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I got a new betta! Any advice?

Williamg

Williamg

I got a new betta! Help!

Yesterday I brought home my first betta, and put him up in one of the Tetra Water Wonders Aquarium Cube 1.5 Gallons tanks I had set up and had running over the weekend. I bought him up at Petsmart, and I was careful to look for signs of sickness. Here he is
DSCI0547.jpg

He has already learned to recognize me as swims up to the side of the tank when I walk by. :) I was wonder if anyone has any advice to keep him happy and health, as this is my first betta and i would prefer to keep him alive. ;) He does not have a name yet. I have been feeding him betta bits, no more than 4 or 5. I don’t want to over feed him, but if anyone can give me an idea for a good meal size I would be much obliged.
Thanks in advance,
Williamg
 
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Sounds like your doing pretty well already.... meal size sounds good, You have a filtration system I assume?
 
high protein diet--avoid too overfeeding as this will cause constipation. live foods are always better than dried/frozen (except for the occasional case of parasites). a weekly one minute workout in front of a mirror also helps--dont overdo it though, otherwise this will tire out the fish and cause unnecessary stress.
 
amphirion said:
high protein diet--avoid too overfeeding as this will cause constipation. live foods are always better than dried/frozen (except for the occasional case of parasites). a weekly one minute workout in front of a mirror also helps--dont overdo it though, otherwise this will tire out the fish and cause unnecessary stress.
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workout in front of a mirror?......:crazy:
 
To answer Exo, I do i have filter running in the tank. Its a whisper small gallon filter. I also have a small tank heater running in the back. You can kinda see it in the photo.
So live foods are best? what type do you recommend?
 
daphnia for sure. black worms are also good. try avoid using tubifix as those are raised in sewage. brine shrimp is also a possible staple.
 
I feed mine frozen bloodworms, betta pelets, and in the summer, mosquito larva.
 
Ok, I could also use the daphnia to feed my bladderworts too. I've heard that if you feed a betta too much live food, it would eat itself to death?
 
ive got one that lives in the bottom of an Exoterra terarrium, prolly close to 4 gallons of water.....no active filtration just lots of live plants and swapping out half the water every 7-10 days...but the water is only 4 inches deep and has a surface area of roughly 18inx18in minus the branches that are sticking out of the water........he seems happy enough...

---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
Williamg said:
Ok, I could also use the daphnia to feed my bladderworts too. I've heard that if you feed a betta too much live food, it would eat itself to death?
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thats just stupid.....what do they eat in the wild?
 
  • #10
I've read they eat mosquito larva. And i think logic behind it is that a betta sees little swimming things and has the instinct to eat it. I doubt betta's in the wild would find a large amount of food in a small area trapped like they do in a tank. They also have a very small stomach. Besides, look at Lemmings, their instincts drive them off cliffs, so I'm sure a betta would not be able to resist his.
 
  • #11
they usually aint trapped in that small of an area,its just usually shallow warm water with lil oxygen so other fish die off......ever seen lil pools with mosquito larva in them? infested is a good description....between the larva, bugs that hit the surface and what ever they would be eating themselves to death in the wild....
 
  • #12
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=8923
and another quote I found from another website for which I would like confirmation or any advice. "Double Tail bettas will have swimbladder problem if you over feed them. They will start floating and may take up to several weeks to recover! So with DTs, it is even more important to not overdo it when it comes to food. Also when feeding live food, especially live brine shrimp, you must be aware that bettas will not stop eating until all the live food has been gobbled up. Twice I lost bettas that way. I kid you not. You will find them dead the next day. So only feed reasonable amounts of live food to your bettas, because in your fishroom, you are the only one with any ability to refrain things from getting out of hands. Your bettas can't and won't. They'll eat themselves to death. Literally." from http://www.bettatalk.com/food.htm
 
  • #13
rice paddies are usually ankle deep warm water thats low in o2......they are also full of critters small enough for a betta to eat......my statement stands as written.....
 
  • #14
@rattler: domesticated vs wild types...i think william does have a point. double tails are especially prone to spinal deformities and bladder problems to begin with. plus, a wild betta wouldnt just be eating all day, it would be dodging predators and hiding under folliage. plus, we are also assuming that the critters the betta eats have hiding places as well--it's not like they're helplessly swimming in the water column.
 
  • #15
I'm curious if you have cycled the tank? A weekend is not near enough time for a tank to become established.
 
  • #16
I think the fish aspects are well covered but I wanted to say that I'm pretty sure lemmings don't actually dive off cliffs instinctively... They do go crazy after a while but their modus operandi isn't quite so specific.
~Joe
 
  • #17
What is a cycled tank exactly? So to answer your question, no. And @ seedjar, your probably right, but it was the only example i could think of off the top of my head.
 
  • #18
:D
Cycling a tank, if I recall, means letting the tank run with no occupants for a while (a few weeks maybe?) so that the water and tank fixtures can have a chance to grow associated bacteria and other microbes that help to keep conditions stable. Introducing fish and their wastes into an uncycled tank can be dangerous because the additional nutrients can allow hazardous germs to take hold and dominate the environment if there are no beneficial cultures to compete with them.
~Joe

PS - Speaking of instinctively jumping off of cliffs, be careful about how far you fill your bowl/tank/etc. Bettas are very capable jumpers and will hop out of their tank to see what's on the other side of the glass if the rim is within reach. My betta, Mr. President, met his end that way.
 
  • #19
not necessarily hazardous germs, but waste products such as ammonia and nitrite are poisonous to fish (will cause gill damage). usually in a cycled tank, there will be bacteria that fix these harmful chemicals into nitrate which can be used by plants or harmless to fish. however, in a new tank, the tank is initially sterile with no bacteria present that would be capable of fixing these molecules, which will lead to the death of your fish.

with that being said, heavily planting your tank with live plants will speed up the cycle or allow you to skip the cycling process all together.
 
  • #20
Ah, thanks for the clarification amp. I knew it was about waiting for the good stuff to grow, just didn't quite remember why it was necessary...
~Joe
 
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