Hi all... I'm new here and my wife and I just bought our first betta a few weeks ago. We've told everyone the progression is "fish - dogs - kids," so we're on that first stage. 
We started him out in a nice, big 2 1/2 gallon vase with a peace lilly. But after doing some reading and realizing he had gotten ich, we decided that we wanted better control of his water temperature and decided to move him to a 10 gallon tank (which was a dollar cheaper than the 5 1/2 gallon tank, go figure) with a 50 watt heater to try and keep it at around 76-78 degrees. That move is happening tonight and we hope that will help the little guy out, since he's been kind of twitchy and not himself since he got the ich. We've got the Aqui-sol and aquarium salt, so we're all set (we actually used that in the vase as well).
My question is kind of a silly one, but since we've never had fish before, you'll have to excuse me. I know the bettas need a little breathing room to get oxygen. However, the heater we're using has a fill line that requires the water in the tank to come up about an inch from the top of the tank. Is that sufficient?
We also bought a flourescent light top for the tank -- is there anything we should be aware of with the light? How often should it be on?
We've grown fond of our betta (named "Moe") in the two weeks we've had him, so we're hoping we can make it past this first hurdle of ich and help him get back to normal. Hopefully having some extra room and warmer water will help.
We started him out in a nice, big 2 1/2 gallon vase with a peace lilly. But after doing some reading and realizing he had gotten ich, we decided that we wanted better control of his water temperature and decided to move him to a 10 gallon tank (which was a dollar cheaper than the 5 1/2 gallon tank, go figure) with a 50 watt heater to try and keep it at around 76-78 degrees. That move is happening tonight and we hope that will help the little guy out, since he's been kind of twitchy and not himself since he got the ich. We've got the Aqui-sol and aquarium salt, so we're all set (we actually used that in the vase as well).
My question is kind of a silly one, but since we've never had fish before, you'll have to excuse me. I know the bettas need a little breathing room to get oxygen. However, the heater we're using has a fill line that requires the water in the tank to come up about an inch from the top of the tank. Is that sufficient?
We also bought a flourescent light top for the tank -- is there anything we should be aware of with the light? How often should it be on?
We've grown fond of our betta (named "Moe") in the two weeks we've had him, so we're hoping we can make it past this first hurdle of ich and help him get back to normal. Hopefully having some extra room and warmer water will help.
... you should raise the temp to 80-82 as icks lifespan is shortened with high temperatures... u could also add a little aquarium salt, and use the meds as directed.... he should be ok if you caught it soon enough
. I had gotten it up to 79. Good luck, keep us posted.
Welcome to the fish forum 
