Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Here’s the story: my daughter bought me a Betta for my birthday which is in August. So, initially the water temperature was fine for him... now we are in December. Then, a few weeks ago I noticed he wasn’t really eating much, was hanging out on the bottom of the tank and his coloring was changing. When he did get sudden bursts of energy ( which was seldom ) he was swimming cock-eyed, sort of on his side! I knew something was wrong. After searching online... I had come to the conclusion that my Gregory was COLD! His water was too cold for him!! The solution was obviously to get a heater... as per the recommendation online. So, knowing he’s in a one gallon glass fish bowl ( I kicked it old school with his tank ) I knew I needed a smaller watt heater so I didn’t boil him. I can’t be bothered with unplugging it at night and so on. I didn’t want high maintenance. After much research, I found a 5 watt would work. I went on Amazon and found this one and though it took several hours to get it to his ideal water temp ( 78-80* )... it was WELL WORTH THE WAIT!! I had also purchased a sticker thermometer to place on the outside of the tank... which is why I know it took several hours to get to the right temperature. My Gregory was in a bowl with tepid water throughout this whole process.. poor thing. But again, worth the wait. The thing with this heater is because it’s only 5 watt, it’s never going to be hot to the touch. You’re never going to feel heat coming from it. It’s designed to gradually raise the water temperature. So, if you’re not giving it ample time to reach that ideal temperature, then you’re going to think it’s not working properly or at all. But it is. It’s a 5 watt people, it’s not going to go from 64* to 78* in an hour!!!!! I’m extremely happy with this heater as is my betta! He’s happily swimming around and is eating again as of today and his coloring is slowly getting back to normal. I’m sure it’s going to take some time for his colors to be vibrant again. If it took time for him to lose his vibrancy, only makes sense it’ll take time for it to return. My advice is, when you purchase this heater, purchase a thermometer too and KNOW it’ll take hours ( 4 hours to be exact for me ) to get your water to an ideal temperature. Once it gets to that temp, it maintains it... so you won’t have to worry about it raising above to where it should be. Also, when placing in your tank, make sure it’s near the bottom, not touching the bottom, but near it. My first placement was up too high, and the top portion of the water was warm, whereas the bottom was still cold. I repositioned it once it was at 80* and the whole tank is warm now. I’d highly recommend! Thumbs up for this heater!