Ten tips for taking care of your betta

1. Make sure the jar or bowl that you keep your Betta in is big enough so that he can swim around and not bump or tear his fins or scales. Also be sure there is plenty of surface area so that he can get enough oxygen.

2. Your Betta will thrive in the cleanest water that you can provide for him. He does not require a filtration system, but you should change out a third of his water every three days so it stays fresh and clean and keeps your finned friend from getting bacterial or fungal infections. Aged water (water that has set out for twenty four hours) is what should be used to replace the old water.

3. Do not put your Betta fish with other Betta's. They are called Siamese fighting fish because they are, in fact, fighting fish. They will tear at one another, often causing the death of at least one fish before they stop. Betta's can be coupled with algae eaters, guppies, or corydorus catfish safely.

4. Use a turkey baster to clean small particles of uneaten
...click on link for more information and related articles.food or debris from the bottom of the bowl or jar. Allowing this debris to sit at the bottom of the jar will cause the water to become cloudy, unsanitary, and to smell awful.

5. The PH of your tank should be at exactly 7.0. You can get a PH testing kit at your pet store along with solutions to minimize or increase the PH of your water.

6. When you clean the plants, rocks, or decorations in the bowl you should never use soap on them. It's very hard to completely rinse all soap from these items and the soap residue can harm or even kill your Betta. Instead, use warm water and an abrasive brush to clean his things.

7. Keep your Betta tank, jar, or bowl covered! Your Beta will jump and you don't want him to end up flopping on the tabletop! Keeping the water level at least two inches from the top of the tank should also cut down on this problem.

8. Your Betta is a meat eater and likes live foods, such as brine shrimp the best. Frozen bloodworms are also a good choice for your meat eater. Most Betta fish will happily eat the Betta pellets sold at most pet stores. For a special treat every now and again you should offer some live food! You'll have fun watching him eat it up!

9. Do not decorate your Betta bowl with rocks or marbles that may cause your Betta to get stuck between or under them. Be sure that they are a flat smooth surface that provides no risk to the
Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats, and/or proteins, that can be consumed by animals (including humans) for nutrition or pleasure. Almost all foods are of plant or animal origin. Many cultures have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences, and practices....click on link for more information and related articles.health of your fish.

10. Remember that your fish is a living, breathing responsibility. You need to feed, clean, and care for your Betta just like you would any other pet. If he's sick take him to the vet, if he's hungry feed him, if his home is dirty, clean it.

Betta fish care

Recommended Diet.
BettaMin™ Floating Flake Food and Delecta™ Freeze Dried Blood Worms both made by Tetra™ and available in most pet stores and Wal-Mart Stores. We also feed the fish in our fish bowls a few live Black Worms three days a week and occasionally some live or frozen brine shrimp. A little bit of live food is very good, but too much seems to cause problems.
I feed all the inhabitants of my fish bowls a few Black Worms every other day

Compatibility.
You can add an African Dwarf Frog, but it will need to eat live food such as live Black Worms at least three times a week.

Plant Care.

Do not use any plants except the natural water plants that are not toxic to the fish. The plants' roots grow down into the water and absorbs small amounts of waste produced by the betta fish. The plant also produces oxygen into the air. If the plants' root grows too large or becomes brown and soggy, you may cut them back. If the plant becomes too massive at the top (leaves) you may separate the plant and plant that part of the plant that is not being used. One of the best water plant to use is the Chinese Evergreen, it tolerates very low lighting and it's a hydroponic plant. Note: Our plants have been preconditioned, this procedure prepares the plant's roots for aquatic adaptation.

Betta Humor

10 SURE WAYS TO KNOW YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH A BETTA CHICK (by Mr.181)
1) There is more fish food than human food in your freezer.

2) You are running to the bathroom every five minutes (the constant sound of water being filtered and running all night is a natural trigger for a man to use the restroom :) )

3) The annual "Flooding of The Fish room": I am in the process of building an Ark !

4) At least 20 jars are waiting to be cleaned in the kitchen at all times.

5) At least 60 jars are sitting by the pool area (for some unknown reason).

6) You suffer from bad lower back pain from the all inspiring "Moving and Cleaning of the Tanks"

7) There are enough empty bleach bottles by your trash cans to attract the attention of the local police Narcotics Squad

8) Your weekend get away revolves around the feeding schedule of fish.

9) Cats (or in my case Raccoons) have now permanently settled all around your house.

10) Your garage has been invaded by "Betta stuff" and you are now forced to park on the street.

10 SURE WAYS TO KNOW YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH A NON BETTA DUDE
You are awaken every morning by the thundering sound of plastic jars rolling all over the ground (as he, once again, has tripped over them)
Your frozen brine shrimp cubes are floating in his soda vodka drink ;P
You catch him with a spoon, about to eat your microworm culture (he thinks it is left over Chinese food)
You find him lounging by the pool with a glass of vinegar eel in his hand (he thinks it is an exotic liquor)
All your filters have been unplugged overnight (cause the noise was keeping him up)
All your tanks heaters and filters are shut down (cause he inadvertently unplugged the main electrical outlet to plug in his cute little bar light)
Your PH down bottle is missing again (cause he used it to clean his truck engine)
Your fishroom flashlight is lost again in the Bermuda triangle of stuff (aka: the garage - where he has used your flashlight to look under his truck engine. That was just before he took the PH down bottle, by the way LOL)
Your nice blue fishroom sterile towels are now ink black (yop, you guessed it, truck engine stuff)
You have to run to the store (again) to buy more sponges (again) because he (again) used your special betta assigned sponge to wash (you guessed it) his truck (yuk!)
hehehehehehehe....

Betta Stories

This is a funny story that I wanted to share:I have a single blue crowntail male betta named Indy in a 12-gallon tank with four mollies. I chose him to live in my community tank because he has a very mellow personality; he swims around and looks handsome, but he is never aggressive and almost never flares.His tank rests on my desk, and one day I was enjoying a snack of prunes while doing my homework. The box of prunes had a big picture of a prune on the front. I placed the box next to the tank when I was done and continued working.When I looked back over, Indy was in full bloom: flaring, dancing, and blowing bubbles--for the picture of the prune! He even chased the other fish away from it, staunchly defending his love from the marauding Mollies in his first everact of aggression.Needless to say, their forbidden love was not to last. Eventually I ran out of prunes and threw the box away, and poor Indy never did figure out why the prune failed to return his affection...but, you live and learn, as they say!Thanks for reading,--Rattify

This is just a really cute story that I think is a bit strange also (LOL):I have this beautiful female betta that my friend gave me for Christmas. Her name is Angel, because she acts like one.

Anyway, one day I was going back to my room to feed her. And as soon as I lowered two fingers to drop the fish food in, she jumped up and grabbed the food from me! I was so shocked that I stood there for a moment; Angel had never done anything like this before! Pretty soon I moved on and continued my business.

The next day I went back into my room again, but not to feed my fish. Instead I walked over to Angel's bowl and stuck two fingers over the top of her bowl. I wanted to see if she would jump again, WITHOUT me feeding her. To make a long story short: She did. Everyday after that, she did.

Nowadays I make her do that little trick before I feed her. It is quite funny to watch :)

Thank you for reading this,

-Lauren

Here is a very funny story about my betta that I wanted to share.I have one male betta called Charlie in a five gallon tank. He is my first ever betta and is a great friend. Anyway, about a week ago I considered putting some small fish in with Charlie as "friends". I have been told that plain-looking guppies make good tankmates for bettas so I found some and put one in to test this theory.Well, as soon as Charlie noticed the tiny fish, he began to chase it. Then the guppy hid under one of the two large, glass decorative stones in the tank. Suddenly, due to the curving glass, Mr. Guppy looks HUGE and at least six times it's size. Seeing the guppy hide under the rock, Charlie was over there in a flash, only to find the guppy's huge, gaping mouth staring back at him. I felt quite sorry for Charlie, he looked terrified! But my pity soon wore off when Mr. Guppycame out from behind the rock and became lunch. R.I.P Mr. Guppy...

Betta and the pea (splitting hair with your betta ;) )
My first male betta, whom i named Patrick, will eat almost anything. Once i got him to eat a 7+ year old gold fish flake (although he did spit it out, but then ate the falling crums), but that is another story :). One day when i was reading a feeding article on this website (go faith!), i read about feeding the insides of peas to bettas. So, the next time i fed my fish, i took a pea out of my freezer and warmed it up. Then taking the miniscule piece of pea and cutting it in half, i took it in the tweezers that i use to feed my fish and put it in Patrick's tank. Patrick came over and yanked it around until I let go of it, then he carried the now seemingly large pea piece with him and swam to the bottom. He must have sat there with that pea for at least ten minutes in his mouth, most likely not sure what to do with it. Once he lost interest in it i fished it out of the tank and cut it into another half. He did the same thing, only put in a little more effort to try to eat it. When he once again lost interest in it, i fished it out again and cut it into another half, and i was positive that it would easily fit into his mouth. Finally being able to put the pea completely into his mouth, he joyfully ate it.
Caitlyn

My first ever betta had a strange habit, a FAQ a while back reminded me. The FAQ was about betta noises, and you wisely concluded that the clicking heard by the asker was probably marbles shifting. I think this is a noble assesment because my betta did just that. Every time I cleaned out His Highness's tank (usually in the evenings) Otto would spend the entire night rearranging his marbles just the way he liked them. Otto lived in my room, and the first time this happened I jumped out of bed and turned on the lights to see what was going on. This fish was obsessive compulsive and would keep me up making loud 'clinking' noises. He always made sure his marbles were in his favorite arrangement to spread himself out on- just in time for his morning nap.

My name's Caryn and I'm 12 years old, I just wanted to share this amazingly shocking story to you. I just got an all red (and my 1st) Betta 4 weeks ago named Apollo. For a petstore Betta he's pretty smart. One day, when I came to feed Apollo I looked through his tank and I was shocked. He just finished constructing his own room out of a fake plant! 8-0 Apollo somehow wove the branches of the plantto make a little cave...(well, i shouldn't say cave, room sounds better!) ^_^ I was so proud of him! Unfortanutly, I was planning on getting rid of that disturbingly way-to-big plant for a few smaller, more comfortable ones. So I did! Apollo was pretty upset about losing his room and his work of art, but to my surprise, he made yet another construction site out of one of the smaller plants!!! 8-00 although his 2nd room wasn't as detailed and not as big, he still sleeps in it every night! (It's so amazing how you can learn from a Betta in only 4 weeks worth of time.)^_^
Thanks for reading Faith, it meant a lot to me!~Caryn and Apollo~

Betta Colors

Solid colors
These are bettas that are one color, meaning the body and the fins are the same color. ideally solid color bettas should not have any other colors present (also called "impurities". However, in the real world (yeah, come back from lala land please LOL) most bettas have impurities, it is just that some show them more than others. ideally you want to get stock as clean as possible. I proud myself in offering a large amount of very pure colored fish here. These are hard to produce and hard to find. bettas with heavier impurities I consider culls and will not sell. For example, a blue bettas should have no red in the fins. An opaque bettas should not have red washes (although that is a very common problem and very clean opaques are very hard to produce and find). A reed bettas should not have green or blue iridescence on its body. Etc etc... And so forth and so on. So what are the main solid colors choices?


cellophane: basically has no color. Fins are translucent and body is flesh. The flesh color is due to the fact that one can see the tissues and organs which are flesh colored. The skin itself does not have any pigments.

white opaque: this color was created by Dr. Gene Lucas, who played around with several genes until the first solid white betta came to be. Most opaques tend to have impurities and very clean opaques, like the male on the left (Holy Grail) are very hard to produce.

yellow: also known as "non-red" all yellows also carry one of the three iridescent color (steel, royal or green).

orange: this strain was first created by Gilbert Limhengco and is one of the latest new solid colors. Oranges are a bit more red than what an orange would look like, maybe more like a dark tangerine color.

red: normal reds have some black pigment on the body giving them more of a bicolor look, with a reddish/blackish body and red fins. However most breeders now work with extended red which are intense red from head to tail, including the pectoral fins :). These are prettier and many carry cambodian genes.

steel blue: this is one of the three iridescent colors. The blue is lighter and more "cold" looking, like a grayish blue.

royal blue: this is the second of the three iridescent colors. Royal blue is much darker and has almost a purple feel to it. Best see under a flashlight.

green: this is the third of the three iridescent colors. Green is near impossible to detect without a flashlight. Many green bettas might look black or royal blue at first, but under a light their iridescent green is revealed.

turquoise: everybody is always arguing about this color so let us just say that turquoise is a color between blue and green, some claim it is not green, while others claim it is nothing but green.
copper: the latest iridescent color variation! these bettas were obtained by crossing with specific wild strains that showed some gold. Now they come in a light gold, deep copper, deep red copper and even purplish copper hues. these are truly gorgeous fish. Note that their true colors only come out when the light shines on them!

black: there are currently thtee different black strains: Melano blacks, fertile blacks (also referred to as black lace - I call them Black Crystal) and the black coppers (I call them Black Crusaders).

bi-colors
A bicolor betta has two solid colors. The body will be one solid color while the fins will be another. There are quite a few variations but the most common are:


cambodian: the body is flesh and the fins are usually red (traditional cambodian) or sometimes blue or green (see below)

green or blue cambodians: the body is whitish and the fins are green or blue.

chocolate: the body is dark, usually black but sometimes dark blue or dark green (Emerald dawn strain) and the fins are yellow or golden orange.

bettas with patterns
Patterned bettas are bettas with several color displayed in an organized manner (a pattern). Bettas with a bunch of random colors (which most pet store bettas are) are not patterned bettas and are called multicolors. You will not find multicolor bettas on my stock page, ever. I am however very very fund of bettas with cool looking patterns :) and pride myself on offering a large variety of them. Note that good patterns (even patterns) are VERY hard to produce and these fish remain rare and very desirable. hence if you look at my stock page and read the evaluation comments and the lot is tagged "very good pattern" then GRAB IT! there are basically two main type of patterns: Butterfly patterns and marbles. Note that all patterns do come from marble genes, or come from the expression of these genes. let's cover the main two and also glance at a third one I thought we should also mention.


butterfly (BF): The body is solid color while the fins are divided in two separate color bans. half of the fin is one color and the other half another color. For example the black/white BF betta to the left has fins that are 50% black and 50% white (a very rare combination) and comes from my Dreamcatcher strain. The ideal BF has a 50.50 split, but remain very rare. A split of 30/70 to 70/30 is acceptable. Less than 20% is referred to as a "ban" and less than 5% is oftentimes referred to as a "tip" (for example a white tip). On very rare occasion a betts will have a tri-ban pattern, meaning the fins are 3 colors. these are very pretty and very rare and of course pricey and sought after. Our betta strain "Tutti Fruitti" is such a 3 ban BF type strain.

marble: The body and fins have blotches of color over a flesh or any other light color solid background. For example, black blotches over flesh color or over white. The photo to the left is that of a red marble from my apache strain. Not all marbles have blotches on both body and fins. Many may have botches on body but then clear fins, or solid body and then blotchy fins etc...

piebald: The betta has a flesh face, regardless of his body color. To the left, a steel blue piebald from my blue apache strain. I find this trait very pretty.

short tail


Initially , ALL bettas had short tails. The small fins of a fully grown wild male betta may not be showy but think about it, would you rather be beautiful, or be alive? In the wild bettas need to be fast to escape predators and the long fins would be nothing but trouble. Kind of like going to a war zone in a wedding dress!! These short finned bettas look like our female bettas, which as you know, don't grow long fins. Perhaps in the future this also, may change.


veil tail
A mutation caused short finned bettas to have longer fins. And the veil tail was created. Veil tails hang down when the betta is not flaring, and are not much to look at even when bettas flare. The tail is larger at the base, but almost immediately narrows down. It is asymmetrical, meaning that if you divide the tail horizontally (see red line) you would end up with 2 non identical parts. All pet store bettas are veil tail, and veil tai is no longer a desirable tail shape. It is my understanding that veil tails are not even allowed to compete on the show circuit anymore. Hence, breeding pet store bettas is a huge waste of your time because you will never get quality finnage.

fan tail
A fan tail, or round tail, looks like a fan with rounded edges. It is much wider at the ends than it is at the base, resulting in a tail that spreads out open beautifully. If you divide the tail horizontally with an imaginary line, you will have 2 symmetrical parts. Again, there is roundness of the edges (unlike the delta tail which has sharp edges). The tail angle may be wider or narrower, depending on the quality of the line. Now a day a rounded tail is considered a fault and so you will notice that I never sell any on my stock page. I pride myself on selecting only bettas with halfmoon genes, showing good tail shape and sharp edges.

delta tail
Delta tail was the first step before achieving halfmoons (see below). Delta tail shape ism like its name indicate more of a delta or a triangular shape if you will. It is like a fan tail but with crisp, sharp angles at the tail edges. The sharper, the better. Delta tail are also symmetrical, and the angle may vary, but of course the wider the angle, the better. If the angle is wide, say above 130°, then we have what we call a "super delta tail" (see below). And if the angle reaches a perfect 180° (or more) then we have a halfmoon!

super delta tail
The super delta tail is one step above a delta tail and one step below a halfmoon. In short it is an almost halfmoon, but not quite fish. The tail shape is the same, it is just the span that ranges between a wide delta and about 170 degrees or so. Super delta tails are very desirable, although of course not quite as desirable as a full halfmoons. they are however less pricey and easier to produce. A super delta tail can also be called a "halmoon geno" because it usually carries the same genes as its halfmoon siblings. here agin, look for crisp edges and avoid rounded tails!!

halmoon tail
Halfmoons were once very rare but now, thanks to the efforts of many top breeders, we have them in almost all color variations. Halfmoons remain the standard by which all bettas are measured. A Halfmoon, like its name indicates, is a betta with a tail in the shape of half a moon (or 180 degree tail span). Generally speaking bettas with spans of about 170 and above are tagged "halfmoons". By far the most beautiful of tail variations, it is also the hardest to produce and the most fragile. With that big of a tail, bettas usually end up tearing them, a phenomenon called "blowing a tail". It is very common of halfmoons. The orange male on the left does not have very heavy finnage but I selected his photo because his fins are sheer so you can very clearly see the tail rays and see how they branch (4 branching or more) to create the wide span.

double tail
Another cool gene all my strains carry is the double tail gene, my all time favorite. A Double Tail betta (dt) has two tail lobes instead of one. It also has twice (sometimes more) as many rays in the dorsal fin (top fin) as a regular Single Tail (ST) betta, resulting in a dorsal fin that is twice (or more) larger than a ST betta. Yes, you get twice as much for the price of one! hehehehe. The ideal Double Tail betta is one with two large even lobes (such as the yellow betta to the left, born in my fishroom and with which I started my Gorgeous Yellow line). Notice how even both lobes are, and how the entire finnage looks like a perfect circle. This is an outstanding Double Tail. DT is recessive, but ST bettas that carry the DT gene have better finnage and larger dorsals then bettas who don't carry DT. Pretty much all my ST bettas carry the DT gene. (indicated by the symbol: ST/dt).

comb tail
Comb tail is not a tail shape per say but it does affect the way finnage looks so I wanted to cover it here. Combtail is a genetic trait that extends the ray beyond the fin edge, hence making the edge of the fins look like a comb. It can be observed in any betta tail shape variation. I personally always loved the combtail trait and was thrilled when breeders starting working on improving it and tried to create a version with exaggerated long extending rays (see below)

crowntail
This is the newest fin variation and originated from the far East. By selectively breeding together bettas that showed strong combtail traits the first crowntails were created. Fringes can get very long and are very striking looking. Crowntails can be found in a single ray variation, or double ray or even double double ray. On the left we have a double ray pictured: Notice that each fringe is made out of two ray (fork). Now a day crowntails come in almost all colors :). And their advantage is that they do not blow their tails. the downside is that they remain quite aggressive and may be a bit more challenging to spawn.

double split tail
I have never seen this mutation other than in this picture. This betta was bred by Mr. Tanaka, a Japanese breeder. Although the lobes seem to be split I wonder whether we are not actually looking at a regular DT betta with clear spots on his marbled fins, which is quite common in marbles. Note: the top lobe is considerably smaller than the lower lobe, which is a fault.

lyre tail
This is a lyre tail betta and is also one of Mr. Tanaka's bettas. Mr Tanaka had, by the way, some amazing bettas!! This to the left is a blue cambodian. I have actually never seen a tail like this one in real life but it seemed worthy of being displayed on this page! Whether it would breed true (and therefore could be propagated) is another issue altogeth

Betta behavior

Warriors by nature
The Betta Splendens (splendid warrior), is, as his name indicates, a warrior. Basically, he is a fish with a bad attitude problem :))). The thing is bettas are only pissed off at other bettas, while quite gentle with other specie, which makes them good community tank prospects. They do get picked on a lot by other fish, so avoid putting a betta in a tank with fish that are aggressive, especially fin nippers such as tiger barbs, etc…

Flaring and displaying
When a male betta (and sometimes a female) sees another male, his first reaction is one of intimidation. The betta will immediately stretch out his fins as much as he can and open his gills as wide as he can, displaying his membrane, and suddenly looking twice a big as he really is :). This is called FLARING or DISPLAYING. He’s doing the macho thing, sorta like “I am bigger than you , watch out, I can kick your butt!”. He will repeatedly do this and if the other betta has the same bad attitude, they will soon start attacking each other. (so never put two bettas together!! Duh!) Their color intensifies and they look just gorgeous. .

Variations in aggressive behavior
Some strain are noticeably more aggressive than others, and even the females are nasty to each other. Some strains are more peaceful and can sometimes be kept in groups. A breeder friend of mine was marveling at my large 60 gal community tank, housing about 40 adult bettas, mostly females but also three large males. He couldn’t believe they weren’t killing each other! These bettas were all from the same spawn and knew each other. This strain was a more gentle strain and it was a treat for the eye to see all these bright red and pink bettas swimming in harmony together. (Please do NOT try this at home! :) ).

The pecking order
When kept in a community tank, bettas will establish a pecking order. One dominant fish will boss everyone else. This is usually a large male or female, and that fish is known as the “ALPHA” fish. As long as that fish is in the tank, there will be pretty much, peace. Remove that fish, or add new bettas to the tank, and the pecking order has to be established all over again. Fights arise, bettas fins are frayed, and for a week or so, the whole fragile balance is threatened. Eventually, it settles down, and peace returns.

Other betta characteristics
What I like most about bettas, is that they have personalities. Each his own. They are curious, friendly and will soon know their breeder and recognize him/her. They are fast learner. They soon understand that my hand = food. Soon, whenever I put my hand in the tank, they all come swarming and they become so friendly sometimes they bug the heck out of me. Here I am trying to fish out one specific betta, and all of them come and soon it is a huge crowd and I cannot for the love of me fish just the one out, I keep getting 3 or 5 in my net. Aghhhhhhh.
I can put my hand in the tank and they will swim in between my fingers, resting on my palm. I can lift my hand up and there is the betta, relaxed and now out of his water, still on my palm… I pet them, and they seem to not mind that at all. I often stroke their bellies, right under the ‘chin’. They are very endearing and sometimes it is hard to part with them.