My sister got a fish for her b-day once, but she didnt take care of it so i took it and i take care of it now. But i feel bad for it, its a beta, so i cant really have annother fish in with him, so hes all lonely. It just seems like hes bored. I mean, with a cat or a dog, you can pet it and play with it, but for my fish, all there is to do is for him to swim all day. I kinda feel helpless...is there any thing i can do? I just get so sad watching him all by himself with nothing to do but swim...
You can always move him into a pan and give him two great friends: cooking oil and seasoning Seriously though... Betas live a shitty existence anyhow, they swim and swim and swim... ain't got much else to do. It's still probably happier than any normal human though. At least it's existing, and not trying to exist like humans do.
but hes better off than betas at pet stores. they put them in little tupperware things where they cant even swim! so i suppose i can be happy that he atleast has a gallon of water to swim in. his name is Gus, by the way
This is absolutely not true at all. Betas can be housed with any community safe fish except for other MALE betas. You could get a female, mollies, tetras and many others. They are only aggressive to other male betas and fish that have long flowy fins are sometimes picked on. If you are keeping it in a decent size aquarium for a beta around 10-20 gallons and couple tank mates are fine. I agree. This is just because they can not put 10 to a tank so they don't buy each a large tank. They could easily put them into the tanks with the other fish, I don't understand why they don't. By the way I have 3 betas all in 20 gallon tanks and they all have other fish with them. You also should make sure you are feeding a meat based beta flake for them and then a normal flake for most fish. Avoid aggressive fish like ciclids. A gallon of water is not enough for a beta and definately won't support more fish. Aquariums in the 10-20 range only cost like $10-20. A general rule would be 5 gallons for each inch of fish except goldfish which need about 10 gallons per fish.
If you add fish to his tank, make sure you put an pump in! Betas are surface breathers and require no pumps, but other fish require oxygen in the water. Also, my dad had a beta in his goldfish tank, and apparently the betas fins look tasty to a lot of other fish because they are so long and flowy...the other fish started eating his beta, and he had to take him out of the tank. So its safe to say betas are loner-fishes. Dont worry, hes not sad. Im sure hes glad to be able to swim around and have someone to feed him. I have a beta, his name is Seamore, and I rescued him from my sister as well, haha. She wasnt taking care of him either. He is now two years old thanks to me. Yay for adopting neglected betas!
No, you just don't put them in with aggressive fish species. Any community fish you throw in with aggressive fish is going to be attacked, not just betas. Mollies, swordtails, tetras, guppies, etc all make great tank mates with betas. While it is true that betas don't "need" an air pump you should provide one anyway. Without proper gas exchange the waters Ph can become dangerously low from CO2 build-up.
Thank you so much for your advice. [/QUOTE]A gallon of water is not enough for a beta and definately won't support more fish. Aquariums in the 10-20 range only cost like $10-20. A general rule would be 5 gallons for each inch of fish except goldfish which need about 10 gallons per fish.[/QUOTE] I had no idea that they needed more space! The girls that bought the fish for my sister had him in a half-gallon, because thats what they said that the guy at the store reccomended. But i did think that a half gallon was too small so i upraded to a gallon. But next time i am around the pet store i will deffinatley see what i can get. Thanks again for your advice!
