Bettas And Fighting

[pica_nuttalli]

You folks that heat your tank with the light: What do you do, keep the light on 24/7? The small tank will not hold the heat at night, so the fish will experience large temperature fluctuations, which are not good. No heater? Heat the room or get a waterproof heating pad to put under it. 50-60 degrees is way too cold for Betta. The fish needs his sleep too, so don't keep the light on all the time. He can't close his eyes--let alone the algae growth.

actually, you'd be surprised how well 5g of water will hold heat. my dad's 5g hex stayed in the 76+ even overnight. i will concede that there was about 4 deg of fluctuation on a daily basis, but it was all within the acceptable tropical range. there's debate about whether that type of temperature fluctuation is harmful.

but you're right about one thing: anything under 73 degrees is too cold. so everybody who keeps their betta sans heater needs to have a thermometer in that tank.

If you must buy your water, buy RO water from the lfs. Otherwise I would think it would be better to use water from the same source, like the tap, so the fish doesn't experience changes in the water composition + all the other warnings given.

RO (reverse osmosis) is only a good choice if you replace the missing trace elements with a powder. more trouble than its worth, in most cases.

 

[jollysue]

Well, clearly I know nothing about lps water. I had a co worker that recommended I buy my water from the lps as he did his for his marine tank. Well, I will ask them what about "that!"

I just put the heaters back in the tanks as winter is on, and the boys' and girls' tanks and bowls felt very chilly to me--lots of drafts. They all look much spritelier now. I really think that a room that is reaching 50 degrees is going to be too cold for the Betta's tank without some heat besides a light during the day. But you are right, pn, some good fish keepers do recommend letting the Betta tough it a bit sometimes. Wuv is one of them, and I thoroughly respect her opinion on Bettas and lots of other things.

 

[starrynightxxi]

i'm pretty sure a lot of marine keepers use RO, and that the marine salt adds all the trace minerals back into the water. For freshwater that's obviously not an option.

As for toughing it, I agree to a point. Just like people, fish that are never exposed to anything will not develop the proper antibodies to fight off diseases. There have even been studies that allergies are more prevalent now because people are so obsessed with air filters and antibacterial soaps that their bodies can't deal with changing conditions. I think this also partly explains why some fish kept in the worst of conditions seem to live through anything.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

RO water is really good for sensitive fish (which includes most marines) because it eliminates essentially all elements from the water. this makes it very soft and acidic; it also makes it very pure. this high purity means that the aquarist can essentially create exactly the right kind of water for his tank using various additives and buffers, whereas tap water will always contain certain miscellaneous elements which may or may not be beneficial (such as copper). again, this is not really a concern for most fish because the common fish are common because they are easily kept without special effort.

i agree with you that a 50 deg room is more than just "toughing it"! but for a person like me who loves her toasty 73 deg (actual "room temperature" ), no heater is necessary with all the waste heat produced by lights and accessories. my heating bill is atrocious, but me and the fish are quite happy. although i confess that while i'm back home for the holidays, i'm turning the heat down and putting the heaters back in the tanks. while i'm one of the few who keeps her place at tropical water temperatures, most people do keep their places pretty close to the lower limit. really, it all depends on how your heat is set.

i just want to stress that all of the equipment that we use for this hobby is more than just totemic in nature. you only need a heater if your temperature is too cold. you only need a filter to provide water flow and host beneficial bacteria. you only need a light to help plants grow or if your fishtank sits in a dark room. if you don't have a negative condition, then you don't have to get the equipment to compensate for it. it seems that people forget this a lot of the time.

 

[jollysue]

Well said all!

<<I don't even turn the apartment heater on. My tanks keep it too warm already. It's just that sometimes I open windows or create a draft to cool the living room, and I got worried about the Bettas. I run the air conditioner in the winter. >>

Now where did we leave the newbe?

Oh Yeah! Thanks for the info on the water.

 

[dogfood]

In their natural habitat, the water temps for bettas rarely ever goes below 70 let a lone 60 or 50. Bettas don't have access to fur coats.