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i have a 2.5 gallon fish tank with a betta fish, 3 neon tetras and 2 guppies. everyone gets along just fine, the tank is well planted for the neons and guppies to hide and a log for my betta. i dont have a gravel vacuum yet so the water in the tank gets very cloudy very quickly, so once a day i change 4 liters of water and that keeps it clear. hopefully once i have a gravel vac that issue will clear up some. im worried that i might be stressing by fish however because as i replace the water in the tank the temperature drops from 78 degrees F where i keep it normally to around 72. another issue that concerns me is how i have to feed my betta. the neons and guppies only get flakes, and my betta gets 2 pellets and 2 blood worms, but in order to feed him just what i want him to have i have to separate him from the tank. i do so by scooping him out of the tank with the cup i bought him in. since i feed my neons and guppies 3 times a day and the betta twice, could i be stressing my betta by doing this so often?

Hi,
In a nut shell, YES, you are stressing the Betta AND the other fish. The tank is too small, and you are seeing that effect as the tank water is becoming poluted (cloudy) within a very short time. A tank should never cloud up like that. It is as if you were allowing air polutents to build just like smog builds up in large towns to the point where the air becomes cloudy with polution and then a storm (water change) comes in flushes the polution away. Both the build up of polution, and, the sudden flushing away of the polution, stresses fish.

Another way you are stressing the fish is by netting it and removing it from the tank to the cup and then back. Each time you do that you are stressing the fish, and if you are not careful, a temperature difference, or water chemistry difference between the cup and the tank will increase the stress level even more.

The Guppies could also stress the Betta by pestering it. Those long, flowing, fins make a very tempting target and the guppies could start to "go after" them.

Personally, the 2.5 gallon could house the betta. Or a small number of neons. Or a couple of guppies, temporarily.
Guppies are livebearers and as such eat more and eliminate more waste products than the other fish. And, they reproduce so fast that the 2.5 gallon tank would soon be over crowded.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

the guppies are both males so reproduction isnt an issue. i guess i should have mentioned also that theyre fancy guppies so they really dont have much finnage. i chose them very carefully for their unusually dull colors. ive never once had a problem with the betta chasing them, and they tend to keep their distance from the betta, or when they are near him, they dont bother him at all. also ill be getting a gravel vac in the next day or two. once i clean out all the waste and decomposing food from the gravel how much do you think that will help the situation? i would like to get a larger tank but unfortunately i dont have the money at the moment. one small thing i forgot to mention; i dont net the betta. i fill the cup with the tank water and set it down inside the tank standing upright and wait for the betta to swim in himself. i then put the lid on the cup and lift him out and drain some water out of it through a small slot in the top. this was the most stress free way to separate him that i could think of.

one more thing i forgot to mention is that ill be getting a new heater around the same time as the gravel vac. i can start heating the new water with the old heater before adding it to the tank in order to stop the temperature from fluctuating so violently.

i guess the question now would be how can i separate my betta from the other fish without having to pull him from the tank? i cant use a divider because there isnt a slot in the tank frame to support one.

Hi,
Thanks for the replies, they were helpful. The gravel vac will go a great way toward managing the water chemistries. By getting rid of the mulm (waste collected in the bottom of the tank) you will manage the nitrogen in the tank. That, combined with regular water changes should ease the effects of over crowding. Because the betta gets its oxygen from the water and the atmosphere, it is not placing that big a drain on the oxygen in the water. It is, however eliminating waste products (uria and solid) commensurate with a similar size fish and that is why you must stay on top of the water changes. To prevent an outbreak of "Ich" be sure to match the temperature of the replacement water with the tank water within 2 degrees. Speaking of which, the new heater will help. Temperature fluctuations within the tank will stress the fish and make them susceptible to Ich parasite too.

Frequently moving the betta in and out of the tank is not conducive to good fish health. You should seriously consider a larger tank, perhaps around 5 or 10 gallons. That way you could also increase the number of neons to a small school and add say, three small "Otto's" that would take care of that algae.

Use this site to figure out, roughly, how many fish you can put in your current tank:
http://www.howmanyfish.com/#page=page-1

Because oxygen enters and leaves the aquarium through the exposed water surface of the tank all "fish capacity" must be figured by computing the surface area of the tank (LxW) and then allotting x number of square inches per fish, depending upon body type.

Bettas are generally a slow moving fish that does not normally do well with fish that are aggressive, or fast moving. It cannot compete well with those fish come feeding time, and frequently falls victim being picked on, especially the long flowing fins. Have you considered returning it to the store for "fish credits" or toward the purchase of some additional neons?

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

i also forgot to mention that the tank has an under gravel filter... sorry im leaving out so many details. a friend gave me a 1.5 gallon hex tank that ive transferred the betta to and i havent had to move him once since then

Hi,
Great news, and a good idea.
Now, however, you are becoming infected with the dreaded disease...MTS. It is a pervasive disease that infects very nearly every aquarist that has ever even looked at one. No one knows how it is transmitted...so beware...
Multiple Tank Syndrome!

We all start out with "just one, dear" some wind up with whole rooms dedicated to ... (Gasp!) Aquariums. Some even turn "A" room into one huge aquarium! There is no cure, sometimes even common sense won't win out.

Good Luck!
Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

sounds like a fun disease to have lol. we have a spare bedroom in my house that i would like to dedicate someday to breeding bettas. its something that im very interested in but dont have the space for

Hi,
AH!
That is what I did while I was in High School. I bred the Siamese fighting fish and sold them to the local fish stores.
I separated the males when they started scrapping and housed them in quart canning jars. The females I put in a 30g tank.
They will take them when they reach adult size. Some stores will pay, and others pay in "Fishy dollars" that is they will swap the fish for other fish or tanks or ... etc.

If you want to make money form them, carefully cull them and keep only the best. Then take them to local fish shows and enter them. Winners and their offspring will help financially.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

thats a good idea. ive been looking on aquabid at the different bettas. alot of them are so pretty and theyre cheap. i just wish i knew their exact heredity so that i could properly do some genetic figuring to see what my chances are of getting however many of what kind of fish i want. i would absolutely love to have a black orchid crowntail. of all the bettas ive looked at theyre definitely my favorite. i cant remember where but i dead that female black orchids are sterile. can you prove or disprove that for me? that would add alot of really pretty combinations of bettas.

i do have one other question. im not really sure if this is a thing but i wanted to put it out there anyway. i smoke in my room. pretty heavily actually. is it possible that the smoke could be getting mixed in with the water?

Hi,
I don't know the answer to your question about the sterility of the Black Orchard Crowntail. That might be something you may want to look up specifically on the Internet.

To avoid capturing any of the smoke and running it through your water you could have air pump on the floor rather than placing it higher up in the room on a table or such. Smoke rises, and the air at floor level is "cleaner." Another option is to place the pump in another room, poke a hole through the cove base and run the airline through it to the
filter. As far as how much will get into the tank, I don't smoke and have not investigated how much it takes to affect the fish. A larger room with forced air heat, and the door(s) open to the rest of the house sounds like it might not be all that threatening.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--