Best set up for a betta fish?

Question

I am interested in getting a male betta for my home. As I live in a cooler house (68 degrees...sometimes 66!) I was thinking a small 1 or 2 gallon tank with a little heater? I know bettas do not like cool water. Also, what are some other types of fish that are compatible with a male betta? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

the ideal for a sigle male betta (no tank mates except for a mystery snail or fan shrimp) would be a 5gallon tank with a low power filter, a 25watt heater, and a few reall or silk plants.

a 2.5 gallon tank is really the smallest you should put a betta in happily. a heater is needed for a healthy bettas and a filter is helpful and makes your job easier. you won't have to clean the tank every 3 days plus you won't be getting rid of beneficial bacteria. you'll still need a few plants but you shouldn't have anything in with him in anything under 5 gallons besides a mystery snail.

if you'd like other fish in with him you shouldn't have anytihng smaller than a 10gallon tank that is heavily planted. tetras and danios can work with bettas, but both are known to be fin nippers and may pick on bettas. I instead would suggest mollies or platies. no more than 4 or 5 in a 10gallon with a male betta.

I'd be glad to help if you'd like more information or tnak suggestions

*edit for "the king of bettas"
bettas are TROPICAL fish. I don't know where you are getting your information but if you do any amount of research you'd know you're completely wrong aobut almost everything besides the bloodworms, but even that partially because they will give your betta constipation and are best only used as a treat or at least alternated with betta food. while blood worms are what they eat int he wild captive bettas are far from their wild ancestors.

*edit*
"One advantage to a pad is it is easier since you don't have to shut it iff and take it out of the tank for your complete water changes (which is the type you should be doing on a tank that small). It also doesn't take up space in your tank and have a wire sticking out of the top of the tank."

full water changes are VERY stressful on fish, they should be kept to a minimum. instead, you should use a syphon and suck the water from the bottom to remove the waste. remove 1/4 of the water this way every 3 days (that is an estimate, you should monitor your levels of ammonia and such yourself to see when you need to) and only do full water changes once or twice a month, max.

as for mystery snails, all of the tank set up I suggested included filters, and as long as there is a filter a mystery snail is a completely fine tank mate for a 2.5 gallon tank or bigger.

"Mollies grow to as much as 4 inches, so you wouldn't want more than 2. Mollies are also brackish fish. Tho they are very adaptable and tend to do well in fresh water, if you want to treat them right, you will give them a brackish tank."

there are mollies that grow to be about 2 - 2.5 inches. bettas are very tolerant of water many water conditions which makes them excelent tank mates for mollies.

"Platies grow to about 2 inches, but are a bit fat. You could do 4 or 5 WITHOUT the betta, but not that many WITH one."

not true, with a proper filter this is completely fine if you go with smaller varieties.

Answer 2

Betta don't really like small tanks, and bowls. The ideal setup would be a heated, and filtered 5 gallon tank. (2.5 gallon tanks work well, but require more frequent cleaning.) That said betta can live in a small bowl/tank, but you'll need a 100% water chane every 4-7 days. Note that using the rule of thumb for slim bodied fish you can only keep 1 inch of fish per gallon. So a 2 gallon tank with a single betta is already "full".

They are best without tank mates. I've had bettas in large community tanks, and honestly they generally got picked on rather than attacked other fish. (My longest lived bettas lived alone. ) In a small tank (5 gallons, or less) they tend to be rather aggressive as the whole tank is their territory. Of course aggressive varies from betta to betta. Lastly realize that male betta can't live with betta of either sex. (Females will fight, but can often work things out if given enough space. 5-10 gallons per female.)

Answer 3

I know you're going to get a lot of answers about a cup/small bowl for them,but really they should have at least a 5 gallon filtered aquarium. It's easier to care for, with the filter, you'll only need to do small weekly water changes as opposed to one every other day. I found a really good article on bettas, regarding keeping them in small containers and such, and they have a lot of good points. Plus, I don't think they make a heater for anything less then a 5 gallon, and yes you do want it heated.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/bettacar1/l/blqa2061.htm

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/minitank.htm

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/betta.htm

As far as other fish, for a 1 or 2 gallon & no filter, you won't be able to put any other fish in there. Even the 5 gallon, you could get a few, but not many. Most tropical/community fish will go ok with bettas, just stay away from obviously other bettas, gouramis(too large for a small tank anyway), or anything with a colorful fancy fantail-like guppies. They may think it's competing with them and kill/attack it.

EDIT: Wow everyone's so far said a 5 gallon, I can't believe it lol...Also too, when you buy a heater, don't get one of those preset cheapo ones. You'll want to spend the few extra dollars and get one that you can adjust the temperature on yourself. Most disease treatments will call for raising the temp a few degrees.

Answer 4

you can get a 2 1/2 gallon and heat that. my house never goes under 70 (i live in fla) and the 15 watt bulb on a 2 1/2 gallon tank more than compensates for no heater. i have bettas in 2 1/2 gallons everywhere -- and they are happy bettas. they really aren't compatable with anything and nothing else likes living in 2 1/2 gallons anyway. try your hand and growing some java moss or java fern or any of the anubias to fill in the spaces. you tie them to rocks or driftwood and drop them in and you are done. i find bettas love fake plants with large leaves to hang out on around and under. some like having little hang outs too so decorations they can rest in are good. most of mine have small real plants and then a couple medim sized (8 inches) artificial plants they can play in. usually 2 or 3 of these will fill up a 2 1/2 gallon tank easily.

Answer 5

Wow, that's a cold house! :) Yep, room temp is definitely too cold for a betta. Water temp is always around 10F lower than air temp in the room, also.

A 1-2 gallon is still a little tight, and with a heater you run a risk of overheating because those teeny heaters are pretty crummy. Can you go up to about 5 gallons? 5 is really perfect for a betta. You can typically find a nice 5 gallon tank that has a filter built into the lid. Those are great, keeps the water crystal clear (you'd still have to do weekly 20% water changes). Then you could actually get a decent heater. And, they usually gone with compact fluorescent bulbs (or you can just buy one) so you could put some live plants in there; makes mr. betta happy and always looks really nice.

In anything less than 8 gallons, you don't really have room for other fish. In 5 gallons, you could get a couple ghost shrimp or an african dwarf frog. if you went to 8-10 gallons you could go with a couple cherry barbs or white cloud minnows.

Answer 6

betta's prefer shallow small tanks. 2-2 1/2 gallon tanks and the water should be about 74-76 degrees. they are native to malaysia and a couple other spots only. if you want to breed them though there is a totally different process. feel free to hit me up, i've been doing fish for a long time.

Answer 7

For a tank that small, I use a heating pad. Tho these days it can be quite a challenge to find one that doesn't have an auto shut-off.
I'd be really careful using anything else, and regardless of what you do, get a thermometer for the tank and monitor it at least twice a day.

One advantage to a pad is it is easier since you don't have to shut it iff and take it out of the tank for your complete water changes (which is the type you should be doing on a tank that small). It also doesn't take up space in your tank and have a wire sticking out of the top of the tank.

As to compatible tankmates, NO fish is compatible with a betta in a tank that small. Two gallons really isn't even enough space for a betta to begin with. If you refer to the baseline rule generally used for fish, which is an inch per gallon, and consider that bettas grow to 3 inches, you really should give the animal a minimum of 3 gallons. These fish deserve to have the same amount of space in which to swim around as you would give any other fish.
I call that a BASELINE rule, because it is where you START when you are figuring out how a big tank a fish needs. You then must consider the activity level, traits like aggression and territorialism, and how big AROUND the fish is (for example, goldfish are FAT, and fat equals MESSY).

Anyway, altho a betta can SURVIVE in 1 or 2 gallons, it really is less than the minimal amount of room, and so he should not have any tankmates.

"there is no need to go tropical with the water of them either."

Of course there is. They are TROPICAL fish. 78 to 82 degrees is what they live in. Anything less andyou are unnecessarily stressing your fish, and making him susceptible to disease.

"you shouldn't have anything in with him in anything under 5 gallons besides a mystery snail."

I wouldn't recommend a snail. They are real poopers and dirtyy the tank very quickly.

"if you'd like other fish in with him you shouldn't have anytihng smaller than a 10gallon tank that is heavily planted. tetras and danios can work with bettas, but both are known to be fin nippers and may pick on bettas. I instead would suggest mollies or platies. no more than 4 or 5 in a 10gallon with a male betta."

Mollies grow to as much as 4 inches, so you wouldn't want more than 2. Mollies are also brackish fish. Tho they are very adaptable and tend to do well in fresh water, if you want to treat them right, you will give them a brackish tank.

Platies grow to about 2 inches, but are a bit fat. You could do 4 or 5 WITHOUT the betta, but not that many WITH one.

As to tetras and danios, I find that many bettas can't stand fish that zoom around like danios do. I had a betta that ripped the tail completely off a danio.
And as to tetras, you will want to be willing to house the betta separately or take the tetras back. Bettas are very much individuals, and some will tolerate open water swimmers, but most will either get aggressive or get stressed.
An aggressive betta will generally show banding (veritcal stripes in his coloring), and a stressed one will show striping (horizontal stripes in his coloring). Neither is something you want to see on your betta consistently, as it both types of stress will make him susceptible to disease.

Answer 8

I am the King of Betta Fish.

Well.....I found out that they do not get along wiht almost any fish. Not do they like really cool water, but there is no need to go tropical with the water of them either.

Just make sure they have lots of little things to swim around and in, and make sure they have lots of blood worms to smack on.

They have a pretty good lifespan.