Poor Betta

[EOD]

Hey! I'm just an innocent idiot! I'm at home playing video games and my wife comes home from the store with her supposed fish loving friend and they have new fish. They show me the puffers and they put them in a tank with all the other fish. Until I bought my 40 gallon, I had nothing to do with our fish but having my own tank got me into it. Now that I am into it, we have had no casualties. I think you would all like that.

 

[lookit]

Okay, everyone. Chill out. EOD is a newbie and wants to learn, so let's help him. We all learn from our mistakes -- Lord knows, I've made tons. EOD, I'm pleased to hear that you've had no casualties since you got your own tank. Keep asking questions, especially about stocking. We're all glad to make suggestions and help you steer clear of obvious mismatches.

 

[fishycat]

Awesome! The pet store in mililani told me about the $1/g sale and I was super excited BUT they said that it doesn't include the hood or anything else so I figured it would end up costing me quite a bit. I get paid Wednesday and I leave Friday for Maui. I think I'll go to petco wednesday and buy a nice new tank and start it's cycle (WITHOUT FISH:grinno before I leave. I have a 1-2 gallon hex aquarium that is filtered and we can put the Betta in there tomorrow. The heater, yes, is not needed but I did put a little heater in my 40gallon because last time i put my hand in that water it was very cold, since the installation of the heater I've noticed a lot more movement and action out of all the fish and now the angelfish is chasing the other ones (i posted this problem just now in a different thread) Once I get the new tank and I get back from Maui, I can use you guys (yeah thats right, USE YOU! jk) to help me figure out how to arrang my fish so that they will all be happy considering the current arrangement is

Can you guys let me know what type/size/substrate/rocks/plants you recommend for this new tank. Let's make it a class project...you being the class and me being the hot (of course) teacher. (even know it's backasswards since you are all the teachers but I always wanted to be a hot teacher)

Do you have a thermometer in your tank(s)? If not, I highly recommend getting one. My water ranges between 75 (with air conditioning on) to 83+ without a heater. I'm surprised you really need one.

Since you have an established filter, you can take some of the media from that filter... what kind of established filter do you have? are you using cartridges? a sponge? you can cut off part of the sponge & add it to your new filter. Squeezing out dirty sponge/media into your new filter media will "seed" it with beneficial bacteria. Cartridges are generally crap and you could get Aqua Clear sponges & cut them to fit into your filter compartment. If you do have a cartridge, you can slit it open and remove some of the exhausted carbon bits to put into your new filter. the exhausted carbon will have beneficial bacteria growing on it. I really dislike cartridges because it encourages people to throw out the old ones & replace new, which means tossing out all of your established beneficial bacteria.

There quite a few fish stores in Aiea/Pearl City. Coral Fish is on Moanalua Road close to Kaahumanu Street, mountain side, near Safeway. They have fresh & salt water fish, lots of supplies. Moanalua Pets is located near Kmart and the Aloha Stadium in the same shopping center as Ice Palace skate rink.

I live over the mountain, in Kaneohe. There are a couple other Hawaii people on here... oh, there's a local fish club that meets the first Friday of each month in town. http://www.honoluluaquariumsociety.org/ They do auctions/swaps, etc. You should check them out!

 

[EOD]

Sweet. I'll have to check those out. I got paid today and I am thinking of going and buying a tank but I dunno, I guess it could wait until I get back from Maui. I'm just so excited. I have a stick-on thermometer in the tank downstairs (14g) and it stays 76-78. I bought a stick-on thermometer for the tank upstairs but its crap and doesn't display temperature at all sooo before I leave I have to go to petco anyway....yay!

 

[fishycat]

Well, the Petco sale ends on the 18th or 19th... so...

 

[EOD]

Hows this for a new home for Curtis?

 

[fishycat]

Honestly I'd ditch the jar... you can get small terra cotta flower pots @ home depot or walmart (I soak 'em in water & whack it in half for a "hut"). That's a HUGE filter... Pets Plus in town (bottom of Ward Avenue) has Azoo palm filters that are rated for 2-3g tanks, has adjustable flow also which is good for bettas.

 

[EOD]

I'm going to go find a smaller filter tomorrow. The whole idea behind the jar was so the betta would have somewhere to get away from the intense water flow but it did horribly. There was practically a vortex in the jar and the betta had to fight to stay in it. I found a little pot we used to use for a flytrap and put it in there. I didn't think to chop it in half and honestly I'd be worried it would break into a million pieces. (tips on how to break it?) Here is the new picture with the pot inside it. Since the pot has a hole inside it, no vortex effect.

 

[Flower1982]

Your betta looks happy in his new tank.

 

[EOD]

Here's exactly how happy the betta is! Neat little video.
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BTW it took my 15 minutes to figure out how to post video. yay me