2 Gal betta bucket

[calebkraft]

I can't stop!

My youngest son got a betta for the holidays. It is currently in a tiny (maybe half gallon?) bowl. I'm taking the opportunity to give him some more space and more plants.

The first layer is organic potting soil (brown bag). Nothing I had was the right size to sift this stuff to get out the wood... so it stayed in.

The cap is course black sand from the local pet store. Rinsed and laid on pretty thick.

I would like to try to get a couple shrimp in there with the betta, so I'm going to be giving TONS of hiding spots. Hopefully I can get some plants this weekend. I really don't have much in terms of availability here except petco.

Hopefully I'll be able to find some Nana and some Valesneria.

[pagemee]

My betta did fine with a large ghost shrimp. But as soon as the stand off would be over the ghost shrimp didn't go into hiding or seem too fearful but that was in a 10 gallon, 2 gallon might be different.

[fishyspots]

I have ghost shrimp in with most of my betta with no issues. Occasionally, a betta will snag a small one when they are first introduced but after that have never seen any aggression at all. Would assume they would be the same with other similar sized shrimp.

[Wicket_lfe]

Yeah just avoid any small shrimp, I tried that once and my Betta hunted them down. the crunching I heard was a little disturbing too.

[calebkraft]

So what is the proper preparation for a tank this small? Do I do a fish-less cycle like a larger tank?

[Monster Fish]

Are you going to be running filtration? I'd assume the breakdown of the potting soil would release dangerous amounts of ammonia unless the tank was heavily planted from the start.

Also IME, bettas will eat shrimp. If they can't eat them whole, they will harrass and nip at them until they die from stress or jump out. I think decent plant cover might mitigate this though.

[calebkraft]

Originally Posted by Monster Fish

Are you going to be running filtration? I'd assume the breakdown of the potting soil would release dangerous amounts of ammonia unless the tank was heavily planted from the start.

Also IME, bettas will eat shrimp. If they can't eat them whole, they will harrass and nip at them until they die from stress or jump out. I think decent plant cover might mitigate this though.

I think I'll pick up a tiny filter for it.

as far as cover goes, I plan on doing TONS of anubias (or similar depending on availability). I pretty much want the ground covered with nice hiding places.

[Monster Fish]

Originally Posted by calebkraft

I think I'll pick up a tiny filter for it.

as far as cover goes, I plan on doing TONS of anubias (or similar depending on availability). I pretty much want the ground covered with nice hiding places.

Moss is good for cover. It also gives something for the shrimp to graze on. You can check out the SnS/Power sellers forums and see what's availabe.

Btw, what kind of betta is it?

[calebkraft]

Not totally sure. is that a crowntail? He's pretty much completely blue. My 6 year old named him "Ocean"

[Monster Fish]

Yup, that's a crowntail. Nice looking double-forked fins as well.

[calebkraft]

Planted some dwarf hair grass and some Crypt Wendtii. The crypt is behind those rocks.

Not sure if I did the hair grass right, I guess I'll see.



How soon can I drop some shrimp into that sucker? I have some ghost shrimp around that could frolic in there.

[calebkraft]

He's settled in. So far he hasn't messed with the two ghost shrimp that are in there at all. I'll be adding a couple cherry shrimp (maybe) later this week.

[xenxes]

I wouldn't do cherry. Both the Betta and the ghost shrimps will attack them. Also keep an eye on the ghost, some may be aggressive and slash at the Betta's fins even if the Betta can't see them. You could add a couple snails to help with algae and substrate debris.

[calebkraft]

yeah, I just read that today! I had no idea ghosts were aggressive.

[II Knucklez II]

very nice