Betta getting fins ripped/nipped

**kholm15** · 12-26-2012, 04:49 AM

i have a male betta in a 25 gallon aquarium with 8 cherry barbs, 6 leopard danios and 4 peppered cory cats. i noticed yesterday that his fins might be getting nipped by the other fish or ripped on the plastic plants and im thinking about moving him into his own tank. i currently have a 1/2 gallon betta jar. now this obviously way to small for him so i'm gonna purchase a new tank for him probably between 2-5 gallon in size. can anyone give some advice because he might get depressed going from a 25 gallon to a 2-5 gallon tank?

**koaladarshana** · 12-26-2012, 05:35 AM

Sounds like your danios are nipping your betta. They sometimes get nippy when they aren't in a proper school; 6 really is the bare minimum amount for schooling fish. The best advice I can give you is to get the biggest tank you can for your betta; the bigger the tank, the easier it will be to maintain pristine water quality. Make sure to cycle it first and buy a heater. In the meanwhile perform at least 50% water changes every other day (more is better if you can) for your betta in a bowl and keep him in a warm room away from drafts.

**kholm15** · 12-26-2012, 05:44 AM

couldn't i take water from the fully cycled tank he's already in and put it in the new tank?

**koaladarshana** · 12-26-2012, 06:00 AM

Well, no... the problem with that would be that the nitrifying bacteria lives in your filter media, not suspended in water. You can run a small additional filter on your 25 gallon for about a month and then transfer it to your new 5 gallon. You could also see if a LFS will provide you with used filter media, this way your tank will be instantly cycled.

Also... (please no one gang up on me for suggesting this...) I have had success with a nitrifying bacteria in a bottle by the name of Dr Tim's One and Only. If you give this a shot you must use the entire bottle! Some people swear by it, others are skeptics. It basically claims to work by greatly speeding up the cycle and keeping amonia levels throughout at a minimun.

Most people here, however, will suggest you get your hands on some cycled media. Ultimately, that is the only guaranteed way to safely get your betta into a new tank at once.

**imma24** · 12-26-2012, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by koaladarshana

Well, no... the problem with that would be that the nitrifying bacteria lives in your filter media, not suspended in water. You can run a small additional filter on your 25 gallon for about a month and then transfer it to your new 5 gallon. You could also see if a LFS will provide you with used filter media, this way your tank will be instantly cycled.

Most people here, however, will suggest you get your hands on some cycled media. Ultimately, that is the only guaranteed way to safely get your betta into a new tank at once.

+1 - water has nothing to do with cycling a tank - it's the filter that houses the bacteria.

Do not put your betta in anything smaller than a 5gal (with a filter rated for at least 10gal)- they come in those little cups in the LFS only for display - not for permanent housing LOL

I agree it would be to the fish's benefit to run its own filter on your larger tank for a few weeks - either that or put some used media into the new filter to "seed" the new media with bacteria and then put the new filter onto the new tank along with the fish.

**inuudo** · 12-29-2012, 10:53 PM

If you want to move your betta sooner than it would take to cycle a second filter, you have a few options.

One is to move the betta into the new tank and maintain it unfiltered and heated. This would entail daily water changes. If you did this, you could keep the second filter on the original tank until it has a colony of bacteria. Unfortunately, you don't really have any way of determining when the colony is large enough to handle the bioload in the betta tank, so you might risk moving it over too soon and then dealing with ammonia spikes or waiting longer than you really needed to.

Another option is to cycle the tank with the betta in it. This will also entail daily water changes and careful monitoring of the ammonia level. It won't be faster than leaving the second filter on the original tank and might even take longer.

A third option is to house the betta in a temporary tank (unfiltered/heated as in option 1) while you cycle a tank using ammonia. That would probably take 12-14 days, and it's the option I would choose. It's very close to what I did (except that I wasn't moving my betta from a hostile environment with other tankmates but from a smaller uncycled tank to a larger cycled tank).

Of course, you could just keep the betta in the current tank while the second tank cycles, but that risks more fin damage and stress. Is there any way that you could partition the tank temporarily to reduce those risks?

**nikelodeon79** · 02-02-2013, 03:45 PM

Just take filter "gunk" from your 25g filter and put it in your new 5g filter. That should be enough to pretty much instantly cycle the 5g. That way, you can move the betta immediately.

**Goes to 11!** · 02-02-2013, 04:56 PM

+ 1 to Andrea - Get the 5g at a minimum.

Don't do any option that starts with this sentence:

Originally Posted by inuudo

One is to move the betta into the new tank and maintain it unfiltered and heated.

It's not an appropriate environment for your betta.

DO do this:

Originally Posted by nikelodeon79

Just take filter "gunk" from your 25g filter and put it in your new 5g filter. That should be enough to pretty much instantly cycle the 5g. That way, you can move the betta immediately.

Good luck

**bethyMT** · 02-03-2013, 12:05 AM

There is a lot of different opinions on how to keep bettas. While keeping them in tanks 5 gallon or larger, heated and filtered , is really ideal, people successfully keep bettas in smaller tanks that aren't cycled. I think it's one 50% water change once a week and 1 100% change weekly as well. Heating is absolutely necessary. You still have monitor your params, which could get to be a big PITA if you don't have a cycle (anything under 5 gal is hard to cycle)

Now, what I've done is fish-in cycle for the great majority of my bettas...one is in a 10g, the sorority is 20g. I only fishless cycled my first betta tank. I used Seachem stability, every single day and checked my parameters once a day,with water changes as needed. I also have lots of plants in both these tanks. All my fish were fine, thriving and growing. Bettas, because they have evolved to handle stagnant water, can take a lot more water fluctuations in stride than many other fish. But just because they can doesn't mean they should be exposed to high levels of anything. But doing a fish-in cycle should be fine, or if you have to house the fish in a heated jar for a few days, that should be fine too as long as you're checking everything and being responsible with your water changes.

I think, and I'm sure this will get me some tomatoes, that fish have different needs and tolerances in some cases. In my estimation, bettas are quite different than, say, danios in many ways, and therefore can be treated differently if necessary. Sometimes they even require it. Healthy bettas are not fragile, so if you have put him in a less-than-idea situation for a little bit, he will probably be fine. They are also pretty flexible...you may find he doesn't really care much as long as you give him time to adjust.