Tell me about. . . caring for fish.

[T.J. Combo]

I don't like to spend a lot of money when it comes to pets. Mostly because they have a tendecy to die on me pretty quick. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Lately I was thinking about getting a Puffer Fish. The Figure 8 Puffers at my local pet shop were pretty expensive for little fish ($25 apiece), so I thought I'd buy a small 2.5 gallon tank and see if I could keep one of the less expensive fish at the store alive. If I could, I'd go ahead and get the puffer.

Long story short, I managed to keep a miniature catfish shark alive for 2 days before it wound up dead. It really doesn't make sense to me, I made sure the temperature and PH levels were alright. I think it might've been because he wasn't eating (even though I fed him what they told me to).

My girlfriend of 2 years has 3 Betta's (2 male, 1 female) that are perfectly healthy, the oldest of which is a little over a year. They don't live together (she says they can't, but I think it'd be fine to keep the female in the tank with one of the males, then again, what do I know, I'm a fish killer.)

After consulting some free websites on the care of Puffer Fish, I'd like some input from people who own these so I don't wind up killing this one. Recommended reading/buys would be appreciated.

[Exitonly]

beta's are also called fighting fish, and i'm pretty sure you can't keep them together at all.

a 2.5 gallon tank is pretty small too, should be really easy to throw off any kind of balance in there. Get like a 10 gallon one and start it off with a fish or two that's generally pretty tough to kill (cory catfish and swordtails are two that i've used).

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/ - two plus two for fish

[john voight]

get a dog FTW.
It can feed its self, hence it is such a special animal.

also, as far as I know, there is alot more to fish then pH level and food.

gravel/rocks you use, density of plants, water temperature, other chemical levels, oxygen, tank size, and filtration all play significant roles.

[Exitonly]

i should have said the first time, that when you first set up a tank, bacteria has to grow in the filter/gravel to take away the amonia the fish leaves behind in waste, during the process (like a month for a 10 gallon, i dunno for one as small as 2.5) the PH levels wont be steady and it's pretty stressful on the fish, it's common for the starter fish to die. There are some chemical ways to cycle a tank in a couple days, but it costs more and i don't know much about it.

[viper930]

There's a chemical that you should use to treat the water before you put a fish into it. I forgot what it's called but it's some kind of enzyme that both removes harmful chemicals/minerals found in tap water and also coats the fish's body to prevent bacterial infection during its first few days in its new environment. Treat with this for 24 hours before putting the fish into the tank. Freshwater fish are usually pretty hardy. I've had a 40gallon tank full of 15 freshwater goldfish for 3 years now without ever doing anything special to change or monitor the temp/pH of the water.

[viper930]

[ QUOTE ]
beta's are also called fighting fish, and i'm pretty sure you can't keep them together at all.


[/ QUOTE ]

how do they reproduce if a male and a female cant be kept together without a duel to the death?

[john voight]

how sick would it be to bet on beta fights? Like you raise and train your beta, and then you play like 100$ UH games till death.

or 100$ SNGS where last beta gets the 8 or 9 BI prizepool.

[Exitonly]

From wiki - [ QUOTE ]
While they might eventually mate, keeping a male and female together may prove too volatile since the male will often be much more aggressive and mating conditions must be precisely conducive. Often, breeders have a special container so the female may display without being harmed by the male prior to induced breeding.

[/ QUOTE ]

But also they said that females can be together in a community tank sometimes (3 in a 10 gallon was the number they gave as a max)

[MichaelVick]

[ QUOTE ]
how sick would it be to bet on beta fights? Like you raise and train your beta, and then you play like 100$ UH games till death.

or 100$ SNGS where last beta gets the 8 or 9 BI prizepool.

[/ QUOTE ]

HU 4 rolls?

[TripSearching]

I have had many fish tanks cause they are kind of baller. You should get at least a 20 gallon tank for puffers or really any fish for that matter, it will be alot less work for you. If you want puffers they like water that has extra salt in it, i forget what type of PH they like but they have special needs. All you need to do is set up your tank, put in the necessary chemicals and let the filter run for like 2-3 days tops and you should be fine. Once you have the puffers, those guys can eat live fish which is real cool and I even had one puffer that I could hand feed a fish to. Just make sure you have a good filter and the water temperature is good and the fish should live a while.