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US $12.98
A Betta fish is probably the most ideal fish for a bowl or small aquarium available. They are simple to keep, beautiful, and interact with the owner (they make great pets). Bettas also take up little space and are inexpensive to keep.
There just a few basics to keeping bettas:
Housing (Tank/bowl);
I recommend at least a ½ gallon (2 liter) bowl, although plenty of aquarists are successful with smaller bowls. Your large pea sized gravel or glass marbles for ease of cleaning. A small plastic plant or even a sprig of live anacharis makes a good plant decoration (make sure there is lighting overhead or the bowl is near a window for the plant to thrive). A ceramic ornament is nice too.
Feeding;
A quality food with aquatic based proteins such as whole fish meal is essential. Sanyu makes an excellent pellet food. A supplement with FD, frozen or even live brine shrimp is good, along with frozen or FD bloodworms.
Soak pellets for a few minute to prevent air from being trapped inside the food and causing intestinal problems for your betta. I recommend feeding two pellets twice a day, but three once per day is fine. If your room cools much below 70 F, you may want to feed every other day.
Filtration:
Sponge filters excel as small tank or bowl filters, for a betta, there is no better filter in my opinion. They are excellent bio filters and good mechanical filters in small aquaria.
As for under gravel filters, there are small ones made for bowls or small tanks, but they take more maintenance than sponge filters (debris tends to collect under the plate). UGFs are more difficult to clean in small aquaria, as they are best maintained by vacuuming, which is difficult in bowls or small tanks.
Heating:
A temperature between 70 and 80 F is best.
For a bowl this is not really possible, just try and keep your bowl in a warm room of your house. If this is not possible, here are a few suggestions: An infrared reptile heat lamp works great placed in a desk lamp near your betta with a small thermometer in the bowl to know how to distance your heat lamp. If your have several, place your bowls in a Rubbermaid dish basin with a small submersible heater.
In a small tank (5 gallon or larger), purchase a 25 watt heater.
Cleaning;
Change water at least weekly. In a bowl, I gently dip the betta out of the bowl with some water, then swirl the bowl marbles or gravel around and dispose of most of the remaining water. Then de-chlorinate the water with Start Right or a similar product and make sure the water is the same temperature as the water containing your betta. After this, add your betta back slowly and gently, including some of the water your fish is in.
Another suggestion that I feel very strongly about for bettas kept in a bowl without a filter, is the use of Wonder Shells for the addition of necessary electrolytes, calcium, to aid in bowl clarity, and even chlorine removal (no need of a de-chlorinator then).
Illness:
With good care, hopefully this will not be much of a problem. But when an illness arises there are less options due to the small size of most betta housing. A few potential treatments for bettas: Medicated Wonder Shells, Methylene blue for parasite, fungus or bacteria (do not use MB in filtered tanks); Malachite Green for parasites (ich); Melafix, Pimafix or Usnea Lichen for organic anit-bacterial or fungal; Triple sulfa and Kanamycin are good antibiotics to use in bowls.
Prevention of disease by performing partial water changes at least once per week is an important step as well as maintaining proper water parameters, in particular adequate electrolyte/mineral levels with products such as Wonder shells will go a long ways in preventing opportunistic infections such as Columnaris or Saprolegnia (fungus)
By Carl Strohmeyer
