Betta is displaying worrying behaviour

[cleverboy42]

Hello,

I'm a new fish tank owner and I'm very excited to get started. I went to the fish shop and bought a 5 gallon tank as well as dechlorinator and bacteria so that I could help the tank with the initial cycle. I went after two fays to get the fish (I was told by the shop person that it would be enough time) and I got a betta and 2 African Dwarf Frogs. The frogs seems to be doing very well and behaving as expected. The betta however seems to always be staying at the top of the tank either beneath the filter or between the heater and the tank glass. I don't know if this is common behavior so I bought an ammonia test kit. If I did everything correctly the color matched with the 0.1mg/l one which I assume is good since that was the least that there was. Should I wait a few more days and keep monitoring the betta and do a partial water change if nothing changes?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[FishBearer9845]

@essjay @AdoraBelle Dearheart
Personally I'd be testing water parameters on a daily basis (API Master Kit)
Any Ammonia, Nitrites over 0, you need to do at least a 50% (I did 75%) changes daily until your tank cycles.

 

[cleverboy42]

@essjay @AdoraBelle Dearheart
Personally I'd be testing water parameters on a daily basis (API Master Kit)
Any Ammonia, Nitrites over 0, you need to do at least a 50% (I did 75%) changes daily until your tank cycles.

So daily water changes don't reduce beneficial bacteria that much?

 

[FishBearer9845]

Nope, had to do it myself after rubbish information from pet shops. The BB is on surfaces, in your substrate, filter etc... never wash anything under tap water to clean it! Have you got an API test kit, I must say it is a necessity for beginners. In fact, I think I'll always have one on hand.

 

[cleverboy42]

OK thanks I'll try the frequent water changes and see how things go. Is there anything I should know that might help me when doing these water changes. And any specialised equipment maybe for a sand substrate.

 

[Essjay]

No special equipment, just a standard siphon tube. Hover it about 1 cm or 1/2 inch above the sand and make little swirling motions which will lift the debris to where it can be sucked up.

You also need a nitrite tester as ammonia will be turned into nitrite by the bacteria. It takes longer for the nitrite eating bacteria to grow than it does for the ammonia eaters.


Can I warn you there may be problems with the frogs. When I tried to keep frogs with a betta, the betta ate all the food before the frogs could find it - they are almost blind so they find their food by smell which takes a while. Frogs have been known to starve in a tank with fish. And the frogs can mistake a betta's tail for food. That's what happened with mine, I found the betta swimming round with a frog clamped to his tail.

 

[cleverboy42]

Hello again!
Today my Betta is acting very nicely. She's eating and swimming around so maybe she was still a bit shy. I still cleaned the tank as it was a bit murky as I forgot to clean the rocks before I initially filled the tank.
It was a bit difficult to clean the tank with the decorations since it is only a 5 gallon and the gravel vac was a bit big.
For the next time do you recommend removing the decorations and putting them in a bucket and then putting the extracted water in that same bucket so that it will be a bit easier to clean? It will make it easier however I'm not sure if that is good for the beneficial bacteria