Marina Betta Kit Contemporary - 3L

The Marina Betta Kit Contemporary is a 3 litre glass tank with a white cover and base, supplied with gravel, pebbles, a decorative background and a bottle of water conditioner.

Key Features

• 3 litres (0.8 US gallons)
• Finished with a white cover and base
• Around 275 g of natural gravel included
• Five decorative pebbles and a double-sided background with tape to fit it
• 60 ml of Betta Plus water conditioner included, which is genuinely useful — tap water has to be dechlorinated before it goes anywhere near a fish
• No heater, no filter and no light are included
• Made by Marina, Rolf C. Hagen's entry-level aquatics brand and a sister brand to Fluval

What A Betta Actually Needs

• Bettas are tropical fish from Southeast Asia and they need heated water, 24–28°C, held steady. Room temperature in an air-conditioned home is too cold for them
• Most welfare guidance puts the minimum at around 19 litres (5 US gallons), heated and filtered. A betta kept warmer, filtered and with room to swim lives years longer and shows far better colour and finnage
• A betta can breathe air through a labyrinth organ, which is why it survives in a small unfiltered container when other fish would not. Surviving and doing well are different things
• One male per tank, always. Two males will fight until one is dead, and a male kept with females will harass them
• They are intelligent and curious. Plants, a cave and somewhere to rest near the surface matter to them more than decoration matters to us

Looking After A Small Tank

• A small volume swings fast. In an unfiltered container that means partial water changes every few days, not weekly
• Always dechlorinate replacement water and match it to the tank's temperature before adding it
• Feed a small pinch once a day and take out anything uneaten. Overfeeding is what fouls a small tank
• Do not fill it right to the brim, and keep the cover on. Bettas jump
• Wash new gravel and ornaments in plain water before they go in — never with detergent

Good To Know

• The conditioner in the box is the one part of this kit a betta genuinely cannot do without. Use it for every water change and buy more when it runs out
• At 3 litres there is no room for a heater, and a betta in an air-conditioned UAE home will be too cold without one
• For a betta to do well, a heated and filtered tank of around 19 litres is the target. We stock the Fluval Spec 19 L and the Flex 34 L
• One betta only. Do not add a second, and do not add tank mates at this volume
• The listing previously described this tank as reducing a betta's aggression. Tank size does not change a male betta's temperament — housing him alone is what matters