Housing a baby female betta

[sandrac8388]

This is my Lucy. I bought her at petco on 10/17/2012. She has been in her hospital tank for a week recovering from ammonia poisoning. Her left gill sticks out and I believe that is just permenant damage from the ammonia. The redness in her gills has gone down and she is an active and hungry little gal! Such a huge change from when I brought her home. Poor thing was living in 8.0 cup full of ammonia! Anywho. This weekend I will be setting up her new home and need advice. I have 2-10 gallon tanks that are filtered and heated and 1-5gallon filtered and heated. I was thinking of getting her a 2.5 gallon tank but not sure if that would be too much maintenance...I like only doing weekly water changes on my other tanks! 2.5 is too small for a filter?? Or was thinking about moving her into the 5 gallon i have and buying my platak a 10 gallon so he can have more room. because he is pretty large. What do you guys think? I would start a sorority but don't feel like dealing with the violence and aggresiveness of the females. Decisions, decisions..lol

She is still a little red but no longer clamped, very active and always hungry


Her left gill is still sticking out, it has gone down a bit but not too much

[ChoclateBetta]

Great but remember the bigger the better bigger men's easier to clean heat and more excerise for them.

[teeneythebetta]

Sometimes baby bettas get stressed out when they are in too large of a tank. Of course this does not go for all of them- some do fine.
Typically people put their baby betta in a 2.5 gallon and sometimes upgrade once the betta is bigger.

IMO you can go with a big tank, but try to fill it decently and watch her behavior to make sure she does not feel stressed.

Since she has been through a lot with ammonia, IMO you should get your bigger tank and fish less cycle it, then add her when the cycle is finished and you get a 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and small nitrate reading.

A 2.5 gallon tank is difficult to keep a stable cycle with, so it is something that would require two weekly water changes- one 50% change and one 100% change. If you go with something 5-10 gallons, it would need once a week water changes. If you do not cycle the tank, it will eventually need a 100% water change to rid of excess ammonia and prevent ammonia build up, so cycling the tank is highly advisable. A fully cycled tank 5-10 gallons would need a once a week 25-30% water change, and NEVER a 100% change.

here is a good resource on baby bettas: http://bettacarecentral.weebly.com/baby-betta-care.html

Good resource on fish less cycling: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=111960

[ChoclateBetta]

Acrially the big tank freak is a myth but bettas need plenty of hiding spots plus young fish in big tank is healthy in too smal, of a tank it hurts the,m so go for five two and a half works but five is better.

[OrangeAugust]

Very cute!
Filtered and cycled tanks are much easier since you only have to do partial water changes once a week. I used to have a female who I started out in a 1 gallon tank. She was really small and she swam around a lot and seemed happy. But then I put her in a 5 gallon and she loooooooooooved it! lol. Her stress stripes went away and everything.
I hear it's hard to keep a cycle in anything smaller than 5 gallon. I have a male in a 2.5 gallon and of course I have to do multiple WC's a week. I'd go with a filtered 5 or 10 gallon.
You could put her in the 10 gallon with other community fish like tetras, or zebra danios, or guppies, and a couple of julii cories or oto cats if you want.

[teeneythebetta]

Originally Posted by ChoclateBetta

Acrially the big tank freak is a myth but bettas need plenty of hiding spots plus young fish in big tank is healthy in too smal, of a tank it hurts the,m so go for five two and a half works but five is better.

It depends on the fish, like I stated, but baby bettas are more commonly found spooked in large tanks. Like I stated above it depends on the individual betta and I also said that filling them tank decently with decor/hideys would make the baby feel more secure.

[ChoclateBetta]

Bettas fear open spaces but love hiding I meant if you giv plenty of hiding spots they will be happy and healthy plus in th five gallon it will be more active.

[sandrac8388]

I would definitely put lots of hiding places.

I have never owned a school of fish so that would be overwhelming for me I wouldn't know where to start!

. It didn't come to mind to do a fishless cycle!!!! i'm so dumb!! lol. I will definitely do that. I really do not want to keep her in a 2.5 gal and do changes twice a week. I'm too lazy. right now i dedicate one day to change the water in all my tanks and do readings 2-3x a week. Plus i wouldn't want to stress her out!

until then should i keep her in her 1 gallon hospital and do daily full water changes?

[teeneythebetta]

If your readings look okay, I'd do every other day water changes in the 1 gal tank to keep stress to a minimum.
But if you get ammonia readings, daily water changes would probably be better than ammoni since this poor baby has been through so much.