New Betta Tank Set-Up?

Question

Well, after my Male Betta passed away two monthes ago, I've decided to get 3 female bettas to keep in my 10 gallon tank. Are water surface skimmers good for them? They take out oily, organic film and scum from the surface. And are heaters and filters good? I saw this filter that includes an oxy surface skimmer in a magazine. It seems perfect but I'm not 100% sure... Do you think my betta's would like it? There three-level intake system extracts water from the surface, middle, and bottom for complete aquarium filtration.

And what water conditioner would you recommend for betta's? Would Stress Coat work? If so, can it mix with a product made from Tetra called "Blackwater Extract" or should I just put a little bit of Aquarium salt mixed with Stress Coat?


Has anyone tried Atison's Betta Food?
Or Hikari Betta Bio-Gold?
Any recomendations for PET betta foods? I'm not gonna show them.

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you saw in the magazine add, but I recently purchased this for a catfish tank where I was getting the same organic film: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/10591/product.web

I was sort of leery of them when I first saw these advertised, but I saw one at a discount pet store near me and decided to give it a try. They actually do work, but it takes a while to get them adjusted so the flow from the top is correct. I haven't tried it with a betta tank, and the only problem I could see is that the food would have to be places somewhere on the opposite side of the tank so they didn't go through the overflow.

Once nice thing that I liked about this model is that the upper part that strains the water floats, so it adjusts itself to account for evaporation and topping off - that's more than the protein skimmer I have for my saltwater tanks will do!

As far as water conditioner, that will have to depend on your water chemistry if you use tap water. Call your water company's office to find out if they use chlorine or chloramine to treat your water. If they use chloramine, make sure you find a product that specifies that it REMOVES chloramine, not "breaks the chloramine bond". If it's the second, it destroys chloramine, but releases chlorine and ammonia into the tank - either of these can kill a fish! If what they use is chlorine, any product that says it removes chlorine will do. Some products will remove both, but the dosing is different, so you really do need to know which is used.

A good betta pellet is the best staple food. I've been using Omega One betta pellets and my fish seem to like them. I also replace some of their meals with frozen bloodworms, and frozen daphnia, and sometimes give them live mosquito larvae (I have a clean water source where I can collect them). The more variety you can give them, the better the nutritional balance of vitamins and minerals. I even give them a pinch of a cooked pea with the skin removed one meal a week for fiber to prevent constipation, to which bettas are prone.

Here's a very good website with more info on bettas and food, housing, breeding, etc.: http://www.bettatalk.com/

Answer 2

Girls can be just as fiesty as boys, so be careful. I find that bettas really have their own personalities. The only betta I have now is in a MiniBow 2.5, and he loves it. The betta in the MiniBow before him HATED it. He hung around in one corner with his fins clumped. Some bettas like big containers and some like small. Three girls is a good number. Bestfish.com suggests the following, if you're interested in tank mates:

Platies, mollies, some of the slower tetras (neons, cardinals, rummy nose), cherry barbs and cory cats are likely tankmates, as are angelfish in larger aquariums.

For conditioners, I swear by BettaZing. You can buy it from bettatalk.com. It's the best stuff out there, in my opinion, especially since BettaMax went off of the market. For food, I also swear by Hikari Betta Bio-Gold, with a couple of bloodworms now and then as a treat. (One betta I had GOBBLED sea-monkeys like it was his job.) Get the big bag; it goes a long way. :)

Answer 3

Beta's are simple fish. For starters, they are not saltwater fish. They are freshwater fish. You don't have to invest a lot into these types of fish, and they are almost impossible to kill if you follow a few simple directions. Having some type of filter is okay, but you don't have to overdo it. They don't expel a lot of waste and don't eat a lot.

Yes, you should get some kind of stress coat, and treat their water, especially if you are using tap water. Just a few drops is fine.

If you are not going to show the fish, then any kind of betta mix food is good. They are some very pretty fish. I think that the male is prettier than the female, but since the males are so aggressive, they are not good with too many other fish.

Answer 4

Hikari Betta Bio-Gold is a very good pellet to feed your bettas. I feed it to mine and they love it. It is probably the best pelleted food (for pet bettas) out there. They would definitely like a few bloodworms or brine shrimp every once and a while. You can either buy the frozen kind (easiest) or you can buy live (I have heard that is messy and gross) You could feed dried bloodworms, but I doubt that the bettas would like that near as much as frozen.

Answer 5

ok properly there are a number of stable solutions (different than for lissa). i observed that lots of folk did not point out that they want warmers. Bettas ought to have around 80 levels F water. As somebody suggested, with the filter out, verify you placed it on the backside putting. additionally, on no account mixture female and male bettas. stable success!

Answer 6

Yep that sounds good to do