Strange and innovative betta toys

[MollyJean]

One thing my daughter and I love doing is making toys for our betta (and all the other animals in the house, but that's beside the point) and building new structures for his tank.

It started with Lunch.

We had BILLIONS of legos and would build him castles from them. Stuff he could swim though. We where careful at first, watching to see if his fins got ripped. We had to make sure all of the blocks where snapped together snug and there were no chipped blocks and he loved them. He spent a lot of time exploring them. It was a lot of fun making castles to suit the betta, matching the rocks and new plant arrangement's. Learning the joys of aquarium grade sealants... I had a bad habit of changing his tank around a little every month or so. Of course legos float, so we had to place rocks on top of each castle to keep it down.

Well there are no more legos, we lost those in the fire, but I'm finding all kinds of new toys for Bettabettabetta to play with.

Here is where it gets fun.. My daughter got me a tiny rubber baby out of a quarter machine.. it's ugly and useless, but the bubble it came in is so itty bitty.. I can fit a dime in it, but that's about it. So we cleaned it off, put a tiny purple dice in it and sealed it up with aquarium sealant and put it in the tank. He loves it. He'll swim up, push it around til he has it right where he wants it, then leave it there a while. Then go back up and move it somewhere else. It's so cute!



I'm going to get a couple more of these, as they only cost a quarter. Who knows what else I'll come up with, huh?

So am I just an oddball or do other people make toys for their fish? I'd love to see them.. and get some ideas!

[ZergyMonster]

What do you use for sealant?

[djembekah]

she said aquarium sealant. it looks so fun!

[MollyJean]

This stuff called DAP household sealant. I use it for my silk plants, too.

[ZergyMonster]

Sweet, I was thinking about making some things too and what you made looks awesome.

[MollyJean]

With Lunch I has used the DAP on a spiral seashell to seal the air in and let it float around the top of the tank but Lunch was a bottom fish, he liked hiding in his plants too much. Bettabettabetta is a top fish, he loves being out in the open and near the surface and if I move my hand anywhere close to the tank to turn on a light or grab something above it, he gets all excited, so I like having things around he can play with.

[ZergyMonster]

My betta is the same way, he really likes to chase me around when he see me coming. I think he mostly wants food but he likes to nip at my finger if I get close enough, I have a couple things for him to play with but they are significantly larger than him. Something like this would probably let him have more fun.

[ChibiShishou]

This is so cool! I love your idea for the quarter machines. I don't have any fun betta ideas, I just use a ping pong ball, but my boys aren't too fond of it. If I ever find some sealant I will definitely join in on this fun! What all have you tried?

[MollyJean]

I had a betta 2 years ago and for him I used sealant to glue together river rocks for caves, which is really easy.

And for Bettabettabetta, I use the sealant to glue his plants to the filter under his rocks. I slide silk plants through the holes in the filter and glue them in place.

I have a TON of silk plants. With Lunch, the other betta, I learned that you can pick up silk plants from the dollar tree or any everything's a dollar store and use them for tank decor. I tend to boil anything I get at the dollar store, cause people touch everything, and check them for sharp pieces, but most of the time, I end up pulling the silk leaves off the plastic sticks and gluing them in clusters to the substrate filter. I've never had a problem with bleeding colors or murky water, and they stand up really well.

This is about 5 dollars worth of materials. There is a half used bag of river rocks and a bag of really fancy sea shells in there as well. And the bambo sticks. I'm still deciding what I want to do with those.. maybe a bridge. Oh.. or fill a reed full of holes and hook it up to my air hose.. hmm...




You can see my tank in the back.. I like the natural river bed look. Here's what he has right now. Lots of hiding places and things to sleep on, and tons of surface area for Rigel the snail

[Kestral]

Wow, that's so cool! I think Dante is getting bored, so I might make that ball thing for him!
You should make a website for your ideas, and how to make them and such. :D These are great ideas!