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Just out of curiosity, can bettas be kept with a sandy substrate and what plant would do fine with only a few hours of light each day?

Thanks =)

Not sure about plants, but a betta could easily be kept with sand. Most fish really don't care about substrate, except for some bottom feeders.

- Dj :88)

If the sand is going to be in an unfiltered tank with weekly complete water changes, I imagine the sand could really become a hassel during water changes.

i used to have my bettas on sand, it looks nice, but it realy can be a hassle

Sand is messy for 100% water changes. I like gravel or marbles... you can get some pretty glass rocks at the dollar stores.

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If at first you DO succeed, try not to look astonished.

marbles, gravel are best, but u can try sand. from what i am reading sand is hard to maintain.

lol, okay, thanks everyone.

Cheers

Java fern baby attacked to a rock or small bit of driftwood.

They do fine with minimal light.


Sand is ok, if you are happy to swoosh it at every water change and wait for it to settle before tiping AND be aware that you will be losing a small amount every change.

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

sand is a pain in the rump to clean. but go for it if you want a small challange.

www.responsiblethrashers.com

I had a 3 gal tank with sand and one with glass pebbles. The pebbles were so much easier for 100% waterchanges. Just take out the fish and tip the tank out over a spaghetti strainer to catch the pebbles.

I ended up losing most of the sand down the drain, and I could never get it really clean.

Bare-bottom tanks are the easiest.

as stated, it's a pain to clean, but not really that big of one, just take some airline tubing, and suck the poo and stuff of the top of the sand, and then stir the sand a bit and repeat, as for having sand, w/ my bright blue/red male, i put a white sand in the tank to accent his colors and he looked really nice against it, for the plants question, any of the floating plants will work such as hornwort, anacharis, duckweed, et cetra

Daka<<<<

Small anubias, hornwort, java moss can also be tacked to a rock or some driftwood in the same manner as java fern....Easy to grow and doesn't need a lot of light. Instead of marbles, which I think can look tacky especially with plants, I have started using small marble-sized polished river stones and pebbles. They look a lot more natural than the marbles do with all of the same maintenance advantages for tanks that are getting 100% water changes. I have other betta tanks that only get 50%-75% water changes, I usually go with a pea-sized gravel on those and siphon them with a very small gravel vac once a week.