10 ENRICHMENT Tips to Make Your Betta Fish HAPPIER!

When you look beyond the bare minimum for setting up a tank for

your

Betta

fish

in terms of tank size, proper filtration, and generally making sure all the water parameters are under control, there are still several ways you can go. beyond for

your

beta so that he not necessarily only survives and thrives, but is also stimulated and enriched. In this video, I will give you 10

tips

on how to enrich your beta,

make

your beta happy and really go further, thank you. What's going on? everyone, Harry here from Farm Aquatics, anyone who has had a

betta

fish

in the past knows that they love to interact with their surroundings.

There is definitely a debate about whether

betta

fish really need

enrichment

. There is a group of people who believe in this type of

enrichment

. Either way, I personally think it doesn't hurt to try to enrich your Betta fish and if anything, there are benefits as long as it's done in moderation. There are five benefits that come to mind around enrichment. : one can reduce stress. levels for your betta fish two, which is related to one, is that it helps your betta fish to maintain appetite properly, three is that it could promote a stronger immune system again because your betta fish will not get stressed, fourth is that In the long run, it could ensure a longer life for your Betta fish.

The last benefit number five is that I have heard that enrichment can help Betta fish that are self-fit. Nippers stop doing it. One last disclaimer before we get into the

tips

if some of these tips are overdone or done too often which can end up overstimulating your betta, so

make

sure you do everything within reason. Overstimulation is not the goal and that can ultimately lead to more stress for your betta. In some of these tips I will. I mean specific products. I'll link them below in the description, they are affiliate links and help the channel tremendously, so if you want to support feel free to use them anyway, let's dive into the tips.

Tip number one is Break the sight lines inside your tank. Betta fish love to interact with their environment. They have an innate curiosity, so if your tank is a barren wasteland, it won't really be enough for your Betta fish. They need cracks. Corners. Shades. Different places to explore. Ways to achieve this include using Hardscape like rocks or Driftwood, you could also use plants of course, basically if you put something in that tank that is not too sharp and can potentially harm the betta fish, that is a good thing regarding to the plants you can. place the substrate, you can attach it to your Hardscape, you could even just float it in the water column depending on the plant, real plants are always preferred over fake plants due to the added benefit of filtration and are generally softer than fake plants if you do.

If you decide to use fake plants, make sure they are made of silk. Many of the fake plants that are made of those hard plastics that you normally see in pet stores or online can often break your betta's fins or scales, as long as you put something in that tank, you are giving your betta some form of environmental enrichment. I would even go as far as to say that it is okay to use those fake aquarium decorations, just make sure those decorations are smooth, do not have sharp edges and cannot potentially harm your Betta fish. Tip number two is to add places for your betta to hide and rest.

It is common for Betta fish to want to hide from various stimuli such as light or someone simply passing by the tank. They are also known to like to rest. Whether you're resting on the surface of a broadleaf or curling up on a floating plant, the point with this tip is that you want to give your Betta fish options, given those natural behaviors, of course you could accomplish this with plants similar to the that we talked about in The First Tip, but in addition to plants, there are some products that can also help in this because the first is a ceramic beta record.

It comes in two types. You can get a floating beta log that stays at the top of the water column. and you can also get a sinking beta record that of course stays at the bottom. These beta logs provide an artificial place for your Betta fish to hide and also a surface to rest on another product out there, the Beta Leaf hammock, which essentially mimics the surface. from a leaf and you can place it with a suction cup on the wall of your aquarium and, finally, terracotta caves. Terracotta caves are usually used in other parts of the aquarium hobby, such as plecos, but betta fish would definitely benefit from them and they accomplish the same thing as the Beta Logs accomplish that if you don't want to spend money on a terracotta cave, You can always look for a terracotta pot that may be around your house, just make sure the small hole at the bottom of the pot is not a hole that the betta fish can get stuck in.

Tip number three, don't be afraid to change your betta fish's exhaust from time to time. Which is more enriching than a change of scenery. This is also another reason why you prefer real plants instead of fake plants. because the natural growth you see with these real plants technically changes the scenario, albeit slowly, in terms of how often you should renew your Betta fish's tank. I wouldn't do it monthly. I think it's too common. The most frequent thing I would do. maybe it's once a quarter and when I say rescue the tank I'm not necessarily saying change it 100%, all you have to do is move a few things, move a rock from one corner to another, change the plants, maybe nothing.

Too crazy tip number four is to use a ping pong ball and no, we're not going to play beer pong with the beta, but betta fish have used ping pong balls at The Hobby. In the past, ping pong balls were cheap, they were hollow. so they float to the top and you can probably find them in any home. In addition to being affordable, ping pong balls provide some type of enrichment for your Betta fish by stimulating their hunting behavior. Any curious beta will most likely interact with it once you place it. in the water, it is important to note, at least from my personal experience and from what I have read online, that betta fish can be easily desensitized by ping pong balls, so do not use a ping pong ball with too much frequently for too long because they will.

I get bored, remember when I said at the beginning of the video that there is a group of people who think that enrichment is pretty useless for betta fish. This same group would say that ping pong balls do not necessarily stimulate hunting behavior. The interaction between a betta fish and the ping pong ball is probably because they simply move it out of their way so they can have a clear view of any potential real insects that may enter the water and they also believe that it can be potentially stressful for a fish. Betta, I personally think you're overreacting, but in the spirit of giving to you, both parties, I just wanted to give you that point of view.

I'll leave it up to you whether or not you want to try a ping pong ball tip. Number five is to use a mirror regularly to induce flashes within your betas. It is a form of enrichment in itself. This can be achieved with floating mirrors made specifically for Betas or by getting a mirror you have at home and placing it against the wall in your house. fish tank I personally think that the floating mirror made specifically for Betas is much better by having it floating in the actual tank, it provides a more dynamic reflection per se, the betta fish will be able to see itself at different angles and I think that would provide a tip number Six for a more enriching interaction is to feed live foods.

Feeding live foods is the closest thing to hunting for your betta. There are a lot of different live foods you can try. Brine is very popular within the hobby. You can try grindel worms. The list goes on and on and even if you don't have the time or resources to get live food, like hatching brine shrimp or going to your pet store to buy worms, an alternative would be to get the frozen form of that live food, like as fruits and blood tests, but having the actual form factor of those live foods, this can somehow achieve that enrichment to a lesser extent.

Tip number seven is to get tankmates by giving your beta tankmates. This can be socially enriching. There are a number of things you should consider before choosing the right tank mates. Honestly, this is a completely different video in itself, but the two main things you really want to understand is the temperament of your specific betta fish, so betta fish are very docile, very accommodating and they would. Work with many compatible tank mates, but some betta fish are very aggressive, so you need to find out what type of personality your specific betta has. The second thing you need to consider is the type of tankmates you choose, obviously you don't want.

If you have aggressive tank mates that can potentially stress your Betta fish, you should avoid suitable Nippers that can harm your betta. You definitely don't want to put two male betas together and I would stay away from other colorful fish like male guppies because your beta might mistake him for another beta again. I could talk about this topic for another 20 minutes, but I'll save it for another video if you don't take those two factors into account, this form of enrichment can really become stressful for your beta, so be careful, tip number eight would be to provide visibility to other betta fish.

This tip is more of a special case, specifically for those who have multiple betas. If you have two tanks together, you most likely have a separator or divider between them that you can remove. Move this separator or divider daily so your two betta fish can see and shine at each other, as I said before burning creates some form of enrichment but of course you don't want to do this too often. I learned this tip from breeders because they often have multiple betas lined up next to each other, many of them, like I said, remove those dividers to provide some type of exercise, encourage that burning, provide that enrichment, tip number nine is another way to achieve this burn and it is to condition your Betta fish to burn towards an inanimate object again.

I got this advice from some of the breeder videos you see on Instagram and YouTube, what they will do is condition their betta fish to light up with a pen or their finger I thought. It just deserved its own advice because it's a great alternative to the other ways to induce that sparkle using a pen or finger. You yourself were able to interact directly with your beta. Last but not least, tip number 10, which is definitely the craziest of them. everything is to teach the Betta fish tricks. Betta fish are quite intelligent and urgent and I have seen a couple of videos where their owners were able to teach them some pretty simple tricks.

Some of the tricks I've seen include swimming through a hoop, swimming around obstacles. jumping in the air pushing some kind of object since I saw video evidence of it. I am convinced that it is possible. I have personally never trained any of my betas, but there is actually a child that provides you with all the tools you need. to train your Betta fish last time I checked it was out of stock but if it's available I'll link it below anyway. Those were 10 tips on how to provide some type of enrichment for your Betta fish, many of the tips were very basic. and doable, while some of them may be considered outlandish to some extent, I hope this has given you some value and some ideas and if so, be sure to like, share, comment and subscribe again if you are interested in purchasing any of the items I talked about will be linked below if you want to support the channel follow me on Instagram and I'll talk if you want and I'll see you in the next one peace abroad.