New To Bettas

[blakey26]

Hi,

First post on the forums but have been view your fish for a while, some nice i have to say.

Well i have had tropical fish now for about 7 months, over that time i have several breeds of fish aswell as several problems. It is a community tank at the minute. 21gal. It has a fluval 3+ filter in there, the current is a bit strong for him but it only affects a small part of the tank.

In there i have two medium angel fish, 4 american flag fish, 1 penguin tetra and one male betta.

They seem to be getting on fine and i have had the betta for a week now.

Only problem i can see is that the betta isnt displaying as much as some of your betta pics.

Could this be signs of a problem?

I have tested the water and everything is fine apart from the nitrate which is a bit too high. (solving that with regular 20% water changed and a nitra-zorb bag in the filter, not sure if it will work but worth a try)

He is a bit slow when feeding time comes round and misses half the food. I am hand feeding him dried blood worms and flake food. Any other food you can recommend, live or otherwise?

I will post pics later.

Thanks Guys

 

[Betta*b*Happy!]

Most people use a mirror to get their bettas to display for photos. Otherwise they just swim around ignoring everything....

Your tank mates are not perticularly ideal for a betta. Tetras are too nippy and usually shread their fins. Angels are ok till they get territorial, my first veiltail had his caudal fin almost compleatly removed by angels.

The food seems fine, mine all get frozen bloodworm. You may like to try feeding some chopped shelled pea once a week and fasting once a week. This just keeps all fish's insides nice and healthy.

Bettas like to stalk their food, unlike other fish that eat now think later..... This is probably why he doesn't get much food.

 

[OohFeeshy]

In there i have two medium angel fish

Which are a problem, they need a much bigger tank than that. And the penguin tetra ia schooling.

 

[Mr.September15]

In there i have two medium angel fish

Which are a problem, they need a much bigger tank than that. And the penguin tetra ia schooling.

Yeah I agree. I had lots of people saying that I need more than 5 tetras so they can swim together so I returned it to the store for a VT betta. It was a good trade. Even though the price was like 4 dollars away from eachother . 3 bucks for the tetra and 7 dollars for the betta. ... Pretty soon your tetra will get sad... try getting a 10 gallon tank to put 6 tetras and some cories. That would work...

 

[Ethos]

Wow! I was more than half exspecting someone to jump on blakey26 after he named his tankmates!
I give this thread props!
(if only... )

 

[nino]

In there i have two medium angel fish

Which are a problem, they need a much bigger tank than that. And the penguin tetra ia schooling.

Yeah I agree. I had lots of people saying that I need more than 5 tetras so they can swim together so I returned it to the store for a VT betta. It was a good trade. Even though the price was like 4 dollars away from eachother . 3 bucks for the tetra and 7 dollars for the betta. ... Pretty soon your tetra will get sad... try getting a 10 gallon tank to put 6 tetras and some cories. That would work...

Where are VT's seven dollars? I've never heard of such a thing. That's more the price of a Crowntail at the LFS I go to.

 

[Mr.September15]

In there i have two medium angel fish

Which are a problem, they need a much bigger tank than that. And the penguin tetra ia schooling.

Yeah I agree. I had lots of people saying that I need more than 5 tetras so they can swim together so I returned it to the store for a VT betta. It was a good trade. Even though the price was like 4 dollars away from eachother . 3 bucks for the tetra and 7 dollars for the betta. ... Pretty soon your tetra will get sad... try getting a 10 gallon tank to put 6 tetras and some cories. That would work...

Where are VT's seven dollars? I've never heard of such a thing. That's more the price of a Crowntail at the LFS I go to.

Yeah... I know. crowntails at my petstore cost 10bucks well actually $9.98... Thats why I dont own a crowntail... The pet store thinks there so good since they have like a billion nano reefs. eh. What can I do. I looked in petco and they were 2bucks with free food! But that was after I bought my other VT'S.

 

[nino]

Yeah... I know. crowntails at my petstore cost 10bucks well actually $9.98... Thats why I dont own a crowntail... The pet store thinks there so good since they have like a billion nano reefs. eh. What can I do. I looked in petco and they were 2bucks with free food! But that was after I bought my other VT'S.
[/quote]

10 bucks isn't too shabby for a crowntail, given that he's nice enough and you like him. Compared to ordering off Aquabid that would be like half the price of shipping or so.

 

[blakey26]

In there i have two medium angel fish

Which are a problem, they need a much bigger tank than that. And the penguin tetra ia schooling.

Yeah I agree. I had lots of people saying that I need more than 5 tetras so they can swim together so I returned it to the store for a VT betta. It was a good trade. Even though the price was like 4 dollars away from eachother . 3 bucks for the tetra and 7 dollars for the betta. ... Pretty soon your tetra will get sad... try getting a 10 gallon tank to put 6 tetras and some cories. That would work...

i know this and it was only temporary. I had a couple more but i had a strange disease in the tank a while back that wiped out all my guppies and tetras. I plan on getting some more today.

As for the angel fish, they are fine with the other fish yet while i know they nips fish only one has tried it on with my betta (called batou) but he never got anywhere near. I am thinking about getting rid of the angel fish even though i love them to bits just so i can get some different fish in there.