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Any tropical fish keepers?

Lasher

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Hi all.
I've been poking around these forums for a few months. The wealth of knowledge and ideas here are impressive. I assume a number of you keep fish as well, and was hoping you have some experince I could draw on(if not advice then directions to a similarly usefull community). I appreciate this is somewhat 'off-topic', but would be gratefull for any help.

Last week I 'impulse' bought a siamese fighting fish(Betta Splendens). I know its a stupid and irresponsible thing to do but its a bit late now(I've been caring for asorted fish, reptiles and amphibians for nearly 7 years, never done it before and wont do it again). I've read up online at length about their care requirements and have done my best to accomodate temporarily while I can set up a proper tropical tank to house it, for now its in a cheap temporary tank, heated with a weak filter, cheap gravel and some plastic plants and fern. It doesnt seem to be doing so well. Its very inactive, either sitting in the corner of the tank on the surface or resting on the heater. Also it wont seem to eat anything.

Can anyone help?
 

gary48

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I find best Temp between 76 -80f at lower temps they will often sit on bottom of tank
Happy on flake food also like frozen blood worm.
Male Siamese fighting fish must be kept on there own .
 

Lasher

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He's currently being maintained at 82f, I'll drop that slightly and see if he looks any happier.
I've tried feeding 3 kinds of flake foods, frozen blood worm, frozen daphnia, live tubifex, glass worm, blood worm and daphnia(cultured by yours truely, and stuff from the pet shop). He wont touch any of it(I've watched, than cleaned it out of the tank the following morning).
 

freves

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Something else to remember is that most of the bettas available in the trade are mass produced on fish farms and spend much of their lives in those tiny little containers. The end result often being a less than healthy fish to begin with.
Chip
 

grunsven

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Betta are not very active to begin with. You're setup and food sound OK to me. If you have some other fish you culd temporarily add one or two of these (Guppy or things like that). This sometimes helps the betta to start eating.

I understood you bought one, so that's fine.
 

gr33neyes

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Lasher, bettas are highly susceptible to ammonia in the water, it can cause the symptoms you have mentioned, plus also a swollen belly. Have you checked the ammonia levels in your tank?
 

Jan

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Hi all.
I've been poking around these forums for a few months. The wealth of knowledge and ideas here are impressive. I assume a number of you keep fish as well, and was hoping you have some experince I could draw on(if not advice then directions to a similarly usefull community). I appreciate this is somewhat 'off-topic', but would be gratefull for any help.

Last week I 'impulse' bought a siamese fighting fish(Betta Splendens). I know its a stupid and irresponsible thing to do but its a bit late now(I've been caring for asorted fish, reptiles and amphibians for nearly 7 years, never done it before and wont do it again). I've read up online at length about their care requirements and have done my best to accomodate temporarily while I can set up a proper tropical tank to house it, for now its in a cheap temporary tank, heated with a weak filter, cheap gravel and some plastic plants and fern. It doesnt seem to be doing so well. Its very inactive, either sitting in the corner of the tank on the surface or resting on the heater. Also it wont seem to eat anything.

Can anyone help?
There is a similar community available for all aspects of fish care. I have found this community and their scientific links helpful:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/index.html

Some specific info on bettas from there:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwlvstkind2.htm

I hope I am not infringing on the caudata forum rules for posting this site here...but I can't see that the webmedia site would be considered 'commercial' ??.
 

Lasher

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That was exactly what I was after, thanks Jan.
Looks like persistance has worked, he's started nipping at some frozen daphnia and is looking alot more lively.

Oddly he seems more active and happy looking in a smaller tank(I put him in a small bowl for ten minutes while I'm changing the water), about 1/2 - 1 litre. I'm starting to wonder if he was kept in worse conditions before the pet shop got him, still looks a bit puzzled by live food though.
 

Jan

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That was exactly what I was after, thanks Jan.
Looks like persistance has worked, he's started nipping at some frozen daphnia and is looking alot more lively.

Oddly he seems more active and happy looking in a smaller tank(I put him in a small bowl for ten minutes while I'm changing the water), about 1/2 - 1 litre. I'm starting to wonder if he was kept in worse conditions before the pet shop got him, still looks a bit puzzled by live food though.
You are welcome.
Regarding being maintained in adverse conditions ... I would anticipate that would have been the case. I also believe that fish become accustomed to the space of their environment and can be disoriented when moved into a new environment. I had maintained some fish in a 30gal vertical tank (about 4 ft tall) for 5 years. I then placed these same fish in a 155gal tank....all they did for 24 hours or more was swim up and down in a corner...they did not realize that they could swim laterally in a horizontal direction. They finally got the hang of it. One ventured out and immediately swam back..then cautiously did it again. Finally, it looked like follow the leader as they all cautiously did the same thing.

Your guy will be much happier in his larger, properly maintained surroundings - good luck.
 

Lasher

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Thanks.
The more I think about it the more likely it seems, the pet shop I bought him from had 6 or 7 males stuck in with community fish - bit odd that they would have so many(looks like more than they intended).

If that is the case its a pitty I'm going to have to up root him again when his perm tanks ready!
 
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