Cleaning bowls

[leafs]

I'm new to the world of Bettas and was wondering if theres an easy way to clean the bottom of my bowl. I wait to see my betta eat his food, but I still notice some food on the bottom. He must be spitting them out when I'm not looking. It's hard to remove uneaten food from the bottom that has gravel. Is it recommended to have gravel or is there something I can use to suck up the food? It would be simple to clean if the bottom was bare, but it wouldn't look very good. I've only had my boy for a week now so maybe he's still adjusting.

Thanks

 

[Welsh_Woman]

Use a syphoning tube, i dunno if thats spelt right, but just guide it along the bottom while its sucking and any bits go up the tube.

 

[ravekiss]

I usually use a turkey baster to remove fallen foods and gunk in between water changes, where I empty everything. My betta tanks have gravel too. Try syphoning out the food in the bottom with a clean unused turkey baster. Works great!

 

[leafs]

Turkey baster sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

 

[Raechal]

I just catch my betta and put him in a cup of his own water and cover the top so he doesn't jump out. Then pour the rest of his old water out and fill it with new water. Then swish the gravel all around with my hand making sure it rinses very well. This usually gets everything out of the gravel.

 

[leafs]

I still plan on doing a complete water change every week. I just want to keep it as clean as possible until I do my water change.

 

[MissD]

Turkey basters work great. I prefer airline tubing though as the water flow from them is really slow where the tube is so thin. Just suck on the one end to get the water flowing into a spare jug/whatever and hoover any gunk out.

Either way, both work well.

 

[Raechal]

I still plan on doing a complete water change every week. I just want to keep it as clean as possible until I do my water change.

Oh. Well then I usually use a medicine dropper to suck up any crap I see laying on the bottom of my tanks. Although all of my boys are such fat pigs now, they refuse to let ANYTHING fall to the bottom of their tanks.

 

[leafs]

I still plan on doing a complete water change every week. I just want to keep it as clean as possible until I do my water change.

Oh. Well then I usually use a medicine dropper to suck up any crap I see laying on the bottom of my tanks. Although all of my boys are such fat pigs now, they refuse to let ANYTHING fall to the bottom of their tanks.

Medicine dropper, that's another good idea. Thanks everyone! One more question, can I put my Betta in with my Tiger Barbs? Just kidding!

 

[Kiarra]

Marbles are much easier to clean, and no less attractive. Maybe you could switch him to marbles?

 

[leafs]

Marbles are much easier to clean, and no less attractive. Maybe you could switch him to marbles?

I guess I could try that, but I really like the gravel look. I also have a few river rocks in there. I'll have to think about it.

Thanks

 

[Raechal]

Marbles are much easier to clean, and no less attractive. Maybe you could switch him to marbles?

My sister has marbles in her 10 gallon. I find them just as easy to clean as gravel but that's just my opinion. Cleaning substrate is just cleaning substrate to me, no matter if it's gravel, sand or marbles. I clean so many tanks weekly I don't care what the substrate is haha It is all the same to me.

The marbles sure are pretty though!

 

[ravekiss]

2 of my betta tanks have marbles and 3 have gravel. I dont see a big difference between cleaning them either. Both ways I dump it all out, wash and put back.