I do not understand betta bowls

[Dub-Dub]

My other idea... My brother has a 20g built into the wall like 8 feet from where the tiny betta jail is now. He used to keep a host of tiny fish, and be into it, but as the kids multiplied, the time for the tank got divided...

If he just started that tank again, the betta would have a great home, and I think my brother would like the hobby again...

Maybe I'll bring the tank for the short term solution, and nudge on the more perminant solution.

My girlfriend loves (or hates, or, more acurately, gets amusement from) how I can't do something without doing it 120%. My rescued goldfish of 2" now lives in a 30g tank, with another small goldfish... and I'm planning for a 55 or 75g replacement... maybe a 150. I just like to go way overboard... think how happy the betta would be in a nice big tank!

 

[reignman40]

I completely agree with most in this thread. Bettas as well as a lot of goldfish will "live" in horrible conditions, but that certainly doesn't make it right or even humane in that respect. I can't stand when people say "they seem fine in black water" or other comments pretty much just as ignorant.

I just spent 3 hours last night thoroughly cleaning my parents tank. It smelled bad, weird brown substance covered the entire tank. The water hadn't been changed in prob a year and they just added straight tap water when it evaporated. Yes the fish lived but how do you think they felt.

Yeah...
Betta + small bowl = very unhappy fish

Mine LOVES my 20 gall and utilizes every last inch of it. Plays in the current. Swims through the live plants. Hides in the cave. Contrary to popular belief they love larger environments.

My $.02,
Curtis

 

[mvigor]

Maybe I'll bring the tank for the short term solution, and nudge on the more perminant solution.

Yes, good idea. If he had the wall tank running in the last few years then he probably still has the filter and heater, etc. too.

I just moved my Betta into a 5 gallon tank this week and already I couldn't imagine keeping him in anything smaller. You should see him swim around the place! He swims through the plants, plays in the current, explores the coconut cave on the bottom, just generally enjoys himself.

 

[windeindoiel]

Thanks for all the replies. Yeah the bowl is about a gallon, maybe a little less. The venus fly trap thing was a good idea, does anyone else have ideas of what I could use the betta bowl for?

 

[zazz]

Thanks for all the replies. Yeah the bowl is about a gallon, maybe a little less. The venus fly trap thing was a good idea, does anyone else have ideas of what I could use the betta bowl for?

Snails?
Crickets? (with a sceen on top)
Sea monkeys?
A floating candle?
Growing something the lizard likes to eat?
With a tiny filter, could a pair of endlers live in there?
A mini terrarium, mostly moss?

 

[Boohoo]

Put some polished river rocks in and then get some lucky bamboo.

 

[greendeltatke]

Triops- the new sea monkeys.

 

[windeindoiel]

You know I really like the idea of triops/sea monkeys. Actually I also have this stupid little spongebob tank that is the same kind of deal (although it has a bubbler, like it matters). So last night my boyfriend and I (funny story really) went out to get some plants for his pond and some little water creatures for me. He had borrowed a tracker that he had for like 8 years and sold to his cousin. He has 4 by 4ed in this thing before, so he thinks it's invincible. The plants were pretty deep in the pond so he just drove right out there. Well we got stuck. So he called his boss. And he got stuck. Finally someone who drove by (we were right by the road) came and helped us. They got us out but his boss has a big huge truck that the little jeeps we were driving couldn't pull out. So we had to call off-terrain rescue. :thud:

At least while I was sitting in the car watching the water cover the pedals I decided to stick the net I'd brought out the window and I caught a bunch of little water bugs and some tadpoles. Right now they're all in the sponge bob tank but if the little bugs get meanish I'm going to move the tadpole. One of them unfortunately didn't make the ride home.

Thanks for the ideas by the way.

 

[FisheyLisa]

A few Least killiefish and some little plants.

I have had experience with bettas in a vase and 3,5,15, and 30 gallon tank. Depending on personality, they are more active in a larger tank (mine seems to be more so with tankmates.), swimming in a current, poking around at things, or laying in plants. If it wasn't for the fact that they eat a lot of other things, they'd be kept in aquariums with the rest of fish for sale, and perhaps treated better by pet owners who saw a good habitat demonstrated. (could you imagine the carnage though, with all the people who don't do research before having certain fish ...myself included!)

 

[D4MI4N]

Betta Bowls

As long as they are maintained, ie, the water is changed weekly, and
they not over-fed, I do not believe that a betta bowl is
necessarily cruel.

I have used gravel from an established tank to line the bottom of betta
bowls, and tested ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates every day for over a
month, and ammonia and nitrites remained at 0ppm, and nitrates were
slower in growth that my full tanks.

When I have kept bettas in traditional (western traditional) setups,
they choose some overhead cover in the corner, and stake it out. Once,
I placed the bowl a betta (Geraldo) had been living in, inside his new
10 gal aquarium, which he had to himself at the time. He took up
residence inside the bowl, inside the tank.

In the wild, Betta Splendens lives in oxygen poor, bacterially rich,
shallow muddy paddies, replete with rotting matter. A maintained
bowl is pristine in comparison.

Bettas in bowls are not the same as goldfish in bowls. Goldfish bowls
are always bad news. Goldfish get too big too fast, create copious
amounts of waste like no other fish I know of, and have no labarynthine
organ with which to breath surface air.

Betta bowls do have problems. Temperature regulation is of some
concern. Such a small mass of water, without heating or cooling
elements can fluctuate drastically. No fish digs that. For the moment,
I keep my bowls in the most temperature stable areas of my home. I
would be interested in a better solution, if someone's got one. But for
now, and the last eight years or so, they've been doing quite well (none
have lived 8 years, max is 4, average 2-3), exhibiting healthy, normal
appearance and behavioral responses.

Another problem is that many betta bowls have reflective inside surfaces
so that the bettas is constantly at odds with a phantom foe. I don't
know if they design them like this on purpose, so they're always
displaying, or not, but that sucks. Be sure your betta can relax.

I hate it more than anything when people do not provide the proper
environment for their living wards. I just don't think this is one of
those times. Don't get me started on the others...