BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Betta Water Question

I just got a Betta last night as a gift. It's in a little plastic cup with a cover right now, but as of yet I haven't been able to go out and get food and things to clean the little cup.

I filled up his bowl last night and let it sit overnight. How soon can I put him in the bowl? (I'm buying dechlorinator tonight also, but I don't want him to sit in his dirty cup for too long.)

Thank you!!!

Hi, Congratulations!!!! Betta fish are woooooooonderful kids! You are right - you shouldn't let him sit in his dirty cup. Do you mean that you got him a round fish bowl? How big is it? Did you fill it with tap water? With tap water, it's a good idea to have separate containers to keep it in for 3 days to let it dechlorinate, but if your tap water has chloramines in it, which many city water systems do - especially in the winter - you have to get some water conditioner from the pet store that will take out the chloramines as well. (This is different from chlorine.) You can call the city water department and ask them.

Normally, you would do all of this in advance, but since someone gave you your Betta baby as a gift, you probably were surprised(but what a lovely surprise!!!) and so now you have to hurry up and get everything he needs right away!

For now, you can check with water department immediately and buy the appropriate dechlorinator, dechloraminator, and water conditioner and read the instructions on the product packages. After getting all the harmful chemicals out and putting some soothing water conditioner in the water to protect your fishy's slime coat to protect him against any injury, you should be able to put him in his new bowl.

I really hate that when you get a fish and the petstore has left their living area dirty. That is not a good sign to start off with, actually. It makes you wonder how long the poor dear has been breathing the dirty water and haw long he's been waiting at the pet store with too infrequent water changes. He may need some special care for a while in order to help ensure that he is healthy! Do you have an aquarium thermometer on his bowl? He's tropical so he likes warm water.

Please seriously consider moving him into some new digs soon that will be an aquarium for him that has a filtration system. They have lots of small aquariums at petstores you can start out with for a little while until you figure out more about using and maintaining aquariums and this will make both of your lives easier and happier!!

Please feel free to read through some of the Betta fish articles here at the Fish site at BellaOnline.com to find some more help.

What have you named the little guy and what does he look like? There's a thread on this fish forum where a lot of other fish parents have posted photos of their fishy babies - maybe you'd like to put up a photo of your new Betta child! We'd love to see how beautiful and special he is!!! -Mary

Is it alright to put the dechlorinator in with the fish in the bowl? I'm just curious. I figure that it isn't harmful since the dechlor. is meant to protect the fish. But I'm not sure.

When I first got my two bettas, Neptune and Mars. I set their tank up and added the dechlor. and I waited a bit. I had one of those single fiberglass tanks with a divider down the middle so you can have two males, anyway, it wasn't working out so I bought another and moved Mars and while he was in the water I added the dechlor and he is very happy. You should see how big his bubble nest is! lol. Hope that helped.

Hello. I'm also new to my betta family but I have 19 males and 7 females..I have them in a 5 1/2 tank with dividers I have four to each slots. it that ok or I'm I hurting them. they seem to be happy. I have not been able to name all my babies but I will. I will need to label the tanks with the names until we get use to them...

Hey,

Well, it's always better to prepare the water completely for your fishies before you put them in it. That way, you can double check and triple check everything about your water and tank set-up before you place any of your babies in there. You know - because water to them is as air is to us! I have a tip for making sure everything is ready each time before I put any fishies in their water: I talk to my fishies and tell them that their water is ready for them and everything is so nice and beautiful for them and list each and every thing that was done to prepare their home for them. For example, I would say something to them like:"O.k., ready to go back in your house? Look! It's beautiful - it's so nice! You're going to love it and have so much fun swimming around - see: nice clean water, nice water conditioner, nice clean plants, nice clean gravel, perfect water temperature, nice clean "ammonia alert", nice toys..." and so on about everything that was done. It's a mental and verbal and visual checklist for yourself to make sure your fishies' environment is as perfect as you can make it before your fish touch their water. (air to them.) Your little wet pets love the attention, too - they love the sound of your voice and they depend on you to take care of them and they love the routine of it!

Hey,

Fabulous story and thank you! Yes, that is very helpful! Love the names! Oh, yes, I think it's much better that they each have their own tank - you can still set their tanks next to each other so that they are safely separated but so that they can keep each other company since they can still see each other!

Hey,

If it's a 5 1/2 gallon tank and you have that many bettas in it you need to move some into other tanks. They will hurt each other if they are together because they are, by nature, territorial. Luckily, nothing has happened so far, but you have to get more tanks and separate each betta fish into it's own tank or section of the tank so that they don't fight. Another name for betta fish is "Siamese Fighting Fish". People actually are cruel enough to take advantage of their survival of the fittest attitude and place bets on them to see who will survive the bloody battle to the death that happens when you put two bettas together in the same tank.

Kudos to you for loving bettas so much - I love them, too! They are wonderful, loving pets. Please read some of the articles on Betta Fish here at the Fish site on BellaOnline.com. There are also some suggestions within the articles on good Betta books to read up on the subject. Please keep us updated on your Betta stories!!!