Stick to a schedule of every couple of days.

Interaction With Other Fish

Your not crazy for wanting to play with your pet fish. There are days I wish I was swimming inside my aquarium. A happy fish is a healthier fish. Here is a fun trick that some of you can do. Obtain a small mirror and put it up to the aquarium glass. You will notice your male get all “boasted” and ready to puff out. This is his territorial fighting side coming out. It’s good for the betta to change things up and have their scans rips change a bit. Don’t leave the mirror there too long just for his health sake. I have seen videos of betta owners teaching their fish to jump out of the water to snatch their food. It blew me away and made me realize the sky is your limit. These fish are awesome.. it’s just that simple.

A Pea Once a Week Helps!

Betta fish have some weird digestion issues that sometimes arise. I’ve noticed most of them come from over feeding the fish and poor nutrition. There is a trick to solve these problems. Your common household “Pea” helps their digestion system. Most peas come precooked and those are what you use. Remove the skin and cut up into tiny pieces that the betta can eat. Drop these on the surface and watch them eat them. This does wonders for their nutrition and digestion.

Wrap Up: Keep it Simple with Routine Your Routines

These are the most crucial variables for taking care of Betta fish. Hopefully my grammar and spelling wasn’t to hard on you. Let me know what you think and how your journey is going with your fish. I would love to hear from you. I’m just an average Joe myself looking to see your tank setup. Best of luck to you.

Share What You have to Say: 56 Comments

Posted by Salama: I bought a betta fish yesterday and bought a 2 gallon tank is this size good and thanks you have helped me alot! Ive had betta fish survive 3 and half years old!!:). Salama:)

• @Admin: I would say that’s pretty long and it’s cool to see how long these fish can live. I have seen a lot of talk about the betta only being able to live for so long because of breeding issues and eggs building up in the females but I’m not sure I believe it. I haven’t had great success with having females live for longer than 3 years though… which is kinda sad. I would love to know any stories on female bettas living for as long as possible. You can also check out our names list for males and females if you still haven’t found a name for your fish.
• Funny story and a question, I added a single amano shrimp to my tank back in February or March and NEVER SAW IT AGAIN. Assumed my betta ate it. I’ve since undivided the tank (lost one boy unfortunately), rearranged a few times, countless water changes, never saw him.
  Today, I did a water change and THERE HE IS. THE SHRIMP!
  My betta has been in a hospital tank for a few days for fin rot (easier to do h2o changes. He’s a chronic tail biter x.x) so I think he may have been hiding from the betta this whole time and is just comfortable coming out now. Of course, it’s the bettas tank, so hes going back in, instead I would like to add more shrimp and hope that will divide the bettas attention.
  How many amano shrimp can go in a 10 gallon tank with one betta? (I believe this has been answered before but a search of the group returned no answers.)

Posted by Muuka: When we got our first betta when I was about 7yrs old (I’m 26 now so long time ago)
It lived in a smallish tank (maybe 1gl… We didn’t do internet or research stuff all that much. Besides what my mom was told by the petstores for info…) I learned they are carnivore eaters too.
of course my mom was used to taking care of fish alot from her childhood and working in a petshop herself. So she did water changes very often.
But he lived almost 7years with us. Until he was murdered by my ex-step dads lies… he claimed he got his friend to petsit for us while we were in cali and so alot of our pets suffered for it… (the betta’s water dried up sadly…)

He was a fierce betta too lol flared at everything, and would jump out of the water and bite your finger when you went to give him food, or put your fingers near his hair holes (had a lid with holes cuz he’d jump out at you) Hence his name was Psycho =P

I love betta fish (and other fish) I research alot now. An I’m always learning new things (like I didn’t know the thing about the pea until your vid…) I’m on bettafish dot com I only have 1 betta right now (he’s sick from when I was away no one changed his water… I was thinking of adding a moss ball but i don’t know.. so he’s in his 1gl for treatment.) till he goes into his new 10gl planted tank.

• I have been hauling water samples down to petco since they do free water sampling, but I am interested in finally buying my own water testing kit (now that I have a bit saved for it). What is the best water testing kit for bettas? I’m looking for something that I can get at petco (in person), and a local aquarium store, or on Amazon. What do you guys like?
• great! I found it on Amazon, but will be checking my stores to see if the prices are different lol.
• Watch your water parameters carefully if you’re going to put cut flowers into your tank. The plant material starts decaying once cut and it can effect your cycle.
• I wouldnt put any non aquatic plants in a tank…
  This same result can be achieved by using a turkey baster to water the flowers in a vase every other day.
  Remove all old water and use the baster for the new. They will last pretty long.
• Really sweet idea but can definitely be dangerous! I’d call up wherever the flowers came from and ask about whether they use any chemicals on their flowers, it’s a really common practice that can kill your tank. Also if you plan on letting the flowers rot in your tank and have the snails consume them…be prepared for a snail explosion that may be difficult to fix afterwards. Just so you know! Obviously the decision is up to you but A LOT of people don’t know about chemicals in the flowers etc. etc.
• Well..i did a thing and now i have this lovely EE boy. He’s going into a 10 gallon tomorrow. The tank stand i got at walmart doesnt support the bottom of the tank completely so the hubs is going to modify it for me tonight otherwise… i have everything for him besides a name… Suggestions?

Posted by Kathy:
Chris – I have a question about feeding frozen food, primarily brine shrimp and blood worms. I have a hard time judging the amount. It seems like after I melt the portion I have cut off from the block, I can’t compare it to the size of my beta’s eyeball since it is so watery. Do you have any suggestions? btw, loved your video. I am a betta owner for just 6 months so I’m learning all of the time and your video is just excellent for newbies like me. Thanks.

• @Admin: What the fish can eat within 5 minutes once a day is going to be the proper amount. It’s awesome to see newbies getting involved into the fish community. You gotta love this darn hobby.. its so addicting.
• I have two bettas that are about 3 years old; they’re living in a cycled and planted 10 gallon tank divided into half. When we moved to our current house we discovered to our (and the landlord’s) horror that the previous tenant was a pig and the place was INFESTED with roaches. Nasty! With roaches you have to remove all their food and water…check and check. I thought. I mean we mopped up fridge condensation, checked pipes, wiped out the sink, didn’t run the dishwasher…

  Well I have found a few roaches over several days in a set of wood drawers that the betta aquarium sits on; I broke down everything in there to vacuum up roach feces and murder the little jerks. My art supplies aren’t touched and I couldn’t figure out why they’d be upstairs in this set of drawers; the studio is upstairs on the opposite end of the house. Even at its worst this room didn’t have roaches.

  Then I realized. Oh god. Maybe they’re using the aquarium as a water source (they can go a long time without food but not water). Now I have NO idea what to do. None. I’ve checked for leaks and their food is kept in a sealed glass jar; that’s all fine. But I have no idea how to approach my bettas…and I was hoping this community might. I’ve had betta fish for 16 years but never in my life encountered this issue. I can’t exactly put bettas away in the fridge or temporarily deprive them of water. :/ Help!

• Send your bettas to a relatives house and get the bombs for cockroaches. Take anything you use for their tank out of the house, i.e. Fishnet, water change bucket. Bomb and bring your fish back in about a week.

Posted by Josh B: I went and purchased an API freshwater water test kit as suggested by some members. My tank had been set up for 3 weeks. Where in the cycle do you think my tank is based on the results?

• How much ammonia or ammonia producing stuff did you add? It looks pretty low right now but the nitrates look really low too so it doesn’t seem like anything is happening yet.
• I added some Zym Back to the tank shortly after setting it up. It was included with the tank.
• I don’t know what Zym Back is (google turned up nothing) but if you didn’t add pure ammonia, fish food, fish, or something similar, you won’t see any readings for ammonia.
• That does look like a bit of green in the ammonia vial so I’m guessing your tap water has a little of it.You can “test” it by adding some ammonia and see if it’s gone in 12-24 hours. I used Dr Tim’s and Safe Start which both have stellar reviews at Amazon and they didn’t instantly cycle my tank. They didn’t even shorten the cycle.
• You can buy pure ammonia at ace hardware (I didn’t trust it) or Dr Tim’s ammonia from amazon or maybe from some fish stores. OR you can use fish food but that will dirty up your tank before you even add fish. I always wonder if you could tie some into a little bit of panty hose material so the actual food doesn’t lie around in your tank but they still decompose to create ammonia.
• That’s what I’m doing right now. Makes it a little cloudy. And starts to smell a little also.
• I’ve had a fish in it this whole time. Would that be adding ammonia? It’s an aquaponics aquarium with plants growing at the top.
• Yes the fish will add ammonia. Just test daily and if the ammonia goes above .25 or so do a water change. At least 50% I think. I am just getting back into bettas after a long hiatus and don’t remember a lot of what to do.
• DO NOT add supplemental ammonia if there’s a fish in there. It’ll kill it.
• It did go through a smelly phase last week and the water turned a little yellow but it has cleared up since then.
• Okay, thanks for clarifying about adding the ammonia if the fish is in there. I’ll just keep a close eye on everything for now.
• Is this the first you’ve tested it? No way to know without knowing results during the past three weeks.
  Dose with 100 percent pure ammonia to get your ammonia levels up and start over testing grew
  Uently.
• Unfortunately, yes. I wish I would have found this page when I first got the tank so I would have known to start testing since the beginning. If ammonia is that low you’re probably doing it right. Just do water changes often and keep testing daily. If your tank is filtered, once you get clear yellow (zero ammonia) test results you can reduce water changes to 20-25% weekly or twice weekly.

My Betta Has Pop Eye. Need Help

Posted by Ashley B: Ok I’m struggling.. my poor office betta has pop-eye that I can’t seem to get rid of… I’ve done salt, water changes, meds… Please what is the most effective treatment???

• triple sulfa mixed with some kanaplex.  i treated one of my boys with epopeye.. took about 2 weeks before h was fully healed.
• Does he need to be isolated? He has cory cats in with him currently(was isolated for the meds that didn’t work for the pop-eye but fixed his fin rot). And where do I get those things?
• no isolation needed.. u basically u do as instructed.. these meds are a bit tough to get by in standard stores, specially the kanaplex.. but do an amazon search for kanaplex.. thats the stuff u need.. i found triple sulfa through ebay.. just do a ebay search for it.
• How often Were you doing the water changes?
• 25-50% daily while medicating in the 5.5g tank(as directed by the med instructions), probably 75-90% once in the smaller isolated tank.
• Have you tested your water quality to make sure your Params are good?
• Is it one or both eyes? One eyes is usually a sign of injury and time with good water quality will do the trick (unless it gets infected), if it’s both eyes then antibiotics are required.

Posted by Julia: Hi . Ive had my betta fish for a little over a month now.. He seems to be doing great. Vibrant colors, swimming around, eating. I just went to turn off his tank light and noticed his head is turning white! Please help! I do a 40% water change once a week with chlorinated water.

• My boys, Teal ‘c and Apophis, recently moved into a divided 20 Gallon. So they each have 10 G each. Right now they’re sharing a heater, but one has a nano canister filter, and the other has a nano HOB. because the divider doesn’t allow for great flow of water.
  Is there someway in which i can incorporate ONE filter for both boys?
  I have to be selective about the type of filter i get because the brace for the glass cover is siliconed onto the tank and cant be removed. So all i really have is a small gap at either end that accomidates the heater and filter wires. Even the nano HOB just fits in the gap.
  So if you can show me up close your filtration for your divided set up’s that would be fabulous.
  Cheers
• Quick while I’m on my way to the store! How many corydoras can I have with one betta in a 20g? I have 3 right now but I know they like bigger groups so am I maxed out or can I get any more? Thanks!

Reply from Admin Chris:
White dots are known as “ich” most of the time. You need to do a search on curing ich. Here is a quick guide I will throw together. maybe do some more extensive research regarding it.

Curing “Ich” Guide:
1. Clean the tank gently. Clean inside glass too.
2. Do a 30% water change EVERY DAY
3. Raise the temperature in the 80s
4. Add the dosage of “Quick Cure” product
5. Add 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt for ever 2 gallons of water
6. Rinse and Repeat daily until this illness is gone

Posted by Stacy: I just got a new betta because my last one died, I believe he had the Popeye illness, but I was wandering for my new one will it hurt to reuse the tank after I’ve cleaned it thourghly? And I have also seen in different sites that some recommended not using plastic decor for the tank.

• I’m worried about is the electricity going out for an extended period of time. I don’t have a generator, so the fact that Phoenix will be without his filter and heater worries me. What can I do to keep the water temp from getting too low/fluctuating too much?
• Help! Can someone tell me what is going on with my betta? And what I should do? A few weeks ago I asked the same thing and got responses that said it could be a tumor. Now, It almost seems like her flesh is getting eaten away and there’s also a lot of white stuff inside the opening near her fin. First picture is how it looks currently and the second one was a few weeks ago.
• Community tank…
  Okay, so please can I have peoples advice/comments? I have a 40 gallon tank that I was originally going to put goldfish in… however I am now thinking I may do a tropical tank. I’m thinking a nice school of around 15ish celestial pearl danios, 10 harlequin rasboras, 6-8 Cory cats.

  Can I add my Betta to this tank? Florian is super docile and hardly ever flares, he only ever does it very occasionally when hiding in a rock!
  He comes to my fingers for dinner time and accepts a little stroke. He made friends with the snail in his tank too! So I’m wondering if this community could work? If there’s any different species anyone may recommend? Any general advice is welcomed. I have his current 12 gallon that I can keep as stand by while I wait to see if it’s going to work out.. This is the tank. I can add a couple extra caves etc for him too if needed!

Reply from Admin Chris:
I wouldn’t think so. What might not hurt is to use a saturated solution of aquarium salt in the tank prior to putting your fish in there. Salt really kills that stuff at a rapid pace. You could also use the “dry out” effect where you let the tank dry for some time and just know that most of those illnesses live only in water and die off. It’s good you take action on the fact of the illness though like you are.

Posted by Brian:
Siamese Fighting fish* they are native to Thailand.

Posted by Joel:
Can you please help me?my betta fish does not eat dried bloodworms it does not eat pellets too.what do i do?

Reply from Admin Chris:
Go to your pet store or Walmart and buy “dried shrimp” Sometimes it can be found in the turtle food section. They love shrimp.

Posted by Helena: hi, ive had my betta for a little shorter than a year and this past 2 or 3 months it has been floating at the corner of the tank vertically. i went to arizona and left it with my neighbors. before i did i changed the tank water (i pour my fish into a smaller container than clean out the gravel and add new warmer water than dump my fish back in) i know that my fish could go into shock but i dont know how to make it get used to the water. i also dont know if the water im putting in the tank is healthy. i live in fullerton and i searched up that they dont put flouride in the city tap water. i was wondering if that made it less healthy for your fish. Also, my neighbor told me it has been laying on its side and switching locations every day or so. i called petsmart and they said that it had to do with the temp so i swapped the water out for warmer water. i could tell that it had trouble swimming and didnt gave that much energy and it was kind of swimming on his side. so far hes had 2 sudden bursts of energy zapping around tonight then sunk back down. right now hes at the bottom of the tank taking deep gulps rapidly. hes also loosing his color! hes naturally a deep purple and blue. he hasnt been eating so tomorrow i will go to petsmart and get him some blood warms and dried shrimp. ill also buy peas. and if that doesnt work ill try epsom salt. as for everything else, PLEASE HELP

Posted by Tirza: Hi you can not really find out the age of a fish but the most accurate way is there colour or you can ask a worker at the pet shop for the exact date have fun. chris don’t think that you are hurting your fish it just says that most betts’s DON’T like them but if your fish likes them then that is okay. yes it is okay you can keep a a betta in a 10 gallon and 1 gallon less does not matter but don’t do 5 less or so 1 or 2 at the most.

Posted by Kayla: okay so I hope to get a betta fish for my birthday. I have been doing some research and there’s a lot to take in. I know 1.5 gallon is on the small side but its all my parents will allow me to have will my fish be unhealthy because of this? what types of plants should I get for the tank? and I have seen a lot of videos about sponge filters what are they and should I get one?

@Reply: I just bought a betta and didn’t want to put in in a one gallon bowl so therefore I put him in my 30 gallon tank, he seems to be struggling to swim in the water because of the air bubbles….should I take him out ?

@Reply: Hey I have 2 female bettas can I add a male betta without dividing the tank

I need to know ASAP

Thanks Usman

Posted by Alex: Hi I got a betta from Petco about 2 days ago. When I saw him in the store he seemed healthy. He had built a bubble nest in his container, so I saw that as a good sign. (That is a good sign right?) I already had a tank set up at home. I have live plants in it that don’t look like they are doing to well. My tank has a heater and thermometer, and the day I got the betta the temp. was around 72 degrees which I thought was fine. I have no filter in my tank because I read that bettas do not like a strong water current. its also a personal beleif of mine that filters are death traps.

I have seen more than one fish die because they got caught in one. My tank set up had been sitting for about a week before I got my betta. I treated the water with water conditioner, but I looked at the date an it said to use it by june 2013 I think.(Does water conditioner expire?) This was my first time getting a fish in a few years. I have had a lot of fish die on me, and I didn’t want it to happen again. Unfortunately it did. My betta hadn’t eaten anything since the time I got him and wasn’t swimming around much. He would sit at the bottom of tha tank and only swim to the top when he needed air.

He seemed lethargic to me, I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought maybe my water temperature was to cold, because it can get very cold in my room. I turned up my heater a few degrees maybe to around 76? That didn’t seem to help. When I checked on him last night he was resting on a floating long toy I got him. He wasn’t in it, but on it very close to the waters surface. He did not look good at all, he looked like he was sick and about to die soon. I woke up this morning and went to check in him and I thought he had moved to a new area in the tank. I was hapoy for a second because I thought it might mean he was doing better, but on closer inspection he looked dead.

I knew he was dead then, but there was a part of me that was hoping he was just resting so I left him alone. I checked again a couple hours later and I knew he was definetly dead. I know it was stupid of me, but it was really depressing beacuase I’ve been doing research and saving up my money for a couple months now and I was finally ready to get my fish and he just dies on me. Of course I wanted to hope against hope that he hadn’t really died. I feel horrible and I like everything I did was wrong. I didn’t do a water test and I had read about bio-filtration, but wrote it off as not that important.

I didn’t just go out and by this fish on whim I did my research. I watched yours and others peoples videos online, I read many articles, and a few books. I thought I was ready tk get a betta. He wasn’t in a tiny bowl either I had him in a 10 gallon tank. I also did a about a 20% water the day after I got him because there were dead leaves and some other junk floating at the top of the tank. I treated the new water that I put in, and let it set for an hour to acclimate to the tanks water temperature. I checked it witn a thermoter and it seemed fine. Also the day I got my betta I didn’t just throw him the tank I let him set in my room for about an hour so his container water would be the same as my tank water.

After an hour I put his container in my tank and let it float in there for about 15min. just as an extra precaution. I’m trying to figure out what I did wrong. I’m hoping I can go into petco today and have them do a water test for me, and maybe to talk to one of the employees about it. (I might not because it seems like sometime they don’t know that much about the fish) Can you help at all or give me any advice? Please, I don’t want to kill another betta.
Thank you,
Alex

Posted by Tristan: Wonder if u can help me
I’ve had my new male betta for 15 days now.
rescued him from a local pet shop which he was kept in a small 2 2 litre container.
He’s now in a marina style 35 litre with live plants, heater n lighting n filtration.
He settled in fine n happy
I did a 30 % water change 2 days ago n of course added tap safe n aquarium salt when adding fresh water.And ever since then he’s been constant pacing back n forth the left side of the tank.
My other male betta is so chilled n has the same 35 litre tank set up n he’s just a chilled dude.
I’ve draped a white t-shirt over that side incase he was getting stressed by catching glimpses of his own reflection in the glass due to the pacing n I’ve also
Kept the light off too.
He does still eat luvs his worms then goes back to the pacing.
He has no visible symptoms or any other illness what so ever.
Any ideas as to why he’s doing this would be peace of mind for me just want a happy boy.
Thanx

Posted by Karen: Hi I like ur video I just bought a male betta fish for my son today and he wants two so can we put male and female together in one tank please I want to know.

Posted by Tina: I bought a new aquarium and on the back of the aquarium box it says to use the “Whisper HT10″ but Petco said that is too big for my tank. I don’t know what to do. Do I get one that turns on and off depending on the water temp, or the one that stays at a temp and doesn’t move at all? I am so confused. My betta is at 71 degrees right now and moves a lot, is he ok or no?

Also, mu sisters Fish has the same tank and he seems like he sees his reflection or something because he flares a lot. Esp. when the light is on, any suggestions on what to do?

So happy I founds your blog, you know more than the people at the stores

Thank you!!!!
Tina

Can u make a new video telling us viewers about your fish and personality of them I think it would be entertaining but its your choice you know im only a 13 year old and am so interested in animals such as betta fish dogs cats bunnys any type of farm animal I prob have but betta fish are my favorite I love how u show your point of view with us and how much u have helped me you are a great help thank u so much 😀