Golden Betta Fish

Question
We received a Golden Betta Fish for our 50th Wedding Anniversarty and have a few questions:  We have changed the water once, after a week, we used the hard water in our home.  We wondered if it would be better to use the water in our home that is soft water from our Culligan water softner?  Also, we just use room temperature water and our home usually doesn't get very warm.  We keep it at about 68 in daytime and 55 at night, will this hurt the fish?  We just have a small bowl which is about 1 1/2 gal. so we are unable to buy a heater for it? How will this affect the Betta.

Answer
Hi Kent,

Unfortunately, you cannot put a Betta (or any other fish) in a small bowl and expect it to live. In a bowl with neither filtration nor heating, toxins will build up very soon and poison your fish. This is also referred to as 'New Tank Syndrome' or 'Ammonia Poisoning'.

Fish produce waste, in the form of solid and liquid wastes. This and uneaten food will both decompose into ammonia. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish, and is the #1 cause of fish death. In a larger tank with a filter, however, the ammonia is removed through beneficial bacteria which live in the filter naturally. This bacteria is present in the air, and upon detecting a good source of ammonia and oxygen, will come to reside in the filter. That's the problem right there. The bowl does not have a filter or good oxygen levels, so there's no biological filtration going on. Without biological filtration, the tank soon turns into a toxic cesspool within days and poisons the fish.

A Betta needs at LEAST a 3 gallon tank with a filter and a heater set to 78F. (Standard tropical temperature.) A heater will maintain the temperature you set it to, and will automatically shut off once it reaches the temperature. Your Betta will not withstand temperatures as low as 55F. Rapid temperature changes are also very detrimental to fish. A 55 to a 68 is a HUGE change, and both are much too cold for a Betta. Even Goldfish don't like it that low!

Your Betta 'may seem fine', and it's perfectly fine to believe that (that's the most common excuse), but fish always try to make the best of a situation, like humans. It's probably under much stress, and is definitely not happy. A Betta in a bowl will last 3 months, tops. A Betta in a proper tank of no less than 3 gallons will LIVE, not last, over 3 years.

Your best bet would be to buy a 3 or 5 gallon aquarium kit that comes with filtration built-in. It also comes with lighting, aso the only thing you'll need to buy is gravel and a 25Watt heater. A good example of a quality kit is the one below:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3848&cmpid=03csesh...

Marineland makes some of the best high-end aquarium products in the world.

Once again, you will not be able to keep a Betta in a bowl, so you will need to upgrade the tank immediately, to avoid the loss of your fish. In the meantime, until you get a larger tank, perform 50% water changes in the bowl, using water conditioner, every day. It's best to get the new tank ASAP.

Good Luck, and Best wishes to you and your fish.