I just had one quick question about Betta fish actually. I am considering having an aquarium quite soon and have been to the local store to look at some fish. I have friends who have betta fish and they told me they changed their water weekly at least and they have had the fish for about two years now which I think shows that they do know how to care for the fish. However, when I went to the local store, I was told that a week was too often and that I should not change the water so often like that(changing the water weekly was often for the store owner). What do you suggest?
If you understand aquarium nitrogen cycle, you should know that the end product of the cycle - nitrate build up in the aquarium. Eventually the water buffer will be eaten away, and the PH will become lower and lower.
Weekly partial water change is recommended to remove nitrate, restore water buffer, as well as to add the necessary minerals back into the water to ensure a healthy aquarium system and fish. There is also the need to remove fish waste.
To understand the necessarily of weekly aquarium maintenance, check out this article in our fish library. Aquarium Maintenance
The most important thing is that you need to do (partial) water change. We typically do 30~50% partial water change once a week. Some people might do it more often while some others do it less often. Weekly is good enough unless the aquarium is too heavily stocked.
Bettafish, Siamese Fighting Fish are tolerant of quite large changes in water quality. However no aquarium, coldwater, freshwater tropical or marine should have any large water changes, 25% weekly is more than adequate unless the tank is grossly overstocked. Even if the tank is undergoing major maintainance, or has to be moved, the substrate should be removed and rinsed in aquarium water. At least 60-70% should be kept in buckets and then replaced into the aquarium with new water being gradually added.
(07-01-2013, 04:47 AM)TheBrit Wrote: Bettafish, Siamese Fighting Fish are tolerant of quite large changes in water quality. However no aquarium, coldwater, freshwater tropical or marine should have any large water changes, 25% weekly is more than adequate unless the tank is grossly overstocked. Even if the tank is undergoing major maintainance, or has to be moved, the substrate should be removed and rinsed in aquarium water. At least 60-70% should be kept in buckets and then replaced into the aquarium with new water being gradually added.
I have to respectfully disagree.
As a species of tropical fish, betta is as fragile as most other tropical fish when it comes to large change in the water perimeter. Many novice fish keepers have reported betta become sick or dead after "water change". Almost all of them have made the mistake of did either 100% or very large percentage water change.
If you keep up weekly partial water change of no more than 50%, as long as you do not overfeed or have too small of a fish tank, the water quality shouldn't go down much. Another 50% partial water change won't bring significant change unless you skipped too many weeks without maintenance.
The key with water change for tropical aquarium is, you need to make sure the temperature of the new water need to be as close as possible to the tank water. Temperature shock is very dangerous to all tropical fish. Betta (Siamese fighter fish) is no different in this case.
First, you must understand that you should take everything which your local fish store tells you with a grain of salt generally. Also, you need to realize that the eventual by-product of your fish once your tank is cycled is nitrates. As a result, there is no harm in changing your aquarium water too often. The way I see it is like this. When you keep betta fish, you generally will not keep them in a very big tank, generally a small tank like 5 gallons. As a result, you can get like a 1 gallon bowl and then every week scoop up some water, dump it, refill and add prime and do a 20% weekly water change with like 2 minutes of effort.
The thing to realize is doing water changes once a week versus every other week will not hurt. In fact, it will probably help. So with a small aquarium, why not?
(08-21-2013, 03:56 AM)cpwebsite Wrote: As a result, you can get like a 1 gallon bowl and then every week scoop up some water, dump it, refill and add prime and do a 20% weekly water change with like 2 minutes of effort.
I have to disagree with you.
There is no room in a 1 gallon fish soup cup for any of the mandatory equipment such as a filter and a heater. Without proper filtration, there won't even be nitrate. You will get the toxic ammonia instead and it will kill the fish within weeks. Without a heater, the betta fish's immune system will fail eventually and die to diseases if not freeze to death first.
The bottom line, you just can't keep the water at stable temperature, PH, hardness, etc. with such small body of water. Fish will die rather quickly in this unsuitable environment.
Like we have been saying, you need a minimal 5 gallon for a betta fish. You need this much room to keep water conditions stable, and you need the room for proper equipment in order to keep the fish alive.
Water and bettas are like air to humans. You should change your water by about 20-25% a week as a preventative measure to ensure that your tank is clean. When you change water, make sure that the temperature of the new water is roughly the same as the one in the water tank to avoid harming the fish. If you have a filtration system in your tank and you change the water twice a week, you are already conducting a Nitrogen cycle. The cycling process can take a month to complete successfully and you will notice the nitrates and ammonia levels fluctuating before being balanced out by bacteria to zero levels of ammonia and nitrater at 5 -10ppm.
For you guys who had suggested "100% water change" and "jar", sorry it is exactly what we should avoid.
Never do 100% water change, because fish do not like sudden change in the environment. When you give the fish 100% new water, everything in it could be changed. PH, water hardness, nitrate level, water temperature. All of which can kill the fish if the change is big enough. Even if they are not killed, they can be in shock. Frequently put fish in shock will certainly shorten their life.
No fish should be put in a jar. Fish should be in fish tanks of ideal size. Anything less than a 5 gallon really is not an ideal place for any fish since it does not hold enough water to provide stable conditions. All those little tiny jars and fish bowls smaller than 5 gallon are nothing but for marketing purposes.
