Tankload of questions (long)

"Polarhound" wrote in message
...
Several questions for all of you today. Any advice is appreciated.

At a small wedding I attended last week, we were given a betta along
with all the basic supplies as the table gift. First time I have seen
someone do this, but in his case it is appropriate as the groom is a
big
fish fanatic (over 1000gal in tanks, with his family including the
likes
of a lungfish, stonefish, buttikoferi, waterdog, oscars, lionfish,
electric eels, rays, and an alligator named Fluffy) and works at an LFS
to boot.

The fish themselves were given in vases along with gravel, water
conditioner, and food, so the basics are taken care of. While he has
been in the vase, he gets a 100% water change and gravel rinse every 3
days.

Sounds fine, provided the water parameters are similar enough. I'm not a
big fan of 100% changes, preferring smaller changes as required.

I've decided to move the betta to a 5gal tank, (possibly an Eclipse Hex
5,) and give him a few mates, most likely 5-6 neon tetras.

Question 1: Is a half dozen neons too many for this tank, based on
1"/gal?

Answer 1: No problemo in regards to the biological load. Six Neons are
probably equivilant to only 2 or 3 inches of fish-load. Of course, you
would need to seed the bacteria and/or go up slowly. Understanding
Bettas might give you pause before adding Neons though. They are
attracted (in a bad way) to fish which are very colorful (this is their
territorial nature) and they can/will eat anything they can fit in their
mouths (they are carnivores). These two attributes put Neons (in a small
tank with a Betta) at a higher risk than other fishes. The deciding
factor is usually the particular disposition of the Betta, so ymmv.

Since I brought the betta home, it has not eaten at all. I have tried
Splendid Betta pellets (that came with the betta), Tetra freeze dried
blood worms, (specifically marked as being good for bettas,) a piece of
frozen blood worm, a piece of Sera Vipan staple flake food, and 1/4
cooked pea.. He won't eat any of it. As well, even though I fish the
food out of the bowl after 15-20min, the gravel rinsings show copious
amounts of waste.

Stop trying to feed him for 2-3 days. Then drop in a few bloodworms. If
they will not eat their favorite food after not eating for 3 days, you
have a problem. Until then, all you might have is a stubborn Betta.

He does move around the bowl, responds to me when I am nearby (but only
when looking from directly above), and has been blowing some bubbles.
Fins are not clamped during movement, and no disease indicators (other
then a tiny gray spot that has since shown up at the base of his dorsal
fin,) and becomes more active if I move him next to one of my other
tanks.

Transport mortality is quite high with wedding Bettas. You might be
doing everything right, but the fish is still dealing with the treatment
received from before you took over.

Question 2: I know bettas can go a month without starving. Should I
just not feed him for about a week and see if he changes moods? I
realize that the double move (LFS to wedding to home) was likely very
stressful.

Already answered above. At least the behavior & appearance are good
signs.

Now, on to the new tank. I have several tanks of which I can pull
cultured gravel from. Well, all except Marty's (my 2.5" buttikoferi)
tank.. He's liable to have it spread all over the tank within an hour!
However, none of the colors match what I want to use in his new
home.

Question 3: If I were to say, put some of the new gravel in a cup
inside one of my current tanks, how long would it reasonably take to
have enough bacteria attach itself to be able to jump-start the new
tank? As an alternative, would it be easier to temporarily install a
corner filter filled with cultured gravel?

Answer 3: Easier to take a cup of gravel from the established tank and
sit it in the new tank for a few weeks (you idea of a corner filter
works). Note that this mostly seeds a bacteria which is not difficult to
culture anyways, the stuff which breaks down solid wastes. It's the
nitrifying bacteria which takes a bit longer to establish (the bacteria
which coats surfaces, especially near moving water such as filtration
media).

Question 4: The only experience I have with a biowheel is in my 75g
tank which had the wheels from day one. Would soaking the new wheel in
one of my established tanks do more than what I asked in question 3?

Answer 4: Yes, it would, if you could get it seeded well enough.
Ideally, you could swap bio-wheels, but they won't be the same size :-(.
Some squeezings from your older filtration media, into your Eclipse's
filter will jump start the system.

Now that I mentioned Marty, it brings me to my next question,
specifically feeding.

If I were to dump a whole container of food into his tank (10g until he
grows a bit more) he would probably eat it in 20 minutes. Voracious is
an understatement with him. I feed him once per day, starting with
Tetra mini pellets, then a few flakes, then some freeze dried blood
worms. I know that you should never feed more than they can eat in a
few minutes, but does this include when he's eating like a starved
lunatic? I put in the food in small amounts, of which he always eats
in
about 10 seconds flat. Several small pinches (5-6 at a time) of the
pellets, a couple of flakes, then a few bloodworms at a time. Although
sometimes he slows down during the bloodworms, he usually is clamoring
for more when I end the feeding.

Question 5: In a case like this, how much is too much?

Hornet tilapia are voracious eaters and fast growing to over a foot long.
If your filter and water change routine could keep up with it, you can
feed him a lot. Don't be surprised if you are filtering it as a 30g by
the time you need to move him out (the filtration requirement goes up as
a function of the total grams of food introduced, and goes down as a
function of water changes). If you want him to eat less, dropping the
water temperature a bit might help.

Marty is truly a creature of habit. He expects his one big meal a day,
and if you try to feed him at any other point in time he'll ignore it.

Neat. I've never seen or heard of this. Discus can be a bit anal about
their feeding routines, but a tilapia? Do some water tests, specifically
NH3/4, NO2 and NO3 and post your results. Many fish are fine with single
large meals (ie: channel cats), while others need to feed more
continuously (ie: Kissing gouramis, small tetras etc). I'm not sure
where the tilapia would fit. As an fast growing omnivore, it's probably
not harming him to eat this way.

(Last question now, I promise!)

When I am cleaning the smaller tanks, it is hard for me to do a proper
cleaning without removing too much water. Specifically, cleaning the
gravel in the 10G is a royal pain. Normally I only get half the gravel
done before I hit the water limit. This is with a manual siphon.
Using
a Python is not an option, as I can't get suction running the hose down
a flight of stairs, and the sink on the same level doesn't allow me to
get a good seal to get any suction.

I recommend that you gravel vac until your reach your target water volume
change (ie:20%). The following time (1 or 2 weeks), start from where you
left off. Small tanks are typically done that way. Move a decoration on
the tank to indicate what side you are doing next ;~)

Question 6: Any recommendations on better ways to clean the gravel? I
ask because this problem may be magnified with the 5g tank coming later
today. Should I look into a lower powered battery operated siphon?
Should I rotate scooping portions of the gravel out and rinsing it?
The
10g has a little under 1" of gravel at present, with some areas deeper
than others, thanks to Marty's hole digging and plant rearranging
antics.

Question 6 comes after your promised last question?? ;~) ok, bonus
answer 6: the trick to gravel vacuuming smaller tanks is in being able to
have a finer control over the flow rate, using a resticting valve, or
draining into a pail which is up off the floor, on a chair or something.
If that does not work well enough for you, use a smaller diameter pipe in
the gravel.

cheers
NetMax

Thanks in advance for your advice.