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newbie needs help

2K views 19 replies 8 participants last post by  Tyyrlym 
#1 ·
hi everyone i have found your site and looked all over it and cant find what i am looking for. I am hoping someone can help. I have had my tank set up cycling for about four months and everything went great and cycled. I went to the pet store and the sold me two groumai's and said they would be fine in my tank. while i was paying they had a beta up on the counter that someone had decided they didnt want and they decided to just leave him in the little plastic bag so i but him to. I acclamated all three in the water like this site says. within about 3 hours the groumais were dead but the betta is fine. I went to the pet store to ask if they had any suggestions and they said they didnt but that my betta would die because he now had to much room. I have tested the water and everything is fine. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I need to check to find out why they died?
 
#2 ·
Bettas are Gouramis are both in the Antabantid phylum. This means they will fish and kill other males (sometimes females) to the death unless someone gets out of the other's territory. I would think that bettas would "win" in this, and this caused the gouramis to die.

Also, did you cycle your tank? And how big is it?

There is no such thing as a betta having too much room as well.
 
#3 ·
Welcome to the forum J-Jo. Sorry to hear about your gouramis but happy to hear your betta survived. As Cody says there's no such thing as too much room for a betta and tankmates for a betta need to be chosen carefully.
 
#4 ·
the tank is a 35 gallon octagon. it has been set up for about 5 months with nothing in it to make sure it cycled the pet store told me that anything could go in with the betta as long as it didnt have long fins that that is what kind of "triggered" them. I boutgh a freshwater master test kit that i'm going to test with tonight. i had the little strips but from reading here learned that they arent very dependable so i got the master kit to use. thanks everyone for your help i just want to make sure i do it all right.
 
#5 ·
If you did nothing to the tank but let it sit then it has not cycled. For the tank to cycle there needs to be some source of ammonia to feed the bacterial colonies you are trying to grow.

http://www.fishforum.com/freshwater-aquariums/aquarium-cycle-252/

A betta won't die from having too much room. Frankly I don't know how they guy at the store could even say that. I probably wouldn't trust him for any more advice.
 
#8 ·
A piece of advice from the ultimatebettas.com

"Gouramis (all sp.): One might think that two top-dwelling, bubble nesting, labyrinth species like bettas and gouramis would be a match made in heaven - but do not be mislead. Gouramis, like bettas, are highly territorial. They are also notorious fin nippers, a combination that often makes for injured or dead bettas. NO fin nipping species should ever be housed with bettas, but the betta/gourami combination is an especially lethal one."
 
#9 ·
yes all i did was let it sit. thats why i waited so long is because the pet store told me that it had to sit that long for the bacteria to do its thing and not to do water changes just add water when it evaporated because nothing would be established enough and water changes would be doing more harm than good. What is the next step i need to take as I am not asking our only petstore anymore? thank you everyone for your help
 
#11 ·
hi J-Jo
follow the link that Tyyrlym offered you.
there you should find all the information you need,however if you don't understand
any of it,just ask :)
also a couple of other things,please forgive me if you have done this already,
it's just you have not mentioned them.
heating the water...what is your heater set at ?
and what dechlorinator are you using when you put water in the tank ?
you will probably find no readings in the water until you begin your cycle.
 
#15 ·
ok the temperature is raised. so here is my question again.lol I dont want to take hime back to the store and cant flush him or anything would he be ok if i set up a 10 gal. tank and done the fishless cyle and planted it would he be ok in there?
 
#17 ·
Don't trust the dial on the heater. Get a glass thermometer with a suction cup. They cost about three bucks. Stick it in your tank and get your temp from that. Move the dial up or down depending on what temp you're shooting for, about 80 for a betta is good. The dials on even the best heaters are totally unreliable.
 
#18 ·
hey everyone thanks for your help. i went back to the same petstore today but just to get a couple of things not for advice. i got a better heater, a thermomete, and betta food.the guy remebered me and asked what i had moved the betta to and i told him nothing he was still in the 35 gal. he looked at me and told me that i was causing stress to the fish and was just killing it slowly. that bettas are bred for small tanks!!
 
#20 ·
Ask him what is happening to the wild bettas living in tens of thousands of gallons of water in rice paddies ditches, canals, and such. Bettas are no more bred to live in tiny tanks than people are to live in cubicles.
 
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