New Betta Help

[helen78]

well my friend had a siamese fighter fish kept with guppies i had told her you cant keep them with guppies but she didnt listen well the fish started attacking her guppies after a few weeks of having it and she was going to flush it which is just really cruel so i said i would take him the thing is i didnt have a tank to put him in as mytropical tank also has guppies so went out and bought a 26 litre aquael tank with heater and filter so now im having to cycle the tank with him in i have never owned a betta before but read up alot about them it was either me rescuing him or him going down the toilet my question is will he be ok if i cycle the tank with him in i know about doing water changes i conditioned the water with prime and added seachem stability before he went in i have also got a new api master test kit comming either tomorrow or saturday as i had the test strips which i now know are not accurate and dont test ammonia and also i got some frozen bloodworms how much of the cubed bloodworms should i feed him and can he eat tropical fish flakes i also got a plant in his tank and also a moss ball which the lfs i got tank from said are ideal plants for fighter fish he is just so adorable and i really want to do right with this little guy i have named him victor

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Wow - that post reads like you are on speed!

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new betta!

Now, where to begin. Yes, you are obviously doing a fish-on cycle now so you've done the right thing by ordering a master test kit. From your post I gather you understand about fish-in cycling but just to make sure (I find it's better not to assume!) I thought I would point out a few things. You are going to have to test your water and do water changes daily in order to make sure that your ammonia and nitrite don't go above 0. These will probably be fairly large water changes of at least 50%. Eventually, after several weeks you'll find that when you test your water, the nitrate and ammonia are 0 for a couple of days in a row without you having to do water changes - then you know you're filter bacteria have matured to the level needed to support your betta.

Don't wait for your test kit to arrive before you start doing water changes. Go ahead and do them every day until it arrives because once those nasties build up in the water they are a real pain to get rid of!

Your betta can eat anything that any other tropical fish would. Flakes, pellets, wafers, veggies, frozen and live foods. They do love bloodworm but only feed it maybe once a week as a treat and he only needs a little corner off the block, once it dissolves you'd be amazed at how much is in there! Also make sure you dissolve the worms in some tank water before adding them to the tank, otherwise he may try to inhale the whole bit in one go - not good! It'll also do him some good to scurry around to pick up the pieces. It's also recommended that you skip a day each week where you don't feed him, this allows his system to get a good clear out. Or you may even want to give him a small piece of a de-shelled pea on that day instead.

Yes, bettas like to have places to "rest" they can be quite lazy fish lol. So things like moss balls and broad leaved plans like swords and crypts are great for them.

I hope this helps and please feel free to ask any other questions. I'm sure everyone would love to see a picture of Victor as well, it's nice to admire other peoples' fishies

 

[thereverendturtle]

One other thing you can do, is take the media from your other filter and give it a bit of a squeeze in the bettas filter, to give the filter a jump start of bacteria.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum helen78.
You could easily cycle a tank with a betta in it. Breeders maintain bettas and have no filter, thus no cycle at all. They just do tons of water changes. Since you already have a cycled tank, why not clean the filter in that new betta tank this weekend? That will seed your new filter and get the cycle moving rather quickly to complete the cycle.

 

[helen78]

i was going to do that with the filter from the other tank but i got 2 new platies that came down with white spot so thought would be better not to do that i am getting a little worried as the bettas new tank has gone slightly cloudy im just hoping that wont harm him and also what is a good filter to have with him the one that cam with tank is a aquael fan filter mini but doesnt seem that good to me i was wondering if the fluval mini would be better for him mytankis 26 litres

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

The cloudiness is normal and harmless and will go away on its own in a couple of days.

 

[OldMan47]

Cloudy does not matter at all. Keep your chemistry good and you will be fine.