Betta cave... being a labyrinth fish, is a cave inappropriate for the fish??

[Magnum Man]

so, in this picture of my nano, getting set up, is a little grey plastic cave, next to the heater control... that came out of my mothers old set up... she had a splendens, that my sister bought her, all mail order, and in a kit... it was only a 1 gallon plastic tank... of course that fish, ( actually 4-5 ) lasted not very long, with improper care, and equipment, and eventually got taken down, by a care giver... I've honestly never had a betta, but it would seem, if they are a labyrinth fish, and a bubble nest builder, that a cave, made for splendens, would be inappropriate for the fish, and just a waste of money, and space in a small tank... but having never having one before, is there any need to put something similar in a Betta tank???

if a cave is required by the fish, I would probably do a cocoa nut shell cave, or something more natural looking, than this plastic cave anyway...

 

[Back in the fold]

Leave the cave out . It is unnecessary .

 

[Colin_T]

I would remove most of that wood so the Betta doesn't get damaged fins from the bits sticking out. If it's a short fin Betta you can leave the wood but not for a long fin.

 

[CarnivorousPlant]

I know this is a kind of old thread but I recently (about a month ago now) put a cave in my betta's tank (it's an old
one i had lying around from when i set up my very first fish tank and it was definitely not appropriate for the fish i had then, which grew way too big for it, but I know better now) and she seems to love it. I see her sitting in it all the time. (she used to always be sitting on the plant in her tank, but now i normally see her in her cave) So while a cave is definitely not nessasary for a betta i wouldn't say it's innapropriate, as mine seems to like it and I don't see any reason why it would be a problem.

 

[Back in the fold]

He looks like he likes it . Let him keep it .

 

[GaryE]

I look at it this way. He doesn't need a cave. But reduce me to his size and leave all my predators at their current sizes, and I might use a cave even if it isn't natural to me. If he likes a cave, it does no harm, unless he's long finned and there's no water flow through the shelter (leaving his fins exposed to fungus, bacteria etc).

In nature, a Betta would have lots of leaves just above the water surface in prime real estate, and if a cave makes him feel he has that, fine. We've inbred him to make him a disfunctional wreck of a fish, and that gives something back to the poor guy.

 

[MaloK]

With a cave my betta stopped digging holes under the java fern roots to hide...

But the best thing you can add in the "unnatural" is a hammock near the surface.

 

[Fishmanic]

I had an ornament that had a cave like opening. My Betta would sleep in the ornament and swim out when I came into the room first thing in the morning.

 

[CarnivorousPlant]

I had an ornament that had a cave like opening. My Betta would sleep in the ornament and swim out when I came into the room first thing in the morning.

This is pretty much what mine does. She sleeps in it during the night and sits there when I'm not in the room, and then comes out when she sees me. There used to be this one particular plastic plant she liked to wedge herself in to sleep, but it was kind of spikey and she tore her fin on it one time, so I took it out. She didn't like the other plants as much so I thought I'd try giving her a cave since i already had it, and it seems sucessful.

It is also probably worth noting that mine is a female, so no bubble nests, and she is short finned. (there's no great story as to why i keep a singular female betta instead of a male, I just saw her in the shop and thought she was prettier than the males they had so i decided to cop paying a bit more for fish that was supposed to be fancy breeding stock because I liked her. I'd wanted a koi betta for years. They didn't have any male koi bettas.) I also do have a filter running that circulates water in the tank, which would affect what GaryE was saying about how a long finned fish in a cave could be prone to infection from lack of water flow. It's not really the same situation as what Magnum Man is talking about in the original post, but i thought it'd be useful to say that yes they do sometimes like caves.