Mythbuster: Do bettas really live in "tiny" puddles?

[tmz]

i've had my betta for about a month now. it is around an inch long and lives in a 1 gallon sized bowl with a plastic t-rex. i do full bowl changes at least once a week and i flush out the gravel. i also plan to put a tiny drop of preventative medicine in the water one the last water change of the month.
would this be deemed suitable?
or should i invest in a new environment?
i dont want to torture my little bagel D=

maybe a bigger bowl? or a live plant?
loves the t-rex though (which i find kinda funny.), so i wouldnt get rid of that.

[crazy4fish]

personally i wouldnt do 50% water changes instead of complete changes. i just think a complete change is too much. but many people do complete changes so it probably wont hurt too much.

i think that you should upgrade to a bigger tank with a heater and filter. it will be a much better environment for your little betta i would also add at least 1 plant. fake or real as long as it provides some kind of cover for your betta :D

[tmz]

yeah i noticed my fish was growing, so i got it a 2.5 gallon tank. (it's still only a little bit over an inch long from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.) it has a weird skull thing and two fake plants to hide it. i currently dont have a heater or a filter. i dont really see a need for a filter cos it's not that big of a tank plus i do constant partial changes. the heater i might get when it starts getting cold, but as of right now, i've almost got heat stroke in my room so i figured a heater would be horribley overkill.

[nav2008]

I personally think that 2 gallons is a good size for a single fish, they can move around enough for healthy exersize and it leaves room for 2 or so plants and a small cave or hidey hole. I have kept fish in smaller tanks but i think mine seem to be very happy in the sizes they have now.

[wendex]

I always wondered why people kept these beautiful fish in really really small tanks, wouldn't it be cool if you could get a bigger tank with dividers to provide little pockets of security but still enable them to have an interesting environment to explore, if I was to get a betta I'd prob. explore that idea. Plus aren't their any other fish they are compatible with? seems a shame to be all alone :o( be really interesting to find out cos my partner likes betta but I wanted to start a community tank first.

[wendex]

just setting up to get email notification so I don't have to keep logging on to check - thought it was already set up - must have stopped when site changed and it's taken me a couple of days to twig

[Oldman47]

Wendex, the only fish that can't really live with a male betta is another betta. Many of the typical community tank fish make good tank mates for a betta. You would need to avoid nippy fish like tiger barbs and the betta will sometimes mistake a fancy guppy for another betta because of the huge fins that they can have. I have a very nice male betta in a 10 gallon with about 6 endlers and all is well in that tank. Before that, he lived with a few platies for at least 6 months and has always had cories in the tank with him. Another nice male that I have is in my 120 community tank and is also doing OK but he hides more because some of the fish in that tank are a bit active and aggressive for his liking. I never did like the single male betta approach that I see so often.

[wendex]

Oh that's nice to know - I'm certainly not knowledgable in the slightest and don't mind being told I'm wrong but I can't see how any fish will be stimulated enough in such small environments. How friendly are angel fish with betta, are they a little 2 big? cos they're the fish I'd really like (just didn't get a suitable tank for them - not tall enough), I never considered a betta when setting up my community tank they weren't on any of the suggested community groups that I looked up, but then I don't think 63l is big enough for a betta to be with other fish maybe anyways, I'm guessing they need their own space.

[Kim]

Bettas and cories usually go well. I tried it and my betta liked them, the planted tank just didn't work with him. He split his fin, and got fin rot from my plants that weren't doing so well at the time (I do weekly water changes, just some of the leaves were dying and polluting the water -drove me crazy as I am a perfectionist ) Then I got a new filter which cleared up the water, and the plants started growing better, but the current was too much for him. Oh well...some things were just not meant to be.

I think that he is quite happy in his 5.5 gal. I always make sure to spend time with him, give him a little time with the mirror, and ask my family to talk to him as well. He will soon have a buddy to flare at (only when I remove the cardboard between the tanks) in a tank next to him. I personally won't put a betta in anything under 5 gallons JMO.

[willow]

my Betta "red" is in a 4ft tank with an abundant comunity.
he is doing extremly well,and his colour is viberant. :)
if there was even a sniff that things were going wrong
he would be set up in his own tank,however he's doing great.
:)