Help! Betta Emergency

[Dae]

Hello!

I hate that my first post to the forum has to be an emergency, but there's no help for it. I went to a fish shop on the weekend and bought a variety of fish. Nothing wrong with those, so I won't focus on them. What is the problem is the person at the counter accidentally gave me someone else's fish bag in addition to ours! I come home, after a fair drive home, to find out we've come home with an unexpected, but beautiful fantail male betta. Now ordinarily I would've had my husband back in the car bringing us back to the fish place, but as it was impossible to make it back in time, we have to deal with our unexpected guest.

Both of the tanks I have, the 15G/55L and the 80G/300L tanks both have nippy tetras in them, so these are both unsuitable. At the moment he's in the smaller of the two as it's only neons in there at the moment (which aren't behaving too badly yet), and a honey gourami that couldn't care less about the betta. The poor thing is cowering on the bottom. It's my only solution for the moment, but I have to do something to create a safer environment until I can return him on the weekend. I don't know anybody who can keep this guy safe until the weekend so I can't hand him to someone else. I cannot return it sooner as my husband has the only car, and he works during the fish place's opening hours. As a result, I'm left to botch something together until the weekend.

Thus the question I have, is where can I place this betta until the weekend? And what kind of setup will I need to keep him going? I have a bucket I could put him in, or even a spare tank I could borrow (a VERY small cheapie plastic one). But in both these situations I have NO spare heaters. What can I do?

Thanks in advance!

 

[WILDER]

You could section the tank off, do you have anything in the house you could use.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok firstly don't panic, i'm sure you can get this little fishy through 1 week. betta's are relativley hardy and are very often kept in minute tanks with no filters or heaters (not that i condone it as a long term solution, but if they died instantly then people obviously wouldn't do it) so you can make a set up that will do him for 1 week.

Do you know what size the tank is? So long as it's 1gal or so then it should be OK for 1 week. try and pop some plants/ornaments from one of your main tanks into their so that he has some cover.

if you've no filter then you'll need to do daily water changes so you don't get ammonia build up, depending on the size of the tank this may be up to 100% water changes. Just monitor ammonia and nitrite and get some daily changes done and that'll take care of the water.

regarding heat, the smaller the tank the quicker it will heat up and cool down, you could get something like a desk light and put that above the tank on a timer so it's on for an hr then off for 3/4 then on for an hr and so on, obviously you'll need to monitor the temp and do some fiddling with the timings to keep it relativley stable. but that's all he needs.

for 1 week he should hopefully be fine with normal flake food.

hope that helps a bit

 

[Dae]

Thank you both for your advice, it's been very helpful. I'm so full of guilt, I wish I'd checked my bags more carefully before leaving the store. I hope he doesn't pay for my carelessness. Here's what I've done so far with him.

I've drawn water from the tank he was in and placed it in a clean bucket (I use this for water changes on the 80 gallon tank, easily a few gallons in size). I've managed to get a hand on a small heater to keep the water warm, and I've got a thermometer to keep an eye on the temp. I'll do a water change every day, probably about 75%. Hopefully I can convince him to eat sometime this evening, poor mite.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like you're doing the best you can. get a bit of cover in there for him if you can. just a few plants or something. dunno how much you know about betta's but they're not always strong swimmers and also can breathe from the surface. they generally like to have some plants or something they can rest on that's near the top of the tank so it's just a short hop up to breathe at the surface. doesn't matter what it is, but if there's something he can rest on he'll prefer it

 

[ParsonsD]

Sorry for just jumping into a conversation like this, and to be honest the betta may already be back at the aquaria lol
But the most easy and safe way to keep him is put him in a little breeder tank ( Which fits into your tank anyway) Therefore no extra heaters or tanks and stuff

sounds like you're doing the best you can. get a bit of cover in there for him if you can. just a few plants or something. dunno how much you know about betta's but they're not always strong swimmers and also can breathe from the surface. they generally like to have some plants or something they can rest on that's near the top of the tank so it's just a short hop up to breathe at the surface. doesn't matter what it is, but if there's something he can rest on he'll prefer it

 

[WILDER]

Never thought of that lol.
Though there bit on the small side.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I don't like those tbh. and if the OP could get to an LFS to buy one, then they could get to the LFS to return the betta!

 

[Dae]

I don't like those tbh. and if the OP could get to an LFS to buy one, then they could get to the LFS to return the betta!

Ah yes, this was going to be my point as well. I'll see what I can do to put a plant in there, but I don't have very many tall ones at the moment (darn pleco in the large tank mowed them over ) Maybe I can use some fake plants I used to have in the small tank, that'd at least be something.

I don't know what else I can do. I just have to hope that what I've done will get him through the week, I'm gonna stress the whole week long.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

fake plants would be fine, if you've a ceramic plant pot of a suitable size that could do as well. really doesnt matter what it is, just something to give some cover and somewhere to sit.

think that's all you can do really, good luck and i hope you get him through it. make sure you post back and let us know how you've got along.

 

[Juice]

A betta will do fine in a glass bowl/vase, put him in the largest vase you can find and do a water change 2 times a week (id suggest using the water from your tanks to refill the vase)

Put one of those water plants too (it is like a fake bamboo and its always found inside a bottle) they are good for the bettas. When I get a new batch of guppy fry in my tank I have to take out the betta as he thinks the fry are snack. I put him in a vase w/ a plant untill the fry grow a bit

 

[LauraFrog]

A vase is really too small for a betta to live in comfortably especially with water changes only twice a week. I have been forced to keep bettas in half gallon jars before but all the water is changed daily.

I think the betta will survive because he's gone home with somebody who actually cares about his welfare. If only all the lost, unwanted and mistreated fish 'accidentally' ended up like this the world would be a better place.

 

[Dae]

I think the betta will survive because he's gone home with somebody who actually cares about his welfare. If only all the lost, unwanted and mistreated fish 'accidentally' ended up like this the world would be a better place.

Gosh, thanks for that laura, but I don't know if I deserve it. If I'd paid more attention to the bags I was given at the store, this never would've happened.

Well, he's made it well through the night and seems happy as a clam despite being in a large blue bucket . He seems to enjoy the plastic plants I put in and the temp is remaining steady. I'll be giving a water change later today, as I've been trying to get him to eat. To no avail, I don't think he's eaten anything. But I'll keep trying once a day (don't worry, only a few bits at a time, that I fish out if he doesn't eat them).

As it happens, my husband as become smitten with this lovely boy, (he really is a lovely betta) and he's considering setting up a small tank for him (despite already having two tanks ). My husband thinks that if we give him back to the shop, it's likely he may go home to somebody who ends up killing him for neglect, despite all we've done to keep him alive and happy. I told him that's what I would've done immediately if I'd been able to, and probably spent way too much money So I gave him the job of being my conscience. If we do choose to keep him, we'll be buying a rather small tank (between 5 and 10G) to have all to himself, as he seems to prefer it that way.

Will let you all know how we get on.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I think the betta will survive because he's gone home with somebody who actually cares about his welfare. If only all the lost, unwanted and mistreated fish 'accidentally' ended up like this the world would be a better place.

Gosh, thanks for that laura, but I don't know if I deserve it. If I'd paid more attention to the bags I was given at the store, this never would've happened.

Well, he's made it well through the night and seems happy as a clam despite being in a large blue bucket . He seems to enjoy the plastic plants I put in and the temp is remaining steady. I'll be giving a water change later today, as I've been trying to get him to eat. To no avail, I don't think he's eaten anything. But I'll keep trying once a day (don't worry, only a few bits at a time, that I fish out if he doesn't eat them).

As it happens, my husband as become smitten with this lovely boy, (he really is a lovely betta) and he's considering setting up a small tank for him (despite already having two tanks ). My husband thinks that if we give him back to the shop, it's likely he may go home to somebody who ends up killing him for neglect, despite all we've done to keep him alive and happy. I told him that's what I would've done immediately if I'd been able to, and probably spent way too much money So I gave him the job of being my conscience. If we do choose to keep him, we'll be buying a rather small tank (between 5 and 10G) to have all to himself, as he seems to prefer it that way.

Will let you all know how we get on.

ha ha ha i had an inkling you'd end up keeping him.

i had a male betta in a 8gal tank by himself for a while, he loved it, loads of room for him and cos it's a small tank still it was dead easy to maintain and set up.

 

[Dae]

LOL well it's not certain yet. As I said, it's totally up to my hubby whether we keep him or not. If I were able to say whether we kept him or not, obviously, it'd be a no-brainer. I would love to keep him and it would give me the very nice excuse of buying another fishtank, even if only for one fish.