my eight year old has a beta in a fish bowl with some gravel on the bottom. Water gets changed maybe once a week. Can you put a snail in with a beta or something that would clean the gravel that the beta wouldn't attack?
2006-06-23 02:13:31 · 11 answers · asked by snoopy22564 4 in Pets ➔ Fish
Yes.... we have an beta that we just moved from a bowl to an aquarium you can put snails at the bottom to clean the bowel. You do however have to put Waffer tablets in about every other day so that the snail gets enough of what he needs. As long as you dont put other aggressive fish with the beta he will be fine.
2006-06-23 02:17:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Most bettas don't have an issue with snails. That said some don't like snails or in the case of one of my bettas don't certain colors of snails. The basic problem is adding more creatures to the bowl doesn't make it any cleaner. You are putting the same amount of food in the water which is causing the waste. A snail might make it look cleaner, but doesn't change the total amount of ammonia and other food byproducts.
What you need to do is reduce the amount of food the betta is getting. The betta only needs to be fed once a day, and only very small amounts. If there is food left after a few minutes on the surface, or on the bottom. You are over feeding your betta. I know it seems like he is starving hungry, but your betta will happy eat himself to death if you let him. Check out the photos on the bettatalk link which show you what a healthy betta's stomach looks like. (The bettatalk women's bettas are spoil from birth when it comes to food so take her rants about flakes and pellets with a grain of salt.) Also a pellet or flake that doesn't sink allows you to remove excess food.
Even with all this you are going to need to clean a bowl once a week. The other method to reduce the amount of time and effort cleaning. Is to shell out for a 2.5-5 gallon tank with a filter. (Eclipse makes a nice one with an integrated bio-wheel filter.) With one of these you can use a cheap plastic gravel vacuum, and a bucket once a week. Cleaning 2 betta tank takes me maybe 4 minutes once a week. Then once a month use the gravel vacuum to change 75% of the water.
2006-06-23 14:03:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
First, snails only green algae on the gravel, not the waste produced by the betta. Second, because betta is a slow swimming fish, l wouldn't recommend medium to big snails because they'll grasp on the betta's slime coat. In my experience, I wouldn't use a snail in a fish BOWL, because it's too small to provide enough algae for the snail, especially during water change. But if you want something to clean the food waste and some algae, I suggest ghost shrimps or very small snail (difficult to keep alive when water is changed constantly)
2006-06-23 03:59:05 · answer #3 · answered by ngotuan13491nguyengiathieu02 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You didn't say how large the bowl was but it doesn't sound like it's large. Either way one snail would be fine.
Be careful not to overfeed any fish. It's the excess food that rots and spoils the water. Feed only what the fish will eat in 5 minutes. Don't worry about food for the snail, he'll find enough! :)
2006-06-23 02:19:28 · answer #4 · answered by Sparky 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have never seen anyone successfully keep any other critter with a betta (especially in a bowl) and have it live more than 2-3 days. Best bet is to just keep up the water changes often. I keep my betta in a bowl with growing plant cuttings to use up the fish wastes. The waste makes the plants grow and the plants give the betta oxygen. You end up with a healthy fish and a house full of plants.
2006-06-23 02:24:13 · answer #5 · answered by tw 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had a snail with a beta and it nipped at it but never hurt it.
We also had another tank with guppies and we would catch the baby guppies and put them in with the beta. He would stalk them and hunt them down and then eat them. He loved it and he lived a long, healthy, and happy life. I believe it was the best food for him! Also a good lesson for kids to learn about the laws of nature.
2006-06-23 02:19:06 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your problem is overfeeding or you have the bowl near sunlight. Only feed the fish a few small flakes every other day (or daily if you make sure it is only a flake or two) and keep the bowl away from the sunlight (like near a window.) Sun makes algae grow. Overfeeding makes the food settle in the gravel.
I've had bettas all my life and have one at my desk at work. I only have to change water once a month.
2006-06-23 06:22:03 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes you can put a cleaning fish in with it but i think the betas eat the snails and you would have over populated bowl with snails.
2006-06-23 03:13:03 · answer #8 · answered by red_neck_linda 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Adding another animal will not help keep it clean. Just like every other living animal snails go to the bathroom and will just make it dirtier and you will have to clean it even more. Just remove the gravel and you can use a clean turkey baster to suck up the poo and uneaten food between water changes.
2006-06-23 07:56:00 · answer #9 · answered by Nunya Biznis 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if the bowl is at least 1-2 gallons.
get a small apple snail - they are really cute http://www.applesnail.net
2006-06-26 22:42:15 · answer #10 · answered by � Fuzzy Dice 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋