White Siamese Fighter

[davieA]

just something i never done in my past fish keeping exploits, no reason really, except that i never really felt the need, or had the need, and i probably put it down to being really lucky,
this is the first tank i have had in a while, so yes probably a good idea to rectify some of the old bad habits i guess and test regularly, as for why i waited two weeks its more a case of finances hehhehehe

 

[Curiosity101]

Fair enough.

Well then can I please suggest you look into fishless cycling any new tanks.
Or a mixture of seeding from other tanks followed by fishless to get it properly ready.

(Though for both of those you'd need a test kit! )
Hint: Stick to liquid test kits as they're often much more accurate.

 

[davieA]

Fair enough.

Well then can I please suggest you look into fishless cycling any new tanks.
Or a mixture of seeding from other tanks followed by fishless to get it properly ready.

(Though for both of those you'd need a test kit! )
Hint: Stick to liquid test kits as they're often much more accurate.

Deffo, the tank am setting up is a second hand one that i empted and picked up from a friends house,it was fish less and there don't seem to be any problems with what i have done so far, but as you say, can never be sure, i shall look into test kits tomorrow

 

[finalfantay85]

Oooh I never meant to cause controversy

I kept my betta in a community and he was fine then when i added guppies, who he'd been kept with in the LFS, he attacked and him and a guppy ended up pretty beat up and he was a placcid guy.

From that perspective I wouldn't risk it again. I'm not saying it can't and doesn't work cos it did for me for a short while. Perhaps I should have said I personally wouldn't risk doing it due to the chance of it going wrong. I just meant that others on here have said that neons are fin nippers and i've first had experience of aggression between guppies and betta so with those two species in the community i wouldn't like to try it.

At the end of the day it is down to the personality of the fish, it may or may not work.

 

[liamg1285]

i have to say im a gd friend with the person that runs bettabred and can say that all her betta are always excellent and always packaged well

 

[Haych]

I kept my betta in a community and he was fine then when i added guppies, who he'd been kept with in the LFS, he attacked and him and a guppy ended up pretty beat up and he was a placcid guy.

ah i see!

thats why he attacked the guppies. you added them AFTER him. he assumes that the tank is his and wants to protect it. male bettas are very terratorial. i made that mistake once. all it takes is a move round of his furniture!

(admittedly i think Hunter is SO laid back he dont care, i added four female guppies and three cories the other day and he dont care lol)

 

[Knox213]

Little Nero Was fine In my community tank until bloat got him

 

[ellena]

I had 2 bettas from betta bred in early nov and they were packaged well and arrived with no problems. One is a white one, Lotus, and then a mustard gas, Peacock. I couldn't get my head round mail order fish either, but it worked out fine.
Can't comment on them in community tanks as I've never tried it. In fact I don't even have a community tank to try it with!

 

[thomasgt]

[hi davie,i assume you are refering to me (thomas) as "the guy in my local fish shop",couple of points mate,when advising on cycling i recomended that you wait at least 2 weeks before beginning to stock your tank and that you would have had to provide a source of ammonia prior to this to have any hope of the cycling process even having started even then you are still taking a gamble as to wheather the tank had cycled or not as you were simply assuming everything would be ok because in the past you had simply set a tank up and threw a few fish in and everything was ok.What i was concerned about(which you obviously took as me thinking you were being silly)was that i got the impression that if you could you would have pretty much have fully stocked your tank in that initial 2 week period,now you may have got away with it in the past but you have been very lucky i.e large tanks very low stocking levels,very hardy fish etc,having an aquatic buisness means i deal with people on a daily basis who have had or are having major problems with their aquariums and seem to be completely at a loss as to what the problem may be,it will probably come as a surprise to yourself that the most common problem that i have to deal with and rectify on an almost daily basis is new tank syndrome(stocking a new tank to quickly and/or with too many fish) which can be soul destroying yet completely avoidable.This is usually due to them getting poor advice from unscrupulous dealers or shops that are plain ignorant, of which i like to think i am neither, one of the things i take great pride in is the advice i give which is honest and completely unbiased and based almost entirely on my 19 yrs as a hobbyist.In your post you said i recommended waiting 2 months before stocking,your mixing up alot of the advice i gave you during our conversation,you mentioned to me that your nephew was having a lot of problems with his discus and you mentioned it was a relatively immature aquarium to which i replied amongst other info that i would not reccomend stocking discus in an aquarium any less than 2 months old(and already stocked with fish that are going to be suitable tankmates).

 

[hihi100202]

wow. thats a long post.

i thought for discus it was a 1 month wait period?

 

[loraxchick]

two of my bettas are in communities. have lived happily for 1+ year and 2 years respectively. and the bettas went in first.*hmmm*
every fish is different. try it out and have a back-up.
cheers.

 

[theshadowinc]

wow. thats a long post.

i thought for discus it was a 1 month wait period?

What the person stated is kinda true, but I was always told its a 3 month old tank you need to have,
I set my planted tank up and put the discus in right away when the tank hit temp, had to take them out for the night
then next day they went back in again, and never had a problem or ammo reading in the tank!

Planted tanks are different for cycling than a fish only tank and most the time discus owners and breeders recommend a 3 month cycled tank(Mature tank)
Discus do not like any change in water quality, especially KH, PH shock they get over that in 15mins but KH shock I have run into can last weeks

 

[lilacamy931]

There is good advice here, my two cents is every betta is different in personality and community fish vary too, try it and see but best advice have back up plan just in case. It may work perfectly or be a complete disaster, least you will be prepared either way