oooh environmental considerations! Well in that case you should use the 5 gallon to house the work hamsters who will create the power with their wheels. then there is the feed considerations, though you could hydroponically grow the hamster's food in the tank, and use the dried plants for hamster straw to sleep in. The old tank water would go into the worm farm set-up, to give the fish a varied diet.
Human convenience is fish convenience...it is easier for me to do less waster changes...if done on a filtered tank, the fish too would be happy. If done in the unfiltered tank, it would soon parish.
Finantial considerations are also in the fishes best interest. If you are paying too much on your hamster care to run the power filter/heater, you might as well have tanken the other option. I don't think the GOVT. offers finantial support to fish keepers who have exceeded their budget, despite how much I think they should.
Now if you worked those to out to your preference, then you'd be more likely to be motivated to take care of your fish. if the set up was a burden, it would potentially suffer neglect.
There was another point I thought of before. Unfortunately I just learned a new fact, and apparently it pushed the old point out of my head. I'll have to get back to you.
So holly, does the winner get the betta and a heated tank?
Human convenience is fish convenience...it is easier for me to do less waster changes...if done on a filtered tank, the fish too would be happy. If done in the unfiltered tank, it would soon parish.
Finantial considerations are also in the fishes best interest. If you are paying too much on your hamster care to run the power filter/heater, you might as well have tanken the other option. I don't think the GOVT. offers finantial support to fish keepers who have exceeded their budget, despite how much I think they should.
Now if you worked those to out to your preference, then you'd be more likely to be motivated to take care of your fish. if the set up was a burden, it would potentially suffer neglect.
There was another point I thought of before. Unfortunately I just learned a new fact, and apparently it pushed the old point out of my head. I'll have to get back to you.
So holly, does the winner get the betta and a heated tank?
) and have always liked the look of bettas in large decorative vases without all the filters/wires etc. So, I was/am considering getting a very large vase sort of structure (at least 5g, maybe more) for him. On such a small tank, the water changes are not an issue, it only takes a couple of minutes, and I too worry a great deal about my fish, so I would make sure he was not living in bad water. 
