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Hello!

I'm looking after my friend's betta while she's on holiday. I'm afraid he's only in a bowl and I was just wondering on the water change process. My friend removes the fish (Dave) and then gives everything a complete clean: gravel, bowl, plants - the lot. Apparently this stresses him out a bit and he loses a bit of colour. So far I've just been removing 75% of the water and replacing it with freshly treated water. I realise I'm neglecting the gravel so probably the massive clean is needed occasionally. Just wondering what anyone's opinion was on how often? At the moment I'm doing the water change once a week and Dave is looking happy - lots of bubbles - possibly because his owner isn't too hot on the cleaning usually.

(I'm secretly hoping Dave will be a permanent resident as my friend has hinted as much. If that's the case I'll buy him a bigger tank. )

I would do a 30% water change every 2 days & i would clean half the gravel every week. The other half will keep the bacteria that is needed.


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First off, how big is the bowl and what dechlorinator are you using?

I do a lot of 100% changes, and really if the fish is used to it, it causes very little stress. Sounds to me like the water gets changed once in a blue moon so fishy isn't used to the routine yet.

how often you change the water will depend on volume and dechlor, so i'll come back and answer more later

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

i do a 100% water change on my bettas. however i don't add anything to the betta tanks. my advice is to:

save clean clear orange juice bottles(like the bottles of simply orange) and hold water in their, and use that water. i also for med. tanks have 6 plastic garbage cans full of water and get a intank filter and an air pump and keep them running all the time, useing the same idea.

Thanks guys - that is really helpful.

Yes Dave isn't really use to getting a regular clean - he even had a touch of fin rot from, I suspect, lack of care. He's looking a lot better now.

Well I'm not too sure on the size of the bowl but I'd estimate it's probably in the 2 liters region. (not very big but five times as big as his original home!)

I have a couple of dechlorinators I use: stress coat is one and unfortunately I don't know the name of the other one. It removes chlorine & ammonia. It really smells if that helps but I can give you the brand name tomorrow if needed.

So if I get to keep him (fingers crossed) I will get him into a regular cleaning routine and hopefully a bigger home. Any other tips gratefully received. My betta is in a 10g with filter and other tank mates but unfortunately I won't be able to supply the same for Dave.

2L should last about 8 days if you use a double-dose of dechlor (if you are in a drought area, its probably a good idea atm as our water supply here is pretty wobbily)

If you get yourself a disposable cup you can scoop Dave into it while you are doing water changes, as nets are dreadful in bowls etc. I either pour my fish into other containers or use my hands as i found nets just damage scales and you spend way too long hasing them around with the thing

Live plants will help keep the ammonia levels down, as will not feeding live/frozen food earlier in the cycle, leave that for a day or two before you change the water. Once you spend more time with Dave and get clued in on his personal signals as to what his water is like, you could start feeding it all the time if you wanted, but i'd give the tank a chance to show you what its like first, just in case your water is more tempermental than mine

Other than that, same old same old

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks Callatya. You've been really helpful. Much appreciated. Unfortunately it looks like Dave might have to go home to his owner soon but it's put me in mind for my own Betta No. 2!

cheers