[James From Cali]

Well my Betta had been getting a Fin Nipped by the mosuitofish. So the Mosquitofish were moved to the outside tank. Now I had posted in my tank thread about the tank and also somewhere else. On the other forum I got some really cocky/rude responses. The tank is the 10g outside tankthat has the following:

Fauna-
6 Mosquitofish
Malaysian Trumpet Snails
Ramshorn Snails

Flora-
Parrots Feather
Water Sprite
Banana Plant
Water Lettuce
Java Moss

Now from what people on the other forum had said that without a filter the cycle is unnoticable, which I dont get. So I was going to wait til I get the filter, then cycle the tank, then add the fish. But unfortunately things dont turn out the way planned. I came home and found my Bettas fins nipped and the only other fish in there were the Mosquitofish. So I moved the Mosquitofish outside. I plan on doing about 30% water changes twice a week to maintain the parameters. Is there anything else I can do to keep the tank healthy/tooken care of until I get the filter?

 

[monkeygills]

Are the plants in the tank getting enough light and growing? Is there a substrate to hold bacteria? Has the tank been around a while? If the plants are growing they will help keep the tank clean. A lot of people have success keeping unfiltered planted tanks, though they tend to require more water changes, and ideally you would stock more slowly. But with your planned maintenance, (don't change so much at once, just do 15-25%), and those hardy cool-water tolerant fish, it will probably be fine. Heck, since it's outdoors some mosquitos may come along and really make the fish happy.

 

[James From Cali]

Everything is growing niceley and very quick(parrots feather). I just wanted to make sure that I wont wake up to dead fish. There is a substrate which is Flourite with a layer of Black Gravel on top of it.

 

[Suzie Q]

I may have missed something, but why don't you just put the Betta in your empty 1g? I have all of my male Betta in seperate 1.5 g brandy sniffers. I change about 1/2 g every other day, then once a month, I do a 50% water change to clean the gravel out. All my Betta do fine in tanks that size. I had my female betta (2) in a 5.5g (HOB) filtered tank with 2 guppy, and ended up loosing them both to dropsy.

Betta don't need filtered tanks as long as you do regular water changes...sounds like it would be easier changing for 1 fish. You can move him back once you get the other 10g cycled.

 

[James From Cali]

I may have missed something, but why don't you just put the Betta in your empty 1g? I have all of my male Betta in seperate 1.5 g brandy sniffers. I change about 1/2 g every other day, then once a month, I do a 50% water change to clean the gravel out. All my Betta do fine in tanks that size. I had my female betta (2) in a 5.5g (HOB) filtered tank with 2 guppy, and ended up loosing them both to dropsy.

Betta don't need filtered tanks as long as you do regular water changes...sounds like it would be easier changing for 1 fish. You can move him back once you get the other 10g cycled.

Wouldnt that be stressful on the Mosquitofish to move them back to the 10g after moving the betta? I can do it but I dont want to stress them out so much.

 

[yoko]

James! Put the poor betta in the empty 1 gallon and if you're not busy this weekend we meet up at your fav meeting spot and I will give you a couple Indian Almond Leaves and Banana Leaves:hihi:

 

[Suzie Q]

Wouldnt that be stressful on the Mosquitofish to move them back to the 10g after moving the betta? I can do it but I dont want to stress them out so much.

Honestly I don't know anything about Mosquitofish...how long have they been in the uncycled/unfiltered tank?...if you slowly acclimated them, they sould not have a problem...like you would if you had just gotten them, but like I said, I honestly don't know anything about this fish...sorry.

I would remove the Betta into the smaller tank though, even if only for recovery from the fin nipping...I have found in my personal experiense that Betta do better with a slow filtration..ie sponge filter or such...or no filtration at all (with regular/frequent water changes)...heavy filtration..ie. HOB or Canister..the water current tends to be a bit strong.

 

[James From Cali]

Well I am going to be moving the Betta to the 1g after planteing it with Java Moss and Parrots Feather. Then Im going to move the Mosquitofish inside. Thanks everyone.

Yoko-Wouldnt the Bannana leaves/Indian Almond leaves rot in the water?

 

[yoko]

Well, from my observation, I noticed if you leave the banana bundle in for too long (forget it's in there), it will form what looks like fungus? But if you let it leech for a couple days it will be fine. It doesn't leech tanins like the Indian Almond Leaf.
Indian Almond Leaf you can leave in longer and will make the water dark, unless you take it out early-on.

Forgot you are planted-- tanins may effect the WPG etc

 

[James From Cali]

Well, from my observation, I noticed if you leave the banana bundle in for too long (forget it's in there), it will form what looks like fungus? But if you let it leech for a couple days it will be fine. It doesn't leech tanins like the Indian Almond Leaf.
Indian Almond Leaf you can leave in longer and will make the water dark, unless you take it out early-on.

Forgot you are planted-- tanins may effect the WPG etc

The 1g wont have a light at least not yet.

 

[Suzie Q]

The 1g wont have a light at least not yet.

My 1.5g (really closer to 2g), sits on a desk at work, and the only light is the regular office lights..nothing special. The Java Moss that I have in there is growing fine. Just make sure to keep it away from cold drafts and he will be fine.