Tips Before Starting A New Tank With Any Breed Of Fish

[bettaowner101]

These are just some tips that I have just made before you start your new fish tank.

1. If you want a Betta Fish, buy a 2 gallon and up.

2. When you have a new tank and you have a filter, make sure you cycle the tank before adding a new Betta fish or any other type of fish.

3. Do not get a strong filter for your Betta! He/She will have a hard time to swim and will get very stressed. If your filter is strong, you can make a Filter Baffle out of a water bottle. Here is a How To: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread....=filter+baffle

4. ALWAYS BUY WATER CONDITIONER. When people first start their tank and don't get advise from other people, they often start a tank without conditioner. If you do not buy water conditioner, your fish will die quickly.

5. The bigger the tank the better.

6. DO NOT OVERCROWD YOUR TANK. So many people do this which causes your fish to be aggressive and die at a very young age. Do the 1 inch per gallon rule. Example: 1 inch fish in a 1 gallon tank.

6. Get a filter. When you have a filter, you don't have to clean your tank as much.

7. NEVER DO 100% WATER CHANGES IN A BIG TANK. This will stress your fish very badly. Too much stress will cause your fish to die.

8. NEVER PUT A MALE BETTA WITH ANOTHER MALE. If you put 2 males together, they will fight until death.

9. Get a heater. Heaters will make your fish much happier.

10. Add Aquarium salt to your tank. Adding salt to your fish tank can prevent some diseases that fish can get and can work as medicine when a fish has a Bacterial Infection. When medicating, use 1 Teaspoon of Aquarium Salt Per Gallon.

11. Let your water sit for a day before adding to the tank.

Well, I cannot think of anymore tips at this time. Let me know if I need to add anymore!

[Katana]

not bad. thats all i have to say

[xSomethingSmellsFishyx]

Thanks for the advice!!!

[Jupiter]

I've never heard of 100% WC stressing fish badly.

[DragonFish]

Originally Posted by bettaowner101

7. NEVER DO 100% WATER CHANGES IN A BIG TANK. This will stress your fish very badly. Too much stress will cause your fish to die.

Actually the reason for not doing 100% changes in a larger tank is because its a HUGE pain in the rear. The larger the tank, the more water you gotta haul and the heavier the tank(I personally can just barely lift my 20 long empty).

A larger tank you can cycle, and then its SO much easier as you only need to do a PWC once weekly. Also, a 100% WC would disrupted the cycle. It really doesn't have that much to do with the stress of the fish......it'd be no more stress then doing a full WC in an unfiltered, un-cycled smaller tank I'd think.

[bettaowner101]

Oh. I knew that but I have read on another betta forum that it is stressful for them

[DragonFish]

Yes, its stressful to a degree, but not enough that its going to really harm them, let alone do 'em in. What MIGHT seriously stress them would be not properly accumulating your fish back to the new water though. With bigger tanks, its simply for convince, no different then smaller tanks in that aspect ;)

Also, just to clear it up('cause even I was a little confused....)I'm talking about only bettas here....as far as I know, all other fish absolutely require a filtered and cycled tank....

[veganchick]

Originally Posted by bettaowner101

These are just some tips that I have just made before you start your new fish tank.

1. If you want a Betta Fish, buy a 2 gallon and up.

2. When you have a new tank and you have a filter, make sure you cycle the tank before adding a new Betta fish or any other type of fish.

3. Do not get a strong filter for your Betta! He/She will have a hard time to swim and will get very stressed. If your filter is strong, you can make a Filter Baffle out of a water bottle. Here is a How To: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread....=filter+baffle

4. ALWAYS BUY WATER CONDITIONER. When people first start their tank and don't get advise from other people, they often start a tank without conditioner. If you do not buy water conditioner, your fish will die quickly. Actually, I find that water that you buy at petstores that is made especially for fish, works much better than conditioner, although it is more expensive

5. The bigger the tank the better.
True in most cases, but If you go to large, many fish will get stressed out, and go into hiding
6. DO NOT OVERCROWD YOUR TANK. So many people do this which causes your fish to be aggressive and die at a very young age. Do the 1 inch per gallon rule. Example: 1 inch fish in a 1 gallon tank.

6. Get a filter. When you have a filter, you don't have to clean your tank as much.
You must clean your tank just as often, just don't do as large of changes.
7. NEVER DO 100% WATER CHANGES IN A BIG TANK. This will stress your fish very badly. Too much stress will cause your fish to die.
If your fish is sick, you MUST sometimes do a 100% water change, even in a cycled tank to save the fish
8. NEVER PUT A MALE BETTA WITH ANOTHER MALE. If you put 2 males together, they will fight until death.
Correction: Never put a male betta splenden with another male betta splenden. Other types of male bettas may be put together without conflict.
9. Get a heater. Heaters will make your fish much happier.

10. Add Aquarium salt to your tank. Adding salt to your fish tank can prevent some diseases that fish can get and can work as medicine when a fish has a Bacterial Infection. When medicating, use 1 Teaspoon of Aquarium Salt Per Gallon.
With bettas, this can be a good thing, but some other freshwater fish will die if salt is added to a freshwater tank
11. Let your water sit for a day before adding to the tank.
Not always necessary, but good to do!
Well, I cannot think of anymore tips at this time. Let me know if I need to add anymore!

replies in bold

[DragonFish]

Ahh, to add a little bit.....

Unless your water has high traces of ammonia or nitrite....or is just plain crappy...using conditioner and tap water is better because the water made for fish at pet stores(assuming this is RO water, I don't know of any other water sold at stores made specifically for fish...)has none of the essential minerals that help keep your fish healthy and therefore you need to buy special stuff to add to the water, making it over all more expensive and a bigger hassle then just conditioning tap water.

For large tanks, so long as you provide plenty of plants and proper hiding places, nothing is ever too big.

If you filter and cycle your tank, then water changed do become less frequent. just partial ones of 20%-30% a week as opposed to 100% 2-3 times a week. ;)

I've never heard of saving a sick fish by doing 100% changes in a cycled tank....you need to keep the water clean, obviously, but PWCs in a cycled tank should do that just fine, though they may need to become more frequent. However, depending on what your fish has, you may want to do a full clean of the tank if it dies and re-cycle it to make sure no future fish get sick.

..I think thats it xD Anyone, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong/have missed something.

[kelly528]

Yeah i have to argee with you onall counts DF.