# Decide for me..I cannot decide..



## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

:lol:



I am in between 3 new homes for my fish Batman..He cannot handle the filters or big tanks at all..They stress him out big time..And I cannot do 100% water change on a 5 gallon (bad back..:lol I have decided to buy something smaller to keep him happy ....But I am in between these:

a three gallon critter keeper...(im surre you all know what these look like):-D



a 2 gallon glass cookie jar that is somewhat cool looking..








(without that lid..I could make a mesh top)

ooooor...a standard 2.5 gallon. 

I kind of like the idea that the critter keeper would have .5 more gallons though...hmmm....

I plan on having either of them heated..and planted..and have a little cave as well...What do you all think?

Are their any pros/cons to acrylic tank vs. glass?


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## tracyalexa (Mar 29, 2011)

I use a human heating pad under my critter keeper and it works rePly well, consistent temp. I asked if a heater could go in and they said not a great idea. So I vote critter. And it gives them more space to swim.


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## Ai Shimizu (Apr 14, 2011)

Well, I'd have to agree with the poster before me. The critter keeper offers a lot more space for your fish to swim in and it allows you to decorate with a lot more plants and other decorations. If your betta gets stressed out about the size of the critter keeper you could always take more room away with decorations so that there isn't as much room for your betta to get stressed about.


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## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

i adore my KK's. :d you can put a heater in there, but it's hard to get them to sit just right, so if you could find a small one, those would work great. :3


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

Cookie jars FTW! My tanks are cookie jars and Akira and Maka can't get enough of them. I have enough room in Maka's tank to add more plants too.


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

I would go for one that is wider than taller, unlike mine, more room for plants and other decorations


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

tracyalexa said:


> I use a human heating pad under my critter keeper and it works rePly well, consistent temp. I asked if a heater could go in and they said not a great idea. So I vote critter. And it gives them more space to swim.


I would be terrified I would burn my house down.:lol: I have bad luck like that..How hot does the heating pad get?I use a heating lamp for the little critter carrier he is in right now.It surprisingly keeps his critter carrier at a steady 78degrees. His critter carrier is only .75 gallon at the moment though..I just use it for QT usually..but he seems so happy in this little container! I would like to get him something a bit bigger though and a heater. It is hard to find a heater for a .75 gallon container that doesn't heat the thing up ridiculously high!Our house stays at 77degrees so our tank water isn't extremely cold...so when I put those little bowl heaters in the water gets super hot!




Arashi Takamine said:


> Cookie jars FTW! My tanks are cookie jars and Akira and Maka can't get enough of them. I have enough room in Maka's tank to add more plants too.


My buddy Cleo lived in a cookie jar for 8 months! he loved it!:lol: I also like that they are glass..so much easier to clean, IMO.


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

> My buddy Cleo lived in a cookie jar for 8 months! he loved it!:lol: I also like that they are glass..so much easier to clean, IMO.


XD They are the easiest improve tanks to maintain and a heck of a lot better then the 1.5 I had for my goldfish when I was six. (The filter was constantly going, it blew flakes everywhere...Ugh. It was such a pain to clean.0

I love the fact that betta's don't need filters. Makes keeping them so much easier. Of course if I had a divided ten gallon for them then it'd be a different story.

My vote still goes for the cookie jars. Surprisingly a lot of decor can do into one but still give the fish a lot of room to swim.


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## CyerRyn (Apr 8, 2011)

I almost bought a vase for my son's Betta but I wasn't sure if you could really use those. It's nice to know that you can actually use them. I want to vote the critter keeper (for the size) but the cookie jar sounds soooo cute!


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## StarvingPoet (Dec 28, 2010)

*Jar Homes*

We have two of our males in those exact cookie jars! They work great. We have them planted and everything. The boys love them. And little heaters work great in them. We even worked out being able to use the lids by encasing some inch thick pieces of cork in aquarium sealant and sticking them to the underside of the lid. It sits up enough to leave room for airflow, but still covers the jar nicely and helps keep the heat in better than a mesh top would.
This a picture of our Ariel in his jar home -complete with large bubble nest project. Haha. He's always working away on it.


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## iheartmybettas (Jan 31, 2011)

OMG I love the cookie jar. This is solely based on how darn cute it looks! It also seems like it works great.

StarvingPoet- love that!


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## jesstanner (Apr 5, 2011)

I like the critter keeper, only because of the extra .5 gallons. Also because it's harder to take pictures of them when they are in circular things...At least I think so...


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

StarvingPoet said:


> We have two of our males in those exact cookie jars! They work great. We have them planted and everything. The boys love them. And little heaters work great in them. We even worked out being able to use the lids by encasing some inch thick pieces of cork in aquarium sealant and sticking them to the underside of the lid. It sits up enough to leave room for airflow, but still covers the jar nicely and helps keep the heat in better than a mesh top would.
> This a picture of our Ariel in his jar home -complete with large bubble nest project. Haha. He's always working away on it.
> 
> View attachment 26960


Oh no! Now I really can't decide!:lol: Maybe I will have to get both and just get another fish!:lol: (i'm a crazy lady)

That looks really cool though! I like what you did with the lid.Is the cookie jar pretty accurate with 2 gallons? I know some stuff says 2 gallons and it's really only 1.5. Like the 2.5 minibow...is actually only 2...haha


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## StarvingPoet (Dec 28, 2010)

It takes a full 2 gallon bucket to fill the jar when we do 100% water changes -and that's with all the rocks and plants and stuff! So it's definitely at least 2 gallons.


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

Thanks for helping me decide everyone! It was a tough decision between the cookie jar and the critter keeper...:lol: 

I ended up getting a 3 gallon critter carrier..I had a 2 dollar off Petco coupon so I went ahead and used it..

Here he is in his new 3 gallon critter carrier...









A bit plain at the moment...But he is in the middle of a 10 day aquarium salt treatment and I didn't want to kill any plants.:lol: He loves that cup though! Now all I need is a heater.  For now my heat lamp is working alright though.


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## laughing (Mar 12, 2011)

StarvingPoet said:


> We have two of our males in those exact cookie jars! They work great. We have them planted and everything. The boys love them. And little heaters work great in them. We even worked out being able to use the lids by encasing some inch thick pieces of cork in aquarium sealant and sticking them to the underside of the lid. It sits up enough to leave room for airflow, but still covers the jar nicely and helps keep the heat in better than a mesh top would.
> This a picture of our Ariel in his jar home -complete with large bubble nest project. Haha. He's always working away on it.
> 
> View attachment 26960


What heater do you use??

I really need homes for my future betta males. I wanted to get those 2.5 gallon full tanks (lighted hood & filter in hood) but they're like $40 a pop... I'd rather get the jars/vases from Goodwill for $5 and add a heater to that. Or those Kritter Keepers sound nice because especially the 3 gallons can hold a small sponge filter which I enjoy.


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## StarvingPoet (Dec 28, 2010)

*Jar Heater*



laughing said:


> What heater do you use??


It's just one of the little submersible Tetra ones from WalMart. It's preset, but in the small space it keeps everything nice and toasty(but not too toasty lol).


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## laughing (Mar 12, 2011)

It's an actual submersible?? Does it take up a lot of space?


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

I have a Marina submersible and it doesn't take up much space at all. Maka and Aki sometimes sleep by it.


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## StarvingPoet (Dec 28, 2010)

laughing said:


> It's an actual submersible?? Does it take up a lot of space?


Yup, totally submersible. It's not very big. Mine is kind hiding behind a java fern. But Ariel likes to lie on top of it and blow bubbles. So his bubble nests are always above the heater. Lazy fish! LOL


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## carzz (Mar 8, 2011)

Glass: 
If water evaporates out, it leaves a weirdo water mark that I have YET to get rid of... Even with hot hot water....


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

I went to Petco last night...20-30 minutes till closing to find a proper heater ..all they had were 200 and 300 watt aqueons.. That's a little big for my critter keeper!:lol:
They had a fluval 25 watt...but they wanted 32 dollars for it.:shock:


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## NCPanthersgurl (Jul 13, 2011)

Littlebittyfish said:


> I went to Petco last night...20-30 minutes till closing to find a proper heater ..all they had were 200 and 300 watt aqueons.. That's a little big for my critter keeper!:lol:
> They had a fluval 25 watt...but they wanted 32 dollars for it.:shock:


The little ones at WalMart, the little Tetra ones, are nice for smaller tanks. Since it's a preset it does work to keep a 10gal heated, but it works awesome in my 2gal. Fully submersible, nice heaters. Mine cost me about $16 with tax. {apiece}


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

NCPanthersgurl said:


> The little ones at WalMart, the little Tetra ones, are nice for smaller tanks. Since it's a preset it does work to keep a 10gal heated, but it works awesome in my 2gal. Fully submersible, nice heaters. Mine cost me about $16 with tax. {apiece}


Thanks. I have one of those tetras in my 2 gallon critter keeper at the moment..and it does a pretty good job in there.:-D For my 3 gallon critter keeper I got a cascade heat heater from pet supermarket..it works really nice.


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## fisherish (Aug 8, 2011)

i would LOVE to get one of those cookie jars for anothing fishy! how much are they?


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

fisherish said:


> i would LOVE to get one of those cookie jars for anothing fishy! how much are they?


They're usually around 9-10 dollars at walmart.They sell them over near the mason jars and glass pans.
I went with the 3 gallon critter keeper and I like it a lot. I was able to to put a little filter on it.


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