Howdy from AZ

920 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by greenfishfl, May 2, 2012

azgab

Discussion Starter · Apr 30, 2012

Greetings from new Betta keepers! Here is our story....

We started out as very reluctant parents whose 10yr old brought home a goldfish (GF) from the local carnival last weekend. She dubbed him 'Mr. Bubbles' and was thrilled when we nodded our heads as she has never had a pet before. We are novices to fish care, but went & purchased a one gallon starter kit aquarium with gravel, a plastic plant, and small barrel decoration. We followed the directions, let his new home 'age' for 12 hours and transferred him to the tank.

Oh he swam & explored the new digs much to our daughters delight! I will admit that I would watch him amble around for 10 minutes at a pop. He was feed a small pinch of GF flakes 2x a day and our daughter would turn on his aquarium night in the evening and say goodnight to him.

On the fifth day, he was still around having survived in our care thus far so I had researched more info on the web and decided to move Mr. Bubbles to a larger tank (5 gal) so we loaded up on gravel, more colored plastic plants and two more small decorations. Set up new tank & filter, treated the water, and let new setup sit for 24 hours. Alas, the next morning Mr. Bubbles had expired due to excessive ammonia buildup we were told when we had his tank water tested. :sad:

Our daughter was highly upset and we laid her fish to rest in the vegetable garden. We had a new tank but no fish so we took her to the pet store and inquired which fish would be the least maintenance intensive but hardy enough to survive our care as we learned our way to fish ownership.

The store recommended Betta fish and our daughter picked two small yet lovely females who were named Nani & Lilo. They were transferred to the new tank and are adapting well as far as I can tell but we are researching as much information as possible to preclude any harm befalling the newest family members.

In summary, we have arrived your corner of the Inter-web and are pleased yet slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information being presented on the boards. We hope to learn lots and will definitely have more questions.

Thanks for reading...

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Oldfishlady

· #2 · Apr 30, 2012

Welcome to the forum and to the wonderful world of Betta keeping....a great hobby for the whole family......

In the 5gal filtered tank ? with 2 female Betta-you might end up having some problems-sometimes 2 females can end up fighting over territory and 5gals really isn't ideal to keep more than a single Betta-It will be great for either a single male or female along with some shrimp and/or snails....You might want to return one of the females or use the 1gal you have for the other one.
IMO/E 1gal is fine to keep a single Betta long term provided that water quality is maintained.

I would recommend getting a larger tank and start sorority, however, often these can be problematic even for the experienced Betta keeper and so I wouldn't recommend one at this time to help increase odds of success....your daughter has had to deal with failure already with the goldfish.......and we want her to be successful and stay in this hobby for a long time-she/children are the future of our hobby after all....

If you haven't already-make a new thread along with pic in the proper section of the Betta forum-you will get more response along with more ideas from our many member.

It can be overwhelming at first with all the information-just remember...lots and lots of different ways to successfully keep this species-its finding what works for you......

Ask all the questions you need...we are here to help......

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azgab

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 1, 2012 (Edited)

Thank You for the welcome OFL. As stated, a wealth of information on the boards here so I'm reading and & using the search function a lot but as the saying goes, "one question answered leads to five more".

Here's a pic of the girls:

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LebronTheBetta

· #4 · May 1, 2012

Welcome 2 the forum!!! Be careful, Betta Fish are ADDICTING!!!
Okay, lets get this straight. You have 2 pretty female Betta Fish. Well, the rule about Betta Sororities is that, 2 gallons per Betta fish. As Old Fish Lady said, it's not best 2 have only 2 Betta Fishes. It's best if you have 4 and up. The minimum tank size 4 a Sorority tank is 10 gallons. The maximum fish you can keep in the 10 gallon is 5 Betta Fish which is a good size. You see, female Betta Fishes R just as aggressive as their male counterparts. They make this order called the "Pecking Order". They have 2 know who is the boss and who isn't. They would chase and/or nip each other 4 quite some while. After that while, everything would start 2 get in order. But if someone dies, they would have 2 do it all over again. Anyway, you should have this in your tank:
. A Heater ( mandatory, unless climate is really warm. )
. Filter ( mandatory to some, or optional to some ) Have to cycle tank 1st
. Substrate ( Gravel or Sand )
. Lots of Hiding Spots ( to help with less injuries, and territory establishments )
. Thermometer
Good Luck in the world of Betta Keeping!!! :-D

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greenfishfl

· #5 · May 2, 2012

welcome to the forum it seems you have encountered the betta bug

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