Pros and cons of a betta alone
One betta in a bowl is the easiest set up for an aquarium. Most of this book is focused the best conditions for having one male betta in-a-bowl. The pros of keeping a single male betta in a bowl (or tank) are:
1) you won’t need a filter
2) you can go away for up to a week without having anyone care for your betta – he can go on a one week fast with no problems
3) cleaning the bowl and doing water changes is much easier
4) the single betta bowl is likely to take up much less space than a community tank, so you can have one in an office or even the tiniest apartment
5) small one betta bowls are inexpensive to set up and maintain
6) silence. Single betta bowls don’t need filters, so you don’t have to put up with the noise of the pump and the gurgling water. If you’re working near your betta bowl on a regular basis, or if you’re sensitive to noise, having that silence may make the difference between wanting the fish and not wanting it.
Cons off having a single betta in a bowl are that
1) you can’t have any many fish (of course) and schooling fish can be fun and relaxing to watch,
2) a single betta in a bowl is not as luxurious as a full planted tank that’s significantly larger than your little 3 gallon setup
3) smaller tanks give your betta less room to move around
4) smaller tanks need to be cleaned more often
5) smaller tanks are more susceptible to sudden changes in temperature, which can stress your betta enough so that it gets sick.
Pros and cons of bettas in a community tank
The pros are that
1) you can get a bunch of different fish (keep reading for appropriate tank mates for bettas
2) you can get a larger tank, so your betta can have more room to move around
3) larger tanks need cleaning less often, and aren’t as suspectible to sudden temperature changes
4) larger planted tanks look nicer and may give you more of a sense of actually being underwater.
Cons of having a betta in a community tank are
1) you may need a second hospital or quarantine tank because if one fish gets sick its much easier to maintain the quarantine tank than treat all the fish in the tank at once. Many fish treatments will harm plants, and some will kill off all the bacteria in a tank, including the good bacteria you worked so hard to culture.
2) betta fins tend to get nipped, sometimes by even the most placid of fish, so your betta may get banged up a bit by the other fish in the tank
3) you will have more maintenance work to do with a larger tank
4) larger tanks are more expensive to setup and maintain
5) if you need to go away for a few days, you will have to ask someone to look after your fish.
