Bought a betta for my sister

[colen]

Hello everyone,

Today I was in my LFS and I found a crown tail betta who had been put in a tank with bala and rainbow sharks. Needless to say he was a little beat up, he is missing about 50% of his fins. Anyhow, I bought him because I felt sorry for him... no ohter reason, not even a big fan of bettas as I keep only african cichlids.

My little sister loves my tanks (she is 8) and has been bugging my parents for one for a while. So I ran over to my parents house today and setup a 10 gallon her in bedroom. I have a 50 watt heater on the tank, I put a large sponge filter from a 55 gallon cichlid tank in it and let it run for a few hours, I then put the fish in the tank. He seems happy and is eating fine.

My questions are:

1. Is a sponge filter enough for a tank with a betta? - I do have extra aqua clears sitting around but they will make a lot of current and I don't believe that is good for a betta.

2. I have bought "betta bites" from HBH, are they a good enough for his main diet?

3. Is there anything that I can treat his beat up fins with? - I have this tap water conditioner from Nutrafin called Aqua plus, it says it "coats to protect and heal" and "heals cuts and wounds". This was added during setup, and a little extra afterwords.

Will his ripped up fins recover over time?

Thanks for all the help, it is appreciated!

btw - my little sister loves this fish, she has named it cherry and has spent her day glued in front of the tank.

Thanks again,
Colen.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

1. A 10gal tank is great for a male betta but they do not make good community fish so be very careful as to what you put with him if you want more fish with him.
2. The sponge filter will be good for the betta as long as it is not very powerful/has strong current as because of the long flowing fins of the male betta, they tire out easily and do not cope well in strong currents.
The filter will need to be on 24/7 if you plan on only doing 20-30% water changes with dechlorinator(i.e water conditioner) per week, if it is off some of the time or all the time you will need to do a 100% change per week with dechlorinator/water conditioner.
All water in the tank needs to be conditioned with dechlorinator/water conditioner as it removes harmful chemicals and chlorine found present in tap water which are bad for fish and the good bacteria which lives in the filter sponge.
3. Betta bites will be fine, bettas also enjoy thawed out/freezedried frozen bloodworms, daphinia, tubifex and krill as a part of their diet but remember not to over-feed the little guy- 5 bloodworms a day for example will be more than enough .
4. If he is on his own, a bit aquarium salt can be used to aid the healing of his fins, otherwise Melafix is a excellant med for healing injurys and helping prevent secondary infection from setting in .
5. Yes his fins will completely heal with good water quality and care & time .