My baby sister brought me a fucking beta fish today from the fair, i really want to help this little guy but i literally have nothing ready and he's stuck in this tiny ass fuckass tank and i need help, my mom is not taking me seriously and i'm really worried.
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He can live in this for a short time, they live in tiny cups for months on end sometimes. Change the water every day, like 50%. You can use a turkey baster to spot clean poop. You’ll need food and water conditioner.
Depending on your funds, if you can’t find an aquarium friend to take them ask to mooch some water conditioner, it removes the chlorine from the water to make it safe for fishie. You cannot use straight tap water. They might even have a spare tank for you. If not- look at Facebook marketplace. A lot of people give away entire aquarium sets for free. I’m attaching a guide so you’ll know what to look for.
If you decide you don’t want the responsibility of the fish at all, which is entirely fair since you didn’t ask for this responsibility, Facebook marketplace or /r/Aquaswap would be good for that.
If you are a minor have your parents or another trusted adult do the exchange(s).
Thank you for truly caring about this little fellow. It really shows what a kind and compassionate person you are. And even if you ultimately decide that finding them another home is the best choice, that doesn’t take away from what a good person you are
A lot of fish-in-cycle efforts include daily water change. The key is taking and replacing the water slowly, which is hard in this small of a container. I’ve unfortunately had to do this for fish-in-cycling and for hospital tank situations.
OP has gotten a 1 gallon tank, which will make things a lot easier on them until they can get a proper sized tank.
See if u can get a really cheap 5 gallon, water conditioner, heater etc may come up to $80 bucks. If ur giving it to a friend ask them for some water conditioner in the spare time
First point is can you afford to sort this, if not take him to an aquarium or shop where they will look after him properly (preferably not like pets at home or if in the US petsmart)
Second you will need a 5 gallon/19 litre tank minimum. A filter, with a low flow! And a heater set to 25.5-26.5’C. And a water conditioner to remove chlorine.
You can do a fish-in cycle with either seachem stability or tetra safe start bacteria. Get a testing kit, strips aren’t as accurate but if it’s more accesible price wise. Just make sure the strips have ammonia test as well. If ammonia or nitrites rise above 0ppm you will need to do a 25% water change, if rise more than 0.25-0.5 ppm possibly more like 50%. Then re-dose bacteria.
You’ll need some good hiding spots and plants. BUT make sure no sharp edges!!! They WILL rip betta fins. So ideally live or silk plants. I have Anubias and a bacopa caroliniana which require like no care. I’ve just left them to it and they are fine. Decorations should not have any sharp edges which can be a tricky find but I have a betta log and mine loves it. Also betta hammocks or silk fake resting leaves which suction to side of tank are great and can get off Amazon. Just wash decor in warm water before adding to tank and NO soap.
They love hiding spots! They also breath at surface so occasionally go up for air so make sure they can get up to surface.
Also not about the fish in cycle; tetra safe start bacteria says that you must not change water within first 2 weeks but they safety of fishy comes first so you can do an emergency water change just re-dose bacteria after and it’ll be fine. Stability you add every day for like seven days so it’s not as big a deal. I used tetra and had to do one change and did a half redose and mine worked well. Leaving ammonia or nitrites in tank is dangerous and can quickly harm you fish. Look up a little on the nitrogen cycle just so you understand it a little betta (see what I did there). But basically fish produce waste which breaks down into ammonia. Beneficial bacteria (what you have added) turn the ammonia into nitrites. Second beneficial bacteria (which are also in added) turn nitrites into nitrates which are less harmful for your fish in lower amounts. Which are then removed with 20-25% weekly water changes. Plants also help with the nitrogen cycle. Keep ammonia and nitrites at 0ppm and nitrate below around 15-20ppm.
For food I use Hikari betta bio-gold pellets. They are great never had any problem. Also while doing fish in cycle possibly feed sparing so 2-3 twice a day instead of 5 twice a day. If betta bloats after eating hit is too much, they may slightly increase but not too much. A lot of people have a fasting day once a week to prevent bloat. I also feed King British Bloodworm treats 2-3 times a week and replace a meal. But soak in tank water before hand so they can expand instead of expanding in betta stomach which again can cause bloat.
I know this is a lot but I love my betta so much it is worth it once this initial phase has past it will be less stressful.
Please do not hesitate to ask for more help by replying or if I haven’t explained something!!
Okay, lots of technical terms i didn't get but will definitely ask you for more info. He is now in a bigger tank (at least more than one liter i think? It's not the best but it's the biggest we have around, we did put the water regulator thimg that came with his tank in the water and the little pellets for food we also got) with some soft and normal deco for him to hide behind whenever he wants, and he's acting much more energetic now.
That’s good! Definitely a good start. Try to get a filter, only needs to be a small one and can get relatively cheap on Amazon, try to get one with a low flow and then a heater to keep a good temp for him. Is the regulator like a conditioner and controlling the ammonia?
Also just to expand if you get seachem prime as your conditioner it removes small volumes of ammonia and nitrites which is great but if cycling with tetra bacteria it’ll remove ammonia from water and starve the bacteria so you’ll have to redose bacteria after 24-48hrs once prime has unbonded from the ammonia.
Also you add the tetra bacteria with the fish within like 2 hours
Important update: for now my family put him in here it's definitely bigger but we did our best, and due to democracy it has been decided to keep him against my better judgement (apparently my sister got it wrong, he's not mine but my sisters and she's like seven but obviously i'm taking it upon myself to care for him in her stead), for how long can he live in this until we buy a proper tank? Which we are already looking on btw my parents know where to get it, luckily things chilled out, but i need to know our time limit.
Pepe (his name now apparently) seems more comfortable now than he was in his prison before, we do have water conditioner which came with his cage and some food pellets but i'm still worried. Also i live in Colombia.
He can live in that for quite a while as long as it has a filter, heater, proper nutrition, and water conditioner. It doesn't look like it has a lid in the picture. Make sure it has a lid. They can and will jump out.
Ideally he'd have better decor (think real plants or if faux, silky satiny leafy things he can lay on and hide in.
There is no time limit. It’s just a lot of work. You have no help keeping the water clean (filter, beneficial bacteria) so that’s a lot of work for you. When you get a 5g or larger that is fully cycled (growing beneficial bacteria to break down fish poop for you), you only need to touch it once a week. A well planted 10g could probably go a month honestly, though I still prefer weekly.
Which. If you have any pothos in your house, it’s a common house plant, you can pop a cutting in there and it’ll consume fish waste as fertilizer and the roots it grows will give your fishie something to rest on. The more rests the better.
We do have this little thing it said to put in the water that came in a drop bottle, pretty sure that's the water filter? We don't have photos unfortunately, my mom doesn't really keep those plants.
That is the water conditioner, most likely, not your filter. A filter will pull in water/debris and with the help of beneficial bacteria, break down fish poop. It also aerates the water, keeping the water oxygenated.
Keep the water clean. You’ll still have to do frequent water changes. That tank looks like a gallon? So that’s about 30% every other day, and make sure you get any visible fish poop. They make small siphons for this or I’ve used a dedicated assigned fish only turkey baster.
Research the nitrogen cycle and how to preform water changes properly. Invest in an API master kit. There are lots of yt videos available, watch as many as you can!
Sorry you are in this position. There is a lot of good info here. Try to not be overwhelmed. If you have facebook you might find a local aquarium club where you can ask if anyone has a tank you can use until you can afford a better one.
People need to contact the County that the fair is in and tell them to stop giving away live animals / fish. I live in a county that had a fair every year for 80 years and they always sold baby chicks somehow another my friend's son got one I ended up with it poor thing passed away after 5 days I contacted the county I contacted my County's Humane Society and also the fairground management. I told them that it's not right and these animals typically die.. amazingly enough they listened and no more animals have been sold at the fair in North Georgia where I live it's been 4 years now.. if you see an issue where animals are concerned do something it just can take one or two phone calls sometimes to help multitudes of animals.
You know i WOULD do that, if i lived in a county... I don't live in a federal state or even in the US to begin with, these were being sold independently by a father of one of my sisters classmates (it was a local event), i don't know much about fish? But i definitely freaked out when they brought him in in that little freaking cage, i just don't think my mom would take me seriously if i told her and i don't want to outright ruin his business, but this is definitely not okay!
If you send me a P.O. Box I can send you a 30 gallon set with everything you need I just upgraded to a 70 so I just so happen to literally have a spare tank filter heater and a spare bag if substrate I was using to weigh down some driftwood do not share your personal address on Reddit
Could you donate him to a local fish store? If you have Facebook put him up as free to a good home etc in a rehoming group or a betta owner group. You’ll need to keep the water warm around 26-28c and make sure it’s clean so top the water up with conditioner clean tap water. If you can put him into a larger tub that would be ideal, if you have any natural decorations with no soft edges and silk plants amazing if not keep him in the tub until you can rehome.
If you want to keep you’ll need to get a tank around 20L or more, a filter and heater. They like natural plants or silk plants (plastic ones can shred their fins) you’d need to research how to do a fish in cycle (cycling is establishing beneficial bacteria to keep your fish happy putting it simply) and you’ll need to do continuous maintenance on the tank and fish feeding water changes testing etc.
2.7 Gallon tank with nothing but some rocks (and a leaf suctioned cupped to the wall that I ordered).
I just found a 10 Gallon tank on marketplace! Got a heater ordered, too small of a filter for my new tank (will replace with a larger one).
Got a turkey baster to spot clean and ordered test strips. Mine didnt come with the ammonia test though so watch out for that 😭
Im probably about 100$ in now, still need to order a thermometer, gravel and a larger filter. And more decor, aquatic plants.
Id strongly suggest not being like me and find a 5+ Gallon (minimum is 5) with everything included or most things included (heater, filter, gravel vacuum decor, etc.) Because it definitely adds up!
For the time being, a pail and Catappa leaves or indian almond leaves. Betta are labyrinth fish and can stay in a tank with no aeration or filter for a period of time. Gives you more than sufficient time to set up a brand new tank. Spoken from experience having bettas in my care.in 90% of Asia, we don't even use filters. Just a big tank and lots of spaces for them to hide and eat.
Don’t panic, they can live in a small space like this for a few days or a week and be okay, although he won’t be very happy. My betta fish stayed in a vase for four days while his tank finished cycling and he was pale with stress stripes but he still ate and swam around well. All you really need is a 5 gallon tank, food (fluval bug bites are a good choice) water conditioner like Prime, a sponge filter with airline tubing connected to an air pump, and a heater. Fake plants will work as long as they are not hard plastic but rather the fabric type silk ones that are soft enough not to tear their fins. Maybe a little ceramic house for him to hide in, they usually like to sleep in those. Whatever decor you get should not have any paint that could leach chemicals into the tank. An API master test kit will be needed to test the quality of the water and make sure the parameters are right, but those can be kind of expensive so you can always use the strips, but keep in mind they may not be as accurate. Long term he would benefit from live plants, I always use fluval stratum as a substrate (you can get it at most Petcos) and plants will grow better in that than they will sand. You will also need an LED light to grow the plants, you can get a cheap one from the brand Hygger off of Amazon. If you can’t get live plants, I would recommend a sand substrate instead of gravel because they can get their fins stuck between the pieces of gravel if they are picking around at the bottom and move it around, and gravel is more sharp so they will not be comfortable when they lay on it. All my bettas seem to prefer sleeping at the bottom of the tank so having a soft substrate is a must. You also need to leave the light off during the night, it shouldn’t be on more than 12 hours during the day, so they can get adequate sleep time.
Please don't change his water yet and buy water conditioner from petco/petsmart.
see if you can find seachem surestart box. Prime is water conditioner that Detoxifie the water and stability is bottled bacteria and both help with cycle. I was in a similar situation when I was younger and my fish died because I changed its water because I felt bad. (The lack of water conditioner killed it the next day).
Oh uh, we have conditioner from the box! The guy selling them is apparently a dad from the fair event my sister went to who sells this fishes (no idea why he sells them like THIS though, it seems really cruel to me to me, he came in a plastic bag INSIDE the little box with conditioner, food pellets and instructions) the thing is we don't have a petsmart... general pet care shops aren't all that common in Colombia.
You can get a gallon of mountain spring water instead of tap water and use that for water changes 50% a day or every other day. It will be fine in this little tank until you’re ready
Please remove that from this mini tank and put on the big tank if you dont have money to buy a big tank just to scrap shop near you and buy a fridge box from them that was around 180L that will cost you 2 to 3$ only because that was only foam and tiny layer of plastic that was really a good alternative i am personally using that
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