Question, and Betta Death

[MarkMI]

Last week, not to long ago really. Only about 4 days ago, I bought another betta from the store. Red, blue, and white. LONG fins. He was great looking, but I thought maybe he was a little sick. So I bought another 1 gallon tank, some large stones for the bottom, and it had a small bottom air filter, and such. This morning I wake up, go to feed him, and I cant find him. I am looking all over, and I cant figure out where he went. He managed somehow to jam himself between the side of the aquarium, and under some of the stones. He didnt make it.

Are large stones not recommended maybe? I have small gravel in my other tank, and its a huge pain in the butt to clean. SO I thought that large stones would be better. But with this happening, I am not so sure they are good for the fish. Just wondered if anyone had a suggestion about large stones.

[mlefev]

My betta always tries to wedge himself under things too. I finally took out all of the gravel and just left a couple of floating plants in there so he has something to swim around.

That's terrible that yours died.

If your tank is big enough for you to net him and put him in another container when you do your water changes, you might try using sand in the bottom. It's pretty easy to drain water with sand, and you can use a little scoop to clean out debris. You wouldn't lose much sand that way either. If you're using a gallon bowl (which you're probably not, since you said "tank") It would be really hard to keep and clean sand, but if it's 2.5 gallons or larger, you could try that.

If you want to use the larger stones, and are afraid your next betta might do the same thing, you might find some way to put mesh over them (like screen-door mesh) that wouldn't allow him to actually get down into the rocks. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to anchor down.

You also might be able to put plexi-glass over the stones with some holes drilled for filtration. I seriously doubt he'd be able to get under that.

[MarkMI]

it is a small one gallon tank. I went to the store and got another one. A red one this time. I bought some white gravel to put in the bottom.... its to bad to becuase I thought the stones made it look very realistic..Oh well. And thanks for the ideas.

[Damon]

If keeping a betta in smaller jars (1 gallon cannot really be classified a tank), its best to keep it empty with maybe a plant and or some moss in there.