Hello! I’ll be going off to college at the end of August, and unfortunately I can’t bring any of my beloved furry critters with me. Since aquarium fish are the only pets allowed on campus I am interesting in getting one betta and a small group of corydoras (about six) to keep him company. What is the minimum size tank I would need to get, and what about filters, heaters, plants (live vs plastic?) and gravel vs marbles? Is there any benefit to getting a round tank instead of a square one? I know both are easy fish to keep, but are there any special things I should know before purchasing them?
Those are some great questions! I would suggest a ten gallon aquarium with a tight fitting hood (bettas are quite accomplished jumpers). I would also suggest a small air pump and a sponge filter. As far as gravel is concerned, I like to use really smooth river stones and rounded natural colored gravel (none of the neon colored sharp stones that are available) for corrys because they might hurt themselves on sharp rocks as they endlessly scour the bottom of the aquarium. A heater should be installed and the temperature set for 78 degrees fahrenheit which means you should have a thermometer so you can monitor the waters temperature. Also, never use straight tap water in your aquarium. I like to use reverse osmosis de-ionized water from the grocery store because I have municipal water that contains chemicals like chlorine, chloramine, flourine and some heavy metals that are certainly detrimental to good fish health. If you are going to use tap water, pleas buy a good dechlorinator from your local pet store and follow the directions carefully. You will also want to add your fish very slowly to start to cycle your aquarium. Here is a good link for more information on how to cycle your aquarium. http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php
Good quality food is a must. You will need two types. A floating pellet type for your betta (I reccomend Hikari Betta Bio Gold or HBH Betta Bites, but never flakes) and a sinking wafer for your corrys (I like Hikari sinking veggie wafers or algae wafers). Change ten percent of your aquariums water weekly and you should have a happy carefree aquarium! As far as plants are concerned, live plants are always a good choice as they help to keep chemicals out of your fish’s water. The easiest approach is to buy “betta bulbs” which are a plant bulb (usually Aponogeton species) at petco or even wal-mart. They are inexpensive and they will grow even in low light conditions. Here is a good article about basic betta care that will help you with the do’s and don’ts of Betta care. http://www.bettatalk.com/basic_care.htm The article is written by an award winning fellow betta breeder and will dispell many of the myths that you will read about betta care like… they don’t need a filter or a large aquarium or males and females live happily together like the brady bunch….phoey! Please consider all the facts before you purchase your new friend and you will have a companion for all of your college years!
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Be careful.
My fish hobby/obsession started just like that…a single betta in a 5g aquarium.
I am now trying to convince my boyfriend that the thing we need to finish up our apartment is a nice big 100g tank in the living room.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I think a 10g tank would probably work best for the set-up you want to have. Keep in mind that cories are pretty sensitive to poor water conditions, so you should probably wait until your tank is fully cycled to add them. Google search “tank cycling” to find out how to do this. Essentially the idea is to establish a population of beneficial bacteria in your tank which will metabolize your fishes waste into less harmful compounds. Cycling a tank is not as hard as it sounds and is something that you do not want to skip.
Also keep in mind that bettas have highly variable levels of aggression. Some of them will get along with other fish no problem…and others will attack anything (other fish, snails, gravel, plants, the heater, your hand, the filter, bubbles) that dare venture into his tank. While the vast majority of bettas are perfectly fine with other non-bettas, this is something to keep in mind. When keeping other fish with bettas it is a good idea to have a heavily planted set-up–this way your fish have places to hide. In my opinion live plants look better, and provide some benefits to your fish–but also require more work. You will probably be better of starting off with plastic or silk plants. just keep in mind that a bettas fins can be ripped by sharp decorations: a good rule of thumb is that if it can rip a pantyhose…it will rip your bettas fins.
Bettas and cories both need a heater; in my experience it is worth the extra money to buy the more expensive heaters. Cheap heaters are much more likely to catastrophically malfunction. I once had a cheap heater with electrical problems wipe out an entire tank of 10 female bettas. Spare yourself the heartache.
The issue of gravel vs marbles is all personal preference, but in a 10g tank gravel will probably be the cheaper option. Likewise there are really no benefits of getting a round tank, other than the fact that it may be more difficult to fit in a dorm room (which are usually very square).
Other advice–find a roommate whom is studying marine biology. My roommates in college were all marine biologists, and we had “the fish suite” as our RA used to call it. We went so far as to hook up a RO filter to the taps….man, good times.
If you have any questions feel free to as me, here is a good website for general betta care (without being crazily technical)
http://www.fancyfins.ca/Welcome.html