uio Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Well I've just had an interesting conversation with someone who works with acrylic at work. We intend to work up a prototype in tank betta barracks to provide a better alternative to the stick on types with very small compartments currently in the market. My question to Ausaqua'ers would be the following: 1) What overall size would be best? We are thinking about 60x10x10cm, perhaps a little bit less than 60cm so that it'll fit into a standard 2 footer. 2) Compartment size? My feeling is 10x10cm is sufficient though could go smaller to fit more compartments in. We are going to fit a perforated bottom and top piece for water circulation and feeding and waste removal. This could be an easy way to a premade barracks system that I can then put into heated/filtered tanks... Any other input would be much appreciated! Thanks UIO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 I'd like to see a compartment size of no less than 20 x 20, personally. These fish really amaze me when they've got room to get some velocity happening You'd only fit 3 in a 60cm tank. But I take your point re fitting on a standard 2' stand :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod 373 Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 How about splitting the difference, say 15cm wide that would fit four still a bit small but adequate for temporary housing. Or make the dividers removable so you can rotate them around giving each 2 slots every week or so. You could even have one mounted at the back and one at the front of the tank with girls in the main tank. Oops obviously they would have to be narrow enough to have surface area for girls if you had one at the front and one at the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uio Posted March 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Thanks for the input guys. The idea of putting girls in the main tank and boys around the edges at the top is pretty much what I was going for, with the typical 2 footer in mind, catering for those raising spawns and not wanting to heat rooms or put guttering up. From that perspective fitting more bettas in temporarily would be the key until they went to their permanent home. Also making it 20cm wide after playing around with the measurements would not allow two rows of these and even 15cm wide leaves very little surface area for the females... I shot for 10cm square at first because that is approximately a plasdene jar size and that seemed to be enough space back when I had a couple of those jars. It is also roughly twice the space in your store bought "betta container" stick ons which seem to have way too little space. We'll have to give it a bit more thought! But perhaps the next question is, what size of jars are people using to jar up their growing males? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 The main thing that would concern me is how much acrylic expands in warm tank water. Things bow and bend all over the place, so I'd maybe think it might be good to have it less than the size of the tank itself. Also, how do you remove the fish? Can you fit a standard net in there? An adult male hand to fish out deads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uio Posted March 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Yes the size of the container, rather than being 60 cm will probably be more like 56cm. You should be able to easily get one of those penn plax betta nets into a compartment that size, a hand would be more difficult Anyway we'll knock one up and give it a test go. Obviously this sort of size will not be suitable for your show/larger males but as you are jarring it could be a way to jar much more conveniently while still exposing the fry to the benefits of central heating/filtration and greater water volume... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod 373 Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Hi again I think the standard 2 foot tank is 60x30x30cm so the width across the tank couldn't be more than 10cm if you wanted 2 rows. The width of each compartment could be variable along the length of the tank. I am not sure young bettas could exercise for good growth adequately in 10x10x10cm but you would have to check with someone more knowledgeable. Another thing to keep in mind, I had something similar in glass years ago and it either needs to fit very flush against the tank or sit at least a centimetre from it you would be amazed what tiny spaces girls can wriggle into then get stuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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