im goin off to college soon and was thinking of having a betta in my dorm room and i had a couple of questions. is 3 to 5 gallons enough for a male betta. next around here they sell bettas in these plastic cup things, are those the same bettas that you guys buy. what i think im tryin to ask is are there better types of bettas out there. and second do bettas need a filter and heater to be happy? i live in new york state so it gets pretty dam cold but my room will be heated to normal room temp. thanks for your help.

Yes it will be happy in 3-5 gals, the minimum is about 2.5 gals, so it has plenty of room.

The ones in the cups are usually fine, but you should make sure you get a healthy one. it will be active, and the cup should be clean..

You will need a heater, as they like it to be about 28c (81-82F)
It would make it easier to have a filter, as water changes wouldn't be daily, but weekly
you might aswell have a filter for the sake of $18 lol (im from UK idk how much that is)

thanks for the advice.

3-5gallons would be perfect.
Walmart sells a 5 gallon hex tank for I think $30. Maybe a little more, I can't remember heh.
It comes with a hood built in bio-wheel filter/light. Very nice little tank.

Make sure to read up on fishless cycling the tank as well.
http://www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/
Eventually the filter will make your life easier, but you're going to have to cycle it first.
If you just plop the betta in to the tank before cycling it, the betta is going to have to suffer through the cycling process which may end up either hurting it, and/or killing it.

Yes a heater should be gotten. Although your room may be warm, the tanks temp should be kept a consistent temp to prevent unnecessary stress on the betta.

And as Hawkins mentioned, the ones in the cups are totally fine. You just have to make sure that they're not sickly when you first get them. Sometimes they might not be as hardy as others, but they're still all great fish that need a home