You Betta believe I need help

[16Chickens Keeper]

You don't need a heater with betta fish, in fact heat will only encourage nasty stuff to grow. Since you have a new setup leaving their light off more than on for at least a few weeks will help the tank clarify.
You have enough room for the two females, but don't add any more fish.
Question from me. Most people get males, why did you choose females? Was it so you could have more than one fish?

Honestly we ( my dad and I ) went to go buy a male betta fish at our local Petco and they only had one just one female betta so we just bough her, although after doing research I realized it ( to me ) it’s a bit better to have a female bettas because along with enough room you can add more fish.

 

[16Chickens Keeper]

Aquarium heaters work on a thermostat, it may not be turning on in the tank, because either the tank is warm enough, or the setting is too low. Do you have a thermometer for the tank? If not, you should get one, so you can check the heater. I personally would not add any more fish to that small tank. Bettas do well in a small tank because they are adapted to get some of their oxygen needs from the surface of the water. Other species of fish cannot do that, so the small volume of water may become quickly depleted of oxygen if there are too many fish in the tank. It is a lovely tank as it is, and if you find that you like having fish, you may want to get another tank, to have more species.

At the moment my water is a bit on the cool side and when I buy a thermostat how would I connect it or use it with the heater?
Also in the spring I plan on getting a bigger tank also I’ve read that plastic plants can damage the bettas fins is that really the case?

 

[Chickassan]

Oh ok! Lucky girl then, people often skip them over but personally I think they're just as pretty.

Honestly we ( my dad and I ) went to go buy a male betta fish at our local Petco and they only had one just one female betta so we just bough her, although after doing research I realized it ( to me ) it’s a bit better to have a female bettas because along with enough room you can add more fish.

 

[16Chickens Keeper]

Thanks, I’m really glad I chose her and not wait till they had more males

 

[Nats Chickens]

I used to breed show bettas. Body landuage is everything.
Their body language should be confident and relaxed. But they are have stiff muscles and slightly closed fins. Fancy girls is feeling slightly bettee about all this but little female has very visible stress stripes. And hee fin colors are pale. Those stripes are often seen on overly stressed or sick betta . She looks healthy othervise.
Reason of the stress might be the other female or the small tank. I would try seperating them

If she is stressed, could be coze she just moved from her normal environment into a new tank with new friends and new peep watching her all the time.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

You might find better answers if you ask on a fish forum. I've found this one to be particularly helpful to me in the past: https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

You don't need a heater with betta fish, in fact heat will only encourage nasty stuff to grow. Since you have a new setup leaving their light off more than on for at least a few weeks will help the tank clarify.
You have enough room for the two females, but don't add any more fish.
Question from me. Most people get males, why did you choose females? Was it so you could have more than one fish?

Actually, bettas live in a tropical climate in the wild, and are much more active and happy in a tank that's 77-80°F.

 

[Chickassan]

The average house is that temp or near it , you don't need a heater.

Actually, bettas live in a tropical climate in the wild, and are much more active and happy in a tank that's 77-80°F.

 

[Criticalicious]

The suggestion was to add a thermometer not a thermostat. A thermometer will tell you the water temperature, so you can know if the heater is working. A thermostat is different. Most aquarium heaters have a built in thermostat, which turns it on or off automatically to heat the water to a specific temperature. Sometimes that specific temperature is pre-programmed and you can't change it. Either way, the heater can only heat the water so much above the room temperature.

 

[theVulture]

The average house is that temp or near it , you don't need a heater.

Heater is a MUST. Room temp. It around 22C. And bettas live in 25-26C waters. And water gets warmer later much more than the air. So you need around 30C room temp
to feel 26C water heat.
Without heater , water stays around 10-15C with a 160 liters aquarium.

If she is stressed, could be coze she just moved from her normal environment into a new tank with new friends and new peep watching her all the time.

Bettas often ignore humans for first 1-2 days after moving in a new tank. After settling in and feeling safe, they start to pay attention to you and they get curious. But they enjoy our presence since we mean food for them. If our watching stressed them show fish would die in minutes with all those eyes on them. I never seen or heard a betta that get stressed over humans. So my bet is other big big girl she shared tank with