Help A Newb Raise A Betta

[bboorreedd11]

im thinking of buy a male betta so i wan lots of info before i make a choice...so anyway, i was thinking of getting a male betta with a small tank like 2 gall,and a plant dechlorinated water...how often do i have to do water changes then? i have another 15 gall tank that has been cycled....i have seen bettas being kept in small containers, prob 1 litre in fish stores...not for sale but for display

 

[ox5477]

I am no expert, and there is a whole betta section on TFF... so for future you may want to post there for questions on bettas... but,

it is true that they can live in very small pools of water with poor water quality for periods of time as I believe in the wild they can be stranded in puddles when droughts hit, so when the rains return they can bounce back very quickly to find a mate and reproduce and re-build their strength before the waters recede again. This is straight second hand knowledge that was passed onto me by ex... so if it is incorrect I'm sorry... but the point is, they can live in small amounts of water.

You can use the 2G though Im sure he would love the 15G even more. On the two gal, I would do a wc every week still but on the 15, due to the amount of volume compared to just one fish, you could stretch it out more... though I would prob put a filter on the 15G tank.

So, for better and more accurate info, check out the betta section and enjoy

Ox

 

[waterdrop]

Bettas will benefit from good water stats like any other fish - including a good water change regimen. One aspect of this that is different for a betta however is that they like still water - they don't like a strong current (their evolutionary background supposedly being that they are used to living in "their own puddle.") (I'm not a betta expert by any means, so those who have raised a lot of them might want to modify or add to this picture!)

Not sure what you mean by "a plant dechlorinated water," but I'm assuming maybe you hope to use plants to balance the environment for the betta. A heavily planted small tank with a single betta probably would indeed approach being a balanced situation - particularly with frequent enough water changes. However the usual problems would still apply: if you suffered a problem with the plants and had a significant die-off, the filter might not have enough bacteria to process the resulting ammonia and nitrite. If you are a beginner, this puts a bigger burden on you to know more about keeping the plants healthy.

Anyway, just some thoughts, ~~waterdrop~~