Larry Blanchard
December 20th 04, 06:13 AM
OK, a rehash of my trials and tribulations as a beginning aquarist.
Almost a beginner anyway, I did have two goldfish for several years as a
child :-).
As I've mentioned in earlier posts, we got 2 bettas and put them in a 10
gallon tank, separated by one of those commercial tank dividers. Had a
heater in one side, a filter in the other, EcoComplete for a substrate,
and lots of live plants.
First problem, one of the bettas was panicked by the filter current, so
I had to turn it way down. Of course, then the current didn't get
through the small holes in the divider.
Then we got two otos, one for each side, to hold down the algae. Found
out my bettas like sinking algae wafers almost as well as their own
betta food :-).
The panicky betta got psychotic after the filter stopped panicking him,
and spent all his time trying to find a way through the divider. He was
even digging at the base of it. So I moved him into his own little 2.5
gallon tank.
Got a cheap mini-heater at Walmart for the little tank. Besides the
fact that it ran all the time and therefore the water temp went down at
night when the house temp did, it only lasted 10 days before it quit
altogether. Replaced it with a 25watt "Thermal Compact" from Hagen.
That one's still working, but it sure is a pain to adjust.
I thought I could do without a filter, since it panicked the betta, but
he developed a liking for a flake food instead of the Hikari pellets he
used to accept, and some of the flakes wound up on the bottom, so I got
a cory to clean up the bottom. They take turns chasing each other and
yes, the betta likes catfish food too :-).
Back to the 10 gallon. It now had only one betta and 2 otos in it, so I
got one male and 3 female platys. Yep, you guessed it - that betta
likes the floating algae flakes I feed the platys. So much so he's
actually taken a flake away from a platy who had it in its mouth, and
nipped at the platys to keep them away from the food.
The platys are great. The otos are great and so is the catfish. I'm
coming to believe that buying the @#$^%! bettas is one of the dumbest
things I ever did (and at 67 there's a long list to choose from), but
I'm too softhearted to flush them.
So I'm going to one more iteration. I'm getting a 5.5 gallon tank and
splitting it for the two bettas. This time I plan on trying a variation
on somthing a poster to this group told me about. I'll put a divider of
plastic canvas lengthwise about 2 inches from the back wall. That'll
make room for the heater. Then I'll put a solid divider between the two
halves so the bettas can't see each other. I think convection will
spread the heat through the canvas holes.
In case the convection isn't sufficient, I think I could put one of
those hang on the back filters where the water flows over a lip and
straight down in without generating enough current to panic the one
betta.
And absolute worst case, I could put about an inch of plastic canvas in
place of the front inch of solid divider and get more circulation with a
Duetto filter turned way down, but I'd almost rather go to daily water
changes than let the psycho betta see the other one :-).
Another possibility would be to forget the heater. Bettas seem to
survive fairly well without heat, but the ones I've seen are pretty
sluggish at room temperature.
So; any comments on that setup and its variations?
And just to have something positive to report, the plants are doing
great! The dwarf sag and pygmy chain swords are putting out runners,
the java fern has baby plants on almost every leaf, and the milfoil is
growing faster than the platys can eat it. Guess I'm a better gardener
than an aquarist. Of course I've been doing out-of-water gardening for
many decades :-).
BTW, I was at Petco today and say a book on the rack that was all on
bettas. Well, I did quite a bit of reading on the subject before we got
these two, but I'm always looking for more info. So I picked up the
book and turned to the chapter on feeding just to see what it said.
I can't quote it exactly, but one sentence went something like "Bettas
are timid feeders and often wait till all other fish in the aquarium
have had their fill." HAH! No, I didn't throw the book on the floor
and stomp on it, but it was tempting :-).
Merry/Happy/Joyous/Super/etc. winter solstice festival to you all.
--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description
Almost a beginner anyway, I did have two goldfish for several years as a
child :-).
As I've mentioned in earlier posts, we got 2 bettas and put them in a 10
gallon tank, separated by one of those commercial tank dividers. Had a
heater in one side, a filter in the other, EcoComplete for a substrate,
and lots of live plants.
First problem, one of the bettas was panicked by the filter current, so
I had to turn it way down. Of course, then the current didn't get
through the small holes in the divider.
Then we got two otos, one for each side, to hold down the algae. Found
out my bettas like sinking algae wafers almost as well as their own
betta food :-).
The panicky betta got psychotic after the filter stopped panicking him,
and spent all his time trying to find a way through the divider. He was
even digging at the base of it. So I moved him into his own little 2.5
gallon tank.
Got a cheap mini-heater at Walmart for the little tank. Besides the
fact that it ran all the time and therefore the water temp went down at
night when the house temp did, it only lasted 10 days before it quit
altogether. Replaced it with a 25watt "Thermal Compact" from Hagen.
That one's still working, but it sure is a pain to adjust.
I thought I could do without a filter, since it panicked the betta, but
he developed a liking for a flake food instead of the Hikari pellets he
used to accept, and some of the flakes wound up on the bottom, so I got
a cory to clean up the bottom. They take turns chasing each other and
yes, the betta likes catfish food too :-).
Back to the 10 gallon. It now had only one betta and 2 otos in it, so I
got one male and 3 female platys. Yep, you guessed it - that betta
likes the floating algae flakes I feed the platys. So much so he's
actually taken a flake away from a platy who had it in its mouth, and
nipped at the platys to keep them away from the food.
The platys are great. The otos are great and so is the catfish. I'm
coming to believe that buying the @#$^%! bettas is one of the dumbest
things I ever did (and at 67 there's a long list to choose from), but
I'm too softhearted to flush them.
So I'm going to one more iteration. I'm getting a 5.5 gallon tank and
splitting it for the two bettas. This time I plan on trying a variation
on somthing a poster to this group told me about. I'll put a divider of
plastic canvas lengthwise about 2 inches from the back wall. That'll
make room for the heater. Then I'll put a solid divider between the two
halves so the bettas can't see each other. I think convection will
spread the heat through the canvas holes.
In case the convection isn't sufficient, I think I could put one of
those hang on the back filters where the water flows over a lip and
straight down in without generating enough current to panic the one
betta.
And absolute worst case, I could put about an inch of plastic canvas in
place of the front inch of solid divider and get more circulation with a
Duetto filter turned way down, but I'd almost rather go to daily water
changes than let the psycho betta see the other one :-).
Another possibility would be to forget the heater. Bettas seem to
survive fairly well without heat, but the ones I've seen are pretty
sluggish at room temperature.
So; any comments on that setup and its variations?
And just to have something positive to report, the plants are doing
great! The dwarf sag and pygmy chain swords are putting out runners,
the java fern has baby plants on almost every leaf, and the milfoil is
growing faster than the platys can eat it. Guess I'm a better gardener
than an aquarist. Of course I've been doing out-of-water gardening for
many decades :-).
BTW, I was at Petco today and say a book on the rack that was all on
bettas. Well, I did quite a bit of reading on the subject before we got
these two, but I'm always looking for more info. So I picked up the
book and turned to the chapter on feeding just to see what it said.
I can't quote it exactly, but one sentence went something like "Bettas
are timid feeders and often wait till all other fish in the aquarium
have had their fill." HAH! No, I didn't throw the book on the floor
and stomp on it, but it was tempting :-).
Merry/Happy/Joyous/Super/etc. winter solstice festival to you all.
--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description