BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Fish Journal - BETTAS ONLY

i'm a new mommy too I have a ruby red betta and his name is Horatio. I'm so scared that he is going to die because everyone else keeps telling me that they don't live long. i'm thinking about trying to breed them.

FW- I had the same thing a while back. I was always getting white fungus-looking stuff in Rusty's tank. I was cleaning the tank every other day, and within hours it was back again. Finally, after about a month or so I found the culprit. If you have a heater, take it out of the tank and take the suction cups off. Take them apart and clean them VERY WELL. This is where the fungus was coming from in my tank. I threw out the plants and stuff, I also threw out the gravel and bought new gravel after a while. (Rusty loved not having gravel in the bottom of the tank so he could look at himself- he is vain!) I thought starting with new gravel and plants was a good idea because it got rid of any possible harboring fungus. Also, I did a 100% water change, but first I washed the tank thoroughly with hot water and let it sit a cool off for a little while. Total, the process took about 1-2 hours, but it was worth it, no fungus back yet! I clean the heaters suction cups once a month, and the gravel gets washed out every 1 1/2 months. (I do water changes every-other week). Just something that worked for me- good luck!

Well, the bubble nest is gone. It just kind of disipated.I am having a hard time locating females, they aren't very popular.

I was at this very cool fish store called "The Hidden Reef" this weekend and I was looking for cichlid food when I saw this Betta food. Most of you know that Rusty will only eat the freeze-dried blood worms, and that I am concerned about that. He refuses pellats or flakes. I want him to eat healthy! LOL. Well I saw this stuff called "Betta Bites" at the store on sunday. They are in a small white container with a red twisty-lid. They are pellats, but are almost the same shape/aize as the worms. I put a few in his tank, and he ate them! Oh I was SO happy! The trick to them is that as you tap them in (the lid has an opening to tap them in) you put them in carefully so they do not sink. One was sinking and Rusty DOVE after it and grabbed it. He really likes them! Now he gets just them in the mornings and them and a couple worms (1 or 2) at night. He seems very happy! Also, now feeding him is MUCH easier!

OK ok, I know I haven't been here in a while but I adopted another frienday today. His body is blue black with a bit of red wash ending up in a white wash. I've named him Sam...short for Uncle Sam, it seemed fitting. The girl said that they'd just come in today so I'm letting him chill out in his bowl (one of those big big vases from the flower shop not a puny little deli dish) for the time being before I really get to know him. I'm also waiting to see what his colors really are due to the stress hes been through today. =]

ratio-
Bettas live to be around 2 years if you take good care of them. A lot depends on how old they are when you get him at the store, but a well taken care of fish will live a long and happy life!

And breeding = bad idea if you haven't had fish before. I thought about it too, but once you look at all the work that has to go into breeding anything, especially betta fish...I decided against it...

However, if you are familiar with fish in general, good luck to you! I would still say to be a betta mommy for a while before becoming a grandmommy. I've heard blue fish can be a little more fragile than other colors possibly maybe I'm not really sure...anyway, ruby red bettas are awesome, aren't they? My first one was blue, and I killed it <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> but my current one is red. His name is Jalepeno. But also Taz at times, because he's a spaz like a tazmanian devil :P

Rusty is doing well and loves his new food. He is getting a little chubby, so I have cut back on the number of pellats I put in there.

Bah! Darn betta has ich again...just a few spots, and I tried the salt method first, and now his fins are looking ragged again. Had to bust out the MelaFix. He looks fine though, much better than the first battle I had with ich. Hope he pulls through quickly...

Sorry to hear about the Ich, Elisea. Just curious, were his temps off recently? Did he get a cold spell, draft, did temps drop in your house?

The only time I had to deal with ich on bettas had to do with when I left for a trip and my husband turned off the heat - - unbeknownst to me. It was under the 60s in the house and of course my one betta at that time got ich.

It seems that low temps or sudden temperature changes lead to ich and really high temps (over 80 for anything but a short treatment/bredding period) make fungus and fin rot worse. Anyone have anything to add on this, or disagreements?

Yeah, temperatures have been cooler, but not down into the 60s. The most I've seen it fluctuate was about 78 to 72, give or take a degree because it's hard to tell the exact temperature on this thing. He seems to be doing okay, I'm actually more worried about the fin rot at this point. I might leave the light on overnight and turn it off during the day, as it gets much colder in here overnight.

I just brought a betta home who has velvet. It was a fish that one of the teachers at school has. I'm known by some of them for my fish keeping hobby so she had mentioned she had this betta who didn't seem to be doing very well.

I stopped by her class to take a look at him and I offered to bring him home and do what I could for him...his tank was looking pretty crudy (smelly water..blah) and he was indeed not a happy fella...clamped fins and hanging on the bottom...etc..

I get him home and take a good look at him and he's absolutely covered in velvet !! I've never had to treat for this one..ich yes...but not velvet...lol.

I have been reading up on it and it seems it's pretty similar to ich so that is how I'm treating him. I have also severely overdosed the tank he was in...gave it a 10 gallon dose and it's only a 2 gallon tank. The fish itself is sitting in an lfs cup right now, poor guy.

I can't really do the high temp treatment with him because there's NO WAY I'm going to float this guy in any of MY tanks !!! lol...but I have dosed him with some ich meds and added some salt. I have heard that velvet needs light as well and that keeping him in him dark will help too...is this true ?

Anyway..don't mean to hijack your posts...but it seems to be along the same type of issue as what you are having to deal with...so I figure it's alright...