Betta's & largish tanks

[Guest maw]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum and back into betta after a very long stay with cichlids. WOW betta's come along way from the pairs I used to breed in the 80's.

My question is how to convert my 4'x18"x18" (filtered by 2xAC500s) & 3'x20"x20" (filtered by Ehiem 2224) tanks into betta barracks or ideal betta setups.

I suppose I can just get a few dividers made, and go from there, but I would like to still maintain filteration and heat, using my existing equipment without buying separate sponge filters and heater to put into each partition. Also, would the current flow produced by my AC500's and Ehiem 2224 be ok for betta's? Any suggestions on how to reduce the flow (looks to be a little strong)?

Maybe perspex dividers with holes drilled?

What would be an ideal partition size - 5"x18"x18"?

Another question, can you have a male betta's with a spawning trio of bristlenose catfish - no too worried if the BN babies get eaten, more interested in the compatability of the two.

Thanks, Mike

[Sara_01]

i think realy in regards to the bn ctfish it's up to the betta lol, bn catfish are my general choice of tank mtes and i've only ever had trouble with 1 realy agressive male beating up the bn catfish but he beats everything up, especialy the many girls i've tried him with (sorry it's a bit of a sore point right now) i think you should be fine with the catfish as long as ur prepared to risk a little damage on their behalf if you hve a silly boy like i do

[Callatya]

In a large tank with free-ranging bettas, you should be fine with the BNs, provided nobody is particularly aggressive and the BNs have lots of hiding spots.

What you might want to do is drop that filtration down to 1 x 500 (still gives you 8-9x turnover per hour I believe, well above adequate for small tropicals) and consider putting in a drilled back wall to the compartments to cut and disperse that flow a bit more. This would be the simplest way to heat and filter all compartments easily IMO. Although if you use that filter and submerged internal drilled dividers, you could pretty much heat or filter it from anywhere with pretty good results. Maybe dedicate a central compartment to filtration? You really don't want that intake near a male longfin, that'll have a fair amount of 'suck' and if it gets stuck on there it might have trouble getting off.

You could even (and this is getting expensive) install a drilled floor instead of a drilled rear wall. Cover that in large river pebbles and that filter will be able to suck the waste right off the bare glass or light substrate underneath. You could also provide 'dead spots' for the fish to rest more easily with that style of setup.

If a back wall or floor isn't a go, you can try popping a thin piece of sponge or tulle over the intake and altering the angle at which the water returns to the tank. Careful though, the sponge thing can stress the motor, and I'm not even certain it will be enough with that filter.

What might be worth considering is a large hang-on perspex betta barracks, so maybe 5.5"x 8" x 9" or something, and swimming your BN breeders along the substrate. It would get past your heating and filtration issues