Need advice: Care for Betta fish

[SCCC2213]

Howdy

I bought Anna (my 3 year old) a Betta fish as a surprise last week. Its been over a week and the small "fish tank" (no filter or anything) still looks great. How often am I supposed to change the water for these things? I'm used to fish with filters and real tanks, not this kind.

And any other tips would be greatly appreciated

[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.

[SCCC2213]

Thanks for the advice! :)

[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!

[SCCC2213]

I felt the same way! About Nemo living in such a teeny little thing. Thanks for sharing that, good to know!

[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.

[SCCC2213]

Thanks for more tips! Do you guys find the extras (water thermometer, fishnet to take him out, live plants, etc ... not the water drops, I have those) necessary?

[wholesalebiker]

i recommend a real tank... betta fish are notorius for growing fungus on there exterior mainly due to lack of circulation in small fish bowls

[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.

[jillynoodle]

great tips from everyone!! i just wanted to add a little something back from my working at the petstore and in the fish dept i would do the deliveries anfd they would come in the tiniest little ziplocks...like half the size of my palm...of course when i first saw this i asked about it and i cant remember exactly where they are from but i was told they can be found in puddles in that country so im not sure how true that is but they must be hardy to be transported like that!! i had one and he lasted a couple years in a small filtered tank(i didnt want to keep cleaning it) and he did great!! one product u might want to have on hand for any fish that we always poured on the fish when they looked sick or when we would change the tank ...its called stresscoat...it it an oil that help the fishs skin you would just put in the tank