My wierd and BARGIAN 'tanks' i got for my siamese fighters!

well, there i was in tk maxx, and i saw these realllly wierd and cool vases, and i thought i HAD to get them for my betta! BARGIAN for £5 each!!!!

they are about 2 and a half foot in height, and hold about 20litres of water each! in the beginning, i was only going to buy one, but i ended up getting two

so, i put rocky, my green vieltail betta in the first one i bought, and he loved it! he's making bubble-nests becuase hes so happy! he was origionally in the fish tank, but i had to move him as i had to make way for some babies that i had!



heres rocky


he used to look like this, before he got eaten by the babie :evil:

he was so lovely before lets hope now hes by himself, he will start to grow back!


then, i couldnt think what to do with the second one, so i thought i would go out and get another fighter

firstly, heres the 'tank'


and heres baby, who lives in it. he's a crowntail betta, who has the most BEAUTIFUL colourings ive seen on a fish. the pictures really gives him no justice! hes only a baby, im guessing about 4 or 5 months old, so he dosnt have his fins flowing yet.


he should look like this when hes older though



i still need to get filters for both 'tanks', so they are still under 'construction' as you could say, but they will stay without a heater. they are in my bedroom, which is on the top of our 3 floor house, so it gets VERY warm in my bedroom. the average temp in there is about 23 degrees, so they do well

How can you maintain the heat??? They are tropical fish and need a specific temp? :shock:

Surely its better to get seperation enclosures inside your tank

Gorgeous fish though

Beautiful

What filters will you get I would be interested to know.

I love the last fighter fish he is divine

Gorgeous fish! I like betta's but they seem hard work.
They seem nice big tanks. I'm not up on my betta's but I always thought it was better to have a longer shallow tank as don't they come from the chinese rice paddy fields? You shall have to educate me. :lol:

wow they are amazing!!

nursecroft said:

How can you maintain the heat??? They are tropical fish and need a specific temp? :shock:

Surely its better to get seperation enclosures inside your tank

Gorgeous fish though

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im with nursecroft on this one the ones i had where in tropical tanks surprised your barbs ate one though i had 2 tiger barbs, neons, guppys, one cat fish, 2 silver sharks, one male one female fighter, one clown loach, did have frogs but the snails ate them sumhow and a carribiean rock crab who escaped from the tank twice :roll: was weird i had one guppy and one neon for 3 years a year after all the others died which was strange as they are communial fish, and these were all in one large tank
You can get tanks to seperate them in the same tank, but it will cause more stress as they will try and get through, you stick a mirror, against the tank the fighter will attack its own reflection so im reckoning you wont even be able to to use a seperator tank, male fighters have to be on there own, sudden temp drop can cause discolourartion and stress,
they are beautifull fish though so elegant
what type of filtering system are you iseing i got the undergravel one, i found it best as it drained though the waste through the gravel filtering it so it could be recycled again when pumpin through which ment we only had to clean the tank throughly once a year, still did the empty one 3rd out and refill every 2 months though, we found the less you cleaned it out completely the longer they lived with this filter system, oh and we gave up with real plants due to all the blinkin snails :evil:

areia said:

im with nursecroft on this one the ones i had where in tropical tanks surprised your barbs ate one though i had 2 tiger barbs, neons, guppys, one cat fish, 2 silver sharks, one male one female fighter, one clown loach, did have frogs but the snails ate them sumhow and a carribiean rock crab who escaped from the tank twice :roll: was weird i had one guppy and one neon for 3 years a year after all the others died which was strange as they are communial fish, and these were all in one large tank
You can get tanks to seperate them in the same tank, but it will cause more stress as they will try and get through, you stick a mirror, against the tank the fighter will attack its own reflection so im reckoning you wont even be able to to use a seperator tank, male fighters have to be on there own, sudden temp drop can cause discolourartion and stress,
they are beautifull fish though so elegant

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I have a seperation enclosure in my tank with a fighter in because i have barbs, barbs fin nip and will pick on fighters. I rescued mine from a friends tank because it was being attacked. Mine doesnt try to get through the pen, fighters like small territories so they dont need as much space as other fish.

aww they are gorgous fish!

One of my fish Mr ray is poorly at the mo

xx

nursecroft said:

How can you maintain the heat??? They are tropical fish and need a specific temp? :shock:

Surely its better to get seperation enclosures inside your tank

Gorgeous fish though

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being on top floor, heat rises.
in our house, every room has a seperate temprature thing, where you can set it to your accord. i have two radiators in my bedroom, one by the fish tank and another one by a window. ive set the radiator to 23 degrees by the fish tank, and ive noticed with a themometor, that it keeps the heat. ive had bettas in this sort of enviroment before, and ive had them live to over 2 years without any worries. you can tell when a betta is happy, and thats when they make bubble nests, and BOTH of them are making them. if the temp does start to inflactuate i think i may need to put a heater in there, i have quite a few spares lol. i know 23 degrees seems very warm, but these heaters are teeny, and is sufficient enough for the fighters. you probably think im terribly stupid, but the fighter are happy, and i will change it if it is causing them stress or anything.

i couldnt get speperations, i thought about this, not only is the fish tank too small, being a 50 litre cube tank, but this would mean the babies (which are chiclids, around 2 cm in size, but grow to a foot and a half!) would have far less space needed to grow. i had to put the babies in there, in fear of them getting eaten by any bigger fish in my main tank.

Amy - i'm thinking of a undergravel filter,
or a tube filter, which is basically a normal filter, but its long and narrow.

and Deelove - i have quite a bit of reseach, and these fish are very versitiale, and dont really mind what they live in. these fish are not like the ones from the wild, they are bred through many generations (in tanks) to get a specific colour morph or a specific shape. im 100% sure you wont find bettas like mine or in pet shops in the wild. i would have thought they evoluted to live in captive tanks

Let me know which filter you decide on and what you think of it.

I am looking to get another for my vase like you for my goldfish x

Thanks xx

such pretty things i was never brave enough to get any i stuck to the easy tropicals

Amy & Amber said:

Let me know which filter you decide on and what you think of it.

I am looking to get another for my vase like you for my goldfish x

Thanks xx

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Ahhhh vases like the one shown are not suitable for goldfish at all. If goldfish are to be kept indoors they need a tank that allows for around 12 gallons per fish (for single tailed goldfish) or 10 gallons (for fancy goldfish).

I hope the days of keeping goldfish in silly little bowls and jars are coming to an end. I know the info available from most shops on goldfish is awful and most sell stupidly small tanks that are advertised as goldfish starter kits so people can't be blamed for thinking they're Ok in there. I have three goldfish myself and they currently live in a 3 foot tank but they are out growing this and will be moved into a 4 x 2 foot tank as this will be about the minimum space they'll require.

Sorry for going off on one but I think fish get the rawest deal when it comes to pet keeping, pet shops buy them in so cheaply they don't care what happens to them. Then there's the myth that goldfish only grow as big as the tank they live in ill allow. All that happens when they are kept in a small tank is that they become stunted and die earlier than they would.

Here is a really good article on goldfish keeping for anyone that's interested...
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_12/keeping-goldfish.htm

I used to keep a betta in a small 18" tank that he got on very well in, I'm not sure what kind of filter would go in a vase like that and a filter of some kind is pretty essential unless you have the time to change all the water every day.

It is not a vase as in what you keep flowers in dont worry! :lol:

It holds 14 gallons of water and was brought from an aquatics centre not to far from here. They are perfectly kept. It also isnt a glass bowl :roll:

Thanks for the advice Amy

ETA, I only have one fish in there because Bert died not so long ago.

Given that their average lifespan is 4-5 years, 2 years is good but not that great.
Large volume or not, I don't think the shape is suitable for fish at all, and doesn't seem to give much space for environmental enrichment like plants etc
Just because they CAN survive in tiny bowls/vases, doesn't mean they should have to. Lots of people will still keep their rabbits in 3' hutches because it's what used to be the norm, and rabbits will survive in it, but it doesn't really make for a happy life and we on the forum are all aware of what their standard of housing should be

Ben's mum said:

Given that their average lifespan is 4-5 years, 2 years is good but not that great.
Large volume or not, I don't think the shape is suitable for fish at all, and doesn't seem to give much space for environmental enrichment like plants etc
Just because they CAN survive in tiny bowls/vases, doesn't mean they should have to. Lots of people will still keep their rabbits in 3' hutches because it's what used to be the norm, and rabbits will survive in it, but it doesn't really make for a happy life and we on the forum are all aware of what their standard of housing should be

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2 years is good, considering i bought him fully grown.
5 years is very rare, the majority live for 2-3 years old.

i dont see why the shape of it would cause any worries. and i dont really know why you are comparing my vases to a 3ft rabbit hutch, as it the size comparison is way off. it is not a tiny vase, if it holds 5-6 gallons of water for ONE FISH.

and i have already said that i am improving it. i dont see why i have to keep justifying myself.

The shape gives very little side-side movement, just up and down. Fish come from the sea, lakes, ponds, etc. - these are nice wide expanses of water. Even the rice patties bettas originated from would give be a wide stretch of water so I can't see a deep, narrow habitat being as natural or suitable as a wider, shallower one
You posted it publically and you can't expect people to not comment. If I posted a photo of any animal kept in an unsuitable setup I would expect people to comment on it.

Amy & Amber said:

It is not a vase as in what you keep flowers in dont worry! :lol:

It holds 14 gallons of water and was brought from an aquatics centre not to far from here. They are perfectly kept. It also isnt a glass bowl :roll:

Thanks for the advice Amy

ETA, I only have one fish in there because Bert died not so long ago.

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Sorry Amy but from your post I thought you were on the lookout for something similar to what the betas are in for your goldfish. 14 gallons is Ok for one fish but you have to be careful about the water surface area for goldfish too which is why most people recommend tanks rather than bowls/vases.

I have an aquatics place near me that makes me cry every time I go in. They have bettas in those little plastic disposable drinks cups. I agree mostly with Ben's mum about bettas, I'm not sure how you'd fit a filter in a vase and a filter is essential for getting rid of the ammonia that fish produce.

Nice fish, I keep half moon fighters in an unheated comtainer and do fine and build nests and everything. my room is warm though as I have a massive marine tank and 2 others + the tortoise :lol:

Also betta's get most of their air from the breathing at the surface.. in the wild they live in tiny puddles so dont need a massive tank.

Ben's mum said:

The shape gives very little side-side movement, just up and down. Fish come from the sea, lakes, ponds, etc. - these are nice wide expanses of water. Even the rice patties bettas originated from would give be a wide stretch of water so I can't see a deep, narrow habitat being as natural or suitable as a wider, shallower one
You posted it publically and you can't expect people to not comment. If I posted a photo of any animal kept in an unsuitable setup I would expect people to comment on it.

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yes, and these fish have been raised in captivity, regardless of their ancesstory. im sure they were kept in small mugs before they were shipped to the uk. isnt keeping them in fish tanks unnatural? rocky is 2 inches, fully grown, and the widest point on both vases (where the water is filled) is 12 inches. they do have good side to side movement.

I don't know much about the behaviour of these pretty little fishes, but I doubt that they like to swim up and down all the time. So I would probably prefer a wide tank to a tall one like that. You need more plants than just that one branch of Elodea, and for plants you need floor space.

It's a nice idea, but it is more decorative than suitable. Also difficult to clean when you get algae growing on the glass.