Need advice: Care for Betta fish

[SCCC2213]

Jill - is that true about the puddles?? Sounds kinda neat! Although I'd probably freak out if I saw one randomly in a puddle lol

[jillynoodle]

lol i have no idea!!! i was told that like over ten years ago!! it was one of my first jobs and i still remeber so i found it cool too...or disturbing lol but the packages i swear were so tiny that they came in...like a 3 inch by 3 inch ziplock thing with not a ton of water at all...i will have to look this up now!!!!

[SCCC2213]

lemme know what you find out - that's neat, in a freaky kinda way (meaning i still think seeing one in a puddle would make me wonder if I was seeing things hah) :)

[lorindaleigh]

This advise is coming from a professional aquarist. I breed and raise fish for a living, including over 3,000 betta's.

First of all forget everything that you have been told about bettas, from reading the previous posts its all wrong.

1) Bettas need at least 2.5 gallons to be healthy and happy. Sure you can survive in a tiny little 8x8 box but would you be healthy and happy?
2) Bettas need weekly water changes, aim for 25 to 40% for those kept in 2.5 + gallons. Anything less than that and they need 100% every other day at least.
3)Bettas kept in small tanks suffer and die from ammonia burns, and diseases such as fin rot, ick, etc...
4) Make sure to have some hiding places. Bettas are smart and like to have plants, rocks, caves, etc.. to swim around and in. They are some of the smartest fish you will ever have.
5) feed them 6 days a week and always fast them for 1 day a week to avoid constipation, which is deadly for bettas if not taken care of right away.
6) Bettas as all fish DO NEED FILTERS!!! They need clean water just as you and I need clean air.
7)In the natural, bettas do not live in puddles, they live in rice paddies, HUGE DIFFERENCE! Plight of the Betta
8)Bettas like company too! There are many many fish that you can keep with your bettas. I have bettas in 3 of my community tanks.
9)Mix up your food choices. Would you like to eat pasta every day of your life? Some favorite foods are frozen bloodworms, live worms, freeze dried food, and even veggies!
10)Its fun to see them flare, but making them flare too much and too often can stress them out which makes it much easier for them to get sick.

Those are the basics. :) Let me know if you have any questions and I'll go reread the posts and see if anything else needs correcting.

Hope this helps :)

[lorindaleigh]

Originally Posted by selah These are very hardy fish.....just clean when it starts looking dirty....they can live in about any condition....my daughter had one when she was younger and she would rarely clean it's bowl....sometimes I would go in her room and say....when was the last time you cleaned this out...it would be so cloudy and dirty, that you could barely see the fish........I thought that thing would never die....as you can see, I'm really not into fish.

Water can appear to be cleaned but be filled with ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all of which can kill and make your poor betta suffer.

[lorindaleigh]

Originally Posted by PHmom Yep, ours (Dennis) lived for about 2 years and they are so easy to care for - just make sure you feed him daily and clean the bowl every few weeks (I did it about every 3 weeks or so unless it looked bad) - do make sure you get the stuff that makes your water non-chlorinated (or something like that - LOL) - it's a little bottle (about $3 I think) - they told me about it when I got the fish. I felt bad about him being in such a small bowl until I looked them up and found out they live in rice paddies in 2-3 inches of water!

A healthy betta lives for a minimum of 4 years. De-clorinator is very important, good point I forgot to add that. I recommend Prime. Rice paddies are actually larger than 2-3 inches.

"It is often quoted that bettas live in 'puddles' in the wild, another myth that supports keeping them in miniscule containers. This is simply not the case. They are largely found in Asian rice paddies, which are certainly shallow bodies of water, but are by no means puddles. Rice paddies are huge areas of water, so wild bettas actually live in thousands of gallons in the wild." Plight of the Betta

[lorindaleigh]

Originally Posted by ILv2Shop These are hardy fish. We have one that has been ill now for quite a while and I don't know how he hangs on but he does. We think he has had a stroke. I have ours in a large vase. (I do mean large-more like a terrarium) At changing the water time, (when it looks murky) I put "Fred" in a quart size bowl of water and then dump his water and clean his toys and then put him back in when I'm done. He is ticked off after this process for a little while and then life is back to normal. (maybe an hour) Just try and make sure the water is close to the same temp when you do all the switching around. HTH.

It is EXTREMELY rare (almost never happens) for a fish to have a stroke. If you describe the symptoms I can help diagnose and hopefully get your little guy back feeling good :)

The "dump and change" method is not recommended. Its very very stressful for any fish. The best thing to do is to 1) prepare new water in a separate container with declorniator (such as a bucket), 2) use a gravel vac and suck up the old water, 3) make sure the remaining old water and new waters temp matches (its best to use a thermometer not just guess!), 4) add new water to old water. It also reduces the chance of an injury and makes for a happier betta. Plus its so much easier then dumping and changing! Trust me a lot easier and quicker!

[lorindaleigh]

Originally Posted by ladywaterwind DO NOT add the cute little decorative plant to the top of your bowl for him. He can easily get caught in it and any beta that I've heard of that has died soon from where it was purchased had one of those in it. Leave the top free and clear. Also, do not add the stones to the bottom. I did add those and came down one morning and his poor tail was caught in them. So, those went out quick. The one I had lasted for years. Well, I really only had him for a year, then moved cross country, and I asked my mom to take care of him. Hard to get a fish on to a plane, and my mom really needed the companionship after I was gone. She had it for another year when my niece moved in with her and, that poor fish, she would drop so much stuff in there. She put milk is his bowl, and oreos cause his name was Oreo, and just random things all the time. I think he lived another 2 years while my niece was staying there. We had a gallon of purified water we kept at room temp for cleaning time. Put him in a cup filled with that water, dump his vase out and give it a scrub, then put him back, and he was fine all that time.

With raising well over thousands of bettas I have NEVER had one get stuck or injured from a decoration or heard of one dying from it. Bettas prefer plants to hide and lay in. Of course real live ones are preferred. Im very surprised to hear that he survived with milk. Usually milk will kill a fish quickly due to messing with the PH balance. That's interesting to hear, thanks for sharing! He must have been a tough little guy. What breed of betta was he?

[shaeharbin]

Um, I'm no expert as the above poster seems to be but I was just gonna share my experience. When I bought my beta he came in a vase with a live plant on top. I never fed him as I was told that he would eat the roots of the plant. I did the old fashioned dumping and changing water when the water would look murky. My fish lived for several years until my step-mom closed the door and heat vent to my room and he froze to death....So....good luck in raising him in whatever way seems best to you!

[Kristen.C]

Originally Posted by PHmom Yep, ours (Dennis) lived for about 2 years and they are so easy to care for - just make sure you feed him daily and clean the bowl every few weeks (I did it about every 3 weeks or so unless it looked bad) - do make sure you get the stuff that makes your water non-chlorinated (or something like that - LOL) - it's a little bottle (about $3 I think) - they told me about it when I got the fish. I felt bad about him being in such a small bowl until I looked them up and found out they live in rice paddies in 2-3 inches of water!

LOL- what are the odds? Mine was also named Dennis!