Would a small female betta possible work in a 2/3 gallon container?
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fishcatch22 said:
Exactly, you could make a mini aquascape with it. Kind of like a bonzai type thing. Get some java moss and see if you can find a mini piece of driftwood or a cool looking rock, then some sort of short plant and viola!
echoofformless
Peat Advocate & Defender Of Snails
Out of positive experience, I kindly have to disagree with the general direction of this thread.
I have four of my bettas living in half gallon bowls. They have happily lived in these bowls for many years; the water is changed every two to three days.
They are beautifully vibrant, extremely colorful, playful and look more than happy to me. I would never subject any creature to cruelty, and thus I am firmly certain that you can keep your female betta in a body of water that is even larger then the one where I currently keep mine. Naturally there is some care involved with things like water source consistency and temperature. But it's nothing as complicated as needing a filter or even heat so long as the water changes are constant and the vessels are located in a warm, consistent place. With every water change, the bowls are scrubbed with hot water before being refilled. I use a painless method of water changing which implements the use of a constant extra, empty bowl. What I do is fill the empty bowl, transfer the first betta, then srub out that bowl, fill it, transfer the next betta and so forth until all bettas are in clean homes and the last bowl is empty and ready for the next water change.
You tell me if this sassy little girl - with her deep color, full, erect fins and gorgeous deep soulful eyes, who has lived in her bowl for almost two years now, looks the least bit unhappy:
I have four of my bettas living in half gallon bowls. They have happily lived in these bowls for many years; the water is changed every two to three days.
They are beautifully vibrant, extremely colorful, playful and look more than happy to me. I would never subject any creature to cruelty, and thus I am firmly certain that you can keep your female betta in a body of water that is even larger then the one where I currently keep mine. Naturally there is some care involved with things like water source consistency and temperature. But it's nothing as complicated as needing a filter or even heat so long as the water changes are constant and the vessels are located in a warm, consistent place. With every water change, the bowls are scrubbed with hot water before being refilled. I use a painless method of water changing which implements the use of a constant extra, empty bowl. What I do is fill the empty bowl, transfer the first betta, then srub out that bowl, fill it, transfer the next betta and so forth until all bettas are in clean homes and the last bowl is empty and ready for the next water change.
You tell me if this sassy little girl - with her deep color, full, erect fins and gorgeous deep soulful eyes, who has lived in her bowl for almost two years now, looks the least bit unhappy:
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Im sure you could put a Betta in there and it would robably be ok like echo said, but I wouldnt want to do anything that inhumane just to keep a fish. I mean I could live in a closet with proper food and water but WHY? would I want to do that???
When I got my first tank I only had and still have 4 fish in there because I like to think of where they came from (lake,river,ocean) WHATEVER it may be they had so much room out there. Dont confine him into a little bowl.
That all might sound crazy and its just my opinion but I think its a pretty good one!!
Have fun, good luck and make the right choice
When I got my first tank I only had and still have 4 fish in there because I like to think of where they came from (lake,river,ocean) WHATEVER it may be they had so much room out there. Dont confine him into a little bowl.
That all might sound crazy and its just my opinion but I think its a pretty good one!!
Have fun, good luck and make the right choice
for mini aquascaping with plants, i say yes. for some shrimps, i say sure. for fish? i don't think so.
echoofformless said:
I was keeping out of this thread for various reasons, but since he already brought it up.
You can keep bettas in half gallon+ bowls. You can do so without being "cruel" to the fish. If your temperatures are stable and in an acceptable range, you can do it without a heater. If you're willing to do water changes every 3rd day or so, and clean the bowls themselves once every/every other week, you can do so without a filter. I've had several males in small containers like that that happily flare and blow bubblenests to their hearts content without getting sick.
Throw a bit of java moss in there, don't overfeed, and remove excess food and it's actually fairly easy to keep ammonia and nitrites at acceptable levels between water changes, provided you do them frequently enough.
I don't recommend your average fish keeper keep any fish in a bowl, because you really need to be commited to your fish in order to keep up that level of maintenance, and quite frankly most people just aren't. But if you're willing to do it, and keep doing it, it can be done.
All that being said, it's obviously better to keep your fish in a stable, heated, filtered environment. So I'd suggest getting a tank rather than a bowl.
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Regardless of how well you maintain a bowl that small, how in the world is the fish going to be happy? Where is it going to swim? That's the problem with tanks/bowls that small. There is no where for the fish to swim! It's going to be bored as hell just sitting there all day long, all night long, for its entire life. Fish are living animals and should be treated that way. They are not just ornaments that you drop into a tiny little tank because it looks nice.
