Hey everyone, new to this forum and owning fish, been looking around and this seems like the place to ask:
i have a 5L tank with a 'whisper' something filter (my friend got it for me) and some plastic plants. I put the beta in yesterday, after letting the water reach room temp, and adding some Betta Basics.
Within a few hours i noticed a couple tears in his tails, and now they seem to have grown quite a bit. He doesn't seeeem to be 'biting his tail', i'm guessing they're from the plastic plants, so i removed one (that was more.. spikey), but left the other to give him some places to swim around and hide, but i'm still concerned.. should i pull out the second 'plant' too? He does have a little castle that he chills under, so the tank wouldn't be completely sparse if i pulled it out...
also:
i've noticed that when he eats, and i'm not sure if he does this with everything, or just the few 'bigger' pieces i saw, but he'll gobble them up, then kinda spit them back out? whats up with that?
finally- what's a good 'lighting' schedule for him? i've been trying not to be turning lights on and off and all that, maintaining a rather continuous amount of light (or lack thereof), is this right? If i'm not home, should i just turn off the desklamp i have that provides most of his light?
i've attached some pictures- the green thing on the left is the lava-lamp i'm using to warm his tank until my "Marineland Shatterproof Submersible Aquarium Heater 10W" arrives. I've also put some tin foil between it and the tank to act as a shade and a heatsink, haha
the tank is sitting at around 23.5c.
also, you can see the current remaining green 'plant', the removed red 'plant', and a couple of the rips in his tail. there are more, it's just hard to capture with a 2 megapixel crappy cameraphone, haha
as for water testing, i do not have a kit yet- although the water here is pretty good (westcoast water).
finally- i guess fish are really sensitive to vibration, so i guess bass is a bad idea?
cheers guys (and gals!), thanks for the help
i have a 5L tank with a 'whisper' something filter (my friend got it for me) and some plastic plants. I put the beta in yesterday, after letting the water reach room temp, and adding some Betta Basics.
Within a few hours i noticed a couple tears in his tails, and now they seem to have grown quite a bit. He doesn't seeeem to be 'biting his tail', i'm guessing they're from the plastic plants, so i removed one (that was more.. spikey), but left the other to give him some places to swim around and hide, but i'm still concerned.. should i pull out the second 'plant' too? He does have a little castle that he chills under, so the tank wouldn't be completely sparse if i pulled it out...
also:
i've noticed that when he eats, and i'm not sure if he does this with everything, or just the few 'bigger' pieces i saw, but he'll gobble them up, then kinda spit them back out? whats up with that?
finally- what's a good 'lighting' schedule for him? i've been trying not to be turning lights on and off and all that, maintaining a rather continuous amount of light (or lack thereof), is this right? If i'm not home, should i just turn off the desklamp i have that provides most of his light?
i've attached some pictures- the green thing on the left is the lava-lamp i'm using to warm his tank until my "Marineland Shatterproof Submersible Aquarium Heater 10W" arrives. I've also put some tin foil between it and the tank to act as a shade and a heatsink, haha
the tank is sitting at around 23.5c.
also, you can see the current remaining green 'plant', the removed red 'plant', and a couple of the rips in his tail. there are more, it's just hard to capture with a 2 megapixel crappy cameraphone, haha
as for water testing, i do not have a kit yet- although the water here is pretty good (westcoast water).
finally- i guess fish are really sensitive to vibration, so i guess bass is a bad idea?
cheers guys (and gals!), thanks for the help