Betta's + Plants

[fiki]

Hey - I just recently put live plants in my 5g because I was begginning to see some algea. Anyways, One of the plants that I just put in seems to be dying, like for real.

Since bettas breathe O2 out of the atmosphere, and not from their tank, CO2 is not being produced, right? So does that mean that mean the plants aren't receiving enough CO2? Right now it's 4 stems of elodyea (duckweed) and something (green plant... sword something). I origionaly thought it would be a problem, so I also bought a ghost shrimp for some CO2, but I think my betta ate it...

Was I doing the right thing?

WHat should I do?

thanks

 

[Glod]

Bettas produce CO2 just like any other fish, they just have the ability to take in atmospheric oxygen to supplement what they get in the water.

Do you fertilise the water column for the plants ? Is there a plant substrate for them to get food from ? Generally speaking if you don't have a nutrient rich substrate for the plants they will need some kind of plant food added to the water column. I've never heard of Elodea suffering due to lack of CO2, it's one of the easiest plants to grow in my experience.

Bettas are not messy fish, so they don't produce a lot of waste for the plants to use, there is usually little to no wasted food to break down either so it could simply be that the plants are hungry.

Ask yourself, do they plants have enough light ? food ? They are alive after all.

As for the ghost shrimp, it's possible that the Betta did eat him, poor little fellow. One shrimp wouldn't produce any measurable amount of CO2 anyway.

In my tank there is some tetra plant substrate with a layer of sand on top and is lit 10 hours a day. The plants are growing like weeds.

You may want to take this question to the planted forum where there are much more knowledgable people than I to help you.

 

[joycould]

How much light is the plants getting? Duckweed doesn't need much but if you have a sword you should have at the very least 2wpg. Sword plants also need a rich substrate. You can always get excel for more CO2, I use that in all my tanks from 29 gallon down to the 1 gallon betta bowl.