Betta question

JoeRags3

AC Members
Jan 11, 2006
166
0
16
42
Millstone Township, NJ
Today I saw a BEAUTIFUL pale yellow almost white betta at Petsmart!! I am starting to to set-up a vivarium for fire bellied newts which prefer a lower temp, but I also wanted to keep some fish in it as well. Would a tank of approx 72* be too cold for a betta to survive in? I plan on keeping a small school of neons in there as well. But until that is set up, running and cycled (most likely with bio-spira) would it be safe to keep the betta in my community tank in like a large breeder net so it wont be nipped at by my blue guoramis and vice versa?

Joe
 
72 is too cold for a betta

they need temps between 79-83 degrees farenheight- depending on the personality of the bettas and the other tank inhabitants i've heard of gouramis and bettas getting along- although with bettas one will and one won't

if i were you i'd put the betta in my community tank while i cycled a cheap new 10 gallon for him.

cheers-Kyle
 
I agree. All of the bettas I kept at room temp ending up dying off very young. My betta that I have kept at 78-80F has been thriving for 2 years now, even fighting off the occasional ripped fin. 72F is also much too cold for neons.

A nice 5-10 gallon tank woudl be perfect for a betta (as kyle3 mentioned), the 10 allowing for a few tankmates (like a small school of neons). A simple way to get it cycled is to use old filter media from your exisiting tank, or else run the new tanks filter on the old tank for a week.

As for the vivarium, you could go with white cloud minnows as they thrive in cooler waters. A better choice than neons for sure, and usually very hardy.
 
AquariaCentral.com