Coconut half shells and Bettas

[Beatrice Welles]

Hello,
I'm new.
It has been years since I had aquariums. I got suckered at Petsmart and ended up rescuing 3 of the saddest, worst looking and longest there Bettas.
Clarence, Colter and Fenella. The boys reside in a 10 gallon divided tank, while Fenella is in a 2.5 (seems this should be a #MeToo moment...) She really seems the most happy of the three.

I bought each those coconut shell halves, along with a bunch of other goodies, foods etc. None of these guys have even looked these shells. I was contemplating removing them and replacing them with some (fake) aquarium decorations that have holes and hiding places, since the tanks would look better with that. But I want to do what's best for my guys.

Any ideas why they are not using them? Should I be doing something?

thank you so much!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Bettas are not cave dwellers. They naturally live under the water surface among floating plants. The only reason they use caves is because they are stressed and don't have floating plants to hide in.

The best ornament/ plant for Bettas is Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta). It is a floating plant that can also be grown in the substrate. It has lots of leaves, branches and roots and provides perfect habitat for Bettas to hide in and to wait for insects to land on the surface.

 

[Beatrice Welles]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Bettas are not cave dwellers. They naturally live under the water surface among floating plants. The only reason they use caves is because they are stressed and don't have floating plants to hide in.

The best ornament/ plant for Bettas is Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta). It is a floating plant that can also be grown in the substrate. It has lots of leaves, branches and roots and provides perfect habitat for Bettas to hide in and to wait for insects to land on the surface.

Thank you so much!

 

[Beatrice Welles]

OK, sorry... but, I cannot find where to buy this plant except from a place in NYC with pretty bad ratings. I live in Venice CA. I prefer to buy online, there has to be more shopping selections. Any suggestions?
thank you

 

[Colin_T]

Ask your local pet shop to order one plant in for you. They grow rapidly and in a month you will have heaps.

 

[Beatrice Welles]

Ask your local pet shop to order one plant in for you. They grow rapidly and in a month you will have heaps.

thank you

 

[Moony42]

#BETTASRULE; PLS GIVE THEM A GOOD HOME. THREE BETTAS IS KIND OF HARD TO TAKE CARE OF. USUALLY PEOPLE WITH MORE THAN TWO BETTAS WILL JUST DUMP THEM IN A POT WHICH IS TO SMALL

 

[Beatrice Welles]

#Bettasrule
Hi, they are doing very well. The males Colter and Clarence have a divided 10 gallon tank with live plants and sponge filters + a heater each
Fenella has a 2.5 gallon (for now) filtered, heated with a large live plant and seems very happy. All eating well.
The conditions I found them in were appalling. I wish there was a law for pet stores where Bettas cannot be kept and sold in tiny plastic cups.

 

[Beatrice Welles]

Suddenly my male Clarence is hiding and not eating. Really worried. Cannot figure out what might be wrong. I’m leaving him alone in case it’s just stress. But suddenly? And from what...?

 

[Colin_T]

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?
Post the results (in numbers) here.

If you don't have test kits, take a glass full of tank water to the pet shop and get them to test the water for you. Write the results downs in numbers, when they do the tests. If they say the water is fine, ask them what the results are in numbers.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

Take some pictures of the fish and post a couple of clear images on here for us to look at.
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more pictures. Make sure you increase the camera's resolution after otherwise all your pics will be smaller.

The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth knowing. I recommend printing it out and reading it in bed to help fall asleep.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/

 

[Moony42]

if Clarence has white stringy poop then he is dying or sick.

 

[Beatrice Welles]

if Clarence has white stringy poop then he is dying or sick.

Thanks. No white stringy poop that I can see.
I’ll have to Buy a water testing kit from Prime. I just have the strips to test the water. I check every day and they come out on GOOD. I can’t get to any aquarium shops around here. I can’t drive I had a bad accident a while back and am recuperating. The tank is less then a week
Old. I used bottled water and added water cure drops for Bettas as per instructions as well as added half of the 2.5 divided gallon tank water that had been used by Colter and Fenella for 10 days. Colter is doing really well and is in the same water as Clarence. Clarence seems to be really scared, hiding under things when I come near. He does swim about now and again but not when I’m near. It’s like he’s suddenly terrified of me. I’ll take pictures and send. Right now I’d prefer not to stress Clarence out any more then I have to. This is so bizarre. Thank you.

 

[Colin_T]

If the tank is only 1 week old you probably have ammonia in the water. This will stress and kill fish. The easiest way to deal with ammonia is to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the filters have established in about 4-6 weeks time.

Do not add chemicals. cures or anything else to the tank unless you know what the problem is. Anything that gets added to the tank can harm the fish.

If you are using bottled water, make sure it doesn't have any sodium in it. And aerate the new water for at least 30 minutes before using it. This helps get the gasses in the water, back to normal. If you don't have an air pump to aerate the water, open the bottle and tip half a cup of water out into a bucket, put the cap back on the bottle and shake it up for a couple of minutes. Alternatively just put the new water into a fish bucket and leave it exposed to the air for 24 hours. The gasses will sort themselves out during that time.

 

[Beatrice Welles]

Thank you. As I said I have the TETRA Easy strips and they continue to show Ammonia levels of 0 to 0.5, I know it's not very accurate and I will buy an expensive kit.
The bottled water has no sodium, I also did pour it out in a clean bucket for about 10 hours before putting in the tank along with the other tank's water +1 1/2 Litres of Bio-Activ Live Aqueous Solution Water and 1 capful of AquaSafe for Bettas, they say put 2 capfuls for 10 gallons, but I thought that with the Bio-Active Water and bottled water, 2 capfuls might be overkill. Then I waited 24 hours before putting them in.
I haven't added anything else to the tank, I was thinking of adding an Indian Almond Leaf, which I had already bought, but maybe I shouldn't?

The tank has two sponge filters that seem to aerate the tank pretty well, I don't keep them high, because I know it's hard on Bettas.
Both sides have live plants, a tall Java plant each and some water spangles, I gave more to Clarence, so he would feel safer. I am waiting on an order of Water Sprite, I had to order it out of state, because it's illegal to sell in California (?), thats what three different aquarium places told me. I also have a Brazilian Pennywort coming, for Clarence, but if it's too much I won't put it in. Right now, he can use more live green, more places to hide and feel comfortable in, I think?

They both started off fine, suddenly Clarence was hiding, he even uses the coconut half shell.
Colter is thriving on one side, Clarence just seems terrified more then sick, but I dont pretend to know anything and will send photos.
Fenella, in the old 2.5 gallon tank is really enjoying life, I'm happy and relieved to say

thank you all so much

 

[Colin_T]

pictures and video please