Betta Fish Care Tips 101 – Proper betta fish care is important for keeping your bettas healthy and flourishing in their tanks. Caring for a betta fish is just like caring for any other pet in your home. They have certain requirements that are necessary and betta care is something that should never be overlooked for your fish tank.
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Why Do People Love Betta Fish?
Betta Fish are also known as Siamese fighting fish or Betta Splendens fish and they are popularly known for their remarkable fins and beautiful jewel-like bright colors. Also, Betta fish are a favorite pet for both veteran and beginner fish keepers as they are available in a wide range of varieties. The male Betta fish is considered a Siamese fighting fish as they are very aggressive towards other Betta fishes.
Using a small bowl to keep Betta fish is not advisable instead get a bigger aquarium that holds around 5-10gallons of water. Bigger aquariums give more room for your Betta fish to swim and also you can take a longer time to clean the fish tank. The bigger tanks are the better choice as they are not only cost-efficient but also give more room to your pet fish to swim around.
The Betta Fish Diet:
A balanced diet for Betta fish includes a large range of pellets, flakes, frozen food, and freeze-dried bloodworm to make sure they get complete nutrition value.
Feeding Your Betta Fish
When you are feeding your Betta fish, the following things that you need to remember that includes:
- Defrost frozen foods before feeding
- Do not overfeed your pet betta fish as the water in the aquarium can get filthy quickly, especially in unfiltered and smaller aquariums. Make sure to feed your betta fish carefully
- You must feed crushed flake or smaller pellet to baby Bettas.
Housing:
- It is important to keep your pet betta fishes in a larger-sized aquarium so that they can breathe and swim easily. Also, Betta fishes like to swim in the water with no or little current.
- Male Betta fishes can be kept in a quarter gallon or larger tank and they must be kept individually. Male Bettas can live with other fishes that are not aggressive like tiger barbs. Female bettas can be kept with other female bettas or other community fish.
- Parameters and stable water quality is very important for better health for your Betta fish or for that matter any aquatic life. If you are not sure about the water quality, then get help from experts who can test the water before placing the fish in the aquarium.
Betta Fish Characteristics:
- Betta fish flare their fins when they get disturbed or threatened; also they flare fins when they get aggression.
- Betta fish breathe for the surface of the water with their labyrinth organ along with their gills.
- Male betta fish attack other male bettas and they also attack fish with similar flowing fins.
Habitat Maintenance:
- Make sure to check water temperature, filter, and other equipment daily.
- Make sure to check water quality once a week, and change 50% water for small fish (not more than 2 gallons) once a week. Change 10 to 25% of the water in larger aquariums every two to four weeks, or if required you can change more times.
Affinity:
It is suggested to keep male bettas in individual tanks or make sure to place only one male betta in a community betta aquarium. However, female bettas can be placed in a community tank along with other female bettas. Also, avoid placing female and male bettas together in the same betta tank as a tank mate. Consider your fish tank mate always. Some species like to eat other fish and make poor tank mates.
Signs of a Healthy Betta Fish:
- Eats regularly
- Vibrant colors ( Male Betta Fish only)
- Alert and Active
- Reacts hostilely to outside incitement
It is advisable to avoid congested conditions that are the main reasons for disease and stress. Also, it is important to maintain good quality water and keep changing the filters regularly. Consider a water conditioner if you have trouble regulating the care of your betta fish and their tank mates.
Warning Signals:
- cloudy eyes
- Loss of appetite or color
- Fungus or spots on mouth or body
- Elevated scales
- Listlessness
- Unnaturally worn fins
- Erratic swimming
- Difficult respirations
- Bloating
- Weight loss
Get to Know Your Betta Fish:
Betta fish live in tropical Southeast Asia, mostly in Thailand. They naturally live in warm, small, stagnant waters close to the water surface.
In Thailand, around 150years ago, kids use to collect betta fish from rice paddies and kept them as their pets, and watch them spar. This became popular and the Siam king of Thailand started to legalize and tax betta fish.
In 1840, the King of Siam gave a few Betta fish to Danish Physician called Dr. Theodore Cantor, due to which the fish got attention in European countries. Dr. Thodore Cantor studied the fish and in 1890, the betta fish were imported into Germany and France. However, Betta fish entered the United States of America only in 1910.
How Long Can Siamese Fighting Fish Live?
Betta Fish can live around three to four years on average. However, if you want your pet fish to live longer then you must keep them in the larger and perfect fish tank and provide proper light, food, and mental stimulation.
Fish Tank Setup for Betta Fish:
In general, most people feel that their pet Betta fish can live in small bowls using tap water, but it is advisable to place them in larger betta tanks so that they can easily breathe from the surface of the water and swim happily. Not just Betta fish but any other fish that doesn’t like to live in a bowl.
The reason behind the misconception among many people is that they believe that the Bettas can live in small bowls because these fish can breathe air and live in oxygen-poor environments.
The betta fish can survive even in oxygen-deprived waters because they breathe through labyrinth organs along with gills. This organ also allows the fish to eat food from the surface of the water without interrupting their swim bladder through the air.
Betta fish do not like small habitats; they prefer to live in larger environments as they like to avoid predators and competitors. Also, bettas are sensitive to ammonia exposure like any other fish species so a water filtration system is important. As they have long fins, it is not advisable to place them in an undersized fish tank as it can cause fin rot and other illness.
The tank size for betta fish should be around 5 to 10 gallons and make sure that the tank is not very deep as the betta fish swim left to right in shallow waters, so a deeper tank is not suitable for this fish.
