Betta Fish Care

 

Plakat Betta

Betta fish is a hardy fish which you can keep in even small tank or a bowl. You don't need expensive equipments or large tanks to keep them. Also they don't want expensive food. Betta fish can be a great pet for those who live in a dorm or small room / apartment. Here are few tips for those who want to keep a Betta fish but has no experience about keeping Betta fish or any kind of fish.

1. They can survive in a fish bowl but a little 10 gallon tank would be better. Specially if you live in a place where temperature gets really low in winter times. If you are going to use a fish bowl,Keep it away from sources of hot and cold air such as heaters, heater vents, cold or sunny windows, drafts, air conditioner vents, etc. It's is important that this bowl be kept cool at about 65 to 75 degrees F. There are Mini Heater for Betta fish which you can buy from stores like Amazon for less than $5. If you live in a cold weather country this will be something really good for your fish.
2. You can keep only one fish per tank /bowl. Betta fish love to fish and quite aggressive to their own kind. Even to females. Keep just a single Betta and he will be fine. This is not the type who gets lonely without tank mates. If you like to put tank mates for him then you need to go for a bigger tank. If you want to keep your Betta happy I think it's better find a good Betta Fish Tank which you get get for less than $50 from Amazon. They are not very active but they love to explore around. Bigger the tank you will see more activity from your fish.
3. Betta is a hardy fish who can breath air. But change water if it gets cloudy. Better age water at least 24 hours before put. For this you can keep a container which hold same amount of water your bowl or tank hold. If water looks ok then you can do water change once few days depending how dirty it gets.
4. Most of the time you will get a male from petshop. Male Betta more beautiful with their wale like fins. Pet stores usually don't carry female Bettas, because they tend to be less colorful and showy than the males. Betta males are the one who has those long pretty Dorsal and anal fins.
5. These guys are not picky about food. they eat freeze-dried blood worms or those pellet food or Tetra/Betta Flakes. Also dead mosquitos, tiny pieces of chicken, beef or tuna fish. Even hard boiled egg york but it would mess the water quality. Don't feed your Betta right after you brought them home from pet store it will take 1-3 days to return their appetite. Also don't over feed them. Feed 2 -3 times a day. There are some really good Betta fish food in market like Hikari Betta Bio-Gold and Tetra Betta Floating Mini Pellets. These high quality food will keep your fish happy and healthy. Also those will help their grown.
6. Bettas are anabantidae, this mean they can breath oxygen directly in air not in water; for this reason shallow water is necessary to let the fish easily reach the surface and breath. So taller tanks or bowls are not very good for them. One good thing about this is they can survive in poor water conditions for a while.
7. Having a lid is a must since these guys are jumpers but make sure air comes into tank / bowl. Keep in mind they breath air unlike most of those fish.
8. You can keep them in a community tank one only one per tank. Also these guys might peck at long tails of fish like guppy.
9. Betta fish is also know as Siamese fighting fish. in Natural habitat, they live in vast waterlands and paddy fields in south and east Asia. So give the guy a biggest tank which you can have for him. They don't mind more space. It would let them to have more space to explore and keep them happy.
10. They live around 3-5 years in captivity and sometimes upto 8-9 years in natural habitats. Their life span depends of how good you take care of him and also tank size and food.

A Betta Male -



A Betta female -