#arguments for betta tank size

[transmasc-rose]

i am so sorry for dragging you guys into the assassin’s creed hole to suffer with me 🤝🤝🤝

Its ok we are suffering here together 🤝🤝🤝as a Yugioh fan I am. Well versed in enjoying Extremely Mid Media. Its catnip to me. My favourite Final Fantasy game is the one known for being disappointing.

...but oh my god.

The characters have compelling concepts! And not a single thing is done about them! Every day I am sitting here thinking "do the writers even know what they did to Lucy" and given how much they change her every game, the answer is no, BUT I DO.

Which just makes me more invested. Unfortunately. I am looking at how the narrative treats her, and Clay, and Desmond, and I am chewing at the walls like "YOU HAD INTERESTING IDEAS. COME BACK HERE AND RESOLVE THEM."

But I know. I know. If they resolved them. They would be so terribly mid. They would have done deslucy space wedding. They would have made Clay a Daniel Cross 2.0.

But I can dream.

And more importantly, I can spend hours digging through game text and supplemental material to find evidence for my pet theories instead of being productive.

[crazyfishmaiden]

5 more Clown Loaches have joined Team Loach here in the 125 gallon. This is not something I really intended as I was quite content with what I have. This group of five had been at a local pet-store for well over a month.

I told myself if they were still around after New Years I’d consider it. Especially as during the time the 5 were there, the interested parties were mostly people with (no surprise) cichlid tanks. 

Cichlids are a funny bunch. The big ones such as the Oscars, and the Severums have great big personalities to go with their size. They can be a blast to work with. African Cichlids are funny to watch when they are living in proper PH, and appropriate tank size. Their silly little dramas with each other, the posturing, the colors, all of it is endearing. Them moving their substrate around can be a hoot. 

Sometimes when you make a choice for your tank, you cut off other possibilities. Once you have a Betta, you can’t have it co-habitate with Gouramis. Once you own predators you don’t mix in schooling community. You put a single Dragon Puffer in a big tank, that may very well be the only fish in that tank. You do a Pea Puffer tank, you stick to just Pea Puffers.

Did you buy a Dovii? Did you know that is often called the Wolf Cichlid? Do you understand why a Green Terror is often called a Green TERROR. There is a reason for common names. African Lake Cichlids are called that for a reason. They come from the lakes, in Africa, where the PH is often above 8.0. While you can make an argument that over the years some fish expand their conditional adaptability, you cannot convince me that mixing any type of Loach with an African Cichlid biotope, or an aggressive large cichlid “community” is anything other than a short or long term disaster that doesn’t have everyone’s interests in heart. Just don’t do it. 

Anyway my newest loaches are doing fine. They had a big meet up that night where everyone met the new loaches, and a pecking order was more or less established over the next few days. They are still a bit skittish, but over time they will settle in.

[alyarose]

AITA:

My sister (37F) and I (27F) went to a popular chain pet store to buy a goldfish for a Christmas present. We had already decided on what fish we wanted to get before looking for an employee to help. While I went to ask the cashier to page someone my sister found another fish that she wanted to ask about. I rejoined my sister and a male employee (E) approached after a few minutes. Also in the fish area was a Mom and her kid.

E, looking at the mom: someone asked for help with fish?

Me, gesturing to my sister and myself: we did

Sis, gesturing to big goldfish in the tank in front of her.... would this fish do well in a tank?

E: all these in this tank are pond fish, they would not do well in a tank.

Sis: okay. Can I get a small goldfish?

I start walking towards the fish we had previously picked out.

E: well what size tank do you have?

Sis: a 1.5 gallon.

E: only 1 Betta and maybe 2 guppies can go in that size

Sis: well what size tank does a goldfish need?

E: a 50 gallon tank

Sis: okay. We have a 50 gallon it's just not set up yet. Would it be ok in the smaller tank for a couple of days while the bigger tank is set up?

E: I cannot sell you the fish without a proper home. It's not (name of chain store) policy to sell an animal without a proper home.

Sis: The larger tank is being cleaned, the smaller tank is completely set up ready for a fish.

E, walks away and helps the Mom and her kid.

My sister and I wait for him to finish. I am half listening to E and the Mom.

After he finishes getting a fish out for them we approach him again.

Me: we have a larger tank it's just being cleaned. the fish can't go in a holding tank for a couple days while that gets finished setting up?

E: it takes five to seven days for a large tank to be conditioned properly I cannot sell you that fish.

Sis: I set up the small tank and it's ready to go, the water is already conditioned

E: without a proper home for this fish to go to I will not sell you this fish. It is against policy.

E walks over to large tank of goldfish and lifts the lid to show us dead fish stuck in the filter: even in a tank like this the fish get stuck in the filter and instantly die.

Sis: I don't have that type of filter and neither does my sister, there's no risk of that.

E: I still can't sell you the fish.

Sis: I hate to do this, because I don't do this, but I want to talk to a manager.

E: I am one of the managers.

Sis: this is frustrating because you're the only place in Northern Utah that I can find a fantail goldfish.

E walks away.

Sis and I leave the store and decide to go to another store of the same chain to see if they had the fantail goldfish that we wanted.

At the second store a very nice female employee immediately helped us get the fish that we wanted and asked zero questions about what tank we had. Also answered our other questions about care for the goldfish with no arguments, no attitude, just help. Left second store with fantail calico goldfish.

E seemed to initially dismiss us in favor of the mom with the kid. Spoke to us with a very degrading tone of voice like he thought we were idiots. While helping the mom, he was pleasant, answered their questions, asked them no questions about what type of tank they had, and was patient with them. They left with their fish that they picked out.

Sis has had fish before, she's fairly well educated in what they need. Which is why she was extremely confused and frustrated with this whole situation. A small goldfish would have been fine in a small tank for a couple of days while the large tank was being prepared. It's normal to put a fish in a holding tank that is usually quite small while the regular, larger tanks are being cleaned.

Are my sister and I are the assholes for wanting to buy the fish?

[iantojonesthebetta]

So I'm kinda getting into a Twitter argument with this person who says it's okay to keep betta fish and goldfish together in the same tank. Are you able to offer up some good points about why they can't be kept together? I have but they just arrogantly disagree :\\

Some people will just disagree no matter what. Like, you could throw links at them, but they’ll be all tl;dr. If they don’t want to educate themselves, sadly, they won’t. The easiest thing to do is just link to care sheets, where you’ll instantly see huge differences in tank size requirements, as well as water temperature preference (goldfish prefer cooler waters while bettas are tropical, for instance).

My care sheet for bettas:

Betta Care Sheet

Other betta care sheets:

Betta Care Sheet by aquariadise

Betta Care Sheet by tser

Betta Care Sheet by scalestails

Betta Care Sheet by wildbettas

Betta Care Graphic by bettablogging

Goldfish care sheets:

https://www.aquariadise.com/caresheet-fancy-goldfish/

https://www.aquariadise.com/caresheet-goldfish/

(Also tagging @pet-of-subs because she has goldfish.)

[anabantoid]

you said before that you didn't like the betta community here, why?

Oh this is a loaded question.....uuhhhh

The short of it? The betta community here is resistant to change and only adapts their fish keeping as it’s convenient to them, not what’s best for the fish. The community doesn’t accept criticism well and are incredibly reactionary, attacking people who express either ambivalence towards bettas or simply disliking bettas. The community doesn’t accept that bettas are unhealthy and overpriced and is still willing to allow themselves to be scammed by breeders or importers for a fish that is as sickly as a petco fish. The community cannot see passed bettas and their care and refuses to accept that there are other fish better suited for the way they wanna keep fish than bettas. The community prioritizes the beauty of bettas over ethics. 

Like there are arguments had about bettas that are cyclical. I could predict the next betta drama and it’ll probably be about cohabbing bettas again, or tank size, or food, or just the fact that bettas are genetic messes and are prone to die no matter what someone does. All these arguments have been rehashed again and again with no progress. Like the most progress the betta community here has is moving away from 2.5 gallon tanks to 5.5 gallon tanks. Wow. What progress. Go everyone for such a great leap.

I’m just exhausted by bettas and betta people, it’s why I’ve filtered bettablr and bettas and skip over questions people have about their bettas. I just would rather never see anyone talk about a domestic betta again.

[hella-free-space]

Oh shoot I forgot to hit anon on that last ask. Please just reply to this one or reply to the other one privately. Gosh I'm so embarrassed.

-- i accidentally posted the non-private ask, so i deleted it asap. i only thought to copy the response and not the ask cuz i’m lame af, but this answer was more of an answer directed to anon specifically and not necessarily an educational post that for later referencing like with some of my other posts, so i’ll leave my answer here --i’m gonna start with a personal experience: i have adouble-tail halfmoon betta, his name is mr. percival b. beans (usually you cansearch ‘beans’ on my blog and find him), he’s a very beautiful and colorful andheavily-finned boy-o…who has now bitten off most of his tail fin :T his tankhas 2 large swords and a large ornament centerpiece and he has lots of thingsto rest on in his little 5 gallon tank (he even uses the betta hammock thatnone of my other kiddos would use). he kinda floats odd when he’s near thesurface but it doesn’t seem to be a swim bladder issue, just that he floats atan angle because of his weighted fins. after seeing a post about someoneeuthanizing their betta because of incurable fin-biting i kind of stepped backand looked at my fish too. i usually don’t post my tanks because they’reusually a mess (hair algae, plants that should be pruned, etc.), but with him idont know if i’d post him+his fins unless i was making aneducational/discussion-oriented post…i dont think people would be mean to me orsuggest that i euthanize him or anything like that, though…i just feel badbecause it’s not like he can tell me how i can make his life easier or if ieven can and i dont know for sure if i’m doing a Good Job or not, so i feellike i understand where you’re coming from with having a betta that bites…

i shared cuz i dont want you to feel alone, and i’m surewe’re not the only ones who feel worried or nervous about sharing our bettas~but there are plenty of people on here who have larger-finned bettas that nipand still love and care for their fish the best that they can and share theirfish with the rest of the community and they’re loved and supported becausethey’re a part of this community <3

also, on the euthanizing: it’s a very personal decision. theperson i talked about above chose to euthanize their fish, because they felttheir fish’s quality of life was dismal or declining. i choose to not euthanizemy fish because he eats and swims and is otherwise healthy. so far into myfishkeeping journey, i’ve found that if a fish wants to live, it’s gonna live,and if it doesn’t want to, then it wont…which is generally why people don’trecommend euthanizing sick fish unless the fish seems to have completely givenup and won’t eat/won’t swim/can’t be cured and is quickly declining. i wouldn’tthink any less of someone who chose to euthanize their fish, though, and idon’t think any less of you for choosing not to euthanize <3

on the tank size: smaller tanks are generally recommendedfor larger-finned fish. i wouldn’t put my silver delta tail boy or my doubletail boy in a 10 gallon, even though they’d have more space – well, becausethey’d have more space…

i’m sure that not every fish is the same, but with my doubletail boy, i had him in a 2.5 gallon until it started to leak (i had planned ongetting a 5 gallon anyways so it worked out tho i guess)…he didn’t bite at allin the 2.5 and seemed to do pretty well, even though it was small…i moved himto the 5 and he started nipping, so i lowered the water level and added moreplants and stuff but the biting hasn’t declined. i lowered the water levelbecause i’ve heard that it helps with going to the surface…but im actuallythinking about moving him to a 3 gallon that i have or going and picking up a2.5 gallon because he swims around the whole tank. which is good because he’sactive and exploring, but i think because he feels the need to swim around theentirety of his territory (aka his 5 gallon) he gets v tired and frustrated byhis fins and bites them off so he can swim around longer without getting astired. (i assume that this is where the largest argument for euthanizing comesfrom, that if they can’t display their natural behaviors without selfmutilation then they cannot live a ‘healthy’ life. i disagree, but i understandwhere this argument is coming from.) so in a smaller tank, he’d still have roomto swim around and stuff but he wouldn’t have to patrol as large of an area andmight feel less of a need to tire himself out and then bite his fins…not sureif it’ll work but i have a 3 gallon on my counter so i figure it can’t hurt totry.

also, i dont know if it makes you feel any less alone, butthere are quite a few people i’ve seen/know on tumblr that keep their bettas intanks under 5 gallons and also don’t get judged or get rude/hate comments ontheir posts/blog because of it…sometimes its a space thing or their betta doesbetter in a smaller tank (i should mention tho that i wouldn’t go any smallerthan 2.5 gallons due to possibly having an unstable cycle). i’m sure there aresome blogs that aren’t as understanding about people with smaller tanks orfin-biting bettas, but the vast majority of bettablrs/fishblrs promote a kind,inviting, and understanding atmosphere and encourage others to do the same. ithink it’s one thing to look at someone’s tank and go “wow, that’s an awesomeexample i should try to emulate!” and another to say “wow, that’s an awesometank and mine doesn’t look like that so i feel bad now”. i genuinely believethat people here enjoy lifting each other up and encouraging best-practiceswithout endorsing one-upping or a holier-than-thou type of approach. if youwant to post your tank and your fish, i dont think you have anything to fearfrom others in the community <3 if you really want to post, but are afraidto, i’ll post with you! if you don’t want to post, though, that’s okay too :) ijust don’t want your fear or your negative feelings to keep you from doing whatyou want <3

i guess i just want you to know that a 5 gallon is okay(even if its tall) and that you’re still providing a good home for your boy andhis fin-biting may not be something that you can fix, and that’s okay <3 noteuthanizing your fish is okay <3 posting or not posting your fish is okay<3 you’re doing okay, you’re doing enough, and you don’t have to be like anotherkeeper to be a good keeper <3

[thebettacult]

i know you're a betta owner but i have three goldfish right now that i bought without doing proper research. i was lately able to upgrade them from a 10 gallon to a 20 gallon (despite my parents argument). i really want what's best for them but it's difficult when you're 15 and parents think it's okay to have like five in them in there. it also doesn't help that my dad bought a shubunkin for the aquarium too!! i'm doing constant water changes for them until i'm able to get them more space

I don’t know what kind of goldfish they are, but I don’t think 20 gallons is enough for two with most species. I would suggest taking them back to the pet store. You need to take the shubunkin back. Their minimum tank size is 75 gallons! I’m not sure what you were looking for me to answer with. But my advice would be to take at least the shubunkin and one of the goldfish back. If they’re single-finned goldfish then I’d take them all back, but if they’re fancy goldfish then extra filtration and water changes should be fine with two of them.

I am not a goldfish keeper so if any of this information is wrong(I researched first so hopefully it’s not) please tell me! Also if anybody has more advice I’m sure the anon would appreciate it!

[boneless-mika]

I watched this video about how this guy is mad bc a person from Germany said that bettas need at least 10 gallons when he keeps his in 2.5 gallons but the reason why Europeans from some countries would tell you you’re wrong if you say you can keep your fish in a smaller tank than they claim is probably because it’s the law in their country, not because they think they know better than you. It’s like in Sweden it’s pretty much against animal rights (actually in Swedish “animal protection”) laws to have a tank under 40 liters for any fish (it’s a recommendation so depending on the size of the fish it could be a little bit smaller and still be legal). Meaning 10 gallons is still not really optimal for keeping any fish in Sweden (it’s 38 liters so it’d probably be okay) and 2.5 gallons is probably very illegal for a beta since that’s 9.5 liters: Less than 1/4 of the recommended size by the governing body over animal welfare. His argument that 2.5 gallon with filtration is better than 10 gallon without also doesn’t make sense if you compare them to Swedish laws.

“Du måste anpassa pH-värde, salthalt och vattentemperatur efter vilka arter som finns i akvariet. Du måste även anpassa tekniska hjälpmedel som luftpumpar och reningsanläggningar efter fiskarten och antalet fiskar. Det är också viktigt att vattenkvalitén är stabil.”

“You have to adjust pH, salt, and water temperature based on what species are in the aquarium. You also have to adjust technical assets like air pumps and filtration based on the species of the fish and the amount of fish. It is also important that the water quality is stable.”

I.e. No one is saying you should keep a betta in a ten gallon tank without filtration. Sweden does have the same grade in animal welfare as Germany so I think it’s okay for me to compare them.

The video is kind of old but here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4_IEcITPc

My source for all of the information about Sweden: http://www.jordbruksverket.se/amnesomraden/djur/olikaslagsdjur/akvariefiskar.4.62af51191240430af4d80002613.html

[teamacdb-blog]

Small Scale Aquaponics

Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture, or the growth of plants without soil and the raising of fish. These systems use fish waste, processed by beneficial bacteria in the nitrogen cycle to grow plants. There are numerous examples of these systems being used both on an industrial scale, and at home with large, DIY backyard pond systems. Several organisations, such as The Aquaponics Source, champion aquaponics as being a sustainable solution for some of our current problems with agriculture (you can read more about their arguments on their information page, linked above).

But for those of us without the room for a pond to raise Tilapia, but still interested in benefiting from aquaponics, grow beds can be built off of small (or large) aquariums in ones home. Though a 5 gallon system like we built might not be growing a bumper crop of zucchini, or raising a salmon dinner any time soon, one can still grow low nutrient greens or ornamental plants to use some of the excess waste from your pet betta and it’s shrimp colony.

This system was built using easily available and re-purposed materials to limit costs as well as make the design easily recreated. Below is a list of the materials used:

A 5.5 gallon glass aquarium

An old Rubbermaid storage bin (lid lost long ago)

A small water pump, re-purposed from a previously modified aquarium filter

Corrugated plastic, left over from building radio control airplanes

Small shelving brackets

Disposable plastic cups

2.5 Lbs of expanded clay balls

Plastic threaded piping, 8″ and 12″

PVC adapters

Aquarium safe silicone

Granite gravel (collected from back yard)

This system uses six plastic grow cups with the expanded clay balls as a growth medium in the above grow bed where water is continuously pumped for circulation of nutrients and aeration of water. The height and small size of this system allows for its placement on a desk or table under a window to provide light, rather than providing it artificially (the tank should be kept below the window, and out of direct sunlight.) A system of this size would be ideal for a betta or a few guppies, and some shrimp. The addition of a heater would be recommended if keeping guppies or shrimp, and for the winter months for a betta. 

Initial concept sketch and measurements before building

Pipes attached to grow bed through drilled holes, with PVC adapter and silicone

Grow cups after being cut for water flow and filled, along with spacing plate cut from corrugated plastic.

Complete assembly of system, pump and shelf bracket legs attached with more silicone. The whole top grow bed is removable from tank for easy access when needed.

Filling the system and staring the pump.

The system, now full. It was left to pump overnight to for leaks and how far the clay balls would wick up water.

Example of a 3 year old 20 gallon indoor system for comparison.

-Indigo Iffy and Gourami Wrangler

[goddesstrolls-archive]

On the note of my tank

Watch me get into an argument with my mom because she thinks she knows how to take care of an animal. Whenever she comes into my room she’ll try to water my succulents and I have to tell her no because I already watered them and they don’t need it.

She told me I should get a normal sized tank and put glass sections in it, and keep male betta in the sections so they can see each other

and then pitting them against each other because “that’s what they’re meant to do”

I just hate that she can break down all the research I’ve done with “This is how I think you should do it and I’m right no matter what”