eats one pellet within seconds

Holy Crap are you being inundated with weird information.

Here's the deal: Fish in the wild might go days without eating because there was no food available but you are not keeping wild Bettas. You are keeping Bettas that are bred on a farm or in someone's home and get food every day to help them grow. There is no reason to starve a farm bred fish or any healthy fish IMO. ( And my opinion is based on breeding and raising thousands of these Betta fish. ) A Betta's stomach is about the size of its eyeball so you don't want to overfeed or overfill that stomach. Pellets come in all sizes so try placing 3 of your pellets in a pile and see if the size looks bigger than the fish's eyeball. If it is, that's too much to feed at one time. You are going to have to gauge how many pellets to feed by that metric. It's best to let the fish digest what it ate last before the next feeding but nothing says you can't feed a small amount of food periodically throughout the day. That may be a single pellet every 4 or 5 hours? Maybe it's 3 pellets, because they are very small, every 4 or 5 hours? It's all going to depend on what kind of schedule you can keep to.
With my Bettas, there were no pelleted foods so they got a meat based food ( usually worms) as their first feeding of the day. They would get a food with an exoskeleton as there last meal of the day to help with digestion. This could be live or frozen brine shrimp, daphnia or bloodworms. These three foods help keep the fish from getting blocked up due to too much protein. Since Bettas are considered " insectavors" , wild fish are used to feeding on bugs which usually feed on grasses or plants so they'd get their roughage that way. We have to duplicate this part of their diet by feeding them foods that help with digestion. Now a days, there is gut loaded frozen brine shrimp that's loaded with spirulina algae so that's a good last food. Daphnia feeds on algae as well so that's another good food for roughage. So the best diet is one of variety. Give your fish a different food every feeding so that they don't get locked onto one food type.
As for the fish begging for food, this is a natural response because they are used to getting fed by someone walking past them while they were growing up. In the wild, they never knew where or when their next meal was coming so they could overeat and just go hide for a few days to digest it all but that's not the case with your fish. Don't fall for it. They're not starving. Make a schedule, keep to the schedule.

Hope this helps.