Hunting Opinions

[constantine03]

I'm not going to argue with you about this, there's no reason for it. The OP asked for opinions. I gave mine, and you've given yours. I've even stated that I LIKE the way your tanks look. There are different reasons for doing different things. I never said that gravel couldn't be cleaned, but just that bare bottoms are easier to keep clean because you can see everything very clearly.

I don't know the answer to your question about weakening their immune systems as you have insinuated, but I would doubt that a bare bottom tank would be the reason for doing such a thing. I still keep plants, hiding places, and run a mature filter in mine. Gravel is not the only place the bacteria can be found. Having said that, I'm done. I love your tanks, but I like mine as well. It's a bit of personal preference, and I believe it is completely ridiculous to attack someone on a public forum for stating an opinion or information that has been passed to her. //end.

 

[bronzecat]

I don't know the answer to your question about weakening their immune systems as you have insinuated,

I never insinuated anything, i merely said i probably know someone who does know? And i probably do, if i could work out who, i could ask them.

The reason i picked up on your post was this; You being scolded for having substrate, by members of the breeders forum, has absolutely nothing to do with the op's question. The majority of breeders forum members wouldn't have even answered the question because its a veil tail, and as such would be frowned upon as being a mutt! So, personally, i wouldn't really listen to people like that, bearing in mind that VT's are "probably" the most common tail type sold.

With regards to feeding high protein foods, if your not conditioning for breeding there's no need to go overboard. Its a bit like when my dogs are going to be competing in a season of agility they get higher protein food than they do if there not going to be competing. If we fed them the high protein stuff all the time they'd get fat.

I think we have to remember the majority of betta keepers on this forum keep their betta as a pet, hell forbid, some even keep them in community tanks and feed them flake! But, if the fish is happy, safe and healthy it doesn't really matter.

 

[yorkshiretyker]

Hi guys,

Thanks everyone! All your opinions help to get a different perspective and different peoples ideas, which is exactly what I'm wanting, to try and pick up assets of each persons preference and ideas. so please don't get mad at each other for having different opinions they're all good, and maybe for different reasons, I guess if we all had our own ideas then we'd be just reinventing the wheel!

At present I really don't feel confident enough to breed either of them yet, I'm more concerned with keeping getting to know all the ins and outs of keeping bettas the way they're meant to be kept, as a result getting so much enjoyment out of watching them go about thier daily lives as I work at my computer.

In Archie's tank the subtrate is currently that "Roman" gravel, I spent about 2 hours today giving his tank a good clean out today, and as usual the gravel was pretty manky from not having a filter running. (this was one of the reasons that I was thinking along the line of not having subtrate) - thinking of using a turkey baster to help to keep down the mess - as some of you have mentioned this method - incidentally he gravel vac that I started with is absolutely useless.

Although I do love the way that sand looks, in a couple of tanks I've seen on the forums the new betta (still not thought of a name for him yet) is currently in a bottomless tank as the sand that I bought turned out to be coral sand, which I thought was too sharp. therefor his tank ended up being bare bottom. I'm not entirely happy with the way it looks yet, but I'm going to play around and see if I can get it better and maybe picking some ideas from you guys as you comment, and looking at some tank pics on the forums.

Lastly Mum brought me back some Echinodorus Bleheri today, (so thoughtful) as she'd knows Archie likes Broad leaf plants due to her fascination of him sitting on the leafs, unfortunately it doesn't look like the sort that will attach itself bogwood, but have it in the new Arcadia - Arc tank where the new betta is. I've trapped the roots under some deco to keep it from floating for the time being until, I find some suitable plants for the tank, after which it can probably go into my community tank.

Thanks again for all your comments.
Lee.

 

[Mauricia]

Hey, just another idea, but when I used to have a very sensitive Betta male that required daily water changes even with a filter to keep him happy, I went with a bare bottomed tank. But to keep live plants in there, I put them in little ceramic pots with gravel in the pot, so it was still pretty easy to keep the tank clean and siphon any debris off the bottom.

 

[metromyers]

In one of my tanks I have river rocks. They are much larger than gravel and easy to move around for cleaning. Plus I enjoy the way it looks. Tweet likes to nose around between the rocks.