What to do with my 5 year old betta!

[Kara101584]

My first ever betta is about 5 years old now, he's huge and in a tank with about 14 Goldfish (i know, i know) it's all he's use to. Well, we're putting the Goldfish in the pond SOON, and I am only keeping the 2 fantail goldies I have and putting them in a 10 or 20 gallon tank. What should I do with him?
Put him in the tank with the goldies, or move him into his own 1 gallon?
After 5 years, and going strong, I don't want to kill him.

 

[ScoutCarcer]

I think that he would do better with the fantails becauase you dont want make him all social with alot of goldfish and then be put in a little tank with no one to be with.

 

[splashluff]

OMG 5!?? You must be doing something right, Kara! do whatever you feel is right... I do agree that he sounds very happy in a big tank with friends!

 

[yeeviabetta]

WOU KARA!!! We all need to give you a betta oscar trophy!!! I will leave him along in the tank with the gold fishs. Do not disturd the tank since they been for five years. Don't you know it is a FUNG SUI thing? LOL You better believe it!

 

[wuvmybetta]

That's a tough decision, Kara. I tend to lean one way and say maybe he would be best left where he is. But then again, disrupting whatever mojo they have going on could be stressful enough if he's left alone in there. Or if you left a couple goldies and they started behaving differently since the crowd cleared out.
I wouldn't put him in a one gallon. The change in tank size so suddenly would be depressing. He's accustomed to larger aquaria already. A 2.5 would be almost 3x better.

Think about it for a while, you know him best. How do you think he'd handle a move to a 10 or 20?

 

[Bloo]

I would say keep him in his environment and do not move him to his own 1 gallon bowl. He would almost certainly die

 

[50000_tears]

i had one im sure was six and he went trough many tank changes until he was 5,i wouldent recomend it unless he does something that makes him look sick,mine was getting sick and old so he got a better tank

 

[oneponygirl]

I think he will get depressed if he's alone, not because I'm an expert but because I moved one of my bettas once (from work where he got tons of visitors throughout the day to home where he was alone) and he got so depressed. I ended up keeping him in a five gallon with whiteclouds and he did fine once he had friends again.

 

[OrkyBetta]

I say move him to a one gall or bigger, and just see how he fares. Put in water from his tank before, so the water doesn't shock him.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Do not put the betta in a one gallon tank. He will be obscenely bored and depressed. Besides, a 1 gallon is - so far as I am concerned - completely inadequate for any fish, especially one used to a great deal of space. Bettas shouldn't be in anything much smaller than 5 gallons, with 2.5 being a minimum. After all, bettas like to have plants, caves, AND swimming space; where are you to fit that in a dinky one gallon? Not many people would take an eagle used to flying free outside and put him in a parakeet cage and consider it "ok" just because he could survive in it. You've done great by your betta so far; please keep up the good work

If you put him in a 5-10 gallon tank, you could get a small, peaceful fish or two to live with him. Or, you could just put him next door to your fantail goldies so he can see them without being in the water with them. I don't know how big the prev. tank was, but 2 goldfish in 20 gallons is going to get ammonia issues fast; usually, the rule is 20 per goldfish. Maybe in the larger tank the betta didn't have problems, but a smaller tank means more concentrated ammonia.

You could leave him in the orig. tank, but as someone else said, the remaining goldies might behave differently and become agressive towards him when the social order shifts, and the changed number of co-inhabitants might make the tank seem suddenly too big, which could stress him as well.

 

[daudy_dojo]

betta was with gold fish?? WOW!!!

 

[WILDER]

I would leave him with the goldfish, as he sounds happy with them, i also keep 3 platys with mine and it's the longest i have ever had them one year 2months old now.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

5 years? dang! got any pictures?

 

[Kara101584]

Well, as much as I would LOVE to keep him in that tank. I personally HATE the thing, it's one of those otagon (sp?) type ones and is a ROYAL pain to clean and do water changes. So the Goldfish are leaving this weekend, all but 2 fantails, and I think the best think for my 5 year old is to put him in the tank with the fantails and see how it goes. I also just ordered a 6 gallon Eclipse tank, so if he doesn't like it, I can put him in there with maybe a frog or something.

I do have a picture of him, it's not very good though: