Betta Fish Tanks – Facts You Really Need to Know

There are so many fish breeds we like to adopt as pets because of their colourfulness and beauty. Betta fish also a fish like that. Most of the time, we like to adopt them in tanks. But there are some certain concerns that are specific for each different fish species. Therefore, different fish show different behavioural patterns. So, we must tailor and design their tanks living spaces according to their needs and behavioural patterns. Likewise, in this article, let’s find out how to design or choose a better tank for a betta fish.

We also know Betta fish as Siamese fighting fish is one of the beautiful members of domestic fish breeds. These fish have a vast colour variation and fancy colourful fin structure as their main speciality. The name Siamese fighting fish has gained a special feature of them. Which means they always fight other betta fish. Most of the time, males fight with other male betta fish. And causes serious injuries some times. But it doesn’t take until death. Comprises many colours such as yellow, red, blue, purple, green, pink, white and black.

One of the cool features about them is that we can easily recognize male betta fish and females. The male one is more colourful and brighter than the female one. The male one is larger than the female betta fish. This is the fact why more people adopt male bettas as pets than female bettas. And another one speciality about them is they have many tail types.

Let’s find out what the best tank solutions are and other facts that we must consider when designing a tank for betta fish.

Also, don’t forget to read our betta fish care guide

How to choose a tank for betta fish?

When choosing a tank for betta fish, we need to consider certain facts regarding the size recommended temperature and acidity of the water. Also other required equipment and stuff that we need to design the tank.

Size of the tank

For any fish type, there must be a certain enough space to live. Some species prefer more while others it doesn’t make that much critical. Likewise, for betta fish, they don’t need a very large space in their tank. Basically, for them, a small tank is fine. But it’s way better if you design the tank with a good amount of space. Or a large space. For one fish, you must design the tank at least the way you can fill up 2.5 gallons. However, the recommended amount of water is 5 gallons.

When considering the shape of the tank, there are many shapes you can choose. According to the space that you can dedicate from your place, the designs, and decorations, and you can design a good tank for you. This is totally up to you. Because it’s not about only the fish’s living space, it’s one of the household decorations too. However, from any kind of tank, it must occupy plenty of space for fish to move and swim freely.

The ideal temperature for Betta fish

When you breed fish temperature is another essential factor that you need to pay attention to. Temperature strictly affects the health of the fish. And also their behavioural patterns. When considering some fish species, you don’t want to pay that much attention to the temperature changes. But for betta fish, the thing is different you have to have maintained a better temperature condition for them. Unless it will badly affect your fish. Certain damage can happen to their immune system. These damages would lead to further infections since their immune system has become weak.

An ideal temperature of 78 – 82° F is perfect for betta fish. And do not take it below 74° F. That’s not good for bettas. As mentioned above, that will lead to immune system dysfunctions and other diseases like bacterial infections.

To keep such consistent temperature conditions, use a tank heater and a thermometer. And don’t forget to fill the tank with clean water.

Use a good filter.

Usually, a tank with one or two fish is getting dirty within about two or three days. Because of the high amount of waste products, they give out to that environment. And you need to have a powerful filter for that. But this thing for betta fish is different. Since betta fish does not give out a lot of waste, use a low-power filter. Otherwise, if you use a powerful filter instead of using a low-power filter, your fish won’t last long. So, for the cycling purpose of this tank, a normal small filter is perfectly fine. And it will do the purpose effectively while saving your fish and electricity too. 

Other decorations

When talking about fish tank decorations, there is so much stuff that we can add to our fish tanks. But the thing is, your fish doesn’t have to harm through your decorations, and it should add beauty to your home too. Since the bettas have widespread attractive and colourful fins, placing too many decorations like fake plants and other decorative toy stuff may cause tearing off their fins. Even from a lot of real plants can do the same damage. And as alternatives, it’s always better to have floating plants. It will be more helpful for the cohabitation process for male and female bettas. Cause they don’t do that in a community tank.

Lighting is one of the essential decorations for bettas. Because fish also sleep like us and the difference between light and dark over time also affects their normal life cycle. Some people may argue that fish doesn’t need light, but they need light.

So, for this purpose, you can use different lights to decorate your betta tank. You can easily afford them. But if you place lights, you have to regulate them daily. Because too much light or dark can stress your fish. Normally bettas need 8 – 12 hours of light and darkness for about 12 – 16 hours. So, likewise, you must turn on or off lights for certain specific hours per day. Fish will recognize this like day and night because they don’t know how to find the time. You may find this as a joke, but it is not.  

Choosing tank mates

Some betta fish can be aggressive. So, when choosing tank mates, you have to be very careful. Especially male betta fish sometimes get very aggressive. So, don’t put two or more betta males in the same tank. If you do that they will fight till one fish die.

If you are choosing to pet female betta fish, you can keep more than one. Even female betta fish can sometimes get aggressive. But, not as aggressive as male betta fish. So, you can keep multiple female fish in the same tank.

However, don’t put even numbers of female fish. Always put an odd number of fish in the tank. If you put even number, there is always an opponent available for every fish to fight. 

You have to add several hiding spots to the tank. So, in case of a fight, the fighters have to opportunity to hide if they are wounded. Use natural plants and things like stones, corals and any artificial decorations to the tank.

Don’t put male and female fish together.

Choosing tank mates from different species.

Betta fish will attack any moving object comes to his area. But, there are some fish verities that can live with betta. Keep in mind, to do this having a big tank is very important. Otherwise the betta will attack all other community fish in the tank.

Like humans, betta fish also have unique personalities. Even Some peaceful betta fish will  live with their own kind without committing any problems. But, some other fish can never live in a community tank since they can be very aggressive. So, first you need to discover what kind of personality your betta has. After setting up the tank with community fish in keep an eye on your betta fish for few hours.

If the tank is big and decorated well everything will be fine.

You can add tank mates like,

• Snails
• Small top layer fish
• Bottom layer fish
• Shrimp verities

Snails as tank mates for betta fish

Snails are very easy to care for. They don’t need any special arrangements or food. And the bettas will not try to attack snails. Even bettas will never know that there are snails since they barley make movements. However, the snails can reproduce like crazy. So, within a very short time period, you will not e able to control the population.

Hopefully, there are some snail verities that are hard to breed. Snails like zebra snails, assassin snails, do not reproduce in the freshwater tanks under normal conditions. So, you don’t need to worry about the growing population.

Some snail verities eat all the plants in a tank. So, if you have a planted tank, be careful not to choose plant-eaters.

In the pet stores, you will find thousands of verities of snails with multiple color combinations. Choose wisely, and these snails can add a huge beauty to your tank. Also, they will remove the loneliness in your betta fish tank.

What is really exciting about snails is they are very good cleaners. They will wash off all the excessive food, dirt, and everything. So, you will have very little to clean.

We recommend following snail verities,

1. Zebra snail
2. Assassin snail
3. Turret snails
4. Ramshorn snails
5. Pond snails

Some snails will try to escape the tank. So, always use a proper cover to the tank; otherwise, they will be everywhere in your house.

Shrimps as betta fish tank mates.

In most cases, bettas do not attack shrimps. So, adding shrimps to your tank is a wise choice. Shrimps are very cute, and caring for them is very easy. If you have a planted tank, you can add shrimps to the tank.

Having real plants is essential to upkeep shrimps. There are two types of plants you can have. Low light plants and high light plants. Shrimps can live and feed on both plant verities. But, if you choose high light plants, then you have to think about using a method to avoid algae growth. Under low light conditions, algae will not overgrow. The shrimps will consume growing algae.

You should set many hiding spots in your tank to keep shrimps and betta together. Otherwise, your betta will love to have a shrimp dinner. So, always include plants and other decorations to the tank so the shrimps can hide if betta fish get aggressive.

You should have at least a ten-gallon tank to keep them both. In smaller tanks, the shrimps will never get a chance to survive.

Shrimps are scavengers. So, daily feeding them is not essential. They will eat all the remaining food that your betta leftover. But, to keep them healthy, give them special treats like vegetables and meat.

What shrimps to choose?

Amano shrimps

Amano shrimps have a grey color body with dots on it. So, they are not that colorful or beautiful. However, they can grow up to 2 inches. So, your betta has no chance of eating them. Also, unlike other aquarium shrimps, Amano shrimps have a long lifespan. They can live up to three years. So, you can keep them for a long time.

Amano shrimp is a great choice for your betta tank. But, in a community, they can be a little aggressive. The shrimps will not commit to attack your betta. But, they will fight themselves for food. So, there will a lot of movements in the tank, which can stress out your betta? But if you have a big tank with a proper setup, no worries.

Anyway, if you discover that your betta is stressed after placing a man’s in the tank, try placing them in a bigger tank or remove the shrimps.

Ghost shrimps

Ghost shrimps are like ghosts. They have a transparent body. They can grow up to one and a half inches. So, your betta can’t eat the shrimps. Caring ghost shrimps don’t require any special skills. They can take care of them.

Ghost shrimps are less likely to cause problems. They will never try to attack any fish in your tank. So, your betta also will not commit any aggressive actions on the shrimps. 

Ghost shrimps can reproduce very quickly. So, if your tank is already full, think twice before choosing ghost shrimp. However, your betta will not allow the population to overgrow. The betta can eat small shrimps. So, it will control the population by killing the newborn shrimps.

Ghost shrimps are community animals. They get stressed when they are alone. So always add more than four shrimps to the tank so they will be happy. 

Ghost shrimps have a lifespan of twelve to eighteen months. Since they can reproduce very easily, you don’t need to buy a new group after some time. Just allow them to reproduce in a separate tank and care for them till they grow. So, your betta can’t eat them.

Cherry shrimps as tank mates for betta fish

Cherry shrimps are bright and colorful. In a planted tank, they can add a unique beauty to your tank. However, they have a small body size. A female can grow up to one inch, while males are much smaller than that.

So, if your betta is aggressive, there is some risk of adding them to the tank.
Male cherry shrimps are small and less colorful.

So, in the store, you can consider buying only the female ones. As they are big enough, the betta has no chance to eat them.

If you have a well-planted tank, you can put cherry shrimps without worries. They are good at hiding. So, if your betta gets aggressive, they will find a safe place to hide.

If you have a smaller tank like five or ten gallons, cherry shrimps are a perfect choice. You can have ten cherry shrimps in a ten-gallon tank.

The way of setting up!

Okay, here we come to the final step of this process. Which means how you can set up your fish tank and steps you can follow on this process. These facts are not only for betta tanks. You can follow these steps when you set up a new fish tank. But there may be exceptions. At those situations, get advice from a specialist regarding that.

Step 1 – Wash and place the stuff

The first thing you must do is, you must wash and rinse all the decorative stuff that you will place inside the tank. Then place those decorations and other essentials like filters, lights and other stuff inside or outside the tank according to the purpose they do. And don’t forget to have some gravel at the bottom of the tank.

Step 2 – Fix the temperature

Then also fix the heater. But if you intend to use a small fishbowl instead of using a tank, keep that in a place that it doesn’t expose to sunlight and in cold places. Find a place in the middle of those conditions. The reason for that is, we can’t set a heater for a small bowl. So, we have to provide the temperature needed naturally. But if you live in a tropical country, a heater is not essential. The room temperature is enough.

Step 3 – Adding water

When you add water to the tank, you must add some pure water to the tank. You can buy specific water for only bettas. If you are living in an area, only get tap supplies, purify that water before filling the tank. Some chemicals added to tap water like chlorine are not good for the health of your fish. To purify tap water, you can use a water conditioner.

After you supply purified water anyhow, fill up the tank. But when filling the tank, do not fill it up. Just leave about 1 or 2 inches depth from the top. This is because these fish come to the water surface for breathing. And bettas like to jump. So, it’s not good to fill all the way up. After filling the tank, you can check whether there is any water leakage.

Step 4 – Start the cycling process

After filling water, you can switch on the filter. And check that it’s working properly and smoothly. Because, as mentioned in the filter section of this article, it is not good to use a powerful filter. Then, turn on the heater and regulate the temperature to a value in between 78 – 82° F. Then keep a thermometer to measure the temperature values and keep it in a consistent state.

Step 5 – Perform a fishless cyclic process

Without adding fish to the tank, you must perform a cycle. This is essential. Here we must introduce a beneficial bacterial Colonie to the tank to perform the nitrogen cycle inside the tank. This will make a better natural environment for bettas to live. This is an essential and compulsory step.