# new betta owner, few questions



## LS70 (Jun 3, 2006)

hi, just got my betta a few hours ago its the only fish in the 10g tank for now, neon tetras coming in a week or 2, 

so far, maybe its cause they are in small cups and this is much bigger for them, but when it stops swimming, it either shoots up to the top, or across the tank??? does my filter really produce such a strong current? the betta swim by the intake and doesn't get sucked in or anything, its just a standard 1 intake filter that comes with the tank but it looks like the fish has trouble just floating in 1 spot

also, how often do i feed him? and so far i just have the tropical fish food. 

should i turn the filter off at night? i still have an air pump going though,


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2006)

Have you cycled the tank first? If not I'd remove the filter and just use the airpump as if you use a filter it will cause the tank to cycle with the fish in it which hurts the fish. Did you treat the water with dechlor? Read the articles in this link, it should help http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_care.htm BTW neon tetras aren't compatible with betta's as if they are small enough the betta will eat them and they will nip his fins. I'd suggest cory catfish and you could try rasbora's but if they don't get along return the rasbora's. Is it a male or female betta?


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## violet (Mar 17, 2006)

It is very common for bettas which are used to being in a little cup to kind of freak out when given so much space. If plants/decorations are sparse there may not be a whole lot dispupting the flow. If the water level isn't all the way up to the water return, where it spills back out, this causes more circulation. You can raise the water level but even draping some floss out of the filter and into the water will slow down the current a little. Some filters have a way to adjust the flow, if so you can turn that down.

But I have never gotten a male betta who hasn't been rather surprised to have room to swim and actual current even if it is very minor. Putting the filter as far to one side or the other as possible and puttng in more decorations to interrupt the flow should cause one or two spots with almost no current. Your fish will find those spots after exploring



> Have you cycled the tank first? If not I'd remove the filter and just use the airpump as if you use a filter it will cause the tank to cycle with the fish in it which hurts the fish.


No. Fish waste will create ammonia whether there is a filter or an airstone or nothing. Having a filter will allow the very beginnings of colonies of beneficial bacteria to form (very slowly). A single betta in 10G of water will dilute the waste much more than if the fish was in one of those tiny 1G or 2G gallon tanks.

With no filter the bacteria will never have a place to begin to colonate and the only *cycle* you will have is repeatedly doing 100% water changes a couple of times a week. Clean water which will have more and more ammonia accumulate, then fresh water again with ammonia accumulating until the next water change. Over and over.

A running filter should not be turned off more than a couple/few hours UNLESS you are going to rinse the filter media before restarting it. What happens is the any beneficial bacteria which live in there (a good thing) will use up the available oxygen with no water circulation. With no oxygen the good bacteria begin to die and anaerobic bacteria start to grow. Anaerobic bacteria cause a hydrogen sulfide stink, much like rotten eggs. It won't get too bad overnight but if you have a filter you should leave it on all the time, not turn it on and off for day and night.

Good luck with your new fish!  

violet


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## Ringo (Apr 10, 2006)

LS70 said:


> hi, just got my betta a few hours ago its the only fish in the 10g tank for now, neon tetras coming in a week or 2,
> 
> also, how often do i feed him? and so far i just have the tropical fish food.


The neon tetras if they are small enough will get eaten, but i dont believe there bad fin nippers, just better off with not taken a chance.
there are quite a few fish that are compatible with bettas, like liverbearers, a few barbs, and some tetras.
And i am pretty sure that neons are a dyed fish, which should try to be avoided.


And there are tons of food that you can feed your betta (when it comes to feeding fish foods, i like to give my fish a big variety) you can feed them, earth worms, lettuce, cucumbers, shelled peas, zuchninni, broccoli, carrots, and red meat, and beef heart (trimmed of fat) and of course a large variety of fish foods.
i always try and get another type of food whenever i go to the store, the fish seem happier that way.

i feed my fish 2 small meals a day, one at night and one in the morning.
and i add one or 2 broken in half algea wafers for my mollies, cause they need green in there diet


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## LS70 (Jun 3, 2006)

yeah the water level is about an inch below the black trim of the tank, (on the outside) so i do have to fill it up, making a skirt for the pump is a good idea, but you hvae to have it dump the water a little further from the intake otherwise it just sucks the filtered water

havent seen the fish really eat yet, it kinda swims around, but then just plops in the front corner now and then, like its resting or something, thats the corner furthest away from the pump.


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## leafgirl115 (Mar 26, 2006)

Dont wory about the filter filtering the filtered water(lol) Enough curent will allow most of it to escape the intake.


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## violet (Mar 17, 2006)

Neons are not a dyed fish. Although on the small side, they are pretty quick. If you got a fairly young betta he is probably not full grown and may have a hard time getting his mouth around a neon. I have some big old male bettas which could probably eat a small neon, IF they could catch it.

If that is a concern but you like the look of a neon, the cardinal tetra is similar, bigger and IME a bit hardier.

Some bettas are real pigs. They will eat to the point that the belly is very distended. They may put on a big show to convince you that without food NOW they will certainly die in minutes. Big fakers. You may want to pick up a small package of betta pellets. If 2 sizes of pellets are availbale, I would get the smaller one. Some pellets are a little on the large size for younger fish. No way to know what the fish is used to eating. I have had many which do not recognize flake food as food at all. They look for small pellets and nothing else.

It's a good idea to get your betta used to eating cooked peeled peas. If the fish becomes bloated/constipated eating cooked peas can help.

I wouldn't worry about him just hanging out in a corner. Yet. It's just been one day. He still hasn't caught on to the idea of SPACE yet. I've got a LOT of bettas and each develops it's own favorite hang out. One lives in a cave. One floats in the front right corner. One just swims back and forth all day. One lives in a plant. One lays in floating watersprite all the time.

violet


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## LS70 (Jun 3, 2006)

cool, thx, i guess i gotta go out and buy some betta food, 

its spitting out the tetra tropical food, not sure if it eats it after, it chases the little pieces down to the bottom after spitting them out  

i turn the filter off during feedings, the fish seems to float around much easier with the filter off doesn't look like it gets tossed around


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2006)

fish sometimes take in food and then spit it out in order to break it up into smaller pieces.


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## violet (Mar 17, 2006)

Good idea turning the filter off for feeding.

I feed my piggy fish (angelfish, guppies etc) flakes because I know they will hunt down each and every flake. With little betta pellets if you put in 2 and both disappear you know the fish really ate them.

violet


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2006)

I personally would have to see a betta eat a neon to believe it. My betta's mouth isn't big enough to eat a neon. Maybe some type of fry, but not a neon. The betta may chase them though. Mine did when I first added neons to the tank.

I have Harlequin rasboras in the 10g with my betta now. They are very quick and very pretty. I highly recommend them. If you are at all afraid of the betta eating neons, go with Harlies....they are quick. My neons hid alot when I had them with the betta. I think he intimidated them. But the Harlies are out all the time.

I only feed my fish once a day...maybe once every other day. I tend to overfeed (feed too much at one time), so this helps my nitrates to stay in check. Its up to you how often to feed. I wouldn't feed more than twice a day though. Since he's the only fish, only feed a little bit at a time.

Oh and if the filter is pretty strong, I'd get rid of the airpump. Having both is probably too strong for him.

The tank will cycle with him in it. It shouldn't be too harsh for him, since he's the only fish. I'd get a test kit that has tests for nitrAtes, nitrItes, and ammonia before adding anymore fish. That way you can tell where the cycle is. Try not to overfeed, so that the ammonia level won't get too high. I'd only feed once a day.


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## LS70 (Jun 3, 2006)

got my neons in, i bought 5, but 1 died within a few minutes 

my betta is kinda curious, when the neons split up, it follows one around and tries to nip it, but when together the betta stays away. 

i was told neons are really sensitive to new tanks, 

are Harlequin Rasbora as sensitive? saw some at petsmart, really nice, and just as small as teh neons, i've only had this for about a month now, seems kinda small lol, looking at maybe 20g-30g tanks if everything goes well with these fish, 


also, still havent done a partial water change, should get started with one? should i put water aside and treat it, or can i just put new water into the tank and treat it with fish in their?


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Neons are very sensitive period. They die for no apparent reason (as do Cardinal tetras) and are highly susseptible to Neon Tetra disease.

Harlequins are a bit more hardy, yes. They get to be slightly larger than the neons but not by much, still under 2". (Something to keep in mind for the future, though, is that the size you see at the petstore isn't the size that fish will remain. Most fish sold in pet stores are babies, juveniles at most, and many of them will get a whole lot bigger. Bala sharks, for instance, are usually sold when they are just a couple of inches long, at most. And yet they grow to be over a foot long!)


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2006)

Harlequins are alot hardier than neons. They are also faster. My betta doesn't bother his harlie tankmates. They stay together and he pretty much ignores them.

When I had a male betta and neons housed together, I found that the neons were very scared. Maybe I have some bad neons or something. They were intimidated by the betta. I'd up the number to 6 or 8 if you can, to make sure the betta doesn't mess with them.

Are you checking the water for ammonia, nitrItes, and nitrAtes? I can't tell if the tank was cycled before you added the neons or not. I wouldn't let the ammonia get over 1ppm if you haven't cycled. Do small water changes if it does. You can treat the water in the tank. If you use buckets for your water changes, you can add the dechlor to the bucket of water and just pour it in. I use a python, so I add the dechlor to the tank. Neons are sensitive and may or may not all make it through the cycle. When my neons were in my 10g I developed a mini-cycle and had 2-3ppm of ammonia and didn't lose a single neon...but they were only exposed to that much ammonia for a couple days. Check the water every day.


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## LS70 (Jun 3, 2006)

i thought of getting a 5in1 test kit that has all those tests including amonia, but everyone i know that has it, just tells to not bother getting it, even the people at the pet store say not to bother lol, and thats at big als and petsmart, 

everyone has just said to do the regular water changes and i will be fine, and if things start happening to bring a water sample to the store and they will tell me what the problem is. 
if i get end up getting a 20g tank then yes, i will get a test kit, more fish, more money, better way of making sure they are health. 

the neons do seem a little scared of the betta, i will want to get maybe a total of 6-8 neons, or just 5 and 5 for neons and rasboros, but then i would need to do the partial water changes every week probably which is fine.


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## Nippyfish (Apr 25, 2006)

LS70 said:


> everyone has just said to do the regular water changes and i will be fine, and if things start happening to bring a water sample to the store and they will tell me what the problem is.


The _"things"_ they're referring to are your fish dying. It totally frustrates me that they would tell you not to bother with test kits, especially while you're cycling. The cycling process is very dangerous for fish and requires great vigilance and daily monitoring. The kits will tell you where you are in the cycle, alert you when toxins are reaching critical levels and you need a partial water change and will continue to be your first defense against disease long after your cycle is complete.


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## Nippyfish (Apr 25, 2006)

JustOneMore20 said:


> I personally would have to see a betta eat a neon to believe it.


Ok, it's not a neon but it's still funny...


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## LS70 (Jun 3, 2006)

well one more neon down 
im doing a partial water change tomorrow, 

this one was pretty healthy all day, but stayed apart from his buddies at times, but just not long ago started to loose that red color on their belly and is slowly doing the same as the 1st neon that died 

good thing i have 14 days warranty, 

but the betta can really pick up on them dieing, it actually starts nipping the dieing neon 

guess a test kit will be needed


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## sollie7 (Feb 25, 2007)

you need to buy some Hikiari bio gold betta food and feed him three pieces 2 times a day.


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

I would go with 5 small cories. I have 5 panda cories in with my Betta (along with a few other fish but they are in a 20gal long so enough room to get away). A big issue that seems to be getting missed here is that your Betta will probable get along better with other fish, that other fish will get along with him. Many fish are fin nippers, and they see the Bettas nice long pretty tale and will start to nip his fins (ouch). So you may want to now start to stay away from the pet stores and get some advice from a "real" fish store. They can advice on who might get along best with your Betta. The cories are farely active fish with a "cute" face, and with them you are pretty much guranteed no issues between tankmates. Also I do a 20% water change every other day in my 10gal. I don't mean to sound rude, as I made a couple petsore buys that only 1 of the 6 fish buys from Petco are still in my tanks. Everyone else eventualy got taken back, or donated to my local fish store.


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## (RC) (Jan 18, 2005)

and once again a 6 month old thread...



RC


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