Keeping Fish

[LeafBlade12345]

You should either buy a book on keeping freshwater fish or better yet go to the library and check some books out for free. You can also use the internet to gather a lot of information on tropical fish in general and specific information on betas. Salt is now the only treatment I use for my fish and I usually get it from the supermarket.

There is no reason to give up so soon on fish keeping...just slow down. While you are learning let your tank run with the fish you have and when you treat fish with salt DO NOT add it to your tank... treat the fish in a separate container. Just dip them in salt water for a few seconds and let them loose in your tank. You can google that also.

I had some trouble with my catfish pond early last year and treated a few catfish with salt water.

I also find it helpful to learn about where the fish come from. The climate, the water temperature, water PH. etc.

I don't know a lot about a beta but I have been keeping fish for a long time.

Politicalcenter gave you great advice. Don't stop because you lose your first few fish! We've all experienced this. I remember my first tank.....over treated it with plant chemicals and killed off most of the fish. I remember losing tons of fish to ich, fungal infections, tumorous growths, over feeding, stress, nippy fish, etc. Don't give up! You will pull through! In the meanwhile, don't add anything to the water. Let it settle by itself, then, when the tanks are safe and ready, order more fish. Don't let these small setbacks stop you from continuing with fish! Give thanks to these fish who lost their lives as you learned, learn from your mistakes, and continue on. You can do it! You're a very smart, rational, and excited young person. Your passion for fish is something I wish I saw more often in the new generations. Now off my soapbox. Good luck!

Regards,
Leaf

 

[Shellybean02]

Is it okay to treat the fish that aren't sick with a salt bath, just in case? Or is it ONLY for sick/hurt fish?
Bettas are tropical, freshwater fish that live in still standing bodies of water. They have their mouthes elevated so that they can eat things at the surface of the water. I thought this basic info would be enough to start off with(of course those aren't the only things that I know about bettas); apparently not. I wish I didn't get the girls. Then they wouldn't have gone through what has happened to the tank since I got them. I really hope my boys don't get sick and die.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Is it okay to treat the fish that aren't sick with a salt bath, just in case? Or is it ONLY for sick/hurt fish?
Bettas are tropical, freshwater fish that live in still standing bodies of water. They have their mouthes elevated so that they can eat things at the surface of the water. I thought this basic info would be enough to start off with(of course those aren't the only things that I know about bettas); apparently not. I wish I didn't get the girls. Then they wouldn't have gone through what has happened to the tank since I got them. I really hope my boys don't get sick and die.

Treat any fish that are iffy, it won't hurt.

Regards,
Leaf

 

[Shellybean02]

Politicalcenter gave you great advice. Don't stop because you lose your first few fish! We've all experienced this. I remember my first tank.....over treated it with plant chemicals and killed off most of the fish. I remember losing tons of fish to ich, fungal infections, tumorous growths, over feeding, stress, nippy fish, etc. Don't give up! You will pull through! In the meanwhile, don't add anything to the water. Let it settle by itself, then, when the tanks are safe and ready, order more fish. Don't let these small setbacks stop you from continuing with fish! Give thanks to these fish who lost their lives as you learned, learn from your mistakes, and continue on. You can do it! You're a very smart, rational, and excited young person. Your passion for fish is something I wish I saw more often in the new generations. Now off my soapbox. Good luck!

Regards,
Leaf

Thanks for the reassurance

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Thanks for the reassurance

Don't worry about it, it's very gratifying to see that you care so much about your fish. Mine are doing okay in my tank with a few tetras... Two are eating, one is a hiding in the plants, but hopefully she'll venture out soon. Good luck with your boys!

Regards,
Leaf

 

[Shellybean02]

Good luck with your fish too

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Politicalcenter gave you great advice. Don't stop because you lose your first few fish! We've all experienced this. I remember my first tank.....over treated it with plant chemicals and killed off most of the fish. I remember losing tons of fish to ich, fungal infections, tumorous growths, over feeding, stress, nippy fish, etc. Don't give up! You will pull through! In the meanwhile, don't add anything to the water. Let it settle by itself, then, when the tanks are safe and ready, order more fish. Don't let these small setbacks stop you from continuing with fish! Give thanks to these fish who lost their lives as you learned, learn from your mistakes, and continue on. You can do it! You're a very smart, rational, and excited young person. Your passion for fish is something I wish I saw more often in the new generations. Now off my soapbox. Good luck!

Regards,
Leaf

X 2 - no one starts out knowing it all- and it takes experience, trial and, yes, error to get it all down and even then you still have things that happen where you have losses, issues, learn new things, etc. I've been keeping fish for over 30 years and still have things happen now and then or have to learn something new.

One thing that can go a long way to help is to find a good Local Fish Store (LFS) - this is not your closest PetSmart/Petco, but an actual, honest to goodness fish store - a place staffed by folks with years of experience in fish keeping who share the passion you are developing - folks who are only too happy to share their knowledge and experience with newcomers to the hobby. A good fish store/fish mentor is worth it's weight in gold!

 

[politicalcenter]

Shelly, if you want to start breeding fish you might want to try live bearing fish. You already have the breeding boxes and live bearers are good experience and IMHO a lot of fun. I used to look for female live bearers that were just about to pop. The way you can tell is the female will be fat in the belly and have a large black spot in the clear part of her belly. I used to buy guppies like that all the time. You can bet baby fish very fast that way. It also works for sword tails and other live bearers. A guppy will have babies every month or so and you can take the best females and breed them with your best males and get some very nice fish. It won't take long before you should have better fish at home than you can buy.

I don't do much with aquariums any more but I have been fooling with fish for at least 30 years. I sill remember buying glass wool and activated charcoal for my little corner filter run by an air pump.

I just remembered a couple of things....keep your snails out of your baby fish tank (at night when the babies bed down the snails will eat them.) and you will need a sponge filter for your baby tank. A sponge filter is just a piece of foam rubber with an air connector hooked to it. It keeps the little ones from being sucked up in the filter. You can also pulverize regular fish food to feed them.

 

[politicalcenter]

X 2 - no one starts out knowing it all- and it takes experience, trial and, yes, error to get it all down and even then you still have things that happen where you have losses, issues, learn new things, etc. I've been keeping fish for over 30 years and still have things happen now and then or have to learn something new.

One thing that can go a long way to help is to find a good Local Fish Store (LFS) - this is not your closest PetSmart/Petco, but an actual, honest to goodness fish store - a place staffed by folks with years of experience in fish keeping who share the passion you are developing - folks who are only too happy to share their knowledge and experience with newcomers to the hobby. A good fish store/fish mentor is worth it's weight in gold!

You posted when I was typing and it is good to hear from someone that has been keeping fish for a long time.

I don't like the chain stores either. We have a local Pet Smart that swears their fish have no ick when you can see it on the fish in the tanks.

Have you ever tried Seahorses?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I'm sure most of us can't even count how many fish lost their lives while we try to figure out how to do it. My advice is the same as the others, slow down. A tank can take a month to develop all the unseen organisms it needs to be an ecosystem that then can support fish. By using bacteria to seed a tank you can speed up the process because you don't have to wait for them to find your tank and establish themselves. You have put a low enough fish load in, let the tank do what it needs to, it will take a couple of weeks. Than you could add a couple more fish.

You still can't over feed your fish, they can consume about the size of their eyeball worth of food, twice a day, any extra just pollutes the tank.

Bettas can be easy or tricky depending on their breeding and what type of care and stress they received before you bought them, some will just not make it, others will make it a few months and some will live 1-2 years, but not many.

As you tank cycles and becomes seasoned if any of your bettas look too stressed they can be removed and placed in fresh water that is the same temperature, they can technically live in small bowls, where you replace their water every few days, but they will suffer without being warm.

Remember they are not strong swimmers, and they can drown as you experienced. Don't get so discouraged, fish keeping requires patience.

I agree salt dips can work, but I prefer it at lower levels as a tonic, it can help the fish feel less stressed, relieve osmotic pressure, and can kill certain organisms. I have done dips, I don't think bettas can handle heavy ones. You're best to just leave things alone and wait. What will happen will happen. And salt doesn't do anything for cycling a tank, cycling a tank is about establishing bacteria colonies in the numbers that the tank can support, bacteria needs time to feed and replicate, it can't happen overnight.