I have never seen fins repair beyound healing at the damage. I’ve never owned a Beta, so maybe it’s something they do. The other fish like my angle fish grew up into 6 or 8 inch fish with the same fin damage as when an inch in size, so still be picky when choosing the fish.
E-mail sent.
Re: cories - they seem to be “happier” in schools of at least 3. Most people would recommend against keeping a single cory. I have about 7 julii in my 30 gal rainbow tank.
Jodi - did you get an eclipse? Those are really nice simple little tanks.
I would strongly recommend that you not rely on PetSmart for plant advice. They sell plants which are not submerged species and will not survive. Not sure what your “bamboo” plant is. The “feathery” one could be any number of species they sell - cabomba, myrophyllium, or others. You need to consider the lighting level, and the scale of the plant - some plants just don’t look right in a small tank.
If you want to shoot me an e-mail, we can discuss more. I could easily send you any number of plants for the cost of shipping ($4).
I’m sorry, I have to disagree about getting a Betta, or Goldfish.
Goldfish are really dirty. I don’t know why, but you’ll have more difficulty keeping the tank clean. According to my Fish Store Guy, you should NEVER clean the tank out completely, which is to say you should never disturb the gravel on the bottom. I assume you have a heater and a filter? FSG says that if the filter isn’t enough to clean the tank, you are overfeeding. For the most part, my filter (I have a Bio-Wheel) keeps the tank clean. But just recently, I guess I was overfeeding and the gravel got grungy. It took eleven months, though…before that things seemed to be keeping clean enough. At least to my critical eyes. I disregarded FSG’s advice and removed the water that was in there, cleaned the whole thing (gravel included) with water only, and put the water I took out back in. That was two weeks ago, and so far so good. (But that was a year after I set the tank up, so I don’t consider that to be too much of a bother.) Also, they recommend that you change the charcoal filter IN the Bio-Wheel thing much more often than I have. Truth is, I didn’t change it once in the year before I cleaned it. I rinsed it out thoroughly once a month. When I cleaned the tank a few weeks ago, I left the original filter in there for a few weeks and then put a new one in the other day. The biological material in there is supposed to be helpful for the health of the tank, and I thought it would be good to leave it there for a week or so after I disturbed the gravel.
I should say that this 5 gallon tank I have is at my office.
We had a Betta, and he was beautiful. However, they like to lay around a lot and that distressed people. For about a year before he finally went to that big fishtank in the sky, people kept saying “Ummmm, I think your fish is dead.” And he wasn’t. I asked my friend, who has several HUGE fish tanks (a 60 gallon, an 150 gallon and some others) and is something of an expert, if I was doing something wrong. She said that Bettas just aren’t very active unless you hold up a mirror and make them angry. Which might not be all that good for them, experts disagree. That they tend to do what mine was doing, which was to “park himself” on a plant and just lay there for hours. And when he got REALLY old, he lay around on the bottom, looking REALLY dead. :eek: I kept thinking he was dead but when I tried to get him out with the fishnet, he’d “come to life” again.
So when he died, my employer told me he didn’t want me to get another Betta. It was too upsetting to our patients. AND to me. [sub]And…it WAS distressing to me, I couldn’t deny that.[/sub]
So I got six White Cloud Tetra’s. They were 3/$1.00 at the fish store, and I figured if the tank didn’t cycle well when I set it up again, we wouldn’t lose much money. They were very tiny. Well, the tank cycled well and they have gotten quite large. (for Tetra’s, that is.) They are quite beautiful.
I have the six Tetra’s, a Leopard Catfish (Leopold), a Kuhlii Loach and an Angel Fish (Oreo). I have the water tested every week, and things appear to be going really well. I remove 1 gallon of the water twice a week and replace it with water that I run really hot into a gallon jug and leave overnight so the chlorine evaporates. We have really good water here, so that appears to be all that is necessary for good water quality for the tank. The fish store guy recommends VERY STRONGLY being careful about over feeding, and keeping the tank at 76 degrees. I was advised that the removed water was good for the plants in the office, and this has proved to be true. The plants are thriving.
So far, so good. And I re-set the tank up one year ago. “Tuna” (the betta) died in late November of 2005. [sub]He was a rescue fish. The people who lived in our upstairs apartment were moving, and were going to flush him. I just couldn’t allow that, so I “adopted” him. We had him for two 1/2 years before he died. Peacefully, I hope and assume.[/sub] I set the tank up again over Christmas vacation of 2005.
Oh, and…about plants. Many years ago when I had four tanks, (a 29 gallon, a 20 gallon, a ten gallon and a five gallon…that one was a “baby” tank, I raised Mollies and Platys) at first I tried using live plants. I found that my fish liked to eat the live plants, and tended to chew through them near the base of the plant. It made the tank very hard to keep clean. So I started using plastic plants, and I recommend you do the same.
Things have changed a great deal over the years from when I had those tanks before. At that time, the main concern was the PH balance, and I tested for that myself. Nowadays, there are apparently tons of other stuff they want you to test for, and so I just have the fish store do it. On Wednesday’s it is free, so every Wednesday I have my Office Assistant run down there with a water sample. I also have an in-tank ammonia tester, which has never shown a problem. Fish Store guy says that this is because I do the partial water change thing twice a week.
Our patients love the fish tank, especially the children.
Good luck! I am sure your young one will love it.
Dinsdale, I’m going to drop you an e-mail soon!
My betta is in his new home and appears to be settling in fine. We’ll see if he’s still alive and kicking in the morning. I don’t have a heater in the tank. Do I need one? And Scotticher, I’m a total fish newbie, so no criticism implied but isn’t that a lot of fish to have in a 5 gal. tank?
You’d probably do best with a heater, depending on where the tank is and how warm it is. You’d want the water at least above 70 degrees for a Betta. 75-80 is probably betta… er better. 
All of the Bettas I’ve ever had were very interactive. They learned what certain movements meant and would wiggle and squirm to show how excited they were. I have the tank on the top of my desk, and every time I stood they would dance and shimmy.
What color did you get?
Two of them are bottom fish, so as far as I am informed (which isn’t much, I took other’s advice) I don’t think so. I’ve had them all for over a year and they are doing great, so I think we are fine.
Fish Guy gave me a handout that told me how to tell if my fish are happy and healthy. Their fins are fanned out and some other stuff. He said to watch that. My fishes all seem happy, according to his handout.
Oh, and in re: the heater for Betta’s. I didn’t think my Betta needed one, but after the fact? When I set up the tank after Tuna died, I mentioned that to Fish Guy and he said that I was incorrect. That Betta’s DO need to be in a 76 degree environment. On the other hand, Tuna lived for 2 1/2 years without a heater. So I don’t know. Still, if you have a five gallon tank, you can buy a heater. And mine was fairly inexpensive. If you have a tank that is less than five gallons, you can’t buy a heater that will work predictably at all. All they have is a heater that doesn’t have a thermostat, as I understand it. There is one available, but it doesn’t work the same way and isn’t a good idea. Or so I was told.
That would explain the lethargy. Bettas are definitely warm water fish.
Also, they don’t like a lot of current in the water. They are pretty much designed for stagnant pools of warm water.
Well, I can turn my filter from “high” to “low” and will do so. I’ll also look into a heater; I wouldn’t want the little guy to be chilly, but this is already more money than I thought it would be.
Yeah, aquariums can be quite costly to set up. It all adds up.
If the room is pretty warm, you might not need a heater. There are stick on thermometers that you can get to show you what the water temperature is like. Above 70 degrees and you should be fine. If you need a heater, it will be a small one and shouldn’t cost a lot.
With the filter, just watch what he does. If you notice that he tends to lurk right at the bottom except when he comes up to breathe, there might be too much current. Bettas just aren’t good swimmers with those flowy fins, so he might try to find shelter from the current. Depending on your setup, you might be able to put the filter somewhere in the tank where it affects less of the surface, like toward a corner. Depending on the filter, also, you might be able to run it only part time, or be able to set up some baffles to keep the water more still. I’m definitely not a filter expert.
The best solution is probably an undergravel filter, but they seem to have fallen out of fashion.
How is he doing? Does he seem alert and perky? Is he eating?
He is kind of hanging out at the bottom, so I reached in and turned the filter from high to low – he did not appreciate that. (BIG WHITE HAND!!!) He does seem alert, though – y’know, for a fish. He is blue, BTW. Funny story about his name: I was coming home from the store with the fish yesterday, and I decided that whatever saint’s day it was, that would be what I named hiim. I’m thinking, Michael, Anthony, Timothy, George – you know. So I look it up at home and it was the feast day of . . .
Saint Hilary.
This presents some issues. First, Hilary is IMO mostly a girl’s name, and this is a boy fish. Second, everyone will assume I named him after Hilary R Clinton, either because I love her (no) or hate her (no). Third, I don’t like the name Hilary. But a resolution is a resolution so then I think (reading St. Hilary’s bio), hm, 4th century saint, probably has a Latin name. Yes, he does. And it is – Hilarius. Hilarious the fish? Still can’t do it. But Hilary was also from France, so I have settled on calling the fish St. Hilaire (roughly, “Sontilaire”), thereby qualifying him for the Most Pretentious. Fish Name. Evar.
If he dies I won’t know if it was poor tank conditions or the weight of his name.
lolz…
Before I moved to PA, I had come into a 50 gallon tank (for free) though I did have to replace the lid and such. And the filter. And the heater. And the air pump.
(sigh)
All in all, things turned out quite well. I liked it, though I never did manage to get any live plants growing. I had to sell it when I moved, and my friend immediately stocked it with a veritable plethora of fishes. She’s happy, and the few fish I sent with her (like my foot long pleco) are happy as well.
Now I have a dinky 10 gallon tank. I’m proving to my wife that I can keep a tank clean, and full of water, in hopes that she’ll let me get another big one. I’m thinking like a 30 gallon this time around… and I know more about planted tanks, so I might be able to get some ground cover going. That’s what I want, anyways.
You really want to try to get a betta’s tank up to around 78F. They’re a lot happier, healthier, and more active. I’ve got my guy in a three-gallon tank, and he seems to be pretty happy, even though he just moved into it today. I’ve succesfully used 25 watt heaters in a 2 1/2 gallon tank before, so I’m not worried about this one as long as I keep a close eye on everything.
I had a blue Betta named Gainsborough. He was a blue boy!
crickets
Obviously, I can’t make fun of other people’s fish names.