DDs want fish. Why, I don't know, but they do. What are Beta fish? Are they hardy?? Which fish can handle just a bowl, with no heater or filter or anything? We need two fish, so they have to get along. Any info would be helpful, thanks!

By Colette on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 04:05 pm:

I'd get a small tank with a filter. I've had both and a bowl is a pain in the butt to clean. A filter is easy.

You should only have one fish in a fish bowl. If you want more than one talk to the pet store and they can tell you which ones stay small and get along.

By Missbookworm on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 04:07 pm:

A Beta can be in a bowl with no heater or anything but you can't have two of them together they will fight and kill each other. I know there are some fish you can put in with them but I'm not sure which ones they are. I have one beta between my 3 children and really as much as they liked getting one...they don't pay attention to it! lol I take care of him and he just sorta swims around all day.

I couldn't tell you which fish are the hardiest. If it's one for each of your dd's why not just get them each their own bowl? The "tank" I got for my beta was somewhere around $10 I think and I just put some small rocks in the bottom and the store gave me some plants for it when I bought him.

By Shann on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 04:31 pm:

Goldfish are hearty and don't need filter or heater. I have 3 in a 10 gallong and have had them over a year we just replace so much water every few days. Beta's are good but as missbookworm said you can only put one male in a bowl. depending on size of bowl I wouldn't recommend putting a gold fish with beta. gold fish let off a chemical that if built up in a tank will kill anything else with it but if its a bigger tank they should be fine. We currently have 3 tanks. 2 10 gallon and 1 50 gallon and we have 2 tanks one 30 and the other 75 that are cycling and they have neons in them only til the tank cycles and then something else will go in. I love tanks they are relaxing and calming. This summer hubby is thinking about doing a 125 gallon salt water tank. We just haven't decided yet they cand be quiet expensive.

By Conni on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 07:07 pm:

We have a beta in a fish bowl. Dh named him Alpha. I just call him fishy, fishy... I swear he gets excited when he see's me- but no one around here believes me. We got him in October and he has been super easy to care for.

By Kate on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 08:06 pm:

Thanks everyone. We bought two male bettas/betas and a small divided bowl for now. One of them seems really listless though...is that normal? I know fish are boring, but is it normal for them to just not move much at all?? Are they supposed to react if you tap the bowl or put your hands near them?

By Pamt on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 08:14 pm:

Sounds pretty normal to me. I think bettas just kind of hang around and look pretty. Sort of like the supermodels of the marine world.

By Kate on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 10:37 pm:

Okay, do my two new fishies need a nightlight?? Can they spend all night in the dark??

By Missbookworm on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 11:00 pm:

Mine doesn't have a light or anything. He is pretty listless just kinda calmly moves around unless I physically move his tank lol

I agree with Pamt, sorta like supermodels of the marine world

By Pamt on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 11:18 pm:

I know fish are boring

I just had to respond to this. I thought they were boring too until I married DH. He had a 55 gallon salt water aquarium. We had:


4 yellow tangs named Huey, Louie, Dewey, and Donald


1 gold-striped grouper named Ephraim


1 lethally poisonous lionfish named Aslan


1 picasso triggerfish that I gave DH for Valentine's Day named Cupid


and 2 moray eels whose name escapes me

These fish had so much personality!! The tangs would follow where we walked by swimming to the area of the tank closest to us and they would get in a little clump and "greet" us when we walked in the back door. If you held a mirror up to the tank they would attack it. The morays were shy. The trigger fish would hook its trigger into rocks to sleep and it ate romaine lettuce tied to a rock. They were awesome fish. We'd also buy them goldfish or go catch brine shrimp at the bay and feed them to the fish. BOOM!! The goldfish would be eaten in a split second and little goldfish scales would float through the water like glitter. I quickly learned that fish aren't boring

By Unschoolmom on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 06:43 am:

Agreed! We've had goldfish now for a couple of years and each one has had a distinct personality and when we had more then one, they had an interesting and obvious social life.

Our Calico Fantail, "Calico", is now going on two years old and I'm hoping to get a 20 or 30 gallon tank soon so he can have a buddy or two.

By Feona on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 08:20 am:

I don't think betas are hardy. I know they say they are hardy but not with my experience. We have killed a few of them. I think tetras are hardy. We were ridiculous fish people with 7 fish tanks at one times. You need a heater and a filter for tetras though.

By Luvn29 on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 08:26 am:

I definitely don't want to step on ANY toes here at all. I promise. I have never owned a Beta, so I am not addressing that, but the info may be the same, who knows.

As for the goldfish. I used to think they were boring, also. When I had them in a bowl or a small tank without an air filter.

They wouldn't swim much. I found out it is because they don't have enough oxygen to swim much. They have just enough to stay alive, but not enough to burn.

We brought our two goldfish in from our goldfish pond outside for the winter (they can hibernate, but I couldn't stand the thought of seeing them through the cold icey water just laying there all winter) and put them in a twenty gallon tank. I did a little research because my babies weren't swimming around like they did in our pond with the fountain outside. Found out they actually do much better with an air filter. So I rushed to Wal-mart. Bought a twenty dollar filter for it because they were at the top sucking air and now my little fishies swim all over the tank, sideways, backwards, flipping around beautifully with their fantails, and are very happy.

They no longer just hang out at the top where the oxygen is, they swim all over the top putting on a beautiful display for us. Also the filter cleans out the build-up of chemicals from their fishy poops so they have cleaner water to swim through.

We have really no maintenance to the tank. We have never had to do a complete change of the water. I change the filter, which costs 2.18 once every 4-6 weeks and I fill the tank back up as the water evaporates.

So even though the fish may be able to live without an air filter, they seem to live much happier with a filter because it oxygenates the water much better, putting oxygen all throughout the water instead of them having to get the water from the top of the water.

And I learned this from my own experiences. I kept goldfish in bowls and tanks without filters before, too. You just wouldn't believe the difference. And The filter was so cheap, and it keeps the water so much cleaner and there really is no upkeep to it.

Hope this helps.

By Luvn29 on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 08:29 am:

Forgot to add... Goldfish definitely don't need a heater because if their water is too warm, they won't swim much, and their body temps can get too high and they can die. They actually do much better in cooler temps. Like regular water temps. Mine stays anywhere between 75 and 80. Usually around 77. And that's without a heater. I don't use a light either.

By Kate on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 09:04 am:

How does a filter work? You can just buy one and attach it?? Can you attach it to a bowl? I thought you needed a specific tank already set up for a filter.

By Luvn29 on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 01:17 pm:

You can buy a cheap ten or twenty gallon rectangle tank for ten to twenty dollars at wal-mart. Then the filter just sits on the side of it and plugs in and that's it.

There are also smaller filters that are a lot cheaper that are for 1-5 gallon fish tanks or bowls that just sit on the side of bowls at Wal-mart and plug in. You'd be amazed at how easy and simple it is. I am completely ignorant when it comes to this stuff and when it came down to it, I just went to the fish aisle and all the stuff was right there. Everything you needed came in one box and it was ready to go.

By Kate on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 01:58 pm:

Do you have a wire hanging over the bowl then?

By Luvn29 on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 02:27 pm:

The filters are in a plastic box like thing that is molded to hook over the side of the bowl or tank. The box part of the filter hangs over the outside, not in the water. A tube sticks into the water and sucks the water into the filter system while the water runs through the filter and over the ledge back into the water which aeriates (sp?) the water. Go to this link for a picture of what I'm talking about...

picture of filter

This is not what I have. This one is really expensive. But it is a really good example of how they sit on the tank.

By Mrsheidi on Sunday, July 9, 2006 - 03:58 pm:

Our beta committed suicide and literally jumped out of the bowl while we were at work. It was a long ride to the floor...poor kamikaze fish.

By Christylee on Sunday, July 9, 2006 - 11:09 pm:

We have two Betas, one in the living room in a bowl and one in sister's room in tank with filter. Living room we've had for going on 8 months now and bedroom one about 6 weeks I think. Either way is very little work and they are pretty.

Unbeliveably at my old work we had a beta and so far he is 3 and a half YEARS old. It's amazing!

By Hol on Sunday, July 9, 2006 - 11:40 pm:

Adena - I sure wish I had known about that airfilter when we had our indoor gold fish. My oldest DS had a coupon from the pet store for three free goldfish. We had them in a rectangular tank with a filter, but they kept getting bigger and bigger, and we kept going to bigger tanks. They were SO dirty though. I (notice I said *I* ) had to change the water twice a week, and do a complete tank cleaning once a week. When DS was going into the military, I told him to find a home for his fish, if possible. I already had a dog, three cats and a turtle to take care of. He worked at an Ace hardware store before he went into the AF, and they had a fish POND in their garden center. He was friends with guy who took care of them, so they went to live there. Eventually, the store got rid of the pond, so they put the fish in a fountain pond in our local park. I believe that they lived a long time.
DH has "Comets", a breed of goldfish in his pond outside. They are very hardy, and winter over very well outside. He has a heater so their water doesn't freeze.
We also have a beta named "Ming". He's pretty, but he doesn't do much. We even just recently got him a new bowl with some plants in it. He just eats, and swims around near the bottom.
Youngest DS's school has a beta on the counter in the school office. He's pretty.
I KNOW that fish have personalities. DH's fish all "greet" him in the morning.

By Hol on Sunday, July 9, 2006 - 11:41 pm:

Pam - You say that lionfish are lethally poisonous. To touch them?

By Luvn29 on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 11:27 am:

The filter is the best! We were dreading having goldfish in a tank because they can be so messy. But with the filter, their tank is always clear. I never have to change the water, only add new water to it ever so often, as it evaporates. And the replacement filters are only a little over $5 for 3 of them.

I've noticed that the fish are so much more active with the filter because there is so much more oxygen in the water.

By Crystal915 on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 12:24 pm:

Just a note on betas, a lot of people feel it's cruel to keep them in tiny bowls like they are often kept at the stores. They really do need room to swim, and oxygen, that's why you always see them so lethargic in the little containers.