how can i do this safely?

[Rayne]

I recently saw the most beautiful collection of betta's at my lfs. the have a huge wall of betta bowls that show them off beautifully. They are well taken care of as a local person breeds them and maintains their bowls in the store. This new store is fantastic they make sure that the fish are well cared for and in the dozen or so times i've been there i've only seen 1 dead fish in their dozens of tanks.

Anyway i really want to start a collection ( i know this dosen't sound right but can't really find the right words to describe otherwise). I was planning on housing the bettas in large flower vases that i already have.

Now please nobody get upset. I wouldn't put any flowers or anything in with them, strictly fish vases. They are about 6-8 inches in diameter and about 10-12 inches high. i was only planning on placing a few polished stones in the bottom. i know water changes will have to be performed regularly, how often???

I want to display these beauties in my living roomalong with my 55 gal and 10 gal i was going to display them on my fireplace (electric, dosen't heat up) . I was planning on purchasing at least 3 or 4 of these beauties over the next few weeks if i can .


P.S. do you test the water for bettas like you do for your regular fresh water tanks, i mean if you never really cycle it dose it ever really test accuratly.?? I only ever kept a betta in a little jar when i was little before i really knew what i was doing

 

[veen]

if the vases hold at least a gallon of water each then they should be ok. water changes should be done at least once a week. and yes, you should definitely test the water religiously. i test all my betta tanks and my other 2 tanks (1 fw community & 1 sw) about once a week. if the params are off i do a higher percent water change than usual. for my small betta tanks it seems as if i have do at least 25%-50% water changes each time in my 3, 2 & 2.5 gallons.

 

[Kiarra]

It sounds like you have the absolute best intentions when it comes to these fish.

No, you don't have to test the water like you do for other fish. Just perform full water changes every few days, depending on the volume of the water. If possible, would you tell us how much water these vases that you have in mind hold? Then we can tell you about how often you should be changing their water out.

By the way, some kind of lid that isn't air-tight and doesn't restrict the Betta's access to the surface is very important, as this is a species that likes to jump, and can jump very high.

 

[Rayne]

i'm not entirely sure how much they hold but using the old maths equation the volume is calculated (pie)*( radius squared)*(height) which is areund

3.14*6^2*12 = 1356.48

i calculated by the smallest diameter to see the smallest it could be judging by my guesstimation.

i'm guessing this is the oz. i'm guessing approx a gallon although is is probley a little bigber than that i just want to be on the safe side of measuring.

 

[wuvmybetta]

One thing I would suggest is that you go ahead and spend an extra few dollars to get wonderful,thick glassed vases. You don't want a thin glass that will break when you do water changes,especially if you're going to put rocks in the bottom.

Have fun and stick around to show your fish to us

 

[Rayne]

the vases i have are thick, heavey, vases. They were used for centerpieces for a wedding (not mine). Anyway it was a few years ago and they were going to be thrown out. i knew i could use them for something so i collected them all and saved them in my shed. I forgot about them until a few days ago when i was cleaning it out. I imediatly thought they were perfect for bettas but i wanted to check here first and see what my local stores had to offer. When i get them i'll post pics if i can ( my camera sometimes works and sometimes dosen't)

 

[Raechal]

Just make sure you'd be willing to do 100% water changes for all of the vases every day or two.

 

[Rayne]

not a problem if i had a flower arrangement displayed there i would change the water on the flowers so i definatly will change it on fish that could give me years of happiness.

another question: for the water tests should i be watching and concerned about the amonia and nitrites the most?

 

[Lifelike]

Because you'll be changing the water several times each week, you don't need to do water testing--the water won't be in the vases long enough to matter. Just make sure you do the water changes. Also make sure you check the fish every day to make sure each is continuing to show NO signs of illness or parasites or finrot, etc.--better to catch and cure any funkiness early on. You might want to also get a few extra vases so when one vase starts looking a little icky (a scientific term) from algae build up or otherwise, you can quickly switch the fish to another vase and clean the dirty one. Make sure the vases keep the water at a constant 75-80F degrees. Turkey baste out any food the fish doesn't eat wtihin 5 minutes so bacteria doesn't have a chance to feed. After a while, you may want to consider building a betta barracks so you can have a wall displaying all your beautifies that basically cleans itself while giving each fish a constant supply of clean fresh water.

 

[Rayne]

whats a betta barracks