Betta Bubblenests And Tank Decor And General Well Being

[jayjay]

my betta, who i've had since saturday, has nicely settled in. in his new tank.

one thing i want to ask first offf is do they normally build bubblenests straight away?

i've kept betta's before but this is only my 2nd male all the others have been females.

my betta has attempted building a bubblenest but all he did was blow a few bubbles all over the place didn't really make a nest and the bubbles popped.

he's on his own in a 3g tank with some silk plants, gravel, a few pebbles and a bit of plastic plant floating. is that o.k decor for him?

he's got a sponge filter that i made following a thred int he DIY section. his tank is lit but doesn't have a heater as the room is a steady 72 f. is this also o.k?

he's fed twice a day once in the morning with 2 pellets and then in the evening with bloodworm (5 worms) or brineshrimp (5 shrimp) or flake ( some people say they don't like it but mine eats it) or pellets again. as that is all i've fed him up till now i'll tell you what else he'll have one day a week he won't have anything and on one day as reccommended by people i will feed him a pea ( i know how to prepare them as i feed them to my chiclids in the main tank)

so overall his meals are as follows
2 pellets every morning(excpet day when he's not fed at all)
and either bloodworm, brineshrimp, flake, pellets, quater of a pea in the evening
and one day a week he's not going to be fed.

is his diet o.k? and how could it be improved?

sorry for all the questions

cheers for all help i get in advance

 

[fuman_chica]

The bubblenesting is fine. mine hasn't figured out how to get them together yet either, and I got him eight days ago. And it took him about four days to even do any at all.

The decor sounds fine, except the plastic plant. Plastic plants can tear betta fins. The silk ones are fine.

I would try to keep the tempature at at least 75°F. They seem to do better when that is the minimum. I wouldn't go above 80°F though because if you need to raise the tempature for any reason (to get rid of ich or anything like that) you won't have much room to go up.

I don't have a filter in any of my betta tanks, but it is fine to have one. Just make sure it doesn't have much current. It is hard for bettas to swim with currents because of their heavy fins.

I think you are feeding it too much bloodworms, Brine shrimp, etc...I give mine about 5-8 pellets of food in the morning and then about the same at night. I haven't gotten any bloodworms yet. But I was told that you shouldn't give them more than two a day because it makes them constipated/bloated. So, I would cut back ALOT if I was you. I'm sure someone who feeds theirs bloodworms and other stuff could tell you more than I can on that.

Good luck!

 

[jayjay]

cheers for your input.

 

[Neal]

I used to put a whole packet of bloodworms in my bettas tank and he ate them when he liked, he ate like 50 over 3-4 days, that was before I knew how much to feed him, but it was to late by then, he died from old age.

Neal

 

[loohoo313]

I asked the same questions about feeding and have been told to definately not give in to their fishful begging. ILM reminded me that their stomachs are only the size of their eye. I was definately guilty of overfeeding. I have a friend who keeps a beautiful tank with many fish and he warned me about the overfeeding because it may cause more waste in the water too. More waste, more bacteria. I'm a newbie, but it's a valuable lesson I've learned. Mine blows a substantial bubblenest. He gets in a fishy zone and just breathes and blow, breathes and blows. It's funny to watch because he goes on for quite a bit. but he randomly bubbles all over the tank too. May your fishy is distracted by the movement around him outside the tank. if I move past, my guy stops his bubbling. Just my observations

 

[soritan]

Are you feeding hiim freeze dried bloodworms/whathaveyou or frozen?

I rarely count how many bloodworms my boys get when I feed them Frozen bloodworms. I go to feed my african dwarf frogs, and whatever my betta-boy can catch, he can keep. I do shoo him when I think he's fed enough, but I rarely bother. Aside from being a dottering old fool, he's fine.

 

[jayjay]

i feed him frozen as this is what all my other fish eat. and i've heard freeze dried is bad for them ???

 

[soritan]

Then, in my opinion, not only is your current feeding regime fine, he's spoiled rotten.

 

[jayjay]

Then, in my opinion, not only is your current feeding regime fine, he's spoiled rotten.

lol cheers glad to hear it.

 

[splashluff]

If he's active and healthy, that's enough guarentee that he's healthy!

On the other hand, if you'd like him to bubblenest, I've found that adding IAL and heating to 78-80* is foolproof! I JUST added 2 males and 2 females to a heated divided 10g with IAL, and within an hour both of the males (who bubblenested moderately in their regular tanks) had massive 1"-high nests going - and one of the girls was even trying to bubblenest.