Definately cycle the tank before the betta goes in, they probably wont make it thru the cycle.
He can wait comfortabley in a large jar or bowl as long as the water is changed daily since there is no filter. Bettas can use surface air unlike other fish so they have evolved to be able to live in low oxygen water. Their native environment is rice paddies and other stagnent tropical water holes. Warm (78-82) degree calm clean water is what they love. Feed a good betta diet, no, they dont eat plant roots, and your wet pet should give you lots of pleasure. Some of our customers have kept them ofr up to 3 years!
If you have another tank or have a friend who does, you can use some of their used gravel to jump start your 2 gallon betta tank. Put it in your tank, yucky brown stuff and all and it will help colonize your tank withthe "good guy" bacteria faster. There are also several additives at your fish store that can help too.
I would spend a couple of bucks and get a declorinater/ water conditioner too. Some of the city water departments are using cloramine which unlike clorine does not evaporate and can kill your fish.
hope some of this helps you!! :-)

Let him lead a good life, go for a 10 gal. There the cheapest tank there is. Go with any hang-on filter [Hagen, Wisper, etc]. You really don't need to cycle tank for a betta as they can breath air so they aren't very dependant on water quality. Most fish are much more interesting when they have room to move about.

Hi
Sounds like good advice. If I wanted to keep just one Betta I'd go for a 10 gallon tank. They have a footprint of only 10 by 20 inches and are usually cheaper than any other size tank. This allows you to use a filter and a heater as well as a few live plants. Maintenance is reduced
to changing a couple of gallons a week and an occasional tidying up. The most important point is to keep the tank warm.Low eighties.I've found that almost all problems with
Bettas can be traced to low temps. At these temps they will be far more active and show their best color.
As to the water conditioner it depends on your water supply.I always use RO water but aged tap water is fine.For the few cents a water conditioner costs,Why not??
gary

Please do cycle what ever size tank you chose..even tho the betta can take surface air, when the ammonia and nitrites rise in a cycling tank the ammonia can burn their skin and eyes and gill tissue causeing blindness, skin damage and possibly death. Things may seem ok for a couple of weeks but when the levels peak at about week 3/4 it may get ugly for your betta guy.

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I will cycle the tank before I finally add the Betta to the new home. I will be out looking at aquariums this weekend.

There is one Betta that really broke our hearts yesterday (mine and my seven-year-old daughter). It was in a cup with one-inch of water. I was horrified and even my young daughter blurted out "the store people are so mean to the fish". I agree. The Betta was just lying there and we thought it was dead. I picked up the cup and it turned to face us. It looked like it was staring at us (maybe it's my imagination but my daughter thought so) and it started to wave its fins back and forth, almost as if it was greeting us. Our presence alone seemed like it helped to perk it right up, followed by my imagination hearing cries of "help me! save me!". :)

Anyhow, my daughter was frantic when we left that poor Betta behind. But I tried to explain to her that we can't just bring it home before we are prepared to properly care for it. Although we want to save it, we don't want to end up killing it with kindness that lacks the right care.

Since that particular Betta has won our hearts, I may take CrisH's advice, bring it home and keep it housed in a large glass container until the tank is cycled. I have the right water treatments and always have the right type of water prepared since I have many plants to care for as well and a couple of other aquariums. I have no problem in having to change the water a couple of times a day in the temporary home if that's what is needed, as long as this particular Betta can be saved from a life of misery or certain death at the store.

I think you'll find just having clean water and placed in a larger vessel the betta will respond enormously. But don't buy it if you notice any fluffy fungus sort of thing going on... or the fins looking really ragged.

I think you and your daughter will really enjoy watching the reaction of a betta going into a REAL tank!! I always seem to think their reaction is - ALL THIS ROOM?! What to do! ;)

Keep in mind its hard to cycle a tank without fish in it. The fish waste is the food for the bacteria. Also if your not useing an undergravel filter your really cycling the filter [thats where the bacteria colonize]. Thats why you shouldn't change all the filter material at once. The only way to tell if the tank is cycled is by testing the water for ammonia. It has to spike at a very high level than drop suddenly. This could take weeks or months depending on size of tank how many fish, etc. My 240 gal tank took almost 3 months to cycle [and I added live bacteria]. I would just run the tank for a few days to let the clorine dissapate from the water and put him in. I know how you feel about saving a fish but this just encourages the stores to stock more fish in jars. I've seen some stores put one male betta in each community tank where they thrive if theres no fin nippers in the tank.

Good ideas. Thank you. James, I know what you mean about proper cycling. I have all the testing kits at home and all the water treatments. Besides live fish, is there any other way to properly cycle? Can I add fish food every day that the filter system is working in the new tank? Will this help in building up some type of bacteria? Then at the end of the week remove some of the water and add fresh water? Since I already have two established aquariums, is there anything in there that can be borrowed to place into the new tank to help it to cycle faster/better?

I know that by buying one Betta off the shelves of these stores is an encouragement to stock more but I'm having a hard time just walking away from them and not bringing one home. Someone else will definitely pick one up, and although they are encouraging the same type of re-stocking, the only thing that gives me peace of mind is that I'm prepared to give it proper care with good living conditions. Will the next person do the same? Or will they stick that Betta into a minute-sized space instead, with the same type of miserable conditions that the poor Betta thought they'd left behind at the shop in hopes of something better?

Last month, as Easter gifts for kids (imagine!), I saw on the shelves of one retail store, glass jars (they must fit about 1/2 litre of water) with a Betta fish in them. On top of the jar Lucky Bamboo plants were shoved through the opening. And on top of all that, ribbons, chocolates and decorations were attached to it. The water was cloudy and the fish were all lethargic (God knows how long they'd been there with water unchanged, no food, not enough space on top to draw in air...). I was nauseous...and infuriated... I've never seen anything like that before and I thought the Betta in a vase with the Peace Lily on top was bad enough...

What the heck is wrong with chocolate bunnies for kids at Easter!?!?

Here is a link for you about fishless cycling. Spoiled fish food does not release ammonia so that would only pollute the water.

Here is a link that might be useful: fishless cycle

I think it would be worth your while to find a fish store where you don't have to feel like you are rescuing the fish. I liken it to pet stores that sell puppy mill puppies. Yes, you are saving that one miserable fish from a horrible existance, but you are also encouraging the store to go out and stock MORE of these fish in horrible conditions. You'll get a healthier fish, and your money will not be supporting this horrible practice.

Also, I'd skip the filter. Bettas aren't big fans of currents. I've got mine in a 5 gallon, and he gets a 2 gal change each week. He couldn't be happier.

Thanks for all the help. Cactopus, I have been debating what you're advising all weekend. I may, in the end, do just that. It's a tough choice for me but sometimes it's the right thing to do.

Anyhow, I will prepare the proper living environment in the meantime and it'll give me enough time to make the right choice.

Any tank that's 2.5 gallons or larger has the capacity to be cycled. I would recommend a fishless cycle using BioSpira or Cycle to help the cycle along. Always condition your water! Chlorine will outgas from tap water, but many municipalities use chloramines now, and they DO NOT leave the water. Some municipalities are changing yet again, and that leaves us fish owners with lots of questions as to how we can provide an environment for our buddies without it being lethal.

Make sure you get a proper-size heater! Bettas will be very active once the optimum temperature is reached, 78-80 degrees (82 degrees is more for an ich-combating temperature). Filters can be put on the lowest possible power setting. If the fish has a large tank, he can easily get away from the current, and you can put pantyhose over the filter intake so that he won't get sucked into the filter. When culturing bacteria with other media, such as gravel or a used filter from a cycled tank, make sure you don't bring any algae along (which is the brown stuff mentioned above, or green, or reddish-brown).

I have 2 2.5 gallon tanks with 1 fish each, and they're pretty happy although I'd rather have 5 gallon tanks. The tanks are not cycled; I do a 50% water change every 3 days, with a thorough cleaning every 2 weeks. I feed pellets, freeze-dried and frozen foods, and avoid flakes at all costs.

The two medicines I use the most are aquarium salt and Melafix, as bettas are prone to chomping on their own beautiful fins.

I just happened to take a look at this forum today, and believe me, I am SO happy to see so much accurate info. on keeping bettas! So many people think that they can be kept in those vases with plants on top, and that the bettas will eat the plant roots, and apparently you never have to do water changes. . . it makes me want to scream! But here I see excellent info. on filtration, heating (very important for bettas! They are tropical!), space to move, proper feeding, excellent medication examples (I love Melafix!), chloramine (used a lot in Canada), etc. Congrats to you all on being so well-versed in proper fish care! Now if only the goldfish bowl myth could be expelled from the general population. . . as if they are happy when they live for about a year (or less) in bowls, and should live to be 20 years old or more!

Hello, I'm in need of help, I have a male betta for almost 2 years and used to
live in a 2-gallon bowl with no filter or heater and was happy and explored and
flared his fins with a bamboo plant. Recently I changed him to a 3-gallon tank
with a new plant, Elodea. However, I noticed him scratching against objects and
hiding in his cave. Next day, I moved him to a 5-gallon tank and put BettaFix
and Bacteria since I noticed his body was scraped and had few little dust
patches contracted from the Elodea plant. After a week, I changed 40% of his
water, he seems to have improved a bit but I've seen him scratching against his
leaf and cave at times and he just surfaces and moves a bit and goes down to
the bottom to sleep mostly. Is he mostly sleeping because of the scratches in his
body, how can I safely cure his scratched body?