# Logistics for an office betta tank



## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

I would love to get a small tank with a betta for my (new) office, like a Fluval spec or something like that. 

That said, I'm not sure about logistics. 
For those of you who have experience with this:

1) How do you manage water changes? I don't have a sink in my office. There is a lunch room area nearby, and a bathroom. 

2) How about feeding? I don't usually go to the office on weekends. I can be gone as much as 5 days in a row sometimes. Obviously if I were to leave for a more significant amount of time (e.g., > 1 week), I would try to organize for someone to drop by, but what about for those shorter trips?

I'm really hoping I can make this work, as I'm very fond of bettas. Though that would then bring me up to 3 tanks... And if you count my snail bowl that'd be 4... No turning back now.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Personally I would not keep any of my bettas in a tank smaller than 5G. The biggest of the spec tanks looks all right though. I would absolutely put a filter in there. 
I know some people say you just do partial water changes once in a while, but I feel very strongly that they must have filters (and heaters ideally). but IMO you would need to do them every day to have a chance of keeping the water clean, and why do all that work when it's so simple to put in a small sponge filter and change 1/2 gallon of water a week .instead? 

I think going a weekend without feeding is just fine. I think fish often go longer than that without food in the wild.


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## kim86 (Sep 5, 2012)

Use a siphon for water changes and siphon the water into a bucket to take to the bathroom. Add new, conditioned water in slowly to the aquarium. Try to match the temperature to avoid shocking the betta.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Thanks for the input, Livyding and kim86!

Livyding - the spec comes with a filter with foam block, carbon and biomax insert. It doesn't come with a proper heater, but from what I can tell in reading reviews the submerged pump does generate a bit of heat.

kim86 - I like the idea of siphoning into a small bucket, I think that could work just fine. Thanks!


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## pandamom (Jul 16, 2013)

I have one at work - I work in a fish lab though, so I have a sink and 'stuff' to make it work. "Experts" say that a betta should go a day a week without a feeding and I have no issues with leaving mine over the weekend. He's been there for over a year and I just use a big syringe and suck out some water and keep a container of conditioned water to add. Because the conditioned water sits in my office, it is the same temp - it works.


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## pandamom (Jul 16, 2013)

Also, with the heater issue - I find that our office is always way warmer than I would like it (LOL) and so I have no need for a heater - plus it's all thermostatically controlled (the office is) so the ambient air temp never varies more than a couple of degrees.


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## pandamom (Jul 16, 2013)

Hey Kim86, are you the fish manager at Petland in PoCo? You helped me out with some tubifex worms on the weekend…. Thought I recognized you from somewhere.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

pandamom, thanks for the tips! I like the syringe idea.
And I keep my office way warm (77ish), so I'd hope that with the additional heat from the pump it would be fine. Though I'm not against getting a heater - they work just fine with the spec, as far as I can tell.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Ooops I meant to post this in freshwater and not in freshwater classifieds... 
Can I move this myself or does a moderator have to do it?

Sorry!


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## binkysmom (Apr 28, 2014)

I have a 5.5 gallon on my desk with a betta. The tank is planted and had a filter and heater. I use a siphon and 3 gallon bucket to do water changes. The dirty water gets dumped on the garden outside.

I don't feed over the weekend and Rusty has been doing well for the last 6 months. So far it's been pretty easy to maintain but I keep up with the water changes so nothing gets out of hand.


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## Keri (Aug 2, 2010)

Just make sure you don't use the lunchroom sink for anything fishy or your co workers will be unhappy! Do you have a friend in the office that can feed it if you are gone more than two days? Or can you keep a daphia culture going at home? Drop some in before you go away,the daphnia will live in the tank until they get eaten  ( I have a couple jars if daphia on the go in a windowsill)


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## kim86 (Sep 5, 2012)

That's me!! Lol. Your fish loving those worms?


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## kim86 (Sep 5, 2012)

pandamom said:


> Hey Kim86, are you the fish manager at Petland in PoCo? You helped me out with some tubifex worms on the weekend&#8230;. Thought I recognized you from somewhere.


Whoops meant to quote this!


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Thanks for the input, binkysmom! Having a garden nearby would be great.
Keri - good point re: angering coworkers by dropping stinky water in the lunch room sink. 
Mmmm. The more I read about this, the more it sounds like maybe it's not such a good idea.

Thanks everyone for chiming in!


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## pandamom (Jul 16, 2013)

Hi Kim, yes, thanks, once the fish figured out what it was, they enjoyed it.



kim86 said:


> Whoops meant to quote this!


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

UnderseaGal said:


> Thanks for the input, binkysmom! Having a garden nearby would be great.
> Keri - good point re: angering coworkers by dropping stinky water in the lunch room sink.
> Mmmm. The more I read about this, the more it sounds like maybe it's not such a good idea.
> 
> Thanks everyone for chiming in!


I dunno... I think it's doable. You can avoid needing a sink if you haul your water in jugs; which isn't really a big deal with a small tank. A 25% WC in a five gallon tank is roughly a milk jug; which isn't impossible.

If you're not too attached to the betta idea, there are lower volume options available as well. Shrimp can do well in very small volumes (although you can't really do a proper colony); which makes the logistics much easier.

I've got a 2 gallon spec set up as a shrimp tank (now with tank journal! I knew I finished that for a reason). When I took it with me while I was going to university in Kelowna, I carried water home from campus for my WC's (my apartment's artifically-softened well water wasn't really ideal for a fish tank... I 'borrowed' water from the university water bottle filling station for WC's); which was entirely workable.

As for feeding, auto feeders can do a reasonable job (although not as good as a person... they're occasionally fiddly to deal with and do have the potential to go wrong. Cheap ones are not usually a good idea). I wouldn't bother with them over the weekend; but for longer periods they can be pretty useful (although it's a good idea to have someone check on the tank sometimes anyway).


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Have you considered going for a Paradise fish instead of a Betta? They are way more hardy, and have tons of personality.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Rockman - I just looked at your spec tank journal. While I'm fairly attached to the idea of a betta, I do like shrimp a lot too, and your tank is a great inspiration.  I'm now thinking of how I could add a betta at home and do shrimp at work.  Shrimp are so sensitive, though - I'd have to wait until the tank is fully cycled, and in my hands that takes forever.... Anyway.

TomC: I've never heard of paradise fish, but I'm going to go look them up right now.  Thanks for the tip!


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## pandamom (Jul 16, 2013)

Aren't Paradise fish a type of gourami? I think they would need a lot more space, no? I don't know, that's why I'm asking&#8230;. I will have to Google them and see if I have the same thing in my head as what you are talking about&#8230;.


TomC said:


> Have you considered going for a Paradise fish instead of a Betta? They are way more hardy, and have tons of personality.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

pandamom - I just looked it up, seems like they need 20 gal to be happy, but it's hard to tell exactly...


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Shrimp would be great, but they are definitely more sensitive. You'd have to match temperatures \ parameters. Temperature swings can cause major deaths (which can happen in a smaller tank fairly easy).

A betta tank would be ideal I think, as they are hardier and not as sensitive to temperature swings (had mine in a bigger bowl without a heater and it was great all summer and winter long).


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Paradise fish are closely related to Bettas, but are a bit larger. They can take very cool temperatures. Males have tons of personality, but can be really mean to other fish. The one pictured below did great in an eight inch cube tank (spending the summer outdoors in a tub pond) until he got caught up in some Java Moss and died.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

effox - exactly. My amano shrimp have proven to be very hardy, but they definitely are not "pretty", and it's my understanding that the prettier shrimp types are more sensitive. So that might not work well.

TomC - that's a gorgeous fish! Sorry he died.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Cherry shrimp are hardy-ish as a fancier looking one, but still water parameters not being good or temp swings can wipe out a colony if not addressed. I had a 10g tank and the temperature swings of my room during afternoon to night wiped out my CRS\CBS and cherries, I couldn't do anything about it besides putting them in the garage which wouldn't have been feasible.

On the other hand I've seen first hand that cherries can live in a bucket of stagnant water and live off algae for months, so what do I know.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Haha you probably know more than me!
That said, I think I'd prefer a betta, because they are so pretty. 
But I am concerned about the feasibility of water changes. Might be easier to just get one at home. Though that means I'd have to get rid of my pea puffers.
Decisions, decisions...


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Like someone mentioned above, it's roughly a milk jug (1g) that you'd want to change a week. That'd be one trip to lavatories to dump the dirty water and one trip to the lunch room without struggling. I'm not familiar with the Fluval tanks, but do recall that some had a fixed lid or a smaller opening so that aspect might slow you down, otherwise it seems definitely do-able.

I had a syphon with a hand pump on it (squeeze to get it going) and that allowed me to do water changes without spilling anything on my floor. Might be something to consider too.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Hi effox - thanks for the input. I was wondering about how to go about syphoning, since the back-and-forth motion I use now probably wouldn't work in a smaller tank... Thanks for answering this question I didn't ask.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

This might be an unpopular idea but in a tank with only one little fish, I might not bother to do water changes at all, and just feed very lightly and put in some kind of fast-growing plants to keep down the nitrates.


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

Livyding said:


> This might be an unpopular idea but in a tank with only one little fish, I might not bother to do water changes at all, and just feed very lightly and put in some kind of fast-growing plants to keep down the nitrates.


It's not a bad idea. Although personally I probably wouldn't cut out the water changes entirely... there's too many unknowns in water chemistry to assume that'll be completely stable over the long term, IMO. You could significantly reduce the amount of maintenance though.

If anybody's interested in that kind of thing, I'd recommend Diana Walstad's 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium'... which is about as close as the low tech people get to a bible.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Well before the 1980s as far as I know nobody ever did water changes, because people knew that changing 100% of the water at once was bad, but hadn't figured out the partial water change thing, so they just lived with high nitrates and problems like HLLE and fin rot were seen as unavoidable. So it's not like we don't know what's going to happen. But you could just monitor the nitrates, and do a water change if they ever get too high.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

I don't think it's a bad suggestion either - thanks for bringing it up.
Like Rockman said, maybe not cut it out entirely, but I could do a bigger change once every 3-4 weeks rather than frequent smaller ones.

I'm actually starting to think I could just have an office betta at home.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Livyding said:


> Well before the 1980s as far as I know nobody ever did water changes.


 Nope. People have always done water changes. I was doing them in the 1960s.


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