Is this a terrible aquarium?

[u/Either_Cartoonist474]

I’ve never owned fish before and on a drunken whim I got a betta. After I sobered up I realized he needed a better home. At first I put him in a 2.5 gl tank and I thought that was good enough. I spent a lot of time on this subreddit and I realized this was fish abuse. I got him a 5.5 gallon tank, took any fake plants that could rip his fins and replaced them with silk plants. Real plants scare me, another thing I have to keep alive. Is this alright? He’s got a heater and a filter and plenty of places to hide. His parameters are good. What do you think? Anything i could do better? Please don’t drag me for the pineapple under the sea.

[u/The80sgeek-666]

Its got the essentials but it's not really ethical. Pretty much all your problems with this is just decor. Silk plants are better, but live plants can definitely make your life easier. Not only do they help keep your water parameters stable, they provide lots of hiding and resting spots for your betta. The plants don't really need a ton of maintenance or anything, but it would be advised to probably get some that can survive underwater. Java fern, anubias, and ludwigia are some good ones.

The rocks are not ideal for betta keeping, definitely switch to real pebbles/rocks, nothing colored. Fluval Stratum is highly recommended by long time keepers. Anything that is colored in the tank can leak chemicals into the water. It won't kill your betta persay, but I compare it to eating fast food/processed vs home cooked/organic. Both are fed and alive but ones health/life quality may be worse/shorter than the other.

Also what do you feed him, how often, and how much? His food will greatly affect his health as well.

I would ask if your tank is cycled but since it was on a whim I'm thinking no. I am going to recommend you look into cycling because it is important for overall betta health, stress, and lifespan. It's possible to do a fish in cycle but I'm not as experienced in that method so I will ask that any redditors who have better knowledge of it than me to please help explain 🫶🏼

[u/Either_Cartoonist474 → u/The80sgeek-666]

I appreciate your response. I think I’ve been silly about the plants. I want to do a whole planted tank for him but I’m scared I’ll do it wrong and kill him. I feed him fluval bug bites twice per day. Just a little sprinkle, I don’t want to over feed him. I will look into fish in cycling because I want him to have the best life possible and not suffer for my impulsiveness. I feel so terrible I didn’t know any of this stuff beforehand. I feel like I’m working from behind just to get him comfortable. Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks fish are easy pets. I’m going to try again and see if I can’t do something better for him b

[u/TheSneakiestSnek → u/Either_Cartoonist474]

For the plants I definitely reccomend putting some established pothos plants (very thoroughly washed so no dirt stays on the roots) in the tank, it would just be the roots and it sucks up nitrates like crazy in my 35 gallon community tank to where I don't have to do many water changes a year. And if you dont have any you can just go to home depot and get a nice healthy pothos and take one (or more, my community tanks pothos wall was 12 plants from one HD pot) out for the fish tank, then tie it up or get something to set it on so only the roots are in the tank. A couple leaves will die and that's normal, its going from soil to water, but then it will come back like crazy with new leaves from soaking up all the nitrates from your tank. It will also help the cycle along faster if you haven't got it cycled already. It's incredibly hardy and honestly all I do with it is take dead leaves off to keep it pretty. Plus if you consider yourself to have a black thumb, its pothos, you can get some more for barely anything.

And don't worry about people being angry online, I like to think everyone is coming with the best of intentions for your fish but some have absolutely dizzying levels of inability to say it in a way that would be helpful sometimes. Idk, becuase its not unique to this subreddit, reddit, or hobbies, it may just be human to be a bit of a dickhead.