I Had A Betta For 2 Days Now

[jess6905]

i dont want to be mean or anything(putting it lightly) and im sorry it will be coming at you very harshly but......... what is with you?!?!?! from what iv read so far you dont even really care about what will happen to your fish. you think they are healthy because they are eating and swimming around which is great to hear that they are doing these things but it doesnt indicate that the fish are healthy. just because a fish does these thing doesnt mean that it isnt suffering from amonia and other toxins in the water. i'll admit im not the best at doing regular water changes, but i still do them often enough to keep my fish happy and healthy. although water changes can be a pain they must be done, and we all must learn at some point how to do them. also cycling your tank is another thing you need to do. yet again its a pain to sit there waiting for the tank to cycle, but it is worth it. if you look in the but sell swap section, or just ask around on here you might be able to fimd a member or two who would be more than happy to give you some already mature filter material which will help cut your time cycling down by alot possibly(post in the tropical chat about how it would work out) yet again you need to take back or rehome your fish. everyone on here has told you about reoming your fish several times, but you just keep on saying that they are expencive and that you are too attatched to them to get rid of any of them. yes fish and everything that you need for them can be expencive, but in the long run if you were to do what you are being told to do by these fine people you will be saving yourself alot of time trouble and money. you will have to get over your attatchment issuse with your fish especially if you want to keep mollies since they breed and give birth to live babies which will grow and the process will continue til your tank is way over stocked. with that you could run into the possibility of health issues due to inbreeding which is not good. i get attatched to my fish but just today i had to take back 4 of my 10 goldfish plus 3 of my pregnate adult guppies, and my suncat. i had to do that because i was either already over stocked on my way to being over stocked or didnt have the money to get the proper size tanks for my fish as they would quickly out grow my tanks. in the next few weeks im going to have to take back atleast 5-10 more of my guppies once they get a bit bigger, and atleast 2-4 more of my goldfish (i just have to choose which ones will go next). i might even just trade in all of the guppies except 3-4 because they breed so frequently, but at the same time i have also been blessed to have such a great lfs that is willing to work with people and give them store credit for any trade ins people bring them (as long as they have the space). any decent lfs will take back fish and give store credit for those fish. also when you look to restock please come back and let people help you figure out how many fish of each type you should get. i say this because i just looked over your list of what you have, and all of your fish should be kept with more fish of the same type than you have. you can do that in the tropical chat area. they will tell how many of each fish, what fish go best together, and they will help to prevent you from becoming overstocked. like i said before im sorry that this is probably coming off as very mean, and well even rude but you should really listen to these people on here when they tell you that you need to rehome fish and cycle a tank and what not. they are all great and knoledgable people who are just trying to save your fish from unnecissary suffering/death and educate you at the same time. i hope what im telling gets through along with what everyone else has already told you.

 

[Ukfan]

1sty let me clear something: I have taken my fish back to the shop!!

2ndly I am very grateful for all your advice but I dont need a lecture from everyone of you's, The fact that I'm only here to ask for advice and you give the members a lecture is not very welcoming.

I just wanted to get that out of the way.

Also Jess mentioned tap water to be treated. In what way does the water need to be treated? What does it need?

Your all saying my fish would have died if i did not take it back, well at the end of the day a fish is a fish, weather it does die or not all fish die. Think back when you were kids and you won a gold fish at the circus and you put it in a bowl and after a few days it died. I know mine did. All fish have to die someday weather to do with not cleaning tanks, or mysterious illness. When I 1st got my 5 neon tretras, one went missing. I dunno how or why but i reckon one of the mollies must of ate it, i checked my pump-was not in there. And when fish die they float to the top-but it was not dead so it must have been eaten. All things die, and no matter how attached you are to the fish, it will die eventually, and If i did not care for my fish i would not waste money on the tank, fish and equipment so please be careful of what you say cos I care about all my pets!
But think about all those insects you stand on everyday-you do not know how many you've killed but people do!

I'm sorry if i've gone off topic here but i just wanted to say this and i do care about my fish!! Espeacily Spike!

 

[Ukfan]

1 more question are you guys experts/professionals/pet shop owners? or what or are you guys just do this for every day to day stuff?

 

[fuman_chica]

I personally have been keeping fish for over four years. And honestly, the advice you have been given here is more than I was given to begin with.

In order for your fish to live longer than a few days (like your old goldfish from the circus) you need to have positive bactieria in the tank. These bacteria start from the waste your fish put out (or if you do a fishless cycle, then chemical ammonia). Ammonia (which is in fish waste) is toxic. It will kill your fish. After a while ammonia begins to create nitrite. That is another bacteria. It is also toxic to fish, but not as toxic as ammonia. The nitrite begins to eat the toxic ammonia. So your ammonia levels go down. After a while the nitrite makes nitrate. Nitrate eats the nitrite. So the nitrite levels go down. Which makes the water safe for fish.

In order to keep the water safe for fish, you need to do routine water changes. I personally use a gravel vacuum. It cleans up the extra waste in the gravel while sucking up water at the same time. So the waste gets taken out of the gravel and you can put fresh water in to replace the dirty water. If you don't do water changes the ammonia will begin to build up too quickly for the nitrite to eat it. And therefore you will begin to poison your fish.

With my 10 gallon tank I take out 2-4 gallons of water every 2-4 weeks for my water changes. That would be 20-40% water changes at least once every two weeks (or twice a month). I also have a filter in my tank. I clean the filter out probably once a month. I rinse out the the cartiage and that's it. As the good bacteria grows on everything in the tank. Completely cleaning the filter would kill all that good bacteria.

You must ONLY use treated water with your fish. Treated water means that you put dechlorinater in your tap water. And honestly I would put it in any water I used for my fish just in case. Most water contains some level of chlorine and other chemicals that will kill your fish. Dechlorinater takes care of that.



I made this as simple as I can. If you don't understand or don't listen, I don't know what else to do. We have all tried to explain things and it really does seem that you are just looking at the fish as just a $6 investment. They are much more than that. They are lives. We are just trying to help you keep them alive.

 

[girl4God81]

By the way UT, fish don't always float when they are dead. I have had several who were lying at the bottom of the tank dead, including bettas. And just because a betta isn't acting properly does not mean it has a cold......there are several diseases out there.

Yes fish die, most of us here have several fish and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it's a widely known fact that fish die but anyone who has a mindset of "oh well, they are going to die anyway" does NOT need to have fish, plain and simple. Fish (esp bettas) need great time and care to be put into them, it isn't simply a matter of throwing them into some water. I completely understand that you were misinformed from the beginning but if you plan to buy more fish, please reaseach a bit more (through us and the internet).

As I said before fish need time and care put into them, and by this I mean that you need to care enough to take the time to research diseases, foods, habitats, etc. You need to research more than talking to one petstore person, look around the forum and you will find some general guidelines. Some fish need heaters and some like colder water..these things are detrimental to the happiness and health of any fish.

Please ask questions to your hearts content, most people on here (myself included) LOVE our fish to the core (to the point where we call them our babies lol) and have studied our favorites and can probably help. You're right in saying fishkeeping is an expensive hobby. You have to buy heaters, filters, aquariums, chemicals, decorations, dechlorinators, testing kits, etc. It's only worth it if you WANT to do it though, and there really isn't an easy way to go about it otherwise.

 

[Ukfan]

fuman_chica thank you very much! Thats all I wnated to know and you explained it very well. If i could give you rep points or something like that on this forum I would (same to everyone else!). I understand it very well, and I do listen like. Dont know why you think I dont but oh well??

girl4God81 I understand what your saying and I'm saying that I dont want fish to die, they are very fasanating and beautiful creatres! I sure dont want mine to die that why I gave them back to pet shop just like every one has said so now i'm cycling. I aint gonna buy no more fish till about a month or abit longer then that so i can save up for some nice fish. But i wanted to know how you guys change water , test water etc.

I just wanted to know everything that you guys do with your fish. Cos a) I find it interesting and B) It helps my knowledge with fish cos I can go tell my mates at college how to look after a fish if they ask me how to as they have fish too.

When i talk about fish , and when friends and family have fish too all they think is you put them in water and thats that. Thats what I think but its not that simple as I found out!

Its like us humans dont want to sit in a dirty car or dirty house, we want it clean as for fish , cats, dogs and other animals!

But I just want to show my appricition to all the members who have given me soo much advice on fish and I hope to get alot more of it too . We all have a heart and we all want our fish to live as long as poss but its these basic factors we have to look out for. So thank you once again and hope to keep in touch.

 

[girl4God81]

Glad to know you are up to the challenge! My obsession with bettas started when my husband gave me one...yes just ONE, and after 3 weeks I bought another, and then a female, and then other fish and now I have 8 bettas! LOL

I am convinced that fish keeping will prove to be an addictive hobby as it did for me (and probably all of the rest of us here) and once you get the hang of things you will find yourself having to fight off the temptation of buying more on a regular basis!

 

[Ukfan]

Wow, thats some impressive stuff!

I was told by the pet shop man that you can't keep more than 1 betta in a community tank cos if there are more then 1 or more betta's, they kill each other.

DO you keep them seperate or all in 1 tank? and are they the same colour?

 

[fishlette]

everyone here is right. there is decades of experience floating around in this forum. there is a whole lot more to having a tank than people realise and its only by listening to people who have been there and done that can we learn to fix our problems before they get even worse.

i understand your attachment to your fish but what i dont understand is how you would rather leave them in a situation where they will probably die rather than rehome them where they can live healthy lives? the thing is many lfs owners really dont know what they are doing and couldnt care less. in reality your fish dies you come back to him to get another one and thats money in his pocket. sad but true fact.

you must take them back though mate. talk to the guy and explain your situation and im sure he will give you some credit so you can come back and get some more fish when your tank is ready.

i also want to say that your attitude regarding the fact that 'fish die' is a little disturbing. as a keeper of fish we are about their preservation not about seeing them as a disposable pet. view your fish as you would a puppy or a kitten or any other animal you like and you will soon feel bad enough to do the right thing. would you let a little puppy sleep on a bed covered in acid that slowly burnt away his flesh???

all that said, whichever way you go i hope you can sort your issues out without losing too many fishies.

p.s. most of us are hobbyists with some working at lfs' etc. i myself am a hobbyist and work at an lfs

 

[Ukfan]

um, I appriciate what your saying mate but if you read back a page or two you will see I have lol

Also thats how I see my fish as pets like cats, I never said I hate my fish or want them to die, that was just an example as I said before I love my fish!

whats an IFS?

 

[ghostchoir]

Yep, only one betta per tank or they'll kill each other, hence the name fighting fish! Females can usually be kept together though.

I test my water using...water test kits. And I change the water with a syphon, bucket, and a lot of towels!

 

[fish14]

LFS stands for local fish store....glad your starting the cycle i myself started the same way you did...not knowing really what to do, thinking you just put fish in and watch them swim..lol. i know the feeling. but as you get more experience you'll learn what to do and understand most things about fish. i am only 14 and i've been keeping fish for 4 years now and i've become addicted to them and i'm sure you will too.

keep up the good work!!!

 

[girl4God81]

LFS= local fish store

And yes, ghost is right in that you can't keep bettas together. While some people successfully keep females together, I don'tpersonally. The reason I don't is because my females mostly range in different sizes and so the largest can be more dominate and bully the smaller ones. In my case, most of my girls are highly aggressive so they are all solo. They even flare at each other through their tanks that are side by side, lol!

I would only suggest putting females together in larger groups (most people say 6 or more) or if they are siblings and have been raised together (which won't happen unless you breed them yourself and keep them together, and while the fish store's bettas may be siblings, they have been seperated so prob won't do as well together anymore) OR if you add them all at the same time. Some people have success with just dumping random bettas together and it CAN work, I just have never had success with it. I do plan to turn my 10 gallon into a girls tank after awhile, but only the girls from my last spawn..and only a few at that.

So anyway, yes keeping the seperated is always a safe bet!

 

[Ukfan]

hey guys i have a question, there is this bug thign in my tank and I was wondering fi anyone knows what it is and if it is harmful. I dont have any pictures yet but i will soon. They are smallish and have a blackish/brown shell and are like slugs that have 2 tenticles things.

 

[The_Dude]

If they are some type of gastropod like a snail, surely your betta will kill and eat them.