Filter suction

Hi everyone, not sure if this is the right place for it but I have recently cycled my tank and bought a crown tail betta today. I have owned 1 betta in the past when I was a bit clueless with regards to aquariums. The previous betta was sucked up the filter and got damaged fins and eventually died due to severe fin rot. Last time I fixed this by using an elastic band with some plasticky type material so that small bits of food could pass through while my fish could not. With the new betta I have just cut some small filter media and put it in the intake hole but I am worried larger bits will not pass through and I can already see there is less water flow through the filter. What is the best solution for this? Thanks.

How strong is the current and how much are you feeding him and what are you feeding him?

Can you please post a photo of the tank and filter? This will help us give you right advice, all you may need is a small prefilter sponge.

The previous betta was sucked up the filter and got damaged fins and eventually died due to severe fin rot

Click to expand...

Hmm finrot is normally easily fixed with lots of clean warm water.

How big is your tank?
How did you cycle it?
Do you have a heater? What is the water temp ?
What water conditioner do you use.
What do you feed? Pellets or flakes?
How much do you feed?
How often do you change water?

Please dont think I am being rude by asking all this just trying to help

NickAu said:

How strong is the current and how much are you feeding him and what are you feeding him?

Can you please post a photo of the tank and filter? This will help us give you right advice, all you may need is a small prefilter sponge.


Hmm finrot is normally easily fixed with lots of clean warm water.

How big is your tank?
How did you cycle it?
Do you have a heater? What is the water temp ?
What water conditioner do you use.
What do you feed? Pellets or flakes?
How much do you feed?
How often do you change water?

Please dont think I am being rude by asking all this just trying to help

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for the reply I have attached a picture of the tank. It is about 3.5 gallons, I am feeding him 'Nutrafin Max' which is specific betta food, I also have just normal tropical fish flakes I could feed him. I feed him a small pinch once a day. I have cycled the tank and I did so using the tropical fish flakes. After cycling I did a 50% water change syphoning any left over food on the subrate and replaced the water, and conditioned the new water of course. I have a heater set at 26 deg Celsius. The water conditioner is just API brand tap water conditioner the food is also a mixture of flakes and what looks like to be tiny dried worms. I plan to do a 20% water change every week. Hope this is all the info you need.