I want a betta

[sid014]

Hi
I recently built a tank which is only a week old. I cycled the tank with bacteria in a bottle and fish food flakes and I added 5 cardinal tetras and 2 guppies in my 10 gallon tank. I have driftwood and a stone along with 7 Amazon sword stems, a java fern and a species of plant that somewhat resembles a cryptocotyne(i dont know which plant it is). I was thinking if a betta could be accommodated in this tank if possible.
Plz tell me if a betta could a possible tank ate and will my tetras and guppies thrive with a betta.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I think the tank is over stocked as it is. May I please see a picture of said tank? Guppies and betta should not Mix. Because of the fact that guppies have really long, fancy tails, And they are super colorful, the bettas will take them for another betta. And, it all depends on the temperature of the betta. Good luck!

 

[sid014]

Thnx for the advice. I want to attach a photo but I couldn't as the forum keeps saying that the photo can't be uploaded due to security issues. Is there any other way to post a pic for u to see and analyse my tank

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Do you mean it says “The file is to big to process”?

If so, set your camera to the lowest resolution possible, then take a picture and post it.

 

[Byron]

Male bettas are not community fish, so a male should be housed on his own. This works two ways. The betta usually (it is normal behaviour) sees any other fish as annoyances at the least and depending upon the individual betta may be aggressive. In reverse, small shoaling fish often find the flowing wavy fins of a Betta to be fun to nip. Either way, the fish are the losers and it is not wise to tempt fate at the risk of the fish.

As this is a 10g tank, you are pretty well full as it is. The only thing I would suggest possibly adding would be another two cardinals. A group of seven would provide a bit more interest for you, and the cardinals would appreciate the company (this is a shoaling species), and with the plants you should not be overloading the biological system. And cardinals are sedate fish, not active swimmers, so space should be OK here. I would not normally recommend cardinals in a 10g, but as you already have five, making them feel more at home is better than not.

 

[seangee]

I agree with @Byron in terms of tank size, betta as community fish and number of cardinals needed to thrive.

You do seem to be the victim of some bad advice from your fish store - sadly this is quite common.

Firstly cardinals and guppies are unlikely to thrive in the same tank. The cardinals require very soft water and the guppies require fairly hard water. It is possible they all survive but may not all thrive. The parameter that is important here is general hardness, known as GH. This information should be available on your water company's website - or you could ask a fish store to test it for you. We need to know the number and the unit because there are several units in current use. (FWIW I am really pleased you used the word thrive - see Byron's signature)

Secondly it is not possible to cycle a tank in a week. Hopefully you have sufficient live plants in the tank to protect your fish from ammonia or nitrite poisoning, but please keep a close eye on them for the next few weeks and do an immediate 75% water change using de-chlorinated water if they show any signs of distress.

 

[sid014]

I used bacteria in a bottle which said that use it for 5 days for quick maturation under direction section. And i used it for 7 days.
Secondly I was actually told by my fish store that they can actually live together. I wasn't informed about the soft water and hard water requirements for the fishes.
I also have four to five common pond snail's in my tank. So i think that they would help me in maintaining the equilibrium.
Next i want to ask what are the signs of distress for ammonia poisoning.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[Byron]

Fish suffering from ammonia or nitrite levels will have significantly increased rates of respiration, will usually remain at the surface, often gasping, may become lethargic and sink to the bottom, likely have inflamed (red) gills with the gill covers (operculum) extended...any of these. They are often signs of other things too of course.

Your safest bet is to do a test for ammonia and nitrite daily, and if either show above zero do an immediate partial water change of 60-70% of the tank volume, using just a good conditioner. However, this I would think is not likely to be an issue from what you've told us.

If your plants are growing, and given the few fish in this tank, the plants will take up ammonia/ammonium about as fast as it can be occurring. Floating plants are especially good for this, but any faster growing plant species will do the job here.

The bacterial supplement should also have avoided problems.

 

[sid014]

I lost a cardinal today. I returned from my college, fed the Fish and did a 50-55%water change. For water change, I used anti chlorine to dechlorinate the water and let it stay for 15 mins then siphoned the water and replaced it.

I was shocked to see that later in the evening one of my tetras was lying upside down at the bottom of the tank. That tetra was not schooling with the other cardinals.

I bought them yesterday only and the next day i see one dead. It nearly sank my heart but now i have a school of four tetras(not actually a school) and two guppies.

I checked the ammonia and ammonium content and it came out to be 0.5 mg/L. It was the same as yesterday even after a water change.

I am still adding bacteria in a bottle to build up the bacteria colony.

Now I am concerned for my other fishes. Plz suugest some advice as to how should I help my fishes to ease out and maintain their health and help them thrive.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[sid014]

The tetra that died was not schooling with the other cardinal from the starting. It went with the school for 10- 15 mins then it would either hide behind the leaves of Amazon sword or between the driftwood and stones. I am concluding that it was already sick from the pet store as they had only four cardinal in one tank and scavenged one more for me from another tank where the tetra was alone.

 

[seangee]

Sorry to hear that. If you still have the fish it may be possible to get a refund from the store - although it may not be worth it for the price of a single tetra. But you could take a photo and try the next time you are in the area.

1. Moving fish is incredibly stressful for the fish. This is unavoidable when you buy fish but if the fish is weakened for any reason they are most likely to die within a few days of being bought
2. Usually when people buy new fish they put them in a quarantine tank for 2-4 weeks to make sure they don't have any diseases before adding them to the tank. This does not matter in your case as the tank is new, but you should not add any more fish to your tank for at least a month in case there is something bad in the tank.
3. I do not recommend treating with any medications at this stage. This should only be used if we know for sure there is a disease and we know exactly what it is.
4. If you don't already have tests for ammonia and nitrite you should get some and test daily as @Byron suggested in post #8
5. The behaviour you described is one of the symptoms of ammonia poisoning (but it could also be something else). Whenever you notice anything wrong you should immediately change 50% of your water as you did. This is not just for new tanks it is something that will stay with you for the rest of your fishkeeping life
6. You should do at least a 50% water change every week - also for the rest of your fishkeeping life

Don't panic and don't get disheartened. Most of us have been there at some stage - and many of us had no internet to turn to when we started. The next 2 weeks will be really important for these fish - good luck with them.

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change every day to get the ammonia level down to 0.

 

[Byron]

I agree generally, but here there may be more to this. Chloramine in the tap water can show up as a low level of ammonia. You have live plants and if they are growing ammonia is not going to be above zero with this few fish and the plants mentioned.

 

[sid014]

Before water change i checked the ammonia level and they were 0.5ppm and after 60 % water change it was still 0.5ppm i dont know whats the cause for this.

 

[Byron]

Before water change i checked the ammonia level and they were 0.5ppm and after 60 % water change it was still 0.5ppm i dont know whats the cause for this.

Do you have chloramine in the source water?