New betta fish keeper needs help

[ilovebettafishandsuzys]

Hi i am a new betta fish owner. 2 weeks ago I got my first betta. Yesterday I found it dead on the bottom of my 2.5g tank. When I got my first betta (that I never gave a name to) I had done a lot of studying on betta fish. I had dechlorinated my water and let my tank go through it's cycleing phase. I have three silk plants a under gravel heater a filter and gravel. I fed it omega one betta buffet pellets although i tried to feed it some flake food. It was a small betta and not very lively.( It looked like it was haveing a hard time eating the pellets) In short i thaught i was a good betta keeper. Anyway today i whent to petsmart took back the dead betta and got a new betta. In addition to the new betta I also got some new food. I got my water tested and the person at petsmart told me that my amonia was to high so I also got some primer. As you can see I need help. My qusetions are


1: How long do I let the primer sit in my tank before adding my new betta
2: Was it the water that killed my betta or did i do something stupid
3: How can I take better care of my new betta and keep it from dieing


If you can help me with my questions or have anymore info that you think will help please let me know. Thank you all so much.

[BettaPirate]

there is no way to tell for sure what killed your betta but if the ammonia was high it means you weren't changing the water often enough. You said you have a filter, is it a real filter or just an under gravel filter? If it is just an under gravel filter then you need to do every other day partial water changes in that size tank. OldFishyLady has a sticky on it in the Betta Habitat section of this forum on water change schedules.

[ilovebettafishandsuzys]

it is a real filter and you are right i did not do any water changes. thank you for your help

[sainthogan]

If you didn't do any water changes, then that is what killed your fish. Fish waste produces ammonia, ammonia is deadly. For a 2.5 gallon tank, you need to clean it twice a week.

[ilovebettafishandsuzys]

Ok so is a 50% water change 2 times a week ok. If so that is what will start doing. Thank you BettaPirate and sainthogan for all your help. And if anybody has any more info please let me know. once more thank you all

[sainthogan]

There is a sticky at the top of this forum by a moderator called oldfishlday, that will help you decide how many and how often you need to do water changes based on tank size, filteration, etc. She usually recommends at least 1 100% cleaning in addition to a 50% if you don't have live plants or a filter.