New to the forum.

[Guppy lover]

Hi everyone! I am new to the forum but not to fish keeping (I have been in the hobby for 5 years.) My main love is the guppyas I love seeing the Fry's colours develop. I am going to try a low tech planted aquarium as I can't really afford all the co2 and supplements people seem to buy. I also have a Betta who I am trying to help, he just always seems so sad. Hopefully a 40l aquarium will make him smile again!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Do you have any plants in with the Betta?
If not, perhaps add a Water Sprite plant (Ceratopteris thalictroies/ cornuta) to his tank. It is a floating plant that can also be planted in the gravel and does well in most tanks with a bit a light.

Make sure the water is good and maybe vary his diet a bit. He will eat small insects like mozzies, mozzie larvae, small flied, aphids, weevil larvae (found in flour) and ants/ ant eggs. Just make sure they are free of chemicals. You can also try live brineshrimp or daphnia. Brineshrimp live in salt water and you buy them in bags at the pet shop. Some pet shops also sell daphnia and it is a small freshwater crustacean that will live in an aquarium until it gets eaten.

If you don't have access to safe chemical free insects you can buy frozen foods at pet shops and use them. If you do use frozen foods, make sure the filter is working properly because most frozen foods produce a lot of ammonia which can kill fish in a tank without an established filter.

 

[Guppy lover]

Thanks for the reply and plant suggestions. The planted tank will be for my Betta bit I'll look out for a water sprite.
At the moment I feed my betta dried blood worms and sinking pellets, which he seems to enjoy more than flakes. I think it is the lack of entertainment in his tank that he doesn't enjoy, even though he has a Java moss ball. I might eventually get him an airstone to play in the bubbles with bit I'll first get him used to the tank.

Quick question: my Betta seams to not realise he is a Betta, he's so friendly with no aggressive signs. I want to maby get him a friend or two, that are in the same water peramaters. I was thinking of maby cherry shrimp, endlers or danio fish if it is not possible thats okay too I guess.

 

[Colin_T]

The male Siamese fighting fish (aka Betta) was made by hybridising Betta splendens with Betta imbellis. Betta splendens is very aggressive towards males of their own kind, whereas Betta imbellis is peaceful and can be kept in groups. Because of this, some male B. splendens are actually quite peaceful (due to having the peaceful traits from B. imbellis). However, if you put a mirror on the side of the tank, your male should flare his fins out and try to attack and drive away the intruder (his reflection). So even tho he might seem peaceful, if another male comes into his territory, he would probably try to chase it away or kill it.

You can actually put a mirror against the outside of his tank and leave it there for about 10-15minutes, then remove the mirror. Do this once or twice a week. Your male will see his reflection and consider it an intruder and show off in an attempt to drive it away. After 5-15minutes you remove the mirror and your male thinks he has driven the other male away. He will then strut around the tank for a bit thinking he is a big man, before settling back down to his mellow ways.

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In a reasonable size tank with lots of plants, you can keep some fish with male Bettas. However, you need a tank that holds at least 40 litres and you need to avoid fish that are active, nip fins, or are related to Bettas.
Fish to avoid include: danios; barbs; serpae, black widow, Beunos aires & blind cave tetras; gouramis and rainbowfish. The danios, barbs & rainbows are too active for a Betta. The tetras are fin nippers and some barbs are too (mainly tiger barbs). The gouramis will be treated the same as an intruding male Betta and get attacked.

Shrimp and snails are normally fine with Bettas.

Endlers livebearer and other livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails & platies require hard alkaline water. Whereas Bettas come from soft acid water. So avoid Endlers and other livebearers.

If you wanted to try some fish, and the tank is at least 2 foot long and has lots of plants, you could look at a group of tetras (neons, black phantom, glowlight, black neon tetras) or some small catfish (Corydoras). If you visit your local pet shop they might have male Bettas in some of their tanks with other fish. If they do you should be able to keep those types of fish with your Betta. Having said all this, you still have to watch your Betta during the first few weeks after adding any new fish. Some are fine and get along great with other fish, and some turn nasty.

 

[Guppy lover]

Thanks for the reply again, I love Cory's but I already have a clown pleco in my community 70l tank so this might finally be my chance to get them ! Thanks for the advice ill go to the LFS and see what they have in stock.

 

[Colin_T]

Before you buy any fish, write down a list of what you like and post it on here. We can go thru it and say yes or no.