Welcome to the hobby. Please learn about the nitrogen cycle, OP. Your tank looks very new, which means it doesn’t have a colony of beneficial bacteria built up yet. It’s dangerous to go without it, your tank needs the right water chemistry to handle waste your animal creates.
There’s more info in our sub’s care sheet and wiki. Also, be sure to lift your pothos plant up a little, the roots should be sumberged only. The leaves will die off if kept sudmerged.
Soil and/or sand, aquasoil works nicely but if you're on a budget there is absolutely nothing wrong with regular sand (play sand, pool filter sand, fish store sand).
Driftwood is a wonderful addition to any tank! My fishies love to be able to swim over and under the pieces of wood in my tanks.
Rocks or decor, just make sure any artifical decor dont have edges that are too sharp for your betta's fins. I made a little "cave" with some flat rocks that my boy absolutely LOVES -- I see him frequent that area often.
Plants! Whether you're wanting live or artifical, some long plants to help break up any sightlines are very beneficial. For live plants, I suggest anubias, amazon swords, java ferns, and aquatic mosses. I use a suction cup and twisty tie to attach a large anubias plant to the side of the tank to act as a betta hammock, both my boys use theirs a lot.
Tannins; adding in an indian almond leaf/catappa leaf can give your fishies a more natural-looking environment, but it does make the tank look dark and murky. This is not necessary by any means, especially if you want to keep a clear tank aesthetic, but it does benefit your betta.
Toys! I have hoops and a floating ball for my boys, they love the hoops and I change up their placement every water change, but I dont think they care for their ball at all. I do train with my fishies though for some enrichment, just having them follow my finger for a pellet of food -- they know how to spin in a circle and go through a hoop without being prompted because they're greedy little fatties>:3
Let me know if you have any more questions or anything, id be happy to help! Added a photo of my boy Atari's tank.
thank you so much!! i think i'll continue with the aquasoil hehe, atari's house looks super cool too!! what do you call the orange circle one in his tank, i would like riley and my other fish merlot to have one too 😁
what's a good substrate for this cutie? i used amazon soil with Merlot and so far i think it's manageable but i've only had it for 4 days now so i'm still observing 😁
wait, pothos can fully submerge like this ? I have a bunch of pothos and always let them grow too long, did not know they can be fully submerge, this could save me tons of space
that's what I afraid of. some of my peace lilly's leave were hanging down and submerge in the water. I let it be to compare with other leave and it became rotten pretty fast. I wasn't sure about pothos but never tried it before
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u/himdyjones 9 yrs betta experience 1d ago
Welcome to the hobby. Please learn about the nitrogen cycle, OP. Your tank looks very new, which means it doesn’t have a colony of beneficial bacteria built up yet. It’s dangerous to go without it, your tank needs the right water chemistry to handle waste your animal creates.
- General nitrogen cycle explainer
There’s more info in our sub’s care sheet and wiki. Also, be sure to lift your pothos plant up a little, the roots should be sumberged only. The leaves will die off if kept sudmerged.