Sooooo, i just got a new betta (crown tail), and he has been living at my house for about 30 hours. He is the sole occupant of a betta cube (1/2 gallon or 2L), which i bought as a "Marina Betta Kit". He has eaten a bit, i dont really expect him to eat much in the first days, but food was offered, and a couple flakes are left on the bottom of the cube uneaten… i have prior expirience with fish, as i have a successful 10 gallon tank running with some gouramis, and corydoras catfish.

Ok, now, i have some concerns:

1) I have heard that when bettas are stressed they tend to have horizontal lines on their bodies…mine DOES TOO!!! Should i be consered, or is it a thing for the first few days while he gets accustomed to his new home?(pls explain)

2) He is active…not very, but i know bettas tend to be sluggish at times…he swims around slowly, looks at everything, dips down to snatch some morsel off the gravel…chases his tail…sometimes comes up to the top. And when i come around, he shies away, but then comes out to investigate. Is there ANYTHING in that behavior that may consern you????

3) What would a healthy betta act like?Give me any things that could suggest illness…

4) He is in a 1/2 gallon cube that has some gravel at the bottom, 2 shoots of hornwort plant, and three pebbles. (The kit that i got for him is called the " Marina betta kit", so i am infering that all is right with the size, contents and the fact that there is no filtration, or heating…he is in a well heated room, away from drafts). So, is that all good?

5) Water changes for that small cube tank would be good twice a week or once?

6) I have some bloodworms that i feed to my other fish, should i supplement his diet with those? His normal food say that it contains bloodworm meal…so are the extra bloodworm necessary…or does all betta food contain bloodworm meal?

Thank you very much for any help you can give, TEN POINTS to anyone who can answer the best!!!

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Do you think it would be ok to use an Ant and Roach Fogger if I just shut off the filtration system and covered with a towel? Or maybe duct tape a plastic bag over it and tape it to the counter???? I would hate to harm my froggies. They are water animals………

Has anyone had this problem??? Ants are taking over my house and I just cant take it anymore, but I dont want to hurt my frogs.

What can I do????

Thanks in Advance!!!!
there is nothing for the ants to be "after" it is just ant season here in Louisiana and they are EVERYWHERE
2 Ten gallon tanks, not very easy to move full of water…..

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I have a 55 gallon aquarium that I used for years to house a bearded dragon (reptile). The aquarium is in immaculate condition, but I need to ask a few questions about setting it up before I actually put water in it.

First, the aquarium sat on a sturdy table when it was used to house the reptile. But I don’t know if the table will be sturdy enough to hold the water-filled aquarium. It has solid 3" square hardwood legs, and I thought about reinforcing it at the joints. It is the same length as the aquarium, and the same width…it would be perfect if it’s sturdy enough.

Next, I have no idea what kind of filtration to use. Any and all advice here will be appreciated.

Also need to know how deep the gravel should be.

Finally, how long will I let the aquarium cycle before I add fish?

Thanks so much to anyone who can help me out!
WOW! Thanks so much for the responses. Everyone is giving me excellent advice, and I’m going to utilize a lot from everyone. Thanks sooo much!

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Hey all. I am usually a keeper of Betta (I do so ever love them). However, I have recently been pretty fascinated with gold fish. I would really like to get some, but I am worried about size constraints. I know common goldfish need about 30 gallons, but I think the best I will be able to keep in my small house is another 20 gallon. Is there any kind in particular that would be alright in a smaller tank with filtration and regular cleanings? I’ve seen fantails kept in relatively small tanks (on the other hand, I’ve also seen Betta kept in tiny plastic containers). If not, is there another sort of more manageable fish that I could accept as a substitute (orange or calico in color) which would do better in a smaller tank? I also have some ghost shrimp I was going to move into the next tank I got, but I am unsure of how well they function in cold water tanks (especially one that had messy gold fish in it), so could you fill me in on that? Thanks in advance
Yea… I figured the shrimp wouldn’t be well off. I was kind of thinking Platies too, but I am not only fascinated wth the color, but there movement (slow strides, one of the reasons I like bettas). I will see what else I can pull together. Until then I’ll research te rest of your suggestions.
Well, it isn’t a question if shrimp and Betta getting along, it is more that I wnt to make plenty of room for them all. My "Betta" tank (I’m using quotation marks because it was marketed for goldfish) is only 2 gallons. I don’t think it has enough filtration, and even if it did , Bettas are just so beautiful when kept by themselves (or atleast I find).

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Hi, My name is Mark and I live in Harvard Massachusettes and my e mail address is mbhoss@msn.com<mailto:mbhoss@msn.com>.

My history:

I had a new well drilled to 225 feet a little over a year ago. The reasons were more gallons per minute and better quality. Results were 25 gallons per minute but 40.9 reading on the iron content. A water filtration company came in and for approximately 6500.00 provided me with a system to handle the quality issues. Installed were a neutralizer, an iron remover, a 4" x 10" cartridge, a softener and a charcoal tank. For a short time this seemd to have worked. However, the systems needed to back wash every night and left us not being able to run any water for 5 to 6 hours in the wee hours of the night. Even though the maintenance was done by the installer as suggested we had the neutralizer head fail and two weeks later the softener head went. The suggestion made at this point was to " Sell the House".

Out of frustration and armed with some recent well history in the neighborhood the decision was made to set back up over the newly drilled well and go deeper. We went down to 525 feet and got 45 gpm. The pump was set back only to 360 feet for what reason I do not know except that I was told after the fact that maybe it would not do the job if set deeper? Now after having run the well for 30 plus hours I had the water tested for metals or " Stain Package". The results were Calcium 39.3 , Copper <0.02 , Iron 25.0 , Magnesium 9.1 , Maganese 1.3 , Sodium 26.3 , Hardness 136 and pII #6.0.

My question;

Would setting the pump down to 500 feet +/- potentially give me better results? Incidentally, the original well was sealed off at the 225 foot depth.

Is this water that you think can be treated is properly designed with out running into the problems of no water use at night, quarterly maintenance only to begin replacing components after only a year and a half?

Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated!

Sincerely,

Mark

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I am interested in purchasing a "waterboy" water conditioning system for my residence (approx. 2800 sqft.). This system is available from a company called "Superior Water" in Southern California. Does anybody have any experience with this system? What is the approximate cost of the system? Thank you.

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