Well I'm officially Certifiable......

[cpietra16]

LOck me up and throw away the keys....
I just was given 2 fish. My neighbour moved out and went back to the states....left behind 2 bettas..whcih ofcourse my son had to rescue
So last count.....
- 1 large overweight Winnie ( my dog)
- 3 offical house cats
- 2 offical house ( I don't wantt to leave the basement) cats
- 2 rabbits that are eating all my dandilions( a great thing) but smell up the house, especially when its muggy
and why not add
- 2 fish ( bettas) no clue on what to do other than they can't live together....left me without food or any info ....I;ll be googling all day!!!!!

[want4rain]

what all did you get from them?? the tanks also?? the gravel from the water?? any filter stuff or just the fish??


if JUST two fish-
get yourself 2 tanks at least 2 gallons each.
an adjustable filter rated for UNDER 5g (hard to find but well worth it)
Master Freshwater Test Kit (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH)

feed them every other day, not every day.
keep the temp CONSTANT, thats more important than the actual temp as long as its reasonable.
after you get whatever tank they are in cycled, do weekly water changes of 50%, use a turkey baster to suck out poo.

..... crud, i have to go.... me or someone else can give you more info later. look up the 'freshwater nitrogen cycle wetwebmedia" and hopefully that will get the most important part out.

see ya later tonight!!

-ash

[14+kitties]

My shingle was hung out years ago! I even have the keychain that says "Certifiably Crazy"!! Welcome!!!!!

[cpietra16]

here are fireball and Ice....
these are the containers they came in and I read up on it, so I already changed 1/3 of their water after it was set out overnight...

and I feed them and take away all floating food that they don't consume so that it doesn't dirty their water..

these containers have a plug on the bottom to remove the water and have a trap to keep the poop / food particles under the grid...

my problem is that I can't get to the particles so that they are removed...any ideas????

[Love4himies]

Nice well rounded family you have

You have to admit those fish do look nice on your table and you have obviously raised a good son to want to rescue these fish.

[Chris21711]

Welcome to the ever burgeoning club of 'People that need to get their brains tested' We've had those in the past, they are very pretty, I'm sure your son will make a good parent.

[ancientgirl]

It's so relaxing to watch fish. I wouldn't dare have any, not with my gang.

[cpietra16]

Want4rain....I need to look up gallons/not sure how many litres that is...and now I have to get a turkey baster....as a vegetarian i find that repulsive....
Love4himies-yes my son is too senstive and will safe all living creatures and mom is letting him...
Chris- my brain has been tested, and after 3 kids...my brain has been reduced by a few cells

[want4rain]

were either of those tanks allowed to dry out in the move??

im not sure i understand the hole in thebottom and the trap?? are you talking about an under gravel filter? i would think, since you have large marbles, the turkey baster would still work well. just shove it down into the marbles and suck!! since 2 of my tanks are really small, i suck out what ic an and then take what i can out by blowing iit all over the place and pulling that water out too, then finishing up by adding the new fresh water in.

also you can pick up 5g tanks fairly cheaply and you would be able to run a filter on it. a filter does a great job of catching debris in the water and conveniently packaging it for you on the filter media. it also helps to build a more stable bacterial colony.

those are two very handsome boys you have there!!

-ashley

[want4rain]

oh and a gallon = almost 4 litres so go with a 8 to 20 litre tank.

-ash

[cpietra16]

Thank you want4rain,

The trap is actually a fake floor where the dirt gets trapped. Beneath the container is a a small knob that you can pull off and get rid of the water.

As for the water in the containers...the neighbour lived right next door and so we just took them , water and all and walked home...3 second trek. And thank-you they are rather cute...and it seems delicate according to the research I've come across...
Do you think these containers are too small.. ????

[jiorji]

they like being that close together? I heard that if they see each other they get angry and puff up. If you put a mirror in front of a beta's face it'll think it's some other betta and puff up ready to attack. I've done it.

they're beautiful

[want4rain]

perfect!! did you get a chance to read up on the bacteria thing??

if i had a chance to do some daydreaming.....

id have them both in 18-19l tanks... throw some daylight compact fluorescents... 10w?? you could probably get away with 5w along with some anubis (anubis nana works well in low light, low fertilizer tanks), some cryptcoryne right under the light?? and some java moss and java fern. then toss in some shrimp... like cherry, ghost or amano?? all of those are very common plants and shrimp. cherry shrimp run a little expensive but they are very pretty. both cherry and ghost shrimp will easily reproduce in FW although amano do not. they move to brackish or even salt water to reproduce.... and go through a rather complicated dance between the three as they grow up. they ahve never been bred in captivity.

are you on municipal water or well?? if its well, it will likely replenish any nutrients you need for the shrimp and plants. if its municipal... it MAY but it depends on your area. no real way to check other than to keep using it and seeing if your plants thrive.

with plants in the tank, a filter probably isnt needed although its convenient for turning over the water for the bacteria and catching poo.

oh and if you have copper pipes, do not get shrimp. copper is deadly to them. they will only die.

now that im all done daydreaming...

that fake floor is called an 'under gravel filter'. is there a little hole the size of a wedding band in the top somewhere?? there should be a tube that connects to that of which you put a bubble stone in. that causes a current in the tank that pulls poo under that tray to be trapped. the bubbles go up, poo goes down. the trouble with that is that its very hard to clean without breaking down your system. sounds like that little hole in the bottom of the tank should help with that some although you say it doesnt do a good job?? if you decide to keep them in there, you can stick some airline tubing in there through one of the holes and siphon the poo out that way or you can remove it and use the turkey baster (see!! even vegans have a use for them!!) to suck the poo out from the marbles.

i would strongly suggest the plants i mentioned above. they will help with your water quality and ease your fish, give them soemwhere to hide... bettas have even been known to make homes out of some of the algaes and mosses!! anyways, if you can afford it, pick up soem Eco Complete. its a GREAT gravel for plants!! and its black and looks stunning with almost all fish.

boy, this is the most awake ive felt in days!! i guess that cold shower helped??

-ashley

[cpietra16]

Want 4 rain...the containers don't take any filter aparatise according to the lady. The containers are 8 inches wide by 5 inches high by 2.5inches deep...are they OK. Apparently Bettas don't need more space???Is that right

[want4rain]

thats about 1.5 liters. *shrugs* they come from rice patties. they dont have a large territory but they have impeccable water quality. if you dont want to put them in anything larger, i wuld strongly suggest daily to every other day 50% water changes and be very careful when you clean algae off the tank. do only very small sections at a time. there is not much space in a tank that small to house the bacterial colony needed to process the waste from your fish.

i guess the first thing you shold do is get a master freshwater test kit and see where the nitrates sit. when you do your water changes or tank cleaning (again, i can not stress enough to not clean MUCH) and see how that effects your nitrite and ammonia readings.

also keep a close eye on your pH. as organic waste builds up in your tanks, the pH lowers. at a certain point it will drop quickly if you do not keep on top of your WC's.

i personally have a 2 female bettas in 2 different 8L tanks and find it difficult to keep on top of WC' they also have live plants and i feed sparingly.

maybe i can put this into dog terms?? IMO keeping a betta in anything less than 8L (at the very very least) is sorta like keeping a dane in a 6m X 6m kennel his whole life and only cleaning his poo out once a week.

here is some reading for you!
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebi...ettasysart.htm
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Betta_splendens
(i wrote some of that about feeding. )
http://www.siamsbestbettas.com/care.html
(i dont frequent this site much but for the sake of throwing more reading cause they suggest a few different things and go more into what to feed them... i feed mine the Hikari Betta Bio-Gold food along with gnats, fruit flies, mosquito larva... and any other little tiny soft shelled bug i catch.)
http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/articles/BettaCare.html

also to mention, most sites suggest feeding once a day. this is GROSSLY over feeding your betta. they need a day in between feeding to keep their guts moving. since they eat bugs, thus are carnivores, their diet is NATURALLY fairly low in fiber. they can go up to two weeks without eating and only get a little thin. i would highly suggest feeding 2-4 times a week leaning closer to 4 but no more really. they DO get pudgy and thats not healthy for them.

you didnt happen to get any more pictures of them did you??

-ashley

[cpietra16]

Well, I put in more pics for you, want4rain, and got myself a turkey BAster...yep..I did!!!! I started another thread under "fish", since i guess thats what they are by the way do I have male or females????still can't tell

[Jim Hall]

y'all should guve this to marko to post as a great primer on keepong fish


I always feel sad for the betta's cause they seem so lonely all by them selves

[aslan]

cpietra they are definately males, females aren't as full in the fins and usually aren't as colourful with betta's.

[krdahmer]

I've had Betta's too, very pretty but I hated cleaning their little tanks. Our fish are hubby's department... I just feed them,... the other end is up to him (we have 40&50 G tanks). One betta Twisty just lived in with my goldfishies... the other, Red, had a 1 gallon tank, I found a filter for it at Walmart that does 1-5 gallons I think, it just suctions right to the inside of the tank and cuts down a bit on clean outs.

Those two look pretty too.... and for your son!

Oh and the fish store said you can put in a snail or a ghost shrimp to help clean too, only thing is the betta will try and eat the shrimp (mine only lasted a couple weeks) and snails fare better but when they die... omgoodness do they ever stink up the place!

[calikat421]

lol, my boyfriend wants to commit me just for all the pets I want but don't even have yet, I did have two cats, now only one, plus an extremely hyper lab pup, plus I want fish in a large tank, I want a tangerine colored canary, and I want a Boa, Caribean boa I think is what it's called, either way... we saw a baby that was slate blue, SO PRETTY!!! So yea, I'm pretty much already crazy... lol, if you can take care of all the animals, why not give them a home, a full home is a happy home!