Betta Fish Care Guide: Everything You Need to Know!

Hi everyone, I'm Jason from Primetime Aquatics and in this video we're going to talk about a very popular

fish

and that's the best thing that we've been keeping in our

fish

room for decades and they're super cool and they have amazing color. Really cool pictures can be a great fish for a beginner, as long as you

know

what to give them, how to take

care

of them, we're going to cover those things in this video, so stay tuned for this to be better, better, it's the most common. species of

betta

kept in Hobby there are dozens of other species but this will be our focus today as we will look at many different varieties in terms of their finish in terms of coloration, that is I think what makes them so popular in the Hobby , they come from parts of Asia, the water there generally flows quite slowly, so we will try to imitate that in our aquariums as well, so let's take a look at the size.

I think that's one of the things that attracts people. the

betta

s are obviously the first, they have amazing coloration and finish but also the fact that they don't get very big so they will be around that three inch mark and the females will be about the same size and as you go a See throughout this video, the coloration is absolutely phenomenal and that can happen for both males and females, where the coloration of the females can be very similar, often their fins will be much shorter than those of the males. males that you would normally find in a pet store. and I think one of the things, especially if you're new to this, is that we have to consider their temperament and it can really be widespread.

I've seen butters that are relatively relaxed and I've seen, but since that can be the terror of the fish tank, part of it depends on the individual fish, but the other part really depends on what you're putting in the tank, the size of the tank, and that's why we are. Now I will also analyze those aspects. One of the interesting things I have discovered over time is the shelf life I have found for many of the betta fish purchased at big box stores; They don't tend to live long. I suspect that's due to the relatively poor genetics of some of these lines, so maybe you can get a year or a year and a half out of them.

I also found that when you get them from a breeder, the average lifespan tends to increase quite a bit. Therefore, you may get two or three years out of a betta when you get them from a breeder who pays attention to genetics and makes sure their line is still healthy when it comes to keeping them. I would highly recommend a few things. We often see them in the store and they have them in these little cups and people take them home, think about something and put them in a container with no heater or filter and they'll be fine and often that doesn't work. very good, and one of the things I would highly recommend if you are in a house where the temperature is usually 70 degrees is that you will want to get a heater for your tank and raise that temperature to around 78 degrees or something like that.

We'll do much better at that higher temperature, often what you'll see at a lower temperature, say around 70 ish about 72, they tend to sulk in the background and don't do much and that just tells us that our temperatures are probably too cold so definitely get a heater for your fish tank when you do, you'll want to filter just to keep the nitrification going so the fish produce ammonia and then that will change. into nitrite and both of those things are really toxic to fish, so you want to have the beneficial bacteria with filtration. We've made videos about that before.

I'll put them in the description below, but you want to have those beneficial bacteria. That nitrification can occur and that will keep the water much better for your betta. Now when it comes to water parameters, water parameters are everywhere. Let's face it, when we look at how people support Bettis even in the United States. for example, our water is relatively hard, so it has a general hardness between 12, 10 and 13 degrees, between 180 and 200 parts per million, but they can be kept in that water and they can be kept in a much softer place. water as far as pH goes, I think if you're at a neutral level you'll be pretty safe, so you might be able to go a little lower, you'll certainly be able to go a little lower, but for us our pH is around 8.2 . and yet they are thriving and have been thriving for years in our water but generally on a neutral basis you will be pretty safe now when it comes to feeding Bettis it really isn't difficult they are not that picky at least in In my experience, they eat small flake and pellet foods, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen bloodworms.

It is best if you feed them frozen blood to cut them into smaller pieces. They also really like live brine shrimp. I have found that if Shackles tend not to be too picky when it comes to their food. I think one of the things we

need

to consider and probably one of the most controversial topics when it comes to keeping Bedok is the size of the tank now that we have kept the bettas. tanks as low as two and a half I personally wouldn't go any lower than that long term. I

know

there are many people who feel that a two and a half gallon tank is too small for a better one because the better ones tend not to be. a high energy fish that doesn't swing as much as, say, your tetras or borås or something that's really going to fly around the tank.

I have found that a minimum of two and a half gallons can do just fine. I've kept them in a tank as large as 75 gallons in a community setting and had good luck there as well. I would say that if you are new to fishing, the larger the tank, the easier it will be to maintain good water. parameters and certainly five and a half gallons, even ten gallons, would be a very good idea, although we have cut them to a smaller tank, we know how to manage those water parameters properly to make sure our fish are healthy in the tank size.

It will also have a big impact on the types of fish you keep with your betta. We get this question all the time. What can I keep? Well, and two and a half gallons. The short answer is probably nothing. It works. Okay, we have a betta with a mystery snail and that worked well in that particular setup with that fish that may not always work. You know, the bigger the tank, the more options you have, and so on, 2 and a half. or maybe even a 5. You could keep the betta alone and there are a couple of reasons for that, there are two types of aggression that you may have to handle and that is your betta chasing other fish in a smaller environment that they don't have. nowhere. go and very often they are going to fall a bit, the other problem is that if you have any type of fish that can then bite your betta they have nowhere to go so in those smaller tanks you might just be better off keeping your betta only stops when you get to a 10 gallon tank.

I think now you can start thinking about other types of fish, so maybe some pygmy Corey cats in a set of 10 or some small razz borås or some small ones. Tetris biter not suitable. We've compiled ideas for two and a half five-gallon fish tanks and a half 10-gallon fish tanks. I will put them all in the description below if you want more information, but most importantly when looking for a tank. companions for your betta, you want to make sure that they are not super active, we are just going to stress your betta, you want to make sure that they will not be a fish known to fit the nipple, so much of the Barb's gouramis certainly They would be out.

It would probably be a bad idea. Mollies might not work, even Guppies. We've done it before in larger tanks with some success, but you just

need

to be

care

ful when you have long finned fish and now. When bothering each other Cory cats bristly nose plecos tend to do well if you have a tank of the right size, as I said many of the smaller touchwiz razz borås, possibly some platies depending on tank size, are all potential considerations now when it comes to decorating your tank, what we like to do is keep it natural and most of the time, so we usually have some sand or gravel, so the substrate doesn't really matter, you know?

Stan Gravel is average. The aquarium substrate will be fine, they don't really interact with the bottom much when it comes to rock work, it is often better to have smooth rocks rather than sharper rocks because sometimes bettas like to get between the rocks and scrape themselves . We really like live plants so you will see that many of our tanks will often be populated with live plants that help control the water parameters and we just like that more natural but certainly fake look. plants are going to be fine even when it comes to wood just make sure you know that sometimes you get a lot of spider wood with a lot of really sharp ends that may not be the best for your betta end or his fins and then if it's going to be wood, maybe sometimes Malaysians some of those softer woods might be a better choice.

Filtration is very important in a better tank. I started mentioning this before, but you want some type of filter in a fish tank and that's going to help again keep the water parameters correct, very correct, allowing us to go from ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate and then we do our water changes to manage what they can see in our tanks, we have some sponge filters, the other thing we can do is low flow. The important thing here is that we don't want a lot of heavy flow in our tank when we have bettas, especially with long fins, because they will fight that current and get tired. and often what you see is your betta hiding on the bottom or stuck on some type of decoration trying to get out of that heavy flow, so we really want to reduce the flow and our fish tanks when it comes to bettas because they would.

I appreciate that much more than having a lot of water movement now, when it comes to keeping Bettis together, the males cannot be kept together, they usually kill each other, even when kept together side by side in separate tanks, to We often put paper or something like that. type of card between the tank so they don't wear themselves out by constantly kissing each other, the other popular idea is to have several females together, a better brotherhood that for us has not worked well in the long term, we tried it even in the 75 gallon tank and a long term it didn't work, the Bettis, the female butters kept fighting to the point where we only had a couple left and it's something to consider, you know, in a small, I think it's definitely not going to work if I only have a few, the female dominant is better, it will often kill the others in a larger tank.

I have seen people make it work but I would warn you against that, especially if you are new to keeping fish or new to keeping the bad ones, it is best to just have one, the males and females can't be kept together either, now certain species can, but the common betta is not a good idea, it will be even if they mate and we are not really getting to the breeding side, often the female will be pushed aside and then If the female does not mate with the male , there is a good chance that the male will eventually harass that female to the point of killing her, so it is best to keep a betta in a tank and not mix them with others. but especially if you are new and looking for more information especially on how to raise them, I will put a link to create a pet keeping channel in the description below, she will be able to give you some really good information there.

I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope this gives you some perspective on how to successfully maintain them. If you enjoyed the video, share, subscribe and see you in the next one.