I need some help with my Betta Fish...?

Question

Well I have 1 male Betta fish and I keep him in a pretty good sized Goldfish bowl by himself

I feed him those little ball pellet thingies...

The bowl has marbles for the bottom and one plastick grass looking thingie in the middle...

He seemed happy in the beggining but after I added the fake grass that is about 2 inches to the top of the bowl all he does is casualy lay in it...

He seems fine but very lazy only geeting up to swim around and poop and eat...

I have about a 80$ budget to spend on him and I want to get him a better environment....

What recomendations do you have?

What size tank?

What kind of gravel or marbles or what not for the bottom of the tank?

What kind of heater and filter if i need them?

what kind of grass or shells or plastic castles or what not should i put in there?

Also what should I do about his food?

How do i keep a larger tank clean?

I basically need 100% instructions on making my betta happy
with 80$ bucks to spend...

Answer 1

You;ll be glad to know it won't take anywhere near all of your buget to make you betta really happy. Just go grab one of the 2.5 gallon kits that are available at most any pet store or depatrmant store that sells fish and supplies. Add a heater and your guy will be set!

Decor is yretty well up to you. Any substrate on the bottom will do, as long as you keep it clean with a gravel siphon ( you can get that at the pet store when you get the tank) Plants etc are your choice as well, the only things I would caution you about it to only uses things made for freshwater aquariums and don't use any real shells, coral or the like.

The betta pellets you have are a great staple food for bettas. You might add in some frozen or freeeze dried blood worms every few days. Bettas love them and they are really good for him in moderation. Brine shrimp will work too.

Hope that helps and feel free to email me if I can help further.

MM

Answer 2

just to let you know iv tried it all. and it wont take $80. some people say that these fish would rather have shallow none filtered water. not true. mine have been happiest in a 55 gallon they swim everywhere. so get him about a five with a weaker filter and gravel. give him plants along the back wall and swimming room in the front. you could also throw in a few guppies or platys. don't say they will kill them either because mine (1 male 2 females. no females in such a small tank!) are in with 2 blue gourami, 2 high fin tetras, 2 platy, 2 balloon mollies, 3 guppies, 2 glass catfish and more!! you should try the balloons guppies or mollies. they add color and keep your tank about right as far as water conditions. hummm, you could get a heater but try one smaller than a 5 gallon (if you go wit the 5) and set it high with a thermometer. he will be one happy camper!! :P

Answer 3

With any fish, you want get as large an aquarium as your budget will allow (and $80 will not spend the same everywhere).
A 10 gallon would be a good start (although is not necessary)

*Pea sized gravel is very easy to clean and is what I would recommend.

*For a filter, a Sponge filter ( http://americanaquariumproducts.com/sponge_filtration.html ) is what would recommend for a betta, they are simple, efficient (depending on the brand), and do well with bettas in particular. Although a small HOB may do OK.

*An automatic heater is generally less expensive than true thermostatic heaters and should be fine for a betta. A temperature around 75-78 F will work well.

*Artificial plants are fine for a betta, however real plants will aid in nitrogenous waste removal. Java Ferns and Java moss are easy to grow in lower light aquariums. (I would read more about plants in the articles I referrence first)

*As for food you need a pelleted food soaked at least 5 minutes prior to feeding. This food should be low in ceral and primarily whole fish meal and other aquatic ingredients based such as Sanyu Betta Gold. A varied diet of coarse is good as well.

*Cleaning is best done with an aquarium vacuum. (again read more in the expanded artiles below under Aquarium Cleaning)

I recommend reading this article for more about freshwater (including Bettas) basics. There are a lot of sub articles here including plants and the importance of electrolytes;

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html

Answer 4

you dont might desire to purchase yet another tank purely flow to walmart or petsmart and purchase a gold fish bowl and he or she may be satisfied that way she would be in a position to consume and don't difficulty approximately gettin attacked! If a woman that wasn’t ripe, or waiting for spawning, might have entered a adult males tank, it’s conceivable that she might’ve been attacked, as non-ripe women are actually not tolerated in the location of the nest. via not fleeing, a woman shows her readiness to spawn. confident, some cases while you're actually not careful while attempting too breed bettas, the male will attack the female and he can injure the female, the girls are a lot smaller than the adult males. A Male and a woman: interior the wild, women sidestep adult males, different than for the time of mating. while cohabiting in tanks, adult males could kill women, and are frequently saved aside till (a) they are juvenile siblings, (b) they are breeding, (c) there's a partition, or (d) the tank is super sufficient for the female to flee attack. usually, till now breeding, breeders use this way of field to allow lady show with out risking harm via the male. 2 or greater women: Bettas are actually not education fish, yet in a brilliant tank with many hiding areas, lady bettas can cohabit. while 2 women proportion a tank, one oftentimes bullies the different, besides the incontrovertible fact that, 4 or greater women will set up a hierarchy permitting non violent co-life, nonetheless, women residing in community could be monitored for aggressive women.

Answer 5

As a basic rule, betas need a minimum of 8 liters. The gravel at the bottom is fine as is. I would recommend river gravel. look for a plant called elodea. it shouldn't be to expensive. make shure to secure the elodea to the bottom with gravel. if you can, you should by it a heater. it will help the fish if it has a backround to feel safe against.

that should do the trick. If not, send me an email. [e-mail]

Answer 6

I have a female betta in the 1gal listed below and another in the 2 gal pictured, both are really great and give plenty of space for them to play and be happy.
http://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Scene-Desktop-Aquariums-Gallon/dp/B0009YUI4A/ref=acc_glance_ktch_main_0_title/103-8582678-6916640?ie=UTF8&qid=1178571490&sr=8-8

http://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Scene-Desktop-Aquariums-Gallon/dp/B0009YSFMW/ref=sr_1_23/103-8582678-6916640?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1178572640&sr=1-23

you can buy gravel or pebbles that suit your needs as MM said a smallish siphon ($4) will be perfect for getting up the debris. Plants are good, males with larger finnage will tend to be sluggish, this is due to the difficulty in managing their fins. I have 2 males and the larger one is less active these days.

you NEED a thermometer, they're like $2 and small, they can stick on the outside of the tank to make sure the temps are constant. (75-85 F). you may not need a heater but you can find 7w heaters for around $8-$10. I have one, but due to the nice lighting in the kits, the water stays pretty steadily at 78F.

hope that helps. amazon is where I look for all my fish stuff before I buy it in the store. the feedback for the items can be amazingly helpful, good on you for doing research!

You also need, if you don't have already, water conditioner.
http://www.amazon.com/Top-Fin-Betta-Water-Conditioner/dp/B000JLU9YC/ref=sr_1_8/103-8582678-6916640?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1178572640&sr=1-8

this is to be used on fresh water before it's added to the tank.

Cleaning... this seems complicated but it's really simple.
if you get one of the kits i linked above, partial water changes once or twice a month will be fine. this can be done by turning off the bubbler and "cupping" or siphoning water out, up to 50%. for these changes, the fish doesn't need to be removed, but if removed will be a little less stressed in my opinion..
wipe the walls and rinse plants if needed with a clean paper towel to remove possible algea build up.
add fresh conditioned water that's as close to the same temp as possible back into the tank, start bubbler back up add fish and there you have a clean tank, you can do partial water changes as frequently as you feel nessesary.

the food is fine, I mix the diets for my bettas up every so often with freeze dried blood worms or frozen tubifex worms.

Answer 7

it shouldnt take much $$ to make him happy. just buy him a larger bowl and maybe a friend
he may just be mellow