betta tank mates

[Uabassoon]

Seeing as how no matter what your thermometer reads 60 degrees I would check to see if it really is working. Stick it in stick it in room temp water and check the temp, then test it with hot water. LOL if it still reads 60 then it's time for a new thermometer!

[micki76]

What type of thermometer do you have? Is it the floating kind? Or the kind in a metal/plastic holder?

I had one in a metal holder once that broke at the top. The actual thermometer slid down, so it was telling me that my tank was only about 65 f (the numbers were on the metal), when in reality it was about 95f. I cooked all my fish. I was devestated when I discovered the problem.

[pedapea]

It's one of those round glass ones, that suction cups to the inside of the tank. It's a bigger version of the thermometer that your mom used to take your temp with, under your tongue. I think there is something wrong with it. I can feel the water getting nice and warm, but the red line has not changed postition since the water was cold to the touch. At 72, tho, Peter is zooming all over the tank. Probably too excited that he's actually warm.

Is there a better place in the tank to stick the thermometer. I had it almost in a corner, but I would think that because it's a corner it would fool the heater into thinking that the whole tank is warm. Maybe a centre position would be better.

Holy crap. I'm starting to sound just a bit weird here Worrying about heater placement. MUST....GET....LIFE.

Thanx for putting up with all my tedious questions.

[CathyBogart]

Questions are good, they keep us sharp and get you information!

I'm not sure about your question though...maybe put it in a bowl of warm water to make sure it's working, and if it is, put it more towards the middle of the tank?

[pedapea]

oh, aaaarrrgghh. *Note to self. Must read over what I type before I send it. It seems that a lot of the time when I am answering here, the kids are behind me screaming and fighting and tattling, and I'm usually telling them to get lost as I am trying to write an understandable reply. I guess it isn't working.

Correction. When I wrote.."is there a better place to stick the thermometer" it should have said..."is there a better place to stick the heater?" Yeesh. Ok. That's it. From now on, I will be the proof reader extraordinaire. This is getting embarrassing.

I hope this now makes sense. aarrgghh

[CathyBogart]

LoL, no biggie! Yuo should see some of the things I was writing in class today, I was combining the lecture with my daydreams. -_- I'm glad I like anthropology, because I'm going to have to read that chapter in the textbook again!

[pedapea]

Here's a good question for ya. How come in the morning the water temp. feels different than during the rest of the day? I have the heater (not thermometer ) set for 72 right now...I'll inch it up to 75 later on...last nite before I went to bed when I put my finger in the water it felt nice and toasty to the touch, but this morning when I got up and felt the water it felt chilly to the touch. The heater, as far as I noticed while I was in the kitchen making brekkie and lunches for the kids, clicked on only once for a couple of seconds then turned off...which tells me that the water temp. IS 72 even tho it doesn't FEEL like it did at the same temp last nite. Makes sense??

*I hear ya about the notes and the daydreams, tho this is a bit different...not as relaxing as daydreams tho. I had to write a note to one of the kids teachers one morning...all the while trying to do this with the herd, as usual, scrapping around me as loud as humanly possible, and with me telling them to go somewhere else and kill each other I'm trying to write a note to the teacher. Wouldn't you know it, after these distractions I address the letter "Dear Linda" aaaaaaahhhhh HER NAME IS BRENDA. I wonder how dumb she thought I was. I've only known her for, like, 13 years. rrrrrrrrr

**Proofread by me, more than once. Now I'm getting paranoid over how I'm wording my notes here.

[lv4dogs]

I keep my tank about 76.
I have one male betta, an african dwarf frog, 2 male guppies & 2 baby plecos (which will be removed when they get bigger).

[pedapea]

Froggies. Cute. I love the little frogs. My kids were asking if they could put a frog in the tank. I said no, seeing as it's only a 10 gallon, with the 1 betta in there, plus the soon to be 3 neons and 3 white clouds, and quite possibly in the future, a pleco for bottom maintenance. I think it would be a tad crowded with a froggie added to the clan.

Those plecos sure do get big. I've had them before, years ago, when the tank was set up. As you can tell it's been broken out of storage. Mine never did get that huge. Do they work the same as some other fish.."only get as large as the tank they are in" or do they grow out of tanks. I remember seeing one somewhere else, can't remember where it was as it was a few years back, but holy crap was it huge. You could have had filet o pleco, for like 2 ppl. When it came towards you, you could almost hear the Jaws theme song playing in the background.

[PJ's Mom]

Originally posted by pedapea
Do they work the same as some other fish.."only get as large as the tank they are in" or do they grow out of tanks.

That's probably the biggest fairy tale in the fish world. Fish don't stop growing when they reach the size of their tank. No no no...

That's one of the reasons so many Oscars find their way into pet stores...people don't know what they're getting themselves into when they buy that cute, little begging fishie. They grow into cute begging monsters.

I have two common plecos. One is around 10" and the other is a whopping 18" long. There are other plecos that don't grow up to be anywhere near that length.

[pedapea]

Most excellent. I have learned something new today. What's even better, when I hear that statement being made by someone else, I can correct that erroneous belief. So I guess when I saw the shark sized one before, that's like a normal growing pleco. Cool.

Are there other fish that do the job of the pleco, that don't grow as monstrous? I only have the one tank, and I don't really want to get 2. Space as well as coin is a concern at my house. I would really hate to have a fish outgrow my tank, and then have to decide what to do with him.

Eighteen inches. HOLY CRAP!! da dun..da dun..dun dun dun dundundun dada daaaa, dada daaaaa

[lv4dogs]

Frogs are really good at cleaning the bottom of the tank like a pleco, just not the sides.
African dwarf frogs stay very small too and are usually out of the way anyways.
You have to be careful as a lot of pet stores mis-label them as a clawed frog or vice-versa.
Here's a site on how to tell the difference:
http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/specie...edordwarf.html

The clawed frogs will actually eat the africans and a lot of other small fish. And they get much larger.

They do have fish that are similar to the plecos, but I'm not sure on their size or compatability with a betta.
BUT a lot of pet stores offer a return policy for when the pleco outgrows your tank. IF I don't have a bigger tank by then & I can't find a home for them I am returning them to my pet store when they get too big, and trade for smaller ones again.
And they do "kind of" grow to their environment but they will still be too big for a small tank once full grown.