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.
