Bettas And Bottom Feeders?

[dodgegmc]

new to betta tanks. wanted to know if I should get a bottom feeder for the tank or not. its a 3 gal tank with no other fish in there. we're doing water changes every week to week & half at the moment. it does have a filter to it as well. didn't know if getting a bottom feeder can help us reduce how often we change the water and what kind will play nice with my betta. wanted to get advice from here instead of large chain store that has no one really experienced with bettas. any advice will be appreciated.
~dodgegmc

 

[TallTree01]

3 gallon is barely big enough for a betta let alone anything else. If you must add something 2-3 shrimp or a snail would just about do it.
My advice:
Get a 20 gallon
Put your betta in there
Get a shoal of tetras
Get a shoal of cories
Put tetras and cories in the 20 gallon
Buy 5 shrimp
Put them in the 3 gallon

 

[RCA]

and thanks for asking.
3 gallon is quite small, are you able to upgrade to a larger tank?
How long have you had your Betta, and do you have a picture?
 
I have Cory's, Kuhlis/Java Loaches, Ottos as my "clean up" crew, but my tanks are generally larger than yours.  Have a look at Corys, they are wonderful little workers but you would need a larger tank to house them.  Panda Corys are cute and stay fairly small compared to some of the others.
 
Hopefully with a Betta it should only be fed small amounts and generally will eat what you give him/her straight away.
 
NB: no bottom feeder will make up for how often you do water changes, and the smaller the aquarium the more you have to do them, you may even need to do yours twice a week.  Just taking out a couple of jug fulls of water and replacing them helps.  If you think about it in the wild the water is constantly replacing itself whereas in an aquarium, especially a small one, the water can soon become stale from the waste the fish produce.  Also, by adding bottom feeders you are increasing the load on the aquarium and filter so it would not reduce the water changes but increase them and in your small aquarium this alas is not possible.
 
Can you put your location in your profile as it assists in advising you, as different Countries have different equipment etc.
 
Hope this helps.

 

[Wildbetta]

I do not advise adding anything extra to your tank.  It really is too small for anything but your betta and I even would advise a little bigger tank for him.    Now if you had around a 10 gallon tank, I would advise a small school of one of the 3 types of pygmy cories.  I would also recommend you continue to do regular weekly water changes as they are the best thing to do to prevent illness in your fish.  There is no amount of adding anything that would lessen your need to do waterchanges regularly.  Any other fish you add just add to the bioload for the tank which increases your need for regular waterchanges.

 

[dodgegmc]

thank you to all three that responded. the information helped me greatly. I am unable to upgrade my tank at this time so I wont be adding any bottom feeders to it and will continue the water changes. he is quite a happy betta and even made his first bubble nest a few days ago! I would add a pic for yall but don't know how to do it here. and im not linking it up to FB since there are so many kiddos trolling this site. thanks again everyone
 
**wildbetta.... I remember talkin to you before about my betta but couldn't remember ur name till you responded here! as you can read from above, we were able to save him and he looks good as new. people at the shop said the current was too strong for him in the other tank. we tested all the water and everythings good to go. you should see how active he is now!**

 

[Wildbetta]

I am soo glad to hear that everything has worked out with him!!