[Tvviggz]

So, Saturday night (it's now Monday, for those of you who might be a bit ahead of me) I got a male Betta. He's beautiful and seems to be happy. I've been giving him two pellets of food per day, as I've seen suggested online. Today, when I got home from work, my very helpful and well-meaning boyfriend had poured a TON of food into the tank, it was clogging the filter and is all over the substrate at the bottom of the tank. The water is very very cloudy right now, I'm assuming due to the filter actually being clogged with the stuff. ("It wasn't a TON!!" He says)

What I want to know is will Giuseppe be alright?? He seems to be swimming around just fine still, but I know the damages overfeeding can cause. I don't have a vacuum to clean his gravel, either, nor can I afford one right this moment. But, I've been thinking of getting a few ghost shrimp. Since they are less than a dollar each, I wanted some anyway, and I hear they are wonderful cleaners. Do you think they would help? Or should I just wait to see if the filter does it's job?

Thank you in advance!!
Tvviggz

 

[RussellTheShihTzu]

Welcome to the forum! :wave:

You can buy some airline tubing for $3.00 at Wal-Mart and use it as a vacuum. Remove 50% of the water while vacuuming. Refill with treated water and wait a few hours to do it again. Repeat until the tank is clear. Do not do 100%.

Take the filter cartridge and swish it around in clean treated water. You can also swish the entire filter. You don't say what size the tank?

 

[Tvviggz]

Thank you! =]

I've already cleaned the filter out by just rinsing in hot water. I'll have to go to Walmart and see what they have. I had to go to three different ones to get a stinking heater. Ugh.

 

[Mousie]

Thank you! =]

I've already cleaned the filter out by just rinsing in hot water. I'll have to go to Walmart and see what they have. I had to go to three different ones to get a stinking heater. Ugh.

I wanted to ask just for clarification; did you rinse the filter media under the faucet? For future reference, never do that. ;-) There is chloramine in tap water that kills bacteria, which makes the water safe for us to drink. But that same chloramine also kills the good bacteria in the filter (it's also toxic to fish). Since your tank is only a few days old, you probably had very little, if any, good bacteria in there. You never want to kill that bacteria... you want it to reproduce and grow so it can help consume the ammonia from your fish (their poop and excreted from their gills).

As Russell recommended, swish the filter media in a bucket or large pan of clean dechlorinated water, never under the faucet. Seachem Prime will dechlorinate on contact at 2 drops per gallon.

Edit: There is a 50/50 chance that your betta will make a snack of the ghost shrimp. Some have luck with them, some do not. Depends on the betta and how aggressive he/she is. You won't really know until you add them to the tank. Just be warned that the betta may or may not rip them in half.

 

[Tvviggz]

Ahh! I should have known about the tap water rinsing -.- Dang panicky momma syndrome. I get it all the time. I hope he will be alright. =/ Thank you for the info, Mousie! I hope the ten gallon will be enough room for all of them. =/ If not, no huge monetary loss, but those poor babies won't be too happy about being a snack. =[

 

[Strawberry12]

Ghost shrimp also need a mature tank because they're very sensitive to parameters, I wouldn't add them to a tank until it was a few months after cycling.

 

[Tvviggz]

I just bought a vacuum, since I didn't have an air pump or a bubble stone. Cheaper and more useful in the long run. Vacuumed the gravel the best I could and emptied the tank about 50% then replaced the water (with treated water, of course). The water itself doesn't look much clearer, but the gravel is much cleaner. Hopefully, the filter will do it's job overnight (I work early tomorrow, I should already be asleep) and it will be in better condition tomorrow. If not, I'll do the same thing again as Russell suggested until it's clean. I also told my boyfriend not to go near Giuseppe again unless he asked me first XD

 

[RussellTheShihTzu]

It's equally about planting in an aquarium as it size on whether tank mates, especially shrimp, will be successful. You shouldn't be able to see from front to back or side to side. You shouldn't be able to glance at the aquarium and see your Betta without searching for a moment.

And while heavy planting is important for shrimp what is equally important is a stable, mature tank. Shrimp are extremely sensitive to water parameters and stress; very few die from actual Betta predation. They die because there was an Ammonia or Nitrite spike; not enough biofilm for them to eat; not enough of their own for them to feel secure; stress from an open tank, etc. The Betta finds a dead or dying shrimp and grabs it and owners instantly cry "My Betta killed my shrimp!" No, it was probably an opportunity feed/kill because the habitat wasn't set up properly or mature and compromised the shrimp.

Ghosties are basically "feeder" shrimp and are subject to very poor treatment even before they reach the pet store so their chances of survival is slim from the get-go.

I have successfully kept a variety of shrimp in my Betta tanks for years by waiting until the tank is mature and is well-planted. Before I figured the importance of both I killed a lot of shrimp; the Betta didn't.

If you're going to get Ghosties don't get a couple; get at least 10 which gives them more of a chance of survival.

 

[NickAu]

I have red cherry shrimp in the tank with my Betta, While she eats a few babies she leaves the adults alone, Last time I tried to count the shrimp I had 14 berried up females and 11 that were not, I assume there is at least 1 male in the tank, and 36 baby shrimp. I originally put 20 into the tank. My tank is heavily planted and that helps. It also depends on the Betta.

Now some people will disagree.
I have no problem with my Betta hunting the shrimp its what I put then in there for, It keeps her occupied and active, and active fish are healthy fish in my opinion.

Now I do understand that some people have smaller tanks and this may not be practice, My tank is 2 foot 70 Litre.

My betta and I have a deal, She can eat as many as she can catch, Trouble is shes too fat lazy and slow most of the time. But its great watching her stalk shrimp.