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My betta lives without a heater...is that bad?

1K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  ecoprincess 
#1 ·
Hi,

I work in retail and my betta lives in my store. We have him in a 2L tank thats screwed into the wall. He was very happy for quite awhile .... but now he seems to be depressed all he does is lay around...he gets happy when i come around and swims around.

He has lost about 1/3 his body size and his fins have almost rounded off with little flare....he almost looks like a female.

I have a feeling that his size and "depression" are b/c the temp drops a few degrees at night .... our store is usually 70-72 during the day and when i come in in the mornings its about 68.

The tank seems too small for a heater....and im worried the temp changes are whats making him sick.

So i guess my question is if Bettas can live in cooler water or will it shorten their life expectancy drastically??

Thanks for any help.
 
#3 ·
Yes, it will shorten their lifespan quite a bit to keep them a tiny, cold tank. Bettas are, in fact, tropical fish who need a STABLE temp of 78-82 degrees F. Cold and fluctuating temps cause lethargy, as your experiencing, and are very stressful....and when a fish is stressed, they are prone to disease. Its sounds like your guy already has finrot(search the forums and look on google for finrot, tons of info out there about it).

When properly cared for, bettas can live a good 5+ years.....when kept in a tiny, cold tank, you'd be lucky to have him around for more then a year. And I assume you don't do full water changes every day.....which is needed in such a small environment to keep the water free of ammonia from fish waste and uneaten food....which causes a great amount of stress and heath issues, and can even be deadly.

Like DQ said, we recommend at LEAST 2 gallons, which can be safely heated with a 25 watt, submersible, adjustable heater(don' forget the thermometer!)with full water changes every 2-3 days.

Hope this helps some :)
 
#4 ·
Honestly for a store I would recommend 5g because it only required weekly cleaning. Here is a short chart of frequency of cleaning required for reach tank size:

For a tank housing 1 betta and nothing else:

<1g: Daily
1g: Every other day
1.5g - 2g: Every 2-3 Days
3g: Every 4-5 Days
5g and up: Weekly

Hope that helps you choose the right tank size! Of course every betta is unique and so are their owners feeding habits... so the actual waste produced by the betta may vary and therefore you might need o tclean your tank more or less often than what I said in the list.

But considering the betta is in a store it may not always be reasonable to expect to have the time to clean the tank twice, three or even 7 times a week. So a larger tank in which the waste is more dilute may be a better option.
 
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