New Betta Pt.2

Question
Hi Barbara,

Thank you so much for the last reply, he does seem to have cheered up a little more. I couldn't find the plant that you had recomended, but I found another fairly bushy one that he really seems to like hiding under and poking at. I also bought some bloodworms, but he didn't really eat them until I placed them right in front of him with a pair of chopsticks. It seems a little unorthodox, but I was really happy to see him eat. I still have problems gettings him to eat the pellets. I try to drop them right over his head, but they just float away. I'm worried I can't really be feeding him with chopsticks all the time.

I also found a way to warm the water with a desk lamp and that also seemed to get him moving more as well. However, I don't know if I should keep it going at night as well because he might need to sleep as well. I'm not really sure if he sleeps or not. Also, how much water should I be changing at a time? I've put tap water into water bottles with conditioner and nutrafin. Is that ok? Should I be leaving the lid on or off?

Anyway, that's the about all the questions I have right now. I can't thank you enough for the help.


Answer
Hi again Sandra,
That's great! I am happy to hear! You will not have to worry about having to feed him with chopsticks all the time. As soon as he gets to know you and figures out the feeding cue, he will be eagerly accepting without hesitation when he sees you. You can stick with bookworms and brine shrimp, if possible, for now until he knows you are the feeding person. Bettas are very intelligent fish and he should figure that out, and even where you feed in no time. Possibly one week-minus. You can try feeding him pellets once a day/every other days just to prevent him from being spoiled.

I am not sure about the lamp. You certainly should turn the lamp off during the night, at the same time each day for the best results. Although, you mentioned that the lamp heats the water during the day. At night, the water cools anyway, and with the heating only during the day, the temperature change will be more rapid. I would say, don't put the lamp for him. The point of heating the water is to reduce the temperature change as much as possible, not make it greater.

It is ok to keep the conditioned water in a bottle. It is actually a good idea in case of emergency. The water should be at room temperature when you are putting in the bowl, so do not keep it in the refrigerator.

Since you have a 1 gallon aquarium, it is a good idea to do a full change. If you do 15-25% change, which you do for a larger aquariums, the ammonia level will build up. There is called a process called cycling. You have two choices: doing full changes once/twice per week, or let the tank cycle and do only 15-25% change every week using gravel vacuum. Letting the tank cycle is very good because even if you do full change every week, the ammonia level keeps building and it can be stressful to your fish. Here is the BEST choice, but you do not need to follow it: Get a bowl, a small one is fine, put your betta in there and do full changes twice per week. In your main tank, let everything run and drop some fish food so that the ammonia would build. In about 4-6 weeks, the tank will be cycled. You can do research on how the cycling works, or send me a follow up for more info. After the tank has been cycled, you can put your betta in and do 15-25% changes/week.

Hope everything works out!

Barb