MINIMUM SIZE FOR PERMANENT BETTA

[alabaster]

thanks for the replies and votes!

I agree with you gaya, at least to some extent. If you are going to keep fish, you need to be prepared to meet their basic needs well, and be secure enough in your finances to ensure that if something breaks or you run out of betta food, you can buy more supplies as needed. However, you don't need to be rich to be a successful aquarist.

 

[gaya]

thanks for the replies and votes!

I agree with you gaya, at least to some extent. If you are going to keep fish, you need to be prepared to meet their basic needs well, and be secure enough in your finances to ensure that if something breaks or you run out of betta food, you can buy more supplies as needed. However, you don't need to be rich to be a successful aquarist.

I totally agree. As I said earlier, most of the equipment I have is second hand. I’m not rolling in doe. But it is just intuitive for me. I don’t have a house; therefore I wont own a large dog. I don’t have a 100g tank therefore I won’t own Oscars. Grown ups should never have a problem providing for their pets and kids don’t have to pay rent. When I was 14 I had a weekend job and my money went to what ever I wanted. Maybe I’m just old school. Think I’m starting to sound like a republican or my father for that matter! eeek

 

[gaya]

my first double post!

 

[bettaboi]

i voted for 1 gal and at the moment i have some of the babies of my spawn in qt jars (witch i will probly get nagged at about) but its all i have roomfor and they all look happy and healthy

just my 2 cents

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

And realy agree with you gaya and i would have said it myself earlier but people seem to have been a bit sensitive on the betta section recently .
I know it sounds harsh, but in general if you can't afford a decent size tank for a fish when you are getting into the fish keeping hobby maybe you should just work harder to save up more money before you buy the fish.
In todays world there are many jobs and chores you can do to make money, i know i have had to take up a spare job at times in the past to pay for my fish and i'd rather do that and work realy hard and know im giving all my fish all they would like etc.
If you have tons of bettas, fair enough, i understand that situation but if you only have one of 2 bettas then surely its not that hard to save up a bit of cash for them?

 

[MegTheFish]

Well, actually, I could afford a 2.5 gallon minibow for each of my bettas (I have a good paying paper route, plus I get payed for baby-sitting, plus I get tips from the paper route, and this summer I might be working at the LFS down the street from me) but its my parents If they caught me spending $420 (thats how much it would cost me to get just the tanks...no decorations, plants or gravel) then they would probably lock all my money up in a safe

 

[BettaMomma]

I know it sounds harsh, but in general if you can't afford a decent size tank for a fish when you are getting into the fish keeping hobby maybe you should just work harder to save up more money before you buy the fish.

Again, it totally depends on what you think is a "decent" size tank for a betta.

I agree that if you can't afford to have pets, don't have them - cuz they're (I *guess*) better off sitting on a shelf waiting for someone else to take them home. BUT... I don't think you should have to break the bank to make a pet happy, either.

 

[gaya]

Well, actually, I could afford a 2.5 gallon minibow for each of my bettas (I have a good paying paper route, plus I get payed for baby-sitting, plus I get tips from the paper route, and this summer I might be working at the LFS down the street from me) but its my parents If they caught me spending $420 (thats how much it would cost me to get just the tanks...no decorations, plants or gravel) then they would probably lock all my money up in a safe

If you have no other options than spending that kind of money then i don't blame you. It must be such a pain to have limited options. Luckily in the States we don't have to worry about it. How much do you think it would cost to ship to ontario? I'll send you my tanks if it's cheap up enough to ship. There of no use to me and just take up closet space.

 

[MegTheFish]

I bet shipping would cost a lot Everything seems to cost more in Canada...LoL
I'm actually dividing a tank tommorow (I got the plastic canvas and the report binder spines cut to fit already) for 5 of my boys. They will each get about 3 gallons each...so that will solve my problem of having all these 1 gallon tanks taking up space...thanks for the offer though

 

[OohFeeshy]

The thing is- If 1 gallon is so good for a betta, then why not for anything else? f you take a similar sized fish, such as a dwarf gourami, and kept that in a one gallon bowl, what would people think then? They're both labyrinth, both get to about the same size. But people would call it overstocking, tell you how bad and innappropriate the tank was. Considering how cheap tanks are in America, you should at least be able to afford a fairly decent sized tank. I've heard sevral people saying they can get a 10 gallon for $10. Just for the tank, granted, but when you consider how much some of you spend on a one gallon, its better all round. Roomwise, my bedrooms the smallest room in the house, but I can still fit in enough 3+ gallons for all the bettas I will buy. A lot of people here have the hole house for bettas, and an office at work.

 

[gaya]

The thing is- If 1 gallon is so good for a betta, then why not for anything else? f you take a similar sized fish, such as a dwarf gourami, and kept that in a one gallon bowl, what would people think then? They're both labyrinth, both get to about the same size. But people would call it overstocking, tell you how bad and innappropriate the tank was.

great point

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The thing is- If 1 gallon is so good for a betta, then why not for anything else? f you take a similar sized fish, such as a dwarf gourami, and kept that in a one gallon bowl, what would people think then? They're both labyrinth, both get to about the same size. But people would call it overstocking, tell you how bad and innappropriate the tank was.

Yeah i have tried asking that question before and everyone told me it was ok to put a betta in a 1gal because they are not very active fish and so don't need alot of space, many people also said as long as the betta is healthy then it doesn't matter, which was a point i accepted, but...

One of my friends keeps 4 8inch fish in a 20gallon tank, obviously this is very overstocked and i know if somone said they had such a tank on this forum everyone would go mad at them, but on the other hand these are some of the healthiest goldfish i have ever seen and the tank water and tank itself/gravel is imaculatly clean and crystal clear, and everytime i go to her house i have never seen the fish sick once and they appear very healthy.
I myself think this is far too smaller tank for these fish, most goldfish that grow to their size need a 20gallon each, but if the arguement that tank size doesn't matter as long as the fish is healthy, if you went by this rule it would mean the tank is the right size for them which does sound a bit silly when you consider this situation.

I know all of you here would never deliberatly mistreat or under-care for your bettas or any fish, but i somtimes find the "as long as the fish is healthy" answer a bit controversal at times.
Just a thought.

 

[OohFeeshy]

ok to put a betta in a 1gal because they are not very active fish

Thats most likely because small heaters can be hard to come by. I consider mine too active to be in a 1 gallon, even Hannibal, who is a veiltail (long heavy fins) in an unheated tank. Take WCMM. I think they are a member of the danio family (don't quote me on that), and they are generally considered as CW. Danios are very active. Now one of the LFS's has about 3 in a less than a gallon tank. They don't move a bit. I wonder why? Space, temperature, filthy water.... I could go on. A betta is bound not to move much in a small unheated tank. The only time I'd put a betta in a 1 gallon is if I saw one I wanted but didn't have enough spare tanks. And even that would be temporarily.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

There is another answer i got to "is it ok to keep bettas in 1gal tanks?" question too apart from the healthy fish and not active fish reply; As many of you probably know many bettas live in rice paddys in the wild, i remember when i asked the 1gal tank question many people pointed out that you often find bettas living in cattle hoof prints in the mud in rice paddys and not patrolling the vast expanses of water, but to be honest i find it hard to believe as a cattle hoof print has about same size space as one of those tiny betta cups, which as you all know are very cruel.
So if this was true you would be able to use the cattle hoof print answer to justify putting them in tiny cups as much as 1gal tanks, which is stupid to be honest.

Now to see what a real rice paddy looks like, check this link out with many nice pics;

http/www.bettadreams.com/ricepaddies.html

I don't honestly think a betta would chose a 1gal tank to live in for the rest of its life over one of these, no? im not saying you now have to have to get a 50gal tank to house a betta, but a 1gal just seems far too small- there is alot of difference between a 1gal tank and a 2 and a half one.

 

[OohFeeshy]

i find it hard to believe as a cattle hoof print has about same size space as one of those tiny betta cups

Probably smaller, unless you have one the size of an elephant They'd probably be so shallow that the betta would only be half covered in water. Also, is your betta wild? Umm... no. Thats like asking is your cat the child of a scotiish wildcat. Not very likely, even if it was true it would be fairly expensive, not highly coloured and be nowhere like a Walmart betta. I'm sure your cats don't have the same size territory as a wildcat. I believe theres another website that has pictures of rice paddies where they've netted a wild betta to show you. Anyway, what would be the point of living in a puddle? They can't breed, fight (too small), move....