Brand new betta!

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lizardlove

Guest
His name is Lestat because he's a vampire. o_O

So my first question is, how long should I be acclimating him? When can I let him chill in his bowl? After that, my question will be what type is he and I'll post a pic, but right now he's in his bag in the bowl so I can't get a clear shot yet. I just don't want him to die on me from a fishy heart attack brought on by stress. He's a real charmer.
 
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lizardlove

Guest
It was a little tough to tell, and I hope I wasn't too rough, after a while I sort of uncerimoniously dumped him...

He seemed fine. He was swimming all over the place, and there were lil' bubbles coating the sides of the bowl, and he kept trying to get all up in my business when I was staring at him. He ate like four pellets. I just wish he had something to do in there...
 
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lizardlove

Guest
Well, I was wondering, could I actually get a UTH and put it under the bowl in order to heat his water? I'm not 100% how else to heat it. Also, the bowl is on a wooden bookcase, could I put a UTH on the wood without it catching on fire or something, haha?
 
BettaDragon

BettaDragon

New Member
Messages
507
Location
NJ
Bettas ideal temp is mid 70's. It should go no lower than 65 no higher than 82. Most breeders keep the temps at 80 as this is the ideal temp for fry raising but it's close to the max temperature and if a heater goes on the fritz there's not much of a buffer to keep it from going too high. They can live in a wide variety of temperatures and with smaller tanks (under 5 gal.) I've found it's better to just skip the heater and keep the room warm. They do make micro heaters and my grandmother uses them with success but I've had too many heater spazzing incidents to trust them. They do no need a filter if you do frequent water changes and they prefer not having a filter as bettas like very still water. If you use a filter it should be a corner filter or a sponge filter. They need no aeration because they are labyrinth fish. They're very hardy fish. Their biggest killers are unstable temps (what killed off my whole collection) and unclean water. The one thing to understand about bettas is that they are not at all like most fish and are to be treated differently. Their natural environment is very shallow, stagnant water (NOT a puddle). Adapting to this environment makes bettas and other labyrinth fish very very different from other fish.

I've already told Darcie most of this but just putting the info out. ;)
 
fishyfan

fishyfan

New Member
Messages
275
Location
California
When i last had a betta i kept her in a 5 gallon tank, and she used every bit of that tank. They seem much less active in smaller tanks, at least in my experience. This tank had an 18 watt compact fluorescent light over it for plants, and that kept the water temp fairly warm during the day (about 78 degrees), and had a small heater (25 watts) and it kept the water temp fairly consistent at night. For filtration, i used this (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9821), kept the water clean with just the right amount of flow...

bettatank.jpg
 
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Foreverandever

Guest
When I used to have bettas I just used an in tank heater. Put it under the gravel and there you go. I'm actually thinking of getting another betta soon. The fish shop near me has some SWEET crowns and half moons!
 
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Foreverandever

Guest
fishyfan said:
Is this bowl heated/filtered? Bettas are tropical fish and really should be kept around 78 degrees...
Click to expand...

As long as you keep up on the water changes you dont need a filter. Bettas like still water
 
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