New to fish - advice needed

[Tlome]

Hi there. I'm new to this forum and thrilled to have found it. I'm quite new to fish keeping so I hope you'll bear with me while I ask some perhaps silly questions.

I have an autistic son and he has an obsession with fish. As I am involved in dog rescue and have owned many small animals (of the mammal variety) I figured how hard can fish be. LOL at myself.

We started with a 10 gallon and 2 fancy goldfish. We learned that despite advice from local big boxes, 2 goldfish do NOT live in 10 gallons and 6 months of fish replacing later I decided that I should find another source of information.

Much research later I have two tanks.

7 gallon
- crowned betta
-flourescent lighting
- heat at 80
- small cave, couple fabric plants (betta loves the cave)
- filtered (gentle), heated 80 degrees

10 gallon
- crowned betta
- 4 female platties
- african dwarf frog
- filtered (gentle), heated 80 degrees
- incandescent lights (will be replacing with flourescent)

I do 50% water changes once a week and test using strips, except for amonia, which I use API liquid tests for (I realize the strips are less exact)

My betta in the 10 gallon likes to play chase the platties, but when the platties get bored and stop swimming away the betta leaves them alone. All seem to be happy and healthy.

I feed flakes 2 times a week, and frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms the rest of the days (with a small amount of blood worms or shrimp delivered to my frog daily as he does not swim for the flakes)

I feed about 1 cube of the prepackaged frozen between the two tanks and watch for leftovers to clean. They seem to eat all within 5-10 minutes.

My questions are as follows... is my stocking okay? Is my feeding okay? Is my temperature okay? etc. If there is anything in the above description that I should improve please feel free to give any advice you feel helpful.

Thanks so much.

 

[joy13]

The bettas should have a frozen pea once a week thawed and shelled to help with constipation but with all the frozen food you are feeding them they shouldn't have that problem. One cube between the tanks seems like a lot, how much are you actually having to take out that is leftovers?

Your stocking is fine just keep on eye on the bettas and platys.

Temperature is in the upper ranges of what I keep my tanks at. It is all rather a personal thing somewhere between 72 and 80 is a good range.

Your fish are very lucky.

 

[Tlome]

I'll try my temperature a little cooler and see how the fish react, thanks.

The betta currently with the platties seems okay, however, it was originally the other betta in with the platties, and he drove them so nuts I made a switch a couple weeks ago. Thus far no nipped fins however, fingers crossed.

I do have clean a fair amount of food. Until a few days ago I was feeding about half a cube between the two tanks and was concerned I was underfeeding. Perhaps I should revert to that.

 

[sieski]

I'll try my temperature a little cooler and see how the fish react, thanks.

The betta currently with the platties seems okay, however, it was originally the other betta in with the platties, and he drove them so nuts I made a switch a couple weeks ago. Thus far no nipped fins however, fingers crossed.

I do have clean a fair amount of food. Until a few days ago I was feeding about half a cube between the two tanks and was concerned I was underfeeding. Perhaps I should revert to that.

I started fish keeping not too long ago too. I also over fed through fear of underfeeding till I had a nitrite spike and alot of snails lol. I solved the nitrite spike with a water change nitrites rose a bit after but a 3 day fast for the fish did wonders then I went from 2 small feedings a day to just the one no feeding on sundays and haven't had a nitrite spike for months now since.

Fish don't need as much food as many of us first think.