I'm setting up a blackwater(ish) paludarium in a 20 tall I've had lying around, and I'm thinking about stocking. I love bettas and haven't kept one for a little while. Now that this is up and cycled I'm thinking about how to stock it. Would a betta do okay here? Would jumping be too much of a concern? Is the internal setup okay?
Also, I've heard that bettas are really hard to keep healthy these days and it's turning me away a little bit. I would hate to get 5 months in and suddenly get hit with terminal dropsy.
There's a bit over a hand's width from the water level to the aquarium rim
Filter: Tetra internal power filter 20-40, aimed at hardscape + baffled
Aeration: Yes; one air stone
Temp: 79.5 F
Fertilizer: Seachem Flourish
Plant list: Pothos, monstera, philodendron, moss from my backyard, frogbit, duckweed, salvinia, java moss, Marimo "moss", subwassertang, anubias, crypts, some very stubborn valilsernia
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1rae6x5
Posted by ViaScrybe
4 Comments
Yes absolutely it’s so gorgeous! A betta would be very very happy- try getting a reputable breeder. Sometimes bettas die, sometimes they live for 6 years. But a betta would love this set up
I think this would be a glorious home for a betta, possibly with one small modification. Are you opposed to adding a lid of any sort? We have a gorgeous aquarium that was open but we decided to put a betta in. It took some shopping around, but I was able to purchase a clear acrylic lid that fit our specific tank and it didn’t ruin the aesthetics at all imho. I know that opinions will be split about the filter, but we had a long finned petco rescue for over **four years** living in a tank with a regular hang on back filter that was baffled and he thrived. I think its just one of those things you will have to trial and carefully observe with the understanding that you would have to be prepared to either change your filter set-up or move your new betta to a new tank entirely.
As for the concerns about betta fish nowadays, I can’t speak for good quality stock. I have children and they always get very sad about the bettas in pet stores. We have never bought them but occasionally have been able to talk the store into just giving us the fish that are in terrible shape. In my experience, if they survive the initial recovery period (which is a big if), they’ve gone on to live for about two years on average which isn’t that terrible considering that I’ve heard a lot of pet store bettas tend to mysteriously drop dead within a year. We’ve successfully rehabbed and then either kept or adopted out about 8 bettas over the last five years (There were 12 rescues in total. We had four fish that were just too far gone when we got them and they died fairly quickly.) It’s not a huge sample size, but it isn’t insignificant either. This track record is with the extremely sick fish as well and I just struggle to imagine a healthy fish from a reputable breeder being a huge gamble.
The peice of wood on the left looks like a man’s naked body standing out of the water
I don’t actually know anything about blackwater or even what that means. But aesthetically the tank would be amazing for a Betta