Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: Wil7985 on October 22, 2017, 05:06:48 AM
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Hi folks, thinking about setting up a tank for a betta, couple of questions really. Would a 60 litre tank be to big for him and could I run the new filter in my community tank for a while to help speed up the cycling of my 60L tank.
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60l would make a splendid home for a Betta. Some say that they can be kept in much smaller homes, but personally I don't think that it's very fair.
Running the filter in your community tank will also speed up cycling.
Seems like you're on top of things, so good luck with your setup!
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The only 'problem' I can foresee is that with 60 litres, you would be tempted to get other fish as well. Bettas do not make good community fish. But if you would be prepared to keep him on his own, yes it would make a great tank for a betta. Having said that, if the tank had a lot of hiding places, you would be OK with shrimps as the shrimps would breed faster than he could eat them. Unless they were amano shrimps of course :)
Running the filter in the other tank would certainly seed it, and you would not need very many bacteria for 1 betta in a 60 litre tank - you would need nowhere near the number needed to eat the 3 ppm usually suggested for a tankful of fish. In fact, if you were to set the tank up, add live plants, wait till you were sure they were growing and not dying, it would be safe to get a betta without cycling the filter. A few live plants would easily use all the ammonia made by a betta. And bettas like floating plants which are ammonia 'sinks'.
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You have read my mind sue, was thinking of having some shrimp in with him, I've put some live plants in.
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I would research shrimps before getting any - Planet Inverts (http://www.planetinverts.com/) is a good starting place. You need shrimps compatible with your water and the slightly higher than usual temperature that bettas need. And of course the tank and your wallet would be better off with shrimps that can breed in fresh water (ie not amanos) so that you will have a self sustaining colony as bettas do eat shrimps ;D
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could I run the new filter in my community tank for a while to help speed up the cycling of my 60L tank.
Just to add to the helpful comments already, it's always best if you can get it started with transferring a little bit of the media from the existing filter into the new filter, otherwise there is the risk of the good bacteria not actually colonising the new filter media.
Best of luck with your new plans; looking forward to seeing pics of the betta once you get him and he's settled in.
[@Cod_only_knows - good to see you popping in again. :)]
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I have successfully kept my betta, boris [RIP little man :'(] in a community but it depends on the temperament of the betta, they differ from fish to fish but good luck!