My head is spinning....

Recently I decided I would love to add to my family and do something I haven't done since I was little... own fish. Like any good Pet Talker I started doing my research. I first thought about goldfish because that was the fish from my childhood. All the info I've found says that goldfish have high waste outputs and require large tanks to be happy. Bit short on available space at the moment. My next thought was bettas. From what I've read they are hardy (plus seeing as all my childhood fish died at the hands of my mother), need low space (again I don't have room for a larger tank until personal issues clear up) and good for first time fish owners (aka me). But that is where the info stops agreeing. One site says this but another say that and I am on overload right now. So does any of my experienced owners have sites that they recommend that has the best advice or any advice themselves that I could use. This little adventure won't begin for another month to two months but I like to be overly prepared.

My plan at the moment is to get two males in seperate 1.6 or 2.5 gallon tanks seperated visually by aquarium background.

I thank you in advance for any help you give.

As your research showed, goldfish are really not tank fish at all, they require a pond. I know, I had them as a child too. We could ge tthem for 10 cents at W T Grants, or they were given away, to entice you to buy a bowl etc. But they GROW. Glad you decided those are out.

Male bettas are pretty and as long as they can't reach one another, they are a good fish. You didn't specify what the sites disagree about. I kept a betta in my community tank with other nonaggressive fish and they lasted over a year. They can be kept on their own, but I never did it that way.

The main disagreements are in the feeding schedule and tank cleaning. One site I read they only need to be fed once every 3 days as they will continue to eat if overfed where as another says 2-3 times a day and yet another says once daily.
One site says that a full tank cleaning is needed only once a month with 1/3 water change weekly and another says full tank cleaning is needed every 5-7 days.

I googled Betta fish care so I didn't retain site names. I was just needing experienced owners advice and/or narrow down the sites to read.

I kept a 40 gallon tank for years, and I pretty much stuck with small yet hardy fish - like fancy guppies or neons. I liked black mollies, but they are so prone to ick that I gave up on them. I always had pretty good luck with angel fish, silver dollars, and red sword tails.

I can't imagine any site saying a full tank cleaning every 5-7 days tho, unless they might be referring to betas in a bowl with no filtration system. I can't imaging a 1/3 water exchange every week either, even with a tank with a reasonably good filtration system. The less the water exchange and the less often, the less shock to the fish. Most of the time I did more than 1/3, but I NEVER did more than 1/2, and definitely not every week either. Of course the more fish in the tank, then the more often it needs to be cleaned too, but certainly not every week. Not in this house anyway! :eek:

I've been keeping bettas for years. I've had a few live nearly four years. (which means they were older than four) I keep them in two gallons tanks. No filtration. I do a full water change every five days, you might make it six or seven days. I feed them 4-5 pieces of food twice a day. There are lights in each of the tanks to help warm them during the winter months and I have thermometers in each tank to watch the water temperature.

I as well own a betta. I feed him four pellets of betta food twice a day. The tank does not have a filter, so I change the water in his tank about once a week. The tank is also smaller than 5 gallons (I'm not too sure exactly how big it is.) I keep gravel and plants in there for him and the tank also came with a light which I keep on during the day and turn off at night. I've read that bettas like around room temperature water; it is not too good for them if the water is freezing cold or boiling hot.

I've had him for maybe two months or so. Not long, I know, but longer then any goldfish I've ever had. :p:rolleyes: They're easy to care for and not to mention very pretty! ;)

For what it's worth... I say jump in with both feet and go salt! :D

I always put it off because I thought it would be much harder. It isn't and I find it more fascinating. (Still love a planted tank with fancy guppies, though!) If you want A fish (or maybe 2 really small ones), you can keep a nano-reef of 5-10 gallons; the only drawback to one that small is that, as with fresh water, the smaller the tank the quicker the water quality declines.

Good luck with your adventure!

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Originally Posted by zippy-kat

For what it's worth... I say jump in with both feet and go salt! :D

I always put it off because I thought it would be much harder. It isn't and I find it more fascinating. (Still love a planted tank with fancy guppies, though!) If you want A fish (or maybe 2 really small ones), you can keep a nano-reef of 5-10 gallons; the only drawback to one that small is that, as with fresh water, the smaller the tank the quicker the water quality declines.

Good luck with your adventure!

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:eek::eek::eek: - even I was never brave enough to take on a salt water set up. Both my brothers had salt tanks, and they were just beautiful, but what I consider a lot of work. And the price of salt water fish??? - talk about sticker shock!!! YIKES - big time! :eek:

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Originally Posted by pomtzu

:eek::eek::eek: - even I was never brave enough to take on a salt water set up. Both my brothers had salt tanks, and they were just beautiful, but what I consider a lot of work. And the price of salt water fish??? - talk about sticker shock!!! YIKES - big time! :eek:

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Yes the fish are a little bit pricier but, in my experience, they lived longer, too. (That said -and my guppies aside- I got bored and didn't do regular maintenance with the freshies.) I didn't venture into the $$$ saltwater fish - just stuck with the hardier, cheaper ones (most of mine avg'd about $20). I also bought coral fragments and waited for them to grow rather than purchase the whole specimen at one time.


This was my "box of water" near it's prime:
http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...ight=saltwater

Before the black clownfish, I had this guy and he was my favorite fish of all time (i LOVE jawfish)... even though he was a pain in the rear. :D
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...jawfish_07.jpg
He had personality plus! He would stack the snails then get really mad and flare up at them when they moved. He also dug holes in the substrate and made a burrow. After he had his dinner, he'd plug his burrow with a shell (sometimes he'd try a snail) and go to bed. He also had a habit of stealing coral and hiding it in his burrow; I guess he wanted some decor. :D


When I bought my house and moved the tank, I lost EVERYTHING except the snails. I now have a 30g long in my kitchen but I don't have corals just Herbie the clownfish and a handful of snails.

We are thinking of a salt tank after we get more room and we find out if I inherited my mother's fishie death hands.

The SIL donated her 10g tank to us with all her equipment that we are going to portion of for 2 Betta with plexiglass.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zippy-kat

Yes the fish are a little bit pricier but, in my experience, they lived longer, too. (That said -and my guppies aside- I got bored and didn't do regular maintenance with the freshies.) I didn't venture into the $$$ saltwater fish - just stuck with the hardier, cheaper ones (most of mine avg'd about $20). I also bought coral fragments and waited for them to grow rather than purchase the whole specimen at one time.


This was my "box of water" near it's prime:
http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...ight=saltwater

Before the black clownfish, I had this guy and he was my favorite fish of all time (i LOVE jawfish)... even though he was a pain in the rear. :D
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...jawfish_07.jpg
He had personality plus! He would stack the snails then get really mad and flare up at them when they moved. He also dug holes in the substrate and made a burrow. After he had his dinner, he'd plug his burrow with a shell (sometimes he'd try a snail) and go to bed. He also had a habit of stealing coral and hiding it in his burrow; I guess he wanted some decor. :D


When I bought my house and moved the tank, I lost EVERYTHING except the snails. I now have a 30g long in my kitchen but I don't have corals just Herbie the clownfish and a handful of snails.

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I went back and took a look at your other thread with all the pics - just beautiful. I'm not sure what size the tanks were that my brothers had, but they were huge in comparison even to my 40 gallon set up. Wish I had the patience to start over again, but I would be starting from scratch and putting out a lot of money that I don't have to splurge with! :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andie

We are thinking of a salt tank after we get more room and we find out if I inherited my mother's fishie death hands.

The SIL donated her 10g tank to us with all her equipment that we are going to portion of for 2 Betta with plexiglass.

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Good luck on your adventure! Can't wait to see pictures!

*holds hands out for punishment*

I completely forgot about this post.

Well the day after Valentine's day is where my first day of aquatic mothering began. I bought a male betta. My beautiful Neptune (yep, we stuck with the god names) has a red head that fades into blue at his fins which of course looks purple in all pictures.
Attachment 56387


Attachment 56386
His very own hotel room while the tank is being cleaned and attended to.

Attachment 56385
He loves his new bamboo stalk.

On March 30th I went into the local pet supply store to grab the dogs some pig ear chews and to check to see if they carried the filter cartridge I need because the closest Petco is 56 miles north of us so everything is either ordered online or gotten at this small local store. As I was in the fish section the word corydoras caught my eye on one of the tanks. I had read that they were good companions for bettas and had actually thought about getting a few the next time we made it up to Petco so I walk over to the tank just to look. (Regardless of what Dustin thinks that is what I went over to do.) There in the tank was a single cory looking so lonely that I had to take him home right there. That is the story of how we got Loki, our reticulated cory. (That's the one I'm sticking with too ;) )

We did finally make it to Petco yesterday for some new plants for the tank as the original ones were growing black specks I worried was mold. We came home with new plants, a stalk of bamboo, 2 ghost shrimp, and an emerald cory. The cory (Ares) unfortunately didn't make it through the night but our shrimp (Jacques and Osiris) are thriving in their new home.

Loki
Attachment 56388

Attachment 56389
Oh, were you trying to take a picture of me?



Jacques
Attachment 56390

Osiris hides so imagine another Jacques

Neptune is a gorgeous betta! I just love bettas!:D I like corys and the shrimp are cool!:cool:

Old thread but I do like a nice 5-10 gallon filtered tank with warm water and some acidity for healthy bettas. They'll live for years in terrible conditions though just like outside dogs living off their own poo and rocks and twigs. Just thought I'd warn you that bamboo is not fully aquatic so when it starts to die off you need to get it out of the tank before it rots in the water and makes the water toxic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IRescue452

Old thread but I do like a nice 5-10 gallon filtered tank with warm water and some acidity for healthy bettas. They'll live for years in terrible conditions though just like outside dogs living off their own poo and rocks and twigs. Just thought I'd warn you that bamboo is not fully aquatic so when it starts to die off you need to get it out of the tank before it rots in the water and makes the water toxic.

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Thank you for the info.

My bettas are perfectly healthy and happy the way I keep them. I'm sure Neptune will do fine the way you're keeping him Andie.:)