Ernie Has Moved Into His New Tank

Merry thanks for the info. Where do you put your Betta while you're doing a 80-100% water change? Also, do you adjust the pH down to 7 after water changes?

Well Ernie is in his new home. I took some pics, but for reason when I go to upload my photos on this site, I get an error saying that I did not select a file to upload (and I did). I'll try again later. Anyway, Ernie seems to be happy in his new tank, and is going around exploring everywhere. I wanted to put a small BN catfish in with him, but I couldn't catch one from my community tank. Those things are fast when they want to be. Oh well, I'll probably get one next time I go to the LFS. Thanks for your help everyone. I can't wait to show you a pic when I can get it to upload.

if you've got a little bowl or one of those dinky plastic 'tanks' that are really made for crickets, you can pop in there whilst you are doing a large water change, he will be happy as he won't be in there that long.

By adjust the ph to 7, how do you mean?

alessasavoca said:

if you've got a little bowl or one of those dinky plastic 'tanks' that are really made for crickets, you can pop in there whilst you are doing a large water change, he will be happy as he won't be in there that long.

Thanks, I'll do that.

By adjust the ph to 7, how do you mean?

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Usually the ideal pH for tropical fish is around 7. The pH of tap water is higher. With a big community tank, you test the pH, and if it is higher than 7 after a water change, you use a product like pH Down (a powder which I assume is acidic) to reduce the pH back down to 7. Don't you have to worry about that with Bettas?

i did exactly what Allessaevoca suggested, put them in little plastic tanks while i changed the water/washed the gravel in the main tanks, then just popped them back in their clean tanks.

re: pH, i no longer adjust my pH at all. ever. I have a tapwater pH of about 7.8 here, with medium hard water, and i used to go nuts trying to get pH 7, using huge amounts of pH Down, only to have the pH creep back up gradually anyway. I have come to the conclusion that this instability, coupled with the vast amounts of chemicals i was adding to the tank, were more harmful than having a steady (high) pH. The well-being of my fish (including bettas) increased after i stopped adjusting (although i didn't keep sotfwater, low pH loving fish like discus).
if i were you, if my pH was anywhere between 6-8, i would not adjust it at all. If your water is very soft or very hard, you will probably need to acclimate him slowly to the difference in pH, but if you have medium hardness you should be quite safe in just adding less and less pH adjuster each water change.

I never alter the ph either, as most fish will adapt to the ph of your local water and if you are altering it (which usually involves chemicals) all the time you are more likely to have ph fluctuations, which does more harm than good. My bettas have been fine in my local water, which is very hard and therefore has a high Ph. What's the ph of your local water?

Good advice Merry and Alessasavoca. I will test the pH of my water straight from the tap, and decide what to do. I will take Ernie out the tank so that if I have to fiddle with the pH for the first few times, I will have it how I want it by the time he's back in the tank.

Now if I can just make Ernie more tame like some other Bettas.....

By the way, my husband didn't completely freak out when he saw I had another fish tank. When I told him I'd only spent $24 on the tank, and $12 on the heater he was relieved it didn't cost more.

Just wanted to show people Ernie's new tank. He is so happy in there, he built a big bubble nest last night. He loves to swim in and out, and under the urn, around his plants, and even between the heater cord and the side wall. I'm so relieved that he's so happy. I forgot to get a thermometer for the new tank, so I ended up putting a mecury one for people in there until I can get back to the LFS again. Thanks for your help everyone.

That is a VERY attractive looking tank! He is a gorgeous little guy!! I love seeing bettas in nice big tanks like that, you know they are just thrilled about it after being shipped all over creation.

Thanks for the positive feedback on Ernie's tank. I'm going to change the plants a bit each week to keep life interesting for him. I'm hoping to gradually make him super tame. I love having him in my kitchen where I spend a LOT of time. I get to look at him, and he gets to check out what I'm doing as well, so it has worked out great.