Betta Tank - Question For All You Uk-ers

[Vicky99]

Hi all,

I would love to get a male betta to live in a tank on his own. Firstly, I have been searching the net and local aquarium shops and cannot find a "Reasonably" priced tank. He will be on his own so it doesn't need to be massive (yes I've read the faqs etc). Problem is all the tanks I find are either very expensive or made of plastic. I don't have a problem with plastic but they all say they are for cold water fish and obviously in our climate the tank will have to be heated.

Q1 - Any suggestions on affordable (for me preferably less than £30) appropriate tanks?
Q2 - Can I put a heater in a plastic tank (if yes - half my problems are solved!)?
Q3 - recommendations on where to buy my betta - I want a really pretty one. All the ones I see in IFS near me either look like they are on their last legs or are the usual red/blue VT affairs we seem to get over here and whilst I would love to rescue them, I simply don't have room and already have a red one in my community tank (he's beautiful but I'd like something different). I live in Bristol and I can't find anything on the net pointing to a local breeder so guessing I will have to go the mail order route.

Thanks in advance!!

Vicky.

 

[catxx]

you can get aqua one 320's for around £30-£35
they're glass, square, and about 8 gallons, i didn't use the filter that came with them though, so all in all it came to about £45 incl. heater. but they do look nice.

look out for sales in your LFS!

pets at home do cheap glass tanks too, but again you'll need to buy accessories to go with them, there's clearseal tanks as well.

you can put heaters in plastic tanks, i've never put more than a 25w one in though, and it must never ever ever touch the sides/bottom.

 

[Vicky99]

Thanks.

I did see one the other day that was square and glass and came with light & filter (not sure about heater). It was about £40 (didn't really want to spend that much, but I want the guy to have a nice home!!) - it was s bit of a kiddies thing though - all brightly coloured plastic around the top and stuff. Problem is that it doesn't have a lid and the light is fixed sticking up from the back of the tank so it would be hard to put a lid on it. Would a betta jump out if there wasn't a lid? I've never seen Asbo jumping in the community tank, but it is lidded and I'm not sure I want to take the risk.

Maybe I'll keep an eye on Pets at Home etc for some deals - need to go there at the weekend anyway for rabbit supplies!

Any recommendations on breeder to buy my betta from once the tank is ready?

Thanks again!!

Vicky.

 

[Glod]

Yes, Bettas are remarkably good jumpers when the mood takes them. I've seen some aquaone 320 (28L)tanks which would be pretty nice for a Betta I think at around £40, fairly sure that included a heater.

It might take some messing around to modify the filter if it upsets your fish, then again some Bettas like some water movement too, just not too much

If that's no good, how about a 4G critter keeper or something similar with a small heater and filter it would probably come to around £30 ish, tho they don't have lights.

 

[leddy]

Try looking in your local paper-I saw a 30x40cm tank with filter, heater, and gravel for £15 last night...as well as 2 3ftx6ft tanks going for a tenner!
Think I might phone up about the small tank-the only trouble is figuring out where to fit it!

 

[Vicky99]

Yeah - local paper is due todayish I think (it might even have arrived yesterday) - I'll have a look. Maybe I'll pick up a trade it too.

I feel a fish tank hunt coming on this weekend!!

Vicky

 

[OohFeeshy]

Any tank will do really- don't bother with 'kits'- most are pants value and you can get much better. A standard all-glass tank will do fine, and the dimensions are normally much better (longer as opposed to taller)- something like a 12x6x6 will be fine and set you back under £15 (they normally come with a plastic lid too), and heaters can be got for under £15 too.

Q2 - Can I put a heater in a plastic tank (if yes - half my problems are solved!)?
Yup, it will be fine if you get a plastic tank.

Q3 - recommendations on where to buy my betta - I want a really pretty one.

There's a page with betta breeders in the UK- PM a few or take a look around their website and see what you like. If they don't have any on the page you like, ask- many have a few not listed because of minor faults (like missing ventrals or similar) or other reasons that are still gorgeous.

 

[DarkEntity]

My local is selling Juwel rekord tanks for £20 fully boxed....absolute bargain

 

[Vicky99]

My local is selling Juwel rekord tanks for £20 fully boxed....absolute bargain

You gonna go for it Darkentity? Glasgow is a bit far for me unfortunately. Although I think you can get flights from Bristol for about £20ish - not sure about taking a tank on a plane though!!


Well, I got me a tank. Went to Pets at Home and they had a 26ish litre (about 6 gal) tank for £15.00. Came with a plastic lid but nothing else (except some goldfish food interestingly - I shall give that to my friend who has goldfish!). Got a heater for £17.99. Started thinking about lighting and also that for the size of the tank, maybe I could also put come corys or something in (anyway - that's for the future!).

Went to another shop thinking right, the tank cost £15 heater £18 so we're up to £33 already - need to add a filter onto that and the lighting (starting to sound expensive). Found an Aqua One 320 (also about 6 gal - 28 litres) on offer for £35 - it includes filter & light - just need to add the heater I'd already bought and comes to a total of £53 - reckon I'd have spent lots more than that trying to fix something up myself on the £15 tank.

Anyway - I now have 2 6 gal tanks!!!

Gonna use the Aqua One jobby and keep the other for emergencies for now I think! Though there are little plans rumbling in my mind on what I could do with the other tank and could I set it up without the other half noticing!!

So, today is tank set up day!

Going shopping for some pretty ornament things to put in it later!

Thanks for all your help guys! OOhFeeshy - I had no idea they had tanks that cheap - they've got 4ft jobbys for just over £40 - definately bearing it mind for when we move to a bigger place next year!

Just keeping an eye out for pretty guy to live in the tank now!! I fancy a crown tail I think - anyway, now I've got the tank, there's no rush - I'll just keep my eyes open and contact a few people.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If you still need a filter for the other tank, a basic corner/spone filter will be fine. If you're still thinking of cories, you might want to see what Trimar has- they're a mail order company and have many varieties of cory, including ones that are smaller and suited to smaller tanks (such as panda and pygmy cories). They also, apparently, do crowntails.

 

[Vicky99]

Thanks - I was thinking Panda cories - I already have some and love them although pygmys would be different - I'll have a look and a think. No rush yet as tank isn't ready for fishies!!

Had a look at trimar though - loads on there. Probably won't get my betta from there but it's definately an option for the cories. So many pretty plecs too - shame my community tank isn't big enough!!

New Betta tank is set up now. Plants are on order from IFS - due to arrive end of this week so will plant it up at the weekend. I got a small internal sponge filter - I've put some of the media from my mature filter in it and am running it. Hopefully the tank will cycle more quickly. Am fancying an apple snail - any opinions on if this is a good or bad idea?

Cheers

 

[DarkEntity]

Try the UK Betta forums for probably the best pedigree Bettas in the UK if not Europe.

 

[SHINIE]

Hi all,

I would love to get a male betta to live in a tank on his own. Firstly, I have been searching the net and local aquarium shops and cannot find a "Reasonably" priced tank. He will be on his own so it doesn't need to be massive (yes I've read the faqs etc). Problem is all the tanks I find are either very expensive or made of plastic. I don't have a problem with plastic but they all say they are for cold water fish and obviously in our climate the tank will have to be heated.

Q1 - Any suggestions on affordable (for me preferably less than £30) appropriate tanks?
Q2 - Can I put a heater in a plastic tank (if yes - half my problems are solved!)?
Q3 - recommendations on where to buy my betta - I want a really pretty one. All the ones I see in IFS near me either look like they are on their last legs or are the usual red/blue VT affairs we seem to get over here and whilst I would love to rescue them, I simply don't have room and already have a red one in my community tank (he's beautiful but I'd like something different). I live in Bristol and I can't find anything on the net pointing to a local breeder so guessing I will have to go the mail order route.

Thanks in advance!!

Vicky.

Hi
Q1 - Simple, go to DPFISHWAYS. 16L £24.99 with builtin filter and lights.
Q2 - Depends on the type of plastic tank
Q3 - Simple, go to DPFISHWAYS.COM
Hope you find what you are looking for.

 

[Chris w]

hi vicky

if you are not in a rush and can wait have a look at joining your local freecycle group

a friend of mine has just recieved a 3 ffot tank with all equipment free of charge.

this included a external filter plus heaters and air pump.

just do a search for freecycle in google search engine.

and join the local group.

 

[JoshH]

was freecycle around 2 1/2 years ago??