Water issues
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After the issues with the last fish I’ve been trying my hardest to make things right by Mickey. We recently went away for a few days and I had my bro in law watch the fish. I showed him how much to feed the fish, but needless to say I came back to a little overweight fishy. After a few days of less food, he is back to normal.
I also changed his water for the first time. I took into consideration some of you suggestions for the water. I used half tap water and half purified water. I used the de-chlorine drops. Well after one week that water is very cloudy all over again. No change in fish behavior but I have reason to believe that maybe my tap water isn’t the best thing. I asked my mother in law who as I said before used to breed fish. She told me I’m not keeping the water too clean, because I keep at least 25% of the same water in when I’m doing water changes. So when I clean the tank again tomorrow we shall see how long it stays nice. I must say I’ve had much stress because I don’t want to kill my fish again.
fortalina
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Betta Fish are what I blog about.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Thats exactly what happened to me. I thought if the water was cloudy, that i had to clean the tank, but bad choice.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:50 am
You must keep some of the bacteria that you had established in the fish tank, so you need to keep about 25-35% of the water when you clean your tank. You need to clean your tank about once every 3-4 days if you have a 1/2 gallon tank, or once every week if you have a 1 gallon or larger tank. If you don’t, then your fish will die of the ammonia build up (ammonia is caused by the fecal matter of the fish, as well as the left over food that he might not have eaten). but yeah, a clean tank will equal a very happy fishy!
August 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I always leave a bit less than half when I clean the tank. However I’ve found that my tap water allows things to get cloudier more often. With the purified water it stays quite clear. I also have a additive that decreases nitrous and brings up the good levels of bacteria. With my newest fish things have stayed very clean and I found if I clean it too often it affects him. So I’ve been going a bit longer and he’s quite happy.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
i suggest that you use all purified water and don’t clean your tank until a LONG time.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Cloudy water: You may want to take a look at the type of food that you are feeding your fish, some fish food will turn the water cloudy in one day. Betta food SHOULD say… does not cloud the water ..on the package.
A betta should be able to go 3 or 4 days in a half gallon container without clouding up the water. The more you feed, the cloudier it will get.
I doubt that too much bacteria is the problem for most bettas..since their bowls are cleaned and refilled so often.
My suggestion: Use tap water and several drops of de-chlorinator (per instructions). Clean the bowl often. Bettas don’t move around much during the day… they stay fairly staionary, thus it is questionable if they need big bowls and gallons of water. A small bowl cleaned more often is probably better than a large tank you rarely clean.
May 9th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
My Mom is so lazy once the water was so cloudy, u couldnt see the fish!!