Much like my other post on keeping goldfish in a bowl, the answer is “yes”, a betta can live in a bowl, just not for long and not happily.

The problems with a betta bowl

There are 3 main problems with bowls for bettas:

1. Bowls are generally quite small.  A betta, just like any other fish, should be kept in a larger volume of water than a bowl can provide to prevent the rapid build up of toxins and organic compounds from the fish and fish food.
2. Bowls are not heated.  Bettas are tropical fish.  They need the water to be between 76F and 82F, which is generally not achievable, at least steadily, without a heater.
3. Bowls are not filtered.  Filtering provides a mechanism for the nitrogen cycle to process ammonia and nitrite.  This is generally off set with frequent changes of the water in the bowl.

Why do stores sell bowls if they should not go in a bowl?

Simple: stores sell betta bowls because people buy them.  Unlike many other pets, there isn’t a big industry built up around preventing abuse and neglect for pet fish.  And the reality is, it keeps people coming back for more.  If you buy a bowl and a betta, the betta will live for some period of time – 6 months, maybe even a year or two.  After that, you’ll come back to buy another betta.  Additionally, selling bowls really expands their customer base.  Relatively speaking, there are not a lot of people who want a big aquarium in their house, but there are many more that find a decorative bowl acceptible.

I had ordered many dwarf cichlids in the past from TwoFishGuyz, an online fish store, and had a lot of luck with the fish they sold me.  I went to their site about 3 weeks ago to check if they have some of the more rare/colorful apistos, and sadly, the site just gives an error.  At the time, I thought it was probably a temporary issue, but after 3 weeks, I think it’s a safe bet that the store is gone.

Update:

Two Fish Guyz was apparently bought out by Discus Hans USA.  It appears that they won’t be offering dwarf cichlids any longer.

What is “Cycling”?

A “cycled aquarium” is a tank that has established bacterial colonies to process fish waste, in the form of ammonia, into nitrates.  It is very important for aquariums with fish to be cycled, as ammonia is toxic to fish.  Adding fish to un-cycled aquaiums will generally result in most or all of the fish dying.

What cycling is NOT

Despite the bad advice of so many pet store employees, cycling does NOT mean adding water to the aquariums and letting it sit and filter for a few days.  Doing that can be useful to make sure your equipment doesn’t die right away, but does nothing to cycle the tank.

How to Cycle a Tank

There are three methods for cycling:

• Fishless cycling
• Fish-in cycling
• Seeding a tank

EVERYONE who ever keeps fish has used one of those methods.  Those that are not aware of the choice have chosen fish-in cycling by default.  Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some pearls of wisdom I wish I had when I was starting out with my aquarium.

Starting Out and Buying Aquarium Stuff

Accept that you are going to kill some fish on accident.  You will either learn from the mistake or drop the hobby.

New Aquariums need to be cycled.  Taking the time to understand what this means is a must.

Small tanks are not easier to keep fish in than large ones.  Maintenance on a small tank takes less time, but a larger tank provides a larger volume of water which generally provides a more stable environment for fish, and is more forgiving of mistakes by beginners.

Under-gravel filters suck.  You will hate them.  Also see the comment on gravel.

Unless you have a specific need, don’t put gravel in the bottom of your tank.  Go with a “bare bottom” tank, and add decorations.  Leaving the tank bottom bare will make it easier to clean out the fish waste.  If it is not kept clean, it will contaminate the water, causing sick and dying fish.

Do not buy fish on impulse.  Read up on fish that you are considering buying.  Many small and cute, colorful fish in the pet store grow up to be demanding monsters.

Don’t rely on the tank size rating when buying a filter for your tank.  Most filters are rated on their flow without media, which will slow down the flow.  You want filtration that will turn the water over between 5 and 10 times per hour.  For a 10 gallon tank, that’s a 50 to 100 gph filter.  For a 55G tank, it’s 225 to 550 gph.

Canister filters are well worth the extra money.  They are quieter and more powerful than the kind that hang on the back of the tank.

Maintaining a planted tank is much harder and more expensive than it looks

Spend the extra money and get a “master test kit” to test your water with (this is the kind that uses drops of reagent chemicals in test tubes).  The test strips are not that reliable.

Online pet stores are MUCH cheaper for most food, chemicals and hardware.

Pet stores regularly sell fish that are entirely inappropriate for 99.9% of fish keepers.  Know what you are buying and whether you can properly care for them.

The employees of pet stores only appear to know what they are talking about.

Don’t accept the advice of pet store employees on setting up a new tank, particularly the big chain stores like Petco, Petsmart, etc.

Don’t accept the advice of pet store employees on how to treat a disease with your fish

• Pet store employees have a medicine to sell you to cure just about anything you can come up with.  The trouble is, medicine can rarely cure the cause of a problem. Read the rest of this entry »

People new to the fish keeping hobby are often not fully informed about what equipment they will need.  Unfortunately, that often leads to being turned off to the hobby, as it can be considerably more expensive than than originally planned.

In this post, I’ll describe the most commonly required equipment and supplies for a standard freshwater aquarium.  This is a good list for keeping the most common types of community freshwater fish.  If you are keeping some species of fish, such as African cichlids, or you have extreme water conditions, such as very hard well water, you may require some additional equipment.

Basic Equipment Required for Starting an Aquarium Read the rest of this entry »