Help with Beta fish, URGENT

[Naughts]

@kateh, what size is your tank?
Cycling may not be the best way forward if your tank is small, they can be difficult to establish and maintain a cycle.
See this excerpt from the betta care guide-

Cleaning and Maintenance: Betta tanks, no matter their size, require regular cleaning. In an uncycled betta tank, one must do frequent water changes. The frequency and amount of water changes depends on the size of the tank with smaller tanks needing water changes more frequently than larger tanks.
In a properly cleaned betta tank, ammonia and nitrite should both be 0 parts per million (ppm) with nitrates being as low as possible.

Cleaning Schedule by Tank Size (for uncycled tanks)

1 gallon -- 100% water change every 2 days
2.5 gallon -- 100% water change every 4 to 5 days
5 gallon -- 100% water change once every 7 days

(In a large, cycled tank [established, not currently cycling] you should change roughly 25% of the water weekly using a gravel vacuum, and test your water parameters often; ammonia and nitrite should be 0 ppm, while nitrate should be kept at less than 20 ppm.)

 

[Avel1896]

Please @kateh post pictures of your fish and tank.

 

[kateh]

I will, I’m going to petco to pickup supplies I’m 13 and I can’t drive myself so i can only go to petco to get stuff what should I pick up and what should I do with everything? I have a seven gallon tank btw. This is my tank, can’t take a pic of it rn

 

[Naughts]

Buy floating plants

 

[Avel1896]

Limnobium laevigatum is fine : not too small to get stuck in filter, not to large to be invasive, roots easily cut.

 

[kateh]

Please @kateh post pictures of your fish and tank.

Hi all, so by the time I got home my fish had passed away I would like to get a new beta fish but first I need to reset my tank what do I need to get? Do I need like new gravel etc or like what, so that this doesn’t happen again! Thanks!

 

[Fishfinder1973]

You don’t need to change anything,but turn the filter on and leave it on.The filter is the processing hub that keeps your aquarium water healthy,and without it your fish won’t survive.At this moment in time your filter isn’t ready,as it needs to be cycled,which can only be done by feeding it ammonia.DONT buy anymore fish til this has been done.
Im sure someone will talk you through the cycling process in an easy to understand way

 

[NannaLou]

Hi all, so by the time I got home my fish had passed away I would like to get a new beta fish but first I need to reset my tank what do I need to get? Do I need like new gravel etc or like what, so that this doesn’t happen again! Thanks!

I think you would be best to remove the central decoration. It will be taking up a lot of water ‘space’ and it looks as if it might have some rough or sharp edges and if you have a Betta with long fins they will get torn. Choose some easy to care for live plants, maybe silk plants, but not plastic as they are too sharp for the fins too.

@Essjay will be the best person to explain cycling the tank, she really helped me understand the process. I lost two Betta fish because I was told just to let the filter run, you certainly won’t be the only one on this forum that this has happened to.

 

[Essjay]

I will go right back to basics, you may already know this but I want to make sure. I'll start with a couple of things from earlier in the thread.

Firstly, a 7 gallon tank is a great size for a betta. You would be surprised how many people are sold a 1 gallon tank for a betta.
Bettas are tropical fish so they need a heater unless the room the tank is in never drops below 77 deg F in the middle of the coldest winter night.
A filter should be running 24/7. It is possible for a betta's tank to work without a filter but it is a lot easier if there is a filter running 24 hours a day.
I do agree with NannaLou about the decoration. It takes up a lot of swimming room and it does look as if it has sharp bits. The easy way to see if it's too sharp is to use an old pair of pantyhose - rub them over the decor and if they snag on it, a betta's fins can also snag on it.


Fish excrete ammonia, it's their version of urine. But ammonia is poisonous to fish - it burns their gills making it hard for them to breathe. In a tank which has been running some time, there are bacteria which 'eat' the ammonia made by the fish and they turn it into nitrite. This is also poisonous - nitrite does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us. In a tank that has been running some time there is a second type of bacteria which 'eat' nitrite and they turn it into nitrate, which is a lot less poisonous than the first two.
A brand new tank has virtually none of these bacteria. We have to get the very very few which are there to multiply till there a lot more of them. The process of growing these bacteria is called cycling and we get them to multiply by feeding them.

There are three ways to get a tank ready for fish, two involve growing these bacteria and the third uses plants instead of the bacteria.
Looking at the photo of your tank, you don't have any live plants, so I'll leave that one till last.

A fish-in cycle is what you have been doing. This uses ammonia made by the fish to feed the bacteria. But because there are nowhere near enough bacteria at the start to eat all the ammonia, it starts to build up in the water. As they grow more and more of them, they start to eat the ammonia and make nitrite. The nitrite eaters can't start to grow until some nitrite is made, and the nitrite eaters lag behind the ammonia eaters, so then nitrite starts to build up in the water. Because these poisons build up in the water until there are enough bacteria, we have to remove them to keep the fish safe.
If we have a test kit, we test the water every day and do a water change if either of them are over zero. If we don't have a test kit, we have to do a water change every day just in case there is ammonia or nitrite in the water.

Fishless cycling is the other way to grow the bacteria. It sounds complicated at first, but all it means is adding ammonia from a bottle instead of putting a fish in the tank to feed the bacteria. Once all the bacteria have grown, we stop adding ammonia and get fish and let the fish waste feed the bacteria. If you want to try this method we can talk you through it step by step.

The last way is called silent or plant cycling and it uses plants to remove the ammonia made by the fish. I won't go into detail unless you decide you do want live plants.




The important thing is that you are not alone. The members on here have a huge amount of experience and can help you. Only you can decide whether you want to do a fish-in or fishless cycle, or even cycle with plants. Whichever you decide, we can talk you through it, if that's what you need

 

[Avel1896]

So

Hi all, so by the time I got home my fish had passed away I would like to get a new beta fish but first I need to reset my tank what do I need to get? Do I need like new gravel etc or like what, so that this doesn’t happen again! Thanks!

Sorry to hear this.
According to me you have to change every single thing in this 'tank' : it could house germs, so go back to basics.

After having cleaned tank, put 5 cm thick layer of neutral sand, many natural plants, a sponge filter providing a soft current, a heater, soft acidic water = pH 6.5 to 7 - KH 4 to 5 - GH 6 to 7 - no ammonia - no nitrites - nitrates up to 10 mg/l maximum, no rocks cos Betta could tear its fins up, a 550 lumens lighting, wait 30 to 40 days nitrogen cycle ends. At this time, you could add your new Betta, keeping in mind you will have to do water changes weekly using same composition water at the same temp. being 25°C/77°F, feeding it with high quality pellets (45 to 50% proteins) or better live food.