# King betta in 5g



## RavenSkyfire1 (Nov 23, 2011)

So the last time I posted here I had gotten two betta's kinda pawned off on me. I moved them from the little half gallon tanks they were in to a 1 gallon and a 1.5 gallon tank. Both seemed to do well once I started feeding them the NLS Betta food and was doing 50% water changes everyday. Well little Purple Haze (purple crowntail) stopped eating and then I found him dead one morning before work. Maui lasted a month or so longer before he to turned up belly up. I really hope it wasn't something that I did and just a result of the horrible life they had before I got them. Atleast I know I tried to give them a better life (unlike the person that I got them from). Anyways.......

A little while ago I got some money from my aunt and uncle. Petsmart had tanks on sale so I picked up the Marineland 5g hex set up. Got a heater to go with it and all the other stuff that I needed (gravel etc.). Black sand layered over gravel, planted with java fern (the one that's got the "lacy fingers" on the end of the leaves, pulling a blank on the name tho) and a narrow leaf Java Fern, two anubias (nana and a longer leafed kind), dwarf hairgrass and bacopa. Two chunks of driftwood (which double as a visual block for the heater) and a little skull with a sailors hat that says Titantic on it(left over from a betta I had YEARS ago) complete the ornamentation. And I upgraded the light from the 15w incandesent bulb to the ZooMed 10w CF bulb. Tanks loks much better and I hope the plants like it better!!

So far the only inhabitants are the King betta that I picked up at Petco and a couple of MTS that I picked off the glass of the 29gallon (I have tons of MTS in there. It all started with two.... lol).

Two questions. 

Is there any difference between a King Betta and the other bettas? Or are these ones just the product of breeding the biggest to the biggest until they got really big?

What could I use as a ground crew in this tank that won't end up as lunch for Mr. King? I'm thinking with the size of this guy's mouth, shrimp are pretty much out of the question.

I will update with pictures as soon as the tank stops looking like a murky bog. I put another small piece of DW in there and it decided that it wanted to leach tannins


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

King bettas are crosses of domestic strains of betta mixed with one of the many wild betta species. 

In a 5 gallon tank, I'd say nothing would really be safe if it turns out you've got a mean boy. Snails would be the safest option, so see how things go with your MTS. I've used them for cleanup before, seemed to do a nice job without being obnoxiously in the way. If you're not overfeeding there really shouldn't be a need for bottom feeders or a clean up crew. Just feed as much as the betta can eat in 3-5 minutes and remember how tiny a fish's stomach is.


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